I think that's everything covered! :D A complete, updated Trudy to the best of my lack of ability, as well as a masked Trudy (or ninja Trudy, as she's unofficially been called over the years) who is far more alert and disapproving, ears and all. Maybe she caught a glimpse of Eggman... or Lanolin. Or maybe she's annoyed that her arms are too small and I gave her four fingers by accident instead of five. FML.
Upon completion, I figured it might pop out better if the background wasn't eye-piercingly white, so I turned it into a starry night sky. Her clothing may still be blue(ish), but now in her own way distinct from Sonic. After all, she would never want to replace him, only to... immerse with him. 😏
So now that it's complete, let me go over all the changes made in total and anything else that I feel is worth pointing out. Some of them I mentioned in previous updates, others not:
-Obviously, the blues are now more turquoise excluding the gloves, which remain icy blue. It's still very much meant to be more blue than green with the specific shades of turquoise that are used.
-She now has a little bit of muscle in her arms in order to convey her strength in spite of her condition, though they tend to be most noticeable when she's actually exerting her strength. Her muscles are intended to be on the slender and subtle side, not too large or wide like Boom Knuckles, even though the way I drew them makes them look like tumors. I tried my best. ;_;
-As you'll notice from the masked shot, her top is like a vest in reality, which isn't immediately obvious since it's usually covered up when she's not in masked form. This was always the case and isn't a new thing, but it's not often shown for the aforementioned reason, so here it is again nonetheless. If you look closely, you can barely see a little bit of peach on her chest.
-The scarf fills the role of the bandana and the cape in one fell swoop to keep it straightforward. Both ends of the scarf are meant to drape over each shoulder all classy-like and to allude to the cape, that's why the one on the opposite end can be seen behind her tail. They're like a spiritual stand-in for pegasus wings. :3 I hope you appreciate my attempt at dynamic lighting by shading the inside of the scarf so that it looks better. :P
-The disconnected white line patterns on the bottom of her vest and the top of her boots are there to visually allude to clouds, in keeping with the subtle (kind of) nature motif going on with her colour scheme.
-The brown cuffs for the gloves are tighter around her arms, instead of being loose like Rouge's cuffs.
-The boots now go above her knees ala Rouge but with an arch, and they lack cuffs like most Sonic characters' footwear. Also added a light blue pattern to the toes of the boots to accentuate the pointier length compared to Amy's boots, maintain the overall colour balance at play, and also because I remembered that nearly every Sonic anthro has some kind of toe pattern going on with their footwear, so this should help it feel complete without it feeling cluttered. They look like Sonia's boots in execution, but she's not in the games so it's free real estate.
-Trudy herself is the same as always. I would never change any of that floof. The ponytail being virtually the same as the actual tail has always amused me, and also provides a silhouette that you can instantly attribute to her.
-They're not shown here, but her whip and bow remain unchanged in their designs. The whip still looks like an extending riding crop.
I hope you all like her new-but-mostly-identical look. ☺️
to all my fic writers: be that one rarepair writer. even if literally no one else is there. be the single glowing lightbulb in the void. write the rarepair so good some poor reader stumbles on it at 3am, loses their mind, and then realizes… oh. there’s only one fic. yours. congrats you’re both the blessing and the curse.
Healing takes time, it doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes it takes weeks, months, even years. And healing isn't linear. Some days you can be doing fine, other days you will break down crying, feel angry, frustrated, remorseful, ect. Let yourself feel these emotions. You aren't wrong for feeling them, it's part of the healing process.
You will not feel like this forever. Things will get better and easier to deal with the more you process and heal. Give yourself patience. Be kind to yourself. 💖
Some Spyro fans have been concerned about the chance of A Realm Beyond being exclusively about flight, but I'm not worried since during the cutscene, you can still see gems on the ground like normal in the background lol.
If anything, I'm more curious about whether there'll still be hub worlds and the rest, and if so, whether the level structure in each will be sorted in a relatively tidy order like in Spyro 1 and 3, or if they'll play fast and loose like in Spyro 2.
