While Alice DeRoss is too busy to keep pets (though she has considered a cat on occasion), she has a fondness for the Mini Hunters. Self-sustaining little entities, they go about their merry days, mimicking the actions of their larger counterparts. With their shared history, Alice and Minimare interact the most. Though the tiny creature may not speak, a modicum of their fractured childhood is echoed in time spent. One that will not be ripped away by Oletus' curse.
Featuring an elaborate impromptu explanation for how I analyze IDV characters here.
I've been thinking about Hunter Composer again and, now that we have the other three Da Capo Hunters, we can use them to make educated guesses regarding Frederick.
So far, we've had Four Hunter Swaps: Nightmare, Fool's Gold, Hullabaloo, and Queen Bee. Three of these Hunters are Da Capos.
It should be noted that Nightmare will act as an exception to some of the IDENTITY Hunter Swap Rules. This is because NM's appearance is tied to disassociation, compared to other Hunter Swaps (FG and QB for Da Capo, and Hullabaloo for Game 8).
The Three Meanings of Da Capo
The Da Capo Swaps have three meanings: the self reason to the character/arc, the perception of Alice, and the supernatural reason.
The self reason is what the character means to themselves. It can be their self-perception, their character arc, or even the disassociation of an identity.
FG represents presentation versus base desire. Norton presents himself as a hardworking laborer without internal desire, but Norton's desperation to escape his poverty is ruthless, nihilistic, and willing to use corpses as the ladder rungs to the sun. Id versus ego as one of the developers calls it. Norton's duality is in the form of conflicting desires and conflicting presentations.
NM is the identity of Orpheus with the most self-hatred, the most trauma. He associates himself with bad memories. The ravens, in contrast to the Novelist's love of them, remind him of the poor corvid that lost its life moments before the Oletus Manor Massacre. The ability names reference hunting and poaching, bringing to mind Orpheus' biological parents (the Blanches), in contrast to his valorization of his adoptive/chosen family (the DeRosses). Nightmare sees himself as the raven, the Bad Omen. The monster that is trapped as a monster.
QB represents a revelatory moment. Melly had spent her life trying to become a person like Joshua. She loved him for the world he represented. Locking her in the Greenhouse was when Melly realized she would never be welcomed in the academic world of men. She would have to adapt, therefore gaining wings and breaking from her display case. At the same time, she represents Melly upholding Joshua's ideology.
The Alice perception is discussed in the Queen Bee Concept Video. This proposes the idea that the Da Capo Hunters represent Alice's perspective. Their monstrous forms represent the "worst-case" scenarios for Norton, Orpheus, and Melly. What they represent at the current moment depends on how much Alice trusts them.
FG represents the "worst-case" scenario for Norton: A heartless, ruthless monster who destroyed his coworkers in a fiery rockfall. This is reflected in his hollowed-out chest made of stone. Alice knows Norton was likely responsible for the Golden Cave Disaster and her perception of someone grinning as he cuts down those in his way reflects it. Greed permeates her corrupted version of him.
NM represents the "worst-case" scenario for Orpheus: A miasma-surrounded, mask-wearing wereraven. I suspect this is due to Alice subconsciously recognizing her brother. In Cage of Yesteryear, a corvid accidentally killed itself right before the Massacre by flying into a window. It was most likely startled by the bandits before they entered the Manor. The idea he has fallen to madness is reflected in her seeing her worst memories in his form.
QB represents the "worst-case" scenario for Melly: A predator within a safe shell. According to the developers, Alice sees Melly as more humanoid than FG or NM because she still "trusts" Melly. While I do think this isn't entirely true, and QB's redesign was influenced by external factors, it does provide a diegetic basis for her design.
Lastly, there's the supernatural reason. This is the most "obscure" reason, given circumstances such as Delphi and (out of story) censorship. Still, it's there.
FG is influenced by the presence of the Mine God. He lacks a heart, which is similar to the sacrificial victims of Huītzilōpōchtli, a god that is mentioned in Norton's inspiration: "The Transition of Juan Romero." It's likely that Norton's survival was more than miraculous.
NM's transformation is the least known, but Orpheus has been self-experimenting with Delphi, a drug known to have unusual effects on supernatural individuals. If he himself became supernatural through intervention, such as his research into theology, or from exposure to Oletus Manor's cursed nature, it's possible it could've transformed him into what he is now. The result reflects a creature Orpheus both loves and fears: the raven.
QB may have been affected in more ways than one by the bees Joshua attempted to kill her with. There has been a previous case of a researcher transforming after being bitten by an unusual animal: Professor Luchino Diruse. It's possible she survived the attack, at the cost of being transformed from woman to insect.
What Frederick's Hunter Could Mean
For the self reason, Frederick is torn between two identities. One side of Frederick values skill at the cost of cruelty, personified in the spectral blue version of his deceased twin. This side of Frederick is what his family wanted, someone who would be happy to remain with the Kreiburgs, a conductor. Another side of Frederick sacrifices acknowledgment, being the talent his family wanted, for following his own path. His Hunter could represent the duality, or take the side of his crueler, older self. The prodigal son the Kreiburgs wanted.
For the Alice perception reason, Frederick's Hunter represents a "worst-case" scenario for him. Out of all the Da Capos, what's interesting is that the "worst-case" is most likely true. The evidence points towards him being a Manor Staff member, and not a new one like Norton. There's tragic circumstances for how this happened: Frederick leaving his family at the cost of disownment, a friendship with Orpheus potentially changing an initial interest in retrieving Blue Hope (if he was interested it at all), and the sunk cost fallacy preventing him from listening to regret. Alice, though, will likely learn none of this.
For the supernatural reason, we have two categories of potential options: Frederick's monstrosity is inherent, or Frederick's monstrosity is acquired.
If Frederick's monstrosity is inherent, then it provides a cruel irony to the Krieburgs ostracism of him. Frederick was cursed by the heavens, but it wasn't for being a monster. It was for completely mundane reasons: birthmarks and a tragic, coincidental stillbirth.
If Frederick's monstrosity is acquired, then it could be the result of his experiences with Mrs. Nicholas, who was tied to the Black Goat Cult. It could also be the result of his independent interest in occultism. He could've also self-experimented with Delphi, much like Orpheus.
Anthropomorphic vs Non-Anthropomorphic
Hunters range in anthropomorphism when they're swapped. Mike is himself, but with exaggerated proportions and the broken face of a discarded doll. Melly is herself, but hides an insectoid body within her skin, and her outer shell still has antennae and other insectoid features. Norton's vernally Humanoid, but one of his arms is entirely comprised of rock, and from the chest-down is mostly mineral. Nightmare is a wereraven barely attaining human shape.
According to Sev in the Queen Bee Concept Video, the reason why Melly is more anthropomorphic than, say, Nightmare is because Alice currently trusts her. While I doubt this was the only reason, it's still reasoning from one of the developers.
From this logic, Frederick should be less anthropomorphic than Melly or Fool's Gold. He should either be as dehumanized as Nightmare, or perhaps even more dehumanized, given Frederick lacks the familial bond Orpheus and Alice have. Even if he remains humanoid, identifiable features should be sharpened. There's motifs that support this, too, as will be discussed later.
Character Recognition
Survivor to Hunter swaps generally retain the same outfits as their Survivor counterparts. In contrast, Hunter to Survivor swaps and Survivor to Survivor swaps will alter their outfits.
From Prospector to Fool's Gold, the outfit changes we see are the removal of his shirt, removal of his hat, removal of his suspenders, and substituting his compass with an oil lamp.
From Acrobat to Hullabaloo, the only outfit change is the removal of his belt, which is where his Hunter's body is split, replaced with a rusty spring. The other pieces of Mike's outfit remain the same, if exaggerated. The largest addition is a torn piece of the Hullabaloo Circus banner he carries as a cape.
From Entomologist to Queen Bee, the notable removals are that of her helmet, hat, shoes, and gloves. This reveals her face, which now has antennae and compound eyes. It also reveals she now has taloned hands, one with an exoskeleton. Otherwise, she retains her trousers and green coat.
The exception to this is Novelist and Nightmare. Nightmare lacks the coat of Novelist, the hair of Novelist, the shoes of Novelist, and most of his Survivor's identifying features. The exception is they share the same scar. While one possibility is that it's implying something else about Nightmare, the most likely option is it's to highlight their disassociation. They're two identities tied to the same disassociated person. Detective in the present has yet to realize they're the same person. Nightmare, due to being tasked with "purifying sin," is dehumanized. He's associated with bad memories.
If they want to keep association between Frederick and his Hunter, he should lose one or two major traits at most. However, if they want to establish a contrast, they should try and remove identifiable Survivor features.
Shape Language
All the Da Capo Hunters experience a sharpening of their shape language. Circles become squares, cones into triangles, et cetera. We can use a drawing exercise to identify these shapes, by tracing construction shapes over the sprites, then drawing the shapes separately.
Norton's Prospector form is dominated by square and circle shape language. He has a very soft face, a rectangular body, and the objects he carries, such as his candle, magnets, and compass, are either circular or square in shape.
Objects that are lost inked in pink.
Queen Bee sharpens or elongates most of Melly's circles, and turns Melly's squares into trapezoids and triangles. Still, she has the most circles of the three Da Capo Hunters remaining, giving her a "softer" appearance compared to the more threatening FG and NM. Whether this was intentional or a product of QB's redesign is unknown.
Nightmare features the most complex form of this. The Novelist features the most mixed shape language, with a softened square for a face, circular monocle, but very triangular hair. Nightmare, in contrast, is the most triangular-dominated out of any Hunter. His hair is triangular, his body triangular, his face triangular. At the same time, he rearranges most of the Novelist's shapes, retaining softened squares and circles in focal points of his design. He is the most disassociated from his Survivor counterpart. Yet, he is also the same. Merely rearranged.
What can we learn from this?
Frederick is already very triangular. His hair is comprised of triangles, his coat is triangular, and even his facial features are sharp, in contrast to the other Da Capos. As a result, his Hunter will likely exaggerate his preexisting tangles. Frederick's body is composed of two triangles/an hourglass, so his Hunter will exaggerate this shape.
Character Motifs
Hunter Swaps incorporate the motifs of a character, or other symbols they associate themselves with. They are often tied to the meanings of the Hunter.
Fool's Gold is associated with pyrite, gold, and coal. This reflects Norton's desire for gold to escape his life of poverty, the coal that destroyed his lungs and gave him chronic disease, and the pyrite he was accused of being by Uncle Benny.
Queen Bee is associated with bees. Bees are what Melly specializes in, they represent her social darwinist mentality, and they represent Melly being accused of murdering her husband. This accusation was spread by Orpheus' story "Queen Bee." Melly is a survivalist, hardworking, and willing to do what she must to survive, like a hive of bees. Her exposed, impaled back represents the betrayal she felt from Joshua.
Nightmare is associated with ravens and drugs. The raven, a misunderstood, intelligent, adaptable creature is similar to Orpheus, but it also represents his self-hatred. He sees himself as the poor corvid that died the same day as the DeRosses: a bad omen. The bottle of drugs around his neck represents his research/addiction to Delphi. The exact drug is "Orpheus," implied to alter memories, and one of the drugs Orpheus possible took during the Final Game.
In addition to these three, Mike's Hullabaloo form is a broken doll, representing Mike's association with performance as a "toy." He existed for others, not himself.
There are multiple Frederick motifs that could be used. Most are elaborated here, but Frederick's Hunter could incorporate birds, fire, angels, demons, mirrors, paper, and cornflowers.
However, I want to acknowledge one new motif that wasn't there when I wrote the analysis: the wolf.
Frederick always had some wolf imagery. His feathery ponytail invokes a wolf's tail, and his grey hair fur. His lonesome status, but connections to a large family invoke a lone wolf. He's musical, loud, and misunderstood as a bad omen. While dangerous, he is introverted, and seemingly displays profound loyalty, like a wolf. It's notable that, if he does want Blue Hope (it's very possibly he doesn't, or no longer wants it), he was willing to trust Orpheus after he moved it to his room. Frederick had the opportunity to take Blue Hope and leave, but chose not to.
"Umber," Frederick's Halloween skin, is a werewolf based off Reptile Luchino's Horrendous skin. Werewolves are a familial-based culture, one that values traditionalism and strength. Frederick, though, is disgusted by this bestial nature, and sees the adherence to tradition as costing the werewolves their intelligence. He chose to leave his pack rather than fall into decay. Curiously, a month later, it was revealed main story Frederick did something similar.
In the Melly Route of Cage of Yesteryear, Alice can learn more about the Kreiburg family. As it turns out, the Kreiburgs practice a gu-like form of social darwinism on their children. The child willing to kill their relatives, to sacrifice everything for the sake of so-called value, is seen as the most "talented." The children are depicted with the shadows of animals; the "victor" who kills his relative depicted as a stag, is a wolf. While it's unknown if this child was Frederick, it does associate the "rising Kreiburg star" with wolves. At one point, Frederick was this star, but chose to leave his family.
Other characters such as Dogma and Emil feature canine motifs, but Frederick is unusual as the only Da Capo with such coding.
Weapons
Da Capo weapons are tied to their occupations as Survivors, or the transformations they experience to become their Hunters. FG carries a pickaxe to tie into Norton's past as a coal miner, NM has a sharp pen nib due to being a writer, and QB a taloned, exoskeletal hand due to being an entomologist.
Outside of the Da Capo quintet, "Hullabaloo" Mike features a shattered snow-globe as his weapon, with a miniature Hullabaloo Circus within. This calls back the circular bombs he carries as Survivor, while also tying him to the negative view of the past "Hullabaloo" represents.
While Frederick carries a gun with him, there's one item above all others his identity is tied to: the conductor's baton.
Frederick was initially the conductor for the Kreiburgs, a role he received with applause. He's often shown conducting in his artwork, with his A-tier Accessory being a conductor's baton bearing the Kreiburg cornflower. Conducting would tie into the "crueler" side of him that embraces Kreiburg tradition. Perfect for a Hunter.
One possibility is that Frederick will use his gun or cane as a conductor's baton. Another possibility is he will carry another weapon (a sword, a spear, a pen, a quill, etc) that will be used as a baton. Another possibly is that he just has a baton.
Type of Hunter
The design of a Hunter swap is supposed to complement their Survivor counterpart. The Survivor either counters the Hunter, the Hunter counters the Survivor, or both balance each other out.
Novelist is a Contain-Assist Survivor with Harass qualities. Initially, Novelist was capable of briefly controlling the Hunter as his harass. Due to the gameplay problems this caused, he was eventually rewired to swap positions with the Hunter as his harass.
Nightmare reflects this as a jack-of-all-trades Pressure Hunter. He can utilize ravens to keep track of and teleport to the location of a Survivor. Both Novelist and Nightmare have mechanics involving either staring at or avoiding staring at Survivors/the Hunter as well.
Prospector Norton is a Contain-Assist (originally Contain) Survivor with Harass qualities. Norton's magnets can be used to attract, repulse, or with an object (like a wall), stun a Hunter while either being pursued or supporting an injured or downed Survivor. This can even be used in certain circumstances to rescue a ballooned Survivor (or support a stronger Harasser/Rescuer). In addition, his decoding requiring perfect calibration means he can act as a decent Decoder when at peace.
Fool's Gold, to contrast, is a Camp-Pursuit Hunter. Like Prospector, he benefits from tightly walled areas, but this is because he can chip and down Survivors, not aid them. While Prospector Norton can speed up his decoding, FG can use a magnetic rock to extend his walled range, allowing him to pressure ciphers away from him.
Entomologist is a Contain-Assist (notice a pattern) who can control a swarm of bees to speed up without leaving a trail. She can command these bees to assist in speeding up a fellow Survivor as well. In addition, she can separate these bees to either slow the Hunter down or even drag them away from herself or another Survivor. While she cannot stun like Novelist and Prospector, it can buy time. She can also leave a reagent over windows/pallets she vaults. which allows Survivors to vault them quicker.
Queen Bee is a Pursuit-Camp Hunter who uses her swarm to inconvenience Survivors. When a Survivor is swarmed, they will increase Queen Bee's energy and increase her movement speed. Queen Bee can use the acquired energy to either chip Survivors with a bee dart, or assimilate with her swarm in a teleport, or even briefly control the swarm before exiting her teleport. In addition, Queen Bee can return the swarm to her to increase her vaulting speed.
For our non-Da Capo Hunter, Acrobat is a Contain Survivor with the ability to jump over objects using three kinds of juggling bombs. When a Hunter walks through the residue of the bomb, they obtain a debuff depending on the bomb used, and Mike has different ways of obtaining more bombs.
Hullabaloo, in contrast, has a Pursuit-based gameplay where he must hit a Survivor on three different portions of the stage that follows him in order to get a true "hit" and increased their fear. Each stage debuffs Survivors in a different way. To assist in this, he can summon a clone to give more balls, and he can unlock the ability to leap over objects, much like his Survivor identity.
Frederick would be unusual as our first Decoder to obtain a Hunter Swap. Decoders cannot kite or harass well, but they can decode ciphers quickly and oftentimes act as last-minute supports, either with healing or emergency harass/rescue. Frederick's abilities allow him to use a rhythm game to speed up decoding. In an emergency, he can use a similar rhythm game to briefly speed up his running speed, allowing him to transition kite. He is also the only Survivor to have zero calibrations, which allows him to ignore Wu Chang's calibration attacks, and act as a slow, but reliable healer.
The best counterpart to a Decoder, then, is a Pressure Hunter. Pressure Hunters make up for weaker chasing or camping with the ability to turn the game into a war of attrition. Pressure abilities include long-range teleportation (Nightmare, Wu Chang, Ivy), slowing or reversing cipher progress (Keigan, Philippe, Joseph, Alva), or even chipping or chasing all over map (Burke, Yidhra), and overall preventing Survivors from decoding ciphers or gates. Though sometimes Decoders are avoided in Pressure games due to their weak kiting skills, at other times they can provide a lifeline by shortening the war of attrition. Therefore, Frederick's Hunter will likely center on Pressure.
The Name
Hunter swap names take their names from an important or recurring word in their character arcs. As of right now, all Hunter swaps feature "quote" names rather than title names, which begin with a The.
"Fool's Gold" takes his name from an accusation aimed at him by his Uncle Benny. This was the moment Norton fell into nihilism. It highlights how he himself views his nature as deceptive and how he felt that his efforts to escape poverty were for nothing.
"Nightmare" takes from Orpheus' trauma and recollection, his own past being a "nightmare" to him. It's potentially the name of an identity of his, one that exists in order to hold bad memories from the other Orpheus identities.
"Queen Bee" takes from the tabloid Orpheus wrote about Melly, one that examined the murder of her ex-husband. It also highlights how she leads the swarm of bees that Joshua attempted to kill her with.
And "Hullabaloo" takes from the Hullabaloo Circus Mike grew up at, with the despair over its rotten nature being the catalyst for Mike's Hunter form.
Right now, there are a couple significant words in Frederick's lore that could potentially be the source of a Hunter name.
"Da Capo" is the nickname given to Frederick by Orpheus in his Ninth Deduction. This ties into the likelihood Frederick's a Manor Staff member, one of whom may be willing to drag the others down with him than be exposed. It's the name of one of the videos depicting the Final Game. Specifically, it's the video* Nightmare is shown beating the spotlights out of Norton in. It also fits the "two-word" theme NM, QB, and FG have.
*Lacrimosa, the last part of Mozart's Requiem that he worked on before his death, appears to have inspired the strings for the video. His last written words supposedly included "D.C." for Da Capo. What this means for Frederick is currently unknown.
"Talent" comes from Frederick's skill as a composer not being acknowledged due to being too traditional. He views is crueler self as living up to these impossible standards, at the cost of himself.
"Hellfire" is the term used by Amalia Kreiburg to describe the birthmarks Frederick has on his skin. These were the birthmarks used to justify Frederick's lack of baptism, and any skill he showed was weighted by the "sin" his skin marked. It also fits the "two-word" theme.
"Chimera" and "Cornflower" are two other, less likely possibilities, based off his motifs.
Lastly, one curious option exists. This would break tradition, but in the beginning of Cage of Yesteryear, a page on Frederick Kreiburg can be spotted in Alice's diary. While I'm still working on making all of the words legible, one word is larger than all the ones.
The Neglected.
Frederick's Hunter: The Speculation
Now, putting all of this together, let's speculate on Frederick's Hunter, from a few different angles.
From the Angelic perspective, Frederick draws on his angel motif. The "Garden of Eden" essences alongside the recent COA9 show IDV has dabbled in angelic imagery before. It's quite unique, but it's similar to some previous Hunters such as Joseph or Ithaqua, who also are pale-haired and dabble in biblical imagery.
On the opposite side is the Demonic angle. Here, Frederick would embrace the hellfire he was compared to in childhood. IDV has two other demon-based Hunters, Antonio the devil-possessed musician and Marcus the daemon. To distinct him from the two, he would have to take inspiration from more "classical" depictions, whether bestial or Miltonian. Still, he risks being derivative.
Another motif option is Birds, based off the crack theory Frederick was mistaken for the "Nightmare" of Time of Reunion. Options range from a werebird like NM to a harpy-like design. On one hand, the similarity could backfire, alongside limiting his skin options. On the other hand, it succinctly ties together multiple of Frederick's motifs (birds, angels, fire, music etc) into creatures such as the phoenix.
In the Werewolf option, Frederick would be the long-fabled werewolf Hunter, embracing the animalistic side of the werewolf spectrum. Similar to the avian option, it leans away from anthropomorphism, but it's entirely distinct. It also hosts the same drawback that its subsequent skins would always have to have animalistic faces, due to how the model would be rigged.
For Paper, Frederick's composing takes center-stage. He becomes the work he devoted his life to. Out of the motifs, this has the clearest ability possibilities. Frederick could ignite Survivors or objects using burning music sheets. On the downside, the inorganic nature of paper makes it difficult to form an organic Hunter from.
Each motif has its own unique positives and drawbacks. The most likely possibility is that Hunter Composer will combine more than one motif, with a primary motif, a secondary motif, and a tertiary motif. That way, each of the befits would overcome the drawbacks.
For proof of concept, here's some sketches exploring a few angles. Or angels.
There's at least a year until Frederick's Hunter has the chance of appearing. Until then, there'll likely be more reveals that could hint at what he might become.
