marlineeesstuff-blog

[angy-grrr]

I try to not be hater, but then I see the stupid takes and get madddddd

This is just what I feel every single time I see those shitty opinions

[weirdowithaquill]

Let's Talk About Rebecca:

Well, I said we needed to talk about Rebecca, and here we are.

To begin with, I would like to preface this with a simple disclaimer: I am in no way telling people to like or dislike the version of Rebecca found in BWBA, but instead looking into what caused such a deep disdain for this character, one that lasted long after Henry had been departed and was fuelled not by her position as a ‘replacement’, but rather by the series itself. This is not a dissertation on why Henry is a stronger character and why Rebecca should never have been introduced - that is counterproductive and, in some ways, false. This is instead something adjacent to an essay in which I will focus on how Rebecca’s flawed introduction, characterisation and tenure in the series both represents the BWBA era as a whole, but also what led to her being notably absent from All Engines Go, the reboot of Thomas and Friends. This will be followed by me attempting to redesign her characterisation and create an alternate version of Rebecca, one which in my opinion would have done far better for herself in the series. 

Part 1: Who is Rebecca, and Why Her Characterisation Doesn't Work:

According to the former official Thomas and Friends website, Rebecca is: “...a very cheerful and happy engine. She is painted a sunshine yellow which reflects her positive outlook on life. Rebecca always sees the best in others and enjoys helping everyone around her feel good about themselves. Despite her warm nature, Rebecca is not afraid to stand up for herself or her friends. She is a big, strong tender engine who is not intimidated by the more experienced engines on the railway. Rebecca is the number 22 engine.” 

Already, there is a major issue here: her characterisation is a strange amalgamation of others, who could probably just as easily take on her roles without really breaking any of the episodes she is in. “Cheerful and happy” are characteristics held by Ryan, Stanley, Whiff, Thomas, Percy, Edward, Mavis, Peter Sam; the list goes on. There are already far too many engines whose main qualities are cheerful and happy. She is painted yellow - like Molly and Flora were, or if we go further back, like Jock, Pip and Emma were. “Sees the best in others” was once upon a time a quality unique to Edward, as well as Salty. “Enjoys helping everyone around her feel good about themselves” sounds way too close to what Emily has become in the series, without mentioning the evolutions of Mavis’ character or Rocky’s character. If we add in her clumsiness and shyness, we get Kevin and Molly respectively - and Kevin is also yellow! She isn’t intimidated nor does she have any trouble at all with fending off engines who want to be mean to her. She isn’t unique here either: Duck did this when he first arrived, and he had a much bigger and more notable impact because of how he acted when confronted with the big engines' attitudes. What all this really means is that Rebecca has already finished a character arc at some point in the past and does not need to grow further. 

And here we reach the crux of the problem with Rebecca in BWBA: she has nowhere for her character to grow into - something all the other main characters have done decades ago. This is especially problematic at this late stage in the show; Thomas & Friends has been running since 1984, and almost every character they pair Rebecca up with has had an exceptionally long time to bed themselves in and grow into the space they occupy. For Rebecca to compete, and truly qualify for her status as a main character, her character needs to make its own space - and importantly, make that space bigger than as many other characters as possible. This is a running problem in the TV series post Season 7, and something that really baked itself into the show by the time the series reached CGI: the characters do not develop. The Steam Team (bar Emily) hasn’t had any real, natural character developments since the Mitton era - not any sustained over multiple seasons, at least. If we go back to the Classic series - or further back to the Railway Series - we find that the very essence of Thomas is in its strong characters and their natural growth. Gordon grows into being more humble, Edward and Henry grow more confident in themselves, Thomas and Percy mature and (to some extent) learn their limits - the list goes on. There are characters that do not grow as much or remain the same, yes - but they still have some sort of character arc where the essence of them as a character is tested. 

Rebecca does not undergo character growth in the series, and her character itself is not tested in any meaningful way. Instead, she is overused and underutilised - by which I mean, she appears constantly throughout the series but is given nothing to define her as being any different to any of the characters mentioned above. Worse yet, Rebecca’s leads are easily interchangeable with any other Steam Team member, and this further complicates her. Rebecca takes trucks perfectly - like Donald or Douglas would, or perhaps Edward? Rebecca is too fast and leaves passengers behind - like Peter Sam did to the refreshment lady. And when she causes all kinds of delay, is that not like James did way back in Series 3? And she’s tricked by Diesel… like almost every single engine in the entire series, going as far back as Gordon, Henry and James were in Series 2. 

Would it have been better to divide Rebecca’s leads up and give other, more established engines more spotlight? Probably. Her personality is similar to a number of others, and her introduction is basically a mix and mash of older episodes - notably the eighth series episode, Thomas and the Tuba, the tenth series episode, Seeing the Sights, the first series episode, Thomas' Train, and the fourth series episode, Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady. This really doesn’t help to define her, especially when all fans think about when they watch the episode is what other, older episode it is most like. Her subsequent appearances do very little to endear her either, both due to the lack of effort put in by Mattel to ground Rebecca in the series and the low impact of the episodes she does star in. Characters like Oliver or Duke have had lasting impacts on the fandom despite their short tenures because their episodes have high impact. Duck is one of the most popular characters in the fandom of this show, despite having been a secondary character ever since Series 5, and being practically absent from the series between Series 8 and Series 16.

Rebecca also takes up a difficult spot as a replacement for Henry, which complicates her relationship with a large portion of the fandom, meaning a lot of her as a character is questioned in relation to what Henry would have done. While technically, Rebecca was slated as a replacement to Edward, her arrival coincides with Henry’s departure, and thus for the purposes of this, we will consider her to have taken the position Henry had, similarly to Nia and Edward. Whether or not Henry’s departure from the main cast is a bad thing is an issue unto itself, which dives into character assassination and to what extent the Henry seen in Season 21 is the same Henry seen in Season 1. In either case, Rebecca’s roles could have quite easily been filled by Henry or another standing character, and her characterisation is too similar to other, pre-existing characters to make her stand out amongst her costars and their longer, more notable characterisations and character growths. 

Much of this is compounded by how Rebecca was introduced and integrated into the main cast, which is clearly seen when compared with another notable case of an engine joining the Steam Team after it had been first codified: Emily. 

Part 2: Rebecca vs Emily - How to Introduce a Main Character: 

Rebecca’s introduction is extremely underwhelming, especially for a Steam Team member. Thomas and Gordon shared the very first episode, Edward established himself as a foil to Gordon in his introduction and in Henry’s first appearance, he is bricked up in a tunnel in perhaps one of the series’ most infamous and iconic episodes. James makes his grand entrance by crashing into a field, Percy nearly gets destroyed by Gordon and Toby tugs on the viewer’s heartstrings as we watch him lose his entire livelihood. Moving forward several seasons, Emily’s introduction includes her saving another engine from a terrible accident - and then lastly, Nia gets an entire movie to embed her. Rebecca just bumbles about for ten minutes and takes the final shed at Tidmouth. 

To make matters worse, Henry’s departure is equally low-intensity. Edward at least got a full episode; Henry got a single line, used to further Gordon’s character as opposed to finalising Henry’s arc and introducing Rebecca’s. And while Gordon’s character here is interesting and new and possibly the first real growth we’ve seen from any of the Steam Team since Henry, Toby and Percy regressed into children before CGI even began; it does nothing to create a satisfactory conclusion to Henry’s arc or properly build up Rebecca’s arrival. This ultimately undermines Rebecca’s position as a primary character in the series, where she has joined far too late in the series to make an impact without dedicated time and effort being put into her. 

We are expected to accept that Rebecca has simply arrived and is now a main character by the show without any reasoning behind this. There is no connection between the viewer and Rebecca to justify this promotion to main character status, and it is telling. The writers don’t have anything new or unique to say about Rebecca either and it reflects in her episodes, which are remixes of old episodes or bland and unoriginal. This is especially painful in an era when so much of the writing is like this, bar the few episodes that really manage to break through the white noise. Ironically, two of the episodes that do really stand out have Edward and Toby as main characters respectively. 

In contrast, Emily is very well introduced to her position and has a long, notable character arc that plays out across both the Classic and HiT eras to cement her as a main character before making her a permanent member of the Steam Team - a journey that endeared her to fans and helped to build her characterisation to make her unique and interesting. Emily is first introduced in Season 7, where she has a strong introductory story played out against Thomas where she steals Annie and Clarabel and then rescues Oliver from a nasty accident. I’m not entirely certain, but this might be the first time that an engine takes Annie and Clarabel without asking - prior to this, Percy and Duck both got permission or it wasn’t mentioned. And after this episode, Emily does not immediately move into Tidmouth Sheds - she remains at Knapford, despite having further notable appearances across the rest of the season. 

What is made apparent in Season 7 is her characterisation. Emily is brave and bossy, but kind-hearted. She doesn’t headline constantly either, instead playing off other characters and rolling into the background when needed. She slots naturally into a secondary role in this season and feels like an engine who belongs on the NWR. Season 7 introduces Emily to viewers and gives her characterisation to back up her unique appearance. Season 8 continued this trend, building on her more and pairing her up with different engines to settle her comfortably into being a proper presence on the island - notice how it’s an evolution over two seasons? By Calling All Engines, Emily is a main character by virtue of her cementing herself into the cast, and her berth at Tidmouth feels like a natural progression of her story, firmly planting Emily as a Steam Team member. By Season 11, she is being used as a primary character to bounce newbies like Whiff off of! 

When considering Emily and Rebecca, two takeaways make themselves known: firstly, that characters need time and effort to be cemented in the story, especially when introduced long after most other central characters have had time to imbed themselves; and secondly that characters need strong, interesting differences when compared to those they share the screen with in order to fill unfilled positions. Emily is brave and bossy, giving her a unique style that makes her work great either as the protagonist or antagonist of a story. It gives her character flexibility - she can either be the engine that the protagonist is paired up with to learn something from or it can make her big-headed and in need of being taught a lesson of her own, one which she will - in her own way - try and pass on. We don’t meet someone with a truly bossy personality like Emily’s again until Bradford, and even then it isn’t the same. Bradford is used as a comedic character, whereas Emily’s bossiness was treated seriously. 

In comparison, Rebecca’s characterisation causes her to fade where she needs to shine. By being given a personality that has already been used consistently in Thomas, she fails to have a lasting impact and the abruptness of her introduction and elevation to the Steam Team is jarring and gives older viewers no reason to be interested in her. When combining this with the few defining qualities she has, it is equally hard for Rebecca to intrigue new viewers, making her feel bland and unoriginal when compared to many of the characters she shares the screen with. Rebecca is asked to attempt and hold her own against characters who have been intentionally woven together by the series for decades - and as explained above, this is not an impossible feat. It is not an impossible feat in the CGI series either, as Hiro, Paxton and Marion have all managed to stand out in an era when characters very rarely got much character building beyond their introduction. Unfortunately, Rebecca is given none of the same care, and it is reflected in how little she is used. Despite appearing more often as the seasons continue, she gets fewer leads to the point where she has an equal number of leads to Toby in the final season.  

Emily and Rebecca are two sides of the same coin in terms of introduction, both first appearing in an episode rather than a movie and then becoming members of the main cast - the difference is that where Rebecca was shunted in and thus the writers were unsure how to use her, Emily’s careful character-building and integration into the series ensured she would always have fans, something that is reflected in her being given a proper conclusion to her character arc in Series 24, where she is given the number twelve and thus immortalised in the same way that Thomas through to Oliver were. 

Considering the above issues, it becomes quite clear that the potential best way to introduce Rebecca and have audiences become invested in her and her story is not to simply drop her into the series, but rather to build her up slowly, similarly to Emily - which was entirely possible and plausible. 

Part 3: What Could Have Been: 

If we assume that Mattel was fixated on Rebecca having her canon characterisation as well as the BWBA series, there is still an entirely plausible method that could naturally build her character into the main cast, though it is underpinned by the original intent of the showrunners to have her introduced in Series 21 and replace Edward: 

In Series 21, Rebecca is introduced and shown to be clumsy but kind. In keeping with the original episode, she messes up the express and gets in trouble, however she then redeems herself by rescuing Gordon when he breaks down with the express. She is shown to be clumsy but kind, and gets the lead in a couple of episodes, as well as several minor roles. Preferably, she stars in at least one episode with Thomas specifically. At the same time, audiences are introduced to Henry’s dilemma surrounding whether or not he should sleep at Tidmouth - be it cause of the Kipper, arguments with Gordon, or whatever. This both places Rebecca into audiences’ minds while simultaneously opening up the question of whether or not Henry will remain at Tidmouth. Edward leaves, but the shed remains open - this is filled by Nia. 

Continuing in this vein, in Series 22, Rebecca gets a couple more episodes than last season, specifically with both primary and notable secondary characters - I’m talking Duck, Oliver, Rosie, Daisy, Ryan - characters who are popular, relevant to the series and allows the series to cement her as a main addition to the cast. This is to cement her and give her plenty of characters to bounce off and develop relationships with. Meanwhile, Henry’s arc comes to a conclusion and Henry quits Tidmouth in the last episode of the season, leaving it open. This also allows the creators to build up Gordon’s reaction to Henry leaving, showing his struggle to adapt to Edward’s absence and his simmering disdain towards Nia for replacing Edward before the 23rd season. 

Finally, in Series 23, Rebecca takes the empty berth at Tidmouth, replacing Henry and kickstarting an episode - or preferably two, but this is Mattel, so it is likely to be one - where Rebecca is forced to withstand the brunt of Gordon’s anger as he boils over, being compared to Henry before proving herself. This plants her firmly as a main character, while also potentially giving her a strong reason to become close friends with Nia - who also had to deal with Gordon’s stubbornness. Henry is given a proper farewell arc as well, allowing him to gracefully retire to his secondary character status. 

By arranging Rebecca’s arrival over several seasons, she is given time to fall naturally into her position and role, developing slowly and making the connections with other characters needed to cement her position on the NWR before taking centre-stage. This would also help writers learn how to write her, creating a scenario where Rebecca has a real chance of taking off as a character and potentially even getting similar stories to Emily where she is the lead main character who is used to introduce new characters - like how Emily interacted with Whiff in the eleventh season. This would also help viewers to understand who Rebecca is and get comfortable with her presence in the show before being asked to accept her as a member of the Steam Team. 

However, I still feel like her characterisation is weak in comparison to other Steam Team members - as mentioned previously, her clumsiness has been done by several characters including Kevin and Percy, who is a fellow Steam Team member. Her “Cheerful and Happy” characterisation has been used by far too many characters to count - including Percy, Peter Sam, Derek, Stanley and more recently Ryan - and not even her bright yellow paintwork makes her unique in terms of the series, seeing as Molly and Flora both had similarly bright shades of yellow for paintwork back in the model series. Moreover, her leads place her in relatively generic situations where other characters likely would have produced far more interesting plotlines, such as Molly easily pulling trucks despite being built for expresses or James trying to prove he can still pull the express and getting into trouble. Based on this, a complete overhaul of Rebecca’s characterisation is needed. 

Part 4: How to Redevelop Rebecca as a Character: 

When designing a Thomas and Friends character, one of the first things required is a real-life basis - and Rebecca was given a very interesting and unique basis that had the potential to give her very interesting stories. Rebecca is a Bulleid Light Pacific, in particular an unrebuilt West Country Class.  These were strong, powerful mixed traffic Pacifics used by the Southern Railway from 1945 until 1967, giving them a lifetime of about 22 years. They were praised for their free steaming, excellent boilers, and had a number of notable innovations for British steam - including welded fireboxes and frames, as opposed to the traditional, riveted system. The class was also well-known for their availability, being able to pull trains on almost every line that the Southern Railway had. 

In contrast, the class was also very famous for their flaws. Remember, Rebecca is an unrebuilt West Country Class, which had many of the same problems and flaws as their larger Merchant Navy Class relatives. These issues would plague the three Bulleid Pacific classes to such an extent that many of them were rebuilt by British Railways in the 1950s into a more conventional design which utilised the strengths of the class while altering or replacing many of the issues that Bulleid built into the engines as he used them as a testing bed for some of his more modern ideas. In particular, the major problems with the West Country Class were: 

Adhesion problems: the lighter load on their driving axles meant that they were even more prone to wheelslip than the larger Merchant Navy class, requiring very careful control when starting a heavy train - there are several surviving videos of these engines struggling to start a train due to their wheelslip. 

High fuel consumption - these engines were hungry, and this was in many ways highlighted during the 1948 locomotive exchanges where the West Country Class burnt 13.5 kg/km as opposed to the 9.02 kg/km of the T9 class that they replaced - for reference, the West Country Class’ coal consumption is comparable to the Gresley A1 Pacifics prior to the exchange trials of 1925 - a number which was dropped to roughly 10 kg/km after they were modified into the A3 class. 

Restricted driver visibility due to the air-smoothed casing and soft steam exhaust from the multiple-jet blastpipe. The exhaust problem was never adequately resolved, and smoke continued to beat down onto the casing while moving, obscuring the driver's vision.

Maintenance problems: the chain-driven valve gear proved to be expensive to maintain and subject to rapid wear, which was particularly problematic during the Post War period, as British Rail focused on availability rather than high quality maintenance. 

Leaking: leaks from the oil bath onto the wheels caused oil to splash onto the boiler lagging. Once saturated with oil, the lagging attracted coal dust and ash, which provided combustible material, and sparks from heavy braking would set the lagging on fire underneath the air-smoothed casing. The fires were also attributed to oil overflowing from axlebox lubricators onto the wheels when stationary, to be flung upwards into the boiler lagging in service. In either case, the local fire brigade would be called to put the fire out, with cold water coming into contact with the hot boiler causing stress to the casings, meaning these un-rebuilt locomotives would have warped casings, the result of a lagging fire!

All of these strengths and flaws tell a notable story about the kind of engine Rebecca may have been in real life: an engine with extremely good power and speed, but with difficulty at slow speeds and design issues that could have dangerous and rather embarrassing unintended consequences. This is a brilliant basis for a character, and it really irks me how little of all of this characterisation gold that Mattel ended up using - while it is consistent with how they treat their newer characters, it is also a real shame. Especially considering that from all of this, it is really not hard to build a genuinely interesting character that wouldn’t feel too out of place in the Railway Series or Classic series. 

Firstly, based on the high coal consumption and severe maintenance and wheelslip issues, we can suggest that Rebecca is a bit clumsy and worries about how others perceive her. Her class was large enough for this to be less apparent back on the Southern, but perhaps she was one of the worst for it, so she was teased mercilessly - and so after having moved to Sodor, she fears how the other engines will treat her. To cover for these insecurities, Rebecca acts standoffish or gruff, wanting to keep the other engines at a distance so they can’t find out about her flaws and tease her for them - already very different from her original characterisation, but far more interesting as it makes her one of the few new NWR engines to actively try and push both steam and diesel engines away. Furthermore, her excellent steaming abilities and fast speeds in service could translate into Rebecca being somewhat reckless or a speed demon, wanting to use her strengths to both hide her weaknesses and as something she enjoys. Rebecca has an air-smoothed casing, and it may help her feel the wind better at speed, like Spencer with his streamlining. Quite simply, by using her basis as a starting-point for her personality, building up character-traits from strengths and flaws of the class, we can construct an interesting and different characterisation that draws people in, similarly to how the Reverend Awdry did with his eight famous engines. Better yet, it means that once the other characters crack open this more standoffish side to Rebecca, we can still see the kind and clumsy Rebecca from the TVS, but it feels more natural and rewarding to go through a journey to get there and if it’s directed only to her close friends, while also meaning that we the audience can still see her gruff side when dealing with unknowns or characters she dislikes. 

There is also the fact that by considering her class basis, show writers can find interesting stories or take other issues with Rebecca’s class to incorporate into her personality. For example, the low-visibility created by the air-smoothed casing could translate into eyesight problems for Rebecca that she tries to hide because she fears engines would tease her for them, potentially culminating in Rebecca passing a red signal and getting into a crash. Maybe she doesn’t like fire or hates the works because of bad memories, meaning Rebecca hides any mechanical faults until they cause her to break down on the main line. 

By building her character around her class basis, we can develop an alternative personality for Rebecca that naturally stands strongly around other engines - especially as there are very few other Southern Railway engines on Sodor who could see Rebecca’s gruff and cold attitude as the defence mechanism it is. It also gives Rebecca a strong connection to Henry, who acted practically the same when he first arrived on Sodor to hide his steaming problems, making him sympathetic to Rebecca and opening the two up to a long-term arc that ends with Henry having helped Rebecca grow into the happy, cheerful and clumsy engine from the series before leaving. Her recklessness could translate into a rivalry or competition with Gordon, who is far more responsible and meticulous with his express due to his experience and the pressure that has been put on him. 

However, this is not the only way to build a better characterisation for Rebecca, the other option being to make Rebecca into a foil for other main characters. 

Part 5: Rebecca as a Foil: 

The other way to build Rebecca’s character into something that flows naturally with the other, previously introduced Steam Team members with making her more unique and interesting is to build it around the concept of the foil character. A foil character is a character who contrasts with another character, typically contrasting with the protagonist - a strong example of foil characters are Edward and Gordon, or Thomas and Diesel 10. Rebecca could quite easily fall into the position of being a strong foil character to the three big engines, more specifically James and Gordon, who are without a solid foil character to be contrasted against since Edward’s departure. In BWBA, when Nia arrived, she was considered to be closer to Thomas and Percy than Gordon or James, leaving them without a natural opposite. Rebecca has all of the strengths and weaknesses to fill this role. 

For the first option, using the personality the series gives Rebecca, we get the following scenario: Rebecca arrives on Sodor and is both an express engine and a mixed-traffic engine. When she arrives, instead of fumbling her first Express badly, she succeeds, and James and Gordon become worried about their status and jealous of her high speeds. Remember, prior to the codification of the characters into one or two jobs by CGI, James was a common replacement for Gordon on the express, and having his role as secondary express engine threatened would be a major blow to his ego. Worse yet, Rebecca likes pulling trucks, and is thus both similar but also a complete narrative opposite to the pair. Other engines like her for her kindness and helpfulness, even if it does get her in trouble when she doesn’t get her own work done on time - which Gordon and James exploit to make rude remarks about her. 

Already, Rebecca is a natural foil for Gordon and James, being similar enough for viewers to compare one to the other while also being different enough that her positive traits are highlighted against their negative ones. 

Then, Gordon could discover her hidden clumsiness and wheelslip problems, exploiting them to cause her embarrassment - something that has previously happened to James and when Rebecca is reprimanded for the resulting incident, he remembers his own struggles with wheelslip. This makes him more sympathetic to both Rebecca and the audience, and places him on a path towards apologising to Rebecca for how he spoke to her - while Gordon enjoys having the express to himself again. This could follow naturally towards an endpoint where Gordon gets his comeuppance and Rebecca is accepted into the Steam Team, having been a natural foil to both and developed close character relationships based on how she is positioned in contrast to Gordon and James. The series then progresses to seeing Rebecca act in opposition to the pair, as well as trying to one-up them, being either the protagonist or antagonist depending on who the hero of the story is. 

The second option is to use the character made for Rebecca in the previous part - the one built out of her basis and its issues - to turn Rebecca into a strong foil to Gordon and Henry, as well as potentially to Diesel or Thomas. This would begin with Rebecca arriving and acting recklessly with the express, being a speed demon where  Gordon demands professionalism due to his experience. This startles CGI Henry, who is also not a fan of recklessness and places her at odds with them but also potentially makes her interesting to James, who is himself quite reckless. Furthermore, Rebecca’s standoffish behaviour and grandstanding alienates engines like Thomas or Percy, while being very similar to how Gordon, Henry and James acted during their younger years, forcing the three to be confronted with how they used to act, reminding them of their old selves (BWBA is so obsessed with flashbacks and dream sequences, so this would be a good opportunity for them to use classic series moments to help flesh out all three and Rebecca here). 

This could build into Henry recognising the traits he used to hide his insecurities before he was rebuilt, helping to shift how the audience sees Rebecca and giving Henry an arc where he helps Rebecca learn to trust other engines and accept friendships - though notably not Gordon and James, who she sees as being the most likely to make fun of her. This helps Henry gain his classic series confidence back, giving him a boost to stand up and tell the Fat Controller that he wants to move, as well as the confidence to push back against Gordon when the big engine gets angry about the change. The series then follows Rebecca as she argues with James and Gordon, with engines taking sides depending on the episode - including  Thomas potentially absolutely hating Rebecca due to his alliance and friendship with Gordon.

Finally, Rebecca’s actions and attitude could help spur Diesel into recognising some of these negative traits in himself, finally ending the character arc that was attempted with Springtime for Diesel. 

Both of these options really focus on taking these established characters and growing them using Rebecca’s characterisation and unique position as the new big engine at Tidmouth, while also building off of Rebecca’s character strengths to make her stand out as unique too. Remember, Rebecca is the same size and strength as Gordon - the series hasn’t seen a NWR engine of comparable size to Gordon since Hiro was introduced, and he was neither an express engine nor a candidate for the Steam Team, so he was never a credible threat to Gordon. And before Hiro, the last engine of that size was Murdoch right the way back in Series 7, who never made it beyond the model series era. Rebecca has a real potential to be this threat to Gordon, being the first engine of such size introduced in almost a decade - she can pull express trains as well as Gordon while showing up James and being mixed-traffic and versatile like Henry. This is what irks me - Rebecca had everything going for her before she debuted, and got none of it. 

What is even more painful is the fact that there are an infinite number of ways to further develop and build her character or other characterisations to give her that take inspiration from the source material while still being fresh and interesting - for example, what if Rebecca’s clumsiness came from her being a static exhibit, possibly one at a children’s theme park which would explain the bright colours. She could be so kind and cheerful as a way to handle the pain of watching her siblings be scrapped - something that she could bond with Oliver over. The point is that Rebecca had and still has potential but needs a lot more effort put into her than what she got in canon. 

Part 6: Characters to Pair off with Rebecca: 

This brings me to my final core part to this long, and slightly ridiculous dissertation: who to pair Rebecca up with to best build her character and insert her into this universe while feeling natural and potentially giving them some more screen time and character dynamics outside of their usual social circles. 

For this, I decided not to look at Gordon, Henry or James, seeing as they got a lot of consideration in the previous parts, where they were core components of building up Rebecca’s character while also naturally removing Henry from the Steam Team. The following ten characters are engines who I feel would be some of the most interesting to pair up with Rebecca earlier on in the series, to help her bed into the series and give a wide range of popular or interesting characters for viewers to connect her to: 

1: Rosie: Rosie is a USATC s100, a class that worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service! These two potentially have history, and even if they don’t, Rosie would be one of the first engines to realise why Rebecca is acting so standoffish and breaks through to her, seeing as she would have known the class from her younger days. Maybe they become confidants once Rosie manages to break through Rebecca’s facade? Maybe Rebecca decides she prefers Vicarstown and we go back to the Classic-era ensemble cast? The opportunities here are great, and it has the potential to give Rosie some real backstory too! 

2: Salty: Salty also worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service, his class having been introduced in 1962, giving up to five years’ worth of potential overlap. Though it’s less likely the pair would have crossed paths, Salty would still know a lot about the West Country Class. He could potentially even float the idea of her getting rebuilt like a number of her siblings, which would add some real-life facts to the series! It would also be interesting to see Rebecca avoid Salty because she doesn’t want to be exposed by him - remember, she was in service at the end of BR, and really wouldn’t trust diesels based on what they did. 

3: Thomas: Thomas’ class also worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service! However, Thomas would not have personally been at Southampton which means the connection is a little looser. Instead, he could have heard about them from a sibling, or maybe Stepney? Imagine Thomas being really excited to meet this new engine who he’s heard all these positive things about and then it’s this standoffish, grumpy engine who Gordon says is dangerous at speed. It would make for such an interesting dynamic and we could see the cheeky and blunt Thomas from the early series again! 

4: Oliver: These two both made it through the darkest days of BR and survived, and both are also very proud of their achievements - these being Rebecca’s speed and Oliver’s bravery - which could make a scenario where the two hype each other up, much to their own detriment. It would also be interesting to see how Toad would fit into this, seeing as Rebecca is quite reckless and Toad would be opposed to such a thing - and could create a really interesting dynamic where Oliver is forced to pick which of the two he believes during an episode. I can see Oliver being someone Rebecca trusts due to their shared experiences, and it gives Oliver some spotlight. 

5: Emily: Emily was what Rebecca is - an express engine with wheelslip issues who is considered to be one of the best engines of their time. Emily is also an engine who has some issues with CGI-era characterisation and could really do with being revitalised, so why not work with it? Emily tries to be nice and kind with Rebecca, only to keep hitting brick walls and reverting to her old, bossy ways to try and force the new engine to do what Emily wants - bonus points if this is held as being the right thing to do in that situation! It could also play into her getting her number, maybe by rescuing Rebecca from an accident she got into? 

6: Sir Handel: Sir Handel is another engine who desperately needs their characterisation revitalised, and Rebecca is a great chance! Sir Handel considers himself an express engine, and meeting Rebecca puffs him up as she regales him with tales of her speed. This plays into Sir Handel’s cockiness and he gets himself into trouble - and then he decides to get payback in whatever way possible, and we see the reverse of the situation where Sir Handel’s stories get Rebecca all fired up and she gets her own comeuppance. This would not only reintroduce Sir Handel, but also could set the foundations for Duke to return, with references to the MSR. 

7: RWS Flying Scotsman: I specify RWS Scott because I want the kinder, more humble version we got in the RWS to the version we got in the CGI era. Seriously - this engine has just been saved from scrap and given a second chance and his first action is to antagonise his only living sibling? I want him trying to be a voice of reason to Rebecca, seeing as he is uniquely placed to know the consequences of wheelslip - something he also has; as well as recklessness - Scott was the first to officially hit 100mph, so he knows a thing or two! Even more, Rebecca might look up to Scott, based on his fame, though his stories may lead to her being more reckless! 

8: BoCo: Remember I mentioned that the West Country Class caught on fire? Imagine a story with that, with BoCo (a Class 28 infamous for catching fire) as Rebecca’s foil. It could begin with BoCo backfiring and Rebecca making fun of him for it due to her disdain for the diesels who replaced her class before she suffers a similar fate when her boiler lagging catches fire and it’s BoCo who has to help her get her train home. It would be a great way for Rebecca to learn that diesels aren’t all bad, as well as giving her someone new to be friends with - and it would reintroduce BoCo! This could also help draw Rebecca down the branch to meet Bill and Ben… 

9: Molly: Overtly shy Molly and secretly shy Rebecca who covers her shyness up with aggression would make for such an interesting dynamic! I can imagine Molly gathering up all of her courage to speak to Rebecca only to be shot down (unintentionally) and then never want to talk to Rebecca again, and it’s only when Rebecca realises that the bigger engine tries to hunt Molly down - possibly with hilarious consequences. This idea would really work well if you popped in Mavis, who would want to help Molly and stand up to Rebecca. It would also be interesting to reintroduce Molly, especially with Mattel wanting more gender equality. 

10: Mike: This would be a case of grumpy, standoffish Mike versus standoffish-to-hide-insecurities Rebecca! These two would be about as productive as a house on fire. Literally! These two would naturally bump heads in the worst way possible, and it would create incredible comedy and infinite story potential. This would be even better if you added some inferiority complex on Mike’s side, based on the fact he’s never seen an engine this big before - seeing as Rebecca is the only engine of this size able to visit Arlesburgh. They would rile each other right the way up the wall and it would probably never get any better. 

To conclude, Rebecca had real potential as a character - she had an iconic basis, good timing for her introduction and the role she was aiming to fill in many ways needed to be filled; Henry’s character assassination had made him hard to watch for a long time, and moving him out of the spotlight to give writers some time to rehabilitate him was long overdue. It’s just a real massive shame that they managed to fail so badly. By failing to properly plan and develop Rebecca, Mattel created a background character that they tried to have fill a major role that she simply was not able to fill. There were many better choices in the show to take Rebecca’s role, not least of all Molly - a yellow tender engine who was shy and a bit clumsy. By neglecting to properly integrate Rebecca into the series and then giving the show writers very little personality to work with, Mattel ensured that Rebecca would be a BWBA-exclusive character, an engine who never managed to gain half of the popularity of other characters who had comparable runtimes. Engines like Murdoch, Molly and BoCo have far better legacies than Rebecca, and it comes down to how they were treated by the series. All three were introduced with something that made them unique, be it through their interactions with other characters or through their own unique characterisation. Rebecca is a grim reminder to people developing characters for stories - especially characters being added later in the series to a cast of strong, notable and even iconic characters - that these late introductions need a lot of effort and carefully designed arcs to make them viable and allow them to become embedded into the series alongside those they share the screen with. 

Rebecca is one of those characters who is enough of a blank slate that it is easy for people to project onto her. In some cases, this is useful to a character’s legacy - Fergus, Molly, and even Smudger all have been remembered far more fondly by the fanbase than their limited appearances ought to warrant, however this is mostly because they were given a strong enough personality by the show that these projections had preexisting characterisations to connect to. Rebecca was given far too little, and in redesigning her character, I feel like I’ve gained a new understanding of just how far Mattel had pushed the show prior to its cancellation. By expanding the series to include new characters from around the world while also demanding episodes with new, untested characters back on Sodor, the writing team was rushed to complete episodes with a plethora of new faces that had no substance to back them up. There was no chance for these foreign engines to become anything meaningful while Mattel demanded enough new characters to fill an entirely different series, nor was there time for many of the characters back on Sodor to develop meaningfully while the writers scrambled to try and create far too many new characters from scratch. 

And it was the characterisations that suffered for it. 

Once again, this was not an attempt to convince people to like or dislike the version of Rebecca found in BWBA, but instead look into why Rebecca as a character failed to stand up against the other Steam Team members or even many of the more notable secondary faces found in the TVS at this point in the series. This can be boiled down to comparisons to her predecessor, a lack of effort from Mattel to give Rebecca a chance to develop and the decision to use cliched characteristics to create a version of Rebecca that never was going to capture many viewers’ imaginations. This was also an attempt to redevelop Rebecca into someone that can be used by the fandom to rehabilitate her image, or at the least to point out what went wrong and what could have been done to fix it. Maybe someday Rebecca will get the redevelopment she deserved, or perhaps she will be left to the annals of Thomas history, becoming just another footnote in the ever-expanding list of characters who couldn’t stand the test of time. 

Thank you for reading.

[comicaurora]

If you still have Sailor Moon on the brain, did watching it at all give you any options you wish to share about other magical girl esk media you wish existed or your own take on how you would create a story in that media space?

If not, then maybe, if you're inclined to, recount some interesting findings about the connections that exist between shojo and shonen media?

(If neither then please disregard, sorry for imposing)

It was interesting! I was surprised at how much it had in common with shonen action anime. Half the boss battles get resolved with a beam clash and the only difference between Super Saiyan and Neo Queen Serenity is whether the hair or the outfit changes.

The one part I found myself sliding off of - due to personal writing preference - is how Usagi is the defacto center of the universe and everyone else is very explicitly playing support. That's part of why I liked the Outer Senshi so much - because they've all got their own ludicrously OP stuff going on, they feel more like equals to Usagi than glorified bodyguards. The inner planet senshi get their own character arcs, which is excellent, but after a while it's pretty clear that none of them can ever finish a fight without Sailor Moon. And that's fine, that's the pretense of the story - their jobs are very explicitly to protect the turbopowerful demigoddess moon princess while she gets her act together enough to remember she can win - but I prefer writing an ensemble cast where everyone feels like the hero of their own story, not the support in someone else's, and that's pretty much antithetical to the core premise of the show.

It also has a lot of the hallmarks of a soft magic system that I personally struggle with - the old "you win by believing in yourself" thing basically means "you win when the plot demands it would be most interesting for you to win" - but again, they can get away with a lot by letting the actual core premise of the universe's power system be stuff like "a pure heart gives you strength" and "the power of love will legitimately make you more powerful." And I respect that the show doesn't just give people powerups whenever - one of the parts I found most emotionally impactful was in the finale of season 3, when Sailor Saturn is going to fight the big bad all by herself and will 100% definitely die in the process, and because Sailor Moon has sacrificed the season's macguffin, she can no longer transform into her powered-up form to help - which doesn't stop her from screaming the transformation phrase over and over, because she is desperate to save Sailor Saturn even if she's been told it can't possibly work. When she gets her The Most Purest Heart Ever powerup at the last possible second, that feels excellent because it's a profoundly impactful character moment that's being supported by the plot with a tangible powerup. It's pretty telling that we don't even see the final bossfight; it's not about the spectacle or the beam clash, it's about the character arcs that surround them. I think that's a really interesting way to handle it and to add depth to an otherwise basic "whose number is bigger" style struggle.

I'm also deeply fond of paragons, and as the seasons go on I really like how Usagi's ultimately kind personality drives her to constantly help, no matter the personal cost or how aggressively people try to dissuade her - and I like that she gets angry and frustrated and even says or does harsh things sometimes, but will ultimately always do what she thinks is right. It makes her feel like a real human being, and the "weaknesses" and flaws in her character - aka the parts that make her something more complicated than a perfectly stoic problem-solving machine - are a lot of fun to watch.

Personal preference, I'd like to see more magical girl stuff where the central pillar of the plot is not a constant will-they-won't-they het romance - but I also like how Sailor Moon as a series is legitimately aware that this is not actually the de facto most important relationship for everyone. Surprising multitude of gay characters aside, I recently caught a season 2 episode where Makoto donates blood to save a close friend, and explains to Usagi that she isn't in love with him, but they have an incredibly profound friendship that's more important to her than any boyfriend, a concept with startles and confuses Usagi. It seems to be a case where the heroine has a Foundational Romantic Subplot that defines the course of her life and the plot, but the rest of the characters get to have more complicated dynamics where their life goals aren't "omg boys", and I liked that a lot!

When comparing and contrasting it to shonen action anime, I think the magical girl genre manages to integrate the lower-stakes slice of life elements significantly more smoothly, and to great effect - the 90% of the show that's silly and ridiculous makes the 10% of it that's extremely serious and gutwrenching much more impactful. That's something that a lot of shonen series struggle with, where the tone goes from "moderately serious with the occasional goof" to "extremely serious with major character deaths." The magical girl genre going from "the dumbest episode premise you've ever heard" to "extremely serious with major character deaths" is a much more precipitous plunge into icy water, as it were.

When I think about how I would write a magical girl story, I basically just smack into the premise of Exalted. Its worldbuilding has exactly what I want - an interesting system of powerset-reincarnation into worthy hosts that allows for complex interpersonal dynamics through varying levels of memory preservation, several different flavors of magical transforming person including Evil Versions, and the one thing I prioritize in my own writing - a world that feels like it can have a lot of main characters and heroes of their own story. Everyone in Exalted has their own shit going on and their own past-life drama, including former friend groups/adventuring parties, soulmates (both regular and evil versions), and anyone who might've previously killed them. Most importantly for my preferences, there's no default main character of the universe. If I were to make an urban fantasy magical girl setting, I'd probably use an extremely similar premise because I find the ramifications of it unbelievably interesting in a way the system itself is not designed to explore.

[chaoticrushu]

God everything about Lisa is so tragic. Her trigger event, being forced into villainy by Coil, her desperate attempts to find out as much as she can to prevent the end of the world, and her whole relationship with Taylor.

She sees Taylor for the first time and immediately knows she's passively suicidal. She can't let that go, if course she can't, she can't let another Rex happen. So she reaches out, she invites Taylor to join the Undersiders, knowing the whole time Taylor's lying from the start. She gives her a friends/family/a support group, desperately hoping to give Taylor a reason to live. She takes her shopping, hoping to boost Taylor's confidence in herself. She pushes Taylor to go out with Brian, because she knows Brian has the same feelings, and she thinks it'll both help Taylor feel more tied to the group and help make her happier.

And it kinda works. Taylor gains confidence, she's stronger, she's happier.

"I'm sorry," Lisa put her hand on my shoulder. I felt grateful that she wasn’t pulling away or laughing. It was the first time I’d ever really talked about it, and I wasn’t sure I could’ve dealt if she had.

Shell 4.3

It kind of surprised me, but I realized what I was saying was true, so I didn’t even need to worry about tipping Lisa off. A second later, I realized I might have been a little presumptuous.

"I mean, assuming that we are frien—"

"If you finish that sentence,” Lisa warned me, "I'm going to slap you across the head." I felt the heat of a flush in my cheeks and ears. "Yes, Taylor, we’re friends," Brian said.

Shell 4.3

"I don’t know how to say this gracefully," I said. I paused, noting the presence of a hero nearby who’d raised a camera towards me. Whatever, I’d say it anyways. "But you guys mean a lot to me. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before, but I couldn’t without letting on that something was going on. You’re my family, in a way. As lame as it might be, I love you guys."

Drone 23.5

"I know," Grace said, after a pause. "I get that. I get that there’s other reasons. Like the fact that you love those guys and you never loved us. Cool. Makes sense."

"I liked you guys."

"But you didn’t love us.”

"No," I said.

Venom 29.1

By Arc 19, Lisa's sure she succeeded. She averted another Rex, she saved Taylor. Even with how self destructive Taylor is, pushing herself so hard towards a goal, first saving Dinah then saving everyone, throwing herself in dangerous situations one after another, she's in a better state than she was before. But is Lisa?

Taylor and Lisa have somewhat of a distant emotional connection. As much as Lisa has helped Taylor, Taylor can't really do the same to Lisa. Because even when she isn't wearing a mask in a literal sense. she's always wearing one metaphorically, one that she almost never lets slip. So as much as Taylor loves Lisa, she doesn't really know Lisa. She can't. Lisa's given Taylor a support system, but she herself doesn't have one.

"Except you’ve been talking to the heroes, and you’ve had that to help center yourself, figure out where you stand," Tattletale said. "I haven't."

"That’s it? You need to talk to someone?"

"No. That’s not what I’m saying," she said. She sighed. "Yes. Kind of. It’s only part of it. Who the hell am I going to talk to that grasps things on a level I do? Do you really expect me to find a therapist and sit down and not pick him apart faster than he can decipher me?"

"You could talk to me ," I said. "Not when you’re part of the problem, part of what I’d need to work past."

"That’s not fair," I told her.

"No, it isn’t," she admitted."

Scourge 19.7

And that disconnect shows in Taylor's pov. Even in Taylor's head, Lisa is so often thought of as Tattletale, not Lisa. Even as she's eviscerating Taylor on personal level in 30.1, she's still Tattletale, not Lisa. Rachel is almost always Rachel more than Bitch, and I'm pretty sure Aisha is Aisha'd as much as she's Imp'd.

Later in the same chapter, she explains herself, her first time in the whole book being genuine and letting herself be vulnerable.

Me? When you shot Coil, I realized I was done. I’d helped you out of the same trap of despair Rex had been in. Don’t know if the road I helped you down was a good one or a bad, but I’d finished."

"But why be reckless? Why take the risks?"

"Because I did what I had to do, I helped you, and I still feel like the stupid, self-obsessed little child that let her big brother die. It wasn’t conscious, but maybe I felt like I needed to up the stakes. Pull something dramatic. Show that, with these crazy smart capes like Alexandria and Faultline around, I could still be the smartest person in the room."

Scourge 19.7

She's finished her project, she's saved Taylor, whether for good or ill. She's freed herself of Coil. And it didn't fix her; She still bears all that guilt over Rex. Maybe, given time, Taylor could have helped Lisa, returned the favour. But they never had the time, because so soon after this, Taylor is outed, and things escalate, and Taylor is gone. I can't imagine what that did to Lisa, but it I'd guess that it means that her one true friend, probably the only person who even comes close to understanding her, is gone. Of course, she keeps in touch. But the letter she sends, its so impersonal, naught more than a status report. Whereas Brian and Rachel's are emotional and personal, confessions of their feelings. (I love Taylor and Rachel's relationship so much, but that's not the point here.) And when they meet all meet back up before Behemoth, the only thing she says to Taylor is asking her to survive. I think that even though she said she felt like she'd succeeded fixing Taylor, she was still doubting. Taylor is Taylor, I don't think she ever really could have been saved just by who she is. And Lisa could probably tell.

With a touch more seriousness, Tattletale said, "No dying, okay, Skitter?"

"Weaver," I corrected.

"Skitter," she said. "Here, today, you’re Skitter. Consider it a good luck charm. And no dying . I’ll say it as many times as it takes, until it gets through to you."

...

“Just remember,” Tattletale called out, “You’re officially Skitter today. Don’t be a hero. No point to all this shit if you do something brave and get yourself killed.”

Drone 23.5

And it all leads to Khepri. Taylor ruining herself, letting someone alter her brain to such an extent in a desperation to beat Scion. And it kills Lisa

"You couldn’t have made it easy?” Tattletale asked, looking down at it. “Because standing by while you do this… that’s fucking hard . It’s honestly easier if I’m on their side and I’m helping them stop you. If I can blame the fuck-up job Panacea did to your head."

"While I’m saying all this, kiddo, you gotta know I love you. I adore you, warts and all. You saved me, as much as I like to think I saved you. All this stuff I’m bitching about, it’s the same stuff that got us through some pretty hairy shit, and I love you for it as much as I groan about it. You’re brilliant and you’re reckless and you care too much about people in general when I really wish you’d leave things well enough alone and be selfish. But this?"

"Shit ," Tattletale said. "You gotta forgive me, just this once. Because seeing this and knowing what you pulled hurts enough that I gotta say this. This makes me feel really sorry for your dad, because I’m starting to get a sense of what you put him through.

Speck 30.1

Like, god. The tragedy of loving Taylor Hebert, a stubborn, persistent, unyielding person, one who doesn't value herself but will give everything to fight for her friends. For all that Lisa could try and do to save her, for all the happiness she could try and give her, it didn't work. Taylor becomes Khepri, and she loses her forever. I'm don't even know if Lisa knows what happened to Taylor, that she's on another earth, safe with the opportunity for genuine happiness without all the crises, able to be a regular person. Or does she assume Taylor died, maybe at the hands of a cape traumatised and angry and being mind controlled, maybe because of her own shard destroying her?

Does she ever regret trying to fix Taylor? Does she ever think back on it and wonder if Taylor would be better off if she hadn't guided her into villainy?

[kadextra]

LETS GO rambling and analysis time now that I finished part one

MAJOR MAJOR spoilers under the cut

KAI

NOOOOO how is he gonna get out??? I will say him as the first to use rising dragon felt extremely deserved, I clapped and cheered during that fight scene. but now he’s stuck in the netherworld with the remaining forbidden five and that’s scary.

I teared up seeing Nya activate her rising dragon style in her grief for him. in the next part she’s gonna find out Jay forgot who she is too… so much heartache for Nya 😞

Really enjoyed Bonzle in these episodes as well, learning about her origin of being a spell, her journey of discovering herself as a person and finding a found family :’) at least she’s with Kai now….

and I’ve felt terrible for Lloyd every episode. him getting slammed by those visions constantly, unexpectedly, even in the middle of a fight which sends him spiraling, that’s so rough :((

It’s obvious they’re a representation of panic attacks/he has developed a canon panic disorder- like Lloyd literally says it at one point. they happen suddenly, give anxious fear about present and future events, he gets scared about having another one so he tries to cope by not sleeping (unhealthy coping method) and is taught later on to try accepting the feelings and ride it out which is a way irl therapists teach. good to see some more exploration of mental health in this show!! I’m glad the other characters are taking notice and trying to help too in the ways they can

…speaking of mental health, Arin has been interesting to watch. he’s reading to me more as an autistic-coded character lately (like that line about not understanding social cues???) and we’ve been seeing lots more negative self-esteem issues and insecurity from him in these episodes. him making mistakes during the training sessions, getting scolded, then closing himself off was hard to watch

How Sora decided to hide the truth about Arin’s “object spinjitzu” that saved the day at the very end so he would feel proud of himself for achieving something hurt my heart. she is such a sweet friend who wants her bestie to be happy and feel proud of himself but like- keeping secrets is gonna have consequences down the line. especially when we all know this is a touchy subject for Arin right now. it’s just painful to see how deeply Arin’s self-worth is tied to what he’s capable of doing, what he can and cannot do for the ninja team. he can’t use elemental power he can’t do spinjitzu properly, he’s already insecure so how would he feel to find out ppl are lying to his face so he can feel happier? he’s a string that’s gonna snap one day and judging from that beatdown moment with Lord Ras it’s not going to be pretty. I sense some sort of villain arc approaching for our son

(someone send these people to therapy they’re so traumatized)

In another news: Cole and Geo gay love! homosexuals! maybe a QPR! I don’t care whatever it is, it’s clear they love each other

And it certainly wouldn’t be a ninjago season without the destiny’s bounty crashing and burning <333 was also nice seeing Jay for 10 seconds again <3333

Now my current question is what’s the source dragon tournament thing Lord Ras’ master is talking about??? tournament?? 👀 it’s basically implied that master is a source dragon or a being that rivals their power

can’t wait for the next part to release agugugsjkhkdbqjdpgsiduggjneosgktnalfhdiqkwkfjfialwkg

[stitching-in-time]

Finished Star Trek: Prodigy season 2! Overall, I loved it, it was everything I hoped for, and then some. I love time travel paradoxes and alternate universes and that kind of stuff, so this season's story arc was right up my alley, and I think they did it just right. From story, to visuals, to character development, this whole season was just mindblowing the whole way through. The very ending leaves me trepidatious for the future, unfortunately, but I still very much want another season, and I want to celebrate what a monumental achievement season 2 is, both as thing unto itself, and as an epic expansion of what Star Trek can be.

Thoughts and analysis (with major spoilers!) below!

The biggest things for me this season were how Dal and Gwyn grew as characters, Janeway and Chakotay's relationship becoming even more of a central thing, and my boy Wesley Crusher returning as basically a Time Lord to help the Protostar kids save the timeline. As a Next Gen fan, I can't begin to describe how much it means to see Wesley again, and know that he's still out there, doing good in the universe, like I always knew he would. Beverly Crusher raised a good kid! As fans, we always joked about how Wesley Crusher is a Time Lord now, and now Prodigy said, yeah, he really is! That's what the Travellers do! They're literally like the Time Lords in Doctor Who, but with more hands on helping and fixing things, and I'm like yes, perfect!! I couldn't have asked for better, honestly, and Wil Wheaton does a terrific job as manic pixie Time Lord Wesley (there's no other way to describe him lol) without losing the essence of the Wesley we knew. After the horrible, hurtful disappointment of what they did with Picard and the rest of the Next Gen crew in the Picard series, seeing at least one of my first Trek crew getting the respectful treatment their character deserves means, so, so much to me, I can't even begin. My boy Wes! I love him!! (But dude- call your Mom ffs! Janeway is such a space mom herself for calling him on that. The scene at the end where Wes and Beverly hug was EVERYTHING to me. I cried. 30 years I have waited for that!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!)

Gwyn and Dal's character arcs this year were great too. Gwyn always had the commanding presence that said 'captain' to me, from the beginning. Much as I like Dal, I felt like it didn't make sense for him to be the captain, given his personality and experience, and it kind of seemed like they gave him that because the lead character always has to be a boy, by default, in any children's media that isn't explicitly aimed primarily at girls. But seeing how it shifted this season was really wonderful. How Gwyn stepped up to be a leader, and how Dal realized that being the right hand of someone you trust and respect is just as important a role as being the one in charge, was lovely, and paralleled the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay. Gwyn and Dal are kind of coming from opposite ends of the childhood trauma spectrum; Gwyn being forced to ignore her own judgement, and obey her father's commands without question; and Dal, being undervalued by his surrogate mother, being told and shown by her that he's unimportant and uneeded. The positions that they came to here, as a Captain and her Number One, and are the direct opposite of the roles their parents forced on them, and the exact places they need to be to overcome those negative beliefs and let their true natures shine through. It's so good!! And they actually talked to each other about their relationship! (or at least tried before they got interrupted.) That's honestly way more emotionally mature of them than almost any other romantic pairing in Trek! The kids are all right!! And I love that Gwyn is taller than Dal, and nobody cares. I can't think of the last time I saw a show where a girl being tall wasn't presented as a problem for her boyfriend to be insecure and crappy about it. Not making girls feel bad for being tall, and not making boys insecure about being short, is so important, especially in a show aimed at kids. Way to break down those gendered stereotypes!!

Janeway and Chakotay got so much to do this season, and I loved every minute of it. I love that Prodigy is basically a Voyager sequel. Janeway in the Captain's chair on a new Voyager is like, a dream come true, and seeing Voyager characters again is a special thrill for those of us who grew up with them and love them. (Ngl I was thrilled that my boy Tom Paris got namedropped twice! And so much yes to having him design the Nova Flyers!!! I've always headcanoned that Tom and B'Elanna stayed on Earth after Voyager and designed ships and warp engines and stuff at Starfleet HQ so they could give their kids a more stable childhood, and I'm beyond thrilled and thankful to have that somewhat canonized!!) I kinda wish it had been Tuvok rather than the Doctor along for this voyage, since he's Janeway's best friend, but the Andorian guy (Tysis? Why can't I remember his name??) does remind me of Tuvok a lot, so it might have been an odd vibe to have two similar characters. And anyway having the Doctor along did prove useful to the mission later on. (Though I don't know what it is, but the voice Robert Picardo uses for the Doctor on Prodigy is off, somehow- it's higher pitched, and the cadence is different. If I didn't know it was him, I'd think it was a different actor, and it's pretty distracting. But luckily the Doctor was mostly just there to be comic relief, and didn't have a ton of scenes.)

The character who surprised me the most here, though, was Chakotay. I like him a lot better on Prodigy than I ever did on Voyager. It's not even that I disliked him before, so much as that I feel the writing wasn't always there for him, and that they didn't really care to fully flesh him out and make his characterization consistent. His love for Janeway was one of the only things about him that was consistent, and they really highlighted that aspect here. I've never been much of a Janeway/Chakotay shipper, but I'm shipping it now. I know the die hard J/C shippers are probably livid that we didn't get a kiss or a direct acknowlegement of their feelings this season, and from the way it was going, I don't blame them, I expected it too. But I feel like Prodigy's writers aren't dumb enough to tease it so heavily without paying it off- I'd wager they're playing the long game and saving it for later, what with all the insanely shippy stuff going on between them here. The pda! The longing! That reunion scene! Heck, even Starfleet command knows they have a thing going on, and that Janeway can't be normal about Chakotay! Even the kids give them looks like they know there's something going on between them! The parallels between them and Dal and Gwyn, who already are a romantic couple, make it pretty obvious that Janeway and Chakotay are like a template for them to emulate. I didn't care one way or another about whether Janeway/Chakotay became a thing when this season started, but now I'm invested. They're in love, just admit it!

I love that they added Ma'jel to the Protostar gang, it's nice to have another girl to balance things more. And the fact that they named her after Majel Barrett hits me straight in the heart. So much love for the OG queen of Star Trek!!

I really appreciated Gwyn getting the chance to meet the younger version of her father, and get the chance to recieve some kindness and care from him, at last. I hope now that the timeline is different, she'll be able to have a better relationship with him at last. (I'm still not entirely sure how Gwyn can exist now that he's not going back to become the Diviner in the new timeline, but I think maybe it's some sort of alternate timeline/parallel universe stuff?? That's the one part of the timey wimey plot I was a little fuzzy on, but honestly the rest of it is so awesome that I don't even care that much.)

One of the few things that I disliked this season was Voyager A having a 'cetacean ops' tank on board. It was fine on Lower Decks because it's a comedy, so I don't take anything that happens there too seriously. (I just thought it was a SeaQuest joke, tbh.) But for a drama series, it really bothers me that Starfleet would take wild animals from their homes and plunk them on a starship. Even though they can communicate with the whales now, so we infer that the whale consented to be there, it seems incredibly unlikely that any wild creature would chose to live in a tiny tank away from their ecosystem and others of their kind. Animal captivity is not a cool thing to be promoting in this day and age, so I hope that will go away, and we won't have to see any more of that.

The biggest problem I had with this season though, was all of the references to stuff from Picard at the very end. Worse still than animal captivity was Picard's horrible storyline about using slaves to build Starfleet ships. It's like the writers on that show had never seen an episode of Star Trek in their lives, and had no idea what it's even about. They literally referenced the Next Gen episode 'The Measure of a Man', so they must have seen it, and yet they totally ignored it's message that androids aren't property, and it's assertion that creating an army of android slaves would abominable, and against everything the Federation stands for. The whole point of that episode was that they established the legal precedent to prevent that. To turn around and have that happen is a huge betrayal of the optimistic spirit of the show, and a shows a deep misunderstanding of all of the characters. You cannot sit there and tell me that any of the characters we know would sit idly by and let the Federation institute slavery. You can't convince me that they would just go on with their lives like everything was fine while that was happening around them. You can't tell me Starfleet wouldn't have a wave of resignations in mass protest, that there wouldn't have been protests all over Earth to stop it. Just casually dropping something as horrific as 'oh, our android slaves rebelled and blew up the fleet we forced them to build for us' in the middle of a show aimed at children is deeply disturbing, and deeply wrong- allowing slavery in the Federation negates everything it is, and demolishes Star Trek as a beacon of hope for the future.

I'm very worried for Prodigy's future if it's going to take place in that awful reality, for which there is absolutely no excuse or explanation that can be had to justify it. I'm absolutely horrified to think that it might become the status quo that we're just supposed to accept, but conversely, if they don't gloss over it, if they look at it head on, in all it's horror, there's no way to deny that everything that Starfleet and the Federation stand for is a lie. There's just no good way forward with it, I fear. If the Protostar gang were to find out that someone was messing with the timeline to create that reality in the first place, and that they had to go back to stop it from happening, and erase that timeline from existence, then I could be okay with it, but I doubt they'd do another time paradox plot so soon. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to love Prodigy anymore either, because it will have let me down, just like Picard did.

I desperately hope this season wasn't Prodigy's pinnacle, and that it will continue to believe in hope and kindness and the possibility of a better future, and to fight against the cruelty and cynicism that Picard's writers poisoned the Star Trek universe with. I care about these characters, and this world, and I want to see more of them. I would love a third season, but only if it lives up to Star Trek's ideals of love and equality and compassion. Prodigy has been such a bright spot for me, I've come to love this new crew, and being able to see my beloved Voyager crew members still out there being heroic, and being happy. I hope it can continue to be that bright spot. Based on what wonderful things I've seen overall in these first two seasons, I'm going to choose to have faith that it will.

Here's hoping we get a season 3 that's just as amazing!

[acourtofthought]

How would you feel if ACOTAR 5 is gwynriel instead of elucien? In one of SJM interviews she stated that after finishing acotar5 she will be working on the 1st book of a different series. So that means acotar6 will come out 2027.

Disappointed. I think there gets to be a point where an author drags out a particular storyline too long (the Blood and Ash series come to mind) and the writing suffers as a result.

Vassa was taken in ACOMAF, we found out by who in ACOWAR and that she as well as the other girls at the lake have been cursed / kidnapped by Koschei. In ACOFAS we're told her freedom will come to an end and reminded of that in ACOSF.

Spring was destroyed in ACOWAR and in ACOFAS, we're told Tamlin is severely depressed but that they'll still need Spring as an ally. SF shows it's been awhile and Tamlin isn't getting better, that they know they need a strong ally in Springs army.

Elucien's bond snapped in ACOMAF, Elain was turned fae and in ACOWAR she lost her father, stabbed a man, was rejected by Graysen, fought with her sister in SF and was rejected by Az yet we've not once been given her inner thoughts of all she's experienced. We don't even see any of the main characters trying to talk to her about any of those things.

And Lucien, the list is too long to include on all his unresolved plots.

Having Nesta's story told first made sense to me because there was never going to be Elucien progress until Nesta began letting go of her protectiveness over Elain, to accept the idea of Lucien (and technically, Nessian's bond was hinted at before Elucien's bond snapped).

Her healing arc was important to Feyre and Elain's stories too (along with herself of course) however it wasn't very plot heavy. But there was no moving forward for anyone until Nesta's anger wasn't destroying everything in Nesta's path. The series, since book 2, has been as much about the sisters relationship to one another as plot and romance and closing that out before moving into a new era makes sense to me.

But Az having his story before Elain and Lucien doesn't seem to fit especially when a Gwynriel romance would probably need at least 6 - 9 months (meaning that almost another year would go by before we even start getting resolution to the above).

I'm not sure that I see anything in his story that is necessary to lead us into the Koschei storyline.

He wasn't in Feyre's "Let's help one sister before helping the other" speech, he wasn't part of Feyre's "I want them all to be happy" speech in ACOFAS.

To me the Illyrians aren't a bigger concern to their entire world than Vallahan setting their sights on the humans or Beron trying to ally with Koschei or how an entire court is now being neglected by its High Lord.

Dragging out Vassa, Koschei, Lucien's father reveal, the Elucien bond, the girls who were kidnapped, Spring, Elain healing from her trauma while she continues to remain in a court she doesn't truly belong just so Az can have his story which doesn't fit in to any of those things does not make any sense to me and honestly, I think it sends a weird message.

"I think Lucien will never be good enough for her"

"I'll defeat him with little effort"

"I know, I helped rescue Elain after all"

"There is a darkness to the Dread Trove that Elain should not be exposed to"

"She has no interest in him anyway"

Az (no offense) is kind of a dick at times outside of the priestesses.

He makes Mor so uneasy with his behavior that she feels like she needs to lie about what she's doing so he doesn't brood.

He is jealous and bitter towards Lucien and speaks for Elain without ever acknowledging her bravery and strength.

He gives off Tamlin vibes at times and to me that means he needs to be on a time out for a bit. Where he has to really sit and think on why his behaviors were wrong, why he tried to keep Mor and Elain small so he could be the hero, why he had such issues with a guy who is a very decent person.

Giving him a HEA after he treated them like that while Mor still remains unlucky in love, Lucien is struggling, Elain has no found family, it feels like jumping over an important lesson for Az to learn so he can become worthy of Gwyn. Not just in who he is when around her but who he is on his own.

I think Az seeing them happy and actually being happy for them is an important arc for his character.

But, in the end that's just my perception of the situation.

I don't know how SJM thinks, what her plan is, and if Elucien is not next than there's not much I can do but wait!

[xbomboi]

thoughts about Epic Winter, & reconciling its place in Ever After High’s story as a whole

i wanna talk about epic winter because it—arguably more than any other aspect of the franchise—is definitely ever after high’s ‘ugly duckling’ piece of media, so to speak.

now obviously, a lot of it has to do with being the final big installment in eah’s main story, its premise being a side quest that sidelines the main protagonists in favor of new characters who are comparably far less compelling as the show’s actual leads, leaving the audience without any actual closure to the story which they were following.

in isolation, epic winter isn’t that terrible (though i think most would agree its better parts are the ones centered around already-established characters as opposed to the new ones), but in context it leaves a sour taste.

i entirely understand why anyone rewriting the series would either heavily rework it, only keep more important story beats such as daring’s arc & faybelle’s side plot, or completely remove the outing altogether.

in my case, however, deleting epic winter isn’t an option; my intentions are to continue where ever after high left off, and organically finish what they started. that means epic winter stays in tact, sanity be damned.

with that writing handicap, i can’t edit any pre-existing media in the ever after high animated lineup, which has forced me to brainstorm ways to recontextualize the purpose for epic winter’s place in the story and make the time spent on its story retroactively feel, at the very least, a little more worth it.

and the solution i found comes from viewing all that is introduced in the special through chehkov's gun.

(if you're unfamiliar, chehkov's gun is a narrative rule that everything introduced in a story must be done so with a purpose to serve. i.e. if you give a character a gun, they must shoot it.)

what's done is done; if we have to go on this detour following crystal winter and the top of the world, so be it. but let's pocket it like a tool that can be used later.

so here's my idea: bring crystal and the winter kingdom back into the story later down the line when the events of the story have reached a far more grandiose scale.

basically, i think the best way to use crystal would be when the story reaches a point of confronting and opposing the ruling powers in the fairytale world. having become the new snow queen, naturally, she'd be included in a gathering of the rulers of the kingdoms in the fairytale world.

i want there to be a moment in the story where the ruling powers gather together, and we see familiar faces return (including ones that we'd be introduced to after epic winter but prior to this), such as snow white, king charming, the queen of hearts, and of course, crystal.

with her outlook that would most reasonably be more aligned with the students at ever after high, she could end up being one of-if not the sole person-those present to voice opposition to whatever unfavorable verdict the rest of the rulers have made, as it would serve as direct conflict for the protagonists. she'd find herself outnumbered and ultimately her voice holding little to no power to sway the decision (especially being disregarded for her rather young age). afterwards we'd see her reflect on her frustrations with her colleagues and their rule of the system, thinking about it in terms of what kind of ruler she wants to be, before seeing her find determination towards something, though we aren’t yet shown what she actually decides to do.

the next time we'd see her would then come a little later, the conflict reaching the most dire circumstances. all hope is lost for our heroes; raven, apple, and co. would be down on their luck against odds they're unable to overcome. and that's when crystal would show up to offer her support, providing the numbers of her kingdom as allies to help better the odds. (she wouldn't be the only ally to show up, as this would be a 'getting help from all the friends we made along the way' ordeal. she would simply be one of said friends.)

crystal's help would ultimately play a part in winning the conflict. and because the audience would be familiar with crystal and the winter kingdom to a decent extent way prior to that point, the inclusion of it in the present fight at hand wouldn't feel like an ass-pull or a deus ex machina of sorts; it would make sense and feel earned for the most part.

and i think that's honestly the best thing to be made of epic winter's main adventure. we can't change it or fix it as it is, but we can create a payoff for it all later down the line. think of it like begrudgingly doing chores that lack any enjoyment factor, only to find that afterwards, you're glad you did.

so, yeah, that's my idea for how to give epic winter a genuine purpose. but i'm just spitballing.

[duhragonball]

Chainsaw Man ch.71-74

Awww, he got himself a li'l treat!

So this is the aftermath of the whole Germany's Santa Claus arc, and I'm still kind of reeling from that brief stop in hell that happened in the middle of it. Makima was able to bring the main cast back, but we really only saw her, Denji, and Quanxi in all of that. At one point, Denji asked what happened to Power and the rest, and we didn't really get an answer.

Here, we finally find out. I just assumed everyone came back from hell without the damage they sustained there. I'm not sure why I thought that, except that Makima took a sword to the gut as she got them all back to Earth, and she didn't seem to have that wound when she returned. Denji was back to normal, but that probably doesn't mean anything. Likewise, Quanxi was still decapitated, but that didn't slow her down much. Her two minions were shown to be dead, but so much was going on that I didn't notice.

I guess I mostly assumed the damage done by the Darkness Devil wouldn't "count", because the very first thing he did was remove everyone's arms, and that just seems like the sort of thing you'd only do in a dream sequence, or some scenario with an "undo". But no. Aki returned to Earth with his arms still removed. Apparently his arms came back with him, and somehow one of them could be reattached, but not the other. That raises more question than answers, honestly.

Angel Devil returned the same way, except neither of his arms could be reattached. As for Violence Fiend and Beam the Shark Fiend, well they're just dead. The Spider Fiend was also there, but Aki doesn't mention her, and it's possible he never knew she was there. I already mentioned Quanxi and her companions, and that just leaves Kobeni, who resigned from Public Safety. No word on her physical condition.

No, wait. I forgot about Power. She seems to be fine, except she's deeply traumatized by the whole experience. I get the sense that the overwhelming power of the Darkness Devil just got to her, and she's constantly terrified that he's lurking in the shadows, ready to finish her off at any moment.

At some point during Aki's convalescence, Makima suggested that she and Denji could still go on that trip to Enoshima by themselves, but Denji decides he can't do it, because Power's a nervous wreck and he doesn't feel right leaving her alone.

We get a lot of scenes of Denji taking care of Power and just kind of being there for her. Once Aki gets back on his feet, he helps, and the two of them just sort of help her work through this. Power's kind of an odd duck, but I don't think there's anything unusual about her recovery. She just needs to put some temporal distance between herself and what happened. Gradually, she gets more and more comfortable with the idea that Darkness Devil isn't going to get her. The important thing in all of this is that Denji and Aki are supporting her through the process, feeding her and bathing with her as needed. Aki once despised her for being a devil, and Denji once found her barely useful at best, so things have come a long way for the three of them.

One night Power offers to let Denji drink her blood, which I guess is sort of a gesture of goodwill between devils and/or fiends, since they use blood to regenerate. Denji hesitates, but she really wants him to do it, so he does, and considers how this is extremely intimate but not romantic or sexual at all. His realtionship with Power has deepened considerably, but they're not a couple or fuckbuddies or anything like that.

Later on, Aki goes on a trip to his family's grave in Hokkaido. Denji and Power invite themselves along and act like huge dorks the whole time. Aki is dismayed, but he later admits that their presence distracted him from his malaise, so that's a plus.

Upon his return he has lunch with Captain Kishibe, and asks if his group can be kept out of the upcoming final battle with the Gun Devil. Kishibe seems supportive, but reminds Aki that he's wanted to be in on this from the beginning of his career in Public Safety. If he bows out now, he'll never find out what happened, because the Gun Devil's location, status, and ultimate fate will be kept top secret.

But Aki's mind is made up. He seems worried about Denji and Power getting killed in the battle, which isn't too surprising because he's seen Himeno die before his eyes, and all those other characters who died fighting Reze, Germany's Santa Claus, and the Darkness Devil. I suppose the only reason he's not worried about Angel Devil right now is because Angel Devil can't be in the fight because he's got no arms.

One day, they're all taking a nap together, and Aki points out that Power stopped screaming in the middle of the night. Power makes up some bullshit lie about defeating the Darkness Devil when they were in hell, and it seems like she's finally getting back to her old self.

They get summoned to Makima's office where she addresses Aki's request to be left out of the Gun Devil campaign. She has no problem with Aki bowing out, but Denji and Power will definitely be participating, because they're devils placed in Makima's custody. More importantly, Denji and Power are cool with this battle. Denji will get a wish from Makima if he wins, and Power is Denji's buddy, and she's ready to back him up. So Aki changes his mind again. He's back in for the Gun Devil battle, because this is the only way he can be there for his pals.

With that settled, Makima briefs them on the Gun Devil's whereabouts and status. Turns out he's already been defeated! Well that was easy. Great job, team!

Yeah, so the Gun Devil killed over a million people across multiple locations in a span of about five minutes, and apparently he was defeated by "someone else" shortly after that. The Soviets found him unconscious later on. The thing is that the Gun Devil left a lot of his own flesh behind in the wake of his attacks. Public Safety has been collecting those chunks of flesh in an attempt to track down the Gun Devil, and various lesser devils have eaten some of the flesh to empower themselves. Well, every other country has been collecting their own Gun Devil flesh for similar reasons. 59% of the Gun Devil flesh is controlled by the U.S.A., Soviet Union, and China.

Aki is flabbergasted. If the Gun Devil's already beaten, then his entire career as a Devil Hunter was for nothing. But what about those Yazuka assassins who attacked Public Safety about thirty chapters ago? They bought their guns from the Gun Devil, didn't they?

Makima explains that they didn't. They just got them from human gun manufacturers, like everyone else. But the gun control laws are far too strict for that, right? Apparently Aki finds it easier to believe that the Gun Devil has magic arms dealer powers than the idea that a bunch of gangsters bought illegal firearms without getting caught.

Makima goes one step further, and suggests that the guns were supplied by the very governments that heavily regulate their manufacture. If she's right, then the Yazuka attack on Public Safety was arranged by one or more rival nations, just like all the assassins like Quanxi and Santa in the previous arc.

Aki is horrified to hear this, because the whole point of the gun control laws was to weaken the Gun Devil, so that those tragic attacks could never happen again. If the world's governments are distributing guns in secret, then fear of guns will persist, and the Gun Devil will grow stronger. And since so much of the Gun Devil's flesh is controlled by humans, the potency of that flesh will only increase.

So the real point of this upcoming battle is not to defeat the Gun Devil, but to secure all of the Gun Devil's flesh, so that other countries can't use it against Japan. The Gun Devil isn't the enemy, he's the prize. And since it's just humans battling over control of the prize, then this is just a war.

Later, Aki realizes the darker truth of all of this. Even if Japan wins this conflict and gets sole control of the Gun Devil's flesh, they won't destroy the Gun Devil to end the threat he poses to the world. The power is too valuable to give up, so Japan will simply keep the Gun Devil's body in custody, to use against anyone who threatens their interests.

The same would hold true if any other country emerges victorious. Or if it's a stalemate and the Gun Devil flesh is still held by multiple world powers, it's all the same outcome. The Gun Devil will never be killed this way. He'll live on forever, constantly protected by whoever possesses his flesh. And his victims, including Aki's family, will never be avenged.

Denji's a little slow on the uptake, but he realizes that this means Makima will never grant that wish she promised him.

Aki takes all of this pretty hard. He seems to be getting past the need for revenge that motivated him at the beginning of this series, but now he realizes that it will forever be denied to him, which is pretty tough to accept. And while he's found his friendship with Denji and Power to be a source of consolation, he's worried that he'll lose them too, because they're bound to fight in this upcoming conflict. Then he has a disturbing vision brought on by the Future Devil. He asks the Future Devil if the vision was a prophecy, and the Future Devil confirms it. He promises Aki that he and Power will be slaughtered by Denji, and then the "Devil that devils fear most" will appear.

So Aki goes to see the Angel Devil, I guess because he doesn't know who else to talk to. He's pretty sure Angel isn't long for this world. Having no arms, Angel can't hunt Devils in the field, and Public Safety won't have much use for him otherwise, so they'll probably kill him. Aki writes a letter recommending that Angel be kept alive in that bunker where they keep other Devils for contracts and what not, but this is all he can do.

Moved by the gesture, Angel offers to help Aki try to get to the bottom of the vision he saw, and he suggests they talk to Makima about it, since it almost certainly ties in with the Gun Devil campaign. On the way, Angel points out that Aki can always resign from Public Safety and run away from all of this to enjoy his final years in peace, but Aki refuses. Angel realizes that he's in love with Makima, and asks why he fell for her. Turns out Aki himself doesn't know the reason.

When they meet Makima, Aki explains how worried he is about Denji and Power, and begs Makima to help him find a devil contract that will help him resolve this. So Makima suggests that Aki make a contract with her. Wait, did I say "suggest"? Makima orders him to to it.

So Makima is a devil herself? It's not quite clear yet, but this wouldn't be much of a surprise. The series had been hinting all along that she's not what she seems, and she's probably not a good guy. My working theory so far is that Makima is the Gun Devil, and nothing in this installment really contradicts it. She says the Gun Devil was already defeated, but if she's secretly the Gun Devil herself, then of course she would make up a lie like that.

Mostly, I think she's the Gun Devil because we've learned so little about Makima and the Gun Devil so far, and so it would make sense if both puzzles are actually part of the same picture. The truth might end up being more complicated than that, but I definitely think I'm onto something.

When Makima orders Aki to make a contract with her, Angel suddenly recalls a memory of when he first met Makima. He had forgotten it until now, but back in the day, he was taken in by a village somewhere and felt truly welcomed by humans for the first time. Then Makima showed up and asked Angel to show her his power. No, she ordered him, just like she's ordering Aki now. And the next thing Angel knew, it was suddenly hours later, and he had demonstrated his power to Makima by draining the life force of all his friends on the island.

So now it seems clear that Makima is a villain, right? Kishibe suggested earlier that she had done horrible things for the good of humanity, but there's no longer an end goal that helps humanity, is there? She's not trying to defeat the Gun Devil, because that's already been done. She's been using all of her subordinates, and I'm pretty sure she's made a lot of them fall in love with her or something.

The one saving grace is that she seems chill when human Devil Hunters resign, but something tells me she does something horrible to them off-panel, and we're about to see some chamber of horrors somewhere with Kobeni and all the other ex-Public Safety guys chained up or whatever.

[belle-keys]

The People versus Grace Blackthorn (Meta)

So this is Part 3 of my little breakdown of the characters in The Last Hours, and here we have one of my favorite characters. I invite you to listen to Meg Myers as you read. Here we have Grace Blackthorn, who I would argue is one of Cassie's most complex and sympathetic female characters and antagonists across all series.

Preface: I will reference sexual abuse and grooming a few times in this (not in detail though), so just keep that in mind. Also please note that I absolutely recognize from the get-go what Grace did to James, Charles, Matthew, and others was indeed sexual assault (or at the very least, is akin to it) and that the bracelet was the magical equivalent of a roofie. I'm not particularly interested in breaking down Grace's actions or their obvious, undebatable moral depravity as much as I'm interested in her intentions, her childhood, her emotions, her complexity, and her character's treatment in the story. And moreover, I wanted to write this just because people in this fandom generally have no appreciation for nuance in a woman when men are somehow always forgiven, even for making indefensible choices.

This is not so much a defense of Grace Blackthorn as it is a deep dive into the awful treatment of her character by other characters in the context of the story and also by the narrative. A heads-up: While this isn't really about my personal feelings, I didn't particularly like what the story did with and did to Grace Blackthorn. If you absolutely hate Grace or characters that are like Grace, characters who have done unspeakably awful things and yet remain not merely the sum of their acts, then just skip this, because I have more favorable things to say about her character than about the way the story handled said character in Chain of Thorns.

Grace's Bitter Ending

It's quite strange how Cassie chose to wrap up Grace's arc in Chain of Thorns, because there was definitely a shift in the treatment of her character. Grace's character arc felt incomplete at best, which is really the only way I can think to describe her character's journey in ChoT despite the story having humanized her for the entirety of Chain of Iron. Grace Blackthorn wasn't villainized by the narrative, let's get that straight, Grace did actions to villainize herself, but the other characters in Chain of Thorns have even less of a nuanced perspective on Grace Blackthorn's background and story than the readers do, which is saying a lot.

Grace's arc ends on an acrid note: She has no friends, her relationship with Jesse has been permanently tainted, the one person in the main ensemble who was willing to defend her is quite dead, and she has retreated to the fringes of society. No, I'm not implying that she needs to be forgiven by James or any character for what she did - that's not even something I'm factoring into this discussion, and her forgiveability and forgiveness by the good guys is neither here nor there. But the path was paved for Grace to have a redemption arc, and you could also argue that she did what she needed to do to have said redemption in the context of the narrative, even if she didn't get redeemed in the eyes of the characters. But she got neither, which makes for a hollow conclusion to a stunning morally grey character. I was not expecting sympathy from the other characters towards Grace inasmuch as I was expecting a ChoI-esque sympathy from the narrative, especially considering that we're that she willingly went to the Silent Brothers, confessed to Cordelia about the gracelet, finished developing fire messages, and also helped the gang save London without expecting forgiveness in return for her actions. If we were to separate our personal morals from the equation, we would see that Grace's lack of a solid conclusion in ChoT, despite the story's obvious success in humanizing her and explaining her actions prior, makes an unflattering point: that redemption is simply unavailable to some, despite all the precedence in the world.

Chain of Thorns failed to reconcile the sympathetic, humanizing elements of Grace that we were given in Chain of Iron with the overall plot, the characters' perceptions of her, and with the narrative. It's incongruous, and it’s incredibly black-and-white storytelling that has only pushed for the demonization of Grace's character.

Burning the Witch

Most of the fandom's hatred for Grace started in Chain of Gold, and I have a hard time believing it's just because Grace was immediately characterized as this apathetic, gothic ice princess. The reality is that most readers already hated Grace before they even realized she was involved in shady demon bracelet shenanigans. And it's because she was getting in the way of their ship, that is, Jordelia, which, in some sick and ironic twist of fate, is part of the reason half the fandom also hates Matthew. Yes, I ship Herondaisy as much as any of you, but that's beyond the point. What I'm saying is that it seems so many people hate Grace and have been calling for her death or for her Marks to be stripped because their vitriol comes from a place of... shipping wars, and not offended morals. But it also comes from a place of internalized misogyny (which is very easy to apply to Grace, as she's not just a female antagonist, but also a very soft and feminine female character). After all, Grace's own femininity and Tatiana's own internalized misogyny were the factors that facilitated Grace's seemingly inherent capacity as a villainess in the trilogy. Let me say that again: Grace was forced to be the villain by virtue of her womanhood. Such a progressive trope! Some of Grace’s hate also comes from the fact that Grace (and Alastair) are perhaps the most relatable characters of the The Last Hours gang. The global readership is in no way as wealthy or as privileged as James or Lucie or Cordelia. The readership of The Last Hours, however, can keenly relate to Grace's isolation and loneliness because we all spent almost two fricking years trapped in our dorms and houses because of quarantine and social distancing. And frankly, on a purely statistical basis, most people's parents are likely to display qualities more akin to Tatiana’s than Tessa’s. I cannot think of a fourteen-year-old in the world who would not listen to the orders of the one person on whom they're entirely dependent, especially when it's an abusive caregiver who's involved lest they face death, abuse, or exile. Grace is a lonely, isolated girl who's been repeatedly sexualized in the story, who has no friends, and who struggles with her own actions and feelings, and that is incredibly relatable to a 21st-century adolescent female audience which definitely can explain, in part, the pitchforks. It's not an easy experience to see a piece of yourself in the villain.

The Venn Diagram of Victims and Perpetrators

Let’s bring some facts into the discussion, and a lot of what I have to say here are things that this post by @thousand-winters and the anon in the post reminded me about (so thank you). Grace was repeatedly hit by Tatiana and she was forcibly pimped out in Paris by Tatiana to seduce grown men when she was twelve. She was dependent on Tatiana and the threat that she would be cast out into the world or hurt if she did not obey. She was brainwashed by Tatiana to think the Herondales and Lightwoods were her enemy, was forced to put the bracelet on James when she was fourteen, and likewise, it was made quite clear that Grace took no pleasure in serving Tatiana. Grace was also prohibited from being a Shadowhunter, or at least, from training as one. She was interrogated by the Silent Brothers repeatedly (even in jail she wasn’t safe), and was prohibited from having any friends or companions, save her dead brother (who she was also commanded to seduce). It is correct that Grace was a perpetrator by the very definition of the word, but why is it always that this negates readers’ recognition that she was also a victim of her own circumstances, a victim of unspeakable trauma herself? And despite all of that, she was not even given the honor or closure of finally killing Tatiana.

And what’s worse is that the other characters who experienced trauma in their own stories, like James and Cordelia, got extremely favorable endings and closure to their individual traumas, as it was recognized that they indeed faced trauma. Grace’s own childhood trauma, none of which she was responsible for, was never addressed by other characters nor by the narrative as something from which she rightfully deserved healing. Despite the intense suffering she has undergone and the hand she’s dealt in life, it seems that what she has faced as punishment is still not enough the appease the readership’s bloodlust. The clash between her nature and her nurture was not even weakly echoed in the story’s conclusion. It was never recognized by the characters or by the narrative that Grace could indeed be the biggest perpetrator as much as the biggest victim of abuse, of grooming, of isolation, or of helplessness. Chain of Thorns, most of the main ensemble, and even the fandom have refused to acknowledge that multiple things can be true at once, thereby stripping Grace, à la lack of media literacy, of her complexity of feeling and of the harsh multiplicity of her character. Chain of Thorns, by virtue of Grace’s bitter ending (see first subsection), has ordered for Grace the sentence of Hell when a contemplation of Limbo is far more appropriate. How is it that we can sympathize with Sebastian Morgenstern by virtue of five poetic last words and yet refuse to acknowledge the complexity of Grace’s character after three whole books of backstory and explanation? Grace cannot and will not be absolved by the fandom, because the parts of her that warrant any absolution have been erased and neglected.

Kit Lightwood, Attorney at Law

As you can tell, I've been having some fun with my titles and subtitles. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, Christopher was supposed to be that voice in the narrative that saw the nuance and acknowledged the shades of grey that comprise Grace Blackthorn (quite literally - her literal color palette is grey and silver, which is neat; it speaks to flecks of dust and the glint of blades). He was the only person in Chapter 24 who spoke in favor of Grace, in that he did not excuse her actions but pleaded for a degree sympathy towards her. This was perhaps my favorite thing that Christopher Lightwood has ever done, but then he immediately died. Grace Blackthorn was left to the jury without counsel after that. That scene was difficult for me to read, and not because anything James and the gang said was untrue (nothing they said was untrue about her). But rather it seemed like that entire conversation was designed, in tone and metatextual treatment if not in content, to remind us who were the good guys, the heroes, the victims. And yet again, the scene failed to acknowledge in any way, save Christopher, that Grace's own actions of perpetration were directly a result of her own victimhood. I don't believe she's owed forgiveness or sympathy, and I don't think there's any ethical argument you can make to say that she should be forgiven either (that doesn't factor in at all). But again, there was a failure to acknowledge that she was also a groomed child and that she was Tatiana's ward and pawn, someone simultaneously volitional yet powerful. I was especially surprised at Jesse's own lack of awareness of the fact that Grace had little to no choice in her actions. There was no recognition of the reality that Grace was severely mistreated and hurt by Tatiana because she was a girl (note that Jesse was loved by Taiana by virtue of him being male and the Blackthorn heir), because she was not Tatiana's blood (something Tatiana reminded her about), and because she was given the power of ensorcellment against her own will because she was a pretty girl. At best, Jesse was incredibly blind to what Grace suffered, and at worse, he was so protected by his male privilege in Tatiana's household that he failed to acknowledge the part that Grace's own evil powers played in bringing him back to life. Moreover, he has clearly been bestowed in Chain of Thorns a personality and unshakeable moral code that was designed to immediately ingratiate him to the Thieves and their own sense of, uh, impenetrable and sanctimonious honor. His own instantaneous condemnation of Grace reveals an obliviousness at best and unbelievable apathy at worst, and Jesse Blackthorn is the last character for whom this response made sense.

Conclusion: Estella can’t come to the phone right now because she’s dead

By way of conclusion, I'd like to say that I thought Grace was a promising retelling of Dickens' Estella at the start. And Cassie has explicitly stated that the idea behind Grace was to explain such a character rather than to make her sympathetic, which, Cassie has somewhat succeeded in. Nonetheless, Grace's character did absolutely nothing new with Estella and nor did it allow for a fair deconstruction of the femme fatale trope. We know little of who Grace Blackthorn is, despite having a very clear picture of her motivations, her background, and her emotions. And it's weird because we do have brilliant, complex, nuanced characters like Alastair and Matthew in The Last Hours. Grace Blackthorn has been stunted by her abuse, her upbringing, by her powers, by the gracelet, but also by her place in the story from a metatextual perspective, facilitating a slow and deliberate fandom crucifixion across all platforms. And all I'm left with is... why?

[a-really-bad-decision]

Look. I get that folks who are approaching the finale from this angle are usually doing so from a place of genuine good faith and love for Joel. But like. If your immediate reaction after finishing season 1 is to insist that the cure never could have been developed/distributed/tested/viable and that the Fireflies were stupid/naive/slapdicks/never could have accomplished it anyways, so Joel Definitely Did Nothing Wrong, I can’t help but feel like you’re wildly missing the point of it all.

Because like. Joel did not ever care if the cure could have worked. He did not care if it’s what Ellie might have wanted in that moment (neither did the fireflies of course, but they’re not the ones who traveled by her side, protected her, made her feel safe and cared about). Neither of these were ever a point of consideration in the finale. Ellie’s death and the resultant hypothetical cure could have had a guaranteed 100% success rate. It could have spread instantly, around the world the moment they removed her brain from her skull, turning every single runner, clicker, and bloater back to a healthy human being, with no deleterious side effect.

And Joel still would have shot that doctor point blank in the face.

Because that moment right there, is the point. To me at least. It’s the climax that the whole story has been building towards: a father’s beautiful, selfish decision to save his daughter at the literal cost of the entire world. And not just the world in an abstract sense, but in ways that carry weight to him on a deeply personal level. Tess’ dying wish. A real future for his niece or nephew. Ellie’s own agency in all of this. And he did it without hesitating for a moment.

Going from treating Ellie like cargo, like a clicker waiting to happen, to deciding that her life is more important to him than than any other human being who was or ever will be born? Regardless of whether it’s “““healthy”””, that’s an incredible fucking relationship arc. And it only has this level of gravity and meaning if there are genuine consequences to making that decision.

(And let me be clear here: none of this is a moral indictment of Joel. Joel’s motivations, actions, decisions etc. are all incredibly blatant, human, and relatable, and if he’d done anything but go on that rampage, it would have contradicted everything we know and understand about him so far. Also, he’s fucking fictional. Who gives a shit if he did a Kinda Amoral Thing. None of it is real, and it doesn’t matter)

The argument here isn’t that Fireflies Good And Smart And Can Totally Save The World For Sure Guys, or Joel Did Objectively Bad Thing And Is Unforgivable Bad Forever Now. The argument is that the show is much more interesting and internally consistent if you buy into the idea that there’s a chance, even a slim one, that the fireflies could have extracted a viable vaccine at the terrible cost of a fourteen year old girl’s life. That maybe Joel did prevent a cure from being made – that he potentially did doom the world for Ellie (or at least doomed it to another few decades of limping painfully by until something else came along). And that despite the cost, he pulled that trigger, brutally and without hesitation. He did it knowing that he’ll have to go on living with the knowledge of what he took from everyone, and how effortless it was to make that choice in spite of it all. That he’ll willingly betray Ellie’s trust as many times as he has to if it means keeping her from taking the burden of that guilt on herself, but also because he can’t bear the thought of her hating him if she learned the truth. And most of all (and in his own words), that if he was given the chance to go back and do it again, he would have made the exact same choice all over.

You take that out, and what kinda finale do you get now? A run and gun scene of a man rescuing a girl that he’s come to love, sure, but now it’s from a bunch of one dimensional, child murdering villains, set in a place they never had to go to, preceded by a journey that was rendered useless before they even left, all because there was never any chance of it working in the first place. Pointless roundabout cynicism, and an endpoint that now textually only existed to stick the protagonists in their get along sweater.

You don’t have to agree with this specific interpretation of the ending. I get that this can come across as a harsh reading of Joel, especially since he’s a character that myself and others genuinely like a lot. But that nitpicky fixation on proving that the cure never could have worked always felt more for the benefit of the uncomfortable player/viewer than as any sort of actual narrative improvement. A way to divest yourself of ever having to sit with the weight of either choice. Of having to think about the way that a secret so massive, sitting unspoken between you and a loved one, can rot that relationship. Of the way that someone you thought you trusted can act in your best interests, but against your own wishes.

And if that’s not what you want from the show, genuinely and without judgment: that’s fine. You keep doing you. I’m just not sure why you’re watching something like tlou otherwise.

[rainingfishandfrogs]

so i've been rewatching DW and i just finished the NYC-Dalek episodes in S3

and i think i finally understand what they were going for with martha jones and why it didn't work as well as it could've

i've been really paying attention to what the writing had for martha and a lot of it i think is really interesting and even necessary in terms of the overall RTD era story arc (stay with me)

more under the cut 'cause this got long

like...martha is supposed to be the opposite of rose and we're supposed to compare them:

both her parents are alive and in her life (even if they're divorced)

has siblings

no boyfriend when we meet her

not only finished high school but went to uni and is continuing her education even further as a medical student (rose dropped out and had to get a job)

doesn't feel stuck with her life

older than rose (i think martha's like 23? idk)

booksmart (rose is streetsmart)

dark complexion (rose is fair complexion)

a little more socially awkward compared to rose

*not as assertive and is more timid*

and i would argue sheltered bc her family is clearly on the wealthier side (one of the reasons i think she doesn't fight back physically very often and is so easy to kidnap)

and honestly i'm not mad at any of this - i think it feeds into ten's heartbreak and loneliness in interesting ways and S3 did not need a new rose we needed someone different for that heartbreak and loneliness to make the impact it did

it works well within the narrative and for ten's character arc (S3 helps make tentoo work imo)

HOWEVER

martha's character arc gets buried under her crush on ten and what he's going through

after the loss of rose for the audience the crush angle gets annoying fast - because we also miss rose and we miss how ten was with her! all the big smiles and laughing

S3 ten is so self-distructive but doesn't have a tyler woman to slap some sense into him and that's part of the point it just sucks that it's at the cost of the 1st black female companion and her character bc then her arc doesn't get as much focus as it should (mickey got better development in 2 episodes in a season with a bigger reoccuring cast than martha did in 12 with fewer main cast members)

martha's character journey i would argue is about learning to be brave and assertive in ways she's never had to be before (when we meet her she's the peacemaker of the family; she doesn't like confrontation) and i think making her a medical student is a great vehicle for that arc bc she'd have to learn how to do that anyway if she wanted to be a successful and effective doctor (compassion only gets you so far and martha jones is already quite compassionate)

BUT i think if the writing highlighted that more and gave her even more moments of learning to stand up for herself and taking charge without someone having to tell her to (aka ten) and leaned more into her booksmarts her character would've been even stronger than it got to be by the end of S3 (when she finally tells ten to f-off and let her do as she likes)

i love all the RTD era companions including the "side companions" (mickey, jack, wilfred) and yes rose is my favourite but i adore martha too and she deserved better than she got during S3 (thank god S4 and torchwood fixed some things)

i do think if the writers had just given her a little more in terms of influencing episodes and leaned more on her "traditional" intelligence (aka high education) and let her be less passive (oh my god is she passive!) then her arc wouldn't have been as buried as it feels when watching S3

because it's not a bad arc! not at all! it just needed more focus than her crush on ten

[romanticatheartt]

So, I’m finally making my way through ACOSF and while Nesta’s behavior definitely annoys me, I do feel like I’m getting a better understanding of what she is going through. I’m also listening to the House of Wind podcast as I go along to help me get through it and they mentioned a theory that I haven’t heard of. What if Nesta’s powers were somewhat influencing her behavior and intensifying her depression? It doesn’t excuse her behavior in acotar-acomaf, but what if the reason for the shift between acowar and acofas-acosf was in part because she stopped using her powers and they started to build up and affect her mental state? I definitely don’t think it explains everything such as her constant need to pit herself against Feyre, but maybe her power took such a toll on her mind and that in combination with her ptsd intensified her trauma response?? I’m really trying to understand Nesta better this time around. Have you heard of that theory before? And if so, what are your thoughts?

Hi anon<3 Before I stat let me just say this is my opinion and you do NOT have to agree with me. If I'm wrong regarding the canon please feel free to correct me. We're just debaiting please be respectful. (I'm not talking to you anon hehe)

So I had the same experience as you, in fact I didn't even want to read ACOSF because Nesta was really annoying and the idea of reading a whole book being in her head sounded exhausting lol but I came around and read it. Understanding Nesta was never a problem for me. On the contrary I felt how similar we are but my problem is not with her like I said, it's the way sjm wrote. In the laziest way possible like she didn't even try. She just throw some of her personal experience in Nesta's story without thinking if it would fit her or not. That's why most readers have trouble understanding her but the ones who find similarity with her have no problem. (I'm not talking on behalf of everyone)

So I get it why you're trying to find an answer as to why Nesta did what she did. And I think acosf was only written as an explanations to her trauma and her behaviour, not a redemption arc and not a book where she heals from all these traumas. And sjm said so herself, there's still room for her growth and healing. That being said acosf still failed to make people feel sympathies for her which is a disappointment. My sister also had difficulty to understand her even after finishing the book and she had read all of Maas' book.

Now about Nesta's power and how it might've been messing with her. I'm not really sure tbh. I mean yes it can be one of the reason but she just witnessed a war? And everyone have different reaction to their traumatic experiences because I know people will bring Elain into this but trust she',s also not fine. And if her power was the reason, I think sjm would've mentioned it? It sounds like a really big problem? But then again she never explained Nesta's power and only said it's death lol so it seems even she didn't know what she wanted to do with that power and how she can explain it.

If this was the case then this can also be said about Feyre after UtM. She didn't know she had powers and when she realised, they didn't let her or teach her how to harness them and she got progressively worse until she came into the night court and Rhys and Cassian started training her.

The difference between Nesta and Feyre is their trauma response. Feyre start to feel nothing and became quiet and was waiting for her end and didn't care for one bit. But Nesta raged, she started drinking and was harming herself, in another word they were both suicidal but differently.

I mean this can be the reason but... I think sjm should've mentioned it. It's seems important and would've help her story and journey. And I read acosf very long ago and barely remember anything from it but I think Nesta was suffering from not using her powers. She refused to use it or even talk about it, she hated her power. So maybe it was really her power that was messing with her and she got way worse than she was in acotar-acowar.

I'm sorry if this is a mess cause I kept remembering things as I typed lol but I think we can say this as one of the other explanations as to why she was that way.

[novankenn]

Holding Back

Chapter One (6/7) (843 Words)

/== Chapter List ===/

“JAUNE!” Yang and Pyrrha yelled as they made a grab for him as Jaune dashed forward. They both stumbled, falling to their knees and scrambling to get back to their feet as they watched Cardin take a classic boxer's stance, grinning stupidly as Jaune raced at him head on. 

“Just as eas...” Cardin didn't get to finish as Jaune went airborne; planting a foot in the centre of his chest, followed by a twist of his entire body and slamming his other foot into Cardin's jaw. Cardin was thrown sideways and stumbled straight into the far wall of the corridor as those who had poked their heads out of their own dorms watched as the weakest first year land on his hands and with a seamless push of his arms vaulted up and to his feet.

“JAUNE!” Pyrrha and Yang shouted as they grabbed hold of him, pulling him back as Sky and Dove rushed out of CDRL's dorm to check on their leader, who was laying on the floor of the hallway, breathing shallowly. “Calm down! Calm down!”

“I dedicate this battle to my ancestors...” Jaune snarled as he pulled against the combined strength of the two strongest first years of Beacon. “May they judge me worthy to walk the path of God.”

Try as they might, Yang and Pyrrha could barely hold onto the squirming form of Jaune. With no metal upon him, Pyrrha was at a disadvantage, unable to use her semblance to hold him fast. Not that Yang was having a much better time. Jaune's slim form belying the pure strength contained with in him. Jaune's feet touched the floor, and he pushed off, twisting his body about, loosening Pyrrha and Yang's grip. Feeling Jaune slipping free, Yang did the only thing she could think of. Twisting her own body about as hard as she could, she threw herself backwards as she brought both her knees-up hard. Jaune was yanked free from Pyrrha's grasp and yanked out of his midair twist, colliding gut first with Yang's knees.

Seeing the breath getting knocked out of him, Pyrrha moved. Pulling the wheezing boy up, she grabbed him in a full nelson, before also falling backwards while locking her legs about his waist. Pyrrha ignored everything around her, and just focused on holding Jaune and whispering in his ear. Soothing, calming words. Words from her heart and soul. Jaune went completely stiff, and inhaled sharply at one particular statement.

/=/

The three of them found them seated in Professor Goodwitch's office. Jaune having pulled his seat away from Pyrhha and Yang. They sat in silence as the waited for the combat Professor to return. The trio looked up when the door opened, and she walked in. Without a word, she moved past her students and took a seat upon the edge of her desk, arms folded across her chest.

“Just so you are aware, Jaune.” Professor Goodwitch gave him a very disappointed glare. “Mr Winchester suffer a dislocated jaw because of your actions; and he has decided to challenge you in our next class. A challenge I have decided to allow.”

“Why would...”

“Ms Nikos, as much as I feel Mr Winchester deserved his fate, due to his constant actions against members of our student body, the fact remains Mr Arc attacked him. Violently, causing bodily harm.” Professor Goodwitch uncrossed her arms and pushed up her glasses, “We are a combat school, and physical altercations are expected; however those are only overlooked if restraint is shown. From eyewitness accounts, and Mr Winchester condition... Mr Arc showed no restraint.”

“So you are letting that bastard, challenge Jaune just because he got his ego stomped?” Yang asked.

“Language, Ms Xiao Long; but yes, as per school policy. Mr Winchester has the right, as do anyone of you, if a disagreement cannot be resolved through alternate means.”

“I refuse.” Jaune commented without looking up.

“You can not. You must attend the match... though if you choose to actually partake is completely up to you. We can not force you to fight, only attend.”

“How does that help? Cardin will just attack and try and hurt...”

“No he won't. Mr Winchester has the right to issue the challenge, and Mr Arc must show up for it; however, if Mr Arc openly and publicly apologizes for his actions, the staff present will step in and declare the disagreement resolved.”

“This is barbaric!” Pyrrha snapped, “It's like the gladiatorial fights slaves were forced into!”

“Ms Nikos?”

“I even bet that this policy has clauses to punish Jaune if he decided not to show!”

“It does.” Professor Goodwitch confirmed.

“What? You're going to beat him or whip him for his disobedience? ”

“No such thing!” Professor Goodwitch exclaimed more than a little insulted at the Champion's insinuation. “He would be suspended, which we all know considering his overall performance would put him even further behind his peers.”

“So he has no choice.” Yang muttered.

“He has no choice in regard to attending the match. As for participating... that is up to him.”

[empty-pizza]

some closing thoughts i never got a chance to post about harrow the ninth

I can't help but feel a bit whelmed by this book. I liked it, I would give it an 8/10 maybe, but I also feel almost like... I enjoyed the book more for the reading experience I got from my personal engagement with it, moreso than I did from what the book actually did.

The #1 thing that kept me clocked into the book was the mysteries. And it is not every day that I put that much into trying to catch all the details and figure out what was really happening. That engagement is a result of the book doing great setup and being very intentional about the hints it gave; I couldn't do that with most other books if I tried. And I think my engagement with the mysteries helped me stay interested even when the characters and plot weren't fully engaging.

...except that's the thing, the characters and plot should have been good enough that I didn't need to focus on the mysteries. The book was absolutely full of great characterization and interesting plot beats, but I'm not sure it had enough momentum as a whole, and I think that's clear most of all in how Harrow kind of just doesn't have a character arc.

She has interesting moments, my favorite being not just her soup plan, but the sheer desperation and exhaustion seen in her character at the moment. But that's more of a thing she goes through than a personal arc of change.

Instead of a character arc, Harrow's progression is more about uncovering the mystery of what exactly is going on in her head. That has two problems. The first is that where she ends up, the answer to what's going on in her head, is just that she's in the exact same place she was in at the end of book one. We already knew that she'd do anything to get Gideon back; this just slightly reframed the level of dedication. My expectations might be a factor here; I loved the mystery of the letters she left for herself and her changed memories so much that I was hoping the answer was something huge; not just wanting to get Gideon back but some larger thing to accomplish, secrets she couldn't let God and the Lyctors know. Instead it was just the one thing, and while it's an interesting one thing, I kinda hoped for more.

The second problem is that it didn't feel to me like anything Harrow did throughout the book affected the outcome. I personally wanted to see Harrow actively engage with the mystery of what happened to her memories, to figure out why her past self left her the letters. I guess that just wasn't what this story was meant to be. But I also didn't feel like Harrow's experiences without Gideon in her memories actively affected her outlook once she got them back. It didn't feel like she had any new perspective because of everything she went through. It really did just feel like a reset back to before she lost her memories.

I do wonder if my perspective on this will change on a reread; I know that worldbuilding details and secrets become way more apparent the second time, but maybe there's also an aspect to Harrow's character that I missed throughout this book. But right now, I feel like my opinion on the book has gone down somewhat since I finished it. It was a really fun book to read in the moment, but in retrospect not every mystery I was excited about gave me something to satisfy me.

This is something that I think book one was stronger in. Even though circumstances caused me to be whelmed by Gideon and Harrow's personal resolution in that book, I think it did a great job of showing their relationship gradually growing and changing to justify what the ending was. Book 2's resolution just feels like it's a culmination of book 1 without being a culmination of book 2.

Anyway I'll try to get back to Nona soon. Went through some life stuff in the last few days that took away my energy to read but I'm definitely excited for where that book will go.

[nyotasaimiri]

Arc Two (redux) 101

Gizzie stayed silent as everyone finished breakfast, seeming lost in thought. As Nyota began to help her crew tidy up, they looked up and caught her eyes. “You met Asra Nox?” they asked.

Nyota paused, teeth bared slightly. They were foul memories. “I have, on three occasions. She’s a hate-filled creature. I do not know if she survived our last meeting, but I am in no hurry to see her again.” She took a deep breath, and let her clenched fists relax slowly, color fading back into her whitened knuckles.

“She did. She—I—I saw her. Not in person, but in a transmission.” Gizzie was shaking again. “They tell stories… You actually lived through fighting against her?”

Nyota took the bitter surprise of Asra’s survival stoically, with nothing but a short nod to acknowledge it even, as she felt Lumen’s worried gaze on her. “I did.”

“She beat that Nox into the ground,” Lumen said. He flared bright with a fierce copper light, riled up by his own memories. “Knocked her flat every time they met.”  

“Oh wow. That’s…” Gizzie shook their head in awe. “Wow. They tell stories, say she’s unbeatable… They tell stories about what she does to… Sorry.”

Nyota sighed, and broke eye contact. Tried to keep her heart shielded from this stranger still. “She killed my best friend.” It had been a long time since that found her thoughts; she looked up at the cold grey ceiling. “She threw his brand at me when we met for the first time…”

Sonny made a little strangled noise. Nyota touched her shoulder in comfort and apology.

Gizzie seemed to shrink more, trying to be even smaller. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

The small irony curved Nyota’s lips. “Then you aren’t like most Occasus at all. They would have said good.” She took a breath in the ugly, guilty silence that followed and focused on the sharp and biting cold. It soothed the bitter memory back down. “But I have wallowed in that for long enough. Lana, help me up, please. It’s time we got what we came for.”

Lana’s firm grip on her arm fed its strength into her as Nyota did her best to not stagger to her feet. Resting had been, from a certain view, a bad idea: every joint ached with stiffness at even the idea of movement. “When we get back to the ship,” she murmured, half a promise to herself, “I am going to have a proper sleep.”

“I will hold you to that,” Lana promised. She stepped in beside Nyota with practiced ease, offering more support without forcing Nyota to lean openly against her. Nyota caught herself absently wondering if Lana had learned the trick first from doing it, or having it done for her. Something to ask, later.

She turned her mind back to the moment just in time to avoid tripping on a loose tile, dislodged by Aroneus’s attacks. Ironic that it could still spite her after all that. Even at this distance, in the half-light of Arjun’s lamp and the surviving lights along the walls, she could see the fine carvings around the edge of the tile. The small spark in her, the same feeling that had known what the words at the entrance meant, told her that these carvings were wishes in a way, hoping for quiet and life.

It gave one of those things.

Nyota bit her lip to push the bitter taste out of her mouth again. Damn. Thinking of Nox did me no favors. She focused on the tile instead, and others like it, step by step toward the far door. This place must have been beautiful, once. With Arjun and Esther’s help, perhaps it could be again. Planted with new life to feed the creatures that sheltered here, fear drained away with the bad memories of the now-gone Warden. All of her warmed at that thought: the captain, the agent, and the Cultivator’s spark together.

Arjun was waiting for her by the door. “It won’t budge, Captain,” he said. He gave it a little whack with his wrench to drive the point home. “Dammit. We got this far…”

“Hadley,” Nyota said. “You can open it. Touch the door.”

“You sure about that?” Hadley eyed her, then reached out. Murky purple sparked in her hand: the last embers of Aroneus’s power. She jumped back and swore, then swore softer and with a clear note of appreciation as the heavy black door slid open. “Holy—Uh. Guess that worked?”

Nyota chuckled. “Lana or I could have done it, but your reaction was funnier. Go on, it won’t bite.”

Hadley shot her a dirty look and a half-hearted rude gesture. Nyota just smiled serenely, content in the knowledge that Hadley would forget this by the time Lumen allowed the two of them into the sparring room again.

The last room was simple and open, with stairs leading up onto a higher platform at the far end. Nyota could see a simple doorway high on a platform, flanked by faceless statues. A back door, perhaps. But the real prizes were just steps away.

Lumen whistled. “Captain, what is that?”

Nyota walked past the towering structure he was staring at; the console blinked to life with purple lights, a row of pale colored crystals flickering with warm radiance as she passed. Energy crackled between halves of a diamond-shaped structure that floated just above it. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but Esther and Arjun could find out. Mind the rings, they’re charged.”

Lumen hummed nervously and followed her. He tugged Sonny out of the way of the massive stone half-arcs that hovered above the console as she caught up. “C’mon, lil’ Glowbug. Don’t want to touch that.”

Nyota stopped in front of the second object: a massive black anvil lined with violet light. She could feel the excitement near her, prickling in her fur. A quick glance at her crew made the source clear. “Ah. Arjun? I think you know what this is.” She touched Lana’s arm briefly to indicate she could stand on her own and stepped up to it.

Arjun’s eyes went wide behind his visor as he caught up. “I’ve seen this thing in old murals… Well, not in person, but in the—eh, you get the gist. Captain, that staff of yours, you’ll want that. This is a Builder’s Forge.”