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fronomeeps · 10 months

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Abriged text of Off’s 15th anniversary stream!

official VOD on youtube: https://youtu.be/RG4yEM9J3Zg

full disclaimer there are inconsistencies with the typing and punctuation and capitalization, but here it is!!! the full 4 hour stream in abriged text form! i tried including as much as i can while making it short and sweet-ish, everything under the cut!

Part 1: Off’s Childhood (Off creation)

Q: Did you design and draw the characters before you decided to make a game for them or did you have the idea to design a game first and have the visuals come after?

Some of them he drew before. He knew about RPGmaker for a long time and used it to make little games. Most of the RPGmaker games he would make before were using the RPGmaker assets. When he started Off, he decided that everything would be made by him. He never made a game with his own resources before, so he had no idea what to do with the graphics. He made everything very simple with flat colors and lines, which made it easy to use and easy to create. The first map he made in OFF was Zone 0’s building extremely fast to test his chipset and as an exercise. Afterwards he thought of what characters to make for the game. He had piles of drawings he did for fun with no particular meaning, and he happened to have a drawing of a baseball player and a cat with a “very big head” and decided that these would be characters in the game. There was no symbolic meaning to it, he just thought the drawings were cool.

Yes, the characters were made before the game was made but not intended to be in the game.

Q: Was there anything in the game you weren’t happy with or anything you didn't get to finish when OFF released?

He was quite happy with everything in the game, there was some cut content, but when he finished he was really happy with what he made. It took him 1 year to make Off. He is still happy about the state of Off. Sometimes he was frustrated with the limitations of RPGmaker2003, such as the battle system, that he would change if he had total control of these things. But with the tools he had, he was happy with the results.

If he had tools he had today back then, Off would be a completely different game. There are some things he is unhappy with and says he was a completely different person back then, but it’s been 15 years and he’s proud of what he made and what Off is and is happy people like the way it is.

Q: If you could easily implement any game mechanic into off regardless of how hard it would be to implement, what would it be?

He would make a battle system from scratch. He likes the JRPG battle system, but the balancing of the numerical side of things (HP, damage, etc.) were difficult to manage and he feels he could have done it in a more fun way. He thinks there's better ways to do things with the system.

Battles such as Dedan are hard to beat but not very fun since it is hard because of his large amount of HP, since that’s how he saw to make it hard.

So if he could change the combat, he would.

Another thing he would change is the puzzles, he feels they are too hard. Especially in zone 1 he feels they are not fun. Reading text and remembering random information he does not think is very fun and weirdly difficult. The Calendar puzzle in Alma in particular comes to his mind when he thinks of a hard puzzle. The calendar was inspired by a Killer 7 puzzle that he liked at the time but doesn’t like it now.

Q: Were any of the characters inspired by real people in your life or by pets?

Real people no, but his friend made the voices for the characters.

The judge is inspired by a drawing he made of his roommate’s cat back in college. The cat was named Madame Le Judge.

Q: Have you considered other sportsmen other than batter?

No, Batter was made from a drawing he did of a baseball player from a book from the library and had no correlation to the game.

Q: Was Zacharie originally planned to be fightable?

There were doodles of Zacharie with angel wings and a sword, but they were just for fun and he was not intended to be a fighter in the game. But he is aware that it has made the fans question if Zacharie was intended to be a battler in the game.

Q: Was there anything cut or scraped from the game?

Not really, but in the doodle pack on his old website where he posted Off originally, there was a version of Enoch with a mask on as well as some items. And for the ballman and boxxer part he had some more enemies planned, one being a baseball with eyes. He scrapped it because it was an unimportant part of the game.

There were some really complex puzzle ideas that were cut because they would be too complex to put in. He likes reaction based games, rpg games where you have to think not so much. There is a game called MYST on pc where you travel to an island and are tons of insane puzzles which he was hypnotized by as a puzzle. He did not solve many of the puzzles but thought it was extremely cool as a kid and wanted to make a game as cool as MYST.

Q: Can we get the full list of magaka and artists the bats are named in reference to?

Harrold: Don’t remember

Masashi: Naruto creator

Emmanuel: French comic book artist, he liked at the time but no longer likes, but was a huge inspiration for Off.

Michael: Hellboy creator

Yoshihiro: Hunter x Hunter creator, which Mortis is a big fan of.

Lewis: French comic book artist.

Katsuhiro: Akira creator, “still a banger” -Mortis

Ashley: An American comic artist who did paintings.

Q: What went into the decisions that went into the creation of Zacharie’s masks?

If there was an inspiration, he doesn’t recall. He designed them that way because he thought he looked cool.

Q: What are the inspirations behind every character in the game?

Elsen: Just a business man, office man, supposed to featureless and “boring” or “normal”, some inspiration from his hatred of administration(?). He is sorry for what he puts the Elsen though.

Dedan: “I don’t know…” -Mortis, he has a military jacket.

Japhet: Fire bird, Final fantasy 6’s Valigarmanda who is a fire bird trapped in a block of ice was a big inspiration.

Enoch: Inspired Nicolas de Crécy’s comics. There is a character who is large like Enoch that he was heavily inspired by. He enjoyed the comics at the time but now sees there is some fatphobia with the character.

Vader Eloha (Queen): Generally, a mysterious, strange, princess-like lady. A beautiful lady to contrast the heaviness of the rest of the game.

Queen’s Addons: Just complex stuff.

Bad Batter: No direct inspiration, but is a scary, terrifying version of the batter.

Hugo: Child with a big ham, no direct inspiration.

Sucre: Was designed by a friend.

General aesthetics of the game: Inspired by Killer 7 for the aesthetics, backgrounds, feelings. If you like Off you would like Killer 7. It is similar to off, and is very violent. In general, Final Fantasy 6-10, Metal Gear Solid 2’s “Meta” content (THE GAME SPEAKS TO ME?!?!?!?!?!?!), Silent Hill 2 (after completing off, he played more silent hill games but SH2 was played before and was inspiration).

In the game, there are 2 maps that are a silent hill reference, in that the maps themselves spell “SH” “Silent Hill” and there are long hallways with locked doors like Silent Hill.

Q: What had to be the most difficult part of Off development for you?

There were some times he would get stuck not knowing what to do next. Alias Coldwood, who also made the soundtrack of the game, was his roommate at the time. Alias helped him code parts of the game as he was already a programmer, such as the Elsen balloon minigame in the Zone 2 amusement park.

He was stuck on the balloon game coding for 3 days and then Alias came in and fixed it in half an hour.

Zone 3 is mostly pretty straight forward and doesn’t have that much coding, except for the dropping Add-On collection minigame. He says that the way the engine is, if you want to do something other than classic RPG it becomes very hard.

Q: What is the overall feeling you want people to have when they play Off?

A bad feeling, guilt, sadness, emptiness. He says he was quite edgy at the time, he wanted the game to make you feel like you were the good guy, then gently make you feel like maybe you aren’t the good guy, and then at the end confirm that you are in fact the bad guy.

There is a short poem called 10 Little Soldiers, where the narrator is revealed to be the killer of the story, and it was shocking and unexpected. He wanted to recreate this feeling of shock in a video game setting. In the end, you end up doing what the creator of the game put before you regardless of feeling of freedom.

Q: How was the planning of the game?

Production of the game was 1 year, and there was no clear idea in his head before he started making Off. He sorta winged it as he went. He made all the characters, then went and made maps chronologically and made it up as he went.

Q: Who was your favorite character to design?

Japhet. There are 4 different forms of Japhet, and he likes the way he transforms. He wouldn’t change much about his design.

Q: What was your process for making the sprites?

They were drawn on paper, inked, scanned in, scaled down in photoshop, then the edges were cleaned up with a black border to work with the game (which took up most of the time in game production).

Q: What was the creative process behind the music and what did you use?

He did not make the music, Alias Coldwood did. He would come into Mortis’ room, check what Mortis was up to, see the areas, then go off and make music for the game. He would come back and give him the music gifts. He would ask if it was good or if anything needed to be changed but usually no changes were needed.

Q: Why was Over the Rainbow used for the ending of the game?

He loves the song, and it is a strong contrast of gentle music, reassurance, after the extremely brutal game.

It can also be interpreted that the game itself is a rainbow, with the zones being very brightly colored.

Q: What sorta things did you think about while making Off? What did you think it would be?

He didn’t think much about the game itself, he mostly thought about being done with the game and how cool it would be. He thought it would be so crazy and cool if 50 people played his game, or if his friends played his game.

It was his last year of doing comics studies at school. He had his studies which were art related, but his free time was filled with working on Off, which was fun for him.

Q: What role does the battle system play in the story?

None, other than Batter attacks everything he comes across. In most games you fight a lot, maybe it was more so that fighting is in games, so his game needs fighting. But it makes sense to look at it that you are fighting everything you come across, which is sort of evil. You can actually flee from most battles other than the bosses. But it is not easy to defeat the bosses without killing people beforehand.

Q: What was it like to work with Alias Coldwood?

It was really cool.

Q: Did you have a theme you wanted to follow?

Yes, the idea that the main character is the bad guy was the main theme. He had the ending idea in mind.

Q: What was the last thing you made in the game before releasing?

Since he did it in chronological order, he believes the last thing he did was the secret ending(space apes ending).

Q: Do you have any old concept art for the game/ characters?

He doesn’t have them on his computer, but if his website is still searchable, there should be a zip folder full of art. Website: http://gaarabis.free.fr

Q: Is it true that the train stations in zone 1 are based on pens?

Pentel: A really good brush pen he has

Sachihata: Don’t remember

Alma: An actual train station in brussels.

Damien: Don’t remember

Q: What were those unused soundtracks for?

Music for zones that already existed and he didn’t have a purpose for.

Q: How were the sketches for Off made, were they sketched and scanned in?

Yes

Q: Do you have any beta builds of Off?

No, just the one version.

Q: What happened to the Off Demo?

It disappeared, lost on the old website that died and he didn’t have a backup. It stopped at Dedan’s office in Alma, and a text would show up to say that’s the end of the demo. It was made for a french rpg forum for people to play there, and he received a price in a french rpgmaker contest. There is no additional or different content in the demo that isn’t in the main game.

Part 2: Into Off’s big castle (Off lore)

Mortis notes, nothing is cannon in Off, he had things in mind when he made it but nothing is cannon, “everything is cannon” anything that comes to your head when you play is cannon, everything is cannon and nothing is cannon.

Q: when the batter turns into a monster, is that a shapeshift or is it just how the judge sees the batter?

It’s based off Killer 7, whose final boss is an angel. It is implied though that the character is not actually an angel, but is the way it sees itself. He liked the idea that you can people can be represented differently than how they actually are, and it is up to you whether that is batters view of himself, the players view of him, or the judges view of the batter.

Q: What is Zacharie and Sucre’s relationship? Are they friends? A couple?

They like each other, but as you prefer. If you want them together then sure. But he doesn’t have any thought on it.

Q: is the Judge a fluffy cat or a hairless cat?

Madame le Judge, the inspiration cat, was a fluffy cat, so the Judge is fluffy. Though he doesn’t look fluffy in game so that is up to the player.

Q: Top 3 vegetables for every character.

Too long of a question, but for the judge: Zucchini, Eggplant, and Tomato

Q: Do the zone guardians get along with each other or is there a reason they all rule their own zones?

They do know each other based on the events in The Room, but if they’re friends is uncertain. But Japhet did save Enoch from a hole, so they are probably on good terms. In the room, they have similar ideas on what to evolve the world into and at that point they are probably closest to being friends, more so that they tolerate eachother or are more akin to coworkers. Once they are in their own zones, they have no need to talk to each other.

Q: Is Off a universe or world?

There are definitely past events to Off, the world is already in a crisis point with its dead appearance. Maybe it is our own earth.

Q: What do Elsen and spectres taste like?

Elsen would taste like a human, and spectres would taste like smoke.

Sucre is also supposed to be a human, please don’t eat her.

Q: How is Zacharie doing, what are his views on the world?

He is not well, he is quite nihilistic and sees the world is not doing well, but he doesn’t care.

Q: Could you go into the game’s nomenclature, specifically the names for items, guardians?

The reason he calls the health items tickets was because he wanted a cool, clever way to refer to them rather than health potions.

He chose flesh for SP items because it was gross and fit with the universe. He chose demon names for the flesh because he thought it was cool and edgy at the time.

The guardian’s names are from the Bible, but there is no significance to the names themselves.

Q: How do you imagine the voice of the Judge?

He’s a cat with a big head so maybe there’s some resonance.

Q: What’s the Judge’s favorite brand of kibble/cat food and what is his favorite fish?

In zone 2’s marketplace, Judge is looking at an ad for catfood. Catfood made with meat from the fountains of Alma is his favorite food.

There is no more fish in the world, Judge doesn’t know what a fish is.

Q: What the heck is the zone 3 secretary?

It was a drawing he did based on a photo from a book from a library. They are drawings of wood carved baby artifacts. He drew clothes on them for the game.

Q: Does the batter like men?

In a previous stream, he and chat decided batter is a lesbian. He also states that batter (he/she/they) doesn’t like men.

Q: Is there a cannon explanation for the ending?

It’s in the game, it is cannon.

Q: Did you intend Sucre to have more content, and did you plan for other secret bosses to be in the game?

Sucre was the only planned secret boss and no other content was planned for her.

He asked his friend to design Sucre, asking her to design a character to be a secret boss in the game without knowing anything about the game.

Sucre’s speech pattern (using emojis and speaking in small sentences) is based on a character from Killer 7 as well.

We don’t know why she’s in the zone 0 room, though it’s implied she has changed and Zacharie knows she has changed.

Q: Why does Sucre like ducks?

She doesn’t like ducks.

Q: Is the art depicting Zacharie with wings and a sword cannon?

It is cannon and it isn’t cannon.

Q: How far does Zacharie’s self awareness go?

He knows he is in a videogame, and being in the videogame Off is quite depressing.

He knows everything, he knows about batter and his powers.

Q: What happens when the switch turns Off?

Everything is gone

Q: Was there any reason for the Panic in Ballville section in the room?

Everything in the room are hints to what led to the creation of the world, but the hints are obscure and it is up to the player to figure that out.

It’s up to interpretation

Q: Do you think Deltarune Queen and Off Queen would be friends?

The Queen from Off is not very friendly, and probably wouldn’t want to be friends.

He has played Deltarune and loved it and loves Toby Fox’s work.

Q: Do secretaries appear because of batter’s desires?

Secretaries have no emotion, they are mindless monsters. They are not even humans, they aren’t even living. They just exist in an empty world, symbols of despair and emptiness.

Q: Did spectres appear because of the Queen’s neglect?

Enoch says they’re just the souls of the people, so yes they are just the dead Elsen.

He had another idea with Alias that in the past of Off, when people die their souls would go to the future. But since there is no longer a future, they pile up in the present as the ghosts we see.

Q: How were Elsen made?

They are one person, who was cloned. They are all named Elsen. There are lots of him.

Cannon and not cannon: Before the events of Off, there was a man named Elsen, and he cloned himself over and over and had many of his clones in a bunker. When he died, his clones were all released. It is ambiguous that the Elsen know this fact about themselves.

Q: Is it possible that there are other lands in the nothingness or across the sea?

The idea is that it is a post-apocalyptic place, and the Queen and Hugo have power that emanates from them that certain people are strong enough to use that power to create worlds. Judge, Dedan, Enoch, and Japhet are those who can use this power, which is why when you kill them their zone dies. Though it is possible there are other survivors out in the world that may weild the Queen and Hugo’s power to create lands.

Q: Is batter bald?

Yes?

Q: Does the batter have any pets?

No, he would not be a good pet owner.

Q: Do the burnt elsen have any purpose other than being enemies you can fight?

The black material exploding from them comes from inside of them.

Since they are office men, it makes sense they are stressed. Burning is a direct representation of burnout. The world is too horrible for them to continue existing. As the world dies, they have a physical reaction which is dying and burning.

Q: Has the batter ever played baseball?

Q: Are Zacherie’s wings in the drawing Add-ons?

There is no cannon for this non-canonical drawing.

Q: How powerful would batter be in the real world?

He can kill lots of people, he can heal himself, and has magical powers so he would be pretty powerful.

His power is “4000”

Q: What is the Judge drinking in the drawing where he’s drinking from a cup?

Orange juice

Q: The drawing with the red dots in the room, is it an illusion?

The drawing itself is made by Hugo in the game world.

Q: How tall is Enoch?

Maybe like 4 meters.

Q: We saw the story of the zone guardians but what about Zacharie, Judge, and Valerie? Did they exist before the zones?

Yes they did exist before the zones, and they survived the apocalypse somehow, maybe in a bunker.

Maybe because Judge and Valerie have 9 lives as cats they came back to life, and Zacharie’s 4th wall breaking power allowed him to survive.

Q: Is there lore behind the important people of Zone 1 or not?

They are all dead.

Q: What happens to the puppeteer/player after we finish the cannon ending of the game?

You get back to your life, game ends.

Q: Does Hugo sees him as a monster or his human form?

Hugo would see him as a positive form, since Hugo created the batter, and is happy to see the batter arriving. But batter kills him. And Hugo probably changes his mind as he’s killed.

Q: Is the anniversary of Off also batter’s birthday?

When you start the game it is batter’s birthday.

Q: What is the reason the Queen isolated herself from everyone?

She doesn’t like anyone. She wanted to make a new world, but was disappointed in the outcome, and isolated herself and became crazy. She may be a bit of a narcissist.

Q: Who would win in a fight between Omori and Batter?

Omori

Q: How come the final hallway before the switch looks like a skull and spine?

It was not intentional, and he was just designing a strange hallway. But agrees that it looks like that.

Q: Is batter truly evil or is a victim of circumstances.

He is spawned from hugo’s wishes, in batter’s opinion he is not evil, but he is evil.

Q: Is there a timeline where Valerie lives after Japhet’s fight?

In the main game he dies, but there is many timelines where he lives.

Q: What does batter think of the player? A tool, a psychic?

He thinks of the player as a tool.

Q: Do the characters have cannon ages?

No, never thought of it.

Q: What is the meaning/story behind Off?

Play the game.

Q: Why does hugo have 8 dots on his forehead?

He doesn’t know why, but it was somewhat inspired by Krillin from Dragon Ball.

Q: Tell us more about Enoch

He’s a guardian of the zone 3, he is very big and tall. He tries to make people’s lives easier with sugar, but it is a drug in this world. But he does genuinely want his elsen to be happy, but he’s really not a good guy and doesn’t go bout it right.

Q: What characters from other franchises would batter get along with?

Batter wouldn't really be friends with anyone, he doesn’t really communicate, he doesn’t like to speak and he doesn’t want friends. He has a mission and he’s going to complete it.

Q: What’s up with the ring party members?

At first they were just there to add more party members, since being the only one is boring. So how do you have only 1 main character but multiple party members? The Add-ons do not have personalities but fill the party. But at the end they have meaning.

Each guardian is represented by an Add-On, and their ideas and thoughts and relationship with Hugo are represented by each Add-On. But as the world was created, the promises of their ideas were broken.

Q: How did the batter know what his purpose to purify the world was?

He just knew in his brain, in his programming.

Q: Was the batter the correct answer to the world’s problems?

It’s up to you to decide that, but there is probably a better solution than batter. Alooot of bad choices that led to batter.

Q: What are ghosts? Did the queen send them? Is it capitalism?

Mortis confirms he hates capitalism and you can see that in the game, and in a clumsy way it does speak about capitalism. But the ghost’s source is a mystery but they’re probably souls of Elsen.

Q: What happened to Hugo’s parents?

Probably dead.

Q: What did the batter save the elsen in zone 2 if they were all going to die anyways.

He didn’t care about saving the Elsen, he was just going after the spectres.

Q: Is each zone a planet or different universes?

They aren’t planets. The world is broken, and there are floating continents with light points that can be traveled to.

Q: Do Boxxer and Ballman have names?

Ballman is Casper, and Boxxer is Jeremy.

Q: Is it the player’s fault that batter is the way he is?

Q: What are the actual names of the Elsen?

They’re all named Elsen.

Q: What was the batter doing before the game started?

Nothing, he didn’t exist before.

Q: What would happen if you microwaved an elsen?

They would die.

Part 3: Off, the game

Q: Will the game be on steam or console?

He already got some proposals from companies to put it on different platforms, but for now he doesn’t want to, but he isn’t against it. It’s a long process of copyrights and other things and maybe one day it’ll happen, but for now no.

Q: Would you ever reconsider remaking Off in another style or game engine?

No, he’s happy that people enjoy Off as it is, but he’s not as invested in it as he was when he made it. He won’t be making any remakes or continuations, since he has other projects and plans and stories and universes.

Q: Would you ever make a sequel, comic, any continuations of Off?

When he first made Off, he had an idea for a part 2 and even spoke to Alias about it but dropped it because it works so well as a one-shot.

Q: Would you ever be interested in making projects similar to Off?

He has another videogame in the works, and RPG he’s working on with friends called HELP.

Q: Do you see yourself working on something Off related in the future? Or are you done for good for this world?

He doesn’t close every door but probably is done with the world.

Q: Will you ever expand on Hugo’s lore?

Probably not

Q: Will you ever remake Off with your current style?

If he did something Off related now, it would be in his current style, he can’t recreate his old style.

Q: Have you ever considered making merch, plushies or artbooks?

He doesn’t have any of the original drawings anymore, he sold his sketchbook. All the files he still has are too small to be used in an artbook. For plushies, it would be fun, but it isn’t a priority right now.

Q: Do you regret being better known as the creator of Off rather than other things you’ve made?

He is a little frustrated by the fact that nothing else he’s made is as popular as Off, such as comics he’s made since Off or other work he’s done. He isn’t complaining though. Whenever he does anything Off related, people give him lots of love and he’s extremely happy and moved by it and is happy that people love the game lots. He’s happy with his life.

Q: What’s your favorite piece of music from Off?

He loves all the music, his favorite would be Fake Orchestra, Dedan’s boss music.

Q: Do you think there’s a good way to adapt Off into an animated series?

It could be fun, but he doesn’t like translating video games into other mediums other than video games.

Q: What’s your favorite character from Off?

Japhet, he is a bad guy, even though he’s egotistical now, he really tried to please his elsen. Reading his journal, we can see he is disappointed in himself, and self-reflects.

Q: What’s your favorite spectre design? Which one is the sexiest?

His favorite is the 6th spectre, the one that explodes into many little spectres.

Smash or Pass round: He passed every spectre. The sexiest is the large spectre.

Q: Which character/creature design is your favorite?

The whale is still a favorite of his.

Q: After 15 years, what do you honestly think of Off as its creator?

He is happy that so many people still like, so he feels he succeeded in making something that speaks to or is relatable to so many people. To himself however, he thinks there’s a lot he would’ve done differently if he made it now. He’s a different person now, and elements of the game don’t resonate with him anymore.

Q: What was your reaction after the game’s big success?

Before the success, there was a translation to english, and then a while after that it really exploded. He was not prepared. He felt successful from just 50 people playing it and thought that was it for Off.

After 2 years when youtubers started making let’s plays of Off and fanart was being made, and now he is used to it. But it took a long time for him to understand that the game was a huge success.

Q: What ending do you choose, the batter or the judge?

For a long time, he liked the batter ending more. But now he likes the judge ending more. It feels like a small small spark of hope. You have a choice to not destroy everything.

Q: Do you think Off would ever get as big as it is now?

No, never.

Q: Did you expect Off to have such a big impact on people? Were you overwhelmed by it?

It wasn’t overwhelming, but he didn’t understand it at first but he was really really happy.

Q: Had you ever made a plan in case the game becomes popular?

No, he only made it to be played a little and got a price from a french rpg forum and that was all he thought would come of the game.

Q: If you could pick 5 songs not from the soundtrack to encapsulate the game what would they be?

The Kid A album from Radiohead was an album he was listening to while he was making Off and encapsulated a lot of Off’s themes that you can find in the game.

Q: How do you feel about Papyrus looking like Dedan?

He is so glad that his game had an impact on Toby Fox when he made his games.

Q: Would Papyrus and Dedan be friends?

No, Dedan is really mean and Papyrus should not be around Dedan.

Q: Where do you consider Off in your artistic journey? Has it impacted/ influenced you?

It is a part of him. Even though the stuff he does now doesn’t look like Off and everything he does doesn’t relate to Off anymore it’s a big part of him.

Q: Are you willing to/ planning to release the music on vinyl? Limited releases?

It is not in his hands, that is up to Alias.

Q: Is there anything about Off (the game, the characters, etc.) that you like much more (or less) now?

He is happy about the alternate ending with the Judge.

Q: What’s the biggest thing you scrapped out of the game?

Nothing was really scrapped out of the game.

Q: What would you say is the concept that defines OFf as a whole?

It’s a really nihilistic game about destroying a game that’s already destroyed. It’s a very sad and dark story.

Q: Which character was your favorite to draw?

Zacharie was the most fun to draw, as well as Judge with his big mouth.

Q: What do you think of the fangames?

He’s really glad and happy that people like the game so much they want to make other games. But he always thinks, why? It takes so much time to make these fangames when you could be making something you want to make.

Q: Can you explain the philosophy in the game?

It’s nihilistic and depressing.

Q: Do you have a favorite zone?

Zone 2 is his favorite. It’s more like a city, and it’s more organic than the other zones. The center of the city is a bit maze-like and he likes the way you move around it, and with a library at its center.

Q: For the longest time, I thought the batter’s left eye was a nose. Can you point out the intricate details of his face, for clarity?

Mortis sees it as a nose for the first time. But his nose is actually a left eye, both of his eyes are visible. The top 2 lines are his eyebrows, the bottom lines are his eyes closed.

Q: Is the judge smiling or is his face just like that?

He is smiling.

Q: Is there any want for batter to get into frame makers or any fighting game?

No, he won’t contact any companies to get batter into any game. If someone wants to put the batter in their game, it’s alright. Though he’s not a big fan of fanservice stuff.

Part 4: Officionados

Q: What is your favorite Off fangame and is it cannon to Off?

He doesn’t play any fangames but will in the future. He’s planning to play Home. All fangames are cannon. He’s really happy that there’s so much work around his universe.

Q: Why do you think people are still talking about and playing Off today?

Society is quite dark today, the future is not too happy, and maybe it makes sense to people nowadays. Maybe it is also because of the funny jokes.

Q: Have you seen the animated series by Tanblaque?

No, but he has seen animated content made about Off back a long time ago.

Q: What is your opinion about fan projects nowadays?

Do what you want, and he is 100% ok with it. You can use any of his graphical assets, you have to ask Alias to use the music, and you can’t use the space monkeys since they were not made by him. He is happy if you make stuff for him, but also he would like people to make original stuff too.

Q: Have you ever played or seen gameplay of Home?

He has seen gameplay, but never played. He was in touch with Felix when he started the game, Felix would send him screenshots.

Q: What do you think about fandom theories?

It’s awesome and he loves it. What he loves the most about it is that Off is a very cryptic and vague story, and people are able to piece together things from what is presented. He thinks many of the theories are really cool. Even with the small community in the french rpg forum the game started getting really cool theories which made him really happy.

Q: Would you be open to someone remaking the game in a modern take?

He would prefer it not be done.

Q: Any silly fan ideas or head-cannons that you personally consider cannon?

He saw a lot of fan characters and fan ideas that he finds impressive, and his own personal story is not cannonic, and he doesn’t like the “trying to find cannon” way of thinking, anything is cannon. Once you play the game, the story is up to you.

Q: Thoughts on Zacharie being a tumblr sexyman?

It’s funny, there’s lots of sexy drawings of his characters and he was shocked at first, but finds it funny, but some of them are not ok. But mostly funny.

Q: Do you like my roblox cosplay?

Yes, it’s fun.

Part 5: Off-topic

Q: What’s your top 3 favorite sauces?

Archiduc sauce, Pili-Pili sauce, Pepper sauce

Q: Are you working on a new game? How is it going?

New game is called HELP, it’s being made by a team and it’s a sci-fi rpg. It is just at the beginning of production. If you want to help make the game then you can support him on patreon.

Q: Have you ever thought of making another game?

There was a large gap between Off and HELP, because making a game is a lot of work, and HELP is in another engine.

Q: Can we expect any Off references in Vold Vago?

Vold Vago had to be pushed aside for now, he doesn’t have the tools to make it right now. Maybe it will exist in the future or be restarted. But he is more comfortable staying in rpg games for now. And maybe there will be a reference, but probably not, he doesn’t like fanservice.

Q: Have you heard of other popular rpgs like Yume Nikki, Undertale, or Omori?

Yes, He has played the others but not Omori yet.

Q: Would you ever consider taking art commissions?

He did before but he doesn’t have time to do that right now. He has a lot of work to do right now, and he doesn’t see a future where he can.

Q: How much weed you’ll smoke?

He doesn’t smoke or drink.

Q: Have you made other comics similar to Doctor Cataclysm?

Yes, he worked on Star Delivery with Marie Spénale, and is working on other comics.

BONUS QUESTIONS he wanted to include but not answer:

Why is the game called Off when you have to turn on your computer in order to play it?

Does Zacharie know I love him?

Can I hug the batter? (no)

Can Sucre be my wife? (no)

Bye Bye!

#Off 15th Anniversary Stream #Off game #Mortis Ghost

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tothepointofinsanity · 17 days

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I think your drawings really fill in a lot about Sayaka's trauma, the darkness of her experiences, and also how she is performative in terms of how she acts, selectively showing parts of herself only to certain people and waving away to others with a smile despite how she feels. It's similar to Mami, but different — and I think your art also captures that, especially the KyoSaya comic you did, in a beautiful way. Which is not something I often see nor people seem to acknowledge much about her character, so I really appreciate it.

Your style is also very pleasing to the eye, honestly, with defined sketches and colors that pop at you. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it and I adore it.

Please keep posting your artwork.

Ah, I am glad to receive such high praise. 🙇‍♂️ Sayaka is really unpredictable at times because while it’s true that she puts up a tolerating attitude of her troubles, she is highly inconsistent, and would react in anger, diversion, or resignation depending on who gets caught in her bad mood. Since she impulsively accepted the role of a magical girl, compared to veterans like Mami, Kyoko and Homura, she was only beginning to learn how to manage her expectations and feelings around others. And with Mami gone by then, she thinks she can be like her by keeping most of her personal troubles to herself, but that is not how things work, so she ends up being a mess that bottles up grief while still dishing out anger. She becomes progressively worse and she’s aware of it because it’s what drives her to run away, trying to die alone to begin with.

And thank you, I’m glad you like my art style. ^^ I will keep drawing for a long time, hopefully.

#ASKS 💌

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waddlehekk · 8 months

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Can you talk a little more about how Goemon is intended to be mixed race? I read the manga but never picked up on this; was it lost to translation, or is it extremely subtle (or just a headcanon)? Also, do you have any idea why his race was changed in the Pilot film (if it was at all)?

Though it is never outright stated, there are clear details in Goemon's design that I believe are included to suggest he is mixed race, being part Asian since he is still the descendant of the original, Japanese, Ishikawa Goemon, and part something else, which I'm thinking is part White. The themes presented in the Lupin manga and in MP's other manga of racial freedom coincide with this too.

It's important to also understand the context of the themes that surround Goemon's character, being raised under strict Eastern culture, but despite being naïve towards Western culture, he does not reject it in the way his masters do and is even curious about it.

Before I begin, I'd like to make it clear that MP is not the most consistent when it comes to his designs, especially in the earlier manga where he is still working out what he wants of the characters. It doesn't help either that he had to rush to meet deadlines for the manga. With that being said though, I will be focusing on Goemon's consistent character traits that become more concrete in Shin Lupin.

An obvious detail to Manga Goemon's design is his cleft chin. This is usually drawn in more western-like characters (for instance, he draws Yankee from Bakumatsu Yankee with a cleft chin but not Okita), so it's really interesting how MP chooses to show it in Goemon. MP drew it more obvious as time went on, but it did exist since his first appearance.

Also, notice how Goemon's hair is not fully inked black as MP does with other characters. Generally, aside from artwork for promotion of the anime, anime ost album covers, and artwork made after the manga's completion, MP would color Goemon's hair as blonde-ish brown. I've seen people refer to it as possibly being ash blonde, or dirty blonde, but I'm not sure.

I'll post examples below. If you've seen them before, please read the rest of the post! I have a lot more to show.

It's a shame though that in some instances, publishers tried to hide this by recoloring MP's artwork, even if it wasn't meant tor the anime at all. Likely this was done to appeal to the larger amount of fans for the anime, and much of MP's later artwork after the manga's completion would alter other parts of Goemon's design to resemble it too, such as by changing his facial features and removing the pattern on his kimono. If you look closely below, you can see how the publishers weren't perfect at covering it up.

You may have seen how in my other post, with the artwork of the English Conversation book, or in a small amount of MP's other drawings, that Goemon's hair is instead colored as grey, silver, or not colored at all. I think MP tends to do this to save on color, and you can even see this in how his clothing is colored only white and grey.

That's also why though Fujiko appears blonde in the covers of that same book, she is also colored with grey hair in its pages inside of the book. Notice how the color of her dress changed too to save on color.

There's a similar case of Fujiko's hair originally being portrayed as blonde in the manga, but MP coloring it as brown or red in some artwork to match the anime. It didn't seem to be as much of an issue though considering how inconsistent Fujiko's design already was in the anime and early manga, and with how the changing hair color does not suggest as much about Fujiko as it does for Goemon and his race.

Goemon's manga design already does not resemble his anime design, so to make it even more different by having a different hair color would certainly bring more confusion from the anime audience. Goemon in the anime is strongly associated with being Japanese in comparison to the others, so it makes sense why his hair color is not a blonde-brown when MP draws for the anime.

Unlike fully blonde characters like Fujiko though, MP tends to draw Goemon's hair with many lines. I notice that when MP isn't rushing to draw Goemon, he draws certain areas of his hair having more lines condensed together and other areas having empty space.

(This is kind of hard to explain so I hope the drawing below makes it clear)

My own interpretation for why he draws his hair this way is to show areas with more denser lines being a darker brown, while the less dense areas show the lighter blonde parts of his hair.

It's worth noting Jigen's hair gets drawn with lines too, but there are more lines to show how much darker it is, and it also lacks any lighter areas. Perhaps Jigen's hair is still meant to be black, with the lines added to show detail in the strands of his straight hair, but what if it was meant to show color in his hair too?

Part 3, the Lupin anime with character designs that resemble Shin Lupin's the most, makes the decision to color Jigen's hair dark brown to show this, despite it always having been depicted as black in the anime.

But back to Goemon, I've seen a few people believe that maybe his hair is dyed/bleached. I can understand this notion, given that when he is first introduced he is dating Fujiko who seems more knowledgeable in this, and we do know that Goemon is an open-minded person when it comes to new things despite his old-fashioned upbringing. I disagree though, in part because some of the more detailed color drawings of him give me the impression it is natural. His sideburns also appear to have color in some close-ups of them.

There is something that he cannot change, however, and that is his eye color. It also happens to share the same color as his hair, more proof that his hair color is natural.

If you look at this magazine cover, you can see everyone's eyes colored in as black, but MP specifically did not do that for Goemon. Perhaps he wanted this detail about Goemon to stand out to readers.

There are many smaller details too, like his fluffy hair that curls at the ends, and his body hair.

And I can't forget the sideburns either. Though having sideburns obviously isn't a genetic trait, it's more western-like design that MP uses. The point of Goemon having sideburns may be to help you picture a more western person from him.

Compare all this to Anime Goemon, who has straight black hair and smaller eyes with black pupils, no sideburns, no body hair, and a regular chin. There is a very different intention between what the 2 characters are attempting to portray, and it's obvious when you look at them side to side. These different intentions are the reason why the anime is so stubborn when it comes to incorporating parts of Manga Goemon's design.

You may be wondering, is it unusual that Monkey Punch would make a character like this?

Not at all!

We know for sure Lupin is mixed too.

"I don't need a passport because the whole Earth is my country!!"

"Everywhere on this Earth is my home, even the middle of the ocean."

The character Inspector John Starmow, who admits to Fujiko that his childhood memories are filled with him being bullied by both other children and adults because he has Indian blood in him.

MP's other work, "Western Samurai"

And of course, MP's "Bakumatsu Yankee"

Looking at the designs of the two friends, it almost seems like Goemon is a hybrid of the two that each represent the East and the West. Okita's fully inked in hair and Yankee's hair with hardly any lines, while Goemon has hair drawn with many lines. Also, Goemon's face resembles Okita's, but he has a chin like Yankee. A little off-topic but I've always thought that Goemon's personality was a mesh between the two: Okita's cheerful attitude and Yankee's calm demeanor.

Now onto the rest of your question, why was this not carried into the Pilot?

If you haven't read my old post, please do read it as it explains my theory on why Manga Goemon was not adapted to the anime, and how Anime Goemon was created: https://www.tumblr.com/waddlehekk/711176903837483008/a-theory-on-the-creation-of-anime-goemon-and-why?source=share

Essentially though, the Pilot and Part 1 very clearly wanted a fully Japanese character out of Goemon to clash with the rest of the cast who are very American.

In the Pilot, Goemon is portrayed with a much darker skin tone rather than being very pale like he is in the Part 1 and nearly every portrayal onwards. Additionally, Mystery of Mamo pushes against Part 1's famously established design, bringing back Goemon's original skin tone and also changing the color of his hair to a dark brown.

At first I thought this dark color was chosen so that the artists could show lighting in Goemon's hair and give it detail, and that therefore it was still meant to be black, but even looking closer his eyebrows were colored too. Fujiko, the only other member of the gang that doesn't have black hair in this movie, is also the only other one to have colored eyebrows.

I read a post recently saying that he's mixed because of this, but to be honest, I disagree. There are many people in Japan with the standards that being very fair-skinned and having black hair is what makes you beautiful, but that doesn't mean all Japanese people are just born like this, and some even try to hide it. If anything, I think the reason why Goemon is depicted like this to go against these beauty standards and show that Goemon is still just as much a good representation of a Japanese samurai. The teams still wanted to depict a message about racial freedom in Goemon, and I think this is in part why the Pilot and Mamo understand the tone of the manga much better than other adaptations.

On a final note, I'd like to add that if Manga Goemon is supposedly mixed, and these themes do exist throughout MP's manga, why not then see characters like Jigen, Fujiko, and Zenigata as being just as racially ambiguous? For all we know, Lupin and Goemon could be a combination of more than what I've said here. I'd love to hear any headcanons.

#lupin iii #goemon ishikawa xiii #monkey punch #manga #lupin the third #原ゴエ #shin lupin #lupin iii manga #sorry for the long wait #life is getting kinda busy for me rn #you can tell i was really fighting with the image limit lol #manga goe is so cool i love him

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bookshopsbizarreblog · 5 months

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I haven't seen anyone else talking about this, so I suppose I'll take the plunge. At the risk of being overly critical, Hilda S3 E3 "The Giant Slayer" felt a little sloppy to me. Or at least, underdeveloped. Don't get me wrong, I do really like the overall story of that episode. it offered some unique set pieces and opened the possibility of a Hildaverse, as well as teaching us a little bit more about Wood Man. But there were a bunch of things that just rubbed me the wrong way a little. I'm not going to go into all of them here since I don't want this post to be about negativity, but it all culminated with a few frames towards the end of the episode. It looked like part of the story board just wasn't erased, and it is floating prominently right above Wood Man.

Now, I don't know enough to speculate about time crunches or production budgets or sloppy editing or whatever else. It could just be a single honest mistake in an otherwise fantastic season. When I first saw it, I thought it was probably just a feature of me having watched it all on the first day and it would be spotted and edited out soon afterwards. But it is still there today.

In retrospect, there's also a number of other little animation inconsistencies that popped up. The biggest one was that the framerate wasn't always consistent. Key example, towards the start of E8 "The Fairy Isle," it drops substantially when Hilda, Frida, and David start walking towards Tofoten. It's a little jarring and returns to normal right afterwards with Astrid's knitting.

Those errors don't really detract from the overall story and might be a little nitpicky, but it really felt like S3 was dropped before it was completely finished. Like there wasn't time to draw some of the in-between frames and scrub through the series for leftover artifacts from the production process. And when combined with some of the plot lines and character choices feeling a little off, I don't know. It just makes me feel a little bit sad.

There's not really anything that can or likely will be done at this point, especially as Hilda is tragically underappreciated and any errors are almost undoubtedly the fault of Netflix not giving it the support it needed. And if this is the last foray we will have into Hilda's amazing animated world, I don't want its memory to be tarnished at all by me fretting over tiny things that could have been better. But these things have been nagging at me since it released, and I needed to get them off my chest.

#hilda #hilda the series #hilda netflix #hilda season 3 #the woodman hilda #hilda spoilers #hilda season 3 spoilers #hilda s3 #hilda s3 spoilers

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sunlit-mess · 2 months

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i’ve been a fan your art since your mcyt days on twt and i’ve only stumbled upon your tumblr recently because of your hazbin hotel art but can i just say that i ADORE your art style!especially the way you draw characters and their expressions!!

MCYT era was my prime in art! ♡ It was fun but ever since I got so many hate from the old account I completely deleted it (even if my reach is high) and stopped drawing again altogether. It took a while and got busy, until I found myself drawing little by little w a shittier process in art, Idk what was happening with my style but then I found that I really just like it cartoony. I miss those days where I draw productively, filled with colors and such.

So HAHAHA I'm glad you still like my art style regardless of how inconsistent it may be!

#messyr #and i mostly hop fandom to fandom #but honestly i never leave an interest- im a closeted geek with obsessions #i mostly lurk quietly in the internet though

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 11 months

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Any idea about how the timeline of TWST would even look??? With the events, vignettes and Books?

Like, actual dates and such? I saw some comments saying that Yana confirmed that all begins in late September, but you can’t be serious that Riddle recovered that quickly from a OB.

Is okay if you don’t respond. Just, trying to get stuff in order here

Hi, let me start off by saying that, in regards to book 1, it does indeed take place in late September (as Yana herself has stated). On the subject of Overblots, all of the OB boys (Riddle included) revert back to their normal forms after they are defeated in battle. That (I guess) technically counts as recovery, doesn't it (since they're no longer in their OB forms)? I'm assuming that the OB students are not immediately sentenced back to classwork (where they may be putting themselves in further danger by exerting their bodies to use more magic). They're probably put in a probation period and/or monitored closely before they're given the clearance to go back to using magic. After all, it usually only takes regular rest, meals, and relaxing to restore one's magic and to ease away blot. Now, about the rest of the ask!! I won't be putting together a timeline. It would be a different matter entirely if I was being asked to just do this for the main story and maybe events (a lot of events, especially sequels or birthdays, could be lumped into the same general time frames), but all vignettes as well? That's where I draw the line. Right now, there are over 100 vignettes in Twisted Wonderland, and it's simply NOT feasible to comb through each one individually and seek out context clues for when the vignettes may be happening. Not only that, but I know for a fact that not every vignette will have clues about when they are taking place. I'm sorry, but no one has the time to do that, certainly not me 💦

Frankly, putting together a single comprehensive timeline for TWST is an impossible task. I know that there's been many fans who have tried their hand at this (and I applaud them for their efforts! It's nothing to sneeze at), but it's just not able to be feasibly done. There is no arrangement which neatly puts everything together in a way that makes total sense. (It would also be a VERY chaotic year if all the TWST content that has been released so far happened in the span of less than one year in which the main story occurs.) There will always be inconsistencies in how the characters act or what other details are referenced which will contradict where they are placed in the timeline. (For example, why is Epel friendly with Vil during the Halloween events in autumn when Epel didn't get his character development and learn to respect Vil until book 7 in like... early spring? It cannot be the Halloween after book 5 because Vil would be gone on his internship.) This is also an issue that the TWST devs themselves have, so Yana Toboso basically came out and said that vignettes and events happen in their own alternate timelines separate from that of the main story. (For example, Fairy Gala: If isthe event that is most obviously an alternate retelling of the original Fairy Gala; if this event were occurring after the other, the characters would be commenting on “why is this happening again”.)

At best, you'll be able to guess season, months, or general spans of time; there are rarely concrete dates granted (excluding birthdays, Halloween, Sam's New Year Sale, and/or NRC Founding Day/Anniversary). I also want to note that a lot of people tend to assume the Ceremonial Robes vignettes are all set before the entrance ceremony, but this is not necessarily true as we have outliers like Deuce’s vignettes which indicate he is wearing his robes for a special ceremony other than the opening one.

I would recommend researching yourself, maybe looking into timelines other people have made for fun. Just don't get too caught up in the technicalities and please be aware that the "perfect" and "contradiction-free" TWST timeline does not exist.

#twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst en #twisted wonderland en #advice #notes from the writing raven #question #Riddle Rosehearts #Epel Felmier #Vil Schoenheit #Deucr Spade

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fairygeek777 · 7 months

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In my personal and 100% valid opinion

Aside from actual motion of the characters, the og Crystal artsyle was beautiful and very closely resembled Naoko Takeuchi's artstyle.

The problem was the lack of consistency. The artsyle in seasons 1 and 2 is highly detailed as is Takeuchi's artsyle. But this isn't very ideal with animation. However, I think if handled *better* it could've been an absolutely beautiful anime.

I know that I talk about how season 3 vastly improved the anime, and it did. But it also made it feel less familiar. The style and movement feels less like Sailor Moon. I've never watched the Precure series but the artstyle is like crazy similar to that anime. It's cute but I don't know if it works too well.

That includes the transformation animations. There is some nice work with glitter and spotlights, shininess and whatnot. Nothing to say about the inner and outer senshi sequences since they're remakes of the classic ones. But in Sailor Moon's case, she has a unique one each time. (At least up to episode 32-ish) and how to put this... Usagi's s3 transformation sequence animation is *jarring* there's like- too much exaggeration. And tbh I don't like it at all.

So going back to season 1, the CG that I've talked about before? Yea its jarring too if you're not expecting it. However its also really beautiful. Specifically Usagi's sequence!

Look. At. The. Camera. Angles!!! Like the focus on her hands (which is a consistency in this anime) and the use of panning! Especially in the Tiara shot how it revolves around her as the beams light up from her forehead. It's just so pretty!

And the other recurring clips are really nice too!

Look at the arch that Usagi's arm makes as she performs her signature intro! I love looking at this scene everytime for that part! And the timing with raising her arms before quickly bringing them down as she says "Oshiokyo!" (or "I'll punish you" in dub) Those are things that this clip do better than every other version of this iconic gesture.

And then here, the camera angles again are on point. And the forshortening on her hand is just *chef's kiss*

And something I just wanted to mention, Makoto looks gorgeous in some of these shots from s1 and s2. The artstyle is like perfect for her.

Moving on now, I wanna touch on Eternal. In terms of quality, Eternal is easily my favorite. The character pallets are accurate, and the character animation is excellent.

However. In terms of matching Naoko's artstyle, well it doesn't. Its an homage to the 90s anime. They even recreate the transformation sequence animations for Usagi. Things like the character's hair having less strands and detail. Actually there's less detail in general. But the eye highlights match the manga pretty well. I mean it all works. I could endlessly rant about all I love from Eternal because literally the only issues I've found are with the pacing of the whole thing. I've seen people say that the characters are still really expressionless. I personally don't see that? But like its a valid opinion when comparing it to the 90s anime they were clearly honoring.

I would have loved to see the outer Senshi in the s1 artsyle. Specifically Michiru. One of the things I love about the way Naoko draws her is her flowing gorgeous wavy hair. And she draws it fairly long. Past her shoulders and sometimes longer.

Crystal s3 her debut season, usually drew her hair as long as it should be. And she looked as gorgeous as her manga counterpart. But then Eternal came, and Michiru's character design more resembled the 90s anime. And no offense, but I hate her 90s anime hair. She always looks like someone awkwardly chopped her hair right at her shoulders. Its just not nearly as pretty as she should be designed. Eternal did a mix of the two. Its still pretty but also inconsistent. Because in some scenes it has the choppy look. So yea I'd love to see Michiru and all the other characters in the s1 artsyle. I know it will never happen but still wanna see it.

This is my long winded way of saying I am in the minority and love Crystal seasons 1 and 2 for all its faults and successes. It really had amazing potential to be absolutely beautiful and a big win for shojo anime. If only the time and care was put into the show as a whole and not only certain individual frames or clips.

Because there's some really fricken great sh*t if you look long enough!!

#sailor moon #pretty guardian sailor moon #sailor moon crystal appreciation #manga #anime #sailor moon eternal

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torithehoshi · 6 months

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CCCC Digital Doodle Dump - Oct 2023

Right - bear with me. Due to the sheer amount of digital doodles I have (and yes, I am emphasizing digital for a reason) and the amount of thoughts I have didn't make posting them separately feel right so I'm trying a different format for this.

The TLDR is, I had a lot of fun drawing CCCC related things last month. And y'all may as well be prepared for the long-run with me. My main goal was to get used to drawing HMS in my style (mostly hair and little design things based on my interpretations) and it's still something that'll be changing? But it's cool to see how things have changed and I'd like to share them.

Right - with that out of the way. Everything's under the Read More due to the sheer amount of text.

Second First attempt at drawing the trio in my style - and you can especially tell with the little notes I have (trust me - there's a version with even more notes).

A lot of my references were from the videos, especially Light & Night as well as the instrumental album cover, and fan interpretations I've seen that I liked and wanted to give a shot at (primarily Mind's mechanical hands/arms were from seeing @/maybedr3am's design) and some of my own interpretations or thoughts (but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those mixes with fan interpretations. Most of them I can't recall for the life of me except Heart having sharp teeth. I know others have done it - I just hadn't at the time seen a lot). But for the most part, there is a lot of me getting used to drawing hair specifically since I wanted them all to look somewhat different and it was good to practice that.

Some of these notes do not make sense to me right now - and I doubt they made sense at the time tbh (looking at that one near Soul)

While I much preferred starting primarily going off of the videos, Mind was an exception. ...Accidentally. I struggled really hard with him and still do so that note is funny in hindsight. I liked the robot/android-esque (?) angle/reference to 'mechanical hands' folks went with but forgot I don't draw robots much. It was frustrating me and in that time, I gave him snake bites to, as I say in the notes, mirror screws. ... And now they're just part of my Mind design because I like them too much.

Also!! I mentioned that I have a version with a lot more notes (and a different attempt at Mind I hated). I didn't really want a bunch of doodles of my sona around, so this version is for somewhat easier reading. It also left me with extra space for one more thing and I was listening to Dream so, a doodle based off the last verse it was! (I love that song, it's so good)

Second one which is a compilation of a bunch of different doodle sheets I did!! These are ones I really liked and also were mostly finished. But also each of the sheets (which is an amalgamation of three) were done at different times which you can see in my indecisiveness in what I liked in making Mind look more robotic bar just the arms and the one doodle where the hair sticking a top of Heart's head changes.

Soul, surprisingly, changes very little bar me not being able to decide if he'll have that accessory or not. Also me being stupid inconsistent with remembering to color in his hands (his whole body has that split color).

Anyways - like three of these are meme/shitpost adjacent. You'll also see me trying to think about how to incorporate the crown to Mind's design since I hadn't really tried - but I've since moved it to post-Cacophony or post-Light design ideas/headcanons. I like the hairpin idea a lot. (Note: In this headcanon, Heart also has something but it's a bracelet and... there's a lack of hands in this so... yeah. Mind made it) Also me doing a thing I like to just give random new outfits when drawing a character and... Heart's the one I had the most fun drawing.

The only completely separate one! Mostly 'cause I already had it set to be separate.

It's a height headcanon thing I drew to visualize things for myself since I'm not the best with height. All it is, is that I think they're all the same height based off of what CJ said in the Medium Q&A. But then you have little details like Mind wearing platform shoes that basically make him 6'0" and Soul slouching a lot making him "the shortest". (Also hi completely human Mind design)

This was also originally done on the same doodle sheet where the "Fuck it we ball" one was on btw. Time wise, that was before I started changing how I drew the little hair sticking out on Heart's head which - speaking of...

Despite still drawing them interacting, I started to make clip files to practice drawing them on their own. I was already kind of doing that traditionally and I thought this would be a good way to get me to focus on one of the members. Especially since drawing with my tablet pen and pencil feels different but especially with these three.

Also - focusing on them individually felt like a good way to get used to how I draw them overall. I have one for Soul and Mind now, but not at the time. Idk if I'll share more of those later unless I can format them like actual reference sheets.

Fundamentally, this serves the same purpose as the first sheet. Trying out a bunch of things, just letting my hand... draw and seeing what I like and don't. Maybe even noting some little actions that I see myself drawing them doing (like the hands balled up in fists a lot). Also! It explains why I changed the shape of the hair at the top! I think the heart shape is cute - but as I did it more, I found with me trying to make his bangs look like a heart... just for me and my style specifically, it started to feel much. But then I had another idea in making it a bit more cartoon-y, which was the kind of circle/halo shape to create an angel motif and it fit well with how I see Heart. So that's how it is now!

It's actually fascinating seeing that I suddenly started changing how I drew his hair? I started this after making this for the record (which now I remember - I referenced these), and something just... changed. I don't like it considering I was actively trying to draw curls. I have a better grasp on it now though - I think.

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Anyways - that's everything! Uh - thanks for reading all my ramblings if you did. I have no idea if I'll format any future art dumps/doodle dumps like this again but we'll see. Doing this made me notice both advantages and disadvantages to this so... It'll really depend if I have the same amount to say, haha.

#Chonny Jash #Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium #CJ Heart #CJ Mind #CJ Soul #Tori's Doodles of Mellarky #Tori types things #I think in terms of advantages and disadvantages specifically...#You can see what I like. Default to when I doodle #But honestly if you've seen enough of my doodles it's probably already clear #It's probably why I wind up not sharing a lot of them but I think my progress with this was interesting #so having it all in one post is at least neat for me in the future #I think this blog serves well to be a bit of a journal as well

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with-love-from-hell · 2 years

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Hi...I hope you don't mind I ask on anon. I've been reading for awhile and have seen you mention the brothers' trauma processing a couple times...could you expand on that in headcanon form? I'm really excited to see your take as someone who's also just starting to learn about trauma.

YAY I'm glad someone finally asked! I will go off so bare with me this will be a longer set of headcanons (also sorry this took so long, the past few weeks have been really tough. It took me forever to write these out lol).

The Brothers’ (+ Simeon) Trauma Responses

Genre: Headcanons, Character Analysis, Angst?

Characters Featured: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor, Simeon

CW: spoilers for lessons 16+, discussion of trauma and trauma responses, grammar errors likely

Author Note: The reason I am writing for this is because I have a clinical background in Psychology and Trauma is one of my areas of specialty. As someone with trauma as well, I couldn’t help but think about the brothers’ reactions to the fall and the war, especially with how it relates to their sins. This is something I have had floating around my game when playing ever since I started about a year ago. Hope you all enjoy!

Belphie

Belphie primarily responds to the trauma of the fall and losing his sister with resentment. He holds a deeply-rooted feeling of contempt for humans, and resorts to blaming them for everything rather than accepting the loss and his sister’s autonomy to make her own choices. The hostility he feels toward humans leads him down a destructive and spiteful path, where he is determined to do anything and everything to enact revenge- which he succeeds in, obviously.

However, throughout the canon game, we see him shuck off most responsibility for his actions. Before killing Mc, Belphie is insistent that his actions are the fault of humans, rather than taking ownership of the way he feels and behaves. Even after “making amends” with Mc, his ownership of his own feelings and actions is pretty piss poor, and in future Devilgrams and events, can be inconsistent. He flips back and forth between telling Mc how he actually feels, and burying his emotions so that resentment builds.

Overall I feel like a lot more could be done with his character in this regard- especially in his relationship with Lucifer, Diavolo, and Mc- but ya know. Its a dating sim, they aren’t gonna spend much time on that lol. My own headcanon for Belphie is when he “makes amends” with Mc, he becomes frustrated with the fact that they still aren’t as close to him as his brothers, and he also feels jealous of the way his brothers will spend more time with them than him. I feel like the hatred of humans wouldn’t just vanish at the snap of someone’s fingers, so there may still be some deep-rooted biases he will have to address, and some unpacking of his tendency to shove his emotions down in order for Mc to have a relationship with him ((I did a small drabble with these components)).

I would also believe he would eventually have to actually atone for what he’s done in other ways as well, be that guided by Mc’s emotions and distancing from him, or by Beel or Mammon. I think that eventually, once he gets past the jealousy, the guilt and shame for his actions would set in, and would also make him begin to act out in anger, just as the jealousy had. This is something I have seen in a lot of fics, and I definitely share this headcanon. I’m sure the guilt eats him alive inside, and I can also imagine Belphie eventually drawing some sort of trauma from killing Mc, especially after they become closer ((I think specifically of the fic where the brothers relive Mc’s worst memories of them)). Belphie’s guilt also manifests as isolation and fatigue, relating heavily to the sin he holds.

Beel

Beel’s primary response to everything that happened is a greater sense of guilt and shame. Beel feels 100% responsible for everything, and even states this multiple times throughout the game - especially in the arc where Mc is forming a pact with him. He insists that if he had been a bit quicker, maybe he could have saved both Lilith and Belphie- but we all know that this isn’t true. Beel feels a strong sense of urgency to protect his remaining family- especially Belphie- as he seems to feel that’s the only thing he can contribute to the family unit. As the protectorate, Beel needs to have strength and energy to fight against threats, which the devs end up pushing as his primary character traits: that of constantly eating and working out.

After Belphie is freed from the attic (in the original time line), Beel’s response is to immediately take Belphie’s side, again acting as the protectorate. He also pulls Mc along side him, insisting that Lucifer’s upset over them meeting Belphie puts them in danger. Beel is torn after this point, feeling betrayed by the eldest brother, which we know he is also very close to next to Belphie. In the alternate timeline, Beel’s response is that of hopelessness and again, guilt, because he failed to protect Mc from Belphie’s wrath.

We also get a bit of glimpses of Beel experiencing denial about Belphie’s emotions and demeanor after the fall, and even throughout the interactions with his brothers. He is often seen minding his own business during fights/arguments, as if everything is totally fine. We also hear him say to Mc that “Belphie would really like them” and vice versa, when we all know that Belphie was very vocal about his hatred of humans since the fall, and even moreso after Diavolo announced the exchange program.

Asmo

For Asmo, his title of “Jewel of the Celestial Realm” was difficult for him to give up. In turn, he developed his sin by trying to uphold that title in Devildom despite now being a demon. For him, the ability to maintain control over how he is perceived by others is so important that it often supersedes his relationships with his brothers, and comes across in the form of vanity. Underneath Asmo’s beauty lies insecurity about everything- the war, his relationships, his likeability beyond his appearance, etc- and he manages this by trying to gain more and more control over his appearance- engaging in more elaborate beauty routines until it takes up a majority of his time.

This is displayed in many arguments between him and his other brothers- namely Mammon. I theorize this is because Asmo sees Mammon as competition. He is obviously just as beautiful, and has his own contracts as a model. Because of this, I’m sure it feeds into Asmo’s insecurity. I imagine the vanity he experiences is a cover for his deeper fears- and one of them I can see as being alone.

Obviously, his sin comes in as the form of hypersexuality. I can see how it began as primarily a coping mechanism, but evolved into something he does enjoy. However, I do think he uses his sexual prowess as a way to cover true emotions, hiding the fear behind letting people too close and then abandoning him like the others in the Celestial Realm did when he and his brothers fell. This also makes sense why he does and says things that keeps his brothers at arms length, and then experiences regret and becomes extra affectionate to reel them back in.

Satan

While Satan doesn’t have direct links to trauma from the war or to the Celestial Realm, he does have remnants of Lucifer’s memories, which is part of the reason why their processing of anger is very similar. For Satan though, his response appears as more resentment in game- particularly toward the trauma of being formed from Lucifer’s wrath. Obviously, this trope is leaned into very hard by the devs, and often Mc is forced to mediate arguments between Satan and Lucifer and try to manage Satan’s crippling fears of just being a carbon copy of his brother.

I headcanon that Satan deals with this in a variety of ways. Primarily, his emotions related to this sore subject come out as anger. However, Satan has many insecurities related to being treated like a monster just because of that reputation, and his efforts to be part of the social elites proves he is making a conscious effort to re-form his image. In some sense, this is how he takes back control. Satan also strives to be different from Lucifer, the attempts at being seen as someone else bordering at obsessive. I headcanon that Satan’s natural hair is black, and he dyes it blonde (a starkly contrasting color) in order to be perceived differently. Also, the obvious ones in games that are leaned into are Satan is more into reading whereas Lucifer is more into Music, Satan is more into cats and Lucifer is more into dogs, etc. This desire to be different continues to fuel his resentment, and there are points in game where it clearly boils over.

I think one of the other parts of this is the fear of being abandoned, which is why Satan tends to be more aloof than his brothers (outside of Levi) and why he makes so many different connections with others. He is known to have many different acquaintances- and that’s why his relationship with Mc is so starkly impactful. His fears result in him pushing everyone away, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts where he doesn’t have to fear abandonment if there is no one close who could abandon him, and this is clearly shown whenever Mc spends time with Lucifer over him. He gets very jealous and possessive after any interaction they have with him, as displayed in a few chats.

Levi

For Levi, already having insecurity about being needed in the Celestial Realm was bad enough. After the fall, this insecurity manifests worse and results in him isolating from everyone- including his brothers. The negative, intrusive thoughts he experiences about himself wrack him with anxiety whenever he has to leave his room, and it gets worse if he has to interact with anyone other than his brothers. He finds comfort in material possessions and fictional characters, as they wont judge him like real people do.

Levi’s obsession with anime and video games can be seen in both a healthy and unhealthy light. On one hand, he has things to keep his time occupied, and his interests greatly comfort his insecurities. Further, having something for him to call “his” amongst his brothers is great! It makes him unique and there’s nothing wrong with that. On the other hand though, his interests in and of themselves create another insecurity for him, resulting in him feeling further “othered” by his belongings. Levi also struggles with assigning a form of irrational sentience to the things he enjoys (particularly Ruri-chan and the bands he is a frequent listener of)- and what I mean by that is he feels a source of failure if he isn’t “#1″ in their fanbase- as if he’s “disappointing” them. So ultimately, his strength and weakness are one in the same. And in my headcanon, I see him as forming some sort of attachment to the material possessions he has, and seeing them as more “friends” than “items,” which makes it difficult for him to part with them (which I suppose is less of a headcanon and more of a canon thats just not explicitly stated, but implied...but oh well).

Levi finds it hard to connect with others in real life as a result of this. His disconnection from other people- including his brothers- result in relationships with people online- where he can hide behind a screen and a fake username to avoid what he could only assume to be ridicule and extreme judgement from others. Once meeting Mc, he has a chance to mend relationships with his brothers and slowly come out of hiding, but as we see throughout the main lessons, it takes a lot of time.

Mammon

Mammon’s trauma takes on probably the most obvious form given how much we are bombarded with his personality in game right off the bat- that being compulsive risk-taking. The clear addiction he has to gambling as a result of his greed- no matter how much he loses- is repeatedly emphasized in game. The resulting financial deficits lead him to more unsavory tactics of repayment, such as theft, which the devs also heavily lean on. Another is his difficulty in concentrating, which is especially emphasized in the anime and at some points in the game, which makes school work difficult.

However, one of the traits seen less so, but is still canon, is Mammon’s need to protect others despite all of these difficulties with compulsive risk taking and inabilities in concentrating. Despite it all, he tries hard to do good upon his brothers and Mc when they need him, which he passes off as “not a huge deal” because he sees affection as a weakness- which could either be attributed to lessons on gender rolls taught in the celestial realm or what he has learned from Lucifer- at least in my headcanon. Even with Mc, he does things for them and truly does try to protect them throughout the game, even though he ridicules them constantly.

One of the other things I headcanon about Mammon is that he has a lot of insecurity surrounding being “good enough” that I definitely think started in the celestial realm as a result of Michael’s punishments. I feel like Mammon definitely has a lot of feelings of inadequacy compared to Lucifer and not meeting his brother’s expectations- and this often results in him trying to be distant from his brothers (and initially Mc). With this insecurity comes the fear of being abandoned by others (similar to a few of his other brothers) and having intimacy taken away, which is why he grows more distant when Mc has to leave in season 2.

Lucifer

Second only to Mammon, Lucifer’s trauma takes a very transparent form: control. We see this very clearly in how he covers up for his brothers antics and doles out his own punishments to them rather than letting them face the natural consequences of their actions- namely Mammon. Presumably, given Lucifer is said to have a “soft spot” for the second oldest, Mammon would be in a significant amount of trouble if his debt ever caught up to him, but we never really see true consequences of this in game other than when he owes money to his witch associates in the human world- as Lucifer has no control over the favors he owes to them (and we see this in the “Masked” Halloween event where they send the cursed masks and threaten him to repay his debts. It is also presumed he keeps many of these dealings hidden from Lucifer’s eye).

Lucifer’s need for control seems, to me, to come from a place of fear. In my headcanon at least, I see his control coming from a need to prevent harm from coming to his family- and I know many others in the fandom would agree. For himself, that would be fear of losing honor more-so than he already has. Its no coincidence that Lucifer’s strict obedience plays through his fall as he transitions to Diavolo’s right hand man. Lucifer was- and has always been- a good ally to have, given his skills at organizing, planning, and ability to follow through. After the fall though, his guilt about betraying his former values would eat away at him, so he upholds them as best he can in his newly-acquired demon form. He is organized, loyal, and skillful in his delegating, and his instinct to go for punishment of his brothers is no coincidence. Part of it, yes, is upholding his own image. But a deeper part of this comes from the fear of losing more family than he already had during the war and his eventual fall. His ability to fully trust others is very miniscule, and we see this in his initial interactions with MC in season 1, all the way up until the body-switching dilemma.

As Mc’s bond grows with all the brothers, it heals a peace of them that holds onto these trauma responses- and the most stark change I feel comes from Lucifer. You can clearly tell which devilgrams were made in the first season with how he acts, and which ones are reflective of his character in Season 3 and 4, and even at the end of season 2. Lucifer becomes more merciful in a lot of his dealings with his brothers, because Mc’s presence (and everything that occurs in game with them) begins to make him more keenly aware of how little control he actually has over things, and moves him to a place of acceptance, which is why he was so willing to sacrifice himself during season 2 to save his family. He knew he is their primary source of safety, and in sacrificing himself he would only be able to guarantee that as long as they stayed out of trouble from then on (which we all know is unlikely). Season 1 Lucifer would not have hesitated to kill Mc in cold blood to protect his family, but his inability to even see it as an option in only season 2 shows stark character growth. And as we continue to see him set his walls down with his affection, it only furthers that point.

I relate to Lucifer’s need to control heavily, and perhaps that’s why he’s my favorite character. I truly loved seeing his growth and depth as a character throughout the game. I honestly could go on more about the need for control and the 5 trauma responses, but that can be more of an education-y thing if people want to know more about them!

Simeon

For Simeon, I know a lot of how I see his responses are theoretical headcanons since we don’t see *too* much of it in game, though I will preface this by saying Hey, there are spoilers for season 4 ahead. So read at your own discretion.

Simeon is displayed throughout the game as a very docile, simple angel, but we know from the Hard Lesson extra scenes that Diavolo doesn’t care for him given his passive-aggressiveness that he can display, particularly when irritated or annoys- and therein lies my headcanon that Simeon’s response was more of a passive, people-pleasing one. Simeon is often a mediator whenever we see him involved in some sort of conflict, and often takes on the role of ensuring that everyone is happy- especially if it involves Luke. His detest for conflict, in my mind, stems from the Celestial War in which he had to choose between the entire Celestial Realm, or seven of his brothers and one sister. In the end, the passive route that would denote the least amount of guilt for him won over, and that is something that festers still a significant amount of guilt, particularly when he comes to Devildom for the exchange program, and we often see this coming out as small, petty one-shots at Diavolo or some snide remarks.

I also feel that Simeon��s character development beyond people pleasing is slow-building, but the traits still remain in his relationship with Mc. He says and does things to get them to express their feelings back to him- and even stealing the ring of light seemed to have that motive in mind. Part of the reason why I depict him in the way that I did with Vermillion Skies and Melancholia is not because I hate him, but because I wanted to depict this character trait ultimately failing him when the “pleased” response from the people he’s aiming to fawn for doesn’t come, and the despair and disappointment that comes along with it. I love Simeon so much, and I hope for so much more development with him, along with the other brothers we haven’t seen much of yet.

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If y'all want further in depth conversations about characters and trauma and stuff, my ask box is always open. I always have thoughts about this stuff and I enjoy deeper conversations about trauma. I like putting my degrees to use outside of my job, and psychoanalyzing fictional characters is right up my alley lmfao.

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