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!