Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - Blog Posts

he's not half bad

YEEESSSSSSSSSS I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i dunno if Noa's having a dream or near-death experience so you decide lol

I completely forgot to post my problematic girl kisser in denial Winnie here 😭 she’s in a situationship with Dorothea May and comes from a pretty rough background that’s caused her to become jaded throughout the years

Gaia my beloved, she is a very distant relative of Caesar through a sibling of the wife of Proximus Caesar (yes i headcanon that proximus is ironically the real descendant of Caesar and no he did not realize this was actually 100% either). She is very loosely inspired by Dr. Zira and Ari, as well as having some inspiration from Jordan Baker in the Great Gatsby. I forgot to specify this in reference but she is from one of the handful of “Old Money” chimpanzee families, and she holds a lot of prejudices that she doesn’t even realize are offensive (inspired by Dr. Zira’s blatant hatred for gorillas and orangutans in the og films).

In honor of world bonobo day here are pota bonobo headcanons for my au‼️‼️

- many of the bonobos of the large bonobo colony originated from either zoos or research facilities, and the latter were fluent in yerkish.

- Sign language isn’t known by most bonobos, as they have always communicated verbally once speech was acquired by them (I imagine before this was discovered they communicated using simple gestures and drawing out yerkish symbols they could remember into the ground).

- Some of the yerkish symbols are remembered in the modern “20s era” as symbols with vague but sacred meanings.

- bonobos and gibbons are considered to be long time allies, stemming from admiration for one another in “ancient times” (aka Caesar’s time) and a shared history of discrimination and persecution by the other ape species

- It was through this close bond that allowed bonobos to also gain the difficult ability of singing far sooner than their non-bonobos counterparts

- Chimps and gorillas that originated from the San Francisco colony (more on this in a separate post the Caesar family drama goes crazy) nearly hunted their kind to extinction before they went into full isolation mode and almost seemed to “disappear” from history for many generations.

- They were found by proximus’ apes and forced into many years of servitude until his untimely death, and they again fled and went into hiding until they began something akin to “mythological creatures” until they felt safe enough to live openly a few decades before the 20s era’s.

- I like to think that the few apes that accidentally encountered often spotted them wading in the water, thus making them believe they were something equivalent to “water nymphs” and non-apes.

- Song and dance is extremely sacred to them and it’s considered a great honor to allow outsiders to join in

- Water is also a deep part of their culture, I love to imagine them being fascinated by mammals that live in/near the water such as beavers, river otters etc.

- They have a less than favorable view of Caesar due to centuries of bad history with chimpanzees and their belief that their personal martyr died as a result of Caesar’s teachings (not entirely true but no side currently knows the full story).

- Bonobos directly inspired the 20s era’s “flapper” look and lifestyle and are unfortunately uncredited for it

- Many 20s era bonobos are French speaking with French based names, this is due to their ancestors learning the language in order to further isolate themselves from other non-bonobo colonies.

- A controversial practice that died out only a few decades before they stopped hiding themselves was the breaking of young females hands in order to strengthen the bones and spirit, not realizing at the time they were in fact only weakening them.

- This practice originated from a very young Lisala’s (I’ve talked a bit about her before, she is meant to loosely pay homage to Lisa and is the martyr worshipped by bonobos) mother shattering her hands with a rock in response to her throwing a tantrum and striking her younger brother.

- A character that hasn’t been introduced to yall yet succeeded in introducing it to Soror City (Francesca Octavia; rumored to be the result of a bonobo/chimp affair and is known for being the “bridge” between the two species’ separate societies)

- Currently in the 20s era, bonobos that live in Soror City often struggle to find sustainable careers due to biases held by other apes who find them “undesirable” to have working for them. As a result many often find work in less than legal and/or socially acceptable ways, such as bushmeat hunting or working in brothels.

- Despite this, they are loved and trusted by apes of the rising queer community who are warmly welcomed by the bonobos in the city.

- Dorothea May is considered to be the first true glimpse of hope in their community, due to her breaking barriers and becoming the first adored bonobo film actress

Concept scene (consider it semi canon for now) for my AU, my idea for this thingy is that it will sometimes switch settings from the “modern 1920s” era to the eras of Cornelius and later his son Milo. Mainly because I like the idea of creating parallels between characters and exploring why things are the way they are by the time the “1920s” era starts.

For context, I based Lake’s role very loosely off of Heloise from Escape from planet of the apes and as such she’s become pretty jaded throughout the years and has a strained relationship with Cornelius’s son Milo and his son’s wife Lisala (paying homage to the original Caesar’s wife Lisa)

Again this is mainly concept so it’s a lil messy 😭

“Lisa. Quit your sniffling, get up,” Lake rather bluntly ordered the much younger female, unbothered by the fact that the little queen was practically curled up in the fetal position.

Lake stood at the entrance to the royal couple’s home, even with the indifference she felt towards the two she still couldn’t bring herself to disrespect them by fully entering without permission. For now, she was perfectly content with waiting for the bonobo get up and follow her outside, there was to be a funeral for the late prince after all.

When it looked like the queen wasn’t even going to stir from her spot, Lake briefly considered getting one of Lisala’s few friends to drag her out of her nest before Lisala finally spoke, quietly but loud enough for the older female to make out, “I do not want them to burn him, it will hurt him even more.“

Lake sighed while rubbing her forehead in growing frustration, “He is already dead, Lisa. It does not matter anymore.” The fact that the queen still couldn’t understand sign fluently made this conversation even more aggravating, especially since Lake hated the way her throat ached with each word she forced out.

Finally, Lisala shifted from her spot and Lake was able to notice the dark stains on the fur pelts that made up the nest—likely being dried blood, and it was that exact moment where a foul stench permeated the air around them.

She couldn’t hide her gag and had to slap a hand over her muzzle to avoid vomiting; was that ape insane?! The bonobo would be lucky if her fur didn’t reek of death once they finally managed to pry the tiny corpse from her arms. “Sorry. Got used to it,” Lisala murmured while gently rocking her son in her arms, seemingly unfazed by the smell of rot around her.

Lake hiccuped as she felt bile hit her throat and immediately had to step out to swallow it with a grimace, she hadn’t signed up for this. Milo had simply ordered her to retrieve his wife and child for the funeral pyre; that was it.

After spending a few minutes outside to clear her head and nose from the smell, she knew she had no choice but to drag the queen outside if she had any hopes of finally getting the prince away from her. Lake had been told earlier that day by one of the elder females that in the old days, it wasn’t uncommon for mothers to carry around their dead infants as a coping mechanism.

She could sympathize with that concept but that didn’t make it any less unnerving to watch the mourning mother coo at her son like he was still alive. They didn’t follow the traditions from the old days anymore for good reasons most of the time, and this was becoming another reason why.

The healers had explained to her and Bark that there was nothing they could do for the child, he had been long dead when they inevitably found him; in a crumpled heap next to a bloodstained boulder, it had been clear to everyone that the poor thing slipped from the branches above and cracked his skull on the rock. According to the lead healer, Fisher, the prince likely died on impact or passed while he was unconscious.

Instead of having him be cleaned up by the healers in preparation for the funeral pyre, Lisala had snatched him up and darted to her home without even saying a word to anyone there. She wasn’t the only one who was hurt over the prince’s death and that was another thing that frustrated Lake.

Lisala always seemed to carry the belief that she was alone despite being surrounded by apes that waited on her hand and foot without a single complaint, what right did she have to claim that they didn’t care for her?

And it had been nearly a whole week since Lisala holed up in her and her husband’s nest, not coming out once even to eat or drink; Lake suspected Milo had been sneaking her both of them to allow her to wallow in her misery away from everyone.

She wished she had just sucked it up and begged one of the queen’s friends—all bonobos, of course—to drag her out themselves but she didn’t have the patience to deal with their annoying behavior either! So she wasn’t just left with the option of being even more firm about this, even if it came off as being cruel for no good reason.

“Stop crying.”

“Why?” Oh great, here was that annoying habit of Lisala questioning literally anything and everything coming back at the worst time.

It felt like she was talking to a toddler at this point, “You can not show weakness. For your husband’s sake.”

“Why?”

Was she really that dense?!

Lake couldn’t stop herself from snapping, “Stop asking why! You are the king’s wife, that is why!”

“But why?! This,” Lisala practically shoved the still bloodied corpse of the little prince in Lake’s disgusted face, “was my baby too! Why is Milo your only concern, you hate my husband, almost as much as you hate me!” She immediately pulled her son back close to her chest, gently stroking the fatal wound on his head while looking down at him with watery eyes.

Lake stared at the trembling bonobo, and for the first time was really hit with just how young Lisala looked; that was right, she said herself awhile back she was only thirteen. Milo was almost as young as her but didn’t have to go through the anxiety of pregnancy, the indescribable pain of birth, nursing that infant with the knowledge they’d have to be weaned one day, just to be holding their cold corpse not even a year later.

She could remember how ecstatic Lisala was when she first realized she was pregnant, and had pleaded with the midwives to allow her to seek out her original clan so she could give birth with her family. Of course, they had refused to let her go off on her own, it would’ve been too dangerous so she had instead given birth to her first son while surrounded by females she barely knew. According to Milo, she had later sobbed over not being with her mother during such a sacred time in her life.

It was almost like looking at a younger version of herself. The way she had spoke to Lisala was the exact way she would talk to herself when she first discovered she was pregnant with her late love’s child, degrading herself for wanting to breakdown and cry because traumatized little Cornelius was the one who needed comforting, not her. And here she was doing the same thing to a vulnerable little girl with her dead child in her arms.

Lake felt sick to her stomach.

More than anything she wished to have her former mother-in-law’s guidance and kind way of handling situations like this but… she was long dead, and so was her beloved Blue Eyes. Her eyes stung with tears and the only thing she could choke out was, “just please come down before sunset… Lis—Lisala, please.”

Georgiana another one of my favorites ✨ A gorilla beauty standard in this AU includes them painting their teeth black (reference to how irl wild gorillas often have black teeth due to their diets that are high in tannins), and you also get to see Georgiana without her makeup and with visible freckles on bottom left yippee

More roaring 20s AU ‼️ This time showcasing three more characters (designs will be tweaked a bit since I’m trying to get more comfortable with drawing apes in my art style) and focusing on the complicated relationship between two of them

- Russell “Rusty” McGowan (Chimpanzee): a bushmeat hunter that works directly under Georgiana’s husband, Edward Cavendish. He lives off of the money he receives from the illegal trade for the sake of supporting himself and his young son, Forge, following the tragic death of his late wife, Ambrosia Callaway. Tends to be a bit reckless and is willing to do anything for a quick buck but is overall considered to be pleasant to be around, and is a bit of a hopeless romantic. Affair partner to Georgiana following what was originally meant to just be a one night stand but, they’ve continued seeing each other ever since; he enjoys/admires Georgiana’s feistiness and resilience.

- Georgiana Cavendish (née Leigh; Gorilla): “new-money” owner of a popular speakeasy, a former “Gibbon Girl” model (reference to irl “Gibson Girls”), and is considered to be a highly respected socialite due to her connections with Virginia and her husband being a feared gangster. She has a young daughter, Ortensia, who she genuinely loves very much and at best, simply tolerates her marriage to Edward but as time passes she finds herself becoming more and more miserable about it. She is a very flawed individual with many biases that she finds hard to overcome due to the way she was raised but ironically through her affair, finds herself slowly becoming more willing to understand other points of view.

- Virginia Seymour (née Callaway; Orangutan): “old-money” heiress to her late parents’ fortune and niece of controversial political/religious leader, Phineas Callaway, who is currently limiting her affluence with the excuse of “a young woman like herself just wouldn’t know what to do with all that cash!”. She is the childhood friend of Georgiana, a former “Gibbon Girl”, and is a well known socialite among those who follow the “Order of Caesar”. She is married to Finnegan Seymour—a bit of a corrupt lawyer, and is the loving mother of their baby girl Cornelia Faye—named in honor of the first ape queen Cornelia. She is cousins with the late Ambrosia Callaway, who she was raised with like a sister due to orangutans low birth rate and high rates of miscarriages/still-borns.

My silly art account 👆 where I shall discuss pota stuff

No one asked but i shall slowly deliver my Roaring 20’s themed Planet of the Apes (future) AU starting with one of my personal favorites, Dorothea May the Bonobo.

Bonobos by the time this AU is set, are uncredited for inspiring the flapper look which includes styling fur into a bob-cut style and shaving off most of their hair off as a reflection of their society’s view of hairlessness as a status symbol (seeing as back in the day, alpha female bonobos were typically hairless from over-grooming by subordinates). The majority of them have French surnames and were heavily isolated from the other ape species—minus Gibbons who they’ve had friendly relations with for centuries—resulting in them sometimes “Americanizing” their names when they move to the main setting of this AU, Soror, which is dominated by the other apes species.

I’ll probably go more into depth about Bonobo culture in this AU in a separate post mainly because it’s quite long and I have many thoughts 😭 also the symbol on her necklace is meant to be an ancient emblem for Bonobo beliefs that has long since been interpreted in many different ways, it is the Yerkish symbol for “hide”

For a vague idea of the AU, it’s very loosely inspired by the original POTA novel which is vaguely based on early 20th century America and the concept of flapper apes came to me so here we are. I plan on taking inspiration from the original novel, the reboot films (seeing as this is meant to be set maybe around one to two thousand years after), some bits that I genuinely enjoyed from the Tim Burton adaption of POTA, “The Humans” comic series, and unsurprisingly the Great Gatsby lmao

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