#bb headcanons

[blackbirdtrills]

Chef probably made sure to give Kenny extra portions at lunchtime

[astrolopi]

raimiverse doc ock is transgender. send post

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

It's fun to see the things that changed over the course of BB's early development. Noel, along with several other characters (a surprising amount, really) were originally listed as having very different birthdays in official material.

It's strange- given her name, I would've expected that her birthday was always planned to be Christmas.

However this happened, I like to include stuff like this in my personal headcanons. In this case, I like to think of February 2nd as Saya's original birthday, since we never learn what it is.

Or maybe 2/2 could be the day that Noel was brought home to the Vermillion household. We know she was smelted and rescued on 12/25, but we have no idea how long it took from the day she was found until she was properly adopted.

IDK. Just a fun bit of early BB trivia!

[bellringermal]

I've wanted to see Maria, Gratia and (female?) Izzy drawn together since forever, you basically made my dream came true dsjhdhgf ;-; Does your Izzy have Loran descent? Other two characters associated with Loran (Henryk and Suspicious Beggar) are brown too, so I thought...? Would make sense for her (?) to be so interested in those beasts if it is essentially reclaiming lost heritage, not to mention the NPCs 'Successors of Izzy' are roaming Loran too!

Hi Kat ;)

Thats an interesting idea! But no, Izzy in my fic actually comes from the same land as Eileen. And since I decided to use the Dark Souls geographical names for the purposes of worldbuilding (Yharnam for example is located in Carim, a land of pale-skinned people whose knights fight without shields) I arbitrarily chosen Jugo as the name of the land. In DS2, Jugo is a desert land famous for its seductive sorceresses and pyromancy but by the time Bloodborne rolls around, that past has been long forgotten. Izzy was forced to leave Jugo as a child and grew up in the slums of Yharnam where she ended up mixed in with the wrong crowd. While Eileen has a strong grasp on the culture of her country (especially when it comes to funerary customs, she is truly appalled by how Yharnam disposes of their dead) Izzy is a Yharnamite through and through.

My Izzy does indeed explore the ruins of Loran alongside the Byrgenwerth scholars tho! And she and Archibald end up working for Mensis after leaving the college. In Yahar'gul, they continued their studies on the Loran Darkbeasts.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

About your tags on the Ignis post, I didn't know Aspec!Terumi headcanon was controversial? (Like, he's not human, I can't see gender or sexuality coming naturally to him.) What do people usually headcanon him as? Straight?

I'll admit I'm largely just assuming it's controversial. I think a lot of people equate "talking about sex" to "wanting to have sex," so with Terumi's constant dirty mouth and euphemisms it can make sense to read him as sexually motivated. Like, 'he talks like a pervert, why wouldn't he be one???' I guess I just think that Terumi doesn't fit the fandom stereotype of "asexual."

I'm really not involved in shipping and that side of fandom, so to be fair this is the opinion of an outsider looking in. But I think a lot of people headcanon him as gay or bi. He's paired with Relius, his hosts, or Trinity most often.

A lot of people are also inclined to interpret their faves as similar to themselves, so that bias may color my interpretations and those of others. I myself am an asexual Terumi fan, so that may be influencing me!

As for my personal hcs/interpretation...

It's been a while since I went through BlazBlue, and I've started doing these deep-dive character studies, so I might want to come back to these points at a later date- when I've really dug into his character and have sources to analyze, and see if my opinions change. For now, these thoughts are kind of 'off the cuff.' They've had a lot of time to stew in my brain and soak up the broth.

((I mean, I am aware that headcanons don't need to be canon-compliant, but I'm the type of person who specifically gets their enjoyment of this sort of thing by treating the source material as a mystery to solve or a puzzle to put together, so cross-referencing with canon and shooting for accuracy/believability is a large part of the fun for me.))

He talks dirty a lot, but it seems to be intended to either 1.) infuriate others and make them uncomfortable or 2.) hurt others directly by humiliating, defiling, or dominating them. I see his sexual commentary as a weapon- it's a power play, one more way he can harm, Hatefarm [tm], and make himself feel powerful.

He's implied to be somewhat averse to touch and connection. He's strict about interaction being on his terms and freaks out when it isn't. [As a separate but related point, connection itself is something he really doesn't seek. It likely isn't in his nature, considering what he is/was. He's much more inclined to use 'connection-seeking-behavior' as a tool to prompt vulnerability he can then take advantage of, or as a tool to annoy/aggravate people he knows won't be receptive to it.]

[Though there may be something to say about the intended relationship between the Susano'o and the Amaterasu- or the 'role' of the Susano'o- and how that could influence Terumi's 'natural' or innate perception of relationships as a whole. But like. The last thing I need is another tangent to go on.]

I have a lot of thoughts about Terumi becoming sort of 'humanized' over the However Many Years since leaving the Susano'o Unit (kind of like how when you live in an area long enough, you start becoming more similar to the locals.) He simultaneously talks about himself as separate from and above 'disgusting, pathetic, powerless' humanity... while quite clearly acting very human (selfish, impulsive, fun-seeking) and engaging in man-made pleasures (guitar, live music, accessories) that he's just as likely to insult others for engaging with. He even seemingly identifies most with his 'human' form; when he Self-Observes we get that Yellow Jacket Terumi rather than his spirit form or anything resembling the Susano'o. To me, this suggests that that is the form Terumi most identifies with/sees as himself.

Because of the above point, I think Terumi isn't inclined to human connection, touch, sex, etc- they aren't instinctual/intuitive to him, considering his origin, they aren't a need the way they are for a social species- but he does enjoy and relate to more parts of the human experience than he's willing to admit. So, like, I don't think Terumi is necessarily sex-averse, but I don't think he's at all internally sexually motivated. Like, I can see him enjoying feeling sexy and possibly even pursuing sex under extremely specific circumstances, but that would absolutely have to be on his terms and it could be hard to predict when/where/how the stars needed to align for it to happen. 97% of the time it's much more likely that if he is making a pass at anyone, he wants them to hate it. If they reciprocated, he'd likely get upset fast.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

@ramix-the-red;

Right!? Considering who she was married to, just the fact that they were together brings up a whole mystery. Like you, I find it extremely hard to believe that it was just a normal relationship- I don't see Relius as someone who just falls in love and marries. Some villains do lend themselves to this image of "they're a crazy villain most of the time but have an exceedingly normal personal life," but that's just... not Relius.

For my own personal theory/read on the situation, I definitely think you're on to something with the idea that it was some kind of strategic 'marriage of convenience.' Looking at who Ada and Carl became, and looking at what Relius values, I imagine Ignis must have had an incredibly 'notable soul.' Whether that meant she had a very strong soul, or just a very interesting one (think Relius' interest in Meifang) that Relius felt would be 'good material' for him to work with Relius Trying To Propose: "I would love to study you" or what, I don't know. Perhaps, as you mentioned, he was already looking for a soul to use as a core for his Detonator project- or perhaps he just found her fascinating, and having her as a research specimen and an available resource was part of what pushed him into creating the Detonator line.

I don't believe Relius was actively looking for a wife to produce offspring. Some 'evil scientist' characters do actively spouse-hunt for the purpose of creating a certain kind of offspring, a little dalliance in eugenics, but I don't interpret Relius as the type to be interested in that. I think his 'scientific curiosity' is a lot more impulsive. He finds something that catches his eye, he obsesses over it, pokes it with a few sticks, and sees what he can make it into.

But back to Ignis. I imagine her as someone with some kind of notable soul to capture Relius' interest, and if I'm allowed to get a little creative given we have nothing to go off of, possibly a personality type that he favored too. We see that he doesn't like the 'bleeding heart' type like Litchi, but he gets very fixated on women with strong convictions, like Makoto. I could see also see her having a high Ars Magus Aptitude that contributed to her children's abilities, alongside Relius' talents with magic.

I'm also inclined to believe that she was from a noble family. Rereading Pupeteers, we see that the Clover family lived in a sizable estate, and there seems to be implication that they may have had at least some level of staffing in their house. That kind of status could easily come from Relius' position in the NOL, but for the sake of Trying To Find Clues About Ignis, I'm inclined to attribute at least some of that to her. Also, if Relius went directly into the NOL upon reaching this time period, it would make be reasonable for the people he meets to be mostly other NOL affiliates- he's already very antisocial, it's not like he's going out to parties to meet people. For anyone to catch Relius' eye, they'd have to come to him first.

(tangent) Though in the same short story, we also get to meet Ignis' sibling and their spouse. Francis notably answers the door himself and Rosanne prepares Carl's room personally, suggesting that if they have any staff, it's a small enough amount that they wouldn't be working at night. Although they are noted to have a big enough house that a whole extra bedroom is present to be given to Carl in the first place despite the couple having no kids of their own, and it's possible they have more than one extra room, as when they try to separate Nirvana from Carl, they tell him she'll sleep in a different room- if there wasn't another extra bedroom to give her, I would expect Carl to argue against her 'sleeping' in the living room or something. I... could very easily go off on another tangent, theorizing the size of the household, positions employed, and where in a social hierarchy that would place the family- but I'll save that for another post maybe. I'm already all over the place.

Back to my point, that I believe Ignis was a member of the nobility. Considering what we know about the culture of the BlazBlue world at this point in time, the people most likely to be highly skilled or to have talents with Ars Magus/Seithr/Magic/Etc are the nobility, where we see a lot of focused training from a young age and political/eugenics-esque marriages.

This is further supported by the way Carl and Ada act in their youth. We see them dressed well but modest, acting polite, and we see them being educated under a set of standards that match up with high society values- chess, manners, violin, etc. I can't imagine Relius alone was making all the choices about what direction to go in with raising them, or we would see a more hands-off approach and a lot more stress on engineering, combat, and his scientific interests. I find it more believable that Ignis was raised in a similar environment as part of the nobility, and intended to raise her children in line with those ideals.

I don't think Ignis' family would be from the high nobility like the Duodecim, their branch families, or anything in their circle. They have a much more rigid and notably distinct (often Japanese) culture. I would place Ignis' familial status more in line with the Vermillions, though a few rungs higher up the ladder as her family hasn't been disgraced. If anything, marrying Relius, a prominent military figure, would have raised her status a little. The Vermillions also seem to have a similar aesthetic- compare Ada's clothing to what Noel wears as a child. This could further support the idea that Ignis was a low-ranking noble.

I'll wrap this up here because, wow, I did not intend to go on and on that much. Thanks for commenting and inspiring me to write this out in the first place- these are some Ignis Characterization thoughts I've had for a while, but I haven't put them into words until now.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Since we don't have an official birthday for her (or any information, really) I like to headcanon May 8th as Ignis' birthday.

Normally I might do some Ignis posts on that suggested birthday, like I would any other character, but a 5/8 birthday would overlap with Hinata Himezuru's official one.

And, like, Hinata already has so little recognition in the fandom. I don't want to creep into her birthday too much.

Therefore I'll be posting an Ignis or two now, on the cusp of 5/8, and focus on Hinata for the rest of the day proper.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Took the words right out of my mouth, @mystech-master.

I love finding ways to include concept art and scrapped details into my own internal canon. I've let my mind wander on a few potential fanficy tangents, and the first direction it went was considering Lenka as one of the many Yayoi siblings lost before Tsubaki.

Though something in the back of my mind says that Tsubaki was the only Yayoi child of this generation that survived long enough to start schooling. I may be misremembering this (not in the mood to go find sources and make a full fancy theory/headcanon thing.)

If I am remembering that right, it makes me want to do something different with the concept of Lenka Yayoi, because the art we have of her shows her in the Torifune Military Academy Uniform. and I mean obviously you can headcanon whatever you want, your comment just prompted me to want to share my own thoughts.

Some of the other ideas I've had for a Lenka Yayoi reference/fanwork are for Lenka to be a previous-generation Yayoi, say an aunt of Tsubaki's, that was healthy enough to live to/through puberty and go to the academy, but didn't have the Yayoi trademark look that we see with Tsubaki and Ayame, and was therefore unfavored as being less 'pureblooded' or less of a 'true' Yayoi as the family may have desired. Maybe her health ultimately did fail her, or maybe once a more 'appropriate' heir was born in good health, Lenka met with a 'sudden accident.' Whatever happened, this version of Lenka would never live long enough to meet Tsubaki.

The last idea I had was that I was working on some fankid ocs after seeing some of the fun designs by others on Tumblr, and Yayoi Twins were a concept I wanted to explore, but I've been struggling with what to name them. I think I'll be naming one of them Lenka after this early Tsubaki, though I don't plan to use this design for her. Looking at names like Erika, Baika, Fujika, or Ruka for her sister now.