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What are you doing?? Get out of there!

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this one is also from School of Dragons

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Idk- I felt like I should post something on here so here's 10 of my headcannons on Trollhunters!

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The coding of Jim’s transformation scene, and what it meant to me: a meta

*warning: this post discusses suicide and mental illness

When I first finished watching A House Divded, I immediately broke down in tears. For one, season 3 of Trollhunters dropped on thbe day of my high school graduation– something which, after going to three different high schools, going through spinal surgery, and surviving a suicide attempt, I never thought I would do. 

What really hit close to home, however, was the coding of Jim’s decision as a suicide scene. 

To be perfect blunt, as someone who attempted sophomore year of high school, this was personal. Because this scene, well, this is what it felt like. In a powerful way, not in a triggering or PTSD inducing way. 

Just incredibly deep and meaningful.

Jim’s hesitation– his staring in the mirror, prepared to make an impossible decision that, ultimately, doesn’t feel like a decision at all. When you’ve been told repeatedly your life is worthless, there’s no choice. Just as, having been mentally and emotionally manipulated by Merlin, Jim’s choice was taken away from him. 

It feels more a difficult task– a permanent change– which you have been forced to make. 

Jim’s hesitation in this scene to make such a permanent change, but ultimately making it because he believes it to be necessary, is incredibly reminiscent of my own experience. That final breathe, before you finally cross that line and rack up the courage to make this impossible decision. 

And like Jim, I had loved ones at the door, prepared to help me and support me. 

One thing that people don’t realize that suicide is often a lack of autonamy over your own life. It is society taking your life into their hands and telling you that it is worthless. That choice to live, as stated above, is taken from you. 

Jim goes through a similar ordeal, as Merlin takes his control and choice over his own humanity away. His life, his humanity, is taken from him. He is, in many ways, killing his human self. His life as he knows it is gone.

The fact the writer’s recognized this paralell between suicide/ depression and Jim’s transformation, and depicted it with such beautiful nuance? Is incredible. 

Because when Jim is standing before the mirror, conflicted and desperate, I have been there. When Barbara, Claire, Strickler, Toby and Blinky pound on the door, begging Jim to stop, that is my family. 

So yeah. Watching A House Divided after coming home from high school graduation– something I never thought I would live to do– hit hard. It was, frankly, one of the most powerful scenes and some of the best writing I had seen in a very long time (it still is). 

It is not flashy, or a harmful and expoitive depiction of mental illness and suicide. It is not capitalizing on trying to be “edgy”. It is sophisticated coded and metaphorical storytelling, with a powerful message and a very real depiction of human emotion and mental illness. It is grounded and real, and full of heart, as we see a boy in a position which is all too real to so many people.

And words cannot describe how much I appreciate it. 

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“Yo-ho, yo-ho a pirate’s life for me.”

Douxie in the potc fic! That's a pirate lad if I've ever seen one

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another redraw

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Platonic dynamics I want to see more in the (tiny) Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons fandom:

Jack being like an older brother to Hiccup and sort of seeing an older version of Jamie in him and not scoffing at how nerdy he is ("holy crap you MADE this? Man show me how it works!!")

Rapunzel post-her-movie being all gung-ho and cheery, and Merida trying to get her to stop being so naïve, only for Rapunzel to calmly list all the ways she was betrayed and abused throughout her adventures (and you'd only have to go through the canon events of the movie and show to make this work, btw, girl's been through STUFF) and tells Merida she is upbeat and kind because she chooses to believe that most people are good, because so many people stuck with her through so much and so many people came back to her after betraying her. And Merida is like "well dang ok, wanna learn to shoot a bow"

Jack being calm, responsible, and protective of the others without becoming too angsty in the process- playing harmless little pranks to bring everyone's spirits up, that sort of thing

Merida being annoyed by Jack at first, but it's because she misses her brothers, not because she categorically dislikes the pranks. She tells Jack this and he asks her to join him doing pranks. She has much more fun after this.

Rapunzel is good at many things, but not so much inventing, as we see in TTS; her trying to assist Hiccup and him being good-natured about it but entirely accidentally outclassing her

Jack very deliberately keeping his past and loneliness to himself, and the others figuring out something's off because they never catch him sleeping, he's pensive when he's not interacting with them, he's got such wide and extensive experience, and he starts admitting bits and pieces like "I'm older than I look" etc etc

Jack never openly getting angry with the kids because they're kids and he's a Guardian, so instead when one of them is upset or trying to pick a fight with him, his staff will glow brighter or it'll get cloudier or windier or snowier- his magic responds, but Jack refuses to, making his calm all the more scary.

Jack being the first to realize Rapunzel has been through Stuff and sitting down with her when the other two are asleep "what happened to you?" entirely gently and patiently because HE'S A GOOD BIG BROTHER DANGIT I WANT THIS SIDE OF HIM TO SHOW MORE-

Hiccup worrying/getting upset/doing that I Have To Stand Alone thing and Rapunzel approaching him like "you're not the only one who grew up alone, you know. It's okay to rely on us, we won't let you down"

Hiccup doing the I Have To Stand Alone thing in general cause I don't see that a lot in crossovers or at least the arts

The others finding Jack in weird places because super-balance go brr

Jack being reluctant to touch any of the kids for any reason because he doesn't want to see the way they treat him change once they realize how cold and inhuman he really is

Merida recognizing Jack immediately as the only other obviously competent fighter by the way he moves (she was raised around all manner of warriors and guards, after all) and immediately setting about allying herself with him because Heaven knows they all need as much protection as they can get

Merida helping Hiccup to have a moment like he has in the HTTYD books where he realizes he's actually a really amazing swordfighter when he actually uses his dominant hand

Hiccup and Rapunzel asking Merida and Jack what siblings are like

Jack just treating them all like his little siblings

Jack and Merida gathering ingredients together and, depending on the region, Jack teaching Merida the safe local vegetation and herbs because he's been everywhere. Also, Jack teaching the others how to cook with local ingredients

Jack knowing a lot about herbal medicine and helping and teaching the others

After much internal deliberation, Jack choosing Hiccup to hold his staff while he takes care of two-handed tasks

Jack knowing how to style hair because of Mary, and he and Merida helping Rapunzel tame her hair

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First thing, just wanted to say this blog is great and all the work you do for it is amazing!

I came here to ask if there’s any concept art for Douxie’s clothes? Specifically the Camelot look, it’s been a bit hard for me to find any good references for the cosplay I’m making, hope you have a great day/night btw!

There is two actually! Two versions of his concept art appearance and his the orthographic which has his front paint included.

Apologises for the teeniness of this, it's a screengrab from the Art of Wizards video. I think there is a larger version of this blowing about somewhere that was screenshot when it was live though not got it to hand.

Then this one is the finalised concept art! Both are by Betsy Bauer.

Tumblr is absolutely going to eat this so do pop it out into a tab, reference wise I prefer the landscape version. This is a full orthographic turnaround thanks to Andy Murray.

It's also thanks to him we have any artwork of Camelot!Zoe too... Got the concept art for his stick too should you ever need it.

Hope these help!

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you have references for concept art Douxie’s staff I hear?

We do! Not the orthographic version mind but we do have it's paint including the base colours which for reference is always a bonus. Can be easy to miss things with the shiny details and/or textures.

It's by Alison Donato. The linework this is painted on was drawn by Sam Drummond.

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Screenshot drawing of troll Jim captured in Arthur’s castle. I think I’m getting better with faces

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mmm

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“two tickets for oppenheimer please”

“two tickets for barbie please”

the barbenheimer double feature

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*Tuffstrid*

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Hey everybody. This blog has quite a few followers, so some of you may have noticed that there has been a lack of activity recently. This is because there have been a lot of irl events going on with some of us, and there is only one member left to run this.

The blog is not going to be deleted, every post will stay up as an archive of sorts. This is also in the hopes that the others who were a part of this will one day come back and everything will go back to normal. But it also will not be as active, due to my own personal schedule and out of respect for the others as I was not the original creator.

Thank you all for understanding.

-Starstruck

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My dash keeps breaking like it's going out of style, making it very awkward to do these posts. ANYWAY

This week's boards are by Stephen Sawran from the 3Below episode, The Arcadian Job! Given the Blanks pop ins appear in Max Lawson's work on the same episode it's very possible they were a later visual addition/this particular sequence didn't have them prior.

This whole bit is never not funny.

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Zouxie Week: (Belated again) Day 3 - The 70s

So I went with the 1870’s for this one (I know hair dye didn’t exist yet but...magic?) Anyway, would love to see the adventures of these 3 those days. I imagine Zoe wearing less fanciful wear typically esp when on magical endeavors but I couldn’t resist! Enjoy ❤️

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She’s definitely paying attention to what he’s saying no distractions here 👀 👄 zouxie is back babbyyy