#wfr server made me realise i need to cast an examining curious eye on my well settled and developed over many years artistic process

[i-mybrunettelady]

Nyra’s central theme, a storytelling ramble

So, I’ve been thinking. I’m about to get a bit technical here and go into my story/ character crafting thoughts but I think it could be interesting. Spoilers for EoD, right

I think I’ve been misinterpreting the gist of Nyra’s story all along. It took a discussion of themes in a discord server I’m in and here I am, thinking about my gw2 blorbos afterwards! A lot of my earlier thoughts stand true (Liv’s theme being strength in relentless kindness and kindness overall; Ren’s being secrets and privacy and interpersonal intimacy; Mirka’s being protection and motherhood and purpose; El’s being power and control, for example) but I was so off the mark for Nyra that it’s kinda funny? Some of you guys might’ve clocked in on it faster than I have if you’re a long time mutual lmao

Nyra’s central theme is, drum roll please, ambition. Power too, but whereas El’s power is tempered with control, hers is tempered with ambition (they’ve always been narrative foils in a way. They’re both Enneagram type 8, but he’s a type 8w7 and she’s a type 8w9.) Think about it - she’s been chasing her legend, so to speak, since she was in her late teens, and even before, she wanted to stand out. She’s always felt invisible under the big shadow of her grandfather and it was suffocating her; now, she casts an even bigger shadow of her own, one that, for all her attempts and awareness, she feels very protective of. Be great in your own right, she’s gonna support you on your journey, but try and take her place and she’s gonna get defensive. And the most succinct description of her as a character is tied to this as well, “some people cast long shadows and hers is one you’re safe in.”

This ambition is driven by her immense determination and willpower and the high standards she holds herself to are the stirring wheel. She started as a local, human hero, then killed an Elder Dragon, then a god, then a couple more Elder Dragons and is now a Champion of the only one of them left. She bent the laws of nature. She returned from the dead. Her ambition’s driven her higher and higher and higher, making her important, but at what personal cost?

She’s plagued by a whole host of special tier boss demons. She had to kill the man she loved. She died at the hands of a god she believed in. She has bid peace of mind goodbye even on a good day years ago. She thinks of herself as a murderer. She’s had to rebuild her self-esteem, both bodily and mentally, almost from the ground up. A fight against herself is the fight she can never fully win, only renegotiate before it starts again.

And was the fame and the glory and the legend worth all the pain and the trauma? Does she regret it? In a very Nyra turn of events, no. She does not. You ask the universe for something grand and not expect the price for it to be minuscule. She knew what she was doing and it’s a price she was ready to pay. even at a tender age.

My initial guess at her central theme was love, but now, having written a character whose initial theme really is love, it’s not what Nyra’s story is about. There is a whole lotta love, to be sure, but ambition takes center stage. You’re only gonna go as far as you let yourself and for the right price and the right type of person, sky really is the limit.

This was a sappy, sloppy analysis of my blorbo girl, who owns my heart and soul, so thank you guys for reading! I might just do a little analysis for each of my main beebs that I have this much detail on over time, but today is Nyra hours and I wanna gush about her. Also I don’t talk much about my artistic process and sometimes I want to <3