#walking spoiler.

[gentlehousenicole]

UPDATE: These headcanons are now out of date given the plot details revealed in v.1.4.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Something I really like about the current (likely) Void Hunters is the role they play in the story and within their respective factions.

Miyabi is set up as this mysterious badass who goes up against Nineveh singlehandedly, but we soon learn she's a complete dork who tries and hilariously fails to pass on “sage wisdom” to Phaethon and Zhu Yuan. Officially, she's the head of Section 6, but she's lazy and in their episode we find out it's really Yanagi who's that team's effective leader, and the only one who can keep them even quasi-functional. She's the one who “Virtual Revenge” is about. Miyabi, by contrast, just hangs back and conserves her energy for the really big fights. Her possible parallels and looming conflict with Phaethon, however, are tantalizing.

Lighter is introduced early in the Sons of Calydon story, but we don't actually learn anything much about him until long after Chapter 4 has concluded. He has this epic story of triumph, tragedy, grief, acceptance and moving on to a new life, but it's all told in aside comments, flashbacks and paratext, Even today he's fighting a one-man war against the enemies of the Sons of Calydon that nobody on the team (save probably Burnice, because Burnice is probably some kind of Elder God herself /lh) even knows about, because their story isn't about him. Lighter is almost the definition of “Hero from Another Story”.

Jane straight-up abandoned her identity and sense of self to become this unknowable, mercurial force: She slips so effortlessly into whatever undercover identity and personality any given mission requires of her, because we learn next to nothing about the “real” Jane, and even when we do the shadow of the unreliable narrator is inescapable. The hints we do glean indicate she's been through quite a lot, and is fighting for justice her own way on her own terms. Jane doesn't seem to have much Love for Public Security, if any at all, and isn't an official PubSec officer. She certainly seems commanding, inspiring and experienced, however.

Qingyi is one of the oldest, wisest and most experienced people in New Eridu, but openly serves as the apparently-young Zhu Yuan's subordinate in an interesting inversion of Miyabi's relationship with Yanagi. Zhu Yuan relies on Qingyi's wisdom and guidance to help her make decisions, yet it's Zhu Yuan who gets all the accolades, fame and attention. Not that she doesn't deserve it, she's clearly gifted, incredibly competent and professional, but it's almost like Qingyi doesn't want the spotlight on herself for some reason. To her, it seems more like she views her role as helping Zhu Yuan be the hero New Eridu needs her to be.

Nicole is one of the first characters we meet in the game and somehow seems to be involved in every significant event in New Eridu's recent history...And yet isn't it interesting she tells us nothing about herself and doesn't appear to have a story of her own? She's the leader of Gentle House, but Anby, Billy and Nekomata are much more prominent in the game's events: Chapter 1 is effectively a character study on Nekomata, while Billy's ties to the Sons of Calydon make him central to Chapter 4 and Lighter's side stories. The game also really seems to want us to Love Anby, with her as the tutorial character for numerous in-game mechanics, her combining traits of both Kiana and Mei from Honkai, her movie obsession ("Who better to pair up with Phaethon?") and the fact she's ZZZ's official mascot. Billy, Anby and Nekomata are also prominently involved in Chapter 3. Nicole, by contrast...Pops in every now and again to give Phaethon a plot-important quest and/or MacGuffin (usually in timed events), and quite literally sits Chapter 3 out.

Even in terms of gameplay these characters play curious roles: Lighter and Qingyi are Stunners and I like using them to support Burnice and Zhu Yuan, respectively (though they can certainly also both hold their own). Jane, being a lone wolf, can easily carry a team in battle despite being an Anomaly-class, but is helped by having people who can back her up and compound her status effect skills. Nicole is quite literally a Support character, and while she is always my leader she plays best on my teams when she can fire the opening shot, swap out to a dedicated DPS character and then pop in and out now and again with artillery fire to keep the rally going. Remarkably, and tellingly, Nicole's best teams are with Jane and Qingyi...But only if Zhu Yuan is also with them.

Why is this? I think it's because it's a manifestation of Zenless Zone Zero's core theme: Dealing with the pain and grief of nostalgia for an idealized past we cannot return to (and it's debatable whether or not it even existed to begin with). The Seven Great Void Hunters were the heroes of a previous generation; an entire era ago, as General Falkenhayn tells us in “Where the Miracle Began”. They've all had their stories, and the game we are playing now is not about them. It's the job of those who are left to help build the future by mentoring and guiding the next generation of heroes to come into their own and help build New Eridu once more.

That's a theme and archetype that resonates with me on a deep, personal level, and is part of the reason I wanted to make this blog for Nicole.

Nikola.

[gentlehousenicole]

UPDATE: These headcanons are now out of date given the plot details revealed in v.1.4.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Below the jump are my personal interpretations and headcanons for the Seven Void Hunters of Eridu. This reading is built from entirely canon sources, but may or may not be canon itself. It is, however, canon to this blog's depiction of the Zenless Zone Zero universe.

But, since it may still be canon, I'm hiding under a Read More break in case this would constitute spoilers. If you don't care about that, please read on...

Swordmaster is outright said to be the third head of the Hoshimi family, and is all but confirmed to be an ancestor of Miyabi's. She may even be the mother Miyabi lost in the Fall of the Old Capital, depending on how long ago these events are meant to have taken place. If so, the sets up Miyabi, Belle and Wise to have a fascinating three-way dynamic.

Lady Sunbringer invented Bangboo, and is almost certainly the founder and first CEO of the Marcel Group as well. She is extremely reminiscent of MiHoYo's mascot Kiana Kaslana, particularly her appearance in Honkai Impact 3rd. Notably, Kiana is heavily associated with the Moon.

Leader Joyous is one of the most fascinating of the seven for me, because of the mention he "made his way through the Divine Maze", a phrase which lights a fire in my imagination. He looks uncannily like Lighter to me, and also appears to share Caesar's hair and possibly her crown as well. The scar over his eye alludes to a common ZZZ and Hoyoverse motif, but in this specific invocation it even brings to mind Lucius. As of this writing I haven't gotten to spend time with Lighter in-game, but at the moment my headcanon is that Lighter is Leader Joyous. Possibly even the First Overlord under a different name, given the apparent Outer Ring connections.

And now we come to the three most striking and compelling Void Hunters for me personally, certainly within the context of this blog: The Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe.

Colonel Vike has the vibrant fuchsia hair and wields the katana. Fans of the Honkai series will instantly recognize her as a dead ringer for franchise reoccurring character Raiden Mei. She does not appear to have an equivalent in the main game, breaking from prior HoYo tradition, but Caesar, Jane, Yanagi and Anby all have one or two of Mei's signature characteristics. Indeed, Mei being an iconic, highly skilled Electric-element swordswoman, one can easily see an echo in Anby or Yanagi. If I had to pick one modern day analogue for Col. Vike, however, it would be Jane.

Lieutenant Colonel Dan of the Guard of Staves is the big fella at the right, very much resembling a massive war mech. I interpret them as literally such and also sentient, an early AI android construct of the type we know existed in Eridu's time. There is a faint call-forward to Billy in certain aspects of their design, and in the fact both are sentient AI former war mechs. However, I believe Dan actually exists in modern-day New Eridu in the form of Qingyi: A sage martial arts master and staff user who is also an AI construct in an android body. Qingyi is one of the wisest characters in the game, has a connection to the White Star Institute and speaks openly to Belle and Wise in her story about being rebuilt and reconstructed. It is also worth noting that, in a spiritual context, the word "stave" can have multiple meanings.

The Leader of the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe is quite tellingly the only Void Hunter who isn't named, but we know who she is: The trailer all but literally tells us this is Nicole Demara long ago in another lifetime. I do also share the fandom consensus that she is an allusion to Elysia, the breakout character from Honkai Impact 3rd. It is also heavily implied the female speaker in "Where the Miracle Began" is the Leader, and by extension also Nicole. She is thus couched in an incredible degree of fascinating symbolism, most of which shoots straight into the mystical, and I could spend several posts of this length or longer just talking about that aspect of her character. But for now, since she doesn't have a canon name, I have tentatively decided to refer to this version of Nicole as General Nikola von Falkenhayn.

And finally, and most crucially as far as the main story of Zenless Zone Zero goes, there is Professor Arche. "Arche" refers to "the first principle" in Ancient Greek philosophy and theology, and this Arche is obviously connected to "Helios Academy" and "Phaethon". The Greek myth of the son of the Sun god and his disastrous ride through the sky is at the heart of Belle and Wise's story, and the evidence as I interpret it points very clearly to Professor Arche being Belle and Wise's mentor and mother Carole Arna, or at the very least her parent. I find it much more striking and emotionally impactful for Arche and Arna to be one and the same, however.