Russell

Russell
Japanese name	Dr. ラッセル
Romanized name	Dokutā Rasseru
English name	Dr. Russell
Age	Deceased
Origin	Tiphares
Affiliations	Ground Investigation Bureau (former)
Occupation	Scientist
Degree of cyberization	Fully human
Debut	Battle 35

Dr. Russell was a Tipharean scientist who was assigned to the Ground Investigation Bureau.

Appearance

Russell was an older man with a bushy mustache who had light-coloured hair that was balding. He wore glasses without temples and dressed in polo neck sweatshirts and pants, over which he would wear a lab coat. Russell looks like an older version of Daisuke Ido, which suggests that they shared DNA from the same genetic stock, a common occurrence on Tiphares.

Personality

Bigott Eizenburg originally brought Russell into the GIB in order to help bring Alita into line as he was more kindly and not as stern. He had much more concern for Alita than Eizenburg did, objecting to her replacement by the TUNED AR Series 2. However after Alita was resurrected on Tiphares by Desty Nova, his attitude changed to one of superiority and of full commitment to the Tipharean way of life, and was very anxious about the threat that Alita posed as an outsider. He shows to be a rather weak willed individual whom often boasted of racial superiority while cowering in fear of something completely alien or foreign to him.

Relationships

Bigott Eizenburg

As his direct superior, it is believed that Russell got along fairly well with Bigott as they would occasionally work together within the GIB.

Lou Collins

Russell was a co-worker of Lou and remained cordial with her. In fact, he was the one who brought Lou in on her first day as a TUNED operator and showed her the basics on what to do. It is unknown if their relationship changed due to his death in both the original run and Last Order, but it is hinted that he possibly did not view her in high regards anymore due to reluctantly telling Alita she was set to be cast out from the Dust Chamber beneath Tiphares.

Alita

The nature of his relationship with Alita was not touched on, but he saw her as a fellow human being as opposed to a lowly surface dweller like Eizenburg did. Upon Alita being brought to Tiphares, Russell began to get more cautious and apprehensive of her, eventually viewing Alita as a nuisance and a threat to Tipharean society.

Desty Nova

When Nova returned to Tiphares, he co-opted Russell into working with him to resurrect Alita and use the GIB facilities. However he later turned on Russell by using him as one of his guinea pigs to reveal the secret of Tiphares in Last Order.

History

Battle Angel Alita

Russell joined the GIB some time before Lou Collins' first day on the job. When she pulled her gun on Eizenburg because she thought that he planned to sexually assault her, Russell broke up an altercation and calmed Lou down. He showed her to her terminal, advised her to treat Alita as a human, and offered himself as a resource.

After Alita returned from Alhambra, Russell developed a mini interactive interface body for Lou that Alita herself could control remotely. He was later dismissed from the GIB by Eizenburg just before AR Series was activated for duty, as he was opposed to their replacement of Alita.

Alita came face to face with Dr. Russell after she was brought to Tiphares by Nova and resurrected in the Imaginos Body. Russell however was not as eager to see Alita, and was very nervous and anxious around her. This was exacerbated when she destroyed the Endjoy. He was forced to reveal what had happened to Lou, allowing Alita to save her just in time from being cast out of the Dust Chamber. Nova then appeared and revealed to them the secret of Tiphares: that every adult inhabitant of the city had their brain removed and replaced with a microchip processor. This causes Russell to suffer a complete mental breakdown and cast himself from the trash chute of Tiphares to his death.

Nova reveals the existence of the brain bio-chips to Tiphares in Phase 3.

Last Order

In Last Order, Nova hijacked the Tiphares broadcast network to publicly reveal the secret of Tiphares to its citizens by sawing open the heads of several adults including Dr. Russell to expose their bio-brain chips. It is presumed that this resulted in Russell's death.