| “ | Amazing. Such unimaginable beauty. Such exquisite destruction. The true power of the Ryunka. It's come to Earth for the chosen ones! Those exalted above all others... Haha! It's amazing! At last the Ryunka is FREE! | „ |
Satyajit Shyamalan is the main antagonist of the first season of Birdy The Mighty: Decode. Believing himself to be chosen and superior to the vast majority of the rest of humanity, Shyamalan sets about to use an alien superweapon called the Ryunka to obliterate all of humanity apart from his chosen few, those whom he believes will bring humanity into its next evolutionary step.
He was voiced by Kenichi Suzumura in the Japanese version and by Todd Haberkorn in the English version.
History[]
Shyamalan was a child during the time of a major Arab-Israeli conflict, during which his city was attacked by terrorists, killing all but one of its 4,000 occupants, leaving Shyamalan as the sole survivor. As a result of his survival, Shyamalan began to think of himself as somewhat invincible and viewed himself as "chosen" and genetically superior to those who died.
Shyamalan somehow made his way to Japan, where as a child genius, he began producing the so-called "Marionettes" (robotic humanoid slaves that greatly resemble real-life humans) and made a fortune from this endeavor. His company, Playmaker Industries, eventually merged with Nakasuki Technologies, and he became the senior partner of Chairman Nakasuki, as well as a close (but false) friend.
After he began harboring a group of alien criminals who had fled to Earth to escape the space cop Berserker Killer Birdy, Shyamalan learned of their weapon The Ryunka, which has the ability to wipe out the populations of entire planets. Shyamalan had witnessed as a child that the strongest stock can survive virtually any tragedy and began plotting with the aliens, as well as manipulating them, to use the Ryunka for his own ends.
He had Geeza, one of the aforementioned criminals, and another parasitic alien called Bacillus activate the Ryunka in an underground building. When Birdy faced Geeza at the facility, she accidentally killed a boy named Tsumotu Senkawa and was forced to fuse his mind into her body to keep him alive. After Bacillus killed Geeza and later died by Birdy's hands, a mysterious third party (a girl who resembles Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, and whose name is revealed in the next season to be Capella) discovered that the Ryunka's remains had been transported by Shyamalan in a van back to his facility, but that the van had collided with a car carrying Sayaka Nakasuki (granddaughter of Chairman Nakasuki). Capella then infected Sayaka with the Ryunka, healing her wounds and causing her to undergo a drastic change in personality.
After Sayaka began to awaken as the Ryunka, killing half of the population of a village, Shyamalan visited and was driven to the site of the destruction, where he was overjoyed by the bleakness of what he had caused. He was even more overjoyed by the fact that he found a baby in the rubble, as it was in his mind "one of the chosen, a true child of destruction".
Undine tries to kill Birdy.
Shyamalan then sent his men to investigate the damage and find any traces of the Ryunka. When a police officer got too inquisitive, Shyamalan's men murdered him on the spot, and they also tried to kill Keisuke Mutoro, a journalist who was also investigating the site, as well as Tsumoto's friend Hayamiya, who was rescued by Birdy. However, once Birdy tried to enter the site, Shyamalan sent an exceptionally strong Marionette called Undine to kill her. After a violent confrontation, Undine almost drowned Birdy, but was eventually thrown into an electricity pylon and was almost destroyed, only to be recovered by Gomez, an Altan alien working for Shyamalan who then warned Birdy to focus on stopping the Ryunka and then betrayed Shyamalan by revealing that the Ryunka needs a host body to function. Gomez then remarked on the phone to his other superior that he felt their partnership with Shyamalan had outlived its usefulness, implying his intent to kill Shyamalan. Shyamalan was then seen having dinner with Capella, where she made him promise that he would be able to control the weapon and described him as her "only friend". A different woman was later revealed to be Gomez's employer.
Shyamalan's company Playmaker Industries later purchased the world's largest cruise ship, the Lost Bird. Soon afterward, Shyamalan had found footage which demonstrated that Sayaka was definitely the host of the Ryunka, and he drove to Chairman Nakasuki's house to discuss the issue with him.
Shyamalan smiles as he strangles his "friend" to death.
At Nakasuki's house, Shyamalan revealed to Chairman Nakasuki how he knew that his granddaughter was the host of the Ryunka, and began describing the pain she was going through now that she had been chosen. Shyamalan then told the chairman that Sayaka was about to transition, under his guidance, from being The Chosen to being The Chooser. The chairman was horrified by Shyamalan's plans for his granddaughter and refused to continue to cooperate with Shyamalan. In disgust, Shyamalan strangled the Chairman to death in his own home, gleefully smiling as he did so.
Shyamalan then walked out of the Nakasuki residence, and justified his crime to himself by saying "Humanity must be cleansed of the unworthy... cleansed by my hands."
That same day, Mutoro and Hayamiya played a DVD message which they found made by Shyamalan for his "chosen" employees, in which he said:
"There are only 2 types of people in this world. Those who have been chosen, and those who have not. I have reached such an exalted position because I am among the chosen few. As a chosen one myself, I am able to evaluate other people and weed out those not worthy."
Seeing a child photograph of Shyamalan, Hayamiya recognized his face as the lone survivor of a horrific terror attack several years earlier.
After Sayaka walked into her house to find her grandfather's dead body, she was left stunned, and Yoshiye, their family's maid, blamed Sayaka for his death. Sayaka then completely lost control of her power as the Ryunka and turned Yoshiye to glass, before shattering her.
After several weeks of inactivity from Sayaka, Shyamalan and Capellal lost track of her and sent the budgerigar robot to spy on the Nakasuki household, only for the robot to be discovered by Nechla and Birdy, causing Nechla to destroy its camera. Shyamalan then expressed his belief that Sayaka would come to him, and that they wouldn't need to search for her.
Shyamalan takes custody over Sayaka.
Shyamalan later contacted Sayaka and invited her to "escape" from the strain of everything going on by taking her on a cruise ship. While there, Shyamalan shook Tsumotu's hand and promised him that he needn't worry about Sayaka and that he'd "Help her come into her own", before giving a sadistic smile towards Tsumotu, which chilled Tsumotu and caused him to flinch backward. He and Sayaka then left aboard the Lost Bird.
Nechla then discovered by reversing the signal from the budgerigar robot that the human who had been trying to activate the Ryunka was Shyamalan, and arrived at Tsumotu's apartment to warn him about Shyamalan, only to discover that it was too late; Shyamalan had already taken Sayaka, and was planning to awaken the power dormant within her to obliterate most of humanity.
Shyamalan's death, at the hands of the Ryunka.
On the ship, Shyamalan gave Sayaka drugged wine, which knocked her unconscious. He then connected her to a machine called the Ajivan System, which would allow her to weed out the "chosen" from the "unchosen" and exclusively keep the "chosen" alive. Shyamalan then sent a video message to the news corporation he co-owned and ordered them to broadcast it live. In the message, Shyamalan exposited on natural selection and described humanity as the chosen species, though as his message played, Shyamalan was awakening Sayaka's power aboard his ship. As the Ryunka's power increased, it made it clear to Shyamalan that he was not, in fact, "chosen", by crystallizing Shyamalan's body, killing him. Shyamalan's crystalline form immediately began to collapse and crumble under its own weight, causing his head to fall from his body and shatter. After killing him, the Ryunka said "Good riddance, Shyamalan.
Even after Shyamalan's death, his video message still plays, as he described his determination to rid the human race of the weak, the sick, the feeble-minded, all of which he viewed as "parasites" to society. As he exposited, the Ryunka destroyed a massive portion of the city's population, crystallizing millions of innocent people.
Trivia[]
- Shyamalan shared his name and aspects of his appearance with Indian-American film director M. Night Shyamalan.