Skyward Bouquets and Fireworks Prelude

 Hello there again residents of Miraland! Pardon the late post, I wasn't feeling so great last week so I wasn't in the best state to ramble about my thoughts here. But now finally we can get to the Firework Isles' based Resonance Banners! Which I'm going to be honest, this is where I go oof because this is where my personal rule system takes a hit again. To be fair I hadn't fully established these rules when the Firework Isles came out, I was still ironing them out. But if you've played the Firework Isles' quests and saw my earlier screenshot of the glow up menu, I don't blame you if you kinda raised an eyebrow at me. Let's go ahead and address the very cute balloons and confetti-based elephant in the room.

So, here we go with Fireworks Prelude's Dance Till Dawn. In which its canonically fails my rules on two major fronts, right out of the gate. I really don't even need to go over any specific details, because canon laid out the details to this outfit already! Dance Till Dawn was designed by the historical stylist Dexter, and when Nikki receives it as a gift it's basically for only a minute from Scintillada. He didn't plan on giving Nikki a gift for her help in inspiring Marques Jr., but she was fully immersed in the story he was telling. I don't blame him for the fact he felt like he had to do something for her, especially with all the assistance she was offering completely on the spot!

 BUT MAN, HER FACE HERE BROKE MY HEART.

That was the biggest persuasion for me to change direction on what I would've probably done during these Resonance Banners. You just can't set her looking like she's having the time of her life in front of me, and then take it away; showing Nikki being heartbroken about the fact it's gone. I am too invested in this bubblegum pink barbie girl to let this stand. At the time I regarded both of the 5 star banner outfits as equally canon seeming due to the fact they're both shown on screen, but in hindsight Stardust Flare actually stands out stronger in the story. Dance Till Dawn faded, there's no reason to believe that Nikki gets it back. Even if that means this face remains to be how she feels about the matter. 

 There is one curiosity I discovered though when reading through Dance Till Dawn's lore (which is all Dexter themed honestly), and it's that Dance Till Dawn: Nightlight, has its own art?

 Posted on the official twitter account, Dance Till Dawn: Nightlight ends up having a small point of canonicity to it because of this. Crazy that even Momo's Cloak: Confetti gets points for canonicity here! I hadn't seen him with any of the 5 star cloaks so far outside of usual promotion images and videos. This even made me backtrack to make sure I hadn't missed anything in terms of the outfits and recolors I've gone over so far, which as far as I can tell I haven't? Though reader if you know of some official art that has gone unnoticed to me do share it!

Honestly the only thing that makes this almost insult to injury to me, is that Dance Till Dawn is one of the outfits that I got very early in terms of pulls on the banner. So I don't own this recolor, when for a lot of my banner goals since the Firework Season, I've been getting at least the first recolor. Save for one outfit, we'll get there when we get there.

 So man. Not Nikki designed, not actually given, and the only point of canonicity Dance Till Dawn gets is only for its first recolor. Much like Wings of Wishes' story justification you could say that Scintillada perhaps gives Nikki the full outfit at some point permanently, but that's not shown on screen, of course.

 

Ranking: 1.5 / 5 

- Fades away quickly in canon on screen, Nikki is not shown being able to keep it.

~ Curiously the first recolor has official art.

Hi out there if you spotted my hourglass during the Revelry Season here!

 

Next up we have Fireworks Prelude's associated 4 star, Enduring Bond. Which to be honest I didn't pay close attention to the lore of up until I was doing this post, which had me do a little reading into 'The Guard and the Mysterious Stranger' styling challenges. I didn't have very leveled up outfits going into the Firework Season, so I didn't get to finish all of these challenges before the season was up. So this was a good prompt to finally go and finish those! Closing out on Dance Till Dawn actually felt very fitting no less, even if it's an outfit for Dexter, not Safire or Calida. 

Either way I enjoy that Enduring Bond is an outfit that seems to represent Calida, especially her connection with Safire. Not to read too much into things but also like... they were written a bit like 'gal pals', right? Just gals being pals, no romantic tension here, when practically the climax of the styling challenge was a romantic defined one. They read like a lesbian Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon to me, which is cute.

But despite the sweet story and fun Whimsicality of spawning cards, Nikki is never shown with this outfit in the story whatsoever. So you know the drill.

 Ranking: 1 / 5

- Holds no story connection to Nikki at this time

Was neat to have a real excuse to take a photo with it though, and nice to learn they fixed the glitch that made it spawn cards forever. 

 With this we move into Skyward Bouquets' Stardust Flare, the (not to be punny) infinitely more canon outfit than Dance Till Dawn. Oof it pains me to say that, not even because I don't like Stardust Flare, quite the contrary! I was sad that I just didn't have the means to do both banners at the time. The thing that makes me sad is just the fact that Dance Till Dawn had a real place in the storyline for the Firework Season, while Stardust Flare appears for just a moment at the end. It has the more proper place in Nikki's wardrobe though, as I said Dance Till Dawn fades canonically; Stardust Flare is never shown fading away on screen or is mentioned to have done so. It exists in Nikki's wardrobe just as much as Starfall Radiance, she gets it as she touches the cooled firework spark and you could read that as her inspiration for the outfit.

 Though the lore does contradict this interpretation a bit, potentially. As most of the versions of Stardust Flare include details that relate back to Miraland's creator of the firework, Vita's ancestor, Ginata. You could read this as Nikki potentially just feeling really inspired as a result of Ginata's (and potentially Vita's) work if you wanted to though really. Where the outfit isn't really shown anywhere besides with Nikki, and it's not implied to belong to another character outside of the compendium, I think it's just safe to call this outfit canon unless something contradicts this later. 

  Ranking: 5 / 5

 + Directly shown on Nikki in an in-game cutscene

~ The compendium lore mostly relates it to Ginata, but for now I won't dock it any points for that.

 

 Lastly for today where Enduring Bond was based on Calida, Midnight Vigil is based on Safire. I didn't even know this until today but the lore spells it out very clearly, she must've really loved floofs with the way this outfit's ability works. They were quite a pair those two honestly, comparing these two outfits to one another. 

That being said I wish I had more to say, Nikki is never shown using Midnight Vigil during the Firework Season and its compendium lore talks about a particular person. That steers it away from Nikki very easily without question.

Ranking: 1 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki at this time

Girl don't sic your floof on me it's not my fault it's not canon!

 
With that though I draw this post to a close, feeling it's a bit funny that so far the two 5/5 ranked outfits are both 'star' titled / themed. Fitting for Nikki I suppose! Though now I need Skyward Bouquets to come back so I can get the dress properly this time, especially where I abandoned what was actually more canon in favor of a dress that just plain makes Nikki happy. I honestly don't have any regrets, I love Dance Till Dawn and I love being able to see Nikki's cute animations with it. But it does make me undeniably long now for getting the canon dress that I skipped before, cause that's just how I play!

While it may not have a high ranking despite its extra small point for art, I'm not ending this post without prompting you all to look at her cute animation when you open the outfit in the wardrobe.

In the words of JelloApocalypse's pokemon movies video: SHE IS SO CUTE LET HER BE HAPPY.

See you in Miraland! We'll cover the next 1.2 banners this Friday. 

Celestial Wishes, Starlit Wishfin, and Ribbon Reverie

 Hello again to the residents of Miraland! Ready to take a trip back to the Wish Festival? Admittedly I'm a little intimidated by how much there will be to go over, we'll see if we can get through all of it fast.

 We might as well start with the big name outfit of the Shooting Star Season, Wings of Wishes. My first actual 5 star outfit no less! I went all out getting this thing even as my rules were starting to kind of settle in, because I felt like it had decent justification. Wings of Wishes isn't just a pretty outfit for the sake of it, confirmed in-universe it's an outfit used to operate the Grand Crane. What with Nikki kind of having easy access to the Dream Warehouse now I felt like it would just make sense for her to have this outfit! 

But the thing that I was ignoring at the time, is the fact that you canonically give this outfit back to the faewish sprite that lets you borrow it. There's no magical moment involving it, you just borrow Wings of Wishes and that's all. I feel like I can see a narrative in which Nonoy gives a copy of the outfit to Nikki, but just because the narrative seems likely, doesn't make it canon. So it's time for me to do a bit more reading, to see if it's more justified than I thought, or if it really gets knocked further down in terms of canonicity to Nikki's wardrobe.

The verdict after reading? It's unfortunately more vague than I would like.

 

Both the first version of the outfit and the makeup refer to a nameless 'she', which could refer very easily to Nikki. I think it seems especially likely with the makeup where she's the one actively using it here, but with the outfit? No way to know, it could just as likely be related to Nonoy, as looking after the Dream Warehouse is her job more than it is Nikki's. 

The rest of the outfit versions give no further hints either, they talk mostly about the history of the Dream Warehouse and how wishes are handled. I kind of knew this outcome was coming but it is still a little sad.

 Ranking: 2.5 / 5

- Nothing in lore suggests she keeps this outfit after she borrows it during the Wish Festival briefly

~ Decent story justification to suggest she could've eventually gotten a copy, but this is not shown in-game

 Honestly such a crazy contrast to Celestial Wishes' associated 4 star, Starfall Radiance. Which I have no problem believing to be an outfit that Nikki 100% has in canon. When everyone is celebrating the Wish Festival at the Dream Warehouse, it seems like the faewish sprites grant Nikki this outfit magically. She's never seen having to give it back, and she's shown with it outright on screen. Honestly I don't even need any more justification than that, but lets take a look anyway for funsies.

 

 Sadly still pretty vague, this could be about anyone choosing to wear the outfit. 

Even Dada makes it a little unclear about if this outfit is specific to Nikki, or if anyone can wear it and summon shooting stars. 

Oh well, even if it's unclear we still have a whole cutscene justification and that's more than enough to me.

 Ranking: 5 / 5

+ Directly shown being given to Nikki in an in-game cutscene

 

 Next we head over to the first 4 star banner Starlit Wishfin's Daughter of the Lake; which largely doesn't seem to be a Nikki outfit. The lore seems to lend itself more to a story about a Ribbon Eel becoming a human. If you wanted to headcanon Nikki having a past life as a Ribbon Eel turning into a human, you could argue this. But even in the extra art made for Daughter of the Lake and Pink Ribbon Waltz, both outfits are shown in a dream for Momo.

 

 Ranking: 1 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki at this time

She'll get her proper fishy outfit later lol.

 Now to take a look at Starlit Wishfin's Deep Echoes, starting with Rippling Time. Which the only lore for it suggests it's just a watch to look at as you wait for a bite from a fish. Nothing contradictory but nothing that's any evidence at all really.

Ranking 1 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki

 

 Next up we have Collected Memories. 'A necklace strung with shells found by the water, each carrying the whispers of the lake's past.' It reminds Bebe of collecting shells by the lake with her sister, which if you interpret that as her talking to Nikki, maybe that's something? But there's nothing suggesting that.

Ranking: 1 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki

 Lastly we have Drifting Paper Boat for the Starlit Wishfin Deep Echoes, which I must say is a very cute piece. It mostly carries themes of adventure though, about an adventurer piloting a paper boat and Dada telling Stylists to be safe on their adventures. Nothing major here.

Ranking: 1 / 5 

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki

No jumpscare lore pieces this time!

 

Now lastly for 1.1, we have the Pink Ribbon Eel outfit from Ribbon Reverie, Pink Ribbon Waltz. Which uhm... does this outfit actually exist right now? I'm not even joking, the biggest reason I didn't go for this banner is entirely because of the Friendship is Bubbling sidequest from the Lucky Fishing Day event. Obviously it's in the compendium, it's got commentary and lore. But it just sounded to me like Polly from that quest, was going to make this outfit one day. So owning Pink Ribbon Waltz right now just felt... wrong to me? It felt like I was owning an outfit that has yet to really exist. 

But hey, lets see what the actual lore has to say about it.

 

Which it basically adds a performance aspect, to the story in Daughter of the Lake. Much like the outfit having the same effect of adding scales, the lore is also similar I suppose. 

 

 I will say one curiosity I found, is that Pink Ribbon Waltz: Variation does have Polly in the commentary for it. Which is a nice little nod to the sidequest I suppose.

All this aside without a place in the in-game story, and the in-game story even making a suggestion that this might not exist yet? There's no way Nikki owns this. I mean it's even featured with Daughter of the Lake in a dream for Momo in the previous comic, if you count outside content. It's a very curious outfit story-wise but it has no place in Nikki's wardrobe yet sadly.

 

Ranking: 1 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki at this time

- In-game quests suggest it might not even exist yet?

 Possibly nonexistent outfit aside, let's move on to Ribbon Reverie's Deep Echoes, starting with Sunlit Stars. Which I do really like its description: "No matter how fast you chase the stars, the sunlight will eventually emerge. Sometimes, we have to bid farewell to the night and to people."

 Plus this bit about Kilo apparently getting kind of hurt by a real shooting star! Tiny bit of Kilo lore dropped. No Nikki lore though.

Ranking: 1 / 5

 -  Holds no story connection to Nikki

Next up we have Dreamy Afternoon. Which has an... interesting description: "Long ribbons tied into a butterfly shape. The butterfly's colors are so dreamy, it seems to have flown out of a dream."
 

The writer in me wants so badly to change some of these words. Like I know Daughter of the Lake and Pink Ribbon Waltz showed up in a dream too, but you really don't have to say that word three times over this hairpiece.

  

 
Redundant description aside, Nonoy's got a bit of commentary on the colors and Mayor Grace needs a vacation. Nothing more to see here.

Ranking: 1 / 5

  -  Holds no story connection to Nikki 

 Lastly for Ribbon Reverie's Deep Echoes we have Dawn's First Light, which is mildly a curious piece.

It's interesting that this is deliberately noted as being ahead of its time, and that you could potentially view Marques Jr.'s commentary as talking to Nikki if you really wanted to. Nikki is obviously from a world that is more filled with technology than Miraland seems to have right now, so if she did make this, it would make sense. But there's nothing suggesting she did, it could've been a really forward thinking Stylist for all we know. But it is worth stopping to take a look at for sure.

Ranking: 1.5 / 5

- Has no outward lore connection to Nikki, but you could read into it like it does.

This round didn't surprise me as much as the previous one, it really just solidified things I knew and then had me getting to know pieces I didn't really know about. But it was fun to look into, and nice to be able to finally point at an outfit and say 5/5, this one gets to be real! 
 

Round of applause for Starfall Radiance, and I'll be back next week to talk about firework magic!

Croaker's Whisper and Bubbling Affections

 Back at it again with outfit canonicity rankings! Last time was kind of a downer and this time is kind of only marginally better. With my focus on story tie-ins these outfits came out in obvious reference to the Well of Fortune, but I'll tell you from the get-go; Nikki doesn't use either of these in that whole story quest. So while their presence in reference to the ongoing event gives them some points, it's not going to net them much for points.

In looking up the lore details for these outfits, I also got reminded of the fact that the Resonance Deep Echoes for these banners are sort of random, disconnected outfit pieces. I guess I might as well rank them too real quick since we're here? I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get anything beyond a 1.

Also if you have no idea what the hell I'm going on about I'd recommend you take a look at my Outfit Canonicity Questions and Ranking Meanings page.

 Let's start with Froggy Fashion! An elec-- oh wait no, not an electrician outfit anymore. I don't really mind the change to it being a Whimsicality outfit instead, I think the idea of Nikki summoning a bunch of Croakers to sing and hop around is pretty on brand; we've got Pastoral Dance that acts similarly for example. But it still mostly looks like an electrician outfit to me. Oh well, I guess to be fair having a whole Resonance banner with an ability that doesn't actually manifest as anything all that interesting, is probably a bit boring. We've all got Fully Charged after all.

At any rate I'm not actually here to judge the outfit on how it operates, I'm here to judge its canonicity to Nikki's wardrobe! Pardon the tangent I just have a lot of thoughts and feelings about these things. But to be fair I don't actually have anything to say regarding the lore of Froggy Fashion; it's a Croaker based outfit that is not used in-universe by Nikki. The second recolor talks about the history between Croakers and Florawish, and the connection the designer of the outfit had with them. Little bit contradictory, what came first? Froggy Fashion or Froggy Fashion: Night? 

Tangents aside, it seems like there's nothing that relates this back to Nikki in the story. It can't even be justified that she makes this outfit after being inspired by her visit to the Well of Fortune, because it seems to have already existed well before she got there. Maybe she could've gotten it after being inspired, but there's still nothing that suggests this right now.

Ranking: 1 / 5

- Doesn't have enough story connection to Nikki at this time

- Potentially holds loose connections to another character, suggesting it may be theirs instead

Man even the emote here is still electrician themed.

 Let's check out Croaker's Whisper's Deep Echoes items before we move on, and wow the first one is already making me eat my words. Daisy's Embrace may have no place in the outright story whatsoever, but the lore?

 Okay yeah that actually bumps it well above Froggy Fashion. Who would've thought that this random headpiece would actually end up being more canon? It's even like Timis is actively talking to Nikki, suggesting she does already own this. Does this mean I have to pull on the banner when it comes back now? I guess I shouldn't have been so wishy-washy during its rerun lol.

Ranking: 4.5 / 5 

- Resonance piece, unclear how it is received in-universe

+ Lore backing in the compendium 

 

 What a contrast Drifting Foam is in comparison too, this one has no connection to Nikki at all. Dada states in the compendium that she got a gift like this before, but that this one is slightly different. Kilo just makes a comment about gifts: "When words fall short, let a warm gift speak for you." I guess you could view that as maybe him gifting this to Nikki? But where it's unclear and not shown anywhere in-universe, you know the drill.

Ranking: 1 / 5

 - Doesn't have enough story connection to Nikki

 

 Lastly for Croaker's Whisper's Deep Echoes we have Azure Breeze, and once again I am getting whiplash from lore canonicity questions. It's both very unclear and very blatant.

Kilo has to be referring to Nikki, right? Or is he referring to someone else? Like I said it's unclear but it's also reasonable to suspect it could be related to Nikki. It's not like there's anything else in the lore to suggest yes or no, this kind of leans towards yes if you want it to and no if you don't want it to.

Ranking: 3 / 5

~ Compendium lore suggests it may or may not have been made by Nikki

 

 Moving on to the second banner outfit and the last one to go over for 1.0, we have Dreamy Glimmer. Which actually has a fair bit more going for it than Froggy Fashion does! At the time when I personally got Dreamy Glimmer, I felt like it was a much more direct reference to what happened in the Well of Fortune than Froggy Fashion. That was part of the reason why I decided to get it, especially where its preview video showed the Monroefin outside in Silken Lake. It felt like a direct continuation and that made it feel a bit more justified, though honestly I'm pretty 50/50 on how canon I view the videos to be; I count them when it makes sense and don't when it doesn't.

I'm also pretty 50/50 on if I count the little comics that are occasionally made in relation to some outfits, but so far they've never really been contradictory to canon (to my knowledge anyway) so they really only add to it if you want them to. But Dreamy Glimmer does have one! It's silly and you can see it here!

 But as for Dreamy Glimmer's in-game lore, there's not a lot to say. It largely seems to be another outfit that someone made, this time in response to the connection Croakers have with the Monroefin. Again with a recolor revealing more history than the original outfit does.

I feel like Dreamy Glimmer is sort of up to you on if it counts or not, because the most compelling evidence there is for it is mostly outside content to the game itself. Within the game itself, the timing of its original release was clearly in reference to the Well of Fortune quest and that's about it; that's not much really. But I gotta give it a few points for the fact the outside content does nothing to really contradict, only add.

 

Ranking: 2.5 / 5

-  Doesn't have enough story connection to Nikki at this time

~ Has outside content that is maybe canon

Taking this photo made me learn we have piano poses! That's cool!

 

With that we move on to Bubbling Affections' Deep Echoes outfit pieces! Starting with the Woolfruit Companion earrings, and I am struggling to find much to say about them. Florawish loves to use woolfruit for styling, that's it that's the lore.

Ranking 1 / 5

- Holds no story connection to Nikki

 

Next we move on to the Misty Woolfruit necklace, which its description is as follows: "Three things constitute a beautiful morning: sunlit dawn, white mist, and Woolfruit bathed in morning light!"

Which is then followed up with this commentary:

 

Does... does this count? I can't decide if this counts. Nothing about the lore makes it seem like it's something Nikki would own, and what Nonoy is saying doesn't directly tie this necklace back to her. It just sounds like she's hearing the description herself, and decided her takeaway from it was that her days are much brighter with Nikki in her life. Very sweet sentiment! But it doesn't tie this back to Nikki really. Or does it? I don't know honestly. 

Ranking: 1.5 / 5

-  Holds no story connection to Nikki

~ Compendium commentary mentions Nikki

 Lastly we have Glowing Radiance, which only has anything to say if you want it to. The description is honestly remarkably personal though: "I wish I could capture a star, sew it into my bag, and watch it glow brightly in the night." That does sound like it could be from Nikki, and nothing in the commentary contradicts that.

Quite the contrary, you could almost see this as commentary they're giving after Nikki made this. Or after someone made it anyway. Without anything concrete it's difficult for me to give it too many points, but it's not like you're harming anything if you claimed it as canon.

Ranking: 1.5 / 5

~ Only holds connection to Nikki if you want to view it that way

Wow this was much more chaotic than I expected it to be. I hadn't even planned on going over the random little outfit pieces when I decided to do this, I just saw them while reading and decided 'oh I should include those!' Thinking that would make for at least a little more to say, seeing as I felt like I wouldn't have much for Froggy Fashion and Dreamy Glimmer. I underestimate my own ability to talk perhaps, and I severely underestimated the lore contained in those little clothing pieces.

Anyway, with this we are done with 1.0 Resonance Banners, and will be moving on to 1.1! See you next time, where we'll say hello to some paper cranes.