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This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being terminated blocked. You cannot make said Removal Proposal without permission from an admin first.
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Villain Overview

5,000 years ago, a fierce warrior known as the Scorpion King led a great army on a campaign to conquer the known world. After a vicious campaign which lasted seven long years, the Scorpion King and his army were defeated, and driven deep into the sacred desert of Ahm Shere. One by one, they slowly perished under the scorching sun, until only the great warrior himself was left alive. Near death, the Scorpion King made a pact with the dark god Anubis that if Anubis would spare his life and let him conquer his enemies, he would give him his soul. Anubis accepted his offer and spared his life. Anubis gave the Scorpion King command of his army, and like an evil flood, they washed away all that lay before them. When his task was done, Anubis forced the Scorpion King to serve him for all time. His army was returned to the sands from whence they came, where they wait, silently, to be awakened once again.
~ Ardeth Bay's narration about the Scorpion King.

Mathayus, widely known throughout as the Scorpion King, is the overarching antagonist of the 2001 film The Mummy Returns, the second installment of Stephen Sommers' The Mummy trilogy, and the titular main protagonist of the spin-off franchise of the same name. He was an Akkadian warrior who would become an ancient evil that was stopped from decimating the Earth by Rick O'Connell.

He was portrayed by former WWE wrestler Dwayne Johnson in his first villainous role, who also played Sarge in Doom, Agent 23 in Get Smart, John Hartley in Red Notice and Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe. His grunts were provided by rockstar Max Cavalera.

Biography[]

Born 5000 years before the events of The Mummy Returns, Mathayus was the grandson of Mathayus the First Scorpion King. Very little is known about his early life, except that he inherited his grandfathers name, title and warrior abilities/spirit. In time, Mathayus became a formidable tyrant who sought to make the world his own. Rallying up his loyal clan, he began a campaign of conquest, intending to unify all of Egypt under his control. Not afraid to lead his men from the front, the warrior King led his formiddable army in a campaign which lasted seven long years and reaped a massive bounty across Egypt.

Eventually, however, after a final attempt to conquer the ancient city of Thebes, the monarch and his army were decisively defeated. In an attempt to stop his ambitions, the Scorpion King's enemies drove their defeated adversaries into the empty wastelands of the sacred desert of Ahm Shere. Far from refuge and with no food, water or shelter, the men gradually succumbed to heatstroke, dehydration and sheer exhaustion. Finally, only the Scorpion King himself remained.

A Deadly Pact[]

Leaving the corpses of his men behind him, Mathayus continued to walk, eventually reaching somewhere near the very heart of the desert. Finally, he too fell to his knees, having reached his limits and unable to take another step. As he teetered on the verge of death, Mathayus realized that his hatred for his enemies had not subsided. Now, more than ever, he yearned to make them pay for his defeat and suffering. Thus, with nothing to lose, the Scorpion King made one final gamble.

Gazing up towards the heavens, Mathayus prayed to Anubis, the Egyptian God of death and mummification, reciting a passage from the Book of the Dead. Through this incantation, the Scorpion King offered the dark god a deal. If Anubis spared his life and allow him to defeat all of his enemies, he would build a golden pyramid in his honor before giving his master the most precious thing in his possession, his soul.

At that moment, a scorpion emerged from the ground as if in answer to his prayers. Desperate, the Scorpion King picked up the struggling creature and ate it as some form of sustenance. However, he soon discovered that this creature had been sent as a test by Anubis, who wanted to make sure that Mathayus was serious about his proclamation. Judging him to be sincere, Anubis used his powers to create a giant oasis around the Scorpion King, filling it with trees, fresh water and various forms of protection from outsiders. Having earned the favor of the God, the Scorpion King let out a roar of triumph, which quickly turned from human to feral. It was here, in the Oasis of Ahm Shere that Mathayus would make his new headquarters.

Anubis also gave the Scorpion King command of his own deadly army. This legion of practically immortal warriors succeeded where his human soldiers had failed. Once the Scorpion King had recovered, he emerged led his new warriors out of the desert. Greater and more terrible than ever before, over the next few years Mathayus soldiers swept across Egypt. Over the course of several campaigns, they gathered the resources necessary to build the golden pyramid, which was built at the heart of his oasis. The Scorpion King honored his word and dedicated the collosal structure to his new master. The final act of the Scorpion King's campaign was a retaliatory strike against Thebes. He watched on happily as the army of Anubis slaughtered the cities population, avenging both his original supporters and previous defeat. until finally no resistance remained. Egypt was his at long last!

Yet the Scorpion King would never sit upon the throne as pharaoh. Despite their arrangement, Anubis did not seek to destroy Egypt, since doing so would be dangerous to his own survival. As Thebes fell, Anubis decided that he had fulfilled his side of the arrangement and that the time had now come for Mathayus to honor his side of the bargain. As the Scorpion King continued to gleefully survey the carnage, from amidst the burning ruins, a statue of the Dark God was suddenly surrounded by divine energy. Turning the fires from the burning rubble upon his champion, Anubis struck the unsuspecting Mathayus from behind, separating his body and soul. The Scorpion King's body disintegrated, with his army likewise turning to dust, leaving behind no trace of their existence. All that remained was a' jackel headed scorpion bracelet, which Mathayus had previously worn.

The Curse of the Scorpion King[]

The Scorpion King's burning spirit meanwhile was carted back to the sacred oasis which Anubis had previously granted to him. There Anubis gave his champion a new body, a twisted but perhaps fitting composition of scorpion and human. Placed into hibernation, Anubis subsequently cursed Mathayus, condemning the Scorpion King to remain in stasis until the next year of the scorpion, an event which only occured once every five thousand years.

Through means unspecified, the Egyptians came to learn of Anubis' act, as well as the opportunity that his curse would grant. During the next year of the Scorpion, his champion would awaken from hibernation to face a challenger. In the event that the champion fell or none arrived, Mathayus would simply go back into hibernation. Should the challenger defeat the Scorpion King however, they would gain control over the army of Anubis and would be free to either use the army to conquer the world (as Mathayus had originally intended) or banish Anubis soldiers back to the underworld, thus breaking the cycle forever.

The key to all of this was the Scorpion King's bracelet. Whomsoever put it on their wrist, would be shown several visions which, if followed, would guide them towards the Oasis of Ahm Shere. Upon arrival, they would have to enter the pyramid, not only to do battle with the Scorpion King but awaken Anubis' army from its own stasis. To ensure that only the strongest and most dedicated warriors would undertake such a task, Anubis placed a curse upon the bracelet. Whomsoever placed it upon their arm would have one week to reach the pyramid. If they did not enter the structure before the morning sun struck the pyramid on the seventh day, the bracelet would suck the wearer's life from them.

Naturally of course, the Egyptians did not want to see either Mathayus or his army to return. Thus, they undertook several precautionary measures to prevent his resurrection. The Scorpion King's bracelet was sealed away under lock and key within a heavy vault and guarded at all times. Although details of his legend and the curse related to him remained, Mathayus' surviving enemies attempted to erase all traces of his existence. This process was largely successful and by the early 1900s, long after the fall of the Egyptian civilisation and empire, only those who studied Egypts ancient past knew of his name. Even then, most Egyptologists doubted that the Scorpion King had ever existed.

Return and Death[]

Go to hell, and take your friends with you!
~ Rick O'Connell after fatally impaling The Scorpion King.

5,000 years later, the Scorpion King remained in his statis. His bracelet was discovered by Rick and Evelyn O'Connell, who took it from its resting place back to England. There, their son Alex put the bracelet on for a little bit of fun. However, the magic that was imbued into the artifact activated, meaning that the Scorpion King would awaken in seven days time. Unfortunately for the O'Connell's, Alex was kidnapped shortly after the resurrection of their arch-nemesis the High Priest Imhotep, who sought to use the Scorpion King's invincible army to conquer the world.

Following several encounters and misadventures, both sides reached the Pyramid. There Imhotep descended into its heart in order to challenge the Scorpion King, but not before Anubis stripped him of his great powers to make the fight fair. Rick followed with the intention of stopping Imhotep's ambitions. Both men sought the Scorpion King's destruction, but when the giant monstrosity emerged from hibernation, Imhotep feigned loyalty to the abomination. Since Imhotep and the Scorpion King spoke the same language, Imhotep claimed that Rick was the champion sent to kill him, causing the Scorpion King to focus all of his attention on Rick, killing one of Imhotep's servants, Baltus Hafez, in the process. 

Rick eventually discovered carvings on the wall of the pyramid, probably put there by Anubis himself, telling him how to defeat the Scorpion King. It turned out that a trinket Rick's brother-in-law Johnathon had been carrying was in fact the Spear of Osiris, the one weapon, which could harm the Scorpion King. Whilst Rick distracted the giant monstrosity, Johnathon and Alex activated the spear, then tried to launch it, only for it to be intercepted by Imhotep. The mummified High Priest proclaimed that the Army of Anubis was now his and threw the spear at the Scorpion King. 

At the last second, however, Rick managed to leap up and grab the spear. Recognizing the danger, the Scorpion King tore after Rick, intending to kill him and destroy the spear. Slipping on the floor, Rick almost fell through a gap in the floor, which led directly into the the underworld. However, he managed to save himself, by using the spear to impale the Scorpion King, stabbing him through the abdomen, much to Imhotep's despair.

With the Scorpion King defeated, the fate of Anubis' army now rested in Rick's hands. This was important, because his warriors were about to fall upon Ardeth Bay and the decimated Medjai ranks. As the Medjai prepared to make a gallant but ultimately futile last stand against the advancing horde, Rick (using the section quote) told the Scorpion King to take his followers with him to hell. He then stabbed the spear in further, whereupon, with a final scream the Scorpion King's body exploded in a puff of black smoke. As Rick commanded, the jackel-headed legions likewise disintegrated, sparring the lives of Ardeth and his remaining warriors.

With the prophecy fulfilled, his and Anubis' arrangement was ended. Shooting out of the pyramid, a mass of black smoke rose out of the structure, with his face appearing amongst the smog. With a final scream of pain, the Scorpion King's spirit departed from the mortal plain. The oasis, its inhabitants and the pyramid were subsequently destroyed, sinking into the sands to be lost for all time. All that remained was the massive diamond, which once sat atop the pyramid, which was taken by Jonathan shortly before the pyramid's destruction. With the oasis gone, the threat of the Scorpion King had been eliminated once and for all.

Personality[]

To be written

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

To be written

Abilities[]

To be written

Trivia[]

  • The Scorpion King appears in the Live "Forever May Not Be Long Enough" and Godsmack "I Stand Alone" music videos.
  • The visual effect of the Scorpion King in his hybrid form was universally criticized due to the over the top uncanny valley where Dwayne Johnson wasn't presented for it with the CGI face of Dwayne Johnson used instead. This visual effect suffers from the decision to not merge the Rock’s real face with the visual effect, and instead made him a fully animated creature straight out of a cutscene for a PlayStation or a PlayStation 2 videogame or a Smackdown video game.
    • The much-criticized digital effects of the Scorpion King were rushed and were only completed eight days before the film's release, According to the film's visual effects supervisor, John Berton Jr., in a recent episode of Corridor Crew's VFX Artists React, talked about what went wrong with the scene. Berton explained that, due to Johnson's busy WWE career, the VFX team weren't able to bring him in and scan his face in order to collect ultra-detailed reference material. As a result, the VFX artists were effectively left to figure it out for themselves and, without precise lighting and animation references to draw from, the results were staggeringly unconvincing. As much as so many have laid the blame at the feet of the hard-working VFX artists, it's really a wider production issue, that time wasn't allotted to bring Johnson in for scanning.
  • It was initially assumed when The Scorpion King premiered that Mathayus and the Scorpion King seen in The Mummy Returns were the same character, given their identical appearance and how both were portrayed by Dwayne Johnson. However, The Mummy director/writer Stephen Sommers would go to state that the Scorpion King isn't Mathayus, but Mathayus' grandson, given how he feels that there's no way Mathayus could have become the bloodthirsty warrior the Scorpion King is seen to be in the opening sequence of The Mummy Returns.
  • Due to the aforementioned revelation about Mathayus being the descendant of the original Scorpion King, it is not clear where the new Mathayus learnt the passage from the Book of the Dead. It can be assumed that he either read it at some point prior to starting his conquest or was taught it by either a family member or tutor.
  • Like his grandfather, Mathayus appeared to be immune to scorpion venom. He was shown getting stung by a scorpion after making his pact with Anubis yet remained unaffected. Whilst this may have been due to a blessing from the dark god, it is also possible his grandfather who survived being stung scorpion venom passed on an immunity to him through Mathayus' parent.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           TheMummyTitle Villains

Movies
The Mummy (1932): Imhotep
The Mummy (1999): Imhotep | Beni Gabor | Anck-Su-Namun | Anubis
The Mummy Returns: Imhotep | Mathayus the Scorpion King | Cult of Imhotep (Baltus Hafez, Meela Nais/Anck-Su-Namun, Lock-Nah & Shafek) | Army of Anubis | Pygmies | "Red" Willits | Jacob Spivey | Jacques Clemons | Anubis
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Emperor Han | Militant Chinese Regiment (General Yang & Colonel Choi) | Roger Wilson | Terracotta Warriors
The Scorpion King: Memnon | Takmet | Thorak
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior: Sargon
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption: King Talus
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power: Drazen | Boris | Roland
The Scorpion King: Book of Souls: Nebserek | Khensa | Mennofer
The Mummy (2017): Ahmanet | Mr. Hyde | Set

Television
Imhotep | Colin Weasler | Anck-Su-Namun | Ninzam Toth | Rakshasa | Aglaophones | Mummy Warriors | Giant Scarab | Sphinx

Video Games
The Scorpion King: Sword of Osiris: Menthu
The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian: Magus | Set | Apep

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