It Gets Me A Little Irritated When People Act Like Mono Isn't Supposed To Be An Intrinsically Compassionate

it gets me a little irritated when people act like mono isn't supposed to be an intrinsically compassionate foil to six's character.

every moment of his character in cutscenes with six demonstrates kindness and compassion. his hand is always reaching out to offer comfort and reassurance. when they're separated, despite the fact that he's answering the tower's call, he still goes out of his way to ensure that him and six are reunited and that he is safe again instead of continuing to push forth to the pale city.

the only aggression he shows is towards entities that are hostile to himself. he does what he has to do to survive, which is something that him and six do have in common. but him smashing the bullies open or lighting the doctor on fire doesn't negate the fact that he is being portrayed as a child who is inherently more tender-hearted and trusting than the girl he's travelling with.

mono is afraid of being alone. by the time we pick up six's story again within the maw, we can see that she has become adept at being alone. they're stark opposites.

even the simple theory of shapes in character design tells us so much about the two of them. mono's shape is square. this indicates to us that he is strong, sturdy, reliable, and supportive. six's shape is triangular. triangles signify that a character is cunning, sneaky and dangerous. (sometimes it is used to indicate that a character is 'evil,' but we know all too well as a fandom that using that term to describe six is doing her a complete disservice and shows a deep misunderstanding of her character.)

all this to say that it's upsetting that people see the need to try and make mono out to be more edgy than he actually is, often just in retaliation against the misunderstandings people have about six's nature. this series is very open to interpretation, so it's fair enough if you personally believe him to have a darker side. but it's my personal belief that isn't the correct portrayal of his character and there's very little evidence of that being the case within the series.

(OML I JUST REALIZE I FORGOT TO TURN THE LAYER BACK ON FOR HIS HEAD TUFT ON THE FULL BODY-OOPS 😭😭) Since Seasonal posted their quick storyboard of Scylla I thought it was appropriate to share the character designs of Ody and Eury (+ the palette design for Odysseus bc unfortunately we don’t have a full color full body of Eury yet (we have his palette design but it hasn’t left the “base” stage yet))

(I didn’t include Ody’s scars for various reasons- primarily bc I’m dumb and forgot. Ody also looks slightly different depending on what point of the story it is) If you’re wondering why Ody has so many notes and not Eury, that’s because I did Ody first. Half way through the notes I realized “wait, what am I doing?? This isn’t for anyone outside of me and my twin?? Why am I meticulously trying to find space for notes me and them already know of??” So I decided to save myself the time and energy by not adding notes for Eury. I think these are both down for some revisions, but these are generally what they look like!

Here’s Odysseus’s palette design! The sketch was originally made by @seasonalmoss (a bit ago, so it was definitely before his character design was made). I did everything else! (His scars were adjusted a bit after this) gosh I probably should go through my thought process over this designs- I’ll try to list a few!

Odysseus being all droopy was a design choice made from the start (we joined this fandom in July 14TH 2023). We wanted to capture the weight of his guilt and sadness in some physical way. It also just makes him look more sopping wet. His fur use to be super sharp in shape, and his ears use to stand tall! This was to show how bold and out there he was! Between Just a Man and Survive his ears were simply kinked a little. For the entirety of act one his fur was incredibly round in shape. To show how he leaned a little bit to much on the mercy side of things.

A lot of the design choices regarding his palette design was with three things in mind. 1. Telemachus was actually designed first (bc Seasonal designed him and she didn’t procrastinate for over a year on his design)- so I had to make sure he looked related to his son (Ody being a tabby just made sense to us) 2. I really wanted to reference owls- as he is a trainee of Athena. 3. Odysseus is a very warm, loving and sweet guy (when not pushed into corner) so I really wanted to capture that with his design!

We really wanted him to look well-built and a little broad-shouldered- while still looking a little scrawny in some areas (as he just felt like he was weirdly gangly and scrawny as a kid). Hence the tapering of his body! It also just adds more visual interest. (Though I probably could’ve exaggerated these a little more)

Ody actually has these weird square shaped striped pupils- which isn’t properly shown in his palette design (I’m not sure why- ask @seasonalmoss since it was their idea. But I think it looks cool)

Catified EPIC: the musical Storyboard

Making an EPIC animatic 😤 anyways quick kinda low quality storyboard! Eurylochus now has a design BTW! Which isnt really shown here, but he was designed by my twin! @thequasarwinds (I’ll allow her to post it) his pallet design however (so his colors and patterns) were by me! I used a base so im not gonna show it here!

I adore the underworld saga! It's really just so beautifully written. I love the themes of grief throughout. I especially love the song the underworld. That final "all I hear are screams" is so powerful. I'm not sure if my interpretation is correct or unique but I see it as a reflection of the guilt Odysseus feels. Throughout the song you don't actually hear any screaming, not like in the Cyclops saga.

The interaction with the crew that died sounds more like a repetition of what Poseidon was saying in Ruthlessness. It doesn't actually feel like something his men would say. The two other interactions you do see are calm, peaceful. Heart wrenching yes, but not tortured agony. The agony is Odysseus' only and the screams are his own conscience.

if this post gets 10 likes and 15 reblogs I'll make another c.ai Telemachus bot

pls rb if you think cuddling doesn't have to be s3xual

im tryna prove a point to my bf's mother help me out

Stupid Ass Odysseus Faces compilation because i love drawing him