#winged lion dm

[linkedin-offficial]

one more of him

[mirumeni]

Combined two sketchbook drawings

[breegadey]

worldbuilding is harrrrd

[ehlihr]

The Wish II - Joanna Wang - Dungeon Meshi Animatic

enjoy!

[spintops]

Dunmeshi wizard of oz doodles 🧙‍♂️

[dansfrights]

shamelessly posting my older dungeon meshi stuff 🥺🥺🥺

[loriache]

do you ever think about how delgal never blamed the winged lion for what happened to thistle?

I'll preface this by saying that he certainly COULD have done. most of the arguments that delgal had with thistle about returning the golden kingdom are off-page, and he doesn't seem to have relayed a lot of detail to yaad about how he understood thistle's behaviour.

however.

what we can infer, i think, is that if delgal blamed anything for thistle's increasingly erratic behaviour, it was the influence of "black magic" and power.

the winged lion is the golden kingdom's guardian deity, and that is how they understand it up to the present - including yaad. the prophecy that convinced delgal to leave the dungeon (which i assume the winged lion intended to use to attract another, more easily controllable, dungeon lord) is likely to be part of a long campaign the lion made of deliberately isolating thistle from the people of the golden kingdon and presenting itself as the victim.

we see that the lion is convincing, and keeps a facade of concern for thistle long past the point that it has any chance of winning him over - i don't have any doubt it was easy to present this narrative to the kingdom's people, including delgal.

but isn't it incredibly sad to think that the person who thistle trusted most in the world and did all of this for was unable to see the true victim, between him and the winged lion?

we see that very shortly upon becoming the dungeon lord, both marcille and laios become lost in their desires. this is standard.

Laios is only able to get through to marcille because he sees the root of her pain, and understands that ...

...the dungeon's power is evil.

thistle isn't acting rationally from the very beginning, but it is possible to reach him - if delgal could understand where his desire and his fear stemmed from, and that the winged lion is evil.

Thistle at least seems to know that the winged lion isn't to be trusted. Thus why he sealed it in the book. perhaps he picked up on what it was doing, manipulating the kingdom's people and him both.

But if he ever said that the winged lion was dangerous, not to be trusted, to delgal, he wasn't believed. to delgal, thistle sealed and misused the power of the golden kingdom's guardian deity. As a student of ancient magic, I believe thistle understands that isn't what the demon is - or at least not all of what it is - even if he doesn't know the details of why it's so dangerous, or that it can devour his desires. But as an 'outsider' to the golden kingdom, despite his (unofficial, i'm sure) adoption, and the fact he's been there most of his life, I doubt his saying so would be received well by the kingdom's people.

As far as we know delgal also doesn't understand the fear that is driving thistle's refusal to let the dungeon go -- the need to be useful that he instilled.

Even if he doesn't really realise, he is talking to a, at most, 15-16 year old in relative human years, and putting the responsibility for the kingdom on him - it's no wonder this is a weight that Thistle isn't able to let go of. Especially if this is how he attempts to persuade him:

It doesn't get to the root of why he asked thistle to do this to begin with - the fear of death. It's just "hasn't it been long enough, people want to leave." Well, if they leave, they will die - thistle's right about that! The only way to get him to accept that is what Yaad eventually does on his behalf at the end of the manga.

To admit that he was wrong to ask to begin with. To ask Thistle to accept loss and death. To accept it himself, truly.

Without doing that, there's no way he'd ever get through to him. So the route he takes - running away from thistle, begging that someone kill the "lunatic magician" - might be the last resort of a desperate man who blamed himself for what happened to his brother. But it's also something he does because he can't understand Thistle, and can't see his pain for what it is or his relationship with the Winged Lion for what it is.

The way that the lion manipulates others' perception to make him the victim and thistle the - well, the 'lunatic', the unstable villain and captor - really evokes DARVO to me. the demon as a metaphor for an abusive relationship. like.... look at this extra:

and it makes me sad that no-one realised what was going on until it was too late for thistle.

[diadoesart]

Feed What Feeds You

I wanted to try out some new CSP brushes :3c

HQ version is available on paytreon and kwofi, links will be in the comments below ^ ^

[candy8448]

Thinking about how dungeon meshi could have litterally just ended after they revived Falin from the red dragon's stomach if after they revived her and washed her up and ate, they ask her to teleport them up to the outside of the dungeon.

I mean, the winges lion's magic doesn't reach outside of the dungeon so falin would probably have not felt a need to go back into the dungeon since whatever lured her to thistle would not have reached her outside. Bam, happy ending (lol)

[flowerbloom-arts]

Guess who finished Dungeon Meshi and who their favorite character is.

[yuri-puppies]

oh that was a liveblog, thank god you cleared that off for me before I babbled. I didn't want to possibly spoil them, but that's an angle I've never seen before. I'm 100% of the opinion it's the lion's doing tho, and they're fussing over him bc they're the people closest to him. I do think it's curious how this Falin seems touchier with Marcille than real Falin

re: this post

oh, 100% it's the lion's doing. i do think it's an overstatement to say they're parenting him; it's more that they are acting in prototypical ways. he wants them doing what makes them happiest, and from his perspective that involves a degree of fretting over him and what he's doing

the bit that really grabbed my attention though, it's that he's being shuffled away from the "boring" parts of kingship to the fun monster interactions to seduce him into accepting ~~his destiny~~

but actually that's an early indicator that not even the guy who can literally read his mind and sniff out his desires actually understands Laios (although on second thought, Laios' succubus was like... a pretty big hint of that too)

he actually says it himself in the fight with Thistle, he finds dealing with logistics and the pragmatic realities of survival soothing; it's something he's good at. it's certainly not the juicy stuff of fantasies, but it's something that centers his mind

which leads me to post-canon (beefier spoilers under the cut)

in cursing him to become a living monster repellent, the lion thought he was dooming Laios to the opposite of his dream - the boring aspects of running a kingdom without the "good parts." but actually, most of his dream kingdom does come true! Falin is happy and healthy, Marcille is his trusted advisor, demi-humans are accepted in society and he is ensuring that no one goes hungry on his watch. there might even be plant monster farming going on in the outskirts.

[linkedin-offficial]

concept i enjoy

[zondearts]

Falin Touden warm ups

[curapicas]

how I look at the guy I'll have an intense vore-off with, in which we'll end up cursing each other in permanent ways

[dunmeshi-would-you-eat]

Laios' "Uncooked Winged Lion"

[blimbo-buddy]

The dungeon ibuprofen lion or something I don't fucking know