#ministrife style

[axlestuck]

do you have any problem sleuth ministrife sprites ((ugh my comptuer wont let me put a question mark pretend there is one :(

I didn't, but I made one, just for you :)

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

how do you feel about march eridan?

Ok disclaimer before I get into it, trolls wearing dresses = great and fantastic; in fact, given that the gender differences in troll culture are so much less significant, ALL the male trolls should own some femme-ass clothes, even if it's as simple as just having a skirt version of their pants, and it's a little lame that we didn't get that.

That said, March Eridan specifically kind of annoys me because it has 0 basis in canon (aside from some shoutouts in things like ministrife sprites) but has taken over Eridan discussions so wholly that it's become widely accepted as part of his character that he's really into femme stuff when the opposite is true, and he's got some pretty major characterization tied up in the fact that he does lean so masc, and what specific type of masc he tends to present as.

So first of all, Eridan dresses up to emulate Dualscar, and this is very obvious and straightforward; if you've read the big essay I have pinned to my blog, you know that this is all a part of his basic "I have to be a big bad sea dweller or Something Bad Will Happen" suite of issues.

Thus, we can ALSO assume that the choices he made that aren't made to emulate Dualscar are reflective of his ACTUAL taste in clothing. For example, blue pants instead of purple and black - I believe that this is because Eridan likes to dress up in the blood colors of his dates; he wears a lot of blue because he's hatedating Vriska (and never quite seems to get 100% over her), and we also see this in the rings on his fingers - half of which are fuchsia, for Feferi.

So that leaves us with the glasses, shoes, and scarf. And we know why he dresses like that! It's because he's a hipster. (The scarf has an added benefit of being associated with harry potter-style wizards).

CCG: PAST YOU, PRESENT YOU, FUTURE YOU CCG: AND ABOVE ALL, UGLY SCARFNECKED DOUCHEBAG HIPSTER YOU CCG: WAIT I FORGOT, ALL OF THE YOUS ARE THAT YOU

And very specifically, a masc hipster from the era - the glasses and the ugly-ass shoes are dead giveaways. The slicked-back hair is reminiscent of that fashion style, too. He is also a douchebag. This too is important. He draws from character archetypes of the time that were generally agreed upon to be the most punchable people in existence; his introduction calls him "KIND OF A TOOL" and he consistently acts according to that. Like, I mean, just LOOK at those shades. Those are not the shades of somebody you want to be trapped in a conversation with.

A fairly accurate Eridan fashion board would look something like this:

And, like, it kind of matters that he dresses like this specific breed of pretentious male douchebag; on a meta level, that's the impression he's supposed to give the audience, and on a diegetic level, he CHOOSES to look like this because he has these kinds of interests, but is relegating them to secondary accessories.

We never hear him talk about liking hipster shit; we have to hear it from Karkat and glean it from his design. This is because, as I've talked about before, he actively distances himself from things that make him happy, things that he'd enjoy. The constant push-pull between his ACTUAL interests, and the ones he thinks he has to have because he's supposed to be a big nasty sea dweller, is a huge part of his characterization - for example, the way he keeps claiming that magic and wizards are fake and shitty, but has no less than 6 wizard statues in his respiteblock alone, and cared about his crappy wands enough to bring them onto the meteor.

So that's one of my other issues with March Eridan and the general fanon that he'd be really into femme clothes (and, by extension, fashion) - he wouldn't be forthcoming about it, even if it was true. He has a deep sense of shame and insecurity surrounding what few interests he actually has, because they feel stupid, ridiculous, and frivolous, next to the intense anxiety he has about playing the role society gave him. He's got a very strong sense of duty that makes it very difficult for him to relax and actually enjoy something. Which, you know, probably feeds into his hipster-ness - a movement often defined more by what it doesn't approve of than what it does.

Canon Eridan, when he has a choice of what to wear, overwhelmingly chooses masculine clothing with hipster connotations. And this matters, it's part of his characterization, it says something about him, the same way that it's important that Karkat dresses very simply and baggily (we all know how many insecurities Karkat has about his body) or that Sollux's bifurcation is shown in his clothes. So please please please don't misunderstand my dislike of March Eridan as me saying I don't want him in dresses; I purely dislike it because it's usually SUCH a misread of his character.

And to prove it, here's my other gripe with March Eridan stuff: all the dresses shown in the not-canon "official" artworks don't even flatter his bodytype. Why do his custom mannequins in Pesterquest have CURVES when his Pesterquest sprite doesn't?????

Please, I'm begging you, there are guides for dressing this body type, and even historical fashions that deliberately try to emulate this body type, please if you're going to dress him femme and HC that he enjoys fashion, please put him in clothes that flatter him please

I think Eridan should own some femme clothes, because on Alternia, there are very few differences between the genders, he's rich enough to afford it, and he clearly has more of an interest in fashion in general - but I think the fact that he has a clear canon preference for masculine styles is significant, and I'm really annoying, so it kind of does bothers me that this is a controversial opinion. That being said, I don't want to tell people what they Should and Should Not do, because that's lame. Who cares. He's a fictional character, let people draw him in dresses. Would be very happy if this post causes people to draw him in different styles of dresses though :pray:

[alienjaylien]

I wanted to do pixel art for my minecraft world and ended up doing a bunch of one piece characters in the homestuck ministrife style. At some point I'll probably upload the regular pixel art of the sprites because I put a lot of effort into them.

[gansimcha]

pixeled my friends' and my waterdeep characters in the style of @feastings-old 's homestuck ministrife pixels!! <3

[davekat-sucks]

i never really understood the hate march eridan got, i mean im pretty sure it isnt canon anyway so why are people upset about it?

let eridan be a drag queen femboy

It's because when the original art for it was shown and made as a gag, people hate the whole crossdressing / in-drag as a joke. The art style really emphasizes this too, even if said weird art style was also applied to other characters.

But now because of Pesterquest suddenly making it seem like he has gender issues instead of Eridan only dressing up because he is a racist vain bastard from the first class, it's okay for some reason. The question of canonity even prior to Pesterquest was that it also appeared the Ministrife Openbound (mid left corner of the group and one in the middle of the top right side)

So a March Eridan does exist in a Doomed Timeline and has likely participated in Collide too. Despite people forget Doomed Timeline means said timeline didn't matter, people accepted it because that means it could have happened if Paradox Space allowed it so. And people hated that Eridan crossdressing from the original gag joke, whether or not said March Eridans had done it as a joke or not (lack of context too doesn't help), people think it is offensive and only doing it to make fun of crossdressers.

[venaxle]

i love a good ministrife sprite when done well bc they have so much fucking personality that you cant get with a regular homestuck sprite.

the homestuck sprites are confined to Stands There for the most part and they don't get much more expressive without REALLY pushing your limits. to make a homestuck sprite have a unique silhouette you pretty much only have shape language. and that gets really difficult when you get to species like cherubs, who don't have hair OR horns. (the non kid/troll/cherub sprites are fucking amazing though and i think the felt have the best sprites in the entire comic yes i'm completely serious)

ministrifes you can do so much more with pose wise and identity wise, you aren't confined to them standing there and it's honestly imo much more fun to work with an interesting pose than to do the same basic sprite over, and over, and over. when you get familiar with the style you can experiment with body shapes and it adds a whole other layer that again regular homestuck sprites struggle to achieve without pushing your limits

tldr: i love ministrife :)

[relaxxattack]

@thisisntseriousbusiness it feels very strange to be the one explaining march eridan, considering it once had to be explained to me, but basically— over a decade ago in the early homestuck heyday, the platform they were using to make merch at the time created a homestuck calendar you could buy ,with each month’s picture being fanart contributed by a community fan artist.

the fanart made for the month march, as you can see, is done is a vastly different style from most popular mspa fanart; it’s rendered with extreme detail and harsh lighting, giving each character defined musculature and facial detail in a way that sort of feels like an uncanny valley.

the art itself is a scene of jade, kanaya, rose, and eridan all dressing up in cute costumes, with eridan wearing an outfit of then-popular emo girl clothes (he’s got a tube top and striped arm socks with a miniskirt, iirc). having a group of people get in costume and one member of the group be cross-dressing for shock humor was sort of a common joke in older cartoons if i remember right.

but of course, this being 2010, instead of just criticizing the strangeness of the artstyle or joke or way it was presented, people were wildly transphobic and misogynistic about the whole thing. the piece of art got memed a fuck ton, called “march eridan” in reference to its debut as the calendar.

march eridan appeared in actual homestuck during “ministrife!” (along with quite a lot of other ‘joke’ character outfits), but was not actually considering seriously as a concept by a wider portion of the fandom until later, when queerphobia was less accepted on the internet, to my understanding.

in eridans’ official pesterquest route in 2020, the player can learn that eridan has complicated thoughts and feelings about gender and enjoys collecting and probably dressing in nonconforming, feminine clothing. this sort of thing is actually somewhat supported in homestuck proper by details such as eridan being the only male troll drawn with full lips, or the way he seems to care a good deal about style.

of course i’m just parroting back what i understand about this, there’s likely bits and history i missed since i wasn’t involved in that.

transfem (march) eridan being started by a transfem egg and then turned into a meme that went for so long people started liking it unironically and then eventually becoming canon is like. such a strange story but also really interesting. like “oh yeah the early internet was so transphobic that this singular piece of art got memed to hell and back, but making it so infamous made it so that almost a decade later it got folded back into canon and now the character is actually implied transfem”. i can’t really explain why this is fascinating to me, i guess it’s that combination of homestuck being around for so fucking long that the internet is totally different now, but also how great it is that it ended up how it did. idk

[fridgeful-o-help]

MADE THIS BECAUSE ITS THE BIRTHDAY OF LIKE.. AN ACQUAINTANCE? - MOD MURKAT 

[prospitian-moirails]

A Fan-kid sprite of Roux Leyden (they/them) that I made for @capnclay !

Requests are open! Please read our carrd before submitting an ask. Ministrife credit to feastings and sakurablitz.

[axlestuck]

Tag and Link Directory

A list of the tags and important links of my blog.

Links Request and Sprite Tracker - a spreadsheet containing statuses of every request I currently have and the progress of several projects. Ministrife Archive - a compiled version of every ministrife sprite publicly available, also including my own edits of things that never got sprites. Tiny Symbol Sprites - a collection of sprites I made and refined of the Aspects, Extended Zodiac, and more.

General Tags #my sprites - This should contain every sprite post I've made. #request - This should contain every request I've made. All requests are also tagged with the name of who sent it, or Anonymous. #original sprites - Sprites created completely by me. #not a sprite post - Other posts. #reblog - Reblogs from other sprite and Homestuck blogs.

Usage Tags #free to use - Sprites free to use without credit. Mostly shipping edits and sprites I've made for the Ministrife Archive. #free to use / credit me - The most common tag. Free to use, but I'd like credit if using. #ask permission for use - Sprites requiring specific permission to be used as I want to know what's being done with them.

Specific Sprite Type Tags: #ministrife - My ministrife collection. It grows daily. #panel sprite - Full, regular style sprites. "Panel sprite" alluding to them being the type you see in the panels. #alternabound - Alterniabound styled sprites.

Specific Project Tags: #everyswaps - My project to bloodswap, kidswap, and speciesswap every character every way. #hiveswap sprites - Sprites for the Hiveswap characters in varying styles. #alchemy outfit - Alchemy-styled outfits. #spritevember - 2023's Spritevember prompts. #extended zodiac - My sprites for my Extended Zodiac cast. This project is somewhat on hold until I have most of it done. #dreamself recolors - Recolors of dreamself sprites.

Other Tags: #sprite resources - Tutorials and other compiled resources for spriters. #bases - Free to use sprite bases.

#homestuck - Homestuck sprites. Really this might be applied to most posts. #hiveswap - Hiveswap related sprites. #problem sleuth - Problem Sleuth related sprites. #homestuck post canon - Post Canon and Beyond Canon related sprites.

#alt outfit - Alternate outfits in general. #fanspecies - Sprites related to fanspecies. #homestuck grimdark - Grimdark sprites. #trickster mode - Trickster sprites.

#bloodswap - Any swap using the troll species. #kidswap - Any swap between or into kids. #cherubswap - No posts currently. Swaps specifically into Cherubs. #speciesswap - Any swap wherein the species is changed.

Characters will be tagged with their full names IE "jade harley", "aradia megido", "wayward vagabond", "calliope". Exceptions: #egbert - Contains all John/June Egbert posts. June and John are tagged separately. #dad (homestuck) - Contains all Dad posts. Dad Egbert and Crocker are tagged separately. #jasprosesprite - Contains Jasprosesprite^2 sprites. #davepetasprite - Contains Davepetasprite^2 sprites. #problem sleuth (character) - Contains Problem Sleuth (the character) sprites.

[ad1ostoreador]

[maid-of-pixels]

*VAGUELY AGGRESSIVE TRUMPETING*

Alsephina Glazier, more commonly known as Sera. A fashion disaster, a talented trumpeter and a whimsical adventurer on the quest to collect as many pretty furniture/art/decoration items as they can possibly fit on their ship. And be famous, probably

[rogue-of-heart-classpecting]

Its so weird to me that the god tier outfits don’t have some differences depending on the person wearing it Like why can’t someone who really likes cats have a cat ear hood or something especially with heart players and heart is also identity 💀

Babygirl on the [S] MINISTRIFE! Page Meenah changes her outfit and explains that you can really style it any way you want. Your god tier self is supposed to be your idealized self. That’s why all the trolls (except karkat) gave themselves wings. It’s a cool mutation some trolls have, like rufioh. It would be like if you gave yourself freckles or… like giving yourself boobs or something. But anyway the outfits can definitely change too.

[hskinhome]

im gonna be playing around w some pixel sprites today and tomorrow so if anyone has any ministrife requests lemme know lmao

also if anyone has any OTHER pixel art styles theyd like to see the characters in lemme know, even if theyre noncanon swaps!

[silentneptune]

  Figured I should post this here as well, so!

Hey ya’ll, my commissions are open! I’ve had them open on my Twitter for a while but I’ll also open them on my Tumblr.

I currently have five (5) slots open so if you are interested, feel free to shoot me a message! Reblogging to spread around is also appreciated! Thank you!

More info on other art options, payment, and etiquette under the read more:

Options

Aside from half body (55$ base) and full body (75$ base) pieces as outlined above, I can also do:

Headshots (~25$ +15$ per character) 

Bustshots (~40$ + 20$ per character) 

Homestuck style sprites (~15$ + 10$ per character Comes with a Ministrife pixels as a bonus)

Black and white pixel icons (~20$ + 10$ per character)

Twitch emotes and badges (~10$ + 5$ per emote/badge)

Things to know before messaging me for commissions:

Payment should be full and upfront before I start the sketching process.

I usually try to update clients on commission progress. I show the full/finished sketch for any corrections or suggestions before moving on to lineart and so on. Corrections done after lineart and colors are fine if small but if they're more major (like angles, expression, etc.), I might charge extra. 

I need as much time as possible to work, so patience is appreciated! If your commission needs to be done by a deadline, please let me know before payment is done. 

Payment is done through PayPal (which I'll provide an email/link for in DMs).

[nepeta-tritoh]

Since I posted [this] I wanted to share the difference between my Ministrife edits, and the official ones

Dualscar being my example 'cause he's the only canon one I've edited in my personal style thus far.

Basically all I really do is tint the skin tone, add more colorful outlines, and I draw trolls with tails.. idk I just think they look neat side by side

oh also I give more leeway to horn shapes by making them lineless, some of my ocs have horns that r too thin 4 lines

Do not use / repost / tag as selfship (kin is fine!)