#quetzalli's thoughts

[amerricanartwork]

Since I've drawn Gourmand quite a few times as of recently, I realized I wanted to get a bit clearer on his volumes. Specifically, I wanted to know each of the separate parts of his body and a clearer reference for the flow of it all. So, since I'm realizing I quite enjoy making visual note pages working out the particularities of characters' designs, I spent some time yesterday making this ref for him! Feel free to use it as well, if you'd like!

Also, since it's been on my mind recently, there are some longer thoughts of mine on character design down below!

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After doing the iterator silhouettes, I'm realizing that, in addition to shape language, there's another element I find important which I'm going to call "shape rhythm" for now. Rather than the basic shapes a character is made of, the rhythm refers to how those shapes flow into each other to guide the viewer's eye along the character. I've said before that I enjoy pleasing shapes, so by extent I enjoy when a character has a nice, pleasing rhythm where all of their features flow into each other really neatly!

There's also this other term I use called "weight distribution", that I think is useful too! It's basically where the mass of a character is focused and what it might show or symbolize. I also wanna specify it doesn't necessarily have to be actual, heavy mass too; I'm more so using "weight" to describe the size of things and how much volume they appear to have. For example, if a character wore a big, baggy jacket and had thinner legs, I'd say the "weight" is focused in their upper body, even if the jacket itself isn't literally heavy and their actual upper body underneath is also thin.

Even characters with more extreme body mass, like Gourmand (or Five Pebbles, as I imagine him), could still have the majority of their weight centered at a specific point. This could show what feature that character uses most often, what they think is their most valuable asset (both literally and in terms of what that feature may represent), or perhaps what the people around them notice about them first. Alternatively, you could also hint at a character's internal traits through what parts of their body don't have a lot of mass or emphasis, and perhaps show what they use very little or what is ignored about them. I think what isn't very prominent in a character design could show just as much about who they are as what is very obvious and noticeable about them.

Playing with the distribution of weight and combining it with how each feature guides the viewer's eye to another I believe can be used to make more pleasing character designs, since these elements together can imply a natural flow of energy from one point to another that can be pretty cool to look at, if you ask me! And then again, I just love how it can be used symbolically too, showing what's significant both through what is and isn't given lots of emphasis!

Now, technically, both of these could be considered sub-categories or elements of shape language. Regardless, I wanted to talk about them because I've recently come to the discovery that they can be quite influential in-and-of themselves, and I think they go beyond the general explanations of shape language I've heard so far, to the point they deserve their own terms. I at least am definitely gonna be using them going forward!

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If you read all of this, thank you for checking out these ideas! What are your thoughts on these concepts?

[quetzalcoatlrandomthoughts]

POV: It's almost the Ides of March

[quetzal-animations]

Does anybody else ever get the primal urge to chew on their friends to show affection?

Or is that just me?

[asktheisle]

((continued from here))

[The human pauses as if gathering their thoughts. She keeps her voice leveled enough, but a trained ear could pick out the slightest bit of negativity... could it be annoyance? Anger? Disappointment? It was hard to say.]

I had lent out my research to others in different regions, for the sake of collaboration and having more hands reaching towards the same goal. There was an incident a few years ago, a very violent altercation occurred where a portion of it was lost. If it didn't go up in flames, it was stolen...

Everything can be rebuilt however, and the project has recovered. But now I guard it very closely.

[Alruba's attention turns to the tapestry, a thin smile as a hand reaches out to the old and faded chart with fondness.]

I was born and raised in Meteor Falls, and so much of this knowledge came to me in the forms of bedtime stories. Tales of magnificent beasts that resided in the heavens, gracing this world with their presence and holding influence to this very day.

These stars have been catalogued for generations, at first orally before eventually being written down. After the first Draco Meteor, brilliant fireballs rained down at different points-thunderous roars catapulting from the sky into the planet.

Their locations were scattered, but their impacts were nothing short of spectacular. The dragons were nowhere to be found around their impacts, so it was only to be assumed that they began to explore the world.

Their fall gave rise to the dragons we know today.

[777sisters]

the reluctant lady, oder

[quetzalpapalotl]

In the Japanese print of Chaos Theory, Megatron's line about there being only two constants (hate and Optimus) in the past 4 million years is translated as having been only two 思い (thoughts/feelings) in his 心 (mind/heart).

Therefore we can say that Optimus is Megatron's 思い人 (person in thoughts, an old fashioned way to say beloved/sweetheart)

[baileyboo2016]

have u ever heard of cricket-chip cookies??

also hi it's your bird parent

good morning!! how ru?

cricket-chip what now?? 😭

also i’m doing alright, thank you!! hanging in there :)

-from your bird child

[moonxsuncelestials]

Yun had been following his nose, a little worried about his fellow dragon. Thus having left his own shop, he left it in the hands of one of his servants, he eventually found Quetz. "Quetz-Whoa. The pictures in the scrolls do not do you justice." Quetzal was beyond just the words that describe beauty. The lustrous elegant green scales, the feathers that are as bright as any flower under his grandfather's light; he's in awe whilst own draconic features came forth to display for the serpent.

Deep blue-green scales, the inverse crescent moon with golden highlights, appeared on his forehead as did the golden veins whilst his blue ombre horns that have golden tips glistened in what light there was. His long elegant furred tail even reached for the other's face. "You might want to get to your room, lock yourself away...I'll get you what you want, need..."

Was he in heat? Yes. So, he was hiding amongst his folklore books. He wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. It was quite the surprise to say the least. His scales were visible in some places on his skin and his feathers on his head kept flaring outward to try and draw in mates. "Ugh..." He grumbled.

[ifishouldvanish]

The idea of Olrox being from Cholula specifically makes me so insane. Like would he have identified more as Mexica? Or as Tlaxcaltec? Would he have been loyal to the Tlaxcaltec and allied with the Spanish only to get screwed over like his Mohican lover did in the colonies? Would he have done so thinking he could get the upper hand in the end just like Mizrak/Emmanuel thought the Order could with Erzsebet?

"He thinks the devils he manufactures will be enough to destroy her when the time comes. What do you think? Do you think he's right?" - S1E4

Even after the fall of Tenochtitlan, nobility from all over the region would have been sent to Cholula to get the blessing of Cholulan priests for their legitimacy. How might this have fueled his disdain for nobility?

Olrox: "I prefer my blood blue."

Drolta: "Maybe you do things differently in the new world, but over here we don't feed off the wealthy. The locals will start to grumble." - S1E5

As a Mexica citizen, this disdain could come from resentment toward sumptuary laws, the increasing lack of socioeconomic mobility during Moctezuma's rule, and frustration with how he handled the Spanish... But as a Cholulan sympathetic to Tlaxcala, there's so much more???

It could come from frustration with leadership that defected from the very people who helped them elude Mexica rule in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anger at a decision that economically obliterated the Tlaxcaltec, who became completely surrounded by Mexica member-states? Regret at how much it cost them to 'overthrow' the Mexica? Grief at how this kind of political/military opportunism helped lead the wider indigenous population to its demise?? Like the latter is so much more thematically ripe for a show tackling colonialism and imperialism imo???

"This one? He was just an opportunist, following the Messiah because she's powerful." - S1E4

I mean!!?? Think about how the implications of all of this... *gestures wildly* stuff would lead him to adopt such a cynical, morally ambiguous worldview? This sense that it's all doomed, that he's not strong enough to fight it? Resist and fall to your enemies, or work with them only to lose parts of your identity in the process? Think about how the brutality of the Cholula massacre recontextualizes eurocentric perceptions of the brutality of flower wars and ritual sacrifice??? How it would leave you with anger and pain and an unyielding need for justice?

"Little boy Belmont. I know that feeling. That pain, that hate, that burning, unendurable need for retribution." - S1E1

Think about how the Mexica Empire had adopted Huitzilopochtli (war, sacrifice) as their primary patron deity, and the Tlaxcaltec Mixcoatl/Camaxtli (the hunt, fire)... Yet Olrox's form seems to be based on Quetzalcoatl (wind, knowledge, rebirth, among other things)–the deity the great temple at Cholula was dedicated to.

A handful of mesoamerican deities are associated with serpents/have names ending in '-coatl', but Olrox's serpent form clearly has a feathered crest—the 'quetzal-' in Quetzalcoatl.

But Olrox's abilities also seem to include lightning/thunder, which are associated with Tlaloc, who the Cholulans seemed to have adopted as their central deity some time before the Spanish conquest.

Quetzalcoatl is only associated with storms sort of tangentially, through his aspect as the wind god, Ehecatl. The Florentine Codex refers to Quetzalcoatl-Ehecatl as sweeping the roads to make way for the rain and the thunder.

Think about how in Tlaxcaltec accounts, Cholula–being a sacred city–had no real military to speak of and depended on their gods to protect them???

Mizrak: "There's only one God. Just one. That's the only thing I'm sure of. And I've spent my whole life serving him, fighting for him. That hasn't changed, and it never will." Olrox: "One god... And you think he can protect you?" - S1E4

Like... What does it all mean???? 🫠🫠🫠

Agshsjdkdkfll *screams into a pillow* I am so excited for season 2 but whatever happens Cholulan Olrox is canon in my heart y'all

[amerricanartwork]

So I saw the art of Arti trying (and failing to lift Gourmand)

I'm here with an absolutely stupid fun fact,

All slugcats can lift Gourmand

Yes, that includes Saint (somehow)

Wait, actually? Where did you find this out from? I wanna see for myself now!

Assuming this is true though, that actually isn't that hard to believe; as I doubt the slugcat sprites weight a great amount, even Gourmand's. But that still doesn't mean it makes sense in-universe, especially for Monk and Saint, who I'm quite sure are supposed to be weaker than the average slugcat.

But hey, that's something I've had to do since I first started making RW headcanons — discerning which things I actually want to interpret as "canon" in-universe and which things I see as more of just a game mechanic. Thanks for that little fun fact, and I hope you enjoyed the art too!

[quetzalcoatlrandomthoughts]

My cat has multiple little dens, an egg chair, a normal cat tower, 2 scratching posts, a cat tower taller then me, lots of different toys, a water fountain, wet food, loving parents (me), and basically anything else she wants.

Yet she stills prefers an old hair tie and the dog's water bowl by her litterbox over it all.

[puma-or-cougar]

OMG DOES ANYONE REMEMBER HALF SHELL HEROES? Because I do, in fact, I just watched the episodes last night. I always thought that a Pteranodon was a little small for Raph, maybe a Quetzal or a Haztego would have been a better fit for him since they are larger flying reptiles, HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that I haven't fallen in love with this duo.

Sooo cuteee

Wait!

On another note, I have a question, does anyone know if Tumblr has a problem with mild blood or gore? I would really appreciate an answer since I'm working on something that I'm really excited to post here.

[matchalovertrait]

Quetzalli (keh-tzah-lee) Apanco for @changingplumbob's #DatingDeanna!

22 years old ● Cisgender Woman ● She / Her ● Lesbian

Quetzalli is someone who enjoys stories and the complexity of human nature. She's never understood the disdain for small talk. Doesn't small talk act as a way to ease into deeper, more profound conversations? She also doesn't understand the disdain for pessimistic people. After all, they're the ones who are authentic enough to speak their minds—let them speak their truth! As long as people are respectful, why does it matter?

So yes, Quetzalli believes many narratives must be shared with the world; her favorite storytelling medium is songwriting! She is currently studying music at university. While her friends try to get her outside, she can happily spend all day in her dorm working on her next melody and clever wordplay. She hasn't recorded legitimate studio albums yet, but sometimes the campus radio station plays her songs. Because of that, Quetzalli became a bit of a local celebrity, with her love songs being the most popular!

Somehow, this earned her the title of "love expert", making people feel comfortable enough to ask her for relationship advice. However, Quetzalli has a deep, dark secret... She's never been in a relationship before! Her unflirty nature has seemingly acted as a repellent towards other women. Quetzalli loves the idea of romance but flirting makes her uncomfortable.

She wishes she could be like those perfectly content single people, but that's not her. Also, friends-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers tropes seem to exist only in fiction for her. How's a girl supposed to find love like this?

So, when she heard about Dating Deanna, Quetzalli thought it would be the perfect opportunity to find love! Yes, even with her unflirty personality. Quetzalli plans to woo the beautiful Deanna with her passion, kindness, and competitiveness.

BUT WAIT.. she has another secret... even though she is genuinely interested in Deanna, she's also drawn to her intelligence—and intelligence often means financial stability. Quetzalli's music has a small yet loyal fanbase, but she's unsure if she'll make it big someday. She wants to work on her craft without worrying about the bills, but she's not a golddigger! Trust!

Again, she really is intrigued by Deanna as a person. Quetzalli likes Deanna's cheerful spirit. She gets inspired by other passionate people, whether they are spirited or pessimistic. Sure, Quetzalli is not the outdoorsy type, but at least Deanna's active lifestyle shows she cares about wellness and isn't lazy! And the idea of marrying someone family-oriented sounds perfect to Quetzalli. She hopes for a partner who will help nurture the curious, creative, and intelligent minds of their future children—children who will one day grow up to share stories of their own.

Quetzalli is ready to fight for Deanna!

Would you prefer your sim to only build a romance bar with Deanna or are you fine with them getting flirty and/or intimate with other contestants?

I'm not sure if it will come to her naturally, but yes! She can get flirty and/or intimate with other contestants.

Is your sim monogamous or would they be open to polyamory?

She is monogamous.

Would your sim be open to woohoo in the later stages of the competition?

Yes, she is open to that!

Would your sim be open to flirting with Joey? Deanna's older brother is an aromantic allosexual and will likely try to hit up a sim or two

No 😔 if Joey was a woman, then yes; however, he is not. So no, lol.

ENTRY TYPE: ALL IN!

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

Request: My lvl-up day

So my birthday is July 7th. And given everything so far, I'm planning on taking the weekend before and having it all to myself as a birthday weekend.

I've seen similar on Tumblr, and I thought I would ask, could you please take screenshots of your Quetzal minions (and yourselves!) for my birthday and I'll reblog them? I adore the little Quetzal minion and it'd be so much fun to see everyone else and their own Quetzals!

(I figured I'd ask early so people who choose to participate can figure out what they want to do!)

If you do participate, please post the picture on 7/7/2025 with the tag #scrolls(lvlup)day

I'm still figuring out what to do on the whole, right now the only plan is a bunch of friendly CC matches with my FC on Sunday, 7/6/2025, as my actual birthday falls on Monday, the start of the workweek. I might ask for help with raids or extremes to try and get loot I've been really wanting.

Thank you so much!

(really, do ignore the elezen on the ground in the first pic. Even though his life has been Suffering™️ever since Quetzy adopted Riven)

[quetzalpapalotl]

tell me about arcee + her relationship to optimus 👀👀 i looove their dynamic in the end of exrid and the optimus prime ongoing

Omg yes!! They're so good!!

Arcee's first notable interaction with Optimus is after Dark Cybertron where she asks to tag in on the mission to Earth and asks about Hardhead. Optimus apologizes for forgetting that she and Hardhead were friends and neglecting to tell her about his death, to which Arcee responds with a defeated smile, saying that everyone forgets about those things.

The thing to keep in mind is that at this point everyone still sees Arcee like some crazy murder lady, even the people Arcee thought she had a connection with don't believe her capable of things like friendship (even Arcee doesn't think herself capable of that), so Optimus acknowledging her relationship and apologizing is sort of the best Arcee has gotten at this point. I am aware that this is setting the bar on the floor, but still, Optimus agrees to let Arcee come with him and seems to not pay mind to her reputation.

It makes sense, Optimus is someone that wants to believe in the good in people and that they can change more than he actually does. He doesn't seem to have much experience with Arcee, but she approaches him with no malice so she takes her in good faith. Arcee has been struggling to try to change herself and find a way to help create a better world and I think Optimus appreciates that.

Optimus, it seems, likes Arcee a lot. He tasks her with keeping an eye on Prowl while he's absent from Earth and then seems to take her as a sort of right-hand-woman. After Prowl, Arcee becomes the de-facto Autobot leader when Optimus is not there, over the other Autobots that had been there from the beginning. This is a lot of trust to put on someone of her reputation that Optimus barely knows and who became an Autobot a couple months ago by way of deciding she was one and no one having the gal to deny her.

But Optimus justs seems to like people who aren't impressed by him (Windblade, Pyra Magna, Ratchet in a way, etc) and of course Arcee isn't impressed. She's older than the primacy, she met the original 13. Arcee doesn't idolize Optimus and neither does she antagonize him which are usually the only two camps in relation to him. She follows him because she wants to do good and there's not much she can do on her own, Optimus thing is supposed to be doing good and knows more about leading than her. She's willing to trust him that he means good, but she will also do her own thing when it seems fit and she's also keeping an eye on him because she's seen enough charismatic leaders to not how how easily they can sour. To her following Optimus is just a matter of practicality.

So they end up with this very interesting dynamic where they're both jaded people that don't know how to be vulnerable and can't really fulfill each other's emotional needs, but that nevertheless have an unspoken understanding as people who are trying their damn best in a good with no simple answers, so they can be honest with each other. Optimus takes Arcee by her word and doesn't see her through her reputation and Arcee doesn't expect of Optimus to be anything more than a mech. The mix of awkwarness, stoicism, trust and Arcee not taking any of OP's bullshit can result in touching moment as well as hilarous ones.

God, I wish so bad that Barber had given us more moments of them just talking to each other because everytime they do is gold. I want more of Arcee telling OP plainly to stop being full of himself, but also a more direct talk between them about the Cybertronian legacy and the place they have in it.

They are the key actors of Optimus Prime, the themes of their arcs compliment each other, the narrative would be incomplete if you took one out. Arcee has lived through all of Cybertron's bloody history. Optimus choose to embody that history. If Optimus' cause is "the future worth fighting for" he needs change to be possible or else everything he's ever done has been pointless. Arcee gives Optimus' struggle meaning because she is someone who despite everything managed to change with the force of nothing but the belief that a better world must be possible. Optimus takes on the Cybertronian sins and dies, killing the Primacy with him, so that everyone else can move on, and on a lower level, he directly tells Arcee to go an let him be the one that sacrifices himself so that Arcee can go back to Aileron and live the life that she didn't even thought she deserved.

Arcee doesn't go to Optimus funeral. Everyone else is trying to come to terms with teh complex, contradictory figure that was Optimus Prime, but Arcee doesn't need to. She has always seen Optimus as who he was, the good and the bad, and she knows what to do with his legacy, so instead she goes and tells the children a story. Optimus' final speech is delivered to us by way of Arcee as something that she knows he would have said because they understood each other through their shared hopes.

I think they could have been good friends had Optimus lived, but things couldn't be that way. Regardless, their relationship was a bit rough, but meaningful.

[toastedclownery]

Beebs as Xipe Totec

WARNING! Before we get into this one I have to mention that this is a god with no skin who wears the skin of the people that were sacrificed to him. I will be using pictures of statues of him and they may be a little unsettling at first

Xipe Totec, “Our Lord the Flayed” is the god of agriculture, spring, and new vegetation. Although he has other attributes such as skin and eye diseases, goldsmithing and warfare. In the legend of the five suns he’s the eldest of the four creation brothers, the red Tezcatlipoca (sometimes called Camaxtle) 

—

Ok so. The other three have subtle Tezcatlipoca traits in their designs. Beebs is a walking Xipe statue. I'm gonna go from top to bottom on possible iconographic elements I found. I'm gonna be using these three codex illustrations of Xipe and a bunch of statues of him.

(Number 5 will surprise you! 🤡)

1. The spikes of his ponytail, matching with Shrike’s, would be a reference to a headdress of quetzal feathers. A lot of gods are illustrated with these long green feathers (quetzalli), including Xipe.

2. Xipe wears the skin of his sacrificial victims, including the face. One of the most important details in statues of Xipe Totec and his impersonators is that he has sunken eye holes and two sets of mouths: the victim’s and his own underneath. You can see his droopy lips or the two layers of his face in codex illustrations too. Beebs, being a Walrinian, has a wide and stretchy mouth and a big lower lip, which could be a reference to the outstretched outer mouth from the statues.

3. As the patron god of goldsmiths, statues of Xipe would wear ear spools made from gold. Although this gold is missing now, he still has the holes in his ears in some of them. I thought his headphones could be a reference to those since they have similar shapes.

4. The sacrificial victim’s heart was taken out before the flaying. And so, the statues all have a horizontal cut or stitching on their chest, where their heart would be. That’s what the “BEARD” print on his shirt is.

5. Xipe’s name translates to “our lord the flayed” because he had given his own skin to give food to humanity, so he then wears the skin of others. Beebs’ prosthetic arm is designed to look like arm muscles, like a flayed arm. This is easier to appreciate in his pilot design.

His legs are supposed to be the same thing. In fact the combination of his shorts and his prosthetic legs is the same as how Xipe’s skin usually ends at the knees.

6. I’m not entirely sure about this point but I thought the bi-colored glove could be a way to sneak in the double hands of Xipe. The fastest way to recognize Xipe in codices is the secondary pair of hands, the dead person’s hands, dangling limply from his wrists. The statues have them too. Beebs has big hands and the two colors of his glove kind of look like two hands, one layered on top of the other.

Still, if that’s not a reference to that, I’ve noticed that Beebs has a pattern of using the characters around him to match this iconography. Especially Shrike but not exclusively.

—

As for additional traits, he's the god of spring and the seasons. The process of flaying and wearing live skin on him represented the annual regenerative cycle of vegetation.

Because he's a god of agriculture, he is also known for carrying a rattlestaff (chicahuaztli). This was a musical instrument that was mainly used for rituals to fertilize the earth. He's not the only one that is seen carrying it, others have them, like Mictlantecuhtli and Chalchiuhtlicue (<- we'll get to those when we get to them)

Now I'm gonna quote Mexicolore here, a website specialized in writing about the precolumbian cultures in Mexico. They've taken a snippet from a study on Xipe and his rattlestaff (Neumann, end of the 5th paragraph)

"It was an instrument by means of which one is enabled to make contact with the spiritual world"

And like:

Beebs uses his guitar to communicate with Us' phantom

—

And finally for thematic similarities, Xipe is the oldest of the four creation brothers. It's been shown throughout the show that Beebs and Shrike act like brothers, Zeurel and Tito also call them that, and they've implied that they have a "brotherly connection"

Beebs acts like an older brother to Shrike because... He is his older brother! And he is expected to act the same way towards Lariat and Triangle, his two other younger brothers, when it's their time to come into the picture.

There's also something that he and Shrike as Huitzi share that the other two don't have: they're both war deities! Huitzi is mainly the god of war, and Xipe is also associated with warfare since he is credited for inventing war. Maybe that's why Shrike and Beebs decided to start a mercenary company together?

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