Web Animation / Alphabet Lore

Alphabet Lore (also known as just Alphabet, Alphabet: The Series, and Alphabet Friends) is a series of animated shorts created by Mike Salcedo of Explosm.net. It started with short animations featuring the letters of the alphabet reimagined as characters, but quickly developed into an ongoing storyline. In the story, F goes on a rampage, assaulting or kidnapping anyone in his path. It's up to the remaining letters to band together and thwart F's evil plans.

The series started on February 3rd, 2022, and new episodes were released daily until "U", where Mike decided to spend more time on the final episodes. The final episode titled "Now I Know My ABCs" was uploaded on October 22nd, 2022. The series can be watched on YouTube (both via playlist and via an official compilation video), Twitter, and Instagram.

Another compilation video titled "Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?" was released on January 20th, 2023.

A sequel series, Number Lore, was teased at the end of "Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?" and debuted with "1" on January 23, 2023. In this story, the numbers invade Planet Z to capture X, and it's up to the alphabet to keep him safe.

Has a character sheet in progress.

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Tropes appearing in Alphabet Lore:

• Advancing Wall of Doom: F used his clones to create one after the party of letters get captured and N is left alone. N uses the ! gem in order to evade it and said wall of goop was used to trap N in F's cavern.
• Alien Abduction: Number Lore as a whole revolves around X being taken hostage by the numbers in their spaceship.
• all lowercase letters: The penultimate episode is titled "nZ" (emphasis on the "n"), as it focuses on the letters back when they were lowercase kids. The lowercase kids also appear throughout the second half of "Now I Know My ABCs".
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • F was made a pariah by the other letters when L and O tricked him into spelling out a bad word. The only letters exempt from this were N, who was pressured into turning against him, Q, who arrived to the scene after F had left, and G and P, who were off being Make-Out Kids some distance away.
  • Q is almost always seen alone and often overlooked by the other letters because he moves very slowly and could barely catch up with anyone.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Subverted. "nZ" made it seem like Z could only express sadness as F's Face–Heel Turn took full effect, but in the present, once N receives Q's question-mark gem, Z uses their ellipsis gem (i.e. the moons orbiting them) to reverse time all the way back to the incident that led to F being driven away by the other letters, allowing him to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• All Your Powers Combined: N uses all the gems of his fellow team members together to finally defeat F.
• Animesque:
  • The members of the LMNOP team gain detailed hair, muscles, and Big Anime Eyes in their superhero forms.
  • Befitting a martial artist, X has Dragon Ball-styled eyes. They're angular and constantly furrowed as an adult, and resemble Kid Goku's as a child.
• Anthropomorphic Typography: This trope is the main premise of the series because all of the characters are the letters of the alphabet.
• Anti-Climax: In his debut episode, X tries to stop F from entering his lair. The two of them decide to drop their gems so they can have a fair fight. F instantly curbstomps X and runs inside with X's gem.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: The transition from Alphabet to Number Lore is signified by the aspect ratio changing from square to fullscreen.
• Bad Black Barf: F is seen throwing up a black substance along with S and R in "Y".
• Big Bad: F is the main villain of the series. In “nZ”, the villain isn’t F but rather both L and O.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: K looks like a giant bug. B also resembles a butterfly.
• Big "WHY?!": Y does this upon finding X's dead body.
• Bittersweet Ending: "Now I Know My ABCs" has Q and Z give N his younger self knowledge of everything that will happen should he stand by, leading him to side himself with F. While the two of them still get attacked by the other letters (mostly L and O) and are forced into solitary at F's mountain home, N still remains F's friend. Z is happy at this revelation, as opposed to tearing up at everything.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: By "nZ" it's revealed that almost every letter bullied F as a kid, leading him to become the murderous psychopath he is now. N tried to help, but he was peer-pressured into leaving F all by himself, something N regrets years later. The only characters that never took part in F's Freudian Excuse are Q, who only showed up after F ran off, G and P, who were off being Make-Out Kids some distance away, and Z, who can't do much as the land that the letters live on.
• Blank White Void: Where the series takes place. F's lair appears to be the only distinguishable landmark. It's not actually that much of a void, it turns out; the end of the series reveals everything takes place upon the planet-sized Z, who happens to be a marble-white and house a white atmosphere that progressively turns cyan as more of space becomes visible.
• Blob Monster: F appears to be made out of a black goo, or at the very least is capable of creating and controlling it.
• Body to Jewel: "nZ..." reveals that the punctuation gems were formed from F's body when its corresponding letter emotionally affected him.
• Book Ends:
  • "nZ..." begins with a young F happily playing with the other letters as an instrumental of the Alphabet Song plays in the background. A somber rendition of the song plays over F's subsequent running away and fallout with N.
  • Chronologically, F's story begins and ends with spelling out "friends" and being on opposite sides of a conflict with N.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • N is clearly the weakest link of his team, and L and O don't respect him very much. Ultimately subverted, as he's the one who finally defeats F after everyone else has failed to do so.
  • U becomes one among the vowels (A, E, I, O, U). When they go to rescue X, U is never given a chance to speak and is left on his own while the others find teammates.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Even after the show developed a storyline, it was still fairly comedic in tone until "U", where the tone shifted severely following C's death.
• Character Title: Each episode (aside from "F") is named after the letter that makes their first appearance in it.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each letter and number has their own color
  • A - Tart Red
  • B - Sky Blue
  • C - Banana Yellow
  • D - Pear Green
  • E - Teal
  • F - Black
  • G - Grape Purple
  • H - Mint Green
  • I - Celeste
  • J - Lavender
  • K - Aureolin Yellow
  • L - Viridian Green
  • M - Maroon Red
  • N - Orange
  • O - Ocean Blue
  • P - Bubblegum Pink
  • Q - Beige
  • R - Wine Red
  • S - Olive Green
  • T - Pewter Grey
  • U - Lime Green
  • V - Navy Blue
  • W - Violet
  • X - Periwinkle
  • Y - Ivory
  • Z - Snow
  • 1 - Denim Blue
  • 2 - Dandelion Yellow
  • 3 - Scarlet Red
• Compilation Movie: After the series was finished, a 15-minute video combining all of the episodes was uploaded here.
  • On January 20th, a 19-minute updated version of it was uploaded here, adding the epilogue and a lot of fan arts at the end, marking this Season 1. There's even a teaser for Number Lore.
• Conjoined Twins: W has a face on each "v", invoking the "double" sound in their name.
• Cradling Your Kill: Happens when G mistakenly shoots P, leaving him heartbroken.
• Create Your Own Hero: The gems that gave L, M, N, O, P, Q and X their superpowers all came from F.
• Create Your Own Villain: The whole reason F became evil was because L and O pulled a prank that lead to the other letters attacking and shunning him.
• Creepy Twins: Adult W mainly appears in a nightmare N has in the former's enponymous episode.
• Dark Is Evil: The main villain F is colored black.
• Dashing Hispanic: N (at least in his super form Ñ), judging by Ñ's accent.
• Deader than Dead: H is a ghost, and F is quick to just eat them and fart them out into a cloud that quickly dissipates into nothing after using H to hide from his pursuers.
• Decoy Protagonist: At the start of the series, G was seemingly the protagonist. He was the first one to call everyone together and appeared to lead the group. But later on in the story, the true protagonist was revealed to be N.
• Dies Wide Open: F's fate after getting blasted off by N's combined powers. His pupils later disappear in the epilogue.
• Disguised Hostage Gambit: G accidentally kills P after F mortally wounds her and then disguises her as himself.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • As payback for F's fart prank, L and O push F around until he accidentally spells out "frick", then frame him for doing it on purpose.
    • The other letters then get angry at F for it, with most of them even beating him up for it.
  • F's actions could arguably be this, as he antagonizes G and P (who didn't even do anything to him as a kid) and most would agree that, while his goal of reestablishing his childhood friendships isn't evil, his method of doing so is fairly extreme.
  • F laughs at L getting run over by E and his bike. How does L respond? Throwing the crash-landed calculator ship into F's mountain (with F on the mountain).
• Downer Ending: "nZ..." ends with F running away and growing into the bitter letter he is today, Q desperately trying to reach the other letters and warn them of the future, and N failing to back up his friend. An epilogue was uploaded some time later, upgrading this to a Bittersweet Ending instead.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This web series used to be a "try to animate one thing per day" until it got out of hand. The daily thing was still there but with plot. Until "U" where Mike decided to spend more time on the final episodes.
• Energy Ball: I and J have the ability to shoot explosive tittles from their heads. F exploits this by using I as a weapon.
  • When they were younger, J used an explosive tittle to break F's teeth which retained their shape as F became older.
• Establishing Character Moment: In D, F's first appearance is punctuated with him immediately rushing in and attacking D seemingly unprompted.
• Establishing Series Moment: If F's abrupt rampage in D and E's episodes isn't any indication, F's episode blatantly signals that the series you're about to watch is about the villainous F, and the fight against him.
• Et Tu, Brute?: As the other letters beat on F in the past, N accidentally trips F over. F looks at N with a hurt expression, as if asking why he would side with the others, but N is too distraught to say anything and stays behind L and O. N is later shown to regret this as he gives F a forlorn glance while the latter leaves, but it's too late for him to do anything about it by that point.
• Everyone Has Standards: While the other letters don't like F very much, they are still upset with L for throwing the calculator ship right into F's mountain. A few of them even spell JERK behind L while giving him a Death Glare.
• Everyone Knows Morse: G refers to the others by their respective morse codes.
• Evil Laugh: 2 does this at the end of his episode after severely injuring M, B, and Y.
• Eyedscreen: When X and F face off, the screen becomes letterboxed. But when it cuts to X, the black bars are revealed to be F's jaws.
• Fair-Weather Friend: F, in the past, was friends with R, I, E, N, D and S. When F was tricked into spelling out the word "Frick," every one of them but N turned on him, with R and I looking at him angrily alongside C and K during the prank itself, E using D as a bat against him and all five of them looking upon him with disdain. Only N tried to help instead of hurt him further, but he was peer pressured into letting things lie as they were. It's also notable that in the epilogue where Z reverses time so N can prevent F from descending into villainy, he is the only one among the group who acts in F's defense.
• Fartillery: f, a, r and t spell “fart” to force a fart out of L, which creates a very strong Wilting Odor that kills h.
• Fell Asleep Driving: In "W", N has a nightmare about him being a coward throughout the series. He is then revealed to have been driving the van containing the main characters while sleeping, and he slams on the brakes as he wakes up.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Shortly before F collapses after G shoots him, his eyes are shown with eyelashes. Shortly afterwards, it's revealed that it was actually P, whom F disguised as himself, who was shot. Even earlier, when F is ominously looming over V, the ends of his "lips" are noticeably rounder than usual, further hinting it's P.
• Foreshadowing:
  • If you pay close attention to which letters F is kidnapping, you might notice he's trying to spell "friends".
  • If one looks closely at the superhero group after P transforms, N is missing his gem, which would become the plot point seconds later.
• Four Is Death:
  • When D (the fourth letter of the alphabet) is introduced, he is quickly attacked and kidnapped by F, setting the stage for the plot.
  • F is seemingly killed by L at the end of Number Lore episode 3. The first part of 4 involves V, A, N and a reluctant L going to check on him, but the second part of 4 shows that F survived the crash.
• Frame-Up: In the past, L and O tricked F into accidentally spelling a bad word with several other letters, and then made it look like he did it on purpose. This led to almost all the other letters turning on F, making him bitter and resentful towards them.
• The Freelance Shame Squad: When F spells out "fart" behind L, the other letters immediately surround L to either gawk or be disgusted (and in H's case, die from the stench).
• Fun with Homophones: Certain letters that have homophonic word equivalents will usually show in scenes where they'd be useful. U asks "You?" when G and N approach, Y is always shown asking "why", and O makes an "oooooh..." sound when he pretends F purposefully spelled a bad word.
• Funny Animal: A few of the letters in a sense: B resembles a butterfly, C some sort of sea creature, F a crocodile, K some other sort of bug, Q a slug, S a snake, and T a hammerhead shark. Even among the numbers, 3 resembles a frog.
• Fusion Dance: When the letters make a word by standing together, they can combine into a form embodying that concept.
  • C, A, and B turn into a cab to catch up with F.
    • Following C's death and B getting severly injured, V, A, and N combine into a van instead.
  • M, A, and P become a map to locate F's next target.
  • G and N recruit U to make a gun.
  • A young F, R, I, E, N, D, and S all combine to become friends. As an uppercase letter, F is trying to kidnap all the letters involved to spell this once more.
  • A young F combines with A, R, and T as part of a prank on L.
  • A young F accidentally combines with R, I, C, and K to spell "Frick", which has dire consequences.
  • Played for Drama in N's nightmare in "W". He imagines C, O, W, A, R, and D transforming into an actual coward, but all they do is transform into him and shame him for his inability to save P and C. A younger rendition of this fusion appears in nZ, shaming N for not helping F when he was in need.
  • E makes I and K combine with him and B into a bike to chase after the calculator ship.
• Genius Loci: Z is a giant living planet on which the show takes place.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Played for Drama when F as a lowercase letter was made to accidentally spell... "frick". The rest of the letters turned on him because of this, leading to his Start of Darkness.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: F beats up E using D.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Moments before C’s death, we can see F’s wide open mouth, complete with saliva.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: N has one in "W". He feels guilty for not interfering when P and C were in danger. "nZ..." reveals another layer to this guilt, as the episode reveals an incident where N didn't intervene when the others beat up F.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Right as F is about to find N in "U", C bites F to draw his attention. This leads to C's death.
• History Repeats: After N manages to save his friendship with F in the new timeline, the two would eventually have another falling out in Number Lore, this time caused by a disagreement between them.
• Hypocrite: R, I, C and K got mad at F for spelling "frick", even though they themselves were also involved with it.
• I Surrender, Suckers: After 1's attempt to capture X is thwarted and defeated, he is reduced to Inelegant Blubbering and quickly enters his spaceship and flies off. Except 1 returns immediately afterward to capture X again, this time from the comfort of his spaceship.
• Jerkass: L and O look down on N when he loses the Semi-Colon gem, and were the cause of F being the menace he is now.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: L has a mandible that could give the Crimson Chin a run for his money. J also has a pretty sizeable chin.
• Leitmotif:
  • The LMNOP team has "Cheerful Happy Anime Song J-Pop Instrumental" by Tak_Music.
  • F is generally accompanied by a sinister orchestral sting.
  • X has a lot of Japanese-sounding leitmotifs.
• Level-Map Display: M, A, and P can transform into a map that shows the location of every letter in the vicinity.
• Locked in the Dungeon: What F does to the letters he kidnaps.
• Martial Arts Headband: X wears two on the top of his head, and is introduced trying to initiate a duel.
• McNinja: X is a ninja-like character, but he seems to have a Texas accent.
• Merging Machine: 1's spaceship contains an addition machine that can add two numbers together to create new numbers.
• Me's a Crowd: The asterisk gem grants the ability to self-duplicate. X uses it to initiate a Doppelgänger Attack, while F hides clones of himself all over the walls of his lair to trap trespassers in their goo.
• Monster-Shaped Mountain: The mountain cave that F resides in is shaped like his head, and is the only notable landmark on planet Z.
• Multi-Part Episode: On Twitter, "Y" is two episodes, while "n" and "Z..." (compiled as "nZ..." on other sites) make up the finale.
• My God, What Have I Done?: G has this response after killing P, believing her to be F.
  • In the end, the other letters realize all too late that F's Face–Heel Turn was brought about by their own actions, and that they were too late (and by that point, virtually powerless) to put a stop to his actions before they dealt irrevocable damage and cost some of the letters their lives.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The LMNOP squad (Nice: N and P, Mean: L and O, In-between: M).
• One-Letter Pun: Y's whole gimmick; it was literally her first line. When X died, Y screamed "YYYYYYYYY?!"
• Overly Long Gag: L, M, N, O and P each get an elaborate Transformation Sequence in their introductory episodes (though P's is the shortest). By the time it's O's turn, F just lets out an exasperated sigh and waits for the transformation to be over.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: H is a ghost that appears to be made of some kind of gas, as they dissipate when F farts them out. Despite dying as a child, they appear as an adult ghost in the present, indicating they can also age normally.
• Pietà Plagiarism: G cradles P's body after she dies.
• Pink Means Feminine: P, the only explicitly female character, is colored pink. If F chewing on a piece of her after the reveal of his Disguised Hostage Gambit is anything to go by, she's made of bubblegum.
• Pokémon Speak: The letters can only say their own names.
• Power Crystal: The members of the LMNOP team (as well as X, Q and Z) each carry a gemstone shaped like a punctuation mark. Each of these gems grants the user a special ability that corresponds to the punctuation mark it's based on.
  • The period gem, held by L, can freeze people in place.
  • The comma gem, held by M, can slow down time.
  • The semicolon gem, held by N, can connect two things together.
  • The colon gem, held by O, acts as a magnet of sorts, drawing in any nearby letters.
  • The exclamation point gem, held by P, grants Super-Speed and allows its user to release a sonic blast from their mouth.
  • The asterisk gem, held by X, allows its user to self-duplicate.
  • The question mark gem, held by Q, gives its user visions of the past and future.
  • Z has the ellipsis gems orbiting around him. The epilogue reveals that these allow him to reverse time.
• Precision F-Strike: Downplayed, deconstructed, and Played for Drama: F was tricked into spelling the word "frick", which motivated most of the rest of the alphabet into beating up and abandoning F. J in particular damaged his teeth, while N was too scared into doing anything about this. These events were what brought about F's Start of Darkness.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: G somehow manages to deliver one to F... at least, who he thinks is F.
  G: GG.
• Primary-Color Champion: Inverted. The two main heroes, G and N, are purple and orange respectively.
• Pun-Based Title: On YouTube and Instagram, "nZ..." can be read as a pun on "and Z", how Z is introduced in some versions of the Alphabet Song.
• Reduced to Dust: After J is vaporized, he leaves behind a J-shaped pile of ash.
• Robo Cam: Once 1 exits the spaceship, he manifests a hi-tech visor to look for X, and the other letters identified by the visor briefly flash in wireframe and also have their names displayed in binary code. The visor is also able to point out the location of X for 1.
• Rule of Seven: There are 7 punctuation gems, excluding the one that Z has.
• Running Gag: Q has been following the heroes ever since his debut episode. However, he's so slow that he always arrives just when they're leaving again. In some shots you can see him in the background. It's later revealed that he had important information about F and he has been trying to relay this information for years.
  • This gag is continued in Number Lore's "1", where Q sees the calculator spaceship approaching the planet and desperately attempts to warn Y, M, X and B, who keep moving away from him. It takes until everyone reaches adulthood that Q is able to catch up to them, but the moment he does so, the spaceship lands in front of the group.
• Sailor Senshi Send-Up: The LMNOP team has Transformation Sequences that resemble the ones in the '90s Sailor Moon anime, and their super forms include golden gem-encrusted ringlets like the circlets seen on the Sailor Senshi. In particular, L and O's closeness with each other and blue-green and blue colors respectively may remind some of Sailors Neptune and Uranus respectively, while M, with his red color, black hair, and macho nature may remind some of Sailor Mars.
• Say My Name: A subtle one, when G realizes that he mistakenly shot P, his Skyward Scream is morse code for the letter F.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: L and O are revealed to be a pair of these in "nZ...". As kids, they would pick on the other letters by pulling mean-spirited stunts. They are less cruel as adults and even act as non-corrupt heroes, but still hold N in contempt for being the weakest of the LMNOP team.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: V's reaction when the letters reach F's cave.
• Screw Yourself: Downplayed. As 1 and his clone pilot their spaceship together, their holo-hands accidentally touch each other, causing both of them to blush and giggle sheepishly.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The epilogue of the series has Z reverse time after Q gives N the knowledge of what would occur in the future. N stands up for F when he was beaten up by the other letters, getting attacked himself but remaining friends with F, and preventing F's Start of Darkness despite the two of them being seen off by the rest.
• Shapes of Disappearance: When N's semicolon gem is stolen by F, it is noted by a close-up at the bracelet it was supposed to be in, with a dotted outline blinking at where the gem was.
• Shout-Out:
  • "I" is a reference to the Pixar logo, with F stomping on I the same way Luxo Jr. does.
  • R is based on Rodney Dangerfield.
  • In "3", E performs the AKIRA bike slide after Z stopped the Calculator ship from leaving with X.
• Skyward Scream: G does this towards F after P is killed, while Y screams a Big "WHY?!" upon finding X's dead body.
• Slow-Motion Pass-By: G notices P as she rushes by the cab to fight F.
• Sssssnake Talk: S, who even looks snakelike to match.
• The Smurfette Principle: P is seemingly the only major female member of the cast. K, W, and Y also appear to be female, but they don't have a big role in the story.
• The Stinger: The new compilation video has a post credits scene featuring 1.
• Stylistic Suck: Prior to the release of "nZ...", Mike released this.
• Superpowered Alter Ego: In his superform, N becomes Ñ.
• Super-Speed: P gains a significant speed boost in her super form.
• Super Team: L, M, N, O and P are part of a Magical Girl Warrior superhero team.
• Supervillain Lair: F has one. Appropriately enough, It's shaped like him.
• Taking the Bullet: Subverted. Q tries to protect M from 2's teeth bullets, but he is too slow to do so. Cut to M falling unconscious after 2 rapid-fires his teeth at him.
• Terrestrial Sea Life: The hammerhead-shark-like T appears to be swimming through the ground.
• Thememobile: The spaceship 1 travels in is shaped like a calculator.
• Time Skip: A humorous one to Hand Wave the letters being in their uppercase forms for Numbers Lore; just after F and N retreat to F's lair in the retconned timeline, Q notices 1's approaching ship and realizes it's headed straight for Y, M, X and B, so he hurries over to warn them. This being Q, he doesn't get to them until the letters have all grown up.
• Toilet Humor: H gets farted out by F in the former's debut episode after being consumed by the latter.
  • In a flashback in "n", F spells out "fart" to prank L and O. H, still alive at the time, takes a whiff and dies on the spot.
  • In Number Lore, K poops out a pile of eggs after the numbers' ship almost crashes into her and J.
• Token Evil Teammate: With the Numbers becoming the main antagonists of Number Lore, F is now this to the letters. While reformed in the new timeline, he still bears a grudge against the other letters (besides N), refusing to save X and laughing at L and O's expense.
• Took a Level in Badass: N, previously shown to be the weakest of the LMNOP team, eventually defeats F by combining the power of all the punctuation gems.
• Torso with a View: The ultimate fate of P and F.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Subverted and lampshaded. "O" shows shows F waiting out O's transformation with a bored look on his face, and in "P", by the time the eponymous letter is done with her transformation, F is already long gone.
• Transformation Sequence: A whopping five in a row in episodes L-P.
• Travel Montage: Used in "1" when Q darts off to the other letters slowly and steadily, even going around in a circle.
• Triumphant Reprise: The Alphabet song instrumental gets this in the epilogue after F and N get beaten up by L and O then go to F's cave.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: F was originally as affable as the other letters spelling out the word "friends". He only became evil after L and O's petty actions set off a chain of events that left him ostracized from the rest, causing him to grow bitter and resentful.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Zigzagged. F kickstarts the plot by kidnapping D and E, which leads to G and his companions and the LMNOP team to mobilize in an effort to stop him. However, L and O indirectly caused all of this mayhem before the series began by choosing to pick on N, which led F to retaliate and get framed for saying a bad word, leading to his status as a pariah and descent into villainy.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The letters have the ability to transform into objects by spelling out a word. For instance, C, A and B can combine to become a taxi cab.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Quite a few of the letters only ever get to introduce themselves before something bad happens to them—usually due to F. While a few of them do get a bit more of an active role as lowercase letters, others aren't exactly as fortunate.
  • J only has about a second of screentime before he is vaporized by F.
  • S is Swallowed Whole by F immediately after he introduces himself.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: F's plan is to collect the letters necessary to spell "friends", no matter how many letters he needs to beat up or kill to do it.
• We Used to Be Friends: F, R, I, E, N, D, and S literally spelled "friends" as lowercase letters. Thanks to the actions of L and O, F was made a pariah by the other letters, and N was pressured into not standing up for him, leading to F's Face–Heel Turn. In the present, this eventually leads to N being forced to kill F once it becomes clear that even though the latter apparently wanted the old band back together again, his methods were still over the line, and led to the loss of multiple innocent lives along the way. It gets so bad that the only way to truly restore order is for Z to reverse time itself, allowing N to act in F's defense and prevent the whole thing from happening altogether.
• Wham Episode: "U". The letters attempt to face F head-on, but are quickly overpowered. By the end of the episode C is dead, B is seriously wounded and F managed to get away with P and all the punctuation gems.
  • Then comes "Y". The heroes finally arrive at F's lair. They get trapped one by one and N is the only one left. N uses the powers of all the punctuation gems at once to finally kill F, only to then discover that all F wanted was to be friends with his captives and N again. Q is also revealed to own the question mark gem.
  • "nZ..." is a Whole Episode Flashback to when the letters were still young, and shows why F came to resent the others and did what he did. In addition, the origin of the punctuation gems is revealed to have been from the abuse of F in his youth, and the episode ends with the reveal that the world the letters live in is the planet-sized letter Z.
  • "Now I Know My ABCs," the epilogue. Z and Q combine the powers of their gems to give N's past self the knowledge of what will happen in the future, so he jumps to F's defense to avert it, preventing him from becoming the murderous psychopath the series shows us.
  • "Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?", the compilation video, offers 2:
    • The thumbnail explicitly calls the series Season 1, implying that a season 2 is on the works.
    • The video ends on a scene revealing that said season 2 will be focused on X and on new characters, the Numbers, and reveals the release date: January 23rd (or 1/23)
• Wham Line: 1/23, the very last image of the compilation video, showing both the release date of season 2 and silhouettes of 3 new characters: the Numbers.

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