#ok happy hsr-ing! always remember read your favorite characters lores and become insane immediately!

[timelyquantums]

tribbie characterization and my own personal grievances

these are purely based off of what ive seen floating around, but i digress. its been super annoying to me to see the way her character gets misconstrued. first things first to establish, however, is that tribbie's character tropes combines a lot of strange concepts; she's both multiple entities and one entity, as well as being simultaneously older and younger than the whole cast (and also, in this case, i'm not going to debate the anime trope of "younger characters who are actually older," simply because that's not what this is here for), and so, in general, i think it's good to pin down.

my main points are, of course: tribbie, trianne, and triannon are simultaneously the same entity, while also being different entities and the question of pronouns; the question of tribios; and tribbie is the oldest chrysos heir, but her younger stature makes sense with the information given in amphoreus so far.

to start off with tribbie, trianne, and triannon; i've seen a lot of posts refer to them as sisters or triplets. this isn't necessarily correct to the actual aspect: for one, tribbie, trianne, and triannon typically refer to themselves as "us/we" when in first person. additionally, there is explicit evidence in the book (unlocked at the end of the first section of the quest) that they are part of the original larger whole of tribios, someone who was split into a lot more pieces than the three we know (this lines up with a quote from phainon, who states that "tribbie has given a lot up for amphoreus," albeit this is a paraphrased quote from my memory), meaning that, by all technicalities, the three are simply aspects of a larger soul. for this reason, i refuse to refer to them as sisters - primarily because they aren't. additionally, getting to the question of pronouns; there's no reason to maintain using they/them when talking about tribbie herself. the reason i state this is because the use of "us/we" from the three, when talking to one directly, they are completely fine with being referred to as she/her. additionally, as a factor that i feel is likely easily missed, occasionally tribbie herself (and this is specifially tribbie, as i have not seen this happen when trianne or triannon speak) will drop the "us/we" and refer to herself with the pronoun of "i". this is something im tying into my next point:

the closest to the original entity of tribios is tribbie. this seems like it should be a no brainer - tribbie's name is the closest to tribios, afterall, contrarily to trianne or triannon - and when combined with tribbie occasionally dropping an "i" instead of "us/we", it's something to keep in mind. additionally, shown in tribbies original drip, as well as one of her eidolons, trianne and triannon are showcased as plushies. not to mention that tribbie is shown preference in who is named for the actual playable character: why skip trianne and triannon in the name, if not for tribbie being the closest to the original person of tribios?

my last point is tribbie as the first chrysos heir. this isn't easy to miss in the slightest, in my opinion, (although i have seen people completely miss it on instagram), what with every other chrysos heir we've met so far not only showing deference to her, but referring to her as "teacher". bringing back to the point of phainon saying that "tribbie has given a lot up for amphoreus," and that we already know tribbie has janus' coreflame, it's likely the coreflame itself caused the split in the entity of tribios. i don't think it's impossible that the split also caused a regression, which is why tribbie's age is in such a weird area: she clearly has knowledge that transcends the rest of the chrysos heirs, but commonly is childish because she is, in her current state, a child. i cannot stress enough that this seems to have been used in a way to specifically showcase that of what she gave up. this leaves out the parts from the book that we know were lost prior to arriving at amphoreus, meaning that a lot of tribbie's character ends up being tied very specifically into the concept of "losing yourself."

"why write this post, tenor?" well you see, tribbie happens to have instantly become one of my favorite characters from the entire amphoreus quest, and seeing her characterization get missed has been incredibly annoying, so i guess the main goal was just to make a little short stop to understand the character better. another big reason for this is a personal grievance of my own: the parentification of the relationships tribbie has, either with characters she actually knows (mostly, i've seen it with mydei) or that of the (what i presume to be a joke, but it grates on me nonetheless) constant pairings with argenti due to their red hair. lore wise, i cannot stress enough how much i fucking hate this bit: tribbie is from amphoreus, a planet which you cannot find without a member of the garden of recollection - and thus if argenti shows up during amphoreus' plot at all i might actually throw something - meaning that there is literally no way for tribbie to even know argenti at all. speaking generally, taken as a legitimate headcanon of a parent and child, this does a disservice to both characters; not to mention that there is feasibly no way for them to interact at all. this is ignoring that she's likely older than every character currently in game (or, well, it's pointing towards that. amphoreus' timeline is confusing at best, which works in setting, but is super annoying when i have a headache), which makes me feel that parentifiying any relationship tribbie has with, quite frankly anyone, does a disservice to her character as a whole, especially because it ignores the complexities in her character and relationships with everyone else (i use tribbie here, but i'm talking about all three - trianne and triannon do have different personalities and seem to have slightly different relationships with the people of okhema and the chrysos heirs - but i digress), and ultimately even taking it as the joke its likely to be read as is downright insulting to her character as a whole.