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callophelia-ailingamnemonic · 13 days

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Scared into acting again, here are some shadow/persona designs I made for Persona Crossroads:

I saw a news article thing for P6 show up on my phone's newsfeed and got scared into acting once more, here are some more persona and shadow designs I made for Crossroads (which I sort of scrapped since I don't want it to be done in the P5 Tactica art style anymore XDD)

First up we got the myth, the legend, Bayonetta!

I actually got pretty far into making the art digital, but as much of a shame as it is, I just wanted an art style change XDD The final Bayonetta design will probably still look similar tho owo

I used Ernesto from P5T as inspo for the gun feet X33 I don't really have much else to talk about regarding her design since it mostly sticks to her canon outfit in Bayonetta 1.

Next, we got Karl Jacobs' TFTSMP character.

I really wanted to lean in on the whole In Between-Other Side-XD's World idea, tho I ended up not finishing the colouring since I got stuck on what to do with the hair lol XDD

The bottom coat part is inspired by a fanart I saw by Cute Studio (I believe their username was...) and the inside of the coat and the hands sprouting from the ends of Jacobs' scarf is a reference to all the versions of him that can be found in the In Between. The last notable note I can think to mention about his design is how his halo is meant to sort of... evoke the imagery of a clock? If that makes sense lol.

I wanted him to look super ominous since Jacobs' was supposed to be a boss.

Unexpectedly, up next we have the illusive, rumoured Istaroth from Genshin Impact!

It's a weird choice since we've never had a confirmed appearance for her, but back in my old notes for Crossroads, Istaroth was supposed to be one of the characters' personas, so yeah, I made her lol.

Her design was inspired by art of her drawn by gierosajie-art and littleblueberryartist! Originally I had her standing, but realised the pose of her sitting down with her hands in her lap to be more iconic.

And here we have Mari from OMORI! :DD

I think I mentioned it before, she was originally supposed to be part of a system of personas that's like... a bunch of personas in one personas because their user was a person with DID. Still not sure if I'm keeping the concept yet, but if not, then she'll just be a shadow roaming around.

Her hair was inspired by a fanart made by k0re_drawings on Twitter. I just loved how they drew her hair in a way that looked like snapped violin strings! If I redesign her tho, I think I might use a drawing by an artist called Hiko (I think) as inspiration. Mari doesn't really look like Something, but if you look at her from the back, the resemblance is there, I swear!

And next we have the Electro Archon herself, Raiden Ei! :DD

This was designed when she was still supposed to be Arilette's persona and I truly regret not making her skin look like shadows :\\

Her outfit is basically just her normal outfit without some of the asymmetricalness and some extra ornaments and armour inspired by the Raiden Shogun boss and a small handful of fanarts. I love how her bottom half has the vague silhouette of a butterfly :))

And last but not least, we got the Anemo Archon, Venti! :DD

So... I don't like his design ._. It's too much. I tried using various fanarts as inspiration to try and make his outfit a lil cooler, but it's just... so... much ._. (I do love the touch of Celestia in his corrupted form owo)

Even tho the name of the persona is Venti, I decided to make his look resemble Barbatos so I could pull a Third Ascension and make it look like his bard outfit while naming it Barbatos owo

That's all I got lol

#persona series au #persona crossroads au #persona series #traditional drawing #digital drawing #Bayonetta #Karl Jacobs #Dream SMP #omori mari #raiden ei #genshin venti #Genshin Impact #istaroth

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villainever · 5 years

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Eve and the Performance of Morality

The "descent into darkness" as a format for a character arc is relatively common these days, especially in prestige television, and while it's more often played out with men than women, it's not unheard of as a trajectory for female characters. What's so interesting about Eve's development is how FAST it is happening. On a poorly-written show, this would be because the writers were rushing, too caught up in Point B to plot a satisfying journey there from Point A. But Killing Eve is basically a masterclass in good screenwriting, and it leaves us with the unshakeable feeling that this is the only way it COULD happen for Eve.

Other "descending" characters are so often ordinary, but transformed by their remarkable circumstances. They are pushed by the people around them and unfortunate events into compromising on their ideals and values, slowly shifting inch by inch until they've lost sight of who they were. And often, this is where they're killed off, or a redemption begins.

But even though she changes, Eve isn't transformed. She's REVEALED. And not just to us, but to herself. She isn't surrounded by people pushing her to darkness -- in fact, Elena, Hugo, Kenny, Jess and Niko are all trying to hold her back from it. Instead, she chases darkness. She follows Villanelle further and further, around a dozen corners in the gloom, and when the light's gone entirely, Eve realises that she can still SEE. Eve is made for the darkness, and Villanelle knows it from the beginning, but Eve is still working it out.

While I don't think Eve has the same compulsion towards violence that Villanelle does, I do believe they are an example of the nature/nurture conflict. Eve was raised by good people in a good place and got a good education, then married a good man and got a good job. "Nice and normal". At every turn, she was socialised and conditioned to mimic morality and empathy, and while Villanelle often acts this out as well, for Eve, the acting is still subconscious. She believes it comes from an innate impulse, rather than years of being told what to do and how to react. Neither Villanelle nor Eve really connect with people effortlessly on an emotional level, but Villanelle accepts that about herself, while Eve can almost pretend it's been bred out of her.

Eve's stable life and her moral framework are dependent on one another, so they implode at the same time. Staying in the realm of 'normal' with Niko necessitates a certain performance of conventional morality, but when Villanelle not only doesn't demand that performance but actually demonstrates an existence without it, Eve finds it harder and harder to maintain her home life.

Once the door has been opened, it can't be closed again. Eve is realising who she is, and more importantly, who she ISN'T. In 205, Martin says, "Don't add. Take away." And this is how we're experiencing Eve's arc. We take away outside pressure to be normal. We take away moral influences. We take away the expectation of goodness. And this leaves Eve looking a lot more similar to Villanelle than she's perhaps ready to admit yet to herself.

It's worth noting how Niko has identified Eve as self-obsessed, because she definitely is. But a lot of that self-obsession manifests in her fascination with Villanelle -- not only because Eve really likes Villanelle and stops caring about what distracts her from wholeheartedly pursuing her, but because Eve RECOGNISES some part of herself in Villanelle, and almost uses her as a mechanism for self-discovery. She watches what Villanelle does, and enjoys it, while being able to maintain the distance that comes from not having physically done it herself.

As I mentioned earlier, we've seen the "descent" arc before in modern television. One that springs to mind in Piper on OITNB. In S1, Piper commits increasingly selfish acts, but still considers herself a good person -- indeed, nothing she does can be really that bad, because she's a Good Person. Over S2 and S3, she continues downwards, until by S4, she's no longer able to reconcile the two versions of herself, so she decides she must be a Bad Person. Because of her pathological need to be liked, this doesn't work for her either, and ultimately, Piper ends up trying to do good things to become a genuinely Good Person.

Eve, I think, originally believed that she would hit some point like this, and bounce up from the bottom. But she won't. Why? Because at first, Eve thinks she needs people to like her, but she actually doesn't. She fires Kenny -- the last of their original team, the last person who knew Old Eve (not counting Carolyn, who has layers I won't get into here) -- and doesn't really miss him, or notice he's gone (eg. calling Hugo "Kenny"; they're interchangeable and missable). She wants Villanelle's attention, but Villanelle 'liking' her is different to the way other people might -- Villanelle wants her, is attracted to the best of the worst in her, is enjoying Eve's emergence from her crucible (or cocoon, depending on how you want to frame it). Eve's primary drive is Villanelle's interest in her, and that's certainly not holding her back in her journey.

Secondly, Eve doesn't actually care about being good. She's had numerous potential "wake-up call" moments -- stabbing Villanelle, facilitating the torture of the Ghost, nearly pushing the guy at the train station, Niko leaving, Villanelle killing someone right in front of her, etc. Yes, she had a minor breakdown over knifing Villanelle, but that was more the idea of Villanelle being gone than the stabbing itself, because the way Eve later says she thinks of it "all the time" doesn't sound as black and white as regretting it in its entirety; like Villanelle, she views it as a point of significsnt connection between them and I don't believe she'd let that go. Regardless, the point is that if she had a real gut connection to her moral compass, she would've bailed. Because really, her original mission is over. She caught Villanelle. She chased her and drew level and she's done.

But Eve's not done, because she's chasing not just Villanelle, but the Eve who can keep pace with her. She's chasing what Villanelle represents -- freedom from a system that doesn't fit Eve, not really.

What we have to remember, though, is that Eve has been socially and ideologically programmed for forty-five years. Most sociopaths lead typical lives and have long-term relationships and never really dig too deep into their psychology. It's doable. This is why Eve is slipping fast but not faster -- she's had a taste of liberation from her constraints, but her skin has long since grown over those shackles, so it's hard not to see them as a part of herself, and difficult to get them off.

But they'll come off, because Eve isn't a quiet woman with an average husband and a respectable government job. Eve is a chameleon, the way Villanelle is, only she's less deliberate and has been playing her character for far longer.

Which leads me to Villanelle's speech on life being boring and why it was so important for Eve to hear it. If we look at classic "chaotic" characters like Eve and Villanelle, they're often motivated by boredom, or rather, the desire to escape it. Villanelle and Eve are stuck in a world designed for other people.

The fact is, Eve has been bored forever. Eve was bored long before the pilot, when she was stuck in a holding pattern with Niko and imagining how she'd kill him, not because she wanted him gone but because it was INTERESTING. When she started keeping track of a female assassin but not even trying to report her, because she wasn't aiming for justice but ENTERTAINMENT.

Another fascinating element of their dynamic is that we as an audience are usually positioned to root for a redemption, but with Eve, we can't imagine anything more disappointing. We don't need her to turn it all around, we need her to dive in. Not only because it makes for a fresh storyline, but because great arcs are about characters finding who they are, and we have already grasped who Eve is. Along with Villanelle, we're waiting on her to realise it and act on it. Eve returning to her normal life would be a wolf among sheep, and I think Eve has gone too far. Not in that she's committed serious crimes she'd always be guilty of -- although she's getting close -- but because Eve is coming to understand she's not who she imagined she was, and any performance after this will be a conscious one. A decision to pretend. And guess what? That'll get boring, too. We root for a darkening Eve because we want her and Villanelle to escape that boredom, and escape it together, and forgetting this ever happened is not a way to do that.

I've smashed this out on my phone because I had a lot of thoughts and I'm not going to proofread because no one will actually read this. But essentially, I think we can expect Eve to continue using Villanelle as a proxy for a little while longer, until she's ready to cut loose her parachute. She hasn't committed to this yet because she doesn't want to forfeit the possibility of her old life to go back to (which is why she was upset over splitting from Niko even though she couldn't care less when he's actually around), but once she is reminded how horribly BORING it was, there'll be nothing to hold her back anymore. Because better to flame and implode than be smothered in a kitschy kitchen with a man you imagine blending up and pouring into a thermos. Better to be true and horrible than be nothing.

If you did read this thank you and I promise I'll stop writing mini essays and go back to regularly scheduled memes in a moment. I don't really do these because they don't interest anybody, but lmao, these two always get me thinking. hmu if you wanna trade theories lol.

#killing eve #ke #eve polastri #eve x villanelle #villanelle x eve #villanelle #oksana astankova #eve x oksana #ke analysis #mine #villainever #dont mind me just speculating #killing eve s2 #killing eve season 2 #villainever writes #villanevest writes

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