"Witness me now! Come, Caress me now!"
"These translucent clothes I'll now adorn!"
"Break from my cocoon, butterfly born anew!"
"I'll show everything in all it's glory for you!"
"This stage, bitter cold, performs not a soul."
"So, I'll step to the beat with a 1, 2, 3!"
"Not a puppet at all, just dancing along!"
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This isn't really my usual kind of art, and I know I promised oc stuff, but I've been lowkey blitzing through Vrains while working on commissions, and tbh, I am absolutely loving it so far! I'm uh...kinda on season 3, so I figured I'd post this art I did of my favorite character! I'm not finished with it yet, but I stumbled across MICCHI's cover of "Abnormality Dancin' Girl", and it kinda fit where I think his character is gonna go. Possible spoilers below the Keep Reading for my thoughts!
I think it's going to be a "Live long enough to see yourself become the villain"-type scenario. He was the survivor of the Hanoi attack on the Cyberse World, was a refugee for 5 years, a hostage for a while, and even though he found friends and support, after things were finally safe enough for him to go home, it was destroyed, with nearly everyone he knew lost. Then, he gets to slowly regain those friends and grow closer to Yusaku and everyone else, only to find out someone he admired as a leader was the one who ruined their world, one of his friends is dissected alive, the rest are picked off one by one, Yusaku and everyone else has to suffer through fixing a problem that should never have happened, all because Lightning had an inferiority complex…
So yeah, it makes sense that he'd be angry and vindictive. Everyone sees him and his kind as evil, and he'd just want he and the few friends he still has to be safe, so of course he'd go after the head of SolTech after leaving behind his smaller. The "Lazy and annoying Dark Ignis" is finally the big, bad monster others would make him out to be.
This isn't something that he wants, though. It's clear that a lot of it is a front for something else.
Hell, in his calling card to Akira Zaizen, someone who he seems to respect, at least, he reveals himself and tells him when he'd be coming for him, and waits until Yusaku is there to start his attack.
He doesn't kill Queen either, when he honestly could. I don't think he actively wants to hurt anyone, but it's like he's just trying to... burn himself out in the most spectacular way he can, while getting back at who he can.
Vrains is really, really good at depicting a good potential downward spiral for it's characters. Yusaku's story is gradually working himself out of one he'd been in since the Lost Incident, Takeru goes through one before we meet him and nearly goes through one when he has to work with Revolver. We see a potential one for Aoi, too, when she comes in contact with the Knights of Hanoi. Hell, I'll actually kinda defend the direction Go Onizuka's character went, too, because of course the guy obsessed with being "The Strongest" would crash out after finally realizing that he can be strong for just himself, only to get wiped out by Revolver with his Boomer Traps, and Playmaker for the umpteenth time later on.
Hell, Season 2 is just everyone dealing with the end results of Lightning spiraling when he finds out that he's fundamentally worse than the other Ignis, and is the most likely one to cause them all to fail to connect with humanity. We see Windy mid to the end of his corruption-induced spiral, too.
Why would Ai be any different? He's been through hell and back, and what's he got to show for it, ultimately? He failed. He couldn't save any of the other Ignis, Yusaku had to be put through hell, Takeru lost someone he leaned on for emotional support, Spectre didn't even have the chance to meet Earth(which could have done him some good, tbh), Aoi and her friend lost Aqua, Windy was driven to insanity, and so, so much more. Why wouldn't he want to lash out with the help of his only other ai friend? ...And why wouldn't he want someone to stop him? "Ai" does mean "Love", after all.
And hell hath no mercy than that of love scorned.
Also, I realized while drawing this that he made himself into a gay pirate twink, and I couldn't be happier for him looking fabulous during his possible crashout! Thank you for reading, if anyone did!
