#also while coloring i tried to limit my palette as much as i could

[crystalpallette]

little red riding hood but there's no hood and the big bad wolf is a cat and I don't think there's anything to ride in the forest and ringo could be littler so really it's just. red.

[goomyloid]

What was your process for making the Noelle amv, if you don't mind sharing?

hii! im not sure how eloquently or clearly ill be able to explain it but i definitely have some pictures you can look at!

(the video)

i actually got the idea while i was away on a trip with very limited wifi -- it wasn't Trust Me that i got an AMV idea for first, but instead it was one of 4syu's other songs, There's Nobody. for such a happy sounding song it really made me so sad, to the point where if i tried to sing it to myself id get choked up by the chorus LMAO. it was baddd

but basically i was rapidly trying to find both songs on spotify so i could listen to them offline, and it only took me a few loops of Trust Me and thinking about the original MV to make me go "ohhhh. how can i make this about noelle." And so i did .

i was thinking about doing a storyboard, but in the past, i've found that doing storyboards for animations/AMVs lowkey... kills my motivation altogether... SAD... but i saw the whole video so clearly in my head, and i didnt want to make the same mistake i made before... so i went right to doing quick sketches (while still on my trip...) just so i could get the ideas out of my head

i was torn on what to do with my style at the time, whether i wanted to make it more similar to the original video, or to her canon appearance, or to MY style and how i draw her. i think it kind of ended up as an amalgamation of all three...? at the very least, her light world color palette definitely was more bland and desaturated, like i purposefully wasn't trying to do anything special with her colors.

after that point, and getting maybe a few of the actual drawings done, my motivation crashed again, and i left it all to marinate for nearly a week. it was baking, guys, it wasn't abandoned, listen to me, why are you throwing tomatoes at me,

i had up to about the "I dreamed about that again" animation done and stopped, and it wasn't until i decided to sit down and start editing it anyway that i really got in my groove again. i got all my little assets into a workable state so i could really try to sit down and make the video come to life and all

the really fun part was honestly working on the desktop backgrounds. i really wanted to limit colorpicking from the original video as much as possible, but i decided that making look as similar as possible to the original could help with the contrast i wanted to add later.

i drew these two backgrounds first. i was hoping i could somehow fit the bunker into the second one, but decided to do something different anyway. the second one's ui didn't actually change until later in the editing process.

drawing THESE were fun especially, and im happy with how they came out. i think the dark world icons are really cute still. one thing i really did know i wanted to do from the beginning was to turn the soul/undertale icon into the deltarune one.

i was worried if the shift from the Windows Field Background to the dark world would be too sudden, like you would just blink and suddenly it was all different, but i think it ended up all right...?

the not so fun part was drawing all the different boxes, lmao. it go really tedious by the end, so i tried to reuse as many of the same ones as i could.

a lot of copy-pasting and tracing rectangles for sure.

i also had to make sure the animations didnt Suck. i brute forced those things and used every last braincell i had in order to make those pictures move bros

fun fact. ive never animated hair like this before. or in any complex manner really. i had to use sooo much brain here... heres how it started vs. how it ended up

had my animator gf hype me up thru the whole thing... i was having a great time based on the filenames alone

aaaand then ummmm i edited it. i learned after effects like 1 month ago. never touched it before. i learned it for internship purposes and then used my newfound powers for evil it seems

i split the whole thing up into multiple compositions of course, but i probably could have split things up more... im sorry for having 84 layers on comp 3 its not my fault

editing a video in 12 fps was a fun change though -- very easy for my brain to go frame-by-frame, and yet still some of the timing ended up being off... tis the goomy way

like i said before, i started editing when i barely had half the drawings done, but seeing it all start to be in motion really pushed me to finish it up. and i mean Really. like i finished the whole thing maybe 48 hours after i first started editing.

and...i think that's it? i do a lot of discord art streaming to friends lately but i kinda kept this one more under wraps compared to usual, i think i just wanted to surprise everyone... look guys i remembered how to make a video! and it's three minutes! waow

sorry if this is way more than you asked for LMAO

also, the AMV hit 5k views on youtube today! ive never had a video do well like that so quickly! thank you!!

[manonssunset]

That clip of Lara saying she's gonna get a full sleeve on her arm keeps putting thoughts in my head about her meeting a tattoo artist reader who she ends up going to almost every time she wants new ink.

They'll spend a lot of time together planning the design she wants. As they get more comfortable with each other, a lot of that planning happens after they've gone out to eat on totally platonic, definitely professional, lowkey flirty '''friend''' dates.

When they finally get into the sessions, on Lara's request, reader does house visits for her (which they usually never do).

The tension between them slowly builds session after session. Reader is especially attentive and caring with her, and they try to stay as professional as possible. Meanwhile Lara is just--- trying to breathe and resist jumping their bones every time she feels reader's hands against her skin.

The last session somehow ends up being less than professionally intimate, with Lara on reader's lap as they finish the upper section of the tattoo by her shoulder/collarbone. Reader's barely put the machine and supplies aside before they're making out with each other. The reader becomes Lara's personal tattoo artists and something more, and they lived gayly ever after- amen ✋🏾

(Hi!! Hope you're having a great day- I love what I've seen on your blog so far and also the colour palette is veryyy pretty 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️)

(I know you said to drop some thoughts in your inbox, but I didn't expect myself to write this much. I'll probably ask if you could do a longer story in the future but for now it would be nice to see your own thoughts on it--if you're up for it, I think I just needed to let my gay thoughts out frrrrr thank you for the opportunity✨️)

- ✨️

OMG I LOVE THIS

I often think about lara getting a full sleeve too. the idea of a tattoo tour is always in the back of my mind, maybe I will write about it someday...

anyway, back to your ask, lara would definitely be the type to initiate those "platonic" dates, asking reader to design the tattoos together while grabbing coffee.

reader and lara would totally forget the original purpose of these hangouts and end up talking about their lives and interests for hours. not to mention the number of flirty remarks exchanged, with lara always praising reader's ability to draw while flipping through their sketches.

when lara asks reader to tattoo her in her living room, reader feels a bit taken aback by the request but accepts anyway, having developed a soft spot for lara.

these sessions are filled with tension as reader tries to keep things professional, avoiding touching lara too intimately, while lara's breath is just so unsteady, biting her lips to suppress the little gasps she lets out every time their hands brush against her overly sensitive skin.

by the final session, all the tension that had built up until now finally erupts when lara, after reader finishes the tattoo on her shoulder, makes a bold move. she straddles and kisses reader, pulling their face closer by the neck, while reader places their hands on her thighs, slowly making their way to cup and squeeze her ass. 😳😳

you didn't include it in the ask, but I can already visualize how beautifully the tension build-up could evolve into something intimate and steamy, oof... 🫣

btw I'm so happy that someone appreciates the aesthetic and the visuals of my blog. I really put effort into making the pictures and the colors look nice and cohesive, so knowing that at least someone likes them is really heartwarming, thank you anon 😭😭.

also, I actually really enjoy longer thoughts so don't feel limited, write as much as you want, and feel free to share all of your gay thoughts, I will gladly read them and share what I think.

[auriidae]

more of these guys :] (part 1) (part 2)

classpect thoughts under cut! yippee

these absolute fools gave me SO much trouble. i changed each of their classes and/or aspects like twice while drawing this lmao.

pearle was going to be a rage player initially! i had her down as one for the chaos — yknow, ‘red’s my favorite color’ and all that. but the catch ended up being that in this au, as rage represents in-game chaos and bloodlust, it only exists while the game is in effect, and so rage players don’t have much dominion over stuff that happens after that period ends (which has all sorts of delightful implications for grienn’s character, but anyways). meanwhile pearle definitely continues playing and also grows as a character even in times of peace. i was thinking in terms of comparing her arc in double life to secret life in particular — ‘she left the tower’ and all that, yknow? she went from being terribly isolated and functioning on a completely independent scale, winning only for herself, to being a key member of a team and finding a purpose in helping them. which is pretty incredibly space-coded, in my mind! my personal qualification for space players is that they’re destined to be lonely, often physically separated in some way from others, for a while but not forever — because space is about creation, after all. and if you look at being a witch from the perspective of reinvention — what pearle manipulated or reinvented here was herself. she found her place in the story and the person she wanted to be. witches are also some of the most powerful characters in terms of specifically manipulating their aspect, i think, which is great because i’ve heard she's pretty great at pvp lol

ignore that martyn’s color palette is not particularly great it’s hard to unify the design of a character who is super rustblood-coded but also inextricably linked to the colors green and yellow of all things. i’ll redesign him later. anyways! at first i had thought there might not be any light players in this session — since light is about sort of seeing through the laws of the game and often deliberately defying them, as well as having a certain degree of control over narrative agency due to this. and because, yknow, the life series is a minecraft youtube roleplay series, realistically the ccs aren’t going to be playing any characters that go out of their way to completely ruin the game or refuse to play it by the rules altogether. but then i started thinking — and i don’t know an awful lot about martyn’s character so forgive me if i’m going a little bit off the rails here — does martyn want to understand? because if he as a character tries to understand and affect his destiny even though he’s ultimately limited by the nature of the story itself, then he could totally be a light player. so that’s where i was coming from here. think about how he won limited life in the end, for instance — not by playing into what the game itself had been leading up to, but by acting on and finishing his own story. he’s a knight because i do think knights are a certified Narrative’s Little Guy class — they persevere through so much pressure and often also have that sort of dual persona thing, both of which are particularly endearing to an audience. it’s hard work, keeping up with the narrative and fulfilling his own quest for understanding while he’s at it!! but he does it!!

renn is Such a blood player guys he is such a blood player ohhh my goodness. playing the game in terms of your relationships with others, right? basing how you go about it on allies and interactions, and being a leader above all else? i’d say that’s pretty ren the dog coded tbh. i don’t have too much to say here because i think seer of blood renn is pretty self-explanatory — he sees the entire game as a game of relationships and ties. he has a lot of knowledge about this field specifically, and shares it with his allies in the way he helps direct them and keep them alive. the reason he’s blood instead of light is because he puts his allies over knowledge, i think — he’s far too busy dealing with all that stuff to speculate for too long what the purpose of it all might be, and that would detract from his goal (of winning alongside others or dying nobly), anyway.

again questions abt them are open forever always :3

[gamebunny-advance]

Developing S0-R0 (Sketches)

I just feel like drawing Kun3h0-likes lately, so I decided to work more on developing a "rival" character for her. Right now, I'm whittling away at this design that I'm calling "S0-R0" for the time being.

The 2 pics are the latest drawings, then I have the progress of getting to that point in chronological order. You can see the very first "rival" sketch in the last Misc doodle dump.

When I first went into this project, I didn't have any strong direction for where I wanted the character to go. Since Kun3h0 isn't fully developed as a character either, it was kinda hard to think of a foil to basically nothing. However, I did know that I at least wanted the rival's theme to be "stars" to contrast Kun3h0's hearts. So whatever I did was gonna drift towards sharpness.

The first chronological sketch is almost a straight inverse of Kun3h0's design in terms of palette. I wanted the silhouette of their arms and legs to be roughly similar so that it's more clear that they're supposed to be connected and not (just) that I have a limited amount of body-plans that I default to. I do like the black/green color scheme, but they've got a real "XBox" and "Monster Energy" vibe to them.

The outfit itself was heavily based on these clothes, just to give me a little direction, but the current design really drifted away from this.

(I added spinning bulborb just so the clothes wouldn't stretch out the post too much)

I also borrowed an old idea from my "Digital Idol Kayane" design, where she had some of her elements floating around. I figured since Kun3h0's ears/antenna just kinda "float" that I could apply the same logic to the whiskers. That detail would persist through most iterations of the design, but I eventually dropped them.

But, I was still pretty unhappy with that design, so I made another sketch and started working around it. The first iteration was mostly a palette swap to get away from Monster Energy, so I went with cyan since it's a kinda futuristic color that I thought would go great with the black base. Eventually it evolved into the second iteration where I went back to giving them the pants of the very first rival sketch and working from there. I'm not quite sure where the idea for the spikes came from. I think I just wanted to add some more "sharpness" to really work in the star motif, but then that kinda became the "main" motif beyond the stars.

I thought the black/cyan/red color scheme was really cool, but it kinda works against my established symbology where stars are yellow and moons are blue. In the event that I design a moon-motif character in the GAB universe, it would be odd for them to now not be able to use blue because the star-motif character got to it first. So, I did another palette swap, this time exchanging cyan for yellow and gold.

While I was working on that, I also got the idea to design their mascot to help with the design process. Since Kun3h0 was originally based on GAB, I thought that it might help me come up with ideas to solidify the mascot design first and that would help me design the rival proper. So, I made this little fox fella and have been designing S0-R0 around them since. I made several other palettes for the mascot, but in the end I went with my first design.

Finally, I took another stab at the outfit and landed on this minidress and made the collar comically large. I really liked the idea of this slim body being covered in large, overbearing spikes. I also took out more of the red accenting since I wanted to limit their palette as much as Kun3h0's, which is a neutral + 2 shades of the same color + a pop of one other color for small details.

It's not perfect yet, but I do like this direction. I went with this for some rough characterization: While GAB sought out someone with a strong heart to help them, FOX (name not final) sought someone with physical strength. Unlike Kun3h0 who is more emotional than a robot ought to be, S0-R0 tries to complete tasks as efficiently as possible, which leads to them using physical force to address most of their problems. They're not evil per se, they just don't consider the greater ramifications of their actions if they still ultimately complete their original task.

I haven't drawn it yet, but I think their weapon would be a morning star/flail.

[ihopesocomic]

I'm so sorry if it's too long but I just did a reread and decided to take a look at the designs on Toyhouse and it reminded me how much I love IHS.

I love all the designs of your characters, they are so deliberate. Take the Golden Grove family for example. Their fur colours perfectly match the name of this pride - all characters from this place are golden/have fur that's a certain shade of gold. Just by looking at them you can tell that they're related. But that's not everything.

I looked at the designs of three sisters and their parents and I noticed how some of the traits of their parents can be found in their daughters. Vicious is almost a copy of her mother Watchful, while Clever looks so much like her father Wild. They all have respectively a similar coIours and face shapes. In all of that Careful, the middle child here, is a perfect combination of her parents - she has her father's muzzle shape and eyes shape but her colour palette is more like her mother's. All marks are placed with so much thought that they help to recognise a character. The funny thing about the similarities with parents is that you probably created sisters first and then their parents - so you actually had to take a look at the sisters and then create their parents. While making sure everything made sense.

I tried to find similarities with Hope, Adamant and Quiet but I find it a bit harder, maybe cause they're still young. But older Hope definitely reminds me of Clever and Careful, rather than Vicious. Maybe it's the fur on her cheeks. I noticed that Adamant has the same fur colour as her grandfather, Jasper the First and I find it cute. And of course, how could I not mention Breccia and her freckles that she gave to all of her grandchildren. I love them <3

What I mean to say is that I adore how much thought and effort you put into your story. Every time I reread I find something new to adore. I love the plot and world, but I really like how you also put effort into your designs. You manage to make all characters stand out and be easy to recognise but you also find a way to make sure that audience can tell who is related to who. Thank you so much <3

And tbh I really like the new schedule with a page for week.

Well first of all, I do love a good wall of text, so don't apologize haha

Second, I'm glad you like the new schedule. It's actually activated the speculation part of the fandom, which we also love LOL

Third, THIS MAKES ME HAPPY! I love when people go back and notice the details we included. I did work backwards from the sisters to the parents, just because we had no intention on showing the grandparents, but people asked and I thought they'd be fun to design too. And they were! (This is to go with a previous ask, but this is also part of why we did away with color-coding, just cuz Wildfire looked great as a blonde, but maybe he's from somewhere sandy, who knows.) And it was interesting distributing all the different characteristics of them. Still not satisfied with Careful, I wish I'd thought on her a biiiiiiiit longer. I just didn't think anyone would care about her LOL

Hope will look more like Clever when she gets older, so once I can properly elongate her face, it'll be more obvious. I'm slowwwwwly gonna show them aging, Storm's hair will get longer, Adamant will be more buff, stuff like that. Right now (and people will see this on next week's page) Hope actually looks pretty similar to Careful. Careful just has to pull some more... Hopelike faces first for it to be obvious haha

Overall I'm happy with the designs and it brings me much joy to have people analyze them. Character concept is one of my favorite things to do, and I like being creative while being limited at the same time. Lions are a good way to practice that. So thank you again! - Cat

[pulim-v]

Talk Shop Tuesday: what's your process for designing a new character? How do you determine things like their color scheme or what animal they're going to be? Do you usually spend a while refining your characters, or do they come to you all in one burst?

Okay so it's been a while since I last designed a character, but there is some method to my madness lol

For Mist and Spark, I wanted there to be a lot of contrast between them while also having stuff that ties them together - hence both of them sharing an accent color (yellow) and being dogs, while their main colors are complementary and their other species are very different

For the rest of the main six, I just asked my friends for two animals they like lol (with the stipulation that apart from Fern all of them had to be mammals)

Their colors... I don't remember how I did that part. I think I was going through the color wheel trying to pick something interesting for all of them, but I do know there was a lot of tweaking involved - Rowan's color scheme used to be a lot lighter, Dew used to be purple instead of orange, and Fern took quite some time to get the pink and black color scheme. For the girlie ever Basil, her color scheme came about just from her species, since she is a coral snake

For the side characters, most of them are just one-off archetypes that I end up messing with until they're something unique; like with Basil, I wanted her to be this sort of really sporty person and gave her a slightly more butch appearance than my female characters at the time, but that developed into her current style that I *think* can be categorized as punk, with the leather jacket and combat boots and all that.

Believe it or not whether I go with the first draft really depends on the character LMAO like with Dew and Via I had three separate design phases for each (Dew especially took a lot of tweaking and experimenting to get his hairstyle and color palette right), meanwhile Mist has been pretty much stagnant design-wise if you don't count his outfit changing as I got more and more experience with drawing clothes

The amount of designs I do also depends on a lot of stuff, like I did a whole burst of eight side characters at once (and haven't drawn any of them in months lmaooooo) but sometimes I just don't come up with anything for a while, especially right now that FGCC has hit a point where it has a good amount of characters and the other stories are mainly developing dynamics between characters I already have established

Now, with all those messy ramblings out of the way, here's how I would design a brand new character right now:

Think of a role that needs to be filled. Like, uhhh, the Calculus teacher.

What sort of basic premise can I go for here? I already have a concept for the Chem teacher (he'll show up for a bit on Rowan's Birthday) and he's a really chill teacher that doesn't mind if the students' methodology isn't perfect as long as they understand the concepts and get the right results, so I could go for the polar opposite: a really strict teacher that wants every aspect of the subject to be done perfectly, with little room for error

In terms of species, I think I could go for some more non-mammalian characters, as a way to make my lineup a tad more diverse, so how about an owl? It's a tad stereotypical, but I think it could work to kinda show their more strict and stern nature. Plus, there's a ton of visual variety in owl species irl, so there's a lot of design potential both if I limit it to a single species and if I mix and match them

Then I'd actually draw the design, mostly paying attention to their build, clothing, and animal features (I tend to forget stuff like wings at this point so it'd probably involve a ton of tries lol)

After I'm satisfied with how the design looks, I take a picture of the final sketch and draw over it on my phone, and this is where I actually choose the color palette. For this one, I'm thinking a simple palette is best since they'd be a very minor side character, so maybe something like a mix of grey and either blue or red. Blue for the usual color theory associations (and also tying them to Mist a bit since they're both rigorous) or red to tie them to Via, since Via's plot has a few ties to Calculus specifically

And done! After that I'd probably draw the character a lot until they've ship-of-theseus'd into something unrecognizable (like Dew who has changed almost everything in his design lmao)

Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the really rambly answer akjsdhaskjhdjkas

[reversemoon255]

So, on October 19th 2021, exactly two years ago as of posting this, GinjaNinjaOWO over on the YT did a very fun video discussing swapping the concepts of Pokémon's two mascots, Pikachu and Eevee. That was also when I was really getting into the swing of character/creature designing, so I wanted to try my hand at it myself. I did the original pass in about a month, but recently looked over them and went "I can do this better," so here we are.

Here's the first pass from 2 years ago (before I got my tablet). I kept the first few designs I worked on, adding new concepts and motifs while scrapping the final 3 designs I did. When I did them originally, I think I was feeling a bit of burnout by the end, and was just going with the first things that came to mind, rather than coming up with something really creative.

Pichu was the first one I went back over. Originally, I just tweaked June's Pichu concept designs as I was more interested in designing its evolutions. The one thing I did keep from that first draft was the cheek placement under the eyes. All baby Pokémon reference something babies do, and having these faux-tear marks that then further evolve into other things as it itself evolves was something I liked and wanted to keep. As for the patterns, I wanted to go with something very generic, or template since it was going to evolve into 8 different rodents. I also drew it in multiple poses (something I did with every design), as movement is very important to modern Pokémon.

Zazachu was the third design I worked on (we'll get the the second later). With aspects like the surfboard tail and life vest fluff, it very much informed aspects I would add to all the other evolutions. I also tried to keep the colors in mind. I imagined this being one of the three Gen 1 evolutions, and Gen 1's color palette was very influenced by being sprites first, so I tried to choose colors that would be distinct when grayscale.

The second new Gen 1 design is Hirachu, a Flying-Type. One of the things I was trying to keep in mind was to not limit myself to the Types Eevee uses, and instead use ones that fit either Pikachu or the gimmicks I wanted to use. Since Pikachu was well known for learning Surf and Fly in Gen 1, I thought I'd incorporate that not only into its Types, but into its evolution method, having Pichu evolve into Pikachu, Zazachu, or Hirachu based on whether you teach it Flash, Surf, or Fly (all of which are HMs and have infinite uses). In Gen 1, I imagine it would evolve immediately after learning the move, but this would change in Gen 2 for reasons we'll discuss soon.

As for design elements, its spots and fluff are meant to invoke an aviator scarf and goggles, and I think I did a good job of illustrating how it uses its tail. I imagine the balloons are created by it secreting a sticky substance from the spots on its back to mimic how Pikachu would summon balloons when it used Fly in games like Pokémon Stadium.

We now move onto the Gen 2 designs with Orachu (which is a Jojo reference). Most Pikachu-like, and all Eevee designs are used to demonstrate a gimmick introduced in its introductory game. Pichu is breeding, Plusle and Minun are double battles, Pachirisu is the physical-special split, Dedenne and Sylveon are Fairy-Type, Pawmi is movement-based evolutions, Espeon and Umbreon are the day-night cycle, and Glaceon and Leafeon are location evolutions.

I wanted to keep with the breeding theme Pichu used in Gen 2, as well as the evolution method I started using in Gen 1, so Orachu evolves by leveling up while knowing Counter, which Pichu could only learn through breeding in Gold and Silver.

But then, if Pichu evolves by leveling up while knowing one of four different moves, what would happen if it knew two or more? That's where our second Gen 2 design, Nanichu, comes in. This was a design I had a lot of fun with. It's a Ghost-Type, and I thought it'd be cool to make its eyes and cheeks match and glow in the dark (similar to Umbreon) so that it looks scary if you came across it in a dark alley (or your pantry). As I evolved the design in the second pass, I added the scruff and changed up the tail to add even more to that theme.

As we move onto Gen 4, I wanted the two designs to be based on the physical-special split. Originally I had a physical Psychic-Type and a special Steel-Type, but I wasn't happy with either of them, so I scrapped them both and started fresh. The first new Gen 4 design I made was this special Dragon-Type, Ukichu. I liked the idea of a rabbit coming out of a hat, but to tie it more into the magical elements of Dragon-Types I incorporated a lot of elements from the Jackalope and Wolpertinger. I moved the cheek spots to below the collar to mimic a bow tie, but also made the horns on its head red to keep that visual element present in the face. This one feels a little busier than all the others thanks to the fluff, but it still feels like it fits.

And as Ukichu is special, its partner in Gen 4 had to be physical, hence the Ice-Type Sharichu. I feel like there isn't a ton to say about this one. I made it very snowman-y, and had it so it could freeze over the brown parts of its fur for attacking or defending. I think I did a good job of illustrating how it works.

And as both Dedenne and Sylveon were Fairy-Type, it stands to reason my Gen 6 counterpart should be as well. My first take on Fuwachu was very just-Sylveon, so I really wanted to break away from that on this take. As Fairy-Types are heavily associated with both being tricksters and gemstones, I tried incorporating both those elements into this design, with the necklace motif, crystalline tail claw, and its tail resembling itself from the back to trick others.

And the last design we'll talk about is Pikachu. Of course. This is actually my third pass on Pikachu, as I wasn't happy with my second. It stuck too much to the original and didn't incorporate some of the elements I used in the other designs. I still didn't change a lot, adding the tail cloud on the second pass so it would have the brown element and functionality all the other evolutions I made have. And on the third pass I gave it an adventuring bandana, which felt on-brand for Pikachu in any universe.

Overall, this was a fun experiment, and I can imagine how easily you could expand upon it. If Pikachu and Eevee are swapped, then is that true of the show? Since Meowth is a cat chasing a mouse, would it be swapped out to match Eevee? What Eevee evolutions would replace the Pikachu clones? How would all these things domino to affect the series? etc. I drew 43 Pokémon for this in total (not all pictured here), so it was a lot of work, and I hope you enjoyed this little design doc, or at least the pretty pictures if you didn't bother reading. And here's the crappy shiny edit, if you're curious.

[analyzingadventure]

[Ni/digitalgate02 here] See, this is what i've been thinking for ages and i don't like to limit myself into what is stated on wikimon and other fansites' databases to make lines... They're not a mandatory rule, and with things like the new TCG DigiCa they just embraced the wild combos you can make and evolution rules are by card color and not by specific lines (tho they do have some... suggestions now on the cards, i think?)

i also like the wild combos like Tailmon's OG Adv/02 line?? Which is slime → cat blob → puppy → cat → angel woman → PINK FLUFFY DRAGON

I wish we had more things like these... At least consistent theme, but not like Agu → Grey → MetalGrey → WarGrey sort of line... (and look, i love this line, it just... I love the design + shapes to change a little... ya got me?)

i love most of the main kid/protag mons and their forms, tho...

Like to be fair to Toei/Bandai, there is partially a reason to why the main partners especially tend to have such linear, specific evolution trees; not only because it makes the Digimon easier to sell, but also because the characters need to be easily recognizable to small children. Like the main character(s) having really bizarre evolutions could make it hard for a child to keep up with who's who (especially if they missed an episode), while having very consistent and strong thematic and color coding (etc) will make it always super easy for kids to keep up with. So I understand WHY the main partners tend to be the way they are, it just is the way it is. (It's also why I really loved the evolutions in Survive because aside from Agumon's Vaccine-line, that shit was WILD and I was LIVING for it, Dracumon alone had me losing my fucking shit, Floramon too)

Also I do feel like the emphasis on evolution lines is something the fandom tends to enforce more than Bandai/Toei. And, much to my shock and horror, a lot of people do kind of dislike wild evolutions, some people prefer the Pokémon-esque strict evolution lines. (See: every person who has ever made fun of Tailmon's evolution line for "not making sense") So often I see people share their Tamer OCs and their partner Digimon with full evolution lines and more often than not it's just a known partner Digimon with their default evolution line. Everybody has their own comfort food, and strict evolution lines are just that for some people. Which is fine, I'm just a little 🔪 if anybody tries to enforce strict evolution lines in places they don't belong (aka any space for creativity)

But indeed, I wish we could see more Wild Evolutions in canon more often, or at least have the main partner's evolutions change things up a little more than they tend to (honestly probably the best protag evolution is Gumdramon -> Arresterdramon, like despite the mostly identical color palette and many key visual elements, they really do look nothing alike and yet the evolution feels like a natural progression and is still easily recognizable, really love that.)

[ronin-deactivated19851026]

so i've been extremely overwhelmed by....... i guess everything online lmao, it's really hard to focus on things when you're constantly bombarded with things you don't really need at the moment

i'm trying to get back into journaling but damn it's so hard. i know my head isn't empty, i spawn walls of texts almost daily, but my mind goes blank when i'm in front of an open notebook because i don't know what's truly worthy of writing down? it's kind of like with drawing at this point. i'm stuck with the art block because i don't know what's worthy of drawing. and guess what made me feel this way? the social media lmfao. i hate that literally every idea i consider cool i never depict because my brain immediately goes like, "who cares about this?", "this won't get noticed and also you're too late, so don't be cringe", etc

i hate this so much idk. anyway, i think i'm going to make a list of things to focus on, both personal projects/artistic inspirations and fandom related ones. i do have things i overfixate on for years, so why am i letting myself be distracted by some random content ideas that only matter to me for like a day or two...?

i should also start limiting inspirations in general, looking at my folder rn and realizing that there are just WAY TOO MANY things i want to incorporate into my work and it really overwhelms me. reminds me of various artists saying that "less is more" and holy crap i should start limiting myself. this is something i slowly started to realize on my own when i did some pixel art, which is limited already due to its nature, with some color palettes instead of randomly staring at a color wheel for half an hour, not being able to decide which one to use.

also i found out about artfol, social media for artists, and so far it seems promising? haven't tried it yet, maybe i will upload some stuff there later. also maybe i'll finally sort everything here on tunglr dot com and make a separate art blog and will use this one as my "main"-diary-esque blog where i won't post much. it's not like i'm on here anyway, my dash feels overwhelming so i don't even scroll past 3-4 posts a day anymore on here. i'm tired of social media. it doesn't feel personal anymore, it's not fun, not interesting...

fomo effect used to fuck me up before something clicked and i stopped scrolling things. because due to nature of the modern internet, i have more chances of stumbling across useful/interesting information if i just keep scrolling through junk. since as you know, google is dead anyway, shit is hard to find these days, and indeed, every cool thing i managed to find was through random braindead scrolling (post 2016 i mean, i miss mid 2000s era when stuff was actually GOOGLEABLE and you didn't need to scroll long ass feed to stumble across cool things, you could get there at your own pace while just surfing the web). so the habit was made worse by "damn what if i miss some obscure post that features obscure cool thing that will matter to me once i get to know it??" but i'm just so fucking exhausted... everything i love about the internet because so dormant, niche even. the internet, as i define it, is dead to me. it's really heartbreaking

[pl0xm4st3r]

More thoughts on Persona 3 Reload below. This is gonna be a long one.

I'm gonna start with the gameplay because everything I know about game design comes from watching videos. So I am a dilettante at best, and my opinions pretty much come down to "did it feel good to play?" And God, did this game feel good to play. I've seen some criticisms about the shift mechanic and how it trivializes difficulty, and the capacity for very high damage even on the highest difficulty. I played on normal, so I can't speak on that, but this comes down my fundamental philosophy on difficulty in games. To grossly oversimplify, games rely on mechanics and story to keep players engaged. Difficulty falls under mechanics here, and great games will use both to give players a good time. But you can sacrifice one if you make up for another. Some visual novels and almost no gameplay, and almost no one is playing Mario for the story, to give two extremes. As such, I think Persona 3 is more than engaging enough on a story and characterization front to make up for a rather easy time.

I think the boss fights are where the combat suffers, because I don't feel any inclination to use interesting strategies. It's just buff, debuff, and attack. The one time I used an interesting strategy was after I died to the Hermit, and decided to switch up my team, bringing Shinji, Ken, and Aigis. I kept Aigis' weakness safe with Makarakarn, buffed with her and MC, and then just let loose. Every time I tried using a status, it would be blocked (which also made Mitsuru feel limited in her usefulness, since that's her Theurgy characteristic), so I just stopped trying. I find it weird that resistances to status effects aren't included in Fuuka's scans. Also, the Monad Corridors provide opportunities for interesting strategies, but unless you want to die once to scout or consult a guide, it's really unlikely that such strategies will work. All that said though, I think the combat and gameplay was engaging enough. It just relied on being a power-fantasy often, between chaining 1-Mores and Theurgy skills. And even then, I did have tense moments while traversing Tartarus, so it's not like difficulty was completely absent.

All in all, though, the game was immensely fun, and holy crap, everything felt so satisfying to navigate. Menuing was instant and load times were practically non-existent. I can attribute some of that to playing on PC (mine has decent hardware), but even older games aren't as instantly responsive as this one was. This leads me into design. Every aspect of this games design is gorgeous and cool as hell to me. I've seen a lot of praise for it already, and with Metaphor on the way from Atlus, it seems they've picked up after P5 that people love stylish menus and want to continue that. That said, I do have incredibly slight reservations about it, precisely because P5 did it first. Everything being off-kilter fits with the game being about rebels, and P3 doesn't share that identity. However, asymmetric design doesn't have to be restricted to only being a thematic reinforcement; it can also just look cool because. I actually think P3R does a good job of retaining the look of OG P3. It had pretty standard, inoffensive menus, and it's primary way of making it look cool was through the color palette. P3R manages to retain the streamlined blockiness of the original while introducing asymmetric elements in a nice balance. For instance, compare how the date looks in Persona 5 as compared to P3R. I won't harp on it too much longer, because I could pick a ton of details to focus on (I will bring up the Theurgy menu though. So cool). The game is also just overall gorgeous. The models, sprites, animations, effects, everything is great. It's notably more saturated than the original, which I thought was an interesting decision, but ultimately it doesn't affect me either way. I think it suits the overall art direction, but had it been different then a desaturated palette would've worked fine.

The voice acting is great and I think suits each of the characters very well. Since I played a bit of P3P, it took some getting used to Yukari and Junpei's voices (since I was used to Michelle Ruff and Vic Mignogna). I've gone back and listened to some of the original dialogue and I frankly think some of the voice acting from back then was bad. Fuuka and Aigis especially sound very awkward. That was intentional for Aigis, but even then, it sounded to me like someone doing a robot voice poorly, and I can't quite place what's off about it to me. In any case, I think her new voice is a marked improvement, and I like that she still manages to make her sound like a robot because, while she has no problem with inflection anymore, she always speaks quietly and extremely evenly. It's the evenness of her speech that gives the robot vibe this time around, I feel. Also, Ken actually sounds like a kid, which I appreciate. As someone who wasn't really familiar with the original cast, I think they nailed the casting this time, no character's voice felt off.

Speaking of the cast, though, I love the characters so much, every one of them, in the main cast, at least. I enjoyed a great deal of the social links as well. Ignoring the ones with party members for now, I think my favorites were the ones with Maiko, Hayase, and Akinari. Although I'm looking over the list now to refresh my memory, and it's really hard to pick favorites on this. Akinari's is peak, of course. I think I went into it with too high of expectations, because my friend told me if I did any, I had to do his and that it's the best in the game. Ignoring those with party members, I agree that it's the best, but my expectations were placed too high. In any case, it's an incredibly touching story with an excellent message. I didn't end up doing Yuko's, Hiraga's, or Bebe's all the way through, but I almost finished Yuko's and got a few ranks in to the others. As for the main cast, I could be here forever if I got into every character. This post has gotten long enough as is so I think I'll make a separate one giving my thoughts on each member of SEES, Strega, and Ryoji. I think I'll also discuss the plot and themes in that post as well, or I might separate it again.

[moe-broey]

Taking you on a journey about it. Okay? Skipping around a lot. But bear w me.

Moe Color Theory. There are a few Stages of it. Offshoots.

1) I choose a typically non-gendered color (geen 💚)

2) In a project I never finished, vaguely ballroom scenario focused on Moe and Sharena. Both are wearing pink. Moe is still presenting masc. This is significant. There's gender in here.

2 and a half) Red vs Pink. This is also significant. Something something Sharena's peachy light blonde into pink vs Moe's rusty red roots growing in into the worst at home bleach job you've seen in a while. There is also gender in here.

Enter my first concept.

Okay. We got pink. We even got red. I liked the idea of the pink becoming saturated into red, almost like blood. Kinda epic kinda cool absolutely fits that theming. Okay.

The Problem: I'm just not vibing w it. I complain a lot about the color palette overlaps in the fairy designs. I'm basically just reusing my Mirabilis ideas.

Moe Color Theory. Again.

3) It feels a bit cheap to put it in blue as a gendered statement tbh. Like... when I use pink as a gender color for Moe, it's never in the sense of dysphoria. It's about honoring something. Take what you like, leave the rest. Craft what you've taken into something new.

That said, due to color palette restrictions, and just fucking around. I came up with this

Okay. I feel like I'm onto something actually. I'm liking the blue rose theming (something that doesn't exist). I'm liking the blue with the gold accents, a tie to Alfonse in a way. I've also Realized Something. Somewhere in here I've had the thought of mixing both sweet dream/nightmare fairy motifs -- the pastels/bright colors of the light fairies, and the thorns of the dark fairies. So color theory time. I mix a little pink in there. Okay. We got blue with a hint of pink. Okay. We even got purple. A classic go-to accent color for Moe palettes but also a combination of pink/blue (red/blue if we're being pedantic). What now?

I veer off into something else entirely.

I spend way too long looking up butterflies and moths. Obviously the luna moth and rosy maple moth are Right There in the forefront of my mind bc have you SEEN them........ but sifting through different lists I find something promising. Yellow pansy butterfly. I did feel like I could lean heavier into the pansy motif. Hell I could lose the rose petal bloomers and make them pansy bloomers. The shirt is rose petals anyway.

MOE COLOR THEROY. ONCE MORE.

4) I've found, multiple times, the hard way, that Moe color pallets work best when they're largely neutral/natural colors, with limited pops of color. I have to use these pops of color So Sparingly.

It has all built up to this.

... No, that's too much color. Plus the pink/yellow is giving Mirabilis again.

Alright. Well. There is no going back from that. Trust me I tried. I DO think this is the right direction, but I'm still not entirely satisfied...........

I'm kinda attached to the purple accents, as the color theory goes. But for a few other reasons as well -- literally none of the fairies have significant purple in them. Mirabilis and Peony have purple eyes but that's about it. I also just think. Imagine a pansy in your mind. It's probably purple. They come in a lot of colors! A part of me wanted to see If I could still have blue on the bloomers... but a part of me worries it would no longer be recognizable. One part of me wonders if I should do yellow pansies, or if that would be too much yellow. I do think the purple/yellow is a good combo that compliments everything. In the way back of my head I'm thinking about dandelions, but how in the hell am I gonna fit those into this design I barely found a place for the forget me nots.

IDKKKKKKKKK I JUST FEEL LIKE IT NEEDS MORE REFINING.......... AND IT IS A BIG DEAL TO ME......... AND I DO HAVE LINES/DIALOGUE CONCEPTS AND LIKE A DOZEN OTHER THOUGHTS AS WELL........

But.

I am in So Much Pain.

I'm not making it out of this resplendent concept alive.

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #8: QA and Q&A

(all the screenshots i have left are spoilers. while i take more, have a meme)

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, which is the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!).  You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!! 

LET’S GET TO IT

With the game’s alpha finished, I didn’t do anything much worth talking about this month. QA is underway! I’m fixing bugs! I’m writing changelogs that say stuff like “At the hallway before that one room, getting to the edge 2+ times wont softlock anymore if you do it between the wall and a column”!!!! I’m also resting because September was a LOT!!! 

So, since I have very little to say, I asked people on Twitter to ask me questions, so I could answer them. Q&A time!

@ItsMeLilyV asks:

1. I really have been in love with monochrome & limited palette styles recently :3 How did you figure out the art style for ISAT? Are there any distinct challenges or walls you've run into? 

2. did you get to take any good naps. how would you rank the naps on a 10-pt scale

1. The TLDR is: it’s more fun to draw in black and white. And it’s faster. And it looks cool as hell!!!

I did run into some challenges especially when it came to UI- how do you draw the eye of the player to a selection, or something they need to interact with, when you can’t use an eye-catching color to draw them in?!? I ended up relying a lot on level design to do that… And animations, too, especially in the House where everything is frozen! Keeping a very limited palette also helps, I think I mostly used black, white, and maybe 5 shades of grey in between… It’s all about contrast! And not having a big muddy grey mess!!!

2. I got some good naps in, yeah. I’m a big fan of naps after lunch, so I eat, wait for the sleep to kick in, and sleep for 2-3 hours. Solid 8/10 naps. That’s heaven babes!!!

@gertritude asks:

I am curious about what your writing process is for the game!! Like, what is your planning process (if you have one) and how do you approach actually writing for it?

My writing process… It’s a little all over the place to be honest! 

I had the big strokes of ISAT figured out from beginning to end before I even finished the prologue, but then I had to really sit down a bunch of times and really figure out how to get from point A to point B. So it involved a lot of writing, and also rewriting, to Foreshadow some Cool Stuff. Also, early on I was really struggling with some plot points, so I sat down for a whole day and wrote down the entire plot from beginning to end, and tried to get really granular and write down those middle point A to point B things! If I didn’t know what would happen I just invented something on the spot! As long as the whole story was written!!! It took a while, but I’m really glad I did this, because this saved me a lot of time later on hehe

Apart from the big plot events, the smaller events that are conversations between the characters usually just come out of nowhere, like “ok I have a table here and I put cookies on it. How would everyone react?”. I try to strike a balance between “this is how people talk” and “does it say anything new about those characters”, whether it’s a character’s favorite food, or a nice foreshadowing moment that you’ll reread later and go “OH DAMN… ALL ALONG THIS WAS HERE…”

My big go-to technique to actually write is that every day 1. I decide I’m going to work for 15mn and I start a timer 2. I put my headphones on 3. I start my concentrate playlist, which is full of instrumental electro/dubstep/wub wub adjacent music 4. ????? 5. Writing accomplished. The 15mn goal is just because it’s easy to write for 15mn. I always write for longer, but I just need to get started with an easy goal!

@_blade0fgrass_ asks:

Is it hard coming up with such immaculate puns

I would like to thank punpedia from the bottom of my heart. And also google. Thanks punpedia thanks google!

@kayleighdotjpeg asks:

keeping spoilers in mind, who are your favorite characters to write? which character dynamics are your favorite? did any of them surprise you?

This is THE question. Thank you so much. 

I loved to write Siffrin (especially when they’re all depressed teehee), but Odile ended up being my Actual Favorite to write. Most characters are either 1. Full of secrets or 2. Pushovers and/or oblivious, so it’s very nice to have Odile be the one to say “Alright, enough of this. We will talk about the elephant in the room Right Now”. She’s very blunt and doesn’t care about anything and she is so useful as a plot device and I love her.

Siffrin and Odile is my favorite dynamic, followed closely by Siffrin and Loop! As for surprising character dynamics, I reaaaaally enjoyed writing Odile and Isabeau… I didn’t get to write them often, but they are so fun to write together. Please ask me this question again once the game comes out so I can say more.

@novvclutchmate asks:

How do you go about finding a balance between levity and seriousness? Would you say your story tips more in one direction than the other; if so, was it on purpose and why?

What a good question! Hmm, for me and my writing style personally, it’s less about finding a balance, and more that One Cannot Exist Without The Other. It’s like adding sweetness to a savory dish- adding them together elevates the whole thing!!! 

If I have a serious scene, I like to add some levity to kind of bring the characters back to earth. I don’t know about you, but when I have a serious conversation for too long, I automatically laugh or tell a joke to break the tension! I get uncomfortable when it’s too serious! It’s normal! I’m normal!!!! It’s also a way for the audience to breathe out- don’t worry player, we’re good! We’re back to the usual stuff! Plus, I find that funny scenes right after a serious emotional scene hit harder.

As for seriousness to levity, I think it’s fun when you have a funny slice of life scene and then the story reminds you that this scene is Serious Actually. Like having everyone talking happily and the narrator saying  “it makes you sad when your friends keep repeating the very same lines every time.” :)

ISAT tips more towards levity I’d say, because of the reasons listed above! If you’re used to funny cute scenes and then I give you a Serious Emotional scene it makes you go Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

@gala_ksyz

is there any words youd like to tell aspiring/young indie devs?

Just make the dang thing!!! Stop putting it off!!! Just do it!!! Buy a simple game maker thing like rpgmaker or renpy or whatever and make the thing!!! Yes it’ll take time!!! Yes it won’t be as good as you imagined in some ways!!! Yes making games is hard!!! But you gotta just do it!!! It’ll be so much better than you imagined in other ways!!! It’ll be real!!! You’re the only one who can make it!!! It’s yours!!! It comes from your heart!!! It IS your heart!!! No one else can make it but you!!! So just make the dang thing!!! I believe in you!!! JUST MAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[especdreamy]

My personal favorite Daily c!Ranboos, in order of posting!

Now that it's finally over, I feel like its appropriate to share all the daily c!Ranboos I'm the most proud of, and the reasons why I like them so much.

I'll probably redraw some of these in the future!

Under the readmore bc its long and has lots of pics!

Day 5 - Brain Fried

Looking back to it, this one isn't all that great compared to other Daily c!Ranboos I have done, but it's the first one I did in which I tried to make an actual composition rather than just. Drawing c!Ranboo. So it's kind of an important one!

Day 13 - Allium

Kind of similarly as Brain Fried, this one is kinda rough in the edges when looking back on it, but I loved the eerie vibe of it, and the effort of using a more limited palette!

Day 21 - Bouquet

It's just cute. He looks so squishy! Not much more to add tbh :)

Day 22 - Under the Weather

I personally love how I made the effect of them "disintegrating" due to contact with water look! I like how the particles flow :) I love how I made the effect of the water dripping, how it could kinda look like tears running down their face. I used "Under the Weather" in both a literal and metaphorical sense!

Day 28 - Tears

I like the expression and colors :) tbh the tears could be better but otherwise I like it.

Day 32 - Awake

It's soft, comforting, bright, warm, I love the way I did the colors SO MUCH! The expression is everything to me, I like how their hair looks. Also you might notice that I have 100% used the same colors for Revival and Freedom.

Day 34 - Arrival

I just like their goofy expression and how much of a twig they look. Silly lad

Day 38 - Butcher Army

I LOVE the expression and the limited color palette! While theres bits that could be improved upon this is one of my best compositions here.

Day 39 - Apprentice

Technoblade.

Day 41 - Memory Book

I like how the anatomy looks here! Looks very sleek and natural I guess? I love how the tail lies on the ground. I just can feel the weight here a bit.

Day 44 - Doomsday

The blue sky with the bright red flames, the lighting, c! Ranboo's silhouette, idk this is just very pleasing to look at!

Day 64 - Revival

I can't even elaborate on how much I love this one, it's probably The Best drawing (drawings?) of Daily c!Ranboo! I used the same color palette as Awake bc I wanted to give it the same comforting and soft vibe, I love how fuzzy it all looks, how quiet it seems...Also its a comic too! I speedran that in 3 or so hours and im so damn happy with it.

Day 67 - Light

The colors are very nice, I like the lighting!

Day 76 - Dance

I like the poses! I tend to struggle to draw c!Tubbo but he looks very cute here. I think I made c!Ranboo a bit too short but tbh it was a challenge to make the pose work!

Day 82 - Windy

I like the colors, the expression, AND THE HANDS!! Its fuckign wimdy!

Day 89 - Void

HORROR VIBES! I wanted to do at least one creepy-looking drawing for this challenge that I liked and this is the one for sure!

Day 90 - Stars

I like the colors a lot here! The way he looks up to the sky with the big ol' eyes and his pose feels so natural.

Day 91 - Birthday

I may have speedran this in like an hour and a half but GOD I just LOVE the symbolism in this drawing! The balloon because birthday! But its black because death! Ghostboo is the one holding it because they're the one in the overworld after all. How c!Ranboo looks down while Ghostboo stares at them!

Day 92 - Freedom

I used the same palette as Awake and Revival, it just felt right! I tried my best to do a piece that'd be forth of being the "sendoff" for the daily c!Ranboo series, and I do think it holds up!

[roamingpoffin]

Mr. Genova: Instructions for Use

Hello there! I recently got to re-read Hetalia’s story about Napoleon in occasion of a trip in Corsica, and suddently remembered this adorable little guy. While there are a lot of wonderful people that took the mantle and tried to give character and story to what are actually just 2 sketches from 3y ago, I also noticed some disappointment (understandable) and…. misinformation from lack of context and historical knowledge about the topic. I know that seeing the 4th italian brother when maybe your country isn’t in yet can be frustrating, but trust me when I say that Genova is a very important character for many of the events that occurred between the middle-ages and WWII (does Colombo ring a bell?).

With that said let’s try to discover together who actually was is Mr.Genova!

Why Genova and not Genoa? Genova is the correct italian name of the republic/city while Genoa is it's english version and, incidentally, the name of Genova's most renowed football team. So just like for Venezia and Roma we'll keep the original pronunciation.

In this first part we’ll talk about Genova design

[Original sketch by Hima, I just polished and colored it to better convey my ideas about his design.]

I’ve heard people complaining that “he just seems like a fusion of Romano and France”, funnily enough not only the comparison is quite on point, but it’s coherent with Genova’s history and probably intentional on Hima’s side.

To understand what I mean let’s look at a little map of modern Italy

We can immediatly notice some things ->

1) Liguria (the name given to Genova’s historical territories after the city became “capoluogo di regione” in 1948) borders with France and Monaco. For all it’s life Genova had to fend against France and would often end under it’s dominion for brief periods; at the same time their vicinity favored a similar culture and language (with one BIG exeption we'll see another time): Monaco and Corsica, previously territories of Genova, retain a great resemblance with Ligurian when speaking their actual language, aka Corso and Monegasco. At the same time Ligurian presents some elements common in french that are actually absent in standard italian.

2) Genova is situated in front of the Ligurian sea and has open access to all of west-Mediterraneum, becoming the most important harbor in north-west Italy since it gained his autonomy from the HRE around 1096 A.D. Due to Liguria peculiar geografical conformation (no plains and the Alps-Appenines isolating Genova from the rest of north Italy, favoring a climatic bubble that makes the region a greener version of the south) our republic decided to limit it's expansion towards northen countries and instead focus on the Mediterraneum sea, becoming Spain and by proxy South Italy best commercial/political buddy till (almost) the end of it’s indipendent life.

3bonus) Yes guys Seborga is a little town in the Ligurian hinterland and was part of the Genovese republic. While Seborga's story is really interesting (might do a focus in the future) the general history and culture of the 2 is the same.

NOTE: every time I use the term “Italy” during any period pre 1861 consider it only as the geographical meaning of the peninsula (Italy as a country wasn't a thing till then).

PALETTE AND DESIGN

With this introduction in mind it makes sense for little Genova to have his hair styled similar to France and a darker shade compared to Veneziano. While the dark gray used by Hima could hint at both black and dark brown, the latter is by far the most common color in Liguria so I decided to go with that.

His eyes are anybody’s game to be fair, but I decided to be as faithful as possible to the average ligurian so, just like Feli and Lovi when Hima decides that his eyes aren’t olive anymore, brown/light brown is the most common color in Italy (+ we already have Seborga as the random flashy neighbouring brother).

To end our palette the skin tone could be an in between: probably darker that a Northener but lighter than a Southener (no mayor arabic nor germanic influences here)

CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES

clothes -> nothing too important to say, the clothes are fit for the XVIII sec., they shows Genova’s status as a wealthy commercial republic and unofficial bank of Europe (yup, before Switzerland Genova had that role and it’s banks are considered the oldest in Europe). As long as the colors used aren’t too flashy everything is fine.

crown thingy(?) -> now this is where things become interesting. There are 3 possible options I could think as of why Genova, of all the possible accessories, has a crown when it wasn’t even a monarchy. Pick what you prefer or feel free to add your personal interpretation if you want.

1) money and superbia: as written before, during it's prime Genova was a wealthy republic, lending money to half of Europe and being the indiscussed queen of west-Mediterraneum (ofc Venezia was the queen of east-Mediterraneum, but that’s another story for another post). The city even got the nickname “Superba” to enanche the grandiosity and way too much pride of it’s people. A crown would be a fitting choice for someone who is probably a bit narcisist.

2) city status: in ancient paintings the personifications of countries and cities were made recognizable by the presence of a little crown on their head. Adding to that, in Italy to be a full fledged town or city you must receive a crown symbol to put on your emblem, maybe Hima is hinting at Genova actual predicament.

3) the Lanterna: I’ll admit the first thing I tought while looking at Genova was “that looks like a little tower”. A bit strange, but actually not farfetched; if you have ever visited Genova you’ll know what I mean when I say this city has a lot, and I say A LOT of towers positioned trough the historical center. The reason? To protect themselves from the French/Ottomans/eventual pirates, in the XVI sec. Genova decided to build a massive system of walls and towers that surrounded the city. There is also a specific tower that is considered the symbol of Genova itself “la Lanterna”. The Lanterna is the oldest Lighthouse still in function trough Europe; maybe if you glance at its modern look it doesn’t scream “tower”, but before it was semi-destroyed by the French army in 1513 A.D. Lanterna beared a striking resemblance to what Mr.Genova is wearing.

“MUGUGNO LIBERO”

Last but not least, the infamous pout that gave Genova the label of “Romano 2.0”. It’s not random, it’s not wrong, it’s such a toughtful and unexpected touch that Hima would be declared honored guest by any Genovese (and made me personally laugh like an idiot for an hour).

What Genova is doing here has a specific term in the local language, mugugnare!

What is “mugugnare”? Mugugnare is a peculiar way of complaining and rambling specific of the Ligurians. This act is soo ingraned into the culture of the region that it’s considered an art and will take a good part of any conversation you’ll have with a local.

I’ll be more specific when we’ll touch Genova possible characterization, just you know that where Romano is loud, pretty offensive and direct the mugugno is more subtle and passive-aggressive. It can and WILL BE directed at anything, from the weather to jobs to Venezia and the rest of the north.

This finally brings us in what defines most of the characters of Hetalia, the wonderful land of stereotypes.

See you in the next part where we’ll talk about the temperament and culture of what is often considered the “black sheep” of north Italy!

[subwalls]

Tales from the SMP Presents: The Haunted Mansion

An ongoing exploration of how the Inbetween drives my Kingdom Hearts brain crazy with paranoia! Less of an analysis this time, because we got confirmation (VALIDATION!!), and more of speculation, but yeah!

First of all! I was right not to trust this fucker.

Just kidding, that’s not the first thing we’re gonna talk about here. First of all, a gentle recap!

As I’ve mentioned before, the Inbetween has some uncanny resemblance to the Kingdom Hearts world known as Castle Oblivion. Castle Oblivion is known for being the place where the main series protagonist lost all of his memories, and even had false memories implanted while he was getting deeper and deeper into it. 

You might be curious as to how the Kingdom Hearts protagonist escapes.

He doesn’t.

He needs outside help, and a lot of it, to get him out of that situation. Even then, it takes a whole year. He drove his own heart into the bottom of the abyss in his desperation to save someone he was tricked into thinking he knew, and he didn’t even regret it, because he was saving someone.

... A lot of people on Dream SMP have different ideas on what it means to save people.

Also, the castle also had a very plot-twisty secret where it used to be the lush and wonderful home of these three friends before they fell apart; one was lost to the Evil Dark Side™ (not real name), the other was trapped in the Realm of Darkness (real name), and the last one fell into a coma for TEN (10) YEARS and his body was left to be protected in the heart of the land, which was then locked and turned into Castle Oblivion.

So, pretty fucked up place! Not inherently evil, but the place of great misfortune and just... not very good for everyone there.

Let’s start at the beginning!

Welcome back indeed. Take notice of the wither rose in the pot, by the way, I’ll come back to this in a bit.

The first thing that stands out to me on this page is the smiley face, of course. It’s not the ever-iconic, ever-evil “:)”, but it’s similar enough that I think the callback is intentional. The smiley is c!Dream’s icon, of course, which... honestly makes me think that “:]” might be DreamXD, but that might be because I’m very very biased for the server god who simps for a dangerously apathetic cottagecore once-king.

Of course, it does also look kind of like Quackity’s face, and cc!Quackity has said something about big lore coming for him, but until further evidence is presented I’m disinclined to draw a connection there.

The Inbetween, as we’ve come to know the author of some of these books to be, being happy that Karl is continuing—it reminds me of the KH protagonist being told yes, good job, keep going, as he stumbles deeper and deeper into the castle that strips away memory after memory from his heart. Why does the Inbetween think that Karl’s time travel is important, his careful documentation of every story? Is it because the more he does it, the more he becomes attached? The more he becomes reliant on the Inbetween to feed the missing pieces of his memory?

Is it because the Inbetween, in parallel to c!Dream and c!Wilbur, prioritize the concept of story over the characters?

Things to think about. 🤔

Also kind of interesting that the Inbetween thinks Karl will eventually uncover “all [he] needs to”, which continues to make me think that the more c!Karl comes to the Inbetween the more he becomes... either dependent or over-trusting of it. Not sure. But weird things happen when it’s magic that tampers with memories, rather than trauma.

Basically, I’m getting “there is no war in Ba Sing Se” vibes.

The book continues to say that Karl probably has a lot of questions and that it would love to answer :] but never actually does. It’s trying to come off as helpful without actually being helpful. All it does is tempt him with the prospect of answers, and then draws him in deeper. “Continue onward, Karl.” But why?

Another wither rose pot.

Sidestepping the very innocuous, very surface-level information offered here (because that’s it, it’s nothing about the workings about the Inbetween, it’s just a little sweet carrot to distract with), I cannot even begin to convey the absolute terror that consumed me at the word “sleepy.”

I mentioned earlier that one of the original characters who lived in the land that would become Castle Oblivion went into a coma, right? But it’s more commonly referred to as sleeping. The game is even called “Birth by Sleep”, and there’s a whole thing about trying to get him to “wake up”. So the idea that time travel can take something out of the traveller that makes them tired, the idea that there is one specific room for sleeping quarters within the Inbetween, paired with that not-quite-right smiley face—I am traumatized, I tell you.

Yes it could be a “haha look what I did with the sentence, because day is a form of time and they time travel so long day is a funny term” kind of smiley, but. Kingdom Hearts has trained me to be suspicious of any talk of sleep.

There’s something just mildly unsettling about the way it continues, with the references to the “many Karls” and the “many many great stories” that sounds borderline condescending.

And now we get the, uh, “other” author. Notice how this one actually did not have a corresponding wither rose in a pot. I’m starting to think that the flower might actually be an indicator of the not-this-author-pictured-above, the probably-Inbetween-itself, so the fact that this book was found separately from a wither rose pot and it was tucked away under a tree... A tree, under which c!Karl will later find a bit of a refuge... yeah, different author. Or at least an author from a different time.

I’ll elaborate in a moment, but I do think that there’s three (3) mindsets/authors happening here: the sickly sweet Inbetween pretending to be good, the person trying to get c!Karl to distrust the Inbetween, and... someone who desperately wants c!Karl to stay in line.

This is the third... I don’t want to say author, because it too has the wither rose pot and is trying to keep c!Karl playing along with the Inbetween, but it’s much less coherent and much more desperate.

No “:]”, either.

Some possibilities I’m considering:

the Inbetween, but it’s like, a security subroutine or a glitch in the system,

the Inbetween, but it’s from a future wherein c!Karl has fucked it up to the point of desperation,

Karl / the other author, but it’s from a future, where trying to stray from the Inbetween resulted in something traumatic happening and they don’t want it to happen anymore.

Some fun possibilities to keep in mind. Anyway!

Ooh, the return of the wither rose pot.

For this part, the only thing I really have to say is that the repetition of the Inbetween trying to present itself as “a place to feel at ease” is... Well, as the lovely Fear has said in this post linked here, a place that tries and makes itself seem safe probably isn’t, because a genuinely safe place wouldn’t need to announce it all the time.

Very much sounding like a Ba Sing Se thing.

More importantly, the book actually says that it’s “wild” how the Inbetween is “so beautiful that even time travellers who go anywhere at anytime ever and they still choose here” with a good old “:]” tacked on at the end. That’s... that’s not just me thinking like that sounds kind of threatening, right? Like, time travellers can see anything anywhere, and they keep coming back to the Inbetween. Why?

Is it because they forget the beauty of anything else? Is it because it’s not beauty, but rather attachment and emotion that keeps someone going back to a place? If someone forgets their loved ones and precious things, then why would they go anywhere but the place where they’ve put all their stories?

Why did KH’s protagonist keep going deeper into Castle Oblivion even though he knew that the castle was taking apart his memories? Because he had one thing left: the fake, implanted memory, which told him that in order to save someone, he needed to push on no matter the personal cost.

So the real question is: are the time travellers coming back to the Inbetween because they want to, or because they no longer have a choice?

It regards all the different Karls with such... distant affection, too. “How beautiful,” it calls them, for wandering the blank halls with blank stares and blank hearts, none of which react to each other. It says that they “choose” to walk the halls, uncover mysteries, and tell stories. But what was the other choice? Was it really a choice at all?

Hmm.

Karl goes on to explore, and finds another book that does not have a wither rose pot, which tells him he has to go Under The Tree.mp3 and informs him that he “can’t afford not to”. Cool. Not ominous at all.

He finds another, which says the same thing.

Definitely not ominous. /s

The phrasing here is interesting, because it’s also phrased like a threat. Usually, when someone tells you that you “can’t afford not to”, you’re either looking at a scam or at the business end of a weapon. But the empty pages tell you that the author is trying to keep it down low. That’s one of the ways Minecraft players have found to express tone in the very limited form of Minecraft books, and it works splendidly.

Not to push my DreamXD agenda, but like... the door was iron. Iron doors are a weakness for Dreams and dreamons and, mayhaps, Dream’s dreamon.

I know it’s probably just because the iron door keeps in line with the color palette of the build but let me dream, alright.

Anyway, book content! And an interesting point of order: there is a wither rose pot. I said earlier that it might be an indicator of the Inbetween as an author, but that doesn’t make much sense now, does it? This is meant to be a place hidden from the “it” that I assume to be either the Inbetween itself or the one/s controlling it.

So why the wither rose pot inconsistency?

Unless it doesn’t mean that. Unless it’s just a metaphor for, say, memories withering away or something. Or maybe it’s just a pretty plant, for funsies! Who knows. If I had to guess, I’d say that (after much reflection) it’s likely less a mark of author and more a theme of, mm, memory status. The withering away of memories. It fits in with the Inbetween, because that’s what might be responsible for it, but the author/s of the book aren’t immune, either. They get blinks of clarity, with the hidden, tucked-away tomes, but they might not be completely free.

The next book, however, again lacks the wither rose pot. It might not be a coincidence that the one without the potential mark of a withering memory is the one that actually divulges some more information.

This book goes into slightly more detail about the warning, though not about whatever actual threat it is that the castle (which... Castle Oblivion, you know) presents.

It says that 1) it’s not what it seems, 2) the "truth about the other forms of you”, 3) this place “is not okay”, and 4) get in that portal we saw that was blocked off before.

We know that the Inbetween isn’t what it seems, but the “truth” about the other forms... Hm. This is, in fact, another Kingdom Hearts Thing. There’s a running joke that everyone on the very large cast of characters in KH that in the end, every person is actually either secretly a version of the antagonist (through possession or body splitting or whatever), or a version of the protagonist (through similar concepts). Multiple bodies and other forms is definitely a Thing in KH, though it’s not as oh-god-not-again definitely-bad as the sleeping thing.

I think the other forms have either become reliant on the Inbetween or have forgotten everything but the Inbetween, or both. Maybe more of the prior, since the warning is against trusting the place.

And, uh, this? Fucking terrifying. I love it to pieces.

Every single one of these books has a wither rose pot, and this is kind of why I think that the Inbetween or its master/s is, in some way, possibly functioning via routines and like... an AI. Or a genius loci kind of thing.

But good news, there aren’t 13 books, there are 14! This is important for Kingdom Hearts reasons, because Kingdom Hearts has a big thing about the numbers 13 and 7 (13 is the number of pieces of darkness, and 7 is the number of pieces of light, and this is equal somehow, don’t question it).

Now, 14 is an important meme number in the MCYT fandom, of course, but I don’t think it has terribly too much to do with the lore beyond a fun easter egg.

The books themselves trying to tell c!Karl to, essentially, go with the flow and the path that the Inbetween has set up for him is... something. I like the idea that it’s some future version of something trying to stop something from happening, but we all know it’s probably not going to work. Fun times.

And finally, this.

The Inbetween is a bit of a narcissist, huh? It won’t shut up about how it’s so pretty and irresistible and the whole definition of, like, a honey trap. Oh my god it even describes it as ~mysterious~ as a good trait, that’s hilarious.

More pertinently, it also calls the Inbetween “a time traveller’s dream”.

A time traveller’s. Dream.

Again, not to push my DreamXD agenda, BUT—

But! Getting back on track, the book expresses its eagerness to see Karl again, says their relationship is gonna be great, reminds him that his stories are important, and then tells him that he needs the Inbetween/author just like the SMP needs him.

Uh. He’s going to need the Inbetween?

Hello?

Why? How? So far it’s presented itself as being pretty and perfect but it never said anything about necessity! What’s going on!

Very much reminded of how Castle Oblivion was presented as “you need to keep going in even though it takes your memories away because there’s someone you need to save [fake but you don’t know that because you don’t remember anything]”, and I am afright.

Talk about subtle strings being tugged at here. I’m really seeing the beginning seeds of a dependency thing being sown, and if it weren’t for the side books painting giant neon warning signs everywhere, I don’t know if it would’ve caught on. An artificially cultivated concept of how important and great the Inbetween is, and don’t you just want to take all those stories from that messy world elsewhere but come back here in the end to take a break and exist and explore and oh, isn’t the Inbetween great, isn’t it wonderful?

Man, c!Dream wishes he was this good at subtle manipulation.

tldr; there are multiple authors trying to tug c!Karl in different directions via those books. The Kingdom Hearts parallels predict that his memory will be at stake, and he might not be able to escape without help.