#but my worldbuilding is so detached from the originals that it could be done without much difficulty

[bedlamsbard]

re the what fic would you write if you had the energy post, I would LOVE to see you revisit Narnia some day

I think about it sometimes! It's probably unlikely (though never impossible) that I'll ever write another novel-length fic there, but I did a ficbit a few years ago after almost ten years away so...it's very possible!

[destinysbounty]

I think one of the things that made the original series so compelling is how interwoven everything was. Sure, it wasnt always perfect, but each season brought to the table some new connections to the lore, some character growth, some advancements in continuity. Even if a character or subplot only lasted one season, you could still feel their influence on the story several seasons later.

Chen is my favorite example of this. He may have just been the villain of season 4, but his schemes introduced a lot of information about elemental powers, his defeat initiated season 5, and his impact can still be felt as late as season 7 (foreshadowing about Ray and Maya, elemental alliance stuff, etc.) In Way of the Departed theres even suggestions that Chen had Clouse use dark magic to corrupt the Time Twins, leading to their villainy and causing not just the plot of season 7, but also Kai and Nya's whole backstory. Clouse, having returned as a ghost thanks to season 5, is responsible for conjuring Nadakhan and starting season 6.

And on the note of season 5! That season introduced us to the Sixteen Realms and the Realm Crystal, which become important aspects of season 6, and Yang's temple, which became important in DotD and season 7. It also formally introduced Ronin and turned Cole into a ghost, which are *also* major plot details going forward. AND it planted the seeds for Wu's eventual character arc in seasons 7-9. This season's impact expands past itself.

A lot of times, not all the time but often enough, whenever lore gets introduced at some point in the og series, it gets utilized much later on. Captain Soto, formerly a one-off villain from season 2, becomes plot-important in season 6. The Golden Weapon is shot into space in season 2, melted into Golden Armor in season 3, then melted down back into the weapons to defeat the Oni in season 10. The Great Devourer causes Harumi's tragic backstory. Mystake, who started out as a background gag character, became a key participant not just in the show but the worldbuilding and lore. The love triangle and subsequent rift between Jay and Nya doesnt get fully resolved until season 6. The ninja return to the burnt-down monastery in season 6, DotD, and season 7, and eventually rebuild it in season 10.

See what i mean? Everything somehow ties back to itself. Its far from perfect, but there is a solid sense of continuity that connects everything in increasingly complex ways.

I think thats a big part of what makes Wildbrain feel so different. Dont get me wrong, i love Wildbrain and i enjoy a lot of it, but it definitely lacks the cohesion that had seemingly defined Masters of Spinjitzu. A lot of their Wildbrain adventures feel less like installments in a greater narrative, and more like a series of loosely connected sidequests. Exciting sidequests that are usually really fun to watch, certainly, but sidequests all the same.

With the exception of Seabound and Crystalized, you could probably watch Wildbrain out of order and not much would change. If Prime Empire or the Island happened before SotFS, none of those seasons would face any impact from that. They are largely episodic and detached from each other in ways the og series never was. But if you tried to shuffle up the season order in Masters of Spinjitzu, youd have to rewrite a lot of stuff to make it work.

I almost wanna say thats part of why Seabound and Crystalized feel like such a return to form, and why MotM is so well-beloved. MotM introduced us to Lilly, fleshed out Cole's backstory, gave Wu a lil character arc that built on what came before it (Wu feeling useless bc the past few adventures were done without him), and finally gave some kind of resolution to Lloyd's Harumi-related trust issues (not just referencing her, but actually giving him a character arc about it). Seabound introduced us to more lore about the world's history and the backstory of the FSM, gave Nya one of the most compelling character arcs in the whole show that builds on and satisfies her past arcs, even gave her name a backstory that ties into the lore, featured relevant cameos from prior seasons (Vania, Maya, the Keepers), and provided an ending that would have lasting repercussions on seasons to come. And Crystalized...well, i wont spoil anything, but you get where im going with this.

Now, obviously this isnt the only deciding factor of whether or not a season is good. Seasons 6 and 7 are a mixed bag in terms of quality, yet have very integrated lore and character arcs. But seasons 11, and 12, which many people dislike, are also the ones that most noticeably feel like theyre happening in a vacuum. Any effect they have on later seasons, or any effect prior seasons have on them, is not as significant or immediate as in other seasons.

With the original series, there was a sort of cause and effect, almost. Rebooted caused ToE, which caused Possession, which caused Skybound, and so on. Theres a clear and specific chain of causality, and the sequence of events has a large impact on the events themselves. The same cannot be said of Wildbrain.

Again, i do enjoy Wildbrain, and there are a lot of things i even think it did better than the og. But i definitely feel like it wouldnt be half as contentious among fans if it had the same cause-and-effect plot structure as the og. Like, something in ns11 being the inciting incident for season 12, and something in season 12 causing season 13...you get the idea.

Anyway brb i gotta go rewrite Wildbrain

[seyaryminamoto]

(1/2) What if the reason Bryke left was because Netflix wanted to give Azula a redemption arc? Or maybe somebody wanted to change the first scene of the show so that Katara wasn't with Sokka when he went fishing and so Aang wasn't unfrozen until years later... *whistles innocently* And they realized this route would allow them to make a longer series, meaning more content, meaning more profit. Jokes aside, I realize both of these options are 99% not the reason Bryke left, but imagine if...

(2/2) they were? Like, how funny would that be? Well, the latter possibility would be sort of funny, while the former would be somewhat depressing actually. Anyway, I'm surprised how many people are complaining about Bryke's departure. From what I've seen, people primarily shit on them and any praise in regards to ATLA goes to other writers/artists. I already didn't have any high expectations out of the live-action version, but this latest development didn't really worsen them much.

x’D not wrong about the second option being hilarious, though I’d hope I’d have heard something about it, if just out of sheer decency by Netflix to contact the cruel mind behind not sending Sokka fishing with Katara... (?)

Anyways, Bryke’s involvement in ATLA’s writing is often up-played by casual viewers, and downplayed by hardcore fans. There’s no sure way to know how much work they did on ATLA’s writing, seeing as there’s a fair amount of reports that suggest Aaron Ehasz, imposed on Bryke by Nickelodeon, reeled the story into what it became. I’ve even seen people claiming Bryke’s original ending would have featured Aang leaving Katara and Sokka behind while flying off to find more airbenders after the show ended. Not half as feel-good an ending as the show’s, right? Then there’s also reports that male!Toph was going to be in a love triangle with Katara and Aang... adding Zuko to the mix, as he often was added by extra ATLA content, Katara was likely to have three possible love interests, if Bryke had gone forward with this? Considering how Korra outright had three different love interests in ALL the members of her gang, this doesn’t sound like that outlandish a claim, whether there’s real sources for it or not. If they were willing to do it with Korra, I’d believe they’d have done it with Katara.

Ehasz is indeed credited for female!Toph and Azula, in the art book (I think) Bryke are outright featured saying Ehasz is the main artificer behind Azula being who she was, rather than Zuko’s older brother (Bryke’s original concept for her character). With this in mind, when Ehasz comes out and claims that, in a hypothetical book 4, he would have redeemed Azula to also finish Zuko’s personal character arc, and then Bryke show up claiming there NEVER was a book 4 possibility, you get a clearer understanding of where Bryke are likely standing in regards of Azula’s redemption :’) if that’s what Netflix wanted (... though I question they’d have pitched it since the get-go), it’d be no surprise that Bryke wouldn’t hear of it.

There’s no denying Bryke had interesting ideas, and that they worked to build a pretty complex world, but we cannot know how much of that world was solely their doing, and how much of it was also created by the input of the larger team of writers involved in ATLA’s original show. LOK, on the other hand, features a clusterfuck of worldbuilding that doesn’t always make sense, including no shortage of retcons (not only of pre-existing lore, LOK even retcons itself up to three times regarding explaining why and who decided to keep Korra in a compound for most her formative years), terribly written romance (whenever it’s written), poor storytelling decisions that outright derrailed their show and even turned their protagonist into the B-plot for the bulk of the final season... and what a coincidence that this time Bryke had no one breathing down their necks telling them what to do: they had a lot more creative freedom in LOK than in ATLA. There was no Nickelodeon imposed Head Writer, and they didn’t bring Ehasz back of their own volition. Whether because Ehasz isn’t that great to work with or because Bryke simply didn’t want anyone else to poke their noses into THEIR story, Bryke didn’t want any supervision over LOK. And as many loud fans as LOK may have, LOK’s storytelling quality simply doesn’t measure up to ATLA’s, and I refuse to blame Nickelodeon for that when all evidence indicates Bryke had no idea what they wanted for Korra in the first place.

What I’m saying is... Bryke do seem to benefit from having someone else reeling in their ideas, probably providing genuine structure, making them seriously reason with WHERE they’re taking the story. This, going by ATLA’s much clearer structure, is something I’m willing to believe Ehasz offered, and something Bryke lacked, by their own volition, in LOK. It’s also something they lack in the comics, seeing as, up to date, they haven’t done anything in them that really lives up to their potential, as far as I know. “The comics don’t have any direction and aren’t advancing their world’s story” has become a far more frequent complaint with each newly announced and released comic volume, whether by supportive or antagonistic fans. Why might that be...?

It’s possible, of course, that Netflix’s team simply isn’t the kind of team Bryke can work with positively. Maybe they’re too stiff, maybe they’re not that creative, maybe they’re unable to compromise and it’s not all on Bryke?

But with the precedent Bryke has set (ATLA, with supervision, manages quality storytelling, despite its many flaws, whereas LOK, without it, is a storytelling failure), I wouldn’t be surprised that they were outright unwililng to compromise their own ideas after experiencing the full freedom of working on LOK without anyone telling them what to do, and that upon finding they wouldn’t have that same freedom this time, they quit. 

Does this mean the show will automatically be better or worse? Eh... beats me, frankly. There’s no denying Bryke did endeavor to develop a large, unique world with the Avatarverse, but as much as the fandom believes otherwise, what made the Avatar world unique wasn’t merely that it wasn’t “white”. This particular qualm by the fandom feels really narrowminded to me, and I’m not saying this because I believe there should be white people in Avatar, hell no: what I do mean is that ATLA had an Asian setting, but the narrative frequently imposed western values on it. They recreated many elements of Asian cultures, but morally? ATLA couldn’t be more western. Is that a good or a bad thing? Beats me. But there’s a lot of occidental influence in ATLA’s narrative, even more of it in LOK, and that somehow doesn’t bother people nearly as much as it bothers them that the liveaction cast isn’t western in the least. Yes, it’s true, the cast shouldn’t be western: but there are many regards in which the original ATLA could pioneer a better understanding of many Asian cultures, and it doesn’t. Even something as complex as the Fire Nation’s cultural practices (no, I don’t mean the genocide and supermacy, I mean everything else) is outright blasted by the show’s western moralism from the get-go rather than seen as what a different culture values (already offered a few thoughts about this on this other ask).

Therefore, in terms of casting, which seems the main concern of the bulk of the fandom, I highly doubt Netflix will be willing to repeat the same mistake M. Night’s fiasco committed. They can’t be that stupid. They’ve done a lot of big diversity efforts in the past, whether insincere or not, in many regards, so I seriously doubt they need Bryke sitting in the casting booth repeating “NO WHITE ACTORS! NO WHITE ACTORS!” to the top of their lungs to remind Netflix's executives that this just can’t happen. Seriously, if that’s what their input for the show was supposed to be about, Netflix was better off saving up the money of hiring those two as main consultants or executives and using that coin to pay the likely lousy salaries of the non-white actors they’ll surely hire :’) I doubt, seriously, that Bryke’s problem had anything to do with white casting. If Netflix entered this deal and didn’t do their homework first, then they’re basically dooming themselves since day one and the show would suck with or without Bryke’s involvement. This is not impossible, but really stupid, and an absolutely failed business venture to jump into.

In the end, I don’t know what that liveaction will shape up into. I don’t exactly care much either, which is why I didn’t really debate this subject before answering this ask... I’m pretty detached from canon these days, as things stand. I can’t even bring myself up to reading the plot of the Kyoshi novels, no matter if people keep telling me they’re ~actually good!~, let alone will I want to rewatch ATLA in liveaction when I’ve become increasingly infuriated by liveaction remakes with each new one Disney releases :’) from the moment it was announced, I knew this remake wouldn’t be for me. It’s not likely they’ll do anything with it that I’ll really want to see, or that they’ll change things in a way that resolves my frequent complaints about the show’s storytelling mishaps. Therefore, I’d always meant to leave it be and let everyone else enjoy it...

... And Bryke’s absence from the project doesn’t really change my mind on that front. At this point, crediting them for the entire success of ATLA is incredibly naïve, especially seeing how none of their later projects have even come close to ATLA’s level of storytelling quality. Likewise, it’d be naïve to assume Netflix is guaranteed to do better without Bryke’s “meddling”. If anything, without Bryke’s likely persistence that the show be kept close to its roots, Netflix is bound to fall into its frequent, known tendencies of pandering to certain crowds at the cost of quality storytelling because Hollywood overused and bad tropes are where success is at! They’ll likely flatten characters, turn them into edgy, non-humorous versions of themselves, not unlike in M. Night’s film, and then everyone will hate the show anyways for offering such dull and simplistic characterization compared to the original :’)

In short... there’s no winning scenario. There really isn’t. I assumed there wouldn’t be one anyhow, from the get-go, at least for myself? But now that Bryke are out, the fandom is divided in about four factions: 

The ones who will watch and support the liveaction no matter what.

The ones who think it will suck balls because Bryke aren’t in it.

The ones who think it will be an improvement because Bryke aren’t in it.

The ones who won’t watch it no matter what.

Me... I’ve been in camp #4 from the start. Bryke being part of this project didn’t reassure me, neither does their absence... and I’m still as convinced this show won’t be my thing today as I was when it was first announced. So... *shrug* we live and let die. I mean, first of all we have to wait and see if the show’s production will even survive the pandemic first, so we can worry about how bad or good it will be if Bryke’s departure + COVID-19 didn’t destroy it altogether already :’D

[tarisilmarwen]

In a bit of cross franchise-ish analysis; would the old Jedi Order look at the...Romantic escapades of Avatar Korra as a key overarching reason why people of that power shouldn’t fall in love? On that matter, how would both Aang and Korra view that ‘no romance’ rule if they see applied anyways?

So here’s the thing, the Jedi actually don’t forbid romantic attraction or their members falling in love.  It’s really easy to fall into the trap of thinking they do, I know.  I blame the whole “Forbidden Love” marketing surrounding AOTC and the fact that it was not entirely explained well in the text.

What the Jedi Order forbids is attachment and possession.  Western writers and Western fandom (including the writers and fandom of ATLA), often confuse and conflate “attachment“ with “love“, as in to let go of your attachments you have to stop loving your beloved.  But that’s not what the Jedi mean, and that’s actually arguably not what the Guru meant either.  (With Iroh encouraging Aang for choosing love over power and Avatar Yangchen basically confirming to Aang that no, he can never fully detach from the world, it muddies the waters a little bit, so it’s not as clear cut in Avatar’s case.)

The Jedi, because they are highly sensitive empaths and psychics with potentially very dangerous space wizard powers, caution super strongly against selfish love.  Clingy love.  Jealous love.  Love that is not carefully thought out and tempered by emotional control.  Kind of like Anakin and Padme’s whirlwind romance that began with Anakin idolizing an image of Padme he’d put on a pedestal for ten years, detouring into her pardoning him murdering a village because he was angry, and ending with them getting married after like a week despite knowing it was a bad decision on both ends.  When you factor in the fact that Anakin was basically willing to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for the power to keep Padme alive at all costs, despite her wishes and protests even, because he was unable to let go of his attachment to her, it becomes much much clearer what the Jedi caution against when they discourage attachment.

Also, being in the Jedi Order is a massive commitment, almost like a marriage, and romantic commitments outside of that create a huge conflict of interest, tantamount to cheating if it’s severe enough.  Doubly so in Anidala’s case since Padme was a politician!

If you’re a Jedi of the Late Republic Era (because other eras of Jedi Order did manage to find a way to reconcile Jedi duty and having families) and you fall in love, and you realize that your feelings are going to conflict with your duty to the Order and your commitment to seek balance within yourself and in the Force, you basically have to choose one or the other in the end.  Anakin wanted both and that’s what messed him up.

Now, on to Avatar!  Aang as I mentioned fell into the trap of thinking that letting go of Katara meant he had to stop loving her.  But in the end, he did give her up, to save her life, an act of selfless love that unlocked his amazing awesome Avatar superpowers.  He was immediately struck down by Azula, and we could argue (and some have!) that this is in fact the narrative punishing him for that action, for giving up Katara.  I don’t think it’s that clear cut, because I think it was done more for the shocking (pardon the pun) twist, the expectation subversion, and to bring about the downer ending of Season Two.

In any case, all over the show in other places, it’s made clear that Aang’s love for Katara is generally not a bad thing, or a thing that gets in the way of him performing his Avatar duties.  He does lose control of the Avatar State when she’s deliberately put in danger, once.  But he’s also calmed out of the Avatar State by her willingness to share in his sorrow, he unlocks the heart chakra by accepting his feelings for her, his motivation for continuing on in the fight is by him stated to be her, and so on.  He grows very emotionally mature of the course of the show and honestly could easily pass for a Jedi by the end, able to temper his emotions, and prioritize his duty to the world when the time comes.

Korra is... a good counterpoint for the opposite argument.  But I’m not sure it’s anything to do with her being the Avatar so much as her being a dumb impulsive teenager making stupid ass decisions without thinking of the consequences.

...Granted that doesn’t lead to much good Avatar-ing either.

Still, other Avatars were also able to get married with no problems.  I think what it comes down to is that Avatar and Star Wars have fundamentally different worldbuilding construction inherent in how the super-amazing faux magic powers work.  The Avatar State can be triggered by strong emotions, and is dangerous when it operates off of anger, same as the Dark Side, which is why mastery over it requires training, discipline, and mediation via unlocking chakras.  But Avatar duties do not preclude other commitments.

The Late Republic Jedi Order, on the other hand, is a much more serious institution.  They are beholden to the Republic and under its authority and must take more care to avoid conflicts of interest between their vows to the Order and any commitments they might make to outside parties.  They are at base level a monastic order.  If a priest finds he’s having feelings for someone outside of what is appropriate for his clerical station, he has to be honest with himself and either has to let them go and not pursue them, or make the decision to leave to commit to that person.

So if a Jedi falls in love and conducts what is essentially an affair while on duty, that’s bad.  (If you’re careful about it you might just get some knowing side-eye but it’s still a thin and dangerous line to tread, again, because space wizard powers and conflict of interest.)  If on the other hand a Jedi leaves the Order because they fell in love, that’s fine.  They still have to be VERY CAREFUL to not over-prioritize that person to the point where they are unable to let go of them, because that leads to fear of loss, which leads to anger at their own powerlessness, which leads to Anakin burning down the galaxy and murdering children because he couldn’t deal with things in a remotely healthy fashion.  All that is basic How The Force Works 101.  Don’t be selfish, because that leads to the Dark Side, and romantic love turns very selfish very easily.

Whew!  That was probably a lot more wordspew than you were expecting.  But to answer the original question, the Jedi Order would see Aang and think he’s probably got his shit together enough that no one really has to worry and they would look at Korra and have conniptions.  (Until she had her Character Development anyway.)  Aang I think by the end of the show would have come to a place where he understood the Jedi’s policy on romance.  Season One Korra would, ah... not.  Possibly Season Two Korra by the very end would be closer to understanding, “Oh shit, yeah, I have really dangerous powers, I should be careful in my romantic entanglements and have my emotional shit together.”  I have not watched Season Three or Four, I cannot speak for her characterization there.

But I mean... Air Nomads and Jedi both have heavy Buddhist influences so it’s not really a surprise that they’d probably vibe.

And now I want crossover fic dammit.

[ba-mi-soro-orisha]

when youre done recovering id love to hear your thoughts on the book(even if the post ends up being almost as long lmao)

Buckle up, y’all, cause this is going DEEP INTO SPOILERS. This is my no-holds-barred take on Children of Virtue and Vengeance!

SPOILER WARNING

SPOILER WARNING

SPOILER WARNING

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If you read any further past this, CoVaV is gonna be majorly spoiled for you. This is your last warning.

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Okay, I gotta open with a minor - but really the only - critique I had about CVV: we know Tomi was rushed in finishing the book in time for the third pushed back date, and the book kinda reads like it. Book 1, I felt like we got a lot more detail and getting to know characters and buildup of the plot. Book 2, it felt like we were just rushing to get through all the action planned. There wasn’t very much in between downtime, which resulted in not only a kinda rushed book with way more plot than pages, but also a very emotionally devastating book. 

Which leads me to: I feel like the central theme of CoBaB was more “hope”, while in CoVaV it was straight up “conflict”. And there was no recovery time. Even the precious few hopeful times that were in the book, I didn’t really have time to process or chill or cope. I always knew something worse was coming, which is what made this such a raw read. I do think the book could have benefited from giving us a little more hope. Like three-quarters of the way through, I had to keep thinking back to CBB and how I felt reading it and hoping there would be more hopeful and optimistic feelings in book 3. I couldn’t put the book down, but as a result, I pretty much just sobbed through the last fourth (at least) of the book, finished the book, sat in shock, and then went to bed. This book literally exhausted me. What a godsdamned ride.

I completely get why the book was like this, even if it wasn’t as a result of being rushed, but I feel a little more for the readers to balance it out helps us survive, lol.

That aside, there was SO MUCH in this book, I have SO MANY feelings!!!

Firstly, the worldbuilding was GREAT. I loved the new insight we got on magic. I totally didn’t realize frm book 1 that tîtans and maji were different and used magic differently for the most part.

With the direction of the ending, I’m not sure Tomi will go in this direction, but I’d like to know more about these differences. Why is it that chants can work for tîtans but maji can only use magic through chants? Is it just most effective? Will we discover they can use raw magic in book 3? I HAVE QUESTIONS.

Learning about the maji clan setups was also really interesting, but I have to admit it threw me for a bit of a loop referring to the leaders as elders and then they were all children. xP

Also, I’m really glad Tomi listened and gave us queer characters. I love Nâo and Khani. Powerful leader girlfriends? HELL YEAH.

I think this book made it really clear that Zélie x Amari is not end game and will not happen. I know a lot of people were/still are hopeful for that, but I think there’s just too much set up that says otherwise. They love each other, but imo they firmly think of each other as family. I’m going to put my stock in our canon queer couple and support them 10,000%.

Next big one: FUCKING HELL INAN STILL BEING ALIVE, I AM REALLY NOT HAPPY. I didn’t check out the chapters in the table of contents, so I didn’t have the forewaring to see that Inan was getting perspective chapters again, so it took my by quite a bit of surprise. A lot of you called that Inan would still be alive, but I honestly so prefer “dead means dead” in stories (otherwise, I find deaths are used too much for shock value and it just devalues the overall story and plot) that I had myself convinced he really was dead. He got a convincing death scene. Listen, if you kill off a character, I am going to grieve them. It is not going to be the same if you bring them back. I will have completely detached feelings for them and have to form a whole new relationship and perspective on them, and I am always going to keep them at a distanced because they were dead, I saw it happen, and there is no going back.

But no. BAM! He’s not only alive but Zélie is the one to wake him from his connector coma. Not happy. I really feel that Inan’s story played out in CoBaB. It’s interesting that I’ve seen some real anti-Inan folk feeling more sympathy for Inan in this book, while I’ve talked about feeling that Inan was a really compelling villain in book 1, but I’ve got much more negative feelings towards him throughout book 2.  (And also why the hell should Inan get to come back but all these little maji kids - Zulaikha and Mazeli, c’mon - die and die for real??? It feels very cheap and very shock value to me. I don’t know if it was like some statement on privilege or Tomi just didn’t want to be done with Inan, but yeah.)

Honestly, the way Inan and Amari think in this book is so similar, and I found it so fucking conceited and narrow-minded. My view on both of them went down in this book. They just kept talking about how they have to be so selfish and they’re the only ones who can see things for how they are and how damn much they sacrifice and how tired they are because it’s up to them to sacrifice everything. Like!!! GUYS. No.

From the beginning when the CVV summary was released, I was wary of the plot focusing on Amari leading the people. It’s one of those things like: the system is not broken. It’s functioning exactly as it intends to. The monarchy has evolved to uphold a class system where diviners and maji are at the bottom. That’s what it wants to be doing. Can you really effectively change the system by accepting the system as your basis for change? Maybe it’s time to deconstruct the system and build something better. Not just put a royal back on the throne and think that’s gonna go smoothly.

And that’s exactly what happened here. They tried to use the system to buck the system and everything collapsed around them.

But I’m getting a little off topic - fixing a system of bigotry and oppression that your people built is not a sacrifice. You are still in the position of power here.

And Inan’s little bit where he thinks he’s so good and pure and better than his father because he offers the maji a place in society if they bend to his rules and follow him when the other option is that he will murder them had me wanting to tear my hair out. “Follow me or perish” is not a compromise. It’s not improvement. It’s literally a threat. And then when the maji don’t take this offer, Inan takes this as a sign that his mother was right and they can’t trust the maji to make the right decisions!?!?

Ugh. I was just done. I know all the factors of why I originally had sympathy for Inan are still there, and they largely control how he acts and thinks in CVV. (What he really needs for character growth and development is to be away from toxic influences and given time to grieve and work on figuring himself out. Not thrust into a position of power with his mother holding all the strings.) So, for me, Inan’s character really hit a wall, always getting stuck in the same patterns. And so now I feel less sympathy for him and find his story less compelling.

I honestly found Inan’s cousin, Ojore, really interesting. I think it could have been a really compelling story if somehow Ojore was allowed to take up the throne. WIth his background, being there in the burner attack that killed Saran’s father, he had a lot of backstory that we could have explored. And Tomi still could have revealed that it was Nehanda that manipulated things and let the burners in to encourage the war and the genocide against maji. Without Inan, we could have really gotten to explore how Ojore would react to that while on the throne. He could have potentially gone through the character development that Inan will never really get to see. Instead of him being killed pretty much immediately after he learns the truth behind his family’s death and the attack on him.

That being said, I do respect Inan’s decision to give up his position in the end. I think the whole “I’ll let your murder me” and Zélie apparently going to go through this was a little… contrived. But at least Inan did pull it out in the end. It will be interesting to see how these last moments between Inan and Zélie come into play in the next book. I’m assuming either Inan has been taken with the rest or will mount a rescue to go after them, so you know we’re going to get more on how this relationship develops. 

(I think with Tzain done with Amari right now, Amari and Inan trying to navigate a new siblingship with each other will be a more interesting relationship than Inan x Zélie, and I would look forward to getting to see these sibs talk and get to actually be there for each other like they never have before.)

And since I just went through Inan, let’s go ahead and talk about Amari.

Oh, Amari.

Amari, Amari, Amari.

GIRL. Why did it take you this entire book to realize that making decisions based off of what your father would have done was the wrong damn thing to do!?!?!? Omg, we all knew that was gonna crash and burn on you. The entire purpose of overthrowing your father’s rule was to not do things his way because his way was cruel and malicious. smdh

I was still rooting for Amari throughout the book. I am still rooting for Amari, but damn. She sure did try to make it hard doing things like going back on promises right after she made them (forcing Zélie to teach her chants that didn’t belong to her and then immediately using them on a maji) and acting like she new better than all the maji (I agree that just wanting to kill all the nobles and other peoples wasn’t a feasible plan, but GIRL. These are a traumatized, hunted people. They’re going to be angry, especially right in the thick of a war. Strongarming your way into a position of power over them is not going to make them feel any better about you or bring about peace. It’s just going to show them that they cannot trust you). And her move at the end? Sacrificing Zélie and all those people in that village? Being willing to murder them all? … If killing her father fucked her up, what’s this going to do? I still have faith in her. I want her to come back from this. But she’s going to have to majorly confront her own feelings and actions and work very hard to come back from this. Though, I have a feeling that she’ll mostly get forgiven in the next book because bigger and worse things will happen and they’ll have to come together, regardless of how they feel about each other.

Amari’s realization in the end when she decides she doesn’t have to kill her mother (uh… was I the only one expecting some sort of Avatar moment like when Aang took away Ozai’s bending? Like… Nehanda is still a threat… this part of the story can’t just be over) and that killing her father just fucked her up kinda made me feel ashamed for feeling so proud of her when she did kill Saran in CBB. Like, it was just such a powerful moment, and I think too many (simple “good vs evil”) stories fall prey to poor and simplistic messages like “killing in self-defense is evil and makes the good people as bad as the villains”. But it’s just been weighing on Amari this whole time and fucking her up, and now I feel bad. =(

Speaking of Amari feeling bad, though: Ramaya. The connector Amari beat for connector elder.

I hope either Inan was taken with everybody else or Amari will connect with him via their connector-sibling connection. It seems incredibly likely that Ramaya is stuck in her dreamscape similarly to how Inan was stuck in his before Zélie somehow entered it and woke him. Considering they were constantly saying Ramaya was their best soldier, it seems like it would also come in handy to wake Ramaya and be able to utilize her skills to help rescue the kidnapped crew. Like, this HAS to come up at some point, doesn’t it? She can’t just be forgotten in a coma. Did anybody stay behind to take care of her when they marched on the capitol? D|

Other relationships!

Fuck, I fell so hard for Roën in this book. He’s just so endearing. And it seems like it was really only Roën that was able to keep Zélie grounded and moving forward in this book. I didn’t really support Roën and Zélie getting together in book 1, but book 2 absolutely made me support the ship.

However, I think Roën’s actions at the end of the book are a very good insight into the types of things that Roën is capable of. I don’t know if this is endgame for Tomi, but after Zélie’s constant struggle of just wanting to leave and be free and start over in this book and how her rage towards Inan consumed her and caused her to make some short-sighted mistakes (promising she’d protect Mazeli at the temple, then Ojore almost killing him while she tussled with Inan), I just don’t know that this is a particularly healthy relationship. The bit where Roën takes her out to see and they get a ride from a whale? Absolutely adorable. Just what Zélie (and I suspect Roën) needed. But long-term? I have a feeling that Roën is going to have to let more of that mercenary self of his out, and it’s going to scare and wear on Zélie, and erode their relationship. I think this is one of those relationships that is good in the short-term but isn’t long-term sustainable.

Speaking of long-term - I know Tzain is absolutely done with Amari right now, but I think he’s overall shown a great capacity for forgiveness, and I do think Tzain and Amari are endgame for Tomi. I don’t think this break between them is permanent. 

But you know who we really need to talk about?

MAMA AGBA

What a heartbreaking arc. You know she had to sever the tie between Mazeli and Zélie to save Zélie’s life. I so wish she had gotten more time with Zélie for them to reform their trust and love for one another. I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to survive the maji elders sacrificing Amari to complete the linking ritual, but I can’t believe they really did sacrifice Mama Agba like that. She was really the only guidance these poor kids had. I can’t believe they really sacrificed her.

RIP Mama Agba. I hope you’re helping to look after Mazeli. 3

Now, for that damn epilogue.

I don’t know if I can take the next book. I don’t know how Tomi’s gonna make it through the next book.

Getting gassed and waking up on an eerie ship with the other elders? Anybody else get the feeling that Tomi is going to dive into a trans atlantic slave trade parallel? I hope I’m just being paranoid here (hey, the book seriously played with my emotions; I have no idea where I’m at anymore). What were y’alls takeaways from that part?

Predictions!

- Harum obviously has something to do with all the elders being taken and them being on a boat now, right? Tomi was totally setting him up as an antagonist and he got very little antag action in this book. He’s got to have something to do with this.

- This was always intended to be a trilogy, but I have to wonder if this isn’t going to end up turning into a couple more books than intended. There was so much to go over in book 2 and then the twist of an epilogue. They’re not even getting to rebuild yet. It just feels like Tomi has so much more planned it can’t possibly be wrapped up in just one more book.

- I feel like something’s gotta happen to sever or dampen the connection the elders (and Roën and Tzain) have with each other. After how powerful they were in the end, Tomi’s gotta counter that somehow. I just don’t know if she’s gonna dampen the powers or pull out an even BIGGER bad than Nehanda was.

- Obviously “Children of Gods” has to do with the title of book 3. If it’s not just Children of Gods, I predict: Children of Gods and Ghosts.

Ending Thoughts

CVV was well worth the wait and lived up to the hype, but if we don’t get some hope and optimism in the next book, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need these poor kids to get some semblance of a happy ending. They’ve been through so much.

[ajoraverse]

This is like the first half of a side-story that might as well be its own thing, honestly. This sunstone is the same one from the Beta AU side-stories and this shares all the same worldbuilding, but otherwise it can stand alone. 

Pearl waited.

It seemed as if she was always waiting--for Benitoite to hit her or order her around or use her, for Benitoite to loan her out to some friend or someone she owed, for Benitoite to return to her quarters. Everything revolved around Benitoite. Until now, at least.

This, though, was different. She sat on Benitoite's couch with her hands folded in her lap, waiting, as an amazonite stalked around her. Her right hand curled around a smooth blue stone that fit so well in her palm. She supposed she should be intimidated, but she really couldn't be bothered. She had only done what she had been ordered to do.

"The sunstone coming for you likes taking pearl cases," Amazonite said at last, with a cruel twist in her smirk. Pearl kept her face pleasantly placid. After all, she could think of nothing the sunstone could do to her that hadn't already been done. It was almost... cute, that Amazonite thought she could be threatened. "Heard she's vicious. Likes to play with the pearls a little before she crushes them."

Oh, crushing might be nice, Pearl thought. She wouldn't have to follow anyone's orders then, or have memories to haunt her when she was alone. What kind of life was there left for a pearl whose owner was gone, anyway? She couldn't imagine.

As they waited, a jolt of pain radiated through Pearl's form. It came from a crack bestowed when one of Benitoite's friends played a little too hard with her, and she was so used to the pain at this point that she no longer outwardly reacted to it. It was just another reason why she didn't regret what she did.

In time, the sunstone finally arrived with a pale, yellowish-pink colored pearl of her own in tow. She was surprisingly short for an Era One sunstone, though the gem set in her forehead was full-sized and glittered under the lights. Pearl suspected that the other pearl was second-hand, at the least. Probably a gift, if not stolen outright. Sunstones were too low-class to acquire a new pearl by the normal means.

Pearl didn't react, though it always struck her as terribly unfair that pearls didn't even warrant a few minutes with a zircon. Of the scant few cases regarding pearls that she found during her research in preparation for Benitoite's final order, all of them were settled with the pearl's destruction by some minor sunstone or amazonite. Mere low-grade, investigative and enforcement gems were able to pass judgment on a pearl's life.

Not that it mattered, she supposed.

"Pearl," Sunstone began in a business-like tone as her pearl handed her a tablet. It was set to hover; a glance through the back of the transparent tablet assured Pearl that it was a case file. "Benitoite was your original owner, correct? She commissioned you?"

"Yes." Her voice sounded so soft and fragile in comparison. No matter. Some gems liked that.

Nothing about Sunstone's tone or carriage was sympathetic. She settled into a detached drone, her attention focused on the tablet in front of her and probably reading off a list of questions. "What was your owner's last order?"

"To polish her gem as thoroughly as possible."

"Had she ordered you to polish her gem before this recent incident?"

"Yes." Pearl relaxed a little with each question. There was something reassuring in how impersonal the questions were and how business-like Sunstone's voice was. At no point had Sunstone's voice raised or changed tone.

"What do you normally polish her gem with?"

"A paste and a wash cloth." Polishing had been one of her many duties. At least she wouldn't have to do it anymore.

"What did you use for this recent event?"

"Sandpaper."

"Why?"

"I was out of paste and could not find my wash cloth." She might have squeezed out all the paste and been careless enough to let a breeze blow away the wash cloth, but she was sure she wouldn't have to go into that much detail.

"How did you acquire the sandpaper?"

"It was stored in my gem a long time ago by request of a gem my owner loaned me to." That gem had been a low-level peridot mechanic, not even a proper Kindergartener, bribed with time with a pearl for repairing Benitoite's ship. The peridot did nothing with her that night, and when her time was over, she had handed Pearl the sandpaper with a suggestion to look her up when she was ready to leave Benitoite. But when Pearl had finally done the deed, her call was redirected to a supervisor who said that the peridot had been shattered years ago.

That was how she was found by one of Benitoite's companions: one hand clenched tightly around the misshapen blue stone and the other crumpling the blue-smeared sandpaper into a ball, forlorn over the loss of someone who might have been a friend.

Sunstone paused to glance at her. Maybe it was just her imagination, but there was a softening around Sunstone's eyes that was almost... kind. Perhaps. Then those copper eyes of hers returned to the tablet and the droning voice continued. "Did your owner tell you to stop during the polishing?"

"Benitoite requested a thorough polishing of her gem because she found my last attempt insufficient. Her form had to be dissipated before I could complete on my task on all of her facets." Pearl hadn't asked, or done so much as given her owner a warning. Benitoite never saw the scrap of metal that ended up stuck in her back.

With a hum, Sunstone turned her attention fully to the tablet to tap some buttons and write something out. Pearl paid it little mind and glanced at the blue powder scattered in her lap. Whatever happened to gems who were ground to powder, she had no idea. It was calming, still, to know that Benitoite could not order her around or hurt her again.

As Sunstone wrote up her report, Amazonite slinked to her side. "Say, could I have a little fun with the pearl before you're done?"

"Not this time," Sunstone said, eyes never leaving the tablet. She almost sounded bored. "You may go. I'll put in a good word for you."

Amazonite grunted and pushed her way past the other pearl, slamming the door plate as she left. Pearl tried not to feel a little relieved; if she was to be crushed, she would prefer to have it done quickly, without some petty gem leering at her.