#Also why tf would a horde of hungry citizens just run into two(!) roses chillin outside Phobos' garden?

[randomsnakesimp]

I so wish the comics had used the black roses curse for...something. In the cartoon, I can forgive that, as I remember them as basically a throwaway line of what should happen to some people. But in the comics...they just have such a buildup. But it never leads anywhere.

The only one who gets endangered by them in the present is Will, and that is before she and by that the reader learns about what they are.

Sure, they give motive to Daltar, but, I'm sorry, Daltar isn't a necessary person. The only use HE has is giving Elyon a bunch of flowers to get her down into the garden, but I'll just take from the way he dead up TELLS Elyon, to her face "It's from Will and her friends who have hidden in the garden" that literally anyone could have come in and just called her any place.

So, have a list, from worst to best, of my ideas on how to use the black roses:

- just give Daltar more time. I still feel a few more issues to flesh out Meridian, its people and its struggle, would have been good. By giving Daltar a bigger role, the curse now affects someone the reader cares about, and I do feel having a scene where he has a breakdown over parasites in the garden as they could literally eat his family would have added to point out why people hate Phobos.

- make it so Daltar is the one weak spot. Give Elyon and Cornelia a secret flower code or something, or let Daltar spy on Phobos, which would also make the meetings in the bathtub a more canon relevant thing.

- Have a main character be turned into a rose for some time.

- Have Cornelia break the curse before Phobos is defeated and let a raging mob at his garden.

- Have Elyon 'hear' the distressed whispers of the roses and make that one of her arguments for turning against her brother. Make it a mystery where these voices come from, maybe even let her think of the roses as something much more harmless and peaceful, like guiding fairies or the voice of nature before she finds out.

- Have Cornelia strengthen the hedge in the final battle, keeping the people in rose form but raising their power and letting them spread, maybe even to the point where Cedric or Phobos end up as a rose themselves.

- HaVe I mEnTiOnEd A rEdEeMeD pHoBoS Au YeT? Have the rose curse be a solution to a problem - if he can turn people into plants, Cornelia should be able to heal them of anything, as she can even bring dead plants back to life. Or if you need to hide someone - just plant them in your garden and don't forget to fertilize. Plague in Meridian? Pretty sure roses are immune.

- Have the people in the hedge slowly stretch their roots closer to the bathing pool, until they absorb the power Phobos leeches out of Meridian instead of him. Also, they'd see him naked but shit happens.

- Have the rose curse be the cause of another problem. Have Dark Mother find out about it and tweak it so she can assimilate her victims right into herself.