#warriors cleon

[crimzydiamond]

I drown in the shots and the shouts as the world falls down

Cleon wasn't on my previous illustration so I just had to make another one just because of her

[thewhizzyhead]

before I do the long feminist recontextualization ramble on lmm's warriors album, I must note that the album, despite it being lmm's grittiest work, has such a hopeful tone in it especially near the end. Perhaps the hopeful tones really shine through especially in the backdrop of among the grittiest subject matter featured in MT, but there is something so heartwarming in this being a VERY intentional choice - what with cyrus' dream and the songs that follow with cleon and the gramercy riffs. in their grief and sorrow especially they still sing of giving life meaning - breathing in and believing in the hope of unification against the bigger forces in tow (acab). And this shines especially so with this album's interpretation that the gangs are more of community protectors than deviants and ruffians - and the reason they all believed in Cyrus in the first place is because they wanted a better city for their constituents.

simply said in "somewhere in the city" and simply repeated in the album's finale, they seek a city where they all come home alive.

[thatgenderfluidmonstrosity]

Made some quick sketches of the Warriors inspired by/based off their singers!!!

(I’m tired- and I tried 😭)

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

I might be animating Still Breathin‘- (ID under the cut!)

[Image ID: Three animation frames, labelled "8 seconds, 10 seconds, and 12 seconds". Their background is black and they show drawings in bright red. Every one of them has Cleon from her chest up, having a big, locked hairstyle, relatively big eyebrows and a flat nose. Additionally, she has two lip piercings shown as rings and a few scars scattered on the left side of her face. She is drawn in a half profile, to the right, and wearing two necklaces, a jacket, and a top with a low cutout. Next to her in every frame is Masai‘s hand, holding a lit zippo lighter with the Gramercy Riffs‘ logo, an R with the top part being an arrow and the hole a star. His pinky finger is missing from the first joint outside the hand onward. In the first frame, the hand is really close to Cleon, both of them shaking, and Cleon has wide eyes and an open mouth. In the second frame, the hand is a bit further away, being pulled in that direction, but both Cleon and Masai are still shaking. Cleon is squinting now, her mouth in the process of being pulled into a line. She looks hurt, one pair of ellipses and the word "oh…" are floating around her head. In the third frame, Cleon is clearly in pain. Her eyes are almost closed and her mouth is a wobbly like. This is also strengthened by the words "fuck" and "ow." floating around her head. Masai‘s hand is even further away now and is not shaking at that point. End image ID.]

[whatcannotbesaid-shallbewept]

Warriors promotional images.

[pinkygripper]

CLEEEONNNNN!!! She's sleeping now that her family is all back home safe (sort of ahahaha(sobbing)). ANyway first post on anything ever hope you like my art! Please please let me know if you do :))

The warriors is currently consuming my every waking thought i love this album so much.

p.s. a hand by any other name would look just the same so maybe just dont look too closely at it okay :*

[loreartisan]

happy new year boppers

This was my first animatic ever and I feel like I learned a lot from it.

(this is also posted on YouTube, feel free to show some support there as well)

[theexistingbox]

good evening warriors musical fandom, have some doodles

[subwaylesbians]

ajax and swan’s relationship is so important to me bc there’s so much care and respect there. and their matching “I’m worthless if I’m not protecting the people around me” complexes manifest in such opposite directions that they could have been designed in a lab to piss each other off

[alexihollis]

so we all know that cleon was terrified that night. first, for her own life, because fuck that did NOT look good and Masai was pissed and baby girl was STRESSING. but then, Masai wasnt going to kill her, great.

but all her girls are still out there. with no weapons. because she told them not to bring weapons.

so of course shes worried about all of them. shes worried about Fox - the youngest, quiet. Swan's been working with her, but she still isn't the best fighter.

She's worried about Rembrandt, who doesn't like to fight in the first place, but can hold her own as long as she's got Ajax to back her up.

Which gets her worried about Ajax resisting the urge to bite off more than she can chew all the way back home. Ajax, Cochise, Cowgirl? Solid fighters, the usual suspects that Cleon sends outside their territory when needed. She's worried but they can handle it.

But the one shes worried about most of all? Swan. The girl she found curled up under the boardwalk. All her other girls came to her in pairs or from other gangs. Bruised, banged up, needing some TLC.

Swan, though? The world had all but broken Swan in a way that Cleon never let the other girls see. Swan was her little sister in a way that, while Cleon could recognize her talents and let her make her own way, it made her nauseous that night to think about what situation she was in as Cleon's number two. The obvious de facto leader. Strong, stoic, a hell of a fighter - Swan was all of those things now, but Cleon still sees the sick teenage girl trying to die on her couch and its Swan on her mind that night.

And she sees Swan kick Luther's ass and for the first time Cleon feels like she can breathe because Swan is alive. Bruised to all Hell and back and- some random chick is wearing her vest? For some reason? But Swan is alive!

...and then Cleon realizes Fox isn't there. And Ajax isn't either. And it's one of the biggest failings Cleon sees in herself as a leader because one of the first thoughts that ran through her head after the pure pain of realizing she lost two of her girls was "thank fucking God it wasn't Swan."

[swantactics]

swan being the last in roll call because she always ends up putting herself between her warriors and others, THATS MY FAVE NUMBER TWO 

[yourlocalkatiesimp]

to the whole 4 people who might see this, one of you PLEASE dm me to talk about swan and mercy bc their song and interactions together are ROTTING MY BRAIN

[thewhizzyhead]

how genderbending the warriors (2024) is done not for the sole sake of "bad-assery"

okay here we go feminist ramble time for our newest chick on the block: warriors. now i'll be honest, prior to listening to the album, when i first heard that the warriors main girls were originally dudes in the movie and the novel, i thought that the decision for the genderbending, in lmm's perspective, were from the following: 1.) girl power move in like a very basic meaning of the word "bad-ass" 2.) simply a twist on a cult movie about big gang bros loved by the film bros, and 3.) a way to have the schuyler sisters back together gjfkdfldf

but when i read more about warriors and its development and how lmm took inspiration from the gamergate controversies of 2014-2015 aka among the peak of gamerbro misogyny campaigns, that's when i realized that Oh Shit Is Serious - because adapting a story about a group being framed and targeted and harassed for something they are accused of doing without any substantial proof other than a man screaming "THE WARRIORS SHOT CYYYYRUUS" with 21st century misogyny campaigns in mind makes the theme of fighting back a lot more complicated and a lot more resonant, going beyond just marketing a cast you can call "badass"

take the hurricanes' quiet girls, for example. the hurricanes (concept album version) is the only gang that lets the warriors off the hook and with a stern warning: quiet girls don't make it home. here, the hurricanes berate the warriors for not saying shit or attempting to defend themselves from accusations they know well aren't true. THIS MESSAGE IN PARTICULAR is what stays and influences ajax, fox, and swan til the very end of their stories.

literally one song after this does ajax show how easily she resonated with the hurricanes' lesson by finally sticking with her gut and actually choosing to fight back against both the baseball furies AND against the sleazy undercover cop. the latter encounter is one of the instances that really solidifies the recontextualization of the story because in the OG movie, ajax (a dude) WAS the sleazy fuck up harassing a woman in a park - and now with the literal character switch, ajax goes from being just a rebellious gangbro dude bro into someone whose want to fight is warranted. such a want to fight is seen in fox seeing as fox is the first to comment on the quiet girls scene and that, in the concept album, she is the one that instigates the rumble against the police in union square - saying that she is sick of being afraid of them and their 'fuckin powder blue' colors (also notice how she is the only warrior that really does say fuck the cops i think that's cool BUT I'LL TALK ABOUT FOX MORE NEXT TIME)

to a less obvious extent, swan also gets the receiving end of this recurring theme - by the album's finale, the usually violence-averse caution-first interim leader becomes a lot fiercer in protecting her crew. but perhaps among what i consider to be the biggest recontextualized change in the feminist sense is MERCY and her motivations to join the warriors in the first place. according to the wiki, her attraction to swan and the warriors and um seeing the orphans as wimps is what led her to switch sides BUT IN THE CONCEPT ALBUM, mercy's motivation to become a warrior is deepened, rooted in admiration rather than attraction - wanting to be like those women who hold their head up high. and again, we see this in Sick of Runnin' when she takes part in the rumble, finding her bravery within their ranks as they fight back. here, mercy becomes less of a swan tagalong and more of someone that wants what the warriors have: pride.

of course now that i type this out i realize that warriors is not based solely on the feminist rhetoric as with their theme of hope amidst adversity, the story is more intersectional and rooted in community struggle and wanting for more than that. but nonetheless, i genuinely believe that the twt filmbros arguments on why the genders should not have been changed in the first place just for "woke" points is kinda like,,,very shortsighted because not only does the narrative of women narrowly escaping unwarranted accusations actually fucking fit, but the act of learning to fight back amidst all odds - be it that of disbelieving, predatory men or the power of oppressive pigs - stays resonant for women yesterday, today, and the days to come.

ultimately, warriors (2024) is not solely a tale of female badassery - rather, it is a tale of the need for such "female badassery" in the face of past and present realities, which is why it somehow fucking worked.

[thatgenderfluidmonstrosity]

Warriors redraw based off their pictures on the Warriors Album Official Lyric Book!! (Click to see full pictures)

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

okay but the connection Cleon and Masai have? Outstanding.

[literallymercy]

I'm gonna drop some headcanons in here 😼

Mercy

Definitely not neurotypical. Her and Fox have a shared love for stuffed animals but Mercy is absolutely horrendous at carnival games so swan wins most of them for her (and then massively regrets it when they get back home and see the piles of stuffies around their room)

Swan

Has one of the worst immune systems in the gang, there isn't a week that goes by when she doesn't have a cold. For her sake there is medicine in nearly every room aswell as tissues

Cochise

An absolutely amazing cook, doesn't need a recipe book or nothing, it's just all in her head. Makes there majority of dinners and gets massively offended if someone orders takeout if its her night to cook. Will make separate meals aswell to accommodate everyone

Cowgirl

Her hats are scattered all throughout the house and she refuses to clean them up. Has a hat in every colour possible, glittery, glossy, matte, you name is, she's got it. All hell breaks loose if one of her hats goes missing. She even names some of them

Cleon

When not on patrol or anything she wears crocs because her feet are all red and rubbed from constantly being on the job. She decorated them with all the charms aswell, and is always buying more even if she doesn't need them

Ajax

Is the most secretive person in the gang, she hardly trusts anyone with anything too deep or personal about her. it massively gets on Fox's nerves because she's a scout and is supposed to know info on people and gangs but she has hardly anything on Ajax

Fox

LOVES arcade games and amusements. is always there on her time off and has a drawer in her room dedicated to tickets for when she's saving for something. has to be supervised though or else she will go on an absolute focus and spend hours there without food or drink (this was cleons idea after Fox was missing for 8 hours only for Cowgirl to find her cursing out a 2p machine)

Rembrandt

adores animals and will try to adopt any every one she sees, she wanted to be a vet when she was younger. hates the fact that cleon doesn't let them have pets, but she volunteers at local shelters to make up for it