Higher Institute Of Villainous Education - Blog Posts

big fan of when a character is a vengeful ghost but they're not even dead

Zero/Laura for the song ask!

You're spoiling me with one of my faves and my fave dynamics, Alex, thank you!

I would normally 100% say this song here, but I've already mentioned it before as my all-time Zero and Laura song:

So here's another!

(A mix of tech and pop with an ominous background voice later on- it's just sinister and mean-spirited without being too low-energy.)

Thanks for the ask!

Vibey song for Ms. Leon

I had to pick Shirley Bassey for this one, I mean come on:

(Something Bond-esque and elegant with a little flair. Also a fun reference for people familiar with a certain animal spy movie :) )

Vibey song for pietor furan

Oh Pietor- the disaster twin. How about this ?

(A heavier voice, a little desperate and repetitive like a man going through the motions- also sounds a bit like dragging footsteps? IDK, simultaneously frenetic and exhausted, like I'm sure someone with his history and family drama is.)

Vibey song for Franz

Hi Mitch! For Franz:

(Perhaps a slight controversial pick here, but I knew it needed to be something fun and high-spirited; after he gets his feet under him in Dreadnought, Franz is consistently the cheerleader and motivator for the team, and he needed a song to match. I've including a song close to my heart- this is the one I've listened to for years as a pick-me-up. One of my dad's favorites too.)

I meant Silver! Silver or Razor, sorry

Also, because I love all my Glasshouse kids, Silver:

(He's pretty much any IAMX song, but this one's both unnerving and kind of painful-sounding. Seems like it'd hurt your throat to sing, which is very Silvercore.)

Song for Razor, Marilliam, Megatron? Whichever one of them you want

Hiii Vul! I'll take all of them, thank you very much :D Razor (My Glasshouse graduate OC, for those unaware):

(Tried to pick something I hadn't mentioned before, but... this is it. Bratty boy music. Sounds like someone's mocking you with a backing chorus.)

Marilliam:

(I'm sorry, I know these are two intelligent, older villains... but to me they're just cute. Maria's confused because how did she get attached to this human piece of lint, and Pike's confused because how did he manage to catch the Contessa's eye? They're adorable your Honor, ergo cute music.)

And Megatron, my beloved who I'm still learning about:

(From an underrated band I love- a very angry, indignant, defiant song. But also punchy and not entirely incorrect in some ways; feels very "you had this (me) coming for a long time" energy)

Cypher, Wing, or Sky's Fall mayhaps,,,,,,,,,

Ooooo yes!

Cypher:

(Does this song fit Wing? Yes- but vibes-wise it’s screaming in anguish, very Cyphercore)

Wing:

(Sounds like something an angry kid could jam out to guitar and sing along to in their room, the kind of therapy Wing needs tbh.)

Sky’s Fall (AKA Evil Kitty)

(I knew it was going to be Saint Motel, it was a tie between this and To My Enemies. Just delightful energetic villainy vibes without being an overt villain song.)

Thanks for the ask, Cooper!

I’m Bored, so… give me a character/ship and I’ll give you a song with their vibes.

Said song might not fit them per se, insomuch as it sounds like them. Idk I’m just in a music mood and I need to be more active too.

The Zero Thoughts are back

Do we think Zero enjoyed being underwater in that submarine? Perhaps because it reminded him of being in his cloning tank? And as everyone was drowning around him, he was just enamored with his first and only experience in the outside world and it was still just floating and looking out while being contained in a tube?

Having Zero thoughts tonight.

It’s one thing to grow up semi-normally, unaware that you were physically modified (Otto), it’s another thing to grow up in a very condensed amount of time, receiving behavioral modifications you did not agree to but are aware of, and knowing about a multitude of experiences that you have both been denied since your birth and know that no one intends to share with you.

He’s very much Overlord 2.0 in that regard, but also… HIVEmind parallels.

enough ‘does otto 2.0 still have the supercomputer microchip’ discourse. do you think otto managed to forgive hivemind for bringing him back in the first place. do you think he woke up angry. do you think he woke up scared. a boy born with his fate already decided and even in death he couldn’t have his autonomy respected. one minute you’re blowing yourself up to save the world and the next minute you’re alive and naked in a body that looks like your old one but just isn’t, a body that so easily could’ve been another version of you, one with its own consciousness, one that might have been born hating you, one you and your memories replaced. wouldn’t that just be like killing a brother. wouldn’t that fuck you up forever.

Here’s a late-night doodle of another member of my Glasshouse OCs: Silver, Razor's teammate and a ruthless wreck of a man. Morose, anxious, and a perpetual pessimist, he's not the ideal Glasshouse graduate, but his infiltration and trapping skills make him a useful asset so long as the others are there to keep him on track. A good rule of thumb is if he's been around, you should watch your step and keep an eye on the sky, lest you stumble into something that might take a bite out of you... I plan to have some refs out for them all at some point where I can share more info, but in the meantime, all you basically need to know is a good chunk of his playlist is IAMX songs.

I really need to start posting art here more, so here, have a fake screenshot from last year.

For those unaware, this is everyone's favorite technopathic clone and a H.I.V.E. OC of mine- Razor, a "graduate" from Raven's year who unfortunately did not get picked up by Nero during the raid on the Glasshouse. He and his team like to make that a problem for everyone, but Razor specifically takes issue with Otto for blowing up Furan's hand and getting her imprisoned. (You could say he's rather attached to her- a lack of parental figures will do that to you. So don't even get me started on his feelings on Raven...) As for the art, I was taking inspiration for the art style of Netflix's Carmen Sandiego (my beloved). If you like animation I highly recommend it! This screenshot definitely shows its age, but I'm still quite pleased with it; I should really try out this style again sometime.

If anyone has any questions about Razor, by all means ask away! He and his team are some of my favorite ocs and I love to ramble : D

Ship bingo: marilliam, Lucy/nigel?

I already answered for Marilliam in a previous ask, but in summary: Scary Woman both loves and hates her Scruffy Chaos Man (he's annoying) (she loves him anyways)

Lucy/Nigel:

I'll confess I've never thought a lot about them before, but I think there's actually a lot of potential there! Lots in common to discuss with the weight of family reputations to maintain. And to me they seem to be on similar energy levels- I can see them spending most of their time quietly doing their own thing in the same room together.

Cyphnero for the bingo

Dumpster, meet fire! (Look how else can you explain the knife scene)

Marilliam, Nero/Elena, and Shelby/Otto for the ask!

Thanks for the ask! First, Marilliam:

I like the idea of them being the school's chaotic couple- nobody knows whether they're married or divorced each week, but regardless of their relationship status they'll stand together between classes and gossip about the rest of the staff. And they make each other worse, but also nonetheless manage to be a cute pair.

Nero/Elena:

I don't have a ton to say about them besides I think that they find villainous aesthetics romantic. All the candles, "threats" disguised as flirting, and so on. They're cute. Shelby/Otto:

These two in a relationship is like a match and gasoline; there will be many glorious fires, missing valuables, and lots of bickering. Alas, to me, they're usually in more of a sibling direction in my head- but others' ideas on the ship are fascinating!

Fourth time now I've tried to propose to my wife and has gone horribly wrong first I put the engagement ring in the wine glass she drank that next time I tried putting it in the cake she ate that at the last point I decided to give it to the waiter to give to her she still ate him too like I've lost so much money but God what a woman

What about your OC would make them a bad roommate?

very fast zero and laura wip inspired by this sick ass m*cbeth poster

my christmas cookie decoration was the survivorship bias diagram

what if your doppelgänger wasn’t evil it was just a person. what if your doppelgänger wasn’t trying to replace you it was just trying to learn to be a person and you were the best model it had. what if your doppelgänger looked at you with your eyes and said with your voice that it just wanted to be loved. what then.

what is your least favorite Canon relationship in hive? (Doesn't have to be romantic)

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

And as for your question, is it fair to say Overlord and everyone? No? Overlord and Xiu Mei then.

(Including a Read More so I can ramble)

The thing about this relationship isn’t that it’s bad— on the contrary, it’s fascinating! But Mark Walden gave us crumbs when there was a whole cake, right there.

Overlord is a delight to me, but as far as villains go, he falls a bit flat. He serves his purpose as Big Evil AI competently, but that’s it. Little motivation beyond a hatred of humanity. While that links into HIVE’s themes of consciousness and where the bounds of artificial vs authentic each begin, it’s still just… basic, for lack of a better term. And there was so much more room for development in the realm of family, especially with the character of Xiu Mei.

Xiu Mei is many things in this series, but her role is primarily that of a mother. Wing’s mother, yes, but she’s also the “mother” of the series’ first true monster, and that fact unfortunately doesn’t appear much because she dies pre-series and Wing never ruminates on his mother’s role in Overlord’s creation. But HIVE does a lot with the concept of childhoods and what happens when they are disrupted or denied.

Overlord and his progeny (with the exception of Otto) are all denied childhoods, and as a result are hedonists with a need for immediate satisfaction and a constant impatience with their circumstances. Overlord’s birth is described as “waking up from a nightmare,” and he’s immediately asked to state his function. Theres no patience there, and no room for properly orienting oneself. Just Xiu Mei’s focus and optimistic haste with the result of her project. But (in my eyes) to that AI, it’s demanding and borderline rude, and we know that AIs can recognize such disrespect through HIVEmind and his treatment. And of course it doesn’t go well for the scientists at all.

But then, there’s Wing. And what’s special about Wing is that Xiu Mei does not make this mistake again. She fights to her last breath to give him a childhood- she hides him from the League as long as she can and does her best to preserve his innocence. And this shows in Wing’s maturity and relatively well-adjusted behavior later on. It’s a big contrast to her first “son.” She and Nero both have the feelings of “once burned, twice shy” characters who are brutally aware of their mistakes, and I wish that had been focused on more. Especially since she seems empathetic and I do think she would wonder how the activation went so wrong- was it something she said? Did? And so on.

I don’t know, I think something should have been done with Overlord’s feelings on his mortal “parents,” especially considering the three main figures involved are strongly linked to themes of parenthood in HIVE. You know how Otto asks why Overlord didn’t keep him locked up somewhere, and why he left him to develop naturally? Maybe it’s because Overlord did not develop at all and he knows innately it’s unnatural and risky. We needed more time with Overlord’s hatred for people being targeted at specific people, potentially his mother who is a competent parent to all but her “firstborn.” We know Overlord was aware of Wing’s upbringing, so there’s certainly room to develop it more.

I’m sure there’s a better way to phrase this all, but in summary:

Tl;dr : Overlord should have had a relationship with his “mother” to compliment HIVEs themes of childhood and its significance, but also because she and Overlord both suffer from a lack of screen time or POV moments that leaves them feeling a bit one note- the Dead Mom and the Bad AI.

He’s your fav character because of that one cool scene, he’s my blorbo because his handful of character traits provide enough for me to ground him in source material while simultaneously extrapolating on him in ways said material cannot due to inherent limits of mass-marketed media

We are not the same

love when characters have to have a domestication arc before you can even consider giving them a redemption arc

ok real talk who was doing it like shelby trinity. thirteen years old at villain school day one she invents the most over the top valley girl persona ever and is fully prepared to stick to the bit for the next six years. actively watching one of her best friends break his ribs and fight for his life and asked him to pick her up a vegetarian meal for the escape flight. one of her best friends has legitimate supernatural computer powers and a photographic memory and yet she keeps pace with him to the point where they’re basically neck and neck in class rankings. shot a guy in the knees because he double dog dared her to. world was ending boyfriend had been kidnapped and she was looking in the dictionary for the word ‘pregnable’ because of a one-off comment. legitimately spends more time stirring the pot between her roommate’s love life than she does on her own. mommy and daddy issues out the wazoo and we never hear about it because she’d rather be spying on the senior boys water polo practice and she does all of this with a cunty blonde ponytail and lockpicks in her shoes. actual girlboss i love herrrrr

Having Zero thoughts tonight.

It’s one thing to grow up semi-normally, unaware that you were physically modified (Otto), it’s another thing to grow up in a very condensed amount of time, receiving behavioral modifications you did not agree to but are aware of, and knowing about a multitude of experiences that you have both been denied since your birth and know that no one intends to share with you.

He’s very much Overlord 2.0 in that regard, but also… HIVEmind parallels.

I wonder if Darkdoom ever protested against Number One before his disappearance or spoke out about him. After the Overlord Incident, Cypher didn’t seem to want anything to do with villainy, but he still told Wing all about Diabolus’ exploits? So he must have still been keeping an eye on G.L.O.V.E.’s dealings for a while.

Ooh, I just discovered your blog. Always glad to discover another H.I.V.E. fan :) The series is my favorite, but I can't help but cringe at the fact that the core four have been at H.I.V.E. for six years and haven't aged a single year

Hi! The same to you, seeing other H.I.V.E. fans out in the wild is a delight!

(No idea if you’ve finished the series, so spoilers below, fyi!)

Yeah, I think it’s a common fandom belief that they do age like normal school kids and graduate at 18. There’s no way Otto meets his dad, gets possessed (multiple times), and loses his girlfriend in one year, give the kid a breather at least! I’ve heard some say it had to do with the publishing company, but who knows? Common sense says they’re ready for college when they get out.

The core four should have been able to get revenge against Dr. Nero somehow.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

Think of all the gray hairs they gave that man— is that not revenge enough?

(Although I’m not opposed to one of them pulling a stunt later with him as a taste of his own medicine… maybe Shel should steal his credit card, or slip him a ridiculous fake ID as payback.)

Mark should have explored the superhero plotline more

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

Yes! Don’t get me wrong, I like the more grounded nature of the series and how most of the powers are experimentation-based, but you can see the remnants of the superhero idea in it and they’re so interesting. I really feel like Cypher was supposed to be tied to that idea somehow given his outfit and the whole “secret identity” thing + his goal technically being saving the world at any cost. Same with H.O.P.E., I feel like they either used to be some sort of anti-powers initiative or some sort of hero team based on their vibes. The series could’ve been really interesting with a superhero twist!

Oh well, at least we have fanfiction.