#I hope this doesn't make people think I dislike oxventure or oxboxtra or anything like that.

[a-casual-egg]

I hope I'm not the only one who prefers how oxventures used to be edited. The editing where you see the character art interacts with each other and stock photos. I genuinely enjoy seeing it a lot, and not seeing it with the more recent episodes upsets me. It almost seems like character art is getting phased out, and that kinda scares me.

It started with oitd when they just had the neutral character art next to a square of the person playing their pc. Then, with their "previously on" segments, they give us more of the characters, showing us different expressions and clearer references for drawing them. However, it also feels very limited. I know seeing the ox crew in their costumes is very fun, especially with Andy's dramatic acting as Edvard but I think seeing the character art dragged around the screen like how oxventures used to be edited would be just as fun.

Then, with oxventure deadlands, the character art rarely makes an appearance. It's so divorced from the show that a casual viewer might not have ever seen it. I think that sucks because character art really helps people visualize the characters. Especially when the characters look different than the actual person playing them, like with Nate and Johnny, Delacy and Luke, and Garnet and Jane, to name a few. (There isn't much difference with Garnet and Jane, but Garnet's hair is red, not black like Jane's.). In fact, you could argue you have to go out of your way to find the oxventure deadlands character art. You go to an oxventure (Halloween? I believe) special video to actually see the oxventure deadlands character art.

I do love seeing the ox crew in their costumes and them interacting with each other irl as their characters, but there's an enjoyment I get from watching the art of the characters interact. To me, the character art is the characters and the players dressing up as their characters is just a supplement to help get the players get into the mindset of their characters and to help the audience understand who is playing who.

If it's not obvious, I very much dislike the less and less appearances and uses of the character art. I get it's probably quicker to edit and get the videos up without doing all the editing of the characters. I also get that it's cheaper to pay for one group shot of all your characters than five characters with multiple different expressions. It's just that I feel like the decrease of character art and the silly little editing of the characters in the videos takes away stuff from the experience. I think a big part of that for me is the silly whimsy of the editing Andy did with the character art. It really helps bring the story to life for me. To be honest, it does a better job than soley watching real life people sit at a table and talk.