You know, I think it’s sometimes a bit of a struggle to do cool villains. And there are a lot of villains that I like a lot, and who I’d love to talk about in depth once I get the energy to do more longposting. Villains who capture the stage with fun hamminess, villains with intricate and tragic tales—I can think of quite a few characters worth discussing from hacks. But I don’t think any of them are quite the same as the one and only… the gold standard of Gothen’s military might.
You’re damn right I’m talking about none other than
Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers)
Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) is a character from Shackled Power. He is an instructor at Gothen’s military academy who shows up in Chapter 17, when Prosel and the gang stage a raid on it. His plot relevance more or less amounts to showing up, screaming a lot and demonstrating very quickly that he is an extremely bad boss by yelling at some random recruitables, and then getting killed.
Now what, dare you ask, makes Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) so memorable when he is ultimately just a one-off?
He’s hammy as all hell
Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) has approximately two moods total. In every single scene he’s in, in every line of dialogue, he’s either a: extremely smug or b: extremely malding. I don’t think he knows how to express any other emotions other than these. As a matter of fact, I don’t think he actually knows how to speak at a normal volume instead of shouting all the time.
Like, he unironically says this, and completely means it:
“Bah! You act like Duking holds power over me! He may have the claim to ownership here, but Altina knows who is to be feared.”
Thank you, Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers), the only character in Shackled Power whose ego is as huge as the peninsula that he stands on. Yes, yes, of course every single person on the entire continent not only knows your name but ALSO SHUDDERS IN FEAR AT THE VERY SIGHT OF YOU, and you probably have a ton of sex too. Ignore the fact that you only exist in Chapter 17 and haven’t been mentioned at all before this point. Disregard that you are, at best, a device that shaped another character’s backstory in terms of narrative relevance to the greater picture of Shackled Power.
Mort from Shackled Power, everybody. The type of guy to scream a victory yell and then ask his companions if they all heard how victorious he was just now.
He’s a huge dick (in gameplay)
Mort is arguably one of the most obnoxious bosses in the entire game. I’d argue the Fransson twins come pretty close, but combined they’re still not quite the same as Mort, I’d say. For one, Mort is probably a celebrity in Russia, and the Franssons certainly can’t say that.
He’s a Ranger with scary stats, especially his Speed—and more importantly, he’s the first instance of an enemy wielding the Sonic Bow. This bow is brave and targets resistance, which makes it really quite threatening. And even if you have a high-Res unit, he also has a physical weapon too, so he’ll just epically own you by switching weapons if you try to dodge the Sonic Bow’s sonic blow.
And if you think you can outsmart Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) and just chip away at him on a throne? You fool. You utter fucking buffoon. Who do you think you are? Do you truly think that an ant like YOU could outwit the GOLD STANDARD of Gothen’s military might?
For Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) knows that players LOVE stationary bosses because they’re trivial and they don’t actually pose any threat on the map. And in response to that, Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) decides to take the fight TO you instead.
So not only is he extremely dangerous and hits very hard on anyone that he’ll get his grubby little hands on, but he ALSO charges at you at the start of the map with his enormous move and 2-range, and therefore is an obstacle that is extremely annoying to deal with from a gameplay lens. In fact, he probably INVENTED mobile 2-range cavalry bosses. It was never done before Shackled Power. This is a true fact, according to Mort himself probably.
Mort from Shackled Power, everybody.
He’s a huge dick (part 2)
Oh, you thought it ended there?
Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) actually returns later in the game after his death as a Spawn. And out of all the Spawns in the game, he is weirdly unique. He is the only spawn who shows up as a reinforcement from behind, but more importantly…
He shows up with his iconic Sonic Bow… and also a stealable.
Why is this important, you ask?
Well, if you look at the map in preps… THERE ARE NO STEALABLES ON THE MAP UNTIL MORT SHOWS UP. So unless you’re not a first time player, you have absolutely no idea that you need to bring a thief until you get hit with the the Mort jumpscare from behind.
You may have killed him. You may have cut him down. But Altina knows that Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) ALWAYS gets the last laugh. Even after dying, the sheer unadulterated malding empowers him to spite the player one last time. I bet if he had any dialogue here, there probably would’ve been a whole ass Vine boom in the middle of the ROM too.
Mort from Shackled Power, everybody. The gold standard of Gothen’s military might.
he has the funniest boss quote in the game.
Shackled Power is battle quotes: the game, and there are quite a few fantastic boss quotes that Mort has.
Here, you can see Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) expressing how Martin Luther King Jr. wishes he was as influential on the American people as everyone’s favorite historical figure, Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers), was throughout his lifetime.
And here you can see him interacting with Haban from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers) in an exciting once-in-a-lifetime celebrity crossover.
Now, if you read Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers)'s description up a few screenshots ago, you’ll realize that he has a connection with Peirhok, another character who’s pretty important to the grand scheme of Shackled Power. Specifically, Peirhok was once a student at the Academy and had a fierce rivalry with Mort. This culminated when Mort sent him on a suicide mission and left him to die, leading Peirhok to abandon the Gothen military.
All these years later, and the bad blood is still hot between them. And while Peirhok himself doesn’t actually show up on this map at first…
…he does show up as a reinforcement on turn 20.
And guess who has a battle quote with him?
Yep. The boss who charges at you on turn 1 and needs to be dead by turn 3 if you don’t want him to shred up your entire army like butter.
Literally the only way anyone will ever find this is if they know it exists and outright go out of their way to keep Mort—a moving and aggressive boss—alive for 20 turns just to see them interact. And in doing so, you actually lose out on a Gaiden chapter for your trouble.
I talked about it in more depth here, but this is something I unironically really respect about Shackled Power. It’s a highlight of the passion put into this game’s attention to detail, and that’s the kind of thing that really makes hacks special to me. It is a very cool nod, and the fact that it involves Mort from Shackled Power (feat. Haban from Shackled Powers)? Well, that’s just the cherry on top.
After all… who else would be more fitting to receive the most obscure and difficult battle quotes to obtain in the game…
…than the gold standard of Gothen’s military might, the oppressor of all of Altina and the Mainland, the single greatest character in romhacking history?
Mort from Shackled Power, everybody.