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cosmoglass · 7 months

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Fumito Ueda was inspired by… Galaxy Express 999 (1979).

Ueda has cited the Galaxy Express 999 manga series as one of his influences. Watching the film they made in the middle of its run, I could see a lot of Ico and also some Shadow of the Colossus.

It made me think of Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland and Firefly as we follow the boy, Tetsuro, visiting different planets. On a planet called Titan, Tetsuro is given a gun by an old woman that turns out to be ‘the only cosmo gun capable of killing machine men’. Ueda's games feature special weapons that are uniquely effective against the antagonists.

Spoilers for the movie ahead!

It prefigures Ghost in the Shell. There's a character called Tochiro who, moments before his death, gets Tetsuro to activate a machine that vaporizes his body and transfers his consciousness into the supercomputer of his best friend's ship, 'Arcadia'. Maetel, one of two Yorda-like figures, explains to Tetsuro, "I am a copy of your mother in her youth. I am a shadow in the form of a human. When I grow old, I get a copy of a new body. That is how I survive through the ages and travel through time." Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus feature characters whose bodies are vessels for other consciousnesses (Yorda for The Queen and Wander for Dormin). With the line ‘I had become a witch who controlled time’, it actually sounded more like a warning against plastic surgery.

The castle in the movie gets destroyed.

The other Yorda-like figure is Claire whose mother forced her to trade in her body for one made of glass. Her appearance is reminiscent of petrified Yorda and she has a power that makes her glow which she uses not to open Idol Gates but to save Tetsuro from Queen Promethium.

At the end, Maetel says to Tetsuro, ‘From now on, I will be a woman who lives on only in your memories. I will be nothing more than an illusion of your young boy’s heart, a phantom of your youth.’ The lyrics of 'You Were There' for me carry a similar feeling of nostalgia.

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The movie can be watched for free on YouTube.

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rainbowfeatherreplies · 3 months

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"Sparks here! What's behind me? Nooooothing! There's no shadowy figures you need to worry about. Why do you ask....?"

Art by villiris

#villiris #art #sparks #shadow creatures #story arc post #sparks the dracony

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kmilart · 9 months

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Me?? Drawing something aside VampAU??? YES! But is Carmin because I just love draw my girlboss bad bitch on any version 😌🖤

>Commission Open<

#also I love draw shadow creatures #they absolutely dumb but I love them #oc #carmin #shadow creatures #balthassar #Gathaspa #Melichior #oc art #1940s oc #monster oc #monster #1940s #digital art #my art #original art #artists on tumblr #kmilart

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plushee-cant-draw · 11 months

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I wonder how Metheus views Maxwell's reading and use of (what is probably) her book.

#I mean. She probably wrote it considering it had an M on it even before William found it.#and she's the only character whose name actually starts with an M.#and she probably learnt about nightmare fuel and its properties first and had the most knowledge on it #so it'd make sense for the shadow manuscript to be written by her #anyways quick doodle. Im going to explode now. maybe draw some angst.#ds ancients #dst charlie #shadow creatures #shadow creature

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casually-crooked · 1 year

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Credit to @cosmoglass for making the post that first pointed this out, but I want to show in more detail why Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro and ICO for the PS2 are aesthetically connected, with the latter likely being inspired by the former. This post won't contain direct spoilers for either source material. But a lot of images will be used, so if you prioritize coming into both of these masterworks blind, and with fresh eyes, wait until you've seen them for yourself.

[ID: Image 1: A full shot of the Count's Castle from Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro. /end ID] [ID: Images 2 & 3: The Queen's Castle from ICO, both close and wide shots. /end ID]

Here we can see the castles side by side. You won't notice many architectural similarities beyond perhaps the arch bridges. But both rest upon a body of water, closed off from the mainland. Both castles were made to be isolated and difficult to reach. Speaking of difficulties, you'll notice in ICO that the bridge to the mainland appears to be missing. A more accurate statement is that it is retracted. Later in the game, a stone bridge will extend itself out of a slot to reach the mainland, much like another part of the Count's Castle, which connects to an isolated tower.

[ID: Image 4: The Count's Castle, focus on the isolated tower and a section of castle extending out to connect with it. /end ID]

There's also an elevator on the outside of both castles' walls, and while they vary drastically in style, this specific wall-ascending outdoor elevator is pretty unique in concept.

[ID: Image 5: The Count's Castle, a ridge in the outside of the tower allows a boxed elevator to ride up and down. The elevator itself is octagonal in shape and fancifully decorated. /end ID] [ID: Image 6: The Queen's Castle, a ridge in the outside of the tower allows a platform elevator to ride up and down. The player must manually turn a large crank to ascend and descend. There is no roof, and only a fence protects the riders from falling off. /end ID]

Both castles also feature a windmill that overlooks a small area of greenery.

[ID: Images 7 & 8: The Count's Castle, a small four winged windmill of old construction overlooks a small walkway with lush bushes dotting the view. It faces out towards the water. Images taken from both front and back of the windmill. /end ID] {Note: The following images are not of ICO, but rather an accurate recreation of the Windmill area created in Unity by funkyboy. They had the best angles to demonstrate my point.}

[ID: Images 9 & 10: The Queen's Castle, an eight winged windmill overlooks a small pond surrounded by vibrant green grass. It faces out towards the water. Images taken from the left and right sides of the windmill. /end ID]

One can find a few more similarities inside the castle walls. Particularly in the aqueduct leading towards the Count's castle. The underground waterworks are filled with huge gears and intense streams of water. A similar locale is seen in the final stretch of ICO, where the gears and mills are used as a platforming challenge.

[ID: Image 11: Lupin, in diving gear, fights against the current of a waterfall that spills out over a underground passageway of brick construction. Large interconnected gears encompass the background. /end ID] [ID: Image 12: A promotional poster featuring Ico, small in the frame, looking up towards streams of water raging down over a cliff face, the streams land into mills and gears that turn.]

Both pieces of media also feature a stone bench. Though ICO's benches are more prominent and used as Save Points throughout The Queen's Castle.

[ID: Image 13: A sun sets on an old marble pavilion with a stone bench, slightly coated in crumpled autumn leaves. The seat is split into three sections of the stone. Very detailed art style. /end ID] [ID Image 14: Ico and Yorda rest on a stone bench, split into two sections of stone. It glows with runes when Yorda is near it. /end ID]

But it's not just the castle that has aesthetic similarities, the characters themselves have some commonalities. Clarisse, from Cagliostro, has a resemblance to Yorda. And while Lupin, as her rescuer, doesn't resemble the 12 year old Ico, he does end up with a head injury that requires bandages around his head, later in the film. Ico is always seen with bandages across his head throughout his game.

[ID: Image 15: Lupin holding Clarisse's hand as he guides her back through the aqueduct area, filled with turning gears. Clarisse wears an all-white dress and has a colorful shade of brown hair. Lupin wears a green jacket over a black shirt and yellow necktie. He has white bandages wrapped tightly around his black hair. /end ID] [ID: Image 16: Ico helping Yorda up by the hand after she has fallen. Yorda wears a white dress with brown and grey patterns around the neck and shoulders. Her hair is mostly gray with very faded traces of brown. Ico wears an orange tunic and a poncho with an elusive ancient pattern on it. Around his black hair are white bandages, from which horns sprout. /end ID]

There are also two moments in the Lupin film where Lupin helps Clarisse across a small gap, but I only have a clear screenshot of this instance.

[ID: Image 17: Lupin helps Clarisse cross a short, watery gap between two platforms that they stand on. He extends his hand to grab hers on the other side, intending to pull her towards him as she jumps. /end ID]

Helping Yorda across gaps is such a staple of ICO's gameplay, it's hard to think of the game without thinking of this image.

[ID: Image 18: Ico reaches out his hand to Yorda on the other side of a fairly long distance gap between their two platforms. She is at the edge of hers, preparing to jump towards him, the intent being that she will grab onto his outstretched hand. /end ID]

And if the main characters aren't visually similar enough, how about the common enemies? In The Castle of Cagliostro, there are a group of assassins shrouded in black cloth, and equipped with metallic claws that make them appear monstrous. Their eyes glow an unnatural yellow and they often walk with hunched postures.

[ID: Images 19 & 20: First, a depiction of the aforementioned assassins, piled together in a doorway, glaring towards their targets in the dead of night with yellow glints for eyes. The second image is a close up of one of their hands, which resembles a gauntlet from a set of armor, but with sharp, long pointed ends on each digit and sharpened knuckles. /end ID]

Compare with the common enemies from ICO, which are actual manifestations of shadow. They appear bestial and often hunched over as they approach, claws and wings are common in their design elements, and they bare glowing blue eyes.

[ID: Images 21 & 22: Close-ups of two Shadow Creatures. The first has grabbed Yorda, and lifted her onto one shoulder with slender appendages that end in long points. It's face glows with a bright blue light that emanates from its eyes. The second Shadow Creature stares at Yorda with the same blue eyes, it's back covered in ethereal feathers, it's long arms cascading down to the ground, also ending in points.]

The pictures don't capture the movement of these characters but I assure you they both walk with an unnerving energy that feel very similar to each other.

The Castle of Cagliostro came out in 1979 when Fumito Ueda was 9 years old. In all likelihood, he and the people that made up Team Ico at that time, had watched the movie several times as they grew up. Considering also, the fact that ICO lacked most of these resemblances in earlier stages of development, I think it's possible that Ueda and/or the team rewatched the film mid-development and decided to wear the inspiration on their sleeve. Regardless of how this Lupin the 3rd movie sneaked some of its aesthetics into a classic PS2 title like ICO, I think they are undoubtedly connected by a link of artistic inspiration. Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut inspired Fumito Ueda as he created his first game.

#ico #lupin the 3rd #the castle of cagliostro #comparison #artistic inspiration #team ico #long post #image id #lupin #clarisse de cagliostro #yorda #shadow creatures #no spoilers #images #so many images #castle of cagliostro

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groovyfandomhuman · 1 month

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I hear noises and everyone's asleep it can either be my insane cats or those shadow things I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye

either way we're gonna turn our music way up and hope whatever it is leaves me alone

#music #nighttime #shadow creatures #cats

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zytes · 5 months

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this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

#misc #I encourage anyone dyslexic to try rotating him in your mind. I can’t do that; which is why I’m asking you to.#also: a bunch of tags are surprised this isn’t ‘shopped #it’s the lighting. backlit by the sun (which is diffused through the water) but also forelit artificially #the artificial light - a flash pack or something - casts a hard shadow under the creatures arm #which normally wouldn’t be possible if backlit by the SUN; you’d see a less-hard/more-fragmented shadow above water #as light sources ‘compete’ in a sense - and since there aren’t any light sources which can outshine the literal sun #it looks a bit weird when the darkest shadow is being cast from any other origin point - which is what’s essentially happening here #I don’t know the mechanics of how light travels through water; but I know the effect is substantial even with relatively short distances #also: it’s been balanced and color corrected by the author of the photo - who made deliberate choices to bring out the full potential #so it’s not like it’s a fresh and untouched export #but the kind of ‘tacked on’ appearance of the creature is a result of the lighting conditions within the image

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spacecolonie · 3 months

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i saw you in a dream

#shadow the hedgehog #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #maria robotnik #my art #cw: blood #im so excited to see shadow relive all his trauma again in sonadow gens #froths at the mouth like a rabid creature

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axvwriter · 9 months

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Moon Sister's Intro Post

Names: (Left to Right) Majora, Siprena, and Pandora Moon

Species: Human Undiscernible

Ages: 18, 17, and 16 Undiscernible

Relations: Majora, Siprena, and Pandora are sisters. Very distantly related to Piper Moon. Cyrus Sun seems to recognize Majora while his brothers seem confused on why these shadows have the same names of those girls that died so long ago.

Job: Energy harvester experiments

General Info: These shadowy creatures have the power to ravage worlds, yet the only thing that keeps them from doing so is their desire for entertainment. Though when they play with their food for a little too long, states and kingdoms tend to go extinct. It's uncertain what can even hurt these beings due to their unfair advantage of being able to change their density and thus avoid meaningful damage.

Their bodies become longer with the more they consume. Despite other harvesters being able to change just about anything into energy, they seem only capable of feeding off certain level sentient organics. Majora and Siprena seem to prefer certain ages along with people that have experienced certain things when it comes to picking what to eat. They claim that these specific beings are not only tastier but more filling as well. It has gotten to a point that between their hunts they will start manipulating certain beings' lives to raise a rather magnificent tasting meal.

While Majora and Siprena show great glee in destroying lives, Pandora is often devastated by her sisters' actions. The youngest sister will often go as long as she possibly can without feeding off of anyone's life forces. Her older sisters refuse to let her wither away and often try to bully her into eating. There have been a few times Pandora has been able to refuse but she has been unable to withstand the unbearable starvation pains. Her sisters are often annoyed by her unwillingness along with being unable to understand why she feels so guilty.

Majora and Siprena's facial features are quite limited. Their eyes are always upturned and while they're usually always smiling, their mouths are capable of forming frowns. Pandora's eyes tend to stay downturned but her eyes aren't stuck like that.

Majora can create masks that when placed upon someone, they will often fade from view while it changes how that person behaves. Siprena can create scarves that when placed around someone's neck, that person cannot remove it. If that person behaves in a way she dislikes, the scarf will tighten to cut off their ability to breath. After a bit it will loosen up again. Pandora can create different kinds of flowers.

Majora and Siprena often get upset when Pandora creates certain flowers. These specific flowers can make it impossible for the Moon sisters to see and perceive a place or person. Due to Pandora's unwillingness to eat, she rarely has enough energy to be able to make any. Though Pandora wishes she could warn people about her sisters, it often feels pointless to try. She's never been able to stop them before.

Majora and Siprena tend to leave Pandora somewhere safe before going on their hunts. Most times that tends to be the clouds where people are unlikely to come across her. Yet there's times where they can't help but leave her in gardens. Something just seems right about Pandora being in a garden.

Shippable: I rather that no one tries to ship these three with anyone. They have no interest in romantic or sexual relations. If anything, they get upset whenever someone tries to make a move on any of them.

#not acc friendly #i think that's the tag #i dont think acc can read strikethrough #how should one format text to be readable while still giving off the feeling that this information isn't supposed to be known?#axv #axv art #character intro post #moon sisters #moon sisters intro post #axv writing #world roamers #axv ocs #ive made myself a template so hopefully im not as rambly #but so many thoughts that can go into general info oh no #shippable is just my way of sharing if im okay with peeps shipping their ocs with my ocs or not #love might be a weakness but im not sure how to explain what exactly im thinking #shadow creatures #not the same type of shadow that CatMask is #certain kinds of light may be able to hurt them #like magic light that im awake a little too late in the day to explain properly #big time villains #long post #probably not all that oc interactive friendly considering the lack of weaknesses and their desire to eat life forces #its like cracking a nut #crack the nut to get to the life force #cant be sucked at over time and has to be eaten once cracked #otherwise it all evaporates #majora moon and masks is thanks to loz mm inspiring these three and ending up causing this snowball effect of bood and duberios and a lot #i like peeps that speak in their tags after they get the actual needed tags down #its like a secret scavenger hunt

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radiance1 · 4 months

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Damian: [brushing his teeth]

The shadow hanging over his shoulder: [Gets its teeth dangerously close to Damian's shoulder]

Damian: [Shoves a toothbrush into said shadow move and starts brush]

The shadow: [Pauses before starting to let out a contented purr]

Damian then spits out the foam and washes out his mouth, then makes the shadow do the same and then picks out pjs.

Damian: [Currently decided if he should go with the cat, dog, or knife imprinted one]

The shadow: [Starts getting dangerously close to Damian with, toxic green spirals it calls eyes]

Damian: [Throws the dog imprinted one behind him at the shadow and takes the cat imprinted one for himself and tells the shadow to put it on]

The shadow: [Stares at the clothes before hesitantly putting them on before letting out a noise of distress]

Damian: [Turning around to find the shadow somehow stuck in the pjs, lets out a sigh, then starts to help them fit]

Damian then moves over to the bed, he points to one side and tells the shadow to go there. The shadow listens, laying down as Damian also lays down, grabbing the sheets and covering them both.

It barely took a few seconds for the shadow to fall asleep, and Damian stared at it. Damian wasn't quite sure why the shadow of his dead twin was following him, nor why it was even able to and seemed to hide itself from anyone who isn't Damian.

Nobody besides him knew about it, and Damian decided that he liked it. This could have been his younger brother, if the other had survived, and they would have probably been told to fight to the death to decide an heir.

At the very least, that won't ever happen.

Even if his brother was slightly unusual.

===

Danny did not remember much of the before, he remembered people with blurred faces and features, blurred colors. He remembered a lot of colors, then red, then white, then pain.

He doesn't like pain, he believes.

Then he remembered going to sleep, and then he woke up. It was dark and slimy and cramped when he woke up, especially when he realized someone else was in their with him.

Then he fell asleep again, then woke up to that same dark and slimy place, then fell asleep again, all in some weird cycle. Then, moving, and pain.

It hurt, and he was sluggish when it eventually stopped. Then came pain again, and he was asleep.

Then he woke up, again.

He didn't know what was happening, wasn't really aware of too. But he woke up next to the other who was in that dark and slimy with him, and decided he wanted to stay with them.

He wasn't aware enough for most of the things that happened when Damian grew up, but he still stayed regardless, and hide from everyone else.

Danny loves his brother, and he thinks his brother loves him too. Even if he was slightly unusual.

#dc x dp #dp x dc #dpxdc #dp x dc crossover #dcxdp #dc x dp crossover #Danny died and reincarnated #After a ruthless amount of experimentation at that #He only vaguely remembers his past life lawl #Anyways Danny was reborn as Damian's twin but was killed because of a birth defect #Then he woke up again as some weird shadow creature and attached himself to Damian #Damian meanwhile isn't quite sure why his brother is still around when he should be dead #But takes care of him regardless of that fact #Even if his brother seemed to move more on instinct with the curiosity of a ten year old despite technically being the same age as him #For the record #Danny ISN'T a halfa here #Since he died he lost that status lawl #Danny is a shadow creature who attached himself to his older brother Damian #Shocker I know #Real different to how I usually have them in my posts huh?#Right Danny still takes the form of a child #A shadowy wispy child but still #He only comes up to Damian's chest lawl but he can fly so it balances out #He also weighs nothing so Damian can just easily pick him up lol

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cosmoglass · 9 months

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Fumito Ueda was inspired by… The King and the Mockingbird (Le Roi et l'Oiseau).

The King and the Mockingbird was clearly an inspiration for both Hayao Miyazaki and Fumito Ueda. I've taken so many screenshots that look like scenes in The Castle of Cagliostro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus that I can't include all of them in one post, so first I'm going to show you the ones that look like Ico.

A chimney sweep and a shepherdess are the young couple escaping the castle, prefiguring Ico and Yorda. They come to life from paintings hanging next to each other and the reason they need to escape is because a painting of the king has also come to life, has got rid of the actual king, and is determined to marry the shepherdess.

The narcissistic king has winged servants who chase after the shepherdess and the chimney sweep like the flying monkeys of The Wizard of Oz and surely inspiring the shadow creatures in Ico.

The mockingbird of the title looks after four hatchlings. One of them keeps getting trapped in a cage and on one occasion is freed when the cage falls to the ground and breaks open, just like when we first encounter Yorda in Ico.

Towards the end, the king is trying to get away with the shepherdess, who is his unwilling bride. He steps onto a balcony area which then moves away from the palace and is revealed to be the helmet of the king's enormous robot, so it's like a combination of the retracting bridge from Ico and Malus in Shadow of the Colossus.

Not long after, it is the king, rather than our hero, who gets hit by a falling rock as the castle crumbles.

The soundtrack - When we’re looking at the paintings of the shepherdess and the chimney sweep (at 16 minutes 30 seconds) we hear a harpsichord melody called ‘La Bergere et le Ramoneur’ that's strikingly similar to 'Castle in the Mist'. Also, whenever the shepherdess and the chimney sweep need the mockingbird's help, they call out ‘Oiseau’ (pronounced ‘Wuh-zoh’) the way Ico calls out ‘Ontwuh’.

Ico's horns - They don't feature in this animation but perhaps they should because.... The King and the Mockingbird was adapted from a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale called The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. It tells the story of a shepherdess who is told she has to marry a creature with horns and the legs of a goat (a description of a satyr).

Is it any surprise at all that a fairy tale as beautiful as Ico should turn out to be traceable all the way back to none other than Hans Christian Andersen?

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rainbowfeatherreplies · 2 years

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(Battle in the past)

Just when things seemed at their darkest and the fighting was most intense, suddenly a cone of light erupted from Rainbow Feather’s face! Her discord-provided aura vanished and in it’s place, a brilliance from her forehead which changes the battlefield!

Art by Honeybbear

#plot #story arc post #shadow creatures #battle in the past #princess rainbow feather #the hornaning #art #honeybbear #princess story time

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l0vecrim3 · 2 months

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