Double (JP: ダブル) is a monstrous, transforming creature working under the Trinity, responsible for ensuring that the Skull Heart falls into the "right" hands and manipulating events according to the goddesses' will. Her current guise is as a nun under the name Sister Agatha.
Double is one of the playable characters in Skullgirls. Her homestage is the Grand Cathedral, but Gehenna is also referred to her "domain" and is even suggested to be an extension of herself.
Despite MikeZ stating that Double was female, her gender is still listed as Unknown on the official site.
The nun form that she takes is based on no one in particular; it's just a form she takes to blend in at the cathedral.
Double is speculated to have been created by the Trinity as she shares a few physical traits from each member.
Venus views Double as a maid or a butler, although it’s not quite as straightforward as Double represents many things.
Personality
Double is an enigmatic character who lacks a distinct motive or will that most of the cast have and rarely emotes. She mostly maintains a stoic demeanor when conversing with someone. However, she has shown bouts of pure rage and hatred when it comes to Squigly (Squigly refuses to obey Marie's orders) and Eliza (Eliza killed Aeon and Venus). Double's encounter with Eliza implies that she has an unspecified connection to Queen Lamia, such as being her avatar or 'shadow'.
Backstory
Though her origins are vague, Double is devoutly loyal to the Trinity, using her shape-shifting powers to support the Trinity's ominous agenda. As such, she is an ally of the Skullgirl, and appears to take steps to ensure the creation of new Skullgirls. Double is capable of transforming her nightmarish form into that of any person, but she often takes on the appearance of a smiling nun. Double can frequently be found in the Grand Cathedral of the Divine Trinity, listening to confessions and tending to the catacombs beneath.
Fourteen years before the events of the game, Double attended the birthday of Selene Contiello in the disguise of a beautiful socialite, giving her the Skull Heart. She then notified the Medici Mafia that Squigly's family, the Contiellos, possessed the dangerous artifact, undoing decades of accumulated good-will in an instant. As Double expected, the Medici's gunned down the entirety of the Contiello family, thereby sending a message to the rest of the world that they were not to be challenged.
By the time of the game itself, Double is working under the newest Skullgirl Marie, serving as one of her two attendants (alongside Valentine). In her story mode, it is revealed that she is responsible for Marie's transformation, taking in the girl when she fled from Rommelgrad and offering her the Skull Heart as a way to fulfill her desires. However, Marie's strong will allowed her to fight against the Skull Heart's influence, delaying the Trinity's plans. Learning of her masters' displeasure, Double began searching for possible replacements for the disobedient Marie.
Character Basis
Name
She is commonly referred to as Double, although it is implied to not be her true name. It is derived from "double".
In her current guise as a nun, she goes by the name Agatha, which means "good" and was also the name of a Christian saint.
Eliza addresses her as Lamia, referencing a Libyan queen who became a child-eating daemon, and the name is apparently derived from the Greek word for "gullet". Meanwhile, Annie refers to her as the "Shapeshifter".
Design
One of Double's previous designs.
Double has gone through the most major redesign of the cast thus far. Initially she was concepted resembling Filia, except Samson's head was where Filia's should be and Filia's was on the back of the skull and appeared very emaciated. She was also concepted as a very nondescript and hunched over humanoid figure. At another point, she was a jumble of distorted pieces from other characters wearing a crown.
Story
After capturing Filia and Cerebella, Double is sent to Anti-Skullgirl Lab 8 in order to destroy their research. Against Marie's wishes, she engages and defeats Peacock, claiming that Marie's old friend has become too great of a threat to their goals. Unbeknownst to Marie, Double captures Peacock, believing her to be another potential candidate.
Following the destruction of Lab 8, Double continues her hunt for more candidates, capturing Parasoul, Painwheel, and Ms. Fortune. She then returns to the cathedral, defeats Valentine, and confers with her masters about her next move. On their orders, Double descends to the catacombs and confronts Marie, who appears to have realized her alleged servant's intentions. Declaring that the Trinity are tired of Marie's refusal to follow their agenda, and brushing off Marie's pleas for a little more time to finish off the Medici Mafia, Double engages the Skullgirl in a fierce battle.
Despite Marie's incredible power, Double ultimately emerges triumphant, reclaiming the Skull Heart she had bestowed to Marie. Musing that Marie was able to prevent the Skull Heart from fully controlling her, Double confers with the Trinity one last time. After receiving her new (unknown) orders and claiming that she has already found the suitable candidate, she proceeds to dispose of her gathered candidates (who have apparently been judged unsuitable to become Skullgirls) by absorbing them into herself.
After this, the screen is cut to the world where the Trinity live, where Aeon and Venus seem to watch on via a "joystick machine" where a copy of Skullgirls is being played. They claim that they can trace the "branching threads of fate of another world" via this machine, and "each branch is a history that might have been", however, "there is a timeline where all threads converge, including their own", before they head off to have dinner with "mother".
Other Stories
Double appears in all of the other characters' Story Modes as one of the foes they must overcome to reach the Skullgirl. Unless otherwise noted, she appears in the penultimate battle, fighting alongside Valentine in a two-on-one battle against the player character.
After Filia saved Painwheel from being shut down by Valentine, Double tells Filia that the Skull Heart can answer the questions about her past and then some with her wish. After warning Filia that the Skullgirl Marie is waiting in the catacombs of the Grand Cathedral, she and Valentine started to fight the schoolgirl to see if she is worthy of claiming the sought-after artifact. Double and Valentine did not appear later in the story after they were defeated in battle.
Double first battles Cerebella by mimicking her form and fighting alongside Valentine. When this fails to stop the performer, Double reverts to her true form and battles Cerebella by herself. After being defeated again, Double reveals Marie's location to Cerebella, hinting that she could use the Skull Heart to achieve her heart's desire. (It is unclear if Double knows about Cerebella's constant struggle to win Vitale's favor or not.)
Double confronts Peacock when the latter first meets Marie in the wake of Anti-Skullgirl Lab 8's destruction. After failing to defeat Peacock while mimicking her form, Double retreats with Marie to the Grand Cathedral. When Peacock arrives in pursuit of Marie, Double joins Valentine in attacking the peppy cyborg, only to be defeated again.
After Ms. Fortune defeated Valentine in a fight, Double warns Valentine that Marie needed her at the Grand Cathedral. At the cathedral, Ms. Fortune confronts the two in search of the Skull Heart. When Valentine wanted to conduct experiments on Ms. Fortune, Double tells her the spry feline is a potential candidate of becoming a Skullgirl. Ms. Fortune continues her way after defeating the two.
When Valentine kidnapped Umbrella at the Streets of New Meridian after learning her unique bond with the Skullgirl, Parasoul goes after her. However, Double, taking Parasoul's form, gets in her way and the two fight. After she was defeated, she warns the princess that Umbrella will probably become the next Skullgirl and her bond that Valentine mentioned is potentially more dangerous than previous Skullgirls.
After Molly located Umbrella and Marie at the Grand Cathedral, Parasoul and the Black Egrets were confronted by Double and Valentine before they started their search. As Parasoul was incensed with the villainous duo, Double notifies her that time is running out and says her mother Queen Nancy would be disappointed with way she acted. With the help of the Egrets, Parasoul defeated the duo.
Double was present in the Grand Cathedral when Painwheel arrived, seeking revenge on Valentine. At the latter's insistence, Double left the two combatants to battle one-on-one. As such, she was not present to see a defeated Valentine offer words of encouragement to Painwheel and send her creation to the catacombs to battle Marie.
In the beginning, Double appears alongside Marie threatening Valentine after they killed the other members of the Last Hope. Later on, she sees Valentine's drop her ruse when the ninja nurse prevented her from killing Painwheel. She tells her that the Trinity does not look kindly on her traitorous ways. Valentine beats her in a fight and confronts Marie in the catacombs.
An unexpected consequence of Double delivering the Skull Heart to Selene Contiello was the transformation of Selene's daughter (Sienna, a.k.a. "Squigly") into a free-willed undead bonded with the parasite Leviathan. Fourteen years later, the unlikely duo would become an obstacle to the Trinity's plans when they infiltrated the Grand Cathedral in search of the Skull Heart. Double appears to recognize Squigly when they meet, noting that she had "a second chance" to serve the Trinity, but chose to reject it.
Double was not present when Squigly and Leviathan defeated Valentine and battled Bloody Marie, but she ambushed the duo following their victory over the Skullgirl. To Double's surprise, her attack was thwarted by the arrival of Filia and Samson. Double attempted to turn Squigly against Filia by revealing her as a Medici (and thus, belonging to the family that killed the Contiellos and stitched Squigly's mouth shut), but Squigly ignored the bait, declaring that she wanted Filia's actions to speak for her.
After being defeated by the girls and their parasites, Double revealed that she was the one who gave Squigly's mother the Skull Heart. Despite this, she insisted that the Medicis were to blame for the death of the Contiellos, as Lorenzo was the one who stitched Squigly's mouth shut (as a warning to anyone who sought to challenge the Medicis). Ultimately, Double's words failed to move Squigly, and she was incinerated by Leviathan's dragon breath.
After catching wind of Lab 8's destruction from Dr. Avian, Big Band rushes over there to check on the inhabitants. Upon arriving at the lab, Big Band encounters Double, who takes his form and chides him for his existence. After being defeated Double retreats back to the Grand Cathedral. After realizing that Valentine was behind the damage, Big Band heads to the Grand Cathedral to confront her and Double. After defeating them, Big Band heads off to confront Marie.
After Marie was defeated, Double attacks the unsuspecting Eliza . Consumed with rage due to Eliza killing Aeon and Venus, Double (whom Eliza addresses as Queen Lamia) tries to kill her at her most vulnerable position. Fortunately for Eliza, the blood that dripped on the blue veins on the ground allowed her and her servants to escape to Gehenna. There, she is able to use the blood to power herself up and face Double. Double continues shouting threats, but Eliza is not phased by them. Upon Double's defeat, Eliza escapes with Albus and Horace in tow and destroys the Skullheart.
She first appears to Beowulf in her Sister Agatha disguise when he appeared at the church and showed her that Grendel's arm was acting up. She advised him to lose the arm, but Beowulf decides to make a comeback and fight against the Skullgirl. Realizing she could use him, Double took the form of Zane and became Beowulf's manager, having him fight various members of the cast so she can later take them into her body. She later turns herself into Beowulf and attempts to demoralize him in the ring by revealing that his fight with Grendal was staged. When Beowulf confronts Zane afterwards, Double reveals her true self and takes him to Gehenna with the rest of her captured prey. They are all rescued by Annie, who defeats Double while Beowulf fights Marie.
Abilities & Fighting Style
Double takes full advantage of her shapeshifting abilities in battle, freely shifting her mass into various weapons and appendages. In-game, she prefers to morph into the forms of other characters in order to perform one of their attacks (including some that were dropped from their movesets during development). Some of her abilities involve using the form of one character to begin an attack before shifting into a different character to utilize their attributes as a follow-up.
Double's shifting abilities enable her to manifest multiple separate bodies that she can control, as well as enormous forms that far exceed her usual mass. However, she appears to be unable to imitate certain supernatural abilities (such as the fiery "tears" of Krieg).
Double can mimic anyone's voice, and is capable of talking normally to appear as, for example, a nun or a stranger at a party, in order to spread rumors about the Skull Heart.
Her DLC Voice Pack, Politician Double, is the only slated voice pack of a playable character that is not to be re-voiced by the same voice actress, instead being voiced by Kaiji Tang. This also makes Double the only character in the game to have both male and female voices.
The phrase spoken in Double's character reveal trailer ("Have you come to give confession? I'll gladly accept your tithe.. in blood.") was separated into two random battle intro lines for the actual game.
Her Megalith Array Blockbuster pays homage to the same giant Moai heads featured in the Gradius game series.
The sprites used in Double's Nightmare Legion Blockbuster are rejected character sprites from the normal gameplay.
