#i’m a music buff and kinda snobby about it so

[resident-gay-bitch]

my crimson rivers playlist for those who want a crimson rivers playlist!

it feels very dystopian and also like broken love <3

[centeris2]

(belated) impressions, thoughts, ideas, etc about the Dark Riders + their redesigns. Under the cut because I'm sure it'll be long af. Now I wanna talk about how I’d redesign the soul riders but that’ll be another post

tl;dr - Basically I have an icky vibe, not because of any single design but because collectively, compared to the soul riders, they are more diverse. Which gets into vaguely icky "gender non conforming/not being Pretty Obvious Ladies is a Villain Trait." I doubt it was intentional but it is a shame that the soul riders are all basically, well, gender conforming and traditionally pretty. Their body type differences are extremely minute to me, I could only see the differences when looking at their nude models. But the dark riders are all radically different in body shape and color. Hell even Katja, the 'white' one of the group, falls more into the albino category, which is isn't great given albino characters are generally villains. It's a shame that the Soul Riders didn't get the variety in body type and gender presentation, at least they get points for making Lisa visibly hispanic (even though her mother had a canon appearance and I miss her spiky bright red hair rip). It seems like it accidentally reinforces the terfy "(traditional and proper) Girls Only Power!" feeling that SSO is developing. Only girls can be the heroes, if you are gender non conforming or don't fit into the acceptable Pretty Girl mold you're a villain.

Sabine

First impression: Wait why does she look like XCX Charli, whose music gives me Sabine vibes (especially Vroom Vroom. I can not explain it). I imagined she could straighten her hair or leave it super curly. This has to be a look that she'd pick after pretending to be a high school student, not before, especially with the face scars. Why any scars when you can choose your physical appearance? When you literally imagine and shape the body you are walking around in (and it isn't your true physical one) would you have any true scars? So it's just cosmetic to look scary then. Aight. Why is she giving me Native American vibes. Skin + cheek bones + super straight black hair in a braid(?) or impressively held together ponytail I guess? Can she ride a motorcycle may as well go all out. She should absolutely have a motorcycle. I appreciate the muscles and height, just wish one of the soul riders had a similar build. Why not Alex? Alex could be tall and buff.

Jessica

First impression: tf. what does SSO have against highly feminine characters? first Anne now Jessica? Also hold on Jessica looks like one of Garnok's human forms what. That's. SSO how do you keep reading my mind and using it in strange ways???

For real though, first Anne is rewritten so she doesn't like being a model or her appearance and she's super smart, and now Dark Princess Jessica is switched into nonbinary(?)/androgynous(?) territory? Sabine feels like a better option for going androgynous/masculine. Or Chiyo! They literally have a blank slate for a fourth dark rider! Instead it just seems like SSO is just another "Girl Power! But not that type of girl power!" as if enjoying make up or being highly feminine or focusing on your appearance automatically makes you a bad woman. Like I get them not wanting Anne to be a snobby bitch (though she wasn't one by the end of the Starshine Legacy games anyway since she made friends. growth!) but they could have left her wanting to be a model and make a career out of fashion/her appearance. I'm getting off topic. Kinda. Feel like it's the same deal with Jessica, can't have a female character that is a princess (think of how many movies, including recent disney movies, scoffing at princesses, with the female protagonists insisting no of course they aren't some weak, useless princess!). Literally just let Jessica still be super feminine, she was the only one established to be super feminine with the Princess thing. Like yeah sure I can come up with stuff in my fics for why Jessica has a Jay phase but that's not gonna be a thing in SSO. Let's experiment with gender, but only when it's a villain >.< (I'm not counting Concorde because as soon as characters find out Concorde was born a filly it's all She/Her pronouns. Shame Concorde can't talk yet and tell everyone hell nah I'm a Stallion.)

I didn't expect Regicide to be her official horse's name but I'm still sad about it. But that's what fanfiction is for! He'll always be Regicide in my heart.

Katja

First impression: we've been seeing this exact same teaser art for years there are no surprises here. Guess she's not pretending to be a model anymore, or she's a somehow younger looking model. Idk how she looked older in the Starshine Legacy games but she did. Wish all the dark riders had musical instruments with them, be funny if my Dark Chord headcanons were accurate, at least in them all having some musical skill. I guess Stalker wasn't a Kid Friendly enough name, what a shame.

Chiyo

First impression: what happened to Elise? We literally only had her name? Okay whatever SSO guess we have Madison's evil twin now. Of course the Asian coded character has purple hair, but the others all have natural hair colors. Give Jessica a streak of green so Chiyo isn't the only one with unnaturally colored hair won't ya? And why is she presenting as a child is she trying to not get taken seriously? Adults are just gonna try to put her into school. Whatever as far as my fics and headcanons are concerned EliseChiyo doesn't exist. Or at least not as a general. Is her causing discord in the group just because she's a literal child that 3 immortal generals have to work with for some ungodly reason? I'd be pissed too if one of my coworkers was a 10 year old with a hobby horse pretending to be a leader. Is that how generals and advisors felt when a child would take the throne in a country?

The real question is will SSO change "Elise" to "Chiyo" in quests, or will they forget.