He's a real malewife now, finally, after all these years 🥹
While some of my drawings of these two take place after they're already married, I'd never actually drawn their wedding before! And what's a better time to do that than for Mystic Messenger's 10 year anniversary!!
For years, in a way, I've felt too afraid to draw their wedding because I felt like I needed to make it absolutely perfect, and I felt like I didn't have the skills to do that. Or that on the long run I wouldn't be happy with the choices I made for their outfits and the piece as a whole. I put a lot of pressure on it in my head, just like how in real life people often want their weddings to be perfect.
But for the 10 year anniversary, it was about time. I pushed through that dumb idea that it had to be "perfect" because I realised, I literally have free will, I can just redraw it in another 10 years with updated outfits and techniques if I want to!
This piece ended up taking over 70 hours in total (without counting the time spent looking for references etc.) and with that it's the largest single illustration I've ever made 🥲 I hope y'all like it! These flowers probably took years off of my life but man was it an experience. Definitely gotta do some simpler and smaller pieces now for a little bit to recharge hahaha
The paintings above them are based on some of my old pieces from many years ago, and this whole piece is actually a loose redraw of this drawing from 2020! That piece was also used for the first painting, while the middle one is this one I did for a zine in 2021 and the third one is this one from 2024.
Her (and mine lol) favourite flowers are pink roses and peonies, but there's also quite a few lilies of the valley around them and in their outfits, especially Saeran's, because that's his flower and their promise of happiness has come true. There are some sprinkled here and there on her dress, one on her bow, his earrings and his cravat, as well as both of their crowns! They're a princess and a prince and both of them get veils because he's also a wife 💖
This game has meant so much to me over the past 10 years. It's hard to believe it's been that long since I first opened Mystic Messenger back when I was 14, and now I'm about to turn 24 in a couple of weeks. I didn't play the game for 1.5 years between 2017-2018, but got back to it at the end of 2018 and that's when I fell for Saeran.
I spent my teenager years growing up with this game and it shaped me into the person I am today. It shaped my art style and I grew my identity around the game. I wouldn't be the same person without this game, and it genuinely got me through so many hard times. When I was badly struggling with my mental health to the point where I had to drop out of university on my 3rd year, it was one of the very few things that brought me joy. Drawing Saeran was able to distract me from the things going on in my life at the time, multiple times over the years.
I've met so many wonderful people and made so many good friends all thanks to this game, and now some these friendships have lasted for the better part of a decade. This game motivated and pushed me to draw every day for 453 days while we were all waiting for Saeran's After Ending and I lowkey think I peaked there, drawing consistently for so long was so cool and I'll never achieve something like that again- LMAO
Mystic Messenger has genuinely been such an important part of my life and I can't believe it's been 10 whole years!
I don't think there could ever be a character more perfect for me than Saeran. He's exactly all the things I like in a character, but all of that in one. He's a sweet devoted prince who's a little shy, but he's also an emo touch-starved catboy-coded tsundere fucker who pushes people he loves away out of fear while trying to protect those he loves, and he's also the kindest loving angel on earth who wants to grow flowers and bake and cook for you as your malewife every day. If I could choose he'd probably be 80% of what I draw! I love him so much TwT💖💕
Happy 10 year anniversary!
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