I've always been a huge fan of this kind of retro-futurism. Y'know, the future as envisioned in the heady, optimistic days before we became mired down by loss of confidence in our own culture and society, bastardized by those who couldn't ever have managed to build even the groundwork for this future, subjected to false guilt and shame for who we were, etc.
Elements of this still lingered like a sputtering light into the 70s and early 80s, but by then the grungier post-apocalyptic look was more common. Even Star Wars contributed, honestly—that was one of its big innovations visually, the expression of a science fiction setting that looked poor, used, lived in and old.
Lucas did focus a little bit more on this kind of visual for the prequels, and even some of the more developed places in the OT. Cloud City had some elements of this kind of vibe, for instance, while Tatooine obviously never did.
Speaking of Star Wars, here's three Mandalorians. I'm a bit conflicted about Boba Fett and the Mandalorian and the entire Mandalorian concept in general. I generally much prefer the original supercommando concept from the pre-production of Empire, where they were less political correct and more like space Spartans or space Varangians, or something. Which is exactly the direction, of course, that I took my own Cilindareans, which I would think look somewhat like the Mandalorians and the Halo characters and Warmachine all rolled into one look.
A couple of WAR images; one of Eberron and one of Age of Worms. Both are unusual. Paizo and WotC (and Disney Star Wars, and BioWare, and even the guys who make The Witcher, if what I hear is correct) have fully come on board with the multicultural nightmare version of reality, and can't imagine places that are actually the homelands of a specific people and culture rather than a multicultural mess. Both Eberron, and the iconic Paizo characters, and more are a very bizarre mixture of cultures, sexes and races all thrown together, and we're supposed to expect that that kind of thing actually works, in spite of our actual evidence from real life in front of our eyes about how that actually increases conflict, stress and unhappiness in general.
A Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, I think. If not, well—it's some kind of bizarre Lovecraftian something or other, anyway.
A somewhat different take on the appearance of orcs. The hunter gal—oof. I'm really, really over the trend that's become ubiquitous in the last few years that tells me that masculine women who are just like men except smaller and with boobs is cool. No, they're not. Feminine women who are pretty, pleasant, and who you want to protect are what's attractive in fiction and in real life both.
The classic wolfman. I'm always on the lookout for some kind of artwork to represent my woses (formerly changelings, formerly shifters, etc.) race, but there really aren't enough that I think have the right look that I can find, sadly.
As I said earlier, I was really quite into Red Dead Redemption 2 last year, and I enjoyed in particular the supernatural and weird elements that were in it, especially because they were so subtle. Anyway, this bayou reminded me of the haunt of the Night Folk. Good stuff.
People riding on dinosaurs and fighting more dinosaurs is something that I'm always in favor of. Sure, this guy looks a little bit like a pretty boy, but that's still loads better than a woman. I'm not complaining. And pretty people can be cool too. They can't help their looks really; it's part of their genetic heritage.
Let's finish off the day with some retro-futurist moon colonization images. Actually, the last one is, I believe, Mars, although the moon and sky aren't really quite right. Whatever.
When I was a kid, I was sure that by now we'd have colonies on the Moon, at least, if not Mars, and I'd probably be living there because why wouldn't you, if you could? I'm still disappointed in that a little, although I also don't think I'd want to live there after all. The American West is my geographical home, and the American South is my cultural home, and I'd never be happy anywhere else.
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