They just have the right feeling, you know? It’s a vibes thing.
Characters can only be reflections of each other if their souls were sundered. I choose to believe that the Heart of Sabik had only Athena’s memories in it, not her actual soul, leaving her able to be reincarnated into another stuck-up scientist prick. She was dead at the time of the Final Days, so seeing it happen in the present wouldn’t awaken anything in Nero.
Athena once had an acquaintance named Cydonia, a fellow scholar of Creation magic. Athena thought they had a rivalry; Cyd did not think so.
They fell out of touch around the time when the Heart of Sabik got its claws into Athena. Cyd returned to the star a few years before the Final Days.
This one’s vibes too.
Same hair color, plus Jullus has big catboy energy for someone who is very much not a catboy. What more could one ask for?
I like the dramatic irony of them actually being friends and Durante making sure his BFF’s legacy lives on. Makes me wonder what Zenos would have gotten himself up to in the Eighth Umbral Calamity timeline.
I don’t think Zero is anyone’s shard in particular. Not everyone has to be.
Okay look I’m still workshopping this but his name was Nemesis, he used to hold the seat of Nabriales, and he had an intense friends/rivals/okay-fine-we-might-as-well-make-out relationship with Azem. Prior to meeting Azem he always said he’d be glad to return to the star when his tenure on the Convocation was up, but eventually he stepped down and started traveling the world, shonen anime style, in a journey to get stronger.
He and Azem worked together to try and stop the Final Days, but we all know how that ended.
This one’s just canon, isn’t it?
More dramatic irony. I’m a big fan. Love using alternate universes to show how someone could have turned out different under different circumstances.
Everyone’s on about “oh I bet Sphene is a shard of the WOL” but come on, they’re such an obvious narrative parallel!
(Well, technically, the Sphene we meet isn’t a shard of anyone, but…)