so before i even knew what arknights was (and even after) i remember seeing this really cool art of a blue haired, horned, angel girl with a black halo (and blue tongue in the pic) and thought that was the raddest character and whoever's oc that was had a sick oc. I think it took me showing my wife Abby that picture for them to mention to me that's an arknights character. I tried getting into it but couldn't but come a year or two later when the Guiding Ahead event was coming along, I tried again and used guides to help me this time.
Before I actually knew how the characters were like, my thoughts on Mostima was that she seemed like a sorta dark, brooding character, not necessarily edgy but just kinda stand-offish. So needless to say when I began actually reading the story for Guiding Ahead, I was a little surprised when it turns out she's actually kind of a little shitter. Like actively a gremlin. I went from being like "oh they remind me of my wife" to "wait she's actually like me what" with how she pesters her girlfriend Fiammetta, taking every opportunity to pull out an old joke she's said 500 times that annoys Fia to annoy her again on purpose. Yeah! That's me!
Then I got to really get into the meat of what's going on between these characters, specifically 4 of them: Mostima, Fiammetta, Lemuen, and Andoian. A group that used to be a team together and quite close friends where on one mission, when Fia had to separate to handle something, an event that would change everyone's lives happened. Andoian (who has A Lot going on) attacked and took Lemuen hostage, Mostima had to shoot Andoian, the event that caused her to fall (these 3 are all Sankta, just imagine Gun Catholic Angels but there's a law that says they can't shoot each other*) (*there are stipulations to this law). Fia, who is a bird person (beople don't have wings tho in Arknights), has basically had this band of friends she's known torn apart. Andoian runs off, Lemuen is in a coma, and Mostima is now an outcast (but also works for the pope) who also has top government secrets on hand, so she needs someone to keep an eye on her. Fia agrees to be that person which, despite what she says, is definitely fueled by a mix of guilt (thinking if she were there she'd have been able to save her friends) and revenge (wanting to meet Andoian while following Mostima to kill him).
Years pass, Lemuen wakes up, is going through therapy to help her walk again and both Lem and Mosti seems to have.. mostly gotten over those events? It helps that Sankta share an empathy network so in that moment of the event they understood how Andoian felt and Fia does not share this. But despite those 2 absolutely being the two that came out of that situation the worst, they have NOWHERE near as much of a grudge on Andoian as Fia does (not to say they forgive him, but Fia's made killing Andoian her lifegoal). And I think I find that situation fascinating: the victims having made peace with what happened all those years ago and trying to move on with their life and that one person who wants to get retribution for her partners (fia, lem, and mosti are 100% a triad).
Lemme tell you I'm an absolute SUCKER for this kind of tragedy, the "friend group torn asunder" kind. It kills me, it's one of the things that would make me immediately cry. So having the character (Mostima) that I latched to before I knew about the game have all of this going on just solidified her as a constant fixation. She's tragic but also has a pretty good head on her shoulders. She acts like a goofball a lot of the time but she's incredibly intelligent and she is a bit standoff-ish, which does manifest in her being a goofball. She's prone to deflecting any personal questions but she loves talking about how much she's travelled. Being an outcast to her ended up being a blessing in disguise in her eyes, to an extent, cause she's been able to learn so much about the world outside of Laterano's gates.
idk how to end this ramble, I just think arknights has neat characters with tragedies that are fascinating to me