i don't post my edits on here anymore but i felt like tumblr needed to see every time simone kessell says some variation of the word "fuck" in hard home
I just finished episode 6 of Burrow's End and I have SO MANY THOUGHTS.
I just keep thinking about expectations, and the way Aabria. . . plays with them. But also —
Ok back up because one of the things I noticed about ACOFAF is that Aabria is really good at listening to players, taking what do they do and say, and in return saying I believe you, then weaving it into the narrative. (The Green Hunter is the most obvious example of this.)
And she's doing this with Burrow's End in a way that's even more intense than it was in ACOFAF. . . it's not manipulative, and 'genre subversion' isn't quite the concept I'm looking for. . . it's playing into the player's expectations. She's holding up a big mirror but the players (and us as an audience!) aren't realising that it's a reflection of the path they just carved out, they think they're seeing a new hallway. It's not quite a feedback loop, but it is more of characters latching on to an idea and RUNNING with it and not stopping to question or wonder if maybe they should be running full-tilt ahead?
Anyways I think I'm starting to understand why 5e was chosen for Burrow's End.
the downfall and execution of a tudor queen (2023) / the boleyns: a scandalous family (2021) / the king's pearl: henry viii and his daughter mary (2017), melita thomas / anne boleyn (tv miniseries 2021) / the mirror and the light (2024) / elizabeth (1998)
I’m OBSESSED with the new animated short oh my GOD. The way that in the beginning Black Swan is leading the dance and she comments about being on the hunt and then the violent tonal shift to Acheron leading the dance and the way the dancing is so brutal with Black Swan being obviously scared and in pain and the way Acheron swings her around like they’re fighting??? The way Black Swan keeps turning into a flock of crows or ravens or swans that try to fly away but are dragged back into a form like Acheron is a black hole and whenever they do try to scatter again they look like a blood splatter??? The part with the predators hunting the very panicked and fleeing smaller prey animal and being completely overwhelmed by the force of their attack like Black Swan is?? Also! The predators shown typically stalk their play or lie in wait to trap their prey somehow like a cheetah, a bear, a shark, a spider, a Venus fly trap, etc and it contrasts with how Black Swan was stalking her prey, Acheron, thinking herself to be the hunter while being ambushed in return. It'a all so good the way there doesn’t need to be any dialogue for the story to be told just the ever increasing intensity of the music. Also Acheron’s memories being in black, white, and red because those are the colors in which she sees the world? And the end when she’s walking away and the bodies are falling from the sky??
Also it was interesting to see Black Swan so visibly vulnerable. As it stands in the story right now we’ve never seen Black Swan out of control of a situation. Not really. Even when something unexpected happens she takes advantage of the chaos to fulfill her a goals further and uses them as weak spots to exploit to take back control. In her and Sparkle’s companion quest she humors Sparkle for a time but it’s obvious that Sparkle isn’t the one in control of the situation because as soon as Black Swan declares the game redundant Sparkle scrambles to keep her invested showing this game can end any time at Black Swan's behest. Seeing her so overwhelmed in such a domineering and brutal way reminds one that Black Swan isn't invulnerable. She unknowingly approached an Emanator and suffered the consequences of challenging a vessel of an Aeon's power and will. Seeing her so violently shaken by the encounter it's no wonder she's helping Aventurine and takes the first opportunity presented to grab the Trailblazer and flee when Acheron is set loose.
Acheron almost seems like a different person when she's in combat and you can see the shreds of humanity she holds onto disappear. Acheron IS dangerous and she's far outside Black Swan's league and Black Swan knows this. She teams with a fellow underdog, Aventurine, and proceeds to distract Acheron with somebody of somewhat equal power, Sam, to escape her gaze and therefore any kind of wrath that could be invoked.
Also I'm noticing a motif of red eyes in characters being associated with an animalistic brutality or loss of control linked to one's humanity. You see it with Blade and Jingliu, who have Mara, and now Acheron, who's an Emanator. Very interesting indeed.
I wasn't kidding when I said I spent an hour just trying to sketch out the pose for this drawing! Sometimes you just gotta go through like 8 sketch layers to figure out what you're doing.
I also ended up looking at two references--this one from The Pose Archive, which I traced the legs from after struggling for a while to get proportions that looked right, and a photo of myself that I asked my roommate to take so I could figure out what to do with the arms. The process got significantly faster when I remembered I could use references and started working with them.
I think it's good to show some of the behind-the-scenes of your artwork every now and then, both because process is cool and because it removes some of the sheen of "whoa, i could never make that." I know I get discouraged at times by artists who "make it look easy," when really I can't see all the time and hard work that went into making something. I don't want to create that feeling for anyone else!
So, here's a glimpse into how much I struggled to get the pose right, and below is the timelapse where you can see how much I fiddled with the colors until I had something I was happy with. It was probably at least two hours of "i am spending way too much time on this" and "why does this still not look right" before I got to a point where I started thinking, "wow, this looks good." But I got there eventually, and I'm really happy I stuck it out!