Jasper Batt Jr. is a central character and the main antagonist in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. He is the CEO of the newly formed Pizza Bat Corporation which now dominates most of the industry and city of Santa Destroy.
Appearance and Personality[]
Jasper Batt Jr.-Rank 1
Jasper is a rich man (possibly with limited body growth) who is bald with a tattoo on his head of a black-and-white pizza. He wears incredibly large, pink glasses, a neon-yellow suit with matching trousers and gloves, a pink shirt with matching cuffs and shoes which also match his glasses.
His appearance and voice all truly deceive, as he turns out to be an intelligent and violent assassin.
Story[]
After his father and brothers were killed three years ago by Travis Touchdown, Jasper conspired with Skelter Helter to drive the former top ranked assassin into a full on rage. While his plans aren't truly disclosed, some parts are hinted at, eventually coming to own and control much of Santa Destroy, making huge renovations to the city and driving many smaller business (which weren't exactly thriving) into bankruptcy, and making head as a powerful authority figure, while hinted to rise in rank as the #1 ranked assassin in the UAA, and also made headway as an up and rising gangster in the underworld, with most of Santa Destroy's criminal activity overseen through the use of his henchmen, acting much like head of a organized criminal gang syndicate. One of the locations Jasper owns is the hotel that Nathan Copeland is at.
As for his final act of his plan, it is the death of Travis' friend Georgy Bishop.
When Travis meets Jasper for the first time, he reveals his past of when Travis killed his Father and two brothers in the previous game and explains to a confused Travis why he killed Bishop. Wanting him to experiance more pain, Jasper fools Travis into thinking he also killed Sylvia, Henry, and Shinobu by presenting their heads on platters, ultimately angering Travis and causing the fight to commence. Jasper faces off with Travis as the final boss in the game, taking on three forms. The first is his normal self who pilots a flying car (which resembles a 1970's cadillac) in which Jasper flies out of reach to the 4 corners of the office firing large arrays of hidden room lasers which can also form a super laser which can be used to knock Jasper down, then he tries to run Travis over (this triggers a clash), and fires bat projectiles and hurls bombs at Travis. When Jasper stops losing health you must lose a clash to trigger a cutscene of Henry saving Travis allowing the fight to continue . After defeating Jasper is sent flying into a wall and afterwards injects himself with eight vials of syrum, allowing him to gain extreme mucsle mass allowing him to punch Travis across the room, is able to teleport, fire waves exploding bats, and has a powerful 3-hit punch that deals large amounts of damage. After being kicked out of the window and appears to have been killed, in a last resort Jasper rises as a cartoon oriented parade float version of himself that spouts random sayings. In this seemingly ridculus form he is very capable in dealing massive damage to Travis, with attacks such as slaming or punching Travis, breathing large quantities of air which drains the beam katana batteries, and fires a laser which can enter a clash with him. In the end, Jasper is finally defeated when Travis comically jumps from the destroyed office towards the waiting Batt float and runs onto his back then vertically bisects him, causing him to explode killing him and ending the Pizza Batt Corporation.
Jasper Batt's Vehicle
Quotes[]
"Travis! Took you long enough!"
"Ironic Question coming from an assasin! Did you honestly think you could take so many lives and never suffer retribution?! Have you never even seen a Kung Fu Movie, spy flick or western? Shakespeare, for God's sake?!"
"It's called, `Poetic Justice.'"
"Now you're feeling it. That's your life losing all meaning. You've got nothing left except this fight. Now I know you'll put all you have into this!"
"Yes... a fight to the death. Get angry - so angry you start convulsing. Now - draw your katana! I'll relish every moment, every second of this kill. May you savour YOUR death as well."
"Let the final battle, BEGIN!!!"
"TRAVIS!!!"
"Such hostility!"
"Hairy Palmed Geek!"
"This is a fight to the death!"
"Waves of power are flowing through me!"
Trivia[]
- Jasper is considered by fans to be the most disliked boss of the No More Heroes series.
- Jasper Batt, Jr. is the first and only boss in the series to have three forms, each of which is preceded by a checkpoint. Ryuji's two forms, however, are treated the same way.
- His second form may be a reference to the "Garlic Jr." character of the Dragon Ball series, who normally appears small and childlike, but when pressed into combat, powers up to a massive, muscular form.
- The third form is a giant Pizza Butt Company's mascot. This may be a reference to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbusters series.
- The repetition of the "bat" motif in his costume and stage as well as the fact that his family was murdered, leaving him control over the family's company seem to indicate that he is a reference to Bruce Wayne and Batman. Furthermore, the chemical he injects himself with to grow huge may be a reference to Venom, the similarly colored chemical used by Bane, one of Batman's greatest arch enemies. As a final reference, Jasper's suit is green and purple, the signature colours of Batman's arch-enemy, the Joker. There are a number of Batman figurines in the Grasshopper Manufacture building, further supporting that it is a direct reference.
- Perhaps as foil to Travis Touchdown, as Travis is symbolized by the tiger, Jasper Batt Jr. uses this animal symbolism in a more negative approach than Travis' heroic inclination. Bats are actually valued as a generator of guano for saltpeter, which is a crucial ingredient for gunpowder, and guano itself is known to be a virulent source of bacteria, microbiotic parasites like nematodes, and diseases, like the blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine of 1904. Even within history, 18th and 19th Century politics revolved around major world powers, including the United States, fighting over seabound guano islands in the first known firearms inspired arms race, and inevitably, slavery was a major backbone of the labor used to gather this resource. Regarding bats themselves, they are also a major vector of diseases like rabies, making them very dangerous for humans to encounter up close. Symbolically, bats themselves have been associated with the occult and dark matters like demons, and if there is any creature of the night that associates with the bat, it would be the vampire, stemming from not only the idea of one who has sold their soul to the devil, but is of powerful and corrupt tyrannical nobility that "feasts on the blood of the people". Alternately, the bat would rather fit in this case as a creature of warning against tampering with forbidden subjects and ways that will cause evil. This would perhaps explain Jasper Batt Jr.'s character as not only a pizza restaurant conglomerate CEO, but a major figure of the criminal underworld.
- Serving as a reference as a "vector of disease", the rampant crime and gang violence of the 1970s and 1980s in America was known to Japan as the "American Disease" during those times.
- His "charismatic" characteristics and use of persuasion by Nathan Copeland, as well as the musical motifs of his second song, Titanium Batt Jr., may reference the svengali, a villain archetype who is manipulative, sociopathic, and deceiving to many. Being located in California may also be a reference to the Pinocchio villain of the runner of Pleasure Island, where he swindles misbehaving and truant children to indulge in endless pleasure, before they suffer from the "donkey disease" (a symbol of stupidity, hard labor, and irresponsibility), and are forced to be enslaved and sold for his profit.
- He may also be a reference to Lex Luthor. Bald, rich, the head of a large company, and obsessed with vengeance against one man. In addition, his usage of the chemicals to power up his body is similar to a technique used by Luthor in the story 'Public Enemies'.
- While Travis does not use this against any enemy in the game, Touchdown used a Flying Dropkick to send Batt flying out the window.
- He and his organization he runs are evocative of various real world corporation tied cults, from the Unification Church to the Moral Rearmament Group. The former is a controversial Christian denomination from South Korea founded by the late reverend Sun Yung Moon that claims itself to be the "one and only true faith of the world" that has been involved in the seafood industry, with instances of conflicts of interest with their American based newspaper outlet, the Washington Times, and even ties to the Yakuza by Korean members within Japan. The Moral Rearmament Group is a controversial 20th Century "Born Again" Christian organization that is said to have been extremely influential in the start of the "Greatest Generation" and the foundations of modern day industry and economy, but has been denounced by the Catholic Church for its dangerous hedonism-like principles and unbased hypocritical materialistic spirituality, and controversies involving close relations with fascist and Nazi ideologies and the more greedy and robber baron-esque financial elite who sought to use their ideals to shame workers on strike for better wages and conditions. Both groups have been known to extort and take advantage of their members financially and mentally. Finally, his appearance is similar to the Moral Rearmament founder Pat Buchman.