#i refuse to deal with reya and the holy war

[saunteringvaguelydownwards]

****

Motherfucker, y'all got me writing again, what the fuck?

[feveredreams]

fixing season two

so warrior nun season two, huh?

preface: i love this show to pieces and this is a critique/edit made out of love for the characters, do not get me wrong!!

my biggest complaints: 

Mary’s death + Lilith’s “corruption” arc. I refuse to believe that the sisters would simply forget about Lilith like that, and the way the writers glossed over Mary’s death? Nope. Bad. Mary’s death should have been the driving factor in this entire season.

anticlimactic Tarask killing of Adriel. The whole season is about how the OCS can take him down, and suddenly the Tarasks just deal with the problem? What a letdown of tension.

Michael dying for absolutely no reason. What was the point of you? Perhaps this drives home how mortal humans are just pawns for divine beings, but it felt so utterly pointless to create this character and plan and have it all be useless. Let’s fix that.

very long post under the cut!

All right, let's go. The first few episodes focus on Michael and the Samaritans; Lilith also discovers that Mary did not survive and that she's changing even further. These are the keys to fixing this season: Lilith and the Samaritans.

E1-2: Ava blows their cover in Switzerland and they're summoned back to the OCS, but Michael manages to find them as they're leaving. He says that one of the founding ideals of the Samaritans revolves around Ava herself–the falling angel with a halo at her back, their last hope (gives more weight to the graffiti we see near the end, too). It's a legend, a tale spread of the angel with the halo fighting the imposter angel at the Vatican. If the OCS is gathering, then surely they need Samaritan help? Meanwhile, they learn that Mary is dead and instead of just ignoring what that means for everybody, they reach out to Lilith and they mourn together because that's what they deserve at the very least! Then, the OCS and the Samaritans team up and go after the Crown.

E3-4: Things still go to shit in the museum, Vincent grabs Ava and the crown, and there's still a cool fight scene in a church. Lilith gets further injured in the fight and begins to transform even further; they reach out to Jillian for help. At first she refuses, then Michael reveals his secret and there's a reunion. This way, instead of being driven by her desire to find Michael, Jillian actually helps Lilith and she doesn't go to the dark side. Plus, we get more science-y stuff and more Michael/Jillian happy times. They deserve some happy times :'(

E5: They regroup at the Salvius manor. Mother Superion and Yasmine go to the conclave while Jillian, Lilith, and Michael work together to figure out what's going on with her. Why does Reya not want her in that realm? What does Michael know that could be helpful in this case? They find out she's some kind of chimera, a combination of both human and tarask (or angel/demon?) genes, a being of both the mortal realm and the divine realm. There's emotional scenes where Lilith loses her temper at becoming a monster and the sisters reassure her and reaffirm their care for each other. They also reminisce about Mary; Ava comes up with a pledge to destroy Adriel for her. "For Mary," they all agree.

E6: The conclave fuckery still happens. Lilith stays behind with Jillian because her wings are coming in and it hurts like a bitch. They also send her back into the divine realm and learn more about this "holy war" that's about to happen, so that there's more foreshadowing rather than a brief mention in the last episode. They get everybody back and then come up with the canon plan: sneak into the live broadcast, have the pope denounce Adriel (assuming that they get the information to him somehow, despite him being in a birdcage at the Vatican), crown Adriel, box him up and ship him one-way back to the divine realm. We also add a fun Samaritan twist: they're going to stage demonstrations and riots at other cross locations across Europe to disrupt the prayer energy that he's getting from his other followers. After all, we see them building a cross in Switzerland–surely destroying only the one cross at the cathedral wouldn't be enough? So we get the Samaritans to take care of the others, and get a cool cross-continent montage, too. It still doesn't go well, though, because the plague-hacking doesn't work, Vincent steals the Crown, and the Arc gets stolen, Mother Superion mortally wounded in the process.

E7: controversial idea time: instead of Ava saving Mother Superion (damn I do love that scene, but consider this instead), Lilith does. She cauterizes the wound with hellfire, preventing Mother Superion from bleeding out–then when Ava gets back, she uses the healing power of the Halo to fully heal her. Combined, they're unstoppable! Also, Lilith needs a morale boost. She's not made only for killing, she can save people, too!

Even though the first attack didn't work, many crosses across the continent did get destroyed. So Adriel organizes a mass prayer event the next day, to regenerate the energy he needs to power the Arc. Ava finds Vincent and gets the Crown back. She puts it on and finally agrees with Michael to execute the bomb plan without telling anyone. She does, however, have a revealing conversation with Lilith where she asks Lilith to protect the others (specifically Bea) if Ava dies. Lilith goes 👀 but agrees. Camila and Yasmine, trapped inside the cathedral, continue causing havoc and they come up with canon plan two: destroy the cross, destroy the arc, ta-da, we win!

E8: Of course things don't go to plan, but we still get dramatic Avatrice kiss and goodbye. Lilith is the one to tell Beatrice where she's gone and why. Ava and Michael get fucked up (but Michael doesn't die ASAP) by Adriel but sort of hold their own until Adriel opens the Arc and nabs the Crown back. Beatrice fights her way through a dozen men to the best soundtrack ever and exchanges half-hearted blows with Lilith, who refuses to let her follow Ava into trouble because "I promised to protect you, Bea. I'm not going to break that promise." But who can say no to a tearful Beatrice? Not me, certainly not Lilith, who finally huffs, "Fine. But I'm coming with you."

Meanwhile Ava realizes mid-battle that the semantics of "Adriel can't be killed by anything of this realm" applies to Lilith as well, and she doesn't blow up Michael for no reason. Reya still gets pulled through the portal, but Camila (iconique) blasts the most annoying TikTok songs into Adriel's head, forcing him to drop the crown. Lilith and Bea arrive just in time. There's a complex phasing/teleportation battle in which Ava and Lilith exchange the Crown to keep it from Adriel's hands, Michael running interference the entire time.

Adriel spots Bea and goes for her, seeing that this is Ava's weakness–Ava blows out the Halo to prevent him from hurting her, rendering Ava helpless. Adriel has her by the throat and monologues briefly about his success and how "You can't stop me, Warrior Nun. You're just one useless, vulnerable human." Just as he's about to rip the Halo out, Ava grins weakly and says, "But I'm not alone." (or something to that effect, add more Ava snark). Lilith teleports the Crown into her hand and she places it on Adriel's head, rendering him powerless. As he collapses to the ground, Lilith looks up at Reya, who gives a slight nod.

Claws extended, grief and anger burning in her eyes, Lilith screams "For Mary!" and decapitates Adriel.

Yet Ava, Lilith, and Michael are all grievously wounded, and Tarasks called by Ava's last Halo blast have them surrounded. Reya tells them that they have a choice: remain, and die, or join her in her realm for a time and live. There is a tearful goodbye between Bea and Ava, and Ava promises to return. Beatrice is left alone at the Arc, with only words and promises to keep her company.

*roll credits*

Thoughts?? I still dislike all the back-and-forth to the cathedral in the last few episodes, but I didn't want to wholly redo the whole ending. Let me know if I missed anything (I probably did) and what you liked and disliked about the canon episodes. I wrote this because I did not have the time nor energy to write a full fix-it fic, but wanted to share these ideas. finally: Warrior Nun season 3 when????