Discover Top Posts Tagged with #idv character analysis

Idle Thoughts on Evelyn and her Role as a Guide to Freedom

Blame Evelyn and Joseph for being too intriguing in this year's anniversary story for this post.

So I finally finished the Global Anniversary story. I know I'm terribly behind and I plan to write up a post on the event along with the summer event (again SO SO SO behind), but while I was reading this event, I couldn't help but think of Evelyn's role in it and how it compared to recent roles she's had.

Now, I don't talk about Evelyn at all outside of my COA IX posts so bear with me since I'm no expert but as usual, I just wanted to get this off my mind.

(@quoththeowl31 apologies if the tag bothers you but thought you'd be interested in this post as someone who knows more about Evelyn and could add a thing or two)

Character Analysis: "Psychologist" and Patient (Ada Mesmer and Emil)

Promotional image of Ada and Emil for the 2021 Qixi Festival event which centered on their story.

Due to the recent news that Game 0 is in development and will be arriving soon (possibly by the end of summer, possibly in November—I’ve been hearing different things…), I decided it was finally time to really look into the lore of the central characters in the game. Particularly Emil and Ada, of course, as Emil is receiving his identity switch, “Herztier” from the side story.

Disclaimer: This was a long one (naturally, covering two people even with intertwined stories is not easy). I also want you all to understand I'm not an Adamil expert especially compared to those out there who've been with the couple since the beginning so I apologize if I overlooked something or made a mistake. I also plan to put this up later on my IDV website so you can look forward to that for easier reading. Thanks and on with the post.

#identity v #idv psychologist #idv patient #ada mesmer #idv emil #idv hertztier #idv admil #idv character analysis #Youtube

[Character Study #5] "Smiley Face"/"Weeping Clown" Joker

Art by GAO JUNJIE. Joker's 2022 Character Day Art.

(Note: Just like me, you should all read this while listening to "The Cursed Sun," "King's Feast," and "Hullabaloo" on repeat here.)

When one thinks about the anyone from the Hullabaloo Circus, we tend to think about the Closing Night story that dropped back in November of 2024. Even if you're a newer player like me who started playing after the event ended, I'm sure you've heard plenty about it here and there or even played through the story yourself. Which, by the way, I'd recommend everyone to do especially since I plan to write about each character from the side story.

First one up, however, is Joker. Thanks to one follower who gave me a good list of characters to analyze. Since I also had requests for Mike and Violetta, I decided I would do a piece on Murro and Margaretha as well since it felt a little unfair to leave them out.

Now, I will assume anyone reading this will know about the events of the Closing Night story especially Joker's role in it as it is so central to moving the plot forward.

But I will provided a short summary of the backstory of the circus troupe and The Closing Night story.

For easier reading (with a table of contents and everything!), read on my website here.

#identity v #idv weeping clown #idv smiley face #idv joker #idv character analysis

Character Analysis: “Knight” (Richard Sterling)

Oh boy, this was...a lot. Grab your snack and drinks because this became a ramble...

I haven’t done one of these character analysis posts in forever. This was supposed to be a series dedicated to characters with little lore to go on but enough to discuss but so far I’ve only done one on Fire Investigator and that one admittedly is VERY outdated now that I’ve written so much on Florian.

Regardless, this time it’s Richard’s turn and hopefully he won’t be the last of this “series” of mine. But where should we begin? Well, the obvious answer is his sister, of course, BUT before that, I wanted to take a moment to look at his room music.

#identity v #idv knight #richard sterling #idv sisterling #idv sterling family #idv character analysis #I omitted a lot okay?#getting too long #I'm also speculating and guessing!#thanks~

Identity Switch Series #1: Norton Campbell

Header Image: Birthday art of Norton. Fool's Gold's artwork was created by CharActerBunny.

This is another old post of mine that I'm now posting to the website.

Finally, I am slowly but surely putting up my old lore/character analysis posts. Norton in particular was someone I wrote about a lot when I first hopped onto Tumblr so expect not just this but a compilation of previous Norton posts in another "Character Study" post.

To be honest, I don't write much about Norton these days...like at all...because I feel like I exhausted a lot of talking points on him (from major to minor ones) nor do I have much else to say. I'm also trying to focus on learning about other characters.

Next Identity Switch post will be on Alice who I do wish to write more for cause oddly I haven't due to...a sort of writer's block I suppose.

#identity v #idv prospector #idv fool's gold #norton campbell #idv identity switch #idv character analysis

[Character Study #7] Female Dancer – Margaretha Zelle

Credit: Margaretha's 2025 Chinese server birthday artwork.

Welcome back to my Identity V character study/analysis series where I aim to explore each character in the game. I started this series to not only better my understanding of each character, but to highlight the talented writing team IDV has because I really do believe their character creation process from backstory to design has a lot of thought and care put into it. I hope to bring to light that while learning a lot about these characters while refining my own writing and analysis skills. Thus, I also want to preface this article by saying that I am no expert on these characters. This is my own interpretation and you're free to disagree with me.

Anyways, this particular article will be on Female Dancer known by many names: Natasha, Natalie, and finally as Margaretha when we meet her in The Closing Night story. She is the third "Hullabaloo" Circus member I've written up on and she won't be the last.

For those who missed it, I would recommend reading my pieces on Joker (where I also provided a summary of The Closing Night) and Mike. For this article, I will assume you already know about The Closing Night at least, but I still wanted to talk a little bit about Margaretha's role in the story, but first, let's start with her backstory.

#identity v #idv female dancer #margaretha zelle #idv character analysis

IDV Character Analysis: Fire Investigator

Finally, a post on my boy, Fin aka Florian Brand aka Fire Investigator. While I see a lot of fanart and fan comics on Fin, I don’t see any lore analysis on him…which is fair because he barely has any at the moment. I mean, the little lad only entered the manor last year.

So let me just get straight to the point of this post, I find Fin a pretty fascinating study in his own right and the more I read about him, the more I realized he's personality is quite multifaceted. There's certainly at least a duality there that I see no one talking about. Actually…I find him similar to Norton.

I think Norton would visibly cringe at being compared to someone like Florian.

Yeah, we can never escape talking about Mr. Campbell on this blog (my brainrot is real), but hear me out first and then judge for yourself.

Let’s start with his design notes. So the Fin we see today actually went through a number of phases before the developers settled on the design we see today. Initially, they wanted to really emphasize the concept of “duality” with Fin, represented by the the colors and the scar across his face in the first design concepts for him.

Fin's initial design concept. Notice the visible duality with his hair. He also appears a bit more sinister with the design on the right.

Yet, they felt the first sketch felt a bit too dark and repressed the sunny/brighter side of his character. This is when they decided that the main focus of Fin’s character should be his sunny side “with the more extreme side needing to be more subtle in its representation.”

Fun fact: Fin's right eye is still visible. It's on the right strap of his canister. His eyes together literally look like this: ><. Amazing character design~

Duality? A scar across his face? You see where I’m going with this? Though his scar is covered by bandages and is on the right side of his face.

Maybe they'd be buddies after all~?

Also consider the following quote about Fin:

“In normal social relationships, Florian can receive a lot of attention and support, and he also could help others. However, his enthusiasm doesn’t stem from real kindness, just as his help cannot bring a safe harbor that allows one to let their guard down completely.”

…so you can see why I shockingly came to the realization that Fin is quite similar to Norton. Funny, as I main them both with Alice…I guess I just like men with duality/split personalities. But in all seriousness, Fin is a more complex character than most people realize, I think. He always has a perpetual grin slapped across his face that makes him look equally parts bright and goofy (Fin's ever present smile could rival "Fool's Gold's"). Yet, interestingly, he is described as having a “proactive nature and serious and responsible character” in his backstory.

Speaking of, I made the mistake of not properly introducing his origins to those unfamiliar. I will do my best to just summarize (considering there’s not much anyway, I’ll try to keep it short (Edit: It was NOT short)):

A little Fin being pushed to safety by his parents as an older Fin visualizes the incident in the background.

Fin grew up in England with his parents who were chemists specialized in combustion and experimental research. Their studies took them from Berlin and Jena (both German cities) to finally settling down in England. Thus, Fin could've been born in Germany and technically be German, but there's been no confirmation of this. While his parents, particularly his father, showed signs that a he found his work quite ordinary, he still wanted to impress his son and thus, exposed the young Fin to his work.

Upon being asked what he was studying by Fin, his father “instead of explaining the equations, I showed him a few simple combustion demonstrations. I hoped the flame might speak for me where words could not.” (From Fin's 2025 Birthday Letter)

And thus, history was born. Fin became quite fascinated by it, so much so that his father promised him that he would replace his bedtime fairy tales with stories about fire. Such as, how it shaped civilization, how it brought both enlightenment and destruction, etc.

Fin would also go on to have an extreme interest and aptitude in combustion experiments.

Unfortunately, these happy times were cut short when a fire broke out from a failed combustion experiment one night at the Brand residence. It killed Fin’s parents who were said to protect him from the flames. The fire seemed to be rather devastating as Fin’s survival was taken to be a miracle in itself. Sole survivor of an explosion?? Hmmm...okay, I'll stop now.

In seriousness though, there may be more to the cause of the fire then meets the eye as noted by the quote from the anniversary tales booklet "Florian was hailed as a miracle for surviving a fire that razed his childhood home, but the truth was obscured by the flames."

Afterwards, a young Fin would find himself taken to White Sand Street Orphanage where he would be showered with media attention and donors who would constantly lament about the tale of selfless love and praise the miracle of life.

Fin, for his part, played along with the stories and he received more sympathy and donations. Of course, he wasn’t unaffected by the fire that took away the lives of his parents. For nights and nights afterwards, he would have the same dreams of the night of the fire and watching his parents be devoured by the flames.

Yet, the constant donations, stories of selfless love, and compliments from adults distorted his perception of the fire of that fateful day. He no longer resisted the fire but grew to love it.

So when a fire broke out at the orphanage and Fin showed great courage rescuing as many children as he could including the director, he was instantly hired by the fire department. He continued his great work as a fire investigator, quelling flames and rescuing those in need…despite the increase of fire incidences that started to spring up around him.

It is highly likely Fin started the orphanage fire himself as indicated by this shot from his trailer and a couple of his deduction notes. It's heavily implied he is the cause behind the increase of fire outbreaks in his town as well.

Fin, at the orphanage, being inundated with praise and compliments: "It's a miracle" would become almost like a mantra for Fin and the core of what he believes fires can bring about.

Okay, so that wasn’t as short as I thought. Obviously, there are a few things I want to point out with his backstory. Firstly, Fin always seemed to have a warm and bright personality, but besides that, he was really inquisitive and dare I say, precocious for his age.

As described by his father in Fin’s 2025 birthday letter:

“Florian is a remarkably perceptive child, full of bright curiosity that only the very young possess. He will crouch quietly before a garden bed for hours, simply to watch a sunflower bloom and slowly turn its face toward the sun. When Anita (Fin’s mother) asked him if he’d like to pick one as a keepsake, he leaned in gently, inhaled it scent, and said, ‘This way, it will always be with me—in my breath and my memory.'”

These little guys seem to be a reoccurring theme in my posts.

Indeed, what a thing for a child to do and say. I also picked this example because the mention of sunflowers has coincidentally been mentioned before in this blog in my post about Alice and Norton’s Aesthetics.

And speaking of Alice, I wonder if Fin and Alice have crossed paths before? Fin was taken to the same orphanage that Alice resided in after her own parents were murdered. The fire that broke out at the orphanage while Fin was there was on September 13th (according to his deduction notes) and interestingly, that date is the same day of “Memory’s” aka "Little Girl’s" birthday.

Note that "Little Girl's" memory fragments look like flames in game and the skill is symbolized by a flame over an opened book.

Oddly, Alice and her identity switch have different birthdays but it is still something of note when you also remember how fires are also well connected to Alice’s backstory and lore as well.

Interestingly, Alice's birthday is May 5th while Fin's is May 2nd. It's probably just coincidence but it's curious that at least one date related to Alice is tied to Fin (two if you really wanna stretch it).

Perhaps it’s because I main the two of them and maybe I am reaching but I do wonder if Fin has any connection of significance to Alice and if so, what? Considering the fact that I also compared him to Norton also just makes me feel like I’m just trying to make up any connections between my mains, haha.

But I do hope you understand what I mean when I say this. It’s not entirely baseless conjecture I would like to think.

Case in point, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few years down the line, Fin got an identity switch. This is a bit sudden until you take note of the parallels I've been making between him and Norton.

But yes, I could see our little fire investigator getting a hunter identity down the line. Why? Because NetEase and Joker Studio love the duality theme amongst their characters and considering the fact that Fin already was set up like that from the start is something to keep in mind.

They also did mention Fin having another, darker side to him that is hidden behind that derpy smile of his. From his 10th deduction note:

Some gossip: No one knows what Mr. Brand does outside of work. He rejects all questions and all who approach him with a smile, a smile that only briefly vanishes in certain situations.

I remember first reading this and feeling how ominous that was. What situations exactly could wipe the smile off Fin's face? It’s always a rather discomforting thing to witness a character who's all bright smiles and sunshine suddenly do a complete 180 and show a darker side that is usually a revelation of part of their true self.

Considering it also mentions, his enthusiasm for his work is not from real kindness, his friendliness masks his inner distance and inner essence and that you can’t let down you guard completely around him just because it appears he wants to help, is definitely signs that an inner darker force is at play within Fin.

Also, this last shot from Fin's character trailer is a little chilling. His real self vs. his mirrored image don't add up, the flickering lights, and the ominous room he's in feels suspicious. Plus, we can see next to the mirror, a poster of the manor up in flames...

I remember when I watched Melly's (Entomologist's) trailer for the first time, I saw a couple comments mention how she gave off hunter vibes (this is long before she was confirmed to have an identity switch). I kinda feel the same here with Fin.

For those curious: This is how Melly's trailer ends. Ends with dark and ominous vibes similar to Fin's.

Also, this is probably another stretch but, the box resting on the table next to Fin in the shot above, has what appears to be rope. When I first saw it, however, I though it was the Muse symbol which is used to show characters who have identity switches. Subtle foreshadowing or imagining things?

The muse symbol on Alice, Norton, and "Orpheus" showing they have identity switches. Melly coming soon. Frederick...uhhh...let's put a pin on that one.

(Sorta off topic tangent so skip if you want: This is why I say that he is like the opposite of Norton but also similar. Norton has a rough, gloomy, and grumpy exterior, but when not bogged down by the miner lifestyle, can be rather bright and friendly (see Summer Frisbee Norton)—heck, the boy ends up with blonde hair which is associated with warmer and brighter characters like Alice (mentioned this before) and Fin. Norton also wore a mask of kindness and servitude when working with his former bosses and volunteering at the miner’s shelter/hospice. Hence another reason I believe Fin could have an identity switch. NetEase/Joker studio may not be done showing the different sides of Fin as they can only show so much with him as a survivor.)

But going back on topic, another thing I noticed is the choice of S-tier they gave Fin when he first debuted. And listen, I swear this will be the last thing about Fin I will go over in this post.

Fun Fact: His missing eye is once again part of the buttons making up this cosmetic. They...uh, really like gouging his eye out and making it a decoration, huh? But also notice how the original red/white duality is back from his initial character design sheet.

The cosmetic, “Spirit Fox,” makes Fin out to be a seemingly chivalrous thief who upholds justice for others but the description of the cosmetic literally states: “He never proclaims his actions as just, yet people always expect more from him.”

It is also said that since he is good at understanding people’s hearts, he can always take the path of least resistance in order to satisfy his own desires. Very similar to how Fin is described earlier in this post.

Now consider the fact it’s a fox they made him. I think mainly of the kitsune, a Japanese fox spirit that is generally known for being a shapeshifters and those that bewitch humans. They are described as intelligent, bewitching, and imbued with supernatural powers. The amount of tails they posses is said to be an indicator of their age as well (1 for every one hundred years)…apparently Fin is 500 years old with this cosmetic.

But considering kitsunes are known for taking on the appearance of people and shapeshifting into others (usually beautiful woman, but old men and young boys are not unheard of), it makes me think they really want to show how Fin can appear two-faced as well. Or, even more than that.

Not going to lie, I can't help but think of Sparkle from Honkai Star Rail. She wears a duo-colored kitsune mask. A rather eccentric and mysterious girl, you never know her true intentions behind that mask. She is far from the only character in media to use kitsune masks like this though.

On the other hand, kitsunes can also provide wisdom and services towards humans specifically those residing at shrines. They tend to be holy foxes who act as messengers to the gods. Though I’m not sure that’s what they were going for with Fin here to be honest.

Anyways, that’s it for the post. It was rather long and I could go on and on with more details, but I will stop here for now. This is all really based on speculation and educated guesses. Considering Fin has so little lore, I probably did have some takes that were a stretch but all in good fun, right?

Anyways, more love for this adorable little lad (he is a grown man but I treat him like he’s truly a bbg):

This depry lil frog boy...truly I can't with him.

#identity v #idv fire investigator #florian brand #idv lore #idv character analysis #mr.campbellsnuckhiswayinagain #aliceisheretoo

[Character Study #6] Acrobat/"Hullabaloo" Mike Morton

Credit: 2025 Children’s Day Art by miu120627.

I’m back with my next character study on Mr. Mike Morton. Just in time for his birthday! My last one was on Joker which was a bit of a doozy of a post as I was not all to familiar with his game. Really though, the more I thought about Joker’s backstory, the more I realize how awfully relatable he is in our own world that pushes such nice people to their absolute limits and turning them into something they never wanted to be.

Mike is quite similar to Joker in that way. Yet, how exactly? Well, let me fill you in, dear stranger, on the tale and analysis on the star acrobat of the Hullabaloo Circus.

To support me and for slightly easier reading, read here.