#envellspoilers

[heroesofenvellfan]

Sorry for the lack of posts, have a meme in these trying times.

[heroesofenvellfan]

Tbh, you could make the same meme about most of the important stuff that Mourgarth says.

[heroesofenvellfan]

But really, this is so funny and interesting that the creators found this incredible energy source, put it in a computer and the result was a machine that could alter reality itself, but they were game devs, so they made a videogame. Like, they could’ve used this power to get rich, become rulers of the galaxy or bend the world to their liking, but instead they, being nerds (/pos), decided to make a virtual world for their entertainment. Yes, there they are heroes and maybe even royals, but when they come back to the real world, they eat doritos for dinner and sleep on couches and mattresses.

And that’s something to love them for XD XD

[heroesofenvellfan]

New intro post, woo!

Welcome, new player, to "Heroes of Envell"!

You can call me Mod Guide (or simply Guide). This is a blog dedicated to one of my favourite shows of all time. "Heroes of Envell" is a russian CGI/2D-animated series for teen audiences made by Parovoz Studio.

Best of all, it is completely free to watch, with an official english dub of season 1 on YouTube and season 2 subtitled by some enthusiast (me!). So you can totally check it out! [WATCH HERE]

The main premise is that four teen protagonists (yep, all four of them are equally main characters!) discover a laptop that can teleport them to a video game world. Seems pretty basic, but the things this show does with this plot, the questions it asks, the themes it tackles...! It sure is something!

The show may not seem like much at first, but believe me when I tell you that it's amazing. Now let me just get onto some formalities before I start rambling--

[OPEN 'RULES'?] (Not knowing the rules will not free you from the responsibility)

✅ | [X]

• DNI if you are: n*zi, pr*ship, p*dophile, an N.SFW blog, inc*st shipper, antisemitic, rusophobic, aphobic, ableist or generally discriminate people based on their race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, orientation etc.

• BYF: Block the tags "#envellspoilers s1" (for season 1) and "#envellspoilers s2" (for season 2) if you're new here! Posts tagged with these will only contain important plot-heavy info that will otherwise ruin the intrigue. You can unblock them as you watch the series or look at the posts at your own risk.

• This blog is strictly SFW, which means that no foul language, explicit violence or s.mut will be tolerated!

• That's not really a rule, but this blog's mod is an adult (although a kid at heart). This blog is still SFW.

[heroesofenvellfan]

Q&A from streams! (Part 1)

I’ve been planning to do this for a while now. As you may know, there were several streams with the people behind “Heroes of Envell”, mostly with Anton Lanshakov. There were also questions of fans sent to Anton, which he answered in writing form. And I translated the questions and answers for you, because those tiny tidbits of information are interesting and/or could just show Anton’s personality. I got the file with all of these from one of the “Heroes of Envell” fan-groups, so thanks to them for that!

The stream and QnA took place after S1E23 was released. Just so you know why those questions were asked.

Personal questions for Anton

Q: Anton, what other questions should we ask that you’d like to answer? A: I’m ready to answer any of your questions. Except for the ones about the back side of a hand. Don’t ask.

Q: Are you in Amino? If so, what’s your username? A: No, I’m not

Q: Do you watch AMVs by the channel “clips heroes of envell” (the channel is not mine, by the way) A: Not sure about the channel, but I’ve seen some AMVs. They’re cool.

Q: Many popular games are mentioned in the series, did YOU ever play them? A: I either saw or played almost all of the games mentioned in the series. I’m trying not to reference games that I don’t like. Except for Mario. You can’t not mention Mario. (c)

Now just show-related questions

Q: In episode 23 of season 1 we find out that Helena was a tester of the game. Tell us, what was her life like before she was invited to test “Heroes of Envell” and what relationship did she have with the creators before their fight?

A: Helena had a lonely life because of difficult relationships with people. It was hard for her to find topics to talk about with others. She has a strict family that doesn’t understand her interests (sci-fi and fantasy). Moreso when Helena wanted to work in game development. The relatives were against it. A fight, a scandal and all that. That’s why when Helena met the creators it felt like finally meeting your best friends. The more painful was their divide.

Q: Can Mister Smile turn not only people, but also other creatures to stone?

A: He can. He even did it in episode 12, but behind the scenes. A couple of school hamsters are still shocked.

Q: Does Buckwheat have a database that he can change?

A: He does have a database, but he can’t change it.

Q: Why did Ilya refuse to help them? Did they [the protags] prank him before?

A: Yes, after episodes 10 and 12 Ilya is wary of the heroes. But Ilya refused to help not because he was sour, but because of the fear becoming a victim of a prank. Some people often imagine the worst outcomes. Just in case. Ilya imagined that Art is planning to prank him. And if that’s the case, eat this, Art!

Q: The fact that Phil is always falling somewhere - like in episodes 15, 16 and 21 - is that his thing?

A: It’s called a running gag. Phil is the kind of character that is fun to make walk on a banana peel.

Q: Could Helena and Mr. Turner become a couple?

A: He’s single, she’s single. I can’t see why not. [Do you see how cool with ships this guy is?]

Q: Did Kira and Helena listen to “Ranetki” [a russian pop-rock girlband from 2010s]?

A: I think it would be just Helena. And not for long. Then she started listening to Adele.

Q: What was Helena like in 2007? [idk man, 2007 is some meme I don’t get]

A: Happy. She believed that she could change something about the world.

Q: Did she [Helena] already work at the school when the game was being made?

A: No. She didn’t have experience of working at a school before the events of the series. How did she convince the principal? Personal charm and fake documents.

Q: What game genre does she [Helena again] like the most?

A: jRPG and Sims (secretly).

Q: Won’t Mourgarth freeze in winter?

A: My answer is simple: a hat, a scarf and two pairs of gloves.

Q: What do Buckwheat’s seizures mean? (When he yells and his eyes go red)

A: We’ll learn about that later. [I’m still not sure if we have. I think Anton said later that it’s just Buckwheat being angry, but... I don’t know, man.]

Q: Why are Kira’s parents divorced?

A: Their personalities didn’t go well with each other. The mother always tried to change the father and didn’t understand that she wanted to turn a person she loved into a person that doesn’t exist. The father refused to change and didn’t understand that relationships don’t stop after a wedding and that they need to be maintained the whole life. In other words, a common story.

Q: How old are the protags and in what grade are they?

A: They’re in 9th grade. You can count the age yourselves. [That’d be 14-15 y.o.]

Q: Does Art have a sister or a brother that live with his mother?

A: No, Art doesn’t have sisters or brothers. Nor a mother.

Q: Does Phil have a sister?

A: No.

Q: Why can our heroes use the game weapons and items in the real world? If they can take it in and out of the game (the Cube and Creep, for example), can they take Val out the same way?

A: The rules are strict: only things considered to be equipment can be taken out of the game. Small Creep fits into the inventory, thus technically making him an equipment. And Val isn’t. Why all of this works - we’ll find out later.

Q: Should’ve Val fallen in love with one of the players according to the plot [of the game]?

A: Val shouldn’t have fallen in love. But she couldn’t resist  when she saw Vic.

Q: We’re shown that a butterfly flies out of each marionette, since that’s the robots’ life source. But, question, why do marionettes just get destroyed sometimes? And where do the forest people go after that?

A: It’s just that insects don’t always fly out instantly. And when they do, they fly in random directions and don’t remember anything about their past lives. A sad fact.

Q: Do Val, Bertie, Chief and Yanni remember other players? And do they have their personal favourites?

A: They remember and they have favourites. And Phil wasn’t one of them until episode 21. The big guy’s name is Berten’, by the way.

[heroesofenvellfan]

Vic’s panic attack

Obviously, trigger warning for this topic.

I see a lot of people talking about the panic attacks in animated shows such as “The Owl House” and “Miraculous Ladybug”, even “Steven Universe” gets mentioned.

All of these are great, please don’t assume I’m trying to say that one is better or worse than the other! I’m just a fan of an unpopular, underrated animated series, so I simply HAD to jump on the hype train.

SPOILERS!

Again, all of the depictions of panic attacks mentioned above are great! It’s just that... This particular one from “Heroes of Envell” is the one that stands out to me for several reasons. Firstly, it’s the first panic attack in an animated series I ever saw, so of course it made a serious impression on me. Secondly, I had my first panic attack pretty soon after this episode aired. I didn’t have the specific episodes of “The Owl House” or “Miraculous Ladybug” to relate to in that case, and I don’t remember the “Steven Universe” one, but I immediately knew I relate to Vic (the character that has the panic attack) even more than I did before.

So, as you can see, this post is mainly just my personal opinion. I do adore “The Owl House”, but if people are saying: “OMG! TOH is the first animated series to show a character having panic attack! How brave of Disney!”, I’m just. Nah. Nah, it’s not the first. There’s probably been some before. And today I wanna give credit to one of them.

1. The animation. There’s only so much that CGI animation of this kind can do with emotions of the characters. Usually. But “Heroes of Envell” impresses me with what it can do, specifically in season 2. And this scene is an example of that. First I’ll include the gifs, then I’ll talk about some parts of it that I find so great.

Vic doesn’t understand what his friends mean at first, but as soon as he gets it, his pupils shrink, with his face full of shock and disbelief. 

Then he stands up and backs away, after which he falls. The movement of his mouth and chest signify how rapidly and at the same time deeply he’s breathing. His friends and sister surround him with worried looks.

Obviously, it’s not recommended to crowd a person in a situation like this, but, well, Vic just fell! And very close to the edge, too! Notably, his sister Kira isn’t getting as close as Art does, meaning that she may have more experience with Vic having panic attacks. Or maybe it’s his first one and I’m overanalyzing. Meanwhile, Phil is the furthest one away, but it looks like he simply doesn’t understand what’s going on, much like Art, but instead of taking some sort of action, he’s unsure what to do.

2. The voice acting. I can’t shut up about how much I love the voice acting in this scene. Vic goes from stammering to cut sentences, unable to finish them because of how shocked he is, because he can’t believe what he just heard. And then he barely says anything at all, too busy trying to breathe. And it’s not just plain old breathing, not even simple deep breathing. It really sounds like Vic is suffocating, gasping for air. And if it isn’t a great performance, I don’t know what it is. And I am SO sad that I started making this post without posting the scene as a video!

3. The cause. VERY spoilery here, but if you don’t care about that much, then go ahead. This is actually a big reason for this scene being so powerful to me.

So Vic has been staying in the Labyrinth for 6 months now. No way to contact his friends, no way to get out, and monsters attacking. Or that’s what he thought... He only saw the monsters once and then turned the automatic defence system on. Which meant that any monster - any red dot on the map he has there in the center - would be killed to keep him and Val safe.

Until one day it turns out that the red dots he thought signified monsters turned out to be his friends. What a weird error the Labyrinth made! Right..?

“Brother, we’re... not the first people to come to you. There were... others”.

And Kira is right. Exactly 7 episodes prior, people were witnesses to a big raid on the Labyrinth, where the antagonist was presumed to be. Lots and lots of high level players were lost that day, leaving everyone to lose hope. But it wasn’t actually the antagonist that has done this. It was Vic. And the moment he understood what he has done, he’s hit with a panic attack.

I gotta mention that he’s the sunshine boy, the cinnamon roll of the gang. So finding out he has blood on his hands is definitely a LOT to take in. And the viewers feel the same amount of shock! Because even though they’ve known about that Labyrinth catastrophe for a while, this scene is exactly the moment when it really hits them, and they really feel the impact it has on the characters. This is one of those moments when the characters and the viewers share the same emotions, and I think it’s one of the things that makes “Heroes of Envell” so great.

[heroesofenvellfan]

Yet another fun fact: the name of Larsen's wife is Lora! And there was a little plot arc planned where Larsen would've hired the thief clan to protect his wife and daughter, but it was cut because there wasn't really time for it. It would've been such a good plot arc though!

[heroesofenvellfan]

Fun fact

Yes, I’ll be making another series of posts, because I have some facts to share and I like to do so!

Anyway, you know how the Advisor is always flying around on his artificial wings?

Looks pretty cool, am I right? But when I first saw such means of transportation, I kind of thought it was... unneseccary? I mean, sure, it’s very handy in a world like Envell, but the Advisor is the only one wearing those. But then I just got used to it, thinking it may just be his little unique thing. Until the creator of the show proved me wrong.

Remember what happened when his wings got shot and broke? He fell, although he luckily still managed to defend himself. But you know what we never saw? Him actually standing or walking.

What’s the first thing he does when trying to get away? He finds a mech he can sit and move in.

When Phil convinced the Advisor to help, Phil himself came down the cliff. The healer, on the other hand, seems to have used the mech for it. 

And even after that we only see him sit.

Anton pointed out that in the flashbacks we see the Advisor standing. Then why is he using artificial wings and a mech to move? Why is he no longer seen walking?

Because something might’ve happened to him during the first attack. The wings aren’t just fancy gadgets. They’re prosthetics. The Advisor can no longer walk.

[heroesofenvellfan]

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Does anyone remember there’s a movie version of the last 8 episodes of season 1? There wasn’t much new apart from a couple of additional scenes and some recaps from Buckwheat (so that the possible new audience knows what’s going on). I found the Mourgarth bonus scene on YouTube and took a chance to make english subtitles. Enjoy!

[heroesofenvellfan]

“You know, I tried to do it the nice way. But no. They wanted to go out and erase everything! Please understand me... I’m not a villain. I just want to live.”

[heroesofenvellfan]

Kira helps Art up, they hold hands, have a long eye contact and smile at each other UwU  The little things you notice while making subtitles!