Scarlemagne

Scarlemagne

Scarlemagne, formerly known as Hugo, was the main antagonist of Seasons 1-2 of the Netflix series Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts. He is a mandrill mute who once sat at the very top of Las Vistas' food chain using mind control and fear. He has an obsession with humans and bringing any survivors under his complete control. He is currently imprisoned by Kipo's allies the Timbercats. He is voiced by Dan Stevens (Beast in the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake.)

History

Scarlemagne was once a regular mandrill and went by the name Hugo. He was one of several test subjects used by burrow residents in order to isolate the mute mutagen and find a way to reverse its effects. Under the care of Lio and Song Oak, Hugo had several different formulas administered to himself which gradually turned him into a mute, eventually allowing him to be able to speak.

Lio and Song were eventually able to isolate the mute mutagen but soon realized the consequences of what they were doing. They kept Hugo speech abilities a secret from Emilia and planned to escape the burrow as soon as Kipo was born.

Unfortunately, Emilia had found out after she heard Hugo playing the piano, he is singing the song play I in my head. Song and Lio tried to protect Hugo but were unsuccessful. It was then that Hugo's puppet pheromones were discovered when he, in self-defense, splashed some on a burrow scientist who was trying to get a blood sample from him. Emilia then imprisoned Hugo and forced him to run on a treadmill to harvest his pheromones. Emilia used Hugo's pheromones as leverage in order to force Lio and Song to further their research into developing a mute "cure".

After Kipo was born, Emilia sought to confront the couple about Song's pregnancy, having found out that they infused Kipo's DNA with a mute jaguar DNA. At Song's insistence, Lio was able to escape with Kipo while Song distracted Emilia. During their confrontation however, Song fell over a ledge and her mute genes, which she had acquired from her pregnancy, activated in response to her fear. Song ended up transforming into a six-armed, giant mega monkey and caused the destruction of their burrow. Hugo, at the time, was still imprisoned and was separated from Lio and scarred after the burrow was destroyed.

As he ventured the surface scared and alone, Hugo came across the Goth Apes. Seeing their love of music and similarities to Hugo, he began playing a nearby piano. Gerard, leader of the Goth Apes, told Hugo to battle in order to prove his worth. Losing his fight against Porcelaine, Hugo decided to use his pheromones on her in order for her to lose the fight. After winning, Gerard allowed Hugo to join.

Traveling with the Goth Apes, Hugo comes across Lio fighting off some Newton Wolves. As the Newton Wolves are distracted by the Goth Apes looting, Hugo runs up to Lio and reunites with him. Lio explains when the burrow fell he barely made it out with the newborn Kipo and have been running from Emilia ever since. Hugo feeling betrayed by Lio not trying to look for him asks if he could hold baby Kipo. Lio feeling protective and unsure of Hugo's intentions rejects but Hugo aggressively lunges at Kipo's blanket, once his, and Lio pushes him away as Hugo tears a piece off. Hugo seeing his sweat pouring on the piece of cloth, stands up and threatens Lio with it laughing insanely. Lio runs off leaving Hugo in his laughter.

Hugo returns to the Goth Apes hideout and throws his pheromones onto Gerard claiming the Goth Apes as his subjects. Realizing his potential, Hugo states the surface shall have kings once more and renames himself Scarlemagne.

Personality

Scarlemagne is a flamboyant, pleasure-seeking individual with a memorable and obnoxious laugh. He is narcissistic and sadistic in that he uses other creatures for personal gain (or entertainment) and enjoys their suffering. He holds a deep grudge against humans and wishes to enslave humanity, clearly showing signs of deteriorating mental insanity.

In season 2, It is revealed he had a shy side in the past and loved his family (Lio and Song). He also expressed his loneliness and desire to express himself through song. He apparently developed a love for royalty after reading a book about King’s, desiring to be a king himself and have a Palace just for him, Lio, Song, and Kipo, merging both his love for his family and his dreams to be king. This fondness seems to have stayed with Hugo even the incident, being very regal and polite with everyone, and followed him even after he became Scarlemagne.

However, once he was up on the surface, he soon learned the ways of the Mutes and used his heightened pheromones to protect himself, forcing him to abandon the lessons Lio and Song taught him. Unfortunately, after Lio revealed that he unintentionally abandoned him in the rubble, Hugo‘s emotional and mental state began to deteriorate, feeling that Lio had never cared for him and abandoned him, therefore causing him to rid himself of ‘Hugo’ and be reborn as Scarlemagne. But when Kipo empathized with him, he begins to show the good he once possessed and bonded with her over the music, forming a brother-sister bond with her.

Scarlemagne (Hugo) also showed regret from his actions, and even showed a reluctance to allow people to like him before becoming their king, hinting that he developed a fear of being abandoned by people who he cared about (this fear most likely stemmed from being abandoned by Lio. Unfortunately, this fear still affects him, causing him to not only resent Lio for his actions, but for him to also warp Kipo’s wish for him to let the Mutes make a choice to choose him as their king into an ultimatum: to ‘choose’ him as King, or be turned into ‘trophies‘ (solid gold statues).) Scarelemagne‘s abandonment issues have a strong influence over his actions, and causes him to give ultimatums instead of real choices, such as when he gave Kipo the ‘choice’ to choose him or Lio. He was genuinely saddened when Kipo refused to hurt Lio, coming to the conclusion that she didn’t care about him either. He returns to his insane and sadistic state after Kipo tries to stop the coronation, once again abandoning his Hugo Persona and becoming the sadistic ‘Scarlemagne‘ character. However, once he is defeated, he realizes how selfless Kipo is for being willing to sacrifice herself to a lifetime of being a Mega just to save others, hinting that he may now regret his actions.

Role in the series

Though Scarlemagne is dead in the main timeline, in the SpongeBob and Friends timeline, he was saved from death by former Great DN'Animal High Priest Cravenroft after changing his loyalties from the horrors of the Great DN'Animal and the Kingdom of DN'Animals and joins Kipo's side. He thus helps sibling figures like Kipo, Wolf, and three other part-mutes born from the same project as Kipo, a brave and bold Japanese part-Mega-Monkey martial artist boy named Hiro Sarunote, an emotionally-sensitive but confident German part-Mega-Falcon young girl named Abigail Falkson, and a selfless and often ravenous Native-American part-Mega-Komodo-Dragon girl named Hona Greenstone, establish peace in their world, while also fighting against a new enemy who takes his place as scourge of Las Vistas under new management in the form of a giant ape-monkey named Victorio.