#images under cut

[cave-monkey]

I'm watching Monkey King 2009, and I know a bit of what happens to Six Ears later so I can't help but look at things through that lens, specifically the ways the FFM troop are a hot mess in a way that's actually kind of interesting and addressed in the show (to the extent a kid's show generally touches on those things). Like! The fact it's only the second episode and the troop is now two-for-two throwing Six Ears to the wolves at the first available opportunity! I decided to look back on what happened the last time they did this and go ahead and outline the thoughts I was having on it because, apparently(!), this was not a one-off! And I was not overreacting!

The very first fight scene in the series in Episode 1. Analysis, go!

Specifically, the part where a child is the one facing down the leader of the enemy warband, a combatant who already mowed through the advances of two experienced, trained adults with minimal effort, and the show...actually kind of goes a semi-realistic route with it?

Six Ears starts off strong and confident. He's basically an adult, his king put him up to this, of course he can handle it! He won't let him down!

And he does a pretty good job! It's very kid's show fun and punchy.

But then the Demon King of Havoc - an adult, a trained fighter, a blooded fighter - starts buckling down. And Six Ears slips up. And then he keeps slipping up.

It's not fun anymore. Six Ears is in way over his head and he knows it. So you get this (honestly kind of heartstring-tugging) shot of him glancing away while the Demon King approaches to look for his mentor and idol for help or guidance or something. He's a kid, he's scared now, and he wants his grandfather.

...and finds him asleep.

Now in most media I'd expect this to either be the mentor-figure feigning indifference or carelessness to encourage their pupil to handle the problem themselves (and implying in the process that they never doubted their pupil's ability to handle it - that they were never in actual danger), or this would just be building tension before the seemingly-oblivious mentor-figure suddenly intervenes at the critical moment.

But, of course, Six Ears isn't the actual protagonist, and that's not what happens. Six Ears looks to his king for help, finds none, and that's it. The Demon King of Havoc goes in for the kill and all Six Ears can do is run.

And he does, and he runs and runs and runs, farther and farther from his troop and anyone who can help because apparently no one was paying attention to the kid who was taking on the leader of the entire opposing force by himself, and he barely stays ahead of the sword, the trees the Demon King sends crashing down on him, and he's blatantly not able to do anything more than survive moment to moment.

And then he can't run anymore.

And the Old Monkey King doesn't show up. We find out he was never going to show up.

We get a shot of the Old Monkey King slowly waking up way back in the camp well after this scene, in response to Stone Monkey's hatching. (He also stands bolt right up, which is probably meant to be in shock at the giant stone rocketing into the sky wreathed in universe energy but I also like to think might also have been a "Where the FUCK is my KID" just so I can imagine someone was concerned about Six Ears during all this.)

Like, I cannot emphasize enough, Six Ears would be dead if Stone Monkey hadn't been hatching at this exact moment. An energy burst from the hatching blinds the Demon King long enough for Six Ears to bolt and start the chase again. That's what saves him. And then again when Six Ears manages to get the egg between him and a blow from the Demon King's sword.

Considering how eager the generals are to throw Six Ears to Stone Monkey when they're still convinced he's a legitimate danger in literally just the next episode, presumably just days after all this went down, and I...sort of think they were fully aware Six Ears was likely going to die to the Demon King. While I hesitate to say they didn't care at all, they showed in Episode 2 pretty clearly that they definitely cared way less about a child of their troop's likely death than they did about saving their own skins. Not enough to back him up, not enough to go after him when he's forced to flee, not enough to take on the fight in his place.

Which is tremendously messed up all on it's own, but it gets worse because these generals are all for treating him like a young kid when it's convenient for them. They see him as a child! But they're just as quick to throw him under the bus of adulthood as soon as that's convenient for them. Whatever requires the least effort from them, that's what they want him to be.

Seriously, who the hell is taking care of this kid? Because at this point it sure seems like the Old Monkey King - who is very old and very tired and whose body is blatantly failing him - is stuck not only trying to keep his troop in something vaguely resembling working order and secure them as much as possible for his imminent death no one but him seems concerned with, but is also somehow expected to be the primary (if not sole) caregiver of a young child. Something he can't be. Like, geez, guys. Let the man wither away in peace without piling on him more fraying threads of the things he can't possibly tie up properly before he goes, thanks!

Not to mention how this would blatantly conflict with the Old Monkey King's need to have a successor as soon as possible, since the most eligible adults in his troop are, apparently, all lazy cowards who are entirely unsuitable. He brings it up like two or three times in the first episode alone, so this is clearly something that's stressing him out, and his best option is still a boy. Meaning Old Monkey King is in a position of having to desperately (but trying not to show that he's desperate) push Six Ears to grow up just a little faster because he doesn't know how much longer he has left. There's just not a lot of room for him to just let Six Ears be a kid, in those circumstances. He needs a king. He needs Six Ears to make decisions and lead and take risks, even if the ones he's taking are far beyond the sort of things that should be on a kid's shoulders. He can't be his mentor and his grandfather and his king. No one person can be all three of those. Something is going to give. And so the Old Monkey King makes his mistakes. He piles too much on Six Ears too soon. He expects too much of him too soon. He nearly gets Six Ears killed in the first episode. (He accidentally leaves Six Ears vulnerable in the future to adults who want to use him.)

It's a fascinating little set-up. Obviously not really addressed in the show, since it's for kids and framed from a kid's perspective, which is also sort of genius? I'm thinking of the second episode where the generals are more than willing to dump Six Ears on the sacrificial alter, even physically carrying him out the door, an adult on each arm, like he might wise up and get scared and run (and if he did, like they wouldn't let him), and all Six Ears does is laugh. He's a kid. We've all been kids who think some of the most messed up things are perfectly normal simply because you don't have anything to compare it to. This is just the generals being the generals, obviously. They're so silly :)

But adults were writing this show, and I can't imagine an adult writing this not knowing exactly what they were doing. Especially knowing what happens to Six Ears.

Anyway, long story short: I want to fight the generals with my bare hands. I do not want to fight the Old Monkey King with my bare hands, but I do want to give him a long, disappointed glare over his cups that I feel like he would understand perfectly.

Also, someone needs to wrap Six Ears up in a burrito blanket and stuff him in a pillow fort with Stone Monkey where nothing can hurt them. That would be nice.

[dunmeshistash]

Dungeon Meshi - Kobolds and Werewolfs

Translations given by a helpful anon .

Observations and TL note under the cut.

TL note by anon: * basal dog breeds: not sure how scientifically sound this is (only did a cursory search to confirm I was using the right term, because normal dictionaries only translate genshu as "purebred" and it didn't make any sense in this context ^^") but they're a number of specific breeds that are not exactly ancient but they did differentiate earlier than most other dog breeds - shiba are among these obviously.

---

A few more observations of my own:

On another version of the kobolds from daydream hour 2 (slightly different from "The complete Daydream Hour") Ryoko Kui Mentions "Jackals, African Wild Dogs or wolves" which I think its interesting.

I don't know much about DnD so I thought it was strange most Kobolds showed up as lizard people when I searched them on google and I learned that Kobolds are popularized as dogs in japan due to D&D first edition describing them as having dog faces. This was the post that first made me aware of that.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[serennes-art]

the branded

redraw of this 2018 set of pieces, with old versions under the cut:

as well as older versions of micaiah and zelgius, from 2020:

gotta say im pretty happy with how the redraw came out! thanks for watching

[ppeanutz]

more like deadpool/wolverine amirite

more art + WIPs on my ko-fi

[mothcpu]

full art from the Up the Wolves animatic!

[dubbkin]

Me and the husband <3

[batnoise]

[🦇 / december 2023 ]

normal men monday 2: this time it's personal

[ID: a digital drawing of two anthro characters from the waist up. on the left is cici, a blonde and white dragon man (he/him), and on the right is jostark, a brown wolfdog anthro (he/him). the two of them wear sunglasses and matching shirts that say "i (heart) sluts". cici's shirt is black in color and a bit on the baggier end, and jostark's is a white crop top, exposing his midriff with fishnets underneath and half-sagged pants. jostark has a smug expression and has one arm over cici's shoulder and his other hand, wearing a pup pride bracelet, sticks his middle finger at the viewer. cici has a more blank expression with one hand on his hip, the other holding jostark's waist. /end ID]

[knightforflowers]

vestiges

(doodle dump + design notes under cut)

Had some fun with my thought process for these designs so I thought it'd also be fun to share <3

The two of them don't have skin per se— Koda is described to be a being of obsidian in the show so I wanted to lean into that as an overarching theme for the vestiges, where the solid part of their bodies (I think all vestige forms are like 30%-40% magical mist/smoke/whatever and 60%-70% actual physical mass, though the makeup varies between vestige) more closely resemble minerals and the like than anything organic. Koda specifically was designed after marbled obsidian, and Benevolence after shattered porcelain that is repaired via the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with a gold dyed glue medium.

Benevolence only appears 'human' from about the chest up, the entire lower half of his body is a floating mass of hands and mist obscured by the robes the hands hold up. I like to think most vestiges look entirely inhuman like Koda does, but Benevolence assumed a (slightly) more human-like appearance after integrating himself with Hominine, likely in some attempt to appear more welcoming to his followers. His hair is also always moving as though weightless or underwater, functioning like the misty haze that makes up part of his form rather than how natural human hair should function. His halo also appears perfectly behind his head no matter what angle you look at him from, and can be slightly disorienting and almost nauseating to look at.

My Koda has antlers because of the Chaperones at the Auction choosing stags for their avatars, even if stags have no connection to Koda in canon I just liked the symbolism/look of it :3. My Benevolence is also blind, the significance of which I touch on a bit in this hc post abt prestige and its affects that I made a few weeks ago!

Other inspirations for their designs specifically are Kalameet from Dark Souls 1 for Koda and Miquella from Elden Ring for Benevolence!

[brotherconstant]

GIFMAKING TUTORIAL: PHOTOPEA (for Windows)

Screencapping

Gif Width/Size Limit/Ezgif

Loading Frames

Cropping and Resizing

Rasterize/Make Frames

Sharpening

Coloring (not detailed. Links to other tutorials included)

Exporting

Obligatory Mentions: @photopeablr ; @miwtual ; @benoitblanc ; @ashleysolsen Definitely check out these blogs for tips, tutorials and resources, they're a gold mine. Finally I recommend browsing the PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL / PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL GIF tags. DISCLAIMER: English is not my first language and I'm not an expert on what I'm going to discuss, so if anything's unclear feel free to drop another ask.

1. SCREENCAPPING -> PotPlayer (the one I use) or MVP or KMPlayer

INSTALL PotPlayer (tutorial)

Play your movie/episode and press Ctrl + G. The Consecutive Image Capturer window will pop up. Click Start to capture consecutive frames, Stop when you got what you needed.

Where it says "Image Type -> Format" I recommend picking PNG, for higher quality screencaps.

To access the folder where the screencaps are stored, type %appdata% in windows search, open the PotPlayerMini64 folder (or 32, depending on your system) and then the Capture folder. That's where you'll find your screencaps.

Admittedly MVP is a lot faster but I prefer Potplayer because it generates (at least in my case) higher quality screencaps. MVP kind of alters the hue and it made it harder for me to color my gifs. Still, if you're interested in how to use it, I recommend this tutorial.

As for KMPlayer, every tutorial out there is outdated and I couldn't figure out the new version of the software.

2. GIF WIDTH/HEIGHT, SIZE LIMIT, EZGIF OPTMIZER

At this point you should already know how big your gifs are going to be. Remember the ideal gif width(s) on tumblr are 540 px / 268 px / 177 px. These specific numbers take into account the 4 px space between the gifs. No restrictions on height. Here are some examples:

You can play around with the height (177x400, 177x540, 268x200, 268x268, 268x350, 268x400, 540x440, 540x500, 540x540 etc) but if you go over the 10 MB limit you'll either have to make your gifs smaller/delete some frames.

OR you can go on ezgif and optimize your gif, which is usually what I do. The quality might suffer a little, but I'm not really (that) obsessed with how crispy my gifs look, or I'd download photoshop.

Depending on the gif size, you can decrease the compression level. I've never had to go over 35. It's better to start at 5 (minimum) and then go from there until you reach your desired ( <10mb) gif size. Now that I think about it I should have included this passage at the end of the tutorial, I guess I'll just mention it again.

3. LOAD YOUR FRAMES

File -> Open... -> Pick one of your screencaps. The first one, the last one, a random one. Doesn't matter. That's your Background.

File -> Open & Place -> Select all the frames (including the one you already loaded in the previous passage) you need for your gif and load them.

(I recommend creating a specific folder for the screencaps of each gif you're going to make.)

WARNING: When you Place your screencaps make sure the Crop tool is NOT selected, especially if you've already used it and the width/height values have been entered. It will mess things up - I don't know why, could be a bug.

You can either select them all with Ctrl+A or with the method I explained in the ask: "when you want to select more than one frame or all frames at once select the first one, then scroll to the bottom and, while pressing Shift, select the last one. this way ALL your frames will be selected".

WARNING: Depending on how fast your computer is / on your RAM, this process may take a while. My old computer was old and slow af, while my new one can load even a 100 frames relatively fast, all things considered. Even so, I recommend ALWAYS saving your work before loading new frames for a new gif, because photopea might crash unexpectedly. Just save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Now you can go ahead and delete the Background at the bottom, you won't need it anymore.

4. CROPPING AND RESIZING

Right now your screencaps are still smart objects. Before rasterizing and converting to frames, you need to crop your gif.

Technically you can rasterize/convert to frames and then crop, BUT if you do it in that order photopea will automatically delete the cropped pixels, even if you don't select the "Delete Cropped Pixels" Option. Might be another bug, unclear. Basically, if you crop your gif and then realize you cropped a little too much to the left or the right, you can go ahead, select the Move Tool (shortcut: V) and, after selecting ALL YOUR FRAMES, move them around on your canvas until you are satisfied. You won't be able to do this if you rasterize first and then crop, the excess pixels will be deleted. I don't know why, I found out by accident lol.

CROPPING

(Cropped pixels: the gray/opaque area outside of the selected area. That area disappears once you press enter and crop, but the pixels are retained, so you can move the frames around and reposition them as you like. In this case I could move the frames to the left and include Silver's figure [curly guy in the foreground] in the crop)

After deleting the Background, you will need to select all your frames (using the Shift key), use the C shortcut on your keyboard to choose the Crop tool. Or you can click on it, whatever's more convenient. Once you do that, a dropdown menu is going to appear. You need to select the "FIXED SIZE" option, as shown in the following screencap.

Once you do that, you can type in your desired width and height. Do not immediately press enter.

Your work area should now look like this. Now you can click on one of the white squares and enlarge the selected area until the edges are lined up. You can then move it around until it covers the area you wish to gif.

WARNING: to move the big rectangle around, you're gonna have to click on a random point of the work area, PREFERABLY not to close to the rectangle itself, or you might accidentally rotate it.

See? When your cursor is close to the selected area it turns into this rotating tool. Move it away until it reverts to your usual cursor, then you can start moving the rectangle. Press Enter when you're satisfied with the area you selected.

RESIZE

This isn't always necessary (pretty much never in my case) - and it's a passage I often forget myself - but it's mentioned in most of the tutorials I came across over the years, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include it in mine. After cropping, you'll want to resize your image.

IMAGE -> Image Size...

This window will pop up. Now, should the values in the Width and Height space be anything other than 540 and 400 (or the values you entered yourself, whatever they might be) you need to correct that. They've always been correct in my case, but again. Had to mention it.

5. RASTERIZE & MAKE FRAMES

Now that your screencaps are cropped, you can go ahead and convert them.

LAYER -> Rasterize (if you skip this passage you won't be able to Sharpen (or use any filter) on your frames at once. You'll have to Sharpen your frames one by one.

Photopea doesn't feature a timeline and it's not a video editor, which makes this passage crucial. When you select all your smart objects and try to apply a filter, the filter will only by applied to ONE frame. Once you rasterize your smart objects and make them into frames, you can select them all and sharpen them at once. Unfortunately this also means that you won't be able to - I don't know how to explain this properly so bear with me - use all smart filters/use them in the same way a photoshop user can. For example, you can sharpen / remove noise / add noise / unsharp mask... but you can't act on those filters in the same way a photoshop user can. When you work on smart objects you can change the blend mode - which is critical if you decide to use a filter like High Pass. If you simply apply a high pass filter on photopea you won't be able to change the blend mode and your gif will look like this (following screencaps). Or rather, you will be able to change the blend mode by clicking on the little wheel next to "High pass" (circled in green in the 2nd screencap), but you'll have to apply the filter to each frame manually, one by one.

Then you can rasterize/make into frames, but it's extremely time consuming. I did it once or twice when I first started making gifs and it got old pretty soon haha.

Layer -> Animation -> Make frames. This passage will add "_a_" at the beginning of all your frames and it's what allows you to make a (moving) gif. As I said in the ask, if you skip this passage your gif will not move.

6. SHARPENING

Some people prefer to color first and sharpen later, but I found that sharpening filters (more or less) dramatically alter the aspect of your gif and already brighten it a bit (depending on your settings) and you may end up with an excessively bright gif.

Now, sharpening settings are not necessarily set in stone. The most popular ones are 500/0.4 + 10/10, which I use sometimes. But you may also need to take into account the quality of the files you're working with + the specific tv show you're giffing. I've been using different settings for pretty much every tv show I gif, especially in the last couple months. Some examples:

followed by

OR

AMOUNT: 500% RADIUS 0.3px followed by AMOUNT: 20% (or 10%) RADIUS 10px

You'll just need to experiment and see what works best for your gifs.

Some gifmakers use the UNSHARP MASK filter as well (I think it's pretty popular among photopea users?) but it makes my gifs look extra grainy, makes the borders look super bright and it clashes with my coloring method(s), so I use it rarely and with very moderate settings. Something like this:

Again, depends on the gif and on what you like. I've seen it used with great results by other gifmakers!

REDUCE NOISE

Sometimes - and this is especially the case for dark scenes - your gif may look excessively grainy, depending on how bright you want to make it. Reducing noise can help. Keep it mind, it can also make it worse and mess up the quality. BUT it also reduces the size of your gif. Obviously, the higher the settings, the more quality will suffer.

These are my standard settings (either 2/70% or 2/80%). It's almost imperceptible, but it helps with some of the trickier scenes.

ADDING NOISE

Adding noise (1% or 2% max) can sometimes help with quality (or make it worse, just like reduce noise) but it will make your gif so so so much bigger, and occasionally damage the frames, which means you won't be able to load your gif on tumblr, so I rarely use it.

You'll also want to create ACTIONS which will allow you to sharpen your gifs much faster.

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTION ON PHOTOPEA

The Action Button (shaped like a Play button as you can see in the following screencaps) may not be there if you're using photopea for the first time. If that's the case click on the magnifiying glass next to "Account" (in red) and type "actions". Press Enter and the button should immediately show up.

Once you do that, click on the Folder (circled in yellow)

and rename it however you like.

now click on New Action (circled in red). now you can press the Recording button (circled in green)

Now

FILTERS -> Smart Sharpen

and you can enter your values. Then you repeat this passage (WITHOUT pressing rec, WITHOUT pressing new action or anything else, you just open the smart shapen window again) and, if you want, you can sharpen your gif some more (10%, 10px, or anything you want.)

Maybe, before creating an action, experiment with the settings first and see what works best.

When you're satisfied, you can PRESS STOP (it's the rec button, which is now a square) and you can DOWNLOAD your action (downwards facing arrow, the last button next to the bin. Sorry, forgot to circle it) .

You need to download your action and then upload it on your photopea. When you do, a window will pop up and photopea will ask you whether you wish to load the action every time you open the program. You choose "Okay" and the action will be loaded in the storage.

When you want to sharpen your gif, you select all your frames, then you click on the Play button, and select the Action, NOT the folder, or it won't work.

Actions can also be created to more rapidly crop and convert your frames, but it doesn't always work on photopea (for me at least). The process is exactly the same, except once you start recording you 1) crop your gif as explained in step 4, 2) convert into frames. Then you stop the recording and download the action and upload it. This won't work for the Rasterize step by the way. Just the Animation -> Make Frame step.

7. COLORING

Now you can color your gif. I won't include a coloring tutorial simply because I use a different method for every tv show I gif for. You normally want to begin with a brightness or a curve layer, but sometimes I start with a Channel Mixer layer to immediately get rid of yellow/green filters (there's a tutorial for this particular tool which you will find in the list I mention in the link below)

[Plus I'm not really an authority on this matter as my method is generally... fuck around and find out. Two years of coloring and I still have no idea what I'm doing. 70% of the time.]

Simple Gif Coloring for Beginners -> very detailed + it includes a pretty handy list of tutorials at the bottom.

8. EXPORTING

Now you can export your gif. Some gifmakers export their (sharpened) gifs BEFORE coloring and then load the gifs on photopea to color them. I'm not sure it makes any difference.

FILE -> EXPORT AS -> GIF

(not colored, just sharpened)

As you can see, unlike photoshop the exporting settings are pretty thread bare. The only option available is dither - it sometimes help with color banding - which, and I'm quoting from google for maximum clarity:

"refers to the method of simulating colors not available in the color display system of your computer. A higher dithering percentage creates the appearance of more colors and more detail in an image, but can also increase the file size."

SPEED

When you export your gif, it will play at a very decreased speed (100%). I usually set it at 180/190%, but as for every other tool, you might want to play around a little bit.

GIF SIZE/EZGIF OPTIMIZER (See Step 2)

And that's it.

P.S.: worth repeating

Save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

hng. them <3

bonus!

[cave-monkey]

Monkey King 2009 Episode 8 (Part 1/2)

This episode makes me scared for the future. It's so wholesome. This episode was all about what great friends these guys are, how much they care about each other, how important these relationships are to them, and I mean. It did a great job. It did a wonderful job!

They are definitely getting ready to rip them apart. They might let it ride a few episodes more only to spring it on us when we've let our guards down, but it's coming.

But!

Okay, so I already broke and talked a bit about Six Ears and Stone Monkey in this episode, so I won't go too crazy on that (maybe), but I do want to mention Stone Monkey's furiously intent expression while running to save Six Ears's life, and then how the second he was in range to attack that expression flipped to a smile. He also ripped Six Ears out of there and slipped back to a more serious expression when he asked him what he was doing out here all by himself. This entire episode Stone Monkey's kind of flipping between...really intense and then really flippant, which was interesting to watch? But also a bit whiplash-inducing. Jade Rabbit definitely took it as 100% real, and maybe it is - it's not like you can expect any version of Monkey King to not to be a little cocky - but...I dunno. I think there's some nuance there. It reminds me a bit of how he'd go from 0 to 60 when confronted with the four generals in Episode 6 compared to how carefree he might have been acting even just seconds earlier.

That smile is also only moments after he just watched the Demon King send Six Ears flying, and we got a shot of his face immediately after that too, and he wasn't happy about it. Stone Monkey, I think, can smile maliciously, but he still...hm.

I get the impression Stone Monkey doesn't really like showing that something's actually getting to him, especially when his "enemies" can see it. He'll pretend he's more confident than he is, or otherwise that it doesn't actually bother him at all, at least until he can't hide it anymore and it comes out of him snarling (we saw this in action in Episode 6, where he went from avoidance/running away at the beginning of the episode to passive-aggressive antagonism in the middle to having to be held back from squaring up to Marshal Ma at the end). Even when he's genuinely (or "genuinely") annoyed with someone, there's generally a sort of playful air of exaggeration, or he'll teasingly escalate for fun. What it looks like to me is Stone Monkey enjoys confrontation so long as it's basically harmless, but he doesn't like being actually angry. This might have something to do with the fact that when he actually loses his temper, he gets violent. We see this with the Demon King and with Ginseng Fruit.

Which isn't to say all his quick changes in mood are deliberate obfuscation. That's going too far. But I do think it's a part of his character that pokes its head out of the brush every now and then.

We also see a little of how people react to it. Stone Monkey was visibly struggling enough during his fight against the Demon King that Jade Rabbit was moved to help him a few times even though she was still very angry with him, and when she'd knock the Demon King down or trip him up (from hiding, Stone Monkey didn't know (maybe) that she was there) he'd immediately flip over to mocking laughter and confident poses like he hadn't been worried at all. This PISSED her OFF.

It also makes me kind of wonder how Six Ears perceives it. Both Stone Monkey and Six Ears will default to mocking and taunts and making fun when they can during a fight, so it's not like Six Ears isn't familiar with the tactic, but he also doesn't see how stressed Stone Monkey gets when trying to get to him before a rescue, either. He only sees the smiling entrance.

I'm feeling this out because of the part in this episode where Stone Monkey - for probably the first time ever - refuses to let Six Ears fight with him, and even throws him away from danger. (I LOVE that scene.) I have a lot to say about it, actually, and I'll get into what I think was going on from Stone Monkey's perspective there in a second, but from Six Ears's side that cannot feel good. Yeah, Stone Monkey's just trying to protect him, but he's also not trusting Six Ears to help. He's forcing Six Ears to leave his best friend alone in the middle of an enemy war party, because he doesn't trust him to help. That's got to feel like a horrible slap in the face, at least once the battle is over and Six Ears has time to process it.

And I'm sure that's not going to have any consequences whatsoever.

From Stone Monkey's side (didn't I say I wasn't going to talk about them that much? well I lied), going back to their earlier conversation where Stone Monkey asks Six Ears what he's doing out here alone, and then the look on his face when Six Ears explains (plainly and almost casually for the situation, like he doesn't realize he's rocking Stone Monkey's entire world) that he noticed Stone Monkey missing and went looking for him because he was worried that he might be in danger somewhere.

Stone Monkey's shocked.

It isn't that I think he didn't realize Six Ears cared about him before this moment; it's that this is the moment where I think it really clicked. That Six Ears will notice and miss him when he's not there, that he'll worry about him, that Stone Monkey has someone who will come try to find him when he's lost and help him when he's hurt. Six Ears has been doing this for him since they met, even outright scolding him for always vanishing without telling anyone, so Stone Monkey's definitely been a little slow on the uptake here, but I also think this is the first time Stone Monkey's heard Six Ears actually spell it out like this.

The progression of Stone Monkey's face during this conversation.

Six Ears also tells him not to apologize or say anything about always getting Six Ears into trouble, since Stone Monkey's always having to save him anyway. I mentioned before that I thought the sworn brothers thing was really important to Stone Monkey at the time, just because of how rough things had been with the troop and how nice it probably was for him to have someone willing to claim him and to let him claim them in turn, and I think this is something very similar. Confirmation that he's as important to Six Ears as Six Ears is to him. That they'll take care of each other.

Then fast forward a couple minutes and Stone Monkey throws Six Ears to the top of the cliff instead of letting him fall with him. I think this conversation is definitely a huge part of that.

It's not that I think Stone Monkey wouldn't have wanted to save Six Ears even before it, but I do think his emotions are running a little high at that moment. He saw Six Ears get flattened by the Demon King not long ago, they just had a very important conversation for Stone Monkey, and I think in that moment the thought of losing Six Ears when he probably feels he just got him (or had just allowed himself to believe he really had him, not much difference) was probably overwhelmingly horrible. He's already proven himself protective of Six Ears in the past, and I think that feeling is probably dialed up to a million at that moment, and so it's probably not surprising if he panicked and took a chance to shove him up on a high shelf for safekeeping. (Maybe Stone Monkey's mystic universe powers make him capable of recognizing narrative death flags and he said NOT TODAY.) (I kid.) (Or do I?)

There's also a possibility - way more of a stretch, not sure how I feel about this idea one way or another honestly - that he maybe now feels he can trust Six Ears to come back even if he isn't right next to Stone Monkey. That Six Ears won't leave him for dead, but will go get help and bring it as fast as he can, or will return to help on his own.

Or it's just that Stone Monkey 100% would have thrown Six Ears to safety in the past, but this is just coincidentally the first time there's been an opportunity. (Stone Monkey, shrugging: If you don't want to be tossed out of the fight, don't be so tossable.)

This ties into what I was talking about above (way, way above, oops) that Six Ears isn't always privy to the times Stone Monkey isn't confident. Maybe Stone Monkey didn't like even their combined chances and chose to save Six Ears because he genuinely thought they were going to die there when that tree went down, maybe he really did think he had a better chance of holding out longer than Six Ears, maybe he was going full big brain and knew that if he went back and tried to bring the army, there was a good chance the four generals just wouldn't listen to him, and it's just good luck that sending Six Ears lets him get his best friend safely out of the way. Maybe it's a weird mashup of many different reasons.

I don't think he genuinely believed he could single-handedly fight his way out of that canyon. I'm not sure if Six Ears knows that.

I'm not finishing this thought now, but I'm stewing on it.

And anyway, on a lighter note, most of Stone Monkey's intentions are totally moot because Six Ears - the universe's favorite trouble magnet - manages to either run immediately into another division of enemy soldiers (tiger guy probably had a grudge and went looking for him, actually) who bailed out of the canyon for their own reasons and gets tree-ed again for awhile.

There's also the possibility he took it upon himself to guide off some of the army from the canyon so Stone Monkey wasn't overrun while also handling the Demon King!

Anyway, I love these monkeys. This also totally derailed from being about Episode 8 so I'm going to do a part 2 to get things back on track.

[ghostsprobably]

i just finished their redesign videos so here's the young versions of griffin and faragonda >:3c

^^^(their true dynamic)

[messydiabolical]

character one for the six fan arts challenge, done. Pssppsssp @who-is-riley here he is <3 Up next, Edi!

Timelapse under the cut, warning for flashing images:

Made in procreate with Manero brushes thick paint set

[ink-the-artist]

I love your artwork so much! Your colors are so vibrant and none of the white speckles in the paper ever shows, its so impressive and I really dig it! I was wondering if you use any sort of blending medium? Like baby oil or anything? Either way, I really enjoy looking at your artwork and I'm always excited to see whatever you'll make next

I use a colorless blender (prismacolor, which is wax-based so baby oil probably wouldnt work) but my scanner is also rly bad about picking up white specks in a way photographing the art with my phone isnt, so I usually have to do some digital editing to get rid of them as well.

I do this by duplicating the layer, setting the one on top to "darken," and using the mixer brush to blend out the white spots + just use the eyedropper tool to select the color of that area (needs to be a slightly lighter shade of it) and color over the white spots with the brush tool

i edited a small bit of the original scan to show what i mean

original:

with the edited layer:

heres how it looks set to normal instead of darken, I used both the mixing brush and regular brush just to demo it

[pigeonconcert]

BENNY STOP SHOWING UP AT HIS JOB??HOW ARE YOU GETTING IN