Kolin

"I didn't quite explain myself before. Let me just say that I utterly despise Bison... but there is another man more suitable to lead this world. That's why I want to destroy Shadaloo. Is that satisfactory?"

- Kolin, as 'Helen'

"It's so nice to meet."

- Kolin (Street Fighter V)

Kolin (コーリン), also known by the alias Helen (ヘレン), is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter III: New Generation as a non-playable character before making her playable debut in the second season of Street Fighter V. She is a conniving and devoted agent of the Illuminati, primarily serving as Gill's personal assistant.

Appearance
Kolin is an attractive woman of apparent Eastern European descent with blonde hair and blue eyes. In her first appearance in Street Fighter III, she is distinguished by her asymmetrical updo hairstyle. Kolin wears a finely-tailored black ladies' suit with matching skirt, and walks in high heels. This outfit returns as her 'Nostalgia' costume in Street Fighter V.

In Street Fighter V, she wears her hair loose in a longer style, under a black ushanka hat with a four-pointed star decoration at the center. This complements her black Afghanka-style military jacket, which ends in a miniskirt. Thigh high black stockings and fur boots replace the stiletto heels of her secretary outfit.

Her premium Battle costume consists of a dark grey wetsuit with bare legs, over which she wears a grey thermal short vest and various accessories including a gun strapped in a holster across her thigh. Her hair is tied in a ponytail and she wears black tactical goggles with red lenses pushed up on her head.

Her Story costume is a grey military-style jacket with black accents that ends in a miniskirt with yellow trim. She retains her ushanka hat, but further accessorizes the look with a pair of mittens and a yellow scarf that covers her mouth. Her usually bare legs are covered by black tights.

Personality
In Street Fighter III, Kolin appears primarily in the role of dutiful assistant to Gill. When she interacts with other characters, she is a bit standoffish.

In Street Fighter V, she is depicted as a conniving schemer who seems to alternate between two personalities: a false, kind one, with which she acts as a nursemaid to Charlie Nash and a helper to heroes, and her true self: zealous, ruthless, cruel, and vindictive, seen when she throws Nash's unavoidable return to the grave in his face.

Kolin is deeply religious, devoted to Gill and the teachings of the Secret Society. She carries a copy of the Book of Miraha, the Illuminati holy book, and reads from it for strength when she is disheartened. She despises soldiers and seeks to end all war.

Concept
During the development of her playable appearance in Street Fighter V, Kolin was initially an expressionless, merciless cyborg who fought with rope and knives. At one point when she was almost finalized, the development team considered giving Hopak as her fighting style.

Gill
Kolin is deeply loyal to Gill, entirely convinced that he is the prophesied messiah. At the end of A Shadow Falls, she is shocked and honored that despite her failure to satisfy the ancient prophecy with her Nash project, Gill still wishes for her to serve at his side.

Urien
Kolin and Urien appear to have an antagonistic relationship, though she refers to him deferentially as "Lord Urien". Urien is disdainful of Kolin's project with Nash, referring to him as her "mud doll". It is also revealed, as per her win quotes, she is not above betraying Urien, should an opportunity arise.

Juri
During Street Fighter V, Helen and Juri seem to have a somewhat professional relationship since they had a common enemy to take down, M. Bison as well as Shadaloo.

Nash
Kolin believed Nash to be a figure in the prophecies of the Book of Miraha, the warrior destined to defeat M. Bison. She resurrected him for this purpose, and was dismayed when he rejected her mission. She was mortified to discover the prophecy had been about Ryu instead.

Guile
Because Guile reminded her of soldiers that wrought havoc in her homeland, Kolin does not have a favorable view about Guile due to his occupation, and the same would be true for Charlie Nash, except that the latter was under her and Illuminati's command.

Background
Kolin was once a member in the army of her unnamed home country which was destroyed in a war. Being the only survivor of her unit, Kolin wanders into the tundra and collapses by a dead flower in the snow. Gill appears to her and asks for her name; she says she has none. He asks about her country and she says it is gone. He offers to build a new "country of God" where she can live, if she desires it. A butterfly begins to hatch from a chrysalis on the dead flower.

Street Fighter V
When Street Fighter V was first released in February 2016, Kolin (as 'Helen') appeared in Charlie Nash's Character Story and the A Shadow Falls story. She did not become a playable character until February 2017, when she joined the fray under her real name as a DLC fighter.

Character Story
Prologue - 'Frozen Blade'

Kolin is sitting reading the Book of Miraha outside Nash's tomb, waiting for him to wake up while remembering her past.

Guile wanders by searching for Nash. Kolin tells him to be quiet, saying her "little brother" is sleeping nearby. Guile says that the person he is searching for was like a brother to him, and Kolin says family and friends are useless because they will only die and leave you to mourn them. Guile tries to walk past her into the tomb, and she attacks him. Guile is astonished, and asks if she was once in the military.

Kolin defeats Guile and disappears. Byron Taylor appears and tries to convince Guile to move on because Nash is dead. Kolin, who is hiding, calls them disgusting dogs. She blames men like Taylor and Guile for waging war like the one that destroyed her homeland, and thinks once more about her past and the time she met Gill. Back in the present, Kolin says Nash now has a purpose higher than that of any soldier, and he should feel privileged. She goes into the tomb to prepare for his awakening.

A Shadow Falls
Kolin revives the corpse of Charlie Nash using the Eleven body from Urien's laboratory. She plans to use Nash to stop Shadaloo's plans, taking advantage of his desire for revenge on Bison. While Nash is still weak from his resurrection, Kolin -- using the alias 'Helen' -- tasks him with the unpleasant assignment of taking down his best friend, Guile.

After Nash secures Guile's piece, Helen reveals she has also recruited Rashid and Juri as part of her operation to take down Shadaloo. Urien arrives and attacks Nash to test his mettle, but is prevented from killing him by Rashid. He tells Helen to prove that Shadaloo is truly defeated. Before they infiltrate Shadaloo to stop the Black Moons, Helen uses some sort of power to charge the green gem on Nash's forehead and keep him alive.

After an unsuccessful attempt at halting the Black Moons, Helen gives Rashid the riddle from his friend whose answer will stop Operation C.H.A.I.N.S. -- and, excited, asks Nash if he has killed Bison yet. Nash answers that he has not, and Helen is enraged, complaining that she worked so hard to revive him and rubbing in his face the fact that his new body is decaying rapidly and he is truly dead. Nash surprises her by revealing he knew this already, and leaves to perform the mission his own way. Helen is last seen comforting herself by reading a prophecy about Gill from the Book of Miraha while watching the destruction of the surrounding city. Urien castigates her for her failure.

In the mid-credits sequence after the story ends, Helen kneels before Gill and tells him of the fall of Shadaloo and Bison's defeat at the hands of Ryu. She apologises for failing him with her Nash project. Gill rises from his throne and asks her to come with him, addressing her as Kolin; in a flash of ice, she transforms into her familiar design from Street Fighter III. Kolin gazes upon Gill's face with worshipful loyalty as the credits resume.

Street Fighter III series
Kolin acts as a personal assistant to Gill, managing aspects of the Third World Warrior Tournament.

Most notably, at Gill's behest she gives Dudley his father's car keys back in his New Generation and 2nd Impact endings.

Udon
Kolin appears in UDON's Super Street Fighter comic book series, an adaptation of Street Fighter III. The UDON comics were the first source to portray her as a combatant.

She also appears in the 2015 prequel one-shot Street Fighter V: The Life and Death(s) of Charlie Nash, in which she curiously performs the same plot function she does as Helen in Street Fighter V. Here, instead of operating as Helen, she appears to Nash and the reader unambiguously as Kolin, without a disguise.

Kolin and Urien seemingly discover Nash in the desert, approaching him via helicopter, but later reveal they resurrected him in their laboratory to serve the Illuminati. The desert and helicopter are illusions, and Kolin and Urien are actually speaking to a comatose Nash telepathically, using Illuminati technology. Kolin offers Nash a second chance at life if he will serve her willingly, and Nash agrees.

Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers
In Street Fighter VS. Darkstalkers, it is revealed that Kolin had learned of her power over ice from the soul of a Werewolf.

Street Fighter: Resurrection
Kolin appears in the live-action miniseries Street Fighter: Resurrection, credited as 'Illuminati Agent'. She is portrayed by Amy Olivia Bell.

Fighting style and abilities
Kolin fights using the Russian martial art Systema. Like Gill (who gifted her with this power), she is a cryokinetic, able to manipulate ice and snow for various attack effects.

Before her playable debut, Kolin was implied to be a fighter by Juri in Act 2 of A Shadow Falls, where she displays impressive dexterity and sleight of hand in pick-pocketing two chess pieces from Rashid without his notice.

Kolin displays a number of other supernatural powers over the course of A Shadow Falls: she vanishes into thin air when Nash looks away in Act 1, and she recharges his body in Act 2 by projecting a blue energy into the gemstone in his forehead. She implies she has the power to "touch souls", but cannot do this with Nash as he is dead.

Moveset
Kolin utilizes her cryokinetic powers to turn her hands into icy blades for slashing attacks. Her V-Trigger Diamond Dust is a wave of ice on the ground that prevents the opponent's stun gauge from depleting, and can freeze them solid if the gauge fills. Her V-Skill Inside Slash allows her to deflect and automatically punish incoming moves with ease. Her Critical Art Frost Tower has her dash forward with a slice of her hand and if the attack connects, she’ll continue summoning large icicles from the ground, throwing the opponent into the air and shattering the ice to drop them to the ground.

Quotes
See: Kolin/Quotes

Trivia

 * There are a number of potential sources for Kolin's name. "Colleen" (how it's pronounced in English) is a common Irish name also used as a general term for a girl or woman, from the Irish cailín (caile, countrywoman). If the name was originally intended to be Korin with an R (due to Japanese L/R ambiguity), then КОРИН (Korin) is a Russian surname, and the Japanese word kōri (こおり) means "ice".


 * "Helen", the name Kolin uses to gather warriors in the story mode of Street Fighter V, is perhaps a reference to the mythical Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships to war. It is an English variation of the Ancient Greek name Helenē (Ἑλένη). "Elena" is a variant of the same name.


 * Kolin's asymmetrical haircut in Street Fighter III, like Gill's two-toned skin, was designed to showcase the graphical power of the new CPS-3 board, which allowed non-mirrored sprites for the first time.


 * Kolin shares her birthday, February 14th (Valentine's Day), with Ken.


 * Though Kolin's homeland is currently unrevealed, there is evidence to suggest her Russian or at least Soviet heritage; she wears Russian garb, operates in Russia, uses the Russian martial art Systema, and speaks English with a Russian accent. The flag that she and her comrades are seen carrying in her Character Story is an allusion to the flag of the Soviet Union, only slightly modified, and their uniforms resemble the Soviet (now Russian) Afghanka.
 * As it stands right now, Kolin, Ingrid and Falke are the only playable female characters in the series whose nationalities are officially listed as unknown.


 * Kolin's ice powers are reminiscent of Kula Diamond's fighting style in The King of Fighters series. Her Story Mode costume in Street Fighter V may be an homage to Millia Rage from the Guilty Gear franchise.


 * Her current apperance somewhat shares the same similarities with Kalinka from the Mega Man series.


 * Some Street Fighter fans who are also Disney fans have compared Kolin to Elsa from Disney's 2013 film Frozen because they are both female characters with similar ice and snow powers. Her Christmas DLC costume has her wearing a winter outfit similar to Elsa's younger sister, Anna, but the color scheme of her outfit is blue to make her resemble Elsa.
 * Coincidentally, Final Fantasy's recurring summon Shiva's signature ability is also called Diamond Dust which also has the same ice theme as Kolin's V-Trigger
 * Possibly like Remy, Kolin has some similarities to the character Cygnus Hyoga in Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac): Both use ice-based attacks and some even share the same name as Diamond Dust for example. Still in the anime, Hyoga can sometimes reach the Absolute Zero, which is also the name of a Kolin's V-Trigger. The appearance of Kolin bears some resemblance to Hyoga's mother Natassiaand a four-pointed star in her ushanka resembles the northern cross an important asterism that can be seen in the northern hemisphere that corresponds to the Hyoga's constellation (Cygnus). Both also share the same zodiacal sign Aquarius.

Gallery
Main article: Kolin/Gallery