Ivan, The Unloved

Just got Blade today. My team is doing great so far!

Well, as a team, anyway

butterfly effect

i think they should have a bake off (feixiao and phainon judge)

Kafka 💜🕷️

May triumph always be yours, Mydeimos.

inspiration is one hell of a drug

wuwa peak character design

(this post is mostly a joke i have tons of designs based off other ppls stuff and i know most of these design elements arent exclusive to hoyo i just find it funny)

dont forget jiyan looking like xiao and dan hengs long lost cousin, but he got jing yuans job

and verina looking like yao yao and nahida's secret sister

If you blink, the joke will be gone :P

A rambling analysis of Ivan's "Nowhere"

I'll start with my thoughts on the song itself, then break down some of the lyrics.

So, "Nowhere" is quite a bit different from Ivan's other songs, mostly in regards to the melody and his singing. His voice is a lot more... flat, and the pitch and length of the notes vary a lot less. In "Cure" and "Black Sorrow," there's a lot more variance: Ivan's voice goes from soft and low, singing shorter notes, to louder and higher, holding long notes, et cetera.

In Nowhere, the notes are typically shorter, and tend to stay in the same general area on the scale. Ivan's tone stays very consistent; in his other songs, it goes from calm and collected to full of emotion and feelings. He sounds a lot more monotone in Nowhere, and not just because he's singing quietly. He's not entirely apathetic; there's still a lot of emotion in his voice. But it's muted. Numb.

The only line that lacks this somewhat monotone, apathetic tone is "In love with you, when you were mine." This line is EVERYWHERE, and plays in the background of the ENTIRE TRACK.

And all of this kind of makes sense. "Black Sorrow" and "Cure" were both declarations of Ivan's love, and his feelings for Till. They were meant to be heard; they were meant to have an audience in Till. Ivan was projecting his emotions outwards.

"Nowhere" was not meant to be heard by anyone but Ivan himself—not even Till. It represented Ivan's internal thoughts, ones he would never say to anyone else—sort of how like someone might find certain things about a friend or significant other annoying, but choose not to say anything despite thinking it. Ivan is tired, and perhaps even a bit annoyed. He's wondering why Till doesn't return his feelings, and likely, wondering why he himself continues to love Till despite that.

Now, onto the lyrics (English translation b/c my Korean is awful):

That's just the kind of kid he is, so laugh Laugh, because he can't do anything No one cares about someone like him There's nowhere in the world for him to rest

It's been stated (see image below) that Ivan feels like he cannot be loved—that he's undeserving of it, or just doesn't have the qualifications. These lyrics are Ivan speaking about himself. Ivan is unable to get Till to return his feelings ("no one cares about someone like him"), and he is also, ultimately, unable to save Till ("Laugh, because he can't do anything"). To make this second thing worse, it happened not once, but TWICE: first when Ivan couldn't get Till to leave with him, and then when his actions in Round 6 ended up seemingly being for nothing in Round 7.

Another bit of the lyrics is as such:

Worse and worse this painful wound I become more and more numb

Ivan is slowly becoming more and more apathetic, and resigned to his fate, saying that "this always happens to me." Even the song's title is a reference to this: there's nowhere for Ivan to find solace, and all of "this" is going nowhere—"this" being Ivan's relationship with Till. Ivan is resigned to his fate of loving Till—almost certainly more than he loves himself—un"till" the end: until death.

okay i was watching the round 6 again and i found this little detail

Till’s eyes dilated when Ivan cupped his face. Yet another hint that Till really did like Ivan - he just never realised it.

Pupil dilation occurs only when either the person is in a dark area, have consumed some drugs OR when they are looking at someone they like. They might also occur during adrenaline rush but im pretty sure the only cause that makes sense here is that Till liked it when Ivan cupped his face.

The fact that there’s so many little details in a 5 minute animation is both interesting and agonising.

Flowering Heart

When the feelings become a part of you, and then all of you. Petals unfurling, exposing everything within for the world to see.

--

i finally finished this im so tired

idk how to write those short poetic summaries that people write for their art but i did my best

this is all i could think of when i saw her trailer, like cherries are round and so are the wishing currencies—