Ling Xiaoyu
Context
Xiǎoyǔ is a popular, but not essential character in the Tekken series of brawling video games.
However, she formed close personal bonds with many of the major players. So into the set she goes.
Also, there’s a panda.
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Background
- Real Name: Líng Xiǎoyǔ (spelled 凌曉雨).
- Note: (Líng is her family name, but the games usually refer to her using her given name, Xiǎoyǔ. I think the latter can translate as “morning rain” or “understanding friend” but please ask somebody who actually speaks the language — ed.).
- Other Aliases: High Spirited Girl, Dancing Phoenix.
- Known Relatives: Heihachi Mishima (legal guardian), Wang Jinrei (grandfather), unnamed parents.
- Group Affiliation: Mishima Polytechnical School (student).
- Base of Operations: Tōkyō, but often mobile.
- Height: 5’2″ (1.57 m). Weight: 93 lbs. (42 Kg.).
- Eyes: Brown Hair: Black (originally dark brown).
Powers & Abilities
Xiǎoyǔ is a world-class martial artist. She also seems to be the fastest fighter in the Tekken series.
She took down a dozen of Heihachi’s trained men without breaking much of a sweat. Then had enough gall to start making demands of one of the toughest martial artists in the world.
Her style is reportedly based on Bāguà Zhǎng (Eight Trigram Palm), one of the main internal/spiritual Chinese forms, and Piguaquan (Chop Hanging Fist).
In the video games:
- Her high speed is compensated by her low damage per hit.
- She has a ton of evasion techniques to keep opponents guessing.
- Her many acrobatic moves can quickly close the distance. That makes her a great character for controlling the tempo of the fight, or to play hit-and-run head games.
- She can keep the momentum flowing in her favor using her rush-downs and long combos.
Xiǎoyǔ isn’t the easiest character to use, but performs well in expert hands.
Other assets
She’s skilled in taking care of her pet panda. But past that, she doesn’t have a whole lot going for her.
While she attends a prestigious private school, she certainly isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Xiǎoyǔ is naïve and a bit foolish.
She’s also really into amusement parks and social media.
Panda
Panda is Xiǎoyǔ’s pet that Heihachi gifted to her.
She and Kuma the brown bear are effectively a palette swap. But there are a few differences as dictated by the story.
She’s a martial-arts-trained panda with:
- Human level intelligence.
- A degree of empathy that allows her to understand and communicate with humans – to a limited extent.
- Like Kuma, she has some dancing and tumbling skills.
And speaking of Kuma, Heihachi’s pet bear has a huge crush on her. But Panda’s not interested, as she feels she’s just too old for him. She doesn’t hate him and occasionally thinks of him, but she just doesn’t have romantic feelings for him.
History
The teenaged Xiǎoyǔ loved amusement parks. But she worried that her native China just didn’t have enough of the world-renowned ones for her to enjoy.
While her family was visiting Hong Kong, she spotted a large Mishima ZaibatsuA specific type of huge Japanese corporation. boat. She sneaked aboard.
Her ludicrous plan was to confront infamous billionaire Heihachi Mishima. Then have him build the biggest and best amusement park the world had ever seen, just for her.
Mishima security soon found her. But the boat already was out to sea. Furthermore, Xiǎoyǔ had been trained in the martial arts from a young age. She mopped the floor with them.
Mishima-san
Told that there had been trouble, Heihachi came to investigate. He found his men strewn about as if hit by a hurricane. And a spunky teenager demanding that he build her a world-class amusement park.
The usually ruthless Heihachi roared with laughter. This little girl amused him so much that he became her legal guardian.
Mishima invited Líng into his household. There, she trained with — and studied at Mishima Polytech along with — with his grandson Jin Kazama.
The tycoon even gifted her with a martial-arts-trained panda named (sigh) Panda.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Tekken 3
When the third King of the Iron Fist Tournament was announced, Heihachi promised Xiǎoyǔ that he would build her an amazing theme park if she won.
She enthusiastically entered, but didn’t do so well.
Furthermore, her friend Jin vanished at the end of the tournament.
Tekken 4
There wasn’t much Xiǎoyǔ could do about Jin. So she just kind of went back to living her life.
She was now a second-year student at Mishima School. After a while, she fell into a boring routine of being a normal high school student.
Out of the blue, she received a mysterious email warning her about Heihachi’s evil intentions to conquer the world. Though she was unable to get more information, her intuition told her that the sender was her long-lost friend Jin.
Shortly after that, the next Tekken Tournament was announced. Xiǎoyǔ entered, hoping to get to the bottom of what was really going on.
…and once again her actions had no real effect on the game’s main storyline. It’s therefore assumed that she did poorly.
But she did befriend fellow participant Yoshimitsu, so there’s that.
Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection
The naïve Xiǎoyǔ remained unaware of what a sinister world she’d been adopted into. Yoshimitsu had to explain the long and dark history of the Mishima family.
Hearing about Heihachi’s supposed demise left her unconsolable. She wished for a way to right the past wrongs of the family, so that they would be spared the suffering.
One day, she met a self-proclaimed genius working on a time machine. Surely if he could get enough funding to complete his research, then Xiǎoyǔ could use it to go back in time. And stop the Mishima tragedies from happening? Couldn’t she?
Yes, that was her actual storyline. As you can probably tell, the writers weren’t exactly taking her seriously anymore. From here on out, she joined the list of characters that became punchlines and got joke endings.
Jin actually wound up coming back and taking over the Mishima Zaibatsu. It was also later revealed that Heihachi still lived.
Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion
Once in charge of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Jin turned into a complete tyrant, militarizing them and greedily gobbling up the world’s resources.
The Mishima business empire had grown so powerful that nations couldn’t stand in its way. The entire world teetered on the brink of chaos.
Xiǎoyǔ was greatly worried about her friend. She tried to gain audience with him to uncover the truth, but this proved impossible.
When the next Tekken Tournament was announced, Xiǎoyǔ entered, so she’d face Jin. But the closest she got was dreaming that she was meeting him on a rooftop, in a scene straight from a cheesy romance novel.
Tekken 7 Fated Retribution
Still looking for Jun, Xiǎoyǔ sneaked into the Mishima Zaibatsu HQ. She heard Heihachi ordering his troops to investigate a possible Jin sighting, and shadowed them.
However, she was then attacked by a mysterious man in white. Exorcist Claudio Serafino had also been looking for Jin, hoping to use Jin’s Devil form to defeat Kazuya’s. Recognising Xiǎoyǔ from his files, he hoped to capture her and use her as bait.
Xiǎoyǔ wins in her ending… but so does Claudio. It looks like fans will have to wait for the next installment to find out what canonically happened…
Description
In her first appearance, she was drawn as a cute little East Asian girl with soft features and dark brown hair.
Xiǎoyǔ now looks a lot more mature, and her hair is now black. Her hair has always been in pigtails with the bangs parted, but those shorter pigtails just got a lot longer in the last installment.
In her first appearance, her clothing was more traditional Chinese. But by Tekken 4 she shifted more towards Western-style sportswear. From T5 onward, she shifted back to more traditionally inspired pop culture Chinese garments.
Her favorite color seems to orange. She wears quite a bit of it. Xiǎoyǔ favors bright loud flashy colors and bold eye-catching fashion choices.
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Personality
Xiǎoyǔ is an innocent, cheerful, ordinary-in-many-respects teenage girl who got drawn into some dark stuff with the Mishimas.
Once she discovers the truth, she becomes selfless and determined to right their past wrongs.
She acts immature and childish at times. And she’s an airhead with marked impulsive tendencies.
Her feelings for Jin are genuine, and seem to have blossomed into romantic ones. While this does seem to be a bit one-sided, Jin long considered her his one true friend – and might still do.
Tekken 4 outift.
Quotes
“Let’s go!”
“Looks like I’m in for a fight.”
“Oops ! I won !”
“I’m pretty strong you know.”
DC Universe Adaptation
(This section proposes ways of using this character in DC Universe stories).
Honestly, she could be plunked in anywhere. But she might be best suited as a recruit for some of the costumed crime fighters. Say, the Batfamily.
There, she might fall for one of the sidekicks, depending on what era you’re using, as she did for Jin.
Come to think about it it might be fun to watch her cheery disposition and childishness drive Bats insane…
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Líng Xiǎoyǔ
| Dex: 10 | Str: 01 | Bod: 03 |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 03 | Min: 05 |
| Inf: 04 | Aur: 06 | Spi: 06 |
| Init: 021 | HP: 030 |
Powers:
Shrinking: 01
Bonuses and Limitations:
Shrinking is Always On (until she grows up) and Already Factored In.
Skills:
Acrobatics: 08, Animal Handling (pandas and includes riding): 03, Martial artist: 05
Advantages:
HQ (Confined – her dorm room), Language (Japanese, an unspecified Chinese), Lightning Reflexes.
Connections:
Jin Kazama (High, but she’s unable to get in touch with him), Wang Jinrei (High), Miharu Hirano (High), Yoshimitsu (Low).
Drawbacks:
None demonstrated.
Motivation:
Hazy. Might be Responsibility of Power.
Occupation:
High school student, panda caretaker.
Wealth:
005
Previous Stats
During her first appearance, Xiǎoyǔ had Age (Young) and a Thrill of Adventure Motivation.
Panda
| Dex: 03 | Str: 06 | Bod: 06 |
| Int: 02 | Wil: 02 | Min: 04 |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 01 | Spi: 04 |
| Init: 010 | HP: 040 |
Powers:
Analytical Smell/Tracking Scent: 07, Chemical Attack: 02, Claws: 07, Density Increase: 02, Growth: 01, Running: 05, Suspension: 09, Swimming: 03, Ultra-vision: 02
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Chemical attack is range of touch only and represents the beast farting on someone. Obviously, it doesn’t do a ton of damage, but it might surprise them and get through their defenses.
- Density Increase and Growth are Always On.
- Density Increase adds to STR and BODY – already figured above.
- Growth adds to STR (already figured) and Physical RV (not figured)
- Ultra-vision only for low-light vision.
Skills:
Acrobatics: 03, Artist (dancer): 03, Martial Arts: 06
Advantages:
None demonstrated.
Drawbacks:
SIA (protecting Xiǎoyǔ).
Source of Character: Tekken video games.
Helper(s): Tekken Fandom, Chris Cottingham (animal stats), Roy Cowan, Ethan Roe.
Writeup completed on the 5th of November, 2021.