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erosedits · 2 months

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Since the moment I set eyes on you in Southwatch, there's been no one but you. Even if I'm a goddamned fool for it, there will never be anyone but you.

#miniepsds #harupsds #the bridge kingdom #book #books #aesthetic #moodboard #the bridge kingdom aesthetic #book moodboard #books moodboard #books moodboards #random icons #random moodboard #aesthetic moodboard #icons #moodboards #soft moodboard #psd: flowerise #action: 16

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pangeen · 10 months

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“ Green Bridge “ // Carl Evans

#Green Bridge #Pembrokeshire #Wales #England #United Kingdom #nature #landscape #seascape #oceanscape #coast #shoreline #cliffs #natural formations #aesthetics #wanderlust #explore #follow #discover

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sobritish · 1 year

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life-spire · 1 year

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London, UK (by Tadas Petrokas)

See more of London | United Kingdom.

#london #uk #united kingdom #england #europre #travel #wanderlust #explore #night lights #night aesthetic #night photography #bridge #london bridge #streetscape #city photography #street photography #li_destinations #curators on tumblr

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lexxwithbooks · 2 years

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📖: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 (𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑑𝑜𝑚 #1) 🗡🐍🏹

✍🏽: 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐋. 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧

Get the book! 🌟

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darkshadeking · 2 years

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• The Inadequate Heir

• the bridge kingdom series (book3)

- Danielle l Jensen

#books #books edits #romancebooks #edits #fantasy books #books recommendations #booksbooksbooks #books quotes #new adult books #nabooks #danielle l jensen #the inadequate heir #the bridge kingdom #aesthetic books

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caelestcs · 2 years

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#✬ Ni continues to interrupt ✬ ././. (ooc)#✬ a little interlude ✬ ././. (psa)#✬ build a bridge between a vision and reality ✬ ././. (mine)#✬ she who gave her heart to the sky; tranquility in her eyes and stars in her hair ✬ ././ (Fang Xing)#✬ and crimson flames covered him like a shroud ✬ ././ (Boya)#✬ and she lived in a lunar kingdom up above ✬ ././ Chang’e #✬ whisper a spell to the wind ✬ ././ (meme)#✬ behind the closed doors ✬ ././ (nsfw)#✬ heart is a mirror reflecting the beauty twice over ✬ ././ (saved)#✬ gentle tune in the night softens the darkness ✬ ././ (aesthetics | Boya)#✬ beauty hidden from the uncaring eyes ✬ ././ (aesthetics | Fang Xing)#✬ painted constellations and galaxies ✬ ././ (aesthetics | Chang’e)#✬ words of old and ancient magic ✬ ././ (musings | Boya)#✬ slowly the dream was crafted ✬ ././ (musings | Fang Xing)#✬ longing whispers of the past lost ✬ ././ (musings | Chang’e)#✬ word by word the warrior became a legend ✬ ././ (about | Boya)#✬ living monument of the power of the cosmos ✬ ././ (about | Fang Xing)#✬ moonlight illuminates the patterns of the soul ✬ ././ (about | Chang’e)

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netflix · 7 months

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Spotlight: Adam Stockhausen

Production Designer, The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar

Oscar winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (not pictured above, that’s Benedict Cumberbatch), whose work you may know from Wes Anderson films like The Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City, The French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs, and Moonrise Kingdom, as well as titles like Bridge of Spies, and West Side Story (2021), took the time to answer some questions.

Which details from or aspects of The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar did you focus the most on while adapting it to the screen? How did you meld Roald Dahl and Wes’s worlds?

The details on this one started with Dahl’s writing hut! We matched the details pretty carefully and exactly. As soon as we step outside of the hut though we start to move through the world of the story and the world of the stage at the same time. Wes had the idea of how he wanted to do this from the very beginning. My main challenge was trying to figure out how to pull it off—making the parts move and getting each to have the right detail.

What’s a small change you made on a project that ended up having an unexpectedly significant impact?

Lots of times this happens—where what seems like a small thing at the time becomes a very significant turning point. I’m in Berlin now writing this and remembering being here scouting for East Berlin for Bridge of Spies. We were struggling to find a section of town that still felt old enough to show the early 60s, and decided to take a chance on a quick search in Poland. That quick search changed the whole production plan and ultimately gave us the look of our East Berlin.

How has technology changed the way you approach your work?

Technology has definitely changed the way we plan the work. We used to model everything in cardboard or sometimes just plan in two dimensions with pencil and paper. We can now plan in 3-dimensional space using modeling programs and see what real lenses will do. This allows for more accurate planning and makes scenery moves like the casino set in Henry Sugar possible.

Do you have any signature easter eggs you like to leave? Any small details that you are particularly fond of?

I wouldn’t say there are easter eggs in this one. But there are loads of special details! I think my favorite might be the levitation boxes where we painted a perspective view of the background onto a prop box. The actor sitting on the box appears to be floating in a very special and theatrical way.

Did you talk about reflecting the iconic Quentin Blake illustrations in production design? How would you go about doing that?

Not really. They are such incredible drawings and I’d say they’ve been inspiring me since I saw them as a child! But for this the starting point was really the machine Wes devised to move us through the story—and pairing that to specific references scene by scene.

There is such an intentionality to the aesthetics of a Wes world. Is there a set or frame that took you a long time to get perfectly right?

All of them! It’s a very labor-intensive process getting these frames right. Occasionally one will click right away, but usually it’s a process of refining and refining. The jungle for instance went from sketches to models to samples and back again several times before the final look settled.

If you had to present one frame that showcases the best of your work, what would it be?

Oh my. Maybe the jungle? I really enjoyed making the jungle!

With all the moving sets in the trailer for The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar, it feels reminiscent of a theatre production. Are there distinct differences in approach between film and theatre and how much do you blur the lines between them in your work?

I think the lines are blurred completely! Or maybe they aren’t even there. I love that Henry Sugar is so incredibly theatrical in its storytelling. It allows us to show the artifice of the sets all the time which somehow makes them even more satisfying when they finally do line up and create a complete picture. I think the casino set is a perfect example—the pauses where it all lines up for a second are even more enjoyable because we get to see it broken apart and sliding away.

Thanks, Adam!

#spotlight #entertainment spotlight #adam stockhausen #wes anderson #production design #filmblr #wes weaving #web weaving

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quaintbuilds · 13 days

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The Kingdom of Mossland

KoM 2-4 | The Engineers Guild

After some extensive reconstruction in multiple areas of the city, I am now ready to reveal the new Engineers Guild. The headquarters of the guild is still underground in the same spot, but has been greatly expanded. I did struggle with furnishing this guild and eventually just did enough to move on. I knew this part would be hard so I focused on builds from the in-world guild to expand on their presence in the city and give the place some much needed upgrades.

A new clocktower was my main focus, and I had a great time working out how steampunk I wanted to go with it. In-world, this is the Engineers Guild's pride and joy, so I wanted it to dominate the city. I looked to concept art from the video game Dishonored for inspiration. I also upgraded the drawbridge over the river, taking inspiration from tower bridge in England. The floating houses are there temporarily as I am doing some major reworking on the city layout.

The headquarters of the guild was expanded into the crystal caverns, and I carved out a part of the city to open onto the cavern to provide some verticality and natural light. The guild headquarters is still accessed by an elevator that opens onto the market. The headquarters is broken up into a small porch/sitting area, a large workshop, a schematics/records room, and a lecture hall. I am not pleased with the look of most of it, but I wasn't expecting much from it, and focused my attention on builds that would come from the guild, instead of the guild itself. I think I am going to have the project become more steampunk, but only in aesthetic, I do not want anything in the world powered by an engine, but I am liking the contrast of the greenery and colors with the large structures of metal and copper.

Some nerdy in-universe lore: The Engineers Guild is the newest of the guilds, and while they are an officially recognized guild by the government, many of the older citizens do not trust them or their newfangled contraptions. The guild is pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished with the introduction of new building materials and technologies being invented and tested all the time from their underground workshops. The successful construction of a new clock tower that dominates the city skyline was their first major project and cemented them as a powerful organization in the social and economic hierarchy of the Kingdom.

#minecraft #minecraft creative #minecraft build #minecraft aesthetic #mineblr #mizunos 16 craft #minecraft cottagecore #minecraft worldbuilding #minecraft city #minecraft steampunk

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merelygifted · 3 months

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Greco-Buddhist Art: A Fusion of Eastern and Hellenistic Traditions

BY DIMOSTHENIS VASILOUDIS

Greco-Buddhist art stands as a remarkable testament to the intermingling of classical Greek culture with Buddhism, marking a significant chapter in the annals of art history. This unique artistic tradition, known as Greco-Buddhism, emerged from a fascinating blend of Eastern and Western cultural elements, flourishing over a span of nearly a millennium. From the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE, Greco-Buddhist art developed across Central Asia, showcasing the depth and breadth of cultural syncretism.

The inception of Greco-Buddhist art can be traced back to the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom, established in what is now Afghanistan between 250 BC and 130 BC. The establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom from 180 BC to 10 BC further accelerated the spread of Hellenistic culture into the Indian subcontinent during this time period. It was in the Gandhara region of today's northern Pakistan that the melding of Greek and Buddhist cultures reached its zenith, under the auspices of the Indo-Greeks and later the Kushans. Gandhara became the cradle of Greco-Buddhist art, from which its influence radiated into India, impacting the art of Mathura and subsequently the Hindu art of the Gupta empire. This latter influence extended throughout Southeast Asia, while Greco-Buddhist art also made its way northward, leaving its mark on the Tarim Basin and ultimately influencing the arts of China, Korea, and Japan.

Characterized by the strong idealistic realism and sensuous depiction inherent to Hellenistic art, Greco-Buddhist art is renowned for introducing the first human representations of the Buddha. This pivotal development not only helped define the artistic and sculptural canon of Buddhist art across Asia but also served as a bridge between the aesthetic ideals of the East and the West. The portrayal of the Buddha in human form, imbued with the grace and precision of Greek sculpture, lent a new dimension to Buddhist iconography, enriching its symbolic and emotional depth. ...

#Arts #Art History #Greco Buddhist Art #India #Pakistan #Afghanistan

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reylatargaryen · 5 months

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My first Helluva Boss OC in my Helluva Boss AU. I think since it would be a long post then it would be divided into volumes. So let’s go!

VOL. 1. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Rhea Daegarys, previously crown princess of Vardarys (The Great Vardaryan Empire) and current Dragon Empress - ruler of state, protector of the empire and it’s inhabitants. I’ve gone so far that with her I started to do some more world building to Hell and created not only her but a whole new hellish race: Draconicus’/so-called Draconic Imps (which were there from the very beginning of Hell’s creation and were there for long till Lucifer’s fall and which WAS and IS the main dominant power of Hell despite Luci became the King of Hell) and their domain, heavily (and mean HEAVILY) inspired (mostly) by Valyrians, Old Valyrian lore and Dragonlords of ASOIAF universe and other related fictional places that has “the mightiest, most advanced and unstoppable empire/kingdom ever” vibe (Numenor, Atlantis, Fire nation, Asgard, Wakanda, Nilfgaardian Empire and etc.) It’s like a “what if” thing: what if Valyria, it’s population and dragons weren’t erased by the Doom and instead were thriving and existing to the very modern days with evidence of the great, ancient, magnificent past visualised, first of all, by grand architecture and also unique culture and traditions (most of them are adapted to modern standards) but with modern day features like high technology, TV, malls, shops, hotels, subway of all empire, grand central railway station which routes to other hellish rings (and special deeps which also lead to other rings of Hell, which work like Bifrost Bridge from MCU and vast enough to pass a dragon of every size without any problems or harm to creature or it’s rider) and etc.

What if there was similar analogue to Valyrian civilisation/race in Helluva Boss Hell world.

Yeah, it’s like a mix of a fictional fantasy land with advanced modern day megapolis. All in all, I imagine Vardarys (The Great Vardaryan Empire) like modern day Valyria (which even in ancient times already was a dominant, highly advanced civilisation) with Wakandan high (nearly sci-fi) technologies which ahead the rest of Hell (and of course with a presence of a super metal — local analogue of Vibranium and Valyrian steel) and a thing such as invisible protective shield that cover all of imperial territory and make it a pretty isolated place cause besides native race not so many are allowed to live here (Valyria was isolated too by the way, even without special protection):

The main aesthetic (first of all, in architecture) is obvious

The uniqueness of territory in which Vardarys locates explained by the border between Wrath ring which has big amount of volcanoes and canyons with vast spaces (the best environment for fire-breathing creatures) and rich soil (thanks to the same volcanic activity) that makes Wrath the main ring of Hell in economy and agriculture

And Gluttony ring which has tropical climate and environment to help to damp up the dryness of Wrath and grow any kinds of tropical plants, which also need the big amount of water to grow. The border between these two rings creates a place that mixed the best traits of these rings (the same as Valyria which despite being volcanic peninsula also had tropical humid climate and was affordable enough to grow green without any problems)

Like that:

That was the geographic, ethnic, geological and climatic volume part of this hellborn race/civilisation.

The next volume will be about racial/physical Draconicus’/so-called Draconic Imps differences from other hellborn races and mostly Imps.

#helluva boss oc #helluva boss au #helluva boss art #my oc art #helluva boss #my ocs

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disneydarlin · 4 months

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Frozen II: Queen Anna of Arendelle —Aesthetic

When her older sister resigns from the throne, Anna becomes the next heiress to her kingdom as the second born princess. Once she takes her rightful place as crowned Queen of Arendelle, Anna serves an additional purpose to bridge people to the magic of nature. This works out considering she and Kristoff become engaged. Meaning, he'll eventually become King Consort of Arendelle and the couple won't have problems conceiving an heir. Meanwhile, Anna's older sister doesn't seem interested in marriage.

#frozen ii #anna #art #queen anna #disney #aesthetic #moodboard #queencore

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pangeen · 10 months

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" Wye Valley " //© Carl Evans

#Wye Valley #Wales #England #United Kingdom #nature #landscape #riverscape #bridge #aesthetics #wanderlust #explore #follow #discover

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kajaono · 2 years

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3 gulity pleasure/comfort movies to watch

I finally decided to give a public shout ot to my three gulity pleasure movies that you should definitly give a try if you do love character focused storytelling.

Disclaimer: the criteria that were important for me here is that the storytelling is consistent, no major plotholes, likable characters, a good aesthetic and good cinematography. They do not have to be “Good” in the classic way but “enjoyable”

1. Dracula Untold

The movie a made up Dracula origin story with Luke Evans in main role. The turkish people attack his kingdom Transylvania so he makes a deal with a vampire. He gets the power of a vampire for three days and if he manages not to drink the blood of a human being in this three days he get turned into a human again. If not he becomes a vampire himself.

So far, so simple. The story is not super deep but as you can already tell by the poster the aesthetic of this movie is on point. They work a lot with the black/white/red aesthetic, espcially when it comes to Draculas wife (The movie has so many beautiful scenes, I am a sucker for it). Which is another good thing about the movie. While the straight marriage Dracula has in this movie is not super deep or meaningful, it is still not written agressive straight but actually lovable and wholesome to watch...

And the movie involves vampires and a gay actor so of course it is gay on a subtextual level. Seriously, Luke Evans letting another man suck his blood changed me forever.

Also the whole inner conflict of a man who doesn’t want to be a monster and does everything to suppress it but has to unleash the monster to safe the people he loves gets me everytime. Its about the suffer! Also Dracula is absolutley loavble in the movie. You just want to protect him... and you also want to see him suffer in every way possible.

It is not a horror movie but a dark fanatsy movie with some slightly gory scene but also here they focus more on the aesthetic then the gore so it is easy to watch. (In germany people from 12 years onwards are allowed to watch it. I would say 14 years onwards).

Also Christianity is not really used/shown in the movie. I am glad about that because this is something that can be really annyoing and triggering for some people and ruin their fun. But here are just some monks who say a prayer, thats basically it

Oh and some background knowledge about Dracula can absolutely improve your fun because he has his own Renfield and his bridges.

The ending is unexpected and super wholesome. And with 90 minutes run time you can easily watch it. So definitly give it a try if you a sucker for aestheticly pleasing movies, a monster fucker, a queer vampire lover or if you just love seeing beautiful man suffer for 90 minutes straight.

The only downside is that he has no wings, like teased on the poster so do not get your hopes up. And there is a really weird CGI scene.

2. King Arthur - Legend of Sword

Yeah, I know what you are now thinking “She is out of her mind!”/”Why are all the movies white male lead?!” but please let me explain

*Heavy breath*. This movie is an origin story (You already notice I like those, because you can put so much bonkers ideas into made up origin stories) for King Arthur. It loosley follows the tale. When Arthur is a little boy his jelaous uncle kills Arthurs whole family. Only Arthur is able to escape in a boat. He is then raised by sex workers and lives a slightly criminal but normal life. His life changes when a magic sword stucked in a stone is found. As a result he has to fight against his uncle even though Arthur actually is not interested at all in becoming King himself

So... this adaptation is totally bonkers. I would never agrue about that. But this movie is still enjoyable. First at all, I am a slut for Guy Ritchties way of filming. You can already see it in Sherlock Holmes, how scenes are played forward and back again, how everything is moving when the character is telling a story or planing a heist. Here it is used in an extreme way. Not as much as in The Gentleman though where it was over-used imo. Here it is used in the right amount. It makes the story really fun and dynamic to watch. In general the movie has a dark aesthetic. But in contrast to Dracula Untold it is not dark from teh beginning but gets their over the course of the movie.

2. The soundtrack. Absoultly amazing! I remeber how the trailer was released and the people on YouTube tried to extract the music from the trailer immediately. It is absolutly on point

3. The magic. The movie has a lot of fanatsy elements with witches who can “borrow” animals and use their bodies to attack other people. We have Merlin of course, who is again criminally underused. Spritis of the wood, Spritis of the water and a really dreamish guest world??? Which gets never explained but hey, thats not what we are here for anyway

4. The characters are absolutly lovable. We also have the actor of little finger from GOT and he kinda plays the same role here. The movie has the obligatory female love interest ... who never gets turned into a love interest. Big yeah! Arthur hits on her one time, she refuses, and the rest of the movie we never have to deal with a forced heterosexual relationship ever again. And the sex workers are shown as real lovable human beings. As mother figures and sisters, which again is a big yay! And the movie has Jude Law… who sadly got a horrible written role but he still plays it really well

Only the finale fight is a huge let down. But it is still a fun to watch movie which always give you something to smile about. Not a depressing movie. And yeah... we all just ignore the criminal modern hair cuts and style of the main character, okay?

3. Vampire Academy 2014

Yeah, again a vampire movie, what Can I say? I am queer. If PoTC wasn’t my bisexual awakening this movie definitly was it

First at all, please do not let you fool by the promo images, they are horrible and do not capture the spirit of the movie at all. But in a way they also do... its compliacted

This movie is told from the POV of Rose a half-vampire who is the protector of her best friend, Lissa, a born royal vampire. The movie is about Lissa and Rose who escaped from their vampire high school but are brought back after one year and are quickly confronted with royal conspiracies among the students, a big mystery and Lissa who has a really special ability (yeah there is magic involved) and of course the drama of high school love.

I know some fans who say that the movie is making fun of the book Vampire Academy is based on but seriously? I don’t think so. Vampire Academy (the movie) was released during the twilight hype but didn’t wanted to be confused with twilight. So the writers haven chosen a completly different route. Instead of being all romantic and taking itself too seriously it is really really funny. You do not cringe the whole time like I do when I watch Twilight (love the books).

Rose is a strong fighter who always has a punchline (not annyoing btw), Lissa who is all girly and princess and the older love interest Dimitri who is excatly capturing the spirit of the older boy we all had a crush on once. Hot, sexy and completly out of reach. You can already see the clichés but the movie is aware of those cliché and kinda turns it around, give the character a human side every viewer can connect to

There are a lot of training scenes with Rose and Dimitri which are a joy for every bisexual to watch. Natalie - a side chatacter - is the school nerd but instead of being potrayed as annyoing she is super loveable and human. Lissa is sure all princess, but you only want to protect her when you see her suffering.

The movie sure has a low budget, so there is no true aesthetic or stunning cinematography, it is just straight up an enjoyable movie.

And I think the more humoristic approach is why the movie is working so well. Why I am cringing when movie!Edward asks Bella: “You know what I am. Say it” but why I get weak knees when Dimitri calls Rose “Roza”

Vampire Academy truely said: “Those are sexy vampire who go to proms and do unrealstic stuff but in the end they are just humans, let us focus on that”. You know this movies were actors try to appear royal and cool and mysterious and it is just so uncomfrtable to watch and the whole time you are just begging the movie to stop? VV is excatly NOT doing this

I think the reason why this movie flopped so hard was because it completly changed the tone of the book, it was still confused with twilight and didn’t really fit into any category, because it is also not a parody. I do not knw if the world was and will ever be ready for this movie.

So if you want teenage high school drama movie which is funny, has amazing chemistry among the cast, who is full of clichés but also gets rid of them right away, if you love vampires and women with swords.. watch that movie

#vampire academy #dracula untold #vampire academy 2014 #king arthur legend of the sword #movie rec list #movie recommendation #guilty pleasure movies #my lists

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arengnera · 1 year

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Hi I’m here to ask you for your thoughts on the zonai

Oh my god someone actually did.

So despite my attempts to run a half respectable blog I actually have deep and incurable zelda brain rot. I'm going to do my best to give an overview for anyone who doesn't have that. The Zonai are a tribe/race that either predated or were contemporary to the ancient Shiekah, either collaborating to create several shrine quests or having their architecture and ruins repurposed for such. They span to every corner of the map, but are most present in the Faron region, with the Shrine of Courage, The Labyrinths, Thundera plateau, and Typhlo ruins being the most obvious and stand out examples. Their architecture and style could most easily be explained as combination of Indian and Mesoamerican. (As pictured below with a concept piece of Sarjon bridge, which is very accurate for the in game model) They often use the motif of geometric swirling patterns, as well as Stylized Dragons, Boars, and Owls to represent Courage, Power, and Wisdom respectively.

The new trailers for tears of the kingdom shows A LOT of Zonai stuff, with the sky island architecture and and constructs more or less being confirmed as Zonai make. While I had personally considered the Zonai to be a very humanoid tribe like the Shiekah or Gerudo, it's entirely possible that they're a completely different race entirely. I fully believe that this screenshot here is an example of a Zonai.

I don't have much evidence beyond the fact that I think Nintendo is too much of a coward to make Hylia a furry. The Zonai never depict themselves in any of their surviving in game artifacts so it's really impossible to say. But I bet they will be something similar to the Twili as a separate race and dragon people would make a lot of sense considering their veneration of dragons.

That and the bronze hair pieces look very similar to the other Zonai constructs and the swirl motifs they often use, and they are completely lacking any iconography that would link them back to Hylia (ie purple, gold, and wings) with the closed eye on the forehead and tears under the eyes being way closer to Shiekah than hylian if anything. The green stone (looks like malachite or jade imo) and bronze/brass really fit the color scheme of the Zonai, and the general dragon look meshes really well with their established aesthetics. It's shabby evidence at best, but it's more solid than evidence for them being Hylia. Anyway this is an excellent video that will explain these bitches way easier than I possibly could. Although this is all way before we had anything beyond the smallest crumbs for Tears of the Kingdom, so it's rather outdated now, considering we have a much larger wealth of information for the Zonai just from the trailers than we had in the entire game of BOTW.

#zonai #tears of the kingdom #zelda #Look man I am very normal about this

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official-emerald-herald · 2 years

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This problably is due in large part to Yui Tanimura (lead developer for Dark Souls 2) being heavily involved with the production of Elden Ring alongside Hidetaka Miyazaki, but I cannot help but notice how much of Elden Ring is cut from the cloth of Dark Souls 2 - both mechanically and in the broader story elements as well.

Most noticeable right from the start is the combination of Miyazaki's trademark opener of seemingly unavoidable death by first boss, followed by a completely skippable tutorial just like the Things Betwixt in DS2. The cave of knowledge even looks a lot like Things Betwixt visually with the large caverns in a darkly lit, inscrutable area made up of land bridges and looping caves. It's a lovely little connection that I really appreciate.

Then of course there's the obvious mechanical carry-overs like jumping having a dedicated button and powerstancing similar weapons, but with some much needed QOL improvements like removing the added stat requirements for power stancing and making jumps possible to execute from neutral instead of only while sprinting. I do wish the power stancing variety from ds2 was kept instead of it only ever working with weapons of the same class, but it's still nice to have regardless.

Perhaps most importantly to me though is art direction. I absolutely adore how seamlessly the art of Dark Souls 2 was married with Miyazaki's style in Elden Ring. We got the rich vibrant colors, impossible geography, insane aesthetic clashes and absurd constructs so integral to Dark Souls 2 but woven into a world that fit together in the tightly structured and interlinked fashion of games like Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne. Places like Siofra linking Limgrave and Caelid feels a lot like a structural link akin to DS1 but LOOKS as impossibly ridiculous as something like Iron Keep or Dragon Aerie from DS2 and I absolutely love it.

The lore of the game is perhaps the most direct link to Dark Souls 2, however. While it was written with a lot of elements of George R. R. Martin's style with regards to some of the political intrigue and world mythos, I can't help but see the bones of DS2's story in there. The dragon cult knights of Leyndell mirror Sir Yorgh and the drakeblood knights of Shulva. Godwyn's war and enslavement of the Giants is a direct callback to Vendrick warring against the giants back in his day, and both kings are now but shades of their former selves by the time of each game's story. Melina being made for the purpose of ending the world's twisted cycles with the help of a champion who would inherit or destroy the throne is exactly the story of Shanalotte, the Emerald Herald. Radagon being a conduit for the Elden Beast within the Erdtree strikes very similarly to Nashandra and the other shards of Manus being conduits for the Abyss. Dragons being mostly extinct and only few, weaker distant relatives of the ancient dragons remaining after a war was waged against them by a now long destroyed kingdom reminds me a lot of the dragons from Dark Souls 2, and even Dark Souls 1 if you think about it.

But of course, we all know the most important holdover from Dark Souls 2 in Elden Ring:

Janky hitboxes.

#elden ring #dark souls 2 #ds2 #dark souls

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