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.
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.
- 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!
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.
+ 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.
- 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.
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