#beetle rambles

Both of them have some physical trait that made them be viewed as weaker (Donnie with his softshell and Nine with his two tails) and decided that they were going to take that weakness and make it better.

Donnie made himself his battleshell and Nine made himself another 7 tails.

Not to mention that both the tails and shell have similarities. The spiderclaws on Donnie's shell giving him extra height to loom? Nine has that. They both use shell/tails as extra hands to work on things faster.

Neither of them have a clearly defined moral code. They are capabale of causing world destruction and domination.

They are similiar when you take the easiest defined aspects of them. And yet, when you go into what makes them them and where their character struggles are they are facinatingly different.

Donnie always had someone. He always had his family, even if he struggles to find his place in it sometimes. (Witchtown, anyone?)

Nine never had anyone. He was on his own. He was bullied, he had to adapt. That is why he has the extra tails, to stand up for himself. His tails are made to make him stand out. To put him on the offensive.

Donnie never had to be put on the offesnive, or at least not in the way Nine had. He always had his brothers to back him up. Where Nine was isolated, Donnie was supported.

Yes, he was at a disadvantage, but his shell was to make it so that he could keep up with them. It was designed to help him, for lack of better word, blend in. If you look at the design, it looks like a shell. It is designed to be slim and unobtrusive. Yes, he can go on the offensive with it, but that is not its core feature. Its core feature is protection.

And once you look at that key aspect, Nine's bullying and ostrization vs Donnie's belonging, you get a facinating character dynamic.

And then you take a look at their moral codes.

Donnie is constantly pushed to do the right thing by his brothers. Most of what he makes, is for their benefit. He has always had someone to encourage him, to guide him when he needs to be reminded not to use lethal means. Most of what he does, is not out of malice.

Nine has no one. He does what he thinks is right, but not out of malice towards anyone. Think about it, his goal was to make a new world for him and Sonic to live in. He's not going to go about destroying civilizations for fun. He just wants a safe place to be with his friend/brother. He does not have someone to help guide him, but he does his best. He believes that if no one cares about him, why should he care about them? Why should he give his time and energy fixing something when no one helped him?

And that all boils down to is: their relationships shaped who they are.

Donnie is what Nine could have been, had he had someone to stand up for him. Had he had a family. Had Nine had someone to guide him and stick up for him, he could be making inventions to help his family thrive. (As we have seen in other iterations) And that is what he tried to do. He tried to make a safe haven for him and Sonic, but Sonic left. He is left alone, and his beliefs have been reinforced.

Donnie is what Nine CAN BE, if he finds someone who cares about him and is willing to stick around.

Nine is what Donnie could have been, had his family been just a little harsher. Had Donnie been seperated from his family. (This could work as a Seperated AU now that I think about it.)

Omg hello hello! Its always so cool to get an ask from you, especially after seeing this ask floating around from my favorite creators its just like ahhhh/pos, I feel v honored :) /gen

For stuff I do well... I feel like I'm good at writing thoughts? I'm good at writing a train of one subject to another in a way that feels natural, or writing a large collections of memories that kinda blur together. I've also been working a lot on metaphors, following the "show not tell" rule is the trick for me. (Honestly, a lot of this came from reading rottmnt fics by remrose. Over and over. On repeat. The style really inspired me and kind of engraved itself into my brain. I like to think I write kind of like that.

One thing I want to improve on is probably doing long term projects, I write almost exclusively one shots and am trying to try longer stuff. I also want to work on writing fight scenes. I hate writing fight scenes, I spend most of my time writing vibe-y angst XD

For drawing, I like my style, particularly how I draw eyes, I think its cute :]

I've been trying out digital art lately, and I want to get better at that. I also need to work on poses, and not just drawing repeated bust shots lmao. I really admire people who can draw super zany and energetic poses, I'll have to keep practicing.