Understanding Krystal.

[geoprimedonna]

September 23rd, 2016. On this day, Starfox Adventures (and Krystal, technically) is now 14 years old. We've seen a lot of chit-chat about her, especially in the last 2 years with her implied removal in Zero. Funny enough, while fans shout out "She has nothing to do with Nintendo! She is the character of a company sold to Microsoft ages ago...", she was "born" on Nintendo's 125th birthday (look it up). And then there are other excuses out there, which I believed you heard of already, assuming that everybody here at least partially understands the Starfox fandom.

So, let's try to get to a couple of facts. Many people dislike her because she is a princess. Guess what? Kumatora from MOTHER 3 is too, and she doesn't act like a Princess Peach in distress. In fact, if there were to be one female character that I think is the bravest in the whole Starfox series, that would be her. She smashes dinosaurs. She drives spaceships. She beats the heck out of monkeys, spirits, and mecha. And all with little or no help. Sure, she got trapped in a crystal, but Kumatora had some similar issues of her own (some even weirder the Krystal's), and she doesn't get picked on as much.

And then there is Fox, leader of Lylat's most well-known mercenary squadron. Why would he choose her as his wife? Truth be told, she and Fox share many similarities: they both had to be independent early in life, both of their parents died when they most needed it, they had to go face-to-face with their fears, they share a common enemy (Andross), and somehow had to look up to other people (Fox to Peppy; Krystal, somewhat implied, to Randorn). Fox also saw someone that could aid him, and that needed aid herself. Just to add, Fox was probably the one who needed more "saving" than her. He never knew how it was to have someone he could actually depend on after him and his family had been betrayed so many times. And for someone who was always part of dogfights and violence and didn't have present parents when they were alive and lost them in the early teen years, it was possibly "weird" to express love and to be loved. In the end, it makes a lot of sense why one chose the other. As for that ending in Command when Krystal runs off, she probably had done that not because she hated Fox or whatnot, but she wanted to show the whole team how important she is as a team member, so they could perhaps stop underestimating her, which if applied even to the fandom, makes sense, so why not in-game?

In the end, I really hope that both the fandom and the "cannon companies" could see how rich a character she is, and possibly make a subseries just for her, or at least put her back to the game, and this time expand on her story. It's all I could hope for on a 14th-year anniversary without the birthday girl.

[CrypticQuery]

26 minutes ago, geoprimedonna said:

(and Krystal, technically) is now 14 years old.

[fanfictiondreamer]

Hm...it seems as though I have emphasized on Krystal a lot more in my story than the Starfox series, even though she is not the leading lady of my story. Regardless, she plays some very important roles in my story as a mediator and an extra leg for the team to stand on when things in my story got really tough, especially during events of Ultimate Story 2. She could have walked out on them whenever she wanted but she chose not to because...well...let's just say she has a different relationship with Fox that was used during the original idea of Dinosaur Planet, or something similar to it. Anyway, I seem to understand her character a lot better than what was emphasized in the series and I didn't even find out that she was telepathic until Starfox Assault. Regardless of what I went through back when I first completed the game, I kept Krystal around and continue to keep her around and I found a way for her to have a wonderful relationship with my leading lady. In fact, the 2 girls have become as close as sisters.

[Dr. Orange]

Alright I read through this a good couple of times throughout the latter portion of yesterday. I'm too tired to be my usual "Kek Machine self" so let me help you out but point out some issues here. 

On 9/23/2016 at 6:07 PM, geoprimedonna said:

So, let's try to get to a couple of facts. Many people dislike her because she is a princess.

Naw she ain't. We got no clue what he hell she is. For all we know she's a actuary.

On 9/23/2016 at 6:07 PM, geoprimedonna said:

And then there is Fox, leader of Lylat's most well-known mercenary squadron. Why would he choose her as his wife?

They ain't married. Unless you count command and that is a living issue in itself.

On 9/23/2016 at 6:07 PM, geoprimedonna said:

Fox also saw someone that could aid him, and that needed aid herself. Just to add, Fox was probably the one who needed more "saving" than her. He never knew how it was to have someone he could actually depend on after him and his family had been betrayed so many times.

Except like his brother in arms Falco. And Slippy. And Peppy, who became the father after his father.

Just to name a few.

On 9/23/2016 at 6:07 PM, geoprimedonna said:

In the end, it makes a lot of sense why one chose the other. As for that ending in Command when Krystal runs off, she probably had done that not because she hated Fox or whatnot, but she wanted to show the whole team how important she is as a team member, so they could perhaps stop underestimating her, which if applied even to the fandom, makes sense, so why not in-game?

Ok I'm gonna give a 50/50 here. Yeah she felt underestimated but hell, she abandoned her team for someone else. If she gave a damn about her own team she'd had just come clean. Anglar Ending quote "She has no regrets" of leaving Star Fox. That isn't to say Fox forced her out like a moron. But this is just one ending and Command is so shifty its built by an underfunded Nigerian building crew.

-------------------

But let me try and give you a hand because I think I see what your getting at. Bear with me, it's 1am.

Krystal was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A product of Dinosaur Planet, she was speed balled into something underwritten, under involved and was the equivalent to a bad fanservice hail maker. Hell it was better with Assault but still that cringe end.

Yet there's potential with her. Unlike Miyu and Fay or really even Fara, she is out there. There's an unused skeleton of great possibilities that is waiting to be tapped by the right story team and development team. Now I believe in fixing something when it's broke; I buy the part and replace it. And there is an opportunity to bring a female supporting character in (shoutout to my sistahs), and strengthen said support to make a better Starfox for the future generations. 

[fanfictiondreamer]

Seems as though we understand characters better than Nintendo. I am not one to brag about being one who knows characters better than the people who create them but I have been told that I have a unique talent of understanding people, even better than I realize, especially fictional characters. You can read my stories and judge that for yourselves.

[geoprimedonna]

5 hours ago, fanfictiondreamer said:

Seems as though we understand characters better than Nintendo. I am not one to brag about being one who knows characters better than the people who create them but I have been told that I have a unique talent of understanding people, even better than I realize, especially fictional characters. You can read my stories and judge that for yourselves.

^Reason that Freddy>Official. C'mon Reggie, give us Krystal...

[fanfictiondreamer]

I can understand why you feel that way.

[LoneWolf]

I really agree with Orange on this one. Krystal had potential; in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the original Dinosaur Planet Krystal was really a fleshed out and interesting character. That being said, when Nintendo decided to stick their dick in Dinosaur Planet and turn it into Starfox Adventures, I feel like they removed a lot of anything that made Krystal interesting in order to feature Fox's character and give him some sort of motivation to do shit. Fox is the star of the show, and Krystal is written basically entirely as an accessory to him (wow like most female characters in the media, sexist stereotypes anyone?). Most of your interactions with Krystal in the StarFox series (barring Command, I'll get to that later) are either saving her ass or listening to some kind of sass. I never felt that her personality within Adventures or Assault was really what attracted people to her (hint hint it was her fucking tits).

Okay, so what about Command. Command was my first entry into the SF series and I loved every minute of it, hell, I still kinda enjoy it now, if only for the gameplay. I definitely recognize that the story of the game is a complete mess, and I feel like the way most of the characters were written stepped far outside of what they had been previously established to be. However, if we assess Krystal's existence within Command on it's own

well it's actually not really that different of a story but this time with extra ANGST

I the way Krystal was written in Command felt like an edgy fanfiction rendition of her and wouldn't you know it spawned a lot of edgy fucking fanfiction. I think people really gravitate towards edgy Krystal because she actually has any sort of dimension other than the diameter of her waist (thus the existence of Kursed in the fanon). Command Krystal was certainly a little more interesting than she was in previous installations, however she really wasn't that dynamic in any sort of interesting way on any of the plot-lines and, at least to me, didn't really indicate that she had any sort of conviction. The most interesting thing she did was either choose to forgive Fox or continue slobbing on Panther's knob.

So, to directly assess some of your points since I've kind of established the way I feel about her as a whole:

1) She never really claims to be a princess, but yeah, she totally plays into the sexist damsel-in-distress stereotype and it's really not that engaging 

2) She's definitely not brave; she runs back to some male figure with her tail between her legs at the first sign of trouble and isn't really seen separate from a male counterpart for most of the series.

3) She's not Fox's wife, though it's kinda implied when they have Marcus but fuck that ending that was dumb af

4) Krystal doesn't seem to have helped Fox at all, in fact, if anything, Peppy's done a lot in helping him cope with the loss of his father

TL;DR: Krystal is a hot mess and Tricky is the top waifu of the StarFox series

[Patch93]

Quote

I wouldn't be surprised if the original Dinosaur Planet Krystal was really a fleshed out and interesting character.

Looking at her character bios from Dinosaur Planet's dev documents that were leaked a while back, I'd say she definitely was going to be:

http://rareminion.com/dp.html

Krystal had potential to be a unique addition to Star Fox's cast of characters, but the way they tied her down to Fox in Assault and made her into a total PMS emo bitch in Command was disappointing. I'd still insist that Drasiana and Alain's ideas of her character would be a fantastic direction to take her in if Nintendo made a sequel to SFZ.

 

[geoprimedonna]

OneUnder, you know what to do before a blue kitsune attacks this website this topic goes overboard. It is starting to go off-topic, so...

[CrypticQuery]

I'm struggling to see how this is going off topic given that the majority of posts in this thread, including the two most recent ones, are conveying information that assists in understanding and analyzing Krystal's canon portrayal as a character, the flaws of those portrayals, and possible ways in which they may theoretically be improved upon. 

[Dr. Orange]

9 hours ago, geoprimedonna said:

OneUnder, you know what to do before a blue kitsune attacks this website this topic goes overboard. It is starting to go off-topic, so...

>implying any of this is dredging