Lao

Lao Huang () is a playable character in Xenoblade Chronicles X as the leader of Team Belisarda, part of the Pathfinders. He and his teammates: Shingo, Saiden, and Mondo, work to find the Lifehold Core.
==Appearance and personality==
Lao is a man with long hair and a stubble beard. He tends to have a rather serious expression in most situations. His normal outfit is rather slender, with flexible armor.
Since Lao is part of the Pathfinders, he's rather knowledgeable about data probes and FrontierNav, which leads him far into the depths of Mira.
Lao tends to be rather reluctant about the whole situation, largely since his wife and daughter, Charmaine and Chenshi, were left on Earth when the intergalactic war came. Additionally, Lao tends to be rather mysterious, disappearing for hours on end while his team doesn't know much about his whereabouts, and he's rather secretive about where he actually goes.
===Character Bio===
Though outwardly calm and collected, conflicting emotions burn in Lao's heart. Hailed as BLADE's best marksman, he possesses even Elma's respect. He and Doug are war buddies with a lengthy history.
===Battle Style===
Lao uses a standard Partisan Eagle style to engage in ranged combat while also keeping melee enemies at bay.
==Story arc==
=== Chapter 4 ===
Lao is introduced during installing probes in the area where Primordia meets Noctilum. Elma, Lin, Tatsu, and Cross meet him as his team installs a Data Probe, although he wasn't aware there was a Lifehold unit in Noctilum at the time. However, Lao does ask to join the team, because he had never seen a piece of the Lifehold before.
=== Chapter 6 ===
During the events of , after the Ganglion leaders receive news of a man with an interesting proposal, Lao comes to the BLADE Barracks with news of an abandoned alien mech that he asks L to guide Team Elma to retrieve. Before they leave, Lao talks to Lin about how she qualified to make it onto the White Whale, noting that she made it thanks to her parents' hard work.
He and Team Elma manage to make it to the Vita and fight off the s and the Tainted Sphinx. While he does help bring the mech back, he takes a suspicious interest in the mech itself.
=== Chapter 8 ===
In , Lao is ordered to protect the of the Administrative District. When the Ganglion launch an aerial attack and enter NLA itself, Lao orders his team to mobilize and leave the hangar to help, leaving the Vita underguarded for the Wrothian prince, Ga Jiarg, and his army to retrieve. Elma wonders how the Ganglion knew the humans had the Vita, and why Lao ordered his team to leave the Vita underguarded.
=== Chapter 9 ===
During , Lao gives coordinates for a Lifehold signal to his and Elma's team in Sylvalum. However, it is revealed that the Lifehold signal was a fake, and that Lao ultimately lead his team to their deaths. He suffers heavy injuries, and asks Lin to stay out of the deadly fight he sees coming, but she is determined to complete the job. He is extracted to the Mimeosome Maintenance Center for repairs, and survives.
Lao wakes up to Doug Barrett, with some regret for his actions. Lin and Tatsu come to talk to him, while Elma talks to Doug about her suspicions that Lao could be a spy given his knowledge of the alien mech and the Ganglion trap he led them into.
=== Chapter 11 ===
In , Lao, recovered from his injuries, breaks into the Restricted Hangar to steal the Prog Ares as well as the data that would lead to the location of the Lifehold Core. It's revealed that he was a spy for the Ganglion, with his goal being to end the giant lie about the mimeosomes. He takes the Prog Ares to the Ganglion Weapons Hangar, and waits for Elma and her team to come fight him.
During the battle against him in the Prog Ares, Lao states that he found the truth, that their bodies had actually died on Earth. Additionally, he found that the Earthlife Colonization Project's leaders only cared about the rich, well-connected, and the first-world elite of Earth, and the only others they brought were those that had mechanical skills or combat knowledge. As a result, he was allowed on the ship, but his wife and daughter weren't. He especially condemns Elma because she had claimed that nobody would actually know who'd make it onto the interstellar arks, and that the people brought here were those that deserved to die. Elma states that her goal, even if compromised by the leaders of Earth, is the survival of humanity, and she and her team choose to fight and defeat him for that survival.
After the Prog Ares is wrecked, Lao attempts one more shot at Elma, but he is ejected before he can do so. Elma demands that he give up the data at gunpoint, but Lao tells her to shoot, stating that she might hit the terminal with the Lifehold Core's location. Before she can shoot, Lin and Cross stand in front of Lao to block her gun. After Lin talks about how she understands that Lao had been deceived by his leaders, Lao ultimately decides to give her the data terminal, realizing that he was just as corrupt as the people he hated. Elma and Lin try to get Lao to come home with them, but he decides to stay in the hangar and await extraction. Tatsu leaves him a lunchbox and tells him he's not allowed to die, for Lin's sake.
=== Chapter 12 ===
During , Lao secretly entered the Lifehold Core during Team Elma's fight against the Vita. When Luxaar climbs out and starts destroying the interior, Lao stabs him in the back with his javelin, stating that Luxaar should have expected a traitor to stab him in the back, since Luxaar was responsible for the war that killed the people of Earth. However, the two of them fall into the yellow protoplasmic fluid, causing Luxaar to disintegrate and for Lao to mutate into a chimera with his and Luxaar's memories. When Lin tries to stop Elma from shooting him, he asks for Elma and her team to stop him, because he has no control over the chimeric body.
Once the body is defeated, Lao explains that the Lifehold, thanks to its life-creating properties, was capable of bringing humanity back in the flesh, and that thanks to Elma and her team stopping him, humanity finally has a future. Lao's body then completely disintegrates into golden specks floating in the air.
After the credits, Lao is shown, somehow still alive, waking up on a beach as a person in a cape comes across him.
It's clear that the caped person knows Lao from somewhere, as they say, "Fancy seeing you here", before removing their hood.
==Lore==
* Interestingly enough, Lao first appears during a tutorial in explaining how the installation of Data Probes helps grow FrontierNav. He also reminds the player to level up their mechanical field skill in order to plant data probes in some locations.
* He and Doug were veteran Coalition soldiers.
* Lao's teammates, Mondo, Saiden, and Shingo, place their full trust in him, even though he often wanders off mid-mission. This is largely because they rely on him to do most of the fighting, although it is shown during Training Troubles that he trains his team to work without him.
* During the events of Forging BLADE, Lao lead a Skell squad that protected the crashlanded Habitat Unit. He was also a member of the team set out to perform Nagi's mission to recover the crashlanded DM Engine that provided energy for the habitat unit. He was responsible for long-range support: bombing indigens like the xiphias while Gwin carried the engine.
* Lin and Lao meet for the first time in , although they seem to admire each other for their talents and similar family stories.
* Lao justifies his actions by convincing himself that it'll just be the mimeosomes that die, rather than the actual people.
==As a party member==
==As an NPC==
Lao can be found in the Pathfinders' section of Division Drive in the Administrative District.
===Heart-to-Hearts===
 Heart-to-Hearts
Affinity	Name
♥♡♡♡♡ 	Every Dog Has Its Day
♥♥♡♡♡ 	Training Troubles
♥♥♥♡♡ 	The Fan Club
♥♥♥♥♡ 	Teamwork
♥♥♥♥♥ 	The Winds of Change
===Affinity links===
===Missions===
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* Close Comrades
* 
* The Matchmaker
Lao is the final boss of the game. He is fought in two phases.
* Lao (part 1)
* Lao (part 2)
==Super Smash Bros. series==
In , Lao appears as a primary . He has the Grab type and the Novice rank, with a power of 1004 at base level and 5024 at max level.
Lao is obtainable through the Spirit Board, where he is represented by on the Battlefield version of with the BGM Xenoblade Chronicles Medley. In this fight, his shooting items will have increased power and he will start with a , which references his abilities with a Sniper Rifle in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
==In other languages==
==Gallery==
===Screenshots===
Lao.png|Official art in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
XCX Installing Data Probes tutorial.png|Lao, as shown in a tutorial.
Elma meeting with Lao.png|Elma meeting with Lao at the Green Threshold.
Lao meeting with the team.png
===Renders===
XCX enemy render en061101.png|Lao as a chimera.
===Artwork===
Lao concept art 1.jpg|Concept art.
Lao concept art 2.jpg|Concept art.
Category:Characters (XCX)
Category:Humans (XCX)
it:Lao