#darksideofthemamon

[lila-chantilly]

I keep going on about my KH OC Lila, but only in fragments of information so here's a ref sheet! I tried to make it as short as I could since I do have a tendency to ramble ^^"

I made this blog so I could talk about my KH OC's in a more organized manner. Hopefully it helps XD

More posts on Lila's story in the future cus there's really a lot to get into!

[darksideofthemamon]

I don’t recall if I’ve already posted this here, but anyway, I was looking through old sketchpads and found these drawings of Shinigami from TMNT 2012! 

[the-journey-was-the-point]

Some sketches of my The Hobbit OC's! They hijacked my brain around hm, 2021? And have been slowcooking ever since.

Took a while for some of these designs to get to me. I have a number of rejected ones in my sketchpad. Might still play around with the colors and designs, but I think this is the gist.

To briefly explain: The Hobbit but no one dies, also Fili and Kili (then later Tauriel) meet my OC's and go on what seems like a minor adventure before the plot thickens.

First there's Linnea, an apothecary from Laketown. Fili meets her when the Company stops over at Laketown (in this AU, they arrive like what 5 days before Durin's Day?). Turns out she's a spy for Mirkwood and knows how to make more than just medicine. Also she's like 100-something years old (her dad was an elf, but she appears human cus genetics), and she's really just so Done with Middle Earth.

Then there's the twin elves: Callonduin and Calarphain. Callonduin is the thrill-seeking, orc-hunting, life of the party. He was born and raised in Rivendell, which is a great place, yet despite that, he has a whole host of emotional problems.

Calarphain is a pacifist and a friend to all living things. He was born weak but Galadriel saved him and he's now her apprentice in Lothlorien (where he grew up). He's got some really powerful and really suspicious light-based magic.

The twins meet Fili and Kili the spring after the BotFA because their dad, a diplomat participating in peace talks, brought them along.

There's one more guy but his design is still a huge "?" to me (he'll turn up eventually).

Another doodle. Callonduin looks pissed off here cus I was listening to a video about the doom of the Elves, a topic that throughly depresses him.

[radellama]

📏 , 🌈, and 🍀!

📏 What’s your go-to canvas size?

A3 or A4, they're easy to start with, but I often change the crop size once I've started so... Weird rectangular shapes roughly between those sizes

🌈 Do you use more warm or cold colors?

A few years ago? Cold and muted. These days, trying to do more vibrant and warm.

(You can see it in my Harland colour palettes lol, early 2021 vs late 2022 is when I made big changes)

🍀 You wish your art was more..(fill in the blank)

easy (to draw. I get so nitpicky LMAO)

Send some artist asks

[janusofguardia]

Luckily I managed to finish this before my wrist got busted. Valentine’s piece I guess? XD

I like to imagine an after the final battle where Magus finally takes (Dark)Glenn to see the home he’d been talking about all these years (or what’s left of it).

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

Master Xehanort and Brain for blorbo bingo? 🤔

Master Xehanort:

in the DDD era like 10+ years ago, I used to not really like him at all, but he grew on me after kh3 and with Dark Road of course. His life is really one big tragedy and there’s a lot about his character you could unpack…..but he did a lot of messed up stuff and I think he deserves to get crushed like a soda can a few times

Brainy:

I didn’t like him when he was first introduced, BUT! I found him to be a very entertaining character to play around with. I like him a lot now!! He had/has lots of potential going forward, and I’m really curious to know what kind of stuff he’ll go through in ML. Though I do wish we’d learned more about what kind of person he was before becoming a union leader

[radsbackup]

7, 9, 10, and 25!

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Uhhhhhhh... That's honestly hard to say. I'm sure there's someone but I really can't think of anyone off the top of my head lol

9. worst part of canon

Just find go with the 3 core autisms

Chrono - the sequels lol

Resi - the way they fuck over their protags with poor writing/decisions and also the way they introduce fun new side characters (Carlos, Billy, SHEVA) and either don't do much with them in the game OR never bring them back, even for one of the side spin offs

Star trek - the sexism and homophobia and racism ect baked into it. Also the new stuff has not really grabbed me (except for lower decks) and I found myself annoyed and eye rolling a lot of direction and choices lol

10. worst part of fanon

Again, autisms but I'm not as in the st fanon scene so I can't say for that lol

Ct - fans discounting the girls and/or ignoring their strengths and talents :'(

Resi - Redfield bloodline joke. And same as above, the girls are epic :'(

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Hrmmm... I'm just gonna say the complaints about Ethan Winters lol. Yeah he's a bland protag and it wasn't the best execution in re7 BUT it's actually a nice refresher to just have an average Joe as the protag and it helped make 7 that much more scary. I wish he wasn't pushed so hard as a self insert but they did kinda take steps to distance from that in re8 which was GREAT. he's fine, whatever.

[the-blue-wraith]

Hm.... PlayerxStrelitzia, Zemyx, and [any kh ship you feel like talking about] !

Player x Strelitzia

Zemyx

For the third one I chose Tseng x Elena from FF7!

[radellama-art]

The black wind begins to blow… give it your best shot!

Commissioned by @darksideofthemamon to draw Magus when first confronted by the main party

[chrono-the-babe]

Harland 1A and Glenn 2A? :) also happy birthday!

Hehehe thank you for the bday wishes~~

Send a chrono character+ expression for my bday!

[glemayteoli]

The Fiendlord and his Knight.

A fanart of @janusofguardia au ! AKA my favourite au ever, let's say it, it's amazing, I can't get enough of it.

Thank you @darksideofthemamon for creating such an amazing au ! I had fun drawing this less dark Magus, and this darker Glenn... I just love them so much.

I hope you'll like it ! Everything isn't perfect, far from it actually, there's no proper lineart, it's just a coloured doodle, but I enjoyed drawing this very much ! :)

[lila-chantilly]

Alright some info on Lucian!

You're probably looking at that part about killing his own Chirithy and going "what??" Well, let me explain!

When I first watched Back Cover, I looked at how MoM pit the Foretellers against one another and thought "this Keyblade War is so stupid, why did anyone participate in it? Didn't anyone think something was up and just walk out?"

And then I realized that when we look at stories, we tend to view them from a bird's eye view especially when we, the audience, know what's going on behind the scenes. I learned that when you place yourself in the shoes of the characters, suddenly the world is so big and you don't know anything.

So here's how Back Cover looked from Lucian's perspective:

He was an ordinary Keyblade wielder from Leopardos. He was sociable, athletic, loyal to his Union, and had a healthy competitive streak. He took great pride and enjoyment in being a Keyblade wielder.

During one raid, he met Lila and developed a crush on her, when he tried to talk to her, her friends shooed him away and told him to talk to someone from his own Union. Cus that's just how it was back then, there was no war, but Union rivalries were still a thing.

And then the Master of Masters disappears, leaving the Unicornis leader in charge. And then the Ursus leader is seen in public attacking the Anguis leader. And there's this whole scuffle between the leaders that ends with the Leopardos leader (his leader), going into hiding, likely last seen limping in the streets, likely last rumored to have almost been killed by the Ursus leader.

And you can just imagine the rumors and paranoia that were flying around at that time. "I heard there's a traitor among us" "I heard one of the Unions fell to darkness" "I heard Aced attacked Invi" "I heard Aced tried to kill Gula" "I heard Ava is recruiting from other Unions" "what's Ira doing about all of this?" "Has anyone seen Master Gula yet? Is he even alive?"

Then Gula resurfaces, instructs his Union members to hoard Lux, which prompts the other Unions to do the same. By the time the War takes place, tensions are so high Player has to break apart a fight in the Fountain Square.

Lucian, being very immersed in his Union, fell into much of the paranoia, hostility, and mistrust towards other Unions. You can bet he was one of those guys starting fights, especially when you consider it's likely very personal between the Leopardos and Ursus guys (considering Aced tried to kill Gula, and now Gula was hoarding Lux).

His fear reached a breaking point during the actual War when amidst all the death and violence, he decided to desert. He ran from the other Wielders who chased him and planned to hide out in one of the other Worlds, though his Chirithy tried to stop him.

And here's the thing about Chirithies. They come from the MoM don't they? They can appear anywhere and see anything, can't they? They very clearly know things Wielders don't. So can they be trusted?

Lucian wasn't thinking straight anymore, he wanted to be safe from all the darkness and death, so he slayed his own Chirithy, opened a portal to another world, and fled.

Except the Worlds were very different back then, and only appeared a certain way to the Wielders cus of the Book of Prophecies, and the Keyblade War was tearing it all apart. So Lucian, finding nothing, realized he had been living a lie and had nowhere to run.

At that moment, his Chirithy appeared, now as a Nightmare, having survived the blow. Corrupted with both grief and the darkness in Lucian's heart, his Nightmare Chirithy grabbed him and forcibly fused with him, then dragged him into the Realm of Sleep where he lived in anguish as a Nightmare for years.

Until one day he saw a faint light, one that felt familiar. He tore through the Realm of Sleep to reach it, ending up back in the waking world, in Bounty City, where he would wreak havoc until he was defeated by Lila.

Lucian and his Chirithy (now normal again) unfused and lay fading. Lila listened to their story and realized that there was so much sketchy things going on with the Union Leaders, that all those young Wielders (herself included) paid for. She previously refused to become a Keyblade Wielder again, but Lucian's death became the inciting incident that got her to take up her Keyblade and seek out the Foretellers-- for answers and vengeance.

[darksideofthemamon]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie vs book trivia

When I heard that The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes was getting a movie, I was excited. Excited, but, a bit worried because as much as I liked the book, it was kinda long and did drag in some parts. I was worried how this would be onscreen.

Turns out they found a way to make it work! The 10th Hunger Games was way more action-packed in the movie than it was in the books, and that kept me engaged as a viewer.

On that note, here are some book-movie comparisons and trivia! This isn't a criticism nor is it a complete list. It's just a fun trivia post because I found the differences fascinating and need to ramble

Full spoilers for both book and movie!

First-scene cannibalism

I don't recall them getting into this in the movie, so here's some trivia: the guy who commits cannibalism at the very start of the movie is, in the book, the Snows' neighbor Nero Price, a titan in the railroad industry, and Tigris and Coriolanus recognize the person whose leg he was sawing off as the maid of the Cranes (whom the Snows also knew).

Nero has a daughter who is Coriolanus's classmate and fellow mentor in the 10th Hunger Games, Persephone Price. She and Coriolanus's best friend, Festus Creed, become close, which grosses Coriolanus out to no end.

[Festus and Persephone had] been spending time together, trying to come up with a joint strategy for their tributes, and Coriolanus could see that Festus was falling for her. Did you tell your best friend his crush was a cannibal? Never a rule book when you needed one.

2. Felix Ravinstill doesn't die in the book

The one who dies originally from the bombing is another classmate, a minor character named Gauis Breen.

This is one of the changes in the film that I think enhanced it! It's just a lot more impactful if the death of the president's son is what pushes Dr. Gaul to unleash the rainbow snakes.

3. Clemensia's fate, Coriolanus's offenses

"You're quite the rebel." "I'm bad news, alright"

It surprised me quite a bit when this happened pretty early on in the film. In the book, stealing food from the Academy is a major offense, and Coriolanus doesn't take to being called a rebel until after Clemensia gets bitten by Dr. Gaul's snakes (an event that really shook his belief in the Capitol as it showed him that even Capitol children were, in fact, not safe from the Capitol).

In the movie though, he does it before visiting Lucy Gray in the zoo (the same scene where Arachne dies).

On that note, the movie only shows the compact and hankerchief as his damning evidence. The book includes the napkin he stole from the Academy that got lost in the bombing.

4. Weaponized drones

In the movie, Coriolanus spams water bottles to distract the other Tributes from Lucy Gray. In the book, weaponizing a drone was a tactic used by the District 3 tributes, Circ and Teslee.

5. Lysistrata is more proactive in the books

In the movie, Coriolanus needs to ask Lysistrata to weaponize water against her own tribute, Jessup.

The book not only has Lysistrata display more knowledge of medicine (as her parents are President Ravinstill's personal physicians), but also has her be the one to initiate protecting Lucy Gray from Jessup.

In the film, Coriolanus says "Send him a drone." In the book, Lysistrata says "No, let me. He's my tribute, after all." (Then Coriolanus tries to refuse, but she insists).

6. Lamina was portrayed as more "impressive" in the book

I found this one really fascinating as I was watching it play out.

Lamina, at the start of the movie, was always crying. Then she climbed a beam and killed Marcus.

The physicality of climbing up that beam is treated as more impressive in the books, with Lamina's surprising strength, agility, and balance being attributed to her coming from the lumber district, District 7. After mercy-killing Marcus, she stays up on the beam, which is acknowledged as a good strategy, implying that she might actually win.

It wasn't a bad strategy. Safer than on the ground, for sure. She had a plan. She could kill. In less than an hour, Lamina had redefined herself as a contender in the Games.

While Lamina does all these in the film, less attention is called to it.

I liked that in the book because it showed us how swiftly tributes can go from underdogs to contenders with skills apart from brute strength.

7. Dill and Wovey's deaths get swapped

Another good change they made for the movie!

In the book, Dill (District 11) dies of natural causes (tuberculosis) while Wovey (District 8) dies of Lucy Gray's rat poison. We don't see Lucy Gray's reaction to this.

But in the movie, Wovey dies from the snakes, while Dill drinks poisoned water, which we see Lucy Gray's regretful reaction to.

I think this was such an impactful change they made for the movie. Why? Because Dill is District 11's female tribute... just like Rue. Except in the 74th Hunger Games, District 12 female (Katniss) regrets not being able to save Rue. In the 10th, Lucy Gray regrets accidentally killing Dill.

8. Treech does not die from rat poison in the book

He instead dies from one of Dr. Gaul's poisonous snakes that Lucy Gray kept in her pocket. On that note...

9. Snakes were not the climax (Reaper was)

The Games don't end with everyone covered in rainbow snakes. Some of the tributes survive, and the next day most of the snakes are dead (because some muttations don't survive well out of the lab).

Rainbow snakes made for a great climax though! Additionally...

10. Coral was not the final boss/main rival in the book (Reaper was)

Though she was a deadly opponent, she wasn't the last one Lucy Gray had to fight. In the movie, Coral dies from rainbow snakes, all while pleading with Lucy Gray, while Reaper accepts his fate as the snakes get him.

In the book, Coral dies from the snakes, but Reaper survives. Then there's a bit of a waiting game the next day until Reaper drinks from a puddle of poisoned water. All that said...

11. Lucy Gray flat-out wins in the book

But in the movie, Dr. Gaul was ready to kill all the tributes with her snakes, but then Coriolanus, backed by the student body, shouted for her to let Lucy Gray go. And she does.

This was such a great change for the movie because not only was it more climactic, but it very much reminds us of the power audience reaction has over the Hunger Games ("if it weren't for the baby", and such)

[the-journey-was-the-point]

OC Intro's!

Since I finally have some art and names, I can properly introduce these guys!

They're my The Hobbit OC's who travel along with Fili, Kili, and Tauriel post-BOTFA doing minor quests but mostly enjoying the journey, since that's what it's really about, isn't it?

(Until the plot thickens at least)

[radellama]

1, 8, 14, and 24!

1. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

Definitely a huge preference towards multi chaptered fics, as I tend to get long winded and my works become expansive. My one shots end up pretty long anyway, but I'll just write what feels applicable to the fic...

And since I'm mostly thinking about really big stories, chapters just work best for me. Plus, when I'm putting more effort into the chapters, I love to organise all the little details and developments I want for everything, micro and macro 😏

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Middle. It's where the meat of it is, where most the scenes I'm imagining as concepts will go... I enjoy beginnings and ends too, but to me a beginning or end being so memorable is due to remembering it with the context of the middle parts. If the middle isn't worth reading, why would I put effort into opening and closing it either, yknow?

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

Man. This is tricky to answer... I keep writing and rewriting my answer to this, but I don't think there's a way to keep it brief.

I'm autistic, so the way I approach and understand emotions is inherently different. I can understand what causes emotions, and I can understand actions informed by emotions, but there's something about emotional behaviour as a whole that I struggle with- for myself and when observing others. Writing emotional scenes in fiction is like a sandbox at times, I can do whatever I want; change the stakes, change the characters response, put limits on their behaviour in context... Anything. And this can make it easier, and harder. What I value the most when writing characters is that they feel authentic and driven. I want THEIR lived context up until that scene to inform the way they'd behave, and often I'll have character outlines for myself when writing bigger and more complex stuff to help with this. I don't really approach writing an emotional scene with the emotions at the forefront, I think I focus on the objective of that scene first, and then break it down into what characters will present internally and externally. Any emotions present will make themselves known, the same way the vibe of a house becomes a home as you start to live in it.

A lot of people are emotionally immature, too, so I don't find it very authentic (or interesting) to write scene upon scene of characters doing corporate therapy talk as they work through things. I don't mind the challenge of trying to construct something emotionally charged, I think I did a pretty good job in the first chapter of my star trek au to demonstrate the emotions of each character and how that conflicted and contrasted with everyone (and hope that it does it's intended job of outlining the characters and providing a base for how far they'll develop later in the story...) I usually know what I want and will spend time figuring out how it's going to happen, and fill in the emotional responses as I'm 'reading the room' of the scene. There have been times where I've written something emotional, and while understanding that it is emotional and putting effort into conveying it, I'm still very surprised when people tell me that it made them emotional. Idk, it's hard to really articulate this clearly, but in the same way I spend ages writing and rewriting dialogue for my characters so that it feels authentic and flows in the way I want, I do that with the emotions of the scene and how I want to demonstrate the characters reacting and processing the emotion. It's iteration upon iteration, built up over a lot of agonising over certain word choices.

I don't think I ever feel what my characters feel as I write them, I have a bit more of a detached feeling because I'm the author. I can feel sympathetic towards the characters, and understand or feel similarly, but I'm not them, so I won't feel it to the full extent... All stories are inherently voyeuristic, to varying degrees, and that sense of peering into a curated version of events and certain characters mindsets can be quite intimate. I'm just relaying that intimacy with the characters and story, and I feel my own way about it, which is different to the characters I'm writing, and probably very different to people who read what I wrote.

And as for personal experiences... I draw on them in a sense of 'write what you know.' And this isn't a literal 'only write what you yourself have experienced,' cause let's be real, even in biographical media, it's dramatised and you haven't literally experienced the exact same. Instead, talking more broadly, I know how I live my life as a person, and have been keenly watching, observing and joining others in their lives too. When you're writing creatively, you have to use that creative muscle to figure out how characters will react. Unlike my OC Harland, I haven't gone through a heartbreak and betrayal so great that it is a deciding factor in a war I want no part in- but, I have had to cut ties with people I used to call friends because they're acting in ways I can't understand or condone, I've felt stressed over when friend groups split and there's a background assumption that you need to pick sides, and I've felt the weight of knowing certain decisions I make will be responsible for more than just myself. I'm not Harland, dealing with the emotional climax of his story, but I am me, and I can use my lived/observed experiences to inform how he would act as a base, and construct him in all his complexity by comparing his reactions to mine. It's easy to go 'I wouldn't have done that;' so you gotta take the time to think on why you wouldn't have, and why that person did.

Anyway, you see why this is tricky for me to answer lol. I think there's some weird internal logic I have that makes me approach this kinda stuff from a more detached and critical view, so I have to put effort into understanding all aspects of what's going on. And that's just in my day to day, so at least when writing I can put those skills to use for something entertaining!

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

This is hard, cause I try to ignore advice that I don't think is applicable, and promptly forget once I've moved on.

I guess I'll say something that I heard discussed a lot when I was studying film, and what I heard people parroting when I mentioned them, which was to 'not get tropey.'

I HATE that trope means the same thing as cliche to everyone, cause they're not the same. A trope is simply how you describe the particulars of a situation in fiction, and you can use them to help figure out what sort of genre your work belongs to and what your target audience will be. Trying to avoid tropes is like trying to build a brick house without bricks. Cliches, on the other hand, are when a certain trope has become so overdone that you know exactly how something will play out, and it's become stale due to seeing it too much. And in my observation, tropes become cliche when the writers are just copying what works without thinking about WHY it works, or how it applies to the narrative. You absolutely should get tropey with it, cause how else will you have a story? The important part is that you're not just going through the motions of what's commonly used in the type of story you're writing, and instead working on purposefully including what you put to page.

Idk if that's clear enough to those who haven't studied film/narrative in some capacity, so I'll say what my response was when students would ask for help avoiding tropes in their screenplays in our mentoring sessions: don't worry about the hypothetical audience reaction before you've finished writing the story. Don't think about tropes and cliches and whatever else we use when deconstructing a narrative to analyse it, you haven't got a finished story to analyse. Just write the story you want to tell, and be deliberate about it. Everything's been done before, but this story hasn't been done your way yet, so just focus on your writing first.

Send some asks from here

[janusofguardia]

“What was that!?” “Should we go after it!?” “Cyrus should go first...”

Whipped up something Halloween-inspired that’s been on my mind for a long time but only got to do now! 

The premise is that spooky things were going on in Guardia Castle so the resident wizard and his friends ended up investigating it! Shenanigans ensue. 

Have a great spoopy month!

(I’m still doing those asks btw until the end of the month so go ahead and shoot one if you like!)