#plague steve

For the clothes I mostly went with rain gear for a few reasons; I wanted to go for something with a lot of coverage because of the way Plague kept his own motivations and past hidden behind a friendly facade, and brightly colored rain coats and rubber boots are more childish and friendly while still keeping a lot covered, and with the thing I'm going with where the more powerful someone is, the less humanoid, it gives him a great way to hide the full extent of his power. I also wanted to give him the water protection since washing your hands kills most bacteria on them, and he's the 1% of bacteria (and villains) to (possibly) survive. Another thing I wanted to do was make a loose reference to Basophil, one of the immune system cells from Cells at Work, since I feel like that kind of role reversal suits Plague (strange/spooky guy turns out to be helpful -> helpful guy turns out to be scary/dangerous), and they both are quite mysterious.

I drew him very slimy because I really enjoy drawing goopy guys, and the amount of slime he summons for his powers gives me a great opportunity to do that (and also all the comments made by all of the main group at the time that he looks "like he's infected"/"like an infection"). If you look closely at his outstretched hand, there's a really small needle right next to some slime on his palm, giving him the perfect opportunity to infect whoever takes his hand unnoticed :)

Honestly, in my opinion, there's a lot of lost potential for Plague Steve as an antagonist;

he has interesting powers and focuses less on brute force than some of the other series villains and more on the weakening of and control over others, with more possibility open for other powers we haven't seen yet with his whole virus theme, while still being shown to be extremely powerful, with only a tiny fragment of his power being enough to take down Infinity Steve, a steve with potentially infinite power, as well as him being able to break stuff that nobody else could just by turning it to slime.

He has interesting motivation for future attacks, both with trying to force others to like him and with the way he was forced out of the Rainbow Town leaving him one of very few villains in the series that would specifically have a grudge against Sabre (the only other one I can think of rn is Illusion), and there's still a lot we don't know about his connection to the Ghost Town.

His personality is interesting as well; the way he acts like a good guy at first, doing favors for the main group and building himself up in their minds as some nice, helpful person, only to turn around and use those as reasons for them to "owe" him their friendship, all the while acting cagey about his own past and making Sabre feel guilty for questioning his motivations until he finds out about Plague infecting Rainbow paints Plague as quite the manipulative type, but also gives him similar vibes to myths about the fae; mysterious, powerful beings allowing people to take favors without revealing their hidden trappings or fees until it's too late.

He isn't ever even technically defeated, just getting pushed through a portal to who knows where by Elemental (which is why I drew that purple glow in the background).

With all that in mind, the fact that that portal was the absolute last time we ever see him in the series was pretty anticlimactic, not a great payoff to all that buildup, however, I do have a personal theory that might do a bit of justice to this, so why don't we talk a bit about the virus arc (aka illusion arc)?

TSS Rainbow wishes he could go on adventures all the time like the old days, and almost feels like a retired old man that's past his glory days - he doesn't know if he's wanted anymore with all he's been through.

Stargazer is afraid of being discarded, a forgotten, broken robot that no one thinks of as a person - he doesn't want to lose his new relationship with the Galaxy family and become just another fading star.

Plague was a pathological liar, and he's terrified he's gonna slip up again and infect people just so he feels loved.

Nightmare is trying to be better, like he was after redemption, but being stuck as his kingly self he's still somewhat seen as a villain - his already-rough personality doesn't help in the slightest.

Galaxy is trying his hardest to stay present for his friends and family, but sometimes he yearns to slip back into daydreams and fantasies and forget it all - trying to balance fun and responsibility is so difficult that he sometimes almost burns out.

Illusion is terrified of breaking his mind again going down paths of curiosity and escapism and thus refuses to change - that's why he's not in the main au's house, due to being too afraid of ruining his sanity by meeting new people.

Memory isn't in the au because he's always, always lurking, and is hard to catch - but the reality is that he feels like a monster when he was coerced into hurting the Galaxy family by Void's will, and he doesn't want to show his face to them, especially feeling like Time shouldn't forgive him (...like a god).

Both TSS Light and TWA Sabre are terrified of being called cowards, but their bodies just aren't built to survive rough labor and extroverted excursions. Light is selectively mute, and much like Stargazer doesn't want to be left behind - but he's often overwhelmed but he tries to force himself thru it bc he doesn't want to be infantilized.

TWA Sabre feels the same, but he also is afraid especially of being alone - in TWA he never was, and he can't help but feel empty when he's not fused with Galaxy and/or Rainbow anymore - still, his body sometimes doesn't feel like his own.

RQ Rainbow is afraid of not being the main character of his own story - whether bc of mental health or bc others deny him a chance, he can't help but feel like an imposter of a hero.

RQ Dark is constantly feeling extreme guilt for what he did pre-redemption, and swears he can feel Happy Orange's and Yellow Assistant's judgmental gaze on him - he feels he must constantly improve somehow, or else he's back at rock bottom, like a demon trying to be a fallen angel.

TR Sabre tried to full-on disconnect from himself and from everyone else when he found out IGC was behind everything - he's afraid he's not human/himself anymore and instead something wearing his face, filled with yearning and dangerous, evil thoughts he has to tamp down before he tries to destroy everyone again.

TR Elite/Shadow can't help but feel similarly, and is also trying very hard to change and improve - due to his Libra origin, he feels that his every move is life-and-death, and one mistake could ricochet into disaster, so he's almost OCD in how obsessive he is over the morality of his actions.

TR M used to be very depressed and dissociative in his old life, and often gets nightmares - he feels responsible for Twisted's deeds and the things he was forced to do in the war, and worries he's too broken to deserve this second chance.

TR Assistant is the same but even worse - bc he's also Prof Red, the two feel heavily disconnected from their identities and bodies, being fused into (what they believe) an unholy abomination, and that nothing will get better for them and they're trapped in this fate forever - they fear being perceived as a useless, broken robot and person, fundamentally unlovable.

Genesis is afraid of being feared due to being a dragon ofc, but also that he must now bear the responsibility of Inferno's destruction and the weight of SL's deaths, often feeling too large for this world and unable to fit into anyone's life comfortably - he also feels something missing but he can't remember it, so he quietly mourns for them.

Beef still secretly yearns for the Faceless curse sometimes, wishing to escape the pain of being who he is and the scars he bears, and he can't help but wonder if he's just not strong enough for this second chance and that's why he still wants to escape.

Seer is utterly horrified by Void and the broken memories dictating his fall from grace - he's still plagued by Dread's nightmares, and can't tell if maybe he'd always been corrupt to his core, and like Elite feels his every move hangs in the moral balance.

As said before, Spark fears that his good intentions are paving his path to hell, and can't help but be frozen with indecision, especially when he really wants the other Red Elites to be proud of him - he's constantly feeling perceived as either a helpless child or a delusional maniac (he doesn't want to admit that he might actually have a delusional disorder, and tries to hide it).

Colle feels the weight of SL's deaths too, and especially feels responsible for Seer, and is almost overbearing in how much he checks up on him - he's still plagued by Dread's nightmares and Void's shadow-figures, resulting in chronic fatigue that leads him to overwork himself and crash out again and again (sometimes he wonders if he's in a limbo as punishment for failing...).

Sharp fears he's losing himself in his almost obsessive state in which he collects knowledge and repeatedly organizes his library - he fears The Great Librarian is a spirit possessing him and he's no longer himself, but a knowledge-hungry beast - he feels stuck in the past, a ghost of a person.