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I think one reason I'm so particularly attracted to Ouroboros/Kingdom Hero ships for XC3 is just the sheer change in power dynamics of it all.

Ouroboros are mortal gods -- they are unequivocally at the top of the power hierarchy pecking order. As a consequence many of their former peers are now ambigously subordinate to them, and many of their former superiors are now, let's face it, also subordinate to them. The people at the pinnacle of the Keves-Agnus power struggle are still far below Ouroboros in power level, and while they retain their local authority, on the broader battlefield their local authority matters far less now when they have more allies than enemies. The Ouroboros not wanting to supersede their authority, wanting to establish a peer relationship between themselves and the colonies, doesn't really matter when they're People Of Mass Destruction and the colonies are still just the colonies.

I like the political tensions that creates and I like how the personal tensions are heightened. I really enjoy how Zeon, who never wanted to lead in the first place, wants to badly to be led by them, but knows that's a path of least resistance that could put his colony -- everyone he is responsible for -- in further danger. I like how the presence of the Ouroboros heightens the sense of vulnerability and the ambiguity of Alexandria's behaviour for the first half of her character arc. I like how it works to undo the isolation Teach is under, how it reveals him as a bit of a paper tiger and validates the way he has changed as a person. The less I say about Isurd and Taion the better it is for everyone.

And in turn, it enforces that the Ouroboros all need each other to retain a sense of personhood. If this kind of power was isolated to just one or two people, it would become exploitable. You'd get messiahs that people would elevate above accountability, you'd see the rot of power set in. But the Ouroboros bicker too much for that to happen to them. They are their own power check.

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One thing I'm sad we never got to see in XC3 was an Ouroboros/Ouroboros interlink, a two-core Ouroboros to match the two-core Moebiuses we have to fight. It's left as unexplored thematic territory, and for me it would have really heightened the sense of camaraderie between them -- and also given us cool new monster forms to look at >:3c

Of course, this would mean that the plot would have needed to be about twice as long -- Ouroboros^2 forms would pretty much require a second character arc for every character. Ideally, I'd have it start at the end of Act 2, before Camp Omega, which would leave the logical first option as Noah and Mio coming to terms with how hey, Lanz and Sena, how come you were THAT READY to kill yourselves to save us all? and the fallout of Noah and Mio being ~*~special~*~ would be really good at driving force to re-establish the adhesion the ensemble had built up until then.

For the designs themselves, it would definitely be cool if they changed to reflect which of the four participants is "in the lead", but for practical reasons having the experience be closer to having the two pairs be in a kind of Pacific Rim style drift state along the Keves-Agnus line, sharing mental estate rather than being fully merged together into a single four-aspect consciousness, would simplify the design process a great deal. Maybe it only works as long as they're mentally holding hands, making the two Ouroboroses connected by a strong sense of belonging together rather than an extension of the duality-in-one that fuels a single-core Ouroboros.

For the designs, it might be cool if they're even more removed from humanity, maybe in a Janusian way where the Kevesi half and Agnian half are present at the same time, with the dominant half being represented through colour and animatedness. Hell, this would even be extensible to a potential Ouroboros^3 form, one that has all the pairs synched up, distinguishing their abilities even from those of the Moebius capable of Interlinking, which could outright be a "Be Not Afraid", fully artificial-looking, closer-to-mechanism-than-even-the-Moebius kind of superform that only shows up for cool finishing move cutscenes.

( eventual tag natters under snip )