Happy 4/13, suckers, I've been mainlining Magical Girls and have an all new collection of psych meds. You know what time it is!
Symphogear Time!!!!
Tachibana Hibiki: Bard of Void
I knew I would have to limit Hibiki to the Void aspect since she specializes in unarmed combat. This was particularly tricky given her overwhelming association with Light, but luckily there are inversion prone classes to work with.
Bard was an ideal fit for someone whose goal of bringing the world together to a place of mutual understanding is so fundamentally at odds with her skill set as a combatant.
Ultimately, Hibiki is at her strongest when she is at her most passive: not fighting, but beseeching. Reaching out with an open fist to every villain and god she encounters, and in so doing insuring the total destruction of their plans.
The whole "haha she sings the song of the apocalypse because she's a bard" thing was a nice bonus!
Kazanari Tsubasa: Rogue of Blood
Ah, the lush irony of Tsubasa and blood. Despite her constant rejection of the constraints of her bloodline, there is no denying that Tsubasa has internalized the ideals of her family and pursues them with relentless fury. If Blood as an aspect represents the indelible effects that the people around us have on our lives and selves, well. Tsubasa certainly captures the complicated pain and glory of that.
However, the thing that truly makes her a rogue of blood, in my opinion, is the way she interacts with other people's family trauma. Consistently, she has the capacity to take on other people's fear of vulnerability and intimacy, cracking through their walls to allow those deeper bonds to form. Breaking in, but never stealing.
Add to that her association with Breath/Flight/Wings, and Rogue looks even more appealing for its ability to interact with an aspect to the point of its own opposite.
Yukine Chris: Prince of Life
Bang bang big gun go shooty pow boom.
I mean, there are legitimate reasons too, but this one is pretty straight forward. Chris is a very rich character, but uhhhhh. Not a super deep one.
In more serious terms, Chris is very much defined by her relationship to death. She is a killer, yes, but she doesn't want to be. The immense value she places on life, whether her own or others' suggests that she is not a Doom player, but a Life one.
Her willingness to sacrifice her own life to achieve the Biggest Bang also comes to mind. Whether she is using her life as a weapon, or using her weapons to protect lives, she's very much a Weapon of Life. And thus, a Prince of it too.
Maria Cadenzavna Eve: Seer of Hope
I feel like this is another relatively self-evident one. Maria always sees the best in people, even in her abusers. Whether it's the brain maze for the Linker recipe, or pretending to be Finé, Maria always sees the possibility for success.
Where light is the best possible turnout, hope is the impossible made manifest.
Also, her weapon is not designed for direct combat, but rather for redirection of immense amounts of energy. That screams "hopey bullshit" to me, as well as being a more passive style of combat overall.
Akatsuki Kirika: Knight of Mind
Okay, so, the underlying logic here basically comes down to "beep boop this bitch gay." Can you believe they legit named her 'eclipsed sunlight reflecting off the moon'? I love how obnoxious the names in this show are.
That in mind, why not heart? I actually waffled on this one a lot. Heart seems so obvious for the genki girl desperately in love with the moon. Right? But...
The thing is,
Tsukuyomi Shirabe: Maid of Heart
Drafty draft moon bunny boing boing
Girl has 0 impulse control. I almost said 0 chill but that's not true. If anything she has too much chill. She is so unhingedly chill about following all her most insane and self-destructive impulses. Every heart player ever does this, whether it's Dirk's beheading or Nepeta confronting Gamzee.
Bonus: Fraymotif (Light and Heart): Total Eclipse. If you're thinking this has IMMENSE deja vu, it's because I've definitely covered this before, here.
Anyway, imagine a cool fun total eclipse of the heart reference here
More personalized than Collective Effervescence, Total Eclipse is a pretty simple 1-to-1 translation of Kirika and Shirabe's various duet superpowers. I imagine it would functionally involve Kirika identifying strategic decision their enemy could make in her own and Shirabe's favour, and Shirabe forces the enemy into an emotional state conducive to making those bad choices. Like I said, it's basically 1-to-1 with how their duets function.
Kohinata Miku: Lord of Space
I have not watched Season 5, but if Miku doesn't get back her Symphogear by the end of it, I will be BURNING SOCIETY TO THE GROUND.
Anyway, as the Great Unmaker whose power was so immense that she unmade the concept of Original Sin, I think we can go ahead and give her a master title.
And when it comes to "able to destroy anything, anywhere, right down to the very concept of it" well. That's gotta be space.
Elfnein: Muse of Time.
This one was so easy that I kind of feel like it must be wrong. Too easy!
But I mean, she's literally the most passive person in the show, whose primary skill set is in giving other people enough time. That's muse of time behaviours!!
ETA: I've now watched enough of S5 to get to That Part now, and I'm more sure than ever. Even in the moment of utmost need, Elfnein's special ability is to summon previously killed allies for a cameo fight. I cannot think of anything more "too passive to live, too powerful to die."
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These are my opinions, not declarations of fact. I am always interested in hearing your opinions in turn.
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Bonus round: Genjuro ends up in Hibiki's sprite after being killed by SGAME. Tsubasa's cool politician dad voluntarily puts himself in Tsubasa's sprite to act as an ally to the kids. Ogawa is unkillable, Gamzee style, and this is never addressed.
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