time for 100% headcanon/delusional talk about frumi
I was trying to tie together one of my stories in the shower, and then I had a realization.
In the first place, I already have a hard time writing frumi because to me it seems that... Freud always has something more important going on (eg: saving the world). All the Heroes have positive feelings for Freud. Why would Freud pick Luminous of all people....
I really believe that Freud is good at getting along with people, and also genuinely likes most everyone. It's only if you're truly evil with no conscience that he would dislike someone...
Eunwol: Freud probably has a soft spot for Eunwol. He picked him off the street (?), gave him a name, that sort of thing. And obviously, Eunwol follows Freud like a puppy... at least, that's the vibe he gives.
Mercedes: Freud gets along well with her. And even putting personal feelings aside, it's in his best interest to get along well with a queen!
Aran: I think they had a good amount of mutual respect for each other...
Phantom: they seem to get along well. Freud was able to convince Phantom to change his tune and join the Heroes so...
Luminous: they are both the scholarly type, but often have opposing opinions and beliefs... they still get along, but somehow I feel like....
out of everyone, Freud seems most likely to use Luminous and Luminous would accept that. As for the others, 1) he would be less likely to use them, 2) they would be less likely to accept that kind of treatment from him. (Eunwol: he'd do anything Freud asked him, but Freud wouldn't use him like that in the first place)
by "use", I mean to, yknow, further his goals like world peace and stuff like that. and I say "most likely to use" but Freud himself also has a self-sacrificing component
anyways, as I prefaced, this is my headcanon.
but it was a horrifying (?) realization i had about my otp. lol
Reading The Last Adventurer, there's a lot of points I want to criticize, but it also brings up a few points which are interesting. So I will steal the ideas that I like and ignore the things I don't. Here is my semi-TLA AU (based on the webtoon - I didn't read the webnovel)...
(post lacks structure)
I didn't read the last chapter yet, so I will probably have something to say later.
First of all, the basis of this is the similarity between Luminous and the White Mage's outfits. As we all know, obviously they both come from Aurora so their outfits have to resemble each other a bit. But in reality, WM looks like a bishop and Lumi looks like a battle mage. Anyways, in TLA they're really crazily similar.
For Luminous, his design is mainly based on his Heroes of Maple outfit, but also adds in the hood from like, launch concept. BUT they also throw in a stole. Obviously, this stole is reminiscent of WM. Also, in TLA, both of Luminous' eyes remain blue because he didn't force the Black Mage into the seal (in fact, they chose a different sealing method...).
For WM (technically it is always BM, using the form of WM), his design is pretty much the same as in the game. The biggest change is that they gave him a hood. This makes his outfit similar to Lumi...
When you put these changes together, what it looks like is that both of their outfits become very similar. But why? TLA's focus is on the original characters, so I would never expect them to go into great detail about Luminous' personal story. Is it to visually tie the two together so they don't have to talk about them as much?
BM's objective in TLA is slightly different - rather than necessarily raising an Adversary to kill him, he plans on raising a new Transcendent of Light (with the power of Creation, not Destruction) so he can use the power for his Genesis. In TLA, this Transcendent is the protagonist, Elpam. But I'm going to ignore all the original characters.
BM in TLA is pretty cocky. He laid out his plans to Elpam plain and straight (I think this part is webtoon exclusive) - whereas in the game, he had to do all sorts of convoluted backflips to act under the Overseers' eyes (which is also kind BS but I digress). Anyways, at least the game BM had one thing right - keeping the plan a secret is a benefit because many of the Commanders would not support it. You can see this quickly becomes an issue for Arkarium in TLA.
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Now, to the AU...
What I was thinking was: an AU that is more similar to the Maplestory game rather than TLA. The Heroes chose a different method of sealing BM which did not sacrifice anyone - and they were failed the same way they did in TLA... but none of that "circle" mumbo jumbo or the artifact thing or whatever.
Because BM is not concerned about raising an Adversary, he had no reason to play around with Aurora... Because of the stole that Lumi wears, I wonder if they made Lumi the next Master of Aurora. That implies a few things:
Either they never took in a substitute Star Child (Lucia), or Lucia failed to surpass Lumi (I don't think the 2nd one is fair to her). Let's suppose the first option.
They became complacent enough that they let Luminous take the spotlight (because BM never attacked them)
In fact, I think Aurora would have normally loved to have Luminous as the Master (because they are die-hard WM fanatics) but their paranoia won out over that (in the game)
All the while, Lumi is blissfully unaware of his predecessor or origins.
Furthermore, Lumi didn't get infected by darkness in the main story of TLA. So there is nothing disqualifying him from becoming a Transcendent of Light... What I mean to say is... in this AU, Luminous becomes the Transcendent of Light (with powers of Creation) after he unfreezes from the curse.
Lumi would serve his duty as a Transcendent to try to bring balance to the world...
But there has to be a point where BM reveals his plan to Lumi. As well, drops the bomb that is that Lumi was born from his discarded light... I want to see the look of despair on his face..... (impure motives)
Hm... that's pretty much it, just some setting ideas. Or an excuse to put my favourite things together (Transcendent Lumi + BM&Lumi interaction). That's the reason I wrote it out here - I'm not sure where I can take it, and also I have too many other WIPs.
But if the whole idea is to raise a new Transcendent of Light, who better than BM's own discarded light...? It works better thematically...
wm and lumi appearance comparison (for funsies even though i should go to bed)
exhibit one: initial sprites.
Luminous came out before the Dimensional Library and I'm pretty sure they weren't 100% set on the Black Mage's story within Aurora at that point. Anyways, you can see that even though Luminous is literally the light that the White Mage left behind, they have pretty different appearances. Also Lumi's eyebrows are hella defined (charm point)
(not my screenshot lol) WM's hair from the back is kinda like F!Lumi's hair though which is cute :3
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2: Friendstory:
His short hair really makes him look like Lumi! Did they consciously try to make them look more similar? Note his BLUE eyes.... Because they changed the colour later...?
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3: Heroes of Maple: they tried to nerf Lumi's mullet here. I don't know why. When his hair is straighter, it looks more like his dad White Mage.
They also gave F!Lumi twintails for some reason... The only reason I can think of is that Lania did her hair. The other meme reason that people say is that WM likes twintails (see: Orchid)
Are you telling me that F!WM could also have twintails (Arin's doing....) (made up story)
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4. Arcane River
At some point when I stopped playing, they added a portrait image for WM with an eye colour I didn't expect (ie: it's different than Lumi's). I looked at his sprite again and I guess it could have always been this kind of turquoise but using colour picking it ended up blue anyways. Well. Moving on. I feel like they added some eyebrow definition here. I guess it's the same as Friendstory, but during that time the art was quite different anyways (rather simplified if you ask me) so it's hard for me to make a 1:1 comparison in my head (even though they can be compared as-is).
I was really surprised in Tenebris
because he looks exactly like Luminous with long hair. Like actually. His hair is gray here, which is unusual because usually it's pretty much white. It's like my Transcendent Luminous fantasies have come true.
I stole this comparison from someone else, but seriously it looks so much like the removed Freud and Luminous part of HoM. Because the curtain makes Lumi's hair look as long as WM......
crazy work happening here
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5. Heroes CS set
I think it might just be due to a trend in the pixel art, but they really really smoothed out Lumi's hair. F!Lumi looks even more like WM than before... (I keep using F!Lumi as an example because they give her long hair)
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There was no real point to this post, but as I've mentioned on Twitter, I think it's interesting that they keep adjusting WM and Lumi's appearances slightly. They look more similar, but also distinct.
i need to see mercenary and WM in a modern AU and mercenary sees WM doing something ridiculous with Lumi (like read a scientific paper to him instead of bed time story (exaggeration)) and he's like... dude....
i miss the days where there was rampant delusions about Luminous becoming a Transcendent...
well first of all, knowing all we do today, it doesn't make sense for that to happen. and on purpose too, because BM didn't want any Transcendents left.
for example...
The Transcendent of Light can only wield the power of light OR darkness... (I think) - so BM infecting Lumi with dark prevents Lumi from 'ascending'
Being a Transcendent means the Overseer will start telling you what to do
Lumi is a playable class (can't make him OP)
but that's exactly the thing....
after coming back properly after years of not playing (and not reading the story myself), I have a hard time adjusting to the 'rules' of the world like the Overseers being set up to be our next target of elimination... And Transcendents having limited free will to exercise... (and why does light/darkness suddenly have the connotation of creation/destruction...? (it reminds me a bit of yugioh) Doesn't this overlap with Life...? or no...?)
anyways I want to be able to go back to when I could ignore such a setting and live in my delusions. sometimes. it's like the angst-o-matic, it's great
i find it interesting that WM's current eye colour is turquoise... FS!WM has blue eyes, and so does Lumi...
but in some ways, they've tried to make WM and Lumi look more similar as time goes on, yet in some they try to make them look different... (mostly regarding hairstyles)
well they were never carbon copies of each other's appearances which is fine. like WM's 2 pixel thick eyelashes.
i naively thought it might exist in english after all these years but i guess not.... (its understandable bc even to me who likes it, it is a bit boring and also a tad unrealistic for them to get together)
