Underappreciated detail about Bloodmoon Huntress: The background elves all have such neat designs.
cut because long, image-heavy post.
Let's start with these two kids. Look at the little curleque on the one kid's cheek! And then the sharp stripes on the other! The other kid has a ponytail, too.
And then this guy! Who is definitely not Ram. This is Sam. He's entirely too tall to be Ram. Also, his tattoos don't match. The lines on his cheek are too long, and the one on his shoulder is also too big - it looks like it's a circle partially hidden under his sleeve, not the thin slash Ram has where you can see the tip of it in the sleeve window.
This set is also of Sam, with Skor (displaying how much taller Sam is than Skor, which is Not a trait Ram shares) and Callisto.
And then there's the Skywing elves! The first images are washed out because they're from Suroh's memory but look, it's so neat. Two of them have short hair. Vests seem to be a staple in Skywing fashion. Look at the cute bob haircut from the one closer to Suroh and his parents!
And then of course there's Suroh's unnamed parents. Look at them. His dad is so pretty. His mom is doing a fantastic job of looking fierce and disheveled.
And then there's the guards Rayla goes to for help after Runaan and Ethari investigate Suroh's location and find nothing there. Look at this dynamic duo. I need a whole buddy cop five minute episode about these two.
Look the tall one's even got the humor value. And there's so many background elves in this image! Also, none of the stands are manned at any point in this book, so I'm inclined to believe that Moonshadow "market stands" within the forest are basically just. where they drop off community supplies. But also look at this - most Moonshadow adults seem to have long hair, but it looks like most kids have theirs cut short. ALL Moonshadow elves have white hair though, even if their brows are darker.
And here, look, we get another better shot of some of the other kids here. Again, lots of short hair, but they all already have facial tattoos though none seem to have any marks on their hands. One kid has swirls on their shoulders already.
More of the kids! And the one mom we saw in the wide shot a minute ago. She has an upside down version of the curleque we saw on the little girl from earlier, so I bet they're related. All the kids cling to her so readily though, which supports the implication I got from the Mooncubs in season 7 that Moonshadow elflings are raised pretty communally. Also! The boy telling this story has the same facial tattoos as Runaan! No reference is made to them being related though. He's also one of the few kids that has marks on his arms already.
Look I just took pictures of all the unnamed elves in the book, and that included pretty much every shot in existence of the Skywing elves. I love this little detail of Suroh's mom ducking behind his dad in fear, it hurts my heart. Also I love their hair, his ponytail and how hers is as white as a Moonshadow elf.
His dad is just pretty and I love him, okay? Look at that jaw. The purple eyes. The subtle white stripes that draw the eye down his nose and highlight his cheekbones. Also Suroh's tattoos though, also white, highlighting how he's a little darker than his dad, the lines that highlight his cheekbones too but come to geometrical corners.
There's another elf that we never get a name for behind Rayla here too, there was at least three whose faces we never really saw. The one in this shot is dressed differently than the one we saw in Suroh's memories earlier (pale pants where that guy's were dark, and long sleeves where his were short).
Yeah another shot of the assassins, I regret nothing. Sam's tattoos definitely don't match Ram's. That line on his shoulder is too strong.
These last three images are literally just gonna be me droning about Suroh's parents, I regret nothing. The way Suroh's horns don't quite match either of them though. The way his eyes are the same color as his mom's. His skin is darker than his dad's, but not the same as his mom's. He's got his mom's nose, his dad's hair. His mother has dark brows like some of the Moonshadow though, despite her white hair. They both look so worried.
And then there's this one, where you can see how tall his dad is in comparison to his mom, where yes she's kneeling and he's standing but her head is level with his hips still. The way they're both looking almost fierce with how concerned they are, but Suroh just looks stiff and worried, not afraid of them, because they're fussing over him even as they scold him for coming back.
And then there's this shot, where they've clearly parted for a minute (presumably to talk to Runaan and Ethari) and are now reuniting to leave. Suroh's around Rayla's age, based on how they both look, so somewhere between 7 and 9, and he's almost as tall as his mother. She has a lovely waist.
I also thought of something else that I want to point out using a credits sketch from season 5.
Suroh's dad and Callum's wear their hair in a similar way, with the longer ponytail in the back and long bangs in the front.
I just love this book so much, man. And the background characters are so neat. I want to know what happened to Suroh and his family after this. Did they ever find out that Rayla was the Last Dragonguard who saved the world? Will she ever get to see them again and be reminded of the first lives she ever saved? What did Suroh grow up to be like? What do his parents do for a living? What does he do, as an adult? Especially with Kim'dael back, I'd love to know what's going on with them. Did they hear that she'd returned? What was their reaction?