Trivia 3: Ashley, Clayton, Ian, and Tara/ The Shadows Symbolism
The conception of Ashley Lowry, Clayton Lavistor, and Ian de Luca was also kind of hard for a few reasons.
For Ashley, I was going to make her biracial, like Julie. At the time of the story's conception, she was going to be mixed with African and Caucasian ancestry, which is in contrast to Karen (my OC for P3T), who is Afro-Asian (mixed of African and Japanese ancestry). During the conception, the characters would be facing their true selves rather than their fear and Ashley's was going to be having to accept her biraciality because she was always ridiculed for it. However, I thought that this wouldn't represent her character strongly enough, so I decided to change some things up. She was also planned to be of the Lovers Arcana and was originally a friendly and peppy kind of girl, but I decided to use that trait on Karen rather than Ashley. So I changed her Arcana to the Empress because it fitted her better and I changed her personality a little.
Second is Clayton. His character was pretty much the same in personality: friendly, a bit of a coward yet was willing to be courageous and his envy towards Ian was pretty much the same. In the original story, however, Clayton's insecurity was revolved around the fact that he could never be as good as Ian because of his weakness and his Shadow was going to be a monstrous rabbit with a black top hat and tux. The symbolism for the Shadow's true self was revolved around Hitler's perspective of the fox and rabbit, where the rabbit was weak to face against the fox and no, I am not an anti-Semitic. In this story, however, Clayton is Jewish, but he wasn't in the original story's conception.
Third is Ian. At first, Ian was not Italian, he was actually Caucasian, but his personality remained remotely the same. In the original conception, Ian's struggle was trying to live up to society's order on him and his parents expectations. Because of that, he regularly cut himself and hid his scars with long sleeves. Though I did like the idea for Ian, I thought to change some things up to make his character a bit more three dimensional. I made him Italian, the son of a Mafia leader, and a skilled practitioner in Baji Quan and Longquan, as well as bojutsu given his choice of weaponry.
The last character is Tara, who actually underwent many transformations. At first, she was a male kitsune who lived inside another world and had a story similar to Teddie's. I thought that wasn't original enough, so I decided to change some things around. I made her into a girl, but the problem was trying to make her different from the humans in the story and somewhere similar to Aigis and Teddie. At first, she was going to be a magician who lived in modern society and was of the Lovers Arcana. However, after a while, I didn't like the idea of making her into a magician, but I did like the idea of her having magic. So I used some elements of Dragon Age to construct her. The part where she spoke her spells in backwards was pretty much to reflect the type of voice I imagined her to have, which was Zatanna's (notably from Young Justice and Injustice: Gods Among Us). As for her powers, after some consideration, I've decided to give her telekinesis just so she wouldn't seem like too much of a powerful character once she gets her Persona.
As for the Shadows, I've decided to do something different for them. The true form of the Shadows usually takes the appearance of a known monster from stories and media. Ashley and Ian's Shadows took the form of vampires to correspond with the Emperor and the Empress Arcana and with their fears (vampires cannot reflect from glass and they drink blood). I do realize that while I did not describe Ashley's Shadow taking the form of a vampires, the Shadow does take this form to represent her fear of mirrors. Clayton's Shadow took the form of a poltergeist/ghost; it didn't look like because I sometimes tend to leave out key details, but Clayton's Shadow form was to represent his fear of not having a purpose (a ghost that haunts someone until their time comes). I have already planned the true forms for the Shadows of the rest of the cast, but I won't spill the beans. Just know that Devon's time will come soon, so be ready for him. Also, I will be doing a trivia for Devon and another female companion who will come shortly. Remember to read, review (if you want to), and enjoy!
A/N: I'll be doing some more stories later on, but I'll try to work on the ones I have. School has started back and I am getting swamped with homework, so that may take a while.