blackringzthefishh

[blackringzthefishh]

Today’s Autistic character of the day is:

Agustín Madrigal from Encanto

[blackringzthefishh]

when the ship so good you gotta change one of their genders in your head to make it queer

[blackringzthefishh]

garrance pic stolen from this tweet lol

[blackringzthefishh]

NOOOOO FUCK YOU NOOOOOOO FUCK

[blackringzthefishh]

Genuinely obsessed with this take on Bons character omfg

You and a few others online have touched on the strong notion that Bon’s killings seem to be in service to a greater purpose, and I was wondering if you had any material or references that maybe expand on that in any way, from the crew or otherwise.

To throw my hat in the speculative ring, i’ve always seen Bon as a character very keen on “assimilation.” His infatuation with bringing people back together — but under a state of existence that he deems as appropriate — carries with it a sort of vampirism and existential horror you can find in films like Sinners and The Thing. While there’s not much to go off of the few lines of dialogue and clues to his identity, he very clearly has a fairly large emotional stake in all this, as if his entire personhood and not just continued survival, but spiritual survival depends on it. Idk, it’s such a gripping aspect of his character, especially as the series’ driving antagonist; killing not just for fun, but to possibly rekindle something he once had, or never had, through the most depraved route of doing so.

Such a great question and such great insight here. I'm honestly struggling to answer just because there's so many different directions I could go in what to talk about on this subject. I guess one thing to touch on is that, even from just what we've seen of him, Bon seems to be a surprisingly emotional character, despite his outward effect of relative stoicism that we get from him during the Wonderland scene in TWF4. His appearance is inherently sort of detached and impersonal... he's a virtually featureless white figure. He speaks with a very tempered and even tone of voice... his inflection is vaguely warm, presumably to be comforting. But when he tries to describe the nature of the transformation he's offering Susan, his voice is imbued with a passion which he can't contain. His tone grows harsher... less measured, perhaps less intentional. And when he's acting through Bon, the animatronic Bon, I feel he becomes notably more expressive. Clutching his hands together with glee when he first puts Susan into Banny, and the little 'shhh' he gives her, (which is not something he necessarily couldn't do without the Bon animatronic, but I think it's meaningful that we mostly see these sorts of little personable moments when he exists within the animatronic Bon, when as the white spectre his presence and movements are relatively stoic.) It might be right to say he expresses a greater physicality through Bon, that he's more comfortable when he can be Bon.

And it seems to be that Bon is sentimental... he decorates K-9 with little keepsakes that remind him of his victims. And though we don't truly know the reason why the Bon animatronic seems to cry whenever he kills someone, (and there are plenty of interpretations which make sense,) I've long liked to think of it as him experiencing a greatness of feeling. Like him being so moved by the nature of the transformation he bestows that he becomes overwhelmed with emotion, and begins to cry.

Martin sort of spoke on this once in a twitter space (and you may well have seen or heard of this excerpt before, but I'd still like to reiterate it) in a discussion specifically about the kind of music his characters like to listen to:

"And, to me I feel like the most interesting one is Bon. I feel like Bon- Bon is the only one in which the music he listens to actually plays a part in the story. And it's- I feel like Bon, he kind of, like, his era of music is Classical music, because to me, he's a character that has been stripped away from all identity. And he... I feel like Bon sees himself is as the default person. Like, he can't picture himself as anything more than a blank slate. And to me, I feel like classical music fits there, because to me it's almost like he regressed back to, like. the earliest-- I wouldn't say the earliest. But like, one of the earliest forms of music. And to me, it's also because that kind of music represents his almost, like, unspeakable desire for-- to almost have, like-- I don't- I don't wanna give anything away. But, if I were to put it-- to make sense of his own identity, of his own life. It's like, I feel like I've always sensed that he almost releases that struggle, through that kinda music. And that's why when he kills Susan, and when he puts her in Banny, there's always classical music playing. Because, to me, I feel like that's how Bon is able to express himself without putting it into words. Because I feel like not even he could put it into words."

Now, it's coming up on a full calendar year since Martin first said this, and TWF crew have spoken a lot about how Bon's character has undergone very active development and fine-tuning in that time. Not necessarily that he's been changed, but that they have stronger idea of his character and role in the series at this point. Still, it's impossible to know how accurate this sentiment is or isn't to Bon's character now. Despite that... honestly, this paragraph is biblical to me in how I personally interpret Bon's character and motivations. I think this culmination of things really paint a picture of Bon perhaps as an emotionally stunted or emotionally constipated entity, who found identity through becoming Bon, and has achieved such a greater sense of self and self-expression through this transformation that he feels the need to bestow it unto others.

I don't think it's incredibly difficult to see a metaphor for religious fanaticism in this sort of concept. And The Walten Files certainly seems to have a degree of preoccupation with Christianity that we're only just seeing the barest fringes of now. We see Charles dotting bible notation down in his personal notes, and the whole of the first teaser for the Cyberfun Tech Collection is backed by a reading of Corinthians 15:42... there's also the presence of a Christian church in Wonderland. Some of these things might primarily relate to Edd & Molly's funeral, which we know from teasers that we're probably going to be seeing in somewhere in 5 or 6, but I do think the association with certain Christian imagery is intentional. Wonderland itself is a white, heavenly afterlife, and the first time we see "Bon," he appears out of nothing from the fog in front of the church. I do think as a character, Bon is meant to feel sort of Christian; probably not in the sense that he literally worships a Christian god, but that he has a deep, religious fervor and steadfast devotion to his beliefs and his worldview. This feeds into the assimilationist aspect of his character that you touch on, I think. He's a person who found great meaning through his way of life, and now seeks desperately to impose it upon anyone he deems worthy of saving. Perhaps he struggles to imagine these people living happy or fulfilled lives without the greatness of his Gift.

And I think this take on it provides a greater context to the way the transformation of becoming "beautiful" is inherently destructive and violent. And violating. It also characterizes the fact that Bon understands it as such: "Apologies for what I had to do to you... but look, the hard part is over now." He recognizes his violence as violence-- he just deems it necessary for a greater good.

And it's meaningful to me that he seems like a bit of a hypocrite. Sure he kills out of devotion, of a greater sense of meaning and purpose, but it's pretty clear that not all of his violence has such 'philanthropic' motivation. This isn't necessarily canon, but I remember Bravvy once mentioning that she liked the idea that while killing Brian, Bon at some point realized that he was mistaken, and that the person he had wasn't Sophie after all, which was why he left Brian such a bloody, dismembered mess. He was angry, and took it out on him. Then there's the point Martin mentioned once, about Bon trying to scare Ashley in K-9 by making strange sounds, or the whole idea that he was only trying to scare David in Hotline, purely for his own amusement. None of these things express any pure and unadulterated Dedication to his Cause. Perhaps he wasn't always like this, but he certainly eventually reached a threshold where violence and terror wasn't only a means to a greater end. He enjoyed it, and did it because so.

I do think he truly believes that to become Beautiful is an amazing thing, and I think he truly believes that the true reason he hurts people is to help them in a way they can't fully understand... but I do also think he's very much fooled himself, in a way, into believing that his motivations are much less selfish and pleasure-driven than they truly are. I think in a way he perhaps doesn't even fully realize, his actions are also driven significantly by the need to express and entertain himself. Isn't it cute that the song that plays as he's putting Susan into Banny is titled "Arts & Crafts" on the soundtrack channel? It's an art project for him... this violence becomes his means of self-expression, one of the only avenues he truly has of exploring and engaging with his own feelings and identity. Isn't it funny? He's an artist!

[blackringzthefishh]

shoutout to nonbinary people who default to presenting as their assigned gender bc it’s easier

shoutout to nonbinary people who default to presenting as their assigned gender bc it’s safer

shoutout to nonbinary people who default to presenting as their assigned gender bc they don’t feel like they can pull off anything else

shoutout to nonbinary people who default to presenting as their assigned gender bc presenting as their real gender is impossible

shoutout to nonbinary people who present as their assigned gender bc they want to

shoutout to nonbinary people whose presentation is mistaken for their assigned gender but is in fact how they express their real gender

just because we might “look cis” doesn’t make us any less nonbinary and tbh fuck anyone who says otherwise

[blackringzthefishh]

Procrastinating writing my comic don’t mind me

[blackringzthefishh]

It them

[blackringzthefishh]

trevally tribute

[blackringzthefishh]

hi hi hi more commissions 💥

[blackringzthefishh]

this is me irl

two types of fish lovers

.

.

[blackringzthefishh]

[blackringzthefishh]

GAR MENTIONED

[blackringzthefishh]

GAR MENTIONED!!

May Sketchbook 1/2

Happy MerMay! Wasn't feeling mermaids this month, so I went through @fish-daily's Fish-u-ary 2025 Prompt List! It's been on my radar after I had a very crowded February. Can you spot the three fish I added?

[blackringzthefishh]

When you are in desperate need of a new hyperfixation and you find something but it is unfinished and barely any fandom

[blackringzthefishh]

me when i see an animal that is known for being in my area

[blackringzthefishh]

Sharing the bunker bed