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So I really like some of the heads of the Poopsie Sparkly Critters, but their bodies & gimmick are unappealing. On a temu order I found some factory rejects of them for cheap, and decided to give a go at rebodying them. 

I don't know what condition the finished Poopsie Critters come in, but these factory rejects were covered in nasty mold-release gunk-- including their insides. It took a bunch of rinsing and soaking to get them to stop coughing up phlemmy yellowish gunk. 

The Poopsie Critter body plastic is hard, and because of the gimmick it also comprises a bunch of the neck joint. I had to saw the heads off the bodies, and then drill around to get an appropriate sized neck hole. 

Bodies used are a SS Abbey & Cleo. It's not very visible here, but I sanded off Cleo's bandages. Which took a long time and was awful, and isn't as smooth as I would prefer, but at first glance looks okay. 

For various reasons, the heads are fairly loose. I need to add foam or something to give them a little more oomph. 

Star girl's shift is a bit of an experiment: it's entirely heat-cut & mostly heat-seamed. Finnicky process, but when done well it looks very clean. 

We can find a lot of carcasses around the Queen's Gardens, as well as a rather ominous message from Unn's people telling others of their kind to be careful around her, even though she seems nice.

Real-world carnivorous fungi are absolutely a thing. They tend to hunt specifically with their hyphae (basically, roots) by essentially growing through a luckless nematode, spearing it, and digesting it inside out. It's also possible WL is more of a parasite in the way that a ghost orchid is, but that would seem odd considering the Gardens seemingly used to be part of Greenpath, but now under WL's management they seem denser and richer, almost unnaturally flourishing. 'Garden' implies tending to some degree.

And then there's the dead bodies. Including at least one truly enormous corpse that's just... sitting there. Dryya died holding off a large number of mantis traitors, but we don't know how long she's been dead and the Traitor Lord, who seems to hate WL and at least in Godhome describes himself as 'defiling' her gardens, has not advanced on WL's position.

Or, has he? I don't doubt that Dryya could create a huge pile of corpses but that pile may have been added to after Dryya's death. WL seems a bit in denial of Dryya's death, so that implies she knows Dryya is still there, considering how much of the kingdom she can apparently perceive through her roots.

I think the Gardens are WL's hunting ground. Or at least, where she leaves the bodies of what she harvests. The Gardens are tended by her, in that she's feeding corpses to the soil once she's done eating the juicy bits she personally likes. This would synergize with the Greenpath warning- WL may be making the gardens flourish, but she's also an apex predator in this environment.

There's a lot of evidence to support this if we compare her to Greyroot, seemingly another member of WL's same species. Greyroot, as name suggests, is also a colorless organism who is clearly not photosynthesizing. They are predatory. We in fact get a lot of a sense of how disturbingly agile Greyroot is, and their capacity to lunge suddenly or rip organic bodies apart once Hornet delivers them.

But Greyroot, as far as we can tell, is barely a fifth of WL's size. She's huge compared to them. With a sample size of two, we don't know which is closer to 'normal' but considering WL's deification and PK's courtship of her, I would choose to read this as that Greyroot is a much more normal case of a root being- and WL is an exemplar of her species, a titanic paragon. The equivalent of one of those absolutely gigantic crocodiles we celebrate and give individual names to because respectfully, holy shit.

The other relevant bit I'm drawing here is that WL, despite her ostensibly passive role, seems far more comfortable with violence than her hubby. The Pale King, as far as we can tell, was never a particularly militaristic presence. He wasn't pacifistic in the slightest, but his strategy seems to have been one of economic and political stranglehold. The moths turned away from Radiance because he essentially outcompeted her- the Seer doesn't imply they were forced to, but rather in her eyes, bribed. Looking at Greenpath, the Mantis Village, and Deepnest, it seems like any time there was even a little bit of resistance, PK was quick to cut deals. The failed tramway was abandoned and he bartered with Herrah. He cut a deal with the Mantis Village to have his ass covered in case Herrah didn't like his bargain. And as little as Unn seems to have 'put up a fight' (there's no overt battlefield or explicit bargain mentioned) the "law of Unn" tablet seems to suggest there was a clear distinction made, and understood, that the roads PK cut through her domain were the only part of her lands he had jurisdiction on.

This is quite a contrast to, say, WL responding to the hatched Grimmchild that 'this land' will never accept Grimm as king. Even blind and without her husband, WL is willing to tell an entity as powerful as the Nightmare King, to its face, not to try anything she doesn't approve of. As mentioned, the Traitor Lord is an absolute nightmare of a late game boss but despite Dryya's death, he hasn't attacked WL head-on and there's definitely a damn good reason for that. Even the way WL talks about the deal with Herrah suggests that she considers herself perfectly equipped to have refused the deal entirely- she just doesn't mind, because she likes Hornet.

Heck, the affectionate way WL says that Hornet resembles Herrah might even suggest WL herself had some interest in Herrah. We don't know if it was reciprocated, but when Hornet defines herself so much by Herrah, and WL says they spent little time together, it's possible WL took pains to make sure Hornet knew more about her birth mother. The vibe definitely seems to be that PK paid extremely little attention to Hornet and their relationship was strained and formal if anything, which combined with the "child of three queens" concept would absolutely suggest WL had a strong hand in Hornet's upbringing.

Now. At the top of this, I said this was going to have something to do with Ghost.

I've said before, I think that it's notable that the Hollow Knight themself seems to have been positioned as PK's heir to the throne, his favored child. The subtext threading through both the enormous memorial fountain in the center of the city, and the Worldsense, suggests that PK imagined this sacrifice as essentially giving the kingdom to Hollow. If we assume that PK built or repurposed the temple containing the Black Egg, then that would suggest it even further- he was presenting Hollow to the people as their new god, even telling them where to find the temple to pay respects. That's notable when, as Lemm says at the fountain, there's no other record of Hollow or what they did.

The implication of the nursery room certainly doesn't suggest WL disliked Hollow, and anything she says about them is certainly tinted by the fact that they're dying and the wolf is at the door at this point, but we don't see a reflection of the same obsessions PK had over his supposedly perfect favored child.

(And yeah, I do think PK genuinely loved Hollow. It ties into what I've said before and put out in my hypothetical PK-lives fic of this shrimp is horrendously dysfunctional and did not have a good influence on his favorite heir.)

Ghost, at a glance, would seem to be nobody's favorite. They're one of millions left for dead, after all. But the path to the true ending requires you to seek out and talk to the White Lady. And if you bring her parts of what you find- the completed Kingsoul, for example- she's the one who hints you should visit the Birthplace and find something there.

And curiously, when presented with the Void Heart, WL says she can no longer read Ghost's feelings, and unsubtly tells them:

"The fate of our Kingdom, our Hallownest… that future belongs to you now."

She names them as her heir.

How does this factor into my thoughts on WL and her nature?

Well, we know WL chose to physically restrain herself in the Queen's Garden. She talks dispassionately about the Radiance's encroachment, that it would be merely inconvenient if Radiance overtakes everything. She also suggests she views her own nature as monstrous- a desire to propagate and spread that would choke out everything, including things she cares about like her still-alive stepdaughter and the remnants of her husband's kingdom.

Or to put it a different way, WL sees herself as a monster capable of eclipsing the kingdom just as well as Radiance does.

Now... let's think about the Shade Lord.

The Shade Lord, the one possibility we see of Ghost reaching a kind of maturity, is a massive, seemingly legless being. Its head features innumerate branching horns. As Ghost begins to ascend, their description in the Hall of Gods calls them "neither bug nor beast nor god". While they can achieve the latter, there is something that is not a bug or a beast- a plant, or, a fungus.

And like WL, the Shade Lord has the potential power to eclipse the entire world.

Like WL, we also get abundant evidence Ghost is a very vicious, predatory entity. You devour others to regain Soul.

This predatory nature also manifests in a genuine curiosity and love for the world around them. They want to know. They want to understand. They turn over the things they kill with rapt fascination.

They don't want to devour the world.

And the Delicate Flower ending seems to be Ghost choosing the same thing WL did- to voluntarily restrain themself to prevent that absolute domination.

I think WL is, in all her conversations with Ghost, not just asking them to replace the Hollow Knight as a sacrifice, but also, kind of naming them as her heir. This child, that she did not intentionally choose or cultivate, reminds her the most of herself.

It's not a flattering comparison. Not without affection- it's notable that Ghost's Shade seems to hum/sing/emanate (?) a lullaby that the Nursery implies originated from WL, a dim distorted memory of the only time the two had together.

But also, this affection is tinged with an inevitable grim revelation.

"Is it more than simply a Vessel? I almost feel like I'm once again in the presence of my beloved Wyrm.

The Kingsoul... What is at the heart of it I wonder? If its curiosity wills it, it should seek out that place. That place where it was born, where it died, where it began..."

Aw, look at you. I let myself think you were more like my husband.

"Does it… feel anything? Triumph? Or hate? If it does, I cannot sense it."

But you little monster.

"It was tarnished by an idea instilled. But you. You are free of such blemishes."

Mx. Fumetto is an objecthead OC of mine who runs a little café in a pocket dimension. They're mute, but "talk" through their speech bubble. 

So for this doll, I had wanted to nab a doll or figure with an appropriate outfit. Because really I knew the outfit was going to be the most fiddly thing. And finding a detailed, not-specifically-gendered outfit in the style I imagine for Mx. Fumetto was very difficult! 

Lucky me when I stumbled across a gently damaged J-Doll Friedrichstrasse for a song, then. Admittedly the outfit was a tad too feminine, but since I had to add gloves and replace the broken shoes anyway, she became the base doll. 

The shoes ended up being fiddly, but easy. I sometimes buy doll lots and these damn Anna (Frozen) boots show up everywhere. So I carved & sanded off the motifs and extra line of buttons, carved some leather seam lines, and painted them with a higher gloss. I can't really recommend this solution; the shapes of the motifs are still somewhat visible. But it worked well enough for my purposes! 

For the undershirt and gloves, I had some very thin gauzey crinkled hatch patterned light fabric. Good thing, too, because the outfit from Friedrichstrasse has basically no clearance, and pulling at it too hard splits and frays the fabric at the seams! 

The J-Dolls have the Type 3 Pullip body, which I hadn't had a chance to see in person before. It's not my favorite, for a variety of reasons even aside from the typical lack of body color options. For one, while it's very posable (++!) it's mechanically jointed, and in such a loose way that cannot possibly support itself nor the normally-giant Pullip heads (-). This is only made worse by the J-Doll stand being the worst stand I own. It's beautiful in theory, but it's telescoping, and it just doesn't stay the fuck up! (--!) Also, it was an incredibly lightweight stand. I had to add quite a bit of weight to the bottom to keep it from tipping over (-). And finally, I just generally find the Pullip body proportions boringly awful (--!). It works for the Pullip dolls, but it's just not my speed, you know? Thankfully, this outfit hides most of what I dislike about the sculpt. 

But one other thing about this body is that the hands come out surprisingly easy. Collector's doll only-- a kid would lose those hands within five minutes! (If the original pricepoint of 10,500 ¥ didn't already tell you that, I guess.) So instead of trying to make gloves to fit the hands, I just replaced the hands entirely-- forming a wire base that I hand-sewed the gloves onto. This makes the hands entirely posable, so long as the wire holds! 

And finally, the head! I had a little promotional white-board-magnet that I ended up cutting out for the front and back mirrored faces. Between them is chipboard, with a special cutout to accommodate the Pullip body head peg. Then, wrapped around the edges is the black EVA foam, just a little bit wider than the rest of the whole construction, in order to provide that black border no matter the angle. And then I bought some very-fine-line dry erase markers to doodle text with. Admittedly the head is a little loose, but it definitely works well enough for picture posing.

That's about it for details! As a special treat for clicking through, have these empty-text poses for placing your own text on Mx. Fumetto. Would appreciate a link back here if you use them. And as always, any questions or comments are much appreciated!

Butterfly prefixes: Brass - dark tortoiseshell (Diachrysia chrysitis) Buff - cream or golden (Spilartica luteum) Dart - dark tortoiseshell/gray/or brown tortoiseshell (Euxoa) Eggar - cream or golden-brown (Malocosoma) Cinnabar - red-black tortoiseshell (Tyria jacobaeae) Ermine - white (Spilosoma urticae) Lappet - golden-brown (Gastropacha quercifola) Olive - ginger or red-brown tortoiseshell (Ipimorpha subtusa) Tussock - dark tortoiseshell (Colocasia coryli) Tortrix - golden or brown tortoiseshell (v. Archips), possibly Monarch - black-red tortoiseshell - (Danaus plexippus) - most readers prob recognize monarchs as butterflies but might still sound too humany - like admirals, emeralds, daggers, ect. Why I didn't include others. Bird prefixes: Chiffchaff - gray-brown and white (Phylloscopus collybita) Crake - brown spotted tabby (Porzana porzana) Fulmar - gray and white (Fulmarus glacialis) Hobby - black-red calico (Falco subbuteo) Petrel - black (w/ some white) (Hydrobates pelagicus) Puffin - black and white (Fratercula arctica) Skua or Bonxie - dark brown or brown (Stercorarius skua) Smew - black and white or gray tortoiseshell (Mergellus albellus) Snipe - brown and white (Gallinago gallinago) Teal - gray tortoiseshell (Anas crecca) Tern - black and white or gray and white (Sternula albifrons) Whinchat - tortoiseshell (Saxicola rubera) Misc. animals even I'm iffy on: Noctule - dark brown or dark tortoiseshell (Nyctalus noctula) - cats might lump all bats into one Pipistrelle (dark brown or dark tortoiseshell) (Pipistrellus) - cats might lump all bats into one Slider - mottled brown or dark tortoiseshell - Trachemys scripta is invasive in UK Worm - brown (Anguis fragilis) - I think more of earthworms than the legless lizard I've got so many plants. Starting with those that sound too long to be prefixes but might work as loner/housecat names: Angelica - white Cinquefoil - golden Cordyalis - white Gladiolus - dark ginger Helleborine - ginger, white and ginger Saxifrage - golden or golden-brown

Plants prefixes: Agrimony - golden or brown (Agrimonia procera) or pale ginger (Eupatorium cannabinum) Aconite - blue-gray (Aconitum napellus) Arum - dark brown or ginger (Arum maculatum spadix or berries) Asparagus - brown/light brown (A. officinalis grows wild in the UK) Azalea - ginger or tortoiseshell (Kalmia procumbens) Balm - white or pale ginger (Melittis) Basalm - cream or golden (Impatiens noli-tangere) Brome - golden, yellow, or pale ginger (Bromus) Bryony - white (Dioscorea communis) Calamint - white or pale gray (Clinopodium) Celery - white or cream (Apium graveolens) C elandine - golden or ginger (Ficaria verna) Centaury - golden or tortoiseshell (v. species) Clary - blue-gray (Salvia) Columbine - blue-gray (Aquilegia vulgaris) Crambe or Kale - white (Crambe maritima) Crocus - white or blue-gray (Romulea columnae) Currant - black Cyperus or Galingale - light brown, brown, or reddish-brown (Cyperus longus) Dittany - white or ginger (Dictamnus albus) Dodder - ginger or ginger and white (Cuscuta epythmum) Fescue - light brown (Festuca) Gentian - white or pale gray (Gentianella) Germander - ginger or tortoiseshell (Teucrium) Gromwell - white (Lithospermum) Iris - yellow/golden (I. pseudacorus) or blue-gray (I. foetidissima) Lily - white, yellow, or golden (various species inc. Convallaria majalis) Leek or Ramsons - white (Allium ursinum) Lupin - cream (Lupinus arboreus) Madder - white (Sherardia) Marjoram - ginger or white and ginger or tortoiseshell (Origanum vulgare) Melick - light brown (Melica uniflora) or dark brown/black (Melica nutans) Medick - golden (Medicago lupulina) Mullein - golden, white, or tortoiseshell (v. Verbascum) Mustard - white (Turritus glabra) Myrtle - dark ginger or reddish-brown (Myrica gale) Naiad - light brown or reddish-brown (Najas marina seed pods) Plantain - white or ginger and white (flowers of v. water-plantain species including Alisma) Osier - golden or golden-brown (Salix viminalis) Orpine - dark ginger, pale ginger, or white (Hylotelephium) Rue - white, cream, or golden (Thalictrum flavum) Samphire - golden (Crithmum maritimum) Sanicle - white (Sanicula europaea) Spignel - brown or golden brown (Meum athamanticum) Spurge - golden or brown (v. Euphorbia) Spurrey - ginger or ginger and white (Spergularia) Squill - blue-gray (Scilla) Tutsan - golden or black (Hypericum) Vetch - white, blue gray, or yellow (v. Vicia) Weld - golden (Reseda luteola) Whin - golden or tortoiseshell (Genista anglica) Dollof - white; alt. name for meadowsweet (Filipendula) Melde - white or cream (Chenopodium album), alt name for goosefoot Bent - light brown, brown, and golden brown (v. Agrostis species) - iffy because I think of the adverb before the grass Hop - white or pale cream - Humulus lupulus is a legit UK plant but I mostly think of the verb Lettuce - golden (Latuca virosa) - I can only think of salads Pink - pale ginger - v. Dianthus species Scabious - blue-gray - v. species but it sounds very... scabby Stock - tortoiseshell, white, or pale gray (Matthiola) And that's all I got! Sorry for the spam.