i have raphaella thoughts hold on
so. the theory that she mechanized herself right
she’s the only one (i think??) we see whose mechanism changes. there are images of her with bat-like wings, and images of her with the mechanical wings with hinges and fairy lights
granted i don’t know anything about the actual timeline BUT
i rely entirely too much on the most obscure things for theories, ie flower symbolism and name meanings. but luckily for me most of the mechs’ names are connected to their mechanism, their backstory, and/or their role on the ship
la cognizi roughly translates to knowledge if i recall, raphaella being the feminine form of raphael, the name of an archangel
we don’t know her backstory but we can assume she’s not a human standard to our earth. what i’m thinking is that on whatever her home planet is, wings are pretty common, and the more luxurious or graceful or intimidating they are, the higher in rank the person is
raphaella Used to be very high in rank, some kind of a noble. and those that have the nobility also have the resources to take better care of their wings than most
so what happens when raphaella uses her gorgeous wings to travel farther, see and experiment with things nobody else knows about? her access to those specific nutrients is cut off. whatever it takes to keep wings in top condition is very rare in other solar systems. so her wings wither over time. the feathers fall out. they atrophy. and she’s left with the bat-like wings
so when the mechanisms pick her up, of COURSE she manages to reverse engineer how each mechanism works. of course she is willing to replace her shriveled wings with glorious, mechanical, glowing wings that she made with her own hands
she’s a fallen angel, not cast out per se, just one who couldn’t stand being caged. she flew too far from the metaphorical nest and faced the consequences, but she certainly didn’t let them stop her
