We all love a badass woman.
Tachy is a female character in Stellar Blade, the upcoming PS5 exclusive, who has captured the hearts of fans even with her extremely limited screen time. The experienced soldier features near the beginning of the Stellar Blade demo and has sparked passionate fan theories surrounding her fate.
But who exactly is Tachy, why is she so popular, and what happens to her? Spoilers ahead for Stellar Blade’s demo and Tachy’s fate.
Who is Tachy in Stellar Blade?
According to a Playstation release, Tachy is “the courageous leader of the 7th Airborne Squad. Tachy is a decorated soldier, renowned for her tactical acumen, combat and survival skills.”
Tachy is the very first person you meet in the demo after your ship crashes. She guides the main character, EVE, through the first minutes of the game until the pair learn they are the only ones left alive from their squad.
Tachy lasts up until the first major enemy the pair encounter. After EVE is incapacitated, Tachy jumps in the way to protect her from a direct attack and loses her arm in the process. She is then stabbed through the abdomen, leading into the title card for Stellar Blade in the demo and an uncertain fate for Tachy.
A short motion comic gives a few more crumbs of backstory for Tachy and EVE as the pair train before heading down to Earth. They discuss their upcoming mission and the likelihood that it will be successful. This comic is noteworthy for Tachy's prescient comments, as she states that there will be sacrifices for this mission and that if she were to die, she would like to die in EVE's arms.
Why is Tachy so popular?
Even with such limited screen time and an untimely demise, Tachy is one of the Stellar Blade's fandom’s favorites. It’s an especially impressive achievement amongst the cast of very pretty ladies in Stellar Blade. But why is Tachy the standout character?
Her character is confident, skilled, and very much in-charge of the situation. She throws herself in front of danger - literally - and this seems to have struck a chord with fans.
An huge aspect of her popularity may just be because Tachy dies so early. Fan theories about what really happened to her and if she’ll come back have fueled an extra focus on Tachy. So combining her beautiful character design, her badass personality, a nobel self-sacrifice, and the juicy potential of a late game resurrection clearly makes for a fan favorite character.
Is Tachy dead or alive in Stellar Blade?
No one knows for sure, but the internet is aflame with fan theories about Tachy. We’ll go through the most likely theories here, based on trailer evidence.
The parasite theory
Back in 2021, when Stellar Blade was titled Project EVE, a PlayStation Showcase trailer came out. At the very end of this trailer, a mysterious one-armed enemy appears to fight EVE who looks a lot like Tachy. However, once the visor drops we see the flash of a skull.
In the clip we hear EVE say: "What are you doing here?", followed by her Squad member Adam calling the enemy an “Alpha NA:tive”. Since this enemy clearly has Tachy’s face, the question is how did it get there? It’s possible that her body was taken by a parasite and is now simply being used by the enemies. The Alpha NA:tive is also wielding Tachy's trademark sword. While that’s certainly a credible theory, there is another theory for fans who want to believe Tachy is alive and well.
The saved theory
The second theory is that Tachy was saved and “fixed” by advanced technology. Stellar Blade's Director said in an interview with PlayStation Japan that "most of the characters have machine or machine-like bodies". We've also see a glimpse of a white haired lady, who seems to be in the process of being repaired. (below) Based on her body structure, very few of her body parts look human. Could Tachy be similar?
Additional evidence for this theory comes from the fact that PlayStation released a couple of vignettes focused on important characters. Tachy is among the featured Stellar Blade characters, which seems like a strange choice for a character who dies early on in a demo that most players already know about.
Another piece of evidence for the “Tachy lives” theory is a short gameplay trailer that briefly shows (1:39 on the video) an obscured character with unidentified special moves in the bottom corner. This may be slightly weaker evidence, but it does support the theory. It could also be just a late game EVE with brand new BETA abilities. Developers Shift Up said EVE is the only playable character, so it could also be a Tachy skin for her.
Stellar Blade comes out exclusively to the PS5 on April 26. Hopefully we will be able to see more of Tachy than we did in the demo. Ideally, a non-parasite version of her.
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