In continuation of the streak of Tia posting following the game’s release, I have prepared a series of posts focusing on characters that influenced the way I write Tia or simply resonate with her in some way. I hope that prospective players and those who already beat the game alike will enjoy learning more about the titular character of Tia’s Path Home ahead of me releasing more content that features her in the future.
Now, the first question one might ask is “Was Tia inspired by any character in particular?”, and the answer is no. It is said that, sometimes, inspiration seem to come out of nowhere, and a character will just present themselves to you in your mind unsolicited, with no effort whatsoever. It was very much like that for Tia, she just “came to me”, without being based on anybody or anything in particular.
However, while she cannot be traced back to any specific character, there is one character that was really resonating with me at the time, Asuka Langley Sōryū, from the original Evangelion show.
Tia starts out as a rather smug character, who likes to poke at people’s weaknesses, and while this is not straight out of Asuka’s book, this initial smugness is a trait they share. Then, Tia goes through a lot of heavy stuff in her overall story, and grows to be more and more hostile, if not antagonistic, as years pass and trauma piles up.
This comes from a sort of personal fascination with how ordeals and even traumatic events are overcome at great personal and psychological cost, and shape one’s attitude and even personality, at least to an extent. I think Evangelion, most specifically Asuka’s story, must have played a huge part in nurturing that in me, from her tragic backstory to what happens to her in The End of Evangelion (the 1997 movie).
Another probable, even if not willful, early influence on Tia comes from Dragon Ball, another iconic series that shaped many childhoods. Videl was one of the first tomboys I was exposed to, and Tia definitely shares that tomboyish streak that Videl has going on. But more than the character in general, it is quite possible that one specific scene influenced Tia. I am talking, of course, about the famous fight between Videl and Spopovich.
This fight has a lot of the key ingredients of Tia’s stories: a relatively harmless-looking girl who pushes above her weight, fighting bravely against a much bigger opponent who clearly outmatches her physically. She also exhibits one of Tia’s main traits in this fight: a tenacity which has her persist through bruises, wounds, and pain, even when it becomes clear that she is out of her depth! I cannot tell if this inspired this trait in Tia in any way, but the common thread is plain to see?
Of course, the popularity of this fight does not come from Videl remarkable willpower in the face of adversity, or at least not only, but because of its cruel and brutal second half.
Videl’s persistence is not rewarded in this fight, quite the contrary. She is completely overwhelmed by Spopovich, who takes sickening pleasure in torturing her up to the point where it looks like he might actually kill her. This was so brutal that many Western TV networks heavily censored this episode when it aired, and I am sure that it played no small part in nurturing the focus Tia’s story has on not only overcoming perils, but also on powering through inescapable ordeals and dealing with their consequences.
