Rachel Alucard

Rachel Alucard is the head of the Alucard vampire clan, and a playable character in the BlazBlue series.

Information
Rachel Alucard is the current head of the Alucard family, and a very powerful being. Rachel behaves like a stereotypical upper-class individual, often looking down upon others with boredom, arrogance, snobbery and apathy, and hates her vampire urges.

She is seemingly one of the most powerful characters in the series to the point where she can 'keep up' with Yūki Terumi. Rachel can create a dimension called the Requiem which intersects with her dream world. She is always with her servants Nago and Gii and usually with her butler, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing. Both she and Valkenhayn seem to be the only characters who know that time was looping the Calamity Trigger a century before. She plays with the characters to push them forward to breaking the loop of time that is repeating itself. She has in her possession the Tsukuyomi Unit, a powerful Sankishin which has, according to Rachel, an "absolute defense". The "absolute defense" takes the form of a golden shield which defends Kagutsuchi from a laser fired by the Nox Nyctores known as Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi.

Calamity Trigger
An extremely bored Rachel spent much of her time trying to secretly direct characters from making the same mistakes over and over again and break the looping of time, but as she was an Observer, she could do nothing but stand in the sidelines.

She has long pointed hair ties, so people call her rabbit, which irritates her, although Ragna seems to get away with calling her rabbit, idiot, and "bunny-leech" in the second game. The only concern whom she seems to show towards is Ragna. It is also further insinuated that Rachel deeply cares for Ragna as it is shown during Ragna's bad ending. Interestingly enough, in some later interactions it is revealed that she is possibly the most powerful of the playable characters, and as such the only one capable of taking on Yūki Terumi. In battle she has mastered sorcery and has the ability to control lightning and wind.

Continuum Shift
Rachel prepares herself to face Yūki Terumi again after finding that Noel Vermillion and Jin Kisaragi are targeted for assassination by the NOL. In the Opening of Continuum Shift's story, Rachel had something of a "falling out" with Takamagahara after she activated the Tsukuyomi Unit, thus losing her ability to Observe. Due to this, she lost a substantial amount of her power. The suspicion that she was the most powerful playable character is proved false as, when she fights Yūki Terumi, he appears to take her attempt to defeat him as a joke and quotes "I do not think you'll last more than a second or two against me". Furthermore, he is able to easily and mockingly evade not only Rachel, but Hakumen, and Valkenhayn when she rallies them against him. He is then able to teleport and conceal his own tracks so that Rachel, instead of following him, transports herself to the dump. There, she is subsequently caught by Phantom, Saya and Relius Clover, being kept outside of the reach of Valkenhayn and held inside the Library branch in Kagutsuchi.

Ragna manages to free her after he defeated Yūki Terumi, though she refused to thank him. Rachel then tells him that the only way to defeat Mu-12 and save Noel is to kill her. However, he manages to counter-current the tempering and free Noel without killing her, at the cost of his left arm. Saya then appears, stating that all that Rachel did was for nothing and that she has control over everything.

Afterwards, she is seen with Hakumen, the latter stating that she and Jubei are soft and weak. As he leaves, Rachel bids Ragna to not give up, no matter what the future holds for him.

Chronophantasma
Rachel is currently in Ikaruga. She is later met by Noel, who is looking for her to ask if she knows how she can access Mu's power.

Personality
Rachel is a stereotypical aristocratic heiress. She has an almost enchanting air of dignity and grace, yet is sarcastic and condescending to those she considers lower than her, always expecting them to have the highest standards of formality when conversing with her.

Despite this, she does care deeply for her allies. Her butler, Valkenhayn, is fervently devoted to Rachel, as he was a loyal friend and respected rival to her father, the late Clavis Alucard. Rachel's familiars, Nago and Gii, despite taking punishment from her on a regular basis, remain loyal to her.

Perhaps her most intriguing relationship is with Ragna. Although Rachel would never admit to it, she loves Ragna for his determination and unwillingness to give up even when the odds are against him.

Appearance
Rachel is a young vampire girl with pale skin, long blonde hair tied into two pigtails with black ribbons, and red eyes. She wears Gothic Lolita fashion with a frilly black gown and jacket, red ribbon bow tie, a red bat symbol design cross from the front to the back on her dress, another red cross on her shawl and bottom half, high heeled black boots with a red cross, and a red ribbon on her left ankle.

When she was young, her appearance was similar that of her current self. She wore a black dress with a red cross in the center and a large, black ribbon on the back, black ribbons in her hair, a white blouse, white bloomers, and black slippers.

In Alter Memory during the hot spring scene in Episode 5, Rachel is seen wearing a dark blue one-piece bathing suit with red lines on both sides of her bathing suit but retains her look.

Powers and Abilities
Rachel believes herself to be one of the most powerful individuals in BlazBlue, making it a point by often looking down upon others, unamused or not fazed by the attempts of her opponents, no matter how hard they fight. In battle she employs her familiars, Nago and Gii to do most of the fighting for her. It is also stated that she has mastered the art of sorcery; in direct combat, she is shown having control of wind and lightning. Her feats of power range from creating portals, to turning her clothes in weapons such as forks, knives, and swords. Rachel's heightened power comes from her possession of the Sankishin known as Tsukuyomi. Boasting the ultimate defense, Tsukuyomi was able to block and completely nullify a blast from the Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi. Rachel's Drive is known as Silpheed which employs the use of her control over the element of wind to alter the flow of battle by affecting all, from the combatants to projectiles

As of Continuum Shift, she lost much of her overwhelming power after forsaking her status as an Observer. However, she still retains the ability to fight.

Etymology
Rachel is Hebrew in origin. It means ewe, a term used to describe an adult female sheep.

Her last name, Alucard, references her vampire origins. It is simply Dracula spelt backwards and first appeared in the 1943 film The Son of Dracula. Since then, the name has been used in various media as a last and first name to individuals with vampire heritage. Dracula itself is a name deriving from Romanian origin and dates back to Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Romania from 1456 to 1462 AD; the name literally translates to Son of the Dragon. The name first became associated with vampires in Bram Stoker's classic gothic horror novel: Dracula. The titular character was based on Vlad due to the latter's reputation to drink his victims blood in front of their family.

Further referencing her vampire origin, Rachel's birthplace is Transylvania, the birthplace of both Vlad the Impaler and the supposed birthplace of Dracula. It has since been commonly used as the origin for numerous vampires in various media.

Trivia

 * Rachel's birthday, October 31, is celebrated as Halloween in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
 * Unlike every other character in the game, when attacked with lightning from another Rachel, she just seems to ignore it (but Nago and Gii gets shocked). The other three characters who do not appear with human skeletons are Hakumen, Hazama and Arakune. Also, Nago and Gii take nearly all damage inflicted on Rachel in her place, with Gii blocking for Rachel in her blocking animations no matter how far he is from her, and Nago getting hit for Rachel instead.
 * Even though she is a vampire, she dislikes drinking blood. She has only succumbed to her thirst once, with Ragna being her first and only victim.
 * True to her vampiric heritage, on stages where other characters will have reflections, Rachel does not project one at all.
 * Rachel and Bang both share a dislike of bell peppers.
 * In Continuum Shift, Rachel is shown to get very jealous at the thought of another female character eating alongside Ragna.
 * Most of Rachel's special moves, her Distortion Drives and her Astral Heat are all named after different species and genuses of plants, such as Tiny Lobelia, Baden-Baden Lily and Tempest Dahlia.
 * The name of Rachel's Drive, Silpheed, refers to Sylphid (or simply Sylph), the name of a mythological creature that represents the element of air and wind.
 * In Gallery Mode in Continuum Shift, there are two additional voice clips of Rachel chanting the incantation for the Tsukuyomi Unit.
 * Rachel is a playable character in the MMO: Lost Saga. Other playable characters from BlazBlue include Ragna, Jin, Hazama, Hakumen and Platinum.