#there have been like 3 iterations of this

[narsh-poptarts]

my dark link thoughts coalesced into wonderful headcanons and crazy amounts of forced perspectives and dutch angles

also sorry HW i would have included your dark link(s) but i do not have passion for your game <3 maybe next time

Some thoughts below

I have thoughts about dark link that boil down to basically two things: 1. it's always the same dark link, and 2. dark link has a very difficult time changing.

No matter how many times dark link is brought into existence, he is formed from the shadow of link usually to test link's will. that shadow can be duplicated (as seen in HW) but generally speaking it's the same guy, sharing the thought space, you know how it is. In terms of sentience/thinking for himself, I don't think there's all that much of it. He is a dark reflection/shadow of link, so shares his abilities and thought patterns (for combat) with added aggression and. evil. i guess.

As said by navi, "conquer yourself", and all that. He's a challenge to the inner will power.

That being said!!! he can have a little bit of individuality, as a treat. Just in the form of being mean and sadistic <3 he's got thoughts, he's not just a combat doll (tho in times of low power, or a greater power having the reins, he reverts to that), so he can be frustrated, vindicated, happy, etc etc. though when your thoughts are mainly "evilevilevilevilevil" your idea of these emotions are a bit skewed.

When he's summoned for each different link, i hc that it's all the same magic, so the same dark link every time. he "remembers" in an abstract sense of his role in the same way a link or zelda "remembers" their own reincarnation. tho his is less of a reincarnation and more being used over and over again. a persistence.

The iteration that's summoned reflects the current link at the time, the part of link that needs testing/defeating, so it's not an existence that he himself can change to match the present. he's locked to that first copy/shadow only. So if he were to have a second encounter with an older link, he'd look like the first time they fought, unless he was specifically re-summoned. i hc he's got limited magic, so this is not something he can do himself.

in a links-meet scenario, his form would be limited to those specific forms of the links, and it would always be the points in time in which he first encountered them, unless there's other magic either he or someone else has access to to allow him to change forms to match.

now you might be saying at this point "wouldn't he be a weaker match if he was put up against an older link?" yeah probably lol. but also!!! i like the idea that with the limited magic he has, he's able to change juuuust enough to stay relatively evenly matched. being able to play to different strengths and all that. but the base stuff is still the same, so he is decently easy enough to read if link remembers the kind of stuff he was pulling back when he originally fought dark link.

dark link also knows about all this so while limited to the particular skillset, is able to adapt slightly.

but yeah been thinking a lot about a links-meet au where dark link is there choosing a different link to be every time he appears to the party.

though there are a couple links that he never impersonates in their games!!! so can't change into those guys unless he gets a new round of copycat magic.

Anyways goodbye guy standing there with standard camera angle, i have dutch angles and forced perspective

[welcometohellfilm]

Congrats to everyone who has been working on W2H2! 🎉 If it's alright, I'd like to ask to ask 2 questions:

Is there by chance an official ref of colors for Debbie, or is it still up to interpretation at the moment?

Would you say that your personal, real life experiences within the 10 years moving from W2H to W2H2 shifted the tone/story of the series in some way? Something that I've always been fascinated with when I started looking more into W2H was the shift in Sock's character from the original comic -> first film -> second film, and Jonathan's character from the first film -> second film.

Thank you! ✨

I actually just made some 'official'-ish colors for Debbie! Her voice actor Kaitlyn wanted something to use on a banner for conventions haha... so here you go!

2. I'm not really sure how to answer this one, haha. I mean I've definitely changed as a person over the course of making each iteration of W2H. I started the comic while I was at community college, before I went to art school. I adapted it into an animation for my graduation project. And I started W2H2 a couple years after I graduated college. So there's a good 2-3 years between each attempt at W2H I've done, haha. I think a lot of my original ideas from the comic had to change because it needed to be condensed into a short film. I didn't even GET to Jonathan yet in the comic! Some things just didn't make sense to me anymore, like the idea of Sock already having a human body count. It'd just be absurd for him to be able to hide it for so long! Plus, if I made it so that Sock has only ever entertained the idea of murder, it makes his new job that much more appealing-- it's a chance for him to really lean in to this thing he's always had to hide. Between the first and second films though, I mean... I think there's been some tonal shift, for sure (I don't know about a character shift? We'll get to that haha) But basically, when I was first thinking about W2H2, my idea was "Sock and Jonathan hang out and attempt to figure out touch physics, also there's some drama about a journal Jonathan keeps." All of the hell stuff is something that came from bouncing ideas around with my friends, Michael and Neil. I was worried that sending Jonathan to hell would be too bonkers for a "2nd episode", but we all kinda agreed that enough time had passed that the fans would probably enjoy something higher stakes, so it would be fine. (I'll give everyone a moment to realize this conversation would've been happening in 2015-16... ha.)

We also kind of thought, y'know... I have no idea how many more of these there's even gonna' be, so why not go a little bigger with this one? W2H2 is a higher stakes story than what I set out to make in the beginning, that's for sure. It is interesting to compare all of them.. the employee handbook was actually from the comic and I cut that because it wasn't helpful for W2H... but then it became helpful for W2H2, so it came back! Haha. I'm curious to know in what ways people think the characters have changed though. (And is that a good thing or a bad thing?) Especially a character like Jonathan, no one's really even seen that much of him yet, I think most of the characterization comes from fandom, or like... art I've drawn, I guess? Haha... I'm not sure! I guess Sock's a little more confident and antagonistic in this one (though he'll have his moments of hesitation... we're only at Part 1 right now!), and Jonathan has had to become a more vocal/active character, just by nature of the kind of story it is, I suppose. But yeah, I'm not sure! Happy to hear your guys' thoughts though!

[exhausted-archivist]

So I’m not going to touch on any of the opinion part of this, I just wanted to provide the context of this spread because there are conclusions being reached from it being out of context.

The thing about the Veilguard artbook is that it is separated into three parts. The three main “eras” so to speak, of its decade long development.

- Part 1: Inquisition era during and post

This is stuff they concepted out while Inquisition was in production and shortly after

- Part 2: Joplin

This is the very early iteration where the sequel got the code name, and before it was halted for the team to shift their attention to Andromeda.

- Part 3: The Veilguard

This covers development time period when the code name for the game was switched to Morrison. This covers both the live-service version and the pivot to single player.

This spread in particular is concept art in the Joplin section, under the subsection titled Early NPCs. Meaning that not all concepts in this section, more specifically this spread, were meant to be companions. This section and spread covers named npcs, companions, and exploration of factions.

Imshael as far as I can tell from the concept art commentary was not supposed to be a companion. Calpurnia yes, Imshael no. Especially when you consider that you can kill him in dai, and they never have a quantum character of that caliber return as a companion (if they died in slides during the dao/awakening era those aren’t hard canon. That’s a whole other can of worms). Meanwhile, Calpurnia is more ambiguous in whether she lives.

In terms of how separated datv is from previous material, it really isn’t that different. There are less cameos (which personally I appreciate) but it is overall on par with da games. Especially default world states.

That said, for context, da games that we have concept work for always heavily reference previous installments and additional media. But it always gets parsed down as they calculate how many players are likely going to know that reference. We saw it particularly with Cole’s storyline in dai if you want a good example of how previous material reference gets whittled down. Or how they cut the Architect from dai because it had been 5 years, and they didn’t think enough people would know him.

Anyways, that’s the context of this stuff.

Someone on reddit posted a pic of the concept art characters from the DATV artbook and I'm just...so tired and disappointed.

We could have had Calpernia as a companion, not even mentioning Imshael.

This clearly shows that they initially - in whatever iteration of the game it is - cared about incorporating aspects of previous games. Imagine having Calpernia, Harding, and Imshael as companions and not having them comment/acknowledge the events of Inquisition! Imagine Calpernia talking and giving insight into Corypheous or Samson, or arguing with Harding in banter! Imagine Imshael talking about Michel deChevin or complaining that the Inquisitor stabbed them! Not to mention the other concept art that had Dorian and Isabela interacting - try making anything like that happen without acknowledging DA2 or DAI!

Can you imagine having all these characters in the game, then having the nerve to drop 'the south of Thedas is blighted and destroyed now lol' in a letter? No!

We live in the worst timeline with DATV - a game that utterly watered down, sanitized, and obliterated everything that came before it. A game that removed all mystery and intrigue, condensing it to "solas and the ancient elves did it lol' - telling us with no gravitas, bluntly stating it with the subtly and care of a fucking dragon in a tea shop. A game that, with no shame, went scorched earth with Ferelden, Kirkwall, and Orlais with the sole intent of clearing the board so that they can cultivate some new IP with the existing Dragon Age name.

What a fucking waste.

[halfwayunder]

Caitlyn Character Arc Theory! ("the 3 Caitlyns")

I've had some thoughts on the "3 versions of Caitlyn" that I think we'll have seen by the conclusion of the show and how the final act of season 2 will show us Caitlyn in her completed character arc. Caitlyn 1: the first season

This is the Caitlyn we see in season 1. Optimistic, hopeful and a bit naïve or sheltered you could say. Always seeing the good in people and has an abundance of empathy for the people of Zaun. Fighting is a last resort (not that she's unwilling to defend herself, but if she can resolve it peacefully she will) and killing is also not something she is keen on. (As shown by her intentionally only disabling Sevika's arm despite her trying to kill Vi). Caitlyn 2: the second season (act 1 & 2)

This is the Caitlyn we see develop in act 1 of season 2, after the death of her mother and who I think we'll see for most/half of act 2 (I believe the seeds of her realizing she's becoming someone she doesn't like will form in act 2). Fuelled by grief, revenge and anger. This is the first time she's experienced true loss in her life and she does not cope with it well. She starts by blaming it on the actions of one person, Jinx, like her season 1 self would do, but subsequent attacks on Piltover lead to her generalizing Zaun and her empathy for them runs out. Violence is now her first option and she is more than willing to kill people (she was ready to blow that one gang account's head off during questioning even). Caitlyn 3: the second season (act 3) Completed Caitlyn

Now this is basically pure theory as I write this in the wait between act 1 and act 2. But, I believe this will be Caitlyn at the end of her character arc. Having realized the error of her ways, soul-searched, discovered Ambessa has been manipulating her, looked at her family legacy and its positive impact on Zaun (the filtration system she once weaponized) and concluded that her mother would not want her to go down this route. She has taken responsibility for herself and reconciled (see: had very rough and passionate reconciliation sex) with Vi. We do know that Cait and Vi will reconcile and be on the same side at least based on the trailers. She may have been confronted with the consequences of her decisions on ordinary people in Zaun near the end of act 2 and be horrified. Or just realize this naturally once she 'snaps out' of Caitlyn 2. This restores (most) of her season 1 empathy for the people of Zaun. I say most because as I allude to in the paragraph after this one, she isn't naïve like her season 1 self anymore, and knows now that while the people of Zaun should be respected as human beings and given the best chance possible at a safe, prosperous life like those in Piltover. There are elements in the undercity whom still seek to do harm (justified or not) and need to be treated with caution. It's not blind optimism or compassion, but it's the most a person can give in the real world, not the sheltered one she was raised in. This Caitlyn has the best of both previous iterations and is a Caitlyn who has confronted and (mostly) bested her demons. She has the hope and kind spirit of season 1 Cait, but the pragmatism and toughness of season 2 Cait. She is still willing to kill, but only if necessary, not at will. If confronted by another threat like Jinx, she won't hesitate to take the shot, much like Caitlyn 2, only now it isn't a decision made from anger or a desire for revenge, but dedication to protect as many people as possible like Caitlyn 1. She has managed to wrangle her emotions of grief and rage and learn from them. There may be a scene near the end to show this growth when Jinx inevitably appears and Cait's anger flares up again, only for Vi to assure her for one last time that she's got it, and Cait agrees to let her go fight Jinx on her own. Now, of course most of this is guess work! But, I think it would make sense from a narrative perspective for this to be Cait's arc. I don't believe the writers would want to have her just become a full on antagonist and end her story as a villain, it'd be immensely disappointing for the audience and not up to their standards. And I think this would be a very satisfying way to conclude her character development. (I'm also basing some of it based on her appearance in act 3 lmao)

[miscellaneousrenaissant]

Ep 3 AU in which Evan succeeded on his death save but lost his arm, so K made him a prosthesis while the group was still on Galamanis

[kitnita]

happy last-stretch-of-baseball-season-before-hockey-season-starts to all who celebrate. can i interest you in an improved take on baseball au robotter?

[averlym]

fairest of the fair

[softcryz]

Cat with homophobia in it's eyes

[princeyralsei]

Can sega PLEASE bring back anger issues sonic (tm) he deserves to be small and angry all the time. As a treat.

[ofluminance-a]

a papercut, or a scrape of an elbow or knee -- that was the extent of the injuries that akane usually received. most were due to her own clumsiness at that. though, those injuries were small little things; miniscule in comparison to the way ran's body looked right now. at the thought, an uncomfortable feeling of worry took hold; seagreen eyes look him over -- maybe, she should stay with him, here, a little while longer?

" oh yeah? " bright eyes lift to catch his smile, and akane shakes her head. " i'm good, thanks. but, i'll -- take your word for it. " she tilts her head down, refocusing her attention as she finishes dressing the last open wound on his arm. she'd tried to be quick with the action, yet akane was sure that ran had caught her own tiny smile: happy that he still had a sense of humor, & relieved he wasn't the other guy.

a brief silence passes, and with it, akane takes a moment to reflect on how different the two of them really were. they live in the same town and yet are from two very different worlds. her day had consisted of: a boss battle, fixing the 'r' key with some duct tape on her dying laptop, and making ran's bento -- and his day? --- well, the red on her hands, spoke for itself. akane shouldn't want to be near him; and for her own good, she probably should stay far away. but, not matter what she does ... she can't. and she doesn't want too, either.

it's his voice that pulls akane from the depths of her thoughts. " hm ? " she even finds herself blinking her eyes a few times before his perfect features come back into focus. " oh! -- no, i .. i just have some practice. i used to do this for kotaru all the time. it's not the games - " she admits with a shrug of her shoulders as she reaches for a damp cloth to wipe her hands clean. as she does so, she glances up, and catches a splotch of red on ran's cheek.

before her hands reach the cloth, one lifts instead, to settle on ran's cheek. on instinct, her small thumb swipes the blood away - as if it was never there at all. a soft smile finds akane; she's never been this close in prominity too him before. and it's here that akane can see the creases of his eyes when he smiles, and before she realizes it, her hand, has lingered. perhaps a little too long, brushing against his cheek. !

!!!! quickly, like a bold of lightning just struck her, akane pulls her hand back and haphazardly dunks both of her small hands into the bowl of water while clearing her throat & mentally kicking herself. " uhh-- yeah, s-sure! we can do that! " looking over her shoulder, akane tries to smile with what courage she has left, as she cleans her hands. " do you ... have a console? i can stay a bit! i mean. - if you want me too. "

ㅤ›› ㅤ@ofluminance asked: ㅤ↪ send "hold still…" for your muse/s to treat my muse/s wounds!

" would you please just hold still?! " with a huff, akane looks at ran from the corner of her sea green eyes, sternly, as her hands slip amongst his wound once more. if he kept this up, she wasn't sure that she'd ever get it bandaged. it was bad enough that she was his bento chef and delivery woman, but now she was going to have to add personal nurse to her list of daily chores for him. this time, with a hint of concern, akane wraps the bandage tight, sealing it with medical tape. " you have to be careful for the next day or so, okay? hey, i'm serious. if that opens back up, you won't need me, you'll need a hospital. " though she may not seem it, akane is worried for ran. it's not every day that when she drops off his bento, she finds him like this. were these gangs really so violent? / sorry not sorry hehe :)

𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧. stranger still is the fact that he lets it happen.

ran doesn't mean to get akane in trouble. he never intended to let her get this closeㅤ───ㅤclose enough to know he bleeds, close enough to see that blood, close enough to smear it all over her hands ( hands that are meant for preparing cute bentos and braiding her hair and playing games in her spare time, like any other normal girl her age should do ), close enough to learn that the infamy of his surname in this world was less gang fights at a parking lot after school and more crime that could only be quelled with a bullet to the chest.

luckily, no guns were involved in this conflict. but pocket knives were much easier to obtain, and a lot more difficult to detect when pulled out at the last second; ran cannot complain, thoughㅤ───ㅤhe's never been one to play by the rules, and he injures more than is injured by weapons brought to a fist fight.

he smiles at her and says, cheekily,ㅤㅤ‘ㅤyou should see the other guy.ㅤ’ㅤㅤ

though quipped as a joke to lessen the gravity of the situation and wipe the worried frown from her face to an exasperated one instead, it's no lie; very few can boast about their feat of injuring a haitani, because any attack landed would be retaliated thrice as severely. the cut on ran's arm was not as incapacitating as the blow his baton had dealt to his opponent's temple, much more silent than the sickening crack of a skull, and he wonders if akane would still want to treat his injury if she knew how he got it.

he continues watching her work, voice playful.

ㅤㅤㅤ‘ㅤyou're good at this.ㅤ’ㅤㅤran's less impressed than the words should imply. this is no source of surprise, after all; it made sense that a girl like akane would have gentle hands meant to heal others, not made to injure, like his were... but it does make him wonder when this difference between them began to matter to him at all.ㅤㅤ‘ㅤdid you learn this from your video games? maybe you should let me join you sometime.ㅤ’

[bbnibini]

I wonder if it's a design choice or the devs themselves can't make up their mind, but why did Solomon's eye colour "change" in NB? The chibi sprites in the OG show his eyes are shades of grey to brown/almost gold-bronze.

The NB chibi sprite shows his eyes to be dark blue and brownish-gold.

Don't even get me started with the cards and merch that can't make up his effing eye colour

To my Solobesties (I'm calling Solomon stans this now. I think we formed a strange kinship after lesson 17 even if we never interact lmao), especially artist solobesties, hats off to you and your service to the community.

My personal HC is kinda a spoiler for uhhhh something I'm writing, but here it is:

"It's just…your eyes are like you: I can't figure them out." "MC, I-" "No! No! Solomon, I'm sorry! No…it's not like that, I promise! Look at me, won't you? Please look at me." So he did. His eyes trembled as he met with yours. How could he have hidden this part of himself for this long? How could you not notice? How could you forget? How could Father be so cruel to him and you for simply existing? You traced the corner of his lips with your thumb as you held him by the cheek. He was leaning onto your right hand, unable to maintain his gaze. He was surprisingly bashful. Adorably shy without his facades. But he looked like he would crumble even with a gentle word so you did not say anything. He looked at you expectantly, then looked away as your gaze burned onto him for too long and muttered, "You can't figure me out?"in almost a whisper, after a long-drawn out silence, weighing in his words, watching your expressions and body language. Afraid, so deathly afraid. You smiled. "It's like I'm looking at a mirror. Sometimes it's silver, sometimes it's midnight. When you look at the world around you and then look back at me, I feel like you've captured the sky and the oceans in your eyes. It's beautiful." His face was red all over, even to the tips of his ears. It was such a shame. You haven't even said everything you wanted to say to him yet. That he was the moon and the stars to your daytime; gold and silver gazes, looking after you from afar in the many branches of realities he couldn't be as honest with you as he was now. Ah. What will you do without him now? How can you give this up after remembering everything? You knew it was selfish, but you love him. Both of him. Every part of him just as much as he loved you and every part of you that existed. But now, you had to say goodbye. Again. How truly unfair.

[rabbit-rays]

oc-tober day 5: re-designed oc!

all of the signoise crew has been redesigned many, many times over the years, but jackie's progression is often my favorite. they used to be some sarcastic little annoying twink....they used to be the MAIN CHARACTER??? and now they are a leatherworker with 3 kids and are the most normal person in possibly the entire cast. and definitely NOT the main character.

drawings are (in order) from 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2024!

[thehappiestgolucky]

I was trying to find some simple fun things to doodle and my friend basically suggested I doodle the current special interests together and that’s how the sluggies have been splooned and i’m,,,,really liking it actually sksksksksks

i’m gonna design the rest. maybe even have this as a dumbass au. it’s not the first time i’ve mixed franchises together that don’t make sense (stares at a moth in hisui)

[transgenderfivepebbles]

End-World Normopathy (Ghost and Pals) // Rain World (Videocult)

bonus:

[spotsupstuff]

Okay, I was going to explain a possible path for a worm of the string au with Sparrow complaining one day that the puppet can't leave the chamber to relive the fever of being in one place and that her thesis being rejected and then Caper reading the thesis and iterating that idea and then he somehow manages to get off the string.

But getting off the umbilical without reason or explanation is more funny!

Imagine if that starts happening to the others iterators?

Pls tell me his face is priceless! More so if it is a red lizard (do train lizard exist in your au?)

Also, how would Notos and Haboob react to Sparrow?

Now, you mentioned that when Sparrow killed the red centipede she was not in the respawning cycle. What is the age that the Ancients enter the cycle?

staring like a deer caught in headlights GSDLKMCLK this man should either have internal bleeding from a Red Liz bite or bad damage in the coconut and Yet he's 👌 how puzzling n yah! train/hurricane lizards Are real in the Serotonin Take!

as for Notos n Haboob, assuming it's in the off string post-ascension thing too:

they'd like each other! :D

and the respawn cycle is entered once the etheric body is finished growing which is around like.... 20-23 years old

[lactoseintolerentswag]

Should I be a little adventurous. Should I share a little bit about the hush hush GIGANTIC wip I've been researching and outlining for the past few months. Maybe. No.