The Wolf (Hollyleaf PMV)

I can sense the burning question: "this all looks very scribbly, did you draw this with your fingers, or something??" Yes. I did. Almost every frame of this bad boy was drawn with my fingers on my laptop screen in MS Paint because I was away from home without my art supplies. Hey, when inspiration strikes, you gotta make do with what you've got. The song used is "The Wolf" by Fever Ray (which instantly gave me Holly vibes, with all its fire references and general angst).

Anyway, this is a pretty AU-y Hollyleaf PMV. (What? Everyone else is making AUs. I thought I'd jump on the train.) A lot of little things are changed, but what's most pressing is that Hollyleaf has a power! The ability to make anyone else beleive what she says, as long as she believes it herself. The video centers around Hollyleaf struggling with her mixed ancestry after the Fire Scene (during which Squirrelflight killed Ashfur, not Hollyleaf later on, because, c'mon, she would've kicked his butt into next week). She loses all faith in Starclan, seeing her place in the prophecy as a cruel joke, considering that she thinks she's so unworthy. She's then confronted by Sol, who convinces her to use her power against Starclan (for some complex plot reasons I won't get into here), which she does -- she goes to Windclan and uses her abilities to force them (and herself) to lose hope in them. She finds herself broken and angry, not knowing what to do, before she ends up traveling to the Moonpool (in my version, an old well!) to see Starclan herself. When she meets them, she's overcome with emotion, realizing that it's not some cold, unfeeling force, but a group made of her old friends who are there to help her (Starclan is a bit more, uh, benevolent in this AU). She sees an old friend of hers, Half Moon (Hollyleaf got the "traveling to the past" plot in this version, not Jayfeather, since he already has the Starclan stuff), and returns to the real world feeling horrible about her actions and wanting to fix things. She worries that her family will never forgive the way she acted... But they do anyway. A fairly happy ending! Of course, then the Great Battle goes down, so... Things get progressively more complicated. But that's a story for another description!

For those curious, the cats shown are (in chronological order, left to right): Hollyleaf, Lionblaze and Jayfeather (most of them, anyway), Ashfur, Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw, Leafpool, Crowfeather, some Starclan cats, itty-bitty Sol who's real hard to see, Halfmoon, Mousepaw, Yellowfang, and Squirrelflight, as well as some other background cats, and then Cinderheart with Holly's family in the last scene.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun on this one! Hollyleaf has always been one of my favorite characters, even as a little kid, so it was great to explore her more in this AU and the animation. I went with my weird color palettes, of course, using those dark indigos for the forest, light greens for Starclan, red for the fire scene, and electric greens for Holly's rage. Hollyleaf herself is the only thing that doesn't change color -- except in the fire and when she's using her power (as those are the two points where she most loses her sense of self). It was also kind of a fun challenge to have to draw it all with my fingers, though it was sort of nice to be able to say "ehh, good enough" and move onto the next frame even if the previous one was more than a little scribbly. It means that I was able to make the longest PMV I've ever put together! This thing is a monster by my standards. It wasn't even supposed to be this long -- I kept hitting the endpoint that I was shooting for and going "well, there's still more I want to tell, and I'm not tired of animating yet! Let's keep going." And so I did. A lot of my art seems to be pretty dependent on my whims, but hey, I can't complain here, I guess.

Видео The Wolf (Hollyleaf PMV) канала BlueJump