I’m currently working on a portrait of Azel, drawn in the simple bust type representation. While I was working, however, I started thinking about her actual structure. Shadow and I chatted briefly about it yesterday, and he suggested that I introduce the topic for discussion/theorising/speculation.
We know that Azel is a drone, but she states that she is biological, “like the creatures they had been fighting.” While I can’t claim to be any sort of expert on cybernetics or synthetic tissues, I’m just curious to know what you all think? I told Shadow that I believe Azel is flesh beneath her suit of armor, just like a human. This would seem an obvious conclusion based on the images of her released by Sega because her right leg is bare below the knee, giving way to a foot complete with toes. My guess is that she has skin, but wears that sort of tight black suit with the white armor plates layered on top.
This all seems simple enough, but I wonder even further what it is exactly that’s beneath her skin. Do you believe that Azel has all of the biological parts of a living creature, only synthetically created? Or is she more like a cyborg with mechanical pieces that control her body with a layer of biological tissue on the exterior to make her appear to be human-like? Of course, we have seen sketches and concept work of other drone type characters that didn’t have as human an appearance as Azel. Abadd would be a good example of this. We know that she was an important drone, so perhaps drones with more imperative tasks were given the “honour” of appearing more human like? Purely speculation on my part.
Was Azel assembled like a robot, as seen in Ghost in the Shell? Was she herself grown in a large tube like the image we’ve seen from Orta labeled “sexual act?” Clearly she is depicted as female, though her build does lean toward a more androgynous manifestation. Do you think there was a deliberate purpose for her being created as female?
Lastly, if you do believe that she is flesh and blood, albeit synthetic, what keeps her tissue from decaying over her thousand year slumber? Do you think her suit has any sort of restoring/protective qualities?