#howling blade

HOW DID I MISS SEEING YOU TWO HERE???

and you three!!

Ophelia is in awe as the stars shine and twinkle this night. Retsarra is in a quiet awe of another star.

i think it's awesome that he doesn't wear a regulator, when that trait previously appears in the tritails sisters' parents, making retsarra feel out of step with his own peers in alexandria. and he says as much that he feels like he doesn't belong there. but he does have a place to belong, in a way, in the arcadion. and the push and pull btwn them imo is expressed wonderfully in the variations of his design

it stands out to me that in a raid series where the characters mostly appear the same in all 3 tiers, retsarra has 3 modes to himself just in cruiserweight! imo it's fantastic work that there is a distinction btwn the howling blade as presented by the aac, and the howling blade as performed by retsarra. the gap! i go nuts for the gap!! that gap is where his self-determination of his turali identity lives!!! note that the howling blade never appears outside his ring wearing a regulator. retsarra tells us that he only uses the device for soulshift, so this feels like a characterizing choice. he doesn't simply cow to alexandrian norms—oh, but does he not? because at the same time, he also takes the effort to hide his beliefs in front of the alexandrian public! he puts a hat over the absence of his conformity.

that unstated push-and-pull compels me so hard bc it reflects a theme in dawntrail's second half: yyasulani being colonized by alexandria. the native turali taken in and pushed to conform to the new hegemony. some people like eutrope adapt, some like eheeya's mother maintain their old way of life, and retsarra is stuck in the middle. inside the new paradigm but out of step with everyone at his side. this is why i love to hc that he's physically trapped in everkeep too :] cmiiw but in my memory he is the character shown in any of dawntrail's story to be struggling the most adapting to alexandria? is he the only one, i can't be sure, but i want to say he is. which makes him a really important part of dawntrail to me

it also makes me want to punch drywall when i look at what his arena is: desert soil, a vast blue sky, and the sun shining bright over it. when he climbs in there he feels like this is where he is meant to be, where he truly belongs. OH I BET!!! that's his homeland he never got to have!!!! tbh my reading of the hunter's ring took a hard left when i noticed it's not just a limitless blue sky but has a sun too like dude. it's too obvious atp stoppppp T_T

and what does the story do with all this? well, nothing ._. but i do think it's nice.. if we take retsarra holding off on wearing a regulator as an expression of him maintaining his turali identity, then everyone else abandoning their regulators too at the end of the story can be taken as them joining his side. the motivation behind it is very different i know! but symbolically it feels that way. and that's nice :] he becomes more accepted as his genuine self. i can't be too mad at the arcadion bc at least they do right by retsarra, haha

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