#stahleon

[meltifye]

my shitty rendition of stahnleon but animal crossing🥰

[s68l]

doodle dump of them bc im brainrotted

[meltifye]

stahnleon my beloveds❤😊😊

[meltifye]

ouh this was like one of the first things i drew of them LOL, figured i'd share here

[jeredu]

SHENANIGANS.

LOL SORRY, CHAL.

(This is the space AU)

[jeredu]

Oh god I finally drew the dreaded yaoi hands.  sorrynotsorry.

(no spoilers under the cut, just me rambling about context since this is from the AU/crossover:)

This one’s just self indulgent, sorry.  Though if Stahn gets any more handsy (oh god i drew yaoi hands somebody shoot me now), Leon is gonna pull out and go sit on the bed and be slightly overwhelmed and then Stahn will apologize way too much for Leon’s nerves. Then Leon will just lean against him all disgruntled like and that’s Stahn’s cue to cuddle because it’ll be a cold day in hell before Leon actually actively initiates cuddles.   His dignity is at stake, here. 

Also, I didn’t know what to do with Leon’s other hand so he’s reaching for the deadbolt.  I feel like Leon would be cripplingly mortified if someone walked in on him doing something so incredibly scandalous as.... kissing.  *gasp!*

Or cuddling.  *shudder*

(I’m too lazy to go find the other posts, but tl;dr: this relationship is a bit complicated. In OnS, vampires as a species don’t have any inherent interest in sex the way humans do.  But Stahn is human, and thus it’s complicated. He wouldn’t pressure Leon into anything, because he’s a conscientious sweetheart, but he’s also pretty excitable and passionate, so I can see him getting carried away on occasion but stopping as soon as Leon starts to hesitate.)

[jeredu]

Hello :D I came across your blog and I have fallen in love with your art style <3 I was wondering if this has been asked before, but I'd love to hear why you fell in love/like some of your pairings like Shanh/Leon since I don't see that around too much and it's pretty refreshing to see some content for them :D Is it their chemistry? Their dynamics? History? Curious and excited to see >w< Keep up the good work on Tales of After the End!

Heyy, thank you, Anon! ;u;

Honestly I think it’s a combination of all of the above?  Same goes for a lot of other pairings.  These are Tales games, after all, which are hugely character driven, and character development and relationships are a huge part of them.   As such, there is a lot of good development going on between various party members, so there’s a lot to really give every pairing or combination a very distinct sort of history and feeling and chemistry of its own.  Stahn and Leon do kind of bring one of my guilty pleasure/noticeable trend favorite kind of character contrast- not the only one I’m drawn to. I mean it’s about as opposite of Sorey and Mikleo as you can get.   

But that being the cool, aloof, emotionally damaged/vulnerable and defensive character who refuses to let anyone in- taking that character and putting them with the precious child who can see the good in anyone and staunchly refuses to be scared off by the hostility and eventually manages to attain that elusive friendship.  I like them both a lot as individual characters, often for very different reasons, but together they are amaze. (Or a maze, if you mean the route Leon’s actual feelings take between his heart and his mouth, since he will deny liking some things to his grave, just about.  Like sweets.  It’s precious.)

Not just for my standard ships, but that’s an element I really enjoyed in a lot of the friendships (heck, they can make fun ships, too, though) in Tales.  That’s how Colette and Sheena started out.   Zelos and Lloyd.  Okay, Zelos and EVERYONE.    Ditto Alvin and EVERYONE.  That kind of character development is some of my favorite, and you’ve probably seen that I’m taking that angle with the demon weapons, too.   That’s one aspect that I liked about the dynamic between Wolfwood and Vash.  Or maybe we can call this game “how many secrets does it take to kill a character because he won’t ask for help?”  While tragedy is always good, I do enjoy it when that kind of moment gets to be averted through character development.

That’s one thing I liked about Seraph of the End, too, was that Yuu grew from a prickly loner into someone who would fight tooth and nail to protect his new friends- even if that causes its own brand of different troubles for him.  I like characters that are flawed. I like it when characters with different flaws are able to support each other and cover each others’ weaknesses. I like it when opposites collide and form a new kind of stable, binary orbit after initially veering around in wide, violent, unpredictable ways.  

I like relationships that are an organic, breathing, growing and changing thing, with ups and downs, adventures, discoveries, pain and comfort, heartbreak and amends.    It’s good stuff and probably the reason I keep coming back for more, every game, to get my heart ripped out, stomped on, and then lovingly pieced back together again.  

[jeredu]

I drew the most goddamn vanilla shit Stahn/Leon kiss ever. Oops. 

It was supposed to just be practice cos I’m still terrible at face/face contact involving lips and making it not look wooden...

Of course, this led to me drawing other things that are sad and horrible so I’ll make that a separate post.  So enjoy your vanilla stahleon while i set about sharpening my knives to better stab the feels.