(Notice - Still not my art... so go appreciate whose art this is! I have sources for who you should go check out if you like what you see!  
\-Arturia-  
1st - [Twitter](https://x.com/xukongjingyu), [Pixiv](https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/2648922)  
2nd - [Twitter](https://x.com/Alisa165059)  
3rd - [Pixiv](https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/58396608)  
4th - [Pixiv](https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/16919535)  
5th - [Twitter](https://x.com/AK_0929_), [Pixiv](https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/53555833)

Once again no specific shoutout because good Law are there not only a ton of Arturia arts but plenty exist where I can't properly cite (due to where it was originally posted I can't properly access nor confirm the artist) or use the art. Out of respect for those artists, I won't be sharing those here... which, only hurts me due to how absolutely beautiful some of those pieces are, and how badly more people need to see them.  
As always, Google Drive where I put all of these, and possibly more I've yet to get to - [Here](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BAXk54ejk6ZpxWeRs5w9eOsvgri7cihK?usp=drive_link))

Welcome Back!  
\-Probably the most prepared and not-at-all prepared I've been! To avoid getting too personal here, it's somewhat due to some personal hiccups as of late but mainly? Probably due to how much I knew, and also somehow didn't know, what I wanted to do with this proxy. To answer last week's quandary, I figured how I wanted to translate Sagas rather easily through Arturia here (sorry girl, I refuse to go by your stage name, you're one of few operators like this but your "if evil why hot" friend Eblana will be getting the same treatment) for a long time now. Arturia seemed a perfect fit, but... well, let's just get into things before my ramblings ramble on too long.  
  
Thoughts on Arturia  
\-Conflicted, really. I LIKE my evil characters ESPECIALLY when they're allowed to be evil. Same fear I had (still have?) with Eblana and her becoming playable: too often Hypergryph de-fangs its villains. Talulah's a weird case for me where I think she works, and the brainwashing honestly makes her both more tragic AND horrific (imagine watching your body do horrible things you know you could stop if you could just believe in your hopeless cause a little more). It fits the narrative of the game (which I personally define as the question "what is the point of Hope in a world that has no need/want of it?") and she works as the first major hurdle... mainly due to how much I argue she's a dark parallel to Amiya. In an effort to remember this is a post about Arturia, lemme leave that background foundation for my thoughts going forwards... because, Arturia's oddly kind of another parallel to Amiya, to borrow an old conversation/idea someone shared with me on her release. Instead of the leader focus with Talulah, the two share similar emotional manipulation powers with Arturia sorta being "what if Amiya didn't have a support network/Doctor". In a vacuum this is fine, but the further along a story goes and the more it repeats plot beats for its characters the staler it can get. Originality is hard! I get that! Most of my own writings are basically responses anyway, a sort of "how would I write X if I were the author instead", I admit it! But Arturia as she started out vs. who she's revealed to be, while still good writing through and through, is still pretty par for Arknights' course. She loses someone close to her, has powers she can't properly control, is viewed as a threat, etc. etc.. It's far from my intentions to base every character and arc against each other but I genuinely think it's human nature to seek out the best of the best and compare the rest (citation needed). So, Arturia doesn't really stick out after being revealed to be such a tragic figure instead of a conniving one. Though, I will say? I'm rather behind on more of her event contributions, and who's to say what the Exu-Lemuen event will add? I somewhat preferred Arturia as an "I'm forcing you away because I can't control my powers" kind of tragic, but I also DID like her being named the Pope? The idea that, after the events of Guide Ahead, this was Sankta-Claus' big plan to recognize that there needed to be change within Laterano? It comes out of left field but holy hotcakes it's kinda brilliant? That's honestly where my issues and praises for Arturia get so muddled. I love that she makes Necrosis super easy to pop, but it becomes a benchmark for other Ritualists to be compared to as I find her slightly overtuned (I say this more in mourning for what Valarqvin could have been, but thank you Phantom Alter for showing me what overtuned REALLY looks like...). I'm happy we got another NPC playable, hell, two in one banner, but her being a Limited always kinda sours the mood. I like that she's more mischievous than inherently evil and still keeps that personality long after having the tragedy revealed, but her backstory isn't really anything new for the game, even being somewhat trite by comparison. Even her means of damage being Necrosis comes in waves like this, S3 pops it for enemies in seconds but the downtime has her not doing all too much. Arturia in my eyes is this constant back and forth, a crescendo of great ideas before a sudden decrescendo drops us back, and I can't tell how genius that might be to comment on her, considering I feel that's exactly how she'd want us to view her: unpredictable, always leaving us guessing. Oh, and Yostar? Please get her outfit's lines recorded already! I never want to use the outfit because I prefer listening to her english skill voicelines, they're just so damn good!  
  
Card Choice  
\-This is genuinely due to how interested I was/am in building Narci, and how perfectly I think the two fit. The usage of Sagas basically being Elemental damage in this context I find to be clever, and the use of Enchantments to act as songs was already Narci's doing here, I just filled in the rest. The funnier thing though? This was such a hard proxy to prepare because I don't really plan to build her focused on Sagas? I read that second line of "Sac Enchant, Draw Card" and was sold on that alone. This is why I mostly focused on extra lands for this batch: I'd rather run some of the Quest, Expedition, Omen, Font, etc. Enchants and similar that you can sacrifice to use as further advantage, with maybe a few Sagas here and there. So, in an effort to leave this one more open for varying playstyles, some nice lands in Lateranan coats of paint should suffice... alongside a personal favorite enchantment of mine, with a certain other favorite character of mine... (ironically, one that I think helps break the mold BACK in Arknights' favor for its writing tragic characters)

Closing  
\-Good Law I really need to read more of the story... starting to feel bad on basically passing my thoughts/judgements on characters that I'm mainly basing around secondhand knowledge. It's a strange mix of general consensus and some sources in the community I trust here, but I'm very picky about wanting to be the one to decide his own thoughts. Talulah was one such example, I still see people who disagree on how her arc played out, and some cases like Arturia are often bogged by how damn good they look it's hard to hold a proper discussion of actual character introspection. It's not what most people enjoy, and there's some I think that just miss the mark way too much. Plenty of times I think that someone's me, questions of how critical one can get on discussions of art really blur the lines. One man's 9 is another man's 5 after all. To this end, I feel like better and more engaged communication could help go a long way. Likewise, Arturia was probably viewed as a monster to some, but no one had the full picture. We're not guaranteed to get everything through our own limited experiences, so it helps to have someone else's interpretations to fill in for any gaps or new perspectives! It's... why I make these, and started this whole project, in the first place, after all\~

\---And remember, there are no bad Doctors, just illiterate ones. Thanks for reading, and see you... whenever, and wherever, 'next time' is! This has been Dr. TheNorthWind#9121, with this week's question for ya: Favorite faction? Like, I enjoy how Arturia is a part of Laterano even though it seemed she was avoiding them. The usage of the factions helps develop the world in fun, subtle ways: Stuff like Texas being Penguin Logistics regardless of Alter or not being its own stand-in for where she truly thinks she belongs, but Mostima is so intrinsically tied to Laterano despite working in the same faction, Passenger tied to Sargon due to his time as the Sand Soldier, Reed Alter changing to Dublinn as she goes back to lead her people better than Eblana, Radiant Nearl being Kazimierz as she rights the wrongs of her home, even the littlest things like Aroma and Provence being Siracusan just helping flesh out where they're from instead of just "another Rhodes operator". I also really like the updates to put operators in more factions, especially the more synergies Hypergryph's making in talents to support faction-specific squads. To this end? My favorite's probably Rhine Lab or Siesta. Mainly due to the characters involved and/or dynamics, story's what puts Rhine Lab up so high for me whereas I love the aesthetics to Siesta so much, So Long Adele was basically a flashbang for me with its return to Siesta after so long, felt great to see Ceylon and Schwarz again while also further developing the small region. I'd also put Penguin Logistics here, but the current direction of Penguin Logistics really just feels so Siracusa focused... which, happy for Texas lore, love the aesthetic, but uh... I dunno, they felt so relevant super early on but all the characters involved seem to be going through their own arcs more than anything PL could hope to really provide anymore. But, you never really know where we'll go with the game next. We have a playable Miss Christine and a swimsuit-less Summer event, after all, the possibilities really are unfathomable...

Arknights x MTG Proxy Project - #7: Arturia / Narci, Fable Singer - Arts by: @xukongjingyu, @Alisa165059, Kuroko, DAAPie, and @AK_0929_