#are most of these reused assets? probably

[megamyceted]

BAKER HOUSE / BENEVIENTO HOUSE resident evil 7 : biohazard, 2017 & resident evil village, 2021

[emdotcom]

Tbh, can't believe I'm cutting ties with Fnaf before Batim.

[iamespecter]

TADC OCs: "The Die Quartet"!

"Oh but Ziku, who are these very handsome die?"

Well I'm glad nobody asked, because that would ruin the joke!

The Die Quartet are OCs of mine that I created for TADC, and for what purpose? Well, they're the minds behind show's music!

Hidden just behind a corner or two, or four, These obliviously mischievous and enthusiastic quartet play whatever music they can, one that certainly matches the current "mood" of what the cast is going through. Meet Cuba, Dodeca, Tetra, and Octa, The Amazing Musical Performers, for The Amazing Digital Circus!

LORE AND BOUNDARIES UNDERNEATH THE CUT!

When the Circus was initially created, it was feeling too barren for a place that's meant to be "lively". And so, Caine went and copy-pasted himself four times, while replacing the heads with some die props he found on the floor, retexturing and adjusting their bodies, to fit their new roles.

A little bit of a code rewrite to make them able of producing any sounds all on their own to be musically intertwined, and the quartet was basically ready to go: but there's only one problem.

Caine completely forgot to remove the admin privileges from their code.

So once the four spawned, they immediately began floating around, dancing and creating the main theme for the circus, and did it all perfectly. So Caine decided that as long as they don't interfere with anything major in the circus and did their job as the musical minds behind the show/game's soundtracks, he doesn't really care about fixing this error and would rather let these four run rampant to create more songs.

Ever since then, the Die Quartet has been messing with every circus members, most of the time playing obnoxious music that fits the "current mood". You'll even see their canes dance to the tempo they've set, like some backup dancers.

Think of it like: You now have x4 Caines with dice heads, flying and snooping around, so that they can "improve the mood" with their music! Ain't that swell??

(But really, all they do is just annoy the Circus members just like Caine does, for the better or the worse. Probably the latter.)

Fun facts about the Die Quartet!

Even though they've all been created at the same time and share the features of a die, they do not consider themselves as "brothers", and only see one another as colleagues instead.

Their names are related to the type of their die: Tetra (yellow), Dodeca (purple), Cuba (red), and Octa (green).

Despite being reused assets of Caine himself, they have distinct personalities that separate them from each other: Tetra is more joyful and playful, Dodeca is a more dramatic/theatric and over the top, Cuba is the natural lead and more stern than anybody, and Octa is the more closed off of the gang but willing to provide his best.

Yet, they all still lack awareness of personal space and boundaries just like Caine, and WILL be intrusive towards anyone they set their sights on, with the intent of predicting their mood and setting the current situation perfectly in musical form. (ex. if a character is sneaking, all four will follow "cautiously" behind while one imitates/pulls out a tiny piano playing to the theme of "tip-toeing". You know, like a cartoon gag.)

Although they can perfectly imitate ANY sound or instrument imaginable, They'll still pull out a "physical" instrument if the gag calls for it.

BOUNDARIES!

You can pretty much draw fanart of them! In fact I would REALLY love to see it and I encourage it! Really, just don't claim them as your own, or steal their designs.

NSFW of them is accepted, but please keep in mind that I have an SFW blog. Which means THERE ARE MINORS. Show them to me privately instead, I'd still love to see it <3

While NSFW is accepted (privately), please make it a morally decent one, because I don't really wanna see some disgusting stuff. This pretty much includes: non-con, scat, etc.

Aside from that though, I hope you all enjoyed these four! I really love how they turned out, and would love to draw them more. I was initially hesitant on showing my TADC OCs because I don't think people would like 'em, but fuck it.

My boys, they deserve to be seen even if just by a few people on the internet.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Happy with the staff content this year but am I the only one who is disappointed with the PV we got? It's basically a slideshow of art we've already seen, major downgrade from the year 1 PV that had literally all the events. There was a drop in quality of the anniversary PVs over the years and it really shows this year. Sorry if you find this too negative I don't mean to hate I just wish Twst would do better for it's ANNIVERSARY.

[For everyone's reference, here are the anniversary PVs in order of release: 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024]

Mmm, now that you mention it, I noticed this trend with the Halloween PVs 🤔 For year 1, there was a video that showed all members of the NRC casy, even those that did not receive cards at that time. There were then several short variants of the PV released for year 2/Endless Halloween Night (part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4). Altogether, they feature all of the characters, including the students from year 1 but heavily shadowed and with glowing eyes to indicate ghostly possession. Even Glorious Masquerade features all of the students that get new cards for the event plus Rollo, although there are notably more still shots here. The Stage in Playful Land CM, by comparison, is significantly shorter and only shows us the three SSRs (Ace, Ortho, and Kalim) as well as the two new characters (Fellow and Gidel).

As this anon has said, the anniversary PVs have changed a lot over time too. The first one was the most animated and integrated several event outfits. The second one was also animated a fair amount, but you can tell corners were cut in some places where they transition to photographs/still images. This alone works thematically given that the player is a photographer, but you can still catch dips in quality when it comes to the art style. I remember finding Deuce running and the Kalim + Silver flying scene odd, as well as Jade and Trein's faces strange in general. Then the third PV rolls around and it only features the third years; the animation also seems to be much more sluggish (although this could be a stylistic choice; not sure). A friend actually recently pointed out to me that Lilia's pose looks like he was pulled straight from other assets; his artwork in the animation is almost the exact same as his smiling expression in the game. This year's is the most different (+ most static) and, like year 3's PV, only provides "new" content for a select few characters (the dorm leaders). They also reuse pre-existing illustrations already found in the game that don't seem to be picked for any particular reason (like, there are random Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles groovies in there). This direction, I'm guessing, is less costly and more efficient than making an entirely original animation, which is what was done in previous years. (Not that Disney or Aniplex is hurting for money to fund this, lol) Would I have preferred another PV in the style of year 1's? Yeah, for sure. I want to see other events and their outfits animated! Was what we got this year bad? Not necessarily; I think the production and editing was very technically impressive, but I'm still sad we didn't get anything substantially "new" to chew on (as someone who isn't a fan of most third years or the dorm leaders). Maybe it's just something we perceive as a deficit only because year 1 set the bar so high. It is what it is; whoever was in charge of the anniversary PV was probably doing the best they could with whatever budget they were given 😔 Let's hope that next year's will be a return to form, or that at least the money/effort is being redirected to other bigger projects (maybe the anime?).

[lowrezbonuslevel]

you... are my nakama.......!

Day 2 Revenge Kirby Fighters 3 and Knuckles: Old Man Yaoi Edition

⚠️ LONG (but good-faith) RANT (that gives a little extra context for today's drawing) UNDER THE CUT (don't worry it's not shipping discourse lmao) ⚠️

Okay so I know neither of these modes are canon and therefore it's SORT OF a moot point, but NARRATIVELY SPEAKING, Meta Knightmare Returns and Dededetour are completely and utterly backwards, right???

What beef does King Dedede have with Dark Meta Knight? What beef does Meta Knight have with Sectonia and Dark Matter Swordsman (besides the fact that they both breathe and hold pointy weapons)? I understand that there's this ongoing plotline with having MK face swordfighters to test his skill, but I still think King Dedede should have been the one to rematch both DMS and Sectonia in Robobot (I do know Sectonia DX in TDX exists, but she isn't the final boss of the Dededetour mode which kinda sucks).

Shadow Dedede himself is a decent idea, but he's new to the series and has absolutely no story introduction (and his design isn't all that interesting, at least to me). Sectonia? Love her, but she deserves a Dedede hammer to the face for all three phases and more. DMS (and Dark Matter in general)? The ORIGINAL Dedede opp (besides Kirby lol). I know these are just clones in-story, but the coolness factor is still there.

You can make the argument that MK got to fight Mecha Knight because of MKR--which is cool, definitely, but if it were King Dedede the same could be said for the Dedede Clone fight, so in my eyes it evens out (actually... Dedede beating Stock Mecha would probably have been even more hype. imho).

Also, a Galacta Knight battle with solo King Dedede would be rad. The power scalers would have a FIELD DAY!!!

Likewise, Meta Knight never actually got to beat DMK in a proper battle at any point, did he? So based on both canon and alt timelines, DMK could still whoop MK's ass. That's just wrong... :(

It's my understanding that TDX was made with absolutely no anticipation of Robobot, so it could be the case that they simply didn't want to give Dedede the spotlight twice. But I sort of wish they had held back on MKR regardless.

Really, I don't think you NEED the anticipation of Robobot's specific plot/mechanics to see that MKR would have fit perfectly in TDX, because it answers the question of "where the hell is MK and why did he sit back when Dedede got kidnapped"? Having him fight DMK would be a way cooler explanation than an implicit "he was doing something somewhere else."

Maybe he's been fighting on the sidelines and is now clearing out the castle--which is full of Sectonia's remaining minions, the strongest and most loyal--and getting to the bottom of some source of magic still coming from the castle. Meanwhile Dedede and Kirby are helping out the people of mainland Popstar that were displaced by Sectonia and the Dreamstalk. And DMK (or, even better--a form of Dark Mind!) serves as the final boss.

Likewise, while the main events of Robobot are going on, the King could be helping Floralia defend themselves from the invasion. (The existence of Sectonia Clone combined with the pause screen that claims "Floralia is too remote to be mechanized yet" is literally just a plot hole anyway. The invaders couldn't overtake Floralia by the time we're fighting Sectonia Clone... despite the fact that they obviously DID find the huge plant that leads DIRECTLY to their kingdom AND the invaders have a mother(computer)ship the size of Planet Popstar AND practically infinite robot soldiers...? Be so fr...)

Extra work/game industry deadlines are a consideration too, but I don't think that applies too heavily here because both modes could have heavily reused and repurposed assets and level designs.

MK could have just had the typical EX mode recolors and stuff, but maybe with the story explanation/design concept that the bosses are being controlled by the Dark Mirror this time, instead of being aggravated by Taranza.

Dededetour in Robobot could have subsequently reused TDX assets. I feel like this is even a case where reskins are the objectively cooler option, as opposed to entirely new assets: seeing the flowery, green areas of Floralia converted to gross, grey landscapes would have been AWESOME, as well as seeing the insects and flower-based enemies turned to robots. Maybe the People of the Sky have been mind controlled: the six main flower fairies work together as a miniboss, and defeating them/breaking their mind control apparatuses is how they are "rescued" here, in parallel to their game of origin. Maybe Taranza is also being mind-controlled in an act of universal karma and Dedede has to bail him out. That would be sick!

This stuff isn't a series-ruiner by any means, but it genuinely feels like a glitch in the Kirby matrix that the plotlines here are so mismatched. If I were whimsically rewriting the Kirby series, the MKR and Dededetour swap would probably be the first change I'd make. (And, again, I'd like to acknowledge that there are/were probably practical considerations of which I'm ignorant.)

You know how the series could still fix everything, though...? Kirby Fighters 3, BUT this time King Dedede and Meta Knight are the main protags. They get to fight magically-summoned/echo versions of DMK, DMS, Sectonia, King D-Mind, Yin-Yarn... you name it. TOGETHER. As husbands should!!!

[cartoon-cass]

Comprehensive breakdown of MURDER DRONES - Episode 7: Mass Destruction

I saw a breakdown of this episode on youtube and it was just clearly rushed so I want to do this episode justice so here's my comprehensive breakdown.

New intro, look at them! They look so happy, that is not the case in the episode, to say the least. With how much rubber hosing this animation has I would not be surprised if this was done by Kevin Temmer Tunes with what he learned from amazing digital circus Edit: N was animated by Micah Preciado and Uzi by Zachary Preciado

Bad day to accidentally grab the wrong uniform, I do wonder where the actual Dr.Chambers was in all this. Wonder if it would have made a difference... probably not.

Not actually important but having the shadows of the claws that aren't actually there be the thing to interact with the world is fucking cool as hell. This whole scene is a cool twist on an exorcism with robots and science.

Like look at this, it's a pentagram magnet, a normal pentagram from my basic pop culture understanding it's meant to not only summon a demon but also keep them from leaving the circle. A strong magnet is so smart for this case as it's used to keep Nori in place, I mean it doesn't end up working in the end but it's the thought that counts.

It took my second watch of this episode to realize why the lights got turned on, it revealed the tentacles and claws but it's sun light, the same stuff that burns the Disassembly Drones and Uzi. It even has the same effect as in the end of Episode 4

Can I just say how extra it is making the USB a crucifix, I love it. Also I just notice that on the end of the crucifix the detailing is actually in the shape of a USB symbol, the details in this show is amazing, you can see all the love that went in to it.

This is probably the most terrifying way to hold these robots. I couldn't blame any of the robots for wanting to kill the human good god. Also Yeva playing Tetris, the game has a lot of ties to Russia so wonder if she spoke Russian too, she doesn't speak in this episode and not sure if we'll get more flashback with her so not sure if we will ever find out.

Not sure why Mitchell stop Yeva from entering the church but I like to think he thought Yeva was like a kid, look at him holding her hand in the scene before, and was trying to keep her save and knew something was off. That being said I'd love to hear what you think is his reasoning, sound off in the comments/reblogs.

Pulling back we can see Nori, specifically her core, looking at a crucifix comparing it to the USB crucifix in the video to see if it's the one with the patch, it's not, so she goes out for the hunt to see if she can find it.

Like daughter, like mother, honestly cool little details that lets us know what kind of character Nori is with the very little time we have with her. Drawing made presumably by her of herself as a human cat girl, twice, motor oil cans everywhere, a fricking ninja star, nightcore music, a anime statue that might be a reference to something but I have no clue, also magnets which have been used in the passed like drugs so that's um... something.

was originally just going to point out the funny little animation errors in this scene, as the paper goes through the Ipod and the crinkled paper is mirrored but then I wanted to check what was on the paper and...

It's a missing poster of all things? it uses the exact posters used in episode 3 it's probably just reusing assets but I thought it was a cool thing to point out.

Uzi bleeds blood in these scenes and it's not necessarily mentioned out loud, clearly something AS related, but there might be more to it, or it just looks cool.

This man is in some serious denial, but credit where credit is due, when "Tessa" tells N to stop he turns around, and when Uzi apologized for not being able to help he immediately apologized for Snapping at her. Also look at Tessa's little pointing, thought it was funny.

N: "We're not going to hurt you."

I can't blame Uzi for taking this the wrong way, he's clearly telling Tessa off but all Uzi hears is "hurt you", hence why she only parrots that part.

Thad: "Aaand you won't tell me why we're wandering around 'cause...?" Lizzy: "I'm a good friend, and secrets are blackmail. And it's not about football." Thad: "Okay. Does your secret friend want to know about football, or...?"

Anyone else wondering who Lizzy's good friend is? The only 2 characters we know are good friends with Lizzy are Doll and V. It's possible that through everything Doll sent a text to Lizzy asking her to do something but I feel like V just makes more sense. This does assume V made her way away from the sentinels, if I had to guess she's just a core at the moment which might be why she couldn't do it herself, no wings nor weapons as a core, also makes the blackmail line make more sense.

N: "I deserve this. I deserve this. I deserve this."

Baby girl NO! no you don't, your too hard on your self

That scream. That cut. *chef's kiss* perfect.

This scene just shows us why Uzi went towards the church. Also note when she's the most stressed her eye turns yellow so it does seem stress is the deciding factor whether she can be possessed.

V/AS: You know, you're one of the main reasons... [voice glitching] ...I wanted your team to retain your personalities.

This quote I think has some interesting implications, I mean it obviously confirms that the DD squad was influence by AS but it might also be why it keeps a bit of the personality of which ever host it's using.

This scene holy shit, the music, the lighting, the sound design and animation, that's how you do horror! You don't even need detailed gore, in fact most of it is just off screen. like look at the DD's off in the distance one catches the pilot of the helicopter mid air then they fight over it like hungry animals.

Ok so I hit the image limit and it's almost 1 in the morning so I'm gonna go to bed and continue this tomorrow

~to be continued~

[weirdmarioenemies]

Ah... ze humble pill bug. Shy, innocent, never wished anything against anybody, and never will. You would never hurt Pill Bug, would you? I hope not. That would be horrible. You should pick on someone your own size! An isopod the size of a human! That might hurt if it was brave enough to walk on you with its pointy feet. Actually, Pill Bug is SO sweet, that wouldn't be enough. Anyone who would wrong Pill Bug should pick on someone many times their size...

(Unless you are, for example, a woodlouse spider. In that case, I am sorry for my earlier apprehension. Please continue to hunt and eat pill bugs. It is what you are meant to do, and what you do best.)

Name: Megonta

Debut: Kid Icarus: Uprising

Imagine a world in which pill bugs are called "enormous sphere bugs". In this world, the following sentence would make perfect sense: Megonta really puts the "enormous sphere" in "enormous sphere bug"! It's probably around 15 feet in height and diameter, far, far larger than the largest isopods we have on Earth (unfortunately).

Megonta is a very neat stylization of a pill bug! Even when its legs are out, its body is already spherical, reflecting the pill bugs' most iconic ability at all times. It's immediately recognizable as a pill bug, and the sphericality also makes it much taller and more imposing. You just know this could roll at you at a moment's notice! And I personally would not survive that.

Megonta's shell, of course, protects it from all attacks! But it CAN be knocked over, exposing its soft underbelly. Sigh. It's always the soft underbelly. You know how video games work, that is its weak point. But look at its face area! We can see the hole that its face and legs tuck into when it fully conglobates (curls up)! Speaking of its face, I like how weird it is. Those appendages look very leg-like, and arhropod mouthparts (as well as antennae) did indeed evolve from legs! Some legs became better and better at moving food inside. Imagine if your teeth could all wiggle around independently, and had Leg ancestry. That's how bugs feel!

Back in the day, I felt like Smash Run in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS had too many Kid Icarus: Uprising enemies. Now, though, I realize that asset reuse is a cool and good thing, and also, of course, that Uprising enemies kind of deserve it for being so awesome and epic. Megonta is in Smash! Not playable, but it appears physically, and attacks, and is fought. I am technically not lying when I say "a pill bug is a fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS".

Did you know that "pill bug" refers to a specific family of land isopods? It's called Armadillidiidae! Armadillidiidae are the best at conglobating, able to even get their antennae enclosed within the shell. They are not to be confused with another family that is a bit less good at conglobation. This family is called... Armadillidae! So be careful. Don't mix up Armadillidae and Armadillidiidae at the isopod family reunion! That would be embarrassing.

It's so silly that they're named after armadillos. Isopods were here and conglobating first! It should be the other way around, if anything! But here we are, and it is so funny. There's a genus within Armadillidae just called Armadillo. So now actual armadillos can't use their ideal genus name, because a bug got to it first. If you reading this ever get to decide the name of an armadillo genus, please consider Isopod. It would be so funny. Keep this in mind in case that happens.

[illmoraineakoi]

Ooof

This took...A WHILE

I present to you: All of the unique Vessels in Hollow Knight (Plus a few fun bonuses)

[Note that some Vessel designs 'share' categories, which is not shown.]

[Right-click view image in new tab for full size is recommended]

Some notes below

This took me a week to put together, though partially because I kept editing some stuff. Originally, they all had the same cloak design and same cloak color, and that...that was just ugly LMAO So I changed that.

All Vessels were made with the same base (probably obvious) except for Lost Kin, because of course, Lost Kin ALWAYS has to be contrary, the little shit.

The Vessels are separated into the 'category' that they're unique to, which is in turn split into where they're 'found' in-game. Though again, the game reuses designs frequently (an example being the Sibling Shade with four horns: that's also a Vessel shown in the Godhome Cutscene, and the Deepnest ram horn is also a Sibling in the abyss.)

This was actually really REALLY fun to do. It was originally jsut a way to make Reference Sheet icons for my fics, to remind myself which name belonged to which Vessel, and I just...Had too much fun and decided to do ALL of them.

I'm showing more love the Vessels than the Pale King ever did lmao

There are 33 Canon designs in the game (Or at least 33 that I was able to identify) and 6 "canon" cut content designs. 6 Vessels on this page were made for fun, and to fill some space.

I'm also aware that some of the designs on this page might look similar to some Vessel OCs that someone might've created, but I assure you, most of these designs were taken from the game assets. And the onest that were are my own design (Velvet and Luna) or made by just messing around. The similarity is unintentional.

As a side note, I kinda want to make some more of mess-around designs. I've got some more ideas, and one more unnamed OC I might do.

If anyone's interested in the full-size individual images of any of the Vessels [free of the category tint] I'd be willing to send you them. I had to scale this image down by half just for Tumblr to upload it LMAO. I won't be posting them individually.

That being said, please don't use this page for anything beyond a visual reference without permission, please?

EDIT: I FORGOT I WANTED TO INCLUDE THIS TOO

HERE HAVE THE REFERENCE PAGE FOR ALL THE UNIQUE VESSEL ASSETS I FOUND

[wuntrum]

do you have any tips for an artist who wants to start making one off comics? i really enjoy your artistic direction and style of story telling so i’m very interested in your thoughts on it

yes, definitely!!

-read lots of comics! and a variety of them, too--both ones in the sort of genre/style you'd like to make, but also ones in completely different genres, lengths, places of origin, traditionally/indie/digitally published, simple to experimental formatting, etc

-in relation to the last one, if a comic you read really speaks to you, take some time to study some page layouts from that comic! how do the panels vary from page to page? how much space is the text taking up? what sort of "shots" (to borrow from cinematic language lol) are they using? these shouldn't be fancy, just little thumbnails, but i find it really helps. here's a few i did from a guest in the house by emily carroll

-start smalllll. its really important to build up your stamina, just like with any new sort of skill. if you wanna make a graphic novel thats 200+ pages long, you should make some comics that are 1, 20, 50 pages long and see them through to the end before taking on a super big project.

-this is related to the last point, but i think keeping your cast of characters small at first can also help build up your comic stamina. signals was the first longer comic i made, so i specifically really wanted to focus on just jeanne (and occasionally her parents and peers when they showed up)

-character sheets are helpful, but i also think the easiest way to start getting your characters drawn consistently is through actually drawing the comic! there's also gonna be panels where they look "off" or whatever, and its literally fine, i promise

-through the smaller comics, experiment with how you go about writing your story! theres no right or wrong way to write/plan out a story so, it takes some trial and error to figure out what will work best with your work flow. for me, i've found success in making a timeline of events for the story -> loosely guessing how many pages i'll need/want per section of the story -> freewriting (trying not to edit too much, just dumping all the words out) -> thumbnailing/loose sketching/editing text (all sort of happens in the same step; i find i need the layouts in front of me to understand what i need/don't need from the text i wrote) -> tight sketching -> final . but, if that flow doesn't work for you, try something else! i know a lot of comics people find success in writing a script first, with indications of page and panel-by-panel breakdowns

-take shortcuts often and without guilt. its a lot of work to make a comic! theres just a lot of drawings involved, that most people aren't gonna look at for very long! i especially recommend for infrequent/difficult things, like buildings or crowds or cars or bookcases, using some sort of 3d asset/brush to make your life easier. if you can reuse a drawing and change the crop/expression, do it!

-use some sort of tracker to track your progress on how many pages you've sketched/inked/finished. even if you don't have an external deadline, i think it's still good to give yourself some sort of timeline to work on (i recommend setting "ideal" goals and "realistic" goals, especially if you're working/still in school/etc). for signals, i used google sheets, because you can set up columns to be attached to little circle charts, so as you check off your progress, you can really easily see how much you've done/how much you have left to do (as i type this i highkey forget how i did that before, with signals, so...you might need to do some sheets experimentation to actually do this lol. but there's probably other trackers you can use too)

-understanding comics and making comics by scott mccloud are both great books, highly recommend them (easy to get second hand/from your library/🏴‍☠️)

-lastly, haveee funnnnn

[zalia]

Episode Echoes thoughts

Pondering after Act 2 Part 2 of Episode Echoes because I have thoughts... They're not entirely coherent, and definitely aren't gonna be a definitive answer to anything, but there's some really old lore which seems extremely relevant right now, especially regarding the Conductor's possible plans/motives.

So, we've got Saint-14 with differing memories to Osiris. A version of Maya Sundaresh acting as the Conductor. A series of Battlegrounds featuring a giant Vex minotaur that looks a hell of a lot like Atheon. A Vex cyclops that looks like Dendron Root Mind, in an area that is very similar to the Pyramidion on Io (Ikora even comments upon it being like the Pyramidion in a voice line so we're meant to pick up on that, rather than it just being reusing assets).

First thought: Everything that is happening to Saint and Osiris feels very targeted. From what Saint says, the Conductor knew a lot about him, and about Osiris, about Sagira. Makes sense if she's scouring the Vex Network since they're probably the two Guardians the Vex know the most about (barring possibly Kabr who became Vex, and Asher who was partially Vexified and became subsumed in the network). If she's using the Vex's simulation abilities, I think even paracausality would not prevent them predicting that the Last City would send their Vexperts to investigate, even if they couldn't 100% accurately simulate the Light. If I was trying to take over the Vex, I would probably want to compromise the Guardian who killed so many Vex they built him a tomb, and the Guardian who wrested control of the Infinite Forest away from them. And she seems to know just where to dig in to Saint's mind. The Conductor also says some things about shaping people's realities in the Polychroma Ghost Shell lore:

Naturally, few are capable of positive contribution to this work, but that will be manageable. We don't need a chorus to form a quartet. People of science, vigorous study, those are the future humanity needs. There are individuals that would meet the qualifications, of course, and those who possess unique brilliance that is impossible to duplicate. What ease can we provide those careful few? How to best shape their world from the inside out?

The whole lore entry is rather disturbing (and in attitude towards people reads more like Clovis Bray than Maya Sundaresh. Or like the Witness in many ways). But wanting individuals with unique brilliance, and shaping their world from the inside out... Is Saint a test run for this? The entry also talks of 'more complex minds prove difficult'. Well, how about experimenting on an exo whose mind has a Radiolaria component. Something like imprinting a memory on the Radiolaria to affect the exo mind? To shape an individual's reality from the inside out. And Osiris also would kinda be one of those people with unique brilliance. And a whole connection to the Veil. Anyway, the main thought before that got away from me was... Saint's memories. We so far only have one very specific memory which differs, and that difference in memory only appears after he'd been yoked. Could be Saint from a different timeline, sure, that is a possibility. Could be an entirely fake memory that the Conductor has forced him to believe. What if it's a real memory from a different timeline's Saint, forced into this timeline's Saint? And that's where I come to think about mind-forking. Mind Forking is something that only comes up a few times in lore, always in connection to Maya Sundaresh (barring one time when it's just mentioned as a thing that raises concern in the Golden Age). The earliest mentions of it come from the D1 grimoire cards, specifically: Ghost Fragment Vex 4 and Ghost Fragment Vex 5 (CW for suicide)

In Ghost Fragment Vex 4, the Ishtar Scientists are releasing their simulated copies into the Citadel on Venus.

Chioma puts an arm around her. "That's what we're going to find out. Where the Citadel can send us. Whether we can come back." "They're not us any more." Maya looks down at herself, at the cache of her self-forks. "We're not going anywhere. We're sending them. They're diverging."

So the Vex simulations are like mind forks. (We will be coming back to this lore entry. In Ghost Fragment Vex 5, Maya is in Lhasa working on a project that will later become the Future War Cult's device.

We built the device in mimicry of the Vex gateway systems from Ishtar. An observatory, yes, but I think of it as a mind-ship. Capable of displacing its payload across space and time.

So Vex technology capable of displacing a mind across space and time (and don't think I don't see you there 'observatory' reference - I have no doubt the writers of the Final Shape CE lore were looking at this grimoire card for reference). Experimenting with this device goes... poorly. People are driven mad by it. Maya has an idea:

I’ve suggested that we attempt mind forking. We need more sane people to work with. Please forgive me, my love.

She doesn't explain what mind forking is, but she describes the copies of the Ishtar scientists as 'forks', and from the context, I'd guess that it's a way of creating a copy of a mind that diverges at a specific point. That copy can then be sent out using the device and if it goes insane or dies, well, you've got the original. If it goes well, the forked mind and the original reunite. Maybe? It's never quite that clean where this stuff is involved - the simulated Vex scientists were fully independent, sapient, entities. Not just computer copies. From another standpoint - it would be like having Saint-14 there, and then making another exo based on the original mindprint of Saint.

The Device is eventually picked up by the Future War Cult, led by Lakshmi-2, who is sort of but not quite Maya Sundaresh thanks to the Veil! Lakshmi-2 also talks about Mind Forking in Season of the Splicer

The Future War Cult has long used Vex-derived technology to see into the future. I won't bore you with an explanation of mind-forking.

The experiments with the device do not go any better and you can read them on the Future War Cult grimoire card.

No wonder the Device was abandoned. The human mind is too weak for it. Too weak to look into the Future, or to understand what it sees. What the situation calls for, little Ghost, is a better sort of witness.

(oh yeah the writers were absolutely looking at these grimoire lore cards for a lot of recent stuff.

We don't really hear anything about it again until... Season of the Seraph. In the Spire of the Watcher chestpiece.

[AUGURMIND] Predictive Matrix  Potential Colony Sites  Chronoscopic Analysis  MIND FORK II PROTOTYPE INTERLACING  PROJECT FILE: Ishtar-Joint, Sundaresh

Oh yeah, we've got Soteria the Occlusion in the Vex Network on Neomuna, Maya Sundaresh, one of the founders of Neomuna, and Mind forking. Is Soteria a mind-fork of Maya Sundaresh as well? Not enough info to say. But Soteria is very entwined with Maya and the CloudArk and thus, the Veil. She is also partially created from Vex prediction technology.

Where is this going? I don't know. Regarding Saint though... could the Conductor have found a mind-fork of Saint from another timeline and IDK, pasted that specific memory into his head?

One last thing, going back to the Vex 4 lore. In Season of the Wish, in the Starcrossed mission, we enter the Black Garden, and are confronted by a very specific Vex structure:

The Citadel on Venus. You can still see it in D2 from the starting area of the Vault of Glass raid. In D2 you get to climb it. It's a really specific structure which had not really been referenced at all since D1. And suddenly it's back in Season of the Wish. And now we have lore mentioning the Ishtar scientist copies and Praedyth.

In the Vex 4 lore, there is this conversation between the Ishtar Scientists.

"Do you think," Duane-McNiadh begins, halting, "that you could use this place to change things? If you regretted something, could you find a way through the Citadel, go back, and change it?" "I wish I could go back and change you into someone else," Dr. Shim grouses. Chioma's shaking her head. She knows physics. "Time is self-consistent," she says. "I think it's like the story of the merchant and the alchemist. You could go back and watch something, or be part of something, but if you did, then that was the way it always happened." "Maybe you could bring something back to now. Something you needed." Maya runs a hand across the surface of the Vex aperture, feeling it with sensors ten thousand times as precise as a human hand. These proxy bodies are limited— they crash and need resetting every few hours, they struggle with latency, they can't hold much long term memory. But they'll get better. "Or go forward and learn something vital. If you knew how to control it, how to navigate across space and time."

The Merchant and the Alchemist section sounds a lot like Saint's paradox. And there's a lot here that seems to point to the Conductor maybe possibly wanting to change time to fix something that went wrong. Also from Vex 5

I am beginning to wonder if we were wrong about the merchant and the alchemist. Or if that explanation of time was incomplete.

The Merchant and the Alchemist is also a reference to a Ted Chiang book where an alchemist shows a merchant a mysterious black stone arch which lets you travel to the future (and there is another gate which leads to the past). I haven't read it, so can't give more details but again, it's not an idle reference.

tl;dr there is absolutely a picture forming here, and, like a magic eye picture, I just haven't managed to make my vision go funny in the right way to see it yet.

[teecupangel]

So I watched the trailer of Assassin's Creed Shadows and I thought I'd give my preliminary thoughts

History-wise

Okay... so Yasuke was Oda Nobunaga's vassal from 1581 to 1582. Historically, he was captured by Akechi's forces after Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga which led to Nobunaga's death. Instead of killing him, Mitsuhide ordered he be shipped to the Christians (whether he did it to save Yasuke's life or because he was being racist is still unsure) where he was treated and they sailed out of Japan later on.

Naoe being an Iga shinobi... I have nothing XD Nobunaga did destroy the shinobi clans in Iga (that was a whole 'nother thing) and her last name, Fujibayashi, was one of the ruling families of Iga province. Other than that... uuuhhh... the kanji of her name 名緒絵 sorta gives the impression of an honorable, kind and talented person. 名 is usually seen in words that translate to 'name' or 'distinguished', the first thing I thought of when I saw 緒 was 'beginning' but it can also mean 'strap' or 'cord' and 絵 is a kanji that appears in words that is connected to art and painting.

Possible Storyline

Oda Nobunaga is not a Templar. He was, for a time, an ally of the Brotherhood until he got his hands on a Sword of Eden and everything went downhill from there. So I see 2 possible storylines:

This is set before Oda Nobunaga's death in Honnouji and Yasuke has a redemption arc with Naoe guiding him to the ways of the Brotherhood. They probably act independently from Akechi's forces and the end game is to take away the Sword of Eden from Nobunaga. Yamauchi Taka (who kills Nobunaga in AC canon) would appear as a support character of some capacity. (He might even be Naoe's mentor)

This is set after Oda Nobunaga's death and Yasuke is on a path of vengeance against those who conspired against Oda. He and Naoe would have a more hostile relationship first before it developed into Yasuke finally letting go of his need for vengeance and becoming a blade to save the weak from this endless bloodshed.

Regardless, we'll probably see Hattori Hanzo since he's part of the Japanese Brotherhood.

Plot 1 would end in Honnouji and the retrieval of the Sword of Eden... or the Sword of Eden apparently gets into Akechi's hands and we get to have plot 1 AND 2 where the sword becomes 'pass the baton' kind of deal (this will fight with the current AC canon though)

Plot 2 could end anywhere from Akechi's death during the Battle of Yamazaki OR we get as far as the Battle of Sekigahara which is always fun (I mean... not fun because so many people died there but fun in a video game-y kind of way).

Plot 2 is more broad which could lead to 'too many characters, not enough limelight' while Plot 1 is more centered and could serve to make the character development shine.

(If this Oda Nobunaga gets a laser sword as well, at least we can say Isu bullshit on that one XD)

Gameplay

As far as I know, Assassin's Creed Shadows will follow the open world rpg setup of the Layla trilogy. Considering how Mirage made use of Valhalla's engine, that might be Naoe's gameplay as well. I would suggest to wait for an actual gameplay as Ubisoft sometimes make fancy 'moves' in cinematic trailers that you can't actually do in-game.

I also want to know how they would handle the two main characters setup. Considering we see them together in the trailer, this might be a case of "same missions but who you pick decide how you approach it" kind of deal instead of AC Syndicate's "Jacob and Evie do their own thing most of the time". Same missions also means there's a good chance of wanting to replay it as a different character for a different experience and also... it means they'd be reusing the same assets during development XD

teecup Rambles

Okay, here we go.

I really want to see Assassin's Creed version of Nobunaga Oichi because she's my favorite character in these kinds of stories. She's usually portrayed as the kind beautiful younger sister of Oda Nobunaga that he once said could have been a fine warrior if she had been born a man. Also, her daughters would later marry (or become a concubine) to prominent historical figures. Her relationship with Nobunaga after the death of her first husband is also vague so she can support Yasuke regardless if he's trying to avenge Nobunaga's death or if he betrayed him.

Other than that, I think the final battle being Sekigahara would be epic. Just waves and waves of enemies to fight as Yasuke while Naoe stealth her way to the big battlefield to assassinate their actual target. Although, historically, it would make sense for the story to end with Nobunaga's death or Akechi's death since that's around the last time we hear of Yasuke.

... then again, he would just return after being shipped off and that starts the main game too.

Yeah, that's about it. I really just wanted to talk about Ichi but I couldn't add it elsewhere.

Oh and Yasuke is in Samurai Warriors 5 if you want to have an idea of how Ubisoft can handle him... also in Nobunaga's Ambition. It would be awesome if his Isu armor's helmet would look something like Nagoriyuki's (who is inspired by the historical figure Yasuke) from Guilty Gear as a reference to a reference but I highly doubt it.

[scaredshadowsswap]

hello hello I love your stuff so much! how would each staff respond to being pranked? would they prank back? tattle?

Thanks! I love writing stuff so it works out great!

Clef:

The one piece of advice with Clef is don’t dish out what you can’t take. Clef’s response to being pranked would be considered a grand overreaction, and even the most minor of pranks would have him responding with a prank that could ruin your week, month, year, or life depending on how generous he’s feeling. Clef would not fight in a prank war, he would end the prank war immediately. That being said, you can prank Clef, he won’t tattle. He may or may not kill you, so be careful (we all know what happened with that D-Class Costume Party). It also depends on how well he knows you and if he sees you as an asset. If you prank him without knowing him well, it better be a damn funny prank or you’re not going to survive his counter-attack. Clef would be willing to “team up” in a prank war against someone else, but it would just be him sending you to go do his dirty work.

Kondraki:

Kondraki does not like pranks, don’t try it. He won’t tattle on you, but I just feel like he would have no issue holding you up against a wall by your collar and bashing your head in on it. I imagine Draven tried to prank him once, and was lectured for hours and grounded for weeks. He’s no snitch, but by the end of it, you’ll probably wish he was. Kondraki would absoutely not form an alliance with you in a prank war, and would fight anyone in participation.

Gears:

Why would you prank someone with no emotions who is so high-ranking? Like it’s an option, but not a good one. In terms of what he’d do, I don’t think it would be interesting. He’d call you in for questioning, call witnesses, and file a full-fledged incident report. Then, he’d let HR decide on an outcome. I don’t know if he can tattle to anyone since he’s at the top, but it would probably be the most boring outcome, until you find yourself mysteriously on 82 different mailing lists, all which send you daily emails…

Iceberg:

I feel like Ice would try to start a prank war and would want to have some fun rivalry going on, but he just doesn’t get pranks? Like, he’ll try to get back at you, but what he does just isn’t as funny. Like instead of moving your furniture three inches to the left, the he’d just throw a cup of water at you in passing, which would make anyone who sees it in passing just think he’s an asshole. He’s not trying to be, he just really wants to participate in a prank war with someone. Feel free to team up with him against another group of people, as long as you come up with the prank ideas. He’d be more than happy to help you execute your plans against other people, and would have a lot of ideas for how to better your pranks.

Shaw:

It’s a blast. Shaw is the reigning champ of prank wars, and has had ones that go on for months with Clef. Shaw has had so much time to come up with new pranks, and can reuse old pranks when people die, so they have a ton of material. Shaw is also nice to prank because they’ll match the intensity of your prank and won’t go much past it. Occasionally, a prank will push the boundaries, but when that happens, it is Shaw’s way of trying to egg you on to continue the battle. Usually, someone just kinda stops or you both will call a truce (for the time being), but once Shaw knows that you find pranks funny, they won’t really hesitate to prank you again. You may team up against someone sometimes, but Shaw holds no alliances and is really just doing this for fun.

Glass:

It depends on the nature of the prank. Glass will take harmless pranks in stride and enjoy them, but he is more aware than anyone else that not all pranks are harmless. Hurting someone’s self-esteem is a no-no for him, and so are any pranks that result in physical injuries. So, he might laugh if you wrap all his pens in wrapping paper, but he would not be a fan of someone ordering a singing telegram as a joke at his expense. Surprisingly, even with tame pranks, Glass will not prank you back. I think Glass is too concerned that his actions may hurt someone, so he will be unwilling to partake in your prank wars or join a team to prank someone else. If it goes too far, Glass’s reputation could be ruined, and he is not willing to do that when so many people trust him.

Rights:

When I talk about “prank alliances” forming in other people’s, I’m talking about Rights. She’ll form a prank alliance with someone to pull off some pretty crazy pranks, which’ll mean you may also need a partner to match her level. She does value her work, so I don’t recommend messing with that, but she’s okay with modertate-intensity pranks generally. She doesn’t really like long prank wars like Shaw, and prefers hers to last a week or so but not much longer. She will definitely ask for your help, maybe even if you’re a stranger. She has a ton of fun with these and likes to use it to bond with some coworkers.

Strelnikov:

It depends but generally not recommended. He won’t tattle on you, but he probably won’t find it very funny, and it’s not as fun if the person you’re pranking doesn’t really think it’s funny. He doesn’t get upset, he’s just completely stoic about it, and will maybe give you a look, but not much else. He wouldn’t really participate in prank wars because 1.) he’s the leader of an MTF, anyone below him wouldn’t dare, and 2.) people got sick of him not really finding it funny. His lack of reaction has really dissuaded people from pranking him, and he probably wouldn’t join your prank alliance simply because it’s not really his sense of humor.

[katyahina]

It is really interesting to speculate about the meaning of this.. Messengers are associated with the dreaming Hunters and the Dream, but what if those of them who are too far from the Dream are under a lot of strain and the image of the nice person that cared for them is just the only thing they can rely on?

^ In regards to Doll being a 'vessel' of Moon Presence in some regard, this reminds me of Crawlers, other Nightmare creatures! Their larger variants have multiple Messengers sticking out of their guts. I have a personal headcanon on them, but imagine: whereas Winter Lanterns imitate the Doll (and by doing so, Moon Presence), Crawlers are meant to imitate corpse of Kos with the ripped guts. Both are sort of mockery from the Great Ones. A sort of punishment maybe, because if Messengers are souls of the deceased, could Messengers crampled into Crawlers or Winter Lanterns be somehow "failed" spirits? Ones that are yet still to "atone", or, in the case of Moon Presence, ones not taking part in the cycle of the Hunt for one reason or another?

(Retranslation script I always use: ( x ) Internal filenames: ( x ))

Hunters of Hunters had reasons to believe in "proper" burial that further connected to the Hunter's Dream, and Winter Lanterns are referred to be 'failed' Messengers! It might be extention of that fucked up concept of people being cursed for not being properly buried in the eyes of whatever God.

Doll and Gehrman both have interesting connection with the Nightmare Realm, too! Gehrman, strangely, shares the cry with Orphan of Kos, but even if that's to be blamed on simple reuse of assets he still more strangely feels relief after OoK is freed! Whatever prompted that link but who is to tell that spiritual connection with a Great One he helped to torture would not guarantee his own negative emotions helped to give "shape" to Nightmare? It is a lot of power, and the Doll is probably a horrible memory. Maybe the blood and guts' on the dress of Winter Lanterns is a reflection of his pain, memory of an innocent person he trained to be a ruthless murderer, thus ruining that soft version of her and... it didn't end well for Maria, did it?

Alllllright, and before I devolved into a crying cat meme- Doll, strangely, is asleep sometimes, which a doll should not... need? Meanwhile, we find Maria asleep too. I've always loved the idea of their spiritual connection where when one is asleep another is awake, and vice-versa! Ideally, Maria would die and be "reborn" within the Doll, in a way. Could be a spiritual thing of latching onto an object that resembles you (Doll also has Maria's brooch, boots and ribbon but in her hat now ( x )). Or could be Moon Presence's way to further "glorify" her as one of the greatest Hunters. Because, she is Flora of the Hunt. In any case, Kos said no, so Maria's soul is in two states... Winter Lanterns are amalgamation of the two, as well - a gentle singing woman in a dress, but also this dress is bloodied and the woman is aggressive, and don't forget Kin metamorphosis because both Maria and the Doll are close to Eldrich Horrors now!

I don't have much to elaborate on other options as they are much more self-explanatory! Paleblood Hunter wakes up without memories, so Doll could be the most striking person for them, but who is to tell other people would not see THEIR comfort person terribly distorted in Winter Lanterns' place? My personal opinion though is that heads of melted Messengers is a crucial part here.. but I think ALL variants could work so well that seeking 'logical' appeal is pointless ;-; It boils down to what feels more appealing, I suppose..

[project-sekai-facts]

Since you uploaded that MMJ Miku beta design, do you know if there are other beta designs of the characters?? I'm curious since there's a little bit of concept art of project sekai.

Ah well project sekai featured in this one issue of a Japanese magazine called CG WORLD which is where I got that art from. That magazine is more focused on the costume designs though but it does have some concept art, but aside from WIP costume designs using the final character designs, all of it is blurred out unfortunately.

You can find some WxS beta designs, a Shiho beta design and some low quality MMJ beta designs out there (not entirely sure how people found these, I think they were left in a beta release and got datamined), but that’s all the unblurred stuff you can find.

And there are no VBS beta designs available. There’s some WIP costumes for Akito, Kohane, Miku and MEIKO (i posted her one ages ago), but there’s no actual concept art of them available anywhere.

I can go through what we do have though because they’re probably too low quality for me to post as an actual fact.

So these three images were in the CG WORLD magazine. You can tell who the members of Leo/need are based on the instruments (L->R: Saki, Honami, Ichika, Shiho, Miku), and MORE MORE JUMP! (L->R: Miku, Haruka, Airi, Minori, Shizuku) isn’t too different from the final designs aside from Shizuku, who’s blonde (probably because Shiho is). Niigo is harder to identify outside of Kanade and Miku. This art was also uploaded on TCRF and whoever put it there said that Mizuki is the brunette, Mafuyu is the one sitting next to Kanade and Ena is the one in the purple cardigan. It's not stated who is who in the magazine.

And here’s some actual beta assets. You’ve got WxS and Miku (there's two people in the back) here. Emu didn’t really change much aside from the eyes, but other than her...? (I edited this since it was posted don't mind the change)

We have the leader, who is literally just a palette swap of Rui's initial 2* with Tsukasa's face (excl the eye color which was given to Rui) and hairstyle. Possibly Tsukasa bc leader, possibly Rui bc design, possibly a scrapped character who was split in two

There's someone in the back behind leader boy and blonde girl wearing a pink-purple shirt and white jacket with a yellow tie. Clearly their color palette was used on Rui later down the line. Other than that there's nothing we can tell about this character, not even their gender. Possibly Rui, possibly Miku, possibly a third character who was scrapped/reworked

We have blonde girl, who's hair color and eyes seem to have been reused for final Tsukasa. Usually this is assumed to be Nene due to not resembling any finalised designs for the most part. I think she was probably scrapped, or heavily reworked and became Nene with some design elements passed onto Tsukasa (or Tsukasa was a girl?)

And in the back behind Emu is a girl in a green blazer and grey skirt that looks like a school uniform. Maybe this is Miku because the costume doesn't really match with the others? She doesn't have pigtails though, but no one here has pigtails. There's literally nothing identifiable about her.

Whoever these people are there were clearly a lot of changes made to WxS and these might not even be Nene/Rui/Tsukasa. That's definitely Emu though.

And here's a gacha bg and live bg demo for MMJ. The screen on the first image seems to be displaying a less-blurred version of their concept art. For the record, the illustrations in the second screenshot are from idolm@ster, they are not MMJ concept designs, but part of Shizuku can be seen to the right of the pink haired girl.

Possibly might've been named RE:START given the neon lights in the second image. Has some backing: their first event was called RE:START from Here!, and NaytalieN said in an interview that there was extremely little development on MMJ outside of character illustrations when he was commissioned for that event (and a couple statements imply the game was still in fairly early development too). Or it might've just been a catchphrase for the group or something.

And this. High quality beta-Shiho. This was used as a placeholder card art (surprisingly finished for a placeholder) for MMJ!Miku’s initial card, which by the way, looks exactly the same as the final version only it hasn't been finished yet. I’m pretty sure this is Shiho and not Shizuku because of the side ponytail and image color. But Miku is wearing a similar costume to the one in the MMJ concept art. I mean it was marked as placeholder and was not intended for use, it doesn’t really have to make sense. Also what seems to be a costume for Miku based on this card was left in the game and is on TCRF I added the screenshot below.

I haven't finished translating the CG WORLD article yet, but there's not a huge amount dedicated to character design, as I said earlier it's mainly about costumes. What I can tell you though is that VBS and WxS apparently took longest to finalise, specifically Akito and Tsukasa.

TCRF page for anyone interested

[kerubimcrepin]

An Afterword: talking about Welsh and Shedar

While we are done with the movie and the show, it cannot be understated, just how much we still have to cover. Both in terms of canon, and things out of the realm of canon.

And this includes interviews, and things that never got made.

[source]

The thing that often bothers me, is that the creator of the franchise that my most favorite cartoon of all time is a part of, probably despises said cartoon.

I can't not think about that, when I see Simone and other Aux Tresors characters reused in Wakfu season 4 as background character assets, or when I think about how every show except Aux Tresors has had an OST released, or how the only Aux Tresors companion in Waven is Lou. Though I know, logically speaking, that it's more likely because it's just not very popular.

Funnily enough, I personally, and rather selfishly, think that Welsh & Shedar's demise is probably the greatest fortune to happen to this franchise. What was one of the worst things to ever happen to Tot was one of my greatest fortunes. (I would not care about Joris as a character, had Kerubim never existed. The cartoon, and their relationship, mean a lot to me, for personal reasons.)

To Tot, the thing that I love the very most has cannibalized one of his life's dreams. Starting with the resources, and ending with character designs themselves. Even the character design of a fucking cat??

As an artist myself, I can't even begin to imagine the horror of that, and yet... I feel nothing but joy. It's quite weird, how life works.

The good news is that Welsh and Shedar has been resurrected by Ankama (watch as it gets a full artbook and an OST release before Aux Tresors, an 11 year show that still doesn't have those, yes I am bitter), so, it is mostly water under the bridge. We will hopefully get to enjoy both, in a couple of years.

[source]

But I feel like it's very likely, that a lot of Aux Tresors and the way Tot may feel about it, was influenced by this disaster, and I couldn't begin this post without addressing that.

So, what was, or could be in the future, Welsh and Shedar?

A plot summary from the youtube trailer's description, just as filled with Tot's overwhelming sadness as everything else relating to W&S's cancellation, man, goes as follows: "Here is the trailer for an animated series project launched in 2012 which has very little chance of arriving on your screens. The story is that of Welsh, a young boy forced to fight for an inheritance he never knew existed: that of the throne of the Kingdom of Bonta. Ankama’s “animation” department has plenty of ideas behind its graphics tablets: series, special episodes, films, our brains are always buzzing! However, not all projects are lucky enough to reach you…"

So basically, it was/is/will be a story about a young man, or boy, who finds out he is the next in line for Bonta's throne, and is taken there by Joris. How all of this happens is rather murky, AKA:

Anyway,

Tot has reported that his idea for this series was quite similar to the anime "Ranking of Kings", which I had sadly not watched. Make of that what you will.

When does Welsh & Shedar take place?

Firstly, I will say that, because of how much Tot loves this series, for years it was in a state of vague canonicity. AKA "it did likely happen, but it has never been produced so we don't know WHAT it is, that happened there. There sure was a guy named Welsh at some point."

What points to this is 1. Khan's old man design still being canon,

And 2. This usage of Welsh & Shedar-era Joris in an official timeline. It says that Joris would have been 60 years old, in this series.

Obviously, this timeline is subject to change, if/when Welsh & Shedar becomes real, and there are a lot of things we don't know!

Some curiosities...

Funnily enough, there exists this image, which was leaked by a French site when Aux Tresors began airing, — mistakenly used as promo for the series.

It could be depicting some other draft of W&S where Joris is a kid. Or, it could be depicting something between Aux Tresors and W&S, from when Ankama had to make something new up to take W&S's place.

It yet again makes me yearn for an Aux Tresors art book. Because seriously. What does this even mean.

Anyway thank you france for killing W&S, making Aux Tresors (the PEAK.... the SLAY.....) real, and now resurrecting W&S. We truly do live in the kindest timeline 🙏

[literaticat]

Hi, Jenn. These recent children's imprints closings have been really sad. Is there anything we, as authors and readers, can do, aside from buying more children's/YA books?

No, and yes. No, you aren't going to stop corporate mergers. Yes, you CAN help the book industry more generally!

While some books are just straight up bestsellers that do not need your help to thrive, I'd say 90% of books and authors are hurting for attention, tbh -- and that probably includes some of your favorites. Media is so fractured / silo'ed and people are so distracted, discoverability is a huge challenge for authors.

So yes by all means please DO buy books! Give them as gifts! Pass them out to your friends! And enemies! But also: TALK ABOUT THEM! Start a book club! If you are on a budget? Use your library! Request titles they don't have! (For ebooks and audiobooks, too! Check out OverDrive and Libby!) Write reviews of books you love, or talk them up on social media!

(To paraphrase RuPaul: If we bookworms don't buy and read and talk about books, how in the hell can we expect anyone else to? CAN I GET AN AMEN UP IN HERE?)

ALL THAT BEING SAID: Imprints being bought/sold/closed etc has little to do with individual readers. Your buying three extra copies of your fav book is not going to affect an international multi-million/BILLION dollar corporation merging or divesting assets or whatever -- those kinds of decisions are above our pay grade as authors / readers / the general public! (Anyway, a publisher may be sold not because it ISN'T doing well and the owner is trying to get rid of it -- but because it is doing VERY well and a larger company wants it! Or for some other reason, something something shareholders, who knows!)

Think about it this way: You throwing your water bottle in the correct bin is good, but it's not going to stop climate change. CORPORATIONS need to stop it, GOVERNMENTS need to stop it -- your individual contribution is nice, by all means keep reducing, reusing, recycling, but it isn't YOU that is the real problem or the solution, actually. You can help not make it worse! You can rally for change and join groups and encourage corporations to make that change with your voice, your votes, etc. You can bring attention to it in whatever ways you are able! But it's not up to you as an individual to actually do the heavy part of the world-saving.

In much the same way: Getting more people to buy more books is actually a much bigger problem than your buying an extra paperback or tweeting alone can solve. It has to do in part with changing the CULTURE, with figuring out how to get all of our attention spans back, with getting kids to pick up books for fun instead of their phones, with valuing education, etc.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMO, the publishing industry and authors and everyone else in the country, quite frankly, would be greatly helped by investing more in teachers and libraries rather than de-funding and criminalizing them, with stopping the book banning madness that is happening, and with PLEASE GOD not letting "Project 2025" become a reality! So if you are concerned with any of these issues, do make the changes in your own life, and do use your voice, your VOTES, whatever you can do to bring attention to the issues -- join and support advocacy groups like Authors Against Book Bans, donate, yell about it! But ultimately it's going to have to be the government, and monied and powerful major entities (including corporations... like publishers!) that are going to have to step up to REALLY enact change. What you can do is show them by word and deed that you WANT that change.