Community Focus - Polux

Art, what a concept! It blows our mind that some of you can mold your feelings, experiences, and ideas into something new and unique to reach our core and either give us a good chuckle or crush our hearts. Sometimes both!

It’s not an easy task, and it requires talent, commitment, and sheer will. That’s why we love interviewing artists for our Community Focus. Today, we have an amazing Brazilian artist to introduce to you all. Everyone, say hi to Paula Fidelis, also known as Polux.  

Tell us a bit about yourself so our readers can get to know you better!  

Hello, everyone! My name is Paula Fidelis, but I'm better known as Polux, your local Brazilian comic artist with a severe weak spot for astrology, Exominds, and fictional family drama. I’m a freelance colorist for webcomics, I practice both Pilates and yoga to compensate for my long sitting working hours, and on top of all of that, I started attending Japanese classes last year! I spend what little free time remains with my family, my friends, playing video games, drawing fanarts, or simply existing. 

I adopted Polux as my nickname in my teen years, back when parents used to tell kids to not give your personal info on the internet. Polux is one of the main stars in the Gemini constellation and quite like my own name, and as a huge fan of the Saint Seiya series and the Gemini Saint, it was an easy pick. For Hyakunana, my other handle, it literally means Hundred and Seven, and makes reference to my favorite Yu-gi-oh Monster Card (Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon). I created my Tumblr art blog back in my YGO days, and I never had the heart to change its name, even though I understand it can be hard for others to remember. Whoops! 

As a Guardian, I'm your local Stasis Hunter main wielding Lament, wearing her faithful Wormhusk Crown with Carminica shaded armor. I’m not very good at the Crucible I’m afraid. Sorry, Shaxx! 

When did you start playing Destiny in the first place? How did you find out about the game and about Bungie?  

It's all thanks to my brothers! I'm a middle child and both my brothers are Halo fans, so it was an easy jump into Destiny. Destiny launched when I was both studying in my engineering college and working in a school office, so I barely had time to invest in gaming at all, so I watched my brothers and took part in their conversation. It's funny to recall them trying to convince me to play Destiny while I complained about them playing it all the time! My first contact with Destiny was through its lore and the grimoires. The Vault of Glass lore along with the Thorn and the Last Word were the first ones to open my mind to Destiny's universe, and Book of Sorrow was the one that made me fall in love with it. 

Then, when Destiny 2 was first announced, I relented to my brothers' hype and asked them to carry me through the whole Destiny campaign. And this is how my life as a Guardian began! 

Your art style is very refined and easy to spot, something I've heard is the goal for most artists. Where do you find inspiration? What drew you to take Destiny as an inspiration? 

Thank you so much! There are two moments that drew me into Destiny as inspiration. The first one, I used Destiny to break an art slump. I learned that an efficient way for me to get through art blocks is to try something entirely new. It’s the "if anything I'm drawing now looks bad, if I try something new at least I won't be upset that it looks bad" sort of mentality. I adapted a Grimoire card about a Hunter looking for Draksis in Venus, even before I played the game myself. It helped me get back to drawing after the slump. The second was the release of official Destiny 2 comics. I loved those, and they inspired me to do a new one myself, which was the Thorn comic adaptation that my brothers always asked me to do, and that got a really good reception in the Reddit and Brazil community! Since then, the Destiny universe became the sort of place where I could test new things whenever I needed some new drive, visiting it either once or twice a year. It was like that until Beyond Light, when I became a more active player and creator! 

As for my art style, I can't go without mentioning Saint Seiya's importance in my art pursuit. The work of Shiori Teshirogi in the Lost Canvas manga was my first source of inspiration and art study in the late ‘00s. I copied manga panels everywhere, from school notebooks to my bedroom wall! As a result, I still feel more comfortable drawing armors than clothing. Hiromu Arakawa is another manga artist that inspires me a lot. The way Arakawa navigates between tension and comedy in the same scene is the peak I want to achieve! A few years ago, a dear friend introduced me to the Kamen Rider series, and that quickly became a new source of inspiration for me. I watched the Power Rangers as a child, but watching Tokusatsu as an adult is something else!  

I also love “expressing expressions” in my characters! Being subtle with emotions is a tough skill to acquire in any kind of art, but I also find joy in the excess, especially when there’s limitations like masks or non-human faces like Exos or aliens. And I think this is how I see Destiny as a source of inspiration for me. At the end of the day, our Guardians are overpowered heroes traveling across the Sol System to defeat alien enemies while the bigger evil schemes in the background, often teaming and having some slice-of-life moment either in orbit or dancing in the Tower. I'm not joking when I say I daydream with Destiny as Tokusatsu! 

We loved your short comics that explored some Seasonal story beats or adapted some popular internet memes using Destiny 2 characters. What are the challenges you face when telling a story in this format? 

I've been making comics for my gaming experiences with some frequency since late 2019 , when I posted weekly new comics about Fire Emblem: Three Houses as a personal challenge, to keep my mind working and draw my ideas before I give up on them. So, I'm at a point where comic creation comes natural to me. My biggest challenge, in general, is keeping as faithful as possible to canon, from comedy comics to lore adaptations. I always worry about my own interpretation of canonical events, and during the whole process I always question myself, "Am I doing this right?" Even though I understand my work as fanfiction and I give myself the artistic freedom to stretch some interpretations to serve my own imagination, I want to respect the original material, especially when it comes to adaptation. A big example of that is my adaptation of The Dark Future lore book. (So far, I'm at chapter 5. I have chapter 6 scripted, but my job won't let me work on it yet. Sorry!) The worldbuilding in The Dark Future is given only through conversation, and it's up to me to bring dialogue into visuals—and let me tell you, this is the hardest part for me because I always have this feeling that I'm missing something or that I’m reading something wrong. 

Creating a scene for my comics was never much of a problem because my imagination always has been very visual, and I often make jokes and comments with my friends about how my character would act and how other characters involved would react to that. The challenge comes when I'm not playing a joke, so there isn't a punchline where I already have the ending in mind. For those, I usually have a scene in my mind, and I have to write around that scene to give it some context, but I usually get lost either in the beginning or the end. Season of the Witch is a Season that, for major reasons, I couldn't work out so much, but I had an idea I wanted to do with a darker mood that I could never concretize because I never reached a satisfying ending. 

For my comedy comics, I have a very clear structure of using canonical events or dialogue as start. Then somewhere in the middle I deliver the punchline, and then the end comes with an immediate response to that punchline through exaggerated reactions. I usually use my Guardian and her Ghost to personify my own brain cells and give voice to my silly thoughts during my gameplay. My Hunter already has a cheerful hero-like persona that always has some unwelcome input to give, whereas her grumpy Ghost is the one to keep her in check with the story mood. A few other times I’ve given room to my gentle Warlock and his malicious Ghost. Because they're my own original characters, I feel very comfortable bending them to my comedy needs. They serve as the general player POV, but I do have my own head canon and character development for them in my mind. When it comes to NPCs, the line between keeping characters in check with their canonical traits and exaggerating those traits for the purpose of humor is so very thin, and I have to walk this line in my comics. There are characters I feel very comfortable to play with and create a cartoonish personality, but I still feel pressured to stay in line. 

Some of your short comics seem to be very character-focused. Any favorites? We won't tell the others, I promise. 

I think I can tell you my favorite character is Elsie Bray, but please keep it close to your chest. Jokes aside, I have a soft spot for Beyond Light, perhaps because I played it at a time I had many anxiety crises, and I found some comfort in playing and being involved with the lore. Seeing the former Exo Stranger finally having time to explain made me very invested to see her development. And I have to give big props to both the English and Brazilian Portuguese voice actresses for their work with her character! 

I also adore manipulative characters who depend on that to survive and the ambiguity of their intentions. So you can understand why I also love Savathûn. Seeing her presence grow was a joy that had me grinning ear to ear, and that first The Witch Queen trailer consolidated her as one of the best characters in Destiny in my eyes! That said, Savathûn is one of the characters I find the hardest to joke around with.

To wrap my top 3, that would be Saint-14! I think most of the community agrees that Season of the Dawn's trailer was one of the peak Destiny 2 event., Since the Curse of Osiris comics, I got invested in what Saint could have been if only he was alive and present—and I was not let down! A sweetheart for those he cares about and a monster for his sworn enemies, I love to see that contrast in his character, and honestly, I want to see more of this side of him!  

And to make some honorable mentions: Ana and Clovis Bray, Banshee-44, Cayde-6, Mithrax, Eramis, Caiatl, and Rhulk! 

Any advice for those that might want to start making comics and don't know how to start? 

Oh yeah! Comics can be overwhelming, and I often receive comments about people who wish to make them featuring their own Guardians and stories. First and foremost, don't be afraid to try. Like any new skill, accept that you will mess up at first, and you'll even get lost with so much information, but only through practice can you understand what you need to do.  

Second, start simple and loose. Don't set high expectations, and if you're not familiar with comic language, experiment with sequential scenes. If you work better with visuals, make loose and small sketches to help you visualize your idea (the good, old thumbnail sketches!). This way, you can set your scene without being so compromising with the polishing. If you have a scene in your mind but you can't visualize it, writing a script also helps. The main thing here is to allow yourself to experiment in an easy and efficient way. 

Third, don't worry about detailing everything and focus only on what is necessary for the scene. Do you imagine a conversation between characters? Just focus on those characters expressing their conversation and forget the background. Is it a battle scene? Focus on battle and dynamics. Is the scenery relevant to the scene? Use one panel to establish it and you won't need to worry much about it for the rest of the scene. As you get comfortable with making comics, you can start to play with nuances and foreshadow. 

And fourth, always, always leave space for the lettering! Do that in the sketching process and you will not suffer to place them later. You can even skip detailing things that will stay under the lettering, which is another plus! 

As someone based in Brazil, what would you say makes the Destiny 2 community in your region special? 

Honestly, it's always a pleasant surprise when Brazilians recognize me as one of them, and I think the Destiny 2 Brazilian community was the place I got more in touch with my people with my online presence!  

Speaking of Brazilian fans in general, we are super passionate about our culture and our people—the sort of “only we can criticize ourselves” mentality. I'm the kind of fan that immediately goes, "Did you know the Tower has Brazilian Portuguese written in its signals!?" to anyone when the opportunity arises, for example. I think the rest of the world has witnessed at least once a sudden spawn of Brazilians whenever someone criticizes something beloved for us. We even have this very special way to celebrate our achievements by commenting, “AQUI É BRASIL P*%$#,” which means “Thank you for remembering us,” and I think that’s beautiful! 

In the Destiny 2 community, I see many Brazilian creators embracing and engaging with each other. We’re always helping and working together to have our voice heard within the global community, like with the creation of the @DestinyGameBR and the many campaigns done regarding the localization and voice casting. We do have our divergences, like the whole discussion about Sombra vs Queda da Luz as the best Lightfall localization—don't ask my side on this. It's amazing to see our creators working together to make our community thrive and our fans celebrating our achievements together and to be a part of that. 

Brazil has huge potency in the game community that was disregarded or minimized by the industry for so long.... So for us to invest ourselves in a live-service game for so long requires some passion for it. I think it’s important to have our presence recognized and valued, and that’s something the Brazilian community is achieving over the last years. I’m happy to be part of it! 

Now is the moment for shoutouts. Is there anyone you want to thank before we say adeus? Maybe there are other artists in the community that you might recommend? 

I have two very special shoutouts I want to make. The first is not part of the Destiny 2 community, but it's a friend of mine who I owe for a lot of what I learned and achieved as comic artist and who continues to inspire me. Bruno Oliveira is a comic artist that I had the opportunity to meet, and I learned a lot from his experience inside the comic scenery. So if you like my work, big thanks to him! 

And back to the Destiny community, I also owe a very special thank you to Edson, aka TheVanguardBR, who was the very first to notice and promote my work back in 2018 with my Thorn comic! Edson is a kind friend and proactive creator who cares a lot for our community and always looks for the best for the Destiny scenery, especially in Brazil. We worked together in our Trespasser lore video during Season of the Haunted, and we joke that the project is our shared child! Valeu, Edson! 

As an extra shoutout, my art fellows KevinRAGES, BrighanArt, Vanade, Gabriel Flauzino, EmilyMeganX, Nine, Mingway, Jarhinge, Kathi Langley, and so many others that are part of the Destiny 2 art community! And my Brazilian fellows oEverson, LegionarioGG, Zyndal, the Nerfcast crew, Cauê Bonici, Guerrilae, Detestiny, and so many others as well! Tamo junto, pessoal! 

We see a lot of familiar names in that list, wonderful! Oh, don't forget to share your social media accounts so our readers can follow you!  

You can find me on Twitter (X? never heard about it, lol) and Instagram as HyakunanaArts. On Tumblr and Bluesky, I’m Hyakunana! If you’re discovering my work for the first time now, I hope you enjoy and stay! 

Thank you for having me, everyone! Até mais!! 

Thank you for your time and your amazing insights, Polux!