u/leeroyschicken

Skip to the second half if you are interested in only EN voice acting, but I've included JP too, because it's very easy to hear, and makes the chance of random VA sharing very unlikely.

I've been talking about it a lot, so with reddit now allowing easy integration of videos, here it is for those who couldn't use imgur and such. Also conveniently in other subs people finally start to see Mayor for who he really is.

A quick recap what I think is going on:

City did run the dubious orphanage near hollow, and for whatever reason either she was experimented on or was born special.

We don't know, we know that she was extracted by the act of that orphanage being closed ( possibly to get rid of evidence? ). This by logic makes her HSO presence as child soldier.

What happen after that is not exactly clear, she is seemingly betrayed by HSO, and conveniently ends up in the cult, where she discovers that she is dangerous. All while the HAND denying she ever existed.

In S1 I do think that she was not any sort of mastermind, but mostly used by Mayor. The sound clip wee hear makes that very plausible.

Given how happy is he with his 2.5 gains, and those weird things around Yixuan, it's not impossible to assume he was on board with her sacrificing herself too.

Obviously assumptions are being made, so we can't know for sure, but so far it looks somewhat promising.

It's increasingly clear that Sarah is fighting against the same thing as we are.

Of course "her" solution is not acceptable, but that brings me to another point.

That ZZZ offers so many viewpoints at the same thing.

Bringer, who was probably directly mind controlled, shouts about using the powers that are available if humanity embraces hollows. And when he blows himself up, hating Carole and her students, he stilll laughs at Phaethon's efforts to find a "real villain".

When we fight Isolde, she is undergoing some sort of trial perhaps? Her attitude is "let it happen, nothing can be worse than now". But all we see in the fight is rage and regret. Carole's students are now witnesses, not enemies. There is zero hints that she would give up the world to the hollows.

Then we hear story about Sunbringer. Her story is the most familiar one. Humanity betrayed her, she is saddened by what happened to it. Possibly connecting to those Soviet like overlords, that we can read about. It's a mystery how far did she went, as we have conflicting information. But her objective isn't to stick it to the bad guys like Isolde, but to give everyone a world, where everyone is equal.

This is very close to what Sarah sees, and neither of them do even hint the idea that the world should destroy or transform the humanity. They still have the wrong solution, but their reasons are now almost innocent.

But then we have another viewpoint, Lockspring.

He, like Bringer, seems to be of the idea that humanity must be changed. Bringer's vision is to give everyone the monstrous power, where Lockspring wants all the humans to have no power at all.

He's insanely hypocritical and patronizing. To him all of the people that suffered so much are merely data points. He complains that people are controlled by their emotions, yet he lets Sarah's despair to do work for him. He even fosters it by fuelling that idea of Creator being a salvation. He complains about humans sacrificing each other, yet his plan is built on sacrifice Sarah and hoping to sacrifice Shunguang too.

The point of this comparison is to show that they know how to create nuance and that Sarah isn't doing things to screw us over, but because she genuinely believes that it's the right thing to do.

But what about those screenshots? I think that's where the plot is absolutely heading.

Helios Academy is turning out to be some sort of doomsday related child experimentation platform. TOPS were revealed to be unapologetically believing in complete subjugation by the elites.

And our "friend" Mayflower did his share of evils. In fact she knows first hand who he really is.

What she doesn't know that the solution was most likely left behind by the same people she fights against. How incredibly useful she was to them, despite all.

Lockspring said that the true rebirth cam be only achieved by temporary destruction. He probably meant that her barely surviving through whims of powerful meant that she saw the solution. But the reality might be that her despair is the thing that needs to die.

Indeed, if they show us that Sarah didn't perish ( which is our current, assumption, but nothing in universe confirms that ), then without her despair and with support of others she could be able to help dismantle the power structures that sre destroying the world.

There is also the question of og Sunbringer, what really happened, because her successors don't seem to be all that righteous anymore. Perhaps even becoming parasites as well.

In any way reason for this random dump is to give you the idea, that Sarah, despite looking purely as an antagonist, is actually on our side. Her solution is wrong, but she was brutally funneled in it.

It shows that her line wasn't throwaway and that there is still plenty of what wasn't told yet.

Whether and how they can deliver still remains to be seen.

Amazing post featuring a great duo, apparently user @Yidhari_Timely won a raffle and wisely used the prize for requesting our lovely colonel.

Go and support the artist✌️:

https://x.com/byinky

The original post, kindly requested by @Yidhari_Timely:

https://x.com/i/status/2069440398783881594

Figured out that the sketch posts are barely visible in thumbnails, so I will be using thick outlines for them.

I finally want something that just looks unquestionably happy, but my stupid mind always wants to take. That's where the scar comes in.

Still not quite sure what would be her hairstyle if she was "free". I would love to hear your opinion, how you would imagine unburdened Sarah. To me undoing the braids feel like the answer, but I wonder how much does it stray from her intended look.

Small Sarah in alternative universe where her friend is Tomoko and she gets to be just a normal girl.

Tomoko Kuroki is from Manga "Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!"

Outside of superficial similarity to younger Sarah, she does also have a bit of a problem finding where to belong and how to be herself.

I would kinda want to do a background ( a floor or futon on which they sit ), but I also want to get it out so this place isn't too empty. So maybe one day.

I do love both of those goobers.

I do have more ZZZ oriented picture coming too, but even if it's also lighthearted, I needed something more simple, something just free. For mental reasons...

I always thought that Sarah is a bit like what would happen if you took a hikikomori and forced her to do bad things, so I always wanted to see her in that kind of role.

I did chose Tomoko for many reasons. Not just for superficial similarity, they do have surprisingly quite a bit in common. And as much as most find her cringe, I absolutely adore her.

This one took quite a bit of stock footage to get some things right and Sarah is barely recognizable here, because it's not just her teen version, but also with hair undone. I don't really care too much about that, though. Guess I also like placing the arm to support the body too much.

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The new trailer dropped with a monster being hit by Ramielle with something, and the main cast is put into what looks like ether rift. It then cuts to Pyrois holding a blue orb.

However the particles we see are extremely similar to what we saw at the end of 2.5 fight.

Take this with extreme grain of salt as it's a bare minimum, but it may be a hint of Sarah not necessarily being obliterated.

We also have the visual language on the model itself. Where the white horns match the visual language of the new ethereals, so there may be some connection explaining where those powers are from. So far we knew that the armor and machinery part was made by Lockspring using the porceloy and that part is destroyed.

I don't really like going through things like this, because they tend to end in confirmation bias, and usually don't tell enough, so if you have anything on your mind, that refutes this, please share it. Despite the narrative being likely on our side, we still shouldn't fall to positive feedback loops.

I think I will leave it here for now, and once I improve my skills, I will do things more like I wanted.

For now enjoy our girl having a moment of relaxation.

I believe it's a good day to remind ourself of a constant theme in the game ( and to use this opportunity to vent a little ). The childhood trauma and institutional evil.

The entire world is practically ending, with endless horrors from the seemingly otherworldly phenomena. And yet, most of the children we see suffer not because of that, but because of the other people's doing.

What happened to Sarah is exactly that, and it's the injustice that I hope the game will eventually undo or at very least punish. It's what Hoyo always did so far.

In any way, happy Children's day to all the children.

This one will take quite a lot of time, so I wouldn't mind any criticism before I fully commit.

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More fan art is always welcome. I guess being happy suits her more, hmm.

There are still tiny bits missing, like lining of on the pants or fingernails/rings, but I spent way too long on this piece... So here you are.

I will finish this one, as I am fairly happy with it.

Do you mind posting complete sketches, or do you think it will be better to wait for complete art only?

I am trying to stir some engagement, but I don't want to turn it into fatigue.

This is my attempt to put the strange S1 story in a bit more graphical way. It's not the project of visualizing the story. That is still in the backburner. It's more like an attempt to explain her storyboard presence and what exactly I think may be happening.

I am really not good at formatting graphics, so it's fairly messy, but I hope it's good enough.

There is probably a need to put a bit more dirt on mayor there, but I will do it in S2 part.

I think this is another piece I will probably return to, when I will have more experience with shading, but for now, this will do. Hope you like it.