Boss Shiva

"Call me whatever you want, but remember: bosses don't lead. Bosses sit and, well, boss around. The leaders. They do lead. Obviously."

- Boss Shiva

Shiva Repnin is the main protagonist of The Royal Hotel comic series, as well as one of the protagonists of the whole Shiverse. Originally known as the leader of Russian Mafia in the Lebowian city of St. Jaybob, he continuosly tries to abandon his life of a criminal, instead making himself and his organization focuse more on the legal business, like owning The Royal Hotel, the biggest hotel in the city and one of the most visited sights by tourists.

Just like every other member of Shiva Squad, Shiva the Russian Mafia boss was particularly based off his creator Ian Shiva Repnin. He is the youngest member of the squad (0,5 years old in the Prime Dimension), as he was the last created one in the squad.

Appearance
Just like almost every other member of Shiva Squad, Shiva the Russian Mobster bears significal resemblance to his creator in appearance, even having almost the same manner to dress. He as well dons the white suit, however with no tie and a shirt either colored cyan or, very rarely, pink. His coat also has a small golden patch indicating Soviet symbol of hammer and sickle; the same symbol also appears on the design of his earrings he is seen wearing, as this indicates his Russian origins. In addition to his suit, Shiva also wears brown leather fingerless gloves, which however he doesn't take on in his 2D form (according to the author, this was due to his own oversight).

Although psycically looking almost alike his creator, Shiva's own appearance still has some slight differences. His hair color is dark, unlike Prime Shiva's nougat-colored hair, and his face also has a big scar on the left eye. This whole appearance is an obvious reference to The Son, one of the playable characters in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, who is also the head of the Russian Mafia.

Early life
"I never chose becoming a gangster!"

- Shiva's famous quote

Shiva Repnin was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, just like his creator. Unlike him, though, little Shiva was born in the family of criminal authorities who forced him to train as an assassin right during his childhood. When young Repnin turned 8, his parents were killed and, according to the mobster himself, he never felt any remorse towards their death. Soon enough he was transported to the city of St. Jaybob in Lebowia, where he grew up with his two uncles, Ivan and Stas Repnins. While the former was a corrupt police officer of St. Jaybob Police Department, the latter was one of the biggest criminal authorities in the city, being a head of Russian Mafia, the weakest one of the Four Crime Families. Since Uncle Stas inherited his position from his father, young Shiva understood, that he would be the next one to succeed in that role, much to his disappointment, as according to his famous quote, he never wanted and never chose becoming a gangster. He was forced to continue his training. Sometime during his school period, he befriended his classmate The Dude, who eventually became his best friend, as well as other classmates Mitch and the Shy Jacob, local troublemakers.

When Shiva turned 15, he finished school as an external student and went to the business school afterwards. This was also the same year when he was first arrested, the cause was driving with no driving license and breaking speed limits. He was soon released from the custody by his uncle Ivan, however still kept himself away from getting in jail again. By the time he was 19, however, Shiva was forced to show what he has learned through years of assassin's training: the mansion of his uncle Stas was attacked by the group of armed vigilantes. Their leader, armed with a katana, challenged Shiva, who duelled the leader with an antique spear, and despite fighting very well, he was defeated and left with a large scar on his face. Vigilantes leader spared him, however, and used the same katana to stab Stas to death with it. After vigilantes left the building, Shiva took the katana as a trophy and a reminder of that event, and soon after realized he was the one to become the boss of the Russian Mafia afterwards. Knowing that most of its members didn't want to continue going down the path they were going already, so he offered his men to focus more on the legal business, like owning several assets and producing certain products. Shiva revived Repnin Inc., a bankrupt company originally owned by his uncle Stas, and with it he and his men purchased several business assets and also began producing motors and other car parts under the brand Repnin Motors Inc. The company made such a big success, its motors were even successfully used in F1 2017 and F1 2018, as well as it earned its first billion dollars in one year.

Events of The Royal Hotel
"I thought I'd end up like my late uncle. I was afraid of that. But when one day I took a look into our company's bank account and saw our first billion, I realized, it will never happen"

- Shiva to Boldie Klon

Personality
Boss Shiva is a person with a mixed personality. He does his best to appear as an optimistic and cheerful person, especially in front of his guests in public, however most of the time he is violent, cruel and intimidating. His aggressive character and a capability to survive any battle he is taking part of made people call Shiva the most terrifying person in the St. Jaybob and later in the whole Lebowia. Despite having a very short temper, he never spills his anger on his friends or his henchmen when they do not deserve it, as Boss Shiva is very respectful of the people he employs and trusts. He is very proficient in the art of leadership, as well as he is a talented businessman, being able to earn his first billion dollars in the first year of running a company.

Character
As it was mentioned above, Boss Shiva is infamous for his short temper and intimidating attitude. He, however, is well aware of that and, in fact, is very sensitive about his uncontrollable behavior. Deep down mobster is an extremely lonely person, who never had much of an emotional support in his life, hence his temperament issues. Despite constantly regretting his aggressive nature, Shiva actually considers violence as a necessary option to resolve a conflict and feels proud of himself whenever that statement proves to be true, even though he states that he hates killing people saying that he's "killed too much in life to regret myself".

Although Boss Shiva is a reluctant loner, he never shows that in public always interacting with lots of people, including his customers and obviously his employees, who consider him a great leader and therefore are very loyal to the mobster. He is very strict to his men and sometimes can be a bit bossy (hence his name Boss Shiva), yet he values them a lot, always listening to their opinion on his work decisions and doing his best to make them enjoy their job. This is a main reason for Shiva to be a highly respected businessman and at the same time highly respected gang leader as well, since his Russian Mafia is considered the strongest of the Four Crime Families of St. Jaybob just because of his leadership methods.

Just like in the rest of Shiva Squad, Boss Shiva's character consists of certain advantages and disadvantages in the character of original Shiva. In this case, they both are talented businessmen, being highly skilled in the art of leadership and extremely loyal to their associates, however both also suffer a lot from their short temper and tendency to violence, although original Shiva is a bit more restrained than Boss Shiva.

Appearances

 * The Royal Hotel Issue 1