#fantasy high junior years

[notllorstel]

Coming in with a steel chair

FROM A CORPSE OF A GOD SHE RISES

SHE’S BAD

SHE’S MAD

RAGE GOD 2.0

[unlikablefemaleprotagonist]

i don't really want to get too logical about it, but perhaps another "above the table" reason for this battle not being centered around getting redemption for the ratgrinders is because this is a show meant for public consumption and "persuade your enemies to desert their cause and join you" was literally the trick of the final combat for the last intrepid heroes season. maybe there was an implicit understanding among the cast that the same gimmick would be perceived by some as being repetitive

and honestly?? i think the neverafter team had a helluva lot better shot converting the princesses to their side than any of the bad kids had in this battle. key members of the squad (okay, not tim, rip his conversation with rapunzel) made inroads with the princesses through good faith interaction with many of them earlier in the season. elodie and mira were the easiest gets because of elodie's history with gerard and mira's lack of true devotion to the cause, but ylfa had a genuine SHOT with la bete and pinocchio got very close with cinderella (who i think may have come over anyway once her allies were down, if i remember right?)

but there isn't a single ratgrinder they have that kind of relationship with. they've been pretty out-and-out hostile, despite moments such as adaine saving ruben from disintegrate and kristen offering maryanne gifts. maaaaybe you could make an argument for ruben and wanda, but brennan pointed out that once wanda showed up with his enemies and ATTACKED ruben's friends, it was over. oisin seemed like a potential option earlier in the season, but then he pulled the rug out from under adaine and tried to murder the entire student body via nepotism. there was no friendly relationship left to capitalize on after that. and maryanne has been characterized as having such an impenetrable mental wall that it's hard to guess where's she's at, even for the other ratgrinders.

plus, there's the whole basic conceit that the ratgrinders' minds are not completely their own. their agency has been traded away to a nameless god of rage. who's to say any persuasion check could overcome that? honestly, i think if it was a realistic play, brennan would have encouraged the players to try it, like he explicitly did for neverafter, laying out a mechanic for it. maybe we'd know more if kristen hadn't gotten a nat 1 on her buddy insight check, but i think that was the moment that any diplomatic level to this combat went out the window, because the dice dictated that kristen couldn't see buddy in there, and to willfully push ahead with that line of thinking would have been close to meta-gaming. they are playing characters as faithfully as possible, and those characters are stressed-out kids! they don't have the same emotional maturity of a 32-year-old divorced frog prince who really wants to be amicable with his ex-wife

[brennan-lee-mother]

Diversity win! Ancestral curse recognises non-biological parenthood!

[emiuli]

No grave can hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her.

[killerunicorn3]

[rizsnt]

see you at basrar's! ✶✶✶

bonus: yearbook page!

[polarsirens]

i am not at all caught up with fantasy high freshman and sophomore year but i’ve jumped into the middle of things and this today nearly made me bawl

life kinda sucks and i haven’t time to enjoy my comfort media but junior year’s been…. it’s really been a wonderful thing to have this to look forward to every week

[nevern0thing]

[alltears]

the intrepid heroes reached new levels of Accurate Teenage Friendship tonight (see also)

[twobeesornottwobees]

watching ally beardsley transition over the past five years has been really wonderful and affirming but also hilarious. they went from looking like siobhan to looking like brennan. truly the entire anglo-saxon spectrum of gender.

[cloudmancy]

I saw you again in a dream, or maybe it was a nightmare

[becausesure]

Just knowing that Brennan Lee Mulligan has a bunch of NPC Drama that he just hasn't released because it would get in the way of the PCs doing things makes me just want to know what it is

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/19ygrUE1iuz5XHtyoJCxYwPMZOC5eBIYhjFroQYCcQZ0/mobilebasic

Q and A from Sophomore Year we learn

I want to know all the drama

Like he had Maryanne's personal life off the top of his head

[marinecanary]

Kristen "the greatest cleric of our age" Chilis Applebees

[emiuli]

Bound to fall in love 💖

[cyan0corax]

Riz gets sworn in to The Council of Chosen :-)

[emotional-academic-amphibian]

Murph has never looked more like Riz than in this moment

Look at him!! the sharp edge behind the smile, the dorky but somehow cool one-liner, I can see the fangs in my mind