The Legend of Zelda: Ruins.

I love the original Legend of Zelda. In fact, it’s my favorite game of all time. So much can be said about it, and so much has, so I won’t rehash the more common material here. Instead, this will be more personal. One of my favorite aspects about the original game was the cold, lonely simplicity of the labyrinths. The dungeons all had the same architectural style, but different layouts and other variations. They all looked to come not only from the same civilization, but the same builder. Or, to be more out-there, the same imagination, perhaps one shared by a society very different from ours.

This is what I loved most about the original game; the mystery. Hyrule was an empty land bereft of any current civilization. Some people lived in caves, selling stuff or charging money for useless advice. Beyond that? Wilderness and ancient ruins, often with ominous entrances that resembled monstrous heads. It made you wonder who created these places, and why. Another great thing about the game was the manual; some of the artwork was wonderful, especially the artistic interpretation of the simplistic labyrinths. I’ve long had an affinity for the art in the manual, and I had been meaning to do some homages to it for a while now. Well, I finally got around to it, and here is what I came up with;

 

Statue and dungeon gate.

Envisioning a new interior.

These will be colored in the future.

The Guardian of Forever.

City on the Edge of Forever is regarded as one of the greatest episodes of the original Star Trek. The time travel story was written by Harlan Ellison, and is among the darker episodes of the original series, which was often lighter in tone and heavy on the silliness. The tragedy and uncertainty in “Forever” is on par with the paranoia and tension in “Balance of Terror”.

“Forever” also features one of the most under-appreciated an intriguing characters in Trek history: the Guardian of Forever. the Guardian is a sentient portal that can send the user anywhere in time and space, and is aware of the events of history as they unfold. His origin is mysterious. According to the dialogue in the episode, he had not interacted with anyone since at least before our sun came in to existence. He also implies that he exists outside of linear time.

I’ve been meaning to do a fanart of the guardian for a while now, and here it is;

Please click the image to see it in full-size. This was drawn on landscape paper with micron pens and copic multiliners. It was colored in photoshop.