Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 109. Who is Mephisto in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 109. Who is Mephisto in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

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  Hi guys, it's Megan with vigilante vibes and today I have
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  another character breakdown for a character that is supposed to
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  be an upcoming series, Iron Heart.
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  And of course, I'm talking about Mephisto.
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  Who is Mephisto? What is his deal?
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  Why is everyone making jokes about him since like 2020?
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  I'm going to tell you all of it. Well, I'm going to give you a
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  pretty brief breakdown of him because if I sat here and told
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  you all about him, you'd be listening to me talk for over an
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  hour, which I'm not against, but you know, baby stuffs, I guess,
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  into the character. So I will give you a brief
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  breakdown. I will give you some examples as
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  to why he's such an evil piece of trash and some things that he
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  has done to some of our favorite heroes.
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  And yeah, you let me know in the comments what you think of him
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  and let me know in the comments where some of your favorite
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  comics that you've read him. I try to break down to which
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  where to read the best ones of him.
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  And I was like, you know what? I'll just say that for when I
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  give a super long breakdown of them because there's just so
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  much. So I will get you started.
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  So starting with the MCU. Now in the MCU, there really
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  only has been one real reference to Mephisto, and that was an
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  Agatha all along. We're all very aware of the
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  Mephisto jokes that have been around since Wanda Vision, but
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  it looks like we'll be actually getting Mephisto in the MCU
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  through the Iron Heart series played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
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  I'm really interested to see just how dark the MCU is willing
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  to take one of, if not the darkest characters they have.
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  In a quick version of who he is, Mephisto is a super powerful
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  creepy demon from another dimension with a mysterious past
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  inspired by Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles.
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  He's all about stealing souls and messing with them in his own
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  twisted, hellish realm. In the Marvel Universe, he's one
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  of the top Hell Lords. But to put it plainly, he is
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  everyone's problem. The character first appeared in
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  Silver surfer #3 in December of 1968 and was created by Stan Lee
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  and John Bushima, showcasing his manipulative nature and desire
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  to claim souls. Mephisto is inspired by the
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  traditional depiction of the devil in literature and
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  folklore. Mephisto is an ancient evil
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  demon Lord who's been around forever.
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  Way back before the Celestials showed up on Earth, the planet
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  was ruled by these insanely powerful beings called the Elder
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  Gods. Eventually a monster named
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  Autumn got rid of them, but their leftover magical energy
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  ended up creating the Hell Lords.
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  Mephisto being the first and one of the strongest.
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  He's basically a massive demon who steals souls, loves to
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  torment people, rolls over his all his own hellish dimension.
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  He's basically Marvel's version of the Devil, making shady deals
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  with mortals and tricking them into giving up their souls,
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  especially if they're powerful or pure hearted.
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  He's not Marvel's only version of the Devil, but he is one of
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  them. There's even a legend that
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  Mephisto wasn't a demon at all to begin with, but actually the
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  first Deviant creature by the Celestials during their first
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  visit to Earth. At one point, Mephisto told
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  Thanos that he was created by an all powerful being who once had
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  all the Infinity Gems. That being got bored, made
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  Mephisto and some other demons, then destroyed them after
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  realizing they were evil. But when the creator destroyed
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  himself, Mephisto and the demons somehow came back to life.
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  Mephisto runs his own twisted dimension which he calls Hell or
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  Hades. It is a brutal fiery place
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  filled with lava, smoke, non-stop torment.
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  Demons torture each other constantly while he's in his
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  realm. Mephisto is insanely powerful,
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  almost to the same level as a starving Galactus.
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  He commands a whole demon army that often goes to war with
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  other dimensions and even Earth's heroes.
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  His realm includes a creepy massive castle where he lives
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  and the Arena of Tainted Souls, a brutal battleground where
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  corrupted souls are forced to fight forever just to entertain
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  the demons. Now that you have a pretty good
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  idea of how dark this character is, I'd like to give you some
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  examples from Marvel Comics that shows you just how evil Mephisto
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  truly is. You can't talk about how
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  unhinged Mephisto is without bringing up Spider Man into the
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  mix. One More Day is still a hot
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  topic among Marvel fans because it undid Spider Man and Mary
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  Jane's marriage, a move that rubbed a lot of people the wrong
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  way. Unlike most comic book changes
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  that eventually get reversed, this one stuck around for almost
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  15 years, which is pretty rare. Controversial or not, it's one
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  of Mefizo's most memorable storylines.
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  It really cemented him as one of the top magical heavy hitters in
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  the Marvel Universe since he literally erased the marriage
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  and everyone's memory of it like it never happened.
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  The story even partly inspired elements of Spider Man No Way
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  Home. Speaking of Spider Man, we have
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  to talk about Norman Osbourne. Sinister WAR from 2021 dropped a
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  major reveal. Mephisto's deal with Spider Man
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  wasn't just messing with his life, it was actually part of a
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  bigger plan to stop Spider Man from becoming a real threat to
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  him down the line. On top of that, it tied back to
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  another shady deal Mefisto made years earlier with Norman
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  Osborne. Back when Norman was struggling
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  to keep his business afloat, Mefisto stepped in and offered
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  him success, but at the cost of his son Harry Soul.
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  Norman took the deal, which helped make Oscorp a major
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  powerhouse in the Marvel Universe, but it also pushed
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  Norman over the edge, leading to his breakdown and transformation
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  into the Green Goblin, one of Spider Man's most dangerous
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  enemies. So I brought up one division
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  before, and it's fair that people were speculating that
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  Mephisto would have had something to do with the show.
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  He plays a pretty big role in the comic storyline that
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  inspired parts of the show. In Avengers West Coast #51 and
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  52, Scarlet Witch finds out that her twin sons Tommy and Billy
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  were actually made from pieces of Mephisto's soul, which means
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  they weren't really real to begin with.
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  Definitely the kind of dark twist Mephisto was known for.
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  Moving on, some folks don't know that Doctor Dim and Mephisto are
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  actually very entangled together.
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  In the comics Triumph and Torment from 1989, written by
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  Roger Stern and drawn by Mike Magnola, sees Doom travel to
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  Hell alongside Doctor Strange to rescue his mother's soul.
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  Mephisto tricked Doctor Doom's mom into making a deal for his
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  power, then snatched her soul right after she died.
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  That move set Doom on a lifelong mission to take Mephisto down
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  and get her soul back. Doom's mom had actually used the
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  power to take out a corrupt leader in Latveria and help her
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  people, but Mephisto being Mephisto twisted it all in the
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  end. In Marvel spotlight #5 from
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  1971, Johnny Blaze, who would become Ghost Rider, made a deal
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  with Mephisto to save his mentor and father figure Crash Simpson
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  from dying of cancer. Mephisto cured the cancer but
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  Crashed, still died shortly after the stunt accident.
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  When Blaze called him out, Mephisto basically said, hey, I
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  kept my end of the bargain. He did not die of cancer, which
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  is a classic loophole. But if also if you've seen the
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  Ghost Rider movie, that's it. That's what happens in there.
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  That deal ended up bonding Blaze with Zarathos.
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  Zarathos. I think it's Zarathos, the
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  Spirit of Vengeance giving him his Hellfire powers, but when
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  Blaze started out using those powers to fight evil instead of
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  helping Mephisto, the demon took it personally.
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  Ever since, Mephisto and Ghost Rider have been locked in one of
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  Marvel's fiercest rivalries, with Blaze standing out as one
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  of the key supernatural heroes of the universe in the Siege
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  event from 2009 by Brian Michael Bendis and Oliver Koepl.
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  Koepl. I don't know guys, I'm really
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  struggling. Today, Loki pulled some serious
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  things. He manipulated Norman Osbourne
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  into attacking Asgard with his Dark Avengers.
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  While all that chaos was unfolding, Loki captured the
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  desire a group of undead Valkyries who feed on gods and
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  traded them to Mephisto. In return, Mephisto gave Hella a
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  chunk of his own realm to replace the one she had lost.
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  That trade came with a bonus for Loki.
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  He was erased from the books of Hell, meaning he was no longer
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  tied to Asgard or its afterlife. This deal with Mephisto was a
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  big turning point. After Loki died heroically at
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  the end of Siege, he was able to come back as Kid Loki, a
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  younger, more sympathetic version of himself.
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  From there he started to move away from his villain role and
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  into a more morally Gray anti hero space.
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  So those are some examples of what you can expect from
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  Mephisto. He is a horrible person, well, I
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  guess a horrible entity. He is just like I said, he is
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  everyone's problem. So yeah, that is a short
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  breakdown of Mephisto. If you want to know more, please
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  let me know because I actually really like making those
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  breakdowns. But yeah, I'm curious to see how
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  dark they go with Mephisto and Iron Heart.
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  I'm not expecting too much from his character, just it's such a
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  big character and Marvel wants this to be such a small show.
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  So I don't see I which I'm fine with I I'm totally fine with him
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  being more of an evil background presence.
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  Like don't even show us a body, show us a shadow of him
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  perfectly fine. But with the hood being in there
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  and his little evil self being all evil and such, I guess it
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  makes sense that Mephisto is somewhere in there.
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  But who knows? I don't know.
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  So that is my breakdown of Mephisto and be sure to like and
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  subscribe. So you see other, my other
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  breakdowns of like RiRi Williams or the Hood or literally any
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  other character I think of I, I try.
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  So with that being said, have a marvelous night.