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prideflameeee

BACK FOUL DEMON

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cradle: ascension by ashley mackenzie

[the--grin--reaper]

Extremely correct tags

its sometimes hard to know whether you need to say “i’m sorry that happened” or if you can whip out “killing them with my minddddd”

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If you have any canon compliant one shot ideas send me an ask/comment or reblog on this post because I lost my list :(((

[the--grin--reaper]

I've always wanted to see the Winter Sage's battle that produced the wintersteel mine, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing it myself. Mentioned in chapter 8 of Wintersteel.

Personally I headcanon that the Herald that she fought was making a "oh her fiance's dead better strut my stuff" move and she retaliated, or that they both mourned Tim and did a competitive kata of sorts.

But it really could have been anything, so sorry for the pre-emptive headcanon for the fic idea.

I'll have to reread that bit of Wintersteel but I'll add it to the list

[the--grin--reaper]

Ozmanthus getting the Broom Icon, and/or Little Blue advancing to Monarch with the Broom Icon decades or something after ascending.

Noooo Oz's reaction to learning that his silly little demonstration drove people to suicide would be so horrible :((

(I'm putting it on the list)

[the--grin--reaper]

If you have any canon compliant one shot ideas send me an ask/comment or reblog on this post because I lost my list :(((

[the--grin--reaper]

Wintersteel spoilers out of context

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Not enough cradle fanart (absolutely criminal) so here's some Cradle stuff! If you don't know the series, you should check it out; it's really good! (If u haven't read it up to Wintersteel then spoilers (also incredibly slight Reaper spoiler ig??))

I don't like how I drew the Wandering Titan but whatever. Silent King is very fun to draw tho.

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And then a FOURTH Reaper ascends and he's stronger than the rest of them by a mile and his presence will shit talk you after the fight. All the while the Reaper is yelling "That's my baby brother :]]]!!!!" I would jump into the Void.

The other Abidan must absolutely hate the Reapers not necessarily because of issues with what their job is but because like. Will said that people who ascend from Cradle tend to be tougher than the average recruit, so like imagine you're a random Wolf and you've spent the last few months getting your ass kicked by a newly ascended Akura Fury. Then suddenly not one, not two but three Monarchs from Cradle roll up who are as strong if not stronger than Fury. And know that if you ever end up sparring with them the fucking Reaper is going to be standing on the sidelines cheering like a soccer mom. I would not want to deal with them.

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Semi screenshot redraw of Yerin in the Cradle trailer. This was only supposed to be a doodle, but I uh- got carried away in my hype. The vibe and the scene ended up changing, but I was having way too much fun and i kinda like it like this. I thought she could've used more blood in the trailer :D

Only sad part is that I didn't get to draw her sword arms >:

Art Rambles below

I really don't know how I feel about this piece. I like it, it was fun to make...but I definitely get the feeling that somethings off. I think its the eyes or proportions in general, but I feel like my values are off too? The hair too dark or maybe its just right? I've been looking at this too much. I often give up on art at this stage or before it even gets this completed because I see all the little flaws and don't know how to fix them and then I hate it and give up. Learn to trust the process, but I often don't, so I'm just in a negative feedback loop where I rarely complete anything because I didnt trust the process, so I end up not having a process, and when I do try to trust it, I fail because I have no practice in my process, and i feel less inclined to complete art. So I'm fighting myself here and considering this complete and I wont keep trying to fix the little stuff because otherwise this will stay as a wip forever. Finishing stuff is how I must learn to finish stuff because otherwise I will only improve in sketching. Its good to just accept that the stuff I made isn't perfect, can't be perfect, and I will always be in a constant state of improvment, learn from failures and all that.

All that to say I should pick up my color challenge again, which is meant target this exact feeling.

[the--grin--reaper]

gif of the world’s best janitor for all your needs

[the--grin--reaper]

Turns out I’m not done with Eithan. This has probably been said better by smarter, more sober people, BUT!!!

Eithan is the ultimate burnt-out-former-gifted-kid.

All his life Ozmanthus was the best. He was the smartest, strongest, coolest, most badass dude to ever do it, and he could never be anything less. When he was a kid this was great! All the adults said he was super smart and that was super cool! Sure he left his friends behind, but he’d make other friends at some point! Just as soon as he gets this whole “cultivation” thing figured out…

Can’t be too long…

Any day now…

Fuck…

Now he’s a monarch who focused on being the most efficient cultivator alive and he has a reputation as a cold, friendless, genius that no one really likes and that everyone is super afraid of. Not exactly prime friend material.

“Oh well” says Ozmanthus, “This place fucking sucks and you’re all a bunch of bitches. Later!”

[one ascension later]

“Hey look! A bunch of heavenly people who don’t think I’m a friendless weirdo! I should go talk to them!”

[mass casualties]

“Okay, friends weren’t that important to me! Guess I’ll go back to the ol’ standby of self-imposed isolation and cultivation!”

Oz kept this up until he solved Heaven and became the Grim Reaper. Shockingly, this did not make him any friends and oh look: we’re right back where we were on Cradle with a reputation as a cold, friendless genius that no one really likes and that everyone is super afraid of.

That lasts a couple thousand years before he has a bit of a breakdown and does the judge equivalent of moving into his parents basement.

He goes and tries to fix some “small” problems and finally clean up that pesky hunger madra problem this shithole has. He fucks it up completely, burns down the house, and has to move in with his weird relatives in another state, where he finally makes some friends in the form of a baby gym bro and a knife girl.

I cannot emphasize enough how literally just having friends changed this man’s life. He went from brooding, cynical, anti-hero to goofy, comedic relief/mentor figure in like 3 years.

All it took was numerous life or death struggles, the death of a significant portion of his family, an entire hero’s journey, and a clash for the fate of the multiverse!

The moral of the story is, find someone to match your vibe or you might oops your way into being Death? I guess? Idk I lost track of this one a while ago…

[the--grin--reaper]

Turns out I’m not done with Eithan. This has probably been said better by smarter, more sober people, BUT!!!

Eithan is the ultimate burnt-out-former-gifted-kid.

All his life Ozmanthus was the best. He was the smartest, strongest, coolest, most badass dude to ever do it, and he could never be anything less. When he was a kid this was great! All the adults said he was super smart and that was super cool! Sure he left his friends behind, but he’d make other friends at some point! Just as soon as he gets this whole “cultivation” thing figured out…

Can’t be too long…

Any day now…

Fuck…

Now he’s a monarch who focused on being the most efficient cultivator alive and he has a reputation as a cold, friendless, genius that no one really likes and that everyone is super afraid of. Not exactly prime friend material.

“Oh well” says Ozmanthus, “This place fucking sucks and you’re all a bunch of bitches. Later!”

[one ascension later]

“Hey look! A bunch of heavenly people who don’t think I’m a friendless weirdo! I should go talk to them!”

[mass casualties]

“Okay, friends weren’t that important to me! Guess I’ll go back to the ol’ standby of self-imposed isolation and cultivation!”

Oz kept this up until he solved Heaven and became the Grim Reaper. Shockingly, this did not make him any friends and oh look: we’re right back where we were on Cradle with a reputation as a cold, friendless genius that no one really likes and that everyone is super afraid of.

That lasts a couple thousand years before he has a bit of a breakdown and does the judge equivalent of moving into his parents basement.

He goes and tries to fix some “small” problems and finally clean up that pesky hunger madra problem this shithole has. He fucks it up completely, burns down the house, and has to move in with his weird relatives in another state, where he finally makes some friends in the form of a baby gym bro and a knife girl.

I cannot emphasize enough how literally just having friends changed this man’s life. He went from brooding, cynical, anti-hero to goofy, comedic relief/mentor figure in like 3 years.

All it took was numerous life or death struggles, the death of a significant portion of his family, an entire hero’s journey, and a clash for the fate of the multiverse!

The moral of the story is, find someone to match your vibe or you might oops your way into being Death? I guess? Idk I lost track of this one a while ago…

[the--grin--reaper]

It's Here!

Cradle Animation Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming animation of the bestselling novel series Cradle, by Will Wight, produced by Jay Oliva at Lex + Otis Animation Studio has been released at last!

Cradle

Cradle is an amazing fantasy series by author Will Wight that reached its conclusion with the publishing of Book 12: Waybound, in 2023. Cradle is a western interpretation of the Xianxia genre, which can be described as "Magical Martial Arts."

As shown in the trailer, Cradle follows the journey of Wei Shi Lindon as he starts a journey of growth rather than remaining the weak Unsouled that his Clan has labeled him.

Fans of Naruto, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball, Avatar the Last Airbender and more will all find elements from the stories they love in Cradle.

Lex + Otis Animation Studio

Cradle is being animated by Jay Oliva and his studio, Lex and Otis. If you don't recognize the name, you'll probably recognize some of his past work, particularly his work with DC Animations in general and Batman in specific.

His studio is equally impressive, and released a bit of a showcase of some of their more recent work that you can see here (in addition to the Cradle teaser, you did already watch that a couple of times right?)

The Cradle animation is a passion project for Jay, who loved the books so much that he reached out to Will to make sure that he had the chance to see them brought to the screen.

The Cast

The upcoming animation already has a fantastic cast announced, with more to come. The following have already been confirmed for the project.

Travis Baldree

Phil Lamarr

Steve Blum

Matt Mercer

Morla Gorrondona

Baraka May

Sumalee Montano

Maxine Phoenix

Matt Yang King

Where/When/How Can I Watch?

Will and Jay have really put the Tease in Teaser, as we'll have to live off of replaying the trailer and reading the books for the time being. But more is to come, and announcements will continue to be made as the project continues.

For those who have not been involved in the project yet, a brief explanation to get up to speed.

When Jay reached out to Will about the possibility of animating Cradle, Will decided to personally fund this trailer that they could then take to Netflix and Amazon and the likes to pitch the show. Then, together, they asked how much further they might be able to go, and so they reached out to the fans with a Kickstarter that ended up raising 1.25 million dollars.

Animation is expensive, especially when you choose to only work with studios that treat their employees well, so Will and Jay had to be smart with the money. The upcoming animation will be released to the fans as a thank you for our support in making this a reality, but it's real strength will be in supporting Will and Jay's original plan.

The 80-90 minute animatic that has been funded will be complete in mid to late 2025. With that, the teaser trailer, and the fans reactions in hand, Will and Jay will be able to approach platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple to pitch a full Cradle Animation.

Animatic?

Yes, Animatic. While the trailer is fully colored and animated, the final result of the kickstarted animation will not be. Here is a sample of the style of animation we will be getting next year

This particular animatic is taken from the website of Tiger Animation, which is the South Korean studio that Lex + Otis partnered with for the Cradle Teaser and many of their other projects.

The animatic we get will be fully voice acted and scored, and the only step remaining to turn it into full animation is the funding required to send it off to Tiger Animation. Tiger Animation has an amazing portfolio as well, including Avatar the Last Airbender, Castlevania, and a large number of both Marvel and DC Animations.

Animation Structure

The 80-90 minute animatic will be released as a standalone product and will cover the contents of the first two books of the Cradle Series, Unsouled and Soulsmith regardless of any potential contracts with distribution platforms like Netflix or Amazon.

If/When a platform picks up Cradle and decides to fund the full animation, the show will follow a fairly standard 22 minute episode format. As such the animatic will also serve as the first four episodes of season 1 of the show.

This was a creative decision made by Will and Jay as part of the adaptation process. A number of the fan-favorite characters are introduced in books two and three, and its fairly unanimous that any fan that wasn't hooked immediately, was hooked by the third book, Blackflame.

That is to say, that, while the first two books will only receive two episodes each, this will not be the pace the rest of the show follows. The total number of episodes per season is dependent on funding, but the goal is currently to take 4 season to tell the story of Cradle.

So What Now?

Well. Now we wait. But in the meantime, share the information about Cradle, watch the trailer, show it to your friends and family, read the books if you haven't already, check out the wonderful audiobooks narrated by Travis Baldree if you prefer listening, join us on reddit and discord to talk about things.

In addition to just exposing more people to a wonderful story, each bit of interaction with Cradle is another piece of evidence to show the streaming platforms and prove that a Cradle animation is worth the investment.

[the--grin--reaper]

j chillin

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