*Spoilers to ZZZ 3.0, so if you haven't played it, you are gonna hear my rambling about my ties in regards with the updated Special Boss page, information I got about Pyrois after getting their character (you could check Wiki for it but still) AND THE ENTIRE 3.0 STORY BECAUSE I SWEAR TO GOD.
If you want to hear more crack theories about why I think MC and Pyrois are actually a long time coming thematically and it's giving me Otto and Void Archives vibes a bit and why Helios Academy, what the hell happened to the ZZZ sibs and please someone give me inspiration for Pyrois ao3 fics because goddamn them and the MC... , read on.
After ZZZ 3.0, I have SO many thoughts but after having Pyrois, and flashbacking to a fair few stories, some backstories AND EVER SINCE SEASON 1... I always knew that nothing is original anymore and as a writer, I have always known for a long time that everything comes from inspiration.
I SWEAR TO GOD THAT ZZZ ISN'T HIDING THE PERSONA INFLUENCE ANYMORE.
And Pyrois / ZZZ MC (I chose Wise but Belle users included here in my freakout), I swear to God, they CANNOT BE MORE OBVIOUS WITH THE PERSONA 4 INFLUENCE, PERSONA 5 AND WELL PERSONA EVERYTHING.
Also, I don't really care whether there's retcon along the way, discontinuity etc. BUT. But I will freaking pick up the threads. BECAUSE HOW THE HECK DID PYROIS COME OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE. I had to legit look at the prologue when we were introduced to Fairy and use my (un)reliable memory in order to figure out whether we were hinted or foreshadowed ANOTHER US.
And also warnings to incoherent bunny hole rambling, because while searching through, I also saw a lot of 'abyss' lately and do we know who originated and continued that line???
So it might LOOK irrelevant but stupidly comparable, I look to Jane Doe, Hugo Vlad and Komano Manato the freaking stand because NOT ONLY DO THEY SHARE THE SPECIAL PAGE WITH 'PHAETHON OF THE SCORCHED HORIZON, I'm like... other selves. Doppelgagner. ESPECIALLY FOR HUGO VLAD AND KOMANO MANATO. AND CONSIDERING HOW THE SEASONS ARE GOING, THEY ARE JUST GETTING MORE OBVIOUS.
Billy, because he made it to the special boss stage as his SP after 3.0 story, and Aria... I guess around 2.6, are not making it to the cut to compare for Pyrois because Billy while the SP shows a new man and 2.8 has it from Champion to Cunning Hare member alongside Aria who became our enemy due to... the equivalent of brainwashing (badly quoted) did not make it to the playable comparison cut because I focused on the 'Persona' and 'Abyss' route.
Like, I fainted with Pyrois mindscape art lines... 'Deluded gods forge a blazing golden spear, seeking to pierce the throat of the abyss'... Afterwards, in badly summarized interpretation, a lot of people compare Pyrois to a knight and a bit of a tsundere about it, which I also kinda don't deny. Because the thing is the being that's a part of Pyrois, who could be more than Pyrois when born within the MC (or rather found into through experimentation) and then trapped for years on end to reappear thanks to... undeniable influence ahem Bringer ahem Mayor Mayflower upgrading MC to traverse through the Hollow ahem saving Vivian AHEM Yunkui Summit techniques and more Ether exposure! ahem
Point: The being within considers itself a danger and despair for the reckoning and thus, it is up to MC to master that power through the 'Etheric Other' possibly only done through Helios Academy students similar to what the sibling and their friends, not Serpico because... well, salute that one but maybe Truvia who according to MC sib had fainted alongside the rest of them except for Serpico during the experimentation. While MC was the one who gained the power first, the sib admitted to having the same affliation so it is possible that Truvia, who was alongside them, will have similar affliation. While it is known Seed is a part of Helios Academy, MC and sib don't remember them and presently other than friend, may think Seed as a possible new perspective to Helios Academy time but not too related to Carole Arna and their brand of experimentation. While the power that now creates the Etheric Other Pyrois had been antagonstic before being 'mastered' at some level by MC, they had been shown protective but I think it's because the MC would be a host to Pyrois and cannot afford to damage the body. At another, there could be impressed feelings with the potential and how far they will go and whether that is enough to have respect for a more mutual collaboration or the being snatch away all that potential for their own sake, and freedom denied whatever they were will be left up to interpretation. I will not deny whatever the reasons that it underlies a certain care, bitter and resentful but maybe some willingness to connection like how Persona's I am thou and thou am I. Break into the abyss of thy cowardliness and face thy no matter nether for finally the sun within reach, together we grasp.
Also, checking Phathon the scorching horizon, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE DEAL TO CATCH THE SUN???? AND WHO TF IS A LEAD SCEPTER OLD MAN TALKING ABOUT IRONY OF THE ORIGINAL SIN TO THE LEGACY OF HELIOS??? OK, look, I know Belle and Wise as geniuses with their teacher Carole Arna are prodigious enough to go further beyond their experimentation and become some legacy. But still legacy of Helios, to create such a being. I don't know whether Helios is part of the first generation Void Hunters (I could check online but I'm spiralling damnit!) or much about the Helios Academy purposes except for it getting more shady by the second. What original sin in relation to the Hollows that caused New Eridu blamed towards the siblings' teacher, Carole Arna and the inheritance left behind.
I wonder whether Fairy, checking in prologue, as a key to whatever is happening will have any relevance or deliciously converging the plot line with the MCs hunt for answers with Helios Academy and again, said inheritance. Moving past season 1 to season 2 and now season 3, I'm surprised by the direction but can't help obsess by Pyrois.
I will admit that they didn't exactly come out of nowhere-nowhere but at the same time first playthrough would be a shocker. It's only at the aftermath that you can see ZZZ has been building this up theme-wise. Because ZZZ is great at showcasing characters climbing out of the abyss or being more than that, considering Jane Doe and Hugo Vlad deeply tied to the abyss, and their ways of overcoming it especially in their mindscapes. For another person, Hugo Vlad is more apt to start it. Not as someone changed, but introducing meeting a separate concept of self just to face one's inner demons ever since 1.7. Komano Manato followed that even though it was a Corrupted Ideal to help him face his inner demons and becoming a boss too... Adding onto Doppelgangers and Miasmic versions of them, there says a lot about the duality. I still laugh that Bangboo without batteries and stripping everything except for own clothes and punch each other's lights out are a valid way to face off against them. Can't persona 4 their way out as much smh.
So no surprise I obsessed over Pyrois because unlike Hugo and Manato, Pyrois is a legit Persona, a legit Other, treated as a Jojo stand. Pyrois is their own being, from the MC originating from an experiment with a reason related to the Ether with unknown improvements to the ocular implants for some 'betterment to humanity' that just... in fact, during the MC treatment, it gave Persona 4 / 5 vibes when 'MC' approached us and taunted us about the destruction and despair in the past that killed one of their friends, wanting to confront us and even acting antagonistic with the declaration that one day they will take over our body and watch us suffer. We, the MC, denied them wanting to take responsibility and claiming that reaching for them... the power... to take the sun (Helios) was the reason for Serpico's death. It made me all the more interested in the MC's past, what they avoided while making use of their inheritance and how the being that was once Pyrois related to Helios affected the MC. In confronting the MC, unsurprisingly called coward and then commented to have a backbone thus receiving the boon Pyrois. Helped, and at the end, when told we have more power than known, was also given new strength by Pyrois, or the being, the other, to just 'help this once'. Interested in the MC's potential, or...
Those instances made me think Otto and VA were partly inspiration at least to a potential dynamic with MC and Pyrois. Helpful yes, but a dangerous being not to be underestimated and depending on our capability to 'master' them. Similarly, VA was 'tamed' by Otto and thus helped in a 'mutual' relationship. Although MC couldn't be more different than Otto, who's to say Pyrois wouldn't wait for the chance for the MC's resolve to slip similarly to how VA was waiting for Otto to do so... for 500 years XD
It's because of all this that thematically, I see ZZZ building up coming up from the abyss, in their dystopia thanks to the Hollows and making it more than survivable but liveable against all odds, with many characters' lives affected by the Hollows and even more than that to show that pre- and post- the time that New Eridu had been created... people have reinvented and improved themselves. Anby, Billy, Lycaon, Harumasa, Hugo, Manato... Had to face inner demons. The MC is no different, but they have a being representative of it and I hope they explore it more. More than Pyrois being us as our Agent to fight in battle, but Pyrois, silent and aloof they may seem to be, but observant and ready to seemingly 'help' the MC and wanting to see how far this will go, but will turn the tides anytime. Because this is still a battle between the inner demons.
Or our new promise and resolve would convince Pyrois to merge with us or have a mutually more beneficial 'deal' despite what had been done to them for the past years. Like... maybe, we will get the Hugo MV treatment where he literally faced his past self and HUG him. If they are doing Season 3 in that direction among other plot lines, I am so there. PLEASE.
I wish I could make some 100K story about Wise / Belle at Helios Academy, the experiment that changed their lives and lost Serpico, and what had been done / suppresed by Lady Sunbringer and Carole Arna to prevent the disaster and I want to deep dive into the being that will later 'give' us Pyrois who had festered inside the MC's body that became our inheritance to become the Proxy Phaethon that will uncover the truth about Helios Academy. And with Bringer exposing the Helios legacy, with the Mayflower right after with how MC associated with Victoria's Housekeeping even when it had been about the Sacrifice at first...
Ugh... too many plots converging in different relevances. But throughout season 2 forward, even with Yunkui Summit techniques to help with the newfound power, it's getting more involved with Hollows and its Ether alongside the Sacrifices and the cult to the Creator...
It was also Remielle's weapon that unlocked the Other, related to Helios... the sun, and our legacy that made me wonder about relevance of experimentation to the first class Void Hunters.
What I want more focused, is definitely the dynamic between MC and Pyrois. I'm seriously wondering beneath their aloof pride, what are we shaping up to them? And what more can be gained by the power within?
Stole a wonderful new drawing program from one of my most glorious students and thought I'd give it a test Fire! Tonight I thought- what if the Sony ps4 was personified? With combination of final fantasy, uncharted, and some ratchet and clank sass I came up with this (she looks a tad 'edgier' than expected but oh well!) I thought anime was a good style to go with here because in terms of realistic aesthetic, I've always consider Sony sitting firmly in the middle between the realistic grit of Xbox and the child-friendly whim of Nintendo, maybe that's why the edginess of her comes off a tad melodramatic, the PlayStation is a space shared by both god of war and little big planet, chances are; tones will clash in a somewhat silly way. #sony #ps4 #anime #console #personafied #videogames #digitalart
