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"Those bastards don't care who they hurt!"
—Xiao Wu, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Xiao Wu, better known simply as Xiao, is a rogue QUILL operative and one of the supporting protagonists of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. Serving as Gunvolt's mission control and tech support, Xiao's calm and serious attitude masks a fierce hatred of Eden.
Website Description
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English
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Japanese
He works closely with Gunvolt, providing support for him as an operator. Prefers to be called just Xiao instead of Xiao Wu.
He worked for a division of QUILL in his own country, but after his unit was suddenly taken over by the invading forces of “Eden”, he fled across the sea to join up with Gunvolt to report the invasion.
He’s a pretty straight-laced, serious guy. He’s usually quite calm and gentle, but because of his deep hatred against Eden for their role in the invasion of his homeland, the subject can reveal a very emotional side of him that is not often seen.[3]
ＧＶをサポートするオペレーターの少年。
通称「シャオ」。
故郷の国で“フェザー”一員として活動していたが、
彼の国のフェザーは突如現れた“エデン”に
乗っ取られてしまったため、
エデンの侵攻を伝えるために
海を越えてＧＶの元へやってきた。
真面目で素直。穏和で大人びているが、
故郷を占拠したエデンのことは憎く思っており、
エデンに対しては感情的な面が見え隠れする。[4]
Appearance
Xiao is a young boy with green eyes and short blue hair with some lighter ends. He wears a green jacket with black and orange highlights with the sleeves rolled up, a black undershirt, pale green shorts, and thigh high black boots with gold highlights.
He wears three watches, one on his right wrist, and two on the left wrist.
Gallery
Main article: Xiao Wu/Gallery
Personality
Despite his rather young age, Xiao presents himself in a rather calm, mature and serious manner, always focusing on the task at hand and preferring not to have that focus derailed. However, he isn't a stick in the mud, and is quite easygoing, lightly and somewhat awkwardly reminding Quinn that the commlink isn't for personal chat whenever she does so, never flat out telling her off. He also has a rather dry sense of humor. When Gunvolt finishes his advice not to overheat, Xiao tells him not to steal his bit. However, this persona conceals a deep rooted hate for Eden, as a result of their invasion of his home, which he rarely allows to surface.
It would seem that Xiao is somewhat sly and secretive, never actually revealing who his contacts are and refusing to divulge his own private motives. It is also implied that he isn't as friendly as he appears, not trusting GV with the power of The Muse, instead keeping it for himself. While Xiao normally uses the nickname GV, in the Japanese script of the secret ending he refers to Gunvolt by his full name while speaking with Nori.
History
Background
Xiao originally served as a QUILL operative in an overseas country, implied but not confirmed to be China. However, at some point, his nation was attacked by the multinational Adept union Eden, and QUILL's presence in his country was wiped out.
Distraught, Xiao fled to Japan, and while being pursued by Eden he met former QUILL agent Gunvolt, who was being harbored by Quinn after his battle with the Sumeragi Group. Xiao requested Gunvolt's help to stop the invasion by Eden,[1] and began working with him, using his skills to develop GV's equipment, provide mission support, and using his various contacts to provide information.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Prologue
In the prologue, Xiao discovers that Eden has hijacked Sumeragi's airship, the Seraph and sent Gunvolt out to stop them.
After Gunvolt successfully infiltrates the Seraph, Quinn, interrupting Xiao and GV's conversation to express her concern for the latter, promising to make him a snack when he gets back, before Xiao, slightly uncomfortable with the interruption, reminds her that they have a mission to do, and she leaves.
As Gunvolt continues his investigation, he discovers the Fazent being activated presumably by itself. Xiao warns GV not to go after it as the Seraph is going to crash into the city below.
In the control room, after Gunvolt defeats the Proto Legion JB, Xiao becomes worried when GV informs him that whoever did this has a Septima that's better than his at hacking.
As Xiao panics, GV comes up with a plan to use his Septima to land the Seraph.
Conflict with Eden
Days later at Quinn's home, after the Seraph incident and Eden's invasion. Xiao made GV's new combat attire for his battle with Eden and continues to assist Gunvolt by giving him equipment and intel.
Eden's Retreat
After three of the Seven have fallen, GV returns from his mission to find Quinn and Xiao in a panic. Eden has attacked a local highway, causing it to become filled with crystals. Gunvolt assures a worried Quinn that he is alright and heads out to the highway. When GV returns to Quinn's home. Xiao informs everyone one of his contacts has gotten the info on where Eden's headquarters is. It's called The Garden, and it's located in the city of Tashkent. According to reports, Eden hijacked the highways and traffic control systems to recall most of Eden's manpower. As a result, it's also the location of the last few shards.
GV is unsure of how he can attack a place all the way in Central Asia, but Xiao says he's planning a way to get him in.
Infiltrating the Garden
Xiao somehow manages to get Gunvolt and himself into Tashkent, allowing them to infiltrate Eden's headquarters, the Garden. Soon after, his commlink with GV is cut off due to Zonda's Septima.
Hidden Agendas - Secret End
This ending is only attainable after clearing 80% of the Challenges for both Gunvolt and Copen. Once the condition is met, clear Garden 3 again as either hero. The cutscene plays after the post-epilogue save prompt.
Xiao thanks an unknown person for providing him a way to get into the Garden. The other person replies that it's no problem.
The scene reveals an unspecified alleyway where Xiao is talking with Nori. She hands over a pendant-shaped Glaive to him, one that apparently contains all of the Muse's power after Zonda's defeat and GV's duel with Copen.
Xiao questions why it's a pendant, Nori just replies that it looks cuter that way. Nori then talks about how Xiao had planned for Mytyl and Joule's fusion to awaken the Muse and seal it into a pendant. She asks what he plans to do with the pendant, and the power it contains.
Xiao denies any claims, saying that Mytyl had suffered her entire life due to the Muse, but he cannot leave such a power in the hands of Eden or GV. With the Muse's power safely sealed, he claims Mytyl can lead a normal life now. Nori calls him out on his bluff, asking him his real intentions. Xiao claims that it's nothing bad, and that she'll know more soon.
Other Appearances
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
In addition to making an appearance as a passive Image Pulse, Xiao Wu also appears in the game's joke ending. In it, Xiao has given the Muse pendant from Gunvolt 2's secret ending to Mytyl, who uses it to transform into a magical girl. He appears in the ending's CG along with Magical Girl Mytyl and Masked Gunvolt.
Mighty Gunvolt Burst
Xiao Wu appears as a collectible pixel sticker for clearing the "Get Equipped" challenge.
Abilities
Septima
As an adept, Xiao possesses some sort of septimal power. What it is has not been revealed, and it has not been alluded to within the story itself. It may have some combat capability, as Xiao assured GV he would keep Quinn safe when the latter was anxious about the possibility of Teseo targeting her.
Espionage skills
Xiao is very skilled at hiding his activities. He is able to feign loyalty to QUILL while working with wanted ex-member Gunvolt, sharing their intelligence with him and even ordering equipment for his use, with no concerns that his subterfuge may be exposed.
Xiao also displays excellent intelligence gathering on his own, as he was apparently able to find Gunvolt while neither the rest of QUILL nor Eden could, knows confidential Sumeragi information such as the means to extract an Adept's Septimosome and the circumstances of Joule's creation, and is also aware of Nori's past.
Designer Comments
Source: Armed Blue: Gunvolt Complete Works
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English fan translation
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Japanese
Actually, he’s a character whose design work began very early but due to several reasons (work on him) was postponed. By the time I resumed working on him, his “setting” had been changed to that of a QUILL member and thus I rethought (his design) into a QUILL uniform-like look. I had instructions: “must be androgynous!”, so as a notation of that the thigh-high boots I had him wear might look shorts that made him appealing: the female staff members who took part in the meeting also liked it so I settled for that.
-- Munehiro Araki
実は、かなり早い段階からデザインは着手していた人物なのですが、いろいろあって後回しになっていました。
再度着手するタイミングでは、設定の方もフェザーのメンバーに変更されていたので、フェザーの制服っぽい感じに考え直しています。
「中性的に！」という指示は当初からあったので、その記号として色気が出そうで短パンに見えるかもしれないと思って穿かせててみたサイハイブーツは、会議に同席していた女性スタッフに好評だったので決定にしました。
-- 荒木宗弘
Musical Themes
| Title | Context | Composer | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Warriors' Home 戦士たちの寄辺 |
GV2 Gunvolt mission select. Remix of "Warrior's Everyday" from GV1. Has three sub-melodies to reflect GV having three allies.[1] | Ippo Yamada |
Trivia
- Xiao's main design motifs are Genbu, the Black Tortoise of the North, as well as time. The Genbu motif means that thematically he is part of a "group" composed of Gunvolt (Seiryū; Azure Dragon of the East), Copen (Byakko; White Tiger of the West), Kirin (Koryu; Yellow Dragon/Qilin of the Center), and ZedΩ (Suzaku; Vermilion Bird of the South), all of whom are playable characters.
- During the early planning phase of Gunvolt 2, when it was envisioned as a triple protagonist game, Xiao was originally conceived as a playable character.[5]
- Due to Xiao wearing three watches, "Time" being the second of his concept points, him dressing as the White Rabbit in a Halloween wallpaper, and how the concept of Ghauri possessing a time Septima was scrapped because of "certain reasons..." according to his designer notes, it's often speculated by fans that Xiao has a time Septima. Another early concept art point was "Hourglass" and what might be a stream of sand is shown falling out of his hand, although this was part of a non-final design.
- In Luminous Avenger iX 2, the idea of a time controlling Adept existing is brought up by Kohaku after Copen acquires the time slowing and freezing EX Weapon Cryo-Flash from Hail. Although Kohaku speculates that such an Adept could be found back in their world if they looked hard enough, Copen claims he's never heard of one. The concept would be partly realized in Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 with Moebius, whose Astral Order power can see and manipulate the future and alternate timelines.
- Xiao's Septima being unknown is similar to Zeno in Gunvolt 1. The two are the only named Adepts who appear in the games yet haven't had their abilities revealed.
- Joule apparently has a habit of mistaking Xiao for a girl.
- "Xiao" is a unisex name.
- In Chinese mythology, all tortoises are female and must mate with male snakes, hence Genbu being depicted as an intertwined tortoise and snake.
- When questioned by Nori about his intentions, Xiao brings up and denies the possibility of him giving Mytyl's Glaive to Eden. This may imply he has some past relationship with the group.
- While Xiao is dressed as the White Rabbit on the Halloween wallpaper, Zonda is dressed as the Queen of Hearts (and to begin with, is an Alice in Wonderland-inspired character).
- Out of all base conversation participants in the series, Xiao is the one with the fewest appearances, participating in only two conversations and being mentioned in three more.
- After the release of Gunvolt 3, which did not acknowledge Xiao or the secret ending of Gunvolt 2 in any capacity beyond a joke ending, Xiao became a bit of a memetic icon within the English fanbase, generally used to express frustration with Gunvolt 3's story. The most popular example of this was a cropped screenshot from Gunvolt 2's secret ending, where Xiao simply says "NOTHING" in response to Nori asking his true objectives.
