OOPS I SQUIDDLED
As soon as I found Rainbow's awesome Squiddle plushtorial, I knew I no longer had any excuse not to recreate my favorite tanglebuddies from the show in huggable magnetised plush form.
MANTLECHERRY & SPRAYTON FOR LIFE, GUYS oh my god, these two little guys were my broship before I even knew what a broship WAS. Mantlecherry was a background character for most of the first two seasons before Sprayton showed up in Counting Day, but I think I just loved how they just clicked. Even Berryboo was trying to involve Sprayton in the festivities DESPITE all his 'freaky Algaebraic stuff,' like it was her job to 'fix' him regardless of how obvious it was that he just wanted to get on with his math and, you know, maybe actually get the Counting done ASAP so the whole damn cove wouldn't fall into the Coldseeps for another year.
Mantle was the only one who just got it, that yeah, Sprayton's kind of cold (yeah I knOW I GET IT, THE ARCTIC SQUID IS COLD HUR HUR) and uptight but he's really just a little Squiddle with a big scary job- and the algaebraic ability is something that's part of him and important to who he is, not some nerdy obsession that shows he needs to get out more. From the way Sprayton acts at the start of Counting Day, you can kind of infer that he's not used to a whole lot of that kind of understanding.
NO I'M NOT CRYING IT'S JUST SEAWATER IN MY EYES
It's a shame neither of them were ever made into a plush back in the day (although at least it means they weren't subjected to the terrifying butcher job Tomy did on the main seven characters aaaAGGH DEMON EYES)
They're not perfect- I think what bugs me the most is Sprayton's stupidly massive far-spaced spots, but seriously, I dare anyone to try finding the right shade of pale blue, white-polka-dot fleece with EXACTLY the right size and density of dotting. It was pure luck that I found something even as close as this. They're huge fun, though, and the magnets keep them tangled together really well.
MY TANGLEBROS :D
(I don't really ship 'em, though. I've got no problem with Mantlespray at all, there's some cool fic out there, but I kind of just like them as BFS, I guess.)
Incidentally, if you'd like your mind to remain generally un-broken it's a good idea to stay off the TV Tropes WMG/Trivia pages. The amount of detail Charles/Taylor slipped under the radar is insane. Like that 'Nana Haffy' Mantle's always going on about? Most likely something to do with Hafgufa, the mother of all sea monsters in Norse mythology, thought to be the origins of the Kraken myth.
Yeah. Which means all the time Sprayton's taking the mickey out of Mantle's 'precious Nana' in Algal Bloom, Algal Doom, he's blindly talking shit about the freaking Kraken.
*slow clap*
Although personally, I'm still recovering from the shock I got when I figured out that Sprayton was voiced by the same guy who did that fucking sea otter in Don Bluth's ill-fated Moby Dick.