clutching my head. oh god oh goddd. i'm thinking too hard about shadowheart. thinking too hard about why she picks so many fights, and rebuffs so much kindness, and acts so godamn bitchy even if she's inherently good.
in my portrayal, i write under the assumption she bites because she's just afraid to be close to people. afraid to actually risk connection when her religion denounces it so violently. and i do think that is one reason.
but it just hit me that she's so godamn lonely. she acts out and lashes at people because she is so desperate for the attention. even if it's negative attention, it feels better than nothing. it makes her feel seen and tangible. when she has no parts of herself anymore, the only way she can know herself is through the eyes of other people.
"i must be real. they all hate me. they all react as if i matter."
you can't hate someone who has nothing to hate. it's the closest thing she has to truly realizing herself. and it's the only way she can possibly leave behind a legacy. she doesn't want to disappear, to vanish entirely. she has to leave her mark on this world. whether through pain, or darkness, or starting petty arguments for no reason other than to feel alive.
the mortifying idea of being known ... she can't present her real self. that's too scary. her real self is not worth seeing. so she acts the part of a vengeful sharran and projects her own self-worth onto this role she plays in people's worlds.
i need to think more about this. when it's not 7am. but gawd.
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flat chested girlies are not nearly as represented as they should be in character design, but i think a very underrated body type to use in character design is girl whose chest is flatter than her tummy
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Alys Rivers told Harren that the dragons were coming for him, which led him to build that monstrosity that would be his grave
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[WIP] gravity falls thing i'm chipping way at. dipper and mabel bad end where they end up like stan and ford lol
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when a powerful figure is reduced to kneeling. when the lord is forced to bow. when the exile stumbles into an unwelcoming bar. when the “beast” is chained by their horns. when a god is dragged behind their enemy’s chariot, a captive and trophy. when the loyal “guard dog” character is muzzled and the silver-tongued thief falls silent in horror.
that’s the shit
it’s about the contrapasso. the reversal of roles and the sudden, plunging terror of being unable to hide.
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It actually makes a lot of sense that Bruce was one of the few people left standing in the crowd at Haly’s Circus when Dick’s parents died.
Watching two innocent people plummet to their deaths is gruesome. It’s shocking. It can be horribly traumatic, depending on the blunt force trauma of hitting the ground. They might not have died right away. They might have bled and made awful noises that were heard even above the sounds of the crowd.
But Bruce is Batman. Bruce saw his parents get murdered right in front of him. And he knows the sounds and sights of someone dying. He’s hardened himself to stay calm in a situation like that, both through trauma and practice.
I think the image of a young Dick Grayson making eye contact with the one unshaken person in the crowd is chilling. A man standing resolute when everyone else is screaming, sadness etched across his face. But not panic. Not confusion. Resignation, maybe.
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hmm. maybe a crazy headcanon, but i think shadowheart potentially has a bit of a misandry problem. nothing extreme, but she was raised by a formerly lolth-sworn drow, and they do not treat their men very kindly. i can very easily see viconia injecting a bit of that into shadowheart, whether intentional or just a result of her culture, i don't know. but i think it rubbed off on shadowheart, and she maybe says some weirdly out of pocket things about men sometimes. not to mention, i think most if not all cloisters are run under a matriarch, and i'm sure that left its own impression.
i will choose to believe she betters herself after leaving shar, but it does seem realistic, if a little upsetting.
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some of these were conzepts i drew for @ranilla-bean fic the iconoclast. others are just me doodeling zuko in SEA inspired clothing (khemer or siam style/ so cambodia or thailand)
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Gumshoe being the only person with enough emotional intelligence to recognize Franziska as a teenager on the verge of a breakdown
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complete wackadoo idea but... Alys is a vengeful spirit that appears after tragedies occur
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