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The world is so beautiful every day I remember that instead of a typical gacha harem power fantasy protagonist, in arknights you instead must play as a weird autistic agender freak that can’t do a single push up and steals food from the company kitchen.

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I want to see Doctor and Arturia share screentime together someday, if only because I want to know why Arturia’s so down bad for them.

I mean, aside from Doctor just being a magnet for morally dubious women, that is.

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★ 【松川离】 「 塑心 」 ✔ republished w/permission ☆ follow btt’s fanart twitch stream!

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Guide to Troubled Wizards

+Darrell

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I love fan arts that have Arturia lazing around wearing casual clothes. It's like the reverse of when they force the nerdier girl to dress up

Taking a well deserved day off from committing crimes posing seductively and changing society

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Something I liked a lot in early Arknights was Amiya's behavior flipflopping between behaving like an adult and behaving like a little kid, which made so much sense when we found out later just how much she was never allowed to actually be 14.

She got passed the crown of Thousand Years Psychic Torture at 11 years old after one parent betrayed and murdered the other, and instead of any adult going "we are not putting this on a literal child" everyone was like "Alright Theresa gave her the crown. Where to, boss?" and that was that, she had to be a grown up now.

It made all of those Year 1 event scenes where Amiya wanted to hold hands with Doctor or sneak burgers into their office or else act way more like an elementary schooler than a teenager make more sense. She was just trying to reclaim her lost childhood in those private moments, and she only really learned how to act mature, but not how to act her age.

Which kind of makes Chapter 8 where she discovers her inner chuuni one of the first times we ever see her actually be 14. If I was her age and found out there was an ancient evil only I could see and I suddenly gained the power to pull out a cursed sword from thin air, I too would only speak in edgelord

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Agreed, for the most part, but there's one thing I'd point out that doesn't necessarily make sense in-universe, but I do think fits with the authors' intentions. Both Juana and Anastasio may be superhuman for different in-narrative Watsonian reasons, but from a Doylist perspective, their power both comes from the same place - the stories behind them. This is a pirate story, after all, and so both characters are empowered by their reputations and the legends that they've left in their wake.

(Spoilers under the cut)

Note in particular where these characters are shown being superhuman. For Juana, her big superhuman feat is hunting down the finbeast - a creature that was already dying to the harpoons. It's a tremendous feat of endurance, to be sure, but just as much weight is put on the performance of it. She doesn't just need to actually kill the beast, she needs to look invincible while doing it, because that performance is vital to her strength - as shown later, when she's facing Javier's crew and actually has to encourage them to fight her wholeheartedly instead of faltering and being intimidated.

Anastasio is the same as well - the seaborn does seem to give him some actual level of superhuman strength and resilience, but as Thorns points out, his technique is dogshit. He doesn't actually have any real skill, wisdom, or charisma he could use to lead the town or the church. What he does have, though, is a story at his back. Silver actually has the respect of the town and a proven record of leadership. However, he's a realist, and is trying to find practical solutions to the problems facing it. Anastasio, by contrast, rides a wave of the heroic narratives of the church, so he doesn't really have to care about all that nonsense like "food" or "homeless villagers". That sort of belief is very tempting, and he has just enough strength to back it up, hence why the all the soldiers of the church choose to follow him and not Silver.

It's really cool to see this kind of writing in a pirate event specifically, because that's really pretty accurate - pirate folklore blended the line between true and fiction all the the time, and often did so intentionally, to boost a pirate's reputation and make their job easier. It's a fantastic piece of the narrative and I'm gonna be picking this one apart for a while.

Anastasio and Juana

As I was reading through the event with a friend I was noticing quite a few distinct similarities and contrasts between Juana and Anastasio; one of the protagonists and the antagonists.

The similarities; both of these people appear to be metahuman in their strength and sustain. Juana survives a fight with a large finbeast with only a few cracked ribs, and later in the story walks that off and fights off a dozen of her own crew, swinging the depicted wheel hard enough to sever limbs. Anastasio survives being impaled, and walks for several miles with a wound large enough to see through being torn through his abdomen. He also survives an explosion that Silver was absolutely sure would kill any mortal man, as well as being stranded in the skeletal reef with his throat slit.

It's however revealed that Anastasio is partially seaborn, which could explain how Juana's done as well as she has (The only other theoretical explanation is being Aegir and thusly subjected to scientific improvements) especially given her proclivities to the seaborn.

Lastly; they both are subjected to obsessions. Juana must make it to sea, and is willing to take a 1000/1 gamble if the 1 is the best chance that it works out. It will likely work out, and she's hardly anxious about the matter, but she's certainly determined. Anastasio must get the compass, his compass. He followed Pascuala for leagues, to an insane length, just to get it. He's gone out into the skeleton reef, sacrificed who knows how many soldiers, and risked his and everyone's lives just to get an artifact. Not only that, he demands Pascuala as well. We're so far passed practicality.

As for the differences?

Juana doesn't give a single finshit about the morality or sin of a situation or her actions, at most she considers it unfortunate that Javier turns his weapon on her. But that's about as equally as unfortunate in her eyes as his lack of skill, so far as I can tell. After that, she has a smile in nearly every scene, and even in the fights of her life, seems to enjoy them.

Anastasio is obsessed with sin; of his, of the people around him. He uses it as an excuse to justify all of his cruel, violent actions, thinks about his own sin and worth constantly. He seems to be suffering constantly, and the smiles he does give are all manic and likely performative.

Juana is openly shifty. From the perspective of the crew she's been loco for a long time, and despite always delivering them to better places, has always seemed somewhat unreliable. As the readers, recognizing this as a story in Iberia, we're immediately considering whether or not she's a cultist of the deep. If this so called plan to get them all to the sea where they don't have to worry about anything, is in fact a ploy to create more seaborn.

Anastasio is hailed as a hero when he first arrives in Aaron, asked for blessings, teachings, and to give sermons. Here is the inquisition in its righteousness and strength, here to save the town from the bandits that would steal and sabotage the town.

Despite these initial impressions, Juana has everyone's best interests in mind; she cares for her crew, she wants them to flourish and succeed. Anastasio doesn't have a single care for the people of Aaron, zealously trying to burn the boats that could help save Aaron as 'devices of sin.' To kill the pirates that could sail them, or at least provide manpower to the town. Juana is willing to sacrifice everything for a chance to make it to the sea, and Anastasio kills Silver without sparing a thought to the consequences that will have on the town.

On top of all that: despite Anastasio being an inquisitor, what he preaches is embodiment of the seaborn. Suppression and relinquishment of individuality and character.

Being truly subsumed by the seaborn requires but two things: consuming seaborn flesh, and abandoning every sense of self, every indulgence, every trait. 'Living life as an empty canvas.'

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Rosmontis

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Miss Christine approves

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Lyudmila

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Outfit swaps 3

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"Children can give you hope for the future" factoid actually just statistical error. Average kid doesn't raise your expectations that much. Amiya, who can shoulder the weight of thousands of years of suffering and made the Demon King truly believe a better future can be reached, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

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they make me sick happy pride