#because The Eleventh Hour is one of my favorite arcs and i have MANY thoughts about how it affects everything else in the series

[somelazyassartist]

Okay so. I'm only about a third of the way into The Eleventh Hour so I'm going to withhold most of my judgement until I finish it but just as of where I'm at now I think this is probably one of the better comics in the series EXCEPT. I do have worries about where I think they're trying to take Ren's backstory and Magnus' future in this. I'm not gonna fully judge it until finish it but I do have Worries

[linkspooky]

"And we don't have the luxury of thinking of ourselves. We just got to save people. So start by saving me, Itadori!" This actually shows Megumi has somewhat of an agency as a sorcerer. Ater all he vowed to get stronger after Yuji's apparnet death. He doesn't think of giving up being a sorcerer to be a kid. Now, Megumi's rejecting Yuji's help, the very same thing Yuji did to him. Plus, refusing to even try to 'wake up' means the death of other characters (Gojo, Higurum probably more others soon) will be for nothing... because Megumi's being selfish by giving up in the eleventh hour. That's why the fans are all mad at him."

Hello, friend I thought I'd use your post as a jumping off point to continue our discussion. I'm not necessarily trying to argue with you, just further explain my point and why Gege made the story choices that he did.

So one of the reasons I chose Killua as my comparison to Megumi, besides the obvious inspiration Mgumi takes from Killua's arc, is that despite the fact that Killua has many of the same character flaws and setbacks as Megumi he's much more well-received in western fandom spaces.

Killua also has a pretty straightforward arc, he still has character flaws, he idolizes Gon way too much and that makes him incapable of calling out Gon's flaws, or getting Gon to listen to him in his worst moment during the Neferpitou fight where Gon gives up everything to destroy Pitou pointlessly. However, even in those moments where Killua is failing Killua is still portrayed incredibly sympathetically. The audience reaction when Killua is failing is vastly different to when Megumi fails. When Killua is at his lowest point in chapter 241, there's no "get back up loser" it's "awe Killua."

That's because again Killua's arc is so clearly telegraphed. When Killua is at his lowest point, you in the audience understand that he is there and why he can't get up instead of yelling at him in frustration. At his lowest point he's still presented as being selfless towards Gon and chiding himself for not being of use to Gon, he's not giving up because he's too weak to keep going like Megumi is.

Killua on the whole is a lot more likable than Megumi too, but I think this stems from the fact that the narrative of Hunter x Hunter paints him in a better light, he has a mostly positive character arc where he learns to stand on his own two feet and forms a healthy relationship with both Gon and his sister - whereas Megumi has a negative / corruption arc which goes in the opposite direction of Killua's.

However, I would argue because Megumi is painted as more selfish, and allowed to be more unlikable that he is better written in Killua because there's an element of ambiguity that's not there in Killua's arc.

Megumi reaches his lowest point where he can't move similiar to Killua, but instead of spending his last moments thinking about how much he wanted to be of use to Gon, instead he's begging for death and drowning in his own self-pity not even looking up to see Yuji right there in front of him trying to save him.

You're right that he comes off as selfish, and a lot less likable to the audience and rightfully so. I feel like we're supposed to be frustrated at Megumi here for not seeing how much effort everyone is putting into saving him.

However, sometimes characters are unlikable on purpose!

Sometimes character writing and what a characters actions means for their story and themes is more important than whether or not the audience finds that character likable. Sometimes a writer might even have the character make an unpopular choice that the audience will disagree with, in order to make the audience angry and frustrated with them on purpose. After all, you yourself are saying you're worried about all of your other favorite characters getting harmed now that Megumi doesn't want to be saved - that creates tension in the scene. The scene is more complicated now and there's more at risk, because now things aren't as easy as Yuji reaching out and saving Megumi.

Gege is also using a tactic called delayed gratification here. Delayed or deferred gratification is the resistance to the temptation of immediate pleasure in the hope of obtaining a valuable and long-lasting reward in the long term.

Instant gratification would be Yuji's first attempt at reaching out to Megumi working, Megumi reaching out his hand, Sukuna being defeated, Megumi and Yuji hugging and everyone going home happy.

Of course, then the story would be over as well.

By delaying gratification and not giving the audience what they want right away, the effect when Megumi is finally saved, or in my opinion, what should happen when he decides to save himself will be even greater.

As I was trying to illustrate above Megumi's arc is in my opinion better than Killua's, because it doesn't follow a handy dandy roadmap on where Gege is going to go with his character. Things aren't as clear cut and there's an element of ambiguity. Ambiguity in this context meaning what the author wants, Megumi's thoughts and his wants / trauma, and where Megumi's arc is going are not as clear cut.

Gege cited Nasu's writing as a major inspiration on his because they skip explanations and instead let the audience try to explain things and put the pieces together for themselves.

I think when writing gets really good, we reach a point where "What's written is just as important as what's not written." That doesn't really make a lot of sense so let me explain it. Good writing does not spell out everything for the audience, but instead relies on audience inference to fill in the blanks, because then the reader becomes an active participant in writing the story and has to draw their own conlclusions instead of remaining a passive reader.

Megumi never thinks out loud that he didn't want to be a sorcerer and that he wanted to be a kid like Killua did, but there are things in story that implies Megumi thinks that way. The way he thinks he can never live up to Gojo's level or reach Gojo's heights. The way he doesn't even seem to want to. The way that personal connections like his connection to Yuji and Tsumiki is way more important to him then his duty as a sorcerer.

The way that Megumi doesn't ever seem to believe that he's as capable as being strong of as Gojo, and doesn't even seem to want to try either. This passive resistance Megumi shows to becoming what Gojo wants him to be, is basically the only way he ever grasps for agency.

Megumi is kind of like a really lazy smart kid, who never turns in his homework but manages to pass classes anyway because he's good at taking tests. He's so naturally talented that unlike characters like Yuji who are newcomers who have to give it their all - Megumi can just coast on being born with an extremely strong technique and not having to put the effort in for most of the story.

Megumi's choice to coast though is like I said - passive resistance. Megumi never says out loud that he doesn't want to be a sorcerer, but we can analyze from his behavior, his constant habit of half-assing things that maybe there's a reason he can't put his all into being a sorcerer. I mean someone on reddit put this entire collage together on how unmotivated Megumi is to put the work in to develop his talents.

The question is why in the manga where everyone is trying to be stronger, does Megumi keep half-assing things and not put his full effort in, why doesn't he seem to enjoy getting stronger the way say, Maki, and Yuji does. The answer isn't directly given to us, but all the way back in the third chapter Yaga says that sorcerers can't use other people as their reasons for being a sorcerer. It's an incredibly deadly and terrible job and if you don't know your own reason for why you want to be a sorcerer, you won't perform as well and you'll begin to doubt yourself.

Yet, here's Megumi doing that exact same thing that Yaga warned about. Megumi didn't become a sorcerer because he wanted to or for his own reasons. He was groomed into being a sorcerer by Gojo, his options were 1) starve, 2) go to the zen'in and be a sorcerer anyway and your sister will most likely be abused 3) be a sorcerer under Gojo but Gojo will leave your sister alone.

Megumi convinced himself that he wanted to become a sorcerer for Tsumiki's sake, that he was sacrificing himself so Tsumiki could at least continue to live a normal life but he's not even able to protect Tsumiki. When she becomes cursed, he's robbed of his entire reason for becoming a sorcerer under Gojo in the first place, but he has to just keep going on the vain hope that Tsumiki will wake up one day. Perhaps that's the reason that Megumi immediately grew so close to Yuji too, because Yuji reminded him of Tsumiki, but while he failed to save Tsumiki Yuji was still around and someone he could actively want to save.

Megumi doesn't want to be a sorcerer, but he has to be one and so in order to convince himself that he wants to do his job he tells himself he's doing it for the sake of Yuji, or Tsumiki. If he thinks that his sacrifice is somehow helping the people he loves either directly or indirectly then he can keep going.

That small amount of selfishness is the only agency he's able to reclaim for himself, that he's not sacrificing himself for the greater good or trying to save everyone like Yuji is, he's only trying to save a small group of people so he doesn't have to exert himself too much.

However, even that is basically just lipservice to being selfish, because in the end Megumi doesn't really benefit from his own actions. He does everything he does for other people. Even if it's for his own selfish reasons - to give him a motivation to keep going in this really shitty job of being a sorcerer he was forced into, even if he's using other people as an excuse to keep doing his job he's still not really a selfish person. He's not allowed to be selfish because he's not allowed to think for himself or make decisions for himself b/c he's been so thoroughly undermined by Gojo's grooming of him.

This is the paradox that is Megumi Fushiguro. He is presented to us as a very selfish character, especially in contrast to the all-loving hero Yuji, he's much more childish, prone to angst and failure and yet Megumi isn't really that selfish. Because true selfishness requires agency and the decision to decide for one's self and Megumi doesn't have that.

Sometimes, characters will make selfish and unlikable decisions in order to serve a greater story purpose even if the audience doesn't approve of them.

Megumi's character is better written than say Killua's, or even other characters in Jujutsu Kaisen because as a complex abuse victim he struggles internally with his issues, and growing past them instead of immediately getting back up on his feet to do the right thing. It's really easy to sympathize with Killua not wanting to be a murderer, because that's easy to understand. When Killua goes he wants to make friends not be an assassin the audience is immediately on his side. When Megumi doesn't want to be a sorcerer, a job that everyone else in the manga including characters like Yuji and Maki are fine with being and don't question whether or not they want to be sorcerers or get stronger then he looks selfish and weak-willed in comparison.

Megumi's internal struggles to form his own identity and grasp at agency are probably the most complex and best written character work because it's not immediately gratifying. Megumi's arc is not a straightforward arc, things have to get worse for him before they get better.

It's like in season 3 of avatar with Zuko. Zuko looked ready to change sides with team avatar at the end of season 2, but he regresses and sides with Azula instead when he thinks he's getting everything he wanted on a silver plate. It might seem more frustrating to not get what the audience wants, Zuko joining team avatar right away, but by delaying that immediate gratification the payoff for when Zuko does join team avatar is greater. Sometimes it's better to be less straightforward, because then characters feel like people with internal struggles and not pieces you are moving down a pre-determined path.

Let me compare Megumi to a character in story who's arc is pretty universally beloved, but I will argue is less complex than his. You could say for Megumi, well Maki's sister died and not only did she get over it she used that death to climb to even greater heights and she's now one of the most powerful characters in the manga.

This seems to be what readers want for Megumi, for him to get over Tsumiki's death and then live up to the potential that he's been foreshadowed to have. If the audience had their way, the same way that Maki was destined to become the next Toji, Megumi would step up right away after Tsumiki's death, become the next Gojo and become as powerful as Maki.

However, here's my question do we as readers really feel Maki's mourning for Mai? I mean if you were a fan of Mai you probably feel sad at her death because she was a character that you liked, but does the narrative ever take the space to have Maki struggle to come to terms with the loss of Mai?

No, because Maki pretty much immediately gets a power up afterwards. We don't really feel Maki's loss for Mai, because we get that immediate gratifaction. Maki never lays on the ground and wallows, she never gives up, in fact we get some pretty immediate catharsis too because Maki goes on to murder all of Mai's killers.

Mai's death doesn't seem like the tragic event that it is, because it's not played as a tragedy, but as Maki coming into her own power. There's nothing wrong with this I suppose, but it's less emotionally complex because we take no time for Maki to internally deal with the loss of Mai, to feel that loss. Tsumiki is way less of a character than Mai, but her death is an unequivocal tragedy because nothing good comes out of it, Megumi doesn't get to avenge Tsumiki's death, it's only a tragedy, it's only suffering.

If you're satisfied with Maki's arc that's fine, but like I said it's a lot like Killua's in that it's very clearly signposted where we are going. It's narratively convenient. Like, when Maki is at her lowest point, a sumo guy shows up out of nowhere to give the exact words to encourage her and lead her character to the conclusions she's supposed to draw.

Megumi and Maki are both victims of abuse but Megumi's allowed to be a lot more unlikable, he's allowed to stumble, to do things the audience wouldn't approve of. He's not shown to be more virtuous than his abusers, to rise up and get revenge against his abusers, he doesn't immediately free himself through the power of his hard work and determination alone.

In fact compared to Maki Megumi's kind of just a loser.

Yet, sometimes the road less traveled is the better one. Megumi doesn't follow the paint by numbers abused child overcomes their abuser and finds their own strength / freedom / agency arc and because of that he doesn't come off as a character with a character arc, but rather a child struggling to grow up properly in a world where he has no positive adult figures to help grow and nurture him. Just like a child Megumi has no idea how to be an adult, and unlike Maki there's no path to adulthood clearly laid out for him.

In fact when he does try to take steps or reclaim his agency for himself, someone usually appears either Gojo or Sukuna to rob him away of his agency and further sabotage him. Megumi's arc has a pretty clear pattern of one step forward, two steps back. Megumi bonds with Yuji, Yuji dies. Megumi promises to get stronger for Yuji after his death, Yujhi turns out to be alive and also he finds out that his decision to save Yuji after Yuji ate the finger led to fingers all around the world awakening more people dying. Megumi decides to keep this fact from Yuji to spare his feelings creating a wall between him and Yuji.

Megumi creates his domain for the first time, but then in Shibuya he's put into a corner by his father stabbing him and takes two steps back using Mahoraga as a suicide move again another curse user. When he does that too, he thinks about how he'll never be as strong as Gojo wants to be five seconds before calling Mahoraga.

Megumi comes out of the culling games with a plan to save Tsumiki, manages to defeat one sorcerer using his domain expansion and pushing his limits again like he did in the death painting arc, only for Tsumiki to turn out to be possessed and Sukuna to take his body.

One step forward, two steps back.

However, the complexity from Megumi's character comes from this fact, the fact he doesn't just walk down the path the audience wants him to, he doesn't simply do what Gojo laid out for him to make him the next Satoru Gojo. He doesn't find meaning or reason in being a sorcerer, he doesn't get stronger as a sorcerer because he doesn't want to be there.

There's no convenience there, no one pops up with an inspirational speech the moment that Megumi needs it to keep going instead it's the opposite the narrative keeps robbing Megumi of his agency agian and again, pulling the rug out from under him when it looks like he's gotten the strength to stand out on his own two feet and Megumi has to keep going. The narrative rewards Maki and gives her what she wants her arc is basically over, whereas it punishes and denies Megumi at every turn. Maki's arc isn't bad but it is basically already over and it's a lot simpler and more straightforward than Megumi's.

Megumi is also called on to do a lot more than Maki is, because Megumi's issues can't really be solved with a power-up. This quote "let fate toy with you before you die like a fool" is probably one of the most important quotes when speaking about Megumi, because Megumi really is the fool in the fool's journey.

The Fool's Journey is a metaphor for the journey through life. Each major arcana card stands for a stage on that journey - an experience that a person must incorporate to realize his wholeness. These 22 descriptions are based on the keywords for each major arcana card. The keywords are highlighted in the text. A card's number is in parentheses.

The Fool's Journey is different from the Hero's Journey, because the Hero's Journey is the standard narrative for how a character rises up to become a hero, whereas the fool's journey is how a person goes from being an innocent but empty child a fool, a zero, into being a whole, and well rounded person. In Tarot the Fool (0) is basically a newborn, with no identity, no opinions, an empty vessel.

We begin with the Fool (0), a card of beginnings. The Fool stands for each of us as we begin our journey of life. He is a fool because only a simple soul has the innocent faith to undertake such a journey with all its hazards and pain. At the start of his trip, the Fool is a newborn - fresh, open and spontaneous. The figure on Card 0 has his arms flung wide, and his head held high. He is ready to embrace whatever comes his way, but he is also oblivious to the cliff edge he is about to cross. The Fool is unaware of the hardships he will face as he ventures out to learn the lessons of the world. The Fool stands somewhat outside the rest of the major arcana. Zero is an unusual number. It rests in the exact middle of the number system - poised between the positive and negative. At birth, the Fool is set in the middle of his own individual universe. He is strangely empty (as is zero), but imbued with a desire to go forth and learn. This undertaking would seem to be folly, but is it?

Megumi is the most underdeveloped and childish character in the series. He is as people have constantly referred to him, immature and selfish. He doesn't see things for the greater good, because he's ego-centric like a child and can only see what's around him.

What Megumi needs to do is to become a whole person, to develop an entire identity on his own, that's not dependent on Yuji or Tsumiki. He needs to be able to stand on his own two feet.

Now, how does Megumi go about doing that while he's also asked to be a sorcerer, people who aren't allowed to be selfish, who are asked to be identity-less cogs who exorcise curses for the greater good.

Megumi's arc is a lot harder, and a lot more difficult because it's not resolved by him getting a power up. That wouldn't fix his central issue because the problem isn't that Megumi's weak, it's that he's weak willed and doesn't think for himself.

Megumi can't become the next Gojo or the next Toji, he has to become himself.

Yet, Megumi and the audience at large don't know exactly what that means yet. That ambiguity, will Megumi be able to save himself, how exactly will Megumi save himself if he's not taking the hands that Yuji offers him. How exactly will he find the will to live with Tsumiki gone, and with no reason besides himself to keep on moving? It's that ambiguity that makes his arc more compelling.

Also, if Megumi were to resolve his arc by just getting a power up that kind of just means that Gojo was right all along. Like I hate to borrow from Homestuck of all things but this quote heavily applies to megumi and the way he was raised by Gojo.

So in the context the character Dave was raised from childhood by his brother to go through some super ultra ninja training, where he was basically forced to spare with his brother with swords every single day and put through the ringer with training, and that training didn't make him stronger it just made him afraid to fight. Dave can't see himself as strong or as a hero, because he's number one constantly feeling inferior to his brother who has like destroyed his entire childhood and number two because he didn't have a childhood he has no solid basis to build his sense fo self around. There's no strong foundation for Dave because he was robbed of the childhood years that help us form our identity. He never formed an identity, the only thing he could do was try to passively resist what his brother wanted him to be. That's not really forming an identity though, that's saying "I don't want to be that." Dave in his arc is continually reluctant to be a hero, and to go through the steps of a straightforward hbero's journey, because he doesn't want to be like a hero, because his brother was a cool brave heroic hero and his brother abused him.

Dave's character shines in his reluctancy to be a hero, because if he just sucked up all of that abuse and then decided to be a hero anyway then wouldn't that just prove that his brother was right? That his brother was right to put him through all that abuse because look it made him stronger in the end.

Gojo took Megumi's childhood away from him with the intention of turning him into a stronger sorcerer, but it had the opposite effect. It didn't make him stronger or into another Gojo Satoru, it made him not want to become a sorcerer, it made him weak willed and made him cowardly and made him want to run away from danger and made him unable to believe himself to be strong enough to win.

Even Maki's arc doesn't ever suggest her abusers were right. If anything it's the opposite, Maki wanted to be a sorcerer, she would have willingly become one but her family sabotaged her at every chance and denied her the opportunity to become one - only to show that Maki was right all along that she had more potential than anyone else in the family and her family should have given her that chance. That if from the beginning the Zen'in accepted and raised Maki then the tragedy at the end of her arc could have been averted. The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel it's warmth... etc, etc.

So Maki's arc may be way more straightforward than Megumi's, but her arc doesn't suggest that her abusers were right to put her through what they did. However, Megumi just being told to suck up all his abuse and get stronger would be doing just that, because it would mean Gojo was right all along to do what he did, Gojo stealing Megumi's childhood would be right because look how much stronger it makes him.

However, Gojo's actions didn't make Megumi stronger, it made him the opposite, it made him never want to fight, or see blood, or be near danger. It made him passive and cowardly and selfish rather than active and brave and selfless.

Sometimes a writer may have a character make an unpopular choice in service of the story and themes.

You're not wrong friend for pointing out that Megumi comes off like a hypocrite for giving up, when he called Yuji selfish for giving up on his own before the beginning of the culling games. If anything it's worse, because Megumi has chosen to give up at the moment when everyone is basically making a group effort and risking their lives to help him instead of going for the more tactically solid strategy of killing Megumi alongsde Sukuna. Megumi is not respecting the feelings of those who wish to save him, nor is he thinking about how much the others are risking their lives just for the chance to save him.

However, this intentional parallel of Megumi being able to reach Yuji at his lowest point when he wants to give up, and Yuji not being able to reach Megumi illustrates the difference between their characters.

Yuji became a sorcerer by choice. His ideal of wanting to help people is something he chose for himself, and apparently according to Sukuna he believes down to his very bones which is why it's something he'll never waver from. Yuji is the outsider who became a sorcerer by choice, he wants to be in this world - even if it wasn't a total choice like he chose to eat the finger but he didn't think of the ramifications and afterwards his choice was like "die now, or die after eating 21 more fingers." Yuji still views it as his choice though.

Megumi on the other hand never had a choice. All of his justifications and reasons and "I selfishly choose who to save" those are all lipservice, ex posto factor justifications, lies Megumi tells himself to cope with the fact that this life as a sorcerer was forced upon him.

That's why Megumi doesn't have the unshakable determination to get back up at his lowest point that Yuji had, because Yuji at the end of the day is kind of like the embodiment of the ideal sorcerer the way Nanami is, he's decided to give his life to be a sorcerer and live up to what sorcerers should be so he can make the world a slightly better place and then pass the torch to the next sorcerer.

Yuji chose that for himself, and for better or worse he keeps making that choice over and over again. He's resolved to live and die as an ideal sorcerer, and carry on the burden that Nanami left for him.

If Yuji's arc is to figure out what kind of sorcerer he wants to be and then be that person to the very end, then Megumi's arc is the opposite. It's to find out who he is outside of being a sorcerer, because being a sorcerer wasn't his choice it was something that was imposed upon him. That's what Killua's arc is too, Killua's arc is not him learning to live up to his full potential as an assassin because that would once again validate his family's abuse of him. No Killua can't grow up into what his family wants him to be, he has to figure out for himself what he wants, and try to grow into that person.

However, Megumi has that added layer of difficulty in that Megumi doesn't get to use "I want to grow strong enough to protect my sister" as an answer the way Killua did. Megumi unlike Killua gets the crutch ripped out from underneath him. He's not allowed to live for Tsumiki anymore, because Tsumiki is gone.

Now Megumi has to find a way to keep living for himself without Tsumiki, and show that life is worth living even if you lose your loved ones or he sinks. Which as I said again is harder and more complex o Megumi because he doesn't get the simple answer "I want to grow strong to protect my sister" he's called to do more than that and stand entirely on his own.

Finally, Megumi not immediately taking Yuji's hand when it's offered to him adds complexity to the story in another way.

Again we are asking the question, is it possible to save someone who does not want to be saved? It's repeating the same conflict in the past between Gojo and Geto now with Yuji and Megumi. Can Yuji really do anything to save Megumi if Megumi himself has decided to give up and that he's beyond salvation. If Megumi does not want to be saved then what does Yuji's attemps to reach out his hand amount to?

One last thing is I think Yuji's attempts to save Megumi were always going to fail, because as it's already been stated above by Gojo you can't save those who aren't willing to be saved.

In broader story terms though, if Megumi's arc is about reclaiming his own agency then how is getting saved by Yuji a proper end to this arc? Megumi being rescued like a passive damsel is not giving his character any agency, if anything it's robbing him of agency because it's reducing him to a victim to be saved by Yuji.

This is why I bring up delayed gratification, because if Megumi was saved here then his arc would be over and it would also be brought to a pretty unsatisfying conclusion. There would be no real moment where he learned to stand up for himself, he didn't find the meaning in living past the death of his loved ones for himself someone.

Not only is Megumi not letting Yuji save him, but story-wise it's kind of impossible for Yuji to save him because what Megumi needs narratively to complete his arc isn't to be saved.

What Megumi needs is to save himself. So no matter what Yuji did, no matter what heroic speech he gave, no matter what lengtsh Yuji went to to free Megumi's soul for Sukuna it would not have worked anyway, because that's not what Megumi needs.

Megumi needs to become himself. Megumi needs to save himself.

The fact that Megumi doesn't want to be saved, that he doesn't want to keep living, is the struggle he's going to have to overcome in order to achieve these things in the end.

And it will be much more gratifying when he does save himself, because the manga didn't go the easy route and just have Yuji save Megumi.

[themattress]

Battle of the Seasons

DuckTales (2017): Season 1 vs. Season 2 vs. Season 3

So now that this series has ended, how do the seasons stack up?

Season 1 stands as a favorite for many because it's what introduced us to this re-imagining of a classic Disney cartoon, and right from the two-part premiere it showed that it was going to do it right. As Doug Walker said in his review of it, "it's funny, it's creative, it's modern, it's retro, it's classic, it's new, it has great animation and charming characters, clearly combining old-school Disney adventures like their comics and the Disney Afternoon with newer Disney adventures like Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Gravity Falls - and they mix perfectly."

I want to digress by elaborating on Doug's last remark: DuckTales is one of the animated Disney shows that on the surface seems bright, silly and cartoony, only to increasingly reveal a continuous story arc(s) that sucker-punch viewers with how complex, serious and emotional they can get, and done in such a skillful way that it doesn't sacrifice the show's general kid-friendly tone in the process. Gravity Falls started this trend, and it's continued with Star vs. The Forces of Evil, The Lion Guard, Elena of Avalor, Tangled the Series, Amphibia and The Owl House (Wander Over Yonder and Sofia the First also flirted with this style in their final seasons, Milo Murphy's Law attempted something along its lines but failed miserably, and Big Hero 6 the Series went in reverse: establishing continuous, complex and serious story arcs right off the bat only to end as just a bright, silly and cartoony show where even the story arc going on throughout the episodes is played for laughs.)  

Ironically, the one major weakness Season 1 has is actually related to its continuous story arc, which is divided into three distinct plot threads: Dewey trying to solve the mystery of what happened to his mother Della and what role Scrooge played in it, Magica De Spell sending her "niece" Lena to befriend Webby and infiltrate Scrooge's family in order to steal his Number One Dime, and the rise of Gizmoduck as Duckburg's defender. These plot threads seem totally unrelated to one another until the finale where they all come together, which is fine. What isn't fine is the pacing - it takes an obscenely long amount of time between episodes that progress each plot thread. And while it being the first season means the show can get away with this particular weakness due to establishing its characters and world being a higher priority than pacing out the overarching stories, it's a weakness all the same.

Season 2 is basically what happens when you take Season 1's structure and work out all of the kinks. Once again we get a mix of standalone adventures and a continuous story arc that is divided into three plot threads: Louie trying to make his way in the world as an adventurer businessman in charge of "Loue Inc.", Della returning from the moon and learning how to be a parent all while the manipulative leader of the moon's denizens plots an invasion of Earth, and Scrooge engaging in a bet with Flintheart Glomgold that says whoever makes the most money by the end of the year wins the other's company. The difference is that now the plot threads regularly intersect with one another rather than just waiting until the finale, which also now brings back elements from the standalone adventures! This means that the season has a far greater sense of purpose and forward momentum than its predecessor.

I also feel this season's arc is the strongest in the series due to the characters who are front and center in it. In Season 1, I cared about Lena and Webby and what was to become of them and their friendship which made it all the more upsetting when its pay-off failed to deliver (something this season mercifully rectified), but Dewey rubbed me the wrong way too often and I wasn't given enough time with Fenton to sufficiently care enough about his personal plight when becoming Gizmoduck. Louie, Della and Scrooge, despite all of their bravado, are all far more interesting, flawed, vulnerable characters who I enjoy watching grow. General Lunaris is the best Big Bad in the entire show, being a physical and mental match for Scrooge and his family in a way that no other foe they faced before or after is, on top of being intimidating and loathsome in the best ways possible. And "Moonvasion", where everything and everyone comes together, still stands as my favorite season finale, my favorite extra-length episode, and one of my favorite episodes period.

And finally we have Season 3 and.....it's a mess. A high-quality mess, mind you, but still a mess when compared to the previous two seasons. One reason for this is the inevitable result of mixing all sorts of other Disney Afternoon properties into the show, which the writers have slowly been doing since the very beginning but it really explodes here, with major roles and showings by the likes of Goofy, the Rescue Rangers, Kit Cloudkicker, Molly Cunningham, Don Carnage, Darkwing Duck and his cast of supporting characters and villains, Bonkers D. Bobcat, and even Goliath from Gargoyles in a roundabout way.

But a bigger reason is that the story arc's three plot threads - Huey overcoming his personal hang-ups and anxiety, the search for the Missing Mysteries listed in Isabella Finch's journal, and the evil conspiracy against Scrooge and his family undertaken by FOWL - are tied together right from the start. The writers probably thought this was a natural evolution from Season 2's structure, but it turns out to be a big step down, as now these plot threads are left fighting each other for screentime and focus. This is especially damaging for Huey's personal arc, which doesn't receive the same amount of focus that Dewey's and Louie's had and doesn't even get a definitive wrap-up...it just kind of stops two-thirds of the way into the finale. And it's a damn shame given that Huey, with his knowledge-seeking nerdiness, commitment to boy scout honor, and autistic-coded neurosis, has always been the most likeable of the triplets.

While the series finale, "The Last Adventure", is excellent and ties the whole show together as one grand, cohesive story, I honestly feel like the whole season could have benefited from possessing more of its epic, large-scale quality. If I was in charge, I would have had the Duck family learn about the FOWL conspiracy right near the start (instead of Launchpad learning about it and then becoming unable to warn the rest about it), and then have the arc mostly be a globe-hopping adventure where the Ducks seek to get the Missing Mysteries before FOWL does. Huey's growth would be more pronounced and have a more definite wrap-up. And there would be more obvious foreshadowing for the big twist regarding Webby the closer things got to the finale - it may have not been so divisive among fans if the writers hadn't insisted on being super subtle and sneaky about it right up to the eleventh hour.

I would keep "How Santa Stole Christmas" exactly as it is, though. That episode was perfect.

Final verdict: Season 2 > Season 1 > Season 3.

[wehavethoughts]

Crooked Kingdom Review!

Crooked Kingdom

By: Liegh Bardugo

YA Fantasy Novel

Henry Hold & Company, 2016

Rating: 5/5 Waves!

Summary: Book two in the Six of Crows Duology. Inej has been kidnapped, Ketterdam is no longer safe and our favorite group of misfits still has not gotten paid! Follow Kaz and crew on their exciting journey towards revenge, friendship, redemption and (most importantly) cold hard cash.   

This review CONTAINS (mild) spoilers for the novel Crooked Kingdom.

Content Warnings for Crooked Kingdom: Violence, Death, Drug addiction, Plague, Forced Prostitution (mentioned), Fantasy Racism, Sexism, Slavery/Indentured Servitude, Mental Asylums

“Brick by brick.” – Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel whenever he’s brooding.

I’ve been saving my highest wave rating for a piece of fantasy media that really impressed me, something that I could recommend completely to friends, family and random people on the street. Crooked Kingdom (and by extension the entire Six of Crows duology) by Liegh Bardugo is that fantasy media! Not only does this novel fix all of the problems I had with the first book (Six of Crows), but it expands on the universe and characters in a way that kept me guessing, engaged and completely enamored.

There are so many phenomenal things about this book from its world-building to the story itself, but my absolute favorite aspects were the pacing and the characters. Plans worked, plans failed, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I never wanted to slow down and if I had to stop (to eat and sleep), I knew I would have no problem jumping back into the story. It was an easy read and even though some of the themes were pretty heavy (drug addiction recovery and self worth issues), it was still light enough that I could pick it up regardless of my state of mind.

As for the characters, every single one of our main six get to be interesting, well-rounded and relatable. Even the mastermind who is characterized as extraordinarily brilliant feels like a real person with characteristics that are easy to empathize with. Nearly everyone gets a great arc that leaves the reader more than satisfied (my favorites are Jesper’s and Kaz’s). On one hand, I am glad this series was a duology because it gave the author enough time to tell one long, very well thought out story without having to compress it into one book or drag it out to three. On the other hand, I would like at least a dozen more of these books because I love them so, so much. But I can appreciate that Bardugo showed a lot of restraint in telling the story she wanted to and then stopped, especially in today’s world of extended series that follow the same characters for years long past when the original story had concluded.

I loved so many things about this story that I literally cannot post them all, so here are some highlights that I really want to share (Note: the last one is technically a spoiler, but I won’t go into much detail): 1) The POV of the first and last chapters are not from the main characters’ perspectives so they add a fun dimension to the story that make the world feel really lived in. 2) The romance plots were very well done. As a 27 year-old, I usually can’t relate to teen romance, but I adored watching characters come together. 3) The maps were once again fantastic! When I saw the intricate map of Ketterdam I knew this book was going to be phenomenal. 4) Bardugo does NOT bury her gays. She had the opportunity to and I was on the edge of my seat, but she avoided using that damaging trope!

One thing that didn’t affect the rating but could ruin the book for some readers is that we get an eleventh hour tragedy. To me, this reads like the author didn’t want her main characters getting away with everything unscathed. To avoid major spoilers, I am not going to say what happens, but it is a major development right at the end that to me felt unnecessary. There seems to be a trend in fantasy media where something or someone important has to be lost before you get to the end or else the characters didn’t earn their happy ending. I completely disagree and don’t think clever, creative, and competent characters need to earn their happiness by losing something, especially if it is outside of their control. To me the cost wasn’t high enough to decrease the rating, but if you are interested in spoilers feel free to message me.

It is so difficult to find a series that starts strong and finishes stronger, but Bardugo delivers with the perfect balance of heist, drama and brilliance. I will be rereading this duology over and over for the rest of my life and recommending it to everyone who will listen!

Tldr; If you love heists, diversity, intrigue and/or revenge plots this is the series for you. 5/5 Waves! Go read this! It’s fantastic!

~TideMod

[thelittlesttimelord]

I had so, so many questions for DW Universe question game. Sorry if I trouble you. Number 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 17, 18, 21, 24, 28, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 40, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 56, 61, 64, 68, 70, 72, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 84, 88, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 100.

Well, here we go!

3. First DW episode you ever saw? 

I can’t actually remember. I know I kept seeing pictures of “Let’s Kill Hitler” on Pinterest and memes from series 6, so I just started watching. I started with Nine, so I’m pretty sure the first one was “Rose”.

6. Monster(s) that scared you most as a child? 

THE FUCKING SCARECROWS from “Family of Blood/Human Nature”. I fucking hate those things. The mannequins from “Rose” and the Snowmen are a close second though.

7. Joke/story you didn’t get as a kid? 

I didn’t really understand River’s story the first time around. I still don’t really, but it makes a bit more sense thanks to YouTube videos.

9. Who introduced you to DW? 

Like I said, I kept seeing things on Pinterest and started watching because of that.

11. Who is your Doctor? 

ELEVEN. But is anyone really surprised?

17. Best multi-Doctor story? 

50th Anniversary, but only because it’s the only one I’ve seen.

18. Best Doctor monologue? 

Shit. That’s a hard one. It’s a tie between Eleven’s final speech and Twelve’s angry one during the Zygone two-parter.

21. Favourite companion? 

Unlike most people, I really like Clara. I also love Bill. I wish she’d had more than one series.

24. Best TARDIS Team? 

Eleven, River, Amy, and Rory. I love their little space family.

28. Who should have been a companion but wasn’t? 

Oooo. I don’t know. So I’ll answer it this way, I would’ve liked to see some companions from RTD era meet Eleven.

30. Who did you not used to like, but really like now? 

Twelve. I stopped watching Doctor Who when Eleven regenerated, because I didn’t like what I saw in “Deep Breath” clips. When I went back and rewatched, I slowly fell in love with him.

31. Favourite episode ever? 

The Doctor’s Wife. I love seeing Eleven and his TARDIS interact. So many good one liners!

34. Best two-parter? 

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Mostly because of River and the Doctor’s interactions. It also hits a lot differently now that we know River’s whole story.

36. Episode that will always make you smile? 

Vincent and the Doctor. I struggle with depression and anxiety, so I connect a lot with the story. I also live by the quote about life being a pile of good things and bad things.

37. Episode that will always make you cry? 

It’s a toss up between Doomsday and The Time of the Doctor. Doomsday because of that final scene between Ten and Rose and Time of the Doctor because of Eleven’s regeneration.

40. Favourite Christmas special? 

A Christmas Carol. It’s so bittersweet and I love the song at the end. Although I also kinda like Last Christmas because Twelve is such a mood.

42. Favourite series? 

I really love series 4, because of the shit Donna and Ten get up to. They have the best dynamic out of the Doctor/Companion relationships.

45. Favourite series opening? 

Eleventh Hour. It’s a perfect opener for Eleven. It shows off his personality and how much he will come to care for Amy.

46. Favourite series finale? 

I really like The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang.

47. Best series arc? 

I have to say “Bad Wolf” because none of us saw that coming. It was subtle and it was really clever.

48. Thoughts on series 11/12? 

Looks okay. I haven’t really watched it. I’ve seen clips and Thirteen seems like a sweetheart and Graham is a straight up MOOD.

49. How much of Classic Who have you seen? 

Absolutely none. I’ve seen clips here and there in YouTube videos and I know some storylines, but other than that I know nothing.

51. Favourite monster/villain? 

Probably the Daleks. But only because they’re so stupid sometimes. Like in Victory of the Daleks...HOW THE FUCK IS A DALEK GONNA MAKE TEA?!?!?!

53. Monster(s) that scares you most?

Weeping Angels.

56. Monster you want to return? 

I’d love to see the Doctor face off with the Midnight entity. Maybe she’d handle it a bit differently...

61. Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures? 

Torchwood. I’ve never seen it, but I feel like I’m too grown up for the Sarah Jane Adventures.

64. Do you rewatch COE or MD?

I think given the choice, I’d probably rewatch Miracle Day because I know what happens in Children of Earth and it breaks my heart(s).

68. Do you read the comics/novels or listen to Big Finish? 

I want to read some of the comics, but they’re hard to find in physical form. I have read some of the novels and I listen to Big Finish. I will take my Doctor Who in whatever form I can get it.

70. Do you like DW analysis (video essays, fan theories, etc)? 

Oh yes. Those are my favorite kinds of videos.

72. Favourite piece of Murray Gold music? 

Either Eleven or Clara’s theme music. Eleven’s theme is so epic, while Clara’s is flighty and whimsical.

75. Favourite Doctor outfit? 

I’m a sucker for Eleven’s classic tweed and red bow-tie, but i also like Twelve’s look in series 9 (the old rocker look).

77. Best show runner? 

I feel like if I answer this, I’ll be shot so I’ll say each show runner has brought something different to the show (whether that be good or bad). They’ve left their mark in a unique way.

78. Best writer? 

Neil Gaiman, hands down. Or maybe Mark Gatiss. I love every one of their episodes.

79. Best opening titles?

Series 5. I hate the voiceover Amy has in series 6.

81. Time period you’d want to go with the Doctor? 

Chicago in the 20′s. I’d wanna meet mobsters like Al Capone.

84. Companion you’d most like to travel with? 

Donna or Martha. I feel like we’d get along pretty well.

88. Historical figure you’d like to meet? 

Anne Boleyn. I admire her so much.

91. Historical event would you like to see in DW? 

Maybe the French Revolution. Don’t know why. I just think it’d be cool.

92. Issue you’d like to see addressed in DW? 

Maybe more about sexuality. We have Jack, who is Pansexual and Bill, who is a lesbian. But they kinda just go “this is this character’s sexuality and that’s that.” I’d like to see them go into it a bit more and maybe have companions with different sexualities. Like maybe an Ace companion. Or have a Transgender companion. I guess just more diversity really.

94. One unanswered DW question you’d love to know the answer to? 

HOW DOES JACK BECOME THE FACE OF BOE. I need to know this before I die.

95.  Actor/actress you’d like to see play the Doctor? 

Tom Hiddleston. Because if he kept his natural hair color, the Doctor would finally be ginger.

96. Actor/actress you’d like to see play a companion?

I’d like to see another American companion (besides Jack), but I’d never really thought about it.

100. If you could write an episode of DW, any ideas for what you’d do? 

Well Gallifrey “stands” now right (disregarding what the Master did in series 12)? I’d like to see the Doctor go back to Gallifrey and maybe find his family. I’d like to see his Timelord wife and maybe his children because they’re not dead now. I really just want the Doctor to be happy. Is that too much to ask for?

[dreamerinsilico]

the obligatory “I just saw Rise of Skywalker” post

TLDR: My very low expectations were met.  I didn’t consider it a waste of two hours.

Spoiler-free overview: It had some genuinely good, often funny banter, and a few character moments and narrative beats I thought were good at least in theory, if not necessary in implementation.  

A lot of good actors did their best with a lot of bad writing.  Structurally, I thought the way the ending resolved worked, if you accept the premise of the conflict.  Unfortunately, the premise of the conflict was ridiculous from so many different angles I was rolling my eyes every few minutes.  

JJ Abrams really needs to learn that not every fucking scene needs to be some flavor of highlights reel-worthy bombastic - it cheapens every actual Big Moment when the music and the cinematography and the delivery of the dialogue is trying to communicate “big moment” in every scene.

Spoiler-ridden rambling below the cut:

It speaks to the overall ridiculousness of the film that both my absolute favorite and least favorite things about it are minor details.  :P

My favorite: When Our Heroes asked Hux why he turned on the First Order, I stage-whispered to my brother, “Because Kylo Ren is a dick!” right before Hux said almost exactly that.  It was just such a perfect “...and we all know I’m that petty” detail, but it also really.... it stood out hardcore to me as an anomaly in the Star Wars saga, being basically the one and only case of one character’s shitty treatment of another having direct, major consequences!  There’s plenty of friendship-based loyalty in Star Wars, and obviously a few big turncloak cases (Anakin, Anakin/Vader again, Kylo/Ben) where it was about the person’s loyalty to someone(s) on the other side, but Hux betrays the First Order strictly because Kylo Ren is an asshole and he’s fed up.  (Contrary to every other Empire/First Order character who gets abused by a Sith on the regular.)  A+, most believable thing in all of Star Wars.

My least favorite: FORCEGHOST!LUKE GAVE REY LEIA’S LIGHTSABER, WHICH WAS GREEN, AND WAS LIKE ‘YOU’LL TAKE BOTH OF THESE TO SITH PLANET’ (yes, good, setting up the eleventh-hour Rey-Ben alliance, symbolically appropriate, I like it) AND THEN WHEN SHE WAS FACING PALPATINE AND BEN WAS COMING TO HELP BOTH THE FUCKING LIGHTSABERS WERE BLUE!  IS THIS FINAL-SEASON-OF-GOT-THERE’S-APPARENTLY-STARBUCKS-IN-WESTEROS LEVEL CARELESSNESS, OR DID SOMEONE ACTUALLY THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR SOME UN-FUCKING-FATHOMABLE REASON?!?!?!

*clears throat*  Anyway.  I may have walked out of the theater ranting about that one.

Okay, next on the docket, the Reylo in the room:

It is not and has never been my ship, but in a big-picture sense I don’t actually hate it, and I definitely don’t hate the way their final scene went down.  However, any actual satisfaction I might have taken in their arc is inevitably hamstrung by the fact that Kylo Ren does not, in my opinion, have one good line of dialogue in any movie he’s in, and his characterization has been actively cruel and unsympathetic the whole series, except for a very few moments with Rey, and most of the time with her he’s still being a condescending prick.  “I’m going to find you, and I’m going to turn you to the dark side.”  My dude.  Maybe say literally anything other than that, if your goal is to actually change her mind.  

I actually like (*coughs*  love, more and more obsessively), on a big-picture level, the whole “bonding with your nemesis” thing, as a trope.  But the nemesis needs to have some redeeming qualities other than the ability to look sad and tortured.  With better writing in general, and an antagonist with any actual depth/substance, it could have worked, and worked well.  As it is, I find I’m not mad at it as a thing, but like... what a damn shame.  It could have been great; instead it’s hollow and incredibly under-realized.  Incredibly.  Even setting aside the fact that the set-up was hamfistedly awful (I’m talking about their interactions in the previous movies and this one, where he spends all his time telling her what she Has To Do, Inevitably, and she spends all her time telling him to fuck off), shouldn’t she... have some kind of reaction to his death?  Like, any reaction?  Contemplation after the fact?  Acknowledgement that someone she had a Force connection to so strong they could communicate telepathically wherever they were is now dead?  But no, we’re cutting to triumphant music and the Resistance winning and Rey’s back in the X-wing and Ben Solo will not be mentioned again.

All of it is so damn hollow I’m peripherally kind of amazed at how riled up people seem to have gotten about it.  I just can’t summon an emotion stronger than exasperation.

I can summon an emotion stronger than exasperation for the way the script played Finn’s implied romantic love for Rey for laughs.  Finn Deserved Better; Disney is Terrible.  I’m so glad John Boyega is apparently telling them to piss off regarding future opportunities for him to be disrespected.  

<333 Poe and Finn’s “bickering married couple” dynamic, which apparently both actors have been intentionally playing up to the extent that they were able.  

Rey’s internal conflict, while beautifully acted by Daisy Ridley, did not make any damn sense, just like it didn’t make sense in TLJ.  Of course I get that one of the central themes is birth versus who you choose to be, but like.... she’s never once done anything that should make her or anyone else worry that she’s going to suddenly become a megalomaniacal Sith Lord.  As my brother pointed out, if they’d actually had her accidentally kill Chewie, as we were very briefly lead to believe, that might have lent it some credence.  But as it stands, her fear of herself just feels... completely inappropriate and unreasonable, given that aside from a few short outbursts that had no lasting consequences, she’s never deviated from the compassionate, generous person everyone except Kylo Ren (and Luke, I guess, in parts of TLJ) knows her to be.

I could spend another few thousand words talking about how nothing about Palpatine being Back or the Final Order existing and having planet-cracking weapons on every one of their enormous fleet out in a hidden system no one knows how to get to makes no fucking sense, but let’s just... leave it at that.  I’d rather not.  

It was a typical Disney conglomerate soulless cash-grab that had some entertaining bits, and some bits that could have been fantastic had anyone with power actually cared about telling a cohesive story rather than relying almost entirely on dramatic music and the actors’ facial expressions to make people feel things.

(PS: Where the heck did that yellow lightsaber come from?)

[ladysmaragdina]

I know I'm late as hell, but Dishonored 2... Which path should you choose (high/ low chaos) in order to stay the most true to Emily's and Corvo's character? I've always loved reading your Dishonored fics and analyzes, you always make the characters make such good sense =>

So this ask has been sitting in my inbox for over two weeks now. Which I feel terribly guilty about, because I want to give this question the thought and weight and few-thousand words it probably deserves, but… ugh, okay.

Dishonored 1 is my single favorite game, ever.

I’m utterly indifferent to Dishonored 2.

I’m not interested in Dishonored 2.

I have a hard time even saying that I like Dishonored 2.

I’m not going to be able to answer this question, anon. And I feel like I should explain why. (A lot of this is going to be a reatread of what I talked about in my big Dishonored 2 critique I wrote back when the game came out. Whoops)

I played through the game once, the instant it came out – as Emily in a Clean Hands run – and I really, really enjoyed it at first. I loved getting to play as Emily. I loved that the gameplay was objectively better than the first one. I loved how bright and different and rich the world looked. I was so fucking into Dishonored 2! I probably spent an extra couple of hours exploring every nook and cranny of the Royal Conservatory after knocking out the witches, and finding Corvo’s old apartment in the Dust District was a fucking treat. I love the Dishonored world. I wanted to know everything. I was gonna write so much fucking meta and fanfic.

But by the time I got to A Crack In The Slab, I was starting to realize that the story felt… off.

By the time I finished that mission and it was suddenly time to go get rid of the Duke… I mean, I was still having fun! The game was fucking cool! But I raced through the streets leadup to the Duke’s palace without really exploring. I raced through the Duke’s palace like I was speedrunning it. There are entire floors of that level I never saw, and wasn’t remotely interested in seeing. I didn’t care.

I was bored by the time I got back to Dunwall. I was frustrated by how long it took me to work through the many levels of the palace. I just wanted to get to the finale and find out how the story ended. (and then I found the ending profoundly unsatisfying)

I realized none of this mattered.

If this was ultimately a story about stopping Delilah from mantling the Outsider —- as the metaplot seemed to insist – what the fuck were we doing in Karnaca? Why did we care about Karnaca? Karnaca’s problems weren’t my problems, Emily’s problems, at least not in any clear direct way; Karnaca’s problems weren’t even bad. The bloodflies were endemic to the region instead of being a super-scary weird semi-supernatural plague; it might have been a particularly bad year for bloodflies, but it didn’t feel like anything the city couldn’t deal with. The streets were lively. There were nobles sitting in cafes playing guitar music. Shops were open and well-lit. I felt like I could go to the beach and sip mai-tais. Even the most run-down, awful section of Karnaca that we got to see – the Dust District – wasn’t much worse than anything we’d seen on a Tuesday in Dunwall.

And Karnaca wasn’t home. It didn’t feel like it mattered to Emily. Not really. It was in Emily’s empire, sure, but it was an ocean away and it wasn’t under her direct personal governance. And the Emily we met at the start of the game wasn’t interested in governing to begin with. I could never buy the sense that she cared – really, emotionally cared – about the well-being of Karnaca, because Karnaca was relatively fine, and because Emily seemed like she would rather fuck off and abdicate given half the chance. Being exiled from Gristol didn’t feel like exile – it felt like a sunny vacation, a chance for Emily to have cool swashbuckling adventures without the boredom and paperwork of sitting a throne. 

I didn’t understand what I was really doing in Karnaca, and I didn’t understand why it was so urgent and important and needed that I get home to Dunwall. I was just told that I had to get home to Dunwall because Delilah was Bad. And that she was doing some Very Bad Things on the other side of the ocean, and that if she remained unchecked things would get Worse. YOU NEED TO STOP DELILAH, I was told.

But…. gosh, that was on the other side of the ocean. That didn’t seem to affect anything here. Again, Karnaca was fine! Karnaca’s had some issues, but they were were caused firstly by the Duke, not Delilah! What bad things was Delilah really doing? Can we see them? How are they worse than anything any other nobles and rulers are doing? How would installing Emily on the throne be meaningfully different?

What would Delilah’s plan to mantle the Outsider actually mean? The finale gives us a vision of The World As It Should Be, a supremely alien lotus-eater machine where Delilah is absolute monarch; it comes so late in the game, at the absolute eleventh hour, that it doesn’t feel meaningful. It also comes totally out of left field and is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear that it could ever actually happen. Everything about Delilah’s ascension and ultimate goal is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear it could ever actually happen. I didn’t understand how it was supposed to happen. The mechanics of magic had never mattered before; why did they matter now? Why did the half-baked explanation for Delilah’s endgame rely on lore from the previous game’s second DLC? (What the fuck, Arkane?)

What was my motivation? Why were my missions important – why did Emily want and need to do these things? What would happen, actually happen, if I failed? What was keeping me from just walking away?

I’m really not sure.

Maybe, just maybe, we could ignore the weird ascension to godhood plot. Maybe my real motivation had nothing to do with Delilah – maybe Emily just wanted to get back to the home that was taken from her. Maybe this was a “take back whats yours” story. But Emily didn’t seem to really want the throne back. The Emily we met at the beginning of the game was bored with governing and wanted out of Dunwall. If we’d had more time and attention paid to that shift in her character, I’d buy it, but you can’t do a complete and instant 180 on a character’s feelings and call it motivation.

Or maybe my real motivation was to get home to Dunwall to save Corvo. But the opening sequence made it seem like Corvo was dead. That’s not a valid motivation either.

Maybe my motivation was to avenge Corvo? I don’t buy that the way I bought Corvo avenging Jessamine in Dishonored 1; in Dishonored 2, Corvo is not the focus and meaning of Emily’s life, and I can’t see her structuring her entire life around fighting back from exile just to avenge him. Emily has hopes and dreams and a distant love interest and isn’t the same hollowed-out husk of vengeance that Corvo is. Sure, he’s her father figure, but I don’t buy that as her sole motivation.

This lack of motivation trickles down to the individual missions of the game.

If I don’t really know or care about what Delilah is doing, why is it so important to stop Breanna Ashworth?

Kirin Jindosh is supposedly making an army of Clockwork Soldiers, but what does that mean? How soon would they be ready, what are the logistics, how powerful are they, how are they worse than Tallboys or other existing technology, what was he going to use them for? Why is it so important to take him out? Couldn’t we just bribe him or write him a strongly-worded letter? I’m going to be the Empress – couldn’t I make his soldiers illegal or shut down his factories? Why do I have to go to such an immediate and awful extreme?

Sure, the Duke is a dick and should probably be replaced by a better ruler. Doing so doesn’t feel important. I’ve never met the Duke. He never did anything to me. Karnaca’s in decent shape, all things considered. Killing or replacing him  feels like taking out the trash.

Where are the stakes?

Why do I care about any of this?

Tangent – I feel like I’ve got to talk about Corvo a bit here. Would Corvo have a different, stronger, more personal attachment to Karnaca? Sure, but I’ve never played Corvo’s route in Dishonored 2 and can’t speak to it. Personally, I always got the sense that Corvo felt like an outsider in Gristol and that he would have tried to distance himself from Serkonos in response to this, and that returning must have felt oddly alien, like an ill-fitting suit. Now, this is a cool thing to explore. It might make him more invested and interested in some aspects of the game – I’m thinking of the Duke and Stilton in the Dust District, specifically – but I don’t think it fixes the core issues about lack of motivation in the overarching plot.

So, let’s talk about that overarching plot. Would Corvo feel more strongly about getting back to Gristol and restoring Emily to the throne and/or bringing vengeance to her “killer”? Probably! Corvo’s arc in Dishonored 2 isn’t about toppling Delilah and seeking vengeance for his own sake, but rather for Emily’s sake (or at least the memory of Emily-who-we-think-is-dead). That’s less selfish and entitled, more emotional and tortured. That’s honestly more interesting to me. But that’s the exact same story we got in Dishonored 1. Corvo’s entire existence in Dishonored 2 feels like a rehash of Dishonored 1. The vengeance arc in Dishonored 2 feels much more muddled and unfocused and distant in comparison. It’s not as good.

I think Corvo’s story and motivation are more clear and pressing and straightforward than Emily’s; but I think Dishonored 1 did that exact same story and motivation much much better. Corvo’s story in Dishonored 2 honestly makes more sense to me than Emily’s story. Which feels utterly backwards! One protagonist has a storyline and motivation that has no real weight or drive or urgency behind it. The other protagonist has a slightly stronger storyline that is still a weaker, fuzzier retread of the first game.

I think Dishonored 2 is badly written.

I like it on the micro level – I like the characters and the levels – but on the macro, i think it’s a confused jumble that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a vengeance story? Is it a story about stopping a supernatural threat? I don’t know, and I don’t think it does either. The game doesn’t manage to mesh those ideas at all, and neither idea holds water on its own. I am utterly confused and turned off by the game’s decision to make the vengeance so un-urgent and impersonal and the villain’s magic-driven plan so distant and obtuse and ill-defined. I think that in deciding to make the scope bigger, it bit off way more than it could chew and lost sight of what matters in storytelling.

Dishonored 1 was a tightly-focused straightforward revenge plot where I understood exactly what I had lost, how much it mattered, and what was at stake. Dishonored 2 is a fucking mess.

I can’t write about which choices Corvo and Emily would have taken because their choices don’t make sense to me; because their existence and participation in this story makes no sense to me; because the story hops from point to point without establishing thematic or plot coherence; because I don’t understand – emotionally, really buy and feel and understand – why I’m meant to give a shit about any of it.

I played the game once, started a High Chaos replay, wandered away from the game after the second mission, and uninstalled. I have no interest in replaying it. I have no interest in ever picking up Death of the Outsider. The fact that the writing seems to be moving away from the vengeance quest and doubling down on its focus on the supernatural (and the fact that they’re dragging back characters – Corvo in Dishonored 2, Daud in DotO – whose arcs had finished) has honestly killed my interest in the franchise at this point. I don’t feel anything about this other than a profound sense of disappointment. 

I wanted to like Dishonored 2. The game is gorgeous and fun and an improvement on the original in many ways. I wanted to answer your question, anon. I truly wish I could, and I’m sorry for how salty this post has become. I’m sure someone else would have fantastic headcanons and insight.

But I just. don’t. care.

[the-badger-mole]

It’s not just about shipping

Since they’ve just announced the first ever (ever) live action adaptation of ATLA, I thought I’d....well, share some thoughts (as if anyone cares, I can hear you sighing). Mostly what I’m seeing is people hoping that Zutara gets to be canon...because hope springs eternal (also, I know not everyone is hoping this, but I’m comfortable in my bubble. Leave me alone). 

I have no such hope. Bryke, from what I understand, is still at the helm, and they’ve made their feelings about Zutara (and it’s shippers) perfectly clear. I expect nothing from them on that front, so I will not be disappointed. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have some things I’d like to see in the LA reboot, though. The biggest thing is Aang. 

I have issues with Aang, and despite what people will probably think, it’s not entirely wrapped up in my shipping feels. That actually has relatively little to do with my feelings about him. For the most part, I liked Aang. He was well acted and (at least in the first two seasons) well written for the most part. My issues with him largely come from how the story treats him. So, here’s a list of the top 3 things I want to see addressed in this new series (that I haven’t yet decided if I’m even going to watch).

1. Kataang: Yeah, yeah, I know I said that shipping had very little to do with my feelings towards Aang, and that’s still true. Still, his relationship with Katara is a major focal point for his character, and Bryke royally screwed this up. Aang is a child with his first crush. He made a lot of mistakes (i.e. kiss one and kiss two). I would personally prefer if those were not put into the new series at all, but if they absolutely must, I want there to be consequences for him violating Katara’s space like that. Especially after she told him she was confused. I don’t care who you are or what you ship, if you thought him doing that was okay, I cannot rock with you. It was out of line and it should have been treated that way. (Sidenote: I also want more attention paid to Katara’s developing feelings for him. None of this ‘well, the Fortune Teller said...’ or ‘Katara got jealous that one time when he was paying attention to another girl...” nonsense. That’s shallow development at best, and passionate, strong willed Katara deserved better, darnit!!!!) Also, not for nothing, could if the live action series could age Aang up, that would be great. I’m dead serious when I say that the maturity gulf between a 12 year old boy and a 14/15 year old girl is galactic and it will be even more uncomfortable to watch in a live action series.

2. More Consequences for Aang in General TBQH: One thing I loved about the original series was that it had weight. The heroes had to make sacrifices. Katara and Sokka left their home and risked their lives to make sure Aang was able to learn bending. Iroh gave up his birthright and home. Zuko also gave up those things, plus his ultimate wish to win his father’s love and respect. Toph gave up her parents (whom she clearly loved, despite everything). Aang gave up nothing. And don’t come at me with his people being wiped out. That wasn’t a sacrifice- that was a loss. Aang didn’t have to give up anything in order to save the world, not even Katara- a sacrifice which was set up in season 2. It’s a bad thing from a narrative standpoint because it means Aang- who is the hero of the series- had the shallowest arc and changed the least. He didn’t have that moment where he hit his lowest point and had to bounce back- he just had a tantrum and found two dei ex machina for his troubles. You know who actually did hit his lowest point and had to bounce back? ( You know who did). That’s a hero’s journey, and Aang’s was going so well until TPTB thought it would be a better idea to give him a series of ‘Makes It Easy’ moments. Speaking of which....

3. Better Development of Aang’s Sense of Morality:  Aang has killed in the series. Or at least, he’s been involved in killing in the series. Don’t believe me? How many of those Fire Nation soldiers do you think got out of the frigid waters of the Northern ocean? How many do you think were able to get out of the boats Aang sank? I know he was channeling the spirit of La at the time, but for someone with Aang’s aversion to killing, it should have made an impact. And what about the time he was totally about to Avatar State the sandbenders who stole Appa into oblivion? Why was there no guilt in any of those instances, but killing Ozai would have been a bridge too far? I’m not saying that Aang should  have killed him. Some of my favorite superheros try really hard not to kill their villains if there’s another option (Captain America, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman... basically all the DC heroes). I can respect that in Aang. What I cannot respect is the narrative choice to not even address the issue until the eleventh hour. They spent 3 seasons (and I’m assuming at least a year in universe) training Aang in all the elements so he could take down Ozai, and you want me to believe no one even thought to mention the possibility that Aang would have to kill him until, what, the second to last episode? It could have come up after the Northern Tribe fight, or the sandbender incident. It could have come up on the Day of Black Sun. How did it not come up then???? Bringing it in out of nowhere the way the story did made Aang look selfish and short-sighted, and it made him finding the Lionturtle-which could have been a powerful culminating moment-look like a massive cop out. Which was then followed up by another massive cop out when it was a random rock that allowed Aang to access the Avatar State rather than make him give up Katara.

In conclusion my issues with Aang (and subsequently, Kataang) were largely due to narrative missteps. Despite the fact I ship Zutara, and will always ship Zutara, I know better than to pin my hopes on it happening in the new series. But I do hope that Bryke look over their work in the original series and make these pretty small, but crucial tweaks to Aang’s character and make it a bit more palatable when he gets everything he wants (because the Ted Mosbys of fiction always get what they want).

[outstretchedpalms]

1, 3, 4, 8, 11, 24, and 35 for the TAZ Asks?

1) What/Who got you into TAZ?There were two main factors. A couple of years ago my dog needed major surgery, and as part of her rehabilitation she needed to go on multiple walks per day. I got bored listening to music and ran out of my usual podcasts to listen to (and I can’t walk without listening to something) so I asked my writing group for recommendations for things to listen to. TAZ was one of the recs, and around the same time I noticed that a lot of my mutuals on my other blog were into it, so I figured I’d give it a go. Oh boy am I glad I did.

3) What’s your favorite arc?I kind of separate it into “endgame arcs” and “arcs where you have no fucking idea what’s going on”. Of the latter, Eleventh Hour is probably my favourite, but The Stolen Century & Story and Song are probably my favourites of all of them.

4) Favorite quote?Hhhh there are so many good ones. In terms of emotional impact, “Who?” is the biggest one. In terms of usability, “Abra-ca-fuck-you” is solid. But the first quote that really really got me was in the end of Murder on the Rockport Limited when Clint was asking Griffin how he kept everything in order, and he said “I got a murder wall in my brain”. As a writer I very much resonated with that.

8) What moment/reveal shocked you the most?I think it was probably Magnus being a red robe. Or Lup being in the Umbrastaff, which in hindsight I’m annoyed I didn’t get because I have a super similar thing happen in one of my WIPs (MC’s demon ally gets sucked into a knife and from there can still kind of protect her).

11) What are some of the parts that made you the most emotional (whether it be crying, laughing, etc.)?Crying: Arms Outstretched, How Does Magnus Die?, Are You My Friend? Who?, This Is What I Really Look Like, You Will Always Be My Merle.Laughing: Taako trading for the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom (literally laughed so hard I almost crashed my car lmao).

24) If given the option, would you have joined the Bureau of Balance? Would you have been a seeker, regulator, reclaimer, or something else?I like to think I would, but I’m kind of a wimp and I’m not very good at anything. Also I don’t like the thought of not being allowed to have a dog. But I guess I probably would’ve been someone behind the scenes, like a cleaner or other maintenance type person at the base.

35) Who? I can’t forget, I’m, I’m, begging you-

Balance asks.

[luobingmeis]

hey bitch dare u to answer all the questions from ur ask game xoxo

ur a coward if you think this is a dare, my narcissistic ass loves any opportunity i get to talk abt myself and my inability to love things to a normal amount means i can talk abt taz for hours!!!! get on my level, bitch!!!!!!!!

1) What/Who got you into TAZ?

my friends chris and mj @cabesmeadow !! i saw it a lot on tumblr and asked mj abt it and they were like “yeah it’s super fucking rad” and then my friend chris started listening to it over the summer so, mid-november, on a night that i had actually finished my homework early, i was like, “hey, fuck it, why not”

2) Who are you top 5 favorite characters?

(my top 5 list is not in any particular order)

taako

killian

lucretia

lup

davenport

3) What’s your favorite arc?

the eleventh hour!!!! it’s such a good fucking arc and had so many good moments oh my god

4) Favorite quote?

i have so, so, so many but my laptop is on low battery so i can’t list them all, so i’ll list the one i would most likely get tattooed:

“looking for new worlds to explore; looking for new stories to tell”

5) Favorite villain?

a tie between magic brian and edward & lydia!! i love brian so much and thought he was so funny and such a good first villain, but i also love my evil lich vogue twins

6) What was your favorite grand relic? Would you have been tempted by it?

my favorite is probably the animus bell, tho it wasn’t my fave until my most recent relistening. and oh yeah, something that would make me, essentially, immortal? i would’ve been super tempted

7) If you had to make a grand relic, what would it be? What power would it have?

i probably would have made something w/ jewerly, maybe a ring or earrings? or idk yet, i can’t think of anything cool, but ngl i think it would def having something similar to the animus bell. not That exactly, but something necrotic that, like, probably takes life energy to heal whoever is wielding it or takes life energy to feed their own

8) What moment/reveal shocked you the most?

UHHHHH “THE WORDLESS ONE” REVEAL HOLY FUCKING SHIT

9) Which “seven bird” would you have been? Or what would your role have been on the Starblaster?

ngl i think i would’ve been along the lines of “the lonely journal keeper” like!!! alligning with her role as the chronicler, i feel like that’s what i would have applied for

10) Would you have been able to make it through Wonderland?

oh definitely not. im ngl a bit… not selfish, but territorial of my things, idk what i would’ve been able to give up for the wheel, and i def wouldn’t have given up years of my life, and going for my looks would be a Hard Bargain and, even if i was in a world where i had magic, i don’t think i would’ve been strong enough to survive the challenges

11) What are some of the parts that made you the most emotional (whether it be crying, laughing, etc.)?

uhhh the magnulia cottage scene definitely, makes me sob every single time i hear it and, during my first time listening, that was what broke the damn and ended up having me cry for 30 solid minutes

12) Which track composed by Griffin was your favorite?

“madame director/lucretia/lucretia (reprise)” !!!!!

13) Which track not composed by Griffin was your favorite?

“salut d’amour” elgar!!!!!!!

14) Lucas’s Magical Institute or Taako’s Amazing School of Magic?

answered!!

15) What was your favorite cycle in Stolen Century?

not including the beach cycle bc i feel like that’s an obvi one, probably either the judges cycle or the conservatory

16) What were some of your favorite inventory items of tres horny boys?

the extreme teen bible, stephen the fish, chance lance, the umbrastaff, and the hole thrower!!

17) What animal would have been your “disguise” in Petals to the Metal?

answered!!!!

18) Are you more of a “Magnus rushes in,” “Merle follows along behind,” or “Taako’s good out here” type of person?

i think i’m a combination of “magnus rushes in” and “merle follows along behind” but tbh i Should be more “taako’s good out here”

19) Favorite Taako one-liner? Or favorites?

obviously “abraca-fuck you!”

“hey sheriff isaac, guess what time it is!” “what?” “fuck if i know!”

20) If you listen to the liveshows, do you have a favorite? Is there a particular liveshow you would love to see the McElroys do?

my favorite is a tie between san fran and new orleans!!!! and i would love to see them do something with carey and killian, like their bachelorette party or even a hangover-style live show where they lose one of the brides the day before the wedding akjskdk

21) In Wonderland, would you have been hesitant to “forsake” your opponents, or would you have done what you had to to get out?

okay ngl not to sound Terrible but if i was going up against strangers,,,,,, yeah i’d do what i had to do. it’s called the fucking suffering game not the fucking best friend game omfg

would i be able to betray my friends/companions tho??? i don’t think so, nope

22) Of the puzzles throughout the arcs, which one was your favorite?

answered!!!!

23) Would you have liked to see the dark timeline where Magnus took the chalice, or Magnus’s sidequest with Kravitz? Or are you happy with what actually ended up happening?

i love everything that happened in canon but i can admit that a magnus/kravitz sidequest would’ve been fucking sick

24) If given the option, would you have joined the Bureau of Balance? Would you have been a seeker, regulator, reclaimer, or something else?

tbh i think i would if i had to and i think i would have been a seeker

25) What magical item would you have made at the Arcaneum (from the Stolen Century)?

a cool sword!!!!! but, like, a magic sword

26) What is something, material or not, that you wouldn’t have been able to sacrifice in Wonderland?

i wouldn’t have given years off my life. i wouldn’t even have considered it

27) What would you have presented at the Conservatory?

i probably would have written something!!!!!

28) In Story and Song, many beloved NPCs made a return to take a final stand against the Hunger. Which one excited you the most?

HURLEY AND SLOANE!!!!

29) What was your reaction when Magnus was revealed to be a red robe, and then to the memories that followed?

i was so fucking confused but, like, in a good way, and so fucking shocked oh my god

30) What was your reaction when you found out who Lup was, and then to what happened to her?

answered!!!!

31) What was your reaction to Merle losing touch with Pan, and then to Pan’s return when the Planes were reconnected?

ngl it was pretty hard hitting and not for, like, any spiritual reason or anything, but just bc merle literally had Nothing at that point and i felt so bad for him and was so nervous but also “i’m not your pan, but you’ll always be my merle” is probably, without a doubt, one of my favorite taz quotes

32) Who are some characters that you would have liked to see interact more?

LUP AND LUCRETIA!!!!! @ GRIFFIN: LET THEM INTERACT MORE I DON’T GIVE A SHIT IF IT’S JUST AN HOUR OF YOU TALKING TO YOURSELF

33) Flaming Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom or the Umbrastaff?

the umbrastaff!!!!

34) Something you learned from Balance?

that very rarely are there ever easy decisions, and that you have to give yourself time to love and love without boundaries because, even with the years and years people have, so much time can be spent not loving the people you have

also it taught me the type of writer i want to be, and honestly taz has inspired me so much to keep pursuing writing, even when i feel like finally giving in

35) Who?

i̶͎͈̞͆̄̾̄̕'̷̛̮̄̒̓͘m̵͍̖̜͂̔͛͘͝ ̶̡̦͙͍͋̑̂̅͠d̵̟̖̭̳̄͌́a̵̻̎̍͂̃̍v̸̲͇̮͊̽͒̚͝ḛ̵̳͔͗̊n̷̻̳͓͎̠͐p̷̰̘̘̭̗̈́̒ơ̵̪r̸͔̝̈̇͘͠t̸̫̠̯͗ ̴̨̛̖͕̟̦̀̏̂̚ḯ̸̜'̶̨̨̖̮̃̃̈́̿m̸͖̰̙̉̏̔̄́ ̵̺̊̓̃̽̓d̸̝̣̈͊a̶̩̪̖̝̽̚ṿ̴̝̙̣͈̐̊e̷̢̛̦̫̓̇͋n̸̨̖̽͐͊͗p̴̡̥͖̞̈́ͅö̵̭̼̘́͋̿ṟ̶͎͍͙͇͑̇̈̉͝t̸̢͕͓͓̠̆͊ ̷̛̟͕̂̌͛ĩ̶̤̺͕'̸̹͓͙̥̺̀ṃ̵̢̻͇̓̈́̚ͅ ̴̜͙͉̯͌̋̐͝d̴͈̜̐̀͘͝a̷̗̹̪͈̿v̴͔͓͑̕͠ȇ̸̞̲̇͛̕ǹ̶̬͉̼̫͂͌p̸͕͐o̵̮͝ŗ̸̘͝ṱ̷̤̫̀̓̉͂̑ ̵̝̞̩̆̍i̶͖̗͔̥̬͐͌̚͝'̸͍̍̋͜m̵̦̼͂͒ ̴̯̈̽͌̕d̶̮̾̀́ǎ̵̢̹̋͊̉̈v̶̨̟̼͓̅ͅḙ̴̟̼̒n̴̝̬͂̍͊͂̀p̶͔̗͂ơ̸̲̰̬̎̀͛̌r̷̬̞̱̍́́̉t̸͙̏͗̎̓̕ ̵̣̅ḭ̶̱̮͓̈͛̑͑'̸̫̞̣̬̊m̵̢̥̀ͅ

[ryuspike]

Thoughts on She-ra

Just finished watching She-ra and the Princesses of Power today.  My overall feelings are positive.  I might consider doing a full blown review one day, but I have too much on my plate to do that.  So a list of pros, cons, and thoughts will have to do.  A clarification does need to be made before I write down the list:

I am pro-lgbt and believe in equality between men and women of all races.   That said, I will have opinions that may challenge your viewpoints and that is okay.  Great even.  Having different opinions does not make anybody enemies.  It is the refusal that there are opinions besides your own that animosity is born.  Now, onto the list.

Pro

The main cast of characters are likable and each have their character arcs (will get into those later). Design-wise, their outfits look great and I can imagine plenty of great cosplay to come from it.

Writing is not perfect, but is not awful overall.  There are no giant gaps of logic that make you go, “That doesn’t make sense.”

Main heroine, Adora, is a great character as she displays both weakness and strength that make sense of her character. There is still plenty to learn about her past as future seasons will likely dive into.

Bow is just a great support male lead.  He is written to be somebody who is in touch of his emotional side, and also show competency when the need rises.

Glimmer was somebody I thought I would find annoying because she was sort of a brat.  As the show went on, she slowly became one of my favorites as she eventually learns to be more mature.

The villains are great.  Not only are they as evil as I would hope the villains should be, but they also have a lot of depth to them.  Shadow Weaver is a great antagonist as she demonstrates an emotional obsession that is both dangerous to the heroes and the Horde.  Hordak is also really great despite his lack of screen time. But the best villain has to be...

Catra.  Catra is the best character hands down.  She goes through a character arc that absolutely steals the show for me.  Her design is great, her personality is perfect, and her relationship with Adora is filled with so much nuisance and depth that short summery isn’t enough to describe it.  If there is one character to love, it has to be Catra.

Con

The animation, I feel, could use with some improving, Certain action scenes have less impact to them as several characters and objects don’t have as fluid a flow to them as they are meant to.  I suspect budget or time restraints to be the cause of this, and any improvement will have to wait until the second season.

While the main characters are written well, the side characters (the princesses for example) are mostly bland or one note.  They aren’t bad, but they mostly depend on personality quirks rather than something more complicated. Entrapta and Scorpia started off seemingly to follow this path, but later episodes actually gave them more depth.  The Dragon Prince also suffered from having too many quirky characters being quirky during serious scenes.  The balance of levity is hard to master as most creators try to please a large range of viewers without alienating any of them.  Success is mixed, but later seasons always help that balance.

Glimmer’s mother, Queen Angella, is not a bad character, but she falls into an archetype that is sadly very predictable. The overprotective mother that wants to keep her daughter out of danger. While I sympathized with her more than Glimmer at first, her shtick kinda got old as she acted more motherly than queenly.  Makes me glad that she and Glimmer upgraded their relationship as I hope a season 2 will allow her to “spread her wings” as far as characterization goes.

Princess Frosta’s eleventh hour moment felt... unearned.  I feel like there should have been a scene of her talking with somebody that convinces her to aid the heroes and rejoin the alliance.  Last time we saw her, she was telling off Adora for being a rude guest and cementing her neutrality within the war.  After all that, why does she join them?  It is a plot hole that needs to be addressed.

This is something I imagine would tick off some people as it is about the canon lesbian couple, Netossa and Spinnerella.  Not because they are a same-sex couple.  No, that is great.  What isn’t great is that they are given the worst screen time out of all the princesses.  They don’t even get any lines or characterization other than “And then there is those two.” until the final episode of the season with powers that would have great to have around during the Best Friend Squad’s previous adventures.  Even their relationship wasn’t made clear until their proper introduction.  I think they might’ve been mentioned during the Prom episode, but by that point, they were mostly forgotten already.  Season 2 will need to do better to include them more often so it doesn’t feel like they are just background characters.

Related Thoughts

It is a pain but it would be ignorant to not point out the controversy that bloated to the point where it’ll make an inflation fetishist blush. So, yes, most of the female characters in this cartoon are super flat.  For the many teen characters, this isn’t a big deal, but it becomes odd when all the adult women are depicted in the same way.  Especially the motherly Queen Angella who people would expect to have breasts after childbirth and rearing. The fact that everybody is flat is not a problem for me.  If it was, this would be in the Con section.  No, the reason I am even mentioning this potential ball of toxic drama is because there are a few female characters in the show that do have breasts and they are not depicted in a sexual light.  If the fear of sexualization was behind the decision to make every female character flat, then why are these characters exempt from the rule?  Was it something that was looked over during character modelling process, or is it something that the show runners intentionally done?  That is something to think about if you are trying to form an argument for either side.

There are people that feel like breasts are a sexual taboo and that giving breasts to girls under the age of 18 is an act of sexualizing minors.  Others say that the removal of breasts is a form of body shaming towards those who were naturally endowed.  Everybody has their reasons and chooses a side.  Both seeking to set up a victim they swear to protect, but is more like an excuse to get their teeth and nails soaked in blood.  It is just sad to think that it should happen over a cartoon that is suppose to introduce a younger generation to a show that my generation loved.

There were a lot of references towards She-ra’s connection to He-man in this show.  It is actually an overarching plot point really.  Eternia and Grayskull are name dropped, and I am getting a good feeling that the “First Ones” are them.  Now what this could mean about this show’s version of He-man and the Masters of the Universe is hard to tell.  They could have Eternia be from a different dimension or from another planet.  Maybe Eternia is destroyed by this point?  It is all a mystery.  All I can imagine is that Adora’s family (Prince Adam and his parents) will become important within season 2 or 3.  The circumstances behind why Shadow Weaver is so obsessed with keeping Adora so close to her should also be revealed then as well.

There is a Kowl plushie and it is pretty cute.  They should introduce Kowl next season and make him as cute and lovable as 2011 Thundercats’ Snarf.  Even that new Thundercats reboot, which people hate with a burning passion, based their Snarf off that one.  Cute sells.  It sells more than sex.  This is the absolute truth.

Phew!  This was more than I intended but I feel like I got my points across.  Despite those cons you see, I feel like Netflix’s She-ra did a good job for its first season.  As somebody not blinded by hate or rainbow-tinted lens, I feel like this is good enough to introduce my niece to. I can only hope that Catra will be her favorite.  It will fill me with pride if she can recognize who the best character is.

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 1X10 - 7:15 AM

Unfortunately, I’ve no jokes popping out at me for my opening this time, but a little birdie told me you should head below the cut.

(Got that one in at the literal eleventh hour! I work for my lovely readers ;) )

Press Release Mary Margaret and David continue to grapple with their unrequited love, and Emma and Regina grow suspicious over a mysterious new stranger in town. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Snow White yearns to ease her breaking heart as Prince Charming’s wedding to King Midas’s daughter approaches. General Thoughts Past During my review of “Snow Falls,” I commented on the fact that as that would be the only time we’d get any substantively meaty Snow and Charming scenes for quite some time and that every other episode’s flashback would depend on how well that episode handled them, I wasn’t joking and this is the first episode where you feel the effects of it. (For more on that, head on down to “Flip My Ship”). It’s weird, I never saw the nuance in King George, but damnit, he is right. True Love being worth fighting for regardless of the obstacles is one of the central themes of OUaT, and I think for the most part, the show does a good job of showing that. However, we sometimes forget that that pursuit is not without its consequences (Depriving others of the prosperity and peace that David and Abigail’s marriage would bring to their kingdoms), and here, George lays that out in no uncertain terms. Is he most likely acting more in the interest of himself and his kingdom more than anything? Yes, but the validity of what he’s saying still remains. His plans and reasoning are well thought out and admirably complex. I feel guilty. In the past, I just saw him as this one note villain, but holy hell: a few years can really do a lot to change one. I wish we saw more of him, only to see more of this viewpoint. Snow and Charming definitely do end up winning the day, but the idea of sacrifices and bloodshed are for the most part all but abandoned after this episode. The fact that David, immediately after hearing what George has to say, writes a letter to Snow discussing how he’s willing to abandon everything else without a second thought for her almost makes him unlikable in the face of that. The only thing that save his is that damnit, Charming lives up to his nickname!

Snow’s aspect of the story is interesting too. We see these two sides of her battling. The first side, of course, is her love for Charming, and that’s strengthened both by the letter she receives and the fear she has of losing him to his arranged marriage. However, what’s really clever is that the fear she had back in “Snow Falls” didn’t go away, and Rumple, Grumpy, and George help to reinforce her own doubts by giving the pursuit of love an actual cost - one’s heart, freedom, and potentially not theirs, but their beloved’s life. It’s a very clever use of characters. Actually, after a day or two, I realized that Snow’s arc was even stronger than I gave it credit for. In this episode, despite having her reservations about love, she does overcome them despite what I pointed out, and it’s only the fear of Charming dying that makes her back off. The ultimate resolution is so much like the character herself: Tragic, but not without that bit of hope always by her side (In this case, her new friendships and the breaking of David’s marriage). Present So I basically had no strong thoughts on this episode (Apart from dread at a certain aspect, but I’ll discuss that shortly) until we see Mary Margaret nearly fall down the cliff. 

Then it hit me: The David and Mary Margaret storyline is this episode is the most fanfic-y, romance novel-y material I have ever seen (And that’s not a bash against it at all). Like, you get that mutual pining, David saves Mary Margaret after some tension, they’re stuck in a cabin together, they both love animals. Entire weeks’ worth of soaps don’t have half as many romance tropes as this storyline does! That said, the more I see of David Nolan pre-broken curse, the more I dislike him. He simply refuses to own the choice he makes and with these small windows of time the show is giving us, it’s either unrealistic or horrible of him to jump from one woman to the other. And yeah, at this point in the series, Abigail wasn’t too kind, but David didn’t know that, in hindsight, she hasn’t done anything more than be annoying, and everything we’ve seen of Kathryn has been delightful, patient, and kind thus far. I really feel like there needed to be more of a time discrepancy or evidence of some real trying on David’s part before suddenly doing whatever he could to see Mary Margaret. It makes David’s speech after releasing the bird so eye rolling to listen to (Though Josh’s puppy dog eyes and loving gaze make me really wish there was more to it) because while he claims that he has feelings for Kathryn, the most we’ve seen of it is a shaky scene together outside the Nolan house and a kiss that is now spoiled with the knowledge that it came right after David made a move to go see his crush. As for the August and Emma storyline, well, for one thing, they have a fantastic rapport. August’s ability to dodge questions like a skilled Mario Kart player dodges banana peels faced off against Emma’s focused and pointed questions is the greatest battle of wits. It positively glued my eyes to the screen, and the fact that I can say that despite knowing exactly what happens is so cool! Insights I love that opening shot! For one thing, it grants a special level of ambiguity as to what realm we’re in for those slow first couple of seconds. For another, they get Henry walking towards August through his reflection in the motorcycle! The cinematography of this show is so under-celebrated, and my ful props to them! Also, completely-unintentional-and-thus-hindsight-ily-badass foreshadowing of Henry riding a motorbike in the future! So I’m aware I’m 100% wrong about this wacky theory, but follow me on this. The episode is called “7:15am” and the most famous time on the show is 8:15. Is this, alongside a significant time for David and MM, an allusion to the fact that they’re figuratively one step behind the curse? I started blushing out of secondhand embarrassment when Mary Margaret revealed how much she knew about David’s schedule. “Love is the worst. I wish there was a magic cure.” It’s called booze! Wow! This is the first time I’ve seen Snow and Red have a scene together in a while! I missed their friendship! I find it so interesting how stories of The Dark One are kept under such wraps. In the “Desperate Souls,” the Dark One’s existence is borderline common knowledge because of how the Duke yielded him. However, Rumple - possibly due to fear or just a desire to be left alone - took the opposite approach and kept his reputation so quiet over the centuries, so much so that his mere existence is now questioned. Given his rather large...estate, what do you think he had to do to make that happen? Yay!!! We get to see Snow’s cloak again!!! Also, I don’t care if it’s just a set - the design for the scene between Rumple and Snow is creepy and beautiful! I love the atmosphere! It’s simple and shady! Rumple’s going on about all this anti-love stuff and I’m like, “Let’s talk in a year, bro.” Seeing Charming send out that bird makes me wish for a scene where the two of them spoke of Snow’s uncanny ability. ...Also, nice transition! XD I actually forgot that Grumpy gave the basics of his origin story before his episode came out. “Give us our best shot.” I can’t help but feel like that was so intentionally slightly off the mark from “our best chance,” showing that something’s not quite right. I love how as MM is getting her coffee at the end of the episode you can just HEAR the “fuck” as she hears the bell. Arcs David and Mary Margaret finding each other - One thing that I can say is that we get development here. Look, I’m not a fan of cheating plots, but it is interesting to see Mary Margaret and David struggle to find a happy middle ground in an emotionally complicated situation. That said, the lack of time and real commitment to being with Kathryn makes me question why they’d even bother having the cheating subplot. Snow and Charming finding each other - This episode builds right off of both the conclusion of “Snow Falls” and the insight of “The Shepherd.” Additionally, I like that Snow and Charming aren’t stuck in the “Do I have feelings for this person” phase of their romance for long because it allows for the rest of the arc to take off well from here. The Mystery of August Booth - We get a brief introduction of this arc here, and it wastes no time connecting to the main players: Emma and Henry. There’s also a cool subversion where we get an immediate insight into something that would otherwise be a several episode mystery in another series. However, both the man and mystery are still prominent and we as an audience know there’s still leagues to explore with him. Favorite Dynamic Snow and Grumpy. While their friendship is given very little time to build, not a second of it is wasted. Even as I know how Grumpy’s story ends up, those first niblets we get here make do a really good job painting his emotional dilemma and making a connection to Snow’s quest. Snow - in turn - gets to build off of Grumpy’s negativity by showing both optimism that opposes him cynicism and kindness when Grumpy and Sneaky leave the jail cell despite them intending on leaving her there. That wish for happiness is so sincere that it could melt steel. And the reciprocation that blossoms as the flashback progresses is just wonderful. Writer Had to do a bit of research (And by research, I mean a Wikipedia article, full disclosure) for this one because while the story (The basic actions and plot points) was written by A&E, the teleplay (The dialogue and smaller actions) was written by Daniel Thomsen. Thankfully, in regards to breaking this down, this information does me quite a few favors. Last time, I wasn’t able to do more than theorize what each writer contributed to the scripts, but right now, I can do a bit more to discuss the finer points. First, let’s tackle A&E’s role. I genuinely feel for the basic layout of this story. Regarding the past, I have no complaints. The broad strokes of emotional buildup work and the conclusion feels completely earned. My thoughts on the present prove to be more challenging. I don’t like that it ends as a cheating story, per se, but if that was to be the story, the basic layout of it does work. There’s a proper building of stakes and the big picture character beats hit home. However, execution is where I have my problems, so let’s tackle Daniel Thomsen. Again, I really have no problems with the execution of the flashbacks, save for oddly amazing piece of development for the villain and his motivation that is just kind of brushed aside. But that’s just a matter of doing too good a job. My issue is really with the present events, or just the things that aren’t on the page that really should be. It’s hard for me to feel sorry for David for walking out on Mary Margaret when there’s hardly an implication that he’s giving himself and Kathryn a fighting chance. I know I’m supposed to be feeling how he’s caught in between these two sets of memories and the kiss at the end does retain its weight, but so often during this episode, I just wished that he would make a choice and stick to it. What makes this all the more aggravating would be if there was just one or two more lines about making an effort there. And for a while, Thomsen was showing that through David and Kathryn’s interactions and the way he talked about her and things were feeling more like a real push-pull for him, but it was ruined the moment David said that he had been planning his coffee trips to coincide with Mary Margaret. At that line, my faith was shattered and it harmed my perception of the character. Rating 8/10. This was an entertaining episode to watch. Snow’s journey in the flashback was such an exciting story to witness, especially when it comes to seeing her interact with all of these characters for the first time. This is Ginny’s episode to shine in both realms and the show makes sure that you know it through the array of emotions she pulls off throughout the runtime. So much of Snow and Mary Margaret’s character is expanded upon through all of this. The present stuff is pretty flawed for reasons I explained above, but damnit, this show knows how to sell fairytale magic and fate and some impressive forest locations, music, shots, and animal habits really sell the scope of the small story. Flip My Ship Snowing - I love that lingering effect that’s clearly been had on Snow. Love nestled itself into her like coins in a couch sofa. But at the same time, there’s still that cynicism from the last episode and while love is pushing it out, the tragedy of their circumstances still keeps it there. And the cute look as she’s watching Charming go off to pack - both times! That is a woman in love! And then the sorrow when she has to end things with Charming is so hard because every gleam of her eyes just screams that this is the last thing in the world that she wants to do! AND as she’s walking away, she looks like she’s gonna collapse from utter sadness! DAMNIT, GEORGE! Swan Queen - Emma’s so flirty in that scene by the car and it’s just adorable against Regina’s no-nonsense business attitude! Captain Swan - “Not a day goes by that I’ve not thought of you.” Oh, that line brings back retroactive parallel memories! :D

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Thank you for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales for putting this rewatch together! See you all next time and...be careful of the fruits you eat. They maaaaay be from a poisonous tree. ...If you can’t tell, I love a good stinger.

Season Tally (81/220) Writer Tally for Season 1: A&E (31/70) Liz Tigelaar (17/20)* David Goodman (16/50) Jane Espenson (16/60) Andrew Chambliss (8/40) Ian Goldberg (8/40) Daniel Thomsen (8/10)* (* = Their work for the season is complete)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[owlaholic68]

A retrospective

It’s been about eight months since I wrote the first multi-chapter fic that I ever finished: If at first you don’t succeed..., and I thought it might be fun to look back on my writing process, how I’ve learned, and maybe a little bit of behind-the-scenes inspiration.

In general

my original inspiration for this came from a lot of places. I was starting to write more stuff with Carla, developing her character in the wake of having finished my very first Fo2 playthrough. Also, I had just listened to The Adventure Zone podcast, in particular the story arcs “The Eleventh Hour” and “The Stolen Century”, which both feature some sort of time travel/rewind. The Eleventh Hour has the same hour repeating over and over, with only the PCs knowing. The Stolen Century is about the characters travelling to different worlds, but only being able to stay for a year, and then they have to leave, and their bodies reset, even if they’ve died. That’s where the whole year idea came from. 

This was supposed to be a side story to my other multi-chapter going on at the same time, but ended up stealing the show instead! 

Chapter-by-chapter rundown

Chapter One: 

A little shorter than I would probably do today. I would have probably fleshed out the first death more. But since we saw Frank Horrigan again, and there were going to be many more deaths, it’s not something I’m particularly concerned about.

I don’t know if I explained it well here, but the reason that the Enclave didn’t find Arroyo as fast was because, like Fo1, Carla’s presence and work in the wasteland drew attention to the village. Since she didn’t leave the village this cycle, I had them come a little later.

Chapter Two:

Carla really cannot use grenades. She has about a 10% throwing skill, at most.

In the canon timeline, you do actually run into Frank Horrigan in the middle of the desert on August 30th I think.

Radscorpions sounds like a violent death. It was sort of sadistically fun after a while to come up with new side deaths for her.

A lot of characters this chapter! Sulik, Lynette, Lenny! Oh yes, and the car. Not having the car for the first cycles really hampered her progress, because travel took so long without it. 

This is where I started keeping a log of cycle numbers, because I had to do a lot of digging and math to get the pacing right. 

Chapter Three:

Hakunin is a character that I think is much more important to Carla than how I usually write him. Also, I definitely took away Hakunin’s visions in this fic, because I didn’t exactly know how they would fit in thematically. 

Don’t worry, the Toxic Caves will not collapse in-game, but it was a fun idea anyways. A real nail in the coffin of Carla using grenades.

Oh yeah, and you only need ONE tool and ONE wrench for the super repair kit, I only realized when I was going through my second playthrough doing this quest. Speaking of me playing it, too, I play the European French version, so I actually don’t have kids, so I have to hike down to Redding to get a wrench. 

Lenny actually only needs I think an Approved reputation in Gecko, but getting both him and the car together felt right. Lenny is a funny character to me because I actually didn’t travel with him in-game too much. I realized as I was writing that Marcus wasn’t in it yet, and I traveled with Marcus probably 70% of my playthrough.

Chapter Four:

 Lots of main quest getting on track here with Navarro! I do like that I had us meet Matthew while it was Carla’s third time talking to him, to really see how she acts when she knows exactly what’s going on. 

I wanted this Carla to not end up like canon Carla, and here’s one big difference right away, which is that she doesn’t have to sneak into Navarro. 

Oh yeah, you absolutely cannot blow up Navarro. Sorry. It was a good plot idea, though, foreshadowing the end of the story. I had them retaliate by killing everyone, leaving nobody for her to save. This one definitely got a little darker at the end, and I don’t think Carla ever really got over the fact that she just killed two of her friends in cold blood.

Chapter Five: 

It is actually talked about in canon that the Highwayman does have an unstable motor, and that’s why you have to park it on the edges of towns and settlements. 

Oh my goodness it took her forty-five cycles to get to New Reno! I do actually like the way I paced it, because it doesn’t end up dragging out too much in the middle, which is what I was worried about when I was writing. I actually didn’t plan out too much in advance, but I always kept an eye on the final number, since I wanted it to round up to 100. I had a vague idea of big milestones, like getting to the Rig for the frist time, things like that. 

I feel like her skills have continued to grow even from cycle to cycle, and that’s why she has good Barter and Speech skills. I think her physical combat ones would still need honing to get back up to where she was, but her mental ones would probably continue to grow. 

Death by centaurs. I was starting to run out of monsters to kill her.

Finally, Marcus! I tried to incorporate the idea of looking up quests ahead of time, so for example making sure you have power armor when you get to Broken Hills. 

Oh shit angst time, I do like this scene, and I feel like I was really getting to start getting a better handle on the pacing. 

Chapter Six: 

I can’t believe it took this long to get Goris here too! 

This is one of my favorite sets of cycles, because there are so many ways to get the fuel. What I like that I did is that this Carla failed at the things that canon Carla did, namely killing the AHS-9 and saving Badger’s girlfriend. But this Carla had high enough Charisma and Karma to just get it from the Shi. 

It’s been a while since I’ve had a companion die, and I wanted to illustrate the feeling I get when I play and they die, and I just have to restart, because what is the point in going on without them? It was supposed to parallel Carla’s death a few chapters ago when she first met Len. 

Chapter Seven:

one of my favorite deaths, the electrocution. I do like the way I wrote it, it’s also one of my longer scenes. 

I wish I would have spent more time describing the Oil Rig itself, since I kind of skimmed over the description. 

Oh, I’m so bad at these kinds of puzzles. I did literally just hit every button and keep myself going with Stimpacks. I promised myself I wouldn’t look up a walkthrough my first time playing, and I stuck to that. When I got to the end, I’d lost 60 HP, and that was after resting in both of the side rooms and using a ton of Stimpacks. 

We skipped ahead a ton in cycles here. I wanted to emphasize that all of a sudden we were in the 90s, when I think she started her Rig journey in the 70s. 

Chapter Eight: 

Finale!!!!! 

If there’s anything I would like to change, this would be a big one. I really wish I’d introduced the fact of it being her birthday way sooner, like in the first chapter. But I didn’t even consider it until I started writing this one. 

Also on the subject of her age, I actually had to go back and find a save that I’d named “BOXING QUEEN ONLY 19″. I guess she was 19 at the beginning, which makes sense, because I was 19 when I started playing, and I turned 20 shortly before finishing. 

I had a lot of different ideas surrounding what was going to happen to her. The loss of limb and hearing I kept, but I was going to have the Elder die I think? Or somebody important die, and have her have to decide to keep going in spite of that. 

FUCKING CHRIST Henry doesn’t heal people. He’s not a medical doctor. I realized this only when writing “A Cup of Kindness”. Whatever. Nobody remembers the NCR’s actual doctor anyways. Here’s here to stay, I guess. 

Pip-Boy as an assistive device was a great idea, I think. It also parallels my own use of subtitles while playing Fallout games. 

This has the most parallels with canon Carla, particularly how she kills the President. She still ends the fic being very different, but this is one thing that stays the same. 

Epilogue (Chapter Nine):

I like it! I’m glad I added it, even though I wasn’t planning on doing so at first. It really tied it all together. 

[mantra4ia]

Lucifer Season 2 Round-out

Last April, a list began that would soon pervade into every moment of my life: “Lucifer Season 2 and Beyond - Wants and Desires”. It went through various iterations…

Original Post (pre-season) / Updated post (during season 2)

Before I go into my “Season 3” post (and questions!) I wanted to make a quick capsule of my top fulfilled desires of season 2. Please let me know what yours were, or if you have questions and desires yet to be addressed.

Desires Fulfilled / Questions Answered

✔ Does Lucifer have any other brothers/siblings we should know of? While I was disappointed that Uriel had such a brief appearance, it was still very cool and developed the arc of the season a TON! Also, there’s that mention of… ✔ Lucifer should have a sister…(2x05) AZRAEL! The Angel of Death is a she, and I have many questions and speculations about her role, power, manifestation, etc ✔ Who is Lucifer’s mother? Angel, Demon, something else? You know, for a majority of the season I didn’t know whether I liked or hated the Divine Goddess mum as Charlotte Richards. She was a fun character, but very on the fence as to what she wanted and how badly at any given moment. Mostly what bothered me is her lack of seriousness, gravitas. I wanted to see the “Goddess” side of her all season. She was jailed for centuries not just for being powerful, but also vengeful, chaotic, bordering on malicious. And then I got all that in the very last episode, 2x18 “God, Bad, Crispy” and I loved it. All that resentment, brokenness, and desperation, coupled with destructive force so that I could take her seriously. And no sooner did I love her as a balanced character of humor and strength, she (as we know her) was gone! Wot?! ✔ We’ve seen Lucifer’s lifestyle, how is Amenadiel liking his time on earth? Not at all - his poor wings! But I’m really quite glad he’s found solace in, of all places, the improv club. ✔ Who are Chloe’s friends outside the force, will we meet some? Thank Dad for Maze, Linda, and Ella, and girls night #tribe. ✔ Lucifer, Trixie, and Maze on a school’s day out field trip. Trixie and Maze trick-or-treating was 100% wonderful, and as a brilliant bookend so was Lucifer taking Trix to school and them having their own little “deceiving your parents” club. ✔ Girls’ night - Mazikeen, Chloe, Linda. And not only that but a bar fight, which is also what I wanted to see more of (the females kicking butt, which I got from all the core ensemble save Trixie, who instead kicked butt with her words, as Maze said). It’s like the writers have Lucifer powers of desire deduction… ✔ More delving into the themes of what it means to be vulnerable, when it’s good and not, and recovering from betrayal from all the characters’ perspectives. Well, divorce and single parenting are pretty dang vulnerable for Chloe I’d say….and you know drudging up the past and confronting her dad’s murder. And Dan and Lucifer at the comedy club, the openness there gave me new hope for their continued BroTP. Lucifer with Azrael’s blade while Amenadiel watched as his little bro was in pain DESTROYED ME. And even Trixie was vulnerable at that Starford private school, which was super insightful for Trixstar. And Maze and Lucifer throwing down and going to group therapy with Linda. The writers really knocked vulnerability, recovery, and moving forward out of the park. ✔ Is Mazikeen going to make more progress in the friends’ department? First word: Roomies. Second word: wifey. I really, deeply enjoyed Maze bonding with Chloe and Linda (ride or die) this season, and her growing attachment to humans. ✔ Now that Lucifer doesn’t have his Pentecostal coin to play with, does he get a new toy? I never thought seeing Lucifer with a cell phone would be that satisfying.  ✔ We see Lucifer always wearing a ring and Amenadiel always wearing a necklace. Will they come into play? Of course! Although, please props department up your game. I hated that Sumerian text. It looked like a three ring binder spray painted bronze. ✔ What stunts/ fight choreography are you guys thinking about for s2? Maze with a pool cue, a good amount of headbutting, slo-mo riots in a psychiatric ward, jumping off of a pier, some great driving sequences, a sniper/hostage situation, violence with a yoga mat, throw-down in a church (Father Frank’s church?), broken pianos. I can’t wait for more! ✔ Tom Ellis at the piano.“All Along the Watchtower” pleases me to no end. ✔ Scenery changes? I love the addition on the performance club and Chloe’s new apartment.  ✔ New potentially recurring characters? Heavens bless Ella in all her awkward moment, ice-breaking quirkiness.  ✔ Can Chloe effect other celestials adversely, or just Lucifer? Apparently yes she can. She disrupted Uriel’s pattern of destruction (2x05) I think, I could be wrong, but it came across that way… ✔ Seeing Lucifer with wings. YES! Bring on the eleventh hour cliffhanger. ✔  Lucifer’s fall? Maybe we saw a glimpse of it…depending on the context of the 2x18 cliffhanger

Things we got that we didn’t even know we wanted. SO GOOD:

Dan and Chloe are getting a divorce and in so doing becoming an even better team on the force and in life. They can razz each other more at work and be treated as equals, and she can joke with Dan “if you married Charlotte, that would make you Lucifer’s stepdad.”

Amenadiel wallowing about the loss of his wings, and the new BroTP Dandielion (Dan and Amenadiel at the comedy club)

“Cosmos are yummy” and “I like [the shape of] your head” one liners. You deserve all the praise Amenadude.

Ella’s tiny hands comment.”I’ve seen some pretty tiny manhands.” Cheeky.

Ella speaking French.

Lucifer and Maze with a taser. Superb new toy.

Lucifer being mortally embarrassed seeing his mom naked (how does it feel to be on the receiving side of nude awkwardness buddy), her interrupting his foreplay, and him having to drag her off his club stage because of her dancing. He’s essentially a teenager with her around.

Trixie’s defaced doll, and Lucifer’s sinnamon roll behavior getting her a new one.

Trixie holding Lucifer’s hand hostage as he takes her to school and bargains with her to drive the Corvette.

Chloe nearly beating someone to death with a yoga mat. “There’s a special place in hell for women…who manipulate other women.”

A reprisal of Chloe and Maze the tag team. Magnificent.

Lucifer denouncing cats. “Open box of excrement in your house? Cats,” Makes me wonder what pet Lucifer would have if he could. 

Uriel playing with patterns and probability! Sweet, now help me sail my ship! (2x05)

Lucifer as an action movie fan. Not surprising, since we already know he loves cheesy sci-fi from season 1 interaction with Chloe’s mom. But still another awesome nerdy layer.

Chloe teaming up on a case with her would-be-mother-in-law. Season 2 subtitle: #EveryoneHitsOnChloe

Lucifer in a psych ward. And of course, the Linda/Lucifer break out. Though it probably would’ve been equally fascinating as a break in.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS (TOP 10):

The stunt driving in the corvette and Chloe’s car, and the surrounding circumstances of both incidents. I love the fulfillment of “I’ll never let you drive” comes full circle when Lucifer speeds on to try and save Chloe’s life, and when Chloe has to ride shotgun on Lucifer’s terms, she loses all composure. 

Most of 2x13 “A Good Day to Die” but especially the X-Ambassadors “Unsteady“ montage where every character shines!

“God Johnson” - the whole episode from start to finish, because it revealed so much honesty, meta, and motivation about the Lucifer, Linda, and Mum. If I had to pick a favorite part, it would have to be when Lucifer is wheeling Linda down the corridor and she meets ‘God’ or the celestial parent trap. Linda and Lucifer get to act like fans in their own show, Dr. Martin reveals Lucifer’s hidden desire to see his family back together, and Mum realizes she loves her ex and much as she hates him.

Maze and Chloe on a case as a married couple.

The men #tribe and the women #tribe we clearly establish in the first half of the season through cocktails, bar fights, saunas, improv clubs, etc. It wasn’t obnoxious or super exclusive, it developed naturally and really served the characters.

All of Trixie’s screen time was awesome, and the fact she seems to get more of it. Particularly “you don’t have to speak in code, I can handle adult stuff (she’s very perceptive)” and “wusses don’t get lollies” and her reaction to Lucifer stealing her sandwich.

Lucifer’s final scene with Linda in the hospital, where she has the title line that once again gives Lucifer page turning insight, and he puts her glasses back on and I melt!

Amenadiel being able to slow time for the first time since his powers waned, and using it to save Linda’s life. It made me teary, and brought me back to 2x13 when he helped Lucifer by standing his ground for Chloe. (MVP on the Unsteady montage)

Ella standing up to Charlotte. Her saying “you hurt Dan, I’ll break your legs” at first came off funny, like ‘your East Coast is showing’ but with each episode I increasingly wonder if, instead of just being mellow and accepting and lighthearted, she knows more than she let’s on and there’s another side of her that we’ve not seen.

The made up dinner scene / “you look beautiful” / the trajectory of Deckerstar. I admit there was a faith wobble. I thought that the show was revving up Lucifer and Chloe, perhaps not ‘too fast,’ but too suddenly. A lot was development happened over very few episodes in season 2 (by contrast to the entire season one slow burn) that I was dazed. What the hell was going on? Then they slammed on the brakes and reversed it when Luci skipped town and I thought are you trying to give me whiplash. But now those trials and that zig zag line is actually effective in making their relationship more complex and less doe-eyed, leading up to the capstone line by Chloe about moving forward. It gives the series a Chuck-like nostalgia in that this epiphany frees up a lot of constraint: it doesn’t matter the twists, turns, sputters, or screaming wheelies of the ship, in fact all the better, so long as their eyes are open and the aim is forward.

DIDN’T LIKE (BOTTOM 10):

☒ The “Wobble” episode concept.(2x03 Sin-Eater) If I had to rate it’s strength as a compelling episode, it’s probably second to the bottom.

☒ Poor Uri, we did not know him well, but I wanted to! (2x05)

☒ The “Candy Morningstar“ episode (2x14). I like the resolution, however I thought overall it was a weak return from hiatus. It did not do a very good job of filling in gaps of Lucifer’s time in Vegas - but maybe that’s something flashbacks in season 3 will revisit.

☒ Ella, her brother Ricardo, (2x13) and their Brooklyn roots. At first when I heard Ella came from a big family of brothers - 5? if I’m not making that up - I thought “what rich grounds for parallels” Lucifer comes from a big angelic family and Ella and Luci hit it off quite well where quirkiness goes she practically like a sister, she even got him to go to church, I can’t wait to see where this goes. But then we met one of her siblings, and it felt somewhere between a front and a one-off plot point to serve the events unfolding in the case. Generally, I feel even though I really like her character, she was not used to full potential in the second act of season after 2x8. Part of the hazard of adding two characters in one season. However, I have hope from 2x17 when Ella goes off to accept a call from her brother that she’s been ‘waiting for all day,’ but it’s never revealed why and the call takes place off screen that we’re going to revisit Ella’s family and backstory in a more detailed, impactful way come s3.

☒ The Season Finale 2x18. Before you kill me - allow me to clarify. I LOVED THIS EPISODE, however it was so packed I wish that I could surgically take out some preceding season fluff and elaborate these critical details over 2-3 episodes so that they are more than nuggets. Especially because of three things: 1) The growing complexity of Amenadiel’s relationship with Dan and Mum!Charlotte. Face it: Amenadiel had an extended identity crisis this season. It was planned, and overdue, so it’s fine. But only in these last episodes did his friendship with Dan and anchor to humanity flourish, as though playing catch up to Maze, as well as his more complex, less idolizing perspective of his parents. I WANTED MORE 2) Mum!Charlotte’s relationship with Dan “you were my favorite human.” Writers - How can you drop a line like that and NOT go after it? Are you evil? Mum’s been around for millennia and in all that time humanity has been at best a perplexing annoyance, at worse a target for ire. And in the span of one or two months on Earth, the divine goddess has developed a favorite human attachment not just to manipulate as was her intention, but beyond her reasoning legit. That’s huge. At first it was so weird, and now that I WANT MORE you cut me off! 3) Mum!Charlotte was finally beginning to stand on her own as a character, only to be slightly Sparta’d into the void. Just a few episodes ago, her only significant interactions were he sons and Maze. Now she’s branched out to everyone with the exception of Trixie. (WHY ON EARTH DID WE MISS THAT OPPORTUNITY). Then just two episodes ago, she said “when I kissed [my husband] I knew it wasn’t him, and yet I wanted it to be” - BAM - and then when she discovered Lucifer’s real plan to parent trap her in heaven, and that he was too worried about the repercussions to humanity, she offered to gate crash heaven alone and spare her son - POW. And to top it off, she recognized her own latent identity crisis and accepted an alternative to go into uncharted territory, make a new life for herself without her ex and her children, to examine who she is as her own independent Goddess in a life and a universe of her own. To summarize: metric ton of progress for Mum in three episodes tops, mostly in the last one, and now she is gone to do the most interesting part of her journey off camera. AHHH!

☒ The flaming sword. It got so much build up for so little actual use, apart from opening the void. Plus side: I thought the void concept / how the sword was used in conjunction with the theme of moving forward was EXTREMELY good, but at the same time my inner child wanted more swordplay with at least the three main celestials: Lucifer, Amenadiel, and Mum. You get a sword, you get a sword, you get a sword!

☒ Excessive use of Devil Eyes. I’ll have to count and compare to see how this actually tallies up, but particularly in “God Johnson” and maybe 1-2 other times I don’t recall, I thought it was overkill. I get why Lucifer’s glow-eyes are a handy physicality feature to the story, but overall I think some cues were off for maximum impact. S1 Lucifer used his eyes and true form in 3 main contexts: 1) when it suited him to intimidate or frighten 2) when it suited him for for amusement 3) when he got really overwhelmed by his emotions - possibly because it takes concentration to maintain his image and extreme emotion can blink his focus. “God Johnson” by contrast seemed more like ‘we’re telegraphing the anger.’ Of course Luci is angry, hurt, resentful, and like a kid wants the last word with Dad. However, when you factor in his smarts/cunning, and how long he’s been planning his Dad conversation, it would follow that Lucifer is laser-focused, determined, and knows that Devil Eyes don’t hold any weight with Father. Therefore, I think there are more varied, smarter, scarier ways to show Lucifer’s anger that were underutilized this season, is voice and body language especially. Plus side: I truly enjoyed Lucifer’s form in 2x13 in hell, and 2x06 for his reveal to Linda. The lighting, 5/5 Morningstars. 

☒ The pacing and balance of humor, smart storytelling, and the dramatic elements of the show felt off, probably also on account of two hiatuses. Reflecting over the whole season I’m not as annoyed as I was week-to-week. There were parts of the season where I waited eagerly for Monday only to find the comedy didn’t hit when I thought is this a comedic take on a police procedural or a parody of a comedy of a police procedural. Other times we got all the dramatic in one go and I thought Dang, where was this development when I needed it. But then I saw 2x18 and one scene made it better/sensical: Dan coaching Amenadiel at the improv club. In a strange, probably coincidental way, when Dan says “Amenadiel, that’s a little dark buddy” I felt like the writers were breaking the forth wall and saying “yes, I know, we take you on these weird tonal-emotional roller-coasters from pantomime slapstick to death and crippling guilt. We can and will make fun of ourselves now.” And I felt a burden lift as if replying “thank you for understanding that the struggle is real.”

☒  Celestial telephone tag cliffhangers. I love both of them: clever, full circle, smartly written. At the same time, I love to hate them. Twice is good. If showrunners go for a third time, I’ll take my cue from Maze and headbutt someone.

☒ I like the idea of expanding the universe by playing with the concept of the void. I think that it takes a great note from the comics. However, I’m worried it’ll be an idea that doesn’t go anywhere. As the show stands, Lucifer is so grounded in our physical world that adding a couple characters to the cast is tricky. This kind of world building? By comparison, this is God-level tricky, which is both exciting and terrifying.

Unanswered Questions / Moving Forward

See my Season 3: Speculations, Questions, Desires post.

[sheikah]

Do the salty ask meme for GoT! Or The Office!!

Salty Ask List

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?* Sansa and Littlefinger. No offense to anyone that ships it but I think he’s icky and that after years of being used and manipulated by men Sansa deserves something better with someone whose motives are clear and uncomplicated, someone who actually loves her and doesn’t just see her as a useful perk on his mission for power. 

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?* Hmm idk about this one. I think that Brienne and Tormund is a popular ship now? If so, I only BroTP that one. I am hardcore Jaime/Brienne trash so I can’t see her with anyone else haha.

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? Yes, but it wasn’t spiteful. I simply didn’t realize that someone I followed for an awesome gifset was a hardcore shipper of something that I don’t like and posted about it all the time. I just didn’t want it on my dash is all. 

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?* Oh man. Yes. I do. my NoTP is Jon and Sansa. It used to not be. I used to like it and even understood it watching season 6. I also read some great fanfics by a couple of people I follow. But the fandom recently changed how I feel about it. And the more I think about it the more I think that it would be OOC for Jon. But that’s a personal opinion of course!

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?* See above. Jon and Sansa. Not everyone who ships it is like that. In fact I’ve made good mutual friends with some people who ship it. But the radical ones and/or anti-Dany people were abusive to me and it turned me off of the ship as a whole because I started associating it with those people. 

Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?* Not really. I don’t hate most pairings. Like I have tried to say above, I am cool with people shipping with that want. If anything, fandoms are usually the problem, not the ships themselves haha. 

Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?* Not really. I guess the closest thing is that I used to be really into Sansa and Sandor/The Hound but now I primarily ship her with Pod. I realize that this is a 100% crack ship that will never be canon but I have become obsessed with it overnight haha. 

Have you received anon hate? What about?* I’ve received anon hate about shipping jonerys. People who claim that it’s gross for being incest, or anti-Dany people who claim that she will emasculate Jon or something. Basically nonsense. I also tried to make a meta about similarities between Sansa and Dany explaining why I love them both that really ruffled some feathers and I got some anon hate for that. 

Most disliked character(s)? Why? My least favorite characters are obvious ones. Walder Frey (may he rot in hell), Robin Arryn, Joffrey. I actually loved Ramsay because he was a really intriguing and terrifying villain. Plus he was sexy af. Gotta love my confusion about being attracted to an evil sadist. I like Littlefinger as a character even if I don’t like him with Sansa. Like Ramsay, he’s a cool villain. Great scheming. 

Most disliked arc? Why? Right now, Arya’s. I feel like her storyline with the Faceless Men was really disappointing and anti-climactic. I don’t know how I wanted it to end, but the way it ended was bad, to me. I think that there were lots of plot holes and that after all the buildup, it just should have felt more cathartic. I did like her murder of Walder Frey though.Second place goes to Jaime on the show. I don’t know why he is backsliding like this. I expected him to see through Cersei by now, and that speech he gave Edmure Tully was totally out of character and just really ugly. I feel like he’s back to season 1.

Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Well apparently the fandom doesn’t like Dany. There are dedicated anti-Dany blogs, and I can’t understand that. I love her. Anyway, she is tied with Jon for my favorite character so I definitely love her despite the hate. I also, like I said above, really liked Ramsay haha. I am not sad he died or anything. I just think he was awesome. 

Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? Idk about this. I think some people in the fandom are mad that Sansa’s arc changed so drastically from the book. If I am right about that, I don’t agree. I love what D&D did with show Sansa. I am sad that she suffered under Ramsay, but she is stronger for it and I feel like for the first time she is really in charge of her own destiny. She is badass and the queen of the North as far as I’m concerned. Very big improvement over hanging out at the Vale if you ask me. 

Unpopular opinion about XXX character? Oh god. This will be very unpopular. I want Jon to take a break from the manbun. I get that people love the manbun. Fuck, I love the manbun. But I miss his flowing locks hahaha. 

Unpopular opinion about your fandom? Unpopular opinion? Idk with all the negativity going around, it’s probably unpopular to feel positive. So I’ll just say overall I love this fandom. I have met some people through loving Game of Thrones who I consider to be true friends even though we only know each other via tumblr. I love my mutuals, especially my jonerys family. 

Unpopular opinion about the manga/show? Idk if this unpopular, but I hate the Sand Snakes on the show. I think most people do? So I guess this isn’t unpopular. Idk I tend to agree with most people haha. 

If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? If I could change anything in the show, I would have Arya’s arc go better. Ask me again after season 7. If jonerys doesn’t happen, I’ll say I want to change that haha ;)

Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen… Instead of Jaime continuing to follow Cersei, I would have him turn on her in the eleventh hour and reconcile with Tyrion. Cersei is an amazing woman, but she’s got to go. I think it is wildly out of character for Jaime to continue to support her after her political climbing has endangered the lives of their children to the point of their deaths. I just feel that as a character Jaime should have evolved beyond this. He should have wised up before now. He has a good heart. She doesn’t. Oops. Bet THAT is my unpopular opinion. 

Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased? Absolutely not. Shipping something is entirely subjective and based on emotions. If you feel something about a non-canon or crack ship, that’s awesome. It means you think like an individual. It’s only a problem when you try to attack other people/ships out of anger that yours isn’t happening. 

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom? The ship war between J*nsa and jonerys.

What is the purest ship in the fandom? Gendrya. Hands down. Haha.

What are your thoughts on crack ships? They are so much fun! The more the better. I want to write about my secret one one day. It will get no reads but I’ll be happy haha.

Popular character you hate? I don’t hate any characters, especially not popular ones. 

Unpopular character you love? Like I said above, Dany, apparently. And Ramsay. Lol. 

Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not? Of course. I force everyone in my life to watch Game of Thrones!

How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX? My dream ending has Daenerys and Jon falling in love and successfully uniting the kingdoms against the White Walkers. They win the war at the cost of many lives. King’s Landing is destroyed in the process. It turns out that Dany isn’t barren and they have a child. But when King’s Landing is being rebuilt, Dany realizes that what she wanted all along wasn’t a throne, it was a family and a place to belong. She thought that meant carrying on her family’s dynastic tradition but knows now that she can be happy with Jon in the North. The Red Keep is rebuilt without an Iron Throne and Tryion establishes a senate with representatives from all seven kingdoms and Essos. I know this won’t happen. It’s my wish though haha. 

Most shippable character? Jon Snow

Least shippable character? Ser Pounce 

[writersstareoutwindows]

clear as a cup of water

The Eleventh Hour ties for my favorite TAZ arc (with Petals to the Metal), so, here’s some soft and sweet writing about Ren, Junebug, and seven years in a bubble.

-

Ren missed the sky.

That was her first thought as she looked through the window that first morning. She missed the blue, blue, blue sky, clear as a cup of water. But all she saw was the familiar, muffled white-pastel of the bubble.

But June had come home. The spell was undone, Roswell and the three adventurers had led the monster away, Refuge was safe. Why were they still trapped? Why couldn’t she see the sky?

And there was June herself, already sitting at the counter, though Ren had only just opened. She held a handful of diamonds.

“Can I have breakfast?” she asked quietly.

Ren was wiping glasses mechanically as she stared through the window, and so did not hear her right away. Eventually, Ren started and said, “What, yes, of course, of course.”

She refused the diamonds flatly. Flapjacks, eggs, bacon, strawberries with cream–Ren piled food at June’s place until it was all fit to topple over. Only after June had eaten her way through a stack and a half did Ren ask, almost absently, “Is that bubble gonna come down?”

June glanced through the window over her shoulder. Meeting Ren’s eyes, she just said, “Not today.”

She came in again on the second morning while Ren was measuring her windows. The earthquake had shattered the glass, so she needed to fit them with new panes.

She had paused to lean through the opening. Despite attempts to ignore it, her eyes had strayed to the sky.

June spoke behind her. “Good morning, Ren.”

Ren reeled away from the window. “Mornin’, June!”

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” June laughed. “Do you have any more flapjacks?”

“Give me a hot minute and you’ll have a plateful–put those diamonds away, you can pay for anything else, but you’ve earned a lifetime of free breakfast.”

She joined June with her own towering stack minutes later. The two started to talk and laugh, and by the end Ren found herself lost in thought as she stared at the bubbles in her glass of milk.

“June,” she said, “will the bubble ever come down?”

June did not look so young as she considered the answer. At length she shrugged and said, “Not today.”

June kept coming for breakfast, so Ren kept asking. Every morning, they looked out the window together, and her answer was the same: “Not today.”

After a week, Ren learned that June liked chocolate chips in her flapjacks. After two, she asked if June wouldn’t like to stay over at the Davy Lamp, even just on weekends. She had noticed how Isaak paced around outside while they ate, and how June set her shoulders when she spoke to him. He was too nervous and she was too damaged for the arrangement to work.

After a month, June moved her entire self into the upper room. Now Ren could hear her answer before she even started a morning fire: “Not today.”

After two years, she stopped asking; she didn’t need to. June gave the same answer, every morning, without needing to be asked.

On one of these days, they visited the ever-unfinished clay statues beside the bubble’s edge. June swore up and down that she’d spotted Roswell, but all Ren noticed were children playing, throwing mud balls, mimicking the slow-moving poses of the three adventurers just beyond reach.

Ren eyed Taako. His bored expression had been changing ever slightly to surprise, even awe. She mimed tipping a hat to him, while behind her, June told a kid working on the statues that Magnus actually had a scar over one eye, you just couldn’t make it out through the bubble. A little red bird alighted on Merle’s clay-wood arm while she added it.

They spent the first Candlenights alone together in the Davy Lamp. Ren closed early because she knew she was going to start crying. When was the last time Refuge celebrated Candlenights, really? How many would they spend inside the bubble?

It wasn’t very hard for Ren to conjure a decorative bush for the holiday. When she came downstairs with it, she really couldn’t help crying.

June had covered the Davy Lamp in hundreds of candles. They burned in shifting shades of gold, silver, and blue, lighting on two boxes that they’d wrapped in sparkly paper together. June stood in the middle of the bar, worrying her fingers.

“Do you like it?”

Ren dropped the bush so that she could lift June with the strength of her hug.

They spent the second Candlenights at Paloma’s, because she had promised to make chocolate chip scones. She even had strawberries and cream for Ren. In return, she and June had made her a big, thick shawl, using the knitting skills Luca and Redmond had taught them.

It wasn’t until the fifth Candlenights that Isaak was allowed to celebrate with them. He gave June a small gold junebug pin. They didn’t say much to each other.

Seven years of birthdays did manage to slip by quite quietly. June didn’t like to celebrate. One year, Ren had made a cake, which June tried to eat because Ren had worked so hard on it. But she saw her outside later, feeding it crumb by crumb to a little red bird. After that, the only concession they made to June’s birthday was to put a candle in her flapjacks that morning.

“Not today,” she said, before blowing it out.

Seven years of that, and Ren almost stopped noticing. The sky was just the sky, muffled white-pastel. It didn’t seem to matter so much. There was always music and flirty fun at the Davy Lamp. There was always the need to keep a handle on a tipsy crowd, plan for a midsummer festival that always seemed just around the corner, come up with new recipes for breakfast with June. And there was June, who needed food, and clothes, and advice, who was helping run the bar, was learning magic, was becoming something of a baker.

Ren was so caught up in living that she didn’t even visit the three adventurers at the edge of town anymore. Some nights, though, she had to go looking for June, only to find her sitting at Magnus’s red clay feet, observing the real adventurers outside the bubble.

There came a morning when Ren woke late. She needed to get more chocolate chips for June. That was her first thought as she began to sit up.

There was June already, sitting on the side of her bed. Her knees were pulled up to her chin. Ren instinctively wrapped an arm around her.

“Good mornin’, Junebug,” she said sleepily.

June’s face was as bright as the sky outside.

“It’s today,” she said.

The blue, blue, blue sky outside, clear as a cup of water.