Hilde

Overview

Original Timeline

New Timeline

Gallery

Hildegard von Krone

Hildegard von Krone (ヒルデガルド・フォン・クローネ Hirudegarudo fon Kurōne), or Hilde (ヒルダ Hiruda) for short, is a character in the Soul series of fighting games.

Physical Appearance

Hilde's primary outfit in Soulcalibur IV consists of a suit of armor decorated with a wolf motif; an unusually practical attire, given the Soul series's reputation for mostly scantily-clad characters. Her secondary outfit is an elegant blue dress with her long, red hair let down. It has been described as a beautiful, yet non-sexualized costume for a woman, which is very uncommon in the Soul series. In Soulcalibur V, Hilde still wears armor but this time, it's decorated by a griffin motif. Her secondary outfit has a Three Musketeers theme.

Weapons

• Fruchtbare Erde & Glänzende Nova
• Glänzende Nova & Frischer Himmel
• Corsesca & Broadsword
• Scorpion
• Eisonowaki & Kandachi
• Zhang Ba Shemao
• Ga-Derg & Ga-Boi
• Eighteenth Hole
• Cross Pike & Dagger
• Lance & Ring Dagger
• Trident & Baselard
• Fake Ashigaru
• The Master (Hilde)
• Beaming Lance

Stages

• Wolfkrone Monument (SC4/SCBD)
• Last Rites on the Battlefield (SC5)

Etymology

Hilde's full name is derived from Old Germanic words "hild" and "gard", meaning "battle" and "enclosure" respectively, therefore her name means "enclosed area for battle" or even "battlefield". Her title "Von Krone" means "Of the Crown" which relates to her royalty.

Series Appearances

• Exciting! Soulcalibur Dojo
• Soulcalibur IV
• Soulcalibur IV (DC Comics)
• Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny
• Soulcalibur V
• Soulcalibur: Lost Swords
• Soulcalibur VI (Downloadable character)

Trivia

General

• The symbol of Wolfkrone is, appropriately, the wolf, which adorns Hilde's armor in Soulcalibur IV. In Soulcalibur V however, her 1P and 2P costumes have a griffin motif.

Soulcalibur IV

• Director Katsutoshi Sasaki describes Hilde as "the 'most alluring'" female character in Soulcalibur IV, because she is "a brave and noble warrior who fights with cunning grace, using a short sword for quick attacks and a spear to do some serious damage from afar.”
• Hilde's spear, "Frischer Himmel" carries the Wolfkrone banner.
• In Hilde's Story Mode, Hilde is accompanied by her royal guard, Gerhilde, for the first two stages, but then she is unable to continue afterwards, and Hilde then goes on her own.
  • Gerhilde, as well as other soldiers of Wolfkrone that serve as Hilde's royal guard in other encounters with her in Story Mode (Siegrune, Waltraute, Schwertleite and Grimgerde) are named after Valkyries in Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre, the second of four operas in Wagner's Ring Cycle.
  • Incidentally, the soldiers under Astaroth's command (Helmwige, Ortlinde, and Rossweisse) are also named after other Valkyries in that same opera, which (in addition to their similar outfits) could imply that they were also soldiers of Wolfkrone turned evil.
  • The only Valkyrie that wasn't represented as a bodyguard to either Hilde or Astaroth was Brünnhilde, however, a character named Brunhild appears as the enemy commander of the Rebel forces in a chronicle in the Chronicles of the Sword mode in Soulcalibur III.
• In Scheherazade's Story Mode, Scheherazade brings Hilde along with her after she defeats the princess, some of her royal guards, and Siegfried on the fourth stage. This is so that Scheherazade can have a witness for the conclusion of her "story."
• To explain the new features of Soulcalibur IV, Namco released Exciting! Soulcalibur Dojo, in which returning character Cassandra "taught" Hilde about the game's features.

Soulcalibur V

• As Hilde's screenshots and artworks suggest, her new weapon "Fruchtbare Erde" has a griffin-themed banner attached to it as a nod to her membership in the Schwarzwind. However, when zooming in on the artwork, "Wolfkrone" is visibly written on the banner.
• Hilde's Critical Edge, Storm and Urge, is the English translation of Sturm und Drang, a proto-Romantic German movement in literature and music taking place from the 1760s to 1780s.
• Oddly Hilde's new weapon looks very similar between her old default weapon and her ultimate weapon "Ga-Dreg & Ga-Boi".
• Hilde's alternative costume is reminiscent of The Three Musketeers.
• Hilde is one of only four characters to show physical signs of aging from Soulcalibur V's time skip. The others are Siegfried, Mitsurugi and Viola (once revealed to be Amy in a reboot universe sequel).

Soulcalibur: Lost Swords

• She was described as "A highly mobile long-range fighter thar can charge up her power and release it for devastatiog one-hit attacks".

Soulcalibur VI

• The dress that the younger Hilde wears in her Soul Chronicle is similar to her 2P outfit in Soulcalibur IV

External links

• High definition gameplay footage of Hilde
• Hilde’s Wikipedia page
• Soul Archive profile (Japanese)
• Soul Calibur 4 Omake (archive) (Japanese), English translation)