#in my head: this seems like a good composition for a cover
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phoward89 · 9 months ago
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Based on this ask
WARNING ⚠️ Coriolanus Snow is his own warning, obsessive!Coriolanus, manipulation, murder, unplanned pregnancy
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You’re by yourself in the house you share with your little sister Maude Ivory and your cousins whenever a loud series of knocks sounded on it. Oh god, you hope it wasn't Billy Taupe coming around to torment (woo) Lucy Gray again.
Hell, he moved out of the Covey house and into the Mayor’s house to live with Mayfair as soon as Lucy Gray was shoved onto that train’s cattle car headed to the Capitol to be tribute in the Hunger Games. Just because she won; came back in one piece, doesn't mean that he has the right to come around. Begging her to take him back, even though he has no intentions on leaving Mayfair.
Why would he? He's got it made by shacking up with the Mayor's daughter. Hell, being with Mayfair means he never has to work again.
Sighing, you placed your composition book down on the sofa and went over to the door. When you pulled it open, you were shocked that it wasn't Billy Taupe at the threshold, but a peacekeeper.
A very handsome peacekeeper, might you add.
You had to crane your neck up slightly to look him in the eyes. Eyes that were icy blue, like a frozen over lake. You noticed that his buzz cut was platinum blonde, a blonde so light that only the gods of ancient myths could have such fair hair. Your eyes didn't miss his prominent nose or his broad shoulders and tapered waist either.
But it was his smile that had you dazzled. A smile that was bright, splitting his face in half with perfect pearly whites.
“Hello. I'm Private Coriolanus Snow; I was Lucy Gray’s mentor during the games and since I'm serving here in 12 I just wanted to check up on her. Make sure that she’s alright.”
“Yea, she mentioned you.” You nodded, feeling your heart sink into the pit of your stomach. Of course, your cousin's mentor looked like a Greek god. No wonder Lucy Gray seems to have a little crush on him. No way would he ever talk to you again once he got to see her.
Nobody ever talked to you again after spending time with Lucy Gray. Hell, her voice made the mockingjays stop and listen to her sing. Her beauty was exotic; she was a beautiful mystery that every man wanted to solve.
“I’m Y/N Scarlett.” You introduced yourself, only to tell the peacekeeper, “She's deep in the meadow that's some yards behind the house. She's working on a song, but I'm sure she won't mind if you interrupt her.”
“She never mentioned you.” Coriolanus said, moreso to himself then to you, his eyes raking over your body.
“Why would she? She was in the Capitol for the Hunger Games, not an afternoon tea party.” You sarcastically scoffed. Unknown to you, Lucy Gray did talk about the Covey, including your little sister, just not you. “Well, since I told you where to find my cousin, you better be on your way.” You said, politely dismissing him so that the blonde could go woo your cousin; you could also finish writing your thoughts down in your composition book.
“Is she doing alright?” Private Snow asked instead of saying goodbye.
‘She seems fine to me. Went right back to singing and charming the stage.” You wanted to add living off of her charms too, but you didn't think that'd go over too well with the buzzcut blonde grunt.
“That's good, I'm glad singing while covered in a bunch of lethal rainbow snakes didn't stop her from singing.”
“Lucy Gray stop singing because of the snakes? Are you kidding me? That girl loves snakes, is always playing with the slithering demons.”
“You don't like snakes, I take it.”
“You ever get snakebite because your loving cousin played a practical joke on you by hiding a harmless garter snake in your shawl that was nestled on the grass?”
“Uh, no, can't say that I have.”
“Yea, well, I have and it's not fun. So, no, I don't like snakes.” You dryly told the blonde peacekeeper.
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Coriolanus asked with a charming smile painted on his face.
One of your brows rose up. “To the meadow to see Lucy Gray?”
No, Coriolanus wanted to take you on a walk.
By yourself.
There was something about you that he was instantly attracted to. As soon as he laid eyes on you, all thoughts on your cousin left his mind.
It's was like ‘Lucy Gray, Lucy Gray who?’ in his brain. She didn't matter to him anymore, but suddenly you did.
You seemed so beautiful to him. Like a fine piece of spun glass that holiday ornaments are crafted from.
Coriolanus couldn't explain it, but he has the primal urge to claim you. To protect you; make you his. All because of the sweet look in your doe eyes whenever you answered the door for him.
“No.” Coriolanus shook his head. “I want to take you for a walk, spend some time with you before I have to head back to base.”
He wanted to spend time with you? Oh boy, now that's unexpected.
All you could do was smile and squeak out, “Okay.”
And that's how you became Private Snow's girl, much to Lucy Gray's dismay.
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You've been seeing Coriolanus for a few weeks now. Every weekend he seems to get weekend passes from his commander; uses them to stay with you at the Covey house. The Covey takes to him pretty well, especially when he brings over something from the Mellark bakery with every visit. He also brings over large bags of ice too, which is a godsend considering your family doesn't have an icebox.
Lucy Gray looks at him with sorrow and pain in her big, brown eyes. It's evident that she's disappointed that Coryo (what he's told you to call him) picked you over her. See, nobody ever picks you over her.
Well, not until Coryo that is.
But he's not like the other district boys because he's not district. He's a Capitol boy. And you know what they say…
You can take the boy out of the Capitol, but you can't take the Capitol out of the boy.
Today's a sweltering hot summer's day so you, Coryo, his friend Sejanus, and the Covey are at the lake: swimming.
You and your platinum blonde peacekeeper are the last to enter the water. Everyone else is already in the water as you two stand by the dock, stripping out of your clothes. Despite having seen Coriolanus naked a few times already, seeing him pull off his shirt makes you swoon.
You can't help it. He's just so handsome. Too pretty to be real.
Goddamn, those broad shoulders, toned arms, toned chest, and tapered waist of his gets you every time.
And yes, when the Covey's asleep he sneaks into your bed; fucks you senseless. The two of you think that Lucy Gray doesn't know, but she does. Her room and yours share a wall, she has ears and can hear the noises you and Coriolanus don't even try to quiet down.
Lucy Gray's disappointed in how reckless you're acting with Coriolanus. The last thing the Covey needs is for you to fall pregnant. Your family can barely stay afloat as it is.
But, on the other hand, your cousin can't help, but to see how happy you and her former mentor look, laughing and giggling as he chases you down the dock, causing you to jump into the water with him cannonballing in right after you.
The loud sounds of laughs, squeals, and overall cheerfulness mixed with water splashing loudly fills the air. Everyone's having fun.
But despite that, Coryo seems a bit melancholy. So much so that he swims a few yards away from the group, just to have a moment to himself. You have no idea what's going on in that head of his, but you don't want him to feel alone. As if he can't lean on you.
So, you swim over to him; climb up his back like a sloth and wrap your arms around him. You rest your chin on his shoulder, causing him to grab your hand and lift it up to his lips; pressing a kiss against your knuckles.
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The boys, Sejanus included, are cleaning the fish that they caught while your little sister's digging up swamp potatoes (Katniss as Lucy Gray calls it) and giving it to Lucy Gray, only for your cousin to remind Maude Ivory that the plant’s roots ain't ready yet. Barb Azure was with Lucy Gray, just talking.
And you're off to the side, laying on a blanket with Coryo. Your head’s in his lap as he lazily runs his long fingers thru your hair. Looking out at the view of the crystal blue lake and the trees surrounding it, Coryo told you, “It's beautiful out here.” Flashing you a smile, he added in, “Thank you for sharing this with me. You sharing your special spots with me means a lot, little dove.”
“No need to thank me, Coryo. I enjoy spending time with you; bringing you along on Covey excursions just happens to be a part of that.” You replied with a genuine smile.
“You know, there's so much I’d like to show you in the Capitol.”
“Lucy Gray says that the Capitol's a horrible place.”
“Don't listen to her, Y/N. She never told me about you, but she talked an awful lot about your little sister and the rest of the Covey.”
“She talked about them, but not me?” You asked, feeling sudden heartbreak and betrayal from your cousin.
Coriolanus’ heart hurts for you. He can't imagine how it'd feel to be so easily dismissed by his cousin, Tigris, who practically raised him. Just seeing your face so fallen and grief stricken at the revelation that Lucy Gray talked about all of her cousins, except for you, made him want to protect you from her.
Yes!
Coryo wants to protect you from your own cousin.
But not just her. No, he wants to protect you from everything that might cause you harm. And the only way to do that is bringing you back to the Capitol with him.
“Do you like it here, in District 12?” He wondered. He personally hates it; secretly wants you to hate it too.
“No.” You shook your head. “It's miserable in 12.”
“It's not miserable in the Capitol. The Capitol had rules, law and order, food, and warm beds.” Coryo recited, as if reading an ad from a vacation brochure. “I hope that when I go back one day that you'll come with me.” He confessed, looking down at you with a hopeful smile.
“I dunno if I could leave the Covey. They're my family, Coryo.” You honestly answered, feeling a sense of dread at the idea of leaving your family behind for another life. A life thousands and thousands of miles away from them.
“But you could leave me, your man?” Coryo asked incredulously, his jaw ticking.
“Coryo-” You tried to reason, only for him to cut you off with a blunt honest retort of, “You're going to have to choose one day, little dove. I just hope you pick me.”
Silence fell over the two of you as he twisted his torso, reaching into his bag beside him to get something. You didn't pay it any mind, figuring he was getting a snack or something that he packed. But, when you noticed a balled up piece of orange material in his hand as he straightened his back to resume his previous position of sitting, you couldn't help but wonder what the material was.
It wouldn't take you long to find out.
Handing you over the orange ball of fine spin silk, he softly told you, “It belonged to my mother.”
“Oh, Coryo…” Your hands gently clutched the token to your heart. You knew that it must've meant a lot to him; that you must mean a lot to him too in order to receive such a gift. “Thank you, I'll take good care of it.” You studied the orange gift, concluding that it's a scarf. “I promise.” You smiled, looking between him and the scarf. Taking his hand in yours, you sighed, “I only wish that I had something meaningful to give you back.”
“I don't need anything, but your love, darling.” Coryo assured you before bending down, cupping your cheek with his large hand, and capturing your lips in a soft, but hungry kiss.
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The following week, you began getting sick in the early mornings. Sometimes, you'd get sick due to a strong smell too. You even seemed more fatigued, sometimes even feeling a bit flushed and dizzy. And your boobs were tender. You knew what the symptoms mean and it terrifies you.
It terrifies you because you and Coryo never talked about the possibility of children. Would he even want a baby? He's a peacekeeper, is he even allowed to claim a baby with a Covey girl? Would the baby be a bastard? Would he-
“Hey, little dove, what's wrong?” Coryo asked, walking up your front porch with a bag of ice over his shoulder and a paper bag labeled Mellark Bakery in hand.
“We need to talk, Coriolanus.” You sighed, picking at your nails.
You're afraid that after you tell him your discovery that he'll leave and never come back.
Coryo's brow furrowed with worry. You haven't called him Coriolanus since the day you first met him. Something's wrong.
Setting the bags he was carrying down, he went over to your side. He pulled you up from your seat on an old wooden rocker, only to sit down and pull you onto his lap. Lightly threading his fingers into your hair, he asked, “What's wrong, little dove?”
“I'm pregnant, Coryo.” You nervously revealed, dropping your head in shame.
“Yea?” Coryo asked, gently tipping your chin up; making you look into his icy eyes. Icy blue eyes that are filled with only joy and pride. “We’re having a baby?”
“Yea.” You confirm.
“I promise, I'll take care of both of you.” Your peacekeeper vowed, protectively placing one of his large hands over your stomach. He pressed his lips against yours in a soft, chaste kiss. Pulling away, he leaned his forehead against yours and asked, “Does the Covey know?”
“No. I wanted to wait to tell them.”
“Why? Are you afraid of what they'll say?” Coryo asked, genuine concern flooding his baby blues.
“I doubt they'll be happy about another mouth to feed.” You sighed. You could already hear your family's fake congratulations in your head. You know full well that they'll be disappointed about this. It's just not the ideal timing.
Coryo tucked a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “Don't worry, little dove. We'll figure it out.” Your boyfriend assured you with a thin smile.
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Coryo didn't want you performing with the Covey anymore. He claimed that the stress of it would be bad for the baby. So, you obliged him and made a lame excuse about a headache in order to be a spectator in the crowd.
You're sitting at a table against the wall with Sejanus and Coryo. The boys are drinking jars of shine while you're stuck drinking nothing- since shine's bad for pregnancy and the Hobb doesn't have anything else for drinking. Lucy Gray had just started singing her debut of a new song whenever Sejanus excused himself and took off to the bar, where Billy Taupe was. It looked like he was waiting for him too.
“You might want to keep an eye on that. Billy's bad news, Coryo.” You told your boyfriend, subtly gesturing to where Sejanus and Billy Taupe were.
Unknown to you, Coryo's been keeping an eye on it. That he even sent a jabberjay to the Capitol with Sejanus' dumb rebel plans on it so that Strabo Plinth could be made aware of the bullshit his son's up to; buy him a discharge and a one-way ticket back to the Capitol.
“I'll follow him; check it out.” Coryo told you, standing up. “Stay here, I'll only be a minute, little dove.” Coryo kissed your cheek before slithering thru the crowd to follow Sejanus and Billy Taupe as they ventured to a back room.
After a while, you got concerned and decided to find out what was going on. So, you went down the back hallway and into the room you saw Coryo slip into. Which was a mistake considering you walked right into a dicey situation.
You saw a small pile of guns splayed out with Sejanus, Billy Taupe, Spruce, and Coryo all in a corner of the room, exchanging barbs.
“Who's she?” Spruce asked, pointing to you with a gun.
Looking over his shoulder, Coryo gritted his teeth and told you, “Baby, I told you to wait for me out there.” He grabbed your wrist and shoved you behind him, while telling Spruce, “She's my girl.”
But at the same time Billy Taupe said, “Y/N Scarlett's Covey, her and her peacekeeper friends are coming with us.”
“Since when, Billy?” Asked the shrill voice that belonged to the district shrew, Mayfair Lipp.
Oh shit…
Mayfair entered from the other side of the room, making her presence known when she heard her pathetic accordion player boyfriend was planning on taking a Covey girl and some peacekeepers somewhere.
Somewhere her daddy wouldn't approve of.
“What's going on?” The redhead asked.
Looking at his girl, who he was trying to shake in favor of making up with Lucy Gray, Billy said, “I'll explain later, Mayfair. Just let it go.”
“No, I won't let it go, Billy. I want to know what you're planning with these guns.”
“Oh my God, Coryo, I'm so sorry. I swear, I didn't mean to bring you into this mess.” Sejanus cried.
“You should be sorry. You've pulled not just me, but the mother of my child into your stupid bullshit.” Coryo angrily shouted. He was so pissed that he could strangle Sejanus for his stupidity.
“I'm so sorry, I didn't know.” Blubbered the dark haired peacekeeper.
“Wait a minute, I know exactly who the two of you are.” Mayfair’s beady eyes lit up. Pointing at Coryo, she said, “You were Lucy Gray Baird’s Capitol mentor during the games.” Pointing to you, she sniggered, “And you're her cousin.”
You and Coryo exchanged worried looks. Right now, both of you wished you'd stayed outside in the main bar room of the Hobb.
“Well, wouldn't my daddy like to know that you're all planning on running away.” Mayfair's voice rang out, all smug and evil sounding.
“She won't say anything.” Billy Taupe assured everyone. Looking at his girlfriend, he asked, “Won't you?”
“Oh, why don't you ask her if I'm bluffing.” Mayfair pointed to you. “Did your cousin like her trip to the Capitol? Maybe you and your peacekeeper traitor boyfriend will like your trip to the hanging tree.” Mayfair said before pivoting on her heel and making to leave. To tell her father, Mayor Lipp, about what she's seen and overheard.
But before she got very far, Coryo reached for one of the rifles and shot her in the back, causing her to fall down.
Dead.
Your eyes widened, but you knew why he did it. He did it to protect you and the baby.
“What did you just do?! Why did you do that for?!” Billy Taupe shouted at Coryo while Sejanus was just balling his eyes out.
“He did what he had to, she was gonna talk.” Spruce said, siding with Coryo.
“Oh, I'm not going down for this.” Billy frantically said, most likely figuring that he'd be the first suspect since he was Mayfair's man. Grabbing a gun, he pointed it at you and Coriolanus.
He never got a shot off cause Spruce got him first. Tossing his gun in the pile and motioning for Coryo to do the same, he told your boyfriend, “I'll get rid of the guns.”
Coriolanus nodded, only to turn to you and cup your cheeks. “Go back out there and find some friends to talk to as an alibi.” Kissing you, he swore, “I'll keep you and our baby safe, I promise, my little dove.”
“I know you will.” You replied, softly wrapping your hands around his wrists and squeezing them.
Sejanus was crying to bad that he was hunched over, having a panic attack. You and Coryo shared a silent look. Without words, you told him to help his friends and he agreed that he word.
After parting from each other, you went out to the main bar room of the Hobb while Coryo calmed down his best friend and assured Sejanus that they're brothers; that he'll protect him.
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Sadly, Coryo couldn't protect Sejanus from being marked a rebel spy and a traitor; from the noose of the hanging tree. The death of his friend hit him hard. Sejanus was hanged alongside Spruce and his sister, Lil.
Coryo had received a spot in an elite officer's training program in 2; he wanted you to go along with him. Apparently officers were allowed to have women. Coriolanus himself was the son of General Crassus Snow. You agreed to go with him, but told him that you suspect that Spruce might've told Lucy Gray about what happened.
When he asked you why, you told him that Lucy Gray made a remark about how you couldn't trust Coryo because men like him need to tie up loose ends in order to get what they want. That if he's able to find the guns hidden at the cabin he'll get rid of her; tie up his loose end so that he'll be free to ran back to the Capitol.
Lucy Gray had told you that in warning, after stumbling upon Spruce hiding the guns while out hiking to help clear her head and get her muses energized. But, you didn't take her warning. In fact, you did the opposite of that warning; told Coryo all about it.
When he asked where your cousin was so that he could talk to her about what she knew, you never would've thought in your wildest dreams that he'd kill her to shut her up. To ensure that he'd be able to bring you with him to District 2.
So, you told him that Lucy Gray was hiding out at the lakeside cabin because she was afraid of Mayor Lipp (since he's been harassing her ever since his daughter's death).
No, how would you know that by telling your boyfriend where to find your cousin that you're signing her death warrant.
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The day of your departure arrives and you don't have many things to bring. Just a single, small carpet bag filled with a handful of dresses. You're wearing one of your nicest dresses paired with the orange scarf Coryo gave you. And when Coryo saw you step onto the train platform, he couldn't help but to run over to you and wrap his arms around you.
Kissing you, he smiled, “You look beautiful, my darling.”
“You look quite handsome yourself.” You told him, since he did look stunning in his dress uniform. Honestly, the hat did things for you.
“I'm glad you think so.” He smirked. Breaking your embrace, he took your hand in his and said, “Come on, we need to be sent off by Commander Hoff.”
“Okay.” You nod, despite feeling uneasy about revealing your relationship to his former commander.
After a couple of minutes walking along the platform, you spotted Commander Hoff. He was standing by the train, waiting for Coriolanus. Upon seeing him, Coryo greeted him with a salute. You did a slight curtsey, out of respect.
“There’s been a slight change of plans. You and your girl will be going to the Capitol instead.�� Commander Hoff informed the two of you. “You make us proud, Snow.” He said before walking off.
“The Capitol…” You trailed off in awe.
A large grin split Coryo's face from ear to ear as he picked you up and spun you around. “We're going home, baby. We're going home.”
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As you sat with Coryo on a train bound for the Capitol your family was at home, sulking over your sudden decision to leave. One that they didn't approve of. One that they thought Lucy Gray would be able to talk you out of if she was around. They blamed the mayor for her absence
And while, yes, her fear of Mayor Lipp made Lucy Gray hide out in the cabin, it was Coriolanus Snow that truly made her disappear when he showed up at the cabin, peacekeeper issued pistol in hand. Poor thing was at her patch of Katniss, checking to see if they were ready to pick when he snuck up behind her and shot her point blank in the head.
He dumped her and the guns that he found hidden under the floorboards, after tearing the entire cabin apart, in the lake.
You'd never know that he committed not one but two murders to keep you safe, to keep your unborn baby safe. Because to Coryo you're as precious as spun glass and he'll do anything to protect you. Anything or anybody he sees as a threat to you and the baby he'll deal with.
And he knew that Lucy Gray was dangerous. She didn't trust him; might try to turn you against him. The thing about spun glass that it can break if not handled with care. Coryo will never let anyone break you, so Lucy Gray had to go.
He knew that your cousin saw right thru his facade. Could see him for the true snake he was. And he couldn't have her ruining everything for the two of you.
But you'll never know any of that. All you'll know is the safety of the Capitol and a loving husband that'll spoil you and your baby rotten.
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your-unfriendlyghost · 1 month ago
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How I draw: Proportions/sketching
The first response to a few art questions from @johnny-and-clyde :))
sketching:
So I honestly used to be a lot more…intentional about my sketching?? Up until a few months ago I would draw out actual sketches that I’d then cleanly ink on top of in a separate layer, like this:
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I’d try to keep things loose and easy, but I’m not fantastic at that lol
I have a tendency to over complicate sketches- It’s not super obvious here, but I did semi-map out the anatomy under the clothes and fabric folds. That’s probably a good thing to do, generally, especially since I was and am still learning anatomy.
I don’t do it much anymore tho, because I often got caught up in little details that just wound up covered by clothes 😭 So I generally focus on mapping out the clothing shapes over the proportions/ anatomy. Definitely study anatomy anyway tho- this only works for me nowadays because I did and still do study anatomy a lot lol
These days though, I don’t r e a l l y sketch that much. I mean, I do- but instead of making another layer and inking it, I kinda just clean up the sketch the way I would if I were using pencil and paper. I don’t have a lotta example images of this, because it goes from the sketch to the final lineart in one layer?
tried to reverse-engineer it here on this Angela drawing. idk how helpful that is tho lol.
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Idk, most important thing for me while sketching is remembering that everything has a 3D form, and also to FLIP MY CANVAS FREQUENTLY so that it stays balanced lol. -also- I almost always take note of the ribcage, the clavicle angle, and the hip angle when planning poses
-And I consciously try to keep things from getting stiff, and think of the pose as an intentional composition. I actually struggle most with plain standing/walking poses, because I very often can’t think of ways to make them look…idk, interesting? That’s why it’s taken me so long to finish pt.2 of my Outsiders character designs- I can’t find good dynamic-but-also-stagnant poses for them
proportion:
Honestly man idk I just sorta say “fuck it we ball” and hope for the best. I used to think a lot more about this one but as it’s become more and more natural to me I become less and less able to define/describe it?? I dunno lol.
My art style is semi-cartoony, and honestly kinda inconsistent in terms of proportions. I generally aim for the hands to be similar in size to the face, and for the shoulders/chest area to have enough space to fit the clavicle…but none of this is really a conscious decision? It just sorta happens. The heads/eyes of my characters are usually stylized, and so the hands end up a bit bigger to match the faces, and I tend to exaggerate muscle mass but not really muscle definition…And I also stylize things for characters to better contrast each other. For example, I’ve noticed I draw Steve Randle stockier/bulkier than he is to better highlight Soda’s slenderness.
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(see how they’re not as drastically different in build as I draw them? Steve seems bulkier mostly cos he’s shorter but has a similar amount of mass I think) (don’t quote me on that tho idk how to put this shit into words lol)
I have a pretty decent idea of how proportions are supposed to work from years of studying them, and I have no idea how to explain any of it. Just…do a lot of figure and gesture drawing, use a lotta refs, and it’ll make sense eventually 😭
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greenunoreversecard · 11 months ago
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Hi! I rlly like your writing and was wondering if you could do a platonic fic w a gn teen reader and parental figures Charlie and Vaggie? I was thinking the reader is new to hell and the hotel and is very cautious around everyone except for Vaggie and Charlie who they’re very clingy and sweet to. Thank you<3
Hellp I 'accidentally' stole a person and now they think I'm they're mother-> chaggie x teen! reader (platonic)
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A/N: joke about fucking milfs, joke about being ass r@p3d. Uhh, also familial cuddles.(gif charlie guiding sinners to redemption be like)
You didn't expect it to end like..that, much less the endless abyss and free fall that nauseated you after. And if you didn't expect the falling, you sure as hell didn't expect the crash.
It felt like you broke your spine, and on top of the pain there was a barage of sound, screams, moans, crashing. You name it, you hear it.
You groan pitifully, shakily rolling onto your side and curl gently into a ball not bothering to open your eyes.
As you lay in your current predicament, you hear a small gasp and rapid footsteps.
"Oh my Satan, are you alright? Oh my gosh, what am I saying of course your not alright- i- Vaggie!"
The what sounds like a girl says rapidly as she seemingly approaches, cracking your eyelids open as she kneels in front of you calling to this 'Vaggie'.
Blonde hair and pale composition, with cherry red buttons on her cheeks and startling bright eyes full of worry. Her hand reaches out to your shoulder, gently touching as rapid footsteps come from behind her.
"Charlie, what the fuck, you can't just-"
The other person stops as she peers over the girls, whom you now know as Charlie's, shoulder.
She has long white hair, skin a similar colour to that of a gargoyle. Red shirt a bright contrast to the Grey of her skin. She's seemingly short in stature, and has bangs covering one of her eyes. Her hand goes up to her mouth as she quietly gasps.
"Shit kid, you alright?" She quietly asks, voice much smaller and calmer than when she was repremanding charlie. She kneels down next to her, hand on her shoulder.
"I feel like I got ass raped to be honest." You wheeze out, rolling back onto your back and arms splaying out by your sides.
"I- here hon, let's get you back to my hotel-I-we should-uhmmm we can get you-"
As the first girl starts rambling about helping with injuries, and a 'Hazbin Hotel the second gently lifts you up, cooing lightly as you hiss from the pain. Honestly, you don't remember much as you zone out during the rambling, to focused on not falling asleep with the gentle sway of being held while walking.
And this was just the beginning.
-----
~some time later~
"Alright n/n, let's go over it again. What do we say when you feel like things suck and we need help from others?" Charlie says, smacking her thighs and sighing.
"To solve one's problems take off a mom's bottoms"
Angel snickers from beside you. Vaggie groans.
"Uhm. No. Don't, dont, uh- don't sleep with-"
'"What if I want to sleep with a milf?"
"n/n. Please"
"I-"
Before you can reply, a timer goes off. Charlie sighs again, as does Vaggie. Everyone in the group starts to head off to their own thing, and Angle nudges your arm and whispers a 'good one, kid' as he saunters off. All who's left their is you, charlie and vaggie.
"N/n, I know you don't.. aren't really like, well acquainted- yet- with the others, but please, I'm begging you try to awnser appropriately."
You sigh. It's been a few long months since winding up here, And charlie and vaggie have been a rock in this adjustment. You even met Charlie's dad, Lucifer and he spontaneously burst into tears at "His baby ducklings little duckling". Whatever that means, I guess. But, it does seem to sum up the relationship between you and the two women. The mothers ducks and their chaos child.
"M sorry char. I- I just-" you stutter, curling into Vaggie's side as she sits next to you. Charlie comes and sits on your other side, drapping herself accross you back and staying there. Grabbing Vaggie's hand as she reaches across your curled frame thats laying partially in here girlfriends lap.
"I know... It's hard. I get it, trust me. I just wish you gave the others a chance to see the amazing person you are. Because I know you know the actually anwsers.. I just wish you let others see the you we see"
You snort a small laugh. "Gee, thanks ma. Such encouraging words."
"She's serious, n/n. You're a good kid" Vaggie chimes.
"Mm, I guess." You add noncommittally snuggling further into the pillow you've now dubbed one of the two you now consider your parents.
It will take time, but Charlie and Vaggie will be there to help.
---
A/N: rushed ending bc I didn't know what or how to end it dhsjjfjej hope its ok and hope you enjoyyyy :)
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roneloren · 14 days ago
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My first fanfic on Tumblr)
Earlier in the morning. Vladimir lazily opened his eyes, into which the bright rays of the morning sun brazenly climbed. Birds were singing outside the window. Only now did he realize that he had forgotten to close the window and curtains in his room in the evening, he was so tired after staying up late playing cards with Andrey yesterday. He's probably still sleeping like a dead bear in the next room on the couch, wrapped up to his nose in a scratchy but very warm blanket. Vladimir lazily got up from the slightly creaking bed and casually threw a dark blue bathrobe, abandoned last night, or rather already in the dead of night, which both proudly dubbed "the lingering twilight," onto the nearest chair. Slowly tying his belt as if there was no one else in the apartment besides the owner himself, Makarov left his room and suddenly heard a pleasant, quiet piano playing. Once again noting in his head how good the soundproofing in Stalinki was, Vladimir pondered the source of the music for a while. My first thought was that Andrey's phone had rung. An interesting choice of melody. In general, the brunette thought that his right hand on the ringtone would have something like heavy metal or, conversely, country music like the songs of the band Dropkick Murphys, in whose T-shirts Andrei often appeared in everyday life. By the way, he was wearing it that night too...Looking up, Makarov opened his eyes wide in surprise. Nolan was playing an old piano that stood in the corner of the living room, where the redhead was staying the night. It was impossible to even really understand what exactly Vladimir was in such shock about. From the fact that this junk, which no one had touched for twenty years, could be played normally, and even very beautifully, or from the fact that Andrei knew how to handle a musical instrument... Especially like this... Delicate and quite fragile... Behind which you expect to see anyone, but not a huge military closet, which almost always walks with a frown and instills fear at first glance into those flaming blue eyes. He could be imagined with anything but a musical instrument... Yes, he knew firsthand about Andrey's dexterity of fingers. Vladimir has seen many times how his deputy can disassemble a machine gun almost to the cogs in a matter of seconds and also assemble it back in a split second. And he also knows how to do it very well...one false note broke out of his thoughts.
—Damn it... La is upset...
Andrey swore softly, continuing to play. It was noticeable that the composition was coming to its climax. The melody gets faster and the notes get higher. Vladimir froze, leaning against the wall and listening to the music. He studied the pianist carefully. There was something wrong with him, something seemed to be missing, but it seemed that it was even more beautiful... But looking at the same level for a minute now, he can't figure out what exactly is confusing him in this whole picture. This level was Andrey's neck. It was only a minute later that Vladimir realized what exactly had caught his attention in this painting... A bandana. Or a collar. Or the kind of scarf that was always around the neck of an Australian. That's what was missing. Brown-eyed only now realized that... I've never even seen Andrey's neck... She was always hidden by collars, high hoods, scarves, or in warm places with an ordinary bandana. But this time the skin was bare, and what covered the neck last night was lying on the coffee table by the sofa, carefully and carefully folded into a triangle, which contrasted vividly with the slippers carelessly thrown by the aforementioned piece of furniture. Vladimir was mesmerized by the seemingly ordinary part of the body, listening to music and could not believe his ears and eyes... He had never expected to see this side of his deputy... It seemed that in this setting and with the bright morning rays, even Andrey's hair seemed bright, red as a spark... Or was it because he hadn't combed his hair, and because of that, his hair wasn't in its usual neat mohawk, but rather slightly disheveled, which made it look lighter? The question is rhetorical...Neither of them noticed how smoothly the melody ended. Andrey's fingers smoothly outlined the contours of the keys, where they ended their long, tireless run and gently lay on the redhead's lap. For about a minute, Makarov and Nolan were in complete silence, without saying a word. Only the singing of birds outside the boldly open window and the soft rustle of curtains from the rare gusts of a gentle warm breeze that played not only with the curtains, but also with Andrei's red curls, slightly disturbed the silence. It seemed that the men could hear each other's pulse and breathing, it became so quiet. None of them had heard true silence for a long time. They were both used to hearing the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and ringing in their ears all the time... But not silence. She was like a curiosity from children's fairy tales, the importance of which everyone talks about, but no one really felt it. The silence seemed to hang in the air along with thousands of small specks of dust. You could almost touch her with your hands, bury yourself in a warm blanket... She was interrupted first by Andrey, whose ear tips were slightly reddened from such close attention to himself.
— What do you think, Volodya...?
Andrey spoke at the same time curiously and reverently. Vladimir gently exhaled the air he was holding in his chest, not daring to make even the faintest sound while Nolan was playing. Makarov has always loved music... And now he has, so to speak, a hand musician... Perhaps he will take advantage of this gift of fate. It's a sin to let such a thing pass by the soul, right?
— Excellent, Andreika... Excellent... Will you play something else?
He came closer to Andrey and lightly ruffled his red curls. He twitched reflexively, but stopped, hesitantly tilting his head towards the commander's hand. No one except Andrey was given the privilege of seeing Makarov like this... Relaxed, feeling his warmth, which was hidden from everyone by hundreds and thousands of locks. And Andrey got the key to all these doors...
— Yes, Volodya... I'll play...
fingers touched the keys again
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hyacinthusmemorial · 3 months ago
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Marsyas Verses Apollo
I was researching for my story Forgotten Age yesterday, and I specifically was looking into the story about Marsyas, the satyr who played the pipes and thought he was just as good as the god Apollo. I had a lot of feelings that I needed to unleash before I could go about my day--and I just want to preface that this is an analysis of Lucius Apuleius's Florida and not other sources regarding Marsyas.
Lucius Apuleius recounts that Marsyas played music in the days when "the art was but newly born and only just beginning to grow." He was playing the pipe in early times of civilization, before it was truly developed. He only knew how to play simple songs that were entertaining, but they were great compositions. Lucius Apuleius says aptly that nothing can be perfect in its conception, its new, it has basic elements that need to be developed. High musicians were bound by what they knew, and they knew about as much as shepherd and cowherds. But, Marsyas's father/instructor, Hyagnis, was already developing the art, and he learned how to separate the pipes into two, he learned how to play with two hands, one breath for two pipes.
Marsyas became famous for his pipe-playing Phrygia, which is to say for comparison he was a bango player from Tennessee, pretty skilled at his pipe, but ultimately, he knew how to play a simple tune with energy. The problem is not that Marsyas thought he was good, or even that he wanted to prove he was good. The problem was that he insulted Apollo when he challenged him.
The scene of their competition that Lucius Apuleius describes is so interesting--Marsyas in his boisterousness, Apollo in his cool silence. Marsyas is cocky, loud, speaking of his greatness in comparison to Apollo while Apollo is a god, he is quiet, observant, almost snake-like in his serenity as he watches his prey make his moves. Lucius Apuleius takes great care to illustrate the dichotomy between the two, even down to the physical level.
Marsyas is described as being with "a filthy beard" and "grim and shaggy face of a wild beast." In fact, Marsyas may have been a man, not a satyr, but he looks so much like a beast--they will call him half man and half goat. "His body was covered with hair and bristles." As Lucius Apuleius says, "Twas hideousness contending with beauty, a rude boor against a sage, a beast against a god."
Apollo is described by Marsyas himself:
In the first place...his hair is smoothed and plastered into tufts and curls that fall about his brow and hang before his face. His body is fair from head to foot, his limbs shine bright, his tongue gives oracles, and he is equally eloquent in prose or verse, propose which you will. What of his robes so fine in texture, so soft to the touch, aglow with purple? What of his lyre that flashes gold, gleams white with ivory, and shimmers with rainbow gems? What of his song, so cunning and so sweet? Nay, all these allurements suit with naught save luxury. To virtue they bring shame alone!
Marsyas denounces Apollo for being Apollo: beautiful, wise, calm. Marsyas despises his pretty clothes and his pretty lyre.
Marsyas then makes an exposé of himself to Apollo--he shows off his unkempt body and his unwashed state, and he says he is the model of perfection, not Apollo.
This imagery of a savage man trying to tell god what perfection is and how he might obtain it. The god needs no instruction. Apollo says nothing in this account, the Muses and Minerva (Athena) are amused and laugh at Marsyas--not because he possesses any humor but because it is so outrageous. His insults are comical in their depravity.
They have their contest, Apollo wins, and you can see his quiet rage in how he kills Marsyas. "When this boastful piper had been defeated in the contest and had been skinned as though he were a two-footed bear, they left him with his entrails torn and exposed to the air." They treated Marsyas like he was an animal because he acted like an animal. But, Apollo seems to regret this savage action--"Apollo he was ashamed of so inglorious a victory."
Apollo, it seems, regrets the whole situation because it drove him to the same depths that Marsyas sat in. It seems more of a story about Savagery verses Civilization than a story about Hubris in Lucius Apuleius's work. Yes, Hubris is a theme, but the dichotomy between Apollo and Marsyas cannot be ignored either. It is directly called out, and when Apollo sinks to the same depths as Marsyas, he is ashamed. It's not a glorious victory.
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deepmentalitycheesecake · 22 days ago
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Acrylic - Hwang Hyunjin
Genre(s): late 90s small town romance, slice of life
Pairing: Painter Hyunjin x Protagonist Y/N
Romantic tropes covered: slow burn, strangers at first, the muse, whimsical artist and grounded love interest
Note: The fanfic is entirely from the readers' POV, hence the use of "I" throughout
Word count: ~2K words
Part: 1/3 (ongoing)
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The breeze lifted my hair up in a wild daisy dance as I opened the creaky door and stepped out of the house. Next, it caressed my skin in a dainty embrace, making the hair on my arms rise up in a salute. My skirt ruffled against my shins, as I made my way up the trail, the basket hanging off of my elbow, feeling as light as a feather compared to how heavy it felt just a few minutes ago when it was loaded with bread loaves. Cinnamon crusted bread loaves, to be precise. I was on another one of my errands, delivering bread loaves to houses and shops in the outskirts of the village. 
My eyes raised up to the skies in a silent prayer thanking the Gods for a good weather today. I would not have been in this mood if it weren't for the cool breeze and the slight, warm sunshine seeping in through the gaps in the foliage above me, creating pretty patterns on the trail.  Walking with a skip in my step, I for once, admired the beautiful adornment of flower bouquets on the footstep of the florist's, the smell of freshly baked pie wafting all the way from the confectioner's on the other end of the alley, the pretty array of clothing items the wizened old man had on display to sell on his cart, the luscious fruits on the cart next to him, being sold by his cheerful wife whose smile shone brighter than the sunlight reflecting off of the ornaments that a young man had up on small metal bars standing right opposite to them. It all felt like a pretty scenery for a change, when I would usually be breaking out in a sweat, hurling baskets of deliveries to and from the baker's where I used to work at. It would usually be painfully hot on afternoons like these, and my crass self would just need an excuse to be frustrated about how hard it indeed is, for some of us to make a living. 
But today wasn't one of those days, as I couldn't find it in me to complain about the life I was living. Instead I felt a warm sensation of admiration and adoration for all these mundane things in my life and it had me thinking about how I never appreciated such subtle beauties that existed around me. The wind blew my hair across my face and broke me out of my reverie as a few strands fell into my eyes making me stop in my tracks. Right as I was about to resume my walk down the trail onto a path that would lead me to the baker's, something bright caught my eye. I looked to my right and my eyes landed on a surreal masterpiece of a painting that had my breath hitched.
The canvas unveils a mesmerizing scene, featuring a butterfly in a delicate ballet of colors. The background, a canvas of pastel hues reminiscent of a twilight sky, enhances the ethereal quality of the masterpiece. It feels as though I've stepped into a dream, an intimate realm where emotions are painted as vividly as the strokes on the canvas. The butterfly takes center stage, its wings a tapestry of hues that mirror the kaleidoscope of emotions within. The artist's touch is tender, each brushstroke a testament to their affectionate craftsmanship. The wings seem to flutter with a gentle breeze, as if the butterfly is caught in a moment of timeless dance—a dance that mirrors the delicate intricacies of matters of the heart. The colors, the details, and the overall composition weave a tale of love, inviting me to explore the depths of emotions that may mirror mine. 
Something in the back of my head suggested if I was getting too carried away with interpreting the art and just when I was about to acknowledge that thought and tear my eyes away from it and instead focus on the trail ahead of me, something... or rather someone, made me glue my eyes back on right next to the art piece, my whole body involuntarily turning to face the right as this time, my breath most definitely got stuck in my throat and all my prior thoughts just got reaffirmed. I was definitely getting carried away. But in that moment, I couldn't care less as my eyes spanned across one of the most beautiful humans I've ever seen in all my 23 years of existence. 
The lean figure of a man dressed in a loose beige shirt tucked at the sides into his loose trousers that pooled at his ankles, walked out, carrying a wooden easel. His shirt was folded up on the arms and even from this distance I could see the specks and smudges of paint smeared all along his hands, a paintbrush held delicately between his fingers. My eyes drifted upwards and I caught sight of his luscious jet black hair that fell along his nape, the upper section skillfully pulled into a bun, stray strands framing his jawline. Right then, he lifted his head upwards and my gaze locked with his, as I almost audibly awed at how strikingly dashing he indeed looked. His hair accentuated the angles of his visage, and oh my, he definitely has to be one of the finest men to ever have existed. The pair of deep, striking eyes that bore right into mine, had me frozen in my spot, my gaze momentarily drifting to observe the rest of his face, how his eyebrows were slightly scrunched up in confusion, how there was a slight pout on his very pretty lips. Thankfully, my conscience butted in making me quickly avert my eyes in a feeble attempt to not embarrass myself even more and I bunched my skirt up and rushed down the trail, my heart thudding a little faster than usual. 
--
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I hate to admit the effect the man had had on me. Undoubtedly, this has to be the first time in my life I have ever found a male species interesting, let alone absolutely fascinating. Aside from his looks, there was something about the painter that had me so intrigued. Was it because of the art piece I chanced upon that day? Or maybe because I just seem to have a thing for people associated with such deep, beautiful art forms? Or rather, was it because it has been a painfully long while since I have looked at a man for so long and observed one so intently? 
I realized that I had, yet again, lost myself in my mind. Heaving out an exaggerated sigh, I got up from my slouched over position on the wooden stool, determined to shun all the thoughts racing through my head. Going behind the counter, I chopped a slice of bread for myself from the loaf that was nearest to me, turning around, eyeing for the butter knife. Once I got a hold of it, I scathed a layer from the block of butter propped on a dish right next to the toast pan. Focusing on applying the butter evenly all across the slice of bread, I tossed the slice onto the pan waiting for it to turn into a toasted delight. Amidst the hustle and bustle going on in the kitchen at the back, I didn't quite hear the dingle of the bells at the door signaling the arrival of a customer. I was busy pressing down on my slice with the knife to get the butter melted well, when a voice cut through the chaos.
"Umm, excuse me?"
"Yeah?" I turned around promptly, only to momentarily lose my rationality the second I saw who it was. God forbid, the painter stood across the counter, looking over at me, his lips pursed into a tight lipped smile as he waited to give his order. He didn't have his hair half pulled up into a bun today, instead it lay loose, framing his face perfectly and making him look so ethereal up close, almost like he straight up stepped out from one of his own paintings.
His eyes briefly shifted to my hands and mine did too, to realize that I was still holding the butter knife, which could be interpreted as pointing towards him, ready to probably give a nice stab.
Oh.
I let out an embarrassing snort and murmured a hasty apology as I quickly turned around to switch the gas stove off and throw the knife there somewhere.
Turning towards him, I cleared my throat. "Yes, what would you like to have?" 
I could barely look at him for more than a few seconds and I decided that it was a better idea to divert my attention towards what was in front of me... the various baked items that we had on display. I felt the sweat building up on my palms and I mentally cursed myself. Why am I nervous?
"I'll have the apple crumble pie and some loaves of sourdough bread to go please?" He spoke, sliding the money across the counter, already having calculated the price based on the chalk writings that had been done on the slate prop board at the side.
Polite.
"Sure, getting them over to you in a minute." I spoke, mustering a smile as I looked back up at him. My entire being was on some strange electric mode. He looked at me for a moment, before nodding with a smile of his own and I figured I almost melted.
After ignoring the faint thudding of my heart that I could almost hear in my ears, I fetched the goodies he wanted and arranged them in a small basket before handing it to him.
"Thankyou for stopping by. Hoping that you'll like these." At this point, I had lost control of what I was speaking and was very well aware that all my rational thinking had flown out the window.
Speaking of windows, the fact that the window at the other end of the bakery was open, allowing the afternoon sunlight to seep in, and cast an angelic golden glow on the man in front, didn't go unnoticed by me.
I saw his smile, warmer than the sun's heat on my back, yet again, before he spoke. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I've seen you before..? That afternoon when I was stepping outside of my studio... you were there. Was that you?"
Oh. He remembers.
I hesitated for a bit, genuinely not aware of how to respond before awkwardly admitting. "Ah I think so too. I remember seeing you vaguely. You were the one who painted that butterfly?" The latter part kind of came out involuntarily, because a part of me wanted to hear him say that yes, he IS the painter who had made something that has truly been etched in my mind from the moment I saw it.
He chuckled sheepishly and averted his eyes. "Ah, yes that's me."
By now, the nervousness had almost left my body and I found myself really eager to know this person standing right in front of me. Something in the back of mind spoke that he really did have great stories to tell. "It was beautiful" I naturally spoke out, as I looked up at him properly, this time with a genuine, appreciative smile.
His eyes drifted over to gaze at mine for a second, and a smile crawled its way back onto his face before he nodded. "Thankyou. Almost thought that you didn't catch any of that because you seemed to be in a rush." He bit his lip at that, eyes seemingly going playful as he looked back at me.
Oh dear heavens.
"I-- uh, well", I let out an embarrassed chuckle, "yes I was in a rush that day, don't exactly remember why, but yeah."
He cocked his head to the side, eyes still holding that playful gaze as a tiny grin broke out on his face.
"You can .. uhm.. stop by anytime, if you'd like." He straightened, caught sight of my rather taken aback expression and fumbled with his words. " I-I mean, if you'd be interested in seeing more of my paintings.. I, well presumed that you were into art and I could totally be wrong about this--" he was cut off by the chuckle that escaped my lips before I could control it. He looked at me wide-eyed for a split second, before a smile tugged at his lips and he turned his attention towards his shoes.
That has to be one of the most adorable things I've ever seen a man do.
"Yes, you're not wrong about me being into art" I admitted, finding his awkward charm very interesting. At first glance, he does not look like a shy person, more so the opposite. There's something about his natural aura that is very powerful, confident, and rich. Like a royal air to him. No doubt he is the personification of art himself. In the way he looks, walks, talks. But he also has a dominant energy, makes me feel intimidated in the good way, around him.
But who knew he had this side to him as well. Rather interesting.
He was still looking at me expectantly and I realised with a mental grimace that he probably caught me staring again while I was zoned out in my head.
Well I most definitely am giving off a weird and creepy charm or whatever.
"You're new here right? Maybe I can show you around sometime, and yes I'd love to come see your paintings" I let out to which he nodded. 
"Yes, I moved in last week and this really is a very beautiful place." 
"Hm.. can't say much because I've lived here all my life so it feels pretty monotonous to me" I shrugged. "But I get what you mean. The people are friendly, well most of them... so it's actually nice."
He hummed, looking at me for a second longer than usual before shuffling the basket of items to his other hand. "I should get going, I feel. It was really nice talking to you... " he extended his hand out. 
"It's Y/N" I replied, mentally praying for my palms to not be clammy before I reached out and shook my hand with his.
"Y/N." Hearing my name spill out of his lips in that beautiful silky tone of his voice almost had my breath hitched as I looked back at him.
"I'm Hyunjin" he held my hand for a second more, another one of those pretty smiles lingering on his face, before he was out the door like a mirage that disappeared into thin air.
---
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imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese · 3 months ago
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Destinytober24: Day 23 - Perfection
Dinner for three.
Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there
"Very good. Now, focus on the interstitial aspects of the crystalline structure. Feel how you can weaken or strengthen the bonds through the nature of its geometric arrangement. You are seeking to locate and place pressure on the liminal spaces between the bonds. This will enable you to reinforce the foundation or shatter it."
"I see now. Yes. It is not the edges but the inner composition."
"Precisely. Now, try to win… if you can."
Eris Morn and Ikora Rey floated a few feet apart from each other in the middle of Ikora's living room inside of the Warlock Vanguard's apartments within the Tower. Their hands were outstretched. Between them, a sphere of Stasis was simultaneously forming and being dissipated as each one attempted to gently undo the work of the other's manipulation of the entropic forces they had manifested between them.
It was an exercise that the Drifter and Eris had practiced together on Europa, taught to them by Elsie Bray. Eris was now using it to teach Ikora some of the finer points of Stasis wielding.
Ikora's living room was half library, half dining area, with three of its four walls covered in immaculately arranged bookshelves.
The two women hovered in the air over a large woven rug with an intricate pattern. The rug covered one half of the floor. The other half of the floor was hardwood, a luxury few in the Last City could afford. In the middle of that half of the room, a beautifully carved dining table was set for three, with a lit candelabra in the centre, fine china, and long stemmed wine glasses.
Through an archway there was a loud sizzling sound and the occasional clatter of pans and cooking. The Drifter had taken over Ikora's kitchen for the evening.
Ikora's half of the Stasis sphere seemed to be overtaking Eris' but the Warlock had known Eris long enough to assume her three-eyed friend would not lose so easily.
"Alright, alright, alright," the Drifter stepped out of the kitchen, his hands covered in oven mitts with beautiful purple embroidery on them.
"Oooh! You're doing the take over the world thing! That's fun." He walked over to where Ikora was floating and looked up at the sphere.
"Uh oh, Ray-ray. You're about to lose."
"Am I?" Ikora asked idly.
"Uh… yup. You're too focused on the outside. Ya left your middle undefended. She can just…"
Ikora's eyes narrowed. Three cracks appeared across her side of the structure. The Warlock concentrated, trying to knit them together.
"…do that. Now you're screwed. Ya can't recover from that."
The corner of Eris' lip quirked as one third of the sphere shattered, causing a chain reaction which reduced the rest of the structure to small shards. The shards fell down onto the carpet where they glittered prettily like glass beads in the light as they slowly began to dissipate.
"Eris is a very aggressive player," the Drifter explained. "Ya can't over extend or she'll get right in there. And she's super fast too. As soon as ya start goin' in for the kill, that's when she springs, like a steel trap. Gotta go heavy on the defense with Three-Eyes or she'll pop ya right open just like that."
"I see." Ikora slowly descended to the floor.
"You are giving away all my secrets, Rat." Eris said as she, too, began floating toward the floor.
"Ya beat the pants offa me enough times before I figured that one out. She needs every advantage she can get. Speakin' of, can I interest you two badasses in fortifyin' yourselves for your next battle with dinner?"
"Yes," Eris answered immediately, walking toward the table. "We've been smelling it for the past hour."
"Sit yourselves down and I'll bring it right out."
Ikora sat at the head of the table with Eris to her side. The Drifter was back quickly, carrying the only kitchen implement he insisted upon bringing with him to Ikora's apartment: His cast iron frying pan. A loud hissing was coming from the pan, along with considerable smoke.
The rogue Lightbearer pulled out tongs he'd shoved handle-first into a pocket and placed a sizzling steak on each plate. Then he circled back to each plate in turn, drizzling the hot liquid from the pan onto the meat and placing several crisped herbs on top of each portion.
Eris's eyes dimmed slightly as she inhaled deeply, leaning over her plate.
"Now don't touch it for six minutes."
"What?" Eris's eyes flared bright again. "Why?"
"Because the meat needs to nap first."
"That is ridiculous."
"Trust me on this one. It's gotta take a little nap on your plate before ya cut into it or it won't be as good."
"Surely this is simply for dramatics."
Ikora sat back in her chair and watched them bicker with a bemused smile.
"No. It's not for dramatics. If it was for dramatics I'd be telling you somethin' like…"
He held the empty pan out and waved the tongs over it with a flourish as he spoke while deliberately looking off to the side with his eyes closed.
"Do ya feel the eerie movements of the dead animal's life force skitterin' around as I do… in the delirium between death and life, it broods upon yer plate… Knowin' you are about to consume it into yer vicious hungry maws… devourin' its flesh to take its power and infuse it inta yer own. Ooooh Oooohhhh!" He shivered in an exaggerated manner.
Ikora burst out laughing.
Eris stiffened. "I do not sound like that."
"Well now I didn't say ya did. I was just showin' what it would be if I was bein' dramatic, Moondust. Not everything's about you."
Eris turned to Ikora. "Do I sound like that?"
Ikora covered her mouth with her hand. "Sometimes a little bit."
Eris glared up at the Drifter. He spread his arms out wide and leaned across the table, placing a kiss on the tip of her nose.
"Six minutes," he insisted. "You! Ghost!"
A single tone came from Eris' pocket.
"Time that."
The tone came again.
"Now don't cheat, Three-Eyes." He pointed at her with the tongs. "I'll be right back."
"I am not the one who cheats," she called after him as he disappeared into the kitchen.
Ikora laughed again.
As promised the Drifter returned almost immediately, carrying one of Ikora's pans filled with buttery golden mushrooms. He placed a heap of them on top of the steak on each plate before making two more trips to the kitchen. The Drifter brought back long green beans in some sort of sauce and small roasted potatoes tossed with herbs, placing them around the steaks on each plate with the tongs. On his third trip he returned with an opened bottle of red wine.
"It smells so good." Eris murmured as the Drifter sat, picking up Ikora's glass and filling it half way with wine.
Then he stopped. He tilted his head before lifting the glass up and down in his hand, feeling its weight, and then holding it up to examine it carefully near the candle flames.
"Ooooh."
He placed the wine bottle down and reached out with his other hand to lightly flick the side of the glass. It made a pleasant chiming sound.
"You hear that?" he asked Eris.
"Yes," Eris looked across the table at him, confused.
"This is actual crystal." he said. He looked over at Ikora, clearly impressed.
"Yes, it is." Ikora said warmly.
"I do not understand," Eris regarded him, perplexed at his behaviour. "What is the difference?"
"Well, it's thinner," the Drifter explained as he finished pouring wine into Ikora's glass and reached out for Eris'. "More delicate, but also heavier, and the sound."
He flicked Eris' glass, It was empty and made a higher pitched sound.
"I heard. Does it have a… different chemical composition from glass?"
"Yeah. Lead maybe? I can't remember."
"Lead, yes." Ikora confirmed.
"This stuff hasn't been made in a very, very long time." He filled Eris' glass with wine and handed it to her. "This is old-old. Rare. I knew Vanguard would be high-class, but damn."
"It was a gift," Ikora explained. "I do not use them often. Eris said you were excited to cook something special for us. It seemed appropriate to bring out the fancy glasses."
"I wish I'd brought a fancier wine." He filled his own glass and placed the bottle on the table, holding the glass up to the light and looking at it. "Damn!"
The Drifter's ghost emitted its single tone from Eris' pocket.
The Drifter placed his wine glass down on the table and held up both his hands to show Eris and Ikora that they were empty. He wriggled his fingers and snapped both his hands with an exaggerated movement that flicked his wrists to the sides. A fork and knife materialized seemingly out of nowhere.
"Show time," the Drifter announced and began cutting into the meat on his plate.
Ikora raised one amused eyebrow and mentally reminded herself to count the fancy glasses after the Drifter had left. He wouldn't. She knew he wouldn't. It would upset Eris and he would not do that. But still… it was him…
Eris picked up her cutlery and eagerly cut off a piece of steak, putting it into her mouth. Her eyes dimmed as she chewed. Her usual slightly frowning expression began to shift, the corners of her lips lifting involuntarily into a smile as the Drifter watched her from his side of the table, a mixture of pride and delight on his face.
"Iss… so good." Eris mumbled through her mouthful of steak.
One of the system's most notorious criminals looked almost bashful as his eyes turned toward the Vanguard spymaster, seeking her approval of the meal.
Ikora finished chewing the small bite of steak she had sliced for herself and took a sip of wine. The Drifter licked his lips.
"It is. It is very good." Ikora confirmed and smiled at him.
The Drifter's face was downright gleeful as he grinned and took a bite of his own. "Oh yeah," he said out of the side of his mouth while he chewed it slowly. "This right here? This is what perfection tastes like. This. Right here. Right now." He swallowed and sipped his wine before repeatedly skewering mushroom slices on his fork until they formed a small frilly mouthful which he proceeded to devour.
"I am inclined to agree," Ikora said warmly and continued slicing her food into small pieces, taking polite and careful bites, her elbows off the table.
The Drifter reached his left arm out along the table and Eris did the same with her right, idly sliding her fingers into his hand in an automatic way that made it clear they did this all the time.
Ikora watched them as she sipped her wine, seeing the genuine adoration on the Drifter's face as he seemed to have difficulty looking away from Eris for any length of time. Meanwhile Eris moved with a comfortable ease that Ikora had not seen her display in a very, very long time. The Warlock felt like a weight was lifting off of her the more she watched them.
Eris was happy. She was sitting at Ikora's dinner table in civilian clothes. The top half of her face was still bandaged, albeit with a nicer cloth than she wore on the Moon. Her three Hive eyes still dripped ichor down her cheeks in endless tears, but Ikora saw parts of the Eris she had known centuries ago returning beneath them.
"This is one of them perfect moments you were talkin' about, Moondust," the Drifter said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, almost reverent, as he chewed his steak.
"Hmmm…?"
"This, right now. Good food. Good friends. Fancy as fuck wine glasses."
Both Eris and Ikora smirked at the honesty in his crudeness.
"This one of those times we file away in our brains and keep. Somethin' special to hold onto when shit gets bad. A good memory for when things are makin' it so you can't remember what feelin' good feels like. This is one of those times you keep in your back pocket and hold close so you can remind yourself that good things do actually happen sometimes. That they did actually happen to you. That it's possible they can happen to you again."
Eris squeezed his hand. "Yes. It is."
She reached out with her left hand and opened it in front of Ikora. Ikora placed her own well manicured fingers between Eris' calloused ones, noting how cool her skin was to the touch, how firmly Eris gripped her hand, and how contented the sigh was that left Eris' lips.
There was movement out of the corner of her eye and Ikora looked away from Eris in surprise to see the Drifter's open hand tentatively reached out toward her. He did not make eye contact with her and continued to look at Eris. He was holding his breath.
Ikora raised an eyebrow but took the criminal's hand in hers as well, feeling the warmth coming from him. It was, she realized, the first time she and the Drifter had ever physically touched each other. Ikora watched as a small, almost shy smile overtook his face.
The three of them sat like that together, simply feeling the moment in quiet appreciation. They did not stay that way for long, but it felt significant. Purposeful. A deliberate choice to share in a silent communion. There was weight to it and all three of them felt it. It felt right.
And then the Drifter gave both Eris and Ikora's hands a quick squeeze before once more picking up his fork and knife to continue eating. His eyes sparkled in delight as though he had just unexpectedly won a priceless treasure at a game of chance. Perhaps he had.
Ikora continued to hold Eris's hand, delighting in the small genuinely happy smile on her face.
The Warlock Vanguard reached out with her free hand and raised her wine glass.
"To perfect moments."
Three crystal glasses clinked together in the middle of the table, each with different levels of wine, causing them to ring out with three separate but pleasingly harmonized tones.
"Hey! That's like… downright musical," the Drifter said with a grin.
"You had to have done this on purpose. There's no way for it to have harmonized that precisely. You poured the wine."
"No!" he laughed. "I didn't do anything. Trust. It just happened like that."
"It's true," Ikora said. "I have been sipping mine. It was unintentional, but… beautiful."
"Yeah! I guess.. I guess sometimes things just… work out." The Drifter's voice trailed off as he spoke, as though he was surprising himself with what was coming out of his own mouth.
"Yes," Ikora smiled. "Sometimes they do."
Link to the entire month's worth of prompts on Ao3, posted daily.
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kanerallels · 16 days ago
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Would love an overview of your book (what it's about, the process of writing it, etc.) if you get the chance! Congrats on becoming a published author!!! That's so amazing!
Well it took me long enough but I'm finally getting around to answering this. (Merry Christmas if you celebrate, by the way!)
Okay I can throw a summary under the cut, but here's some essential details:
It's a fairy tale retelling aimed at middle graders. But what it's really about, to me, is a sense of finding where you belong, family, faith, and also overthrowing an evil empress. Minor detail
It has a really cool cover and some AWESOME illustrations
The process of writing it took about five years. Started out in a blue composition notebook and grew from there! It's doubled in length, had chapters added and parts cut, but overall the key story has remained the same
It is part of a series. I have at least four other books planned (three main series, one prequel book that's still pretty important) with ideas for so many others floating around in my head. I'm super excited to see where it goes, and happy to have y'all along for the ride!!
If you want to see some behind the scenes information, scroll my "land of the tales" or "hazel rambles about her original writing" tags! They're full of stuff that will make sense someday
Thank you so much for asking, that's so sweet!! And I really appreciate the encouragement
Rebecca Wood has never known who her real family was. So when a boy named Liam finds her and tells her that he knows where her real family is, it seems like it could be too good to be true.
Oddly enough, that's far from the strangest part. It turns out, Rebecca is from the land of fairy tales, though it's not exactly the same as the stories—Snow White and Cinderella are notorious assassins, and the land is ruled by the Evil Empress Goldilocks, who seems to have a special interest of her own in Rebecca.
None of this makes Rebecca's journey any less fascinating as she travels through a perilous and beautiful land full of magic and mystery, looking for the one thing she's always wanted.
(and yes I did copy and paste this off Amazon but I wrote it and it turned out pretty well, so I think I'm allowed to. As a treat)
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leavingautumn13 · 2 years ago
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a tutorial-adjacent thing about how i make comics
this is just a general guide on how i personally do things, and i'm gonna keep it pretty simple. let's get into it!
for this tutorial i'm gonna be drawing some trainers trying to find a particular pokémon.
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i'm gonna jump ahead a little here and show my finished sketch for the full page, so we can see the end goal.
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the best advice i have is to treat panels as part of the composition. make them work for you. reading a bunch of comics will help inspire you--there are so many creative things you can do with panels.
next, placing dialogue bubbles! these are a bit more complex than they seem at first glance.
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once you've got all that sorted, you can move onto the fun stuff, like lining and coloring. keep in mind that you can partially cover dialogue bubbles, break panel lines, etc. do whatever gets your message across. like so:
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you can also apply these guidelines to much simpler comics, too. really, flow is the most important thing, in my opinion. it's like a line of action when you're drawing poses. here's a comic i did that's basically just talking heads, but the bubbles and art still flow together to draw the reader's eye along a path. here's a jokey little scribble comic that does something similar. making a good comic is not about polish at all. it's more about readability, composition, and making your dialogue and art work together.
scott mccloud's book making comics has a lot more useful information than what i can fit on one post. it's been a hot minute since i read it (and by that i mean like. twelve years) but it's a solid resource. you can also just read comics or webcomics that you like and see how those illustrators do it. one of my personal favorites is cucumber quest. it starts off very simple, but by chapter 3 (especially near the end) the artwork, panel choices, effects, etc all work together to make every page a stunning work of art.
anyway, as always please feel free to reach out if there's any part of this that you'd like elaborated on, clarified, if you just have questions, etc. i'm not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination but i love helping people with this sort of thing, so please don't hesitate!
[this post is for @tanlotts <3]
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hornithology · 6 months ago
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Grayson (2014) live read
join me as I re-read Grayson for research for an essay on it's treatment of eroticism.
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love the use of bold pink for issue #1's cover. very much referencing 60's 70's James Bond posters and pop art. I saw a picture of a second printing where the pink was red instead, which could have been an aim at making it more marketable (less queer-seeming, which... lol) or could have been about the print quality on the color? the red with black title is way less striking.
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the left variant cover is horrendous. why did you make his face look like that. why are you trying to sell some gritty version of Dick who doesn't know how to properly handle a gun, for a comic in which Midnighter is going to flirt fight with him? deception in advertising!
the right is really great. I wish I could find a better quality image. matches the energy of Nightwing #30 which lead to all of this.
on to the story!
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there's something about dead, tortured, martyred Dick...
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Looks like we've got a hot one. YES YOU DO, M!!!
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"I can read the electrical activity inside your pretty head." "you fight like jazz." stellar dialogue. you can't tell me this is not a little bit of flirting. and Midnighter is a known, canonically gay character, so we are meant to read into his lines. I think it's also pretty established at this point in Dick's character consensus that he's very attractive.
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I think this room is referencing Modesty Blaise (1966), a spy parody featuring Dirk Bogarde. I haven't seen it yet. when I first read Grayson I was like... the colorful visuals and patterns in a spy context make me think of Austin Powers—a 90's parody of the 60's/70's parodies of spy films. inspiration multiply removed! I'm fairly confident that the artists looked at some spy movies/posters for their design choices.
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although this room could also be inspired by the red room in Twin Peaks. either/and.
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the bold colors and patterns in Grayson are fairly important decisions, because they're the artistic decision that is most successful. iirc, we'll see how I feel on this re-read.
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I WILL SCREAM AND I WILL CRY. Tim Seely and Tom King... I have questions and demands!!!!
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more colors! but it's not actually hypnos because it's not vibrant enough and doesn't contain the concentric circles... or is it???
this is also weird because I'm not sure if like. we're not supposed to think that Helena and Dick were together romantically in the past (Nightwing / Huntress (1998)). that's pre new-52 so... shrug. but do they even know each other here? are they pretending that they have met recently? is Helena's vigilante identity a secret from Spiral? these questions are not relevant to my essay so I shall not be doing that investigation myself :)
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ok actually that's Huntress middle row third from left, yes??? edit: no, it's Batwoman. anyway.
that's Grayson #1!
it's a pretty good issue opener, with some unfortunate fatphobia that is completely expected. we get some titilation with Helena, the start of a nebulous power dance that is perfect for the spy genre.
I wish that I liked the art better, since we have these artists for the majority of the run. the combination of Mikel Janín's drawings (not enough gesture) and Jeromy Cox's soft coloring of the figures makes it look like everyone is drawn from a 3D model. there's nothing wrong with using models and references in comics and is pretty much necessary for all DC comic turn around time, but it's really not my preference because you lose the "hand" of the drawing. the drawings in this issue look stiff. I'm not actually positive that Janín is using models.
I like the color choices for the hypnos and action sequences, the panel composition is good, and I like some of the inking. I think they are making smart decisions with the visuals, it's really just the type of drawing that is not my favorite. to each their own!
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sonkitty · 10 months ago
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The Sideburns Scheme Post #3 v2
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(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)
Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, phone call with Aziraphale in the Bentley
Sideburns Check
The sideburns are shorter than the last time we saw him while attending to his mail in the street. We are only given a front view of them so not much to go on compared to the previous two scenes.
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To my own best estimates, they are longer than they were in the park and when he later arrives at the coffee shop. I made a composite image for us to compare. All of these are brightened:
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As my theory goes, the sideburns shorten with time while driving. I consider the "two minutes" in the dialogue as a clue.
...
Brighter Red Streak Check
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The brighter red streak is not visibly over Crowley's left eye in the car. When Crowley later exits the car for entering the coffee shop, the streak can be found, having moved back to an area above his left eye.
In the meantime, there is a streak of hair on Crowley's right side of his head, by his forehead, that is brighter and more saturated up until the cut where he turns off the phone. So, the brighter red streak either moved—and will move again when the drive is done, or an alternative is presented in its place. When Crowley actually does turn off the phone, there is too much saturation within most of his hair overall for me to really feel like the streak is there anymore. So, maybe it actually is starting to move. His sideburns might have even shortened a little more already, but I can't tell due to the angle.
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Hairstyle Changes
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For a differing hairstyle, instead of both sides pushing inward and up with extra separated curls, most of the top hair appears together and is swooping upward, then down to his right, like a curve.
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Earthly Objects
(For reference: Earthly Objects)
Crowley is touching a steering wheel. Aziraphale is touching a phone. The dialogue itself includes a Hello, two questions, one number, and the name of the coffee shop.
Gabriel's around and touching a cup, presumably being seen by Aziraphale, but Gabriel has no actual dialogue himself. The fly is around too.
...
Story Commentary
This scene is the first time we see Crowley and Aziraphale interact in the present day. It's through a phone call instead of meeting each other in person. Season 1 did that too actually.
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However, the framing here decides to split the call, so that both characters are visibly on screen at the same time. The above image is brightened. Crowley is shown on the camera's left. Aziraphale is shown on the camera's right. In season 1, that would be considered as them being on the wrong sides. The standard then was that Crowley would be to Aziraphale's left when both are seen from the front. However, they are on the wrong sides so frequently in season 2, especially after a certain point in episode 5, it becomes overwhelming noise and loses meaning. I don't trust it. I figure things are not as bad as they seem.
The plants are more clearly shown as being in Crowley's car.
...
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Again, we don't actually see Crowley look in the mirror for his sideburns, but the camera work made sure we could see that the mirror is available quite early into the scene. He could have looked before the call. There are cuts of just Aziraphale and just Gabriel where Crowley could look without us seeing him look before he says, "Two minutes."
As the scene itself is presented, Gabriel's the last character on screen before it officially ends.
Referring to the timeline rundown post yet again, this scene does not have an obvious timestamp itself. In the context of the scenes surrounding it, it could finally actually fit into the timeline Aziraphale's been experiencing.
...
Muriel
I'm not making an entire separate post for this part so skip it or read it as you see fit. It covers a lot of what I already discussed here in the episode 1 section on this scene: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel.
This phone call scene connected to Gabriel with the fly acts a front bookend to Muriel's first scene in the entire season. Among my many theories about this season, I have one that Muriel and Crowley have a deep trust in each other, to the point I think they are good friends. I am starting to wonder if it is a mentor-student type relationship too, with Crowley taking on the mentor role and Muriel taking on the student role. That would be cute.
So, first, we are introduced to the matchbox. The story has decided that this matchbox and the quote on it are so important that the words are copied and flow out onto the screen, so that the bigger text can be more clearly read. The text itself says, "Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out." It includes, "Job 41: 19" as an additional reference.
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We have seen and will see some things that remind us of that quote. Fire leapt out of Crowley's mouth in season 1, episode 6, when he was pretending to be Aziraphale. Later in this episode 1 of season 2, we are going to see lightning shooting out of Crowley with such force that the lights of the coffee shop itself go out as part of a power outage.
According to numerous sources found through Google that know better than I do, this quote is in reference to a leviathan. I probably read that on other Tumblr posts months ago too. Leviathans can be associated with snakes, and Crowley is a snake demon.
When we do get to Job later, Crowley is going to be shown with fire as part of his own power even if it is not literally shooting out of his mouth or involving lamps.
That's a lot of clues hinting at a link to Crowley. I think the matchbox is interested in him. The matchbox might be evil or borderline evil.
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Eventually, we see Muriel. They are careful in their touch of picking up this suspicious object. They manage their digits deliberately in the touch itself, much like Crowley does for his touches.
...
Main post:
The Sideburns Scheme
...
Past version of this post:
Post #3 (phone call with Aziraphale in the Bentley)
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archandshri · 11 months ago
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23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group
A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0
For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 
I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD
Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]
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The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.
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Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]
One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.
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Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles
Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.
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Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.
Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.
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PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)
Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.
As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.
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I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.
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Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')
RISO!!!!!!!!!!!
I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)
For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.
First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.
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With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!
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This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))
I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)
I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.
Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:
Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes
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Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.
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Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.
We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!
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The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)
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And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.
I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.
Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.
Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))
Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3
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vickysaurus-art · 7 months ago
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Love hearing the thought that went into your Shifty art! How did you pick the poses of some of the princesses?
Okay I’m gonna skip the hair princesses since I already kind of covered them here. And here’s a reminder of the art:
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-For the ones closest to Shifty, I stuck pretty close to the actual minis’ poses. So the one that seems to be loyally clinging to her the hardest got to be Damsel since she seemed a good fit.
-The Greys take their poses from a pair of minis who seem to be really close to each other. At least, the lower one is constantly clinging to the upper one’s butt and using it as a pillow, even in ‘attack’ animations. I find them pretty funny and cute, so I put the Greys in that spot, probably because I’ve seen some excellent art shipping them. Also unlike most princesses, their faces being turned away works well with their personalities.
-Cold Princess’s spot was actually Thorn’s at first, before I found a better pose for her. It came about because that mini is one of the few whose face you can see, looking as much at you as at Shifty. I thought this gave her a cautious/conflicted vibe that fit Thorn. Later on I realised it fit Cold just as well. Replacing Thorn with Cold was a fun exercise in finding all the small differences between them, of which there are more than you’d think.
-We all know Witch is a nefarious backstabbing gremlin, so her doing something to get ahead at another princess’s expense felt right, and Prisoner has that chain as a convenient handhold. On a side note, I feel my Witch ended up looking so much like Fleki from Dungeon Meshi.
-Beast is big, so she had to go in this spot for the composition’s sake to counterbalance Adversary. For her pose I asked the discord for ideas, and her biggest fan suggested her to be either sneaking or proudly puffing out her chest like Scar from Lion King (which I used for Den). I had a pretty tough time with her anatomy and I actually forgot her wrappings in the first WIP with her in it, so I actually posted naked princess to my good clean blog.
-Empty Cup’s heart just gets held up by a mini hand in the Shifty dance, and there’s a random arm sticking out where Beast’s head ended up in the original art so I thought it would be funny to have that hand do the honours. But with Beast bigger than I thought she had to move a bit, which is a bit of a shame because I rather liked that little detail.
-I knew Moment of Clarity was gonna be creepily staring at us from very early on, so Nightmare had to be doing something different. I considered one of her sassy poses but then figured that just because she can’t be scaring us doesn’t mean she can’t be scaring someone else. Not many princesses fit the role of scaree, but I had sketched Warm Princess nearby Nightmare already so I just moved her up a bit.
-Stranger’s spot first belonged to Razor before I realised Razor would be skewering princesses left and right if she was in the crowd. Then that spot was gonna be reserved for a Pristine Cut princess, until I realised something important about Stranger. In Shifty’s actual art, the minis are facing away from us, but I want to show faces. For the princesses on the sides that’s no problem since they naturally end up in profile, but the princesses in the middle naturally look away from us. So I had to find some excuse for turning princesses in the middle to the side. But Stranger’s extra faces meant I could still draw them even if the central face was looking at Shifty, making her perfect for a spot near the middle. Her comforting Warm and having Fury claw into her shoulder came about just because she happened to be in the right spot for both. If you look closely you can see she does have multiple hands, which are quite recognisable because they all have unusual numbers and positions of fingers.
-Adversary needed to go in that spot to counterbalance Beast, but I didn’t have a pose in mind until I was looking for refs and found a screenshot of her in the Shifty dance, standing up defiantly and looking like she’s bellowing a challenge. So that inspired me to have her challenging Shifty, though I did lay her down for the composition’s sake.
-Razor’s planned spot moved quite a bit: from Stranger’s spot, to being on Beast’s back waving her blades through the air. Then Beast turned out bigger than expected so Razor had to go back down to not mess up the composition. So I figured she’d probably be stabbing someone. At first I was gonna put her skewering a livid Fury, probably about to get hit by an organ-unwinding in return. But while I didn’t mind a bit of princess-on-princess violence, I wanted to keep the tone a bit lighter, so she finally ended up fighting Needle instead. I figure those two would get along.
-I had Deconstructed Damsel just sort of clinging to Needle’s butt in the thumbnail sketch, but I knew I was probably gonna move her. When Shifty’s hands grab her away she has an excellent shocked face so I thought it’d be funny to have her react to the Needle vs Razor fight, and putting another small princess between Beast and Razor worked well anyway.
-I’ve only played Fury’s chapter once and it wasn’t that clear in my mind, so I went to the discord for pose ideas. The main ones I got back were ‘angry but elegant’ and ‘clawing into another princess’. So with the fight going on near her, I went for a ‘You’d best break this up right now, or I will’ look. Poor Stranger happened to be in range of her claw.
-The Pristine Cut princesses were always going to be a part of this, but I didn’t plan on them all clustering around Fury. That happened because I kept finding better uses for their spots and I worked downwards and from the outside in, so they kept getting pushed back until they gathered around Fury. I hope none of them are big. I live in dread that Apotheosis might get two truly different endings like Wild or Prisoner.
-I got to Thorn petting Den through trying to think of a pose for Cold Princess. She’s got a pretty multi-faceted personality foreshadowing the six chapter 2 princesses she can become, so there were lots of possibilities but also none that jumped out as perfect. I thought of having her have a surprisingly pleasant conversation with Fury. Or just, arrogantly inspecting her nails. I knew I was gonna have Den proudly posed nearby, so then I thought of her being so happy because Cold was petting her. Which was cute, but still no flavour slamdunk. I then realised showing kindness to the dangerous beast despite her initial misgivings would actually fit Thorn, whom I’d already drawn, really well, and Thorn’s cautious pose would fit Cold equally well. I wasn’t quite sure at first and didn’t commit to the swap, drawing a generic princess without detail petting Den, and only when I saw it really was quite cute and befitting Thorn did I give her Thorn’s detail while replacing o.g. Thorn with Cold.
-Moment of Clarity is a creepshow and I knew from very early on I wanted her staring at the viewer like an extra in a James Tissot painting while still having her torso angled forward. I have no doubt she can turn her head backwards. As for Prisoner, her head gets carried separately by the minis and I thought it a funny gag to have one of Clarity’s disembodied hands doing the honours.
-Tower and Apotheosis pop up in the background instead of the foreground in-game, which is an elegant solution to deal with their size but not one I wanted to take. So they had to go into the corners with only their heads visible. I figure Tower would be hella jealous of Shifty in this situation, so that’s what she ended up looking like. Apotheosis is too big to show much personality, but I rather like that I can use her hair to frame the image. Maybe I should have it curling up into the Pristine Cut princesses’ spots for now to fill those up. Incidentally I do plan to give them the right skin colour after I finish inking - along with a bunch of other darker tones like Drowned Grey’s clothing that I’m also gonna do in pencil once I don’t need to worry about covering up pencil details any more.
-Oh yeah, for Shifty herself I went with her loving pose because I actually adore Shifty and think that expression looks really sweet. Although her manic-looking arms wide pose is fantastic too.
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adracat · 1 year ago
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Esoteric and Divine Composite: Prospera
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It's time for everyone's favorite gaslighting mommy. As with her daughter and Miorine, I see a number of interesting inspirations and homages for her character. They range from the esoteric Magician from tarot to divine figures, Mimir, Loki, Hades, and Hecate
Magician
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I've already covered this parallel in my As Above So Below post. But let me expand on this briefly. With her manipulation and intentional twisting of communication, you can see how she embodies the card itself. It's compouded by Suletta telling us multiple times; Prospera is a magician as her namesake is in The Tempest. But this magician is a hermetic scholar, and so is Prospera.
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The Schwarzette's design, a gundam she's overseen the development of is coded with Baphomet imagery, is proof of this. As Above So Below. And just like any good hermetic alchemist, she pursues eternal life in the form of QZ. The Philosopher's stone or Panacea. She helped create a miracle already in the form of Homuculi, heavily hinted at being aided by Notrette.
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But her time as the Red King is done, the crown given to her daughter, and with the absence of her White Queen another miracle is impossible. All of this is symbolized with her hair and face. Her sun has burned out and all that is left is decay.
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There's another magician beside Prospero she harks to. Merlin, the one whose contest grants Arthur his first sword. Like Merlin, she gives Suletta a sword, lampshaded in Cradle Planet. And as with him, she is eventually 'imprisoned' by a Lady of the Lake (Miorine, who bestows Suletta Calibarn) after imparting wisdom. She's lucky Mio entrapped her as an in-law and not in a tree like Merlin.
Mimir and Loki
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If Mio is Odin then it's Prospera who plays the wisdom granting Mimir. As with Odin, Mio is forced to make a painful sacrifice in order to drink from Mimir's well and gain insight. Take note of Prospera's visor, since it's the first in a series of subtle mythological references. Mimir is eventually beheaded and kept at Odin's side as an embalmed head that provides counsel.
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Loki isn't hard to extrapolate even if you have a passing knowledge of the trickster. It's interesting to note both Odin and Loki are associated with different aspects of Hermes/Mercury. And since GWitch's Hel and Fenrir are her children, she must be Loki. It is Prospera who begins the events of gwitch ragnarok by sending Suletta, as Baldr Guel's mistletoe and slayer of the Nemean Lion, to Asticassia.
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But why the father and not the mother? Because Angrboda is a giant who isn't very relevant in norse other than simply being the mother of monsters. What is intriguing is that you can make a valid comparison for Earthians=Giants in norse myth. Both are contesting against the Aesir/Spacians. So who is an Earthian geneticist who could have uploaded Eri's biometric code and crafted replichildren? Anesidora/Notrette is Prospera's Angrboda. It's wild how they hint at Notrette being Prospera's counterpart in multiple ways. Makes you wonder, is there more to be uncovered? She is explicitly Anesidora, 3 chthonic goddesses who deal in hidden knowledge.
Hecate and Hades
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I mentioned it briefly in the Mio analysis, but it goes deeper than simply stealing Persephone and defiling her spirit. Like Hades, she has a Cerberus (Eri) and a helmet that aids her to speak with the dead.
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It might not turn her invisible, but she always seems to slip away until its ripped from her head by a bullet.
Another divine figure who I think Prospera is meant to invoke is Hecate. She is associated with witchcraft, the moon, keys, dogs, and thresholds. Specifically the threshold between the living and the dead. It's easy to relate the dog coded Suletta and QZ as the underworld.
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It was explicitly mentioned when Suletta is called a Key, and we know she's the twelfth, correlating to the philosopher's stone. It simultaneously relates back to esoteric and mythology.
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Hecate is known to wear a mask and to be decaying. When you dig deep, this may be the most on the nose homage honestly. Goddess of witches indeed. Hecate is also inexorably linked to the Eleusinian mysteries along with Demeter and Persephone. The three are often interpreted to be the phases of womanhood: maiden, mother, crone. Considering Hecate's triplicity and the three prominent eyes on Prospera's mask, her design is very interesting. An additional design note, red mullets are Hecate's sacred fish. Prospera/Elnora's hair imo, is a visual pun.
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**Tangentially related to the red king point, Helios god of the sun is referred to as Hecate's spear in a Sophocles play. It is a spear, Gungnir, that Odin pierces himself with when hanging in sacrifice. (And Mio throwing herself into Prospera's clutches for her red king could be interpreted as this.) Could be a coincidence, but it works too well I think!
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whypolar · 1 year ago
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Gundam Unicorn OVA 4: At the Bottom of the Gravity Well
I thought the last one was the prettiest, and they might have one-upped themselves again. The shot composition alone...!
...This is a really weird one to talk about. Probably my most opinionated post so far, and even longer than the last one. This monster is over 15k words, I'm so sorry.
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The sixth Unicorn novel is an extremely frustrating experience for me. It's my least favourite of the books by a wide margin, and it comes at you very suddenly after the first five, which I think are generally interesting and a lot of fun.
OVA 4 covers the plot of the sixth novel. It removed everything I disliked about the book, and replaced it all with something much better.
...And then it found entirely new ways to annoy me, by removing or otherwise fucking around with several novel scenes that were already good. Yes, it's Riddhe again.
I'm genuinely kind of baffled.
Still, overall it was a far more enjoyable experience than its novel equivalent. I'm going to talk about novel stuff right away this time, because it's kind of unavoidable. The OVA is very different, right from the first scene.
(Previous posts: Day of the Unicorn, The Second Coming of Char, The Ghost of Laplace)
FYI: I'm saving detailed discussion of any particularly disturbing or otherwise sensitive novel-only content for the end, in the last two sections. There will be content warnings listed under the headings for those sections.
Major structural changes: Dakar and Torrington
This is a huge change, right out of the gate. The attack on Dakar is where the main conflict of the novel takes place, but here it's already ending in the very first scene! For a while I wondered if they were going to return and attack it again, but it quickly became clear that wasn't the case.
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Syam and Gael make an appearance. They don't tell us anything new, I don't think-- and we've seen that colony drop flashback before too, haven't we? I could be wrong. Regardless, I think they're mostly just making sure the audience doesn't forget Syam and Gael exist while everything else is going on. Probably a good idea.
We know a lot more about Syam's deal right from the get-go in the books, because it's literally prologue. I feel like significantly less has been explained here about his history and the history of the Vist Foundation-- but it's admittedly hard for me to keep straight what we've been told in previous OVAs vs. any gaps I may be filling in with prior knowledge.
I do wonder how they're going to handle him going forward. Are they going to infodump a bunch of relevant history and character motivation further on? Are they just going to refuse to elaborate on certain things?
Because they've been skipping over smaller character details about Syam that we learn through Cardeas, Martha, and Gael, he seems to be presented as a lot more... straightforwardly benevolent, at least on the surface. Almost ethereal, even. I think novel Syam has more of an edge, even if he's supposedly feeling repentant now that he's a sad old man.
Oh, and Gael. Gael was shot by Alberto on the Argama during the Palau battle, in the fifth novel. Maybe something equivalent to that is coming in the next OVA, on the Ra Cailum instead? They could also just skip it, since he survives and appears after that anyway.
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This Zee Zulu was not present for the novel scene I'm about to discuss, but consider this: I like aquatic mobile suits.
The novel opens like this, with the Shamblo destroying a submarine. The context is different than the anime equivalent, since Dakar hasn't happened yet and there are no other mobile suits present. Nobody in the Federation is aware the Shamblo even exists yet.
The submarine in the novel was searching for the Garancieres, since it was believed based on the trajectory that it would have landed in the ocean (as opposed to the desert, where it actually ended up). One of the sonar operators picks up some strange noise, but it doesn't fit the profile of what they're looking for, so his superior tells him to ignore it. This was a mistake. The Shamblo-- also searching for the Garancieres-- tears their hull apart, killing everyone on board.
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Instead of Dakar, the main conflict in OVA 4 takes place in and around Torrington Base-- a location from the seventh novel. They've essentially moved Loni's arc forward, and combined it with another battle.
I originally assumed this might have been a censorship concern, but a whole bunch of civilian casualties still happen, so... seems more about wanting to get to Torrington faster. I was very surprised when they didn't censor the woman with the baby on the fire escape. I remember reading the novel equivalent and thinking "oh, they're cutting that for sure". Shows what I know.
The novel version of Torrington doesn't have any civilian infrastructure around to damage. It's an extremely remote and backwater location.
Even with the addition of a nearby city, putting the coordinates in Torrington is significantly less callous on Cardeas' part than having them in Dakar. Programming the La+ program so they have to activate the NT-D in the middle of the Federation capital is stupid as shit, assuming your goal isn't to kill a bunch of random noncombatants. Novel Banagher's explanation for why he might have done it is so generous that it just kinda makes me sad.
I'm sorry Banagher, I know you're still traumatized because he exploded, but your dad doesn't give a shit about other people. He prioritizes poetic imagery in his treasure hunt over the lives of human beings. He zapped your brain as a child to check whether you could pilot the robot good. He sucks, Banagher.
The Parliament building as a location does give a much more direct clue to the nature of the Box-- the Federation charter is on the ground floor, and we're told through character dialogue that it's a replica of the original that was destroyed at Laplace.
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This montage of all the scattered Zeon forces on Earth mobilizing might be my favourite sequence in the film. This is another situation where I wish I could include images for all of it. Don't even get me started on the music in this part. God, it's so sick. Cool fucking robot. (Image of a child holding a rifle flying over my head)
Yonem Kirks was originally a character from novel 7. He had nothing to do with Loni, as she was already dead when he was introduced. He was actually the leader of the group of Zeon remnants who picked up the transmission requesting assistance for the attack on Torrington. He would have been in the place of that nameless beardy guy up there, whose face we never fully get to see. He is eventually killed by Marida in the Banshee.
OVA 4 recasts Kirks as a surrogate father figure for Loni. In the novel, Loni's father is still alive, and he's also one of the main reasons that book six is my least favourite. You'll see.
Loni takes over her father’s original role as a character, but with everything I hated about him stripped out. I think that rules. I initially thought they were going to put Kirks in his role, but what they went with was definitely more interesting.
I'll talk more about Loni at the end of this post, since she's the core of the whole arc. She's a substantially different character in each version. I will also explain exactly what her dad's deal is in the book, and why I do not like it.
Let me get this out of my system first.
The Character Assassination of Riddhe Marcenas
Imagine: an interesting character is rewritten so that everything you liked is either downplayed or removed, and then your least favourite aspect of their personality or story is inflated to become their most important character trait. This is what experiencing anime Riddhe is like for me.
I feel like I'm being pranked. Literally, the degree to which they are systematically removing all his most interesting and sympathetic qualities is starting to feel like a running gag. It's not just things being cut for time, either; they've changed dialogue and body language in ways that can only be deliberate. Someone clearly decided that changing Riddhe's personality was necessary, and I can't figure out why.
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I got mad enough about this to make a diagram. I didn't even realize just how much I apparently liked this guy until they took him away.
Riddhe becoming increasingly closed off, obsessive, and myopic is a significant degeneration, and it happens over a fairly long stretch of plot. It's interesting because we're given time to get used to this guy as a positive force before watching him spiral, and he's clearly still trying to be good even as he self-destructs. That's how it feels for the characters, and that's ideally how it should feel for the audience.
If he's just kind of a self-absorbed dickhead from the start, what's the point? Where's the juice? Where's the drama? Why should we care, on an emotional level, whether or not it's still possible to pull him back from the cliff?
Look, I admit that I was less cartoonishly mad about this on the second watch. I can imagine a more charitable reading of this character than my bitter little hater response. I'm sure the anime version works fine for people who haven't read the novels, or who have but don't care about the original character, or at least don't find the new version as deeply unlikable as I do. But it makes me so crazy.
I'm going to go through his scenes, so you can see exactly what I mean.
Riddhe & Ronan
Riddhe's first scene in the OVA is his conversation with Ronan. This is a scene from the fifth novel-- if you read my post on OVA 3, you may remember my surprise that there was so little of Riddhe and Mineva doing stuff on Earth. Clearly, some of it was pushed foward to be in this one instead. Sure. Fine.
In the novel version of this scene, Riddhe is waiting alone in his father's office. Two other people come by to speak to him before Ronan arrives. I'm fine with these conversations getting cut for time, but I do think they're interesting, so I'm going to go over them.
First is the Butler, Doillon-- the novel's fan translation spells it Dwiyon. Doillon is described as a father figure to Riddhe, and clearly one he feels more positively about than Ronan. Doillon tells Riddhe that he missed him, and asks him not to leave again. He says that he's old and will likely die soon, and he's worried about the family-- Ronan is also getting older, and his health is declining (heart issues).
We also meet Riddhe's older sister, Cynthia, who either doesn't exist in the OVA or is off doing vivacious socialite things elsewhere. She also tries to convince Riddhe to come home. She asks him about Audrey, tells him she's cute, and insists they both come to a party she's hosting later.
There's some discussion of Riddhe's mother, both in narration and dialogue. We're reminded that she's ill (unspecified) and living in a nursing home. It's implied that she might have had some kind of nervous breakdown because of "the political world," but it's unclear whether that means she was a politician herself, or if it was more about her involvement with Ronan.
At this point Ronan comes in, and everyone else gets shooed out.
OVA Riddhe's demeanour around Ronan is... curious? Maybe nervous, and a little dismissive, but trying to act respectful. He's very goofy, rubbernecking and trying eavesdrop on Ronan's phone call. It would be cute, if he didn't piss me off so badly within the next five minutes. Ronan, meanwhile, feels very distant, keeping his back turned away for much of the scene.
The novel relationship is extremely tense and hostile, and a lot of that energy comes from Riddhe. He has to deliberately restrain himself from being aggressive and getting angry during this scene, because he's aware he needs his father's authority if he's going to keep Mineva safe.
Riddhe hates being in his family's house. He does not like his father, and is constantly on edge when he's around. In many scenes, he deliberately avoids even looking at him. When we're told that Riddhe "ran away", the connotations of that are very different from in the OVA, where it sounds like he just left on a fanciful whim.
So the familial relationship is different. Fine. I think it's less interesting, but I can live with it.
Here's where I start getting mad:
Ronan accusing Riddhe of being in love with Mineva and suggesting that this is the reason he brought her to Earth is an anime-only addition.
Obviously, a character in a story believing something doesn't make it an objective fact. The framing, however, implies that Ronan is correct: Riddhe has a dramatic startle reaction, they've failed to establish any other strong motivation, and immediately after this scene he goes and proposes to her.
The scene where Riddhe talks to Mineva is a combination of two different scenes from the novel-- first the hug on the balcony, and later the proposal. The original two scenes have completely different (and incompatible) tones, and they're separated by a good amount of time, as well. There's also another scene between them, with Riddhe riding his horse, so I'll talk a little about that too.
The way these scenes have been combined not only fully re-centres Riddhe's character around being in love with Mineva, but it also makes him way more invasive and pushy. I fucking hate this guy. He sucks! Where's my boy!!!!
The Balcony Scene
The balcony scene takes place during the dinner party held by Riddhe's sister and her husband, after Riddhe has had his conversation with Ronan. The guests are mostly wealthy older women, the wives of important men.
Mineva is cautious and a bit intimidated. She is introduced as Audrey Burne, and stated to be the daughter of one of Ronan's connections. Riddhe is obviously sulking, refusing to speak to the point where he won't even respond to direct questions and his sister has to carry the conversation for him.
The guests begin gossiping about the recent terrorist attack on Industrial 7. The way they discuss the deaths is not particularly respectful. They talk about Zeon and spacenoids in general almost as if they're inhuman aliens. Cynthia tries to steer the conversation elsewhere. Mineva is horribly uncomfortable.
Riddhe stands up and leaves the table without saying anything. Mineva isn't able to find a good opportunity to leave and go look for him until 10 minutes later. She eventually finds him on the balcony facing the courtyard.
“I’m sorry” the voice entered her ears, and she looked forward, staring right at Riddhe’s back as he still looked forward. She lowered her face and said, “There’s no need for you to apologize...” “I feel that this is reality too. If I continue to remain in Neo Zeon, I wouldn’t know all of these things.” This might be a good chance to learn. Mineva muttered in her depressed heart, but she could not find any words to overcome these words that were full of such prejudice. She thought that mutual understanding was just a dream, and she remained unable to breathe in this helplessness of hers. “That’s not it.” Riddhe said as his shoulders trembled, and he clenched his hands that were on the handrails tightly. “That’s not what I want to talk about…” ... [His shoulders trembled,] probably because he was crying. That was not an emotion that could be caused by a breakdown in talks between him and Ronan, and Mineva sensed that there was a greater despair and sense of loss here, “Riddhe…” she called him, and approached his trembling figure. Suddenly, that back profile left the handrails, and Riddhe turned to Mineva, his chest filling her sights. Mineva was hugged around the shoulders as she was pulled to him, and he embraced her in his clutches. “I’m sorry, I…I actually brought you to such a unthinkable place…!” ... “No matter what, I’ll protect you well no matter what, so please stay here, stay by me…don’t leave me alone…” Water droplets that had warmth dripped on her hair, wetting her forehead. Why is he crying? What’s causing him so much pain? At that moment, Mineva had no sense of uneasiness or disgust as she felt Riddhe’s trembling body with her own. She hesitated over whether she should put her arms around him, and she looked at the sky that was entering the night from past the shoulders wearing the military uniform.
It's just... a completely different scene, with a completely different context.
Look at the description of that hug! Is that the impression you got from the hug in the anime, that Mineva felt at ease? The only person whose feelings we can tell for certain in that scene is Riddhe, and Mineva seems uncomfortable and unhappy both before and after the conversation.
The scene ends here. We get a continuation much later, as the final scene of the novel.
Mineva is alone in her room, several hours after the conversation on the balcony. We're told that Riddhe ran away from the house immediately afterward, without looking at her or explaining what had him so upset. She wonders what he's doing now, then wonders what she's doing. She feels helpless and lost, and rather unlike herself. In the past, she has always been very decisive. These confused, conflicted feelings are strange and unfamiliar to her.
When she looks up at the sky and asks Banagher what she should do, one of the stars is implied to be the Unicorn falling through the atmosphere. I think that imagery is really lovely.
Riddhe Horsegirl Moments
A couple days later, Mineva watches from a distance as Riddhe rides his horse. She is impressed by how in sync they are and how much trust there must be between them, but she also thinks that the horse is clearly picking up on Riddhe's anger and seems anxious.
(Right before this scene, when Ronan is watching Riddhe out the window, we're told that Riddhe deliberately learned a second, different riding style than the one popular with upper-class people that he was originally taught, because he thought it was boring. lol)
Cynthia comes out onto the terrace to talk to Mineva. They talk about Riddhe, and Cynthia describes her perception of his personality. The fan translation is kind of garbled here, but I'll include the passage anyway:
Cynthia looked down at Riddhe that was riding on the horse, “He’s really a useless child.” She sighed as she mused, and Mineva did not feel comfortable hearing this. “He’s always been like this in the past, always unable to hide what he was thinking, and never cared about the people around him when he put his mind to him. He’s already everywhere at once, but he’s attracted to small details for some reason, so he’ll always bear everything by himself alone.” This is really a rather accurate correct analysis. Mineva felt impressed that Riddhe’s relative was able to see through him so thoroughly, but felt a little depressed as she thought about how she had not been talking to Riddhe during this while...
Jp text for the list of traits:
「昔からそう。一途で、隠し事ができなくて、思い込んだら脇目も振らずに突っ走っちゃう。そのくせ、変に気が回るもんだから、ひとりでいろいろ抱え込んじゃうのよね」
Possible alt translation (I have no expertise, take with salt just as you would the other):
"It's always been that way. He's single-minded, can't hide anything, and when he makes up his mind, he rushes forward without looking the other way. Despite that, he's strangely anxious, so he takes on a lot of things by himself."
We're then told exactly how long Mineva has been staying at the Marcenas residence (3 days), and what the atmosphere has been like in the house. Riddhe is barely around, apparently busy repairing the Delta Plus. Ronan and Cynthia's husband Patrick avoid Mineva entirely. Cynthia and Doillon are the only people she has to spend time with, and neither of them is aware of her true identity.
Cynthia assures Mineva that Riddhe will probably get over whatever is bothering him soon enough and be back to his old self, but Mineva feels an ominous certainty that she's wrong.
My impression of novel Mineva is that she generally likes Riddhe and enjoys his company. She worries about him, and feels lonely when he starts becoming increasingly distant and angry. She doesn't like that she can see him changing, and she can tell that he's hurting. It's upsetting to her! She had just gotten to know this guy, and suddenly he's acting like a stranger again.
I have a hard time believing that OVA Mineva has enjoyed being in the same room with Riddhe at any point. She seems pragmatic and politely disinterested at best. Her body language with people she clearly likes-- Banagher, or hell, even the guy in the diner-- is very different.
The Most Depressing Proposal in the World
The dialogue of the proposal itself and Mineva's rejection is basically the same. Everything else about Riddhe's behaviour and body language is completely different.
They even completely inverted the exchange when he opens the door! In the novel, Riddhe asks if he can come in, and Mineva replies "this is your house, isn't it," but in the anime, he opens the door without asking and she's upset about the presumption.
It's such a small thing, but it's a clear signal to me that these changes are purposeful. They had zero reason to do that, unless they want to change the audience's perception of Riddhe and his relationship to Mineva. This suggests to me that they're not failing to adapt the novel character, but intentionally replacing him with something different. But... why? To what end?
This scene happens right after we learn that Riddhe is being sent to serve under Bright on the Ra Cailum. The context of the proposal is him telling her he's leaving.
Mineva has been in the house for at least ten days at this point. She has been feeling increasingly anxious and constrained, and by now she feels a strong desire to leave.
Riddhe is very distant and stiff. He tells her he's leaving, and apologizes. This is when he finally tells her about his conversation with Ronan, how the Marcenas family and the Vist Foundation "are like two mirrors facing each other," and that his family likely intends to use her as a hostage.
Then we get the proposal. It's so vaguely delivered that Mineva literally does not understand what he's asking at first. Not only does he not hug her, he's not even looking at her. He has a weird little twitch when bringing up his dad. The whole thing is miserable and kind of pathetic.
“So... can you become a member of our family?” In contrast, Riddhe said this without turning around to look. Mineva did not understand what he was saying to her as she frowned. “How about you abandon Zeon and the Zabi family, and become a member of the Marcenas family? In that case, my dad will—” To Riddhe, the last words were probably something he did not expect. His eyelids twitched, and he seemed to recover as he went quiet and lowered his eyes that were once facing Mineva. “…Even if it’s just a formality, this meaningless war will end like that, and you’ll be free.” “Do you feel…that can be considered freedom?” Mineva too lowered her sights, her heart feeling the sand-like bitterness. These words sounded too tragic to both the speaker and the listener, and even though they were just a few connected words, she could understand that her body and mind were gradually being contaminated. Something very important was starting to fall off, unable to be retrieved again—this kind of disappointment spread in her heart.
I'm sure Riddhe does think a marriage would reduce the danger she's in, but this is still a selfish question. He probably even knows it. It's just not the same kind of selfish as if he had barged into her room uninvited and proposed immediately during a fit of emotion because he's apparently madly in love with her, good grief.
Not even Riddhe wants to be "a member of his family." He had refused to speak to them for three years, well before he had the family secret dropped on him. But we're supposed to believe he thinks pulling Mineva into that is a good idea? Please. He is horrified by the idea of being alone with them.
He wants Mineva to stay because she's the only outside person he has left to hold onto, because he cut off all his other established positive relationships when he helped her escape.
Personally, I think that kind of total alienation is a lot more psychologically interesting than just being freshly upset and smitten with her!
Even though he knew how many risks he was taking, I think Riddhe was still telling himself he'd be able to wriggle out of it eventually. He'd use his dad's authority to secure Mineva's safety, and then he'd wait for another chance to run away and be a pilot again later.
Being told about the Box was the nail in the coffin for that, because it gave him a new, permanent sense of obligation to re-affiliate with his family, to "take responsibility for their sins." Perceived moral obligation is Riddhe's kryptonite.
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The anime cut the conversation here, right after the rejection. Do you want to know what Riddhe's next line of dialogue is?
“Sorry, forget what I just said.”
lol. lmao even.
Like the anime, this conversation is the catalyst for Mineva running away. The scene in the diner is from Novel 7, as is Martha demanding Ronan give her Mineva. It all happens after Riddhe leaves.
The Ra Cailum
The Tri-Stars are not happy to have Riddhe on their ship.
When Riddhe first approaches the Ra Cailum in the Delta Plus and attempts to board, they actively antagonize him in their own mobile suits: they physically get in his way, don't respond to his hails, and one of them even fires on him.
Riddhe pulls off a dramatic maneuver to get past them, and this impresses them enough for the squad leader to say "alright, you've convinced me that you're more than just a useless nepotism hire."
They did not have authorization to do this. All four of them get dragged into Bright's office immediately after getting out of their suits. The Tri-Stars lie about what happened to avoid further trouble, and Riddhe goes along with the cover story. Bright orders the Tri-Stars to go clean the deck, and they leave.
The incident confirmed in Riddhe's mind that he's being given special treatment, so he brings it up to Bright:
The reason why the Tri-Stars would pull such petty tricks on him was because news of him being given special treatment was spread through the ship. He was already mentally prepared about being viewed as an irritant, but he could not stand being treated as a troublesome VIP and being unable to do anything. He stared at the back that had no intent of looking back at him and continued to emphasize with a restrained tone. “I’ve been through battle before. Please don’t remove me from dangerous missions just because I have to keep watch—” “DON’T BE NAÏVE!” Bright turned around to let out a roar that pierced through the pilot suit, causing goosebumps on Riddhe’s skin.
This conversation hits different when the "dangerous" situations Riddhe keeps putting himself in are on the extreme end even for a military pilot.
Novel Riddhe's disregard for his own safety is remarkable. I talked about it some in the last post, but after the conversation with his dad it takes on a more desperate tone. There is something very clearly wrong with this guy, and every time other people die around him it gets a little worse.
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When I call Riddhe "borderline suicidal," I'm not saying he's consciously trying to kill himself, to be clear. He's not trying to get shot down on purpose-- quite the opposite.
I have no intention of dying. Right now, I don’t have a reason for that, before I can redeem the crimes of this cursed bloodline of mine— he muttered in his frozen heart, “Yes”, answered, and saluted.
The reckless death drive and the belief he has an obligation to stay alive can coexist without coming into conflict because they're ultimately coming from the same place and serving the same goal. He needs to keep existing in order to protect other people, and he needs to protect other people in order to justify having ever existed in the first place.
Or, basically: if you die, you only get to sacrifice yourself once, but so long as you survive you can keep doing it forever.
(And of course, what he thinks in the abstract while safely tucked away in an office is also different from how he behaves in actual combat, when people around him are dying.)
You'll get new examples when I get to what Riddhe does during the battle of Dakar. For now, we'll finish up the conversation with Bright.
Bright tells Riddhe to come back alive in both versions, but in the novel he also tells him to go clean the deck with the Tri-Stars if he wants to be treated like a normal pilot.
Nigel, the leader of the Tri-Stars, is waiting outside the door when Riddhe leaves Bright's office. Riddhe sighs and tells him he's going to help clean the deck. Nigel tells him he's too rigid, and he's going to end up wasting his talent. He doesn't let up even when Riddhe tries to be deferential:
... Riddhe instinctively looked away and said, “I won’t cause trouble for you.” ... but Nigel moved away from the wall and spoke, “You’re a rookie who doesn’t even know the meaning of the word team? Well, us Tri-Stars do whatever we want, and there’s no need for us to give you suggestions, but I’ll shoot you down from behind if you dare to pull the Ra Cailum fleet down. You better remember that.”
The equivalent to this line in the OVA seems a lot friendlier and more like banter. I think he's being truthful here, or at the very least genuinely trying to intimidate Riddhe.
Riddhe realizes Nigel still doesn't trust him and is continuing to treat him like an outsider. He thinks that maybe it's for the best, and responds with sarcastic praise.
Then we get this truly astounding line which I'm almost certain is a translation error, but I need you to see it anyway:
“Your sarcasm ain’t half bad there. Are you saying that us idiots who only know how to train are having a group orgy or something?”
Well I wasn't thinking it before but I'm certainly thinking it now. Why are you being so unwelcoming and excluding Riddhe from the group orgy, Nigel?
(The Japanese is "おれたちは訓練バカの仲良しグループってわけか?", if you want to check it yourself. Unless I'm missing some contextual innuendo, I'm pretty sure there is no reference to an orgy here. The phrase that got turned into that means "a group of close friends." He's basically saying "You think we aren't real soldiers and this is just a social club?"
I'm so disappointed. I wish this one was real. I was hoping to at least find a common crude idiom, like how people use "circlejerk" in English.)
Ahem.
Riddhe's attempt to be aloof fails; he immediately admits he's feeling envious and wants to feel included in the group. Nigel is clearly surprised by this, and seeds are planted for the Tri-Stars to come around.
This is important because when the attack on Dakar begins, Riddhe is initially told he isn't allowed to launch because he doesn't belong to any existing squadron. He's eventually given permission to launch with the Tri-Stars, after Nigel vouches for him.
Riddhe and Banagher vs. The Shamblo
The OVA actually reverses Riddhe and Banagher's respective roles here. Novel Riddhe engages the Shamblo well before Banagher is even on the field.
As the Ra Cailum approaches Dakar, they get a clearer picture of the situation. Bright realizes things are worse than they thought, and they need to rethink their approach.
Riddhe requests to be sent ahead on his own, to distract the enemy while the main forces land. He manages to make a convincing argument as to how he can do this without being shot down, and Nigel vouches for him again, so Bright agrees to let him scout ahead.
Riddhe launches on his own, without the Tri-Stars. He thinks about Mihiro and the Argama crew briefly while talking to the communications operator, which is sweet.
As Riddhe approaches the Shamblo, he realizes there are still civilians nearby who haven't finished evacuating. He also spots a GM III, part of Dakar's security forces, and watches it fire missiles even though the pilot should have been able to see the people on the street. Riddhe is furious.
The “GM III” continued to fire its beam rifle wildly at the road covered with dust and smoke. Riddhe grabbed the arm of the [mobile suit] and pulled it to the blind spot of the collapsed department store. (Khairul was killed…!) as the pilot continued to ramble on, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Riddhe used the communication channel to yell out at him, “Why are you using missiles at such a place!? There’re still people in the city!) (But we can’t let that guy approach the parliament hall…) “For the sake of your pride, you…!”
But then the Shamblo does its laser bits thing, so the GM ends up exploding. A lot of mobile suits nearby explode, in fact (RIP Guntank squad), and fleeing civilians get crushed quite gruesomely.
This is the point where Riddhe's death wish instinct activates, and "scouting" turns into "I need to engage the enemy and tank aggro right now."
“There’s no reason for them to die because of such a thing…!” If this is a tragedy caused by the “Box”. Riddhe let the machine transform, duck low, charge forward and squeezed the trigger of the beam rifle to its maximum. The beams that were deflected by the bits ripped apart the dust, grazing past the head of the “Delta Plus”. The machine then stood on the road in front of several blocks and started firing again. “Get over here!!!” he did not care that the reflected beams grazed past his shields as he let the “Delta Plus” leap up again. “I won’t let you kill anyone else. Just make me the only victim of the “Box”…!” The beam rifle continued to let out shots, and the beams that were reflected back in less than a second shook the machine. Riddhe continued to launch his attacks fervently as he forced the machine to retreat back to the coast. Anyway, I have to let the mobile armor retreat [from] the city and buy time for the civilians to evacuate. How long can I last? His mind that was thinking about this could not work at all, and the “Delta Plus” continued to shoot in a suicidal manner as it danced around the skies above Dakar.
Banagher sees and recognizes the Delta Plus on the monitor just before his fight with Zinnerman. His scenes are intercut with Riddhe and Loni's perspective on the battlefield.
Loni-- a very different character from her OVA counterpart-- keeps picking up on Riddhe's thoughts during combat. She attempts to convince her father that they should change course to avoid the civilians, but he refuses.
Riddhe helps a GM pilot in a damaged suit and tries to convince them to retreat, but they aren't having it. They tell him they're going to get under the Shamblo's feet, and they want him to shoot their suit so it will explode.
Obviously it's normal to feel fucked up about that kind of request, but it's still darkly funny to me how freaked out Riddhe gets, given his behaviour during this entire battle. Self sacrifice... not Riddhe? Death of friendly pilot not Riddhe??? No! No!!! Unacceptable!!!!
It's not Riddhe's choice to make, though. The GM rushes the Shamblo, where it is promptly torn apart and trampled. Riddhe manages to break through his hesitation and fires, but the Shamblo blocks the beam.
Then it fucking gets him. If you remember what I said about the OVA reversing the roles, the bit where the Unicorn gets grabbed by the claws happens to the Delta Plus instead.
The back of the “Delta Plus” was slammed hard onto the road, and the machine was half buried in the cracked asphalt. The large claws grabbed the lower half of the machine to restrain it, while the other claw rose slowly over the head of the “Delta Plus”, showing its malice that it was trying to dice it up as it opened its sharp blades. Riddhe sensed that his body was going to be crushed by this impact and scattered apart as he gritted his bloodied teeth. Is this the end? I can’t do anything, I’ll die here without being able to save anyone. As Riddhe’s concussed mind eked out these thoughts, How annoying, he muttered in his heart...
So then instead of Riddhe breaking off from the Tri-Stars to help Banagher, we get Banagher finally arriving on the scene and swooping in to save Riddhe from getting pureed.
They team up. The Unicorn isn't as manoeuvrable under Earth's gravity and atmospheric conditions as it is in space, so the Delta Plus basically becomes its flight unit.
Banagher is the one who fires the shot and destroys the Shamblo. He's very upset about Loni's death, but there's no moral dilemma or conflict between him and Riddhe.
Loni's situation is very different. She was probably already going to die whether they destroyed the Shamblo or not, and since it had multiple pilots, her death alone would not have stopped its rampage. I'll go over this again in more detail during her section. For now, the point I'm trying to make is that the novel version of this scene emphasizes that Riddhe and Banagher have a positive relationship.
I really get along with this guy instinctively. Riddhe hid this bittersweet reality inside his heart as he went full throttle and let the machine remain as low as possible.
[...]
The thrill when they were accelerating for each other as they raced caused all his senses to sharpen. If only I can remain at that moment of ecstasy.
The OVA scene is about... the opposite of that.
I still can't believe OVA Riddhe looks angry when Banagher's plan works and the Shamblo stops attacking the first time. He fucking scowls? Are you mad you're being proven wrong? That's more important to you in this situation than preventing more deaths? Distinctly un-Riddhelike priorities!
With the Shamblo gone, Riddhe is ordered to capture the Gundam.
The conversation they have about this is significantly longer. There's a lot of Riddhe failing to talk himself into killing Banagher after he refuses to surrender.
He's extremely torn up about it. Because Riddhe likes Banagher.
The metals bellowed as they touched each other, and the voice of the pilot rang within the interaction window. The “Unicorn Gundam” was touching the “Delta Plus” on the shoulder as it opened the communication circuit. ... (I never thought that I would meet you here in such a way…is Audrey alright? Did you make contact with the “Nahel Argama”—) Banagher intended to lean the body forward as he talked. However, Riddhe did not look at the other party’s face. He held his breath and fulfilled what he had to do at this point. The “Delta Plus” shook aside the hand resting on its shoulder ... The “Gundam” tripped, and by the time it managed to steady itself with the AMBAC, the “Delta Plus” was aiming its beam rifle at the abdomen. (Mr Riddhe…!?) “I’ve received an order to capture that “Gundam”. Get off that cockpit, Banagher.” Luckily, the visuals on the communication window were cut off the moment the interaction channel was removed. (Mr Riddhe, why…!) Riddhe merely let Banaher’s outcry chide his ears as his hand holding onto the control stick was trembling. “Don’t call me as if we’re close with each other. Without you, things wouldn’t end up like that…!” (Why’s that so? Mr Riddhe, Audrey—) “You and the “Gundam” are obstacles preventing this Audrey you speak of—Mineva from living peacefully. Get off!” My chest is going to break open. At this rate, I’ll go crazy too—just like this mobile armor that lies dead in front of me. Riddhe lowered his eyes and waited for Banagher to answer in a prayer. I feel you’re a man of your word. I’ll leave Audrey to you. The boy with such strong-willed eyes actually used those words to lay a curse on him and bind him, and though he hoped that the other party would step aside after realizing what was going on—
The things he says about Mineva here are interesting. I think it's very representative of the kind of weird rigid thinking Riddhe has, that even as he tries to talk himself into literally killing Banagher, he still considers the promise to take care of Audrey binding and unassailable.
It's also kind of fascinating that he considers protecting her to be something that he owes to Banagher specifically at all, enough to apparently consider it a burden, given that he had already taken action to do it himself before they ever had that conversation.
Even though he's stubborn and historically disobedient to authority figures like his father, Riddhe is still very... rules-brained, I guess, in his own way. He gets "stuck" on specific things people say to him like this a lot, particularly in the context of morality or a sense of duty.
Banagher won't get out of the Gundam, even at gunpoint. He doesn't understand why Riddhe is acting the way he is, and he wants an explanation.
And here's the important part:
When Banagher calls Riddhe's bluff and Riddhe cannot bring himself to shoot him, Riddhe tells Banangher to flee before anyone else can arrive to capture him.
Yes! He actively decides to disobey orders and let Banagher escape! That's the moment that the 'Black Unicorn' drops in on them! It has to show up for the plot to work, because Riddhe has already backed down as a threat!!!
And Riddhe's still focused on Banagher, even after the Banshee drops a bunch of rubble on his mobile suit. He's stuck there in his unresponsive machine, yelling at Banagher to run away.
There is hostility between Banagher and Riddhe during the Torrington fight in book 7, but the equivalent of that confrontation is presumably something for next time... there are still like, three more emotional bombshells that need to be dropped on Riddhe before he stops instinctively treating Banagher like an ally.
Do you see how, cumulatively, this might as well be a completely different guy?
I've been trying to avoid spoiling anything that happens later in the novels as much as possible, even though I assume most people reading these posts have either already seen the full anime or don't care about spoilers at all. But I simply must say. Holy shit. You're going to have this guy kill a fan favourite character? This guy? Worse Riddhe? I'm wincing just thinking about how apocalyptically fucking mad people must have been. I am imagining the forum posts in my mind's eye, and they're bad.
As much as I love complaining, I do think changes made in any adaptation deserve to be considered in their own right. Even if I don't like them. I've been thinking a lot about what these changes might mean, and what purpose they might serve.
Some possible narrative reasons for Worse Riddhe I came up with:
They needed him to kill this version of Loni in place of Banahger -- I think regular Riddhe would also be willing to kill Loni, once it became obvious that Banagher's plan had failed the first time. She's an enemy combatant who is deliberately killing civilians, and she's either unwilling or unable to stop.
To justify Mineva running away sooner -- as in, they thought if he was too likeable, the audience wouldn't understand why she wanted to leave. This wouldn't be a problem in the first place if they hadn't pushed his scenes forward so they had to happen all at once. Either way, Mineva would have many good reasons to want to leave without Worse Riddhe. Riddhe is only person she really has in her corner-- and then he tells her she's in an unsafe place, and then he leaves.
They were worried he might overshadow Banagher…? I don't think reducing Riddhe's role in on-screen combat would necessitate changing his personality. Also, this is just not something I personally give a shit about. Multiple important characters is not a problem. Banagher would absolutely still get to be cool and heroic. C'mon.
They think the new characterization is likeable / endearing, and the audience is supposed to find the increased focus on unrequited romantic interest in Mineva sympathetic-- [perplexed vocalization]
They think if Riddhe is more naive and jealous from the beginning, bringing him around will be more meaningful, from the angle of "Look, even this guy can be reached through the power of communication and not giving up on a possibility" -- Oo-hoo-oooh, I don't like how plausible this one feels. I can see the exact reasoning that might lead to it. I don't like it.
They're going to do something totally new with him later that never would have occurred to me -- I guess that could save it for me as an artistic decision, if it's interesting enough. Bit of a scary thought, though. What's up your sleeve?
If anyone else has theories or opinions about the rationale here, I'm all ears. I'd love to come up with something good enough to feel even 25% less annoyed about it.
Anyway, we've covered all my Riddhe grievances. Let's move on.
Frontal and Angelo are barely in this one, which is novel accurate.
They get their own section anyway, because they're always important to ME!!!
I get so excited every time Frontal shows up, regardless of context. The Sinanju theme starts playing and I'm already having the time of my life. He's literally just standing there and giving exposition. Embarrassing.
I love how visibly mad Angelo gets every time Zinnerman talks back to Frontal. He's hysterical.
Here's novel Loni experiencing Frontal's uncanny deepfake vibes:
The masked face spoke on the monitor, and Loni did not feel that it was the face of a human. The nose bridge and the lips under the mask were too refined, and the thick blond hair reminded her of a puppet. Am I seeing a complete artificial image here? she felt some goosebumps as she stared at Full Frontal, who was calmly smiling.
Banagher and Zinnerman
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Banagher and Zinnerman's relationship is probably the one major story element that changed the least from the page to screen. I'm really glad that's the case. Their scenes together were some of the most enjoyable parts of the book.
There are still slight differences, as is inevitable.
Zinnerman is softer on Banagher in the anime. I think they probably did this just to make it even more shocking when he starts slamming him around and pointing a gun at him later. Novel Zinnerman is a bit more roundabout with how he expresses affection, and also more aggressive.
Zinnerman doesn't hit Banagher in the anime at all until their big fight, but in the novels he does it a number of times. He hits him twice when he's sitting around catatonic at the crash site, and that wasn't even the first time in the series (the first was all the way back on Palau, because Banagher was mouthing off when they drop him off to stay with Gilboa).
They have a confrontation before they head out into the desert, and it's a precursor to the conversation they have while traveling. The two conversations are about the exact same subjects, with the second mostly being a gentler reiteration, so I can see why they'd only keep one. The anime also shifts some of the aggressive energy from Zinnerman to Flaste, instead, by having him yell at Banagher and throw him around.
The scene that's only in the novel, is... scarier, for lack of a better word? Banagher starts out even more dramatically unresponsive and defeated, he ends up getting angrier, and Zinnerman is a lot more threatening.
On Banagher's condition at the crash site:
... he had no sense of will to live on by himself, and he would not ingest food if it was not prepared. If he was left alone, he would just sit around blankly for the entire day. ... There were no effects no matter what they did, whether they tried to threaten him or please him; he would not resist, but he would not show any form of will on his own. ...
On Banagher's internal mental state:
You killed him. You killed Gilboa, Tikva’s father. He had no intention of attacking, and you simply shot him. Tikva’s pitiful for not having a father now. You and him have no fathers. You killed him, and you killed a lot a people—
[...]
We can just run through this desert, Banagher thought. The sunlight can burn the skin, blood my head, dry up all the fluids in my body, and I’ll just become dust. Even the lead in my stomach and this cursed family blood of mine will be burnt to nothing. If I can do that, the “Unicorn” will never move again, the “Gundam” won’t awaken again; I won’t have to kill others, I won’t be killed, and the “Laplace Box” will be sealed forever— And then what? The abnormally cold voice interrupted to end the delusions. The impulse that rose in Banagher’s body quickly wilted as fatigue struck his mind. He found it difficult to think, curled back his body without doing anything and became a stone block like before.
Banagher's despair is also where the title of both the novel and the OVA comes from.
This place is really the bottom of a gravity well, Banagher admitted. His body and mind were tied to the bottom, so heavy that they were unable to move at all. Space felt so distant, and his soul was the only thing melting from his crouched body that was like dust. This is a one and only cog that can make decisions on its own. Don’t lose it—Mr Daguza did say it. I don’t want to lose it, I lost it unwillingly, but I really can’t hang on now. If I try to put it on, my body will break apart. I just want to sit here without thinking and without asking for anything. I’ll keep sitting until my heart melts completely…
And then Zinnerman comes in, and tells him him they're going on a trip. Sorry, you're getting a big chunk of excerpts here, because I really like this entire conversation.
Zinnerman was standing there. His hulking figure was standing there angrily “Stand up.” as he growled with a deep voice. Banagher immediately lost interest in the person who arrived, and immediately lowered his sight. “There’s a town 60km away. I’m going to walk there and get help, and you’re coming with me.” Are you kidding me? a slight electrical flow passed through Banagher’s mind as he lifted his eyes again. He saw the bearded face that was not smiling, and lazily looked down again. At this moment, Zinnerman’s hand grabbed him by the torso, and the body, which had its center of gravity at the back, was immediately dragged off the floor. “How long are you going to mope around here!?” The angry words roared into Banagher’s ears as the sand fell from his limp swaying body. His feet would not listen as his body was supported by hand grabbing him by the chest. However, Zinnerman’s hand that was holding this weight showed no signs of shaking at all. “We’ll leave after sunset. Get into the ship immediately. We need to prepare a lot of things if we want to pass through the desert.”
[...]
“Duty? I did my duty. I rode on the mobile suit and sank a Neo Zeon terrorist. Is that not enough? How many more must I kill?” Only this time did Banagher look right at Zinnerman in the eyes and spoke directly to him. What duty and responsibility? It ended up like this after I listened to those words. As he thought about how he would not be fooled again and intended to stand on his feet, a blunt sound rang in his mind as his world exploded. The body that was punched aside landed hard onto the floor, and the burning hot taste of sand spread in his mouth. The face that was buried in the sand started to ache, and Banagher’s body was trembling as he heard Zinnerman say, “You can deny us all you want.” “But don’t you dare think of yourself as a victim and throw a tantrum at me. I can still recognize it if the one that shot down Gilboa is a pilot, but not a brat who doesn’t have any resolve.”
[...]
The lead in Banagher’s stomach was burning, and he forcefully spat the sand that became dirt in his [mouth.] “I didn’t do this on my own will…” he muttered as he wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth. “Someone else forced me to ride on a mobile suit, and things ended up like this before I even knew what happened. If you’re not going to forgive me, just kill me. Don’t beat around the bush and talk about something like duty; can’t you just harden your heart and kill me…!?” Zinnerman’s hard fist was still clenched as he answered with his trembling eyelids. See, this man talks big, but he’s no different from those guys who want the “Box”. Banagher said, “You don’t dare to do so anyway.” Banagher said with his busted lips that were curled up. “If I die, the “Unicorn” won’t move. If you can’t extract the data of the “Box”, you’ll just let this treasure rot. No matter how you hate me, it’s impossible for you to kill—” The second impact struck his face, ... “[Those] big shots may think that way, but we’re different”, Zinnerman growled, ... “It doesn’t matter what happens to the “Box”. My ship doesn’t have the room to feed someone like you who has no will to live.” The burly figure became a shadow as it moved towards Banagher, blocking his sights. The eyes of a killer were glittering somehow deep within, just like the first time, and Banagher clenched his hands together with the sand. Banagher stared at the two black eyeballs that were not showing any light, and exerted strength to stiffen his trembling knees. He tried his best to let his trembling body stand up, and glared at Zinnerman with all his strength. Do it if you can. I’ll spit my blood on you once I’m beaten down. As he was driven by this unknown temper, his swaying body was about to straighten, and Zinnerman showed some teeth on his ominous looking face. Before he could understand that it was a smile, he was gently nudged back and landed on his backside. “What kind of expression is that?” Zinnerman gave a wry look, and this was an unexpected response to Banagher as he looked back. “Someone who can give that kind of expression will not collapse that easily. Hurry up and get ready. The desert won’t listen to any excuses humans make.” Zinnerman finished and walked away. Are you serious? Banagher wanted to open his mouth and ask, but was unable to let out a sound as his wildly pounding heart spread the feeling of this fear that came a moment later. His body that was unneeded by anyone and self-neglected continued to give the sound of life stubbornly— “Damn it!” Banagher groaned as he kicked the sand at his feet. The blood that rushed up his body caused him to recall the heat, and the large amount of sweat that suddenly started to flow out evaporated before they dripped.
I really love this scene, and I miss furious blood-spitting Banagher, but I also liked the little sand-throwing tantrum they added to the conversation in the anime, so I can't complain too much. Other than that, the argument in the desert is basically the same.
Then we get the story about Globe. This is another scene where the music really stood out to me -- the track is called "Desert," and I think it's beautiful.
I like how they take advantage of the desert setting to show it to you visually in the form of Banagher seeing mirages, as well the hot wind in the desert evoking the heat from the burning town. It's a clever sequence.
I'll be coming back to Globe in a later section. The story and its telling has been altered in significant ways, although it serves the exact same purpose in the narrative for Zinnerman's motivation. Put a pin in it.
The conversation at the campsite is pretty much exactly the same in both versions, except the novel also describes ancient cave paintings on the stone walls they're using for shelter.
The novel has one more travel scene after this, where they get caught in a simoom and have a harrowing near-death experience. This is where Banagher really thinks through his feelings and resolves that he needs to live. As soon as the storm passes, they realize they're right outside their destination and start laughing hysterically from relief.
The novel also has several scenes where the two of them spend time with Loni in the city, scouting Dakar on foot before the operation. These are mostly about establishing setting, progressing the plot, and strengthening Banagher's connection to Loni, though there are some small Zinnerman moments I thought were charming.
Here's Zinnerman buying Banagher a beer:
Zinnerman suddenly raised his hand and called the waitress beside him. “Another beer please. For him.” He said with a nonchalant look on his face as he pointed at Banagher, wanting him to continue talking. “I’m still underaged, you know!?” Banagher then gave a shocked expression right back as his momentum was worn out. “Just drink. Today’s a special day.” “What’s special…” “You’ve become an adult. There’s no punishment for celebrating a little anyway.” A warm smile Banagher had never seen before caused him to feel some warmth in his stomach. He felt embarrassed, and thought that he could not look back anymore as he turned his stare to the sea surface that was dyed sunset.
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The fight they have during the operation plays out pretty much the same, in both action and dialogue. Zinnerman does cause less lasting visible damage to Banagher in the OVA, though-- he's described as having his face noticeably bruised and banged up in the novel.
I do think novel Banagher knew civilian casualties were a possibility going in (in a way that OVA Banagher possibly did not consider at all, since the target is explicitly military). What horrified him was the deliberate act of murdering innocent people-- similar to novel Loni's feelings, in fact.
Even if he's rationalizing, Zinnerman's response of "you should have expected this" is still much truer about Dakar than Torrington. Come on, Banagher, you didn't consider there might be serious collateral damage if we walk the giant metal laser monster into a major metropolitan area? You saw what happened to Industrial 7. They could have just as easily destroyed that hotel by accident.
Such a good scene, though. Both versions. Get his ass.
Marida, Martha, and Alberto
There's a lot going on here. I'll start with the easy stuff.
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Since Gael was on the Argama at the end of Novel 5, he goes to the bridge and tells them not to let Martha's ship capture the Unicorn. His mission had failed, and Alberto was successfully transferred to Martha's ship with Marida.
Gael warns Banagher through transmission not to trust Alberto and not to follow his instructions. He also tells him explicitly that Alberto killed Cardeas.
Alberto then cuts off Gael's transmission and admits to doing so. He explains his reasons, and then says some fairly cruel things to Banagher. It's clear that this conversation contributed to Banagher's intense despair in the desert; he even quotes Alberto directly at one point.
(The Foundation can’t live on without the Box. But that man intended to bring the “Box” outside.) ... (The Foundation has the “Box”. As long as this fact doesn’t change, it doesn’t matter even if the “Box” doesn’t exist. The key to opening the “Box” has no reason to exist. As long as we can destroy the “Unicorn”, everything will be back to normal. Don’t you understand? To a lot of people, you’re the seed of disaster.) ... (If you want to hate, hate father. Hate our father.) The voice pierced through Banagher’s chest, and then, there was a physical impact that rocked the cockpit. The connected ignition bolt was activated, and the traction wire was severed from the shuttle right from the end.
[...]
Banagher’s vision started to spin in a confusing manner, and the plasma air flow continued to blow by the cockpit. The temperature in the machine gradually rose, and the warning alarms continued to sway amidst the burning hot air. Nobody will save me. There’s no worth in saving me. Everything I know about is wrong. Banagher yelled with a voice that did not make a sound. I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be sitting in this, even my birth onto this Earth is wrong— Banagher’ yell was vaporized by the additional heat, and the color of flames gradually covered everything.
With the line cut, the Garancieres moves in to grab the Unicorn instead. Banagher has passed out, but the Unicorn begins moving entirely on its own. Again it's described as looking like a devil, which is particularly fitting when it's basically fucking on fire. Zinnerman looks at its face and thinks it looks like it's smiling. I love that.
The head of the “Unicorn Gundam” that resembled a human face peeked through the bridge window, and the camera outside the ship was capturing a visual of its glowing eyes. It was an icy cold stare, and those eyes were staring at Zinnerman and company coldly as if it was grading the people inside the ship— “Is that thing…moving by itself?”
[...]
Zinnerman did not have time to shout out as his back hit the ceiling, and he tumbled onto the floor. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that the “Gundam” above him was narrowing its eyes in a smile with its back against the plasma glow. The machine with the appearance of a white devil was definitely smiling, and its body was swaying amidst the vortex that swelled like a mirage.
In book five, it's easy to read the passage with Alberto and not be entirely sure whether the tether being cut was the intention from the start, if it was something Martha ordered, etc. In book six we get explicit confirmation that Alberto made a snap decision at that moment to kill Banagher. He has weird guilt-induced visions of a young Banagher while walking around the cyber-Newtype lab.
... Alberto suddenly went quiet as he stopped in his tracks, as he sensed someone moving at the corner leading to the elevator hall. At a corner of the passage that was somewhat dim because of energy conservation, there was a black shadow popping out from a corner. That shadow moved lightly, forming the shape of a human, and became a shadow of a 4, 5 year old child as it stared right back from the corner. Those familiar eyes looked like they were about to be etched in Alberto’s eyes, and he could not help but look away. Haven’t you had enough already? Alberto thought as he widened his tense eyes with fear. The child who looked eerily similar to Banagher Links suddenly disappeared, and the shadow of the foliage plant placed at the corner was dragged along the floor.
[...]
The white machine fell into the scorching abyss as the traction wire was snapped—he recalled that scene and asked himself whether it was the correct decision. At that time, he merely had the impulse of wanted to get rid of the “Unicorn” from his eyes, and he did not remember making a sane decision. That was because he was scared, and he hated the eyes of the “Unicorn” pilot that were the same as Cardeas—Banagher Links, who was protected by the machine Cardeas put so much effort in making, and who appeared several times in front of him. Those eyes that could overlap his own when he looked into the mirror looked like they would reveal the sins he committed over and over again…
There's a bit more detail given as to the history about the Newtype lab, and why it still exists despite being shuttered. We also learn that it's rumoured to be haunted by the gruesome ghosts of children, who presumably died during experimentation. Alberto is not having a good time, and blames his hallucinations on the rumours.
Now I need to talk about the thorny part:
A lot of the stuff from the novels surrounding Alberto, Martha and Marida that got removed in the anime is related to sexual violence.
Book six has an extreme amount of sexual violence in general.
Content warning for this section: rape / sexual assault, csa, incest. If at any point you want to skip past it, scroll down to the heading and image for Loni's section. SERIOUSLY. I'M NOT KIDDING.
Since I was already talking about Alberto, I'll start there:
Martha and Alberto have an incestuous relationship.
I'm being pretty thorough with my current reread. I'm paying attention to everything, even stuff I don't especially like or find immediately interesting. If anything ever seems really out there, I try to crosscheck the Japanese (for as much as that helps, as a non-speaker). My previous read was much more casual, and I definitely started skimming whenever the incest came up.
As I continue reading into novel seven and beyond, I'm finding that it is... more relevant and also more severe than I remembered. I actually double-checked some scenes from later novels because I was wondering about something, and I'm fairly certain now that the implication is that Martha started grooming Alberto when he was a young teenager. That detail in particular significantly re-frames the kind of antagonist she is, for me.
You can already read sexual malice or eroticism into her interactions with various characters (Marida...), but that's not the same as being a canonical child sexual abuser. It's not like CCA Char stringing Quess along to manipulate her into the robot, or Haman trying and failing to seduce Judau in ZZ. There's no less damning explanation, and it's too prominent for "I pretend I do not see it" to feel like a viable reaction.
Unfortunately for the part of me that just wants to gleefully watch a sexy middle-aged lady be unrelentingly manipulative and terrible to everyone, I think continuing to ignore it would be failing to engage honestly with the text.
But hey, it's not in the anime. Anime Martha, at least, still gets to evil in the uncomplicated and fun kind of way.
I'm definitely going to be paying more attention to this aspect of Alberto as I reread. Unlike the other characters with csa backstories, I do not have any kind of developed opinions about how his is handled...
I wanted to get Martha and Alberto out of the way first because their Whole Situation spans multiple books. They are far from the most prominent instance of sexual violence in book six specifically. They only get three or so lines of unsettling innuendo, if I'm remembering right.
It's not a problem that sexual violence exists in the novels-- some of it is thematically or narratively interesting, and even important to why I'm so attached to certain characters. The problem is the sheer amount of it that gets thrown at you all at once, and how gratuitous it can get. Book six in particular overshoots 'shocking' and 'emotional', right into 'annoying'. It's excessive to the point of feeling stupid, and it cheapens scenes that I think could otherwise be resonant and meaningful.
This is something that's true of many (though not all) of the things I don't like in the Unicorn books-- they feel like frustrating over-extensions of things I did like about them. It's like Fukui doesn't know where to stop, and just takes bigger and bigger swings until it just becomes grossly self-indulgent (or in worse cases, reveals some kind of unpleasant bias).
I still remember reading Marida's backstory in book 5 for the first time and thinking I liked how it was handled, only for next book to go back and do it again but worse. Amazing.
There's a nightmare sequence when she's being brainwashed that has a sudden rape in the middle. It's more graphic than her backstory, which was often explained through metaphor, focused on Marida's emotions, implied through environmental details in the aftermath, etc. This one is just Fukui literally describing an assault to you.
She eventually kills her assailant, but is horrified to look and find the corpse is Zinnerman. Maybe that could have gotten me as a grossout horror moment if it wasn't the endcap for a sequence I didn't like, in a book that's already full of this shit. It's also just not necessarily the kind of shock factor I'm looking for from Gundam specifically. Whatever.
We're later told that the content of the brainwashing is based on Martha, but it's not explained exactly what that means (at least, it is unclear in the English fan translation). The nightmare does start out with Marida witnessing a snippet of Martha's childhood where she attends her father's funeral. Does it draw on her memories? Her worldview? Is it some kind of automatic generative process, or did she write it like a script? We don't know.
At the end of the nightmare, Marida sees herself as a child crying over Zinnerman's body, as an obvious parallel to the funeral of Martha's father at the beginning. I liked this. Shame about the middle.
I said I would come back to Globe. The novel version of the story has significant discussion of rape, including of children. When I compare the fan translation to the Japanese version, some of the lines might be slightly mistranslated, but the actual meanings are never describing anything less grotesque. One of them seems to actually be saying something worse than I had assumed, which is impressive.
The story in the anime states there were no survivors, which is not the case in the book, although there were certainly many horrible deaths.
(The novel tells us directly that a specific character is a survivor of the massacre at Globe. I've already been told that the backstory I'm talking about was cut from the anime, so I guess it's a moot point.
But since the story is being told by Flaste, it's not like some small number of survivors unrelated to him would necessarily be something he'd know about, I guess...)
Flaste also tells Banagher that there was footage of the violence at Globe that ended up being circulated on the black market. Attempting to track down and eliminate the source of the videos is what led to them finding Marida, since she was trafficked through the same network.
I'm done with this part. Unfortunately, the next section is possibly even more thorny.
Loni and Mahdi Garvey
Content warning for this section: racism / orientalism / islamophobia, allusions to real life terrorist attacks, one brief reference to sexual violence. The worst of it is over after you get to the heading "Who is Loni?", but if you want to skip all the way to the conclusion you can always scroll down to the last two images (Loni crying + the Shamblo with the destroyed cockpit).
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The novel version of the Shamblo requires multiple pilots. The attack on Dakar is carried out by Loni, her two brothers Walid and Abbas, and her father Mahdi.
Novel Loni is generally a voice of mercy and restraint, although she still willingly participates in the operation. Much of her original dialogue during combat has been given to Kirks in the OVA.
Mahdi Garvey is the vengeful, resentful force that wants to punish the Federation for its crimes and destroy its symbols. He is the one who orders attacks on unrelated buildings and refuses to change course to reduce collateral damage, much like OVA Loni does-- however, he is significantly more resistant to being reasoned with than she is, and never has any moments of doubt or regret.
Walid and Abbas have very little agency. I can't remember a single notable line of dialogue from either of them, nor any traits that differentiate them. They're just kind of there in the background, usually doing whatever what Mahdi tells them to do.
All of these characters are explicitly Muslim in the novels.
One of the very first things we're told about Mahdi is that he has multiple wives and many children, but that Loni and her siblings are the 'purest' of his bloodline. We learn this after the destruction of the Federation submarine, while he tells them not to look away from the blood and entrails of the enemies they just killed. We later learn that he harbours a deep grudge not only against the Federation, but specifically against "White Men" -- he usually calls them Franks in Japanese.
I hate this character. I was so relieved when I heard they removed him from the anime. Most important call they made in the entire production, I think.
(The fan translation incorrectly translates "multiple wives and many children" as "many wives and many concubines," so English readers get an even worse first impression, by the way. I made sure to check everything I'm going to complain about in this section so I'm not slandering Fukui for the translator's mistakes.)
Mahdi talks about his religion quite a bit, but he's not portrayed as a religious extremist. He is not a fundamentalist. He doesn't seem to believe his quest for vengeance is something he is divinely commanded to do, although he certainly believes it is morally justified. He's completely fine with his unveiled daughter driving on her own to go pick up two unrelated, non-Muslim men (but he definitely expects her to give him lots of Muslim grandchildren).
His grievances with the Federation don't involve any particular hostility to secularism. He is angry about the Federation officially saying God is dead at the start of the Universal Century, and about the extraction of wealth from Muslim countries that he believes was an intentional destruction of Islamic society-- but I think those are entirely different issues.
You could try to make calls on whether this choice, or any other individual choice made about this character, is less or more offensive than the alternative-- but I think it's beside the point.
Mahdi isn't a Muslim because Islam is specifically important to his motivations; Mahdi is a Muslim because of what that is supposed to represent to the audience. Mahdi is a Muslim because because of the symbol of the Muslim terrorist in the global consciousness, and because Fukui wanted to invoke imagery of 9/11. His character is inherently a bit incoherent, because he's an amalgam of stereotypes about The Other.
I get the feeling a significant part of the research process for this character was looking at the wikipedia page for Osama Bin Laden. I assume Fukui made him less militantly religious than obvious real-life inspirations either because he believed it would be less controversial, or because it meant he wouldn't have to do as much research about Islam.
The through-line from the better-handled themes of the first five books that eventually leads to the terrible destination of Mahdi Garvey is pretty easy to see. It was deeply, deeply frustrating for me to get invested in the way the series acknowledged and engaged with global structural racism (even when it occasionally got a little clumsy or heavy-handed), only for it to drop this on me six books in.
I actually think this mess of a character was probably intended to be a complex, terrible-but-understandable antagonist? I'm completely serious. That's the whole reason it works to transpose his general motivations onto Loni, after removing all the stereotypes and real-world cultural references.
Mahdi is textually compared to Zinnerman (vengeance for the deaths of loved ones and injustice and violence against one's people), and Zinnerman is obviously framed as sympathetic. Mahdi pretty much has the same kind of backstory framework, just with "Muslims" instead of the fictional "Zeon."
Mahdi is also explicitly textually compared to Alberto (inheritor of an established family legacy and all the pressure that entails). Alberto is complicated, but I think he's also a sympathetic antagonist.
And then there's the very first character we meet in the novels, Syam. Syam is also a man from the Middle East who was negatively affected by the Federation's cultural imperialism, and Syam also participates in a terrorist attack. There's even a mention that the guys who recruited him were infiltrating religious institutions, though Syam was not brought in that way, and the religions in question are left unspecified.
Maybe you're wondering why I was so annoyed that Syam's backstory was removed, given I'm glad that Mahdi's was cut. The way they're handled is significantly different.
When he participates in the attack on Laplace, Syam is a nobody with rational motivations to do something awful. His backstory is there to talk about the material conditions and pressures that foment terrorism, including terrorism targeting oppressive governments, and the ways that powerful people take advantage of the desperate.
Mahdi is arguably sort of also that, but it's delivered through the lens of a deranged islamophobic caricature. lol
Syam's story is also a lot vaguer than Mahdi's, when it comes to real-world details. I'm sure there are criticisms one could make of that, too, but I still believe it's preferable in this case. The more you increase the specificity of real-world details in your future scifi world, the more knowledge or personal experience with the subject you need to pull it off convincingly.
Also, Syam not being white made our protagonist explicitly multiracial by extension, which I liked.
(Perhaps interesting: Loni seems to think of Banagher as being within the category of "Frank", but I'm pretty sure Mahdi identified him on sight as someone with "non-Western" heritage. This does not lead him to treat Banagher with any more respect or courtesy, however. Calling Banagher "the Key to the Box" is significantly more dehumanizing in his mouth than Loni's.)
Here's a quote that I think represents Mahdi at his most understandable and humanized. It happens right before he has the Shamblo blow up a hotel full of people out of spite, lmao:
Loni ignored her two brothers who were unable to speak up as she got up from her seat and gave a tense look at her father. Mahdi took her stare “Loni, [those people mocked me].” ... “[A barbarian] who’ll only imitate the white men on the surface, but [still hangs a knife on his waist]…that’s how those people viewed me. Whether it’s the receptionist, the [doorman], or any guest that brushed by, I can tell from their eyes even if they wouldn’t say it. Those people sold their souls to the society of white men, no matter the color of the skin. To those people, we’re just caged animals, pitiful beasts that are reared in the zoo to exchange for the self-satisfaction of a multi-cultural society.” Am I crazy? Mahdi asked himself in a corner of his mind, Then let me go crazy. and then answered his own question as he looked away from the speechless Loni. Father, grandfather, Loni’s mother, they all died in despair and hatred. I could only keep living to vent the regrets of those souls. I interacted with top-class education and culture in those white men’s society, and continued to be an alien that hated them. I tasted the feelings of bitterness, deceit and infidelity, I lived through such a life full of oxymorons, and it’s to be expected that I’ll lose my mind, but it’s all for this day. What should I do if I don’t unleash my madness? Who’s the one causing me to go mad!?
(I made edits to his dialogue here to more closely match the Japanese. The original fan translation said "those people used to mock us," and continued to use plural throughout the explanation, but the original line refers specifically to himself. I'm pretty sure it's specifically about when he was recently there, for his meeting with Banagher and Zinnerman.)
Again, the revenge narrative is basically the same thing we get from Zinnerman. And that part about feeling alienated from whiteness and being looked-down upon even as a highly educated, culturally assimilated person-- that's a real experience of racism! I've heard this sentiment from people in real life!
The problem is that Fukui put that sentiment in the mouth of a character who's a mishmash of stereotypes based on cultural fears that the non-Muslim world has about Muslim men.
The problem is that the only explicitly Muslim characters in this series exist to be terrorists in a heavy-handed 9/11 reference.
Another side note: the bit about the knife. Mahdi carries around a shamshir. When it was first mentioned I was just like "okay, he has a sword. Maybe it's a family heirloom or something." When Banagher notices it, he interprets it as representing racial / cultural pride as a person from the Middle East. Okay.
Fukui knows most of the obvious things about Islam. He knows about daily prayers, and that Muslim women often cover their hair and dress modestly. He knows that idolatry is a sin. He knows that Muslims are not wholly uniform in beliefs and practices. He knows the phrase "inshallah". I'm skeptical about his familiarity with the contents of the Quran beyond that, or the concepts of sunnah / hadith, or the differences between any specific major branches of Islam.
("Inshallah" comes up because Full Frontal says it as an ostensible gesture of cultural respect and cooperation, and Mahdi begrudgingly responds in kind with "Sieg Zeon". Hm.)
There's a bit where Loni gives an explanation to Banagher that liberal Muslims exist, which I guess might be necessary for an audience unfamiliar with Islam. It doesn't feel much like the kind of explanation an actual Muslim woman would give when asked why she doesn't cover her hair and/or face, though. It also immediately gets used as an excuse to scare Banagher with an example of supposed fundamentalist Muslim beliefs (basically, 'if I had been from one of those groups, seeing my looks would mean you either have to marry me or be executed').
Sorry to keep going on asides, but I actually recently watched a youtube video that contrasted Fukui's use of Islam in Unicorn with Ohtagaki's use of Buddhism in Thunderbolt. Since I'm currently reading the Thunderbolt manga, I thought it was interesting.
It amused me a little how the essayist skirts around specifically calling Unicorn's portrayal offensive or bigoted, instead settling for calling it "cringe."
You get the picture, right? I'm sure I could keep dredging up more examples, but I'll move on to how the events play out.
The Shamblo attacks the city as planned. Mahdi is bloodthirsty and vengeful, Loni is troubled, and the brothers are just kind of there. Mahdi has the Shamblo deliberately blow up an unrelated hotel.
Riddhe is flying around, witnessing everyone exploding and having a nervous beakdown about it. Mahdi refuses to change course to reduce civilian casualties when Loni asks.
Banagher fights Zinnerman, launches in the Unicorn, and saves Riddhe from getting crumpled like an empty soda can. Riddhe starts carrying Banagher around so they can do sick aerial stunts.
Then Mahdi has the Shamblo attack "The Trade Center." Fuck off, Fukui. You hack.
Since Loni is hooked into the psycommu, she hears all the deaths as they happen. This is finally too much for her, and she pulls off the helmet and begs her father to stop. Enraged, Mahdi yells at Loni about her mother's death.
The exposition here feels very awkward. Mahdi just drops this story on the reader at the last minute while chastising Loni, who obviously already knew about it. This really didn't need to be treated like a reveal.
“We should have expressed our thoughts sufficiently. I learned that Allah has a merciful and understanding heart. if we continue to massacre, we’ll be defying God.” She climbed up the ladder beside the seat and approached the captain’s seat. “What are you doing? Get back to your seat.” Mahdi growled, but Loni ignored him as she approached. “There are women and children on the Federation streets too. Father, please show mercy…” “Shut up! Did you forget how your mother died!?” [...] “Your mother killed a Federation soldier in the midst of the chaos after the war. She killed a despicable soldier who intended to rape a Muslim female in a refugee camp. The jury was completely one-sided, your mother was sentenced to death, and I couldn’t do anything to save her. I could only let your mother die all just to protect the trust of the company, all just to protect the cursed inheritance as a “Descendant of Dubai”! I endured everything all for the sake of this moment. I’m going to use this “Shamblo” to wreck the parliament hall and prompt all the Muslims to rise up. Our family’s tragic wish will be fulfilled soon, and now even you want to betray me?” The tears rolled down his suddenly widened eyes, dampening his face. This isn’t father. It’s impossible for such a man to be my father. Loni thought, but felt that this might be the first time she was seeing her father’s true state, ...
Realizing she cannot change his mind, Loni pulls a gun on her father. However, he pulls out his own gun and shoots her instead. As she loses consciousness, she reaches out to Banagher with her mind.
The Shamblo's bits are no longer effective without Loni controlling them. Hearing Loni's dying voice telling him to take down the machine, Banagher destroys the Shamblo.
Loni's brothers start arguing with Mahdi after he shoots Loni, but that doesn't save them by leading to a change of heart. They die alongside him in the cockpit.
Who is Loni?
Obviously, Loni is a Lalah archetype. She's one of at least three slightly different Lalah allusions in these books, which is kind of a lot, but I do like that one of them is a man.
Both versions of Loni's death scene have references to Lalah's dialogue in First Gundam ("I finally got to meet you," "It's sad, isn't it?").
Her eyes in the novel are green, also like Lalah. Because of her eye colour, Banagher mentally compares her to Audrey, and also... to his mom. The joke writes itself.
Banagher has significantly more face-to-face interaction with Loni in the novel than the OVA. Because of this, his relationship to her is more personal, at least before they get into each other's heads.
Novel Loni is knowledgeable, patient, and fond of children. She tells Banagher she wants to have ten kids.
She's a nice girl, I guess. It's not really possible to divorce her portrayal as a character from the portrayal of her father, Islam, and Muslims generally. The logic is built into her. I much prefer the character the OVA gave us.
They didn't have to change her character in order to remove the references to Islam. They could have just as easily kept Mahdi as the antagonist while making the Muslims-Zeon swap. I do like what they did, though.
By taking her father's role while also still retaining some of her own, Loni becomes even more central to her arc. She gets to be the primary antagonist and the person that Banagher wants to save. I think it's cool.
Like I said before, I try to avoid getting too deep into spoilers for later novels, but Loni's death in the novel has a number of things in common with the death of another female character that happens later. They're a little too similar for me. I'm sure it's an intentional parallel, but there's not enough contrast for me to find it juicy... I just don't think the narrative actually needs two different female characters to heroically sacrifice themselves so a male character can feel sad about shooting them. Of the two, Loni was the better choice for a rewrite, since this arc needed one anyway.
She still dies, obviously, and Banagher is still sad. There's even still a Lalah callback-- but it's a distinctly different kind of tragedy than the one that happens later. Barring any unexpected future changes, I personally think it's an improvement.
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Look! A major theme!
Loni's father is still a presence in the OVA, in much the same way Loni's grandparents were for Mahdi in the novel. This is a story about ghosts of the past.
Tying Loni's rampage in the anime to a runaway psycommu is an interesting difference, especially given she says "Father?" right before it goes haywire. There's almost an insinuation that the machine is possessed.
This works as a metaphor, but if Mahdi was the previous pilot it could theoretically be literal, in much the same way that Neo Zeon managed to get some kind of Essence of Char from the Sazabi's Psycho-Frame when they created Frontal. Mahdi also presumably still developed and built the Shamblo, whether he piloted it or not.
"That isn't her, she's being enslaved."
Loni does describe her father as being swallowed or consumed by the machine in the novel, and she also describes the Shamblo itself as a force "leading people down the wrong path". I definitely interpreted this as metaphorical, though. Loni was the only one with her brain actually hooked into the psycommu.
They did a good job emphasizing the weight of family history as a theme in the OVA. The hands that reach down and pull Banagher's psychic projection away from her face! Again, I love the potential implications.
It's possible there's supplemental information or interviews about this somewhere, but I kind of prefer not having specific lore explanations behind what's happening in these scenes. I like the ambiguity.
Another interesting detail about OVA Loni is the explicit statement of "there's nothing left for me" / "there's no place for me" as a reason why she cannot stop.
This isn't part of her character in the novel, nor Mahdi's, even if loss and being consumed by revenge obviously is. I really like that it adds another connection to Zinnerman and Flaste's dialogue about how they felt after Globe.
I can't stop thinking about how easily I could draw a compelling parallel between the OVA version of Loni and the novel version Riddhe. They simply do not exist in the same universe. They both only ever passingly overhear the less interesting version of each other-- assuming they even notice the other as an individual at all, rather than just an enemy machine.
It's sad, isn't it?
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I really like this visual. The hand motif strikes again...
The novel ends with Riddhe and Banagher both knocked out by the Banshee. It also reveals that Marida is the pilot, since Banagher senses her presence. The OVA places its cliffhanger a little earlier, right after the initial reveal.
I'm excited to watch the next one. We've hit the point where I feel like I'm starting to lose my "advantage", so to speak, in terms of knowing what's coming. It's exciting! I enjoy watching these a lot. Even when I dislike a change, I still like thinking and writing about it.
Sorry for the sheer length of this beast, and a huge thank you to the handful of dedicated Unicorn fans following me who are always excited and encouraging. Knowing anyone out there gets something out of these makes my day, and I appreciate your thoughtful responses. ✌️
I'm so glad to be done with novel six. Holy shit.
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sunset-aria · 1 year ago
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Amber's Art Resource Compilation (The Return!)
Once upon a time, I used to regularly share link collections of helpful art resources here that I would stumble across on my various feeds and timelines, both to keep track of them for myself for later reference, and to share them with others who also might find these resources useful or interesting. And considering how many websites most folks are spread across nowadays? It seems like as good a time as any for me to start doing this again! Feel free to share and reblog to whoever you think will benefit!
(I would recommend that if there's any links that you find particularly helpful, perhaps save the image or video to your computer for safekeeping. I have no idea how long Twitter links will work because of obvious site shenanigans, even with Nitter as a workaround...)
TIPS, TRICKS, AND TECHNIQUES
Drawing easy straight lines in CSP with line variance! (I use this one all the time now):
https://nitter.net/PharanBrush/status/1573559518830940160
Every layer blending mode explained in detail!
https://nitter.net/DanHollick/status/1583080119068807168
A digital inking tip for unsure artists: use a blurred sketch!
https://nitter.net/quasimaddi/status/1585011119277555712
Tips for drawing motion blur by hand:
https://nitter.net/stardustjarr/status/1553140493462241280
Divide layer trick for removing unwanted colours for a picture! (Works great for cleaning up scans)
https://nitter.net/DaveRapoza/status/1513918096922226694
Quick perspective tip: think in several layers of depth!
https:/nitter.net/toni_infante/status/1530209210558042114
A trick for handling 1-point perspective in backgrounds:
https://nitter.net/djamilaknopf/status/1478738291386204160
And another interesting perspective insight from someone else in the same thread:
https://nitter.net/Masa_Ikku/status/1478747970233585667
Easy architectural facades for buildings: paint it flat, skew, and expand!
https://nitter.net/DevinElleKurtz/status/1481791432490815489
Sinix Design: Anatomy Quick Tips. A playlist of videos focusing on how to break down and draw specific parts of body anatomy. (A favorite resource of mine!)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflflDShjUKH4EfZyf0vuKEuqeqvlV0Qd
EDITED TO ADD: Thank you to Honeybees for a wonderful link to some additional book resources!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vEv0qEQKeGuWI4MPUcX8adWtNuGtTgSB
This folder contains:
"Anatomy for Sculptors", "Anatomy of Facial Expression", and "Form of the Head and Neck" by Uldis Zarins. An invaluable set of resources for understanding the 3D volumes of the human body from all angles! Goes into detail about skeletal structure and musculature, with photos and 3D models to help break down structures.
Volume 1 through 6 of "Hamm Tips", an amazing PDF archive of knowledge from the late Jon Hamm's art advice Twitter. Covering a wide variety of topics from inking to composition to visual narrative, there's a little bit of everything to learn here! (These PDFs are also still available to purchase on https://jessehamm.gumroad.com/ Proceeds go towards supporting Hamm's wife.)
The Morpho Series by Michel Lauricella: "Clothing Folds and Creases", "Fat and Skin Folds", "Hands and Feet", "Simplified Forms Anatomy for Artists", and "Skeleton and Bone Reference Points". A collection of detailed drawn figures and studies covering a variety of essential topics. Especially helpful if you find it easier to learn from seeing drawings rather than photos or 3D models!
DOWNLOADABLE TOOLS AND ASSETS
Baydews shares their favorite CSP brushes:
https://nitter.net/baydews/status/1607413330444169219?t=wH2Ijop-0llRr_HUF-0PTA&s=19
Master list of CSP brushes and assets!
https://cspmasterlist.carrd.co/
CSP Perspective Box asset:
https://nitter.net/PharanBrush/status/1687876570764238848?t=82DGi0khF8qtZTrndemHhg&s=19
Extensive 3D prop resource (Models can be imported into CSP and more!)
https://thebasemesh.com/
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Line of Action, a figure drawing resource tool! Most folks probably know this one, but it's still worth pointing out as a favorite for gesture drawing practice of many kinds:
https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
AdorkaStock, another great resource for pose photos:
https://www.adorkastock.com/sketch/
A reference search resource for finding photos of human heads from specific angles:
http://referenceangle.com/
A similar resource to above, but for animal heads from specific angles:
https://x6ud.github.io/#/
And another, for finding photos of poses with limbs in specific positions:
https://x6ud.github.io/pose-search/#/
Japanese terms for certain eye shapes, with photo examples:
https://nitter.net/authorkurikuri/status/1597780432526925824?t=45tt1w6XFisqf53wLpW4TQ&s=19
Need pose inspiration for a mermaid? Try photos of skaters!
https://nitter.net/BelgharbiHouda/status/1521578742203752453
Actual mermaid poses, in 3D model form, with multiple turnaround angles:
https://nitter.net/kingcholera/status/1466065821835403271?t=QOTTQ_NaM4lC67hjaIWHKw&s=19
KingCholera's Patreon is a great resource for free 3D model poses! (Select "public" in the Tier dropdown at the top of their Patreon post feed to get a list of currently available free resources):
https://www.patreon.com/kingcholera
Another example from KingCholera's public ref collection: shoe refs (turnarounds)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/480-shoe-pt-2-70970957?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshare_creator
PAID RESOURCES
Eco-friendly bubblewrap substitute (helpful if you sell merch):
https://www.ecoenclose.com/shop/greenwrap/
Plushie sewing templates and tutorials from an awesome plushie artist, NazFX:
https://nazegoreng.gumroad.com/
MISC RESOURCES
Font help: good title and body typeface pairings:
https://nitter.net/Unenthuser/status/1539391099919224837
Font: SS Pretzel comic-friendly font:
https://nitter.net/salinsley/status/1445752040123092998?t=JqHW97mq0Zsie84vddCkPg&s=19
Rarebit: a Neocities webcomic website template:
https://nitter.net/spellsquad/status/1537116379706298368
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