I Drew Some Angsty Adrien Agreste And Couldn't Decide Which Version I Prefered, So I'll Just Post Both.

I think I've never posted any httyd art before?? which is crazy because this series was like half my childhood. (the other half being calvin and hobbes) anyway here have a tired hiccup. I love this boy

Cliffhangers are great, but I hope we get some post-reveal discussions in the next (chronological) episode. If we don't, well, I guess I'll just have to write some myself!

Bonus Panel:

Marinette: Well, you know, considering I just had a breakdown about how dating isn't an option because I'm a superhero--

Alya: Got it. Ladynoir.

Marinette: NO

For some reason, nothing hits me harder than seeing characters laugh hysterically because of frustration or exhaustion or anger or grief. We always talk about how subversive tears of joy are, but man, laughs of sadness are so much worse. Maybe it's just a me thing, but my chest always gets tight and my breathing shallow whenever a character starts laughing because of a negative emotion. I just. Can't. Handle. It.

And Infinity Train uses this trope two times!

First time with Simon:

You could argue that this is laughter because of insanity, not negative emotions, but it still hits hard. No matter how much you hate him. At least if you're me. Seriously, this was my reaction when I first saw Simon's death/breakdown scene:

The second time Infinity Train pulls this is with Ryan:

This, too, killed me! Emotionally, at least. Why is it always the laughing?!

Anyway, yeah, of course I want Infinity Train to continue, but it might be a good thing that it doesn't if they planned another one of these maniacal laughter scenes in the next season. Not sure I could handle another amazingly animated, amazingly written, amazingly voice-acted breakdown like this.

I'm resisting the temptation to go back through all four seasons of Infinity Train with a notebook, pen, and my writer hat on, because this show is a work of art and I need to analyze every episode five times over to learn how to write well. But I have an AP test in two weeks and now is NOT the time to have another breakdown because of Simon's character arc (dive).

One of my favorite things to explore is the way Adrien has been affected by growing up in an arguably abusive household. Normally I think about behaviors he's learned as a defense mechanism (timidity, selflessness, submission, being endlessly good-natured), but this is a good example of learned behaviors that involve imitating something harmful, instead of reacting to something harmful.

So I was watching the English dub of Sentibubbler, and there was a scene that I remember made me feel uncomfortable when I saw it the first time:

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.  Then, later in the episode:

And that punched me in the gut.  It scared me.

I don’t think I can write out a whole essay on this rn, but I needed to throw it into the void.  What I can say is that Chat Noir demolished something because he was angry.  I’m not saying that he was angry at Ladybug necessarily, but the situation didn’t go his way, he felt like he wasn’t being heard, and he hit something so hard that it shattered.  And I’m saying he learned that from somewhere.

When Adrien gets out from under Gabriel's thumb, I imagine he's going to wear a bunch of disgustingly unstylish clothes. I don't mean he'll start wearing styles that Gabriel objects to; I mean he'll start wearing styles that everyone objects to.

If you think this looks bad . . . thank you, that's the point

"The fire in his veins cooled under her rain, and stillness settled over him. Something soft fell into his lap. He held it up and breathed in its scent, sweet and flowery. Marinette.

"He buried his face in the fabric and held it close, imagining he was holding her instead. It hurt to be together. It hurt to be apart. But the hurt felt like a promise, and when she was in his arms he always felt that he was exactly where he was meant to be (the cosmic phenomenon, the whole that made sense). He couldn’t touch her, but she touched everything around him.

"(She was the rain, and she was everywhere.)

"The last chord rang though the room and then faded into silence. There was a rustling sound on the recording, and then he heard his own voice whisper into the microphone: 'I love you, Marinette.'

"The recording stopped. Adrien sat motionless, still hugging her hoodie."

-@carpisuns, "tell me something i don't know'

I don't know why this scene hit me so hard—the entire story is full of scenes that both make me want to sob and smile for the rest of my life, after all. But this one . . . I just had to draw it. It feels almost immoral to illustrate a scene from this story so imperfectly, but I can't do perfect art, so I tried to do emotional art instead. (No it's not raining in Adrien's room, I was just trying to illustrate the metaphor that Marinette is rain, I'm sorry this is so bad Mar, I love this story so much)

we honor our fallen comrades beneath jove's unblinking eye

loved the colors of the flowers from conference so I just had to doodle them

Elements