#creativesplat answers asks

[creativesplat]

Hi! I love your work!! Do you think you'll ever show your art process? I think I (and a lot of other artists) could learn a lot from it :3

Also, happy MW! Good job on getting all the prompts done!

🥺🥺😆! Thank you so much! This was honestly one of the nicest asks I have ever received. I am not lying when I say my eyes were watering and I nearly squealed (despite being on public transport at the time!)

So... I've never really thought about my art process much, but to try and explain/ explore it, I recorded a time-lapse of a drawing of Midna I was doing.

So, the way I draw is quite paint-y, which is my favourite way to draw digitally, and I use primarily the oil paint brush for the painting, with pen and more defined brushes - round mixing brush or turnip pen as an example - for bits I want to add on top (eg, eyes and jewellery). More recently, I've been using a pencil tool (like pencil or charcoal tools) to pop lines over the image to define it a bit more.

I would advise - as I did not do here! - to choose where the lighting is coming from, because it results in a far more coherent image, but I rarely do that... 😅

Trying to figure out the planes of the face was a massive help to me artistically, so referencing images from Arcane and stuff like that, where the parts of the face are really emphasised has been useful when trying to learn how to do the paint-y style.

For backgrounds, I am ordinarily a plain colour/ suggestion of a setting with the subject of the image as the main focus.

Sometimes, as I did with this one, I use a layer of black to point the attention to one particularly area. I liked the eyes, and wanted to emphasise them most.

I've never drawn Midna before, hence the sketches at the start trying to get comfortable with her vibe!

And here she is, as silly and fun as ever!

thank you so so much for the ask! Don't hesitate to ask more if you have more questions! :)

[doodlesandbooks]

Rafal for the character ask thing!

OOOOHHH @creativesplat why? I thought you knew I had hot takes on Rafal...

OK. I will begin by saying that I am not a strong lover of Rafal, so if you or anyone else reading this do love him, please don't read further, I don't want to upset anyone, or make the fandom a negative or debate-y or difficult to be in, but also want to answer honestly.

(also maybe blocking the tag anti Rafal would be good if you like him, I will tag anything about him which is critical with this so it can be avoided!)

First impression:

I actually bought the DLC because I saw fan art of him and thought that I wanted to find out who this nice looking guy was, everyone drew him with Alfred, and I like Alfred so I thought I would find out who it was. I do think that pink and red are horrible together though. (at the beginning a strong wind killed him which was annoying, but I suppose it makes sence)

Impression now: I will play a classic mode game and suffer through the fell Xenologue just to kill him. He was so so so evil, and then the whiplash change where they try to make him redeemable in about five minutes of clunky and pretty badly written dialogue, after the 'I'm evil!' reveal where he is just a heartless and soulless villain, with unbelievable cruelty suddenly on the last chapter he starts saying 'Nel kill me! No that would be stupid I must fulfil my father's wish! Wait I want to help now!" and I just discovered you were evil? you have killed literally everyone in this world just to be more powerful and now the writers are trying to make you redeemable? I'm usually very good at being merciful to characters who have levelled a world or killed children or whatever, I can look past a lot of stuff in fiction.

But this was so so poorly handled and written. It felt like a spit in the face compared to the normal story and the previous stuff in the DLC. I think they crammed that in there so that you didn't feel like it was a horrible idea to bring him to the Somniel, but all he did on the Somniel was bring my good blorbos bad vibes and meanness so what was the point?

Idea for a story:

Maybe one where he dies at the end of the Xenologue instead of coming back and Nel has to come to terms with the manipulation and abuse she has faced at his hand.

Unpopular opinion:

I hate how he was handled and I really really really don't like him. he is a stain on my Somniel in casual mode.

Favorite relationship:

Nel, just because I feel like the weird love meeting admiration meeting cruelty and deception was more interesting than the other relationships with him which were just cruel tsundere where the soft centre is just slightly less horrible than the outside.

Favorite headcanon:

That he has a complete inability to feel empathy. which I feel like was pretty well established in the supports, like in his one with Alfred, he's only able to convey a little sympathy for Alfred since he can relate it to himself, but until he can relate it to his own experience he doesn't express any interest or empathy towards him. This makes him more interesting to explore I think, it also makes me able to stand him more because it makes the actions he did less bizarrely over the top evil since he couldn't feel empathy for his victims.

[creativesplat]

Oooo let’s do Revali! ✌🏻

Revali, as my favourite BoTW character, might be quite a long post... 😅

What I love about him:

He’s badass and hardworking and very cool. I find his snideness a little irritating, but it is part of his charm. He’s a candid upfront person not afraid to speak his mind, and not afraid of the consequences when he does. Revali also manages to have faith in his abilities and understand that he is perhaps one of the strongest (if not the strongest) champion out of the lot of them (although Urbosa could give him a run for his money), and simultaneously be terrified of failure and incredibly insecure in himself and his strength. I’m not quite sure how he does it, but it is fascinating. I suppose his ego flip-flops? He struggles with his place in the world and chases perfection that he can never have, and wants to be a hero, the hero, everyone loves and looks up to. I can’t quite work out if its to prove some disappointed/ disapproving person in his life wrong, or to make someone in his life proud of him. He might just be doing it for himself, but usually there’s something deeper in a person. Revali doesn’t want to be weak and he doesn’t want to be cared for, and is afraid of vulnerability and of love, which is something that the found family vibe of the Champions probably breaks down, at least a little bit. 

All of this is inference and presumption though, since it’s fairly difficult to truly understand a character who got very little screen time in a video game. 

I also love how young he is (around the same age as Mipha, Link, and Zelda according to Urbosa), because it gives an interesting angle to his character. I thought he was a little older than the other three before reading that, because he seemed like an immature 30 something (rather than a mature 18-20 something), and it makes his duty-bound grown-up-ness around the other characters (aside from Link) quite interesting. He, like Link and Mipha (Mipha, as a Zora, is around this age, and is mentally the same stage of development) (I won’t put Zelda here since she is 17, rather than 18-20), are barely adults (around 18/19) and required to fight a war against an evil that they all know barely anything about. They are all forced into a responsibility that they are probably far too young for, and it heightens the tragedy of these characters, who were brutally killed, after only just starting adulthood. It also makes his immature rolling eyes at Link and huffing angrily etc. in cutscenes more tolerable. Most people aren’t all that mature at 18-20. 

What I hate about him:

The dude is just such a grating person. He is a jerk and sometimes I want to hurl something at his head and tell him to shut it! He’s so mean to Link… It is intrinsic to him as a character, but sometimes he really needs to shhhh! 😂

Favorite Moment/Quote: 

This is quite a hard one, I really like the DLC memory with Revali because it's a very different side to him than previously shown, he’s upset and vulnerable and angry, and then Zelda announces her presence, and he’s back to his usual bravado filled smugness. We get to see that the cockiness is actually (at least partially) a facade to hide his fear and his self-criticism. I also love talking to him on Medoh, whilst Link is trying to free him and the Devine Beast, he warms up to Link and they grow together, so I can't really decide!

What I would like to see more focus on:

As far as I can tell, Revali is the only champion who isn’t of noble birth. He isn’t the son of the captain of the guard (Link), he isn’t a princess (Mipha and Zelda), he isn’t a cheiftess (Urbosa), and he doesn't have high standing within his domain as a magical and gifted person (Daruk). He’s just a normal ordinary Rito, even his rather minimalist diary, that says very little of note, particularly in comparison to the other champions' diaries, elaborates on this. One sentence I found particularly interesting in that regard was this:

‘Everywhere I go I receive praise and affirmations that I am the pride of the Rito. I...could get used to this.’

The phrase ‘…could get used to this’ (particularly after an ellipsis) implies that previously it wasn’t the case. Revali didn't get praise or affirmation from others until very recently (at the time of him writing the entry). Wether he was ignored or shunned by others, he was a commoner, rather than a noble or royal or of high social standing. 

I guess what I previously talked about, the fact that he is the same age as Link (who is between 18/19 - 20 (Creating a Champion states this)) and therefore quite a young man when the calamity hits, would be interesting to focus on… I’m not sure how one would do that though… 😅

What I would like to see less focus on:

One thing is his attitude. There’s a lot of stuff how arrogant and angry he is all the time (and he is an arrogant angry birb, it’s true) but there’s not a lot of focus on the other parts of him, and I don’t actually think he’s all that arrogant.

The other champions have statues (with the exception of Urbosa, who has no commemorating items aside from the Thunder Helm), and Revali has a landing that was made to get to the Flight Range, which was constructed so that he could improve himself and help the children of his village. The other champions have things commemorating them, and how great they were (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, Mipha and Daruk deserve a statue) but Revali has a landing that advances Link in his quest and helps people, only the name (and maybe the Rito insignia that was on his old scarf) signify the fact that it’s for Revali. It wasn’t even originally built for Revali, but for the Flight Range, which was Revali’s choice when asked what he wanted done to commemorate his victories and success.

Here’s the quote from Creating a Champion about it:

‘The Flight Range was originally constructed at Revali’s request. Using its updrafts it is possible to practice archery and flying. Revali wanted to nurture the next generation of warriors, and later opened the Flight Range as a practice space for children.’

Actions speak louder than words, and from Revali’s actions I don’t really see a snobby angry puffed up Rito who’s a real fan of himself, I see a man that cares deeply about his people, about children, and about creating infrastructure that helps. Yeah, he’s a bit grating and he sounds like a puffed up jerk, but when push comes to shove, Revali genuinely cares about the greater good and the betterment of the Rito.

Favorite pairing with:

Mipha. I can’t really see him with anyone else, and even then Mipha belongs with Link, so I suppose a pining sort of Miphvali? Tbh, I don't really ship him with anyone, maybe in an au he would work well with Mipha, but idk.

Favorite friendship:

Link and Revali. No question. I know there’s little basis for it actually in canon (at least pre-calamity), since Revali despises Link because of festering insecurity, but there are little hints of bro-ish bantering sibling vibes. His relationship with Link is a bitter one-sided sibling rivalry born from insecurity and self loathing that blossoms into a genuine friendship and familial care. His growth with Link actually mirrors a more personal one I went through with my own sister, I loved that friendship because it’s something I can really identify with.

NOTP:

Following on from that, RevLink. They are friends with a grudging sibling dynamic and genuine care for each other, that's it (IMO). Revali’s story is one that he starts and finishes on his own, independently. RevLink eliminates what little agency Revali as a character already had and makes him just a dude who doesn’t want to admit his feelings about love.

Revali's story in BoTW is about hard work paying off, about perfectionism and realising your own limits, it’s about accepting a back seat and doing the behind the scenes work even if you want to be in the spotlight, it’s about tragic inevitability and the cruelty of fate, it’s about destiny ignoring the hard working little guy who wants to be chosen, and it’s about the unfairness of war and the cost of victory, it’s also about supporting your teammates, and working at friendships, and about laying yourself aside for the greater good. It is not a story of pining love and accepting yourself. It’s much deeper and more profound than that, and that’s why I’m not a fan of RevLink. The dynamic might work, they might even be a cute couple, but story-wise it damages Revali and the impact he had on the world (IMO).

I’m also not a fan of UrbosaXRevali but that one doesn’t impact the story, it just isn’t something I like.

Each to their own, but personally nether of those are for me.

Favorite headcanon:

Well, I have a few, but I’m going to go with these two (they're little weird and about fashion history and more the Rito in general, but bare with... 😅): The developers said that they were going for a more medieval European clothing style for the Rito, and they did, it looks great, but they may have accidentally given the Rito corsets. So, I made a head-canon to fit exactly that, to make it have purpose rather than just being an artistic choice. The pattern on the leather Revali wears is similar to the boning in a corset, and the stitching on the other Rito’s leather clothing (Teba’s in particular) matches a 18/19th century corset. I like to think that these are worn for the usual reason for wearing a corset, posture correction, back support, and support of the chest. Corsets used to be what women would use to support their busts before bras were invented, and since the Rito have rather large chests (in comparison to their small lower torso and little legs), a corset would be useful in supporting that. The hollow bones of a Rito (they must be hollow otherwise something of that size with such a small wingspan wouldn’t be able to fly) might make the Rito’s back require extra support, so the spine and back in general would be supported by those.

Another one of my Revali head-canons is that the Rito clothing he wears is antiquated, and shows that he lived 100 years prior to the contemporary Rito of BoTW, the fashion of BoTW’s Rito village is drastically different to what Revali actually wears: here’s a list because I came up with a little compiled list of stuffs (oh the things you do when you’re a writer and need the specifics of a piece of clothing…😂)

Revali wears Pteruges around his waist, Teba (and all the other warriors) wear a long piece of leather and two pieces of fabric ether side.

Revali has Pauldrons with only one colour, Teba (and the other Rito) have at least two (sometimes three or more) different colours on their Pauldrons

Revali wears jade anklets, and wears nothing on his feet, Teba wears armour on his feet, several anklets, and an armour like thing on his legs

There’s more, but I can’t really be bothered writing them all down here.

Anyway, thank you very much for the ask @wanderingnightingale! This was a lot of fun!! 😆 I’m so sorry about how long this was, but Revali is a very fun character to write about! Thank you for asking me about him! I love writing about my fave birb! 😁

[creativesplat]

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

That is such a good question Anon!

Honestly anyone. Collaboration over fanfic would be a pleasure, so if anyone wants to (and not just the blogs I've mentioned, just anyone) plz message me or comment or however you want to do it, because it would be so much fun!! 

If I had to pick though... 

I’d love love love collaborating with @wanderingnightingale, @only-by-the-stars, and @c-aureus. They are all fantastic writers, and it would be a pleasure collaborating with them!!

@c-aureus writes wonderfully tragic and bitter stories, which have lovely bittersweet twinges, @only-by-the-stars writes beautiful pining, glorious softness, a stoic and insecure Link, and a wonderfully soft Mipha @wanderingnightingale writes gorgeous plot, scenery, passion (and the passion in it is genuinely epic!! It’s such a hard emotion to convey and Dropping the Sword is just steeped in it!), and a Zelda that made me adore Zelda’s character; they all write so differently and so beautifully and the genres and ships and content they all write is so vast and different, and I’d just love to collab with them.

A girl can dream! 😅

[creativesplat]

C, W, and X for the fandom asks!

Thank you so much for the asks @myevilmouse This might be a bit of a longer post, so apologies for that! I shall place it under a keep reading button!

C: A pairing you wished you shipped, but just can’t.

I hate to admit it, but I think I’d have to go with ZeLink in Breath of The Wild. SS’s incarnations of Link and Zelda, sure, and they’re so cute! In BoTW, however, Link had a fiancée (Mipha), and Zelda awakens her power after realising that she loves Link (whether romantically or platonically), trouble is she only awakens it after Link’s ‘death’ so they can’t spend any time together after she has that realisation. 

There’s also the small issue of Zelda being only just 17 and Link is roughly in his 20s (youngest 18, but more likely mid to early 20s). Not a big issue, it would just require a time skip, but I love working canonically with fics I write, and I prefer the confirmed parings mostly.

However… I have some absolutely lovely friends who ship it an absolute tonne, and I enjoy finding ZeLink things to share with them and reading their fanfic, so I’m trying to get more into it to be supportive! I do really wish I shipped it, and am trying my darnedest to give it a go!

(I’m actually planning a short ZeLink fic to try and explore the idea more because I know they’ll love it!)

W: Five favourite characters from five different fandoms

I know it said five, but there are too many to pick from, so I’m going to go with a couple per fandom… hope that's OK! 😅

Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker or Luke Skywalker. Luke is a brave, intelligent, wonderful man who always looked for non-violent and forgiving options. He was one of my main fictional inspirations as a child. Anakin is so complicated and in the movies (the version of him that is my favourite) he’s emotional and open and struggles deeply, all of this makes him an amazing character to watch on screen. His story is also the entirety of the two Star Wars trilogies, which is so cool.

Breath of The Wild: Revali, Mipha, or Link. All of them are wonderful, Revali is such an enigmatic complicated dude and Mipha is such a sweetheart with a bit of a cheeky side and we all love Link! I am absolutely obsessed with their interactions and they all drip with found family vibes. I could go on forever about these guys, so I'm just going to leave it at that!

Star Trek Voyager: Neelix or Harry Kim (but honestly every single character is my favourite in that show!!) They’re both such deep and complex characters, and Neelix, despite being dubbed ‘Star Trek’s Jar Jar’ (but I love Jar Jar so that’s fine 😂) suffers with severe trauma, mental health problems, and still tries to put a smile on everyone’s face and make sure everyone is ok. It’s just so inspiring!

How to Train Your Dragon (the Book Series): Fishleggs or Deadly Shadow (I know Shadow counts as three, but Innocence, Arrogance, and Patience are all very similar and three parts of the whole!). Fishleggs is such a snarky bitter cynical little guy and the mix between him trying to write poetry and being in touch with his feelings but also being part Berserker and therefore going into berserk rages is a really interesting dynamic. He’s effectively like movie hiccup, but with a FAR more exciting backstory (shan’t spoil though!! but 😆 so good!), who’s a little more sad and more grown up, despite being younger. Deadly Shadow is also amazing but I don’t want to spoil the books and they appear towards the end.

Death Note: Touta Matsuda, Light Yagami, or Mello. It’s a pretty obvious theme, but people with strong morals and trying to be the good guys is something I love so Matsuda was a perfect fit. I love Light as a villain, because he works so well as a truly evil character and is so interesting to read. Mello is another contender for favourite, because I love his hair (much less deep!)

X: Three OTPs from three fandoms

MiphLink from BoTW (my current hyper-fixation and favourite ship!)

7Cotay from Star Trek Voyager

Kanera from Star Wars Rebels (flawed show, but darn if the characters weren’t super endearing!!)

Thank you so much for the asks @myevilmouse! This was really fun! 😁

[creativesplat]

for the ask game,

😈 ✨ 🩰

😈 How far do I diverge from canon when writing:

Usually I try to make everything I write fit into the canon of a story. For Star Wars (although now I'm just posting older stuff after editing it so that I can finish the series) I never diverge from canon, not even once (to the best of my abilities) and for Legends of Zelda I try my hardest not to diverge from canon at all (at least pre calamity and during the calamity). I currently have two series on the go (moments of a kingdom, and moments of a kingdom version two) Version Two is canon divergent, where the champions are resurrected (I am currently working on a way that would work in universe). The other is as close to canon as I can get (so my current WIPs for it are trying to work out what canon would probably look like post calamity).

✨ What are my favourite characters to write:

Revali and Mipha. I love writing those two and I find it really easy to write their interactions and internal dialogue. Revali is probably my favourite to write, because I love his character and I love writing tragedy and giving stories the tone of inevitable failure (which might be a bit dark but hey-ho). I also like writing Link and Zelda, but I have a love-hate relationship with writing those two, I’d say they are the hardest to write, because you have to stay true to their characters (of which there have been so many different incarnations) and they have really complicated relationships with each other, duty, and the other characters. I think they’re sometimes the most rewarding to write, because they both tend to resonate with people the most, but at the same time are very difficult to get right.

🩰 What are some aus that I love to write:

I really don’t enjoy writing aus that much. I have ideas for a Cyberpunk legend of Zelda au, but it’s not one I’m going to write anytime soon I don’t think (maybe draw a few character designs for, but not write). I suppose I enjoy writing the reincarnation au, but I like to keep everything as close to canon as I can get it.

Thank you for the ask(s) anon! :)