Mimi's Diary Returns! Characters: Phantasma

Hello folks! It's been a while since I did anything with my website, but now I'm going to aim to be back! You can thank the guy who reminded me that I have a blog for this >.>

Long story short, back in 2022 I went through a bit of a depression mess and cut out the 'extra' stuff I was doing (which happened to be Mimi's Diary) to try and keep myself sane. I can even recall the specific week the decision was made. I always intended to come back to this, but never quite got around to it. And kept forgetting about it. Because I have a great memory.

In all honesty, I do have a good memory. My dad uses me as a portable extra memory bank. "What did I say about x?" he'll ask. "You said y," I'll reply. Alas, that does not necessarily work well with the procrastination tendencies that have plagued me for as long as I can remember.

I digress! I'm back! Mimi's Diary shall continue! It's been a rollercoaster of a year (I took my first actual hiatus back at the end of May) but if I wait until life's calmed down to do this, it'll never get done. Things just keep happening. Strike while the iron's hot and stick to your deadlines! That's how I've made it this far.

Anyway, Phantasma. She was always going to be the next topic for when I started Mimi's Diary again. I wanted to discuss her character, especially after her arc ended. I mean, she died, but I think she's a very important catalyst for the story and revealing of the sort of world Arx is.

Olivia Hahn, mother to Keyla Orozco. She was never very financially well off, but she loved her kid and did her best for her. I'd say she was a pretty good mom. Lucky for Keyla, since her dad was kind of a bum. Xavier, in fact, was kind of the root of Olivia's financial troubles. He was the breadwinner, so she didn't think she could just leave him, especially after Keyla's cancer diagnosis, but Xavier had issues with spending money on gambling and booze.

I explore Olivia and Keyla a bit more in one of the side stories, which was meant to help humanize Olivia. Unlike the villains we got later, like Paris, Team Chaos and Angela, Olivia felt a lot closer to a morally grey zone. She did bad stuff. I won't deny that. Just because someone's actions are understandable doesn't mean they're okay.

Though, looking back, she never really attacked anyone who wasn't in her way somehow. She hurt Achilles because she blamed him for everything (which is not quite true, but she was grasping at straws), and some civilians happened to get in the way of her revenge on Achilles. She hit Paris because he was bothering her. And, of course, she messed with the heads of the military officers so she could escape. Later on, Phantasma fights Jumper and Lightning because they're trying to stop her from killing Achilles.

It's kind of an interesting comparison looking at her and Team Chaos. TC lives for causing pain. They don't care if someone deserves it or not. Cold Snap and Corrosion just want to cause as much misery as possible regardless of other factors. They target innocent people who can't fight back and throw attacks at the Legion and others when they get in the way.

Olivia's primary target was always Achilles because of her misguided desire for revenge. Well, he was target # 2 really. Xavier got the honour of being target # 1, but he didn't last very long.

Phantasma always needed to die. She would have never had her happy ending in Arx, even if she had succeeded in killing Achilles. He wasn't the root cause of her problems anyway. It was more the system that made her life difficult. Arx doesn't have much of a safety net for people who run into financial issues, and while I don't think people are super in danger of straight-up homelessness, medical care is not necessarily easily accessible.

Some things are subsidized by the government, like IVF treatments for couples who for whatever reason struggle to or straight up can't have children via the standard method. That one specifically has to do with keeping Arx's population steady. Too many people and the little ship can't sustain them all. Too few and they can't sustain the ship. Cancer treatment, on the other hand, requires the individual to be wealthy enough to handle the cost. And Olivia was not. Thanks, Xavier.

Without Keyla, Olivia lost sight of what her life's meaning was and spiraled into a destructive whirlwind that would have never really stopped. Keyla was never coming back, so Olivia would have never really been satisfied with a final outcome. In a way, death was her happy ending. At least this way, we can imagine her getting to hang out with Keyla in the afterlife (depending on what your belief system regarding that is).

Her death is also our first look at all the Odin nonsense. Back then, I knew who Odin as a character was, and how things would work out. I didn't have the name Odin yet - he was just 'The Executioner' - but it's the same character.

And spoilers for Chapter 129ish onward, so if you want to skip the next paragraph, go ahead.

I also knew that Darius would be the one acting as Odin's hands and feet for all of this, which is why Olivia's Miracle just straight up didn't work. Darius is a robot, and with Odin piloting, Olivia couldn't actually make eye contact. I kind of left it as a mystery back then, but 100 chapters later we finally get the answer!

It feels kind of crazy that I can use numbers like that...wow I've been doing this for a while!

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say on Olivia/Phantasma really. She was an incredibly important character for the early stages of Arx, setting up the stage for future conflicts and showing what life in Arx can be like for the unfortunate. I think the echoes of her influence still reach to the current point Arx is at, and she won't ever truly stop being relevant. She's also my first major villain and the person who dragged Joey out of his normal life to be a superhero, so I have a special place for her in my heart.

I'm kind of surprised how much I have to say about her actually. But now that I've gotten it all written down it feels good!

I'll be doing more posts like this. I'm aiming for twice a month, so if there's a topic you want to see me discuss, feel free to leave a comment here, or on Discord! The invite link is accessible from the home page of the website if you're interested in joining.

I'll see you all for the next entry in Mimi's Diary!