#(i know white on white is a character design sin but i wanted to show the angel wing detail ;w;)

[starrysharks]

hotel manager

[devdirt]

Hollow Knight vs. Vivziepop character design language

I know it's kind of a wildcard comparison but Vivziepop is a fan of Hollow Knight and its designs. I wanted to explore how shape language, color usage and storytelling in design are used in both properties.

NPC designs do a great job at telling you the character's personality or occupation without being overly detailed. One well placed trait does wonders, like Cornifer with his bundles of maps or Tuk and her hoarding, scrap salvaging hobbies. Paired with the world it tells two people doing their best to survive their dying realm, one by mapping out the twists and turns and the other by scraping up whatever she can find from abandoned civilization.

Now when we look at visual storytelling in Hazbin there are some good details! Alastor's outfit design and trademark microphone give you old timey host vibes right away. Niffty (my angel) sports a poodle skirt, kerchief around her neck and apron, also telling you her occupation and time period she's likely from. Everyone in this show has a big toothy grin but hers plays well into her hyperactive and always happy personality.

But there are also really poor moments of character storytelling. Everything about Beelzebub has already been said. She doesn't read as gluttony, she doesn't read as a bee, and she doesn't read as an animal tamer. When I look at her I see every other wolf character Viv has ever done. If Jayjay is party wolf and Loona is goth wolf then Beelzebub is lava lamp wolf.

The sins are mostly misses for me. They don't read as their sins or their circus related occupations. Asmodeus has fire powers but doesn't read as fire spinner. Mammon doesn't give off greed at ALL but the jester look works (which is also wrong because he's a CLOWN apparently, not a jester.) And don't get me started on this one.

This is not Lucifer.

Nothing about this reads angel, devil or even pride. This design goes all in on the ringmaster design, which is great for the circus theme! But the apple on the hat is the closest we get to this being Lucifer. I didn't even notice the snake on his hat because it looks like a worm for the apple, and they both cover the crown.

Add a second apple on the cane. Okay, so we know for sure this is supposed to be Lucifer but...why? It's another Beelzebub moment where you're left wondering why the design went in this direction. "Apple" shouldn't be the only giveaway here for the most important man in the world these stories are being told in.

Now let's see the celestial leader of Hollow Knight.

That is a god.

Removing all story context, this is incredibly quick to read. Large wings, all white, glowing yellow eyes and a crown. It looks celestial and it doesn't even need color, which is the point!

Now lets view them both within their stories. Is there visual storytelling when compared to other characters and the world around then?

Hollownest is a dark world where every character is dully colored. The Radiance and her power stick out with a glow, juxtaposing themselves with the dark as the light.

Lucifer does not look any different than most of the Hazbin cast. He has all the red, the same sharp toothed grin, the same body type as 90% of the cast of both Hazbin and Helluva Boss. If you lined him up with everyone else somebody like Asmodeus would be chosen as the obvious leader of Hell with his stature and power in the design alone.

Simplicity can tell an entire story while overextending your designs can muddy it.

Hollow Knight relies on few details and minimal storytelling yet it weaves a tale of an usurped kingdom and a god fighting for revenge. You are void, the world is dull, and god is bright and beautiful and terrifying to your way of life.

Vivziepop wants to weave a complex tale but utterly fails to do so with her designs. I purposely did not bring up Cherri Bomb, Sir Pentious or Stolas' designs since they have elements that were taken from other people and properties. I wanted to focus on what she made with her own hands, and when I narrow it down I do not see the story being told or even what side some characters are supposed to be on. Adam and the exterminators look the same as any demon. The leaders of Hell mostly sink into the ocean of overdone details. When everybody is trying so hard to stand out nobody stands out.

[lurkingshan]

Dead Friend Forever: Notes on the Finale

We made it! And I am... mostly, if not wholly, satisfied. That ending was both better than expected and still fell short in a few key places, and there are clear indicators of industry business interfering with the final choices (a common Thai bl problem these days).

The Good

The hallucination sequences were excellent, felt super well grounded in everything we know about these characters, and the way it connected to the real world consequences for each of them was excellent. Fluke stabbing his own eyes, Fluke and Top dying trying to fight each other while they denied their culpability to the end, Jin maiming his own hand, Phee reliving his promises to Non that he utterly failed to keep, and Tee stabbing White thinking he was Non all felt like very appropriate consequences. I am devastated that White died, but it's not an inappropriate consequence in this genre. He got involved with a bad dude and he paid for it.

New's final moments with the hallucination of Non were beautifully done. We've been building to this final breakdown for weeks, and he was too far gone to keep on living. I said last week he was already a dead man walking, and I felt that every moment in this episode. He tried his best to avenge his brother, and mostly succeeded despite Phee turning on him. Phee being the one to kill him in the end was also a good final sin for Phee and completed his descent and betrayal of the brothers over the last several weeks. I appreciated that his hallucination sequence was longer and more detailed than the rest; he had actual commitments to Non, so his betrayal was worse.

The Not So Good

A copout ending and too many loose ends. This episode was great right up until the moment they chose to air an ambiguous ending to protect a ship and attempt to please all fans. They wanted to have their cake (keep the show's main ship intact) and eat it, too (punish them as the narrative demanded). Rather than pick up the axe left on the ground last week and finish the story with Phee and Jin getting what was coming to them, they did an out of nowhere time skip, set up a happy ending for them, and then ended on an implication (but not a clear confirmation) that actually they did die back at the cabin and this last few minutes was another fantasy sequence.

This was frustrating for a few reasons: it broke the mood, tone, and rhythm of the ending, it denied the audience the catharsis of seeing Phee and Jin die, it gave a nod to a happy ending for them that didn't go at all with the narrative, and it wimped out on delivering a more definitive and fitting ending for them. Not to mention that this ending left us with no closure on Non's death, which happened offscreen, or the axe left on the ground and signaled to us as a clear threat in the penultimate episode, or who exactly was behind the mask at various moments. Even if they wanted to do this time jump and final twist, there were much better ways to do it, such as actually showing us Phee and Jin's bodies still in the woods. Leaving it this vague was a copout of a choice designed to appease fans, and it felt like one.

In The End

All that said, I read that ending as a confirmation that Phee and Jin are in fact dead back in the woods. Jin's maimed left hand was never shown in the jump forward, which would have been a crystal clear indicator that it was real. The whole tone of the sequence felt wrong and very discordant with everything that came before. And I simply can't accept that Phee would be allowed to murder New and still survive this story. It would be wrong, and the show clearly knows that, which is why they acknowledged it with that ending.

I enjoyed the experience of watching this show, and I thought the writing was truly excellent through the first nine episodes. The pacing issues and weirdness around the Phee and Jin material began in ep 10, and we can see why now that we know the ending. I wish the drama had stuck to the courage of its convictions and ended on a stronger note, but I am satisfied that most of the characters got what they deserved. It's been a pleasure clowning with you all.

[winterlogysblog]

Nasiens and Kiane Parallels

So... there's this post that made me want to reread 7ds and 4kota solely for the purpose of finding parallels between Nasiens and Kiane and I found some.

Popped Collars

This may just be a coincidence since there are multiple characters that has popped collars in their outfit designs but there is something I found interesting here.

There have been four Nasiens drips so far. We have his initial drip, the one that Anne gave them, the one that the crew got from Liones, and his time-skip drip. Out of those four, there are two that have popped collars. His initial design and his time-skip outfit.

We saw him wear this specific design motif in his home and homeland.

Looking back in 7ds, after King got his full wings and his outfit design changed, he has a popped collar. Even in the two different designs Nakaba gave him in 4kota he kept that popped collar

When Diane had her outfit change in Season 3 she wore something with a popped collar and her current outfit has a popped collar as well.

Oh and guess who also has popped collars

The Rock Throwing

Pretty self-explanatory. I don't need to explain

The length of Nasiens' pants

Again... maybe this is just a coincidence.

In a sense, King's pants make sense design-wise. His Sin tattoo is just right above his ankle so in order to show it his pants need to look the way it does.

In total, there have been three instances where Nasiens's pants stops right below his knee, just like King's.

Condensed Power

This is the part where I may just be looking too hard into things but like... the way Nasiens does this just has the same vibes as Condensed Power. You know that thing that King did that one time that essentially thought Meliodas Trillion Dark, yeah that.

Nasiens and King are first introduced with an antagonist-type energy

The first time King shows up is when Gilthunder is talking to him about the other Sin's movements, there's an implication that they are working together and since at the time Gilthunder is already established as an antagonist the idea of King possibly being an antagonist too is placed.

These two panels are the only ones actually shown in the anime. A post-credit scene too and in the manga there's more to it. King seems independent, and he has his own motives and doesn't want anyone getting in his way. If anything this shows King as a potential threat to both the Holy Knights and the Sins.

Then, the first thing King did was try to kill Ban so yeah.

In Nasiens' case, the fairies of the Gorge hyped him up to be a bad guy and his appearance and actions matched this.

We first met Nasiens and Diane in some type of Foresty place

Forest of White Dreams and Echo Gorge

[egosweetheart]

hi, this isnt an actual art post, i just wanna share a thing i did recently. so hazbin hotel came out. i have mixed feelings on it, but the important thing for this post is, i wanted to redesign some of the characters.

i did angeldust, alastor, lucifer, and husk, because those seemed like they needed the biggest push design wise.

i've seen a lot of redesigns that come for the shows entire design ethos rather than just addressing individual issues, which are all cool and good, but i really wanted to meet vivzie where she's at and focus on improving what's already there with the lore that's available.

i will not be doing any actual fanart for the show or talking about it beyond this post. which, btw, is going to be long as fuck.

tdlr: i did some paint-overs. theyre under the cut next to the original design.

alright, so this one is the most different. why? idk i think alastor could be really cool, but none of the things in his original design speak to his themes or personality at all. if he's a deer, why are his horns hidden? if he's half creole, why is he beige? if he cares about his suit enough to take it to a tailor over one rip, why are there rips in his design?

this is also the start of my crusade against bowties.

so i get the idea behind lucifers design. hes the ringmaster, the rest of the sins are his circus, it makes sense, its very cute. it just needed editing. there's so much white in his costume, it all clutters together visually, you dont know where to focus, and the pops of red just make it even more confusing. by moving all the white up, it keeps the focus on his face. i also gave him a beard because he looks like charlies brother and i'm not allergic to facial hair. i also removed the apple from the hat because it seemed redundant.

i dont know if im 100% happy with how husk turned out, but i am happy he's more readable now. he was so cluttered before, but i removed a lot of it in favor of leaning into the disaster ex-magician angle, and making his vibe slightly more 70's. also, cats with mustaches are adorable, and i like how disheveled he looks in comparison to alastor. alastor is ruining this mans life and i think it should be a little more obvious in his design.

ok this one is personal for 1 reason and 1 reason only: he does not need a fucking bowtie. it just floats there with no visual anchor, right underneath a choker that's essentially doing the same visual footwork and thematically says so much more about angel dusts situation. i also noticed he has like, a feather bustle in the poison musical sequence? so. thats staying to make him more Spider Like. he deserves extra fluff.

the show is overall very whatever to me. i just wanted to see if i could tweak these to make myself happier with them, and i succeeded, and that's all that matters.thank u if you read all this, i wrote it at 1am. MWAH i love you

[jack-off-valentine]

Guilty Gear Design Revisions

Guilty Gear is a great series, with some great characters. However, the designs can be rather hit or miss; with some of the women taking the most hits. So I have decided to toss my hat into the ring and suggest some changes for the designs.

But first, rules.

There will be two types of revisions made here; Some I think would better fit their stories and characters, and some are just personal taste. I will label them as such.

Some characters will have both types of suggestions, some will only have one, and some won't be featured at all. This does not mean there are no changes that could be made, or even should be made, it just means I haven't given enough thought to them to come up with any.

I will be focusing entirely on characters who are currently in Strive as of today, October 2nd 2023.

With all that wrote, let's begin.

Baiken

For Improvements; My girl needs some beef on her bones. And I don't just mean a little bit of tone on the belly, I mean tree trunk limbs and shoulder so wide she has to turn around just to get through most doors. Scars too. Seeing her model having essentially a completely clear face will never not feel off to me. Rough skin, chapped lips, maybe some scarred titties if we're feeling particularly uncowardly. Also, some signs of aging would provide a nice flavour to the design, like gray hairs and wrinkles.

For Personal Taste; Some baggy army pants alongside the dyke boots Daisuke used in this image would look pretty nice.

Sin

For Improvement; Make him look like an acrobat, not a body builder. I know it's funny seeing this canonical five-year-old be swole beyond belief, but it just doesn't fit the character. He isn't swinging around a giant sword and overpowering his opponent with sheer brute force, he isn't Sol. Instead, he's flying around the battlefield with polejumps and cartwheels and backflips and frontflips, confusing then striking with a quick physical blow or some potent magic. He's an excited doing acrobatics, and he should look like it.

Ramlethal

For Improvement; First off, give her a new outfit. The Xrd tube top and short shorts, while nice for horniness, is terrible for her character. Strive kind of fixed this, but they didn't commit as much as they should have. I'm thinking an outfit like this by @matcchio.

Secondly, she must become more creature-esque. She was given a maw full of shark teeth and they didn't do anything with it. It doesn't even show up in Strive. Some thicker, curlier hair would also be appreciated.

For personal taste; Take all the muscle you took off Sin and give it to her. This would probably have to coincide with making her a bit more of a bruiser, gaining some health and losing some speed. I think it would be cool, though.

Johnny

For personal taste; make him not white, dear lord. He would be so much cooler if he weren't a Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Happy Chaos

For improvement; Use the X's he has on his body to give him top surgery scars connected to the heart symbol on his chest.

For Personal Taste; Put some goddamn shoes on. This is gonna be a big showing of my taste in character design, but I just am incapable of fully enjoying a character's looks if they've got the dogs out. I put this here because it at least supports his character, unlike Ram, so I can tolarate it, but I have a Happy Chaos Shoes mod for a reason. It may show weakness, but I'm fine with that.

Giovanna

For improvement; Make her eyes not blue. Why are they blue. At least on Nago you can argue it's a contrast to his red and black eyes when he's in hangry mode, but if you wanted an eye colour related to her powers you could just make them green.

In Conclusion

I may have acted like a bit of a hater near the end, but I do genuinely love this series; and, like with many things, my love makes me privy to all manner of less than great things in it. Anyway, if you've got any additions to this list, feel free to tell me all about it.

[randomperson0k]

the evil thoughts got me fucked up and shit

OH forgot to mention: top 2 images are the final 'redesign', 2 images below are concept sketches i made for the 'redesigns'

tgs jekyll and hyde but they got evaporated by my evil headcanon beam and stitched back together by somebody who has no experience with using a needle and thread to the point where theyre more just like a seperate character

im sorry for my sins

PLEASE HEAR ME OUT BEFORE BITING A CHUNK OUT OF MY ARM. if anybody wants to read about my evil headcanon world all the stuff is below. wasnt really exaggerating when i said i ripped their character apart and stitched them back together though.

i do have a google doc full of everything i headcanon for tgs but some of that is embarrassing as hell so im just slapping the important stuff here

most of these 'headcanons' are here more because they make me happy than to actually make any sense. as a warning.

smokes fat blunt puffs it in your face anyways uh trans henry jekyll yeah (gets shot) ty person from the j&h community i was messaging that dragged me to the dark side and introduced me to the world of embracing my j&h trans headcanons. a true angel.

i really like more book inspired takes on j&h than the musical ones soo uhh.. yeah theyre the same person fully no j&h arguing thing. im soooorrrrryyy its just my preference for adaptations and i find it a lot more fun to play with story wise. also some other reasons but i wont get into those

polyamorous and bisexual (bi because... obvious reasons. poly because of that one couple they meet up with in the comic every now and then. my favourite ... ship (i think thats the right term?) in the comic. i love them.)

gas mask because it looks cool + chemical shenanigans ("oh but those didnt exist" shh. shhhhh.")

speaking of chemicals! they are much more into science. mostly does science-y stuff when theyre hyde though. they like to break into lodgers rooms and contribute to experiments.

facial hair. thats it. no further reasoning will be given

tried making jekyll in the concept redesign of him look older. failed SO bad im sorry i know its horrible.

hyde has pointy ears + pointer teeth (and green tongue because potion goop) + slit pupils because i am incapable of designing a human hyde. i have no idea why but i just cant.

earrings because 1: i have a bad habit of giving designs earrings and 2: i remember seeing a few headcanons of j&h with earrings and they were so tasty to look at so i had to do my own

bandage scarf thing from the beta tgs hyde design + newer tgs design that only shows up in the mind... world.... thing.

added the uhhh goggles from the old design too.

red and green hat because i couldnt decide if i wanted hyde to have the red hat from the old design of tgs hyde or the green hat from the current design. ripped it in half and chose both. great decision making i know

chunks of brown hair in hydes because why not. also red ring around one eye as like a weird variant of half heterchomia.

hyde has weird patches of green colored skin idk it just looked cool when i was fiddling with colors so i kept it

hyde has red scales in certain spots of the design. no further explanation

gave hyde black gloves to contrast jekylls white gloves + cmon. hyde probably touches the most gross revolting shit with the places they go to. they deserve some gloves.

changed their body type a litttttle bit just a smudge

i was going to give jekyll a cravat around the neck (a really bad designing habit of mine is to give characters cravats. not my fault they look so cool) both as a fancy thing + to hide lack of a adams apple buuttt the design felt way too clumped so im scrapping that. ignore the cravat in the drawing. grrr bARKBAKRABK

actually does sparkle visually/not just as a non-existent visual effect and people can actually see it. lanyon always swats them away because the sparkles get in his face.

hyde is more shorter than shown in the comic, more like book hydes height. like a foot or more shorter than jekyll. jekyll stays around the same height though. hydes probably the shortest one in the society.

permanent eyebags. does not sleep but cmon we all already knew that

hyde has a strong scottish accent instead of the other accent he fakes in the comic that i always forget the name of

has a cane like the og book. its a sword cane.... yeah i have a addiction, im sorry. (like half my own personal characters have sword canes)

i suck so bad at drawing shoes so hydes shoes look like ass but theyre supposed to be big boots since this guy probably walks through yucky mucky areas and stuff

i would totally write some oneshots or something like that of these guys going on adventures doing experiments and stuff yknow . (stuff like lodgers content and interactions, lanyon and hyde interactions because i enjoy secret identity and person said secret identity personal knows outside of their secret identity interactions, that one couple i talked about before interactions with jekyll/hyde and just in general random oneshots that make no sense) if i actually had any literacy skill

anyways im done my ramble. now you guys can shoot me

[flanpucci]

I want to dedicate a love post to Enrico Pucci because I just love him so much and my brain will never be the same again

I love that he's complex and flawed and driven by his grief and the depth of his love. I love how unacceptable his destiny is and he will do anything to open everyone's eyes to the absence of power they have in the story's world. It is impossible for him to exist in his world where he was created only to serve the purpose of giving the Joestars something to oppose and grow from, and the remedy he has found to this is to simply take control of the story, end everything and start again with the knowledge he has acquired, and maybe, the hope to free himself from his sins and bring back his loved ones.

I admire his will and determination to strive for greatness, self-growth and to see things to their end more than anything, staying calm and not backing away, seizing every opportunity. He also learns from everyone around him, from their battle tactics, from their relationships. He's a very smart and analytical character even though he's also stubborn and throws fits from time to time, which show his humanity, which is necessary since he's so superior without those flawed moments. I like his loneliness, the way he has a way to talk to and taunt people that's very unique to him, and directed at himself, he doesn't care if you don't understand, he doesn't care if he's celebrating his victories alone, he'll do it anyway. He's fun and quirky to look at, when he interacts with people, he's fun to anger, and it's satisfying to see him getting in dire situations (especially if he gets up from them)

He's evil and flawed and is a ruthless, one-track minded man, he's self-centered and can't accept (understand?) that people have different mindsets than himself. He knows he's right from start to finish, and that makes him such a great character with incredible confidence and charisma. He's the most terrifying character in all of JJBA, arguably the most powerful, his ability is just pure chaos and his eyes are cold as hell. He's got a strong inclination for revenge and likes to carry it in style, even if it means taking some damage in the process. I also like how ambiguous he is with some other characters, taking advantage of the fact they are drawn to him, using his appeal as a means to obtain what he wants. His dynamic with Dio brings a lot of depth to Dio's character, giving him the almost 'humanity' he severely lacks in other parts (especially SDC), it's very enjoyable to watch the way they interact together, which is so different from how we see them act with other people. The whole idea of the bone, fusing, and MIH is aesthetically really interesting and I liked trying to notice moments where the Dio influence might have taken over Pucci's decisions.

The themes surrounding him are very referenced and fascinating, religion, art, biology, physics and space, technology, philosophy, the stand lore... The details and references that come give depth to his character are limitless, did you know there's an actual italian scientist on gravity whose name was Enrico Pucci? That the adulterous priest he reads about in church is a famous painter who regretted taking his oath at 15 and had ties to the real Pucci family in Italy? He's also a very well constructed character in terms of psychology, he's never OOC, he feels very 3D in a 2D world.

Also he's awesome black representation in terms of character design with references to fashion (Versace '97), probably Michael Jackson too, the flag of the city of Florence, the emblem of the Pucci family... His character design is holy with just a touch of sinful, and I'm not even talking about how cool Whitesnake is in general. I really like how Pucci/Whitesnake oppose both Weather/Weather Report but also Jonathan in terms of design. He's the most beautiful character I've ever seen overall, wears a beautiful tight and shiny gown, beautiful both in color and in black and white, first has a fun, pretty but manly design, which turns into a cute star-shaped motif shamelessly stolen from the Joestars, he has tired downturned eyes filled with depression, and the cutest nose in all of JJBA, he's tall and handsome with the big chest and shoulders especially in anime but also cute and feminine and has thin wrists and those cute sleeves... He's giving mom and dad at the same time and I love how curious he is with the green baby and how proud and happy he is with C-Moon and MIH and YES HES MY FAVE ANYWAYS

I didn't even get into how interesting he represents the relationship between faith, philosophy and science, or his relationship to the concept of blood ties, I could go on for hours but I'm late for class

[mintaikcorpse]

Analyzing the Circus & Biblical Elements in Hellaverse: Lucifer Morningstar

The Devil Daddy himself! The King of Hell! The original sin! And somehow, the silliest character in the show, Lucifer Morningstar!

Look, he's a ringleader. I've said it, the show says it, Vivziepop said it, his design shoves it in your face- HE IS A RINGLEADER. But leaving it at that is boring, despite how obvious it is, so I'm going to talk about the aspects of him being a ringleader and why he's a ringleader!

Why he's a Ringleader

The first and obvious reason is that Vivzie wanted him to be.

The in lore and symbolic reasons is because of the way Heaven saw him. In Overture, Charlie states, "He was a dreamer, with fantastical ideas for all of creation. But, he was seen as a troublemaker by the elders of Heaven."

In a lot of stories, circuses symbolize risk, excitement, and freedom. It can also be a call for adventure, which fits Lucifer so well. He was so excited to create the world and give humans free will, which was seen as something risky and dangerous by Heaven. But, by giving Eve the apple, he was able to give the rest of humanity wonder and excitement, and most importantly, free will. While he does regret it, since he only sees the worst of the free will he has given, that doesn't stop the fact that he still made humans have their own identity away from Heaven, and isn't that the point of circuses? To provide freedom and an identity away from the norm?

Lucifer's Design

Like I said before, we already know he's a ringmaster, with the suit and tophat and all that. BUT there's also other elements to his design I find very interesting.

For one, the tophat has both a crown, and apple, and a snake on it. I didn't even notice there was a crown on him until the wiki pointed it out. The snake is pretty obvious, since the snake is the one that gave Eve the apple. (Also, did you know that the bible never really said that the serpent was the devil? It mightve been a subject of the Devil, but it was never stated to be the devil. That doesnt mean we cant theorize it was tho. I absolutely love analyzing Abrahamic Religions.) There are actually so many apple references to his design.

He has a somewhat hourglass figure with 2 dots on the back of his suit, which makes his body look like an applecore. His color scheme is also primarily red, white, and yellow, which is the colors that most apples have.

Vivziepop said that Lucifer and Charlie were loosely based on Porcelain Dolls, and whole that's cute, idk what that would have to do with it relating to lore. Not everything has to be lore related you know!

But Imma theorize anyways.

Perhaps it's like a puppet breaking off a string. When he was in Heaven, he was a puppet on a string, but now that he's away from Heaven, he's like a doll trying to find his purpose. It's a stretch, but still.

Or perhaps it's a reference to both hid and Charlie's child-like wonder, since dolls are mostly used by children who have big imaginations, like they do.

Demon Elements & References

In mythology, Lucifer was said to be the most beautiful angel and the most beautiful demon, so many artists took this as him being human, which is why he's the most humanoid sin. A lot of people complained that he was a twink in this show, but honestly, he was always a twink.

All of this further proves my theory that the ideal man is a feminine man.

His last name, Morningstar, is a reference to the fact that the Morningstar was said to be Lucifer. In mythology, the morningstar (aka, Venus) was said to be Lucifer trying to steal the light of God, which is why it was a bright star that could be seen in the morning. Him having brighter colors could also be a reference to his association with dawn since it brings the sun and light.

While the name Lucifer has been used by humans for centuries, the name means light bringer, and I like the believe that in the show, it's because he brought the "light" to humanity, aka, free will.

Fun fact: According to Wikipedia, early versions of Lucifer in Greco-Roman myths said that he was the son of Aurora, the Goddess of the dawn.

I heard this on a Ted Ed, but I forgot the video. But it mentions that someone had to steal the golden hair from a devil in one story, so I think that's why Lucifer is blonde. Plus, it just fits with the apple theme, I guess.

[hairscare]

i dont know anything ab vivziepoop or whatever her name is and her work but could you give some examples and like. maybe explain how far they are from actual demonology? i love haterisms and i love learning things

kisses you on the mouth id love nothing more than to spread hate and infodump abt demonology. let me preface this by saying ive never watched any of their content so i cant speak on much besides what ive absorbed via osmosis of being on the internet and what i can see in their designs

so my special interest has always been on the 7 Princes of Hell aka the 7 Deadly Sins so thats what I'm gonna focus on. I'm also gonna bring beloved otome game Obey Me into the mix for another example of modern interpretations of them. also keep in mind im not a believer in these figures, though my research comes from both christian and pagan sources, i just like them a lot

so lets start with Mammon, the prince of greed. mammon is always depicted as a very money and power hungry kinda guy. in heaven, he was so obsessed with the golden pavement that they kicked his ass out first. hes super powerful and has 6,660,000 demons under his control that he makes build the capital of hell called Pandemonium. im not making this up demonology is silly as hell. hes associated with wealth, gold, jewels and emperors.

you may be surprised by this interpretation from the dictionaire infernal, but from my understanding/perspective, i believe this is supposed to be a lure to get more money as a begger? normally hes described as decked out in robes and gold and jewels and all that. but you can see in the illustration the bags of money.

so yeah hes like a super money hungry emperor type- in my mind i always kinda think of trump ngl. power hungry, money hungry, you get it. so if youre like me, for a character design, youre thinking a ceo with lots of expensive clothes and jewelery.

now, lets see what our friend viv has to say-

... they made him.... a clown? keep in mind, i literally know nothing abt the role he plays in the show, but... why? why is he a clown? if anything, him being a jester is the opposite of the typical emperor depiction. like a king vs a court fool. completely erases the whole idea of his greed for power. part of that greed is that he already has it but he wants more! this jester angle doesnt make sense.

okay, now lets look at obey me. theres a lot of things i dont like abt obey me's interpretations, but theyre so much better than vivs.

first of all, the white hair and blue eyes are actually accurate! the colored illustration above of begger mammon is actually colored wrong, hes often described as having very light hair and icy blue eyes. this interpretation of mammon, while yassified from the old man and the emperor, is fairly faithful. hes obsessed with money, hes constantly stealing money from other people, he wears the most expensive designer brands, and he has gambling issues. its not perfect, but hes clearly based on the demon mammon.

now Asmodeus. asmodeus has always been my favorite. hes the Prince of Lust, but he himself isnt horny. he teaches people Forbidden Arts and Crafts and also geometry, hes a disabled king (walks w two walking sticks), he likes messing with people and he hates the smell of fish liver. one time he threw someone 400 leagues and stole his identity. what a guy

asmodeus is particularly monstrous. hes got 3 heads, a bull, a demon, and a ram, hes got a duck bottom, and he has a dragon cat service animal. i think hes beautiful <3 but you can see a lot of potential symbols you can incorporate into a design! all these animals, esp his three heads, are just waiting for a cool design. so vivs, whatd you do?

... okay. hes... kinda got the heads, but its the cowards route. he has... that weird ass body that vivs loves to give men. theres... some feathers so he kinda has bird symbolism? im pretty sure he owns a casino, which is actually accurate. but like. thats #notmyasmodeus. this guy couldnt throw me 1 league if he tried. hes not monstrous looking at all. his legs are thinner than my patience.

since we couldnt really dissect viv's mammon, ill bring this up here. a big issue i have with these designs is that theyre afraid to make demons ugly on purpose. dont get me wrong theyre all ugly as hell. but not gross. not monstrous. these sanitized tumblr sexymen designs completely betray what makes the original designs so fun. asmodeus doesnt have 3 heads, he has one that looks like an evil sesame street character. the design is simultaneously trying way too hard and so fucking generic. literally if you take out the two tiny head motifs in his... hair? theres no indication that this is based on the demon asmodeus

okay, lets look at obey me.

again, hes sanitized, hes conventionally attractive, and he doesnt have any of the demon asmodeus' symbolism. hes also super horny. he doesnt do geometry or arts and crafts or even own a casino. not faithful to the source at all.

before you accuse me of being a hypocrite for liking obey me, hold on. let me get through beelzebub.

Beelzebub is known for being "lord of the flies". its literally what his name means. i cannot emphasize enough that he has fly motifs. he is the Prince of Gluttony, aka overindulgence. its typically associated with food. but beelzebub is *extremely* powerful. in Paradise Lost, hes Lucifer/Satans right hand man. all other demons respect him immensely. hes supposed to be so powerful that summoning him is supposed to run a high risk of seizures and death. he also fucking loves architecture. when a ton of demons were called on by solomon to build, the other demons were so appauled that beelzebub was being made to do manual labor, but his crazy ass was giving solomon building advice

hes a bug! hes big beautiful bug. the crowd cheers. so the motif is kinda obvious here. i mean, its kinda hard to miss it, right-

what the fuck. what the actual fuck. "but grim shes got a bee motif-" shut the fuck up. this... fox? wolf? furry thing needs to be put down asap. i genuinely think theyre using beelzebub as an bad excuse to introduce their kesha dog character. bro what the fuck thats not a fucking bug. thats not even a goddamn bee. i hate it here

i cant do this anymore show me obey me.

hes a fucking fly thank god. sure hes conventionally attractive but hes not a dog with the smallest waist ive ever seen and disproportionate birthing hips. he eats all the time bc hes gluttony. okay fine whatever as long as hes a fucking bug im ok

so. lets address why i like obey me and i hate vivziepops interpretations. first of all i just fucking hate vivziepop so jot that down. but more importantly, obey me doesnt pretend to be anything it isnt. its a dating sim. of course the characters are gonna be hot and fit into archetypes. ive made my peace with that. besides, the game actually makes their sins pretty interesting by showing how they affect their personalities, motivations, relationships and lifestyles. its not super faithful, but its not supposed to be.

but helluva boss isnt trying to do that. from my (admittedly limited) understanding of it, its supposed to be a dark comedy gritty adult animation. the characters are supposed to be questionable and unconventional because theyre literally in hell. so i ask the question: why are they so afraid to lean into that with their character designs? why does everyone have to have barbie proportions? why is no one (purposefully) unpleasant to look at or monstrous? its sad to see a creator trying so hard to make something thats supposed to be graphic and brazen in its depiction of hell and demons, and yet is afraid to actually confront the conventionally unappealing aspects of the source material, or even touch the motifs of the demons

i love the 7 princes of hell. if you want to read about the strangest characters with the oddest stories, symbols and trivia, go read some websites about them. none of it makes sense. lucifer and satan are the same person but also not and sometimes the other 5 are also the same guy. belphegor is in love with paris and is the infernal ambassador to france and has a toliet wheelchair. satan is depressed. lucifer is sometimes depicted as an whiny brat child and sometimes as a humongous terrifying beast. leviathan does jack shit and just boils the ocean and eats boats. its literally so much fun. also please feel free to add onto this! demonology is fun in part bc theres so many different interpretations and facts from all over the place that make it a wild ride

tldr: vivziepops designs are lazy and unadventurous when it comes to their source materials

[chaifootsteps]

ayo! Anon who talked about that One Filipino Character Viv made (I’ll probably stick around, so just call me Studio Anon to track things) here, just wanted to air out some thoughts of the writing/worldbuilding/designs Viv had made because shitting on them is funny and it isn’t like she’ll take any criticism on them.

Something I always asked or wondered is like… where even is HB? Like, location-wise. Sure it’s hell, but… they never really specified the ring? Is it pride? Is it some other ring? I remember the whole travel-by-elevator system but I don’t exactly remember where it takes place…. It’s pretty problematic if the viewers of a show forget where the supposed main place of the ‘plot’ is placed. Because of that, it’s hard to figure out where everything else is in my head- Loo Loo Land is in… Pride? So does that mean HB is in Pride? Why have hellborns in Pride if overpopulation is an issue there…?

Also, why are the citizens of hell limited to imps and hellhounds? And yes I know there’s like, succubi and whatever those shark demons were (and as a fish enthusiast, it’s pretty telling if even they forgot those types of demons existed in the world), but they’re basically just imp bit different(tm). It’d make sense if there were different kinds of oml but we never really see that, so that was a waste.

Like, if gluttony had a beehive aesthetic you’d expect to see some bug-imps or something, not just straight up imps (they’re probably the crew’s impsonas but come on, it’s pretty sad that it was just Imps and Dogs in hell- kinda puts a bad idea that dogs go to hell or something tbh.)

Don’t even get me started on the designs of the sins, like wow.

When you think of these big, scary embodiment of sin, you’d want them to be a little threatening… right?

Apparently not, in Viv’s mind.

Like yes, it’s fun showing off the sins having more than one personality than just their sin, but that’s literally all they are. They don’t act like their sin. You know that Viv excuse- they’re in hell. Let them be awful? It’s not hard.

Sucks that the only embodiment of sins we’ve sin are just: imp but white (Lucifer, also kinda Mammon), bird (Asmodeus), or furry (Beelzebub). I don’t expect any of the other sins to be any different, I just wish that they could be the embodiment of sin and be a good character (not good morally, but decently written, but I doubt that’d ever happen), not just written out to be a total asshole so the uwu-good-sins can be all nice and cute.

It’d be cool to have a Greed vs. Lust battle, both having strong feelings of attachment to something/someone but no. They talk out their silly stupid feelings, eugh.

(Do let me know if you’d want to hear more of these thoughts- I’m a writer and designer myself and I absolutely love trashing Viv’s work because I can do better because I learn stuff.)

Pretty sure I.M.P. headquarters are located on Pride, which is how sinners are able to access them. Apart from that, yeah, it's a clusterfuck and a half.

By all mean, keep sending those thoughts! They're good thoughts!

[eferhilda-drake]

So. Curretly working on my own series and with the controversy of of Alastor, I thought it would be fun redesigning him as if he was in my series.

So a small summery of my mini series. I also have characters based off of deer. They were originally human, but because of the sins they committed, they were not allowed in heaven. However, with how some of their sins are not to severe, or they tried to gain salvation after years of working for themselves, they are allowed to redeem themselves in Purgatory. Purgatory also serves as getting extra workers as the grim reapers are understaffed. So the sinners how to help collect souls. The sinners get more animal features that natural born reapers dont usually show.

Of course I had to do some tweaking .with Alastor's character for him to be aloud to work in Purgatory. A sinner is put with a mentor/guide, and its usually random unless you have a certain trait. In Al's case, he was put in the group because of how he used to hunt people like deer, so it only make sense for him to be a deer. Now onto the inspiration of this design.

First off, the deer I used for him is a white tailed deer. The reason was in Louisianna, theres a few deer species. White Tail, Axis, and Fallow. I went with white tail as they are the most commonly hunted deer, which is ironic for Alastor.

Now for the suit. I was looking for 1920s suit and decided to keep the pinstripes. For the coloring I made it a red brownish color as brown suits/vests are whats worn with the Stags and Does group hes in. I was originally gonna give him a plaid suit, but I just couldnt draw it right. And I decided to keep his bowtie. Though, this is originally the suit I based it on

For the glasses I ditched the monocle and went with prince-nez as it was a good choice in the during the time of his death as a way to be socially acceptable to wear glasses. I also like the idea of connecting the chain to his antler.

So this is a major thing I changed about Alastor. With him being in Purgatory, youre supposed to work on yourself to get accepted into heaven, with the mentor/guide giving you the ok. (or at least youre supposed to. Some like working as a grim reaper and want to stay).

On his suit, I added hyacinth flowers. They are used to symbolize sorrow and regret. They are often used as an olive branch to try and gain forgiveness for a mistake.  Now, we dont know who exactly he killed. It could be innocent people, or bad people like hes some vigilante. In this redesign and rewrite, I like to think he killed innocent people at first but ends up getting a pleasure of killing terrible people, as a way to knock them off a peg. Making it more satisfying for him. Him wearing hyacinths, could represent of him feeling sorry for the innocent people he killed.

And lastly because I wanted to show hes still Alastor, I let him keep his microphone cane as he can still do a part time job being a radio host. I also tried to make him more white passing and tried to add features that he could be to show hes mixed like his wavy hair and more of thicker lips. I wanted to give him a 1930s hairstyle, but I just like the idea of hair falling on his face a bit. I was also unsure if I shouldve added a mustache for him, cause I think he'd look good as one.

[spacedykez]

16 and 23 for fandom asks ? :)

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

The way the color red is used is actually really genius. This realization started with raving over Lucifer's design, and then i started looking and realized oh, my gosh, THERE'S SOMETHING HERE.

So, Lucifer's design is mostly white. On the outside. But his coat tails, jacket, and hat are all red on the underside/inside, and his striped vest is also much closer to red than his jacket, which is pure white. The white symbolizes heaven/the angels. And Lucifer, out of all the characters in Hazbin, has the most white in his design. No other demons have that much white in their designs*. This is because white is Heaven's color.

Visually, Lucifer's design is literally covering up the red in his outfit with white, which is a perfect analogy for Lucifer's attitude towards heaven and hell. He is the sin of Pride**, after all, and also has never fully accepted that he's the king of hell, as we see in 1x05 when he is talking to Charlie and complains that "They were given free will and look what they did with it! Everything's terrible!" Lucifer doesn't really like the sinners for the same reason that Heaven gives- that they had their chance and they earned their place in hell. Ideologically, Lucifer is still thinking exactly like the angels.

And here's the best part- after Lucifer fights back against Heaven (Adam) in 1x08, he loses his coat. He doesn't have it in Finale. And I think this is very intentional. Because his red and white pinstripe vest isn't totally red, but it's much more red than his pure white coat. This is a visual indicator that Lucifer has, if only slightly, stopped covering up his place as the King of Hell. Red is Hell's color, and more red is visible in his design to show that he's embraced Hell a bit more.

BUT IT DOESN'T END THERE! No! Because looking at Charlie, what color do we see very strongly? Red! She wears a full bright red suit, because Charlie has embraced her place as Princess of Hell. She calls the sinners "her people" in 1x01 and this is very clearly reinforced throughout the show by all of her actions. Charlie sees the sinners as her subjects, and so her design is very red, because she is the Princess of Hell, and proud of it!

Next, we have Alastor, who is just entirely red. He is a demon through and through, and he knows it. Everybody knows it. He's meant to be in Hell and WANTS to be in Hell, and his color scheme reflects it. Similarly, Niffty's design is very red, and she's very demonic and likes killing things. Very hellish, very red.

On the flip side, we have Vaggie, whose hair is grey. I would argue that this shows that she is from heaven, but the grey shows that she's not really part of Heaven anymore. Not necessarily because she's part of Hell, but just because she isn't in Heaven anymore. She also wears red, which I think is far more important here, as it shows she is accepting being in Hell.

Even Angel Dust is pink, who again I would argue DOES fit this! Angel has definitely accepted that he's in hell, but he is also not actually very evil or even malicious. He's more of a victim than a villain, and the show sets him up as the prime example of someone who deserves to be in heaven. I happen to agree with this, but regardless, Angel Dust being pink suggests that he is still in Hell and doesn't hide it, but doesn't fully deserve to be in Hell. Pink is a blend between red and white, and this fits with Angel Dust being in Hell but embodying the values of Heaven.

Bonus: Lilith is... purple? Unsure how that fits in to this, but I'm very interested to see it. Her silhoutte is red in the opening animation, though, while Lucifer's stays white the whole time- she embraces being Queen of Hell and is red, while Lucifer is only ever colored in the white of Heaven.

tl:dr; this show uses red and white in a genius way to show characters' attitude towards and relation to Heaven

*angel dust doesn't count because his FUR is white which i am going to equate to his "skin color," which i am not including in this.

**i feel like some people forget this- just because he has depression and acts quirky doesn't mean he isn't prideful, and he is very prideful. i could write a whole post just on this

23. the fandom you're curious about because of a mutual tmagp

[thegrimdog13]

My Demon Show

This is a color guide to what info is we’re:

background info- red

story elements- blue

Basic info- white

For a long time I’ve had a demon series that I’ve been designing and I just kinda left it in the dust. And seeing Hazbin Hotel well it inspired me to pick back up on the idea. I’ve been redesigning old characters and revamping it. It inspired by stuff like Owl house ( I haven’t finished watching it yet at all ) , and Amphibia ( kinda because it similar to Owl house in the sense of beginning idea wise). I’ve had this series in mind since I was pretty young but it was never as well mature I suppose would be the word. I’m not sure If it would be a musical or not but I have always loved musicals since I was a wee child. I’ll be posting some designs of the characters soon and maybe one day there will be something.

Here is basically probably the Basic basic version of the story:

Two siblings separated when young find eachother again. Basically they are neighbors and they eventually or right away find out they are siblings I haven’t thought that far into it. On their way to school together they come in counter with a demon and make a deal with him. They turn into “demons” and are sent to hell in what is apparently not the way they are supposed to. Eventually finding out the demon they made a deal with is a powerful demon and there is something more to him then they think. But that is besides the point. They figure out they are still technically alive and can go back to the human realm if they do a special ritual. The fault in that is the ritual is very hard to do. They have to get an item from each deadly sin or upper ranks which is… supposedly.. 7 .. ( If this isn’t an obvious sign enough I’m not going to explain lol) Each of them having the same symbol on them to make it a bit easier to spot. They basically have to go on an adventure to get all these things and bring them back to this witch like character to do the ritual. All while Angel’s are in disguise in hell to kill the two siblings making it impossible to return back to earth and their regular life’s trappings them in hell. They do this simply because they don’t want humans to know all the truths of how hell and heaven and everything is. But the “princess” of heaven or one of God’s children has other plans on what should happen with the siblings. Hoping to help them escape damnation in the perhaps fiery pits since they are technically only young and she believes it is wrong to fault them since they may not know better.

Also guys I have no idea what to name this. If you go to the very beginning of my page there is old art of them not a lot though since I got rid of a lot a long time ago.And it used to be called Dear Demon. But Now I’m not so sure about it so If anyone has any suggestions It would be appreciated!

Btw I’m my hell and heaven the charcters have animal features if they have been human at some point and have elf like ears if they have always been a demon or Angel. Now this doesn’t mean that they don’t have horns or tails if they haven’t ever been human but for the most part prominent animal parts and specific animals are when they have been human.

[sunshine-overload]

[BSTS] Sinju Summer 2023 4* Card Story

(note: Starless got hired to perform a hero show at an amusement park, the show is based on ‘Journey to the West’)

chapter 1 -amusement park, cafe-

saki: Oh, Shinju-san, you’ve been working hard today, are you taking a break?

shinju: Ah, yeah I am. Would you happen to be free right now too…?

saki: I am, how come?

shinju: I wanted to ask you something. Could you look around the park with me? I’ve rarely ever visited amusement parks, so I’m unfamiliar with them.

saki: Is that so?

shinju: That’s why I wanted to make sure I get to ride some attractions while we’re here. Would you like to join me?

saki: Sure. We better get going then before your break ends.

shinju: Thanks! Let’s go!

-amusement park, rides area-

shinju: Let’s line up for this one first!

saki: The merry-go-roud? Sounds good.

shinju: Aren’t they one of the things you picture first when you think of amusement parks? I’ve been wanting experience it. Now that I’m closer, it really is true that each horse has a different design.

saki: Once it’s our turn to ride you can pick whichever horse you like best.

shinju: Really? Then I better choose while we’re still in the line here. Let’s see, which one should I pick…

staff: Those next in line come on in, please watch your step as you enter the ride.

shinju: Ah, it’s already our turn! Umm, alright, I’ll go with that white horse over there!

saki: I’ll ride the one next to yours then.

shinju: Ok! Here, I’ll hold your hand to help you climb on.

saki: Thank you.

-saki gets on the horse-

-shinju get on his horse-

shinju: Woah, You’re really high up once you’re on the horse, huh? I wonder if riding an actual horse is similar.

-ride starts-

shinju: Woooah, we’re really moving around…!

saki: (Fufu, he looks like he’s having a lot of fun.)

shinju: Aw, it ended. Here, Saki-chan, I’ll give you a hand getting down too.

saki: Thanks again, Shinju-san.

-gets off horse-

shinju: The exit should be over here somewhere… Hm?

saki: What is it?

shinju: The people that are leaving… it’s all mostly little children. Could it be the merry-go-round is a ride that’s intended for kids…? Was the way I got all excited about it childish of me?

saki: Not at all. You looked like a gallant prince.

shinju: Really? I’m glad then! In that case, let me escort you to the next attraction like a prince would too. Would you like to come along?

-

chapter 2 -amusement park, stage area-

saki: (The show’s really heating up…! The scene where Shinju-san gets the spotlight is next.)

-cg

shinju: “…Before, I was an existence burdened by my past sins, simply waiting for death to take me.”

young boy: Is Yu Long gonna die…?

woman: He means that since he did bad things, he was going to pay for them by dying.

young boy: Whaat… I feel bad for him…

saki: (The whole audience is waiting in anticipation for what Yu Long’s going to say next…)

shinju: “But, Sanzo-sama and Sun Wukong saved me. That’s why I’ll repay their favour in full! I’m not just any old horse. I will protect Sanzo-sama with the power of my true form…!”

saki: (Amazing… I can really feel how earnest his feelings are.)

unei: Thank you very much everybody for watching! The handshake event will be held over this way!

young girl: Ah, its big brother Yu Long! Please shake my hand!

shinju: Thanks! Did you have fun watching the show?

young girl: Yeah, lots!

young boy: I know the story ‘Journey to the West’ but I didn’t know the character Yu Long!

shinju: Is that so? Well, nice to meet you! I’m glad you got to learn more about me today.

young girl: I know! I’ll go and tell my friends about you too Yu Long!

shinju: Ahaha, thanks!

saki: (Shinju-san’s really popular with the kids.)

shinju: Ah, Saki-chan! Did you watch the show?

saki: Yes, I was so impressed, your acting was great!

shinju: Thanks! It’s because I got to ride that merry-go-round the other day.

saki: Huh?

shinju: They weren’t real horses, but they still satisfied my longing of wanting to ride a horse. Since they gave a similar expirence. The scenery I got to see riding the merry-go-round for the first time was dazzling. I think heroes are also a form of children’s admirations. When I thought of it like that, the merry-go-round became a good reference! I want to be someone that lights up the faces of everyone watching.

saki: I see, I get it now.

shinju: I hope I was able to be someone that the kids here today could look up to.

saki: I’m sure you are.

shinju: Heheh, thanks. It’s all cause of you Saki-chan. I’ll try my best to be a shining hero in tomorrows show as well!

—end

[huntunderironskies]

Hey thaks for responding my other question but i have come to bother you once more (i am really sorry btw). But do you think that werewolves are weaker in comparison to the other cofd splats in a 1on1 fight ? Like how would like a wofle compit against an obfuscated (invisible) vamp for example?

No worries, I love talking game design and the details of mechanics. :>

Quick terminology note: I use the abbreviations RAW and RAI which are, respectively, rules-as-written and rules-as-intended. RAI can include edge case rulings of "this makes sense but the writers didn't specifically say it" such as death mimicking powers like Cold Embrace which stop your metabolism also halting the progression of illness or poison. But it can also mean things like "I know what these rules are supposed to be and what they're trying to communicate but they're not doing it the way they're supposed to so I'm tweaking some things," which is about the position I ended up with regarding down and dirty combat since it's wayyyyyyy too swingy for trying to show a one-sided beatdown.

The term "whiteroom" is used in English-speaking tabletop communities to describe the most basic possible combat scenario, two guys facing off in a white room without any confounding factors like terrain, the roleplay setting, external resources like allies the characters might have, and so on.

Now, I'm going to have to put this behind a cut because it got very long.

So, the short answer is that it's super hard to whiteroom this stuff. CofD characters are way more varied and have more potential iterations than, say, DnD characters. One of the complicating factors is that drawn out fights are actually discouraged in CofD versus other games (unless you're a mummy, then you'll be fine.) The general answer to this is supposed to be "werewolves are most deadly in groups" but even that's not quite right. A smart werewolf won't get into a protracted conflict, period, unless maybe they're a Blood Talon. They're an ambush hunter, they're going to harry any prey and disappear off into the night, repeat until something's dead.

However, that doesn't really answer the question, so let's talk about hard counters. You mentioned vampires specifically, which isn't surprising since Obfuscate and any physical Disciplines tend to be...problematic for combat encounter balancing and tend to be the first realization for GMs that if monster PCs want something bad enough and are willing to spend all of their resources in pursuit of it, they'll get it and you just have to accept that and plan around it.

When talking about Obfuscate I generally assume people are referring to using Obfuscate 3/Cloak of Night specifically since RAW Obfuscate 1 doesn't help with anything other than people being much less likely to intervene when they see you doing something suspicious. I think the rule people overlook here is aura effects end Cloak of Night. Werewolves RAW have an aura effect in their Hunter's Aspect, which all werewolves have as of Shunned by the Moon, not just werewolves with an Auspice. So they would need to survive one strike (which, unless you're at an extreme of Harmony, you can shift to Gauru as a reflexive action in some way or another, meaning it's absolutely doable given the healing factor involved if you are sufficiently desperate) and then they'll be good for a turn and just need to successfully impose their Hunter's Aspect on the vampire.

(RAI I politely disagree with Player's Guide to the Contagion Chronicle about not giving other supernatural beings aura effects and one of the houserules I've bootstrapped on is giving other things aura effects given how useful they can be for these kind of rules interactions. I mean, CofD is not balanced and isn't supposed to be, but you know. Some are pretty straightforward like a Sin-Eater using their liminal aura and some I had to get creative with.)

Werewolves also have an equivalent to the Obfuscate > attack > Obfuscate > repeat death spiral maneuver if they have access to Evasion Gifts, which gets even more potent if they have Stealth or Strength paired with it, because they get what is arguably the best damage reduction power in all gamelines with Hit and Run. Burn one Essence for a guaranteed escape from one attack, and then roll if there's a hiding place to see if you can re-establish stealth and repeat an ambush. I had a (....highish ranked, he was effective Spirit Rank 3 and hit Cunning 4) Irraka in one of my games who took out three ancillae vampires without taking a level of health damage between that and clever usage of Eviscerate + Divide and Conquer so he wasn't getting ganged up on, and using Feet of Mist so the vamps couldn't pick up on his heartbeat.

Probably worth mentioning he was also on the Sacred Hunt so he was getting his bonus from Relentless Hunter which put him around 15 dice on ambush rolls in Urshul, though, and it did cost him almost all of his Essence and most of his Willpower but still pretty impressive.

Anyway, this can kind of turn fights into a game of rocket tag depending on the builds which means that at some point in time a smart monster is going to say "fuck it" and leave because it's now no longer worth it to risk health and other resources on. Vitae and Essence aren't easy to get and once a vampire ends up looping around into lethal damage (which werewolf bites do cause rather than bashing) it starts getting painful to heal. Werewolves can at least sit it out without burning off their fuel stat.

Speaking of going "fuck it," for more general purposes of dealing with invisibility, getting out is also a viable counter. Insight gives a very good utility power in One Step Ahead, which once the werewolf catches a vampire attacking they can intuitively sense where that vampire is. This is more RAI but it's not tracking in the same way that Know Thy Prey isn't reading someone's mind to figure out their names and social Merits. The world is just telling you where to find someone because you're hunting them, and as an inheritor of the God of the Hunt it's bowing to you.

Evasion (which I maintain would be the best Gifts to dip into were it not for Deny Everything being a bit of a dud, instead it's only among the best because of that) also has the fantastic Exit Strategy, which just automatically tells you where to go if you need to get away from someone. Regardless of whether or not you can see them. This isn't specifically anti-vampire but it's anti-invisibility in general. Again, utility powers are disproportionately useful in just about every gameline, the one thing better than being good in a fight is making sure you don't get in one.

Back on the more general topic, however, since that doesn't answer the question: I would say if you're talking about werewolves that are going to handle one-on-one conflict well and might actually do it are Storm Lord Rahu and Blood Talon Irraka (though Rahu do pretty damn well, unsurprisingly, those 8-agains and extra health levels add up.) Storm Lords get innate access to the above-mentioned Evasion Gifts, and have the usual Rahu nonsense going for them (namely, Strength and Full Moon Gifts.) Dominance also has some applications in combat, and Weather gives some debuffs, but that shouldn't be at the top of your priority list for spending Essence. All that said, you're intended to be funneled into a very long-term, slow, exacting hunt as a Storm Lord. You want to pile on as much pain as possible so you can do one final strike without much resistance, making sure you're always just one step behind to catch that opportunity to give a lethal blow. This does, however, technically count as one-on-one combat I guess.

Blood Talons are....Blood Talons. Strength gives you just about everything you want and the ability to make some truly deadly neck bite grapples due to Unchained if you chain it off Primal Strength. More turns in Gauru, damage reduction, weapon modifier bonus, and all of these become free effects if you're in Death Rage. This is, uh, very nasty to deal with and since Death Rage is very difficult to redirect your choices are mostly to just run and live to fight another day. The catch is that you could endanger your pack or any bystanders and you have absolutely no control over what's happening, but in a whiteroom scenario, yeah, this is probably the nastiest combination.

Hunter in Darkness Rahu deserve an honorable mention here. They've got the capacity for some absolutely deadly ambushes with the phenomenal Shadow Pelt and Primal Strength combined together, while Black Earth Red Hunger is great for longevity. That aside, even more than most werewolves Hunters in Darkness really thrive with a home turf advantage. They do get Nature's Lure to try and peel off a target to make sure it's a one-on-one fight.

A lot of your other Auspice/Tribe combos aren't really going to try and go for that sort of thing. And some of them will just wait until they can kill someone while they're asleep. Not a Glorious action, but probably Cunning.

With all that said....this doesn't mean much alone. I can think of some absolutely turbo busted combat builds even for splats not normally thought of as being combat-ready (four words: Stoneskin Ogre Summer Courtier. A combination of applying Tilts and having an insanely high armor rating will make it so eventually they don't have to kill you, you just stop getting up off the ground.) Most splats have at least one power that will hard counter another splat, it's all a matter of what you pick, and in some cases there's a lot less available for you and the resources you need to pull it off might be harder to get.