#each episode gives us a look into each coven members reason for being on the road. but some die

[batcavescolony]

Agatha: Coven of Chaos is a better name for this series, they went with 'Agatha All Along' to piggy back of the popularity of the song from Wandavision. Agatha All Along makes sense for the song in Wandavision cus it was Agatha All Along. In the new show it makes more sense for it to be 'Agatha: Coven of Chaos' cus it's about her, her coven and the covens before that she killed to make up the story of the witches road.

[riverssongs13]

First, let's just get this out of the way for I'm still seething about the storytelling mess that was Familiar By Thy Side (and parts of Darkest Hour). I want to appreciate the fact that this masterpiece of an episode is more than 10 minutes shorter than the previous one, which had so many unnecessary parts; this half hour of an emotional roller coaster ride has done so much more to progress the ENTIRE show's plot. We finally pieced the puzzle of Lilia's kookiness and her "jumps". We got so much more Teen lore from this than the Teen episode itself. We now have resolution to all the (previous) trials, Alice's… state, Rio's real identity, Jen's importance… We even dealt with the damned Salem Seven as a bonus. So many things happened but it was not overwhelming at all. If this were a suit I'd say it's bespoke indeed.

Now, what I truly loved about this episode is how it was able to paint a non-linear narrative with so much finesse, with each twist and turn taking us to different parts of a single timeline, without making it nauseating, all while pulling the threads to secure the stitches in place and make sure the seams are tight without it puckering. Like embroidery that adds patterns on different areas, we finally sew it all up to see the final tapestry.

The whole fandom has definitely theorised all about how Lilia's weird "inserts" are connected, each episode giving us more pieces to make sense of. But of course it feels infinitely better seeing it ourselves, and how they make up a whole linear timeline in Lilia's mind-POV, while Agatha and the gang are left confused with the breadcrumbs of phrases left for them at different intervals. I absolutely loved how this time discrepancy was used. No more boring-ass unnecessary flashbacks filled with drivel. This time, the past is completely enmeshed with the present, and is used to decide on what's needed to be done to get the desirable future outcome.

This "time is non-linear, it exists simultaneously at all points" phenomenon has certainly been used in countless other media (Fringe and its Observers come to mind), but I love how actively Lilia used it. Her being in that tea-leaf reading lesson held so much significance to her as a Trial Subject, as a Coven Member, and as an Individual Witch. Her time in the gazebo reminds me of The Time Traveller's Wife; existing in all the times, getting sent and pulled back and sent again.

That gazebo was both her prison and her escape. Being stuck in that place made her think her life is a rigid series of unfortunate events, and she can't do anything but be helpless in the face of tragedies that befall everyone she ever cares about. Having had the power to see the future yet be unable to prevent her original coven's death perpetuated her self-depreciation, thus she spent 450-ish years giving in to the usual witchy tropes and misconceptions (the palm reading and tarot tents and the minor scams here and there, but a girl's got bills, ya know), even if it hurts her in the process.

So then, prison AND escape, right? Being tethered to that specific point in time, with her mentor guiding her path to self-rediscovery, was crucial to Lilia's ability to escape her shackles, because she needed to realise she put the shackles on herself. Having a powerful but dangerous gift and being actively afraid of it is quite the self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. You're scared so you stop using it altogether but then you can't control it so all that suppression does more harm than good (looking at you, Charles. What you did to Jean was cowardice. Also, hello? Elsa??). Lilia exclaiming "I was bad at tea leaves" at her literal first day of training might just have been the reason why she spent her life believing she's bad at it. She planted the very idea in her brain (Inception? lol).

This whole forward and back travel from the Road to the Gazebo is instrumental to Lilia coming to terms with the idea that time for her does not move in a straight line. Her confession to Jen, paired with her mentor's wise words, makes her admit that she does, in fact, have a problem. First step to recovery and all that. This then leads to her unravelling the next layer of her issues, which is death to all she holds dear. Granted, she has seen so much death within her lifetime. 450 years of life would do that to you. Something she cannot possibly control.

But that's the thing, isn't it? She was never supposed to control anything. Her job as a Trial Subject, a Coven Member, and an Individual Witch is to SEE. See the trial with the eyes of 450 years simultaneously happening, the heart of someone who wants to protect her coven, and the power of a witch who can walk through the threads of time's tapestry. Once she sees that, and once she accepts that Death is not a Bad Thing, and once she lets go of control, the pieces started to fall into place.

Which then makes her SEE that she's the Traveller. This tarot reading is about her, and she has been sprinkling the answers throughout her timeline, waiting to be plucked by the Awakened Calderu of Now. Give credence to who she is, and her power that Must Not Be Feared. Recognition that she needs her Coven in order to succeed. Acceptance for what she has lost along the way. Welcoming the path ahead no matter where it leads her. Embracing heartbreak, sorrow, and grief. Undertaking miraculous transformation. And finally, the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning.

How fitting is it that we see the start and realise it was actually the end? The fall, initially thought as something dangerous, was in fact just part of the journey. Death, once feared, now embraced like an old friend. Something that perpetuates the cycle. The past, shrouded in darkness, now illuminating the path ahead.

So now we see, she wasn't actually falling. If you ask me, she was flying. Flying to that gazebo in a garden somewhere in Sicily, 450 years ago, about to start her very first lesson in reading tea leaves. Her mentor saying, "Let us begin", and her ultimately saying, "I loved being a witch".

[fermented-writers-block]

PART 1 of 6 of the Owl Deity Hooty Theory

[NEXT PART]

[OWL DEITY HOOTY THEORY MASTERPOST] (in development)

(TLDR at bottom of post)

Over several long months of research and analysis since March of 2020, I have been following an utterly fascinating thread of potential misdirection and subtle details throughout The Owl House, and today, I would like to start weaving together of what I believe could become one of the biggest and most cleverly disguised twists in the entire show.

To begin, let’s take a look at the B plot of Understanding Willow:

On first glance, it’s an ultimately inconsequential sidestory with the sole purpose of justifying an excuse to keep Luz and Amity in Willow’s mind, as well as providing some well-needed room to breathe and release tension after the veryemotionally charged confrontation with Inner Willow. After half an episode of Eda and King outdoing the other in ridiculous ways to win Gus’ vote and Gus running off in frustration at the end of the episode from Hooty’s inane rambling, it’s easy to laugh off Gus’ pick and assume that nothing/of value was said when he closed the door for the interview.

However, if one pays close attention to that very scene, Hooty actually canstill be heard (if faintly) underneath Eda and King’s grumbling, interestingly talking about how “It all started with a hunt. Blood red skies. That’s right, I was created-.”

Now, while it may seem silly to focus on dialogue from Hooty of all characters, this A) tells us that there was an event in the past involving blood red skies and a hunt of some kind, B) that Hooty had been created close to said event, and C) implies that what he knows but can’t tell as a story worth a damn is EXTREMELY important to be included and be hidden in such a manner.

For comparison, the only other instance of dialogue being tucked away in the background in the entire show is in Wing It Like Witches:

During the lecture at the beginning of the episode, the history teacher openswith lore on Belos appointing a head witch to each coven over 50 years ago, immediately cluing in the audience to try and decipher the rest of the lecture as it moves to the background. Adding to this is how the musical sting when Luz shows off her movie obscures what he says even further, making it even more of a intriguing puzzle that the creators clearly intended for viewers to pick up on and attempt to solve.

In contrast, the hidden dialogue of Hooty’s interview is much shorter and not as hard to decipher as the teacher’s history lesson, but at the same time, there are few to no indicators whatsoever in that scene to clue in the audience to even check for something like that. It comes at the end of an episode where most viewers would have been paradoxically tired out and driven abuzz by the revelations of Amity and Willow’s relationship, doesn’t attempt to draw much attention to itself, and frames itself as a comedic subversion of audience expectations with neither the “greatest witch who ever lived” or the self-proclaimed king of demons being picked by Gus.

Instead, he picks someone that the show portrays constantly as an oblivious and gullible idiot after being described as a “state of the art defense system” at the very beginning of the series. Someone who, despite it being played for laughs, is scarily capable of casually subduing Lilith offscreen one episode and then beating her and an entire squad of Emperor’s Coven members without even the slightest change in personality or temperament.

Someone who, due to being the Owl House itself, could be considered the titular character of the entire show, yet is taken for granted by those who inhabit him and barely gets any respect from even the cutely patronized King - including when Hooty could be interpreted as having potentially been full on DEAD for a time given the use of extremely cartoony X eyes and a lack of vital signs in The Intruder.

And someone who Eda at best tolerates and at worst abandons in personal interactions and only occasionally acknowledges him when he’s actually doing his job. Yet at the same time is so implicitly trusted beyondprotecting her home to the point where - when up against the closest person Eda has to an equal outside of likely Belos - the only actually recognizable spells Eda used in combat were 1) stereotypical energy blasts, 2) a single shield spell in Covention, and 3) a noticeably large reliance on imitations of Hooty above any other spells she could have decided to use instead.

In short, the show repeatedly tells us he is just an idiotic gag character through and through, but at the same time demonstrates he has immense power through both onscreen and offscreen demonstrations, implicitly tells us his importance ahead of time through Eda’s imitations in actually serious situations, and treats his interview and origin story as - if not even more- important to keep secret than a long lore dump about how Belos’ reign works.

After all, there being only two instances of hidden background dialogue in the entire season is already intriguing on its own, but for one to get plenty of clues to draw in people’s attention and for the other to be treated as just another gag about a “mere comic relief character” - aka a good way to draw away attention and lower one’s guard - heavily suggests a far deeper significance buried under layers of misdirection, comedy, and conditioned audience expectations.

I mean, when Eda bragged about being “a bad girl living in a secret fortress,” Hooty followed with a remark about how “I’m the secret.” While that line may sound like Hooty simply being confused as part of a one-off on the surface, it’s an odd dialogue choice for the writers to pick when you think about all the other reminders of his nature as the house itself throughout the season. With the precedent these moments set, it would have been much more appropriate for him to latch onto the “fortress” side of “secret fortress” AND it would have been just as equally funny of a joke about his awareness skills, but instead, Hooty broke away from the established trend to say something that would make people suspicious were it to come from anyone else.

In a way, this reminds me much of the many subtle bits of foreshadowing strewn across the show, like Luz unknowingly describing Amity in Witches Before Wizards and Eda burning a hole through Luz’s coven type quiz that coincidentally selected the same track she had taken at Hexside as “a punky potionist.” At the time of airing, these initially seemed like one-off jokes, but eventually came back in full force several episodes later with Amity’s hidden sensitive feelings and love for the Azura books becoming clear in Lost in Language, and the reveal of Eda’s school track in Something Ventured, Someone Framed with her school misdemeanor pictures.

That said, compared to these individual bits of minor foreshadowing, the jokes about Hooty in Understanding Willow appear to simply be the most obvious pieces in a giant puzzle, implicitly and outright telling attentive viewers that there’s a major mystery to be uncovered here.

In fact, I feel bold enough to say that we could be looking at a twist on a similar scale to that of the Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz and Stanford Pines twists in Steven Universe and Gravity Falls respectively, what with this particular puzzle piece coming from how Gus wanted to make THE greatest interview of all time, and how he was looking for someone who was “interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy:”

Note the emphasis on the ‘and’ here, as Gus had made a big deal that “people aren’t meantto be all those things” at the beginning of the episode, so as a result, stripping away all the comedic framing of his subplot leaves the intriguing implication that whoever - and, perhaps, what- Hooty is, they really are the most interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy person out of everyone.

I could go further and talk about why I suspect the mystery surrounding King’s origins, whether true or not, is partially meant to misdirect us from paying attention to Hooty, or how the TOH crew’s could be disguising legitimate clues to his nature among made up and highly meme-able joke answers in order to proliferate said concepts throughout the fandom - thus letting us do all the dirty work of getting ourselves used to the ideas and used to dismissing them at the same time - but to bring things to a close for now, I’d like to leave you all with a question that I’ll start answering next time:

What does it mean when both the most powerful and notorious witch on the Boiling Isles and the possible actual king of demons/the Titan itself/something don’t match up to a house? And what do you think it is that makes him so special to warrant such misdirection?

TLDR: Between Eda’s golem spells, the show stressing his nature as the titular house, his implicit strength, and the odd dialogue and structure of Understanding Willow‘s subplot in relation to him, I believe I have good reason to suspect the show has been giving us many hints towards Hooty being much, much more important than it would like us to currently believe or even joke about. Particularly, through clever uses of comedy to establish and enforce a strong audience bias against looking closely at him or unironically taking him seriously, and to potentially plant the seeds for something I will start exploring in Part 2.

[boiling-files]

Okay so the promo art by Bridget Underwood for Labyrinth Runners

(Portfolio is linked)

According to programming hi-lights of DisneyABC press the episode synopsis is:

“when the Emperor’s Coven comes to Hexside, Gus teams up with an unlikely ally.”

First of all the episode title is obviously a reference to the book series “Maze Runner” whether or not this episode will actually have anything to do with the series is to be debated upon. At least I hope not for the mental health of the cast

But I wanna get into the “unlikely ally” part of the synopsis. A lot of people think it’s gonna be Matt which is understandable but I think it may be Hunter.

Yes, Amity and Willow are also in this promo art but that’s not the only thing I’m getting at.

Gus is the only member of the four that Hunter hasn’t had a one on one episode with, not to mention this piece of promotional art by Dana herself:

Art by Dana Terrance source

Flapjack is on Gus’ shoulder! And while it could be a Gus + Palismen team up I doubt Flapjack is gonna let Hunter out of their sight after the events of “Hollow Mind”

That along with the fact that Zeno Robinson is already credited on the wiki as Hunter gives me hope that these two are going to team up to take down the Emperor’s Coven invading Hexside.

Yeah, I know people can edit the wiki pretty easily and it ultimately… proves nothing.

As for my actual plot predictions for this episode beyond just Hunter and Gus working together against The Emperor’s Coven:

As to why would Hunter even be at Hexside in the first place? Besides The Owl House that’s the first place Belos would look for him.

But we do know Hunter now has social media and (presumably) has Willow and the rest of The Emerald Entrails contact information. Perhaps for Hunter it’s a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And if the episode takes place in a maze perhaps other members of The Emerald Entrails are in the maze with Hunter and Gus but they’re split up and the two are forced to work together to save their mutual friends.

Gus still having a dislike towards Hunter for multiple reasons but putting their friends first as the great friend he is.

Maybe Gus doesn’t know about Hunter’s general (gestures to everything) situation and thinks he’s at Hexside with The Emperor’s Coven.

If this one screencap is anything to go off of Gus looks angry and terrified and possibly confronting someone?

Hunter catching Gus off guard maybe? if the Illusion Coven Head is in this episode it could also be them catching Gus off guard or trying to provoke him.

We already know Gus has insecurities around his illusionary magic having a Coven Head possibly slap that in your face would have those thoughts swimming back tenfold.

As to what or how I believe the Illusion Coven Head will be like or how they will behave if they are in this episode (which I believe they are) I believe them to be quite manipulative but not outright malicious about it like Terra Snapdragon is.

Considering the natures of illusions and how Coven Heads are their magic themselves the Illusion Coven Head could be watching over the students the entire time or pretending to be one of them, tricking them and manipulating them from the inside.

(Enter outdated among us joke here)

The whole “maze” set up could be similar to what Terra tried to instigate with the “Us vs Them” mentality.

Gus and Hunter are both characters desperate to prove themselves and their worth to other people. I however do not think they’d fight each other if it came down having to rely on each other to save their mutual friends.

I think there’d be internal conflict on Hunter’s side sure, the feeling of that conditioning lingering at the forefront of his mind and wanting to be recognized by any adult and be praised but not wanting to let down his new friends again after he just barely got their trust.

I also wouldn’t put it past Gus if he struggled as well. Hunter has threatened to kill his friends and tricked him and his friends into joining the Emperor’s Coven and he didn’t seem too pleased about it either.

I doubt he’s forgiven Hunter about it and he may not throw it in his face but it’s definitely not forgotten.

As for further thoughts on The Illusion Coven Head those will be in a separate post.

[pizzaboat]

So I've seen alot of people give their theory's and opinions on what's going to happen to Lilith in season 2 of the owl house, whether or not she's forgiven, where she's going to stay and how she'll act I guess, and the major thing being if she's redeemed or how redeemed she is.

I'm just going to throw my own thoughts out there and say that obviously there's still alot to do with her character. I also have no intention of bashing her character, I actually enjoy when she's on screen. I do like her but she's still problematic. So buckle up this is a long one.

To get my thoughts straight I'll break what I have to say down into parts, cause I get distracted easily.

First up im going to say I think she is far from redeemed. My impression of her is that she regrets cursing her sister, but she also finds some sort of sick pride in it too, as shown in agony of a witch when she screams " then why were you so easy to curse!?".

She also has no problem hurting literal children to get what she wants either, but that's another issue I'll discuse.

Lilith seems to resent her younger sister to an extreme, unhealthy degree. I could sit here and theorise about her child-hood and teen years wondering what could have created such insecurities in her, but im not going to. That is irrelevant to the point im trying to make. What's important to keep in mind though is that she was "perfect prissy Lilith"- the covention growing up, Eda was good at almost everything, and that Lilith cursed Eda to secure a spot in the emperors coven when Lilith was 18-19 and Eda was 16-17.

Is she redeemed ?

No i don't think she is even half way there. She cursed Eda in her sleep to win a fight. Lied for over thirty years to Eda about that curse. Mocked Eda for the symptoms of a curse she put on her "Why don't you go home and rest wouldn't want you breaking hip"- sense and insensitivity . she kidnapped Luz to use her against her sister, used Luz as a human meat shield in her and Eda's battle during agony of a witch, was generally quite rude to Luz when she wasn't dangling her over a pit of spikes, and also SPIKES.

Taking on half of a curse she put on her sister in the first place doesn't begin to cover the trauma and pain she's caused in the name of healing her sister, enforcing the emperors laws and joining said emperors coven.

I would also like to point out that she had a way to elevate her sisters pain all this time but she didn't. I've seen arguments like she trusted the emperor to heal her sister but I can already point out so many things wrong with that.

even if she did trust him, no normal person could sit by and watch any family member they claim to care about suffer, if she trusted the emperor so much she would have split the curse sooner, (providing Eda would have let her of course) and had him heal her or Eda both.

But she didn't do that she lied to her sister for years, partly because she was scared of losing Eda and also Eda's reaction which was, and would always be unbridalled rage. but also to an extent it suited her, it suited her to be the successful sibling, the sibling doing things "right" Lilith seems to be as I said before extremely insecure, and I think that just going off the episodes she was in and the impression the show puts forward.

If what I've noticed is correct, Lilith has spent her life in her sisters shadow, bullied in school as revealed in the end of something ventured something framed, nobody took her seriously due to her appearance and probably being a late bloomer in a lot of ways. She would have jumped at the chance to be given the same respect that Eda and other talented witches or well off, higher up witches recieved.

In other words the emperors coven fed Liliths' battered ego, telling her what she wanted to hear.

It makes sense that she wouldn't want to let that go, but in the context of what has happened and the fact she seemed to still try and stick with the emperors coven before Belos sent her to be executed along with eda and king.

She isn't redeemed, she probably doesn't see much wrong with how she's behaved up until now(besides cursing Eda) and there's still alot of work for her to do. She only split half the curse because her expulsion from the coven forced her to address a mistake she made for once.

Season 2 and maybe more seasons looks like where she'll be earning her redemption. Hopefully she'll be forced to face more of her flaws and short comings and work on them.

Will she be forgiven?

Lilith from what has been shown has hurt;

Eda Luz, King, Amity, Willow and Gus. They all have different reasons to be hostile towards her.

Eda

She cursed Eda and almost subjected her to a faith worse than death, lied to her, mocked her. Kidnapped her apprentice and almost got Luz killed a number of times,using her as a sheild. She dragged Luz into the whole messed up rivalry. I don't think Eda will forgive her emediatly, after all, even if she can forgive Lilith for what she did to her, she would also have to forgive her for what she did to Luz.

She essentially kidnapped Edas' surrogate daughter, Eda was much angrier about Luz's suffering than her own "you hurt luz, you cursed me. before anything turns me to stone I'm going to tear you apart!" - young blood, old souls

Yeah Eda was fit to murder her sister, taking some of the curse probably only got rid of her homicidal desire towards Lilith, thats it.

Luz

I've seen some people make fan content in which Luz immediately forgives Lilith or comes round eventually to her when Lilith acts nice around the house.

That seems super out of character for Luz, sure Luz is characterised to be kind and sweet but if the final proves anything its that she has a ruthless streak that comes out when she tries to protect the people she loves, her family. Lilith has threatened the people she cares about. I don't see Luz letting that slide, and she would probably still be on guard. Luz may have accepted her help in young blood old souls, but that was only because she wanted to save Eda she told Lilith she didn't like her "whole deal" and she meant it.

Lilith would have to prove she's really changed for the better for luz to begin to for give her.

King

I like the idea of King and Lilith becoming friends simply for comedy perposes, if King were to forgive her and I think he'd be one of the closest to it out of the main characters.

They'd be a force of sheer stupidity and ego they'd be bad and good for each other, King weirdly enough would be more emotionally mature since he's learned things like you can't be posesive over people in really small problems it's a lesson Lilith needs to learn since she seems to resent Luz to an extent, thinking Luz was taking her sister from her "Edalyn is with her family, her real family. Go back to your world human this one is ours" - agony of a witch

Of course before this she needs to also earn his forgiveness, he wasn't there for agony of a witch but he did experience the fear and worry of losing eda in young blood, old souls the only person he had up until then was Eda " King and I, we don't have much in this world. we only have each other"- A lying witch and a Warden. Lilith helping rescue Eda might have helped improve his opinion of her, but Lilith would have to get over herself first to begin her redemption.

Hooty

I don't think Hooty would hold a grudge, mostly because he's comic relief and weird. Since I personally think no one in the owl house would be bothering with her, and I see her being forced to live In the shed. I think Hooty would be her only company and I think it would be unexpected and really funny if he's the first person/bird thing to open her eyes to her awful behaviour. You gotta start somewhere and Hooty is it.

Amity, Gus and Willow

I think Gus and Willow will be stand-offish until Luz and King forgive Lilith.

Once Lilith has developed more as a person she owes Amity an apology for how she behaved as a teacher. Amity would be mad after the covention episode, but almost killing her crush would make her protective of Luz, and wary of her in general.

Conclusion

Lilith hasn't been redeemed in my opinion, there's still alot of growth she needs to go through, she's made alot of terrible mistakes and decisions, its what makes her so interesting. I like her but she's a sh*t person, but she can learn to be less of a sh*t person.

I'm aware this is a kids show and she probably won't get all this development or she could get different character development and that would be awesome, its just my thoughts and opinions and I'm really excited for season 2.

[k7l4d4]

Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 5 Part 2

Hello all, it’s me, back again with another chapter of the Midnight Striga!! I hope you all enjoy. Thank you.

“... And that’s everything I know about human anatomy.” Luz finished, as Gus eagerly wrote down her answer while the others watched in amusement. She quirked her eyebrow at the younger boy’s enthusiasm. For the past 20 minutes she’d been answering his questions as best she could, and each answer got her a huge grin, a bear hug at one point, and frantic scribbling across a notebook he had produced. It was like having a little brother, really, but less annoying… for now.

Clearing her throat, Willow decided to broach a topic that had been on her mind since they started this trip. “So, Miss Owl Lady, is it true that you’re cursed?” Willow carefully asked.

“Yup.” Eda bluntly replied. “One hundred percent.” She shrugged, unbothered by the question. “Not much I can really do about it, but I’ve learned to live with it.”

“So the legend is TRUE!?” Gus exclaimed, eyes wide with shock, and a little excitement.

Eda snorted. “Not hardly.” At the confused looks she got, even from King and Luz, Eda elaborated. “The general idea is right, but the whole thing is skewed.” Eda paused, glancing up at the sky. “I don’t know where the part about the Covens clambering for me in school came from, ‘cause it’s the first I’ve heard of that, unless they’re talking about the times they ambushed me to join at the early Coventions; that honestly just annoyed me, and it’s partially why I don’t like the things. If I’m gonna make a decision like that, it’ll be by myself, thank you!” She huffed, getting soft snorts from the others.

Grinning at her audience, Eda continued. “As for the whole ‘ego’ thing, I was already well-known troublemaker around Bonesburough, so even if it did go to my head, my behavior wouldn’t have changed at all.” This got nods of agreement from Luz and King, and looks of dawning understanding for Willow and Gus. Knowing what she would have to share next, Eda took a deep breath. “For my curse, I can tell you for fact that it wasn’t the Titan, or whatever cockamamy story the EC spread; a Witch cursed me. Specifically, they broke into my room and cursed me the day before try-outs for the Emperor’s Coven.” She said softly, provoking gasps from the group; shock from Willow and Gus, and outrage from her roommates, something that brought a smile to her face. Clearing her throat, she continued. “As for me denouncing the Coven System,” she said, making air-quotes, “All I did was say that Covens weren’t for me and forfeited my match for a spot in the EC.” She finished, gaining bewildered stares from the two Hexside Students.

“You gave up a spot in the Emperor’s Coven?” Willow breathed out, unsure if she was appalled or impressed.

“Why!?” Gus exclaimed, utterly flabbergasted by Eda’s decision.

Eda shrugged, indifferent to their confusion, but willing to explain. “Because I only cared about joining so I wouldn’t have to have any of my magic sealed. Plus,” She sheepishly rubbed her head, blushing lightly in embarrassment. “The other person actually cared about joining the Coven to help people. I could get the same outcome I wanted by not joining a Coven at all, but they wanted to make the world a better place. I’d say I made the right call.” She finished.

Willow and Gus were amazed. They still couldn’t really wrap their heads around her worldview, but the fact that she was willing to give up such a prestigious position that would’ve given her exactly what she wanted because her opponent had more selfless reasons… It was inspiring. King was bewildered; Eda’s motive for forfeiting went completely over his head, as he just couldn’t understand giving up power so someone else could get it, but he perfectly understood her view of being herself, no one could challenge the mind of the King of Demons. Luz… Luz was shocked, face gone white at what Eda had just said.

“Okay, wait a minute, back up. What did you mean, ‘seal your magic?’” Luz demanded, shaking with barely repressed anger.

Eda blinked. “Uh, I did tell you that joining a Coven means you can only use magic associated with it.” She pointed out. She was honestly a little shocked about how viscerally the kid was reacting, with Willow and Gus actually looking a little frightened at her reaction.

“You told me that, yes, but you didn’t tell me they actually made it IMPOSSIBLE!!” She shouted. She was furious. She had already thought the system here was pretty twisted, but this was beyond the pale.

“Well, how does the Human Realm do things?” Willow broached, hoping to change the subject. Gus nodded his agreement to her question, though more as a result of genuine curiosity. Eda herself was a little curious; the kid had mentioned offhandedly that the way the Boiling Isles did things was very different from back home, but never elaborated.

Luz snorted, feeling bitter. “That’s an understatement.” She inhaled, taking a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Slowly dragging a hand down her face, she elaborated. “Back home, we have Guilds. Guilds basically act as a way for Mages to get work reliably; as part of a Guild, missions and requests are sent in, which a member can take to complete in exchange for a listed reward. Joining a Guild is neither permanent nor mandatory, it’s just a way to make things more convenient for Mages, that’s all.” She raised her head, looking them all in the eye. “Also, being in a Guild has no bearing on what type of magic you can use or know; while some Guilds may have certain requirements for joining, they are rarely, if ever, connected to what type of magic you know.”

“But how do you keep everything from falling to Chaos!” Gus exclaimed, mind whirling at the influx of information.

Luz shot him a flat look. “It’s not anarchy; we do have an overarching organization that deals with magic-related matters and crimes, but we don’t have anything cementing an absolute structure to things. If you break the law, whether you do so using magic or not, you still have to answer to law enforcement and will be punished. There’s just no reason to suppress or control magic to such an extent. Most people, whether they have magic or not, just want to live their lives, so forcing them into a particular system or group makes no sense.”

“But what about people mixing magic?” Willow asked.

Luz blinked. “What about it? It’s no different from using magic any other way.” She shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

“Well, some kids at school tried mixing magic, and caused chaos! They trashed a bunch of stuff and hurt some of the faculty!” Gus argued.

Luz raised an eyebrow, folding her arms. “And that’s different from any other day, how exactly?” She challenged, causing the two to blink. She continued. “The way you phrased it, they were being reckless; that’s a problem regardless of whether you know or are combining forms of magic. It honestly just sounds like they were trying to show off and went too far.”

“B-But, they wouldn’t have had those problems if they stuck with the magic of their track!” Willow insisted, though she would admit that it sounded fake, even to herself.

“And you know that how exactly?” Luz asked. When Willow clammed up, she added a little more. “Accidents happen, and people get hurt. Those exact same things had to have happened when your people first started practicing the magics that would form the Coven System.” As Willow and Gus seemed to fold in on themselves, Luz relented a little. “Look guys, nobody’s forcing you to learn more than one form of magic. Most people back home don’t learn more than one, either.” As the two perked up at that, she elaborated. “Just because you technically can learn every type of magic, doesn’t mean somebody wants to. People are always going to gravitate towards their personal interests, and that’s just a fact of life. That’s why I think the Coven System is crazy, because it’s putting an unnecessary restriction on people. But that’s besides the point, let’s talk about this sometime else, okay?” She pleaded, wanting to move on from the increasingly frustrating conversation.

“Yeah, as fascinating as this is,” Eda drawled, genuinely being fascinated by the debate, but wanting to get going, “We should really be moving along.”

With that, everyone started heading out.

A sickening crunch ripped through the air. A squelching sound and chewing could be heard as a lumbering figure peaked out of the shadows, teeth stretched into a bloody grin. A shadow darted across the area, silently slicing through the throats of unsuspecting Coven Guards. A Guard uselessly struggled in the air, a long coiled shape contorted around their body, slowly twisting their head to the side as it pulled at them, a snap soon being heard. Figures slowly prowled towards the Covention center, weapons gleaming.

Boscha growled, fighting the urge to snap at the elbows jabbing into her as she walked through the Covention, steadfastly ignoring the glares and whispers aimed her way. Trying to distract herself, she pulled out her Scroll. There were no new messages, aside from another blistering rant from Bo; it made sense, seeing as all of her old clique had blocked her. She snorted at that. It made sense after all, who wanted to deal with the psycho who spent nearly a week beating any and every demon they could find near senseless and had burned the throat of their “best friend.” 

Covertly palming her lighter, she subtly raised it to her lips, sucking in the delicate flame with a relieved sigh, the minty flavor balancing her nerves. She wondered if she might be forming a habit. At least she wasn’t lunging at fires to eat anymore, that had been pretty embarrassing. Glancing around, utterly disinterested in the bevy of Covens, she didn’t notice as she crashed into someone.

“Oof! Watch it you- YOU.” A familiar voice growled out. Glancing down, Boscha spotted the furious form of Amity sprawled down in front of her. Boscha slowly backed up, giving the girl room to pull herself to her feet. “Just what are you doing here?” Amity coldly demanded, crossing her arms. Her voice almost, but not quite, concealing the burning malice within. “I thought you always said Coventions were lame?”

“They are.” Boscha bluntly stated, relieved to be on a familiar topic. She shrugged. “But I’ve got nothing better to do, so I thought I might as well come and check it out. Nothing else going on today.”

Amity raked her gaze up and down the other girl’s frame, feeling a little frustrated at just how nonchalant she was asking. “You really don’t care, do you?” Amity muttered, feeling a smidge of disappointment. She turned a painfully steady gaze to Boscha’s face, locking eyes with her. “Do you really not care about what you did to Skara?”

“Since when do you care?” Boscha asked, feeling surprised. As much as she had previously claimed that she and Amity were friends, Boscha was painfully aware of how detached the girl was from the rest of the clique. As Amity’s face gained a dangerous look to it, Boscha winced at how, well, Bitchy she had sounded saying that. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I mean, since when did you really have a relationship with Skara that would make you ask like that?”

‘Boscha… apologized?’ Amity thought, feeling flummoxed. Steeling herself, a familiar indignation filling her, she focused on the rephrased question, answering it. “Since she came to my house bawling her eyes out into my shirt asking what she did wrong.” She uttered gravely, taking a bitter satisfaction at Boscha’s flinch.

“She-?” Boscha started, feeling a little shocked. She knew that she had hurt Skara, but this? Eyes turning downcast, she morosely uttered. “She’s better off without me in her life.”

“At least you recognize that.” Amity scathingly replied. She stepped close to Boscha, chin to chin almost. “I… have more regrets about my life than I’ll willingly admit, and have done things that kept me up at night from guilt. But you? You betrayed the trust of the person who cared about you the most in the world, not in your right mind or otherwise. So I’m only going to say this once.” She carefully tilted Boscha’s chin down so their gazes were level. “Stay. Away. From Skara.”

Pulling back, lightly dusting herself off, Amity turned on her heel. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a presentation to take part in.” She gave Boscha a backwards glance. “Have a nice day.” She said, almost as an afterthought.

Boscha sighed, morose at the confirmation that, yes, she was an awful friend. Still, at least she could use the Coven to distract herself from how crappy she felt. And hey, maybe Luz was here? ...Pfft! Nah! Chuckling to herself in a bitter tone, Boscha wandered through the Covention, steadfastly ignoring the looks, the whispers, the sneers. It wasn’t any different from her dreams really, just less graphic.

“And here we are!” Willow said, forcing a note of cheer into her voice. The conversation they had had prior still weighed on her and Gus, but they didn’t begrudge Eda or Luz any. It was just… a lot to take in. “The Bonesburough Covention center.” She stated, hands on her hips as Gus made an expansive, showy gesture next to her. She felt a hint of pleasure at the snort of amusement Luz gave at their theatrics.

As they made their way through the Covention, Luz quickly picked up on something. “Wait a minute, are these all, like jobs or something?” She asked, feeling bewildered.

“Uh, yeah?” Gus replied, feeling confused. “Isn’t that how those Guild things worked?”

Luz shook her head, still feeling a little surreal at the sight as she processed it a little more. “Not really? A lot of these Covens flat out don’t need magic at ALL! Heck, there’s a Baking Coven, why would you need magic to bake!?” She exclaimed, gesturing to the Coven stand in question.

The two Hexsiders glanced at each other, neither having ever really thought about it. They shrugged. Luz waved them off. “Forget it, I’ll just chalk it up to another reason why the way things work around here confuses me.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Eda mused, honestly puzzled herself as she thought about all the Covens and how little some of them had to do with magic, or, in some cases, magic just made things more difficult. But the way Luz phrased it… She shook her head, not letting herself get sucked down the drain following that line of thought. “King already left to start squeezing these clowns for freebies, so what do you two dweebs want to do while we’re here?” She asked, lightly scratching at the bundled cloth holding her hair in place, turning to Gus and Willow as the target of her question.

The two turned to each other, starting up a whispered debate. This hadn’t really turned out how they thought it would. They had been so excited to show their friend some of their world… and she didn’t like it, moreover she nearly hated it! But, they could still have some fun, even if things weren’t how they expected. Turning back to Eda, a woman they had gained some respect for after learning a bit more of her past. “We could go see the Emperor’s Coven exhibit?” Willow offered, knowing that it would most likely be the most directly exciting thing here, even if Eda didn’t like the group. “I hear they have a special guest!”

“Maybe I’ll be able to get some members to sign my forehead!” Gus cheered, heedless of the sheepish looks from Willow and Luz, as well as Eda’s annoyance. The boy was utterly unshakable in his enthusiasm.

Eda snorted. “Ugh, fine! But if this all turns out to be boring, the three of you are manning my Stand for a week, got it?” She faux-threatened; she wasn’t really going to go through with it, but seeing them squirm was good for a laugh, even if it didn’t phase Luz.

With their plan set, the four headed into the center of the Covention, unknowing of the group creeping through the center, malicious grins all around.

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Winner’s Curse: Epilogue

Note: Wooo boy, it’s over. Now I know not many people may have read this, it may not have the best editing and some parts are a bit vague and not the best. In fact I’ll probably revise some parts at a later date or if I ever decide to post on A03, but I am still super proud of it. I think I did some great character parts and there are some sections that I’m just super proud of. I’m also happy that I actually finished it. It’s my longest fic to date and I actually completed it! 30 chapters. Well 32 if you include the prologue and epilogue. So cool! Plus I wrote what I really wanted, which I’ll admit was not the plot. The plot was a bit wonky and maybe I had too many characters that I didn’t juggle well and didn’t give them all equal exploration. Also action scenes were hard for me to write so those were not the best. But still- getting to explore these characters and their relationships and include several of my favorite Disney characters. Very fun. Also thanks to @edream93 for encouraging me when this was just a little idea, looking over some sections and offering advice and for overall being an amazing person. Check out her WLTF and other descendants fics like London Fog Nightcaps. And for the final time, hope y’all enjoy reading.

Flash forward to summer break in Agrabah

Jordan stretched, cracking her back after sitting hunched at her desk for the past hour editing her latest video How to Date a Djinn Episode 3. She had finally convinced the tech-averse Calix to join her in making satire videos of all the most terrible dates she had been on. Initially, she had planned for it to be a serious thing where she reminded her viewers of genie autonomy and the idea they had feelings behind their wishing powers, but Calix was never good at playing emotional PSAs.

Besides it was more fun that way to spoof how terrible, and sometimes ridiculous her romantic suitors were. Plus the hilarity kept her from thinking too much about the bitterness of the memories.

She cracked her neck and poofed outside to Aziz’s room where her lamp laid on its usual perch. Outside she could hear the thump of running feet and the screech of confused peacocks.

“Malik! No riding the peacocks!” A servant shouted

“Yes, riding peacocks!”

“No, Noor, Fahran, that’s not allowed. Get off of them!”

Jordan shook her head in amusement at the kids' antics.

Noor and Fahran were having a blast hanging out with their new “little” brother as they called the 5 year old. Though they were family in a way. Jade was the half sister to Aladdin’s half brother, Mozonroth. And Malik was their nephew. Even though the family tree was a bit tangled and confusing to visualize in your head.

And where Jade and Malik were concerned, Jay was also included as Aladdin had originally planned in inviting the former thief to Agrabah so they could get to know each other, and Jay, to get in touch with the more savory side of his heritage. Jay and Aladdin had especially hit off as they compared lives on the streets and bragged about some of their more daring heists so any concern of whether the Jafar connection would sour things was gone. All together, Jay, Jade and Malik were new, though unofficial members of the family. Aladdin, and Jasmine decided to hold off any official adoption in respect to Jay and Jade’s feelings.

Though, having three new members meant triple the chaos, the running in the halls and inevitable breaking of antique objects. It was still triple the fun.

Razoul, predictably, despised the decision. But hey, he wasn’t the sultan.

Jordan peeked out to the hall, no sign of peacock racing or frazzled servants anywhere. Since she’d been inside so long she decided to go outside to the backyard.

Passing the living room, she saw Jay playing some sort of Wii-fit game against Carlos, Lonnie and Gil whose scores were also reflected on the screen even as they played millions of miles away in their own living rooms. Jordan checked the time, ah it was 2’o clock on the doubt. Jay always called his friends at this time since it was when the time zones converged suitably for all of them to chat.

Jade was lounging on the couch, facetiming her girlfriend, Yzla. Jordan waved, and Jade waved in return, focusing mainly on their conversation which involved some llama prank with Empress Malina. Yzla was staying with Emperor Kuzco and his family. A arrangement Kuzco had initially been against but his wife and son overruled him. Which was for the best because apparently Yzla and him were hitting it off like two peas in a pod, scaring Malina, by tricking her into thinking Kuzco had changed into a llama again.

Huh, that reminded her, she hadn’t checked social media in a few hours. So she scrolled through, looking at Ben’s new post that there was to be a new class in the fall. Magic 101 with Flora, Fauna and Merrywhether and many surprise guest lecturers.

The Magic 101 class had been one of Uma’s many ideas for the new and improved Auradon. She told Ben of Alexandria’s reasoning for the revolt, explaining that the pressure for magic creatures to deny their magic was a strong reason for resentment, and most importantly, unfair. And Ben, who had been present at several meetings where mermaids, fairies and others stated their petitions of complaints, agreed. King Ben had removed the magic ban and decided to institute the Magic 101 class. Contrary to the name, the class wasn’t for magical beings, they already knew how to deal with their powers and not use them to affect others or supposedly cheat at life. The class was a requirement for Auradonians to learn about their fellow beings, how it was a vital part of them and the greater natural world.

Ben had actually suggested that she’d be the magical liaison and teacher assistant for the new Magic 101 classes but she had politely declined. She did accept going as a demonstrator whenever it was time for her Dad’s guest lecture.

But a fulltime TA? It sounded like too much work, her powers were not applicable to the greater magical population, and most importantly, she really wanted to get back to doing her auratube show. Especially now that she was bound to have so many new subscribers thanks to her newfound fame for helping to defeat the Coven.

Jordan had considered doing a series about the Isle mission against the Coven in order to get the story straight and not create too wild legends regarding their month and a half there. And okay, there was also the fact that she wanted to renew her hits after losing subscribers after not posting for a month.

But she ultimately decided not to. It was their mission, only they’d get what happened in that wild untamed place of evil and poverty. Besides, it was very personal and she didn’t want to have to go into her fights with Aziz and Jay on Auratube. Or her encounter with Antiquam.

No she’d rather not think about the latter for a very long time.

Dismissing those thoughts she scrolled through several more posted announcements like the newly formed Minority Kingdom Council made up of representatives from Atlantis, Atlantica, Arrendelle, Kuzcoropia, and Pydrian, who were overrun by environmental and tourism concerns as Alexandria brought up. There was also a new class of Vks that were coming in. Basically the teen population of the Isle.

The orphans and kids from the Isle were sent to boarding elementary schools around Auradon as well as foster care with professional trained therapists for the abused youngsters.

Ben’s decision to bring the whole teen population in had been a controversial one. But he had stood by it, stating that he was taking the advice of his people, the ones from his generation who were to make up the future generation and a schoolwide vote had agreed that the Vks should be let in.

Granted it had taken a two month lobbying campaign led by Mal and Evie with Lonnie, Carlos, Jane and Jay’s help. But they did, they persuaded lots of royal kids that it was better to bring Vks over. It also helped that Mal, Jay, Evie, Carlos and Uma had been pronounced Auradon’s saviors thrice in a row so…

Though it wouldn���t be until August that all the Vks, with a few exceptions like the resolutely bad CJ Hook and Prince Lars, and Antiquam, would be able to get to Auradon. But they would, Uma was making sure of it. Even Zevon and Ginny were coming despite their actions in proudly helping the Coven, Ben believed they just needed to be removed from the negative influences of their mothers.

Some Vks had already come over like Carlos’ cousin. Diego had refused to enter the VK program through school, but through the work progrm. Now he and his band, Rotten Apples, could introduce Isle grunge rock to Auradon’s farmer populations and inspire them to use music to express themselves. Carlos informed them that Diego wasn’t too into that inspiration and empowerment stuff, but he was loving the popularity. And he often crashed to the Radcliff house to catch up with Carlos and get a break from his adoring fans.

Harriet Hook, also in the work program, was working in Neverland, serving as guard for docks and a pretty mean one too, Jordan heard. Any tourist that tried to sneak

Not that everyone was residing in the homes of their parents’ enemies. Celia Facilier was living with her sister Freddie, and Freddie’s girlfriend, Ally at the Mad for Tea Shop. Also as a student by day and helping her sister as the evening entertainment at night. Singing only. FG was still wary of introducing such sketchy magic as card readings. Celia did choose to be a TA to her sister’s class, Goodness 101. Freddie was taking over for FG to make it a revamped, less patronizing seminar of how to act in Auradon with Ally popping in for politeness lessons and Carlos with therapy dogs. Though FG still stayed in the room to supervise and make sure the class stayed on track and not turn into “Everything that’s wrong about sappy sweet Auradon.”

Dizzy was reunited with her mother, her aunt Anastasia, her uncle, the Baker and Anthony Tremine and they lived in the faculty building of Auradon Prep. Easy for Anthony and Dizzy to get to school and for the Baker to go to his new job as school cook.

His baguettes were to die for, so flaky and crispy. Even Chad reluctantly agreed to their goodness when she interviewed him for student reactions to the new cook. Anastasia and Drizella were the new cosmeticians in training at the school’s day spa even though the two still argued over what was a better color and such.

Also working in Auradon’s kitchen were Gil, and Cosette’s mothers who had taken in their other’s sister’s sons, Gaston Jr, Gaston the Third and Gaston (IV) the Great. Their mother had been deemed just as abusive as Gaston and was to stay on the Isle with him. Gil had been nervous about living with his brothers again but he had Cosette by his side and Harry and Uma just a street away. Harry was just as fiercely loyal as ever to his crew and to Uma, who he’d wait for outside of Ben’s office, waiting for their meetings to end.

Gil also had Jay on his side. And though Jordan had absolutely no proof, she just felt something between them, and she was planning to use this summer to sniff out just what it was.

It had been more controversial to bring back some adult villains like Anastasia and Circe, but Ben had explained that he was not in the business of tearing families apart and adults were able to change too. Smee, for instance, wanted to retire from swabbing desks and wanted his second act in life to follow his lifelong dream. Be a clockmaker, ironically enough considering his boss’ fear of the ticking. Same with other low level henchmen like Jace and Harry, and Hun soldiers that had been following the battle orders and propaganda Shan Yu had fed them.

Ben had promised not all adults would come over, especially not ones that had abused their children, and that he, Mal and Uma were designing a careful vetting process for this program.

As for the Auradonian bred villains. Morgana and Morgaine hadn’t stayed in the dungeon for long. One day the guards had come down to give their food and they were just gone. No one knew where they went and no magic had been able to locate them. Merlin said it was no use trying. The Le Feys were tricky and wouldn’t reappear again unless they wanted to.

Kyro, Victoria and Alexandria were in therapy now in a new building away from the dorms and those who would shun them for their actions like the media that had reviled them when the news leaked out. It was a bit of a depressing building Jordan thought since one could see it if they leaned far out their windows. The outside of it looked like an insane asylum but Evie enthused about how open- aired and peaceful it was inside. The point of it was to clear the outside world, and focus on healing. What’s more, since Uma learned of FG’s somewhat oblivious and condescending advice from Alexandria, they hired a new counselor. A Dr. Mickey Mouse.

So yeah, things seemed to wrapping out into a happily ever after for all.

Jordan walked into a door, rubbing her head of the bruise and cursing herself for not looking up. Tucking the phone in her pocket, she was about to open the door when Aziz opened it for her, heading inside from hanging out on the hammock.

He didn’t even look at her as he entered, he was busy chatting on the phone with who else, his new girlfriend.

Aziz had stayed true to his word that he and Lala were just friends, and remained just friends for three months. It had irritated Jordan to no end to watch them sneak discreet looks, study together since Lala only knew the Atlantean alphabet and not the English, and dance around their feelings as if the obvious wasn’t there. And it took all her self control to honor her vow to not meddle and send a flying carpet in to speed things up.

At least Aziz did not shut her out completely and still went to her advice for what to do when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

“What if she says no? Or doesn’t know what that is. Jay did say it was only gang activity. Or maybe she’ll just say no because she thinks she’ll go crazy like her mom. But I really want her to say yes. Oh Allah, what if I mess it up instead by acting like an idiot. Or she already thinks that. I walked into a wall yesterday.”

“Aziz, she likes you,” Jordan reassured him, “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. Like a leopard with dinner, she totally wants to eat you. In a sexy, hungry with desire way. Not cannibal way. And really, walking into a wall? That’s not a dealbreaker or even embarrassing. If you want to talk about embarrassing, nothing can top the time you popped in front of that yoga instructor you were trying to impress.” “I had food poisoning from the oysters!” Aziz yelled indiginantly.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you shitted during downward dog,” Jordan smirked at Aziz’s flustered angry face, “Nor was it like that time when you tried to impress Anxlin with a butterfly knife and ended up-”

“Will you stop bringing up the past?” Jordan decided to change tactics and be the serious, comforting big sister that he wanted, “Just speak from the heart. You’re on the same page with so many things, and you talk so much. Sooo much, it’s kinda annoying. Especially when you’re yapping in my room when I’m trying to watch a movie. But anyway, I think when the time comes your heart will guide you to say the right thing. And if not… your lips can speak for you.”

So with that fabulous advice if Jordan said so herself, on the last day of school, before they went their separate ways for vacation. Aziz went to her room and asked her.

And while she said she wouldn’t meddle, Jordan totally turned into a bee to go through the keyhole and eavesdrop on their conversation. For moral support. Just Aziz didn’t know about it.

It was endearingly awkward as Aziz stammered through some rambling monologue of how he liked her a lot, and only if she was okay with it, but he really thought they had something so woud she maybe consider being his girlfriend.

Aziz should probably have gotten some lessons from Jay on the art of smooth, but Lala seemed to get it. “So if we’re in a relationship we do what we do now… but with kissing?” she clarified.

“Yes!” Aziz agreed eagerly, then tried to dial down his excitement, “I mean sure, if you want.”

“I would really like that,” Lala bit her lip nervously but her expression was hopefully as Aziz leaned in.

Their kiss was short, two seconds at the most. Jordan would have given it a three out of five. It was unsure and the two seemed to be surprised they even did it. But it was clear from the look in their eyes, that they only saw each other and the rest of the world was already fading away for them, that that small kiss was perfect to them.

So they kissed again. Much more purposefully this time. Oh Allah, Jordan was so proud when Aziz added some passion and slipped tongue first. He was really growing up.

And they kissed again, and again and soon they were making out on Lala’s bed, which was starting to get kinda gross and Jordan was feeling weird about watching them. So she took that as her cue to leave.

But now she had plenty of new things to annoy Aziz about so she took it as a plus.

Grabbing him by the arm to stop, Jordan grabbed his camera.

“Hi, Lala, how are you?” Jordan waved, mugging for the camera as Aziz grabbed it back, and tried to push her out of the frame. The white-haired girl was dressed up in Evie’s new line of summer clothes with her hair up in a bun, and most startingly, her brown eyes were human.

It was silly that Jordan was surprised by Lala’s human eyes, she had been the one to change them when in a burst of good will offered all their allies on the adventure a wish. Lala hadn’t used the offered three wishes, just one, which was to remove the leopard spell Queen La had put on her. She lost her cat eyes and the habit of walking on all fours, but she still had her cat-like grace which Jordan chalked up to natural ability. It had been three months since that wish, but she had been so used to Lala’s cat-like slits with the dilated pupils. It had been a unique marker like the scar that everyone could see on Lala’s leg when she wore shorts.

“I’m well. Aziz sent me your new vlog about Odiferous, it was very interesting.” Lala nodded curtly. Jordan knew Lala was usually guarded against everyone so the coldness didn’t bother her as much as it used to. Thanks to hanging out with Aziz and Jade, she was starting to slowly warm up to people she wasn’t close to even though her tone didn’t reflect it.

“How are the Porters?” Jordan asked, cutting off whatever Aziz was about to say next. He glared at her, but she ignored. Hey, she said she’d stop mothering him. So now it was back to  annoying big sister privileges.

“They’re well. Kerchak and I are going tree surfing tomorrow.” Lala answered. When Ben put up the invitation of Vks in need of foster homes or adoptive families, the Porters offered to take in Clay Clayton, and Lala. Clay refused and went with his Aunt, Lady Waltham who was thrilled to meet her surly nephew for the first time. Lala joined the Porters where she was helping their gorilla reserve, connecting with animals instead of hunting them for food and survival.

It was bound to be awkward considering their daughter’s actions, but Auradon seemed to consider it part of their penance even though they hadn’t known what Victoria had planned to wrought. But according to Lala, they did their best to skirt around that sensitive issue and treat her like a guest, and she was starting to befriend Kerchak. He even gave her a leopard of her own which she named Euware II though the pet made Tarzan a bit wary. Still, Lala had to stay in her room on weekends when Victoria visited from therapy.

“That’s great. When are you coming to visit? I know Jade is just dying for you to visit. It’d be fun. We can go sand surfing, oh and explore some of the caves under the citadel. Oh, oh and I just know Aziz wants to show you some of the secret alcoves in the palace. They’re great for making out and-” “Go away!” Aziz waved her off

“You want me to leave? But who will chaperon you two? Who will tell Lala all the embarrassing stories from your childhood? I’ve been holding onto blackmail for a reason, Aziz. I must tell her,” Jordan turned to the screen, “But seriously, come visit. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you!” Aziz sighed in exasperation, “Give me 5 minutes, I’ll join you to go to the bazaar later, Jord.”

“See ya!” Jordan called over the shoulder as she headed to the palace kitchen, still hearing some snippets of Aziz’s conversation about his summer psychology classes. His new passion since Jordan had suggested that since he liked overanalyzing and counselling other people's problems, he could research into being a psychologist.

Upon reaching the outside, Jordan took a big breath of the sweet summer air with a hint of jasmine and the coconut and sighed.

Life was good.

Of course, life was always good when it was summer vacation but it was more than that. She had really committed to what she had learned on the Isle. She lived in the present now, and tried not to wallow in the anger and resentment that extended to almost every human she met.

Did that kind of positive mindset always work? Hell no, sometimes, someone would grab her arm, requesting for a wish, rubbing her jacket as if that was the lamp and not her. Yeah, that stupid event would irritate her all morning but she didn’t go into her spiral of how all humans were greedy monsters, her life sucked that she had to walk among them and so on and so forth. She learned to vent to Aziz and let it go.

She would always meet bad people in her life, when that happened, if the situation was appropriate, she would blow a mini sandstorm in their face and move on.

She’d also gotten more sensitive about complaining about humanity in front of Aziz. She tried to complain of an individual person and not make broad generalizations about the mortal race, and repeat that Aziz and his family were the exception.

Well Aladdin’s family, and Uma, and Jay, and Lonnie, and Calix and Ben, and she was starting to realize her circle of those she trusted was expanding.

It felt good to have that knowledge.

Even if Aziz might not always be there, though she’d kill him if he wasn’t, she still had others who cared about her.

Then again, she, Calix, Aziz, Jay and Uma had been through a harrowing adventure that nearly destroyed the world they knew, and had to face their greatest fears and insecurities to do so. If that didn’t make you trust a person, what would?

There were also her parents. Her parents always had her back.

That was another thing she’d been committed to doing since she got back from the Isle and saved Auradon.

Her parents had been the first ones to get there, magical teleportation after all and were laying out the blue carpet and making plans for the greatest party in all of Agrabah for their daughter, the hero. Instead of getting annoyed by their zany antics as usual, and annoyed at how they ignored the fact she faced possibly life-ending danger against their enemies, she just hugged them.

The act had clearly surprised them because both of their jaws broke off and fell to the floor before snapping back up like a ball. But they loved the change in her nonetheless.

Ever since then, she’d been going out with them every other weekend, be it ice skating on Saturn’s rings or clubbing or going out to drink in celebration of the banning of the Magic Ban.

She had thought for so long that if she let herself act even a little bit like them, she’d be signing herself to a fate of servitude, never being taken seriously, and becoming a negligent oblivious person who only wanted to focus on fun.

She had worried that if these things didn’t come naturally to her, she’d have to fake it in order to fit in and be palatable to her own parents. So they wouldn’t become bored with her. She hadn’t liked thinking about it, but she always felt that was the underlying reason they left her.

But she lived in the present now and shoved all those thoughts away. She did what she wanted without thinking of the implications. And she found that actively listening to what they were saying, how they constantly suggested ideas for their next adventure, how it was too bad she had school and couldn’t come with them to their trip. They didn’t think she was a damper on their party style, they wanted her to be with them. And she usually said to each invitation.

YOLO, right. Well more like YOLFSMAWEI.

(You Only Live Forever So Might As Well Enjoy It. Not as catchy but infinitely more accurate)

Family time was a lot more enjoyable that way instead of brooding that once it was over, they were going to forget about her and go about their lives as if they didn’t have a daughter.

Although, Jordan still did crave for a meaningful talk where she got to tell them about some of her issues with their lack of parenting oversight, and maybe delve into how abandoned she felt when they wouldn’t discuss such issues like her rape, they still weren’t ready for that.

Though Aladdin was talking to her dad on her behalf, and it seemed he was starting to soften to it.

Until then, she had two sets of parents. Aladdin and Jasmine, probably the first humans who she trusted, and respected. The first ones who saw her as a child and not a being for wishes. They gave her the love and attention she had craved when she needed it. They stood by treating her like everyone else, as she wished, even when it meant disregarding her excuses that her genie-ness exempted her from getting in trouble. They were always present her lives and were the ones that reminded her that her supposed fate was not a fate, that no one could shackle her, not unless they went through them. They encouraged that there other sides to her besides being a genie. That she should work hard, be kind, be honest and be independent.

Her mom and dad, who loved her with all their hearts and thought of her as their best friend. It wasn’t the most parental relationship but she had started to accept that it would never be. They were genie parents, not human ones, and it was finally sinking in that the rules would always be different from them. No matter that Jordan looked human and was raised by them. But that’s what made them special. No one else in the world would get her quite like her mom and dad.

Aziz opened the door, knocking her in the back and she moved over so he could wait beside her.

She checked her phone. Her parents were supposed to come here five minutes ago so they culd go to the bazaar together.

They probably weren’t going to come for another twenty minutes.

Ah genies, Jordan sighed, they were never going to be punctual. She wondered how many years it would be before she started viewing time as an unimportant mortal construct.

She was about to pose that question to Aziz, whether it would occur in his lifetime or in her 5,000s when a green and blue poof popped up in front of them.

“We’re here!” The two blew the smoke away to reveal the pair in matching red and white striped tuxedos with a blinking “Genie and Eden” sign hanging behind them.

“It’s Genie and Eden!” Eden announced

“Eden and Genie!” Genie intoned.

Then with a snap of a finger, the props and costumes disappeared, and Genie sat thoughtfully in the air, “We can’t quite choose which sounds better.”

Eden went back to a form-fitting black leotard with a black bowler hat, smoking a cigar in her best Liza Minelli voice, “Whaddya think, daughter dear, whaddya think?”

“I think we should go to the bazaar and have the people decide which is better.” Jordan suggested, knowing that if they did it here, they wouldn’t leave.

“By george, she’s right!” Genie exclaimed transforming into a nerdy account, “Statistically, it is always better to test things with a test audience, and according to my calculations that the Agrabah bazaar has the best cross-pool of audience with 10% bearded, 40% kids..” He transformed into his usually big blue self, “Aaand let’s get outta here!”

“Wait up!” Jay yelled, nearly running into the four of them with Jade at his side, “I wanna go to the bazaar too, there was that awesome scimir I wanted to buy.” “Yeah me too, I want to steal things too… I-I mean buy. Buy with money. That I did not steal from the mean guard.” “His name is Razoul, and you really shouldn’t. He already doesn’t like you.” Aziz shook his head.

“I don’t like him, and that’s what makes it so tempting.” Jade defended.

“Yeah, he kinda has it coming,” Jay agreed.

“Now, now, we won’t say anything about it. But you must stop,” Eden warned in a prim British accent, poofing into a blue serge suit like a certain famous nanny, “Now spit spot, hurry up, we don’t want to be late to the bazaar.”

Genie transformed into a Bert to his wife’s Mary Poppins, adding, “Come ‘ere ye kiddos and ‘urry it ‘up.”

Jay and Jade stared at each in the classic “What the hell?” expression that bystanders always had whereas her parents were concerned. Aziz and Jordan just shrugged and smiled.

And so they went off to the bazaar and as the sun beated down on them, and Jordan whipped up a hijab from air to keep off the heat, she hummed a familiar tune which Aziz and her dad easily picked up.

“As you wind through the streets at the fabled bazaars with the cardamom-cluttered stalls. You can smell every spice while you haggle the price of the silks and the satin shawls. Oh, the music that plays as you move through a maze in the haze of your pure delight. You are caught in a dance. You are lost in the trance of another Arabian night…”

[mochuelovelli]

Lilith for the character ask?

Oh boy, a controversial character! Gotta say, I stan James Charles /J

How do I feel about this character?:

On a real note, I do like Lilith as a character. When we first meet her, she's pompous and proud. Oozing with entitlement, she's easy to route against and you like to see her get worked up and "brought down" to Eda's level as the wild which so eloquently put it. Later on, but not too much later that it feels disingenuous, we really get to see her show that she cares for her sister. One might believe it is *Eda* being ridiculous, as far as the audience is aware, Lilith's offer holds little downsides. Eda would be cured and be afforded the luxuries of the upper class AND keep her magic. All she had to do was be the Emperor's soldier.

As to not get off track by talking about Eda, (im sure Lilith herself would loathe that lol) Lilith's reveal to have cursed her sister over a spot in the emperor's coven was...controversial to say the least. I don't think it's unpopular to voice that, yeah. It could've been communicated better to the audience since I saw plenty of commentators and regular fans themselves either thought Lilith cursing her sister was *needlessly* petty and not at all thought out (which yeah it kinda was).

From where I stand on that issue is, yeah, Lilith's whole reason to curse her sister could've been avoided by just talking to her sister and asking her to let her have this. BUT, I think a lot of people forget that the Emperor's coven would want to limit the number of powerful witches in their coven. Sure, Belos would want to be protected by a bunch of loyal soldiers, but he wouldn't want too much of the population to ever have a much power as him. So limiting the number of members in not just his coven but possible in the other major covens, would aid in controlling that population.

This might be pure hogwash but like, there are a ton of other "lesser" covens. So in my mind, it's more likely that the general population of witches gets sorted into one of the various miscellaneous. If you think limiting yourself to only practicing Illusion magic sucks, imagine only practicing whatever the fuck the "swag coven" does.

Lol gonna add a page break this shit is getting too long

Romantic Ships for this character?:

Hm, it's only s1 and we haven't seen her interact w/ many characters outside of her fam/Belos/actual children. I kinda jokingly ship here with Steve lol. Kikimora and her also have a funny dynamic but in all actuality, I don't ship her w/ anyone rn.

Non-Romantic Ships for this character?:

Her and Hooty lol. I mean Eda is an obvious answer but like, Hooty fucking with Lilith is too funny to not want to see. Her and King would be great too, probably get some good B plots out of it. It would be a good contrast since they both can be petty but in different ways and I think that would help flesh out their characters a bit more and maybe cause some introspection (at least on Lilith’s end lol)

Unpopular opinion about this character?:

Lol. I feel like she is such a divisive character in general that most opinions about her aren’t too out of the main stream. I guess a more meta take is that when she’s portrayed in fanworks, usually fanfic but not exclusively, very...one note lol. She’s usually a pretty flat, boring character in an attempt to highlight the contrast between her and Eda. She’s the straight-laced, “responsible” sibling who has a chip on her shoulder. In fanon, that equates to her characterization to either be like, completely and utterly apologetic to the point where it becomes unbelievable for any person to do. Her apologizing or making amends is usually quickly forgiven by Luz/and or Eda. Sure, Luz is very forgiving person naturally but like?? She’s wasn’t mad in canon too much about THEIR well being (almost getting impaled), she was specifically pissed about Lilith betraying Eda. 

So, if Lilith is a big part of your story (and it’s working in the realm of canon), then this should be a problem which doesn’t get resolved by just ONE big action. I also feel like her being on better terms with Eda would come BEFORE Luz since Eda’s main gripe with her would be about her being annoyed by Lilith’s controlling nature and the fact that she didn’t trust her enough to talk about her feelings back when she was first cursed (also her using Luz against her but I feel like that would probably be a hurdle that wouldn’t really be over come until Lilith in turn would be willing to sacrifice herself for Luz while also making an effort to care for Luz as a person not just see her as a “pet”). Hhhh this section is so long and its kinda bleeding over in the next question so-

Something I wish will happen or would have wanted to happen in canon?:

yall if you are still reading I am so sorry sksk

I want Lilith in general, not to be forgiven by either Luz or Eda. Eda probably early on stating about how she is unsure if she could EVER forgive her sister for what she has done. BUT, critically, Eda would see that Lilith is trying and she is willing to work with her (with a unhelpful dose of teasing) because at the end of the day she still loves her sister. For the relationship they had before everything with south, for knowing her side of the story even though she believes it doesn’t justify her actions. She understands and sympathizes, she’s grown a bit softer thanks to Luz, which is very funny since I want Luz to be the one who is the hardest to convince Lilith actually had a change of heart but more on that later. 

Before I move on to what I want her path towards forgiveness with Luz looks like, I want to bring up a parallel that I haven’t seen many people make. Fans always talk about the parallel between the Clawthornes and Luz/Amity, and rightly so because there is a lot to extrapolate there, but I think another interesting dynamic that might be interesting to see in s2 would be an episode that focuses on lost friendship/sisterhood with the Clawthornes and Amity and Willow. It’s kinda funny that Amity and Willow’s friendship was ruined because Willow was too “weak” while Eda was too “powerful”. In a potential episode, it can show the progression both Eda/Lilith and Willow/Amity are making in rekindling their relationship with each other. For Eda and Lilith this would be a lot more rough around the edges since it both be either the first or one of the first attempts at doing so while Willow/Amity would maybe be further along yet still have some major/minor hang ups with one another. With Willow/Amity, their relationship would either be rounding the bend of fully moving past the “idk how to feel about you stage” or it is stated outright that Willow forgives Amity, (and by forgive, I mean in the “we both know what you did, you’ve actually changed. we won’t have the same relationship that we once had but I’m okay with trying again”). In contrast, Lilith and Eda would reach a understanding and come up with some ground rules on how to handle each other (Eda’s main take away from this “episode” would be what I previously stated in the last question), ones that will be more like guidelines cuz its Eda lol. Also what separates the Clawthornes conflict from the Willow/Amity one (besides the obvious) is that the Clawthornes both know how the other works. Which buttons to push and all that so both of them are going to have to learn to resist doing that, at least a bit, in order to actually progress. 

ANYWAYS, I also want Luz to be the one to regard Lilith the coldest. Luz refusing to let Lilith teach her anything despite probably having more practical/book smarts knowledge on magic theory than Eda because she doesn’t trust her. If they are gonna use that masked dude as a spy, I want Luz to assume Lilith is somehow a coconspirator. This plot thread doesn’t have to be going at 100% the whole time, (in fact I would want it to be a temp thing maybe lasting a couple eps at most or like, just something that is hinted at but not dived deeply until the second half of the season). Really, Lilith has a hard time because Luz straight up doesn’t give her the opportunity to really express her regret/remorse. Lilith probably won’t at first give her a ton of reasons to forgive her as she usually attempts at coming back at Luz’s snide remarks with her own quippy comebacks. Sksk a really angsty end to an attempt could include Lilith saying something to Luz after going on a small talk with her (where yeah Lilith has improved but still needs noticeable work) that she “reminds her a lot of Eda” and Luz bites back with something like “Oh yeah? You going to curse me too? You want another person you can force to do what YOU want?”. 

Hell maybe “parental problems” could have Lilith poke at, either on purpose or accidentally, Luz’s feelings about going back to the human world and Camila. Lilith reminding her, maybe unknowingly, reminds her a lot of her mom and that causes her to blow up on her. Luz would hate that comparison, thinking about how similar her mom and Lilith are to one another. That because she still has such a strong dislike of Lilith, it bleeds over into how Luz views Camila and vice versa. In that, both Camila and Lilith value respect, an adherence to the rules, have a great sense of wisdom (arguably for Lilith lol /hj), and (eventually for Lilith once she gets to know Luz better) a genuine want for Luz to succeed and belief in her even though they are critical of her actions at times. Sure Eda reminds her of that more, motherly protective kind of love, in which she would do anything for her to be happy and healthy. Lilith can be the other side of that, the worry and slight doubt. That familiar way they each go about trying to understand and get close to Luz yet not quite getting it yet would still do whatever she’d ask for her sake. Luz at first would take Lilith being disappointed in her actions as an accomplishment. As they grow closer and the more Lilith reminds her of her mom, it becomes scary. The disappointment hurts and in an effort not to feel like that again and to not want to think about the comparison between Lilith and her mother she will snap back at her. Eventually Lilith would then have to change again and reassure her that she cares and by extent, her mother cares to. It is here Lilith is willing to let go of being so constantly controlling and learns to encourage first (or do some form of the compliment sandwich) and Luz comes to peace with her feelings about her mother and understands her position better. To be able to love herself even if she knows that she will always try to do her best. 

oh my fucking god you made it im so sorry i guess i had a lot of thoughts. fffffff

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Silver Lining

Summary:  My sketchbook twist on what happened in the episode The Storm while Johanna was alone in her car. You know, technically, it could have happened...

Inspired by something I said in this rewatch post

Notes:  Okay so originally this was going to be something very different with lots of obliviousness and mutual pining, but then it hit me that outside of the angsty hell that is The Mistakes We Made, I have no established relationship fics??? Time to fix that. Also I wanted to jump into the “librarian and Johanna were secretly dating during season 1” bandwagon before season 2 comes along and crushes our dreams.

Read it on ao3

The art supply store had been deserted, presumably because of the storm raging outside, which seemed to only get worse by the minute. Uneasy over the weather, Johanna’s shopping was quick, and she only bought what was absolutely essential, even though she promised herself to come back some other time.

She couldn’t fathom what was happening that day. Even in the height of winter, it never snowed like that in Trolberg, not as far as she remembered. It could be one of those freaky effects of global warming, she supposed, but it still was weird that it had happened so suddenly.

Returning home was not an option. The roads were completely blocked by heaps of pristine snow, and she’d certainly catch her death if she attempted the walk back, thus why she’d called Hilda. She’d wanted to tell her why she wouldn’t be returning home so soon, but knowing her daughter as she did, she also found it wise to warn her not to leave the house. Just in case she had any grand ideas.

After putting down the phone, she looked around only to realize that the stores were all closing, turning off their lights and closing their curtains. Johanna could see where they were coming from, seeing as no customer would face this storm for things like art supplies or doughnuts, but she had hoped at least one of them would be available for her to stay inside and make use of the heating. Seeing no other option, though, she returned to her car.

Her cellphone had no signal, and she was sure that that, too, was due to the weather. The supplies she’d bought weren’t enough for her to get ahead on her work, or even to doodle, so she was stuck with people-watching to pass her time. Everyone she saw looked like they were hurrying somewhere, and Johanna silently wished good luck to each of them, even though she knew that they would only be able to go so far before being forced to find somewhere to stay immediately.

None of the anxious faces she saw evoked more than a brief memory from her, either people who frequented her favorite cafe at the same time as her, or perhaps people she’d helped during her time working at the hardware store. Until one did.

Johanna recognized her colours before her face, because even though she was looking down at the ground, stepping carefully on the snowy street, her black clothes and purple hair always gave her away. She was curled in on herself, apparently clutching something to her belly to protect it from the snow.

Her house wasn’t nearby, Johanna knew this. The only reason she was outside at all was because of the weekly coven meeting that the witches of Trolberg did every Sunday morning. She must have been caught abruptly by the storm when she was already on her way.

Feeling icy wind on her face as she opened the car’s door, Johanna waved her hand in the air and tried to shout to get her attention.

“Maven!” Though she knew the woman to get lost in thought while she walked, Maven heard her right away, and a look of recognition overtook her face when she glanced at the yellow car. “Come here, you’ll freeze to death!”

There was barely a second of deliberation before the librarian crossed the street and headed for the passenger seat. When she opened the door, Johanna was already sitting down again, and she helped herself inside the car.

“Thank you, Anna.” She said, incredibly relieved that Johanna had been there in the exact moment she’d needed her. “You just saved me.”

The smile Johanna gave her stole her breath, making her feel warmer in spite of the freezing cold she’d just come out of. She always had that power of making the room feel like it was filled with a light so strong that it seeped all the way into Maven’s heart, and it was one of those things Maven knew she’d never tire of.

“Well, I’m glad to be of help. How was the meeting?”

Maven shrugged, opening her coat’s zipper to get rid of the icy garment.

“It was alright. Harvesting season is coming closer and we are planning on blessing the crops nearby.” She said, throwing the coat on the backseats. “Heavens know they’ll need it with this storm. The elders also warned me that they’ll be coming to the library this week with a group of children who showed gifts to the occult arts. You know, to teach them about the path. So I guess that will be interesting.”

The most intriguing topic on the reunion had been, by far, the concern over a group of kids who had caused a commotion in the cemetery. One member of their coven had recently made contact with a ghost, only to find it unwilling to help her ‘because of the human children of their town that had been disrespecting their eternal slumber’. Maven had to admit that she’d had to make an effort not to laugh when their spirit worker told this story, but unless she had a death wish, she should not let Johanna in on this. It wasn’t lying, she told herself. It was simply not snitching on Hilda. Besides, since Johanna wasn’t a witch, Maven shouldn’t even be telling her any of that to begin with.

“What about you?” She asked, trying to shake the ghosts away from her mind. “What are you doing out here in this storm?”

“Oh, I came for art supplies.” Johanna pointed at the shopping bag on the backseat. “Wasn’t quite this bad when I left home. I wonder what on earth brought on this crazy weather.”

“Oh, weather spirits undoubtedly.” Maven said as she took off her gloves, rubbing her hands together for warmth.

“Weather spirits?”

“Yes, I can sense they’re the ones behind this. Besides, the coven has been observing some very unusual weather spirit activity in town. We could be here for a while.”

Looking worriedly at the sky, Johanna only noticed that Maven was offering her something when she all but shoved it under her nose. She blinked, picking a cupcake up on her hands. It was still warm and exhaled a sweet apple scent, with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top of it.

Maven’s left hand was inside a paper bag, which Johanna assumed was what she’d been trying to protect from the snow when she’d been outside. After taking another cupcake, she folded the bag closed.

“One of the witches made too many cupcakes and brought them to give us. Very convenient to have them right now.”

“Oh, that smells lovely.” Johanna said. “Are you sure you don’t want to take it home for yourself? I’m not going to starve if I have to wait a few more hours to eat.”

Maven smiled right before taking a bite of her own cupcake, shaking her head fondly in exasperation.

“I’m your girlfriend, Johanna.” She said when she finished chewing. “If I don’t feed you, who will?”

Johanna rolled her eyes playfully as she brought the cake to her lips, humming in satisfaction at the sweet taste. Along with seeing Hilda happy and with new friends, her newfound relationship with Maven was what made her be thankful every day that they’d moved back to Trolberg.

“So, these weather spirits.” Johanna began while each of them focused on their sweet. “Any idea of why they went haywire?”

“Hard to tell, really. They’ll pick fights with each other over anything, but for a storm this strong it has got to be an enormous gathering of them. I honestly don’t know what could have caused this, but one of the elders specifies in weather magic. Maybe he knows, I’ll ask him about it when he goes to the library with the initiates.”

Frowning, Johanna felt herself getting more worried.

“So there’s no way to know when this will stop.”

“I’m afraid not.” Noticing her girlfriend’s unease, Maven tried to catch her gaze, but Johanna seemed to look everywhere but at her. “Anna? Are you okay?”

“I’m just a little worried about Hilda.” She answered. “She’s alone at home with Alfur. I told her to stay put, but even so… she’s just a kid, and if anything happens, she has no way to talk to me.”

“Hey.” Maven put a hand on Johanna’s shoulder, trying to ground her to the moment and not leave her to imagine every bad scenario she could. “I know I don’t know her like you do, but from what you’ve told me she’s a smart and brave little girl. She’ll be fine. If you want to worry about anything, I’d suggest worrying about us at the moment. We’re due to become icicles any minute now.”

Johanna chuckled, grateful for Maven being with her in that moment. She always seemed to know what to say to make her feel better.

“Yeah, you’re right.” She sighed, relaxing the weight of her body against the seat and taking one more bite. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that Maven had taken a pen out of her pocket and was now scribbling something on the paper bag the cupcakes had been on.

“I’m not kidding, if this storm gets any worse I don’t know if the car’s heating will keep up.” She said when Johanna shot her a questioning look. “I don’t have many sigils memorized, but luckily Ruth packed a heat one with the cupcakes. I’ll just activate a few and we should be fine.”

Indeed, on top of her tight there was a small paper square with a doodle in it, which Maven had already copied three times on the bag, and was now doing a fourth one. If Johanna saw that symbol and no one told her of its meaning, she’d wave it off as some sort of stylized drawing of a spider, or perhaps of a flame from a certain point of view, so she was glad to be with someone who knew better.

After finishing the drawings, she put the pen aside and began to carefully rip the sigils from each other. When she had the four pieces of paper, she pressed the first one against her window and recited some words that Johanna couldn’t recognize. Listening to witch language always felt singular to Johanna, like even though she’d never learned it, something deep inside her felt awake when she heard it, like it was in her blood. She’d asked Maven about it once, receiving the answer that this wasn’t an unusual feeling. The language of witches is the language of the Earth, which we’re all part of, she’d said. Johanna couldn’t say in all honesty that she’d understood, but it had seemed to make sense to her girlfriend so she hadn’t pressed any further.

When she removed her hand from the glass, the paper had disappeared, and only the symbol remained on the window, shining with orange light as if it was on fire. Then, it vanished leaving no trace on the window.

Johanna continued to stare at where the sigil had been while Maven maneuvered herself to the back of the car to repeat the process with the back windows. Magic never failed to leave her astonished.

It registered on the back of her mind that the car was indeed getting warmer, especially when the librarian activated the third sigil on the window behind Johanna’s seat. After Maven had done that too, Johanna felt her put her elbow on her seat, near her neck, leaning the other against the passenger seat. She was kneeling on the car’s floor, practically by Johanna’s side in the gap between the two front seats. The look she was wearing immediately gave away to Johanna that she wanted to talk about something.

“Anna, I wanted to ask you…” She began, proving her right. “When do you think it will be okay to tell her about us?”

“Her?” Johanna frowned.

“Hilda, I mean. Obviously I’ll understand if you want to keep our relationship just between ourselves for some time. But what do you think she’ll think of me?”

Johanna opened a smile and leaned towards Maven, kissing her cheek. When she retreated, she had to bite back a giggle at how flustered her girlfriend looked.

“Hilda will love you.” Johanna answered honestly. She’d admittedly thought about how Hilda and Maven’s relationship would be, and she was afraid, just not the way one would expect. Her fear was that they’d get along a little too much and Johanna would have to run after them every other day, trying to stop them from getting killed at the hands of a magical creature they’d attempted to befriend or a spirit they’d summoned. Though it was possible that there would be some unease between them at the beginning, the thought that they wouldn’t see eye to eye didn’t even sound possible to Johanna.

“The only reason I haven’t told her yet is because she seems to have a lot on her mind right now. Some trouble with her friends, I think, but she won’t tell me yet. But it’s a conversation I want to have with her as soon as she’s alright again.”

Maven looked away from Johanna, now feeling silly for having asked. It wasn’t like her to be insecure like that, but this truly mattered to her. Whether Hilda approved of her or not would be decisive for how far she and Johanna would be able to take their relationship. Besides, if Johanna told her daughter about them, then that would mean that she took their relationship seriously, so she couldn’t help but care about it.

At least Johanna hadn’t taken it the wrong way, her pursed smile as she put a stray lock of Maven’s hair behind her ear telling her that her girlfriend was probably very amused. She could practically hear Johanna calling her ‘adorable’, stopping herself from doing so only because she knew how Maven didn’t like being called cute.

“I’m… very happy to hear you think so. And I hope whatever is troubling Hilda gets solved soon.”

“I do too. Are you done with your sigils already?”

Between her fingers, she was still holding one last piece of paper, and she flickered her wrist so that it was in front of Johanna’s eyes.

“There’s one more, but I’ll need your help this time.”

“How so- oh.” Before Johanna had time to wonder in what way she could possibly help Maven with magic, her girlfriend had already deposited herself in her lap.

Johanna wasn’t one to blush often, but she was certain the heat on her cheeks was not because of the sigils.

“Just keep this up. I only need to activate this one near your corner of the car.”

Maven then pressed her palm with the sigil to the window, repeating the incantation. This time Johanna was distracted by more than just the magic, in a way that she barely noticed it when the casting was finished and the car was filled by cozy warmth.

“That’s good.” Maven said, approving her own work. “I can go to my seat now, if you want me to.”

Realizing that she’d abstractedly put her arms around Maven’s waist, interlacing her fingers near her side, Johanna shrugged and then caught Maven by surprise by learning in to kiss her lips sweetly. It would have been a very romantic cenario, snug with her love while snow piled outside, if only they weren’t there because they were trapped inside a car due to a mysterious storm. Still, she was with Maven and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t want you to go anywhere, dearest.”

_#_#_#_

Maven did go back to her seat eventually, but it was only because Johanna remembered a deck of cards that she kept in the glove compartment and after some time they decided to play something. It didn’t take long at all for the librarian to realize that she was pretty bad at that, but seeing Johanna’s childlike joy every time she won a match, she couldn’t even be annoyed.

Safe and sound inside the car, the storm hadn’t really been on the forefront of their minds. The magic kept them comfortable and the flow of people running from the weather outside was all but nonexistent at that point. But they did realize when the few rays of sunshine that made it through the thick layers of clouds became stronger.

Both of them put their cards down, the change so noticeable that they wanted to get a good look at what had happened. While Maven only lowered her window and stuck her head out, Johanna stepped out of the car to look at the sky.

“At last!” Johanna sighed with relief as the clouds became smaller, making a gap just above them.

From her side of the car, Maven was more interested in another thing she’d noticed than in the changing weather. Either her eyes deceived her, or a thunderbird was flying away at that very moment. What it had been doing in the middle of that tempest was anyone’s guess.

However, they were soon startled by the booming sound of thunder, and watched in stunned silence as one of the remaining clouds seemed to swell unnaturally, darkening at each moment that passed. Johanna closed the door by her side just in time to not get hit by the first drops of water.

They were static while they watched the rain pour down, not believing in the situation even though it was happening right in front of their eyes. Stunned by the abrupt turns, a laugh escaped Johanna’s lips, and soon the absurd picture that she made, laughing like a madwoman while monstrous rain surrounded them made Maven break into giggles as well.

“Well dearest, I think we’re going to be here for even longer.” She said after she had gathered herself enough to form a coherent sentence.

Picking up her girlfriend’s cards as well as her own, she began shuffling them together.

“In that case, I would like a revenge match.”

“Alright, but I warn you that you’ll regret it.”

Huffing in feigned outrage, Maven began distributing their cards, and the ones that were left she put to the side.

“In the end I’m glad, you know.” Johanna said after they began their match, making the librarian frown at her. “For the storm. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t even see you today, let alone spend some time with you.”

“Me too, Anna.” Maven smiled. “Me too.”

[tippitv]

RECAP: Supernatural 15.03 “The Rupture”

Watching episode three and I finally understand the warding logistics better now. Note that just because I understand it better doesn’t mean I think it makes any kind of sense.

So it seems the “mile wide salt circle” encompasses both the town and the cemetery. Like the entire town and entire cemetery and the space in between them is somehow less than a mile wide as seen in the shitty map I made in MS paint last week.  

This is poppycock of course. It’s also bizarre that somehow all these demons and ghosts didn’t manage to spread any further out than that in the hours in took the Winchesters et al to evacuate the town and for Belphegor to perform the spell.

I’m so distracted by this that it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

Rowena tries to reinforce the warding but there are too many ghosts attacking it. More ghosts keep spewing out of the ground. I think it’s weird that Hell is an actual physical place somewhere under the Earth’s crust while Heaven seems to be some kind of otherworldly dimension that looks like an Apple store.

Rowena’s feeling very defeated. Ruth Connell is doing a much better job than the crummy ghosts we've seen so far would seem to warrant. Her acting makes them seem scary and the situation desperate, whereas the writing for the actual ghost characters is...meh. Dean wants to go fight the ghosts but like… there’s really nothing to be done. Shooting them with iron or rock salt only works for a few minutes at most. To make any dent, you'd need all the salt in the Hannibal fandom after NBC canceled it. Shout out to my Fannibals!

I still think somebody needs to be thinking about contacting Billie. Reapers take souls to their great reward or their eternal punishment, I feel like they’d have some useful input. Plus I just want to see Billie again because Lisa Berry is dreamy.

Also Belphegor is such a weaselly jerk about the whole thing. I won't miss that guy. He's the Martin Shkrelli of demons. Shout out to everyone who hates jacked up pharmaceutical prices!

Sam says they're out of ideas. That's because y'all haven't sat around reading books out loud to each other for half an episode! 

Jack mentions something called "Lilith's Crook." Ah, Martin Shkrelli again. He has to explain it's that curved stick thing shepherds use while everyone is being ignorant. "Thing's actually more of a horn," he says. She designed it to control demons on Earth while she was in Hell. You'd think that kind of thing would've come up when Lilith was topside but no! Also there really should've been a call back to that. "You know Lilith... you killed her to let Lucifer out?" That kind of thing.

They work out a plan for Belph to summon the demons and ghosts back to Hell and the Rowena can heal the big spewing fistula in the earth. She wants Sam to assist her, which makes me

Dean coolly volunteers Castiel to accompany Belph. "You've been to Hell before." Cas should've been like, "Yeah to grip your ass tight and raise it from Perdition!" Also how's he supposed to get out again?

Aw jeez here's Ketch in his hospital room. I hope the only reason he's in this episode is to die. The nurse doesn't want to clear him for discharge so a pretty doctor walks in and kills her with a telekinetic neck snap. And that's why we have a nursing shortage in this country! Oh the doctor is Ardat, the demon who hired Ketch to kill Belph.

Fisticuffs ensue even though she could just pin him in place with demonic power. When he refuses to give up the Winchesters, she rips out his heart and shows it to him. He Pikachu faces at her.

I mean, did she really need to ask him? Wouldn't the most likely place be the mile-wide anti-ghost dome? She texts Dean pretending to be Ketch.

Belphegor goads Castiel about his friends sacrificing him, so Cas pushes him down into the ghost fistula. Lol. It doesn't shut him up for long, though. As they wander around Hell, Belph continues to sow the seeds of doubt. Anyway, opening the chest that contains the Doohickey of the Week requires Castiel to sing an Enochian song of praise, but we cut away on the third note. BOO.

Also, having now met Lucifer the whiny petulant manbaby, it's really hard to understand why Lilith or anyone would be so devout for so long. Maybe it's because he was locked in the cage so they didn't actually experience a lot of his pouting. It's all I can think of.

Before Castiel can hand over the Doohickey, Ardat knocks him out of the way. She looks like Joanna Gaines. Maybe she IS Joanna Gaines!

Castiel and Ardat fight. She tries to warn him about Belphegor, but he pops up behind her and kills her with Cas's fallen angel blade. Now we'll never know what she was gonna say! I bet he ends up just blabbing it out himself in the time-honored tradition of villains talking too much.

Indeed, he goes on about how the crook/horn is actually a leash/siphon. This thing is the Swiss Army knife of Doohickeys. He's going to blow the horn and suck all the demons and ghosts into himself to gain their powers. "I'll be a god!"

So while Belph is blowing and sucking, Sam and Rowena and Dean are dirtside working the spell. Ghosts are zooming back down the hole like the Indiana Jones Ark of the Covenant scene in reverse. Castiel tackles Belph and punches him in the face a lot which seems like the equivalent of flicking a dandelion at a law mower to stop it.

Improbably, it hurts jazzed-up Belphegor enough that he pretends to be Jack again to get Cas to stop beating him. Castiel screws up all his angel power and somehow kills him even though there's a buttload of evil spirits in him. Jack's empty body burns like a Thanksgiving turkey left on broil all day.

The ground starts sealing up but something's wrong. Rowena uses a knife to gouge out a "resurrection sachet" she's been keeping buried under her skin. It's why she came back after Lucifer killed her, if you'll recall. It takes Sam a minute to catch on that she intends to sacrifice herself in one final spell. He has to be the one to kill her because prophecy and she can't bring herself to to it for a lot of good reasons.

Now, I don't understand here. She says she's going to absorb all the demons and ghosts, throw herself into Hell, and they'll be trapped. But... didn't Belphegor absorb them? Or a lot of them? I hate that Ruth is doing such a great job and this just feels like forced drama.

Speaking of forced drama. Castiel returns to the surface and tells Dean he killed Belphegor. This could be cleared up with a five second explanation but he makes a lot of pained faces while Dean berates him for ruining their one chance. Forced drama.

Sam reluctantly stabs her in the lower belly... you know, in the uterus area... and she becomes a vessel... with her uterus absorbing all the evil...

"Goodbye boys," she says as she Last of the Mohicans throws herself into the abyss.

Well, it's better than Charlie's death but I still don't like it.

All the surviving team members return to the bunker for the denouement. Sam is taking things pretty hard, which is to be expected, so Dean goes to check on him. "God threw one last apocalypse at us and we beat it," he says to baby bro. Oh honey.

Anyway we're all pretty sure Rowena's going to be running Hell now, right? RIGHT??

Now we come to the part where Dean and Castiel act out a bad soap opera scene. It's just a thin reason to get them to break up for a while. Maybe in the final season they couldn't work Misha into the budget for every episode or maybe the writers couldn't think of more for Castiel to do. So he's gotta go off and it couldn't just be because "you know my surrogate son just died and I need time." 

No it's gotta be all "you always screw up our plans!" and "you don't trust me!" and "are you hearing that romantically sad cello music or is it just me?" and "it's not just you but now I must leave GOOD BYE!"

Onward and upward, readers! Stay tuned for the next recap.

In the meantime, please reblog if you enjoyed this recap and drop by my Ko-Fi tip Jar if you're able. Henry Hound and I are perpetually trying to make ends meet and appreciate your help!

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[fairydust-stuff]

The Queen of the Feast of Feasts:  a Prudence Character Study

The Queen of the Feast of Feasts  a Prudence Character Study 

Prudence Blackwood is first introduced to us along with her fellow witch sisters Dorcus and Agatha confronting Sabrina in the woods and warning her a half breed like her is not welcomed at the Academy of unseeing arts, since Sabrina is half mortal. Then all three of them put a curse on her.  Later we learn all three sisters were adopted by Father Blackwood. They are known as the Weird Sisters and seem like their going to operate much like every other bully clique who hates the protagonist for being different. 

This gets subverted when Sabrina herself summons them to help get revenge for her friend Susie by messing with moral boys who hit her. They strike a bargain that Sabrina won’t join the Academy if they help her get revenge. Sabrina agrees to this but crosses her fingers behind her back (our heroine ladies and gentlemen). 

The three of them execute a plan that involves tricking the guys into hooking up with each other and blackmailing them. Then Prudence and her sisters scare them off and are also revealed to have done a spell to control the boys um anatomy. (Honestly the whole thing makes me uncomfortable especially when certain facts about the football players come to light later on, but that’s not what this essay is about) 

Prudence tells Sabrina “ You may be more suited to the academy then we first thought” showing she’s changed her mind. Prudence also reveals she knows Sabrina had no intention of keeping her promise but agreed to help anyway, because she enjoys tormenting moral boys. This reveals a lot about Prudence’s character she is crafty, cruel and bigoted but she can bend a bit when faced with what she sees as potential. 

We also learn that Prudence is very wise, since she points out that signing the book of the beast and making a contract with the devil is about giving up your freedom in exchange for power. Prudence  laughs in Sabrina’s face when the half witch suggests they shouldn’t have to give up anything for power and should have it all. This highlights her self awareness and hints that Prudence is far older than her appearance suggests. Which actress Tati Gabriella has confirmed stating that Prudence is really 75 years old.     

For the first season Prudence kind of fades into the background other than viciously hazing Sabrina with her sisters which links back to her cruelty.  Until episode seven titled the  Feast of Feasts. The Witches of the coven have a tradition where a witch is selected as a sacrifice to be killed and have her flesh consumed by the other members of the coven after they fast. Prudence is chosen and sees it as a great honor “ Prepare me a bath of buttermilk and bring me a plate of macaroons” she orders. 

Prudence goes about sweetening herself to be the best feast she possibly can. 

Sabrina who is chosen by the coven as her handmaiden tries to persuade her it's all nonsense as she baths her. “ You don’t really believe all that” Sabrina insists.  Prudence reveals she does, she wants to die to be honored by the Coven and to “reside in the Dark Lord's heart until the trumpets of the apocalypse sound” This shows us Prudence is a true believer who is truly devoted to the Church of Night. 

Sabrina bring Prudence to her school and she finds out Harvey is descended from witch Hunters then someone kills a familiar and Prudence thinking its Harvey has to be persuaded out of full retribution mode by Sabrina who informs her “ Harvey didn’t kill that  farmiar” to which Prudence gives the best line of the season  “ How is your faith in the mortal boy any different than my faith in the Dark Lord? Why is your faith more valid than mine?” this line once again highlights the fact that Prudence is an old soul who challenges Sabrina to actually think. 

Its revealed near the end of the episode Prudence is Blackwood’s biological daughter and was only chosen as feast queen so Blackwood’s wife could get her out of the way to protect the inheritance of her own children. This sets up Prudence’s character arch but for now it just spares her from being eaten though she still sits on the throne because she is Prudence and wants to feel special for one night. 

She has a slight role in the mines episode where she lets Sabrina kill and resurrect one of her sisters because both Agatha and Dorcus went behind her back and collapsed the mine to kill the Kinkle family. This suggests that Prudence does have a bit of a code despite her anti human stance, she feels there at least has to be justification for killing a mortal.  

In Season 2 Prudence  is openly acknowledged by Father Blackwood as his daughter. She’s also assigned as her baby brothers wet nurse and in chided in the first episode for letting him cry. However despite  her newfound responsibilities Prudence’s Father and her do not see eye to eye. When Prudence offers to run against Sabrina as head boy, Father Blackwood won’t allow it because he cannot conceive of a witch with a position of authority. Furthermore he will not allow Prudence to have his last name.  

This results in Prudence and the other weird sisters telepathically wireing the answers to Sabrina. While i’d rather have Prudence obtain the position for herself because Sabrina shouldn’t get everything she wants. It is at least the first act of defiance toward her Father from Prudence. 

During the play Prudence gives Sabrina advice “ lust is not a sin Sabrina” she informs her. Though the moment is more about Sabrina it does highlight Prudence’s views on sex which does make up her character. Prudence being raised within the Church of Night has always been very comfortable with her sexuality in Feasts of Feasts as queen she requested an orgy and teasingly invites Sabrina to join in. Prudence does not view lust as something to have hang ups about physical desire is something to be acted upon. Within the same episode she pursues Ambrose Sabrina’s cousin flirting with him. Her advances are returned and two of them enter a poly relationship. 

The valentines episode isn’t really a highlight except it reveals the fact Prudence and her sisters have the same dream and share a vision about how the Spellman’s will be the undoing of the Blackwood’s which Father Blackwood dismisses. I’m guessing this a macbeth reference but it does show that Father Blackwood dismisses Prudence’s concern for his safety. 

Later Prudence goes to Zelda blackmailing her into getting the anti pope to declare Prudence a Blackwood. Now whether or not Prudence wants the power that comes with the name or desires to be part of a family is unclear and i honestly think there’s evidence for both. On one hand Prudence does attempt to murder Father Blackwell later in the same episode and only relents when he declares her “ Prudence Blackwood” but on the other hand she does save her fathers life from Ambrose and when Father Black wood changes Prudence with protecting the acdemy and their family name while their off on his honey moon. 

Prudence takes this vow very seriously replying he can rely on her. 

The next episode we see Prudence honoring this promise she sets about breaking Ambrose who she see’s as a tradior to get him to confess to the murder of the anti pope, refuses to let Sabrina into the acedmy while calling her out for useing her and her sisters all year and saveing her life only for selfish reasons during the Feast of feasts. 

These acts reveals a repressed bitterness from Prudence and hint she sees both Sabrina and Ambrose of using her just to destroy her father which is why she’s so vindictive towards them. Much like trying to kill her Father, Prudences acts of violence seem to come from a place of great betrayal and a sense of her not being important to those she cares for.  Prudence is also high on the fact she appears to have finally gained the approval and affection of the only parent she’s ever known and intends to keep it that way. It's a response for some children who grow up in emotionally abusive household and Prudence has done so for at least 75 years. 

Then a life changing event happens to Prudence making her question evaluate her values. Witch hunters show up at the academy and despite the best efforts of her and her sisters fail to protect the other students. The Witch hunters due to their angel powers (just go with it) overpower the sisters and start killing other witch students as Prudence and her sisters watch in horror while awaiting their fiery pire. Then Sabrina the half breed swoops in last minute and demolishes the angel witch hunters (Gosh it is hard to say that with a straight face) and brings the dead students back to life after respecting herself displaying power beyond that of a regular witch and as aggravating as it is, it does further Prudence’s arch as she starts to question whether half witches and by extent morals are inferior.  

Prudence goes as far as to question Ambrose about Sabrina’s miracles. She also admits seeing Sabrina come back from the dead made her happy. When Ambrose admits he’s scared to die Prudence in a rare moment of tenderness resources Ambrose  there’s no need to be frightened since he’s an honorable man. “ Satan keep you” she tells him sincerely showing us Ambrose has been forgiven and that Prudence is finally being honest about the fact she likes Sabrina (For some reason). Here Prudence is clearly starting to question what she’s been taught.  

In the last two episodes of season two Prudence’s dynamic with her Father reaches its conclusion. When Father Blackwood decides to form his own denomination the Church of Judas. He creates a new set of rules and restrictions Prudence after looking them over states “ These new rules only apply to the witches and not the warlocks” Father Blackwood replies that “Witches should focus on more femmine magics of herbalism and fertility” Prudence asks if the rules also apply to her. Blackwood says as long as she gets the other witches to cooperate she’ll be exempt from the same rules. Offering Prudence special privileges along with the unspoken promise of his affections with a chaste kiss. 

While Prudence does take the bait she also helps Zelda convince Father Blackwood to spare a witch for trying to leave the Church of Judas persuading him i’ll only create a martyr and cause more rebellions in the future. This is usual  for Prudence who was previously fine with the torture and exacution of Ambrose showing a shift in her thinkng. Prudence watching her classmates killed in front of her while refusing to denounce their Dark Lord seems to  have caused her to develop more of an appreciation for the lives of the other coven members beyond those who she considered family. 

  Later  Prudence catches Zelda admitting she does not support the Church of Judas and the other witch warns Prudence her blood won’t protect her from Father Blackwood. Prudence not only dismisses this but retrieves her half baby sister and tells her Father about Zelda’s deception. Zelda takes Prudence hostage and demands that baby Letica be given back to her. Blackwood dismisses her claiming that since he has his full blooded daughter he doesn’t care if Zelda kills Prudence. Which supports Zelda’s claim that Prudences blood won’t protect her. After Zelda is locked up Prudence asks Blackwood “ Father, what are your plans for baby Letica?” as she now feels doubt about his intentions. Blackwood replies he intends to marry her daughter to her own brother Judas. 

Prudence is horrified and frees Zelda from her cell telling her to take her half sister and run. Zelda offers her the chance to join them but Prudence declares she can't leave her sisters or abandon the rest of the coven. Further conveying her found loyalty that of just the family unit.  

Prudence finds Agatha and Dorcus and convinces them to do a spell to end Father Blackwood. They are interrupted by Blackwood who demands Prudence attend him during an audience with the Dark lord. She silently observes as Blackwood expresses disgust at having to bow to Sabrina as queen of hell. Later he tells Prudence to pack. She inquires as to why they should run from the Dark Lord. Blackwood angrily snaps he “ Will never bow down to a spelman whore!”  When Prudence asks him what about the rest of the Coven. Blackwood reveals he poisoned them a communion. Prudence runs out ignoring Blackwoods warning she’ll never see the baby twins again. 

After a vow to kill Father Blackwood she runs to the church teleporting Dorcus and Agatha to the spellman house and telling the Spellman family “ Blackwood poisoned the entire coven!” Pudences sisters and some of the coven members are saved. The last shot of her shows Prudence beheading Father Blackwood which is not only a  literary representation of what she wants to do to him but also a symbolic rejection of him as a leader and Father. 

So what can we take from this? 

 Prudence’s core character trait is her Faith. It's shown that Prudence has faith in Blackwood despite how many times, he’s let her down, she has faith in her adopted sisters shown by how many times she relies on them, she even starts to have faith in Sabrina. 

My reading of Prudences arch is not one of rejecting Faith. Prudences questions are still rooted in religious doctrine even in her last scene with Blackwell “ why are you running from the Dark Lord?” to Prudence, there is no reason to run from the very figure she devoted her life to even if it means bowing to Sabrina this is the ultimate act of religious piety that makes sense for the girl who bathed in buttermilk to make herself a feast. For Prudence no sacrifice is too great.  

Prudence’s arch seems to one of learning to question the leaders of one’s Faith community and whether they have the best interests of those they claim to want to lead. 

The irony is Prudence is heavily implied to be taught the values of faith, family and community by Blackwood, values which he does not share. As show cased by how he uses both his family members and the coven witches and warlocks for his own personal gain and discarding them when it's convenient.  

It's not his rejection and endangerment of her that causes Prudence to move against him but the reveal of his plans of an incestus union between his own children. Even then there are hints she may of gone with him had he not poisoned the coven. Acting in the same vein as the witch hunters Prudence was told to protect the other students from. 

 It's worth noting Prudence is done with him after he proves a danger to the very coven he’s leading because she does value everything, Blackwood doesn’t and as a person of faith Prudence realizes everything about him is a shame.  So she rejects him. That is why Prudence with her morally ambiguous cunning, faith, self sacrifice, intelligence and value of family  is the true Queen of the Feast of  Feasts. 

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

Forgotten Alliance Ch. 4

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: Eventual Elijah Mikaelson x OC with other parings mentioned throughout.

Word Count: 3.7K

Warnings: Not too much. Canon typical stuff.

Author’s Note: As a reminder, FA can be found on ffnet up to chapter 42. I am uploading chapters here on tumblr for convenience. I decided against tagging this until new chapters are posted. Of course there are a few that wished to be tagged and I will be tagging them in this. If you would like to be tagged please let me know! Chapters are queued and will be posted randomly. This chapter is set up with right before episode 3.15 and half the events of 3.15. Enjoy

Elizabeth's footsteps easily echoed in the empty cemetery. While Vampires were unwelcome there, Elizabeth had a right to be there. She may have been a vampire for over eight centuries, she never lost the respect she had for the dead. Even when it was her own family. Elizabeth carried a bouquet of flowers as she made her way to the family crypt that she had visited several times. Stepping inside she placed the flowers in the dusty vase. She ran her fingers over the first stone on the wall, removing the dust. The name Emmalina Claire appeared under the layer of dust. A small smile played on Elizabeth's lips as she took a step back. "I just want back what's mine. " She shook her head slightly. "You had no choice in the matter, I am willing to give the young one a choice." With out another word, Elizabeth walked out and headed to find the person she really wanted to see.

She needed to have a word with Vincent. While she had heard he didn't make any deals with vampires, Elizabeth hoped that with her being a family member of an ancestor, he would be willing to help. Finding Vincent by the alter, Elizabeth cleared her throat to catch his attention. He turned around and seemed rather annoyed that a vampire was wanting his attention again.

"I promise I am not here to torment you in any way." Elizabeth said staying in her spot.

"Then what is it you are here for?" Vincent asked as he eyed Elizabeth.

"I'm looking for a descendant of mine. I need her help. I was told you were the person to talk to." Elizabeth needed her descendant to help her with a particular spell.

"Who is it that you are looking for?" Vincent seemed to relax a bit.

"Davina Claire." Elizabeth said with a nod. And she had gotten the reaction she had expected from Vincent.

"What is it that you really want with Davina?" He asked taking a few steps towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth still stayed in her spot showing that she had no intention of hurting him.

"I have no reason to lie to you Vincent." Elizabeth assured him. "I only need her help with something. A spell had been given to Emmalina Claire long ago. Only our descendant can undo that spell. And while I wish it had been another witch, Davina is who I need."

"What is this spell that you need undone?" Vincent was now curious as to what Elizabeth needed the spell for.

"That is a long story." She said hoping to avoid talking about said spell.

"I have nothing but time." Vincent said moving his arm to point to the entryway. Elizabeth sighed and started walking, followed by Vincent.

Elizabeth paced in her room. It had been a few hours since she had visit Vincent and her mind was racing with thoughts. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with this anymore. She was no longer sure if she really needed Davina. She could just live her life with the spell intact. She had done so for many years. What was the harm in several thousand more?

"Your brain is going to fry if you keep thinking that hard." Malakai said as he sat in a chair with a book in his hand that he clearly wasn't interested in. "I thought the whole point of talking to the witch would make things better for you."

"That's not the point." Elizabeth said shaking her head. "I don't know if I want to do this. Its not fair to either one of us."

Malakai laughed. "You mean to tell me we left the most amazing party in Paris for you to change your mind about all of this?"

"No." Elizabeth said glaring. "We left that boring party in Paris because there was that chance we would be dying. And I had to make sure that-"

"That Elijah was safe." Malakai finished for her. "But you are in New Orleans. You told yourself the next time you were here you would get the spell from a Claire."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't know if I can ask her to do such a spell Malakai. She has been used by the Mikaelsons and by her own coven. She was shunned as well. I cant ask this of her. She wouldn't understand." She stopped her pacing and looked out the window.

"But isn't it worth it to be able to be free to feel the way you want to?" Malakai stood up and walked to Elizabeth, placing his hands on her shoulder. "She had that spell made for a reason, Liz. She's dead now. You saw to that when you ripped her heart out." That should have made Elizabeth smile but it didn't.

"What if I am not ready for it like I thought I was?" She looked over her shoulder at Malakai.

"Then hold off on actually talking to Davina." He kissed her temple and it caused a small smile to form on Elizabeth's lips. She wouldn't have been able to do this without Malakai here with her. While she had spent a good eight centuries without him, having him there with her the last three were enough to make up for the time they had been apart.

"ORPHAN, HYBRID! Your presence is requested." Klaus yelled out from his room. It caused Elizabeth to roll her eyes. They both left Elizabeth's room and head for Klaus's room.

"Must you yell for them Niklaus? They do have supernatural hearing." Elijah stated from his seat in Klaus's room.

"Should I give you a bell to ring when ever you need me?" Elizabeth asked as she walked in and took a seat across from Elijah. Malakai shook his head at Elizabeth and leaned against the door frame.

"Actually yes. And while you're at it, how about grabbing yourself a maids outfit." Klaus said with a smug look on his face.

"Bite me." Elizabeth said giving him a glare.

"Enough." Elijah said looking between the two. "Eight hundred years and you two still act like the same way you did towards each other."

"Circumstances, Elijah." Elizabeth said giving him a smirk. "Now what is it that you called us up here for?"

Klaus gestured to the letters he had sprawled all over his bed. Looking at them Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"You collect trophies from all your victims?" Freya asked. Elizabeth had smiled at Freya.

"Don't they always?" Elizabeth said shaking her head. Elijah gave her a slight look of annoyance and turned to Freya.

"Letters to their loved ones to be more specific." He said looking towards Klaus.

"Just out of curiosity, did you take anything from my family?" Elizabeth asked looking at the pile of letter. Klaus smirked and searched through the pile for a moment before holding a letter up. Anger filled Elizabeth for a moment as she stood up and snatched the letter from his hand. Her eyes had scanned the letter over and over that she had missed half the conversation being said.

"Well, Niklaus, if it offers you any solace whatsoever, Elizabeth ransacked Aya's belongings, you torched Aurora's hunting ground, and obliterated every last splinter of the white oak." Elijah's words had brought Elizabeth out of the letter.

"And I enjoyed being the one to ransack Aya's place." She said for her own need.

"I'd be mad to believe that ever last splinter had been obliterated." Klaus said with a growl.

"You already are mad." Elizabeth said at the exact time Elijah had said "Perhaps you should see a therapist"

It wasn't until after Klaus had walked out of the room, that Elijah had given Elizabeth a look she had known all to well.

"I know, I know." Elizabeth said as he turned to walk out of the room.

Malakai nodded towards Freya before he turned and walked out, going to his own room. Elizabeth sighed and turned to Freya.

"What's troubling you Liz?" Freya asked the moment Elizabeth turned toward her.

"Remind me the rules of magic." She said as she began to pace out of habit. "If one line of witches, creates a spell, can another line of them undo the spell?"

Freya had looked at Elizabeth with concern. "What did you get yourself into?"

"It was long ago, Freya. Just humor me, please." Elizabeth said hoping Freya would actually trust her enough to let it go.

"It depends on how big of a spell. What kind of spell are we talking about?"

Elizabeth hesitated for a moment. "Lets just say its a spell that kept a certain bond between two people concealed."

Freya's concerned look got worse. She was definitely needing to know what it was that Elizabeth had gotten herself into. "Unless you tell me more details than that, I wouldn't be able to tell you." Freya said shaking her head.

"Its complicated, Freya. And a terribly long st-" Elizabeth was interrupted by the sound of crying. A sigh of relief passed her lips. "I'll take care of her. Its been a while since I've held a baby." She took off to Hayley's room before Freya could ask anymore questions.

Hope's giggling had echoed through the room. Elizabeth had been keeping the girl occupied for some time that she hadn't heard or even see Hayley come into the room.

"She likes you." Hayley said, causing Elizabeth to jump slightly.

"I miss having young ones around." She said standing up and handing Hope to Hayley.

"When you were human did you have children?" Hayley asked curiously.

"One." Elizabeth said with a slight smile. "Unfortunately, I had to leave her in another village to protect her."

"Why?" There was a judging tone to Hayley's question. "Why would just leave her with someone else?"

Elizabeth chuckled and looked at Hope. "Wouldn't you do the same if you were human and had a husband hell bent on beating the both of you?"

"I'm so sorry Liz, I didn't mean to sound so judgy about it."

"Its alright." Elizabeth noticed the blood on Hayley's forehead but didn't mention it. "How is the list coming?"

"Its getting there. " Hayley said with a shrug. "It doesn't help bring back Jackson, but it helps me a little."

"That's the point, isn't it?" Elizabeth asked. "To feel some sense of release in revenge?"

"Have you had revenge on someone?" Hayley asked curiously.

It took Elizabeth a moment to think if she had ever gotten revenge on someone. She nodded. "Aya."

"What is it that she did to you?" Elizabeth looked away from Hayley for a moment.

"She took something that I'm not even sure I can get back. So we are in the same boat. Different destinations though." She said with a shrug. "I'll leave you two alone." She said with a smile. Hayley nodded and watched as Elizabeth walked out of the room.

Elizabeth's first thought was that she needed some air. That she needed to get out of the compound for a little. Being inside since she had arrived was enough to start driving the woman mad. A walk would do her some good. She also needed to feed. She had not done so since before entering the quarter. Just thinking about the blood was making her eyes change. Before she could even get herself to calm down with her thoughts of blood, Elijah was in front of her looking concerned as ever.

"Elizabeth, is everything alright?" He asked placing his hands on her arms. Shaking her head, and closing her eyes for a second, she finally got her eyes back to normal.

"Forgive me, I haven't fed." She said trying to make her voice sound as if it was no big deal.

"When was the last time you did?" There was that fatherly tone again that caused Elizabeth to chuckle. But the look in his eyes told her he was being serious.

"A little more than a few days." She admitted.

"Why haven't you been feeding?" He asked, the concern still present.

"My mind has been clouded with things recently. I honestly put my blood lust on the back burner."

"Stay here." Elijah said before walking away from a moment. A sigh passed her lips as she looked up to see Malakai leaning over the railing. She shook her head at him.

Knowing that Elijah could be on his way back he only mouthed the words You have to tell him. Elizabeth shook her head. Now wasn't going to be the best time to tell anyone anything. Before Malakai could mouth anything else, Elijah came back with a blood bag. She accepted it and was going to wait for Elijah to leave to drink from it, but he stayed and watched her. Sighing, she bit into the bag and drank from it. Once the blood had been gone, Elizabeth pulled the bag from her lips and smiled.

"Thank you. I feel much better." She said with a nod.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to check on Hope." Elizabeth nodded and watched as he headed up stairs.

Elijah, Elizabeth and Freya had been sitting in the study, seeming to enjoy the afternoon. Elizabeth had sat in the corner chair with her head resting on one arm rest and her legs hanging over the other as she checked her phone. Elijah had book in his hand, reading while Freya had been working on something, Elizabeth couldnt quite figure out. They all had been preoccupied in there tasks that once Klaus came raging in, Elizabeth tilted her head back and groaned.

"There goes the peaceful afternoon." She mumbled to herself.

"It was him. It was Gaspar Cortez." Klaus said as he paced the study.

Freya sighed placing the item in her hand down on the table. "I assume this is someone from your box of letters?" She asked crossing her arms.

"The youngest son of a particularly vile family of warlords I dealt with in the 17th century." Klaus replied, still pacing.

"Didn't they burn that philistine pigsty to the ground?" Elijah asked closing the book he had been reading and setting it on the stand beside the chair. The question itself caused Elizabeth to chuckle and Klaus to scoff at his brother.

"Pigsty?" Klaus finally stopped his pacing and looked at Elijah. "Belaga was my favorite artist retreat! Someone had to pay for that, so I murdered Gaspar's brute of a father."

Elizabeth couldnt help herself. "And who else did you kill?"

"Maybe one or two-" Klaus started but was interrupted by Elijah.

"Five." he said with a sigh as he stood from his chair.

"Five of his bloodthirsty brothers." Klaus said annoyed.

"Don't forget the mistress." Elijah added in and Elizabeth smirked.

"That was an accident!" Klaus defended himself. It caused Elijah to roll his eyes and look towards Freya and Elizabeth.

"The point is that Gaspar was but a footnote." He said nodding slightly.

"Until he became a vampire, hell bent on hunting me."

"Everyone is hell bent on hunting you, Niklaus." Elizabeth said rolling her eyes. It was apart of the paranoia Elizabeth had seen very few times. Klaus glared at Elizabeth for a moment before continuing on his rant.

"He's a cunning deviant, known to compel hoards of the helpless to aid him with his tasks. " The man began pacing again. "You see, this is exactly what I was concerned about. Devils of all kinds, crawling out of their crevices to strike at me." The group had expected him to continue with his rant when he paused for a moment. "Speaking of which..."Before anyone could ask what he was talking about, Klaus was out of the room and going after something or someone. Elizabeth heard Elijah sigh as they heard the commotion downstairs.

"Shall we see what he is up to?" Elijah was the first to leave and while Elizabeth wasn't exactly willing to see what they Hybrid had done down stairs. It wasn't until she heard one name that she got up out of her seat. Kol Elizabeth was at the railing in a second looking down at the courtyard. Her heart was pumping fast with the anger that filled her.

"You stole the nexus vorti." Freya said slightly annoyed. Elizabeth could see the girl in front of them roll her eyes.

"And brought your brother back from the dead!" the witch said.

"You should be thanking her, really." Elizabeth watched as Kol stepped towards his family. All Elizabeth could see in that moment was the memory of walking back into her village and seeing destruction before she watched as Kol grabbed her mother before running. Malakai had stepped out of his room wondering what was going on when he caught sight of Elizabeth with her eyes changed and the veins clearly visible under her eyes.

"Shit." Malakai said to himself before, taking speeding towards Elizabeth. Once he was by her side, he placed a hand on her shoulder like he always done. "Breathe Liz." His words usually calmed Elizabeth. But this time it did nothing. Elijah had heard Malakai speaking to Elizabeth. It caused him to look up in time to see Elizabeth push Malakai away from her and jump down into the courtyard and head after Kol. "Stop her Elijah, that's pure rage she going on. I don't think you'd want your brother dead after just coming back from the dead. Elijah stepped in her way, but Elizabeth tried moving out of his way. With no luck, Elijah had Elizabeth's arms locked behind her.

"Who the hell is that?" Kol asked.

"Think about it long and hard." Elizabeth growled out, still trying to break free of Elijah's hold. Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to rip out his heart. Davina had stepped in front of him, ready to use her magic if needed.

"I wouldn't do that Davina, she's your blood." Malakai said jumping down into the courtyard. The statement alone caused everyone to look shocked at what he said. He walked over to Elijah and Elizabeth and placed his hands on both sides of Elizabeth's neck. "You'll thank me later for this one." He said while snapping her neck.

"Was that necessary?" Elijah asked with a hint of anger in his voice. He carried Elizabeth's body to the couch in the courtyard.

"Believe me Elijah is was necessary." Malakai said looking at the others. Klaus had been the only one who had an amused look on his face.

"Want to tell me what the hell that was about?" Kol asked looking at Malakai.

"You see Kol, " Klaus began with a smirk on his face. "You do remember that night we had slaughtered a village and you let the child run away?" The end of that question had caused Freya and Davina to cringe at the thought of them killing children.

"There were several villages, Nik." Kol responded still looking a bit confused.

Klaus chuckled and patted Kol's back. "Think about it. The mother and daughter that had came late to dinner."

"Oh, that child." Kol said finally remembering. "That's not her is it?"

Elijah shook his head. "Elizabeth has been able to forgive Niklaus for slaughtering members of her village. But you must understand, Kol. You killed her mother in front of her. That isn't something that's easily forgiven."

"And not to mention that when she heard you had died, she felt release from that pain. Seeing you alive, as much as you can be, brought a lot of that pain back, buddy." Malakai said walking over to the couch Elizabeth was on. "When she wakes up, I'll be sure to try and keep her calm, but Kol, you may want to stay clear of Liz for a while. " Malakai lifted Elizabeth up and started heading up the stairs to her room.

"Wait." Davina said taking a step towards Malakai. "You said she was my blood. What did you mean by that?"

Malakai chuckled. "You see I'm not sure how many greats I need to put in front the actual title, but she's your grandmother. One of the reasons she came to New Orleans was to see you. She needed your help."

"Help?"Both Elijah and Davina asked at the same time.

"What did she need help with?" Elijah asked.

"Oh no, that's on her to tell the both of you what she needs help with." Malakai said not willing to give any details to anything. "But for now, I'm gonna get her to her room before she wakes up and tries killing Kol again. Take care of what you need to. She'll be okay for now." That was the last thing he had said before leaving the original family and Davina to finish the little family reunion Elizabeth had interrupted. But even then, Elijah, Davina and Freya wondered what was that Elizabeth had needed help with. Freya knew that it had to do with the spell Elizabeth had asked about earlier. She would have to wait until Elizabeth was up to demand the details.

Forgotten Alliance Tag: @mschellehitt

[anthonybrxdgerton]

The Book of Life reread

Today I finished re-reading The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. I will be doing my reactions about episodes as well (as soon as I re-watch them) and comparing the show to the first book.

My reactions, notes and everything (a.k.a. I shamelessly love Baldwin) under the cut. There are some trivia I forgot about, things i hope to see in season 3 of A Discovery of Witches, some stuff referencing the previous books (the previous only because I haven't read Time’s Convert yet) and what not.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOKS, DON’T READ THIS POST. Enjoy!

[ a discovery of witches | shadow of night | the book of life | time’s convert ]

the book takes place in 2010 & 2011 in the span of 12 months

It’s not just Diana’s hair that has changed. Philippe’s face had a look of wonder. Diana is with child—Matthew’s child. Emily examined her niece more carefully, using the enhanced grasp of truth that death afforded. Philippe was right—in part. You mean “with children. ” Diana is having twins. Twins, Philippe said in an awed voice. - MY FEELS. I really hope we will see ghost Philippe and Em (if they decide to kill her after all) even though they didn’t show us Bishops ghosts in season 1;

Phoebe reached up and straightened his collar, her olive eyes full of concern. Marcus had taken to wearing more formal clothes than concert T-shirts around the same time he’d started to sign his letters Marcus de Clermont instead of Marcus Whitmore - and he still wears Converse! That being said, I need to see his style change in season 3 as well;

“Third, do not, under any circumstances, get within arm’s reach of my father. Agreed?” Phoebe nodded - Oh, how the tables have turned. First, Matthew didn't trust Marcus with Diana (to the point when he said he would kill him without hesitation if he thought Marcus was being a threat to Diana). Now it's Marcus who doesn't trust Matthew with his mate;

Baldwin’s favorite wine is claret and he has a cellar full of the Bordeaux. Hamish, as seen, loves the wine too;

distinctive licorice-root scent of Marcus Whitmore, and he tamped down the flicker of anger that accompanied his realization that Marcus was using Philippe’s old office - What did you expect, Matthew? Philippe was Marcus's grandfather, he has every right to use his old office. Besides you were gone for months, you have no right to be angry at Marcus. he’s a Grand Master now, he needs his space too;

Marcus, the family’s democratic idealist, had fallen for a blueblood - i just like this quote okay? it tells us a lot about them;

Without Fernando’s care, Hugh would have shown up to fight with nothing but a volume of poetry, a dull sword, and one gauntlet. - I need this comedy spinoff now;

Matthew said through gritted teeth. “I won’t take her freedom—no matter what it costs me. - nice parallel to A Discovery of Witches quote - “The king just sits there, moving one square at a time. The queen can move so freely. I suppose I’d rather lose the game than forfeit her freedom.”;

Baldwin turned to level his strange golden-brown eyes at Matthew - his eyes are not strange, they are beautiful!;

Scientist. Vampire. Warrior. Spy. Prince. Assassin. - about Matthew;

“I thought Hamish was keeping my finances.” He’d left piles of documents for me, all of them awaiting my signature. “Mr. Osborne took charge of your marriage settlement from milord. These are the funds you received from Sieur Philippe.” Alain’s attention lingered for a moment on my forehead, where Philippe had placed his blood to claim me as his daughter. - not only did Philippe made Diana his blood-sworn daughter, but he also gave her so much money!! Alain invested them so Diana would have more of them MY FEELS;

“Sieur Philippe worked on this letter for over an hour. He made me read it back to him when he finished, to be sure that it captured what he wanted to say.” “When?” Matthew asked hoarsely.“The day he died.” Alain’s expression was haunted. - BENJAMIN AND NAZIS NOT ONLY BLINDED PHILIPPE AND BROKE HIM TOO BUT PHILIPPE STILL WROTE A LETTER TO DIANA, MY HEART;

The last time I was held against my will, you were my jailer, Baldwin,” Ysabeau said in a syrupy voice. “Will you do the honors again?” “Not this time,” Baldwin said - COME ON, I NEED TO KNOW MORE;

After that drama Baldwin will soon grow bored and return to New York. - Here’s what i need to know: where the heck does Baldwin live? He came from Venice, he has houses in London too and at the end of the book it’s said he spent much time in Berlin, DO YOU LIVE IN ONE PLACE AT ALL OR ARE YOU JUST TRAVELLING EVERY FEW DAYS BECAUSE OF WORK???;

“Phoebe will not become a vampire. I forbid it.” Matthew’s voice was quiet, but it seemed to echo in the crowded room. “You don’t get a vote. This is our decision—Phoebe’s and mine,” Marcus said. Then he threw down the gauntlet. “And of course Baldwin’s. He is head of the family.” Baldwin tented his fingers in front of his face as though considering the question, while Matthew looked at his son in disbelief. Marcus returned his father’s stare with a challenging one of his own - HAHAHA SUCK IT, MATTHEW IT’S NOT YOUR DECISION, STOP CONTROLLING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE THANKS;

Baldwin had dragged the de Clermont men and Fernando out into the night and explained in brutal and detailed terms just what would befall each and every one of them if he detected a whisper of protest or a glimmer of insurrection. Afterward, even Gallowglass had looked shaken. -  something I also need to see is, if only just for my own amusement;

What you felt for Eleanor is nothing compared to what you feel for Diana. Yet all it took was a casual touch from Baldwin, a mere suggestion that Eleanor might agree with him rather than you, and you were ready to tear them both apart.” - Matthew, COME ON. is that the reason you killed her? ASNBDFGH WHY;

“We came home one night to find our house robbed and Gallowglass sleeping on the table like a Viking warrior ready to be sent out to sea.” Fernando shook his head. - HEY, GALLOWGLASS, WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO YOUR FATHER;

Now I understood why Baldwin had supplied us with new cell phones when we left Sept-Tours, changed all our phone plans, and canceled Sarah’s Internet service. - I just like those subtle moments when you can see that Baldwin cares - even though he acts like an arsehole in the majority of this book;

Matthew was horrified that I owned only a laptop. - Dude, you knew about it in the first book, your right to complain is outdated now (yeah, I realize Deb made a mistake here but it’s funny);

I ship Miriam & Chris;

“Do you wrestle?” “Weeell, I have been known to do so for sport.” Gallowglass looked down shyly, his cheeks dimpled. “Not Greco-Roman by any chance?” Chris asked. “My partner injured his knee and will be in rehab for months. I’m looking for a temporary replacement.” “It must be Greek. I’m not sure about the Roman part.” “Where did you learn?” Chris asked. “My grandfather taught me.” Gallowglass scrunched up his face as his concentration deepened. - OF COURSE, PHILIPPE ONLY TAUGHT YOU THE GREEK STYLE;

I just love that the chain Diana made to anchor her to Matthew was not ignored - in fact, she made more chains to anchor and connect her to her children, Rebecca and Philip. Pretty sure that she made one more chain for Jack as well;

Diana’s ringtone for Baldwin is Sympathy For Devil;

I am very, very happy that Jack is back. I love him so much, POOR BABY WAITED FOR MISTRESS ROYDON FOR 12 YEARS IN AZKABAN;

Philippe taught Romans about paterfamilias because he thought Roman society could benefit from a healthy dose of vampire family discipline, and a reminder of the father’s importance;

One of the ways Jack deals with Benjamin is by drawing;

They were an unlikely band, Matthew thought: three creatures related by blood, a fourth bound by loyalty, and a fifth who had joined them for no apparent reason other than that he was a good man - CHRIS, I LOVE THEE;

Marcus is not the only de Clermont who owns nightclubs - Baldwin does too;

Miriam taught Jason how to be a vampire, just like Philippe taught Matthew - is this a rule that the sire’s mate is teaching the children everything or is this just a coincidence?;

Apparently, vampires own all the major cab companies. ;

Gerbert’s only complaint about his new virtual existence was that he had been unable to secure “Pontifex Maximus” as a user name. Ysabeau told him that it was probably for the best since it might constitute a violation of the covenant in the eyes of some creatures. - I know this won’t be in season 3 but this peak comedy, I love it and I wanna see it

“Timothy?” “The same.” Timothy turned his eyes to me and cocked his fingers and thumbs so they looked like six-shooters. He was, I noticed, still wearing mismatched cowboy boots, but this time one was green and the other blue—to match his eyes, one presumed. He clicked his tongue against his teeth. “Told you, babe: You’re the one.” - I like him, okay?

I sure as hell hope there’s enough bourbon in this house to wash down all the bullshit,” Chris said. “‘Milord’ my ass. And I’m not bowing to anybody.” //  “But if you call me ‘milord’ or bow to me one more time, I’ll put you in the bayou. And Chris will help me.” - I NEED CHRIS AND MARCUS’ FRIENDSHIP IN SEASON 3, DO NOT LET ME DOWN, SHOW

For all his talk, Baldwin STILL recognized Diana as a de Clermont and HE CARES ABOUT HIS FAMILY, I love him so much. Everyone thought it was supposed to be Verin, but nope, Baldwin did it.

And thus the Bright Born became the Children of the Night. Who will end their wandering? the unseen hand wrote. Who will carry the blood of the lion and the wolf? Seek the bearer of the tenth knot, for the last shall once more be the first - Philip and Rebecca are Bright Borns

I love the fact that Baldwin not only recognized Diana as a de Clermont, he also made her a Congregation member - and when Diana tried to give him back the key later, he was like “Nope, it’s done, you’re gonna do it beautifully and I WANT SOME PEACE FROM THOSE MORONS”

“Nine,” Baldwin replied. One of his hands was completely clean and bore a sword, the other was caked with substances I preferred not to identify. The contrast made my stomach heave. - HOW ARE YOU EVEN FIGHTING THIS IS NOT A ROMAN STYLE

“Come, Jack. On the way to Sept-Tours, I will tell you a story about the time Baldwin attempted to banish me from Jerusalem. Many men died.”  WAIT, WHAT? YSABEAU I NEED TO KNOW IT TOO WHAT THE HECK

“Answer your e-mail while you’re at it. I send you messages. You don’t answer. It’s aggravating.” and “Answer your fucking e-mail!” are my favorite things Baldwin says looool i NEED this in season 3 too (we need those comedy moments here or with Gerbert loving social media, otherwise the season will be too dark)

PHILIPPE AND DIANA’S SCENE OH MY HEART HE STILL LOVES HIS DAUGHTER I CAN’T

Matthew’s birthday is in November, and his re-birth in June

Overall I like this book even though it really is a mess. There same some bits and pieces that, even though are interesting, do not move the plot forward at all and there’s no need for them here. Diana and Matthew being domestic in Madison and Bishop’s house playing Diana Fleetwood Mac is a funny story, one that would be better to be written separately (maybe Deb could write some short stories about Diana and Matthew and the gang), not necessarily in The Book of Life. 

I LOVE Chris & Matthew teaching (with Miriam as their boss) and I would read the hell out of that. Give the whole book about Chris and his students, Deb, I need it. 

 The plot was very stretched Like Deb didn't really have any idea what to write. Shadow of Night was better, there was some tension in the air, but there was nothing like that in The Book of Life. Also, what IS The Book of Life? it was supposed to answer all those questions set in A Discovery of Witches and honesty, it didn't answer any of them. And the Benjamin plot, not only problematic, is not well done. Even when I first read the book, I didn’t feel the tension even when Matthew was kidnapped. Benjamin just doesn’t work as a villain for me and I think they will give this plot (or something completely different) to Gerbert and Knox. I hope Satu’s storyline will end differently, just like Domenico’s

All Souls Trilogy is very interesting and I’m very happy I (re)read it, even though there are some minor problems there.

[scorpio-karma]

How would you have written Bonkai if you had the chance ?

So I’ve always been a fan of Dark Bonkai, so if I were to write them I would forgo the redemption arc completely. I wasn’t a fan of it when it aired and even though now I’ve warmed up to it more now it’s still not how I would have wanted Bonkai to go because as I said in a different post the only way I see that romance working out is as generic fluff which is just not my jam.

This first thing I would have done is after she sends Damon back is have Bonnie and Kai stuck together longer, not only because there needed to be more pay off from that but also because sending Kai back as quickly as they do wasted a great opportunity with both characters because once he’s back in the real world his storylines don’t fall flat but they aren’t as great especially when he ends up missing for an unusual amount of episodes–he’s the main villain of the season, he really shouldn’t have been missing from any episodes. So I wouldn’t have him figure out where Jo stashed her magic, but I would still have him take her to Portland for Thanksgiving because A) great development and B) it sets up or the one other thing I would have kept which is Bonnie’s breakdown because it’s such a well done scene.

From there I would have them do more cat and mouse games which would start with her killing Kai (who would come back) and running as far as possible taking his pager with her just to piss him of because he told her not to touch it. Then I would have the Delena failed Bonnie rescue mission (with a few things tweaked since Kai would still be in the PW, I’d just have the spell run out of time because they were doddling which is essentially what happened in canon) which literally ends up breaking her spirit. As much as I hate Bonnie being in pain, I love that scene because it is so well done and not just because of Kat’s acting, which is on point, but because for the first time ever the narrative actually cares about the pain Bonnie’s in, focuses on the pain she’s in, and doesn’t force her to be “strong”. 

Just look at Damon’s reaction when he realizes what’s going to happen to Bonnie. There reason I always preferred Damon with Bonnie and that’s because his reactions seem a lot more genuine which is mostly Ian because his reactions to Kat are a lot more genuine and that scene you could feel that Damon felt sadness for Bonnie, and what makes that scene so much better is that instead of only focusing on his sadness for her it cuts to her, and her pain, and in that moment she’s not infallible, she’s not the strong witch who can endure anything and everything, she’s broken and it’s devastating and it’s something we really didn’t get to see with her even when she literally died and had to see her own dead body. 

It’s always an easy scene to point out but it’s because it’s so atrocious is when Abby gets turned, you don’t even see Bonnie except for a glimpse after (I’m pretty sure they didn’t even have her on set for that shooting day), instead you have Caroline speak for her and then the show focuses on Elena’s pain from the incident which isn’t even empathy for Bonnie but rather her own pain because Bonnie won’t talk to her, which as I keep saying in my Tyler meta’s, neither of those are comparable experiences and prioritizing her pain over Bonnie’s was the breaking point for most Bonnie fans. So after years of getting things like that I was actually quite proud of that scene.

But back to Bonkai, I wouldn’t just keep that there because I like the scene but also because it signifies a breaking point which would be great in the development of Bonkai especially in a moment she feels most alone because she wouldn’t be completely alone, she would have Kai. If Bamon and Benzo taught me anything it’s that if she’s isolated alone with you long enough you will get her undying loyalty no matter what you’ve done and that’s something that’s actually in character because she has abandonment issues, or at least she should with her mother leaving her, her dad barely home, and then the only consistent family member she had, Grams, died. It explains why she clings on to her friends so much, unfortunately the show has never had enough nuance to even try to use that as a reason for why she keeps sacrificing herself, they just make it he obligation. 

From there she’d be willing to do anything to get out but without magic they don’t know how to leave so they spend more time together. Bonnie would be depressed, for obvious reasons, and I would have Kai trying to cheer her up because he likes her plucky and it’s not much fun seeing her like that. Then I would basically have most if not all the events from Metamorphosis happen right down to her killing herself and realizing no one can die in the PW not even her. They would have kinda a mentorship which involves them killing each other over and over (again events in Metamorphosis) which would cheer her up in a dark twisted way which would lead to a lot of dark twisted sex (not in the fic),

Eventually Bonnie would remember Qetsiyah’s rock because the fact that the rescue mission was literally remind Bonnie of what she already knew was ridiculous and something she could have figured out on her own. And then they get out disregarding Jo’s knife because another ridiculous thing, not that she hid it there, but because it continued to be hidden there after 18 years like “find a better hiding spot.” 

Kai would continue his quest to be Gemini leader, and Bonnie, now that she’s out and knows him a lot better would be conflicted with letting him kill his entire coven or leaving it alone–her conflicted feelings would effect him because he’s got the girl and doesn’t want to lose her but instead of trying to be better like we’ve seen oh so many times (Damon, Klaus, to a degree Katherine with Elijah) he tries to get he on his side using truths about her “friends” which is honesty something  think should have happened in season 4 with Shane because of how quickly he gets her trust, but let’s not lament on that. Eventually her new found attitude of looking out for herself actually takes and she lets him because unless she or the world is in danger of imploding she’s staying out of it.

After that I would actually have him merge with Liv. I’m sorry for people who liked Liv, but she was kinda of annoying and the writers clearly were trying to replace Bonnie with her, however that’s not the reason I would have her die in the merge. The reason I would have her die is because she was kind always meant to. She knew she was less likely to survive the merge with Luke and she was the most afraid to die and in the series finale she does accept her fate, but I would have much rather it been here during the merge. It would have been brave and lot more powerful because Luke wasn’t as afraid he just went with the flow. Also it would stop TVD’s tendency to kill all of their gay characters, in terms of which twin had more potential to add to the show it was easily Luke, again sorry for people who liked Liv, she was kinda like Caroline in that she was on of many witches (which was a new(ish) concept since it fell on Bonnie to be the sole witch without any family, but as I said they were clearly priming her to replace Bonnie).

Then I don’t know how I would develop it but basically it would end with Bonkai being king and queen of the Gemini combining their power to be the most powerful couple ever, but after Bonnie does a lot of traveling because that was something she needed, she needed to get out and make her own path. And after Kai learned to deal with feelings a bit more, I guess I would have him redeemed(ish) (but leaving Damon and Elena out of it because again why would he give a single fuck about them?) because that’s honestly the only natural ending, but I would want that redemption to be an individual process (which it kind was in canon but it still had people telling him to do x and people will forgive him and him doing x but unlike Damon x doesn’t work), so that would all be happening while she’s off traveling which she does almost immediately after she gets back and doesn’t bother telling any of the MFG she’s back, they only find out through Kai. 

If given a chance this is how I would have written Bonkai, basically having their development in the season coincide together. Also this is mostly a rewrite of season 6 but to write Bonkai (Bonnie) that’s necessary. 

[robedisimo]

The Last Jedi: six observations and four questions [MAJOR SPOILERS]

[WARNING: the following contains HUGE PLOT SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Please proceed at your own discretion.]

It has been a strange, busy year for franchise sequels. Between Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok and now The Last Jedi, a lot of what has graced our screens has been saddled with a lot of different expectations, and with more than a little anxiety concerning its relationship to vast pre-established canon. In my opinion, all four films handled that task well; however, each of them approached the matter in a very different way.

Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner sequel embraced and expanded its predecessor’s style and themes, for example, while Ragnarok upended pretty much everything in its franchise so far with maniacal glee and an irrevent attitude bordering on outright mockery. Covenant also played fast and loose with established lore, but unlike the third Thor it did so without acknowledging it, “pretending” – thanks to original creator Ridley Scott being at its helm – to perfectly fit into everything that preceded it.

At its heart, The Last Jedi has more than a little in common with the latter two. It – literally, in certain cases – sets fire to certain aspects of the Star Wars canon to make room for a newer iteration of the franchise, but it does so with respect and love, pruning selected parts of the property to allow it to flourish. Its mockery seems instead aimed at its direct predecessor, The Force Awakens, which director Rian Johnson appears to retroactively adjust in order to steer the saga towards his own vision.

That attitude is nowhere more apparent than in the outright derision of Kylo Ren’s mask, which “makes him look like an idiot”. The meta-textual jab at J.J. Abrams’s aesthetic sensibilities betrays a ballsiness bordering on arrogance, as does the U-turn on Snoke’s characterisation, going from grave, sombre Palpatine wannabe to sneering, opulent Bond villain.

Whatever the reasoning behind The Last Jedi’s changes to the franchise, in my eyes the overwhelming majority of them was for the best. But did Johnson’s film really change everything, or was it more of a balanced mix of old and new? Following is a brief list of things that didn’t go as we might have expected and things that most certainly did, as well as some that still may or may not in the near future.

1. Subverted expectations

Leia’s death Given historic Star Wars precedent, it was very reasonable to expect Leia to not survive Episode VIII’s events: Kylo Ren was on a stated mission to forcibly (har har) eradicate his family ties, “mentor”-like characters have a track record of not surviving long into a new trilogy and, well, Carrie Fisher won’t be around for Episode IX. And indeed, The Last Jedi does give Leia a swift and dramatic death scene... only to reverse it immediately by virtue of a plot twist hinging on the character’s previously-undisclosed Jedi training, in a textbook example of a trope which I’m sure must be already defined somewhere on the Internet but which I’m personally more than willing to dub “Secretly Jesus”. It’s a stunning sequence and one that’s proving quite controversial with fans, setting the scene for the no-holds-barred approach to storytelling showcased throughout the movie.

Finn’s sacrifice I’ve written at length about how Finn is the best candidate for Sequel-Trilogy replacement to Han Solo, and so there was good reason to believe that, as he threw himself into a First Order super-weapon, we were in for a rerun of Han’s heroic surrender to frozen doom – I don’t think anyone was expecting Finn to actually die, but by that point The Last Jedi had certainly demonstrated that it was down for pretty much anything – at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Once again, that didn’t end up happening but the spirit was certainly there: just like Han, Finn had spent the whole film – and the whole franchise up to that point – torn between his own good heart and an individualistic penchant for self-preservation; by the end of their respective second chapters, both characters finally embrace their heroic streak. Ironically, whereas Han sacrificed himself to save Leia – culminating in the saga’s first explicitly-stated romance – here it’s the girl who ends up in suspended animation instead, after saving the day and declaring her love.

Rey’s parentage The most (apparently) outrage-introducing aspect of Johnson’s film is also the most interestingly handled. After two years of speculation regarding Rey’s true parents, and a number of increasingly far-fetched theories – Rey is Luke’s, Obi-Wan’s, Qui-Gon’s, Palpatine’s daughter – in The Last Jedi she was finally revealed to have been just a regular Jane Doe all along, an outsider to the Skywalker family saga. Some fans have met this with outcry, partly because they don’t seem to understand that the Sequel Trilogy is still part of the Skywalker arc through Kylo Ren, and partly because of precedent. The reveal of Luke’s parentage in The Empire Strikes Back is the single most iconic moment in the entire franchise, and quite a few people were expecting a direct retread of that. Except a direct retread is precisely what they got. Even without getting into the fact that Kylo could’ve simply been lying, the scene plays exactly how you’d expect: the bad guy extends his hand to the hero, offering a place beside them on the Galaxy’s throne after dropping the unexpected bombshell about their parents’ identity. The scene is almost exactly the same, but in reverse: for starters, the hero has just been in a fight involving the film’s villain; but unlike in Empire, Rey comes out of the fight victorious and having fought on the same side as the villain, not against him. Similarly, the biggest reversal comes in the fact that the bombshell shock doesn’t come in the shape of a twist reveal but rather in the absence of one. The Last Jedi – something it has in common with another piece of oft-maligned fiction that I happen to love, but that’s a story for another time – trades a twist for an anti-twist: “I am your father” becomes “Nobody is your father”. Which isn’t just poetic, it also works on a number of levels. Rey doesn’t have to be connected to everything else in the saga, just like Finn doesn’t have to be Lando’s or Mace Windu’s secret son. In The Last Jedi we finally get to know and love these characters for who they are, not for who they could be. This moment in which the saga is freed from the weight of its own legacy is as earth-shattering and franchise-changing as the ending to Empire was; if not more, because this time around we were prepared for it but were still surprised. We were prepared for anything, and they surprised us with nothing. You can call that cheating. I call that clever.

2. Confirmed tropes

Luke’s goodbye While Luke’s final act of heroism in The Last Jedi is breathtaking in its unexpectedness, his ultimate fate is as traditional as they come. Right after re-enacting Obi-Wan’s “strike me down” scene, Luke pulls a Yoda and peacefully joins the Force. It’s something that by all logic should’ve been reserved for the first half of Episode IX – just as Yoda’s death signalled the beginning of act 2 for Return of the Jedi –, but then again I did mention in my review that The Last Jedi is a bit of an episode-and-a-half kind of deal. Narratively speaking, the film could’ve ended on an Empire-like note right as Rey manages to escape after her lightsabre-breaking, parentage-revealing confrontation with Ben. Instead, Johnson took things one giant step beyond. And that’s a good thing, fortunately: had this movie closed on yet another cliffhanger, we wouldn’t have had the chance to conveniently explain away Leia’s departure from the franchise by means of a – all but inevitable, now – time skip between Episodes VIII and IX.

Snoke’s death Unexpected as it was in its timing, Snoke’s demise was anything but in terms of pure narrative structure: he was set up to be defeated, and he most certainly was. Not just that, but he was defeated in what’s arguably the most traditional way to be found in Star Wars canon: an apprentice turning on his own master when he’s instead supposed to finish an incapacitated opponent. It happened to Palpatine in the Original Trilogy, and it happened to Mace Windu – in a direct reversal of that same scene – in the Prequels. Snoke may not have been an actual member of the Sith order, but his fate certainly conformed to that of historic Dark Side practitioners. What’s more, his efforts to turn Ben Solo into a new Vader definitely paid off... perhaps even too much for his liking.

DJ’s betrayal Benicio Del Toro’s character is more a walking, talking plot device than anything, but he’s an undeniably charming addition to the franchise. Still, for anyone who thought he didn’t get enough development on his first time on the Star Wars scene, his return is pretty much a given. His potential for a face-turn in Episode IX, combined with his introduction as a shifty but useful ally to our heroes, only to grievously betray them while maintaining a measure of relatability, paints a very clear picture: DJ is, quite simply, the Sequel Trilogy’s Lando. There’s probably no easier cross-trilogy comparison in all of The Last Jedi, in my opinion. And to be frank, it’s a pretty entertaining one.

3. Still-dangling plot threads

What role do Luke’s relics play? The Last Jedi includes more than a few deep-lore easter eggs, many of them hidden on its characters. Snoke, for example, wears a golden ring whose stone – as one can read in the Visual Dictionary companion book – comes directly from the Dark Side pit originally lying beneath Vader’s fortress first glimpsed in Rogue One. Luke carries not one but two of these significant relics. The first is a Jedi compass, a MacGuffin introduced in the recently-released Battlefront II video game whose exact purpose wasn’t really disclosed, although one might speculate that it’s through it that Luke managed to find the ancient Jedi planet of Ahch-To. The second is Luke’s pendant, apparently housing a red crystal of unspecified origins. This particular object became the centrepiece of a fascinating fan theory in the months preceding the film’s release, and while that specific scenario didn’t pan out, the pendant itself did get a suspicious close-up shot which went entirely unexplained. The Visual Dictionary lists it as an ancient “Jedi Crusader” trophy, sparking rumours about the renewed canonicity of fan-favourite Knights of the Old Republic character Darth Revan. Could that be it, or is there more to Luke’s story between trilogies that we have yet to see? And if so, will that be addressed in Episode IX, or is it something that’s bound to be left to exploration in New Expanded Universe material?

Who was Snoke, exactly? Easily the second most controversial bit in the movie, Snoke’s sudden death left a lot of questions hanging. Who exactly was this guy? Where did he come from? Why was he so strong in the Force, and how did he know so much about everyone involved in the previous two thirds of the saga? The fans’ frustration about these unresolved plot points is understandable, and it’s undeniable that Johnson has left quite the hot potato in Abrams’s hands. Still, one must never forget that Emperor Palpatine was just as much of an unknown quantity in the Original Trilogy: character-wise, he was very little more than a cackling, mugging “evil incarnate” trope, blandly intimidating up to the point where his right-hand man killed him by essentially pushing him down a flight of stairs. It wasn’t until the oft-maligned Prequels that good ol’ Sheev took on a personality all his own. On the other hand, that sort of undefined mystery just isn’t viable in the franchise’s current state. After forty years of accumulated, obsessive exploration of the narrative universe’s every nook and cranny, fans are no longer willing to put up with not knowing. And, to be completely fair, relegating Snoke’s backstory to Expanded Universe novels or comic-book series would be a disservice to the portion of the audience that only watches the film instalments – whereas Phasma’s mostly-perfunctory role in the movies is more acceptable, vis-à-vis her much more in-depth characterisation in ancillary material – and a general faux pas from a narrative standpoint.

What about the Knights of Ren? Speaking of dubious narrative choices, another unexpected element in The Last Jedi’s standalone-but-not-standalone structure – the movie works extremely well in isolation, but it’s also perhaps the most interconnected to previous lore that Star Wars has ever been – was the total absence of Kylo Ren’s eponymous Knights, teased in Rey’s “Force Vision” sequence halfway through The Force Awakens. From a purely in-universe standpoint, their uninvolvement with the film’s proceedings makes sense: Episode VIII takes place over a short period of time immediately on VII’s heels, and as such it would’ve been strange for the Knights to come running as a sort of bad-guy cavalry, especially if it were for the sole purpose of being anticlimactically slaughtered barely halfway through the trilogy at the hands of a still-inexperienced Rey. Narratively speaking, however, what we got was a full movie – and two more years of endless wait – going by without the characters being addressed, which is pretty frustrating. So much so, in fact, that some fans have already begun speculating that the Knights actually were featured in The Last Jedi as none other than Snoke’s Praetorian Guards, a truly awful theory that presupposes a shockingly appalling grasp of storytelling on Rian Johnson’s part. One can only hope that with Kylo now positioned as the trilogy’s Big Bad, they’ll serve as the mid-boss-level characters our heroes will have to get through if they want to face the ultimate evil... potentially resulting in the most spectacular lightsabre battle ever witnessed in Star Wars canon.

Where are the other Force ghosts? The question of where Yoda’s Force ghost has been all these days as Luke – and the Galaxy – needed his guidance is easily answered by The Force Awakens, in both title and dialogues: there has been an “awakening” in the Force, at least the Cosmic side of it, with Rey’s and Kylo’s mounting powers. So it’s not hard to imagine that the world of spirits has been a lot less in touch with that of the living over the past thirty years. Nonetheless, that dry spell is now decidedly broken. Obi-Wan whispered in Rey’s ear at least once in Episode VII, and Yoda’s appearance in The Last Jedi showed us a Force ghost with more power and influence over the physical world than ever before – although that may have to do with the peculiar Force-attuned nature of the planet Ahch-To –, and that’s a pretty hard can of worms to re-seal. So the big, looming question right now is: where is Anakin Skywalker’s ghost, and why isn’t he giving his grandson a piece of his mind about his hare-brained scheme for galactic annihilation? Should we expect Hayden Christensen to make a Vader-y return in Episode IX, or will Abrams’s apparent loathing for the Prequels rob us of that long-delayed rehabilitation of his take on the character?

Other questions loom large over the next (and final) episode in the Skywalker saga, of course. Did Kylo lie about Rey’s parents? Will Snoke still exert some sort of influence on the Galaxy’s fate, even after death? How exactly will Leia die? How will the Resistance turn things around to win the day? Will Rey and Poe start a surprise romance? And how will Phasma have ludicrously survived this time?

We’ll just have to wait, I guess. In the meantime, I’m sure Solo: A Star Wars Story will give people a lot more to complain about.

[asagimeta]

Just realized the meta brilliance of AHS 6B (Return to Roanoke). Like, the second half of the AHS seasons are very often where everything goes off the rails in terms of plot and narrative, and it brilliantly lampshaded that by having the in-universe film crew have a plotted narrative & scares for the return that very very quickly went off the rails WHILE STILL KEEPING TO THE AHS PLOT. That was an amazing inversion of the show's own "losing the plot" trope.

I think, honestly, that’s really what made Roanoke work so well, because it was very self-aware

American Horror Story had JUST started to take the same decline every show starts to take once they begin approaching seasons 4+, there was a tiredness and a restlessness that the audience was showing during season five that I, personally, hadn’t seen with the other seasons, and I think the only reason why they didn’t start showing that during Freak Show is because it was Jessica Lange’s last season and there was alot of focus on that, but I digress

I’ve noticed it in pretty much every fandom I’ve been in except for a very small few (Orphan Black for example) that once you approach season four- and most certainly season five- the fandom gets very restless and there’s little that can be done to save the show, outside of doing something drastic like giving it a huge make-over/reboot (like Once Upon A Time is doing, jury is out on if that will please the fandom or not) or having some kind of unexpected success with a new charector/ship/plot (like Supernatural did by bringing in Castiel) the problem for AHS is that each season is contained as it’s own story so rebooting it won’t work because *every season* is a reboot, and introducing an unexpected hit charector/ship/plot will, again, be a short-lived success, because they’ll only last the course of several episodes to a season and even then not everyone will be on board, Roanoke was, in some ways, AHS making an AHS parody, they really did seem to listen to the complaints they were starting to get and did things very differently, and going into season seven, it feels alot like some of the lessons they learned from Roanoke are things they intend to keep, we still know very little about “Cult” despite the fact that it starts airing next month, and they won’t have a break for the holidays this round either- wich I truly believed helped season six, it prevented the audience from having to get re-acquainted with the season mid-way through- and instead of going on just an old horror trope they way they did seasons 1-5, they’re using something that’s very .. er.. present… in everyone’s minds these days, wile still keeping the good ol’ AHS classic vibe to it of horror tropes (clowns anyone?)

One of my personal favorite things about Roanoke is that there were just so many tiny in-jokes that really gave it a vibe of realism, my favorite AHS season has always been Coven (unpopular opinion I know) in part because it just felt closer to home than some of the others, you know? Marie Lavau was a real person, Stevie Nicks guest-starred, and even though it had one of the most disconnecting factors of the series from our world (outing witches to the rest of the world, wich I personally LOVE) it still just felt very… well, real, I suppose, familiar, there were more nods and winks to current things in Coven than there were in most of the other seasons in my opinion (Madison’s entire charector essentially being one of them, and again, Stevie, who I freaking love to death) Freak Show in particular felt enormously disconnected from the world we live in, wich was part of the point but I just couldn’t get connected to it, Roanoke had so many great little winks, like saying My Roanoke Nightmare got better ratings than The Walking Dead (*snickers*) , the “bloopers”, the social media aspect, the celebrity relationship vs the real relationship, all of that stuff made the witches and ghosts feel so much realer and I really appreciate that

I think, pre-Roanoke, Asylum was the one that really handled the back half the best, in general Asylum was the most cohesive season outside of Roanoke in my opinion, despite having so many subplots

You know what I wonder Anon? I wonder if part of why Roanoke had such a great second half is because no one died in the first half, now hear me out, I am NOT opposed to death in AHS ok? In fact I’m often rooting for it, but think about it, Roanoke allowed us to get through the first half without anyone *really* dieing so that the deaths in the second half could all come in rapid succession without actually rushing anything, I think one of the problems AHS has is having a heavy trigger-finger, sometimes they kill off some of the more promising charectors early on (like Shelley in Asylum for example) and then the ones that stick around until the end can at times overstay their welcome (*stares pointedly at several members of Freak Show and sighs*) but Roanoke avoided BOTH of these issues, they kept around all of their charectors from the first half so we could get to know them and then killed them off in a really bang-bam way so that it struck hard and fast, it didn’t linger or drag on like they sometimes do because they had a large cast to kill off and there was no sense lingering on anyone really, and they kind of gave us a soft reboot of charectors so that none of them really overstayed their welcome, we got to know Shelby and Matt in a SENSE in the first five episodes- enough that we didn’t feel like there was any loss of potential when they died- but what we knew were only cheap cut-out versions, we saw the real, messier Shelby and Matt in the back half of the season and that’s what prevented us from going “Can someone just kill them already please?” , because there were questions then- is Shelby a serial killer? Is Matt really in love with the witch (who’s name I cannot spell)? And then we had the actors who, again, we saw their faces all season, but we weren’t introduced to them until the second half, it was a good way of bringing in an entirely new cast of charectors to kill without them FEELING like new charectors because we already were used to seeing them on the screen, there was no sense that they’d overstayed their welcome and there was also no sense that they were just newbies out of the blue who we wanted dead so we could get back to the mains, it was really brilliant

I think Roanoke may have single-handedly spared AHS from getting post-season-three-show-fatigue that so many scripted dramas get hit with, and season seven looks like they’ll be following atleast SOME of the formulas Roanoke set, the aforementioned timing and the smaller episode count, and listen, I SO. BADLY. wish we still had 13 episodes ok? I love AHS, I would watch it year-round if I could, but I have to agree that ten episodes really felt much tighter and more cohesive than thirteen, I think this is why every show is either having shorter episode orders or splitting the seasons into two different arcs, Teen Wolf had to learn the hard way that sometimes less is more and Once Upon A Time still has large orders but they compensate by splitting the season… wich, admittedly, doesn’t always work… but I digress

AHS is like a long horror movie so cohesion is more important for them than alot of other shows because the mark of good horror is pace- be it getting in alot of punches in a short amount of time or drawing out one long, lingering wound over the course of two hundred years, if the style of horror you’re writing has a pace that doesn’t match up you’re really screwed, and AHS is a very fast-punch type of horror with lingering themes, the danger of that style being a TV show and not a movie is that it can easily overstay it’s welcome and feel like it’s dragging or getting too messy if it goes on for too long

But anyway, I think the brilliance of Roanoke, as you said, is that AHS was parodying themselves, remember that episodes 1-5 had something in there that referenced the previous seasons, from the nurses of Murder House to the witch of Coven, Roanoke was all about presenting AHS it’s self to something of an outsider’s veiwpoint and it was utterly, utterly magnificent