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Ultimis Richtofen: Throughout the years

For this, i wanted to analyse the characterisation and traits of ultimis richtofen throughout the different games and maps using in game quotes/ radios, especially how he as a character has transformed through the years. Part 1 of 3?? I think.

Early years: Not too much is known about Ultimis Richtofen's past, however some quotes over the years hint at details, although it is unlikely whether all are fully accurate due to Richtofen suffering from memory loss due to both the apothicons influence/overexposure to element 115. In Ascension, he mentions having a sister, whose dolls he crushed to make her cry.

Not much is known about Ultimis Richtofen's parents. I doubt he was an orphan from the get-go like Primis Richtofen, as he does mention his mother in multiple quotes. He also stated when around the campfire in Tag der toten, that he always saw Maxis as a bitter rival, when Primis Richtofen opened up about viewing Maxis as a father figure growing up.

In Shangri-la when getting the spectre from the box, he implies he was close to a former college roommate, 'who had a little gun, but a large barrel'. In Shangri-la, he also claims 'he was conceived in a mine cart... or was it in a lab?' However, he's likely to be bullshitting.

Ultimis Richtofen before touching the MPD: Ultimis Richtofen before his descent into insanity acts much like his Primis self did in Origins - sane, incredibly intelligent and still with a sense of morality and good intentions. He disagrees with Maxis' decision to secretly make weapons for the nazis, making the very reasonable argument that scientists from all over the world work at group 935. He also seemingly cares about the well-being of colleagues such as Dr Groph and Schuster, treating them with respect and conspiring with them against Maxis.

At the same time, Edward had still joined the Illuminati, an organization seeking power and control over the world, with the intent to spy on and leak information from Group 935, showing that even before losing his mind, Ultimis Richtofen was still likely a power-hungry and morally dubious individual with an obvious agenda. The Apothicans' influence may have just fueled this darker side of the man. I also believe Ultimis Richtofen probably suffered from mental health issues long before he teleported to the moon, something that may have made it easier for the Apothicans to influence his mental state.

Ultimis Richtofen after touching the MPD: On January 4th 1940, despite Dr. Schuster's warnings, Richtofen boldly opted to use himself as a test subject in his attempts to master teleportation, the result eventually leading to the destruction of countless lives, Edward's sanity and the world itself.

Immediately after his fateful encounter with the MPD, Richtofen began hearing whispers, who he originally mistook for Schuster. He didn't have much time to ponder on it, as he was swiftly teleported from the moon to a jungle in Shangri-la. There, he was presumably captured after being chased by the locals and was deemed a 'god' by them. Much of Richtofen's time ruling the jungle is a mystery; its stated he lived among them for three weeks studying vril devices and the element 115 that was found there. He also encountered the focusing stone for the first time, something he needed later for his plans to retake the MPD from Samantha and find Agartha. The natives' worship of him may have also played a hand in Richtofen developing a god complex.

It's evident that Richtofen's mental state also deteriorates rapidly as after a mere three weeks when rejoining Schuster, he's acting noticeably manic and obsessive in his goal to reach Agartha, and is already talking aloud about the voices. He is also incredibly secretive, not answering any of Schuster's questions, and only barking orders at the man.

Following his return, Richtofen then begins plans to make a base on the moon where the MPD is located using the teleporters named Griffin Station. He employs Groph, Schuster and many other dissatisfied workers of Group 935 in a coup against Maxis.

Around this time, Edward curiously leaves the Illuminati's service. When asked why, he states only that 'teddy is a liar'.

In a personal log in 1942, Maxis expressed concern for Richtofen's mental state and no longer trusted the man, showing in turn that by this point in his corruption by the apothicans, Richtofen was most likely struggling to hide his sadistic desires and mental health issues.

Stupidly, Maxis continued to have Richtofen babysit Samantha while he was away on other business. Richtofen most likely resented having to look after his nemesis' daughter and grew to hate Samantha almost as much as Ludwig Maxis. It's been stated multiple times that while in Edward's care, Richtofen ran multiple experiments on the child, including injecting her with doses of element 115. I'm not sure how long exactly, but Samantha most likely spent years primarily in the care of Richtofen. This, along with the experiments performed on her, most likely twisted the young girl's mind long before she took control of the MPD and witnessed her father's death.

It's clear by at least 1942, Edward Richtofen has no moral compass left whatsoever, and he is willing to harm any living being if it means achieving his own goals.

In 1942, Schuster and Groph also learn that MPD is powered on the souls of the living when they shoot a rat near the chamber. After learning of this, Edward orders the tanks to be filled, which they do by executing prisoners by gunshot near the MPD.

On July 15th 1945, Richtofen, with Samantha still in his care, is sent to a Siberian facility to conduct experiments on three test subjects for the super soldier program the Nazis sought - Nikolai Belinski, Pablo Marinus and Takeo Masaki.

However, by early September, Pablo Marinus died at the hands of Richtofen when his spleen was removed. Shortly before this, Tank Dempsey was captured in Verruckt attempting to rescue Peter Mccain and was brought to Siberia to replace Pablo.

Richtofen's mannerisms and personality in the Call of the Dead diary entries seem extremely similar to how he acts in Kino onwards. He displays an irrational hatred of monkeys and Americans. He uses drugs as well as both physical and psychological torture to control and manipulate the test subjects and shows no remorse for any of his actions. He views the test subjects similarly to toys, lamenting 'breaking' the Mexican.

Richtofen is also increasingly paranoid about spies infiltrating their ranks, correctly guessing that both Harvey Yena and Peter Mccain are spies acting in America's interest.

Richtofen's hatred of Dempsey starts here, as unlike the other two test subjects, Tank keeps breaking through the restraints and insulting Richtofen. Nikolai's alcoholism may begin here as well, as the doctor injects the Russian with Element 115 mixed with Vodka to get him to accept the stimuli.

While at the Agarthan facility, Edward also manages to create another part of the Agarthan Device - the Elemental Shard, by binding his and the three test subject's souls to a piece of Element 115.

However, before Richtofen could complete the Agarthan Device, Harvey Yena reported to Maxis that Richtofen had been suffering from 115-induced delusions, and had been using 935 resources for personal projects. It was there that Yena revealed Maxis had ordered all development of the DG2 to be halted and that Maxis wished to speak to Richtofen at Der Riese.

He is obviously fully insane by this point and by the last diary entry, he knows Maxis won't follow through on his promise to mass produce the Wunderwaffe DG2, and plans to callously kill both him and Samantha.

Richtofen then returns to Der Riese with Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Samantha in tow. He places the test subjects into sleep, ready to be awakened whenever. While in Der Riese, he and Maxis argue about Richtofen's loyalty to Group 935 and the matter of the mass production of the Wunderwaffe DG2 being cancelled. The two scientists then prepared to work on the teleportation tests together, with Richtofen secretly revelling in his plan to kill Maxis and Samantha, and finally taking control of the MPD.

On October 13th, 1945, Maxis and Richtofen performed teleportation test trials on Test Subjects Number 3, 4, and 5. All tests failed, including Test 5, where Maxis uses Fluffy, Samantha's dog. All the while, Richtofen is putting on a convincing act of pretending to still be the sane, dutiful assistant he had been in the past to Maxis. Samantha runs into the room, spots Fluffy, now a hellhound, and rushes into the chamber. Maxis tries to stop her and almost gets her out of the test chamber, but before he can, Richtofen shuts the door, trapping Maxis and his daughter inside with the zombified dog. He then activates the teleporter, teleporting all three away.

Samantha was teleported to Griffin station while Groph and Schuster were working on the MPD. Running into the MPD, the girl was drawn inside of it, where she became corrupted by the Dark Aether. Maxis was teleported to the Crazy place from Origins and developed the power to merge with electricity (??).

Richtofen then shortly returned to the moon, where he quickly learned that Samantha was trapped in the MPD. He then ordered Groph to teleport Maxis there to coax her out of the device. In an effort to free Samantha, Maxis, at gunpoint, approaches the MPD in an attempt to persuade her to come out. Once she did, Maxis gave her an instruction, to "Kill them...all." Maxis then kills himself and merged with the technology of Griffin Station, while Samantha unleashes the undead upon the base.

With Samantha now in control of the MPD, and subsequently, the zombies, Richtofen then returned to Der Riese and, after fighting through the undead horde, awakened Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai. With no recollection of who they were or who Richtofen was, they agreed to help him.

The four of them then travelled to the Rising Sun facility, in search of Richtofen's missing diary.

Shi No Numa: I see Shi No Numa as an almost prototype Richtofen, this first incarnation of the character especially leans into the mad nazi doctor stereotype as well as him being a military figure, with his quotes about having a Hitler youth knife and his military-like shouts to his teammates 'show no fear!' 'Stick together!'. His voice is also noticeably deeper in both shi no numa and der riese.

Strangely enough, Richtofen thinks he is still a member of the Illuminati in both Shi No Numa and Der Riese despite leaving the group in 1940: 'Illumaniti, I WORK FOR THEE!' 'The Illuminati would be pleased with you, Nikolai!' Out of universe, I think this is because the storyline is still very new and has since undergone many retcons and changes. In Universe, I think a possible explanation for this is that Richtofen suffers from memory issues relating to both his exposure to element 115 and the effects of the MPD. He most likely gets confused fairly often and forgets past events.

Interestingly enough, the doctor dislikes killing the hellhounds, a trait carried over to future maps.

His favourite weapons are the MP40, STG 44 and of course the Wunderwaffe DG2.

At this point, Ultimis Richtofen still treats the rest of the crew like comrades, calling them 'brothers' in multiple quotes, likely to attempt to gain their trust and eventually establish himself as the leader of the group. Shi No Numa Richtofen also doesn't seem to know that the demonic announcer is Samantha, believing that the power-ups he and the rest of ultimis pick up are sent from 'the dark one/his masters/the voices'. Richtofen is also less afraid of the voices in Shi No Numa than he is in future maps, readily obeying them instead of attempting to shut them out.

Overall, I'd say Richtofen is more sane in both Shi No Numa and Der Riese than he is from Kino Der Toten onwards, though he also acts much more under the direct control of the Apothicans/voices than he does in later instalments, which I find interesting.

Despite small changes, Richtofen's madness, bizarre mannerisms and overall sadism are still very prominent and an integral part of his character.

Der Riese: Much like how he was in Shi No Numa, Der Riese Richtofen is slightly saner compared to later maps. His status as a scientist and doctor seems more emphasised than before. His annoyance/dislike of Dempsey and approval of Nikolai are also made more clear in this map: 'Dempsey do you mind keeping the noise down? Some of us ARE TRYING TO WORK!!' 'You are head and shoulders above them Nikolai!' At this point, it's made explicit that Richtofen is keeping secrets from the rest of the team, pretending not to know how the teleporters work and about Group 935 in general.

Funnily enough, Richtofen admits to not being very skilful with most weaponry: 'To kill quickly ja. With skill, no.' Quotes from Dempsey, admittedly probably biased, also imply that out of the four, Richtofen is the worst shot and least active: 'Hey Richtofen, I'm glad you fired your weapon, but you missed!' 'The doctor is... a really bad shot!' 'Richtofen fired his weapon again... hell must be freezing over.'

Kino Der Toten: Richtofen in this map and onwards is much more stereotypically flamboyant - his voice is pitched higher and he has a slight lisp at times. He's even more emotionally unstable than he was in the previous two maps, having very childish outbursts at times: crying when he's out of ammo, crying about what was done to the hellhounds, shouting 'FLASHY LIGHTS!' at times when there's a fire sale etc.

Edward is also fond of referring to himself in the third person: 'the doctor is on his way!' 'no touchy the doctor... unless he asks.'

He distrusts his former test subjects, as seen in the opening line in Kino Der Toten: 'I still do not trust my unconventional allies, but they are of great use to me. BUT! I digress.'

He also appears surprised that the MPD is capable of time travel, something that happened unplanned as a result of Dempsey firing a wonder weapon while in the middle of teleporting back in Der Riese (Spoiler alert, Dempsey yet again does this in Shangri La. Goddammit Dempsey.)

Richtofen previously acting as a parental figure towards Samantha is also implied in some of the following quotes in this map: 'Samantha, didn't I teach you a lesson about this?' 'Samantha! Samantha where have you run off to!'

Overall, I'd say Richtofen's comical traits start to become a bit flanderized from this map onwards, for better or worse. Though in universe, I'd say this is most likely due to Richtofen's mind actively deteriorating from stress, past untreated mental illness, the Apothicans/voices and element 115.

Ascension: While Edwards acts much like he did in Kino, albeit sounding slightly more tired and deadpan, there are some interesting quotes in this map that reveal details about his past. For one, it's revealed that Richtofen may have had a sister. He states he used to crush her dolls as a child to make her cry. If this is true, which is dubious, this shows Ultimis Richtofen may have always had a sadistic streak, even as a child.

Richtofen is also wearing a spacesuit for some reason. Perhaps he was separated from the rest of Ultimis for a while, probably attempting to go to the moon and take control of the MPD earlier, before realising he needs more components first.

In the Black ops 3 remaster, you can see the shadow man's silhouette watching Richtofen and the rest of the group from a window in this map, clearly paying close attention to what his pawn is doing.

#as someone who has had to comb through the cod zombies lore #I congratulate you on churning this out so perfectly #ultimis #edward richtofen #ultimis richtofen #codz #black ops #black ops zombies #cod zombies

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