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EAH GL2 Redesigns part 2

link to part 1 if you want to check it out first!!

Hunter 🪓

Yeah they changed a LOT

I wanted to make him indigenous, inspired by this post, but I didn't really have a clear point of reference besides a post I remember seeing a while ago critiquing how indigenous people are portrayed a lot of the time so I took the aspects I remembered and tried to apply them to Hunter.

I also gave him a bracelet from Ashlynn, she also has a green one hidden under her sleeves.

I don't have much else to say about Hunter but I hope y'all like him ^______^

Sparrow 🎸

Yep, got some new characters now :]

I gave Sparrow some white bits in their hair because he is somewhat related to Cerise also cuz of the disney Robin Hood as a fox portrayal and all that. And the tail belt clip on I didn't give Cerise but their's is a fox tail rather than a wolf tail.

Also took some inspiration from The Fantastic Mr. Fox and gave Sparrow an orange tie because of one of the bag guys fox tie. Btw they have a keytar because GL2 doesn't have a proper fucky ass guitar like Gacha club has that Sparrow would use.

I imagine that he is aware of Cerise's secret but only vaguely, like he knows Red and The Big Bad Wolf got something going on but not much more than that

Duchess 🦢

Ofc how can you have Sparrow without Duchess, they're a packaged deal

I basically just gave her more bird/feather motifs but other than that I didn't stray too too far from Canon Duchess.

Also her heals make her look taller than she actually is and they give her an ungodly power trip towering over everyone

[rowan-1regualr]

Hunter and Ashlynn are T4T transfem lesbians. Hunter is a transfem butch who is going to be starting estrogen after graduation, and Ashlynn got permission to start HRT during high school. After high school, Aslynn shows Hunter how to do the injections. They go bra shopping together and it gives both of them so much gender euphoria. Hunter is the type of transfem to be like "I want to look fem enough to still be seen as a women when I'm masc."

(credits to @emixion for this genius headcanon)

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In my AU, Ashlynn and Hunter broke up after having their kids, Autumn Ella and Fletcher Huntsman. Each one took one kid and raised them for their specific Destiny: Ashlynn took Autumn and Hunter took Fletcher.

Neither kid felt like they were being raised for the right Destiny but didnt really understand until they met again at EAH. They realized they were being given the wrong Destinies only after Autumn had already signed the book and been paired with her Prince.

Fletcher has always felt like he was supposed to be a prince, but wasnt raised with proper training and wasn't able to enroll in such classes as he was always seen as The Huntsman. Autumn always felt a lure towards the outdoors and related activites like archery and swordsmanship, but she aas also not raised with proper training and was discouraged from enrolling in such classes.

If you've ever seen Once Upon A Time, I view Fletcher as the Huntsman from the Enchanted Forest: He cries over his kills and thanks them for their sacrifice. One animal he can't bare to kill (as if he wants to harm any at all??) is foxes, he sees them as friends, and they've always been kind to him.

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I love that Dexter is trying to be patient with Maddie but is still a little tense. Dinotrux is one of my favorite shows, but it's hard to find sources for quotes.

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The Huntlynn Situation

DISCLAIMER: I am white, and trying to start a conversation about a topic I care about. This is not a discourse post, it's a conversation. If I get anything wrong please correct me, and if anyone has additions please share! I'm not trying to be the be all end all on this conversation, this is just my observations from being in this fandom for the past year, so additions are welcomed and encouraged, and please let me know if I should edit anything! I was a bit hesitant to make this post, but when I mentioned it people seemed excited so I'm going for it, but I really want to emphasize that if I make any mistakes here to please let me know because it's not my intention!

Now, ONTO THE ANALYSIS!

In Ever After High, we're introduced to two sides of a conflict: royals and rebels. From the start, these sides are heavily coded with symbolism about classism, racism, identity politics and more. The royals are those privileged in life. Now, to dicuss Huntlynn I'll be mainly dicussing season 1 & True Hearts Day, because this is where the conflict around their relationship happens, so I will only be talking about characters from that season.

The racial coding in EAH gets fairly explicit. Apple, Blondie, and Daring are all blue-eyed and blond-haired (aryan), with Ashlynn having strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes. In fact, of the initial royals, the only one who I think isn't coded white is Briar, and I believe this is intentional too, and relates to her future role in the story, but that's a separate post. Why is this important? It reflects the role these characters play in the narrative. The royals are those who uphold tradition and the system they are all inside, even when it causes them harm, because at the end of the day they are ultimately rewarded for it. Remember that all of the initial royals have a happy ending. Even if they have to go through hardships, they ultimately benefit from this system of privilege, and at the cost of who?

The rebels.

It's no coincidence to me that the rebels all have heavily poc-coded characters in the first season. There is a clear power imbalance here. The white royals (again, excluding Briar) are all guaranteed lives of luxury at the expense of the rebels. It's especially striking to me that Cedar, the only black girl in the initial cast, is a rebel. I fear Shannon Hale herself would need to tell me this wasn't intentional for me to believe this is a coincidence. So, the racial dynamics between the two are pretty well demonstrated. The royals are white and benefit from this system of oppression, and the rebels are the poc that the system oppresses.

We see a clear class divide between the two sides as well. The royals are almost entirely made up of literal royalty (excluding Blondie, who lies about having royal heritage - again, topic for another time). Meanwhile Cedar, Cerise, Hunter and Maddie (aka the initial group of rebels) are all commoners. I believe this also is not a coincidence, and it's no surprise to me that these two are tied together. The poorer rebels don't have the financial abilities to get ahead, and as a result they end up slipping through the cracks, just like poor minority kids irl.

So let's talk about Badwolf and Hood! (This is going somewhere, I swear).

Just like I think the racial and class coding between the royals and rebels was intentional, I also think the parallels drawn between Huntlynn and Badwolf-Hood were intentional. Take Cerise mentioning her parent's marriage:

She doesn't say such a marriage is frowned upon, she says it's forbidden, which for interpretation's sake we'll say doubles as illegal. Why is this important?

Because I see people interpret Huntlynn's relationship as queer coded a lot of the time, and I think it's wrong. Perhaps that's a strong word, but when I say wrong I'm not talking about headcanons, I'm talking about the real-world parallels we're meant to draw from the story. Badwolf and Red's story doesn't read like a queer love story, and I don't believe it's meant to emulate one. I think it's meant to be a metaphor for an interracial marriages at a time when they were illegal, and I think it intentionally parallels Huntlynn to portray them as an interracial couple as well.

Red is coded white, with pale skin and blue eyes, with Badwolf being coded non-white (his race is ambiguous). He's tan, with brown eyes and black hair. The fact that his story portrays him as an aggressor further adds to this, similar to the way non-white men are constantly portrayed as brutish and aggressive, even and especially when this is not the case, and we see it's not! He's a very gentle character, but because of his destiny/reputation, he must maintain this facade of aggression to keep his job and avoid trouble for his family. By fulfilling this stereotype, he can avoid suspicion and keep his family from harm. We see Red explain this to Raven when they meet:

You guys can read the book for the rest, but we see her describe him as silly and fun and not at all aggressive, far from the "beastly" role he is supposedly fulfilling.

To tie this back to Huntlynn quickly, I think this relates especially to Hunter. When we see Hunter at home, this is what we learn about him:

Like Badwolf, he doesn't want to cause unnecessary harm. He enjoys saving people and the attention it earns him, but he doesn't like harming animals. He doesn't enjoy any kind of unnecessary harm, which is part of what draws him and Ashlynn together. Like Badwolf, though, he has a reputation to maintain. In this case it's not quite as aggressive of a reputation, but more a stereotypically "masculine" rep.

Now, let's get back to Badwolf and Hood:

Taking off the hood, in this context (for the sake of this post), would then be a metaphor for revealing you're interracial. This is a good metaphor for Cerise, as we see that she's viewed as one of the royals up to this point. She passes as white/royal, and benefits from this system, and we see her mother worry about the backlash that would happen if she were to reveal that this was not the case. We've seen the mental strain this secret has put on both Cerise and her parents, but her mother is that much more afraid of the consequences, and we as an audience can only assume those consequences would be significant.

We see a similar concern in Hunter and Ashlynn when revealing their relationship is discussed.

Ashlynn explicitly mentions the class difference between them, and it's one of the biggest conflicts for their characters. Because Hunter is a commoner, and therefore not a prince, he is unable to be Ashlynn's Prince Charming and rescue her from her (future) abusive family. This also plays into the discussion about how they're racially coded. Race is never explicitly stated, but I think it's fair to make the assumption that in this scenario, Ashlynn is coded white and Hunter is coded as a poc.

Now, let's talk about True Hearts Day.

I have mixed feelings about this special, in large part due to how Hunter's character was handled, but I'll talk about that in a moment. For now, let's start with Cedar!

I really appreciate the narrative choice to have Cedar as the first person to know about Huntlynn's relationship. Despite being cursed to tell the truth, she doesn't tell anyone about their secret and is very accepting and understanding of them. In real-world discussion, we can parallel this to minority communities, especially black women, being much more open to relationships that are considered "taboo". This has historically been seen with black women particularly being at the forefront of nearly every social movement, and it's a nice touch that Cedar specifically is the one to discover them first.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so accepting.

I'm gonna be totally honest, this special made me hate Duchess for a longggg time. I like her now, but I still think her actions here were pretty despicable.

Duchess is another racially ambiguous character, and I personally think in the narrative she fits as a minority more than she would as being white coded. Her efforts to constantly try and climb the social ladder at the immediate expense of others who are suffering under the same system can be likened to members of marginalized communities trying to undermine members of those same communities to get ahead. Her destiny isn't good, in fact it's one of the worst in the series, and despite this she clings to the system that will ultimately result in her death because she's too scared of the consequences of speaking up. It's very sad, but that doesn't excuse the harm she causes Hunter in this.

I say Hunter and not Ashlynn intentionally, and this is where we get to my biggest personal gripe with the series: it criminally underutilizes Hunter's character.

When their relationship is revealed, Ashylnn's reaction is the one that gets the most attention. Now, I understand that this is a show for young girls (and it's attention to its female characters is honestly why I love EAH so much) but Hunter is a main character. He plays a role in the stories of two major characters, and he's a part of the story of the main characters! Ashlynn may have been Apple's friend, but Hunter deserved to be way more upset than he was, and deserved to have those emotions validated by the narrative.

But, unfortunately, this too parallels real life. White women are allowed to express their grief over a situation, while poc men are viewed as aggressive if they express their discomfort or voice their discontentment.

When their relationship is revealed by Duchess, we see Ashlynn begin to second guess when she feels the real world consequences of going against the status quo.

It's easy to talk about sacrificing privilege for what's actually good, but when those consequences are felt it's much more difficult to actually stand by your ideals, and we see that conflict manifest perfectly in Ashlynn's reaction.

She is a wealthy (white-coded) royal who has lived a life of luxury so far. While she may have ideological differences with her (also white) friends, she continues to surround herself with them. Her relationship reveal is the first time she actually acts against the system and the first time she sees that, despite her position of privilege, she is not immune to this system.

A fair argument to bring up would be to discuss how Ashlynn is destined to lose her mother and suffer at the hands of an abusive family, so she was still suffering from the system before this action, but I would ask everyone reading this to keep in mind that her destiny is seen as a necessary cruelty that ends with her marrying a prince. It is the system funtioning as it's meant to, and therefore I wouldn't actually classify this as a consequence of the system, more as what would be viewed as a "necessary evil" to achieve her happily ever after.

It's Apple's disapproval that ultimately leads to Ashylnn's resolve breaking down, and her breaking up with Hunter. The rejection by her white, upper-class peers pushes Ashlynn over the edge. This is where the racial coding gets the most explicit imo, and where I think the writers didn't expand on Hunter's emotions like they should have.

When they break up, Ashlynn is able to resume her life of privilege. She is forgiven for this err in judgement, and her place among her privileged peers is restored. Ultimately, while her relationship with Hunter leaves her with an emotional burden, there is no long-lasting consequence of her being in a relationship with him.

Compare this to Hunter. When they break up, he's shattered. Unlike Ashlynn, he doesn't have any particular people he can turn to for comfort. The rebel girls aren't especially close with him, and he's the only boy who's a rebel (aside from maybe Sparrow, who he isn't friends with). Dexter, Daring and Hopper are the only people we see Hunter have a true friendship bond with, and they're all royals (at least on the surface, in Dexter's case).

His only true close friend he could talk to this about would be Pesky, and like... come on. He's not going to get proper emotional support from a squirrel.

This leaves him with no support system. His family wouldn't be there for him, as they're all in support of the destiny system, his friends aren't there for him, and the people who support him ideologically aren't close enough with him to offer proper support. This is similar to how these scenes go down in real life, sadly. Those with privilege can experiment all they like with risque relationships and dynamics, while those who aren't privileged end up paying the price when those relationships ultimately come to an end. I don't think the show had to do a lot, but just one scene where Hunter verbally expresses how alone he was in this situation would have been nice to see, and would have made his forgiveness of Ashlynn later feel a little more earned.

Now, the forgiveness.

I actually quite like the way Ashlynn goes about her apology here. She apologizes for her actions publicly and finally rejects the ideology she had been holding onto up to this point. While Ashlynn may have been able to return to her old life after their break up, she was miserable, and it's this realization that she misses Hunter to that extent that pushes her to finally accept that she can't sit by and refuse to speak up anymore.

Her declaring herself as a rebel is what makes the apology a truly good one, imo, because it's her officially pushing back against the system that rejects her and Hunter. She now knows the consequences that await their relationship, and can fully embrace those consequences while acknowledging that doing the right thing is more worth it. And, ultimately, it's this action on her part that leads to Apple's first step towards accepting the rebel ideology.

While this scene with Apple does have "I don't think your identity is real but I love you anyway" energy, I do think it was an important one. It's the first time we see her express a non-negative opinion towards rebellion, and goes to show how much power Ashlynn speaking up had. Despite the minority members of the school fighting back against the system (even when it costs them much more than Ashlynn lost tbh) it's Ashlynn, a member of Apple's original friend group, that gets through to her and gets her to acknowledge that maybe she was doing more harm than good.

Deconstructing bigoted ideology is never straightforward, and it takes a lot of work and effort, but this first step in their conversation is honestly what allows Apple to finally reject the destiny system later. If Ashlynn hadn't spoken up, I don't know that she ever would have truly realized that following their destinies blindly hurts everyone, her included.

Anyway, this ended up being a bit of an everything-meta on several characters, but I wanted to talk about Huntlynn a bit cause I think they're very underrated and their role in the narrative gets insanely underutilized after this special. That being said, I love them and think they're so interesting to discuss, and if anyone has anything to add please do! Hope this made sense, I've been trying to put my thoughts on these two into words for a while and this is the closest I could get to it making sense.

[rowan-1regualr]

Eah Book Excerpts

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Potential development ideas and dynamics for Dexter:

Dexter and Briar: They would be an opposites-attract platonic dynamic in nearly every way possible. Briar could share with Dexter how, in spite of her title as a royal, she doesn't like the idea of following her destiny to be in a hundred-year coma to give birth to some random guy's baby. Dexter would not only relate to her, but also starts questioning being either a rebel or roybel as well because of their friendship.

Dexter and Cerise: Dexter supporting Cerise by basically going, "Yas, girl! Slay," during bookball to her will never not be funny. Outside of that, though, I feel that Dexter could actually learn a bit about what it means for Cerise to be a rebel without having to be dependent on his crush to know this. Even then, though, Cerise could have a bit of a bite to her, letting him know when he's being disrespectful towards Raven, possibly even defending her friend from Dexter disrespecting her boundaries during their first date.

Dexter and Ashlynn: Although Dexter is roommates with Hunter, I do think that Ash could also help Dexter in understanding what it means to be a royal with a destiny that she doesn't want, too (similar to Briar to some extent). Ash could give him some pointers on how to find someone he loves without having to disregard his partner's comfort to please him. Almost like Cerise, she'd probably also try to show him how to respect Raven's boundaries so that his royal mentality doesn't get the better of him in their relationship.

Dexter and Justine: Definitely a massive crack pairing, I know, but hear me out! Although Justine is a royal, she's another princess who isn't interested in behaving like one considering her story. With Dexter, she'd definitely try to show him how to let his partner have fun for herself and decide how she wants to live her life, not control it for his own personal comfort. Also, with Justine's story involving trap doors, Dexter could be someone who teaches her how to fix one just in case she ever needs to know this for anything.

Dexter and Poppy: This is also a crack pair, but again, hear me out! Poppy is kind of the bridge on what a royal/rebel is, kinda going for whichever side she wants as her own choice. To an extent, I feel that Dexter could see a lot of himself in Poppy; being an older twin who'd give up his role as a hero to his sister so that they could both discover who they want to be. Aside from that, though, Poppy could also have Dexter hang out with her to try and stop relying on his abusive parents to decide his own fate. Although his Charming mentality is extremely prominent, he does have some potential to be a rebel or roybel due to not having a confirmed destiny of his own.

Dexter and Hunter: As canon roommates, I feel that Hunter would be a good friend for him, showing him how to respect his crush more. With Hunter and Ash's relationship, Hunter could show Dexter how he could prioritize Raven's boundaries as being equally important to his. Although Dexter's royal mentality doesn't make him immune to his feelings dictating his relationship, Hunter could be one of those people who really challenges if Dexter actually respects Raven or not.

The more Dexter spends time with rebels like Hunter or Cerise, the more likely he starts to actually develop a sense that he hasn't treated Raven with that much respect. Even going back to his first date, he'd probably look back and think about how stupid he was for forcing Raven into a situation he actively kept her in just to watch a movie together.

As he starts identifying as a roybel/rebel, learning how to let Raven make up her own choices, he slowly starts letting her go. It is what she wants, so why would he force her into any more pain dealing with their relationship as it was?

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tell me someone gets what I’m saying 🙏🙏

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Hi,

Genuine question: are all the jokes on Hunter not showering/not having personal hygiene/not using deodorant based on something that happened in canon or is it just typical subconscious mild fandom racism?

[rowan-1regualr]

Why didn’t sans just do that during his fight

[rowan-1regualr]

my finished piece for @trafficzine ‘s 6th edition! go check out all the wonderful artwork and writing that was put into this project here !

[rowan-1regualr]

unstoppable force vs immovable object friendships are so funny to me. daring being able to charm the pants off anybody in ever after then meets cupid who doesn't even react to his smile. on stage he hands her a bouquet of flowers after she wins thronecoming queen and her first act as queen is sending him to the ever after dungeons. he even tries to help her out by telling dexter that cupid has a crush on him (though his brother still doesn't get it). in my head they're best friends. she leads a crowd of students to him to ask him to calm a raging dragon when he fucking knows that cupid is a sharpshooter with a crossbow and could calm the dragon on her own. she bullies him to give her, briar and hopper rides on legend to drop them off and pick them up at parties. he goes to her for advice about lizzie though because he knows cupid won't tell any other soul. (daring's known as a ladies' man and he can't imagine his dad's disappointment if gossip ever reached him that daring was having trouble with a girl). for the winter holidays, he gifts her a bookball helmet to make fun of her fainting around dexter all the time. cupid gifts him detergent and a washing board.

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This might be the most badass thing I’ve made in a hot minute

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ITS DONE this took like eight hours

it won’t do well on here bc it’s a video but el oh el

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Hey everyone, sorry it's been like eons since I last posted. I got pretty busy with this semester for college. On the bright side, I was able to create tons of cool art, including this, an employee handbook for Joey Drew Studios ! I started this at the end of March for my graphic design 1 class final, and it took all throughout April to fully complete it ! So please enjoy : )

The acknowledgment page is detachable, and there is a pattern in the back, but there's a stupid image limit, so I couldn't showcase them separately : ((

[rowan-1regualr]

Something I’ve been working on for a bit. My favorite is Bdubs :^)

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god what the fuck hunter