Rafisol's character development (PPT2 Update)

**__All the details you're about to see have spoilers for Puyo Puyo Chronicle__*

Before Rafisol emerges from the pendant, she actually does talk to the main party, twice.
The first time she questions "Why am I here.... why was I born? I don't understand... I don't understand anything...."
Immediately, this hints at one of two things, either Rafisol self-loathes, hating her existence and wishing she wasn't ever born, or it hints that since Rafisol is a being of pure evil (because surprise evil pendant that Ally wears), that she simply doesn't understand anything, I personally like to think the self-loathing one since it gives her character and development more depth
Funnily enough Arle mistakes this as Satan putting on a voice but he's like "That wasn't me wtf Arle."
The second time she warns them that once she reaches the top, she will "take everything." Yep, not just the magic power of all our heroes, but EVERYTHING.

So when Rafisol appears and Ecolo explains how it all happened (being that the pendant he gave to Ally inverts the power of its wearer and makes it into a being, meaning as Ally is 100% love, Rafisol is 0% love), Ally asks "If she's from my love, she must have love right?"
Ally's wrong, Rafisol says "Love....? I don't... have something like that....."
So they battle Rafisol to remind her of love. (wow SEGA gr8 buildup to the final boss amirite)
After the battle, Rafisol is weakened. In a bid to continue to exist, she tries takes Ally's power. She doesn't want to disappear, she just wants to continue to live.
She manages to pull some Persona type thing and seems to assume control of Ally, Ally gives up and assumes it's the end for her.
Then Arle and friends to the rescue with the whole "friendship is magic" thing
Rafisol's weakened, but won't stop, she needs to continue existing, but with the whole friendship and love power thing it doesn't work.
Rafisol: What is this.... i can't.... take it....?
Ally: That's right...
Rafisol: W-what is this power...? l...love???
(Some dialogue in between with other characters being like WOA WAT)
Ally: I understand, you wanted to love... isn't that right, Rafisol?
Rafisol: I don't know... I'm an evil existence... so... (Keep this statement in mind, it shows up later)
Rafisol comes to terms with the fact she's failed and is going to disappear until...
Satan/Dark Prince actually saves Rafisol's life, he gives her power to exist. Why? As a thank you gift for giving him a fun trip with Arle (GG Satan/Dark Prince)
Rafisol is very confused as she doesn't realise that it happened, and is like "I will disappear......not?"
Ecolo returns Rafisol into the pendant, she still exists though yay (Can she can come out of it by herself or does Ally control that? Is it like a pokéball lol?)
After the credits, we see Ally walking, and she looks down into her pendant, where Rafisol is, at first Rafisol appears to not like being in pendant, eyes closed looking annoyed, she then folds her arms and enters a post somewhat similar to her win pose, but then she looks up and smiles at Ally, blushes and everything, whilst giggling (AND MY GOD IT'S AMAZINGLY ADORABLE) so we can see that Ally has managed to bring happiness or love to Rafisol and she's enjoying it.

Now, on Carbuncle's & her own master quests, she gets more development
In Carbuncle's, Arle & Carbuncle started talking about how they wanted to eat curry and Rafisol/Ally ask "what's curry" and Arle's like "WAIT does this world have no curry??!!" and Carbuncle's is all D: about it so naturally Rafisol's reaction is... "If there's no curry here...then if i take over a world with curry...."
So Rafisol knows she can use her powers to help others, but she still can't really tell what she should and shouldn't do...she did just come into existence not that long ago, she knows helping others is good but still can't really tell between right and wrong.
Also funny that Rafisol's natural reaction is to just take over a world that has the missing item.
Carbuncle's super happy though and wants Rafisol to do it
Arle doesn't want that to happen, luckily for her, Amitie's here to save another world from being TAKE OVER
Amitie: AAAHH let's switch the topic! Like! About puyo battles, or something!
Carbuncle: Gugu guu guu!
Arle: Carby wants to play you, Rafisol
Rafisol: ...Me? I have... no reason to decline...
At first Rafisol doesn't realise why Carbuncle wants to battle her, she's still showing that she doesn't really understand friendship and all that, but she can understand that there doesn't have to be a reason for friendly acts, as she says she's got no reason to decline something like this.
After the battle Carbuncle said he wants to eat curry with Rafisol someday & Rafisol was kind of smiling about it (ADORABLEEEE!!!) as she's saying "I still don't know what curry is... but someday, if the chance arises..."
This development happens quickly, but it happens well, she's learnt now parts of friendship, love and being together with others and she wants to be able to be around the others at other times whenever it's possible.

Now, Rafisol's quest requirement was to have a puyo battle that was fun and would make her smile, so naturally Ally volunteers.
(Ally's AI sucks at puyo though RIP)
Ally: Did you feel the love?
Rafisol: I don't know...
Rafisol: But... I didn't smile...
Amitie: Does that mean you can't become a master?
Rafisol: I don't think so... somehow, I feel power...
Rafisol: I may be able to become a master like this...
Ringo: Huuuh? Did Rafisol maybe smile while we weren't looking?
Rafisol: No. There's no need... to be here any longer. [LEAVES]
Well, stuff doesn't seem to have worked...or did it? She never felt the love because she doesn't know what it feels like, despite being with Ally for a while, she doesn't truly understand the feelings. Although she claims to not have smiled, she still says she felt power and could become a master. Ringo even brings up the possibility that no one saw Rafisol smile, but Rafisol quickly shuts that down and claims she doesn't need to be around anymore. What i get from this is that she's embarrassed to admit that she actually did smile because of that match, and she leaves so that no one can catch her smiling afterwards. She knows she's an evil existence and because of that she thinks she probably shouldn't feel these things, so she tries to hide it.
Ally talks to Arle about it afterwards and is like, "Maybe, maybe she didn't make a smile, but in her heart, she had fun, and she smiled, in her heart?"
I think this is actually what happened, you can get that fuzzy feeling in your heart even if you're not smiling. Rafisol definitely had fun and got that warm, fuzzy feeling, but she simply didn't know how to express herself, so she hid it and ran off.

Remember that statement I told you to remember?
Rafisol: Why are you... still here? I'm... a dark existence"
Ally: We're already friends!!
Rafisol: I... don't remember that
And finally, Rafisol, realising she's a dark existence, wonders why anyone would ever want to be around her, this further hints (and for me, basically confirms) that Rafisol self-loathes, she knows her existence is evil, but she hates it, she questions why she's here and why she was even born. Believing she doesn't deserve any form of company or happiness, therefore she hides her happiness. However, she doesn't leave the party because she wants their company and wants to feel the happiness. She could leave, and most likely she wants to, but she doesn't want to go to being alone and lonely, where she's left to her own self-loathing, despite thinking that's what she deserves, she wants to experience the happiness and love that everyone else has, and hopefully be able to fully affirm herself that despite being an evil existence, she can just live a nice, happy life with everyone else without any problems and still be accepted without any problems.


Alrighty, so since I last posted this, Rafisol was put into Puyo Quest! Yaaaaaaaay!
So first of all, this incarnation of Rafisol seems to be before her boss fight but after coming out of the pendant (which is a very short time-span)
So first, Quest adresses Rafisol as "A mysterious entity", which confirms what we already know about her 'dark existence', but the main part would be "Even she herself does not have an understanding of why she is here now." Now I'm a little confused as to it means why she's at Pwurp or why she exists, but I lean towards the latter because she literally says that in chronicle.

Next up, Skill names: Her AS is "Zero All", same name as in Chronicle, but her LS is "All...Usurped...", now i had to look up what this meant, 'Usurped' means "take a position of power or importance illegally or by force." I feel the translation could have been a little different here, as the Japanese is "Subete Ubau" which usually means "to take all", which ties in to the whole 'taking everything' agenda she has in chronicle.
This translation has since been made official, so actually nice job translators.

Finally, her voiced flavour texts:
First, "You have... an unrelated... A superfluous power..." Superfluous has a similar meaning to 'excess'. This line is directed at the player. I assume 'unrelated' means that it doesn't really concern her. My assumption is that this power is the ability to summon the characters (Lol FE Heroes)

"...I haven't... seen anything here before... This is... not a place I know of..." Makes sense, her first time in Pwurp Island, nothing much to see here

"For me... there is nothing... Not love... nor light..." NOW THIS! Remember in Chronicle, she wishes to 'take everything', which would mean destroying the world and erasing its existence, which is why there would be nothing, not even love or light. The no light part really intrigues me as it kinda signifies no hope.

Quest doesn't add much so much as it solidifies the things we already know, and to be honest that's a huge relief for me because now I can be more certain I haven't just overthinked things this entire time.


Well, with this somewhat late update, her 7* form finally came around! (Much to my own delight). Her flavour text reads "A mysterious being who came from a world distinct from Pwurp and Primp Town. Perhaps she perceives something foreboding? Her murmurs carry with them a deep significance."
This is already something quite new and pretty big. The way she always talked about taking over everything and destroying it all, it's as if her words are a warning to others that she is chained to the fate of being a dark existence and therefore a fate of bringing nothing but destruction. She truly feels that's all her existence is.

And like her 6* form, the 7* form has voiced flavour texts too:
"...I don't understand. Why...aren't you afraid..." This links to her flavour text. Her foreboding words about the destruction she'll cause, she's confused why the player (presumably) isn't fazed by said words. As if because of what she is, she automatically presumes everyone she ever meets will be scared of or hate her because of what she is and what she says she'll do.

"I don't mind...cooperating... But you...will surely regret it..." This is a pretty nice one actually! It's not too different from how she ends up sticking with Ally despite being able to leave if she wanted to. But in this instance she still feels she can't escape the reality of what she is and the destruction that stems from that, warning the player that it won't be changing what she 'must' do.

"Inevitably...all will disappear... It will...return to nothing..." And finally we have this, some of the "foreboding words" that other parts refer to. This actually links very well with the last of her 6* voiced texts as they both infer that literally everything possible would be destroyed by her. She really is locked to this and firmly believes that as a dark existence, she cannot do anything other than destroy, the "Inevitably" showing that she doesn't have faith in herself to change for the better no matter how hard she and others would try.

Or maybe it could indicate that she could lose control of her powers and go berserk? There's an interesting thought

Overall, her 7* texts continue to strengthen what we know whilst still adding new bits of information, and gives us another look into how she feels about herself and how she feels she cannot escape from what she is, even if not explicitly said.


MIRROR RAFISOL UPDATE (21/06/2020)
Rafisol got her first ever Puyo Quest alt, another puyo fest card with a great design known as "Mirror Rafisol".
As the name suggests, there's quite a big mirror aesthetic with the alt, and like with most puyo quest alts, this probably isn't canon, but you can always gleam some character details from them.

I've included the arts here for you to look at, it might help make sense of some of the points I'll make:
(6* art: https://puyonexus.com/mediawiki/images/8/80/Img528906_l.png)
(7* art: https://puyonexus.com/mediawiki/images/8/82/Img528907_l.png)

So going through the 6*, her character description is: "A mysterious being who came from a world distinct from Pwurp and Primp Town. Though she wields an indomitable power, her silhouette is filled with sadness".
The first part is similar to her base description and Ally's descriptions, saying they aren't from the usual places.
The second part alludes to her being more powerful than before, and perhaps more powerful than anything in the puyo universe, indomitable means it's impossible to defeat or even control, a power so great not even she can handle it.
The final part says her silhouette is filled with sadness. Her silhouette? You can't see her face in the mirrors on the 6* art, but you can see clearly that she looks pained or distraught in some way. But why would she? If, like how her base form is set, this is based on Rafisol soon after she came out of the pendant, wouldn't a being hellbent on eradicating the world be glad they have the power to do so? It's POSSIBLE she's not from that point in chronicle, and instead from the post-game, having more power for her initial cause is more reason for her to loathe herself, and there's the possibility that the power is simply too great and is hurting her, she's perhaps unable to fully contain it.

Like all quest characters, she has three lines per rarity, and these are voiced!
- "Soon...It will end...why do you...still persist..." - Well throw my earlier idea out the window, this Rafisol's definitely not the "reformed" one of chronicle's post-game. Instead it goes back to how Rafisol believes she's trapped into the destiny of being the bringer of destruction, and isn't able to understand why anyone tries to fight against the inevitable.
- "The power is...overflowing...I won't...hesitate...!" - Turns out the power is too great, overflowing, as she says. The power is causing her some kind of grief because it's too much for her to control. Despite this, she's not afraid to use it, or that's what she's claiming, and the voiced line makes this believable too. She's a bringer of destruction and she can use her power for it.
- "Eventually...you will also vanish...I will...return all to nothing..." - It's a threat! She's got the power, and this is what she needs to do. But I wonder about the use of "also", does it refer to other things that will be destroyed or is she also implying she will stop existing too?

The skill names reflect (ha) the mirror aesthetic of the alt, the leader skill being called "Maze of the Reflected" and the active skill being called "Kaleidoscope". Kaleidoscope has a voice clip, being an active skill on a voiced character, and there's definitely some strain when she says it, as if she's in a bit of pain.
Fun fact: Maze of the Reflected Lv.2 (7* version) enjoyed a 3 week reign as the leader skill with the highest attack buff, a very short reign, as the new set of steam city alts released.

But seeing as this is a new puyo fest, she also comes with a 7* form, which means another set of text! So let's start with the flavour text: "A mysterious being who came from a world distinct from Pwurp and Primp Town. Though she is clad in an indomitable power, her expression is filled with unease, as if disconcerted by her endless, overflowing power."
Same first part as her 6* and base form, nothing new there.
But what follows is very interesting. "She is clad in an indomitable power", is this just saying overall, or is it actually referring to the clothing she has? Either way this power is said to be indomitable, impossible to defeat, perhaps impossible to fully control.
"Her expression is filled with unease" That's pretty clear to see, one look at her face and you can tell something for sure isn't right. "As if disconcerted by her endless, overflowing power". Disconcerted means unsettled in this case (can also mean "confused" in different contexts), perhaps because she can't control this power, which is described as indomitable, endless and even overflowing, she's become afraid of it, she never liked her existence to destroy, but now that she really can't control it, the thing she hates is overpowering her.

Let's see what she has to say about it, here's her voiced lines!
- "Someday...it will consume... You...and me...and all that exists..." - Remember when I said she was implying she'd disappear too? I was right! Rafisol's the bringer of doom, that's how she was created and that's all she knows, but with a power like this, she will be able to destroy the very existence of...everything, and she'll destroy even herself doing it. Though interestingly she doesn't refer to herself being the one that destroys everything, and instead refers to "it", presumably the power she can't control, is it possible it would fully control her and bring about destruction?
- "Fight it...together? I don't understand... I don't understand...!" - So you (the player) have seemingly offered to help try and fight off...what is probably the overflowing power that's messing up Rafisol. The whole concept of her recieving any kind of companionship or help is seriously alien to her, back in chronicle it was shown she doesn't believe she deserves anything "nice" due to her existence as a dark being, it applies here too, she finds it impossible to understand that someone would even offer to help someone like her.
- "I don't have love... I don't believe in...anything like that...! Aha... AHAHAHAHA!!" - Rafisol emerged from the pendant as the complete opposite of Ally, devoid of love and hellbent on destruction, so saying she doesn't have love, as she's also denied in chronicle too, makes sense. But then she states she doesn't "believe" in anything of the like. The concepts of love and friendship, they're known to her, but she doesn't believe a dark existence like herself could possibly have anything like it, and thus doesn't believe in it at all.
(Bonus, that laugh is actually really adorable)

Overall, Mirror Rafisol is a very nice alt that keeps a lot of consistencies with her character whilst working in the new gimmick of the "mirror" powers. It continues to show her belief that she exists to destroy and nothing more, reinforcing her beliefs that she doesn''t deserve kindness, and still highlighting how much greater, and more dangerous, this new power is to everyone and even herself. It hurts her, her face clearly tells that, and the flavour texts allude to that too, though she herself doesn't admit that the power hurts, the most she ever admits is in the 6* form that the power is overflowing, though a bit of insight into one of her 7* texts also shows she is wary of the power and what it's capable of.
Good job SEGA, you did well, but please stop hurting her let Rafisol be happy!!! (Also put her in future puyo games)


PUYO PUYO TETRIS 2 UPDATE (04/02/2021)
**SPOILER WARNING FOR PPT2, JUST IN CASE**
So SEGA listened to my wishes and put Rafisol in a new puyo game! ...as part of the 2nd wave of FreeLC characters, meaning the only real thing she gets from this game is a description and some win quotes.
Her character description reads: "A mysterious being from a world apart from Pwurp Island or Primp Town. A hideous power dwells within her." - The first part is the same as always, basically saying she's not Primp or Pwurp, much like her quest descriptions. The second part though, describes her power as "hideous", which is probably meant more as horrific rather than disgusting. It being described in this manner implies the extent of her dark powers being extremely potent and extremely dangerous. Really this just reaffirms what we already know.

She has 3 win quotes, these win quotes are the text lines that appear after a full set has been finished, and there's a quote for VS AI, VS Local and VS Online.
AI - "I will take everything. Fun, love, victory...EVERYTHING."
With this, we know PPT2's interpretation of Rafisol is the same as quest's, leaving us all to wonder if chronicle's master quests were even canon (and seeing how PPT2 handled it, if Chronicle was even canon at all). Bonus points for adding in "Fun" to the quote, seeing as that's a big part of PPT2's story
Local - "This battle was meaningless. Everything is meaningless."
Edgy. But seeing as she's supposed to be a world destroyer, existing just to absorb the power from everything, it makes sense.
Online - "Was it your wish to win? Because I've taken that wish away from you."
Savage! This is another version of the classic "You have no hope left" line a lot of villains tend to say. Nothing really to gleam from here, other than the reinforcement of the idea she's supposed to take everything, including hope.

Parallels between Ally and Rafisol:
- Certain:
	- Ally likes to use a lot of words when talking, whilst Rafisol's words tend to be short and straight to the point.
- Assumptions:
	- Rafisol hates herself, and we presume Ally loves herself


EXTRA NOTES: (So basically, things that aren't canon but things to consider)
So after writing this I had a good thought. What if Rafisol's knowledge of herself all came from Ecolo? He explained how Rafisol came to be, and understood enough to realise she's an evil existence, but then that's all she knows, after all, before she emerged, she literally said she understood nothing, not even why she was born.
I debated adding this to the main points but I think this point is pushing it a little too far: Adding on to the 'No Love, no light', I had recently seen a thing that says "I hate who I've become. I feel nothing...ever...at all. No empathy nor sympathy, no love nor light. I'm not afraid of the darkness anymore...it holds me tight. I know this pain will never end." And I wondered, in addition to her self-loathing and her loveless/dark existence, is this how Rafisol feels about herself? That she feels she's one with the darkness and the pain it brings? I dunno, make of that what you will.

So uhh...The world of chronicle is a story book within Primp, which means everything within was written, and therefore planned. However, an outside force, which was Ecolo, managed to tamper with it, and give Ally the pendant. This means Rafisol was never meant to exist. So not only does she not know why she exists, she wasn't supposed to in the first place! Whether this is canon or not is still unknown, but it's a safe assumption. Poor girl never gets a break!

There's also a possible hint that Ally x Rafisol could be canon. When Ally looks into her pendant after the credits, a heart can be seen on her pendant, with Rafisol also holding her pendant. (A rather vague hint though considering Ally's entire thing involves hearts)

Mirror Rafisol poses a very nice question of "What if Rafisol couldn't fully contain her power?" and it's something I've actually wanted to see for a while, she's not quite berserk but she's definitely not in full control. Perhaps the outfit has something to do with it, especially the rings around her wrists. Rafisol still has her pendant in this alt (Some of Ally's alts don't), so it's definitely still related to her usual powers.

Rafisol was actually added to Puyo Puyo Champions! But the most she got from it was an English voice, so nothing I could add to here

PPT2 adds to my headcanon of her power unleashing something vile if unable to be controlled by describing it as "hideous".


TRANSLATION SOURCES:
Chronicle: https://storify.com/ingaluboi/puyo-chronicle
Quest: https://puyonexus.com/wiki/PPQ:Rafisol/%E2%98%856 and https://puyonexus.com/wiki/PPQ:Rafisol/%E2%98%857
Mirror Rafisol alt flavour text: https://www.precisemuseum.com/post/621470363614855168/6-mirror-rafisol-a-mysterious-being-who-came
Mirror Rafisol alt skill names: https://puyonexus.com/wiki/PPQ:Mirror_Rafisol/%E2%98%857