Aranea has a very interesting relationship to the Cherubs as a whole. Not only is she the character who knows most about them, but she honestly reflects them in very interesting ways. For a majority of the story, she is like Calliope in many ways, knowing the deep lore despite not being involved, and fangirling over Leprechaun Romance like real life Homestucks would describe Quadrants. This of course reflects Calliope as a projection of the best of the fans.
And then she has her chance in the spotlight.
I think Burning Down the House put it best when it said she gave up everything just to be like Caliborn. She immediately tries to take control of the story, letting go of any care she had for people- like Caliborn’s belief that love makes you weak.
In her attempt to take center stage, Aranea gives up everything that makes her like Calliope to be Caliborn for a few short minutes. And that is REALLY interesting.
so so sorry for just dumping my thoughts into your inbox
Not sure if I completely agree with the Caliborn part. Yes, she tried to take over the situation, but unlike Caliborn, who was basically doing it because it was funny and to take the piss out of everything, she was doing it for a legitimately noble cause: defying fate itself to ensure Lord English is never born and even erasing all of his timeline-wide influence as well, hardly comparable to Caliborn making shitty yaoi, but I absolutely do see the similarities though, I just don't like the idea of her being comparable to someone legitimately evil like Caliborn, because she really isn't. And yeah, she had to get a little bit of blood on her hands for it, but you know what they say: you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs first.
And this without even getting into how she was essentially pushed towards that path by her so called "friends", while Caliborn was a little gremlin since day one.
The Calliope part, on the other hand, I do wholeheartedly agree with, hell, I often joke among my friends on how Calliope is basically a worse Aranea, trying to infodump about stuff but getting it wrong, like some classes being gender-locked even though they are not.
Plus, inserting one's self into the story is also something Calliope did, making all those drawings of her trollsona interacting with the main characters and all.
And regarding BDtH, I have to be honest, what little of Aranea we saw so far really raised a lot of eyebrows out of me: I'm all for Aranea being smug occasionally, but over there it felt really promintent and I'm not sure if I really vibe with it. From her point of view the events of GAME OVER had literally just transpired, yet she's still acting all cocky and everything, it's like she learned nothing from what was essentially the humbling of a lifetime; I also recall seeing a character info image from the author, and that one also seemed a little off to me. I know there's a walkaround where you play as Aranea coming in the near future but as of now I am very, very wary. But maybe it's just because it's a drastically different take on how she'd react after failing than mine, we'll have to see.
That being said, it is undoubtedly an interesting take you shared, Anon. Let it be known that I'm not trying to discredit it or anything even if I don't necessarily agree with everything.
Hell no, don't apologize, yappers are welcome here any day, what kind of Aranea lover would I be if I didn't like yappers lmao
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