#Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan Trilogy

[saint-starflicker]

From here

challenge: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters, and then tag five people to do the same, and see which character is everyone's favorite!

If you're reading this, consider yourself no-pressure tagged

Propaganda:

Steven Hillman comes from a book published in 2022 that has a fandom of like 3 people. Please spare a vote for my neurodivergent queer fictional son. Beneath the aloof, brainy persona is somebody so caring that he would risk his life to protect some bisexual demon-possessed jerk with serious Main Character Syndrome that comes from actually being the main character though. Is always prepared with an umbrella.

Naoto Shirogane is the category of celebrity that everyone in the real world knows doesn't actually exist: world-famous detective. Depending on decisions the player makes the silent protagonist make in the console RPG canon, or whether you pursue the story beyond the game, Naoto is canonically a gender-nonconforming teen girl detective—or depending on other decisions made in-game and the social dysphoria described, we might have a transhumanist here, at least genderqueer. Erudite and expositions a lot, badly-socialized and snarky at times, but ultimately determined to pursue the facts of a situation.

Dr. Nora Barlow has frankensteined colossal sins against nature plus the cutest animal sidekicks you'll ever find. She's poised, cool and collected, savvy with all sorts of information at all times, and all-around awesome.

Ruta Skadi. Problematic favorite. She eats endangered tigers or something, "trafficked with spirits and it showed", and yet still made this list because there's something wrong with me. (I'm going by book canon because I haven't watched the Lin Manuel Miranda show and I don't know if Ruta Skadi made it into that adaptation).

Susan Sto Helit. The strict, stern guide of many very young children—she is also the granddaughter of the anthropomorphic personification of Death. While often striving to live as a human, (hence the teaching jobs or working as a governess,) the supernatural powers she has are never in want for practice. Still remembers how to calculate the volume of a cone, hates nougat.

[soranatus]

A new look at LEVIATHAN (2025) From the Studio Orange reel 2024

[himbionn]

The queerest bitches I know.

(Early B-Day gift for @galaxyartmaps cause I don't know anyone more obsessed with this book series than them)

[hanahclairart]

[rainybearstudio]

Where my Leviathan fans at now that they’ve announced a Netflix adaptation‼️

rainybearstudio.com

[ecrivainalene]

Leviathan Panel at Otakon 2024

I was OVERJOYED to be at the Leviathan panel during Otakon 2024! I'll do my best to recap it below, but if you want a more coherent play by play, this Twitter user did an excellent job.

I've got a handful of photos, recap of Sharp Gender Discussion, plus misc. things I remember.

Not everyone was up for the entire time, but I snapped this photo near the end when everyone was on stage! From left to right: Waki Kiyotaka (Studio Orange), Yoshihiro Watanabe (Studio Orange), Scott Westerfeld, Christophe Ferreira (Quibic Pictures), Justin Leach (Quibic Pictures), Katrina Minett (Quibic Pictures), and Diana Garnet (ending theme vocalist).

New concept art! Looks like Dr. Barlow, Klopp, Alek, and Sharp, right before the Germans attack the Leviathan.

More under the cut!

Alternative shot of that art bc I couldn't get my lighting right:

Clanker and Darwinist technology designs. Watanave explained that Studio Orange's early days were spent doing contract work on Gundam anime, so I can't wait to see how that translates to the Clanker machines.

Some more concept art:

By the way, the entire series is being adapted at once - so we'll get the complete story at once! That in mind, the second image here makes me think of that maneuver near the beginning of Goliath to pick up the cargo.

Sharp!!! Look at them!!!

I don't have much to say about these but I'm fairly sure I hadn't seen them before. I am wondering if they downsized Alek's crew for the sake of the story, or perhaps we just haven't seem Bauer and Hoffman yet.

We got some new character art! The panel was very cryptic about who the character designer is. Apparently they're pretty well known, but they can't share it yet!

Volger I am so sorry your photo was unfocused. Forgive me.

The panel jokingly described him as "Alek's dad," which feels accurate. And maybe I misunderstood, but it sounds like he plays an even more important role in the anime than he does in the books. I've always considered Volger to be a pretty important character, so I wonder what else he'll do in this new series.

Klopp looks exactly like how I pictured him in my mind!! They said if Volger is Alek's dad, then Klopp is like his mom. Which is very fair but also made me laugh a lot.

Dr. Barlow!! She looks amazing. There was a lot of talk about the dynamic between her and Volger and how they're often playing mental chess games with each other. I'm really glad they're leaning into that dynamic.

And one more concept art:

This looks like the visit to Istanbul, which I'm desperately hoping means we'll see my favorite chaotic bisexual, Lilit.

That's all of the photos I have! They also showed us a preview of the show plus a live performance of the ending song with Diana Garnet. No video recording was allowed and I don't break rules, but believe me when I tell you it was stunning. The world feels so full of life and adventure and I can't wait to see the final show.

Tbh I was too busy holding back tears of joy but one thing I remember distinctly is there's a shot of Sharp getting ready for the day, and we see a sheet of paper with a bunch of names written and crossed out before finally (I think) "Dylan" is circled.

Which actually brings me to the Q&A part. TLDR, between the use of "Sharp" for Deryn's name, Scott referring to Sharp as "she/he/they" during the panel, and the scene I mentioned earlier, I feel really hopeful about how they're approaching Deryn's gender and identity in this adaptation.

I asked a question about this at the Q&A and voice recorded it, so I'll try to transcribe it here as best I can because the audio is not great lol. I stumbled through my question so I trimmed it down here but I'll transcribe the response as clearly as I can!

Me: I just finished re-reading [the series] for the first time since I was probably in high school, and one of the things that interests me about this adaptation is the approach to Sharp's character... I guess I'm just interested, like, was there a lot of thought put behind, or what kind of thought was put behind how to approach their character in the anime, I guess as a chance to re-approach the story however many years after it was originally written.

Scott Westerfeld: Yeah, there's a lot to that. The "girl dressing as a boy" as a trope was something completely different in 2007 when I started writing this than it is now. And so we really approached Deryn's identity as what was at stake rather than just... rather than just her being in disguise, it's about their recreating themselves and becoming a different person and transitioning and, and so... but it's always been interesting to me that the words that I wrote back in 2009, 10, 11, y'know, as an old guy who grew up in Texas in the 70s - who was David Bowie fan! - but otherwise didn't have a lot of access into issues of gender, I'm amazed at how many people have been [able to?] adopt Deryn/Dylan as one of their own. I just got an email a week ago from a trans boy whose chosen name is Dylan. So it is amazing to me how whatever imperfections or whatever problematics there are in the text, people still find their way into what they need from a character. And as a writer, I can say that I always respected that character, I always respected their choices, I always respected who they were. I never tried to stick them into a dress and have everyone go "Ooh now you're pretty 'because 'cause you're in dress!" We didn't do that, and I think that what may be important for people and I think that's why it's still what's gonna work here, but it's been fun to be able to update it and everybody on the team's been really great about understanding that.

TLDR I don't want to get anyone's hopes up too high, but I'm really appreciative of the care that's being taken with Sharp's story and identity in this adaptation. It seems like Scott and the others on the team are taking that into account, and I'm excited to see how it plays out.

Other random things I remember:

THERE WAS AN ALEK COSPLAYER. I took a photo with them but I won't post it without their consent. Just trust that they looked fantastic.

Scott said one of the first things he was told was that Alek can't actually kill Nikola Tesla because he's too well loved by people in Japan, which I think is the funniest possible reason for a change to be made in an adaptation.

Diana Garnet (they/any) mentioned how much they love Sharp (don't we all) and also how they used to work at a Barnes and Noble and remembers selling lots of Westerfeld books!

Scott said his approach in writing Leviathan was taking everything he'd always wanted to write about and basically throwing it together, because he was just coming off of the success of Uglies and figured he could get away with it.

If I remember anything else I'll add on to this post! Overall, it was a wonderful panel and I'm incredibly excited for this project.

[carrotsofthepirabbean]

heard there's a Leviathan show in development, so had to scratch out a celebratory Dylan Sharp!

[arcadialedger]

Today on “books I adore but don’t see talked about nearly enough”, does anyone else still think about the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld daily? Because oh my gosh I love those books.

More steampunk media in general, please!

[adamshallperish]

the thing about leviathan is scott westerfield was like "i'm going to tap into the homoerotic undercurrents of brotherly devotion and changing attitudes about chivalry alongside military progress during wwi" but then was like no this romance must be heterosexual. which really only served to make the implications more bonkers (transsexual).

[magicoleanders]

new Leviathan anime concept art courtesy of this Twitter thread!

the first one has to be from Behemoth, I think, after the sultan crushes the eggs based on their dejected facial expressions and the architecture in the background. the second one is probably Goliath, in Siberia when they pick up Tesla. the last 2 pics are pretty obvious but they’re new and fun! I especially love the message lizard design.

[stop-no-go-away]

Desperately need someone to scream about this to

[soranatus]

LEVIATHAN First look - Coming to Netflix in 2025

[himbionn]

I'll spend my days so close to you

cause if I'm stood here, then I'm stood here

and I'll stand here

I'll stand here with you

[hanahclairart]

I just read past the “hold alek at knifepoint” scene in Leviathan and couldn’t get this image out of my head. It’s pretty tense but their banter is so unserious, lol. I’m looking forward to how these iconic moments are portrayed in the anime next year!

[midshipmank]

I KNOW I SHOULD KEEP MY HOPES LOW, BUT THEY ARE ALREADY THROUGH THE ROOF

[ecrivainalene]

I'm rereading Leviathan for the first time since like 9th grade and we can all agree that this series is gay as hell right