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Howl Jenkins Pendragon - Blog Posts
Howl’s bird form Asra (since this boy is based on him :D)
you know, I rewatched howl’s moving castle about 10 times but never drew any fanart before
Characters I Headcanon have Bipolar disorder
(From the perspective of someone living with Bipolar 2)
**Disclaimer**
This is all meant to be in good fun and I’m no mental health expert; merely someone who has been through lots of therapy
Let’s Begin!
1. Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist
I’ve always related to Rin Okumura, especially during the time I was under the mistaken diagnosis of ADD. I was surprised to learn from this that a lot of symptoms of bipolar can look like ADD/ADHD at times.
For example, Rin is shown to be someone who is easily distracted or fixated on new topics. He also tends to sleep a lot which is confirmed in the manga by the fact that this boy sleeps 12 hours every night. And finally a major factor that clued me in is how easily he is swayed by his emotions which leads him to act impulsively.
Rin’s emotions tie him to his demonic half which in turn can cause a lot of inner turmoil for him. I’m sure anyone with bipolar can relate in feeling like their change to either a manic/hypomanic state can cause them to feel like a demon and out of control. But as is shown in the series, by practicing to focus on his emotions, Rin learns to lessen and control his symptoms.
2. Gangle from The Amazing Digital Circus
I know I know, I’m lowkey pulling for stereotypes here with the tragedy and comedy masks. And on top of that this is a series with only a pilot so we hardly know anything concrete about her character. 😂
Everyone in the digital circus seems to play a role based off of their avatar given to them. As a being with two different masks, Gangle is very sensitive to the way in which she acts when her comedy mask is broken.
She tends to be very anxious and sensitive to the events that unfold around her both physically and mentally (she unravels from a mere bowling ball being thrown her way by Jax).
In some fandom interpretations of her character I’ve seen interesting depictions that also heavily give bipolar vibes like Gangle having an abstracted self tied to her ribbons or forcing on her comedy mask. I love Gangle and this pilot.
3. Captain SpaceBoy from Omori
Oh poor Captain SpaceBoy. He’s so heavily influenced by any mood swings he experiences that he seems to take on an entirely new persona whether it be SpaceBoyfriend, Space-ExBoyfriend, SpaceHusband, or Space-ExHusband.
When you first meet his character, you can clearly see he is depressed as he refuses to leave his bed and throws away any special possessions that remind him of his heart ache. Later on he even goes as far as to isolate himself on top of a snowy mountain when the heartache returns to him again..
He is also easily consumed by a rage which seems similar to a manic/hypomanic state that leads him to fight the main cast of characters. Also when it comes to his special boss battle I find it interesting how you can only defeat him by fighting him in certain states of emotion.
4. Howl Jenkins Pendragon from Howl’s Moving Castle
Howl is undeniably a drama Queen, but some of the ways in which he takes certain actions give me some bipolar vibes.
There is of course the infamous scene in which he throws a tantrum due to Sophie organizing his hair dye potions. He swings very quickly from being irritated and enraged to absolutely inconsolable and depressed. He even spends that next couple hours in bed after this scene.
Howl also tends to lead himself to danger as he appears to be in heightened states of euphoria when he pushes himself to the limit with his magic. He is also rather impulsive when it comes to the relationships he makes with others if we are going off of his book persona.
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But above all!! All these characters are shown to be good people who genuinely care about the feelings of others and try to do their best to help even when their own mental health is bringing them down.
Bipolar individuals are more than their disorder; we are all kind people ♥️
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And that’s all! Lemme know what you think :)
Book Howl designs from beginning, middle, and end of the story. My favorite drama queen, problem maker, and complainer. I adore the visual of his stupid sleeves trailing behind him so much. Especially during a couple of the fight scenes. Contemplating putting a bit of lipstick on him since its canon he wears makeup. Side tangent. Was gonna do a doodle of him saying “Welcome to my crib bby” and it’s just his squalor room behind him but couldn’t figure out a pose. I’m either gonna do his character illustration next or work on Sophie’s designs next. Idk yet.
Heres the raven black hair before he dyes it white too.
just thinking about how howl spent his entire life looking for sophie. he built an entire castle just to find her. he worked on both sides of the war because he didn't know which kingdom she was from. he dated pretty women because he thought she was beautiful the moment he saw her in the past. calcifer let her in because he knew she was the one. he really was looking everywhere for her. and i think i'm unwell.
yeah. he is the love of my life. what about it?
Slimy
For this prompt you know I had to draw Howl
Masterpost
Saw this trend in other fandoms not long ago and i thought it was cute! so i decided to do Howl's moving castle. (2004)
Y’ALL I’VE GOT A FUCKING ANNOUNCEMENT
I have no idea if anybody else has posted about this but you guys remember Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle right? Okay so I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I keep thinking to myself about how similar Lily and Howl are
HEAR ME OUT HOLD ON I’VE GOT A COUPLE POINTS TO MAKE
Okay okay okay so first of all we gotta fucking talk about their appearance and I think it’s even more prominent in all of the Lily art after Strike’s art style notably changed. Like look at this shit??
Lily is strawberry blonde I think but y’know he’s technically a redhead and a blonde at the same time and Howl has been BOTH OF THOSE THINGS
I also firmly believe Lily would and should wear some of Howl’s clothes or adopt some of his fashion because THEY FIT HIM SO WELL I THINK (I even have an old drawing that I did about that that I might post eventually just to prove my point). But even then they already have similar fashion because they both like to wear pink and earrings and a necklace of sorts (I still consider the pocket watch as Lily’s necklace because of how he wears it)
There are so many things about them too that I honestly find to be REALLY FUCKING FUNNY
Remember the time that Howl had a temper tantrum and turned into slime because he got turned into a redhead and (according to him) not being at his top tier sexiness? I watched that scene I was like “Why do I feel like like Lily would do something like that” until I realized THAT HE TECHNICALLY DID IN I THINK VOLUME 2 WHEN HE WAS FIGHTING BERUKIA
I am still absolutely cackling over the fact that Berukia cut off a tiny bit of Lily’s hair, and as a result, Lily got so pissy that he was politely like “Oh you crossed the fucking line” and after beating the shit out of Belkia with his scythe and being like “that’s what you get for cutting my hair”, he ended up cutting off Berukia’s entire goddamn ponytail off-screen (I think he was the one that did that but correct me if I’m wrong)
Also if I'm correct the servamps can fly I think because how the fuck would Lily have gotten onto the top of that lamp post in volume 3 to do his gay little glitter gaslight gatekeep girlboss magic (let alone without falling) which means… technically Lily can do Howl’s sky walk if he got enough practice with it
The main summary of this post is that if I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen a blonde magical man with shoulder-length hair who likes pink and wears earrings and a necklace throw an extreme tantrum over his hair I’d have two nickels
Jealousy, Jealousy.
Note: I tried Smth new w howl, pls pls lmk if u like it cuz I was half asleep as I typed this out (・∀・)
He's jealous.
It was only a quick pitt stop at the Wizard Pendragon's shop (one of Howl's many aliases) that set it all off.
A calm morning for the Pendragon's moving household was set to start and the shop needed a bit of upkeep as customers were running dry. So with the creaky floorboards all swept up and Calcifer warned to not misbehave, the clock-like magical device that hung next to the door signalled with a resounding ding and a switch in colour indicating where the castle had teleported to.
There was a long day ahead but you couldn't be more pleased.
As the hours went on Howl worked in rhythm with you as tinkering laughter was heard throughout the shop and bubbling mixtures were stirred harmoniously in cauldrons. There was a calm air to your love as he flitted around you with hands briefly coming to couch and maybe even teasingly squeeze at your hips as he passed.
"Pass me the dandelion leaves ?", He asked while focusing on the lilac fluid seeping from the side of the potion bottle he was pouring into.
You nodded with a kiss atop his freshly midnight-dyed hair - courtesy of sweet Sophie, you know she didn't mean it but you couldn't thank her more for the darkened charcoal colour that had seeped into his golden locks- and off to the ingredients section you went muttering past bottles of all sorts.
Coming back empty handed with no dandelion leaves in sight you let your eyes wander to his sprawled out form in the chair by the fire, Howl only looked up and smiled a bit disappointedly before getting to his feet and tugging on his boots.
You could already see long black feathers creeping out his cloak, predicting his speedy mode of transport for the errand.
"I'll be back in a moment sweetheart, not to worry. Markle will take care of everything."
Knowing full well the small child would've dosed off by now as he'd left to play in the fields while you both worked, you were left to manage the quaint store while Howl flew out for after a dizzying kiss goodbye and mumbles of bringing you wildflowers to carefully twist into your hair.
Then and only then did a customer decide to come in.
He was a polite young man, easily flustered and a soldier of the royal palace you noted due to the bluish uniform donning his slightly hunched physique.
He was nervous.
You grinned trying to ignore his demeanour so that maybe the pink in his cheeks would lessen.
"Ma'am, the queen has requested for a simple sleep draught from the makings of your shop.", He coughed, "please." came soon quickly after he'd recollected himself and pulling at the yellowed buttons holding his vest together.
You hid your smile behind the worn glove that your sweet partner had embroidered a pathetic attempt of a small daisy onto which you very much cherished, it felt like you were talking to a mouse rather than a fully grown man.
"Why of course."
The man...boy even, settled into a lone seat to watch you set up, eventually gaining courage to invite you into bubbly conversation that you found very boring very fast hence weren't all too interested in so short sugared-up answers were all he received.
The 'banter' he thought he was receiving on your end was honestly faked curiousity.
It seemed he was quite dim. Too dim for your liking.
His puny attempts to indirectly flirt were unoriginal and simply unwelcome.
Just as you were starting up your potion with another lame probe on the topic of the weather about to leave the man's mouth, your beloved hurriedly came in. Cheerily he was chattering on about a bird he'd been able to fly up close to in in his bird-like form.
"Oh, you should have seen it's-", Howl interrupted himself to stare at the man sat atop the brass stool across your apothecary tabletop, "feathers?"
His demeanor immediately switched.
Gone was the gentle, patient magician you were so accustomed to. There stood an intimidating wizard and he oddly felt much taller, much more powerful than a split second ago.
This was the Howl Pendragon you'd only ever heard about through word of mouth, not the one that childishly insisted to cuddle up on your ill-fitted couch or cast silly spells to jokingly make your hair stick up in different directions.
No. This was a whole different feel of a person and it seemed like the magic was almost spilling out of him in waves, you could almost taste it's electric crackling force in the air.
He felt more confident, cocky, ready to rip into this poor man down to his basic self-worth.
You liked it.
His lips twitched.
"Darling, who is this?"
Howl's voice was always deep and smooth as silk, just as it was right now, yet you were no fool and could pick up on the the roughened edges of his tone.
But it seemed like the young soldier took no notice of the emotional state of the suddenly very upset wizard in his presence. He only turning around to bow deeply in respect while stuttering out a greeting and an explanation of his presence.
Howl only had a curt nod to give as a reply and you could tell he wasn't very ecstatic have a new face in here.
If he could roll his eyes at the 'competition', they'd roll all the way to the back of his head to see his brain.
The next few minutes were tense as he only grinned tightly and came to your side to place a very domineering palm on your corseted waist pulling you in closer to his warm body, sending a clear message.
"I'm sure you've got this one little potion down love?", He said with his eyes sharply glancing to the young man that had very clearly receded back into his shell at this point.
Howl didn't even need to say a word, didn't even need to properly look at the guard for him to metaphorically back away. But of course he had to ensure he got his point across, so what else could he do but dip down to deeply kiss your lips, he was only seconds away from basically pushing his tounge into your mouth if you didn't stop his dramatic live-performance.
Nodding satisfied with himself, you huffed whispering 'show off' while he stepped back to tend to his dandelion-leaf-less potion.
You couldn't even look up at the barstool your customer sat on anymore with the intense blush covering your face and you could only imagine the agony of embarrassment he was going through.
With the potion sealed up and a-way-over-the-actual-price bag of coins thrown at the counter, he promptly escaped out the door not even bothering to check for any change.
Shrugging you turned back to glare at Howl who was innocently blinking into space.
"Was the last part really necessary."
He slowly smirked, tendrils of his magic swirling past your shoulders.
"Whatever do you mean?"
You quickly found yourself within his grasp, pressing kisses to your knuckles as an apology.
You knew he wasn't sorry at all.
Loud laughter could be heard from a distance as Calcifer moved the castle along to wherever your hearts desired.
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