#sectonia clone

[lividria]

absolutely losing my mind, does anyone have a rip of taranza's model from triple deluxe or know where i can get one without learning how to datamine the game myself, i am dying to figure out something completely trivial and pointless, i'm trying to figure out how different sectonia clone's spider form model's cape is from taranza's lol

documentation of my descent into madness, the discrepancies about this stupid cape i've found, and bad reasoning for why i even care this much beyond just getting too invested in solving it once i started under the cut, i have spent all day obsessing over this

you know how sectonia clone shows sectonia's spider form for a split second before blowing up? wikirby had a picture of that form with her actual textures and not all purpled and i noticed that the cape is like Entirely Different, which you can't even see in-game, and this peaked my interest

i had never seen anyone use this appearance of the cape before in anything, so i wanted to look into it before i drew her with this cape (or saw what the pattern looked like at a good angle if it was legit) or jumped to conclusions about her being the fourth antagonist with red/orange/yellow triangles on their clothes (dedede, dark matter blade, & drawcia sorceress) lol, so my next destination was the place that 90% of the time will have pictures wikirby doesn't for some reason, the kirby fandom wiki, it had it's own picture of her that had all the same detail changes from taranza besides the cape

and upon downloading the sectonia clone models off modeler's resource (which has the EXACT SAME PICTURES from wikirby, for some reason, no clue which came first) it does indeed have that cape in the latter photo, nothing at all like the triangle cape on the wiki and the model download's very preview

no sign of that triangle pattern anywhere in the textures of that model either

so i assume that was just an error that happened somewhere, no big deal, but now i'm still curious how different her cape is because i still wanna know what she actually looks like because that'd be kinda important and i don't want to just make her taranza 2 more than she already is whenever i get around to doing bad art again lol

in the Rockabilly and Blues celebration picture of star allies it looks like she shares his cape but you can't really make out details (and another celebration picture has a random whispy woods made out of clouds that doesn't actually exist, so I'd take this depiction with a grain of salt lol), and has the same cape design as him in the Stone statue too... but with less lines, which i had to pull my switch out myself to find out

so the obvious next step is get taranza's triple deluxe model and put it side by side with spider clone, right? but there's not any on modeler's resource, the best i can easily find is a rip of his clash deluxe model... on deviantart... which also includes 3DX sectonia and both sectonia clones (had the exact same texture files too)??? and it's in a file neither blender nor sketchup can open to my knowledge nor have i ever even heard of it (PMX), and i don't want to download a THIRD modeling software just for this, and the only other results i found without extensive digging were taranza's 3DX keychain which isn't helpful at all, and his star allies model which isn't really that helpful either BUT EVEN IF I WANTED TO USE IT IT'S IN THE SAME FORMAT I CAN'T OPEN

but i at least have the textures from the clash deluxe model which i assumed is approximately the same as 3DX's, and it DOES look like the capes are slightly different with the same amount of lines???

but it's so SMALL compared to the clone's that i can't really tell how much is genuinely different and how much is just due to like compression and changes between games or whatever, are these supposed to be identical??? (middle are original sizes of both)

like, that big line aside the main thing here is the colors, i don't think i'm colorblind, i can see that clone's is way bluer than taranza's and the yellow a totally different shade but like with taranza's in higher resolution it could be a much closer call since like on his 3DX model it's a much closer resemblance but i ALSO don't know if it's lighting or anything (for all i know taranza uses the exact same texture just only in 3DX and i JUST DON'T KNOW BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE IT)

i'd also get a reference picture from clash deluxe but he has a different design for like the entire game until he's in town where his back is facing away from the camera and fighters deluxe was like one of the few kirby games i couldn't find a ROM i could use without having to like use my actual 3DS to set it up or whatever it was so i can't get one myself i'm really bad at this

at this rate i need to just have the two spiders right next to each other holding hands but i CAN'T until i get an actual USABLE TARANZA MODEL and I'M DYING i NEED TO GET A RESOLUTION TO THIS

i initially tried to open the spider clone's model in blender before sketchup only to be reminded i don't know how the fuck to use blender because the cape was just a flat red color and i couldn't figure out how to fix it but here's the highlights of me torturing sectonia in effigy for doing this to me to limited effectiveness because i couldn't figure out how to actually alter her individual parts

[ronjacksilver4816]

Kirbtober Day 12 - Clone

a spider clone tries to rizz up a lonely emo cyclops, nuff said

[mattis-flo]

another installment of "I listened to all of the final boss themes and needed to draw them within the duration of their theme" ignore that I forgot dark nebula's name and excluded dark from mirror taranza's name

i couldn't fill all the empty spaces with Kirby's, sorry for that

[pruskita]

kirbtober day 10 and 12 Mechanical and Clone/ Copy

At first I thought that the 10th and 12th were between those two so I made a drawing of the themes and now there will be no drawing of the 12th

"Don't worry your majesty, I assure you that with these improvements I have made will be more than strong and more than capable of ending that magenta annoyance, after that you could have your puff back and your family will be fine.

I know that the familiar faces of the cloned dead may bother you a little as if they could have resources from the originals or be upset, but don't worry, they won't turn against us, none of them 4"

Susie's words to her comparator King Dedede to calm him down in the face of the progress of her request

[lady-zephyrine]

So I like to think that Blade and Taranza would be friends due to their similarities, but I think that Blade would've been friends with Sectonia/Joronia as well had things gone differently for her.

[paintpanic]

Kirbtober Day 18: Mirror

My take on a Mirror Sectonia! More details + extra doodles under cut!

My idea for Shadow Sectonia is that she's not a "real" mirror clone. Instead, she's some kind of creepy, tulpa-like being created by Dark Taranza, who still idolizes the actual Sectonia and doesn't care about the bad things she did.

[mspopstar]

okay how the fuck is sectiona muchless haltmann alive?

"Hehehee! That was easy! I made a clone using genetic material I found from a collection my father had created a fail-safe measure. Used machinery to artificially speed up senescence in the zygote until he was back to his silver glory compressing sixty years into six months. To ensure any and all possible biological failures associated with the cloning process could never occur, I created some bio-mechanical implants to improve and fix some things. With that, my father was created physically. Mentally? He was a husk. Using as much data as I could find, scanning journals of his, emails, and phone calls and more I created an artificial intelligence that functions about 96.7% close to the original! My new father's existence now resides in the creation of several thousand server units in a warehouse at a undisclosed location!"

-Executive Secretary of HWC, Susana P. Haltmann

"My, now that's a query! Bringing her excellence back was no easy feat! I near lost my head in the process. The physical preparations were important, after all, without a body there's no vessel for her to even exist. I used necromancy to recreate her graces' body, or, what was left of her body. As you know, a body with no soul will decay quickly. With magics I preserved her physical elegance temporarily to use as a temporary vessel for what would become her. Next were the spiritual preparations. Horrifyingly, I had learned that Sectonia's hobby for cosmetic and physical glamour had completely fractured her soul in so many pieces, mashing them with others. The ritual to resurrect one spiritually requires a whole soul, not one that's been mixed with so many different colors and speckled to nonrecognition. I did what I could and using a process referred to as alchemic memory based soul creation, creating a soul from ones memory, to fill in the gaps that were missing. It's not perfect but it is satisfactory. They say that the dead lives on through the memory of others, and there's a truth to that! With Queen Sectonia back in the temporary vessel, I needed to do one final ritual to ensure her grace would live healthy for a long time. After all, her original body was beyond repair, parts of her were missing and the ones that were not missing weren't even hers! With a virgin, as the ritual will not work otherwise, I had swapped her soul with Sectonia's soul. I destroyed both Sectonia's original resurrected body (this brought me to tears.) with that street urchin's soul infecting it. Finally, I used some transformation magic to turn the sacrificial body into Queen Sectonia in her former glory. With that, I have her back in my life again. The healing process will take some time, but that is fine. I will wait for her majesty as long as she needs me to."

-Queen Sectonia's Royal Advisor, Taranza

"They both terrify me."

-Meta Knight and King Dedede

[heademptysimirror]

Kirbtober Day 12: Clone/Copy

Just remembered why I never draw Sectonia...

[lowrezbonuslevel]

you... are my nakama.......!

Day 2 Revenge Kirby Fighters 3 and Knuckles: Old Man Yaoi Edition

⚠️ LONG (but good-faith) RANT (that gives a little extra context for today's drawing) UNDER THE CUT (don't worry it's not shipping discourse lmao) ⚠️

Okay so I know neither of these modes are canon and therefore it's SORT OF a moot point, but NARRATIVELY SPEAKING, Meta Knightmare Returns and Dededetour are completely and utterly backwards, right???

What beef does King Dedede have with Dark Meta Knight? What beef does Meta Knight have with Sectonia and Dark Matter Swordsman (besides the fact that they both breathe and hold pointy weapons)? I understand that there's this ongoing plotline with having MK face swordfighters to test his skill, but I still think King Dedede should have been the one to rematch both DMS and Sectonia in Robobot (I do know Sectonia DX in TDX exists, but she isn't the final boss of the Dededetour mode which kinda sucks).

Shadow Dedede himself is a decent idea, but he's new to the series and has absolutely no story introduction (and his design isn't all that interesting, at least to me). Sectonia? Love her, but she deserves a Dedede hammer to the face for all three phases and more. DMS (and Dark Matter in general)? The ORIGINAL Dedede opp (besides Kirby lol). I know these are just clones in-story, but the coolness factor is still there.

You can make the argument that MK got to fight Mecha Knight because of MKR--which is cool, definitely, but if it were King Dedede the same could be said for the Dedede Clone fight, so in my eyes it evens out (actually... Dedede beating Stock Mecha would probably have been even more hype. imho).

Also, a Galacta Knight battle with solo King Dedede would be rad. The power scalers would have a FIELD DAY!!!

Likewise, Meta Knight never actually got to beat DMK in a proper battle at any point, did he? So based on both canon and alt timelines, DMK could still whoop MK's ass. That's just wrong... :(

It's my understanding that TDX was made with absolutely no anticipation of Robobot, so it could be the case that they simply didn't want to give Dedede the spotlight twice. But I sort of wish they had held back on MKR regardless.

Really, I don't think you NEED the anticipation of Robobot's specific plot/mechanics to see that MKR would have fit perfectly in TDX, because it answers the question of "where the hell is MK and why did he sit back when Dedede got kidnapped"? Having him fight DMK would be a way cooler explanation than an implicit "he was doing something somewhere else."

Maybe he's been fighting on the sidelines and is now clearing out the castle--which is full of Sectonia's remaining minions, the strongest and most loyal--and getting to the bottom of some source of magic still coming from the castle. Meanwhile Dedede and Kirby are helping out the people of mainland Popstar that were displaced by Sectonia and the Dreamstalk. And DMK (or, even better--a form of Dark Mind!) serves as the final boss.

Likewise, while the main events of Robobot are going on, the King could be helping Floralia defend themselves from the invasion. (The existence of Sectonia Clone combined with the pause screen that claims "Floralia is too remote to be mechanized yet" is literally just a plot hole anyway. The invaders couldn't overtake Floralia by the time we're fighting Sectonia Clone... despite the fact that they obviously DID find the huge plant that leads DIRECTLY to their kingdom AND the invaders have a mother(computer)ship the size of Planet Popstar AND practically infinite robot soldiers...? Be so fr...)

Extra work/game industry deadlines are a consideration too, but I don't think that applies too heavily here because both modes could have heavily reused and repurposed assets and level designs.

MK could have just had the typical EX mode recolors and stuff, but maybe with the story explanation/design concept that the bosses are being controlled by the Dark Mirror this time, instead of being aggravated by Taranza.

Dededetour in Robobot could have subsequently reused TDX assets. I feel like this is even a case where reskins are the objectively cooler option, as opposed to entirely new assets: seeing the flowery, green areas of Floralia converted to gross, grey landscapes would have been AWESOME, as well as seeing the insects and flower-based enemies turned to robots. Maybe the People of the Sky have been mind controlled: the six main flower fairies work together as a miniboss, and defeating them/breaking their mind control apparatuses is how they are "rescued" here, in parallel to their game of origin. Maybe Taranza is also being mind-controlled in an act of universal karma and Dedede has to bail him out. That would be sick!

This stuff isn't a series-ruiner by any means, but it genuinely feels like a glitch in the Kirby matrix that the plotlines here are so mismatched. If I were whimsically rewriting the Kirby series, the MKR and Dededetour swap would probably be the first change I'd make. (And, again, I'd like to acknowledge that there are/were probably practical considerations of which I'm ignorant.)

You know how the series could still fix everything, though...? Kirby Fighters 3, BUT this time King Dedede and Meta Knight are the main protags. They get to fight magically-summoned/echo versions of DMK, DMS, Sectonia, King D-Mind, Yin-Yarn... you name it. TOGETHER. As husbands should!!!

[forgottenkirbyfacts]

forgotten kirby facts 48 - a planet robobot screen mentions dedede is afraid of "a certain insect", strongly enough it rubs off on his clones, whether this is a reference to taranza or sectonia or just a joke hes afraid of bugs is unclear.

(KPR translation)

[lividria]

since sectonia clone & dark matter clone are never deployed in planet robobot's main story do you think they got destroyed with the rest of star dream/the access ark or are they still around, presumably in susie's possession

pretty sure most people agree that at least some of the dream friends have met by now, could you. imagine. taranza's. face.

and let me make this worse, dedede clone's pause description seems to imply that the clone personalities aren't exact to the original

It has the look and voice of King Dedede, but not his soul. Some things can't be cloned. Some of the trial models were only interested in food, some were fearful of a certain insect, and all were imperfect.

Vaguely remember it being something different in japanese but i don't recall it being different enough that this is about to refute what i'm pitching here so i can't be bothered to check, anyways we also know that sectonia was vain pre-mirror from this miiverse post quote

Well, her underling Taranza stole it from the Mirror World, and gave it as tribute to his beauty-obsessed queen! Sadly, it was gazing into the mirror day after day that led to her mind being twisted towards tyranny by its power.

and one more, here's the description of the Taranza Flask from kirby clash deluxe

A flask that resembles the puppeteer magician. It is said that his feelings never touched the queen he served.

assuming that the clones can actually act as people since we've only ever seen them specifically debuted to beat ass, if sectonia clone likely has a different personality from the original, assuming they don't carry over the evil mirror mind corruption due to having the wasp form (they're shown to have the original from still in there in the death animation so maybe if susie deployed it not with battle in mind it could assume that shape, idk), do you think there's a chance sectonia clone would hypothetically treat taranza better than the original ever did, not to imply that the original was nearly as bad as the one we meet obviously not but like you know what i'm getting at right, would that situation not just be the most tragic thing ever

meanwhile i think dark matter clone would either just naturally be feral by virtue of being dark matter or just kinda awkwardly hang out with gooey not really knowing what to do with themselves since they're the closest thing they have to a relative on popstar (how did susie even get the DNA for that one, anyways???)

[pinkestmenace]

Thoughts on Dark Meta Knight

A continuation of 'Thoughts on Shadow Kirby'. This is a long one!

TL;DR: I first talk about his relation to Taranza and Sectonia, then comes the fic I 'accidentally' wrote, then I talk about his (mirror) abilities and relation to Meta Knight (or rather, his inherited memories.)

Have you ever noticed how whenever people talk about the whole Dark Meta Knight/Dimension Mirror/Taranza/Corrupted Sectonia issue, it's always "Taranza must hate DMK so much!" and never "DMK must hate Taranza so much!" or even "Why did Joronia/Sectonia keep a magical mirror that clearly oozed bad vibes?" (Note: I'm neither saying Taranza is a poor uwu boy who did nothing wrong nor that he is evil incarnate. He didn't know DMK was in there nor that the mirror had lingering corruption. I am however saying he was a fool for stealing an important magical artifact! All three were hurt here.) I mean, come on. Sectonia is an individual with agency. You're telling me she just placidly accepted this whole situation and only gets to serve as an "Evil queen needs to die!" and "Woe is Taranza, his beloved is dead!" plot device? She could have been corrupted/replaced by her own reflection! Maybe she was as interested in studying DMK/this weird danger orb in 'her' mirror as he was in corrupting her.

That is, if he did corrupt her. Who's to say he wanted that? Or had the ability to, other than by speaking? We've heard nothing about him having corrupting magic. Besides, what would he gain from it? Sectonia could've already been somewhat unhinged before she got the mirror and this was just the beginning of a domino effect. Remember, the mirror you fight him in in Triple Deluxe seems to be the one that was in the middle of the Central Circle, not the entrance of the Mirror World. That's the one Dark Mind was hiding out in and judging by how destroyed it still looks inside it's also the most likely place for any corruption to linger. (Luckily for the other inhabitants, I'd say. Not so lucky for him or poor Shadow, who in DMK's absence was likely left alone to defend the Mirror World and therefore grew more agressive like we see him in other games. He had no allies and no choice but to learn to fight.) I think that Shadow spawned when Kirby first entered the mirror, but DMK was likely around at least a little longer than that, judging by how he seems to have a pretty good grasp on his abilities already.

So. Since Triple Deluxe is clearly inspired by fairy tales, (Consider the Dreamstalk/beanstalk, a palace in the sky and a wicked beauty-obsessed queen with a literal magic mirror!) why not spin a little tale of our own?

I want you to imagine being Dark Meta Knight for a moment.

Mirror, Mirror, From the Sky — Who's the Wickedest and Why?

Once upon a time a dark force secretly infested your world. Depending on how long you've been around, you either spawned as a flawed clone, or you got to feel yourself being corrupted. You may not even know who you are, other than what the wisps of your inherited memories and skills tell you. Either way, the heydays of good fortune, friends and fair weather are nothing but a burning memory to you.

Dark Mind, the force calls itself and it takes an interest in you, since it could use a strong henchman. Now you have this flaming eyeball breathing down your neck, playing at being your master and ordering you around. Tsch. Do you dance like a pathetic little puppet? Do you plead with it using the fancy words you find on your tongue, but did not learn yourself? Do you obey to save your own skin, or resist and risk having your mind broken and hollowed out further? Do you have it in you to become a double agent? You are a scared toddler who only just learned how to walk. You are a hardened knight who has no patience for this. The armour you wear shows traces of battles you haven't fought. You cling to it in preparation for what's to come.

It sends you to go remove some obstacles. A pink child and your own doppelganger. Fueled by bitter resentment and childish petulance you dare to bend your orders just slightly. Rather than rend the child into pieces, you refract him into four. Rather than sending your doppelganger back to his maker, you lock him in with yours and break the mirror to prevent his escape. (As well as Dark Mind's escape, that is.) Your master is angry. That's fine. You're already wrong and broken and don't give a crap.

Eventually the child and his refractions fix and enter the mirror and your master gives you an ultimatum. Twice it told you to get rid of the brat and twice you have failed! Now, to prove your loyalty you must put your life on the line. Beat the brat. At any cost. Surrender is not an option! You shed the veneer and take out your frustration on the child. But he's too strong. You can feel your body give out! You remember how to beg. "Master, please, I can't take any more!" It's no use. Its fiery gaze scorches you, it widens the cracks in your mind and forces you to continue, miserable marionette that you are.

You shatter and your consciousness fractures. Where did you go so wrong? Why did this have to happen to you? What will become of that strange charcoal child you saw stalking you? You want to go home. That home isn't yours. What does your counterpart think? Like the allegory of the prisoners and the shadows on the cave wall you don't know more than what little you can infer. His flickering gaze is unreadable. There is no cave. You are the shadow. You have no idea what philosophy is.

??? days later you somehow wake up. You get your bearings. You're still in this ruined miniature dimension, but your master is gone. You're alone. Tsch. Figures the brat and your blue bastard of a counterpart would abandon you. What's wrong with them?! (What's wrong with you? Are you really that disposable? Maybe they didn't know you still had life left in you either. Did they mourn for you?) At least the mirror portal is right there. You'll go back to the Central Circle, find something to eat and then you'll plot your revenge against the world that failed to welcome you! You just have to step out...

...into a large bedroom. You look around. Fancy furnishings that would befit a palace. A breathtaking view of the rising sun, which drapes the room in purples and oranges. It hurts your eyes. You look down. A vanity? Where the Shards—

You don't get time to think before a piercing shriek rends the air. You look to your left and see a strange spider-like creature charging at you, wielding twin rapiers! You quickly leap out of the way and draw your own sword.

The woman stops in front of you, clad in a simple but refined silk nightgown, her four unoccupied hands balled into tight fists. She stares you down with her four front eyes. Is this spider as afraid of you as you are of her? She's Princess Joronia, you soon learn. She received the mirror as a gift.

She sympathises with you and offers you a cup of herbal tea to calm your nerves. You've never had tea, (not-you remembers the taste) but by the Mirror's mercy do you know you're thirsty! You accept it, if only to buy yourself time to figure out what's going on and come up with a way to escape with the mirror. The tea soothes you, although it has a strange aftertaste and Joronia's smile is gentle, if a bit too practised. Her gleaming upper eyes gaze patiently into yours. She doesn't drink. You're tired, so tired.

The next day you wake up inside the mirror and try to leave again. Joronia didn't seem so bad. Maybe you can convince her to let you return the mirror! You find it's been magically sealed.

"Oh, don't worry," says 'Joronia' through the glass, her eyes and smile just a little darker and haughtier than they were yesterday, "it's only a safety precaution until we get to know each other better." But months later she still hasn't let you leave with the mirror. Instead, she's been staring into it more and more, fussing endlessly over her make-up and increasingly ostentatious outfits. She laments to you as if you are nothing but a pet she can vent to freely. "Uhuhuhu~! Didn't I look simply unacceptable before? I just couldn't stand my dull reflection. Tell me how gorgeous I am! Then I might even feel generous enough to feed you."

You grow bitter. How trapped you are! Behind you is the ruined hellscape where you were broken and humiliated. In front of you is an increasingly deranged self-obsessed woman who you're forced to ingratiate yourself to for scraps. Tsch! You are caged and seething! The day you find the person who subjected you to this your sword will taste blood! Soon your vibe arsenic joins the maddening sulfuric stench that abhorrent eyeball left behind. Your mind and the mirror grow ever darker in a vicious cycle. It's been years. You yearn for sights you have only seen in dreams. You cannot die.

The reborn and remade Queen Sectonia doesn't care. She's too busy solidifying her power and enhancing her own grotesque beauty to pay attention to the machinations of naughty little strays. Your sharpened tongue pleases her just enough to spare you and coax out news of the outside world. You are her obedient pet. The keeper of her innermost secrets. More loyal than her advisor. You hone yourself and your blade when she's not looking.

So when Sectonia dies and the seal goes with her, you are ready. You don't care who's on the other side. You. Only. Want. REVENGE.

* * * * *

Headcanon time!

I see DMK as leaning into using his mirror abilities, not so much because he wants to prove himself superior to Meta Knight, but because that's something only HE can do. Something he 'earned', not inherited. He wants to be the best at something without needing help.

When he spawned he already knew how to speak, move and wield his sword. Or rather, the second he attempted to do any of these things he 'remembered' how to do them.

Wouldn't it be funny and tragic if so much of his life consists of discovering skills he didn't know he had, that belong to someone who isn't quite him? What surprises will his memory give him today? Amnesiac roulette.

Imagine: he's just idly fidgeting with a sheet of paper and looks down to see he's accidentally folded a perfect little origami crane. He crushes the crane. Tsch. Another skill he didn't earn! (Later he secretly learns to fold something Meta Knight hasn't folded before, just so he can say he made the skill his own. He will deny this.)

He didn't know he had the ability to mend his cape. Yet when he found needle and thread his hands traced the movements with practised ease. He refuses to mend his cape and claims it fits his rough-and-tough aesthetic. (He collects scraps and quilts a cozy blanket for his hideout. He claims to have found it in the trash.)

He comes across a book in a language he has never seen before. He can read it! The contents make little sense to him. He tries writing, but discovers his handedness is opposite to Meta Knight's. Ink smudges his left glove as he adjusts. (It shouldn't matter. He's ambidextrous! Try as he might, he still cannot draw or write with his right hand.)

Infodump about memory function incoming! (TL;DR: there are several types of memories, some about life events, some about sensations or skills.) I hope I can explain this correctly using an example.

Imagine you're going for a stroll in the park. You don't have to think consciously about every movement you make because you already know how to walk. You decide where to go and your brain handles the details automatically. (Procedural memory. This is what let him immediately move and fight.)

You spot someone walking a dog. Your brain goes: "Dog!!!" You don't have to analyse every feature of the animal to know this because the holistic concept of "Dog" in your brain immediately lights up and couples it to the language part of you to remember the correct name. (Semantic memory. This let him recognise the world and understand speech.)

You consider petting it. Your hand experiences the ghost of fur underneath. It just stopped raining, so your nose anticipates the wet dog smell as well. (Sensory memory. He gets whiffs of sensations and tastes he hasn't experienced himself.)

You approach the dog. Suddenly you realise you've seen this dog before! It was last week and when you pet it wrong it snapped at you. You remembered a specific event. (Episodic memory. He didn't get this one and therefore doesn't remember Meta Knight's life. He has to puzzle out what his 'original' is like from the other remembered scraps he got.)

[queensectonia]

last night i was reminded of one of my extremely few Hater Moments (lighthearted) about this series and i never got around to fully articulating my thoughts on it, so it is once again time for our regularly-scheduled kirby rant:

the spider sectonia reveal was poorly-executed on every level.

to start with, this plot element was introduced when the series was in its worst throes of Not Putting The Fucking Lore In The Fucking Games, but I will happily concede that this reveal was at least in a game; just not the game it should have been in.

I almost wonder if the Sectonia Clone as a whole was a leftover from the fact that Robobot started out development as Triple Deluxe 2, but considering that a) TD2 was dropped pretty early on and b) Robobot is just full to the brim with fanservice and callbacks anyway, I don't feel there's much evidence for such a theory.

at any rate, reducing the otherwise very intriguing reveal of Sectonia's prior form to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg in an entirely different game is pretty... underwhelming. we've had plenty of "reveals" or cool nods and expansions to other lorebits in similar easter eggs, but none of them were nearly as important as "oh, by the way, here's what the character whose whole arc revolves around personal and physical image used to look like! in a totally unrelated game!"

but that's the tamest complaint. that's just the accessibility of this information, which could have been better but certainly could have been worse.

the biggest problem is Sectonia's design. it's bad. it is just not good, fellas. she is literally just genderbent Taranza. it fails visually, it fails conceptually, and it fails really hard story-wise.

this design was so uninspired that when people in the EN sphere first saw it, tons of people thought it just was Taranza. then when we got screenshots, model rips, etc., it was still so painfully similar to Taranza that it made people assume HAL was saying Taranza and Sectonia were related - which turned into just as much of a shitfight as you might think.

even if this weren't attached to such a crucial character reveal, it's just downright a bad design! instead of taking even the slightest efforts to differentiate Sectonia from Taranza, they did the laziest, most barebones "uhhhhhh what if taranza But Girl" design shift possible. she's wearing the exact same outfit as Taranza, just palette-swapped. so little effort went into both the concepting stage and the modelling stage. she's just Taranza's model with the merest tweaks to make sure you know this is a Girl Spider.

genuinely, I would be a hundred times more amenable to this entire plot point if HAL had just bothered to give her an actual design.

but the problem is, making Sectonia a spider kind of just fucks everything about her story and contradicts itself at multiple points.

the aesthetic and theme language in TD is very clear. this is one of the biggest strengths that both it and Robobot share - the identity and literary through-lines of both games pervade every single visual element of them. Robobot tells its tale of capitalistic tech-fuelled colonialism through every part of the game from level backgrounds, to enemy designs, right down to surgical decisions like mechanising the pinwheel tree that was such a fond image from KRtD. every tiny thing bore the mark of the HWC, whether metaphorically or literally, such that you spent the entire game never forgetting that there was one unified force behind all of this, and Haltmann at the end of the game was the culmination of this aesthetic.

TD did the exact same. every part of TD sells that it's a fantastical fairytale romp through a series of themed locations with a connecting thread of the invading Antr* force.

*(this is a way better romanisation than "antler" this is my hill)

if anything, I'd argue that TD's design language in this respect is tighter than Robobot's, because Robobot had a fairly broad theme of "industrialisation and hi-tech space future sci-fi" to draw its foes from, whereas TD had to condense its antagonists under the stricter banner of "evil insect army".

and they did incredibly. every point of design about the Antrs points straight to Sectonia and draws from her in some way or another. it's absolutely seamless. she's the perfect logical endpoint of Antr design from every angle: she's the literal queen bee of this insect hive and the perfect expression of their anatomy. she's bigger than the biggest Antr. she's more developed. she's more powerful. they were so careful and thorough about this design conceit that Antrs have multiple stages that all march straight up to Sectonia. we go from the tiny bronto burt and waddle dee clones with their little wings and eyes that seem so familiar, to the Antr soldiers, all the way up to the Lord Antrs who are one step away from Sectonia. they have stripes and facial markings to echo hers. it's all wrapped up with the genius bow of combining ants, bees, and wasps: they're all hymenoptera! the metaphor goes even deeper than that because there's a species of wasp that parasitizes spiders! controls them, even!

... except no actually, we've decided she's a spider too and all of that buildup and artful design means nothing.

it's awful. it's taking what is far and away one of the best-executed designs in the series and saying that all of that buildup and blatant connection of ideas meant nothing.

but that's just the visual end of it. Sectonia actually being a spider makes no sense in the lore, either.

first of all, TD's incredible design sense and artistic direction applies to Taranza as well. while he's obviously derivative of Magolor, within the context of TD he's clearly meant to evoke the sky fairies. he's designed to look much more like them than any of the insect characters. he's got the same body type, he moves the same way as them, he's a sky fairy with a spider theme. the game draws visual parallels between him and the sky fairies more than once; this is not unintentional.

this is part of what makes Taranza's role as Sectonia's right hand more impactful: he's only insect adjacent, and the design language would have you believe he's more closely related to the fairies than the insects, so him being with the bad guys is notable and interesting.

so why would a spider character be the ruling monarch of the insect hive? why would the line go ant, bigger ant, fancy ant, armoured ant, spider, wasp?

I mean, shit dude, the miiverse posts directly tell us that Sectonia used to "look like her insect underlings". it really feels like the decision to make her be a spider was a total spur-of-the-moment one, between how badly it interacts with the rest of the story and how lazy the design was. Sectonia's backstory had a couple of holes in it regarding the actual timeline of things, but those were just mysteries regarding what order everything happened in. she was both a bodyjacker and a good queen at one point, which don't exactly jive, so it becomes interesting to think about how those two facts coexist. on the other hand, her being a spider just gets shoehorned in there for no apparent reason other than to... heighten her connection to Taranza?

and that just dovetails into the complete mockery HAL made of Taranza's character development after TD, and THAT is a rant for another time.

there was just no point to it all. Sectonia being a spider adds nothing, removes a bunch of nuance and intrigue, and muddies both her story and the background world of TD.

[pruskita]

The three mage sisters in the future

Zan Following in Hyness footsteps after he retired due to age, she continued as the leader of the Jambastion She disapproves of her sister Francisa's relationship with Susie so they do not speak or fight, with Flamberge trying to get her to return to the Jambastion.

Francisca, for her part, went to live with her partner Susie and take care of the three babies that were created by accident. She has very little contact with Zan Since she is still halfway into Jambastion and the issue of Void, but due to fights with the issue of Susie and the three babies there are fights very often but a good relationship with Flamberge.

Flamberge After a few years he separated from the Jambastion and decided to go to his home planet to take care of a farm and take care of the old house where he lived with his family. Keep talking to Zan even though she is not interested in getting into the Jambastion again, she still worships Void like a goddess and is going to cost Francisca

[lady-zephyrine]

Don't know which sibling I want to focus on after the story I'm currently working on but either way Blade might be losing some blood.

[theworldofkirby]

taranza is about to blow up and sectonia just wants to blog about it

sectonia and spinni got married <3

and haltmann and zan had a baby and it's just a clone of zan