Betelgeuse

“I do not appreciate how you are anticipating MY DEATH!”

Betelgeuse is just trying to keep everything together. He has gained a reputation for being that old grumpy guy who hates everything and everyone, but his disdain of life in general is born of regret. Not like you’d ever catch him admitting that—he’s extremely secretive, not even revealing where he lives. Though he tries to remain calm, his moods are unpredictable even for himself, and he often bursts into fits of rage, only to calm back down just as quickly. His anger also comes from a place of fear, of the future, of death. He worries he wasted his short time on the main sequence, and his red supergiant phase snuck up on him before he was ready. He refuses to confront his fears and regret, preferring to instead run away. He runs from responsibility, runs from his past, his fears, and would run from the future if he could. Betelgeuse detests any reminders of his imminent death, despite the obsession of everyone he knows. The only predictable aspect of his fits of rage is that mentioning his supernova is sure to trigger one. The only thing that annoys him more is people mocking how his name is pronounced. Yet everyone around him believes he is one day away from exploding. They act concerned for him, only to reveal through their actions that they would prefer if he just hurried up and died already. Betelgeuse grew up in the Orion OB1 Association—at least, that’s what he claims. He spent his days partying with the other stars, and found his friends’ relationship drama to be the most entertaining thing in the universe. He lived without a care, until the day reality struck him in the photosphere. A neutron star visited the association to yell at all the stars for wasting their youth, telling them that they would end up like him before they knew it, so they should work to improve the universe before their untimely deaths. Taking the neutron star’s words to his core, Betelgeuse got into an argument with his friends, one that led him to flee the association. Because of all the mistakes he both made and saw as a young O star, Betelgeuse has a hatred of O, and to a lesser extent B, stars. Combined with his bad memories from his home cluster, and he would prefer to never interact with the other stars of Orion ever again, but some insignificant yellow dwarf who also happens to have a morbid fascination with him has other plans. 

Physical Appearance

762 cm (25’0”) tall. Ectomorph, with very little fat or muscle. Oval face with many lines, wrinkles, and bright orange spots. Pale skin tone with red undertones, several twisted red-orange “veins” visible throughout his face and body. Light orange eyes with drooping eyelids. Large, drooping nose. Ankle-length wavy bright reddish orange hair. Usually wears a light orange shirt, a light red vest with white buttons and darker red circles, a medium red coat with a pattern of red splotches, orange striped pants, dark red boots, and a light orange tie with yellow and white concentric starburst shapes.   

Design Notes

Red supergiants are among the largest stars, so Betelgeuse at twenty-five feet tall isn’t unusual. The really large red hypergiants can reach over thirty feet tall. Because of their huge size, red supergiants have very low densities, so even though Betelgeuse is very tall, he’s also extremely thin. His shapes consist mostly of squares and triangles, squares for the calm and collected person he tries to be, and triangles for his volatile moods. The star rotates very slowly, so Betelgeuse’s face and eyes would be round if he were a main-sequence star. But as a red supergiant, he looks physically old, with wrinkles, lines, and drooping eyelids. This references the high mass loss of red supergiants and Betelgeuse’s less-defined, more fuzzy surface and atmosphere. The star’s radius is hard to measure because the star does not have a definite edge, and the character’s long, flowing hair helps to obscure his silhouette. As an M-type star, his color scheme consists of oranges and reds, red for the conventional color description of these stars, and orange for their true colors. However, his skin is as light as a late O-type main sequence star’s, as the skin tone of a star is based on their spectral type on the main sequence, not necessarily their current one. His red undertones and red veins match his current spectral class. His star veins are twisted like varicose veins, another feature to make him look older. The spots on his face reference hotspots on the star’s surface. His overall style is formal and put together, an attempt to hide how volatile and variable he truly is. The dark circles on his vest represent molecules, which the atmosphere of the star is cool enough to have. The white buttons are the aforementioned hotspots. His long coat, long hair, and loose sleeves all reference the high mass loss that the star undergoes. The splotches on his coat reference the large convection cells on the star’s “surface”, much larger versions of the granules on the Sun. The stripes on his pants are a subtle nod to Betelgeuse from Beetlejuice. His tie is a somber reminder that he will go supernova one day soon. 

-His veins, spots, and wrinkles are not optional.

-The edges of his body, hair, and clothes (whichever forms the edge of his silhouette) are supposed to be darker than the rest of him like they are in shadow, but that's optional because I keep forgetting it.

-The stripes on his pants are a little hard to see, but don't forget them. 

-He has cataracts so he sometimes wears glasses, but I haven't drawn them.