#maris chaldeas

[fujimaru]

mini (and ominous)

[fujimaru]

know the difference!

[fujimaru]

sopping wet maris cat (matching)

[fujimaru]

taixu (short ver, ft. animuspheres)

[kaibutsushidousha]

To keep the OC Lore going, do you think Chaldeas made the Pretender Class? Do you think it’s related to Cagliostro considering he only qualifies for the class?

As I mentioned in a more recent ask, the Pretender class deals with mismatched appearances and substances, functioning as a study on what difference substance makes. Maris' job involved trying to understand Marisbury's philosophies, and even if she were spectacularly bad at it, I can't say attempts weren't made.

She also all but stated that she created all the Lostbelts and most of the event Singularities just because she was lonely and bored from being the only thing in her isolated universe, so Maris simply having nothing better to do than play with her Human Order toys is another important point to always consider.

[kaibutsushidousha]

Is there any correlation between apostles being mostly Alter Egos and Marisbury's philosophy/Maris Chaldeas deal?

I don't think so, but the closest idea I can throw around is that, in theory, Alterego are simplified personalities, which fits with Maris's need to reduce human intellect in order to be able to properly predict. This is not at all how the class actually works and believing so would be blindly buying an oversimplification of their definition, but [vaguely at Maris's entire screentime].

[kaibutsushidousha]

Could you go into more details on why you like Maris Chaldea?

You're getting it mixed, the one I like is Tsumugi Shirogane from Danganronpa V3. I can see the cause of the confusion, both are world creator types with a lot of artistic passion but low ability to read the meaning and symbolism of her work, causing her to deliver vapid sadism, ultimately struggle horrendously as the characters and plotlines start running out control because all of her creations actively hate her, and then gets really petty and spiteful when called out.

But despite sharing this entire concept base, the execution takes opposite directions between the two. Both choices have their appeal, but one option grabbed a lot more than the other. Shirogane is always way out of her depth, being a normal human tasked with doing the works of Junko Enoshima, but still manages to look seriously threatening while she's at the center of the spotlight, and even gets to walk out to her death with some level of grace and dignity. Meanwhile, Maris is genuinely omnipotent, but unable to be a serious threat because everything she attempts gets countered in three seconds. Also, more importantly, she already said in the beginning that Fujimaru is insignificant, so when Novum Chaldea finally resists enough to hear her say "O-ok, I admit I might have made a m-mistake", we get blaring alarms screaming "THE SIMULATED UNIVERSE LOST ITS VALIDITY. ABORT OPERATION." and she explodes on the spot.

Danganronpa is far from above taking potshots at Shirogane's incompetence, but Maris feels far more comedy-oriented as a final boss. And fair enough, the joke is funny, but Maris somehow has no edge at all despite her extreme power and cruelty. FGO is also a lot more direct in asking the player to pity Maris, with Goredolf's "blame the maker, not the tool" speech emphasizing her nature as a machine following its purpose, Maris' own "the lonely planet also dreams" speech emphasizing how if she didn't create her galaxies full of stories she'd be all alone in an isolated universe, and the Lev/Holmes/Fou talk acknowledging that her misinterpretation of Marisbury is a fair mistake because he was just that unintuitive of a guy.

Overall, I think the appeal of Maris is pretty self-evident even for someone who wasn't very wowed by it.

[thegoodthegrandandtheugly]