The Ruins Of Outer Expanse

The ruins of Outer Expanse

Some weeks ago I watched all four Hunger Games movies for some reason. You know when something's too mainstream you're like "I'm not gonna watch it >:)" but I guess I had nothing better to do. I wasn't paying good enough attention however so there's not much of value I could say about it, but one thing sure got my attention and that's Primrose, and it's half because she reminded me so much of Cordelia Glenbrook.

Like goddamn she just about stole the show for me because of that. They have similar personalities (gentle and kind), similar looks (blond + braid), similar jobs (medic/healer), similar roles relative to the mc (younger sister that the older sibling is protective of), similar narrative (seems like a damsel in distress but ends up showing a lot of inner strength). I know I have TriStrat in the brain but can anyone blame me for this?

The biggest difference between the two has to be (and this is where I should put a spoiler warning for Mockingjay pt. 2, I guess) that Prim doesn't make it. It really is what sets the bitter tone of the ending despite the success of the war. I really doubt the ending would have felt as empty even if one of the love interests died instead of her. Hell, even if both died it wouldn't have felt so crushing because of how integral Prim was to Katniss's... well, everything.

And you know this made me speculate the alternate scenario where Cordelia similarly doesn't make it. Like, the writers didn't know what to do with her post chapter 14 anyway, so maybe they planned to kill her off before coming up with the genius idea to make her a playable character since she became too much of a badass during ch7-13. Gotta say, if I went for the destroy bridge or dam path in ch13 in my first playthrough, I might have been -- even if for a moment -- truly convinced Cordelia would die after the dramatic turn of events.

And look, that would hurt like hell if that really was the case. But that's the point, right? It would make people empathize with Roland better in terms of his unyielding bitterness towards the war Aesfrost started. Regna and Frani's deaths don't hit that hard -- we understand they were dear to Roland but we don't FEEL it. But Cordelia we've known for 10+ chapters and being unable to save her after coming so close to it must be devastating if that's what happened. Like, that could potentially make me fall into the depths of genuinely indulging myself in the act of crushing Aesfrost for an unspeakable price.

This seems like an okay idea but honestly it hurts too much to even consider this alternate scenario. Maybe it's better for her that way rather than being forgotten post chapter 14, but man, screw that. Sometimes I just want comfort.

To come back to Hunger Games, I really did enjoy Prim. Loved that scene where she dances with Katniss. Siblings, man. I'll be thinking about her for a while. I wouldn't have said the protective/heroic older sibling + fragile/docile younger sibling trope was particularly my favorite -- it has a very "old fashioned" ring to it -- but honestly I've been falling for it ever since TriStrat did it (with quite a bit of subversion, too), and now with Hunger Games I really indulged in it.

why did this life drawing sesh have me feeling feelings 😭 (the models' poses omg...)

Redraw of the cover for the song Ga1ahad and Scientific Witchery with Darner and Olympia, as this song played a huge part in their inspiration, even if a lot has changed lore wise since I first designed them

Landscapes from Pyre.