Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Care of Magical Indians
Stats:
Published:
2022-02-25
Completed:
2022-03-03
Words:
11,094
Chapters:
3/3
Comments:
14
Kudos:
221
Bookmarks:
54
Hits:
3,621

The Problems with Lilies

Chapter 3: Illustration

Chapter Text

Shrimp Scampi

 

Commissioned grayscale illustration done by https://www.facebook.com/hatrang.le.77715 

It’s 99 percent close to what I had in mind of the scene. The only thing that is slightly off is Ritsuka’s expression. In the story, she was nervous in a positive, anticipatory way at Junaoh’s first human experience after thousands of years of being a mechanical god. But I didn’t communicate that across to the artist so here she is looking nervous but in a negative way. Ah well, it’s 99 percent and I’m super happy with how it turns out! 

 

Initially, I was hoping to get the more risque scenes of the story illustrated but since this was my first time commissioning artworks for my non-professional writing, I didn't want to overdo it, so I settled for this scene which is much easier to do. Finding artists that will illustrate NSFW materials is a more delicate task after all. It will be something of a long-term thing. 

Notes:

The idea for this short story starts out as a humorous, cracky piece that more or less revolves around Arjuna being one-upped by his own Alter. But very quickly it becomes a study piece into the character of FGO Arjuna. I confess. I wasn't exactly a fan of Arjuna until very recently. Having read the Mahabrahata (or actually still reading it. It's a long work), I always see Mahabrahata Arjuna as... sad and broken. More or less a victim of his own complexes, pride, talent, and the convention of his time.

Then as I start reading more into FGO Arjuna, I fell in love with his complex characterization in FGO. It's definitely not a hundred percent faithful to Mahabrahata (which is a hard thing to do considering there are various versions and many different interpretations), but it's delightful and very convincing on its own. I especially love his second Interlude and Trial Quest with Arjuna. It paints the picture of a complex man who struggles with himself but who is still trying to be... a hero anyway.

I don't have Arjuna, but I do have Junao.

Also....

1/ Junao's dialog is taken from his actual in-game dialogs with only a bit of adjustment. So yes, he does actually say that 'beautiful' line.
2/ It's very interesting to watch the progression of Junao reclaiming the man he was in the game. God Junao is very mechanical with the exception of when he hits bond 5 and openly calls Ritsuka's character beautiful. He doesn't hide himself at all, which is in stark contrast with OG Archer Arjuna who doesn't even want Ritsuka to see his true face (to the point that he canonically contemplates killing her for getting too close to his heart). Then he hits ascension 3 and becomes human Junao, where he is clearly kind of... mentally younger (which prompts the Ritsuka of this story to treat him like other Lilies) and shows the innocence and purity that Archer Arjuna has lost long ago.

Series this work belongs to: