Hello hi I haven't posted art on Tumblr since like. High school so I decided to just make a new blog for it. I hyperfixate pretty exclusively on the Hive Five/Kyd Wykkyd and also Jericho so this blog will probably be pretty exclusively that.
Also I really mainly do traditional art in pencil. I'm currently in an advanced health sciences course so a lot of my doodles are done just, in my class notebooks. (I'm going to try to transfer more to clear paper when I have time!) I have to scan them to upload them, which is why they'll all look a little weird and choppy. But they'd look considerably worse just using a camera.
Pt. 4 in my hive playlists! Explanations/ramblings under the cut.
oh billy you have so much potential and i'm the only one who sees it (i am delusional). To get to the meat of it I think it's a SHAME when media introduces southern hick characters and don't take advantage of the tragedy that comes with just being from a lot of the southern states. Like there's so much there,,,,, and Billy is one of the characters who really doesn't have a whole lot of canon personality besides comic relief so I fill in the gaps how I want to <3 but anyway yah Billy makes me think of OLD country. Not new country. I will NOT be forcing myself to listen to any more country than I'm already forced to as someone who lives in those states BUT I do think he likes stuff like Tom Petty and the Charlie Daniels band,,,,, like stuff that borders on rock/country or soft/classic rock with country elements. Stoner rock. And Orville Peck oh he would FUCK with Orville Peck but none of his songs made it on here unfortunately,,,, time for Billy's sexuality crisis later perhaps
(My Name Is Mud - Primus) - okok look listen I know Generic Dumb Hillbilly is the go to characterization for Billy but there’s so many different flavors of Hillbilly. Like an appalachian hillbilly is different from an alabama hillbilly is different from a texan hillbilly. There’s Layers. And yes it’s me projecting a bit but I really love poor left behind trailer park kid Billy. And Primus so often really captures that feel to me. Idk maybe it’s just because I heard Primus so much growing up, but their sound always makes me think of especially that trailer park flavor of hillbilly. The exaggerated southernness with the kind of rebellious rock elements in all their music but especially this song really gives off the vibe to me of growing up in this dingy trailer park environment and hating it but also this is just where you live and probably where you’ll die. Like it’s so hard to explain but the instrumentals in this FEEL like, dirty and muddy and dusty. And I do feel like that vitriol for where your cards have been dealt but simultaneous claiming of it anyway is kind of unique to those environments.
(Bloody Mary Mix - Trocadero) - A really great instrumental track for Billy. I love daydreaming about Billy’s powers developing or just him as a character to this song. Speaking of powers! There’s obviously a ton of places you can go with duplicative powers. But I love the idea that his powers manifested as a result of his fractured mental health. I’ve seen a lot of people like the idea that he was one of several children which is why he’s so outgoing, but I actually really like the idea of him being a single child. He’s pretty harshly neglected the way most children in these environments are (it’s pretty normal to just, kick a kid out of the house in the morning after breakfast and tell them to entertain themselves until they can come back in at dark). Billy’s first real friend is himself. His first duplicate. Maybe it just happens one day while he’s laid out on the forest floor after the local kids get done beating him up for the third time that week. He’s just so desperate for anyone to pay attention to him. His neglect/loneliness compounds with his parents taking no real interest in him at all, to the point they completely miss that he even has this ability. It results in an over-reliance on his duplicates. He starts getting the community and emotional support he needs but it’s still coming from himself, not any real family or friends. He’s an echo chamber. Realistically I actually do really love the idea that Billy’s constant duplicating and never really being alone with himself does cause him to have some kind of bpd-esque tendencies as he grows up. He CAN’T be alone. He takes rejection hard, he gets defensive, he gets aggressive. Because he developed a coping mechanism that never really forces him to just be alone ever again or to develop emotionally, he’s very insecure and very uncomfortable with himself.
(HAPPY FACE - Moon Walker) - I’ve always loved this song for how it parallels my own experiences AS a trailer park kid in the south. Not to say everywhere is like this, but most places are. Like I said before Billy is pretty badly neglected as a kid and more than likely also has pretty bad parents. I love this song for a hypocritical deadbeat dad and a hypocritical overly religious environment. IF you’ve grown up in these environments like,,,, you know. Religion is so often used as an excuse to continue to be a terrible person in a lot of these places. But yes I really love this song for how smothering and big it feels, just like a kid being made to feel small by these things. And ESPECIALLY the ‘you cut me open and I look exactly like you’, idk the way moon walker sings it is so raw sounding to me, or maybe it’s just because I love that line. Billy’s worst fear is growing up to be the worst man he ever knew and it’s hard to carry that around when he looks in the mirror and sees more of that man every single day. (also a reason for why he keeps so much of his face covered up possibly)
(The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Primus) - don’t look at me. To be FAIR Primus is probably as Hillbilly as we’ll go I promise. Is this song goofy and stereotypical of the south? yes. But that’s WHY it screams Billy to me so much. That banjos,,,, I’m sorry but Billy is so Appalachia to me. And yes I DO like this version more than the Charlie Daniels band version for Billy. in an in-universe sense, I really, REALLY love the hard cut from this to the next song. This song makes me think of the first time Brother Blood approaches Billy trying to get him to enroll in the school. Billy’s not book smart but he is VERY street smart, and he knows a devil when he sees one. Blood’s previous manipulations just don’t work on Billy. Billy’s too down to earth to fall for the isolation, gaslighting, fake compliments, or guilt tripping that got to the other five. Which of course only enrages Blood more. There’s nothing that makes him angrier than being shown up or losing to some trailer park kid that Blood already sees as beneath him.
(A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Appalachia - Lizard in the Spring) - Like I said, I love the hard cut from Devil Went Down To Georgia to this. To me this is the second time Blood shows up with an offer for Billy to enroll in his school. The first time Billy laughed him off, even made fun of him. The second time Blood shows up, it’s in front of the ashes of what used to be Billy’s home, staring him down hard and cold. Blood didn’t get Billy into the school using manipulation tactics or false promises. He just ruined Billy’s life so he had nowhere else to go. This song so encapsulates that feeling I picture in my head. Billy standing over the ashes of his home, his family, the guilt eating him alive. If he’d just gone the first time they wouldn’t be dead. They were terrible and rotten but they were still his family, and now they’re dead. The wavering, dull tone in front of the strings in this track so makes me pictures Billy’s psyche and how on the brink this event made him. Blood doesn’t even say anything to Billy at this point. He just leaves and expect Billy to follow him. And Billy does. (and I know fires are kind of overused for character backstories, but I love the imagery of this isolated patch of appalachia woods suddenly in ember and ash, with little Billy kneeling speechless in front of it all)
(Hullabaloo - Rare Americans) - Another hard mood switch yeah but this track really fits how I think Billy really SAW the Academy. Being one of the few people who never really did fall for Blood’s manipulations and kind of just saw him for what he was: a devil and a conman, he also saw the academy for what it was: some fucked up propaganda machine. So many lines in this track fit it to me. Billy looks around him and is treated like HE’S the crazy one when he’s watching people mindlessly and blindly follow the guy that’s actively ruining their lives. And the chaotic marching instrumental is great too, and gives me the imagery of Billy running this way and that, trying to escape this place now that he really sees what he’s getting into, only to realize he really can’t.
(Nobody’s Soldier - Hozier) - Yeah Billy straight up HATESSSS that man I’m sorry. I love listening to this song for Billy’s Academy days. Blood is SO hard on Billy in every possible, trying to break his spirit in a way. Billy is the one student who follows Blood out of convenience but not necessity. He knows for anyone else there would still be that moment of hesitation even if his manipulations failed. Billy would cut and run on him on the first moments notice. But as much as Blood tries to break him, Billy doesn’t ever truly break. He gets quieter, falls in line, but he never really lets go of the malice he holds for Blood for putting him in this position in the first place.
(Mama’s Boy - Dominic Fike) - Billy’s relationship with his mother is complicated the way most kids in those situations are. He can recognize that she was irresponsible and unreliable and not a good mother by a long shot, but that doesn’t change that she was his mother, and to Billy he thinks he’s the reason she died. It’s messy having an unreliable parent in any sense because that malice for them messing up your life never really changes the hope that one day they’ll just wake up and be better. I use this track to think about Billy and Kyd bonding over their collective mother trauma. Billy LOOKS like his dad, but he’s his mother’s son. Which is to say, irresponsible, unreliable, and with an addictive personality. And I also just love the idea of Kyd being his first friend that isn’t a clone. This introduces Billy to socialization away from his echo chamber in a slower way since Kyd doesn’t talk too often, but also I love the parallels that the first devil Billy met ruined his life, and the second he met put him back on the path to making it bearable again.
(A Mask of My Own Face - Lemon Demon) - This one’s a little out of genre for Billy yeah but it ALWAYS makes me think of him. Billy’s biggest character flaw is that he doesn’t know how to sit with his own emotions. He doesn’t know how to handle them. He quite literally wears a mask of himself, turning everything into a joke, everything’s a punchline, everything’s loud and distracting, even to himself. Sometime between all the cloning and the class clowning he just adopted the face of these louder, funnier, more likeable Billy clones he put out so often. Billy’s comic relief personality is the MAIN reason I always give him one of the rougher backstories. People don’t overexert a mask like that unless they have something to hide, and it’s usually themselves, because they don’t like who they are underneath.
(I Fought the Law - Dead Kennedys) - This, Punkrocker, and Loser are just like, Billy Vibe songs for me. They just always make me think of him in his prime days with the hive five. He just gets into shit for the sake of getting into shit.
(Punkrocker - Teddybears)
(Loser - Beck)
(The Distance - CAKE) - listen,,,,,, again these character do NOT have a screen time so as a kid I had to hyperfixate on what little they said or did. And for whatever reason Billy’s collection of Vehicles gave me the impression he got super into drag/street racing which,,,,, to be fair, wouldn’t be out of character. TT leans heavily into the hillbilly stereotype and lemme tell you if there’s one sport people in the south like that isn’t football it is racecars. Nascar is ALWAYS blaring on a TV when NFL ads come on. And like,,,,, yeah 100% this could be seen as just Billy’s version of the bad coping mechanisms his parents had, hopping himself up with adrenaline all alone in some dirt patch to avoid thinking about his own problems, but it works for him. (and the racecar driver fit works for me for his character as well. It allows him to keep the sleeker look while giving more room for details in the empty parts of his design).
(Jerry Was A Race Car Driver - Primus) - ok yea The Distance is like, Billy street racing against someone seriously. Jerry Was A Race Car Driver is Billy fucking up a street or some random abandoned dirt lot. His ass is NOT allowed to drive when they go anywhere as a group.
Pt. 3 in my hive playlists! Explanations/ramblings under the cut.
Ok so first and foremost I've noticed See-More interpretations tend to vary the MOST among the hive characters. But yeah personally!!! to me!!!! that is a flamboyant confident annoying mfer. His hubris is tempered only by his terrible fashion taste. He is confident and full of himself except he HAS the receipts to back it up which only makes him worse. He's so annoying. I love him for that. Little blind boy -> gifted kid -> keeping up with metahumans when he's not meta at all will do that to anyone.
But yea See-More's music taste is also kind of everywhere?? I associate him with either chill instrumentals with wild lyrics or hyper instrumentals with chill lyrics. He'll listen to a little bit of everything but he has a soft spot for experimental background tracks with electronic feels to them.
(St. Chroma - Tyler the Creator, Daniel Caesar) - I knowwwww its overused but St. Chroma is just a really good overarching theme for Seemore, for me. I’ve always read him as kind of an underdog character. I love the idea that he was this overlooked disabled kid who’s now made it so far that he’s battling actual metahumans. Because he’s NOT metahuman (at least how I interpret him). He’s just very smart and resourceful. He’s got BIG ambitions, even as a kid, and his mother pushed him even further into that gifted kid pipeline. I also just love the instrumental breakdown in the latter portion of the song, it makes me think of a scene of a whole city block with lights flickering because SeeMore has managed to figure out how to channel power from them into something he’s doing (maybe the first prototype of his helmet).
(Empyrean Stairway - Hoyo) - Another instrumental hoyo track yes but I LOVE all the little beeps juxtapositioned with the strings. I’ve always loved the title of “The Visionary” for SeeMore, and this track makes me really think of that. SeeMore’s the one with the lofty ambitions. Jinx wants to be better than everyone else because she has something to prove, but SeeMore just genuinely thinks he IS better than everyone else. HE’S the one non-metahuman keeping up with them all, HE’S the one who built his way out of blindness, HE’S the one who impressed Brother Blood enough to be offered a way into the academy without needing to be manipulated into it. I’ve always imagined him in a kind of ‘guy in the chair’ position on the team. Like a hacker/planner, guiding the hive through missions behind the scenes and intervening when they get into trouble. This track makes me think of him making blueprints and seeing a vision of the future for himself.
(Puppet Boy - DEVO) - SeeMore’s introduction to the academy is a little different from the others. He isn’t picked up and given a place so much as manipulated into thinking it’s a good idea. He's already horrifyingly morally grey, so he isn’t bothered by them being an evil organization, and is easily enticed by promises of research availability and funding for his experiments, as well as by Blood having a similar ego as SeeMore’s- “Consider that the strings attached / could make a big change in your ways / little problems, little minds, little points of view” - SeeMore and Blood see the world similarly in that everyone else are kind of just little pawns for their plans, Seemore is just yet to realize HE is also a pawn. And once you’re indicted into the academy, it’s a little impossible to leave. SeeMore doesn’t realize until it’s too late that Blood is really just using him for his intellect, and by then for the first time in his life, See-More is someone else's pawn. “It’s the little things that count / getting bigger, pull the trigger / little things like you”.
(Your Love - Glass Animals) - While I definitely don’t like SeeMore and Jinx together-together, I do love the idea of there being some weird romantic miscommunication between them, especially in their academy days. Jinx is entirely too focused on her goals and her fragile mental state for any kind of relationship, and whatever SeeMore feels is probably entirely one sided, he just doesn’t realize that. I mostly like the dynamic because I feel like it makes their later friendship stronger, and I like the idea of SeeMore being kind of emotionally vulnerable when it comes to love in general. It’s his one weak point not covered by his hubris. Idk why but I love the idea of him getting weirdly delusional/fixated on someone when he has a crush- maybe because he’s built his walls up so high believing he’s better than everyone else that in order to meet whatever subconscious standards he has, they have to be someone worth being fixated on. (which makes his later possible relationship with Kyd Wykkyd, resident good for nothing, very funny). I also love these lyrics because it gives an insight into how everyone else views Jinx even while she’s fighting for her life to remain on top- “that purple touch / everyone who sees you falls in love / you eat us up / you live like you’re on camera”. But yes a lot of weird miscommunication and pining from SeeMore’s side that doesn’t really go anywhere and just ends up humbling him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but also THESE are the weird experimental instrumentals I was talking about that See-More would definitely love.
(Dead Weight - Jack Stauber) - This is another overarching theme for Seemore but ESPECIALLY for his childhood + academy days. To some degree, SeeMore has always felt like dead weight. He flips rapidly between thinking he’s better than everyone else and thinking he’s a burden for being alive. And being in the academy, constantly being put down and manipulated by Blood and no longer having the blind support of his mother, definitely makes that side weigh heavier. He has a hard time making friends between fine tuning his helmet and having to spend a lot of time without it in the process, and just not being very good with people BECAUSE of his ambitions. It’s easy for him to find himself in his room late at night, alone with nobody but the helmet he’s still tweaking. At the end of the day, he’s blind. He has a disability. And it means he has to work twice as hard to make it half as far as everyone else. Sometimes he can’t tell if he pushes people away because he’s just better than everyone else, or because he doesn’t want to drag other people down with him. The academy humbles him HARD. He’s spent his childhood getting told how amazing and impressive he is, but among metahumans and people with gifts, he’s suddenly very average. And to a gifted kid, average feels like failure.
(New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala) - I really LOOOOVE the vibe of this song. The layered vocals, the funky background beat, the melodic voice. And I also love this for how SeeMore is feeling when the academy falls. He has the choice to disappear and go back to being just a civilian, or to go with the hive five. There’s definitely a lot of inner conflict with it between the self doubt the academy instilled in him vs the high strung ambitions that still haven’t died yet- “I can just hear them now / how could you let us down / but they don’t know what I’ve found / or see it from this way ‘round”. I ESPECIALLY love this song because it feels like SeeMore quite literally creating a new persona for himself. He really comes into his own when he’s away from the academy and with the hive, who aren’t constantly putting him down and actually let him flourish (compared to the academy, who kept his ego down by constantly setting the finish line further and further away every time he came close). “Feel like a brand new person / but you’ll make the same old mistakes / I don’t care I’m in love / stop before it’s too late” sounds so much to me like two sides of himself literally arguing about what to do with his life. This ‘brand new person’ he’s allowed to be, SeeMore, and the scared blind kid who wants to quit while they’re ahead, Seymour.
(No Brainer - Cure for Paranoia) - SPEAKING OF SeeMore flourishing!!! This song is so fun idc. SeeMore goes from being alone and depressed during his planning in his room to being drunk on freedom, his brain moving miles per second when he’s working on plans for the hive five. I also love the idea of him coming off kind of mad scientist-y sometimes, to the point a lot of the hive almost don’t believe his plans or mechanisms will work, but they ALWAYS do. This song is just so fun and fast paced, and really gives off the vibe of SeeMore being a mad genius.
(Starboy - The Weeknd, Daft Punk) - I know this song is kind of overused but I LOVE this song for when SeeMore really starts hitting those ambitions he’s had since he was a kid. He’s HERE, he’s fighting alongside metahumans and keeping up, he’s smarter and faster and BETTER than some of them, and most importantly- he’s not alone anymore. He has people around him who don’t just NOT find his ambitions and quirks annoying, but actually believe in a lot of them. When Seemore is with the hive five is when he really starts hitting his confident stride and starts walking and talking like he’s hot shit, because he is. It also makes me think of a chill nightclub kind of setting, which I love thinking about SeeMore in. Don't talk to me he would LOOOOVE clubbing if only just for the fashion. I saw those synthwave ass shades he was trying on in the mall in that one episode, I know what you are.
(Might Not - Belly, The Weeknd) - And while SeeMore’s ego IS admittedly huge he still has his moments of going back and forth between self doubt + hubris. He isn’t quite as bad as Jinx is with her doubt driving her to be reckless and dangerous, but he does have his moments of just getting burnt out. He’s so gifted kid to me, including the burnout episodes, and it hits him hard because he feels like anytime he’s not performing at 100% that he’s falling behind somehow. He also admittedly probably has terrible coping skills because he feels like he’s just not supposed to be feeling burnt out and should just force himself through it (he doesn’t smoke OFTENN but when he DOES, oh boy). “The night’s too long / I took too much and I’ve gone too far / and I might not make it / this time I might not make it” feels so much like Seemore hitting that burnout double whammy to me of trying to force himself through it and it just getting worse later.
(BOY BYE - BROCKHAMPTON) - This song just really gives me so many SeeMore vibes. The kind of juxtaposition between hard times + still being confident/brash. The INSTRUMENTALLLL, the melodic vocals near the end. The lyrics are simultaneously kind of down to earth- “everybody ask me how I deal with my depression / man look I don’t got the answer to your question / if I did you would probably never hear from me again / that’s a promise not a threat and it ain’t no half steppin” and then also like confident and almost silly “my bitch is so pretty pretty / I get cash like really really / tell the DJ he ain’t slick cause he ain’t playin’ hits he silly silly”.
(Chanel - Frank Ocean) - that is a BISEXUAL BOY I hate to break it to you I heard it from Seymour himself he told me in a dream. But yes I love Chanel for him and I wish I could go more in depth as to why but really it’s just like, Frank Ocean propaganda. Sorry. Something about Frank Ocean’s chill/low instrumentals + his more high pitched voice makes me think of SeeMore a LOT, and this is also just, the SeeKyd song to me for some reason, but it could really be for any SeeMore ship you like. But I love the really soft vibes of the song for them.
(Pink + White - Frank Ocean) - Frank Ocean propaganda,,,, but yea this is another song that makes me think of SeeKyd for some reason. Again the soft, melodic, comforting vibes feel really Them to me. SeeKyd wasn’t an Event so much as something more like an inevitable conclusion. Like with most ships I write/draw they’re very… dramatic? Something HAPPENS to cause it, there’s some Event, or life changing circumstance to make them realize, SeeKyd is so different from that. Kyd was always just kind of THERE, even when Seemore was going through his worst time in the academy, even when he was being pushed away, and then even when his ego makes him a little hard to be around sometimes. And Kyd never really asked for anything in return even though he could. He didn’t start hanging around Seemore with the intent of being in a relationship, but with Kyd being the one person who can see past BOTH Seemore’s self hate AND his blustering ego, it’s kind of inevitable that he 100% has the strongest relationship with him, platonic or romantic. The line between it is already so blurred that it’s anyone’s guess when it gets crossed, or if they ever even say it out loud. Seemore and Kyd are just Like That. This song isn’t even REALLYYY a romance song, but something about the angelic melodies and the comfortability of the song gives me the vibes of Kyd grounding him down to earth, whether it’s his ego getting away from him or his doubt dragging him down. Kyd is the one constant who levels him out again.
(Taking What’s Not Yours - TV Girl) - shut up this is such a fun song. I know its another overused one but it’s so bouncy and fun, I don’t care. It makes me think of like, prime hive five era days. Seemore doesn’t go out with them on like Serious Missions(™) because it’s his job to hack things open and guide them or something else, but he will absolutely go on the fun missions (the mall heist, the museum heist, etc). The real reason Seemore starts to BECOME the confident person he is with the hive is because the hive’s goals aren’t like, to prove they’re worth something, or impress someone, or meet a target. Their goals are Break Into Arcade So Billy Can Steal The Quarters, Specifically. Seemore lets himself have FUN with them, reminds himself that he doesn’t need to meet some goal to be important to people.
(POSER - PARTYOF2) - Speaking of Jinx and SeeMore’s relationship, oh they are UNBEARABLLLEEEE in the hive five. They are both SO full of themselves and SO confident that they are hot shit. When this song was making its rounds I wanted to do one of those animation trends with them so bad. They are NOT allowed to go out together by themselves they will tear shit UP. Anytime they go out alone Kyd is immediately alerted in a ‘something just happened’ way. But especially the way the chorus sung in that like, childish taunting tone??? Oh they’re unbearable they are SO annoying together. Their egos just feed off each other.
(Rapp Snitch Knishes - MF DOOM) - I’m sorry this is another song that is just so fun and I love for Seemore. I associate Seemore naturally with songs that EITHER have a high pitched/fun instrumental and chill vocals OR a chill instrumental and melodic vocals. I’m not sure why it just feels like it fits him really well. And yeah he is soooooo tiredddd of busting his friends out of jail. Since he’s in charge of hacking/guiding them around most time it’s usually him + Kyd in charge of busting them out. And he’s usually NOT the one fighting so he’s always astounded they continually get themselves caught.
Mammoth is a petty villain like the rest of the HF, and is the muscle of the team! (obviously) He's not exactly an evil villain, he just loves fighting and stealing! He has lines that he won't cross, of course. He just kinda goes along with the rest of his team wants. As long as he's having fun, he doesn't care!
He loves fighting and getting into trouble, but he is also pretty chill and easygoing. He also likes video games, working out, and is a matcha enthusiast! He also likes to wear temporary tattoos since he can't get the real thing lol
There is definitely a downside to his powers though. The stronger he gets, the dumber he gets, so he has to be VERY careful not to work out too much or else he could go practically braindead (and possibly never recover, basically becoming a brute zombie)
He's close friends with Kyd Wykkyd, Billy Numerous, and Shadowplay
Pt. 2 in my hive playlists! Mammoth! Explanations/ramblings under the cut. (btw these playlists/backstories are HEAVILYY influenced by how I interpreted the character back when I got attached to them in like, middle school combined with how I see them now. Which is why Shimmer is missing from his)
These playlists will be heavily based on MY interpretation of the characters and how I view them, and will include songs that make me envision scenes with the characters, songs that match the character's stories, and songs that I could see the characters listening to, so none of the playlists will be very linear or 'themed' like some character playlists are. Also, because of the lack of canon content for the Hive, AND the gap between 'comic canon' and the cartoon meaning literally anything could be true, I take a lot of liberties with their stories and how they get to where they are.
Mammoth 100% listens to heavy, stomping, gym bro rock music. Specifically classic rock - Metallica, Zeppelin, AC/DC, stuff you can work out to. On a side note- was??? Mammoth???? in the circus???? I SWEAR I remember seeing something about that forever ago, but now I can't seem to find any sources. Did I make it up???? It wouldn't matter at this point, this timeline has always how I've roughly viewed his character. AND I think the circus background is funny because I like to imagine him and Robin spiderman pointing at each other sometimes because those moves look entirely too familiar to be non circus affiliated.
(Abbracadabbra INSTRUMENTAL - Insane Clown Posse) - look. I will level with you. Insane Clown Posse does NOT vibe with Mammoth. But do you know what does?? Their instrumentals. And it kills me because they don’t officially release on Spotify, ever. The Abbracadabbra instrumental is GREAT because it combines the carnival-y, goofy beat with a chill/hip hop vibe, which feels very Mammoth to me. Like this is what plays in his head most of the time. Like how Soul Eater plays that stupid flute noise when someone’s doing something dumb? This is what plays when Mammoth is about to do something dumb. It's not featured on the playlist (because again, missing from spotify) but give the instrumental a listen on youtube if you ever have time.
(Sometimes - Nick Lutsko) - So as mentioned before, a lot of my imagined Mammoth backstory goes along with him growing up in the circus. It’s really up to interpretation how he gets there. Maybe he comes from a family already in the circus, maybe his family sells him in young when they see his abnormal muscle growth, maybe they intentionally give him the formula that causes his abnormal muscle growth in order to make money off him. Either way, his childhood isn’t really happy. His parents (or the carnival staff responsible for him, who he sees as parents), really just see him as an asset, and he’s largely left to fend for himself. His childhood is less about growing and more about surviving until he can find a way out. - “sometimes the short end of the stick is the sharpest / sometimes the only way out is as a carcass”
(Pay Me Back - Rare Americans) - Mammoth’s relationship with his parents- biological or staff assigned - is rough. They’re both overbearing in different ways to a kid who already has advanced aggression because of his testosterone levels. His mother (the start of the song), can’t understand why he isn’t happy. He’s a circus freak. This is as nice of a life as he could ever ask for given his condition. She misunderstands his misplaced aggression and lashing out and fills his head pretty early with the promise that he’s just going to grow up to amount to nothing, just like his father. As he gets older and more pressured, the tension gets worse. Mammoth will never be able to pay them back for all the money and effort it took to raise such a good for nothing freak. And Mammoth’s father and mother will never be able to pay him back for all the emotional damage of the environment he’s been raised in. When he finally runs away, it’s after yet another one of these explosive arguments.
(Tom Tom - Holy Fuck) - This is just a really good instrumental(ish) track I associate with Mammoth’s on-the-run era. The steady thump of the base makes me think of train tracks, which is probably what he stuck to for a long time. Where on earth does he go? How does he live as a person? His parents were right. He’s a hulking freak. People shy away from him in public. Any government personnel that might’ve been able to help him don’t even realize he’s just a kid.
(Broken Boy - Cage The Elephant) - Mammoth spends a good while on his own, and it really destroys his mental health. He feels like he can’t trust anyone, and he’s alone. A lot. The more he’s left alone with his thoughts, the worse his thoughts get. He starts only going out at night to try and avoid the constant interactions of people being afraid of him. He’s finally on his own, but his parents are right. He is just a freak. The longer this goes on, the more he starts to hate himself.
(Master of Puppets - Metallica) - Now THIS is prime Mammoth music. But ALSO a pretty good interpretation of what Mammoth’s academy days are like. The academy is better than the circus, or the train tracks, but really not by much. It’s an unfortunate truth that Brother Blood, and really everyone else too, just see Mammoth as some dumb muscle to boss around. If it’s not Brother Blood, then it’s Jinx, or someone else. And Mammoth HATES it. It boils his blood when he’s bossed around all the time and, once again, being treated like just an asset, just muscle. Right back to where he was. But he also learns that they’re right. What else is he going to do? Disobey? Get tossed back out? But most of all the bridge of “Laughter, laughter / all I hear or see is laughter / laughter, laughter / laughing at my cries / fix me!” also really rings Mammoth to me. He probably HATESSS when people laugh at him because of his circus trauma, which is when he starts leaning into his intimidating persona to make it stop.
(Colossus - IDLES) - This is Mammoth’s stewing-in-who-he-is phase at the academy. He’s learned his role. He’s learned to accept he’s just an asset, he’s one dimensional. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t haunt him. He’s successful at the academy. He’s stronger than he’s ever been. But he’s also miserable. The more he lets himself lean into this brutish, miserable, angry persona, the more he sees his father staring back at him in the mirror - “They laugh at me when I run / I waste away for fun / I am my father’s son / his shadow weights a tonne”. And then the break near the end of the song where it goes from heavy to fast and fun makes me think of when Mammoth starts to have his breakthrough. I feel like getting into underground wrestling (and making friends with the hive, instead of just teammates), gives him the opportunity to make that change between his trauma and viewing his strength as a burden to something closer to positive masculinity. He DOESN’T just have to hit things for other people. Sometimes, he can hit things for himself! (like people that harass his friends)
(Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC) - This is another song Mammoth would work out to. This is his switch from working with the academy to the academy falling and working with the hive five. He’s not hitting things because Brother Blood told him he’s a useless good for nothing if he doesn’t, he’s hitting things because he and his friends want to have fun!
(Never Fight A Man With A Perm - IDLES) - “Two arms like big baseball bats / a jaw like a fuck off bear trap” oh pack it up. Go home. This is it. This is THEEEE Baran “Mammoth” Flinders SONG for me. Every time this song comes up I IMMEDIATELY think of him. Like this song is from the perspective of everyone who’s Not the hive five. Not even just the lyrics, but the steady bump of the instrumentals make me think of the way he just STOMPS around too.
(STARTAFIGHT - Joey Valence & Brae) - This and the next few songs just make me think of Mammoth from his wrestling persona. He’s sooooooo excited to punch someone. As someone who used to fight, a LOT, I love positive masculinity wrestler Mammoth. After he joins the hive five and is around people who are actually nice to him and are his friends, he’s not even really an ANGRY person anymore, he just likes fighting!
(We Will Rock You - Megan Thee Stallion, Queen) - Listen. Listen,,,, I can explain. Mammoth already likes the classic rock vibe, and I swear to god I didn’t mean for Megan Thee Stallion to end up on this playlist, but I actually really like this song as a wrestler walk out/theme kind of song. “I’m the one to beat / make ‘em get on they feet / i’m the one that got your best fighter losin’ sleep”, come ONNNNN
(Time To Shine! - Hoyo) - I really DIDN’T REALIZE Hoyo showed up so much in these playlists, but they make so much dynamic music, it was probably a little inevitable. Listen,,,, I promise this isn’t Itto propaganda I actually do really love his theme for Mammoth. Like it’s hard to describe but this song is just so LOUD, PROUD, VICTORY to me. The fast paced brass that comes in to the pattern of a fight?? Too good. Like that bridge with the horns and fast drums makes me so easily picture Mammoth just bodying someone in a fight. And it really encapsulates his personality to me. The brashness, the loudness, the confidence, AND the juxtaposition of that with the very beginning and very end of the song- the chill, cool kind of beat. Mammoth really is a chill guy most of the time, but he CAN get loud and brash and mean when he wants to.
(Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin) - This and the last few songs are just songs I think Mammoth would like/listen to/relate to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Who’s Ready for Tomorrow?) - RAT BOY - I ESPECIALLY like this one because it gives off Mammoth’s chill-with-his-life-now vibe, but also the carnival-y music in the background really makes it for me
(Boys Don’t Cry - Destructo Disk) - Mammoth pretends not to like The Cure (he listened to it with Kyd one time and it REALLLLY hit him because he really is actually a pretty sensitive person he’s just also constantly having to deconstruct the masculine urge to bury it all down)
The Jinx playlist! the rest of the hive coming soon (explanations for choices/rambling under the cut)
These playlists will be heavily based on MY interpretation of the characters and how I view them, and will include songs that make me envision scenes with the characters, songs that match the character's stories, and songs that I could see the characters listening to, so none of the playlists will be very linear or 'themed' like some character playlists are. Also, because of the lack of canon content for the Hive, AND the gap between 'comic canon' and the cartoon meaning literally anything could be true, I take a lot of liberties with their stories and how they get to where they are.
That being said, she's so riotgrrl to me. She's SO insecure and yet SO full of hubris at the same time. The inside of her head is just always playing that first scream from Seether. She's my beautiful princess with a disorder. Jinx, crashout extraordinaire, with what is probably undiagnosed BPD: of course I'll be the leader. I'm obviously the most responsible.
(Seether - Veruca Salt) - Jinx has always had a temper, even before she realized her powers or got scooped up by the Academy. Considering what little we know of her powers is that they're possibly influenced by her emotions/when she's angry (during her scene lashing out at Rouge), I think it fits that she was an angry kid too. Maybe her caregiver(s) trying to force her to repress it is what unlocked the destructive power of her hexes to begin with. I think the idea of her literally seeing her angry side as another, worse version of herself, is also an interesting path to go down concerning her inferiority complex.
(The Supper - Coraline Soundtrack) - SO much of the Coraline soundtrack feels like Jinx to me. Besides the riotgrrl/goth aesthetic, the plucky strings, whisperings, and nervous bells feel like JINX instruments. The Supper just does the best job at making me think of a really specific event with her. Which is realizing her powers. The plucky strings at the beginning feel like small, bad things that keep happening wherever she goes all around her without her meaning for them to. The whisperings make me think of her first anxieties swallowing her up because of it. Because if her caregiver(s) were disapproving of her temper before, she can't imagine what they'll do when they find out she's the cause for all their misfortune.
(Monodrama - Hoyo) - While I don't feel like the heavy electronic drops feel like Jinx, the very start and very finish of this song ABSOLUTELY do. The minor key pianos, whistling, and happy singing make me think of her skipping along, causing destruction where she goes. SPECIFICALLY this song always makes me think of when she finally hits her breaking point from the pressure of hiding her powers (maybe a symptom of emotional abuse). Her bad luck goes from making mirrors crack to being able to throw her tormentors back into a wall with a wave of magic. After years of being suppressed and made to feel inferior, the power gets to her. A whole monastery and all the monks in it who were tasked with teaching her control, destroyed by one little girl, skipping through it. And the last, echoing little whistle gives the feel of her smile finally dropping, looking down at a broken mirror and realizing what she's done now that the adrenaline is gone.
(BURN THE WITCH - Pinkshift) - The riotgrrl starts as the pressure gets worse. Jinx gets picked up off the street by the Academy, but one wrong move means she gets kicked right back out. The academy has always ran a strict program that prioritizes the best, and Brother Blood's leaderboards and constant postive/negative reinforcement makes her inferiority complex get much worse very quickly. Not only that, but it encourages hostility among the students as well. Her insecurities get worse as everyone around her tries to sabatoge her to get to the top, and even when they aren't, she's convinced they are.
(Nightmares Never End - JT Music) - I KNOW this is a fansong but I don't care, i've ALWAYS associated this song with Jinx and Kyd for some reason. There's a reason Jinx is the top student, and it's because Brother Blood curated her to be that way. For whatever reason, I've always liked the idea of Jinx and Kyd having a really weird almost sibling-like relationship, primarily because they basically trauma bonded through surviving Brother Blood. He obviously takes a fascination in Jinx, his top student, but maybe he takes a fascination in Kyd Wykkyd, who has similar ability types (magic, something not found in many other students). They're constantly pit against each other to 'spar', both in an effort to curate their abilities, but also in order to create hostility between them. An isolated and support-less student is much easier to control and manipulate. Kyd has a choice: fight and win, let Jinx stew in the humiliation while her mental state cracks even further, or lose. And take Jinx's place as Blood's punching bag. Because Jinx will always want to win, and Kyd knows that, and he puts her in the position to win anyway. It creates a weird, strained relationship between them both as kids and as teenagers because neither of them quite realize what their friendship means to the other.
(i'm not crying you're crying - Pinkshift) - Another crashout song. Jinx's time in the academy is hard for her, being the top student, always needing to be the best, always BEING the best and STILL not quite enough. In her desperation to be the best, Blood's manipulated her too into pushing away any and everyone she could possibly rely on. It results in this horrible existence of always being just on the edge of finally breaking.
(BETTER - Royal & The Serpent) - This song specifically stood out to me as another great crashout Jinx era song because of the chorus. The way she screams "I can(t) do better / I can(t) be better", leaving it up to interpretation of whether it's a can or can't. Jinx pushes and pushes and pushes to be perfect but she just can't.
(Girl Anacrhonism - The Dresden Dolls) - Jinx is a mess around the time the Academy gets toppled. The pressure is too much. She needs to be perfect, all the time, and her anxieties are eating her alive. She desperately wants connection and friends but she barely knows how to have them. You can see it in her fighting style. She's reckless with herself, desperate to prove something ALL of the time.
(Violet - Hole) - Courtney Love has such a specific rasp that I associate with Jinx, especially when she's depleted and depressed. Violet is such a bitter song too, it's always made me think of where Jinx is after the academy has been destroyed. The Academy's gone, Brother Blood has abandoned all of them- all of the pressure and desperation and trauma was for nothing. Everything she's ever done, is for nothing.
(Poison Pop - Qbomb) - This song is what starts Jinx's hubris era, for me. This isn't just her so much as ALL of the hive five. They're bitter and spiteful, and just wanna do bad for the fun of doing bad. Blood already screwed their lives up, why not take it out on the world?
(Nosebleeds - Doechii) - Honestly a LOT of Doechii's music makes me think of Jinx. She's confident, loud, brash, and a lot of her music DOES include those themes of being incredibly insecure and incredibly full of herself at the same time. Whether it's overcompensation or just because she has a support system for the first time in her life, Jinx exudes that in your face kind of attitude with everything she does. You can see it in her lofty aspirations from Lightspeed. She isn't scrambling to prove she's the best, she's just convinced she IS.
(Maggot - Slutever) - This is more of that bitter/confident Jinx, and the last few bits of the playlist are moreso just songs I think she would like/listen to.
some thoughts on Rorek and the Big Question (ramblings + bonus storyboards for a tiktok audio under the cut)
Consider: Malchior kept his face covered because HE doesn't know what's under there either
@shadowy-dumbo-octopus the more I chewed on Rorek and the Fae thing (which i still really like) the more I realized it wouldn't actually affect his design a whole lot since he already has a lot of mainstream fae characteristics (uncannily 'perfect' features, pale skin and hair, weird unsettling eyes, magic).
However it WOULDDD add a whole lot of depth to his potential backstory, which is the main reason I liked the idea in the first place. There's a LOT of potential especially paired with the whole 'prophesied chosen one' schtick.
I'm personally biased toward the changeling idea. Rorek's already got the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he also figures out pretty early on that he was a fae child switched at birth. This opens doors anywhere from 'the prophecy is not actually Rorek's, because he's not really Rorek, or is he, does it even matter, Rorek HAS to do this or everything will come crashing down' to 'Rorek's ears are permanently slanted a little downward because he spent his childhood pinning them back in sometimes painful ways to cover them up'. It also adds a new layer to his relationships to other people and to himself in the present day- does he still do things like try to cover up his ears and not look people in the eye? Or is there a horrifying kind of relief that came with outliving everyone he ever knew besides the person he had to lock away in a book? This way no one he loved has to look at him too hard ever again.
Anyway bonus storyboards for a tiktok I may or may not finish for listening to me ramble (while I try to learn how to draw dragonborn heads at ANY kind of angle)
