I have to be honest when Burning Spice first released I genuinely didn't have all that much interest in him on his own. I played his update and watched the BY 5-6 stories because Golden Cheese was involved. I used to follow the idea that he genuinely hated Golden Cheese and that he was just bored when he fell to destruction. I didn't understand him outside of his interactions with Golden Cheese. But in the past few months I finally did take the time to learn more about him and actually look into and think about his lore a lot more. Now he's my favorite cookie that's in crk at the moment, and I have a lot of thoughts about him. I will be going into some non-canon territory here so keep in mind a lot of this is just my personal interpretation of certain things.
This may be verging on projection but I very much agree with the headcanon of BSC being transmasc. The change in the position of his soul jam from his forehead to his chest and the fact that he was literally the Herald of CHANGE has convinced me of that. Also he keeps two of his arms crossed in all of his HOC sprites and I'm honestly not sure what to read that as other than him hiding his chest.
I picture him having more weight on him as Herald, still very strong of course, but much softer than he is as Burning Spice. He was still a very skilled fighter, wielded countless different weapons(his axe and his bow are the only ones we see in his sprites though), but he was more willing to let himself have down time, and more willing to let himself enjoy food instead of just eating to survive. When he was in the process of and after corrupting he began to eat less and worked tirelessly to cause as much destruction as possible, and lost most of the softness he once had(see this post for the exact difference I'm attempting to convey). Or in much simpler terms he went through beautiful fat man death. And since I'm talking about his body size here I should probably mention that I picture him being the cookie equivalent of 8 feet(~244cm) tall.
He was very concerned with the way people saw him as HOC. He hid his antennae to look less like a bug and by extension less frightening. His eyes are naturally very large, and he was careful not to squint them too much. He smiled with a closed mouth more often so he wouldn't scare people with his sharp teeth. He hated frightening anyone but people who threatened the cities and cookies/creatures he ruled over. After becoming Burning Spice he stopped caring about who he frightened or how threatening he looked. In fact, he wanted to distance himself from his previous identity as much as possible, since it was one he was unable to choose for himself. He started squinting more and smiling with his teeth to look more intimidating. He started showing off his antennae since he just didn't care about keeping up appearances anymore. He's more concerned with his twisted idea of what change truly is after all. I imagine that he tore off the other four arms he used to have too, in an attempt to escape his identity as the Herald of Change.
He was directly involved with the civilizations he was meant to watch over. He ruled over them, helped them develop, and was seen as a deity by everyone that knew he was the Herald of Change. We're not directly shown this but I believe his downfall only really makes sense when you consider that he was in the center of the civilizations and cultures he witnessed, and how much it must have affected him once they fell. And as the Herald of Change he was likely expected to record everything that was happening around him. Different languages, cultures, wars, monuments, everything that he was expected to watch over. If he had to record everything it would've been easier for him to start seeing patterns, like the "born, grow, wither" that he describes. He looses track of what has or hasn't happened before because it all started to feel the same after a while. Also having to witness and actively write down the destruction of countless people and cities that he might've known personally would've contributed to the loss of meaning he felt towards everything.
Seeing as he had to fill a secondary role of being a historian, he knows and remembers things other cookies simply don't. He still knows how to speak forgotten languages. Still remembers countless flora and fauna that no longer exist. There's an entire section of his temple dedicated to historical records he wrote himself. The amount of knowledge he has about the world is only beaten by the Fount of Knowledge themself. He is the second smartest out of all the beasts, but it's buried under a hard shell of destruction and violence. I see him as having been an artist at the time as well, painting many of the murals on his temple's walls and carving several of the sculptures in and around it. He was highly skilled in several different fields before his corruption, trying to escape being alone with his own thoughts and being inspired by many of the individuals he interacted with.
I also like to think he used to like gardening, and kept a garden of rare plants that only grew in the spice lands in his temple before he lost sight of what change truly was. And I imagine he tamed monsters and kept some of them as pets at one point or another. He had a certain connection to plants and animals, and still does, especially when you consider how many of his subjects aren't cookies at all. Much like Golden Cheese a majority of his people are sapient non-cookie creatures.
I like the headcanons of Nutmeg Tiger and Capsaicin being his children. Nutmeg seems just as invested in destruction as he is, and just look at Capsaicin. He looks like what would happen if you took burning spice, swapped some of his colors around, replaced his antennae with horns, and replaced the silhouette of most of the length of his hair with a cape. Or maybe the other way around since Capsaicin released before BSC. I feel like Capsaicin ran away to escape his father's fall into destruction, or was sent away by Burning Spice himself as he was losing faith in his role as the Herald of Change. Meanwhile Nutmeg stayed by his side, probably being taught that destruction was the natural order of things. Nutmeg's physical resemblance to him is little more subtle, but many of her markings look very similar to his, and her color scheme is similar to his as well. And I suppose she has a red gem on her chest as well, but hers isn't anything close to a soul jam. He was a good father to them for the most part, but he became more closed off towards them as he fell deeper into corruption, only being able to maintain a connection with Nutmeg. The one about Nutmeg Tiger being his daughter is the one I prefer out of these two though, since she actually has interactions with him and a dynamic with him that make it more convincing to me. She serves him out of loyalty rather than fear after all.
He was a deeply kind and gentle soul as HOC. He cared very deeply for those he befriended and loved both within and beyond the Spice Lands. Many of his subjects would've described him as some sort of gentle giant back then.
The side of him that isn't a flaming, overwhelming force of destruction, the side of him that still acts like Herald is somewhere underneath all the layers of loss, depression, and destruction. Somewhere beneath his rough edges is the same cookie that was adored by his people for the protection he gave them and his once softer, kinder nature. A nature he chose to distance himself from. A nature he felt was pointless after millennia of witnessing destruction and loss.
I don't really see the appeal of goldenspice as a ship if I'm being honest. More specifically I don't see them as ever having a romantic relationship. The closest dynamic I could see them having is one similar to two siblings that fight all the time. Two characters who are intrinsically linked don't always have to have a romantic way of seeing eachother. Burning Spice respects Golden Cheese for her strength and genuinely enjoys fighting her on equal footing, while Golden Cheese sees him as a reason to continue defending her kingdom and her people. As I may have mentioned in a previous post it really sucks that we didn't see Golden Cheese trying to look deeper into Burning Spice's reasons for doing what he does. It would've expanded her characterization just as much as it would've expanded his. And I think it would do her a lot of good if she learned he wasn't the way he is now just because of boredom. If only a certain blue individual wasn't devsis's favorite child. BSC and GCC not having a moment to understand eachother is a disservice to both of them. Not a moment where GCC forgives him, just a moment where she finally understands that the two of them are more similar than she first thought. That his reason for corruption was going through exactly what she went through(losing everything and everyone they cared about) over and over again for centuries on end.
I firmly believe he and the other beasts were set up for failure. He was created as an adult and wasn't able to learn proper morals or healthy coping mechanisms for his issues. He was thrown into a position of power with a power source that contained both good and bad parts. And he was expected to know how to avoid falling to the darker side of change, after witnessing centuries of people and civilizations he knew and was possibly attached to being destroyed, and becoming depressed because of it. He sees destruction as a mercy towards whoever or whatever he is destroying. He was stuck in a vicious cycle of seeing everything around him crumble over and over again. What other conclusion could he have possible come to? He was a child inside the body of a deity. He was seen as being on a higher plane than other cookies, making his role an isolating one. This doesn't excuse any of the devastation and pain he's caused, but it's certainly better than him doing it just because he was BORED.
Ok this post is getting way too long I'm going to stop myself here. I'm starting to think maybe I'm not normal about burning spice because I keep thinking about him and keep seeing pieces of myself in him that scare me.
