Filia's story

[Legendaryfonics]

The SkullGirls mobile twitter has started dropping teasers for Filia's origin story. We've only gotten one scene from it, I thought it would be worth discussing since her backstory has been a mystery for the most part.



What do you all think of it so far?
For me personally, there's not too much to say about it, other than it's pretty cute, apart from the fact Samson is attached to the doggie, that's not cute. At all.

 

[Fel]

If you play through the SG2E story modes, there are glimpses and hints towards Filia/Painwheels backstories so it'll be interesting to finally see what happened. I didn't notice Samson's face on the Dog, pretty interesting detail.

We know that Filia requested to have her memories erased to Samson and that Carol is involved in that incident, so everything they've teased seems to line up with that. Perhaps Samson's first target was Carol?

 

[BallotBoxer]

I'm in hype overload for the Filia story. Plus, it is kind a like a bonus Painwheel origin story too since Carol plays a big part in it.

I wonder if they will incorporate some of the stuff hinted in the alternate endings, where Filia asked Samson to erase certain memories when they merged. Like, what was so terrible that Filia wanted to forget forever?

If you play through the SG2E story modes, there are glimpses and hints towards Filia/Painwheels backstories

Yes! There are 3 panels:
1. left to right: Carol, Maplecrest suburbs, mysterious guy, and (possible host) shaggy dog with Samson's toothsome grin. Remember folks, when a parasite separates, the host dies, so R.I.P. shaggy dog.


2. left to right: classmates, Filia before Samson, Carol


3. clockwise, from the left: possibly Filia's parents, Filia talking to Carol at the Grand Cathedral, Mrs. Victoria in front of the school, and three Medicis: Vitale, uknown (possibly one of Lorenzo's sons) and Lorenzo in silhouette. It is yet to be directly confirmed by the games or Lab Zero, but Filia is thought to be the granddaughter of crime boss Lorenzo Medici.

The story has it all: highschool drama, parasites, kidnapping, Medici mobsters, tragedy, and maybe Double creeping around.

 

[OrionsDagger]

Huh...the big artcard near the end during Samson transferring to Filia is full of a lot of interesting details. Hm...like, I can't get a picture with any sort of ease but I can definitely speculate of of its composition.

First, in the yellow is obviously imagery of Samson's hosts, Filia being the newest, with Dog not far behind, and whom I can say with 95% certainty is Delilah with the hairpin swords. The empty yellow circles might represent numerous insignificant hosts that stretched the years between Delilah and Dog.

Blue is seemingly memories, perhaps positive ones, as the red is seemingly negative memories, with the lowest ones being Filia's and the upper ones appearing to be Samson's to some capacity. Filia's blue memories are of Carol, her mom and her dad. Samson's blue memories are Leviathan with a past host and a character I don't recognize to any capacity, but the thing on her back is fairly reminiscent of Vice-Versa, so perhaps one of Cerebella's ancestor's, maybe the one who created Vice-Versa to begin with? Who knows, maybe Vice-Versa was among the first living weapons made...complete speculation here...maybe Cerebella's ancestor was the originator of the creation of living weapons?

Red memories seem pretty self-explanatory, Fila's being the Marie, Vitale, and a very sinister Ottomo...feels like Filia is gonna have real negative reactions to Ottomo...whenever that happens, who cares if she has amnesia... As for Samson's red memories we see Mother, Aeon, and Venus, however their presence is accompanied by Sekhmet and what looks to be Eliza's original appearance.

So while Filia's memories don't really expand further beyond what we knew before and what we've learned in this Origin Story (although I suspect Ottomo is likely to be someone Filia is eventually going to have to face and overcome, even if she doesn't know why) Samson's memories hint at whatever it is that happened between Parasites and the Trinity that we've seen hints of before within what we currently know about Eliza. They also might hint at the origin of living weapons, and by extension, the nature of theonite itself.

 

[ROTHY]

I got you covered

 

[BallotBoxer]

Yeah, that sea foam green bubble at the top is the most interesting. That looks like Leviathan, but that isn't Squigly's father, so it might be a Contiello ancestor? And I agree, that might be Cerebella's mother! (she was said to be good at crafting Living Weapons)


Filia's Origin Story
Grade: A
Notes:

• If Filia got her memories back, she could become Batman if she wanted. Same watch-your-parents-get-gunned-down-before-you backstory
• Marie has access to Skull Heart's memories? She kinda recognized Samson when she spared Filia's family. But I think it was the parasite, rather than the war orphan that recognized him. Samson and Skull Heart have met before (as Samson boasted, fighting Skullgirls of the past)
• Vitale is such a petty piece of $#*%. Probably already hated his older brother Marcus because he would be heir to the criminal empire, but even after Marcus quit the crime family Vitale came to eliminate him anyway.
• I find it amusing how some characters went all the way out in the suburbs to Filia's house. Like I imagine Marie floating around with a map looking for a Medici mansion. Or Vitale driving out with his kill squad to check on his brother (Black Dahlia might have been there too if Lorenzo wasn't freaking out over the recently-lost life gem)
• Which came first: Marcus cutting ties with the criminal side of the family or Carol's kidnapping. Was she specifically kidnapped as some kind of retaliation by Vitale? An indirect attack at Marcus for quitting? Or did Marcus decide to quit after finding out his daughter's best friend was abducted into their evil human-trafficking network?

 

[BallotBoxer]

Filia look out! Vitale used his unblockable BB3, "Thug Thump"

Of all the characters to appear, I was not expecting Vitale's bionic butler. Re-reading his "3rd DLC Character" outline (https://www.labzerogames.com/3rdcharacter/), makes me think he is doing more than a simple smack:

OTTOMO
The Medicis' outwardly refined mechanical henchman, piloted by the foul-mouthed Dagonian engineer Tom. Ottomo may appear comical, but he is nevertheless a lethal clutter of advanced weapons used to take care of family business.

Playstyle Speculation
Ottomo moves in a particularly strange fashion - he’s very lanky, and Tom likes to pilot him with a bit of extra flavor, so Ottomo attacks with dance moves when possible. The moonwalk, the Smooth Criminal lean, and of course The Robot are all incorporated into his unique style. In addition to classic robot references like the “guts”/Gaoo pose, he’d also have bullet fingers, hidden guns and missiles, and extendable limbs.

Gameplay Inspiration
Gre Nade (Evolution: The World of Sacred Device), Rugal (King of Fighters series), Dudley (Street Fighter III), Henry Hatsworth, Brocken (World Heroes series), Hsien-ko (Darkstalkers series), Robo Ky (Guilty Gear series), Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 (Terminator), Pretty Boy / Guardroid (Punisher arcade), Robo-Z (Bust a Groove), Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, KITT and Michael Knight (Knight Rider)​

It could be a judo chop, but it now looks like he is aiming his creepy gun fingers at Filia and Dog/Samson.

Makes one think about the healing properties of merging with a parasite. Leviathan saved Squigly from gunshot wound to the head, and Samson saved Filia from a severe beating/multiple gunshots.

 

[Sairus]

Makes one think about the healing properties of merging with a parasite. Leviathan saved Squigly from gunshot wound to the head, and Samson saved Filia from a severe beating/multiple gunshots.

Levi didn't really save Squigly... She is very dead
He just stops the Skullgirl controlling her every time one shows up and revives her.

 

[BallotBoxer]

lol, yeah, that is technically correct. Squigly did "die" (cease normal functioning), but I attribute some credit to Leviathan's regenerative power to sustain Squigly (reduce decay) when there isn't a nearby Skullgirl, and to repairing Squigly somewhat from the gunshot wound that killed her.

Reminds me of conversations back on Skullheart forum (5 years ago!) when we were trying to figure out if the last 3 frames (below) were dying Squigly POV shots of Leviathan eating her left eye:

Spoiler: chomp