That's my problem with these lovely video games from VALVe; you give me a Cockney-speaking flesh golem, and I see a man-monster of human proportions trapped within an inhumanly strong but shoddy body.

That's been my biggest issue all along I suppose. That's why I put up that stinking roleplay blog of him to begin with. I always saw great character potential where there might've been none, at least not in the minds of the blokes at VALVe, who I'm beginning to doubt are the best writers of stories anymore. Sure, a few of their stories are gems, and some are at least decent, but they're video game creators, not story-writers. They hire story-writers, but...

Anyway, you heard enough of my ranting on my Tumblr; let's discuss this art while we're on DeviantArt.

Having only recently found out about the August 15th update to DOTA 2, I must say I was highly shocked at first. I always liked Pudge with hair, and could never see Pudge without it. Now that I can, well...


It's not all bad, at least he has better quality textures and details (like his fingers and guts), but he's really lumpy, like a sack of dead meat and potatoes. Maybe I'd shut up if they reimplemented his hair. Luckily, the way this new Pudge is set up now means that anyone (including myself) can remake Pudge's hairdo in any way they want. I can have my 50's style curls, you can have your abominable baldness. Win-win.

Of course, all this reminds me of the way I saw Pudge back when I first proclaimed myself "Pudge's #1 fangirl".

The picture there represents my mind's view of how I'd make Pudge. Not a golem, not an artificial being or zombie, but an ambiguously undead humanoid mutated by black magic and gluttony. I gave him a warmish complexion and faint suggestions of irises and pupils. Also, the hair was inspired by this lovely Pudge piece by ~georgeinc. I could roughen up the hair and spill gunk on it, but I could never ever get rid of it completely (I was thinking of maybe giving him a combover as an alternate hairstyle, but that would be bog-stupid).

Of course, none of this humanity in the monster nonsense would've started without John Patrick Lowrie's lovely vocal tones fueling my imagination, making him out to be the nearest canon answer to a Christian Brutal Sniper type, and a massive one at that! Of course, expectation was never destined to meet with reality, Pudge was really a short little monster with very little in terms of genuine pathos, though that didn't stop me from having a connection with him!

I always wrote stories of Pudge's misadventures, from him trying to understand a world he was never truly born into, to getting into hijinx with Team Fortress characters. I don't much write for Pudge anymore, especially given the realization that Pudge really, really, isn't what I thought he was, but that doesn't stop me from making parodies, tributes, and expies! Take Brogar for instance, the Pudge of the Neverhood Fan Universe. He sort of became my place to put most of my headcanons from old Pudge and make them into their own thing (even if that thing is heavily based on two different video games).

Given the many incarnations Pudge has taken over the course of time in my wee little head, Brogar ain't the only Pudgesque being in my multiverse. He's a human, a Pyro, a fire elemental, an ice elemental, and even a Radiant hero. Aw well, don't listen to GigaKook and her stories of "Bludge the Blutchers", just enjoy the pic and leave me be.

Pudge the genuine Butcher is from Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2, which belongs to IceFrog and the VALVe Corporation.