October is a prime time for artists of all styles to generally share some spooky fan content from their favorite games in preperation for upcoming Halloween celebrations. One artist has taken this trend to decorating a pumpkin with one of the most popular NPCs in Dark Souls into a stunning and adorable Jack-O-Lantern.
The piece was originally posted to Reddit by user JaxxAphids, where fans on the Dark Souls subreddit have quickly begun to gather around the piece and show their admiration for the carving. It uses a popular image of the character Solaire of Astora that celebrates his "Praise the Sun" emote with a cartoonish depiction of the usually realistic knight.
In the piece shown below, the artist has used a method for carving the pumpkin that has become popular online for more intricate Jack-O-Lanterns that is a step more difficult than what the ordinary family often attempts. This method requires scraping away the outer layer of the pumpkin until the light can shine through, allowing for much more complex designs to be made out of the carving. The result is a chibi depiction of Dark Souls' Solaire with his arms lifted in the "Praise the Sun" pose that has become shorhand online for the series as a whole.
Praise the Sun! from darksouls
The image, known online as Sunbro, is a popular decal from artist Gibbs Rainock, who sells this and other Dark Souls-related artwork on the online storefront Crowsmack. It takes Solaire from Dark Souls and gives him a pleasant, cartoon-like appearance, a common style choice when making a "chibi" version of these fan-favorite characters. Now with the piece carved into a pumpkin, Solaire looks perfectly in place having the orange glow of a fire shining from behind him as he continues to Praise the Sun in this adorable depiciton of the character.
Considering that Dark Souls is 10 years old now, it's interesting to see that the series still commands so much attention from fans as to have pumpkins carved from a character that only appears in the first game in 2021. Not all games are able to hold the attention of fans for a full decade like this, which goes to show how much the original game resonated with fans across sequels, spiritual successors, and a remaster. The appreciation for Solaire also stands out, as he is a character seen only a few times in the first game, and only appears in later releases like Dark Souls 3 in his armor as a secret cameo.
Dark Souls is available now for PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Xbox Series X/S