J T. Alien

Voices:

—Villainess/Vampire’s voice comes from Medea (Hades II), I thought her moon-theming and general vibe were perfect

—Villain/Vessel’s voice is Zagreus from Hades, I just like how he sounds

—(Despite how much I love the voice acting, I’ve never actually played or watched anyone play Hades lmao)

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Design:

—Besides just being a part of my design for regular Nox: I included the moles because mouth moles are a signature trait of many femme fatale/vintage female characters, and moles below the eyes are called teardrop moles

—Vampire’s design mimics both a cat and, well, a vampire/demon

—Villain and Vessel’s design hinge a lot around crescent moons (including the little hair spike), and more curved lines compared to Villainess/Vampire

—Vessel’s black sclera and blue iris are inspired by the sad side of original Ena

—Instead of blue-screening, Budd-Ena beige-screens (books screens??)

—The text that replaces the voice lines is the opening of Franz’ Kafka’s Metamorphosis

—The text during Vessel’s freak out is Lorem Ipsum (aka placeholder text)

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Misc Things I might get around to if I make a full design:

—Villainess acts a lot like early-story Nox and Nox when he’s fully playing his role as a villainess. All the snark is concentrated in him

—Vampire is inspired by Nox’s more mischievous/malicious/emotional side

—Villain is like what little we see from Nox at the very end of season 1, much more mellow and solemn

—Vessel comes from when Nox is in a panicked state like in the coffin during Requiem, and is a representation of Nox feeling like he needs to play his roles as a villain/villainess — regardless of his own sense of self

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I think maybe the biggest thing is how both of them go about their building outward personas and the way they use lying to achieve that.

To get information out of Chase, Buddy (under instruction from Violet) played into being the villain — to break down his defenses until he gave in. However, we know that he does not like doing it, and feels really guilty about it.

We also know that Buddy hates lies himself, which is why he never directly lied to Chase. (Emphasis on directly because I can’t even count his lies of omission, which, again, make him feel really guilty). The one time he tried to very intentionally manipulate Chase, during Beach Boys, he looked like he was about to vomit.

Wave on the other hand? It seems like he’s fine with lying to Chase and the rest (or at least stretching the truth, because I don’t fully buy his backstory even if there is some truth in it). Compared to Buddy, he uses the guise of honesty to get what he wants out of people.

And judging by the evil grin at the end of Stardust VII, it feels like he gets at least a little satisfaction/enjoyment out of being manipulative, acting like an airhead to earn trust.

side note: while buddy’s tactics, 9/10 times, were targeted towards chase, wave focuses on building trust with deacon and prunella. that’s probably because he knows chase does not trust his ass. (or he just likes deacon and prunella more, that too).

So — speaking very broadly — Wave’s outward act is more align with Buddy’s true self, and Buddy’s initial outward act is more align with Wave’s true self.

But is that last part even true? Because we don’t know much for certain about Wave, even when outside of Chase’s POV.

In contrast, we know almost everything we do about Buddy because we get to see his side of the story. Wave’s side, on the other hand, only creates more uncertainty.

My brain is mush so I’m going to call it here for now.,, I feel like I’m going to look at this tomorrow and it’s just going to be like completely incomprehensible. There’s probably (definitely) more that could be brought up or elaborated on, so if anybody wants to add anything PLEASEEEE do. I’d love to see it!!