Hello and welcome to Hot Fanon Takes, where I scream into the void about how I feel about fanon. Today’s edition is going to be purely based on Krystal and Cerinia, as I feel like both of these figures have become absolutely enveloped in fanon. Unlike my last two parts, today’s segment has more than 3 segments and might be a bit more rapid-fire than lengthy explanations. So please enjoy.
Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and it’s okay to disagree with them.
This one took me longer than I thought it would because there’s... a lot.
Let’s focus on Krystal-only ones starting off!
#1 - Krystal was raised on Sauria by dinosaurs
I am not sure there’s a definitive origin for this one. This is somewhat common-- I’ve seen it in a few fanworks, enough to throw it onto my list. This might be inspired from Krystal’s Dinosaur Planet rendition, as that rendition was orphaned at a very young age after her tribe was massacred. Alternatively, it could be inspired by how people interpreted Krystal’s character. It’s important to note that people can take in the same media and draw different conclusions. And that could very well be the case here.
My hot take: I don’t entirely vibe with it as a headcanon for reasons that I’m not sure I can really put into words. Canonically, I don’t think it’s true given the text we have in-game but I don’t necessarily dislike the idea. I don’t particularly find it as compelling at the idea of her having stumbled across Dinosaur Planet on her own and deciding to help out due to the good nature of her heart. Krystal gets a pitiful amount of on-screen time but her actions during that time speak a lot for her character, I think.
I think people who use this headcanon inevitably have to come up with where the staff came from and her clothes. I’ve seen some people suggest she could have gotten the clothes on Sauria but they don’t really say where the clothes would have come from on Sauria. I mean, I’m a glutton for blaming the Krazoa on everything but I don’t know if I can reason that the Krazoa made Krystal a golden bikini. Unless that was some of their old clothes she found or something... (Do not make me think of Krazoa in golden bikinis, brain, I beg of you). Additionally, she doesn’t really seem to know much about the planet, as she has to be informed about things like the Krazoa.
Moving on. That’s not to say there’s no merit to this fanon. Krystal already seems acquainted with the CloudRunner tribe when she makes her introduction into the game and she can already speak the same language as the dinosaurs. Her staff also has upgrades that are scattered about the planet, clearly tying it to Sauria. So while I don’t really vibe with this as a headcanon, that’s not to say it’s bad or totally unreasonable.
#2 - Krystal is Cerinian royalty
Not sure where this one came from but I’ve seen it a fair amount. This might be from the trope of having a love interest that’s royalty or Krystal having lots of jewelry, therefore she was rich before Cerinia went kaboom or however it perished.
My hot take: I'm neutral-leaning-to-dislike on this one. I don’t like the idea of “the only survivor of this horrible accident is a single princess” because it screams overdone/overused tropes (and throws me back to Voltron... which reminds me of Voltron’s ending...). But I don’t dislike it to the point where I’d roll my eyes if I read a fic and that was included. I think it could be done very, very well and COULD be interesting. But it does lean a bit hard into the princess-in-distress idea and that leaves not a great taste in my mouth.
There’s no real evidence for or against this one. Again, I’m not entirely sure where it comes from (maybe it DOES come from Allura in Voltron lol).
#3 - Krystal is not the sole survivor of Cerinia
Very simply put, this information is found in the small manual that comes with the game. It’s the only time Cerinia is referenced and the only time Krystal being a sole survivor is referenced as well.
My hot take: Oh this one is my favorite. The text in the booklet does read that Krystal is the only survivor of her planet’s doom. The text additionally reads stuff like “Slippy traded in his pilot wings for a place at Weapons R&D”, boredom possibly causing Falco to “simply disappear”, talks about Scales “removing all 4 SpellStones” despite in-game clearly not having possession of the 4 SpellStones, refers to the Dino language as both new and old... just a lot of weird contradictory things. I did a full analysis on the mini-manual for Adventures here if you wanna read it. Tl;dr, the manual doesn’t seem to know what it’s talking about in some instances and offers very shaky, contradictory evidence.
That being said, it’s canonically said that Krystal is the only survivor... but given that not much has really been done to confirm this in-game, I feel like it’s something that could be considered fringe-canon at best. Especially considering it comes from a book that doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening in the plot of its own game.
If we want to take a hard look at the lore from a logical standpoint, I think it’s possible that Krystal’s the only survivor but I don’t think it’s probable. You have to wonder how Krystal survived whatever killed off her entire planet. And you have to wonder how she managed to escape it, likely by fleeing into space. Her being able to traverse the Lylat System freely implies that the Cerinians were space-faring (I’ll get into that later). And if the Cerinians were space-faring, does that mean that all of them would be on Cerinia during whatever apocalypse happened? The answer? Probably not. There might be pockets of Cerinians still out there that managed to evade the destruction, even if it’s just a handful. And I think that’s very much worth mentioning. (There is an alternative way Krystal could have fled but it’s using a bit of conjecture along with Dinosaur Planet lore and I’m going to save it for later. I don’t necessarily think it proves anything either way.)
Additionally, what matters the most about creating fanworks is having fun. If you look at this lore and you think “Wow, that is very unfun, I would rather write a tale about other Cerinians!” then... do it! If there’s way to logic it up, then there’s no reason you should let a throwaway line in a contradictory manual hold you back, in my opinion. So yeah, I’m a big believer in the fanon that other Cerinians exist! And anyone who tries to throw this manual at you in an attempt to tell you to not have fun with something can get bonked by one of those foxtrap plants from the ThornTail Hollow Well.
#4 - Krystal from Dinosaur Planet is a totally different character than Krystal from Star Fox Adventures on a meta level
This comes from the design change and the fact that Krystal in Adventures’ role was diminished. Additionally, her backstory was given alterations to better fit the Star Fox brand. A lot of people have since lamented that the Adventures Krystal was a poor bastardization of what we could’ve got. That particular opinion got really loud when the ROM leaked and that led to many an argument as discoveries were coming out about the game. But it’s an age-old, very tired debate at this point which is why I’m dredging it up. :)
My hot take: Very hot take incoming. My opinion is that they’re basically the same character. To me, Dinosaur Planet is a what-if of Krystal not being trapped in a crystal. Adventures is a “ope, Krystal got trapped in a crystal.” I’ll explain a bit more in detail.
We already knew that Dinosaur Planet and Adventures had a lot of 1:1 moments. When the ROM was leaked, it was actually pretty striking how much of a 1:1 a lot of those moments were. Krystal’s actions were all effectively unchanged, leading me to think that the parts we don’t get to see her do in Adventures would ultimately just mirror what her Dinosaur Planet counterpart did. She displays similar qualities.
The argument against my hot take is basically that “Are you really the same person without all the aspects of your backstory”, which I think there’s a lot of merit to as well! But ultimately, I think that even though Krystal’s backstory was given edits, they were not drastic enough to alter her overall character severely. In Dinosaur Planet, she’s the sole survivor of a massacre. In Adventures, she’s the sole survivor of an apocalypse. In both games, she comes to the planet out of the goodness of her heart to save it. Dinosaur Planet gives the benefit of adding Randorn in as a figure from her past, which provides ways for her to interact and display her personality more readily than the 5 minutes of fame she gets in the start of Adventures. So it does come across as DP!Krystal having more of a character than SFA!Krystal... but only out of opportunity to display it.
So really, the question comes down to this... Do you think cut content that reflects a character’s personality is non-canon?
In my opinion? No. Because the directors are only cutting out a scene, not who a character is down to their core. It’s a glimpse that the players don’t get to see, not an absence of that aspect of their personality.
But I think the answer is very subjective and people are free to disagree.
One argument I vehemently disagree with is because Krystal has a more “mature” design, her personality is removed. I don’t think that’s the case-- I think we were just robbed of seeing much of her so it comes across that way. Going to soapbox additionally and tell people that hate on Krystal’s SFAdv design because it’s “slutty” or whatever really need to sit back and check their opinion again. Having a design with boobs prominently displayed doesn’t necessarily mean a character is slutty. The addition of boobs onto a character design in general doesn’t mean they’re slutty. And even if Krystal was slutty? Good for her.
I’ve complained about this since Dinosaur Planet’s leak but the rise in slut-shaming in DP/SFAdv fan community spaces has increased to an unbearable amount. It’s okay to say you like one design or rendition of a character more than another but let’s try not to use shaming or misogynistic language when discussing it. There’s critiques to be made about the change in appearance (redefining a female protagonist for the male gaze especially) but they can be made without tearing down people who might dress differently than how you’d like for them to.
Ok soapbox rant over, let’s talk about more blue space furry fox.
#5 - Krystal has a last name.
There’s been a variety of fan surnames that have sprung up for Krystal over the years. Syrius, Buranetto, Vixon, and Fox are the ones that pop into mind immediately. Syrius, as far as I’m aware, comes from the person who owns fyeahdinosaurplanet. It’s the one I personally tend to lean towards and know several other people do as well because it was the first one that I encountered fanon-wise. Buranetto was one that I was informed about not too terribly long ago and when I dug around for the origin, the only thing I could find was a French fansite that had it listed on a popularity poll. And without confirmation from Nintendo, I can’t verify it as canon. Vixon stems from Dinosaur Planet as that is the name of Krystal’s tribe. That’s a pretty popular one especially lately with Dinosaur Planet being a little bit more talked about than it used to be. Fox as a surname I think comes from the fact that a lot of times she’s... simply tagged in social media as such? Perhaps to differentiate her from other Krystals, as it’s not exactly an uncommon name.
My hot take: I don’t think Krystal has a canonical last name. And if she ever did, I feel as though it would have been leaked by now. I don’t really mind giving her one or not giving her one. I tend to gravitate towards Krystal not having a surname as it’s against Cerinian culture and, instead, her name being “Krystal of the Vixon”, with Vixon being the colloquial name for Cerinian foxes. Later on, I can see her taking up a surname, with Syrius being the one I personally think is the best fitting out of the fanon ones! But I don’t knock people for giving her a last name-- after all, everyone else has one, so why not? Would be interesting to see if Nintendo ever decided to give her one officially! I think it’s possible in a future game for sure.
#6 - Cerinia is low-tech.
This comes from the fact that a lot of people perceive Krystal’s attire as coming from a less technologically advanced society. A lot of people refer to the Cerinian society as “tribal” as a way to say it’s “low tech” but I wanna give a reminder that tribal =/= low tech. The Cerinian society COULD be tribal and have advanced tech. We just don’t know because nothing is ever told to us. Still, and maybe due to some of the influence of Dinosaur Planet Krystal’s backstory, a lot of fan portrayals of Cerinia show them as a society without the technological advancements of most of the Lylat System.
As a note, I also blame Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Sonic Adventure’s Mystic Ruins. I have met a suspiciously large amount of people that use both of those as references for Cerinia. I won’t say that’s a bad thing but it’s interesting how so many people came to that conclusion.
My hot take: While I used to use this headcanon in the past (believe it or not, I had a full on chapter written at one point of Cerinia pre-destruction that I don’t think will ever see the light of day), it’s one that as I think on the lore harder, I don’t necessarily agree with. I don’t think it’s a bad take by any means but I don’t think it’s one that fits as nicely as the alternative-- which is that Cerinia was technologically advanced at least comparative to Corneria.
As I mentioned earlier, Cerinia being a high-tech society makes a bit more sense when you think of how Krystal evaded a certain doom with the destruction of her planet (or at least everything on it). It’s likely, especially because she seems familiar with interplanetary travel and spaceships, that she took a ship of her own off Cerinia to escape. This doesn’t necessarily explain how she’s the sole survivor of her planet but it does align better with what we can gauge about her from context clues. Additionally, when confronted with things like the Great Fox or the ship she uses to fly to the Great Fox, she doesn’t seem ignorant of what these things are and how to use them. One would assume someone who comes from a place without this kind of technology would be very baffled by it. I mean, even some of the ThornTail dialogue describes the Arwing as a large metal bird.
... But what if I told you that’s not the only way she could have escaped? There does exist a way that Krystal could have made it to Sauria without the use of space travel. This theory utilizes Dinosaur Planet lore, specifically what we know from the leaked character bios on RareThief. Here is the part in question, which is a part of the Condensed Dinosaur Planet Story section of the site:
So basically, in the original draft of the game, Randorn and Krystal made it to Dinosaur Planet via a wormhole, which sounds a bit like the warp pads in Adventures if I’m honest. Animus is the name of Krystal’s original homeworld. Later, the name was switched to Cerinia for reasons we don’t know. But how much was changed about this homeworld? Was it just the name? Or was this mysterious temple also changed?
It’s possible that Krystal could have used this wormhole in the temple to escape Cerinia’s collapse. It does leave some things a bit fuzzy as to how they all transpired. The game makes it sound as though Krystal has been wandering for some time since Cerinia’s fall but it doesn’t clarify it enough for me to firmly say that it’s been an extended amount of time. It could be that Krystal leapt from Cerinia to Sauria fairly recently through these portals. It could be that Krystal’s been portal-hopping for awhile if these portals are strung about the Lylat System. But I do think that’s delving into some far-fetched territory and doesn’t really explain things like her being able to fly a ship and stuff like that. So while it’s possible, I don’t think it’s as likely. But it’s an interesting spin on the idea.
#7 - All Cerinians are blue foxes with magic powers.
I scoured the internet for the origin of this one. The best I could come up with is because there’s a lot of people who, especially early on, made blue fox Cerinian OCs like Krystal, this fanon kind of took off with the help of projects like Star Fox: Event Horizon, which also displays their version of Randorn as a blue fox. But this has become a huge thing lately-- to the point where I’ve gotten commentary on my fics with people confused about my Cerinian OCs because they’re not all telepathic or blue foxes. So I thought I’d talk about this one.
My hot take: I have no idea where this came from and I’m not sure why it’s taken off particularly in fanfiction spaces. There’s virtually no precedent for it-- every single planet we’ve seen in the Lylat System thus far is populated by various species. And even if you were to use Animus as a template for Cerinia, that planet also had different types of species. So... eh? Why are people treating Krystal as the prime example of every Cerinian? I don’t particularly understand that. That would be like looking at Fox and saying “Wow, every Papetoonian is exactly like this”... which I guess that could be. But I doubt it.
Not gonna knock people for using this fanon, I just think it’s weird when people assume that every fic should be like this.
#8 - Cerinia was destroyed.
Pretty self-explanatory. Cerinia is often depicted by fans as destroyed by Andross with Krystal having no way of returning to it because it’s rubble.
My hot take: When you really, really, really think on Andross and his entire plan of revival, it seems most likely that Cerinia is in one of two states-- completely erased or uninhabitable. Krystal’s recognition of Andross gives us little to go off of. But Andross’s continued state of being dead gives us a little bit more insight. Personally, my theory is that Cerinia was used in a similar manner as Dinosaur Planet. Andross went to drink in all the magic from the planet’s core and it backfired, resulting in him being dead still and the planet destabilizing. We already know it’s possible for magic to destabilize planets-- SFAdv teaches us that early on. I think that’s how Krystal knew who Andross was. At least, that’s the best sense I can make of what context clues we have.
But I’m rambling. The point is that it makes a lot of sense for Cerinia to have been destroyed. Maybe in a similar fashion to how Dinosaur Planet would have been destroyed had Fox not swooped in to save the day. Doomed in an other state... I could see it, too. But destroyed outright makes a tad more sense given the context clues. So yeah, good fanon idea.
Whew, that was super long and I apologize for any typos my tired eyes may have missed! I wrote this all in chunks over several days so I tried to edit periodically as I went. If something makes no sense, I’ll go back and edit it later.
Next Hot Fanon Takes(tm) will be about generic stuff again, though the next one’s docket looks like it inadvertently will be a post about Star Wolf. Soooo yeah. Thank you for reading my Hot Takes and please be sure to submit any ideas to me if you can think of any!
Cerinia and Krystal lore for a fic that may never be
Cerinia is largely unknown to the people of the Lylat System. Those who do know of it think of it as a backwater planet of savages.
Turns out though that they have highly advanced technology that looks like magic. And possibly literal magic. But they hide it from outsiders.
There are 22 tribes on Cerinia, and Krystal is from the ruling house of the Sun tribe. They run their own territory but answer to the World tribe, who run the planet as a whole. Like the Starks to the Baratheons but more functional.
Krystal, as a noble, was trained in weapons (with a particular liking for her staff) and piloting. She was also taught many languages and the history of Cerinia, particularly the Sun domain.
Krystal's thigh tattoos are the family crest, and her arm tattoos were earned when she mastered airbending telepathy. She would have more if she'd been able to master her other powers.
Cerinians all have potential for psychic powers, but few are able to learn to use them, much less master them. Takes a lot of time and energy and over time it became kind of a sign of privilege.
Krystal wanted to explore space and help those in need, but she was duty-bound to stay put. So at 13, she grabbed her staff, stole a ship, and ran away. Shortly after, she had a vision of the destruction of Cerinia. Upon her return, she found a desolate wasteland. She salvaged what she could of the lifeless world and began her quest for answers.
Andross was involved in the destruction and she saw his face in her vision, but she didn't know he was acting as an agent of Corneria.
Oh yeah Corneria was trying to colonize Cerinia and it all went tits up lol
Been talking about my favorite blue vixen in some Discord servers, so here’s a bit of a Krystal headcanon megapost:
Real Name: Bihaji of the Vixon. I headcanon that Cerinians don’t really have surnames and that “Krystal” is more or less a translation of the Cerinian word “translucent gem”. Krystal later takes on the last name Syrius-- which I believe is actually a fanon name from the Dinosaur Planet fandom that was started by Gen at fyeahdinosaurplanet, so mad props to them.
Krystal was put into training at a young age by her parents to become what regular Lylatians might consider to be a soldier. However, her rank was more religious-based, with the inclusion that she would have to occasionally travel off-planet to do good works there. During this training, she learned how to better utilize her natural magical gifts, how to fly a ship, martial arts, and several languages.
At a young age, she was placed in the care of Randorn, who became her mentor. Because of her father being an important politician, she rarely saw him, and thus Krystal came to see Randorn as more of a father figure than her actual father.
Krystal was born in the northern reaches of Cerinia, where the climate was much colder. However, for the majority of her training, she lived in the warmer capital of Cerinia.
Krystal is the second youngest of five sisters. Their names were Zonoca, Fousa, Jideni, and Roci. Krystal has not seen any of them since Cerinia perished and believes they are likely dead, along with her parents.
Roci was responsible for helping Andross destroy Cerinia-- albeit she was unintentionally helping him do so. She was young when it happened and was manipulated.
The Cerinian staff that Krystal carries is a commonplace weapon among the order she is a part of. It is especially attuned to her, but she can temporarily transfer ownership to others, such as in Adventures. The staff is also semi-sentient and has a will of its own.
Despite being telepathic, Krystal has a pretty strict rule on herself not to pry without permission, unless it’s a dire circumstance. She feels it’s an invasion of privacy otherwise.
Krystal keeps a sharp mental ear out for waves of thoughts that are in the nearby area to make sure she is safe and that no one is coming. Although it takes effort to hear actual thoughts, she can shallowly dip into her powers to “feel” thoughts happening, which is how she is able to detect incoming enemies (provided the enemies are organic and have brains).
There is a heavy emphasis on the elements in Cerinian culture and Krystal feels the most “attuned” to water. She also enjoys swimming.
Krystal secretly kept a shard of the crystal she was imprisoned in, as a reminder of her own weakness and past failures. She keeps it in a drawer under her socks and underwear. Fox finds it at some point and questions her about it. She angrily snatches it from his hand and shoves it back into the drawer, not wanting to talk about it.
The metal plates in Krystal’s Adventures outfit are part of an armor set that covers her entire body. She left some of the parts on the ship because they’ve become damaged over time and she’s not equipped to repair them.
Krystal keeps a series of power gems on her to replenish her Staff’s energy when she’s on a mission.
As the Star Fox team travels, Krystal will occasionally dip out to planets to attune with some of their magic caves and shrines-- these were remnants of a time when Cerinia had a bigger influence on the Lylat System and she goes usually with an offering of respect to her ancestors.
She never gives up the search for her people-- not even years later, after the Anglars. She wants to believe that she and Panther weren’t the only ones who made it off Cerinia.
Krystal hates loud, big cities because she can feel all of the thoughts buzzing around. It can get overwhelming for her and despite being able to block it out, she sometimes doesn’t have the energy to. For this reason, she spends a lot of time alone or takes breaks from socializing often.
Krystal has a pretty strict meditation schedule-- morning and evening, every day, unless she’s sick. If the team is on a planet, she will go off into nature to have some time alone. If they’re on the Great Fox, she will play forest ambient noises to simulate a forest vibe in her room.
In the corner of her room is a power gem plant. She also has a dumbledang tree but it grew too big for her room so now it’s in the lounge.
In the hours before Cerinia’s demise, Krystal came face-to-face with Andross, who was endeavoring to revive himself using a ritual not terribly unlike his plan in Adventures. His plan strongly involved the cooperation of Krystal’s youngest sister, Roci, who had been fooled by Andross into thinking he was a wayward spirit looking to free himself of his limbo-like state. Roci had been preparing to undergo this ritual for weeks-- stealing artifacts from Cerinia’s temples, accumulating a massive amount of power gems, and laying out the groundwork for her ghostly “friend” to come back to life.
Unfortunately, Krystal and her mentor, Randorn, did not realize what was amiss until it was too late. Andross was at the cusp of revival but the interference from Randorn and Krystal caused the magic building to backfire. Before Andross could become corporeal, the ritual failed and Cerinia experienced a calamitous explosion from its core. Roci, who had been brainwashed by Andross at this point, was presumably killed in the blast.
But while the explosion and massive loss of life was traumatic to Krystal, losing her sister in such a horrible way left even worse scars. She began to fear meeting a similar fate-- reaped of her agency and made into a tool for evil. Her nightmares were filled with Roci and the skeletal ghost of Andross.
A few years passed. The nightmares got less often. Although misfortune struck the Cerinian refugees over and over again and Krystal was ultimately separated, her life became filled with different complications-- trying to figure out how to survive, trying to see if her family had survived the explosion, trying to find Randorn again...
Maybe that’s when she got complacent.
“It can’t happen twice.”
“There’s no way he could have survived that anyways.”
That’s what she told herself.
Imagine her surprise when she realized just too late that Andross was waiting for her at Krazoa Palace. That this had all been part of a ploy to lure her there. That her worst fears had been realized.
What if plenty of Cerinians are still alive? They would probably be collectively scarred by their experience. I would imagine them giving up any peaceful notions and becoming a war-like culture that quickly becomes adept at weaponizing magic.
Ohhh I have many thoughts about Cerinia. Probably why it’s taking so long to do the Cerinia headcanons post.
So the short answer is: Yes, I see that as being possible with a tiny little caveat that I already headcanon the Cerinians as having a fairly adept military but an overall culture of peacekeeping.
Of course this military was not to the level of Corneria’s. Cerinia utilized a different type of energy source to power their weapons and ships. This energy source is what Fox would come to know as power gems over on Sauria. These gems would function as cores with different levels of gems powering various types of machinery. Sometimes, the Cerinians would even require clusters of these gems to power really, really big things-- like cities! But that’s kinda going off-topic, moving along now.
Weaponizing magic seems to be something Krystal kind of does in Adventures-- or at least that’s implied since she’s carrying around a magic staff. And, this is delving even further into headcanon territory (with some vague canon proof in-game) but I’m pretty sure the staff reset its abilities when it fell into Fox’s possession because Krystal uses the Fire Blast ability at the end of the game and I don’t know how else she would’ve known how to use that unless she had already used it before. So that makes me think that Cerinia weaponized magic, unless that’s something she picked up after Cerinia exploding. But could such techniques be expanded upon by a vengeful, grieving society? Oh yes, I imagine they could.
Given how unlikely it seems to me that every single Cerinian was on the planet at the time of it exploding or whatever, I definitely think it’s unlikely Krystal is the only survivor. This is one of the few times I look at the canon and I deny it because I don’t feel it makes much sense. In fact, I would even say it’s unlikely she was the only person who made it off the planet at all.
So, that means refugees. Where does one go when their entire planet is destroyed? I would imagine some would band together to form a new “Cerinia”, even if it was just a city on a planet relatively unclaimed by the bigger powers. Some might give up the idea of rebuilding and just decide to assimilate into Cornerian culture, since that seems to be the domineering power. Others? Yeah, I could see them deciding to forego their peaceful ways entirely and become a faction that has seen the dark side of the universe and knows that to survive, you have to be strong. And to be strong, you have to be able to fight.
