Neathian Special Squad - Sketchy / Unfinished animation and frames dump
These were my past attempts at animating featuring the squad - posting some stuff and frames to signal they (and me) are still alive and kicking.
/ Sorry for partially becoming a Bakugan OC blog, but I’m still having so much fun with these kids! /
As always, a little talk under the cut ˘ down under ˘
Talking under here ˘
It’s always such a delight watching characters coming alive - hopefully I can collect motivation and inspiration to do more and better animations in the future - but until then I just keep talking about them. :)
The first video is supposed to be Cassie’s very first training session - This is just a short sequence about Taeli helping Manda up, picking up her spear and saying some words.
The gif with Taeli and Sabator was just a test - the story is actually complicated at this point, and honestly, I still haven’t figured it out yet.
The rest are just frames from the video and something, that never progressed further than sketch.
/ On the sidenote: I love interpreting, that Neathian ears are able to move to some degree, and they use their V shaped foreheads as eyebrows for conveying emotions - even if not for real, but at least for the cartoony effect haha! /
After almost an entire year, I finally found some aspiration, and sat down to write a little ‘talk-about-the-NSS’ post for the dudes of the squad: Captain Pyrehart and Jaxs!
Sadly, I don’t have as much content for the guys, as I had for the girls, so this post will contain less drawings - But it still tries to follow the order and structure of the previous one featuring the girls, containing thoughts on their personalities and appearances.
Let us get into it!
Captain Pyrehart
His real name is Alric Pyrehart, but it’s common for everyone to refer to him as his surname, along with ‘Captain’ or just simply ‘Pyre’ or ‘Sir’. I always imagined him to be a 40 year old-ish person with the mentality of someone being in their 20s. He is still fresh, and hasn’t lost his flexibility and curiosity over the years. Positive and quite the optimist about every situation
If I had to say one word to describe Pyre, it would be ‘caring’. Extremely responsible and trustworthy, he is the head of the strike team, which he manages both with dignity and consideration. In his eyes the 'kids’ still have to learn a trick or two, but in reality, he treats the team as his good friends. In combat he calls the shots - outside of it works as a great reassuring and encouraging force. This is especially important for Cassie, as she sees him as a kind of mentor figure of her life.
/ Fun fact: Pyre and Taeli had known and considered each other friends before the special squad was formed. He only got to know the others during recruitment. /
Appearance: Pyre wears his hair in a little low-ponytail. Additionally he is very proud of his beard and other facial hair: Under his sidebang, he has little sideburns both sides. Secretly he always wanted to grow a moustache too.
His bodytype is of the average male Neathian - with just enough muscles to wield his weapon and his armor. But this is not something to be looked down upon - he is still the second in terms of strenght on the team.
He is hardly ever seen in anything else than his military attire - even in his free time he likes to wear his uniformised clothing.
Jaxs (or just ‘J’)
Jaxs (or just J for short) is the second tallest, but the biggest and most muscular member of the team.
Jaxs hardly ever talks. He is not mute, he just doesn’t like speaking, and only does so, when it’s a must. (When he does, he has a relative deep voice too.) On baseline he communicates through mimics and gestures. His eye shape is of the normal average Neathian, he just usually keeps his eyelids half closed as J is really laid-back and calm. A chill big guy, who may look intimidating at first, but a friendly and gentle dude in reality.
Within the squad he and Manda share a 'bro-sis’ kind of friendship, often hanging out together (sometimes in a loose band with a couple of others as well) when they are not with the team, or can be found playing or racing each other. Out of the two, Manda is the more incented to compete, but he likes to pick up her pace and play along.
/ Fun fact: J has a really good sense of rhythm and hand-eye-foot coordination. He is considered to be master talent at juggling with things - for most part with weapons. Additionally he also likes to plays the drums as a hobby. /
Just like with Manda, for Cassie, J is the amusing big sibling figure. He is the one she usually asks to do fun things with - like juggle with training weapons or sledding down a hill!
Appearance: Jaxs is always seen with his hairband. He doesn’t like to be without it, as it’s both great for keeping his hair out of his eyes and functions as his comfort item. / It was initially unintentional, but I think I happened to put him on the autistic spectrum, when I was thinking about him./
Outside of this, his sideburns and small goatee makes him also recognisable.
Due to his muscular build-up and additional training, his upper buddy strenght is unmatchable by the others. This, his size and his lack of words renders him an intimidating and fearful foe to the enemies.
Found this quite old comic I had made about Zenet giving the Minor Twelve - even the Bakugan! - hair makeovers; It ties in with the headcanon, that she likes messing around with hairclips and other hair accessories.
I thought, maybe the Internet would find this just as delighting as I did, when I accidentaly dug this up haha!
Since I’ve been in a ‘Neathian mood’ lately, I did some ‘explorations’ on Neathian fashion, some species eye variants, fine art, and possible past Queens.
Below I leave the 'For fun’ personal headcanons about Neathians - like racial features, fashion and art. (Some parts of these link back to the general society post I wrote before, but they don’t necessarily have a connection to the social features described there, so enjoy this collected 'miscellaneous headcanons’ post.)
-Neathians are generally evasive and fast. Light-footed and light in weight. (Like Night Elves/Elves in general.)
- Exceptional hearing (I suppose the pointy ears are good for something.)
- Neathian eyes have a supposed basic 'diamond’ shape, but there are differentations in the lenght, curves, roundity and position. (Some examples here.)
- Neathian complexion ranges from pastel purple to pink and blue (Eyes and hair can take up any vibrant colour.)
- Neathian hair has a more blocky structure, like tresses are 'glued together’ ; Neathian hair shines like diamonds (I even had the implication of male facial hair - like beards - looking like little diamonds growing out of their skins.)
- The primary colour of Neathian fashion (and crafted objects) is white, with secondary pastel colours - like green, blue, purple, yellow, red, sometimes even light grey. (The fashion sense could link back to the collectivist values, as in a united, collective society identity plays less importance -> the white colour displays unity, implies homogenity. Of course this doesn’t mean Neathians don’t have their own personalities or self-perception, it’s just their clothing and fashion suggests a kind of 'togetherness’. Also white as a colour could have a connection to the importance and usage of light in their society -> the life-giving Sacred Orb, diamonds shining etc.)
- As for motives, they use a lot of diamond shapes, swirls - usually in gold or silver colouring - combined with futuristic shapes and lines (Their buildings in the series reminded me a lot of futurism; the swirls are more of a Night Elven impression again.)
- Another important and often used motif is the orb (Especially in arts; After the Sacred Orb, also as the motif of 'being whole’.)
- Neathian art is generally abstract and nonfigurative (Collectivism again; personal culture is not typical -> hence the not figurativist art; also stained glass feels more like a Gundalian thing, but these were just explorations to see what works and what doesn’t. I just thought about it as something possible.)
- Like in fashion: Pastel colours are used mainly (Blue is the traditional colour both for artistic products and buildings.)
- 'Aesthetic over functionality’ is a general trait (With moderation of course; Their objects and buildings are not useless, this rule of thumb just simply implies, that they like aesthetically pleasing and artistic things. Elven impression.)
- Every Queen had her own outfit; the main colour is white; the cape is traditionally yellow (Their gowns are supposed to blend futuristic Sci-Fi features with 'fantasy grace’.)
Other things:
- Neathian technology is based on light / uses light as a source (Like the shield generators and teleporters; light technology adds to the importance of light in their culture.)
- Main building material is (blue) diamond (On the planet exist different coloured diamonds as well, but blue is the most prevalent. Also I had the idea of a durable, hard-to-break material called 'Neathium’ - either mined or produced - which is used mainly for armour and weapons in the military.)
- The Neathian language sounds like wind chimes (Aliens also speak the so-called 'Common’, which is understood universally -> in the series is the human English/Japanese - depending on preference of dub or sub.)
- Neathians are generally social, moderate, polite and reserved
Yet another NSS Oc sketchdump featuring the girls getting summer outfits, J and Manda having fun, and some coloured painting concepts (because I felt the one I had done of Pyrehart wasn’t doing him enough justice, so I went back and put some colours on the sketches to see, how well they fare like this).
Headcanon: The Gundalian culture is based on individualism, the Neathian culture is based on collectivism
Race interpretation part one: Neathia
Summary: The Neathian culture is built on the core values of communitiesandcollective thinking. While conformity within the society is of a high level, they pursue a ‘closed gate’ diplomacy towards other races - resulting in a 'bubble’ phenomenon and becoming vulnerable to losing their sense of belonging. Centralised urban system, with regional reciprocity and redistribution, whereby the Queen plays a coordinator role, and exists as a unifying symbol along with the military.
(Wall-of-text warning ; with block-breaker illustrations, but a huge amount of information ahead.)
Okay, this topic is something I was thinking about for a long time, and I finally hit the point to collect my thoughts and write them down. I’ve seen a lot of people trying to build up/further and enrich the cultural and social-political features of the alien races we’ve seen in the series (namely Vestals, Neathians and Gundalians), and I felt some inspiration to put my take on these things into words.
It’s not only intriguing to try one’s hand on the world-further-building, but I felt, I have to explain how I imagine the build-up of the Neathian and Gundalian culture and society to make the story of the 'Neathian Special Squad’ ('NSS’) more understandable 'symbolically’ and from the aspect of a 'cultural clash’. /For those, who follow the NSS: This is something that definitely happens later on, you just don’t know about it yet./
I have to put a small disclaimer here: This entire piece of writing was conspired out of fun and passion towards the series. It was not meant to be a 100% professor approved scientific research, but a seemingly logical untangling of my personal train of thoughts concerning the fantasy creatures of the third season. And this means, there is going to be some personal opinion mixed in as well (especially at the rewriting parts).
I wish the readers to enjoy reading it regardless. You are always free to disagree or not to take it seriously. :) To me, headcanonizing and imagining things always meant to be fun.
Side note: I’ll add canon elements as examples or refer to the events of Gundalian Invaders, although I have to admit, I’ll do this mostly from memory. So If I get anything wrong, or just remember incorrectly, you are welcome to add-in or correct me! :)
The first and foremost reason I actually started writing this post, is because I had some issues with the characterisation of the Gundalians and Neathians in the third season. One side is depicted blatantly, purposelessly and one-dimensionally evil, while the other is portrayed to be the goodie-two-shoes victims with no backlashes. I wanted to swing over this simplicity and make an attempt at explaining, how I imagined these races to function. These interpretations were explored with the intention of both keeping the main features of the races, staying canon-compliant where possible, but change canon elements/propose ideas to turn the races into interesting (and on a theoretical level functioning) societies.
For these added or assumed ideas to work, some lore elements have to be changed or removed: For example the way Bakugan got to be on the planets. For this explanation see: a further point below.
This post discusses only Neathia for now. (Gundalia will probably get it’s own post, as there is much more canon-divergence to be talked about.)
Neathians
1. The beginnings and core values
Due to the power of the Sacred Orb, almost the entire planet have relished in a lush fertility since the beginnings. (And this is why there are huge plants in their jungles. The wildlife also experienced a great upsurge by the life-force of the Orb.) This prosperity quickly enabled the Neathian race to organize into a peaceful and sharing society, because the wars over resources became redundant and unnecessary. The established racial mindset reallocated the focus from the individual needs to the communal efforts, and gives a ground for the Neathian values and collective thinking up to even the days of the season.
Neathians think mainly in groups: Let those be pairs (e.g. Fabia and Jin as fiancés; Linus and Neo Zipperator as brawling partners), teams (Neathian Special Squad; Friendship circles), communities (Castle Knights), and the biggest of them all, their entire race. These are all bigger or smaller communities within communities, and they play a major role in how Neathians perceive the world and themselves. Being in these relationship structures defines their place, grants them their basic mental frame, which they are able to think in, and not only their resources, but also their goals are shared with each other. This kind of goal assimilation is what makes them really efficient team players, and also provides them a strong social support from a mentalhygiene perspective. This important role of the sense of belonging makes Neathians both empowered while being in close social constructs , and extremely susceptible to losing these connections.
Thinking like this, when Fabia lost her fiancè or Linus lost Neo, their grief extended further than their deaths or the traumatic events. Losing strong bonds like these put Neathians in a technical identity crisis, as it is a part of their personal perception and mental frame which were dismantled through these events. We have seen Fabia going to extremes to retrieve Aranaut - and to retrieve that part of her, which was lost with Jin. Just as when Rubanoid was handed to Linus, a new connection was formed to either replace or continue the old one in a different form. Fabia’s communal bonds were successfully restored, when she also became a member of the brawlers.
The Neathian society is based on caring and cooperation to achieve a collective well-being. This is why communities play such a major role in their self-perception and world-perception.
2. Open-sources, but enclosed diplomacy
For most part, I’ve always imagined the Neathian race as an although proud and generous, but closed society. They share commodities with each other - within their society -, but it is very important, that only within it. The outside world (meaning outside of their habited planet) is fundamentally shut out of these transactions.
I often refer to this phenomenon of enclosedeness as the ’Neathian bubble’:
Not only their mindset operates in closed communities, but their diplomacy too. They are generally passive towards other races, missing trust and a reason to pick up the communication /Up until the Gundalians came and the war started/. This perspective could be applied to understand, why could they be more insistent on and better at operating defensive mechanisms (layered shield generator), than initiating communication with the rest of the universe (Unlike Gundalians, Neathians have no ships or bigger means of transportation. Yes, teleportation is accessible for them, but I don’t think they use it that often outside of Neathia.)
I treat this as an explanation for why Neathia had only asked for outside help after the second shield generator went down - the situation became desperate and already being involved in the conflict, it was time to try and reach out for aid. According to these headcanons, I also think, Serena wasn’t putting - or at least shouldn’t have put - faith in the Brawlers so easily. The reason they weren’t tested to prove their trustworthiness further than one question, is because she trusted Fabia’s judgement. Without the support of a Neathian, outlanders are almost automatically dismissed. Their (or their Queen’s) empathy and compassion may overwrite this code, but even by then they have to be made certain by proving the cause.
Just as when Fabia accepted Ren, because she had seen how much he tried to prove himself. Winning Neathians’ trust is supposed to be a big and determining moment, because they ‘internalise’ you into their scoiety.
Neathians are capable of empathy and kindness (this is something they actively practice among each other), even towards outsiders, they just need time and proof to accept them. Trust is just not automatic towards them, and even so they keep their distance until they get used to it.
3. Personal paralel counterparts - Night elves and the Highborne of WoW
When I think about Neathians, I often put them into paralel with the Night elves and the Highborne from World of Warcraft. For most part, I use their artistic motives, architecture, fashion and cultural approach as an inspiration for Neathians, as they are recognised as 'The pretty space elves’ in my book too.
Beside the above mentioned, what could be imported from their WoW counterparts is a rather matriarchal social apparat. For example, Neathians traditionally having a Queen, and women being present in the military or in higher positions, playing important roles. //Just as by the Night elves leadership, religious and military roles being traditionally occupied by women (priestesses, wardens, sentinels).//
Another elven impression, which is more or less universal, is their sense of pride (I like to say it as the expression of ’Neathian pride ’). Highborne in World of Warcraft are a quite prestigious race and are usually said to be a little 'aristocratic’. I can imagine the Neathians being lightly less, but somewhat similar on these terms, when it comes down to interacting with their own or other races: For example being proud of their appearance (Emphasizing their unique V-shaped forehead with adequate clothing and accessories), structuring buildings and constructs based on aesthetic instead of real functionality (using diamond as the main material of construction, structuring buildings with elegant but futuristic shapes), or being confident and showing immovable standing and opinion on things (towards outsiders).
As far as I know, the Warcraft elves used to be similarly passive and uninitiative - even mistrusting - towards other races too. And in this, it played part, that they also had exclusive access to a powerful source of power and prosperity, the Well of Eternity (an almost one-on-one counterpart to the Sacred Orb).
While the half-tribal connections of the Night elves derive from their ancient bonds with nature and druidism, the Neathian society feels more likely being based on a futuristic envisionment of these social relations. A civilisation that perfectly blends technology (teleportation technology, communication devices) with classic fantasy elements (knights), while still remaining tribal in the core (shared communality is just put into a modern environment). /Although I like to lean more into the fantasy setting, the technical advancement is undeniable there./
4. Overall economy
If we wanted to negotiate about their economy, I would say reciprocity and localised redistribution are the dominant mechanisms of it. The basic definition of economy builds on the premise of distribution of scarce resources. In this case, resources are not scarce, in fact, due to the Orb they are very much prosperous and renewing. This accessibility discounts the value of the traditional market trading, and supports the establishment of semi-centralised recollection and redistribution. The semi-centralisation here means regional production and consumption, whereby the accomodation of the population happens mainly territorialy, but these regional centres still have a connection to each other and the capitol. This economy is based on caring and well-being, and the high level of conformity and trust within the collective society results in a lack of currency usage (so, my headcanon is basically, that they don’t use money).
5. Urbanisation and territorial layout
The reason we talk about a more physical apsect of the planets, is because the core values of the races both play a role, and mutually affect how I imagine their civilised hubs being developed. Communities form hubs and cities with strong connections - just like their society!
When I mentioned localised redistribution, I was also refering to the urban structure of the Neathian planet. Important to note, that Neathia is not just a city, or a country - just like Gundalia, it’s the entire planet. What we’ve seen in the show is the capital of their urban system - which makes sense to be technically built around / in the immediate enclosure of the Sacred Orb, for it’s the source of the relishing power. Assuming this, along the capital there could be a centralised territorial layout with rural areas (cities, villages), and untouched wilderness (due to the overflourishing flora and fauna; the urbanisation doesn’t affect the entirety of the planet, there are a lot of uninhabited/uncharted areas).
Here is a simple schematic illustration of the above.
The rural hubs not having physical connection with other centres due to the dangerous and untamable wilderness (see: Giant plants in the show) could have lead to the advancement of the teleportation technology. The cities are connected through this port-system, and also with the capital, which serves as the centre of the network.
6. The role of the queen and the military
The main purpose of the current Queen is an overall governance with the direct help of a council consisting of the local leaders of the hubs. The queen bears not only a political, but a symbolical importance to the people. The concept of the Queen is a unifying symbol, someone who watches over the nation. The Neathians can stand behind her and being represented by her. But it’s important to note, that her status is not as glorified as to be a despotic being, and her power is not extending much further than overall policies, diplomatic representation and helping the transactions of the local leaderships. There is much more power and independence shifted into the regional governance, rendering the Queen’s position to be an effective coordinator between them and unifier, who keeps the nation together. /Still thinking about the way the queen is chosen/comes to the throne, but I had the idea of the next Queen being elected by the current Queen, so the order of succession is not based on the Queen’s family, nor being a community vote of the people./
The peace-oriented existence in itself doesn’t require a military to exists, therefore I treat the Castle Knights as a mainly defensive organisation. This military serves as Neathia’s defenders, bearing symbolic and community building purposes. Among the Castle Knights - just as the name itself suggests - the traditional medieval knight values show up primarily, such as loyality, humility, courage, faithfulness and the act of mercy. In their comprehension, being a Castle Knight is an act of service towards their country and the Queen, and is not mainly for warfare reasons. (To some extent, I assume martial arts and other forms of fighting - even brawling - is essentially a spiritual activity, which they pursue in order to keep their inner- and physical balance.)
As we’ve seen it the show, I assume the Palace also functions as the military’s operation base. The head of the military is the current commander (formerly Jin, recently Elright), and under them operate several divisions with captains as division leaders. The separate divisions are Physical Fighting (both with weapon, like those defensive shock-sticks the guards are using - formerly offensive melee weapons until the fall of NSS - and hand-to-hand combat, e.g. used by Fabia), Technical staff (operating the shield generators and overseeing their areas) and Bakugan Brawling (this headcanon part is still under construction, but Elright used to be the former leader of this, and the reason he was promoted to commander after Jin’s death, is because the Neathians’ realisation of the war swinging in favor of the Bakugan fights, so it was logical to put him as the next 'general leader’). /There may be other divisions outside of these, I just put out some ideas here./ Every guard receives education to some extent in all of these fields, but they end up specialising in something.
//The Neathian Special Squad (NSS) had it’s own divison under Captain Pyrehart, they were a special strike team with a unusual task: Staggering, forcing back or just divide the Gundalian leadership’s attention from focusing on their assault. Basically poking them with melee weapons until they either go away, or can’t concentrate on helping their Bakugan on the field and their monsters get defeated. According to the story - made up by me of course - after a tragedic mission this unit wasn’t restored, and the war effort shifted onto long-range fighting with Bakugan, Gear and Bakugan Assaults.//
7. So…where are the Bakugan?
They have been mentioned here and there, but I’m sure, whoever made it this far into this theorising information dump, may wonder at this point: 'But what about the Bakugan?’
My simplest answer is, that I firmly want to believe, both Gundalia and Neathia had a civilised and established culture before the Bakugan appeared there.
According to the original lore, Bakugan existed on the planets since almost the beginnings. Now, this is part of those lore bits I would definitively change during a rewrite: I want to believe, Bakugan only appeared in their very recent history, almost as recently, as on Earth and Vestal itself.
Perhaps a Bakugan lore- and GI rewrite explanation deserved it’s own post, but for the further understanding allow me to explain here a little: A similar event of raining cards - what the first season started with - occured on Neathia and Gundalia too, caused by the dimensional boom of Michael Gehabich and his transporter. The twist on this - and the effective solution to the problem of possible timeline inconsistencies - is that although the explosion caused this interference at one point in time, across cosmos and universes time flows differently. So technicaly the result of it - the raining cards and Bakugan being transported into the particular worlds - could happen at different point of their relative times - even years earlier or later! On Neathia and Gundalia it could happened a few years before on Earth, which covers most of the questions of the timeline-consistency /such as Ren being assigned to watch over Linehalt as a child etc./
Bakugan coming to these places has only an added effect: Just as on Earth, they are not (yet?) integrated into the society and culture of the planets so deeply to be any kind of pillar of their existence or basic civilisation. There could be a start (as having specialised researches, technology revolving around Bakugan, taking part in the war,..) regarding this internalisation process, but it still runs on the surface, and not in the 'veins’ of the culture.
I hope this breakdown made sense in some form or another. I just felt an urge to pour out the content of my head. Looking back,this became longer and more detailed, than I originally intended, while also surely missing things because there is no worldbuilding without holes or further questions. The attempt to lay down the basics was made regardless haha!
As always, feel free to disagree and follow your own visions concerning the races and worldbuilding. :) This post was made to reflect back my personal interpretation of Neathians - just for fun and thinking out loud.
For the very end, I leave a disclamer here, which was supposed to go at the beginning, but it felt redundant to put there, so here it is:
I tried to approach it from a more sociological side, as focusing on a bigger, overall picture, common features, than create exact statements. (I would rather call this a speculation regarding the features of the races themselves, their core values, common attitudes, mindset - and this doesn’t mean other questions are fully out of the picture. We are just discussing things, which can be derived from the features of the society itself, and make up a more or less coherent chain of thought for now. Other 'for fun’ or miscellaneous headcanons, like fashion or physical traits will be covered another time.)
Another NSS sketchdump with the girls, Jaxs (or just “J”) - and me, trying to figure out the details on Taeli’s outfit… (but knowing myself, it always changes over time… I made this attempt to find a solid ground for the future..)
Another NSS sketch dump featuring some character interactions with their canon adversary Gundalians.
I’ve always found fascinating to imagine, how canon and fan characters could get along - or not get along for this matter. The Squad are obviously not fond of the Twelve Orders:
- Manda finds Gill particularly annoying /and this seems to be mutual too/
- Although Taeli may be able to find balance with Nurzak - he has peaceful intentions, and is that possible, that they may share a common goal?
- The last one is just Cassie pointing at herself on a picture/drawing (which could have been made by herself). She is so proud to be there!
