This article is about the titular movie character, For the live action movie, See Alita: Battle Angel . This article is about the movie character, For for the original manga character, See Alita .
Alita is a cyborg Hunter Warrior who was found by Dyson Ido in a scrapyard. Rebuilt without memories of her previous life, Alita has flashbacks of her past when she instinctively enters combat using the forgotten art of Panzer Kunst and realizes she is destined to confront the mysterious Nova in the sky city of Zalem. She also falls in love with Hugo who also dreams of reaching Zalem but is left heartbroken when she is unable to save him from falling to his death whilst trying to get there.
According to the brief animated prequel to the film, known as Alita’s World: The Fall, she was allegedly born on Mars to unknown parents with the name of Yoko, no surname was revealed.
Alita is named after Ido and Chiren's deceased daughter and grows to think of Ido as her father. She serves as the protagonist and titular character of the film.
Personality[]
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Alita has a warriors instinct which works on a subconscious level, giving her fighting abilities that even she is not fully aware of. Her first instinct when she is about to be run over by a Centurion is to enter a combat stance without consciously realising it and she then dives in to save a dog from being trampled to death. She suffers from amnesia but her memories are triggered whenever she enters combat. She is drawn to battle which is part of the training that was ingrained into her 300 years earlier. As she gradually pieces together her backstory, Alita grows more confident in who she is and what she's capable of. She is the only person who is shown to have no fear of Nova, despite Nova's seemingly supernatural presence and the fact that Alita is open to the idea that magic exists. On the contrary, she appears to be looking forward to their inevitable confrontation.
Alita takes a while to trust the adults in her life, even suspecting Dyson Ido of murder after seeing blood on his hand. When she goes to confront him, she ends up being caught in a crossfire between the Hunter Warrior and three cyborgs but this encounter causes her training to kick in and she destroys two of the cyborgs and forces the third one, Grewishka, to retreat. Although she now trusts Ido, she insists that she's not his daughter despite being named after her and being in her cyborg body. When Alita's first body is destroyed by Grewishka, Ido, Hugo and one of the cyborg Hunter Warriors rescue her and Ido rebuilds her in the berserker body which adapts to Alita's subconscious idea of what she looks like. As thanks for saving her, Alita kisses Ido on the cheek before showing off her new body to him. She finally calls him "father" after he rebuilds Hugo's body after a nearly fatal encounter with Zapan.
Alita's first encounter with Chiren is also uncomfortable as she isn't sure whether Chiren means her harm or not. Uncertain whether to listen to her fighting instincts in case Chiren is an innocent woman merely showing curiosity about her, Alita decides to just walk away. She maintains this wariness around Chiren for a while, unsure whether to consider her an ally or an enemy but smiling and shrugging off her suspicions when Hugo asks her how she and Chiren know each other, simply telling him that he's "not the only one who's connected". Eventually, Chiren helps her link her heart to Hugo to keep him alive after he is stabbed by Zapan.
Outside of combat situations, Alita is very sweet and affectionate, hugging a complete stranger, Ido, after he gives her a name and petting a dog who later jumps to her defence during her second encounter with Grewishka. Alita can switch between a teenage girl and a formidable warrior within seconds - a notable display of this is when she's about to march into a Hunter Warriors club with Hugo, only to kneel down and pet the dog she had met before - but she still has insecurities about her place in the world, thinking that she's an "insignificant girl". When she repeats this to Grewishka during their final battle, she says it with pride as she has grown confident in who she is and what she was created to do. After killing Grewishka and Nova's puppet, Vector, she warns him that his biggest mistake is underestimating her.
Alita also has a sharp tongue and when Zapan and the Hunter Warriors are mocking her, she keeps her cool and responds by taunting Zapan about his vanity and telling the other Hunter Warriors that she's not impressed by them. She even giggles at Zapan's attempts to intimidate her and when his flirtatious advances turn aggressive, Alita simply beats him up. She is also confident enough to challenge every single Hunter Warrior in the bar and is winning during the ensuing brawl but stops fighting when Ido arrives, once again switching back to her teenaged girl mode as she feels embarrassed that her adopted father has caught her out past her curfew. Although she initially avoids Ido's eyes, she refuses to go home with him but bites off more than she can chew after the dog she befriends is murdered by Grewishka. Marking herself with the dogs blood as a sign of respect, she remembers something she heard in her previous life (though whether she said this herself or heard it from someone else is unclear as this memory is apparently buried in her subconscious) and tells Grewishka "I do not stand by in the presence of evil" before fighting him on his home turf but gets torn to pieces by the powerful cyborg. When this happens, Alita remembers that she has the "soul of a survivor" and, despite being terrified and as good as beaten, she continues fighting with only one hand and no legs, managing to gouge out Grewishka's eye before being rescued. Her rivalry with him is settled during her confrontation with Vector and Nova, where, despite Grewishka landing a surprise attack, her new body's upgraded reflexes and strength combined with her knowledge of his fighting style enable her to kill him easily, impressing Nova in the process.
Alita tends to think with her heart more than her head and even literally offers Hugo her heart, which is said to be strong enough to power the city for years, after falling for him. Alita's naivety when it comes to love is shown by her belief in love at first sight, as she falls for Hugo during their very first meeting but commits herself to the relationship before she truly gets to know him. After finding out that Hugo harvests body parts from other cyborgs, Alita feels betrayed but because she is an "all or nothing" kind of person, she doesn't give up on him especially after he tells her that he loves her. She still saves him from Zapan and is heartbroken when he dies trying to climb to Zylem. His death however serves as a motivation for her to continue her mission to defeat Nova.
Alita is also very selfless and although she didn't want Hugo to leave her and go to Zylem, she still offered to help him get there, even giving him permission to sell her powerful cybernetic heart in order to raise enough money. She is very protective of both her loved ones and of innocents like the dog who gets killed by Grewishka.
Alita has a liking for oranges and chocolate. The first time she ate an orange, she started eating it before it was peeled. Despite her sweet nature, Alita also enjoys combat situations although during her first motor ball game she shows a hint of insecurity when she asks her fellow players to go easy on her. Her nervous smile upon entering the arena hints that she wants to be loved by the crowd but is also afraid that they might not like her, an insecurity that is also shown when she asks Hugo if he's bothered by the fact that she's a cyborg. Upon being rebuilt after being mutilated by Grewishka, she subconsciously causes the nano technology in the berserker body to make her look more like a woman than a girl, both showing her desire to grow up and that she wants to look more attractive for Hugo.
Body Language and Mannerisms[]
Upon first waking up in her cyborg body, Alita has trouble standing upright but adapts quickly. She also has a bit of trouble balancing when she first plays motor ball, leaning on Hugo for support and falling over a couple of times, but again, she quickly gets the hang of it. Outside of combat situations, Alita can be quite cautious and shy which is shown when she descends the stairs in a crouch and when she's silent for several seconds during her first meeting with Hugo. Alita is also able to move very stealthily as shown when she's trailing Ido.
After realising her capabilities, Alita's body language grows more confident and fluid and she can move around with dexterity and precision even in enclosed spaces. When moving underwater, she is a little bit slower but aside from that she can walk along the lake bed with little to no effort, being too heavy to float but not so heavy that it prevents her from moving. In combat, she often leaps, flips and somersaults while taking full advantage of the fact that she's a small target and therefore difficult to hit. However, despite her agility, the body of Ido's late daughter doesn't provide her with the necessary strength or flexibility she needs to overcome Grewishka during their second battle.
Alita's berserker body grants her incredible flexibility, speed, precision and strength. She can now contort herself into positions that can only be matched by natural born contortionists and has physical strength that far surpasses that of any human contortionist as she can hold her entire body up on one finger with ease. During her final battle with Grewishka, her body language is so casual, despite the initial pain of his surprise attack, that it's clear she barely considers him to be worth her time. She lazily slices through everything he throws at her before cutting him in half. By the time she's motor ball champion, Alita exudes a sense of confidence, determination and power.
Alita is also noted to have "the face of an angel" which causes people like Zapan to underestimate her. When Hugo moves to help her, she just raises a hand to reassure him that she's in control and won't allow Zapan to get under her skin. Her large eyes can convey joy and happiness, confidence and strength, insecurity and fear, sorrow and pain, affection and love, and anger and vengeance. Ido notes that her cybernetic tear ducts are fully functional too and she is shown crying several times. She also has a sweet smile, using this on Zapan when he flirts with her before she beats him up. Her smile can become predatory when she's enjoying a combat situation, either by watching it or engaging in it, but has a hint of nervousness the first time she's in front of a crowd.
Alita also has superb self-control, able to stop a punch mere millimetres from her mirror whilst practicing her Panzer Kunst. Although not stated out loud, Alita's ability to stop just before breaking something visually indicates that she's somewhat scared of her own strength and doesn't want to hurt an innocent bystander by accident. This is also implied by the fact that she doesn't simply throw Chiren off when she invades her personal space, despite her obvious discomfort, and doesn't immediately attack Zapan, only retaliating when he switches from flirtation to open aggression. When angry, Alita tends to vent her frustration by punching something, such as a medical table. She playfully warns Hugo "Don't piss me off" and when he does, she once again shows her self-restraint by punching the ground instead of Hugo himself, fully aware that she could cause him serious injury if she directed the blow at him.
Alita has a soft and expressive voice which can convey everything she's feeling. Although she held herself confidently when asking the Hunter-Warriors for help, a subtle tremble in her voice whilst telling them that Grewishka was after her and Ido hints that she wasn't as confident as she appeared, either out of fear of Grewishka or fear that the Hunter-Warriors would turn her down. When she faced Grewishka for the last time however, this fear was completely gone and she simply told him that he was Nova's slave and casually disposed of him. She also contemptuously spat that she had no interest in talking to Vector and wanted to speak to Nova.
Abilities[]
As a cyborg, Alita is much stronger than her petite frame would suggest. Trained in the forgotten art of Panzer Kunst, she is able to cleave off Grewishka's arm with a single kick during their first encounter as well as behead Nyssiana by kicking her headfirst into a wall so hard that her head got stuck there. Alita is also more than a match for Zapan, even contemptuously telling him that he doesn't deserve the Damascus Blade as he is clearly inferior to her in terms of both morality and combat ability. Her muscle memory is superb and she can instinctively respond to danger with incredible speed and precision but also has enough self-control to stop a punch mere millimetres from a mirror. However, Alita is not undefeatable and during her second battle with Grewishka, she isn't fast enough to avoid being sliced into several pieces. She continues fighting with only one arm and, even without any other limbs, has enough strength to destroy Grewishka's right eye, but still needs to be rescued by Ido, Hugo and the Dog Master.
After being rebuilt in the berserker body, Alita's combat abilities increase even further. She notes that she's not only stronger than she had been before, but also faster and this additional strength and agility enables her to fight off several bounty hunters at once during Motor Ball with only a ten second warning from Ido that they were out to kill her. Alita also has superior flexibility in her new body, able to contort it into unnatural positions and even hold up her entire body weight on one finger. The berserker body also has an incredible self-repairing capability, as witnessed when it perfectly repaired itself in seconds after Grewishka damaged it. It also allows her to manipulate plasma that empowers her attacks and weapons.
Alita is also a skilled swordswoman, taking Zapan's blade after slicing off part of his face and easily defeating Grewishka during their final battle. After casually repelling Grewishka's initial assault, Alita darts in and slices him in half, treating him as little more than an inconvenience as she is more interested in Nova. Alita's incredible speed and precision even enables her to slice a tear drop in half before it hits the floor.
Aside from her combat abilities, Alita is also noted to have an incredibly powerful cybernetic heart which is strong enough to power Iron City for years. She can also survive underwater without needing to worry about drowning or rusting, even before she gets the berserker body.