Helena Douglas

Helena Douglas is a character from the Dead or Alive franchise.

Helena is an opera singer and pigua quan martial artist. She is the current leader of DOATEC, and the illegitimate daughter of the late Fame Douglas, the former head of the DOATEC, and Maria. She is also the half-sister of Kokoro.

Helena enters the Dead or Alive Tournament to find the assassin who killed her mother. Although she was being manipulated by Victor Donovan, she ends up inheriting control of DOATEC after her father’s death.

Appearance
Helena has an upper-class appearance. She is of average height. Her face is heart-shaped, she has sharp facial features, and blue-green eyes. Her hair is blonde, and reaches down past her waist, styled with segmented bangs that frame her face, and is tied into a low ponytail with a decorative bow; the bow changes color to match her outfits. Her appearance takes the most after her mother Maria.

Her outfits normally consist of dresses and suits, thigh-high boots, ruffles, bows, and cord ties. Her primary outfit is a black,blue, and white sleeveless catsuit with long leather thigh semi heel boots. She also wears long gloves, and a brown, silver, and blue vest with yellow tied lace to hold it up. Her outfits are usually opera and French themed, like dresses, suits, trousers, and royal jackets.

In Dead or Alive 5, her appearance has been altered to give her a less cartoonish appearance; Her eyes are slightly smaller. Her hair is also noticeably shorter, no longer past the waist as before, only coming to exactly the waist. Her bow no longer changes color to match her outfits, with it instead being a black lacy bow in all her attires. Her hair can also be worn loose for the first time in the series. In Last Round, she is given a new hairstyle: A side braid that sits on her right shoulder with braided sides.

In Dead or Alive 6 Helena remains the same but is further detailed, wearing a more modest black Chinese cheongasm dress with a short sleeved embroided vest to go with it. The dress features a simple cleavage opening and is slitted at the sides, and she wears sheer stockings with elegant flat black shoes to complete the look. Her chest is also slightly smaller than in Dead or Alive 5, its extensions, and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3/Venus Vacation.

Personality
Initially, Helena was outwardly haughty and unconcerned with other people. Above all else, she was obsessed with seeking revenge on her mother's killer. She appears to be willing to go through any means to achieve this end; however, this quest seems to drive her to an emotional brink. However, Helena is not intentionally cruel and has the ability to be kind and warm. This is shown by her friendships with Kasumi, Leifang and Gen Fu. It's also hinted in her fighter quotes that Helena is religious, or at least believes in a god and a hell.

When Helena returns during the events of the fifth tournament, she has gone through a few changes. No longer driven by revenge, she now seeks to reshape her father's company into something that could better benefit the world. On the side, however, she is focused on finding the whereabouts of the missing Donovan as well as Alpha-152. Helena now shows more of her caring side by seeking to ally herself with Kasumi and Hayate. She is also seems to be much friendlier to others, such as Bass Armstrong. However, she shows much more of her kindness when she once again meets with her half-sister, Kokoro. Due to how Kokoro is the only family she has left, Helena is determined to protect her, keeping their connections a secret before reluctantly revealing it when confronted with a picture of their childhood. She even went as far as begging Kokoro to stay. She is also shown to be modest regarding her attempts at running DOATEC, as when Misaki asks if she was a great CEO, she makes clear that, while she does try to be a responsible CEO, she cannot say that she is a particularly great CEO. She isn't above bragging, however, which she admits when receiving a birthday swimwear from the Owner.

Despite all the loss she has endured, Helena is able to accept death and move on from it, something she lectures NiCO about whilst rejecting her plans about resurrecting people.

Abilities
Helena's fighting style, pigua quan, is flowing and smooth; many of her attacks are graceful and move in a windmill-like formation. This is accompanied by the sheer speed of her attacks, and allocates dominance in a match when facing slower opponents, such as Bayman, Leon, Tina Armstrong, Bass Armstrong and La Mariposa. Her key stance is her Bokuho stance, from which she can execute a number of moves, and her mix-up game, execution time-frame, and air juggles are excellent due to her combo variety. Her varying attack ranges make up for her lack of brute power, for it can often prove difficult to counter against her at times because of this aspect.

However, she must be used in a combo-based fashion to execute sufficient damage, as her launchers and single strikes lack a high damage ratio. While her throws lack strength, they are some of the most quickly executed in the game, and can even be performed while in the aforementioned Bokuho stance.

Trivia

 * Helena's appearance, nationality, attitude and outfit choice are similar to Verny from Heaven's Gate. She also shares the same age prior to Dead or Alive 5.
 * Helena seems closer to her mother than her father, as shown in her obsession to find her murderer, whereas she was not interested to take care of her father's business in Dead or Alive 3 or find his murderer.
 * It could be assumed that because Helena was an illegitimate child she did not spend enough time with her father.
 * Helena is the first non-ninja character to win a tournament.
 * Helena's trademark is her bow, which she wears in all her costumes. The bow would also match the color of her costume as well, until Dead or Alive 5 in which she just wears a black laced bow (with the exception of the Christmas DLC in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, where she wears a large red package-ribbon bow in its place).
 * Even though she is of French nationality, she, or at least her family apparently takes residence in the Sankt Goarshausen region of Germany, since the Lorelei stage, located on the eponymous rockface in that region, is implied to be her home.
 * In all her english voice-overs (except DOA2: Hardcore), she speaks with a noticeable French accent.
 * Helena is the only character of the franchise whose voice actor makes a reappearance after being replaced. This is noted since Karen Strassman, Helena's current voice actor, first voiced her in Xtreme 2 but never reappeared in Dimensions, yet returned in the next installment, Dead or Alive 5.
 * As shown in the Dead or Alive 3 ending, Helena owns a black Labrador Retriever.
 * In Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, she can buy a dog collar for it.
 * In some of Helena's gravure scenes in the Xtreme sub-series, Helena can be seen reading a book called "Beach Side Lovers I," hinting that Helena's a fan of romance novels.
 * In Dead or Alive Dimensions, Helena defeated Kasumi α during the time of the third tournament, making her the first non-ninja character to defeat a ninja (although it is a clone).
 * Of all the those on vacation on New Zack Island in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, only Helena mentions Zack by his name. Helena is also the first female ever confirmed to invite someone to the island.
 * IGN featured Helena in their "Videogame Babe of the Day" series in 2006.
 * Despite being a pigua quan practitioner, some of Helena's moves incorporate the use of savate, a French martial art.
 * Helena's Halloween 2017 DLC costume depicts her as the siren Lorelei, a beautiful maiden of legends with long, golden hair and an enchanting voice, which lured fishermen to their death at a steep rock on the Rhine river. The Dead or Alive 3 stage, Lorelei, is set on exactly that legendary rock.