Rudol von Stroheim


 * The character in this article is commonly referred to as Rudolf von Stroheim.

Rudol von Stroheim (ルドル・フォン・シュトロハイム Rudoru fon Shutorohaimu) is a character from Part II: Battle Tendency. Stroheim is, at first, an antagonist, but later proves to be an effective ally.

Battle Tendency
"German Science is the best in the world!"

- Rudol von Stroheim

When we are first introduced to Stroheim, he is a callous, cruel, demanding Nazi Major who has the foolish idea to experimenting with the Stone Mask in order to further the increase the power of the Nazi army.

He takes an injured Robert Edward O. Speedwagon to the Nazi base in Mexico and interrogates him about the Pillar Men. Is at this moment that we see that Stroheim has captured one of them, which he named "Santana" acording to the place he was found.

Stroheim eventually sacrifices himself in an attempt to stop Santana's rampage and is assumed to have died until he reappears to stop Kars. Thanks to Nazi science, Colonel Stroheim was revived with cybernetic parts (including a machine gun on his chest and a monocle that presumably serves as a Terminator/Robocop-esque radar system) and had attempted to fight Kars near the end of Battle Tendency, only to be cut in pieces and for Kars to escape. Stroheim appears again when Kars falls into the spikes from Joseph's attack, making full use of his ultraviolet light again to defeat Kars. However, he and his soldiers are soundly defeated once again when Kars reveals his ultimate form. He then follows Joseph to the volcano and witnesses its eruption due to Kars' ripple colliding with the Red Stone of Aja. Stroheim returns to the rest of the group and reports Joseph's supposed death.

After the battle with Kars, Stroheim never meets Joseph again and is said to have died honorably at the battle of Stalingrad.



Steel Ball Run
Stroheim's Steel Ball Run counterpart is named Fritz von Stroheim, or F.V. Stroheim. F.V. Stroheim finishes the first stage in 6th place (after Gyro Zeppeli's demotion) and is awarded 25 points.

F.V. Stroheim is introduced as a cyborg, and attempts to kill Gyro and Johnny Joestar, but is quickly taken out by Gyro's steel balls.

Abilities
As a Major in the Nazi Party, Stroheim is capable of leading his own battalion, as well as any members of the party of lower rank. To this end, Stroheim enforces his rank with a strong sense of pride and most of time, his word is law. As a capable leader, Stroheim often initiates attacks upon command, though the logic behind them usually varies depending on the level of abnormality of the enemy. When cornered, Stroheim's eminent pride in his country will cause him to unquestionably sacrifice himself to take out his target. In terms of combat expertise, it is presumed he is capable of performing the most basic of military skills with ease, including assembling and disassembling military weapons, and making efficient use of said weapons. Stroheim also flaunts a very able-bodied physique and has demonstrated a very high jumping ability.

After being resurrected as a Cyborg, Stroheim's physical capabilities increased and with it his rank to Colonel status. As a Cyborg, his strength increases significantly, having been designed with the ability to crush an object with his hand at a pressure of 1,950 KG/Cm2 (Roughly double Santana's.) In this form, Stroheim had also gained partial immortality, being able to survive most attacks, as his maniacal limbs being damaged lessens the effect on his lifeforce. With these limbs, he is capable of bending his body unnaturally, and deflect enemy attacks due to being made of metal. Situated on one side of Stroheim's face is a magnifying device that allows Stroheim to zoom in on objects up to a point where he can study their internal structure.

Weapons

 * Abdominal Machine Gun: A machine gun inside Stroheim's stomach region, able to shoot 600 armored bullets per minute, and capable of peircing through a 30-millimeter steel plate. Stroheim first introduces this weapon against Kars.
 * Ultraviolet Radiation Beam (紫外線照射装置): Inside Stroheim's mechanized eye is a small laser cannon capable of firing a concentrated beam of Ultraviolet light. The beam itself is five times more intense than a set of typical ultraviolet lights and was able to pierce straight through Kar's hand.
 * Ultraviolet Shoulder Cannons: Built by the technical department of the Speedwagon Foundation specifically as an anti-vampire device, Stroheim is able to fire out powerful blasts of ultraviolet light from two flood lights located on each side of his shoulders. As miniaturized searchlights, they pack the same power as the original, but are light enough to carry with ease. Stroheim used these cannons during the final battle Kars, where he, along with his team, fought back against the army of vampires.
 * Projectile Hand: Stroheim is capable of firing off his mechanical hand with enough force to impale and deeply wound an enemy. Though revealed only towards the end of the arc, Stroheim used it to prevent Kar's escape and pinned him to a plane that went crashing into an active volcano.

Trivia

 * It is likely that Guile from the Street Fighter series is based on Stroheim. Specifically, their hair and physiques are quite alike, although Guile is an all-American soldier and Stroheim is a jingoistic Nazi officer. M. Bison from the same series may also have been based on him.
 * Brocken of the World Heroes series may be based off of Stroheim as well, as both are German soldiers with cyborg enhancements. Brocken even asks "What do you expect from German science?!" in World Heroes Perfect, a possible reference to Stroheim's praising of German science when revealing his hidden weapons.
 * His given name translates to Rudol, without f or ph, in alphabetic languagues. This is probably an error on the author's part due to his unfamiliarity with German as such a given name is very uncommon.