when i get my hands on Liam O'Brien i'm making him pay all my therapy bills
like. LIKE. look at his face. the sudden surprise as jester invades his space and proceeds to RUTHLESSLY unravel and acknowledge his pain after the traumatic events of the day, the way he's so carefully tucked away all emotions and tried to move on without worrying the group. look how quickly the layers all crumble away, how emotional and vulnerable and small he looks, how for a second we see Caleb Widogast without all his layers. if i had any power at all to do so i would give this man a thousand oscars and then ask for a milion dollars to compensate for the emotional damage he has wrought me
My fav thing about Shadowgast that I don’t see people talk about nearly enough is how yes, narratively, they’re foils, parallels, cut from the same cloth, truly poetic storytelling... But aesthetically they’re opposites attract in the funniest possible way.
Cause on one hand we have the epitome of elegance. Essek-fancypants-Thelyss. So graceful even walking is beneath him. He’s beauty he’s grace, he’ll lie to your face. He floats. He brings fine wine to your dinner party and has only the most well-manicured feet.
And on the other hand we have Caleb-“bush man”-Widogast. Stinky, dirty, sanatorium-escapee who hasn’t bathed in months. To him, rain=shower and warm bread=gloves. Sometimes he has conversations with skeleton heads cause he’s so normal. He definitely smells like wet cat.
Aesthetically, they are Eve x Wall-E. They are the Lady and the Tramp. They are fancy man x trashman. What’s Essek gonna say when he sees Caleb eat bread off of his hands like he’s eating chicken off a drumstick? Idk but it’s my favorite thing to think about.
Jester and Nott in the style of 1940's pulp magazine covers for @artists-guild-of-exandria's art history style swap project! I love this detective duo sooo much
Make sure to check out the other works in the project, everyone had so much fun and such creative ideas!!
caleb widogast is easily the most character of all time. he's traumatized. he's autistic. he's bisexual. he's polyamorous. he's a ginger. he has a german accent. he does magic. he has a cat. his best friend is a mean lesbian that punches him a lot. he killed his parents. he looks like a hobo. he's new in town.
Some of the scenes from the Mighty Nein animatic I made a while back. The animation was done by rotoscoping frames from the Mighty Nein Reunited trailer on Procreate; I might’ve bitten off more than I can chew, but it was still really fun! Check out the full video on YouTube HERE.
every episode with essek in it before the Reveal is so funny because he’s there for maybe 45 minutes max and he spends a third of this time staring deeply into caleb’s eyes, another third giving away state secrets, and the other third saying the most out of pocket batshit things like he expected his swag to carry him through any trials and/or tribulations. he called beau’s cocktail racist and then dipped. they invite him in to dinner and he’s like ‘yeah i made my dad so angry he died. normal. anyways what are your innermost driving motivations, wishes, and fears? is this how conversation works?’ and the nein collectively were just like it’s ok he’s hot. and you KNOW he’s all up in his mind with the whole tortured genius melancholy resignation sadness angst thing and it’s like baby no you’re just bizarre and unusual. god.
“On the tail end of a guest lecture, because I don't have tenure here or anything. Astrid has been trying to coax me, Beauregard as well, to take a position, but I'm not quite ready for that. I've only been home for a few months, but here I am, speaking to these students, and I'm on the tail end. Caleb looks around the room and resorts to his notes, pausing.”-Liam/Caleb
Caleb’s lecture The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 1 | Unfinished Business