I don't draw much anime, despite being a fan for many years. But upon hearing about Akira Toriyama's passing I felt compelled to draw my favorite DBZ character.
I wanted to draw some gay Deltarune stuff. Does this count as furry art? Are monsters animals? Is this gay enough? I'm not gay. Am I gay? What is happening? I've lost control of my life.
I was going through it a little while ago and my cope was being really autistic and listening to Fried Noodles by Pink Guy/Filthy Frank/Joji on repeat until the crying stopped and also painting this.
I wasn't even sure why I liked Astarion so much as first but this paints an eerily clear picture for me
I wanted to talk about Astarion, the "I can fix him" narrative, what is behind that, and why it is important.
For me and possibly others who love Astarion, I've found that out of all the companions and romance-options, Astarion's trauma resonates the most for me.
It doesn't need to be, but it might be very literal, sexual abuse or assault, or in any way being dominated or controlled; or being so close to the world and unable to be part of it. Not able to walk in the sun, so-to-speak. Even the allusions to father issues, specifically. He's part of the Szarr "family," belittled by Cazador.
Sometimes when we want to "fix" someone else, we are responding to our own wounds. We want to fix the part of us that is broken, injured, hurting.
And, frankly, this is how we do it. By taking that part out of ourselves out or ourselves, so we can work on it. If it happens in a game rather than being projected onto an irl partner, all the better.
It is clear that there is no "healthy" romance option in the game, but what we experience in play helps us process our wounding, so don't shy away from those choices, or worry about falling into the same patterns in multiple play-throughs. Allow yourself time to work through it. Fall in love with that part of yourself.
We also might love Astarion because he is not "good." Nor does he ask Tav to be. The abuse he's subjected to made him a monster. He legitimately harms people, but we can feel this way when we're victims of abuse, that we're made monstrous, or experience it in the way that "badness" becomes internalized as self-loathing. But Astarion expresses his anger toward Cazador and wields that anger. It is cathartic when those feelings and beliefs to find expression, whether it is toward Cazador or the rest of the world.
3D model I sculpted of Undyne a little while ago based off the 2D artwork by Liyart: https://www.instagram.com/liyart/?hl=en Only for Undertale would I ever come back out of 3D modeling retirement.
I drew this for Deltarune's 5th anniversary this year. Unfortunately one of my dogs died on the same day and I wasn't motivated to really post it anywhere after that.