#i: luke & lauren

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

#Chatty Wife + Amused Husband

[wistfulwatcher]

in a n o t h e r life

[jessmalia]

Mal's Gilmore Girls rewatch: The Bracebridge Dinner 2.10

[isagrimorie]

Criminal Minds 14x06 - Luke

People use covert/spy techniques and Emily Prentiss immediately notices. Parts 1, 2, 3 (Don't con a conman -- don't use covert tactics around a former spy)

[kindahoping4forever]

Normal caption!

[ssaemilyhotchner]

rb and tell me what your most rewatched ep of criminal minds is

[shotofcynicism89]

Being an adult is fun because who’s gonna tell me no you can’t buy that?

It’s beautiful 🥹

[queenunderthatmountain]

the way Luke and Jess either have the most heart breaking scenes or the ones that make you snort and giggle out loud there's no in between

[blaithnne]

I guess I never posted this here so… here’s Lauren in the style of The Troll comic!! The first in what I hope will be a continued series of style explorations >:O

Check under the cut for me rambling about how she fits in narratively and design wise!

Narrative

The narrative in the show is very different from the comics, not just in terms of the plot but in how the story is told - it’s a different medium so it does stuff differently! In short, the comics are a lot more rapid fire and comedic, The Troll in particular is so quick that it’s TV adaption was literally just the cold open of the first episode. Even Johanna only appears very briefly in this comic, so fitting in another character was already going to be a challenge lmao. But what made it even harder is the fact that Lauren was, obviously, designed to be a character that fits within the series, so there’s a lot about her character that just can’t translate into the comics. For example - one of her main uses in the show is to make the audience ask questions - “Hilda has a big sister? How old is she? She’s an adult, why is she still living with her family? Do she and Hilda share a dad? If she’s an adult then, did she know her dad? Why doesn’t she talk about him? Why does she take on so much?” Etc. This helps get the audience invested! And from everything we can tell these are questions the show wants to answer, but the comics…don’t. The comics don’t want you to question why Hilda lives in the middle of nowhere, they just want you to have a fun adventure with a little blue haired girl! Lauren being there in all her regular show glory makes that more complicated.

SO I had to work backwards, and try and think about what purpose a character like Lauren could serve in the comics, and why she would have been made in the first place, and this is what I ended up with -

Lauren is younger in the comics than she is in the show - she’s somewhere between 15-17, and the basis for her character is “a teenager from the viewpoint of a young child”. You know how you view teens when you’re a kid - they’re scary! They’re like adults except with no responsibilities, they’re aloof and want nothing to do with you but they seem so cool! Like they can do whatever they want! And you have no clue what that even is. I think this age makes more sense for the comics, as it means the audience doesn’t have to question why she’s still living at home or anything like that lmao - she’s just a kid!

Lauren seems very aloof and irresponsible, she’s always wandering off and doing random bits and bobs around the house. Even from Johannas perspective, she sees her as a bit of a liability. She’s kind of a gag character at this point - since there’s really no other way to fit her in at this point. I like the idea of her appearing when Hilda opens the front door, and she’s this terrifying silhouette holding an axe and staring down at Hilda, who screams in terror. Only for the next panel to reveal it’s just Lauren

I’ll get into this in more detail a the comics go on but, the idea with Lauren is that as the comics continue she’ll become more and more similar to the character we see in the show. Not really because she’s changed all that much - but because the other characters (and by extension the reader) start to see her differently. Once she gets more of a spotlight outside from being a one off gag character, she stops being the misunderstood teen and starts being…understood!

So, whilst Lauren seems irresponsible and reckless, she doesn’t mean to be. I think one of the reasons she comes off like this is bc she’s got heavy autism coding in the comics - she takes things very literally. Like, if Johanna tells her to watch Hilda - she will! She’ll watch her walk right off a cliff. Because Johanna never told her to keep her safe, just to watch her!

She still does chores and stuff around the house but, there’s not really any opportunity to showcase that in this comic lol

Design

The biggest challenge design wise was her body type. In terms of human characters, The Troll features just Hilda and Johanna - who appears for as a half body for three panels. Both of them are very skinny and noodle, which was an issue because Lauren…isn’t lmao. She’s buff! That’s her thing! Soooo here’s the solution I came up with -

I decided to make her as noodly as the other characters, but to lean really into the buff aspect of her character despite that. I drew her holding big ol axes and rocks to show that - she’s comically strong! I think that adds to both the gag and kind of mysterious part of her character - this Lauren isn’t intriguing in a “makes you question hildas family history and important elements of the show” way, she’s intriguing in a “what the fuck” way

Another thing I played with was her hair - the art style and character designs change a lot throughout the comic, it takes a little bit before certain characters core features are figured out. So I thought it would be fun to show that through her hair, which is just slightly off from her show design!

Uhhh what else - oh I gave her freckles like Hilda! I think that shows that she’s younger than Johanna quite well :)

I also just tried to use simplistic shapes, and give her an easily recognisable look. Just….tried to make her the kind of character I could imagine appearing alongside some other simplistic Hilda doodles from the concept art pages

OH ALSO ALSO I tried to lean into a 2010s influence with her design, mainly in her hair, by having one eye be fully covered

I thiiiink that’s all I have to say lmao! This was so much fun to make, I love imagining how my girl fits into stuff and this art style was a joy to draw in - it’s so fun! Really grew on me as I drew in it more, I def wanna return to it someday :)

[printcharms]

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

You and Rory are a lot alike. It's not surprising you would have similar tastes in men.

[zoya-withthepoodlesalready]

Watching this tonight with my sister who's never seen the show before... I almost forgot how absolutely magical this scene was. Lorelai is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS and Luke is FINE AS EVER and they are dancing so hesitant and soft- you can tell just how in love they are and how they've just about realized it in the way they look at each other 😭 they are the loves of my life and my roman empire and my everything, i will never stop talking about this episode and reflecting light playing in the background and bringing it back for their wedding.... I had an absolutely horrible day today and this just calmed me, don't let anyone ever tell you characters can't make you feel better.

[jessmalia]

Mal's Gilmore Girls rewatch: Happy Birthday, Baby 3.18

[thatdysfunctionalfool]

the goofy grin she gives him tho

[kindahoping4forever]

📸: Shervin Lainez for Rolling Stone Australia