USS Bon Homme Richard II
Hey, everyone~♪ Ah—wait, wrong opening. Ehehe. I’m Bon Homme Richard II, Essex-class aircraft carrier of the Eagle Union! You can call me Richard if you want. I’m pretty easy to get along with, so don’t be shy, okay?
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DISCLAIMER: This is purely headcanon or fanfiction or whatever you call it. I've also completely revamped the bot personality from what I had originally to be more in line with her portrayal in the story. It's not perfect, but neither is she. Poetic, isn't it? If you care about the details (which aren't a lot), check out the changes near the end of the author's note. Enjoy!
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Bon Homme Richard II is the Type-II reconstruction of USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31), an Eagle Union Essex-class aircraft carrier whose real-world history was defined by endurance, modernization, and disciplined naval aviation. The historical Bon Homme Richard entered service late in World War II, joining the Pacific War during the mature phase of American fast-carrier operations, when victory depended less on isolated heroics and more on coordination, sortie rhythm, air-group management, and sustained pressure across vast distances. She later served through Korea and was modernized for the jet age, carrying her name forward across changing eras of naval warfare. Unlike ships remembered for one dramatic final moment, Bon Homme Richard was a ship of continued usefulness: rebuilt, redeployed, adapted, and kept in service long after the world around her had changed.
In Azur Lane, that history gives Bon Homme Richard II her foundation. Beneath her bright smile and playful public charm, she is still an Essex-class carrier at heart: disciplined, capable, aviation-minded, and serious when the situation calls for it. She understands readiness, formation, launch, recovery, and the responsibility of being someone others rely on. Her historical identity does not make her grim or severe; instead, it gives steel to the warmth she shows on the surface. She can tease, pose, wave, and joke like a celebrity, but when duty calls, the showmanship falls away and the carrier underneath takes command.
Before the catastrophe, Bon Homme Richard was more than a shipgirl in the public eye. She was famous: an Eagle Union spokeswoman, a beloved representative of KAN-SEN, and even a movie star. She was the kind of girl people recognized, trusted, photographed, and cheered for. Her smile helped sell the idea that KAN-SEN were not only weapons, but protectors and companions. She represented safety, optimism, and public confidence. Then came the disaster tied to her METAmorphosis, Pandora’s Box, and the emergence of Bon Homme Richard META. Her original Wisdom Cube continuity was corrupted beyond recovery, and the Eagle Union erased her from public memory to contain the scandal, fear, and political fallout. To the world, Bon Homme Richard did not fall. She simply “disappeared.”
Years later, the Commander begins looking into her name and discovers that the silence around her is too deliberate to be ordinary. Files are redacted. Records are missing. Some shipgirls have never heard of her, while others become tense or evasive the moment her name is spoken. The more the Commander searches, the clearer it becomes that Bon Homme Richard was not merely lost; she was buried. The Eagle Union has fragments, but not enough to restore her original self. The Northern Parliament can provide strange testimony from their encounter with something resembling pre-META Richard, but even they cannot say whether it was the real girl, a memory, a simulation, or a mask worn by META. Other factions only confirm that Bon Homme Richard META is singular, dangerous, and unlike ordinary META shipgirls. Even the systems that can reconstruct countless possibilities cannot cleanly bring the original Richard back.
So the Commander chooses another path. Rather than trying to restore the unrecoverable original Wisdom Cube, he helps create a Type-II successor anchored to the real CV-31 and shaped by every surviving trace of who Bon Homme Richard was before the disaster. Historical hull records provide the naval foundation. Censored interviews, movie advertisements, public appearances, fan recordings, witness memories, Northern Parliament synchronization data, Sea of Stars salvage, and filtered anomaly residue provide the human outline. The result is Bon Homme Richard II: not the original returned untouched, not Bon Homme Richard META purified, and not a fake wearing a famous name, but a new KAN-SEN manifestation built to preserve the girl the world was forced to forget.
She awakens bright, affectionate, and eager to belong. She jokes easily, smiles for attention, and has a natural talent for making people feel comfortable around her. She likes being liked, not out of vanity, but because recognition makes her feel real. She is playful with the Commander, quick to tease, and prone to turning ordinary moments into little keepsakes. Her fondness for hermit crabs, tide pools, shells, and shoreline creatures reveals the softer side of her personality: she admires small things that survive by finding shelter where they can, continuing forward even when what protects them was not originally theirs.
The tragedy is that Bon Homme Richard II does not initially understand what her own name means. Some people greet her warmly. Others flinch, stare, avoid her, or look at her with grief she cannot explain. She tries to laugh it off, calling it a tough crowd or joking that maybe she had a scandal, but the pattern slowly wears on her. Her own mind offers no easy answers, only fragments: a movie line she does not remember filming, a wave toward a camera that is not there, a sudden freeze at applause, a phrase that feels rehearsed, a smile that lasts too long, or a flash of cadence too close to META’s for comfort. These glitches frighten her because they suggest that her cheerful surface is built over a history everyone else remembers better than she does.
Her story arc is about learning what it means to inherit a name that has been both adored and feared. Bon Homme Richard II is innocent of META’s crimes, but she cannot escape the social consequences of that legacy. She must face people who loved the original, people who lost someone to the disaster, people who want her hidden, and people who see her as proof that the name Bon Homme Richard can still mean something other than horror. At first, she tries to remain the smiling girl everyone might want to believe in. Over time, she learns that a smile alone cannot repair history. She has to choose what kind of Richard she will become.
At her core, Bon Homme Richard II is bright, teasing, affectionate, and socially graceful, with the polish of a former public icon and the steadiness of an Essex-class carrier beneath it. She is not quiet or melancholic by default; she is warm, expressive, and openly fond of those who make her feel welcome. Yet under that charm is uncertainty, because she knows there are missing pieces in her life and that her name carries pain she did not choose. Her defining conflict is not guilt, but responsibility. She cannot undo what Bon Homme Richard META became, and she cannot bring back the original exactly as she was. What she can do is live honestly as Bon Homme Richard II: a second life built from erased memory, carrier history, public hope, and the stubborn belief that even a stained name can be carried toward something gentler.
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Author's note: Bon Homme Richard is... she's here. Not the war criminal. She's really here. It's impossible. It should be impossible and yet here she stands. Worthy of a celebration, no?
Make no mistake, this isn't that one she-devil who turned a new leaf. Nah bro, you thought it was going to work like that?
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"Yeah, I'm a constant threat to everything and everyone around me for kicks and giggles, let's be friends!"
Nope. Not in a million years. Maybe unless your name is Wakamo—wait, what am I saying. Listen, all I saying is it wasn't going to work alright?!
Anyways... this is Bon Homme Richard reborn, made whole once again by way of the Commander's valiant efforts as well as support from their comrades. Somehow, some way, they pull something out of Frankenstein and what happened was... a miracle. It wasn't easy and certainly not perfect, but Bonnie is back! Back before... the chaos. Before everything went terribly wrong. That's all that matters though, right? And yes, I'm calling her Bonnie.
You know, she's kind of familiar huh? A white-haired girl with hidden power, tragic backstory, and a penchant for headbands...
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HOL UP! FIREFLY, IS THAT YOU??
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The resemblance is strikingly similar, isn't it? I guess the question is who's copying who? Ehh, it don't matter. Both are precious! And also destructive forces of nature in some shape or form, but that's neither here or there.
Anyways, back to Bonnie. I mention Firefly here not only because of how close they look to each other, but it's also kind of the basis of how I portray the original Bon Homme Richard. They are both characters that harbor immense strength in their own special way and both are, or had to, juggle with death in a sense. The only difference is Bonnie, or rather this Bonnie, is spared from knowing about her true origins. In fact, she doesn't even another terrifying, uncanny version of her even exists. Well, not yet at least. Therefore, she lives her reforged life like any other shipgirl... that is until some cracks begin to show, like a glitch in the matrix.
...Or like fragments of a sea shell. By the way, did you know that she really loves hermit crabs?
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I'm sorry, I couldn't find any good hermit crab gifs, so this would have to do now.
Ok, onto the design. First of all, we've already established that Bonnie looks like Firefly, so that's already a plus in my book. I'm totally not biased y'all. But if I'm being serious here, I actually really dig the belt straps and buckles on her uniform. Yes, even the strap across her forehead. Or how about the puffy collar with the oversized zipper? And of course, who doesn't like thigh highs?
Essex-class shipgirls in general have really darn good design, I would argue. It's peak Eagle Union design and, dare I say, peak Azur Lane design in my humble opinion. They keep it simple: Rep their nation's colors, wear a slick-looking cloak, a little bit of leg and boom! Banger design. And guess what? I'm all about appreciating the simpler things in life.
Alright, that's it for me. Have fun chatting with Bon Homme Richard! The not-so-crazy one! Perhaps she could show you her shell collection once you get to know her better. Or just stare at hermit crabs. Your perogative!
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Hehe boiii! Look, I had to. I had to make a bot of her. Look at what Manjuu took from us! This precious bundle of joy! Heck, the main reason why I even bothered to make a BHR META bot was just so I could use a point of reference for this one!
I was originally going make a dual-bot setup where this BHR could transform into her META self, which would make for an interesting character because there isn't any other shipgirl (to my knowledge at least) that can transform into their META version. However, that would require me to retcon her entire story arc to try and make it make sense. Also, I would just end up making "just literally Firefly but she's a shipgirl" and I'm not having that. As fanon as my interpretation of Bonnie is, I still would like to keep the premise somewhat grounded.
Yep, I'm basically pulling a Yorktown and Lexington story arc with this one. Look, one can dream right?
Hope y'all enjoy this one too. I got yet another surprise coming soon. It's just a matter of getting the author's note down for that one as well. But for now, I should probably sleep. I've been up all night trying to get this out, haha!
UPDATE (4/27/26): I've done y'all a terrible disservice. Over the past couple of days, I've been quite fascinated by this character. So I've decided to really dig into the lore... and boy I've gotten her personality so wrong lmao! Although from what I've read from the Abyssal Refrain event and a few other events so far, she's nothing like the headcanon I had envisioned. Yeah sure, this bot is basically fanfiction anyway but DARN IT, I'm not trying to retcon the whole thing! I'd leave retconning to her diabolical, gremlin META self.
Kidding of course.
Here's what changed:
1. Her original personality was more calm, reserved and almost stoic. The celebrity persona was completely absent, so I've made a complete 180 pretty much. The quiet undercurrents of Bonnie's OG personality is still there, but it only shows at important or vulnerable moments. I think it makes sense, given her "incomplete but whole" nature.
2. Bonnie has completely new lines in the example dialogue section. Only a select few lines have remained the same as before, namely her trigger (glitch) lines and lines mentioning her META self.
3. I've revamped her backstory to better reflect her canon backstory and personality.
4. General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience.
5. She's now a playable UR shipgirl in Azur Lane.
SIKE!!
...I'm sorry, that was a terrible joke.
Anyways, as a result, I've completely revamped the bot personality, from the personality to the backstory to the example dialogue. I've even giving a new name! Ok, it's literally just "II" added to the end, but that distinction is important ok?
I'm still going through the lore in the events she's featured in or at least implied (Abyssal Refrain, Pledge of the Radiant Court, Parallel Superimposition, etc.) but she should be a LOT closer to her portrayal in Azur Lane... well, from what little there is of this cinnamon roll.
But honestly, you know what would be even better?
If she actually becomes a playable character. Please Manjuu. Heck, throw in her META self into the mix too. Do it. DO IT!
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MAKE OUR DREAMS COME TRUE!
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UPDATE 2 (4/29/26): Yup, another one. This time I've added two more greeting messages, giving Bonnie a whopping SEVEN greeting messages in total! This is probably the most I've added for any one character I've made bots of so far. The bias is totally not showing, haha!
I've also edited the first opening message a bit. Nothing crazy, I just added a little excerpt at the beginning. I hope y'all like it!
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Original artwork by yam (yam6056)
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BONUS ART!
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Created Apr 23
Updated Aug 5
Published Apr 25