Draft:Alphabet Lore

Alphabet Lore is an American animated web series created by Mike Salcedo, an animator known for his work on Cyanide & Happiness and The Stockholms for Explosm Entertainment. The series initially began as a collection of short animations depicting anthropomorphized letters of the alphabet, but quickly changed into an overarching storyline that progresses through the course of the series. The first episode, titled "A", was released on February 2, 2022 on Twitter, and new installments (each named after what letter makes their debut) were released on a daily basis throughout February until the episode "T". Salcedo later announced the remaining episodes would be released sporadically, and as a result, one episode was released per month. The final episode of the series, "Z", was released on August 8, 2022, and an epilogue released on October 22, marking the series' official conclusion.

The sequel series titled "Number Lore", taking place after the epilogue, was first released in January 2023.

Plot
On a white backdrop, the letters A, B, and C introduce themselves by saying their names (their way of communication). F approaches D and E and attacks both of them, taking them to his cave, where they are chained to the walls and visibly frightened as F plots his next victims.

G, after being trampled by F, calls upon A, B, and C to form a cab to initiate their search for F. After using H as a hiding spot, F sucks up H and emits her as flatulence, and squashes I to weaponize as a gun. He shoots a beam at J, who is obliterated on the spot. As K enters the scene, she is attached by F to his back as a flying device.

As he prepares to kill the four letters, L and M show up, and use their gems (in the shape of punctuation marks) to transform into superheroes, freeing K and causing F to lose his ability to fly. N, becoming Ñ using his gem, tries to reach I, but realizes he's too short and flees. O and P arrive and transform using their gems, much to F's annoyance. It is revealed soon that G and P are both partners as the two letters blush at each other. N loses his gem and devolves back to normal. Q inches his way to the other letters over J's ashes, trying to tell them something important, but is too slow to catch up. N is being abandoned by L and O, as P comes to his defense. G uses A, M, and P to create a map, and find out F is causing more trouble.

He captures R and S, and hammers T to the ground, and along the way, collects two gems, which appear on his belly after he consumes them. Using these to his advantage, he traps B and C together in a gem shaped like a semicolon, and uses one shaped like a period to freeze G in place. B and C are stuck together by the semicolon gem. P and M transform into superheroes again to fight F, but he is too powerful for them to defeat. A and M get stuck to T with the colongem. Attempting to steal N as he did with other letters, F is bitten by C, who then turns on him and shreds C to pieces, killing him. P is taken away by F much to G's horror, and B is left heavily injured, as the other letters mourn the losses of their friends. G approaches the letter U for assistance, and together with N, they form a gun. V is cornered by a shadowy figure, and to save him, G shoots the silhouette. To his horror, he discovers the figure was P with a bite taken out of her. She succumbs to her injuries and dies in G's hands, and he curses vengeance against F, who has obtained another gem.

W emerges in a void, and other letters join them to spell the word "coward". N then appears in this void, with spotlights shining on each injured or dead letter. When he walks towards them, G stands in his way and refuses to let him get any closer. In frustration, N hits G, who is actually F. This turns out to be a nightmare, and he wakes up in a van with the other letters. They head towards F's cave, as Q still tries to gain on them.

F runs to his cave, but the entryway is blocked by X, who uses his asterisk gem to multiply around the cave. F gives up his gems, and the clones of X merge back into one. However, F shreds him to death akin to C, and takes back all of the gems, including X's. Y sobs and screams over the death of X, and V runs away in fear when they reach their destination. The other letters proceed to enter the cave. F has put out black ooze that takes over the cave's interior, and one by one, each letter is trapped by the goo. N is face to face with F, and remembering everything that had happened, he gains the courage to take F down once and for all. He reclaims all of the gems F had stolen (except for X's) and transforms into a hybrid of all of his friends' superhero forms. Using his newfound power, he fires a rainbow-colored ray at F that is seen by all of the surviving letters outside the cave. This leaves a hole in F's stomach, and he dies instantly. The ooze dissolves and the letters that were caught in it are freed. At this point, N realizes that F's intention with stealing other letters was to spell the word "friends". However, none of the letters knows what it means.

Q finally shows up, and a gen shaped like a question mark exits his mouth, which causes a flashback to the past. N, now a lowercase child, spells out "friends" with F, R, I, E, D, and S, and they start dancing to the alphabet song. L and O look on in disapproval, forming a bow and arrow. Noticing this, all of the letters run away, except for N, who is hit by L and then teased. F comforts N and plans to give L and O payback. He assembles the word "fart" with A, T, and R, causing L to let out a large cloud of gas. Various letters laugh at L. One of them, H gets killed and turned into a ghost because of its unpleasant smell. F and N laugh about this, but L and O become even more hostile towards F. They beat up F, causing him to cry out the gems which they would use later on, and F is pushed in front of R, I, C, and K, spelling out "frick", a forbidden word. O brings this to everybody's attention, and they become angry at F for the word he started. All of the letters gang up on F and attack him mercilessly, and he falls to the ground bruised and with broken teeth from J's cannonball. L, M, and O surround N, preventing him from helping out F. N, too scared to help F, hides behind O. F furiously runs away and tramples over G who is being kissed by P. The gems from F's tears rise and are given to L, M, N, O, P, and X, while Q eats the question mark gem. This allows him to see the future the series occurs in. He tries to alert the others of this, but is too slow to achieve this. With everybody now against him, F sulks to his cave, heartbroken. He goes to the top of his mountain, and sees the word "coward" surrounding N who looks at F one more time with sadness. We transition to present day, with a grown-up F now spiteful of the other letters. As we zoom out, we see a very sad Z with three period gems orbiting around them.

In the epilogue, the flashback ends and the letters become saddened at F's tragic backstory. Z figures out how to reverse time on them by zooming the gems orbiting them backwards quickly. The letters notice this and Q gives N the question mark gem so he won't forget what happens if he doesn't help F. Everyone is rewinded back to lowercase after F is beaten by the others. While L, M, and O surround N, who instead of hiding behind O, uses the question mark gem to figure out what will happen if he doesn't take action. N goes to stand up for F, much to everyone's surprise. The two letters are beaten by L and O, but they are very happy to be friends. They cry out the semicolon and question mark gem, of which they own now. The ampersand gem is formed before it splits and the gems go back to the two letters. They happily go towards F's cave. N hugs P and cries out the exclamation mark gem in joy before going to join F. F and N sit happily on the balcony while Z, also very delighted now they are at peace, fall asleep.

Production
Alphabet Lore was conceived in late 2021 when Mike Salcedo decided to make an "animating exercise" by making one animation a day based on the English alphabet. He did not expect the videos to become viral, but by the time T was released, the series had over 20 million views on YouTube. After T's release, the videos were released weekly or monthly. Sometimes even videos took multiple months to animate.

Reception
Alphabet Lore received acclaim from audiences, praising its animation, storytelling, characters, voice acting, humor, and emotional weight.