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Information
Triela

Kanji	トリエラ
Romanji	Toriera
Race	Cyborg
Gender	Female
Age	died at 16
Professional Status
Handler	Victor Hilshire
Affiliation	Social Welfare Agency
Personal Status
Status	Deceased
Debuts
Manga	Chapter 1
Anime	Episode 1
Portrayal
Japanese	Eri Sendai (S1) Atsuko Enomoto (S2)
English	Caitlin Glass

Triela (Toriera, トリエラ) was one of the Social Welfare Agency's second oldest and one of the agency's first generation cyborgs. Her handler was Victor Hilshire. She was also one of the main protagonists in the series.

Appearance [ ]

As she appears in Season Two of the anime.

Triela has tanned skin and long blond hair that she wears in two high pigtails. Her eyes are light blue. Typically, she is seen wearing an outfit that usually consists of grey pants, a waistcoat, a tan-coloured tie, and sometimes a trench coat.

While some have thought she personally favours masculine dress, its revealed in Book Two that Hilshire buys her clothing himself, and selects them in his own typical German fashion. She later complains in Book Three that "these clothes make me stand out," and eventually succeeds in being allowed to wear more feminine clothing. By the later volumes she typically wears pleated skirts, turtlenecks, and has even began to forego her pigtails. The practical fashion accessory of a Winchester M1897 Trench Gun seems to remain a perennial favourite of hers, however, as depicted in the picture on the right.

As of August 2011, a limited edition figurine of Triela, striking this pose, is available from Japanese toymaker Good Smile Inc.

Personality [ ]

Triela is troubled and very witty and sarcastic, mostly towards adults. She is also, however, very kind and understanding, and serves as a sort of mentor to the other girls of the SWA. She retains a realistic outlook on her situation within the Agency, and appears to be the most level-headed cyborg out of all the girls there.

Through books Nine to Twelve, Triela begins to experience the memory loss and drug withdrawals that plagued Angelica's final months, and, as the second oldest cyborg in the Agency, she realizes that she will probably die soon.

Background [ ]

Originally from Tunisia, Triela was kidnapped and smuggled to Amsterdam by the Mafia, where she was drugged, tortured, and sexually assaulted during the routine taping of a snuff film. Victor Hartmann and Rachelle Belleut, acting on a lead from guilt-racked Camorra mafioso Mario Bossi, stormed the warehouse where she was being held captive and subsequently rescued her, just as she was succumbing to her injuries and to cardiac arrest.

Belleut, a medic originally from France, successfully administered cardio pulmonary resuscitation on Triela before she herself died from a gunshot wound to the left kidney, sustained during the storming of the building. Triela never clearly saw her savior's face, but always distinctly remembers the smell of her perfume, and now mistakenly believes, due to her conditioned memory, that Belleut was her mother. Dreaming once about the episode while anaesthetized for surgery, she later tearfully recalls "She wore glasses and had the faint smell of perfume. And she held me so gently."

Following Belleut's death, Hartmann fell from grace and was expelled from Europol, his employer. Jobless, he assumed the alias Victor Hilshire, and accompanied Mario Bossi back to Italy in search of superior medical facilties to rehabilitate Triela, whose right leg had been amputated as part of the torture she'd endured, and was otherwise severely maimed.

Upon finding the Social Welfare Agency, and ignorant to its true purposes, Hilshire admitted her in the best of intentions, only to be later horrified at the cyberization and conditioning that ensued. Short on manpower, and capitalizing on Hilshire's concern for Triela's future, the SWA then struck a compromise and enlisted him as her Handler.

Friends and Enemies [ ]

Triela was once beaten by the FRF's assassin named Pinocchio, who quickly became her personal mortal enemy for several volumes of the manga, until her obsessive urge to settle the score resulted in a violent conclusion with him in Book Five. In Season One of the anime, Elsa de-Sica seemed to be particularly chilly to her as well.

In terms of friends, Triela mentors most of the other girls at the Social Welfare Agency, and provides moral support for those struggling, such as Henrietta. Reclusive Claes seems to confide in her somewhat, such as when she revealed her admiration for mesosiderite. Surprisingly, outside of the Agency, Maria Machiavelli, daughter of Mario Bossi, also becomes a minor acquaintance.

Death [ ]

During the assault on the nuclear plant, Triela is severely wounded but manages to hold off several soldiers allowing Rico and Henrietta to advance further into the plant. Hilshire comes to her aid after Rico informs him that Triela had been injured.^[1] The two are last seen having died in each other's arms presumably after being overrun by enemy soldiers. ^[2] Their bodies are later found by Marco.

Weapons [ ]

Trivia [ ]

Triela is named after the city of Trier in the German wine-making region of the Mosel Valley, where her handler Hilshire originates from. Hilshire is from a winemaking family.
Her first seven bears are named after Snow White's dwarves. The 8th bear is named Augustus (reference to 8th month and the Roman emperor). The other bears are Caligula and Claudius. This is a chronological series of Roman emperors with the omission of Tiberius, the emperor with father issues.^[3]
Triela's character song is named "Dark Snow White"^[4] ^[5] and she calls herself a fighting princess. Some panes in the manga depicting Triela sleeping are a reference to the fairy tale.
Mario Bossi's daughter Maria also has a name with a wine-related story.
In Chapter 51, Triela lights a large candle (Hilshire's) and passes the flame to a small one (hers). The small candle is completely snuffed midway through her conversation with Hilshire. See the lyrics for "Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi".
There are multiple gags about Triela's hair being too long in the manga. She never did cut her hair. She does cut something else though.