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gemini-queen42 · 3 months ago

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Batb: Other Than Human - Themes stuff (& why I Called It That)

That's right folks, the self-indulgent "throwing any concept I like at the wall and haphazardly mixing together what sticks" au rewrite Thing has Actual Themes! That kind of happened accidentally but they are so real for that so let's get into it.

The Main Narratives Themes Trio of the story now all also embody expanded themes about being an "Other", when being a person is not enough to be properly considered human- more specifically of a neurodivergent/queer girlhood type flavor.

Summary is that it's called "Other Than Human" because the prominent theming is about being considered something other than human due to not fitting the mold of the 'norm'.

[This is a long one so details & specific character stuff are under the cut<3]

Amalure has the greatest departure from her original counterparts thematic placing, so we'll start with her. Amalure retains Gaston's social standing, reputation, etc. But it's of course not quite the same- because she is a woman, and she is not revered for being the picture of ideal womanhood/femininity. Instead, she excels in masculinity, but remains firm that she is and always will be a woman. So, to justify the desire & awe people have for her, they dehumanize her: She doesn't need to follow the Rules because she is outside of them. Amalure is not a person: she is a symbol, a figure, an object. A legend, a folksong, a modern myth. Her skills are not skills they are blessings, inherent, a mundane magic or supernatural. Despite having grown up in Villeneuve for her entire life, she is considered exotic, and is practically, if not actually, fetishized. And through all of this, the status quo and social order gets to be retained without question, and she gets to exist as the exception that proves the rule, rather than the Undesirable that she'd be marked as otherwise.

Amalure is fine with this, because this dehumanization is her status quo: She doesn't really view herself as a person either, she is defined by her relationship to other people, by who she is to them. Amalure has never been a person to anybody: Growing up she was never just a girl, never just Amalure: She was a girl with a mans brain, an embodiment of her fathers greatest achievements, an embodiment of her mothers worst mistakes, she is her fathers daughter or her mothers daughter, but not her own. (and she never both, it is either or, mother or father, never both, never parents.)

Princess Eve/The Beast is the other end of this, of operating through her dehumanization. Upon being cursed, she adheres to what societies have oft wanted to happen to their Undesirables: Hide away and never be seen by the public again. It is entirely self-inflicted, as most of her suffering truly is. She operates not through others dehumanizing view of her, but her dehumanizing view of herself and its warping of how she believes others view her. Because, well, the servants still view her as a person. I mean, they're still human- under the new object forms. And the separation of humanity that is easy to slip into on matters of royalty is awfully minimal as well; they watched her grow up, and she grew up among them.

The girl's bratty, spoiled, temperamental, and is a ball of horrid consequences of the shallow views and ideals learned from surrounding nobility. But she's also the girl that fell asleep listening to Cogsworth explain the many technicalities to managing servants; because she was stubborn in asserting her authority as the mistress of the castle, and thus she Must have say over its goings ons. But the majordomo's voice can be awfully soothing when he's not high-strung on anxiety, and it's hard to pay attention when you don't understand what's being discussed, so its all going in one ear and out the other. And She's Lumiere's 'Evie', who was so amused when Lumiere would draw on a little mustache when dancing the male roles so the princess could learn some duo dances, or because she didn't look very "waiter-like" (because Eve wasn't entirely sure what a maître d' did, but it seemed to have something to do with waiters), and who got annoyed every time the dance teacher/maître d' would warn her not to hurt her body in her pursuits, because it seemed so silly, why would anyone do that? And she's the girl who dragged Mrs. Potts to have tea with her, because she made the best tea and as princess she would have only the best; and if you're going to have tea you may as well have a tea party, and you can't really have a party of one, but two isn't much of a party either so she's going to drag Babette away from her duties too, since the maid was so elegant and thus would be perfect.

Honestly, the girl probably would've turned out fine if she was raised by just the servants. But they weren't the only forces in her life: she's a princess, so she's got to host and interact with important people and learn how to Be noble which isn't something any of the servants can teach her. And it is under the pressures and eyes of nobility, is in mixing and learning their social rules, that learns the lessons that will lead to her curse: That to be considered human and treated as such, one must look human. And to be such as a woman meant to look beautiful, like the ideal. As a woman, to be worthy is to be beautiful and vice versa. And even if she does not, she must have some way to serve men. Otherwise, she is nothing. Eve met these requirements well, and where she did not yet her authority as princess covered. So when a beggar woman is at her doorstep, the princess turns her away: because she is old, ugly, so long past her 'prime'- there is no worth to her anymore. There is no point caring for her future.

Helene stands as both the middle ground and inverse to the other two. She is an Other by virtue of her mind, she is Objectifiable by virtue of her beauty. She sits on the precipice between Undesirable and Desired, seeming nearly apathetic to where she lands despite popular encouragement to embrace or smother aspects of herself. Helene is quite sure she's a person like anyone else, thank you, and is frankly frustrated and a bit weirded out that others seem to have a hard time getting the memo- she doesn't like or want to assume the worst, though, so maybe she just missed another confusing untold social rule or something. I mean, the local triplets really do seem to be advising in good faith- they really do think of her as one of them to an extent (for reasons Helene is yet to know); they just don't understand her.

When Amalure pursues her, there's an unspoken aspect to the deal of marriage she proposes: Helene will get a secured place on the in of the community, a secure standing the promises people no longer questioning or trying to encourage her to no longer be herself. But Helene just isn't interested in Amalure like that, and she also sees what the real trade-off of that security is; that uncomfortable dehumanization that is exactly what Helene doesn't want to deal with anymore. If Amalure is fine living with it than she is free to do as she pleases, but the huntress doesn't seem to understand what Helene could possibly have a problem with- and it's not like they can discuss it, because it's unspoken, and you're not supposed to speak the unspoken things, because they're unspoken for a reason- even if you don't know what that reason is. Helene knows that rule, at least.

When Helene meets the Beast, she regards her as she does any other. It's plain as day that the Beast has a humanity to her, whether she's really "human" or not- she thinks and she feels, and that's enough for Helene.

Because Helene grew up raised by a single dad who she got most of her brain workings from, and he is a man of compassion and science. Off he'd send his beloved daughter to go and question and figure out the world for herself, to experiment and learn and become whatever she desires. Off to bed he'd send her to tell her fairy tales and have their lessons of love and compassion and humanity understood as she drifted off to sleep. Helene was never Odd with her father, never Other, in fact they were so easily two of a kind. It was so jarring, hearing people imply Tyndare less than sane; his logic paths were so easy to follow- but apparently his voice gruffs enough that others have a hard time understanding what he's saying sometimes, so that's where things seem to get lost in translation she guesses. People became jarring in other ways as she grew up too, because suddenly there seemed to be lots of social things she was supposed to know or be but didn't and wasn't, and it became very apparent very quickly that she was an Other among her village.

Overall: Eve & Helene get to go through these themes through the main plot, and post curse-breaking is when Eve gets to properly deal with the internalized issues and whatnot. Like she's learned beauty doesn't matter when it comes to love, and shouldn't decide whether or not someone should be cared about, and Helene loves her despite her having been beastly and despite her being a failure of a woman- (because she no longer fits the feminine ideal after the curse is broken, and frankly she never will again.) But she's still a Failure Of A Woman and Helene deserves Better Than That! So there's still work to do.

Amalure remains static on this aspect of the narrative until after the battle at the castle, where she does survive! .. barely. and it's later, in an argument with her mother that same night, bleeding out on the kitchen floor, when she asserts that she's her daughter too, not just her fathers. she has always been her daughter, always will be, she is the daughter of both of them, because that's not something that just switches or turns on and off- and it's an entire rant that I will not recite here, but the important part is the assertion that she is, always has been, always will be, the daughter of both her parents at once- that's the first little step for her arc of recognizing her own individual personhood and whatnot.

#Amalure's mother is a CHARACTER alright #she has a ref I need to make too...#fun fact Amalure falls asleep in her childhood bed that night being convinced the last thing she did was yell at her mom #and acutely aware that there is no comfort for her in this house.#Wire monkey mother frfr #anyways uh hi.#how obvious is it that the person making this is a she/it ND sapphic???#because Hi hello that is I #Yes Helene is VERY definitely Neurodivergent.#I can easily say she's autistic because the traits she displays are most commonly associated w/ it #but tbh I don't have autism and I didn't give her those traits with specifically autism in mind or research #so she's just.. generally Not Neurotypical.#project whatever you want onto her as you will #Fun fact the physique change Eve gets after being uncursed is me finding a justification for me basing part of her design on thinking that #Amalure seeing her and immediately having the Worst gender envy of her life since her dad died #while Eve is having like the worst body image issues of her life #would be kinda funny lowk #Also I might have a type but shhhhhhh #anywayss uhhh #gem stop yapping in ur tags #ramblez brambles #doodlez #I just did some mild editing w/ the ref art cuz I'm too lazy to make new shit for this and I didn't want this to Just be a text post #Princess Eve #Helene #Amalure #sorry of any of this is rambly/hard to read I randomly woke up at like 2:30am #idk when I started writing this post but idr doing much of anything beforehand besides making the little banner thing #and it's... 6:13am now.#batb: Other Than Human

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qaanngi · 3 months ago

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being economical and borrowing my art summary template from 2019 lol. notes under cut

I did want to do something similar to my 2020 art summary which had notes/thoughts on each digital piece baked into the image itself (and is also the prettiest lmfao) but I haven't been as proactive or even content since then sdfhsdkflds but I'm also of the opinion that artists should talk about their work, even if I still struggle to call myself one T_T

I met my monthly quota of one digital piece per month + one coloured sketch per month except October, which tends to be the month of exceptions since some sort of art challenge crops up. This year I opted to meme countdown loosely for Veilguard, and was the most free and loose I've been with drawing but also kind of burnt myself out a little on that front.

I do appreciate that there have been a few style experiments in the monthly things (March/Sept./Oct/Nov). I always found my style to be pretty generic but able to emulate other styles a little as a result. Except anime/manga evidently. But that means I can evoke different tones with different styles and do really left field stuff, which is always fun and leaves a lot of room for experimentation and a diverse body of work, which I prefer.

Managed to land LNY piece, which is a tradition I want to keep. I think my favourite piece is probably June's, the Lumine/Paimon/Osse/Scylla piece, which I referenced a screenshot because the location in-game was too pretty for me to not draw it. The Lumine/Girl With a Pearl Earring piece I'm pretty fond of, only because it was a genuine study of an old master, and I think it turned out well. The Lucanis minimalist piece is also a favourite, and it was me doubling down on the things I'm better at instead of trying to aspire to whatever the fuck I've been trying to do. Improve in some way I haven't defined yet, or operating on the notion that there is always room to improve (which is true and healthy to think), but also I guess a sense of dissatisfaction that my work is Objectively Broken in some way and desperately needs to be fixed. What's it like being content with your style and process?

The 2019 art summary had a template for Honourable Mentions since I actually managed to do more than one piece per month throughout the year (tho admittedly a lot of those were schoolwork). That's kind of been a struggle since 2021 for Reasons I still haven't fully recovered from, but I did manage a few extra things this year, chief among them the 19/20 Day Countdown mark for Veilguard, which I really wanted to do since I did one for Inquisition 10 years earlier, and I'll probably do one for the next Dragon Age game lol. I'd also like to probably redo the Inqusition one, and do full illustrations for both since I can actually draw backgrounds now. Something for 2025 I guess.

Others among the Honourable Mentions include a twt xlmi event piece I got a ton of "omg it's giving Sailor Moon + Tuxedo Mask" comments which makes it sound derivative as hell 🙃 The concept, was the moon (Lumine) and her night sky (Xiao). He is often associated with darkness and depicted looking at the moon pretty regularly. Also he is literally fading into black in the piece. My interpretation was that the night sky is quiet, and it darkens the sky so we can see the moon. The moon sits in the night sky's embrace. I actually quite like this one, the more I look at it. I've also used Giant Moon in the Middle of a Drawing a lot throughout the years, so that absolutely tracks. Maybe I should do one every year.

Other Honourable Mentions are my friend's commission (she was so patient with me), a noir Neve piece I did around September-ish too (was supposed to be a comic, might revisit the idea. I picked up reading comics again and was inspired to give one of my greatest inspirations a run - comic art, specifically the way they ink), and a quick lineless illustration for the xlmi zine I helped with.

For daily sketching, I only filled about 4-ish sketchbooks this year, all about 30-32 pages, but I've started to double up on pages so each is filled with more than one thing. Some sketchbooks were lazy in terms of what I did than others. Some were great, and had a lot of stuff where the things I practice (people in environments, action-oriented things, foreshortening, the bane of my existence) were abundant and pretty well executed. With the exception of one Lumine sketch that was so very in my own style that I really love and an adapted sketch of an OC, the favourites are all very action-oriented, and I'm glad. I really love the ones with Lucanis and Rook since there's genuine contact and an energy to them that feels very alive, which is something I've been working desperately towards, so it's nice to see it pay off. In a little daily drawing no less~

Around June there's a huge shift in subject and I all but ditched Gnshn immediately, which I think is healthy. I spent an inordinate amount of time in the months leading up to June and throughout with my daily sketches trying to force change my style to be more anime-esque since the gnshn fandom isn't particularly fond of western art styles, of which mine is painfully so. I have a lot of uncoloured sketches of Lumine that I'd like to get around to, but feel like a waste of time now. Leaving trying to make it in the gnshn fandom behind has been good for me, and it's been really nice to go back to the shit I love, which is just fights and blood. It's funny, since I ended my Cybird Ikemen run with swords and blood to jump into soft, cute shippy art for xlmi only to return to swords and blood.

Appropriately, I started my art blog ages ago for my silly little Dragon Age doodles, and I've returned to that. So: thanks, Veilguard. I hope I'm still fixated on you throughout all of 2025 because I have a loooot of ideas. And hopefully the patience and skill to get them out there.

#art summary #2024 art summary #le whiny text post #also around June when I dropped gnshn I started drawing Nadia again. I've mentioned this before but she is the literal blueprint #and foundation of my entire art style. It's not surprising half of my favourite sketches are her doing whatever she gets up to #I hadn't drawn her in about 6 years. The OC I adapted from her design? Yes. Nadia specifically? No.#and Nadia was a lot of leaps and archery and a ton of troubleshooting and learning way back in 2015 #her and Cullen are the reason I can draw anything today without too much issue #before 2015 I could not draw men to save my life. I think 2018-2020 I drew nothing BUT men digitally. which is insane to think about #and those men were static and just standing there doing shitall until I was making Nadia leap around and hit stuff. At which point #I could make the ikemen do stuff with swords and weapons #so say thank u to Nadia assorted ikemen and subsequent characters. You all owe her your lives. As do I.

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