ARANEA HIGHWIND

30 // MERC FOR HIRE // BADASS DRAGOON

Judy's in the front seat picking up trash
Living on the dough
Gotta make that cash
Won't be pretty
Won't be sweet
She's just in here on her feet

PERSONALITY

Aranea has been described by her English voice actress, Kari Wahlgren, as "edgy" and "street smart", though her loyalty remains ambiguous due to her status as a mercenary. Though she holds the rank of commodore, she prefers people speak to her in a casual manner. She does not agree with immoral practices, such as the empire using daemons in their war efforts.

As a free-spirited woman, she encourages Prince Noctis to not let anyone tell him how to walk his path in life. She displays a mischievous side when she flirts with him in battle. In Episode Prompto she encourages Prompto Argentum to decide his path and make the right choices despite Prompto learning the dark truth of his origins. She claims to not like working after hours when she withdraws from her fight with Noctis. She is implied to be a strong leader, as her subordinates Biggs and Wedge follow her loyally no matter which side of the war she wants to support.

Despite being a mercenary, she is perfectly capable of thinking for herself. She is skeptical of the empire, and voices her distrust of the emperor, new high commander and the chancellor to Noctis and his party, mentioning she "really can't stand that guy" on the latter. She eventually defects to save innocent people and hunt daemons rather than harvest them for the empire as she had been doing before. In Episode Prompto, she alone sets out to defeat the empire's newest magitek monster, and to look for Noctis's friend. Though she is hard on Prompto and threatens to abandon him if he doesn't keep up with her, it is implied she is doing it to snap him out of his indecisive state.

SKILLS

LEADERSHIP: Be it her position as Commodore or her role later in the game as a mercenary trying to help refugees, Aranea likes her freedom. She's able to command others and show fairly decent (and morally just) choices in a position of leadership. Despite her reluctance to work for free or indulge in mushy do-good deeds, she isn't that bad of a person.

COMBAT: Aranea's fighting speciality is focused on aerial moves and offensive attacks with a spear. As someone who was hand-picked as Commodore of the Third Army Corps 87th Airborne Unit, she is someone with extreme combat knowledge. Particularly close-range fighting, Aranea is a fearsome foe in battle. Her most notable move is the Highwind in which she leaps into the air and slams her spear down for a devastating blow. This brings me to...

AGILITY & FIGHTING STYLE: As her last name indicates, Highwind's are a repeating lancer/dragoon-based character in the Final Fantasy series. Aranea is no different. She is very athletic, agile, and capable of using momentum in her favor. As a dragoon, she is capable of propelling herself to extreme heights for aerial battling. This allows her to not only maintain herself mid-air between slices and dices, but able to impact the ground from great heights to catch her foes off guard. There's no clear explanation for it, but there are theories that it is based upon Magitek armor — specifically her boots. Being able to be not only fast and quick, Aranea is shown to have a decent amount of stamina in battles.

RECON: As a former mercenary, Aranea is capable of going on missions that require a flexible skillset. She is shown being able to traverse snowy wilderness landscapes, fight against ferocious monsters, and recon areas before for intel. This is a skillset that is more passive and reflects nicely upon her battle-heavy role.

HIGHWIND FOR HIRE

Aranea is a mercenary for hire. Of course, this doesn't mean she'll turn down more domestic jobs, but her focus is on military-grade work. She has a high price and while she's indeed very vocal about it, she can offer discounts if the deed is truly noble. Look, bleeding heart, okay?

Her specialty includes:
- Espionage
- Monster Hunting
- Intimidation
- Frontline Battles
- Search & Rescue

PLAYED BY JEM

TEMPLATE MADE BY MINNIE OF NEVERLAND & GS