full image - Repost: Battlesuit's names, augment and costumes analysis [Round 8: Aponia, Pardo and Griseo] (from Reddit.com, Battlesuit's names, augment and costumes analysis [Round 8: Aponia, Pardo and Griseo])
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Hello everyone!A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away) I started a series of posts analyzing various stuff in valkyries battlesuit. But since I have the unfortunate tendency of never actually finishing what I start, it's been a little while since I've last posted... Like, 2 years!So after a quick review of my past work that I found totally by chance, and a few conversations with a friend I was like, "Maybe I should continue, post something new, that way I can just drop it for two years again maybe finish it."And so here I went.As per usual, here is a little disclaimer, everything below is my personal opinion, with information found after a 5 minutes search on the internet, it's certainly not exhaustive, but mostly informative. Enjoy!Flame Chaser: AponiaAponia is a very religious-themed flamechaser (yes I like to state self-evident truth).Let’s work on her name first: απονιά in modern Greek means “heartlessness”, “uncaring”, or “lack of feelings/sympathy”. Indeed, before learning about who she is, she might seem that way. However, if we go back in time, in ancient Greece, the same word ἀπονία (notice the added spirit on the first alpha) was a term used in Epicurean philosophy, meaning “freedom from pain”. Alongside the “ataraxia/ἀταραξία” (freedom from fear), the “aponia” was the main goal of the Epicurean philosophy.Unfortunately, in a world actively fighting against life, any and all of her desires become warped, and ultimate freedom becomes unreachable.What’s funny with her name is that, due to her gift of seeing Fate, of course, ataraxia was denied to her from the very beginning… or was it? Are you free from fear if you know the future, or would you be always in fear because you know the future? Discuss. Therefore, only Aponia was left.She was seeking a way to help people freeing them from the pain as much as she could, unaware (at first) that even with her power, she couldn’t change the world. Every act she took had unforeseen consequences, taking away her wish to save people.In the end, perhaps only through her sacrifice could she find happiness… well that was depressing, let’s work on her battlesuit, shall we?Disciplinary Perdition:Perdition is a state of punishment that goes on forever, believed in some religions to be suffered by evil people in their death. Depressing I tell you. Disciplinary implies that this state of Perdition was inflicted because of a mistake committed, in retribution for failure or disobedience. Basically, she’s been punishly punished, as if her character wasn’t heavy-handed enough.Her leader skill is Discipline, Undefiable with This Discipline, Indispensable: the concept of [Discipline] (besides being her main lore power) is a concept in many religions (not only religions, many social units as well). Discipline associates the learning of a set of rules with the threat of punishment in case of failure or disobedience. While “undefiable” is an objective fact (lorewise, the discipline is engraved in people’s hearts and cannot be defied), indispensable is subjective, and probably only from Aponia’s point of view.Her special is Combo: Good and Evil, Absolute. This one is weird to me because I haven’t got the impression that she’s such a dualist character, but this might relate to the absolute battle between good and evil in many religions. It might also relate to her skin design, more on that later.Insolence is forbidden, Imprudence is forbidden, and Avarice is forbidden are her three sub-specials. Insolence and avarice are usually considered sins in some religions, although Imprudence (or lack of wisdom) being on this list is questionable, even if it usually leads to bad or harmful results.Her passive is This Life, Ascetic. Ascetic refers to something that is characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons. It is totally in line with her character, no need for more explanation.Her ultimate is This Sin, Inexorable which means “that cannot be stopped” is followed by Its Sin, Irredeemable (that cannot be saved, improved, corrected); Its Sin, Unforgivable; Its Sin Deserves Excommunication. Most of the ideas here are absolute, there’s no question of coming back. However, the punishment is… excommunication? Not death? That sounds a bit like being let go easy, is it? However, we don’t know whose sin we’re talking about. Here’s an explanation I propose: this is her own sin. She’s blaming herself, going so far as to not consider herself a human anymore, taking the pronoun it like an object, and her excommunication is her punishment, sealed in the Deep, condemned to serve humanity as best as she can without even a shred of recognition in return, and especially condemned to live with all of her regrets and the consequences of her act, as good-willed as they were.The rest is less interesting so I’ll skip it for my own mental health.Let’s talk about her skins a bit.Her default skin is a sort of modified nun attire, sporting black and white colors to refer to her dualist concept of “good intentions, evil results”. She has a blue butterfly motif, both on her chest and in her wings. In Christianity, the butterfly is a symbol of life, death, and rebirth. Interestingly enough, even though most of her symbolism concentrates on the [body], the butterfly is also a symbol of the [soul]. Whether it means something or not is up to you.She also has a summer outfit, Mesmerizing Blue, white and blue, denoting purity, and contrasting the white sand against the peaceful blue of the sea.Both outfits sport white flowers that might also reinforce the idea of purity.Flame Chaser: PardofelisPardo, Felis, or Pardofelis, under such names is known our adorable thirteenth Flamechaser. You thought we were done with the depression? Just wait, my merry band of readers!Felis is the genus of most small cats, including our good friend the domestic cat. Meanwhile, Pardo has two significant distinct origins but both meaningful: from the ancient greek παρδός comes “Pardo”, the old Italian word for leopard and panther. Meanwhile, from the Latin Pardus, we got Pardo, the Spanish for brown.Pardofelis is therefore the Brown Domesticated Cat/Panther.Reverist Calico:A cat is considered a calico cat when it has fur comprised of three different colors. We’ll mention that when talking about skin design. A reverist indulges in reverie, a reverie being an archaic word for a daydream.Being half a cat, and as she likes money, it comes as no surprise that most of Pardo’s skills are oriented toward… being a cat and liking money. No surprise there. Not much to say about those, they are explicit. So we’ll skip’em all (no I’m not lazy).Her main outfit is light clothing around her chest and waist, with sleeves and gloves, mostly black and purple, which with the brown of her hair, add up to the three colors of the calico.Not much to say here either.Her summer outfit, Midsummer Collector is somewhat similar to her regular outfit, with added floral decorations and a color palette more vibrant and pinkish.She also has a Halloween outfit, Spectral Claws, giving her a neon look and adding a spectral blue hue to some of her parts to give that ghostly feeling of the celebration of the dead.Flame Chaser: GriseoGriseo, the little painter in the sky, the one whose fate is uncertain, gazing down toward the earth, unraveling our desires under her brush. Youngest of the flamechaser, yet one of the bravest, for even if it takes courage to die for a cause, it takes even more courage to live knowing most were left behind.Griseo’s name is the Latin for “grey”. She’s the daughter of Blanca (Italian for white) and Ato (nope, not any word for black, missed opportunity there).Starry Impression:The term impression means “a graphic or pictorial representation of someone or something”. The starry impression is therefore a pictorial representation of the stars (don’t think I was really needed here….)Let’s focus on the skills first. They can mostly be sorted into three categories: painting references, floral motifs, and weird.Her leader skill is Self-portrait: Stars which is relatively self-evident.Her special skill is Combo: Knight Blowing Bubble which is her attacking with Mr.Knight, and bubbles, so all checks out.However, the sub-skills are weird. We have Golden Rye Field, Airy Water Lily, and Coal-Black Crow. Honestly, I fail to find a link here. The novel “The catcher in the Rye” was a relevant plot point for other characters, but not her, one is a wheat, the other a flower, and the last an animal, the three colors are black, white, and gold, it does not appear to be references to known painting… If anyone has any explanation, I’ll take it.Her passive is Impression, Ciel Etoilé, french for “Impression, starry sky” which I could have sworn was “Starry night” because that would have been a reference to Van Gogh’s painting (the french would have made sense then since the painting was painted there), but it seems it isn’t. Therefore, they chose the French for some reason. We’ll just say they messed up the title. If they did not mess up the title, it’s just another random star reference.Her sub-passives are Ms.Fairy is smiling, Mr.Knight is climbing, and Ms.Moon is resting. Those three are in my “weird category” and I have a hypothesis (but I’m really grasping at straws at this point). This is probably a depiction of Griseo’s family.Ato is Mr.Knight, the strong and powerful paternal figure, and he’s climbing because he’s regularly going to the moon, so he’s “climbing the sky.” Ms.Fairy is Blanca, the mother, depicted smiling in Starry Impression chibi story 1: Field and sky. Griseo is the moon (Griseo is a Kaslana confirmed?) as she depicts herself in her self-portrait “Sky of lightless moon” (her ER item) and she’s resting because she’s still a kid.Her Ult Neverland Genesis is probably a reference as to how she creates (genesis, creation) her own world that she inhabits, where she never grows old and she can act however she wishes to, just like a sort of Peter Pan.Moonlit Night on the river is probably a reference to “Moonlit night on the Dniepr”, a painting in which the moonlight was so realistic that people believed that it was created by an external source of lighting.Girl in a dream is probably a reference to Neverland, her ult, but also the trance-like state she seems to be in permanently as if a haze was filling her vision.Dove Carrying Branch is a reference to the biblical flood. The dove, carrying a branch, signifies that the earth is no longer flooded and that life can flourish anew. It’s probably the meaning Griseo wished she could have when she boarded the ARK.The rest are either flowers or about Griseo herself so we’ll skip them.Let’s talk about her skins:Her default skin has a white dress with blue flowers and ribbons, and a black beret, to show her nature as a blank slate taking on the color of the ones she spends time with, but also that she’s a painter herself.Her summer skin, Summer as a Painting adds a wave pattern to her dress and gives her swimming goggles as if she soaked in the colors of the sea she was swimming in.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________Phew, here we are! Hope you enjoyed the read!Did I miss anything? Got anything to add? Don't hesitate to leave a comment!Next time, we'll cover the rest of the Flamechasers!
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