Helena Douglas

Helena Douglas (エレナ・ダグラス Erena Dagurasu?) is a player character in the Dead or Alive fighting game series by Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo. She was introduced in 1999's Dead or Alive 2 as a French opera singer who intended to avenge her mother's murder. Because of her familial ties to the original head of the antagonistic group DOATEC, Fame Douglas, she has became a key character in the franchise, including as the protagonist of Dead or Alive 4.

Appearances

Helena Douglas is the illegitimate daughter of Fame Douglas and his mistress Maria, a world-class soprano opera singer. Seemingly distant from her father and his work Helena was hardly affected by his assassination. Helena followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a famous opera singer in her own right. While performing at the Great Opera House, she was targeted by an unknown assassin (later revealed to be Christie) using a sniper rifle. Maria, who was present with her, spotted the rifle at the last second, dove in front of her daughter and was killed instantly. The assassin fled, leaving Helena alone and covered in her mother's blood. Helena set out for vengeance, utilizing the piguaquan fighting style.

In video games

In Dead or Alive 2 backstory, while searching for the culprit, the 21-year-old Helena discovers that the murders of her parents and attempt on her own life are somehow related to the Dead or Alive (DOA) World Combat Championship, and enters the tournament to discover the truth. Although never explained in the series, Helena appears to have learned or known information pertaining to DOATEC corporation, most notably the ill-fated Epsilon Project when she encountered Hayate suffering from amnesia. During the tournament, Helena also encounters Ayane whom she accuses of being her mother's murderer. Ayane neither confirms nor denies having killed Helena's mother, after which a fight breaks out between the two.

Helena is later captured by Victor Donovan and imprisoned prior to the events of Dead or Alive 3, where she is the main character.^[3] Although Helena, the reluctant heiress, states that she has no connection to DOATEC, Donovan tells her that the only way to obtain her freedom and know the truth behind DOATEC is to win the third tournament. In the meantime, Donovan assigns Christie to keep an eye on Helena and, should the need arise, kill her if she discovers too much. Helena soon confronts Christie, who admits that she is an assassin sent to kill her.

In Dead or Alive 4, Helena takes control as the new chairman of DOATEC. She invites the assassin Bayman to the DOATEC Tritower in order to hire him to take out Donovan, but he declines. That night, the Tritower comes under attack by the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan. Helena comes across Lisa, who admits she tricked the ninja into attacking to stop Donovan. She later crosses paths with Kokoro, and reveals they are blood-related, as Miyako (Kokoro's mother) was one of Fame's mistresses. Helena finally finds out that Christie killed her mother and confronts her. The end result to their fight is left unknown, except that they both survive. In her CG ending, Helena decides to go down together with DOATEC and subsequently sets the Tritower complex on self-destruct.

In Dead or Alive 5, plagued by flashbacks of her deceased mother, Helena moves up to the helipad between the three towers that make up the complex. On her way, Helena flashes back to the death of Anna, a mistress of Fame Douglas. Meanwhile, Ayane, Hayate, and Hayabusa are using ninpo powers to destroy the towers and the DOATEC security forces while Kasumi battles her clone, Alpha-152. Helena, willingly giving up her life, was about to be consumed by the flames of the burning buildings when Zack suddenly saves her, flying in with a helicopter. She becomes the leader of the newly reformed DOATEC and announces the revival of the DOA tournaments. She asks Hayate, Ryu Hayabusa (who does not accept) and Ayane to help Kasumi on her mission to finish off the Kasumi clones.

Design

Although Helena is an opera singer, she possessed a thin busty hourglass and has triangular bangs in front of her face.^[4] She is 5'-07" high and wieghts 108 lbs, with the measurements of 35-22-34,^[5][6] and has long blonde hair and blue/green eyes. Her appearance changed in Dead or Alive 5 where she was given slightly smaller eyes as well as having her hair shortened so that, while still longer than most of the female cast, it does not reach her feet like before. Dead or Alive 5 Last Round pre-order bonuses included Helena's operatic "Showstopper" costume from Amazon.^[7][8]

Gameplay

According to IGN, "as one of the most technical characters in" Dead or Alive 3, "Helena has truckload of different special techniques and arguably the most powerful punch attacks in the game."^[9] IGN opined that in Dead or Alive Ultimate Helena is a "great mixture of leg and fist strength, Helena is not the easiest character to master, but when you do master her techniques, you'll dominate," and advised: "If you aren't sure whom to pick, but you want someone good, Helena is the way to go."^[10] Helena is an unlockable character in Dead or Alive 4,^[11] in which she has many good "launcher" attacks.^[12] According to Official Xbox Magazine, in Dead or Alive Extreme beach volleyball games Helena is "almost average all the way around in terms of power, attack range, and back row handling, [and] she's best as an asset for defense rather than offense."^[13]

In film

In the film DOA: Dead or Alive, Helena is portrayed by Sarah Carter. She once again hosts the tournament. However, her personality is very different than in the game. She seems more outgoing, cheery, and energetic, as shown when she is seen skating on roller skates, set different from her somewhat cold and serious nature. In addition, other than a brief comment about wanting to visit Paris, there is little indication that she was French or even of French heritage.

Reception

The character has been mostly well received by video game critics and fans alike. Described by IGN as a "gorgeous" and "classy French vixen" with "wonderfully fluid motions",^[2][9] Helena was voted the DOA series' tenth most popular character in Japan in the publisher Koei Tecmo's own poll in 2014.^[14] Official Dreamcast Magazine commented Helena proved the stereotype of the "fat opera chick" to be "wildly inaccurate,"^[4] GameFront included her among the top video game girls of all time in 2007,^[15] and GameHall's Portal PlayGame ranked her as the eleventh most sexy female video character in 2014, also noting her as in their opinion the most beautiful in the Dead or Alive series.^[16] IGN's Hilary Goldstein wrote in 2004, "Call us sick, perverted bastards, but our main desire is to pit Kasumi against Hitomi, Helena against Tina."^[17] On the other hand, Joystiq's Ludwig Kietzmann questioned "the practices of Helena Douglas, a supposedly French CEO who dresses for sultry cabaret and literally beats up her employees."^[18] Helena's father Fame was also included in Kotaku's 2009 list of the best and worst fathers in video games.^[19]

See also

• List of Dead or Alive characters

References

External links

• Official website (DOA5)