#marumaro

[briarruler]

I am utterly unfamiliar with Dragon Ball but I think the Corporeal Attacks are a lot of fun. Mass destruction!

They probably also have some sort of deep symbolic meaning that can be analysed, but, mostly what I take way from using them is that I really like watching Kluke set things on fire.

"It is time to unleash your true power."

>Corporeal

Attack

Defend

Item

Formation

Flee

The corporeals are literally the most Dragon Ball thing in this game lol.

[leviadraws]

Making camp while trying to repair an ancient flying machine they hijacked.

(happy 17th birthday Blue Dragon!)

[they-have-the-same-va]

Marumaro from Blue Dragon shares a voice actress with Chum Chum from Fanboy and Chum Chum.

Voiced by Nika Futterman

[notagainpleasenotagain]

[briarruler]

(Laughs) That feels very accurate. Marumaro and quiet do not go together.

It is like, the single downside of playing Blue Dragon, having to listen to Marumaro’s shouty voice.

Zola: Try to keep him quiet

Shu: You do realize this is Marumaro???

[thatskymichi]

I was testing the brush, it was just a test so the drawing is deformed xd / Solo estaba probando el pincel por eso tanta deformidad

(sígueme en mi Deviantart para más deformidad XD)

Deviantart: Michi017

[briarruler]

On the Nature of Heart’s Light

I was curious about what triggered the characters to regain their Shadows in Disc 3. Separated into general statements about Shadows and character specific Heart Lights.

General

“A Light Shines in (Character’s) heart.”

Quoted, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village, text displayed when Party members find their reasons to regain their Shadows.

“The light of your heart cast a Shadow.”

Quoted, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, text displayed when Party members reach full Tension fighting their Shadow.

“Our magic lies in our hearts! Our hearts are creating the magic for us…”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

“It’s the power of our hearts.”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

“Well, you see, we felt that we couldn’t let Nene get away with everything. While we were separated, we went to other villages. In all these places, Nene did terrible things to the people. We had to stop him. We had to save everybody! We wanted strength. And all that made me feel so… eeeaaggaahh!” - Shu...

“We couldn’t hold our anger back. And then, everyone’s magic returned.”- Kluke...

“I heard from King Jibral that the Ancients referred to magic as ‘the light that lies within oneself.’” -Zola

Quote from Cutscene , Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Glass Spires.

Important Dialogue from when Party Members actually regain their Shadows, Kluke, Jiro, Marumaro and Shu.

Shu

Shu confronts Sahlia as she attempts suicide. She tells him that when people say don’t give up that it is nothing but words and he’s just like everyone else.

“I don’t care if you want to throw it all away. I could never give up like that. But hey, that’s just me, I guess… I’ll never give up. I’m not gonna sit around here, waiting to be eaten by some tree! I won’t!” 

“It sucks to give up and die. It’s easy to say: ‘Don’t give up.’ But unless you turn those words into strength, you won’t get strong. You can’t even live.  But now, after all we’ve been through, I know what it takes to say: ‘I won’t give up!’”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Devour Village.

Jiro

Jiro finds a family of three separated from each other and desperate to be reunited.

“Families do what they can to save each other. My parents were the same way. When I was dragged underground by a Land Shark, my parents kept digging until their hands were bloody. This isn’t just my battle. But I have to be strong to make things happen!”

Quote from Jiro, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Kluke

A Light Shines in Kluke’s heart while talking with a Young Girl Waiting in Noluta Village. The girl is waiting for her parents to return; they left for Devour Village and the Freezing stops anyone from leaving their homes in Noluta Village, so the girl is still waiting.

“I can’t watch the same sadness as mine spread in the world. I have to fix things, not just for myself, but for people like this child as well!” 

Quote from Kluke, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Marumaro

Marumao finds the village children trapped and miserable in the ice.

“If we don’t do anything about Nene, Maro’s brothers and sisters will end up the same way! Gonna get him. No matter what it takes, we’re gonna get him. So, Maro’s gotta get Shadow back. Maro’s true Shadow!”

Quote from Marumaro, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Kluke, Jiro and Marumaro

“It’s the same thing! Nene goes from village to village, doing whatever he can to stir up fear, and then he enjoys it as people get more and more afraid!” - Jiro

“It’s awful! Nene’s so mean!” - Marumaro

“I can’t take this anymore. There’s no way this can go on. I won’t let this happen!” - Kluke declares and her Shadow starts appearing.

Jiro is looking at Kluke and his Shadow starts to appear.

“Everyone! We’re going to help you!” Kluke promises, haloed in blue light.

“I need to get my power back!” Jiro says as blue light started to gather around him.

“Magic! Come back to us!” Marumaro calls as he gains a blue-light outline, lifting his face to the sky, his Shadow beginning to appear.

Quoted from Cutscene, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Conclusions

It seems regaining your Shadow requires you to find your resolve, to feel it and fight for it.

I think the resolves that they express reaffirm or build upon the reasons that led to Nene giving them their Light Spheres in the first place. Marumaro’s desire to save and protect his family and village. Jiro’s desire to support his friends and protect the people he loves. Kluke’s desire to keep those she cares about safe and avenge her parents’ deaths. Shu’s stubborn determination to try even in the face of death and refusal to believe that he will not succeed if he doesn’t just try harder.

And also ways that they have grown. Shu is learning that he can’t solve everything by fling himself at something to fight, that sometimes you have to retreat and reposition yourself before trying again. Kluke turning her grief from something that distances her from others and is focused on her pain, from vengeance into an empathy that reaches out and connects her with others, that drives her to save them. Jiro that if he wants to plan battles and work alongside his friends he can’t just rely on their power, he needs his own power too. Marumaro learning that you can’t just treat the symptoms you have to seek out the root cause, that which harms other people will likely harm your own too.

Why a character regains their Shadow isn’t the most important thing about them but it does tell you something important about them and what motivates them.

[blue-dragon-shadows]

Zola: We need a distraction. Are any of you guys good at jumping up and down and making annoying noises?

Marumaro: My time has come.

[briarruler]

I am looking at this and going 'I am not sure what this means, but I do like Blue Dragon. And hey, I recognize everyone!

(My brain, puzzling away at potential meanings:

The first monster you kill is a Poo Snake, the last is King Poo. Look at how far you have come.

Marumaro and Shu - as per usual - doing Inadvisable Things. A demonstration for why regardless of them being superpowered monster-slayers, one should not let teenaged boys wander around unsupervised.

Visual representation of power scaling in Blue Dragon.

Do Not Poke the Poo Snake. It may be a hapless creature incapable of doing you serious harm as a Shadow-Wielder but King Poo is deadly and they are related.

Image captured half-a-second before Boss Fight began.

Just thoughts)

[zabkazee]

Inktober 2018, Day 19 ✒ Zola & Marumaro (Blue Dragon)

These two are honestly my favorite thing about Blue Dragon. Zola is too cool to stay in your party at multiple parts of the game & Marumaro just yells all of his dialogue. I LOVE IT~

Sorry it’s a day late! I needed yesterday evening to recharge and rest! I should be have today’s drawing done within a few hours, so stay tuned!

★ More Inktober | Commission Me | Twitter | Instagram | Ko-fi | Facebook | ETSY ★

[leviadraws]

Inktober day 5: Map

It's easy to get lost when you're the only ones using aerial transport

[visualkeisales]

Saintia signed postcard ＄4

[briarruler]

(Laughs) I think the reason I find this funny is because it does sort of fit my interpretation of Kluke?

Like she's the heart of the party, one of their key motivations, and also one of the more sensible party members, but she is also one of the most traumatized party members.

Kluke is 16, both of her parents were killed by the Land Shark last year, she appears to have no other living family, she seems to have been acting as the village doctor since her parents deaths and like everyone else in Talta she has spent the last decade being terrorized once a year by the Land Shark.

I am sure all inhabitants of Talta Village are traumatized by the decade long annual Land Shark attacks but most of them we don't interact with enough to get a good grip on how that trauma might have manifested.

Each party member has their own person traumas:

Zola's backstory is cloaked in mystery but implied to be pretty traumatic, as she seems to have been both been a mercenary and a war refugee. However Zola is also currently 20 years old and playing the aloof mentor role.

Marumaro has whatever Violet Clouds Disaster Lago Village has been dealing with and the frantic scavenger hunt to save half his village from illness, including his parents, that Nene sent him on.

Shu shares Talta Village's decade of annual Land Shark attacks and he lost his parents to either the Land Shark or illness at young age. But he still has his grandfather Fushira who loves him and supports him.

Jiro shares Talta Village's decade of annual Land Shark attacks but he still has both of his parents who love and support him.

I am not saying that other characters haven't had a terrible time, more that Kluke is a major character who you witness in emotional distress.

From cutscenes and dialogue you can pick up implications of how Kluke has been handling the last year. I don't think Kluke has let herself/had the chance to grieve properly. Not that I believe Kluke would or should be 'over' her parents' violent deaths if she had, but I think the implications that she hasn't are present. On top of grief and suddenly living alone, the death of Kluke's parents also left her with a heavy set of responsibilities. Kluke's parents were doctors and it is strongly implied that Kluke has taken over their duties.

Then add in the stresses Kluke experiences during the game:

Beginning with discovering it wasn't a natural disaster/animal attack that killed her parents, no, they were murdered for entertainment.

Simultaneously with that she and her friends are almost killed multiple times, lose a hopeless fight and are lost in the wilderness far from home.

Next they end up on a quest to save a village of people, the cure to the sickness based on her medical recommendation, which is relying on memories of her parent's work from when she was only 8 years old, having to travel/fight their way to the cure first, then mix it, administer it, and wait to see if it works.

Then she and the rest of the party are captured by the person who has been terrorizing the world and was responsible for the murderer of her parents.

Following her capture she is separated from the party and collared, it is unknown if she spends that time unconscious or if she is awake for some of her time as Nene's prisoner.

I could continue listing traumatic things that happen to or around Kluke, but it seems a bit redundant.

So, yeah.

Personal headcanon: throughout the game Kluke is never far from having a complete - probably murderous - breakdown, she's hanging onto composure by sheer willpower, habit, and the knowledge that if she loses it, her friends likely will too, which drastically increases the likelihood that they will do something even more reckless then usual in an attempt to kill Nene and end up getting killed.

Kluke: There's only room in this village for ONE unstable person and I've held that title for a long time, so you're going to have to get it together!

[bluedragonarchive]

The blue dragon role playing card game which had two starter decks (light and dark) and two booster box sets available in English.

There was more sets also known as volumes (up to 11) released in Japan after the initial sets which were printed in English which had cards from the second season and shadow cards which had the artwork of the corporeal shadows from the Xbox 360 game

[briarruler]

I read what Marumaro feels for Zola as a crush yes, but one of a more idealizing then romantic.

He admires her and looks up to her, he wants her attention but he isn't interested in her sexually or likely even romantically because what he is doing is idealizing her.

It isn't uncommon for children to crush on adults, potentially in part because an adult is an unobtainable goal and so doesn't come with the complications of possible reciprocation. I don't think Marumaro's love for Zola and her fondness for him could evolve into a romantic or sexual relationship and I don't want it to.

(I also wonder what devee beauty standards are? Physically Zola is a very attractive human female by human standards but I doubt she would be attractive by devee standards. Maybe the devee admire combat prowess?)