#i wanna do more redesigns in the future

[shanblackwood]

two of them

[snowflakebottles-art]

heehee ive been playing ni no kuni bc i got the 2nd one on sale for 12 dollars instead of 80 (insane) and i was like ‘well i cant just play that without the first one’ so here i am

[irregularbillcipher]

would you guys still love me if i did redesigns/reimaginings for the demon show

[vaniliens]

Aboutta complain about how much i miss my little gay people in my head again for the 60th time today because im bummed. Anyways AUGHH i wanna dooodle them so bad i have so many ideas [Still fixated on the 'vivisection of YOUR god' idea]

[heilos]

Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project simply titled the "Tree of Harmony AU" at the moment until I can come up with a better name. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

The Pony of Shadows is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him. He has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and definitely needs practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

The lingering dark magic corruption from Stygian's time with the shadow is visible on different parts of his body, mainly his eyes when using magic, some discoloration on the inside of his mouth and tongue, and his magic color.

As Stygian exerts better control of the fragment of shadow still attached to him, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky.

Princess Luna ends up becoming Stygian's new mentor to help him gain better control of his magic corruption since she has direct experience with dark magic when she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Stygian's special talent is writing. His autobiography, Me and My Shadow, was an instant hit not just because he's a pony from a time long passed, but because he's a genuine wordsmith.  Stygian redesign by Orin331

[asherashedwings]

HAZBIN REDESIGNS.

Mainly for fun cuz I really like making character designs, so what better way than making self-indulgent tweaks of the designs from one of my favorite show.

There's some glimpses of my older redesigns on here, cuz I got back into Hazbin in like, November but just never posted anything out of fear of.. adult accounts. But now I'm saying fuck it we ball and posting anyways cuz bro I do NOT wanna go radio silent again, PLEASE-

Anyways, enjoy these silly designs. I'm gonna be doing more characters in the future, this is just all I got so far

[daftaiyo]

Ok so

I've had this concepts for a while now and won't be able to draw for a week or so

So you're getting this raw now, I wanna share too bad

RIPTIDE POKEMONS YEAHHHHH

It's started as a joke(as all of my ideas do)

But now I'm working on the whole fakemon region for riptide pirates

More pokemonish starters were drawn by my friend<3

I said all of them are raw and will be redesigned in a future

I have their names, concepts for evolutions and special moves already, but aren't sure about them yet

Check out tag for future updates on this<33

[tblsomedoodles]

Nice to see the seers get some traction but I wanna see more family web au stuff can I has doodles??

Sure! I've actually been thinking a lot about them recently too (probably b/c of Donnieverse lol). But i gave Apocalypse Mikey a little bit of a redesign for this au, at least for the later years (he'd probably look older by movie time, but he's about mid twenties here.)

I figured Mikey would be the one to lean into the spider aesthetic more out of the four (though donnie is probably a close second.) Also i know i said at one point that none of them have hair, but i kinda wanted to see what mikey would look like with it? (I also miss drawing hair lol) So i gave him his hair back from when he was a baby. Also, as a painful little tidbit, the way he's wearing his mask, is how Humanform Raph wore his in their teen years, which he does on purpose to remember his brother.)

And, as another bonus, have an image of what the Krang see whenever they go up against this guy.

he uses his mystic chains like webs to capture the attacking Krang and hold them so others can kill them. There comes a point where if a sees that spiderweb cape, they try their best to flee (but usually, by then, it's too late. They're already caught in his web trap.) (i kinda want to do a short video of him doing this? but idk what music to do it to. I need to find some cool web/spider themed audio before i can think of doing so)

Honestly, my thoughts were "Future Mikey going all out with the webs" and this is what happened. (also that i usually stick pretty close to cannon for designs. I changed that a lot for this Mikey. He deserved to look like he raided a Halloween section lol)

[fuk1ngb1tch]

Vox redesign! Don't mind the white box, that just covers his first design haha.

Anyway, I made him before the rest of the main cast because I plan to do something with him, and needed his reference for that. Anyway, I went with a more futuristic theme since he's kinda all about that I guess? But uh, yeah, hope ya like him! Also, don't mind the drawings of Al, just future references for me to use lol.

Also, here's the links to the other redesigns I've done so far if ya wanna see em :D

Angel

Charlie Old Redesign

Alastor

[hungry-skeleton]

I guess it's a good a time as any to post these old doodles lol. Originally wasn't gonna post these at all because these are more so design exercises then properly done art that I'd wanna present but oh well they're neat IG

Basically I wanted to recreate rvb without any of the Halo elements. Keeping the sci-fi there but setting it in a completely original universe. Extremely obsessed with this concept tbh. If I ever wanted to actually do anything with these designs I'd definitely have to do some streamlining because I was mostly testing the waters with these. sci-fi is not my forte lol. I imagine it with sort of a early 90s retro futurism laser tag aesthetic

Anyway yeah that's it. If you wanna see me actually do stuff with these designs or wanna see redesigns of other characters let me know these were really really fun

[frogboy0]

HAZBIN HOTEL REDESIGNS!!!!

I recently watched Hazbin Hotel for the first time! I've never been into it before, and I vaguely remember it when the pilot first came out years ago but I never even watched THAT!!

It's not............. the best show ever BUT I HAD FUN WATCHING IT!!!!!! I mainly like it bc I love Catholicism and the bible SOOOOO I'm rewriting it and I'll be posting ALL MY IDEAS!!!!!! (Ppl are gonna hate it LOL)

Close-ups + notes are under the cut :)

CHARLIE: OK SO I basically got rid of all the goat stuff that she (didn't) have going on ASIDE from the hooves hahaha, I didn't draw them here but she still has those bc I think they're COOL

So taking inspo from the fact that Charlie's design was based off porcelain dolls and marionettes, Charlie is LITERALLY a doll come to life!!! Lucifer and Lilith, bc they couldn't naturally conceive a child (bc Lilith is dead + is known to be responsible for the death of newborns), basically just made a child-doll and gave it life with their demonic magic!!!

I ALSO WANT CHARLIE TO CONSTANTLY BE TEETERING THE LINE OF LOOKING CREEPY AND FUCKED UP!!!! She's literally a living doll, I need ppl to look at her sometimes and be unsettled (sheep in wolf's clothing)

VAGGIE: Like Charlie, I'm completely throwing the animal (moth) motif that Vaggie (supposably) had. I'm mainly leaning more into Hotel Manager/body guard. WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW!!!!!!

Honestly, I've changed Vaggie's design over 4 times and it's subject to change STILL. I gave her a cloak bc I think it's epic and I think she's epic and you'll be seeing her in future posts with what her outfit looks like without the cloak, it's a sleeveless collared shirt and she's got long fingerless gloves on :) AND THE CLOAK IS ALSO THERE BC I THINK SHE'S EDGY!!!! She's edgy and emo and amazing

I WAS gonna make her with awesome battle scars but then I remembered that angels can only be harmed with angelic weapons so :(((( no hot scars

ANGEL: MY ANGEL DESIGN IS NEVER CHANGING!!!!!! I have no notes, I think I'm in love with my Angel.

I heard somewhere that Angel in cannon has one black sclera and one white one bc he died with a black eye sooo..... He died with 2 black eyes LOL!!!

I didn't wanna give him prominent wrists and ankles bc I thought it looks cute :3

HUSK: He's a tuxedo cat, I think they're adorable and I think Husk is a 70 year old man who should be adorable. And NO BOW TIE!!!! I'M TIRED OF EVERY CHARACTER HAVING ONE!!!!

He's a frazzled drunk who's still Alastor's pet LOL

ALASTOR: I took a lot of inspiration for Alastor's design from Dr. Daddy-o, a radio DJ/host from New Orleans in the 1940's!!! I LOVE his voice and I wanted to base Alastor off of a BLACK RADIO HOST bc he's you know, BLACK!!!!!!!! Idk who that white boy is in cannon

He and Charlie are tied for the tallest in the cast, they're the same height (not counting his antlers)

I wanted to make Alastor look pretty human looking, aside from his antlers and deer ears ofc bc I don't think he needs to look scary all the time, he usually uses his words to provoke ppl anyway (and if that doesn't work THEN he'll use force) (Wolf in sheep's clothing)

NIFFTY: Niffty's design is based off Rosie the Riveter (WE CAN DO IT!!!!) especially with her her top, her hair and her headband/bandana.

I also made her taller than she is in cannon bc she's not the kind of character that the audience or even the other characters take seriously so in my head adding a couple inches to her will make me take her more seriously LOL

[sketch-shepherd-art]

Alright so I’ve finally finished all of Make Your Mark on Netflix (I have no interest in Tell Your Tale) and, well… I certainly have thoughts. Unfortunately I felt MLP G5 (even including A New Generation) was pretty weak. I don't HATE G5 of course, but it certainly has problems. Not counting the ton of continuity errors and plot holes and retcons from G4, most of the episodes + specials on their own I found flat and boring.

And yes I KNOW that G5 deserves to be its own thing and shouldn’t rely 100% on G4’s popularity but come on… a sequel series still needs SOME connection to its predecessor, and G5 has so little of it?? And the worst part is that the super sparse FIM references were for legal reasons, which makes me even wonder why bother setting it in the same universe as G4 instead of just making a complete reboot. And yes I’ve heard that the G5 comics actually go deeper into the lore, but important worldbuilding details should be included in the show proper, not in supplemental materials. 

So yeah, that only inspired me to make even more changes for my MLP next gen AU. Starting with a bunch of different ideas I have for Opaline. More details about my revamped design and backstory for her under the cut

First off, her canon design is way too gaudy and takes away a lot of her intended scare factor, so I redesigned her with multiple variants. For all versions I removed her blue eyeshadow and the braids around her ears (too ridiculous-looking and difficult for me to draw), and made her hair a bit more asymmetrical. 

As for my version of her backstory, rather than Opaline being over a thousand years old and having known Celestia and Luna when they were fillies, I made Opaline a former student of Twilight who became her successor as the next Alicorn Princess. Only Opaline didn't do a great job as a ruler which caused Twilight to drain her of her magic and banish her to the outskirts of Equestria.

But after Twilight died of old age (don't ask me why Twilight didn't find a new successor, still working that out) the magic shield locking Opaline outside Equestria faded and allowed her back in. So she was the one who caused disharmony between ponies all over again (yeah kind of a repeat of the Nightmare Moon situation but), and additionally kidnapped Misty as a filly to use her as a spy and do tasks to help Opaline get her powers back, including her wanting to steal dragon fire to become a fire Alicorn like in canon.

Made this change for two reasons 1) the whole “ancient villain who knew Celestia and Luna back in the day escaped now and is planning to wreak havoc on modern Equestria” has been done a hundred times already in FIM, let a new villain form literally during Twilight’s reign 2) it would keep the rejection aspect of Opaline's canon backstory but give her more personal beef with Twilight which is why Opaline targets her

so my AU wouldn't just have all ponies restore unity and then have Opaline just come as a threat right after like A New Generation + Make Your Mark did. Achieving harmony between pony AND non-pony kind would be done over the course of a series and not just one movie, with Equestria being restored + Misty being freed after Opaline's defeat. The Unity Crystals still play a role in my AU, with Twilight having created them as a new alternative to the Elements of Harmony rather than just a macguffin to stop Opaline specifically.

Also if it were up to me I like my #3 redesign the best, the blue hues would probably fit the best for a fire-based villain (fire being blue when it's hottest and all) but that depends on if/when I wanna draw my AU Opaline in the future

[just-honey-dewd]

Alvin and the Chipmunks redesigns! I wanted to adapt their designs loosely from the original puppets, and also incoorporate the live action movies’ two toned fur. I have such childhood nostalgia for them, but their main 2d designs are a lil too humanoid for me. Don’t get me started on the nickelodeon series.

I gotta ramble about their outfits and implied characterisations in their original christmas song performance. It’s so fascinating to me. The cute straw hats Simon and Theo wear!!! And the bowties!!! It gives off professionalism and preparedness, contrasted with Alvin, who doesn’t seem to wanna abide by dress code, so he’s sporting a breton cap and striped sweater with a defiant capital A on it.

He also showed resistance towards being made to perform the song, to the point of almost hitting a guy with a mallet. So, not unlike future portrayals, he’s very against adhering to authority. But this Alvin deviates, by being more driven my impulse than ego — modern Alvin wouldn’t have tried to stop their performance. Also, Simon and Theodore were rather indistinguishable, but driven by the same childlike flightiness as Alvin, that they all ended up beating up David Seville to let them sing the song again.

Anyways!!!! Gonna do a group watch of the halloween movies and Chipmunk adventure tomorrow, so if I draw these guys again, 50/50 they might change.

[markipliers-madhouse]

Hello? Hello Hello?

...Well, this place has been dead for a little bit, hasn't it?

Mentioned a little bit before on that collab piece I did, but figured I'd be better to do a full post bout it here!

So, this AU...has been laying dormant for quite some time, and there's not really any excuses for that. I've just been a little busy with school and life in general, but mainly...haven't had much motivation to do it in all honesty, and their's two main factors to that unmotivation.

1. I kinda realized I'd be needing to write a lot for this story, and though I love writing in general...the scope of this would be like writing a few novels if I continued on, and I just wouldn't have the time or sanity to do that, but more on that later for a solution...

And 2. ...I kinda fell out of FNaF for a moment. Well- Not entirely, I'll always love this series, but I guess it was mainly...the state of the fandom after one certain game...Security Breach. After that game came out, it kinda broke the fandom in half. One half being those who hate the game and left the franchise entirely, now seeing it as nothing but for kids and not taken seriously, and the other...well, actually kids. Y'know the ones. You know.

So that kinda left me kinda unsure for my AU, since I thought if I put stuff out now...it wouldn't really be that appreciated. From the start it was meant to harken back to the original classics of FNaF, but with the fandom mostly filled with newcomers for just this one game, and the original fans gone and unhopeful for the franchise, I just kinda...left this place dorment till I felt motivated again.

...And then the Ruin DLC happened, which gave me a spark of motivation. Seemed this franchise was starting to to head to a better place, getting some old fans back, so that's nice. Got me thinking more bout this AU again...

And then the movie happened, and now i've been slapped in the face with motivation.

SO- Guess that's my excuse for why things have been so empty, but now...I AM READY TO OFFICIALLY SAY IT IS STARTING BACK UP! And not just that...but starting fresh! ...Which, isn't saying much, since I only wrote two chapters for it...y e a h - But there's a reason I'm starting fresh, not just for improved art or retconing some of the mistakes of what I did give out, but mainly because...

I'm turning the AU into a comic!!

That's right! Gonna be drawing the whole thing start to finish! Figured this would be better to me since it's quicker then writing it all, and get to show and improve more of my art, so works out! (You can already kinda see some of that with the new pfp and header) Maybe might get some help in the future, maybe might dable in some animation, maybe a lot of things, but guess we'll just hafta see where it goes from here!

What does that mean for the previous content though? All...f o u r of it? Well, that stuff is gonna be non-canon from here on out! It'll be easier this way since those stuff have either some continuity errors that'll effect the story in the long wrong, or just simply I've changed my mind on some things and it'll be a bit more different! I'm still leaving them up, however! Just cause I think it'll be fun to see how far I've come, and ey some art pieces there weren't bad! ...Too bad...okay like one or two were d e c e n t

TLDR of it tho is this: AU's getting a reboot, gonna be made into a comic now, previous stuff is non-canon, and this page should be a bit more active now!

But yeah! Big things are coming, and I am excited to start up this AU again! I have so many plans for this story that I'm just hoping you guys will love, wanna do justice to both sides of the story! So keep an eye on this blog, might take a little longer, but hoping to get things officially and finally started soon!

And to prove some of that, before I go...you guys deserve a a bit of a sneak peak of what's to come, so...hope you enjoy these redesigns >:]

EDIT: THE SERIES HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN- READ EM HERE- AH-

[rhodeybugg]

I wanna know about Despina, please-

I love your design and idea of what the Solver true form, we needed more art like that

Ough. Despi. >:3

I'm actually working on the sketch of her redesign/proper design!

• What even IS Despina? Where did she come from?

• There are few people that know her name. Sirius Elliot, James' father and Tessa's grandfather, only knew of her through old texts and family rumors.

• It's believed that she was accused of committing witchcraft and exiled out of the original town that the elliot manor resides at the edge of, where she died in the woods. James has heard stories that the manor itself was built on her bones, and others say that there's an unmarked grave where the earth claimed her.

• She was summoned by Sirius when the company nearly went bankrupt. His worker drones just weren't exciting enough. If only he'd known what he was getting himself into.

•She's malevolent. While Despina does as she's asked, she's got her own ways of pulling strings to get what she wants. She's hungry, and this world-ending tech-fucker isnt going to let anything stand in her way.

• Sirius wasn't the first person that's ever summoned her for his own gain, but he was her favorite. Not only did he let her put a piece of herself in his little toys to give them sentience and life, she needed something in exchange for such a task.

Sirius was greedy enough and only cared about his company, and traded the safety of his future grandchildren and entire bloodline: a careless sacrifice.

• She can wander as much as she wants to without someone to need her, after all, she's been bound to a deal and still hasn't been paid what she's owed. She's been after Tessa for years.

• Despina isn't afraid to cheat to get her way, resorting to seduction, underhanding deals or straight-up murdering to get what she wants.

• looks like she could kill you, will kill you. If you're lucky enough to survive an encounter with her, you'll likely be plagued with nightmares for the rest of her life. Despina can distort her appearance to be more pleasing to the eye, but at the end of the day, she's still an eldritch mess of drone parts and bones.

• Selune, Louisa's original worker companion, was her first host. After one particular night where Despina got dangerously close to devouring a helpless infant Tessa, she made a deal in secret, acting as though she'd turned against her humans and wanted to assist in Despina's destruction of the Elliot bloodline.

• Selune was stronger than Despina thought, and managed to keep her locked away within her core. After Selune's death, Despina was freed again, and now she's got her sights set on Cyn and Grimm.

• She can't do any harm to anyone or possess them without her veil being removed by her summoner. Sirius was the first to remove her veil.

• Despina created the baseline for the disassembly drones, twisting the poor workers of the manor into her solver underlings. The company took her design, and made their own, and managed to take her original copies of her three strongest pets away from her before she could fully put them under her control : V, J and N.

• Despina hates it when her little pets fight back.

[felassan]

Thoughts/wonderings on Dragon Age: The Missing #2, under a cut due to spoilers for The Missing (not just #2) and for the recent leaks:

Overall I think issue 2 was more interesting and more exciting than issue 1. I don't mean this in a bad way about issue 1; it's just that issue 1 had a lot of catching up to do ('here's what's happened since you were last in Thedas') and setup both for Varric&Harding (they should open a detective agency together)'s current quest and for future issues in this series. that was quite a lot of setup and the comic issues only have a few pages. now in Issue 2, the story is properly starting off and the plot thickens etc.

continuing the theme of issue 1 (which is: Varric Is Having A Very Bad And Terrible Time), this issue opens with Varric groaning and cursing. it really is like this huh.. "shit", he says, while.. stepping in shit.. it's eponymous. eponymous suffering.

change in art style and artist from issue 1. if memory serves, Fernando Heinz Furukawa is the artist who worked on some previous DA comics such as Dark Fortress and Blue Wraith. here's Varric portrayed by Fernando in Knight Errant:

and here's Varric now in The Missing #2

it's day and night! he looks Older and more tired, and also maybe redesigned (outfit, scar etc). if this comic is set around 9:52 or shortly beforehand, he's over 50 years old now since he was born in 9:1. according to this tweet of Fernando's, it wasn't Fernando who did a redesign, BioWare had sent along the reference for Varric for this comic. are we looking at Varric's DA:D Era (Dad Era..) Redesign? is this how he'll look in DA:D? if so why did he look the same as usual in issue 1 - was it a recent decision of BioWare's that happened after issue 1 had been illustrated but before 2 was drawn? or is it just differing art styles between issues - I notice that each of the 4 issues of this comic has a different artist. it will be someone else again in issue 3, so I'll guess we'll find out based on what he looks like in issue 3 :) also, a different artist for each issue is an interesting choice - is it to showcase as many different peoples' talents as possible?

We don't see much of Vyrantium in this issue but from what we do see I think it looks cool

Harding's hair is definitely red/orange here. in one leak the person wrote that there was a rogue lady dwarf party member. in another the person implied via emoji codes (hh) that one of the companions that they saw is a lady with red hair. with these in mind plus Harding's presence and appearance in this DA:D lead-in comic, I wanna speculate that Harding is a companion in DA:D. if Harding is and Varric isn't, I'd be down with that! I'd rather he isn't a companion again, and this setup would provide a lady dwarf companion, an ascended extra (see: Cole, Merrill etc), and the familiar returning face/Inquisition representative on the team without filling up a slot with someone who has already had a turn at being a companion. maybe, like Charter says in issue 1, Varric builds the team, but instead of joining it in person himself, it's Harding who joins the DA:D roster and he's around doing some stuff in the background like giving quests or advising or something. Varnick Fury...

last time we checked in on the Qunari invasion of Tevinter, they had invaded Neromenian (Dark Fortress). before that they invaded Carastes (Blue Wraith) and Ventus/Qarinus (Deception). now the Antaam have progressed towards Vyrantium and are laying siege to it. this shows the passage of time between our looks at Thedas and that that the world isn't static, and it keeps building the backdrop in Tevinter of the Antaam invasion as a potential background plotpoint for DA:D (reminds me of the mage-templar war in the background of DA:I). the Tevinters don't seem to be having much luck in this war, losing city after city to the Antaam.

looking at this progress map below, I'm reminded of this line from Dread Wolf Take You in Tevinter Nights: "I fear everything east of Vyrantium will be under their control inside a year, and northern Antiva as well", said by the Mortalitasi at the meeting Charter attended. we're seeing this come to pass now, and if it roughly followed that projected timescale it gives us a bit of insight into when Charter's meeting with Solas in TN took place relative to the effective prologue to DA:D (this comic). if the Antaam keep this up, I guess the next settlement is Marnas Pell and then onto Asariel. Minrathous has famously never fallen to siege or invasion. I guess you could still effectively choke a country by capturing all of its other cities besides the main one though. maybe the plan is to take the rest and Minrathous would be the last hold out? its food supplies in the Catacombs will only last a year

"You think Solas would have crawled through a city's worth of shit to get here?" felt like a bookend to Varric's comment in the previous issue, "It fits, though. A refuge in the ass end of nowhere is exactly Solas’s style". at this point varric sounds like he's talking about an ex who jilted him lmao. and probably not, Varric, he's probably fast-travelling around as it suits him via the eluvian network. I thought the highlighting of sense of timing, how long it took them to get there, how rough the road there was and the obstacles they went through to reach their destination was interesting. maybe it's a precursor (for the sake of creating contrast) to the possible upcoming 'travelling around via eluvians' stuff from the recent leak? to the possible plotpoint of 'here's how the Inquisition remnants have eluvian access now'? it's taken them weeks to walk from Marnas Pell to Vyrantium, which gives a sense of the scale of Thedas and emphasizes travel time outside of in-game 'fast travel' mechanics. Solas is basically leading them on a wild goose chase in this comic series all over Tevinter. given his effective teleportation relative to their having to walk for weeks to get between cities, he has them at a massive disadvantage.

new locations in the lore: Armael Hills, Wava River/Wava River crossing. given that they have travelled from Marnas Pell to Vyrantium, these must be places in Tevinter.

"food poisoning" ye sure okay bud. at the end of issue 1, Varric was after a stiff drink. this panel is a smart bit of continuity from that, and also, BioWare must have fully known what they were doing with this panel lmao.. on a serious note though I hope Varric is doing okay like, and this was just a hangover after a celebration like he says, rather than part of his recent tired/sad/kinda strugglin vibe. otherwise coupled with his older tireder more haggard look it reminds me a bit of Ser Aaron which is sad to think about :( (RIP)

lmao the valet was really like "You? The noble famous Viscount of Kirkwall? but you're so scrungly, stinky and oldlooking.. No. It can't be so. Bye"

if Lady Crysanthus has been 'indisposed' for months it means Solas was here months ago. that's confirmed when they mention about how the bedroom hasn't been used in months. they're so many steps behind him and would continue to be - the walking distance between Vyrantium and Arlathan Forest is even further than that between Marnas Pell and Vyrantium.

I enjoyed how their cover story was "Hi I'm Varric", they walked straight up to the front door, showed themselves and told him who they were, and then broke in talking about how they're supposed to be being subtle lmao. (also that setup for the house going up in flames at the end and condemning the lady's husband to death so dramatically, LOL subtle indeed. I guess it was them being ironic). so knocking on the door was Harding's suggested approach, Varric had initially suggested breaking in and they decided to try Harding's way first. that's nice, it contrasts them as characters and carries on that idea from their discussion in issue 1 about their two different suggested ways for approaching/dealing with stuff/Solas if they found him

so about Varric's redesign, he has speed stripes now/salt and pepper hair, and where/when did he get that big serious scar? also would you take Varric's hand and trust him, even though he's like, a pathological liar? after that panel i would ok

their dynamic is cute

Tevinter architecture is cool (red glass windows) and I like those lil Tevinter wind chime looking things. inside the bedroom there are serpents coiling around the bed posts.

Harding was right after all, and had the smarts to check under the sheet. she looks shook when they discover Crysanthus. and no wonder, of course the only person they know who can turn people to stone is Solas. from the lady's outstretched 'Stop!' arm and scared facial expression, it doesn't look like she and Solas were having a pleasant conversation when he did this.

that wall mural... lmao. the dog looks kind of like a mabari, which I guess I could see since they originated in Tevinter. my random obscure headcanon is that this ~Decadence~ mural is supposed to, by in-universe artists, depict the golden age of the Imperium when it ruled most of Thedas and before the mabari defected to the 'barbarians' of the south hh

shoutout again to Harding's cool looking cape

Teia and Viago!!!! as the front cover prophecy foretold!! man we knew it was coming but i still went OOOOOO at them appearing. their entrance and they in general was/are so cool. they look amazing!!

wing-like motif on their outfits, fitting for Crows :) hh, Harding knows immediately that they are Crows. also "subtle".. :)

lmao he's so done

I enjoyed the banter back and forth at this point, it was fun :)

Harding's freckles 🥺

The question is, who put out this contract on Crysanthus to the Crows and why? it must have been a pretty big deal (the person who took out the contract and/or the reason for taking it out), otherwise what are two Talons from two different Houses doing on a job in Tevinter when the Antaam is currently invading Antiva and we know from TN that the Crows including Teia and Viago (Eight Little Talons) were going to be taking the defense of Antiva seriously?

So the Inquisition remnants are still basically "The Inquisition" when it comes to name-dropping, and Varric 'my cover is hi I'm Varric also I'm gonna break in now' Tethras has no qualms about telling a pair of Crows they've just met that they're working with the Inquisition. whereas he omits mentioning Solas specifically by name. I guess "Inquisition" is an easier sell than "The Dread Wolf"

also interesting, why are the Crows concerned about a Tevinter mage possibly working with the Venatori, or about the Venatori planning a possible concerted move against the Imperium, or about stopping that? I'm reminded of TN where we learned that a mysterious patron had contracted the Crows to kill a bunch of prominent Venatori (Lucanis' story). some of the Venatori were scared about that, particularly of the aforementioned notorious Crow, "The Demon", who had been doing a lot of these contracts. the Venatori said that they wouldn't cower to foreign mercs like the Crows. and it was implied that the anonymous hirer was elfy, as they gave Lucanis assistance/info about a magic secret passage inside a statue of a vhenadahl, the passage of which was lit with veilfire and guarded by an elf, Athima, who was sent by their patron. then Lucanis died or "died" and we saw his wake, which Teia and Viago were at. and now here are Teia and Viago in Tevinter on a contract job to take out yet another Venatori/Venatori collaborator. are they continuing where Lucanis left off? Crows, the Venatori, and Solas... curiouser and curiouser

the fight scenes in this comic were cool. Varric at one point doesn't even draw Bianca, he just socks someone in the face like POW

Viago with his poisoned rapier/poisons again, ice cold but also like, what a nerd

when the secret door opens Harding is like > :) hhh

when the valet says "You've killed us all just by being here", is it Lady Crysanthus' husband that he's thinking about or someone else? the Venatori? the person who turned the lady to stone?

so Lady Crysanthus was a spymaster who had records and notes on many known Venatori agents, as well as maps and papers relating to their plans to get a magical artifact/magical weapon called the Crucious Stone out of Arlathan Forest. she was also helping Venatori operate in Tevinter. given this, why would she invite Solas to come and talk to her? their mutual interest in the Stone? was the invitation even for Solas, or did he or whoever was using the room in the Deep Roads get it from the person it was actually supposed to be for after he/they got wind of this scheme?

the Stone can bring the Imperium to its knees. that would explain why the Venatori, who are apparently plotting a move against the Imperium (to.. make it great again? I guess they have to take it down or take it over before they can make it great again?), would want it. Solas isn't a fan of the Imperium - is he interested in this Stone because he'd also like to impact Tevinter, or because he needs to use the Stone's powers for his plans relating to the Veil or similar? (I'd think more the latter than the former) Any relation to, or how does it tie in to, the Orb or the idol?

Also I wonder about the specifics of the stone's powers. to bring the whole Imperium to its knees.. we must be talking blood magic? I'd guess? plus some Veil wibbly-wobbly Fadey stuff too, if the last page of the comic is anything to go by. also, the shape of the stone reminds me of the sarcophagus from Dark Fortress. that artifact was of unknown origin but built to fit an elf and there were some possibly elfy aspects to its design..

"Monologue about it, who knows?" // "Is this a contract or an old flame?" // "Well..." killed me hhhh

Viago asking the Important Questions

Stone Fist

Teia is badass

nice group takedown, again a party with majority dwarves and elves :)

Varric's one liner while the guy stabbed through the wrist crushed by a broken statue of his beloved departed wife while he burns to death is. stone cold.

this time around there's a reason why they didn't gather up a bunch of papers/books from the Secret Den, it was going up in flames and they had to escape. makes sense. I still wonder why they didn't take those books with them from the Deep Roads room in issue 1 hh.

in the panel where they are back outside on the streets of Vyrantium, the column of smoke from the burning house can be seen in the background going up into the sky, and off to the right in green is the figure that Teia clocks in the next panels.

Cat

presumably the possible Venatori assassin is the Venatori we saw tailing Varric&Harding at the end of issue 1.

Varric and Harding leave Teia and Viago on a positive note which is nice. I hope we meet them for a bit in DA:D :)

also since it was confirmed that the characters in this comic are Teia and Viago, I think again about the 'this comic is introducing us/re-introducing us to various factions/groups who are players on the chess-board or otherwise of note in DA:D' idea. Issue 1 had Wardens, 2 the Crows, 3 looks to be the Veil Jumpers. also since it was Teia and Viago, I'm also once again wondering if the two Veil Jumpers will be Strife and Irelin, who we know are in a Dalish clan that lives in/near Arlathan Forest. (also I enjoyed the confirmation in this comic that a few/multiple Dalish clans live in Arlathan Forest. those clans, like Morlyn, sound super interesting due to the magical/ancient nature of the Forest)

About the last page of the comic, the tree branches give an elfy vibe, and that structure in the distance being upside down gives a Fadey and/or Arlathan Forest's current time/space topsyturvyness vibe. could the archway in the structure be an eluvian? is this how they get eluvian travel? is this what's in the heart of Arlathan Forest, or is it somewhere in there where the Veil is thin and the time/space reality warping has influenced things? did Dalish elves build those walkways?

the synopsis for Issue 3 is as follows:

Following their adventure in Vyrantium, Varric, and Harding travel to Arlathan Forest in search of the crucious stone. When the duo finds themselves face-to-face with a pair of Veil Jumpers, they decide to team up. Finding what they seek will have them up against puzzling obstacles, and their success could depend on the allies they can gather.

this is the issue in this comic that I'm most excited about. I'm so hyped to meet the Veil Jumpers AAAAAA!! [cat.yodeling.png]