Havel the Rock
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About
Havel the Rock (or simply referred to as Havel) is a non-playable character (NPC) featured in the 2011 dark fantasy action role playing game Dark Souls who is known for being an extremely tough enemy in the early stage of the storyline. Within the Dark Souls community online, the character's armor[1] and ring[2] in particular have gained popularity for its ample provision of protection and use value in heavy armor builds, such as GiantDad, respectively. Havel is also associated with Dwayne Johnson for sharing the title "The Rock" and the phrase "Can't Stop the Rock" from the British band Apollo 440's 1999 electronic rock song "Can't Stop the Rock."[3]
Origin
In Dark Souls[4], which was released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 between September and October 2011 and later ported to PC in August 2012, the player may find Havel at the bottom of a tower with a spiral staircase while exploring through the opening act of the game. When approached with lack of caution, Havel can potentially one-shot any underprepared or ill-equipped players. On October 5th, 2011, a Wikidot page[5] was created for Havel with the character's profile information and 17 different different ways to defeat the hostile and resilient NPC.
Spread
On October 10th, 2011, the YouTube channel WikiGamesGuide uploaded an instructional video on how to defeat Havel and acquire his ring, which gained over 140,000 views (shown below, left). On August 6th, 2012, YouTuber OnlyAfro uploaded a video with clips of him fighting other players while cosplaying as Havel with Apollo 440's song playing occasionally. the video gaining over 190,000 views (shown below, right).
On April 19th, 2013, OnlyAfro re-uploaded his sequel video of him playing Havel, gaining over 710,000 views (shown below).
On February 22nd, 2013, DeviantArt user DoddleyMan uploaded[6] a comic joking about Havel's job (shown below, left). On October 17th, the comic was submitted to the Dark Souls subreddit,[7] where it gained 1,541 upvotes and 97 comments prior to its archival. On March 28th, 2014, Redditor CleanChemist posted[8] an edit of the Evolution of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with Havel at the end, gaining 1,241 upvotes and 38 comments (shown below, right).
On June 1st, 2014, YouTuber Oroboro uploaded a video titled "Havelyn" showing off a build that revolved around full Havel's armor and dual wielding Avelyns[9], a special crossbow that fires three bolts, and gained over 490,000 views (shown below, left). On December 27th, 2014, YouTuber Silver Mont uploaded a video discussing the lore of Havel the Rock with over 230,000 views since it's post (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Since the emergence of the character to online notoriety, hundreds of images featuring Havel-themed cosplay and other works of fan art have been uploaded to DeviantArt[10] and Tumblr.[11]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Dark Souls wikidot – Havel's Set
[2] Dark Souls wikidot – Havel's Ring
[3] YouTube – Apollo 440 – Can't Stop The Rock
[4] Wikipedia – Dark Souls
[5] Dark Souls wikidot – Havel the Rock
[6] DeviantArt – Havel's Job
[7] r/darksouls – Havel's Job not OC, but I figured it'd be appreciated here
[8] r/darksouls – The origins of Havel.
[9] Dark Souls 2 fextralife – Avelyn
[10] DeviantArt – Search for Havel the Rock
[11] Tumblr – Search for Havel the Rock
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