Spelldon Cauldronello - Blog Posts

I spent my money for yall

Toradeen comic pt.1 and pt.2

the spelltine part of the pride comic under cut

We can't forget Valentine and Spelldon

Alternative queer options for Monster High G3?

G1 set up so many possibilities for queer characters and couples.  What they could’ve done instead for G3:

Have Kiyomi's unrequited crush on Draculaura stated at some point, and then have her find love with another ghoul like Vandala or anyone single.

Have Cleo (Deuce too?) confirmed as bi but still together.  (You don’t have to have dated both genders to know you’re bi.  Cleo can still be bi while in a happy relationship with Deuce.)

Howleen and Twyla as girlfriends.  (Although I personally see Twyla being more on the aroace spectrum, but I think her and Howleen would be a great pairing too, maybe even a queer-platonic relationship.)

Clawdeen as a lesbian.  I’ve heard that she and Toralei have good chemistry in G3, and Toralei was never in a relationship, so that could’ve worked nicely.  (Toralei did seem to like one of the vampire actors in Frights Camera though so I’m guessing she would probably be bi.)

Have Lagoona be bi and give her a friends to enemies to lovers romance with Kala.  (Although Lagoona x Gil shippers would not be too happy, so this probably wouldn't be the best option, but I still think it would've made more sense than pairing Frankie with Cleo.)

MH is not my main interest at all, but why not

If there’s one thing to expect from me, you bet I’ll implicate Kieran Valentine in random historical events

Kieran Valentine becoming a vampire but it’s Cats in the Cradle

“Killing must feel good to God too. He does it all the time. Did God feel good about that? He felt powerful.” — Hannibal

Is such a Kieran Valentine quote ugggh

Like yeah, he didn’t enjoy hurting people and never did even though he did it for over 1000 years. But it felt good to be as powerful as he was, and he mourned the loss of that power when he was stripped of it

did monster high ever use Lake Eerie as a name for Lake Erie?? that is such a missed opportunity

How do you feel about the pride comic so far? :D

I actually hadn't sat down to read it until I got this ask, but the snippets I'd seen were ADORABLE. I'm writing this as I read it for the first time:

pg. 1: "Hypnosis was so much easier" HE WOULD! And him rehearsing with Whisp is so sweet. I love that they tied her and their friendship into the story more; I kind of thought she was done for good. Valentine hitting his face on the locker is SUCH a diary thing, too. I don't know if it was meant to be a callback or anything, but that's what it reminded me of. And Whisp saying "good luck!" while Kier is half-dead on the floor is PRICELESS. I love that he's still trying to make amends with Drac though.

pg. 2: Him blurting everything at once and then stopping to be all ✨composed✨ is perfect. UGH but the accent. Kieran, dear, she knows you're Romanian. I like the call back, though, and if you really look into it, it's a reflex because he's embarrassed and panicked. I LOVE the cut between him saying "it's fine" and him absolutely panicking, all zoned-out. It's such a simple thing that's meant to be comedic but it really shows us how he thinks and how vulnerable he is in a world without his prestige.

pg. 3 BIG SPELLDON REVEAL DUN DUN DUUUUUN!!! I love the small details of his character design that bring him to life, like the rings on his fingers and the mole on his lip. and the necklaces <3. Valentine IMMEDIATELY crumpling the paper in his big dramatic moment is so silly. And spelldon ignoring it and just taking a rose. It's such an easy, domestic kind of moment. And they're both so pretty ugh the close ups. "Like my soul" ok princess val 🙄 and spelldon worried, "You still love draculaura?" I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SPELLDON CAULDRONELLO

pg. 4: the moment of realization is priceless. Kieran is just in awe of this man. and Spelldon is just so enthusiastic about it (I love how he's just like 'this is dumb' but goes along with it anyway. Okay mr. malicious compliance). The height difference is also perfect to me. It makes sense that Spelldon is way taller because he's part (like 70% ish if I remember right from that time I did a pedigree) god. Casta's tall too isn't she? Valentine lost in his own little world ❤️ my little yapper.

pg. 5: Valentine trying to be over prepared, he's so me. And it's a nice (probably unintentional) callback to his diary where he says "better have it and not need it than need it and not have it." Spelldon's blunt humor is one of my favorite things ever. And him flattering Kieran about biteology >>> ugh they're so sweet. Val's facial expressions are so funny too he's so dramatic. Him trying to be humble and change the subject when Spelldon compliments him is so cute. AAAA they're so sweet.

pg. 6: Spelldon being all nonchalant while Val is literally falling over is so them. That is such a fun dynamic for them to have and I love it so much. I don't even know how to describe or "analyze" it because it just feels so naturally them that there's nothing to point out as "unusual." AAA Spelldon catching Val is such a sweet moment in the comic. Poor Val has his eyes closed, he can't even see Spell's face when it happens. And his hand is HOVERING over Val's back; he's not even touching him and he's blushing like that. I don't even think I need to mention the smirks (they're so precious)(Spells had an eyebrow slit this whole time and I just didn't see it??😭)

pg. 7: EEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA Val you're going to give poor Spelldon a heart attack leave him alone. He's so dramatic clasping his hands like that. The mausoleum is really cute though, I approve. If I were a vengeful ghost, this would be my haunt (get it?). Spelldon having this whole plan thought out to get the ingredients when he's the one who thought it was a useless plan to start with 🤨 okay Spelldon we all see what you're doing. Especially since the whole plan is to get Val clinging to him. Scarah to the rescue!!! Not the return of the accent val STOP PLEASE. I'm glad they're talking about it, though. And he doesn't do it to spelldon 👀 because he's being himself with spelldon and doesn't feel the outside pressures to be someone else. He subconsciously knows that spelldon will accept who he is. Spelldon's face when Val admits that is priceless. BUT SPELLDON NOOOOOO WATCH OUT!

pg. 8: Val regretting the potion because he's in loooooove is so cute to see. "A couple thousand years" you want to spend a couple thousand years with your feelings for Spelldon awww. And he doesn't even act like he needs them to be reciprocated. Like, duh we all know what he's doing, but he never spells (pun unintentional but fully embraced) it out. The bracelet too from the Val's rose is a sweet little detail. Especially since they chose to give us THAT angle for that panel. They wanted us to see that in this moment. Valentine voicing his development is perfect. He really has grown and learned so much. SPELLDON WHAT?????? NOOOOO! and Val immediately regretting this whole thing because oh nooo Spelldon won't love him (🤨)

pg. 9: Okay Spelldon you trickster. "You really think i'd let you excise your emotions like that" (okay mom) "Yes? I asked you to!" Bro. That's super sweet though, he's been looking out for him this whole time, but couldn't just tell him no. Awww he wanted to spend time with him. AWWW VAL. I'm surprised Val didn't feel the love but maybe i've been reading his powers wrong. And then we have The Moment™ of course. Aww

pg. 10: Aw he and Drac made up. I'm glad they got closure from everything (the Pit Incident... and everything beforehand). WOAH val is so pretty, that turning panel??? Spelldon watching silently from the sidelines all proud. We have to remember that he met Spelldon BEFORE Whisp (and long before the two of them had their makeshift therapy sessions), and the day of the dance (where he failed his attempt to fix everything) from the original comics. He was still a mess then. He has been here since then, and got to see him grow. KIERAN VALENTINE FULL NAME RAHHHH COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS COME OUT AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN🇮🇪💪i'm glad they're pushing that because so many people think Valentine is his full name, it's actually crazy. Whisp wanting to meet Spelldon 👀 I need to see that now too! And Val ignoring her to hold Spelldon's hands, he's so clingy. I guess he has been this entire time with his yapping. And they walk into the sunset!!!

THE END!!!

I don't know if I wrote WAYYY too much, but I wanted to make sure I gave my full reaction (because lets face it, we've been starved for a while. thats why I got into fanfic like three-ish years ago). The notes got progressively longer as I went 😭

All in all I absolutely adore the comic. It's such a sweet glimpse into Valentine's growth and development, and I'm so glad to finally have a real Spelldon. The entire thing is such a good slice-of-life story that just feels calm and domestic and unforced, like there is no antagonist or unneeded tension to force things along. It's just Spell and Val.

when are you dropping the val backstory? I AM STARVING FOR VALENTINE CONTENT

Bro don’t even bring that up 😭😭 It’s moving along much slower than I thought it would (I thought I’d be done by April 😬).

I’m also considering rewriting bits of it to speed everything up and possibly increase its reception. The first half is pre-Rome, so it’s very OC heavy and I don’t know what the response to that will be. I want the story to be good more than anything because once it’s out there, there’s no real getting to start over.

With my pace and the story I have, i haven’t even written Kieran’s death yet. The fic come out at some point. I’m hoping that I’ll have more time now that school is over, but then again, if I force myself to write it, it’ll be a chore and the story will suffer.

Just bear with me please 🫶

(I do have something smaller in the works for him as well to try and out something out. I feel bad taking so long so I want to give you a little treat. That’ll probably come out within the next week or so 🤞)

Can we please merge the monster high fandom categories on AO3 PLEASE why are there 5 of them???

Please we just need one for each gen we don’t need one for the toys who is writing fan fiction about the toys

Spelltine marriage proposal but it's Spelldon tossing Valentine an apple bc he asked for one and all the rly old greek gods who (totally weren't spying cuz they're bored) saw went 'HOLY SHIT SPELLDON PROPOSED AND HE SAID YESSSSSS WOOHOOOOO HERMES WHERE'S HERMES SPREAD THE NEWS OUR BOY SPELLDON IS GETTING MARRIED TO VALENTINEEEE'

And when the news gets to Circe, she was just told 'your son proposed to Valentine!' without the 'he tossed an apple and Valentine caught it' part so she rolls up to Casta + Spelldon's apartment like 'YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE PROPOSING??'

Cue hours of confusion before they remember that giving an apple is basically proposing and they (casta, circe, spelldon) all sigh in unison bc the older gods apparently didn't know that people propose with rings nowadays instead of apples.

Spelldon quickly texted Valentine asking to go on a date tmr (yes all that happened over the course of one day) so he could tell Val that they accidentally got engaged. But when they arrived to their date spot, Valentine gave Spelldon a silver necklace and rings in a pretty little box bc he saw it and thought 'ah yes Spelldon would like these'. The gods (who TOTALLY weren't spying on them again) saw the gift and went wild bc they thought the gift was the dowry And of course, the children of those gods get told, which they tell to their friends, and one day when Valentine was hanging out with Whisp, Deuce and Cupid come up to him and start congratulating him on getting engaged. Whisp, who wasn't told, immediately starts getting excited but Val is just looking at all of them secretly very confused but smiles instead and thanks them. So there's even more chaos and when Spelldon finally gets the chance to tell Valentine, it's alr been 2 weeks. It took some more time for the gods to realise that the apple didn't mean proposal, which they told their kids, and their kids told their friends. I think they're college age (Spelldon 23, Valentine is I don't fucking know bro :,0) when this happened and have been dating for abt 3.5 years now

The fact Val probably changed his accent because of the Cold War

Following/during the later stages of WWII, tensions between the US (and thereby Western Europe/NATO) and the USSR (Eastern Europe/Warsaw Pact) became so high that proxy wars and nuclear power were at every corner.

At that point in the world, Val wouldn’t be able to keep his accent. Val’s whole deal is getting people to LIKE HIM. He will DIE if people don’t like him. If he opens his mouth in 1950s United States and spews a “Soviet/communist accent” (Romania was part of the Soviet Bloc but was not an SSR), do you think people would like him? No

He had to change his accent to stay alive in America

(This also means it’s very recent; to him 70 years is the equivalent of last month. Which explains why he falters so much)

what to do when you have 4 different love spell fanfic ideas and no motivation for any of them

Two best characters fr

In honor of the eclipse:

Helios sending Circe to Aeaea for killing her husband, and then in the same breath giving her brother said husband’s kingdom

Helios who killed his daughter’s attacker the moment he realized she couldn’t chase him away on her own, killing him before he could lay a hand on her

Helios who saved Hephaestus during the Gigantomachy, and who gave his “thank you” gift to his son

Helios who threatened to drive the sun chariot into the Underworld because Odysseus’ crew ate his favorite cattle. Helios who threatened ZEUS.

Helios who wanted to ease Demeter’s suffering of being separated from a beloved daughter, and told her where she was taken

Helios who rides his father-in-law’s river in a CUP. Every. Night.

Why is language learning so hard 😭how did you do it mr valentine

guys, I promise I know this horrible, wretched, doomed-by-the-narrative, they-are-their-own-undoing character. I know them like the back of my hand

But only in my head in an intangible, mind-jellyfish-cloud way

no I cannot write them

Valentine and Spelldon wear exclusively gold jewelry I don’t make the rules sorryguys 🤷🏻‍♀️

( they’re def suckers for a big rock but not on jewelry)

MH3 but Deuce ended up in Boston and meets Chad, Clair, and Jackson (who is part monster but in hiding)

Lilith is his antagonist and she comes from a superstitious, monster hunting family. Her father is descended from Abraham van Helsing, and her mother is descended from William Stoughton (the chief judge of the Salem Witch Trials)

She isn’t too bad she just wants balance. The moment she realizes there is a way to get him out of the human world, she stops attacking him and helps.

Ellis is recruited to help too (for the witch drama with Lilith)

When you get too English teacher-y and almost write symbolism of Kieran Valentine being a blade of grass

in honor of the new spelldon/valentine comic coming out, i thought id share my spelldon design that i made like 2/3???? years ago!! cool witchy dude with a hat :)

very inspired by this look by @beingadp on instagram :)

When your Valentine origin fanfic is getting out of hands and probably going to be the length of a short novel :/

Life action Valentine with hair like

Val learning to love love because of Spelldon >>

Him learning to value it after realizing how dedicated he and Spelldon are to each other

They’re such sweethearts this is so cute

HERES A SKETCH IM WORKING ONNN

the news is driving me CRAZY-

the sweater and cat sketch is inspired by @vlovebug and mine’s chat abt spelldon :>

THE BOYS AAAAAA

official art from this year's pride comics!!

toradeen cover by betsey cola

spellentine cover by céli godfried

Okay so I know Casta is a real name ok it’s own, HOWEVER imagine it’s a nickname. She got it as a child living on Aeaea.

=

When she was young, her cousins, the Nereids, would laugh and welcome her into their pools when they noticed her. Her babbles would transform one into a small fish. The others would hold her close to their sides, caress her hair, and call her “Casta” after the spells she weaved

When she was older, her mother first showed her the herbs that grew in the soil. Together, they dried and crushed leaves into fine powder before tossing it into the boiling pot. Circe would hold her shoulder, not tight enough to hurt but tight enough to show she was proud. The potion would hiss in her ears, but though it all she heard her mother mutter “Casta”

But she was not “Casta.” She was not whatever “pure” thing they saw in her. She was cursed since the moment she rose from the sea foam her grandmother claimed, her grandfather’s golden touch burning her back and shoulders.

She was Cassiphone. “Brother killer.”

She hadn’t paid her name any mind until another form emerged from the earth. This one, a young boy her mother called “Spelldon.”

And when she first held this small, precious thing, delicately enough he must not have known she was there, she was glad she was “Casta”

The fact Casta is an actual Greek name and not something MH made up. It means “purity” and and in Latin it means “lineage,” both of which can relate to the harsh pressure (from her mother and from herself) she feels to perform perfectly so she doesn’t let anyone down.

“Fierce” is canonically a stage name, but can be explained as her trying to build up her confidence and self-esteem. She is Casta Fierce.

And then we have her brother shelldon

Deliberate use of Kieran versus Valentine ugggggh foaming at the mouth

If valentine is not in MH3 and I can't edit him to "can't fight the moonlight" by leann rimes i will be very sad :( so mr. holland you should add him