Blue Archive - The south Korean Gacha game that almost died, is now being released on Steam this summer.

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Overpriced Gaming Chair said:
Professor Smug and 7 prisoner stuff
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Regarding Kai, she's basically already evil to begin with (in part of her mad quest to advance science and attain immortality), but when getting her ass kicked and getting "Standard Sensei Speech" talk, she was so baffled that Sensei's like "ah yeah you did caused untold mayhem, nearly killing Kisaki and making her a loli for the rest of her life, and nearly caused sheer cute and funny outbreak, but I still think you're salvageable" she basically surrendered with no fuss.

Akemi at that time genuinely only focused on her Sukebans and from what little we get she's just like you said, only out there due to Smug's shenanigans and her obligation of leading Sukebans against the rival group the Helmet gang, which on the context of the event she appears (the Arius summer event), she really does being the bad guy for trying to ruin a beach party all because it's primarily hosted by the Helmet gangs. That said, I figured that we need more event to flesh out Akemi, especially if we consider her possible ties/history as ex-Trinity.

Akira is probably the least evil, since for the most part she's just a thief who steals art and she pretty much did it because her twisted belief regarding art in general (TL;DR "No one but me can appreciate true art! So I will steal them from those greedy hands and keep it to myself!), but thanks to "Standard Sensei Speech" talk and the fact that she's isn't as violent as the rest of the prisoners that we know off, she's more or less content just acting coy when Sensei recognizing her at Wild Hunt in the school's respective events. Is she really going above and beyond by faking being a Wild Hunt student council member just to hide from authority, or is she really is the Wild Hunt student council and her stint as Akira the thief is just her side gig? Remains to be seen till we get more event from there.

And lastly Wakamo is just horny for us. Maybe too aggresively but she just need a stern talk about "no destroying things just because we can't have a nice date, Wacko-moe". Don't think we need more of Wakamo's story, but honestly having more alt of her would be nice.

But yeah, I do believed that as soon as they finished with Volume EX stuff, they can finally focus on the plots that they haven't touch for a while, including Professor Smug and her plans with the 7 prisoners stuff. We still don't know what these 3 other prisoners do, what they look like, and what school they themed at, but I have this hunch that it might be, possibly:
- Millennium-related (CODE: Box/Seia & Neru event has her doing things while working with Mirai the dumbass pseudo-science woman, and she hinting about something that's she's able to do and the whole thing was just a distration. I mean, a hacker-focused criminal could be interesting concept)
- Gehenna-related (It's probably gonna be another Hina-glaze event if there's something related to this, but it's surprising that for a "chaotic" school there's nothing about Seven Prisoners thats coming from them specifically. Maybe someone who'se so chaotic that even Prefect and Pandemonium had to work together to handle? Someone still believing the "Tyrant Emperor" mentioned at the end of V1C3?)
- Any other schools or even factions (... We still have the forgotten Oddyssey Sea school, and whose to say that Helmet Gang also have Akemi equivalent? Or maybe the biker gangs from CCC train event? Maybe Red Winter?)
 
I had the idea for this post back when Atsuko had her birthday on January 20th. But since we have the Arius summer event going on, and an entire Arius volume just over the horizon...

Why does Arius squad keep wearing clothes that have "Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes, et omnia vanitas" plastered all over them? Beatrice used it to brainwash/indoctrinate them, after all.

Simplest explanation, both in-universe and on the gamedev side, would be the simple practicality. Squad doesn't have the luxury of ditching functional gear. Giving them two different sets of sprites would be extra work and mostly would just add confusion and even spoilers. (Albeit pulling a playable Arius squad member before finishing Vol 3. would probably spoil their redemption arc anyway, regardless of their clothes?)

However, I will speculate that it was always the Arius motto. When Beatrice took over, she just "memory-holed" the intended context. What is the context?

Origin of Vanitas is from Ecclesiastes and just from reading between the lines, the obvious message is something like: "Material wealth is transient. Enjoy each moment granted by God, who is the only thing that's permanent." Not that out-of-place for Old Testament. But if you connect it with Gospell of Matthew:

34;Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35;One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36;“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”


37;Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. 39;And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40;All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
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Arius squad basically sports a drip that says "nothing matters, except power of friendship." Even if indirectly, their arc seems to be about re-discovering this. Volume 6 might even confirm this? It wouldn't really make sense to restore Arius if it had nothing to go for except the terrorist cult thing.

Even the skull in the School Logo is less about "are we the baddies?" and more about the art genre/motif inspired by the bible passage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas
 
Out of universe explanation is changing the character(s) clothes is an unnecessary and costly time sink* for the studios. It's the same reason every one in Kivotos is wearing the same clothes all the time. Even when most of them have the personal finances to have at least a wardrobes worth of clothing.

*Costly in time, $$$, and man hours whether it is animation and or game studio irrelevant of nationality.
 
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Faceless Anime Woman said:
and whose to say that Helmet Gang also have Akemi equivalent
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It's kind of weird that so far the Helmet Gangsters didn't even leave a hint of possibly having an overall leader. If I remember correctly they do have a very horizontal leadership structure and there are many gangs under the Helmet Gangster umbrella, with all of them being unified in wearing helmets. Rabu is a leader of one of the larger Helmet Gangster groups but like I said we haven't even seen a hint of any other named Helmet Gangsters who are leaders of the other Helmet Gangster groups, let alone one that may be the leader of the whole thing.
 
Stole this from Korean community Arcalive.

You can apparently hold mecha Arisu's hand in the memorial lobby, which is a first. Very cool and good.
 
Overpriced Gaming Chair said:
Why does Arius squad keep wearing clothes that have "Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes, et omnia vanitas" plastered all over them? Beatrice used it to brainwash/indoctrinate them, after all.
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IIRC, it's not like they had to keep wearing those, but it's arguable that for all the misery the meaning and the symbol/uniform/equipment has been for the Arius girls, it's a pragmatic reason to just keep it around because it's still functional and they not needing to try scrounge up or do possible shady shit just to replace the vani vani.

Plus, it is their only ties to what they are, Arius as a whole. Sure they might hate it because the red bitch being the bitchiest karen that ever karen, but it's still something they can cling to while working for a a chance that said symbol can finally be healed and restored without all that vani vani misery. It is also what Volume 6 is going for the most part, since (without spoiling much of it) the entire thing is about trying to get Arius to actually salvageable state post-Volume 3/F, mostly on their own and Sensei's aid.

Talking about Volume 6, it's at least noted that for the most part, not many students that isn't Arius actually recognize how the Arius stuff looks like, so it is possible that most wouldn't really bat an eye when some students with pretentious latin on their stuff is going around being baffled by actual, working society. That said, there are also effort where they tried to hid it in case others noticed, since one of the very first scene of Volume 6 is Sensei meeting with two trinity NPC mob and only when they're asking for some privacy that they shows to sensei that they're Arius mob who were able to get some semblance of normal life by attending Trinity, but is still scared if their Arius ties is discovered.
Big Brown Schlub said:
It's kind of weird that so far the Helmet Gangsters didn't even leave a hint of possibly having an overall leader. If I remember correctly they do have a very horizontal leadership structure and there are many gangs under the Helmet Gangster umbrella, with all of them being unified in wearing helmets. Rabu is a leader of one of the larger Helmet Gangster groups but like I said we haven't even seen a hint of any other named Helmet Gangsters who are leaders of the other Helmet Gangster groups, let alone one that may be the leader of the whole thing.
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That's why I was hoping that maybe one of the prisoner is Helmet-gang adjacent, if only for a possible crumb of more details about them. If not the 7th prisoner, at least another event that related to them as major figure, especially since we already have Rabu playable and possible a chance for her to shine to be part of yet another Helmet-gang related event (and her alt.)
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Smug always felt to me like a Professor Moriarty clone. So it would make sense for her to have a plot with either a new Sherlock Clone or the rabbits. I'd bet on the latter.
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You actually have something there. We don't actually have like, playable student concept acting like genius kid detective or investigators at all now that I think about it. Yes we do have Valkyrie as the police, but they are pretty much police officers and not necessarily detective let alone investigators.

Would be really cool to have a student basically acting like she's a genius detective and ended up sparring against Akira and maybe sorta ended up getting a lead on smuggy?
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Wonder if the Doctor Smug plot will ever go anywhere, there are 3 more prisoners left unaccounted but I can't see how her plan will have any big ramifications for Kivotos.
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This is chronologically the start of her plot and Code:Box was the continuation iirc. Most people are waiting for, I think it'll be PV7? To speculate on any sort of plot developments because Volume EX: Decagrammaton was the main one they've focused on.
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Smug always felt to me like a Professor Moriarty clone. So it would make sense for her to have a plot with either a new Sherlock Clone or the rabbits. I'd bet on the latter.
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Faceless Anime Woman said:
have like, playable student concept acting like genius kid detective or investigators at all now that I think about it. Yes we do have Valkyrie as the police, but they are pretty much police officers and not necessarily detective let alone investigators.
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Police Departments typically have investigators or a Detective. Maybe they could write in a year 2 SRT squad (as Fox is all year 3 and Rabbit is year 1) that focused on investigation tactics? We'd be unlikely to get someone with a "Sherlock" mystic though, considering SRT & Valkyrie are all allegedly Norse.
 
Speaking about Volume 6, guess what? We gonna get it soon.
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Though the questions remain: Are we going to wait for 1-2 weeks for each part to appear like JP before (and the source of many complains) or are we getting it all faster ala what Volume EX is doing (next part in 1-2 day, at least one is a full week because new banner reset)?
 
Wandering Lurker said:
This is chronologically the start of her plot and Code:Box was the continuation iirc. Most people are waiting for, I think it'll be PV7? To speculate on any sort of plot developments because Volume EX: Decagrammaton was the main one they've focused on.


Police Departments typically have investigators or a Detective. Maybe they could write in a year 2 SRT squad (as Fox is all year 3 and Rabbit is year 1) that focused on investigation tactics? We'd be unlikely to get someone with a "Sherlock" mystic though, considering SRT & Valkyrie are all allegedly Norse.
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I think the Devs don't want a student that's too smart because it can break a lot of mysteries in other arcs, since Sensei won't have a reason not to ask for help.

Seven Prisoners is also not a school specific plot, so I can't see anyone but SRT taking it on, maybe with each school sending a representative to help.
 
I've mentioned this before, but there's an AFAIK unsubstantiated rumor that the original story draft for Volume 1 was "RABBIT Squad, versus, Wakamo". Speculative "evidence" mostly boils down to "Blue Archive was under development during the Pandemic, maybe the process got messy" and "why does Wakamo play such a big part in Prologue, and then mostly disappear?"

Did Professor Smug send Wakamo to destroy Shittim Chest? Was her falling in love with Sensei a deliberate 4D Chess move? Is the concept of "rabbits" chasing a "fox" too obvious subversion or would you have wanted to see that? (Well we eventually got RABBIT Squad, versus, FOX Squad.) (Also was it a soft retcon that FOX Squad captured Wakamo?)
 
piombo said:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RKmqwsoFsRMnow to celebrate the 5th anni there's an oji-san song
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That's awesome.

I hope that if they ever return to Volume 1 they have a scene of them eating at Shiba Seki Ramen and Hoshino says "Never Kill Yourself"

That would be kino.

Faceless Anime Woman said:
"ah yeah you did caused untold mayhem, nearly killing Kisaki and making her a loli for the rest of her life, and nearly caused sheer cute and funny outbreak, but I still think you're salvageable"
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She did literally nothing wrong.
 
Unexpected Blue Archive:
Buruaka Hijack LOL.png
TLDR: a Momoi meme with 2,5 million views is used to demonstrate a cultural zeitgeist where "finger-wagging, shaming, and calling people X no longer works."
Context: MentisWave is an openly Libertarian YouTuber who makes videos broadly on economic/political theory (mostly debunking commies) and philosophy (mostly calling out various midwits.) "Weeb stuff" is something his videos include on the regular, but usually he uses Fumos (the OG ones based on Touhou characters) and I don't remember/know any other instance where any BA character makes any kind of appearance in any of his videos.
Link to the MentisWave's video "An Honest Assessment of the Groypers" where the screenshot is from
"yes, i'm racist" -video
 
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