mods please lmk if this violates the rules. i’m posting here because I write about the mob/casino and many relevant themes that are important elements of the Sopranos, in my opinion. I think they’re of the same medium and genre so wanted to post here. Hope that’s alright. Cheers! (11 min read) ————————————————————————
EDIT 2: TL;DR -
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
———————-
Every good filmmaker makes the same movie over and over again—Martin Scorsese is no different
Scorsese's Casino is a phenomenal story of the condoned chaos and "legalized robbery" that happens on a daily basis to gamblers who bett away thousands of dollars and return each day for more “FinDom,” but without any of the sexual sadism. The whole scam only persists because the house always wins: the odds are stacked 3 million to one on the slot machines, but the same shmucks return wide-eyed each day hoping for a different outcome, devoid of any rational re-evaluation required to maintain their grasp on reality, and the liquidity of their bank accounts.
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
Robert De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, recruited by his childhood friend Nick "Nicky" Santorno to help run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by an investment made with the Teamsters’ pension fund. Ace’s job is to keep the bottom line flowing so that the Mafia's skimming operation can continue seamlessly. De Niro's character felt like half-way between Travis from Taxi Driver (of course, nowhere as mentally disturbed) and half of the addictive excess, greed, and eccentric business-mind of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Ace’s attention to detail gives him a rain-man-esque sensibility; his ability to see every scam, trick, hand signal, and maneuver happening on the casino floor make him the perfect manager of the casino, and take his managerial style to authoritarian heights in his pursuit of order and control over what is an inherently unstable and dynamic scheme; betting, hedging outcomes, and walking the line to keep the money flowing and the gamblers coming back. I’m not claiming Ace is autistic, I'm no clinician, but his managerial sensibilities over the daily operations of the casino, from the dealers to the pit bosses, to the shift managers, are to the point of disturbing precision, he has eyes everywhere, and knows how to remove belligerent customers with class and professionalism, but ultimately is short sighted in “reading” the human beings he is in relationship with. Ace is frustratingly naive and gullible in his partnership with Nicky and the threat he poses to him, and in his marriage with Ginger.
Ace has no personal aspirations to extract millions of dollars for himself out of the casino corruption venture. Ace simply wants the casino to operate as efficiently as possible, and he has no qualms about being a pawn of the bosses. While Sam, “the Golden Jew”—as he is called—is the real CEO of the whole enterprise, directing things at Tangiers for the benefit of the bosses “back home.” Ace’s compliance is juxtaposed with Nicky’s outrage upon feeling used: he gripes about how he is in “the trenches” while the bosses sit back and do nothing. Note that none of the activity Nicky engages in outside of the casino—doing the work of “taking Las Vegas over”—is authorized by the bosses. Ultimately Nicky’s inability to exert control over his crew and the street lead to his demise.
In the end, capitalism, and all that happens in the confines of the casino, is nothing but “organized violence.” Sound familiar? The mob has a capitalist structure in its organization and hierarchy: muscle men collect and send money back to the bosses who do not labor tirelessly “in the trenches.” The labor of the collectors is exploited to create the profits of their bosses. The entire business-model of the Mafia is predicated on usury and debtors defaulting on loans for which the repayment is only guaranteed by the threat of violence. But this dynamic is not without its internal contradictions and tensions, as seen in Casino.
In a comedic turn, the skimmers get skimmed! The bosses begin to notice the thinning of the envelopes and lighter and lighter suitcases being brought from the casino to Kansas City, “back home”. The situation continues to spin out of control, but a mid-tier mafioso articulates the careful balance required for the skimming operation to carry on: to keep the skimming operation functioning, the skimmers need to be kept loyal and happy. It’s a price the bosses have to pay to maintain the operation, “leakage” in their terms. Ace’s efficient management and precision in maintaining order within Tangiers is crucial for the money to keep flowing. But Ace’s control over the casino slips more and more as the movie progresses. We see this as the direct result of Nicky’s ascendance as mob kingpin in Vegas, the chaos he creates cannot be contained and disrupts the profits and delicate dynamics that keep the scam running.
Of course I can’t help myself here! We should view Scorsese’s discography, and the many portrayals of capitalist excess not as celebratory fetishization, but a critique of the greed and violence he so masterfully captures on film. See the Wolf of Wall Street for its tale of money as the most dangerous drug of them all, and the alienation—social and political—showcased in Taxi Driver. Scorsese uses the mob as a foil to the casino to attack the supposed monopoly the casino holds on legitimate, legal economic activity that rests on institutionalized theft. When juxtaposed with the logic of organized crime, we begin to see that the two—Ace and Nick—are not so different after all.
The only dividing line between the casino and organized crime is the law. Vegas is a lawless town yes, “the Wild West” as Nicky puts it, but there are laws in Vegas. The corruption of the political establishment and ruling elites is demonstrated when they pressure Ace to re-hire an incompetent employee who he fired for his complicity in a cheating scam or his stupidity in letting the slot machines get rigged; nepotism breeds mediocrity. In the end, Ace’s fall is the result of the rent-seeking behavior that the Vegas ruling class wields to influence the gaming board to not even permit Ace a fair hearing for his gaming license, which would’ve given him the lawful authority to officially run Tangiers. The elites use the political apparatus of the State to resist the new gang in town, the warring faction of mob-affiliated casino capitalists. While the mob’s only weapon to employ is that of violence. The mafia is still subservient to the powers that be within the political and economic establishment of Vegas, and they’re told “this is not your town.”
I’d like to make the most salient claim of this entire review now. Casino is a western film. The frontier of the Wild West is Vegas in this case, where the disorder of the mob wreaks havoc on, an until then, an “untapped market.” The investment scheme that the Teamsters pension fund is exploited for as seed capital, is an attempt to remain in the confines of the law while extracting as much value as possible through illegal and corrupt means for the capitalist class of the mob (and the ultimately dispensable union president). Tangiers exists in the liminal space of condoned economic activity as a legal and otherwise standard casino. While the violence required to maintain the operation, corrupts the legal legitimacy it never fully enjoyed from the beginning. This mirrors the bounty economy of the West and the out-sourcing of the law and the execution of the law, to bounty hunters. There is no real authority out in the frontier, the killer outlaw on the run is not so different from the bounty hunter who enjoys his livelihood by hunting down the killers. Yet, he himself is not the State. The wide-lens frame of Ace and Nicky meeting in the desert felt like a direct homage to the iconic image of the Western standoff. The conflict between Ace and Nick, the enforcer and the mastermind, is an approximation of the conflicts we might see in John Wayne’s films. The casino venture itself could be seen as an analogy of the frontier-venturism of railroad pioneers going to lay track to develop the West into a more industrial region.
I would have believed that this was a documentary about how the mob took over control of the Vegas casinos in the 1970-80s … if it were not for the viewer being expected to believe that Robert De Niro could play a Jew; it's hard to believe a man with that accent and the roles he’s played his entire career could be a “CRAZY JEW FUCK!!” I kid! But alas, De Niro is a class act and the last of the many greats of a bygone era. At times, it felt like Joe Pesci lacked talent as an actor, but his portrayal of the scummy, backstabbing bastard in Nicky was genuinely remarkable, but I might consider his performance the weak point of the movie. It’s weird to see a man that short, be that much of physical menace. There are a number of Sopranos actors in Casino. I’m sure Vincent Chase watched the movie and said to himself, “bet, i’ll cast half of these guys.”The set design and costumes were gorgeous. The styles and fashion of the time were spectacular. Scorsese’s signature gratuitous violence featured prominently, but tastefully. The camera work, tracking shots through the casino and spatial movement was incredible and I thought the cinematography was outstanding, the Western-esque wide lens in the desert was worthy of being a framed still.
The Nicky//Ace dynamic is excellent and the two play off of each other well. The conflict between the two of them escalates gradually, and then Nicky’s betrayal of Ace by cheating with Ginger marks the final break between the two of them. Nicky’s mob faculties represent a brutal, violent theft that is illegal and requires the enforcement of violence by organized crime. Despite the illegal embezzlement and corruption at play with the “skimming” operation at work at the casino, the general business model of the casino stands in contrast to the obscene violence of the loan sharks. Ace operates an intelligent operation of theft through the casino, and his hands-on management approach is instrumental to the success of the casino. Nicky’s chaos pervades the casino, and the life and activities of “the street” begin to bleed into Ace’s ability to maintain order in the casino. “Connected” types begin frequenting the casino, and Ace unknowingly forces one particularly rude gambler to leave the casino, who happens to have mob ties with Nicky. The “organized violence” of the casino cannot stay intact perfectly, because the very thing holding it together is the presence of the mob. Nicky is in Vegas as the enforcer and tasked with protecting Ace but his independent, entrepreneurial (shall we call them?) aspirations lead him to attempt to overtake what he realizes is a frontier for organized crime to brutalize and exploit the characters of “the street” (pimps, players, addicts, dealers, and prostitutes) and the owners of small private businesses.
Nicky is reckless, “when i plant my flag out here you won’t need your [casino/gaming] license” Nicky thinks he, and Ace, can bypass the regulations and bureaucratic legal measures by sheer force of violence alone. But ultimately Nicky is shortsighted and doesn’t have a real attachment to the success of the casino. After all, he isn’t getting profits from it (or much anyway) and isn’t permitted to play a real, active role in its daily functions because of his belligerent, untamed personality. Nicky has no buy-in that would motivate him to follow the rules or to work within the legal parts of the economy, it’s not the game he knows how to play, and win. All that he is loyal to, or deferent too, is the bosses back home; for whom he maintains absolute, uncompromising loyalty to, but still holds intense spite for.
And now to the more compelling element of the narrative. Sam “Ace” Rothstein is positioned as remarkably intelligent, he makes informed decisions that aid in his skill as a gambler, he can read people to determine whether he’s being conned, he has an attention to detail—aided by the casino’s surveillance apparatus which monitors cheating—that is almost unbelievable. Ace knows when he’s being cheated, he knows how to rig the game so that the house always wins, enacting psychological warfare to break down the confidence of would be proficient gamblers, who could threaten Tangiers’ bottom line. But in the end, the greatest gamble Ace makes is his marriage to Ginger. Ginger is the seductive, charismatic, and flirtatious madame who makes her money with tricks and her sexual power. Ginger works as a prostitute, seducing men, and extracting everything she can, almost as a sort of sexual-financial vampirism.
Ginger is the bad bet Ace can’t stop making even when she destroys his life, her own, and puts their daughter Amy in harm’s way. Ginger is the gamble Ace made wrong, but he keeps going back to her every time, trying to rationalize how she might change and be different the next time. Ace is not a victim to Ginger’s antics. Ginger makes it clear who she is: an addict, alcoholic, manic shopaholic who will use all of her powers to extract everything she can from everyone around her. She uses everyone to her advantage and manipulates men with her sexual power in exchange for their money and protection. Ginger had a price for her hand in marriage: $1 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewelry that are left to her and her alone as a sort of emergency fund.
Ace’s numerous attempts to buy Ginger’s love—and the clear fact that no matter how expensive the fur coat and how grand the mansion, none of it would ever be enough to satisfy her—mirrored Jordan Belfort’s relationship with Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street. Both relationships carried the same manic volatility and conflict over child custody was found in both films, with the roles reversed in the respective films. Ginger may be irredeemable and a pathological liar, but Ace can’t claim that she wasn’t clear with him; when he asked her to marry him, Ginger said she didn’t love Ace. Ace replied that love could be “developed” but required a foundation of trust to develop. That trust was never there to begin with. The love was doomed from the start to destroy the two of them; two addicts, two gamblers, lying on a daily basis to one another and themselves about reality to justify their respective existences, the marriage, and Ace’s livelihood. And as Ginger pointed out, “I should have never married him. He’s a gemini, a triple gemini … a snake” Maybe astrology has some truth to it after all.
Now I’m not licensed (but hey neither was Ace, and he ran a casino empire!), but Ginger has the inklings of a borderline personality: her manic depression, narcissism, drug and alcohol abuse, and constant begging for forgiveness all seem indications of a larger psychological disorder at play. In the end, Ginger runs away with all the money Ace left her and finds her people in Los Angeles, the pimps, whores, and addicts she fits in with, in turn exploit and kill her for 3 grand in mint coins by giving her a ‘hot’ dose.
Overall, Casino is an incredible cinematic experience. I highly recommend watching this and seeing it as part of Scorsese's anthology of commentary on our economic system and its human victims. I’d argue that Casino, Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman all fit together nicely into a trilogy of the Scorsesean history of finance and corruption from the 70s to the 90s.
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EDIT 2: TL;DR —
Casino is a story of sexual and financial intrigue, mob violence, union pension fund embezzlement, a “love” story, and the protagonist's masochist addiction to the pain and chaos his lover inflicts on him. It turns out that the sharp-minded genius who meticulously runs the casino, is no more rational than the gamblers who routinely frequent the casino, coming back to lose their money and hoping that the odds will magically shift in their favor.
submitted by DM: Jacob S. Players: CJ J. (Capri-Sun), Hunter M. (Olivia Invidia), Thomas H. (Courtney Act), Clara Z. (Succor), Idan H. (Fab), Peyton L. (Harmony)
"Hello everyone!"
Naoise Capri-Sun and Sif Courtney Act sit at a glittery decorative table with a tall stack of pictures between them.
"My name is Capri-Sun..."
"And I'm Courtney Act..."
"And welcome," Capri continues, "to the first ever PuBall's Frack Race Fashion! Photo! Review!!!" She leans forward, resting her chin in her hands. "We're here to recap the inaugural season of PuBall's Frack Race by tooting--" She gives a thumbs up. "--and booting--" She dramatically flips her hand over into a thumbs down. "--the runway looks from the competition!"
"We'll be judging the outfits, hair, and jewelry from each contestant's runway appearances. So, without further ado, let's get started with the first week's theme: Talent show."
Capri picks up the first page from the stack of pictures. On it is a drawing of herself in a cirque outfit, hanging from an aerial silk. "Now... we might be a little biased, considering both of us were contestants, but being the first season there weren't any former contestants to host this so here we are! Anyway, this was my look. I did a bit of a cirque performance."
She points to the leotard in the picture. "My main critique of this outfit is that I wish I'd come up with a better design for the embroidery, but I think the colors worked really well, especially with them being in my comfort zone of shades to work in."
Courtney nods. "Matching the outfit to the silk was a nice touch. I'll give this a toot."
"Why, thank you!" Capri feigns bashfulness. "I also give this a toot."
She puts the picture down and Courtney picks up the next two images from the stack, each of which show a triton in a different outfit. "This was Picassa's look, or rather, looks."
"I love a reveal or a transformation. Neither of these outfits stands out but I have to applaud the choice to do two in the first challenge so I will also give this a toot."
Courtney shrugs. "I dunno, I think the second one was stronger and without actually incorporating the change into her talent it was just sort of distracting. I'm gonna boot this one."
"To each her own," Capri shrugs. She picks up the next image, which shows a greyscale tiefling in a sparkly cloak. "So, next up we have Harmony. This is definitely a bit of a simple look but I think it works."
"Harmony's talent was magic, and I think this look says adventurer, but the cloak is very nice so I think that elevates it and really ties it together. Toot."
"Toot from me as well," Capri says as Courtney picks up the next picture. It shows a slightly older, scholarly woman.
"Next we have Lady Lardesse," Courtney announces. "This was a good look for her, I think, probably in her comfort zone but for the first challenge that's alright. Toot"
"Agreed. I'll give this a toot." Capri picks up the next picture, which shows a large Kostroman woman holding a log. "This one is Helgenberg," she announces. "Okay, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I thought her outfit really worked. She got a bit tangled up in it which was a shame, but the look itself did a good job of being sort of coarse but in a purposeful way. I want to give this one a toot."
"I can see what you mean," Courtney says. "And I think including one of the logs as a sort of accessory was a good choice, it weirdly ties a lot of things together. Toot from me as well." She shows the next picture, which shows Corven Succor.
"This one is Succor, which, I know we're tooting and booting the fashion but I can't not mention how delightful they were as a fellow contestant. They brought such a positive energy, it was great. This look... not so much."
"They didn't do a great job of making this outfit work with the feathers. I'm no stranger to having to incorporate whatever you're working with into looks so I get that it's hard, but Succor definitely could have done a better job. Gonna have to boot it."
"I'm booting this as well, I definitely agree with you on the, eh, cohesion front. They could've done better and I feel more comfortable saying that because, spoiler alert, Succor does do a much better job of that with some later looks." Capri picks up the next image, which shows a half-orc woman in a dancing costume. "Next up we've got Taura. This look is fine. I don't really have a lot to say, it's alright."
Courtney nods in agreement. "I'll be nice and give it a toot, I don't have any problems with it." She pulls out the next picture as Capri agrees with the verdict. "Now it's my turn!" The picture shows Courtney in a stark white ensemble of a miniskirt and bralette, with long gloves and garter socks as well as a white wig.
"I might be biased, but I loved this look," Capri says. "It looked clean, all the components were exactly the same color, it was interesting... toot."
"I'm definitely biased but I agree," Courtney laughs. "Toot!"
"What would you do if I'd booted your look?" Capri asks.
"Be unbelievably offended, of course. What would you do if I'd booted yours?"
"Cry," she answers, completely straight-faced. Capri picks up the next picture, which shows a human woman in a sheer black lounge singer-style gown. "Firin from Finance," she announces. "This is such a classic look, very elegant. Definitely fits Firin's style. I'd have liked to see something a little more daring from her but no real complaints. Toot."
"With you on the elegant look. Firin could definitely pull off a brighter color, or really any color, but the black isn't bad. Toot as well." Courtney selects the next image. It shows a fallen aasimar adorned in dark colors. "Next up is Elma. Very moody, very artsy. She did poetry for her talent so I definitely see where it was going. I'll toot this."
"I don't know, I think it's a bit too edgy. Poetry doesn't have to be sad, you know? Even a fallen angel can have some fun. I'm going to boot this one." She picks up a picture of an Ashkirin human woman in a flamenco-style dress. "This next one is Karina." She looks the picture over.
"Another pretty classic type of look. I have similar feelings to Firin, this feels a little safe but it is just the first week so I'm not upset by that."
Capri nods. "Classic looks are classic for a reason, yeah? Toot."
"Toot." Courtney selects the next picture, an image of Oliver Olivia Invidia in a slightly bloody casino suit. "Now this is how you get bold with a classic look. The suit fits well, it's a nice color, but that blood is a wild choice and I think it paid off."
"Once again I'm giving points for the look tying in with the performance. Knowing Olivia, blood is actually sort of tame, but to use in a runway look it definitely is a bold choice and I liked it. Toot!"
"Toot." Courtney agrees as Capri picks up the next image, a picture of an air genasi.
"Kayootie! Oh, she was such a gem."
"Gone too soon," Courtney says solemnly.
"Truly... but looking at her outfit I can see how it wasn't enough to offset her performance. This silhouette is... a choice. And I think it was a good choice, I'm giving this a toot, but I do think it's not everyone's cup of tea so this is a personal taste toot."
"I can respect that. And honestly the look was the only thing Kayootie had going for her in this challenge so acknowledging her successes there only seems fair. Toot."
Courtney picks up the final picture and holds it up, revealing Fib Fab surrounded by drums. "Last but not least we have Fab."
"This is a queen who lives up to her name," Capri laughs. "Drums and bongos are classic Fab and incorporating them into her look and, of course, her talent was really well done, and there's a bit of humor to it as well."
"Yes, for sure. The coordination here was really good and I'm hard-pressed to find anything I hate about this. Toot."
"That's a toot from me as well, which brings us to the end of this first Fashion Photo Review! Catch us next time for a review of the second week's runway looks as we work our way through the whole season of Puball's Frack Race. I'm Capri-Sun!"
"And I'm Courtney Act."
submitted by With GTAO seeming to continue getting milked for the future on next gen too,i wrote 15 DLC concepts which i will be posting over the coming days and weeks and i hope you guys like them.
The first concept is a spinoff update which just focuses on luxury lifestyle.
You'll be able to buy a Mansion which can be customised a lot in the inside. You'll have customisation like the Casino Penthouse where you can hang up different types of artwork but also place statues around. Those decorations can be purchased on the laptop inside your office in the Mansion. Another type of customisation would be having the style of the inside of the Mansion,you could go for a more stonish style,or more old school wooden or maybe colourful? Or how about goldish? You can have a sports and gym room with a tennis court,an indoor swiming pool and hot tub,30 car garage which can be customised into your type of style,a gaming room with a few arcade games and bowling and darts. Also have a masterbedroom,theatre and bar. You'll also have a limousine driver who can fast travel you.
Another property would be beach houses. Those would be the Stilt Houses 2.0 of the update. The beach houses in LS have never been purchasable,they should be as they are very unique looking and could cost around 400k minimum.
New Mk2 weapon livery: The update will have new luxury engravement liveries for Mk2 weapons.
Clothing would obviously be new expensive watches,jewelry like earrings or necklaces,new dresses(maybe some with diamonds on them),new suits and so on.
New Yacht colour: Gold.
Vehicles:
I wanna see the Stretch E. We currently have the Stretch E in GTAOnline but this one is weaponized and a pegasus and ceo vehicle. I am talking about a non-weaponized version. One which you can store in your garages and also customise and use in races. This Stretch E can be purchased in 2 versions too: Normal and armoured. Just like the Baller,Schafter,XLS and so on.
Another vehicles i would love to see in this Update are:
-V-STR(armoured): A slightly more expensive version which is bulletresistant and survives one explosive.
-Streiter(armoured): A slightly more expensive version which is bulletresistant and survives one explosion.
-The Ferrari Sergio.
-Lamborghini Veneno (Roadster).
-Maybach Exelero.
-Rolls Royce Sweptail.
-Bugatti la voiture noire.
-Speeder Deluxe(golden Speeder which would cost 1 more million than the normal Speeder).
-History Supreme
-Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma Mk II+
-Gulfstream G500
Maybe some more vehicles but i did some research and think that the vehicles i mentioned would fit nicely into a luxury themed update like this one.
The update could also feature finally some new VIP missions.
As you can see,this concept is mainly like The Executive and other Criminals Update. Mostly luxury related.
I hope you likes this concept! :D
Got more concepts in the coming weeks such as multiple and unique businesses and heists.
submitted by Hello.
I need help writing my protagonist for a fantasy anime-style webnovel I'm writing. Genre: psychological, drama, maybe some action. Things he doesn't have yet: personality, a goal.
**Magic System**
In this setting, there are six types of Arcana, or dual–themed elemental magic, available to humans. I say *elemental*, but some non–elemental magic falls into it too, as long as it's thematically related to the element.
These are:
The Wave Arcana (Fire+Water)
The Moon (Light+Darkness)
The Nest (Life+Death)
The Cloud (Air+Gravity)
The Tower (Earth+Aether)
The Great Passage (Time+Entropy)
These 12 elements are taken from the online cardgame, [Elements the Game.](
www.elementsthegame.com) Feel free to check it out, we're running low on players :(
Anyway, back to the story. A person is usually born having one of these Arcana; two if talented, and up to three for those really gifted. The number of Arcana is a status symbol in this world. Having multiple Arcana is enough to appoint you president of a country.
But there was one person, Shion, who was born with, not one... not two... but *all six* Arcanas currently in existence. This was unheard of. Never before in history has there been a royal flush of Arcanas, all inside one person. Shion was a one in a million miracle, so, his birth was treated like the coming of Christ.
It wasn't just for show, Shion was the strongest human alive by a wide margin. He could move mountains with just a flick of a finger, he could start thunderstorms with just a mere blow of his breath. Destined for greatness, the people raised him to be the perfect hero, and by the time he's grown, he'd already accomplished countless great feats.
[Shion](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Hero-800648919)
**Premise**
Shion was tasked with the role of defeating the *DemonLord*, a powerful entity far within the depths of hell.
Long story short, it did not go well. The DemonLord proved too powerful to banish. In the heat of the moment, Shion resorted to a last–ditch severing spell, a Light element magic that targeted the Darkness–based constitution of the DemonLord. It was a success. The DemonLord was split... That night, 10000 pieces of the DemonLord's magic rained down upon the continents. Even if Shion couldn't kill him, this should be enough to count as a win.
But the use of this spell also left Shion open to a counterattack. As the DemonLord lay dying, he cursed Shion. He cursed the Arcanas of human magic, and promised that never again will Shion have authority over his Arcanas. Blinding flash of light.
Shion wakes up, with no more magic, no idea of who he is, and no memories of his previous life. This... "Amnesia Shion", will be the main character of our story. Standing before him now, are six waifus, all representing the Arcana magic Shion once possessed. The DemonLord had taken his magic, and turned it into sentient beings that can now think for themselves — this is what he meant by Shion *never again having authority*.
So as with the DemonLord being split into 10,000 pieces, Shion the Legendary Hero was also split into 7 people: 6 magical beings (representing his powers), and the leftover physical body.
**Aftermath**
The Arcana waifus, like their magic, have vastly differing personalities. They can get along to some extent, but most of the time they can't settle their differences. They all have their own opinions, their own outlook on life, and they all think they're superior over the others. They want to prove their own magic is the best one; working together is the last thing they want to do.
Each waifu is magically as strong as the original Shion — just one of them has enough power to destroy an entire country. Early in the story, they part ways and go on separate journeys across the continent, with each Arcana trying to accomplish their own thing. They try to steer clear of each other's business, but as it stands, the world is a small place... It's not uncommon for the Arcana waifus to bump into each other, and it's definitely not uncommon that one Arcana interferes with another's plans. If two of them clash, the resulting damage would be unimaginable.
**The Arcanas**
Let's have a quick rundown of the waifus. First off, the *Wave* Arcana.
Master of Fire. Master of Water. Main girl.
Let's call her Raine.
[Uncolored](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/20191027-210437-N-821514897)
[Colored](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/The-Wave-822171183)
Raine wants to hunt down the 10,000 DemonLord pieces scattered about. It's "what the original Shion would've wanted", so it's only fair they respect his wishes. The other sisters don't care about any of that though, and deep down, Raine too doesn't want to hunt demons out of her own accord. She only does so because it's the one thing she understands about the original Shion.
She believes they (the Arcanas) are existences who should not have been born. If Shion had just been careful, he'd still be alive and intact right now. It's only by a fluke that they're alive. Them being there only adds insult to the fact that the original Shion is gone, so she feels the only way to get validation for their existence is to finish everything Shion started: clean up the remaining 10,000 demons.
She tries talking this through with her sisters, but when none of them listen to her, like Fire, she can be volatile. At one story arc, she hatches a plan to magically explode the sun. Sure, it would kill all the demons in one go, but would also kill everyone else, completely missing the point. That's her flaw — she wants to follow the *killing demons* part to the letter. She's willing to destroy the world just to end the 10000 demons, which, just going out on a limb, is *not what the original Shion would've wanted*.
*The Moon*
[Darkstar](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Ijime-800647535)
[Colored](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/The-Moon-Arcana-810226656)
Darkstar is Darkness-dominant. She hates the Light element within her, she never uses it, and will stop at nothing to get rid of it. It's probably easiest to visualize her as the "goth girlfriend". After leaving the others, she sets out on a journey to research samples of the DemonLord's magic. She is very interested in them, especially on how the DemonLord was able to severe the Arcanas from Shion. It seems demon magic can do things human magic cannot.
She wonders if demon magic could also alter the pre-existing Arcana pairs. She wants to cast a worldwide reality warp that will scramble up the Arcanas, in hopes that her Light magic will finally leave her Darkness side.
*The Nest*
She has two forms. At night she's *Memento.*
[Death](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Death-800647137)
During the day she's *Mori.*
[Life](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Life-800635987)
[Colored](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Mori-832018199)
Nest Arcana is not a very combat–suited magic. It's main use is agriculture, healing, and communicating with souls of the dead. Life magic is the least dangerous of all, making Mori the safest waifu around.
That said, Memento's Death magic is dialed up to eleven; she unconsciously saps the life force out of everyone around, making her a walking bio–weapon.
Mori is very shy. She prefers talking to plants and animals rather than people. She's also a bit animalistic, eating meat raw and with her hands. This makes her all the more self–conscious of herself in front of people. Memento is very non–caring, and talks to inanimate objects instead. She does want company to some extent, but accepts that her power is a curse preventing that. The two personalities are perfectly content staying away from human contact.
*The Great Passage*
[June](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Cheerleader-825435543)
A cheerful, lively girl. There are other split personalities she can tap into (because entropy means randomness). She's usually happy-go-lucky — because she already saw the future and knows how things turn out. However, there's one blockage in the future that she can't seem to see past through. At some point in the future, Darkstar will succeed with her grand, paradigm–shifting plans. The universe will disappear, to be replaced by a parallel, alternate reality. She can't see the future past this point. She doesn't know what will happen, but whatever it is, it can't be good.
More than anything though, she takes it a personal insult that someone is locking down her prophecy powers. Her main goal is to prevent Darkstar's plans and alter the future.
She's mostly offscreen, only occasionally appearing to warn Ashi about the future.
*The Cloud*
[Agyros 1](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Agyros-800634867)
[Fish Orbs](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Fish-Orb-810227519)
[Fish Orbs Colored](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Agyra-828370569)
[Agyros 3](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Agyros-uncolored-824748076)
Agyros. She's hot–blooded and aggressive, with even Darkstar going so far as to call her "unhinged". She wants to fight a strong opponent. She has no qualms killing people, she just wants to fight. One as challenging as possible. Her journey is one of finding the strongest people on earth and defeating them, and when it's clear no ordinary human in the world can match her, she turns to lopping off her Arcana sisters one by one.
*The Tower*
[Hera](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Hera-2-831818318)
[Hera 2](
https://www.deviantart.com/verticalskyline/art/Hera-1-831818128)
Last but not least, Hera is obsessed with power. She wants to be worshipped, by as many as possible. She wants people serving her, because "servants" equal *power*. She believes true power is having the allegiance of others, either by choice or by force, and since she inherited Shion's inhuman power levels, the whole world is now hers for the taking.
Aether covers mental (non–physical) magic, spatial magic and parallel dimensions. Earth magic includes rocks, metals and precious minerals (diamonds, rubies, etc.), so every shiny jewelry there is, Hera wants for herself. She uses these riches to buy people's servitude, and for those she can't bribe, she'll use mind control magic to force them.
**The Protagonist**
The body.
The part of Shion left when his powers were removed. He's lost all memories, he's lost all magic, and he's lost all things that made him the great hero he once was. Let's call him *Amnesia Shion,* or 'Ashi' for short. He is a *Vacuum* — that is, people born with zero Arcana. They can't use magic, they're very weak. They *can* infuse magic into their body, though it's not as glamorous as it sounds.
For the Vacuums, magic is like an unlearned skill (e.g. playing the piano/doing a sommersault). To learn it, you practice over and over 'til you get it right. Each Arcana has a way to 'train' a Vacuum into using magic, and once you've gone through them, a Vacuum will learn to use Arcana the same as a natural born mage.
Here's the catch though: Vacuums are not designed to learn that skill. Their body hates it, so a Vacuum is always in a constant trajectory of "unlearning" all the magic experience they get. It's like studying for a pop quiz of your most hated subject. You absorb the knowledge just long enough for the exam, then once it's over, your brain can't wait to forget every useless thing it tried to cram.
Vacuums have no workaround for this, they just have to face losing every magic skill they learn. Not training for a day is like not playing the piano for a week, you get rusty insanely fast.
If there's one thing they have going for them, it's flexibility. Normal people can't change their magic type, they're stuck with whatever Arcana they've got. But for the Vacuum, they're free to train any and every Arcana they want. Ashi could have Nest Arcana now, and then Cloud next week, and then Tower; it's very versatile...
**The Philosophical Battle**
As I said, at the start of the story the Arcana waifus can't settle their differences. They find it way too easy to argue because of their differing personalities, but the real nail in the coffin is how each interpret differently Shion's life.
Raine argues that he's a hero. Of course, he saved the world countless times, and he always does the right thing. He's what everyone in the world should strive to become. Darkstar says this is bullshit, and that all Shion was was a puppet — an overrated military weapon that did whatever he was told.
Agyros also argues against this hero interpretation, but posits that Shion was "an existence beyond human strength". He did not obey anyone. He reached the peak limit of human magic, and was simply bored that everyone else on the planet was so weak. That's why he challenged the DemonLord, when he was sitting oh so quietly in hell. Shion didn't want to save the world or fluff like that, he just wanted a worthwhile fight. He wanted to know if he could beat God.
June supports this, citing how Shion was unable to forecast how the fight will turn out. When Time magic fails to show you even *one* future outcome, you know that's a sign something bad will happen. If he knew what's good for him, he would've stayed away from the DemonLord at all costs.
When asked how Memento considers Shion, she simply replies as "dead". Mori, however, thanks Shion as you would food before eating. She views Shion as a necessary sacrifice so that all of them can exist. Finally, Hera agrees with Raine on the point that Shion is a hero, but adds that he wasted his life doing all those useless things, when he could've been so much more productive.
This sets the waifus against each other, and makes Ashi question how he should view this so–called *Shion.*
**Ashi's Magic**
The protagonist here faces severe magic shortage, so to combat this, I've decided to train him mostly in the Great Passage Arcana. I've thought about this, and *Time plus Entropy* seems to be the most fitting element for a protagonist. It's an intercepting magic that works with minimal violence.
Entropy is described as the thing that makes a bent nail or a crumpled paper hard to straighten again — it is the chaos and randomness in the universe. Entropy magic then specializes in churning out buffs and nerfs with no pattern, as if one were a walking casino slot machine. It's chaotic, it's unpredictable, and it's the last thing you want to see when you have grand evil plans rolling out tommorow.
Time magic is the opposite. It's peaceful, it's orderly, it's magic that seeks to reduce the entropy of the universe. Combining the neutralizing power of Entropy and the rewinding/repairing magic of Time, the Great Passage Arcana has theoretically the best defense out of all six types.
First off... Ashi can't have magic for long periods of time. He won't have it 24/7, so to not be caught empty–handed right when he needs it, he takes a leaf out of June's book trying to forecast the future. This way, he has an early warning which emergency situations will need magic. He won't predict all of it, but he'll be prepared for a good story arc or two. It's better than going in blind. Next, he'll excel in a close–quarters disarming spell. It's a simple fusion of speed magic plus predicting, very effective in stopping an assailant.
And for his bread and butter, the whole Entropy package. Entropy has a lot of utilities. You want to destroy an evil deathray machine? *Entropy is your friend.* You have to break into the enemy's lair? *Entropy is your friend.* And most important of all, you want defeat someone a hundred times stronger than you (the Arcana waifus)? Entropy is your only shot.
When it comes to other Arcanas, victory always goes to the stronger, smarter, and more experienced fighter. But against Entropy magic, that advantage is meaningless. Entropy closes the gap between the stronger and the weaker fighter, such that any predefined strength difference is rendered unuseable. Entropy's theme is that no matter how strong the enemy is, there's always a chance to turn the tables around; the strongest magics always fall against the simplest ones (sneeze spell, tickle spell, etc).
**Antagonists**
There are two types of antagonists in this story: the 10,000 demon pieces, and the Arcana waifus.
The demons take up bulk of the story. Demons find people with powerful emotions such as jealousy and anger, and give them demon powers of their own. They act as the bridge for ordinary people to do evil things. Maybe someone wants revenge, maybe someone wants to take down the government... these are things the demon pieces easily latch onto. Anyone who is a host for demons receives powers beyond human limits, and will start a chain events which the main characters get caught up into. So in this scenario, the antagonists will be other fellow humans.
The second antagonists are the Arcana waifus. They're not "evil" per se, but they're morally misguided. The story progression ultimately heads towards one of these Arcanas attempting to do some "world destroying". Raine does it. Darkstar does it. Pretty much everyone does it at some point. They are the overarching antagonists that everything is progressing towards.
Now, I say they are *antagonists,* but they also take turns being the heroes. They have a weird dynamic where they're all so powerful they could destroy the world, but they're simultaneously the "safety switches" that can stop each other. When facing an Arcana waifu attempting to destroy the world, the protagonist or the military are enough. It takes an Arcana waifu to beat another Arcana waifu.
**The Story**
*Part 1, Raine's Arc*
To paint a picture of what Ashi will face, I'll go into a very quick rundown of the main key events.
At the start, Ashi travels with Raine, (more like she forced him to), aiming to hunt DemonLord pieces. He goes along with her because, well... he'll starve to death if he doesn't do anything, and she seems like she already knows the society of this world. He's strung along to hunt demons without being proactive himself, which is generally bad for a protagonist, but since defeating demons is not the story goal, he maybe gets a pass.
The first arc covers Ashi and Raine chasing after a demon into a village populated by Vacuums. Since they're vulnerable, they are all protected by the *Nine Circles of Hell*, nine Fire specialists who had the most massive kill counts in the previous world war. From a skateboarding maid to a loli who uses pencils to attack, they are held as one of the strongest military forces to date.
Ashi gets his first experience training magic here. Meanwhile, he notices something weird. Despite being called The *Nine* Circles of Hell, there's only eight of them. Ashi and Raine find out the story of how they had to kill one of their members after catching them in the act of doing a crime.
She was a Moon–user. Despite not being a Wave, they recruited her because of Light's very useful, Lie Detection spell. She made information gathering easy, which gave them huge leverage during the war. However, a few years later, she was caught doing (insert crime here). She defends herself, saying someone she knows is being held hostage and she's being forced to do it — something along those lines... But since all the others are Wave users, not Moon, they don't have their own way to determine if she's lying or not. Ironically, it's their own *lie–detector* they can't lie–detect.
They ask, "Why didn't you just tell us before? We're the best military troop around, we could have rescued that hostage." Now, I'm a sucker for internal conflict, and I would love nothing more than to put here that line in Page 18 of Kaguya–sama wa Kokurasetai, Chapter 182:
[Kaguya 182](
https://mangapark.net/manga/kaguya-sama-wa-kokurasetai-tensai-tachi-no-renai-zunousen-akasaka-aka/i2425080/c182)
I absolutely get off on this shiz. Things like insecurity, things like self–blame... when the reason for the story's conflict is based around something psychological rather than physical, it just hits on a whole new level.
Considered a traitor, she was burned alive and buried in the center of town. The Demon smells this injustice — even if she's long dead, her anger for the Nine Circles lingers forth.
The Demon takes over her anger and turns into a towering monster. Civilians are evacuated as destruction rains everywhere. Knowing the full story, what do Raine and Ashi plan to do? Insert character development here.
The next arc covers Raine and Ashi out at sea meeting Hera, who's already teamed up with a bunch of pirates and is trying to dig up a shipwreck supposedly carrying "tons of gold". Hera asks Raine to help her out (since sea counts under the jurisdiction of Water magic).
Raine agrees, on the condition that Hera later goes to help her demonhunt. Raine and Hera work together to split the ocean and unearth a shipwreck from within its depths. However, as soon as Hera transfers the gold into a pocket dimension, she destroys her crewmates' ship, not intending to share the loot. Raine saves them, angry that Hera would stoop so low. Hera says she's still up for demonhunting if Raine wants, but Raine takes it back, realizing the dangers of having Hera as company. Hera teleports away.
Over the next few weeks, Raine tries to catch word of her sisters. Darkstar and Memento Mori have been completely under the radar so far. Raine stumbles across Agyros, who true to her character, has gone and challenged every professional fighter she could find. Raine asks her to join demonhunting, to which Agyros says she'll do it if Raine beats her in a fight.
Raine refuses, saying she's not going to hurt her sisters. Agyros says that's her weakness. If you want anything in this world, you should be prepared to take it by force. Agyros leaves.
The last person to meet is June. When Raine meets June, although she doesn't want to do it, she takes Agyros' advice and challenges June to a fight. June agrees, and absolutely scrapes all her attacks. Raine failed to land a single strike. Frustration builds up. June says that contrary to what Agyros said, Raine's true weakness is that she doesn't *mean* what she does. There's a world of difference between simply trying to do something, and using everything in reach to achieve that goal. June leaves.
This is when Raine gets fed up with everything. It's pointless to rally the Arcanas together, she should've just done everything from the start. She disbands the team with Ashi, and goes off on her own.
Ashi hears of the news that the sun is acting weird. June tells him that Raine is trying to blow up the sun and kill everyone. That's insane, he says. Ashi tells June to stop her, but she just leaves. Ashi chases after her, he tries to find Raine, but no matter what he does, with no magic he can't do anything. He is useless by himself... He trips. All hope lost...
That's when Darkstar appears, revealing that she had been following Ashi all along. She doesn't have the same goal as Raine, but she is similarly interested in the demons. So, she secretly followed the two while concealing herself with invisibility magic.
Ashi pleads Darkstar to stop Raine. Darkstar doesn't really care if the sun blows up or not, but the idea of teaching "miss goody two shoes" a lesson *does* enthrall her. An unlikely duo, Ashi and Darkstar team up to stop Raine. Light should protect against non–physical attacks like Fire, but Darkstar is stubborn. She won't use it. Only when she's on the verge of defeat does she use Light's heals.
Raine almost succeeds with her plan, but Darkstar also unleashes what she's been working on. A huge, snake/dragon–like smoke figure appears, black as the night. It catapults into the sky and swallows the sun. I reference this to the quest *Eclipse* in Dragonfable. (very amazing game if you want to check it out)
Ashi (Entropy) fights Raine who has little mana left. Just in the nick of time, Ashi pulls out a lucky *body–swap* magic. With Ashi in Raine's body and Raine in Ashi, the disaster has been successfully neutralized. Raine reflects on the error of her actions. Hotsprings filler episode where the body swap effect suspiciously won't revert.
*Part 2, Memento Mori*
Darkstar and Ashi truly part ways this time. Ashi and Raine are about to return to demonhunting when they notice that for some reason, the demons have become more powerful. This was Darkstar's doing. Though the world has Darkstar to thank for stopping a solar burst, this was her true motive all along. That Eclipse spell was an experiment to see how demons in the vicinity will react to Darkness magic — stopping Raine was just a side errand. All over the news, demons start cropping up, swarming the major cities. Raine makes a mental note to discuss this the next time she sees Darkstar, but in any case, there's too many demons for one person to handle alone.
June quickly tells them where to find Memento, before disappearing again. With no better option, Ashi and Raine go to Memento for help. They manage to convince her after a long talk, and as the idol of Death, she mass wipes most of the demons in one go. They enlist her to the party.
From here, Raine, Memento Mori and Ashi go on one or two mini–adventures together. I'm thinking of, instead of the usual demonhunting formula, they get involved in a murder mystery... to make it thematic to the Death element. Anyway, there's a lot of opportunity to insert adventures here. *A lot.* So probably a series of self–contained arcs takes place, exploring the world and introducing many interesting characters.
But as said, Memento passively lifesteals everyone around her. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious she shouldn't have joined her party. Just as they were starting to develop a bond, Memento tethers around whether it's best for her to just leave. I do love my internal conflicts, so Memento's character arc is going to be about her wondering if it's better for everyone she go back to isolation.
The nail in coffin is (details not worked out yet) when she uses a Resurrection spell to revive someone from the dead, completely shocking everyone around. Even Raine didn't know that was possible. The best Death magic could do so far was either necromancy (corpse reanimation), or simulating a hologram of the dead that talks and acts like the original. A *true* Resurrection spell was not something that's ever been done before.
Memento confirms that the original Shion could do it. However, he kept it a secret from everyone somehow. News of this got out quickly — that someone brought back the dead, good as new as if they never died.
Everyone suddenly wanted a piece of this. Everyone wanted Memento to revive their loved ones. People were rioting, fighting, to get to Memento first. This must be what Shion feared. He must've (with Time magic) predicted this insanity.
Memento cuts off ties and goes into hiding. Raine and Ashi go in search of her, as well as thousands of people who want that Resurrection magic. Now begins a worldwide race to find Memento. Meanwhile, Agyros has already beaten all the strongest fighters in the world; she's running out of challengers. She comes to June for advice. "A person worth fighting, where can I find one?"
June tells her that there is one such person — a person much, much stronger than Agyros. If she wants to find out the details, she needs to be at this [exact place and time], right where the climax of Memento's story arc takes place. Agyros asks if June thinks Memento can beat her, but June clarifies that it's *not* Memento. It's someone the six Arcanas haven't seen before, and June further teases that it's someone they couldn't even *imagine* existing.
If it's not Memento, that means it's one of the people looking for her... — this is how Agyros interprets it. June alludes that Agyros should kill everyone approaching Memento. Protect Memento from all the ones after her. Just keep doing that, and someone *amazing* will appear before her eyes soon enough...
Agyros takes this advice and leaves for Memento, warning June that she better not be lying, or else. Agyros finds Mori, they travel together. Mori doesn't want to kill people, but there's too many people after her. Agyros happily does all the killing. This goes on for a while...
As things heat up, a huge, cult–like organization starts putting others in danger as well. They kidnap Ashi, thinking he knows where Memento is. June informs the others of what happened. Raine, Mori and Agyros all break into the secret hideout to bail Ashi out. Huge and long complications ensue, lasting several chapters, and involving many innocent civilians. Raine is trying to break Ashi out of the organization's grasp, while Agyros is killing everyone she could find. The designated meeting time should be right around now; he should be coming soon — that supposed "strongest person". In the height of the climax, Ashi is held at gunpoint. He is about to get killed.
Memento was fine if they'd just gone after her and not involved anyone, but going after Ashi too is unforgiveable. She's had it, this is the last straw. Out of nowhere, Memento takes over Agyros and the two combine to form a new, different waifu. Memento and Agyros are gone now — in their place, a unique, *never before seen* Death+Air waifu. Her magic is not something resembling any known Arcana. She combines Air's long–range slicing magic and Death's ability to kill. No one is spared, everyone is instantly diced.
Memento and Agyros return to their original forms. Agyros is shocked by what transpired. Memento reanimates the corpses of the dead to follow her, and comes to the conclusion that she should've just stayed alone from the start. Memento ends the conflict by saying that next time anyone comes near her, she's surely killing them, before leaving into the distance.
*Part 3, Agyros*
Agyros confronts June about what happened. June explains that what that was was a "Fusion", a phenomenon that happens when two of the Arcana waifus, in the heat of the moment, share a *common goal.* The Arcanas, by default, are too different to get along together. In times that they do see eye to eye however, that one moment where they understand each other and share the faintest semblance of an emphatic bond, when *that* happens, they unlock a hidden power to merge into one unified being.
Back then, when Ashi was in danger, both Agyros and Memento aimed to kill the enemy. This mutual understanding is what allowed them to combine the best of both their Arcanas: Death's killing power, and Air's long reach. A Fusion has the fighting strength of two Arcana waifus combined into one.
Agyros is not satisfied with this... She wanted to *fight* a strong opponent, not be merged into one... She orders June to fuse with another Arcana right now — June says it's not that simple, but that there *will* be more Fusions to come in the future. With Agyros' anger reaching its peak, the two fight. June uses speed magic, but Cloud Arcana is unfortunately the hard counter for it. Gravity sucks things in a magnetic "field". It's an area coverage, it's not something you can dodge or run from. June is defeated, and now, Agyros decides the "strongest people" she's looking for are her sisters.
I'm fuzzy on the chronology after this. Maybe more filler arcs here and there. Agyros goes after Darkstar, who only narrowly escapes, and then Mori next. Probably for emotional effect, Raine finds Mori on the verge of death. Raine tells Mori to fuse with her so they can defeat Agyros, but the Fusion fails. Mori doesn't want to fight her sisters, so she passively accepts her fate.
Raine freezes Mori to preserve her life, and takes it upon herself to stop Agyros. The matchup is now Raine (and Ashi) vs Agyros. Agyros tries to suffocate Raine with Oxygen Depletion magic, but Raine hard–counters this by taking the battle underwater. Raine and Ashi narrowly take the win.
From here there's two Arcana left: Hera and Darkstar. I haven't worked out the details, but Hera eventually goes for a worldwide mind control, and Darkstar for a reality warp.
**Themes**
The easy way to write this is probably that Ashi wants to save the world, just like the original Shion did.
"Even though he's weaker than the average person, heroism and righteous deeds are not something you forget. They're inside you." So Ashi, despite not remembering anything about anything, is still the same person through and through: *a hero.* You can build up to an emotional climax with this theme; it's simple, it's reliable, and no need to write the story super complicated.
But I don't want this. This is a direction I'd prefer to avoid at all costs. In fact, I want to show the complete opposite theme: *Shion is gone.* Whether you like it or not, a person that has amnesia is no longer the same person you know. A person is defined by his memories and personality. Change that, and you've basically killed that person.
So we get Ashi, who is in stark contrast to Shion. He has no traits of being a hero in him. It would even be better if he's an asshole, or *rude* — something to that effect. He should have beliefs (not finalized yet) that are unsavory to listen to... things like you should not give to the poor, or that slavery is a natural product of human nature. He doesn't sugarcoat things, and says them in an almost cynical way.
Right now, I'm envisioning Ashi as someone who's "a hero for the wrong reasons". For example, let's say Ashi at a birthday party. Suddenly, bad guys break in and kidnap the birthday girl. A fight ensues, where Ashi and main characters are defeated because they weren't ready. Target is taken to a secret hideout, because *insert plot element here.*
Ashi and the cast break into secret hideout, retrieving the hostage and taking her as far away as possible. As bad guys chase after our characters, Ashi stays behind to delay one of the henchmen. In your usual action story, Ashi would be doing this for the team. He's giving the others *valuable time* to escape, he's doing it for birthday girl.
But Ashi here cares about none of that. He just has a bone to pick with the guy who beat him. He takes it as a personal insult that he was defeated because he was caught offguard, so now it's a fight with no surprises...
This is the kind of development I'm leaning towards. He's clearly fulfilling a heroic act here, but there's something that makes it unheroic all the same. This happens every single time. Ashi doesn't reach that state of being *100%* truly heroic. There's always something off about it, whether it's the motive, the method, his decision–making, etc...
Add to that that Entropy magic can backfire (help the enemy instead), and there's the perfect case of a non–hero. Once the bad luck starts rolling in, Ashi will turn the smallest problems into a world–level threat. There'll be conflicts that are entirely his fault, throwing him for a loop, and it would now be up to Raine or another Arcana to clean up his mess, not that they hate doing that.
This is what I want Ashi's character to be about: *a celebration of flaws.* He accepts that trying to be a 100% righteous hero is unrealistic, because no one is born a saint. So he does things the way he wants to, for better and for worse. To the question of who he thinks Shion is, his answer will be "not me".
**What personality fits Ashi?**
I can't come up with a personality that complements all his unique points. He's very... contradictory. He can be pessimistic at times... selfish, petty, and even reckless. Yet, he *still* has enough resolve to save the world when someone like Raine is threatening to destroy it. Next to the Arcanas and their senseless violence, he is the voice of reason. But next to the average person, he's someone who lacks basic decency. I can't imagine him having a normal interaction with the other characters and it not turn super awkward super fast.
Right now he's not really a character yet, moreso a plot device to save the world/make things worse when needed.
**Goal?**
There may also be the problem of him not having a long–term goal to work towards. It's okay if he doesn't want to hunt demons (Raine has that covered), but he should have something he wants to achieve concerning the Arcana waifus. Preferably Hera, since she gives the most "Final Boss" vibes.
One thing I'm considering is making Ashi our world's *parallel universe* counterpart of Shion. A normal highschool student. He committed suicide, was fished out from the void by Hera (Aether magic includes parallel dimensions), and correspondingly transferred into Shion's leftover body. Ashi regains memories of his life (our world) one by one, and makes it his personal goal to confront Hera why she resurrected him at all? What is the purpose of him living in this new world?
I think this adds a unique touch to his character. He doesn't care about innocent people or justice at all. The reason he saves the world from destruction is that he can't fish out the truth from Hera anymore if the world ends, he's just too fixated on that goal...
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