THE SEARCH FOR HENRY JEKYLL SPOILERS (THROUGH 4/9 UPDATE)
Hey everyone, I'm back. I promised I would discuss what I'd dubbed the 'there is something there' monster when midori revealed what it was. AND HOO BOY DID THEY EVER REVEAL IT.
Before we get there I want to discuss this latest chapter briefly. Henry has been "killed", his personality broken down and deposited in the deepest recess of his mind. This manifests as Henry 'waking up' from a nightmare as his kid self.
Now I could talk a lot about Henry's mom being here and what these lines in particular mean.
But I don't want to sidetrack too much. I more want to discuss why Henry is appearing as his kid self.
Now we all know what Jekyll and Hyde is inherently about. Good vs Evil, and specifically Jekyll's black and white perspective on the concept. He has to be good, therefore Hyde has to be evil.
Midori has always been very good at showing this is not the case. Of course Hyde is evil, but he's more an exaggerated version of what was always there in Henry. I'll pull out one of my favorite lines again for this.
Lately, this delusion that Henry is good bas been falling apart more and more. Even Al no longer hides that Henry is a very flawed person.
The only one who still believes this lie is Henry himself. And that's why he shows up as a kid. Even in the initial 'there is something there' nightmare, we saw it through a child Henry's eyes.
Throughout this entire comic, Henry has been adamant towards his own innocence, to a point that stretches beyond naivety and into delusion. He crafts a world where he is good and gets rid of anything that opposes that idea. And he's not even aware of it.
But those memories, that truth, is always lurking just out of sight.
So now we come to the latest update. We can be fairly certain child Henry is a representation of how Henry sees himself - pure, innocent. It also represents a time when Henry was all those things. Most of the flashbacks we've gotten in detail are from his childhood, when he was full of compassion. His life twisted him away from that, and to ignore his flaws Henry chooses to live in his childhood. He constantly refers to how close characters were when they were kids, even when negotiating with Randall he calls back to their childhood.
If child Henry is a projection of his delusion, this is the real Henry.
I talked a lot in my previous post about the there is something there monster and how it relates to Henry's past with his father, so I won't repeat much here.
But we've had a lot of hints that the monster is Henry. The one I want to point out is the hair.
I've had a running theory that Henry's hair pertains to his control of himself. When he creates hyde his hair is at its longest, he has the least amount of control over himself. When he's a child, he has short hair, and he trims it again later on (after he attacks molly). When he's kidnapped it grows out again and he starts to lose more control. And when Al reunites with him, the first thing he does is trim Henry's hair. The short, clean hair appearance is another part of the facade he presents. It's clean, professional. Whenever he becomes Hyde his hair grows more wild, embodying that wildness within him. And when we see Henry at his worst, his most violent, he always has long hair. So the monster having long hair was a hint to its true identity.
Anyways. What does this all mean? Henry as a child is forced to face his greatest sin, killing his father.
There is no more facade. There is no more forgetting. This is what he didn't want to see. And now he's face to face with it. I feel like this will mean the death of his innocence (young henry). He can't run anymore. We see in the picture above he's crying, his braid coming undone. He's not happy to be losing himself, but it was never something he controlled. He's always been so desperate to be good. He created Hyde to master evil and destroy it.
I don't want to make predictions since this is the last chapter and I'm just so excited to wait and see what happens, but this last update has me screaming. We're finally getting Henry face to face with his true self.
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So I thought the numbers on the cards Launchpad showed of the old Darkwing villains looked familiar in that clip for Let's Get Dangerous. I checked and each number represents the episode each villain first appeared in the old show! (If you already new this, then whoops!)
THATāS SO COOL!!
I didnāt realize that! I was thinking theyād match up to the VHS card numbers, but thatās an even cooler Easter egg! Thanks for sharing!!
ā¤ Favorite Male: Monk Maz Koshia (Iām serious about this, aside from Impa heās my highest level character, but if weāre talking in terms of personality, then Sidon, and also a shoutout to Teba for having fantastic gameplay and Rito-style Archeryā¢).
ā¤ Favorite Female: This is still my favorite incarnation of Zelda, so Zelda, but Impa is a close second for being very cool and also my MVP.
ā¤ Favorite Pairing: For BotW I was leaning towards zelink, and that still works for AoC, but I think I prefer Zelda and Impa for AoC. Iām not wildly invested in any ships from this game to be honest though.
ā¤ Least Favorite Character: King Rhoam died in the BotW timeline bc he holds his sword Like That (he gets some...acceptable character development in AoC, but Iād still fight him if given the chance).
ā¤ whoās most like me: I still find Zelda really relatable.
ā¤ most attractive: I Hate That My Brain Is Like This, but the merchant Monda--for actual, important characters, Urbosa obviously.
ā¤ threeĀ six more characters that I like: I like every singe character Iāve named here, but also Terrako, Mipha, and the chaos duo that is Purah and Robbie. Special mention to Kohga bc the writers did a fantastic job with him, and Astor bc he fits the hammy scheming evil sorcerer advisor archetype to a T and I love that.
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orrrr mayyyybe juuust cosplay one since thatās way less responsibilities
(incidentally, the fabbo shirtās from redbubble,Ā https://www.redbubble.com/people/midorilied/works/29739636-do-it-for-him-white-text, if @midoriliedā doesnāt mind me showing it off)
If youāve followed along thus far then you should have a cloak, jerkin, pants and boots. A fully wearable Graham perfect for romping around the countryside. But it feels incomplete without the accessories, so letās give those a try.
Part 4: Pouches n Bracers
(Again, these are all just suggestions and a How I Did It from a very novice cosplayer. Disregard all points, or take the ones you like. improvise adapt overcome)
Perhaps the best part about adventure games is the stuff. The bottomless inventory, a random assortment of strange things that all Do A Thing. Graham carries everything from money to badgers to literal humans in his pockets (presumably his mother is a seamstress trained by the gods).Ā
This...wonāt be you. Sorry.
Now, to be fair, I saw a Graham cosplay on tumblr (Iām so sorry, I donāt remember who--does anyone know?) who sewed pockets into their cloak, which is delightful and a very sweet idea!Ā
However, I prefer the swoosh and snap of my cloak, and heavy things like cell phones in your cloak will alter the weight. Something to keep in mind as you decide how to manage your outfit.
(forgive the blur--I havenāt been able to get a still of what it looks like when swooshing. Perhaps now Iāve got real boots Iāll do another gifset of it)
Thus, all my phone, money, keys, and backup freckles (e.g., liquid eyeliner) must live in Grahamās belt pouches instead of cloak pockets. Lord knows what Graham actually keeps in his pouches, game-wise. Squirrel snacks, maybe, to avoid repeating the fiasco from Tourney Day?
This time I followed a pattern. I know, weird, right?
I wanted functionality, but I wanted them to be slim and simple, too. I found a guy on YouTube, and he comes with a .pdf template pattern in his video description! Itās super detailed, easy to follow, and better than me rambling.Ā https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPhQlaI_UX4
Three years later, theyāre starting to look a touch tired. I used a plain dark brown fabric (was it broadcloth?). Half a yard is plenty. If itās semi-close in color your your belt, ideal. I made two sizes, two large for phone and makeup for touchups, and one small for keys and money. The large ones are 3ā³ wide and 5.5ā³ tall, and the small one is 2.5ā³ by 4.5ā³, but size them to whatever important things must be on your body at all time.
I added snap clasps to keep them shut (never know when youāll be pounced by goblins, or trip over a crack in the sidewalk), and I found some plain silver buttons to sew over where the snaps sit--added bonus, hides my sloppy stitchwork. I took some of the leftover suede rope from the jerkin for the front--my ugliest secret is that itās really horrible looking super glue dribbled everywhere. Hasnāt moved in 3 years, tho. /victory fist bump
I turned the corners of the front flaps so I wouldnāt have square tops. I didnāt trim off the excess fabric since I thought keeping extra weight in the corners would help keep the flaps down. You could always sew in another layer of something sturdier if you didnāt want the flaps to curl over time--itās probably worth it. It does make a difference.Ā
So, in doing this half-tutorial, Iāve just realized that Grahamās actual model has three pouches of various sizes on his left side only which means Iāve been wearing and drawing him wrong since day one. So. Thatās cool. themoreyouknow.gif
(still not changing anything tho; I like keeping my phone on my right side)
Bracers!
Grahamās an archer. So, heās got bracers on his forearms to protect himself. (presumably his rippling muscles are protection enough since he stops wearing them between his 30s and 70s.)
We have the same problem here as with the jerkin: the bracers seem practically sewn onto his arm. And thatās maybe doable, but Iām mortal, not digital, and I want this to be comfortable and also easy to remove. Now, unfortunately, my method loses the black bands he has on his bracer underbellies--they donāt seem to fit. If you have a nice solution, let me know.
Get yourself a ruler, paper, a scrap of elastic band, a sheet or two of stiff felt (probably like this stuff:Ā https://www.amazon.com/Darice-Stiff-inches-5-Pack-FLT-0331/dp/B00KNAKJH6), and all the leftovers from your jerkin.
Measure around your wrist--mineās 6ā³, so weāll use that. Draw a 6ā³ line on a piece of paper, find the center of the line, mark it. Measure how long down your arm you want the bracer to go. I like 8 and a quarter inches myself (make it as long as you can without the bracer edge rubbing your inner elbow because that gets real old real fast). From the center mark of your wrist line, make a straight line down (a grid is helpful here to keep it straight). At the point where your bracer stops, measure around your arm: I got 9ā³. Find the halfway mark of your base arm line, add that to the paper. Connect the corners. It should look approximately something like this:
Cut out and test your design to make sure itās comfortable (you want to forget youāre wearing these. keep them away from your elbow. fāreals). Cut the shape out of your stiff felt, and cut out your brown fabric leftover from your jerkin, with a margin all around so you can fold it over and sew (I did an inch I think, because Iām a coward). For the hand guard, I did half my wrist (3ā³), then measured my hand to see how high it had to be to just scrape the knuckle. For my hand, thatās about 3ā³, give or take. Curve it, test it, cut it out of felt and brown alike, and cut out some extra brown to cover the inside of the hand guard too, as you donāt want to see any white against your hand.
Fold the loose edges over the felt and sew it down along the marked places:
Make little snips in the hem of the hand guard hem as you go to achieve that tight curve.Ā
I was nervous about combining the two pieces as I needed easy wrist flexibility. The two lines that arenāt hemmed I leftĀ ārawā and sewed the brown edges together as was, so that thereās no stiff felt against the wrist at all.Ā
Another secret: my bracer grommets arenāt the same as my jerkin grommets--theyāre much smaller, like 7mm, because Iād planned on making my jerkin with this smaller size earlier to replicate Grahamās tighter lacing but it didnāt work out--the larger ones from your jerkin work fine.Ā
Itās the same process as the jerkin, too. Every inch from the wrist to the elbow gets a grommet, plus its corresponding partner. A-likea so:
The next part might be optional. I cut another piece of brown about the same size as the bracer body again, and sewed the edges along the inside, just past the grommets, so that when you wear the bracer, you donāt see the shirt beneath your laces. It also gives you a place to hide the loose ends of your suede rope once itās tied into place. Probably optional.Ā
Grahamās bracers have definition near the elbow, and I was annoyed that I couldnāt find a way to fit in the large black bands without messing up the simplicity of my pull on/pull off system, so to reference it I found thin black trim and sewed it along the bottom hem, just below the last grommet.Ā
Okay, lace it with the suede rope and try it for fit. You may notice the hand guard is a bit unwilling to stay attached. Get the super glue, and--
no wait please donāt do that
letās just make an elastic ring instead
My elastic was white: I colored it with a brown marker so it wasnāt as jarring if anyone caught sight of it. Sew it into your existing hemline, wherever it feels natural to wear it as a ring on your middle finger. A strip of fabric or trim might work as well, but the elastic makes it easy to pull on.Ā
I desperately need to update my gray wristbands with real rope. This is trim, and I do not like it. But it was free, at the bottom of my cosplay bin, and Iām so tired of spending money on this costume.........anyway, loop the rope of choice three times around your wrist, sew it into a closed loop to avoid dealing with knots and bows, and tug the whole thing on and off over your hand. pls do not make it too tight.
And thatās looking like a proper cosplay. Just a few more accessories and also the hat. I assume everyone just wants the adventuring hat, but if thereās any interest in the crown, I could toss that in too, maaaayyyybbeeee?
