#tuc gorger

[futuristiccreationzombie]

The last who will die must decide where he stands.

First time grayscale painting, grew to actually prefer the black&white version of this. Anyways. King Gorger looks way too cute/fluffy but i love rats so you'll also have to see them through my rose tinted glasses. <3

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

I wanna know how personally Gorger and Ripred knew each other because shit seemed a little personal between the lines when they met. They so casually were like "Oh it's you" With the karen smile.

IN THIS ESSAY I WILL-

[cutter-kirby]

you know what. tuc deserves a musical adaptation like lightning thief got. like i wanna see gregor open with an i want song, a regalia establishing number, a boots-and-the-cockroaches number, luxa gets a number as we get to know her, ripred gets the song that gets a million hits on youtube, henry gets an evil reprise of a previous number (probably with him and luxa), gorger gets a villain song, ares reprises maybe gregor's number??? and everyone has their own leitmotif and all the creatures would be puppets and it'd fuck so hard

[rin-solo]

Cartoon Series Pt. 3.5 | Gregor and the ... Vendetta of Longclaw?

This is technically part 4 in my cartoon/Phineas and Ferb style wallpapers of every TUC quest series ... except hold up, what in the what now is this quest? What is "Gregor and the Vendetta of Longclaw"? Since when??

... Since A Henry Story, actually.

Yes, this is an original quest, exclusive to AHS. In the AHS universe, 18 months pass between COTW and MOS, partially to accommodate this quest because it is rather crucial (for details, see below.)

For those of you who have read it, you will know that part 3 of AHS 2 is essentially ... its own TUC book. It feels more disconnected from the rest of the book because it is its own story, with its own quest and mini-arc. Thematically, it fits into AHS 2, and it also concludes Henry's character arc for that book, as well as deals with the villain, hence why it is still in that book. I still jokingly always refer to this part as "TUC 3.5 - Gregor and the Vendetta of Longclaw", because ... well, that's what it is.

***

Because it is original and most of you will have never read it, let me tell you a few core details about this quest (spoiling as little as possible):

There is no prophecy. As you can read on the image version with text, this quest is jumpstarted by a kidnapping ... of no other than Stellovet by a former general of Gorger's called Longclaw, who successfully evaded the plague and is after the crown of the gnawers.

All of this starts when Luxa takes Gregor on a day trip to the Fount (this does not go as planned as it becomes a full-blown quest.) So yes, they depart from the Fount that time. You get to actually see the Fount in AHS.

Gregor and Luxa were actually forbidden from coming. York and Susannah decided they couldn't risk the warrior and the queen, no matter the demands, and sent Howard, the outcast known as "Death Rider" (who has aided several quests and saved many important lives, earning himself a hero reputation ... and who no one realizes is actually Henry), and her governess Dalia who was there when she was taken, to rescue Stellovet without complying with the demands.

Guilt tripped by the notion that the kidnappers were serious and would kill Stellovet if they didn't show up, Gregor and Luxa decide to follow after them without anyone's consent (believe me, Gregor is as bewildered by this decision as you are probably, right now. As he puts it: "Looking out into the darkness, Gregor almost laughed at the absurdity of his current situation. Was it Saturday already? Would he be at Mrs. Cormaci’s place now if he wasn’t stuck on this stupid rescue mission for someone he didn’t even like?") Hence why Boots is not there and neither Luxa nor Gregor are wearing clothes that one would necessarily pick for a quest (Gregor left Boots with his mom in Regalia and neither he nor Luxa brought spare clothes on a day trip, now they suffer the consequences.)

Your Regular Questing ensues ... cue an earthquake, a rat gladiator arena, some quality time spent in a gnawer prison pit, a crown retrieval, an epic duel, some bonding between Gregor and Dalia (who is the first proper commoner he meets in the Underland who's had a hard time growing up like Gregor himself), and a pretty shocking twist ... with grave consequences.

Dalia is more important than she seems. That ... that is essentially the essence. That and, this quest jumpstarts the character arcs of both Gregor (yes he gets an actual character arc in AHS, as opposed to original TUC), and Luxa (whose arc I wanna claim feels more organic and natural compared to the original due to this part.)

In general, we deep dive into the Fount siblings and Stellovet's and Luxa's warming up to each other, the societal issues between nobility and commoners in the Underland, which were never explored in the original, and some more pretty consequential sh*t XD Can you tell that this part is one of my favorite parts in all of AHS?

Now, with that in mind, let's look at the art again ... I should probably introduce the characters you won't know yet:

(r.t.l) Howard, Stellovet, Thanatos, Dalia (don't be fooled by how young she looks, she is actually 19, she is just very short and frail), Henry, (hanging) Aurora & Ares, (ground) Luxa & Gregor, Hera and her pups (a flier family they encounter in aforementioned gnawer prison pit.

***

Anyway, if that sounds interesting to you, go read "A Henry Story" 👉 I promise it is very cool, and not just because of this quest! I have a post up on my tumblr where I link the first two books but you can find them on Wattpad, Ao3, and Quotev (my favorite<3) as well by simply browsing.

And check out the rest of this art series (on my tumblr feed)! I plan on doing all the quests. The first 3 TUC books are done!

Disclaimer: the bg is a stock image; the rest is drawn by me!

[originalwinnercheesecake]

The Bane Was Never Going To Be Okay

I have been a fan of the underland chronicles for 16 years. I spend time on its tumblr page, but I don't usually post on it though because I consider TUC on of the more nuanced series I have read and i could day that has not already been said. I made 1 post a couple years ago though where I answered a frequent posters theory about Gorger and twirltoung being siblings with my own theory that the rats Razor and Goldshard were Ripred's siblings (this would make the Bane both Razor and Ripred's nephew). That theory was reblogged a couple times back then and I even saw it referenced recently.

I might be late for TUC month, but I finally thought of some more posts that I want to make another post of. Let's talk about Pearlpelt/The Bane and his relationships with his parents/gaurdians.

He had 7 that I can name.

The first two are his bio parents Goldshard and Snare. We know Snare was at the start the Bane's downward spiral. He was the first to introduce violence, fear, and gluttony to The Bane when he killed the other pups in the litter because the rats were starving and Snare wanted to make sure his future weapon, sorry (not sorry) his son, got all of Goldshards milk. (Unessisarly as Ripred points out that even in those hard times any numbe of families would have taken the extra pups). It is also stated that Snare used to beat The Bane when he was just a pup.

For Goldshard, before the Bane and her other pups, she was in love with Snare. Even among other rats king Gorger and close followers of his, like Snare as an example, were known to be ruthless and bloody monsters. People in Goldshard's life (her big brother Ripred) warned her that Snare was no good and to stay away from Snare. Unfortunately she did not listen. She married him and moved far away from everyone with Snare, to a remote hard to reach, and not often visited corner of the rats land. The other rats in the pack there were probably snares troops, no one to help Goldshard. And once her pups were born she was stuck. Where as Snare saw the Bane as a weapon Goldshard wanted something else for her baby, but wasn't able to get it. When his white coat grew in she tried to forgo his prophetic name and tried to call him pearlpelt, but Snare and all the other rats still called him the Bane, and in her final moments even Goldshard uses the name. She wanted to protect the Bane from Gregor, waking the serpents to sink the ships and eat the questions was her idea.. But when she saw both Gregor and Snare outside the den she looked at Snare: her husband, the Bane's father and abusor, her other pups murder, and she attacks the bigger threat first, losing her life in the process . Her last word "Don't" was the start of a plea for her baby's life. This leads Gregor to conclude she was a loving mother. 6 months later he meets an adolescent Bane, who is already an unstable mess. On page 29 of Marks of Secret when Gregor and Ripred are discussing the Bane and his issues Gregor remembers Goldshard and says this "Maybe if Goldshard had lived" "Maybe he would have been okay". On the next page Ripred replies "But she didn't so we will never know". Well when I was a kid and first reading the books I tried to make up an AU where Goldshard survived her battle to the death with Snare, Gregor and Ares are then somehow able to get both Goldshard and the Bane to Ripred, and the pair live together in happiness, and the Bane never grows into the monster he became... But that is all a fantasy, for more reasons than the obvious this book is fiction, and Goldshard actually died. No actually going over what happened to the Bane's gaurdians and why, well even in a world where Goldshard was able to escape with her baby she would have still likely died, this time at the Bane's paws. The Bane did grow up with love after Goldshard, but it did nothing to stop what he became.

Ripred was guardian number 6. He did not love the Bane. Actually by the time Ripred was forced to assume Gardianship he flat out hated the Bane. (Once again my theory is Ripreds hatred came from a mix of the Bane reminding him of Snare, compounded with Ripred unfairly/rightly blaming the Bane for the deaths of Goldshard/Razor.) But it was also mentioned that Ripred and the Bane had only been together a week. Taking the Bane to Regalia may have been a last ditch effort to get him away from Twirltoung, and the Bane's melt down where he insisted Ripred's "hated him" and kept him "prisoner" "all his life'.. I do believe Ripred when he said he wasn't unkind to the Bane as a pup... This is mostly because I genuinely believe that Ripred did not have much to do with the Bane when it was a pup. I believe that he left Razor (the Bane's other possible Uncle) to raise him, and only checked in from time to time to see how Razor and the Bane were doing and to try and shoot down any ideas the Bane had about becoming a King or carrying on Snare/Gorger's conquest. Ripred mentions he used to have give up food to the Bane during the starvation, but that could be explaned by Razors struggles to provide for the Bane and Ripred wanting to help Razor (whether you believe me about Ripred and Razor being brothers or not, it's clear from Razor's first mention that they had some kind of personal relationship).

But let's talk about Razor for a moment. He does not get enough love or recognition from the fandom, and that's a shame because from what I can tell, despite joining King Gorgers guard at one point (he was likely forced. Even Gregor could tell was ashamed to be there) he seemed like a really good guy. He took the Bane in six months into the starvation, and raised and loved him as his own. Both Ripred and the Bane have nothing but good things to say about Razor as a parent: How kind he was, how much he had loved the Bane, that he tried to teach him survival, and went hunry for him. Razor did his best to give the Bane all the love that Goldshard had, to be everything that Snare should have been as a father.... The Bane repaid all of this by killing Razor. He threw him off a cliff over a crawler carcass. This happened between CotWB and MoS, which means that the rats had control over that river and were eating well again. So the crawler carcass was not the only food they had seen in days or anything. They could have shared it and then gone fishing if the Bane was still hungry. But no, as soon Razor tried to take part of the carcass for himself the Bane attacked his loving father, pushing/hitting him so hard he fell off a cliff and died. Then he had the desparete/dirangged idea to try and conceal his crime by eating Razor. Shudders. To the Bane's credit he did feel bad about it afterwards. When Ripred tells Gregor he cries and tries to say it was an accident, he did not know how hard he had hit Razor. He can also give a (bad and unjustafiable explanation), which is more than he could do for the next two.

Gaurdians 4 and 5 where named Clawsin and Ratriff. They were both attacked by the Bane a week before Gregor met him in Regalia. This leads me to believe they were raising him together and are a mated pair. While we can assume they were both part of Ripred's pack, they do not show up on page with names, and we know nothing about their personalities. But still they took him in knowing what he did to Razor. Knowing how dangerous he was. Knowing that Ripred probably really did not want the Bane in the pack after what happened, they still took the Bane in and tried to finish raising him. Now Ripred reports the two as having been maimed (not killed) by the Bane. When getting into specifics Ripred says that the Bane blinded Clawsin in one eye and ripped off one of Ratriff's forelegs. First shudders again. Secondly while Clawsin might have been able to survive, as long as the Bane's clawmarks weren't to deep and did not become infected; unless Ratriff immediately got some serious web gauss and medical care, they died from what the Bane did to them. Also unlike with Razor the Bane cannot even say why he did it. He cannot remember if they had done anything to him or what the fight was about. He just did it in a fit (reminder he is not a rager) and then they were lying maimed, and he could not stay with them anymore.

I am going to skip over having his army attack Ripred and throw him in the pit, because as established that their relationship was long broken and the pair where at that point enemies in a war. Let's talk about Twirltoung now. She was never the Bane's official guardian, but she had a huge influence on shapping what he became. While we know she was puppeting him and never truly loved him, the Bane thought she did and seemed to regard her as a surrogate mother. When she dies the Bane links her to Goldshard one last time by accusing Gregor of killing her "just like you killed my mother". Snare killed Goldshard though, something the Bane remembered and had had explained to him growing up. And he actually killed Twirltoung moments before, violently and deliberately, ripping off her head because an enemy he hated told him with one sentence that Twirltoung was using him so she could take over, which this notably persuasive rat vitimly denied. Failing for maybe the first time in her life to trick someone. Then the Bane immediately forgot what had happened and made up a fake story.

Twirltoung is the only gaurdian we see the Bane kill on page. But her death mirrors every other one in the Bane's life. It was violent and terrifying, and terrible like all the others. The Bane quickly forgot it just like with Clawsin, Ratriff, Goldshard, and possibly Snare. Last he killed her because he greedily wanted a crown and in a moments decision saw her as a threat to him getting it. Mirroring Razor being killed because he tried to take some of a meal the Bane greedily wanted all to himself. As well as the Bane's littermates being killed because Snare thought Goldshard would struggle to feed her pups, and greedily decided it all should go to the pup with a snow white pelt.

Hunger, greed, violence, loss. All of these hardships and horrors were truly part of the Bane's life from birth to death. Mercy, love, and kindness were there too. First from Goldshard, then Gregor and Ares, then Razor, Clawsin and Ratriff,... Ripred for sometime in-between. But none of it had the effect on him that its givers tried to make. He was lost to the horrors in his life until eventually, he willingly became them. All the good laid to waste.

[quohotos]

There's a whole constellation of bad adaptation possibilities

Rated from best to worst:

The Dreamworks Adaptation (TUC gets the HtTYD treatment):

In 2012 Dreamworks releases an animated adaptation simply called "Gregor the Overlander" to capitalize on the success of the Hunger Games. The initial poster is promising, showing a cartoony art style but a lot of artistic talent and vision behind the project. Fan sentiment (of which there is little because there are few fans) is immediately sullied as casting and trailers come out. While Gregor is still canonically a child, he's of ambiguous age and definitely older than the books. He's also played by a Hollywood actor adult who isn't really doing much to have a kid voice. The plot has been completely thrown out, and little of the world building is intact. Gregor falls down to the Underland alone and is immediately discovered/captured by Ares. They don't like each other. Henry doesn't exist in this story, neither does Gorger, or Sandwich. Test audiences thought the name was too goofy, so while there are prophecies they're not attributed to anyone. There are hardly any underland humans, Regalia is a scrappy settlement populated by just a few humans who have been taken in by the bats and most of them have only been there for a few generations. The main villain is Ripred, and while they go on a quest to rescue Gregor's dad very little of the prophecy of gray is intact (again, there is a prophecy, but the rewrote it entirely and it only is ever spoken in voice over). This first movie hits a lot of familiar beats from the whole series, there's vibes and moments of "hey, that sort of happened in the books once" but it's wholly it's own thing. By the second movie it's gone completely off in it's own direction, not pulling anything from the books. Ripred's characterization is perfect, acting in the way we all know and love, but explicitly as a villain. By the third movie Ripred has finished his redemption arc and the final shot is all of them coming to the overland together. Everyone pairs off, Ares gets a color swapped love interest, and boots is introduced in a post credits teasing the possibility of a future series about her that never materializes. While completely unfaithful to the books, ultimately it reviews well and spawns it's own fandom. Dreamworks knows how to make a good animated fantasy epic, it has a kick-ass all-original score. It does draw some more attention to the books, however everyone has to specify if they're into the movie or the book, and there's a lot of clickbait youtube videos like "You won't BELIEVE what happens in Gregor the Overlander books (gas chambers 😱)"

The Lifetime Adaptation (TUC gets the Dinotopia treatment):

The rights get passed around and scripts get made and dropped until finally it lands in lifetime's hands. The script is entirely thrown out as it gets modified to what fits into the budget and format of a limited made-for-TV series. Set after the events of the books, it follows a new cast of overlanders who fall down to the Underland. There are prophecies, a big bad rat, and a plot that's reminiscent of the books while paradoxically happening canonically after the books with those characters mentioned but never shown on screen. There's a lot of character drama, a lot of reused sets, romantic tension, and a generic but serviceable score. The puppets for characters run the range from good to just okay, and the CGI and green screening is... not at it's best. While the story feels a bit flat sometimes, there's good character development and the sets really do justice to the world showing some very iconic locals like the high hall, the arch of Tantalus, and Queen's head. While not really beloved by anyone, fans at least have some good stills to put on moodboards. There is an adaptation, it's just all right, but it's not the one people wanted. An okay pick if you find it at the back of a DVD rental shop.

We have Narnia at home...

It's very transparent that the Narnia films were made to capitalize on the success of and compete with the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films. Desperate to cash in on this trend of epic fantasy on the big screen, the rights to Gregor the Overlander are bought up and the film is rushed out to stand alongside its contemporaries in the genre. There's not a lot of time to make it great, and so much has to be stripped away to fit the formula. The books are about how much war is bad and how being a child soldier screws you up and how everyone is deserving of life and forgiveness and there is no such thing as an evil race of people. The movie is... not about that. It's about how cool it is to ride a bat and kill thousands and thousands of evil rats. Paradoxically the characters aren't aged up BUT there's way more violence... PG 13 bloodless violence where everyone's smiling and no one important ever gets hurt. The Underland also just looks flat as there needs to be plenty of light for visibility. The nostalgia critic roasts it and makes just the worst imaginable skit laden review of it where he just has someone wear a batman costume and the joke is that Ares is batman and talks like batman. Ripred's voice casting is all wrong, Ares' casting is alright, Christopher Walken is bizarrely cast to play Vikus. Five movies were planned each covering a bastardized rendition of the books' events, but after curse of the warmbloods flops the series just... ends with no proper resolution. Eventually it shows up on TUBI 15 years later in 4:3 480i only for some reason

Gregor in Down Under Land (the baffling unlicensed DCOM):

Disney channel quietly starts promoting a movie called "Gregor in Down Under Land" that comes out and gets syndicated, running for a few years before fading into obscurity. It's only until decades later that it's randomly dug up and discovered in a rabbit hole style youtube review. The story of "Gregor in Down Under Land" follows a kid named Gregor who's dad disappeared. His mom works in an airport and he has to come to work because they can no longer afford a sitter. One day his two year old sister runs off and he accidentally ends up with her on a non stop flight to a random place in the middle of Australia. He falls in with a strange Gang called the "Underlanders" who were founded by some goofy guy called "Sandwitch" who foresaw this all taking place. The plots are one to one and most of the characters have similar names, the only difference is that EVERYONE is Austrailian and a human. The "Gnawers" and "Flyers" and "Crawlers" are all different gangs of people who wear costumes and have mannerisms that reflect the creatures they're supposed to be, but again in universe they're just different biker gangs (although I cannot stress this enough, everyone is speaking in an Australian accent they are in Australia). Bonding is still a thing in this world but it's just human to human and kinda phrased as a sibling thing though still kinda awkward when you think about it (everyone rides on their bond's motorcycle, Ares has the biggest motorcycle and it's black while Aurora's is a brass/chrome color and Nike's has zebra stripes). They eventually rescue Gregor's dad who accidentally got on the same flight and they fly back to America. It ends on the same line as in the book. It comes out that this was completely unlicensed and they never had the rights to do any of this but no one noticed when it was coming out. There's only ever one "Down Underland" movie ever made and it mostly exists to create massive tumblr rabbit hole posts, youtube videos plagiarizing those rabbit hole posts, and cracked.com top ten lists that at least are nice enough to cite both the youtube video and tumblr posts as sources. It's a strange oddity, and somewhat of a meme, but not a proper adaptation per say

Gregor the Overlander! The new Daily Wire Plus exclusive!

just... god damnit, man. Do I even have to elaborate. Just imagining this has ruined my day. There's no jokes I can make here. I feel so sorry for any Pendragon cycle fans...

Here's a fun thought exercise for you guys

When the series is finally adapted for either television or the big screen. Let's say there's an alternative universe where it isn't the magnum opus version all the fans could agree upon.

What character behaviors or moments from the series could you see Hollywood butchering? And how would they do it compared to how it's written in the novels?

Example: The root beer/Corkscrew moment with the spinners Or Pandora being eaten by the mites.

This is SUCH a good question oh my god. I will have to start asking my guests this on the podcast! I have A LOT of thoughts about this because I watched the Percy Jackson TV show in January and I’m in the middle of the live action Avatar: the Last Airbender series, and. Well. Let’s just say I have found both of these adaptations severely lacking.

I think the thing they’d be most likely to mess up in an adaptation of The Underland Chronicles would be Gregor and Luxa’s relationship. They would make Luxa too nice at first, and she and Gregor would become friends too easily. What’s great about them in the books is that they have to EARN each other’s respect and admiration over time, and that’s why they’re such strong friends later in the series. A bad filmmaker would absolutely drop the ball on that if they had no sense of subtlety re: genuine character growth.

I want to hear y’all’s thoughts! What would the movie/TV adaptation of The Underland Chronicles fuck up??

[no-warrior-here]

💙💙💙

send me a �� and I’ll list one character I want to rp with

     Three in a row? Oh gosh, ALRIGHT, LET’S DO THIS.

     The Underland Chronicles villains.

     I can’t narrow it down to just one because there’s??? So MANY good options????? Like holy heck, if anybody made a lit-style rp blog for any of them and was willing to dive with me into hell, that would make my day. I live for Gregor getting yanked back into all that mess he tried to get away from.

     Like, seriously. A ghost Fangor, a ghost Bane, a ghost Twirltongue. King Gorger. HENRY. Even OCs based on any of the heaven-only-knows how many Gnawers were siding with the Bane. I would kill to see more people jumping in on this okay. And totally not just because I’ve been having a heck of a time trying to design them as ghosts, rip.

     … who am I kidding tho, I’d love to see any lit-style rp blogs for TUC folks. It’d be awesome to have some more people over here.

     Marco Diaz from Star vs The Forces of Evil.

     Like??? This could be??? A really cool crossover????? I love that series anyways, with all its world-jumping shenanigans. And I admit when I was watching it there was just this feel about Marco that made me think of Gregor for some reason? I can’t really put a name to it though? I guess the whole ‘kid is just trying to do The Right Thing™ but got dragged into a metric ton of nonsense he 100% did not ask for’ kind of applies to both, for one thing.

     I dunno, I just feel like they’d probably get along pretty well. And I live for super salty Gregor getting dragged into more stuff honestly. Can you even imagine how weirded out he’d be by Mewni? The de ja vu would be strong in this one.

     Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls.

     This would be another really fun one honestly? I can’t help wondering if the Underland was mentioned in the journals, or if even those didn’t have any information on it. Either way, I’m sure running into someone who’s been there would be QUITE a surprise. And can you imagine Gregor getting yanked into all the nonsense around Gravity Falls too? Like mannnnn he’d be so hecking DONE. Yet he’d still do his best to help even as he’s wondering once again ‘why me.’

     Or alternatively, the Pines family in NYC(or even just Dipper and Mabel) for a school trip or something, and getting tied up with the Underland and Gregor’s ‘captive audience’ offshoot. That could be really neat, too.

[rin-solo]

No worries, the Girl You May Ask About Anything TUC Henry Related has come to clear this up (yes that is a very specific occupation but it happens when you write three books from his pov...)

Anyway, yes Henry wanted to ally with the species that killed his parents ... which is not even remotely dumb. Because we have to keep in mind that this alliance is, in fact, the way to go and actually happens at the end of COC. Henry said that first, and he specifically did NOT let the fact that they harmed him/his loved ones stop him. Which is incredibly far-sighted and rational, actually.

Henry was wrong for other reasons (mainly for his wanting to get rid of weaker species as well, and for trusting Gorger). But I will never stop being upset about how, when it comes to the whole "An alliance between humans and gnawers is the way to go" part of his plan, he was RIGHT. It's exactly what happens at the end of COC (and yet it keeps being this part of his plan rather than anything else that is treated as treason...)

So, what was his motivation now? Well, ally yourself with the species that is most likely to kill you, who has already killed some people you love, who pretty much embodies your fear, and you won't have to fear it killing you/more of your loved ones anymore. It's actually a very brave, very objective thing to do

Henry definitely misjudged Vikus because I wager he associated him with complacency and the proliferation of the stigmata that went on between gnawers and humans (which is evidently not true, as he's friends with Ripred—something Henry didn't know about; I presume he knew very little about the actual extent of Vikus' attempts at peace due to his generally being excluded from official/council meetings as we see at the start of GTO.)

But Henry is also being called a traitor for trying to do the very thing that all of TUC leads up to first (and no one ever points this out, even after the alliance is sealed at the end of COC) instead of for the parts of his plan that were actually reprimandable.

In conclusion: While Henry's plan was flawed and threaded with his prejudice against weakness/weak species (presumably because he associated weakness with being a liability), he also had enough guts and foresight to look past his personal losses and ally himself with the species that caused him so much suffering, for the sake of preventing more deaths. Which is neither dumb nor immature, and I think people don't nearly acknowledge this enough.

Thank you for coming to my Henry Talk.

PS: If you are interested in more—as I've mentioned, I've written three books from his pov which go far deeper into his motivations and how all of this happened ... I highly recommend checking "A Henry Story" out to any TUC fan tbh, even if only for the added depth and worldbuilding.

Another fun fact, chapter 1 of the first book is his betrayal reveal from Henry's own pov, which might answer most of your questions by itself.

Henry working with the rats was kinda dumb tbh what even was his motivation

“Vikus was making us weak” ok but they killed your parents. That’s pretty significant my guy

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

Gorger: (Puts Ripred in timeout for killing probably over a thousand other gnawers, assigning him to work in the dungeons)

Ripred: (offended gasp) The bodacious audacity of this bitch. (COMMITS TREASON))

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

THE RAT KING

I was a bit rushed so it’s patchy, but here he is

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

I don’t care, Gorger gets a villain song

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

Careful, Flippy. He just might…

@flippythegodzilla

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

His royal majesty and his little friend James.

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

Have some rats

[the-warrior-is-a-gnawer-au]

Never mind I lie again lost intrest… FUCK!!!

OK I KNOW I MADE A TOTAL LIE ABOUT WORKING ON THIS BUT NOW IM SERIOUSLY WORKING ON IT!!!

I’m hoping this Friday I will be able to update