#dothack gu

i got some screenshots with my character but with imperfect graphics (sorry)

I've been replaying .hack//GU recently, and specifically replaying literally any second of it that Azure Kite is on screen because he is my blorbo ever. That is my SON whom I ADORE. And that got me wondering, why?

You endured my rant about Haseo's third form design. Now clench your cheeks for my unhinged rambling about the world's (and The World's) goodest zombie.

Look at him. LOOK AT HIM.

Now remember, this game came out in 2006. I was 13 and edgy as hell. You know what else was starting to get popular in the early/mid 00s? Creepypasta. Though many of the iconic creepypasta characters as we know them today wouldn't arrive on the scene until around 2010, there were still plenty of eerie Internet rumors to keep my spooky little ass happy in middle school.

Enter, Azure Kite: the Antithesis of Creepypasta.

He exists as an anomaly to the players of The World. There are rumors about him on message boards. He looks like an undead or corrupted version of the hero from the last game, complete with sharp teeth and a stitched-together outfit I would have bought at Hot Topic. He appears without using Chaos Gates and his heralded by a Jumpscare Chord (A in C Major, my beloved). Rumors claim that if you linger near one of his signs he will come PK you and then you die for real (or just go into a coma).

AND LITERALLY NONE OF THAT IS TRUE. Well, except for his appearance, but I love zombies so I find even that endearing.

In actuality, Azure Kite is the good guy. He is the one who is TRYING to help resolve the situation that is ACTUALLY harming people, by hunting down AIDA. Even in his encounters with Haseo, where Haseo is doing his damnedest to murder Mimikyu Kite, he barely retaliates (speaking of the game version; the anime ups his aggro a little) and mostly tries to move Haseo out of the way. Even in the boss fight at the end of Rebirth he barely attacks.

He's meant to look scary and unsettling, but he's actually just trying to do his job for the good of all. Everything that happens to and around him is the result of judging a book by its cover.

I mean. He's Kite. He's still Kite. If you send him a greeting card (a thing you can do later), he responds with Kite-like qualities: he likes soccer and says "Thanks" (in Leet-speak) if you give him items. Mona Marshall is still providing his voice in the English dub of the game.

Background information on me: I am autistic and experience selective mutism. When I am having a non-verbal episode, I cannot speak at all without it being physically painful as I have to constrict my vocal chords to make noise. Speech returns to me typically through monosyllabic sounds at first, until I can start stringing those together into words again. So I have kind of a fascination with mute characters.

Guess who can't talk! Guess who is literally blamed for things not his fault because he CANNOT explain himself! Guess who is completely silent during the reader's first encounter with him, and then vocalizes through monosyllabic sounds the second time, attempting to communicate but still unable to express his thoughts or feelings in a way that is comprehensible to the listener who has already decided he is the problem!

I might project onto him. A little.

why are jrpg protagonists so hard to draw

[ID: A drawing of Haseo from the dot hack series. He has light tan skin and white hair, and is suspended upside down in a midair action pose. One hand reaches above him, wielding a gun with a blade attached to it. The other arm is lying out of view of the camera, though the blade of a second gun-sword can be seen behind him due to the perspective. The leg closest to the camera is kicked up, while the other is stretched out behind it. A swoosh-like smear can be seen connecting the end of the gun-blade above his head to the toe of said shoe. He looks towards the camera with a confident smile.

I binged the hell out of .hack//gu recently. When I played as a kid I kinda just rushed it and I think I didmt appreciate it. So you can bet I did every possible thing I could. Championed Crimson VS, did the Forest of Pain, married EVERYONE.

Don’t draw fanart often but my brain has been mulling about this .hack AU where Ryou just.... turns into beastie haseo werewolf style ya know? It’s good. So here’s the image i had.