#im not going to tag this gn so i dont put a buncha criticisms and stuff into the tag but ! spoilers for the gn obviously!

[umbraastaff]

I'd love to hear your general thoughts on the new gn! I personally think Wonderland was a little rushed, but I loved reunion tour.

was fun in some ways and fell short in others! i overall i agree with you on that as well. more specific thoughts, in no particular order:

some really really cool visuals in this book. lucretia in the hourglass at the start, some awesome panels with space and the hunger and stuff... barry regaining his memories on page 212 is probably my favorite page in the whole book

the choice to make the Chug & Squeeze be painting instead of pottery is baffling to me. the title of the place made sense with the original… the choice to change it so that it doesn't fit, and then also make fun of that, feels a bit like i am being made fun of as a fan/audience member, regardless of whatever the original intent was

(compounded with the total loss of the original depth in this scene… no vulnerability from taako, just a good 'ol fanservice kiss…)

similarly bizarre, the choice to make lucretia lose 30 years instead of 20...? 20 not bad enough? she needed to be 60 instead of 50? what's happening lol

i feel vindicated on a spiritual level for being the only person i can remember drawing mullet ponytail barry - like 95% of fanart i see draws him either short haired or with long hair free n out like in HTBG graphic novel... never ponytails. im winning

more bafflement with magnus even THINKING on the question of forgetting julia... the kalen thing is a much more interesting conflict to me given (a) it makes sense to be uncertain about and (b) relates directly back to his love for julia. and they established AND NAMED kalen in eleventh hour, why not use that...

feels like they swing back and forth on how much they trust the audience to pick up subtext... being hit over the head with magnus continuing the "id hate it shut the fuck up" thing to rly look at the camera and wink and tell us how much he loves julia, but then the comic version of the "love barry trust barry" was VERY dependent on picking up cues and seeing taako's attitude change

speaking of, i did really love the "love barry trust barry" scene. and both times lup jumps into barry's arms is so cute ugh

i know it's a product of how rushed everything has to be putting 10+ hours of audio into a singular COMIC book, but for fuck's sake, removing KEATS..........?????? so now lydia & edward have no depth??? & no parallel/foreshadowing for the way liches work??? OKAY???

mannequin magnus design and the way they enabled him to do expressions was preddy good. enjoyed it. also the whole possession + wonderland final fight action is cool and fun

while i am disappointed the bell is all fancy and weird instead of being a very plain and small thing as it was described in canon (which felt more in character for barry), i DO really really really like the flower on top... the wither-and-bloom motif... tasty

oh yeah griffin disappearing is such a great way to foreshadow a thing beyond planes coming down to consume... ahh i love playing with meta stuff

so so much good barry content man. so much. thank god we got so much good fun reunion tour stuff. hes so dumb as rocks i love him

actually pretty cool they more explicitly canonized the explanation for barry physically attacking davenport. also barry/lucretia interaction so so so so good

as cute as the original scene is with them planning and writing the note for magnus' body, i think the way they split the party in this version was smart

i dont need to contribute more to the pool on fan feelings on blue twins, BUT given there was no choice but to have her be blue, lup is very cute

taako falling to his knees instead of like pointing the staff at lucretia... :/ eh

given how much literally this entire series has suffered from being so scrunched up, i'm also not SUPER looking forward to stolen century and S&S being condensed into one book, but ohhhh wellllll

TL;DR i don't really read these books because i have a lot of faith in the way they Tell The Story, but it still had a lot of fun moments and scenes and visuals that got my heart! fun to see thorough visual takes on my fave podcast.