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Hi there, Rebel scum! This is our ringblade! OF DEATH! Hahahahahahahaha!
—Tira
Tira (nicknamed the Misguided Angel of Death) was a Human born and raised on the planet Earth. Tira served the cursed sword Soul Edge, which at one point incarnated itself as Nightmare but later claimed Palpatine as a new body.
Biography[]
Early Years (1574-1591)[]
Little is known about Tira's past. She was raised as an assassin in the organization "Bird of Passage" where she developed a taste for killing and an enjoyment of the sight of death. However, the "Evil Seed", fragments of the evil sword Soul Edge, began destroying the organization, driving the leader mad and eventually killing him.
Tira therefore attempted a peaceful life with an adopted family, but could still not suppress her desire to kill. When she was scolded for releasing her youngest sister's pet bird, she slaughtered her entire family and effectively ended her peaceful life.
As Nightmare's servant (1591)[]
Eventually, Tira found out about Soul Edge and its embodiment, Nightmare, and felt that the sword was a kindred spirit due to its great evil, developing a twisted affinity for the sword and its puppet. She met Nightmare and was therefore charged with two tasks: to destroy Soul Edge's antithesis, the spirit sword Soul Calibur, and to locate a new, permanent body for Soul Edge. In order to fulfill these objectives, Nightmare granted her the protection and service of a sentry of unknown black birds, known as "the watchers".
When Siegfried Schtauffen, wielder of Soul Calibur, finally met Nightmare and fought against him, the destruction unleashed by Soul Calibur and Soul Edge scarred Tira's mind, and left her with two personalities, "Jolly Side" and "Gloomy Side" that were extremes of the positive and negative aspects of her original personality, respectively. When Nightmare was subsequently revived, Tira resumed her service to him until he was sealed away by Siegfried, along with Soul Calibur.
During her time as Nightmare's servant, Tira manipulated some of the world's great warriors, such as Astaroth and Sophitia Alexandra into harvesting souls for Soul Edge and helping the blade in other ways.
Searching for Palpatine (1591 and 4 ABY)[]
When Soul Edge and Soul Calibur were sealed away by Siegfried, a portal opened leading to another universe. Soul Edge was then revived by the Force energy emanating from the other universe. He became aware of the presence of one of the most powerful beings in that universe - Emperor Palpatine, and ordered Tira to take him to the Emperor in order to claim him as a new body. Tira complied and, through manipulations, eventually found herself aboard the Death Star II, gaining new servants such as Boba Fett and Galen Marek along the way. Tira then tricked Palpatine into giving his body to Soul Edge, and was then consumed by the blade.
However, Darth Vader, the Emperor's own servant, eventually returned from Tira's universe, and noticed that his master was behaving strangely. Through his intervention, Palpatine was eventually freed from Soul Edge's control, Vader became the blade's new wielder, and Nightmare came to life once again due to his disgust over Vader's cyborg nature. Tira was then forced to serve Vader and search for his son, Luke Skywalker.
Personality and traits[]
We can't wait to tear you to pieces!
—Tira (Jolly Side), taunting a foe before a fight
Tira was highly schizophrenic and bipolar. One of her personalities, "Jolly Side", was an unnaturally happy personality that found great pleasure in killing, violence and evil, while her other personality, "Gloomy Side", was perpetually miserable and seemed to have a great hatred towards everything save for what her current loyalties lied at the time. However, as both personalities were actually extremes of an original, unstable personality, they shared many characteristics, including extreme sadism, sycophant-like behavior towards her superiors, and an immense fear and hatred of one such master, Darth Vader. Tira's two personalities would often argue with each other, and when speaking she would often refer to herself in the plural.
Tira wielded a chakram-like "ring blade" name Eiserne Drossel that resembled a large hula hoop with a sharp edge; despite its simplicity, like many other weapons from Earth, the weapon was thought to be just as versatile and potent as a lightsaber due to the extremely durable and seemingly unbreakable metal it was built from, and also due to the fact that it could not be broken by lightsabers or blaster fire. Her fighting style resembled bizarre dancing.
Tira was often accompanied by a flock of unidentified black birds known as "watchers"; these birds often acted as a sentry for her and scouted out events of importance. They would alert her to these events in an unknown manner.
Tira's physical appearance reflected her insanity; she was almost always seen with messy hair and trashed makeup, and she wore a freakish-looking red outfit. Her attire was also somewhat bird-like, in homage to the watchers and the other bird-like elements of her original order, "Bird of Passage"; her clothes were lined with bright green feathers that clashed hideously with the rest of her outfit, and she wore clawed gloves resembling bird's talons.
Tira developed a particular fondness for slaughtering Jedi Knights and harvesting their souls, as she shared the same hatred for the Jedi as Vader. In her Jolly Side mode, she would often intentionally annoy them through childish taunting while killing them slowly and painfully.
Behind the scenes[]
Tira is a character from the Soulcalibur series of video games. Her only appearance in true (albeit non-canon) Star Wars material was in Soulcalibur x Star Wars, although she had already appeared alongside several Star Wars characters in Soulcalibur IV.
Development[]
All Soulcalibur characters were given more developed personalities for Soulcalibur x Star Wars due to the extensive story mode. Tira's Jolly Side was conceived as a sadistic, insane, murderously playful psychopath who is easily intimidated and pushed around by her superiors; this personality was partly based on the DC Comics character Harley Quinn. Her Gloomy Side was developed as a scheming, cowardly egomaniac who relies on treachery and manipulation, similar to the various incarnations of the Transformers character Starscream, and was given an intense drive to overthrow her superiors.
As test audiences reacted negatively to Tira in previous Soulcalibur games, her personality and voice were slightly adjusted from past games to make her a more likable character. She was designed as the "comic relief" character among the game's villains, and given signature quirks such as abusing "OF DEATH!" as an adjective at the ends of her sentences (when in Jolly Mode), usually followed by maniacal giggling. In particular, the quote at the top of this page was intentionally designed to become a popular Internet meme.
Portrayals[]
In all her appearances, Tira was voiced by Jennifer Hale, who also voiced Bastila Shan in the Knights of the Old Republic games. (Shan reappears in Soulcalibur x Star Wars as a creatable character and a minor enemy in Darth Revan's story mode, again voiced by Hale.) In the original Japanese versions of the various Soulcalibur games, Tira was voiced by Masumi Asano.
Tira's English voice acting in Soulcalibur x Star Wars is significantly different from past Soulcalibur games, including Soulcalibur III and IV, largely due to the higher standards demanded by LucasArts for the game's English voices. Her voice when in Jolly Side mode is noticeably less scratchy, more realistic and closer to the original Japanese, although her Gloomy Side voice is largely unchanged.
Merchandise[]
Tira was released in Hasbro's third wave of Soulcalibur x Star Wars action figures. The figure came with the two different versions of Eiserne Drossel available in the game, as well as Soul Edge in ring blade form.
Tira is also one of the Imperial units in the Star Wars Miniatures set Legends of Soulcalibur.
Trivia[]
Like most other Soulcalibur characters in the game, Tira's default costume in Soulcalibur x Star Wars is directly based on her costume in Soulcalibur IV. However, her alternate costume is based on her green outfit from Soulcalibur III.
The original plan for the game's story was for Tira to be Force-sensitive and for her to become a Sith apprentice to Vader known as "Darth Kralle", with an alternate appearance for her as Kralle even envisioned; however, when the story became further developed, it was decided that no Earthlings, Tira included, would be able to use the Force naturally. Siegfried, Nightmare and Algol are currently the only Force-sensitive Earthlings in the game, and their Force sensitivity is explained in the game's storyline by supernatural ties with Luke and Vader through Soul Calibur and Soul Edge.
If Boba Fett is downloaded as a playable character to Soulcalibur IV, a new variation of the game's opening video is unlocked featuring Tira. In the video, Fett shoots down numerous watchers, only to be ambushed by Tira immediately afterwards.