#vidow

[singingvio]

So this is basically how their forest meeting went right

(Audio from Class of ‘09)

[fuck-em-up-your-grace]

hello mutual whose taste and opinions i deeply respect, i am formally inquiring about what the deal is between those two vidow-adjacent guys (?) you keep reblogging

hello mutual whose taste and opinions I also deeply respect, apologies that this took so long. Tumblr decided to show this to me yesterday, and then decided to delete the draft I made. Because. Of course.

The two guys are Shadow Milk Cookie and Pure Vanilla Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom, and dear lord I’m obsessed (as you’ve probably seen). They’re very similar to vidow while also being totally different— really, I think the difference is that Shadow enjoyers will love Shadow Milk, but Vio enjoyers wouldn’t get much out of Pure Vanilla.

Shadow Milk, or Smilk for short (because fuck this guy’s dignity), was once this Goddess-chosen (in CRK they’re called the Witches but they’re basically the same thing) keeper of knowledge. He was one of a set of five, who each were entrusted with different elements in the form of something called a Souljam. Souljams are like gems of power and magic, and basically Smilk is Zelda with the triforce/souljam of wisdom/knowledge. For an unexplained reason, each one of the five were corrupted, turning into Beasts, until it was just Shadow Milk (as the Fount of Knowledge) left. He eventually falls too, becoming the Beast of Deceit, and all five of the Beast Cookies are locked in a tree for a long time. The Witches then appoint replacements— and Pure Vanilla is Shadow Milk’s, serving as the new Sage of Truth. PV also gets half of Shadow Milk’s souljam, meaning that the two are like, canonically soulmates. Totally platonically, of course.

Anyways, the Beasts escape, and the blue twink kidnaps PV to steal his souljam back. Smilk tortures this guy by altering his memories and pretending to guide him towards the “truth,” and this causes PV to kinda break down and have an emo phase, where he takes on the identity of Truthless Recluse. The two have a lot of…questionable…dialogue (Now, YOU are MINE /At first, all I wanted was the souljam. But then, I began wondering, how far I could push you? What would happen if I kept squeezing and squeezing your soft, submissive soul?) (Yeah, it’s like “Naughty” but intentional.) However, PV’s character of Truthless Recluse turns out to be a farce, and he betrays Shadow Milk.

Anyways, PV and the Hero Gang beat Smilk, and before he runs away, theoretically badly wounded (but not going to die, because he made this game so much money so quickly) Pure Vanilla offers him friendship, saying that he felt Smilk’s loneliness, and, “We understand each other like no one else can. You don’t have to be lonely— I’m right here."

Smilk rejects him, has a meltdown, then runs away, because ah! emotional intimacy!

After that, all the stuff is non-canon (as of April 10th, 2025), but everyone agrees Smilk is definitely getting a redemption arc, and it’s definitely PV’s fault.

Anyways, in terms of similarity to vidow: Shadow Milk is very similar to Shadow in some ways. They both have that dramatic flair, they’re both…very queer-coded, they’re both obsessive evil shapeshifting villains, but at the same time they have key differences that are made even more apparent by their foils. Shadow, I believe, fundamentally accepts himself— he has self-worth issues, but he is able to admit to himself that he’s in love with his best friend. Smilk, on the other hand, can’t. Pure Vanilla is shown as acceptance of the self in CRK, but I believe that role goes to Shadow, not Vio, in Four Swords. Shadow represents embracing every part of you that doesn’t fit in with “Hero”— queerness, trauma, softness, longing, etc. Vio, in turn, has an arc about self-denial, rejecting his own feelings for Shadow, running away from the truth that he isn’t the perfect Hero, eventually leading to Shadow’s death. And this is a key difference that really fundamentally changes the two stories— in Cookie Run Kingdom, the moral is that the light accepts all— the bad and the good. Anyone can live in the light and achieve redemption if they accept themselves. In Four Swords, it’s that the light does not accept everything, and that those parts that are thrown aside and hidden are important to acknowledge and accept, which can only be done when embracing yourself as a full individual, beyond the role you were meant to play. In both stories, “the light” is also representative of the Gods of their universes. So, while Vio may never pray to Hylia, Pure Vanilla likely does on the daily, even if he doesn’t agree with everything the Witches do.

Honestly, it’s pretty interesting to me that there’s a huge difference in messaging, despite similar stories. The ocean between Vio and Pure Vanilla is also fascinating to me, because I feel it says a lot about the context and mindset of their creators. Also, because PV would HATE Vio, but try to be civil, and Vio would HATE PV, and not try to be civil about it. I think they would have interesting conversations about faith.

Overall, I think vidow is more interesting, but I appreciate pureshadow (one of the ten ship names for Pure Vanilla x Shadow Milk) for what it is. Both have major themes of self-acceptance, which is one of my favorites in media, so it’s a win for me. Plus, 1) it’s a way bigger fandom, and 2) both Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla are definitely adults in-game, and get to act outside of the terrible world of teenage-hood. All in all, pureshadow is definitely more traditional with it, playing it safer with "evil villain is helped to become good by kind hero who helps villain accept themself” instead of “maybe the villain is right because if you do your duty as a hero you’ll be miserable and then die."

TL;DR: Yes betrayal, yes light & dark, yes other-half, yes self-acceptance themes, but no god is evil, reject your duty & be yourself themes

TL;DR #2: Shadow fans would love it, Vio fans would be disappointed.

Wow. This turned out to be really long. This was supposed to be a summary of what I wrote on my doc, and frankly it might still be. As you can tell, I have thoughts, haha.

Thanks for asking :-)

[spadeprincesss]

THIS WORK IS A COMMISSION! DO NOT REPOST!

Here’s a commission for @ratiorxtio who asked for something they could use as a wallpaper that included all five of the colors! I ask that this not be reposted but the commissioner said they wanted me to share in case others would want to use it as a wallpaper as well so if anyone is interested feel free to use! (and share if you do i’d like to see hehe)

Thank you again ratio for commissioning me! This was an absolute blast to work on and I hope you enjoy it!

[kaenith]

Winter's Delight (@fswintersdelight), day 26

Happy December! Hope everyone's been staying safe and warm (or safe and cool, if you're in the southern hemisphere!)

[baaeluu]

Vidow consumes my mind...

[entouragelvr75]

love the forest scene in the manga because in my head it sorta implies shadow was following around vio for a while waiting for the opportunity to dramatically introduce himself?? lmao

also mainly wanted to redraw/reimagine this linktober post 👍

I had hw to make an animated loop so once again I made it an excuse to draw fanart 🫶

[lucky-clover-gazette]

four swords manga i have not forgotten you

[iridescentgleam]

Love ship dynamics where one of them has the most gorgeous handwriting anyone's ever seen and the other has the most godawful chicken scratch known to man

Bonus points if it's not the person you would expect it to be based on how they carry themselves or their role lol

[wishyoudwell]

doodles of four and shadow mainly cause i havent been finishing anything

[silvykinesis]

Sweet sweet you’re so sweet, Vio 💕 ( insp )

[zarvasace]

So have y’all heard of Thirst for Vengeance, (written by @seafoamgalaxy ), aka one of my favorite vampire fics of all time, aka the initial reason I made a fic rec collection? Well NOW YOU HAVE and if I’ve done my job right, you’re now very eager to go read it and leave a gushing comment.

I drew most of this art a while ago—gosh, like 6 months—but due to Seafoam’s recent reboot of a different four swords vampire au, I was inspired to go and finish this to post it. (You should go read that one too. It’s awesome.)

In conclusion: go right now to read Thirst for Vengeance, an 8.2k fic with vampires, some of my favorite kinds of whump, a healthy dose of the best kind of vidow, an awesome Blue pov, a fantastic mage Red, a smart Green, and some of the best atmosphere I’ve ever read in a fic. Ugh I can’t say enough. (I already said a lot in the comments…) (seafoam is my friend and a very good writer besides) (so this is me recc’ing more of their works too)

[notllemonsoda]

art i just, never?? posted??.?.

[fuck-em-up-your-grace]

I think I just need to write a little thing comparing vidow and pureshadow… the cookie run kingdom brainrot has been INSANE since being introduced to it and I need to get it out lmao

It’s so interesting because Shadow & Shadow Milk are (surprise!) VERY similar characters, but in decently different contexts, whereas Vio and Pure Vanilla are nothing alike at all as characters, but have pretty similar situations. (The most notable difference between the two is the power dynamic.)

So the product is two ships that are very similar to each other, and yet are also very different. It’s interesting to see where the appeal overlaps, and where it doesn’t.

[floweredwishess]

You can't slap a shadow

[kaenith]

@fssanctuary summer gift exchange for @quartzs-cluster

From the summer theme I knew early on I wanted to draw a picnic, and with your prompt of "fantasy creature AUs" I decided to make it a fairy picnic, because teeny-tiny picnic sets are adorable. That's probably a napkin they're using as a picnic blanket xD

Hope you've been having a good summer!

[spadeprincesss]

I’m sorry for my absence, college is rough this semester, but have some melancholic vidow as a treat!

Tried some new brushes and shading style, think its pretty neat for a first try!