#i love fantasy lands

[inkyami]

Return to the Golden Lands! A spread for the upcoming sequel to a slavic fantasy novel “Look, our garden is dying”

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[healthydoseofhedonism]

"sandra lynn has incomprehensible taste" wrong! there are patterns and logic to her dating history

[e-adlirez]

The art style of Cloud Castle is absolute ass bro why are their eyes so big

Idk man it just looks.... off

I wish they brought back the og art style like Blue Scarab Hunt because that was gorgeous

Well if you’re referring to the book's artstyle as a whole, then calm down buddy the illustrations as a whole are pretty good all things considered (believe me some of the illustrations in the later books are waaaaayyyyy iffier)

But if you are referring to Danilo Barozzi’s illustrations in the book then uhhhhh… yeah I don’t blame you, I didn’t like the big anime irises either, she didn’t cook with this one,,,

The interesting thing is Barozzi also did pieces for Secret of the Snow and those looked fine (she did well enough that I have to squint to determine which ones were done by her). My guess is either she did a lot of the illustrations for the latter half of SotS and we just got used to it, or it’s because the artstyle of special editions 2 and 3 were more… experimental? Books 4 onwards developed a very specific… look for the artstyle that adhered very closely to the main book illustrations of Spanish Dance Mission onwards, thus the illustrators had to follow suit, resulting in whatever looks off to look especially off.

(Even with this set of pictures, I’m only about 70% sure these are Barozzi’s because of how alike yet different the styles are from each other in the book. The first one could be Barozzi’s, but it could also be Giuseppe Facciotto’s, since he also did illustrations for SotS and his stylization means he sometimes puts the eyes really close to each other in a way that’s weird but still makes sense somehow.) On the contrary, books 2 and 3 (and I would probably even include book 1 there) had a more experimental look to the illustrations, which seems to be based more on (and this is just a theory of mine) Giuseppe Facciotto’s iconic work for the covers of Mouseford Academy books 2-12, 14, 15 and 17 in the English books (he did waaayyy more covers for the Italian Mouseford books— he was basically the cover guy for the Mouseford books for a WHILE) as well as the books from Spanish Dance Mission to Lost Letters. If you’re wondering why those covers go as hard as they do, then now you know why.

(These aren’t all of Facciotto’s works for the covers we know in English but you can see that he popped off <3)

But yeah as you can see with special editions 2 and 3, the art direction seems to be heavily inspired by Facciotto’s artstyle.

However, when Barbara Pellizzari’s works became the aesthetic poster child of the books’ brand, that was reflected in the illustrations and how their aesthetic changed, as seen in the main books and how they look currently, special editions 4-9, and the Treasure Seekers trilogy.

This new profile thing of the girls? This was done by Pellizzari (coloring was done by Flavio Ferron), and thus it became the main reference for how the girls look in the book’s illustrations.

And it’s not just in the general direction to the artists for how to draw the Thea Sisters, but also in the direction given to the colorists. Alessandro Muscillo was the colorist for the special edition books since book 1 and the Treasure Seekers trilogy, and you can see that the direction for the style varied through books 1-3, like maybe direction was experimenting with the mood the illustrations were to convey, beginning with the cartoony and bright colors of book 1, easing into the more grounded and layered palettes of books 2 and 3

Then book 4 was when they transitioned to using digital art /j

I jest, but seriously book 4 was the debut of the coloring style we end up keeping for the rest of the special editions and for all of Treasure Seekers, which is very… bright :D

(I would show more picture examples but I manually took pictures of my physical copies for the Cloud Castle and SotS illustrations and gwuh I’m too lazy to grab my entire collection just to take pictures,,)

Bright as in like… the colors are very defined and saturated. I dunno how to describe it, but when you see it, you get what I mean. It’s very bright and pretty and colorful and it stands out. There are still variations that happen on occasion (Star Fairies in particular uses a good dose of airbrush for the lighting and shadow effects, and Crystal Fairies looks like someone had a bit of fun using sparkle brushes), but other than that, it’s very bright. I don’t hate it, but I do acknowledge that yeah, if I was introduced to the series when it had fully transitioned to the new style, I never would’ve gotten into the series in the first place, because the older books had something that didn’t make it feel specifically catered to girls. The colors were bright, but not too bright. Colorful, but unified. They weren’t that complicated, and they didn’t have to be because the colorists (plural, there were at least 3 per book once upon a time) were popping the hell off with the colors they were given. But y’know, the newer books’ consistent style did give me a good spot to practice drawing mouse furries so I’m not complaining too much about the newer style, haha.

(Tiny baby E’s (it’s literally from 2020 what’re you on about mate) her first mouse Violet drawing using Barbara Pellizzari’s artstyle in Treasure Seekers 1 as an anatomy guide!!)

With that said tho, yeah I miss the old books -m- dunno if it’d fit the aesthetic of the special editions but m a n we could’ve had it and it probably would’ve looked cool

Also the illustrations go way harder in the older books, like Prince's Emerald? I've talked about Prince's Emerald and how it goes hard before, and I still stand by it and say that it does in fact still go hard

Maybe it won't fit the uh splash of color they gave the hardcovers, but imagine they grabbed Giulia Basile's coloring work for the graphic novels and used that as sort've a basis for the coloring style of the hardcovers. Not exactly the same-- would probably still add a touch of whimsical watercolor and/or paint to the very cel-shaded style, but we could've had something pretty dope -m-

Anyway that's my ramble simultaneously defending the hardcovers' artstyle and reminiscing on what could've been haha

[guardian-angle22]

911: Lone Star | Paul & Asha in S4E16

[fibey234]

Spring has officially arrived.🌺

And at Pixie Hollow's Royal Changing of the Seasons ceremony, the traditional Wand of Seasons was passed from the Minister of Winter to the Minister of Spring.✨🍀

[vikingnerd793]

Karlach is canonically bi/pan as she says some origin lines I believe about riding anything that breathes or something hilarious, and she says things about Halsin and others. HOWEVER, I always felt like Karlach was for the girlies a bit more. And, I love that Samantha/Sam (still figuring out what they prefer as their username on X says Samantha but lots call them Sam) played Karlach in a GNC way THAT ALSO centered women instead of the typical male centering...

I ended up feeling so represented by the fact there was no "sexy strong" forced femininity to Karlach's behavior ....Karlach was just Karlach. Gorgeous, hilarious, sweet Karlach. IMO, both femininity and masculinity and it doesn't matter the balance. Karlach just was.

[bigleoenergy]

Just remembered the book series I use to obsess over as a child

[rogueddie]

ok so i’ve always had this plot in my head, born out of spite where post-season 4 after they’ve defeated vecna, everyone’s fine-ish, nancy, and jonathan break up but like steve doesn’t know that they’ve broken up all he knows is that they are having issues and he notices ronance getting closer and because steve knows what nancy’s like when she has a crush he immediately clocks her and he just like, he gets really really pissed off because as far as he knows she’s still with jonathan and he thinks that history is repeating itself. so he just gets really really passive-aggressive towards nancy, i’m talking about the season 1 scene in the alley except with no homophobia and he’s constantly in bitch mode and just incredibly standoffish to nancy. everybody clocks his behavior and they’re like, “what’s wrong with steve?” and they think he’s doing it because he either has a crush on nancy and is jealous of robin or he has a crush on robin and is jealous of nancy. (and it’s up to the writer if robin is aware that it’s his protective streak and she just doesn’t understand why he’s being extra hostile to nancy or if she also thinks that he’s jealous). but either way, steve is just being completely brutal to nancy, and it’s just like any form of like friendship between them just evaporated overnight. and i want a scene where it all comes to a head and literally, anybody can be there but the spicy six, all six of them have to be there. and let’s say he sees ronance having an intimate moment or maybe they’re planning a road trip and steve knows what happened the last time nancy went on a road trip with someone while she was on the outs with her boyfriend, so he just gets incredibly pissed at them. maybe he walks away or he says something snippy and nancy can’t take it anymore like it has been days, weeks, months of this and she’s just tired and she just like calls him out, and she’s like “what do you want? what is your problem? why are you acting like this towards me?” and steve is just like incredulous like, “are you seriously asking me what the problem is when you know very well that you are the problem?” and he just goes off on her and he’s like “this is the second time you will be pulling this shit with your partner where you guys argue and instead of maybe i don’t know sitting down and talking about shit you run off with the next available person and the next thing you know that’s your new partner. how am i supposed to trust you with robin when you have done the same thing to me and now jonathan? because this is your thing now and if you think i’m going to let you do this to robin, you must have inhaled too much of the upside down because clearly, you are delusional.” steve realizes that he’s probably being unfair to nancy but he legit doesn’t care are in that moment because he is so filled with rage at nancy’s audacity to pull this shit again and with his fucking platonic soulmate at that. and he just unloads all the anger that’s been festering from 1984 on her and that’s when everybody but mostly her and jonathan realize that oh shit the breakup fucked him up more than they realized and robin, who was under the impression that steve was mad at her for dating his ex realizes that he wasn’t mad at her he was mad for her and steve also realizes that nancy wasn’t cheating and he feels a little sorry, but he also feels so much better after his rant so he’s not that sorry. and then, in the end, everybody goes to therapy, and everybody deals with their stuff, and ronance get together, and jargyle get together, and steddie get together and everybody’s happy and in love, and they all become besties. this isn’t to like bash nancy, i’m just tired of seeing people having steve move on like that from the whole “bullshit” thing with little to no apologies, and i wish people would stop having him be okay with ronance right from the jump. but most of all, i just want steve to be petty with nancy and jonathan as a treat.

I don't know what it is about this ask but every time I try to read it it's like it goes in one eye and out my ears. Sorry, I think it's the wall of text that's just making my brain shut down.

It's just- to your last point; YES. I do love ronance but I specifically love the fanon version. Like, the Nancy that takes care of Robin or the Nancy that finds her rambling cute. It's very lovely and their personalities would vibe very well.... if only we didn't know what Nancy is canonically like with Robin... Or Steve... Or Jonathan.

I love Nancy, that's my girl and I do indeed support womens wrongs... but she should not be in a relationship asdfdsasd. Jonathan maybe but even they need couples counselling.

There's also like literally no way that Robin would even think about Nancy at all without having a very long, very drunk, bathroom talk with Steve. And even then, if she sees that Steve is still hurt by the bullshit thing? Or actually hears the real and full story? Bro code trumps all, she would drop Nancy without hesitation. Not even friends. They're enemies now.

Steve is her soulmate, they're ride or die.

Sorry for going off topic probably but like... as much as I do adore ronance, I do have to ignore Steve to ship them. If I start thinking about how Nancy is in canon, with Steve and Robin? I just cannot ship them at all. It's either completely fantasy fanon fluff or nothing. Robin deserves to have a girlfriend who would canonically treat her the way she deserves (like VICKIE, her CANON GIRLIE? (but also chrissy bc she's a sweetheart))

[atopvisenyashill]

i was poking around to see if i could find enough fancasts to do a graphic of Indigenous Stark fancasts and i found a great Sansa and Jon but struggled to find anyone else which is kinda funny to me lol. but look at them!!

his name is Asivak Koostachin and her name is Riit (or Rita Claire Mike-Murphy) and they're perfect!!

[ranilla-bean]

@ash-and-starlight tagged me, tysmmm <3 the game is to share 9 of my favourite books from the last 12 months, or 9 books on my tbr list for this year.

tagging: @faux-fires, @nopantsbroccoli, @catilinas, @slaygentford

[termagax]

genuinely i find the entire chunk of lore to be unsalvagable at this point like just throw it out and start over

[a-smol-cosplayer]

with whatever side of Tyler/Wednesday/enid u ship (ie Wyler, wenclair or poly Wednesday with queer platonic Tyler/enid) u have to admit that they would be the cutest crime solving trio (plus Eugene ofc) ever. 

You get some of it even in the show - ‘is this the uber driver?’ ‘I thought we where going on a date?’ and that whole ep they where sharing looks like ‘how tf did we get dragged into this our girl is psycho’ when exploring the gates mansion. 

Just tell me they wouldn't be the most adorable well balanced group with hang outs in the hive house or enid and Wednesdays room. Tyler would let enid paint his nails and listen to all the gossip and make some hella sweet fancy drink just for her when she comes into the weathervane and she would take him shopping for more flannel and together they would decode Wednesdays moods and talk about how much they love her. I need this in my life okay!!! 

[lunearobservatory]

You know what? I'm gonna say it. I'm vouching for Montana to join the huge honkers club.

[laugtherhyena]

Lf new year celebrations 🎊

A few months back me and my friends brainstormed what new year celebrations would be like in the lf, i can't think of a better time to post these! Happy new year everyone :]

-Every year the Forest kingdom organizes a huge parade for the new year, starting at 10pm with a message from their current ruler, after that the members of the manticore guard will march through the streets of Greenbourn as many Dawn magic users will use their powers to launch countess of flowers in the night sky.

Forest kingdom

-Its a very hyped up event and many people from different towns go to Grenbourn on new years even just to see it.

-the other towns tend to have their own parades/street parties as well, while they're not as big as the one in Greenbourn, one thing is certain; on January 1st there will be flowers and petals scattered everywhere from the celebration of the past night.

Mountain kingdom

-During the new year an enormous aurora borealis can be seen in the night sky pretty much everywhere on the Mountain kingdom, it's a once a year event no one wants to miss. During it families tend to organize their supper on tables or picnic blankets outside their houses so that they can watch the aurora.

-Since everything is outside it ends up becoming a collective banquet, with people sharing food from each other's tables, kids running around playing and bards singing through the night as couples dance happily. Some people even challenge themselves to stay awake the whole night to not miss a second of the aurora.

-The festivities are a bit different at the Cult of the frozen guardian/Hidden salvation. While its members still watch the aurora outside their houses, this is done with everyone in a circle while they collectively pray for the frozen guardian to bless the year to come. This praying section lasts several hours and anyone who disturbs the celebration will be punished accordingly the next day.

Desert kingdom

-The Desert kingdom has the most diverse amount of new year celebrations. For the Phoenixes who are monarchy and members of the high society, an enormous gala is hosted by the queens in their castle followed by a banquet of the best food you can imagine. It's a very fancy celebration where the queens share their plans for the years to come and business deals can be made.

-Meanwhile, the rest of the population has the habit of setting off fireworks in the night sky and watching them from outside their houses, many day magic users also use their abilities to make pyrotechnic shows in the sky as well. Despite the kingdom's usual mean nature, it's one night where everyone can simply sit together and enjoy the festivities.

-The spider's in Rockyashes and rebellion members who cannot go outside due to their faces being known to the public also have a different celebration. They tend to host a party on their bases where they will talk with one another, eat and dance the night away.

Ocean kingdom

-Similar to the Desert kingdom, in the Ocean a big fancy party is hosted by the ruler for them, the monarchy and high society to enjoy. This party lasts the whole night and the Ocean kingdom royal guard has to stay guarding the perimeter through the whole event to make sure everything will go perfectly. Richer Middle class families and citizens from Shining reefs tend to host their own new year parties as well.

-For the low class citizens who live in the provinces, or anyone who used to live there but managed to rise in status, the new year's celebration is not one or partying loudly on the streets. It's a simple dinner at their houses with friends and family, a night to be thankful for getting the luxury of having your family not have been taken away from you.

-Many families tend to bake sweets and hand them to other peers and friends on new year's eve who have their own celebrations to attend as a way to show that they do care for them. Parents who've recently lost their children to the takers tend to take the night to mourn them on this date, praying that they're safe on the depths.

-Sea serpents don't really celebrate the new year, most of them see it as just another night as everything always looks and feels the same in Roaring depths. At most they will get a pat on the back from their peers or caretakers for making it to another year and that's about it. Sometimes a few serpents will sneak to the surface to look at the night sky.

Shore kingdom

-On new year's eve, Shore folk from all across the kingdom gather up on the kingdom's beaches and set up towels all across the sand where they will sit with friends and family to have their supper, watching the tides as they eat. When midnight hits multiple fireworks will be launched from behind the people and will explode over the ocean, creating a beating pyrotechnic display.

-Many people tend to go out swimming on the beach or just play in the shallow water after the firework show, some will try to jump up seven waves, as they believe this helps wash out everything bad from the previous year and bring luck for the one to come.

-Finding a serpent scale on a new year's celebration is considered a sign that something great will happen to you in the upcoming year.

Sanctuary of peace + Land of no rulers

-Sanctuary guardians don't really celebrate the new years as they can't leave their duty to go join the festivities, most used to just take it as a day ro rest easy, some would write to their families if they were still alive, and others would climb up to the highest place in the sanctuary to try and watch the festivities from afar.

-There is no official celebration at the Land of no rulers, the few people who live there tend to just go be a part of the celebration of a kingdom nearby.

[apricops]

I still really want to give writing The Isekai Is Over and Now I’m Landed Gentry?!?! another shot one of these days

[dramaism]

weekends are basically non-existent for me at this point