#ankka

So, the fight pretty much follows canon to a t for the first 3/4ths, aside from the fact that widget is there too. it really changes the second to last time Ankka tries to run, spite growls, having enough and flies into her path and summons some bone walls to block Ankka in.

"Enough, Ankka. For someone who wants to wait for death to take them, you are running from it an awful lot." Ankka laughs, clutching her ever-growing wounds. "Y'got me, "Commander... just wanted to make it a little fun, one last time, Y'know? So do it. The ends inevitable anyways. I don't need to see it to know what'll happen."

Spite ponders for a second, before bringing Heartrender above her head, and down onto Ankka head. Widget lets out a heartbreaking scream, unimpaired to see her once dear friend decapitated in front of her, however there was nothing. No blood, no gore, no death.

Spite looks up at Widget, a little sheepish, "Uh, probably should have explained I was knocking her out, I guess, but I didn't want to give her a chance to escape." The twelve foot charr reaches down and picks up the limp Ankka like she was nothing. "Here, Widget, make sure she doesn't die. I want Ankka to see that she was wrong about the end being unstoppable. And then she's going to help fix everything she destroyed." Widget gently cradles Ankka's knocked out body, "Thank you Spite... I- You heard what Mai said, her time in the mists changed her... and her messing with all of these magics couldn't have been good for her... I just... I can't give up on her." Widget looks up at Gorrik, tears and remorse in her eyes. "I'm sorry Gorrik, I know you wanted revenge on her-" "No, this... I thought I feel angry that she survived... or relieved that Ankka isn't out there anymore... But I thought when justice was- when it was done, I'd feel better, but.."

Spite kneels down and places a gentle paw on Gorrik's shoulder, "I know. When it's someone you know who hurt you? There's no closure, not. Not until you decide it's time to move on... Which is probably the hardest part." As Spite and Gorrik talk, Rama help Widget hook up Ankka to W.A.F.F.L.E.S.'s life support.

"I'm sorry Ankka, If would have stayed in touch... maybe..maybe this wouldn't have happened.."

and then her ears ring as the extractor self destructs.

Oh, of course Ankka, Widget sighs

After EoD, but before next story beat, Ankka is in jail, even though she is refusing to work with Taimi, Widget, and Joon to find another power source, and refusing to say anything to the therapist working with her as a part of her sentience, she does accept Widget's company.

Someone who viewed the world as a failed experiment, and saw what we were doing as a stopgap. Felt the world needed reset, remade completely, instead of saving. Killed herself over and over and over again in fractals to gain the power she needed.

Jaded, empty, angry. Fucked up by Zhaitan's death magic. By destroying herself over and over. Imagine what she could've been if she was allowed to grow as an antagonist.

She's diametrically opposed to the commander in every way. The perfect foil, in a lot of ways. But she wasn't allowed to become that.

Okay so, due to struggling with acquiring the necessary in-game research I don't have a fic to show… but at the very least, I wanted to open up discussion about what it would have been about.

This one is for you @boredasexualarse xD

Ankka's and Gorrik's relationship fascinates me.

Gorrik says it wasn't romantic or anything of that sort, but obviously, Ankka was very important to him.

Ankka says that she used to hate Gorrik and how he was oblivious to her, and he didn't seem to care about anything (but Blish likely).

When we meet both in the fractal Gorrik is cowering and Ankka is ‘enhancing her allies’.

It's hard to tell what they're geared with but Gorrik carries a sword, which is a far cry from the ranged/defensive gun/shield combo we get to know him with later.

And there’s quite a point to be made about how frantic Gorrik is in the fractal while Ankka is watching on calmly like it's just another Tuesday.

Ankka was probably thriving at that point. According to herself, she was looking for ‘stimulation’, ‘chaos’. I suppose her relationship with Gorrik falls into place when we consider that Gorrik's own motivation to be at the Inquest in the first place was to help Blish with his studies and get him some of that very fancy, and very protected Tech. Which Ankka would steal for him in a series of heists. It fits well with her thrill-seeking character trait and falls perfectly into place with Gorrik's own delinquent tendencies (EoD confirms he has a habit of forging signatures) and the mentioned ‘heart arrhythmia’ if we're calling it ‘Anxiety of getting caught’ instead. 

And both Gorrik and Ankka are delinquents. It’s a little harder to tell with Gorrik during the EoD Saga when we get to meet Ankka and see them interact because of all the character development he’s been through (I’m not joking. Replaying LWS4 with my friend gave me whiplash. That’s an entirely different character right there. That is GROWTH!) 

Given just how upset Gorrik was about Ankka's betrayal, she must have meant a lot to him. I believe him when he says that none of it was romantic, there’s a lot of platonic ways a betrayal like that could be upsetting. One of my favorite theories is that, during all the chaos of the Thaumanova Meltdown, she wound up saving his life at some point.

Next to all of the ‘imminent explosion’ chaos, the place is crawling with Invaders. Leaning into a bit of theorising and headcanons here but one of the moments I'm sad to let go from the fic is Gorrik running into an Invader from the Flame Legion and not being able to physically duel out a Char twice his size, but he makes it out alive because Ankka saves him with a pistol (and thus convinces Gorrik to make that his weapon of choice instead). Imagine him getting wounded in the process and needing to get dragged along by Ankka because he's already convinced that he's done for and ‘they're all going to die anyway’. But Ankka doesn’t work with Gorrik out of the kindness of her heart and ‘dead people can’t pay or take over her chores for her.’ (Plus as a Necromancer I can see her as someone who likes to have haughty control over who gets to die and who doesn’t). 

Do people just plain not like her? Is she a character introduced way too late in the story, and people don’t want to spoil themselves if they have not yet caught up to EoD? 

I have one more story in the works that is going to feature her heavily and truth be told, with only more inconsistencies and details popping up that contradict what I set out to do the more research I do, my in-game reference point to this day being super confusing and hard to play repeatedly for me specifically and the general resonance my works involving her seem to generate, I am this close to just saying “artistic liberties, canon divergence, here’s what I have, make of that what you will” and calling it a day, instead of trying to even out the crinkles.