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Byleth Eisner from Fire Emblem Three Houses

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Starting off 2025 by creating my intrusive thoughts

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Redraw of Cinder from this unfortunate drawing from 2020

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here me out: lunar hanfu that’s darker blue and white, silver stars and moons and wisps, and the icing on the cake: a long cloak with the fluffy hood like red riding hood

Yes yes yes yes! But also imagine something like that on Winter! Not necessarily hanfu, but the same idea. The Winlet shippers could go wild with that design.

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can’t believe it’s been more than a year since the staring wasian kween cinder post you made in a new style

Tumblr won’t tell me when this was sent, but I sure hope we’re not talking about the fake anime style I attempted

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The sun, the moon. Kai and Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles.

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So I know how much you love exploring the world through historical fashion, and since the Eastern Commonwealth apparently spans all of Asia, have you dabbled in any of the more uncommon Asian garments for Cinder/Kai? I've been thinking about Cinder wearing a Saree but I'm also curious about Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian etc.

I have so many outfits saved that I’ve never got to (as I regularly fail them in practice). A lot of the time I’ll start out with a specific idea before I fail and revert back to hanfu since I’ve spent the most time practicing that so far. I want to make sure I do it right, so I’d rather wait until it looks correct. My current work for Kai will hopefully be a yellow Manchu (Yeah that was a lie, I failed again in colour and cloth in the middle of writing this.) I think both the E.C and Luna would wear chut thai (with makuṭa headdresses on the moon) and sarees, salwar kameez, dhoti kurtas, and other similar garments. I imagined Kai’s wedding attire in Cress/Winter to be traditional Thai wedding menswear with the “sash” being a sabai? For festivals I’ve always wanted to try drawing them in a white kosobe with a red hakama (there’s probably a single word for this outfit that I do not know) as well as try out something Mongolian, though I have no specific ideas with that, just a lot of options. Heading back south, anything that resembles lavalavas (skirts, wraps, trousers, etc) would probably be very common in the E.C. Sinhs could be common both in the E.C and the moon, maybe having a unique pattern depending on what sector you’re in. Perhaps the common fabrics used in things would change, which would be a way to include Persian silks and other fabrics, meshing traditional material with other cultural clothes (I think this would pair really well with Áo dài.) I can see garments like the deel and nekhii deel still being worn as everyday clothes, especially for warmer climates. Since the E.C seems fairly homogeneous, (maybe due to Asia being hit the hardest by the last world war, repeat imperialism, foreign government control, or assimilation) all these garments could start mixing and matching with each other. Maybe some of these things are global. This is how traditional clothing has merged and become its own thing in the past. I just really like to imagine these things being embraced because we have already experienced clothing bans and forced assimilation so much, and the world in these books has probably experienced more. Even before humans had the FOXP2 mutation that allowed us to understand language, we were making jewellery and art that meant something to us. It seems trivial, but keeping these things alive seems really important in both real life and fiction.

Once again, I am so very sorry if I have referred to things incorrectly. I’ll have some access to research papers that could help in a few weeks, but I am very much not a smart person, but I will still try my best.

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Hygonia from the More Than Life trilogy, written by Bethanie Finger

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Cinder again!!!

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A Tears of The Kingdom drawing from November. I wanted to be safe and wait until the 1st anniversary passed since I don’t know if it’s a spoiler if it’s not a real boss fight, but I thought it would be cool if it were one.

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I like the sketch you made! You should try a dark blue and white colour for a lunar look with moons and wispy parts and twinkle stars

Ah!! I can picture that exactly. I started one like that when I was trying to draw Levana in a Wires and Nerve style, but trashed it because she didn’t deserve it and I didn’t have the motivation to spend time on her.

I’m currently working on a blue and purple modified cloud collar design for Cinder, but I’m going to add in some Lunar elements now!

I’m going to keep this specific idea in mind for the future. I no longer need an AU as an excuse to exaggerate the whimsicalness.

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As someone who’s Chinese it looks like you did an incredible job on the hanfu. I don’t know much about those types of dress if I’m being honest but you’ve definitely got the respect part down and I encourage you to explore futuristic twists! I have not read the lunar chronicles but I like the idea of futuristic or modern takes on traditional things

Thank you. Since my last sketch I’m exploring fantasy and modern modifications. I’d like to sew a small variety of miniature hanfu before I get too sci-fi yet. I think having a better understanding of how it’s made vs. just imagining the layers and knowing how to put them on will help me stay true to the designs. Thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot <3

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a mix of Thai/Japanese/Chinese traditional clothing would look so cute in Cinder. The draped piece with sequins and embroidery from Thai dresses would look so pretty with Lunar details and moons and stars. actually all of these would look pretty on her with details of Luna

Yes, I love the concept! Thai/Cambodian clothing was the first thought I had when imagining non-aristocratic sectors of Luna before Wires and Nerve came out. Or even for some of the higher nobility that don’t participate in the aristocracy at all. I’d still imagine the palace with Nagara temple-style architecture (because Cypress Blackburn has a god complex and all) too if it weren’t for the beautiful art they had in Fairest (though Wires and Nerve ignored that too) but at least we can still speculate on the inner decorum. Hindu and Gaelic inspired interiors could still fit even if we include Wires and Nerve.

But yeah, now I want to focus a lot on what Lunar clothing could look like. Wouldn’t it be cool if tons of unique attire evolved over time throughout sectors outside of the capital? I won’t speculate on Artemisia too much since the nobles have and will take, appropriate, and throw away anything in the name of beauty, but what if there was a mining sector with traditions similar to Miao Silver? As Artemisia doesn’t seem to have a lack of anorthite, or compounds mixed with anorthite, perhaps this may be a tradition in one of the outer sectors.

If it takes place in a mining sector, imagine hair pieces, earrings, necklaces, pins, aglets, etc. made of Lunar Anorthosite that can be passed down throughout families. Not only would it look beautiful, but could you imagine the folklore behind it? Marissa didn’t drill in just how symbolic it is to have the royal crown be made of crystalline anorthosite. Anorthosite, the Genesis Rock. Rare on Earth, and likely the mineral that surrounds the outer walls of Artemisia Palace. The rock that was the final key to piecing together the formation of a celestial object 1/80th the size of the Earth, the rock that explained the evolution of the moon, and the first thing the majority of people think of when talking about the Apollo 15 mission!

If it is still unlikely that a mining sector would be allowed to keep any anorthosite, then maybe let’s speculate on regolith solidified by impact shockwaves. The dark grey/black would have a bold contrast with much of the building stone in the Capital. Maybe this could be a tradition in a sector that uses electrolysis to mine oxygen or water, a sector that uses fusion with helium 3, or even ra sector that explores the terrain outside of the domes that simply finds this regolith in areas with high meteor impacts.

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YES THE TOPIC HAS COME UP ABOUT HANFU!! There’s this account here on tumblr @ziseviolet that specializes in hanfu + history. If you’re up to it I’d definitely suggest trying to draw hanfu with almost a fairytale twist to it. The flowy simpler ones are most common, but occasionally I find ones with thicker fabric and a cape/coat? with a hood like red riding hood. Those ones are my favourite😁😁 Their account also has tons of photos that can be used as references

Haha, they're actually one of the first blogs I followed! I planned to draw one like this back when the 10th anniversary came around, but I wasn't capable of that yet. Is something like this sort of what you're thinking of?

I think I saw something similar to this in a video game. I'm not sure if you can make out the idea. All these kinds of sketches are messy.

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I like your drawings of Cinder in nice dresses. What inspo do you use for designing her clothes?

Thank you! Basically, when I was younger I had the delusion of “memorise every country in the world or else you’re a bad person,” followed by, “learn a brief history of every country in the world within 8 years or else you’re a bad person.” I learned in the order of history-mythology/religion-clothing, and I ended up loving the traditional clothing around and in Iran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mongolia, Bhutan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, etc. It’s fairly difficult to find information about clothing in English, so I mostly pull from Hanfu for Cinder. Currently, I pretty much design how people would wear one today, ignoring old colour rules, pairing it with hair/accessories from separate dynasties, keeping bangs in hairstyles that otherwise would not have them, and sometimes adding in things that are more fantastical than historical. I would love to one day make futuristic designs, but I want to do that tastefully and respectfully, so, for now, I’m sticking closer to current-day interpretations.

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i love love love your tlc art, it’s so well done and pretty. you draw the characters exactly as i imagined them, you make amazing art 🩷

Thank you! 💕 I'll try and keep it up!

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Hello your art is SO GOOOOOOOD!!!!!! I love all your TLC portraits. Have a lovely day :)

Thank you! Have a lovely day too, anon <3