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.
The first time I saw Nagoriyuki in a STILL from a trailer for Strive I was like "oh I like the cut of his jib"
Anyway he's my soul main across all fighting games ever forever, even if Strive isn't my favorite fighting game otherwise.
Edit: Charlie Nash in SFV was the other big one for me. Kinda didn't like the game, tried Nash once, game immediately clicked, never went back. SF6 didn't have Nash, hated SF6.
