Hey guys I'm finally back with another obsessively detailed blog. Since my Peacock Blog was such a huge hit (shameless plug) I decided to next focus my analytical attention on the absolute darkest character in the whole game, prepare to hold back the feels as I present to you, Painwheel.
Background
Carol was a nice young girl living in New Meridian’s opulent, peaceful suburb, Maplecrest.
While living in Maplecrest, Carol had a very pleasant normal life,
she had a loving family, nice house and a great school life.
Carol spent most of her free time sewing, playing the Cello, and hanging with her BFF, Filia Medici, everything was just Peachy… … until.
Carol was caught in the
crossfire of a raid by the ninja nurse strike team, Last Hope on the Medici
mod in order to free the war refugees they were holding. After the smoke
cleared and the hostages were secured, Carol was found by Valentine, a member of Last Hope, who discovered
she had the extremely rare blood type that Lab 0 needed for its super soldier
project.
Poor Carol was kidnapped by Valentine and brought to Lab 0. Lab 0 is the top secret, off the books ASG Lab in charge of RESEARCHING SKULLGIRL BLOOD! Because of this undocumentation, Lab 0 was able to practice far more Immoral experiments then the normal ASG Labs.
After kidnapping Carol, Lab 0 proceeded to do several absolutely horrific experiments on her with the intent of turning her into the perfect Skullgirl slaughtering weapon. These treatments included several insane, Dr. Killebrew level surgeries, being infused with pure Skullgirl blood and being retrofitted with TWO of the most torturous looking synthetic parasites ever, completely destroying most of her soul in the process. Carol with her rare blood type managing to be the first person to survive the procedure.
After this, Carol was Activated and assigned the codename Subject 0-84, better known as Painwheel. Lab 0 tested out their new toy by setting her loose on a group of mafia goons. Painwheel slaughtered them but then attempted to flee back towards her old home and had to be recovered with mental control.
Naturally being Unstable and Violent after this, it was decided that Painwheel needed to be controlled. So Lab 0’s director Brain Drain, an evil, cyborg mad scientist with psychic powers, used his abilities to mentally control her, driving her insane and enraged in the process. Now a deadly monster, Painwheel was deployed with a single simple mission,
“Find the Skullgirl and Destroy Her, Retrieve The Skull Heart and Return it to Lab 0”
- Brain Drain
However once Painwheel was let loose, an unforeseen development occurred. Painwheels new blood began to resonate with the energies of The Skull Heart, drastically increasing her power the closer she got to the Skullgirl.
This allowed Painwheel to resist Brain Drains control just by being in the same city as the Skullgirl, even being able to resist her own Command Protocols with some difficulty, by the time she had reached the Grand Cathedral where the Skullgirl was residing, Brain Drain’s power over her had been completely severed. After defeating both Valentine and The Skullgirl, Painwheel disobeyed her order and destroyed the Skull Heart, wanting nothing more than her normal life back.
Painwheel then went back to her home, where in one of the saddest scenes I’ve ever seen, her parents could not stand the sight of her, and condemned her as a hideous monster despite her still being their little girl inside.
Not gonna lie, I still cry every time I see it. But it all worked out for Painwheel in the end, soon after she was found by the Lab 8 Agent, Big Band who helped her by adopting her into their little family,
and taking her back to (the MUCH nicer) Lab 8 to live with him, Peacock, Ileum, Hive and her future boyfriend Leduc.
Painwheel also enrolled herself back into her old school,
where she reunited herself with her best friend, Filia and retained a normal life,
...despite still being a tad mentally unwell. Though don’t think she's retired from fighting just yet, Painwheel actually conceals her Blades in that Cello case. The reason for this being Brain Drain is still attempting to control her, prompting Painwheel to not rest until she finds him... and ENDS HIM.
Personality
Painwheel's personality is quite literally the exact opposite of what one would assume from her appearance. Despite being a monster built to maim and kill without pity, mercy or remorse, her mind is still primarily that of Carol and was able to think and act for herself, even before gaining resistance to Brain Drain. Painwheel is generally a very kind, happy and positive girl wanting nothing more than a normal life. Her favorite things are flowers, gardening, walks on the beach at sunset, family and friends, the sound of wind chimes, puppies, nostalgic memories, Magenta and Proper etiquette. She actually hates a lot of the things she is commonly associated with such as Lab 0, Her creators, torture, frustration, mind control and well, Pain. Though being constantly surrounded by these things has made her violent, unstable and fueled by rage in combat, she is still a sweet person when you get to know her.
Intelligence/Sanity
Painwheel has average intelligence for her age, though her going through such a traumatic ordeal has left her damaged and enraged. Painwheel will often make rash decisions, and is prone to outbursts of unstable behavior. And due to Brain Drain constantly trying to control her, Painwheel does hear multiple voices in her head and suffers near constant migraines as a result. Furthermore Painwheel has proven rather easy to manipulate more than once.
Powers
Having the cursed blood of a Skullgirl infused into her isn’t just for show, It has boosted Painwheels physical body to having several superhuman abilities. These include:
- Superhuman Balance/Flexibility:
In a true Silent Hill-esque manner, Painwheel can bend and contort her body in all sorts of creepy, humanly impossible ways, to allow more devastating and less predictable attacks.
- Mind Control Resistance:
After Brain Drain took control of Painwheel, she constantly battled to gain her full freedom, and eventually took control.
- Sensing Aura:
Painwheel has the ability to track her targets by sensing their energy, using smell...somehow?
- Superhuman Strength:
Having Skullgirl blood, provides her with some of the Skullgirls power. Marie in the early stages of her Skullgirl power was able to lift an enormous skyscraper, and chuck it clear across a city. Even seriously lowballing the scaling to say Painwheel’s strength is only 1/1000th of this, she would be capable of lifting over 225 tons. And that's just lifting strength, her striking is far beyond this.
- Energy Projection:
Additionally to this strength, Painwheel also gained a limited amount of the Skullgirls energy projection, and can use this as a means of conveyance for long range attacks.
- Fast-Acting Healing Factor:
One of Painwheels most trademark abilities is her rapid healing. This Healing factor allows Painwheel to Instantly heal from any injury, including hundreds of gaping slash wounds, all manner of broken bones, and complete impalement through her body, including her brain and heart. Infact this healing factor stems from Skullgirls, who are capable of regenerating from a single heart.
- Hatred Install:
The Hatred Install is a superform Painwheel can access by releasing all her built up hate and anger.
Noted by it’s purple aura, this state causes Painwheel’s conscious mind to stop functioning, as she enters a blind rage, drastically increasing her strength, speed, stamina and brutality. Though the form will wear off after 30 seconds.
Gae Bolga Matrix
The Gae Bolga Matrix is one of Painwheel’s two Synthetic Parasites, Identified as a skull on the back of her head and nails found on her scalp, shoulders and knees. The GBM resides throughout Painwheel’s entire bloodstream, and allows Painwheel to produce enormous razor-sharp blades, spears, arrows and spikes through virtually any part of her body.
This Parasite is so mind bendingly deadly, it would surely kill anyone using it, EXCEPT for Painwheel.
Buer Drive
The Buer Drive is Painwheels second Synthetic Parasite, a gigantic 250 lbs pinwheel of blades implanted into her back. It is grafted into the center of her spine, and is branched off from the blade by an appendage made up of eight segments connected by fibers underneath. This appendage is flexible and somewhat stretchable. Each of the four blades can move independently from each other and can be controlled by Painwheel as easily as she controls any other limb. Further it can be detached from the control mechanism in her spine and stored in Painwheel’s Cello case.
Painwheel can spin the Buer Drive at speeds exceeding 200 mph based on the blur, and can use this to perform devastating buzz saw attacks of all variety. She can use it as a literal wheel to roll herself forward at high speeds, as well as gripping foes with it like a giant blade hand of death.
Though arguably the most useful feature of the Buer Drive is its ability to spin itself so fast, it becomes functional helicopter blades and enables Painwheel to fly.
Skills
Height: 5’01”
Weight: 375 lbs
Age: 15
Painwheel is for all intents and purposes an “Aerial Dominance” style fighter. Painwheel controls the air with her Buer Drive, and can contort her body into inhuman shapes and unleash her rage with brutal moves. Her spikes can paralyze opponents and she can use them as projectiles and extend them during attacks. Painwheel’s Mask is armor that protects her from attacks when charging her own in addition to nixing being thrown backwards from blows, allowing her to catch opponent off guard and counterattack. Then there's the Hatred Install, which boosts her power to the point it can turn a fight completely around. Painwheel’s unique fighting style, “The Not Quite Condemned” focuses on Brutality and Crippling harm over all else. Notable moves include:
- Animosity Barbs
Painwheel punches the ground hard enough to create an earthquake that rattles the whole background including large cities.
- Tortured Rose
Painwheel jumps in the air and grinds her GBM against her Buer Drive, creating a rain of burning sparks.
- Fracture
Painwheel kicks you in the face before breaking her leg and impaling you on a large pike.
- Bludgeon
Painwheel grows a dagger on the back of her heel before jumping up and reverse Axe-kicking her foe.
- Revulsion Shank
Painwheel uppercuts her foe white growing a plethora of jagged spikes on her arm.
- Violet Grudge
Painwheel jumps towards her foe with a spinning Buer Drive.
- Fury Sledge
She punches her opponent before sending out a large amount of giant nails
- Ratchet Poppy
All 4 of Painwheels Blades hack down on her foe one at a time.
- Gae Bolga Stinger
Painwheel uses energy projection to launch a spray of arrowheads forward. They may be launched out of her wrist, fingernails or knuckles depending on how far she wants them to go.
- Buer Reaper
The Buer Drive grabs her foe wherever they may be and holds them in place before she rams into them with a row of spikes growing out of her shoulders.
- Death Crawl
Painwheel puts her Buer Drive on full speed and grows spikes out of her limbs to use as stilts as she crawls upside down and runs over her foe like a F*cking Lawnmower!
- Buer Thresher
Painwheel traps her foe by impaling them in a net of barbed blades, before cleaving them in half with the Buer Drive.
- Buer Overdrive
Painwheel’s most devastating attack where she rides her buzzsaw like a giant wheel before running over her opponent at speeds exceeding 200 MPH.
Feats
- Survived the horrendous procedure that turned her into a monster to begin with
- Overcame Brain Drain’s Mind control
- Defeated Valentine, Who can Dodge bullets
- Is fast enough to jump up and strike her opponent 5 times in midair before she begins to fall, which would require speeds of Mach 11.
- Defeated The Skullgirl, who can toss Skyscrapers at hypersonic speeds, which would require over 1.3 Megatons of TNT.
- Can endure the GBM
- Destroyed the Skull Heart
- Was able to immediately get up after thrashings from Filia, Big Band and Beowulf
Advantages
- Devastatingly Brutal Arsenal
- Unpredictable Moveset
- Small City Level Strength and Durability
- Flight
- Hypersonic
- Great Healing Factor
- Can Sense her foes
- Buer Drive seriously increases mobility
- Can Contort her own body
- Can Resist Mind Control
- Can fire projectiles
- Hatred Install can easily turn the tide of a battle
Disadvantages
- Very spotty Win/Lose Record, winning only 2 out of 7 matches
- Suffers Intense migraines from all the mind control efforts
- Easily Manipulated
- Her innocent personality makes her less deadly as it is hard for her to go all out
Recommended Opponents
Lambda -No.11-
I was astonished to find how much these two have in common. Guess which one I’m describing here: Female, cyborg killing machine being controlled by a evil organization to terminate powerful foes with a variety of blades they produce from their own body, despite being a kind adorable person on the inside. You don’t know do you? Honestly Lambda is Painwheel’s best match that I can think of.
Cyrax
Both Cyrax and Painwheel were kidnapped and turned into a brainwashed cyborg with a variety of Blade attacks. More than worth looking into.
Animus
(You’re welcome HSL) Animus works as the whole tortured soul with a healing factor and horrible blade attacks. Though since Black Heart is 10 times more obscure than Skullgirls, and the fact the Skullgirls has WAY higher quality sprites to the point it would look stranger than Yoshi vs Riptor, it likely won’t happen.
Next Time:
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