#the corrupted ankarna that is | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ivyembracertifiedbitch · 26 days

Text

FHJY Finale Thoughts: Episode 20

Disclaimer: I know I've been really negative about the last two episodes but I do actually have real criticisms, and I will try my best to not be just 'I hate this' about everything. No promises though. Also, none of this is hating the IH or Bleem. I respect that they're very fucking tired when shooting this and don't have a week in between episodes to think, and so these criticisms are made with that in mind. Also feel free to debate and discuss, I just wanted to share my opinions and try to pinpoint where the narrative went wrong, or where BLeeM could've made a better DM choice, but I love hearing other people's thoughts!

The Battle

The allies: Again, they have too many advantages! There is no concern here! Also, having the allies would've been more helpful at the beginning of the fight. Now? When half of The Rat Grinders are dead? When they've already hurt Porter and Jace? We know how this goes, just break out the champagne already. I appreciate that Brennan made it a Nat 20 check though, that was for me. (I do like the callback to the calling for Sklonda and the police from the freshman year finale.)

Served up a plate of redemption arc: Let's be clear here. Fig did not try to give Ruben redemption. She helped brutally kill his friends and told him 'join us or meet the same fate.' And he stuck to his guns. I'm positive that if the Bad Kids had been remorseful at all, then Ruben would've given it some serious consideration, but like this? No dice.

Kipperlilly Copperkettle: Fucking W's this entire battle. That speech Brennan gave was undeniably false and full of contradictions though. She is the definition of what Aguefort defines as a hero, but because she's antagonistic to the Bad Kids, suddenly she's a villain or boring. Also, no practical application? She dug up a teacher's grave! She killed Buddy! She might've killed more people! Her stealth is just that good that she wasn't seen at all this year! There's no world where anyone can reasonably say she has no practical application.

Mary Ann: Yeah, again. The fact that she's willingly taking 18d10 lava damage to try and kill Fig, this is undeniably a meltdown, and if anyone makes fun of it, I'm meeting them in the parking lot outside. Also, telling her she chose the wrong team, they don't know TRG! Those are her friends! How dare they say she chose the wrong team, they didn't even choose their team! Whatever!

Jace and Porter: Let's be honest for a minute here, without them in episode 20, I don't think I would've even had the strength to finish the episode. (My take on their dynamic is Jace is over here having sex with his coworker and then Porter rage stars him. And gives him 6/7 kids to watch over. Jace isn't getting paid enough for any of this. Porter chose him because he's really fucking angry under the cheerfulness, and that would be useful as a worshipper. And sometimes they fuck. Also, they hate each other.) They're literally divorcing during this fight but they were never married. They're so fun!

Squeem and Balthazar: I think the problem with this fight is that it didn't feel serious enough. There was no worry for the Bad Kids, we knew Porter and Jace would be taken out, we had a ton of allies, the victory was guaranteed and so no one was taking it seriously. Because of that, we kinda lost the plot. In past IH seasons, they've been pretty good about keeping the tone of the finale serious, if not a little goofy, and it feels odd to just have a ton of bits in the finale and then try to go into emotional shit. None of it matters! The plot was set up in earlier episodes, but we didn't give a shit about it here! (I have no problem with them being funny, this is the chill 'nothing's serious' season, but also we've been serious before! We've had plot before! It's just kinda disappointing. Also, I don't give a shit about Squeem or Balthazar at all because they were here for maybe 1 or 2 episodes)

Dispel magics: Given the way the finale goes, I'm glad they didn't just pull out dispel magics on The Rat Grinders (the whole 'rage stars completely take over you and change your personality' bullshit is not my vibe), and I'm taking it to mean dispel magics probably didn't work after you've had the rage star for too long, but why? They were just kids too! Operating under the rage stars! They didn't even try to un-ragify any of TRG! No fucking empathy to be seen in this house.

Agent Cuspin Clark: I get that he's one of Brennan's self-inserts, he's also a cop, and only funny as a bit. I want him dead.

Ankarna: I would've liked to have seen more of a split, like, Porter is here and calling on her as the goddess of War, and Fig's here calling on her as the goddess of Justice. I would've liked some back and forth between her and the two of them. Like Porter being like 'kill them all' and Ankarna agreeing and Fig asking 'is this just?' and Ankarna being split between the two. As above, so below.

Divine Intervention: I'll be honest, just a solid fuck no. Fuck. No. I'm aromantic, so maybe this is something funny for the allo's, but I genuinely don't understand why. First off, like maybe only 5% of teenagers actually care about their virginity. They're all too busy with other things to worry about if they've had sex or not, no-one cares. Second, the idea that you HAVE to lose your v-card sometimes feels like it's bordering on the edge of sexual coercion. Sex is great, no-one should feel like they have to lose their virginity, or like any of that fucking matters. (I'm not blaming Fabian or Mazey, or any of the other Bad Kids, (I have some really good Thoughts™ on Fabian and his relationship with sex re: Sophomore Year, but that's not for this post) I think they're just parroting what they've heard and they don't realize what they're doing, but still.) And the fact that it's posed as an injustice and not, y'know anything to do with his family, or him being a maximum legend, or hell, the fact that he's going to have a half-sibling that his mother is going to be present for? Sex isn't that important. Also, I know it's funny to have an extremely powerful goddess do something funny, but I think it's an injustice (lol) to Ankarna to have her care about specifically this. Also, Ankarna's not mad about him lying to her? About him trying to kill her?

Epilogue

Riz being unfair to Fig and Kristen: I don't honestly think Riz has been unfair to Fig and Kristen throughout this season. (Yes, I'm mad he didn't do more introspection about him and Kipperlilly being foils. No, this is separate from that). Like, maybe if he had been forcing them to do it all on their own, then yeah. But he's out here helping Kristen's campaigns. He's taking stress tokens so Kristen can pass. He's helping Fig manage her workload and figure out what she wants to do with classes. And he does need them to do well so he can go to college so if he's a little overbearing, who cares? (Yeah I really think he should've had some introspection on him being similar to Kipperlilly. Because prevent change? Promoting fairness has like nothing to do with preventing change.)

Vignettes: Those were sweet honestly. Not a lot of notes there, it is a HARD pivot from silly to emotional, but it's sweet once you get over that.

Ankarna: I get that it's comedy, and it's really fucking funny to have a goddess be really fucking powerful and then turn around and make her nice or whatever, but Ankarna's not going to be a chill god! Even when she's not the goddess of war and conquest, her domain is summer, justice, conviction. None of these things are chill! These are all intense things, and justice can be very black and white. I don't know, I'm just annoyed that there's this running trend of 'if you're a god of the Bad Kids then you're nice, and if not, then you're either a dick or a turncoat or useless.' Gods are gods. They're fucking neutral, and people are either going to like them or hate them or not give a shit about them, but none of that means they're good or bad. Also, Fig's worship of Ankarna, despite how sweet it seems, really does have the feeling of 'he doesn't know what's good for you, but I do, and it's what you want to be (provided you want to be the uncorrupted version of you).' Which is very terms and conditions, I want you to be you as long as you are "good."

Hypocrisy: It's really funny that in the middle of battle, it's 'brutally kill the kids, even once we realize that a dispel magic has a chance of removing the rage stars' and outside of battle it's 'people aren't just black and white. they can be bad but they don't deserve to get sliced in half.' This is the function of DnD, to kill the bad guys mercilessly, which means playing with foils and doubt and anger doesn't work with a 2 episode combat finale.

Kalina: She wasn't evil. She simply wasn't. She's a fucking familiar, and tied to Cassandra, and can't be evil. This is full retcon behavior, and it fucking sucks. I hate it.

Mary Ann: I will scream it to the fucking roof if I have to, just because she's autistic, does not mean she was unaware. Just because she followed along with the plan at first, doesn't mean she didn't stay with the group for three years, full of rage. She's not evil either, she's 17 and fully manipulated, just like the rest of TRG. Every single IH is being weird about her. (But slay, for voting for yourself.)

Henry: He loves his nephew! Why isn't he doing anything? And if he was here the entire time, what, he's just fine that Fig eternally damned Ruben? Get yourself a personality!

Lucy: One, I think it's really funny if Lucy does in fact have a mini crush on Kristen and that's part of why Kipperlilly hates Kristen so much. Two, I am a firm believer in Lucy having also, at the very least, disliked the Bad Kids so I'm not a fan of her in the finale episode. Also, she's allowed to be glad they were killed, they killed her first, but to make no mention of Kipperlilly not coming back? Just nothing? (I adore Lucy being Kipperlilly's best friend and also crush, and Kipperlilly being Lucy's crush but Ruben being her best friend. The implications.) There was so much emphasis put on her coming back that to just have like 10 seconds of conversation with her and move on, dead wife montage for real.

The Rage Stars: Nope. Nope. Fucking nope. Nope. Forgetting everything they did? Then who gives a shit? They're all fucking innocent and nothing matters and you brutally killed 6 teenagers for no fucking reason and everything's sunshine and unicorns. Just, every teenager is so fucking angry, and the fact of being a teenager is you have to deal with the consequences. So if you full on beat up a dude, you have to go to school with them until you graduate (they'll get over it in like a month). Like, in reality, the rage stars most likely just amplify any rage they actually have, but don't completely change their personality. This season is about 'chaos isn't cute anymore,' so to have TRG do a bunch of shit but face no consequences is. The themes guys, the themes! Also, the idea that Oisin and Ivy remember more because what, they were more willing to be angry? Every single one of them was willing to be angry. And Kipperlilly's dead! Staying dead! Because she "willingly" chose it? After being manipulated by an older teacher, who we know is charming enough to deceive Fig and Gorgug, how willing do you think it was? But whatever!

Refusing to bring back KLCK: Honestly, refusing to bring back Kipperlilly highlights the problem a lot of people have with mental disorders, which is that you can be mentally ill, as long as you NEVER hurt anyone, or as long as you don't have an "evil" disorder. I've seen a lot of people headcanon Kipperlilly with more demonized disorders (I've seen BPD, Bipolar, OCD (real OCD, not the romanticized bullshit), personally I think she's repping us NPD peeps, but they're all great headcanons) and I think it really speaks to the way that some people see certain disorders as evil. You can be mentally ill, but god forbid you need attention to be normal, or have intrusive thoughts about murdering your best friend, or etc etc. Y'know what? God forbid mentally ill people do a murder.

Mary Ann "Redemption?": Just full on. If Mary Ann/Gorgug have 0 haters, assume I'm fucking dead and there's no afterlife. First off, the Bad Kids have been weird to her all season. Half of them have been terrified of her, and calling her evil, for tackling Gorgug, in a game where the MAIN GOAL is to tackle your opponents!! The other half of them have been infantilizing her and acting like she had no choice in anything and was just forced to join TRG. So the idea that she'd be just cool with that, is only acceptable if we take the idea that losing the rage star means you lose all the memories of what you did under the rage star. Also, the idea that as a female character, she's only redeemable (to Gorgug) if she's a potential romantic interest strikes me as misogynistic. Like, no! Just let her be a friend! I'd take weird sidekick friend over Gorgug's girlfriend. (None of this is on Mary Ann, she can have whoever she wants. I don't like the Bad Kids' side of it).

Worshiping Cassankarna going viral: I know the problem at the start of this season was that Cassandra didn't have enough followers, but also like the first essay Kristen writes is about how not every religion needs to have a ton of followers. Isn't it more important that people believe strongly than that you're well-known? (Also, them getting on Tracker for backing her religion with money, but making her religion go viral is like. Double standards.)

Arianwen: She lost her magic. How is she able to be a powerful wizard at work in the forest without magic? (Adaine and Aelwyn do deserve to kill her though, as a treat!)

Telemaine Lomenelda: Right, so that weirdly pointed racist remark he made to Riz, we're just going to be cool with that? Also, to leave Wolfsong in charge of Kei Lumennura and then turn around and be like, Tracker's not in charge anymore. Who's running Kei Lumennura? Nara? Because the IH seem to think she's too stupid for anything.

The child: That child is not Fabian's nemesis, it is the other way around, and he slowly falls in love and keeps pushing the date where he fights the kid back and back until it's just a family joke at that point. Fight with the wall. (I know, comedy show, this one's just a complaint. I think it's more funny if the child full on loves Fabian and he's over here like 'I will kill you when you're 18. Now, time for a nap!')

Wolfsong and Tracker: My thoughts on Wolfsong are just. Tracker wasn't doing anything wrong with Wolfsong. It's not like she went to a place and said 'your religion is wrong, worship my superior religion'. Tracker is providing a different view on Galicaea and we know not every elf believes the way she does! But she's not telling them they're wrong, she's leaving them alone! And having a little money is not the worst thing. Giving people a free place to sleep and free food is not the worst thing in the world. And calling Wolfsong a cult when the Bad Kids walked in, got a tent and hot chocolate and were able to have fun despite not being believers? (I know they're Tracker's friend, hush) Like, she cares about people and she's giving them somewhere to go. And they're not in a basement covered in mosquito bites so is it all bad? It does feel like a nice 'gotcha' moment for the IH so they can be like 'we were right for completely distrusting our close friend and her religion and her girlfriend, because that's what good friends do!'

Girlfriends and exes: Look, if Tracker and Kristen want to be messy exes who get back together again, I'm fucking all for it. I love them in an off again on again situationship. I also love Gertie and Naradriel, and it really feels like this is just to reward Kristen, and not like, an actual decision Tracker would've made. Also, calling Naradriel stupid? I am always up to bat for her! I can not stop defending her or people will think she's just a dumb kid! I think Gertie should absolutely hold a grudge, but to make her be all 'you should've never kissed me if it wasn't going to be forever' and then everyone laughing at Gertie feels iffy. Because that is how it feels in high school, and obviously that's a stupid way of feeling, but it's equally real and valid. And also it feels like another 'gotcha!' moment for Kristen to be like 'yes, I'm hurting someone's feelings, but they're being weird about it so it's fine, and I'm still a good person.'

See Episode 19 thoughts here

#for the 'which is fine's: i do genuinely think some of these choices were good character choices just not good narrative choices #i did like this season and up to the finale it actually seemed fun. i just think there was some problem with having three different #antagonists (1. the rat grinders 2. stress 3. jaceporter) and ankarna + cassandra's corruption as a plot point and trg being foils to the #bad kids as a plot point + their individual story arcs. it was all really ambitious and with the strike happening during i think it was too #much to put together in a good narrative under the deadline #but y'know. egg on my face for getting attached to the ''villain''#the rat grinders #the bad kids #kristen applebees simulacrum #porter cliffbreaker #jace stardiamond #squeem fh #balthazar fh #ankarna fh #cassandra fh #mazey phaedra #kalina fh #henry hopclap #lucy frostblade #arianwen abernant #telemaine lomenelda #tracker o'shaughnessey #gertie bladeshield #princess naradriel #fhjy #mine

48 notes · View notes