#again this isn't speculation this is my own AU based off of stuff I made up

[thatonecrookedsmile]

I decided to finally color and post this thing I made a few months ago since we're getting close to BATDR's anniversary.

Consider this a fun concept based on a few things at the very least,or a Headcanon Based On Nothing At All at most. The "basis" for this comes from the fact that the Keepers' body and head are some kind of suit, with the zipper and "lens" being the most notable details of this. Which I found interesting.

Now,could the fact that they look like suits just be a side effect of them being offshots of the Machine? Yeah,yes it could. At the end of the day,the fact that they look like that can only be summed up as "they were created that way". Wilson just accidentally created cool-looking OCs. I doubt we'll get any kind of lore drop for the Keepers in the future beyond what we already know about them (but I could always be wrong).

The moment of inspiration that led me to do these sketches was when I was reading FTB and I was thinking about Gent and their experiments for a bit. The Keepers ended up getting into those thoughts at some point,which resulted in me doing… this!

So,yeah,what if the Keepers, before the Dark Revival,were old GENT containment suits?

Essentially,in my head,when JDS closed its doors,Gent continued the ink experiments in its own workshop,and the suits above were worn by the company's scientists while conducting some of these experiments. While we don't know what else the guys at Gent were doing beyond what we saw in BATDR and FTB,I don't think it's far-fetched to say that not even their scientists would want to touch the damned ink,which,as we know,is best kept away from. So,the suits are used.

In 1952,the workshop was condemned and closed. Eventually,the location and by extension - the technologies,the experiments and things like the suits - ended up in the Ink Realm. Fast forward to 72/73,the whole thing about Wilson finding out and taking control of the Cycle happens. When it came to creating his own "guards" to help with his plans in the Cycle,I guess he just. Took stuff from the Gent workshop like the suits and other stuff like gears and pipes,threw it all through the Ink Machine and uhhhhhhh,boom,the Keepers are created.

Again,I wouldn't take this as a serious theory/speculation,and as said,more as ideas and concepts based on so little that I decided to put on paper. (Might as well consider all of this potential AU stuff)

Additional stuff:

- I didn't make the outlines and the helmet's lens glow in the first 2 sketches because I realized that it wouldn't make much sense in the suits? The Keepers,sure,make sense,but for the suits themselves? Not so much. So I left them "switched off",with the exception of the third sketch,done at the time when I hadn't thought about this detail any further.

- The idea for the fourth sketch,the gas mask,came to me while looking at reference images of real-life hazmat suits. I thought it might be intriguing to have Gent scientists wear these masks under their suits,so I sketched it out to get a better idea. The mask itself was based on one of the scrapped Keeper designs, the ones that had the more "alien" feel to them. I don't know if it would fit inside the Keeper suit,but it's still something I wanted to consider.

I also like this whole concept of the suits for two other reasons. First, it gives the Keepers an origin that predates Wilson and the Dark Revival. Second, reusing old Gent suits to create his own guards isn't that far-fetched for a man whose entire rise to power within the studio and plan to overthrow the Ink Demon has depended on the work (and existence) of others to come to fruition. So that wouldn't be so absurd.

Also,here's 2 bonus sketches. The second one has nothing to do with what I've said so far, it's just something I was playing around with at the time.

[screechthemighty]

Okay, so between me talking about the monster fam in the notes of a post and answering some anon asks about it, I figure I should finally publish this post that I drafted for literally no reason.

So, I should note, everything below the cut is not something I think will happen in the canon, because I have no idea what will happen in the canon, honestly. This is just some stuff I came up with thinking about what I would do if it were me. All of this also runs on the assumption that Ragnarok doesn’t happen when Atreus is 15 (for whatever reason, take your pick), that there are other giants out there in Jotunheim (they’re just hiding), and also there’s a lot of time travel involved. Anyways...Monster Fam Time (and also Sigyn).

Sleipnir

DON’T CLOSE OUT OF THE POST, I PROMISE IT’S NOT WEIRD.

So those of you who have read “awake and unafraid...” might’ve noticed a line in chapter one about how Ruvik claims his horses are “direct descendants of Svaðilfari, Hrimthur’s own stallion” and “So fast, you’d swear they had extra legs.” That was, in fact, a deliberate nod to my own headcanon. Essentially, Jotnar horses are just exceptionally awesome and slightly magical horses and Sleipnir is, in fact, a direct descendant of  Svaðilfari. After Jotunheim’s semi-collapse, a lot of these are living semi-feral, mustang-style. Unfortunately, this leaves them vulnerable to predators, and one predator left Sleipnir injured and orphaned. 

Fortunately for him, though, he happened to be found by a late-teens god and his grumpy also-a-god father. Atreus being the big softie that he is immediately takes in and helps heal the young foal. Between him being Slightly Magical and Atreus being able to talk to animals, they are able to communicate and Sleipnir becomes One Of The Family.

Angrboda

Important things to know about Angrboda: she’s two inches taller than Kratos, buff as hell, and Atreus falls in love with her the second he lays eyes on her. Fortunately for him, she likes that he’s funny and also stronger than he looks, so they hit it off and get married. She’s got a very bright extroverted personality, and while you’d think that would put her in contrast with Kratos, he actually thinks she’s pretty great.

Unfortunately, this story has a sad end, as Angrboda ends up in Midgard and running into the one person you don’t want to run into in Midgard...but more on that in Hela’s section.

Jörmungandr

Named for the World Serpent (though put a pin in that), Jörmungandr has his father’s appearance and talent for magic and his grandfather’s grumpy introvert personality. He was also a bit of an emo teen, but despite this, he really does love his family and is super protective of them. He’s just also Most Likely To Go Off When Provoked (to the shock of pretty much everyone, who expects that behavior more from Fenris).

The plot twist is that he IS the World Serpent (a discovery that gives his father an existential crisis), becoming such when the Aesir show up to try and stop Ragnarok (but in doing so, nearly kick off Rangarok for a SECOND time because they just never learn). This leads to the whole “creating a stable time loop and being thrown back before his own birth” thing, and also his brain getting a bit scrambled, hence why he’s stuck as a giant snake and only speaks Old Giant. (In this very loose take on what I’d do to tackle Ragnarok they do end up transforming him back, but the poor guy is a bit messed up by the whole thing.)

Fenrir

Fenrir looks like his mom and has her exact personality--gregarious and a bit brash--but he takes after his father in that he’s a Wolf Kid. Turning into a wolf is the one and only spell he masters. A lot of people think that he’d be the one with rage issues (as he does have some ability as a berserker), but he’s really an easygoing and kind dude. He’s just also got big ADHD (predominantly hyperactive) energy, tussles as a way of showing affection, and forgets his own strength. The phrase, “Fenrir, don’t hit your brother” was thrown around a lot when he was a toddler.

Fenrir ends up being bound in wolf form as part of the whole Ragnarok 2: Electric Boogaloo thing; he is also freed, and it does give him a major grudge against Odin but otherwise he’s still mostly a good kid. Also, he doesn’t bite off Tyr’s hand in this version because I have other plans for Tyr. These were also alluded to in “awake and unafraid...” and if you spotted that reference, you win.

Hel

As mentioned above, Angrboda unfortunately has a run-in with Thor that ends her life and nearly ends Hel’s, as Angrboda was pregnant with her only daughter at the time. Atreus is barely able to save Hel’s life with magic, but the results left Hel a little...odd. Appearance-wise, half her body has a deathly blueish pallor (the right half, and interestingly it’s darker on the face in a very familiar pattern) and blind in one eye. Personality-wise, she’s the most withdrawn of the three, says weird cryptic shit all the time that might be prophetic, and also can talk to ghosts, a fact the family learned when she casually mentioned Calliope to Kratos a conversation. Kratos had never told her about Calliope before then, so obviously that was a bizarre day. (She actually is really close with Kratos, despite his initial worries about how his Trauma would react to having a granddaughter.)

During Ragnarok 2: When Will You Learn That Your Actions Have Consequences, they attempt to send Hel away for her protection, but she accidentally gets thrown back in time even further than her older brother. This leads to her being discovered by the Aesir, who are immediately offput by this weird teenager saying cryptic shit and decide “Hey, y’know what...Helheim needs a keeper, let’s just put her there and not worry about it.” (She actually goes behind their backs to make a second Valhalla for the worthy dead who didn’t serve Odin and wouldn’t end up in Folkvangr for whatever reason, so people like her mother, grandmother, and her adoptive wine uncle. Conveniently, this is where the armies of Jotunheim Odin was so worried about come from...something that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t fucked with her family. Funny, that!)

Sigyn

Sigyn is another giant, though on the short side for one (she’d be tall for a human, though), known for her gifts of magic and potion-making. She and Atreus keep running into each other in town and while foraging out in the woods, end up having a slow-burn friends-to-lovers relationship, and get married when Hel is almost of age. She doesn’t look like much, but she’s fiercely loyal and knows how to make a lot of poisons. Straight up, she almost throws a bowl of that snake-potion in Kratos’s face during the whole “Second Ragnarok” thing because in her panic and blind rage she thought he was Thor coming in for some extra torture.