Maria Becker - Cryopod Classic's most beloved character!

Marie Becker - One of Cryopod Classic's most universally loved and reviled characters. I received a lot of feedback about her during my time writing Classic, mainly because of her pervasive influence across the entire story in every arc, as well as her blackened heart, lack of empathy, and inherent psychopathy.

Who is Marie? Well, in Cryopod Classic, she was a spooky scientist entangled with all the branches of government on modern-day Earth, while also working with demons behind the scenes, backstabbing anyone caught in her way, yet always curiously playing the part of a hero. After all, she had much to do with humanity ending up inside the Bubble Worlds, so in a way, she ended up saving humanity from extinction.

(Sidenote: It's been almost two years since I read Classic, so I might be off on some details.)

One of the reasons people really liked Marie was that she had a very stable personality compared to other characters. While most characters in Cryopod Classic were goal or story-oriented, Marie was a personality-driven character. She was haughty, condescending, snarky, sarcastic, off-putting, and acted like a monster toward anyone who irritated her.

...

In Cryopod Refresh, not much about Marie's personality will change. As a personality-driven character with deep foundations in the story of Cryopod, there isn't much about her character I wish to change.

However!

Marie's backstory, her effects on the Cryopod universe, and many other aspects have changed dramatically.

In Cryopod Classic, Marie Becker was head of the facility that created UMI, the Unified Management Interface. UMI later became an evil super-AI that also wasn't... actually evil? I dunno, that was a bit confusing and will be heavily revised for Refresh. Anyway, she was the overseer, but ended up being more of one person among many in the design process. 

However, in Refresh, Marie is the primary creator of UMI. Marie designs UMI and builds the AI's systems. In the end, once her ultimate creation is complete, Marie uses UMI to take control of Earth once the Volgrim attack. Tired of inefficiency, poor government management, and lack of fine-control, Marie uses UMI to take out the heads of every country in a coordinated multi-phase plan. While a few are killed, the rest are disgraced, blackmailed, and tossed aside in favor of Marie and UMI's hand-picked stooges. This gives Marie full control of Earth's entire military force and allows her to combat the Volgrim directly.

This change - making Marie the leader of humanity - does a lot for her character. First, it improves her backstory and motivations by demonstrating that she has goals and aspirations toward power and control. While she is a giant lover of science, she is also someone who is practical and despises inefficiency. This semi-robotic way of treating life and the world makes her a villain not because she is evil, but because she is a perfect example  of the phrase, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Marie does not see herself as a villain. Her goal is to create the perfect human society, controlled from the top-down by the only person smart enough for that role; herself. She sees other, less-intelligent humans and demons and angels as worthless and low in value. While she is, indeed, a truly brilliant person, her conceit is her undoing, as we will eventually see.

Find out more about Marie when she finally appears in Cryopod Refresh!

Note: The first artwork was made by MWTX, while the second was Marie's original design, made by Iskafiy on Fiverr!