#moth family agendaposting

[aquilamage]

Please do ramble, we are very interested.

SO, [starting from the beginning because my posting on this has been sporadic and from what I can tell not the most comprehensive] I had a funny joke theory when the game first brought up the idea of Leif having descendants that it was gonna involve Mothiva, which I accidentally got attached to even though it's obviously not a thing.

But anyway my thoughts are: Grandpa canonically mentions that he has brothers [which I get why they don't have Leif chase that mention in canon but also. ?!?] so obviously Mothiva is the child of one of them. I very consistently go back and forth on whether I want/think it's logistically/thematically sensible for Grandpa to be Leif and Muse's only child with the other siblings being from a later relationship/Muse wanting more kids or if they're all related to Leif.

What I am sure on is that I like to think Mothiva had a close relationship and a lot of admiration for her grandma Muse when she was growing up, and that her stories about her time scouting for Elizant I were a good part of Mothiva's motivation to eventually become an explorer. (Also I know I've mentioned this bit at least once probably more but my brain goes insane every time I think about Mothiva's kick attack combined with Leif's one mention of Muse's fighting capabilities being that she had "pretty strong kicks" so you know where I think she learned that one from).

Although by close I mean emotionally, not physically. For Mothiva's immediate family situation, she grew up in Bugaria but outside of the ant kingdom proper [dont' ask me where that's part's not my problem], so while Muse did come visit it wasn't exactly a super regular thing. Generally I think her parents were decent and did their best with her, she was also the younger middle of a large pack of siblings so I think she dealt with some issues with needing more attention/affection than she felt like she got. And while Muse definitely gave time to all her kids and grandkids I think she got along most with Mothiva among her siblings so for Mothiva that additional attention also had an effect on her.

Which leads into my thoughts on Mothiva's feelings on Muze. Which are that she fucking hates her so much. Her cousin is an only child, never having to fight with siblings for attention. Who gets to live in the Ant Kingdom, far more interesting than her middle-of-nowhere home, and where she sees their grandmother all the time. Who takes almost perfectly after Muse in looks. Who's literally named after her. Years of compounded childhood jealousy combined with Mothiva's anger issues, and it's so fucking delicious to think about.

Don't know exactly when Muse dies but I think it's when Mothiva's about 12-15, and not too long after that is when Mothiva decides to run off to the ant kingdom on her own, change her name, and bank everything on becoming an idol both for its own sake and as a way to eventually become an explorer.

[two big sidetrack notes: 1) the whole thing of Mothiva's feelings on Muze kind of developed out of me tossing around the idea of Mothiva's father big resenting Muse and Grandpa especially because he felt like Grandpa was obviously the favorite child because of his parenthood situation (95% sibling jealously 5% yes there was a difference to the feelings dynamic even though Muse didn't actually like him better and tried not to make it a thing in general). and the idea of that translating even better onto Muze and Mothiva. and 2) it also comes from a thought about in my "mothiva gets fired "au,"" she at some point going out and about with Leif (disguised) and them running into Muze. Mothiva recognizes Muze instantly of course and is pissed off about being reminded of her everything about her (especially now that she's doing just fine while Mothiva's having a crisis). And then on top of that, since Leif has no reason to try and conceal it, it gets dropped that Leif and Muze are 'cousins or whatever' which has Mothiva all WHAT and internally freaking out now]

[aquilamage]

zasp/leif doesn't do anything for me but it is hilarious to think about in my specific game context lens of leif and mothiva being family

[aquilamage]

also my brain is sparklering again thinking about my conception of mothiva’s family connection stuff

[aquilamage]

i think So Often about the fact that mothivas kicks are one of the Only things in the game that can actually knock u down. like. canonically, mothivas kicks hit with approximately the force of B33 or broodmother's charge attacks. if muse (leifs wife muse) hit with anything even vaguely close to that then i think that pretty strong kicks would really be an understatement

dang. never thought about that in mechanic terms. that's pretty cool; good for her, actually! I hope Muse was also like that because that would just be so funny. mostly in the realm of really emphasizing how much Leif was not part of the little combat necessary for scouting

[aquilamage]

Leif goes to visit Muze's family again and at the door she's like oh! my cousin is here too, so you can meet her! And then they go inside and Mothiva's sitting at the table

[aquilamage]

continuing to be So Normal about these

[Mothiva] can also walk up to a party member and kick them. If this attack isn't blocked, she will knock them down and repeatedly stomp them for 3 more damage. 

.

Leif: ...Nah. Muse was loud, confident and outgoing...Kinda like Vi.

Leif: She had pretty strong kicks, too.

Vi: You two must've been a super strong team!

Leif: ...Heh, well. She did a lot of the work. We had no magic back then.

[aquilamage]

so if you lose the eating competition you get this dialogue

Leif: Sorry. We never expected Chubee to be so powerful.

Kabbu: Do not worry. But how should we proceed? That offering is essential for our festival plan.

Vi: Um, Chubee's my friend, right? Maybe we can trade with her!

Leif: A non violent plan? Impressive.

Kabbu: It's worth a shot! We've got nothing left to lose.

and the fact that Leif was apparently expecting Vi to suggest jumping Chubee for the offering, or something, is so funny to me

[aquilamage]

things currently vexing me, from a writing logistics standpoint:

-the fact that we get literally zero info on the third bug in leif and muses scout party

-the amount of time it's been for leif being non-specific

[aquilamage]

forgot to comment on this at the moment but just got reminded: shortly after I finished Leif's request I was watching someone else play and they got to the first Mothiva and Zasp fight and when she did her move where she just kicks you I lost my mind. When I tell you "Mothiva and Leif turn out to be related" is begging me to write it

[aquilamage]

idk if I’m not understanding or if I missed something or what but it doesn’t seem entirely clear how long it’s been for Leif. a long time though, I think? anyway point is when I got the mission of ‘find out if Leif’s still got family around’ (the convo seemed to be more about their explorer team so reading the actual quest description had me huh), my first thought was that well we’ve already seen a bunch of moths to check out. and then the (unlikely, maybe a little dumb) thought of ‘would be funny if it was Mothiva, though’