so like i'm pretty sure nearly all of arkblr has read Records of Originium: Blacksteel (and those who haven't really should, it's some of the gayest shit in all AK media), but i imagine most people haven't read every single operator file/dialogue/operator record/module. which. good. i'm glad you have better things to do with your life. but we DO get some really interesting stuff on what's going on on the Friskarm Front from them
liskarm (and vanilla) weren't born in Columbia; they're from the Vouivre Alliance, one of the many, uhhh... nations i guess occupied by Sargon like Acahualla and Menat-Hai'mat. and being in Sargon, its history in Arknights is kind of a fucking trainwreck. Sargon is introduced to us with Great Chief Returns, the story where we meet a bunch of primitive jungle-dwellers whose culture consists entirely of inflicting violence on each other (this is also their political system) and arguing about whether big asses or small asses are better. eunectes blows up a temple and declares they need to abandon all their old traditions and modernize, which also includes abandoning their existing language and learning to speak sargonian. this is treated as fine in the end because they can just fight and also build machines. ceobe gets high on mushrooms and yet somehow still shows up to the obligatory swimsuit scene. it's ALMOST irredeemable (it earns like a couple points for framing the infantilization of disabled people as a form of bigotry that also needs to be opposed)
operation originium dust handles it a bit better, but we've switched from "backwater savages" to a wartorn hellhole where the feud between the lord ameer picale tulla and her brother drudge has devastated the region. it's a more sympathetic take (that includes honestly the most tragic and beautiful originium death burst IN arknights) but it's still incredibly reductive and depicts Arknights' Africa as a war-torn hellhole without redeeming aspects of its own, once again playing heavily into stereotypes about the region.
liskarm's 200% trust operator record, released alongside Operation Originium Dust, falls into many of the same biases as both GCR and OOD. Vanilla says that her Tribe hadn't even heard of toilets or KITCHENS. the oprec establishes that there's a broader vouivre region which vanilla is from, and a vouivre alliance-controlled region that liskarm is from. it's...
Jessica: I remember now. You told me before at Blacksteel.
That Vouivre needs a PMC that's different than the other ones.
liskarm has a WEIRD rlationship with the concept of a "mercenary"; it's something she's internalized because of her upbringing as The Heroic Career That Will Fix Her Home. it's definitely something she's shifted on over time; she has a REALLY dim view of blacksteel at this point. i am going to hit rupert "clip" cliff with my car. but it's kinda funny because we get... so LITTLE of vouivre, besides its exoticization by columbian authors and the fact liskarm thinks it's kinda hellish and desperately needs stability (thus her initial hope that a PMC could help that she's kinda wavered on). the blacksteel comic also doesn't give us much; just brief snapshots of baby liskarm and vanilla in tattered clothing. (and ALSO covering infantilization of infected as a form of bigotry. why is THAT the running theme of sargon so far.)
anyway FRANKA'S second oprec has liskarm talk to Clip and lay out her ideals offscreen then talk to franka about it afterwards. hilariously this is like one of the only points in arknights where the english dub uses explicitly romantic language - franka asks liskarm if she's breaking up with her! anyway liskarm invites Franka to join her new security company. and franka... opts to decline, because she's seen Jessica and Franka pursuing their goals and she's not really sure what hers are; she wants to sort out her relationship with her mother and travel with a tiny liskarm keychain by her side of course. she says that liskarm might have the security company up and running by the time they meet again.
but the next time we run into them is liskarm's module, released with operation lucent arrowhead. and liskarm is now back in vouivre, fighting well-trained local militants who expected her to return, who immediately identify her as a Blacksteel Mercenary. one thing i do find interesting about this section is that it's specifically in a ruined skyscraper; apparently the vouivre alliance occupies an area that was at one point a heavily developed and MODERN city before Shit Went Tits Up, contrasting heavily with the depictions of both vouivre AND sargon we'd seen before. even menat-ha'mait as we see in Adventure That Cannot Wait For The Sun has a very low floorplan inspired (as most of that story is) by ancient egypt. but apparently vouivre was running on different architectural rules, which is kinda fascinating? idk! i think there are interesting ways they could do this and it distinguishes it from all other cities we've seen in Sargon to a pretty major degree and i want to know why it's LIKE this.
ANYWAY these militants. they laid an arts trap.
specifically to separate her from Franka, who is on the radio with her.
So. Again. INCREDIBLY funny to me that Liskarm gives this dramatic speech about travelling the world and dropping in on Liskarm's doorstep when she's already up and running... and then it turns out that what ACTUALLY happened was that she IMMEDIATELY glommed onto Liskarm's first mission to Vouivre. Apparently She Did Find Her Purpose.
i am DESPERATE for more crumbs on our favorite incredibly gay arab-american dragongirl, as WELL as depictions of sargon that lean more into modern life. it's not... ideal, i suppose? like it is still leaning into this idea of the middle east/africa as being defined by an endless war. but... while i'm maybe not willing to TRUST hypergryph on this... egyptomania vibes and lowlight's special interest fixation on the ottoman occupation of greece aside, at least we know that they CAN be normal about sargonians as like... normal-ass people in a giant fucking empire that has areas that AREN'T "what it's like to live in hell". so i think maybe hypergryph COULD do something really neat here.
coincidentally did you know that every summer event has alternated between LGD (Surging Flame is just a cameo but Dossoles Holiday, So Long Adele, Ato) and Sargon (Great Chief Returns, Ideal City, Adventure That Cannot Wait For The Sun)
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