Checking The Slowly Updating Pentiment Tag Is My New Favorite Pastime It Hurts

this is literally act 3 werner/andreas to me

It’s Thanksgiving day where I live so Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! (How did Diana disintegrate panforte?)

I’m still taking a break from social media so still no “real art” for while I guess. Trying to work on a Pentiment drawing for its 2nd anniversary but fumbled real bad this month. Anyways Arcane season 2….

i love whenever i see a comment thats like "its not realistic to be gay in the 16th century, they'll get killed" on pentiment stuff cos its like are you gonna tell Josh Sawyer that? are you gonna tell him that its unrealistic for Werner to become alcoholic over Baltas and Gnaziu slapping balls every night??

ARCANE | Lest Design Explorations | Anna Nikonova

In honor of this Werner Wednesday, have Werner being a good uncle to Magda while her dad is ill

Magda tries to be composed through everything, but... Sometimes she has to cry into the Good Doctor's arms.

I have been changed for good.

Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project simply titled the "Tree of Harmony AU" at the moment until I can come up with a better name. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

The Pony of Shadows is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him. He has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and definitely needs practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

The lingering dark magic corruption from Stygian's time with the shadow is visible on different parts of his body, mainly his eyes when using magic, some discoloration on the inside of his mouth and tongue, and his magic color.

As Stygian exerts better control of the fragment of shadow still attached to him, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky.

Princess Luna ends up becoming Stygian's new mentor to help him gain better control of his magic corruption since she has direct experience with dark magic when she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Stygian's special talent is writing. His autobiography, Me and My Shadow, was an instant hit not just because he's a pony from a time long passed, but because he's a genuine wordsmith.  Stygian redesign by Orin331

sorry if this isn't too thought out or anything but else mülleryn is one of my fav pentiment characters so I wanted to talk about her a little (spoilers ahead)

I think what I appreciate a lot about her characterisation is that her victimhood isn't her whole personality. I feel like some writers tend to (consciously or not) play into the 'perfect victim' trope, especially with women, and make abused characters completely unflawed. they're often depicted as loving, kind, caring, and weak, but I don't think else falls into that stereotype. this isn't to say else isn't loving or kind or caring, she definitely is. she isn't weak though - meek and shy, sure, especially in the first two acts when her abuser is alive and actively casting his shadow over her. but it takes a strong woman to survive in her position and raise a son who, against all odds, ends up becoming the stark opposite of their abuser.

at the same time, what I like about how else is written is that she is not perfect. there are a few moments, in fact, where she's very mean. like when magdalene brings up her scepticism about else's ancestors - I don't have the conversation to hand, but I do remember else can be very rude to magdalene, shutting her down when she brings up valid doubts. of course that doesn't make else evil or anything, she's defensive over her family history which is perfectly natural when it's something she clung to in secret for so long in the abusive environment of her marriage, where lenhardt tried to deny her her personhood. I think that reaction makes else feel very human; it makes sense she's quick to anger about something so close to her heart. I just like that she's written like this, rather than what we might expect based on other fictional characterisations of abused women. she doesn't let others trample over her just because she was a victim once. she defends her beliefs, however irrational they may be, just as someone like ill peter might. rudely and bluntly.

but this isn't just the case in act III, surprisingly. one of the first things else can say when andreas meets her in act I is actually much more mean-spirited. she asks andreas what it's like boarding with the gertners, and when he says they seem to enjoy having someone new staying with them, else responds with something along the lines of "perhaps eva more than clara, hm?" and then she backtracks, knowing that was perhaps a little too rude. it's somewhat vague what she means by that jab, especially at this point in the game, but I took it as slutshaming towards eva. we can later piece together that lenhardt and christine had an affair (although personally, this reads more as rape via coercion to me, given how lenhardt talks about his 'affairs' during the hunting scene), and that eva is lenhardt's illegitimate daughter. knowing how her husband treats women, knowing that his affair was likely not consensual, knowing that eva is just a byproduct of his violence and misogyny, else still makes that remark about her. it's less about eva herself, I think. it's the suppressed frustration and hatred she holds towards lenhardt and how he treats her and others, displaced onto a woman who exists only because of that behaviour.

else is a victim, of course, but she also perpetuates the misogynistic values that her husband upholds. 'eva is a whore because her mother was too' - that's what else seems to be thinking, because she can't think 'lenhardt is a disloyal rapist' if she wants to maintain her role as mother and wife. she can't be a 'good wife' if she hates her husband, so she projects that hatred elsewhere and adopts lenhardt's misogynistic, unempathetic thought processes. it's a very interesting and refreshing characterisation, I think. because it means that else isn't a perfect person just because she's a victim: on the contrary, it's her victimhood that makes her say and think things like this.

I especially believe that's the case because of how isolated she's been from the community since marrying lenhardt. correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember someone (maybe agnes?) mentioning that else is mostly avoided by the other women in town because of how her husband acts. she's the miller's wife. the miller who selfishly raises his tolls without showing remorse for the families who might starve because of it, the miller who coerces peasant women into sleeping with him. because of the sexist views of the time, a lot of the blame would have fallen onto else's shoulders. she's the miller's wife who can't keep her husband in line, the miller's wife who sits up on the hill outside her expensive townhouse looking down on all the poorer people she hates to mingle with. in reality, it's lenhardt who keeps her home (e.g. during st. john's eve) and prevents her forming meaningful relationships with the townswomen who might otherwise have offered her support. but the townsfolk don't know that, and some definitely believe she shares her husband's views.

I realise that's a lot of speculation, and that there are people who sympathise with else, but in the first two acts at least she is definitely not made to feel like a part of the community, and it isn't just physical means that keep her alone. domestic abuse completely isolates the victim from others psychologically as well. lenhardt's prejudices against the townsfolk are one aspect of it, as he constantly reiterates that he and his family are above them and shouldn't mix with 'their kind', which else has to obey in fear of him. but after years of hearing this, it'd be impossible for those prejudices not to leach into else's own worldviews. and knowing how some of the townsfolk view her unfavourably, it makes sense that she'd eventually give in to how lenhardt has been conditioning her to think, by speaking unfavourably about the townsfolk (like eva) in turn. it's a vicious cycle, one that only makes else more and more isolated. which, of course, is what lenhardt wants.

this is why it's so significant that how else ends up in act III hinges on whether andreas affirms her personhood or not. she has to learn to see herself as more than just 'the miller's wife' in order to end up forming meaningful connections with the townsfolk. if she doesn't, she ends up withdrawn and bitter towards everyone else. lenhardt doesn't need to be alive for him to still have influence over her mind. else has to actively work on bettering her psychology after his death to become an involved member of the community, rather than just staying as isolated as she was when lenhardt was still around.

so yeah, idk. to me, that's a very realistic and human way to characterise a victim who has escaped the abusive situation, and I appreciate that the writing doesn't shy away from the uglier parts of what abuse looks like.

Aw! I love how you draw her! Her and her dorky Brother Mathieu lookin glasses❤️❤️😭

Also love your OC! It’s so interesting to see how a woman in Tassing being able to deal with owning a house herself (boo society). My intentions for making my OC is that I love the town and just wanted to see myself live in it but alas realistically, she couldn’t live there alone so I had to make her live with Werner Lol

AN ACTUAL PENTIMENT OC!

Sigrid Golding, an unmarried mandolin player who's camping out in Tassing. She signed the contract for a small house under the guise that her brother (who definitely exists) was buying it.

She's mostly in a good mood and can be found strumming away in the town commons. Being a bit of a whisp in the wind, she's always curious about others in Tassing and would be very intrigued by Andreas Maler. But unfortunately the reverse can't be said really, she rarely divulges information about herself and to get on her good side, indulging in her creative outlet is the way to go...

She can be accused for the second murder due to wanting to make sure the contract that was signed in her "brothers" name having been signed tripartite with the Abbot. And therefore she was worried if the Abbot lost power, her falsely signed contract and house would be snatched away.

I also doodled @girl-of-stupidology 's Pentiment oc Diana! (I love her design, the big glasses just ✨️)

if you're waking up like me thinking "where do we even go from here?"

you:

build community & involve yourself locally

learn self sustainability skills

choose kindness

protect others & yourself

join or build a mutual aid group and/or network

find time for small joys (the arts, cooking a meal you love, spending time with loved ones, etc.)