This was an initial sketch of a character I created in my story Cavalier's Quest which is in the Writing tab on this website. It was made at UAlbany, I remember specifically sitting on a bench overlooking the fountain, listening to Sonic and the Black Knight music, and thinking of how I wanted him to look. Clearly, to me, he needed to be a shining beacon of hope, this needed to be a suit of golden armor. I wanted him to have realistic, movable armor. He needed to be increasingly flexible for his movement through the battlefield. I also wanted his face to be hidden, even before The Mandalorian was released I wanted a character to convey emotion behind a mask. Nonverbal communication conveys his emotion. After it was released I was both gladdened and saddened as it focused on this but resorted to taking the mask off for vulnerable moments. I preferred the emotional storytelling of games like Halo and Doom. While most think these do not have depth most games like these especially D0om (2016) have a silent protagonist.

I wouldn't make him silent but I wanted him to be highly nonverbal as that is what I highly value and reflects myself in a large part. I looked for characters in animation that reflected this as my main end goal is to animate him. Optimus Prime, especially in G1 was the answer. The faceplate he had is what I wanted for Cavalier and it is what I incorporated into his design. The rest of this design is loosely based on medieval armor I saw on Google. This would develop later. I wanted a turnaround, but I only got as far as the first sketch. This would also develop later when I had a clearer vision.