I don't have much to say really, you can see that I turned his outfit into a dress and gave him a corset, more jewellery and brought in some green accents for the poisonous green apple. Generally I gave him more Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent like in his boots and makeup. Let me know what you think!
This is part of my TWST redesign series!
Who else would you like to see me redesign? Let me know!
i decided to make some concept art for my headcanons for riddle :3c
closeups, notes/explanations (aka yapping), and speedpaint under the cut ໒꒰՞ ܸ. .ܸ՞꒱ა
his dorm uniform is pretty similar, just a bit less cluttered. i removed the sash in favor of a belt to keep the black-yellow pattern more centered like in the '51 movie, and gave him a bow on his back. likewise, i made the sleeves and upper bodice alternate between black and white, like the '51 QoH. i also gave a sweetheart shape to the bodice of his coat, again to keep with the '51 movie. i changed his crown pin for a rose, and made one of his gloves white. i also made his boots a hell of a lot simpler (all that gold is a pain in the ass to draw lololol), and both have 3/4 of the suits on them (his right has diamond, clover, and heart and left has heart, spade, and diamond). the suits on the toe and heel are chosen intentionally—his heart and spade card soldiers are a pair, and his diamond and club card soldiers are a pair. i kept the suit buttons on the coat, since i think it's a nice detail ^^
both his du and ob have a heart shaped collar—the first of many details inspired by the american mcgee alice games' queen of hearts designs.
moving onto his overblot design... there's a lot of changes, not even to mention things i want to incorporate into future concept designs. prerequisite information: i headcanon riddle to be 1/4 deer fauna faerie, and hc him to have a history in ballet & associate him heavily with its imagery.
now, moving on. all of the AMA references/inspirations:
AMA: spiked collar and cuffs, white trim on bodice of coat/dress
AMR: sleeve shape
AA (queen of red heart): antler goopiness
i obviously had to keep the rose imagery—the roses on his waist, thorns to match, and thorns wrapping around his upper arms.
his coat/dress is partially inspired by victorian ballet costumes, though that was kind of lost in the skirt, since i wanted to make it heart-shaped (and somewhat rose reminiscent? hopefully that comes across). the square-shaped neckline is definitely straight from the ballet costumes though. there's a huge blot stain on the left side of his chest (including on his skin), and blood dripping from under his choker (get it. cause. off with your head?)
his pointe shoes have deer hooves on them, he has deer ears, and obviously, the antlers, which replace his crown (and are very much dripping on everything). i mentioned this in a previous post, but the idea of him having even more prey features when he's the apex predator at the time is a dichotomy that i really like. he's perpetually en pointe and moves with the grace of a doe, but he's also trying to kill people and is actively dying, so ya win some ya lose some lolol
(on a less goofy note, i can imagine him bleating, the sound fawns use to call for their mother, right as he was overblotting. we know that blot is super acidic, and with how he choked and screamed in the anime, it's safe to assume it didn't just feel like a light tingle. i can also imagine him doing it while he was ob'd, it was just really quiet and he wasn't doing it a lot because he was screaming at the others for most of the ob.)
now onto his appearance!
before his overblot, riddle hid the natural blue ends of his hair (something from his dad, like his eye color [i know this is just how toboso-sensei shades hair in the twst style, but let me have this]) with magic, and he also straightened his hair. this goes for all of his appearances, but he has red freckles and the same beauty mark that tim burton's queen of hearts has :3c also a consistent thing is his huge-ass eyes. if he isn't furrowing his brows, he perpetually looks like he's about to cry. his ears are only slightly pointed (for example, sebek's would be a bit more noticeable, since he's 1/2 fae). he has very round face, as the gods intended.
during his overblot, he has deer ears and, as pictured in the outfits, goopy ass antlers. i kept his eyes turning red from canon, as well as a simplified version of his blot makeup (with some additional blot making it look like he's crying). his hair gets curly, ringlets framing his face like one would imagine some sort of european royal from however the fuck long ago, and blot stains the ends of his hair (and his ears). his freckles turn black to look like ink splatter.
after his overblot, his right eye stayed red. he gradually stops straightening and magically dyeing his hair. he's completely stopped by the time book 6 comes around. and he's actually growing antlers now! i think it's a good visualization of his emotional growth—both as his own person, and beyond what his mother (who hates his faerie ancestry) expects of him. they'll never be as big a full deer faerie's, but they'll be pretty noticeable once he's older.
for some brief non-visual headcanons, i think after his overblot, his legs (especially ankles) were super messed up. the ribbons from the pointe shoes left scars. it was a long while before he was back to walking unaided, let alone wearing heels. his arms are also scarred from the thorns and cuffs, his neck from the choker, and his chest over his heart from that huge blot stain. i think his right eye is pretty sensitive, and he gets migraines pretty often now.
after book 6, malleus did turn his hair back, but some of the white came back like a couple days later. they tried a couple more times, but riddle just eventually realized that this was his life now.
As I covered in Riddle’s/part one, blot can take on different states and textures. Due to the nature of Leona’s signature spell his blot quickly dried sticking to him like dried mud would, though it still has a reflect surface not unlike obsidian.
Leona does have a flame that bursts from his eye like the other OB’s but I felt like it was overcrowded so it’s not shown here. It burst in thin flaming streaks almost like a visualization of claw slash marks. You can see it visualized in this piece
Since Overblotting takes a heavy physical toll on the person, Leona could not participate in the games after. In fact, all present had to back out due to injury. The stampede was used for an excuse for the absence. Crowley also used some concealment/deterrent magic during the OB to keep it hidden and to keep others away to “not cause a panic.”
I wrote the text this time because I hate the text feature in clip studio so if you have trouble reading it, I’ve written it out below the cut along with a non-blot covered version of the 1st pic bc I did a minor redesign of the Savanaclaw Dorm uniform
- [Ruggie, top left] Deep cracks from the prolonged grip Leona had + the blot got stuck stuck in the wound making it worse
- [Cybthia, top left] Sandburn from the blotted sand storm (used jacket to protect race/air way) (Extra note- not in pic-: the uniforms have magic protection spells cast on them in case of spell mishaps, but due to Cynth’s clothes all coming from a old ass dorm, they haven’t had the spell recasted on them in a long time and are basically not there hence the ripping. Luckily, Cynth was borrowing one of Ace’s blazers so had the magic protection from the blasting sand there- tho that’s not really the greatest in regards with the blot bc reacts to outside magic sources violently.)
- [Jack and Ace, top right] -Due to his signature spell, Leona's blot was dried up and broke into fine shards that clung to the sand/dust in the end.
His and vil's OB's are tied in being the worst in terms of breathing hazard. As Leon's blot regained its tar consistency onced reintroduced to moisture in the throat and lungs. (Extra note: Also a BIG choking hazard. Leona is #1 for worst visibility, not only because of the sand storm, but bc of the blot getting in the eyes.)
- [Jack, bottom right] Jack's fur has the same level of proctection as the uniforms. (Extra note: in my au, magic exists in almost everything similar to how almost everything has electrons. The amount of magic differs, like non mages having very low levels magic to fae having high amounts. Things accumulate magic over time depending on how magic absorbent it is; ex water and living things are very magic absorbent, the ocean and ancient forests have the highest concentration of magic! While as things like certain metals, specifically man-made metals, or plastic has a very low absorbency rate.)
The fur had more body coverage so he had slightly more protection. It was discovered that his sig. spell has restorative properties as the transformation back to human ignored injuries gained in wolf form and vice versa.
- [Ruggie and Cyn doodle, bottom right corner] POV ur Leona; money pls you owe us♡
-[Leona, bottom middle] Scar split and lengthen
{ redesign inspo (extra note: not his OB form):
punkray and beauzone }
-[Cynth and Leona, bottom left]
Cyn: Imma bill you for even the tissues. (This can’t my good for my skin…)
Leona: hm.
- End-
And here is the redesign, tbh I’m still not really happy with it but I wanted to post this and don’t have the energy to make adjustments quickly so I’m posting it anyway!
I’m not quite sure what it is I don’t like about the Savanaclaw dorm uniforms. Aside from that ugly stitch up rag piece that hung off of Leona’s hips, I replaced that with a patterned drape. He’s a prince why did they design him like that?? Like it’s not even a colorful mis-match of patterns but dull beige >:/ even if Sunset Savana isn’t the most industrial nation their royalty still wouldn’t be wearing cobbled together rags...*
I don’t know if I’m misremembering but I think they were inspired by motorcyclist but it was giving me cowboy vibes instead (tbh I’m not a fan of the western aesthetic, not that it’s bad it’s just not my thing, so maybe that’s why I don’t like it)
Anyway, I pushed for a more punk/metal look based of a series of photos someone posted where they found out that Botswana (as of posting this, I have realized that does not read as Boston. Up until now my stupid processing disorder has been auto(in)correcting it to Boston when it’s been Botswana this WHOLE TIME it’s the purse-a-phone when it was actually persephone all over again. ) has a big heavy metal fan base and they all look rad as hell (I screenshotted it like a noob years ago so I don’t have the link TOT tho I can’t remember if they link to the original photos in the post either,,)
For Leona’s version of the Dorm Uniform, since being the 2nd prince is a big part of his character I feel like he’d incorporate fashion from his home into it and would show off his status a bit more. (Tbh I’m not the most familiar with his character bc he’s not high up on my list bc he reminds me too much some things I don’t in myself bxjdbdjdb the whole depression coded making him give up on things and feeling there’s no other way and it’s all pointless hits WAY too close to home- anyway back to design rambles haha)
So I did some research on traditional clothing from Kenya and Tanzania (where the lion king setting is based on) and beaded jewelry was a prominent aspect. So I gave him a necklace that was more beaded than his cannon one and hung some beads from the vest in a similar drape I saw on some photos. Also going back to the Botswana metal fans it’s a pleasant surprise to learn that Botswana is located in Africa! Even if it’s not close to Kenya it’s cool to know that the metal/punk outfits I was looking at came from people on the same continent.
I also looked at the costuming from Black Panther 2018 to see modernized outfits of traditional african clothing just for some reference even if it didn’t influence the design too much because of the main metal/punk theme. Here’s a quote from the article “The fashion of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"’ “original creations by Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who took up and studied the decorative motifs and costumes of African tribes such as the Maasai and the Ndebele.”
I might take another crack at my redesign when I’m finished with this Overblot series :3
