#also because it heavily ties into her design notes

[mxriviera]

Tier 4 of the Dummybots/ Dummy Cogs! We have Weekend Warrior and Associate Specialist: Socializer

based on equipment and co-workers who would rather gossip than actually work! they're also. girl bosses. more stuff about design choices and name choices under the cut!

Weekend Warrior: a person who does a particular activity (such as a sport) only on the weekends. Can be seen boasting or talking about said activities during work hours as means of idle chit chat.

Plain and simple, she's based off of sports or P.E equipment! She has a teal football helmet for a head, Hypno Glasses as "eye protection", festival flags practically falling out of her sleeves, which i've also colored to match red and yellow penalty flags. her little pocket squares are also penalty flags. I gave her the buff body type because i feel like it reflected her athletic theming as it invokes or is supposed to invoke the feeling of large protective gear and padding under her suit for sports. as well as having weird.. office shoe cleats. so! to get into why she has hypno glasses, i think she was made in mind for advanced lure and trap techniques in training. teaching folks about lure and dazed debuffs which is why she has the broken glasses to denote that but also why her gear is so cracked from falling face first into the floor because of an awry marbles or banana peel. its also why her gear is solely based off of sport protective gear as well! I think in true to her name, she would be very competitive so she would have a temper and wouldn't take being tricked too well. opting to beat the hell out of folks who used the trap or lure gag instead of the person who has done the most damage like a traditional cog fight. she has a big bow because i wanted it to be reminiscent of reward ribbons. she is the best sportball player in the junkyard after all!

Socializer: Somebody who likes to participate in conversations or after work activities as a means of socialization and in general enjoys mixing with others socially.

Socializer is the girlboss whos always trying to get the newest hottest goss and trying to get people to get drinks with her after work. Her face is based off of staple removers! I've always played with them like they're were big fanged mouths wanting to just go "blah blah blah" all day. her bright red makeup and eyes are based off of dolls, her eyes would probably close if she lies down lol. I sort of wanted a shiny effect to her makeup, being made out of bright red tape or reflective tape than actual makeup. Her neck piece is a cup, more specifically the big plastic and colorful cups in children's tea sets. her bow is big, shiny and glittery is reminiscent of a teddy bear's bow. as well as her body type, i wanted to make her more approachable and soft almost plushie like. as well as her lapels big and rounded to get this sort of effect. her pocket squares are based off of bright party napkins. Overall I wanted her to based off of office and tea party equipment as well as soft dolls and plushies to make her seem approachable.

If you read all of that, you get to have this cool picture of the weekend warrior without her lure glasses. (it gets thrown off when she gets hit too hard!) Shes going to beat you up!

also i know theyre not supposed to really have personalities, because dummy bots are just advanced training dummies. but i like to think they have some personality quirks to all of them.

[gygesiv]

Big E.G.O. analysis post incoming

Something I’ve noticed in Limbus is how ego tend to push sinners into specific roles; the one that stick out to me the most is how Rodion and Faust feel like they always end up as the designated healers off of how they both have multiple healing ego without any real alternatives. I started wondering if this spoke to their characters at all, but that raised another question: are there other trends in which sinner gets which type of ego beyond just healing? To figure this out, I broke up the ego into 4 categories:

1. HP/SP Healing - This one should be mostly self explanatory, though I should specify that this is specifically for team healing as opposed to self-healing (ignore Lantern Gregor; it’s only here because it has literally no other text). I’ll also be noting how many of those ego heal HP and SP respectively, since I think it’s worth noting even though I’m combining them into one category.

2. Buff/Debuff Support - This is for the ego that apply debuffs or buffs to enemies and allies beyond the 7 main status effects; while some of these ego might have a status as well, if their main purpose is other forms of buffing or debuffing then they go here.

3. Status Support - This is for the ego that specifically support the main 7 status archetypes; while they can do some damage, if their main purpose is usually to directly support the status then they’ll end up here. This is also going to end up as kind of a wastebasket category for most of the ego that apply a status but don’t really do anything else well enough to fit into any other categories, so a bias towards this category is a bit less meaningful than the others.

4. Damage Dealers - These ego do a significant amount damage (at least relative to their cost). Most of them will have some status tied to them, but that’s not really their main purpose; if they wind up in this category, it’s because they deal a noteworthy amount of damage.

There are a lot of ego that fit multiple categories (Blind Obsession Ishmael is going to fucking murder me), so although I’ll try and narrow them down to whatever fits best, the ego that fit multiple categories too well to make decision one way or the other will be present in both categories; for example, Everlasting Faust is going in both status support and damage dealing.

I’m also going to give my own personal analysis of what each sinner’s ego spread could mean for them; these analyses are just going to be my personal thoughts and are probably heavily influenced by confirmation bias towards how I already view each sinner, so take them with a grain of salt as proper character breakdowns. With that said, let’s finally begin with:

Yi Sang

HP/ SP Healing - 0

Buff/Debuff Support - 3 (Crow’s Eye View, Wishing Cairn, Sunshower)

Status Support - 2 (Fourth Match Flame, Bygone Days)

Damage Dealers - 2 (Dimension Shredder, Fell Bullet)

Yi sang has always struck me as a supportive sinner, and I think it shows pretty clearly; I do find it interesting that he specifically has a lot of generic buff/debuff support with no healing ego. Especially post-canto 4, I feel like a support role fits his character; he’s making efforts to better integrate into the group and be helpful to the other sinners, and considering we saw in regular check-up that he’s not much of a fighter, I think having his ego support his allies with buffs and debuffs suits him really well.

Faust

HP/SP Healing - 3 (1 HP, 1 SP, 1 HP+SP) (Representation Emitter, Fluid Sac, Thoracalgia)

Buff/Debuff Support - 1 (Hex Nail)

Status Support - 5 (9:2, Lasso, Telepole, Thoracalgia, Everlasting)

Damage Dealers - 1 (Everlasting)

Firstly, I did not realize how many status ego Faust has. However, although she technically has a fair bit more status support than healing, her healing ego are so strong that all those kinda tepid status ego (not everlasting, bride Faust fans please don’t kill me) don’t really feel quite as defining; nearly all of the time you’re going to be running Fluid Sac or Thoracalgia as her HE ego, and you literally can’t unequip Representation Emitter since she has no other ZAYIN ego. As far as character connections go, I think the best I’ve got is that you could tie her focus on healing into how she shares her knowledge with the other sinners. We don’t know too much about Faust as a character yet, but I think it’s worth noting how much of her story presence is spent explaining things to other characters; while I doubt that it’s what she wants to be using the Gesellschaft for, it has become her established role within sinners, so I think it’s valid to draw that connection between explaining things to keep the sinners from dying in the story and literally keeping the sinners from dying in combat.

Don Quixote

HP/SP Healing - 0

Buff/Debuff Support - 0

Status Support - 4 (La Sangre de Sancho, Lifetime Stew, Wishing Cairn, Telepole)

Damage Dealers - 3 (Electric Screaming, Fluid Sac, Yearning-Mircalla)

Don has never felt very ego focused to me; a lot of her ego are just sorta there in a way that’s useful, but isn’t essential to certain archetypes like some sinners’ ego are. The fact that it’s pretty much all offensive status and damaging ego could speak to her tendency to jump ahead and lead the charge into (probably avoidable) battle, since that’s been a recurring plot thread with her all the way through canto 7, but beyond the obvious stuff like Yearning-Mircalla connecting to her bloodfiend nature I feel like that’s the extent of the connections I can see.

Ryoshu

HP/SP Healing - 1 (1 HP, 0 SP) (Red Eyes Open)

Buff/Debuff Support - 2 (Forest for the Flames, Red Eyes)

Status Support - 4 (Soda, Blind Obsession, Thoracalgia, Contempt, Awe)

Damage Dealers - 2 (4th Match Flame, Contempt, Awe)

Something I find really interesting with Ryoshu is that, while she does have a good amount of support across her ego, a lot of it is directly dependent on violence against herself and/or others: Red Eyes Open only heals on stagger or kill, Thoracalgia’s corrosion is centered around killing allies to give more poise, and Contempt, Awe’s main bleed support only comes from the corrosion which requires her to tank her own sanity and almost certainly corrode; On Kill effects and powerful but costly corrosions aren’t unique to Ryoshu, but with her especially they feel central to her ego in a way that isn’t the case with the other sinners. A lot of her characterization (at least as I understand it) is centered around the dichotomy between her cold, kinda psychotic personality and her more emotional/sentimental side that we only get hints of; I might be a bit off with my exact character analysis, but I still think that supporting her allies via violence is pretty fitting for Ryoshu.

Meursault

HP/SP Healing - 1 (1 HP, 0 SP) (Pursuance)

Buff/Debuff Support - 2 (Chains of Others, Screwloose Wallop)

Status Support - 2 (Electric Screaming, Capote)

Damage Dealers - 2 (Regret, Yearning-Mircalla)

With Meursault, I feel like a strong bias towards pretty much any category could have been looped into his character; however, he’s probably the most evenly split sinner, so that kinda goes out the window. I do think there’s something to be said for how this sort of generalized ego spread reflects his character, though. A lot of Meursault’s characterization is centered around how he shares nothing about himself and winds up appearing as kind of a blank slate until he’s prompted to take a certain role or action by those around him; under that reading, I think being evenly spread matches how, to an outside observer, he ends up filling whatever role they push him into because it isn’t clear where his actual strengths and desires might be. This dynamic can be seen in-game: depending on how you use him, Meursault can lean towards any of the four categories, effectively making us as the players the outside observers placing him into established roles because it’s what we need from him.

Hong Lu

HP/SP Healing - 1 (0 HP, 0 SP, 1 HP+SP) (Soda)

Buff/Debuff Support - 2 (Roseate Desire, Effervescent Corrosion)

Status Support - 4 (Land of Illusion, Cavernous Wailing, Lasso, Dimension Shredder)

Damage Dealers - 0

So all of this is probably gonna be invalidated in ~1 month once canto 8 comes out, but I think there’s still some insight to be gained here, specifically on how Hong Lu has no real high-damage ego; this is probably in part a consequence of him having no WAW ego and pretty bad HE ego options, but I think it’s noteworthy that all of his ego place him in a supporting role to the other sinners in some capacity. It speak to his passivity towards everything happening around him, and I think it’s even more relevant in light of newer descriptions of him as desiring nothing; with no desires, he doesn’t end up taking the lead in combat, instead choosing to support others with more concrete objectives and passions (like fucking Don and her 7 offensive ego). I’ll stop there for the sake of not talking myself into theories that’ll immediately be proven wrong, but I’m interested to see if these sorts of themes come up in canto 8, and if his season pass ego will continue or break this trend.

Heathcliff

HP/SP Healing - 1 (0 HP, 1 SP) (Ya Śūnyatā Tad Rupam)

Buff/Debuff Support - 2 (Bodysack, AEDD)

Status Support - 2 (Holiday, Asymmetrical Inertia)

Damage Dealers - 3 (Fell Bullet, Telepole, Binds)

Honestly, Heathcliff is more evenly spread than I expected; he is a bit skewed by having 8 ego as opposed to 7, but he still has a pretty wide range of ego. The bias towards damage dealers is a kinda obvious connection to draw with his character; Heathcliff has a tendency to lash out, and that’s reflected in his ego spread. He also has the first negative coin ego of the list with Telepole, and while this another pretty easy connection to draw with his mental instability, it’ll become a bit more interesting in the coming sinners who also have negative coin ego.

Ishmael

HP/SP Healing - 2 (1 HP, 1 SP) (Bygone Days, Blind Obsession)

Buff/Debuff Support - 4 (Snagharpoon, Roseate Desire, Capote, Blind Obsession)

Status Support - 2 (Christmas Nightmare, Blind Obsession)

Damage Dealers - 3 (Ardor Blossom Star, Wingbeat, Blind Obsession)

fucking christ it’s in every category Alright, so I thought that Ishmael’s ego spread would end up kinda lopsided thanks to multi category ego like with Faust; however, Blind Obsession just sorta does everything, so it goes everywhere and it winds up all balancing out. I think her focus on buffing/debuffing is interesting to overanalyze, specifically in relation to the contrast between Queequeg and Ahab’s influences on Ishmael; the ropes and knots that she learned from Queequeg can be associated with the debuffs (mostly off of how Snagharpoon inflicts bind), which contrasts nicely with how Ahabmael’s gameplay centers around buffing allies as a representation of how Ahab rallies people around her obsession. On a more concrete note, Ishmael also has a negative coin ego with Roseate Desire; while she’s mellowed out since canto 5, I think her canto-wide mental breakdown explains this pretty nicely, and I’ll be interested to see if that instability comes back alongside Ahab in the future.

Rodion

HP/SP Healing Ego - 3 (3 HP, 0 SP) (Pursuance, Hex Nail, Indicant’s Trial)

Buff/Debuff Support - 0

Status Support - 5 (Rime Shank, Effervescent Corrosion, 4th Match Flame, Sanguine Desire, Indicant’s Trial)

Damage Dealers - 2 (What is Cast, Rime Shank)

*For the record, I’m writing this before Indicant’s Trial comes out; even if I wait, I won’t be able to test it enough to make a decision, so I just left it at HP/SP Healing and Status Support since that’s mostly confirmable off of the teasers.*

Rodion is, like I mentioned way back at the start, one of the other established healers; of her three HE ego, two of them are healing and the third is a negative coin ego with no negative coin id to use it, so you’re pretty much always going to use a healing ego with her. That negative coin ego does make sense (girl was one bad day away from distorting before Timekilling Time), but the healing ego are a lot weirder to me. Her other main bias, status support, feels like it could line up with how she aligns herself with others’ causes to give herself purpose, but that connection feels a lot shakier when we go from backing up her allies to actively healing them; my best guess would be that her healing is meant to match the carefree facade that she puts on for others to hide her true feelings, but that feels like just as much of a stretch. If anyone who got this far has any other ideas, I’d love to hear them, because that’s kinda all I’ve got.

Sinclair

HP/SP Healing - 3 (3 HP, 0 SP) (Impending Day, Lifetime Stew, Lantern)

Buff/Debuff Support - 2 (Cavernous Wailing, Hex Nail)

Status Support - 2 (Branch of Knowledge, 9:2)

Damage Dealers - 1 (Impending Day)

I think the thing that’s weirdest about Sinclair’s ego spread is that, despite technically being skewed towards healing, he doesn’t feel like a de facto healer the same way Faust and Rodion do; 2 of his 3 healing ego compete for the same slot and are both unreliable as actual sources of healing, so he ends up with Lantern as his only consistent healing source, which puts his healing more in line with Meursault as a sinner who can do healing, but only if you push him into the role. As far as character goes, while it would have been a pretty clear cut connection to draw if he had a split between support and offense, he winds up in a Hong Lu situation where he just kinda doesn’t have many damaging ego; however, I think we can still see some of that dynamic with his negative coin ego. It’s pretty obvious that they’re negative coin because of Nclair, but I think it’s still noteworthy that he has both a bias towards healing ego and the most negative coin ego out of any sinner (so far). Additionally, it’s almost certain he’ll be the other WAW on the season 6 battlepass at this point, so like with Hong Lu I’m interested to see how it shifts his ego spread.

Outis

HP/SP Healing - 1 (0 HP, 1 SP) (Holiday)

Buff/Debuff Support - 1 (Ya Śūnyatā Tad Rupam)

Status Support - 2 (Dimension Shredder, Magic Bullet)

Damage Dealers - 5 (To Páthos Máthos, Sunshower, Ebony Stem, Dimension Shredder, Binds)

Out of all the sinners, Outis is probably one of the most offense-oriented in her ego spread alongside Don and Heathcliff. While they are all very different characters, I think this makes sense when applied to their approaches to battle and dangerous situations; Don takes the lead into battle out if a sense of justice, Heathcliff starts fights because he lashes out more easily than the others, and Outis initiates combat because she believes it to be the quickest, most efficient way to handle a dicey situation. Like with those two, I don’t really have much to say beyond that; this sort of ego spread just kinda makes sense for Outis.

Gregor

HP/SP Healing - 3 (2 HP, 1 SP) (Lantern, Bygone Days, Garden of Thorns)

Buff/Debuff Support - 3 (Legerdemain, Christmas Nightmare, Garden of Thorns)

Status Support - 2 (Suddenly One Day, AEDD)

Damage Dealers - 2 (Solemn Lament, Christmas Nightmare)

Gregor is kinda similar to Meursault in that he has a pretty even ego spread (he’s technically skewed towards buff/debuff support since Lantern is barely a healing ego, but he’s still more even than most of the other sinners). Given all we’ve heard about Gregor’s untapped potential, I think this could serve as an additional hint at what he could be capable of if he gave in to his mutations, but until we learn more I don’t think I can reasonably take this connection further (I guess that didn’t stop me with Ishmael but we’re not going to talk about that).

If you made it this far, thanks for reading all my semi-hinged analysis and theorycrafting; if you have any disagreements or additional thoughts, I’d love to hear them!

[a-blog-for-kat]

DRDT CAST ALPHABETICAL ASSOCIATION NUMBERS AND THEIR MEANINGS

IE; Ace (1), Arei (2), Arturo (3), ect.

DRDT SPOILERS AND KAT RAMBLING ABOUT NUMBERS BELOW!! BEWARE!!

1 - Ace is the first name alphabetically in the DRDT cast first name wise because "Ace" means number one, or to be the best at something. Ace is also the first “normal” person on the cast list website, as Teruko is first (protagonist) Xander is second (Support) Charles is third (Antagonist) but Ace is fourth without being extremely tied into the story at this point. It also can signify confidence, something Ace shows in chapter one a little but eventually it got overtaken by just anger and fear.

Edit: He was also the 4th person to die!!!

2 - Arei is number two in the cast, she's the ch2 victim, second person to have her sobbing session before dying (Xander didn’t cry a shocker), or maybe she'll always be second place compared to her sisters, which she has two of? If my memory serves me right (Future Kat here, it does), she’s also the second shortest of the cast after Eden, according to the new biometrics.

3 - In more religious settings, the number three can represent perfection and completeness, which for Arturo is ironic since he doesn’t even have a complete design shown, as we haven’t seen the whole him, only most of him physically (in the sense of we don’t know what his whole face looks like, only the upper part.) Three also represents problem solvers and people who are optimistic in nature and can also be childish. Not like Arturo, but maybe Felicity as she’s three to four years younger than Arturo?

4 - Funnily the first thing that popped up was “earth, wind, water, and fire” so CHARLES IS AN ELEMENT BENDER /j. On a serious note the number four can signify stability and strong foundations. Knowing a little bit into Charles’ backstory (his family spoiled him, he was quite sheltered, he doesn’t remember anything about his brother) he probably had a “stable” homelife until Elliot died, ruining that stability and basically crumbling his foundations, even leading him to gain hemophobia (the fear of blood) and necrophobia (the fear of dead bodies/corpses).

4 cont. - Another meaning to the number four is hard work, which Charles is constantly shown doing. He doesn’t half-ass anything, hell he works as hard as he can to reach his goals. He is the reason the students haven’t absolutely gotten their asses killed yet this trial since he called out Teruko’s wrong.

4 cont part 2. The number four is also a bad omen in East Asia, commonly associated with death. Now, Charles might be Latino, but someone else he's heavily associated with, Whit, is Chinese. Even in the LGI MV, Whit has tetraphobia as a word assigned to him, which is the fear of the number four, possibly hinting to either Charles' or Whits death in the near future.

5 - The number five can symbolize freedom, curiosity, and change. Let's start in order with these three examples, David doesn’t have freedom over his branding and basically his entire public persona. It’s been crafted by his manager to show to the world, the only reason he even was able to escape it was because his secret of being a “manipulator” got revealed and he just had to drop it. There's no point in keeping it up, after all. Curiosity is a bit tricky, but it could mean that he’s curious as to why people do the things they do? Why don't all of them don’t even try to understand Xander’s true intentions with why he stabbed Teruko. Change, well, his entire ideology is “people can’t change.” He believes you’re born either a good person or bad person, and that’s how you’ll stay. If you “changed” you were always a good or bad person to begin with.

5 cont. - One more thing, David’s association with stars, which have 5 points. But all stars burn out eventually, so maybe this symbolizes how David was so burnt out from keeping his public persona that it “died” and the real him is out.

6 - The number six can represent trustworthiness, lovingness, and sympathy. Eden is very trusting, that's actually her entire theme, being very trusting towards others and trying to show Teruko that trust is good. Eden is a very loving person in general, she loves others quite a lot and her secret revolves around kissing a girl, most likely with feelings involved in that. And sympathy. She's a sympathetic person in general. She's basically the glue that holds the cast together.

7 - The number seven usually signifies luck in many modern cultures. It can also signify indecisiveness, which is shown when Hu defends Nico in the class trial but is extremely condescending towards Arturo, even though they have extremely similar situations. (I am not defending either Arturo or Nico, they were both in the wrong for their situations.) It can also be associated with moodiness, which is very much shown in the last two episodes with Hu snapping multiple times.

8 - The number eight can signify being straight-talking and blunt, which we see in J quite a lot. If he doesn’t like something, he’ll state it. When Arturo’s being a creep towards him, he’s justifiably mad and has said multiple times that he wants to be left alone. When he tried to use the remote on MonoTV in episode 4 of Chapter One, he stated that, at the very least, he wanted it to die. He’s also pretty confident, I mean, look at the remote scene. He’s very clearly confident in what he can do.

9 - The number nine can signify humanitarianism and compassion, both things Levi can lack. He’s, at the end of episode 12, revealed to be a remorseless murderer who holds no guilt for his past actions. He is also shown to not know how to feel emotions like grief in situations and even consults Eden about it.

10 - The number ten can mean someone who’s ready to take a new phase in life, this could mean Min was ready to die for Teruko to take a new phase in her life, aka becoming much more untrusting and throwing her into that negative arc. It can also signify order and law, something Min might’ve studied. Also the number ten is a Pythagorean symbol, perfection. Something Min aims to become. Perfect.

11 - The number eleven can symbolize spiritual journeys which….. Unless Nico is going to have some form of spiritual journey, I don’t think this could pertain to them. But it could also be just a journey revolving around their character, becoming someone who’s not afraid to speak their word.

12 - The number twelve is associated with the heavens but can also be cosmic order and perfection, something you strive for as an artist. Being perfect. Which is also a good representative of Rose’s memory, it’s perfect, she won’t forget a detail. But that’s also her downfall, if she sees something awful it won’t leave her memory.

13 - (Has spoken about 13 in the past. Read here.)

14 - The number fourteen can signify new beginnings, a fresh start, and harmony. The last one being ironic as she usually only brings chaos and destruction. New beginnings could mean her using her talent as a new beginning or new outlet instead of hurting herself (if that really is her secret) and a fresh start could mean her starting anew in this killing game? Or even her getting a character arc in the future, though I doubt it.

15 - The number fifteen tends to be associated very sensitive and caring individuals who prioritize the well-being of others over their own. Which can be applied to Whit in a sense, he puts others feelings over others in situations, like trying to make Teruko smile by sacrificing Charles’ dignity. He’s also just a very caring person in general, as it’s shown how he comforted Charles in Chapter One (Sibling Core) or Eden in Chapter Two. Another thing could be how all luxury is in life, Whit seemed to live a relatively normal life before his mother passed, but still tries to make the best of life and make it a luxury.

16 - The number sixteen is a number associated with karma, what goes around comes around. Xander, stabbing Teruko, has done a bad thing, therefore paying with his life. It could also signify pushing others to their life purposes, Xander, after stabbing Teruko, pushed her to her “purpose” of being a cold protagonist. It can also mean a smart mind but Xander isn’t that smart to be honest-

TYSM FOR LISTENING TO MY RAMBLING <3

[saphronethaleph]

Wooden Ships and Obscure Disney Films

The RLS Warrior was three days out of Montressor, sails full of the solar wind, and her commander closed his eyes and felt the Etherium around him.

For a number of reasons – not least his old ties with Admiral Amelia – Jim had been heavily involved with the design of the ship, as well as the tradeoffs involved. For all that he wasn’t even twenty-five, yet, the ship was built as much to his ideas as to those of anyone else in the Navy, and after three days he was really starting to get a feel for her.

And he was proud of the work.

The yards had done right by them, and no mistake. She sailed the winds as sweetly as the old Legacy, and if that was partly due to her studdingsails to give her extra sail area – they’d calculated it out a dozen times, even getting Doppler involved, and every time it had come out that the sails were worth the hassle. And the engines sang a fine note, while the treated timbers making up her hull were finely seasoned and showed no sign of weakness or wear.

“Captain?” a nervous voice said, then the voice’s owner corrected herself. “I mean – Commander?”

“Captain is preferred,” Jim replied. “Can’t have more than one captain on a ship.”

Then he opened his eyes, and grinned at the young woman who was nervously clinging to the ropes around the mainmast crow’s nest. “But since there doesn’t seem to be anyone else up here, you can call me Jim if you want.”

“I couldn’t do that!” the woman said, astonished, and her ears flicked down. “You’re – you’re the Captain! And you’re a hero of the Second Procyon War…”

Jim chuckled.

“Midshipwoman Brooks, ten years ago I was a complete tearaway,” he said. “So, did our other midshipmen and women put you up to coming to ask the scary captain about his past? Or is this you personally with a question?”

He shrugged. “I don’t mind either way, I’m just curious. And come on, sit – it’s good you’re comfortable in the shrouds, but there’s no reason to hang there while we’re talking.”

“Right,” Brooks said, still sounding nervous, and clambered into the lookout spot.

For a long moment, there was silence.

“It was just me,” she said. “I was… I suppose I wondered about something, and – I wanted to ask, but it feels like a silly question now.”

“Take it from me, sometimes a silly question is just the question that needs asking,” Jim replied. “Or answering.”

The Warrior shivered a little as they came about, turning six degrees port and adjusting their vector four down as the helmsman pointed them at a different star.

“Well-” the midshipwoman said. “I… why are we on a ship like this?”

Jim raised an eyebrow, something he’d been practising, and Brooks flushed.

“I don’t mean that as a criticism,” she added. “It’s a good ship, of course! I’m just thinking of…”

“The ironclads?” Jim replied.

“The ironclads,” Brooks agreed. “I know they were important in the Procyon war. I also know the Procyons lost, but… the ironclads were so difficult to damage. It feels like even sailing ships like these is a strange choice, let alone building new ones.”

Jim nodded, doing a quick assessment of the girl.

She was… definitely less delinquent than he’d been. She sounded curious, and… realistically speaking, this wasn’t going to stay a secret for long anyway.

It was his decision, and… in this case, he was going to nurture the young officer.

“You’re not wondering anything that we didn’t,” he said. “I was heavily involved in the discussions, actually… perhaps we will end up building the same kind of ironclads as the Procyons were building – I wouldn’t be involved in those decisions, because they’re going on right now and I’m not exactly there.”

He stood, and looked out over the sails of the Warrior. They glowed with inner fire, both directly propelling the ship by catching the wind and also providing the power that let her engines burn at high power for long periods of time.

“I’ve already given you the answer,” he added, glancing at Brooks. “Your academy scores show you’re a bright young woman, midshipwoman – what do you think it is?”

Brooks frowned, and her tail twitched as she thought.

“I think…” she began. “You said… the same kind of ironclads. What other kinds of ironclads are there?”

Jim patted the royal mast, the highest of the four huge cylinders making up Warrior’s mainmast.

“You’re sailing on one,” he answered.

Brooks looked confused, then stood up herself to look down at the sails.

“...how?” she asked. “Ironclads – they don’t look like this!”

“What makes an ironclad?” Jim asked. “It’s the iron, that’s what… experiments showed that it’s actually helpful to have the iron backed by wood, that makes it more resistant to attack. So that’s what Warrior is. She’s a test ship, all right – an ironclad cruiser, with the masts and sails to travel long distances on patrol in a way the Procyon War ironclads never could, and with armour that’s almost as strong.”

He tilted his head, a little. “Midshipwoman, have you ever used a solar sailer?”

Brooks looked a little thrown by the sudden change of topic.

“...no,” she admitted. “I’ve sailed a cutter before, but those have a proper keel and mast… solar sailers seem too dangerous to me. They’re not much more than a board, an engine and a sail, aren’t they?”

“That’s right,” Jim agreed. “And they’re very able to manoeuvre, in ways you can’t even manage by just welding an engine directly to a board. The key is the sail – you’ve done vectors in your classes, the key point here is that you can combine the vectors from the sail and the engine, and the transverse resistance from the sail if you push it to go in a direction against the one it’s meant to go. You can pull some incredibly tight turns.”

Brooks was frowning, clearly processing that information.

“That sounds like it’s personal experience, Captain,” she said. “You’ve done that?”

“I’ve done both,” Jim agreed. “And I’ve captained wooden ships against ironclads… ironclads struggle to turn fast, because they only have differential thrust, and they struggle to move quickly as well. And the former is what let us run circles around them… and strategically, they were dependent on covert support ships carrying fuel. Do you think the Warrior is the same?”

Brooks shook her head.

“No,” she replied, then frowned. “So you’re saying that… the sails are an advantage?”

“They might not be forever,” Jim conceded. “Maybe some day all our line warships will have to be full ironclads, where even the risk of mast damage is too much. But I think even then there’ll be a place for cruisers to have sails, for some years longer.”

He clapped her on the shoulder. “And maybe we’ll both see that day – but right now, if we ran into an ironclad from the Procyon Wars, I’m sure we’d clean their clock. Because this is the finest ship and crew I’ve yet seen, and I’ve seen a few crews.”

Then he looked slightly awkward. “Admittedly, my first one had about ninety percent of it be pirates…”

“Pardon?” Brooks asked. “Was that during the war?”

“Before,” Jim replied. “During my misspent youth. Though… you may as well tell the others this, Miss Midshipwoman – I think I’m going to have all of you young officers, and perhaps the rest of the crew, have at least one go each on a solar sailer. I believe there’s four in one of the holds, and it’s a useful skill… once you’ve flown one, not much else can scare you.”

The feline midshipwoman looked at her captain, still not sure how to take the oddly informal conversation.

“Should I be worried?” she asked.

Jim shrugged.

“That’s more BEN’s department than mine,” he admitted. “He flat out refuses to come up to the crow’s nest, though, so I’ll have to ask him on deck…”

[unseemingowl]

Saga Anderson, and Nordic rep in Alan Wake 2

Early on in Saga Anderson’s exploration in Alan Wake 2, she runs into Ilmo Koskela. Fiercely proud of his Finnish heritage, Ilmo gregariously makes note of Saga’s Nordic sounding name and the familiar design of her knitted sweater. Perhaps a fellow Finn?

Alas no, Saga’s mom is Swedish she informs him. Immediately Ilmo’s face falls. I’m not sure if it’s actually just the animated character defaulting to his resting face, but either way the timing is too perfect. Cue uproarious laughter from me. People in the Nordics are on friendly terms of course, but we gotta have the tiniest bit of… scornfor each other. All in good fun of course. It’s traditional.

Now, I’m Danish, not Finnish, but still, I feel right at home in the towns of Bright Falls and Watery in Alan Wake 2. All of the little nods to Nordic culture and mindset feel so wonderfully familiar to me. The melancholia, the irreverent sense of humor, the affection for the Finnish and Swedish quirks of the characters. The game feels all the stronger in tone and narrative for Remedy embracing the Finnish roots of the studio.

Which is exactly why it sucks that I almost immediately saw the charm of those narrative decisions weaponised against Saga.

I first watched the scene between Ilmo and Saga on a lets play when I was trying to figure out if I should finally dip my toes into survival horror and buy the game. Delighted by the writing I took a look into the comments to see if people were vibing as hard with it as I was. They were. But I also saw a comment that made me frown.

Paraphrasing, it basically went, come on, like hell a guy like Ilmo would make the assumption that a black woman is Finnish. There are a multitude of reasons why I think that person was wrong, mainly that Nordic people love it when we run into each other in other countries, but it also just made me sad.

Saga being black does not negate her Swedish heritage. Formally, she is American, sure (I assume, not sure how that works in the US), but she’s raised by her single Swedish mom, of course she’s going to identify heavily with that part of her herself. It’s a profound and essential part of who she is.

But hey, I’m a white potato Dane, so I’m not gonna argue that I know much about the experience of being biracial. I’m gonna stick to what I know, which is that Saga is a very moving and beautiful example of something that I’m actually not used to seeing much of - a story about connecting with your Nordic heritage and roots. And it’s part of why I love her so much.

When Nordic people show up in big, international productions, it’s usually as Vikings, and sure, it’s fun to see our wild ancestors, but contemporary questions of Nordic identity and heritage is not something I often see explored. Not even in our own productions.

So much of Saga’s story is about family. Fighting for her current one, Logan and Casey (and sure, David too, lol), and rediscovering her first one. Tor and Odin.

Her discovering her ties to Tor and Odin is profoundly moving and made me teary-eyed several times over. And sure, a lot of those ties are fantastical in nature, but they still feel very much grounded - and what makes us Nordic if not the ties to our myths and legends that Tor and Odin have made themselves the living avatars of.

While Saga’s mom, Freya, had good reasons for leaving the Anderson seer magics behind, seeing them as part of what made her family fucked up, she also cut Saga off from the fullness of her capabilities. It is only through Saga reforming her family, healing its scars and fully embracing the Anderson heritage that she becomes as powerful a parautilitarian as she is at the end of the game. That’s beautiful.

And in fact I think Saga being black only deepens the richness of those themes rather than negate them or make them irrelevant. Because yes, Saga’s story would have been moving if she was a white character too, but I am very well aware that a lot of biracial people of Nordic ancestry can feel alienated from that part of themselves. Not least because questions of who gets to claim a Nordic heritage can get pretty ugly around here. There are most definitely people who share the racist mindset of that commentator. It adds an extra dimension. Which is why seeing Tor and Odin’s eagerness to claim Saga as part of the Anderson heritage is all the more moving. Through her magics, she’s just so obviously an Anderson, and they’re so damn proud to call her theirs and fight alongside her. Because they all got that wild Viking blood in them. They’re part of her and she’s part of them.

Roger Ebert, the film critic once called movies empathy machines. I think games, when they’re at their best, can be an even more intense variation of that. Which is exactly why it baffles me that some people can play through Alan Wake 2 and still think Saga is a stunt-woke character rather than someone fully and beautifully integrated in the narrative. A narrative which, at its most basic level – in my opinion – is about the mystical bonds we form with each other and the rest of the world through art and love and blood and family and heritage. All the great horror doesn’t negate that either, it amplifies it. Kind of like that clicker.

[mantisgodsart]

[...isolation of the transformation appears to worsen the standard disorientation of a new body. I believe that the familiarity of the upper body may be offsetting the psychological impact of the lower body - as not everything has changed, the subject still "expects", on some level, that their body will work similarly, despite radical changes to organ systems and locomotion and the near-total overhaul of the centre of gravity.]

[The subject appears to be leaning on hexapodal motion as a type of "crutch", despite the size of the lower body making most of these sorts of motions awkward at best - the tournament venue doesn't currently have many internal spaces sufficient to test this one's mobility, but outdoors venues seem more promising for testing, anyways. This confirms something that I've previously suspected, as well - subjects find it more difficult to adjust to addition of new limbs than they do subtraction of limbs.]

[Subject appears to exhibit difficulty with coordination in the lower limbs, and has adopted an extremely "cautious" form of motion, taking steps with one limb at a time. The difference between upper and lower limbs means that this mode of movement is extremely... clumsy, to say the least. I intend to keep them under observation for a few more days before release and see if this resolves within the initial settling period or not. After that, just some periodic check-ins should be...]

Hello, and welcome to: watercolor paintings for Round 2 of @bug-oc transmutations! Mirach by @ghost-of-hallownest. Some extra details under cut because this is a long post and we don't want to make it longer.

This one is based pretty heavily on Dragon!Falin from Dungeon Meshi, but we're bringing through some lizard-y aspects from last year, and very much having fun with the tabby-cat patterns on the back - though technically speaking, Mirach's blue is limited to her wings, adding some markings to the body helps us break up that big plane of sandy yellows and add some interest to the design. We think it turned out well!

If we could fit it in, we'd add a third bit of Marigold notes related to the actual transmutation method, since it's been living in our brain for a while, and we think our Potion Drawing might be a bit... abstract, otherwise?

More or less, the weave - the active transmutation medium - is woven to the inside of the lasso's... lasso, and upon encircling something with it, the weave is transferred to the target, thus making the lasso fall apart entirely as a major component of its structure abruptly ceases to be part of the object.

This transfer-and-break is the same general method through which most of Marigold's "one-use" charms work - as the effect is now tied to the target's body, rather than an object, it simply remains in effect until the weave "wears in" to the body entirely, shifting it from an effect active on the subject to a part of the subject's body.

This means that, before the effect is fully integrated into the body, it can be broken, though as with all charmcraft some effects may still linger. This also makes it so, technically, the charmcraft only casts an effect on the caster - the same effect through which pretty much all Medals work - rather than being a direct interface a la wiring it directly into the bug's body, which is illegal and what Marigold spends a lot of time tiptoing around to produce major effects on a bug's body without the single most useful method for bodily alteration Charmcraft has to offer.

...that was longer than we really expected it to be. We are working on the other contestants, both of this round and the last, though it's going very slowly seeing as the afternoon sun is currently hot enough to melt our brain into a fine sludge. We've got a solid idea of all three other Round 2 designs, and we've finally got a sketch for Mal - though Pola is being delayed, still, due to our poor comics-making decisions. We're working on it! Slowly!

If we could figure out how in the hell to represent it visually, we'd be working on making a loser's bracket, too, but as is... listen, we're not a graphics designer for a reason. If you are a graphics designer and we can outsource designing a loser's bracket to you then please contact us. We have a budget of approximately ten dollars. We can do PayPal but if your payment processor of choice is US-exclusive we cannot help you.

[galaxygirl-katie27]

Vector Redesign

Tap for better quality

Notes under the cut!

-Okay so first of all, I had to finally figure out his nationality, so that it would make sense with the story. Which led me to my headcanon of Vector being Turkish-Persian mixed, with his father being Turkish and his mother being Persian. But ultimately he would be the prince, later king, of Persia. I‘d like to make a full post about this topic specifically later, but in short: His father was the second Turkish prince, so in order to be king himself, he married into the persian royal family, who had no male heir, so he could have his own kingdom. So that later, Vector could jut walk through Türkiye with his army to attack Nasch in Greece, because of his blood-relation to their royal family without any problems.

-To the design. I gave him a ponytail, just to try it out, but I just liked it so much, that I had to stick with it.

-He has big eye bags from Insomnia, because of many nightmares almost every night. He has major PTSD from his past, that sill haunts him.

-He has a tooth gap (where he actually lost a tooth) and many scars and bandaids, because this boy is just always hurt (most of it because of the Ray-Way). I once read a headcanon, that all of Ray`s clumsiness wasn’t even acted, Vector is just like that. He still bumps into all kinds of furniture post-series.

-Also he ruined all his pants at one point because of his clumsiness and because the others (Nasch) don’t want to buy him new ones, he just patched them up himself, and yes he did poke himself with the needle multiple times.

-FRECKLES. No elaboration needed.

-Big father issues. Also no elaboration needed.

-This boy never ties his shoes, which also doesn’t help his clumsiness. Also he wears mismatched shoes, but they match enough for him and he just doesn’t think anyone notices. Everyone notices.

-He is one of the people with the most Trauma. If you ask him how he‘s doing he‘d say: „I take antidepressants.“ And he does! He got them perscribed, after an… incident. I wont go into detail, but I think you can guess what happened. And while most of the barians still don’t exactly like him, they don’t want him to die. He also refuses to go to proper therapy. Yuma is his therapy.

-He also has ADHD, which I think he always had, even in his past life. He got it diagnosed post series, when Yuma talked to him about his ADHD (another headcanon of mine) and Vector just heavily related to many things Yuma said and so he proposed that maybe he should get a diagnose. Which tuned out positive.

-Also he‘s a cat owner. I read so many fics, where he just adopts a cat. It’s mostly to spite Rio, when he came across a little kitten box on the side of the road one day. But he got so attached to it, it‘s his family now. It’s a little white female kitten, who is also deaf and her name is Pestilence, Pesty for short. He is also so good at hiding her. The barians only found out about her like 6 months after Vector got her. There was a massive discussion, but in the end Vector got to keep her. She is now his emotional support cat.

-He also reads a bit, but it only consists of the most cliche, sappy, stereotypical romance stories you can find, to make fun of them.

-His past life redesign is like the biggest redesign up until now, since I researched ancient Persian an Turkish royal robes, because even when he‘s the prince/king of Persia, I think his father would still bring some of his Turkish background into the family.

-And since I made him older again (and tanner, because he was more in the sun in Persia than in Japan) I gave him a little goatee

-Also his robes are red to resemble his father, and how he is slowly turning into him (plus the goatee), but he still has blue in his clothes to resemble and respect his mother. I refuse to believe that he stopped loving her after her death. I think he always continued to love her deep inside and actually still misses her post series. He just doesn’t show it.

[yunuen]

Hello!! Just read the line is covered in jellyfish and I'm absolutely loving it!!! Thank you for sharing it <3

This question is kinda tangential I guess - you mentioned in chapter 4's end notes that Cassandra Kiramman is implied to be from Ionia and I'm super curious about that!! Idk much about League lore outside of Arcane (I've tried diving in but good lird there's a lot) so I've no idea if this is smth that Arcane itself implies or if it's older League lore. Like I vaguely know that Caitlyn always had a mother that died as part of her lore, but idk if there was more to it than that.

I've also seen people say that the girl Ambessa beheaded in the flashback from s1e8 was Ionian, but I've got no clue how true that is. (She also had the same green eyes as Mel - albeit without the central gold ring - which I figure implies that wherever she's from, Mel's father is from there too).

Anyway this got away from me a bit lol, basically I want to know more about how Cassandra is from Ionia!!

Take this with a handful of sand because I'm no expert on League lore AT ALL and I'm also not the kind of viewer who's smart enough to analyze every frame of Arcane and draw conclusions.

I think there were some musings from the very beginning about Caitlyn's family having ties to Ionia since she (and specially her father) seem to be of Asian descent and Ionia is basically a region more influenced/heavily inspired by Asian culture and aesthetic. That is kinda flimsy (Marcus is Asian too and I mean I guess he could also be from Ionia but it's obvious that Runeterra is supposed to be diverse overall) BUT the art I saw people dissect regarding this was this one:

These portraits seem to depict Cassandra at different points in her life and where 2 and 3 are obviously Piltover (you see the bridge between Zaun and Piltover in the second, the backdrop is from an industrialized city, yadda yadda and 3 is obviously Cassandra in the present), the first one is this:

This is certainly not Piltover. Even the frame looks different, and it looks VERY Ionian. I've seen some people say that might not be Cassandra (she does look white in present day), but considering the framing I'd be very surprised if that was not Cassandra (and if she was Cait's grandma the point remains.) So this is it I have no more proof!!! But considering that Fortiche does not play with details like this, I thought it would be fun to relate this theory to the fic in some way! Regarding the Ionian princess, I think there was some art that the designer shared, and they titled her character model 'Ionian Princess', but I've checked now and it's either been edited or it was a confusion in the first place. So

No way to know now, but it would be interesting considering Noxus in present League lore is actively invading Ionia, leaving the region which is very decentralized to wonder how they will handle the attack. Mel's father might be Ionian and that could be so much fun!!! Lots of arcane-powered people in the region. Hope I could answer some of your doubts! As I said, no expert, just a fan trying to make my blorbo story work! And thank you so much, so glad you liked the fic!!!!

[apiciuscats]

late stonehearts theory post because the tags died and I feel bad

No leaks, all theories

Sugilite

Likely related heavily to the concept of greed or extravagance.

I think he will be related / a follower / has ties with Oroboros [the Voracity]. He will likely be introduced in a planet or arc where we get to see more or understand more of the Voracity. If you search it up, it’s one of the Aeons we have the least information on. No known factions, associated planets, even NPC followers.

I think I read somewhere the purple candles we can see on his table are related to the Voracity too.

Plus it would relate to all the food and coins he has. The Voracity is known for being a devourer of planets. However, this seems pretty contradicting the point of the Preservation.

Finally, in Jade’s Moment Among the Stars, we see her with Sugilite’s cornerstone. I’m not sure why there are barely any people talking about this, it wasn’t even subtle, she just straight up had it. And we know Jade deals with a lot of greedy people and is also linked with the concept of greed. Perhaps Sugilite owes her something or made a deal with her about something a while back.

As for the meaning of his gemstone [cus each Stoneheart seems to represent something from their gem— Aventurine meaning luck, topaz meaning love, etc]— I searched it up, but it seems to mean things like love or worry free. I definitely don’t think he will represent love. However, we can think deeper into the meaning of “worry free”. Perhaps he’s a very nonchalant or non caring person, hence the free of worries. We’ll have to see, though.

Sapphire

I have a lot to say about him surprisingly.

Just a random note, he wasn’t present in the meeting as we can see in the beginning frames and the way Pearl spoke and voted for him. Probably busy with another planet.

His theme is definitely loyalty. I can say that with 96% confidence. If yo search directly “gemstone that represents loyalty”, it pops up “sapphire” in large letters, and he was the one who voted against Aventurine as he adhered to oaths.

We can also see he uses griffins/gryphons however you want to spell it as his symbol. Griffins literally symbolize loyalty as well and are known to be very loyal animals.

It seems he may also have lots of ties with Greek mythology. Aside from the obvious of griffins being from Greek mythology itself, sapphires also come from the Greek word sappheiros and were often used in Greek mythology or associated with the Greek god Apollo.

I saw some theories that he may be / formerly a knight/ knight of beauty. Some people also pointed out they saw many Greek mythology inspirations in Argenti’s design. It is definitely a valid theory.

Obsidian

Obsidian is probably a vampire. When we see her, there is a mirror in front of her bathtub that has no reflection, and it is a quite common superstition that vampires could not be seen reflected in mirrors. She also has noticeably pale skin and lots of drinking blood motifs [though it is just pomegranate juice]

There is somewhere I read in hsr of a vampire who like.. became immortal or something after she drank a bunch of people’s blood?? This essentially confirms the existence of vampires within the Hsr universe, so it isn’t unreasonable for obsidian to be, well, a vampire.

I dug around for the symbolism and meaning of obsidian, but the most consistent I could find was truth. A website did say “it symbolizes truth in all its forms, both the good and the ugly”. That is pretty interesting, but there’s not enough information to see anything else.

Amber

Amber, alongside Pearl is one of the only organic gemstones in the Stonehearts. Qlipoth is literally known as the “amber lord”. In the end frame, where we see still pictures of every Stoneheart moving by, it seems as if it is in order of rank [lowest to highest]. However, despite being one of the only organic gems and literally being called “Amber”, she is the lowest rank.

My theory is Amber is one of the least “corrupted” or more righteous members of the Stonehearts [like Topaz]. But as we can see there’s a lot of “corruption” in the IPC rn [hope I worded that correctly], which I just essentially mean people going against the ideals of the preservation [oswaldo im looking at you]. So it would be very ironic that the most genuine member is the lowest ranked because of all the greed and power and money-hungry workers of the IPC.

Pearl

Like I mentioned, Pearl is the other organic gemstone. This is pretty ironic since she is an Intellitron. I think HSR purposefully tried to make her existence very ironic. For example, not only is she an organic gemstone, she is basically one of the only people to show empathy to Aventurine, saying he deserved more justice in his life.

For her personality, she will probably be a nice and empathetic person, just to highlight the irony between her species and her personality further.

Agate

I don’t have a lot to say about them honestly— despite being lower on the ranks while Obsidian seems to be much higher, Agate probably is friends, or at least closer, with Obsidian.

The little red dude we saw when Agate was mentioned, I doubt is actually Agate themself, and more a symbolism of them [like Sapphire’s griffin].

Opal

I don’t have a lot to say about him either. He seems like a Pepeshi though. Or perhaps another short species. It would make sense if he was a Pepeshi too, his hat would cover the fluff ball perfectly. And not only with the short height, he shares the other qualities of Pepeshi, like having an adult voice.

[tamaruaart]

What was zhao's character designing process like?

Hello! Thanks for asking, I'll try to keep this as simple as humanly possible-

-the beginning stages of Zhao's character

(Ignore the bad quality of the pictures, I was lazy-)

I've actually had Zhao for quite a few years now, but I think these drawings I made like 9 months ago are the oldest ones that I could find. As you can probably see, in the begging she was a primarily jttw OC, I remember being super into OSP (which I still am), so when I started watching their jttw series I immediately got to making an OC because I really liked the world and all.

There's not much to say about the design honestly. But I will say why the hair changed, back then, her hair was very tiger-y but why has it changed so much if she's still a tiger? Well it's because back then I actually really liked the hair, but as time went on I thought it was way too much. However I really got attached to the whole "Cursed for disobeying your family so that you can never forget about them when you look at your own face.", so I decided to keep the orange hair just remove the details.

However a lot of the drawings you will see still have the stripes, but you'll see how they became more and more simple over time.

(note: All of the drawings you will see of her old design are pretty old so my art skills have improved-)

When I just started watching lmk I already knew I wanted to change up her character a bit. So I did a mini re-design. Again not much to say about her design except that I wanted it to look very demon-y (because she actually used to be a tiger demoness)

However I felt she was too "soft", so I changed up her character a bit to be more cold and "mature", because I wanted her to have a bigger contrast in personality with Sun Wukong. I'll get into that later :>

And as you can see I was still experimenting with certain designs but in the end I ended up with the last one for a while.

Then something awoke in me and I was finally like: This hair is mad complicated let's simplify this sucker-

So some (a lot of) experimenting:

(as you can see I've got a very inconsistent style)

And with that I eventually got this kinda design:

As you can see, this is was the start of a ✨new era✨

(you can still see these drawings up on my blog if you scroll down enough-)

And this design stuck for a while until I made a certain drawing for a certain @/camhues 👀

At this time I have started reading Circe and was very inspired by her character :0

She changed from being cold to more motherly. She's still mature but more clever, compassionate and caring. (yet still pathetic in my eyes). One of my friends here on tumblr @/doppel-doodles explained her PERFECTLY- "A fierce tigress in the body of a gentle mother cat" (like who gave them the right-), this explains her character very well because despite being very peaceful she's still a strong sorceress-

Now, Zhao is still kinda quiet and reserved considering her unhealthy past. But that ties a bit more into her connection with Wukong, which I'll get into in a bit.

I wanted Zhao to seem more "out of place", back then she just seemed like a basic bish girlboss OC and like someone who would make a good background character-

I also decided to give her a full name (because my dumb ahh realized Zhao is a Chinese SURNAME-) so I decided on Zhaoyan, also funfact Zhao's father used to call her "Zhaodi" because that name means "requesting a brother" (Because sexism yaaayyyyyy-)

My Zhao design is also heavily inspired by @/gigizetz Circe design, and her hair is very much inspired by Rapunzel from tangled-

And so yeah, then we got to her current design

While I can't really give anymore specific references, I can tell you a bit on how I settled on this design :D

Note: I wanted her to have a more exotic, tropical and ancient vibe if that makes sense. She is a spiritual maiden, sometimes even described as a sorceress, and considering the role I settled on giving her in the story it makes sense she would seem like "something new" or something out of the blue if you will. Even though she's a Peach Maiden, she doesn't exactly look like one, which I honestly think is really exiting to work with-

There's still some lore I haven't spilled yet that would say more about her design, but I hope to reveal that in the future!

Now, all the lore of her current character ties to one specific thing, aka her most important role in lmk- her connection to Monkey. Now as I mentioned, Zhao and Wukong were made to be opposites, or well to seem like opposites (one is chaotic and one is calm). Also the mear fact that the Chinese monkey zodiac and Chinese tiger zodiac are specifically referred to as not being able to get along so well.

But in reality they're quite similar, both get over looked because of their unthreatening personalities despite being really damn powerful. Both kinda stand out in physical appearance too compared to the other characters, and look alike in a way (same ginger hair and golden eyes). And not to mention they both push others away from them because of their pasts despite caring a lot.

A fun part about writing Zhao's character is she also serves as a way to find out more about Sun Wukong and jttw as a whole while still being her own character.

So yeah, that's basically it! Sorry for this being so fricking long I like rambling about my girl- (no I do not have a favorite lmk OC wdym?)

Fell free to ask more questions they're always fun as hell to answer!! :D

[caramelmochacrow]

Gonna ramble about my brand new AU that I don't know the name of yet. Eheh <3 (Cut cause.... I'm the ramblrerrrr)

The whole point of the AU is that the units aren't in DJ units anymore. They're in normal friend groups and stuff. Some of them are still connected to DJing, but some of them will get the DJ interest a bit axed. They're just sticking to their hobbies, lol. In this AU Yoba Academy's a "normal" Japanese school. As in, it gives as much chances to their other parts of the curriculum with the arts like in canon. Sooooo I'm just saying that Yoba becomes Nijigasaki High School from Love Live yeah.

For Arisugawa, Seiho and the unnamed University of Nagisa and Tsubaki, they're still the same. This also applies to ABCD's school.

Anyway, I have given myself "rules" to this AU. These rules mostly apply to the units in Yoba Academy because that's the school that's heavily affected by this AU. With this premise, it can lead to out of character things happening like crazy so:

The way the units meet must still be similar as it is in canon. Example: Peaky P-key met each other in middle school, so they'll still meet in middle school. Kyoko's interest in Shinobu's music caused all four of them to connect, so in the AU it's still the same.

If the character is closely related to DJing (like with the DJs), they must still keep that in *some way in their AU counterpart. If their connection to DJing isn't strong, that can be taken out. Example: Shinobu's very closely tied to DJing even though she has gaming as her hobby. So in this AU, Shinobu is a silent radio DJ in her grandfather's radio station. Esora isn't that connected to DJing compared to Shinobu, so she's part of the top 10 students of the second years in Yoba. (I'm not too sure on this one, mostly because if you take out the fact that she's a performer for Peaky, Esora has nothing to do at school.) *Note: They don't necessarily need to be a DJ in the AU. I'm thinking of making Haruna in this AU a vinyl record and vinyl player collector, so yeah.

Design-wise, they must wear one article of clothing they don't usually wear in their school uniform. This can be taken from an actual piece of clothing they have worn in their casual outfits/event outfits or just a piece of clothing I think they would wear in the AU. They must still wear the skirts, however. (This is to limit myself and get more create with designs, also I might give everyone pants and shorts if I don't.) Example: For winter, Yuka wears a letterman jacket she got as a gift from her father. This is because many people would think she's part of one of the sports clubs but, in actuality, she's part of the photography club.

They don't need to be in a club relating to their hobbies if it doesn't fit the character to decide to join one. Example: Muni's good at art and her hobby is art, but she wouldn't be part of the art club because she would be terrified of interacting with new people, especially because she would've decided this when she was a new student in Yoba Academy.

Their outfits (casual and a bit of their uniform) must be late 90s/early 2000s fashion inspired or Japanese fashion inspired. This is mostly because I don't like fashion today. Doesn't need to be one-to-one, just need to be inspired or have articles of clothing from that era/genre. I don't really have examples because I haven't design the girls yet but trust me on this.

I think I'll leave this post at that. I'll probs make a separate post talking abt the units. (Aka Peaky because that's the one I'm most sure of cause this AU happened because of White Return.)

[callophelia]

Persona designs I made for Persona Crossroads some time ago

While I was cooking for my Persona Crossroads story idea, I was also working on some persona designs for the persona users in the story!

These are just drafts however, and I can't say for sure if any of these guys will stay in the final story since I'm reworking their users, but since these guys have been doing nothing but sitting around in my computer, I might as well show them off X))

This one is my design of Ghostbur from the Dream SMP if he was a Persona. I will admit, this one is probably one of my favourites alongside his user, so he's probably staying on the keep list ^-^

According to my notes, he inherits Nuclear skills, reflects Psy, absorbs Curse, resists Nuclear and Wind, and is weak to Water (yes I added Water into this), Ice, Slash (and brought back the three types of physical lol), and Pierce.

I understand that that's not how starter personas work, but...

but yeah. Instead of making Ghostbur's attributes the typical persona way, I wanted to assign them in a way that reflects actual attributes of the character Ghostbur. Inherits Nuclear because boom boom, reflects Psy because of his selective amnesia, absorbs Curse because I don't remember (probably having something to do with Alivebur?), resists Nucleur because of persona laws and Wind because... also can't remember, and is weak to Water and Ice because they melt him, and Slash and Pierce because his (and Alivebur's) deaths were from being stabbed by swords and pierced by arrows!

The design was heavily inspired by catzgam3rz's Limbo designs!

I also made a Revivebur counterpart to Ghostbur :))

For... um... reasons.

According to my notes, he inherits Nuclear and Psy (Because boom boom and child manipulator), reflect Psy (don't remember why lol), absorbs Curse (dk why lol), resists Nuclear and Wind and is weak to Slash and Pierce, so... Ghostbur, but better.

Moving on to a non-Minecraft character, I also drew Aesop Carl from Identity V as a persona (specifically his Rorschach Physician character from the White Tombstone fan game). This particular persona was designed to be a navigation persona which ngl, felt kinda tough to make. I'll admit... he's visually not the favourite child XPP

Back to turning Minecraft characters into personas, here's Scott from Empires SMP season 1! This one... is probably tied as my least favourite alongside the next one XPP The idea of it was nice, but my execution was... not as nice.

According to my notes, Scott inherits Ice and Bless (because of canonical ice powers and being the champion of the good stag god), reflects Ice, absorbs Bless, and is weak to Fire, Curse, and Slash (because stabby stab)

And I also made his brother, Xornoth! Looking at him again, I think it's safe to say that Scott loses the visual competition XPP

Him and persona Scott were meant to be opposites in both design and attributes.

Xornoth inherits Fire and Curse, reflects Fire, absorbs Curse, and is weak to Ice, Bless, Slash, and also Psy (because mans spent 99% of season 1 possessed by an evil stag god)

And also here are some gross unfinished concept art for persona Bayonetta.

Originally I was going to go with the look she has for most of the first game, but I decided to leave that for a third awakening instead and use her old look for the first awakening, but even though I had a vision I was satisfied with, I just... couldn't make it work -_-

If I were still going with Bayonetta as the protag's persona, I probably would have used Ernesto from Tactica as reference XPP

Tho I did really like the idea of her coming out of a coffin... would make a wicked awakening!

According to my notes, her attributes were that she inherits curse and pierce (because witchcraft and gun), resists Curse, Bless (thanks to dear old dad), Pierce, and Wind (because these witches have never been taught the concept of gravity), and is weak to... Water and Earth? I do not know why I chose those weaknesses for her...

[scover-va]

I need to know more about Michael's mom... Is she a cool mom?

SHE IS A VERY COOL MOM janet afton you will always be famous. to me

Im taking this as a chance to finally ramble abt her anyways so Janet's core inspo when designing her was to avoid 2 key things. Don't make her like Immortal & Th Restless's Clara (due to clara representing michael, not mrs afton, so i wanted to avoid that), and don't base her too heavily off of Ballora. I still have ties to Ballora's character (a music-based theme, blue-centric colour palette, im sure there were more basic ideas but everything else is more hc than themes to keep up) due to my hc thingy of each Funtime having ties to William's wife + kids, but yknow.

But yeah. Funky lady who played bass guitar + did backup vocals in a band during her high school and college years. Literally her and William dating can be summed up by "Seriously, what do you see in that guy?!" "He makes me laugh." bc she was and is WAY out of his goddamn league. Not just bc of the whole serial killer thing he was just an even bigger loser in college. Normal people dont develop a crush on a woman after she nearly breaks your nose and makes you bleed, William /j

But yeah uhh. I also dont like the idea of her being absent or neglectful purely because I got way too attached to her (i was originally gonna do that just to make things easy for myself but. Pretty lady,,, I am a very simple lesbian what can i say) so like. She obviously wasnt the greatest, most fantastic mom to ever exist given she was kinda maybe sorta well aware William was making some weird fucking clowns, but like. Hey. She tried. Also side note my reasoning for her being absent during the whole. Yknow. '83 event (and just evan's bday in general) is bc Evan + Elizabeth are twins and Elizabeth demanded a girls-only trip for her bday, and Janet promised Evan she'd do something just as special for him when she got back. That never happened bc he died lmao loser /j

But yeah uhh. Shes got a lot of regrets. Wishes she coulda done a lot of things better. Kinda dies with those regrets. Ive seen people say that one of fnaf's charms is that no character is 100% good and i LOVE that, and wanted to keep it up with Janet. Good mom and overall a good person, however made some bad decisions along the way and whatnot.

Im still working out specifics (ive been slowly working on a lil private fic abt her and william meeting + their early relationship) but uhhh. Minor notes that dont get their own paragraphs is that William sampled her voice for Ballora so yay easy voice claim, she had an on and off relationship with her band's lead singer (her name's Bev), her birth name is actually Janice Schmidt but if you call her Janice she'll knock at least 2 of ur teeth out, she's a runaway teen and got adopted by this older couple bc her home life kinda sucked (idk specifics yet), and also girlie has an extensive criminal record of minor angsty teen type charges. Also teen Mike dying his hair and then 2020's Michael's hairstyle are both kinda references to Janet's hair because he wnated to look less like his father. Thats all ty. No read more bc you WILL look at my mrs afton post, boy /j

Actually no theres more that im remembering as i write the tags and edit a few details. Back to her and William because god im insane about them. So for starters it. Well i was gonna say Janet was def the first to flirt but i think William definitely developed a crush first and they only kept talking bc of said crush so its kinda up for debate. Anyways yeah at first it was a HUGE sorta like "Well he's funny especially when I fluster him so this can be just a fun lil thing" but because they chatted more they def kinda like. Clicked more. William was a huge fan of listening to her music (from. a distance. he looked kinda like a creep but at least janet only misinterpreted it once) but like *specifically* janet he didnt give a fucking shit abt the rest of the band. Uhh. They had their first run-in and janet kinda. Well. Punched him in the nose before he cleared up that he is NOT a pervert or anything weird like that (bc a guy that looks older than he is staring from a distance when there is a clear crowd he could join kinda gave janet the Wrong idea), then they later bumped into each other in the hall and chatted for a bit, then they kinda just kept "accidentally" running into one another. Uhhh. Some cigaerette-themed flirting and a house party later, yay dating :] can you tell where the current cut-off of the fic is /j Also idk how to put this down properly but they are both runaways and can kinda. Get that vibe from one another. Literally Michael is like some fucked up abomination of the both of them between the troubled past + weird situationship thing + runaway stuff + a lot of minor details that arent important rn. I just. Yeah Janet means the world to me go thru her tag on my blog for some art. Not all of my janet art is posted but the non-posted stuff is all concept work/doodles or just. Shit im too embarrassed to post lmao. Anyways NOW im done ty for reading

[k423s]

tis’ i, crepe.. with a very, very, definitely important ask.!!!!!!!!

I was thinking about your bronya & tsaritsa posts earlier today,, and I was wondering if there’s any other characters you think may end up being (or. already are) hi3 expys too? lore/arc wise, or just by design :3

ohhhhhhh you opened up a large can of worms w this one.. ii start visibly vibrating w excitement

general criteria are like. matching voice actors, very similar designs, some overlapping similarities. ie: mei and ei both having things to do with origin, time-fuckery (kinda), having similar designs, both being named raiden, being associated w lightning, sword users, etc. mostly we look at lore for talking about alts :3

lore-wise/confirmed (ordered by nation):

sustainer of heavenly principles -> kiana kaslana (herrscher of the void) of course mhy couldnt go a game without mentioning their favorite child. both share voice actors and similar designs. i also think its really interesting knowing that sirin (whos basically kiana's herrscher persona atp) was the first herrscher of the current era that actively abided by the will of the honkai (this being that exists outside of the honkai universe) and how the sustainer of heavenly principles is likely apart of the primordial one's four shades <- which again. the primordial one and the heavenly principles are pretty certainly NOT from teyvat. images below (note: the upwards pointing ahoge, the eye colors, the yellow powers, the red color schemes between kiana's herrscher of flamescion battlesuit, etc. in order: hi3 kiana HoF, genshin, hi3 kiana HoV, genshin)

venti -> wendy obvious one their names are similar (in chinese the first character of their name is the same and related to weather). they both have some control over the wind w venti being the archon of anemo and wendy being the herrscher of the wind. their designs are also similar if you look at their archon/herrscher forms. wendy's actually from ggz but i dont know enough about hr ggz counterpart to talk about her :( which sucks bc i heard shes written better and w more depth there. visual similarities below (take note: hair, wings, color scheme. in order: hi3, ggz, and genshin)

lore-wise i do think its interesting how HI3 wendy struggles with a lack of freedom while venti is the archon of freedom. (wendy: is wheel-chair bound due to a procedure/experiment gone wrong because of her being a literal child soldier. + being kidnapped by both schicksal and ae + being a narrative parallel to bronya who notoriously struggles with freedom especially in the chapter we meet wendy in)

raiden ei and raiden makoto -> raiden mei also obvious. i dont know where to even begin here. their surnames being the same; both being associated to lightning and thunder; mei and ei being sword-users; even lil things about ei like the fact that she cant cook whlie mei can because mei has a kiana to cook for and ei doesnt!; mei being the herrscher of origin and raiden shogun's auto attacks being named origin; mei having a line about reforging kiana's swords when it breaks as a symbol of strength and raiden shogun's passive being related to leveling swords and polearms. even like story-wise, while i think they did a shitty job w ei, i can see the bits of mei they were going for! the divided identities w mei (the real gentle and compassionate her being represented w makoto, a cold and cruel facade of hers being the raiden shogun, and the in-between version of her that just tries so hard to maintain eternity and change fate as a means of grief being represented with ei). and see. did not include GGZ mei heree bc i dont know enough about her. visuals below (take note the eye color, hair, the red accents in ei's clothing. in order: HI3 mei HoT, HI3 APHO mei, genshin makoto, and genshin ei.)

yae miko -> yae sakura also obvious w their names and designs asjdbjb. also both being mikos, narukami shrine being heavily associated w sakura blossoms, the fox and kitsune inspirations. and!! the medicine-food kiss in one of miko's books literally being something sakura did to kallen. they dont act similarly at all but i think thats part of what makes miko a successful expy. ei acts more like sakura than miko does! and the fact that their stories with losing their sisters and that spurring such intense grief within them is soooooo oughh.... i love eimiko from a multiverse perspective bc i think with it, it allows miko and sakura to be so so linked while also not being very similar, meaning we get more from miko's character if we know sakura but we dont need to know sakura to know about miko!!!! i also of course have to mention the grand narukami sakura tree and yae sakura's connection w sakura trees and grief.. the way the grand narukami's tree is a symbol of ei's grief for makoto AND the site where miko sends off the spirits of the youkai to rest :]. iirc, sakura's GGZ and HI3 lore are similar enough. images below (note: their hair, color palette, ears. in order: HI3, GGZ, genshin)

nahida -> theresa the whitewashing w this one is so ugly it makes me so mad bc story-wise i actually think nahida is a successful theresa alt. i just hate that they used it as an excuse to whitewash her. like. theresa being a clone of kallen whos physical body can only age to 13 and nahida being a small splintered part of rukkhadevata..... nahida being locked up by the sages because they didnt respect her and otto keeping theresa cooped up both because he cared about her and didnt wnat her to get in his way......... nahida being the archon of wisdom and theresa being the principal of st freya......... EVEN LIKE. THE TIME BETWEEN RUKKHADEVATA & NAHIDA BEUNG THE SAME AS KALLEN & THERESA (500 YEARS).. and, of course, nahida's attempts at addressing the discrimination/inequality between the two sumeru regions being akin to theresa's attempts to right otto's wrongs after she becomes schicksal's overseer. also the religious imagery w theresa and kallen veing christian and nahida and rukkhadevata and both being underestimated for their young appearances. not including ggz theresa here. (below is theresa's verdant sky skin, the first battlesuit of hers we see, and nahida. after is kallen and then rukkhadevata. take note the color schemes, braids vs ponytails, height)

al haitham -> su same as nahida it pisses me off so so much they whitewashed al haitham for this. but looking aside from the obvious visual similarities for a sec ok listen hear me out. su's buddhism and association w honkai's realm sumeru AND al haitham, of course, being from sumeru which is a nation heavily inspired by buddhism.... al haitham having connections to mirrors and light.. su literally keeping his eyes closed for the majority of the time......... both being rather quiet...... they do not act similarly though which i think serves them both well :] something abt su having such strong morals and convictions and literally being a fucking hero and carrying a lot of guilt in part because hes a healer who's lost so many while al haitham has a seemingly "uncaring" demeanor (not actually uncaring btw) which is something imparted onto him by his grandma.. visuals below (in order: HI3 su, genshin haitham)

design-wise:

heres a few people have suggested but i just dont agree or theyre only linked through design.

lisa -> rita (fallen rosemary battlesuit especially)

jean -> durandal/bianka

kazuha -> jingwei fu hua

young shenhe, xianyun -> azure empyrea fu hua i do not. get this one tbhes.

theres also welt yang/joachim and zhongli but while i think theyre very fun to think about in tandem from a lore perspective, i really dont think zhonglis inspired by joachim. FUCK I CANT ADD ANY MORE PHOTOS.

[i-am-minty-fresh]

Alright here’s my unwarranted opinion on post-timeskip designs.

(Not including the fact that they just made everyone’s skin tones lighter for no reason cause that’s complete bullshit but we’re gonna talk about their other design features).

Luffy: I love it. Don’t get me wrong I love his stupid vest + flip-flop combo in pre-timeskip but his fluffy shirt and sash are just so him without taking away all his silliness (also adding the yellow sash ties way better to the ASL theme because the yellow in the hat is more tied to Roger/Shanks while the sash is purely related to him and his brothers with is great!)

-8/10-

Zoro: no notes. I love how Oda took one his eyes and refused to explain. I love what that means for Zoro’s character. He doesn’t think about his injuries in that way, he just moves forward. Other than that tho, the boots? The coat? The sash? (Every gets a sash now-a-days) I love that he kept his haramaki because it looks so comfy!

-10/10-

Nami: ….I feel like they could have done a bit more…Don’t get me wrong I love the long hair but her outfits just kinda became bikini top + jeans which not only look uncomfortable but isn’t half as stylish as Oda thinks it is.

-6/10-

Usopp: My guy leveled up. Abs, pants, no-shirt, little facial hair, Usopp’s a fucking man now guys and I’ve got respect for him. Also love his pop greens I just wish he also used other chemical combinations like he did pre-timeskip.

-9/10-

Sanji: they’d tried to make him a big strong man like Zoro, but I don’t think that was ever the appeal of him. He’s meant to be lean so buffing him up was just kinda stupid. Got rid of his pants chain and all his silly undershirt colors.

-4/10-

Chopper: Controversial opinion! I don’t mind his post-timeskip design. He looks cute! I don’t like that they replaced the hat that his dad gave him (I feel like we never talk about that! He has a different hat now! How do you get a new ‘dead dad’ hat?!?) Now he’s got a little stripped shirt, and his heavy point looks a lot better. I do not like how they lean on Kung-fo point so heavily when he has so many other forms for fighting (horn point is my favorite).

-8/10-

Robin: What. Why did they- HER HAT?!? HER BANGS?!?? What the fuck happened in the revolutionary army to do this to my favorite women?!? Give her back her hat, give her back her bangs or I swear to god.

-2/10- (I like her long skirt)

Franky: Also controversial opinion!(?) I don’t hate his bigger body. I wished we got more of his pre-timeksip form because I love his greasy dad look but post-timeskip does a lot for giving Franky a 2 year long power-up in a way that he would. UPGRADES PEOPLE, UPGRADES!

-9/10-

Brook: I love it. His been living in star-dome being flamboyant as all hell and so of course he comes back with a diva-boa, some $10 star glasses, a plastic crown, and strange old man pants. I love formal peepaw but I also love weird party peepaw. I also think the guitar was a good way to make him seem big and aggressive while the violin has the silent, deadly elegance.

-10/10-

All and all I think a lot of us just missed the pre-timeskip style which is fair! I love how pretty the animation gets in Wano but there was bit of an awkward faze where the studio was still trying to figure out how silly vs how pretty they wanted everything to look.

[clarafell]

what your theories of what the new movie might be about and other things?

unprompted / always accepting

Welcome to my blog, dear anon!

One of my biggest theories is how Homura is handling contracts after deciding Kyubey is not fit to handle them, which is long overdue punishment ever since the Incubators created the Isolation Field to ultimately confirm the existence of the Law of Cycles through Homura. I've had this theory for a pretty long time, immediately incorporating this theory into my headcanon. I've always enjoyed the potential of Homura making contracts for a long time due to her self-proclaimed title as a devil / demon. But ever since I saw Devil Homura's symbol in the background of the shot with new bow-wielding character in the first trailer is when I've been 100% convinced that Homura is handling contracts and wishes. Even if this theory turns out to be incorrect, then I will still happily accept it as canon to my portrayal of Homura.

Another theory that I support and adore is the way the Clara Dolls are now being put to very good use by being made to disguise themselves as Homura in the new movie. I always liked the idea of them fighting when they aren't doing their own thing in the Rebellion movie, but I always wondered what kind of future the Clara Dolls had in the future. Their designs and inner lore are very unique, so I always had a soft spot for them. To use the existence of the Clara Dolls to make even more different versions of Homura, their mistress, is something that I instantly fell head over heels with as soon we began to see different versions of Homura. All the little yet new changes you see in Homura, such as how the Homura dancing with Madoka has red eyes, could easily be written off as a disguised Clara Doll.

Why, Lia, do you love the theory of the trickster Clara Dolls being Homura?

Because it can be tied back into the world of ballet. In the Swan Lake story, the Black Swan (Odile) chooses to impersonate the White Swan (Oddette) in order to win the heart of the fooled Prince Siegfried. As you can tell in Rebellion, Homura is a big fan of ballet dancing. It is no wonder for Homura to pull inspiration from one of her favorite ballet stories. Even her Devil form outfit is heavily inspired by the Black Swan character in the Swan Lake, dark yet beautiful.

(Fun Fact: Another important thing to note is "Clara" in "Clara Dolls" comes from the main character in the Nutcracker story, which is yet another famous ballet story!)

One of my rather neglected theories about the new movie is the existence of Ai...

Ai means Love in Japanese. For anyone who is unaware, Ai is mentioned in the Wraith Arc manga. Not only is she mentioned, but she also makes a brand appearance. She is a new principle, classified as a miracle, born from Madoka and Homura’s joint wish. Ai is the the embodiment of Akemi Homura’s emotions, but she also seems to be connected to Homura's very magic.

In my opinion, I would suggest everyone to try to read up on the Wraith Arc because it really does explain how Rebellion occurred. Ai does play a big part in the Wraith Arc, but I won't go into too much detail on that part of the story.

Let's take a look at her, shall we?

Ai has to be one of the most healthiest sights of Homura ever. Anyone, I hope, can tell Ai is more certain of herself with just one glance at her. She has no shame, not a single speck of doubt, and certainly no anger... Or self-loathing. She is proud of herself, perfectly content. She is pure, confident, and more wise.

As shown in this visual poster above, two sides of Homura are facing each other. The smirking Homura the viewer sees, I suspect, has to be one of the Clara Dolls in disguise. Not only does she wear a different headband, but everything about her presence screams it has to be one of the dolls.

But what about the Homura that we cannot see?

I suspect that Ai has to be the same Homura, the one with the red ribbons. If you look very closely at the red ribbons, even the red ribbon is not the same as Homura's regular ribbons near the end of the 12th episode. There is more detail on these ribbons. Either way, one of my more wilder theories is that Ai is going to face down with Homura. One of my personal theories is that Love, the Homura with the red ribbon in her hair, is fighting against Homura in order to make her face the light.

This is a really wild theory, so I'm not 100% sure about the strength of this theory. I can, however, see it happening. Devil Homura may have realized that concept of love in Rebellion, but she is still running away. Ai is soooo done with Homura at this point, probably, so it wouldn't be surprising if Ai decides to get her hands dirty.

One of the theories I don't really enjoy is Walpurgisnacht actually being Homura. I've never liked this theory, but I've never hated it... Even now, I'm hoping they don't go down that route. Walpurgisnacht and her mysteries are occur through the course of history, so I would prefer to see Walpurgisnacht with more flesh and bones. I want to see more original work attached to Walpurgisnacht, not somehow actually being Homura. At the end of the day, I'm eager to see what they do with Walpurgisnacht.

If they can make that theory work, then I'm willing to give that particular theory a shot. Personally? I will always prefer Homulilly as Homura's witch form. I can understand the temptation to make Homura be connected to Walpurgisnacht, trust me. I simply want Walpurgisnacht to be given a more unique role. There is so much potential with her, after all.

This isn't a theory, but I'm really hoping that we still see bits and pieces of the Concept Movie trailer in the Walpurgisnacht Rising. I have cherished that video for way too long to let it be forgotten. Even now, I'm still analyzing both the Concept Movie and the two trailers for Walpurgisnacht Rising.

If you made it this far, what is one of your theories on the new movie?