#forced combat

🎬 Episode 29 — Backstory

🟪 Canon Purple

When Purple was young, his father, Navy, trained him harshly, pushing him through brutal combat to make him strong. Purple lost every time.

His mother disapproved, stepping in to defend him—each time failing.

Eventually, Purple’s father left, disappointed in his "weak" son and frustrated by the interference.

Purple’s mother passed away from illness, leaving him alone.

Purple grew spiteful and determined to impress his father—hoping strength and success would one day win approval.

🟦 Indigo AU

Indigo was never trained—her father, Navy, was protecting her.

That “protection” meant locking her indoors, controlling her every move, and silencing her will.

Every time she disobeyed, they screamed—arguments that shook the house.

Her mother, stood quietly between them, shielding Indigo without words.

Indigo returned bruised from a Secret battle—stronger, freer. Navy erupted. Indigo shouted back. Orchid stood behind them.

Indigo’s hand hit Navy’s hand. He froze. Then left.

Orchid's health failed not long after. And passed away.

Indigo never cried. She touched the open door—and walked into her own strength.

She trained herself. Grew cold. Learned to never need anyone’s control again.

👑 Episode 30 – Meeting King Orange

🟪 Canon Purple

Purple sees King Orange’s wanted posters for the Color Gang.

Wanting to prove himself, Purple approaches King Orange directly.

To earn trust, he demonstrates his fighting and flying skills.

Inside King’s home, Purple sees a photo of Orange’s son—a personal moment he’s not invited into.

In the Nether, they fought Piglin Brutes.

After victory, Purple kneels, offers one of his crowns to King as a gift.

King Orange accepts and headpats Purple—a symbolic gesture of mastery, acceptance, and hierarchy.

🟦 Indigo AU

King Orange spots Indigo fighting mobs in the Overworld—wounded, angry, and relentless.

She’s flying with her Elytra, tearing through the mobs. King is impressed—and cautious.

He offers help. She refuses it, and just keeps going.

He places a golden apple in her inventory.

She stops. Eats it without looking at him.

He draws a symbol with his staff: a Minecraft cube above five circles. (The Color Gang) She points at herself asking—"Why me?"

He gestures to her strength—then at the directions he came from. offering her a choice.

Indigo doesn’t nod. She just walks past him. She’s following—but only because she decided to.

In the Nether, they fight the Piglins together.

When the Brutes bow and demand leadership, she pulls out a crown—not submissively—but as a test.

“Take it.”

He asks why. She tosses him a gold ingot. Taps her chest. Then his.

“I’ve proven myself. Now it’s your turn.”

He takes it and put it on his head.

She doesn’t kneel. He headpats her—not as a master to servant, but a silent show of respect between equals.

🌀 Symbolic Differences

🟪 Canon Purple

Abuse: Forced combat

Parental conflict: Failed defense by Orchid

Loss/abandon: Motivated by need to impress father

Meeting King Orange: Follows out of desperation

The Crown: Gifted while kneeling

Trust: Earned through obedience

Motivation: Prove he’s not a failure

🟦 Indigo AU

Abuse: Emotional confinement

Parental conflict: Orchid actively shields Indigo

Loss/abandon: Motivated by need for autonomy

Meeting King Orange: Invited because of proven strength

The Crown: Offered while standing, as a challenge/test

Trust: Earned through mutual respect

Motivation: Prove she doesn’t need anyone’s control

Check Here for more details on Indigo’s backstory + new art/redraw of some scenes!

What people consider tortureusually depends on who you ask. Legally speaking whether something is tortureor abuse depends on who does itrather than on what is done. I’vewritten a little more about the legal definition of torture here.

 Legally speaking beingforced to be a gladiator could beconsidered torture, but only if a government or state body was responsible fordoing it.

 What regular peopleconsider torture is…….a lot more varied. Unfortunately an awful lot of peoplecan and do accept torture. A lot of people are in favour of it.

 If you think thissounds impossible consider things like- oh people excusing police officersbeating up homeless people or using pepper spray against drug dealers who areunarmed and have surrendered. Or all the politicians and journalists whoexcused, belittled and justified the torture of suspected terrorists.

 Or hell look up thecurrent Reuters reports on the Philippines’ war on drugs.

 I would say that forced gladiatorial combat is torture andslavery. So would Amnesty International. But it would be perfectly realisticfor your world to have characters who don’t think it’s ‘really’ torture.

 In terms of physicaleffects think of it as forced labour. Essentially it is.

 The exact risks dependon exactly how you’re imagining this in your story. Obviously they could beinjured, but the most likely injuries are going to vary depending on whatthey’re fighting.

 A lot of the Romangladiatorial fights were against animals. Some were against humans. The fightswere often uneven with one group outnumbering the other or one group being moreheavily armed and armoured. So injury patterns are going to depend on whatexactly your character was fighting and whether the character was more often inthe group that was ‘supposed’ to win or the group that was supposed to lose.

 Realistic long terminjury effects could be pretty varied as a result. I’d say that chronic pain,joint problems and mobility problems are probably all quite likely.

 In terms of long term psychologicaleffects it’ll be exactly the same sort of symptoms other torture survivorswould experience. Ihave a post on the most common symptoms here.

 Not everyoneexperiences the same symptoms and there’s no way to predict who will get whatsymptoms. So I suggest picking symptoms in a way that best fits the story.Think about the character and what sort of symptoms you think ‘fit’ them. Thinkabout the story itself and whether particular symptoms might fit thematicallyor add to the plot later on.

 Survivors of the kindof long term series of traumatic events you’re talking about would havemultiple symptoms. I usually say a minimum of three but it does vary and thelonger your character was enslaved the more symptoms they’d be likely to have.

 I also usually suggestusing memory problems if you can because they’re a very common symptom and onethat’s almost never shown in fiction.

 Depending on how thesociety the character is in treats ex-gladiators they might also beparticularly prone to social isolation. Basically if the world you’re writingsees gladiators as bad people the character might find themselves extremelyisolated.

 I’d suggest not using suicidal urges in this case,for the simple reason that any character who was suicidal while they were agladiator would have so many opportunities to kill themselves that it seemslikely they would have.

 You might also want totake a look at myMasterpost on starvation. A lot of enslaved people historically and now areunder fed. This can cause its own set of problems both physical andpsychological. It’s not necessary forthe kind of story line you want to tell but it’s something to be aware of andconsider.

 You might also find ithelpful to look through the Masterposts generally: there are a couple ofprofiles of famous torture survivors there and a lot of reviews of torture in fiction with both good and badexamples.

 I hope that helps. :)