Them's Fightin Herd's FC, Blitz. by Rock-Raider on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Here we have something that has been on my mind for some time. This is a fan character for the fighting game, Them's Fightin' Herds.

For those not in the know, let me tell you about Them's Fightin' Herds. Them's Fightin' Herds is a fighting game starring a cast of ungulates. It started out as a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fangame called "My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic", only for Hasbro to issue a cease and desist warning against the developers. Undeterred, the developers, known as Mane6, decided that they would make the game into their own IP. In fact, Lauren Faust actually offered her services to them, drawing up a whole new set of characters for them to use.

Them's Fightin' Herds is set in Foenum, a world populated by herbivorous creatures. Long ago, Foenum faced a deadly new threat... Predators! These dangerous beings would attack and eat any creature they came across, which, in Foenum, was REALLY SCARY. A war broke out between the herbivores and the carnivores, which ended when an oryx cast a spell that banished the predators to a prison dimension known as "The Hold". After that, Foenum finally knew peace...

Until now.

Shadows resembling the dreaded predators have begun popping up in Foenum, resulting in attacks all across the land. The predators are returning from The Hold, and they're bringing their appetites with them.

The people of Foenum decide they need someone who can stand against the predators. Someone who can push them back into The Hold and ensure they can never again threaten Foenum and its people. To find this, they select their bravest, strongest, and most willing champions and host a tournament to determine which of them will bear the mark of "Key Keeper". The reindeer people of Reine have selected, as their champion, Velvet.

And this is where my character comes in. As you can tell from the picture itself, this is Blitz, member of the Elite 8.

Now, here's something interesting to note about the reindeer in Foenum. Their home city, Reine, is located in the Tundra, which is a very cold, snowy place. This doesn't really bother the deerfolk, though. Each reindeer is also accompanied by a little bipedal creature known as an ice sprite. The ice sprites are always seen with the deerfolk, and act as their caretakers. The ice sprites will do anything the deerfolk ask of them, and feed them oats that grant them powers. The best of the deerfolk are granted the honour of being a member of the Elite 8. Oh, and it's also implied that the Elite 8 are Santa's reindeer, which would make the ice sprites his elves.

Blitz, of course, is Blitzen. In the original Book Of Lore, when Blitzen saw that Velvet made it to the finals for Reine's tournament to determine who will be Reine's champion in the tournament to find the Key Keeper, he was not pleased. In the original story, Velvet got through the tournament by basically pretending to struggle until conditions were altered so she'd be guaranteed a win. As such, Blitzen took a disliking to Velvet. In the battle to determine who would represent the deerfolk in the Key Keeper tournament, Blitz expected to walk away the champion. What he got was a beatdown courtesy of Velvet's ice magic. And as she left, Blitz found that he fell in love with her.

From there, I imagine Blitz decided he wanted to see her again. So, maybe somehow he got himself entered into the tournament to have that chance. How? I don't really know.

Now, for Blitz's fighting style, I initially thought about making him like Velvet, but with some subtle changes. But then I remembered that, since Blitzen is one of Santa's reindeer, he might be a really fast flyer. Thus, I decided he should be the speedster fighter of Them's Fightin' Herds. He moves fast, and much of his fighting style is based on moving fast and hitting hard. That is also why I designed Blitz's antlers the way they are. I made his antlers more aerodynamic to allow him to fly faster, and I added some pointy bits on the front so he could strike his opponents with them.

That segways into how I drew this. I struggled with how to make him. Being a reindeer, I of course had to base him off of them. Plus, there was how Velvet is designed in the game. Initially, thoughts of Sven from the Frozen movies helped, and I guess lead me to my decision on how to design his fur colour. As for his antlers, well, I initially thought of making them regular antler colours, but thought that would make him look too generic. I thought of giving him coloured antlers, but worried it would deviate too much from how he's normally portrayed. In the end, though, I used Cloud Blue to colour his antlers.

I mainly used this page for reference on how to draw Blitz.
derpicdn.net/img/2018/3/4/1671…

Well, anyway, be sure to comment if you like it.