#aotgb

Talked about this with some ppl a while ago, I had an idea for a Gummi bear! toadwart AU, where pretty much everything is the same, toadie is just a gummi bear

The idea is that he was adopted by ogres as a baby (luckily avoided being eaten because he was too cute) and didnt know he wasnt an ogre until his clan was recruited by igthorn, who pointed out he wasnt an ogre after all - he was a gummi bear. cue a mild crisis of identity for 8 minutes.

that all said, toady dont care, and rather hates the idea of joining gummi society. hes an ogre, just a funny looking one.

Which makes sense seeing as the show was ending (though without the very last season or a massive episode/movie which would have completed that cliffhanger ending).

But it does bare the question, had the show not ended there, how many seasons did the Gummi bear team think they were going to get?

Im not 100% on 80s/90s programming behind the scenes, so this might all be wrong

but I think they knew six would be the end, or at the very least renewal was unlikely. IMO a show should always write with what it has, rather than what it *might* have, or else you end up with those shows that were fantastic but canceled after two seasons because corporations are run by non-artists. Paranormal Park i miss you.

So taking advantage of the 20 min slot to its fullest was the best way to explore the plots they wanted to cover, as well as give the show a good send-off. too this day im suprised "King Igthorn i+ii" are not the shows true finale (instead i think the troll episode with the mining machine is the last one to air?) But whenever i recommend the show to someone I just tell them to watch King Igthorn last, it makes more sense narratively. I like it ending on a cliffhanger/unresolved, since it matches the shows thesis on progression and moving forwards, rather than neatly tying it all up. That Said... a movie to end the whole series miiight have been good? I have my reservations about cartoon movies, they either do super well or add nothing/rehash what we already know (see: the Steven universe movie, i did not care for it) so Ill leave that where it is

If the show were to go on longer, i could easily see another two seasons working, as there is more to explore. If the show was not married to igthorn being the big bad, there are more villains they could introduce, more settings and gummi stories to explore.

Cast bloat is a concern (MLP FIM's final seasons with the school kids comes to mind). Sometimes, esp if the show has a large cast, the writers zero in a very select few, leaving interesting side characters in the dust (M*A*S*H, for example, focused heavily on the main 7/8 characters by the end while earlier seasons implied broader relationships between camp members) While other shows simply add more and more characters until it looses focus and needs to awkwardly cut back to what the viewers know from earlier seasons. Ideally, a AOTGB season 7-8 would introduce new characters sparingly and instead develop out the relationships they have between the Humans, Glen Gummis, and Barbics, as well as the other occasional Gummi.

But Sunni and Calla's interactions in the show scream "we're feeling something that could be romantic but we're currently too young/too embedded in a world where queer people aren't around to know that" right?

Like every episode that they're together they're like two magnetic needles pointing right at each other?

@drhegemony Yeah :] even if theyre not related, tummi is totally a Sibling of the other two to me!

Perfect excuse to get into my family tree fanlore now, everything here is non-canon and barely canon compliant lol

Starting with Clawdia, buddy, and Ursa!

I liked the idea of Buddy being Ursa's kid, so here we are. Ursa is in a relationship with Clawdia, who is currently missing. Clawdia and a few other Barbics got separated on the journey and havent made their way back yet. Ursa fears Clawdia might be dead, but shes not! The missing bears just got massively lost lmao. In my fan-sequel a plot point is the return of Clawdia and the missing bears... but they've aquired a third gummi clan along their way.

Clawdia is Grittys sister, and hes the surrogate father to buddy on his sisters behalf. Ursa thinks Clawdia is the bees knees, and the two of them match eachothers strengths really well. Literally, do not attempt to get into a wrestling match with either of them you will not win.

Over to the Grammi and Gruffi side of the tree now:

Abbi and Lemmi (Auburn and Lemmington, i realllyyy like giving gummi bears extended names lol) were on the younger side when they had Grammi. They're both a few years younger than Zummi's parents.

I personally headcanon the name "Grammi" to be a title more than a name, but shes been called it for so long that being called Daisy is a suprise. Only Zummi or Gruffi call her Daisy anyway. Gusto knows her name but prefers to call her Grammi as he is not "family" family, but i can easily imagine in a intimate/private setting he would call her daisy.

Dandelion is Grammi and Gruffi's younger sister. Shes only a few years younger than Gruffi. She and Rustford/Rusti had Sunni pretty soon after getting together. Sunni was about 4 when Cubbi was born. (since they seem to be around the ages of 12-14 and 8-10 this works). Sunni has a few memories of her parents, but theyre vague and fuzzy. Tummi remembers them.

When Dandi was newly pregnant with Cubbi, Lemmi and Rusti were killed. They and gruffi were attempting to repair a quicktunnel that was at risk of collapse when it finally broke completely. Zummi managed to pull Gruffi out of the way, but there was nothing else they could do. Lemmi was retrieved and buried, but Rusti was lost to the collapsed tunnel. After that, Auburn became very reclusive and slowly withered away from various sicknesses - seemingly brought on from a broken heart. Worsened, when Dandi died in childbirth with Cubbi. Auburn was the last of the non-show bears to die. Leaving us with our main 6.

Over on Zummi and Tummis side of the family now

Zummi takes after his mother a -lot-. Much like her, he loved going on adventures when he was younger, and has a fascination with learning new things. And a stubborn streak. Sadly he hardly knew her. She was accidentally killed by a hunter one day. She attempted to get back to the glen, and may have survived if she did. but sadly, she didnt. Burrowynn was the one to find her.

Burrowynn was the previous book-keeper, so zummi spent a lot of his non-adventuring time there with Burrowynn and later Lumou. Lumou didn't talk much, will gladly listen to you and be near you. A really gentle soul. He had a truely massive crush on Tangerine for the longest time. both of them are a little younger than Zummi.

Starlight was a few years older than Zummi, part of a largely unseen generation of bears. She, Moorsun, and Lumou all left the glen with Moorsun and Lemmis families. it was decided that remaining in the glen was "a fruitless endeavor" causing a major rift amongst the bears. Moorsun was the main person to argue about this, and the bears split from the glen. Lumou left, but Tangi decided to stay as Tummi was too young for such a journey. That, and she was the primary farmer of the glen at the time. She promised to join him when Tummi was old enough to travel. They went their separate ways. Sadly, this would never happen. the Glen bears lost contact. After some years, Tangerine went to tend to her garden - and never returned. No one is sure what happened to her, but they fear the worst.

Character design experiments but i turned them into mini-ocs. Timeline is just before/during the evacuation of gummi bears from Britain.