Samurott OC, Kouhei! (Patreon)

Notice: This is NOT this month's exclusive! I simply wanted to get a drawing of him out before the actual thing so you guys can have a little bit of context for the character. For funsies, I'll go through my design process as well as lore for him below! 😊

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Conceptualizing the design

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So right off the bat, I knew that I wanted my samurott OC to take heavy inspirations to Japanese aesthetics because the pokemon itself is coded to the culture. Hisuian samurott in particular is heavily rooted in the concept of a ronin or a samuri that basically fell from grace. Another thing that was floating on the top of my head was this one character from Arknights called Wang. See, ever since I saw his sprite, I've been motivated to make a character that has a somewhat similar feel to him; kind of messy older man with loose, flowing clothes and long, wispy hair. Like some kind of hidden master, for those of you who're familiar with the trope.

Unfortunately, I didn't really have anything in mind beyond that so for inspiration, I looked for pictures of Japanese artifacts and clothing in the hopes of adopting visual elements within such objects. While I ended up basing Kouhei to a bunch of stuff I found (to name a few: a folding fan, several examples of tsuba, and baggy pants japanese laborers typically wear), it's very much finding this example of kintsugi that really allowed me to solidify his look.

See, another thing that I wanted to be intentional about was that I had to make this character sexy. I mean, it's kinda funny how blunt that statement is but let's be real here, his primary purpose was to be featured in a patreon exclusive illustration and that necessitates a certain level of sexual appeal. This is important because with such a mindset, I was led to fuse the idea of kintsugi—a web-like pattern of gold in refurbished pottery—with shibari—a web-like knotwork that has inherent erotic overtones. Extra fun coincidence that the cup I saw was blue, like samurott, which I think played a part in me making the connection.

Beyond the sexual implications though, the kintsugi/shibari thing also inspired the lore for Kouhei so let's discuss that next!

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Lore

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Let's start with the last thing I decided on for this character: his name. See, for most of the characters I've made, I wanted their names to signify what they are about. A condensation of their life so far basically. However, I've come to realize that for the most part, this is not actually how people in real life get their names. More often, it is the parents who get to decide what their child's name would be and they make this decision without any omniscient recollections of what the kid's future achievements or personality would be. Rather, I believe a more common way is to pick something that has a meaning one wants the child to embody.

Unfortunately, this apparently does not apply to me cuz I was named after a bloody actor, of all things! My parents are not very creative people, I don't think.

Anyhow with that in mind, I thought what Kouhei's parents would've hoped their kid to be. I imagine they would've wanted for him to have a bright future, filled with hope and happiness. The sun is usually a symbol of those things so I went a searched for names that signified it or at least captured its essence. Ultimately, I settled on "光平" or Kouhei which meant something along the lines of "a steady light," or "one who's always filled of hope."

Kinda ironic because Kouhei's life ends up being one filled with constant strife, danger, and general suffering. Of course, he get's a dark back story, who do you think I am!

Haven't really decided what his childhood was but as an adult, Kouhei found employment as a vassal to a warlord, a samuri. As such he was mostly preoccupied in participating in a lot of battles, as those were times of political uncertainty with a lot of powers vying for control. Something akin to the Sengoku era of Japan. However, one thing led to the other and the lord he serves under does an oopsie and his rivals checkmate him to death. Big disgrace to our home boy because he fails to protect his employer and now he's on a warpath for revenge. He does this for a while and gains a little bit of notoriety for it. That is until a failed assault resulted in him narrowly escaping to the wilderness and almost dying in the process.

Almost because while he was bleeding out delirious in a forest, a wild hedge mage of sorts—think Merlin...but Japanese—finds him and tends to him for no apparent cost. At the time, Kouhei was literally a few steps away from dying so to save him, the stranger had to use a little bit of magicking. He picks up the fallen samuri's katana (which was also falling apart like its owner) and retrieves its tsuba (the guard). He then casts an enchantment and somehow links Kouhei's soul to it. Then, with a long length of super magical rope, he ties the tsuba to the by now unconscious man. Japanese Merlin was apparently a shibari enthusiast I guess.

Kouhei awakens on his own in that same forest, stranger gone and now finding his sword guard tied to himself. He finds a note fastened to a rock nearby addressed to him, warning him to never untie the tsuba and that the removal of its bindings would result in his immediate death.

This series of events would serve as a turning point for the samuri, a close call with his mortality making him realize the folly of his revenge and that he actually very much would like to stay alive. Pursuant to this, he then relegates himself to move away from all the turmoil his martial lifestyle entails and travels far, far into the country side where he hopes to find a village to lay low and potentially spend the rest of his life in. Lucky for him, he stumbles upon a quaint farming community where he eventually settles down and find employment as a farmer.

Cut to the present, instead of worries concerning political rivals and dodging foes determined to cleave his neck wide open, Kouhei's thoughts are now filled with gossiping with his equally nosy neighbors about who this or that teenager is dating and how it's totally not gonna work and wondering how much he'll make this coming harvest.

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So yeah, these are the stuff that went through the process of designing Kouhei. There are a few more extra tidbits that I didn't mention but most of the essential stuff got covered anyway. And I mean look at it: it's a wall of text up there already! Be that as it may, here's a few random facts about him:

• He is currently in his forties.

• He recently has developed a taste for sweets!

• For how cool and made him look, he's kind of a goofball and is totally unserious. Really, he's more of the carefree type rather than someone aloof.

• Additionally, he doesn't actually goes around town being shirtless or something like in the image. There was just this wicked wind blowing at the time, I swear!

• Yes, he bathes with all the ropes and the tsuba on. He's been a good boy following Japanese Merlin's instructions.

• And yes, it stays on.

Okay that's enoughfrom me. Hope you guys love Kouhei as much as I do! Please look forward for his exclusive!!!