TWA Character Designs: Iris (Patreon)

Hi hello, and welcome to the final concept art post for "The Waters Above." Today we're talking about the last of the main characters in TWA: Iris.

Iris is a complicated character. If you've played TWA:P, then you probably remember… what she's like. Or at least, what she was like. Because you see, Iris has recently undergone some character development. By which I mean we're changing her. A lot. It goes along with the story and title changes that we talked about before. Even though she's less involved with the main narrative than the other three, Iris has gone through the most significant overhaul character-wise. And a lot of those changes were inspired by her concept art. That's right, we're very pleased to announce that Iris is way more chuuni now.

From the very beginning, Iris kind of embodied the big tiddy goth GF stereotype. Her baggy clothes hide her form somewhat, but she has a lot of charm points in the presence of her flowers and glowlight and… fish skeleton tie thing. I'm not really sure what it is, but I love it. The final C(2) direction was the one chosen for her final design, in case you couldn't tell. She's not exactly "cute" in the same way that Apple is, or pretty like Maera, or handsome like Clio… But she's very elegant. And with her design motif being an anglerfish, it's kind of natural that she's a bit intimidating and threatening. But that doesn't have to mean she's evil, right?

Right. When we were considering what direction to take the story with the rework, one of the early decisions I made was to make Iris less of an antagonist and more part of the main cast. In particular, it was looking at some of the early concept art that Namie did, and how silly and whimsical some of it was, that pushed me in that direction. For instance, the pout on the sketches above. That pout is far too good to go to waste on a character who spends all their time being evil. I think the best representation though is the one with Apple in her hair, shown just below.

When I look at these concepts images, I don't see an evil, manipulative self-driven villain. I see someone more introspective and a little bit silly. Someone reliable, but not too serious.

I wasn't kidding when I said we made her a little chuuni now. "Chuuni genius" is the way that we refer to her. She's still an archivist, making sure that history is written down for generations to come. But she's a bit more pleasant about it, overall. She and Clio are very close friends, although she and Maera have some issues in their past together. As for Apple… Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

We've got more news on TWA coming later this month, including the much awaited title change! Please look forward to it.

Let us know! After reading this post, what's something you want to know about Iris?

Until next time,

Josh