As I've written before in this thread, and apologies to the judges of the SoV for all my posts on these last couple of pages, ideally a custom will achieve the following trifecta: mechanics firmly connected to theme; theme firmly connected to the mini; mini firmly connected to mechanics. It is the iron triangle. There *should* - I'm not saying it always happens, or that the C3V or anybody always achieves this goal - be something obvious about each point of that triangle in how it relates to the other two.
In this case, I believe one side of the triangle is not there. You mention C3V's Elaria, who is a blade thrower. Here she is:
That is a fighter who is ready to throw some blades. It is suggested by the mini and delivered by the mechanics. I am aware that I've already posted too much here, but I wanted this issue to be aired now, and I didn't originally intend to be participating so much in the "airing" of it. Apologies again.