#They have such fun and unique character designs!!

[miscellaneoustofu]

Basketball bad boys, anyone?

Yeah, so these are my Kirisaki Daiichi redesigns. The uncrowned kings and their respective squads have all the fun potential and I intend to use it.

Kirisaki Daiichi and Hanamiya being the most slept on team for character design of them all because you can’t make a canonical “bad boy” team and not have them be emo, goth, and punk for the funsies. For the visual “pen egg chest qua” (je ne sais quoi). For the fun, stereotypical edgelord flair we all deserve to indulge in every now and then.

Makoto’s og design simply didn’t scream spider enough for me and I was tired of so many key characters having this longish, same shade of black hair (him, Himuro, Mibuchi, etc). Like, I know giving the black and brown a colored tint can subtract from the uniqueness of the GOM, but not even a little? So, yeah, fuck allat, I’m using desaturated colors every now and then.

I also loved drawing Makoto in some casual clothes and much needed drip. Villains are required to serve most. I wanted to draw the rest of them in some casual outfits because trust Kojiro and honestly all of them dress immaculately but life and time restraints. Maybe later.

Story wise, each player and Makoto maybe have their own reasons for turning to hurting others through basketball and I hope you catch some of the story threads I threw in. Whether or not they deserve or have the capacity to change is entirely up to you all with Makoto having the most potential to be entirely complex or cartoonishly evil (I like both). I’m a sucker for a bit of character complexity and things that leave room for interpretation.

Sometimes knb can be very black and white in its themes…

Well, let me know what you all think! Thank you, for everyone’s kind words and support. See ya!

[artsideblogofsorts]

ALRIGHT WOOOOOOW. I wanna reply and show appreciation for this in a proper way so it's a reblog🥹💙💙

They would DEFINITELY vibe together naturally!! Nick is indeed a very cool and unique character that draws a lot of attention hihi, and he's quite charming too! A fan favourite for sure C:

THE JACKET ONE WAS A MUSTTTTTT and I also wanna draw him shirtless at some point!! not for thirst for ONCE BAHAHAH but because I wanna show all his damage. I might also introduce a few more chars from Fo4 and dbh C: already have ideas for a Reed900 appearance 😍

SAME HERE I love DBH design but the obvious synthetic look (like the ones in I, Robot or Bicentennial Man) are just UUGGGHH super cool imo!

AND ABT THE ATMOSPHERE AAAH HE IS THE NOIR VIBE, like I wanna explore more of that because I want Connor to be the younger less experienced detective that adapts to Nick's modus operandi and they both end up having this dark, smoky badass look to them KJASDFHKJHDSF im gonna blow the hell up just talking abt this

BOTH IS GOOD. They have the synnergy to share both kinds of vibes I think :DD

AAAHHHHH AND OF COURSE THANK YOU SO FRICKIN MUCH, honestly this one came out a lot more naturally than I expected ;v; it was a lot of luck. I will post a process vid later!! its not finished but conveys most of it :D Thank you thank you thank you kindly💙💙💙 ;V; ig those boring design lessons paid off, and even though I still have doubts and know that I can do even better your comments are immensely appreciated and push me in a much healthier way C:

thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to go over it all and for checking the details. Making them is so fun, but the reward of having someone point them out is 1000x better C: 💙

Nick Valentine, Synth Detective

partnering up with

Connor-51, Deviant Hunter!

I am pleased to present this little partnership idea between two tin cans I'm extremely fond of 💙 making this brought me so much joy and I hope you guys like it as well!

Some background info under the cut!~

Connor is an advanced prototype of android within the universe of Detroit: Become Human. He was designed to assist in the investigation of deviants, other androids that have "gone rogue" and stopped taking orders. He's also known as the Deviant Hunter. Though initially convinced that he is "just a machine" designed to accomplish his mission, Connor might eventually begin to warm up to his partner, and his priorities might shift unexpectedly.

Nick Valentine is a synth, or Synthetic man in Fallout 4. He is a mysterious prototype with the implanted memories of an old detective that lived over a century ago, and woke up in a heap of garbage after being dumped by his creators, the Institute. He's quick witted and snarky, and although his damaged components might make him appear intimidating at first, he is a deeply compassionate man who genuinely cares about doing the good thing, and this has earned him the trust and respect of his community.

[0pooleart]

Sonic Redesign Masterpost

One thing I've always passively thought about the Sonic franchise is that it's great, but also always felt just a bit short of perfection in a bunch of random aspects (mostly some character designs and some stories). Around like late August of 2024 I sketched out some redesigns for some of the main Sonic characters, and I quickly realized that I kinda physically had to not only redesign like, all vaguely notable characters from across the entire franchise (not just the games) but I also really wanted to rewrite a ton of stories, so I just like, did, you know? I'm basically obsessed now so here's a giant masterpost that's more about the thoughts behind my redesigns than just the images. Don't expect this to be super organized and fun to read lol

(and I can feel the hyperfixation dying down so I really should just get this out there)

Also, if you'd rather read it in the form of a Google Doc, here's the link to that: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VvXMzQ2kr7HrqmUd0Z7Aa9xCprUZ1ojm5cD8lcAEjbQ/edit?usp=sharing

First things first, for one, Mobius and Earth are two distinct planets, and Mobians are one set species. I didn't think that was a crazy idea until I actually watched a video detailing how current Sonic treats the setting but yeah, I really want them to just be completely different planets.

Origins

Anyway, the main draw for rewriting most Sonic stories was the fact that he doesn't really have a canon origin in the main series games (yet?) so I felt the need to give him one, and a more discrete timeline. However, everything starts with Eggman (and this is a heavily truncated version):

Robotnik enters Mobius via a Ring portal (similar to how the movies portray them), but he's instead a skinny, charming young man (similar again to Jim Carrey's Eggman in the movies, a drawing of him is further down). At first he pitches his little, cutesy animal inventions to the Mobian public, and they actually like them quite a lot. He's not without an ulterior motive though, and as his inventions get more and more popular, he actually hires some Mobians to help produce them. He begins building his business over the years, using the unique powers Mobians have to boost production. He even gives some of his workers their own homes built up with his technology, but he starts using this as a way to control them, since he basically can take away their whole lives if he so chooses. As he keeps building and building, he steals more and more resources from Mobius, and he builds over the Mobian city he started in (haven't really specified what it was yet), slowly making it his own over time. The only place he knows he shouldn't touch (just to stay in the good graces of Mobians) is Green Hill, a place that's sort of sacred, but more sacred in the way art is sacred, since it's a place hand built by ancient Mobians to be a wild place for them to roam free. Time passes Robotnik has been fattened up by his personal chef/baker Vanilla, and he's settled into being in control of so much of Mobius.

It's around this time when Sonic is born into the factory (of course given the canon name Ogilvie at first). He's taken away from his parents, whoever they are, immediately, and is put to work as soon as he's able to push a button. As he grows up, he's obviously too restless to do something so sterile, so he's put to work on the hamster wheels that power the Robotnik Empire. He never even thinks there's anything special out for him in the world, but eventually he, like the other workers, is given his semi-yearly vacation to the Green Hill, where they can recover their will to live. However, Ogilvie is so completely overrun with joy that he just runs off, never to return to the factory again. Eventually, of course, he changes his name to Sonic to fit his new life of just running around Green Hill.

Robotnik catches wind of there being a deserter, and decides to set out his robots, who secretly had battle functions all this time, into Green Hill to catch him. This is essentially where the first game would begin, just Sonic running around destroying Robotnik's robots as they come at him. However, Robotnik has a second in command: A young, two-tailed fox who he found outcast on the streets, who had a surprising knack for machines, something he didn't see in many other Mobians. He was named Miles Prower, and he grew up working for the one person who didn't ostracize him for his tails or his skills. He was only around 12 when Sonic, approx 16, escaped, and he was tasked with leading some of their more sophisticated creations into battle. 

Robotnik came along too with his own weapons, but they were both completely outmatched by Sonic's unbridled confidence and cockiness. Robotnik tore out what hair he had in anger, and of course that's when Sonic taunted him with his new nickname Eggman. Since Miles was there too, and he felt like he was on a roll, he called Miles "Tails," but Miles' reaction was much more ashamed than he expected, so he felt a bit off about that one. After the fight, Miles was repairing the machine Sonic destroyed, but he found him and met him on more even terms, and tried to convince him that there's probably a much better life for him out with him. He wasn't totally convinced yet, and couldn't exactly just defect from Robotnik like Sonic did, so Sonic left him be for now.

This is the general part where I start writing too many fine details, so basically Miles slowly starts enjoying himself more and more fighting Sonic and meeting him after the fight. He even adopts the "Tails" nickname for himself on the card of a present he drops off for Sonic, which was his much more durable and iconic sneakers. He finally breaks away from Eggman completely during an aerial assault on Sonic, where he prepared some supplies in the plane he was set to pilot, so he could take it away with him. He even was able to use some scrap from the battle to build a workshop for himself to live and work while Sonic still mostly just roamed free. This is around the point where the second game would start, since Tails has joined the cast and they can both battle Eggman together. If this were to be a game, I'd want Tails to be in the cockpit of each boss in the first game, so it helps set up his inclusion in the second, but obviously this is just a random floating idea for now. This isn't meant to be a concrete game/comic/animation/whatever.

But, that sets up most of the future events, even though there are some major stories to come, so on to the designs themselves:

As for overall Mobian redesigns, I always thought their giant ass hands and feet sometimes got in the way of their expressiveness, if they didn't just look kinda doofy (especially with characters like Knuckles) so the generic "Mobian" template has a smaller head, feet, and hands, and has a generally longer torso. Basically they just have slightly more """realistic""" proportions even though they're still obviously cartoony, just more realistic on the spectrum compared to the canon designs. And, since they're all one species, that means they evolved over time to match some of the animals around them, like a macro-evolution version of how Chao take on animal traits. That also means that the animal parts of their names are more like tribe affiliations, since they aren't actually the animals they say they are. For example, Knuckles the Echidna isn't an echidna in the species sense, he'd just call himself that to show he's affiliated with the Echidna tribe, and more generally that his people took on traits of the local echidna-echidnas. Meanwhile, characters like Tails/Miles Prower have a more family-based last name and a nickname for reasons I'll get into later. Also aside from that, I wanted characters that are Reptiles and Insects (Espio and Charmy mainly) to seem more unique from the mammals, so they look more distinct. And even the mammals look more animalistic in general, with longer snouts, getting rid of that weirdly detached muzzle thing most Mobian characters seem to have. Characters that are like Cats and Rabbits don't end up changing much since they aren't known for having long snouts anyway.

Sonic

Sonic was obviously the first one I tried redesigning so his design went through a bunch of changes, but the first thing I dealt with with him was his stupid conjoined eye thing. Obviously in that classic CD animation everyone loves it works out because its super stylized and simple, and all the current Mania versions of him make it work too, but it's really hard to unsee now in his modern designs. It's obviously meant to be like a Garfield type of thing, where it's just a cartoony way of having two eyes close together, but nowadays it really feels more like a Lightning McQueen type of eye windshield. If every Mobian had that then I'd keep it and just call it a stylistic thing, but no, only Hedgehogs have them, so... At first I tried representing that by making him have some kind of goggles to protect his eyes from the wind as he runs, but I couldn't get that to work, so I just split his eyes up. In his goggles-form I gave him this black brim to the goggles to kind of mirror Shadow's random red eye splotch he has, and since I liked that enough I kept a small bit of it in the current design. I also gave him some kind of double-sock type thing going on with much more athletic-seeming stuff to go under his more fluffy socks and gloves, which didn't feel all that necessary until I removed them at some point, and that just made him feel extra naked somehow. I do like them though. And, of course, he's actually wearing rings.

Aside from that, I kinda inadvertently made him look a lot like his Movie version, with his extra frazzled quills and blue arms and such. I definitely feel like he benefits from being extra sharp, so I added a bunch of spikes to things like his chest and shoulders. Even though it's not really important to mention I might as well, but the weird thing I think about his arms is that his normal Game design does basically need tan arms, but I actually think overall there's no reason not to give him blue arms in a form like this. It just makes sense.

Tails

Tails is mostly unchanged, just making his face fur blend more smoothly into his face instead of just being solo hairs glued on. His chest fur is more like a ball of fluff focused more around his actual chest, instead of just being a flat pattern on his stomach. I also gave him bigger ears for a bit of fennec energy, and a red scarf so his red shoes aren't the only red on his design. Aside from that, it's all just restylization, like making his tails extra fluffy.

Eggman (and Miles)

I'm still torn on what I want Eggman to truly look like. At first I wanted him to look a bit more like his SatAM-style version, with really short legs and a big fat belly, but then after seeing more and more fanart of him I tried to give him back his weirdly scrawny legs. No matter what though, he needed to have a giant coat with a massive collar to show his impression of himself. Also, I will always want to preserve his iconic smile, where his big toothy grin is basically glued to his mustache. That's pure Eggman.

And of course there's pre-Sonic Tails there too, with his fur very organized and clean, and with a much more grim demeanor. I also thought his tails would also be a lot less fluffy, and he kind of wraps them together like how a person wrings their hands together when they feel shy or awkward, showing how he hasn't fully embraced his mutation yet.

This is a quick little sketch I did of younger, thinner, and less bald Eggman when he first enters Mobius. 

After them, there are some characters that'd just be appearing around this point in the story, so here they are:

Amy… the Cat?

So for the longest time, I legitimately believed Amy was a cat, so I decided to make her a cat. It's that simple. She never really looked like a hedgehog, anyway. Plus, I do want to keep the main group as being Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, so it'd be nice if they were all different "species." Aside from that, I just made her former quills look like much more fluffy and soft hair, and gave her long sleeves just because this drawing convinced me it was a good idea. However, I did do a quick sketch to see how she would look if I kept her a Hedgehog, and in that one I took away the long sleeves since I thought that would be annoying with her chest/shoulder quills.

As for how she meets Sonic, she's working under Eggman as a blacksmith when Eggman starts going berserk over actually losing both a devoted worker and his right-hand fox. He puts up signs everywhere asking for people to enlist into an army with the sole purpose to capture him, but Amy is instead just smitten with this rebellious hunk she's just now heard of. She joins Eggman's forces, but breaks off on her own to join him. He's super willing to let anyone join, but since Tails knew how devoted to Eggman some Mobians could be, he thinks she's a spy at first. Over time, though, she proves herself, even if she can't quite catch up to Sonic.

Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla

Cream was always perfect, but I really hated that Vanilla was basically just a taller copy of Cream, so I tried to give her her own identity. Also since they're all named after food I decided to specifically make Vanilla a baker/chef, which also meant I could turn the one tuft of hair on her head onto an ice cream-y dollop. And even though that was decided before I decided to make Eggman start off skinny, it also meant that I could make her a pretty major part of Eggman's life, being the one who makes desserts so good he just couldn't help himself. Even though Eggman definitely loves stomping on the hopes and dreams of Mobians, he's actually quite fond of Vanilla (not in that way, thank god) and tolerates Cream. As for Cheese, I had this big idea of how to redesign all Chao mechanics a while ago, and one such idea was to have Luck and Intelligence forms of Chao just like the other stats, and I decided to make Cheese a Neutral/Luck Chao just before he evolves into his main adult evolution, since he's lucky to have Cream by his side. Literally. He's only with her because Eggman was experimenting with Chao, and Cream caught him in the act, and he tried to save face by giving her Cheese as a gift, which definitely took him off her radar. 

But, also, since when do rabbits only have one kid?

They're just rough ideas for now (except for Milk and Sugar for reasons) (and I also thought of there being a baby Butter as well but I can't be assed to save a new version of the sketch). Even though it doesn't make sense for each kid to be a different age, since rabbits more so have large litters, I just think this is more fun from a design perspective. Also, Vanilla having so many kids to worry about makes it more reasonable why she's so beholden to Eggman. She definitely can't just get up and leave when she has to worry about all of them. 

As for how Cream meets Sonic, I literally have a whole animated short planned out in my head because, if you couldn't tell, she's easily one of my favorite Sonic characters, but the gist is that once Eggman "gifts" her Cheese, Cheese starts drawing crude drawings depicting how Eggman treated him and other Chao. Cream slowly catches on to Eggman's evil in her own oblivious little way, and eventually just… walks out. Much to Vanilla's dismay. As she leaves though, Vanilla basically snaps from her goodie-goodie persona and practically holds a knife to Eggman's throat, telling him if any robot ever harms Cream while she's out there, "so help me god…" He relents as much as he can. Meanwhile, Cream just keeps walking to Green Hill. Tails notices her as he's flying the Tornado, and picks her up. She's a little disappointed that everyone's basically just living in the wild or Tails' crude workshop, but they try to make due for her pampered little self.

After that comes the first big story since the Origin/random extra happenings. 

Knuckles

Honestly I feel like Knuckles has to be one of my top redesigns. I definitely needed him to look more buff and big compared to Sonic, but not quite to the level of Boom Knuckles, and I think I really nailed it. Not only that, but making his coat and "skin" color darker just works so well. And, of course, with the dread-bands/paint of his tribe. Him just looking so much more square also just fits so well.

Knuckles starts off as usual guarding the Master Emerald all alone on Angel Island, but soon Eggman visits him without any armada, reading about the Chaos Emerald's power and finally wanting to use it to stop Sonic. He does his usual schtick of convincing Knuckles that Sonic is the real threat, and since Knuckles was so isolated he didn't even know who Eggman was, and joins him to stop Sonic. 

However, Tails isn't stupid, and keeps a solid ear to what Eggman is doing, and hears about his plan to take the Chaos Emeralds, so he and the others set out on a world-sprawling journey to get the Emeralds before he does. However, they aren't the only ones looking for treasure…

Rouge

Technically I redesigned Rouge first out of everyone, but for other reasons than the franchise-wide redesign. This is basically an adaptation of that. Similar to Amy, whose design was cursed by Girl-Character-Syndrome, I also wanted to fix up Rouge by going where no anthro female character has gone before… giving her a bare crotch. Crazy. The boys can run around stark naked while the girls can't not wear full body clothing, so someone had to pick up the slack. She at least has her top covered, but that's mainly because I'm kind of a sucker for her heart-boob thing. I really can't deny it. Oh yeah and the heart motif continues into her nose, because she's a bat, of course it would. Bats literally have heart-shaped noses but they didn't bother even giving her a tiny heart-shaped nose in canon. AND she even has full body fur, because her being completely bald across her body is even more of a sin to me than forcing her to wear full body clothing. Anyway, she's got dark skin too, because obviously, and I tried making her arms her wings at some point but I also wanted her to have normal humanoid hands, and that just didn't mesh well, so she's still got back wings. Aside from all that, I gave her a long index fingernail on her glove for lockpicking purposes or whatever, it just seemed like a weirdly fitting thing for a character once called Nails.

Anyway, Sonic and co stumble upon Rouge who had the same goal as they did, but of course with a different motive, although she promises to play nice and help them find the Emeralds (until she betrays them once they have them all)

At every Emerald, each situated in a different biome, they encounter Knuckles, who uses the elemental power of each Emerald to fight Sonic, although Sonic is usually able to snatch the Emerald away from him and make away with it. After every fight, Knuckles is more and more sure that Sonic is a threat, but once Sonic and co actually have them all, and find the Master Emerald too, Eggman is the one to make the first move, and snatches them away all at once to power the giant mech he built behind the scenes just for the Emeralds. Everyone teams up to steal back the Emeralds again, and Sonic feels a strange power inside of them and the Master Emerald. He asks Knuckles what it could be, and he says the Master Emerald must have determined that he should be granted their ultimate power. Sonic seems stoked, but Knuckles is seriously worried, thinking back to the tales his people told him of what happened last time… but thankfully this time, Sonic just turns an electric yellow, beats Eggman's mech to a pulp, and turns back to normal once the deed is done. Knuckles is a bit shocked, but relieved.

With all threats neutralized, Knuckles accepts that he was wrong, and makes amends, but he stays with the Master Emerald. Rouge goes off on her own again, too.

It's at this point, while still on Mobius, some other characters probably emerge. This could happen either after or during the previous events.

Sally Acorn

Even though I don't have much personal nostalgia for Sally, she used to be such a big deal that I couldn't NOT add her to the roster. Like Amy, I also got her species wrong, since I thought she was a squirrel and they just didn't have the guts to give her a big, bushy tail, but I was remiss to hear that she was actually a chipmunk, meaning her redesign couldn't have that amazing tail… but chipmunks do have pretty iconic patterns, so I made sure to include that in her hair. Apart from that, you can see all the changes. I imagined her home town being smaller, and even though she could be the daughter of her town's mayor, she wouldn't be a princess. I never really got princess vibes from her. Oh yeah, and she's still smol, like how she was always drawn in her original era. She can make up for it with her spunk. She would also have her own Speed/Fly/Power dynamic with Ray and Mighty, who are also still smol.

Bunnie Rabbot

I basically just mish-mashed all the parts of Bunnie's various designs that I liked, but the main part of her is her new story. She basically lives in this classic Western-style town held under Eggman's boot, and she's hired as an outlaw to catch Sonic, where she was given robotic enhancements both to give her extra power but also so Eggman could more directly control her. She's also the "bawss" of Fang and Trip, other outlaws hired by Eggman. Even though she doesn't personally hate Sonic, she needs to do what Eggman says, or else she knows he'll wreak havoc on her town. No amount of speeches about friendship and being a good person could turn her.

After all those events, the next stage of the story begins, where at some point Sonic goes Super to fight Eggman, but Eggman was ready. He manages to suck the Emerald power right out of him to power his ultimate plan--- the thing he more or less planned on doing from the moment he stepped foot on Mobius. However, the damage Sonic and co did to his plans during that time caused it to go haywire, sending giant white explosions shooting across the entire planet of Mobius. Practically every Mobian was transported to Earth, Sonic X style. And not just the people, but massive chunks of the planet too had warped on to Earth, practically fusing the two planets together.

But of course that opens up too many stories so time for a rapid-fire design overview lol

Chaos & Tikal

Obviously the events of Adventure would be next, but for the most part Tikal's design is just updated to match the new Knuckles. With Chaos however, I slightly changed his story to make it so that he mutated from a Chao for when he first turned into Perfect Chaos and destroyed the Echidna clan, and obviously making it so that he used to be a Neutral Chaos Chao. I also have a whole animated short mentally planned out of that moment which I'd kill to create. After the events of Adventure though, instead of like getting dragged off to Heaven or whatever Chaos is instead gifted just a little bit of power from the Master Emerald so that he could maintain a more solid form than his 0 form so he could live alongside people (as much as a water monster can), and in this form (which I'm calling Controlled Chaos) he looks more like a Chaos Chao and of course he also has an emotion ball, which the Chao quickly recognize and accept him in with them. I also like to think he could replace the role of Gemerl from the comics, where he is the superpowered being that helps protect Cream and her family (although clearly Vanilla is a bit more hesitant)

As for the events of the Adventure story itself, it's mostly the same, except for the fact that Knuckles wasn't at the Emerald when Eggman broke it open because he was slacking off alongside Sonic, which he beats himself up about before realizing the Emerald can be repaired. Also, with their Master destroyed, the Chaos Emeralds actually turn into chaotic masses of power that greatly affect the areas around them, making them more dangerous to obtain for Sonic and co. For example, maybe Ice Cap wasn't really that icy, but the Emerald Sonic was to get from there turned whatever it was before into a frigid mess. Maybe it would also spawn some sort of boss for them to fight to protect itself.

Also, here's Big. He's mostly the same except I wanted him to look more wild and unkempt. I also made it so he actually has a giant mouth, because in all his modern forms I honestly think his really tiny mouth looks super weird. 

Oh yeah and I guess one major thing I changed about all Mobians, they actually have feet and not just weird nubs. Really expanding the boundaries of design.

I also have ideas for Gamma and Omega from here, but it mostly boils down to Gamma actually having more personal interactions with the main cast, and once his story finishes and he explodes, Eggman laments that his best creation was going to waste, so he decided to rebuild him… but with less empathy. This backfires when the new Omega is disgusted by Eggman's method of just rebuilding him, and lashes out, going off to join the cause against him.

Then, for Adventure 2…

Shadow

For the most part, I just updated him to match Sonic's design, and gave him cooler gloves/shoes, but the main change is that I want him to feel more like a crazy genetic experiment. For one, you can see that he actually has gills similar to those of the Biolizard in his base form, probably just to help him take in more air/energy so he is less likely to tire, but more importantly I want his inhibitor rings to essentially be holding in the Doom powers he gets in Shadow Generations. When he takes them off, he basically becomes a darker shapeshifting mass that can barely hold himself together, instead of just becoming an objectively more powerful version of himself like in his canon form. It also makes more sense, since Gerald probably made those rings as he was ashamed that he had to resort to giving him Black Doom's DNA, and so that he could interact with Maria without hurting her.

The other big change is to Maria herself, who I wanted to be as goth as Shadow is, with her being more of the rambunctious goth type than an emo goth. I was always kind of annoyed at how generic anime-UwU precious babey Maria always was (even though she was greatly improved in Shadow Generations and Movie 3) so I thought making her have a more fun/imperfect personality would be more interesting, and would be more impactful during the Ark raid where she turns from a full-nonsense personality to someone who's actually afraid and desperate. I don't really have a solid visual design for her right now, but I've had a couple of iterations. I kind of want her to look less assured than she does here

Team Chaotix

You have NO IDEA how much I needed to change Charmy and Espio. Charmy looked like a weird cat/bear with a bee tail and Espio looked like some completely unrecognizable animal, even though you might be able to at least assume he's a chameleon if you knew his powers. 

For Charmy, I just needed to give him big bulging black eyes, a jagged mouth, and another set of arms to really show that he's an insect. If nothing else, it at least makes it obvious that he can't be anything BUT an insect. As for Espio, I decided that I could give reptilian Mobians various scales on their body instead of the mammals' chest coloring or whatever. I also gave him a more unique head shape and that weird fin thing which is much more chameleon-iconic than what he had before, and even gave him that wrinkly eyelid thing they have, while still giving him a more humanized expression.

As for Vector, since he was the rare Mobian who had an actually unique body type and head design, he stayed mostly the same. He's the main reason why I know the character designers at Sonic Team aren't ALWAYS copy-pasting their body types. I did have to change his outfit, mostly just to get rid of his weird shoulder-ball things which never will make any sense. What even are they?

Now, for the biggun

Blaze

Oooohh my god Blaze. When I was first thinking about adding her to the roster, I liked her a decent amount but didn't think about her too much. I did know that I wasn't going to change much about her design since it was already pretty much perfect, I just added more gold to her and made her ponytail more like a flame than her canon design, which looked more like feathers of some sort to me. I then just updated her tail to match the style.

What really changed was when I completely rewrote her story. I always thought it was so weird that they made her so special and weird, being a fire-bending princess from another dimension, but they barely went into fine detail about her, like, AT ALL. It doesn't seem like there's anything special about the Sol Dimension, aside from the Sol Emeralds, and her actual role as a princess is never really touched on at all besides her living in a castle as depicted in the comics, AND worst of all she's just sort of… born with fire bending powers? That's crazy even for Sonic characters. I mean I'll accept it but still, I feel like there should be something there. And it's also crazy that all of this was introduced in Sonic Rush, which, let's be real, has the most non-story there could be in a Sonic game. Nothing interesting and unique really happens in it. At least Rush Adventure did something new, but still. She deserves better

So anyway I changed practically every detail and am mentally organizing the full story, but the gist of it is essentially that 06 is now her debut game, and everything regarding Soleanna now involves her instead of Elise and all takes place in the Sol Dimension. You'd think it would be a little on the nose to make Soleanna a location in the Sol Dimension, but they didn't even bother to make that a thing. Same goes for Solaris. It feels so obvious, like it was meant to be that way in a beta form. On top of that, though, since she replaces Elise you can probably guess that she actually derives her fire bending power from Iblis, which is actually a power passed down in her family ever since Iblis and Mephiles were sealed. And, since she's clearly in more of a position of power than Elise, she can actually be the third in the 06 main character group instead of Shadow, since he gets enough attention elsewhere. 

As the story goes on and she realizes she has a flaming hellbeast inside of her, her sheer confidence gets broken and then regained thanks to Sonic supporting her. Maybe also includes a relationship with Amy because I can't help myself. Apart from that, there are so many details and story beats I'd love to share but really that would be a whole document all on its own. I'm surprisingly close to being able to write basically a whole movie script's worth on this thing.

But yeah every single detail I added to her story has now retroactively made her one of my all-time favorite Sonic characters, tied with Cream and Chaos. I basically freak out whenever she does literally anything, I'm kind of obsessed.

Also since the role of princess suggests there's a queen (unless you live in Equestria), here's the Queen of Soleanna

Silver

Now of course, ANOTHER peak redesign. I really think Silver specifically is the biggest upgrade out of everyone. I really needed him to look more weird and futuristic, making his whole body actually silvery instead of just kind of white, and making his clothes black to make his glowy tech bits more stark. I even turned his quills into flowing hair, just because. I like to think he's one of those characters that's unimaginably handsome without any effort, even though he doesn't realize it. 

Story-wise he doesn't change much, except of course since Blaze is doing her own thing, he's completely alone fighting to protect his future, which personally really helps show his character. He's the type to fight to his dying breath even if he knows he can't win, just so he can protect as many people as he can. I also think he's still the type who would take a can out from the bottom of those can pyramids in a cartoon supermarket, only to freak out when the whole pyramid topples down. He's a devoted warrior who, in low-stakes scenarios, is still kind of a lovable loser.

Except he wasn't always alone. He's the last remaining member of the Crested Knights (or whatever I want to call them), a genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced army of people made to quell Mephiles and Iblis as much as possible in the future. The second-to-last, his mentor Steel the Wolf, fell in battle with him, so he vows to keep fighting for him. Personally I think Silver having a deep personal attachment to someone in this way really makes him feel more loving and empathetic, which makes his goofy sides much more charming. I imagine him sharing stories of their past together over a campfire while Sonic and Blaze listen intently.

Also just because Blaze gets her own special super form because of the Sol Emeralds, I thought since the Chaos Emeralds are said to grant wishes, each individual who gets their power has a different "super" form. If we get Super Sonic and Burning Blaze, then we can also get Psychic Silver (it's still alliteration) where his psychokinetic abilities go haywire and his senses basically become perfect. 

Forces

The one thing I realized I didn't like about the IDW comics is that Amy was barking out commands like she was some seasoned war hero (which she kind of was) in her cutesy old Adventure dress, so that made me think that I should give her and everyone else their own special outfits for the Forces section of the story. Also, since the story of Forces is practically the same as SatAM aside from Sonic being involved, I made the Freedom Fighters become a part of this story, which are their own little task force. That also includes Nicole, who now actually looks like a holographic projection instead of just some random Mobian, although I might eventually design a more corporeal form for her. And, since Forces is one of those games where you realize they just didn't want to include humans for some reason, I decided to give Topaz from Sonic X a spot alongside Rouge in the Resistance. She'd still start off as a cop that Rouge enjoys ""messing"" with, but then once Eggman starts taking over she joins the forces against him. And since the IDW comics are practically a part of Forces' story, Lanolin can also be here, who I made chubbier since sheep always have a chubby aura. Tangle is there too but she's completely unchanged since she's already perfect. Same would go for Whisper but I haven't drawn her yet. And really the same goes for pretty much every other IDW character, since their designs are some of the best in the series imo.

The Ancients

I really thought the Ancients needed to look more alien and weird, and I wanted to give them clothes to mimic that of their tech. I also thought that the Koco could instead be their true brains/bodies, and the gel is another part of their tech. 

The main thing of their story is that I want them to be the origin of all Mobians and Chao. When they fled from The End to Mobius, after the big fight The End broke their bodies and brains, destroying the rocky shell around their true bodies, and making them back to being nearly animalistic. However, over time their malleable bodies evolved over time, some turning into the more capable and intelligent Mobians, while those that ended up in more protected areas didn't change quite as much and became the Chao, still being pretty soft and helpless. However, I also thought that the branch of them that fled to Mobius surely couldn't have been the ENTIRE species, so the other branches that fled away from The End ended up evolving into the species of the Black Arms and the Wisps. The Black Arms being a people who use more meaty, grotesque technology, and with the Wisps tending to use more abstract, colorful technology, assuming they use any at all, since they decided to live more naturalistically, even with their core bodies living outside of any other tech. This essentially makes Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) and Colors parallel stories, where they deal with the offshoots of the Ancients. If you couldn't tell, I also made them have traits of the Dark and Hero Chaos Chao, with Black Doom having the flame orbs above his head, and Mother Wisp having the halos and the head protrusions of the Hero Chaos Chao. They each also have cores similar to the Koco, with Doom's Eye essentially being his core, and the Wisps themselves each being a core, but with the Mother Wisp having a bigger body her core goes into. 

Those are all the major designs, but of course that isn't even it. For example, Some other characters that exist in my redesign are Sonia and Manic (fans of Sonic who hype him up in battle with music), Bokkun (mostly unchanged), Metal Sonic (just looks cooler), Sage (who I redesigned but honestly might not keep), Cosmo and the Metarex (both made a bit more alien), the Zeti (the Deadly Six and others of the species), and a whole redesign of Secret Rings and Black Knight which features even more stories like Peter Pan and Journey to the West. I could basically go on and on about it all but I have to stop somewhere lol

Thanks for indulging me

[lillxart]

Ranting about Mannimarco in eso

So I'm probably not the only person who's talked about this and I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about it but I literally woke up with it in my head and now I have to scream about it into the void.

Just look at this.

and then look at this

what a total colossal difference. I mean can you believe it? What were the people developing the art style even thinking? Both of our kings look good, but one is clearly Elder Scrolls coded and the other is clearly not.

I'm not the first person to point out how the art style choices for marketing eso and the cinematic trailers was abysmal when it came to animating the elves. Where is the yellow skin? The slitted eyes? Literally everything that makes TES elves distinct and unique against other interpretations? The Elder Scrolls has one of the most interesting and different lore out there compared to other fantasy worlds. Its lore stands beside Warhammer 40k, Tolkien, Classic D&D (which obvi since it was inspired by D&D XD) heck, even our own real world mythology!

The elder scrolls developed a dedicated fanbase because it was different and changing the art to make it look like everything else that's being produced in attempt to capture a more widespread audience just isn't going to work. There are other, easier and more fun MMOs that other people are going to play. What I think the developers don't realize is that MMOs are a COMMITMENT and you need to play on your strengths in the world building and gameplay to keep people coming back. What ESO had was an already dedicated fanbase willing to play it so appealing to a more widespread audience would only be so effective--especially MMO junkies who are already playing OTHER MMO's. ESO should've stayed with its strengths instead of doing....whatever it was doing with these trailers. And look, I genuinely don't care all that much this is just a scream into the void and forget about it kind of rant XD but it's so jarring to see these epic cinematic trailers where the elves look...normal? And then to get in game only to see the crusty yellow people we've all grown to love. We don't even GET the same character design for Mannimarco in the trailers, which I'm sure threw people who know nothing about elder scrolls for a loop. Wish we would've gotten to see OUR ELVES in an epic cinematic trailer. ;-;

[superpanda-art]

NiGHTS! I love this little dream jester a lot^^

Had a lot of fun experimenting with shading and brush textures, as well as NiGHTS' design!

[justajollyclown]

Here are some of my favorites I've watched (more like finally watched lmao) in 2024:

Self-explanatory 🤡🎀

I love Christmas horror! It's such a niche genre and I feel like a lot of horror fans don't want to give it a chance.

Black Christmas is a classic so it's a must watch. It's one of the oldest ones on my list which just proves that it really is holding up well after more than 50 years! There's no blood or gore (a lot of R rated language tho) so it's a plus if you like your horror without those. I really liked the atmosphere in this one, it's both very festive and anxiety inducing. Really liked the characterization too, most characters feel like real people. Also Olivia Hussey??? HELLO?? It's a must watch just because of this Queen alone ❤️. Silent Night Deadly Night again another classic! Before watching this one I read about it being almost banned because it was too gory, but to be honest it's not that bad people! It's actually kinda corny but still a very fun watch. Compared to Black Christmas this one is definitely more of a slasher Christmas film though so expect some low budget filmmaking. However, Robert Brian Wilson totally slayed (literally and figuratively) as Billy.

Christmas Evil is imo one of those "so bad it's good" films. It's my guilty pleasure Christmas slasher just because it's sooo audacious? The stuff that happens in this film is so insane the writers must've been on something 😭. The main protagonist, Harry, is a middle-aged toy-factory worker who wants to BE Santa Claus. He spies on the neighborhood kids and writes "naughty" and "nice" lists. At one point, Harry steals a ton of toys and just starts giving them out to kids on Christmas. The plot sounds so simple but the film is just so surreal, it feels like a fever dream. Honestly, it's the AUDACITY for me. This plot is SUPER corny but idk it just works and the film is unintentionally hilarious.

Won't babble too much about these, I should've watched them ages ago. Sleepy Hollow was more enjoyable than I thought! For some reason, Tim Burton's films aren't really my thing but this was a nice surprise because it DOES feel very Burtonesque? It's more of a "10yr olds first scary movie" but idc, I got scared a few times lmao. American Psycho truly is the DIVA of horror. Enough said 💅.

I don't even know if The Menu can be classified as horror, even though it has a lot of horror elements. Still I really liked it! I thought the premise was unique and well executed (no pun intended). There's also a nice little twist at the end so I really recommend it! Also, Anya Taylor-Joy ❤️.

Not me shivering while watching The Conjuring 😭. I swear this is the ONLY horror film that has actually done that to me! Horror films with religious undertones really do spook me the most I guess. The sound design is PHENOMENAL in this one, so if you like to get scared I really recommend this one (I've watched the second film in the series but the first Conjuring is still way more spooky). Smile was also a pleasant surprise. A friend recommended it to me even though we have vastly different taste. I'm not really the psychological horror type but Smile really was solid! I know this is an unpopular opinion but Smile 2 kinda pales in comparison to 1 in my opinion. The reason I liked the first so much was because it looked so gritty and ofc the reveal of the monster was at the very end for just a few minutes. I feel like the protag being a psychiatrist and still not being able to deal with her inner turmoil contributed more to the monster's scare factor. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Naomi Scott's performance, I think she really deserves all the praise, but the second film kinda felt more cartoonish to me? I think it might be because of the abundance of jumpscares and the CGI was everywhere so the monster ended up looking more goofy in my eyes (like- creepypasya tier goofy). Smile 2 was still an okay film but I def recommend the first one!

favorite horror films you watched in 2024? here are mine:

i really started getting into horror this year but in 2025 i will have more movies 😋

tagging @dominionatrix @artsfavoritehorn @xenoanamorph @justajollyclown @evilvvithin @garlic-the-gnome @fatal-feast @aviesaurusrex @clownyclaushoe @thatspookyghoul996 @milescounty & anyone else who wants to participate <3

[critter-covenant]

ANYWAYS SDMSBnsbfns elaborating on the smiling critters but with bows thought

here's just one (1) singular of them for now: catnaps

Wanted to draw refs of all the critters all together but I'm impatient and busy so 1 by 1 it is instead womp womp, maybe I'll link them together as I go along yahooo

[starry-bi-sky]

catch me looking up nightingale symbolisms for tales of the passerine. if danny's using the name of a songbird for a hero name, regardless of familial connections, i will utilize the symbolism tied to the bird. Anyways general gist of the nightingale symbolism i've seen, other than what wikipedia told me, is that nightingales were frequently symbolisms of spring renewal, loss/death, love, etc. catch me about to incorporate music into Danny's character

[monkayy]

i just wanted to say i love ur art so much and ur take on taylor. its so important for me that taylor be flatchested clocky femme representation and i feel like u capture that so well like ive never seen my mental image of taylor from reading worm so well-represented. its rlly incredible. also if u ever do commissions id love to see bitch in a skirt with hairy legs and choppy blond hair

Thank you so much!! I also have strong feelings about taylors design!!

I dont do commissions however my 2 art buttons are labeled "wouldn't it be funny" and "*praise*" so here

[weaselweaselweasel]

Distracting myself by thinking about some TMA avatar original characters tonight!

I have vague undeveloped concepts for the Web, End, and Hunt already, but taking a pause from those to look at the Corruption

Nothing concrete, but like. You know how caterpillars go into their little cocoons and turn into sludge before becoming butterflies? That. That’s straight heat I like that

[celtrist]

Why does Vassago already have merch, we haven't even met him yet

[kwillow]

Hello! This is really random I'm sorry. In your recent comic with the toy store shopkeeps, one of them is a bird! Inquiring bird nerds want to know, are they based on a specific species? My first thought was Canada jay but the white outer tail feathers don't match perfectly, and my boyfriend guessed they were some kind of tit! Very curious and would love to hear if you had a specific species in mind for the birdy when designing. :]

I DID! I'm pleased you asked.

Canada Jay's a great guess based on the markings, but he was indeed based on a kind of tit. A Long-Tailed Tit, to be exact!

I knew I wanted to pick a round-shaped bird with this kind of head marking (to evoke male pattern baldness haha), and just looked at different species of birds that live in colder environments until I found one I liked the look of. Not the most precise resemblance (I still need practice drawing birds), but I'm happy that I captured the look well enough that his tit-ness was recognizable.

[freskabri]

Haven't posted art ever in a hot minute. Might start just posting whatever doodles I do... like this one :) Was testing a new brush when I made this fox(?) lady and her rude frog companion who I definitely didn't put on the same layer as the lineart.

(My art has become very different in the last year, and this one in particular is very inspired by @redundantz style!!! Especially in the eyes.)

[stealingyourbones]

First season of ninjago has been binged and my only opinion is that so many conflicts could have been solved with any one of said ninjas had a gun.

[piierrote]

Girls Asterisk my loser fake band <3

Their sketches for comparison!! I think Nat has a charm in the original sketch that i really liked that I fear I didnt quite get in her final drawing but I do enjoy how everyone turned out! Especially Eui!!

[narwhalandchill]

anyway. actually somewhat invested in hsr endgame again thanks to feixiao Personally for being so strong And fun so. convoluted gamer ramble time uwu

bc i in fact went and Actually cleared the current apocalyptic shadow with her after procrastinating on the 4th stage bc shit just didnt look worth the wonky strategizing and several retries itd likely take me for a clear at all with all the multi target bullshit happening w both kafkas summon thing and the other one (forgor the name rip) when i had none of the recent weakness ignoring/implanting 5* carries that could shrug it off no problem. so i had just done the 3rd difficulty when the mode refreshed and p much left it there to wait for 2.5

BUT shes here so!!! wahoo. apocalyptic shadow hater era temporarily retired lets see what my girl can do 😤😤

first tries were before today so obviously no robin yet but i got a very good very nice very easy feixiao moment first side clear anyway looking like this

like. very much a nice scrumptious comfy clear we love to see it and a score perfectly capable of carrying a weaker 2nd half clear as long as i got that clear

......buuut as you can see. from the score. on the 2nd scuffed team that id like to call the certified "omg so sorry for not pulling firefly" cope gang. Yeah about that. Clear. i needed. just a successful clear so feixiao side could carry me to the 3* . Wasnt happening actually 💀

bc like. i wasnt even killing the boss before it merked someone (usually himeko or gallagher) and by that point it just fell thru 😭😭 always got thru its 1st phase fine enough but the 2nd just wasnt working out despite several retries where it just played out the exact same every time . so i let it be for a few days kinda thinking i just wouldnt bother w the third star bc at least i got most of the jades there

buuuut. Robin today so i wanted to go try the same 1st half clear with her too (it was a massacre. feixiao can literally get a total of 4 ults during robins ult if u break kafka before the uptime ends bc broken boss = free max flying aureus stacks 💀💀💀 when she can store 12 total) so i was kinda like. fuck it lets TRY to clear that 2nd side too at least try to stay alive and see what i can do bc. the team still felt like i had the right idea going and super break is supposed to be the hsr hyperbloom for content like this anyway . Surely i can figure it out

like firstly i finally put my gallagher on the 2p fire break planars over just usual keel id been using since it was becoming clear that the team as a whole just needed more super break dmg. and same for himeko (i actually had forgor her on sigonia for PF so that was embarrassing) with a break rope + fire orb with crit and speed

.....buuut it still wasnt working out :/// oh well

and like im p much assuming its literally just a gear issue of not actually having enough of a break hybrid build going on for himeko for the clear to work out smoothly at this point (bc himeko break 100% should suffice for this stage. i think mines too slow mostly) so i. went back to the drawing board aka stealing ideas from the one (1) even slightly worthwhile user-generated content category on hoyolab aka lineup assistant and a particular team just. Jumped out at me from there as having potential and well. only had to kick out himeko for none other than the recently e6'd dashing xianzhou swordplay apprentice from the express who beloved by all and i.

Holy shit

im so sorry for my feeble ignorance miss march i wasnt aware of your insane break meta game 😭😭😭😭🙏🙏💕💕💕

Like. on some level yes i Knew her kit had a more break oriented side to it . And that she did some crazy weakness dmg with her fully stacked enhanced basic. but holy fucking shit her and making gallagher shifu just. Slay

like the team lineup on hoyolab i stole for this idea had an E6 gallagher. and a fully farmed 4p iron cavalry for march w insane total BE AND crit. like just v strong investment going on. Whereas i literally just slapped the break rope and fire (yes) orb id attempted on himeko on march and STILL watched her and my feeble e2 gallagher w just 2p 2p BE absolutely obliterate the 2nd half on first try like 😭😭😭😭 thank you march best girl with the cutest design truly the savior of ALL firefly skippers......