Under Night In-Birth: Original Cast / Characters

This section details the original eleven characters introduced in the vanilla version of Under Night In-Birth.

Click here to return to the main page.

Original Cast (Hyde | Later Additions) | Sys:Celes | Guest Fighters and NPCS

open/close all folders

Hyde

See his own page here.

Linne

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Sarah Anne Williams (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Tomomi Mineuchi (Chitose)
Kuu voiced by: Hatsumi Takada

She repeats.
To unearth the truth behind her eternity, and settle a score with her brother.
The sword she sought and the encounter with its wielder...
In there lies the path that will change her fate.
The rusty cogs will begin to move once more, their ripples, beckoning her to the end of her tale.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/linne_2.png

The mysterious girl who appears before Hyde.

^UNI1

^{Click here to see Chitose}

^{Click here to see her original incarnation}

"Princess of the Night Blade? Sorry, you must be confusing me with someone else. Better luck next time..."

PROFILE:
Height: 141 cm (4'8")
Weight: 34 kg (74 lbs)
Blood type: AB
Date of Birth: March 18th
Weapons: No Name and Nameless
EXS ability: Speed Star
Known aliases: The Princess of The Night Blade, Chitose

The Princess of the Night Blade, who saved Hyde when he was attacked by a Void. During the schism within the Night Blade, the village elders decided to hide away the knowledge of EXS and seal it within two individuals; Kuon and his sister Linne, to stave off further conflict. While Kuon volunteered himself, Linne did not and her soul was infused with the Secret Art of Reincarnation, turning it immortal. Because of this, Linne is unable to truly die as she awakens in the body of a random girl whenever her current body fails her. For over five hundred years, she has traveled across Japan with her companion and guardian, Waldstein, investigating the Hollow Night and searching for a means to permanently end her life. She now currently takes residence in Hyde's home, waiting for the next Hollow Night.

Linne's current body possesses the EXS of Agility^note: Speed Star, which enhances her nimble speed and dexterity in her combat skills. Despite her small-frame, Linne is able to make the most of her current body with side-step dodges, combat rolls, and many leaping attacks. This is coupled with her two weapons, a broadsword called No Name, and her folding knife Nameless. She also has the innate ability send out waves of energy with her knife and coat both blades with her life energy brought about from her experience with the technique of reincarnation.

Gameplay-wise, Linne's fast mobility is shown through her unique ability to double jump, dash cancel most of her specials, and roll through her opponents, giving her access to multiple ways to mix up and confuse her opponents.

Her Force Function Parry Flash allows her to side-step through her opponents attacks, allowing her to either follow it up with a dodge-roll or Heavenly Lynchpin a multi-hitting series of teleport slashes. She gains a new Force Function Soaring Dragon where she performs a double-handed rising slash with No-Name.

Her Infinite Worth, The Diviner, has her merging No Name and Nameless into a large EXS-enveloped blade and repeatedly swinging it before crashing it down, causing a large geyser of light to rupture from the impact point.

Her Chronicle Mode story is called Child of Darkness, which details Linne adjusting to her new social life in Kanzakai, her first meeting with Hyde, and her subsequent rescuing of him from a Void attack and witnessing his awakening as an In-Birth.

Action Girl: The most prominent one in the game. For most of her lives, Linne has been trained by Waldstein to fight, and it shows in her fighting style, which is very up-close and confrontational.
A-Cup Angst: Has a brief argument against Mika on this subject, even though they're both flat. None of her bodies shown so far have had anything more than an average bust, including her original, which may explain part of why she's so frustrated about it.
Ambiguous Situation: In certain characters' endings in II, someone heavily resembling a more "adult" version of herself appears after Kuon is defeated and killed. Her name is only given as "???", leaving it unknown as to whether or not this is Linne's true form incarnated into the modern world, her current body aged up somehow, or a new character entirely who just so happens to have inherited Linne's memories.
Badass Adorable: She looks like a little girl, but she's been fighting non-stop for centuries with a lot of insecurities to boot.
Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: The speedy one as exemplified by her EXS ability based on Agility, but she still hits pretty hard.
Berserk Button: Linne does not take insults to her figure well, even if her current body isn't her own and is too young to have womanly features anyway. Hyde got the crap kicked out of him for mistaking her for a little boy when they first met.
BFS: It's mentioned in the story that Linne actually preferred to use a gigantic sword in her past carnations, but her current body cannot wield them as easily. No Name is the most she can manage to wield at the moment, which would be a normal-sized blade in the hands of an older body.
Big Eater: A consequence of inhabiting a growing girl's body. Hyde can't believe how much and how fast she can shove down food. The crepe he bought her ended up gone in the time it took him to look the other direction.
Blade Spam: Her Tenacious Mist special is a rekka that has her execute multiple swipes in front of her with Nameless, with different followups depending on what button is pressed after the initial attack.
Body Surf: How her variant of immortality functions. When her body dies, her spirit immediately possesses another young girl and she starts "remembering" Linne's experiences and memories. This is completely against Linne's will since she's aware that her soul is basically absorbing those of other girls, and she wants Hyde to kill her for good so it doesn't happen to anyone else. Word of God has confirmed that she has some form of control over it and can decide on which girl she can transfer to upon death, but she can't stop it and if she doesn't decide there's no telling what body she would end up in. Linne also cannot reincarnate outside of Japan, leaving her choices even more limited.
Calling Your Attacks: A special case as Linne explains that she does it get herself hyped up for a fight and draw out as much power possible from her small frame.
Character Death: Hilda uses the Insulator to permanently end her life in the former's Arcade story.
Character Song: "Night Walker", a fast-paced, piano-heavy piece that brings forth an air of the supernatural with a melody that sounds similar to a gentle blowing wind and slightly distorted notes.
Clean Cut: Her Infinite Worth EXS, Kannagi: Homura Issen (God Mower: Blazing Brandish) is a Laser Blade version that ends with one where the opponent ends up exploding.
Close-Range Combatant: Linne is a menace at point-blank range, but true to her short stature, she's lacking in reach on a lot of her attacks, and her one projectile doesn't go very far.
Confusion Fu: Packs some decent mixup with her lows and a few overhead tools with her charged C follow-up and Flying Swallow move. Her side-step dodge Force Function, as well as her roll, also help in moving around her opponent.
Contrived Coincidence: While Linne is going over her options in facing off against Paradox in her Chronicle Story, she comments that she needs to find a weapon that can rend manifestations as well as an In-Birth that can wield that weapon, but what are the chances of that happening? Later on that day, she meets Hyde, who ends up awakening to a power that allows him to exactly that.
Cute Bruiser: Being a young girl with an affinity for sweet things.
Deadpan Snarker: Linne has a very dry sense of humor, and occasionally engages in Snark-to-Snark Combat with Hyde.
Death Seeker: After hundreds of years of inadvertently stealing bodies of young girls across the country, Linne is wrought with guilt and hopes to fully release herself from her curse. She has entrusted Hyde to be the one to finally end her life when the time comes.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Linne's social and political views are a garbled mess of what a modern pre-teen Japanese girl would think and what an elderly woman from hundreds of years ago would consider normal. This frequently causes her to be confused and act strangely, which makes people who don't know what she really is view her as a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander. Mostly, this comes from her living through a long history of warrior culture who aren't used to a peaceful world and her mentality receiving a slight reset every time she reincarnates into a girl's body. As an example, being from ancient Japan, Linne doesn't understand why modern society does not marry off very young girls anymore. She does give Waldstein an educated guess at the processes that may have led society to view it as wrong but even then she still doesn't understand the reason why it's illegal now, though Linne herself is against the idea of getting herself married anyway.
Diving Kick: Has one as a command normal, which gives her the typical cross-up setups that come along with it.
Double Jump: Is the only character who's able to do this in the game innately aside from Nanase/Orie (who require their Force Functions) and Eltnum/Akatsuki.
Dual Wielding: Her broadsword No Name and her folding knife Nameless. Neat little aside, since both of her hands are being used, her throw animation has her tripping her opponent before stabbing them.
Emotionless Girl: Her default expression is that of a mildly annoyed Emo Teen. She seldom shifts beyond this initial state unless very angered or upset.
Fragile Speedster: Her EXS is the EXS of Agility; and gameplay-wise, it's even to the point where she is the only character able to dash-cancel out of her special moves.
Gamer Chick: Linne's apparent hobby in her daily life. She enjoys fighting games, to no surprise.
Hair Antennae: Not as large as Hyde or Vatista's, but still evident.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Waldstein, a giant who absolutely towers over her and is much broader to boot.
Hypocritical Humor: Her calling Hyde stupid for going into Hilda's mansion just because Kuon told him to is a lot funnier when you remember that she did the exact same thing for a much more pathetic reason and almost got killed for it, because she was hungry and saw the buffet at Hilda's party. Just like Linne later does to Hyde, Waldstein gets extremely pissed that she did something so Lethally Stupid for such a dumb reason.
In the Hood: She wears a yellow hoodie.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Centuries of aimless wandering while constantly shifting through bodies have left Linne quite bitter and bad-tempered, and she can be quite mean to Hyde when his inexperience shows. That said, she's still far from a bad person and wants to permanently erase her own existence so that she can stop robbing little girls of their bodies.
Laser Blade: Has one for both her Infinite Worth and Infinite Worth EXS via her BFS.
Leitmotif: Night Walker. She has a slower version of it that plays during Chronicle Mode in two occasions where she meets Seth for the first time and when she saves Hyde's life.
Like a Son to Me: Waldstein mentions that she's practically a daughter to him with how much he has to look after her.
Mark of the Supernatural: Her purple eyes are the first sign that there's something inherently supernatural about her.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Waldstein taught Linne how to fight and she teaches Hyde how to fight.
Meaningful Name: Linne, pronounced "rinne" is the Japanese translation for the Buddhist concept of Samsara, the eternal cycle of reincarnation.
Mentor Archetype: Hyde's instructor in his month-long training effort to have him ready for the Hollow Night. Doubles as his source of exposition about the Hollow Night and the Night Blade. Waldstein also applies as he was the one to train her.
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: While Linne does frequently act like a tired old lady, her overall views and mannerisms tend to match her current physical age even though a 200-year-old woman shouldn't be acting that way, as noted by Waldstein. Her childishness resets a bit everytime she gets reincarnated and has to grow up again. She's even fascinated by children's toys despite knowing that she shouldn't be and gets distracted by a toy store, meaning this trait is actually is what causes her to first meet Hyde. This is also why she Hates Being Touched by boys at all (something Waldstein calls her out for being ridiculous about) and gets embarrassed around Hyde whenever he does something even vaguely affectionate.
Named Weapons: A very odd example. Her broadsword is called "No Name" while her dagger is called "Nameless", though both of her weapons actually were never named in the first place.
Nonchalant Dodge: Has one as her Force Function, Heavenly Lynchpin, where a lot like in the The King of Fighters series, she can also Counter-Attack during it.
Not So Stoic:
- Normally seems unflappable, but there are two occasions where this crumbles. First is Hyde's Arcade ending after he carries her on his back and she sports a Luminescent Blush, and in Seth's Arcade ending where she throws a fit after he ties her up to a tree...and leaves here there. In the extensive Chronicle Mode introduced in [st], Linne has quite a few more moments of weakness that reflect her current body's young age. She most notably is easily swayed by food and sweets due to her and Waldstein not having proper income and source of food. She's also very sensitive about her current body's figure and is easily flustered by Hyde doing things like holding her hand or calling her cute.
- The only time that she's seen flying into a tantrum is when Hyde accidentally grabs her in a "sensitive" area, then he makes her REALLY mad by thinking she was a boy. Her rage at him during this scene puts Nanase's crusade against him to shame.
Obsessed with Food: Slightly. Years on the road and having no actual means of income has both her and Waldstein in relatively poor shape when it comes to getting food and an above average appetite. Chronicle Mode shows that she's easily attracted to good smelling food and easily won over with it. This is also because of Waldstein prioritizing meals with protein over anything good tasting.
Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Her vs. Hilda. While chronologically they have the bodies of a teenage girl and an adult woman, their ages and mindsets are the exact opposite.
Older Than They Look: She looks like a young girl, but due to her Body Surf abilities, she's much older than that.
Pervert Revenge Mode: When Hyde accidentally grabs onto something he shouldn't while he puts her down after carrying her away from some thugs, Linne completely loses it. This is also how Hyde figures out Linne's a girl, leading to him making her even more pissed by telling Linne that he thought she was a guy the whole time. She subjects Hyde to some slapstick revenge, leaving him in immense pain and begging for mercy.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's the smallest of the entire cast but this doesn't stop her from being badass.
Pretty Freeloaders: More "cute" than pretty since her current body is a small child. After finding Hyde, Linne decided to stay at his house to train him. In actuality, this mostly just means she works him like a dog and eats his food.
The Protagonist: Subverted. The series primarily puts Hyde in the protagonist spotlight whereas, in reality, the dynamic has Linne be the one that calls the shots and wherever she goes, Hyde follows.
Rebellious Princess: The "Princess" part of her moniker only serves a ceremonial purpose as she mentions that she and her brother were quite poor during their original lives. She's out with only Waldstein and Hyde, and in some dialogues, she mentions not really caring about the Night Blade anymore. Even if she did, the faction that still remains wouldn't try to associate themselves with her or Waldstein in any way, with some of them going out of their way to hunt her down.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Hyde's red. Also the red to Kuon's blue.
Reverse Grip: Holds both her weapons like so.
Ship Tease: Linne ends up being led around town by Hyde while he holds her hand, a situation that ends up looking suspiciously like a date. Linne even mentions to herself that she is uncharacteristically happy with the entire experience, and even more unusual when coming from hanging out with a boy she just met. She's jealous seeing him with Orie the next day. Linne writes this off as a being sibling-like relationship.
Shotoclone: Her Sky Fang quasi-projectile attack and her Moon Ring being her Shoryuken.
Shout-Out: Has a few palette swaps that resemble Chie Satonaka, Ciel and Momo Kisaragi.
Speed Blitz: Her force function: Upon avoiding an incoming attack, she launches her opponent in the air and quickly moves to his position to slash them multiple times in the air.
The Stoic: Pretty reserved for the most part, but see Not So Stoic above.
Unnecessary Combat Roll: One of her unique command normals that's done only while running/during a dash.
Weak, but Skilled: There's only so many physical feats Linne is capable of with her tiny stature and even she admits that her EXS ability isn't all that powerful. What she lacks in power she makes up for with centuries of experience and agility.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: One of the main reason she's invested Hyde so he can use the Insulator to end her immortality. It's less that she doesn't want to live forever, instead, it's because her Body Surf power absorbs other girls' souls to work and she can't stop it.

Waldstein

Voiced by: Kouji Ishii (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

He rages.
In order to protect his master, the beast will raze buildings and crush trees with his own two hands.
To stand by his master's side, he takes on the curse of eternity, transcending the power of mankind.
On this quiet night he thinks about his master, and how he may die on the battlefield one day...

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/waldstein_1.png

Monster of strength, and eternity.

^UNI1

"The heavens, the earth, the sea and the sky... Shall tremble before my wrath!"

PROFILE:
Height: 256 cm (8'5")
Weight: 298 kg (656 lbs)
Blood type: A
Date of Birth: September 15th
Weapon: Iron Claws: The Destroyers
EXS ability: Hecatoncheir
Known alias: The Strong-armed Ancient

A member of the Night Blade who serves and protects Linne. Formerly a high-ranking member of Licht Kreis and a personal friend to its leader Adelheid, Waldstein was sent to fight against the Night Blade where he dueled Kuon in single combat. Waldstein was defeated but when he made contact with Kuon's massive reservoir of EXS, he began to transform into a Void. Kuon was able to save him and out of gratitude, Waldstein swore his loyalties to him and sent back the army of Licht Kreis as his last order. Kuon soon departed from his home and entrusted Waldstein to protect his younger sister Linne and the duo soon departed as well and they have been traveling together since. Waldstein now freeloads along with Linne at Hyde's place, teaching him how to fight and defend himself while waiting for the next Hollow Night. He is said to have some sort of history with Enkidu.

Waldstein possesses the EXS of Mountainous Strength: Hecatoncheir, a "Self-Enhancement EXS" which inherently grants him the abnormal muscle-mass that provides him his monumental strength. He fights with his two custom-made full-arm gauntlets, Iron Claws: The Destroyers which, in-game, destroy any projectiles he swipes at.

Waldstein's immense strength is characterized with his status as the game's primary grappler with a number of powerful hit-grabs and command throws. Despite his incredibly slow speed, he is able to close the gap between him and his opponent very quickly with his deceptively long range by utilizing universal mechanics.

His Force Function, Felsen Vulf^note, has him use his strength to tear out a chunk of the ground and throw it at his opponent. The angle he throws at can be changed via additional directional inputs.

His Infinite Worth, Werfen Erschlagen, has him picking up his opponent in his claws, crushing them in his grasp, and then jumping up in the sky with them to throw them back down to ground zero, and bodyslamming them with enough force to create a shockwave.

Waldstein's Chronicle Mode story is called Power Beat, which details him and Linne arriving in Kanzakai through the wilderness and investigating the rumors involving Amnesia, finally encountering Paradox herself after infiltrating a party hosted by her.

Ambiguously Brown: Has a darker complex compared to some of the other cast.
Ambiguously Gay: During a pre-battle conversation between Waldstein and Gordeau in Waldstein's story mode, Gordeau laments that he never runs into any "hot chicks" and "only seems to attract old men", to which Waldstein calls Gordeau charming and admits that he's "fallen for [Gordeau's] masculine wiles."
Badass Cape: Was seen with one of these during his time in Licht Kreis.
Blade Spam: His Wirbelwind ^noteWhirlwind special consists of rapid claw swipes.
Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: Without a doubt one of the physically strongest character in Linne's trio and arguably in the game.
Big Eater: He can eat enough food in one meal to feed well over 10 people, which is one of the bigger problems Hyde has been forced to deal with since Linne and Waldstein moved in with him.
Blood Knight: He loves the thrill of battle as seen in his story mode. In fact, he hardly tends to remember things that don't directly correlate to something that will have him fight. His Chronicle Mode story has him state that he's hoping for a re-match with Kuon should they meet again and is looking forward to fighting anyone strong within Amnesia.
Boisterous Bruiser: In combat, he is strong, proud, and loud to an insane degree; with very nearly all of his lines having him yell at the top of his lungs. Outside of combat, when he isn't serious, Waldstein is a rather jovial fellow, though he does tend to go around picking fights every now and then.
Carpet of Virility: That chest hair says it all.
Character Song: "Maximize Power!" An intense and slow power metal piece that captures Waldstein's devastating strength and intimidating outward appearance, with a more symphonic sounding bit near the end which cements him as one of the heroes.
Cool Old Guy: Waldstein has a surprisingly gentle personality when not in battle. While he was entrusted with being Linne's guardian and companion, he continues to treat her like a little girl despite her true age.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his large, monstrous appearance, Waldstein is Linne's guardian and is completely loyal to her.
Deadly Lunge: His Sturmangriff ^noteAll-out Attack special has him lunge forward and grab his opponent, dragging and smashing them into the wall.
Defector from Decadence: Served the Licht Kreis a long time ago, but broke off to serve Linne and the Night Blade. His defection is cited as one of the reasons why the former began its shift to an all-female organization.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Like Linne, this is frequently brought up due to his over hundred year lifespan.
Dirty Old Man: Subverted to a degree. He plans on trying to hook Linne up with a husband, but that's mostly out of not understanding that arranged marriages and a child of her age getting married are now illegal. He also took a dislike to the risque looking outfits worn by some of the female members of Amnesia at Hilda's party.
Dishing Out Dirt: His Force Function allows him to toss a boulder at his opponent all while also being able to control its trajectory with any directional input.
Doting Parent: Waldstein sees himself as Linne's father figure and constantly worries about her, wondering if she's eating enough, and wanting her to be happy. He notes that everytime she reincarnates she becomes childish and it makes him want to look after her.
Face–Heel Turn: Sometime during Clr and Sys:Celes Waldstein severed his loyalties to Linne in order to repay the debt he owes to his true master Kuon the Eternal. Waldstein makes it clear to Linne when they meet again that it isn't personal.
Face of a Thug: Waldstein looks incredibly frightening at first glance, but he is a rather fun, albeit irritable old man to hang around with when you get to know him, and he's dedicated his life to protecting Linne. Heck, this trope is straight-up invoked during Waldstein's story mode when he confronts Hilda; she implies that he's just wasting his time being a good guy with the Night Blade, telling him that he certainly looks like a villain, so why not join her and actually be one?
Final Boss: Of Enkidu's arcade story.
Friendly Rivalry: He and Enkidu work for opposing factions and have a fierce rivalry, with both of them being infamous Blood Knights. Despite that, they have nothing but the utmost respect for each other as opposing warriors.
Genius Bruiser: He made his gauntlets, The Destroyers, himself. He also assisted in forging No Name for Linne. Though his knowledge seems to stop at anything not related directly to combat.
Gratuitous German: Of course, as per French Bread and Type Moon tradition, all of his moves are written in German. Especially since it's also a bit obvious with his name which is likely pronounced as "Vhald-sh-tai-n".
Ground-Shattering Landing: Both his Infinite Worth and Infinite Worth EXS, Werfen Erschlagen and Katastrophe, respectively.
Heroic Sacrifice: In his UNI2 ending, he takes up Kuon's seal of immortality to relieve him of his curse and give him a fresh start, before falling into the abyss to his death.
Hourglass Plot: With Seth. Both are members of the Night Blade who are connected to Linne, with Seth trying to kill her to end her curse of reincarnation while Waldstein protects her as her guardian. However in Sys:Celes, the roles are reversed with Waldstein now after his ward to get her seal of reincarnation for Kuon's scheme while Seth has to protect her from him.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Linne, who usually rides on top of him whenever she's tired.
Humanoid Abomination: A heroic example. Chronicle Mode reveals that he's a Void whose transformation wasn't fully completed after Kuon halted it with the Insulator, combined with his EXS Ability leaving him with the muscular structure of an utter beast thanks to his advanced aging.
I Owe You My Life: To Kuon. During the final moments of Wald's duel with him, Waldstein tried one last attempt to shatter Kuon's vessel. However, due to the unique and powerful nature of Kuon's own vessel, EXS started to move into Waldstein instead and he began transforming into a Void. Kuon spares Wald's life by utilizing the Insulator to sever and erase the mass of EXS, halting his transformation. From that point on, Waldstein became a great friend and ally to Kuon and carries out the latter's wishes to this day.
Large Ham: He can be quite the Boisterous Bruiser during a fight.
Leitmotif: Maximize Power!
Like a Daughter to Me: Waldstein all but states outright in his Chronicle episode that he sees her as his own daughter. Linne similarly feels that the first person that comes to mind when she thinks of her "parental figure" is Wald.
Mighty Glacier: Waldstein has absolutely pitiful walking speed, befitting for a man of his stature. However, he makes up for it with his surprisingly fast specials.
Painful Transformation: His transformation into a Void didn't look all that pleasant, judging by Vatista's flashbacks.
Papa Wolf: It doesn't matter if you're a pack of Amnesia goons or Paradox herself, nobody messes with Linne if he has anything to say about it.
Parental Substitute: At least, that's how he sees his relationship with Linne. Linne later thinks similarly.
Power Fist: His oversized gauntlets, The Destroyers. They allow him to neutralize projectiles and greatly extend his reach.
Really 700 Years Old: Waldstein is unable to die from natural causes due to his body. However, he can still be killed through normal means, examples being when Enkidu almost killed him in their duel near the end of the former's Arcade story, and him giving up his life for Kuon in his UNI2 ending.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Though he's a good guy even after he turns to Kuon's side.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Enkidu's blue.
Shipper on Deck: He wants Linne to find a husband to make her happy, though Linne isn't too thrilled about the idea. It doesn't help that both he and Linne have an ancient set of values so they don't understand why modern culture doesn't allow children to be married off that young anymore.
The One That Got Away: He's this to Adelheid, who really didn't take his defection to the Night Blade after the Licht Kreis war very well. She's still waiting for him to see her again to fulfill a promise that they made in the past. Even after Waldstein sacrifices himself for Kuon, she thinks to herself that it's more than likely the two of them will be able to meet again one day.
Undying Loyalty: To Linne, mostly out of his pact with Kuon. Sure enough, Sys:Celes demonstrated where Waldstein's loyalties truly lie when he abandoned Linne in order to serve Kuon when he asks for his help.
Wolverine Claws: Wielded these prior to becoming a giant.
Worthy Opponent: Throughout his long life, Waldstein only found two people who can fight him as equals, Kuon and Enkidu.
Wrestler in All of Us: He's the main grappler of the cast, if it didn't seem obvious enough.

Carmine

Carmine Prime

Voiced by: Takashi Kondo (Japanese), Greg Chun (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

He hungers.
His body drenched in blood thirsts for more, but nothing can satiate his desire for violence.
He must show that none are more powerful than he.
His fangs and claws pierce his enemies in their entirety.
Still, he cannot let his blood go dry, and he hunts for more prey to satisfy his lust.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carmine_3.png

On the border of madness and pleasure, "Crimson Origins".

^UNI1

"You little shit! Goin' to sleep already?! I was just getting started!"

PROFILE:
Height: 175 cm (5'9")
Weight: 61 kg (134 lbs)
Blood type: B
Date of Birth: May 8th
Weapon: Rein Blood
EXS ability: Blood Spike
Known alias: Crimson Origins

An incredibly violent and solitary In-Birth who is not affiliated with any organization out in the Hollow Night despite many expressing interest in his talents. The person known only as Carmine Prime prowls the Night for the simple thrill of showing off his abilities and reveling in the wanton violence that the Hollow Night sanctions. A deranged thug with an incredibly volatile temper to boot, Carmine takes nothing but pleasure in hurting anyone who dares to even look at him the wrong way. Nothing is known about him aside from the fact that he is a third-year student at the same high school that Hyde, Seth, and Orie attend, and that his real name is unknown.

Carmine possesses the EXS of Lifeblood: Blood Spike, which grants him manipulation over a strange liquid with the same consistency of blood. However, due to Placebo effect caused by Carmine actively believing it to be his blood, it ties itself directly to him. Carmine doesn't have much control over it, and it ends up fusing with him whenever he gets exited or agitated, which is shown via his arms, hair, and the whites of his eyes turning a bloody-red.

In trading his health, Carmine is a threat at nearly any range thanks to his unique Dissolve mechanic, where any move that costs him health will form a puddle of blood that will activate according to a special move of his to strike from where it is placed or, reposition it with his Force Function Roll Up! according to the situation. He gains access to a running Force Function Go Down Already! where Carmine does a standing kick that releases blood crystals in its arc which launches his opponents.

His Infinite Worth, "HAHAHAHA! Be Devoured!", has Carmine sending out a wave of blood spears in an arc formation, should the opponent get hit, the spear that enters their body will begin tearing them apart from within before Carmine forcibly rips it back out.

Carmine's Chronicle Mode story is called "You're really pissing me off!", which has him out in the Night beating up anyone he sees before a moment of rest has him getting involved with two strange individuals.

Advertised Extra: Carmine was advertised heavily back when UNI was brand new, with him having top billing on the reveal poster alongside series protagonists Hyde, Linne, and Waldstein. But then again, this was probably because he, alongside the other three, were the first character revealed to the public.
Animal Motif: Jokingly referred to as a crawfish/lobster, thanks to his Ability turning parts of his body red in an attempt to make himself look more threatening. Like many things, Carmine doesn't like it.
Armor-Piercing Question: To Gordeau. He has nothing to say in return.
Carmine: "Tch... Even you think she's crazy. Why're you running around, following such an idiot anyways?"
Ax-Crazy: He's got one hell of a bloodthirsty streak. Slightly subverted in that he can be calmed down enough not to deal the finishing blow or beat on anyone too senselessly if he has no reason to rough them up. He's never actually seen killing anyone, but putting people in the hospital is one of his favorite hobbies.
Beneath the Mask: While Carmine looks and acts like a bloodthirsty psychopath during his tenures in the Hollow Knight, his social life leaves much to be desired. In reality, Carmine suffers from borderline crippling self-esteem issues and can barely interact with anyone normally. He has absolutely no pride in himself outside of his skill in combat, which is why making fun of his EXS Ability is one of his most prominent Berserk Buttons.
Berserk Button: Has a whole board of them. Insulting his EXS ability or acknowledging him by some sort of witty nickname are some of his biggest ones. Even just looking at him the wrong way is enough warrant him beating you senseless.
Blood Knight: Carmine takes this very literally thanks to his power, and he takes nothing but pleasure in the violence that the Hollow Night sanctions. Even before he got his powers, he was a delinquent who went around looking for groups of people to pick fights with, going as far as saying that fighting is his only purpose in life.
Bloody Murder: His Blood Spike ability is a strange subversion, in that it isn't actually blood, but acts and looks like it because that's what he believes it is.
Boredom Montage: The first half of his Chronicle story is mainly just him lounging around and beating the shit out of unfortunate chumps.
Brick Joke: Gordeau has a unique win quote against most of the female cast where he mistakes them for Wagner, which for some reason, also extends to Carmine. Come Wagner being Promoted to Playable in UNIst, Carmine actually has a unique win quote against her where he lampshades this.
Carmine: "Hey, Licht Kreis chick dressed in red. Are you the one everyone's talking about? People have been mistaking me for you, and it's pissing me off..."
Butt-Monkey: A lot of his insults backfire and are thrown back in his face. He also tends to get the most crap from the other characters, especially Chaos. The official portal for the game hosted in-character Q&As where Carmine is usually the punching bag on the violent end of jokes. Chances are, not many are going to take him seriously.
Cast from Hit Points: Any specials that create a pool of blood will cost him health, with most of them being projectiles and long-range attacks. However, his EX moves, Infinite Worth and Infinite Worth EXS are exempt from this at least.
Character Song: "Bad Surface", a frantic metal track that makes use of screechy guitars and a bass rhythm that sounds a lot like that of a heartbeat.
Confusion Fu: Carmine focuses on powerful zoning, while being able to shift to duking it out with the opponent up close for extra confusion to prevent punishment. He also possesses a trap that he can set down and trigger when he chooses. This makes his okizeme setups extremely hard to get out off, doubly so in the corner.
Awesome, but Impractical/Difficult, but Awesome: Learn to manage his health-cost mechanic, and a skilled Carmine player can easily dictate the match with his powerful zoning potential and decent close-quarters combat. It can also be a challenge to score a perfect win with him as well.
Empowered Badass Normal: Carmine only managed to discover the Hollow Night by pure accident, and even then, he managed to beat an In-Birth into submission before he even got any powers in the first place. He decided to risk being turned into a void because he thought having deadly superpowers would be fun, and unfortunately for everyone else, he's now one of the most dangerous characters in the story. If he wasn't an Ax-Crazy Wild Card, he would be one of the factions' ace in the hole. He realized that he would be no match for Gordeau though, so he plans to train his powers to fix that problem.
Everyone Has Standards: Carmine is a Blood Knight, but he makes sure the people he fights are too. Unless they do something to piss him off, he refrains from attacking people who aren't interested in fighting... Most of the time.
Foil: Like Hyde, Carmine is also living on his own with no parental supervision and only became an In Birth recently, and as such has no real skill with his power beyond just overwhelming his opponents. Their primary color motif is a red and black and both are lacking in the social tact department. But while Hyde is an All-Loving Hero who is able to befriend many people, Carmine is a Blood Knight who fights for himself and by himself and balks at the idea of teamwork.
Glass Cannon: Despite having above average health, his use of HP in his attacks makes him this.
Hair-Trigger Temper: This one barely needs explaining. Most of the fights that Carmine starts are because someone did something, either deliberately or not, to incur his wrath.
Hidden Depths: He often compares some of the situations and fights he gets into to video games and manga, implying that he has quite a penchant for those sorts of things. Considering his poor self-esteem issues and almost complete lack of a social life, it doesn't leave much to the imagination as to what Carmine does in his spare time.
Hulking Out: His fear tactic of turning his eyes, arms and hair red is actually triggered by him getting overly angry or excited... Which are usually his two default personality traits.
Jerkass: Boy, is he ever. He is very particular about the targets he beats up. He prefers them to be confident and full of pride as it is more entertaining to see them grovel in defeat afterward and laugh in their faces.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He makes it clear to Gordeau in chronicle mode that he's being an idiot and a coward for not trying to stop Hilda as soon as he can knowing that she's extremely dangerous to herself and everyone, no matter how strong she is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A very minor example. While he does find Azel annoying, he refuses to attack him due to his age, shows concern for his welfare during the Hollow Night, and jokingly muses that he may have been too soft on him after they say their goodbyes.
Know When to Fold 'Em: While he doesn't hesitate to attack anyone regardless of power most of the time, he knows for a fact that he wouldn't stand a chance against Gordeau during his first encounter with him.
Laughing Mad: He's almost constantly in this mood and there's not one story mode dialogue that hasn't him do this at least once. Heck, look at his Infinite Worth, where the move's name is even him just laughing mad^note"Hyahahahahaha! BE DEVOURED!".
Lean and Mean: Despite his lanky appearance, Carmine is a well-versed combatant who apparently got into fist-fights regularly before he even got his powers. All the stronger when he actually acquires his abilities.
Leitmotif: Bad Surface.
Life Drain: To offset his Cast from Hit Points, his normal throws and command throw are able to drain health from the opponent upon connecting.
No Social Skills: Aside from his insatiable affinity for violence, Carmine seems almost flat out incapable of interacting, expressing, and explaining himself to others. He gets bored very quickly and he is very easily annoyed and generally finds the "cozy atmosphere" shared between friends as sickening. What's worse is that he's fully aware of this and doesn't have too well of an opinion of himself.
Odd Friendship: As far as "friendship" goes for Carmine but he seems to have found some connection with Byakuya.
One-Winged Angel: In his UNI2 ending. After taking down Kuon, Carmine begins to absorb the copius amounts of EXS permeating from the altar, causing him to nearly succumb to his other self and become a Void. However, Carmine decides to assert himself and pull through, and with this power, he becomes a Re-Birth. And he now has his eyes set on world domination.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Only because Carmine (or Carmine Prime) is not actually his name so everyone only has that one name to go by for him. Subverted also for Carmine as he doesn't care to remember anyone else by their names and usually calls them something fish-related. He calls Hyde "clownfish", Seth as "cat-fish", and Byakuya as a "sand-crab". The only names he really knows are Gordeau (Gouyoku) and Hilda (Paradox).
Red and Black and Evil All Over: His color scheme of choice, as the first indication that he's not quite on the side of the angels.
Red Baron: His title is known as Carmine Prime, or at least in literal translation of its kanji the Gensho no Aka (Crimson^noteRed in localization Origins).
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Not the usual example since he has red sclera during combat.
RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Averted but Carmine applies videogame terminology and concepts when describing certain situations.
Sanity Slippage: Whether it is due to his constant need to fight or the effects of the Final Night and the massive influx of EXS, Carmine's mental condition going into the Final Night is bordering what Hilda was going through during the first big Hollow Night. Perhaps fittingly, he and Hilda both end up becoming Re-Births in their arcade endings.
Self-Deprecation: He has a habit of degrading himself.
Unskilled, but Strong: In regards to his In-Birth powers. Carmine is one of the recent members of the cast to gain his abilities, so he admits that his use of them isn't as good as it should be. He decides he needs to train after running into Gordeau, just talking to him makes Carmine realize if they fought he would have a 30 percent chance at best. When it comes to mundane fighting, however, he's definitely more adept than the others outside of people like Enkidu.
White Hair, Black Heart: Actually has white hair, which can be seen during his battle intro before the red takes over.
Wild Card: Carmine has no affiliation, and flat out refuses to have one. Before even becoming an In-Birth, he used to pick fights with groups of people, simply because he finds having friends to be sickening.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted. Carmine's a clear believer in equal opportunity, even stating that the people he fights don't get passes because of gender.
Would Hurt a Child: Also subverted. One of Carmine's more redeeming qualities is that he refuses to hurt children.^note The most physical harm he inflicts on Azel is casually flicking him in the forehead when he gets between him and Gordeau, and a scrapped Arcade interaction has him try to get Mika to go away by bribing her with candy, and only has to go on the offensive when she misinterprets that as him offering her candy should she beat him in a fight.

Orie

Orie Ballardiae/"Harada"

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle)

She judges.
And hopes that the heavy weight placed on her frail shoulders may one day be lifted.
Delicate physique and delicate sword - its point aimed at the monster responsible for her parents' death.
Light fills her body, and the melody she sings resonates throughout the city.
This girl, a beacon of justice...
No doubt her shadow will burn in the eyelids of her enemies.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/orie.png

Executioner of Licht Kreis.

^UNI1

"Hear the song of judgment!"

PROFILE:
Height: 163 cm (5'4") (178cm (5'10") including heels)
Weight: 48kg (105 lbs)
Blood type: A
Date of Birth: October 7th
Weapon: Guardian of Law And Order: The Ruler
EXS ability: Thanatos
Known alias: Executor no. 5

A Rank Five Executor of Licht Kreis, an organization specializing in Void extermination underneath their philanthropic public image. Orie lost her parents at a young age to a Void and was brought into the organization, where she devoted herself to Licht Kreis' cause to ensure no one else would suffer as she did. Her role as an Executor has her out in the Night to pacify violent In-Births and slay any Voids she encounters. She leads her squad consisting of herself, Mika Returna, Kaguya Seikaiguu, and Lex Bartholomeus, who have nearly all been sent to Japan to investigate the city of Kanzakai and its recent surge of In-Birth activity. Outside of her life as an Executor, she is a second-year high-school transfer student and Hyde's friend.

Orie's EXS Ability is the EXS of Purity: Thanatos, which gives her the ability to manipulate a strange form of EXS-based energy (Dubbed "Holy Energy" by Word of God). This energy can take the form of a knight wielding a large broadsword that Orie can summon to fight alongside her; it is said to be a manifestation of her determination to spare anyone else from her fate. Her weapon is the Guardian of Law And Order: The Ruler, a rapier with a golden hilt that is said to store Holy Energy, and is specifically made to be non-lethal in combat against In-Births. It was gifted to her by Adelheid herself and symbolizes Orie's authority as a ranked Executor.

In gameplay, Thanatos is a key tool for Orie to utilize with its disjointed hitbox and pseudo-projectile lockdown, which allows Orie to sandwich her opponent for a powerful pressure and spacing game.

Her Force Function, Aerial Leap, is exactly what it sounds like. Using this, Orie performs a high jump that can put her behind the opponent and can also be used as a double jump to further corner her opponents between herself and Thanatos.

Orie's Infinite Worth, Luminous Embrace, has her summoning Thanatos, who brings down her blade to send out a large wave of Holy Energy that travels along the screen, taking the opponent along with it should they get caught in it.

Orie's Chronicle Mode story is called A Just Messenger and is the first proper Chronicle episode in the game. It details her arrival in Japan and meeting back up with Lex. Orie is briefed on her mission before Wagner and her attendants have her step out of her briefing to address her problematic workmate.

Action Girl: She fights to protect others during the Hollow Night so no one else will suffer the loss she experienced.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. Despite Hyde's sloppy, delinquent-like appearance, she is on very good terms with him. Hyde is also as far from a bad guy as anyone can get.
All There in the Manual: Most of Orie's relationship with Hyde was revealed through Q&As and is not shown in the game. The most hints the game drops is simply how nervous they are around each other. Their scenes together in Arcade mode are very short and they never interact outside of being seen together in one scene in Linne's chronicle mode, and their conversation isn't shown to the player. You have to go find the character Q&As to learn about how often Orie spends time with him, and good luck finding them in English.
Amazon Brigade: The leader of her four-person Executor Squad.
Apologetic Attacker: Aside from hunting voids, Orie's primary intents in the Hollow Night is for peace-keeping than actively fighting and harming others.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Orie's playstyle is focused on staying on top of the opponent at all times, smothering them to death with her fast normals, long delay-windows, and mixups. Once she starts getting zoned getting back in can be dangerous, though she's not as extreme in this department as Linne.
Battle Ballgown: A fairly subdued example. Orie's battle outfit is a long dress with spiked things on it and covered in Licht Kreis symbols. Lex makes fun of her for it in Chronicle mode. When Orie rejects the possibility of wearing something that lets her move around more freely, Lex warns her against showing any ankle.
Beneath the Mask: Orie only acts like a high-class lady as to manage her cover in her school life. While it wouldn't be inaccurate to describe her as a prim and proper girl, she's still very much an ordinary one keeping up an act in public. If Mika's accusation is to be believed, Orie might, ever so slightly, be a bit of a slob herself. This accusation is backed up by several of Orie's thoughts in Chronicle mode, such as wishing she was on a vacation instead of having to work.
- Going further, her demonstration duel against Erika Wagner had the latter notice a glint that appeared occasionally in Orie's eyes. Emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, and resignation that uneasily rest within her regarding her past and loss, which is also noticed by Enkidu.
Blade Spam: Has rapid stabbing attacks in the form of her dashing C and Sacred Spire.
Blue Is Heroic: She's easily the most well-intentioned person out in the Hollow Night and was created with the intent in symbolizing justice.
Calling Your Attacks: While Orie is not the only character to do this in the series she is however the only character who audibly shouts out the universal mechanics like "Chain Shift" and "Veil Off." According to the developers these abilities actually exist in-universe.
Church Militant: As per her duty as an Executor of Licht Kreis.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Very subtle, but in Nanase’s Arcade story, Orie is aware of Nanase’s reputation of relentlessly pursuing Hyde and her behavior becomes real suspicious when Nanase brings up Orie’s attraction to him.
Combat Stilettos: Her heels are a whopping 15 centimeters.
Curtains Match the Window: Her hair is blue, her eyes are blue and her work uniform is blue.
Expy: Could be seen as one for Ciel, being the blue-haired school-mate of the hero (Hyde) whose battle style is a Lady of War with a 'helper' entity and works secretly as a secret agent for a devil-exterminator organization. She also bears similarities to Mitsuru Kirijo, being a Lady of War who wields a rapier, a Guardian Entity and also has a role associated with "execution".
- She's also very similar to the Protagonist of Persona 3. She's a blue-haired hero who wields a rapier, is mysterious new transfer student, has a Guardian Entity named Thanatos, they both have climatic battles in supernatural events that happen at night every full moon during which people are turned into monsters, and both of them are orphans because their parents were killed by the of the monsters of their series, Merkava(a Void) for Orie, Nyx Avatar (the moon shadow representing death) for the Persona 3 protagonist.
Deadly Lunge: Her Divine Thrust special that has her charge forward with her rapier.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Her Aerial Leap Force Function is... Well... An aerial leap.
Everyone Can See It: Her feelings for Hyde are completely obvious to Nanase and Linne in Nanase's arcade mode, so Linne decides to mess with Orie for being in a such a panic because she thought that Nanase and Hyde were in a sexual relationship.
Gratuitous English: Her finishing move in particular is literally called and spelled "REST IN PEACE".
Guardian Entity: A sword-wielding, armored lady known as Thanatos.
Fighting Your Friend: The first round of her arcade story has Hyde, her friend in her normal life, as her opponent.
Hair Antennae: One that veers off to the side.
Hidden Depths: For a Church Militant, Orie has the urge to be quite lazy, though her position prohibits her from getting too comfortable. She also has trouble with undercover missions and has nearly blown her cover from saying too much to her classmates in the past. Orie wasn't actually raised like a rich high-class girl. This makes her current cover persona hard to maintain because she has no idea what she's doing.
- Her desire for revenge for her parents eats away at her but she tries not to show it. Enkidu gives her quite "The Reason You Suck" Speech and even calls her tainted by evil because of this.
Irony: She has light-based powers, fitting for the servant of a religious faction. The issue being that the name of her EXS is Thanatos, as in, the god of death.
Kick Chick: She fights with kicks when not using her rapier.
Lady of War: She's a classy girl who wields a rapier with a calm, composed aura. At least, she tries to be.
Leitmotif: Purity & Strictly.
Light Is Good: Most of her attacks are light themed and she's definitely one of the more heroic characters of the series.
Lightning Bruiser: Has a healthy HP amount with a very well-rounded moveset that consists of quick, long-reaching pokes.
Light 'em Up: A number of her attacks, such as those with her Guardian Entity and her Finishing Move, are light-based.
Nice Girl: She dislikes pointless fighting and often spares her opponent in her victory quotes.
The Ojou: Averted as she only acts this way to maintain her cover during her stay in Japan. In reality, she's a fairly average high-school girl with above-average moral fiber.
Only Sane Man: Orie is the only member of Licht Kreis shown in the story to not have some form of ridiculous personality trait. It's become a Running Gag that she is exasperated by her fellow member's antics and has to find some way to deal with them. Orie's even this when she's is somewhat quirky herself, which says more about Licht Kreis than it does her.
Parental Abandonment: Merkava is presumably the void that killed her parents when she was a child.
Puppet Fighter: From there, she's able to have a ton of disjointed frame-trap pokes at her disposal if on the offensive. But unlike most of them, Orie is lacking in the "sandwich combo" department aside from calling out Thanatos mid-air.
Real Name as an Alias: She's referred to as "Harada-san" by Hyde, as she hid her relationship with Licht Kreis from her normal life. The name in kanji is 原田織依 (Harada Orie). Harada is also rather close to her original surname.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Erika Wagner's Red. Orie is troubled by Wagner for her cruel deeds, such as not following Licht Kreis' orders and mercilessly killing her enemies, especially the death of one of Gordeau's close allies. Despite this, she has made attempts to befriend her colleague in the past and sees that she's not inherently a bad person.
Shout-Out: Her last name alias while undercover is taken from guru of the fighting game development community, Katsuhiro Harada.
Royal Rapier: Wields a rapier as her main weapon, and she's a classy girl with an elegant fighting style.
Ship Tease: With Hyde. Linne's observations denoted that Hyde helped her acquaint herself with the city and the school environment and in return, Orie helps him cook and clean at his home and also helps him study. Linne notices their mutual attraction after watching them interact, with both Hyde and Orie blushing and having awkward conversations.
Shockwave Sword Plant: Her Infinite Worth, Luminous Embrace, involves her sword-planting her rapier on the ground to call her Guardian Entity to send forward a forward shockwave.
School Idol: Slightly Averted. She checks off all the boxes for being one with fantastic grades, great athletic ability, a kind personality, and the looks to match. The school-life aspect of the characters are not focused on to confirm her popularity, however. It's also averted because most of this is an act, she's pretending to be far more composed than she's comfortable with because of her fictional identity. While Orie is very smart, she's a bit of an overly-casual airhead at heart.
Shoryuken: Her Sacred Arrow move, which is a rapier-lifting uppercut into the air.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Orie developed a crush on Hyde very soon after they met because of his kindness, selfless attitude and honesty when he helped her get used to being in the city and in a co-ed school. As a result, she started to spend an increasingly large amount of her time undercover hanging out with him and helping him in his daily life. She's extremely pained when Hyde's involvement in the Hollow Night forces her to fight him, no matter how good his intentions are.
Spell My Name With An S: Ballardiae? Or Valadier? Her real last name is supposed to be the former, but in the English translation, it got rendered as the latter. Also something that was eventually carried over to the English dub of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle.
The Stool Pigeon: Of the Obedient type. Mika's ending in UNI2 has Orie reporting the former for pretending to be Adelheid, which is apparently a punishable offence in the Licht Kreis hierarchy.
Sword Plant: Her Infinite Worth, Luminous Embrace, involves her planting her sword into the ground while Thanatos fires off a wave of light.
Technical Pacifist: Orie states her her rapier Ruler, does not harm those who are pure of heart. This of course does not include Voids.
To Be Lawful or Good: When meeting Hyde in her story, they both completely fail at bringing a smooth end to their unfortunate meeting, prompting her to quickly pick "Lawful", starting the fight.
Unknown Rival: To Wagner. Orie simply did her best and gave it her all during her days training in Licht Kreis' Headquarters and her exceptional achievements gained Wagner's attention and a one-sided rivalry blossomed with Wagner declaring Orie as her rival. Orie's honest good-naturedness is confused as to why this rivalry even exists.
Verbal Tic: When Orie isn't panicking or angry she speaks very slowly and with a soft-spoken voice that sounds almost like a whisper at times. She also pauses frequently and the last word of her sentences tends to trail off slowly as if she's constantly tired. Lex mimics this once during Chronicle mode, to which Orie denies internally in the exact same manner.

Gordeau

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Ian Sinclair (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

He reaps.
He slashes his enemies to satisfy, but it is not enough
- he wishes to reunite with an old friend and offer a souvenir.
The land is fast, expanding as far as the eye can see.
The sky, without boundaries, no ceiling.
He raises his sickle, and prepares for the Night.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gordeau_1.png

The Harvester of Greed, who wields a demonic sickle.

^UNI1

"This scythe I carry around feeds on the souls of its victims... If you want to keep yours, I suggest you run like hell."

PROFILE:
Height: 191 cm (6'3")
Weight: 80 kg (176 lbs)
Blood type: O
Date of Birth: June 23rd
Weapon: Demon Sickle: Devourer
EXS ability: Snatcher
Known aliases: The Harvester of Greed, The Invincible Mercenary

An incredibly powerful In-Birth and an ex-member/one of the founders of Amnesia, an organization that aims to bring more freedom into the Hollow Night and a personal friend of the organization's leader. Once known as the "Harvester of Greed", Gordeau left the organization after his friend, Roger, was transformed into a Void and was cut down soon afterwards by Erika Wagner, the Crimson Knight of Licht Kreis. Since then, he has been hunting his friend's killer out in the Night while still working on behalf of Amnesia as a hired mercenary. On regular nights he works as a simple bartender in a seedier side of town, his bar acting as a sort of pseudo headquarters for Amensia.

Gourdeau's EXS ability is the EXS of Greed: Snatcher, which primarily manifests through long, claw-like fingernails on his right hand and allows him to rip out pieces of another's soul. He mostly keeps this fact concealed in his pocket until he uses it in combat. His weapon is the Demon Sickle: Devourer, a gigantic, purple and hollowed out scythe that he can pull out of thin air whenever he needs to use it. Much like his claws, the Devourer can also be used to harvest the souls of his opponents. The scythe's shape and form was created out of his wanting nature.

Gameplay-wise, Gordeau's command grabs simulate their soul-stealing abilities via taking away GRD blocks from his opponent should they connect. While his light and medium normals don't provide much in terms of range, Gordeau can quickly lay the hurt from a distance using his scythe and pull people towards his effective range.

His claws also function as a pseudo-projectile with his Force Function, Rusty Nail, which lets loose three horizontal slashes that allow him to close in against characters with projectiles. Gordeau gains access to a new Force Function Beheading Trim that has him leap forward with his scythe to his opponents with a short hop style attack.

Gordeau's Infinite Worth, Turbulence, sees him hacking away at his opponent with a short scythe combo, finishing it off with a stylish twirl and final swing that sends the opponent flying.

His Chronicle Mode story is called Amnesia Vs. Bankikai, which features the titular duel between Amnesia's Hilda and Bankikai's Ogre, the meeting before the fight began, the duel itself where Gordeau's friend Roger approaches The Abyss and is turned into a Void, and the aftermath where both Roger and Ogre become casualties of the event.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: His right-hand has some wicked-looking nails that resemble claws. They cut through in front of him with his Force Function or stab you with them up close.
Anime Hair: The sheer volume of it trumps Hyde, Seth and Joker's multicolored hair.
Arch-Enemy: Wagner is this to him, given that she killed one of his friends after they turned into a Void. As such, Gordeau really hates her and one of his motivations is to hunt her down and kill her. Notable in that he's seen smiling in every promotional image he's in until the cover of the version where Wagner is playable has him without his usual glee.
- Exe: Late[st] reveals that this is not really the case. Gordeau doesn't hate Wagner specifically. Chronicle Mode reveals that he's angry at himself over the fact that he didn't have the courage to put Roger out of his misery. Due to this, Wagner is the only thing that he can fully take his frustrations out on.
Bad Powers, Good People: His ability, the EXS of Greed Snatcher, is supposed to rip out his opponent's soul. Yet he might be one of the friendliest characters in this game.
Badass Longcoat: Wears a purple one.
Beneath the Mask: While he looks cheery and positive on the outside, he's incredibly bitter over Roger's death and can't bring himself to get over it.
Berserk Button: Simply being Erika Wagner is enough to piss him off.
- Hell, Licht Kreis on its own can make him drop his calm and easygoing demeanour.
- He also doesn't like having his patience tested, as Yuzuriha finds out.
Beware the Nice Ones: One of the most easy-going and laid back characters...except towards Erika Wagner, in which case he shifts towards becoming notably brutal towards her. When Wagner finally becomes playable, Gordeau gets an entirely new set of voiced lines that establish how much he hates her. It's even more obvious when hits her with his IWEX, where he's sounds absolutely pissed beyond belief.
Blood Knight: Gordeau is a nice guy, but he also likes a good fight and will get excited if he gets to fight a strong opponent. Unless his enemy is Wagner.
Character Death: Is killed by Wagner in her Arcade story after he attempts to avenge his fallen comrades, and Roger.
Dark Is Not Evil: He wears dark clothing, has dark powers, and looks pretty intimidating, but he's one of the friendliest characters in the game.
Energy Absorption: His soul stealing command grabs do this via the game mechanics by stealing the opponent's GRD. This makes Gordeau extremely dangerous when he gets rolling due to him constantly being in Vorpal and able to harass others from afar and up close.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Subverted as Roger's nickname for him is "二代目" (literally: the second) and "Second Gen" in the localization as Gordeau is most likely going to keep the bar running until the former owner ever shows up again. Chaos and Hilda take a liking the nickname, much to his annoyance. Bonus points for actually being a bartender.
Final Boss: Of Wagner's arcade story.
Hammerspace: He summons his Devourer out of thin air. Gordeau explanation as to why he doesn't always have it out is because he finds it unwieldly to have it out all the time, even if it barely weighs anything for him.
Heartbroken Badass: Goes into a month-long depression after Roger's death. Gordeau was the one who suggested that Roger joined the outing and Gordeau is further pained by the fact that he wasn't the one able to deliver the mercy kill.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: One of his eyes glows purple in his art. No exact reason has been given as to why it actually glows and recent art has shown him without it.
Heel–Face Turn: Leaves Amnesia after his friend, Roger, became a Void and was put down by Wagner. Seeking time to think things over, Gordeau later returns to the fold to hopefully keep Hilda from suffering the same fate as Roger and hunt down Wagner, with the help of one of his best friends, Chaos.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Chaos. Also with Roger to a degree before his death.
Hiding Behind Your Bangs: To hide his Glowing Eye of Doom when not in battle.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Most of Amnesia's upper ranks are this to Hilda just by virtue of how completely stupid she is, but Gordeau was the first and has been doing it the longest. He spends most of the offscreen battle in Chaos' chronicle mode trying to stop Hilda from getting herself killed when she runs in by herself with no plan. He continues to watch out for her after he leaves the group, but Hilda's slightly manipulative relationship towards him at this point makes it significantly more difficult.
Hunk: The lone one of the series... Until UNIST anyway.
Hyper-Awareness: Gordeau's physical prowess as an in-birth has been lauded by many in-universe but his truer, more keener sensibilities have been exhibited twice.
- Once during Carmine's Chronicle Mode where Gordeau questions what was up with Azel's appearance. To clarify, Carmine asked what Azel's deal was too only for Azel to ask Carmine if he sensed anything from looking at him. Carmine sensed nothing while Gordeau knew immediately.
- The second time during Hilda's Chronicle Mode where Gordeau turns to leave after agreeing to Hilda's offer, only to point out that a very special guest has been waiting around the room. Gordeau states how it would have been an interesting encounter if only the entity in the room had any intention of showing himself before Gordeau left. Keep in mind that Hilda didn't sense this until Gordeau pointed it out.
"I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: He tries to do this with Roger after he turns into a Void. Unfortunately, Enkidu tells him that it's absolutely pointless.
Gordeau: Hey, Roger! You can hear me, right?! Cut it out!
Last Request: Exchanges one with Kuon. If Gordeau loses the duel, Gordeau requests Kuon to deliver some choice words to Roger on the other side of the Night. If Kuon loses, Kuon requests that he be allowed to attempt to sink into the Night without starting the Immortalize for a chance at crossing over to the other side. The latter is what happens but Kuon, still being a decent person at heart, presumably honors Gordeau allowing him to pass on and plays a part in bringing Roger back to the world of the living.
Leitmotif: Rushing Heart, as well as Cross Thought for matches against Chaos.
Mouthy Kid: Was apparently a problem child during his youth where he avoided school and generally wasn't all that nice. He's proud to say that he's matured quite a bit since then.
Mr. Fanservice: He's hunky, he's friendly, he's a powerful fighter, but most of all, he's muscular and leaves his coat open to constantly remind people of that fact.
Nice Guy: Despite his appearance, Gordeau is very friendly.
No Shirt, Long Jacket: He's wearing absolutely nothing underneath his long coat, exposing his bare chest.
Punch-Clock Villain: Is currently working for Amnesia as a mercenary and the only reason he can even be called evil at all.
Purple Is Powerful: Very much so.
Real Men Cook: His most famous dish being beef stroganoff.
Revenge Before Reason: Slightly subverted as Gordeau completely recognizes that hunting Wagner down and dealing with her won't change anything but he can't simply move past his friend's death nor help himself but to get violent when she's involved.
- Subverted further as Gordeau has two separate win quotes if he wins against Wagner that have him ultimately spare her, but either to warn her to never show her face to him again or to tell the Licht Kreis about their encounter.
Self-Applied Nickname: For the Final Night Gordeau decides to re-brand himself Gordeau of Selflessness (Muyoku no Gordeau) instead of his usual Gordeau of Greed (Gouyoku no Gordeau) as he is fighting to save the world.
Sinister Scythe: His weapon, fittingly named Devourer. Despite it his being his main weapon, he mostly uses it to reel people in where he can fight them with his punches and kicks. The scythe apparently has no innate power of its own.
Shout-Out: Has a Palette Swap that resembles Archer.
Slide Attack: His 3C command normal, especially since he lacks a normal-based sweep like most characters and has his 2C as a Launcher Move instead.
Spin Attack: Has several:
- Grim Reaper.
- Aim Opening has it as a weapon twirl during a leap into an overhead slam. His Infinite Worth, Turbulence milks it for all its worth.
The Protagonist: Subverted. Gordeau is jokingly described as the "real" protagonist of the series by the developers. This is exemplified by showing up more in the plot, having more characters involved in his story, how he has more unique lines against certain opponents, how he got the first Vs. Theme in the series, and especially how he got the first unique voice-set against Wagner. Heck, he even shares the same story encounters with Hyde^note. This is further fueled by his status as an Ensemble Dark Horse.
Three-Strike Combo: His Mortal Slide series has three inputs, first with the Mortal Slide, then Shade Harvest, which reels his opponents in, and then Assimilation, which drains their GRD.
The Grim Reaper: As if it wasn't obvious enough.
The Rival: To some extent, to Chaos. The two of them are the first characters who have a unique rival theme. Definitely this to Erika Wagner.
Unstoppable Rage: When he encounters Wagner in her arcade story, he happens to catch her delivering the finishing blow to Hilda. Enraged by the murder of his other friends, Gordeau fights Wagner, which results in his own death.
With My Hands Tied: He normally fights with his clawed hand kept in his pocket.
Wolverine Claws: He usually keeps one of his hands in a pocket. Not only does it have jagged purple nails, but he also uses said hand to stab the opponent in his Assimilation Command Grab and slash out at his enemies from afar with his Rusty Nail Force Function.
World's Strongest Man: Described by several characters as "The Strongest In-Birth".
Your Soul Is Mine!: What his ability, Snatcher, allows him to do to his opponents.
You Will Not Evade Me: His Shade Harvest special reels his opponent in after he hits them with Mortal Slide.

Merkava

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Ben Diskin (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

He fears.
Every day the curse that permeates through his body grows stronger.
The memory lost, the flesh that is no longer, the hunger that cannot be fulfilled.
He dashes across the earth drenched in red, trailing behind him, his crimson arms.
A beast of the Void.
Neither peace nor hope has resided in this body for a long, long time.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/merkava_9.png

The Basilisk that Devours All

^UNI1

"By defending myself from those who wish to harm me, I make even more enemies. These chains of enmity will bind me forever..."

PROFILE:
Height: 210 cm (6'11")
Weight: 71 kg (156 lbs)
Blood type: Unknown
Date of Birth: Unknown
Weapon: Dark Bite
FLS ability: Jormungandr
Known alias: The Basilisk of The Abyss

A Void driven by instinct to consume EXS. Unlike others of his kind, Merkava is sentient, and is able to convey human thoughts through telepathy and exist outside of the Hollow Night. Merkava is thought to have once been a person who experimented with EXS to become a Re-Birth, which failed horribly and turned into what he is now, but nothing is certain as he has no recollection of what he truly was. He is also thought to be the Void responsible for the deaths of Orie's parents.

Instead of an EXS ability, Merkava possesses the FLS of the Basilisk: Jormungandr, which grants him the ability to stretch his limbs, grow wings, breathe fire, have advanced regeneration, and spawn creatures from pieces of himself to aid him in combat. It is an ability unique to him as no other Voids are capable of what he is able to do. FLS stands for FALSE (similar to how EXS stands for EXIST) and they are unique abilities shared by Autonomic Nerves and Voids. Since Merkava, as well as other Voids, cannot produce their own EXS, they harvest it from In-Births by consuming them.

Making up for his deceptively low health pool, Merkava is a powerful long range fighter who is able to put pressure on the opponent from a distance and keep them guessing via hitgrabs, disjointed normals, and aerial projectiles, as well as having the unique ability to fly and quickly close the gap with a unique airdash that also functions as an attack.

In lieu of his bestial instincts, his Force Function, I agitate, has him picking up his opponent and twirling them above him before throwing them. Merkava can deal more damage should the player repeatedly make a twirling motion with the analogue stick. Merkava gains access to a new Force Function I Revile where he slams his opponent with his both arm after leaning back heavily before immediately taking to the skies and entering his flight mode.

Merkava's Infinite Worth, I Resentfully Rage, has him wildly flailing his whip-like arms about at breakneck speeds, dealing a large amount of damage to the opponent, no matter if they're in front of him, behind him, or even above him.

His Chronicle Mode story is called The Beast And The Hunter, which covers Merkava's encounter with Londrekia Light, a Void Hunter of Ritter Schild, out in Kanzakai's wilderness.

Affably Evil: He's surprisingly polite and well-spoken for a Void, and he's genuinely appreciative of those who do not treat him like a beast.
And I Must Scream: He himself describes his situation as having his mind stuck inside a beast he can't fully control. He can move around freely as long as the beast is full, but if it gets hungry it will take full control of the body and all he can do is watch and observe as the beast hunts and feasts on its prey.
Animal Motifs: He looks somewhat reptilian, can release snake-like figments of himself from his body, and both his FLS and his Red Baron title refer to snake-like mythological beings (Jormungandr and Basilisk, respectively).
Anti-Villain: He's not an actively malicious person, he's merely driven by his instincts as a Void to devour EXS, which, unfortunately, lies inside of In-Births.
- Merkava actively tries to distance himself from human society so that his bestial instincts are not awakened at the sight of fresh prey.
- The end of his Chronicle Mode shows that Merkava's motivation for entering the Hollow Night is to stop whoever is responsible for the increase of In-Births, Voids, and EXS. All this commotion is setting his instincts off and he wants whoever is behind this to stop and let him be alone in peace.
Arch-Enemy: To Orie, since she believes him to be the killer of her parents.
- The fact that he's a Void hasn't won him any points with Vatista, who was specifically programmed to eliminate his kind.
- Wagner, the famed "Void Hunter" doesn't take too kindly for showing his face in front of her.
Become a Real Boy: In one of his two UNI2 endings, Merkava ends up devouring Kuon and absorbing both his own power and that of the Abyss into himself. Although Merkava's human half initially assumes that he will be subsumed by his Void self, something completely unexpected happens - the exact opposite of what he believed would happen. He becomes human.
Breath Weapon: While in the air, he can spit a dark fireball from his maw with "I breathe out".
Eaten Alive: Subjects his opponent to this in his Finishing Move. He also chews on his opponent during a few other moves.
Even Evil Has Standards: Not even he likes the idea of someone like Hilda drawing power from the Abyss to become a Re-Birth, and spends his Arcade story hunting her down, his Horror Hunger having little to do with it.
Extendable Arms: How he mostly attacks.
Dimensional Traveler: His existence as a void allows him to freely travel between the overlapped worlds of the night and reality.
Final Boss: For Orie, after he kills the usual final opponent, Hilda.
- Interface Spoiler: The fact that Hilda is only fight #9 should give away the fact that there's someone else waiting for Orie when it seems to be over.
Flaming Hair: Long blue-ish white hair that seems to be composed of energy.
Flight: His unique trait in-game.
Glass Cannon: In spite of his size, Merkava has the 3rd lowest health pool of the playable cast, and has a large hitbox to boot. He makes up for this by having some of the most versatile normals, strong pressure from afar with his fireballs and hit-grab, strong pressure up close with multi-hitting normals, and tricky aerial maneuvers to trick people up.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Not too glowy, but still counts. Interesting to note, his "eyes' aren't exactly eyes.
Go Mad from the Isolation: Is performing the exact opposite of this trope. Merkava's current residence in the mountainside of Kanzakai was firstly to try and starve himself to death. He then learned that his body will not die and worse yet, it doesn't even need to feed to survive, but the beast inside him will seek out prey to consume regardless. He chooses to remain in the mountains so that he will lessen the chances of coming into contact with humans and have less opportunities to go wild and consume someone. Although, anyone unfortunate enough to come hiking towards his general area will be a victim of bad luck.
Horror Hunger: What primarily drives him. What's worse is that he knows he's a monster and doesn't actually want to devour anyone, but he knows he doesn't have a choice.
Human Hammer-Throw: "I Agitate" is a command grab where Merkava picks up his enemy and violently twirls them around before throwing them. Interestingly, the move will deal more damage if the player wiggles the control stick around and mashes buttons.
Humanoid Abomination: He's a humanoid Void, these sorts of Voids are said to be the most powerful.
Leitmotif: Unseen Entities, an otherworldly trance/dubstep track with a repetitive droning synth and a slightly sorrowful undertone toward the end, exemplifying his inhuman nature, his instincts driving him ever forward to kill again and again, and his regrets over the abomination he has turned into.
Metronomic Man Mashing: Subjects his opponent to this in his normal throw. Much like his Human Hammer-Throw above, mashing buttons determines how much he does it and hiw much damage it does.
Multiple Endings: Sys:Celes gives him two endings for his arcade mode route, depending on whether or not a continue is used. The endings show Merkava either losing the last of his humanity, or fully regaining it.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Don't make the lack of muscles on his long, noodle-like arms fool you. He has strength to spare.
Mystical White Hair: Befitting of his Void nature, it flows almost like a flame. Even when reborn as a human, he sports a massive amount of white hair that reaches past his waist.
Out-of-Character Moment: Merkava does this a lot, to the point that it's hard to even pin down where his true character begins and ends. His perception of his condition is... inconsistent, to say the least. Sometimes it seems like he is mostly fine with it and considers the immense power he wields to be worth the Horror Hunger, even suggesting others to surrender their humanity like he did. Other times he laments his warped state and describes his existence as torment, even calling himself a "pitiful creature". Sometimes he fully embraces the abomination he has become and proclaims that there is little to nothing human left inside him, while in other cases he says that he is more than just a feral monstrosity because he still has a human mind. This is almost certainly a result of all the trauma he's undergone splintering his mind beyond recognition. Lampshaded by Jubei in his interaction with Merkava in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle:
Merkava: I serve my bestial body, devouring as my instincts command. There is no room for questioning.
Jubei: Nah, I've seen ya question yer consciousness. Ya haven't thrown yer human mind away just yet.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Uses this in his I Drill Through and I Pierce The Vault specials, the latter being a jumping variant.
Rubber-Hose Limbs: His arms are very long and thin, often lacking elbows. However, unlike your typical example of this trope, this isn't the least bit whimsical. His arms being so flexible allows for great versatility with his attacks. He can also flail his arms at high speeds and use them as whips.
Skyward Scream: One of his win poses.
Telepathy: His primary form of communication.
Theme Naming: Unusually, all of his special moves and Infinite Worths are named following the pattern "I [do an action]."
Then Let Me Be Evil: Should you attain the bad ending in his [Sys:Celes] Arcade Mode by using a continue, Merkava consuming Kuon results in his void form growing even stronger, and him shedding any last remaining humanity he had.
Tragic Monster: By way of Horror Hunger.
Troll: To show his gratitude for staving off his boredom and for sharing a civil conversation, Merkava takes Londrekia's luggage and drops it off at the Licht Kreis building in town. Up until Londrkeia gets the phonecall that notifies his stuff were safe, he had assumed that Merkava was mocking him. He was half right.
Tron Lines: Has purple ones all over his body. They are known as Curse Commandments that utilize FLS abilities instead of EXS abilities.
Voice of the Legion: His voice echoes when he speaks.
Was Once a Man: Presumably gave up his human form, resulting in his current state. That said, he still has fragments of his former consciousness driving him and thanks characters who do not treat him as a beast.
White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted, as it's just his innate desire to consume EXS that drives him to be a monster.
Wild Card: Like Carmine, Merkava has no affiliation with any of the game's organizations, being a hunger-driven Void who acts on instinct.

Vatista

Unit 10076 AKA: Vatista

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

She serves.
A pawn that sleeps eternally. A puppet with no will to call her own.
Her master, nowhere to be seen.
There is but one directive that resonates within her to this day
- the end of peace is the beginning of war.
To destroy the voids once and for all.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vatista.png

An Autonomic Nerve, with a mission to eliminate all Voids.

^UNI1

"I am an Autonomic Nerve. The regulation of manifestations is my primary objective and raison d'etre."

PROFILE:
Height: 140 cm (4'7")
Weight: 32 kg (70 lbs)
Blood type: Unknown
Date of Birth: Unknown
Weapon: Aegis-Attributor: Crimson Wings: Seven Flowers
FLS ability: Restriction
Known alias: The Puppet of Resurrection

An ancient humanoid weapon known as an Autonomic Nerve, who has been awoken by the recent increase in In-Birth and EXS. While Vatista does not explicitly remember it, she was involved with the conflict between the Night Blade and Licht Kreis during the days of Kuon and has been dormant since.

Vatista utilizes the FLS of Binding^note: Restriction, which allows her to nullify the EXS of an In-Birth, rendering them incapable of using their powers to the fullest extent. In-game, her ability prevents her from being Counter-Hit as the explanation for it states that she is able to foresee the movement patterns of her opponents so clearly that it is impossible for her to be properly countered. Vatista fights with her Aegis-Attributor units, which are also referred to as Crimson Wings: Seven Flowers, which are represented by her six wings, with the seventh one being lost in a previous age. She also possesses the abilities to manipulate light into projectiles such as beams, fireballs, finger-bullets, and explosive crystals. She is also able to fly and hover off the ground.

Vatista is one of the technically complicated characters in the game, being a charge character who incorporates both zoning and setplay into her moveset. Mastering the ability to play her is both difficult and time-consuming, but should you do, you will be rewarded with full access to arguably one of the strongest characters in the game.

Vatista's Force Function, Arma Bellum, has Vatista shooting aforementioned energy bullets from the tips of her fingers. The move can also be charged for greater damage.

Her Infinite Worth, Lateus Orbus, takes the form of a large, multi-hitting laser that is almost guaranteed to hit at long-range.

Her Chronicle Mode story is called Nighttime Void, which is separated into four parts that act as a prologue to the main story. It documents the history and formation of the Night Blade, their war with the Licht Kreis, and the clan's eventual separation.

Has her own page.

Action Girl: Vatista's motives are defined by her directives to kill voids and pacify any in-births trying to stop her.
All-Powerful Bystander: Her orders are to oversee the Hollow Night and only intervene if a threat grows too large for outside forces to handle. It's stated that she could have easily stomped Waldstein and Kuon into the dirt when they first fought if she wanted to. Without her Restraining Bolt holding her back, even Hilda could be dealt with in just a few minutes.
Ambiguously Human: What exactly is an Autonomic Nerve? They can't physically age, they can be repaired and programmed, and ancient technology was used to forge them. However, Merkava, Carmine, and Byakuya are all able to draw blood from them, they evidently possess all five senses (even taste and touch), and Hyde didn't feel anything unusual when he grabbed Vatista's hand. It's also mentioned that the use of magic was necessary for their creation. So what are they? Ridiculously Human Robots? Cyborgs? Homunculi?
- It's even more strange now that it was revealed that she used to have an adult body that looked like an angel in a kimono, but was transformed into a child when she lost her wing.
- And now details concerning Radiata and Reflecta reveal that individual units can have drastically different personalities from one another, making the ratio of man and machine even more vague.
- In Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, a win dialogue with Linne has Vatista explain that Autonomic Nerves are made when (inorganic) doll bodies are given (organic) human souls so that they could possess art and instinct. However, she doesn't specify if these were newly-created souls (which would mean she is just a living doll) or if the souls were taken from living people. This raises some concerns as to the exact process of her creation, especially since it was implied in her home series that there was once over 10,000 Autonomic Nerves.
And I Must Scream: The soul that was infused into her body is implied to still be conscious, or at least conscious enough to be able to influence Vatista's actions when her programming doesn't call for any strict behavior, but imagine having your soul ripped out of your body and placed into a new one you can't fully control, if at all.
Androids Are People, Too: She makes it quite clear she's not human but Hyde can't help but treat her as another person who might need some help, at least in terms of avoiding embarrassment or having a roof over her head.
Angelic Beauty: Vatista has a heavy angel motif with her wings and hair halo and is considered very cute by the rest of the case, though she is a tad younger than the usual and Elegant Gothic Lolita doesn't come to mind normally for this trope. Her adult form on the other hand definitely qualifies on all points, especially with her mystical presence and past role as an observer.
Artificial Human: She's an ancient humanoid weapon.
Badass Adorable: Even by this game's standards. Vatista is so cute that other characters can't help but comment on her sweet looks, and so powerful that if not for her Restraining Bolt, she could sweep through the entire cast with little effort.
Bad Liar: Her attempts to conceal her nature from Orie yielded... interesting results.
Beam Spam: Frequently happens in her combos and zoning.
Become a Real Boy: After defeating Kuon in her Sys:Celes arcade ending, Vatista was able to create a mortal body for herself using the excess of EXS in the vicinity before her original one got consigned to the abyss of the Hollow Night alongside Kuon the eternal.
Been There, Shaped History: Her act of giving Kuon her seventh wing set off a long chain of events that shaped the setting as we know it into what it is now.
Beware the Nice Ones: Vatista may be kind, but disrupting the Hollow Night for nefarious reasons or deliberately seeking the power from the Abyss is enough to make her embrace her directives and annihilate you. Hilda ended up doing both and consequently got stomped by the Automatic Nerve as a result. While Vatista failed to kill Paradox due to her Restraining Bolt, she was willing to go through with it.
Vatista (To Hilda): "You are a fool for desiring to become a Rebirth. I am programmed to destroy ones such as yourself. I will not only pierce your vessel, but your heart as well. Go now, to the "eternity" you sought."
Big Damn Heroes: She prevents Hilda from dealing a killing blow to Hyde after his defeat in her arcade story.
Book Ends: In the beginning of her arcade mode in the base game Hyde meets Vatista while she is 4th base naked yelling at her to put something on. Her arcade ending in Sys:Celes has her meeting Hyde again in similar fashion after sacrificing her original body to stop the Immortalize, though this time Hyde wasn't alone, causing a lot of misunderstandings to occur.
Breakout Character: Vatista has been a fan-favorite among the game's audience for a long time, even when her role in the plot seemed minimal. Her popularity led to her being picked over the likes of Seth, Hilda, and Yuzuriha for the launch cast of Blazblue Cross Tag Battle as well as an expanded role in [st]'s Chronicle Mode where she's revealed to have played a major part in the setting's backstory.
Charge-Input Special: Vatista might be the ultimate example of this trope. She has the standard charge back and charge down specials, but she also has charge forward then back (Mico Ruseo) and charge up then down (Trans Volans) special moves. Of course, she also has normal command inputs this well. This results in one of fighting game's most complex characters, and a character that needs a lot of practice to maximize her potential.
Cloudcuckoolander: She doesn't quite understand human behavior, which is why she plans to stand in one spot for an entire month while waiting for another Hollow Night, can't lie to save her life, struts around naked without understanding Hyde's aversion to it, and only puts clothes in believing he's the one with no dignity.
The Comically Serious: Vatista's odd behavior is topped by her being completely sincere with everything she says, no matter how bizarre it makes her look to the rest of the cast.
Difficult, but Awesome: Firmly one of the most difficult characters to use well. She doesn't just have "charge" moves, she also has charge moves with the reverse of the typical commands^notesuch as charge forward-backward or charge upward-downward which makes combos more complex, especially when some of them involve chaining several of them into each other (which means charging two up at the same time), which can be disorienting for those unused to her unusual mechanics. However, the combos involving these moves are some of the longest and most damaging in the game, and her range game makes it dangerous to approach her recklessly.
- She also has several moves that require holding down an attack button while hitting other buttons to combo and charging other moves.
Do Androids Dream?: Evidently they can, and combined with her few moments of genuine emotion, how robotic Vatista really is is highly debatable.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: Vatista is by far the most powerful of any of the playable characters to this point, but her programming prevents her from using her full strength on humans, so all the other characters have a chance of winning (Out of all the cast, she can only go full power against Merkava because he's a Void). Even Hilda would, without a doubt, be on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from this.
Elegant Gothic Lolita: Barring the times where she's naked. She used to wear an angelic looking kimono in her adult form, but changed to this after giving Kuon one of her wings and de-aging.
Emotionless Girl: Subverted. She seems like this at first, but she's expressed multiple emotions over time, just more restrained than most. The only time she has a non-stoic expression she has is in her arcade ending. She's visibly shocked when Hyde holds her hand and takes her home.
Endearingly Dorky: She's not very good at conversing with others, but not for lack of trying.
Vatista: I take it you have no more issues with my garments, or lack thereof? I am but a simple, unassuming, harmless human being. I do not intend to capture or detain you. [...] I am impressed that you saw through my disguise. Was there a weak link in my costume...?
Orie: Weak link? It's like your entire chain came apart!
Fish out of Temporal Water: She's been asleep for hundreds of years, so when she finally wakes up, she's surprised to find buildings that pierce the skies (city buildings), carriages without horses (cars), and countless artificial stars (street lights).
Foreshadowing: Vatista mentions that there are 2 other Autonomic Nerves active, and Orie confirms that one of them is with Licht Kreis. Leaked concept art reveals them as Radiata and Reflecta, the latter of which distinctly resembles someone from Licht Kreis. The only question is when they will finally show up.
For Want Of A Nail: Going down the timeline, you'd be amazed how much would change about the setting if Vatista opted not to give Kuon her seventh wing.
Fountain of Youth: Giving Kuon her wing to create the Insulator turned her into the current Sleep-Mode Size Vatista we know. She's remained as a child like this for hundreds of years. Vatista's true form when she possesses all seven wings appears to be somewhere in her late teens to mid-twenties.
Future Spandex: What she's wearing underneath her dress.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Vatista has a Restraining Bolt that prevents her from using her full power against humans even if her programming requires her to kill them, and is only able to fight with no restraints against Voids. Despite this, she plays exactly the same against Merkava.
Ghost in the Machine: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle reveals that she was created as a result of a human soul being infused into her current body. And it's implied that it's still sentient and pushes Vatista towards doing the right thing whenever her programming doesn't forbid it.
Glacier Waif: The shortest member of the cast, even smaller than Linne and Mika. That said, she's far from helpless regardless of distance, and her unique trait limits her opponent's offensive options against her.
Good Samaritan: It was completely outside of her programming to actually help Waldstein when he was turning into a Void. She gave Kuon her seventh wing for no other reason than because she wanted to save someone she didn't even know.
Gratuitous English: Vatista's frequent use of english mixed in with her Japanese onomatopoeia adds further layers of mystery on what her true origins are. Some examples of these include "Flat Spin", "Flip Flop", "Somersault", and "Rotation" during combat.
Grew Beyond Their Programming: After staying with Hyde for 3 months the Final Night approaches and Vatista finds herself without any directives to act upon. While Vatista assisted in stopping Hilda due to her programming 3 months prior, no such order to stop the Immortalize is being received by her. Thus, Vatista makes her own conclusion to stop the end of the world by her own will. Vs. Mode dialogue against Hyde confirms that Vatista is aware that Hyde has a higher chance of succeeding in saving the world without risk but she continues to fight and continue past him as she does not want him to get hurt.
Hair Antennae: Her's is in the shape of a halo.
Hartman Hips: It's not usually visible due to her dress, but during her intro animation where she's just in her Future Spandex, it's shown that while most of her body is quite thin, her waist definitely isn't◊. Official art makes this a bit more obvious.
Identity Amnesia: Sort of. She doesn't remember who she was before becoming an Autonomic Nerve.
Informed Attractiveness: A notable amount of characters call her cute, with Hilda going as far as to say she has a pretty face and many other female characters describe her features like a doll. They're not wrong, but she's not that different from the other females in the series.
- Her true form, however, is a complete angelic beauty.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Begins her story mode butt naked, only putting on clothes when Hyde tells her to... only to strip again later, believing only Hyde has an issue with it.
Last of Her Kind: If her number is to be taken literally, then there were over 10,000 Autonomic Nerves made. She mentions that only 3 are currently active, suggesting that the rest were destroyed over the hundreds of years that the Hollow Night has been active for.
Layman's Terms: Waldstein doesn't understand her speech about the wonders of the human mind, so she winds up shortening it to two sentences.
Leitmotif: Snow Sisters.
Living Macguffin: Not to the same extent as Hyde, but being one of the last three Automatic Nerves in existence makes Vatista desirable by the Licht Kreiss and Hilda herself once they find out about her.
Long-Range Fighter: Functions very solidly as a zoner-type character.
Magitek: The technology used to create Vatista is actually nothing compared to modern computers and robots. Vatista says that it is the death of magic that makes creating more Autonomic Nerves impossible. She's more like a golem than a robot.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: "Charge" moves are standard for several fighting game characters, but virtually all of Vatista's special moves are charge moves, with a few even being required for some of her most powerful combos, making her unusual in that her entire playstyle centers around charging up moves as she's using other ones. Her true potential also lies in "Hold" moves that involve her gems.
Mighty Glacier: Not nearly to Waldstein's extent, but her trait renders her immune to counter-hits, giving her reduced hitstun that locks opponents out of certain combos. She also has immense combo potential and zoning power, but due to her extensive ranged game, her options for getting close to her opponent to unload those combos are quite limited.
Ms. Fanservice: Introduced butt naked in her Arcade story, then strips again afterwards, shown naked again briefly in Nanase's Arcade, and all of her onscreen time in Chronicle Mode sees her also in the nude. She also wears Future Spandex that lovingly shows off her wide hips in her intro animation. Even more, official artwork constantly puts her in a Sexy Santa Dress around Christmas time. It's been stated in an interview that Vatista's design is a product of her designer's fetishes (after some tweaking).
Mystical White Hair: Silver, as the first cue that she's far from an ordinary girl.
Naked First Impression: She first meets both Hyde and Orie while completely naked, but it's especially notable in Hyde's case, due to him being Vatista's first opponent in her Arcade ladder, not to mention the heaps of Ship Tease surrounding their interactions.
Naked People Are Funny: Vatista's lack of concern for others seeing her in the nude is frequently played up for all the humor it can be, and she seems to legitimately dislike wearing clothes.
Nice Girl: One of the most polite, generous, and merciful characters in the setting, lack of external expressions be damned. She'll even have idle chat with Merkava despite being programmed to destroy him. When Waldstein was being mutated into a Void, Vatista consciously decided to give her seventh wing to Kuon so he can use it to halt the process and save him, despite scarcely knowing either of them. Given how little she thinks of it in the present, she doesn't seem to regret a thing.
- It's worth noting that her sister unit Radiata is aggressive and resentful while Reflecta is withdrawn and soft-spoken, meaning this behavior is not present in all Autonomic Nerves. Vatista is simply nice by nature.
No Social Skills: Understandably so for a robotic existence strictly made to kill monsters. She doesn't understand the implications of standing in a public spot for a whole month without moving and had difficulty understanding the concept of clothing when Hyde tried to explain it to her.
- The latter turns into a Running Gag in the story: Whenever a second female character is involved, Vatista asks Hyde if he forced that girl to wear clothes as well.
The Needless: Played mostly straight for other Autonomic Nerves, but Vatista is an exception. She needs to eat and sleep much more often than her sister units do.
Not So Stoic: She later become Hyde's friend and she showed to be surprised with Hyde's optimistic personality while he held her hand.
- She flings a few insults at Waldstein after he fails to understand what she's talking about.
Pet the Dog: Outside of terminating Voids and gathering information on active In-Births, Vatista's programming is very lax on how she should respond to most scenarios. When Waldstein was being turned into a Void, her master's orders had no input in how she reacted. She decided on her own accord to give Kuon her wing so he could be saved.
Pointy Ears: Her "naked" portrait reveals that she has these underneath her... whatever those are that are normally covering them.
Powers Do the Fighting: She doesn't go lounging in a chair composed of darkness like Hilda does, but Vatista never seems to throw a proper punch or kick in her entire moveset, almost exclusively using her wings or light powers to attack.
Power Limiter: Her FLS ability allows her to be this to anyone she chooses, locking them out of using the full extent of their abilities. In-game, this only means the opponent is unable to counter-hit her.
Razor Wings: Similar to the Murakumo units, Vatista has several wings made of blades which she uses to attack.
Restraining Bolt: Autonomic Nerves have restrictions on how much force they can use against human opponents, even if they are programmed to kill a human. This lets Hilda escape her in Vatista's arcade mode. While Vatista's directive says she must kill Hilda, Vatista physically can't use her full power against her.
Robot Girl: Specifically an Autonomic Nerve. Interestingly, she's more like a magical construct than a robot. She makes it clear to Hilda that present-day technology is eons more advanced than any used in her own construction and that magic is responsible for why she exists.
Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Vatista occasionally makes sounds when using her abilities, most notably her extremely cute "Ba ba ba ba" when using her force function finger bullets on the ground. Her onomatopoeia of spinning and twirling also count.
Ship Tease: A noticeable amount with Hyde, especially in her Arcade ending where she starts living in his house under his request. Also, in Nanase's Arcade ladder, she's the only girl that dismisses Nanase's claims about Hyde. The fact that Hyde is currently in possession of her seventh wing doesn't complicate things further.
- Because this totally doesn't mean anything.
- Vatista winds up receiving some with Kuon during her Arcade Mode, seeing that after living for centuries Kuon never forgot her face since she handed him the Insulator during the Licht Kreis war and would've preferred meeting under more ideal circumstances. They still have to clash because of the Aeon's ambitions, but it's the thought that counts.
Sleep-Mode Size: Losing her seventh wing turned her into a little girl and an Elegant Gothic Lolita. Her true form with all of her wings is a tall and beautiful woman wearing a kimono that would not be out of place in modern manga and anime depictions of Japanese mythology.
Sleepyhead: She's spent at least two hundred years asleep and her match win animation has her yawning and dozing off.
Some Dexterity Required: Like you wouldn't believe. She is widely considered to be the hardest character to play in the game. How hard is she? Playing her on a default controller is incredibly difficult without adjusting the buttons to compensate for her multi-button holding/charging. The means to alleviate this involve the physical switch to either a fight stick, a hitbox controller, or even an actual computer keyboard.
Spanner in the Works:
- Vatista woke up on the Hollow Night where Hilda executes her grand plan to become a Re-birth, becoming this to latter in her arcade story as Paradox had no way of accounting for Vatista's presence beforehand.
- She ends up becoming one to Kuon in the sequel since he clearly wasn't prepared for their encounter unlike everybody else he fought.
The Stoic: She really does have emotions, but she tends to express them in a far more subdued way. Her different expressions need to be inspected very closely to notice any difference between them.
Stone Wall: Physically. Her unique trait nullifies the unique properties of counter hits landed on her (e.g. no extra wall/ground bouncing or OTG pickups). Averted with high-level Vatista players, her combos are quite possibly the hardest in the game but their damage is insane. With resources, she can nearly KO Seth from full hp in a single combo. As of Sys:Celes, Vatista no longer has her "no counterhit" rule apply to her.
Stuff Blowing Up: She can hold down a button and release to place a crystal that explodes when touched with any of her attacks.
Tranquil Fury: Vatista has been angered by Hilda and Nanase, but she retained her flat monotone voice even while declaring her intent to shut them down then and there.
Tron Lines: Hers are red. Like Merkava, these are Curse Commandments that allow her to use FLS abilities, although she doesn't need to collect it from In-Births like Merkava does.
Vocal Dissonance: Vatista in chronicle mode speaks without her Machine Monotone in a deeper voice that doesn't match her childish appearance at all and loses her quirky, No Social Skills robotic mannerisms. Her chronicle voice is almost completely unrecognizable from Nao Touyama's previous performance as Vatista in the Arcade mode stories and gameplay to the point that some thought a different voice actor was used. It's implied that this is what Vatista sounds like in her true adult form with all seven wings. Hearing Vatista suddenly start speaking like this while she is still in her child form is odd, to say the least.
Walking Spoiler: Vatista is way more than the subservient Robot Girl her Arcade story makes her out to be, if most of the tropes pertaining to her involvement in the story being whited-out didn't give that away. In Chronicle mode, she turns out to the centerpiece of the biggest Wham Episode in the game.
Was Once a Man: If her win quotes in Blaz Blue Cross Tag Battle are true, then Vatista used to be an ordinary human before her soul was infused into her current body. She is aware of this process, but she doesn't remember whose soul was used to create her.

Seth

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese), Mark Whitten (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Aimi Terakawa (Young)

He wanders.
Bound by the will and governing of an ancient family, but his emotions tremor.
The promise he made with a young girl shackles him in rusty chains he strives to sever.
The Night becomes a labyrinth, impeding his progress.
Will he ever find the beacon he seeks?

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seth_94.png

The Assassin who Wanders the Night

^UNI1

"We aren't all that different, you and I... We're cut from the same cloth. And l may well be the next to fall..."

PROFILE:
Height: 169 cm (5'6½")
Weight: 49 kg (108 lbs)
Blood type: O
Date of Birth: January 7th
Weapons: Twin Swords: Eliminators
EXS ability: Kerykeion
Known alias: The Assassin

An assassin out in the night with particular interest in the Princess of the Night Blade. Seth's ancestral lineage dates back to the schism that occurred within the Night Blade organization and he is the descendant of the moderate faction that sought to keep their teachings hidden and obscure their abilities as much as possible. This group operates to this day in upholding the ancient ways of the Night Blade and Seth's position as one of the head family's successors has him reluctantly carry out his family's wishes to watch over the night. It is revealed that he met Linne 10 years prior to the story and pitied her tortured existence over the centuries. He promised her that he would save her from her curse but he was powerless to do anything in the decade that passed. A glimmer of hope to rekindle his promise appears to him and he heads out into the night to finally set things right to his promise and free Linne of her curse. Despite his status as Hyde's rival and his notable proficiency in his profession as an assassin, he is only a first-year in high school.

Seth possesses the EXS of Excavation^note: Kerykeion, which allows him to temporarily halt the flow of EXS within his opponents, stunning them for a brief moment. This ability manifested from his intent to break free from the chains that bind him and his family's duties. This ability paired with Seth's swift and disorienting movement allow for extensive combos and strong mix-up potential. Seth utilizes the Indulgence of Elimination/Twin Swords: Eliminators, two ornamental daggers that belong in the same weapon category as Hyde's Insulator, while being noted to have opposite effects by being able to destroy curses upon the body and soul. Seth was gifted these weapons from an unknown benefactor, in exchange for his cooperation.

Seth's Force Function, Abyssal Geometry, has him focusing his EXS, which grants further properties to his stunning projectiles that vary his pressure timings. Seth develops his powers further to include Gloomy Invitation which has Seth summon a far larger orb that pulls his opponents closer to it. He can now also perform Massacring Instinct where he blinks behind his opponent to perform a 3-hit slashing attack to knock opponents down.

His Infinite Worth, Nefarious Sequence, sees Seth rushing down the opponent before delivering a blindingly fast combo that launches his opponent, he then follows up with summoning a shadowy doppelganger and delivering a final Criss-Cross Attack.

Seth's Chronicle Mode story is called Chained Soul, which dives further into another historical point of reference to the moderate faction of the Night Blade, as well as detailing Seth's recruitment into his role as an assassin and his first encounter with Linne as a child.

Anti-Hero: While his intentions are to help Linne, his morals are much more different than the other heroes, and has no issue killing anyone who stands in his way. There's also the problem that Linne doesn't want to die without settling her business with her brother, but Seth doesn't care about this and tries to kill her against her wishes. Despite this intents, he's still set on redeeming his lineage.
- Subverted by UNI 2's Arcade Mode where Seth acts more like a proper hero seeking to close the book on both Linne and Kuon's suffering. If not, he is willing to team up with Hyde to finish the job.
Anti-Magic: The true power of the Eliminators are their abilities to break and dispel any curse or seal from its target's body or soul. Although, its powers have been greatly weakened in favor of keeping them indefinitely manifested. Given its appearance and this revealed ability, it's almost a dead-ringer for Fate Stay Night's Rule Breaker.
The Atoner: Wants to undo his people's wrongdoings and free Linne of her immortality. The only problem with this is that while Linne wants to die, she isn't ready for it yet because she find out what Kuon is up to before she passes on. Seth ignores this and wants her dead as soon as possible. This obviously does not earn him many points in the eyes of Hyde, Waldstein and Linne herself.
Badass Longcoat: Wears a rather tattered one.
Confusion Fu: One of his specialties is his high mobility that allows him to constantly side-switch his opponents both in and out of his combos.
Counter-Attack: The A version followup to his Soushitsu no Confusion teleport move.
Criss-Cross Attack: His two of his EX moves and Infinite Worths involve this, as well as his general playstyle that has him move all around his opponent.
Difficult, but Awesome: Seth's incredible speed gives him plenty of combo options, but using him effectively requires proper timing, execution, and positioning as his health is still the lowest in the game and has little to no plus-frame moves that allow him to keep constant pressure without good knowledge on his blockstrings. Played well, he can rush his opponent down and burst down their health bar very quickly and maintain some unpredictable mix-ups. This can be taken up a level further where Seth is the only character in the game to have unblockable set-ups that can either range to a combo afterwards, or a long-chain of unblockable wake-up set ups with an orb in place to fully deplete an opponent's life bar should he have the corner, vorpal, and the meter to do so. Every new installment for the series gives Seth a new combo staple that ends up changing his combo routing.
Diving Kick: One of his command normals.
Doppelgänger Attack: Gains a shadowy clone/afterimage of himself during his Infinite Worth.
Dual Wielding: Wields two knives called the "Sealed Justice: Eliminators". Seth used to wield two mundane knives in the past before he made a deal with Chaos.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His default expression. A given seeing as how he has gone ten aimless years without any means of fulfilling his promise to Linne.
Explosive Overclocking: Seth's Arcade Mode in UNI 2 and in some select other Arcade ladders have Seth receive Linne's Seal from her willingly and operate with heightened abilities while also draining him of vitality.
Expy: His fateful meeting with Linne during the night in a field of flowers underneath a tree on top of a hill is straight out of Tsukihime. The difference is meeting Aoko had extremely positive effects on Shiki's life, Seth's meeting Linne has only placed a deep and outright impossible burden on his shoulders that by the time of the game's Hollow Night has completely consumed him.
Family Business: The reason as to why Seth reluctantly continues his duty out in the night. In direct contrast to Yuzuriha honoring her family's traditions and carrying them out with slightly more heart than Seth does.
Feuding Families: The reason for the Night Blade's disbandment where they disagreed how EXS abilities were supposed to be handled and utilized. Seth's ancestors chose to remain reclusive in their practices and continue carrying out the Night Blade's duties to this day.
Foil: To Hyde. Both are situated to fulfill a promise to Linne to end her life and while Hyde is delaying this event, Seth is out hunting her to make it happen. Seth spent ten aimless years training his body and mindlessly fulfilling the duties expected of him and only just recently had his powerless circumstances shift in his favor. Hyde on the other hand ran into Linne and coincidentally manifested the rare ability that is able to kill her without even fully knowing her circumstance before she and Wald came to live with him. Seth is dead-set on his goals, tends to avoid interacting with others unless completely necessary, and is willing to do anything to bring an end to his journey. In comparison, Hyde is outgoing, deeply generous, and still very reluctant to uphold his end of the bargain until Linne shares everything she knows with him. His color scheme is blue to Hyde's red, and while Hyde's gameplay is straightforward, Seth's is varied with little room for error. Both Hyde and Seth also have takes on Gratuitous English in their moves: Hyde uses the classic Alternate Character Reading with inaccurate English over kanji, while Seth uses both Japanese and English in his moves.
- Yuzuriha is another one for Seth: Both are descendants of the Night Blade who knew both of the main leads sometime since childhood and even have complex playstyles with their weapon types; Linne for Seth, Hyde for Yuzuriha. While Seth is burdened by the duty of his family and his promise to Linne, Yuzuriha willingly carries on the duty of her ancestors and "mostly" moved on from her former friendship with Hyde after a certain incident.
Foreshadowing: Waldstein's Arcade Ladder features an encounter with Seth right before Hilda's Boss battle on Stage 10. Wald is surprised to learn that Seth is conspiring with Amnesia and this little plot point isn't really brought up again until Chronicle Mode reveals the nature of Seth's employment.
Fragile Speedster: He has one of the lowest health counts in the game and can't take hits well. However, he is the only character in the game who can air back-dash, as well as fastfall; not to mention his running speed is crazy fast with his walking animations being quite slow in comparison. His health count is brought up to average in [st] but still remains the lowest of the cast.
Gratuitous English: The names of his moves are mixed with both Japanese and English in the Japanese dub. Examples include "Hobaku no Segment" (Segment of Stitch Binding), "Shoushitsu no Confusion" (Confusion of Vanishing), "Rensa no Nefarious" (Nefarious of Linked Chains) and "Kyoukai no Distant" (Distant of Boundary).
Green-Eyed Monster: Seth's grudge and rivalry with Hyde stems from the fact that Hyde recently became involved with the Hollow Night yet has everything Seth has ever desired and strove to obtain his entire life: the companionship of Linne, the weapon required to end her eternal curse, and the freedom from the Night Blade's oppressive burdens. Even with all of his powers Hyde refuses to kill Linne, making Seth believe Hyde isn't worthy of his gifts, leading to the Assassin antagonizing Hyde in order to take them for himself, which he supposedly achieves in his arcade ending. As a reminder, Seth has been aware of Linne's predicament for 10 years. In comparison, Hyde comes in and has the power to solve the entire problem in a span of four months.
Hair Antennae: Colored white.
He Who Fights Monsters: By the time of the game Seth's single-minded determination to fulfill his promise to help Linne has taken what made him special and transformed him into a person who is just like the rest of the Night Blade, whom Linne hates.
Hourglass Plot: With Waldstein. Both are members of the Night Blade who are connected to Linne, with Seth trying to kill her to end her curse of reincarnation while Waldstein protects her as her guardian. However in Sys:Celes, the roles are reversed with Waldstein now after his ward to get her Seal of Reincarnation for Kuon's scheme while Seth works together with her to kill Kuon.
Leitmotif: Monochrome Memory, as well as Mutual Situation for matches against Hyde.
My Skull Runneth Over: Averted. Seth's Force Function has him clutch his head to empower his orbs, strengthening them to either activate on a shorter delay and/or make them indestructible requires him to focus immensely. The stress on his head is apparently great enough to make him physically shudder.
Mysterious Employer: Seth's profession as an assassin was very recent and it means that he's under someone's employ. This mysterious client was rarely mentioned but Chronicle Mode reveals it to be Chaos, who even exchanges the Eliminators for Seth's cooperation. Further still is the one behind Chaos who gave the latter the Eliminators to be delivered to Seth in the first place.
Named Weapons: His knives are named Eliminator. Their power isn't explored, but are said to be the opposite of Hyde's Insulator.
No Social Skills: Seth doesn't really care to make much friends and he is noted for having very little presence at school, which only assists him in staying mobile and free of committment during the day since he exclusively "works" during night time. He also chooses not to socialize much in order to keep people out of the dangerous lifestyle he's normalized to.
Not So Stoic: Nothing can really faze Seth much. However, Seth felt excitement when he first obtained the Eliminators in his Chronicle Story since he can finally act on his promise towards Linne, and he gets visibly irritated whenever Hyde or the Night Blade is involved in any capacity. He's also very put off by Nanase's pushiness.
It Only Works Once: Averted. Compared to Hyde's Insulator, Seth's Elimintors are not related to his latent EXS abilities but are capable of staying manifested on their own. The Insulator only exists as long as Hyde is able to manipulate his unique ability to summon it while the Eliminators can stay out like regular equipment. This is apparently because the daggers have been further enchanted to remain manifested as they are in trade-off for weakening their special abilities.
Perpetual Frowner: While his work coat and off-work scarf covers his mouth, this is his most common expression. He does give a warm smile in his arcade ending in Sys:Celes when a liberated Linne comes to the Abyss to help Seth change his fate.
Poor Communication Kills: He isn't wishing to listen to Linne or Waldstein and tries to kill the former without trying to hear out what she wants to tell him. Chaos also mentions for Seth to drop his near-permanent scowl. Seth admits that he's not really skilled at social interactions since he willingly keeps his social contacts to a minimum to lessen casualties.
Real Men Cook: Seth is said to have been very close to his mother and helped her around the house when he was little. This has rewarded him with some self-sufficient cooking abilities of his own as he currently lives alone.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Seth is the cool, brooding Blue Oni to Hyde's explosive and brash Red Oni. This even extends to the colors of their respective Indulgence Weapons.
Reverse Grip: Holds his weapons this way.
The Rival: Becomes Hyde's due to their contrasting methods on freeing Linne from her curse. They appear to be on better terms in Sys:Celes to the point of being capable of collaborating with one another, though they can barely stand each other's presence.
Scarf of Asskicking: Averted. He's commonly depicted with a scarf on him when he's not in his usual outfit. He's had this scarf ever since he was a kid.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Seth's past shows that he wasn't always a laconic and stoic individual, rather a very shy but determined child. However, even with all the good intentions in the world wasn't going to help Linne from her predicament and Seth swore to her that he would do his best to one day save her and find a way. Seth trained but without an Indulgence Weapon, he was powerless to do anything for her. 10 years of being unable to do what he sought after with his abilities turned him into what he is today. Only just recently has a glimmer of hope arrived onto his lap to pick-up where things left off and pursue his goals again.
Stock Shōnen Rival: A Classic example, being the stoic and no-nonsense loner to Hyde's Hot-Blooded All-Loving Hero.
The Stoic: Seth hardly shows any emotion other than his intent to complete his objectives. He disregards everything else unrelated to it. He also hardly talks but speaks very poetically the few times he does. He still prefers to skip any and all pleasantries.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Seth's rivalry with Hyde has evolved into this as fighting each other is secondary compared to dealing with Kuon to safely conclude the matter of their rivalry without harming Linne. Hyde begrudgingly knows that Seth is more skilled than he is while Seth never misses an opportunity to downplay Hyde's powers.
Trademark Favorite Food: Nitsuke-prepared fish, according to Word of God.
Weak, but Skilled: Much like Linne, Seth's powers aren't really anything special by themselves but Seth's experience and mastery of them combined with his Night Blade training and the Eliminators he recently obtained makes him a formidable force to be reckoned with. Compare this with Hyde, whose Void Red powers are so destructive that he can bulldoze through most of his opponents despite his lack of combat prowess, Seth's Kerykeion is lacking in power, yet Seth's skill with them allows him to make complicated set-ups that will constantly bind his enemy while he effortlessly weaves through and strike them while they are immobilized.
Weapon Twirling: His victory animation has him twirl his Eliminators as they vanish from view.
You Are in Command Now: Presumably due to his connection to the Princess of the Night Blade and ownership of the Eliminators, the remaining Yato have named Seth as their "leader" to conclude their lineage's shame by dealing with Linne and Kuon as he sees fit.
You See, I'm Dying: In his UNI2 ending, he ends up taking on both Linne's Curse of Reincarnation and Kuon's Curse of Immortality unto himself, causing him immeasurable pain and ultimately leaving him in a broken, pitiful state even though he tries his hardest to bear the sins of his clan. By the time "Linne" finds Seth, he states that the process of him losing himself to the other persona of the Void that now exists within him has already begun, and resigns himself to death at her hands. She, however, implies it's entirely up to him now whether he or the Void can survive.

Yuzuriha

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese, first game), Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese, Sys:Celes), Erica Lindbeck (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

She reacts.
She runs away from her laws, and chooses to be alone, living life as she pleases, bound to no one.
Tonight, too, is nothing more than a whimsical stroll.
The naked sword is seldom drawn, but when it is, the blade never lies.
Everything is reflected in its clear glimmer...
And her true self lies beyond the freedom she attained...
The self she has lost.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuzuriha_1.png

Blade of the Godspeed

^UNI1

"Let's go, Ayame!"

PROFILE:
Height: 169 cm (5'6½")
Weight: 53 kg (116 lbs)
Blood type: B
Date of Birth: July 20th
Weapon: Iris Blade: Kamiji-no-Homare (AKA: Ayame)
EXS ability: Ainsel Lost
Known alias: The Blade of The Godspeed

A sword-wielding girl whose family descends from the original members of the Night Blade. During the organization's schism, her ancestors insisted on reforming their ways and strove to strengthen their abilities to fend themselves from outsiders and soon left their kind and established their own ancestral home. As part of the influential and traditional Sougetsu Family, Yuzuriha (Yuzu for short) is the current upholder of her family's tradition of being the "Guardian" of the land, and she patrols the night to kill Voids and break up fights between In-Births. While this position was formally meant to be upheld by her older sister, Hiroha, the latter quit on her first night on the job after a violent altercation and the role was given to Yuzuriha instead. Trained in her family's ancient Dual Moon's One Blade drawing style techniques, Yuzuriha, while friendly and easygoing, is widely feared out in the night.

Yuzuriha possesses the EXS of Falling Flowers: Ainsel Lost (lit. Avidya Long Night), which allows Yuzuriha to enter a state of incredible concentration. Within this state, she is able to make precise movements to perfectly predict and dodge enemy attacks and throw out accurate attacks of her own. Her weapon is her family's heirloom blade, the Iris Blade: Kamiji-no-Homare (lit. Divine Route Honor), which she affectionately calls "Ayame" and uses it in conjunction with the techniques of her family's blade drawing style.

Yuzuriha's agility and mastery over the blade translate into a rather complex Stance-based fighting style that is rather difficult to master, but highly rewarding once you do.

Yuzuriha's Force Function is called Third Type: Sever, which has her utilize a multi-hitting slashing technique that strikes out in front of her. She can enter her stance through this maneuver, allowing for her to return to a safe position, reapply pressure, or trick her opponent out by fully charging it to make it unblockable. Sys:Celes showcases another technique of her own design Et Cetera: Ten'I Muhou that has her performing a rising slash and putting her into air stance.

Her Infinite Worth, 'Secret Skill: Luster Birth, has her stunning the opponent with two consecutive slashes before enveloping them with her robes and delivering one last strike.

Yuzuriha's Chronicle Mode story is called Ancient Guardian and The Devil's King, which has her heading out into the Night following a hunch and running into the trio of In-Births who would eventually form Bankikai. It is here that we also get some info on what the Hollow Night is.

Action Girl: While her easygoing attitude and playful demeanor might mask it, Yuzuriha fulfills a personal duty when upholding her family's duties out in the night. She just feels like the job has outgrown its limit as a one-person act.
Ancestral Weapon: Her family's heirloom blade is her primary weapon.
Bare Midriffs Are Feminine
Beware the Nice Ones: She's a free-spirited and cheerful girl, but she is not to be underestimated in battle. The developers even state that a serious Yuzuriha is quite a scary sight. Even someone like Gordeau preferred not to run into her.
BFS: The Iris Blade is about as long as she is tall.
Brilliant, but Lazy: She's an exceptional swordswoman and possesses vast knowledge on In-Births and the Hollow Night in general, but she'd much rather be a normal girl without a care in the world and content with just stopping small time fights than anything grand. She even claims saving people is more incidental to her work and just wants to maintain the peace. Ogre acknowledges this by claiming she could easily defend the Hollow Night if she had some more ambition in her to make her own group to further her goals.
The Cameo: She makes a cameo appearance in Skullgirls.
Childhood Friend: To Hyde. She finds him very cute and affectionately refers to him as "Hyde-kyun". She seems to be a bit concerned about how he's grown into looking like a punk. They stopped seeing each other after Hyde did something that traumatized both of them, but their thoughts show that they both miss each other badly. The two have mostly returned to being on speaking terms again by Sys:Celes.
Clothing Combat: She can use her coat in her attacks either as a parry or as a launcher.
Coat Cape: She does this with a kimono.
Combat Stilettos: Wears a pair of tall open heels that somehow don't impede her fighting. Though considering how much fighting in the Hollow Night she does, she's probably really used to it.
Counter-Attack: She sports one with her 4B that will counter most physical attacks and launch the opponent into the air.
Cuddle Bug: Was apparently very physically affectionate to Hyde during their youth. Hyde has not forgotten about this.
Difficult, but Awesome: Her Stance System gives her a much more complex approach to her combos, relying on proper timing and positioning, but once mastered, she is one of the best characters in the game, having unprecedented mobility, nearly full-screen conversions, and very high damage.
Expy: In a way, of Baiken. Gameplay-wise, however, she's closer to Johnny, or even Moriya and Kamui.
Family Honor: Yuzuriha, despite certain objections, keeps up her family tradition and duty with a certain determination. Although, she admits that she feels that it's only right someone with her abilities to try and help minimize casualities. She also helps by teaching swordplay in the dojo where she specifically teaches basic training instead of her family's style.
Feuding Families: The reason for the Night Blade's disbandment where they disagreed how EXS abilities were supposed to be handled and utilized. Yuzuriha's ancestors chose to leave their ancestral home and believed that they needed to strengthen themselves to protect one another.
Genki Girl: So upbeat, she even hums her own theme song.
Gratuitous English: Her jumping A had her exclaim "ELBOW!" while doing an elbow drop. No doubt that watching too much TV, possibly pro-wrestling shows, got Yuzuriha doing it. Also shouts "Ouch" and "Oh no!" when she gets hit.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: Yes, she manages to do this with a Nodachi...somehow. And like many others before her, she handles this via the traditional "3-way-delayable" attack stance system.
I Call It "Vera": She calls the Iris Blade, 'Ayame-chan'.
I Just Want to Be Normal: She never actually wanted to be a guardian and would have preferred living a normal life as a teenage girl, but because her older sister's injury prevented her from performing her duties, Yuzuriha was next in line. She takes it in stride, but expresses a bit of resentment about her role. Coincidentally, she shares this trait with Hyde.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Yuzuriha mentions internally in her Chronicle mode that she hopes Hyde has found some other girls to be with, but thinking about this causes her no small amount of emotional distress.
Leitmotif: Walking Lily Flower♪.
Master Swordswoman: Her family dojo practices the ancient Sougetsu Itto-ryu Battojutsu (roughly translating into Sougetsu Single Blade Drawing Style) and Yuzuriha is no slouch in applying it in combat. Her movelist point out that the style's techniques are numbered.
- First Form: Kiri- Yuzuriha's command normals functioning as a three-way slash that are weaker versions of her second form techniques.
- Second Form: Saki- Yuzuriha's primary slashes that reach nearly 3/4ths of the screen and allow her to keep herself distanced while also letting her continue her combos if she lands a hit.
- Third Form: Tachi - Yuzuriha's aforementioned Force Function that lets out an empowered slash that not only gives pause and then resumes her momentum if done in the air, it can also be charged to become an unblockable.
- Fourth Form: As of yet unknown.
- Fifth Form: Azami- A yet unseen technique that has Yuzuriha slash out a projectile. This is only conceptual as this move is found in the game's files but not usable.
- Secret Art: Kasshou- Yuzuriha's Infinite Worth
- Zeroth Form: Inochi Kurenai- Yuzuriha's Infinite Worth EXS
- Et Cetera: Yae Ichirin- A technique that is presumably of her own creation where she slashes out 8 simultaneous attacks in an orb like pattern behind her.
- Et Cetera: Ten'I Muhou- Another technique that is presumably of her own creation where she performs a rising slash to hit directly above her.
Ms. Fanservice: Compared to the rest of the somewhat conservatively-dressed female cast, yes. She rocks an outfit that also shows some of her ample cleavage, for starters, and some of the art makes it clear that she isn't wearing anything under either her top or her jeans.
Nice Girl: Another contender for one of the nicest characters in the cast. Chronicle Mode, however, suggests that she didn't take too nicely becoming an in-birth and a bit of her ceaseless optimism was slightly damaged after the event. Her thoughts also reveal that she's extremely hurt about what happened between her and Hyde, and despite her hope that he's moved on and forgets about her, the amount of turmoil those thoughts cause her makes it obvious that she wants to be close to him again.
Noodle Incident: With Hyde, both have yet to fully recover from it. Most of their inability to repair their friendship is fueled by Hyde's guilt since Yuzuriha knows that he's actively avoiding her. Because of this, she decides to let him be despite her wishes to see him again. At some point between the end of the first big Hollow Night and the start of the Final Night, Yuzu has seemingly rejoined Hyde's regular circle of interaction.
Samurai: Basically fulfills the role of that archetype in the series. Unlike most others of her archetype in the genre, she's probably the least serious out of any of them.
Samurai Ponytail: Styles her hair as such.
Sixth Ranger: Has ostensibly joined up with Hyde's group to collectively help Linne and deal with Kuon after spending the first big Hollow Night on her lonesome. She seems to have acquainted herself with most of Hyde's house guests including Vatista as well as some of Hyde's school acquaintances.
Stance System: Her Iki Seishin no Mae, via being a typical "delayable 3-way attacker" type of character. Possibly one of the most Difficult, but Awesome aspects of the entire game due to its many follow-ups compared to that said archetype.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Her and Nanase's chronicle modes heavily imply that Yuzuriha and Hyde's relationship was definitely not heading in a platonic direction before the Noodle Incident that drove them apart. Both her and Hyde are still in a lot of emotional turmoil being caught between how badly they hurt each other and their wish to be close again. By UNI 2, they seem to have mostly gotten comfortable around each other again.
Wrecked Weapon: Yuzu's nodachi Ayame shatters after she manages to cinch a W against Kuon in her arcade mode in Sys:Celes much to her panic.

Hilda

Voiced by: Hatsumi Takada (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

She savors.
She wields her power for a single purpose.
Light and Dark, the contradiction that exists inside of her.
A helix of contradiction, and the chaos with no order.
Darkness that covers her eyes.
A voice that comes from deep within the earth.
The false eyes chase after eternity, and she wishes for Re-birth.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hilda_1_9.png

Truth of Fascination, Paradox.

^UNI1

"OHHHH-HO-HO-HO-HO! I can't get enough of watching bottom-feeders like yourself struggle to stay alive!"

PROFILE:
Height: 171 cm (5'7")
Weight: 59 kg (130 lbs)
Blood type: AB
Date of Birth: November 11th
Weapon: Dress of Darkness: Masquerade
EXS ability: Paradox
Known aliases: Paradox, The Witch of Rarity

The extravagant and haughty diva who leads the organization known as Amnesia. She seeks to bring down the old-customs regarding the Hollow Night being watched over by Licht Kreis and ascend to become a Re-Birth, an existence surpassing that of an In-Birth. While she is the boss of the organization, she is respected by her colleagues purely because of her wealth and abilities, not so much for her intelligence. She founded the organization alongside Gordeau and Roger, with Chaos and Enkidu joining soon after.

Hilda possesses the EXS of Light and Darkness^note: Paradox, a strange and unique fusion of two preexisting EXS Abilities, her original ability of manipulating light, and another Ability, Dress of Darkness: Masquerade, which allows Hilda to manipulate darkness. Hilda can shape almost anything with her Ability, but she usually prefers to form large blades and other sharp projectiles to slice away at her opponent.

Like Vatista, Hilda is a zoner who utilizes her long-reaching but disjointed normals to keep her opponents out and keep herself safe from relative harm. Hilda's powerful normals allow her to utilize long blockstrings and her specials allow her to loop herself into a potent setplay. However, unlike Vatista who has a defensive reversal, Hilda is left at the mercy of her opponent if they close the gap.

Her Force Function, Tri-Furket, consists of summoning three large blades in a crescent formation that when hit creates a significant distance between Hilda and her opponent as well as being able to be altered to act as a quick overhead or angled poke.

Her Infinite Worth, Impalement, is an AOE attack that, should it hit, traps the opponent in midair, in which Hilda proceeds to then recline back on a chair and skewer them with large array of summoned blades.

Hilda's Chronicle Mode story is called Road To Under Night..., the final Chronicle Mode Episode. Here, Hilda checks up on the preparations to her Altar of Light and Darkness before heading back to her mansion to convince Gordeau to return to Amnesia by offering him a job as a mercenary. Shortly after that, she's greeted by a strange figure who warns her of the dangers of becoming a Re-Birth and what he has planned for her.

Ambidextrous Sprite: Notably averted in gameplay. In a fashion similar to Gill, the black and white halves of Hilda's dress will always be on the correct sides of her sprite. Played straight in cutscenes, however.
Ax-Crazy: Hilda goes completely nuts in her arcade ending. She goes on a killing spree of most of the cast before taking the Insulator from Hyde and cutting him and Linne down. She then goes Laughing Mad and rants about how she will obtain eternity.
Benevolent Boss: She's very polite, friendly and cordial towards her subordinates most of the time. This even extends to those who left her organization, as she's still very friendly towards Gordeau. This however extends to being quite a few ways above being casual with her status as a leader and most of the work falls to Chaos. This only lasts until she feels like she doesn't need someone anymore, as Gordeau and Chaos find out the hard way in their arcade modes. Although, given that neither Gordeau nor Chaos' arcade modes are canon, she's still within their good graces. Another example is Hilda willingly inviting Waldstein to the Altar so that Enkidu could have the finale he was seeking for that night.
Berserk Button: While Hilda doesn't seem to mind the constant jabs at her intelligence and mannerisms, nothing really gets her as angry as when somebody calls her old.
- Implying that she's fat is another one, which Enkidu brings up.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: In Orie's arcade mode, where she's fought before Merkava. In Late[st] she's fought as the second to last opponent on Phonon's arcade mode, where she makes way for Nanase. She would've been this for Nanase herself, except that the game makes it perfectly clear way before that point that Hyde will be the last opponent.
Big Bad Wannabe: She's the final boss of the first game and it revolves around her plans to become a Re-Birth, but is completely unaware that she's merely being used by Kuon. Adding insult to injury, unlike the rest of the cast, her theme transitions from "Overwhelm Despair" to "Relatively Despair" indicating how much of a threat she actually is compared to Kuon.
Brainless Beauty: Almost everyone that doesn't know her personally will comment on her rather glamorous features, only up until she opens her mouth. In that regard, she is very simple-minded with some occasional shades of cunning. Most of Gordeau and Chaos' working for her involves trying to keep her from doing things that are Lethally Stupid.
Casting a Shadow: Her attacks are entirely darkness-based.
Character Death: Hilda is killed in multiple Arcade stories, usually via getting cannibalized by Merkava or Byakuya.
Combat Stilettos: Not as tall as some of the other female cast members and her only physical move is a slight kick.
Darker and Edgier: Her arcade mode is basically her going on a killing spree around the Hollow Night with special pre-fight interactions with everyone.
Determinator: She is hellbent on becoming a Re-Birth, despite the protests of Hyde, Yuzuriha and even Kuon. And if she fails and becomes a Void, then so be it. As it turns out, Hilda proves that she does have what it takes to become a Re-Birth without turning into a Void like Merkava in her Sys:Celes ending.
Disc-One Final Boss: Becomes this in [Sys: Celes] as Kuon takes over as the final boss of the game.
Dumb Blonde: In Carmine's story, he notes her too stupid to be the mastermind. Some other characters also notice her lack of intelligence as well. Chaos in particular constantly calls her an idiot.
Drunk on the Dark Side: Hilda's evil, thrill-seeking nature gets worse the farther the story progresses. It's also implied that she's much crazier now than when Gordeau first met her. This is because gathering EXS eats away at the person's soul and replaces it with something else, and that "thing" is much like a Void. Basically, there's another Hilda devouring the current one the more power Hilda tries to gain and will completely replace her if she becomes a Re-Birth.
- Sanity Slippage: It also results in Hilda becoming more unhinged, with the end result being her going a killing spree in her arcade mode, finishing off by slashing Linne and Hyde to unconsciousness with the Insulator while laughing and mocking them the whole time, then claiming that she will gain eternity.
Earn Your Bad Ending: Hilda's arcade mode has an alternate ending that introduces Enkidu and Uzuki before moving on to her ending CG and this is unlocked by earning over 200 million points.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even she finds Erika Wagner despicable, and expresses interest in helping Gordeau hunt her down, although it's mostly so she can goad him into helping her.
Expy: Her fighting style has a lot of similarities to v-13. She also bears some resemblance to Junko Enoshima, with her color scheme even resembling Monokuma's, and a theme titled Overwhelm Despair.
Failure Is the Only Option: Due to her primary goal being achieving ultimate power, Hilda is simply not allowed to win in-universe. Hilda is canonically defeated by Hyde during the first big Hollow Night and is put out of commission for a month. After recuperating, Hilda tries again the following Hollow Night but is then defeated by a restored Kuon as he takes the stage as the new final boss. Out in the Final Night, Hilda's Arcade Mode does prove that she has what it takes to become a Re-Birth but this conclusion of course cannot come to pass. Gordeau's Arcade run suggests that she was beaten yet again but by another entity but Hilda, out of frustration, does not reveal who. If Hyde's Arcade run is canon again, he is the one to defeat her once more.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Her outfit is half-white and half-black, split down the middle.
Femme Fatale: Deconstructed. Hilda always tries to use her sex appeal to manipulate people, but there's a couple of problems. First, she's too dumb to actually convince anyone to do what she wants. Second, because she never turns off the seduction, everyone around her is completely used to it and numb to her advances. Third, almost everyone either knows her reputation or is aware of how crazy and idiotic she is to pay any attention to her. Hilariously, the only person her seduction is shown to be successful on is Hyde, which isn't much of an accomplishment.
Femme Fatalons: [[Her Re-Birth form has these in her [UNI2] ending.]]
Final Boss: She is the final fight in the Arcade Mode of the first game for many characters. However, there are nine characters who are the exception: Orie (who fights Merkava), Enkidu (who fights Waldstein), Wagner (who fights Gordeau), Phonon (who fights Nanase), Londrekia (who fights Wagner), guest fighters Eltnum and Akatsuki, Nanase, and of course Hilda herself (they all fight Hyde).
The Friend Nobody Likes: Despite officially being their boss, none of the other members of Amnesia seem to actually like her too outwardly. Chaos is infuriated with her when she just leaves Gordeau bleeding out in his Arcade Story, Enkidu spends most of his Chronicle episode internally snarking at how dumb she is, and Uzuki is annoyed by the prospect of taking orders from her. The only two people that seem to have any semblance of friendship with her are her fellow founders Gordeau and Roger, the former of whom quits the organization due to the latter's death.
- That being said, Gordeau, Chaos, and even Enkidu still have some level of attachment to her as she isn't always a terrible person around them. Both Gordeau and Chaos' arcade modes in the 1st game are not canon so the organization's in-fighting never happens but both of them try and stop Hilda from confronting Kuon for her safety.
Hated by All: The reason she's either the Final Boss or Climax Boss of every character's Arcade story besides Enkidu's, Londrekia's, and her own; nobody wants to see her as a Re-Birth. It's been suggested that not even her own allies within Amnesia seem to like her that much or fully agree with her plan, and most of them have other reasons to be in the organization besides genuine loyalty to her. Chaos and Gordeau are at least on relatively friendly terms with her, but both agree they need to stop her from losing herself completely.
Hidden Depths: A small gag in Gordeau's Chronicle story reveals that Hilda likes model train sets.
- She is also able to understand the nature of Kuon's powers within only a few minutes of conversation during her Chronicles Mode.
Jerkass: More than just being a power-hungry antagonist, Hilda is also just a straight-up bitch. She acts very smug and demeaning towards pretty much everyone, and tries to take advantage of Gordeau's complicated feelings surrounding Roger's death to sway him into doing her bidding, and in one arcade route leaves him bleeding out on the floor and attacks Chaos when he tries to help him. She gets into fights with people that aren't even aware of who she is simply because of how much a condescending bitch she is. Exactly how much of this is due to her going nuts from having too much EXS inside her is up to speculation, but it's implied she was a little more mellow before the events of the games.
Lady of Black Magic: She's a glamorous diva with a thirst for power, willingness to flaunt her sex appeal, and overwhelming power over darkness.
Leitmotif: Overwhelm Despair. Sys:Celes gives her a new one by the name of Relatively Despair. She's notably the only character to get an entirely new theme instead of a remix of her original one like everyone else. Makes sense considering she got demoted from boss character to being a regular.
Leeroy Jenkins: The Amnesia attack plan that Chaos used as a distraction when he needed to steal the book from Licht Kreis was revealed to him by Gordeau to not actually have been a plan at all, Hilda just ran in like an idiot trying to beat up everyone she saw and Amnesia's low ranking members followed her lead. Gordeau had to spend most of the battle keeping her from going too deep and getting herself killed.
Living Lie Detector: In her Chronicles Mode, she mentions her ability to tell if someone is lying, though it's unclear whether this is simply intuition or a side effect of her manifestation.
Long-Range Fighter: She can cover even more range than Vatista with simpler controls to boot. However, she doesn't have much to defend herself should enemies get close to her.
Mistaken for Prostitute: When she meets Akatsuki, he says that he mistook her for "one of these professionals who ply their trade at night"... Naturally, she doesn't take it well.
Noblewoman's Laugh: She has a habit of belting one of these out every now and then.
Oddly Small Organization: Despite Amnesia's reputation out in the night and the fact that it's stated to be the single-largest group of in-births in the city, there are only been seven members total that we've seen. Hilda does however, have a bunch of unseen and unnamed guards that are employed at her complex though. Chronicle Mode reveals that the shown members of Amnesia shown are the ones that really matter while a bunch of nameless goons forms its bulk. Developer Streams confirm that Amnesia stands at around 200 members strong.
One-Hour Work Week: Hilda isn't formally employed but she has a large amount of disposable income thanks to being sponsored by a research company that is interested in her limitless amount of EXS and particularly powerful vessel.
Orgasmic Combat: She makes some... pretty suggestive noises when hurt. Her voice actress Hatsumi Takada is famous for her roles in hentai.
Pointy-Haired Boss: She is the organization's head and arguably its strongest combatant but she hardly does any of the work involved in logistics and other strategic nuances that comes with running an organization. She opts to party and play around with her money while the work is done by Chaos. The latter has to drag her around for her to do any work. Hilda only gets serious about her position when it involves her finalizing her plans to become a Re-Birth and setting up the Altar of Light and Darkness, which still had Chaos do a lot of preparations.
Powers Do the Fighting: What she mostly does is point to a direction and/or sitting and she can make shadow blades appear wherever she wants. Her crouching A attack (2A) is the only move where she actually does something physical, and it's just a slight kick.
Rich Bitch: Hilda's wealth comes from striking up contracts with real-world research companies who have just discovered the power of EXS but with little to no understanding of it. Hilda offers to showcase the possibilities of EXS-based powers in exchange for large sums of money which she uses to fund Amnesia and the constant parties she throws. Due to the negotiations being entirely in her favor, Hilda is able to give very little information in exchange for a lot of money.
Shaping Your Attacks: Many of her attacks involve shaping darkness into blades.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Hilda flirts with everyone. The most shining example is her first encounter with Hyde. When she catches him staring at her chest (read: her Vessel), she starts dancing seductively and shows him even more skin.
Slouch of Villainy: She does this on a seat of darkness when using certain moves and as her crouching animation.
Smug Snake: While she is a genuinely powerful force and the protagonists DO fear her power, she's nowhere near as smart or cunning as she thinks she is and most of her success comes from her absolute broken powers and Chaos` planning. Take away either of those and she's hardly a threat.
Sneeze Cut: Is subject to this in Phonon's Arcade Route. When Phonon encounters Gordeau, he mentions how Phonon's faux-air of being a sadist reminds him of his friend and former boss, cue the scene quickly changing to Hilda sneezing at the Altar of Light and Darkness, and immediately back to Gordeau and Phonon continuing their casual conversation.
Storm of Blades: Her Condense Gloom and Nail Torrent specials.
Squishy Wizard: Hilda can combo her opponent from across the screen, and is a dangerous zoner. She also has the 4th lowest health out of the playable cast and has fewer tools at close range, so she's easily hurt if the opponent manages to close the distance on her.
Super Power Lottery: Her winning it so hard drove her crazy with power and is the only reason anyone cares about her existence. Her EXS allows her to teleport and craft some kind of black matter from nothing. It's so strong Gordeau doesn't think he has a good chance against her, even though she's not even that particularly good at using her own powers beyond overwhelming her opponent.
Strong, but Unskilled: While she is ridiculously powerful in raw strength, she has little to no tact or strategy and relies on overwhelming her opponents. Most of the time, however, her arrogance is justified.
Take Over the World: In her UNI2 ending, Hilda gets pretty much everything she asks for and she finally becomes a Re-Birth, using her power to begin a campaign of world conquest. The only thing standing in her path of domination being Adelheid.
Underestimating Badassery: Hyde initially assumes that such a strange woman became the boss of Amnesia by relying on her good looks and amazing rack. He's proven wrong when she scares the shit out of him with her true power as he's leaving her mansion.
The Unfought: Hilda isn't fought whatsoever in the Arcade stories for Enkidu and Londrekia. This can be chalked down to Enkidu simply having no interest in her and doing his job properly as a member of Amnesia and Londrekia's main priority being Orie and Wagner.
Ungrateful Bitch: She attacks Chaos in his arcade mode even though all he wanted to do was get Gordeau medical attention, despite Chaos doing literally all her work and planning for her to prepare the altar for the Hollow Night.
Unwitting Pawn: She's one to Linne's older brother Kuon.
Unskilled, but Strong: Gordeau mentions that a good chunk of Hilda's combat ability is due to her overwhelming ability and usability of her powers. Hilda doesn't rely on tactics other than overpowering her opponent and this is exemplified during Hilda's conversation with Enkidu where the latter's combat philosophy goes completely over her head and she simply states that power means everything.
Younger Than They Look: In her early 20's suggested by her frequent visits to Gordeau's bar and extensive collection of colorful alcohol in her backroom. She is said to be two or three years older than Yuzuriha, who is at least around ages 18-20.

Eltnum

See the guest characters section here.

Characters / Under Night In-Birth: Original Cast

Original Cast (Hyde | Later Additions) | Sys:Celes | Guest Fighters and NPCS

Linne

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Sarah Anne Williams (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Tomomi Mineuchi (Chitose)
Kuu voiced by: Hatsumi Takada

Waldstein

Voiced by: Kouji Ishii (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Carmine Prime

Voiced by: Takashi Kondo (Japanese), Greg Chun (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Orie Ballardiae/"Harada"

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle)

Gordeau

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Ian Sinclair (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Merkava

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Ben Diskin (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Unit 10076 AKA: Vatista

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Seth

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese), Mark Whitten (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Aimi Terakawa (Young)

Yuzuriha

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese, first game), Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese, Sys:Celes), Erica Lindbeck (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Hilda

Voiced by: Hatsumi Takada (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Under Night In-Birth: Original Cast

Edit Locked

Original Cast (Hyde | Later Additions) | Sys:Celes | Guest Fighters and NPCS

Linne

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Sarah Anne Williams (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Tomomi Mineuchi (Chitose)Kuu voiced by: Hatsumi Takada

Waldstein

Voiced by: Kouji Ishii (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Carmine Prime

Voiced by: Takashi Kondo (Japanese), Greg Chun (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Orie Ballardiae/"Harada"

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle)

Gordeau

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Ian Sinclair (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Merkava

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Ben Diskin (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Unit 10076 AKA: Vatista

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Seth

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese), Mark Whitten (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Aimi Terakawa (Young)

Yuzuriha

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese, first game), Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese, Sys:Celes), Erica Lindbeck (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Hilda

Voiced by: Hatsumi Takada (Japanese), Allegra Clark (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle)

Previous

Index

Next

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Sarah Anne Williams (English, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle), Tomomi Mineuchi (Chitose)
Kuu voiced by: Hatsumi Takada