Fabio Sparklemane

About

Fabio Sparklemane is a character outfit available in Fortnite's "Chapter 2: Season 8 Battle Pass" that resembles an anthropomorphic, bipedal unicorn wearing an open shirt and shorts. Sparklemane is described as a mascot for "Unicorn Flakes" cereal and has a curse that forces him to "roam the Island shooting cereal out of [his] hooves until the sun turns to ash in the sky." Sparklemane is often the subject of memes about his surprisingly dark lore and general appearance where he's used as an exploitable.

Origin

On September 12th, 2021, the Fortnite Twitter^[1] account posted an image of three realistically drawn anthropomorphic unicorns standing in a field brandishing weapons captioned "You took quite the fall there… Oh, that’s Fabio Sparklemane…he’s just getting ready for battle." Each horse represents one of Sparklemane's optional color choices, of which there are six total.^[2]

Sparklemane was officially added to Fortnite's Season 8 Battle Pass on September 13th. That day, YouTubers, including VALtheVAL, posted footage showing gameplay with Sparklemane (shown below).

Character Lore

Sparklemane is portrayed as exuberant and enthusiastic in general and about Unicorn Flakes cereal, however, his character has what's been described as a "dark" and "disturbing" backstory. In his in-game bio, Sparkleman is described as a "mascot-slash-spokeshorse" for the cereal that is "cursed to roam the Island shooting cereal out of [his] hooves until the sun turns to ash in the sky" (shown below, left) The description for his emote, where Sparkleman dances with a box of the cereal, reads: "He's actually in horrible agony," suggesting the curse is agonizing (shown below, right). On September 30th, Fortnite Intel^[3] published an article detailing Sparkleman's dark lore, suggesting that Sparklemane is a human trapped in a unicorn's body based on the evidence.

Sparklemane also has a theme song titled "FLAKE THAT" (shown below) which features disturbing lyrics about the curse, as well as screams of agony shouting for help throughout, accentuated by a genre change from poppy to metal music.

The hoof is a curse that must be obeyed
You can never escape
What the rainbow has made
Selling breakfast powered from the depths
Until the monster wakes

Spread

People quickly began making memes about Sparklemane soon after he was announced, as well as new renders of him. On September 13th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @iFireMonkey posted a render of Sparklemane with human hands, gaining over 4,000 likes in two months (shown below).

On September 16th, Redditor molten16 posted a meme contrasting Sparklemane's bright appearance to his lore using a Traumatized Mr. Incredible style meme to /r/FortNiteBR,^[5] gaining over 2,200 upvotes in two months (shown below).

On November 3rd, YouTuber ArcadeCloud posted an original animation about Sparklemane, gaining over 120,000 views in a week (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References