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The Hierophant/Deacon: Strong beliefs aligned with conformity, tradition, and institutions. Spiritual wisdom, a guiding figure. The male counterpart to the High Priestess, just as Deacon and Violet act as Chase and Buddy’s respective confidants. (Deacon isn’t nearly as conforming now as he was at the time of drawing this, for the record)

Strength/Prunella: Strength and courage specifically in compassionate ways or through persuasive means. Prunella has many other aspects but I appreciate how resilient and grounded she is. Also I wanted to draw Lady Lovalorn.

Temperance/Silver: One foot on the ground, one foot in the flow (mirroring the Star card). With patience and persistence, the winding path leads to a great reward.

High Priestess/Violet: A teacher but also a bit of a gatekeeper. Sacred knowledge is revealed when the student is ready. Divine feminine. The subconscious mind. I think we all can guess who the moon at her feet represents.

Empress/Mrs G: Feminine beauty, a nurturing presence. Connection to nature, manifesting abundance.

The World/Punko: The last card of the major arcana, the World is the whole picture. The circular wreath squirmle symbolizes the cycle of successful completion and new beginnings. As Punko completes one phase, she immediately begins another, always achieving.

The minor arcana are more narrative, so they have longer explanations!

Four of Swords/Dreams By Night: This card indicates a need for rest in response to anxiety and stress. I stretched a little bit on this one, because the glass coffin is presented in canon as a prison, not a safe space. So I tried to emphasize Chase as the watchful figure who promises safety and sanctuary.

Four of Pentacles/Mister Mischief: This card represents anxiety over money or other earthly concerns. Misdirected focus, need for control. The queen grips tightly onto one “coin” while holding two more down with her feet, as the one above her head weighs on her and occupies her mind. My version of this card seems nurturing and positive unless you know the narrative.

The Tower/Little Shadows: The Tower is one of the most negative cards you can pull. It indicates disaster, heartbreak, crisis. But! ☝️ It also means a dismantling of structures that impede us, no longer serve us, or were built on unstable foundations. Even though it implies destruction, it also clears the way to rebuild or change course. The parallel to the burning of Ex Libris is pretty on the nose for this one. The worst day of Buddy’s life actually set him on the path to a better life than he could have imagined.

Page of Cups/Little Shadows: The Page of Cups symbolizes being open to new ideas, seeing things from a different perspective, trusting your intuition. It’s the “go for it!” card. This arc is a turning point for Buddy. He decides to fully commit to courting Chase, and he starts to push back against the plan he and Violet were working towards. He doesn’t know how it’s going to all work out, but he is taking a leap of faith.

Knight of Cups/Little Shadows: All knights are cards of action, and the Knight of Cups is particularly aligned with following your heart. It’s an invitation. The knight is not as settled as the queen or king, he is beginning to master his emotions but can still be swept off his feet. I think the Stardust arc could have easily worked here too, especially since there is an aspect of diplomacy to this card as well, but I wanted the water element, and an excuse to draw more mermen.

Both Buddy and Chase’s cups are modeled after the bottle of the sea witch’s magic potion. They are starting to open up to each other, but there are still things they don’t yet have the voice to say.

A lot of the small visual gags and callbacks I worked into these cards are just little love notes, they don’t alter the original meaning. There’s no real plan to the order of these - if inspiration strikes on one or the other, I just do it right then.