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symphonyofsilence · 7 months ago

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Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Oooh such a difficult question! I have like about...50 top 10 favorite characters somehow and they're ever increasing lmao! (like the 10 is in the Real numbers axis not natural numbers.lol.) So, after lots of thought, I decided to consider the factor of how well-written they are. The ones who had the most ups and downs and the author managed to hit every emotional chord every step of the way.

So, in no particular order:

Maedhros (Tolkien's legendarium)

(Art by @elfinfen )

I have waxed poetic about Maedhros on many occasions. Namely here. But to be brief: he just has one of the best fallen hero tragedies ever! And one of the most beautiful, rich, tragic, and enticing journeys! One of the best parts of the Silmarillion is following his journey from the son who fought with the rest of his family over the Teleri ships and then disagreed with Fëanor over the burning of the ships, and paid the most dearly for that mistake, and then healed because "the fire of life was hot within him" and fought with everything he had to protect the Middle-earth and unite all the houses and all the races, to the Maedhros after The Nirnaeth, who led three Kingslayings and came to actually involuntarily help the Malkor whom he fought so hard against for so long and was tortured with his own deeds so much that he ended his life with fire, right after he won the one thing he was fighting for from the beginning of his story. Only to have lost everything else.

2. Fëanor (Tolkien's legendarium)

He's the fire. He's the forest. And he's a witness watching it. Has a man ever destroyed so much even as he kept creating? Has a man ever dreamed so big his dreams crushed his reality beneath their feet? Has a man ever ruined everything and everyone he loved from the moment he was born down to the moment he last closed his eyes on the sight of the sons that followed him to their demise? Because he was burning so hot that everything close to him burnt with him? Has a man lost all he stood for in the way of fighting for what he stood for?

He brought his own end and there's something really appealing, really humane, really real about self-made tragedies.

(Also he's absolutely unhinged and his lines are all bangers & I love him for that!)

3. Jin Guangyao (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed)

Just the place JGY occupies in the narrative, as WWX's parallel and the story's antagonist who is basically also kinda the protagonist in this very story if you look at it from another angle is fascinating! You can write essays about him!

He just wanted to honor his mother, he just wanted his father's approval, he wanted the world. He wanted the world just to have some safety he never had. He never got any safety even when had the world. He did many evils to get the world. He wanted the world just to do some good in it. He was the best Xiao Shushu. He took his nephew hostage. and even then he didn't lose his nephew'slove. He played a game designed against him and won. He lost in his own game to the man he didn't even know was playing. And he truly loved and cared for that man. He was so kind, he took personal risks with no benefit for himself to save people. He couldn't afford to be a good, righteous person who would always be kind. He kinda taught this to WWX the hard way. He plays the role of a villain in WWX's story. His endgame was to just run away and WWX interrupted him. They barely knew each other. They respected each other. He died by his love's hand and his last deed in life was to push his love out of danger.

He never had a chance. At no point could he have been happy, or saved. He was doomed from the beginning. And yet he went as far as went. And there's a certain appeal to this kind of soft power, resilience, determination, hard work, cleverness, brilliance, and competence. To not just give in to fate and if there is no chance to take, then create some. To just forcefully carve a place yourself in the world of the world has decided that you have no place in it.

And everything he does he does with STYLE! AND HE'S SO POLITE EVEN WHEN TALKING TO THE PEOPLE HE'S TAKEN HOSTAGE! HE'S SO COOL AND SO ELEGANT AND SECRETLY SASSY AND SO COMPETENT I CAN'T HELP BUT STAN!

4. Jiang Cheng (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed)

Ah, the grumpy but kindhearted characters. They always have my whole heart.

Nobody can convince me Jiang Cheng is not my actual little brother!

I love this tsundere wet cat so much! He's a loser, he's won at everything he's ever started, he's a mess, he's a badass, he's a wet cat, he's a war hero and a competent sect leader and an excellent Jiujiu, he's broken and betrayed, he's so full of love that he gives freely and unconditionally.

And isn't it kinda the point? To go on and continue even while crying and screaming? To break down and grieve, but get up again and keep going? To love, despite many things that stand against it?

Jiang Cheng's character is introduced in a way that at every turn, you're waiting for the moment when he turns against Wei Wuxian and kills his brother. And it never comes. Instead, he loves him. At every turn, when you'd think that anyone else would have given up, Jiang Cheng keeps loving more and more fiercely. Even in his last scene, as he leaves the story, he leaves you astonished by all the love he has given and still has to give.

(And he's a sassy queen which is a very important factor.)

5. Mu Qing (Heaven's official blessing)

Mu Qing is another character that was introduced to us in the most unfavorable way possible and as we go on, we learn that all his actions had been misinterpreted and this lil grumpy, sassy, bitter cat is actually very, very kind. And loyal, and insecure. and he does all his kind deeds without expecting anything, even acknowledgment in return even though he knows his actions will probably be misinterpreted again. and even though he has seen nothing but ungratefulness before when he helped others! he just never ceases being kind and going out of his way to help! because that's who he is! HIS NAME MEANS "YEARNING FOR AFFECTION"! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!

6. Geto Suguru (Jujutsu Kaisen)

This one was truly "dead from the beginning". And you don't even know what a gentle, sweet, lovely soul you've lost until you learn this right at the same time when you learn you've never had him to begin with.

Geto Suguru, with his voice so soft, with his smiles so sweet, with his eyes so kind, with his manners so soothing, so full of consideration, with his heart so gentle that it will bring his downfall, so concerned with the thought of ALWAYS saving everyone that he forgot to save himself. So, so loved that he'll haunt the narrative till everyone who knows him is dead.

The doomed child, the broken man. Gentle, and so very loved and loving to his last breath. And even beyond (to the point that he comes back to life to save Gojo!)

Has anyone ever fallen so tenderly, so gently, As he holds the hands of the two little girls he's saved after the one little girl he couldn't?

His fall came so understandably, so naturally, you feel like you walked the path with him and nobody not even in-universe can blame him.

As almost anyone who knew him in-universe would agree, loving Geto Suguru comes very easy.

7. Wanda Maximoff (MCU)

What can I say about Wanda Maximoff? The girl who kept trying to grasp at the only things left for her, be it her brother, her husband, or her children only to lose and lose and lose again. The girl who kept choosing to save people again and again. The girl who was afraid of her power because it could kill people but still chose to use it to help others, who then came to the point that she took an entire town hostage? The girl who had to kill the love of her life thrice only for it to mean nothing? The girl who looked relieved as she turned into ashes when the blink happened? The girl who just wanted a little domestic life in their little house with her husband but had to save the world but her efforts were never enough? The girl who nearly killed Thanos singlehandedly? The girl who ran across universes to kill her other self to be a mother to her children?

And as Steve said, "she's just a kid."

What can I say about Wanda, the Victim, the te****ist, the scarlet which, the mother, the kid?

I love her so much!

8. Zuko (Avatar the Last airbender)

What can I say about Zuko that hasn't already been said numerous times and way better than I could? The best redemption arc I've ever seen. And one of the most adorable social disasters ever.

9. Azula (Avatar the Last airbender)

Azula's breakdown will always haunt me.

She was so cool, so calm and in control, so confident, and so competent you forgot she was only 14. Until it hit you hard in the face when she imagined her mother telling her that she loved her in the mirror. And you see her break down and scream, defeated on the ground, when she sees her brother with his friend. Victorious, because he had people who helped him.

But Azula was alone and let down by every adult around her. When she told her father "You're treating me like I'm Zuko!" you understand how all her life, she's been afraid that if she was "almost" perfect she'd be put aside like Zuko. and how being the perfect child for her father would mean being a monster to her mother. and she chose the parent who gave her praise instead of judgment, and even that parent's love wasn't unconditional. He was a narcissist and took advantage of her. when Ursa in the comics told her "I'm sorry I didn't love you enough." and Azula burst into tears IT BROKE ME!

10. V (V for Vendetta)

Originally I was really pondering whether I should give this place to Jamie Lannister or Xue Yang, Shen Jiu, The Corinthian, or Sansa Stark. Until I suddenly remembered the one character that I always fall in love with all over again EVERY TIME I watch the movie. How does one make a character(AND AN OBJECTIVELY TERRIBLE MAN THAT IMPRISONS AND TORTURES A POOR ALONE GIRL!) so charming, so charismatic, so lovable that literally everybody who watches the movie falls in love with him? (DID HE GIVE US ALL STOCKHOLM SYNDROME?!)

Also, every word out of his mouth is golden and iconic and delivered with such a unique personality. He's so interesting! He's simultaneously so nerdy and so cool! His actions are so cool and so is his style! And he's the personification of "freedom". In most countries, most of the time, people, each to their own degree, are fighting for their rights and freedom. V represents a universal wish, hope, and fantasy. V is the power of people. The courage, capability, strength, determination, vengefulness, the yearning for justice of tortured but unbent, unbowed, and unbroken people. and So that's a huge part of his appeal.

Also HUGO WEAVING'S RICH VELVETY VOICE!!! GOD!!

Here are the other characters that definitely deserve a place among the top tens but I just don't know who to replace them with because they all also deserve their places:

Xue Yang(Mo Dao Xu Shi/The Untamed): the sassy little adorable delinquent who thought he was at the top of the world doing whatever he liked because he could. and this time he had the power to take his revenge from the world that had him powerless, only to find warmth and peace in the name of taking revenge in the place he least thought, with his enemy and the kid who hated him. Only to find that peace and warmth were what he most wanted. Only to ruin it all irrevocably with his own hands. Only to die in the way of hopelessly trying to get back the one person who showed him genuine kindness and warmth. (also he's a sassy lil shit <3)

Shen Jiu (Scum Villain's self-saving system): The child-abuser scum who was introduced to us as the ultimate villain of the story. Until we learned about his story and how he died cruelly and unforgiven, with his name tainted while he only did some of that™️. While still a bitter man, and a child abuser, his heart wasn't so tainted. But by the time we learn that, he's already dead. With his story unfinished and his heart heavy because he never learned why the only person he deeply cared about left him behind. And nobody even noticed his passing to mourn him. AND EVERYTHING WAS BETTER FOR HIS DEATH!

Jamie Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game Of Thrones): How can an author make you stan a character who pushed a little kid, and A POV LITTLE KID AT THAT! down a window because the kid saw he and his sister fuck in the first few chapters?! GRRM SOMEHOW DID THAT! Even if I'm still not very fond of the end of his story in the show, both in the show and in the books, he had one of the best redemption arcs and developments ever. (Though I started to like him when Catelyn told him "You pushed my son out of the window. You wanted him to die!", and Jamie answered: "Nah sometimes I shove kids out of the windows because it's good for their growth." Lmfao. What a little shit!)

The Corinthian (The Sandman): the being hated by his creator because he was so good at what he was created for he transcended the barriers his creator had set for him. so good at his assigned purpose that what he did was beyond his purpose. AND HE WAS SO HEARTBROKEN BY WHAT DREAM SAID TO HIM! And after he was recreated he startet being a babysitter to gain Dream's approval again. it was so sweet!

Sansa Stark (ASOIAF/GOT): from the girl who wanted to get out of Winterfell to follow her dreams to the girl whose dream became to go back to Winterfell, from the delusional little girl who lived in her dreams, waiting for her knight, who learned the cruelty of the world the hard way, to the deliverer of some of the most iconic lines of the show/book like "I'm Sansa Stark of Winterfell. This is my home, and you don't frighten me."/ "My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel." She went a long way and had one of the best character developments. In the book, you can already see her bringing her ladylike behavior and political game that she learned from the best in action to manipulate Hardyng and Robbie. Like Cersei's white mirror. But she still has the kind heart of the girl who once after being attacked by the commoners said that if it was some bread they wanted, she would have given it to them if she had some with her.

Honourable mentions:

Qi Rong (tgcf): my favorite little shit! The best dad! And what @jin-zixun told about his story in the tags of this post really made me emotional!

He Xuan (tgcf): he had so much potential and instead all his life he and his family suffered on someone else's behalf while that someone else stole all his fortune. Then during his revenge plan, he met that person and he learned that maybe had things been different, he would willingly suffered all of the misfortunes of that person's life (the ones that didn't include his family) but as it stood, in this life, they had no chance. And even after his revenge he didn't find any peace and happiness.

Klaus Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy): A sunshine who always lights up every gathering, and is always ready to help others and always sees the good in others!

Five Hargreeves(Umbrella Academy): A murderous, sassy, tiny, bitter grandpa in the body of a teenager who'll do everything for his family! what's not to love!

Nakahara Chuuya (Bungo stray dogs): *Wonder Woman's voice* A BABY! The grumpy characters with golden hearts who always go out of their way to help others and will follow their friends to the end of the world with many, many complaints and screams always have my whole heart!

Dowager Countess of Grantham (Downton Abbey): EVERY LINE SHE SAYS MUST BE WRITTEN IN GOLD! the perfect combination of sass and class! goals!

Fleabag (Fleabag), Thomas Barrow (Downton Abbey): I love cringe-fail hot messes who had no control over many shitty things that happened in their lives and what they could control, they fucked up and now have to deal with their consequences. but still, they push through and try to make the most of it.

Pam Beesley(The Office): the story of this seemingly unremarkable, shy, quiet girl who learns to pursue her dreams, and make opportunities for herself, and speak up for herself was one of the best plotlines of The Office.

Toph Beifong (ATLA), Ranpo Edogawa (BSD): the tiny little extraordinary, extra- competent, reliable, confident, super blunt, lovable cuties always have my whole heart!

Flynn Rider (Tangled) & Nick (Zootopia): still two of my all-time crushes! It's the charm and wit and golden heart while being an outlaw, and supportiveness probably.

Death of The Endless(The Sandman): she's so kind and gentle! Her presence is soothing! And to think that she's death coming so kind, soothing and merciful and as a relief to accompany people on their one last lonely journey is really beautiful!

Delirium of the Endless(The Sandman): she's so broken and mysterious and so desperate for her family to be together! And she sometimes bestows wisdom to others through insanity!

Desire of the Endless(The Sandman): such a mysterious and complex character! They're by nature very cruel. But they're also so loving towards their family. They're there for their family when needed (be it Delirium, Despair, or Dream. Even when Dream didn't want to accept their help they turned into a cat and helped them anonymously). And even in their love they're cruel, and in cruelty, loving.

Nebula(MCU): I loved watching her escape from Thanos's abusive influence and become friends and sisters with Gamora! And her stoic but awkward personality is so lovely!

Cersei Lannister(ASOIAF/GOT): one of the best-written villains ever. She never ceases to be a villain but you really feel pity for her. From the moments she talks about her loveless marriage with Robert to when you learn that she's a pawn for Tywin's plans to the walk of shame to the loss of her children. And her lines are so iconic!

Frodo Baggins (Lord of The Rings): he's so kind-hearted! So sweet! He tried and resisted so hard even though it wasn't his war! He's so underrated!

Mo Ran (Husky and his white cat Shizun): one of the best-written protagonists with a complex, tragic backstory and a lovable personality with a beautiful redemption arc. I loved him both as Taxian-Jun and as Mo Ran.

Chu Wanning(Husky and his white cat Shizun): a multi-layered and lovable character. especially as Xia sini!

Crowley and Aziraphale (Good Omens): my favorite sweet, pure, kind-hearted loser lover boys who keep saving the world by being so incompetent they accidentally get the desired outcome by a series of incompetence that cancel out each other!

Moon Knight specifically Steven Grant (Moon Knight, MCU): I've only watched the MCU miniseries and his story was so heartbreaking! And Steven was so sweet! And seeing Marc and Steven find peace and love together was very beautiful!

Prof.McGonagall (Harry Potter): so sassy, so caring, so steadfastly dependable! From Aunt Hetty and Marilla Cuthbert to Professor McGonagall, I've always loved these types of characters!

Dervish Grady (Demonata), Nanami Kento(Jujutsu Kaisen): it's the caring, dependable mentors that always show up to fix everything and you form a deep bond with them for me.

Sirius Black (Harry Potter): his fiercely loyal, extreme both in love and hate, and unstable personality, his being stuck in more than a decade ago, occupying an uncertain place as a father- figure to Harry and a brother figure to James Potter-...'s son, and devotion to his loved ones, and how he wanted to always be there for Harry in the little time he got with him for all the years he couldn't be have captivated me.

Griffith(Berserk): I'm afraid I'm also experiencing the same obsession with this tragically fallen bitch of a man as Guts continues to feel. He's so well-written and so charismatic, (so obviously in love with Guts) he keeps haunting you. Like I keep being like: "I CANNOT BELIEVE HE WAS THIS MUCH OF A BITCH! HOW COULD HE! FFS! EVERYONE IN THAT BAND WOULD HAVE READILY DIED FOR HIM! THEY WORSHIPED HIM! THEY ENDANGERED THEMSELVES FOR HIM! EVEN AT THAT VERY MOMENT, THEY WERE ALL THERE FOR HIM! HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO CASCA ESPECIALLY!". And then I remember how pitiful his state was before that. He couldn't even kill himself. He couldn't even ask someone to kill him since he couldn't talk or write. And he went from being the next potential king to that state. He was a liability to everyone who looked up to him as a savior. And everything he did, while a horrible shock, was still so in character! He wasn't inherently evil. but he was inherently ambitious, self-centered, pragmatic, and detached... it all just came in service of his dark side after his fall. And he got everything he wanted only to yearn for what he used to have. *sigh* this bitch.

Sorry, it got so long and a lot more than 10! I shouldn't be allowed to talk about my favorite characters actually lmao!

Thank you for the very thought- provoking question!

#asks #mdzs #cql #the untamed #tolkien #lotr #the silmarillion #mcu #atla #jjk #the sandman #hp #asoiaf #got #good omens #I gotta stop myself before I write all of MXTX characters lol #Seth and Isis from volume1 of Ennead could have easily been on this list had Mohito not fucked up the manhua in the worst way possible!#they were such amazing characters with such a complex bond. Idc about Horus and his relationship with Seth is gross.#I was reading the Manhua for Seth and Isis and Anubis

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charleneferlay · 22 days ago

Text

Drawing Alexander

Hi, and welcome on the first post of this blog!

Today, I'd love to talk about the thoughts and research behind some of the commissions I ordered from @elfinfen!

Let's meet the little dude (he's sixteen, and small, so let's call him that): Alexandros Philippou, best known as Alexander the Great!

Lots of thoughts below, so if you want to know how the pic was made, keep reading!

Okay so the first thing is: what did the real Alexander look like?

I have been using @jeannereames's website, which has been VERY helpful (so if she is ever reading this post, thank you, you are a great lady and I love your novel and your work). She pointed at a head currently in Athen called the "akropolis head", showing an idealized version of Alexander around the age of 18.

The nose of the statue is broken, so I let Elfinfen do whatever she wanted with it!

While most ancient statues were painted, we have no paint left on this one, so I had to figure out the colors for the picture. Plutarch tells us that Alexander's complexion was pale, so I went with that. One thing to note is that in the novel, Alexandros is the son of Zeus, granting him the privilege of having pale skin that never sunburns (does it outweight the very likely possibility of being cursed by Hera? I'll let you decide). One thing that Plutarch also said is that Alexander's scent was fabulous. That probably means he liked to wear perfume, but in the novel I decided to go with the most ludicrous things people said about Alexander, so he DOES have this divine scent, even when he's covered in dirty sweat.

What was Alexander's hair color? We don't quite know. It was probably something like dark blond or light brown. For my Alexandros, I always give the picture of this lion as a ref, because his hair are described in the novel as golden, honeyed, and various shades of light brown in winter.

So yup that's my Alexandros' hair and it looks like that in the middle of a campaign when he can't wash.

Now, moving to the eyes. I honestly can't remember where I read that Alexander's eyes were of different colors, but I decided to keep that trait, since it made him look a bit different from his friends. In the novel he hates that he as mismatched eyes, because he's an angsty teenager who believes that's why he can't get a boyfriend (no, Alex, the reason why is because you're scary). I usually describe his eyes as "one blue as a summer sky, the other like that of the sky in those hours between day and night".

In the novel we get to meet Hermes, Alexander's half brother, who shared the light blue eye. He also states Apollo has light blue eyes. For the darker one, let me share the awesome commission of the other dad :

The light on the Philippos portrait is slightly different, but they do share eye color. I have yet to decide if Alexandros was meant to have two fathers all along (like Theseus does with Poseidon and Aegeus) or if there were twins merged in the womb, but it's 100% certain that Philippos is his father... except it doesn't show much. The narrator once noted they have the same hands, but Alexandros looks more like some of his divine brothers, and is struggling with the suspicion the king isn't actually his father. You may notice they also have a different skintone, Philippos being described as very taned in summer. Their hair color couldn't be more different, which is a choice I made, because I haven't found anything, anywhere, about Philippos' hair color. People usually give him darker hair but I think that's a way to describe him as an opposite of Alexander.

Still comparing the two pictures, you may have noticed Alexandros is looking up while Philippos is looking straight at us. This is because Alexandros is described as small in the novel, so he is usually looking up to meet the eyes of his men. Elfinfen had the tough job of making him look like he's staring down at people while being smaller than they are, and I feel like she slayed that part!

Let's move to the clothes!

The main inspiration was the famous mosaic of the battle of Issos:

The look was used in the 2004 movie :

The shoulders are a bit different. I used the recreationg from this website because it looked amazing and those colors look really good on my Alexandros:

Back to the Philippos pic, you may notice that father and son share these colors: dark red, bronze and beige, though Philippos favors the darker colors and Alexandros the lighter ones.

I hope you liked this post! I love to share the thoughts behind the commissions I order, so feel free to comment <3

#ancient greece #ancient history #alexander the great #philip ii of macedon #la fleche d'artemis #my stories

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