Commentary
for July 14, 2021:
This whole scene
is kind of where the story really starts in this chapter. Honestly,
I could have just told a story set entirely on Avalice with no
look-in on Earth at all. In fact, I think that’s what I’d originally
planned with this story. I guess splitting up the Discovery Saga
into three parts and
certain developments in Chapter 10 justified the previous
scenes featuring Sally, and having her contact Tails about her
efforts to reopen a portal to Avalice made for a good segue back to
here. But if I’d done the Discovery Saga as a single chapter,
like I originally planned, this one could have been quite different.
Don’t get it twisted, though, I am very pleased with the two
previous scenes featuring Sally and Tails.
But they’re not on this page, Marine the Raccoon is! So, a note on
chronology first; Marine is eighteen years old here. For Eon’s
World, the official ages of Sega characters are how old they
were in the year 3231, which is when the classic MegaDrive games
took place in this setting. It is currently the year 3242, so every
Sega character is now eleven years older than their official ages,
Marine’s being seven. That said, Marine isn’t all that different
here, personality-wise. She still fancies herself as a swashbuckling
hero and ships’ captain. Heck, she may well consider herself an
admiral at this point, given she’s commanding a small fleet. Now, as
for her redesign, it’s very minimalist, because I’m not a big fan of
over-engineered character designs. I kept her outfit simple and
evocative of her official design, with a few extra flourishes, like
the bandana, the cutlass, and the seashell necklace. Fun fact: I
drew this design while bored at my terrible old call centre job five
years ago and I didn’t really change anything about her design from
that old sketch, because there really wasn’t anything I felt needed
changing.
The other characters who’ve been somewhat relegated to the
background of that first panel (because, let’s face it, Marine loves
to steal the spotlight) are, of course, Freedom Planet’s big
three; Carol Tea the wildcat on the wheel, Sash Lilac the water
dragon hybrid next to her, and Milla Basset the hound behind them. I
went with their designs from Freedom Planet 2, where they all
appear to be a few years older than in the original game (though I’m
not sure by how much). Of course, at the time of writing this,
Freedom Planet 2 is still in development; but I’ve played the
demo and I am excited for the full release when it comes, which
hopefully will be soon. |
