i don't believe in soulmates but i do believe in soul mains. sometimes i just get an impression that I am going to main a character and then immediately am proven right. this isn't even a "i see their kit and think I'll like playing it" thing, this is a weird Pull to them I feel in my heart, divorced from mechanic. I cannot control if I feel this pull, and it does not always lead me where i want it to, but i always follow it. first time I ever saw Manon in SF6 was in the design leaks, and I thought, in order "I hate her design. Something tells me I will main her" and it turns out yeah I was right, and I do.
i wish i could describe it because some people go like. "ruby that's just liking a character and playing them" but no it is genuinely an Impulse. I do not always like the character it has selected, but I will always main them.
Like, look. Here's a list of times I have felt The Pull. Find a fucking throughline here, I dare you
- Robin in Smash (Ignored for years because Robin is bad, but I followed it out of curiosity. First time I learned The Pull was real)
- Phonon in Under Night (I tried and failed to play her, but it turns out it was more due to UNI's input reader. I came back almost 5 years later and realized I was right then too)
- Anji in Strive (eventually reworked until I no longer enjoyed him)
- Seeing Manon's design, which I do not enjoy but I felt it anyway
- Hibiki in Blazblue for some damned reason
- Raven in Xrd
- Grappler from DNF Duel, which is insane to me why the fuck there's so many cool characters in this game and it's GRAPPLER???
- The literal first attack we see in Elphelt's reveal trailer for Strive
I totally understand this as someone completely unable to beat the barrier to entry for fighting games until I saw Jack-O in Guilty Gear Xrd on an episode of Friday Night Fisticuffs. My existence aligned with her and some things about myself now make that make more sense in retrospect.