DRIPTIDE PIRATES LINEUP RAHHHHFHHF

icewind suite ✨

open for better quality | no reposts

so like. rwby volume 9 season finale

cross posting yesterday's rambling thread for posterity and because tumblr lets me edit things. anyway this is a sorta long thing and i might add things i forgot to mention in the twt thread

i tend to draw on-model canon because im a coward + just personal preferences. but the way i convert the canon designs into my artstyle is that i take the distinct features oda gives them and then combine it with personal headcanons to complete what should look like a unique human. Starting with Trafalgar Law, who is unfortunately a bland-ass conventionally pretty boy

someone commented a while ago the law hat drawing tutorial i made a while ago didn't make much sense and i realize its bc of the specific way i draw law's face: heart shaped (ba-dum-tss). That meaning, a narrow chin widening into a mild defined jaw, wide cheekbones, and up to his know-it-all brain dome.

given that, the pudgy guitar pick shape of his head i mentioned here should make a lot more sense.

i don't think this design point is unique to me, as most conventional pretty anime boy gets given jaws like this. a lot of law artists tend to veer into this head shape. just how life be sometimes. other points: flat, thick eyebrows is bc im a hairy gal and i need to feel better about myself.

Killer gets to be more interesting, because he shouldn't be considered conventionally attractive. my idea behind killer's is that those individual features is smth he would be insecure with enough to hide himself in a helmet but i draw him with all the love in the world actually. i'd like to think its how kid sees him or yknow, law, bc he's my kin assigned blorbo and maybe you ship lawkill as a guilty pleasure too i mentioned before (and ruined people's days) when i said whenever i draw killer he looks like griffith before i put on his goatee. the upper half of his face is distinctly feminine, with the lower half kinda over compensating. other than that uhh...idk. stan killer

Kidd is the bane of my existence, i feel like i can never draw his face consistently. yet at the same time he's so damn fun to draw everyone gotta try it.

my problem with kidd is that this mf does have eyelids. most kidd painters out there interpret this as him having deep set eyes (think Matt Smith or jeffrey star) . and yeh skill issue on me i should practice that. other notes, i try to make him younger than canon makes him look. he is my babygirl and he deserves to look cuddly. my band au kidd version has the honor of being allowed some chubs. he's just tries to look older and more menacing with edgy makeup. also i try to give him dimples when i can because, well i can.

Rosinante last bc i lost steam after kidd. the thing abt cora is that aside from not having eyebrows, everything is structured with the generic one piece man template. which means i gotta do everything myself doffy is there bc the way to figure out how to draw these two is to give them minor differences from each other, that being doffy gets slightly sharper features. in canon, these two are also rly wide boys (more of an oda style feat tbh) but i make them long. though bigger brained donquixote artists know that of these two brothers, doffy should be the wiry-er built. anyway that's it. in conclusion, i need to draw more girls actually i feel like im becoming misogynistic by osmosis from oda's style and now i draw girls all looking the same too.

Very self-indulgent design idea time!

When I was redrawing my timeline for Apollo’s life, I gave him horns as a kid, both as something he inherited from his mother and a nod to his place as the god of shepherding. I said that they were broken after his first battle with Python, and never regrew. Well, what if after his second battle with the same foe, they came back?

This is kind’ve tied to a little idea I’ve had for a while about how Apollo ascended in ToN. Bc I’m pretty sure Zeus did not restore his godly powers lol, that man was pretty intent on Apollo dying. I imagine that Apollo had some immortal powers in reserve (hence all the power boosts earlier in the series) that Zeus didn’t notice. And Zeus didn’t notice bc these powers were from his titan side, not his godly side. So when he fell into chaos and all that, those powers truly kicked in as a survival instinct, and he ascended to Olympus as a titan, not a god. Is this what happened in canon? Absolutely not! But I like to use it in my head as a silly little explanation lol.

Anyways Apollo and Leto with horns bc it’s cool and all of this is an excuse for me to slap horns onto their designs.

Because I am a lying liar who lies here is a traditional The Fallen Star AU doodle

Ignore the shit lighting and quality but here’s the designs for my Asha and Star… who I’ve decided to name Cielo. Reasons will be revealed in the rewrite. If I ever get around to it.

Details under the cut!

Asha’s design comes from @mythartist21 almost entirely. The only things I added were the Rosas symbol belt and earrings, and crown. I modeled it after Amaya’s… also will probably design Maggie a crown too, bc I don’t think he has one in the canon movie.

She’s so fun to draw! Though her facial proportions are a bit hard, I’ll figure it out. I LOVE her facial proportions. Also women muscles. Because I am a disaster bi.

CIELO’s design is also very very very heavily inspired by @mythartist21! They did such an amazing job! I only changed up Cielo’s hair bc I like men with longer hair… so this Star is Hispanic, and Cielo’s literally means sky or heaven… plus an ai bot of Jaime Reyes called me that so now I’m attached to the name WHO SAID THAT

Anyways, poofy sleeves too, because… they’re fun to draw, mainly. Cielo’ cape fades into sparkles bc IT LOOKS FRIKIN AWESOME and uhhh I think that’s it

I should really study

You are a hundreds year old peach and you do NOT have a crush!!!

Anyways, I remember you respond to an ask that was basically “Imagine if Pecharunt had a crush on Ribombee?” And it HAS NOT left my mind since. I have been thinking about it for DAYS and decided that I just HAD to draw it. Is it canon? Absolutely not. Do I still think it would be hilarious? 100%.

I can’t explain why, but I have a small soft spot for Peachy. I just love the design of this little menace, and that scene where Kieran threatened to beat it up so it just SPLIT. Just HIGH TAILED IT out of there. I just wanna grab that little guy and shake him a lil bit. Lil cutie.

On one last note, I saw in the tags of your last response that flower lore was coming to S&S D and when I say I felt sooo much joy I just >-<. I LOVE flower language, it’s so fun to see what flowers can mean and symbolize. Not just in general, but in different cultures as well. And so, the flower for this drawing seemed obvious, a peach blossom! Peach blossoms represent longevity, love, youth, and are even said to ward off evil spirits! Pretty ironic considering WHAT Pecharunt is and does, and especially in this drawing as he gives it to Ribombee.

I love your art style so much and think the depiction of this "what if" is hilarious

and I'm glad someone has a soft spot for that peach thing bc its def not me LOL

(BUT REALLY, TYSM FOR THE FANART I EAT THIS LIKE DINNER AND IT FUELS ME INTO THE NEXT DIMENSION)

LET'S TALK HSR PENACONY 2.1 (or rather, have my impressions and thoughts on the main quest and some other stuff)

First of all, I went out of it with so many thoughts and emotions. This is not gonna be spoiler free (duh).

ACHERON IS SO FUN TO PLAY. Like, really really fun. Finally Simulated Universe is not an annoying pain anymore, and much quicker too. Thanks to a good friend of mine her relics aren't too bad either. She's already so fun to play with Black Swan, can't wait for a Kafka rerun now 💀

Aa for the story now: I FUCKING KNEW MIKHAIL WAS THE WATCHMAKER. I KNEW IT. Now to wait for them to confirm that Misha is connected to him, either as a ghost of his past self or a child or some sort. It's the only way.

It's also really refreshing to see that HSR is giving 4star characters significant roles in the story. First it was Tingyun, now it's Gallagher (and maybe Misha? I'll die on this hill).

Loved the pacing. Story was quite long and lots of gameplay but didn't feel overwhelming at all, probably because we didn't just stick to the MC the whole time. The characters split up and we didn't just follow the express crew but also Aventurine, I really loved that. It felt so dynamic and immersive.

WELT AND ACHERON INTERACTION. BRO. The way I gasped the whole time. We still don't have a canon confirmation of how Raiden Mei and Acheron or just generally HI3rd and HSR are connected but it's sp clear that Acheron is by far the closest connection yet. So sp excited to find out more about this. Raiden Mei, I'll love you in every universe.

Aventurine and Ratio are also very interesting to me. What does Ratio gain by involving himself in all of this? What does he get out of it? Anyway, their little journey through the mansion was nice. GIGANTIC RATIO. The kinda stuff my dreams are made of tbh.

Generally the whole Aventurine story got me right from the beginning. He's generally one of the most interesting characters to me (although this game has plenty of them). I gotta admit of course I was suspicious of him (as one should be of all Penacony characters) but I liked him nevertheless. This patch supported my feelings, my GOD HE xkdjjdjdjd. The way I cried. Since I played the story so late ofc I saw some spoilers/screenshots of his backstory but I never expected it to hit me this hard. Just wow. His ending, too. It's so bitter. Kinda hope we get to see him again, since he'a mot really dead, right? Just in some limbo.

His boss fight was really something. Not a lot of different patterns, but I still had to try a bunch of different teams, since you're kinda fucked even with just a single single target character in your party. Had to unbench Clara, and I gotta say, she came through for me. I might not have used the most meta team, but it worked soooo...

And just as I was glad I had managed the fight they hit you with that big cut scene, woah. AND THEN WITH THE FIREFLY SCENE? AND SUNDAY????

First of all, apparently it was common knowledge among the community since last patch that Sam was Firefly. Yeah, I gwt it bc of the leaks and stuff. But I'm just so confused as to HOW. Like HOW and WHY and just generally HUH. I can't wait for them to explain this connection (if you're reading this and you wanna spoil me with non-confirmed stuff then leave it, please, I might as well wait another 3 weeks).

And then Gallagher and Sunday... Just as I was admiring Sunday's beauty because he might legit just be one of the most gorgeous male character designs... THEY KILL HIM. When I tell ypu I was SHOOK. Mouth agape and all. Didn't know what to do. What a cliffhanger.

Now I don't have a real theory as to what I think will happen. If I remember correctly they said the main story will stretch until 2.3, right? I really wonder what else will happen, the story already seemed so huge this patch and I really wonder how it'll conclude. There's still so many questions and stories. Might add on to this post later when I have more thoughts.

Also Aventurine's banner just dropped but as of writing this I haven't pulled yet. Might add a little post later about it.

For now, have some screenshots I took during the story:

ALSO I GOT AVENTURINE. SECOND 50/50 WIN IN A ROW IN THIS GAME HAVE I FINALLY BROKEN THE CURSE. Now for the long and treacherous road of farming his trace mats and relics ... Since I never really prefarm 🥲

A pic I took in my excitement. Forgot the screenshot button exists.

BOOM

Lillian Designz

just a few things to say about her really

she is zane’s right hand, mostly because she is exceedingly good at manipulating people. she sticks with him for the status and the check.

she is a siren, like cadenza, eseryt and gene. her main ability is to convince people that whatever she says is truth. she also has a rare ability to essentially control a persons mind, assuming A) she’s able to make physical content with said person to establish initial control B) she knows their approximate location and C) the person is either unaware or weak of mind.

i’m calling her Lillian the Silver Dagger. i’ve seen people call her lillian the silver scythe, i’m not sure if it’s canon or not. anyway silver scythe is cool but we already have ivy the venom scythe so i gave her daggers instead. daggers to me feel more personal, discreet, and sneaky, which is more fitting for her personality methinks.

i used to get lillian and aphmau mixed up as a kid bc i thought they looked so much alike, so i tried to make sure she didn’t look anything like aph

i may have taken some inspiration design wise from Yennifer if Yengerberg..

Murder People Smell HC’S bc I’ve gone insane.

Strade: going by some of canon motor oil, grease, sweat, a hint of iron because he’s often covered in blood, and probably some strong ass cologne in an attempt to hide it while he’s at the bar trying to get you to come home with him, but it doesn’t cover the stank after about an hour or two…

Ummm who said that anyways!

Ren Hana/Fox: His zesty ass uses those fancy cruelty free soaps and shampoos and he probably throws a bath bomb or two in there as well because he’s just extra like that. Even as Fox he still does this and probably takes those rich people bubble baths with rose petals and candles and everything. Smells strongly of Lavender and/or fruity scents.

Lawrence Oleander: Going by canon a rotting corpse, but I like to think sometimes he can cover it up somewhat. When he does manage to cover it up via showering, cologne, etc he uses very earthy scents like Pine or if he’s feeling it that day, floral scents! He also probably smells like a hint of dirt since he’s surrounded by plants and often goes on nature walks by himself.

Lucien Rire: That one kind of cologne that smells very “peppery” but in a good way and burning firewood since he’s from, you know…(I don’t think I recall him having an established scent like the others but if he does please tell me and I’ll fix this accordingly I have very poor memory when it comes to his route LOL.)

Derek Goffard: Despite being very rich (with severe daddy issues) probably axe body spray because he’s a college frat boy at heart LOL. When he’s in the desert he mostly smells like sweat and sand (?) probably but he likely took a can of axe with him and coats his body in it at any given moment so he smells significantly worse in the desert. I’m going to kill him with a huge rock I fear /hj

Celia Lede: Designer perfume, and the REALLY good kind too. Very floral in a regal kind of way with a hint of vanilla in it and it makes you stop in your tracks and take in the smell for a brief moment whenever she walks by you. So TDLR: Good and she bathes daily probably unlike some of the other people here LOL.

Mason Heiral: Similar to Lawrence, very earthy scents especially when he’s been outside “hunting” all day. Probably also smells like burnt firewood too but only a hint of it. He smells good if you like the smell of nature. Probably smells sweaty too especially after a “hunt” but again smell of nature kinda covers it a little.

Tate Frost: Well he’s a butcher so the smell of raw meat, iron, strong cheap cologne that makes your head hurt when you smell it for too long, sweat, cigarette smoke, and musk because he probably doesn’t bathe often.

WHO KEEPS GETTING IN HERE?!

John Doe: I think it’s canon that if he showers he’ll literally dissolve into nothing so that boy STANK but not by choice. He’d probably try to cover himself in whatever scent is your favorite though. People pleasing ass. /SILLY

Randall (putting him here bc he’s often drawn hanging around Tate): Sweat, grease, and musk but it’s okay sweetheart you’re struggling BAD so we understand and forgive you. <3 System to System understanding.

If I forgot anyone/there’s someone you’d like to see comment and I’ll update it!

-

UPDATE, REQUESTED/ADDITIONAL CHARACTER(S):

Jacob Alden (requested by @lawrenceenjoyer ): Every picture I see of this guy he looks so fucking sweaty so he def strongly smells of sweat with a little hint of musk in there, but he also looks like the kind of guy to use a lot of earthy Old Spice scents to me. Might be in a similar vein to Lawrence just doesn’t reek of a dead corpse because he’s not slowly rotting LOL.

Ashe: Like those essential oils that are supposed to help you sleep mixed with like, whatever you’d call a rivers smell and that ONE skull shaped hot topic perfume/cologne because I know if he was a human he’d be the most tired looking hot topic cashier ever.

Okay so a thing that has bothered me ever since I first watched Chat Blanc was Bunnyx and the general time travel stuff because tghis makes no sense. In the Chat Blanc time line, after Chat Blanc destroyes the universe, everyone is dead. Including adult!Alix aka Bunnyx. So the Bunnyx fron the Chat Blanc timeline doesn'rt exist anymore, meaning that the Bunnyx fron the episode is from a parallel timeline where Chat Blanc didn't destroy the universe. That however raises the question why she would even care about that other timeline. Is her quest to assure victory over Monarch in every single timeline because that sounds exhausting as hell. I also don't understand the deal with her leg disappearing while she witnesses the fight between LB and CB, it has no reason to, because LB defeating CB doesn't have any effect on Bunnyx because, as stated earlier, the Bunnyx from that timeline is already dead! And honestly, the fact that Lb even had to fight CB makes no sense. They could've just went back in time 2 minutes so LB can erase her name from the letter (or just be quicker so Adrien doesn't see her) and CB doesn't happen in the first place!

Like, genuine question, what was the point of the whole thing? I mean other than the concept is cool and the writers wanted to give LB trauma (which never really plays a significant part in the overall story anyway??)

Sorry for rambling so much, I don't know if this makes any sense, the episode was really confusing to me and idk if it's just because the episode actually doesn't make sense or because I just don't understand it bc time travel is really confusing. Would really love to hear your opinion!

You're fine and you're not missing a thing. The episode simply doesn't make sense nor am I sure why it even exists. I know a lot of people love it, but I really don't get the hype. It runs off of nonsense logic and makes most of the characters look really bad.

Let's start with the lore.

The canon lore is that Bunnyx only travels through time, not universes, so it makes no freaking sense that an adult Bunnyx would be able to stop Chat Blanc since the existence of Chat Blanc should stop her from existing. It's a total paradox that goes against everything we'd been told about her powers. Of course, she's also supposed to be the hero of last resort, yet we hear about her hanging out with famous historical figures and the season five final sees her acting as a substitute for the horse miraculous even though the people she portals in don't do a thing to help with the final battle, so it's not like Chat Blanc is the only time her powers and role get ignored. Any time I use the rabbit, I have to completely rework its lore because canon is just so bad at time travel. I like Alix and her adult design is awesome, but any time Bunnyx shows up, I expect to be annoyed.

Also, I will never forgive her for just dumping Ladybug back in our time without so much as a word of encouragement or any reassurance that the Chat Blanc stuff was only a maybe. And Ladybug was the one to figure out how to fix time!!! Alix, you suck at your job! Or this is just another case of the writers refusing to let someone other than Marinette save the day even though the poor girl really needs a day off.

As for why this episode exists? I don't even know, dude. It makes no sense. Back when we thought it was going to be a driving force in the season four conflict - an assumption that was backed up by Marinette's nightmare in sentibubbler - the episode kinda made sense in spite of its flaws. But we're two seasons past Chat Blanc and the only person who is apparently traumatized by it is Adrien.

Yes, the writers actually said this. No, you didn't miss an episode where Adrien learned about Chat Blanc. They were talking about the nightmares from the final:

Mélanie says that he "could become Chat Blanc" and the others add that even though he does not remember and has never lived it, Chat Blanc still has an influence on his actions.

Yes, this is embarrassingly bad writing. The character who never saw or even heard of Chat Blanc is somehow the one who is traumatized and effected by it while Marinette's trauma has nothing do to with Chat Blanc or the events of the season four final. Instead, it's random BS that was never even hinted at until season five. I just... what?

In case it wasn't obvious - which I guess it isn't given that professional writers missed this - the logical way to write this to have the season four conflict be about Chat Blanc from Ladybug's side. After the conflict ends, she reveals everything to Chat Noir who becomes terrified of hurting people with his powers. This is only exacerbated by the events of Destruction. But then the show would have had to let Chat Noir have a character arc that didn't revolve around Ladynette and the series seems allergic to that as a concept, so instead Adrien gets magical trauma that keeps him from the final fight. And I thought the Derision retcon was bad!

Other issues with Chat Blanc in no particular order:

It cements Nathalie as just as bad a Gabriel since she's the one who tells him Adrien's secret identity and we then see her do nothing to try to protect Adrien.

It makes Gabriel irredeemable by showing him gleefully hurting his child. Dude punts his son across the city with a smile on his face!

It makes Adrien look slimy since he asks Marinette out without telling her that he knows her secret identity. This one is in a bit of a grey area for me because the secret identity stuff is complicated, but Adrien has never been the one who cared about secret identities AND he's the one who has been directly turned down in hero form. The episode takes none of that into consideration with its writing and it really needed to for Adrien to feel like he had a valid point of view here. As is, he's taking advantage of a situation and putting his Lady love at risk for his own wants.

The pillow sniff scene makes Marinette look unhinged.

It spits in the face of The Power of Love by having Adrien's love fail to be enough to stop him from killing Marinette.

Marinette's parents should have gotten involved after Gabriel threatened her. There is no way in hell that I'd let my kid go over to the Agreste mansion after that. If the writers were once again determined to not let Tom and Sabine parent, then the threat should have come when Marinette was alone.

Why did Ladybug even need to go to the future if Bunnyx could have just gone back in time and stopped Ladybug from leaving the present for Adrien? Why did Chat Blanc even need to be defeated? What did Ladybug's ladybug actually fix when she cast her charm?

This is minor, but it bothers me: Chat Noir should not have been smiling and happy when he was freed from his akuma. That boy should have been in the middle of a breakdown.

I know people forgive some of the above because Chat Blanc is sort of an AU and I'm not going to say that's wrong, I just can't look at it that way because there's nothing that sets Chat Blanc apart from the normal timeline. The Paris special gives us an AU. Chat Blanc (and Ephemeral) are what the writers told us would happen in the canon timeline if Gabriel ever discovered his son's secrets. Canon Gabriel was the one doing those things and would have done them again if given the chance. This is who the writers said he is. Same goes for all the other characters who come across less than stellar here.

There's a reason why I love a good Chat Blanc rewrite. It's an idea with a lot of potential, but canon capitalizes on almost none of it.

Did you take inspiration for Karen's last from the FNaF trilogy? I was reading The Twisted Ones and there's a guy named Officer Dunn

Nah, not consciously, though I have read FNaF:TSE and remember the character. I'd honestly believe it was the case though if I didn't happen to remember the exact process that caused me to end up with the surname. It'd be out of character for me to base a DT character name off a fictional character (real world names are fair game/referenced in many names in DT!)

I kinda wanted to give a main character a surname that's also a colour to reference the fact that the main datables have consistent palettes and a nod to the fact that DT uses colour theory all over the game (with grouped colour themes/vibrant weird palettes on different screen bgs.) Hell, it's basically a trope in fiction to give characters surnames based on colours that correspond to (or suit) them somehow, take Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad, say, a show that goes p ham with its colour theory (namely consistently incorporating it into names/costume design.) Anyway, i briefly considered 'Cyan' as Randy's surname (bc cyan is the base colour for teal, which is the colour of Randy's head, and cygnus means swan, which contains several of the same letters) but, the word 'cyan' is fairly commonly mispronounced by people who've never heard it said aloud (and when people do say the word right, they still sometimes tend to switch which syllable is stressed, at least in my experience hearing people say it) and I figured Randy deserved a surname that everyone can read the same way first time. The poor guy has enough confusion going on in his life without people misreading his name!

So, I brainstormed a colour based surname for Karen (already having most of the others decided at this point afaik), with the aim of maybe using an autumnal colour to match her palette (orange, beige, cream, brown) and then decided to look up 'surnames that mean colours' and voila, 'Dunn' came up on a long list, derived from 'donn', irish gaelic for brown. Also, sounds like 'done'. Like "so, so done." Relates to a colour in her palette (her printer head is brown) and there's a separate pun built in that suits her dilemma (working a job she HATES.) It was a no-brainer for sure.

Y'know, funnily enough, this isn't even the first time I've seen people assume I lifted a DT character name from FNaF. Hell, I've seen folks theorize that I lifted Marla's (Callum Crown's deceased + (formerly) long-suffering wife) name from the identically named character in that very same FNaF novel series, when I actually picked it bc the name is a variant of Marlene, which is in turn derived from Mary Magdalene from biblical canon.

There's biblical symbolism in DT's canon surrounding Crown and his inner circle (y'know, with the whole failed messiah schtick + him helping the disabled walk again with his prosthetics) and Marla's name is an extension of it. Magdalene is notable in biblical canon for being the one woman Jesus consistently traveled with (y'know, like Marla, the one woman in Crown's (quite typically) male-dominated cabinet) and also the fact that Magdalene was allegedly the first to witness Jesus' empty tomb post-resurrection... Marla wound up with sole custody of Crown's husk right after his accident. Both ended up with first dibs on the (now vacant) space their old messiah/former companion once filled. Brutal.

ok I'm gonna ramble about outer wilds.

if you haven't played it, even if you don't typically care about spoilers, PLEASE avoid spoilers bc this is the most delicate game ever when it comes to spoilers due to the way it's designed. it's one of the few games where spoilers WILL rob you of the experience. with that said,

OUTER WILDS SPOILERS

this is a very very special game to me fgkjldfjk the ending was really beautiful when i first played and the more i thought about and processed it, the more it really stuck with me to the point where i *will* just cry if i think about the ending too much and god i cannot play through that ending again without sobbing. since im assuming people reading this have played the game, yall already know the nature of the game. the only thing you have to gain from anything is knowledge, and once you beat the game, you cant really ever play it again. sure you could maybe go for achievements or explore things you never saw but the experience is kinda just over.

I very much interpreted the ending as being about death. the game has the whole supernova time loop thing going on which sorta makes the idea of respawning a canonical aspect of the game. the fact that you can just hop back into your ship and you dont really have repercussions from death which is a pretty much synonymous with games as a whole tbh is a canonical aspect of the game that you the player AND you the hearthian traveler exploring the universe are a part of. this doesnt immediately seem to special and didn't even click with me very much until quite a bit after i beat the game, but to beat the game is to accept that you're going to die, and truly dying in this game is kinda the closest media has come to communicating what death really means for me at least. you start aimlessly wandering this star system and eventually start to piece things together, you make goals and eventually figure out how to beat the game, etc. all the knowledge you have to gain in this game leads up to the ending. maybe you stop the supernova and save everyone! maybe thats why you're trying to find the eye of the universe! but no, all the stars are dying. you were just unfortunate enough to be born at the end of a dying universe. There's nothing you can do because death is inevitable for you and those around you.

to beat the game is not only to accept that the sun will explode for the last time, that the end of the experience is inevitable, that all your hearthian friends will die for good, but beating the game also requires accepting that *you the player* have reached the end of this experience, *you the player* cannot hang onto anything forever, that the end was inevitable for you too. sometimes i get genuinely sad that i can basically never play this game again, and i almost wonder if my little hearthian protagonist felt similar during the end of the game. that feeling of the inevitable end finally reaching us.

AND DESPITE IT ALL, you finally accept that you are not immortal, that this will not last forever, that the sun cant keep exploding and looping and exploding and looping forever, when you finally accept death on your own terms, when you have no idea of what's in store for you and what will happen next but you take that dive anyway, you just,, get to share a moment with the people close to you. you sit around the campfire as everyone's music comes together for the first time, once *literally* worlds apart, now, in harmony, as the little audio cues to find your friends on each planet become a symphony. they each share messages about how they feel and every single fucking one resonated with me so much sdjklfsklj stuff like "you cut it a little short dont you think?" and "i got to be a part of something really cool, so I've got no complaints" and "the future depends on the past, even if we wont get to see it" and MY FAVORITE FUCKING LINE FROM THE ENTIRE GAME. solanum, the only non-hearthian character around the campfire, a nomai, one of the species that made this all possible, a friend, says something different. she says that this is the end of our journey, and she asks you a question. she just asks if you're ready. its not required to say yes to finish, its not even required to talk to her to beat the game, but if you say no, she will ask again if you are ready whenever you talk to her afterwards, while leaving a message for you in case you are not ready for it to end. she says "its tempting to linger in this moment where every possibility still remains, but unless they are collapsed by a conscious observer, they will never be more than possibilities." when you finally take your final plunge in this moment, you watch the universe collapse before you, remarkably similar to all the times you watched the sun explode before your eyes, and you die.

even though you the player are clearly still alive, (its just a video game after all :p) the experience is over. you died in a way too. this world is no longer yours to explore and discover. after the credits theres a very nice touch where you see the start of a new universe after you enter the eye and the entire universe dies before you. you see some new creatures huddled around a campfire together to remind you that death isn't the end, because "the future depends on the past, even if we wont get to see it" and that maybe it was enough to be a part of something cool, to share those moments with your friends, to explore the universe in whatever unique way you did.

SO WHAT THE FUCK IS ECHOES OF THE EYE

DLC spoilers beyond this point ofc.

if you're like me or countless other players, you probably wanted more, well I've got just the news for you!! theres a DLC !!!! "but wait, doesnt this defeat literally the entire purpose of the game?" yes :D but that's not a flaw, in fact they do this in the best way possible. the DLC challenges the message of the game because there is a fundamental aspect of death that the game barely even touches that the DLC explored *thoroughly*: fear.

chances are, you realize you can beat the game and go beat it and are immensely moved and equally confused by the ending because it takes so much time to process that you never really have a moment to fear death. theres never a moment where you are scared of what comes next because it doesnt really click that this is the end of everything until after the end. in my opinion at least, this is pretty much the only flaw with their portrayal of death and the DLC remedied this.

so it turns out you want more and weren't ready for this to end! its time to explore the owlks and their contributions to this story. im not going to explain their story in depth because im assuming people have played ofc, but key traits with the owlks is that they feared loss. they archived what they wanted to destroy, they lost their home beause of the efforts they made to reach the eye and were horrified, they tried to escape by hiding in a world of their own creation. they hid the eye to prolong the life of the universe as infinitely far as they could. they stumbled across a way to similarly archive one's consciousness, and conquer even death itself, but it was all out of fear. they couldnt accept the end so they hid from it.

and let me just say THE DLC IS FUCKING SCARY. they lean into horror and I think everyone should play it even if they arent into horror. the puzzles arent actually too challenging in execution, and making the discoveries you need is no sweat if you've gone through the base game tbh, although it is very different in a very refreshing way. The real challenge and the real roadblock is fear. some of the things you are required to do are immensely scary and put you into situations you frankly dont want to be in! but if you quit, if you dont do this out of fear, if you hide and if you try to escape this, you're just like the owlks. you dont get through this by not being afraid, you get through this by not letting your fear paralyze you. you need to face your fears (often quite literally as you need to lure owlks away from things and I think its a nice touch that they can also hide from you by turning off their lights and then they can still see you by shining their light towards you even if yours is off FUCK that but this is a bit of a tangent lsdkfgljsd) and if you succeed where they failed, you learn one of the biggest mysteries of the game. you learn why the eye's signal vanished as fast as it appeared, why the nomai failed to find it as effortlessly as the owlks did, but more imporantly, you make a friend :] you meet the owlk that enabled the eye of the universe to be found with a brief decision that they made in a single moment so long ago. the efforts to build upon what the prisoner did were not in vain, and the prisoner accepts death by literally walking into the water as their light goes out. they leave a final message for you, urging you to ride into the exploding sun with them by your side, and you know its time to go beat the game again.

hopefully at this point the ending has sat with you long enough for you to realize what this means. now, more than ever, this is finally the end of the game. you wanted more and you got more but that desire for more similarly cant last forever. the game still needs to end and this is why there should never ever be another DLC for this game please,, a desire for more and a fear of the end kinda come hand in hand, and the fears that you chose to face were not in vain. this is it! theres nothing else! maybe you're sad that the game is ending for the last time, and maybe you still dont want it to end. but in those final moments around the campfire, solanum isn't the only non-hearthian friend around the campfire :] the prisoner is there too wondering if they even deserve to be there after what their kind did, but its over now, everything worked out. they say something really simple that was, without a doubt, the perfect addition to the game for me:

"...How beautiful. It’s different than I’d envisioned.

Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared."

I think one of the reasons this game resonated so much with me is something that I really struggled to grasp until I watched shammy's outer wilds review. there's something so much more significant about *being* rather than just, observing. tons of movies try to tackle these ideas of death and even plenty of games, but with outer wilds, *you* are having this experience that will end that you can never have again. *you* are exploring a world in your own unique way that cannot last forever. and I think that's ok. I think that's what makes it special.

I'm a game dev and an artist and I think outer wilds is genuinely profound. it makes me want to make something that touches people in the way I felt touched by outer wilds. I'm so happy things aligned for me to get to use this same medium for art. I'm gonna go cry now thanks for reading <3

If it’s canon in the sheepiemc verse that Diavolo develops new ideas for RAD through human movies, how do you think he’d react to watching bring it on, or something cheerleading adjacent?

i've been thinking about this since i got it yesterday but i wanted to finish the next chapter's draft bc i was on a roll this is SO FUN

i had it in my head that RAD had cheerleaders for fangol but i think i absorbed that from some fics bc there is no mention of them on the wiki SO WE GOT FREE REIGN BAYBEE (also forgive me i haven't seen the movie in a hot minute)

SO YOU SHOWED DIAVOLO BRING IT ON

📣 now obviously there's gonna be a RAD cheer competition

📣 sure no one really knows how to put on a cheer routine but that doesn't really matter when you have magic and a dream

📣 so Diavolo obviously can't participate himself so he judges alongside Barbados and MC

📣 also obviously the little cheerleading outfit is a HUGE part of the appeal of this idea so i made a chart

📣 OBVIOUSLY asmo would have no problem gettin in that cheerleading outfit (he probably would design them), i feel like solomon and simeon would have a good attitude about it, and i know i said Diavolo is a judge but you cannot stop this demon from wearing a cute outfit and he deserves it.

📣 in the middle tier, they would all take varying levels of conviction to put on the outfit, but the initial instinct isn't there, right?

📣 and of course, OF COURSE the avatar of pride wouldn't subject himself to the "embarrassment" bc he's a fucking killjoy 😆 he would rock it and he won't even give it a chance

📣 anyway the rest of the school would have to participate too otherwise there would be no competition but who really cares about them

📣 oh my god wait i was thinking they would all be on one team but could you imagine the chaos if they were all captains of their own teams comprised of other demons of their sin 😳 oh my god the DRaMA

📣 now THAT would be juicy... team lust and team pride would be the definite frontrunners, mammon would probably try to cheat thinking there was a cash prize, levi's experience with idol dances actually get him pretty far... can't see team sloth getting very far so maybe belphie would just be on team gluttony by default... team wrath in the running just to beat lucifer... huh... maybe i'll come back to this 🤔

📣 oh no now i wanna design all their uniforms......

📣 what could the prize possibly be that would make all these demons participate in this foolishness? honestly i have no idea 😆 i thought it might be the non-prize of being the official RAD cheerleading team but who of the brothers would actually want that except asmo? maybe dia will grant the winner a wish or smth

thanks for the suggestion!!! this was really fun to think about 😄

Custom Gwen Funko Pop

I finished her! If you’re interested in more pictures, progress, the post continues below the cut off :)

I am probably the furthest thing from artistically talented as you can get, but I do have a frankly ridiculous amount of audacity so if you’re interested, this is how I did it!

I started by picking out a head and body from 2 different pops (they ended up being 2 different variations of Belle from beauty and the beast) and sketched out a design(s) to give me an idea to work from. (Ft my amazing ms Word graphic design skills on my tablet)

Looking back, the purple dress was the obvious choice because the apron design of the existing funko pop wouldn’t have needed any changing.

So I popped off their heads, sculpted the changes I wanted to make by cutting with a Stanley knife, sanding, and then used FIMO ovenbake Kids clay. Also, pops soften when heated so I dunked her in scalding water and kind of forced the arm that had been holding the mirror (which I also cut off) down so it wasn’t in front of her face.

Overall I used clay to hide where the apron had been, add flowers where the mirror had been, and also to fill a hole in the back where I pulled out the apron’s bow. And of course the bell sleeves, which I did about 7 times before I gave up and said it was good enough.

Then, I primed using an all-purpose primer, did about 4 coats and let it set for a week while I was away, and then I started painting!

*sighs* ah, painting. Bane of my existence.

I started with the hair and it worked so well. I thought ah this is gonna be a breeze

Well anyway I had a lot of trouble doing the face bc my paint would just NOT go on evenly but again I just did as many coats until it looked even and just said fuck it about the visible brush strokes bc idk how to fix that.

I had to try her eyebrows a couple of times to get them even, but I’m pretty happy with them! Also, I drew in her eyelashes with a pen.

Next, the dress. Nothing worked. I think I didn’t thin my paint enough so it was just a struggle, there are heaps of visible paint strokes but again, I figured there wasn’t much I could do about it

I used a toothpick to scrape on some details which are VERY messy, especially in the front, but I honestly don’t know how I would have fixed it but that point, and since she’s going to be on a bookshelf, you won’t see it anyway. Also I used a sharpie to do the flowers haha.

I really do like the back.

There was a bit of ad lib with the details because I wanted them to be noticeable so I added them in a few places they’re not in canon

Anyway, then I sprayed her with some matte acrylic sealing spray, glued her back together, and she’s done! Her head does tilt back a bit because the 2 pops had different joint systems but you can barely tell.

She’s definitely not perfect, but this was a first for me in so many aspects so I’m pretty proud of her!

why do u think act ur age is fucked

[cracks knuckles] alright. essay time. you asked for it.

I’ve done a similar response to this before here and mentioned something else about it here but I’ll go over it again since those posts are both from a while ago. also bear in mind I haven’t seen aya recently bc I don’t like it. okay let’s get into it

[also im gonna preface this saying maybe i sound very pessimistic but im ranting and its just gonna sound like im complaining because i am. i mean no real malice by the way. im simply a person with a blog.]

first off. they don’t use the show don’t tell as well as they could. in the what might have been montage, sure, they showed potential scenarios and how phineas felt (very briefly) when isa stopped visiting his backyard but it just feels so rushed. I get that they only had like 11 minutes to show it but idk there has to be another way to write it. or just not have it at all idk its just from a writing point of view the whole episode feels rushed and out of place from everything else continuity-wise. why not use little easter eggs planted in the show beforehand? operation crumbcake? pharmacists? meapless in seattle? god theres so many episodes with evidence that phineas liked her back even if he didnt know. just. continuity!!!!

second. why did their friends not try something sooner. it’s not like they didn’t know. like phineas seems to be okay with saying “i wish! i am so in the friend zone there” in front of his friends (that quote alone makes me lose my shit but that’s a whole other point) so clearly they knew about phineas. and isabella also wasn’t quiet about it (source: pnf s1-4). they had like four years of high school to do something and they planned it the day isa left for college? nah its just the least realistic thing ever for me. also them being 18 is like yeah okay maybe the slow burn was worth it and theyre way more grown up (i love a good slowburn) but ohhhhhh my god SURELY their friends were getting sick of them dancing around each other. just me?

third. and I’m sorry to ash simpson but oh my god I hate the character designs like They Would Not Fucking Look Like That. it almost feels like it completely disregards their arcs during the original summer. like yeah child chub disappears over ur teen years but sometimes it stays a little longer! make phineas less twiggy!! make isa look more like her mother! (am i about to redesign them again? whoops)

four. and i know this is no fault of dan and swampy but the show was about to end anyways and yet the entire friend group was paired off into hetero ships?? get fucking real. none of those kids are straight. realistically, i know it was a different time and gay marriage wasnt even legal in the us yet so it wasnt all that common to have queer romance on screen let alone on disney channel but like i said, the show was about to end. what were the disney channel execs gonna do? cancel it? lmao

five. "I am so in the friend zone there." "we are guys. we do not talk about our feelings." WHAT!!! i cant believe this shit is real. these lines of dialogue are canon. what the hell. what kind of message does that even send to younger, impressionable viewers? if ur a 10 year old boy watching that (ok fine maybe that isnt gonna stick with you forever but listen) and you go 'oh its okay to just bottle everything up and not tell my friends about my feelings about anything ever' that is insane! thats not how things should go!! like i get the whole "im so in the friend zone" and yes, this also has to do with the era but like if they wanted to be a more progressive cartoon that kids look up to and enjoy maybe they just. shouldn't have put that whole conversation in.

i barely have any problems with the b plot. in fact id watch the episode just for the kazoo solo. because that plot lines up with the continuity. i can totally see heinz having bowling night with perry and carl and monogram every week! i can totally see perry and monogram retired! and carl running owca and getting payed for it! that all checks out! that one makes sense and works with the canon! if they got that plot so right how did they get the a plot so wrong?

i can answer this question: fanservice. its an awful word, i know. act your age is a fanservicey episode which is why i think it crashed and burned. mml season 2 is rooted in the same issue: doof is very present and takes away from the original plot of the show. like, the one he wasnt even in until the last episode of s1. slightly getting off topic but it is the crux of the issue. fanservice doesnt make for good storytelling. even if it brings in the big bucks. at its core, telling the story the way it should be told is the best one. even if it pisses people off. a good portion of the viewers will still appreciate whatever ending the creators come up with. and no, im not saying phinbella shouldn't have become canon, in fact i really like the ship and all their dynamics, i just think they went about it the wrong way.

as someone who's written and published fic about them getting together in different universes (granted, they were from when i was younger so its mildly terrible. take them with a grain of salt) there are a lot of other ways to tell that story canonically. honestly, i think the best way of doing it was to keep it ambiguous. dont tell that story. let the viewers pick their own ending for phineas and isabella. maybe they dont get together after all. who knows!

thanks for the ask! hope you had fun getting lectured <3