#<- maintags bc why not at this point lol

[deus-and-the-machina]

maybe this is a bit of a useless point to make but it does bother me sometimes that estinien’s skintone gets lightened quite a bit. I don’t necessarily blame fanartists for this bc some renders/cgi trailers make him look paler than his in game model, but I just wanted to draw some comparisons. now the lighting can vary quite a bit, but I tried finding pictures in multiple lightings for comparison

he looks a little washed out/not well lit in this image but you can still tell its the same skin tone

Furthermore, here’s him next to fourchenault, who we know is meant to be somewhat darker because his dad is louisoix.

Here they are in the endwalker trailer

I don’t think this but specifically is that bad, there’s still a notable contrast between his hair and skin tone even if it looks to be a bit more tinged pink than he usually is, but it’s still comparable to fourchenault. The render though is eeeeeeeh

his most prominent render isnt necessarily inaccurate but the lighting feels like its on full blast

The countdown art also DEFINITELY makes him look a little paler. it resembles the previous render

I also wanted to point out this happened to y'shtola too somewhat. look at her renders compared to her model compared to the end walker trailer

ike she is distinctly pinker/paler as well. im not sure how the process of making the cgi cutscenes works but im fairly sure they use different models, so I generally accept that they lost some specifics in translation. there are other differences people have pointed out such as Zenos' nose being shaped differently in the end walker trailer so its bound to happen.

Here are their figures too

yshtola has a skin tone somewhat accurate design but estinien is DEFINITELY lighter. his eyes are off too, being a weirdly deep blue when his canon eyes are grey, so again it can be chalked up to lost in translation aspects but its still disappointing to see

im not really trying to argue that estinien or yshtola aren't "white" or white passing by our standards, but they really aren't pale and its kind of weird that they often get lightened in trailers/renders in estinien's case. especially when I see so much fanart drawing estinien as super bone white pale because they're probably looking at the renders that pop up first online if you search and show his whole outfit for design reference.

I do really appreciate it when I see artists draw them darker, it makes me very happy.

[voidandradiance]

if i had the time i would write a modern docks duo roadtrip fic. it's in the midwest bc fuck you i guess. jordan likes cars and he likes to make them go Fast but they end up taking either a busted van or an old pickup on the road bc it's the most street legal thing he owns. (it's not even technically his, but he is on the insurance. so.) this got Long oops

the air conditioning fucking sucks but they're taking the old route highways a lot of the time and not the modern interstates so they're going 65 or more with the windows down wherever possible. they have too many jars of cheeseballs. andor has a gas station slushie addiction and they keep giving each other shit for the way that they mix the same flavors together, because jordan does a full half red and then a full half blue but andor does it in smaller alternating layers so that it mixes better. tourist traps. really shit hotels. ihop. they play corn or soybeans but it's the middle of summer so there's really not much guessing involved. hey look cows. some old midwesterner casually addresses andor as "son" in passing and he nearly cries in the snack aisle out of Correct Gender Perception and also Daddy Issues. jordan decides to try grocery store shrimp. jordan gets food poisoning. they get stuck waiting out a blinding downpour while parked at a gas station pump for like an hour. several really good local ice cream and frozen custard places. andor has the aux cord and this is a mistake. they find a gas station in the middle of absolutely nowhere that sells cranberry wine, cheese curds, and allegedly magic soap. the wine is bad, the curds are good, and the soap is unreasonably great. jordan develops a deep and abiding passion for rainbow goldfish. kwik trip cookies. fireworks. there is an underlying theme here that is not necessarily "coming of age" but is certainly both of them getting more confident in their own ways, and it is told entirely through little details as jordan gets better about planning in lower stakes scenarios and andor figures out how to take up space in a safe environment. jordan gets cheez whiz up his nose on three separate occasions. they keep finding really good diners but andor (vegetarian bitch) keeps ordering waffles bc that's what they've got on the menu. by some miracle they stumble across a bookstore with a pride flag up during june and have to take a Moment to Process and then andor overspends horribly as an apology for hyperventilating in their bathroom. cool ranch doritos are on sale at walmart and they buy like six bags. one of them tries to order at a starbucks and everyone involved nearly cries in confusion, and the other is no help bc he's only memorized one specific order and doesn't actually know what any of it means. they go hiking for maybe half a mile on a really pretty forested trail and then realize it was a bad idea and turn around. culver's. portillos's. extremely strange billboards. it is heavily implied that this all takes place after one final explosive confrontation between andor and most of his family. jordan makes best friends with a golden retriever bc they're just so damn similar. godawful gas station pizza. docks duo they mean so much to me.

[avatarofthelonely]

i have like such a strong hunch that the recorders really are just a part of jon but i have nothing to back up the confidence i have in said hunch other than I Really Feel It