Here I Am With Another Silly Post (I Love Doing These..)

Okay I need to talk about Nicholas Leung's voice work for Dan Heng in 2.4. (Actually I already have, but I need to do it some more.)

All of it is phenomenal, and I've seen talk about his delivery of the little exchange before you enter the Shackling Prison as well as when you ask if Dan Heng is okay once you're inside. Those lines all hit me like a truck and the voice acting was a huge part of why, but I specifically want to draw attention to the next part of that conversation.

It's the Trailblazer asking about why they're actually down there, and his response is just explaining the Karmic Mirror. But the delivery of those lines is baked into my brain. He tries so hard to pull himself together, go back to being the Trailblazer's helpful exposition dump, tender moment's over, business as usual - and he can't. He very audibly has to pause mid-sentence, gather himself and take a very shaky breath to avoid breaking down completely. He sounds legitimately on the verge of sobbing. Even though if you're just reading the text it doesn't seem emotional at all, there's no real tonal indication that this is the very next thing he says after vocally blaming himself that the Trailblazer is here with him and apologising for the fact that he's struggling. It adds SO much to the whole scene. Nicholas Leung I owe you my entire life you put so much heart into this character thank you 😭🙏

(Also if anyone has a recording of this part... please send it to me please I'll draw you a silly picture or something in return)

Xen's old scarf is probably the most colorful thing in his universe. My friend told me that "it looks like a radioactive unicorn barfed on it" and I agree. To circumvent this I changed his scarf to be a solid color. This is an older piece. =)

The other dude is Kieran. His observation skills are very keen—the mirror is indeed broken.

Ivan studies cuz I've really been struggling to draw his face

The joke and Till have a lot in common if you think abt it >:)

A rambling analysis of Ivan's "Nowhere"

I'll start with my thoughts on the song itself, then break down some of the lyrics.

So, "Nowhere" is quite a bit different from Ivan's other songs, mostly in regards to the melody and his singing. His voice is a lot more... flat, and the pitch and length of the notes vary a lot less. In "Cure" and "Black Sorrow," there's a lot more variance: Ivan's voice goes from soft and low, singing shorter notes, to louder and higher, holding long notes, et cetera.

In Nowhere, the notes are typically shorter, and tend to stay in the same general area on the scale. Ivan's tone stays very consistent; in his other songs, it goes from calm and collected to full of emotion and feelings. He sounds a lot more monotone in Nowhere, and not just because he's singing quietly. He's not entirely apathetic; there's still a lot of emotion in his voice. But it's muted. Numb.

The only line that lacks this somewhat monotone, apathetic tone is "In love with you, when you were mine." This line is EVERYWHERE, and plays in the background of the ENTIRE TRACK.

And all of this kind of makes sense. "Black Sorrow" and "Cure" were both declarations of Ivan's love, and his feelings for Till. They were meant to be heard; they were meant to have an audience in Till. Ivan was projecting his emotions outwards.

"Nowhere" was not meant to be heard by anyone but Ivan himself—not even Till. It represented Ivan's internal thoughts, ones he would never say to anyone else—sort of how like someone might find certain things about a friend or significant other annoying, but choose not to say anything despite thinking it. Ivan is tired, and perhaps even a bit annoyed. He's wondering why Till doesn't return his feelings, and likely, wondering why he himself continues to love Till despite that.

Now, onto the lyrics (English translation b/c my Korean is awful):

That's just the kind of kid he is, so laugh Laugh, because he can't do anything No one cares about someone like him There's nowhere in the world for him to rest

It's been stated (see image below) that Ivan feels like he cannot be loved—that he's undeserving of it, or just doesn't have the qualifications. These lyrics are Ivan speaking about himself. Ivan is unable to get Till to return his feelings ("no one cares about someone like him"), and he is also, ultimately, unable to save Till ("Laugh, because he can't do anything"). To make this second thing worse, it happened not once, but TWICE: first when Ivan couldn't get Till to leave with him, and then when his actions in Round 6 ended up seemingly being for nothing in Round 7.

Another bit of the lyrics is as such:

Worse and worse this painful wound I become more and more numb

Ivan is slowly becoming more and more apathetic, and resigned to his fate, saying that "this always happens to me." Even the song's title is a reference to this: there's nowhere for Ivan to find solace, and all of "this" is going nowhere—"this" being Ivan's relationship with Till. Ivan is resigned to his fate of loving Till—almost certainly more than he loves himself—un"till" the end: until death.

doodled this post bc i just had to, this happened for sure off camera right

💙.

teenagers in media acting like real teenagers will always hold a special place in my heart

Some style exploration for MOONLIT BAMBOO FOREST made at Passion Pictures with Director David Pagaille for GENSHIN IMPACT. The mission was to figure out a painting style that would include a influence of traditionnal Chinese ink paintings. I tried different approaches, to very derivative of that to a more realisitic version. The final style was quite in between, Im really happy with all those little researches

what in the soulmate-ism is this

🐉