Verona - the myth, the laughing stock girl and the character that tricked the fandom
The first character I want to start off with is Verona. Now, I need you to understand that out of 129 episodes of this smp, she appears in 3 and has speaking roles in 2, and she appears pre-finale. She isn’t the most important character, but oh boy is she is a misunderstood one.
If you head onto wiki, you’d read about how naive she is, how kind and blatantly stupid she is. Snippet from it: “Kind and naive. She believes a good life requires nothing more than a drink with friends. She's easily willing to deceive and even become an accomplice to murder for her own gain. She has little understanding of magic and doesn't like to remember her failed attempts to become a sorceress. She makes a living by writing poetry.”
Which ignores and contradicts not only other character’s quotes about her, her own actions within those two episodes, but also things said by the WRITER of this smp.
Mainly, the reason I wanted to review the Wiki perspective on it is simply that Verona is trying to trick people. Wiki, ignoring the premise of the work itself and its writer, accepts the cover and, no less importantly, the Let's Player's reaction to it (it's important to distinguish between the player and the lyrical protagonist) as truth.
And the fandom, as it often is, is quite awful to her (her being one of the two women on the cast at all, both not being anywhere near main characters).
So. Who is Verona in canon?
To understand this, you need to point out a couple of things - in the plot of this smp there are Easter eggs, in response to finding which various hints come into the chat from Player Notification System. These clues are usually fun facts about the characters or hints at a more desirable future action for the protagonist. (For example: "Pay attention to what characters say to you; they may not be completely honest with you!" or "Some characters may become your allies in the future.")
In this clue, Verona was first mentioned as the "Witch Girl", followed by the full text:“Verona - a sorceress remembered by everyone as the "Witch Girl." From early childhood, she was drawn to magic - she conducted experiments, studied its nature. She wanted to become a great magician, just like Hector or even better. Her dream was to make a discovery and present it at a sorcerers' conference. Any kind. Small, big, important, or not so important. But every presentation she made ended in failure—the discovery was dismissed, or she was chased off the stage altogether. This reputation has stuck with her to this day. Often, her research is simply ignored, even if there really is something worthwhile behind it."
You can already tell she's a scientist. She understands magic. But for one reason or another, her research isn't recognized. She's considered a failure and a completely lousy scientist. Doesn't really fit with the wiki's description anymore, does it?
The next one to mention her is Dr. Black, former student of the great Hector and a respected mage/scholar in Arnir (the hometown/civilization where many of the main characters hail from), albeit exiled from there, but more on him next time. When Black talks about Verona, he says something intriguing to Hector, explaining that after one of her speeches at a project presentation, he decided to talk to her. Despite the fact that she was again kicked out in disgrace, he was intrigued by something - an unusual radioactive material that Black hadn't encountered it before. Turns out - Verona had discovered it. And revealed to Black the recipe for creating this material.
Verona is incredibly smart. Black himself admits this at the end of this dialogue, although he criticizes her “unpleasant manner” by calling her an upstart, he admits that he pities her.
In the story, the main character needs to get to the city of Arnir, from where he must steal part of a very important artifact needed to defeat the big bad evil of this smp - Warner, who, coincidentally, is the sole ruler of Arnir.
In Arnir, all the residents warn the protagonist that few can be trusted there and that any rebels or suspicious individuals are "sent away" (killed). However, as soon as they learn that the protagonist needs to get into a restricted section of the city, accessible only to a small number of residents (or, more accurately, aristocrats), they slowly begin hinting that he should look for Verona at the bar. Which, of course, he does. This is where Verona's perception problems begin.
She introduces herself as the head of the resistance, and that she herself has long been trying to go against Warner, but the resistance has almost disintegrated, and she's the only "active" participant, who's generally no longer interested in the activity. All she cares about is drinking and poetry. She carefully points out that she knows nothing about magic and has no real interest in anything. At the same time, every other sentence is a prying attempt to extract information from the protagonist. At first, she does it more carefully, clarifying which part of Arnir he's from and what he wants. She carefully chooses her insults for Warner, pausing long between each one. Then she begins asking the protagonist questions quite directly—who he really is, who he works with. Let's Player decides to be completely honest with her and tells her everything.
To shorten an already long story, which I really want to continue - Verona is an agent of Warner. She always has been. And after the protagonist's full story and confession of his plans (and real resistance), she leads him into a trap in which he was destined to burn alive.
In my headcanons - Verona only delves deeper into the "Tragically Rejected Woman" side of things. She's a spy, an agent, and an inspector, and what's more, she's his fiancée. (Purely because of how high up in the organization she actually is.) Warner, I simply omitted these points in this post). Her job is to track down infidels in the city and cleanse Arnir of them. And people know this, so they bring the particularly pesky ones straight to her.
Her last name - Ariel, based on the mob that was used to portray her
In my headcanons, she used to date Black, back in the Academy, and was engaged to him. But a lot happened that caused them to break up. Mainly, how he ignored her humiliations. How society didn't appreciate her talent and research, but how they adored him. And Hector.
Under Warner, she is forbidden to delve into science, since inspecting the city takes up most of her time.
Regarding her and Warner's love affairs, it's an open relationship. He needs her for status, as a trophy and a servant in whom he will be 100% confident. She truly loves him, believing that he gives her the attention she deserves, that he finally sees her value. He gives her the status she dreamed of: she is respected in society, she is at the top. But she is still trapped. And she will be trapped forever.
I've written a couple of fanfics, actually, but I have this absolutely terrible habit of writing some in my native language and some in English.
As with all characters, there's a "canon" version where they're monsters; in Verona's case, she's something of a harpy. And then there's my patented "humanization au."
Verona, in her "canon" form (and in her inspector uniform).
"W-what?! You were supposed to bu-!"
Humanized Verona, i still really like this portrait.
To one of fanfics - "Scars and Scabs" (oh yeah, in my hcs Black and Verona keep meeting before the main plot of smp starts for midnight fun. as much as you can call it fun, both are using each other). This one is originally in english so I can share it later.
Verona from back when she was in Academy (and engaged with Black!)
Verona and Vagus (the smaller one, don't eat them.)
She always looks so sad in my drawings.....
Pretty easy to spot her, with her chained rings and jellyfish haircut.
feel free to request someone/something particular for the next post
areudirty
tangentwithtanner
gracieabrams
gummygunk
vaporwave
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
prguitarman
