Thanks, Obama.
My initial idea for Ariel's job change was to make her a soft-spoken Dark Knight, purely due to finding it funny that the smallest, most waifish member of the mage family would be a tanky, tough class (sort of a proto-quasi-Tenshi, if you will). I ditched this idea due to the job class being exclusive to Final Fantasy Tactics' PSP remake, and therefore being both less familiar to me and less familiar to readers at large. Instead, I perused the FFT job list for a job that would be unique and interesting and picked "archer". From there, Ariel's tree-hugger side was an easy addition, as archers, hunters, and other similar job types are frequently associated with forests and nature.
At the same time, in 2012, I went on a sort of political kick and took a serious interest in politics leading up to the big US election showdown that November. However, I made a few missteps in conversation with friends due to getting too invested in the topic. This added two elements to Ariel's character. First, I expanded her being a simple nature lover to being an outright activist, pushing for change on multiple fronts. Second, my negative experiences with politics warned me to not turn Ariel into a moral-spewing agenda-pusher, so I worked hard to make her non-preachy and non-offensive. Ariel's two main desires - a wish to see less blatant pollution and a wish to see people treated fairly - are not very politically charged in our community and have therefore been safe bets. I've also indicated she's passionate, but not hardcore - the most notable instance being that Ariel isn't a vegetarian and doesn't criticize people's food choices. I knew she'd be a walking buzzkill if she got too caught up on what people eat.
As part of the concept of each of the four sarahkin having different builds, Ariel is the fit one. It fits really well - while Sarah and Josephine are big eaters (so they're chubby/curvy) and Gloria is less so but sedentary with a job class that lets her summons do the work (so she's average), Ariel's job, personality, and her work at places like parks and nature preserves means she's naturally the thinnest and most agile of the four. The tradeoff seems to be her infamous frailty. We need to talk about your Defense stat, Ariel.
Unfortunately for Ariel, her constant jobbing in Season 3 makes just as much sense as her physical fitness. She is the worst of her family at white magic, unable to perform many of the strong spells her sisters are famous for. And once an enemy gets through her underpowered Protect and Shell spells, her tiny frame isn't exactly going to offer much resistance. As a result, Ariel was frequently taken out of commission, especially because Ariel's participation in Season 3 largely revolved around an extended war with The Society, and practically every member of the group was more powerful than Ariel and threw around their superpowers with impunity. She was KOed again and again, and I began buffing her out of desperation to have her survive more than one attack in a feasible manner, but the tractor didn't cooperate until the final week of the plot, when I was finally able to make Ariel look like a reasonable threat and to gain some measure of respect back.
While I'm talking about Ariel, I'll also talk about Penny. Penny isn't very important - she's mostly just 'Ariel's friend and partner in activism' and has no role beyond helping Ariel. Activists work best in groups, however, so I chose Penny to represent the people Ariel has teamed up to fight alongside her in Manhattan. I enjoyed making the two of them derp around in Gloria's library, but with my roster as massive as it is, I have no plans to feature Penny as anything more than an Ariel satellite character who appears whenever she needs a second pair of hands. We all know what RP can do to plans, though. On another note, I actually have more than once considered making Ariel and Penny a legit couple, but decided against it due to not wanting to enlarge the sarahkin family even further and to keep Ariel open in case she somehow gets roped into a "real" pairing with another user. They're just good platonic friends, and shall remain so.
Ariel sat out almost all of Season 4, only appearing for Wheelerplot and a background joke plot about her and Penny mismanaging Gloria's library. She's likely to get more screentime in Season 5. Will Ariel be able to shake off her jobber reputation like Samus did hers?
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