#will describe the process in a separate post

[eternalmneme]

From the survey I did you chose Veiling as the next post! So this post will be about that, I'll explain veiling in ancient Greece. This is done for helping begginers or who wants to start veiling! Enjoy💛

Understanding Veiling in Hellenism, Why Some of Us Choose To?

If you've been exploring modern Hellenism, especially through devotional or reconstructed practice, you may have come across people mentioning veiling: covering their heads during ritual, prayer, or in the presence of the gods.

Veiling in Ancient Greece, Was it a thing?

In modern Hellenic polytheism, veiling is often seen as a personal devotional choice. But in ancient Greece, it was a culturally embedded ritual norm, especially for women (and in some cases for men) with very specific symbolic meanings attached to public and sacred life.

In ancient Greece (particularly in Classical Athens), women's clothing often included long, draped garments like the peplos or chiton, often paired with a himation: a large rectangular shawl that could be pulled over the head as a veil.

While women did not necessarily wear a veil at all times, covering the head in public and in sacred spaces was seen as a sign of modesty, self-respect, and honor, especially for married women or those of high status.

In religious rituals, veiling was extremely common particularly when:

Approaching a deity, especially in temples

Making sacrifices or offerings

Participating in processions or festivals

Entering sanctuaries or sacred precincts

Observing mourning rites or funerals

Engaging in cults: Like Eleusinian Mysteries

Veiling in these moments meant:

• Purity and piety

• Distinction between sacred and mundane

• Submission to the divine order

• Reverence in the face of divine power

For instance, women who served as priestesses of goddesses often veiled during sacred rituals.

Curiosities :)

Greek vase art from the 6th-4th centuries BCE often depicts women with himation veils drawn over their heads during:

Weddings

Funerary scenes

Religious rituals or processions

Scenes involving deities

But there were also in literature! Such as:

•Euripides and Sophocles both describe female characters covering their heads in grief or when entering temples.

Plutarch, in Moralia, comments on veiling as a gesture of reverence and humility before the gods.

In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope draws her veil across her face when appearing before guests - a sign of modesty and status.

Veiling for Chthonic and Ouranic deities

The type of deity being honored could influence the practice:

When honoring Ouranic (sky) deities like Zeus or Apollon: veiling was a sign of respect and presence, like preparing yourself to be in a temple.

When honoring Chthonic (underworld) deities like Hades or Hekate: veiling could signal spiritual protection, humility, and ritual separation from the everyday world. This is especially true for funeral rites, where veiling helped draw a visible line between the living and the dead.

Veiling for Men, was it a thing?

When people think of veiling in ancient Greece, they usually imagine women with their himation drawn over their head during ritual or mourning.

But men also practiced veiling, though in more limited and context-specific ways! So if you're a man you can still veil if you want!

One of the most common contexts in which Greek men veiled was during mourning and funerary rituals.

Covering the head was a visible sign of grief, ritual mourning, and respect for the dead.

It also acted as a form of ritual purification and separation (the veil helped symbolically distance the mourner from death-miasma and the chthonic forces associated with it)

In funerary vases and reliefs, male figures are sometimes shown with cloaks drawn over their heads, especially during the prothesis (the laying out of the body) and funeral procession.

Just like with women, this veiling was not about modesty, but about marking a threshold moment.

Men also veiled during certain chthonic (underworld-related) and mystery cult rituals. These included:

Chthonic Offerings: When making offerings to underworld gods (such as Hades, Persephone, Hekate, or the Erinyes) veiling was sometimes practiced as a gesture of humility, protection, and reverence.

The act of covering one's head before a chthonic deity helped emphasize ritual seriousness and separation from the profane.

It was an acknowledgment that the practitioner was stepping into the realm of death, shadow, and hidden power, and thus needed to show restraint and respect.

In these rites, veiling might also help shield the self spiritually from unseen forces.

"Mystery Cults" (Eleusinian Mysteries): Although exact details of mystery initiations are intentionally secret and thus partially lost to us, evidence suggests that veiling was a part of initiation ceremonies (and this applied to both men and women).

But what about today? How can we veil?

I will now say only some of the ways to veil. There are a lot of methods, some are still used today some not. I'll say both. I'll explain these methods: himation, kekryphalos, kredemnos, and hair-related styles like the krobylos and korymbos. There are more styles as I said, like Sakkos, Mitra, Stephane, Ampyx, Calyptra, Calantica, Peplos (when used as a veil), Diadema (sometimes included as part of sacred headwear)

Himation (luátiov)

-What was it? A large rectangular cloak worn over the shoulders, usually by both men and women. It could be draped over the head as a veil.

-For what it was used? Drawing the himation over the head was a primary form of veiling in ritual contexts, especially for prayer, libations, funerals, and temple entry.

-What is the modern use? The himation-style veil is the most commonly reconstructed type today. Modern Hellenic polytheists and pagans use scarves, shawls, or wraps in a similar fashion: draped over the hair and shoulders during prayer or rituals.

Kekryphalos (кекрфалос)

-What was it? A hair net or snood, made of fine fabric, silk, or mesh, often worn close to the scalp to confine the hair.

-For what it was used? Worn primarily by women, especially married women, in both daily life and formal appearances. It was used to cover and contain the hair (symbolizing modesty, respectability, and control).

Types: Ornamental (made with gold or purple silk) or hidden under an himation or kredemnos.

-What is the modern use? Some Hellenists who veil regularly may use kekryphalos-inspired coverings (like headwraps or hair nets) for discreet veiling, especially in public or when combining daily modesty with ritual preparation.

Kredemnos (knõeuvos)

-What was it? A wide, band-like head covering, often embroidered or decorated, worn across the forehead and sometimes over the hair.

-For what it was used? Frequently depicted in statues and vase paintings of godly or noble women. It was associated with status, modesty, and sacred femininity.

-What is the modern use? Rare today in literal reconstruction but aesthetically inspiring for ritual attire. Headbands or ornate wraps may evoke the kredemnos style in festivals or devotional events.

While these are all considered veiling, the next ones (Krobylos and Korymbos) are considered hairstiles. I did these two because they are more simple to do even in our times.

Krobylos (kpúßulos)

-What was it? A specific hairstyle: the hair was twisted into a low chignon or bun, often at the nape of the neck, sometimes enclosed in a net or covered by a scarf.

-For what is was used? Common for married or respectable women. The hair was kept tidy and controlled (symbolic of ritual order, especially for priestesses and women in public sacred roles.) It may be worn under other coverings like the kekryphalos.

-What is the modern use? Still relevant today (many women and femme-presenting practitioners choose neat buns, braids, or low chignons as part of their ritual preparation, especially when veiling). The idea is to treat the hair as sacred (not hidden, but honored! This very important!)

Korymbos (kópupßos)

-What was it? A high bun or topknot, often worn by priestesses or women in sacred roles. Hair drawn up and possibly covered with a small veil or band.

-For what it was used? Associated with goddesses and priestly purity.

-What is the modern use? Rarely used by name now, but the concept survives in how modern practitioners prepare for ritual with neatly arranged or tied hair, often beneath a head covering.

I hope this post helped you understand what was veiling and how important it was for ancient Greeks!Of course, I need to be specific, veiling is NOT a must or necessary for Hellenism. Dont force yourself if you dont want to do it!

[redslug]

[capricioussun]

I don't typically like to complain about others' interps/fanon interps but it's always bugged me the way I often see swap papyrus characterized as being a total useless layabout all the time while conversely seeing people jump through hoops to attribute just about everything they can to Sans/UF Sans/etc and point out how, jokes aside, he canonically isn't actually lazy.

I know it's mostly just a symptom of not putting as much thought/attention into characters you're not as interested in, I'm sure I'm guilty of it with plenty of them, but it's just, idk...disappointing, I guess.

[beesmygod]

"YOU HUNTED" has been updated!

"you hunted" is a work-in-progress "bloodborne" lore explainer featuring 161 pages of analysis that makes a conscious effort to separate facts from speculation. it is intended to be read by both "bloodborne" superfans and those with a passing interest in the series with the hopes of entertaining them or making them laugh at how insane the game is. it is FREE TO READ!!! i want you to read and enjoy it.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

a table of contents!

two new chapters revolving around the exploration of isz and loran!

a section describing the process of analyzing lore!

cross-references!

CHANGES TO THIS EDITION:

overall formatting has been improved and made more consistent/less fucked up.

the glossary has been moved to the appendix.

i removed several parts where i appeared to be talking completely out of my ass.

removed several "who gives a shit" factoids that were clogging up an already bloated document.

light edits for readability/flow in "finished" chapters.

i need to "complete" this still but: i've started adding sources to the images i pick up that aren't from the wikis instead of being lazy and slimy and just lifting them lol. i didn't think this would become this when i started this document.

"you hunted" can be downloaded for free from my personal website. it's only a .pdf, so it should not trigger any weird virus protection.

if you enjoyed this, consider throwing me a tip on ko-fi. this stuff takes a lot of time and effort to make, and the only thing that can make me go faster is having enough money to buy tacos.

please read and enjoy my insane posts. thank you.

[mewguca]

⚠️ ((MASSIVE WATCHER SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AND ALL OF THE POST-GAME))

Some assorted ramblings about Watcher lorestuff. These are mostly concerning the Second Ending; I might make another post later. shrugs. I don't want to posit these as the "Correct" readings or whatever, just the ones I'm currently fond of. Hopefully you get something out of this.

The Kingdom, a Distorted Reflection of The Void Sea

A Triple Affirmative?

The Prince's "Kingdom" exists as an alternative Solution, a distorted reflection of Ascension, as the title suggests. The language used to describe its glorious vision is strikingly reminiscent of language around the Great Problem:

"Imagine: a single substrate… Life!Throughout all time! Nothing lost. No one lost. A living memory of all life, forever! From bug to god, all as one. None above the other. A TRUE end to the pattern. That is my vision."

– The Prince (Rot Friend!)

I mean, I'm not sure how much more explicitly Prince can state it. Its Kingdom is THE solution, in its eyes. A catalog of all things, living forever, free from the struggles of the Cycle. And this Solution is farther-reaching than any we've ever seen; the (Prince's) Rot Engulfs everything. It does not discriminate between bug and god, between rock and carbon, between microbe and macro-organism. All are welcome in its Kingdom, and that Kingdom is ever-growing.

Of course, I am speaking from a theoretical standpoint here; I am not advocating for the Kingdom as a "true" Solution. I don't believe the Great Problem can ever be solved; it is against the nature of the world. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Regardless, I believe the Kingdom to be untenable.

Certain regions in Watcher cannot be infected, which may suggest this Solution is not as all-encompassing as it seems. But Watcher plays with the fabric of space and time and the realms between the material and the Void, so this may be a moot point. Regardless, I'd rather focus on Philosophy than Practicality.

This "Solution" is Thoroughly Undesirable; we wish to leave the carnal plane of suffering and repetition, not bind ourselves to it forever!

Sure, nothing will be "lost", but who will be there to appreciate the memories of its little amalgamation? The Prince? And what of the ingredients it has ingested? Digested into soup of flesh, where all are one, and all are nothing.

This Solution, naturally, is presented as an alternative to Ascension, a side-stepping of the Great Problem. But I have a slightly different proposition:

The Kingdom is the Antithesis to the Ascension, just like the Rot is the Antithesis to Void Sea.

Ascension Versus Assimilation

The nature of Ascension is vague, but one possible interpretation I find of note is a melding of one's many disparate selves, no longer separated. A fullness of Self, and a fullness of perspective, freed to move on to world beyond the Carnal Plane. Even with more collective interpretations, I do believe each moving part is of equal significance. It is a mural of stained glass; an integration of many pieces arranged to form a greater whole.

Each piece fits together, but each piece is distinct. There is a harmony to this, and no one is above the other. A freedom from the struggles of the carnal plane and the oppression of the Cycle.

In the Kingdom, however, these many pieces eventually blend into an indistinguishable mass, equal by nature of their assimilation, rather than integration.

"Oh, you have brought sundries? You can leave them here if you wish, as a contribution. My processes will dissolve them to their base components and those components will be added to the mass. Nothing to waste, every bit counts!"

– The Prince, when brought an item

Its dialogue does not change based on item. This frustrated me, but in hindsight, I believe it serves to further my point. The details do not matter to the Prince; everything is broken down to its base components and assimilated into the Mass.

A World without Death, but also a Story without Continuation.

Opposing Forces

"As with all great deeds, my work is not without great challenge. It has taken eons and the light fades. The paths close and change. I can almost feel... a will... at odds with my own."

– The Prince

My buddy gandolph said something really insightful about the nature of the Rot we see in the Watcher. They've said it better than I can, so I'll just leave this here:

(this is all inference. just one reading of many)

I find this extremely compelling, and I'm big into the idea of the Rot and the Void Sea acting as opposing forces as well as foils.

"...If you leave a stone on the ground, and come back some time later, it's covered in dust. This happens everywhere, and over several lifetimes of creatures such as you, the ground slowly builds upwards.

So why doesn't the ground collide with the sky? Because far down, under the very very old layers of the earth, the rock is being dissolved or removed. The entity which does this is known as the Void Sea."

– Subterranean Teal Pearl

Rot is an unmitigated growth, often compared to cancerous cells. It is life without termination; a construction with no completion. It builds and builds, grows and grows, assimilates and assimilates...

The Void Sea counteracts this force by dissolving this unmitigated growth and allowing new life to spring forth. To allow for new birth, there must also be space for death. For change.

Where Rot remains, Void moves forward. The Kingdom would keep its inhabited trapped in this world for all eternity, whilst Ascension seeks to ferry them to the next.

Unfortunate Evolution:

Unfortunate Evolution is an interesting segment, and I feel it illustrates this dichotomy between Rot and Void quite deftly. Once you enter, you cannot warp out, giving this a Cinematic sort of feel. I do believe it is meant to parallel the entrance into the Void Sea at the end of the basegame, just... twisted.

The use of zero gravity signifies a relation to Iterator Internals, but I think the drastic shift in movement is a purposeful parallel to swimming in the Void Sea. This movement is harder to control than swimming, though. You can't move very far forward without pushing off a wall or throwing something or otherwise utilizing pre-existing momentum.

You "swim" upwards, in contrast to swimming downwards into the Void Sea

Unfortunate Evolution feels cold and desolate, still and quiet, like a corpse. In contrast, the Void Sea, as liquid, feels brimming with life and movement.

You're teased with a glimpse of the "Rot worm", though it's initially sectioned off from you, rather than a being sharing that same space.

As you venture into the open space, the background is dark and dilapidated. Contrast this with the increase in Light as you venture further into the Void Sea, especially with how many lights you see. Illumination versus Obfuscation.

The biggest difference is perhaps in the results of these meetings.

The Void Worm guides you towards enlightenment, facilitating your journey towards ascension. It interacts with you, bringing you with it, cutting your string, and then it allows you to complete your journey. You swim into the light, ascending, and the game ends.

The Rot Worm, meanwhile, tells you nothing, takes you nowhere, and hardly even seems to acknowledge you. You swim past it and end up at a portal that takes you back to Outer Rim. And then you continue on like nothing ever happened. It's... notably Anti-climactic, at least to me. But I believe that is the point. The Rot Worm (and UE by extension) is only an imitation of the familiar; a fleeting distraction in a much longer journey.

...Or, it was like that for me, at least. Maybe it's not intentional, but I think this reading is very neat. The Prince's Rot has no enlightenment or salvation or even ending to offer you. Just an indiscriminate consumption of all in its wake and the stagnation that follows.

The Conclusion:

Therefore, the Prince's "Enlightenment" is antithetical to its very being. There are many ways to interpret the ending, of course. Perhaps this was a counteraction from the Void Sea, restraining the Prince in its hubris and re-establishing the cycle of death and rebirth. Was this a conscious act, or simply a natural occurrence? I'm unsure. Alternatively, but not mutually exclusive to this reading, is the suggestion that the Prince was "paralyzed from its contradictory existence", as gandolph stated.

The contradiction of the Prince's Self and Ego versus the unification and equality of all life. The contradiction of its pursuit of enlightenment and cataloguing with its mindless desire for consumption and assimilation. The contradiction between their inherited imperative and its implicit nature.

At the Prince's Coronation, its Kingdom crumbles. Karma Flowers engulf its corruption, and so life is born anew. In a way, I suppose its blessed substrate has been achieved, just not in the way it expected. The rot will be consumed, just like the dust before it.

UPDATE: adding these images of Survivor's Ending and Prince's Ending for further comparison.

Side-by-side, you can see the resemblance between the Slugtree and the Throne, though there are also some notable differences:

The Slugtree's trunk is much thicker, making it seem healthy and long-lasting. Throne's "trunk", by contrast, seems sickly and distorted

Slugtree is covered in "leaves" whilst the Throne is (at least by silhouette) barren. Again, the Slugtree appears full of life whilst the Throne is sickly and dying

Slugtree is full of light; Throne's only light is the Karma flowers now growing atop it / consuming it

Also note how the slugtree is full of slugcats that form a greater image together but still exist as their own beings . nothing to add for throne here but it adds to the "Ascension is Integration whilst Kingdom is Assimilation" reading

sorry for poor organization. here are some more thoughts:

A Prince Versus a King

Okay luna this is really cool, but like, isn't the Prince just a datamined name anyways? does it being a 'Prince' instead of a 'King' even matter?

great question guy I made up in my head just now. Everything matters, of course, but here are my thoughts on it being a 'Prince' specifically:

The Prince is likely meant to serve as a foil to Spinning Top (Echo Friend), as the Prince is a nascent consciousness, and ST is a child. Naming it 'Prince' strengthens this connection.

The Prince is not a child, however. Children learn and grow. Children eventually become adults, and they move on. We see this with Spinning Top. As we accompany on them on their journey throughout space-time, we prompt the self-reflection necessary to process their memories and accept the next chapter in their life. (There's a whole post I could write about ST and their insight into Echoes, but that's for another time.) By its very nature, the Prince can never move on. It does not have Self reflection, because Self is all it can ever truly know. All it learns is assimilated into the mass. Like I said, its attempts at enlightenment are contradicted by its nature as Rot. Hence, they serve as foils.

The term 'Prince' may suggest an attempt at humility, which is deeply ironic, but understandable. Prince proselytizes about its world of equality, but inherently this cannot be, because it has placed itself at the top of everything, implicitly, by assuming its way is best for everyone. A Kingdom needs its ruler, and Prince has graciously accepted such a role.

I think my favorite reading, however, is that the Prince is simply yet to succeed its Throne. That there is some point it hasn't reached, something still left to achieve. Perhaps once its Kingdom's construction has completed?

The Ending, then, serves as its "Coronation." A crown of Karma flowers for the freshly-appointed King. An Elegy to Ignorance.

------------

EDIT: also want to make a nuance disclaimer that rot in General is not inherently the same as Prince Rot / Kingdom specifically yay . and im just a little guy make sure to read lots of different posts 🙏👍

there's also much to be said about the Throne and the Rot and the Brain Trees and etc but someone else can do that much better than me. And also another disclaimer that this reading may become outdated with future updates yay. happy watching everyone

[welcomingdisaster]

an inexhaustive list of diagnoses given only to the quendi

mind-deafness: that is, inability to use osanwë

pre-traumatic stress disorder: characterized by excessive and disturbing foresight of events yet to come; dwelling on an ill future; depressive states following a resignation to fate or compulsive attempts to thwart it. if the event is survived, this sometimes, but not always, may develop into a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.

partial retrograde amnesia: colloquially referred to as "forgetting," this is a state common and accepted among the edain, but highly unusual and concerning for elven-folk.

major cognitive exhaustion: described as declining motivation and will to live, coupled with anhedonia and a feeling of extreme fatigue. some in the community believe this condition is equivalent to major depressive disorder, and ought to be characterized under the same diagnosis. most elves, however, prefer a separate label.

amusia: tone-deafness; difficulty processing music or beat; inability to perceive musical tone and pitch. this is rarely considered a serious medical diagnosis for edain and khazad individuals, but the significance placed on music in quendi culture means quality of life for tone-deaf individuals is severely affected. elves with severe amusia, or those who find music unpleasant, report very poor social outcomes in quendi society.

[canmom]

long but fascinating video. the basic criticism is p much spelled out in the thumbnail there: Western music that labels itself 'Persian', 'Arabic', 'Egyptian' etc or serves as soundtracks for Middle Eastern settings is always a mishmash of wildly geographically separated regional elements that almost exclusively refers back to other Western orientalist music, but passes itself off as the real thing enough that most people have no idea what, say, Iranian music actually sounds like. it's certainly true... but the really interesting part for me is the details: Faraji breaks down the stereotypical elements of that orientalist style (the Armenian duduk, melodies that walk up and down the double harmonic major scale, a certain very specific vocal style) and describes what's missing (e.g. the many more common modes of Iranian music which use microtonal quarter tone steps, the complex ornamented articulations, the specific 'accents' of different regions) and in a fascinating bit, makes a similar mishmash of regions applied to Europe to make a parody 'Scottish' song which honestly kinda slaps. he's also got a pretty good analysis of where this stuff comes from in the affordances of Western instruments and VSTs - it's nearly impossible to play microtonal music on a guitar or piano, and Western musicians don't really learn how to do it

I don't have much to add besides 'interesting video!' but I'll definitely be using this channel a bit in the next big music theory post I'm cooking up (which will mainly be about trying to understand the process of composition). he's got another long video on Iranian music theory too and I'm looking forward to checking it out...

[writer-logbook]

5 tips for proofreading & their pros and cons

Define your objectives for each chapter. In my case, some of my chapters are better written than others. My objectives for them will differ. Before starting my proofreading, I list my needs and areas of improvements, and I write them down somewhere so I have them in front of me rather than in my head alone.

Pros : allows you to know which points you need to focus on ; provides a guideline adapted to your needs.

Cons : risk of losing homogeneity and fluidity + flaws may be shifted to other chapters that didn't have them before due to a sudden imbalance.

Plan several proofreading sessions, each one of them addressing ONE NEED AT A TIME. (E.g., one for grammar, another for style, and a final one for coherence. ) And I insist on the "one need at a time" part. Even for those who can multitask (unlike me), I really don't recommend settling for a single proofreading session. It could interfere with your concentration and let you skip some flaws. And please, always give your chapter a final read after your edits to ensure that the elements make sense as a whole, and are not repeated every two paragraphs (I plead guilty, your honor)

Pros: allows you to focus precisely on each point, and give it dedicated attention.

Cons: you can quickly get confused and risk multiple re-readings + significant time investment.

I make my corrections on a separate file. Whatever you do, it's always better to have a backup and therefore to save your files (don't blindly trust autosave) to create archives. I think it's a two-ways process : 1) you open two files simultaneously, one with your V1 and one, blank, where you'll rewrite your chapter as you make changes. Eventually, this new doc will become your V2 ; 2) you copy the parts to proofread into a new document and edit directly in there.

Pros: allows you to rewrite as you wish without being discouraged by the following paragraphs - especially in case of the first way.

Cons: requires multiple files (maybe multiple screens to be at ease) and better organization.

Change the typography. I don't know about you, but after a while, I'm struck by semantic satiation (click on the link - it's Wikipedia -, it's very interesting) and nothing makes sense anymore. After the 52,846th proofreading, I might as well read in another language. I've found a relatively effective trick - not as effective as a complete break, but sometimes you need to move forward - which consists of changing the typography. I can't remember who gave me this advice though, but be sure they've been thanked more than enough in my mind. In any case, seeing words change their shape significantly helps my brain to stay focused and attentive. (Maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me but I only see the results.)

Pros: it's simple to implement.

Cons: I don't know if this trick works for everyone or if I'm the only weirdo (you can tell me in the comment section).

Take notes. This is a very personal tip but I keep a proofreading logbook. Like, I record in a few sentences the first time an element is mentioned, how it's describes, and most importantly… I MENTION THE DATES. The story I'm currently writing is heavily governed by a chronological system, so I have an absolute need to keep the day count up to date.

Pros: helps avoid inconsistencies and oversights.

Cons: very tedious to maintain and creates (a lot) of extra work.

I've started my prooreading journey yesterday and I already want to die. If I find in the edits something that is worth making a post, be sure that I will. Or let me know if you're simply curious.

Gentle reminder : Best is the worst enemy of good so, at some point, you'll have to let it go and let your chapter live its life to its fullest. Don't be hard on yourself and be proud of your work - or know that I am.

[david-talks-sw]

Back in 2021, @writerbuddha wrote this amazing post where he interweaved Lucas' words in his meta post defending the Jedi. I'd like to take a page out of their book and start a 4-part series of posts on Anakin. Here we go! Here's PART 2 and PART 2.5 !

In George Lucas' words: The Fall and Return of Anakin Skywalker

- Episode I -

Episode I exists to show us that Anakin Sykwalker makes it into Jedi school, becomes free, and realizes his dream. But in the process, he has to go through a lot of painful sacrifices.

When we meet Anakin, he is a young slave boy who dreams of becoming a Jedi. Lucas makes it a point that, he’s a really wonderful, angelic little kid.

This is intentional. The reason George started the story where he did. He played with having Anakin start out in his late teens like Luke, or age him down to twelve-years-old. The problem was that a twelve-year-old leaving his mother - as Anakin does - is not nearly as traumatic as a nine-year-old leaving his mother. And there is a key story point that revolves around the fact that he was separated from his other at an early age, and how that has affected him.

The whole point of Anakin’s arc in the Prequels is that Anakin is a normal, good kid. And how does somebody who is normal and good turn bad? What are the qualities, what is it that we all have within us that will turn us bad?”

Well, Anakin has some flaws - and those flaws ultimately do him in. Those flaws are hard to see in Episode I, but they are there. He’s cursed by the same flaws, and issues that he has to overcome, that all humans are cursed with. There's a lot going on there. 

In Episode I, we see that there are a lot of parallels between Luke and Anakin. In Episode IV, Luke does struggle with his commitment to his uncle and his commitment to a larger destiny. His heart is to go and go off on this adventure, but he's caught in his obligations to the mundane, so to speak.

Eventually, Anakin takes a different road than his son takes, but it’s been set-up for you to almost expect that they will go— that Luke will follow in his father’s footsteps. Once again, these are issues that Anakin, Luke, and anyone can confront.

After all, once he liberates himself through a Podrace, Anakin is confronted with the fact that he will need to leave his mother, Shmi, behind. Shmi is caught in a struggle. She loves her son, but she wants a better life for him and has to let him go.

So she does. Right off the bat, the first movie shows Anakin’s mother display a type of selfless love - which Lucas refers to as “compassion” - that Anakin will only really be able to learn in the last movie.

Now, when they get to Coruscant, Anakin needs to be tested to allow him to be accepted as a Jedi, eventually. Because he has the powers… but as Yoda points out, there’s a lot of fear in him, and anger. That’s why they actually deny him the chance to become a Jedi. But it’s also - when they relent later on - it’s the thing that ultimately begins to describe some of his downfall.

In theory, the child should have been trained by Yoda until he was about seven or eight years old. And then when he was seven or eight, he'd be given a Jedi, he'd become the Padawan learner to a Jedi. 

But Qui-Gon wants Anakin to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.

It is obvious that Qui-Gon is wrong and made a dangerous decision, but ultimately this decision may be correct. Anakin is indeed the chosen one.

That doesn't mean that the Council's prediction is wrong. The tale meanders and both the prediction and Qui-Gon are correct. Anakin will be taken over by dark forces which in turn destroy the balance of the Galaxy, but the individual who kills the Emperor is Darth Vader— also Anakin, who brings peace at last with his own sacrifice.

Once Qui-Gon dies, ironically enough, it’s Obi-Wan that has to train Anakin and take care of him and take over the responsibility that Qui-Gon has started. The Jedi Council let Anakin in and they make him Obi-Wan's Padawan.

Sources:

The Phantom Menace Commentary Tracks #1 and #2, 1999

Cut Magazine, 1999

Premiere, 1999

The Making of The Phantom Menace, 1999

Star Wars Insider #52, 2000

A New Hope, Commentary Track, Special Edition DVD, 2004

The Making of Revenge of The Sith, 2005

The Cinema of George Lucas, 2005

Starlog Magazine #337, 2005

BONUS: How George describes Obi-Wan's initial thoughts on Anakin

Throughout the film, Obi-Wan is at odds with Qui-Gon, who rebels against the Jedi rules. So when he meets him, Obi-Wan does not trust Anakin. He’s not a big fan, he has a suspicion, this initial skepticism toward Anakin which is why Lucas didn't want to overplay the scene where they first meet.

He’s like the reluctant elder brother saying, “You’re not leaving him with me. I don’t want to babysit anymore, I want to go out and do something good.”

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan disagree about using what one would call in mythological terms "the guide." One believes in the guide. The other one doesn't. Obi-Wan’s argument is that taking on characters like Jar Jar or Anakin with them on the trip is “going to slow us down. This is not a wise thing to do.” 

It's a classic mythological motif but at the same time, it's conflict. The characters have to grow so what happens is that eventually the character that is very much against doing this has the obligation transferred to them. 

So by the end of the film, Obi-Wan has become Qui-Gon, by taking on his rebellious personality and responsibilities.

Obi-Wan commits, and tells Anakin that he’s going to train him. He has character and takes responsibility. Han Solo would’ve left him out on a desert planet somewhere.

Sources:

The Phantom Menace Commentary Tracks #1 and #2, 1999

The Making of The Phantom Menace, 1999

The Making of Revenge of The Sith, 2005

The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, 2020

[altcvnningham]

pinprick {request}

adler x bell!reader x felix

request: for @reirats70, who asked for adler x bell!reader x felix !!

tags: nsfw mention, mdni, bell!reader, gn!reader (but the word 'pretty' is used to describe them), established adlerbell, mk ultra/separation mention, kissing, oral, author has never written felix before and is super nervous, adler is a little too happy for a man who should be in jail wc: 1.5k

a/n: slowly working through requests but this one was too exciting to pass up!! still a little hesitant to post full blown nsfw (when it isn't exclusively adlerbell at least) so i hope the lil spice included is okay :) this is my first time writing felix as well and i hope it satisfies!! thank you for the request <3

“It is quite interesting,” Felix muses to himself, almost as though you weren’t even there, held tight in his grasp and flitting restlessly like a moth in a mason jar. The latex-gloved hand that holds your face turns you back to face the light, where his eyes pierce yours again. “The way it seems to have left a scar in the iris. Pinprick. Almost imperceptible.”

Off to the side where even your periphery can’t quite catch, Adler sucks on a cigarette, leaning back against the cart table sat in the centre of the ops room; his presence lingers inauspiciously, as unavoidable as the smoke that billows in the air, huffed out in a plume of laughter from his unsmiling mouth.

“Yeah, well, with pretty eyes like Bell’s, you notice.”

The comment shouldn’t make your heart stir or your stomach flutter as pathetically as it does, but much like it always has, your body responds to Adler’s words in a way your mind detests to admit; he’s never been one for the most direct compliments, but the fact that this one isn’t even said to you somehow makes it all the more rousing to hear- like a dirty secret caught round an open doorway. As you attempt to turn your head to try and look at him, Felix interjects, a squeeze tighter around your flushed face.

“Very pretty. So, it was necessary to inject the compound straight into the eye?”

Suddenly the topic of conversation comes back into focus, the very reason for you being in your rather compromised position. With Harrow sequestered off in the other wing of the Rook bound to a chair, Adler had suggested to Marshall the use of Separation to help ease the process- or complicate it, you’d mumbled curtly- and had begun all misty-eyed to wax poetic about the night he’d used it on you, strapped to that gurney after Cuba. It’s a sickening topic to be caught in the middle of, left all the more a bitter taste in your mouth since Adler had made an unspoken vow never to bring up MK Ultra again. But in Felix’s piqued curiosity of the compound- be it vanity or a genuine willingness to pass knowledge along, Adler had offered to teach him how to make it, use it, how it worked. You want to scoff at him, as though he knew anything about the technical intricacies of the drug- though it isn’t as if he was about to drag Park back out of the desert just to give a more comprehensive lecture.

And for some reason, here you were, not quite the lab rat you were a decade ago but feeling painstakingly close to it, gaping up at Felix as his gaze runs you over like a man starved. Of what, you can’t possibly imagine. Hasn’t he had his fill of you enough these past weeks? Haven’t they both?

Adler’s voice pulls you back to the present, bookended by the faint chiming in the back of your mind. Ding.

“To get the desired results, yes,” Adler explains, barely regarding you with anything more than impartiality as he steps over next to Felix, studying you with similarly clinical indifference. “But I think this time just a shot to the neck should be enough. Harrow’s tough, but only ‘cause I taught her how to be. Trust me, the Achilles heel is there, she’ll crack easy.”

“Oh? And Bell was…?”

Adler smirks, and when he dips his head to peer at you over his aviators he actually looks at you, regarding you, not like the poked and prodded subject you’ve been for the last ten minutes, seemingly made of glass with the way their focus seemed to land through you entirely. A soft laugh leaves him- a rarity you cherish since he’s softened in his age- and he pinches your cheek, right above where Felix’s thumb secures a firm grip.

“Oh, Bell was a real tough nut to crack. We were there for hours. Stubborn thing, aren’t you?”

All you can really do is stare- you can barely open your mouth to talk, Felix’s hand squashing your face like a doll’s- but you suppose the question is a rhetorical one anyway, leaving Adler to bask in his smug superiority.

Felix chuckles, though his eyes don’t quite meet yours yet the way Adler’s does, instead now roving your face, the features made pink and prickled warm by the overwhelming attention from both men.

It’s a strange thing- you aren’t typically so flustered, certainly not around Adler, used to his bizarre attempts at affection, but Felix in particular had a way of making you feel special in the oddest ways. He’s direct, and that in contrast to Adler’s myriad riddles of non-answers and emotions shadowed over by impenetrable aviators made for… an interesting combination. Adler hadn’t changed much over the decade- a little softer around the edges, both in looks and temperament, but the sharp and jagged corners of your relationship still remains even with the mutable tenderness of passing time, not quite healing wounds so much as smacking a band-aid over the hole he’d nearly put in your head. That being said, you still ran circles around each other the same way you did back in Berlin, ever caught in the endless cat-and-mouse. Still fighting, still kissing, still not quite making up, then doing it all over again.

But Felix was to the point. There was rarely any guessing as to how he felt in your presence. Terse when impatient, rigid when agitated, but sweet and heartfelt, with a certain compassion that surprised you. His affection came easy, unbidden- a little shy at times, but he wore his heart on his sleeve, and admiration on his face clearly enough that Adler had eventually caught on. And where you’d feared that Adler would only increase his vigilance, tighten his grip on your leash, and usher his bird back into their gilded cage, rather, he was unexpectedly content to let Felix indulge his affections for you, to the point that now you felt… shared, almost.

An odd thing indeed.

If you could recall how it started, it was subtle and slow, very nearly unnoticeable. A graze of the knuckles here, a helping hand staying just a moment too long there. Adler sending you on fetch quests for the ex-Stasi, then turning to abscond with him in another room and vanish. Inklings of hushed conversations shared between them across the room, their eyes pointed to you with wry, bitten smiles. It was like having a pretty secret dangled right in front of your nose, but just so very barely out of reach that it was nigh insufferable.

Maddening, until those subtle scrapes turned to shared touches, Adler showing you off like a prize pony to Felix who’d all but watch in awe. You’d always been something akin to Adler’s reluctant pet, even back in the old days. You could never imagine how quickly you’d reassume the role, even after the years had whittled the effectiveness of your trigger phrase to nothing but empty words he’d occasionally use to mock you. As if you’d need it to do as he pleases. As if you’d need an incentive at all when the starry glint in Felix’s eyes is reward enough.

And it’s always been hard to keep up with Adler; with them both, it takes herculean effort to so much as keep your head straight. It’s one thing to have them dote attention upon you as they do now, and another thing entirely to find yourself one night in the kitchen as the whole house slept, held with your back to Adler’s chest in a vice grip, his tongue in your mouth, while Felix’s worked in near reverent devotion between your legs like a man starved. Your whimpers silenced only by the way they’d swap to take turns quicker than you could let go of the breath you’d been holding, keening over and relinquishing your hands to slide into blond tresses once more. With blind pleasure hewing your focus to a pinprick, it’d get harder to distinguish who was who, only able to discern the distinct pinching of latex gloves into the plush of your ass, or the scrape of pitted sandpaper scars along the inside of your thigh. A crazed thing, did it not excite you so much.

You blink back to the present moment when you feel the light, patronising smack of Felix’s hand against your cheek, pale blue latex nipping soft skin. He’s smiling, eyes bright with amusement, and in your daze you must have missed something, because you catch Adler’s smirk off to the side, remnants of a laugh that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Felix muses.

“Enough chatter. Let’s see what we can do to help Adler with this Separation, hm?”

And before you can so much as attempt to blurt a response he squeezes your face again, puckering your mouth, and plants a chaste- if not teasing- kiss upon your lips.

[problems-exe]

If you were wondering where I've been the past few months, this is one of the things I've been working on.

After being in the UTMV fandom for so long, I decided it was about time I made my own Undertale AU, so here it is!

Introducing UnderCandy!

UnderCandy is my own horror spin on Candytale, taking inspiration from various sources. Each of the main characters have been redesigned to fit the reworked story, which I plan on sharing over the next few months.

With each new post I plan on making, I will reveal two of the character designs as well as give info about them and disclose new lore.

This first post will serve as a way for me to gauge community interest and see if I want to continue putting effort into this project.

To start things off, here are the designs for Sans and Papyrus!

Sprites and designs were made by me, all credit for the art goes to @shynetyme06

Not much has changed about them personality-wise, but as you can tell, their designs certainly have some changes.

With each character I designed, I wanted to apply a dessert to them that I felt fit their concept/personality in some way.

The first brother I designed was Sans, and with his design, I wanted to pay tribute to the original Candytale Sans design, whilst also making it my own thing. I kept the "goop dripping on head" aspect but changed what that looked like into a S'more. The reason I chose a S'more for Sans was because I tried to think of what some of the laziest desserts you could make are, and recalled how I've often microwaved S'mores for myself in the past. It's a dessert that you could put more effort into if you wanted, or you could take the easy way out, and that felt fitting for Sans to me.

Both Sans and S'more, starting with the same letter, was also a bonus, though not intentional.

After designing Sans, I designed Papyrus. For his design, I wanted to make sure I kept something in common between his design and Sans, so I decided on the chocolate aspect. Papyrus is based on chocolate-covered pretzels, as well as peppermint. I'm not sure how to describe this one other than "it just felt fitting."

And again, both words starting with a P was also a nice addition.

I also tried to keep some of the colors consistent between the two skeletons to add more visual relation to each other.

Something important to know is that both Sans and Papyrus are made entirely out of their assigned desserts. Everything you see on them is edible. Keep this in mind for the future.

I'll talk more about their personalities and lore in a separate post, though I will say that you might have to ask some specific questions to get specific answers :]

Lastly, before I close off this post, I want to finish off with a proper introduction to the plot.

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦

This AU's story begins on The Surface, in a small town nestled at the base of Mount Ebott.

The town serves as a popular destination for tourists, thriving thanks to its numerous renowned small businesses and bustling factories.

Amongst these beloved establishments, a compact candy company stands out, famous for its hard candies, which have become a staple for the town.

Residents and tourists alike often flock to the candy factory to witness the company's next big idea, eager to be among the first to taste their latest product.

It was during one such reveal that everything fell apart.

A young man, weary of his monotonous day-to-day life working at the factory, took it upon himself to “improve” the company's newest candy concoction.

The night before the reveal, he snuck into the factory and poisoned the supply, tainting hundreds of candies in the process.

The next day, as people lined up to sample the new product, many would fall ill, and many more would lose their lives due to the man's actions.

The candy factory was forced to shut down, and all of the candy had to be boxed up and thrown out.

It just so happened that the town's garbage dump linked directly to the garbage dump in The Underground's Waterfall.

All of the contaminated candy ended up there, and it was swiftly discovered by two monsters searching for items to sell.

Catty and Bratty became Patient Zero of the rapidly spreading plague that would soon grip the entire Underground in the months to come.

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦

And that's everything! Thank you so much to everyone who has read this far; I hope people find interest in this concept so I can continue to post about it!

If you have any questions about the AU at all, please do not hesitate to ask! I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

That's it for this post, but I have some neat things planned for the future. Make sure to keep an eye out ;]

Credit to NegativeCandy on Twitter for creating OG CandyTale

UnderCandy belongs to me :)

[notbecauseofvictories]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/magazine/scotus-transgender-care-tennessee-skrmetti.html

because of this will the supreme Court overturn Obergefell v. Hodges? and if you responded and bring up that old post from 2016 I'm aware about that but that was more about Trump and presidents being the ones overturning the decision and even with that point you brought up that even if he appointed a judge who lean towards anti-lgbt, that's still wouldn't happen even though I feel recently the supreme Court majority seems to be behind Trump fully on certain things.

If you've read that far back in my blog---which, wow, that is some real commitment there, pal---then you know that for a case to be brought before any court, it must be justiciable. There must be a legal injury to the plaintiff, one within the authority of the court to resolve. Additionally, the case has to make it through the lower courts, then be appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Court must make the decision to hear it in full rather than denying certiorari. Therefore, the Supreme Court can't simply issue a statement to the effect of: "whoopsie! actually, we made a mistake with Obergefell, never mind that whole gay marriage thing." There is a process to follow, and it can take years, even decades, to undo Supreme Court rulings.

That said.....could it happen? Yes.

If you've read that 2016 post linked above, you know that I reference Roe v. Wade with a truly laughable amount of confidence, given that it was overturned in 2022 with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Alliance Defending Freedom is active and vile, one of the major actors behind the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling as well as Dobbs. I would be entirely unsurprised if they have a gameplan for Obergefell; if there isn't a working group within the ADF right now discussing how to weaken, restrict, or overturn it, I will eat my hat. (I checked the wikipedia page for US v. Skrmetti, just to see if they were listed---they weren't, but that doesn't mean they weren't present, invested, helping draft the original anti-trans legislation or fund the litigation.)

We do know what the Supreme Court is set to hear before the session adjourns. (This tracker from the nytimes is helpful, if you want a quick summary.) It includes some staggering issues---birthright citizenship, racial gerrymandering, whether religious students can 'opt out' of class discussion with LGBTQ+ themes; plus the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare is back on the docket again. We won't know until the next session whether the court wants to reconsider Obergefell, if they'll have adequate, justiciable grounds to do so at that point.

Maybe if you're lucky, they'll focus on mifepristone and prohibiting inter-state travel for the purposes of abortion. Or hey, they can always stick with birthright citizenship, give themselves even more teeth---build on the Bush-era rulings about torturing non-citizens in extrajudicial prisons. Chevron is already dead so they're free to fuck up the administrative agencies, but I hear the limited powers of the presidency are just a bummer, maybe think about expanding those....

Look, when I made those posts nine years ago, it took me a little less than a week to recant---I described myself as "singing ‘cockeyed optimist’ wearing rose-colored glasses" when that wasn't what the moment demanded. That kind of Pollyanna energy is still not helpful. Nevertheless, I can't avoid a certain pang of sadness in reading Elie Mystal's article on the ruling, realizing that he's shifted register. He talks about the case as joining the anti-canon of Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson with full awareness that he may not see its reversal. Mr. Scott did not live to see the Civil War, let alone the 14th amendment granting him and his Black contemporaries the citizenship they sought. It took 60 years to get to Brown v. Board of Education and the acknowledgement that separate can never be equal. It took 20+ years for the government to apologize for Korematsu and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII---the Supreme Court itself only recognized its error in 2018. And these are the headliner cases; never mind that court rulings often function as death by a thousand papercuts, giving the justices plausible deniability should they ever be confronted with the misery they rubber-stamped.

So could it happen with same-sex marriage? Well.

[newttxt]

hi quip! i really like your one piece comics and i am curious how you do them! i'm not good at comics and want to be better at drawing them! how do you learn how to make comics?

thank you!

uh oh... im afraid u have caught me at the perfect crossroad of "bored at work" and "unrelated task ive been meaning to do but keep putting off."

this is long. i hope you like reading (and grayscale progress pics). and of course!!! disclaimer before we begin that this is just how I, personally draw comics. there is no "right way."

quip's comic-making process!

Switching my typing to make this more legible...

My process can kinda be broken down into 6 steps:

Brainstorming

Thumbnailing

Sketching

Panels & Text

Lines

Tones/Colors

1. Brainstorming

My brain is a leaky sieve on a good day, so I sloppily jot down ideas in my phone notes the moment I have them. This helps me when it's time to draw too, because if I feel art blocked, I can look through old concepts and see what catches my interest.

Otherwise, I love drawing for other people's writing. :) And if worst comes to worst, doing manga/comic page redraws in my style teaches me new things every time.

Once I have my idea, I'll usually make a bulletpoint list of "plot points" or "story beats" I want. Then I plan the comic with this format that I've adapted from a tutorial I read once. I'm going to use my most recent comic (original comic post) as an example.

I start in the third column, writing notes of what I'd want to see in each panel. I also include the dialogue (in this case, I didn't have to write the dialogue! it's from the fanfic linked in the original comic post!). I usually write the whole name like [Luffy:], but at this point I've drawn so much of these guys, just the first letter works.

I like to handwrite these notes to get an idea for how much text I'm putting in a single panel.

After I describe all the panels, I go back and separate them into pages. I can't tell you how to know how many panels to a page. It's whatever works for you. I just kinda know about how big each panel will be, and so I can feel when I'm probably running out of space. (Also. You can change things later. I don't in this example, but I add/drop pages/panels all the time.)

2. Thumbnailing

Thumbnailing—as the name suggests—should be done tiny. Too tiny to accidentally get sucked into details.

This is about marking down blobs where items/characters go, and figuring out the paneling. I'll draw and redraw these a bunch of times too.

This is also the most time-consuming/brain-working part for me. If I were in a zine that did progress percentage, I'd try to finish thumbnailing around the 50% mark (but I'm also a moderately fast artist, so your mileage may vary).

I think the terrible quality makes them charming, actually. I really like how silly they look. :')))

I will add, when you draw your "page" rectangle, make sure it's the same proportions as your actual canvas for the final image. You want an accurate idea of how much space each panel will take up, especially if you have a lot of text.

3. Sketching

This is my most recent change to my usual workflow, and it's saving me a lot of time. I make my thumbnails a bit bigger (each one about half the size of the final canvas), and I sketch these basic body forms right over them.

It just helps give me placement for my actual lines!

I usually draw these in a paleish color so I can lower the opacity and not get distracted by them while lining. The random darker parts are to either help keep two forms separate (like when two characters have their limbs all over) or to better define sections that were too sloppy/poorly proportioned.

I also think this helps my poses stay looser, because I have more dramatic/wriggly shapes that aren't too bogged down by proportions yet.

Sidenote: I CANNOT show this here, but sometimes this is when I take videos. Of myself. I prop my phone camera up and shoot a video of me acting each panel. :/// It looks really dumb, but it also shows me fun body language ideas like hand gestures, expressions, weight distribution, etc. Just pretend you're an overdramatic cartoon character, and try not to worry about your roommates or mother walking in on you doing odd things. (You can also use the video for anatomy reference later, but I usually just capture the vibe and don't try to copy the actual video frame.)

4. Panels & Text

Oh, boy. So, the panels are usually just straight lines (though it's fun to make creative exceptions, like a round panel to mimic looking through a spyglass), but there are some fancy rules that I don't strictly adhere to.

I believe (I have no technical training in this. Take everything I say with a grain of salt) the vertical gaps (between two side-by-side panels) should all be a consistent width and the horizontal gaps (between two panels on top of each other) should be another. The vertical ones? Should be thinner? Because you want the eye to easily glide between them, whereas the horizontal gaps should be a visual barrier to keep you from jumping ahead. Just something I've vaguely noticed.

There are lots of fun "default layouts" you can look up. Or keep it a consistent grid. I think it's fun to sometimes have characters/objects sticking out of panels and overlapping others. This is just a matter of taste, creativity, and inspiration. (Read Witch Hat Atelier... It has some of my favorite paneling...)

You may also notice I have already done the speech bubbles. This is, to me, a crucial step. This helps me catch early if I don't have enough room for all the words. It also lets me plan the art in each panel with the speech bubbles in mind. There's nothing worse than working really hard on a panel, and then you realize there's no room for the bubbles.

I also try to lay them out in a way that guides the eye! Even without art, can people tell where to go next? Better yet, if I want people to look at panels out of order (aka not left to right, in my case), can I use the speech bubble path to make them? Here's just a vague example of what I mean.

As an added bonus, doing speech bubbles early also allows me to be lazy! :) Ignore the comic; I'm not supposed to post it yet oops,, There's a whole lot of drawing to do on each comic page, and I am not wasting my time on stuff that will be covered up. So yes, if I hide my bubbles, there are a lot of unfinished lines trailing off into nothing. (As a bonus, if there's a part of a character you're struggling with—and it won't look weird to do so—you can move speech bubbles to just hide the problem area yayyy)

Making the actual bubbles could be their own whole tutorial, tbh, but there are some general guidelines I use.

Zoom out when you choose your font size. You want to know how it will look to the average reader, so it isn't super teeny tiny or way too big. You generally want to keep the same text size for all your pages/bubbles.

When I draw bubbles, I try to size them about one vertical letter height (and some change) around the words [left side]. This isn't always the case though, because humorously large or funny shaped text bubbles can convey different feelings [right side].

On Procreate, I set my bubble lines to Reference and just drag-and-drop the white fill on a separate layer below the lines. (Remember to turn Reference back off again when you're done, or your fill bucket won't work right when you're drawing.)

To get the white outlines I use to keep the bubbles from cluttering up the art, I literally just Gaussian blur an all-white copy of the lines + fills... and then I copy and merge it 5 times until it's opaque enough. This is a terrible way to do it, but it works for me. :')

5. Lines

This is the part that I can't tell you how to do. I literally just. Draw right over my wacky sketched body forms. Boom. Comic drawn.

I'll make three suggestions:

Don't focus on making every panel perfect. Give a little extra love to big ones or ones you want people to linger on. Otherwise, know that people are typically speeding through the art. It's way more important to focus on storytelling than art technique. In my opinion, a good story that's told well will always be better than a beautiful one told poorly. (Some comics are beautiful AND well-written... Alas, I am just a hobbyist who needs to get the ideas out of my head at top speed.)

Put your background lines on a different layer. Put your foreground lines on a different layer too, if you have those. Basically, I try to keep the main part of each panel (usually a character or object) on my lines layer so I can erase background/foreground/etc lines to ensure clarity/focus.

You can make background lines lighter colors too. I have too many numbers sorry. (1) Background. The stuff that's farthest away. Lightest lines. Few details; more focused on shapes and the suggestion of a background (I'm not good at backgrounds). (2) Midground. Same distance away as the characters are. Lines can be black. (3) Also midground, and also the same distance away. But they're very detailed, so I lighten them so they aren't so distracting. (4) The characters. Black lines for focus. For people who haven't seen the comic, I swear they are just hugging. This is SFW. D:

6. Tones/Colors

Do not. Do NOT ask me. I don't understand colors. I hate working with them, but I try because I want to improve. I hate doing anything beyond the simplest grayscale shading. Please go elsewhere for your coloring/tone advice. This is how my color picker looks 95% of the time. I have pre-set "percentages" of black that I got by lowering the opacity of a black layer and just color picking it. I don't even know the exact percentages I used. Good luck out there. Be better than me.

7. Sharing

This is a bonus step that I didn't mention earlier, but it's actually the most important of all of them.

You need a friend. Or maybe a groupchat or discord. A family member or coworker if you're really close like that. I don't know.

Find SOMEWHERE you can spam wips and be cheered on. Drawing comics takes a while, especially if you're trying to tell longer stories than I'd dare to attempt. If I don't force someone to praise me for every line I draw, I shrivel up and die.

Also if and when you post online, add alt text. I'll admit I'm the first person to complain and drag my feet on this, and I literally use a screenreader myself when my eyes hurt (strong prescription glasses wearer). Comics should be accessible, because stories are fun and everyone should be able to enjoy them.

***

Learning???

And I guess lastly, how do you learn to make comics? Two steps: 1) read them and 2) make them. This is the tragedy of creating things.

1) Reading them: I grew up reading comic strips, western serialized comics, and webcomics. I've always loved graphic novels too. Then in late middle school, I started reading manga (Death Note and Haikyuu were my first two), and now I'm trying to read more webtoons (sorry im so slow bree)!

I also... mass-consume doujinshi, thanks to proxy mailing services and bilingual friends/Google Translate/knowing some Korean. (I have an entire bookshelf of doujin, actually,,)

The thing is, it's not usually enough to just read comics. You also need to be thinking. :/ I notice paneling, comic devices, clever comedic timing, etc. as I go. It's just a lot of studying/learning while also enjoying the story.

2) Making them: You just have to start. :( Even if you think they're "bad." My first comics were actually just drawings placed randomly all over the page, connected by speech bubbles (yay... I was already practicing how to place bubbles to lead the eye around the page...). I was going to post a pic here, but I'm a coward. Backscroll my account and you can find some older ones though.

I also know my art in general improved dramatically when I did ten comics in ten weeks for my friend's fic. Don't do this. It hurt my hands/wrists. But do practice in moderation.

***

If you actually read all that... I hope it made even a modicum of sense. And maybe it was even helpful? Just know at the end of the day, there is literally no right way to draw a comic.

And if you aren't ready to go for it yet, you can start by just adding a couple speech bubbles to your illustrations or doodles! It's a way to add storytelling and dialogue writing to things you may already be making.

Yay. I love comics. :))))

[knight-a3]

Hazbin Masterpost

Heavenbound Masterpost

Sera, high radiant seraphim

I wanted angels to look more human. The whole "biblically accurate angels" thing is not quite as biblically accurate as you probably think.

More under the cut

This gets into some theology. So, I wanted heaven to be more human, since God created man in his own image, and it works best with the lore I am building. It just gives a more heavenly vibe when the angels aren't some creature-things. I want heaven to feel heavenly, okay?

Clothes: I changed her outfit, because the canon one is a bit too complicated and I didn't understand the construction of it. So I did something that's easier for me to understand. It's overall more animation friendly, and that pleases me.

Halo: I have specific ideas about halos. They denote the type and rank of angel they are. Seraphim have two silver ring halos. I haven't decided if I want to make her one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues (the Elder Seraphim) or just the head of the Radiant Seraphim(the broader rank of seraphim). Either could work. But if she's a virtue, I'd need to make a small change to her halo, as per my own lore rules.

Wings: I've decided to give seraphim wings with three sets(six total) of primary feathers, instead of six entirely separate wings. Mostly because I do not want to draw that many wings nor figure out the anatomy of it. It mimics the six-winged look while being easier for me to wrap my head around and draw. I also just like the look better.

They can also be summoned and dismissed at will, because I don't want to have to draw them all the time. It's a cop out, but I will do it.

--Biblically Accurate Angels--

"Biblically accurate" is not quite what most people think. Y'all are like, "biblically accurate angels are crazy looking eyeball and wing monstrosities, no wonder people were scared!" But that's literally not what the bible says.

Angel means "messenger", and they often appear as regular-looking people. Sometimes they have a "countenance of lightning" and "raiment white as snow". Jesus was once described(post-resurrection) as having feet of molten bronze(the molten part is the key: it's literally white-hot, not brown) and hair as wool(specifically referring to the color, not texture, and the commonly associated color is white). These are descriptions of glowing.

The crazier depictions tend to happen in visions or dreams, too. It's likely they were symbolic descriptions rather than literal. That the individual components had a cultural connotation that implied something about them. Many eyes symbolized constant watchfulness, for example. I mean, we sometimes describe an angry person as having fire in their eyes or steam coming out their ears, and that's not literal. We describe a sly person as a snake or a fox, but it's not literal. The book of Revelations and the Old Testament, in particular, use imagery, symbolism, and metaphors A LOT. And things get a little muddy when carried between language, culture, and time. Translation, localization, and modernization are tricky processes.

--Seraphim-- <-Link to some helpful info about this topic, if you're interested in that type of thing.

"Seraph" is a back-formation. It's a singular form of a pre-existing plural word. Seraphim is the plural form. I will probably use seraphs and seraphim interchangeably, so just don't worry about that.

The Hebrew root word "sarap" means something along the lines of "burning". It was often used to refer to snakes (possibly because the venom causes a burning sensation, or maybe as a metaphor for purification). It is only used once to describe a heavenly being, in the book of Isaiah. Every other time, it is translated as "burning ones" or "fiery flying serpent". In Egypt and other surrounding cultures, cobras would be used to symbolize divinity, sovereignty, and royalty. The Hebrews probably adopted the imagery. The seraphim described in the Bible might not even refer to what we typically imagine to be angels.

Long story short; seraphim means fiery flying serpents and symbolize divinity and/or purification.

--Cherubim-- <-Link to more cool info!

While I'm on the topic of the etymology of angels, I might as well address cherubs. Cherubim is the proper plural form, but I will probably use cherubs and cherubim interchangeably as well. Just roll with it, it's fine.

The youthful child depiction possibly comes from some rabbinic folk lore that claims the word is related to the Aramaic term for "like a child" or "youthful", but I'm not sure if that's true.

What I'm seeing most consistently is that they're implied to have wings. It seems commonly accepted that it comes from an Akkadian word meaning, "to bless". One source claims it means "hybrid" or "mount, steed" and refers to winged beasts that the Canaanite sky god would ride. Which would align with the depictions of cherubim as tetrads(a hybrid of four creatures), and/or the use of it as some sort of divine flying chariot.

There are a lot of theories, but nothing concrete. It gets very unclear and I'm not an expert. But I'm incorporating a variety of ideas into my lore, and I think I'm doing good with balancing them.

--

In the end, I'm using the terms seraphim and cherubim to describe ranks of angels, because it's what works best with our current understanding of the words. I'm not going to include the other traditional classes of angels like dominions, thrones, etc, because it's overly complicated, and not actually biblical. I don't want to waste brain power on that. Also, the Bible doesn't actually describe the hierarchy of angels at all. It's not even clear if seraphim and cherubim are supposed to be considered angels.

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜

For Game Informer’s July 17th DA:TV article, "BioWare On Returning To The Dragon Age Series, 10 Years After Inquisition", the article is still titled as such on its own page, but it looks like on the GI DA:TV Hub page its listing was updated to "Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is 'Respectful And Referential' To Previous Games Without Making Them Mandatory"

[previous comment for context - Brenon: "we do have "decision saves" before big choice moments, but there are still a bunch that depend on a whole mess of stuff you've done earler...so yeah...RIP"]. Derek on this: "Choice and consequence, baby." [source]

[context: DA official Twitter's news about what's coming in August] Derek: "Buckle up!" [source]

Bryony Corrigan (Rook) on the strike: "I care a lot about this game! @/dragonage. Gutted we are unable to speak more about the game for now but absolutely in solidarity with actors in the US. I hope @/EquityUK are also fighting for better protection against AI clauses in the UK too…!" [source]

Matt Rhodes recently wrote to his mailing list that "The project I’ve been working on for many years is nearing completion. In my rare free moments, I’ve been starting to organize concept art to start posting after the game ships." [source] So it sounds like DA:TV is nearing completion and that he will be posting DA:TV concept art that he created after release. [This] is the link to his website where you can view his art, including some existing DA:TV and previous DA game concept art. If you click the envelope symbol on this page, that's how you can subscribe to the mailing list

from Community Councilmember Ladyinsanity - Lucanis x Rook apparently might be an "angst pairing" and there's maybe another one of these in the game also...? 👀 [source]

A user mentioned that they aren't keen on the word "roadmap". Michael Gamble explained: "all it means is a list of cool things you can expect to see us showing." [source]

Bellara's family name Lutare wasn't recently changed as some users wondered, it was Lutare at least a year ago during development. It seems it was just mis-printed or mis-reported in the GI coverage [source]

This article describes DA:TV as the most beautiful game the writer saw at SGF. It says the prologue is dated 9 years after DA:I. "Varric isn’t a ginger so much as a grizzled gray fox now". On Solas, he "wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people’s immortality and glory and sacrificing thousands in the process. But when his ritual goes awry, two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world." The game moves quite seamlessly from action to cutscene, and in the prologue "every cutscene is clearly building toward something larger". Position matters in combat. There is an accessibility option which involves the path-tracing of enemies' ranged attacks. At the beginning of the demo, the devs mentioned that they thought about the way different lighting affects your character. " The animations associated with combat are complex for one reason: responsive character features." CC has "inclusion of thick curly hair and capturing the tightly curled texture of Black hairstyles and natural hair", customizable shoulder-width and "a much-welcomed broad spectrum of skin tones—capturing both cool and warm undertones of both white and brown skin". The article highlighted the fluid movement of cloth. The writer also said, "I’m sure other Summer Game Fest previews will have a lot to say on the evolving relationship between Varric and Solas". [source] ((I don't remember seeing this article til now, it's from June though so I either missed it or have seen it and forgotten. also I don't know how accurate it is but the writer was one of the attendees of the DA:TV demo at SGF))

[character limit text break!]

Malcolm: "When I joined DA:Ve I was really hoping there'd be a romanceable dwarf companion and boy howdy did that come true. Harding is ☀️delightful☀️" [source]

[context: this Tumblr post of some neat art] Malcolm: "This is amazing and I fully went "oh wow that really sounds like Emmrich" before remembering that Nick Boraine is in fact a entire human person." [source]

User: "Speaking of Stalker, as a player the description of Bellara and Veil Jumper i've heard so far, alongside their exploration of Arlathan, somehow reminds me of Clear Sky and Chornobyl in Stalker series..." John Epler: "great eye! roadside picnic, Annihilation and STALKER were all absolutely inspirations" [source]

John Epler: "time to slowly make my way home after an awesome 4 days. thanks for an amazing experience to everyone who was a part of it. back to work." [source]

User: "We know there are returning characters in The Veilguard, so my question is: How would you and the rest of the writers go about writing a returning character who was originally primarily written by a writer who is no longer at the studio? What is the process?" Trick Weekes: "1. Watch videos to get the performance, how the character speaks. 2. Don’t try to replicate the character exactly. Allow them to have grown. Morrigan in DAI wasn’t Morrigan in DAO. She’d grown up. 3. Trust Character Art and Performance/VO. As soon as Morrigan walks in and talks in DAI, it works." [source]

Ali Hillis (Harding) on Twitter: "@dragonage @/bioware @/BioWarePulse @/ea #/DragonAge #/SDCC #/SDCC2024 FOLLOW ON INSTA FOR MORE!" [source]

Alex Jordan (Rook): "To all the D&D loving Dragon Age fans out there, let me tell you about my D&D group, made up of faces from the games industry! Including the voices of Geralt from The Witcher, Clive from Final Fantasy XVI, and Noah from Xenoblade! We are ⁦@/NaturalSix ⁩#/DragonAge" [source]

Erika Ishii (Rook): "Grateful I got to spend SDCC celebrating my roles in 2 games I love. Thank you to the devs (including laid-off workers who deserve full credit!), my friends, and the community. This is the last you’ll hear from me about my games from struck companies until they sign an interim agreement or the strike is won. Keep playing games, but share info from the union and let people know we’re taking a stand for all creatives. See you on the other side! ✊🏼🎮" [source]

Jeff Berg (Rook): "Damn, I love making video games. It’s like the perfect blending of theatre on film, where an actor is encouraged to collaborate and let their imaginations soar. And damn, do I ever love the incredible support from the fans of this incredible medium. Unfortunately, we’re in a time of upheaval in the industry. So let me make it perfectly clear: Video game performers deserve fair wages, safe working conditions and A.I. protections. I call on the employers to #/LevelUpTheContract. Guys, this is no single player game. We need you on our team. #/SagAftraStrong #/VideoGameStrike". Text in the accompanying video reads “Video game performers are stuck in a grind. AI is stealing voices, and companies are hoarding profits. The future of voiceover and performance capture artists is at stake. But out fight isn’t single-player. Whether you’re a gamer, a fan, a performer, a labor ally, or just someone believes in fairness. Keep video games people powered. We need you on our team. Video game companies must offer AI protections to ALL video game performers. Join me and show your support for those who bring our favorite games to life.” [source]

Jessica Clark (Neve): "Aaah a true bucket list moment!! Thrilled to play Neve Gallus a Private Investigator & one of the companions in the upcoming DragonAge The Veilguard Video Game!! We are appearing at the San Diego Comic Con as we speak!! With so much thanks & appreciation for the most fantastic team @/bioware & inspiring fellow cast members including (not limited to) @/missalihillis @/nickboraine @/zach.mendez @/jeffberg1 & more 🙏🏽 Draon Age The Veilguard releases this Fall 2024 & from what I've seen... It's truly epic!! You will love it & yes, it's worth the wait. (SAG-AFTRA issued us a specific window to promote & celebrate at Comic Con & from Sunday night onwards we will all be joining our fellow actors in the picket line for the Video Game Strike)." Text in the accompanying video reads "I’ve wanted to share this for so long! Thrilled to reveal that I play Neve Gallus in the upcoming Dragon Age The Veilguard!! Appearing at Comic Con San Diego as we speak” [source]

[source]

Jessica: "Last night's Comic Con San Diego's Fandom red carpet celebrating Dragon Age The Veilguard! Releasing this Fall 2024!!" [source]

Zach Mendez (Lucanis): "A truly amazing first day of SD Comic Con at the @/dragonagegame poster signing at @/darkhorsecomics booth. Thank you to the fans who made my first con unforgettable #/sdcc /#sdcomiccon #/dragonage #/darkhorsecomics #/lucanisdellamorte #/voiceacting #/bioware #/eagames #/theveilguard #/babysfirstcon" [source]

Zach: "Dragon Age. Dancing. Derulo. Thanks @/fandom for a killer party" [source]

Nick Boraine (Emmrich): "Thank you @/bioware @/ea and @/comic_con - had an incredible time! #/dragonage #/theveilgaurd #/emmrichvolkarin @/zach.mendez @/missalihillis @/thejessicaroseclark - can’t wait for the fall release date." [source]

Ali: "Honored and thrilled to have been a part of another epic @/bioware story w @/ea . Thanks from the bottom of my heart to the whole team! We worked hard, and put our all into this one. Can’t wait to see you all at #/sdcc2024 this week to celebrate @/dragonagegame #/dragonageveilguard" [source]

Ali: "1st day of San Diego Comic Con 2024 !! The lines were long and the signings so much fun! Met some really nice fans, hung out w dragon age performance director @/ashley___barlow , companions @/thejessicaroseclark @/zach.mendez & Nick Boraine . So SO grateful for this #/dragonageveilguard family!" [source]

Ali: "I love every one of these people. There, I said it! What a warm welcome we received! Thanks to ALL! For EVERYTHING!" [source]

Ali on SDCC: "Gooooooood times. ❤️" [source]

Here is a 'behind the scenes at the DA:TV SDCC panel' photo -

[source]

Here is a photo of Erika Ishii with Rook's blue knife -

[source]

Here is an excerpt from Brianne Battye's website:

Text reads: "Dragon Age: The Veilguard Defy the gods. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight back and lead your team of seven companions, each with their own rich story. Together, you will become the Veilguard. Coming soon From EA/BioWare. I was responsible for a companion story arc, significant side characters, faction content, exploration content, and helping develop and expand worldbuilding lore."

[source]

Also, last year Zach Mendez (Lucanis) made a prior podcast appearance:

Zach: "I was lucky enough over the pandemic to have just hit a really nice commercial, and then I got this beautiful job on a video game where I was doing motion capture. Motion capture? Okay, so you put on this leotard, this black suit, and those little dots on, and you do all the motion for a video game, and you get to do the voice, and they put all these black lines on your face, so they capture your performance and whatnot. And so I was doing that and had some commercial money, so throughout the pandemic, for the past few years, I’ve just been getting to live off acting, which is great." -- Zach: "[Voiceover is] what I'm working on right now." -- Zach: "My father's from Spain." -- Zach: "I'm currently working on a video game, I can't say which video game." "It is a big one, it's not a big deal, it's a big one, I'm one of the main characters, it's not that big a deal." The interviewer asked about how acting in video games works. "Somebody's giving some performance that of course, they layer on imaging afterwards, like in graphics, right? But you're giving facial expressions, that's what gives it the reality, that's what I find so fascinating about motion capture, is that, you get to give big performances, because you're playing these crazy characters in crazy situations, and a lot of your performance is coming through in the final product which is, just gets me excited about the future of things about all the different ways. It's my voice, a lot of my facial features, I voice, I think, one or two characters in this game."

[source (dated ~a year ago. source link isn’t work-appropriate. I don’t recommend the podcast)]

[kaibutsushidousha]

Thoughts on Shuten and Ibaraki (separately)?

Really challenging (separately) there since Shuten and Ibaraki are part of the same myth, introduced in the same event, and generally depicted together, but sure, I can work with that. Shuten and Ibuki, however, are part of the same character and have to go together. Also, see this post if you haven't yet.

Ibukidouji/Shutendouji

In 2002, Colorful Tsukihime established that oni come from two possible origins. Shimousa adds a third kind later, but what matters is that Shuten and Ibaraki were conceived as examples of the original two. Unworshipped gods, those who failed to abide to the rules of civilization, and their bloodlines (Shuten) or mutants with power far beyond what falls within the human category, those perfectly unrecognizable as human, and their bloodlines (Ibaraki).

Her backstory is horribly fragmented, even for Sakurai's standards, but assuming we already have all the pieces (and it really looks like we do), I believe it goes like this. The Hii River existed as part of nature, and the faith of the ancient Izumo tribes deified the river spirit (who was also a dragon for some reason) into Yamata-no-Orochi, who was then slain by Susanoo. Orochi's eight heads continued existing as eight mountain gods, one of them being Ibukidouji at Mt. Ibuki. Yamato colonization happens, despite Yamato Takeru's death at Ibukidouji's hands, and Ibukidouji loses her worship. She takes a wholly unelaborated trip to China during the process, and around the late 900s, returns to Japan now with her divinity pretty much fully degraded. After a minor stop at Mt. Sagara, she eventually takes nest at Mt. Ooe, meets Ibaraki and spends the rest of her life as a freeloader in Ibaraki's place until Kintoki cuts her neck.

Ibuki/Shuten has been through multiple self-identities there and displays completely personalities each time, but there are things are a couple of things that are consistent in every version of her. The first and more outwardly obvious is her free-spirited hedonism. Her moral compass doesn't judge in terms of beneficial vs harmful, it judges in terms of pleasant vs unpleasant. Drinking obviously poisoned sake? Fun. No regrets, no grudges against Raikou. Getting her head lopped off by a sexy blue-eyed blonde? Fun. No regrets, no grudges against Kintoki. But what is her criteria of what's fun and what's not? That's where the other consistent trait of all of her personas comes in.

Shuten describes herself as a devoted oni. Despite her lack of inhibitions, she's very loyal and devoted to the ones she likes. You can see that since her debut event, where she orchestrated temporarily giving her powers to Ibaraki, but the extreme extents of her subservience only show for real when you see her multiple personas. Ibuki/Shuten is, above all else, loyal to the labels assigned to her. She will be what she's expected to be, at all times.

Ibukidouji originally identify as a god, and while this is not a timeframe ever covered on screen, in a few moments, mainly through her Heian portrayal and her costume, she shows her ability to behave regally and imposingly as expected of a god. She also assigned brutal trials to Saburou like he believed a god should and did the same to Dorothea during his own tenure as a Divine Spirit, but I don't know which of the two started this cycle. There's also the one time Yamato Takeru got fatally owned, but we get surprisingly little detail on that.

Ibuki's 1st Ascension aka Tinybuki is, as shown on her interlude, Ibuki with her divinity pretty much fully degraded. It's Ibuki/Shuten at her most serious ever, acting less like a god who does what it wants and more like a part of nature teaching young Kintoki its rules. It's an interesting phase where she lost the freedom of her god label and has yet to discover the freedom of her oni label, so she's kinda just vaguely bitter and no-nonsense. In different terms, it's after she stopped being loved by many and had yet to come to terms with the liberating idea of being the enemy of many idolized by a close few.

Then Shutendouji is the textbook oni. A walking disruption of human normalcy. Shamelessly depraved, violently monopolizing of anything that piques her interest, selfish as selfish can get (superficially) and easily prone to harming, killing, and eating people. An oni so oni that Ibaraki fell in love with her ability to perform the oni label. More on that in Ibaraki's half of the post.

But then Assassin Shutendouji doesn't eat people because her new label is Fujimaru's Servant and Fujimaru doesn't want her to do that. Then she makes a silly magical girl persona for Ibaraki's sake. Then Fujimaru's Ibuki just takes it a step further and adopts a whole new persona as a nice lady from Fujimaru's era. Compare and contrast to the Douman-summoned Ibuki, who stuck consistently to her most divine persona because Douman only wanted power out of her.

Heian's ultimate self-sabotage gets funnier the more you understand the characters, honestly. Douman gave up last minute on making Ibuki a new Beast because he couldn't trust that Ibuki would remain loyal to CHALDEAS like he is, but Ibuki is all about being who others want her to be. And Douman failed to realize despite her use of absolute loyalty to compensate for her lack of a more self-originating personality being something that Douman shares with her identically. I've talked about this before.

Her last major identity is her summer form. Arctic Summer World and her profile phrase her change into a Berserker Saint Graph as "redefining her self as a goddess of summer" and iirc there's even some mention of dismantling and rebuilding herself in there, making the concept feel more literal than it sounds. It shows how radical Ibuki's label swaps are, if true. There she tries to make an eternal summer for Fujimaru to enjoy (mixing her labels as a summer goddess and as Fujimaru's Servant) and then asks to be pacified in combat when rejected (mixing her Berserker and oni-god labels). It's only when her main collaborators Skadi and Douman tell her to stop that she does, because Ibuki/Shuten always is what the people she cares about want her to be, and this reaction proved she was using a persona literally no one wanted.

Then there's Samurai Remnant portrayal that's just weird. She mixes and matches traits from all her versions in FGO, with no intention of trying to be what Yasuhiro wants her to be. I guess having an identity independent of her Master is a that's a mark of impartiality characteristic of the Ruler class, but I think I'll have to come back to this one after the Ordeal in April.

Still, there are a few characteristics that are wholly unique to Shutendouji. Things that clearly came as a product of time and experience rather than as her nature to comply to expectations. The first being that Shuten is far more protective of her Shuten identity. Ibuki is willing to immediately throw her more divine persona to be Fujimaru's sweet neighbor figure, but Shuten, even becoming Oni Cure for Ibaraki, remains very recognizable Shuten. Also, when the Ibuki side of her Saint Graph tries to take her over in her Interlude, she very aggressively says she's Shutendouji and her older self doesn't get a turn on her Shuten Saint Graph. Ibuki and Shuten are otherwise very unshakably flippant, so Shuten's rejection of her past behavior stands out as her rare moment of vulnerability.

The other trait exclusive to Shuten is her clever talent to attend to her friends' needs. Ibuki is described as a corrupting force that ultimately kills everything she touches, but Shuten is very helpful to the one she cares for in very thoughtful ways, while ensuring the circumstances still make her look evil.

Her debut has knocking herself unconscious for the whole event give Ibaraki the power she needed to prove herself and overcome her complexes about not being oni enough. The pair's dialogue is designed to resemble interactions between an employee and an abusive boss, but in reality, Ibaraki is the real boss who only lets Shuten have control because she loves Shuten as an example of a what an oni should, and takes Shuten's fake authority as a lesson that lets survive leading her army of oni. She orchestrates the whole first tower event to help Tomoe sort through her denial of her oni blood while under the pretense of self-interest in human-oni relationships. And so on.

Disclaimer: I hereby promise that I really, really tried to fit a "snake sheds skin" metaphor to describe Ibuki's ability to easily discard personas, but I couldn't a proper place for it in the text. Sorry.

Ibarakidouji

Ibaraki, despite being the more interesting part of the duo, has a lot less things to talk about. She's surprisingly straightforward. Her backstory is as fragmented as Shuten's, but her fragments are clearly meant to be a neat puzzle the player is meant to solve. I have a past post about it. Plus addendum.

Ibaraki's deal is that she's a naturally conscientious, diligent, non-proactive, and cowardly kid trying and failing to be live up to the capricious, arrogant, and decadent image of an oni as described by her dear mother. Ibaraki was raised without freedom and instilled with the idea that should embody freedom as an oni. But when she kills her mother and begins living by her oni identity, she doesn't know how to be free.

In her very human-like way of thinking, she becomes the leader of a band of oni, something unprecedented because a true selfish oni would never think of grouping together. Through that she discovers Shuten and grows enamored with the ex-god's ability to embody the platonic ideal of an oni. So while Ibaraki remains the leader on paper, she made Shuten the freeloader who call the shots. As someone who processes the world as rules that need to be followed, having a role model like Shuten around is the most reassuring thing ever.

What Ibaraki can't possibly know is that she struggles so hard to be an oni correctly because there's a complicated human behind her oni mask, while Shuten, as shown mainly through Ibuki, can perform any label effortlessly because there's a blank slate behind her multiple masks.