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i kept varians design basically the same, i dislike the design w the orange neck thing so i just Nuked it😭... Here's Varians playlist

Hugos design i just wanted to put him in something more Loose. hes a thief, a professional escape artist. i dont think wearing clunky metal is ideal for him. i also gave him a prosthetic arm (blond w no arm design trope!) but u cant see it in the ref so i added another drawing of him in his under layering👍 i vaguely referenced russian(?) clothes for him as well... Yeah not too much changed w him i just tried to make him slippery-er. Here's Hugo's playlist

yong came relatively easy to me, if it wasn't obvious i did rip gaming from g*nshin's hoodie. i thought the lion hood was Adorable and freaking perfect for what i had in mind for hos character. since the og notes said the fire kingdom is loosely Chinese inspired i basically just kept that. i mashed tgt a buncha diff dynasties though sorry for how inconsistent i was... i think he looks Okay. anyways i changed yongs role a bit, ill explain why im adjusting some of their roles later but i kept yong as the Jinx Type character. hes the eldest in his family and has a buncha younger siblings, hes a lion dancer and does performances w his family/siblings. he rly like special effects n keeps tryna incorporate his fireworks into their performances (it flops and he has to sew up the dmg) ill explain more of yongs role in another post maybe shrugs... Here's Yong's Playlist

miss nuru was a bit of a struggle for me i might share my full design process with her coz i did a Bunch of mockups for her😭😭😭... i didnt have a specific country of reference for her but i chose to make her vaguely south asian inspired. i also really wanted to keep the sheer fabric w the star / constellation map. i love that idea its so cute so shes still technically the navigator. but she also wields a sword too, fencing or whatever. (her and varian r Huge Cass fangirls which is probably why she started tryna use a sword (snuck out to watch cass compete) Okay ill talk abt this later) in my head, okay ill Probably make a whole nother post talking abt how im interpreting/writing each chara, but in my head i think nuru is the youngest and her kingdom's archivist. shes mostly in charge of like Her kingdoms history / artifacts / etc. ok im getting too side tracked ill save the lore dump for later but thats Nurus role in the party. Here's Nuru's Playlist

uhm below i made their character stats mostly to help me with planning / role developing. the yellow is their base stats the color behind is their end stats i guess. i was gonna explain my reasoning for their stats but ermm this post is kinda Really long so sorry😭... varian max int for obvious reasons, also max charisma just coz i feel like u kinda learn a thing or two being around a couple manipulators and spending time in jail idk shrugs... (also lets not forget the "ud b surprised what ppl would do for a cookie!") Hugo slippery guy, if a brick is thrown at him as hes running hes gonna try n run faster to shatter it, his mindset is Run Run Run! i think hes relatively agile too but yeah mostly a Speedster. i think he n varian got no Physical strength varian maybe just like A little coz Farm boy but I rly doubt quirin is making him do a Lotta heavy lifting. yong has incredible stamina and agility because hed a performer. nuru is the strongest coz this team would literally Flop without a proper Offense😭... i think varian n hugo r able to outwit plenty of their opponents but i think nuru is pretty good in a fight, same w yong. Yeah Okay Sorry for a Long Long Post thanks hope u guys enjoy

(This was pasted from Youtube) Basically a quick explanation for this because it’s probably needed is that in Vat7k, I think during the trials Varian’s unresolved issues come to bite him in the ass and I think he dreams about his past fuck ups and failures a lot ykwim. The Saporian, imprisoned, captured s3, and blizzard versions of himself are all basically out to get him in his unconscious mind and I think this is a weekly reoccurrence for him. I think Varian has a guilt complex where he regrets how unstable he was before he was imprisoned, regrets being arrested and regrets committing the crimes he did, regrets helping the saporians take over Corona, and regrets giving Cassandra the translation key in s3 (even though it was against his will) and I think these constantly fuck with him

“The accident” is a direct reference to how his entire villain arch started, being where after he’s rejected by Rapunzel he plans to figure out how to free his dad from the amber, only to find that he was too late and his dad was completely encased in it. That scene was entirely responsible for his future actions and I feel like it’s literally the biggest part of his arch in every media he’s in. I find it so important that he’s labeled a criminal and a horrible person when deep down he’s just a mentally unstable and angry teenager who was literally just trying to save his dad—and when none of his friends helped him (cough cough RAPUNZEL WHEN I CATCH YOU) and he had to take matters into his own hands, he was imprisoned for a year??? Yeah I feel like he’d have a lot of ptsd from this actually given that the amber was the entire reason he got himself fucked over

I also strongly feel like Varian has a lot of trauma from just. Being in prison for a year. Like if it wasn’t Disney, that would be the most brutal thing you could image?? A teenager spending a year in prison, starving, freezing, and basically going insane from the solitude?? Yeah, I think his crashouts were reasonable tbh, but that’s just me