#g witch episode 12

[xaldalneir]

Spoilers for Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Episode 12

Hi Tumblr! So, I’m breaking, like, a FIVE YEAR bout of silence and shit, but I can’t just sit quiet about this one. Witch from Mercury has been one of the best Gundam Series I’ve had the pleasure of watching. Today, the last episode of this cour ended on a heavy note. Now the majority of takes that I’ve seen have been saying that Suletta was either totally cavalier in what she did to Nameless Grunt Number 5 or that Prospera activated her somehow with her typical ‘move forward, gain two’ line. So, mainly to fight the opinion that Suletta is now just suddenly a murderous psychopath, I’d like to point out a few things. I’ll be laying out evidence from the series, from the Prologue story, Cradle Planet, and my own observations. So, first and foremost, Suletta has shown to act very impulsively whenever Miorine is in any sort of danger (slapping Guel in episode 1, her confrontation with Shaddiq in episode 9). She trusts Miorine implicitly and after last episode, after having been separated from her after a really tender moment, she’s undoubtedly panicking about whether or not she’s okay. Even Prospera can see that, because she makes sure to namedrop Miorine when she tells Suletta that if she gets in Aerial she can save everyone.  The GUND-bits told her that the transport and Earth House is safe. She activates what I assume is Permet Score 6 (same tetrahedron shield as ep. 9, along with Prospera telling Delling in ep. 11 that that’s as high as Aerial’s PS went during the Grassley duel), and is able to locate Miorine. I find it hard to believe that she didn’t also see Delling and Nameless Grunt Number 5 (because I’m guessing that the bits identified them via their personal Permet ID). She came into that room hard and fast, and Aerial immediately adopted a combat stance. That wasn’t the entrance of someone who knew the danger was over and was going to enter through a proper airlock or hanger. Then, of course, we get to the slap. I’ve seen people talk about how she could’ve just blocked or captured Nameless Grunt Number 5, but he had just overcome his shock at Aerial’s arrival and leveled his gun to finish Miorine and Delling. He was about to kill them. Suletta didn’t have time to think ‘Oh I can solve this nonviolently’. With everything we’ve seen from her so far, I’d be shocked if her first and only thought, and the one that she and Aerial acted on, wasn’t ‘Miorine is in danger I need to stop him’. Then, she gets out of Aerial. There’s blood everywhere, she trips and falls. Suletta, who we’ve never seen properly navigate any kind of social interaction ever. Suletta, who just minutes ago was in shock, nearly shut down over her mother having killed Nameless Grunts 1-4. Suletta, who just watched Nameless Grunt Number 5 try to kill Miorine, does not have the emotional capacity to deal with all of this. So she does what she’s had working for her so far with Earth House. She plays it off as clumsy, as silly. Suletta Forgetta indeed. A brief side bar on those who think the motto ‘run, lose one, move forward, gain two’ is some kind of trigger phrase, the Prequel story Cradle Planet shows us that Suletta has been using that since the age of nine to get over things she’s afraid of. She comes to Aerial one night because the elders at the Mercury colony don’t respect or trust her. She’s in tears. She climbs into Aerial’s cockpit, and she repeats that phrase until she’s brave enough to face the world again. Flash forward, she’s 17 now (last age given in the story was 15, but with context clues we can assume this next part is right before ep. 1). Prospera’s putting her plan into action, Miorine is being married off to whoever claims the title of Holder at Asticassia. Suletta comes to Aerial again. She tells her about what’s happening (Aerial knows already, Prospera told her the night before. Aerial doesn’t want Suletta to go, doesn’t want her to be used for revenge). She starts to panic, she’s anxious. Then she tells herself, ‘If you run, gain one. Move forward, gain two. Right, Aerial?’. She uses the words to propel herself forward once again. Just as she has done before, and just as we see her do so many times throughout the series. Suletta is clearly coded as neurodivergent. Whyever that is and whatever she’s specifically coded to be, I’m not going to speculate on, but she doesn’t understand social graces. She doesn’t always know the right way to respond. She defaults to a lot of reactions (hiding, playing it off) because those are what have worked for her. She’s not some manic psychopath suddenly and gleefully happy to kill, and she’s not the Winter Soldier waiting to be activated (that might be Aerial, if the red eye stickers in the Gunpla kit are any indication). She’s just doing her best. And that’s not always going to be the right thing to do, as we saw. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[teaospin]

G-WITCH SPOILERS

For those of you who were NOT ever Inducted into the Gundam community or series before G-Witch, especially my fellow RWBY fans who are watching it….

I have one to thing to say…

WELCOME TO GUNDAM EVERYONE! :D

[adracat]

G-Witch episode 12 thoughts

Well, that was a wild ride. I think we all know the big moment that everyone is talking about but before we sprint to the finish in angst-ville, let's enjoy the relatively lighter bits-- just joking there aren't any.

Seeing the witches go all out with their permit scoring really highlights how unique Aerial and Suletta are. Still, Sophie is able to beat the GUND-format antidote by sheer force of will. And unlike Suletta it takes a huge toll. This fight was incredibly one-sided on behalf of DoF which I think we all suspected. Witches aren't feared for nothing.

In the middle of all this chaos, Miorine is shielded from debris by Delling. His talk to her and mention of Mio's mother was enlightening. They way he speaks of her makes me wonder if she was a soldier too, possibly killed by a Gundam? Whatever the truth, it's unmistakable how much he cares for Mio's well-being. He might have a shit way of showing it in a non-deadly situation, but it's better than Fail Mother of the year, Prospera.

Before we open that masked can of worms, here's a brief mention to Nika. We see her save herself and the rest of Earth House by signaling to Norea's gundam. Lucky for her, she was recognized as an ally of the 'Prince'. Not so luckily, her little morse code session was seen. Oops.

I'd like to see her collusion and secrets come to light early in the next cour. She's a good egg, just trapped between her past ties on earth and the friends she made at military school. Will it end terribly? I'm anxious to find out.

Pour one out for Bob by the way. I won't mourn Jeturk, but it's scarred his son for life. Imagine changing to become a better man all because someone was nice to you, but whoops. Patricide. That's a twist I didn't forsee but it piques my intrigue. Will Bob return to Guel with a massive revenge scheme as CEO of Jeturk industries?

But speaking of parents and children...

Posting this entire scene because I wanted to showcase, beginning to end, how informative this is for what follows next. We have Suletta fearful for her life, shocked by seeing her mother kill. She's completely shaken, yet calms once Prospera repeats the philosophy we've been hearing the whole show. The light shines upon Prospera as she offers her hand, appearing angelic in spite of the killing. You can see the moment Suletta internalizes this. Killing for those you love is just; fighting gains you two, running would mean losing someone. She moves forward and pilots Aerial as Prospera demands. It's a subtle manipulation, and from Suletta's wide-eyed stare (similar to another episode where she's desperate to believe her mother) she accepts this new reality.

Small aside, I like this brief confirmation Aerial can communicate detailed things to Suletta despite only appearing as lights and a whale-like sound to us. Very interesting.

Now onto the penultimate scene.

Messed up and shocking as this is, I found it completely in character. I don't think she's snapped or anything like that, merely accepted her mother is right and killing for another person to survive is an acceptable trade. Her unnatural cheer in this scene is unnerving, but I read this as her desperately trying to keep herself and Miorine calm; she's acting the same as always to downplay the gruesome reality.

So she does what she has always done and mimics Prospera, positioning herself in the same way. All the while she's oblivious to how horrifying her behavior comes across. Yet it doesn't escape us, nor poor Mio. I would not be surprised if Prospera used that phrase as a means of conditioning Suletta to do what she asks.

From groom to murderer in the span of one episode and cour 😔 Suletta now persona non grata. It's cruel to leave us here until April but also brilliant ngl. I can't wait to see how our fav couple navigates this conflict. All is fair in love and war.

I do love this shot though, bookends are my weakness.

[torisaysyeet]

Episode 12 was. A shock. To say the least

[mahoushoujotechsupport]

ok weeks later i am finally continuing my gwitch rewatch lolz. time for episode 12.... someone PLEASE tell tumblr to stop erasing my posts just as im about to hit post and not being able to undo it because i had the longest write up and now here i am.... rewriting again and trying to remember what i'd written. i'm gonna scream lmao

this part feels so awful now that the series is over and thinking back on ep 24. miorine just comes to, all to see the doors closed and hear suletta's screams and sophie's gunshots on the other side. no doubt in my mind this girl probably dealt with awful nightmares about suletta dying after quiet zero

i know prospera did use this as another XP level up for aerial, but jeez, imagine how much confidence she has in suletta and eri to be able to say something like this. like not just that suletta will go to aerial, but that together they can take on the attackers who at the time prospera didn't know shit about

lmao i dont think ive ever felt so confidently about something that id bet my whole life ln it

ad stella universe is crazy because i can only think the big liberatarian ancap society is some silicon valley fascist's wet dream because how else do you explain the business management girl knowing 1337 hacker skills

stupid asshole

sophie and norea are such tragic characters to me goddamn. like how often were they practicing their piloting to be able to be good enough to join on a mission like this? were they upping their permet score during practice too?

and why exactly is it them who pilot the lfriths instead of someone else from DoF? we never really get a clear answer on why it has to be the teenage girls when later on we see there's a ton of grown men around. i think given what else we know of ad stella, though, it doesn't matter much when we have asticassia as a school for the elite that basically serves for furthering earthian oppression be it by force (ie. see guel's original plans for joining dominicus) or just continuing to further the spoils of space capitalism

when you think of it that way, i don't see DoF any different than say palestinians fighting back against oppression from IDF forces. unless you're a racist fuck, you can't blame palestinian kids for throwing rocks at IDF soldiers, so i can't really blame norea and sophie for joining the fight

to quote fanon:

National liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of nationhood to the people, commonwealth: whatever may be the headings used or the new formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.

- Frantz Fanon, "Concerning Violence," The Wretched of the Earth

i really do wish they hadn't just sidelined DoF entirely lol if you subscribe even a smidgen to anti-colonialism, its hard not to sympathize with them and shaddiq/grassley girls. and here theyre actually fighting for a just cause and are deserving of sympathy unlike 0079’s fakeout with zeon.

flipping the UC spacenoid/earth dichotomy so that earthians are the exploited class is just good shit when you consider what fuckers like musk want to do lol and its not as set in stone as exploitation only happens on earth either. mercury sounds like an abandoned appalachian mining town at this point with people lured out by jobs and then left to fend for themselves once permet was found elsewhere and their utility to the spacian capitalist class has run dry. and though i take this one with a grain of salt because we never get hard confirmation or denial, the elans were supposedly spacians (norea calls him a spacian even after finding out el5n’s not the real elan and he doesnt say one way or the other).

enough marxist ramblings, here's a cool shot of lfrith ur

whoever added this, i love them

as much as i don't trust bandai with sulemio unless they reverse the mess they've made for themselves.... i just want to fucking know more about notrette so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!

badass shot of lfrith thorn to go with the ur one earlier

snitch boy starts his snitch arc

the whole way guel killing vim plays out felt like it was gonna lead to something cool at the time... it makes me even more mad now knowing that it very likely is all an homage to zeta and kamille stealing the mk-ii and then later watching his mom die lol (ffs we even have the guel episode later on stealing its title from a zeta episode). guel's entire character just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth with everything thats happened recently

to think that 15 mins later she'd just be all ditzy over pancakeing a man after basically peeing her pants here

prospera shooting a gun at quiet zero >>> prospera shooting a gun at plant quetta

this show and this fucking pose, man lmao

AERIAL REBUILD is going to be stuck in my head all night because of this episode.... but look at how fucking cool she looks!!!

okouchi if this is a line you wrote, you, sir, are a troll... her face now is literally just :<

if you have the rebuild aerial and you don't have her posed like this, then what are you even doing?

i still feel like secelia and rouji for sure had no idea how powerful aerial's gund-bit gun was in episode 17. like norea is scared shitless here and tells sophie and olcott to get the fuck away. we have olcott telling us that even though it has school regulations on, it's strong as fuck

that said, i don't think guel was in mortal danger given that the school restrictions don't let them aim at cockpits or whatever, but it sure would've fucked up the darilbalde

oh this line hurts lol

i don't think i ever paused on this frame before lol i really hope peil hags master plan here wasn't just to have el5n get all rapey like he does later on. i mean, probably not and that was moreso el5n's desparate attempts to stay alive given he barely gets a chance to do anything before school shootings 1 and 2 bring everything to shit

comparing this frame versus suletta inside calibarn in ep 24 and suletta is still just a baby at this point in the show lmao she looks like a little teddy bear vs kakkoii ikemen suletta

paused on this frame and it honestly looks cool as hell lmao

and we made it to THE scene

you know, as i said in prior rewatch posts, i had been watching via GJM's fansubs at this point and was gonna wait for them to release their version of episode 12... however, that same suletta sunday i logged on to twitter and immediately got spoiled on this scene lmao so i needed to find out what the fuck happened and stopped waiting on fansubs (i did rewatch later on)

it really is such an amazingly well done scene though like goddamn lol

now that the show's over, i do kind of wonder if there could have been something other than this to become the spark of tension between suletta and miorine. with the exception of sophie (which arguably was more eri's victim than suletta's), suletta never kills anyone again in the show. her final fight ends up being against the gund nodes being commanded by eri lol so she just fights unmanned drones. it's an interesting decision considering the gundam franchise as a whole

i know it's meant to contrast against shaddiq's by any means necessary approach and prospera's willingness to do the same if someone tries to hinder her plans to help eri... but i really just can't get behind the whole violence is always bad no exceptions message behind the show. i do appreciate that shaddiq's plan basically still came to fruition and that it ends up being an in-world analogue to nationalization of industry. and it's really a cherry on top to have sabina call out whether that was for the best - not just that they nationalized industry but that nothing else was done to stop those who don't agree with what miorine did. history has given us countless examples of countries that nationalize various industries just for the united states military to come in and make some shit up and stage a coup and hand over said industry to whatever shithead capitalists were being piss babies about it at the time

lmao i know we're all mad about a lot of the yuri being left on the table because of bandai execs, but i wonder how much of the anti-capitalist message got left on there too. they really had a chance to make guel a real hero and he's just... not lol. episode 15 makes me mad not because it's a guel episode but because nothing ever actually came from DoF existing. like what was the point?

if they just wanted to humanize DoF a bit and introduce the kid that guel and kenanji run into later on, that could have taken half an episode given the insane pacing they chose to go by during the 2nd cour

regardless, i'll still savor little bits here and there

ok lmao i feel like my original post was way better than this and it took me double the time now to make this post but whatever. gonna try to get through some more eps this weekend

[mesmarique]

I finished Episode 12 of G Witch early this morning and it fucking hit like a mech sized slap. And like it knew, tumblr has been showing a bunch of your very sweet and cute fan art.

I‘m very glad I can help with the healing process! That cour finale hit where it hurts! Thank you for your ask!

[girlboss-edelgard]

[tanukiimo]

light mode vs dark mode 🌞🌚

[lordsmaf]

IT FLIES

IT DANCES

IT GRINDS

IT M A S H E S

IT AERIAL

[set-wingedwarrior]

After today’s episode I saw, well within reason, a lot of people talking about Prospera’s brainwashing of Suletta, and I wanted to share my two cents.

First of all, my (probably) unpopular opinion: Prospera was kinda right this time.

DON’T KILL ME, LET ME EXPLAIN PLS.

So, Prospera’s technically right: they are being attacked my terrorists, they are in mortal danger, and they need to fight back to survive and save everybody, and that will mean most likely taking lives. Like, that’s fair. War isn’t pretty and survival demands sacrifice.

What’s really wrong and fucked up is:

 1) the way she says and explaines it. Her whole voice and behaviour, the words she chooses, so calm and chill and apparently comforting but actually really dismissive (and kinda creepy imo). She approaches Suletta and the whole situation as if it’s not a big deal.

But at the same time, she does underline that they’re in danger, even pressing on Suletta’s rightful fear in order to have her move forward and fight.

This isn’t a “this is unfortunate, but it’s either us or them” kind of speech, but a “we must get to our goal at all cost”. The line is thin, but there’s a difference. And, most importantly, it is portrayed as if it’s a natural progression and not just a situational thing.

The thing is, we saw Suletta impacted by death, and these words alone aren’t enough to wipe away your morals. That brings me at point two, the most fucked up and vicious:

2) how Suletta has been raised and educated until then. She’s always following her motto with a smile, and helping others, never letting anyone (aside her mother) see her sad or overwhelmed. And what’s her mother’s answer every time she comes to her? “If you run, gain one. Move forward, gain two”.

After Miorine confronting her, we know that Suletta is scared every time and every time her motto is her way to cheer herself up, wear a smile, and keep going. The focus is always on moving forward, on the goal, and it NEVER AKNOWLEDGES OR QUESTIONS HER PRESENT FEELINGS.

It’s very likely that growing up, every time Suletta had to face something scary (harmless growing up stuff), she’s always been encouraged to move forward with that stupid motto instead of processing her feelings and thinking things through. Prospera just never taught her.

So, what does Suletta do instead? Say her motto like a mantra, and move forward withouth questioning anything, actively ignoring and burying her unprocessed feelings under a smile to the point that she doesn’t even realize it (it’s no surprise why she’s also so terrible at social cues and stuff).

Her whole bubbly happy persona is the product of her whole life having to face scary things withouth learning how to process how that made her feel, ignoring everything in favor of putting up her happy persona.

The result? Going from this

to this

because she doesn’t know any other way to “keep moving forward” that isn’t “do what you must and brush everything else off with a smile”. But what’s the result? Saving Miorine at the cost of their relationship because she’s rightfully horrified.

The problem isn’t even that Suletta killed a man; we already estabilished that this is a survival, and even if you can argue that she could have simply incapacitate the terrorist, considering that she’s been fighting for their lives until then it isn’t too unbelievable that instinct woul kick in and end it all the same way.

The problem is, obviously, how she reacted to it. I’d bet anything that, despite being still shocked, if Suletta just stayed serious (maybe still ignoring what she did in in favor of checking on and take care of Miorine because, again, this is a “live or die” situation) then Miorine would have understood and seen Suletta’s actions differently (”she made a sacrifice by doing something terrible to protect me”). But Suletta fucking laughed! How fucked up is that? Was she having fun?

All of this isn’t caused by Prospera’s words alone because they do have some merit in the given circumstances. No, this is about the way she speaks them and the way she knows how Suletta would perceive them.

She spent years raising her to move forward no matter what, withouth ever questioning if moving forward even is the smartest choice (and we saw with Guel the consequences that come from not thinking it through). Raising her to make her the perfect little soldier.

And she succeeded.

[spooky-lilith]

4 months with no g-witch and i am not coping

[trans-queen-administrator]

I think my Taylor Hebert brainworms are taking over and forming an addiction, I physically cannot consume media without going "ah there's some parallels to Taylor Hebert in this character, very interesting." And what do I do with that information? Do I walk up to my friends fresh off a 12 episode binge of Witch from Mercury and go "hey yeah did you know that Taylor Hebert and Suletta Mercury have a lot of similarities? They both have absolutely no self worth and feel isolated despite having friends that would die for them, they both have a disturbing difference between how caring they are with friends and how ruthless they are with enemies, they don't regret murder at all and think it's ok when they do it, they're both in love with women, really despite their completely different vibes they're eerily close." No. I can't do that. I'm trapped with these thoughts and I cannot escape the shadow of Taylor Hebert the best character of all time. I swear to fucking god I could watch Spy Kids 3 or some garbage and within 12 seconds my brain would figure out which character has the most Taylor Traits without my permission.

[dazaleu]

..oh no...

[adracat]

I must admit, coming from someone who grew up watching the 90s and early 00s series, I think this is the most brutal scene I’ve seen yet. I mean, a body getting squished into bloody meat pulp and limbs flying? Also, I was expecting the Mioletta relationship rift to come from the general chaos of war and conflicting ideologies or interests, not Mio being traumatized from seeing Suletta have a seemingly completely psychotic reaction to the splat. There’s no way they’re gonna come back from this without lasting scars. And that would require Mio to have absolute belief that this isn’t the Suletta she knows and loves. And this episode back-to-back with the feel-good feels of ep11, it was a whiplash.

But what’s more brutal is the months-long break, alas.

This the most graphic a gundam has ever been iirc, they usually stick to explosions and implication of death not torn limbs and blood splats 😭 Oh but the horror lover in me is digging this so hard. Same for the Utena lover in me being all about that trauma and manipulation. Plus there’s intrigue and a potential war between rebels and space capitalists? Honestly G-Witch would have to do A LOT to make me stop cause I am being catered to with abundance~

April come fast plz 🙏

[dangus-doo]

I draw a pen doodle every day until I forget

Day 214: Suletta Mercury (Gundam the Witch from Mercury)

Spoilers for Episode 12 of GWitch

Today’s art is a little experimental, and I think if I refined it a little, it’d be really solid.

I’m not entirely sure I have the words to describe how I feel about the end of the last episode of this season. Once Suletta comes to her senses, this is going to destroy her. I just hope it doesn’t totally destroy her relationship with Miorine first…

[paxesoterica]

Welp

Watched The Witch From Mercury Episode 12 and I feel I’m the recipient of a monkey paw’s wish (here be Episode 12 spoilers):

All the characters whom I wanted to live, did, and ended the cour not in danger, not kidnapped, and not separated, so, that’s technically good, but geez howdy I am NOT okay with how that came about.

Norea, Sophie, and most of Dawn of Fold escaped, so they’re definitely recurring antagonists now, and since Gundam seems to have a time honored tradition of someone having a homoerotic rivalry with the protagonist, looks like Sophie will be filling that role.

Elan No. 5 seemed to have stayed behind at Asticassia after all, so Peil’s situation hasn’t really changed, and unfortunately that means Elan’s nature as a spy in GUND-ARM, Inc. hasn’t been sussed out either, though I do think that No. 5 is eventually going to try to turn the tables on Peil by eliminating and replacing the original Elan, but we’ll see how that goes.

Shaddiq seems undisturbed by his plan’s seeming failure, but since his stated goal is breaking up the Benerit group, he’s actually advanced considerably: Delling is badly injured and will need time to recover, meaning he will have to appoint someone less experienced as Acting President for awhile, and who will have greater difficulty regulating the other corporations (which they will absolutely take advantage of); the terrorists were identified as Earthians using stolen Jeturk suits, which means they are unlikely to be traced back to Grassley, leaving the company’s reputation intact (for now); and Vim Jeturk is dead, which means that he’ll be succeeded by Lauda as President of Jeturk Heavy Machinery, which will leave that company in a position of weakness due to the transfer of power to an inexperienced leader, leaving Peil as Grassley’s only serious rival at the moment (with the added bonus that Vim can no longer testify against Shaddiq, further concealing Grassley’s role in the terrorist attack). From Shaddiq’s POV, he’s definitely sitting pretty after this episode

I did think it was likely that Vim was going to die because of Shaddiq’s betrayal, but I did not anticipate *who* was going to kill him. Poor Guel lived, but he’s going to need a LOT of therapy, and I’m honestly not sure where he’s going after this: it’s likely he’s not going to be blamed for Vim’s death since, due to the terrorists’ use of Jeturk mobile suits and Guel’s own MIA status, it will most likely be blamed on the Earthians instead, and while previously I was pretty confident he was going to attempt to ally with Suletta, his guilt is likely to prod him to take revenge on Dawn of Fold, regardless of who he has to ally with.

Earth House all lived, yay! ...But now they know that Nika is somehow connected to the terrorists, who were Earthians, and that’s not only going raise questions about how much they can trust her, but is also going to make their existence at Asticassia much more precarious; they will likely need to rely more on their status as GUND-ARM, Inc. employees and the blessing of President Delling and Miorine to maintain their school life, and even then anti-Earthian sentiment seems poised to increase. Nika’s also going to have to be very, very careful, since she’s currently the only real loose end in Shaddiq’s plan to conceal Grassley’s involvement, and once he’s aware of that...well, I’m worried for her is what I’m saying,

So Delling lived (albeit badly wounded) which is good for Miorine’s mental health (girl’s already had enough trauma for one episode) and also because it seems dude’s got a lot of secrets between allying with Prospera for his Quiet Zero project and whatever is going on with Miorine’s mother (secrets which he’s in the best position to reveal); in a great bit of irony, his recovery is probably going to be enabled be GUND tech, the very technology he once persecuted (good thing he decided to invest in a medical prosthetics company when he did, eh?). In a morbid twist, and given that Delling is a results-driven ex-military guy, when he learns that Suletta was willing to kill in his and his daughter’s defense, he will likely give his future daughter-in-law his full approval and be pleased that she can be entrusted with Miorine’s well-being, which, yay? (no, I don’t actually think that’s a good development, Delling may not have won Worst Parent of the Year AS 122, but he’s still an asshole).

Speaking of Worst Parent of the Year: Prospera’s revenge plan continues to be enigmatic, but her level of manipulation over Suletta is terrifying at this point (and honestly, I don’t know what’s worse, the possibility that she doesn’t care about Suletta at all and the latter is just a weapon to her, or the possibility that Prospera’s worldview is so warped that, to her perspective, this *is* what loving and caring for Suletta looks like).

Remember when I mentioned that monkey’s paw wish at the start? So, it’s good that Miorine wasn’t killed (though I don’t think most people thought that likely), or kidnapped, or even separated for that long from Suletta, and she didn’t lose her dad or Earth House or her company, and her fiance is even likely to be celebrated as a hero after this...but now she has to deal with multiple traumas, including seeing a guy brutally killed in front of her, and the knowledge that there is something very wrong with Suletta at the moment, and figuring out how to deal with that. I suspect Miorine is probably going to throw herself into work for a bit after this, and part of that will hopefully include a badly needed investigation into what’s going on with Prospera, Aerial, and Suletta.

As for Suletta...Damn. 

I don’t blame her for killing that guy to protect Miorine and Delling, and ultimately I don’t think Miorine will either, it’s Suletta’s really *off* reaction to her just killing someone for the first time in her life that’s really unsettling; her state of mind is almost certainly a consequence of being traumatized by seeing people killed in front of her, combined with her mother’s long-term manipulation/gaslighting, but damn that doesn’t make seeing the effect on her any better. 

Tangentially related, I’ve been increasingly suspecting that, despite the fandom jokes contrariwise, Prospera did not intend for Suletta to fall in love with Miorine, with Prospera’s absolute neglect in informing Suletta about same-sex relationships (despite her own knowledge of such) being prime evidence, supplemented by Prospera encouraging Suletta to turn toward her (and not Miorine) whenever Suletta’s been encountering difficulty with her new relationships, and I think this is simply because outsiders could potentially weaken Prospera’s own influence (one of the main tactics in manipulating anyone involves isolating them from other relationships). Assuming that this is correct, then, Prospera’s underestimating Miorine’s ability to intervene may prove to be Suletta’s only path to salvation from her mother’s influence.