Lisa Hamilton

Lisa Hamilton, also known by her ring name La Mariposa, is a luchadora who made her first official appearance in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and made her fighter debut in Dead or Alive 4.

As a former scientist for DOATEC, Lisa has a mysterious, shadowed past that has not fully come to light yet, and has links with many others despite being relatively new to the series.

Early Life
Not much is known about Lisa's life before DOATEC, although it is well-known that she was high school friends with fellow wrestler Tina Armstrong and was a member of her school's volleyball team, which explains her great volleyball skills. At some point during her life, Lisa became one of the head scientists for DOATEC at DOATEC Germany, working for Victor Donovan during his genetic projects and becoming an luchadora at the wrestling contest along with Tina.

Project Epsilon and the Second Tournament
Lisa was known to be in charge of two DOATEC projects - Project Epsilon and the more successful Project Alpha - and was in charge of watching over the projects' test subjects, Hayate and his younger sister Kasumi, as well as Kasumi α, who was a prototype product of Project Alpha.

When Helena Douglas was hosting a public gathering on the Freedom Survivor to announce her take-over of DOATEC and the start of the second Dead or Alive World Combat Championship, Lisa attended the speech and found Ryu Hayabusa in the crowd. She asked him if he would be joining the tournament, but Hayabusa wasn't interested in talking her so Lisa ended up insulting him for coming second in the first tournament. However, she apologized and they ended up going back to her cabin. While Lisa was bathing, Hayabusa overheard her talking about Kasumi to Donovan over the phone and he soon left to save her.

Around the time Lisa returned to DOATEC Germany, Hayabusa attacked the building and set it on fire. After Lisa ordered the evacuation procedures, she found that, during the chaos, Alpha had released Kasumi from her cell and she found out that her older brother was in the facility. Lisa became very annoyed with Alpha for telling Kasumi but, as Kasumi demanded to see her, the woman calmed quickly and drew out a handgun to keep Kasumi quiet. At that moment, Hayabusa broke into the building to take Kasumi to safety, letting Lisa and Alpha escape by helicopters, along with Hayate.

During the escape, the helicopter Lisa and Hayate were in experienced engine problems and crash-landed in the Black Forest. They both lived but Hayate somehow got separated from Lisa and was saved by Hitomi.

Zack Island
At some point, she was hired to act as public relations for Zack Island. She then spent the next two weeks on vacation at the island.

The Fourth Tournament and the Fall of DOATEC
Despite what happened at DOATEC Germany, Lisa continued to work on Project Alpha and at times even had to protect the project from being discovered by Helena, which included threatening the woman's life.

At some point just before the fourth tournament, Lisa seemed to have a change of heart about the project and its wicked goals and planned to help to take down DOATEC as her persona "La Mariposa." During the early stages of the tournament, she engaged Tina Armstrong in a no-holds-barred wrestling match.

While the Mugen Tenshin clan attacked DOATEC's main headquarters, Lisa also confronted Hayate and told him that she was the one who manipulated him. He "thanks" her with a fight. She also revealed this to Helena Douglas during the tournament.

After the tournament, she went on to fight in a team wrestling match alongside Tina. It's possible, since DOATEC is no more, that this means that Lisa decided to follow a professional career as a luchadora.

New Zack Island
After the tournament, she proceeded to conduct a similar role before at New Zack Island, acting as the public relations official at the island, as well as spending vacation there. She also teased Helena Douglas (who had come to the island to discuss a business proposal relating to DOATEC's revival) regarding his claim that he intended to use DOATEC to bring peace to the galaxy, much to her chagrin.

The Fifth Tournament and MIST
After the fourth tournament, Lisa is working for Donovan with his new organization: MIST. He sends her to Tokyo to meet his client, but she is confronted by Hayabusa, who has overheard her conversation with Miyako on her cellphone and has confirmed MIST's existence. While Lisa tells him that it's her duty as a scientist to make new discoveries to change the world, Hayabusa replies that her discoveries have only brought suffering to him and his friends, and battles her afterwards. While escaping, Lisa accidentally bumps into Kokoro, who fights her with a demand for an apology. After the fight, Lisa asks Kokoro how Miyako is doing.

During the fifth tournament, Lisa makes contact with Miyako without Helena's knowledge, drawing suspicion. When they visit the oil rig, Helena demands to know why they are their without her knowledge. Lisa refuses to answer and steps up to fight Helena but she is defeated.

In the last chapter, there is some evidence that Lisa is a double agent working against Donovan like she did in the previous tournament. At the oil rig, Lisa finds Kasumi in the lab trying to free Hayate, who had been captured by Rig. Lisa realizes that Donovan is reactivating Project Epsilon and frees Hayate. When the four ninja fight Alpha-152, Hayabusa and the clone launch a ninpo at each other. The impact of their attacks creates a huge explosion, destroying the lab in the process. Lisa is seemingly trapped under the debris and her cry is heard; she ultimately survived, yet it is unknown whether she received injuries or not from the incident.

Appearance

 * See also: Lisa's costumes

Lisa is a young dark skinned woman with a voluptuous and athletic build, who has short brown hair, brown eyes, and full lips. She sometimes has to wear black, square-framed reading glasses, which she mostly wears during her work as a scientist.

Her luchadora costumes are very flamboyant and flashy, with added details such as shiny studs and colorful feathers. Her masks are all based around the shape of a butterfly, to match her persona as "The Butterfly." Her original default costume is a white one-piece that shows off her waist and back, with added strips of material that act as a "skirt." The outfit is complete with lace-up boots, leopard-print stockings, various armbands, and a mask with a cap which covers most of her head so only her eyes and the lower half of her face are visible.

In Dead or Alive 5, she has a more realistic appearance, with the same short haircut, but lighter skin and smaller, mature-looking eyes. Her costumes are divided between her wrestling persona, "La Mariposa", and her regular self. Her new default Luchadora outfit consists of a red and orange wrestling top showing her stomach, tight pants with red-orange decals, and a frilly flamboyant eye-mask. As Lisa, she wears expensive clothing, with designer pants, sunglasses, and even fur coats, suggesting a higher class of living (her being of higher class was earlier hinted in Xtreme 2 where her hotel room was the Gemstone Suite). She also wears a lot of high-heels, tight skirts, party dresses, and formal attire. In Last Round she received a new hairstyle: a short white cropped haircut that compliments her darker complexion well.

Personality
It would seem that Lisa is, at the very least, a nice and very intelligent woman. She appears to be able to connect with most of the women during their island holidays, being able to draw up conversation even with the likes of the taciturn Christie and the normally indifferent Ayane.

Lisa also seems to be a bit of a "workaholic," evident by her multiple jobs and the fact that she is almost always seen doing some form of work - her multiple careers and job-changing is a trait she shares with Tina. She is possibly one of, if not the most, intelligent woman in Dead or Alive, as shown by her previous job as a head scientist for DOATEC and her refined speech patterns.

Working with DOATEC, the main antagonistic force in Dead or Alive, however, doesn’t mean that Lisa is immoral; in fact, she is quite the opposite, showing friendly and sometimes compassionate behavior: It was she who released Hayate from his capture during Project Epsilon, and it was also her that started the attack by the Mugen Tenshin Clan as a way to stop Alpha-152, the then latest creation by DOATEC.

In Dead or Alive 5, her behavior changes depending on the outfit selected; If wearing wrestling attire as La Mariposa, she is very loud, and energetic in her introductions, yelling and jumping, obviously to work up her audience. Her winposes are quite suggestive, and she seems rather confident in her abilities. As Lisa, she is more reserved, asking before a match if the opponent really wants to fight that badly. Upon a victory, she blames her opponent for wanting to fight, and even says they're pretty terrible, while giving them a dissapointed and unsatisfied look. She seems quite prideful and just as confident in her abilities as her persona, as she asks her opponent if they really thought they'd win, while smiling sweetly whilst crossing her arms with an air of composure.

Etymology
Lisa's name is a short form of Elizabeth, from the word Ελισαβετ, Elisabet, the Greek form of the Hebrew name  אֱלִישֶׁבַע' , Elisheva, which means "my God is an oath" or "my God is abundance."

Lisa's luchadora name "La Mariposa" means "the butterfly" in Spanish. Butterflies have many layers of symbolism to them; for example, some old cultures see butterflies as a symbol of rebirth, which could relate to Lisa taking on a new persona and becoming a different person altogether as La Mariposa, as luchadores often do with their wrestling personas.

Butterflies also have a clash of symbolism in terms of luck; while in western cultures it's believed that having a butterfly land on you means good luck, in Japan large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens, a portent of coming evil. This clash could link to Lisa's role in the series, as she was one of the people to bring an end to DOATEC, bringing chaos and badness but helped the Mugen Tenshin Clan defeat the Committee, which gave them peace and happiness.

Donovan
It is unknown what relationship Donovan and Lisa share with each other, but Lisa reveals animosity during the events of Dead or Alive 4 about Hayate's capture and Project Epsilon when Helena confronted her in the burning of the tri-towers. She has worked for Donovan in the past, but was possibly betrayed by him somehow.

Tina Armstrong
Friends since their school days, Tina and Lisa seem to have kept in touch to the point that Tina was the only girl, aside from Lisa, who knew that Zack’s "Dead or Alive Tournament Invite" was a hoax. Re-acquainted on Zack Island, Lisa decided to enter the fourth tournament to match her wrestling skills against Tina’s, resulting in the two teaming up to defeat a rival wrestling team.

It is also implied that Lisa may not know Tina's tastes very well. When she interacts with the dumbbell in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, she says that it would be the perfect gift for Tina. However, when the player gives the dumbbell as a present to Tina, she rejects the gift, stating that it's not her style.

Ryu Hayabusa
Lisa and Hayabusa's relationship is that of one-sided irritation. When first they met Hayabusa posed as an onlooker on the DOATEC Yacht, the Freedom Survivor, looking for the captive Kasumi. After managing to get close to Lisa, who tried to flirt with him at the time, he stole her DOATEC ID while she showered, heading for Germany where Kasumi was being held. When Lisa held her at gun point, Hayabusa intervened and caused her to flee. Two years later he found that Lisa had been in contact with Donovan, continuing his inhuman science projects. Hayabusa was angered, as DOATEC's and by extension her own actions, lead to the Mugen Tenshin clan suffering immensely. Lisa at the time felt no remorse for her actions and stated that as a scientist it's up to her to make discoveries for the world, making it seem like what she was doing wasn't causing any harm.This angers Ryu and they fight as a result with him presumably emerging the victor.

Kasumi
Kasumi seems to know Lisa from around before the second tournament. When Kasumi was fighting Kasumi α, Lisa came into the lab during the fight, and demanded to know what was going on. To her horror, she found out Alpha told Kasumi that Hayate was around in the DOATEC facility. She attempted to silence an enraged Kasumi by putting her at gun-point, but Hayabusa came to her rescue abruptly. Lisa didn't like the outnumbered odds, forcing her to flee with Alpha in hand.

Two years later, during the fifth tournament, Kasumi infiltrated the MIST facility alongside Ayane and Hayabusa to rescue Hayate, after she learned that Donovan was trying to reactivate project Epsilon. Kasumi went in the lab with Hayate already in the start up phase, and as she attempted to free him, a shocked Lisa came in, and wondered who was doing this. Kasumi, already fuelled with negative feelings toward Lisa, accused her, and demanded to know what was going on. Lisa denied knowledge, but she went into the control room in an attempt to stop it.

Hayabusa and Ayane came in shortly afterward, and as Lisa started the shut down process, a container opened around the room, exposing hundreds of created clones. Alpha-152 came out of hiding, prepared to fight, and Lisa pleaded for them to defeat it. Hayabusa and the clone, now mimicking his appearance, sent energy beams at each other, causing the area where Lisa was to collapse, although she managed to survive.

Hayate
Lisa had been involved with and led Project Epsilon. Hayate escaped in the catastrophe of the lab being destroyed and soon regained his memory. In Dead or Alive 4, Lisa flies in on Hayate. Hayate thanks her for making him come destroy DOATEC and giving him a purpose in life, in return for which he battles her and defeats her easily.

She sees him again two years later during the fifth tournament in the laboratory as Project Epsilon was being reactivated, much to her shock. After explaining her lack of knowledge over what was going on to Kasumi, she ran to the computer room and was able to halt it, stating that he was fine and just unconscious at a "basic cellular level". Thanks to entering the override code, she was able to eventually awaken him, but like the other ninjas Hayate didn't seem to acknowledge or thank her for her deed, but this could have been out of disdain for Lisa because of her past which affected the ninjas safety.

Helena
Due to the experiments led by DOATEC Lisa, scientist for DOATEC at the time, was ordered to stop Helena from finding out what they were doing. When she came close she threatened to kill her if she ever found out. During the Mugen Tenshin attacks, Helena blames Lisa for the DOATEC destruction and they battle at the Tritower Heliport. During their vacation at New Zack Island, Lisa proceeded to tease Helena about Zack's claim about using DOATEC to bring peace to the galaxy, with the latter repeatedly telling her that it was "none of her concern" in an annoyed tone. As of Dead or Alive 5, Helena still keeps a watchful eye on Lisa, who is now under MIST.

Kokoro
In the Dead or Alive 5 story mode, it is revealed that Kokoro and Lisa know each other. When they bump into each other during a wild scramble in the city, Lisa easily recognizes Kokoro. Although Kokoro may know Lisa through Miyako working with her, it is unknown, however, if Kokoro is aware of Lisa's exact occupation. They share a secondary tag alliance where Kokoro leads the team-up and Lisa finishes it.

Leifang
Leifang and Lisa are warmly acquainted in the first Dead or Alive vacation. In Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, they have developed a better friendship which they share scenes of playing on the shore together and even tease each other.

Dead or Alive

 * See also: Lisa's command lists

Lisa can be considered a mixture between Tina and Zack due to her powerful throws and quickly executed kicks, her style is a mixture of lucha libre and capoeira styles. Her kicks are very effective since they are long to close range meaning that she possess total ground control, being especially adept at low and mid-position tracking, and her counters nearly match those of Bayman in power percentage.

Additionally, Lisa is unpredictable, making her difficult to counter and defend against. However, this unpredictability also makes her a very difficult character to learn and master and thus is very unsuited for beginning players.

Stats
The following are Lisa's official stats as listed in the games.

Dead or Alive Xtreme
If the player takes the tour of the island at the beginning of the game, Lisa is their partner automatically. Even without the tour, Lisa is nice and friendly enough to become friends with everyone, and vice versa. She will easily become friends with Tina, as both of them were already childhood friends.

In beach volleyball, Lisa is a very well-rounded player. Since she used to represent her school in competitive volleyball tournaments, she has a good jumping skill and great technique as well as average power, speed, and defense. She is one of the best characters for beginners. By far, she would make an ideal team with other balanced players, especially Helena and Christie.

Stats
The following are Lisa's official stats as listed in the manuals for both Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Xtreme 2.

Dead or Alive series

 * Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (playable, 2003)
 * Dead or Alive 4 (playable, 2005-06)
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (playable, 2006)
 * Dead or Alive Paradise (playable, 2010)
 * Dead or Alive Dimensions (playable, 2011)
 * Dead or Alive 5 (5+) (playable, 2012-13)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade (playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (playable, 2015)

Fighting quotes

 * Dead or Alive 4
 * Dead or Alive Dimensions
 * Dead or Alive 5
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate
 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

Music themes
The following are the music themes used for Lisa throughout the series.

Gallery

 * See: Lisa Hamilton gallery

Trivia

 * Lisa's surname was not known in the series until Dead or Alive Dimensions.
 * Lisa's lucha libre moves are based on pro wrestler.
 * Lisa's fighting style seems to involve capoeira kicks.
 * Although Lisa is a luchadora, the fact that she does use a bit of capoeira, it can be safely said that Lisa uses a mixture of lucha libre and capoeira, although it's listed simply as lucha libre.
 * IGN featured Lisa in their "Videogame Babe of the Day" series in 2006.
 * Lisa was the only new character in Dead or Alive 4 to have officially debuted in an older game in the series, which was Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
 * She is also the first Dead or Alive character to debut in an Xtreme game rather than a fighting game, which would later be repeated with Misaki, Luna, Tamaki and Fiona for Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation
 * She is also the only Xtreme debuted character to actually enter the main fighting series.
 * Lisa was initially believed to be African American due to her dark skin color as well as her last name Hamilton as given in Dead or Alive Dimensions. However, Itagaki revealed in a Facebook post that Lisa was in fact supposed to be Latino, which is supported by her fighting style, lucha libre, being a fighting style originating in Central America. He also implied that "Lisa" may not actually be her real name.
 * According to Itagaki, Lisa's name was originally supposed to be Monica.
 * Lisa is often compared to Julia Chang from the Tekken series as both girls share similarities.
 * Both are working within the enemy's organization.
 * Both girls have wrestling aliases and share the fighting style lucha libre.
 * Both of the characters also change their real name when the player is allowed to remove their masks. In Julia's case, when she was customized to remove the mask, her name Jaycee will be changed to her real name.
 * In the Dead Fantasy fan series, her current Japanese voice grunts are used for Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy VII who is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.
 * When Tifa does a German suplex towards her rival Hitomi in Dead Fantasy II, it is the same suplex that Lisa executes from her ending in Dead or Alive 4.
 * Largely because of the ending of Dead or Alive 5 and how the explosion was framed, it was initially ambiguous as to whether Lisa had been killed in the M.I.S.T. lab explosion. However, Yohei Shimbori in an interview with freestepdodge about Dead or Alive 6 confirmed that Lisa is still alive, but stopped short of divulging how she managed to survive.
 * Her survival was further confirmed via leaked concept art showing Lisa's legs.