Alphabet Lore

Alphabet Lore is an American animated 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. It tells the story of anthropomorphic letters of the alphabet as they face challenges against the evil F and invading numbers. As of Number Lore episode 4, it is developed by indie animation studio Jellybox.

Alphabet Lore
What happens when the letter F goes on a rampage? Alphabet Lore!
Genre: Adventure Comedy Fantasy Drama Country: United States Release Date: February 2, 2022 – present Network(s): YouTube Created by: Mike Salcedo Distributed by: YouTube Seasons: 2 Episodes: 32

Synopsis

Alphabet Lore

On a seemingly normal day in the Alphabet world, F has turned evil and is on the hunt for some letters. Join A, B, C, G, N, and more as they track F down and stop him for good.

Number Lore

A mysterious number 1 lands his ship on planet Z to capture X. When the letters fight back, more powerful numbers are created as the series turns into a war between letters and numbers.

Good Qualities That Helped N Get Over His Fears

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. Various likable characters:
   • F, the main villain, is easily the most memorable character in the series. His childhood story is really sad and can be relatable for some. 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.
     • Later on this timeline would be retconned, and F got a happier ending.
   • 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.
     • He sacrifices his own popularity with the other letters to make sure F doesn't grow a miserable life. F is overjoyed by this, where together they get beaten by L and O and go to the cave together.
   • 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.
   • M and P, like N, are also heroes who are willing to stop F in his plans. That was, until the latter was killed.
   • G is a great team leader and also a loving father to his son, g. The other members who teamed up to stop F (A, B, C, U, and V) are enjoyable as well.
4. Amazing and creative character designs:
   • B and V have wings that allow them to fly.
   • C can swim like a sea (C) creature and can bite people when provoked.
   • F has vicious pointy teeth and can spread black ink.
   • H is a ghost (who died because they accidentally smelt a fart).
   • I and J have the ability to shoot cannons out of their heads (referencing their lowercase tittles).
   • K is an insect who has the ability to fly like B.
   • O can roll like a wheel since he is built like one. Also the superheroes in their transformations are top tier.
   • Q resembles a slug and as such moves very slow.
   • S resembles a snake and has the snake talk too.
   • T resembles a hammerhead shark and can swim through the ground.
   • W is a pair of creepy twin sisters who reference "The Shining".
   • X is a skilled ninja with two lavender bands on his head, taking it after Dragon Ball.
   • Z is the entire planet the letters live on.
   • 1 flies in a calculator spaceship and uses X's gem to clone himself to make the equation 1+1=2.
   • 2 has the ability to shoot teeth out of his mouth, shown to be much more dangerous than 1.
   • 3 is a dragon-frog hybrid that can shoot fire beams out of his mouth.
   • 4 resembles a viper of some sort with a complicated design featuring orange eyes, pink teeth, and spiky tail. It can extend it's body pretty much forever and can burrow in the ground too, making it the most complicated character revealed so far.
5. 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:
   • L's gem is a period (.), which allows whoever is affected to stay completely still.
   • M's gem is a comma (,), which allows the victim to be slowed down.
   • N's gem is a semi-colon (;), which forcefully grabs 2 letters together (example: B;C).
   • O's gem is a colon (:), which forcefully grabs one letter on the left side and 2 letters on the other (example: T:MA).
   • P's gem is an exclamation point (!), which allows her to run up to incredibly speeds like The Flash and Sonic the Hedgehog.
   • The question mark (?), which shows whoever uses it what will happen in the future or what happened in the past. Additionally, it can allow one to remember events from another timeline and even protect from danger. It was held by Q during Alphabet Lore and by F and N in Number Lore.
   • X's gem is an asterisk (*), which allows the user to multiply infinitely, also referencing X being the multiplication symbol in math.
   • All of the aforementioned gems are actually F's tears, which he cried out as he was being beaten by the letters.
6. 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".
7. Takes a dark turn for a children-centered topic, including deaths and sad moments.
8. 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) "--. -.-. .- -...".
9. The relationship between G and P is adorable.
10. The music is amazing, thanks to artists like Rapael Krux.
    • 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".
11. Tons of hilarious moments:
    • I being stomped on by F and used as a cannon to destroy J.
    • O saying "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH"
    • Y noticing X's dead body and shouting, you guessed it: "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"
    • One saying his name in a goofy fashion.
12. Similar to object shows, it's popularity got more creators to do their own lores, such as various Number Lores (before the official one released), Russian Alphabet Lore: Reloaded, Greek Alphabet Lore, and more.
13. Thanks to it's popularity, a second season called "Number Lore" started on January 23, 2023. The animation has improved massively, including a brief CGI scene of the calculator ship.
14. It can really hit all sorts of emotional buttons to viewers, especially people who relate to F or view the story as a whole in a personal portrayal of their own struggles in life.
15. It doesn't baby the viewers, and doesn't force the plot down viewer's throats. "VAN" was formed offscreen, unlike how other transformations showed the letters onscreen, allowing us to take that information in ourselves.

Bad Qualities That Turned F Evil

1. Because it's centered around the alphabet, it can be mistaken for something educational for children. Even worse, it got so popular that it spawned Elsagate content.
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.
   • 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).
   • Not just them, but F can be beyond the unlikeable. He goes as far as to literally KILL innocent letters, specifically H and J. Not to mention he forcefully murdered C and X, and tricked G into killing his girlfriend, P, which was absolutely horrifying of F, and certainly not justified from being beaten as a child.
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 debuting. Not to mention the previous BQ reason pointing out that she doesn't really have any likeable traits, other than her cute yet terrifying design.
4. It uses the tragic backstory cliché for why F turned evil.
5. The character deaths can be very sad and too much to witness, especially C and P's.
6. Contains it's fair share of toilet humor, such as F farting out H, you can see his buttocks.
   • Similar note with lowercase L, who F uses A, R, and T to spell "FART" and make him look like he's flatulating.
7. 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.
8. Many letters (most notably after T) don't possess any special characteristics and are just ordinary multicolored letters (like how B has wings, C can swim in the air and bite, and T is a hammerhead shark), making them one-dimensional or not as memorable.
9. Several episodes don't focus on the letter in the name that much. For example, in "U", U doesn't appear until the end.
10. Contains plot holes:
    • Why did L and O bully letters when they were kids?
    • Why didn't F just ask for friendship instead of turning vicious?
    • Why didn't Q go to F's cave and warn F of his future?
    • Why did G go after F? He didn't bully F as a child.
    • How do letters make words that use more than one of the same letter?
11. The series can take several months just to release a part that lasts a few minutes. When "1" one released, Mike had delayed "2" numerous times. It was originally scheduled for late February to early March, and was then pushed back to April, and then finally released on May 16, 2023. "3" was planned for a September release, but got pushed back to November. Thankfully, Mike resolved the issue slightly by releasing "4" and other future episodes in multiple parts.

Trivia

• The creator Mike Salcedo previously worked a full time job at Cyanide & Happiness until Alphabet Lore made him successful enough to move on.

Comments

Loading comments...