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The Wellsians was an animated The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short released in February 2019 on YouTube, created by Aristide Twain, who also served as narrator. It was a parodical retelling of The War of the Worlds, including the series' version of H. G. Wells's Martians.
Contents
Plot
A member of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids enters the Cupid Archives and, in an abandoned room, watches a video Cupid Fact File on the Wellsians. The File recounts how the native species of the planet Wellsia, growing jealous of the lush neighbouring planet Earth, decide to invade it. After discarding multiple other, even more ridiculous ideas, the Martian Empire Science Department settle on the idea of shooting the Wellsian colonists at the Earth using a Really Bloody Big Cannon. There, finding that the Earth's gravity prevents them from moving about on their own, they hastily construct Tripod Walking-Machines, “with built-in Heat Rays, of course”, and begin wreaking havoc. “Just as they['re] finishing up the destruction of England”, they begin to feel hungry, and, having been unable to bring their “blood-cattle” from home, begin to drain humans for blood. This proves a mistake, as the Wellsians had failed to anticipate that human blood was contaminated with a variety of pathogens long-extinct on their own planet. Most of the army is wiped out, and the last survivors collect in one Tripod which they modify into a space-ship, flying to the nearest planet, Venus. There, they crash, but the remains of their ship are later found by a group of Clockwork Cherubs, which the narration states is “another story”…
Worldbuilding
Universes
- The framing narrative takes place in the Cupid Homeworld. It concerns events in a universe later dubbed the 97th Cosmos.
Other
- The sign pointing to the Cupid Archives warns visitors to “beware the Sphinx”.
Continuity
- A short in-universe blog post under the name of Cupid Fact File #057: The Wellsians was released on the Cupids website as a medium to link to the video upload of the main story.
- The “other story” about the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids discovering the crashed Wellsians on Venus was ultimately seen in PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians, where “Cupid Fact File #057”, described as “one of the video ones”, was explicitly discussed.
Behind the scenes
Watch online
This story was, and remains, posted on Aristide Twain's YouTube channel.
- The Cupid Archives - Episode 1 - The Wellsians