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Revell Blog Entry |
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March 22, 2024, 12:05:04 AM March 22, 2024, 12:05:24 AM 3/22/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Sergeant Major Revell (no first name ever given), with peaked cap (top drawing) and with garrison cap (bottom drawing). He's a largely undeveloped character from the previous reboot; pretty much all I know of him is he's antagonistic toward Camo and Drake for some unexplained reason, and seems mentally unstable. Lots of room for development. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, I decided he's a Great War veteran, so gave him some signs of that--facial scars and a prosthetic ear. His eyes are a weird yellowy color and I wanted to give him an unusual fur pattern featuring dark contrasting colors, originally planned to be gold with a black muzzle, but I thought he'd look too much like a German shepherd. TUMBLR EDIT: Sgt. Maj. Revell appears in the 2002 character list of the first reboot as such: REVELL: Sergeant-major; Camo's main source of opposition in starting the Trench Rats battalion. Cynical and confrontational; may also be somewhat unbalanced, with his sometimes bizarre behavior. Detests Sgt. Evans for helping Camo out, and takes out his anger on his subordinates. Has been accused of more unsavory acts, which have not been substantiated. Most of the soldiers try to avoid him, not always with success. Appears in prequel Revell was mainly intended as an obstacle to the creation of the Trench Rats, on the American side. He's the primary reason Gunnery Sgt. Evans ends up having to grant an uneasy favor for Sgt. Irene Beaudry to obtain her support with Maj. Dupries and other higher-ups. Evans, Beaudry, Dupries, and Revell, who appear only in the first part of the first story arc, Genesis (which, weirdly, is the storyline presented second), and MAYBE make a brief appearance at the very end of Reunion or a small appearance in Ultima Thule--meaning they hardly appear in the story as a whole--were thus never really developed. I lost interest in them. Welp, time to dust them all off. I just went and did a search of a piece of early (undated, likely pre-2000) writing of mine, The Trench Rats: The Beginning, which was an unfinished early version of Genesis, as I thought it made brief reference to Evans and Dupries and their roles, though I don't recall ever writing about Revell. The text actually makes no mention of them, so, I won't include any here. EDIT--ahaha, oh, WAIT. I just now found a major character change! Dupries IS in the text...just that he's named DEVRIES. Somewhere along the way, his name changed! I have no explanation for this, aside from maybe I didn't like the ambiguous pronunciation of "DeVries" (I mistakenly thought it was French--turns out it's Dutch--so in the text I say most people pronounce it "Devree," which appears to be incorrect), so I dumbed it down. I already have a Dupries family in my Manitou Island fiction, so maybe I'll end up changing it back to DeVries. Could use some more Dutch representation in my work. Anyway, he's the only one of these four to be included in the text, and I still won't excerpt any here as it adds nothing to this entry plus it's ferkin' stupid. I apparently never got around to writing about Evans, Beaudry, or Revell, not even in an unnamed fashion. ("DeVries" interacts with a few other unnamed officers in the text but none quite fit Revell's description, and the two sergeants are completely absent.) So, okey-doke, my source texts are now exhausted, so here we go. Obviously, early on I intended Revell to be mentally unhinged in some way. I'm thinking he could be sort of an American counterpart of the French Champere, who in this newest reboot is suffering from some sort of religious delusions which have made him rather fanatical and influence his decisions. Difference is, Champere genuinely believes he's doing good, and ultimately he aids the Trench Rats, though he's pretty contentious at first and his actions are often contradictory and indecipherable; whereas Revell is just downright spiteful and malicious. He seems to have no moral guidelines, however bizarre, driving his behavior. He is mean and hateful and driven to sabotage everything Sgt. Camo and Cpl. Drake do. As for WHY this is, or what specifically motivates him...I don't know that yet. If he's truly mentally ill, he doesn't even need a reason. That doesn't make for dramatic plot, though, so I'll assume he has a reason, he just hasn't told me what it is yet. One particular line has stuck in my head; Revell privately corners Drake and in a very soft but grating voice, says right into his face, "Make no mistake. I can put you into the ground...and no one would ever find you." What is the context, exactly, of this quote? I don't know. I can't even say with certainty whether Revell is antisemitic or not, though even if he is, I don't believe that's his primary motivation, as he despises Camo--and by extension, Evans and possibly Dupries--too. For some reason, he does not want the idea of the Trench Rats battalion to go forward, so this involves attempting to intimidate Drake (who is rattled, yet tries brushing it off). I just mentioned Revell despising Evans "by extension," meaning he's just a secondary target of Revell's hatred, yet this is a possible theory. What if Evans is actually the source, and Camo, Drake, and their plans for the battalion are instead the focus of Revell's hatred by extension...? Meaning I'd need to determine the cause of the rift between Revell and Evans, not between Revell and the Trench Rats. Interesting possibilities here--a homophobic angle, perhaps? Especially given the old character list's reference to unsubstantiated "unsavory acts." I seem to recall that this comment was intended to be sexual in nature, though it was purposely kept vague, and as Evans's orientation was unknown at the time, that could not have been related in any way. So it was something else probably involving women, or children. (Urgh...yeah.) The characters have developed since then, so Evans is a potential target. OR...Evans possibly KNOWS about said "unsavory acts"...and that could be the source of Revell's hatred. Evans might have been an unsuccessful whistleblower of a sort and is forced to continue working in association with Revell afterward despite the obvious conflicts (similar to how PFC Klemper's and Sgt. Lange's units continue working alongside each other for a time following Lange's attempted assault of Klemper), and Revell's reaction is to try to tank the entire Trench Rats plan which Evans supports. SO...as you can see...lots of undeveloped potential here. ...I just had to step away for about an hour, and new possibilities have arisen. Revell is a Great War veteran, and may be vaguely familiar with Camo from there, though it's uncertain. Here's a possibility that at least some "unsavory acts" could date back to that time--perhaps Revell is a war criminal. He suffered serious injuries, which I believed as recently as yesterday were related to combat; he has scars on his face, and lost most of an ear, resulting in a prosthetic (unlike Papillon's, it's one much more based on the types of prosthetics and plastic surgery used on survivors of WWI, see HERE for what I mean, also there's an artificial hand there that's pretty nifty in light of my earlier entry about Harrier and Papillon). It could be possible, I suppose, however, that he only claims combat caused these injuries, and maybe he was involved in something more sinister. I do think his experiences in the war helped unhinge him, but if he indeed committed any sort of shady acts it's likely he was just "off" from the start, sort of like Ernst Dannecker. Dannecker has a weird habit of engaging in sexually suggestive dominating gestures toward other males without being gay himself...here's a description from Josef Diamant to Gret Dannecker in an adult WIP, warning that it's a tad objectionable but it's the tamest way to explain it: "He did other things though, too. A couple of weeks after he came to the barracks--ja, that's how long he waited, before striking again. He was good at holding out, at being patient. I was painting the wall. Not far from where I'd cowered away from him. A few of the others said they saw him walking toward me and knew something bad was coming but nobody said anything, because nobody else wanted to end up where I was. I didn't even hear him coming--he walks...walked...perfectly silently whenever he wanted to. In those shiny, shiny boots. No idea how he did that. I had no idea he was there either until he shoved me against the wall and pressed close. His mouth was right at my ear. 'Guten Tag, Jew,' he said. His breath smelled like cinnamon...so odd. 'You're doing pretty light work today,' he said. 'I thought you were better suited for hard work?' And he...shoved his hips against me." Diamant grimaced. "'I can give you hard work,' he said...grinding against me...and then he just stepped back. 'You missed a spot,' he said, and he gave that little laugh, like he did when he fired his gun at my head, and he walked away. That was all. I stepped back and there was paint on my clothes." He fiddled his fingers between his knees. "I honestly thought...thought he was going to do more. Do worse. Right there in the open and nobody would do or say anything. Of course, I was wrong. Your stepfather was many things but he wasn't eine Schwuchtel. He...had other ways of getting his point across." Dannecker later forces Diamant and the camp kapo, Isaak Schindel, into a humiliating situation where again Diamant expects him to get off on it, yet he doesn't, it's purely a power/control thing meant to break them. It's possible Revell could share some similar traits (witness his threat toward Drake), though again, I'm unsure. It's also possible that Evans somehow digs up evidence of things Revell did in the war and this could incite Revell's wrath toward him and the Trench Rats. Potential! One more detail I wanted to get out of the way. Revell isn't a screaming, shouting madman type. He almost always delivers his threats in a soft, understated manner, without needing to raise his (naturally rough/gravelly) voice. This trait comes back to Camo's mind later on in Germany when he comes face to face again with Capt. Otto Himmel. (I say "again," as Camo first encountered Himmel when the latter was a teenager fighting in the Great War, then a second time just after arriving in enemy territory during the current war.) Himmel's throat was cut in a botched attempt on his life, and as a result, he can't raise his voice above a hoarse murmur; usually he just whispers when he speaks. Many people aren't aware of this as he keeps his collar buttoned tight to cover the scar, so his whispery voice is often considered merely a behavioral quirk. (This is never properly explained in the imaginary animated version I mentioned in Turquoise's entry, where Himmel is misrepresented as a purely evil guy and is nicknamed something like the Whispering Captain.) When Camo first hears him speak, it reminds him of Revell, and it prompts an almost visceral reaction; he later on gains a much better reason to detest Himmel (i. e., Anna Julian), but the reminder of another person he despised ensures that he dislikes Himmel from the start. AND...that there is currently all I really have to say regarding Revell. He's an antagonist whose motivations--and mental state--aren't certain just yet, but you can see I already have some tentative ideas. As time goes on perhaps things will become clearer. [Revell 2024 [Friday, March 22, 2024, 12:05:04 AM]] [Revell 2 2024 [Friday, March 22, 2024, 12:05:24 AM]] |