Amphoreus's Mysterious Queen

stress

The more I think about it the more I realize that if this guys had met under different circumstances, they would have gotten along super well.

PENACONY SPOILERS UP TO 2.2 + CHARACTER LORE / STORIES

All 4 of them have lost their entire family, 3 of them have lost their entire race / homeworld (Boothill, Aventurine, Acheron), 2 of them lost these things because they were victims of the IPC (Boothill and Aventurine), and 2 of them have either lost a sibling or are afraid of losing a sibling (Aventurine and Sunday).

More specifically:

As far as I know, Sunday and Robin's parents were killed somehow, and they were taken in by the Family. Then as Sunday said Robin ended up getting shot in the neck due to trying to help others, and I think he got some kind of trauma from that and his fear of losing Robin, his sister and only remaining family, was amplified, leading to his desire to protect "the weak" no matter the cost—because to him, keeping Robin's wings "clipped" and her alive would be less painful than her being gone, and him being alone forever.

Boothill, as I understand it, was taken in by 2 people who found him as a child, and grew up in the countryside of his planet. He later found and adopted a young girl and raised her as her own, until his entire planet was destroyed by the IPC, causing him to set out to get revenge.

Aventurine also lost his sister and his entire home planet due to the IPC + his planet's own problems, and has been forced to work for the IPC ever since. It also seems like he's trying to destroy it from the inside out or at least obtain his own freedom.

As for Acheron, her entire world, as well as her memories of it, were destroyed—she's almost certainly lost people that were important to her, like the other three.

Like honestly if they all sat down and traded backstories I feel like they'd get along super well, they're all victims of circumstance and that's why they experienced so much conflict during the story

SHES HERE

So when's April 8th gonna be playable Hoyo?

In all seriousness March 7th has got to be one of the most mysterious characters in the game. HSR has been delving into more and more storylines involving the past and memories, with Black Swan, Dan Heng, Blade, Acheron, Misha, Gallagher, even Trailblazer and their past with the Stellaron Hunters. If that theme continues and March is in fact a Memokeeper or Memokeeper-adjacent, she could end up being *REALLY* important later on. I'm interested to see what direction Hoyo takes her in.

WIP of a Concept.... i still have to finish lining hikaru's hands, the extremely annoying bouquet of flowers he's holding (he's holding a lot more than that), and i may totally readjust his pose so that its a bit more complimentary to yoshiki's

The joke and Till have a lot in common if you think abt it >:)

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.

this genre of ivan is so funny like does he even know he exists

ivan, the unloved

can we pour one the fuck out for ‘umm... that ell jee bee tea thing?’

[ID: Two versions of a panel from Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu. The first version shows Hikaru looking curious as he asks, "Umm... That Ell Jee Bee Tea thing?" The second, the official translation, shows Hikaru asking, "Home-o-sex-you-all?" End ID]

the sage and his light