Attack on Titan Skins: Please, Make Them Canon.
Alright, so...yesterday, Behavior revealed a brand new cosmetic collection being made in collaboration with Attack on Titan to be released sometime in the future. On the one hand, I love this. Anime is a deep well in terms of great franchises for chapters or cosmetics. Horror anime absolutely has a place here in the Fog, especially Attack on Titan. This opens up doors for Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte, Elfen Lied, and more horror anime to be brought to the game whether as new chapters or just cosmetic collections. But, and I say this as well as I can, BUT there is a part of me that is quite a bit miffed with this. Why you may ask? Because as far as they've said, these aren't the characters.
For those who don't know, all the Legendary skins, all but two of the Ultra Rare skins, and two of the Very Rare skins are additions to the Fog alongside their non-skinned counterparts. Jill, Leon, Chris, and Claire all coexist in the Fog, Cheryl, Lisa, Alessa, Cybil, and James all coexist in the Fog, the Huntress, the Mordeo, and Baba Yaga all coexist in the Fog, etc. This is a clever and efficient way of bringing in more characters for the game without having to design entirely new powers and perks, one I think works incredibly well. My issue, here, is that these Attack on Titan skins aren't like this. Three skins were revealed: an Eren Jaeger-esque outfit for Dwight, a Hange Zoë-esque outfit for Zarina, and an Ultra Rare Armored Titan skin for the Oni. The survivor skins were referred to multiple times as not being Legendary, as just being outfits, and not being the characters themselves. This sucks. If you guys were going to collaborate with Attack on Titan, why not go the whole mile and actually do Legendaries? A slight remodel, some new animations and voices, and bada-bing, bada-boom, these things would sell like hotcakes, even better than these Very Rare ones will, and at an even higher price, ensuring more money. Out of the ten skins in the collection, I'm expecting maybe seven to be survivor skins. Let's say, just as a hypothetical, these were skins referencing Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Christa, Hange, and Erwin. This means that all seven of those characters are probably never coming to the game as official, canonical survivors, like Jonathan, Chris, Claire, or James. If these characters ever got Legendary skins, people would have no reason to buy the Very Rare outfits, meaning those wouldn't sell as well anymore. It feels like cheating, almost disingenuous to the fans who wanted those characters in the game. As for the killer skins, the Armored Titan skin was never given such a distinction, instead specifically stated to be Ultra Rare.
This little detail gives me hope. Here, I have two suggestions. One is pretty reasonable, I assume, and the other is a bit out there, but I can assure would please a lot of fans if done. The first suggestion is to make the killer skins canonical, like the Crypt TV and Chatterer skins. Change them to Legendary instead of Ultra Rare and mention, in the description that it is, in fact, Reiner Braun in the Fog. Just say on the set's description, "When Reiner awoke in this new, strange place, he could feel his powers had changed. His titan form was smaller, yes, but he had new abilities too," something done to explain away why Freddy Krueger makes sense in the Fog and could be used to explain that yes, Reiner is in the Fog as a new killer, and yes, he can now use the hardening ability. It would add a new character in full, broaden the roster, and definitely please the lore geeks and/or AoT fans like me. The second suggestion is a bit out there, but I hope and pray it comes to pass: I suggest you postpone the collection, renegotiate the deal, and make those survivor skins Legendary, too. I know it's probably not going to happen and I know, it would be more work, but please, I beg that you do it. Having those characters, Eren, Hange, and anyone else officially, canonically in the Fog would make me and a lot of my fellow AoT fans very, very, VERY happy, help them sell even better, and get you guys more money, as Legendaries are more expensive. I would be more than happy to spend extra money for a full Legendary outfit. It's a win-win for everyone. Oh, and minor thing: please give the Attack on Titan killer skins new menu, terror radius, and chase music evocative of Attack on Titan, and voices that match the characters. The music of that show is a large margin of its identity, and having it would help the Attack on Titan skins feel more at home in the Fog. I would gladly pay to get the Armored Titan's Blood Fury to sound off the roar from the anime instead of just being Kazan, and have chasing someone play a remix of YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T instead of Kazan's music. So...yeah. That.
Comments
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I really think the developers should focus on reigning in the tone of their franchise - it's beginning to waver and seep into strange territories that it was never intended to wander.
The property is losing its way.
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I'd rather want Hooked on you to be canon
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It has been reaching in odd ways, but I like that. All-Kill is a great reflection of modern horror, Hellraiser added more niche horror, Sadako Rising explored psychological horror, Roots of Dread will soon be exploring the Cronenberg/Carpenter-end of body horror, and these Attack on Titan skins will be exploring the vast well of anime horror. I love the variety and can't wait for more avenues to be explored, such as indie horror, gothic horror, and sci-fi horror (Stranger Things isn't really good enough as Alien or Predator in that regard). Variety is the spice of life, after all. Besides, Attack on Titan's incredibly depressing, incredibly bleak tone fits DbD's very well.
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I'd rather keep them the way they are, I don't consider legendaries canon
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Okay, two things:
1. I don't think I'm understanding your phrasing. Do you want them to not be Legendary so they are canonical, because you don't consider Legendaries canon? Are you saying they should stay non-canonical? I'm sorry, I'm just not catching it, here.
2. Canon isn't determined by the person, it's determined by the creators. Things with debatable canonicity can be argued, see also the Marvel Netflix shows and the MCU, but this isn't one of those things. Lisa, Cybil, Alessa, James, Jonathan, Chris, Claire, the Look-See, the Mordeo, the Birch Witch, the Chatterer, the minotaur, Krampus, Charon, and Baba Yaga are all canonically co-existing in the Fog alongside Cheryl, Steve, Leon, Jill, Doctor, Huntress, Hag, the Hell Priest, Oni, Trapper, and Blight. I wish I could make the sequel trilogy of Star Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story non-canon, but that's not for me to decide. You can't argue with canon. You can argue it makes no sense or ruins a character, but it's canon nonetheless.
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Sorry! I didn't express myself correctly, what I meant was that I'd rather If they keep them non canonical.
I think in this case it can be debatable since the devs never mentioned if legendaries or skins altogether are all in the fog, it was pretty much left for interpretation. I just consider them a gameplay feature like the multiple cosmetics in trial thing.
Sorry, my first comment was kinda unrelated to the question.
Post edited by Dito175 on0 -
It is canon, entity let them have a summer holiday
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Any particular reason on keeping them non-canon? Is it just about, "Attack on Titan doesn't fit," or some other reason?
As for its questionable canonicity, Legendary skins were introduced by the devs as being, "...not just [outfits]. They actually completely change the character you're controlling." By reading in between the lines, as well as taking some characters' descriptions (Cybil's head description describes her being in the Fog, not being just Cheryl, and the minotaur's description even describes it: the minotaur is a canonical addition to the game, as it materialized in the Fog out of the fear and memories of the survivors after hearing the legend of the minotaur), you can infer that Legendaries exist as a way of canonically adding characters to the Fog without designing new perks and powers for them. Then, considering that the minotaur and Krampus skins were initially Legendary, but got changed to Ultra Rare, and the Charon and Baba Yaga skins follow their design philosophy, it all starts to make sense. All those skins I mentioned, through their descriptions and rarities, are canonical additions to the Fog.
And no worries, we've all been there.
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Any particular reason as to why you want to keep them non-canon? Is it just, "Attack on Titan doesn't fit," or something else?
As for their questionable canonicity, Legendaries were introduced by the devs as, "more than just [outfits]. They actually completely change the character you're controlling." Reading between the lines of that, the devs are saying that this is their way of canonically adding new characters to the Fog without having to design new perks and powers for them. As for Ultra Rares, only four of those are actual characters, being the four I mentioned, and considering two of those were Legendary before Ultra Rares were a thing, I think the same rules apply. Then, by reading some of the descriptions, you can discern that a lot of these are even given descriptions of being in the Fog or how they got there. Cybil's head description talks about her, not Cheryl, being there, in the Fog, and the minotaur's states that it specifically formed in the Fog out of repressed memories and fear from the survivors from hearing the legend of the minotaur back on their Terras. All of this put together, I think it's about as confirmed as it gets that the skins I mentioned above are all canonical additions to the Fog. Besides, under technicality, every skin is canonical due to the Entity being able to snag multiple versions of every character. This explains how four Dwights can co-exist, how the Spirit can just be a ghost, then have a sea-motif out of nowhere, with gills and a split mouth. I like this system, as it reduces perk bloat while still allowing new characters to be added. I don't know why you wouldn't consider them canon, as doing so only limits possibilities. Isn't letting Cheryl, Alessa, Cybil, and James all face down a Demogorgon more interesting than just Cheryl and three ambiguous survivors? Canonizing these skins makes the lore and matchups more interesting, makes their inclusion less confusing, and lets new characters arrive in the Fog without increasing perk bloat. It's a win-win for everyone.
And don't worry about it, we've all been there.
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Mcote said a while ago in an interview with King and Paulie that there is only one version of a character currently inrealm, hence why a killer and survivor wouldn't be the same person. For the multiple survivors in trial, they said a few years ago that it was just a gameplay aspect to not lock the character you want to play.
I don't like couting cosmetics as canon mostly because it makes the story convoluted. For the legendaries, since they only have a small description and not a good fleshed out backstory I never considered they canon, just a cool option.
One of the reasons why I don't like it its because I like reading a lot and for me they sometimes take some of the hardships away, for example: Meg has to face trials on a daily basis, she misses her old and mainly her mom, if Meg's mom was also taken by entity Meg's struggle would be a little less.
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Ah, never saw that. That's a fair stance, but I think the skins being canon makes things more interesting, mainly for matchups. James is stuck fighting Pyramid Head again alongside other veterans of Silent Hill who must now face the monster he created. Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan all facing down other extradimensional horrors and unknowable entities alongside the Demogorgon they thought they had rid themselves of, and Jill, Leon, Chris, and Claire fighting side by side to fight off an enemy they can't blow away this time. Then, for killer skins, it's just more variety in lore, and I love it. I, myself, am a writer, I do my best to remember tonal consistency and devaluement of backstory are what kills the fun of a character or project. In this case, it doesn't affect me as much, seeing as they all still want to escape and get home, but now they have someone to relate to, someone who knows their struggles and can push them to get home for both of their sakes. Again, it's a fair stance to take, but I like my variety. 'Tis the spice of life, after all.
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Just different tastes :P
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Guess so. Still, thanks for a nice discusssion.
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They probably didn’t make them legendary skins because it would have been too much work to get different voice actors and create different faces for each skin. It wouldn’t be hard to make them look more realistic to fit into dbd tho.
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Exactly. Either laziness or AoT's rights holders being antsy, and either way, it sucks. By the way, neat clip.
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Like others have said, I think all cosmetics are canon, just not from the same universe. Take Oni, since I know him the best. She has the skin that turns him into a genuine Oni, with horns from his body and not his mask. But even after he was taken into the fog, he never looked like that, rather still human-esque. I see this skin as Oni, but from a universe different than where he was taken.
With the titan skins, I see this as the same. The observer (who is now gone? Haven’t played in a while, where is he?). What I don’t know is why the entity has these killers become these characters. Why is Trapper Krampus? Why is Spirit Nyx?
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It was loosely explained that Legendaries, most Ultra Rares, and two Very Rare skins are meant to be canonical additions to the Fog, that whether you believe all skins are canon or not, Cheryl, Lisa, Alessa, Cybil, and James are all canonically separate characters. Cheryl isn't becoming them, they're just there with her. Same goes for killers like the Huntress, the Mordeo, and Baba Yaga. It's meant to be a way of canonically adding new characters to the Fog without any arguments or new perks and/or powers. Spirit Nyx isn't included due to being Very Rare, not Ultra Rare, if that makes any sense. I'm hoping these titan skins are going to be like the minotaur, Krampus, Charon, and Baba Yaga, in that Kazan, the minotaur, and Reiner will all be coexisting in the Fog in canon. Does that make a bit more sense?
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