Hey Azzy! Happy STS! I love your symbolism for Ike and Zeno, we love a sun/moon + warm colours/cold colours pair! Do you have any clear symbolism for the main characters in your other work? Do you actively decide on their thematics or do they sort of come organically as you're fleshing out the characters?
hey Jas! happy STSunday(?) i am very late lmao
i'm glad you like the symbolism! i always have a lot of fun with it, and i can proudly say that it is e v e r y w h e r e
i can tell you for sure that most characters in Revolve have their own symbolism, though that's a feature (?) of how i originally created the cast back in 2017 (yes it has been 8 years of this. send help). the characters were originally meant to be heavily linked to their elements, almost to the point of personification. over the years they all just sort of morphed, shifted and grew around the elements, but never really abandoned them
in fact, the main characters more so grew into the elements rather than around, though in more subtle ways
of course Aira is always reaching out to people without really managing to, she's Space. she's the Stars and the milions of lightyears of distance and the deep loneliness of being "different"
of course Syphe has spent his life stuck on trying to find his past and trying to predict the future, of course he never stops, he's Time. he's the slow movement of Planets and the ticking of the hourglass
of course Aleji has a whole double life they're keeping hidden, of course they're a manipulator, have you never heard of the dark side of the Moon? this is just what the Mind does, it plays tricks on you
of course Meiviza is burning herself out, of course she feels the need to outchine everyone, of course she has violent outbursts, she's the Sun, she's the ache in your Body, she's the pain of trying too hard
if i say too much about Luz we get into spoiler territory, but let it be known that in my mind she is a single dandelion breaking through the cracks in the concrete
as for other works, they do start with an idea of symbolism, but it doesn't always stick and i try not to force it to. i haven't been able to put anything down for either The Other Side or Mighty//Wicked, but i can tell you this:
in The Lost Sea Symphony, Talia is the lighthouse and Ester is the harbor. however both of them are also grief, only Talia is the quiet, resigned grief that stays on your shoulder and Ester is the loud, angry grief that you wield like a weapon
in The Mortal God, the whole gang (Aren, Leta, Ciela, Riem and Jefi) is slowly stabilizing around a semblance of symbolism, but it's not quite yet defined. they'll probably settle more once i start getting into the nitty-gritty of the plot
so, it really depends. i try not to restrain the characters to fit them into the symbolism, but characters that are important enough always tend to spontaneusly develop one, and the ones that start from the symbolism grow organically into and around it
(bonus point: the original versions of Ike and Zeno had different symbolism. Ike was the phoenix (for obvious reasons) and Zeno was the lion. i kept that reference through Ike having a phoenix tattoo on his shoulder, and Zeno's star sign is Leo)
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