#WHY DID THEY BREAK THE 180 RULE SO BADLY (STORYBOARDING)

[heaven-dope]

idk if this is an unpopular opinion but dawntrail looks......... so very mediocre

[thecraftgremlin]

The Big Project Venom Redemption Rundown Post

For a little while now, I’ve been vaguely talking about this big weird complicated fan... thing... project that I’ve been wanting to get started. This is that; Project Venom Redemption.

(What is project Venom Redemption? This project is a series of concept art pieces and storyboards exploring how a modern Spiderman cartoon might handle the character of Venom and their shift over the years from villain to antihero. The pieces are meant to represent a series-long arc of the hypothetical cartoon centered on the characters of Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. The narrative draws inspiration from decades of comic, cartoon, and film depictions of the character as well as fan interpretations.)

It’s a bit of an unwieldy explanation, but it doesn’t really fit into any category of fan work I’m aware of.

Obviously I’m only just getting started on the artwork and boards, but this is a basic outline of the entire story arc:

- Classic Venom origin story episode(s). Spiderman gets a new suit, suit is an alien, Spiderman gets rid of alien, meanwhile Spiderman also leads to Eddie Brock being disgraced, alien’s angry, Eddie’s angry, they team up and make a big angry monster that wants to kill Spiderman, you know the drill.

- Villain!Venom antics. We see a progression between Eddie and the symbiote from two beings grudgingly working together for a common goal to a partnership.

- Day-in-the-life type episode with Eddie and the symbiote. Here we get a glimpse at what they get up to and talk about (mostly) separate from Spiderman and their revenge quest. We get to hear some backstory for the symbiote, mostly about how they were outcast by Klyntar society. We get a better sense that Eddie and the symbiote genuinely do like each other, and some foreshadowing to their building romantic feelings for each other. This is also the episode that introduces Eddie calling the symbiote Vee, which is for all intents and purposes their name for the rest of the series. Also, this is a Valentine’s Day episode. Because it fits the themes and also chocolate.

- Several fights where Venom seems conflicted over trying to kill Spiderman. Similar to Planet of the Symbiotes, Peter picks up on this and assumes that Eddie’s morals have kicked in and he’s having second thoughts. He starts to appeal to Eddie during these fights, trying to split them up. This eventually leads to…

- The break up. Venom gets close to actually killing Spiderman in a fight, but hesitates. They start having a full on Gollum-style argument with themselves, one side saying this is wrong and they need to stop, the other saying Spiderman deserves this. Peter tries again to encourage Eddie to fight the symbiote’s desires, but it seems to be making the situation worse. At the height of the argument, an unfamiliar voice in Venom shouts “LISTEN TO ME!” and Venom de-forms. Eddie lunges to attack Peter, but he’s bound to the ground by the symbiote. Peter realizes that it was never Eddie who was trying to protect him, it was Vee. Eddie and Vee argue more, then Vee unbonds from Eddie completely and leaves. At first Eddie tries to attack Peter, blaming him as he’s wont to do, but he soon collapses in despair over the loss.

- Vee and Peter-centric episode. Peter hears rumors of a “demon” living in the church where Eddie and Vee bonded, thinks that it may be the symbiote, and he turns out to be right. When he finds them, Peter demands to know why they were protecting him and why they left Eddie, but they don’t answer. He figures out that when unbonded, they can’t actually speak, and he tentatively lets them bond with him enough to talk. Vee explains that for their whole life, their hosts have treated them as an object at best and a slave at worst. Peter was the first host who treated them with kindness, so when he rejected them for what they were they wanted revenge just like Eddie. But as they fought with him and heard how he spoke about them, it became clear to Vee that he was never aware that they were sentient with any feelings to hurt. It made less and less sense to them to be angry at Peter, but Eddie still was. They hoped that they could change Eddie’s mind and keep Peter safe from him while they worked through it, but Eddie refused to listen and Vee had to leave. They apologize to Peter for everything they did to hurt him, but Peter apologizes right back. He’s sorry that he was another person to treat them like an object, and that he blamed them when they were trying to keep him safe from Eddie. Uncertain about where to go from here, Peter leaves Vee on their own as a tentative new friend.

- Peter and Eddie team up episode(s). While out doing his Spiderman thing, Peter stumbles on Eddie, who looks like absolute hell. He’s made a full 180 from blaming his mistakes on others to despairing self-pity. Peter doesn’t really know what to do with him in this state. Meanwhile a symbiote-related threat, let’s say Carnage, emerges in the city. Peter’s immediate instinct is to go to Vee for help, but they’ve left the church and he has no real way of finding them. The only other person with symbiote experience he can turn to is Eddie. It’s a huge effort getting him put of his spiral, but Eddie grudgingly agrees to help him. This eventually leads to a confrontation where Eddie and Peter are pretty badly beaten, on the verge of losing. At the last minute, Vee comes in and protects them. The three eliminate the threat together. When everything’s said and done, Vee starts to leave, but Eddie stops them. He literally falls to his knees and begs Vee to forgive him. He tells them that he knew what they were doing was wrong, but he was still so angry that he didn’t care. He knows he’s made so many mistakes, done so many awful things, but he doesn’t want revenge anymore. He doesn’t even want the power they give him. He just wants Vee. (There may or may not be a love confession in there somewhere.) They bond again with a kiss.

- Episode that starts out with Eddie brooding about everything he’s done wrong and how he has no purpose until Vee says “Screw that, let’s be heroes, like Spiderman!” We really get to see Vee’s romanticism about ideals like true love, heroism, and justice here. Eddie on the other hand is more cynical, still in self-pity mode and unable to believe that a screw-up like him could ever do good in the world after everything he’s done. Eddie and Vee try and fail to emulate Spiderman’s “friendly neighborhood hero” style. In the end, Eddie tells Vee that they can’t be a hero like Spiderman, they have to be a hero like Venom.

- Episode where Eddie reconciles with Peter and they become Spider-Allies for real. This is where we really get to see Eddie and Vee trying to build a new life together, transitioning to a more stable, healthy existence with positive relationships with others.

Some other tidbits about the arc:

-Some themes of Eddie’s character arc are personal responsibility and later taking responsibility versus self pity, overcoming toxic masculinity, and rejecting societal “normality” for happiness.

-Some themes of Vee’s character arc are personhood, what truly makes a monster (and why Vee is NOT a monster), the value of romanticism, and finding self-worth as a victim of abuse.

-And of course the big theme of their arc together is

-Eddie’s favorite term of endearment for Vee is “Angel.” Not super relevant to the story, but it’s cute and I wanted to share.

-A few things about symbiotes in this universe:

-They don’t have names. They may use a nickname, but they don’t self-identify with a name like a lot of other species do. I’m aware that the “Vee” nickname is a fanon thing, but I thought it was useful for this context so I shamelessly borrowed it.

-They can’t really communicate with their host unless they’re at least somewhat aware of their presence. This is why Peter wasn’t aware that Vee was sentient, he thought they were just an inanimate suit and didn’t think they could speak to him.

-The Agents of the Cosmos as a group no longer exist in this universe. Klyntar is currently ruled by “parasitic” symbiotes. Vee was born after the Agents were disbanded.

So, yeah, these are my ideas so far. I’m hoping I’ll be able to flesh them out more as I work on the art elements of the project. I can’t guarantee I’ll get every idea out in a polished form, but I figure I can at least try while I’m still excited about it.