Part 2 of sharing my Baten Kaitos Miis from almost two weeks ago but my SD card reader broke (part 1 over here).
I've already posted a pic of him fully dressed up, but here's Baelheit without his clothes. Design-wise, I think he's one of my favorite Miis - he's very distinctive and cute. He wears a black beret to approximate the hat and it gives him the right silhouette.
The running theme with this batch of Miis is that they all have unusual hats that are absolutely critical to their character designs. Like Baelheit above, I think I got Verus very, very close to his in-game appearance but to date haven't found a suitable hat for him. Slouch beanie, perhaps? I can't control when it'll unlock though.
I've come to appreciate Origins-era Geldoblame. His eyes are sculpted like his talk portrait but unfortunately the bangs cover them up. As a member of the Distinctive Hat Club, he won't look right until the flight attendant cap unlocks for me. I didn't realize, but according to his artbook turnaround he actually has long hair that's pinned up (and a small bun). Doesn't it seem like men in Alfard favor long hair?
I think I kinda hit it out of the park with Shanath. That's straight up just him in Mii form. He has both a bowler hat and a flat cap and I can't decide which approximates his hat better (the bowler hat is slightly too tall and the flat cap only has a brim at the front, not the full length around) so I swap around constantly. Should I make kid Savyna to be on the island with him? She might be lonely as the only kid character, though.
Fadroh is by far the most interpretative Mii on my island, even more so than Folon. I only cared about properly emulating a) the bulk and shape of his hairstyle and b) the slight sneer in his portrait. He's described by NPCs as being highly conventionally attractive and like, "boyishly pretty" so I felt that as long as I hit that vibe, I was doing it right.
The Paramachina Trio (Nasca/Heughes/Valara) will complete the roster but I'm not sure when I'll get around to them.
I really wish we had gotten to see more of these two’s relationship in the game. All we really get is the implication that they both love each other very much. But in a game where everyone’s competing to be worst dad of the year, it’s good to have a constant good father/daughter relationship in the background.
So I wrote here long ago about how Shanath is related to Olgan so that would make Savyna Olgan's granddaughter.
Aside from not learning about this till much later, I think there's a reason why Shanath didn't openly say it as much, going through the cutscenes.
In the wiki, he disowns his title of Prince since he hated his dad, the Emperor so much. You must hate your parent that much if you don't mention at all that you're related to that person.
After what Olgan did to Shanath, I don't blame Shanath.
Whoa, I was not expecting that kind of positive response o///////o
So the subject of the 2nd will be Savyna and Lyude, because Alfard is a hot mess.
Wing Meta: Xelha
Credit to destron23 for model rips of Shanath.
Right up front I’d like to address the elephant in the room: that Savyna has wings at all. And that requires some speculation on Geldoblame’s policies as emperor.
We know that to be accepted into Tarazed, one must give up one’s Wings of the Heart, presumably upon entrance. As this is done by choice (and because not everything is as strong-hearted as Gena), I suspect that the recovery period is on the short side. But even without emigrating, Alfard policy under Baelheit discouraged reliance upon the Power of the Heart (TM), so it can be assumed that wing removal was at least semi-popular even beforehand. The crowd DID clap pretty hard when Gena’s were torn out.
Which is what leads to Alfard being considered “that one nation without wings” in EWatLO. Given that Geldoblame was totally into using the ancient powers that Baelheit hated, I can see him going one of two ways: either he was totally cool with wings of the heart... or he rejected them to take advantage of a ideological divide that would make it easier to foster xenophobia.
The only real clue we have here is Lyude, the only imperial citizen we know who was born into Geldoblame’s reign. He doesn’t appear to have wings, which I don’t feel is strong evidence given his jingotastic family. Notably, he also isn’t shown to have a winglet, though that might be because of his demotion, as regular soldiers don’t seem to have them either.
Kalas is similar to Lyude in that he was born and raised for a time in Alfard, yet kept his wing, despite it being a symbol of the failure that so displeased Geldoblame. It may be that, as an experiment, no one wanted to screw around with his wing for fear of messing up the data.
Another point of contention is Shanath--sure, it may have been his doing that Gena lost her wings, but his motivations aren’t connected to Baelheit’s philosophies. So would he have spared Savyna? The answer, I feel, lies in whether he himself kept his wings.
The appearance of the wings--as well as the timing of their reveal--would imply that they are a part of his machina arma. However, Wiseman is an example of inorganic wings of the heart AND when Sagi breaks his arma, only the headpiece is removed from the character model. It could be that the arma comprises of a helmet, those fabulous nails, and wings, only one of which was destroyed... or the wings are separate and designed to match his arma.
Alternatively, it could be a proto- winglet... but I find that a little unlikely since A) no one else has one (including Giacomo), B) Alfard is shown to favor ankle rockets and the like (though Geldoblame DOES have that tacky golden wing thing....), and C) even if the range in motion is much more limited in comparison, the winglets Georg made for Kalas are some of his greatest work and I doubt he could’ve made their equivalent over a decade prior.
Personally, I favor the idea that Shanath kept his wings and encouraged Savyna to do the same.
Now it’s time to actually talk about the main attraction!
Savyna is a bit more straightforward than Xelha in that she’s clearly based on a flightless bird that has typical peacock features (large, brightly colored fantail). Unlike most peacocks, however, her wings are primarily red, then blue, then green. I’m inclined to say she’s meant to be a green peafowl:
A Congo peafowl:
Or even a golden pheasant:
Rather flashy birds for such a reserved individual. And the peacock, symbol of vanity, doesn’t really match her. The fanciness fits with her backstory as the granddaughter of the emperor, though I feel that’s incidental compared to her intimidation factor. Red is the color of danger, after all.
Moreover, Savyna’s wings are designed in such a way that they greatly increase her profile size, much like a frightened bird will puff up its feathers to appear bigger to potential threats. But Savyna need not puff herself up--feathers spread wide is her default. She’s always on edge, always feeling small. She has resting bitch feathers.
Speaking of her display, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th images above are the only female birds shown. As you may know, males generally are the ones to colorful plumage, both to distract predators and attract mates. In a series that includes the ambiguously gendered Guillo and Mizuti (who’s only referred to as a girl by Kamroh--her parents refer to her as “[their] child”), as well as Verus (canonically bisexual) and Geldoblame (explicitly interested in Verus and coded gay in general), it’s entirely possible to get a transgender reading of Savyna, seeing as how wings reflect who the characters truly are.
Savyna is, in many ways, coded male. For example, she plays the roles of Hunter, Guide (to the party), Mentor (to Mayfee), and Soldier (as the leader of the Mad Wolf Unit), all of which are typically masculine roles. She also fits well into the Mysterious Stoic Older Grizzled Warrior Man stereotype (think Auron from FFX, Kratos from Tales of Symphonia, etc).
In terms of character arcs, she has one worthy of any gruff, gritty, military male protagonist: embittered by the horrors of war, she goes into hiding to find meaning in her existence, gets drawn into world saving shenanigans, and has to confront who she once was, learning how to smile and care for people again.
Stats, too, are unusual for a female character, especially for when this game came out. YMMV (since stat growth isn’t set), but in my last playthrough, she ended up second to only Gibari in terms of STR and HP. She can also equip armor limited to male characters. And while she’s got a case of battle swimsuit, her clothes do provide protection to most of her body.
Which isn’t to say she’s lacking in female coding--she’s the only party member shown to wear lipstick in her portrait (she and Xelha are the only ones who can use Tonguetwister Rouge) and those are... quite the shoes for a martial artist to be wearing. She ultimately takes up cooking, though it’s not played up as a big deal as one would expect. Most importantly, she uses female pronouns.
I think it would be fair to interpret her as some flavor of nonbinary. I’m leaning towards bigender or neutrois.
I haven’t forgotten you, Lyude! There’s not much to say that I didn’t earlier, but there is as much meaning in absence as in presence. Lack of wings is an easy way of profiling him as being a citizen of Alfard beyond the clothing he wears, but so would be a standard winglet. I propose, therefore, that he’s meant to be a foil for Savyna.
Both are high class, high ranking officers in Alfard’s military who share the same inciting incident for turning on their homeland: Operation Sweep. Where Lyude refused and was sent away in disgrace, Savyna agreed and fled in shame. Where Lyude is a bastard raised in nobility, Savyna is a full-blooded heir who chose to grow up in obscurity. Where Lyude finds purpose in exile, Savyna chooses exile to find purpose.
Where rests Savyna’s wings, Lyude has none.
She has beauty and spirit without that she must journey to discover within. He has a gentle nature and unwavering principles within that he must journey to project out past his tarnished reputation. Their wings (or lack thereof) represent the hole in their personas.
Here’s the model I ripped of Promachina Shanath! This one was certainly very challenging! For one thing, his shirt texture fused with the mesh of his face and I had to figure out how to get his face texture on. At any rate though I really love how his Machina Arma looks! It’s incredibly regal! Also toyed around with taking bits off his helmet. His face texture looks so odd with the added shadow! XD
The Baten Kaitos series is a woefully underplayed Nintendo game series consisting of two games.
This is Shanath and his daughter. He does bad things, but he's still a good dad.
metaligatr replied to your post: “metaligatr replied to your post: “usedempyrealthunder replied to your...”:
yeah! besides it's not too far-fetched to assume alfardian people don't know about their politicians' family considering almost no one remembers olgan had a son. and he was, uh. their emperor. GOOD JOB ALFARD
i kind of got the impression that shanath wanted to stay out of the limelight. maybe his father's motives behind the experiments done on him traumatized him so much that he pulled away from olgan... and got close to the one in charge of the experiments instead. the shared experience taught both him and baelheit to fear the unpredictable nature of malpercio and people's hearts, which led them to start plans for the dark service and pro-machination
metaligatr replied to your post: “baten kaitos au in which baelheit lives and goes on to rule alfard...”:
"#no baten kaitos aus in which verus lives #ever" i'm crying i love you. NO BUT SERIOUSLY I WANT A BAELHEIT LIVES AU EVEN IF ONLY BECAUSE DAMMIT THE GUY DESERVES TO HAVE A FRESH START AND BE HAPPY and also fix his mess because dang
yeah seriously
milly and sagi: uh hey dad we think maybe you should uh. not blow up all the islands
baelheit: [his entire adult life is a lie]
THIS AU REALLY NEEDS TO BE A THING THOUGH BECAUSE imagine milly, sagi, and guillo never settling down and instead pinballing between hassaleh and alfard to take care of gena and baelheit. ...meaning melodia is never born in mira, and none of them are ever exposed to the plague. and melodia grows up to be a NORMAL, HEALTHY GIRL and never gets possessed by malpercio and never meets kalas because he may not even get born and never tries to unleash death and destruction upon the world
and instead you get cute family fic with grandpa baelheit and grandma gena putting little baby blue-haired melodia into a machina stroller and taking her to see the prosperous town of azha
