#And gorgug and Mary Ann are everything to me

[rooolt]

it’s so funny because the whole season was spent with like adaine oisin flirting, Fabian ivy flirting, fig creating a woman for Ruben to fall in love with, hell, even people shipping kipperlilly and Kristen and me specifically making jokes about kipperlilly having a crush on riz, and yet the bad kid x rat grinder ship that was canonized was better than I could have ever imagined

[sinnamon-toast-roll]

Me at the start of FHJY: oh no Gorgug and Zelda broke up! 😭 I'll never recover!

Me after the finale: *glancing between Zelda, Mary Anne, and Unit trying to figure out which is my favorite (potentially) canon Gorgug ship*

[just-a-bean-babes]

Fig is truly the Women Lover of All Time. EVERY female npc Brennan pulls up she is immediately head over heels for, and she is so real for that

[chushanye]

another list of moments that made me fucking lose it:

everything about Gorgug's interaction with Unit left me wondering what was Zac's intention when speaking with Unit I am so confused

"I'm gonna lose my virginity to that girl over there" is a brand of teenage horny that feels somehow realistic

"Kristen 2 thinks the ice is seasoned because she's just that white"

Brennan referring to Kipperlilly as "homegirl"

Brennan legit struggling with what to have Mary Ann do because of her particular brand of teenage disinterest

Fig's...entire speech to Rubin was sooo brutal, i felt bad for the guy like goddamn let him return to basic bitch status he doesn't need to be roasted to ash

"i thought maybe you were honouring something"

Ally making a Biblical reference to David and Goliath when Gorgug was fighting Porter...the fandom BETTER take good advantage of that comparison

[bloodyshadow1]

I get people being sympathetic to the Rat grinders, I really do, but the way people will out right lie about canon to make the Bad Kids the villains. The Rat Grinders are kids, they're being groomed by charismatic and dangerous teachers who they trusted, they're corrupted by rage so they're not thinking straight. At the end of the day, that makes them cultists, pitiable and sympathetic, but still villains who are perfectly willing to create a hell on earth for the plan.

I've seen posts condemning the bad kids for killing the rat grinders, I've seen posts calling the Bad Kids bullies this season, I've seen posts that blame the Bad Kids for the whole thing saying the rat grinders are just kids who are being tricked. It's all bullshit, whatever your headcanons, whatever your feelings on the Rat Grinders, they're not the good guys here and are very much the villains this season.

The bad kids killed the 3 of the rat grinders this fight, Ivy, Oisin, and Ruben. No, they didn't stop to try and reach out to them, to try and make them see the light. The Rat Grinders are trying to condemn a whole town to become the domain of a the new god of rage and murder a goddess to usurp her domain. They are high level with the capacity to cast 9th level spells regardless of their hp, with two epic level pc's with super abilities that normal class features don't cover. If the Bad Kids hesitated they would be dead, they knew that, the Rat grinders tried to murder them little over an hour ago. They've hated the bad kids for years and now decided to make their vendetta known, they fucked around and found out.

Which leads me to my second point, the Bad Kids are not bullying the Rat grinders. They're not pleasant to the rat grinders, but you don't have to be nice to the people who hate you. Other than Fig, who I will admit was messed up with how she treated Ruben this year, but also the Rat Grinders did something similar, they were just bad at it, the Bad Kids mostly ignored the Rat grinders. The worst thing the other bad Kids do to the Rat Grinders is make fun of Kipperlily's name, that's it. They don't even do it in front of other students, unless they legitimately forget her name, other than that it's only in front of each other or not other students like Alewyn or Jawbone. It's not great, but that is literally all they have done.

The Rat grinders however, have done all they could to make themselves enemies of the Bad Kids. Ivy was a mean racist bitch who helped steal the cloudrider engine and place pingpong balls all over seacaster manor for the plan. Ruben tried to get the bad kids to take drugs knowing it would get them in trouble. He intentionally had frosty fair held at Gorgug's home to corrupt it, putting not only Gorgug's family in danger but countless other people. Sure Jace had a hand in that, but at best Ruben was an accomplice. Buddy was a smug creep who vandalized Kristen's locker, threatened her brother, and demeaned her and her goddess, without being corrupted by rage. Mary Ann legitimately didn't do anything wrong this season she was just there and did her best on the field as she was supposed to (not even saying this as a joke, she has literally done nothing bad on screen so it's hard to judge her like the rest). But Oisin tried to honey pot Adaine the first week of school, stole the cloudrider engine and the pingpong ball trap, and sent a whole pack of dragons on them to murder them and hundreds of other kids. Kipperlily has been goading the bad kids since the first day of school, she has tried every dirty trick to try and win. She has murdered people, not even people affiliated with the bad kids, but people like Buddy who was on her side, she's tried to murder the bad kids or at least make sure it's harder for them to come back to life if they die, she's stolen from them, she's tried to kill them, she's done everything bad the fans have accused the bad kids of but worse.

And that's just the Rat Grinder's individually. Why are the Bad Kids monsters for killing dangerous people who have tried to kill them, but the Rat Grinders aren't? The Rat Grinders literally tried to commit mass murder of their school a little more than an hour. 500 students of the Aguefort adventuring academy were in Seacaster manor when it was brought into the sky and beset by dragons. 500 innocent bystanders, almost all children, half of them younger than both parties.

I'll get to the rage stars in another post, but I just want to finish this off with, the Rat Grinders are kids, kids who are being groomed by evil men and corrupted by magic. But the Bad Kids are just kids too. They're kids who have been specifically targeted by the rat grinders. The rat grinders started this feud, the Bad Kids retaliated and were better at it. If you're going to take a shot at the king you better not miss, and the rat grinders have been missing their shots this whole season. I don't get why people are blaming the bad kids for trying to save the world but it pisses me off. I apologize for the rant but the tag is for everyone

[whoblewboobear]

There have been a lot of negative posts about how this season turned out bc of the rat grinders exclusively and everyone is entitled to their opinions on the season. But in light of it, I’m gonna throw out some positives about this season 💖

Sophomore year will always hold a special place in my heart because of the Fabian arc but Junior year might be my favorite fantasy high season overall. I loved learning about Ankarna and Cassandra. I thought I’d be bummed out not seeing some of my fave npcs but the downtime mechanic and the stress tokens added sO much. The Porter & Jace reveal was incredible. KRISTEN’S CAMPAIGN ARC!!! Fabian and Mazey!? K2 and all the blimey shenanigans 👏 Everything with Wanda Childa and Ruben and fig’s complicated women podcast was sooooo funny. I genuinely laughed harder this season than I have with any other d20 season I’ve seen.

I feel like with this season they really hit their stride with pacing too. It felt a lot more fluid with how we rolled into combat most of the time. I loved that first party of the year and seeing Adaine become the party wizard. After ep 18 it makes me love the party with the Oisin missing his shots so much more bc he got in that nasty little one liner later. I adored that the rat grinders were essentially a red herring to keep the bad kids looking elsewhere to take the heat off Porter and Jace a bit.

We didn’t see much from all of them, and we didn’t see nearly enough about Lucy, but I really loved the Rat grinders as in school rivals for the bad kids. Ruben was hands down my favorite but goddamn did I also love how much of a girlfailure Kip was. I loved seeing her rage out and I hope we get to see her really go nuts in the finale too. I really really warmed up to Mary Ann last episode with her tugging on Jace’s shirt and saying she didn’t feel good and then seeing her rage when her strawberry got destroyed. She’s so fascinating to meeee. I loved everything with Buddy and Kristen. I wish they had more scenes together. And while I’m talking about the Dawns, that entrance from Bobby Dawn as the new cleric teacher made my skin crawl in the best way. I loved Kristen calling him frumpy and sad on her teacher evaluation too- and holy shit Fig meeting Ankarna for the first time? Ankarna being the inspiration Fig needed to make music again too?

The incredible art from Cait May this season was hands down one of my FAVORITE d20 artist collabs ever. Just overall improved designs for everyone that just make so much more sense for their characters and art for new characters that made me adore them even more. Also holy shit the Porter maxi is genuinely my favorite mini that’s ever been featured on the show. I’m typically not into how the minis look in general, they always look a lil goofy to me but goddamn when they hit, they fuckin HIT.

And speaking of Porter, I really got endeared to him this season. Yeah he turned out evil and always has been a dick to gorgug and is definitely a shit teacher, but before the reveal I loved his training with Fig and Zara. One thing about Fantasy high is that I just love a lot of the teachers. My two faves this season being Terpsichore and Henry! They’re both so dedicated to their students and are such a specific type of teacher that you’ve definitely met before in real life. Like all my favorite math teachers back in school were so much like Henry and that made me love him even more.

Of course my #1 favorite thing about the world of Spyre is the religion aspect and how Brennan and Ally both approach it. That scene with Ally connecting with Yolanda and Lucy to allow them some comfort in the afterlife was so beautiful. Kristen’s talks with Bucky throughout the season were very touching and hit very close to home as someone that grew up in a religious household and doesn’t connect with the divinity I was raised on. Just- wow wow wow. I also really love that despite the breakup, Tracker and Kristen still have really interesting convos about divinity even if they don’t agree.

I loved seeing different dynamics in the bad kids too, I love the huge sibling energy that Fabian and Adaine have and the bond that Kristen and Fig have. I love how interwoven all the bad kids feel as a group. I love the little quirks that they all have, and I loved all the fandom posts about them like the sharing clothes posts and the one about how everyone lets Riz crawl on them to get better vantage points. I love Riz’s wall of text breaking down to gorgug about how much he appreciates him. Him calling gorgug a sweetie almost made me cry. I of course love all the parent/child moments this season. I loved the bad kids finally healing Lydia and seeing how happy it made Ragh. I LOVE Aelwyn and all her cats 🤧 I loved seeing Baron again and I loved how the bad kids got to the funhouse version of mordred through riz’s briefcase. I love seeing Adaine and Sandralynn bond. I loved finding out that Sandralynn and Sklonda go out for drinks and are friends. I just 💖 and goddamn, Ayda’s message to Fig and how Zara helped to surprise Fig with it. I love how Bill and Pok are such proud dads of their boys and I hope they’re doing some bonding over drinks in the after life.

And I cannot end this post without saying that I loved how cinematic this season felt too. It had INCREDIBLE imagery that you could easily visualize. Everyone at the table was in their element this time around from a role playing and a strategic standpoint. Everyone had their moment to shine and something important to do this season that fed back into the main plot. So thank you to Brennan and the intrepid heroes for giving us another killer season. After the season ended I was planning to finish Starstruck and Neverafter but I might just rewatch Junior year all over again just to get it out of my system.

Feel free to add things you loved about Junior year!

[deconstructthesoup]

Been thinking about how the Ratgrinders' relationships with each other would evolve from here... and this might be a hot take, but I actually think it would get slightly better.

Sure, there's the trauma that Lucy has of seeing her friends taken over by rage and killing her. There's the fact that Oisin and Ivy remember stuff, and Ruben doesn't remember anything. And there's the fact that Mary Ann... well, she seemed largely apathetic to everything, but seeing as she immediately asked Gorgug out as soon as she got resurrected, I'd have to say that she only appears apathetic now, as opposed to actually being apathetic.

But they're not grinding rats in the woods anymore, because that was Kipperlilly's idea. They have the opportunity to go on real, actual quests, where they can learn and connect and actually grow as a team. And you know what? It's the perfect opportunity to explore their dynamics, if we ever get a season with them a la The Seven.

Give me a scene where Oisin, Ivy, and Mary Ann are roasting people together, which eventually evolves into them just trying their hardest to make each other laugh. Give me a scene where Ruben plays a quiet little ukulele tune to calm Lucy down when she starts having flashbacks. Give me a scene where Mary Ann and Lucy are quietly curled up together, playing Quokki Pets and giving each other gameplay tips. Give me a scene where Ivy and Lucy are doing each other's hair and makeup after one of them has had a hard day and they need to unwind. Give me a scene where Oisin notices that Ruben's lagging behind and he just picks him up and carries him on his shoulders---because even now that he's not shatterstarred, he's still a lot stronger than he used to be, and maybe he might take a level in paladin, just for a little extra healing factor. Give me a scene where Ruben and Mary Ann run into battle stacked on top of each other and by the end of it they're both giggle-laughing and play-shoving each other because oh my god that was so dumb and your stupid puka shells kept on getting in my face. Give me a scene where Oisin sheepishly asks Mary Ann if she could put in a good word for him for Adaine and she immediately tells the rest of the party, causing them to tease him for the rest of the night until one of them---maybe it's Lucy, maybe it's Ivy---quietly tells him that it's okay, that he's not that person anymore, and maybe it might work out. Give me a scene where Ivy wordlessly carves little trinkets and bracelets out of wood and gives them to Ruben, because while it's still hard for her to say what she really thinks, she still wants to show them that she really does care.

Idk, man. I think they could be a great party.

[sugaldean]

Updated Bad Kids Polyamory post (probably not in junior year but later in life)

Every mentioned Rat Grinders is post therapy and counselling when they have time to rebound with their own selves

Fig is dating Ayda + relations with Gertie and Mary Ann + inconsequent one night stands with guys (all consensual now). She mostly spend time with Ayda, they live together etc but sometime she takes Gertie or Mary Ann on dates. Ayda is her half of the time and she really likes Mary Ann.

Gorgug is dating Mary Ann, Unit, Ragh, Fabian and Squeem. Those relationships vary in time, intensity and regularity and depend on the availability of everyone but he loves them all and they all love him

Adaine after a very very long time is casually dating Oisin, he got his life, she got hers but sometime their lives match and they get to hang out. It is very unclear if there's anything romantic in it. But it's nice and they like it. She also spends a lot of dates with Lucy for someone who is "not dating Lucy" but that's another thing.

Fabian is dating Mazey, Ragh and Gorgug, it's wonderful, he love it, gets plenty of kisses and they regularly prevent him for murdering his siblings

Kristen is dating Tracker (so far the broke up 7 times but it's so much better each time) and Gertie (this took a looong time), it's chaotic, it's loud but they are getting to the better versions of themselves + has a thing with Lucy? Maybe? Who knows

Riz isn't dating anyone. However he is almost all the time with Fabian, Ragh and Gorgug. He is here for some dates, for the hangouts and everything. So he is not dating them but he is not not dating them if it makes sense. He is here for the ride

Bonus: Ivy and Aelwyn finally got together. They heal together, they are mean together. It's great.

Bonus: Riz and Adaine are the ones who put up The Calendar, which is a organisation tool that everyone love but was primarily started so they stop running into people fucking at Fabian's house or Mordred Manor

I'm working on adding some of the seven in this cause you i just love big big polyamorous groups. Makes me feel safe

[lavyndyrvampyr]

Mary-ann saying "did you get mad in real life" is just so painfully and beautifully accurate to how real teenagers(at least those that I know) are, I think she's toppled my current standing for personal favorite NPC, at least in fantasy high if not all of the dimension 20 that I've seen.

She loves her quokki pet and spends her time on forums just living life. She has a deep and important connection with her strawberry. She's on the blood rush team and absolutely killing it. She's got a strange enemies/rivals to lovers esque thing going on with Gorgug. She's got that dog in her, she is everything to me and always will be. My greatest wish is for her to have more screen time

The way Brennan has characterized her by just, making her so real in this fantasy world makes it so good. We will never know her next move and also always know her next move, she's a complicated woman and she's perfect???

Like all the characters, especially the rat grinders are very three dimensional and have lots to them but Mary Ann you will forever hold my heart.

I am so very normal about this

[fastidious-and-a-mess]

gorgann is everything to me now. gorgug going i to that interaction like “do we have to (interact with her because i Dont like her)” and coming out of it like “she’s so hot”. he saw the light

and mary ann having a crush on him is SO GOOD. in my mind she showed up to tryouts and thought he was cute and has just had the most nonchalant, least consequential crush on him all season.

[ratgrinders]

What's kind of crazy to me is all the people assuming that because the rat grinders have only been fighting rats they don't know how to fight or coordinate. Mary Ann Skuttle absolutely annihilated Gorgug with buffs other members of the team had to put on her. Cartonorchid is so good at her rogue abilities they're often scrambling to figure out if she's there. They're so calculating about everything and the rats were a means to an end not the only thing they could handle!

yes exactly!!

i made this post talking about how its possible that rats arent the only things theyve been killing (lets be real still probably a significant percentage tho lol), just cuz it seems impossible to me that the rat grinders logged multiple trips to the mountains of chaos and still only killed rats.

even then though, the rat grinders wouldnt be able to keep getting the leg up on the bad kids if they werent themselves extremely capable! now dont get me wrong the bad kids still have them thoroughly beat in the practical experience department with the multiple world ending threats theyve stopped, but that doesnt mean the rat grinders are gonna be pushovers either!

i think honestly i maintain that we havent seen enough of the rat grinders in action to really get an idea of how they function as a team and how well they'll do in a fight, but theyre constantly coordinating with eachother and if kipperlilys able to oneshot kill a whole human person, clearly shes able to kill more than just rats lol.

[cloudmancy]

nevermind the fact we never really got to know what motivations the other rat grinders had for hating the bad kids (mary ann was ambivalent about gorgug at best what was her skin in the game), i feel its such a shame that blm didnt take this opportunity to turn the bad kid's actions from previous seasons against them. it would have been great if these minor antagonists hated the bad kids for things they had actually done, things that the cast (and we the audience) obviously have the context for, but to every other person in the fantasy high universe they are morally bankrupt maniacs. but yknow.

LIKE CAN WE DISCUSS RIZ SHOOTING BIZ GLITTERDEW'S FINGER OFF OR ??? 😭😭😭😭😭 the seven and aguefort himself makes it very very clear that adventurers ARE in fact people who go to places and create chaos and do fucked up things to the people there who may or may not have wanted any of that to happen and that's like. fine because we understand that's what happens in universe. it's just also crazy to me when people use in-universe justifications for why the bad kids have to murder people on the spot immediately as soon as they enter combat and then ignore that the bad kids have also done crazy things in-universe. right? if you're using that framework of taking everything done in-universe dead seriously then you're also going to let that apply to the bad kids... right?

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 7🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 7 "Stress Tested"

Timestamp: 00:20:30

Video Length: 4min. & 37sec.

The Salsa Jump (‣Pt. 1 | Pt. 2)

Murph: "Does anyone have like a detect magic or something? Make sure this food isn't like charming people or something."

Siobhan: "Ooo, good idea. Yeah, I'll cast Detect Magic as a ritual."

Riz: "People are after us, everyone!"

Kristen: "You're so smart."

Emily: "I think it's a really good thing that you're thinking."

Ally: "Am I still in like a kinda cowboy suit? I'm still in the Wranglers and the dress shirt?" 😂😂💀💀

XD BRENNAN'S FACE! 😂🤣💀

Brennan: "You must simply tell me what you are wearing."

Ally: "Am I?"

Brennan: "How would I know?! I've never had control over that before!" 😂🤣💀

Murph: "Brennan has never said 'Wranglers' on this show!" 😭😭✋✋

Fig: "I'm just saying, Kristen, if you took that cowboy hat-

Siobhan to Ally: "Since when were you wearing Wranglers?"

Ally: "This happened last episode!

Murph: "It did last episode." 😂😂💀💀

Ally: "This happened last episode!"

Fig: "If you took that cowboy hat, filled it up with salsa, let people dip."

Riz: "Let's do that."

Kristen loves the idea and agrees to do it! 😂🤣💀

Kristen: "All right. All right, guys. All right, pour the salsa in. I'm ready."

Murph: "Wait, let's first Detect Magic."

Ally: "Oh, right, right, right."

Murph: "Let's not get charmed. Let's find out if Gorgug is charmed"

Kristen: "Oh, wait, Gorgug. You might be charmed. Let's find out. Can we do this?"

Siobhan: "Yeah."

Ally: "Okay, we go outside to all the food and we each grab a different thing and can we cast?"

Brennan: "Yeah, and you cast Detect Magic on everything."

Siobhan: "Yeah."

Brennan: "You detect faint magic coming from gear that Kipperlilly and Mary Ann have, similar to what you guys have. You detect magic within the food trucks. That seems all very minor artificer stuff, that's like magical chafing dishes or some like Prestidigitations that are effectively like seasonings and stuff like that. Looking at the food, I don't think you see anything, but I think if you are doing Detect Magic, I'm gonna say give me an investigation with advantage from your Detect Magic."

Adaine gets a 14! 😁

Brennan: "I think you're looking very close at the food, and you just noticed that all of the trucks have the same graphic design on it, even though they're all different businesses, for the wax paper in the little baskets or whatever's in the tinfoil. And as you're looking at it, it looks like a company. And on a 14, I think you see the word, sort of over and over, the logo of whatever the wax paper is. It just says, 'Okay,' with a little green check mark in the 'O.'

Siobhan: "Okay, so that's maybe...the K stands for Copperkettle?"

Brennan: "I think on that, on a 14, as you Siobhan say that, you see that the O and K of Okay, and the faded green check mark in the O, it's a bubble next to the letter K. So there's some kind of subliminal-"

Emily: "Oh, like vote, like choose on the ballot."

Brennan: "Mm-hmm."

Emily: "Okay. That's fine."

Ally: "It's fine."

Emily: "It's just subliminal messaging."

Kristen: "Would you guys back me up if I go say hi to her and try to like, kinda-"

Fig: "Yeah, totally."

Adaine: "Yeah, shake her hand."

Kristen: "Yeah. Rough her up a little."

Ally: "Can I go up and get some enchiladas, and then go say hi to her?"

Brennan: "Yeah, absolutely."

Kristen: "Can you guys fill my hat with salsa?"

Lou: "Are we sure we wanna run that bit?"

Gorgug: *pouring salsa onto Kristen's hat* 😭✋

Ally: "We don't have to."

Kristen: "Okay. Okay."

Siobhan: "Salsa is such a wet food to eat."

Fig: "Oh, no, it's dripping."

Kristen: "It's so heavy. It's so heavy."

Riz: "That is so thick."

Oh gosh! 😭✋

Kristen: "Can you hand me..."

Fabian: "You're so muscular now."

Kristen: "Can you hand me the enchiladas?"

Fig: "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Kristen: "Do I look good?"

Riz: "You look really good."

Adaine: "You look really cool."

Gorgug: "The last one's mild."

Kristen: "Would you hold a big bowl of chips so she can dip it in? I think that would be a power move if she'll do it."

Fig: "I'll tilt it toward her."

Ally: "We walk up to her."

Kristen: "Hey... Girlie."

Brennan: "She has the bullhorn up and she says,"

Kipperlilly: "Hi, Kristen. How are you?"

Kristen: "Hey, I'm doing great. This is awesome."

Kipperlilly: "You're covered in salsa."

Kristen: "No, no, no."

Riz: "The hat's covered in salsa."

Kristen: "It's a bowl. It's like kind of a dip."

Emily: "I dip one to give her the idea of how it works."

Kristen: "So that's how it works, milady." *tilts salsa hat towards Kipperlilly*

the awesome caption and sound effects team: (salsa sloshing)

Adaine: "Wow, so random. So cool, Kristen."

Kristen: "Thank you."

Adaine: "You got my vote for sure."

Kristen: "This is awesome. How'd you put all this on?"

Kipperlilly: "Oh, this? This is nothing. This is just, like, I don't know, it's like a fun little thing. I mean, I heard that you guys had an amazing party on Saturday."

Kristen: "I thought I saw you there."

Kipperlilly: "You did? I wasn't able to make it. I was studying."

Kristen: "Oh, dang."

Emily: "Insight! Insight!"

Adaine: "How come you were studying? You don't have anything to study."

Emily: "Come on!"

Adaine: "You already passed this whole year."

Fig gets a 21 insight on Kipperlilly!

Brennan: "I'm not even gonna say that you think she's telling the truth. I think what you see is a ****ing polished steel orb of a personality."

Emily: "Okay."

Siobhan: "Terrifying."

Kipperlilly: "Yeah, home studying. You know, I'm sure you know how it is." *looks at Riz*

Riz: *nods* 💀

Murph's face during the head nod! 😂🤣💀 He thinks Kipperlilly is SO SUS (CAUSE SHE IS)! 😂🤣😭💀✋

[allthecastlesonclouds]

Fantasy high and hatchetfield crossover never gets old! Can we hear your thoughts about it?

of course!!

so. in hatchetfield canon when hannah foster is born, the Lords in Black are pulled close enough to reality to start fucking with things. the same thing happens with Adaine.

the first thing that gets fucked with is Tinky messing around with people's ages. adaine's age does not get fucked with. everyone else's ABSOLUTELY does. thankfully she is the youngest of all of them in this world. for my sanity.

the original timeline ages (let's say adaine's 18): riz, fig, gorgug are all 18, kristen is 19, fabian and ayda are 20 (fabian was held back in school, ayda did not attend public education. on account of the witchery)

it's. unclear what's the first timeline at this point. everything happens at once. everything follows each other. adaine's head hurts constantly

they can only escape in universes/timelines that have a strong similarity to the original one! this is why they manage to escape in the lovely "fig kills an entire theatre of people" timeline (o7) and not when, say, adaine and riz are ten and the rest of them are full adults.

in more than a couple universes, the luckstones crash on a drive to visit family in clivesdale and penny is adopted by mayor goldenhoard

(she misses having a sibling. she and riz haven't talked since the accident.)

(^ at least one of these universes is nerdy prudes must die) (penny's steph, riz's pete, klck's grace, mary ann's richie, zelda's ruth, ragh's max) (adaine's reese; lucy's pj) (to get the LiB to take out max, kip kills lucy)

some of TBK have very Shifting parts in the story– a fig who is suddenly in her thirties and doesn't have any memory of success or friends won't jump back into trying to make music. she's gonna go get a job at the coffee shop downtown. they're all in tinky's toybox and he likes to see how they all respond to different traumas :D

aelwyn got out in about half the universes. in about half of that half she managed to be able to take adaine with her. in a couple universes she went to jail with arianwen. in more than a couple they're still both living with her

bill seacaster's roman murray :) fabian has no underlying mental issues :)

kristen takes uncle wiley's place in most universes. tracker's john mcnamara :D they're divorced :D

(jawbone's hidgens. his mental state varies depending on the timeline)

tracker does not feel great about shooting her ex girlfriend who she definitely doesn't still have feelings for. definitely.

riz, so far, has never been The Villain. he does die in Most Universes, though, as his younger self or his older self or both! :D

riz is all the spankoffskis and also tim

sandra lynn/sklonda is canon in at least five universes :)

i'm so so normal about all of them. thank you so much for the ask!! i. i love talking about the guys :)

ask me about my aus on this very normal day!

[naazaif327]

I think that’s all very fair! I think their choices all make complete sense in-character. From a Watsonian perspective everything is groovy and is completely reasonable in-universe for the reasons you’ve mentioned. Rather, my problem is more about how the overall season and this finale in particular was structured.

Like, this is less about whether or not the rat grinders will be redeemed or if the bad kids’ choices made sense in-world, and more about my frustration at the way this narrative has been told by both Brennan and the cast. Like you’re 100% right, in an extremely brutal combat like this one, the best solution is to kill everybody as fast as possible and make sure none of them can be revivified to stop them from coming back. So my question is, why is the combat structured like that? Brennan is a master GM, and there are so many ways he could’ve run a combat encounter like this one to put emphasis on the narrative.

Like, we literally saw earlier in the season that Kristen’s purple doubt magic can overcome the red rage crystals because a core theme of this season has been the fact that uncertainty and contemplation can be a great way to handle mindless rage. So a combat scenario where they’re trying to nullify the rage crystals inside the rat grinders to slowly turn them against Jace and Porter could’ve been deeply interesting, having the tides of the battle slowly turn as one by one the rat grinders are freed from the ragestars.

And that’s just one choice that I think would make for a better narrative, but even in a world where all the rat grinders die and go to Hell forever and are never redeemed I found this finale to be so severely lacking because each of these final confrontations ended up meaning nothing. They’re fighting mindless rage with… even more mindless rage, in fact The Bad Kids are angrier than we’ve ever seen them. Fabian finally confronts his narrative foil Ivy (someone who is a carbon copy of the insecure mean girl that he used to be) and instead of it being a huge confrontation moment of Fabian reckoning with this person he easily could’ve been before finally killing her or redeeming her… he says he’s gonna skin her alive and have sex on her body then kills her in a turn and moves on.

Within the narrative it makes sense that the rat grinders and the bad kids don’t speak much over the course of the season, but from a Doylist perspective it confounds me, because Brennan and the bad kids easily could’ve engineered story reasons for the two sides to interact all season (Mary Ann is at Owlbear practice with Gorgug and Fabian, Kipperlilly goes to all the same clubs as Riz, etc) but they never do, and so all these final confrontations with their narrative foils feel completely inert because they hardly know the kids they’re slaughtering.

Maybe the rat grinders will be brought back and maybe they won’t (I’m pretty certain they won’t be at this point regardless, since Fig has already stated she’s keeping Ruben in Hell forever lol) but even if they do get brought back, I still don’t think it’ll feel like a satisfying narrative to me personally considering this fight to be the climax of their story. Sorry I also wrote a bunch of paragraphs in response, I just feel like I’m making a deeply muddled point as I try to sort out my thoughts lol

People flinching at "Make sure to chop his head off so he can't be revivified" and acting like it's a wildly too brutal or somehow out of character (???) thing for Riz to say are weak and have forgotten our roots

Do y'all not remember shooting Biz's fingers off one by one? Do you not remember "Take his eye!!! Do you want it? I'll bite it out for you!"

Our special boy has always been an unhinged little violent maniac, and frankly? Good for him! 💗 That's my favorite guy!

[doggendoodle]

So I typed out a whole thing, spent like an hour on it... and then Tumblr Mobile crashed. kill me

But! We have actually met the Barbarian Rat Grinder already - Mary Ann, the kobold from tryouts! And she's basically the antithesis of Gorgug. On a meta level, she's a minmaxing powergamer in a roleplayer's world, with her blunt replies and build made entirely for being The StrongestTM.

But that also makes her the perfect foil. While the other Rat Grinders seem to be what the Bad Kids would have been if they didn't better themselves, Mary Ann is what everyone wants Gorgug to be - single minded, focused, and absolutely wholeheartedly devoted... only to what they want from him.

Porter wants him to embrace his rage in the way he thinks is right. Henry urges Gorgug to give up being a barbarian and focus entirely on the artificer track. Wilma and Digby, well-meaning though they might be, still pay more attention to Gorgug and shower him with more praise when he's artificing than when he's raging.

Mary Ann also represents the inverse of Gorgug's unwillingness to say no. She's invited to spend more time with the Bloodrush team and immediately declines and walks away. She knows what she wants, and isn't afraid of hurting anyone's feelings because of it. Meanwhile, Gorgug goes along with everything and is desperate to be nice. When Porter disrespects Cloaca and holds her wrong, he gives up on correcting him very quickly - and while Porter is absolutely the asshole in that situation, it still reflects on how easily Gorgug goes with the flow, no matter where it takes him, in his efforts to please.

And gods bless him, he's trying to please everyone. He's told that Junior Year Artificing is hellish enough without multiclassing, and instead of backing down or trying to work out something else, he takes on four years' worth of classes and assignments just so he can do everything. Just so he can be everything everyone needs him to be.

Gorgug is a half-orc raised by gnomes. There is no world in which he fits perfectly into one box. There is no world in which he can devote himself entirely to one thing and abandon all else. Yet at the same time...let's be realistic. He's not making it through Junior Year with a 400% course load, several deity-adjacent forces trying to ruin him and his friends, and the Rat Grinders out for his blood. Like Riz, like the Hangvan, he can only fire on all cylinders for so long before he blows out his engine.

There is no world where Gorgug's desire to be the Perfect Barbarian/Artificer as judged by the system, and not by his own heart, does not lead him to ruin. There is only a world where he stops following its lead.

With Junior Year there seems to be a emphasis on the Bad Kids mistakes and past, spoilers for episode 5, hypothesis on future episodes. This is shown with several things, The XPRatWhatevers being the same class and some of them being extremes of the tropes of the Bad Kids (Kipperlily Kettlecorn being a Rules Lawyer like how Riz just loves planning and rules in general), Fig's reliance of luck being taken by a lemon yogurt creature, and Kristen's old god being plopped in front of her after her current god maybe dying, I'm not sure, but the later two makes me think that whatever big bad is wanting to ruin the bad kids so badly that they are unrecognizable to their loved ones is going to do something to the other kids so this is what I envision.

Fabian, I feel like we've seen his fears of becoming like Gilear or just failing at being cool and with Fig taking that role I think Fabian would deal with a more body decay, like Skullcleavers note about taking care of his body and Fabian's choices of focusing on partying instead of the owlbears or any other of his very active responsibilities

Adaine, I think we maybe saw this in this episode like with the idea of going into a rage, focused only on revenge and destroying anything that gets into her path, and the ruin for her that I see coming is basically this, from her past of wanting to just hit things, maybe an adding of a loss of magic or wild magic, that leaves her just wanting to act but seeming useless without magic some things maybe showing this is her struggle to afford magical components along with the idea of killing her mom

Riz, It seems like a major mental breakdown is in store for him, the infinite mounting stress as problems stack for him and his friends makes it seem that a moment of everything falling apart is instore for him and he will be alone, like with the fears of the Bad Kids not going to the same college along with the stress it seems like a moment where he's isolated as his life falls apart, his planning useless, showing a future of him not caring being at the college for lone adventurers is his ruin

Gorgug, I'm not sure about him at all, like best I can think about is him turning into a robot, with all the other artificer students being some kind of non human looking creature, I'd love to hear some other ideas about it