#cptdark

[conceptuma]

Hi! Sorry for the wait!! here is my darkhenge!captain darkiplier design as of right now!! :D

There might be inconsistencies but it doesn't matter; anything can be changed or simplified or stylized, I encourage it

(goes for anyone who wants to draw him)

Some annotations for clarity/highlighting if it's helpful:

His bangs are flipped unintentionally, they would be consistently kept on the same side as canon Darkiplier's hair

Giving him a downturned/hooked nose would be cool. I don't think ive ever drawn it on him but it's something I think about as a way to contrast from the other egos if desired.

the shoulder palettes were very rushed, I always get a bit indecisive on them. you can draw them however you like, and using "captain shoulder palettes" (or shoulder boards , shoulder pads) as reference via an online image search is encouraged for that if youd like!

the left one is drawn more femininely in bodytype than the middle one. this is just styling and to show that he can be drawn any way (due to being gender ambiguous/fluid/nonbinary and plural) It turns the red fabric padding on the waist of the suit into a more hourglass shape, while the blue side is a straighter blocky shape. That's just me being campy with gender, but if someone wants to include that asymmetry on the suit itself, it would be pretty cool :D

an important design philosophy i like for my cptdark is that he's wearing a lot of layers and constricting types of clothing, to an excessive degree. it's symbolism for how he is restricted in his position in darkhenge, it's a huge element in darkhenge for dark to feel trapped; confused; limited; repressed; restrained, and have to work around it / live with it. (he's kinda like that in canon anyways, he's just having an especially trying time in darkhenge... lol)

I realize now the garterbelt thigh highs OVER suit pants is SUUPER campy but I just love drawing it :D anyone can totally draw him with regular suit pants or high boots instead of thigh highs. Or the fishnets i drew him in one time lol. I like it all *_*

His hair, or the shadow it leaves on his face, forms like a cracked mirror, or like cracks in a porcelain doll's face.

He appears to have black lipstick and eyeliner on, but it sometimes looks like it's poorly applied or has been smudged off.

I drew an optional hand gun holster. I don't usually draw it, but I like to add something on his belt if possible.

The choice of 4 pointed "diamond" shaped buttons and corset belts is just my go-to due to the very subtle homura akemi inspirations (of which has very cool usage of the "diamond" shape in her design). I almost had the boot belts be the same, but I didn't like it at the time

The garterbelts and harness belt is inspired by Solid Snake's sneaking suit design

I also didn't include the badges or other details that Head Engineer has, despite sometimes drawing Cpt. Dark with them. Since I usually change it a bit everytime (I haven't settled on a design for it) You can add those to Cpt Dark if you want, using a head engineer ref from ISWM :]

GIVE ME YOUR DARKIPLIER DESIGNS FOR ME TO DRAW PLEASE

Hello everyone !! Remember when I asked for you guys to send me your designs of actor mark like I did back then Here ?

Well ! I decided it was Time to do the same thing with Darkiplier this time !!

Any type of designs welcome, canon inspired, from alternatives universes or body horror, anything is fair game !! I want to see everybodys creativity

If you are interested, I just need you to attach a reference of your Darkiplier design when you reblog this, colored if possible, but no need for a full body since Ill draw them bust style like so :D

Not sure exactly when Ill get started because Id like to prepare and participate in Artfight this year but that just gives you more time to send me your designs !! Ill announce when I stop taking designs :3

I would mighty appreciate it if you guys could reblog this post to spread the word <3 Thank you so much !!!

[conceptuma]

Soooo how did your idea of dark being the captain started ? how different would his role be compared to the y/n captain in iswm ?

Alright... Let's get into it

Question 1: It actually started as a theory that I gradually believed more and more in a short span of time as everyone was consuming ISWM part 1, and when part 2 dropped, it both lead me on further, as well as disproved it. … (but really Markiplier's live stream on it disproved the theories for real) But that didn't really bum me out, because I had been ready from the start for it to not be true, so I just converted it to an AU, because I was projecting my own measure of story/characterization into it anyway.

Question 2: I don't have 1 answer for this! Either a complicated one, or one that enables any kind of headcanon… Answer A: The captain's choices and behavior doesn't change because we are sharing a body with Darkiplier('s parts) -- I just really like the idea of "What if we (D/A) stayed with Dark" and how that would be like a dramatized version of DID (of which I have! /info) of the "D/A" part (us) (…on top of likely forgetting the events of WKM due to AU stuff, but then remembering after gaining the multiverse abilities of the paradox…) forgetting or not knowing what Dark is doing in other timelines, (my favorite characterization idea of Cpt.Dark is that he's fronting in the routes where he throws Mark around or generally leads us to demise that might benefit him in the looooooong run- aka how he somehow canonically "finds" the paradox gem for the box at the post-credits) … while the Captain chooses to get along with Mark in other routes, doing something childish as sharing candy, which is much closer to my personal "D/A" characterization, not at all what Dark would be doing ahhaha

Answer B: If I wanted a timeline to occur differently from the "Canon" events of ISWM, to characterize Captain Darkiplier as separate from Canon Captain… well, Dark could just do about anything he wanted,

(from here onward is rambling, not relevant to the question!:)

… if he could .. If he somehow escaped the inevitability of the causality of meta-narrative events of what has and will occurred in ISWM via the writing of Market Plier- lol Kind of like how Damien and Celine can't outrun their fate or Actor's bullshit as seen at the end of DAMIEN, which I think holds some thematic power or significance over the future events after the "seal" is broken on the multiverse stuff- aka everything After WKM. … Mark has said a lot in live streams but one thing that stuck with me is how he explained the "timeline" noting that moment when Dark picks up the staff , as the exact moment where the events of DAMIEN is condensed. IIRC. And then for this AU I kind of added more onto that- AHWM ISWM ADWM could have happened in a condensed fashion similarly… The glass breaking in the first video of ISWM, the ice breaking in DAMIEN twice… The lines Head Engineer speaks at the canon ending mirroring the lines spoken by Damien and Celine at the end of DAMIEN… It's as if it's like, a loop, or pocket, or spiral, some kind of non-linear shape… Whichever way it is, I guess the most important point is that it's non-linear. I like to call it wobbly time (a theme in my OC's as well) It's not essential to consume nor understand a story by understanding how its universe works. After all, we as people in real life don't know how our universe is shaped. Is it infinite, or does it loop? (Can you tell I'm a bit autistic about space?) But the desire to adventure and discover what's out there is sometimes commendable and a beautiful instinct of human life… other times, not so much. We could all learn from Head Engineer's mistake. But yea, Dark is powerful but not God of this Universe powerful… I think it'd be funny that if Dark tried everything in his power to defy the laws of the universe, once he finally got a hold on the time paradox that literally allows him to traverse the multiverse to find any timeline that gives him an upper hand on his #1 Enemy, when he travels to literally the ends of the universe, Mark (The Real Life Author) is like "no" so Dark has to go back to the main story line (or at least close to it, there's plenty of legroom for fanon things to occur around the "main timeline") Dark's like "ugh fine" and completes the ending of ISWM like it's a videogame to gain back his agency splitting from D/A (You and your choices in the "videogame") again, and to get away from Head Engineer- even though he's one of the more tolerable Marks, I GUESS- (Frenemies trope x The Unlikely Friendship trope x Doomed trope, and some other dynamic or development that can't really be similarly labeled as a trope, which hopefully I will be able to share to everyone who will want to know about it) I also like to think that's why he's dangling the box in front of us in AHWM instead of actually using it for anything. He can use us to get what he wants quicker than by doing it alone. Using the anomaly gem in the box for his own needs a second time would not work nor worth the risk of ISWM 2.0

What I love about Markiplier's cinematic universe is that it involves both distortion of identity and distortion of time/space- anything and anyone can happen. I relate to it and my chaotic (and also very analytical and ""DeeP"") creative style is very compatible with it. :)

Thank you for the questions !! Feel free to ask as many questions as you like about what I said here if it didn't make sense, because damn it's compact. It could be explained better if paced out (or storytold?) instead of all dropped into one post heheh

[conceptuma]

Would i be allowed to throw one of my sphinx guys at you for shenanigans ? The multiverse is a thing,so anything is possible ! /Lh (i wanna do that with another cool blog too when im less busy lol)

Yes yes of course! Not sure if this is what you mean but- I have a rough sketch idea of your Sphynx Dark sitting around waiting to be finished while I'm working on my Cpt. Dark ref today!

Anyway feel free to send me any kind of ref or specific request, or whatever else you may have in mind. It helps a lot for me to be more specific when drawing for others.

I enjoy the multiverse... I think scenarios of Dark meeting an alternate version of himself would be really interesting. I dont think I've ever seen art of it, nor thought about it. I think cptdark meeting sphynx dark would be interesting because they're basically opposites. Overt beast Sphynx, versus a chained beast trapped in the role of a Captain. I feel like multiple Darks meeting would fuse in scary ways. Sphynx Dark nonchalantly eating a passive Cpt Dark and then gaining knowledge of the multiverse by fusing souls/memories? Lol, they will do anything to become stronger / individual identity no longer matters to them. That's just one potential scenario ^,^...

[conceptuma]

YEEES!!!!!! Omg I'm so excited I have some cptdark refs some old some new that I never finished/posted so I'll finish one and send you it!

Trying to think of fanart ideas for iron lung and the only thoughts I have about it are scenes & story arcs I want to see 😭that's way too much to draw!!!