Hello!! I wanted to ask to see if you had any advice on how to write for Simon as a character? I know you mostly do art and idk if you write the dialogue for your comics or not, but I really like the way you portray Simon and I'm having a bit of anxiety about writing anything to do with Bloodymary from fear of messing up Simon's character, so how do you do it?
(as always, love the art. I love how soft you make them look :( ur comics of them are my Roman empire)
I write all the dialogues pretty much for my comics and have written him in my fan fiction.
Here are some pointers for mine and how I build him up:
I really tired to dissect his character and build on those qualities I observed. He is strong but not inherently violent. He has a lot of skeletons in his closet, due to him being a child soldier. He never asked to be put up to this circumstance in a fucked up world. He was good at his job, even if it was bad. Thereβs accountability for that but also the need for survival. Like what would you do if your only chance of survival in a cult was to follow orders from age 12 in an isolated messed up situation. It gets very complicated pretty fast on the grand scheme of things. My biggest thing is heβs not this angry enraged man. The anger stems from anxiety and fear, and it takes quite a bit of building up for him to even get there. HES ALSO SMART. Ohmygod heβs so smart and it makes me so sad when ppl dont betray him as such.
Heβs also gentle in ways. His connection to his brothers, his stim of rubbing his motherβs knife sheath, patting and apologizing machinery he hit in frustration, warning the coi and whoever comes next of the creature, the constant apologizing when heβs done something he regrets. Heβs much more complex than some ppl see him on the surface.
He also doesnβt believe what Eden stands for or the COI. Heβs a free thinker at the end of the day again trying to survive. His situation sucks and he doesnβt have much of a choice in the matter.
I took that basically and threw those concepts into my fic:
First meeting Grace: trust issues, mood swings, and dissociation. In my head would be stand offish and distant at first, but not violent. He gets frustrated at the situation or not being listened to, again building up into a bit of an anger outburst. I tired showing that in my fic. Think of a dog whose bark is worse than his bite:
I also make him gentle in small ways. Always saying thank you. Using soft pats for armando/stimming with his moms sheath. He also has spouts of emotions overwhelming him (the mood swings from trauma)
(Ive only written 7 chapters thus far and its a slow burn, so its gradual with relationship building)
Thinking past that initial meeting, and continuous meetings, heβd come out of his shell. I like to think of his as awkward at first, but itβs endearing heβs trying
Now I havenβt written out more of that comfortability in my fic yet, but it shows in my comics (tho it may not be super accurate as i do exaggerate a lot to make the content funny. Take it with a grain of salt)
I think heβd be gentle, patient to a point, and caring of Graces wellbeing as he grows more fond of him.
Parts of himself he had to bury deep while being apart of Eden can finally take a front seat. A quippy side specifically is shown in the movie, and i know that same quippness could be used for cracking jokes. We just couldnβt see it due to the film obviously being horror, but I like to think that.
Also on eden he was constantly told what to be and who to be. On erid he can make his own choices and after some getting use to he takes full advantage of it (aka giving affection to Graces without feeling shame/guilt/repression)
I could really go on and on but I yapped enough. People could also disagree with me and thatβs fine. Im really throwing my own hcs in as i go along just from what i observed in the movie and the lore I know. Heβs complex at the end of the day, but itβs important to have fun with it.
