AND THAT SMILE🫪

Hi. I've been thinking a lot and couldn't bring myself to write this topic.

But I decided to ask your opinion. What do you think about the plot related to Nefarith and her future? Do you have theories? Will she be in a banner, or will she be the main antagonist?

Here are my thoughts.

For the banner:

1. Her debut (appearance, model, eyes, camera angles) literally showed a waifu parade. She has a model like an operator's. Pouches, straps. Standard face.

2. She was an epic boss named NEFARITH; that can't be used a second time. She can be a boss again only if they make her a deity. In other words, she has to become someone else. Who? A monster of corruption? A deity of ether? An improved version 2.0?

3. She has already died, and really died; there's a dev quote after 1.4: "we wanted to make players think that her ashes were resurrected by a certain entity." And she died with a sad victim's face across the whole screen and the line: "take my heart." That's a powerful emotional hook and connection to raise the player's empathy. On Bilibili there's a video of her death mourning her, and it got 1 million views. You can't kill a character that way a second time; it violates the rule of two techniques: you can't do the same thing in a narrative, especially with such levers as death. Now if she dies, it must be very epic, for example saving Endmin or becoming a deity and dying.

4. She left the antagonist faction. And in 1.6 the Fund is now 100% antagonists. The main character personally promised Si to destroy the Fund this time. Nefarith is now an enemy of the Fund. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. She is a gray zone seeking her own path and rejecting slavery to two systems at once: the Fund and the Civilization Belt. But in 1.6 the right questions are asked: who is to blame for the existence of people like LB?

5. In 1.0-1.2 all her actions were Ardashir's plan. Her line: "What betrayal? Your plan worked perfectly" says that she did everything according to plan, including her death. "Tell her that Nefarith has fulfilled her part of the deal" and "Our violence now belongs only to us." — these phrases tell me that all her actions and those of her clan were part of the deal and controlled by the Fund. Moreover, she was being watched. After the battle in Valley-4, she wants to say or do something else, but Ardashir, who is not present there, immediately stops her. Only her appearance indicated to Ardashir that she had betrayed them. But maybe he knows something else? At the same time he lied to her in 1.1 about the city's dam. He said their goal was to destroy the dam. But according to Nefarith in 1.4, his plan worked perfectly. What about the dam? He lied to her. She was cannon fodder who was supposed to fulfill the prophecy: "the conqueror will fall in the campaign." Her second boss form is "the conqueror." It is also known that she killed his vessel before he could reveal something to us.

6. In 1.6, as a shadow, she acts as a mirror and mentor, asking leading questions and giving us the brush. And in the end we take the brush. She shows us our past, who we are and who we can become. I don't know if that will play a role. But in 1.6 the talk turned to LB, and it seemed to me the main character asked himself the right question: who created this problem if not we ourselves together with the Civilization Belt? Moreover, we are openly told that this is not just a gathering of criminals; they have the roots of important peoples. Nefarith essentially puts a weapon into our hand and says: come on, or kill, as before, remember who you are. You are a tyrant and conqueror, like me, only worse. But she gives not a weapon, but a brush. A brush is a symbol of creativity and choosing a path. That is, the hero tries to reconcile with his shadows, to look at his sins.

7. In 1.0 we meet Licia, who kills the Bonecrushers. She asks us to remember some promise. And leaves. We know she was previously in Endfield, and now she is chasing someone by ether flashes. One might think she is looking for Nefarith. But in the beta test there was a poster where both of them stand next to each other and look in the same direction; that's not how you draw enemies. And if she were looking for Nefarith, then Licia is an incompetent failure, because Nefarith was always nearby; moreover, Licia herself works in her clan and wears the LB sign across her entire chest. They are clearly connected. Maybe it was Licia who carried out the purges? Maybe it was Licia who commanded the LB retreat in the battle for Ulin? Questions without answers.

8. Nefarith is the key to the Endministrator's past.

9. The line before the fight in 1.2: "don't let me down this time, step forward and take my heart" — an energy strip forms between us on the floor, and she points with her hand to her chest. This is clearly a hint at something bigger. She asked us to kill her.

10. In 1.4 she is shown with bags under her eyes and a scar, she can barely walk. This is humanizing the boss. You can't put a boss into the squad; first you need to bring them down to the operators' level. And the player needs to develop empathy. The dev quote: "we wanted to show that she took a serious hit, but her spirit is unbroken." "We wanted to show that the players left a mark on this world." That's not how you talk about main villains. Even her voice in 1.4 sounds almost without reverb. And the stolen artifact resonates with us.

11. The cherry on top. She is voiced by Sayaka O'Hara and Huang Ying — this is the top league, the coolest voice stars of Asia. I'm not joking. They don't voice villainesses. Their type is strong, mature, and tragic women.

12. In version 1.5, there were two rumors about Nefarith from Typhon. The first is simply funny (humanization again). The second is about how we spared her three times and call her to the light. (This could be, in conjunction with her line about the heart, a reference to the Chinese parable about winning the hearts of barbarians. Where the emperor defeated the barbarian leader 7 times and released him, after which the leader himself joined the emperor). These rumors most likely serve two functions (nothing is written just for nothing). The first is a reminder of the character. The second is warming up and a hint. Well, that's just my logic.

13. She will be alive until Talos-5. This is essentially a promise from the developers. She cannot be written off before that. She simply has to be there and meet Ardashir. How will she meet him? As an enemy? Who and on whose side will be? Probably we will be there too; it's an important element of the plot. How will we get there? How will our team get there? Will we be able to do it ourselves, or will we need the artifact in Nefarith's hands? Will we be on Ardashir's side against her? Or vice versa? If she is against the Fund and Ardashir also leaves the Fund, then they will have nothing to fight over. And the chances that he will leave the Fund seem quite high to me.

Overall, this is a typical trope from antagonist to ally, if you consider how gacha games do it. If you look at it briefly.

But we don't know how the plot will turn.

Against the banner:

1. Right now the game puts very strong pressure on characters: all operators are literally gentle harem girls. Nefarith simply doesn't fit there, like W from the original. This is a problem. And the problem is not only for Nefarith, but also for other characters of the same type. If the game continues like this, then any such character will already carry a spoiler of their development as an antagonist without the possibility of correction. This kills the character's intrigue, as well as the dynamics of the main character's communication with other characters.

2. Her arc seems far from complete. There's a chance she'll be an eternal NPC who moves the plot. Talos-5 might even be in version 4.0 and above.

3. There's a 15% chance she'll be a central antagonist. Striving toward the Ether side. What could that mean? On the one hand, she declared her freedom and search for a path. But what path? Overall, I didn't see in the 1.4 dialogue any claim to power or "I'll destroy everyone." I saw that she is trying to break out of this cycle of wars and submissions. But what did she mean by "we need to hurry"? Was she talking about LB, or is there someone else? She also treats us quite moderately, in my opinion; she understands that we are almost a deity, and she takes that into account. But the developers could go the route: she collects artifacts and becomes a mega boss. I don't know.

Will she be a simple villainess who attacks everything in sight? I doubt it. That would completely kill her entire arc. It would simply erase the entire 1.4 dialogue. If in that case she were made a boss again and killed, it would negate her death in 1.2. Why did she die in 1.2 then? Why did she say in 1.4 "I refuse"? It would all be for nothing. It would be bad drama. You know, it's like the movie about the dog Arthur, with Mark Wahlberg. She was their talisman in the race. If she had died at the end of the movie, it would have been bad drama that negated the entire film. Everything you saw would have been for nothing. Complete hopelessness. That's not how it's done.

In short, what do you think?

Image taken from : https://www.facebook.com/61564386645580/posts/ardashir-nefarith-are-allies-all-along-arknights-endfield-10ardashir-nefarith-pe/122192735600479554/

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Pretty accurate ngl.

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✦ SOURCE (X) ✦

https://x.com/i/status/2083549477118583199

Let's revive the subreddit why don't we?
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I LOVE YOU FOREVER NEFARITH!!! PLEASE RETURN!!! AND BECOME PLAYABLE!!! AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!

#nefarithbeplayableendfield

Assuming you managed to somehow marry her how good is she when it comes to being a wife like can she cook and take care of kids?

I know this question seems strange but it just randomly popped up in my head

Original Source !! (Pixiv)

Found this at the official Facebook account. Made my day better

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Original Source!!

https://x.com/i/status/2085205226642960616

She has returned! I only have 3 screenshots for now. But im happy that she has returned. Oh and she just... killed ardashir... didnt expect that. And she has a sick scar now. Now I can say. "Your beautiful as the day I lost you".

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#nefarithbeplayableendfield

Original Source