#tekkenposting

This was supposed to be just a GMV about Alisa Bosconovitch, and in a way it still kinda is. It's just my hand slipped during editing and now it's yet another Xiaolisa GMV but with said flavor of angst as mentioned above. Although to be fair Tekken Blood Vengeance is just 99.9% Xiaolisa Propaganda and I'm all here for it.

also Lars, Lee and Jin are there as third, fourth and fifth wheels respectively lmao.

I technically tried making this GMV a while back but had to delete the old draft because I needed to free up some space because ClipChamp, the software I'm using to make these videos saves backups to the hard-drive meaning less space on my poor laptop. Only now that I make GMVs one at a time, I am able to revisit this idea and make it fully realised.

The song used is 'Necessary Discrepancy' from the Guilty Gear Strive soundtrack. It just felt like a fitting song to use for Alisa, especially how in some ways her and Ramlethal Valentine go through somewhat similar circumstances being used by another person or a 'greater power', and learning to love others and in turn becoming more human and defying their programming.

When Ridley Amora was interfering with the matches at the 3rd and 4th King of the Iron Fist Tournaments, many of them happened to be live televised matches, and thus her sabotage being caught on live tv, means you get a lot of raw reactions by viewers and the stadium attendees to her actions.

Her identity isn’t known at the time, as she is wearing a mask/balaclava that hides her upper portrait, used a fake name + ghost phone number and address to buy tickets. No one can really identify her other than she’s a woman and most likely a foreigner, but regardless of that, she gets the affectionate nickname of “The Zaibatsu Saboteur”.

Despite this 'nickname', Ridley never harms or hurts anyone while trying to interfere with the matches. All she's doing is trying to call attention to the Mishima Zaibatsu's less than stellar past, allegations of animal testing, and how it's actually dangerous for a billion dollar conglomerate to have a private military of their own. She uses a voice modulation device inside a microphone she uses to get her voice out there. She can only say so much in little time because the moment she’s out on the field the poor officers who are on duty that day have to chase her down, which she usually escapes from anyways, leaving security to completely fumble it.

Lars’ parasocial crush on Ridley Amora, or in this case the Zaibatsu Saboteur, never started as something so serious. Throughout the third tournament, I think he would play a bit of devil’s advocate at first. While he isn’t a high ranking commander yet, Lars is definitely charismatic enough to justify his position amongst fellow comrades in the Tekken Force. Lars wouldn’t really care much for the KotIF Tournaments, but he would find it immensely entertaining that someone in the stadium crowd was able to bypass Zaibatsu security and actually interfere with the matches, even joking that "Finally! Someone is testing out the Zaibatsu’s own security systems more thoroughly than the Zaibatsu care to invest to fix in the first place." Like Lars does believe in the Zaibatsu but even he’s aware there’s some aspects that could use improvement. He is not immune to state propaganda, but every once in a while Lars the individual, not Lars the soldier, does break away from the herd to speak his mind.

Because these acts of sabotage are caught on live television, obviously the tekken world’s version of social media and news outlets would have a field day with something unexpected as a protester getting on the match field and disturbing the peace. There would be an massive split of supporters, small but almost cultishly dedicated.. and those who want the Saboteur arrested and punished, and then there’s the third party of ‘this shit is just entertaining for me, and in fact makes the KotIF Tournament ten times more exciting as is’.

Those who want her arrested take issue that she makes foreigners who live and work in Japan look bad. When this narrative starts, it rubs Lars the wrong way, so he feels the need to be defensive of a stranger’s actions because quote: “She’s not in the room to defend herself, so someone has to take up the task and stand up for her, because she deserves dignity and respect like anyone else even if she’s breaking a social rule or law.”

Something, something basic empathy which is pretty understandable and really that’s kinda Lars’ go to excuse which works for a while. But it is the final stepping stone where Lars is nuanced in his thoughts. Halfway through the fourth tournament, the Saboteur’s actions lead to her being cornered by the Tekken Force, and out of desperation had to resort to physical violence to help her get out of a tough spot. She’s successful and flees but it’s all caught on camera and makes its way to the internet. Further bolsters calls for arrest or support depending on what side you take.

Once this footage gets out, Lars is absolutely put in a position by a Tekken Force superior officer if he ‘still defends the saboteurs actions’, even questioning his loyalty to the Mishima Zaibatsu. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Lars makes the decision to dig his heels in and keeps defending the Zaibatsu Saboteur. He is the kind of person who sticks to his personal principles and beliefs first, and he believes that the Saboteur had a right to defend herself and responds to his superior with that rebuttal.

To him it’s no different to a Tekken Force soldier fighting tooth and nail to survive when they’re out gunned and outnumbered. This comparison does get a bit contentious in the Tekken Force, because it does make some of them sympathise with the Saboteur’s actions and that if they were her, they’d do the same thing and fight back for survival. Others? It just emboldens their belief that the Saboteur needs to be made an example of, as they fear copy cat incidents will occur.

This kinda the turning point where Lars starts to develop a parasocial crush on Zaibatsu Saboteur/Ridley Amora. It also kinda plants some small seeds that foreshadow Lars’ eventual defection from the Mishima Zaibatsu in TK6. This is still TK4, so it’s still a while yet but its more that these two instances that start to make Lars a little disillusioned. But it’s not the instance that breaks the camel’s back. He still believes in the Tekken Force, but it’s more so he believes the people in the military, NOT the corporation that owns it.

This loyalty to the Mishima Zaibatsu is tested a lot later in Tekken 5, when Jinpachi Mishima comes back to take his company that his son, Heihachi Mishima, stole from him. He is informed of the existence of the Zaibatsu Saboteur and puts together a small elite group of handpicked members from the Tekken Force (Lars was shortlisted but not picked in the end, thanks to a superior officer letting Jinpachi know that Lars is a "known saboteur sympathiser". Jinpachi doesn't care for such added commentary, and just picks another solider instead).

A comprehensive plan to hatched up to lure and trap the Saboteur at the Opening televised match that kick starts the Tournament. They are successful in their plan, leading to Ridley Amora being taken into custody. When taken to meet Jinpachi Mishima, she is questioned why she kept interfering in matches, but she says nothing.

I keep indicating that Jinpachi Mishima does not care about this, because really this is the least of his concerns, but the only reason why he's doing anything about it is because it's to make up for his son Heihachi failing to mobilise the apprehension of Amora. He is also a tiny bit sympathetic to the board members belief that she should be punished, and believes the appropriate consequences of her actions is to blackmail her into participating in the Fifth King of the Iron Fist Tournament.

It's mostly just her employment as a seamstress’s apprentice that is put at risk, and obviously Ridley needs to put food on the table and pay rent. Due to this she caves really quickly, almost comically so. In a way a lot her bravado is kind of a facade to hide her real insecurities. Eventually, word gets out to the media of the Zaibatsu Saboteur's identity, and with this new found information out, causes Ridley Amora’s personal life to come crashing down. And when Lars' admiration for Ridley turns into a full parasocial crush.

Lars has a mix of emotions when coming across the news of the Zaibatsu Saboteur's capture by his fellow Tekken Force. Obviously he's angry to hear the news, even more so when he hears rumours that he was almost considered for the operation to capture them. The dodging of a bullet that almost made him compromise his own morals. He can't forgive the higher ups in the chain for that.

When he sees an image of Ridley Amora for the first time, he is somewhat starstruck at the Zaibatsu Saboteur's real identity. While he would try an argue that he did not care for who was under the mask as the time, it doesn't stop him feeling attracted to her. Seeing her in action in the King of the Iron Fist Tournament? yeah um. A visual representation of his reaction to her moves (which are similar to NiCO from DOA6) is this:

Ridley does do a decent job progressing through the Tournament, but eventually she loses in a quarter finals bracket to someone arguably more experienced than her. Lars found it kinda difficult to watch that last match of hers. She gets taken back into Zaibatsu Custody, awaiting proper procedure to be prosecuted by the law.

Now we get to an important story interaction, between Lars and his closest friend/his right hand soldier in the Tekken Force, Tougou.

During or even in the later part of the 5th King of the Iron Fist Tournament, they sit down and have a couple of drinks together like buddies catching up after work , even watching the final few matches that are televised. The interaction starts normally like any two friends going for drinks after work, but the atmosphere of the conversation turns serious, when a tipsy Lars abruptly confesses to Tougou that he's enamored with Ridley Amora, catching his friend off guard.

Lars Alexandersson does his best to explain/rationalise his infatuation with Amora, and while the specifics aren't exactly important, this post here kinda outlines what he sees in the Zaibatsu Saboteur. Lars additionally expresses how out of line it was for the company to blackmail Amora into joining the tournament. It didn't matter if she was breaking the law or causing a disturbance to the public, its the fact she hasn't intentionally hurt anyone during her stints, and even in the instances when she did, it was done to disarm her opponent and prioritise her survival. Harm was never done with malicious intent. They should have just made a deal with her and let her go free. But no, Lars is pissed they had to make an 'example of someone'.

Tougou asks him 'Why not do something about it?', but Lars argues that his hands are kinda tied, he doesn't have power or sway over the whole of the Zaibatsu. The Tekken Force? He can rally quite a few people together, but who's to say anyone would follow them. Tougou would remark that while morale is tenuous in the Tekken Force, that many do genuinely respect Lars and his leadership, as he is one of the few members who has some ranking to his name that makes the decision to go into the line of duty with the soldiers. Folks within the tekken force respect him, and would absolutely follow his word. It does kinda give a lot of food for Lars to think and mull over, but near the end of this exchange and near the finale of the tournament, a frustrated, angry and drunk Lars Alexandersson, repeats one of Amora’s slogan’s: “Fuck the Mishima Zaibatsu.”

Tougou, mirrors the feelings his friend has and in solidarity raises a glass with him. He might be a fellow Tekken Force officer, but he prioritizes his friendship with Lars above his own duty. They have each other's backs. The duo do make truce with each other, while slightly drunk, to do something if none of the changes they want to occur in the Tekken Force, and wider Mishima Zaibatsu, don't end up happening at all, then they will take matters into their own hands.

Then Jin Kazma defeats Jinpachi Mishima, and one of the rewards for winning the fifth KotIFT is becoming the new owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Lars and Tougou have some hope that the moment Kazma took charge, that things would change for the better. Somewhere after Jin's coronation as new CEO, Lars gets promoted to the highest military leadership position in the Tekken Force, being commander of the paramilitary army he's been apart of for years. But it's at such a large cost.

Instead, the duo get their worse nightmare as Jin Kazama declares war on the world, and plunges it into absolute despair and misery. All those hopes for potential change in the internal structure of the Zaibatsu and the Tekken Force, are completely dashed. It gets worse when the actual goals of the Tekken Force are not made clear to Lars, leaving him extremely frustrated while attending mission operations alongside his fellow Tekken Force Soldiers. When there is no clear stated goal, or even a reason as to why they're participating in war, Lars ends up losing people who are entrusted to his supervision, and he cannot hold out any longer working for someone who refuses to be transparent to him..

When G Corporation gets involved, and gets the standing ovation by the press as 'the hero', it becomes the final straw that breaks the camel's back. Leading to Lars (and Tougou) to essentially break away from the Mishima Zaibatsu, taking 30,000 tekken force soldiers with them to form Yggdrasil.

It eventually culminates into the prologue of Tekken 6. and well Tekken 6 in general.

You might be asking "But wait- what about Ridley Amora?! Doesn't Lars help break her out of Zaibatsu Custody?" Sorry to kill the cool idea, but Lars doesn't help break her out. He's too focused on planning the rebellion inside the Tekken Force, that unfortunately he has to sacrifice saving his own 'idol' so to speak. It does absolutely gut him that he has to leave behind the person that has pushed him into the direction of defecting from the Zaibatsu in the first place.

However, I've kinda toyed the idea that it's Lee Chaolan that helps her escape, by covertly giving her the keys the very key to escape her cell while visiting the Zaibatsu's political prisoners. He only really does this because he wants to give the Zaibatsu an extra head-ache to deal with: an escaped prisoner. She doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth and takes the opportunity immediately to escape. This leads to her being a wanted fugitive, and well... she can't be at her apartment anymore so it leads to her living on the edge of the law. She never stays in one place for too long, eventually leading into her situational circumstances that make her partake in the sixth tournament + her role in Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign.

Been in a real depressive and unmotivated slump, and I was on-off again piecing this together and but I'm glad to have to finally completed it. Honestly for a character that debuted in 2009, its a tiny bit disappointing that there's only really at max, 1-2 hours of cut-scene footage of Lars Alexandersson to work with. and that's the actual serious cut-scenes to work with. The rest is usually comedic, or attempting as such, and atm I'm going for a more serious tone with my GMVs, but one day I'll kick that bucket and go the comedic route.

Song used is 'The Roar of the Spark' from Guilty Gear Strive. Most of the Tekken 6 footage is my own, but footage from Tekken 7 and 8 is not mine and instead come from the following video sources:

Tekken 8 - Opening Movie

Tekken 8 Story Mode - Chapters 2, 11 and 13 by SoCLOSExNaruto on Youtube.

Tekken 7 Story Mode - Chapter 4 Gameplay by EG Fury on YouTube (Delete if using own footage).

Fun fact, I had to make this GMV TWICE because the first attempt had really bad transitions, and it was at the time when I had multiple projects going that I had to delete the first one to free up clip-champ's storage space on my laptop. So I had to start the project again from scratch, but honestly there aren't many differences with old bad transition version and this better one, aside from some a few changes in footage.

This was made thanks to a tekken mutual's song recommendations to use for a GMV, sadly they deactivated not too long ago :'(.

The song used is 'Break a Spell' from Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- 2.

Most of the footage used is my own mostly thanks to Tekken 7's gallery mode but also just owning Tekken 6 + TTT2 on xbox, although the only footage that isn't my own is the openings from Tekken 5 (both Home and Arcade versions), as they are HD versions of the opening that aren't exactly available in Tekken 7's gallery section.

Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Opening HD

song used is 'lady' by chromatics from the 'kill for love' album.

Honestly when seeing Lars for the first time I just thought he looked cool. Nothing special, just ‘oh he’s just a typical protagonist with anime hair’. I wouldn’t say I'm a longtime fan of the source, and honestly I was only really interested in (and aware of) Tekken because of Narcolepsy representation with Eliza, who’s a vampire. Seriously, you have no idea how much that meant to me knowing there was a character like me who needed a power nap during the day. I never really got into Tekken further but it was something that gave me so much comfort.

She was a fictional other for a while but due to time, she became a blorbo and a fictionkin for me as opposed to a character I was romantically interested in. The only other Tekken character I've been romantically interested in is Unknown, who is unfortunately a non-canon character, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to her design. I know it’s just Jun Kazama with the devil gene, but originally she was supposed to be Jun’s sister, and I’m still miffed they didn’t do anything with that other than ‘evil jun but with more male gaze’. 

Long story short, my interest in Tekken never had anything to do with Lars, he was just another character amongst the crowd initially. I guess it wasn’t until I started dipping into fighting games in the past two, three years(?) that I really started to care about the source media. Also that insane video by ClementJ64 didn’t help, which I argue has made Tekken even more accessible for people to get into (like me!).

I don’t really know how I fell for Lars, like I always thought he had a cool design, and upon actually playing Tekken, he is an extremely accessible character for newcomers. But the more time I spent with his play-style and spent time with some of Tekken's story mode(s), that I kinda came around to falling for him. It probably didn’t help that he was very similar to Hayate from DOA down to literally Almost everything. So… yeah I think it was a given for me to fall in love with Lars. (i am not beating the brown haired rushdown fighting game men allegations huh).

🌹8.) Do you and your f/o enjoy kissing? What circumstances do you most often share a kiss? What spots do either of you like to kiss the most? If kisses are a no, how else do you two show affection?

Alexandersson’s and Amora’s relationship is very much in the early stages and it only really starts until after the events of Tekken 8, so they’re taking it quite slowly. I do think Lars would be more favourable with kisses, but Ridley Amora on the other hand is a little more apprehensive about it. She doesn’t hate it, it’s just something she isn’t used to. Situational circumstances that involve kissing would include a ‘goodbye’, ‘see you soon’, reunion kisses, you know the kind you see at airports with loved ones/lovers, a celebratory kiss after winning a skate tournament/competition, a career milestone, and the obligatory morning kisses and afternoon/coming home from work kisses. For a relationship that is in its early stages, they are both pretty patient in expressing affection for one another. They are a tiny bit more affectionate behind closed doors, but that’s because it usually involves cuddling.

To me, Lars is a bit of a romantic, a tiny bit old school with expressing affection. Like I want to think his mother raised him around old period piece romance dramas and Jane Austen novels, so Lars tends to kiss the back of Amora’s hand or her knuckles. He does like kissing Amora on the lips, but he understands that they need to be very brief chaste/quick kisses. But when he kisses her god he wants it to last forever.  Aside from kisses, Lars does sometimes initiate PDA with Ridley but it’s only really just hand holding, or having an arm around her waist. There are rare instances where he has a hand on her thigh, but that’s reserved for major social situations where someone doesn't get the memo that they're an item.

As previously mentioned, Ridley is very chaste with her kisses, mostly opting to kiss Lars on the cheek, nose and brows, but nothing exactly beyond that because again it’s a relationship in its early stages. Ridley Amora does initiate some physical affection, albeit in a limited capacity, usually just holding Lars’ hand, playfully intertwining her fingers with his own and sometimes wrapping her arms around his neck in more public settings. If in a major social setting where she's uncomfortable, Amora will squeeze his hand a little, and Lars knows that's a sign for them to leave and always honors that request. Bonus if you count her laying her head on his shoulder, or in his lap when she’s tired, as a form of PDA.

⛓️‍💥2.) Do you or your f/o suffer some form of bodily harm? Be it from engaging in battle, ending up in an accident, maybe dealing with chronic pain? Is the other good at nursing the injured party?

This is Tekken we’re talking about, people are going to get hurt participating in a martial arts tournament /lh.

But yes, both Lars and Ridley experience some form of bodily harm especially when engaging in hand-to-hand combat confrontations with a wide net of familiar allies, foes and strangers. The degree of said injuries is not always consistent, I mean this is the series where you can fight against a bear or panda, sometimes your opponent can just emit a laser beam from a third eye or their forehead, sometimes you're facing a boxing kangaroo or a boxing raptor. Again the range of injuries the duo receives is a pretty wide net, and usually includes the standard scrapes, bruises, scratches, cuts, concussions, or a limb being dislocated. Okay maybe getting a broken limb isn’t out of the question in the tekken world….

The most drastic of injuries either party has received are the many times when Lars puts himself in harm's way to protect his comrades (you’d be surprised how many times he does this in Tekken 6’s campaign mode). There’s a particular instance that stands out to me in Tekken 8’s narrative, where Lars tries to hold the line against True Devil Kazuya and gets blasted with a powerful beam of energy, almost twice, the second one could have killed him if it weren’t for being saved by his nephew, Jin, in the nick of time.

The most severe injury Ridley has ever gotten is being badly bruised (black and blue) by the Mishima Zaibatsu soldiers who captured her during her stint at the start of the Fifth King of the Iron Fist Tournament (TK5). During Tekken 3 and Tekken 4, she’d been sabotaging and interfering in the tournaments, as a form of protest against the Mishima Zaibatsu. They are after all, a billion dollar corporate conglomerate that has a private military and has rumours of animal testing swirling around them, amongst many other shady shit. However, the Mishima Zaibatsu smartens up, analyzes their mistakes and plans a trap at the start of the fifth King of the Iron Fist Tournament, which leads to Ridley Amora being caught and finally identified. She is then blackmailed into participating in the Fifth King of Iron Fist Tournament, which she had no choice but to accept. 

Injuries inflicted during a martial arts tournament or hand-to-hand fights, aren’t the only kinds of injuries these characters can receive.

Ridley Amora frequently skateboards, meaning she is used to getting surface level injuries after messing up a specific trick, leading to her falling and injuring herself.  She knows how to clean and tend to these injuries, although they are pretty surface level ones, like scrapes, bad scratches, bruising, cuts etc. She does carry a backpack with her that has a heavily prepared first aid kit, so she usually tends to her wounds asap. She can tend to Lars’ injuries from fights to some extent, but again only knows how to nurse surface level injuries. She can’t exactly deal with much larger wounds, or deeper cuts.

Lars is a leader to a rebel army of thousands of soldiers, he’s putting his life on the line constantly, so it's not surprising when he feels the graze of a bullet zipping past or being sliced at with a bladed weapon. That, plus his role as commander, it’s mandatory for him to know how to use first aid materials. He has a lot of experience in tending to the more harsher wounds of an injured comrade/s. So patching up Ridley’s more serious injuries is a given, in fact it’s a common sight at the Yggdrasil base to see both their commander and the skateboarder both patched up, talking to each other and just overall enjoying each other’s presence. Sometimes one of them will have all of the injuries, and their other half is playfully/lightly scolding them for getting ‘too reckless’. 

but in all seriousness, i kinda get what they were going for, and i actually like the dynamic of alisa and xiaoyu being connected to the hip, and wished they carried that over into the main games. it gives them things to do outside of being centered around men (jin and lars). Tekken Tag Tournament 2's endings kind of remedy this as Alisa, Miharu, Panda and Xiaoyu have endings in which they all have their own individual ending where they interact with each other.

it seems that the movie is absolutely non-canon, takes place in a hypothetical weird spot where it's taking place BEFORE Tekken 6, and before Jin starts wwiii to lure out Azazel. Or in it's own universe where lars and alisa never even meet, and that she's only working for the zaibatsu. which is a fascinating turn imo. again this movie is non-canon. but like. there are some details that unintentionally lay some groundwork for later.

love anna williams being more villainous than mischief carefree assassin. it's an interesting exploration of what she's capable of, even if a little silly she at least feels like a genuinely physical threat that could order her men to kill xiaoyu and alisa.

I will say the real weak link is Shin Kamiya which... they tried to make a thing. basically a guy experimented on who has a unique gene that makes him immortal, and said gene could be used to kill the devil gene, or make one even more powerful. honestly he doesn't even have a character, he's only really a mcguffin. i at least appreciate them for being ballsy to even do a bane breaks batman's back thing.

oh. also there's a fantastic mishima fight scene between heihachi, kazuya and jin. it's amazing. well choreographed, also SO IN CHARACTER. and in a weird way some of Jin's motives are kinda laying the groundwork for Tekken 7 and 8 hilariously enough. even his second devil design is absolutely a prototype for what occurs in tekken 8.

i will say, take this whole goddamn movie with a grain of salt. it's not great, it's absolutely stupid, a little regressive with alisa only focusing on shin as a romance interest, but by god. it's so fun and extremely entertaining. i do wish its script had another professional rework, and some punching up, but that's kinda it.