Mary (Final Fantasy VI) Sketches 1

A wanderer journeying aimlessly throughout the world with her black chocobo, Gust. Spry and easygoing, she has a go-getter attitude about most things, though she can be impatient and short-tempered at times. But Mary is a loyal friend through and through, and will stand up and fight to defend the weak and especially the people she cares about... Whoever they might be.

Certainly not her parents or family, after she'd been abandoned by them in her youth. Resorting to petty theft and scrappiness to survive, she lived the scavenger's life for a while, barely getting by to survive. Eventually, she wound up in the company of a swordsman who easily overpowered her when she tried to pilfer his gil sack away from him. While having just been humbled by him, she was in awe of his strength and desired to be the same. She followed him around for a time, trying to get him to teach her how to be as strong as he was. Her attempts were rebuffed, though he ended up taking her under his wing as both his student and stepdaughter. Her years spent with him would one day hone her into the fine warrior she's become in the present day.

At his deathbed, he bade her no longer try to find a cure for his illness; instead, he wanted her to journey across the land and discover more of the world and herself. And so she would at his passing, though she would find herself struggling to find a sense of belonging wherever she went. Her stepfather had been the only family she knew, and even with Gust's company, she yearned for other people who felt as lonesome as she did.

While sheltering from the cold in the Narshe Mines, Mary finds a woman collapsed from the remains of a cave-in, alive yet barely conscious. Joined eventually by a certain self-proclaimed treasure hunter and the local moogles, Mary fights through the waves of guards and their trained monsters pursuing the woman, spurred by an urge to protect her. Little did the wanderer know then that she would become such a significant presence in her life, easily making friends with her and connecting through a shared feeling of isolation... And inevitably roping her into the war against the Gestahlian Empire to save the world.

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I've been in a mood to just sketch things lately. I don't have a lot of time these days to focus on anything particularly grand so it's easier—and frankly more relaxing—to just indulge in sketchdumps like this.

Anyway. Mary is a Final Fantasy VI OC I've had since I was 13-14 years old. At the time, I had just started playing the Advance version of the game. I thought it would be cool to have a self-insert OC who was kind and good-natured while also being headstrong and brave to the point of recklessness; you could say it was a personality type that I greatly admired especially on a female character because I used to be very shy, lonely and withdrawn back then.

Over the years, and after I came to fully accept that perhaps I am attracted to other women, I fully recognized my own little girlcrush on Terra by writing some guilty pleasure snippets of fan fiction exploring Mary's relationship with her. The dynamic between a brash, easygoing, yet stubborn warrior and a shy, soft-spoken, and sweet woman is one of my favorite opposites attract tropes and this especially highlights that. I suppose it's just the knowledge of how a quiet person like Terra can manage to rein in Mary's storm that I simply find so charming.

With Dissidia Duellum having come out recently... I've been feeling pretty inspired by Final Fantasy characters arriving in Tokyo and seeing how adorable Terra is on my home screen. It makes me want to just engage in more content of these two, drawing their interactions together both in their world and in Tokyo. Or just making Terra content in general. Ugh, it's like going through my Arc brainrot during my Housamo era all over again. 😆

Doppelgangers

My self-insert nameless Commander/Wayfinder from Guild Wars 2, and nameless Scion/Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy XIV.

When I originally made my Scion OC, I had been mulling whether or not to just make her the same as my Wayfinder. Ultimately, I decided to create a new OC altogether, as I loved the idea of making both characters distinct from each other while sharing various similarities.

Their patchworks of scars are what I think would be my most favorite things about them. There's just something to be said about women with scars, especially when they're visible for all to see and hold a deeper meaning beyond the physical. For the Wayfinder, they're a symbol of lost innocence (from being a bright, promising scholar to a cynical, jaded adventurer), falling from grace (from being slain by Balthazar and the regret to save some of her allies, and the shame of her mistakes), and of halcyon days never to return (with the loss of Sieran in particular). For the Scion, they're badges of honor and experience that she proudly wears like a heart on her sleeve, serving as a testament to her many tribulations she weathered and came out on top of.

I was mentioning to someone the other day how, after some introspection, this parallels my own admission of envy towards other artists. There's shame in having to admit something like this because one would think that in the journey of self-improvement, one would use their betters to better themselves rather than treat them as subjects of insecurity and jealousy. Yet in the same vein, there's also both relief and acceptance that this is a part of me. It reminds me that this is but one of many imperfections that make me human. It's all a matter of perspective how we view our scars no matter how they marr us; at the end of the day, we can only move forward and strive to be better people despite ourselves.

The sight of these two finally drawn together, their scars exposed and all especially, fills me with a newfound sense of relief and contentment that I haven't felt in over six months. I will be continuing my Guild Wars 2 fancomic Objet d'Art after leaving it on hiatus for a time, while slowly featuring more content about these two characters moving forward.

Scion & Alphinaud 1

"You're a brother, but not entirely; you're a friend, yet in some way family. No matter what pair of lenses I see you through, you and your sister both will always be important to me... And I'll walk the ends of the earth just to save you if I have to, Alphy."

Alphinaud Leveilleur. Self-assured young boy of House Leveilleur with a talent for debate, public speaking and diplomacy. Once founded the Crystal Braves, an organization meant to embody his lofty aspiration of spearheading Eorzea's true champions of the future. His own inexperience and naiveté would eventually lead to the downfall of the Scions when his own men betrayed him. This same experience would humble and temper him as a person especially when he, the Scion, and Tataru remain as the only known living members of the Scions for a time. The Scion becomes very privy to his moments of weakness in this period especially in the times they are alone, and so the two have naturally grown close as a result.

But while the Scion dotes on him like a little brother she never had even in her past life, Alphinaud finds himself crushing onto her instead. He keeps his feelings relatively concealed, not wishing to ruin the platonic relationship he already shares with the Scion, especially knowing that she's still grieving over the loss of Minfilia—a loss he feels responsible for after the events of the Bloody Banquet. Every now and then though, he can't help when he slips up or someone else slips up for him, much to his embarrassment and dismay.

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Alphinaud is a character I didn't expect to become genuinely fond of as I was playing the story. When I first met him, he came off as some kind of lowkey arrogant rich kid with so much to say and not enough years of experience to prove it. So when Heavensward happened, I was absolutely pleased to bear witness to his bouts of angst and melancholy that led to his eventual character growth. Now he's quite easily one of my favorite characters, next to his sister.

I think it's actually kind of funny how the game hints at how he's so fond of the Warrior of Light especially in Heavensward and Shadowbringers. I enjoy the headcanon of how the Scion just loves him platonically and thinks Alphinaud values her the same way, while also being blissfully unaware of just how much (or how badly) Alphinaud wants her to view him differently.