#also shout out to Gleeoks they are cool too

[meedup]

Color sketch of what i'm currently working on, rendering will take a while to finish. Love that we got more dragons in TotK and now Link can ride them

[deuterosapiens]

So, one of my favorite tropes is the overlap between Sealed Evil and Delved Too Deep. That moment when buried evil is terribly awakened from the dark bowels of the Earth. Consequently, mine shafts are effectively my absolute favorite locations in fiction, due to this beautiful combination of claustrophobia, nyctophobia, and the creeping dread of some unspeakable horror lying just beyond your awareness, waiting to give you a very bad time.

It is unfortunate then that the greatest horror lurking in Xenoblade 3's Ether Mines is an army of Arachno (1 at least has the cool Metal Face fight, among other things).

Tears of the Kingdom's Depths then feel like the perfect place in which unknowable terror should hide lurking, but tragically, Zelda is lacking in Balrogs. The closest to a unique buried evil here is either the contro-snapping Floating Coliseum, or the Gleeok Den (Rist Mine gets the perk for feeling exactly like something terrible should be lurking at the center, but alas, it is not so). I don't think stumbling upon any of the bosses really counts, as they aren't exactly presented in the correct vein. Well, maybe Marbled Gohma. I'll think on that later. Ganondorf under Hyrule Castle is arguably the best example the game has of Awakening buried evil, but as that's literally the intro, I don't feel it counts.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder has its own mine level, but again, no unspeakable horror waiting to be unearthed to inflict evil upon the Poplins (who definitely deserve it, no I will not elaborate).

So, given Pikmin's reputation, with its Plasma Wraiths, and Water Wraiths, I'm hoping that when I finally get back to 4 (I took some off time for way too damn many other things), I will find some unspeakable dread laying in wait to fuck my shit up.

You might wonder why I'm only looking to non-horror Nintendo franchises in this post. The answer: mostly boredom. They are just games I've played recently that have the correct biome but distinctly lack the one inhabitant I wish to have my shit fucked up by.

Obviously Dead Cells and Hollow Knight, Tunic, lot of Metroid, really the options are there. I just get a little bummed out when I'm given the opportunity to explore the fathomless depths of the world without Awakening evil. Let me awaken buried evil, dammit!

Shout-out to Pokémon X/Y's Terminus Cave. I don't know what happened, or how Zygarde relates. I don't want to know. Excellent design work on that one. Also, Area Zero (which reminds me that I should at some finish Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach): that place hits hard.