This one official piece of art discussion

[Trin-nya]

So, everyone's seen this official art -->

Right, but every time I come across I can't help but think of how strategic CLAMP must've been with the little chibis of themselves the girls are holding when this piece was made. I'm going to venture to guess that the chibis represent what the girls might do if they lived in Cephiro or Neo Cephiro full time.

For Umi her's are a fool/joker, a dancer, a joster (probably a paladin), a princess(?), and a bride. We'll start with the joker. The Joker is often compared to "(the) Fool" in the Trumps of the Tarot deck. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function in card games; the Fool is often the highest trump, or else an "excuse" that can be played at any time but cannot win. I think that this choice is befitting Umi, specifically because as someone(possibly Del or Suz)  pointed out before that, Umi is usually the middle fighter in the girls line up. Hikaru goes forward, Umi on her back, with Fuu brining up the rear as a long distance last resort. The dancer, is a class that I think is foreign to Cephiro(minus Caldina), seeing as it's seen on primarily the women from Chizeta. This also makes sense, because Umi has no problem being a bit rash and up front to get what she wants. Also, I could totally see her going and staying with Tarta and Tatra for an extended period of time, thus picking up their customs a lot more.
The bride chibi, was put in there most likely because although Umi seems to not focus on others romances(like gagging at her parents), she would still want to settle down at some point, because she believes she and everyone else deserves it. I could also argue that the bride is there to ship tease her two love interests, but I'm not up for that...The interesting is that she's also holding a lesser version, the princess. The princess could still have love, but also power for Umi as well. So, that just leaves the paladin. The paladin, is the most interesting chibi in Umi's arms in my opinion.  Traditionally, paladin classes are the classic view of the  knight in shining armor. Although usually, a Paladin's main function is defense, which doesn't fit Umi. I'd like to her other's thoughts on this class decision too.

Hikaru's holding a minstrel, a Knight, a Palu, a detective(?), and a farmer/gardener. The minstrel, isn't something I could see Hikaru doing, but for the sake of discussion I'll say things anyway. A minstrel is usually medieval entertainer who traveled from place to place, especially to sing and recite poetry. Considering how Hikaru seems to love everyone and anything in Cephiro and just in general, I can see her deciding to travel to see more of Cephiro as the land starts coming back to life. She'd sing t omake others happy probably, because she's a sweetheart, and still kind of the Pillar. The Knight makes the most sense for Hikaru because she was the only one at the beginning of Rayearth that accepted the quest to save Emeraude without question and vigor to help Clef, Emeraude, and Cephiro's people in general. Plus, since attaining the title  of Magic Knight, she's been the one to burst into a fight head on, as fire is her element of choice, so she always has the energy. She could even potentially join Lantis as a member of the Castle Guard. Her next class is a Palu, which makes sense since her love for animals and creatures is unwavering. Hikaru's first love, is her pet dog Hikari, who she's deeply loyal to. Also, she's the one who could understand Fyula, the Griffin summon, and Mokona the best of the three girls, even going as far as to thank them for their assistance in the journey right from the start. Her being a Palu class would honestly be terrifying, because, like Ascot, she'd form such intense bonds with her summonings that they'd do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING for her and her strength of heart. The little detective chibi with cat ears is confusing, but I think it just represents Hikaru's more curious nature, showing how she'd overcome hurdles to learn about as much of Cephiro's systems and history as possible because she loves it just so so much. Going off of that, the gardener chibi makes sense seemings as she wants to do everything in her power to keep the beautiful lands sustained. So, she'd obviously try and plant some of Japan's native flowers and flora, so that both herself, Umi, Fuu, and the Cephirian natives could enjoy the beauty and freshness all the time(especially if they chose to live there permanently).

Fuu's holding a cleric-like class, a healer, an artist, a queen(her crown isn't the one she wears when channeling Windam normally), and the classic archer. The cleric-like class, the one with the bird, seems to show her strong enforcement for following the rules. She's a rather hard worker, and she wouldn't be afraid to get down and dirty in all aspects of Cephiro's society either. Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune with deities via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in it(which wouldn't happen often because Windam's bond is very strong with Fuu). The next aspect, is the healer. Healers are gifted and powerful spell casters who draw power from nature, faith and the spirits. Regardless of the source of their magic, they do not deal with the tainted energies of the arcane. Instead, healers find their power in the world around them or in the spirits or Eternals they venerate.
Since the minute Fuu could call her magic in the story, it was the healing winds. Even as she grew, Fuu would always be selfless enough to cast her own pain aside, in order to heal another team member, because she cherishes her friends and her ability to keep everyone grounded.  The artist and the archer positions I think would be more recreational things for Fuu, because she would still enjoy the solitude of painting or perhaps playing the equivalent of a Cephiran piano or violin. The last one Fuu'ss holding is the one where she's wearing the crown. Now, from the looks of the chibi,  she also has shoulder guards over what seems to be an indigo colored ballgown. To me, this represents her would-be position as Ferio's elegant queen and the statement saying that she also still maintains her title as a Knight, because of the upper body armor.

I'd love to hear what everyone else things of these thoughts and the picture itself.

[Mokonalord]

Okay, I'll probably have more thoughts about this later, but in Umi's line-up, I don't think that's a Princess. It looks more like Presea's Artisan outfit.

[Trin-nya]

Yeah, looking back the Artisan outfit makes a lot more sense...

[shinomu]

Whoa this is fantastic!!

There were things I didn't recognise at first! Althout I always thought Fuu's last get up reminiscent of Zagato.

I love it, I'll coment better tomorrow when I re read it!

[Mokonalord]

There were things I didn't recognise at first! Althout I always thought Fuu's last get up reminiscent of Zagato.

Same. Actually, I think that's supposed to be a Mage of some sort. Like, we've only really seen headwear like that on Zagato or Clef.

[Mokonalord]

Now for something a little more constructive:
What I see when I look at this picture is Rayearth with a Job Class System. I mean, the series is intricately woven with so many RPG elements, so why not add another one?
Of course, the choice of jobs they gave everyone does have something to say about each character, and it's definitely good for discussion...

But mostly I'm just wondering if any of the Rayearth video games added some sort of job class system like that, and if so, where can I play it?

[Trin-nya]

I hadn't thought of Cephiro ever actually having a job like system, because I see most regular Cephirians as farmers or some equivalent, but job classes certainly would add something interesting into the pot, so to speak.

As for the Sega Saturn game, there's probably another whole forum for that thing, but you could easily look for a downloadable rom.

[Mokonalord]

This gets even more interesting if you look at the knights' character profiles. Like the minstrel Hikaru? Music is actually her least favorite subject. And Fuu's least favorite subject? Art. Even though one of hers is a painter. Umi's the odd one out in that regard, because 'bride' is her career goal (something that honestly confuses me, but whatever).

And that one of Fuu's you described as a cleric-type class... Yeah, I could kinda see it, it's just that 'cleric' and 'healer' are pretty much the same thing (at least when talking RPGs), so it makes me wonder. Unfortunately, I don't have any better guesses. My only other two thoughts would be 'animal trainer' (but I don't think that'd be a thing in Cephiro) or 'singer' (like maybe that's a songbird? idk).