Lisa Hamilton

Lisa Hamilton (リサ・ハミルトン, Risa Hamiruton), also known by her wrestling persona La Mariposa (ラ・マリポサ, Ra Mariposa), is an American luchadora from the Dead or Alive series. She made her first official appearance in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and made her fighter debut in Dead or Alive 4.

A former scientist for the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee, 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 the head scientist for DOATEC, and is known to have worked on Project Epsilon. For unknown reasons, it was Lisa who released Project Epsilon's test subject, Hayate; whether she did this out of contempt for the company's increasingly shady experiments, or because she grew emotionally attached to Hayate and took pity on him is unknown.

She eventually left the company, supposedly becoming a stockbroker in her home country of America. However, it has been stated that she still held on to her job as the head scientist for DOATEC, becoming involved with Project Alpha, until just prior to its destruction during the fourth tournament.



The Fourth Tournament and The Fall of DOATEC
Lisa appeared in the fourth tournament as the mysterious masked fighter "La Mariposa", in order to engage Tina Armstrong in a no-holds-barred wrestling match. She also confrontd Hayate and told him that she was the one who manipulated him and the other ninja into attacking DOATEC. He "thanks" her with a fight. She also revealed this to Helena Douglas during the tournament. Lisa most likely did all of this in an attempt to destroy Alpha-152, the final product of Project Alpha.

After the tournament, she went onto fight in a team wrestling match alongside Tina, during which Lisa's true identity was revealed after her mask was removed.

Appearance
Also see: Lisa's Outfit Catalogues

Lisa is a dark-skinned, slender woman, with brown eyes, full lips and brunette hair, which is cut short to the base of her skull and styled into a side parting on her left-hand side. 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 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 completed 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 is visible.

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 behaviour: 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.

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 lucadora name "La Mariposa" means "the butterfly" in Spanish. Butterflies have many layers of symbolism to them; for example, some old cultures see butterfiles as a symbol of rebirth, which could relate to Lisa taking on a new persona, and becoming a diffirent people altogether as La Mariposa, as luchadors 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.

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.

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

Helena Douglas
Before entering the tournament Lisa was working for Victor Donovan. Donovan assigned her to do Project Epsilon. When Helena entered the tournament she was ordered to stop Helena from finding out what DOATEC was doing with all their experiments. During the Mugen Tenshin attack on DOATEC Helena blames Lisa for it and battles her on the Tritower Heliport.

Dead or Alive
Lisa can be considered a mixture between Tina and Zack due to her powerful throws and quickly executed kicks. Her kicks are very effective, 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.

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.

Dead or Alive Series

 * Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003)
 * Dead or Alive 4 (2005 - 2006)
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (2006)
 * Dead or Alive Paradise (2010)
 * Dead or Alive: Dimensions (2011)

Musical Themes

 * Tribal Beats - Dead or Alive 4 and Dead or Alive: Dimensions
 * Dance Of The Angel - Dead or Alive 4 Ending Theme.

Trivia

 * Lisa's Lucha Libre moves are based on pro-wrestler.
 * All of Lisa's costumes bear masks as default, except for her cat-like costume which is unmasked. Selecting this costume with 360 Y Button.png will give it its butterfly mask.
 * Lisa's main tag partners throughout the series are:
 * Tina Armstrong in Dead or Alive 4.
 * Zack in Dead or Alive: Dimensions.
 * Lisa's voice is used for Final Fantasy VII character Tifa Lockhart in Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy.
 * IGN featured Lisa in their "Videogame Babe of the Day" series in 2006.