hi I'm normal about the new niigo event cards
spoilers for the newest event on JP. eng translation is "saying goodbye to my masked self" but it sounds like one of those awkward eng translations. I just saw the cards and went a little bit nuts because there is so. much. symbolism and callback to other events and cards.
the first very obvious connection is with the cards from the imprisoned marionette event. it's nightcord's first event and it's where we really get it set up that mafuyu's sitaution with her mom is a problem.
mafuyu feels like a marionette, the strings controlling her being her mother and the pressure she feels at school and home, and the mask being hiding her emotions and pretending to handle it.
so yknow with this event's card- the cut strings, the scissors, the broken mask. she's breaking her mom's control, she is "saying goodbye to her masked self". I find it interesting that it looks like not all the strings are cut- it may just be a stylistic choice by the illustrator though.
going further into reading too deeply into things the cards for the rest of niigo are also pretty straightforward with the string thing too. but I find it interesting that in mizuki's card, all the strings are hanging loose, in ena's card she's pulling against the strings, and in kanade's card, the strings all appear to still be tight and she's huddled up in the middle.
I think it maybe represents their different relationships to control. mizuki has always been about being yourself and not being controlled, and has lightly encouraged that in mafuyu or with their personality, at least kept the door open for mafuyu- they never really push.
Ena pushes back against control a lot- she outright lies to mafuyu's mom in "Someday, this wish will transcend the morning sky" so mafuyu can stay at her house. So I think it makes sense that she's directly pulling on the "strings of control".
Kanade never really directly challenges mafuyu's mother until "Immiscible discord". She prefers to focus just on mafuyu, and is kind of tunnel-vision about songwriting and helping mafuyu, so she's not touching the strings at all and is instead focused on the crystal/heart/apple.
(ok I wrote these next slides for a friend discord server so these are a bit more discombobulated)
so apples and heart-shaped apples are pretty significant at points in niigo's story. they appear most prominently in the "Mirage of lights" event when mafuyu get sick and recalls a similar time from her childhood. the memory of eating apple cut up for her by her mom (and later, kanade) is tied to a warm feeling- and it being tied to a feeling, at all, is pretty significant for mafuyu. and the heart shape I think makes it pretty clear- apples are tied to mafuyu's feelings, or her "heart". then there's also a brief reference in the lyrics of samsa and the art for the song as well which I feel like further solidifies it.
yes I know my handwriting is unreadable 😭 I'm going to add image descriptions.
Ok so also the hearts are made out of crystals or have a crystalline look to them and that along with the poses and lighting they're in reminds me of the cards from "Someday, from the depths of despair". Given the fact that the event is about reminiscing on how they all met and the connection and friendship they now share with each other, and the lyrics to Tricologe, specifically "a little chipped pink opal/a lost lolite/a topaz covered in dust/and a lonely ametrine" (although idk how official that translation is) I think the gemstones symbolize themselves, and the memories and feelings they have for each other aka friendship.
I also think it's interesting that for mafuyu's card in that event she doesn't have a fully formed crystal like mizuki and ena do because she still struggles with finding a sense of self and experiencing/identifying her feelings.
But yeah so the crystals/hearts/apples in this event's card symbolize mafuyu, her feelings, their friendship with her, that whole package. So think the rest of the girl's cards are showing them reaching out to mafuyu and supporting them in the ways that they know.
Anyway that's just what I think, it might be inaccurate I don't speak japanese or live in japan so I don't have direct access to things in the JP sekai server or the non-translated meanings of song lyrics, event dialogues, etc. I'm just excited about my blorbos. Mafuyu's story brings me to tears every time she has a focus event istg her story is dear to me and this is the ultimate culmination of all the growth I get super sappy over.
This is event is obviously a very big step that's been built up to since nightcord's first event/main story and I love how the imagery in the cards ties back to repeating themes, other events, and the beginning of it all. It's really the icing on the cake.
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8:59
This picture is gonna haunt me. I don't know how long but it's going to haunt me, for so long:
This is just going to haunt me. She was 16 when she wrote this, I'm close to being her age.
She survived 3 wars. 3 wars.
And I? I was unaware of what was happening. So unaware of it all.
And honestly it just shows how long it has been going on. It's been infecting them for so long, and it only got worse. And only now we are trying to do something about it when they have to live with this for so long.
She has lived with it all ever since she was born. “Since I was born I have survived 3 wars”.
Me? I was living my everyday life (not really, but so much gentler than her childhood & all of Palestine).
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Spring, ‘32, Grand Couron, Revachol
Harry du bois, gym teacher and substitute coach for regional high school games: Calling off a match between two schools when a pox-scarred kid was pushed to the ground and trampled by both teams in the middle of the game.
Later in the week he got a phone call from the kid, clearly forced by his parents to call and grumpily thanked Harry for saving him from breaking all 4 limbs. Dora jokingly commented that Harry upheld justice- he’d make a good RCM officer.
Spring ‘48, Jamrock, Revachol
Harry du bois, RCM officer, customarily drunk, pausing at his new partner’s self introduction: “I uh- recognise your voice from somewhere.”
His new partner, dryly: “You don’t say?”
Harry du bois, trying to stifle a hiccup and see straight at the same time: “There was this- From- *hiccup* Uh. *tapping forehead* No, it’s gone. Bad memory- 2 bottles of whisky.”
His new partner, nodding stiffly. “Probably a coincidence. People sound alike.”
Harry du bois, bleary-eyed: “huh. What-“
His new partner, whose name Harry already forgot: “The voice thing. It’s just a coincidence. You are drunk. You should run along.”
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