⚠️Turn your volume down!!⚠️
A CloHo rough animation bc it has genuinely taken ahold of me.. pls be nice it’s been years since I’ve animated :)
Maybe I’ll polish this up if I feel inspired enough…
My thoughts and explanations under the cut!
If you can’t tell, Marya is Varian, Comfrey is Queen Arianna, Van is Cassandra, Max is Eugene, Pappy is King Frederic, and Olethra is Rapunzel! Monty is in the bg bc though i love him, he didn’t fit anywhere unfortunately.
Sooo basically the main plot divergence is that the rest of the crew turned down Marya’s request to let her kill Straka, so Marya goes off on her own to do so anyway.
Marya was traveling with the Zephyr for most of it, but once Comfrey shows up, she’s filled with rage and kidnaps her rather than hiding away. Somehow, only those two end up in Zern (plus Kǒcka) and the rest of the crew are trying to get to Zern, stop Marya, and save Comfrey.
Comfrey could escape; she’s experienced in kidnappings and could get out of her bindings. However, she feels guilty because she saved Marya and let her go down this dark path. She stays with Marya to convince her to stop, but she’s already too far gone.
While in Zern, they still go to the Corrodi place and Marya still learns of what happened to Ludmilla, hence the hole in her hand. But without Monty to persuade her to try and save Ludmilla, Marya’s still set on killing Straka and taking her revenge.
Meanwhile, bc they haven’t gone to Zern yet, the original Zephyr is still intact. (Forgive me for the shitty ship drawing, it’s so hard to draw) Because Marya is so focused on her revenge, she never casts that water barrier on Van’s arm, and Van doesn’t break her gauntlet and free her tentacle arm. She’s still afraid of herself.
Not much has changed about Olethra. She’s still endlessly positive that they can save Marya and Comfrey without any losses. And the boys are also very much the same.
In the end, I do think Marya would still go through the portal to save Ludmilla. I do think Olethra and Ludmilla would go back to save Marya. Despite Marya’s focus on revenge, she would still want to save her protégé and Olethra would still want to save Marya even though she kidnapped Comfrey.
