Futakuchi, General Termagant and Fia Revisited: The Dark Lord's Underlings of Utmost Importance (EK Development Article)

In 2021 and 2022, respectively, I posted two articles covering three characters from my Christian-adjacent adventure/fantasy/dramedy animated series concept Eternity Kingdoms. The first was a double feature covering series antagonist the Dark Lord's main two lackeys Futakuchi (based on the futakuchi-onna of Japanese myth) and General Termagant (a large cyborg man intent on making himself wholly mechanical); the second was about Fia Darkmatter the First (the Dark Lord's bratty magically-conceived daughter). While I was proud of these articles at the time, I feel as if I wrote them too early on in the series concept's development and that all three characters deserve a do-over article.

Ergo, as I did with Lucian in 2023, I've decided to revisit all three and showcase how their designs have changed for the better and better explain them. So, join me, won't you?

ORIGINS/DESIGN HISTORY

Futakuchi

Futakuchi was the first of the trio to be conceived. Of the three, she goes the farthest back because she was originally a character for a now-long-abandoned idea I had for an animated series set in a world where Japan discovered America first and modern-day versions of Japanese myths played out in the present. That show's character roster had a villainous futakuchi-onna (that is, a two-mouthed woman) as the second-in-command to its main antagonist, and I believe that idea was good enough to stick around for when I started work on Eternity Kingdoms.

I often describe Futakuchi as "an evil Janine from Ghostbusters", and that's still very much true. What many of you didn't know was that she was based specifically on a futakuchi-onna featured in the ninja-themed Super Sentai series Shuriken Sentai Nininnger (the source material for the monsters and fight scenes from 2017-2018 series Power Rangers Ninja Steel). I was big into PR back then thanks to the surprising excellence of Dino Charge and was doing all sorts of research on what was to come, and the looks of that futakuchi-onna inspired me when designing her.

The Ninninger influence is best seen in how I've placed Futakuchi's second mouth on the side of her head and how she's dressed. See, in traditional artistic renderings of the futakuchi-onna, her second mouth is on the back of her head and is this huge, gaping maw compared to her dainty lips on the lower half of her visage. However, the Ninninger monster had her second mouth on her head as if it was a flower or hair accessory mounted in her hair, and that inspired me to place Futakuchi's second mouth where I did. And while it wasn't as extravagant as her Ninninger inspiration's garb, Futakuchi's business casual uniform was influenced by that one monster's clothing.

Her very earliest design was clad in a mix of purple, bronzish yellow, gray, and magenta (the last of which being only visible on her boots). Various refinements made between this initial design and the version of her that was used in EK's development between late 2019 and early 2023 included changing how her eyes looked many times, flip-flopping on whether or not her ears should be visible, and making her hair bigger. However, once early 2023 rolled around, I made the decision to give her a major design overhaul.

I reworked her business casual garb to look more like a kimono, gave her a black necklace, and excised the bronzish yellow from her palette in favor of more purple. In fact, the bronzish yellow sleeves she used to have were the main reason I chose to redesign her in the first place. While it helped establish visual continuity between her and the Dark Lord (something critical for the majority of the Dark Lord's underlings), it looked rather gaudy and somewhat out of place compared to her mostly cool palette. Ergo, the redesign simplified her palette down to just lilac, purple, gray, magenta, black and white.

Termagant

Somehow, General Termagant is the Eternity Kingdoms character with the most design changes under his belt. Even Carouselle, for as much as I've fiddled with her design, only comes in at like seven revisions between my first pre-EK sketch of her and her 2022-onwards design. Conversely, Termagant has had about ELEVEN different designs over the last six years.

His earliest designs were far more humanoid, but as time went on, his proportions grew more and more exaggerated. He gained visible screw-like knees that mirrored his elbows, his torso was simplified and then recomplexified, his hands changed color and shape multiple times, and his face has been streamlined here and there. For the sake of not crashing whatever device you're viewing this article on, I'm only going to include an image of his very first design and his most recent design just to show you how much he's changed.

Unlike Futakuchi or Fia, Termagant's got a lot of inspirations that have remained part of him since his conception. His pronounced underbite was inspired by Bulkhead from Transformers Animated and Trap Jaw from Masters of the Universe and his proportions were patterned after rebellious Eggman robot E-123 Omega from Sonic the Hedgehog. From a conceptual level, I wanted him to be the General Grievous of Eternity Kingdoms, a cyborg warrior hiding his inner cowardice beneath an intimidating exterior.

Fia

For a character who won't make her first appearance until Season 2 of EK, Fia was designed remarkably early in EK's development- sometime in December 2019, I think. I had the idea of giving the Dark Lord a daughter only two months into Eternity Kingdoms's development- basically, the Dark Lord would watch a bunch of Hallmark movies, decide he wanted a daughter because the schmaltz got to him, and then magically create her. In designing her, I aimed to incorporate every trait of the Dark Lord's design but twisted into something a touch feminine.

Her hair was based on the black-to-orange transition seen in the Dark Lord's boots and the Dark Lord's hood, her purple and gray were lighter versions of those seen in the Dark Lord's garb, and I gave her similarly shaped eyes to her papa. Her eyes would become more traditionally shaped over the following year, but otherwise she stayed true to this more teenage design. However, the more I worked with her character, the more I became dissatisfied with her early design.

Since I intended for her to be a huge daddy's girl, I felt she needed to look more like she was 8-10 than the very adult form she originally had. This isn't to say she wouldn't have worked with her old design, but I wanted some age and body diversity among the show's villains and some of what I wrote for Fia originally felt way too young for her original design. Ergo, in May of 2021, I redesigned Fia to be far more child-shaped and reworked her outfit so it had even more of the Dark Lord's imagery integrated into her (see her dress mirroring his cape).

Ever since then, this new younger Fia has stuck around and undergone the most minor of changes. I made her squatter, removed the broken star patterns on her dress (kept forgetting to draw them), made her hair bigger, and filled out her wings. She's arguably one of my favorite designs to fiddle with and draw, and a lot of that is thanks to her current look.

FUTAKUCHI: The Monsteress's Dilemma

Futakuchi's origins are a bit fuzzy, but the general idea is that she was a futakuchi-onna from Stokeron (the monster kingdom and Lucian's home) who was caught up in a struggle between the Dark Lord's forces and Stokeron, was badly wounded during the conflict, and was "healed" by the Dark Lord in such a way that erased her memories of her old life, leaving her only with the memory of his "kindness" towards her. This bought him her loyalty, and so Futakuchi became the Dark Lord's loyal second-in-command and his mouthpiece (tee hee) to the nations which he sought to conquer (as he cannot leave his "prison" of Novalo Mountain due to being bound there by magical chains). She has borne witness to both his greatest successes and his greatest failings- much to his chagrin.

In the present day, Futakuchi maintains her role as the Dark Lord's number two and primary envoy to the rest of the world. She enters the series shortly after frail farm girl Takoyaki Bat-Pothenna, uppity vampire prince Lucian Evernight, and dudebro drifter by choice Prodigus Lionheart are appointed as the "Chosen Ones" by wise old sage Solomerlin and informs her master of their calling. Immediately following this, she incites a mob outside of Takoyaki's home and has it destroyed, leaving the COs on the run and giving Takoyaki a personal reason to want to bring the Dark Lord and his forces down. From there, Futakuchi becomes a recurring threat to the Chosen Ones throughout the series.

From a characterization standpoint, I envision Futakuchi as the Harley Quinn* to the Dark Lord's Joker. She's a snippy, flamboyant, sarcastic villainess often on the receiving end of her boss's mistreatment, giving her a layer of tragedy and sympathy from the audience. Of course, that doesn't excuse any heinous things she does (rule number one for writing sympathetic villains: they're still villains, so they have to pay for what they've done regardless of how much you feel for them), but it'd helps make the audience want her to get out of her situation and understand where she's coming from.

*By "Harley Quinn", I mean Harley as she appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, as created by Paul Dini, designed by Bruce Timm, and voiced by the late great Arleen Sorkin of Days of Our Lives fame, not whatever DC morphed her into over the last eleven years. Have to include that clarification because people are gonna think I based Futakuchi on how Ms. Quinzel was written in Suicide Squad 2016, Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad (TSS is actually pretty good, but it's still working off of the flawed foundation established by the first movie and BoP), or Joker: Folie a Deux. The sooner we get an BTAS-accurate adaptation of Harley in live-action, the better, but that's not important right now.

Make no mistake, though- Futakuchi's not a terribly nice lady, regardless of her situation. She's extremely attention-hungry, she's rather vain (often taking time to make sure that both of her mouths are kept in good condition; I can imagine a lot of fun visual gags involving her second pair of lips), and she has a very, very short temper. While it'd be easy to assume that these vices were ones that emerged following her revival-induced amnesia, the way I see it, the Dark Lord only amplified flaws that Futakuchi already had before she fell under his spell (something that will be true for all of his underlings he doesn't create via magic).

Part of the humor behind Futakuchi is the idea of her basically being the secretary to the EK equivalent to the Biblical devil. She's helping the Dark Lord carry out these great evils with the mindset of it being her 9-5, and the way in which she speaks about her work accentuates that, with her using corporate speak and figures to describe the Dark Lord's military advancements or political swindling of the nations. For example, "Your defeat will bring about 150% increases in productivity for those we currently have enslaved because of their perceived saviors' fall. Without any hope, they'll resign themselves to their work!"

Being a busybody is Futakuchi's ultimate vice, however. She defines herself by her ability to work hard in hopes of winning over the Dark Lord's affections and staying in his good graces, and that takes quite a toll on her mentally and physically. In many ways, she's a dark mirror to Takoyaki- someone so determined to achieve a goal that they overwork themselves in trying to achieve it, unaware that they can't achieve that goal in their own strength.

As the series progresses, Futakuchi becomes frustrated with her lot in life, worn down by her many, many defeats at the hands of the Chosen Ones and haunted by strange visions of a past she can't quite remember. These visions begin haunting her after she visits Stokeron for the first time in centuries during Season 2 as part of the Dark Lord's plan to conquer the kingdom through the corruption of Lucian's older sister Demeter, and from there she finds her second mouth muttering things that she could never imagine herself saying in the present. It's clear that something's not adding up, and she begins looking for answers on her own.

This leads Futakuchi on a quest to find her own identity at the same time as Carouselle is learning of her original identity and her creator (oh hey, another parallel with one of the Chosen Ones' arcs). Eventually, Futakuchi learns of who she used to be (haven't figured out how, but I feel like a magic-induced conversation between her and her younger self would be the most likely way of doing so), mourns what she's become, and attempts- emphasis on attempts- to change for the better. However, she finds that the Dark Lord's magic has given her heart an uncanny attraction towards evil, like a moth drawn to a flame.

Reluctantly, she returns to serving the Dark Lord. However, a particularly nasty plot by Termagant to get rid of the Chosen Ones permanently is what restores her resolve to change, and thus she decides to turn on him, the Dark Lord, and everything she previously stood for, even if her heart remains inclined towards darkness. From there, Futakuchi becomes an ally to the Chosen Ones, aiding them in the last leg of their quest.

The way I see Futakuchi's storyline ending is with her being purified of the dark magic within her and being given a new form through what amounts to a baptism allegory. It's poetic, really. Her story began with the Dark Lord subjecting her to his twisted mockery of the concept of baptism and new birth, and it will end with her getting a true, Great Artist-blessed rebirth.

From a spiritual standpoint, Futakuchi represents someone being poked at and prodded by the Spirit to consider the possibility of them having been made for Someone greater (see that one Mere Christianity quote), trying to achieve betterment in their own strength and failing, but ultimately accepting the simple, straightforward grace of God and being transformed entirely by it. I knew from the start of Eternity Kingdoms's development that she was going to be redeemed at some point, but the realization that she of all characters would have the closest thing to a proper conversion in the series simply by giving her a redemption arc really surprised me. I love me a good redemption story, but that love comes from the fact that, at its core, Christianity is the story of God enabling the dead in sin to come alive in Him and to redeem what the world deems to be irredeemable.

GENERAL TERMAGANT: The Machine Man Bent on Eradicating His Humanity

Like Futakuchi, I don't have everything planned out for Termagant's origins. All you need to know is that he was a human native of the airborne kingdom of Welkin, he was promised great power by the Dark Lord in return for his kingdom's surrender to him, he gave into the Dark Lord's promises and gained mechanical replacements for his limbs, and Welkin soon became nothing more than a battery producing weapon after weapon and mechanical minion after mechanical minion. He's held this role for the last 200 years, and over those two centuries, he replaced more and more of his original form with more and more tech.

In the present day, Termagant enters the main narrative of Eternity Kingdoms early in the series. After the Chosen Ones defeat Futakuchi a few times, he offers up himself and his metal legions as an alternative option. From there, he becomes a recurring threat to them, often working alongside Futakuchi in carrying out the Dark Lord's schemes (much to his chagrin, as the two of them aren't terribly fond of one another).

Personality-wise, Termagant lives up to his name- he's a arrogant cad, a sadistic bully, and an all-around brute. He's quite proud of the technological terror he's become, and he won't let you forget it. Admittedly, that pride is somewhat earned- he's a fierce combatant and a brilliant strategist responsible for many of the Dark Lord's military victories against the rest of the world.

I was very intentional in making Termagant competent and intelligent because I wanted to completely subvert the "dumb muscle" trope. While it can produce excellent characters, I feel like it also creates the potential for characters to be so stupid the audience questions how they function or why their boss hasn't let them go. The key to making the "dumb muscle" work is to make them uniquely stupid, such as having them be so brazenly sold out to their evil boss that they're completely devoid of common sense in other areas (see Transformers Animated Lugnut... also, just go watch Animated; it's peak Transformers next to Beast Wars, and Transformers One).

Ergo, I resolved from the start that Termagant wouldn't be stupid, but would rather hoist himself on his own petard more often than not because of his unchecked pride. He's so convinced of the superiority of his technology that he cannot fathom the thought of either himself or one of his machine soldiers failing. It may sound basic, but that's kind of the point- the show needs to illustrate how putting one's faith in anything other than the Great Artist is foolish, and who better to do it through than one of its main villains?

Something about Termagant that I should mention is his dynamic with Futakuchi. The two have a very passive-aggressive love-hate relationship, spending most of their missions bickering with one another and making snide comments about the other behind the other person's back. They're like an old married couple, and I intend on mining this for as much comedy as possible.

Termagant's ultimate goal is to replace all of his original organic form with the technology he adores so much and become functionally immortal, and he's gotten very close to that goal. The only original part of him that remains intact is his brain, and even then he's jammed it full of receivers and cords to connect it to the rest of him. He perceives his humanity as a weakness, and he's done everything he can to eradicate who he once was in favor of machinery he believes will make him perfect (it won't)

What prevents him from achieving this is ironically a matter of technolgy- he's yet to find a way to transfer the contents of his mind into a microchip that can be easily stored in his current form's head. This has driven him to abduct many a roboticist from his home kingdom and dissect their creations in hopes of figuring out how to transfer himself into an AI state. Among these roboticists is Doctor Otto Matone, a kindly old scientist who was kidnapped and enslaved by Termagant. 28 years ago, Matone had created a robot with AI so advanced you'd swear she was genuinely alive, but he spirited her away the night Termagant kidnapped him and has refused to share the secrets behind that robot's AI even after years of Termagant's torment.

As punishment, Termagant has put Matone to work on creating weapon after weapon and drone after drone for the Dark Lord's armies, something he knew full well the pacifistic, kindly Matone would hate. Now you're probably wondering- why are we yapping about Matone? Who was his super-advanced robot and what happened to her, anyway?

Well, reader, it's because Doctor Matone is actually Carouselle's creator. She doesn't know it because she underwent a memory wipe before being deployed to the world below Welkin, but she was that super-advanced robot that Termagant wanted to dissect and use as reference to make himself fully technological. It's not until he goes to Barnumia (the circus kingdom and Carouselle's home) as part of the Dark Lord's scheme to take it over that he puts two and two together and realizes that Barnumia's darling stage magician superstar is one and the same with Matone's robot he has vague memories of.

From there, he makes it his mission to track Carouselle down, capture her, and reverse engineer her "mind" so that he can give himself one like it and become fully robotic. What will become of Carouselle if he does this is unknown both to her as a character and to me as the writer, but I envision a particularly cruel fate for her if he succeeds (ex: being stripped of everything that makes her herself, becoming nothing more than his assistant). This leads into the two having a rather unique rivalry, in which Carouselle has no idea why this crazy cyborg guy is trying to capture her but Termagant knows her surprisingly intimately thanks to his access to Matone and his memories of her.

Furthermore, Termagant's obsession with becoming fully mechanical and kidnapping Carouselle puts him at odds with the Dark Lord more and more as the show goes on, resulting in the DL relying on his forces less and less and on demons more and more while Termagant starts focusing everything on getting Carouselle under his control. Eventually, the two have a straight-up split, with Termagant becoming an independent threat bent on converting the whole world to be wholly mechanical.

Termagant's story will end with his obsession utterly destroying him, with the Chosen Ones defeating him and him dying with no idea of how Matone was able to give Carouselle such lifelike AI. I know exactly how the moment will unfold, but to avoid spoiling things, let's just say he seemingly gets what he wants only for the truth to slap him in the face and tear him apart. I want his defeat to be bitterly ironic and one that leaves you with no room for pity for him. No one mourns the wicked, after all.

FIA DARKMATTER THE FIRST: The Daddy's Girl Who May Desire Something More

Of the three Eternity Kingdoms characters discussed in this article, Fia is the only one who has really defined origins. Following the Chosen Ones' liberation of Barnumia and Carouselle being a very late addition to the group, the Dark Lord, Futakuchi, and Termagant find themselves outnumbered 1.25:1. In an effort to correct this, the Dark Lord concentrates his efforts on creating the ultimate underling through a mix of dark magic and Termagant's technology.

However, instead of a hulking, hyper-competent brute, he ends up with a little girl who imprints on him immediately as her "father". While he's initially put off by this, he realizes he can work with this. Since the lass seems extremely malleable, he decides to train her in the ways of being evil and to be his protege and heir. Furthermore, he gives her the full name of "Fia Darkmatter the First" (a name that she loves, but Futakuchi and Termagant find to be a bit on the nose). From there, Fia becomes a recurring thorn in the Chosen Ones' side, often joining Futakuchi, Termagant, and the Dark Lord's evil Prodigus clone Vessel (read about the dumb lug here) in fighting them and helping carry out her "daddy's" schemes.

From a character standpoint, Fia is a twisted subversion of the "starry-eyed child 2010s cartoon main character" archetype (which I'm surprised there's not more parodies of given the general animosity against modern cartoon art styles or certain shows from that decade). She's always in need of being the center of attention (unless the Dark Lord is speaking; then she immediately conducts all attention towards him), she expects everything to work out for her and her loved ones and reacts rather brattily when it doesn't (which it usually doesn't), and she's so sickeningly cheery about what she's doing that it gets very grating to both her enemies and her allies. As someone who grew up with some of the shows that had these sunny leads, it's rather fun writing Fia as what amounts to Finn the Human (Adventure Time), Star Butterfly (Star vs the Forces of Evil), Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls) or Steven Quartz Universe (Steven Universe) if you turned them into sickeningly spoiled little turds with "main character syndrome", as some people call it (which I'd argue Steven and Star REALLY suffer from in their shows; Mabel's selfishness was rightly treated as a character flaw and Finn's maturation over the course of Adventure Time's original run is honestly quite appreciated considering how every other CN show's leads were at the time).

She's also a total daddy's girl, if the mentions of the Dark Lord as her "daddy" doesn't make that clear. Fia just thinks the world of the Dark Lord and cannot fathom the thought of him doing anything wrong, making her totally sold out to him in terms of loyalty. This is something he's well aware of and uses to his advantage, often sending Fia on missions he knows Termagant or Futakuchi would fumble due to personal agendas.

Amusingly, Fia is the one minion the Dark Lord has that he treats well all the time. He genuinely cares about her well-being and will do anything to protect her, feelings that are heightened the more time he spends with her. Doesn't take away from the fact he's literally the devil within the world of Eternity Kingdoms, but it shows he does have a heart, even if it's one that's 98.9% focused on himself.

I frankly love villains who genuinely care for their loved ones rather than treating them solely as tools they can use to accomplish their goals. If I were to quote mad scientist Silco from Arcane (a show I've not seen but have heard had two seasons of entirely opposite quality, with Season 1 being excellent television and Season 2... not being that), "Is there anything as undoing as a daughter?". Granted, the Dark Lord isn't the first antagonist within EK that has a strangely wholesome relationship with his daughter (that would go to comically incompetent thief Etienne Noir and his bashful oni adoptive daughter Kijo; read about them here), but he and Fia will be the most prominent example within the series.

Now, given how I've described Fia, you wouldn't expect her to have a terribly transformational character arc. You would be wrong. See, for as much as Fia loves her "daddy" and wants nothing more than to make him proud, there's also a desire for something more. It's a void that, no matter what she does or what she tries to fill it with, never seems to be satisfied.

She shares this feeling with her fellow magically conceived minion of the Dark Lord, Vessel, but where Vessel has at least some idea of what he ought to be because he sees his "basis" of Prodigus getting better and better, Fia simply doesn't. There's no frame of reference for what she'd be like apart from the role the Dark Lord has given her, and frankly, she's terrified that who she'd become would be a disappointment to her father. Ergo, while these feelings plague her, she pushes them down; unfortunately, the more she does that, the more it eats away at her.

In an effort to correct this, the Dark Lord reads her a terribly biased towards himself, poorly illustrated account of his fall, his greatest victories, and the power of his undying spite towards the Great Artist. As he reads, Fia notices that there's a hastily pasted-over final set of pages that he very intentionally ignores. On her own time, she decides to examine the real pages... and is horrified by what she sees. It's her father's humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chosen Ones (both the Takoyaki/Lucian/Prodigus/Carouselle quartet and the show's Christ analogue) and the fiery eternal torment of all those who chose to follow him.

This sends poor Fia into an existential crisis. My daddy lied to me?! I'm going to suffer that horrible fire? I've been a good girl, right? Right?! With that in mind, she's finally pushed over the edge and decides to start acting on her feelings that she was made for something more, beginning by engaging in secret meetings with the Chosen Ones to understand what she must to do be saved, to avoid that great fire that awaits all who reject the Great Artist. It's hard for her for a multitude of reasons- her propensity to sin, her dark origins, and her fear of disobeying her father- but with the Chosen Ones' aid, she slowly starts to change for the better.

A dynamic that could emerge during Fia's redemption arc is her becoming all buddy-buddy with Prodigus and Carouselle. Given that Prodigus is the first character within Eternity Kingdoms to start up a redemption arc after starting the series in a somewhat rocky spot, I find it incredibly fitting that he'd be the one guiding Fia through what has the potential to be the series's penultimate redemption (the final redemption and who is involved will not be spoiled). Regarding Carouselle's involvement, she's there to aid in Fia's growth because I loved the irony of Fia being aided by the Chosen One whose existence inspired her creation.

The way I see Fia's story ending is with her secret meetings with the Chosen Ones being discovered by the Dark Lord, him casting her out of his sight (albeit with a broken heart over what she's become), and her ultimately being reborn with a new identity and a new heart predisposed towards the Great Artist. I originally planned on pulling a New Super Mario Bros. U final boss reference and having Fia be loyal to the bitter end, joining her father in burning in the EK equivalent to Hell in a rather morbidly comedic moment, but I realized how disturbing that would be and how much negative attention that would attract from secular press and less spiritually sound fans (think of the reaction to how Susan was handled in The Last Battle). Ergo, I decided that a Fia redemption arc and rebirth would be the best possible resolution to her story- still bittersweet since it yanks apart her relationship with her father, but much happier than her joining her father in burning for all eternity.

CONCLUSION

So, yeah. That's all I needed to say about Futakuchi, General Termagant, and Fia. Thanks for reading, everyone. God bless!