The Red Prince sits upon the reclaimed Oaken Throne

So, during the Christmas holiday I bought by buddy  reindeerviking a couple of critter games. The main one was windblown, which I knew almost nothing about but it seemed like something he'd get into. And, just to have a backup in case he already had it or something, I threw Small Saga in there. I backed Small Saga on Kickstarter years ago but never actually played it so, it was kind of a hail mary I thought he might get around to some day.

It turned out he loved the game to pieces. And it's not hard to see why, it's got a lot more under the hood than the trailers and screenshots would lead you to believe, definitely more intense and adult oriented (though still often silly and lighthearted) than expected with themes of persecution, bigotry, LBGTQ matters and fascism. The game wears its politics on its sleeve, shall we say.

I started playing it so he had somebody to discuss it with but was dragging my feet. Partially because of the ongoing horror of being alive in this time. But also because it's sometimes difficult for me to engage with accomplished, furry media as it reminds me that I've accomplished nothing that nobody cared about and never will. Viking indicated to me that he was interested in getting some fan art from the game, lamenting what seems to be something of a dearth of it (or at least a dearth of quality samples, as he seemed to think) but said that the design he wanted as farther in than what I'd seen. So, I finally picked it back up recently and got far enough in to see Bruce's 'true form,' so to speak. With that, I was formally given the task to use my squirrel rendering powers for good (for once) and set out to do the lad justice.

I feel cautiously optimistic than I met the occasion.