BoRn ThE wAy I aM

Uh... where do I start without shaming myself? Actually, I don't think I can shame myself much more than I already have. This picture speaks for itself.

If you're still not with me, then you've probably never had to see what I have seen more times than I can count. This fellow is No Heart, the incredibly awful villain from Care Bears Family, a rather old cartoon that didn't see much air time, as it only had three seasons, 49 episodes, and ran it's course from September 13, 1986 to December 25, 1988. Actually, other than No Heart, there aren't really any other significant villains and most of them are working for No Heart to begin with, which means No Heart pretty much runs the villain franchise in the show. Supposedly he has creatures called Sinister Shadows roam around his base that feed off the positive feelings of others. Problem is, there are a large number of occasions where they aren't even present even though they're supposed to be guarding the castle and even if they are around, the Care Bears can practically do nothing and defeat them. The only other people around the castle, which I feel the need to note the Care Bears are pretty much openly aware of its location and can get inside with ease, are his incredibly horrid minion Beastly, who will actually sabotage his master's plans to keep his job, and Shreeky, who, akin to her name, spends most of her time yowling at others. Not only does No Heart pretty much openly despise her, but her shrieks actually interfere with his magic, which causes him to accidentally transform into random animals whenever she makes such noise. I guess I'm starting to understand why Ho Heart spends most of his time alone, whether he's plotting his next plan, trifling around with some kind of hobby, or doing almost nothing. He's actually a pretty dark character considering the fact that he's a villain in a Care Bears show, a show created for very young kids. I only dub him as 'incredibly awful' because he's actually got some pretty impressive powers and strong magical abilities, but constantly gets his ass handed to him by the Care Bears. Now, we have to note that these are Care Bears, who will never show violence towards anything. If they stepped on a bug, they would probably hold a huge funeral for it. So I can't help but dub him as 'incredibly awful' because of this. However, I understand that this show is made for kids and that if you're going to attempt to actually put a serious villain (serious meaning someone who didn't do something totally pointless to be dubbed the villain (like stealing a ball the kids were playing with or something) but actually something that would be a serious threat) in your show that you have to constantly have the villain fail... horribly. Especially if your villain is actually trying to do something pretty nasty, like No Heart's generalized goal of world domination and to a lesser extent, removing positive emotions from the world, which is actually a much bigger deal than it would sound. You've got to make it so that there is pretty much no doubt that the heroes are going to be able to defeat the villain whenever he (or she) tries something because you have to remember who your audience is. But still... I feel bad that he has to be botched like this when he has a lot of potential to be a nasty, memorable villain just because he got unlucky enough to be the villain in a Care Bears show.

The shame, however, comes with the fact that I not only drew him to begin with out of all other things I could've chosen, but was even able to draw him from memory and make no mistakes in the design. I did do a few things differently, but this wasn't because I forgot the design; it was me trying to stylize a little. Now, anyone who knows me or at least keeps an eye on my postings will probably be aware that I haven't posted a serious piece of art for a very long time. This was because I was suffering from art block and NOTHING came out right. So I can add to this shame that out of all things to break my art block, it had to be a Care Bears character. I sat in bed for two hours at one in the morning drawing this and being super meticulous about the details.

To add to the shame, I actually LIKE the show. I've seen all 49 episodes because the daycare I work for doesn't have a lot of variety in things they can show the kids, but they have to show them something because of their schedule. Thing is, this 'down time' can last anywhere from 1-2 hours, which means that you're gonna be sitting there for a while. Also, the kids seem to prefer Care Bears over anything else they have to show. I still don't really like the Care Bears themselves and it took me a while to stop being bugged by the two things that bothered me. The first was EVERYONE'S names (including poor No Heart here) had a name that had the word Heart in it, generally at the end. Now, No Heart never bothered me because I thought it was a pretty cool name for a villain, but every goddamn Care Bear having Heart in their name was annoying for a long time and to be quite honest, it still don't like it. I tolerate it. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that there were other animals besides Bears. Now, I knew before this show that the franchise had attempted numerous times before to create character that weren't bears, but as the franchise is called Care BEARS, it bothered me to see other animals running around with the same exact abilities as the Care Bears. I'm actually not fully over this one. I still don't like the non-bears being around, but I've, for reasons I don't know, latched on to one non-bear in particular and it would be the lion Brave Heart. I don't exactly know why I dislike him so much, but I do know that I'm constantly picking at the fact that he doesn't generally stay true to his name. The characters usually have names that point out a prominent personality trait in them. So you would assume Brave Heart would be brave, which might also explain why they made him a lion, but he ran away from shit more times than he actually tried to combat it, which is completely contradictory. Despite my constant complaining, I still love the show, short as it is, and adore No Heart. I said it. I LIKE the goddamn Care Bears villain.

Oh and because I totally need to know this, he was born on Friday the 13th and is over 200 years old. I'm assuming he has siblings. He kind of HAS to since he has a niece, but I haven't looked that deep yet. Also, I didn't mean for there to be THIS much purple.

Let the shame begin.