Shadow Book!Zero

I'm a huge SMT fan. So I made a shadow for the male lead of my books.

A whole bunch of symbolism went into him that no one can possibly pick up on because I haven't even written these books yet.

Book!Zero is one of the oldest (The oldest in the second book) of a warrior race known as the Einherjar. As such he is ridiculous strong and tends to hold himself back at all times. Hence the binds and the jacket.

Late in book 2 the tethers start to take on a new meaning, they're the bonds to his few remaining companions that are keeping him bound to the world itself. Preventing him from just ending it all himself or jumping into a hopeless battle.

He lost his right eye at one point and replaced it with a magic one that sees truth. A couple thousand years of use have made him accustomed to only trusting that eye, so it is the only eye his shadow actually has. The lines are just his scars extended to his eye/across his face.

The mask is a reversal of Zero's neutral face, which he always wears regardless of the situation. The frown has become Zero's mask so his shadow wears the opposite.

The arms are detached, mirroring how Zero feels when interacting with his companions. He has to be careful whenever dealing with weaker beings for fear of hurting them. At full power, skin to skin contact with someone weaker than himself causes severe burns.

The arms also represent how Zero feels towards the world near the end of his life. He's lost everything and is keeping everyone far away so he no longer gets attached to people, to prevent their inevitable deaths from hurting him.

The lack of thumbs on his hands represent his perceived inability to hold onto people or things, having lost everyone he cares about repeatedly, either through wars or straight up outliving them.

Lastly the darkness slowly consuming him is tied to his feeling that he's becoming more and more like his enemy, The Origin, in that he's starting to act only for himself, above any law imposed upon him by his society only because he is so much more powerful than them.

Zero's Arcana would be the Hermit for those wondering.

Shadow Zero's Lines:
“You’ve bound yourself to the point of absurdity, always worried that if you lose control you could hurt something, or someone.

You don’t trust the world around you enough to even let it glimpse you at your mightiest.

You hide yourself so thoroughly that you cannot even be sensed by others.

And you wonder why you’re alone.”

“You handle reality itself with kid gloves, cooing like a vapid moron over how young and fragile it all is.

Stop debasing yourself with this nonsense.

Do you think it will keep you from becoming more like Him.”

"Just because there's nothing left doesn't mean you have to die! You may think you aren't connected to the world but you still have people who consider you an ally, a brother, a father!

Will you really fail them because the pain of existing is just too much! Do you think they'll be able to forgive you for that!

Fight! Fight at full strength! Protect the world all the people you failed to save died for!"