I'm simply baffled and amazed at this. I'm left in utter shock at the fact that I was able to make this--not because of how it looks, rather, because of two things:

Firstly, today was a bad day. Under pressured circumstances, I went and attempted to ask someone I've admired for a while out; and I was rejected (kind of). So that was the highlight of today; I spent several hours after that outside in the grass, simply contemplating about things. In the end, I may have not gotten the results I wanted, but I asked none-the-less, and that makes me feel pretty darn good about myself.

Now, how does this affect my respect for this drawing? That's simple; instead of moaning and complaining all night to myself, I somehow put this together. Obviously, I've still been thinking about what happened today nonstop, so it makes me wonder how I still ended up with such a nice drawing while under such depression. This eludes me, but is certainly one of the reasons I'm proud of this work.

The second reason I'm impressed, is not only am I still depressed, but it's 3:00 AM! I mean, I have to give myself credit there; to be sad about something along with being tired--that's impressive to me. To be fair, however, all of my best works have come from the AM range.

Alright, so enough of that. Let me talk about the drawing now. This started off as a very simple quick graphic sketch of Earl sitting in the grass; the sketch quickly took off in a good direction, so I decided to put in a bit more effort on the shadows/shines. In the end, I was very ecstatic with how this turned out--but I felt that something was missing. That look in Earl's eyes seemed to represent something, but something I couldn't comprehend. To me, I think this is a look of contemplation--hence the title of the deviation. Of course, even though I created the character Earl Bendek, I'm not sure what he could possibly be contemplating about. For nice effect, I quickly added Chiya Flower up in the sky, as my guess is that he's thinking about Chiya. Chiya was just a last minute touchup to the drawing, and by no means was her presence in the picture necessary. What could Earl be contemplating about? Chiya, the Korean Civil War, Team Seppuku? That's for the reader to decide--because I don't know myself. An emotional piece, none-the-less.

Part of me now believes that this drawing may have been inspired off of me, as sitting in the grass (at night) is my place of harmony. That's just a theory, however. I got this idea while indeed walking around at night, and I usually do sit down in the grass and think whenever I'm down (God knows I needed to today! XD).

As a final note, on the topic of Earl Bendek; I feel that I should finally acknowledge a group of people who certainly deserve some credit. Throughout the months, some people have theorized that Chiya is not the hero of the series, rather, Earl is the hero--same goes for Seppuku. Some have tried to debunk this theory with great points, but I should finally give credit where it's deserved. While I won't pick a side on the idea of whether Earl is the hero of the story; I will give the theorists some ammunition.

Earl is a hero. Whether we should go as far as calling him the main hero, that's still up for debate--and I welcome any debate to the table. Earl is indeed a hero; he has demonstrated his heroic moments constantly throughout the story. One example, is as far back as Part 1. In Part 1, Earl is the one who points out that the key to the Red Dove is in Chiya's shorts; he then proceeds to risk his life by trespassing into Blaskovitz's office to get the garage door open. Earl risks his life during the Goroh pirate siege by sneaking aboard his ship and disabling the weapons system--which causes him to get stabbed. Earl comes to rescue (tries to) Chiya from Blood Falcon; he fails miserably, but he does prevent Blood Falcon from crushing her already broken hand. In the lap prior to the pre-finale, Earl leaves his date with Maggie to come home and heal Chiya's severe gun wounds; after realizing that she would likely die, he contemplates suicide.

Those, are merely examples from Part 1--which only had 30+ chapters. Now, think about all of his heroic deeds in Part 2 (80+ chapters), and the role he is playing so far in Part 3--which will likely also entered the 80+ range. Again, I'm not choosing a side, but I'm just saying--I respect that some have discovered this and accept Earl as the main hero of the story.

So anyways, there's my essay. Good-night!
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Lap 1: http://siontix.deviantart.com/art/F-Zero-Seppuku-1-3-LAP-I-378679734
Story contains violence, language anywhere below the "F" word, slight sexual themes.