ZZZ Phoenix: The Undying Bird and the Six-Winged Angel

In this version, I think Phoenix has surprised every Proxy. Her persona — sometimes adorably dopey, sometimes commanding — and her sheer personal strength both leave you unable to get a read on her. But today we're going to look at Phoenix from several angles: her costume, her weapon, and her personal story. Let's take a look!

1. Covered in Medical Motifs

Phoenix's leg strap is designed as a combination of "medical bandage + capsule pill," and she has band-aids stuck on her as well. In her Agent Outfit she wears a medical eyepatch over her left eye, a ring around her neck like a hospital ID band, a portable blood pressure monitor strapped to her arm, a stethoscope hanging on each side of her waist, and the little discs stuck to her legs are ECG monitoring electrodes — she is covered in medical motifs from head to toe.

This design comes from her clumsy streak — she is always getting hurt and needing to be patched up — from her identity as a medical assistant, and from the imagery of "healing" that her resurrection carries.

2. Ankh: A Coincidence of Two Etymologies

Phoenix's name comes from the phoenix, the fire bird of Greek myth that can be reborn after death. This matches her core premise of being "undying," and is also where the idea for her Ultimate — self-destructing and then coming back — comes from.

As a broad cultural symbol, the undying bird turns up in blended cultures all over the world: the Chinese fenghuang's nirvana rebirth, the Persian Simurgh, the Arabic Anqa. And the sound of the Chinese transliteration "Anka" happens to answer to both the Arabic undying bird (Anqa) and the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph meaning "life" (Ankh). The design element that appears most often on Phoenix is exactly the ankh, the symbol of life: the round ornament on her head, the bands tying off her hair, the various pendants on her clothes, and even her weapon, that big pair of scissors — all of them are shaped like the ankh, standing for life.

Her weapon is an interesting piece of design, too. Assembled, it is one pair of oversized scissors, and can also be used as a greatsword; taken apart, it splits into two one-handed swords and she fights in a dual-blade style. And in daily life Phoenix also takes it apart to use as a walking stick — you could say holding up this patient of hers is the scissors' main job.

3. Six Flames: Why Not Wings

Now look at the mechanical nozzles on Phoenix's back — the flames they shoot out stand for the phoenix's wings. But why were they designed as six beams of flame rather than the shape of wings? That comes from another layer of her premise.

Phoenix's full name is Phoenix Reffaella, and the surname "Reffaella" comes from the archangel Raphael in the Bible, the angel who governs "healing." Because healing and rebirth are linked, Raphael is often associated with the phoenix — in Milton's Paradise Lost, for instance, Raphael is described as a phoenix. And the archangel Raphael has six wings, which also matches the look of Phoenix once her wings of light unfurl.

4. The Sacrifice Project: An Immortality Forced Upon Her

In the story, this ability of Phoenix's to rise from the flames comes from the "Sacrifice" project. The purpose of the Sacrifice project was to create enhanced biological weapons that could leave a Hollow, operate in the outside world and still retain their own consciousness — and Phoenix is the only product of the Sacrifice experiments that can be counted a "success."

Thanks to that, Phoenix gained formidable combat power, along with a constitution that can absorb Ether. But the absorption cannot be controlled: Phoenix is passively soaking up Ether at every moment, like a sponge thrown into water. The excess Ether torments her every day, so that she can neither live well nor die cleanly. Only in that brief moment right after each death and rebirth, when she has just been reset, does she seem to be at her best.

When Phoenix uses her Ultimate, the camera cuts to a close-up of her eyes: her pupil is a black hole, and around the black hole a binary star system spins. That binary system stands for recurrence and cycle, pointing to Phoenix being reborn again and again like the undying bird; while the black hole's gravitational grip on the two stars stands for destruction, nothingness, irresistible force — the power of rebirth the stars represent is drawn out of the black hole's inescapable gravitational prison.

This "undying" constitution of Phoenix's was forced on her. That she has become the drama-loving girl she is now, playing dumb to get her way, running on low battery day to day, and always putting herself in harm's way — all of it is how she comes to terms with herself. So long as she lives, Phoenix suffers; but die she cannot. Nirvana, in her case, is not a victory over death but a stand against a nothingness there is no escaping — like the ankh symbols all over her body, which are proof that life exists.

That's everything we have on Phoenix. We're sure that after reading, you understand this "dopey" girl a good deal better! Remember to keep following our articles and the merch in our store. See you next time!