I’ve been really into Ena and Ena ocs for the past month so I wanted to make one for Buddy/Nox :3
(Some design notes/trivia under the cut because I put a lot of thought into this)
Voices:
—Villainess/Vampire’s voice comes from Medea (Hades II), I thought her moon-theming and general vibe were perfect
—Villain/Vessel’s voice is Zagreus from Hades, I just like how he sounds
—(Despite how much I love the voice acting, I’ve never actually played or watched anyone play Hades lmao)
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Design:
—Besides just being a part of my design for regular Nox: I included the moles because mouth moles are a signature trait of many femme fatale/vintage female characters, and moles below the eyes are called teardrop moles
—Vampire’s design mimics both a cat and, well, a vampire/demon
—Villain and Vessel’s design hinge a lot around crescent moons (including the little hair spike), and more curved lines compared to Villainess/Vampire
—Vessel’s black sclera and blue iris are inspired by the sad side of original Ena
—Instead of blue-screening, Budd-Ena beige-screens (books screens??)
—The text that replaces the voice lines is the opening of Franz’ Kafka’s Metamorphosis
—The text during Vessel’s freak out is Lorem Ipsum (aka placeholder text)
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Misc Things I might get around to if I make a full design:
—Villainess acts a lot like early-story Nox and Nox when he’s fully playing his role as a villainess. All the snark is concentrated in him
—Vampire is inspired by Nox’s more mischievous/malicious/emotional side
—Villain is like what little we see from Nox at the very end of season 1, much more mellow and solemn
—Vessel comes from when Nox is in a panicked state like in the coffin during Requiem, and is a representation of Nox feeling like he needs to play his roles as a villain/villainess — regardless of his own sense of self
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I might make more stuff with this design in future because I like him a lot :33
genuinely had to pause for several minutes when the episode first came out just to look at her. category 5 event for cb sapphics everywhere, this is like our second coming of christ
fastpassing cinderella boy is so immersive!! like nox, I too am constantly put in a torture simulator as a result of withholding vital yet harrowing information that I’m not allowed to reveal for extended periods of time. it really feels like I’m there in the room with him :)
I’ve come around to Buddy (somewhat) having a british accent not because I think he’s british, but because Violet is the one with the accent and he’s kinda subconsciously picked up on it to be more like her.
bonus points if Buddy’s from New York or Boston or something, so he already has a different accent that gets mixed with the british one
even more bonus points if Violet started picking up a little bit of Buddy’s accent
violet appreciation post because it’s only hit me recently how she just needs to be doing random shit all the time. it’s such a small detail but I love it so much
literally in her first proper scene she’s doing a whole project in the background while talking with nox. (it’s so great how this is reoccurring bit btw). and if she’s not doing something in particular she’s still pacing around or just always moving
even when she gets upset her immediate first reaction is to make herself busy.
idk if this all because she can’t stand being bored, or feels the need to constantly distract herself from her situation (probably both), but I Do know that violet is the epitome of “shes so hot but if she doesn’t do something silly every 5 seconds she’ll explode” and it’s amazing.
shout out to cinderella boy characters who are so full of love that it ends up being detrimental to themselves and others, gotta be one of my favorite genders
oh boy I get to talk about buddy and wave being narrative foils now!! yippee!!!
side note: this is not organized or comprehensive, it’s like 1 am and I’m having Thoughts now the recent episode was released from fastpast jail
TLDR: Buddy and Wave are both liars but in their own fun special ways :33
I think maybe the biggest thing is how both of them go about their building outward personas and the way they use lying to achieve that.
To get information out of Chase, Buddy (under instruction from Violet) played into being the villain — to break down his defenses until he gave in. However, we know that he does not like doing it, and feels really guilty about it.
We also know that Buddy hates lies himself, which is why he never directly lied to Chase. (Emphasis on directly because I can’t even count his lies of omission, which, again, make him feel really guilty). The one time he tried to very intentionally manipulate Chase, during Beach Boys, he looked like he was about to vomit.
Wave on the other hand? It seems like he’s fine with lying to Chase and the rest (or at least stretching the truth, because I don’t fully buy his backstory even if there is some truth in it). Compared to Buddy, he uses the guise of honesty to get what he wants out of people.
And judging by the evil grin at the end of Stardust VII, it feels like he gets at least a little satisfaction/enjoyment out of being manipulative, acting like an airhead to earn trust.
side note: while buddy’s tactics, 9/10 times, were targeted towards chase, wave focuses on building trust with deacon and prunella. that’s probably because he knows chase does not trust his ass. (or he just likes deacon and prunella more, that too).
So — speaking very broadly — Wave’s outward act is more align with Buddy’s true self, and Buddy’s initial outward act is more align with Wave’s true self.
But is that last part even true? Because we don’t know much for certain about Wave, even when outside of Chase’s POV.
In contrast, we know almost everything we do about Buddy because we get to see his side of the story. Wave’s side, on the other hand, only creates more uncertainty.
My brain is mush so I’m going to call it here for now.,, I feel like I’m going to look at this tomorrow and it’s just going to be like completely incomprehensible. There’s probably (definitely) more that could be brought up or elaborated on, so if anybody wants to add anything PLEASEEEE do. I’d love to see it!!
(tacking this on to the end because we have fun around here, but maybe wave’s name has something to do with the day/sun, to further contrast buddy with the moon/night? probably not but I’m a sucker for parallel names)
nox truly has been having the worst day of his life for the past 150 years
he’s stressed, he’s overstimulated, he’s just climbed up dozens of flights of stairs to avoid a panic attack, and now he’s about to get shot 57 times?? (aka horrifically embarrass himself in front of his boyfriend but in his mind that’s probably the same thing)
the guy is allotted five (5) minutes of happiness per season and he used it alllll during perfect halo so now he’s fucked
happy this scene is finally free from fastpast jail because I think this my favorite stargoth moment from the whole season thus far (and also one of my favorite buddy moments this season)
it’s such a great display of nox’s trust in chase now, he can confide something so personal that I’m not sure even his siblings know.
but I think it’s also so so great from the perspective of buddy’s autonomy. knowing he has such little say in what’s happening in his life, the fact that he chooses to tell chase his ””real”” name means a lot.
so does him choosing to go by buddy!! not because somebody told him to, but because he likes it the most!!! (trans allegory buddy part 396 what hey who said that)
I know we’ll probably learn his original name at some point, but part of me really hopes we don’t, and it just stays as a thing only between him and chase as a symbol of their trust :3
(I also don’t want to tag a Third name for him on here, his greed sickens me,,)
I haven't really been on tumblr since forever but I've REALLY wanted to make a post talking about Violet and who she is as a character. Seeing the Off-Hours arc as well as the rest of CB so far, I've seen some things I agree with and some things I do not. Which, again, I'm kind of tired seeing a lot of people hate on her and ignore the nuances to her character.
anyways if you guys hate Violet just don't interact with this post because a lot of this is just my analysis/perspective on it as someone who may or may not heavily relate to Violet. So of course, this takes a lot of my bias into perspective, but it also addresses how much people are missing about her character.
This is a LONG one that doesn't make sense until you put it all together. And I go all over the place, oops.
(anyways, I am totally open to more discussion about Violet's character/stuff people disagree with, 'cause I know a LOT of this is incoherent/doesn't address EVERY aspect of her character :3)
I feel like people genuinely didn't talk about Buddy's character for the first half of season 1, and while a lot of his actions were motivated by his urge to find out where Silver was, intimidate Chase, etc. I do also want to mention very clearly that Buddy is his own person. A lot of people I've seen mention that Buddy was only acting on his mistrust because of Violet, which...ehh. While Violet was a large driving force for how he tried his best to get information, I also think putting the blame on Violet and disregarding that is just neglectful.
A LOT of people forget the fact that Nox is, if not, just as "villainous" as Violet. Both of the mistakes that they've made are what build their role and their motivations. I barely see anyone mentioning the fact that his betrayal by the Ex-Libris dude (Little Shadows V) has to have been a reason for his distrust of humans for so much of Season 1.
He trusted a human with a plan to turn back to normal, and look where that got him and Violet and the other keys. He didn't KNOW anything he did was going to lead him astray, and it wasn't his fault.
This is just to put into perspective things that people choose to ignore about him. He isn't perfect either, and I'm saying this as someone who considers Nox one of her favorite characters in the webtoon.
Violet has always been distrustful of humans, as many of the keys are. Her anger comes from this, as she's also the oldest key, I'd assume she's been around a lot longer at the hands of their abuse. They were quite literally created for humans' selfish wishes, and that type of resentment isn't built overnight. Her trust issues were most definitely fueled by what happened to Nox, and while we don't get insight as to what happened to them after the fire and the timeskip in Little Shadows (V), we can assume that it wasn't a great time for her.
The blame for Nox's mistrust of Chase shouldn't be solely be put on Violet. I genuinely do NOT understand why people act like it's ALL her fault or that she's going to have a villain arc because of her mistrust.
2. I do think however, that in many ways she still is flawed. One of these being her exaggeration of different things she dislikes about humans, almost as a way of deflection, I'd argue.
She doesn't like to admit other perspectives, but also because she genuinely doesn't KNOW anything about these modern-day humans or the wish until the Off-Hours arc. How do people expect her to understand the fact that not all humans are selfish as if she's interacted with any more humans besides the ones in Ex-Libris?
People can argue that she has been around the library, but she hasn't TALKED to them face-to-face, and there's a lot about the modern human world she still doesn't understand, things that she exaggerates as a form of coping and living in denial.
I think maybe Nox is the only exception, and even then she's still in major denial about it, like she genuinely can't believe that he was once a human. That, and both of them lacked human kindness, also making the two siblings EXTREMELY similar in this regard. That's what bonds them together and builds their trust.
She has every right to be suspicious of Chase, just as Nox was until he TALKED to him long enough, realizing he wasn't selfish or rude. And even that was a long process just for Nox to build trust and realize his feelings, finding out that Chase was genuinely a good person. I don't understand people who are shocked that she can't shift perspectives towards the same species that were her abusers, as if she's interacted with any nice humans.
I will however, like to say that Violet's usage of deflection and mistrust towards humans is what is causing a rift her and Nox's bond.
So often does she say things that hit Nox close to home, that come off as desparation and a strong urge to protect but in reality hit closer to home. Their miscommunication is very strong, and I also think it's because Nox is too scared to say anything to the same person who'd helped him feel like he was part of a family. Violet isn't forcing this perspective upon him, it's a secretive one that HE JUST HAS, and I need more people to understand that Violet also just...cannot take other perspectives. It's not exactly... manipulation, but it most definitely isn't correct of her either. It's a flaw that's going to come back to hurt the both of them.
We can see subtly, however, that Nox does ignore her and rebel in certain ways (aka dating Chase, not telling Violet "Freckle's" real name iirc). His autonomy isn't restricted by Violet.
Violet wants her wish so much and she has no one to fight for/defend EXCEPT her family.
I think in some ways this is similar to Chase's motivations: he does things for his family, especially his wish.
However, what sets both of them apart is the lack of kindness Violet recieves. Both of them are desperate, their wishes to SAVE the people they love.
Violet depends on Nox to get a wish to turn himself back to a human so that they can be free. The wish is solely for him, but it will also help her.
Their desires intertwine so much throughout the story and I think people don't realize that enough, making me confused as to why I see SO many people hating on Violet. Like, where was this energy when Nox was fighting with Chase every other book? Why did we see the nuances towards Nox then, but not the nuances towards Violet now?
I think the amount of scrutiny and disregard for nuance for Violet manifests as a disregard for flawed female characters. Call me too woke, if you will, but no one ever put in this much effort to hate on Nox. You guys want flawed female characters so bad, but the second we get one there's SO much hating on Violet.
People immediately assumed that Nox was this way because of abuse, and I'd like to argue that it was more so based on his bad experiences with humans and shared desperation to turn back human.
Violet never explicitly told him to BULLY chase to get information, and we know this because Nox literally tried to whisper into Chase's ear to get information WHILE HE WAS SLEEPING, may I add, which worked just as effectively.
Another reason I think why Nox's motivations to "get him out of the books" in Season 1 weren't impacted by Violet: they needed Chase to get narratonin so they could siphon it. That is quite literally why Nox shouldn't have been scaring Chase out of the books (and I know for a fact Violet wouldn't approve of that) because it would've backfired on them, even if they wanted Silver.
Violet and Nox are two sides of the same coin, their distrust yet dependence on others their fatal flaw-- Violet's dependence on Nox and Nox's dependence on Chase for that wish ties them all together.
3. We've seen the rare moments where her perspective shifts, where she tries to believe that humans can be good. Yes, it's true that she was created solely as a villainness key, but I also don't believe that it's all she's capable of, just as Nox isn't capable of just being the villain.
My point is to make that Nox and Violet are very similar, and they both have subtle shifts that build up towards their some-what trust of humans. People have already mentioned that they're extremely similar and I agree upon that. It's also why I find it so FRUSTRATING as people to just cast her off as the villain of the story immediately. I never saw anyone doing that for Nox S1, and I saw SO many people believing that he had a bad backstory. I believe the exact same for Violet.
NOT TO SAY SHE'S INNOCENT BUT. PEOPLE CAN CHANGE THEIR MIND! People can learn to see other perspectives, and it genuinely is one of those "you don't know what they're going through" situations.
4. Subtle shifts exist, and I see them a lot with Violet. I know we're going to get more moments where she reflects and where she's conflicted, and we're already getting them! I want to see her feel like a horrible person and build the process of learning to trust again. People forget that she's reflecting as well and doing her best based on what she knows/doesn't know. Violet is very stubborn and headstrong about her opinions, and I don't think it's ridiculous for her to be so mistrusting until she continues to find out more information.
Again, she also mentions in Off Hours that she wants to get her wish BECAUSE it could help the keys free which in TURN could help them get a wish.
However, there still are a lot of problems.
The point is that collecting all 12 keys in the modern world is near impossible, and she's right. That, and even if they collected all 12 keys, they wouldn't be able to turn Nox into a HUMAN with a WISH because the wishes are literally made so that they cannot be used to undo whatever EL has created.
We know Rose and Wave are still with Ex-Libris, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the other keys are as well. We see her rationale here. She does realize that Chase needs his wish, but she also doesn't understand how they can find a middleground.
Lastly, I just kinda wanna see Violet think about stuff a lot more. I want her to feel bad and I want to see her reconsider/be conflicted between being selfless and helping others. This decision is based on her character and her development, which I feel like we'll see a LOT this season. It's too early to judge her right away ://
Anyways, that concludes the Vi analysis. A lot of this was kinda incoherent but I hope you guys know what I was trying to say </33
I'm defending the hated female villains with my LIFE I think it's just my job atp /j
