Medusa

Medusa's redesigned appearance for Kid Icarus Uprising.
Medusa
Species	Goddess
Hair color	Green/one Red (Snakes)
Eye color	Blue
Voiced by	Cree Summer (2012)
Debut	Kid Icarus

Medusa is the fallen Goddess of Darkness who was featured as the final boss of the original Kid Icarus, and returned as a prominent enemy in Kid Icarus Uprising.

Background

Medusa was once one of the two goddesses who ruled over Angel Land, alongside the Goddess of Light, Palutena. Medusa ruled over darkness while Palutena controlled light. However, trouble between the two arose between their different treatments of humans. While Palutena showed the humans respect and kindness, Medusa hated all humans and proceeded to curse their crops and turn them into stone. Palutena was angered by this, and she transformed Medusa into a hideous monster before banishing her to the Underworld.

Medusa swore revenge, specifically that she would conquer Palutena's Palace in the Sky. Indeed, within the Underworld she formed pacts with the local monsters and evil spirits, who formed her evil army. Palutena and Medusa proceeded to wage war, which Medusa ultimately won in a final surprise attack. She also stole the Three Sacred Treasures, turned most of Palutena's centurion soldiers into stone statues and imprisoned Palutena herself deep within her own palace. Angel Land quickly became land of darkness under Medusa's rule and was soon completely inhabited by monsters. But one of Palutena's bodyguards, Pit, fought his way out of a prison in the Underworld and fought his way up to the Palace in the Sky for a final confrontation with Medusa, wielding the Three Sacred Treasures.

The final battle was actually against a representation of Medusa that the real Medusa piloted - an giant, ugly, one-eyed face on a wall. It fired beams and shot out snakes, but by repeatedly shooting the eye with the Arrows of Light, the eye was destroyed to reveal the real Medusa hiding there, at which point she collapsed. The wall was then completely destroyed, with Medusa's actual fate unknown.

Trivia

• She is based on the well-known figure from Greek and Roman mythology, who was a Gorgon capable of turning people into stone just by looking at them.