How much do you have to go through for your father not to recognize your face?
Aka my sage of spirit post-totk Link hiding in plain sight after being sent to pre-calamity Hyrule, a reimagining of a fic I started pre-totk that would work so much better post-totk.
Closeup and magical staff reveal + artists ramblings under the cut
Featuring: ghost arm which isn’t reliable and is all that’s left of the most important limb in a swordsman’s arsenal, I think after losing his sword arm he deserves a bit of an emotional phase, as a treat. Also emphasis on hiding the less scarred side of his face and focusing on the scars made by guardian beams and the gloom attack. It makes it easier, and harder, to look his loved ones in the face when they can only see what makes him different than the swordsman they know. :)
The magic staff is… a magic staff topped with light dragon horns which at first glance seem small, but this is bc Zelda sheds them regularly, like deer antlers, and they only grow to a certain point as she is human sized now. Their healing power is the best thing for keeping the constant pain of Links gloom infection away, second only to physically holding Zelda herself in his arms. It’s his emotional support magic staff whose main power is ouchie remover. It also glows pretty good in the dark which can also be helpful. Anyway I like the juxtaposition between the white glowy staff and the goth little freak holding it.
AKA Knightfight was cowardly for not including an official design for her that wasn’t ageless and whitewashed and actually Batman
Full mask/ alt versions and artists commentary below the cut
The one thing I found was unique and interesting in the knightfight suit was the stitching across the whole thing rather than just to turn a cowl into a full mask. So I decided that it had to have been caused by something, which is where the scar originates from. I just thought the lightning vibes on the mask itself would look cool.
If you can’t tell the difference between this one and the final one is just the increased batliner. I know there’s already a slight over-saturation of red bats/birds but I really like the blood thing she’s got going on in current comics and I think the pink/red-black color scheme kills with her and you can’t convince me otherwise. In other news, it was really hard to balance the pink and red without it clashing so badly but I tried.
I also tried my best to make her look older without too much exaggeration of aging features. I tried my best lol.
Sir Cassandra Cain of the Order of Robins, the Eyes of the Bat, next in line for the mantle of the Dark Knight, the cursed (emancipated) child of David Cain.
(Late) day 7 of Cass Cain week- Fairytale
Lore and alternate colors beneath the cut
Going off of the idea that each of the ‘robins’ have their own reasons to, at the very least, distrust magic, Cass was raised by David Cain as an experiment to give someone magic who was not born with it, which ended up cursing her instead. She was granted Sight, to see spirits and lies and people, and trained to manipulate and kill, which she has only done once. Witnessing a soul leave their body to haunt you, and I cannot stress this enough, sucks.
Before her deployment to keep an eye on the Amazons, she had gone on a quest to break her curse, which she only did partially, (granting her the ability to speak when before she was physically unable to utter a word). She prefers to stay away from violent conflict, from places dense with lingering dead. But she can’t avoid it forever, she can’t stay idle for very long, knowing she could be fighting to save people.
Anyway, I stole the background from one of my own previous drawings in the same universe but I did fuck with the colors a little. Most of her design is just based on her appearances in the comic, with added color and a couple inches of hair. Her cloaks clasp is a mix of the El shield and the bat symbol, inspired by the Mora superbat fusion which I feel like would be a thing between the El’s reign and Bruce’s acceptance of the throne as his birthright. Kind of a transitional period.
Honestly I would love to write about her if anyone is interested lol.
As much as I like the eyeless version of her mask, I felt like the white glow would be more in theme. You know when Nightwing glows in the dark and Signal is always glowing, I figured they should all have a beacon mode so they can be seen in the darkness by the people they’re trying to save or by allies, juxtaposing their typical ‘invisible in the darkness’ schtick.
Faded dusk mode, when it’s running out of power, and I think it’s fun to associate her with pink ie. Her dress from her first kill and ballet as a concept is generally associated with it.
Aka the confusing inconsistent naming of the kingdoms in DKoS drives me insane so I made the executive decision to rename the lands of El (formerly Wayne) the kingdom of the sun, to mirror the naming conventions of the kingdom of storms, and bc the El’s added plenty of sun iconography and the juxtaposition of making the true heir the bastard emo kid that literally never wears colors is funny to me.
Alt colors and more yapping below the cut
As usual I like giving my Kryptonians star shaped pupils and I think an injury from kryptonite (especially a prolonged one) should leave a scar. Thus, my excuse to draw boobs for this one.
I love giving Bruce a reason to wear pearls but they are annoying to draw one by one so I was experimenting with a new brush, I tried my best lmao.
Shoutout to easily the most interesting character in AoI and the one that kicks her leg up and uses it as a lightning rod. My sapphic ass is Normal about her.
The big weapons hoarder has obtained a new big weapon
Aka I am waiting eagerly for Dec. 24th
Alt versions and artists commentary below the cut
Give that man his breastplate back. I redesigned the Bat-Axe but couldn’t fit the whole thing without making it significantly smaller or really having to rework the pose and I did not want to do that, so the sketch in the back is what the rest of the axe was going to look like. Also the size matters bc I need you guys to understand that Diana is pretty huge too.
I tried to stay on model as much as possible but I want you guys to know that the design changes to her tiara are based on what the sun looks like on the Wild Isle/ hell. Kind of a constant scarlet eclipse.
Can you tell I found the perfect brush for the lassos? I had to make a version featuring each one.
iirc, Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman writer), mentioned letting Bruce use Diana’s big Athena buster sword so that inspired me to switch it around, sure she has her own axe, but this one was made by a large mentally ill punk from Gotham and I’m sure she can appreciate the ingenuity.
The Marks of Adfectus AKA the magical megaphone of emotion, applied to a broken heart that refuses to heal.
Based off of Batman: The Knight: issue 7, the cover of which I thought would be cooler as implied Yuri.
Alt versions and artists commentary below the cut. (NSFW WARNING)
I love that the marks just happen to have very obvious bat iconography, they were made for her.
Background Zatanna, I like the vibe that Bruce is too big and has long enough hair that she gets totally eclipsed. I don’t actually know enough about her and their relationship to properly ship them but I think it’s funny to just.. *platonically holds your boobs*
Sir Timothy Drake of the Order of Robins, The Ears of the Bat, The Shadow of the Dragon, Robin Specialty: Espionage.
AKA
The only robin to get tortured on screen, good for him.
Artist's commentary below the cut
So, like all the robins, Tim does not have a set backstory aside from eventually becoming a part of the street rat gang of thieves led by Dick Grayson. Which means there is a lot of room for me to fuck around. Something I wanted to do for each of the order is give them a reason to follow Bruce and his war against magic.
In my mind, Timothy's parents were friends to the late Waynes, they have a high status, but maybe they got jealous of the El's taking their place at the side of the King and Queen they were hoping to influence. Timothy grew up in a life of luxury but also a life of rigid roles and strict rules. Until his mother is killed and his father is put in a magical coma. None of his parents' servants step up to take him in, and he has no other relatives. Before someone else can decide what to do with him, he takes to the streets. He meets Steph first and she introduces him to the slowly growing gang of robins.
Including the concept of his sword based on the vibe of dragon's breath, I wanted it to look kind of smoky and fiery and I did not want to fully render it. The hilt has the emblem of the house of Wayne, signalling that he is a knight directly under the Batman. Also this version includes the vibe of his eyes being pale to a spooky extent, I think he has a vibe.
The scar on his cheek and his head are based on his injuries before his exile from the Kingdom of Storms.
This panel also brings up the vibe that the robins (but Timothy in particular) are wary of the El's or at the very least prefer to interact with Bruce. Also the idea that the Royal Advisor (Harley) is more loyal to Bruce and the robins than she is with the El's, standing by Tim as he kind of accuses the princess of murdering another kingdom's King. That's his emotional support jester.
The only thing he's ever done wrong was to try to be nice to Constantine smh.
Anyway, I want to to think about him and the Robins and Prince Bruce more so bad that I will very likely write anything for them if requested to do so (on my main acc @science-lings or my writing acc @sciencelings-writes). Please ask me to write about them, I need something smaller to work on between the bigger writing projects and I can usually pump out something faster when I know someone out there wants it enough to ask for it.
A father’s blessing, a father’s curse, the Marks of Cain and the Mark of Wayne.
Aka
A star chart of bullet scars
Alt versions and artists commentary below the cut
Even though she doesn’t have the same mask situation as the rest of the bats I think she would rock some drippy eye grease paint. She doesn’t do it bc she has to she does it to look cool. And she does.
Every star is a bullet, bigger ones are older, the ones that grew with her. Or they’re exit wounds. The point is I think she would not be a big fan of guns but I haven’t seen anything about it. Anyway there is no hell bad enough for David Cain.
The big scar on her spine is in reference to the time she was killed from a sword going straight through her chest to save one of her mother’s students. She got better.
The bat scar is based off of that one batman cover where there’s the image of a bat on his back that looks more like a burn than anything else. I think the bats should all get cursed to carry their costume iconography on their skin, just bc it looks cool. And I have a soft spot for the batgirl insignia that extends to her shoulders. Also I’m part of the buff Cassandra agenda, like soft buff bc she doesn’t share her adoptive father’s eating disorder.
Batman says Justice for transmasc butch lesbians, he told me because he is one
Bat-to surgery scars can I get a hell yeah.
Okay so the flag in this one is one I made while merging the two versions of the butch lesbian flags and the aroace flag bc they looked similar and I identify with both. Here’s what that looks like without the actual drawing.
You can’t tell me this doesn’t absolutely fuck it’s so pretty I love you dynamic of hot and cold colors.
Does every identity need a flag? Probably not, I just think it’s fun and I’m a big fan of colors. 🧡💛🤍🩵💙
Year three of artfight! as usual I have to limit myself to solely retaliation, with how long all my portraits take I can't really afford to do more than that, so if you want me to draw your character this year you gotta draw one of mine first lol.
I missed her it’s been YEARS. And now I actually kind of know how to render things like armor and glowy effects. I’m not going to infodump her lore unless asked, I wouldn’t even know where to start tbh. Long story short: she has healing powers and doesn’t want to be restricted to being a doctor and she gets in a homoerotic relationship with a villain whose powers fuck with other peoples abilities which gets real funky with a healer.
It’s about learning to live with your capacity for violence and rage and the burnout from being ‘perfect’ and the power of a beautiful woman who claims to set you free but only sees you as a weapon to be wielded.
Anyway happy pride month here’s my Lesbian, birthed from my gayass loins
Nothing better than a big beefy baby-faced butch who beats baddies as Batman
Closeups and artists commentary beneath the cut
Frost marks and slight heterochromia as a reference to the most recent Absolute Zero arc, throat scar from when Black Mask tried to decapitate her, all other scars are completely improvised. I wanted to lean into the punk vibe and give her a few piercings, all above the cowl line to keep as much anonymity as possible.
Match tattoo mixed with a semicolon, both to commemorate Matches Malone and to symbolize her past suicidal tendencies and her vow to her friends to not act on them. I thought that part of issue 8 was really impactful and I feel like the only tattoo she would get would be one alongside the rest of her friends as a memorial.
Just some slight color differences to see the costume better.
She is covered in grease and oil and probably a little but of blood but don’t worry about it
Clean vers. Makes it easier to see scars and stuff I guess.
Batcat yuri page that inspired this whole thing: LINK
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