Ramblings About the Ring of Heroes Portal Masters Part 7: Nine

For the final section of this analysis, I will be talking about Nine, the unreleased portal master found in the game’s files. To give some background—datamines of Skylanders Ring of Heroes’ files show that there lays in the files an unfinished model for a seventh portal master. Named just “Nine,” they had no textures whatsoever and only three of the standard four animations, with no other hints about them or what they would’ve been like discovered in so far. As we have yet to see any concept art or other information about them surface, the majority of information about this young wizard at the time of writing remains a mystery. What we do know about Nine, however, is the basics of their character design, which will be analyzed here!

It’s blatantly obvious that their character motif is supposed to be wizards, but it should be noted that they also seem to have a space submotif of some kind, judging by the stars on their outfit and the top of their staff, which seems to resemble a planet surrounded by stars with a moon of some kind rotating around it. It’s generally believed that their element would have been Magic, which makes sense at first glance—after all, you can’t get more magical than wizards, and stars, which are a prominent motif in their design, are also the symbol of the Magic Element. However, it’s very likely they could have been of the Light or Dark Element as well, as both elements have strong ties to space. They both have celestial bodies as their element symbols, both elements have aliens in their Skylander roster, one of the Light Element Imaginator color palettes is called "Supernova" and one of the Dark Element Imaginator attacks involves creating a black hole… Heck, for all we knew, Com2us could’ve thrown a curveball again and made them the Undead portal master, but that seems least likely in my opinion.

Going by the “boys have short hair/girls have long hair” design rule, their short hair would indicate that they were supposed to be a boy. But notably, their design is very androgynous in nature, though that could also be chalked up to a lack of textures obscuring their full design. The long and loose clothing obscures most of their body to avoid anything that would immediately make people say “This is a boy” or “This is a girl,” and they’re shown wearing a long dress or robe as opposed to say, the short tunics and shirts favored by the other boys in the portal master roster. And Nine, by itself, would also be a very androgynous name—the number nine has no gender, obviously, it’s a number! But in the instances where Nine is a given name, it’s typically a feminine one rather than a masculine one, whether it’s being used as a variation of Katherine or a nickname for names like Ninette. And it should be noted that had development delays not pushed Adriana’s release back to June (aka Pride Month), it would’ve likely been Nine who would’ve been added in the update for that month. So was Nine meant to be canonically nonbinary, or perhaps otherwise lgbt+ in some form? Well, we can’t say for certain they were as they were never released and their backstory has yet to surface, if it was even written at all, and they probably weren’t… But I can dream.

Now, to compare them with the other portal masters, and take some guesses at how they would’ve fit into the group!

Again, without textures it’s hard to properly examine just how they would’ve fit into the lineup, but we can glean some information based on their 3D model. Though this could be chalked up to the fact that their model is technically unfinished, they break one of the portal master design rules—namely, they lack a portal amulet. It’s possible that it would’ve been added in the finished model, and there are conspicuous spaces on their capelet and belt where an amulet could be placed… But, their summon animation seems to say otherwise, as instead of using a portal, they just slam their staff into the ground.

Perhaps maybe, it would’ve been their staff that would act as a conduit or substitute for the portal, or maybe the portal would’ve been kept within it? Who knows.

Aside of that, their design lines up with the design conventions for the main four portal masters and Adriana, meaning they would’ve likely been around their age—in other words, about high school aged (fifteen to seventeen years old). Their design follows the simpler, little-frills little-fuss design conventions set by Oscar and furthered by Adriana, with little detail to be seen from the model itself, while leaning more into the fantasy-esque aesthetics of the main four with their wizard motif. Much like Adriana, they act as a bridge between the pre-revamp and post-revamp portal masters, which is perhaps something that would’ve been a recurring theme with the last three portal masters as well had their designs been revealed. And while it’s been mentioned that they share their fair share of design similarities with Ryeo in her part of the analysis, it should also be noted that the triangle and arrow motifs that crop up in their design are a motif shared with Adriana! With the former being a pre-revamp portal master and the latter a post-revamp one and their direct predecessor in release, the fact that they share design similarities and motifs with both really nails in the idea of Nine as a unifying presence in the ground.

And with that, my essay on these young portal masters and their designs comes to a close. It’s been a wild ride taking apart and analyzing each of these kids and what makes their designs tick, but it’s been a fun one! Now, if by some miracle we ever get more information about Nine, or if say, designs for the last three portal masters surface in the future, I may make a follow-up of some kind to this essay—but for now, this concludes the analysis.

Previous Installments in this series:

(Portal Master Designs as a whole) (Eugenie & George) (Bruno) (Ryeo) (Oscar) (Adriana)