Characters / Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Main Characters

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Main Character Index
Main Characters (Sekiro / Wolf) | Secondary Characters | Enemies and Bosses | Manga Characters

Warning: unmarked spoilers ahead.

Sekiro / Wolf

Sekiro / Wolf

^{Click here for Young Wolf} 

"The Mortal Blade. Without question... I accept its power."

"Do what must be done."

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Noshir Dalal (English)

The Player Character and protagonist, Wolf is an older ninja bound to protect The Divine Heir, the last scion of an ancient bloodline. Ambushed while escorting his charge through a war-torn province, Wolf is attacked by a young samurai commander, costing him his left arm, his master's safety, and his honor. Waking up, and having found his arm replaced by a "ninja prosthetic", Wolf is told his master still lives, and that he still has the chance to redeem himself by preventing the samurai from sacrificing his liege to obtain immortality.

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See his page for more info

Kuro, The Divine Heir

Kuro, The Divine Heir

"Loyal Wolf: take my blood and live again."

"Even if you fall, uphold the oath to bring your master home. For you are my shinobi."

Voiced by: Miyuki Sato (Japanese), Amber Hood (English)

The Wolf's young master, the "Divine Heir", who was kidnapped by the Ashina clan to make use of his special bloodline.

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• Apple of Discord: It seems that ever since Kuro was known to possess the ability to grant immortality to others through an Immortal Oath, almost everyone in Ashina, even former Fire-Forged Friends, began tearing each other apart so they can get their hands on the boy.
• But Now I Must Go: In the Purification Ending, Kuro visits Sekiro's grave to give his farewells to both the deceased shinobi and Emma. With a newfound lease on the life Sekiro sacrificed his own for, he leaves Ashina to go on a jouney.
• Children Are Innocent: Kuro is a pillar of righteousness compared to the other characters. When he sees one Hirata man laying dead having contributed to his protection, he apologizes to his retainer as he was killed because of him being a target.
• Disappeared Dad: And mom. Kuro mentions his parents once before the fight with Lady Butterfly, but they are never seen and it is implied that they were killed during the raid. Currently the closest things he has to parental figures are Wolf and Emma.
• Distressed Dude: The Divine Heir is kept captive by the Ashina clan against his will, and it is up to Sekiro to free him.
• Heroic BSoD: His reaction to seeing Sekiro become a demonic Shura.
  Kuro: ...No, you're... You can't be Shura...!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Realizing that the Dragon's heritage is causing senseless carnage because of the many people who want it, Kuro decides early to seek for a way to sever his immortality. When it's revealed that the only way for this to happen would be for the current holder of the heritage to die, Kuro eventually tells Sekiro to kill him, although Sekiro can Take a Third Option.
• Hidden Depths: Who would've thought that Kuro could make such delicious sweet rice balls? Sekiro probably didn't, and even the Divine Child is completely baffled by the idea of somebody of Kuro's status actually cooking for himself. Kuro will later comment that if he ever has time to do so, he'll open up a tea house.
• Hime Cut: A Rare Male Example. His hairstyle is, altough typically feminine in Japanese culture, befitting of his noble heritage.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Aggressively averted. Kuro may be young, but he knows when someone is trying to use him for his powers as is evident with Owl.
• Immortality Inducer: By binding someone with a contract, Kuro gives them Resurrective Immortality.
• Living Macguffin: His immortal blood makes him the target of a number of conflicting plots throughout the game.
• Magical Barefooter: To emphasize his unnatural nature, he goes barefooted everywhere even in snowy mountains. Helps that his regeneration prevents bleeding feet.
• Meaningful Name: In the Japanese version, the kanji used for Kuro's name is "九郎" meaning "ninth son". It indicates how he's the latest in a long line of Immortality Inducers.
• Mercy Kill: In the Immortality Severance ending, in order to prevent the Dragon's Heritage from falling into the wrong hands — and under the personal belief that no one should have its power — Kuro asks Sekiro to kill him after he's suffered a mortal wound from Genichiro only moments prior.
• Morality Chain: Sekiro kills a lot of people, and all but dooms Ashina, for his sake. As it turns out, their bond is the only thing stopping him from succumbing to his bloodlust and becoming a Shura. Choosing to break the morality chain by betraying Kuro and joining Owl leads to Sekiro giving in to his bloodlust and becoming a Shura, resulting in one of the worst massacres in Japanese history.
• Nice Guy: He's a kindhearted, innocent youth with no bad bone in his body.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Of a variant. The Divine Heir is incapable of bleeding because his wounds close up instantly. In order to find a way to sever the Dragon's Heritage, Kuro has Sekiro search for a way to wound him, as his blood is necessary to find the means to prevent the Dragon's Heritage from falling into the wrong hands.
• Only One Name: If Kuro has a surname (much like many who belonged to Japanese nobility at the time), it isn't ever addressed. However, there's a possibility that it's Hirata, since he was living in Hirata estate prior to the game's events.
• Protectorate: Sekiro was sworn to protect him, as his kidnapping is the main catalyst of the game's conflict.
• Sleepy Head: The Wolf can catch him napping at certain times, and can choose to either wake him up or let him sleep. Choosing the latter will result in a good 20-30 seconds of unskippable sleeping before he wakes up on his own, followed by him complaining that Wolf should have just woken him up.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Kuro comes from a bloodline that can bestow the power of resurrection on a person. Likewise, the Divine Heir cannot bleed.
• Touched by Vorlons: His bloodline's ability to grant Resurrective Immortality was itself granted by the Divine Dragon, whom Sekiro later fights as the boss of the Fountainhead Palace.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Turns out a whole lot of people really want to live forever, and don't care what they have to do in order to achieve that goal. Therefore, Kuro decides to take himself out of the picture in order to sever the Heritage and stop people from fighting over him. Even the realization that he'll have to die in order to end it doesn't stop him.
• Wise Beyond His Years: Despite his age, Kuro has the maturity of someone much older than him. He is one of the only people who understands how much of a corrupting influence on mankind the Dragon's Heritage has been, and seeks to sever it in order to end that corruption.

Lord Genichiro Ashina

Genichiro Ashina

^{Click here for Genichiro - Way of Tomoe} 

"So the noble shinobi stands in our way ..."

"Ashina, this land — is everything to me. For her sake... I will shed humanity itself."

Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Ray Chase (English)

A battle-hardened Samurai, Genichiro Ashina is the highest-ranking commander of the Ashina clan's army. Out of desperation, Genichiro kidnaps Wolf's master, and leaves him for dead after defeating him in a duel.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Averted. Since he's The Unfought in the Shura Ending, Genichiro's fate is never directly addressed in-game. However, use of freecam shows that Owl is holding Genichiro's severed head in the final cutscene; given that said cutscene shows Owl also carrying the Black Mortal Blade (which seemingly only Genichiro knew where to find in the first place), it can be assumed that Genichiro had fallen at the hands of the Great Shinobi while Wolf was fighting both Emma and Isshin.
• Anti-Villain: He isn't evil; just very desperate, and willing to go to extreme measures to protect Ashina from the Interior Ministry.
  Genichiro: "Ashina, this land — is everything to me. For her sake... I will shed humanity itself."
• Back from the Dead: When the Wolf kills him in their second encounter, he revives himself through the Rejuvenating Waters. This, unfortunately, also leads to him sacrificing his humanity, and Isshin has mentioned that he can only resurrect so many times. In all routes barring the Shura Ending, he invokes the Trope by using the second Mortal Blade, stained with the blood of the Divine Heir and with Genichiro's own life to as a sacrifice, to resurrect Isshin Ashina, who had died not too long ago from his illness, back in his prime to defend the Ashina one final time.
• Bait-and-Switch: Initially seems to be the Final Boss in the non-Shura endings, until he uses the Black Mortal Blade to summon Sword Saint Isshin from his own corpse.
• Barbarian Longhair: When he tosses away his helmet, it is shown he's got unkempt long hair beneath it.
• The Battle Didn't Count: If you manage to beat his Hopeless Boss Fight in the tutorial, a cutscene will play where somebody offscreen (presumably the Nightjar who carries Kuro away) distracts Wolf before he can actually deal the killing blow by throwing a shuriken at him. Genichiro seizes the opportunity to attack and cuts off Wolf's arm just as he would have if you had lost the fight, while throwing in an extra Bond One-Liner about "the difference between honor and victory".
• Big Bad: He is the primary antagonist of the game.
• Blade Spam: His Floating Passage technique is a relentless series of slashes that will leave both Sekiro's and Genichiro's posture gauges sky-high even with perfect deflections.
• Book Ends: The game begins with Genichiro standing in Sekiro's way on a moonlit field of flowing silvergrass. If the shinobi chooses to stay true to the path of ending the Dragon's Heritage, then Genichiro will confront him one last time on the very same spot. Except in this case, he won't let himself be the Final Boss.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Whilst Genichiro fights mainly with a classic katana, he also has a longbow strapped to his back (a case of Truth in Television, as Samurai were trained to fight with multiple weapons to avoid Crippling Overspecialisation). He is shown to be extremely adept with both weapons, perfectly transitioning from one to the other during his attacks. In fact, when a group of ashigaru are discussing Ashina's finest warriors, Genichiro is specifically mentioned for his skill with the bow.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. Though Kuro completely opposes Genichiro's desire for immortality and the Dragon's Blood, he still seems to retain a great deal of respect for Genichiro personally, even if not as much as before.
• Childhood Friends: He and Emma are well-acquainted with each other since childhood, him being the adoptive grandson of Isshin Ashina, and Emma being the adoptive daughter of Isshin's physician.
• The Coats Are Off: He strips to the waist for the second phase of his fight, discarding all his armor for more speed, revealing a scarred and electricity-burned torso.
• Combat Pragmatist: Throughout the game, it's made evident that he does not care at all for the concept of a "fair fight". For example, when fought atop Ashina Castle, he'll switch to his bow whenever he thinks Wolf has left himself open to a cheap shot, generally when the latter is pressing too aggressively or is trying to heal. He straight-up admits to this if forced to rely on outside aid to defeat Wolf in the tutorial fight:
  Genichiro: "A shinobi would know the difference between honor and victory."
• Commanding Coolness: A villainous example - he's also referred to as "The Commander".
• Cool Helmet: Wears a magnificent kabuto, as befits his station.
• Covered with Scars: Parts of his body is blackened by electric burns, in addition to the multiple cuts and stab wounds accrued over years of combat and the times he fought against Sekiro.
• Defiant to the End: The man utterly refuses to die; even in the middle of Sekiro's Deathblow against him, he blocks the final slash with his own sword, pushes Sekiro back, and only narrowly misses killing him with a thrust of his own. Even then, he comes back.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The second battle with him is thematically appropriate and warrants enough merit as the climatic showdown between a lord who instigated and a shinobi who was wronged... but then the game reveals that this particular affair only covers a third of the actual plot.
• Evil Virtues: Genichiro's entire motivation is founded in altruism, refusing to let the Ashina be destroyed by the Interior Ministry and in the Final Boss encounter, shows humility when he admits that he's no match for Wolf and sacrifices himself to bring back somebody who is - Isshin in his prime.
• Expy: He serves as one to Gwyn. Both are rulers of a land who are Anti-Villains that refuse to accept the fall of their countries and go to extreme and highly immoral lengths to prevent it and only end up delaying it. Both even sacrifice their lives in a final desperate move to prevent the End of an Age.
• Fights Like a Normal: Despite having Lighting Powers as Genichiro - Way of Tomoe, he doesn't actually use such powers initially and gets through just fine using his skill with both a sword and a large bow.
• Final Boss Preview: A unique example given the circumstances where Sekiro faces him. His first encounter serves a preview for the rematch, as what he brings to the table applies the same way. His subsequent fight while exhibiting the Way of Tomoe in turn serves as a preview for the final clash in all the non-Shura routes. However, he is really playing the role of gatekeeper for the one Sekiro actually needs to defeat.
• Foil: To Sekiro. Both are highly trained warriors who had been adopted and raised after the Ashina coup twenty years ago, and thus are unflinchingly loyal to their masters. The two even go as far as to eventually wield their own Mortal Blade by the end of the game. However, Genichiro seeks immortality no matter how cursed it will leave him. Sekiro had it entrusted to him, and even then he's shown remorse for its consequences. Genichiro goes against his own grandfather's wishes out of dogged loyalty to his country; Sekiro disobeys his father figure's mandates out of morality. In the end, Genichiro was a man who could never move on from his duties and dream of being more than just the successor to the Ashina clan. Sekiro (in all the non-Shura routes) gets to make his decisions on his own terms, and finds meaning in his life beyond being a simple attack dog.
• Glass Cannon: As Genichiro - Way of Tomoe. He is less durable without his samurai armor, needing only one Deathblow to defeat in both instances where you fight him. Victory can occur in just a few seconds. However, Sekiro's own posture accumulates rapidly under Genichiro's increased aggression, and the general has new moves that will demolish fully-upgraded healthbars in individual swings.
• Godzilla Threshold: His final act in the game is to cut his own throat with the Black Mortal Blade to summon the deceased Isshin back from the underworld in his prime, in the hope that the old warlord, armed with both Mortal Blades and granted immortality by the Divine Heir, will be able to turn the tide of the war by himself. Isshin himself expresses doubt about his grandson's last wish, but is honorbound to follow it anyway, leading to his final duel with Sekiro.
• Grapple Move: Has an unblockable grab where he'll stun Wolf with a jab to the face and then slug him right in the stomach. Once he goes "Way of Tomoe" mode, he gets another grab where he'll instead slam Wolf into the ground before stabbing him.
• Great Bow: He wields a positively massive bow (particularly in terms of its thickness), yet he can fire it rapidly with ease.
• Happily Adopted: The best way to explain this man's single-minded goal and determination; he will stop at nothing to preserve the strength of the family who took him in as an impoverished young boy.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Downplayed. He confronts Wolf at the end of the tutorial level, at which point players only have access to a katana, a handful of items and no Shinobi Prosthetic or its tools. Wolf is defeated in short order and has his arm cut off so that the young lord can be kidnapped and Sekiro can acquire his Shinobi Prosthetic. That being said, it is possible to beat him (and quite easy to do so in New Game Plus since all of your upgrades and Gourd charges carry over). Doing so results in a cutscene where Wolf is about to finish him off, only to be distracted by a Nightjar throwing a shuriken from offscreen, giving Genichiro an opening to cut off Wolf's arm anyway. He then taunts Wolf for not knowing "the difference between honor and victory".
• Immortality Seeker: He asks Kuro to make him a contract for immortality. Kuro ultimately refuses to help Genichiro because the power of immortality corrupts men. Lord Isshin directly interferes with Genichiro's attempts at obtaining immortality by helping Kuro and Wolf, because he also believes that using immortality to save Ashina would come at too high of a price.
• Inadequate Inheritor: In all non-Shura routes, Genichiro will reveal that this is how he feels about himself after losing to Sekiro once again. He believes that, unlike his grandfather Isshin, he doesn't have what it takes to save Ashina from the fires of war. So he turns the black Mortal Blade on himself, sacrifices his life, and resurrects the old man in his prime to fight for Ashina one last time.
• Killed Offscreen: In the Shura ending, Owl kills him and takes his head while Sekiro fights Emma and Isshin.
• Large and in Charge: Wolf doesn't come up to his shoulder.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: As Genichiro - Way of Tomoe, he has Lightning abilities to contrast Sekiro's use of fire weaponry.
• More Dakka: One of his attacks has him leaping into the air and rapidly firing four arrows before landing.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: He's fiercely loyal to his country and is willing to go to any lengths to protect it, as he resolutely states to Wolf.
  Genichiro: "Ashina, this land — is everything to me. For her sake... I will shed humanity itself."
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: His first boss fight begins with him saying "You face Genichiro Ashina!"
• Optional Boss: Inner Genichiro is a souped-up version of the one encountered in the story, who comes with several new moves such as the ability to use Chasing Slice after firing his bow, and the new Combat Art Sakura Dance, a signature move of his master Tomoe that not only does chip damage if not deflected with perfect timing, but functions as Genichiro's own Lightning Reversal to counter your first one. Completing the Divine Heir Gauntlet will unlock the Sakura Dance for Wolf's own use.
• Playing Tennis with the Boss: Go ahead, just try and use Lightning Reversal against Inner Genichiro. He'll use it right back.
• Pre-Final Boss: He's the second-last boss to be fought in most routes, where Sekiro must defeat him one last time before even attempting to have a go at the Sword Saint.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Supreme commander of the armies of Ashina and one of their strongest warriors, second only to Lord Isshin himself.
• Recruited from the Gutter: His remnant indicates that he was originally born into peasantry before being adopted by the Ashina.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His armor and cloak are primarily black and red, befitting his status as the main antagonist. Downplayed on the "Evil" part, however, being an anti-villain.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Genichiro's eyes glow a devilish red when he proclaims that he'd shed his humanity to protect his clan.
• Sequential Boss: After first defeating Genichiro in his second match, he will strip off his armor and reveal himself as a practitioner of the Way of Tomoe, with a more aggressive and devastating moveset to boot. Losing against him then will send the player back to the starting line where they must fight his armored form all over again.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Genichiro will remove the top part of his samurai armor after Sekiro first bests him in combat. While he takes damage much more easily and requires only one Deathblow to defeat, he becomes a faster and more agile target that can still hit like a truck.
• Shock and Awe: In the second battle with him, he reveals a special technique called the "Lightning of Tomoe", Tomoe being his mentor in swordsmanship. The Lightning of Tomoe consists in using lightning from an on-going thunderstorm to imbue his sword and arrow attacks with electricity, extending the reach of the blade with a literal blade of electricity or boosting the damage inflicted by arrows; either way they will cause the Shock status Effect, wounding Sekiro further and paralyzing him for a moment. Thankfully, the lightning can be used against him.
• Snow Means Death: Played with in that he doesn't die on the spot despite taking what would be a lethal hit for anyone else, but his retreat from the castle causes snow to fall across the Ashina stronghold.
• Truth in Television: Funny enough, there was a historical figure by the name of Genichiro Ashina who was not only the last leader of the Ashina clan, but also the grandson of an Isshin Ashina. However, both he and Isshin died in the 1800s, which was a full three hundred years after when the story takes place.
• Undying Loyalty: His loyalty to the Ashina clan is unparalleled.
• The Unfettered: Genichiro is singlehandedly committed to saving Ashina, admittedly ready to commit heresy, shed his humanity and perform other atrocious deeds to acquire to power to save his clan. In the end, he even sacrifices his own life in order to summon his grandfather back from the underworld in his prime.
• The Unfought: Downplayed; Genichiro's fought twice by default - first in the tutorial and again at Ashina Castle. His third boss fight is absent in the Shura Ending, leaving his fate ambiguous, though the use of freecam reveals that he was killed by Owl.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Literally! Genichiro goes from a (ostensibly) Hopeless Boss Fight at the beginning of the game, to an extremely tough Wake-Up Call Boss in the mid game, to a mere warm-up for Isshin that you're intended to beat like a drum repeatedly on the way to the real battle, both because Sekiro levels up his stats and because the player is, presumably, becoming better at the game. He's actually identical in terms of stats and behavior in his last fight to the second phase of his second fight (except he swaps lightning strikes for the Mortal Blade), though in his third fight he only requires one death blow to defeat, not three.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The second battle with him marks the spot where the player MUST get good at deflection and the Perilous Attack counters. Every boss before him has some sort of trick that can be used; Gyoubu is extra weak to the Firecracker, Lady Butterfly can be cheesed by spamming certain moves such as Nightjar Slash or sidestepping attacks, and the Illusionary Corrupted Monk can be stunned by Snap Seeds and burned with Divine Confetti. Genichiro has no such gimmicks – you either parry his attacks, or you die; even if your dodging skills can get you through his first two death blows, he's too aggressive in too small of a room as Genichiro, Way of Tomoe for you to not break his posture bar as quickly as possible instead of whittling down his health. He still applies as this for the final boss of the base game, but in a different manner – if you can't take him down without using up most of your healing items, then you probably don't have a snowball's chance in hell of defeating his grandfather.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Genichiro sheds his helmet, upper-body armor and boots during the second phase of his second boss fight and the costume change sticks for the remainder of the game. This is partly for pragmatic reasons (the Lightning of Tomoe requires ease of movement and probably probably isn't safe to use with metal armor) but also Played for Drama insofar as it both reveals how badly scarred his body is and how, beneath his stoic presentation and Bling of War, he's desperate, haggard and coming apart at the seams.
• Warrior Prince: He's the last heir to the Ashina Clan bloodline, and one of their finest warriors.
• Was Once a Man: After being mortally wounded by Sekiro, he rapidly recovers thanks to the Rejuvenating Waters. However, it's implied the Waters are slowly ridding him of his humanity.
• We Can Rule Together: After being bested in the first phase of his battle in their second encounter, Genichiro asks Wolf if he would consider serving the Ashina. Wolf's response?
  Sekiro: "Heresy."
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to protect his clan and their lands from the armies of the Interior Ministry. Facing superior numbers, Genichiro is desperate enough to resort to a number of unethical means (including using poor animals as weapons, employing an assortment of abominations, and even supporting Doujun's amoral research) to defend his land.
• The Worf Effect: Depending on the path taken and player skill, Wolf can humiliate him three times over the course of the game. In addition to the guaranteed encounter atop Ashina Castle, Wolf can defeat him in the tutorial fight, forcing him to rely on a Nightjar's diversion to win the fight regardless. The third time takes place in the Silvergrass field, where after dealing one death blow to Genichiro, he admits to his powerlessness before sacrificing his life in order to bring Isshin back to face Wolf in his stead.
  • In the Shura ending, Owl kills him offscreen while Wolf busies himself with Emma and Isshin. It is never revealed how Owl defeated him, but given that the former is not in his prime, it does not reflect well on Genichiro.
• Would Hurt a Child: Is perfectly willing to kidnap and sacrifice Kuro, a young boy. At the beginning of the final boss fight, it's shown that he has already wounded Kuro with the black Mortal Blade.

Emma

"Shinobi... Open your eyes. For the sake of your master..."

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

A doctor for an unnamed feudal lord, Emma can upgrade Sekiro's Healing Gourd in exchange for Gourd Seeds. If requested, she can be sent to determine the cause behind the Dragonrot affliction. She may not seem like it, but she's quite a skilled swordswoman.

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• Ambiguously Trained: When Sekiro asks about Emma's swordfighting skill, she mentions that she's taken lessons in swordsmanship from Isshin Ashina as a "passing interest". Her boss fight indicates the exact contrary, in that she's trained hard to become strong enough to defeat a Shura.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Has mastered the Ashina Cross, which deals a large amount of chip damage even when blocking. She especially likes to use it when her target is downed, forcing them to give space instead of continuing the offense.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Emma is a physician by vocation, dedicated to healing and she helps the protagonists with their benevolent quest. But if Sekiro turns his back on Kuro, then Emma unsheathes a katana to defend the boy and slay Sekiro, something she is quite capable of doing.
• Blade Spam: Averted. Emma is mostly characterized by long windups meant to throw off the timing of deflects followed by quick surgical strikes.
• Death Glare: Gives one to Sekiro and Owl when she realizes their betrayal.
• Dual Wielding: Her most complex attack involves pulling out her scabbard mid-combo and using it in conjunction with her sword, finally segueing into an Ashina Cross. This can be used against her, however; deflecting the last hit before the Iaijutsu finish will have the player trap her scabbard and throw her off-balance.
• Foil: To Sekiro and Genichiro:
  • Like Sekiro, Emma was a war orphan found by a shinobi on the battlefield during the Ashina rebellion. Unlike Owl, however, Orangutan knew that being raised as a shinobi was no way for a child to grow up, and left her in the care of lord Dougen. He still kept in contact, though, resulting in her growing up with a respect and familiarity with Shinobi, but without being raised as a weapon, unlike Sekiro, who was trained as a shinobi since childhood.
  • Like Genichiro, Emma was raised by members of the Ashina court. Unlike him, she manages to keep a healthy distance to the clan, without Genichiro's fanatic loyalty. Thanks to this, she knows when to cut her losses, and would rather abandon Ashina, knowing that it's lost to the Interior Ministry, unlike Genichiro, who keeps fighting until he's lost himself.
• Genius Bruiser: Emma is mostly characterized as a doctor who's invented the much useful Healing Gourd that Sekiro uses. And then she also becomes a boss, demonstrating her swordfighting skills.
• Glass Cannon: She's quite frail, with both low health and a posture bar that's relatively easy to fill with persistent attacks and parries. On the other hand, she's full of dangerous moves (including a delayed grab attack with excellent tracking, and a lunge attack a mile long) that will ruin your day if they so much as graze you.
• Grapple Move: One of Emma's unblockable attacks is a grab where she will twist Wolf into a high overhead swing before slamming him back into the ground.
• Hero Antagonist: In the Shura ending, where she clashes swords against Sekiro, who has betrayed his lord and is beginning to succumb to Shura.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: As expected of someone who has mastered the Ashina Arts, a number of her deadliest attacks involve her sheathing her blade before quickly drawing it out again.
• Lady of War: Serene, graceful, and has a hell of a sword arm.
• Mama Bear: She would rather die fighting than see any harm come to Kuro, even if the threat is the Wolf himself.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: She's a doctor first and foremost, but mentions having a "passing interest" in Ashina-style swordsmanship. That "passing interest" turns out to be rigorous training should she ever have to defend Kuro from a Shura, making her one of the most difficult bosses in the game.
• The Mole: A heroic example. As it turns out, she had been under Isshin Ashina's orders to work behind Genichiro's back and help Kuro escape from the country.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Emma's dainty appearance does little to inhibit her from performing incredible feats of strength. Not only is she capable of pulling off superhuman swordplay and executing techniques that even the Ashina Elites can't do, she can manhandle Wolf — who's bigger and taller than her — enough to lift him over her head and slam him hard into the ground.
• Odd Name Out: An interesting example. Her name in the Japanese version is written as "エマ", which would be read as "Ema", an actual Japanese female name. However, it's written in katanana, which is more commonly used for words of foreign origin, which is perhaps why it was translated to "Emma", which is not so much a traditional Japanese name.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In most of the endings, she escapes Ashina Castle while it's under full assault by the Interior Ministry. This is hardly surprising, given her swordfighting skills.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: One of the very few, if not the only adult seen in the game to be visibly shorter than Wolf, making her one of the smallest bosses in the whole game (besides the Folding Screen Monkeys). Despite this she proved herself to be a deadly swordsman who can and will kill Wolf if he's not careful, even being strong enough to carry and slam him over to the ground despite the size difference between them.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: As befitting of a doctor:
  Emma: Let us begin.
• Pre-Final Boss: If you pursue the Shura ending, she will be your gatekeeper to the boss fight against Isshin Ashina; you must defeat her while spending as little resources as possible, because if you then proceed to lose against the old man, you must start over from the beginning and face her again.
• Recurring Element: She's the closest equivalent to the Fire Keeper, being a female NPC in the Player Headquarters that upgrades your healing item. She also shares her name with another character from Dark Souls III, as well as her hidden allegiance to an important lord...
• Red Baron: If Sekiro sides with his father, then Emma comes to confront him and her boss battle introduces her title: The Gentle Blade.
• Route Boss: Emma only gets involved in a boss fight if you pursue the Shura ending, in which case she'll be the Pre-Final Boss before confronting Isshin Ashina.
• Sad Battle Music: Her boss theme has a noticeably more sorrowful tone than other fights, befitting the tragic nature of the battle.
• Sadistic Choice: She finds herself faced with one when she seeks out an alternative method to sever Kuro's immortality. The method she discovers means Wolf would have to die in Kuro's place. She doesn't want to see either of them killed, and can't bear to inform Sekiro of her findings. Fortunately, the Shinobi can potentially Take a Third Option.
• Silk Hiding Steel: A gentle and upstanding doctor, but she will wreck your shit if you side with Owl, setting your path to becoming a Shura.
• Tranquil Fury: Is quite clearly pissed at Sekiro for his betrayal in the Shura ending, but she never so much as raises her voice throughout the fight.
• Unreliable Expositor: By meeting certain conditions, Emma will begin investigating on alternate means of Immortal Severance in order to spare the young lord's life. After a long time searching, however, she will finally explain that she's reached a dead end. Actually, Emma is purposefully withholding information; Purification will transfer the Dragon's Heritage from Kuro to Sekiro, meaning the Wolf will have to die in the boy's place. She lies because she's just as reluctant to lose him as she is to lose Kuro.
• In Vino Veritas: She introduces herself as a doctor, but is mostly on her guard when Sekiro first interacts with her - sharing various alcohols from all over Ashina will have her warmly recall intriguing information about herself and Ashina's upper echelon.
• Weak, but Skilled: Emma is relatively fragile for an endgame boss with only one health bar to deplete. However, she is skilled enough that filling her posture guard is an uncertain proposition.
• We Used to Be Friends: She and Genichiro have known each other since they were young, as both were adopted into Ashina's high court after the coup. However, she could not abide by Genichiro's plans to kidnap Kuro and shed his own humanity, hence why she is now placing her hopes on Sekiro to break the Divine Heir out.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Fits the trope perfectly. She is proper and righteous, and when those she cares about are in danger, she unsheathes her sword to battle her foes.