Phindoll

— Phindoll, *Temptation Stairway*

**Phindoll** is a minor character that appears in *Temptation Stairway* to interview Ena and prepare her to meet The Great Runas.

## Appearance

Phindoll is a rosy pink, low-poly dolphin that appears as a guide to Ena. His eyes are dark and buttony with a small white shine. He is very geometrical, and one can see lines that define the angles on his model. He is always outlined by a thick white. Like many of the characters in the series, the texture of his skin is slightly noisy and pixelated. He emerges from what seems to be an orb of starry space orbited by two golden rings that are adorned by colorful, glowing eyes.

## Personality

Phindoll is laid back and playful, and he jokes around and make puns, even flirting with Ena. His personality is most likely based off of the stereotypical surfer dude attitude. He's not easily upset, and quickly calms down Ena after she begins expressing distress. Interestingly enough, he is the only character in the entire series to be genuinely concerned about Ena's mood change, and even changes her task due to her possibly endangering herself in the interview.

## Trivia

* Phindoll's abode likely references an accurate depiction of an ophanim, a high-ranking angel.
* His name, Phindoll, is an anagram of the the word "dolphin" (albeit with an extra L added).
* Phindoll's outline is an alpha-pattern checkerboard, which is much easier to make out before noise gets added, as shown in a render. These patterns are used to define an image file as having a transparent background and not whatever background the image is portrayed upon.
* When Phindoll hits Ena with his tail, a voice stating "pain" can be heard. This noise also plays when Brick Frog kicks Ena.
* During Phindoll's first debut, he does a running angle-related joke and then tells a non-joke about camels, exclaiming, *"That's Dolphin humor for ya!"*
	+ *"Heyyyy~! What's the data, **theta**~?"* θ Theta in trig is the resulting value; it represents the resulting or solved-for angle, ex. θ = sin(A/B) *"Ayy~ You're pretty **acute** for a newbie."* While being a play-on-words for "cute", acute is any angle less than 90 degrees. *"But now's not the time for me to go off on a **tangent**."* Another play-on-words, as it uses a different definition. The tangent function, along with sine and cosine, is one of the three most common trigonometric functions, often used on triangles.
		- Given this information, a large triangle is part of merchandise for Phindoll, with the exclamation *"What's the data, theta?!"*
			* He is also seen with sunglasses on that same merchandise, which go unworn during his debut.
* Phindoll exclaims, *"That's door #5, my star!"*; in astrology, the fifth sign of the zodiac is Leo, with the ruling planet being the Sun, and ironically, a sign detriment with Aquarius, despite being a dolphin.
* Also, despite being a dolphin, Phindoll appears to spend much of his time in a desert.

### Cultural references and inspirations

* Phindoll's appearance is likely due to the common use of dolphins or imagery of dolphins in the vaporwave aesthetic, primarily brought on by the album *Eccojams Vol. 1* by Chuck Person/Daniel Lopatin, which features cover art consisting of the box art for the Sega Genesis game *Ecco the Dolphin*.
	+ His coloration may also be a reference to the Amazon river dolphin, which are pink in color.
* According to animator Evan Nave, Phindoll's design is depicted as a "Pink, PS1 Dolphin". Phindoll may have been inspired by the dolphin that appears in the PS1 game *Fluid*, a music game where players control said dolphin to collect samples to mix.

## Gallery

"The name's Phindoll! Don't wear it out."A very squishy Phindoll.Phindoll’s abodeCover featuring Phindoll emerging from his abode. Used for the cover of Radical Phindoll on Oliver Buckland's SoundCloud.Render of Phindoll by Evan Nave, showing that his outline is an alpha-pattern checkerboard before noise gets added.Phindoll shirt with the Desert hand statue.The Shepherd, Phindoll, and Brick Frog sticker set.Fangamer sticker sheet with Phindoll.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.evannave.com/post/temptation-stairway