Black Dahlia (JP: ブラック・ダリア Burakku Daria) is a downloadable character in Skullgirls 2nd Encore.
A mysterious woman who is at least partially mechanical, Black Dahlia has risen through the ranks of the Medici Mafia's minions to become one of Lorenzo Medici's top enforcers. When she's not acting as his personal bodyguard, she's being sent on the most important and heinous missions for the Medicis. She has worked for Lorenzo for at least fourteen years.
She trains prospective enforcers working for Cirque des Cartes, referred to by Regina as their "conflict coach". She is also the trainer of the Medici's legion of female assassins who dress in bunny suits and specialize in hidden weapons, such as the footblades Cerebella uses.
Four of these bunnies serve her as her personal assistants;
- The Timeout Assistant Bunny: Bookie (JP: ブッキー Bukkī)
- The Shotgun Bunny: Bonnie (JP: ボニー Bonī)
- The Pistol Bunny: Buttercup (JP: バターカップ Batākappu)
- The Knife Bunny: Killer (JP: キラー Kirā)
Creation and development[]
Black Dahlia was the third possible DLC character to be revealed in the Keep Skullgirls Growing Indiegogo campaign, at $60,000. It has been stated that she is one of the characters who would need to be made playable for the canon Skullgirls storyline to be revealed.
A mid air hitstun rough frame of Black Dahlia appeared briefly around minute 25:36 in Future Club's Umbrella Animation Stream of October 12, 2021.
A teaser for the reveal of a "NEXT SKULLGIRLS CHARACTER!" was posted on Skullgirls' official social media on December 2, 2021. On December 5, 2021, Black Dahlia was revealed as the upcoming character for Skullgirls 2nd Encore at the end of the Umbrella trailer showcased at the fighting game event, CEO 2021, after the game's Grand Finals. The trailer was also uploaded to the Skullgirls' official YouTube channel on the same day.
On January 28, 2022, a portion of Black Dahlia's action shot was first shown in a post on the official Twitter account of the winter fighting game event, Frosty Faustings.
On April 10, 2022, "Dahlia's debut" was announced as part of the 10th anniversary celebration for the Skullgirls's first release. On May 11, 2022, it was announced a world exclusive early access to play as Black Dahlia at the Skullgirls booth of the fighting game convention, Combo Breaker 2022.
A trailer for the Steam release of Black Dahlia's alpha development phase was uploaded to the Skullgirls' official YouTube channel on May 25, 2022. It was also announced that Season 1 Pass holders on Steam would be able to play as Black Dahlia during her alpha phase by June, in which she would look "sketchy" and be mostly functionally complete; and during her beta phase by the third quarter of 2022, in which her animations and voice lines would be finished along with a possible debut of her stage and theme music. By the last quarter of 2022, her full release would also be available on other platforms outside of Steam.
Design[]
Aside from using hidden weapons that hide across her body, her concept art for her moves also show that the gun on her arm can change into other weapons such as a chainsaw, a chicken sickle/fleur-de-lis spears, a bayonet-like weapon, an axe/halberd and a gun with a saw. The mask she wears obscures her face in all known pictures.
Black Dahlia is a human cyborg but is sometimes mistaken for an elf. Alex Ahad stated the idea that she was elven sprung from the misinterpretation of a piece of art where her ears were stylistically more pointed, but never meant to indicate she was anything but human.
She is around 50 to 60 years old, but the extent of how much she has aged is unknown due to her mechanical parts and exposure to the Life Gem. Peacock refers to her as an old hag.
Dahlia lost both her legs and her right arm in her first fight with a Skullgirl. Possibly something happened to her face too, but no one knows what it looks like now, not even the devs as it was also confirmed in another stream that they don't even have what her face looks like in her reference model sheets.
Backstory[]
Many years ago her body was grievously injured in a Skullgirl attack, but due to the efforts of Anti-Skullgirl Labs founder Dr. Geiger, she was rebuilt with a formidable armament of projectile weaponry. She was the first ASG created. Black Dahlia's time in the Labs drove her mad, as she used to be a lot different and had a different name before becoming an assassin. Much like Big Band, she was a veteran ASG agent who resided within the labs years before the parasite experimentation that would eventually birth Peacock and Painwheel took place and as such she too is not equipped with a synthetic parasite. Black Dahlia eventually went rogue from the Anti-Skullgirl Labs and now works as a seasoned assassin for the Medici Mafia.
Closer to the events of the game, Black Dahlia was sent to pursue the Fishbone Gang following their theft of the Life Gem. She killed them all, cut them into pieces, and dropped the remains in the bay of Little Innsmouth. Unbeknownst to Dahlia at the time, one member of the gang - Nadia Fortune - survived her fate, having consumed and bonded with the Life Gem prior to her "demise".
Role[]
Skullgirls 2nd Encore Story Mode[]
Peacock's story[]
Black Dahlia appeared at the end of Peacock's story, where she was summoned by Lorenzo when the cartoonish cyborg launched an assault against the Medici Mafia. Confronting Peacock in her superior's office, Black Dahlia traded barbs with her opponent before engaging her in battle to allow Lorenzo to escape.
Squigly's story[]
In Squigly's story, Black Dahlia was among the Medici enforcers sent to eliminate the Contiello family after a mysterious woman informed them that Selene Contiello had gained possession of the Skull Heart. Dahlia herself administered the fatal blow to Selene's young daughter, Sienna, taunting Selene the entire time. Shortly afterwards, Black Dahlia was likely among those that battled Selene after she became a Skullgirl.
Black Dahlia's story[]
After taking Lorenzo into the Medici dirigible when Marie was beginning her final assault, she starts to get annoyed with Lorenzo, mocking his condition since she just saved his life only for Lorenzo to snapped about his conditions about how most of his people can't handle Marie and his distrust of his son Vitale and Cirque Des Cartes. Black Dahlia points that she can't both protect him and get him the revenge he so desires and asks him whats more important. After Lorenzo gives Black Dahlia the go ahead, she convenes with Bonnie, Buttercup and Killer. She grabs a jetpack taken from the Black Egrets. Black Dahlia uses it to flies towards Marie and then lets go of the jetpack to hit the Skullgirl while she's holding the top half of Medici Tower! With that one action, Dahlia manages to rack up a kill count of thousands, and it only gets worse from there. After managing to kill Marie, rather than try and destroy the Skull Heart or wish on it like so many others, Dahlia elects to simply keep it around, seeing it as the perfect bait for Ms. Fortune and a great way to generate her own entertainment.
Personality[]
Black Dahlia has no true loyalty to the Medici Mafia and only serves as Lorenzo's consigliere as a constant excuse to be violent. She was always “rough around the edges”.
Against Sora's Team[]
Black Dahlia recruited to kill innocent people by Xehanort, she criminal partner of Malty, Mald, Lesty, Yanagisawa, Ouma, Knight Leader, Relius, Kurow, King, and villains then she is with her troops is Vanguard of Waves member make Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo, Melty, Rishia, Ren, and Itsuki know already from earlier, she hates Rei, Komuro, Isogai, Yoichi, Ohkawa, Maehara, Kimizuki, Bonnie, Ange, Sugino, Garcia, Revy, Nagisa, Karma, Kimura, Mimura, Ooyama, Miyagusuku, Kisaragi, Itona, Mochizuki, Kazami, Kouichi, Lucy, Mochida, Kanon, Kanzaki, Hinano, Kayano, Hotel Moscow, Balalaika, Naofumi, Itsuki, Yada, and heroes from Sora's Team as assassins or not, she is annoyed with Class 3-E, and Rokuro calls her a old hag bitch make her angry even though Her is angry with Class 3-E, Rokuro, and Heroes due to Class 3-E more dangerous than skull heart, she finally knows that she sees Class 3-E like her problematic teacher due to Class 3-E's more annoying then Class 3-E have recovery abilities so strong that Dahlia is bored with Class 3-E annoyed from their chatter and their actions that destroy her nest due to Isogai blew up her nest with five her favourite birthday cake with gift that them kept as backup weapons when Class 3-E pranked, Eliza, and Black Dahlia happy with Class 3-E and Isogai even though Black Dahlia annoyed with Class 3-E as Lorenzo's killer and destroy her place even though his base can recovered but her actually learns from Class 3-E due to Class 3-E is like her rabbit so her let Class 3-E kill Lorenzo, and some of villains as same team but Eliza, and her actually happy with Class 3-E as honourable enemy two of them have fighting style both alone and together make Black Dahlia impressed with Class 3-E due to actually Her, and Eliza hates Yanagisawa then likes Yanagisawa send hell by Class 3-E through Korosensei, due to Dahlia, Horace, Albus, her bunny, and Eliza help Class 3-E, Isogai, and Heroes to kill some of villains as her friend due to her, Eliza, Horace, Albus, and their rabbits hate Goddess, Malty, Rojeel, Malty, Ehit, Tomoki, Hibiki Otonashi, Ehit, Limia, Io, Rona, Nurarihyon, evil Yokai, Natsuko, Lily Gritonia, Sion, King, Kaho, residents main building Kunugigaoka junior high school, and other criminals as arrogant creatures even though Class 3-E like Black Dahlia as assassins but her, and Eliza see Class 3-E is perfect forever enemy due to Eliza and her very liking Korosensei's teachings before death first killed by Class 3-E through Nagisa stab Korosensei heart.