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kandyscorner · 1 month ago

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Do I Know You? Part 32

Synopsis: A deal is struck

Note: Fun fact: this plot arc that’s about to happen has been in the plans since I originally turned this into a series. I thought I was going to get to it a lot sooner than I have but we finally made it! I will say that it being prolonged and all the other stuff happening has made a lot of what will happen more dramatic. Anyways without further ado, have fun!

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You were actually excited for the family dinner, despite Jason’s unwarranted (at least you thought so) complaining. You would talk to the girls, get to know everyone while you were sober and try to ignore the fact that Dick Grayson was Nightwing, if only you ever made to the family dinner. Technically you did, just not the way you wanted to.

No, you got kidnapped. Again. And it was Red Hood’s fault. Again. (Maybe a little bit of yours but you weren’t going to admit that to him.) It was Wednesday and you had already had a shitty day. You had worked a longer shift than you usually would, and you regretted it greatly.

You may have been slightly anxious about the dinner, and it made you messy. You spilled a couple of drinks and got a couple of drinks wrong. Usually that wasn’t a problem. The people that came into Jackies were usually college students. Kids who had lived in Gotham their entire lives often from the same area close to crime alley.

They were all good and friendly but once and a while there was a conference from the nicer end of the Aparo Park Area. These folks wanted to try out a local coffee shop hoping for the convenience of a Starbucks. That being said, you had to deal with assholes all day.

You got yelled at five times! That was a new record for you. Then one of the machines broke down in the middle of the rush and Jackie was on a no cell service vacation and nobody would come fix it without the boss’s approval. of course, that meant it was all your fault in the eyes of the businessmen.

You were bone tired. Your feet hurt and you were angry at the people who thought they owned any place they walked into. You were over the day. You wanted Jason and a tub of ice cream and some lame mind emptying movie. You called Jason on your walk home to give him a heads up.

“There isn’t any ice cream in the freezer.” He tells you and you’re so frustrated you could cry.

“Are kidding me?” you complain. You tone must seep into your very words because Jason tries to placate you pretty quickly.

“I can pick some up on the way home. I’ll get on my bike now and be there with ice cream in, let’s say, twenty minutes.” He says as you climb the steps of the apartment building.

“Jason?” you sigh his name pleasantly.

“What, honey?”

“You’re my hero.” You praise. You hear a stuttered laugh leave him.

“It’s Ice Cream, Sweetheart,” you can’t tell if he’s teasing or just stating but your mind is too boggled to care.

“I know, I’m in elevator. Twenty minutes?” you hear him moving on the other line.

“Twenty minutes.” He agrees.

“See you soon, Jay.”

Twenty Minutes. You’d prefer him to be there now and maybe you should’ve forgone the ice cream but now you had some time to take a quick shower. It was a good plan. Shower, movie and cuddle Jason, and sleep in far too late tomorrow. It was a fantastic plan.

All down the drain when you find your door already unlocked when you get to it. It was possible that you hadn’t locked it and maybe that was just how your day was set to go. Or it was Jason, whom you had given a key to after he got to the apartment before you had gotten home from your outing with Damian. But leaving the door unlocked was so unlike Jason.

You should’ve questioned it more. Should’ve called Jason back, should’ve called the cops even. If your nerves weren’t already fried, you would’ve been more paranoid.

You blindly walk into your apartment and turn to lock up. It’s only after you’ve shrugged your jacket off and start to remove your shoes that the man sitting at your dining room table and eating your food decides to speak up.

“I wouldn’t do that just yet,” You blink at the voice you don’t recognize, turn your head and blink again at the three people standing in your apartment that you apparently ignored upon entry.

“Why not?” you ask slowly. You don’t know why, weak fight or flight, or half of your brain was thinking you walked into the wrong apartment given how your day had gone.

“You’re about to go on a road trip. You’ll need your shoes for that.” The man says before taking another bite of food.

“Thank you,” You do, in fact, have a terrible fight or flight, “could you not eat the last of the lasagna leftovers. Do you know how long it takes to make that?”

The man sneers at your commentary, apparently done with this conversation he says, “Grab her, let not keep Mr. Sionis waiting any longer.”

That’s when your flight instinct finally kicks in. You turn to scramble for the door locks. Why are there so many fucking interior locks on this door, Jason?! You get to the last lock on the door when the two men grab your arms and pull you back. You kick the door with a loud thud and pray that someone heard it.

All the self-defense training from Jason is for nothing when your up against two men. You hear the third walk up behind you were you struggle against the two.

“Why don’t we make this an easy ride for you, hmm?” You feel a sting on your neck. Your entire body weakens in seconds and then your world turns blank.

****

Jason almost didn’t answer the phone. He hadn’t realized just how expansive the ice cream aisle was until he was looking at it without you. He wanted to get something that would make you feel better, and he didn’t know if your classic mint would be that or if you were in a chocolate mood.

It’s the third time the phone rings that he pulls it out of his pocket. Mrs. Amato. Your neighbor. He had given the Italian woman his number after the third time she stopped him the hallway to help move something in her apartment.

She’d spend the entire time he was there either applauding his Italian and calling him sweet handsome boy or feeding him information to give to you about her grandson. He’s pretty sure she’s just trying to make him jealous because he’s seen just about every photo in her apartment and her grandson is, at most, 10 years old.

“Ciao,” he answers still combing through the ice cream options.

“You are home,” she states without a hello which is the first thing that worried him.

“No,” he responds and quickly gives up his quest for ice cream because something is wrong, “quello che è successo?” What happened?

“Ho sentito un forte rumore. Bad men.” I heard a loud noise. Bad men

“Resta lì. Sarò lì presto,” Stay there. I’ll be there soon. He doesn’t know why he tells her to stay put. She rarely leaves her apartment, but she had witnessed something, heard something of concern and he thinks it has to do with you.

He broke quite a few traffic laws; he’ll openly admit that. After spending a week without you, Jason feels like his worry about you had tripled. It didn’t help when he showed his face back in Gotham, Black Mask had sent a messenger to him. He was pissed about the ransacked operations that Red Hood took out. Black Mask was going to make sure he paid for it.

The threat was too vague. Jason couldn’t figure what Sionis could be planning but it made him anxious about you. He didn’t know if the whole fiasco from Penguin’s warehouse, Red Hood allegedly killing again, would put some target on your back. He feared that it did.

When he made it to your apartment, the door was standing wide open. Mrs. Amato, Nonna, hovered behind the crack in her door she used to spy on people in the hallway. She opened the door wider when she spotted him, a worried look on her features. She explained in very fast Italian that Jason struggled to keep up with.

There were three men. They took you from the apartment, but you weren’t awake, knocked out over one of their shoulders. She tried to stop them, question them in her broken English but one of had pulled a gun on her and she had hidden back in her apartment.

Jason told her she did the right thing, that she would’ve been shot if she tried to fight them, but she was distraught and worried about you. Jason told her to stay in her apartment and that he would handle it. She agreed as long as he promised to inform her the moment he found you.

He checked the apartment next. The door had no signs of forced entry. He was going to kick Roy’s ass. Jason told him the security system was too old, easier to hack. He should’ve just bought a whole new for you, or better yet, had Barabra fix one up.

The apartment wasn’t in disarray. This wasn’t a robbery. The left-over lasagna from two nights ago sat in its container on the dining room table. You never sat at that table if you were by yourself. which means those assholes ate your lasagna and then kidnapped you. He picks up the piece of paper next to the Tupperware dish.

If you want your side piece to stay in one piece, come get her. Alone.

Jason’s eyes track down to the signature. Roman fucking Sionis. He should’ve known, should’ve moved you into a safe house or better yet out of Gotham. It was too late to fix now because Black Mask had you and was doing who knows what to you.

****

It’s the dark leeching to your mind that makes you realize you’re not just waking up from a nap. It’s blurring and hazy but not the way you were when you were drunk. This was different. The couch you were laying on was at least comfortable. You shift readjusting yourself against the material to lay on your stomach. Your subconscious sends a warning that it is not your couch.

A hand presses up your spine, you shiver but frown. The hand presses too hard, fingers spread in a way you’re not familiar. This wasn’t Jason and if it wasn’t Jason then who was it? The alerts in your mind finally break through the darkness and you’re blinking your eyes open.

An office? You drag your eyes across the space before they meet the figure touching you. You shriek, pulling yourself away from him and pressing into the other end of the couch. Your heart seizes as you stare at the mans face or should be face. Black and skull-like, skin pressed to the bone like he had no muscles under it. There’s no way this was a living person, but the eyes blinked, and its mouth moved.

“I know. I used to be a lot more handsome in my youth, but accidents happen, Batman interrupts your symbolic burning of your child home and you make do.” He says in a hoarse, gravelly voice, like he had smoked a pack of cigarettes a day

You stare and stare. What the fuck? The man? Skeleton? Settles back in his seat with all the ego of a man flaunting. He wore a suit, stylish and tailored and you’re sure at some point he was attractive in the mobster sense.

“You have questions. Ask.” He says to you, and you suddenly feel the threat behind his words. Your senses come back to you. You were in an unknown office with an unknown man. You can’t remember how you got here, and you didn’t know where Jason was.

“What are you?” the startled question leaves your lips before you can stop it. An unruly snarl forms on stretched thin lips.

“Try again.” He growls and you press yourself against the arm of the couch. Your hands meet your knees to drag them to your chest before pausing when they meet bare skin. Your eyes drop down to look at yourself suddenly distraught over the silver shimmery dress on your body. Your hands move to tug at the short hem of the dress that was definitely not yours.

The man clears his throat, and you flinch to look at him. He gives you an impatient look.

“Who are you?” you correct your previous question. He nods at your change. His eyes drop to where you pull at the dress. A sudden sickness overtakes you, one that you’re familiar with from your nightmares.

“Roman. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He offers you his hand. You don’t move but he seems undeterred by it, dropping his hand, “This has nothing to do with you but you’re the perfect way to get back at your boyfriend. You see our friend Hood went on a spree and trashed ten different deals in the same night. its been hurting business all week and will probably be hurting business for the next few months. I don’t take that lightly.”

Oh god, not again. Did this psycho kidnap because of Red Hood? You were going to hurt him if you ever saw him again.

You were starting to get very upset. You just wanted to cuddle Jason and eat ice cream. Why was this happening to you again?

You suck in a deep breathe, “He’s not my boyfriend. I haven’t seen the asshole in months. Now where are my clothes?”

A surprised look crosses his face, or as surprised as his features allow, “Interesting. You sound upset.”

He stands from his chair and moves to the desk in the office pulling out a pack of cigarettes. Your muscles ease slightly with him no longer so close.

“You smoke?” he asks and gestures the pack in your direction. You shake your head and repeat your question, “where are my clothes?”

“What? Don’t like what I picked out for you?” he chuckles as he takes an inhale of smoke. You frown at the words, a sickening thought that somebody changed your clothes in your state of unconsciousness and you hoped it wasn’t him. Though you’re sure any other options aren’t any better.

“Your clothes are long gone. I don’t really care where and don’t worry your pretty little head. I had one of the girls change you before they vacated the premise.” He waves away the cloud of smoke to stare you down. In your disgust of him, you get the idea that he’s trying to comfort you for some unforeseeable reason.

“Why am I here?” you don’t try to hide your frustration with the entire thing, giving up on tugging the hem of your dress down to cross your arms in front of you. A mistake you find only after the fact when his eyes drop to stare at your cleavage.

“Mouthy thing, aren’t you?” he says in teasing tone that makes your mouth curl in disgust.

“Listen, I’ve already had a shitty day full of shitty people. The last thing I need to deal with is a kidnapping over some masked vigilante that I hate, okay? I want to go home, and I want you crazy people to leave me alone.”

The man, Roman, laughs at your outburst like you’re the most entertaining thing he’s seen all week, “You’ve got fire. You know, when Penguin told me where you lived, he said you were a useless thing, beggy and tearful. This is much better.”

Shit, Darla had been right. You had spent months ignoring the minor detail of your previous kidnapper knowing where you lived. He was in jail and Jason was home all the time. that was what you used to comfort yourself but here you were, taken out of your actual apartment because penguin knew where you lived and apparently communicated with this guy.

“Change of planes, bait. I’m going to give you this back.” He picks his hand up from the desk to hold a chain with a locket on it, your locket, the one Red Hood had given you, “I was going to press it for you, get him here faster and burn this building down faster but I want to make an offer.” He comes back over to the chair in front of the couch. He sits and swings the locket on his fingers.

You choke down the urge to cough at the smoke stench that hits you at his return, “what offer?”

“You hate Red Hood; I hate Red Hood. I need information on him, and he has a soft spot for you. Let’s do a little team up. I let you live tonight; you get me information about him. Deal?” you stare at the locket, one press and every bat in Gotham will know you’re in trouble.

“He doesn’t have a soft spot for me.” A lie but you don’t like the idea of this deal.

“He killed for you,” he states, and your eyes meet his in surprise, “or so the news says. But that’s lie isn’t?”

You feel like this is a test, like he knows far more about that night in the warehouse then he should, “what?”

He sighs like you’re stupid and the locket disappears into his shirt pocket. His other hand reaches behind him, and he pulls out a knife. Your chest tightens. Had you really said something wrong?

“You recognize this?” he asks showing you the blade then offering you the handle, “Take it,” he orders.

You grab the knife in fear, and you suddenly struck with remorse for it. Holding it in your hand, you understand exactly why he asked if you recognize it. It was the knife you had stabbed that man with, cleaned of the blood that had coated it. He settles back in his chair looking a little smug.

“You know Ted Jackson was an idiot. He didn’t have the patients to wait for anything. I can be patient. Red Hood covered for you, he let the world believe he had killed again for your sake. That’s not what he does. So, I will repeat my offer. You press the button on your little locket and when he gets here you tell him where the bomb is in the building. If you survive and I’m sure he’ll make sure that you do, you become my little spy. And if you’re a good little spy, I won’t tell everyone you love about the way you massacred Jackson with that knife.”

“And if I don’t agree?” you ask quietly but you think you already know the answer.

“I’ll still let you press this button, but he’ll make in time for the bomb to go off and you’ll both die here. When everyone is nice and grieving, I’ll send out the message of your killing so that’s all they’ll remember about you. Either one is a win for me. It’s entirely your choice. Decide quickly or I’ll choose for you.”

You get the feeling that psycho like Roman couldn’t care less if you killed one person or a hundred. He was a good manipulator though, with the way he used something you’d done to defend yourself, something that haunted you, to make you do what he wanted. Besides, only one option would mostly guarantee your survival for later. You set the knife down on the couch not wanting to hold it or touch it any longer.

“I’ll do what you want.” You relent with dread. No promises, you want to add because you don’t know how you’ll be a spy if you don’t interact with Red Hood anymore. But you don’t want to be a spy anyway, you don’t want any of this.

“Why do you want me to spy if you were just planning on killing the both of us tonight?” you’re probably pushing your luck questioning him. The man had already been planning on killing you. You probably shouldn’t remind him that that’s still an option.

“To make him suffer. Won’t that be fun?” he says with threatening grin. He pulls the locket out and offers it to you and takes the knife back.

You decide you don’t like this man at all. He was vile and cruel. You don’t hate Red Hood like that, to make him suffer. You didn’t want anyone to suffer. You take the locket delicately and pop it open. He watches you in a way that makes your skin crawl.

“I’d say it’ll take him twenty minutes to get here,” he stands from his chair and collects an over coat, “bombs set to go off in twenty-five, so you better press it.”

You give him a startled look and finally press on the emergency button. You pull the necklace over your head and pray that any of the bats will get here before then.

“The bomb is on the second floor, hidden behind the bar. Good luck and I hope we’ll be doing business again, bait.” He walks out of the office and shuts the door.

You wait a beat, two before standing and rushing to the door. you twist and pull on the nob, wiggling it with no luck. He locked you in. You were locked in an office where a bomb was about to go off in twenty minutes. You were so screwed.

There had to be a key or something you could break the nob off with maybe. You start a hunt through the office hoping to find literally anything. You were in an escape room that you would actually die in if you didn’t get out.

****

Jason was going to kill Roman Sionis. Although he had to give it to the guy, he did a pretty good job at covering his tracks. Which is why Jason, for the sake of your life, turned to his family. Everyone was surprised that Black Mask of all people had taken you, even more when Jason told them he left a note.

“It’s a trap. You do see how this is trap, right?” Tim pressed

“Tim’s right,” Bruce agrees, and Jason rolls his eyes. Of course, he knew it was a trap. Red Hood was constantly in on Black mask business. Him wanting Jason dead wasn’t all that surprising.

“Yeah, no shit. Doesn’t change the fact that he took her and I have no clue where.” Jason paces the floor of the Batcave, frustrated beyond belief. Maybe this was a bad idea. He should’ve called in a favor with some else, anyone else.

“Jason,” it’s the strict tone that makes him pause in his pacing. His eyes meet Bruces. Instead of the stern grimace of Batman, he meets the worried eyes of his father. It makes him sick.

“We’ll find her. Sionis wouldn’t have left a note if he didn’t want you to.” Bruce’s words calm Jason’s nerves only slightly. The statements true, but who knows what Sionis could be doing to you before then.

“Why did he target her?” Cass interrupts and Steph nods at the question.

“Yeah, it’s not like her and Red Hood are besties or anything. You saved from penguin back in December but that wouldn’t be enough for a kidnapping, would it?” Steph’s head tips in question.

Jason hides a cringe. They don’t know about how he used to sneak in your window all the time as Red Hood, about how you used to feed him like a stray cat. He hadn’t even told them about how you practically shunned him. Only Barabra did and he had her sworn to secrecy on the matter.

“The note doesn’t actually say its for Red Hood,” Duke adds, “Maybe it’s not meant for him? Maybe it was meant for you, Jason.”

“That makes even less sense.” Stephs says with a pinched brow.

“Unless he knew that you were Red Hood,” Tim turns to stare at Jason. Jason glares back at him, mostly because he’s probably right. In his early days as Red Hood he wasn’t exactly prefect at keep his mask on at all times when he was in his suit. Why would anyone believe that the dead son of Bruce Wayne was parading as a gun slinging vigilante?

“He probably does,” Barbara's voice echoes from the computer, “Your undercover disguise isn’t exactly great, Jason.” She pulls up a video from a year or so ago when he went undercover in one of Sionis illegal casinos.

“a fake mustache and sunglasses? Really?” Tim’s words are far too patronizing for Jason.

“Like you could do any better,” he grumbles

“I could. I could be a woman, and you wouldn’t even know it was me.”

“There is no time to squabble when someone’s life is in danger,” Damian interrupts and at a glance Jason thinks the boy is as frustrated as he is. As if on Damian’s insistence, the computer blares and a map appears with a pin.

“Good news, her alert still works. She’s at a club, the Moonlight Lounge. It’s on the harbor. Apparently, an up-and-coming place. It opened about a month back. Looks like all closed-door deals. It closed yesterday for temporary renovations.” Barbara filters out information.

“Know many month-old clubs that close for renovation?” Steph questions. Something was weird about the whole thing.

“Thanks, Babs,” Jason mutters picking up his helmet from where he had sat it down and heading for his bike.

“Todd, I’m coming with you.” Damian follows him in quick step.

“No,” Jason and Bruce say at the same times. It makes Jason pause at the apparent agreement between him and his father but ultimately ignores it for the sake of getting to you faster.

“This is my fault. I need to take care of it.” I need to save her. He doesn’t voice that thought. Nobody needed to know how much it haunted him that he wasn’t fast enough to save you from Penguin, how much it hurt him that you had to save yourself. It wasn’t about his ego; it was about you. You didn’t deserve any of it.

Damian frowns at but concedes, “we will be close. Correct, father?”

Damian turns to Bruce with a look that didn’t offer argument. Bruce nods and opens his mouth, but Jason has already tuned everything out with the hum of his bike. He takes off before anyone could stop him.

Additional note: There’s so much happening but it’s fine. Also, we will be having a couple of cliffhangers just so I have time to write the chapters. Sorry! As always thank you for reading! Please tell me your thoughts guys because I feel like this is a little wild.

Tag List: @little-miss-naill, @nikilolo787, @joonunivrs, @uzxotic, @qardasngan, @stormz369, @g4bbi3xx, @iwatobiswimbros, @the-lonely-flute, @elz-xo, @gone-batty-fics, @princessesgarden, @notfckincreative, @love-theangel, @feyres-fireheart, @penguimlover23, @herodedicatedblog, @dearghostling, @automaticplant, @alma-ru3, @13fresh, @anuttellaa, @nekotaetae, @redsakura101, @sleepy-head1, @aejabba, @asteria33, @princessbl0ss0m, @sinnamon-bunn, @wholelottalove05, @invinciblewaffles, @mischief-somehow-managed

#jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #do i know you?#kandyscorner #kandywrites

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maybeafrog-blog · 6 months ago

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Leonardo and Autism

I am fascinated by the amount of autistic that 2012 Leo is, because unlike Donnie’s convenient tech savant situation, Leo’s autistic traits are solidly plot neutral to negative? He’s obsessed with rewatching one specific TV show (a cartoon with a repetitive and predictable plot), uses his favorite character to script his Leader Speeches to try to get his team to listen. He generally tries to plan every mission in detail and gets very frustrated when his brothers don’t go along with it/when plans have to be changed (at first- he gets more flexible over time). Leo also has an incredibly black and white understanding of morality and tends to take Splinter's teaching's as fact rather than advice, which can make him fairly gullible and easy to manipulate (the Karai situation), and he probably has the least social intelligence of his brothers.

It's interesting that the traits that make Leonardo such a paragon across most iterations have such autistic vibes. 2003 Leo is obsessed with honor but has a ridiculously hard time recognizing his own emotions (you kumquat!), and MM Leo's heroic personality can't be blamed on Splinter without that good Hamato ninja juice, so like, he's just like that. It sorta reminds me of anecdotes about undiagnosed autistic/adhd people thriving in the military-- "Ninja training" and all the rules that come with it probably works like crack on that neurodivergent turtle brain. Kinda makes me wonder about Rise Leonardo and his comparatively very lax upbringing-- obvi the guy would still be a lot more social and silly compared to most Leos, I think he's more ADHD than autistic, but how different would he be if he were trained in the structure of 2003 or 2012 Splinter?

Anyway, give me a Leo who trains everyday not just to get stronger, but because of how badly he needs that routine. How does he react when it's broken? How does he cope with being away from home during the farmhouse arc? Maybe a Leo with sensitive hearing that makes him great at noticing when they're being followed, but overwhelms him when he's too close to street level traffic? A Leo that tries to suppress his stims because that's not very cool stoic ninja of him? How would his brothers react to a Leo who's calm and focused in the midst of battle finally shutting or melting down over something seemingly small?

Also, 2012 Leo is very cute when he gets excited about his space show and it makes me want to squish his dumb turtle face. Give Leos More Hobbies (looking at you Mutant Mayhem, I'm glad he draws his silly lil comics in Tales but I'm concerned all his interests are gonna revolve around April or Ninja Responsibilities. My boy already has anxiety this shit is too much pressure for him.)

#tmnt #tmnt fandom #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003 #tales of the tmnt #tmnt mutant mayhem #tmnt leonardo #autism #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt

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pandemonini · 4 days ago

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I caught up with sxf and holy shit its happening TWIYOR IS HAPPENING--

Okay well we have to get through loid and his one hundred and one defence mechanisms first.

I've seen a lot of fans being excited about a jealousy arc and while I wholly get the appeal, I think from a narrative perspective it might not actually work...

It gets a bit easy to forget sometimes but Loid is ultimately driven by compassion, yeah? Everything he's doing is for the sake of making a better future for newer generations. His rejection of even the idea that there could be romantic feelings between him and Yor is ultimately because he believes it would only harm her down the line if they get too involved. We know how much he appreciates (read: is down bad catastrophically for) her, and as early as the school entrance arc he was thinking about how he wants to make sure both her and Anya are taken care of after the mission is concluded and he makes his exit out of their lives.

A jealousy arc, especially one with a normal and suitable man, would maybe push Loid into realising and admitting his feelings for Yor, but it would not push him into embracing them. If anything, it would very much cause him to pull even further away. I remember in the earlier chapters where he thinks about how hypocritical he was for telling Anya she has to care for Bond to the end, when he himself isn't planning on doing the same for her. Loid is painfully aware of the implications around his deception, he knows he isn't being fair to his makeshift family even if he does believe the ends justify the means. So in the event that Yor finds a good man with whom she could have a normal relationship, I think Loid would completely shove his own feelings aside because he'd want that normal and happy life for her. If anything it would further convince him to somehow swap her with another woman, so she'd be free to pursue a real marriage with a man who is emotionally available, would love her and put her first. He'd compartmentalise his own heartbreak just like he'd done his other emotions so that he could keep pushing ahead.

Which, honestly? That sort of misunderstanding could very much occur. Loid unwittingly breaking Yor's heart by breaking off the marriage and not communicating that he's doing it for her sake because he's not even perceiving the fact that she's in love with him, just "she's in love with another man which makes her a danger to my mission anyway i want her to be happy". Really, the biggest thing in the way of that happening is the mission and Sylvia not taking any of his bullshit. Also probably Anya cause we know Twilight the Perfect Spy could potentially manage to worm his way through making the mission work without Yor, except he doesn't account for his psychic daughter who will NOT stand for her mama being replaced by anyone.

I feel like this could be one way of going about it. Anya throws the biggest fit known to mankind yet and shutting Loid out, Loid finally learning the hard way that no matter what he convinced himself of, this make-believe family has already been real for a long time now, he loves Yor as his wife and he loves Anya as his daughter, and now the question is what he'd do about it. Him potentially failing at his mission precisely because he broke his family apart in an effort to deny any genuine emotional attachment to them.

#also rly desperate for twilight angsting over “shes only in love with my persona”#twilight jealousy arc but he goes from brooding over an npc to brooding over himself #cause yor loves “loid forger” not him #as does anya #oh mr. twilight #you and your identity issues #*twirls hair*#spy x family #loid forger #loid x yor #loidyor #yor forger #twiyor

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fullbattleregalia · 1 year ago

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I’ve been reading a lot of Star Wars prequels time travel fix-its, and I really want one now where it’s Anakin and Trilla (aka Second Sister), who get sent back. Anakin from right after he finally kills Palpatine and Trilla from right after Vader killed her. Just two semi-kinda-maybe reformed sith jammed back into their teenage bodies and being like, “Well, that was an absolute shit show - let’s not do that again.” Only Anakin had just started his redemption arc when he died and Trilla had only just gotten the closure to maybe consider a starting a redemption arc when she died, so they have no idea what they’re doing. Aside from killing Palpatine - that is the one thing they definitely agree on. How? Not sure. Still working on that.

Anyway, Anakin is around 17; Trilla is almost 14. They’ve snuck out of the Temple and are on the run on Coruscant, so that they can complete their plan of “Murder the Supreme Chancellor with Extreme Prejudice” and also because Trilla maaaaay have reflexively kidnapped an initiate on their way out of the Temple. Listen, teeny Initiate Cal Kestis was right there, and he’s the one thing Trilla has roundabout positive associations with at the moment, and the sudden reintroduction of teenage hormones is hell on impulse control. So she’s keeping him. This is her tiny initiate now. Cere can’t have him. Neither can Anakin - go kidnap your own initiate if you want one so bad.

Cal thinks this is all an exciting adventure, though he doesn’t quite understand why Padawan Suduri and Padawan Skywalker keep arguing over whether just blowing up the entire Senate building is worth the effort. Maybe it’s an inside joke?

#don’t know why this has invaded my brain but there you have it #no idea what Trilla’s canon age is and didn’t feel like looking it up #so I guesstimated #star wars #jedi fallen order #trilla suduri #anakin skywalker #cal kestis #somehow in my head this whole thing devolves into a strange road-trip comedy #fix it fic

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amxrany · 5 months ago

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!! CHAPTER 7 / DIASOMNIA ARC SPOILERS !!

I finally have time off and I'm really excited to this segment (Trey's Dream):

Now we're back at Heartslabyul and Ace is having fun with the dream hopping so far! Ortho notices that the Heartslabyul members haven't been feeling sick, but Cater explains that their dorm's nonsensical interior design choices certainly helped in getting to used to stuff such as dreamhopping.

Ace wonders as to how many dreams we've been to, and Silver replies that we have been to around 20+ dreams by now, which causes him to go to salty as to why Yuu didn't go to his dream first. But we had to explain to him that at first Silver had no control as to whose dream they were going to land in but managed to gain control after acquiring the help of the Shroud bros. The Shroud Bros also mention a systems of IDs assigned to people's dream, probably a way to gather everyone once it's time to fight Malleus. Idia was scared that the system might still be buggy, even bringing up that it's possible to get lost in the Dream Realm.

Anyways, Grim boasts to Ace that they've overcomed so much, but Sebek puts him down by saying that they got where they are with the the help of other people. But Silver actually defends Grim here, bringing up the time before they went dream hopping. Grim was standing in fron of Yuu and fighting the darkness on his own. We have the option to thank Grim, and he it's his job as the boss of Ramshackle but you can tell that he got flustered.

Leona just wants to get things over with and tells the others to hurry up. We get a clue that it's Trey's dream because Ace notes the smell of sweets in the air. While the group makes their way to the kitchen, Ace and Deuce could easily distinguish what Trey was making based on scent alone (now that's a talent I want /j).

But before we step foot into the kitchen, Cater stops us; pointing out that if we just walk in, then the darkness would immediately detect us anomalies. He proposes a plan where he uses his UM to trade places with his dream self to avoid suspiscion, he also gets the help of Leona and Idia. But Leona protests that it should be the first years doing it, because what if his dream self wanted to have tea 😭😭😭 and Idia's just whining about not wanting to they enter the kitchen and it's definitely something (in a good way) and Cater notices that it seems bigger than usual.

Alright so we get more Cater lore here, we learn that his family prefers to buy sweets because they found it difficult to make them. He brings that up to Trey but he just simply replies that they're not that hard to make and back then Cater just thought was just enduring it but looking at it now...you can say he must be having a lot of fun.

We finally get the man of the hour with CHENYA??? AS THE HOUSEWARDEN 😭???

Deuce is so real because he doesn't remember Chenya's name, even with Ortho pulling out his government name from the RSA records he still couldn't pronounce it 😔. Ace makes fun of him for it, but Sebek unintentionally defends Deuce, saying that his name is just like a tongue twister.

Leona and Idia are just throwing shade towards Cater and Trey for replacing their Housewarden in their dreams, Leona feeling sorry for Riddle while Idia comments that smiling guys who hide their intentions are scary. Ortho puts a stop to it, explaning that the dreams aren't the real representation of one's desires (using Kalim and Vil as examples). Malleus didn't make these dreams himself, he only makes the dreamer think of happy situations and resets it when something bad happens, and it goes on in a never ending cycle. The dreams the dreamer has are similar to those that they would actually have irl, having no control of the situation whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the others are just outside peeking into the kitchen with Grim climbing on Ace's back to get a better view (with Ace complaining that he's heavy😂). Sebek tells them to stfu cuz he can't hear but Ortho tells HIM to stfu cuz he's loud 😭.

Trey immediately notices that Cater isn't the actual one (if you get it, you get it), he freaks out as to how Trey caught him so fast and he replies that he's known him for 3 years so he would have known by now. We learn more about what happened to Riddle in this dream, who's currently just a card soldier. Just like in real life, Riddle tried to battle Chenya for the position of Housewarden but was defeated because of Chenya's UM. His UM is called "Not All Head", making his body (except his head) invisible.

So we get more Alice in Wonderland references coming up. Because Chenya's UM also affects his neck, Riddle's collar literally just flies past. Riddle who's just confused, doesn't realize that Chenya unbuckles his belt and flips him over causing him to flash everyone; it's similar to the scene with the Chesire Cat and Queen of Hearts. Trey tells him to knock it off because Riddle would get mad if he goes telling everyone but Chenya isn't scared of him lmao. We also find out that Riddle went easy on Chenya, because if that was anyone else he would have burned them alive already 💀.

Trey leaves for a moment to take the cake out of the oven, which leaves some time for the third years to discuss and they noticed that there isn't much of a difference compared to real life. But because of the few discrepancies, it would be a lot harder to wake Trey up.

Trey comes back and asks them if they're hungry and offers them some food, while also making sure that isn't too sweet so that Cater could eat it. At first, Cater was worried about the rule where the Housewarden has to be the first to take a bite, but Trey tells them not to worry cuz glass desserts are an exception (Chenya's really chill for a dorm leader). While giving them snacks, Leona asks Trey to join them (he really is having a tea party at Heartslabyul 😭), and he guesses that he wants them to taste test the dishes. Leona mentions that his palata is quite refined so he'll be tasting the food from the chef of Heartslabyul, which makes Trey nervous. Let's just say while they were taste testing Trey kept offering more and more food 😅.

Meanwhile, the others are getting jealous because they get to eat while they just watch, but they also came to the conclusion that Trye's dream doesn't seem too different from reality. Suddenly, Ortho tells the group to keep quiet because he and Silver hear something "enormous" approaching. That's when Ace and Deuce tell the others to follow them as they both lead the group into a hidden compartment behind the clock which changes locations depending on its mood.

Back to the third years, Trey's just bouncing back and forth between giving them more food and baking. Cater starts to feel bad about taking away Trey's happiness away, realizing that Silver and the others were in a really tough spot for doing so. He wonders what would have happened if Trey never had that encounter with Riddle's mother, if he could've been a pastry chef by now.

Once Trey comes back, he and Idia start talking about their interests that was influenced by their parents while growing up. Where Idia brings up that he's been into magical engineering since he was a kid. Trey just starts talking about how much he love science and baking is similar to that because of the need to be precise and the satisfaction one gets when an experiment/dish turns out well, and he also sees it as a way to make other people happy (aw that's nice). Leona's out here being like "nah happiness is simply a byproduct" but Trey disagrees. He likes it when people compliments his food as it gives him confidence.

Holy fuck Trey's dream has so much exposition that I can't just cut it out or else it won't make sense 😭. But what I won't cut out is the part where Trey talks about the event with Riddle back in his childhood. It all began when Trey and Chenya decided to sneak into the nicest in the neighborhood, which just so happened to be the Rosehearts. They meet Riddle who helps them when their ball gets stuck in a tree and was really smart for his age as he could name every insect and plant. They sneak him out of the house so that Riddle can taste a tart, but once his mom found out...oh boy. Apparently she bitched on his family for FIVE HOURS that's fucking crazy like she really went insane over Riddle's diet. Cater said that they also had this conversation at some point after Riddle's overblot, but Trey just brushed it off as he really didn't mind it anymore (but really that shit changed the trajectory of his life forever).

Now we have more dorm lore regarding the Vice Housewarden, in terms of how they are chosen. There are three ways for someone to be the Vice Housewarden which are through: being chosen by the Housewarden, volunteering, or vote from the other members. How Trey became the Vice Housewarden was because of the third method, where everyone voted for him because they found out about his history with Riddle (even though the latter treated him like a stranger once he got to NRC and took the Housewarden position later on). He even broke the rules at one point and got collared for it, which yeahhhh wasn't really pretty.

Cater reminisces about the past, knowing that Trey serving as Riddle's support must have been hard; he even thinks that Trey secretly wishes that Chenya was there to help him (this is making me sad) and he wishes he has done more to help him. But Leona asks Cater the real question, if he were to help Trey, would that still change the outcome?

Leona who's just tired of all this talk (same here bro) gets the group back to their main goal, starting with Chenya. But then they start hearing the footsteps again, in which Ctaer assumes that it's a hedgehog that ate a size changing mushroom but it was much worse (and funnier). We get to my favorite part of the update: really round Heartslabyul

Everyone's freaking out (obviously) which makes Trey check out all the commotion, but his he suddenly sports a happy mood when sees everyone and assumes they came for tea time. But he soon notices that there's two copies of Ace and Deuce (who start complaining that they aren't built like that irl) which causes the dream to start to distort.

Idia sees Round!Riddle and just goes "Is this what Trey meant when he said that Riddle was eating well 😭" and the round guy just taunts Idia cuz he's the tall one now (but at what cost).

They all come to the conclusion that sure Trey's dream seems normal, except all rationality/reasoning doesn't seem to exist anymore 😅. Even Silver comments that Riddle's bigger than a horse 💀 and Sebek just makes it worse by wondering how would Vorpal survive with Round!Riddle as its rider.

The Heartslabyul Gang tells Trey that he wouldn't let something like this happen in real life, because of spoiling ones appetite and possibly getting gum disease from overeating. This starts triggering the darkness to attack the others and bruh they turn into bowling balls, managing to knock down Silver 😭.

Meanwhile, Trey is starting to wake up, the darkness asks him about the food in the kitchen, with Chenya getting the first piece because he's the Housewarden. This causes Trey to realize that Riddle's the real Housewarden, not Chenya. The darkness starts eating again, which Trey puts a stop to. When asked why, Trey responded that yeah eating his food does making happy, but going overboard isn't something they'd actually do.

Trey starts to wake up by himself! I think that it is around here that his groovy in his SSR takes place.

But all of a sudden, the area is filled with sand. Leona used his UM to get rid of the darkness even though the area is quite small, which caused everyone to cough up sand. Now that Trey's awake, he gets a bit embarassed that the others saw his pathetic side, Cater's like "more of weird side but alright" 😭. But he promises to be careful when getting hands on a new cookbook, Grim adds that he can bring the extras to Ramshackle.

Trey asks why they got to him before Riddle, and they explain to him the rules of the dream world, where darkness always follows the dreamer. So they needed an ally that can get close to Riddle without setting the darkness off, and that is none other than Trey. Ace speculates that Riddle's dream would involve everyone remembering all the Queen of Hearts rules and they all just laugh 🤣.

Ortho asks for Trey's help and he agrees, everyone thanks him but Ace is being salty because Sebek thanked Trey and not him. Sebek not having his shit either was like "who tf wants to be saved by you?" 💀 (nahhh). Trey and Silver had to apologize on their behalf and Idia comments that it's like watching parents apologizing for their kid's actions.

Trey gets the invitation, and a new ally is added to the group. Once Ortho creates the model for the dream, Trey comments that his outfit seems flashy. But Cater thinks that red and black look cool on him. In typical Cater fashion, he takes a pic to save for later.

Before the group gets going, Trey brings a strawberry tart for Riddle. Sebek asks Silver if it's fine even though it will most likely look a bit funky cuz of the dream hopping, but the latter responds that it's okay because it will still taste the same; it's mostly the thought that counts.

Now that ends Trey's Dream, I know I promised this segment last week but it was my major exam week so I focused on my studies. I won't be making any promises but I'll find a way to release Riddle's segment as soon as possible!

Thank you for being patient!

Previous: Ace's Dream Next: Riddle's Dream

(Note: This post is a summarized version of the update, info and pics comes from @/MostroLoungeVIP, @/WitchDrug, and @/acesuuu on x/twt, give them some support if you can)

#rany talks about twst #twisted wonderland #twst #twst jp #twst spoilers #diasomnia #twst silver #sebek zigvolt #ortho shroud #idia shroud #leona kingscholar #deuce spade #cater diamond #ace trappola #trey clover #being in college makes me realize i suck at time management #but eh who gives a damn lmao

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alderplanter · 2 months ago

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hello! i love your fics so much, and i heavily agree with everything you said about the dark star jack arc. it’s probably my absolute favorite arc to come out of these shows, but sometimes i wish it never happened because it feels a bit pointless. the torment they put jack through rarely gets acknowledged, and when it does, it’s usually in a joking manner. the only time i remember jack’s situation being mentioned in a serious manner was during the video where they capture the beast. i genuinely believed there would at least be one video surrounding jack’s trauma from the creator. like- this young child was used as a weapon and was exposed to nothing but war and death for months. he was forced to murder children and their families. he was in constant fear. he was in pain. i’m hoping that they’ve actually been slowly building up to a breakdown this entire time. i believe all of these obsessions jack has been developing (sponges, the cats and the foxy plushie) are things he’s using to avoid confronting his trauma

Yes! I see we share the same brainwaves.

I really wish they would actually address what happened. I know that this show is capable of great emotional depth and character development, but they act like they’re grasping at straws when there is still plenty to go off of, i.e., Jack’s trauma, Sun’s connection to Wither Shards, Lunar’s Astral duties, literally everything about Nexus, etc. I still feel like the move was pointless, but anyway —

During “Jack FIGHTS FOR CONTROL!!??” (yes, there are in fact two exclamation points and question marks in the official title), we see a very traumatized version of Jack that never appears again. His voice is shaky and he appears to harbor a lot of guilt over the people he killed. He repeatedly tells Solar that he’s scared and even initially tells him to go away because he doesn’t want to be forced to hurt him. Then, in “The TRUE DEATH of the Creator! In VRChat”, Jack apparently loses some of his memories from the event? They left it very unclear, as if the writers intentionally wanted to be able to ignore what happened if they so desired. A lot of us fans were excited for a post-infection arc, so this was a bit of a slap in the face, especially since we already got that little taste of it earlier.

Part of me wonders if the writers are scared of Jack being too “out of character”, since the fandom loves him as a silly little dude. Maybe they think that Jack feeling guilty or being less inclined to violence would make him fundamentally different? I remember watching the Jaq, Jack, and Jackie trilogy and thinking “why is Jack so on board with the idea of killing the Wet Floor Bot and attacking that random guy? Wasn’t this sort of stuff exactly what the Creator forced him to do? Doesn’t he regret all that?” It was less fun to watch and more confusing.

My gosh, I hope they’re planning a breakdown, too. It’s certainly not too late to show how the infection arc affects Jack; not at all. There are still reasonable explanations for how he’s been acting so far: it’s possible that Jack is avoiding addressing or even thinking about what happened. Like you said, he constantly exhibits behaviors that are akin to distracting himself, like with the sponges, cats, or plushie (though it is perfectly fine if those are just examples of the way he is). It’s possible that Jack doesn’t feel like the family would listen to or even care about his experiences, considering how often they dismiss him due to his quirks or intelligence level. It could lead to a very interesting arc!

. . . and then there’s the possibility that Davis and Reed will confirm on stream that all of Jack’s therapy happened offscreen, because that seems like the kind of thing they’d do. Oh, well. If worse comes to worst, we still have fanfiction.

#sun and moon show #lunar and earth show #jack o moon #tsams jack #laes jack #sams jack #the sun and moon show #ask #alder answers

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raayllum · 2 months ago

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co-creator interview transcription

Listen along here / full transcription is provided down below for anyone who needs and/or prefers it to audio. at 50 minutes it's decently long

R: Alright, welcome back to the WordswithDragons podcast. Today I am joined again by Dragon Prince co-creator Aaron Ehasz, as well as for the first time his fellow co-creator Justin Richmond. It’s lovely to have you both, thank you being here.

A: Thank you for having us. I just waved—we’re not on video—

R: I do that all the time.

A: We’re recording this—

J: Oh yeah. It’s audio, we’re an audio meeting.

A: Okay, cool. I just waved [Justin laughs]. Hello. [R laughs]

J: Hi.

R: Alright, so I guess I thought — cause I feel like we’re going to be looking back at some of the stuff season seven did, but also arc 2 in general, as the previous leg of the show. So season seven has a lot of pay off, was there anything that you guys were really excited to write this season, like “finally! We get to do this” for scenes, characters, plotlines?

A: Justin?

J: You want me to go? Okay. Let’s see. Uh, a lot of it [laughs] guessing, we’d been building towards you know, season seven for a long time, so it felt — finally getting to put all the stuff down, y’know, put all the stuff in the show we’d been planning for was pretty cool. We sort of knew a long time ago what was gonna happen with Aaravos and dragons and all that kind of stuff, so it was pretty cool to actually go in and get it into the show, and also just — I’m trying to think of any specific moments, but — no, it was a culmination of working on the show for so long, so getting it put in and done and down and rendered was was like, was really cool to finally get to a place where it was like, “Oh my God! Season seven! Here we go!” So yeah.

R: Yeah. I thought you were going to say the bird for sure. [Wheezes]

J: [Laughs] Oh, the bird payoff. Spoilers: if you have not watched the show, there’s some bird shenanigans that you might be able to guess. I guess statue of limitations, right? Like we can spoil stuff.

R: Oh, it’s been months, you guys can spoil away.

J: Yeah. So yeah, we’re — it’s fun to pay off some of the stuff like that. There’s more of those kinds of things coming, hopefully. But that was one of the good ones.

R: I thought it was also just really cool seeing more of like, um, Aaravos and Claudia’s dynamic, or like Rayla going home, the Ruthari reunion. All that stuff.

J: Oh yeah. The — that’s a good specific one. I know Devon had been on us for like four years [R chuckles] about the Ethari reunion. [Laughs] So getting to finally do that was fun.

R: Yeah.

A: How come no one ever asks if Pip is dead?

R: I’m kinda writing a fic about it, so don’t worry. [Laughs]

A: Okay. Just curious.

J: Yeah. Where’s the love for bird sentience? [Laughs]

R: I learned not to count my chickens — my eggs before they hatch, because I was like “Lain and Tiadrin, all of the parents are totally getting out of the coins,” and they didn’t, so until Harrow’s out of that bird, I’m not fully gonna be like, “Whoo!” but... [J laughs] But exciting, exciting either way.

R: Um, I think it was like an interview a while ago or maybe on Twitter, where I think Aaron mentioned there was a fan-favourite character whose fate got changed, they were gonna get killed off and then they were revived and somebody else died.

A: Yes.

R: Do you want to reveal who that is?

A: Sure. Well, there’s at least two instances. There was one universe where Viren died after season 5 and then he didn’t wake up. That was that, and — Claudia didn’t do the spell, he didn’t do the spell, he went to bed going “Aaravos lied to me” and then that was it. But there was something kind of like, not [clutches chest for ‘not right’] — anyway, we worked out obviously finding a different path. But yeah: Lujanne.

R: Okay. I-I thought.

A: Lujanne was gonna — we were gonna lose Lujanne and Akiyu, all these great, you know, elven mages, and uh — I can’t remember who pushed back or how it got [laughs] how she got saved. But someone was like, “No, Lujanne, we gotta keep Lujanne around, for Allen’s sake,” so...

R: Yeah.

A: That is who we were thinking of, right?

J: Yeah. That was that specific Twitter thought for sure.

R: Okay. I thought it might be her, and then I almost wondered if she got saved — this kind of goes into my next question, of — cause I realized on my like third rewatch of the season, I was like, “Hey, what happened to like, the Moon Nexus? Is it still inverted, is it fixed? Did she fix it?”

J: It’s a nightclub now. [J and A laugh]

R: With a disco ball.

A: Dance the night away.

J: Yeah.

A: Is it still inverted? I’m going to assume they had to go figure out some magic, and I don’t know if they had to go on some kind of quest and find something to fix it up, or — I dunno. Like — there’s some period of time where immediately after the season probably where there are some loose ends where the gang will have to tie up before the third arc really escalates in a significant way, so. But yeah, that’s a good question. What do you think?

R: Um...

A: How do you revert a Moon Nexus?

R: I don’t know. I think that’s for the theories. People are trying — we know more about primal stones.

A: [Overlapping] Yeah.

J: [Overlapping] You right click on it and you say revert file.

R: Yes.

J: That’s a stupid video game joke, so I... [R and J laugh]

R: I mean, I thought it was good, so.

J: [Laughs] Well thank you.

R: Okay, the next question is a bit of a geeky one, but I’ve always loved the poem “Ozymandias,” King of Kings, and it seems that’s where Zym’s name came from. Was that conscious, was that like a — oh, you guys were like “Oh, we want to invoke that poem?” at all, because it’s about power...

J: It’s definitely informed by it, and then it seemed fitting, but then it was like, “Well, it shouldn’t be exactly that,” and what would be the — I don’t remember how it got to Avizandum, Aaron, do you remember?

A: How it got to Azymondias?

J: How it got to Azymondias, I mean, sorry yeah.

A: We knew we wanted something that had like a cute nickname, but also a longer name—

J: Yeah.

A: And I don’t remember when we landed on Azymondias Ozymandias, but we did agree upon like yes, let’s do this, let’s make him Azymondias.

J: Yeah, at some point it was informed by, I just can’t remember exactly how we ended up with Zym / Azymondias.

A: Somewhere, we probably have a document of pitched names that we went through, like twenty different ideas.

J: Nate. Steven.

A: Pete.

R: Yeah. [Laughs] I mean it kind of sounds like Avizandum, you know, and Zubeia, so they all fit.

J: Yeah, it definitely has a familial ring to it, which is nice also, for sure.

A: Was Avizandum, was that a bookstore in Scotland, is that where that name — was it Avizandum books—? I feel like it might’ve been, but I don’t know for sure now. Anyway.

J: We have a Scottish writer Iain Hendry. You know, yeah you’re right, Avizandum Law Bookshop in Edinburgh, yeah.

R: Yeah. Cause I read the poem and did it in undergrad, and I remember reading it after season 3 and thinking “Huh, interesting,” and then I reread it after season seven, I feel like I got so much more out of applying it to the show with everything about power and permanence, or lack thereof, so it felt...

J: It’s funny, “Uncharted 3” also had not direct references to that poem, but we read — that was one of the poems that informed some of the stuff cause they’re similar — similar thematic stuff going on there. It’s interesting.

A: Yeah, and I like the idea that Zym is a little—

R: Oh no. We lost Aaron.

J: We lost ‘im. [R laughs] Hold on, I’m gonna message him on slack. He may have lost power.

R: Oh no.

J: Oh he’s back, okay.

R: Okay.

A: I clicked the wrong thing! I like that Zym is a little bit of a twist, right, it’s not Ozymandias, it’s Azymondias, and there’s more of a sense of optimism and creation than destruction and dismantling, right, so.

R: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so for my next question, uh, what was it like getting to explore new sides to characters like Terry and Ezran? Cause I feel like they were big standouts to me in season seven.

J: You wanna go, Aaron, or do you want me to go?

A: Um. I always go to the performers on some of these things, which is to say like, you know, Ben and Sasha are amazing actors with a huge amount of heart and range and depth, and that as a writer, you find that well that’s an opportunity, right, to like — we can push these characters, we can do something more nuanced, we can — we can stretch their arcs and play with it more, and you know that the actors will be excited about that, right? So in particular, yes, seeing Ben — Ben has been incredible since the minute we started working with him and we were, we felt like he came into our universe like a whole being who was just like a main character on day one.

R: Oh yeah.

A: We didn’t have to ask. He’s just really — his Terry had been phenomenal and funny and emotional and wonderful. And Sasha’s someone who is so precocious and wonderful, which is perfect for Ezran, you know when we started, but we’ve seen her mature as a performer and her capabilities grow, and so we just felt that opportunity growing. And so we knew we had a chance to push both of those characters.

A: You know, Terry, we’ve also always kind of known there was a ticking bomb in his relationship with Claudia, which is like — and I often think of like Iroh and Zuko, and Terry and Claudia, as having a similar thing of which is that you have someone who has a really stronger moral core in some ways, a clearer compass pointed towards moral north, if that’s a thing, who fully unconditionally love this other person and is hoping to — to bring them toward that path, but knows you can’t force someone, you have to be by their side, you have to support them, you have to do what you can. The difference here became Terry seeing himself be used in the relationship, and having the strength and I think wisdom to say you know, like, “I can’t say in this in this way, and I love you” — I think he loves her and will always love her, but she kind of broke the core of a romantic relationship together, right? So I dunno, that’s kind of what I saw as where Terry needed to find the strength to move forward.

A: And then Ezran, I mean Ezran honestly like we’re just seeing... You know, season four, was meant to show like he’s this very idealistic king, which is wonderful. He’s challenging these notions that the world says you have to act a certain way and lead with power, not with love, and those sorts of things. He’s very idealistic and young people are very idealistic, and they get tested, right? And he’s being tested, and in season four there’s that speech he gives where he was gonna give that speech, and then it changes because of the vandalism that’s happened, and he’s starting to understand that there’s pain and flaws and things like that. He’s figuring out how to incorporate that into his optimism and idealism, right, but at the same time, it’s not getting easier, right? The challenges to the world, to his kingdom, to everything is getting harder. So he has this balance where he’s both growing his ability to create hope and optimism and idealism, but also incorporating more realism and a sense of jeopardy and reality into who he is. You know, you can look at a smaller version of this in the scene where he’s being asked to forgive Runaan, right? An easier Ezran would be like “Great, it’s done,” where he gets to is “I don’t know how I’m going to forgive you, but I’m gonna have to try”. It’s complicated, it’s still a little complicated. You know, he’s starting — he helps to found Evrkynd, right, this great city with hope and a future, but also I mean like, the thing you probably don’t see is that he’s sleeping next to the Nova Blade now, you know?

R: Yeah.

A: He’s — there’s seeds of an obsession that are planted for what’s coming next. Anyway, I’ve gone off quite a bit—

R: No, that was awesome.

A: I love those characters, I love those performers, and uh, there’s more, there’s more for both of them.

R: That was — it felt like in arc 2, you could see Terry and Ezran kind of doing a lot of damage control in their relationships or their choices and trying to fix things, and then realizing “Oh, I can’t actually fix this stuff” and season seven is then the fallout. And I was also always hoping that he’d get the Nova Blade, so I was thrilled... Okay, I asked the Moon Nexus question, okay, this was kind of a clarification one just cause I thought it was interesting, so early in the season Janai says to Karim to be pardoned he’d have to relinquish his name, and he’s like “oh I’ve already given up all my titles and stuff like that,” so I was just curious as to what would’ve meant to relinquish his name? If you can answer. Cause maybe it’s a spoiler.

A: I-I think she’s cutting off his heirs.

R: Okay.

A: I think she’s—

J: Cutting him out of the family is what we sort of talked about. It’s a little bit of the Prince Harry thing on a bigger scale. [Laughs] Like Prince Harry chose to leave obviously, but I think it’s a similar thing where he’s totally out of the royal line of succession and all of that stuff.

R: Yeah.

A: I mean, I think she’s anticipating challenge in the future to the path that she’s trying to create from his potential family, right, I think. I-I can’t remember now, I think she asks for that, she already knows—?

R: She knows that Miyana’s pregnant, and then he figures out she is because of the request.

A: That’s right.

R: Which that also makes sense, cause I had it in my head of maybe it’s a magical Xadian thing of almost like erasing Aaravos’ name, maybe you know, overthinking it. But that makes sense.

A: Yup.

R: Okay, cool. Okay, then kind of moving into a little bit of the setup in this season, in season seven, um, Kpp’Ar and Laurelion stood out to me in like every time I learn something about them, they just get more interesting and setting up interesting stuff for the future. Is there anything you can comment there or another character that we hear about, like I think it’s Shiruakh?

J: I don’t know, should we — I’m trying to think if there’s anything we can say that’s not — I don’t know. [Laughs]

A: Well this had not occurred to me, but it’s interesting that Shiruakh’s scale is the armour that — is the magical armour that Claudia has, and and Shiruakh’s tooth is the freaking Nova Blade.

R: Yeah.

A: Right? There’s something interesting about the defense — I mean, I just hadn’t...

R: Mmhm. Like a matched set almost.

A: That’s interesting.

J: Take all my stuff! Make some things out of it. [R and J laugh] I’ll give you a tooth, a scale, and a pair of my boots.

A: Um, we will — there is more to know about what Kpp’Ar was doing, which was self-eating, and there will be some followup to that, which is a dark magic path to immortality, basically, or some version of immortality, so we’ll have some followup on that. Um. Can — can I hint about something, Justin, or no?

J: I don’t think we should.

A: No? Okay.

J: [Quietly] Should just leave it—

A: Let me just say [R laughs] he’s not the first self-eater, right? Which is a horrible term when you think about it, but like the idea that there’s dark magic where you can self-cannibalize and extend your life, you know. We may meet someone out there who’s been doing that, who’s quite ancient and strange.

R: Awesome. Um... So, what was the thought process behind giving Callum a white streak? Cause obviously that’s a big change to his character design.

J: I mean it, you know, obviously what he did [laughs]. Right? But I think it’s a reminder that every time he looks in the mirror, like “Oh my God, this is how far I went to do a thing, and to protect my family and to protect the people that I love, and I—” it’s a very slippery slope, and so I think it’s helpful for him to keep that. It’s a hint that like, you know, we saw what happened with Claudia, right? It got bigger and worse, so I think it’s interesting for him to be contemplating that anytime he — anytime he literally looks at himself, he’ll be reminded of what happened and what he did, and to not go down that path again, y’know? It’s dangerous, it’s — dark magic is easier and faster, right?

R: Yeah.

J: And so — but also just, it looks cool as hell. [Laughs]

R: It does! It — even the little wave.

J: Yeah! [Overlapping] Rule of cool a little bit.

R: [Overlapping] Cause he has the streak.

J: But no, it’s definitely — he did a big ass dark magic spell, right?

A: Well, did he? I mean he did.

J: Yes, he did. So.

A: Which, it’s also a signal of his vulnerability, right? I mean, he accepted some measure of significant vulnerability moving forward.

J & R: Yes.

R: Cause I was like, he has the streak, he has the Staff [of Ziard]. I’m intrigued for his arc in arc three. Especially cause Kosmo had said “Oh, if you ever do dark magic again, you’d be completely corrupted,” and it doesn’t seem like that happened, but maybe, you know, there’s multiple meanings or another way to look at it.

J: Also, it’s a little bit hyperbolic.

R: Yes.

A: Callum’s going to get more and more powerful, by significant measures.

R: Which is great, cause then it puts him in a place of like, okay you have this power, kind of like Ezran with the Nova Blade or any of them, what do you do with it, you know? You’re not kids anymore. The white streak also made me think about him and Claudia being like almost inverted, character design wise, and she has quite the arc this season. What was it like getting to write her in season seven as she continues with her choices?

J: You want me to go, or you wanna go?

A: You go.

J: Oh alright. Uh, it was awesome. [Laughs]

R: Yeah.

J: No, I super — she’s a super fun character to write and like Aaron was talking about before, Racquel is so good that she always brings something even more interesting than we put on the page, and so — so yeah, it was awesome to finally get the chance to put down all the things we had been talking about in the writer’s room and at coffees and breakfast and all that stuff, her vulnerability and especially the end when she’s like, “I’m nice,” that’s sort of a very strong ending statement by Claudia given what we’ve seen happen and what she’s done, of course, and so getting that done. And Claudia’s not done yet, there’s still a lot of really interesting stuff coming for Claudia. She’s a fascinating character and so like the more we kind of get to play with her and put her and push her to the limit, the more interesting she becomes, I think, given her family circumstances and what happened and you know, her brother’s still out there and on the other side of this, and now that Viren is gone, it’s interesting. There’s a lot I’m trying not to step on for the future, but there’s a lot of really cool developments coming for Claudia that you’ll see.

R: Even...

A: Do you think she’s already exceeded Viren’s power?

R: For me or Justin? [Chuckles]

A: You.

J: I know. [Laughs]

R: [Laughs] Uh, I would say yeah, I think you see even aspects of that even in season one, when it’s like she thinks of the soul switching plan, and she doesn’t understand Harrow’s reservation about it, but Viren can kind of be like “Oh yeah I can see that he won’t—”

A: That’s true.

R: “—really like it,” so it feels like she’s always steadily surpassed him, even in season four when she was taking on more animalistic forms, I was like “Huh, interesting.”

A: Yeah.

R: And then season seven she’s basically a human dragon at this point.

A: Yeah.

R: And that’s just so rich for her in terms of how much she hates dragons, and how dragons are so much of a villain in Dragon Prince with like Sol Regem, and the Archdragons’ decisions, but also like saviours, so I dunno, really interesting stuff with in particular. I always look forward to her.

A: Yeah. And not only with character, but in terms of power level, she’s got a lot more room to grow and she will, so yeah. There’s exciting stuff for Claudia.

R: So I loved getting to see more of Aanya in season six season seven, especially season seven of her being again good and bad influence on Ezran in some ways—

A: Right.

R: So she gets to be more complicated. Um, will we ever see the new kings and queens of the Pentarchy potentially again? Or figures like King Ahling, or I think years ago it was tossed out that Kasef has a younger sibling...?

J: Will we see them again?

R: Yeah. I guess more like Pentarchy leaders or politics in hypothetical — well not hypothetical, but in arc 3.

A: Yeah. I-I think so, and I think one of the curious questions is where does Evrkynd stand in respect to all of the kind of older order, right? Does it upset that order, does it just kind of live independently, like the Vatican, you know?

R: Who’s actually in charge?

J: Yeah! Yeah, I mean, like the whole order’s been flipped over, right? So it’ll be interesting to see the fallout of that for sure.

A: Has it been — what do you mean the whole order has been flipped around?

J: Oh just like the world has changed significantly in the sense that Aaravos came back and killed a bunch of stuff, and a lot of horrible bad thing magic happened, and so it’s just a lot of open questions about — all of the structures still exist, but what do they mean in a world is coming, and all of those things.

R: Who fills the power vacuums? Like I was even thinking of what is a Xadia without Archdragons? Other than Zym, like what does that mean, and what’s that going to do to everyone there, and—?

J: Yeah.

A: I mean, do you think humans want to move east? To Xadia?

R: Maybe!

A: What does that mean? I mean like, I would assume they’re allowed but what does that mean? Well they have, they’re in the [Sunfire camp], but like — I dunno, what does that mean? Humans are weird, right?

R: Humans are so weird.

A: That’s our high level theme, ultimately. What this boils down to is humans are weird.

J: Humans are weird, bro. [Laughs]

A: That’s The Dragon Prince.

R: Well I remember, I was trying to develop a theory for something, and then I was counting the fingers in the flashbacks, like oh, humans made the Nova Blade. And I was like, why are they making the Nova Blade, so humans are weird absolutely is a theme. [Chuckles] Okay, that also kind of follows into my next question, with Zubeia gone, obviously Zym is young and now voiced by Dante Basco—

A: Right. [Laughs]

R: Is he the future Dragon King? Kind of being like an almost child ruler?

A: Makes sense to me. I dunno, like... let me think. Can I say there is another? There may be another? Can I say that?

J: Yeah.

A: Okay.

R: Potential succession crisis?

A: Er, I dunno about that, but uh — it’s certainly... There’s some, there’s some other — we have mentioned it. Some of these things, you’ll know more before the end of the year about some of this stuff. Nothing is just from Comic Con stuff, we’re — I’m not announcing any releases. Just like we’re gonna talk about more of this stuff at Comic Con in July. That’s all.

R: Okay, cool. Awesome.

A: Sorry. Little too [R laughs]...

R: No, no, you’re good. That’s, I was even gonna — one of my questions is if there are any graphic novels you can tease for the future, so I was even thinking maybe it’s gonna be [in there] or the book three, the fabled book three novelization.

J: We definitely want to do more OGNs for sure. We don’t have anything to announce, but we definitely have plans for more of those, for sure.

R: Okay, awesome. Cause all the graphic novels have been so good and it’s very fun to like peel back like “oh, how’s this going to apply?” or you know, different stuff.

J: Yeah, and just getting to work with all the people on those things is awesome, like Peter, and Nicole, and Felia, and all those people are awesome.

R: Um, so — I did have some backup questions as well — so I thought Runaan’s speech to Ezran in the end about violence, and the belief in necessary violence, and like if there even can be such a thing? Was really interesting. What sort of things were you hoping to explore about those concepts or in that discussion? Like for them as characters, obviously Ezran kind of becomes a little bit of an assassin by the end, of wanting to kill Aaravos as well, but even just looking back at arc 2 or other characters as well.

A: Would you ask the question a little more pointedly, maybe?

R: What was it like getting to explore the idea of quote unquote “necessary” violence?

A: Right. So first of all, we don’t purport to know an answer, like [chuckles] but we understand that people do make those justifications and ideas that like, you know, and certainly Runaan would have. Like this was surgical, this is saving lives, ultimately by going and being assassins we’re going to save lives. He believes he is good, or part of some machinery that leans toward the good. But the thing we all know is like violence isn’t just the violence that’s done, it’s also the trauma and the seeds of pain and future violence that get planted, and how what happens with that. And one thing that I believe, I saw a wonderful speech by the Dalai Lama years ago. The whole speech was wonderful, but for some reason the thing that stayed with me is he was talking about — I don’t remember if he was saying karma, but he was saying like, it’s good to do good and when you do good and put positive energy into the world in some way, there’s an instant karma. It comes back to you. It’s like the psychics of when you throw a ball on a boat, equal and opposite, that energy comes back to you immediately, that’s instant karma. But there’s one magical thing — I don’t remember him saying magical — which is a kindness to a child plants a tree of kindness. Right? It grows a thousandfold, that energy.

A: And so that was a very positive way of saying it, the same idea, but I’ve always thought about that. I’ve always thought about the energy and ideas and positivity; if you can give it to, so... The — the reverse of that here is, you know, the potential for greater pain and furtherance of those cycles of violence that are created when Runaan engages in his, you know, surgical violence, is only stopped because Ezran is such a strong character and is able to kind of internalize and carry it and process it and can still lead with hope and kindness and those things. So, um, so that’s kind of what we thought about. Again, I don’t know — there wasn’t intended to be an answer, just an understanding of who Runaan was and why, but for him to also have a deeper understanding of why it’s not just as simple as “I killed one person to save many,” like... He understands there’s a more complicated long term impact of his violence as well, and that he understands it now. I dunno if that helps or answers the question a little bit.

R: No, it does. Justin, is there anything you want to add?

J: No. [Laughs]

R: You’re like ditto.

J: No, that was pretty good.

R: Yeah, I thought — I thought season seven was a really great illustration of how the cycle is so much about collateral damage and how even if Ezran is thinking, “Oh I can have Runaan be shot,” it’s like well that’s gonna hurt Rayla, and that’s going to maybe physically hurt Callum who’s now using himself as a shield, there is no way to just hurt the singular person who hurt you and not hurt anybody else, because everybody has people who love them, right? Or even you know, Claudia and Aaravos, if Aaravos died and he did, what does that do to Claudia now? And there’s no like one definitive answer, but I think the show has continued to do a great job at exploring the ins and outs of all the nuances, so.

A: Yeah. And it’s interesting, I think about characters trying to process the complications of their lives and you know, the injustices or evils that have been done to them, and maybe the things they’ve done as well, and I think about Ezran carrying so much and processing it, and figuring out how to process it. I think about, you know, Viren where he comes out as well, right, and like which is to say his point of revelation when he wakes up in the beginning of season six, which is a little like, “I can’t make up for the things I’ve done all the way, but I can be on a different path. I can stop creating whatever negative energy I’m creating,” and so we have — he has this distinction of what he can do and what he deserves, and it’s not necessarily the same, and he... You know, his goodbye to Claudia and he knows he’s causing her pain, but he loves her, he tells her he loves her, but he has to leave. And then in the end, his identification as a servant, right, which obviously reflects back on his conversations with Harrow but also about his whole life’s ego journey, which is to exceed that, to somehow aspire to be a leader or a king or high mage, right? Those things that he aspired to, and in the end, he really dies, I think content to have been a servant, to be a servant, and to me there’s something really interesting about his path and where he lands and how he’s processed everything to get to that point. Anyway, just went off on a side note.

R: No, well it’s funny, cause watching season seven obviously Viren’s not there for the first time, and it’s both very strange and I was well Aaravos is here so we’re acclimating, but I could like feel him haunting the narrative.

A: Mmhm.

R: Because I felt like so much of what [A chuckles] the main trio were wrestling with were their Viren-esque choices, you know? Of Ezran being like we have to be strong enough so they’ll never attack us like ohh, that’s so Viren; or Rayla having to again do the homecoming and be judged, and she can’t maybe make amends for everything that was like the fallout of her actions; or Callum with his dark magic, so I was like [Viren] still felt very present to me in a way that I thought was really fun and interesting, even if I do miss him, so. Um... So this is the last of my official questions. Obviously the fandom was very saddened when “Xadia” was pulled suddenly, are there any hopes or plans of finding the game a new home?

J: Never say never [chuckles] is what I will say. We don’t have anything, like we don’t have anything immediately, but we do still control it and control the rights, and all of those things, so hopefully someday fingers crossed. But there’s nothing like in the immediate future.

R: Yeah. Yeah, okay, that’s — I mean, that was my fingers crossed answer, I was like “they probably still own the IP, so maybe—?”

J: We do! So we own all the stuff [laughs] and we’re really proud of the game and so there might — God willing the video game industry recovers a little bit [laughs] comes back to what it was before someone, and there’s more spaces for it. But yeah, at some point we’d love to get it out there. Also, you know, who knows in the future maybe we’ll do other games or other experiences set in-universe, so.

R: That sounds awesome. Is there anything from the season or from arc 2 in general that we haven’t talked about already that you guys would really want to talk about? Of “nobody ever asks about this”, or?

J: Oh man, that’s a good question.

A: Probably, I’m just trying to think through, um...

R: There’s a lot that happened in arc 2, so [laughs].

A: I mean, there’s the — we meet the Crowlord finally at the end of the season for just a glimpse, an instant. [Overlapping] You know what, we had written a speech for the Crowlord.

J: Yes!

A: But we had to cut it for time. He had a speech in Evrkynd like, “Hello everyone!” We were trying to get — we were trying to cast Conan O’Brien as the Crowlord.

J: Yeah. Yes.

A: Which was like ridiculous, there’s no way, but we were like what if it was Conan, that would be great.

J: Aaron had run into Conan on an airplane—

A: It’s true. He’s a very nice man.

J: Very nice man.

A: Incredibly nice man.

J: But yeah, there was like a whole run of Crowlord’s been on vacation [laughs]. “What did I miss?”

A: What? I can’t—

J: The end of the day.

A: Oh he’s retiring!

J: He’s retiring.

A: He was going to retire, he’s announcing his retirement.

R: He’s like my job here is done and I didn’t do anything.

A: Anyway, I can’t remember but uh, that was fun. What else? Um... What else happened during the — the arc that we didn’t talk about? I don’t know.

R: We got Ezran’s nukes, for lack of a better term with Project Sunfire Ruby, um, Kim’Dael, Finnegrin, um, I thought all of Janai’s stuff with her brother was fantastic as well as like the betrayal — brother betrayal parallels.

A: Yeah.

J: I — oh sorry, go ahead.

A: You go, I was going to shout out Michal a little bit on...

J: No go for it, I’ll go after that.

A: Just a quick shout out to Michal Schick, one of our writers, who like on the arc for Karim, we were all getting to the end and were like “Does he redeem himself? How is his redemption?” and Michal was like “No! Have you listened to this guy? He’s not going to redeem himself! He’s gonna screw everyone in the end and hopefully get what he deserves!” And we were just like yeah, you’re right. He can’t do it. He just can’t bring himself to do it. Anyway: Michal’s great, Karim’s arc ended as it should’ve [laughs] I guess? I don’t wanna laugh, but kind of...

R: I loved — Karim’s actually one of my favourite characters in the whole show, precisely because he sucks so much, um, and I thought he was a great — you know Aaravos hates arrogance, and I feel like Karim was very Cosmic Order-esque of like, you know — and again, just not — in a show where like almost everyone’s a murderer, there’s not a lot that’s like irredeemable in Dragon Prince.

A: Yeah. Right.

R: But Karim forsaking his family, and not being able to come back from that, and that he’s the one who just doesn’t get anything, I was like yeah, that’s deserved. Cause even Viren is pulled back from that point, right, and then is able to grow and change, so I thought that was a really good, interesting facet of — of the themes and arcs.

J: I was going to tag onto that, what I was going to say was that Karim is one of my favourite characters in “Xadia” the game, and we built him pretty early because he’s a fire mage and he’s very cool, and then by the time we got to when the game was coming out, like “Oh no, he’s an asshole [laughs] are people going to want to play him as him?” They did, but it was funny, it was like — it was definitely a funny moment where it was like oh this guy’s awesome to play as but he’s kind of a jerk, which was fun.

A: Um. We see Miyana with the twins in the end.

R: Yeah. Very intrigued.

A: We’ll meet them, someday. We — we had versions where Miyana didn’t — died during childbirth, and the twins got adopted by their aunt. But then we had Miyana there at the end, so I dunno. Writing is funny. Like you have all these parallel universes where you made a different decision and you followed through a certain way, so I dunno. We try to do what’s right.

R: That’s why — I think that’s what’s fun about fandom is you can explore all the various ins and outs in as many different ways as you want, and then canon is the one that the writers picked, and it’s—

A: Right.

R: And it’s very good, but you can also get to explore all the other stuff, so I think that leaves us a lot of fun stuff to play with, I think.

A: Soren, we haven’t talked much about Soren.

R: Yeah. I thought he had a great arc. It was really interesting watching him in season three find this like certainty, and then over the course of arc 2 he just loses all of that [chuckles].

A: Yeah, we really did enjoy in season six him and Viren’s kind of crossing paths and what that meant, and what that felt like, and where they were able to get to. Funny that the flashback episode where Viren is writing the letter was not in our original plan. What happened, Justin, how did we end up having room to do that? Oh, I know how we had room! Because there was a universe where we were doing six and seven all in season six.

J: Yeah. That’s right.

A: And season seven was going to be the third arc. And then part way, for different reasons, we were like we didn’t have enough real estate in that seventh season to properly tell the third arc, and also some of the writers were advocating we didn’t have real estate in six to finish the second arc, that there was stuff we needed to do. And so there were things that were happening in the last episodes in season six that ended up becoming in the end of season seven, we had to move them forward. Then there was an episode, I can’t remember if it was split in two, it sort of grew, that was the — but one of the things that we ended up adding was the episode where Viren writes the letter with the story of... We thought this would be — would give some greater depth to. ‘Cause if you look at it, you could look at the episode right prior to that and go that’s some measure of closure on Viren and Soren. Done. Check. But it was nice that we were able to go one even deeper, so — but yeah. Process is funny, you know, and I know that fandom has reacted to some of that as well, like... At different times, we thought our ability to tell the arcs over different sets of episodes was — were different, and it’s evolved, we’ve let it evolve and we’ve tried to make the best choices we could to be able to tell the story right, but, you know, I know some people feel like “Why didn’t I get my like ending-ending? I thought I was banking on that,” and so hopefully that will be — that’s yet to come, and we’ll be satisfying when it does come.

R: I will say, after season six cause I’ve, uh, I’ve lost sleep the cube of Aaravos, the Key of Aaravos [A laughs] trying to figure it all out, and so I remember it was after season seven you guys released an interview of being like “Oh yeah, it’s a huge part of arc 3,” and I was just like “Of course it is [A laughs] of course it is!” I wasn’t gonna get it yet [laughing] but that’s okay. But I did have it in my head of I dunno, that’s so attached to Callum, that’s so attached to Aaravos, I was like I feel like that’s kind of a finale arc, you know? So I feel like it was a good way of like, arc 2, especially when we knew that oh no there is a planned arc 3 with season six and season seven, you can kind of think “Okay, as the second part of the story, this makes a lot of sense,” and I think season seven had to walk that balance of growing the characters, also have not quite like regression but things were getting more complicated, and you’re both resolving and leaving things for the future, which is not an easy line to walk whatsoever.

A: Yeah.

R: But I thought to your point on Viren’s letter episode, I thought that set up even Terry’s arc in season seven so well of you, you used me, you know? Of like “I would’ve helped you, but I got scared, or whatever, and then you treated me like a thing” you know, and so Lissa walks away, and Terry walks away, and I think Claudia even says the same line about both of them of “Well they had to leave for themselves” and I just thought that was so well done from a thematic standpoint of dehumanization and, yeah. Are there any — I think that’s everything, yeah, um — was, is there anything you want the fandom to ponder?

J: Uh, San Diego. Ponder San Diego. We’re going to be there, it’s going to be exciting, there is information coming, we can’t talk about it directly, but San Diego will be fun.

R: Okay. Okay, very cool.

A: Will you be there at any of these coming conventions? What’s your plan in the future?

R: Me?

A: Yeah. I know they’re expensive.

R: I’d like to go. I’d like to go eventually, just not — it’s not in the cards for me this year, but hopefully in the future I’d love to go. Maybe if we have an official arc 3 panel, I’ll be like “Okay, I got like two years of hiatus to save up and prepare and [laughs] I can be there.” So I think that’s everything, thank you so much for being—

A: Great!

J: Yeah.

R: For joining me, this was awesome.

J: It was nice to meet you in person. Or in video I guess.

R: Yeah.

A: I just wanna say like, first of all, you — I’ve said this before, you’re one of our — we love all the fans, you’re one of my favourite fans. [R gasps] You dig so deep, and you push so hard, and you — that’s, we want the writing and the story to be worth that, you know? So we work really hard to make sure that it has some depth and whatever, but I also want to add that even just in our conversation, you ask such great questions, that I feel like — it actually comes back and it’s going to affect the writing in arc 3 [R gasps louder].

R: [Softly, in disbelief] Oh my gosh.

A: That’s not to say you’re changing it, but there are questions that have occurred to me during our conversation that hadn’t occurred to me before this conversation that are worth exploring and diving into, so I think it’s so valuable talking with you, and I’m really grateful for our relationship with you as an uber-fan — a super fan, I guess not an uber-fan cause somehow uber versus lyft [R laughs] now that word is ruined, but anyway, just wanna say we’re grateful.

R: Oh! Thank you, that’s — that’s incredibly kind. I was even thinking about how grateful I was for our first interview, because there were parts of season seven I was watching where you guys had talked about sacrifice and all that stuff, and it was really coming back to mind in season seven, so I feel like it also makes the show — the show is so worth the deep dive, sometimes I feel like I’m still barely scratching the surface, um, so thank you guys so much for creating something that — you and everyone at Wonderstorm for making something that brings people together, and is such a source of joy and contemplation, I think for a lot of people so thank you, and yeah, I guess we can —

A: Amazing.

R: I guess we can sign off.

J: Thank you so much.

A: Thank you. And thank you for shouting out all of Wonderstorm cause yes, this is a—

J: A team effort.

A: The greatness of this show has been the creative effort of such an amazing team.

R: Oh yeah. Alright. Uh — bye everyone!

J: Bye,

A: Bye!

J: Thank you so much! Have a good one!

#tdp #the dragon prince #interviews #cast and crew #justin richmond #aaron ehasz #transcripton #podcast #wordswithdragons

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rory-multifandom-mess · 5 months ago

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IT’S TIME FOR THE in-depth scene-by-scene character analysis on No Way

THIS POST IS HEAVILY INSPIRED BY @skythealmighty 'S WHEEL ANALYSIS!!!! GO READ IT RIGHT NEOW ITS REALLY GOOD

TL;DR: No Way has one of the most prominent character development arcs in this show, from starting off as naive and overly trusting of Clock to being paranoid and distrusting of anyone new, a lot like Wheel was from the very beginning. Oh and also Tile is a BITCH-

WARNING: Long ass post with 11 THOUSAND words and exactly two pictures so have fun and good luck LMAOOO

Ok, alright, so. The analysis isn’t going to be very serious up until 4:00, since that’s when things started to get really bad for them. But I’ll still do all the other episodes because I’m . incredibly normal! This will get updated once 8:00 releases on the 22nd so umm. Yeah ANYWAYS

IT’S TIME FOR THE [1:00] - Who’s Jason??

0:19 - “I don’t think I had anything in particular planned for today but I am content” “Wow! That’s nice.” “NO! That’s boring, there’s nothing to do!!” “I don’t think they were talking to you..” “Uh- Wha-” [glass shattering noise]

There isn’t much to point out here, other than No Way being a supportive friend to 57-ball, but I would like to note No Way’s expressions when Refill Station does their whole. Thing. They get startled from the shatter, so much so that they take a step back, and just look at RF all confused and kind of concerned as they walk away. 57-ball doesn’t even look confused, he kinda just looks. Done LMAO

2:24 - “Compete in my competition show!!” “Oh!! Uhh…” “Okay I’m in!”

Note No Way’s immediate compliance and almost clear excitement in the way they move their arms, a very clear contrast from everyone else’s blank stares (and Vase’s hesitancy. And Wheel’s >:|). This will be important later on methinks.

4:39 - “Okay, street sign, car tire, and… pool ball. Dang!! If only you were like a street lamp or crossing signal or something, would have had a cool team name idea for that.”

Nothing too notable here, I just like that they immediately started talking and took a page out of Polka Dot’s book with her thought process. The two have a few things in common, one of which being that they’re both kinda immediately into the competition when it starts. I also want to point out the expression shifts, especially with 57-ball. He looks almost offended at what No Way said and I don’t think they even realize that. It’s a nice touch!

I also want to note the way No Way looks at Wheel during the team name jingle. They almost look sympathetic? Like an “aw man, that sucks.”

6:56 - “Ok, well, we gotta get this card as far away from here as possible if we don’t want the host to hear it.” “Ok.” [Wheel kicks the card] “N- NO WAY.” [win sound]

Nothing to note here. I just like how this is the only thing No Way says in this entire sequence and it's some really dumb pun about their name. Makes me laugh every time

I also really like how the same win sound plays when Vase says “no way” even though it had nothing to do with them

10:39 - [After credits scene]

This is just silly to me because at the bottom of the screen you can see No Way and Wheel run by. Like. Why is Wheel chasing them. Why are they running. What happened here LMFAO

(UPDATE AFTER HAVING A FEW PEOPLE READ THIS: THEY ARE CANONICALLY PLAYING TAG I’M GOING TO SCREAM THAT'S SO CUTE)

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: This episode mostly acts as an introduction to the characters, so there isn’t much to say here. Other than, like, No Way’s basic personality traits; good friend, kind, supportive, excitable, doesn’t always realize what they’re saying can be seen as offensive. Maybe has ADHD but I might just be projecting because they’re my favorite. That’s not a personality trait but . shut up

IT’S TIME FOR THE [2:00] - Best Source For Weather Information

0:29 - “I NOMINATE NO WAY!” “I’m already out man… anyways, it says next up is Words With Friends Tile.”

I want to point out the fact No Way is holding a clipboard and paper. I think this just shows they’re pretty smart, despite some moments where it would seem the opposite. I think, as of now, they’re pretty naive, especially when it comes to Clock. As if to contrast Wheel’s paranoia about Clock, they seem to immediately trust them. Though so does like, everyone else except for Wheel so I might just be looking too deep into things.

I also want to note their tone of voice when they say next up was WWFT because they also sound kind of confused and slightly surprised. They were likely thinking the same thing as Wheel (“He doesn’t have any eyes!”) but didn’t say anything, probably because them and Tile are friends

I also like how they look very slightly surprised when Tile and Wheel start fighting. Maybe not surprised, but more just like “Oh! Okay!”

0:51 - “Okay then, how about instead of Tile we put The Sun up there?” “Yayyy!!” “Okay. Three, two, one, go!!”

I really like No Way’s voice. Anyway, this is another point to them being pretty smart; it seems like they’re the one who organized this whole staring contest game, given the clipboard and them doing the countdown. Granted I don’t think they realized having 57-ball stare directly into the sun would be a bad idea.

3:56 - “Oohhh yeaaa, we’re so back!!” “Ooohh! Where did you go?” “You just don’t get it dude.” [Gasp] “Wooaaoowwww!!” [Clock claps their hands]

Another moment of No Way being naive. I also think their reaction to WWTF is a mix of them just being fairly excited for the next challenge and also just being friends with Tile in general. I like to think they think everything Tile does is cool. Writing wise, this is likely just to play into Tile’s whole cool guy bit. This scene also somewhat confuses me because, like No Way, I also don’t get it. (Come to think of it I wonder if this was meant to be like a fourth wall break from Tile?)

4:23 - “The first HALF of you will be safe, while the rest of you will be up for elimination.” “Seems simple enou- wait a second, there’s only 9 of uhhhhhh UUUAAAAA–” [enter: no ways] “what is happening….”

Ah yes, what I think is the start of No Way’s … iffyness? I guess? The way they say “what is happening” almost makes it sound like the process of being split into two people made them feel sick, and this is aided by their expression. Also, their face as it was happening makes me think that it was painful, which isn’t much of a surprise. They did not like this.

4:37 - “Get your good pal to the finish line and you’ll be safe!” “This doesn’t seem very fair…” “Sure it is!” “Oh ok!”

This feels like another point to them being naive and very trusting of Clock. At first they still seem very affected by the being split in two bit, going through the logic in their head, but then when Clock says it's definitely fair, the logic shifts. They’re likely thinking “Well, they are the host, so they must know what’s best for their challenges!”

As a side note, I like 57-balls “what” before he gets interrupted by Wheel. He’s probably thinking, “how is their opinion so easily swayed. What.”

6:03 - [Pretty much just No Way struggling to get No Ways to move, punching it, trying to throw it only to find its too heavy and hurting themself, and then trying to hit it with their sign pole and going FLYING]

No Way is quick to get frustrated and resorts to getting physical when No Ways doesn’t budge. Though it is likely that they spent some time just yelling at it before they tried punching, just off-screen. This could also possibly be showing us that No Way is kind of weak and uncoordinated, given how easily they fell backward trying to pick No Ways up and the way they hadn’t even swung the sign pole before getting flung over the railing. Of course, the frustration could also come from being stressed about the fact No Ways even exists, as they aren’t shown to get particularly frustrated fast when things don’t go their way later on.

6:30 - “aaaaAAAAAA OUGH- That was awful…” “Welcome to being a winner, Octagon!! Because you just won th-” “Wai- I wo- I won the???” “I didn’t finish my sentence, w-what are you doing here Octagon?” “I’m not an octagon, I’m No Way!! See?- uuhh…” “You’ll need your friend here too to be safe as well reme-” [Slowed Down Win Sound] “No Way is safe!” “Woohoo!” “Now that’s cool brah.”

Ok a lot happens here so I’ll try to break it down.

Despite likely knowing better, No Way gets very excited at the prospect of winning The , and even stims a little bit, despite the fact it’s impossible for them to have won the whole competition right then and there.

When Clock doesn’t recognize them, they almost look offended, and their tone while explaining that they aren’t just an octagon reflects that. The way they try to grab their sign pole without realizing it isn’t there anymore makes me think that they’re forgetful, since they just forgot they took it off not even a minute ago. I’m not sure how to explain the way they reacted to realizing it wasn’t there anymore, but the noise they make is really funny to me.

No Way gets startled by No Ways just sorta Sliding In, though this fear is immediately left behind and replaced with excitement upon learning they were safe.

Important mention: The little dance they do with Tile. Friendship! Yaay!

7:05 - “...and now both No Ways and No Way are safe.”

No Way almost looks at No Ways with a very unsure look on their face, like they still aren’t sure of what to make of it. They know that they don’t exactly like it, but they also know it’s almost like… a part of them? They are very confused and conflicted about the existence of this creature.

8:01 - “AYGHAGHUUSHASAAH-” [No Way and No Ways become one again] “Ughh, Clock please never do that again.”

This shit is PAINFUL for them, judging by their expressions as they’re being merged (though they are very fast). They sound sick to their stomach again when they ask Clock to never do that again. Like I said before, the start of their iffyness about this. They are still naive though, that’s for sure.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: This episode mostly highlights two traits; their naivety and that they are actually fairly smart and shouldn’t be written off as dumb just because they’re naive, since being naive doesn’t always mean the person is stupid. I also just want to say that them being naive and excitable in this episode is important for later. Oh also, sprinkling in a little bit of mind fuckery too. For fun.

IT’S TIME FOR THE [3:00] - Next

1:18 - [Clock typing away on a keyboard] “Go ahead, do it!!! Just do it al-” [Blue screen] “What is that thing?” “I don’t know??”

No Way (and 57-ball) look so extremely concerned and afraid for Wheel, especially with the way they have their hands positioned, their expression (with the tiny dot eyes for a second and exaggerated D:), and how they’re the first person to ask what the blue screen and selection box around Wheel is. This is a clear representation of how much they really do care about their friends, which is backed by their concern for Refill Station back in the first episode and other moments in episodes further ahead.

4:27 - “Oh! Sounds like it’s time for the challenge, wanna come with?” “Sure!” “Alright, hold on!” [Music]

POLKAWAY FRIENDSHIP YAAAY. I feel like these two are also synonymous with each other but I’ll get into that later. I’m noting this not only because it's a favorite scene of mine, but also this shows how “go with the flow” No Way is. They grab onto the polka dot and as they’re flying, they look scared to fall off or something. And then two seconds before this sequence ends, they start to look sick. This, along with how sick they sounded last episode when it came to No Ways, leads me to believe that they might have a weak stomach or just get motion sick easily

4:41 - “Where’s Refill Station?” “Oh I forgot about him. He’ll make his way over eventually I’m sure.”

Very small moment but important to me. They are the first person to realize Refill Station was missing and ask about them, and Polka Dot even states she straight up just forgot about him. Yet another instance of No Way caring for their friends.

5:09 - “Also, you should be happy I don’t have to cut any of you in half this time…..” (fear)

Oh Boy Oh Boy! I don’t know why Clock said this– whether it was out of malice or just a statement since, y’know, they aren’t exactly wrong– but No Way’s reaction of pure fear is a sign (heh) that they were likely somewhat traumatized by the experience. Oh yeah, now we’re finally getting somewhere with this.

5:54 - ”Sure was nice of clock to give us these cups right Tile?” “Mhm.” “...uhhh you doin alright?” “I had this really good fruit earlier brah, it tasted really good and it was super juicy, and tasted really good man!” “Uhmm okay.” “AND it was full of water, dude! Bro, I think Clock would like it a lot.” “Are you sure? It seems like people are already on their way to that lake over there, we gotta be quick!” “Don’t worry man, it’s right next to the lake anyway!” “Alright…”

I think No Way commenting on it being nice that Clock gave them cups could be them trying to convince themselves of that, given how almost awkward it sounds, and especially with the way they ask Tile for feedback. Or maybe I’m just straight up wrong and they’re just looking on the bright side. (most likely the latter)

Once again with No Way caring about their friends! They immediately think something might be wrong with Tile because he gives a response that isn’t typical for him.

As Tile is describing the fruit he had earlier, No Way looks at their cup like they’re considering something, likely about using the fruit instead of just getting water. They look and sound preoccupied when they give the response of just “uhmm, okay.”

When they ask if Tile is sure and mentions the others going to the lake, it's pretty obvious how much they want to actually win the challenge, probably because they’ve been on a pretty good winning streak.

This isn’t fully related to No Way but this is my 4th time watching this and I’m noticing how lowkey manipulative Tile sounds here, like he’s trying to keep No Way from being safe by pulling them away from the lake to get this fruit he’s talking about. Mostly saying this because of how he adds the bit about Clock (putting emphasis on the “AND”) after No Way doesn’t show interest in the fruit at first.

7:39 - “Thank you for telling me about this juicy snack! I think I’ll be on my way to take this over to Clock now, and- AAGHHHHH- oughh!” “Aww yeaahh!! Green can’t say we’re not cool now!” (music) “Tile. TILE.” “Bro what is it.” “The fruit…!!” “Yeah bro I………oh. Okay! You wanna jump in the water and get it?” “No way!! You’re the one who…”

I want to focus on No Way’s expression here- specifically when Tile shoves Green out of the tree. They look so surprised and I feel like there’s at least a hint of concern in there. Surprised because oh my god, Tile, how could you do that?? And concerned because that impact sounded really bad for Green. The way they stare for a little drives this home too. (say it with me now: NO WAY CARES A LOT ABOUT THEIR FRIENDS)

When they start trying to get Tile’s attention, they sound and look frustrated, obviously partially because Tile was just sorta dancing and took a moment to respond, but also because he just shoved their friend out of a tree.

For like, a millisecond before No Way reminds Tile of the fruit, they seem to be trying to think about something. At first glance, I’d assume they forgot about what they were supposed to be doing, but now I think this is a moment of them thinking about whether or not to bring up what Tile just did, ultimately deciding to just bring up the fruit again.

No Way instantly refuses to jump into the water themself, and proceeds to almost tell Tile that he should do it instead because… Well, because he shoved Green and the fruit out of the tree. Though they backtrack on this to instead suggest they do Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide. I think they backtrack and suggest RPS entirely because they know Tile so well, and they know he won’t just do it if they tell him to. Also, I think them almost bringing up the shoving incident would’ve been one of those “take accountability of your actions” type things

Also I like their face when Tile says “you’re on.” smug little shit

8:37 - “What?? Where’d the lake go?” “eeughhh….. I don’t feel so good.” “Yaa bro, Green looks like he’s seen better days. I say we just take the fruit back and dip.”

No Way being the first to question when weird shit happens ….

IMPORTANT POINT HERE. I want to specifically point out the way No Way looks at Green with a sad/sympathetic look on their face. Well– okay. If you look close enough, No Way isn’t actually looking at Green, and is instead looking at the spot in front of him. From the look on their face, it’s like they’re thinking about if this is really ethical. They care about Green, that much is obvious, and they also care about Tile. While yes, Green did technically try to steal the fruit from them, that didn’t give Tile the right to seriously injure him. It’s like a moral dilemma. Of course their thought process gets interrupted by the MASS AMOUNT OF WATER FALLING TOWARDS THEM-

…Also more of Tile being kind of an asshole

9:10 - “WAAAIITTTT!! HERE HERE I HAVE SOME!” “Yeaa, The Sun and Vase are good.” “Rrrgh-” (Music)

Ah, their final desperate attempt to be safe despite knowing it’s probably over. Also, their frustration boiling over in the form of them yelling into the sky like an anime protag. This is likely mostly frustration due to losing the challenge, but I imagine it’s also because they had wasted so much time with Tile.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: Man, the sudden realization I had about Tile midway through this is crazy. He almost seems unsympathetic to, like, everyone, and this even happens throughout the show too. Anyways, No Way gets a little more frustrated this episode! Especially with Tile. The fall of NoTile friendship….

IT’S TIME FOR THE [4:00] - Do NOT Use The Popcorn Button

0:30 - “Soo! What are we doin here?” “Not being in the water? I can only swim for so long, I’m made out of metal y’know??” “Yaahh I don’t know what they’re talking about, I just like this tree.” “Okay!” “WOAH BRO, WHAAAA” “Wh- WHAT why did you do that?!”

No Way is so frustrated here bro. Completely fair too. They’re exhausted from trying to swim, finally made it to the tree to rest, and then Clock comes and interrupts it. They looked so relaxed before Clock landed in the tree and startled them so bad they almost fell out of it. Also the way No Way deadpans when Tile flings himself over is funny.

No Way immediately asks Clock why they knocked Tile out of the tree, offended and upset about it for him. It’s like they’re slowly starting to be done with Clock’s shenanigans.

0:46 - “It’s ti- *ringnti* It’s 4 o’clock, meaning that it is time-” “For the elimina-” “The challenge!” “Huh?-” “Yea, I meant the elimination.”

No Way looks so sad here, and from the way their voice shakes slightly, they were definitely dreading it. They hadn’t been through a single elimination yet, having been on a winning streak until now. From what we can tell, they have no idea what even happens at an elimination, only that afterwards, they’re missing a group member. Their confusion, and the way they look at Clock when their ringer just sorta… floats back onto their head drives home this feeling that they’re starting to distrust Clock a little more, or at least just be extremely confused at them. Rightfully so.

1:45 - [No Way fucking drowning] “Okay…. I can’t understand you. Here, how about this.” “Thank goodness… I-I’m breathing underwater??”

No Way being the only one to question when things don’t make sense again. Not even Wheel says anything, and Green is just . okay with this.

1:58 - “Woah, what’s wrong with you?” “I shouldn’t BE here, I didn’t even lose the last challenge!” “Why don’t you just leave then?-” “You don’t WANT me here??” “No! No! I didn’t say tha-”

Say it with me guys! NO WAY CARES A LOT ABOUT THEIR FRIENDS!!! They immediately notice that Wheel is absolutely fuming and asks what’s wrong, tries to provide a solution, but when Wheel takes it the wrong way, they instantly backpedal, trying to reassure him that they didn’t mean it that way. And then Tile interrupts by telling Wheel he’s a loser (BEING AN ASSHOLE AGAI-)

2:26 - “Fantastic, now there’s only 3 of us here again.” “Three?? Who’s missing?” “I don’t know, don’t ask me.” “I wasn’t.” “You just did.” “I- D- Clock, we’re missing Refill Station.”

Frustration at Green because of the misunderstanding.

First to point out Refill Station being missing. Again. Say it with me g- ok I’m done with that bit

Honorable mention to No Way falling backwards when Refill Station slams into the ground, suggesting they’re pretty clumsy I think.

I’m not time stamping this as a point since it doesn't really feel significant enough but when Clock mistakenly says Wheel got 0 votes at 3:57, No Way’s brow raises and they frown a little more, like they’re surprised at the 0 votes and possibly even worried. Y’all know what I’m gonna say at this point

4:25 - “The only one to not make it over 1,000 votes this time was Green, who only got 843” “Oh nooo.. I wasn’t expecting to get out so soon :(“ “Oh.. Hey! Maybe you might be able to come back later on.” “I-I don’t know.. That’s why I’ve been so worried, a part of me feels l-” “Huh? Green?-”

OH BOY OH BOY. I think this is the first time where we haven’t had a moment of the last safe contestant going “yay! I mean-” and I think that says something about No Way’s character. They’re most likely relieved they aren’t out of the game, but they know Green, their friend, is eliminated. So instead of celebrating their safety, they immediately try to reassure Green that maybe he can rejoin the show! It’s very obvious here that No Way has no idea what happens to eliminated contestants up until Green’s disappearance. They even call out for him, looking around as if he was still there. That is, until the radio catches their attention. Also the weird distorted music coming from the Radio is really off putting.

4:49 - “..Clock, what happened to Green?” “I already said earlier, I have no idea! Quite convenient that the eliminated contestants just disappear though!” “Just disap- You have no idea what’s going on here?!-”

Green’s elimination is a monumental part of No Way’s character development. 4 episodes in and they have finally learned what happens when someone is eliminated, and it’s terrifying in such a subtle way. Just like that, everything No Way assumed about the eliminations - about this contest - was swept away. Green just disappeared. Not a trace of him was left behind– nothing but that creepy vintage radio. And when they go to Clock, someone who they think is completely in control of this elimination, they’re met with an answer no one wants to hear. They don’t know. The contestants just disappear. And it’s here where No Way finally realizes that Clock isn’t as trustworthy as they originally thought. The start of the horrors for them, if you will.

5:35 - [Loud clattering sound] “What… just happened?”

No Way being the first to question the weird shit again. That’s all really

5:53 - “Hold on… teams?? But, Clock, what ever happened to-” “There’s no more teams! There’s no more teams.” “Yeah! Here are your teams for the challenge, and only this challenge!!”

Ok this might seem like nothing but hear me out. Look at No Way’s face during the ‘flashback’ part. They look curious, intrigued. Interested. Now look at their face during the more recent scene. They look sadder. Less energetic. Exhausted. It almost looks like they’re not even paying attention, still stuck on what happened with Green.

6:05 - “Nonono! This team will get a special visitor!” [GASP] “Please please plea-” [Samsung ringtone] “Aww man- Can I switch teams??”

They hate this guy (No Ways) (added this entirely because I like the way No Way says that last line. Scratches my brain good)

6:17 - “Okay!! You all have 30 seconds! “This again, I ended up coming up with the team name by accident last time, do you have any ideas?” “Uhhhh, Vase… Star…. Street sign….. …. Eheh…-” “It’s alright, we can come back to you. How about you?” “.......” “..Who is that?”

No Way’s head is no longer in the game. Before Vase starts talking, you can see No Way staring into the distance. Whether or not they’re staring specifically at something or not we don’t know, but they certainly are not paying attention. All of their energy and effort to compete from episode 1 is gone, and judging by the way they hang their head when Vase says they’ll come back to them, they feel bad about it. Like, they feel like they should put more effort in, if not just for the competition but for their team too.

Also I never noticed it but Vase rolls her eyes at them. That’s kinda mean ma’am :(

6:32 - “Here are your team names!” “Hm??” “Meet team [buzzing sound]” “This the best!” “That was not 30 seconds.”

No Way, again, sounds and looks so done here. They may have not been completely paying attention, but they know that absolutely wasn’t enough time and they are frustrated. Hashtag done with Clock fr. I’m so sorry

8:16 - [The Sun telling them a recipe. I am NOT typing allat] “Ohhnono, we’re overthinking it, we can just make some nice simple toast for Clock!” “We don’t really have a toaster around her- oh- ohhhh!”

Ok so two bits. No Way has the clipboard and paper again and is actively writing down the recipe The Sun is giving them. But then not even a second later, they didn't realize they could just use The Sun as a toaster. This is a good reminder of their intelligence, while also letting us know that, again, they aren’t completely in the moment. That or they were just so focused on the recipe that they actually didn’t even think of that. ADHD havin’ a-

9:33 - “I know for a fact I saw a store or something nearby, but whatever, we’ll just have to be quick, clock’s starting to look bore- Where Is The Bread.” “So like, I've heard that you needed your bread toasted and I uhhh sort of put it in that sun right there… sorry.” “Yea.” “AAGH-!! Nnoo! I am not gonna be losing a second time in a row like that, one second!” “Uhm..”

NO WAY HATES THIS GUY!! (No Ways). Their frustration grows, which sort of morphs its way into determination. Now that I really think about it, No Way has been a bit of a “challenge beast,” as Wheel would say. Also I think it’s kind of cute how every time No Way gets overly frustrated they put their hands on their head. I don’t know what you would call that but it’s something I’ve noticed.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: Y’know before I started writing this, I always thought No Way’s character development started in 5:00 after Wheel’s elimination. Now I know I was extremely wrong actually. From here I think it’s very clear how their development is going. They aren’t as naive as before and they’ve lost a lot of that previous motivation and excitement for the show.

IT’S TIME FOR THE [5:00] - Fifty-Seven Tears Of The Star

0:39 - “Welp… Tile’s dead again..” “What?! Tile’s gone??” “Let’s go get ‘em back.” “I’ll do it!” “Huh?” [Refill Station slaps down a random fucking door] “Refill Station.”

Ok I know I keep saying this but No Way is so done. Normally I think they would still be worried about Tile, but they’ve either been desensitized to all the dying or they’re just too exhausted to care. I feel like this is further proven by the moment with Refill Station– the way they say his name in such an exasperated way before just turning and walking away.

1:02 - “NO! No… I just think.. We should look for Tile!” “...” “NO YOU’RE JUST SAYING THAT ‘CUZ YOU’RE SAFE!” “...”

Notice how No Way looks so disinterested during the first frame switch to them and Vase. They look like they aren’t even paying attention again, staring at the ground all exhausted. But then after Wheel yells at them, their attention is grabbed and they look concerned and confused, sharing a glance with Vase. I think this is once again them caring about their friend. I mean, Wheel is essentially yelling at nothing since neither No Way nor Vase even said anything in response. Is bro okay? (bro was not ok)

1:14 - “Hey Polka Dot, you didn’t tell me about this. What’s going on here?” “It popped up like 20 minutes ago. Why is everyone expecting me to know anyways??” “B-because… come on.”

The sass on this guy.

Jokes aside though, I think their friendship with Polka Dot is very important. In this moment, they don’t seem as eugh as before, and before they give her a little bit of sass, they try to find a good way to say it nicely. Also, they sound genuinely concerned in the first sentence here.

1:22 - “Fair point, but I seriously don’t know what this thing is.” “Have you tried- OUGH-”

Ok. This is a funny scene and makes me laugh every time. But I want to focus on No Way’s reaction here. And I’ll actually add a picture this time

At first, No Way jumps a little, probably because a piano just came flying out of that thing and nearly hit them. But then they get this over exaggerated look of fear and concern on their face. I’ve said this a kajillion times before, but No Way genuinely cares a lot about their friends, no matter how uninterested and demotivated they might be. They are scared for Vase because they know how fragile she is and she just got hit with a grand piano. Though they somewhat immediately relax again when they find Vase is perfectly fine.

1:26 - “OWWHH?? Wh- who’s piano is this???” “Not mine, but hey! This is pretty cool, have you ever wanted to play piano?”

This is really important to me because this is almost like how No Way was with Green right before he was eliminated. Instead of thinking about the negative implications behind this piano just… appearing out of this weird portal, they think on the bright side of things. I notice they tend to do that a lot, almost like they’re the optimist in the group, almost like how Polka Dot is. There it is again- Polka Dot and No Way being similar to one another.

2:02 - “Clock brought me back, duh.” “Where IS Clock?”

This has nothing to do with No Way’s character development but on my rewatch before this one I realized you can see them fix themself in the background of this scene and I thought I’d share that.

2:24 - “I’m not even gonna ask.” “Clock! What happened???” “What?” “You’re green-” “Oh! I just took a little nap!!”

Once Again! No Way Is Being Caring And Friendly! Even though they’re kind of done with Clock’s shenaniganry they still act caring towards them! Though it is likely that they’ve kind of gotten over their doneness. Maybe spending time with friends (like Polka Dot and Vase) has helped them regain their footing again. I also think this is one of those “first to question when things are weird” moments, which I think is even more noticeable when you pair it with Vase’s “I’m not even gonna ask.”

6:02 - “You are the FINAL member left on our original team and I want you to know that I wish you luck!” “Oh! Thanks…”

I’ll get to Wheel’s actual elimination in a second, but I want to focus on No Way’s expressions as Wheel is talking to them. At first when Wheel comes up to them, they look a little surprised, like they weren’t expecting him to talk to them. And then when they realize what Wheel is saying is positive, they smile and thank him, with a little nervous hand behind their head. I like the detail of the little brow furrow as they thank Wheel, it makes it feel very sincere and genuine and like its genuinely special to them.

6:07 - “Soo, what now?” [Wheel starts to crack and cries out in pain] “What… is.. This?!-” “That’s not cool bruh.” “nonono… GO GO GO GO!!-”

Ah yes. The elimination. I’ve seen lots of people talk about this, specifically No Way’s reaction, but I’m going to do it again because I want to.

When Wheel starts to crack, No Way cringes and flinches back slightly. This is painful to watch- visceral and horrible in every way. Mind you, this is only the second elimination No Way has seen. This is just bad in every way, so much more aggressive than Green’s elimination just last episode. They are scared and worried for Wheel, and it’s fairly obvious that they hate seeing their friends hurt. Then, right before Wheel explodes, they reach out for him. They try to help, to find a way to console him despite the blistering pain shooting through him. Despite the fact they are scared, they still try to help. They care so much about their friends. While the others trying to run away, they stick by him until the end. But then they realize Wheel is about to literally explode and they back up a little, covering their face to prepare for the impact.

This is so subtle yet so impactful for them and their character development. It’s such a clear view into who they are just by the way they try to help their friend, even though there is nothing within their power that they could have done.

Also I know this isn’t about Tile but this is also more of Tile being EVIL because of the L he gives Wheel. Wtf bro

7:14 - “I’m not teaming with any of these randos.” “Really?”

I wanna note No Way’s expressions here (again). At first, before Tile says he isn’t gonna team with any of the original ITFT members, No Way almost looks like they were going to call out to him, probably to be like “hey! Since we can choose our teams this time, maybe we can team up!” But then after Tile says what he does, they look sad and maybe even a little bit surprised. Their expression makes me think that they might be wondering what they did wrong for Tile to randomly decide not to team with them. (this is somewhat influenced by the wiki implying that No Way still thinks they’re friends with Tile)

I also want to note something a little more silly: Refill Station literally falling to their knees at Tile’s remark and looking like he just killed their entire family

7:26 - “THERE ARE 34 OF US IN TOTAL, THAT SIMPLY DOES NOT ADD UP, AS 6x6, IT EQUALS 36.” “Wait, you’re right! You must be great at math!” “I AM A CALCULATOR.”

I like this scene because it kind of contradicts what happens immediately after TI-30 comes up to them. When talking to TI-30, they’re smiling, probably because they think he’s cool. Them pointing out that he’s great at math leads me to believe they have a hard time with it (same). This scene also makes me think they have ADHD even more because they pointed out something obvious and then TI-30 gave a sarcastic (i don’t think that’s the right word, but it's similar to that) response and No Way did NOT pick up on it.

7:39 - “Mathematics?? I LOVE mathematics! That’s when I can collect friends!” “You collect friends in math class?” “No? What’s math class?” “Are you a FAKE MATH FAN???” “Pff, of course not! Check this out! One times one is one! One times two is two! One times three is three-”

Okay now this part- I know in the subtitles it doesn’t have any of what No Way “said” in it, but they do make a few sounds. I’ll get to those in a second, but I want to point out their expression when Whiteberry pulled them closer to herself; They look scared. I’m not entirely sure why, but to me it seems like it was because of the sudden and unwanted physical touch. Their face always confused me here though.

Anyway, moving on to the point I actually wanted to make- when Strawberry Milk asks Whiteberry if she is a fake math fan, you can hear No Way go “uh…” in the background. And then, when Whiteberry is listing off the timetables, you can hear them go “hm..” again and they furrow their brow a little. They are extremely unsure about Whiteberry and Strawberry Milk joining their team. They’re either assessing whether or not they will be useful (not likely, considering their character), or the two are generally just off putting to them. I think there is also the chance that they aren’t sure about teaming with people they haven’t met before, like they still really wish they could team up with their actual friends for some normalcy.

11:05 - “Hey… hey!” “huh?-” “You doin alright?” “Yeaa… it’s been a long day, this felt like the longest two minutes of my life. Mh- so… we just need one more person here?” “I’m… going to be here.” “Oh.”

ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT. This scene with Lava Cake is a culmination of everything that has happened to No Way, this moment of getting to just chill for a moment causing all of that exhaustion to creep up on them again, so much so that they fall asleep standing up. They even sound exhausted (props to Derpadon for the amazing voice acting btw), speaking slowly and yawning in the middle of their sentence. Writing wise, this is a perfect way to remind the viewers that all of this is happening in a SINGULAR DAY. I also like how Lava Cake wakes them up by just ramming into them considering his lack of arms. Also. The sound effect. Smile. And finally, their very minimal reaction to Xiru joining their team randomly. I don’t know what this means other than “they are exhausted” but it is funny to me

13:23 - [Lava Cake, Whiteberry, and Strawberry Milk get electrocuted] “AAAAAAAA!!” “NOOOO” “OHH MYY GOODNESS!! AAAAAaaaa!!” “Ohno!” “Keep climbing, stop sign. They. Will. Be fine.” “Ugh, right…”

THIS!!! This scene. No Way’s concern for people they barely even know and someone who isn’t even on their team– this is another one of those clear representations of who No Way is as a person, reaching out for the three of them even though they clearly couldn’t even reach them. And even when TI-30 tells them to keep climbing, they still look worried and maybe even a little conflicted about continuing to climb when they’re missing two of their teammates. Their tone even reflects this, and there’s almost a sense of urgency underneath too. I reckon they might be a little scared of being up for elimination now, especially with what they saw with Wheel.

16:15 - “Team Refill is on their way, I can throw you from here.” “wwOOAHH CALCULATOR- NO!” “It must be done.” “But-” “It must be done-” (cough) “It must be done. Trust me.” [gimmie that baby and I yeet it off the tower /ref]

This will get really long if I include the next part so I’m separating it. Anyways, No Way’s reaction to being thrown here is really important to me here. The way they tell TI-30 to not throw them makes it clear they don’t trust him, a STARK contrast to the way they were immediately trusting of Clock when she first showed up. Also, TI-30’s ambition here and the way he doesn’t even give No Way a chance to protest any further is almost like foreshadowing that he would be/is a “challenge beast.”

16:30 - “aaaaaaAAAAAAAAA- OUGH!” “wwwoahhhWOOAAHH woah… ooh.. Wh- what is this…??”

THE HORRORS! The existentialism! All bundled up in one little stop sign. I don’t really have any notes on this other than this being a catalyst for the way they act in 6:00 up until they Fucking Die. Seeing this weird, giant green thing in the sky, seeing Clock’s tail plugged into something that should not even exist is mindbreaking to them. It doesn’t make any sense– it should be literally impossible. But it’s there. It’s there and it shouldn’t be. And then when it comes unplugged? It just… disappears. Fades out of existence. “What the fuck did I just see??” - No Way, probably.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: DETRIMENTAL EPISODE!!!! I think this is my favorite episode so far actually. It’s just so interesting?? And when the LORE really starts to kick up. Also it made me like No Way a lot more so !!! yippee. Smiles

IT’S TIME FOR THE [6:00] - Will You Ever Know?

5:27 - “You’ll need at least one of your team members to get to the other side of the planet to complete the challenge. The three teams that DON’T make-” “But I have to get back to the… Ughh… wait-” “No Way!! Hello!” “Uh.. Hi?”

Yeah so, No Way is 100% stuck on that Fucking Thing Up There. But they’ve known Clock for 6 hours now and know that they aren’t going to listen to them or even know what it is if they ask. And, once again, being unsure about Whiteberry. I also get the impression that they didn’t fully .. focus? On Whiteberry, because immediately after their short “uh.. Hi?” they turn to Clock to ask questions; getting to that now.

5:38 - “Uh- Clock, didn’t you say the challenge was to get to the other side of the planet?” “Yes!” “Aand we have how much time?” “17 minutes!” “What.” “Happy Valentine's Day!! You’re not REALLY gonna have to go that far at all! Check this out!” “Valentines Day..?-” “You ask WAY too many questions dude.”

No Way asking the right questions again. This is where them questioning everything becomes very important, and I think Tile commenting on it brings its importance to the viewers attention.

Honorary mention: funny flat “What” moment. These will never not make me laugh dawg

5:58 - “What… Are they doing…” “Looks like some sort of funny dance, I can do that too you know!”

Very minimal thing but No Way’s expressions are very telling of how they feel. First, with watching Clock literally fold the Fucking PLANET, they look. EXTREMELY confused and even a little bit disturbed. Nothing is making sense to them anymore, and I think they’re finally realizing that nothing ever made sense in the first place, ever since Clock showed up at least. And then when Refill Station starts dancing, I think it’s good to compare their expression with Polka Dot’s. Polka Dot looks at RF with like a… “Why are you like this?” look. Words are hard and I don’t exactly know how to describe her expression, but it’s mostly like a “What. Why. What is wrong with you.” Meanwhile, No Way looks at him with more confusion and a hint of worry compared to Polka Dot. To me, No Way looks like they’re thinking “How can you act like this when Clock is literally reforming the planet right in front of us. How can you just stand there and dance when all of this is happening?” Almost like how 57-Ball questioned their naivety.

6:33 - “WAIT! NO WAY!” “What??” “Hey it’s- it’s me, uh- Shrimpy, I think you should let me come along!” “Oh… Uh.. Why’s that?” “Because I remember you getting the farthest up Clock’s wire!” “Right. That… sure was strange.”

Splitting up this scene because it’s kinda long

The quick way No Way says “what?” almost sounds exasperated and surprised, almost like they were distracted or just not paying attention before Shrimpy called their name.

Their voice is very soft when they ask why Shrimpy thinks that, and they’re almost hesitant.

Focus on the way No Way responds when Shrimpy brings up the last challenge. Instead of being happy about winning, they say it was strange. And I don’t think they were talking about the fact they won was strange, though it is easy to think that at first glance. I believe they were referring to the fact that Clock's tail was plugged into the sky in the first place. Getting to the top of that wire was so mind-bending to them that they don’t even care enough to remember that it was even a challenge, judging by the way they say “right” at the start of their sentence. And even though this is affecting them so badly, they can’t even think of how to explain. More on that later.

6:45 - “So… maybe your prize for winning should be to have an extra team member!” “But.. you weren’t even on my team.. And uh.. Xiru got more votes than you.. If I remember correctly.” “Oh Xiru… he wouldn’t even want to go, right buddy?” “Bye.” “See?” “Ok fair point, let’s go.”

I think the more No Way loses that naivety from the beginning of the show, the more we see their more intelligent side. If this was still No Way from 1:00, They would have immediately agreed to letting Shrimpy join their team. But they didn’t. They asked Shrimpy to explain why twice, and they only finally agreed when Shrimpy gave them actual, proper reasons and even proved the second reason. There’s a few reasons why I think this change happened, but the biggest one is because they didn’t do that with Clock. They didn’t ask questions, and now their friends are disappearing and Wheel fucking exploded and they’re traumatized. Nothing is good anymore. They can’t afford to trust the wrong person again- they can’t afford to not question things anymore.

Honorary mention: Whiteberry making weird ass faces in the background of both of these timestamps. ITFT crew fr doing a little bit of anything

9:35 - “You could buy a zoo with all the doctor bills he paaaid!~” “Whiteberry, please! STOP- STOP SINGING. Stop singing, please.” “Why are you so stressed out anyways? What’s been going on?” “During the last challenge I… saw something. Something that- like- I- I don’t know, I- I can’t describe it, it feels like one of those things that like- you feel like you’re not supposed to see… y’know?”

Splitting this up again because it’s long.

Before I get to my main point with this quote, this is another moment of all the stress and exhaustion of the past 5 hours catching up with them. Whiteberry’s singing is grating to them because it’s making it hard to think. Reminder, they’ve likely been dead for a while, since Clock only brought them back when they announced the challenge. They haven’t had any time at all to even think about what they saw, and Whiteberry is making it even harder to think and that is frustrating to them. They need to understand- they want to understand whatever the hell that was because maybe it could explain all the weird stuff that’s been going on– maybe it would explain why Clock is even there in the first place.

This is where I elaborate more on my point of “And even though this is affecting them so badly, they can’t even think of how to explain,” because they say it themselves. They start their explanation off with a good foundation, but when they get to the part where they have to actually describe it, they can’t. They say something extremely vague, which Shrimpy takes completely wrong (or just doesn't take seriously because she’s stupid). So No Way has this… thing that they saw, that they don’t understand, but they can’t talk to anyone about it because they don’t even know how to explain it, no one they trust is around, and the two they are with are … kinda dumb. Looking at you Shrimpy.

Also, side note, I LOVE the surreal, almost ethereal yet foreboding music that plays as No Way explains what they saw, accompanied with the flashback of them falling being shrouded in green haze. It really adds a lot to the scene. The crew always has such great music choices

9:55 - “Well, yea, I get it. I see things like that all the time! Like that rock. Ooh, and that rock too! And… Ooh, this right here is the ultra rare SHINY rock! You only see them in…”

Ok, nothing too big here, but No Way’s deadpan look while Shrimpy is going off about rocks is very funny to me. I can feel the “Bruh.” from here.

12:46 - “I wonder what the others are up to?” [Oil Pastel goes flying over No Way, Shrimpy, and Whiteberry’s heads] “Oh– what was that?” …13:40 - [Forky screaming as he and Oil Pastel fly back over No Way, Shrimpy and Whiteberry’s heads] “No way, again?” “I think it was just a bird!” “Okay…”

Used two timestamps for this because I’m making the same point with them.

Focus on No Way’s tone and expression here, especially in their first little quote. They sound and look a little scared, so it’s probably safe to assume they’re on edge now. And then when Forky and Oil Pastel go flying past again, No Way is surprised again and a little concerned since that time there was screaming. And then when Shrimpy says they think it was a bird, they squint at her suspiciously, and also like “Are You Stupid?” I imagine they don’t say anything about it though because they just don’t have the energy.

14:49 - “Hey, woah! The Sun, what’s going on??” “I’m trying to find Oi- Toys… TOY STORY!!” “I mean… we might still have enough time, we can help you find them really quick.” “EEK!” “Should we follow you? Or…”

No Way is such a good friend, immediately offering to help The Sun look for OP and Forky the moment they can tell something is wrong despite the challenge. And when The Sun hides in the ground, they ask if they should just follow him. Granted, they didn’t realize The Sun was actually scared, but it happened so fast so I don’t blame them.

The point I’m trying to make here is that despite the challenge, despite the stress they’re under, they are still trying to care for their friends and help them where they can. Another very good representation of their character.

15:03 - “No Way…” “Huh? Yeah, what-” [GASP!] [Distorted noises] “DANCE TO THE MUSIC!” [No Way Go Bye Bye]

YET ANOTHER DETRIMENTAL MOMENT FOR NO WAY’S CHARACTER!!! YAAAY MORE TRAUMA– this is really all I have to say. Other than the fact they were completely distracted by The Sun to even remember they were hearing weird, creepy ass music earlier. Their head is so not in the game.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: I REALIZED SO MANY PAINFUL THINGS THIS EPISODE. By so many I mean exactly one. In the Wheel analysis I mentioned earlier, Rocket mentioned how Wheel was constantly on edge and untrusting of Clock and paranoid about that day. Something bad was going to happen and holy fuck was he right. Here’s why I’m bringing this up. NO WAY IS DEALING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT LISTENING TO WHEEL. At the start, Wheel was untrusting, scared, and defensive. No Way was naive, trusted Clock right off the bat, and happily obliged with whatever they said. They didn’t listen to Wheel’s warnings, to Wheel’s protests and fear. And now they are paying the price. They are experiencing what Wheel was warning them about in its entirety. They’ve lost their whimsy, their passion, their excitement for this competition. Now they don’t know who to trust other than the original contestants, and their numbers are dwindling by the episode. They have no one to talk to, no one to turn to. Just like how Wheel was from the beginning. I Am In Active Pain. Anyway, next up: I finally explain why I think No Way and Polka Dot are so similar after about like 9,000 words.

IT’S TIME FOR THE [7:00] - Stop and Look. Realize.

3:07 - [Clock finally brings everyone who died last episode back]

Not much to add here other than this screenshot

Yeah they felt that shit

3:14 - “Where’s Vase…?” “The elimination already happened, she got out.”

Part of this is something I didn’t notice until now, but anyway. Pay extremely close attention to No Way here. When they get revived, their immediate thought- the first thing they notice- is that Vase is missing, another person they were close with. They have one of those little stress lines under their eye and the tone they have is very clearly worry with a hint of dread. Like they know what the answer is, but they don’t want it to be true. And when Inky confirms it, their face drops slightly. First their brows raise in mild surprise when Inky says the elimination has already happened, and when he says Vase is gone, their brow furrows and their mouth hangs open slightly. They’re devastated. Another one of their friends, gone.

3:17 - “I don’t understand, we were walking through the tunnels in the challenge an-” [Fridge DJ plays music] “YOU. Am I the only one… who thinks he shouldn’t be here?” “Press the music button, or turn the dial to another station! [Fridge DJ plays music]

No Way’s mind is not only not in the game, but it’s also just. Scrambled, considering how fast they change topics here (from Vase to the last challenge). Fridge DJ literally murdering them has added yet another layer of stress to their already growing pile, and the fact Fridge DJ is still there makes it even worse. No Way's hesitance to even ask their question makes me think they’re scared to even ask it, like Fridge DJ might not like it and attack. It’s a fair assumption to make, given they don’t know Fridge DJ for anything other than the mindless killing spree he went on earlier. This is backed by the way they back away and tense up when FDJ comes right up to them, only to then look uncomfortable and confused as he does his little dance.

Some side notes about voice acting and sound design: I really like the way No Way says “YOU.” here, really shows how much they are affected by what Fridge DJ did. I also really like how you can hear a very faint and muffled “DANCE TO THE MUSIC!” before the week song starts and No Way turns around. Whether this is Fridge DJ actually saying that again or it’s just a representation of the trauma No Way endured is unsure, but it’s such a cool detail that I never noticed before. The more I think about it, the more I realize it is definitely the latter. The last thing they heard before being ripped in half is FDJ’s “DANCE TO THE MUSIC!” and it’s clear from their pose when Clock brings them back that it was a painful, agonizing experience. That’s why they’re so much more affected by this death compared to the previous two.

3:31 - “No Way, what do you mean? This is our… BEST FRIEND!” “I am so confused.” “Confused? I think it's time to shake up the game a little bit then!”

The expression work on No Way here is just amazing. They look so, so tired when they put their hand to their hand and close their eyes, a gesture which makes me think they have a headache. Or maybe they just do that because I have noticed they tend to touch their face a lot, who knows. Then when Clock pops up next to them, they get startled again before looking at Clock with such a nervous look. They’re tired, they miss their friends, it’s been 7 hours of non-stop challenge after challenge, they’re likely still processing and trying to figure out what that giant green thing in the sky was, and now they have to deal with Fridge DJ existing and Shrimpy and Whiteberry somehow not remembering anything he did??? It’s almost too much. And yet they feel trapped. Like they have to keep participating because they don’t know what Clock is actually capable of. Maybe they’re scared of making Clock mad.

3:57 - “Why… did they do that?” “Alright breh! Final five!” “Tile tha-” “Shut up, dude.”

I’M SHOOTING TILE IN THE DENNY’S PARKING LOT. I mean who said that

Jokes aside though, now that I’ve done this whole thing, this scene hits a lot harder. The look No Way had on their face before looking at Tile– I don’t know how to describe it. It almost feels like a silent “I don’t know” in response to Snapped Skateboard’s question. And then they get upset at what Tile says, about to correct him by saying that whatever the fuck Clock just did to Refill Station wasn’t an elimination. But then Tile interrupts them by blatantly telling them to shut up.

But No Way doesn’t get mad. They don’t even look that devastated. They just stare and watch Tile walk off. They get such a sad yet… reserved look on their face. It’s silent. Not a sound is made. And I think those 4 seconds of silence after Tile tells them to shut up is so impactful. It forces you to focus on the only movement on screen; the way No Way lets their arms fall to their sides again, the way their expression shifts into a look of resignation. I think they finally realized here that Tile isn’t friends with them anymore. Why this even happened, they don’t know. But it did. And it’s right in their face.

AND IT MAKES ME SO MAD BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK TILE. THEY ALREADY HAVE SO MUCH GOING ON AND YOU JUST HAD TO TELL THEM TO SHUT UP LIKE THAT??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY ARE YOU EVIL. IM EXECUTING YOU NEXT TUESDAY WATCH YOUR FUCKING BACK YOU LITTLE YELLOW SHI

4:27 - “Whoever opens the box first will be the winner.” [accordion noise] “of the challenge.” “Okay, I mean, this should be easy, just give us the box, Clock.” [Clock starts to back away] “Clock…” [Cartoony aah running] “Clock- NO. COME BACK, CLOCK NO!-” [No Way sighs.] “1.5 meters of elevation. Great. er-” [Fridge DJ playing music] “You know what. I have something else I gotta take care of first.”

I love this scene. A lot. When Clock runs into the tree and No Way sighs in exasperation, the expression on their face is just … beautiful in the way that it displays so much emotion. Like, this is truly their boiling point. They are so exhausted. At first they look at TI-30 as he’s talking, but then they hear Fridge DJ’s music and now that is all they can hear. They look pissed now. They are so done with this damn toy and finally decide they need to do something about it. Fuck the challenge, that isn’t even the worst of their problems at this point.

Also, as a side note, I really love the way Oil Pastel encourages them here. It’s very sweet. I like to think this is partly because she’s like “yeah go get that murderer away from my partner”

5:50 - [Fridge DJ playing music] “Hey! Fridge DJ!” “I… Um… sorry, I mean Shrimpy, Whiteberry, how could just party with them like this? They killed all of us like an hour ago!” “I don’t remember that, I just think you’re just a party pooper!” “Yeah! Fridge DJ wouldn’t hurt a fly, he’s just so joyous!!” “That is correct!” “JOYOUUUUS!”

Ok a few things here. At first when I watched this scene, I thought No Way genuinely made the mistake of getting Fridge DJ’s attention first. But upon watching closer, I realize that’s not right at all. As they approach FDJ, they are PISSED and are clearly glaring right at them. That expression carries over to them yelling its name. But then when FDJ abruptly stops the music and looks at them, they freeze, and if you pause on time, they look scared, then uncomfortable, then they apologize and go to Shrimpy and Whiteberry. This isn’t an accidental mistake, this is No Way backing down last second because they are scared of Fridge DJ. Terrified, even. They had so much confidence when going up to her, but when she actually stopped and they had to actually face her, they froze. They chose to beat around the bush and try to talk some sense into Whiteberry and Shrimpy. They are TRAUMATIZED.

Also y’know it kind of makes sense that Shrimpy wouldn’t remember what happened BUT WHITEBERRY HAS GOT TO REMEMBER. SHE LITERALLY WITNESSED NO WAY GET RIPPED IN HALF and probably saw what remained of Shrimpy. But nah that didn’t happen what are you talking about. Yet No Way and Oil Pastel remember?? I mean I get No Way remembering, but that’s probably gotta do with trauma. I think I just don’t know enough about Oil Pastel to think of a reason why she would also remember.

EDIT AFTER AVICON READ THIS: Shrimpy is just stupid and Whiteberry doesn’t care. That’s why they’re gaslighting No Way. Oil Pastel is actually smart, that’s why he remembers LMAO.

6:09 - “Of course they would say that, they’re CLEARLY lying, but why?” [Oil Pastel nudges them. They gasp.] “I get it now! He’s gonna drown them in the river!” “Ohhh! A river! Let’s cross it!” “Yeah!” “THREE! Little birdies, sitting way up high,” “haha, nice!” “We gotta see Fridge DJ cross!” “No!” [No Way grabs onto Fridge DJ’s back] “Bye bye! Birdie bye bye!” “Woah… WOAH” “YAY!” “All right!”

Ok I know these quotes are getting REALLY long but BEAR WITH ME.

No Way DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. They don’t understand why Fridge DJ is doing this, they don’t understand why Fridge DJ did any of that stuff last episode, they don’t understand why Whiteberry and Shrimpy are just so totally okay with this dude– and at this point their mind is filling in blanks. Like I mentioned before, all they know about Fridge DJ is from its random murder spree from the water damage, but they don’t know that was just water damage, so they jump to conclusions. And when they make the conclusion about the river, they immediately try to drag Fridge DJ into the river themself in a desperate act to try and “save” Whiteberry and Shrimpy. They’re paranoid. They are paranoid that people are going to get hurt again because of FDJ. Y’know who else was paranoid? Wheel. FULL FUCKING CIRCLE IM GONNA THROW U-

6:31 - “Hide and seek!” “I see you!” “Aww, I’ll find a better hiding spot next time!” “I was hiding here too!” [Fridge DJ laughs and then honks] “Can you name 57 vegetables that start with the letter J? We can!” “wuh- NO NO AA-”

This is really important to me. Before FDJ shows up in the bush No Way and Oil Pastel are hiding in, No Way is glaring HARD, angrily, almost confidently. But then the moment FDJ starts speaking directly next to them, their expression immediately shifts to FEAR. And then they panic and literally run away. It’s a really funny scene if you’re watching it surface level, but when you dive deep, this is literally trauma at its finest. Notice how No Way is hiding in the bush, yet I bet they’ve somehow convinced themself that it’s doing something. Finding excuses to hide away from FDJ. They feel very non-confrontational, or maybe it’s just fueled by fear. (I would say cowardice but that’s mean)

6:43 - “Let’s play tag!” “Yeah!!” “Agh, no… They’re gonna get away!” “No.” [What the fuck john wick bullshit is this– WHY DID NO WAY GET HIT WITH A BASEBALL] “Oh.. that was weird… Why’d you do that?” [Whiteberry and Shrimpy laughing] “This is so pointless.”

No Way is so over this. They’re So Fucking Over This. After everything that happened, Shrimpy and Whiteberry just do not care, no matter what they or Oil Pastel do, they Do Not Care. And the crazy part is, after this scene, we just. Don’t see them again. They literally gave up. They just stopped. That was it. Their “this is so pointless” was literally an admission of defeat. The very culmination of the past 6, 7 hours of stress has finally got to them. And mind you, all of the really bad trauma happened within like. 2 hours if we’re excluding witnessing Green’s elimination. That’s. That’s a lot to go through in that short amount of time.

7:12 - “Hey Polka Dot, did you hear the challenge?” “Yep.” “So, are we gonna do it?” “Nnnnno. Because I can’t stand this thing Clock is doing! It was fun at first but it’s been nonstop hours of these “challenges.” My friends are disappearing one-by-one, I’m just… upset! That I can’t do anything about it and I have nowhere else to go.”

FINALLY. I HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN TO WHERE I WILL ELABORATE ON THIS. Throughout the series, Polka Dot has gone through the same development just a little bit later and a little bit differently. She went from using her polkadot portals willy-nilly, to warning Wind Up Toy that going in them is dangerous. She went from opting to using her abstracted form on challenges where it’s technically cheating to not even trying, and she even remarks “I had a feeling this was gonna happen” when Clock pulls their “No Flyers Allowed!” thing with The Sun. She’s clearly had less energy as the episodes went on– from naive and excitable to mellow and quiet, questioning things sometimes – just like No Way. And when things came to a head in 6:00 and 7:00, she became jaded, done with the games. She rushes along the elimination and doesn’t even care that Vase just. Exploded, even if she was friends with her or not.

While she and No Way are very similar, they have one very important difference. Polka Dot actually had someone to talk to. She had someone in her corner, even when all of her original friends were gone. No Way has no one. They tried to talk to Shrimpy, but Shrimpy just … was Shrimpy. Shrimpy and Whiteberry wouldn’t even listen to them. Tile hates them for some fucking reason. Vase is gone. 57-Ball is gone. Wheel is gone.

15:59 - [Voting screen]

Ok this isn’t important but look at No Way’s sad little face on the voting screen. Now compare it to their intrigued, curious, and a little bit surprised face on 3:00’s voting screen. I feel like this is such a good comparison to make when you’re thinking about their character development.

END OF EPISODE THOUGHTS: No Way is really well written this episode. They don’t have any Funny Haha moments (other than deadpan faces at comedic times.) and are just. Serious. Their interactions with Fridge DJ and the way they acted around Shrimpy and Whiteberry were great ways to show how a traumatic event like getting Ripped In Half can affect a person.

CONCLUSION:

No Way arguably has gone through the most amount of character development in the series. They start it off in a good place; friendly, trusting, seeing the good in others, caring about their friends. But as time goes on, more and more things start to happen. And now, they are completely different. They’re paranoid and scared and worried, and their mind is a mess. They have no one to turn to or talk to, so they have to deal with all of this stress on their own. And that’s.. That’s not great. Especially with all of this happening in a SINGULAR DAY.

Ok. That’s all I had to say. This whole thing made me even less normal about No Way than when I started. Thank you for reading this fucking thing ??? hope you liked it. Goodbye forever(/j)

#my writing #itft #its time for the #itft no way #no way itft #itft noway #noway itft #I'm not tagging all the characters I mentioned here LMAO #osc #object shows #object show community #rory rambles #THIS IS SO LONG LMOAOO #its 24 pages on my Google doc bro

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