"These characters [Noa and Mae] have now saved each other, and they have a complicated connection [...] There is now a history and real feelings between the two [...]
Her whole journey is changed by meeting Noa just as much as his journey has been changed by meeting her. [...] If there is any chance for peace between those species, it will probably be between these two characters no matter what happens." -Wes Ball.
Here's that art piece I was working on along with the fanfic one shot! Mae and Noa recreating a scene from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This was made with colored pencils and black gel point pen.
Once again, I did some editing on my phone to make the colors pop, the lighting to look slightly darker like the scene, and made it look more like a vignette!
I did debate on whether making the background look like Proximus Caesar's ship. But I digress.
So you know how Belle's name means beauty and how she is the most beautiful girl in town? Well, the same goes for Nova's name.
In the original Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boulle, the feral human woman's appearance left such an impression on the protagonist that he names her Nova because she was as beautiful as a brilliant star. As beautiful as a supernova from space.
Which got me thinking how in the telescope scene, there are two things that fascinated Noa and left an impression on him. The brilliant stars in the telescope...and this human girl called Nova.
He was looking at two different types of pretty novas in this scene, hehe
Noa finding out humans kiss from old pictures or books and wants to try it with Mae, he’s not sure why she’s turning red
Mae needs something from Noa and instead of being truthful, kissing him will be more effective and Noa will absolutely go for it
Anaya walking in and seeing them leaning in about to kiss, and just being like oh 👀 “sorry echo, sorry Noa, I should go”
Mae waking up from a nap to find Noa watching her sleep, staring into his big green eyes, realizing he is so close
Mae siding with bad humans, Noa getting angry with her trying to explain to her Apes can live with humans, just to abruptly kiss her, “You aren’t like them Mae 🥺”
Noa telling Mae he’s done with her, “go back to the other humans, you’re selfish,” and Mae just kissing him, completely changing his mind in a second
Mae feeling like she’s losing it, she has a mission, she hasn’t been around other humans for a while, she feels like she’s going crazy, she shouldn’t trust an Ape…so why is Noa making her heart race…no one would ever know right…if they crossed that line, would it be so bad?
After kissing hard they both would just lay there, looking up at the stars, out of breath, in the darkness of night, trying not to realize the magnitude of what was happening between them
Noa giving Mae a small kiss thinking he is so brave to act on his feelings, only for her to show him what a real human kiss is like, tongue and all, she can’t let an ape best her after all
Mae falling on top of Noa, he sees her flustered and thinks he has the upper hand but the minute she kisses him from above like that his mind goes blank
Noa asking Raka more about Apes past with humans: “so were there any apes that had human lovers…just curious” Raka pretends to not know Noa has been locking lips with their human companion, if that’s what makes Noa happy, he’s happy.
Noa mourning his dad was so heartbreaking to see. I was expecting him to cry like a human would. But him kneeling and curling up like a ball, The way his eyes shift thinking and taking it all in and silently shedding tears was so impactful. The silence was loud! 💯
Turns out Owen did some research on how Chimpanzees understand the concept of death and how they mourn.
and it made the scene more heartbreaking! I love that they're giving alot of thought into bringing Noa to life. Its just perfect. 👌