–Character blurb from the Old Psychopedia.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a mental figure in Waterloo World; formed with the knowledge Fred Bonaparte had of his ancestor, the real French military general Napoleon Bonaparte.
Background[]
As for the real Napoleon, he comes from a family of Italian origins, he fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, he declared France a hereditary empire and crowned himself emperor and he was Involved in multiple battles along his army. While for a time it was for Napoleon a parade of victories, the last defeats he had in the Battle of Leipzig (1813) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815) impacted him so much; the latter was his definitive defeat and made him get exiled to a remote island in St. Helena where he would later die six years later (1821).
As for the Napoleon seen in this mental landscape, he’s a combination of the understanding Fred has about his ancestor but also a piece of Fred’s personality; a part of him which has taken control to teach his other half the importance of strategic victory but also trying to bring back in Fred the desire of fighting back in order to succeed in his life. The origin of this has to do with the time he decided to perform play therapy with an inmate he was interested into: Crispin Whytehead. After losing 27 rounds in Waterloo-O, he started to develop a strong sense of learned helplessness and specially considering it was losing in a game related to a person who is in his bloodline; all this provoked a split personality which would only get worse with the amplification of his unstableness thanks to the nearby Psitanium deposit.
Psychonauts[]
Inside the mind, Raz meets both Fred and Napoleon, who are playing the Waterloo-O board game in a large circular table. In the salon, they always stay there, endlessly playing but all rounds with one similar resolution; Fred simply can’t stop forfeiting and try to at the very least fight back. So Raz’s only option is to jump into the board game and find a way to help Fred deal with Napoleon. Raz gets shrunk to fit the small world that composes the board game, and throughout the entire game, Napoleon will send some of his troops to slow down the process of making a piece of Fred reach the goal to win the game.
He commands and encourages Fred’s forces to defeat Napoleon’s; which works since after mending the bridges and recruiting new soldiers that defeat Napoleon’s men, the general resorts to cheating to protect his fortress, jamming the drawbridge with an eyedropper. Napoleon admits defeat once the bridge is unjammed and Fred’s knight take the castle. Once the game is over, he exclaims he is glad that he has beaten the love of victory into his descendant. The general finally disappears with some words of wisdom, and a warning for (hereditary) stomach cramps.
Appearance[]
Like many other depictions made for the French general, Napoleon is shown as a tiny and petty looking tyrant. His skin is of a aquamarine blue, his hair resembles to the seal brown color, he has reddish brown eyes and his nose is dark lilac. He wears a military general’s outfit, his hat is much bigger than his own head and it features a large "n" on it; and lastly he carries from what it seems to look like, his coronation sword.
He’s always seen standing up in his personal and luxurious looking seat, which has part of the apron and the headrest featuring an elegant composition. In the salon his seat’s footing are pretty short, however inside the game board these extend to four times its size; kinda trying to mimic Fred and his long legs.
Personality[]
Finally! I can resign myself into my glorious history. The Future is yours, Fred Bonaparte. You are indeed a warrior. Go forth and fight all your battles with the same determination you showed here, and your life will be an endless parade of victories. Like mine!”
–Napoleon Bonaparte to Fred after winning.
He is a representation of the real military leader, albeit exaggerating certain aspects. For instance, he’s very obsessed with war and defeating his opponents, with Fred and Raz being exceptions; with Fred considering Napoleon is like an aspect of Fred, their interactions can be seen as tough love, while a bit rude he’s looking forward to see Fred stand up for himself and stop giving up easily. Sometimes he can be a snob but compared to other to mental figures with much villainous vibes such as the Den Mother or Jasper Rolls, Napoleon can be categorized as an anti-villain type of character.
Trivia[]
- The Napoleon in the game room sees Raz as a military leader when Clairvoyance is used on him, but the one on the game board sees him as a wooden game piece.
- When looking through the vault labeled "Fred vs. Napoleon", it can be seen that Fred saw Napoleon in a mirror in his mind's eye. In the semifinal slide, Napoleon is seen reaching out of the mirror and seizing control.
- Of course this can be an allegory of how the split personality happened for Fred.
- Both Napoleon and Fred are voiced by André Sogliuzzo, who voiced Napoleon again a little while later in the same year, for Age of Empires III.
- If the player tries to move, burn or otherwise influence one of Napoleon's game pieces, he will call you a cheater.
- Many of Napoleon's French sentences are direct quotes from France's current National Anthem, which is ironic considering the song was relinquished by real world's Napoleon Bonaparte himself during his reign, and only readopted afterwards.
- Interestingly, these quotes are not present in the French dub of the game, removing the inconsistency for the one public that could have noticed it.
- Napoleon appears in the Psychonauts recap animation in Psychonauts 2.
- Along with Jasper and Morris, Napoleon is one of the few characters who for the most part are always seen in a mobilized seat.
- While in the other two cases is a floating balcony and a wheelchair controlled with Levitation, Napoleon’s seat has its footings expanding to move like the legs of a horse.