the brain worms

I do not do "warm up sketches". I do not "thumbnail". I do not do "art studies". I sit down and raw dog it. And if I hate it....?

It says a lot about the narrative when the most disturbing scene in the whole pilot for me wasn’t any of the body horror or the crushing despair of the dystopia everyone lives in but THIS. Seeing an incredibly frail and elderly Olivia go back and forth between the tone of a desperate child, a concerned and overprotective maternal figure, and a bitter old woman with nothing left to lose was SO fucking creepy to me her voice actress killed it.

But I had to wonder why she’s so desperate to fix her? Look at the state she’s in, she’s literally on her DEATH BED, hanging on by a thread. There are so many Gwen’s, all of which act like a hivemind that retain memories of all who meet them. Whats so special about this one in particular?

I’ve already theorised that these two are the same model and are very likely to be the first Guinevere model to ever get made (likely as a present to Olivia so she can “forget her past” as Orville put it).

I think the reason why Olivia’s so desperate to get Gwen back is probably because she’s designed/based on her mother (her organs resembling an umbilical cord isn’t lost on me).

They’re keeping her design a secret for a reason, and I know a lot of people have talked about Olivia’s original hair colour but NO ONE is talking about her original eye colour being blue like Guinevere’s blood (I’m pretty sure they’re the same shade), they’re purple now. And I have to wonder if her present self is the result of being incredibly emotional repressed as a child to the point that it all gets let out in an incredibly unhealthy manner now that she’s older.

And the narration at the beginning was probably referring to both Olivia AND Gwen. Old Olivia’s only surrounded by weird creepy robo animals (love their designs btw) and has no one except for Gwen in her eyes. She’s isolated and alone, and the way she acts as both a child and when she’s elderly is so unlike how people normally act at those ages that whatever she went through had to be far beyond traumatising and her dad or herself were partially responsible.