#willowmedia

w!lancaster had a whole plot of being a single father who considered just leaving his kids for good MULTIPLE times (him being sued for the accidental death of one of them did not help) and at many points of willow s1’s story he would just. sit in front of his kids grave and fully break down and loved all of them to the point of making a stupid deal with pesus to keep them safe and. ouuughhh he’s trying his best all the time the world needs to LEAVE HIM ALONEEE AND ALL THAT FOR HIM TO JUST DIE IN S2. it pains me so oh w!lancaster i mourn you SO bad he was genuinely 16 years old trying his fucking best because his shitty uncle got him a nepo baby position he wasn’t ready for ohhh fuck you caspiannn

willow season 2 was also so potential filled and yknow. okay we all know willow season 2 it kinda went out with a poof at least in my opinion? it’s the potential man of willow media i think because it did a fairly good job of balancing silly with serious but ultimately got a little too serious for my taste idk i liked when it was silly but you will hear this from me every day ever. anyways indi had this overarching plot about her dad copying her dna over and over to ensure she’d stay alive forever and even the planned reveal that she’s not even the original. that was so fucked up of me. she was literally the 254th clone of herself and this is where the sun comes in cuz of fucking course brah. of course. it would have genuinely no issue getting into her head and making her doubt everything because everything should be doubted!! and her only living friend got freaking lego shattered against the wall by eggman and couldn’t even see his best friend again before dying.,,, oughhh it’s OKAY ITS OKAY. she lived season 2!! she remake issac!!!! they are MARRIED NOW ILL CANONIZE IT ITS MY FREAKING UNIVERSE

uhh willow s3 i was genuinely throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck but overall:

-made s1!lancaster come back and had that man yearn for the old days before making his old town of alterna then OH MY GOD I KILLED HIM. I FORGOT ABOUT THAT OH MY GODDD NO HES FINE I HE GOT AWAY!!!!

-s3!indi oh she needs a new name. i think i started calling her imogene. yeah. gene. it suits her she’d have an old ass name and HATTTEEE it and she also had a plot about trying to escape the legacy her dad put her in by defying the sun just to end up having to sacrifice herself to seal it for another 100 years. girl. no. i loved her design so bad you have NO idea.

-ASMODAYYYYY I LOVED HIM SO BAD WHEN I REDESIGNED HIM RECENTLY I HAIRED THE FUCK OUT OF HIM NO MORE TWINK ON MY LIFEEEE..,,, oh yeah no his plot was very ptsd focused. coming out of a war that took his mother and best friend (read: way more than friends) just to come to a world on the brink of it and be like “are you guys stupid war fucking blows stop it” ughhh. so much missed potential

-and beagle/barnaby was just a cutie pie. him coming to this world cuz he heard both of his cousins are there and he wants so badly to reunite everyone cuz his dad and uncles had a bad fight and stopped talking to each other for good only to realize he’s too late and they’re both gone. oughhh he was so excited and made them gifts and was writing them letters ever since he learned they existed and he kept them in his jacket oh i fucking SUCK i’m making myself cry he deserves so much better

someone make maturesmp the idea is all of our characters have well rounded and mature plotlines that can be fully realized without holding back. maybe that already exists it’s just called writing lmfao. full sized easy bake oven moment

(idk i can guarantee the blood just read at your own risk)

so while I planned for cc2!lan's exit, I mainly thought of what he would be up to afterwards, since death isn't really the answer... and what immediately came to mind was funger 2 (thanks supereyepatchwolf for dragging me back to funger brainrot) because in that game there's a mechanic called moonscorching... so would you still love cc2!lan if he was REALLY fucked up and evil lmfao

soo... meet The Unbound...

the general idea of moonscorching is that the moon (in this case, it would be the sun) burns off your typical human fleshy form and mutates it into a basic representation of the character's mental state. could be how they view themself, how they fear other people view them, who they really are, etc.

so let's get into it, starting with:

THE EYES

I mean, there's not a whole lot to get into here, actually? He's mentally all gone, just a whirlwind of violence and mania, and so his eyes reflect that, with these bright red circles over yellow that resemble targets, because...

THE ARROWS

god, I really worried that I overdid it with this aspect of his design, but... then it worked? because cc1!lan (or caspian, I guess) was so flamboyant in everything he did, so the arrows resembling a peacock just clicked. But the real story behind the arrows is that I presume seeing a 9 ft wolf/man thing roaming around would cause some hunting parties to get started, and with those eyes, plus the sort of general insanity that would result in trying to kill this immortal beast kind of slots The Unbound into one of those older stories of a man trying to hunt something down and going insane because of it. Think Moby Dick, TADC episode 3, and just a whole lot of greek stories (mainly Atalanta's). Unbound is INSANE, and he makes other people go insane, too, which plays into his mentality of thinking he makes other people worse.

THE BLOOD

because he's got so much of it. yeah, don't be fooled, these red markings are NOT markings. it's blood that's stained to his fur. specifically his hands and ears are what I want to call attention to, because in the case of his hands, I mean... duh. Dude has major blood on his hands. It's the thing that affects him mentally the most. But then, the ears, because "hear no evil." He knows a lot, maybe too much, because he was there, he saw it, but he's also good at spying on people, so if he DIDN'T see something, he HEARD something. and DIDN'T say something.

now, the yellow. it's dripping from his eyes, it's on the tip of the arrow that goes through his chest, it drips from his mouth, it flows from his forehead scar (that we will get to). since he's already got some greek myth in him, let's throw in some good old ichor, yeah? the blood of the gods! because, well, he's NOT a god? but a god has been in his mind for so long, dragging him around from time to time, and those interactions he has when he's not conscious, when the god is speaking for him, that he fears the most. also keeping in mind that this god caused most of the pain he went through (being a nomen SUCKED, his entire purpose for being there in cc1 was to keep from being "disposed"). so the ichor being there is a representation of that godly trait that he so desperately wants to be separate from, but like i said before, all the blood on this design is stained there for good.

THE SCARRING

this one is simple. he's got a heart carved into his chest because he cares too much, but far too late, so it's a consistent reminder of the Unbound's lateness. too late to see what he was doing was wrong, too late to get the consolate on track, too late to save anyone, as he so consistently is. the forehead is just a representation of the sun, leaks ichor because of the godly connection, yeah you get it.

his back and neck are pre-existing scars from cca (neck snapped, spine ripped out) that persevere through his fur sprouting up because unhealed trauma symbolism yay

THE CLOTHES

he's still technically uniformed for the stellar rangers! look at how studious and rule-following he is!

uhh, okay, yeah, so the real reason he's still wearing anything is because he's outwardly malicious now. you know how i mentioned these moon/sunscorched forms have to do with the outward, inward, and imagined self? he's VERY imagined-self personality-wise, which manifests as a purely evil being. he's violent, malevolent, and scraps his typical cunning self for brute strength. and you may be saying: "lan, your character was malicious, but he was so quiet about it. guy just kinda played on the sidelines and manipulated, so why is he scrapping that?"

well, simple. he's not in the greatest state of mind, so instead of seeing a chain of events how it is (we'll take samaras death):

samara asks to be a nomina -> caspian complies -> rift volunteers to become a nomina publicly to be seen as trustworthy -> the event is misunderstood as culty -> samara is killed trying to protect rift

he sees it like this:

made samara a nomina -> samara died

made rift a nomina -> rift died

did anything to anyone -> they died

so it doesn't matter HOW they died, who killed them, etc, The Unbound just knows that people die when he gets close. et la... if people are going to die anyways, let's just speed it up.

alright, and now you're asking "lan, you started this part of saying that he wears the uniform because he's malicious. build on that."

gladly! he wears the uniform to trick people into thinking he's been bit/infected and turned into something, then as soon as he gets within range of a camp of people trying to help him, he starts the slaughter. what a bundle of joy.

so. that's The Unbound. and also a deep dive into how cc2!lan perceives themself. now, am I going to USE this concept in cc2?

but like… i don’t think lan fits into judge with their role as seer. i don’t think any of them do, personally, judge is the sun itself and not any “mortal” it inhabits. i think if anything, he’s jury, something about seeing the one who’s being judged and somewhat decided fates, HOWEVER…

he will be stepping onto that board soon. or, like, his body will be stepping onto the board? okay whatever the analogy doesn’t work when he’s not technically in control THE SUNS GONNA STEP IN. it’s just been watching the entire time with interest and has been thoroughly entertained (when is it not bruh) and now wants to join the fun

so in cc1, lan anderson went by caspian anderson, fucked around in fallen kingdom, and was ultimately such a shitty person that he gets a channel in my personal discord

because he misled a group of kids, watched one get struck by lightning like 15 times, saw the deliver a fake prophecy and didn’t even TRY to stop what was going to happen. cc1!caspian was a shitty guy who only ever wanted to leave the planet as soon as he got there.

and there WAS a deeper plot point to him, which is why he’s not the worse character i’ve played. ultimately, he was on a time crunch because his usefulness to the sun was running out, and as soon as he stops being a host, he dies. (his usefulness has skyrocketed because of consolecraft, this is why he’s doesn’t get discarded during cca or cc2.) but he’s so selfishly tethered to this reason that he only ever feels remorse after everyone is dead, writing them notes at the graveyard and reflecting on how he COULD have helped them, but didn’t because… well, he’s selfish. that’s his big flaw in cc1. and he goes home with his husband, and can’t ever have a restful night of sleep because he inadvertently killed like a dozen people. if the witherstorm prophecy hadn’t been disputed by the ONE PERSON who actually had the evidence to dispute it, it wouldn’t have spawned.

and this is why i actually like cc1!caspian… okay yea i just went over everything he sucks at but he’s such a silent catalyst for all these things that continue to affect the plot.

and then cca!lan happens and… my brother just another me is maybe the biggest diss i could have against him. he’s nothing like cc1!caspian, as evidenced by his un-dyed hair, careful disposition, and his flaw being selflessness. i can count on one hand the amount of times he could he considered selfish (his most egregious act was selling ellie out for information about this world, but nothing was gained from that and he *still* regrets it so expect him to apologize at some point in cc2)

and his flaw being selflessness is immediately apparent, as he starts the consolate with chalooby, which is a major risk in this world, but the two of them are so laser-focused on keeping people safe.

which makes sense! because cca!lans backstory has him as a retired prophet who wrote down every possible future he could see into this big library, only to find one of the books about consolecraft on the floor with a bloody handprint, so he leaves immediately to prevent the future written in the book (and in case anyone was wondering, this “future” was just the events of consolecraft 1. hence why he wants to keep rift and the other fallen kingdom people away from him, since in his pov, them being a group ended the world).

and with the consolate… well, it puts lan’s flaw front and center. when the games begin, lan tells chalooby to let him take the fall, because chalooby is the “leader” and lan… well, he never makes a word to describe himself with, he just leaves it at that. (i think once he said that chalooby was the leader and he was just the enforcer? but he throws that descriptor away immediately because it’s too serious) so it’s during these games that safetyduo both try to keep each other safe, ultimately, they just see who can kill themselves faster. the concept they never really “get” is that they’re both in some form of leadership role, which puts a target on both their heads, so as long as they’re both leading this place, they’ll both be in the hot seat.

so then there’s only one leader! cca!chalooby seals himself in a bunker to keep HIMSELF safe, and leaves lan alone in the consolate to keep everyone ELSE safe. and cca!lan’s flaw comes FRONT and CENTER here, as he desperately tries to keep everyone from doing stupid shit (summoning the witherstorm) and fails because he’s literally just one guy. one guy who tries to get some help from the sun and, hey, at least he gets a prophecy out of it, right? and reestablishes the link he had with the sun, which is just gonna be… so great when we get to cc2. either way, he’s ultimately tortured both physically and mentally, and is still trying, REALLY trying, to make some kind of difference in the world.

and to be fair. he does save like 15 people when the witherstorm *is* spawned, he leads them through the nether to get them far away from it as quick as possible. so points to him for that.

but then cca!chalooby comes back, completely slime, and begins talking about how the consolate will use the witherstorm to keep people under fear (and therefore, safe) and… cca!lan just… breaks. there’s actually a REALLY good clip of him shouting at cca!chalooby to leave him alone because he doesn’t know who he is anymore. and eventually, cca!lan lies and tells chalooby that he’s convinced, and that they should go to the consolate.

and then cca!lan nukes the consolate. and LIVES! yeah, he brings up the nuke quite often, but it is ultimately just a cleanse. if he wanted to kill someone, he’d have to focus the range to 5x5, and that would probably kill him too (which he doesn’t have any qualms about… maybe…) but he ends up in a sunny field on another planet, reunited with his husband, and his story ends on the cliffhanger of him going to find wherever cca!chalooby ended up. and he did he find them? well… maybe!