God The Way I Wish The Main Cast Of FEH Had More Expressive Portraits. We Are Getting More Of Them Now,

God the way I wish the main cast of FEH had more expressive portraits. We are getting more of them now, but I will never not weep at the wasted opportunity to elevate the narrative of book 4. Like could you imagine if Alfonse got new expressions because it’s Kiran wearing his face? Hell let’s really dive into wishful thinking and say they made character portraits for Kiran— those expressions could mirror Alfonse’s new portraits, but aren’t immediately recognizable because we are seeing their god damn eyes for once. And then, once it’s revealed that it is Kiran, they drop all pretenses in pretending and all we are left with is this dull hallowed out expression that’s distinctly not Alfonse but so PAINFULLY Kiran.

ON FUCKING GOD?! DEAD OF THINE ASS?!

If Alfonse wins CYL I’ll draw him with the tits out.

Part of the struggle I faced when making my own modern designs comes from Alfonse not quite being the person he expresses on a surface level.

In the few times I’ve drawn him this way, I had the dawning horror mid drawing that he 100% would wear argyle vests. And not as a work causal slay. No, thats more what Anna is flaunting. She is the queen of button down shirts and dress pants. And it looks so natural on her because she is as extremely work driven as she appears.

But that’s not what Alfonse is doing. He’s formal in a way that looks stiff. It’s not truly who he is, but at a first glance it makes him look like the calm collected straight man (not the sexuality, the comedy role) in this group of eccentrics. The friend who your mom trusted with her number to call in case the group got into trouble. But get to know him a beyond this surface level and you will learn that Alfonse is the friend who got the group in trouble in the first place. He is just as chaos prone, but he puts a mask up to appear like he isn’t.

In order to preserve this part of his character (at least in a beginning), the more interesting gender nonconformity unfortunately takes a bit of a backseat. There are still hints, as you are taking Alfonse’s heels out of my cold dead hands, but it’s kept to a minimum. However I imagine as his character develops and his walls start dropping, we witness more of this side of him and see his more natural states of dress. It’s not a super developed style because he’s been neglecting this form of expression outside of a logical tool, but it’s still there. And we love that for him.

Meanwhile if you want an Alfonse who has fully stopped giving a shit and says fuck it we ball the moment he walks into a clothing store, may I direct your attention to Líf. He is such a goth bitch. Wearing all black in the middle of summer because it gives him the happy chemical and he now knows not to take that for granted. Thasir’s eyeliner? No, it’s Líf’s spare eyeliner that she carries for him in case of emergencies. He’s fucking it up. He’s serving. He may be cringe but at least he’s free.

It is extremely difficult to design modern outfits for Alfonse though idk what it is. Sharena will look good in anything from flannel docs lesbian outfit to cute overalls to something sporty to high femme dresses (tbh I still wanna draw her in one of my fave old dresses ..) but Alfonse. There are def a few routes you can take keeping his character/personality in mind and I think they look good/are super cute and make sense but like... esp for me personally, thinking of the v specific way I draw/stylize him...

AH. MAYBE. MAYBE I FIGURED IT OUT BC I HAVE NO PROBLEM DESIGNING OUTFITS FOR HIM IN FEH CONTEXT...... it's cause that bitch is always wearing tights and long shirts that (esp depending on how you draw it) border on being dress-like to straight up robes/skirt-like garments WHICH makes sense for him in universe bc that's p standard wear for men in Askr, in the Order of Heroes specifically. Like

Seliph's resplendent stands out to me as a huge example of this, and you can kinda see it in Corrin's too! Though I do think resplendents often take a lot from the chara's base outfit (both standard and resplendent Seliph having tunics, both Corrins having leggings ect). But speaking of Corrin, espp the lengthening of that bit of fabric at Corrin's hip, looks a lot like Gustav's garments!

Who may be a better measure for men's dress in Askr (normal attire, for a king anyway, and a cultural festival outfit). But I do also think you can glean some details off of resplendent designs too!

Also actually.

This Day of the Life comic that acknowledged Sharena's absence from the DoD banner (BITE BITE KILL KILL SO MUCH HATRED IN THE WORLD‼️‼️‼️) implies that their outfits may have been identical, just in their respective signature colors (blue and pink). And even looking at Alfonse and Sharena's base art, they have a lot in common!

And looking at Seliph and Corrin again, the puffy sleeves seen on Sharena and Henriette aren't necessarily gendered traits. ACTUALLY.... GUSTAV HAS THEM TOO! Alfonse's outfit is an outlier sleeve design wise!

Which is to say, there aren't actually a lot of strict gender differences in attire here. A lot of the clothing looks/feels androgynous esp when viewed through a modern lense (like I'm sure there's a lot of real-world historical inspo that goes into the designs, I just know fuck all about that LMFAO 😅). And esppp the way I've come to draw Alfonse a lot, I do emphasize what reads as femme -- giving him longer shirts, simplifying the strappy armor on his thighs into. Over the knee socks. Over the leggings/tights. 🫣 And that's not even getting into the knee high boots and heels!!!!

WHICH IS. Actually SO FUCKING DIFFICULT. To translate into modern fashion esp typical standard men's fashion, in a way that still feels true to him as well... bc I do believe in femme/androgynous Alfonse supremacy 😤 But he is ALSO. SO IMPORTANTLY. He is VERY MUCH just some guy who is heavily defined by the role he's been put in. Which is also kind of difficult to sort out, what Would he wear, if the standards were completely different and also if he was choosing for himself?

SINCE. I'M CERTAIN idk if I wanna dig for it but -- I'm CERTAIN all his outfits have been picked For him to some degree. The Order of Heroes outfit is a uniform, the bunny outfit is implied/stated to be picked by Sharena. The yukatas in their duo are 1) Hoshidan and 2) I think Anna was the one who picked them? Might be wrong on that, but I do feel like there's a castle dialogue about it. And of course, the DoD outfits are implied to be cultural Askran wear, and going back to that comic -- it seems neither Alfonse OR Sharena have much of a say in what it looks like (her being uncomfortable "showing that much leg" -- that, if given a choice, she may have wanted something more modest).

So like. There is. So much going on here actually.

archers gloves vs digital artist gloves being opposite of one another

Might start picking through my drafts. For fun. As a treat.