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Spoilers for Cloudward Ho! Below, it’s just me talking about the intro and what we’ve seen so far, but just in case

So looking through the intro, I figured the screenshots are probably in chronological order, since the Zephyr leaving the MacCloude farm is first, then the dinosaur jungle. In that case, we next have:

- some kind of junk pit, where machines are burning scrap (I assume this is Zern, in part because the grabber has red eyes, which we now know is a Zern machine thing from Torse). This has spawned a mini-theory for me that Zern see Straka as some kind of saviour figure, and they’re burning their scrap in order to help or empower it. Also, it’s only a few seconds long, but the POV of the shot makes me think Olethra might be sneaking in disguised using the mech, because it looks a lot like the POV has some kind of metal face covering.

- next is the underwater portal. I think this is how the temple can be both underwater and flying at the same time. The temple itself is flying up high, but the doorway into it is hidden underwater. It’s why Van is the missing piece, because no one else can survive diving so deep without a submarine (like Comfrey). I also think it might be Van’s POV, since the breathing tube is cut but the person seems to be moving forward fine. Maybe Van goes down there in a diver’s suit, and ends up becoming semi-aquatic, able to breathe?

- the final scene seems pretty clearly the inside of Straka. The core beats like a heart, there’s clear heat and fire symbolism, and something I only saw while rewatching the intro on repeat is the very few frames at the beginning of the shot, that show curved metal was covering the core, very much like a beak opening. Also, the inside looks very much like it’s big enough for a person (which makes sense, whoever built Straka probably wanted to work on its inside as well), but it opens the incredibly cool possibility that Straka might not just be a fight, but a battle set, akin to the Bear in Burrow’s End.

- Then the final shot of the Zephyr in the sky. There’s a pretty suspicious lack of ground, so I’m not sure if this is them returning to Gath or just a very generic, titular shot, but either way it looks very cool.

Obviously this isn’t every plot point, since it has nothing about the Fehujar and there are going to be plot twists not obvious in the intro, but since the Dinosaurs came around ~episode 5, I think these’ll be where new locations/enemies will show up.

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Until further evidence is shown I will assume Cloudward Ho came about because the Intrepid Hero’s had so much fun in the Seacaster Manor fight from FHJY, and have since pitched a show entirely based of fighting on pirate ships in the sky.

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I’m rewatching Starstruck right now, and I’m so partial to the idea that cerebroslugs are most known for being symbiotes instead of parasites. Like the green eyes make it pretty obvious, and the slug can’t hide them in any meaningful way, so sometimes you’ll meet up with a friend and their eyes are bright green, and it’s like ‘oh, I found the little guy in a jar in an abandoned building, he’s super chill and mostly just wants company, so we’re chilling.’ And because the eyes are so obvious, it’s clear when someone has been parasatized because the slug refuses to give up control.

Which is especially funny, because it might mean that everyone the Wurst met completely knew that Norman had been cerebroslugged, but they just assumed he was cool with it, since no one else was slugged or freaking out. At most, Weatherall would notice it being weird, but they only met up-once, maybe, before the big fight. Maybe Weatherall just didn’t want to bring it up, in case Normal got too curious about what was going on in his brain.

At the end, they’re re-meeting everyone, and everyone outside the Gunner Chanel is trying to figure out why Skip and Norman are talking about symbiosis. Were they not already doing that?

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This is a complete crack au idea right now, but I’ve just thought about a Senior Year where, somehow, Bakarath becomes the adopted kid of Cassandra and Ankarna.

Maybe after the Bad Kids have solved whatever Sol/Helio problem they’ve got going on, and they’re just left with a God Toddler, and some of them are decent with kids (Kristin) but they really don’t have time to babysit a kid while going to college, so they call up their Goddesses.

I can see Bakarath becoming a God of the kind of anger that is unproductive, but needs to be felt. Like Rage rooms, where in small amounts they help with destressing or working through emotions. Of course, those things should be tempered by doubt and conviction, to put those feelings into a healthy or productive state, so having the Child God (who maybe stays a child?) of anger be overseen by Cassandra and Ankarna might be for the best.

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Honesty I think we should be grateful that Riz is so committed to his noir detective (and later accidental hipster) vibes because if he wasn’t he would chug energy drinks like the water he’s supposed to.

Like yeah, coffee can be bad for you in large doses and Riz doesn’t have the healthiest caffeine habit, but give him a drink with twice the caffeine in easy to store and convenient to carry in a briefcase cans, and he would be so much worse.

He had to talk himself into giving the energy drink to Gorgug because it was a good strategy decision, and not because otherwise Riz would have downed it in three seconds.

I think Gorgug drinks them a lot because Orc/barbarian combo means he needs the energy just to stay awake (he also eats so much, barbarian metabolism is no joke) and he has to hide his stash whenever Riz comes over in case the goblin sees the caffeine dose and decides to steal them.

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Once again going insane about the parallels between the Applebee’s family and their gods.

Kristin first hearing Sol’s voice as her dad’s.

Kristin, at her most stressed and tired, being the frat-guy, bro type that she saw when she met Helio.

Kristin’s parents thinking she left because of some corrupting force instead of her own realisations about the church. Galicaea and Sol not completely understanding how Cassandra died, and assuming it was The Nightmare King instead of her own followers.

Cassandra marrying a giant goddess from another Pantheon. Kristin being the first of her family to welcome those her parents are against.

Bucky (who I believe was set up to be Ankarna’s champion, although I love Emily’s character choice with Fig) seeing his sister change, then leave. Like Casandra watching Ankarna change and die. Bucky becoming what he is scared of, like NMK.

Bucky, a younger sibling, fighting his sister’s adventuring party, but maybe never being truly able to hurt his sister. Ankarna refusing to hurt Ruvina and Cassandra.

A bad ending where Kristin has to kill Bucky to get the shatter star out of him. Ruvina having to kill her sister to save her.

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Fantasy High Senior Year is actually the Bad Kids finding out Buddy Dawn has convinced his grandad to pray for Sol/Helio to back Bakawrath as a religion, and now the lvl 20 Bad Kids have to fight Sol, Helio and their angels while convincing Galicaea to join their Lesbian Goddess pantheon. This is how we keep the challenge while the PC’s are such high level.

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Crown of candy au where, instead of implementing himself into the church as a miracle worker, Lapin puts his rogue skills to use and becomes an undercover investigator/assassin for the Bulbian church (because you know they have an entire network of people to influence and enforce the Bulbian faith, and get a foothold in other lands).

He’s good at it too, to the point where they’re sending him into royal houses to get the secrets and gossip, under the guise of a guard/church worker/servant for months at a time. During the war, he ran info between groups and assassinated soldiers on both sides. The uppers of the church request him by name for their most high risk problems. He does use his magic in secret, but it’s mostly illusions and tricks. Then he’s given the job of infiltrating Castle Candy.

They ask him because he would fit in well, and because it’s a long con for them to take out house Rocks. He joins originally as a tutor, since he’s already been involved in so many royal houses, and he has politics and statesmanship down to a point. After an incident when the princesses were young, he also became their personal guard, and started teaching them rogue tricks in secret.

When the tournament happens, Lapin is in charge of poisoning the king. He makes it look like the church’s ineptitude is the reason the assassination failed, and because of that Liam doesn’t use magic, and when the church turns on Candia, Lapin has almost four decades of secrets he’s amassed to bring them even lower.

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I’m rewatching FH freshman year, and I’m now imagining a scenario where, because Dayne died before Penelope was crowned, it nullifies the prophecy.

Because yes, a king was crowned, but he died before the Queen was, and it’s not like there was a line of succession. From the moment Dayne died, the throne was open. Plus, prophecies are famously ruled by their wording, and it does say when a ‘king and queen are crowned anew.’ A world where both of them needed to be on the throne at the same time, except Dayne is dead. And neither Kalvaxus or Penelope can revivify him.

Penelope grabs her crown, raises it to her head (there’s another situation here where she declares herself Queen, rather than being fairly elected, and therefore is not technically an elected ruler), and nothing happens, because Dayne is dead, twenty feet away and surrounded by vicious 14 year olds.

There’s a world where the Bad Kids kill Penelope as a precaution, and since Kalvaxus can’t do anything with his power bound, the police rock up to a bunch of seniors still freaking out in the parking lot, two dead bodies, a dragonborn complaining about his ‘plan,’ and a group of freshman who should be in jail, but also have a list of evidence to suggest that the Dragonborn wanted to kill everyone.

(And then an hour later Sandra-lynn returns with seven girls who corroborate the story, and with the maidens unchained Penelope and Dayne are revived and decrowned)

(Arthur is there, muttering about prophecies, and no one’s really sure how he got back, but they’re also not really going to ask)

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Honestly, I love the scenes of the Bad Kids we get where they’re all being incredibly competent, like the scene in the temple, or in Freshamn year when they uncover Kalvaxus plans with the crowns, bank, ect. But I’d love to imagine that that carries over into normal, every day actions too.

The Bad Kids are staying over at the Manor and Sarah Lynn comes down to all six of them preparing breakfast like it’s a military operation because they woke up late and need to be at school on time.

The Thistlesprings ask for their help decorating the glade for another festival and it’s completed a day early because no one wants to disappoint them (and someone gave both Riz and Adaine clipboards and pens).

Hallarial comes back from a weekend away to see the entire house has been baby proofed and the nursery is complete. Fabian declares his nemesis would need to be kept decently safe until the day they fight, and that a good nursery would keep the baby from crying all the time. There is a pirate ship on the wall.

The Leviathan Library gets attacked, and a large number of the books are out of order. Ayda and Aelwyn mention it in passing, and the Bad Kids make a bed fort in the central area and spend an evening reshelving the entire library, including a pully system and a message group of Kristin repeating the dewey-decimal system over and over again, since she’s not allowed on the ladder to the higher shelves.

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Oh my god, I just realised. Was Ragh affiliated with the church of Helios?

Because he was a member of the Owlbears when Coach Daybreak was on. He was a favoured player, and Daybreak clearly trusted him enough to help with moving the arch. Even if he wasn’t an actual follower, I wouldn’t put it past Daybreak to give teachings to his players, and since Ragh followed Coach so much, maybe he internalised it.

I know a lot of the internalised homophobia of Ragh was a masculine thing, but maybe there were also some background religious teachings that enforced it, and Ragh had to unlearn a religion he didn’t even know he was following.

Did Ragh and Kristin have talks about it, with Kristin telling him the context of the teachings, and the two of them unlearning them together?

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Honestly, out of all the Rat Grinders+Bad Kids, the one interaction I wanted that we never got is Kipperlily and Gorgug.

Because it’s sort of implied in Freshman Year that Gorgug has had issues with controlling his rage in a way that II read as ‘he’s gotten in trouble before for hurting other people while in a rage, and that makes him repress his anger.’ And the Thistlesprings are great, but it’s shown that they sometimes ignore Gorgug’s rage issues, or give solutions that aren’t entirely effective. And KLCK has her unaddressed anger issues that the adults in her life ignore, so she doesn’t get the help she needs.

Also, their backgrounds are arguably the most similar. Gnomes and Halflings live close together in Elmville (i think), and both sets of parents are regular people with steady jobs and no adventurous background. The only difference is Gorgug being adopted, and even then the Thistlesprings never treated him like an outsider, or purposefully excluded him.

Just imagining KLCK seeing Gorgug, acclaimed adventurer, known rockstar, pioneering Barbaficer, and wondering if she could have channelled her anger like that. If she got the support from friends and parents that Gorgug did, would she still feel the need to be so angry?

And Gorgug, seeing KLCK want the trauma of his friends, wondering if he could have been that. Did he ever want something to happen to him that would justify his rage? Did he ever think that he wasn’t allowed to be angry unless he was hurt like his friends were? There’s no reason he would have known who KLCK was, but if he did, would he have been able to help her with her anger, like his friends did with him? Maybe it’s why Gorgug never made fun of her name the way the others did. Maybe there’s a moment of recognition there, that it could have been him.

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My favourite trope in fanfiction is actually time-travel meeting, where the younger ones can see that things do actually get better, and the older ones can see that they have actually changed, and they’ve achieved so much. And I think the Bad Kids are primed for that kind of thing.

I’m imagining that they’ve been graduated for a few years, they’ve got their own careers, but they do still adventure pretty regularly and are a well known party. Then, they’re fighting something that’s gotten ahold of a chronomancy object, and when one of the BKs tries to grab it, they (and the thing they’re fighting) are sent back in time.

Meanwhile, it’s the second day of freshman year, everyone is still standing outside, waiting for the first bell, the younger BKs are whispering about what the corn means, when a huge monster falls through a rip in time and crushes one of the statues near the front doors. Then, before anyone can do anything, six full grown adventurers are destroying it and grabbing the watch and pulling each other up, congratulating each other, laughing.

Goldenhoard tries to go up to them and ask what’s going on, and the goblin on the half-orc’s shoulders pulls out a gun and shoots him point blank. Everyone’s confused as hell, and the group don’t seem to know where they are. Until someone mentions the date, and then they just look kind of exhausted. At the end of the day, when the young BKs try to go to Krom’s to spy on Johnny Spells, they find older versions of themselves, who spent the day reminding themselves what happened and figuring out how to help with Freshman Year level problems, including-

-Fig getting Gorthalax out, sitting all her parents and younger self down and having a talk about how best to keep communication open and be kinder to yourselves, since they all want each other to be happy.

-Fabien has a long talk with both of his parents, getting his mom sober earlier, and a talk with younger him about being your own person and living up to expectations.

-Adaine pulls younger her from her family, and gets Aelwyn to chill. She does get her parents out of Elmville, via Blackmail or other means, with the implicit threat of punching them to death. She now has two younger sisters, and encourages the type of emotional self expression that was previously repressed.

-Riz giving his younger self the schedule he works on, including breaks for all meals and six hours of sleep each night. He doesn’t allow younger him to fall int the bad habits he did. He also tells his mom a little bit about his dads new job, and they have a happy cry about it.

-Gorgug gives his parents the schematics for a reinforced bed and a few of his works. Younger Gorgug is a little starstruck that older him is so cool, and Gorgug takes a minute to explain to younger him that he deserves to have the things he puts effort and thought into pay off, that he deserves to take pride in the cool things he could accomplish.

-Kristin gets younger her to speed run an entire theological breakdown, reassures her at every step, and gets her into a more relaxed, solid mindset with a support system outside of her family. She also has to find a smart way of getting young Kristin to realise she’s a lesbian without sending her into a crisis, and is semi-successful.

-Throughout the year, the older BKs have run ins with their parents, go about fixing problems for Sophmore and Junior year (they stop Porter’s plan, and when he runs off Gorgug ends up being a substitute Barbarian teacher for half the year). They’re trying to figure out how to get back to their time. The ending is either Kristin dying to Coach Dawn and bringing Arthur back, who can send them back, or they can’t go back, so now there’s two versions of the BKs running around, and if both groups are in one place, everyone else evacuates, because something is about to go down.

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Set of missing scenes where the BKs meet Kipperlily and parents outside of school and are the nicest, most cordial teenagers ever. Ranging from earning parents favour (Fabian) to not caring about school drama in the outside world (Riz) to just genuinely being polite (Gorgug) to not realising it’s Kipperlily (Kristin) to messing with her (Fig).

Adaine has never been nice to Kipperlily a day in her life, and she can’t be bothered to pretend now. She uses her Customer Service Voice on the parents, which honestly freaks Kipperlily out the most.

It's a shame that Fabian’s knowledge of Halfling never came up this season because I want to know how much Kipperlilly would be shocked by it.

Like just imagine her and her parents running into Fabian at a Halfling takeout place (he was craving Cathilda’s food). The two of them lock eyes for a moment and while Kipperlilly grimaces, Fabian starts smiling and gives her a little wave before ordering from the menu in perfect Halfling. With an accent, of course, her and her parents certainly didn't speak with such a brogue, but he speaks it with such fluency that it throws her for a loop. It's like he's known it from birth. But that’s impossible, right?

Not according to her parents, who remark at how lovely Cathilda Celi’s boy seems to be. Oh, they wonder how she's doing, she's been gone for quite some time. And before Kipperlilly knows it, her parents are waving Fabian over. Leaving her only to quietly watch and fume as Fabian speaks to the Copperkettles with such a degree of politeness that she almost gags over it. Only using the most gracious and deferential honourifics for them as he chats them up. Stuff she'd reserve only for if she was trying to impress a date's parents.

By the end of the interaction, her parents are wowed and gush over Fabian’s manners while Kipperlilly wants him dead even more than before.

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Imagining a Fantasy high Junior year where the rest of the students get involved with the BK’s. There are so many times that bad things happen, and the Bad Kids are isolated from the other students so they have no clue.

Like, the last stand. Thinking of Arthur, instead of making clones, makes the last stand a whole school production, with the Students as the audience. The last stand is a ‘once a decade’ kind of test, due to the difficulty, and a perfect example of adventuring, so it’s very exciting. The students can’t interact with the fight, but the BKs have some kind of microphones, and a screen of spells and stats for the audience. The students can’t be hit, but the proctor still can.

The rest of the students seeing how competent the BK’s are in fighting. Kristin and Fig will have no problem getting followers after this. People are filming Fabian’s fights to put music to. No one can see Riz, but that’s kind of the point, and it’s a game to find any trace of him. Adaine is the most organised, respected Wizard example, even in so much chaos. When Gorgug almost solos that purple worm, at least one person faints.

And they’re joking. They’re having regular conversations. Half the time, there’s no forewarning, they’re just changing tactics on a heel turn, and they’re all on the same page. Those questions are out and answered so quickly, there isn’t a chance for the audience to give an answer. Every correct answer is a slam dunk. The stats on Fig’s damage output is insane. There was a exactly one wrong answer and it’s extra credit.

Then Buddy goes down. I think the plan was for the BKs to have no chance of revivify, so as long as none of the students see KLCK, she goes through with it. So long as the BKs are dead, no one can accuse the Rat Grinders without proof. But they don’t go down. Instead, the rest of the student body see Kristin, after a quick internal battle, run for the guy that she’s had public arguments with, try to save him even as the rest of her party finish the fight. They try to save Buddy, and the Students see it. They see there’s no diamonds, and it’s understood that there was never a plan to revivify the BKs. But they didn’t need to be.

The BKs somehow become even more cool. Gorgug’s little ‘sit down’ gets him a cult following. When Buddy shows up, claiming someone came along after to revivify him, the rest of the students show him how the BKs tried to help. The Rat Grinders, with that kind of attention, go even further underground, and the rest of the students are more and more suspicious about their involvement in the BKs almost-death.

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Fantasy high au where over the course of four years, The Bad Kids all end up with online followers for wildly different reasons, and it makes the rest of Solace realise that this disaster group of teenagers are responsible for their continued existence (many times over).

-As in canon, Fig has all her music accounts. However, they all link to her personal accounts (not including any from before freshman year). On her personals, there are plenty of clips of her and the rest of the BK, starting halfway through Freshman year. She has a Fantasy YouTube account where she shows concert clips and music demos, but also running complications of each bad kid being cool/stupid/insane. The highest viewed video is Riz and Adaine pulling Fig into a magic debate, with the quote ‘someone get Kristin, I think they might actually kill each other’.

-Kristin actually gets involved on social media at the end of Freshman year. She starts with taking about her deity ‘yes!’ but also includes stories about unlearning toxic religious teachings, and how to deal with changing/leaving a religion. She gets a lot of ex-religious followers, although few of them actually follow ‘yes!’ When she starts talking about Cassandra at the end of Junior year, a lot of her followers get behind it. Highest viewed video is introducing her Sibling Bucky, who talks about following an older sibling who’s been denounced and escaping a religion as a pattern in families.

-Riz starts his social medias during the summer of Freshman year, when he gets his license and starts getting clients. He has a separate, personal Fantasy YouTube account that’s a mix of reviewing mystery-genre media (books, films, ect), and advice for adventurers (think Polygon Unravelled meets Monster manual guides). Highest video is rating all the enemies the BK’s have fought in their time, with the quote ‘Porter was strong, but he also relied on angry teenagers to be subtle and organised, so that’s a flaw.’

-Adaine is next, takes an idea from Riz and talked about her favourite media, as well as advice to other Wizards. Guides on memorising spell chants. Organising material components. She has Jawbone on some videos to talk about how to deal with the mental effects of adventuring. Most of her videos are very calm and easy to listen to, with a few insane clips of the BK’s thrown in, usually when demonstrating a spell. Highest viewed video is a blurry clip of a car on fire. In the background, Fig is howling laughing. We hear Riz say ‘what have we learned.’ The camera flips, and Adaine’s blank face says ‘do not punch a car to see how far it’s thrown.’ End clip.

-Fabian is terminally offline, and only joins the others online at the end of Sophmore year. His videos are a mix of dancing and fighting techniques. He goes through steps easily, from beginner to expert. His fighting videos include the rest of the bad kids as opponents. He sometimes does talk over them to give advice, but there are also complete dances and fights set to music with no talking. Highest viewed video is his first dance with Mazey. It’s not a ‘couple dance’ it’s almost like breakdancing, but you can tell the two have high chemistry together.

-The group channel is started at the beginning of Junior year. It’s mostly clip compilations, to begin with, since everyone is incredibly stressed and busy, but as the year goes on there’s videos of the snowball fight at moonar yulenear, the frostyfair. Debates between Riz and Adaine, Godess talks with Fig and Kristin. At least half of their videos are the BK’s doing something insane and documenting results, ranging from ‘fantasy jackass’ to ‘fantasy myth busters’ depending on who’s involved. Highest viewed video is Fig surfing a lava river, following Fabian who is riding the Hangman through the same river like a jetski. Adaine is standing on the other bank, holding an ice bag.

-Gorgug is surprisingly last. The audience know about him, he’s appeared in Figs music, Fabian’s fighting, Riz talked about his gadgets and the group channel includes him as much as the rest of the BKs. He just doesn’t really think there’s anything for him to have his own channel for. Until there’s a group video where Fig needs a gadget, and the audience get to see Gorgug’s workshop, where he’s currently working on a robotic, fox-like creature that jumps up on Fig when she walks in. His channel is sort of a Michael Reeves type, where he does such impressive engineering for the most insane reasons. Highest viewed video is a workshop tour that includes three fires, at least one of which is Figs fault. The thumbnail is Gorgug watching the fire on his desk with a completely straight face.