Alphabet Lore

**WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Alphabet Lore is an web series created by Mike Salcedo. It originally started as a "one animation per day" challenge for February 2022, but got very complicated and instead finished on October 22, 2022. It was renewed for a second season called Number Lore on January 20, 2023.

## Why it's Amazing, Brilliant, & Creative!

1. Started off as a simple "one animation per day" for February 2022, but quickly turned into something much more than just letters, **it turned into a story!**
2. The concept is very original and clever, as the characters are the Alphabet letters who have to stop F.
3. F is a very well developed villain and is cited as one of the greatest villains in web series history.
	1. F's childhood story is really sad and relatable. When F debuted in "D", he originally started off as a villain who's just willing to ruin the other alphabet's lives for no explained reason. However, it would be revealed that the letters he kidnapped spelled "FRIENDS" (minus N), which was revealed that the whole reason he did this was because of what the other letters did to him as lowercase letters: L and O used to bully him and made him spell "FRICK", causing the other letters to turn against him and send him to his cave, where he would grow a miserable life.
4. N is another very well developed character. His whole life was flipped upside down because he knew F didn't mean to spell "FRICK" and L forced him to, but was too afraid to stop anything and grew up in pain, fear, and in L's control. He even had a nightmare depicting him as a coward because C sacrificed his life for him, and accidentally killed P as the "GUN". In the end, he gains enough confidence to finally stop F in his plans.
5. Q is an enjoyable character, as he originally looked like a joke character who would just slowly move and yell "KYOOOOOO", but would reveal later on that he knew what would happen to F and had been warning the letters his entire life, but was too slow.
6. Amazing and creative character designs:
	1. B has wings that allow him to fly.
	2. C can swim like a sea (C) creature and can bite people when provoked.
	3. F has vicious pointy teeth and can spread black ink.
	4. H is a ghost (who died because they accidentally smelt a fart).
	5. I and J have the ability to shoot cannons out of their heads (referencing their lowercase tittles).
	6. K is an insect who has the ability to fly like B.
	7. Q resembles a slug and as such moves very slow.
	8. T resembles a hammerhead shark and can swim through the ground.
	9. W is a pair of creepy twin sisters who reference "The Shining".
	10. X is a skilled ninja with two lavender bands on his head, taking it after *Dragon Ball*.
	11. Z is the entire planet the letters live on.
7. Super heroes L, M, N, O, and P (as well as X) all have punctuation gems that allow them to transform and gain muscles and superpowers, with their transformation sequences inspired by that of *Sailor Moon* and *Winx Club*:
	1. L's gem is a period (.), which allows whoever is affected to stay completely still.
	2. M's gem is a comma (,), which allows the victim to be slowed down.
	3. N's gem is a semi-colon (;), which forcefully grabs 2 letters together (example: B;C).
	4. O's gem is a colon (:), which forcefully grabs one letter on the left side and 2 letters on the other (example: T:MA).
	5. P's gem is an exclamation point (!), which allows her to run up to incredibly speeds like *The Flash* and *Sonic the Hedgehog*.
	6. Q's gem is a question mark (?), which shows whoever uses it what will happen in the future or what happened in the past.
	7. X's gem is an asterisk (\*), which allows the user to multiply infinitely, also referencing X being the multiplication symbol in math.
	8. All of the aforementioned gems are actually F's tears, which he cried out as he was being beaten by the letters.
8. Another mind-blowing fact is that the letters can spell words together and can transform into what they spell, courtesy of *WordWorld*. For example, when G needed to track down F, he called for C, A, and B in that order to spell "CAB". As such they form a cab. Other words include "GUN", "VAN", and "FART".
9. Takes a dark turn for a children-centered topic, including deaths and sad moments.
10. G has the ability to speak in morse-code, for example when he called for C, A, and B in the order he says (said in G's) "--. -.-. .- -...".
11. The relationship between G and P is adorable.
12. The music is amazing, thanks to artists like Rapael Krux.
	1. LMNOP's transformation theme is easily the best and most memorable song in the video, which was composed by Tak\_Music called "Cheerful Happy Anime Song J-Pop".
13. Tons of hilarious moments:
	1. I being stomped on by F and used as a cannon to destroy J.
	2. O saying "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH"
	3. Y noticing X's dead body and shouting, you guessed it: "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"
	4. One saying his name in a goofy fashion.
14. Had a cultural impact with many creators making their own versions of Alphabet Lore with numbers, roman letters, etc.
15. Thanks to it's popularity, it has been renewed for a second season called "Number Lore" which first released on January 23, 2023.

## Dreadful, Eerie, and Frightful Qualities

1. Because it's centered on the alphabet, it can easily be mistaken for something kid friendly. This isn't uncommon, as it has happened with *Happy Tree Friends*, *Five Nights at Freddy's*, *Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning*, *Rainbow Friends*, *Poppy Playtime*, *Hello Neighbor*, *Learning with Pibby*, and *Doors*, which are all horror themes that seem to have a huge impact on kids.
	1. Even worse, it got so popular that it became a frequent topic in Elsagate.
2. L and O are very unlikeable characters and the whole reason this started. For no reason, they bullied F and N as kids and got no comeuppance and barely any attention from the other letters. When F spelled "FART" to get revenge on L for hurting N, L and O beat him and pushed him into spelling the word "FRICK", causing almost every letter to betray him, leading to F to run away to his cave and grow into the life of a villain. They get absolutely no comeuppance for their actions, making them Karma Houdini's.
	1. Even as adults they are mean-spirited, as they (along with M) don't support N and harshly criticize him for not being able to stand against F, and also for accidentally loses his gem to F. They look down to N in disappoint and fly off to face F themselves (thankfully, to no avail).
3. Several letters were not very well developed. The worst offender is W, who had absolutely no personal screen time and only made background cameos after their debut.
	1. J is also badly developed, as he has a strange design and was immediately killed upon debut. Plus, his front looks like a butt or a chin.
4. The character deaths can be very sad and too much to witness, especially C and P's.
5. Contains it's fair share of toilet humor, such as F farting out H, you can see his buttocks.
	1. Similar note with lowercase L, who F uses A, R, and T to spell "FART" and make him look like he's flatulating.
6. All of the letters (except F, G, N, P, Y, and Z) were unlikeable as lowercase because they beat up F for spelling "FRICK" and making him the monster he would later become. Fortunately, they regretted doing this.
7. Many letters (most notably after T) don't really possess any special characteristics and are just ordinary multicolored letters.
8. Several episodes don't focus on the letter in the name that much. For example, in "U", U doesn't appear until the end.
9. Contains plot holes:
	1. Why did L and O bully letters when they were kids?
	2. Why didn't F just ask for friendship instead of turning vicious?
	3. Why didn't Q go to F's cave and warn F of his future?
	4. Why did G go after F? He didn't bully F as a child.
	5. How do letters make words that use more than one of the same letter?
10. Ever since "1" has released, Mike has continuously delayed "2", which is still not out yet. It was originally scheduled for late February to early March, and was then pushed back to April, and no updates have been given since then.

## Reception

Alphabet Lore has received critical acclaim, with critics praising it's concept of alphabet letters and visual effects. The video has over 100 million views as of January 2023 and has spawned tons of fanart and memes across the web.

### Pages with Alphabet Lore Fan Creators

1. ShapeDude's (2022-February 2023)
2. ToonLore

## Trivia

* The creator Mike Salcedo works a full time job at *Cyanide & Happiness*.