𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇.
A Dratini (a faithful companion, a symbol of gentleness) lies dead. The world it leaves behind is grey and empty. In that hollow moment a figure steps forward from the shadows: a Shinigami, a gatekeeper of the underworld. The bargain it offers is simple, brutal... irresistible. Your friend can return, but only if you bind it to another soul.
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂.
The soul chosen is not that of some saint or hero but of MiFella... A local legend, feral and half-myth, whose own life had burned out in scandal and excess. MiFella’s essence is poured into the little dragon’s body, warping it as it returns to life. The creature that rises is neither Dratini nor MiFella but something new: DriFella, a strange fusion of innocence and ruin, awkward and ugly yet charged with raw power.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.
From the start DriFella’s power lay in the tension between forms: the base-cocoon-maturity of the Dratini line, the chaotic punkish distortion of MiFella’s soul, the Godhead-pilled mythology of an underground internet subculture. The art carries that sense of becoming... jagged, sometimes grotesque, always in motion.
The lore places DriFella in a world of post-apocalyptic struggle, where life and death, creation and destruction, chase one another in endless loops. It’s part Shōnen anime, part folk horror, part internet fever dream. An avatar of the will to persist in a broken world.
And yet, beyond the spectacle, there is a human chord.
DriFella is a fable of that stubborn urge to overcome death, to bring the lost back, to re-animate what we cannot let go of.
It is also a parable about what happens to culture itself on-chain... How fragments of one project’s ruin can be stitched into something new and alive.
This is the soil from which the later history will grow:
1️⃣ The Beginnings: the playful but eerie resurrection story, its imagery and early reception.
2️⃣ The Schism: the clash with Milady and the rise of the Fellaverse.
3️⃣ The Aftermath: how DriFella changed the conversation about what a PFP could be.
To tell that larger story we have to step back into the milieu that gave it meaning. But it starts here, with a dead dragon, a dark bargain and a creature that should not exist... yet does.
•
•
•
Notis on. More to follow...
Subscribe to Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasG
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGRuntime Art on an Always On Computer
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGWe Don’t Need More Collectors. We Need Better Patrons.
One of the quiet downsides of blockchains (especially in the context of art) is how good they are at making transactions easy. This sounds like praise, and often it is framed that way. Frictionless markets. Global access. Instant liquidity. No gatekeepers. All true... And also deeply consequential in ways the NFT space hasn’t fully reckoned with. Historically, art didn’t become valuable because it was easy to buy. 𝑰𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGEssay... “Culture You Can Wear”: Why PFPs Compress Tokenisation, Personification and Representation
Thesis. PFPs don’t just depict culture; they instantiate it. They compress three roles (tokenising a cultural motif into property, personifying it as a usable self, representing it in the stream of images) into a single, network-native object. Traditional art can do any one (and sometimes two) of these; PFPs make all three the default.From “art about culture” to “culture in operation”All art encodes culture. Benjamin’s classic point about mechanical reproduction was that new media transform a...
Support Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasG
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGDriFella I. The Legend of DriFella
<100 subscribers
𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇.
A Dratini (a faithful companion, a symbol of gentleness) lies dead. The world it leaves behind is grey and empty. In that hollow moment a figure steps forward from the shadows: a Shinigami, a gatekeeper of the underworld. The bargain it offers is simple, brutal... irresistible. Your friend can return, but only if you bind it to another soul.
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂.
The soul chosen is not that of some saint or hero but of MiFella... A local legend, feral and half-myth, whose own life had burned out in scandal and excess. MiFella’s essence is poured into the little dragon’s body, warping it as it returns to life. The creature that rises is neither Dratini nor MiFella but something new: DriFella, a strange fusion of innocence and ruin, awkward and ugly yet charged with raw power.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.
From the start DriFella’s power lay in the tension between forms: the base-cocoon-maturity of the Dratini line, the chaotic punkish distortion of MiFella’s soul, the Godhead-pilled mythology of an underground internet subculture. The art carries that sense of becoming... jagged, sometimes grotesque, always in motion.
The lore places DriFella in a world of post-apocalyptic struggle, where life and death, creation and destruction, chase one another in endless loops. It’s part Shōnen anime, part folk horror, part internet fever dream. An avatar of the will to persist in a broken world.
And yet, beyond the spectacle, there is a human chord.
DriFella is a fable of that stubborn urge to overcome death, to bring the lost back, to re-animate what we cannot let go of.
It is also a parable about what happens to culture itself on-chain... How fragments of one project’s ruin can be stitched into something new and alive.
This is the soil from which the later history will grow:
1️⃣ The Beginnings: the playful but eerie resurrection story, its imagery and early reception.
2️⃣ The Schism: the clash with Milady and the rise of the Fellaverse.
3️⃣ The Aftermath: how DriFella changed the conversation about what a PFP could be.
To tell that larger story we have to step back into the milieu that gave it meaning. But it starts here, with a dead dragon, a dark bargain and a creature that should not exist... yet does.
•
•
•
Notis on. More to follow...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGRuntime Art on an Always On Computer
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGWe Don’t Need More Collectors. We Need Better Patrons.
One of the quiet downsides of blockchains (especially in the context of art) is how good they are at making transactions easy. This sounds like praise, and often it is framed that way. Frictionless markets. Global access. Instant liquidity. No gatekeepers. All true... And also deeply consequential in ways the NFT space hasn’t fully reckoned with. Historically, art didn’t become valuable because it was easy to buy. 𝑰𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGEssay... “Culture You Can Wear”: Why PFPs Compress Tokenisation, Personification and Representation
Thesis. PFPs don’t just depict culture; they instantiate it. They compress three roles (tokenising a cultural motif into property, personifying it as a usable self, representing it in the stream of images) into a single, network-native object. Traditional art can do any one (and sometimes two) of these; PFPs make all three the default.From “art about culture” to “culture in operation”All art encodes culture. Benjamin’s classic point about mechanical reproduction was that new media transform a...
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
No comments yet