#imagine if this had been the beginning of the Evil Queen arc?

[notmoreflippingelves]

I need to ramble more about Esteban Flores, because everything about this character and his arc seem as though it was tailor-made for me and specifically designed to make me absolutely feral.

This going below the cut, both because I do not want to spoil the entire show for my friend who is think of watching Elena of Avalor and because I go full-on apologist here and I feel like that will annoy some people.

Imagine making the absolute worst mistake than anyone could possibly make, because you are 18 and scared and stupid and tired of being ignored. And it results in you losing your family and your freedom and what little self-respect you had left because you know all of this is very much your own fault.

 And so you proceed to spend the next 41(!) years eking out a miserable existence in an oppressive state. Upon fear for your life, you are forced to be the reluctant right-hand of the evil witch-queen who conquered your country, killed your aunt and uncle and trapped your cousin in magical prison. In spite of this, you nevertheless do everything within your limited power trying to hold the kingdom together and make sure the people don't starve, because the queen certainly doesn't care about anything except greedily bleeding your country dry.

And no exaggeration, this is just what canon explicitly gives us outright in the pilot. Like that's not even getting into head canons/interpretations/common sense of what exactly this sort of life entailed for you. Because this is a children's show so there's only so much they will let us imply about living under that kind of system. Especially as a young, attractive, terrified person who is the last living member of the previous royal family who is likely being kept alive partly as a combination trophy/punching bag for the evil queen (even if the show never actually states this outright).

And then by some miracle, what's left of your family comes back after all this time. The evil queen is overthrown, partly because you yourself finally stood up to her at a critical moment. You and your country are finally free again, and what's more, you and your family are finally together again after over 4 decades. But you still feel like an outsider--partly because you always were an outsider in your family even in the better times and partly because  over the past 41(!) years, time stood still for all of them except you.

And as a result, no one ever cares to ask what those 41 years were like for you or even just if you’re doing okay. Not only because your family can’t even begin to comprehend what it must have been like, but also because they don’t care to even *try* to understand. Because the narrative has decided that everyone else’s respective traumas is worth way more than your own.  (Though tbf the narrative really doesn’t dwell much on anyone’s trauma in general but yours gets especially neglected , except to briefly play it for laughs or to remind you that your trauma is *your own fault and only your own*).

For a little while, life is pretty okay. It’s weird not having to watch your step every instant to make sure you’re not putting a toe out of line. And so you never really fully break out of your “survival mode” conditioning, making sure that you are still considered important and valuable enough to keep around.

But all the while, you know that your past—and especially your terrible little secret—is eventually going to come back to haunt you. And it does. First via blackmail and then via the return  of the evil witch-queen herself. Fortunately, she is defeated for good before she can take avenge your “betrayal of her” but you still have to deal with seeing the ghost from the past who terrorized you for 41(!) years.

And then, your secret finally comes out in the open and you are disowned by your family—the family you *just* got back a few years ago—for an admittedly super bad decision that you made over four decades ago and have regretted ever since.  Rather than face the rest of your life in isolation (as though you didn’t already have enough of that during the previous regime), you escape before you can be sent into exile. This puts you directly in the path of *another* terrifying, evil magical milf who you are forced to ally yourself with. Because you have 40+ years of conditioning that when a woman like that says “jump,” you say “how high?” if you are to have any hope of survival.  Especially given that the only people who could’ve protected you from her are the family and friends who have just definitively washed their hands of you.

Despite this, you are still trying to seek your cousin’s forgiveness and to protect her in the little ways that you can. But you are constantly getting rebuffed over and over again, and if anything, your attempts at reconciliation only seem to make your cousin angrier, and she now hates you just as much as—if not MORE than—the woman who actually murdered her parents.

Your cousin is so angry at you specifically that she actively ignores the greater threat of Witchy Milf 2.0, because she happens to see your face and is enraged. This ends up backfiring spectacularly for you both, though it does indirectly lead to the defeat of said Witchy Milf 2.0.

But guess what?  There’s no time to breathe or celebrate, because her defeat occurred during the successful summoning of a third power-mad, feminine-presenting magical humanoid and her allies. At least, this one treats you with some initial respect and actually gives you outright what you-think-you’ve-thought-you-always wanted. But she also turns your family and friends to stone in front of you as a warning of what’s to come if you dare to defy her.

But this time, you are finally done with this, have finally lost enough that you have paradoxically found your courage. You sacrifice yourself to save your cousin, and she is finally able to accept that you’ve sacrificed and changed enough that she can forgive you. And her forgiveness is so powerful and pure that it not only restores you to life but also undoes all the other evil magic. Together, you defeat this final enemy, paradoxically by banishing her to the same Underworld where your mistakes accidentally sent your aunt and uncle and her parents long ago.  Peace has been restored. You have returned for good and are finally secure in your family’s love.

And after all that, there are *still* people (both presumably in universe and in the fandom outside of it) who say it's too little, too late and that it would've been better for everyone if you'd simply stayed dead.

Like I'm just... are we really victim-blaming the character who has 45 years of unprocessed trauma and guilt (both survivor's guilt and guilt in general) because of a decision he made when his brain was still developing and he was being manipulated by an older, much more powerful person?

[ivomartins]

(HS anon, yes me, again. Thought you've seen the last of me)

Allow me to ramble about Plague for a bit. Because the author did her dirty from the beginning. I hated that she was not taken seriously. Oh, she's drunk and gushing over Malbonte. Because of course she is, Malbonte is just so. Cool 🙄.

Plague. Deserved. Better. 👏 She was that bitch who deserved to be a LI. In fact, she deserved it more than Astaroth or whatever his boring ass is called.

I was more than ready to welcome her with open arms and accept her as the fucked up queen she is. But let's be real, imagine if Plague was a LI and people had to accept her as she is. No redemption arc, just bad bitch doing bad shit, throwing sick parties and enjoying it. Bitches can't accept Amen is a sadistic fuck very sexy of him in this house we stan fucked up individuals no justification whatsoever. Imagine if they had to do the same with her when she's a woman. Hell, Austie gets destroyed by fans every time she apears and this sexy mama hasn't done anything besides breathing. Like what did she do, besides the fact that she stood 5 seconds next to Lucifer and Malbonte.

...

Oooooh.

This past update taught me that RC fans aren't ready for a sexy diabolical queen like Plague to be a LI. They don't deserve a bad mommy I do though. In fact, they don't deserve any bad motherfucker as a LI, when they still go pikachu mode when the evil LI does the evil thing. Shocking. I know.

my inbox is your abode anon feel free to talk my ear off always i'm living for your rants (and your taste) 💗

plague deserved so much better you're 👏🏼 goddamn 👏🏼 right 👏🏼 like she had the most potential for depth out of all the horsemen and it was completely wasted when the author chose to just depict her as an angry little girl making the entire world pay for her temper tantrum like. not even her connection with kira was explored or given any attention and in the end she died clearly because alice just didn't know what to do w her anymore smh

i never thought of the idea of her being a LI but you're so right that would have been really good i mean. vicky is out here running into the arms of lucifer/malbonte after they've spent the vast majority of the story emotionally abusing her so the same could have been done with plague ESPECIALLY because she and vicky have the mommy issues in common and they share the same temper and childish antics like pls... it would have worked and worked great especially because it would have balanced the fucked up ratio of LIs a bit by adding another woman besides mimi but this story is just too cookie cutter. i actually like to think that plenty of fans would have enjoyed romancing plague because we only get interesting femme LIs like every once in a blue moon 🙃 but i see your point for sure

don't get me started on the outrage against amen like HDKSHDKE it was so funny to me because ??? wow i guess evthys isn't the only one who needed to see it w her own eyes to know who she's dealing with HDKSJDK that was such a meta moment lol like evthys has spent an entire season and a half being terrified of this guy despite how much she's into him of fucking course there's a reason for that and he's actually as terrible as we all thought

i don't think it takes away at all from the kindness and consideration he's shown towards evthys and his genuine feelings for her because two things can be true at once and no character is ever just this or that. i still have gripes with the writing for him (a rant for another day) but i agree that the outrage was so unwarranted

[official-zerg-fangirl]

how do you feel about kerrigan going super Saiyan in Legacy of the Void? what about the Amon plot in general?

(idk if you get notifications when a question is answered publicly, so @fall-warning hi, also THANKS FOR SENDING THIS. I LOVE ATTENTION I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY GIRL)

Oh, That Jean Grey ass Kerrigan transformation is half the reason my bio says "Starcraft 2 never happened, Metzen can suck my dick." *

*the other half is the Kerrinor Kiss, because on Official-zerg-fangirl, the running gag is I have an irrational hate for Raynor bcs I was one of Those middle school girls who would legit be jealous of a fictional character (I just didn't realize what i felt was jealousy bcs i didnt know i was gay)

I hate it! I HATE IT. IT SUCKS.

I am normally an extremely big fan of fire, and red, and phoenixes, and literal deities, and women being any or all of the above. But none of that should have been Kerrigan, and definitely not in the way it was handled. Fuck you, Blizzard. Fuck you for the insane bullshit happening behind the scenes, but also fuck you for what LotV did to my girl!

I refuse to play any part of LotV to this day! I don't fucking care! Sorry to the protoss stans, it's great that you got so much extra lore with Alarak or whatever, but absolutely FUCK what they did to my girl!

oh but I loved the amon plotline tho.

"m'am, why the fuck" it was validating it was powerful it is everything the character arc of the entire Zerg species was building up to and it turned Kerrigan into the antihero she was always meant to be, and LotV is probably great but that epilogue ruined it with a pointless second transformation.

[more deranged rambling below]

Look, Kerrigan's character arc in Brood War was top notch it was S tier it was great I wrote a literal essay about how I do sincerely believe Kerrigan in SC1 + Brood War had a heroic character arc, and I am of course correct, and the canon agrees, BUT WE WILL GET TO THAT,

now initially ofc i was like naw SC2 never happened. Obviously I've softened on that opinion (but saying it never happened is funny. so is acting like everyone is missing the point of Kerrigan except for me. this blog is the space where i get to play up an extremely cocky persona ok)

SC2's general insistence (at least that's my first impression) on treating her zergness like a boring corruption and "ooh Kerrigan was good before but she's evil now" bothers me. like they do this to her instead of, oh I don't know, she was abused and exploited as a child fucking soldier, she latched onto the guy who 'saved' her and was too wrapped up in the exhilaration of having someone who 'cared' about her that she couldn't recognize she was being used as literal fucking bait, and then he LEFT HER TO FUCKING GET EATEN BY ALIENS, and by the grace of fucking god, those aliens saw her value and potential in a way no one else ever could, they elevated her, made her stronger, gave her the means to break off the shackles implanted in her skull (remember the Amerigo mission???), and from that point on, all the anger she'd been harboring from all those years of abuse could run freely, so of fucking course she became impatient and vengeful!

Yes, Kerrigan was extremely destructive, spiteful, cruel,even! But you think someone who's only ever known violence and death and cruelty could ever be anything else? are we so naiive as to imagine a perfectly human Sarah Kerrigan would not become the Queen of Blades Her fatal flaw is wrath, you see how quick she is to anger when she fights Tassadar. To quote the man himself,

"So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy."

she is predictable because of her wrath. In her beginning as the Queen of Blades, she's too consumed by all her fury, by her newfound power that she can and will use to demolish everyone who's wronged her, and she hasn't yet learned the wisdom required to use said power. this is a flaw she overcomes in Brood War, wherein she delays her fury and rage to arrange a temporary alliance, to wait for just the right moment to have her vengeance and crush her enemies.

aaaaaand here's the Wings of Liberty campaign going like "Zerg turned her evil. yeah she's killing and infecting terrans bcs that's what zerg do. we need to redeem her by removing her zergyness."

like - no acknowledgement to the fact that the terrans are currently being commanded by the dude who used her and then fucking left her to die???? bro like of all people you'd think Raynor would understand why she's waging war on the Dominion HE'S LITERALLY DOING THE SAME THING, but Blizzard gonna Blizzard and the final boss is Kerrigan bcs Raynor's gotta work with the Dominion to neutralize the greater threat - which is somehow Kerrigan. Okay.

It just really rubbed me the wrong way. Can you tell that it rubbed me the wrong way?

but then it redeemed itself. Bcs the Amon plotline.

NO I AM NOT JOKING. FUCK YOU THE AMON PLOTLINE WAS GOOD.

"oh but it derails everything and now my simple slapfight between humans and two aliens has transformed into some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil" fuck no it doesn't it was foreshadowed back in Brood War did you forget Duran? the fuck you think that man was doing if NOT foreshadowing that some fucking hidden power beyond every race's leaders was controlling the situation specifically through the Zerg? Even BEFORE Brood War, the lore that the Zerg and Protoss were both created by the xel'naga and that the Zerg were specifically created with a mandate to assimilate the Protoss was right the fuck there. you know who said that shit? THE OVERMIND. Pay attention bro, Amon was there all along!

Could he have maybe been introduced in a less jarring way okay sure but he didn't derail shit, this WAS the rails, you just got too caught up in the surface level fighting to recognize what was happening!

also, the Amon plotline was (before that FUCKING EPILOGUE) so extremely validating to me, let me tell you a story about when i was playing HotS - no, even before HotS, whcih did a lot of good stuff, in fucking Wings of Liberty, a campaign I just spent a few paragraphs shitting on, it did one super good thing. it did the Zeratul missions. It did this shit:

oh I imagine a lot of Starcraft fans hated this cutscene bcs it was an out of nowhere messiah plotline delivered via literal exposition ghost, but, see, I'm smarter than your average Starcraft fan, I am a genius and I'm sexy, and I know my wife Kerrigan better than anyone, even the fucking Starcraft writers (suck my dick Metzen) and I see this cutscene at 7:33PM, April 29, 2021, and I ran into my friend's DMs and said "I FUCKING CALLED IT"

BECAUSE I WROTE A FANFIC (unfinished, novel-length, self-indulgent, OCxKerrigan, highly nsfw, no I haven't posted it anywhere I wanna finish it first I wanna perfect it).

AND IN THAT FANFIC I WROTE SOMETHING SO ABSOLUTELY DERANGED I FIGURED IT WAS JUST SELF INDULGENT ABSOLUTE SKEWERING OF THE CANON JUST TO RUN SHAMELESS ZERG APOLOGIA:

I wrote that the Overmind, before capturing Kerrigan at New Gettysburg, telepathically communicated with her, and very specifically said that her human psionic mind would resist control until the bitter end, that it would kill itself rather than accept forced subjugation into the zerg, and THUS he had to ask Kerrigan PERMISSION, that he couldn't and didn't want to strip her of her free will, and he specifically promised to her power, and purpose, and the potential to usurp his place as the leader of the Zerg, and he specifically welcomed that possibility-

and like that's stupid that's so fucking stupid, why would the zerg ever value free will why would the Overmind pursue to the ends of the earth a servant that he couldn't control, that he knew could and would one day usurp him? there's no way this is canon-compliant-

IT IS

AND NOT JUST CANON-COMPLIANT, IT'S FUCKING CANON. ACTUALLY LITERALLY CANON.

STRAIGHT FROM TASSADAR'S MOUTH, THE OVERMIND DID THAT SHIT. THE GODDAMN EYEMONSTER HAD PLANNED ALL ALONG FOR KERRIGAN TO HAVE FREE WILL AND THAT HE SPECIFICALLY VALUED HER FREEDOM.

The only reason I can't say I predicted the future is because I started writing this fic after WoL released, but I clearly had some sort of precognition I fucking knew I was on the wavelength my deranged apologia was canon I was right.

OH AND THIS AMON SHIT GIVES ME FULL JUSTIFICATION TO BE A GREATER APOLOGIST THAN I EVER COULD BEFORE. BEFORE IT WAS LIKE "c'mon the zerg aren't people, they're mindless demons of destruction" OHHH NO YOU DON'T MOTHERFUCKER! THEY ARE PEOPLE, THEY HAVE MINDS AND FEELINGS AND WILL AND THEY'RE BEING CONTROLLED BY THEIR CREATOR - NO, THEIR CORRUPTER, AGAINST THEIR BEST INTERESTS,

AND THE PRIMAL ZERG, THE PRIMAL ZERG! THEIR GLORIOUS PAST! ZERUS, THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE AMON'S MEDDLING, WHERE THERE IS NO CONTROL AND NO DESOLATION, ONLY THE RULE OF THE HUNT! HERE, WE SHALL FORGE A VISION OF THE LIBERATED SWARM, REUNITE WITH OUR PAST TO FORGE A BETTER FUTURE, AND OH LET'S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE PARALLELS BETWEEN WHAT AMON DID TO THE ZERG AND WHAT THE GHOST PROGRAM DID TO KERRIGAN,

BECAUSE THAT'S JUST IT, KERRIGAN IS THE SWARM, WHICH IS WHY SHE BELONGS IN THE SWARM.

SHE AND THE ZERG BOTH EXIST AS BEINGS OF INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL WHOSE FUTURES WERE STOLEN AND CORRUPTED FOR THE SAKE OF A HIGHER POWER'S TWISTED WAR GAME, TURNED INTO A LIVING WEAPON AND SET TOWARDS A CAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN, THEY ARE CHAINED AND THEY WILL ONLY ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST SELVES ONCE THOSE CHAINS ARE BROKEN,

and this entire fucking theme of subjugation and of being transformed into a living weapon was in Brood War, too! That was what the UED did to the Zerg! This is why Kerrigan is the hero of Brood War, an entire species was enslaved and her, with her human mind, was the only hope anyone had of not submitting to Earth's slave army! Amon is simply the greater master who enslaves the zerg more subtly, with chains that are harder to break because they permeate across the hive mind link itself,

And by the fucking WAY, the revelations of that xel'naga relic, Zeratul's visions, the insight given by Zurvan of the primal Zerg, all bring such a delicious context to the entire wings of liberty campaign, and they make that campaign good and make everything I complained about earlier just an extra spicy flavoring and a dash of gray to our terran heroes, THEY MADE ME ACTUALLY LIKE RAYNOR???

bcs you know what, fine, perhaps Raynor does see the Queen of Blades as nothing but pure evil, perhaps he does choose to ally with the Dominion to destroy her, that is his human perspective, as someone who loved Kerrigan but knew her so briefly, all he can truly see is the Zerg as he understands them, the mindless living weapon, the infested terrans that beg for death as they seek to tear you limb from limb. We are imperfect, we aren't omniscient, perhaps I should forgive Raynor for his short-sightedness. He cannot concieve of harmony with the zerg because of what he has seen, so of course his dear friend is corrupted, infested, controlled, and he has to free her, and maybe he can make this deal with the devil. From his eyes, this is the best route he can take. He even knows he should not kill her, he knows what she's meant to be, and he has no idea how she'll go from the monster he sees now to the savior of Zeratul's prophecy, so he does what he thinks is best.

and as we see in HotS (and i think also LotV a bit?), Raynor's choice to use the relic was a mistake, it robs the zerg of their salvation and feeds so much energy into Amon's greedy maw... but also, it wasn't a mistake.

See, Kerrigan's temporary severance from the swarm frees her of the influence of Amon on her mind (though I am adamant that her actions have been PRIMARILY motivated by rage and vengeance and spite!), and when she sheds her humanity once more and properly returns to the Swarm, it is in the sacred birthplace of all Zerg, on the planet that obeys the law of nature, where hardship and violence are tools to produce an ever-greater self, and all that she has suffered will become her strength,

AND KERRIGAN ASCENDS - NO, EVOLVES - INTO HER PRIMAL SELF IN ORDER TO FULLY REALIZE THE OVERMIND'S PLOT OF LIBERATION. I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG AND SHE WAS A HERO, THANK YOU HEART OF THE FUCKING SWARM YOU REDEEMED SC2.

which just makes the fucking fire lady 'oh shes not zerg anymore she's xel'naga heehee' feel all the more bullshit???? Like, i thought it was bullshit before I knew anything abt HotS but now its SUPER bullshit, bcs primal kerrigan WAS her perfected self. She didn't NEED to become xel'naga. SHE IS ZERG! SHE IS THE QUEEN OF BLADES!

It's just so pointless. Nothing you could do to Kerrigan in this literal final hour of the entire Starcraft franchise could possibly be as thematically powerful as the Zerus arc, and you should've just continued those themes. leave Kerrigan's character arc concluded. Stop fucking with it. You had something amazing and you fumbled the bag at the literal last second. seriously, what the fuck? THAT'S how you end the series? What happened in the writers' room- other than the creepy misogynist bullshit we already know was happening, of course?

anyways yeah I hope that satisfied your curiosity. :D i don't wanna know how many words this was, I just know it took me like 2h to write. maybe more. I don't have a good sense of time. it's the autism.

[glorytoukraine2022]

Hi. I’m here for another post. This post has one topic: The mothers of Elena of Avalor and TTS (or in the case of the latter, the lack-thereof). In this post, I will be comparing the treatment of mothers in Elena of Avalor to the treatment of mothers in Tangled the Series. So tighten your seatbelts!

I don’t know about all of you, but in the first half of season 1 and season 2, I found myself wondering about who Carla and Naomi’s mothers were. Did you? And lo and behold! Our questions were answered! We were given insight into who they were, explainations for their absences from their children’s lives, and their relationship with their daughters.

Of course, Ash turned out to be a terrible person and mother, but given that there are many wonderful mothers in Elena of Avalor, I would hardly call Ash’s existence a referendum on how Elena of Avalor treats and views mothers. As horrible as Ash turned out to be, I’m still glad we found out about her and who she was. Compare this to Tangled the series, where members of the fandom are still scratching their heads and wondering who Varian and Eugene’s mothers are, over a year after the show ended. The only thing we ever got of them were portraits!

One can ask, “Can it get any worse?“ and the answer is yes, yes it can.

The answers lie within the post series works of “The Rise of Flynn Rider” and “Varian and the Seven Kingdoms.”

I never read “The Rise of Flynn Rider” myself, but I know that the writer of that book got all the lore and backstories for Eugene from Chris Sonnenburg. According to the information I have recieved from those who have read the book, Eugene’s mother didn’t even have a NAME. Yep that’s right. She was just “Eugene’s mother.”

Based on this, we can assume that no thought was put into her character, or who she was, even for the show. This is infuriating, and shows a clear lack of respect for Eugene’s mother. We can only assume that the same applies to Varian’s mother as well, who was given just as little coverage as Eugene’ mother, even less, since at least we know how Eugene’s mother died. However, some amazing storyboard writers from the show who love Varian, tried to remedy that.

For those of you who don’t know, “Varian and the Seven Kingdoms” was an attempted graphic novel continuity of Varian’s adventures by two storyboard artists of the show, as mentioned above. However, Disney did not green light it. The plot was, that Quirin would give Varian an old journal that belonged to his mothe, Ulla, who was an Alchemist like him, and Varian woul set across the Seven Kingdoms to complete her work. However, by the end of the novel, it turned out that Ulla was not only alive, but evil.

At First, I was fine with this plot twist. I had nothing against Varian’s mother turning out to be the antagonist. That is, until I found out where it came from. Or rather, who.

Chris Sonnenburg.

Honestly, the more I find out about this guy, the more I begin to hate him and his twisted worldviews. According to writers behind Varian and the Seven Kingdoms, Chris Sonnenburg had the idea to make Varia’s mother evil, with the idea that Varian had inherited a “dark streak” from her. Hearing this greatly disturbed me beyond imagination. It was hearing this that made me denounce Varian and the Seven Kingdoms, or consider anything or any characters from it as canon. To this day, just the THOUGHT that this concept could have become canon TERRIFIES me.

Then, I had an epiphany.

If this was the mindset that Chris had in regards to Varian’s mother, than he must have had this same mindset in regards to Cassandra being Gothel’s daughter and her villain arc.

I want to make this clear to anybody who might be reading this, but the idea that a child inherits a “dark streak” from their parents or is destined to be a bad person because of who their parents were before them is a FALSE and outdated idea. Both Varian and Cassandra’s villain arcs were a reaction to trauma. Trauma that stems directly from Rapunzel and her mistreatment of them. A bad reaction to trauma does not make you a “villain“, or even remotely a bad person. It has NOTHING to do with inheritance or who you’re related to. The choices you make in life are completely disconnected to your relatives. Varian and Cassandra’s biological relations to their mothers have nothing to do with their trauma or decisions. They weren’t even raised by them!

When you put all this information concerning Varian and Eugene’s mothers, together with the lack of mothers in the show, or having them either be evil or insignificant, than this paints a very dark picture of the Executive Producer of the show and how it was written. Especially In regards to mother figures and how they are viewed by Chris Sonnenburg. Tangled The Series is a show insulting to mothers everywhere.

In Elena of Avalor, there are so many wonderful and heartwarming mother figures. We have Queen Lucia, Elena’s mother, who, despite her murder at the hands of Shuriki is depicted as a loving and supportive mother to Elena, even as a spirit. There’s Bianca Nuñez, Gabe’s mother, who is supportive and understanding of her son’s goals and has a loving relationship with him. There’s Rafa De Alva, Mateo’s loving, albeit overprotective mother who raised him alone as a single parent. She allowed Mateo to practice magic and even taught him how to dance, despite both being outlawed under Shuriki’s rule. She stood brave and strong, even under oppression. There’s Scarlet Turner Who despite being absent for a lot of Naomi’s childhood, always loved her and sent letters. In the show, she saw just how attached Naomi was to Avalor and how attached the Avalorans were to her, and decided to settle down in Avalor with her family. And an honerable mention, Luisa Flores, who tragically outlived both of her daughters, yet raised her grandson Esteban as her own and acted as a mother figure to both of her granddaughters, Elena and Isabel. Ash is the only rotten apple.

Yes, there are some parental figures who go unmentioned, such as Mateo’s father and Esteban’s mother. We know nothing of her besides her name: Margarita. However, given all of the positive mother and father figures this show has, I can forgive these few holes. Just like I said regarding Ash, I don’t view this as a referendum on the treatment of mother and father figures in EOA. There are so, so many loving mother and father figures in this show, and they are treated as equals. Mothers and fathers have an equal significance and impact on their children’s lives in Elena of Avalor.

Mothers everywhere are important. While it is understandable, In some cases, that some parental figures are not plot revenant or that there just isn’t enough time to include them, the lack of mothers and their insignificance in Tangled the Series. There’s no reason as to why Queen Arianna didn’t play more of a role in Rapunzel’s life in the Series. Just because they wanted to focus on her relationship with Fredric didn’t mean that there couldn’t have been more time for Arianna. We should have had more attention with Varian and Eugene’s mothers as well, and their spouses and children’s feelings regarding them. In Elena of Avalo, we get all of thi. There are moment, even songs, regarding the feelings childre have regarding their mothers. Even if they don’t get a lot of screen time, it is clear that they love their children and have a special place in their lives and hearts. Just like our own mothers.

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (3/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Yep yep yep, I'm liking this season a lot! 😍 Although I hope we'll get into a more frantic situation now, like with more battles and more bonding moments (Nya and Maya hopefully, but with Bentho too 🦈🦈🦈)! We got half a season to go, I'M READY!! 😎😎

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I do like the season a lot, maybe MoM was a little more cohesive? Idk but it's not a big complain, I still love it so far 😍

Also maybe I would've liked more interactions between Nya and Maya about how they've been apart for so long, they had a chit chat but I would've loved even more. Maybe with Nya saying that it was fine and she grew up only to realize she is still hurt by that, even though it wasn't Maya's fault. I still like how they did it, I wished there was more that's it 🤷‍♀️

While I do make sense to Maya's behavior, that while it seems a little different from Hands of Time it had its logic in my opinion, maybe Ray feels a little weird? He seems less courageous than before, and it was established that he is a hothead like his son so that came off as unusual 🤔🤔

But I do love the fact that he's here and he's bonding with his son, for real, I've been waiting for this for so long so I'm happy nonetheless 🤩

Maybe I'm just easy to please and I take all I can get idk 😅

THE STORM AMULET

Oh, are we gonna address the wind element? It feels like we haven't really seen a Morro reference since Hands of Time, that would be cool! 😍 I mean, why even mentioning the wind then 😅😅

Well what do you know, they tracked them, who saw that coming?... me, I saw that coming... we all did probably 🤷‍♀️

Jay took upon himself making a quick recap on how Ninjago will be destroyed this time, thanks Bluebell 👌

Yep nyeheh electricity makes Nya go crazy for sure ❤💙 ... wait it wasn't a Jaya pun?

Jay wear your seatbelt please, you risk you life enough 😅😅 Pff lol "are we there yet" and they are actually there, biggest plot twist I've ever heard of 😂

LEGO HUG 💜💜💜

And with someone who might as well join the League of Jay apparently 💙

I liked The Island yet it was not as exciting as I hoped for, but now understand the meaning of it. The ninja helped the keepers and they are all allies. Without The Island the moment where Mammatus gives Nya the amulet wouldn't be as meaningful

Is it just me or Nya looked even more gorgeous during that moment?... just me huh? Okay then 😂💕

Wait that's a fake? Wait... UNCLE POWERS?!? OMG THAT I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE COMING 🤯

Here I thought he was just messing around, he always makes things harder 😅 Or maybe better? I mean, they kinda missed a bullet on this one...

BENTHO IS SO SWEET AND COOL OMG HE IS ALREADY OUR FRIEND 💙🦈💙🦈

Jay somehow had his own TV show in the past and yet he's got that horrible acting skills wth 😂😂😂

Kalmaar is a very cool villain, like, deeply evil. Not only he's calculated and merciless, he stops at nothing to get what he wants. And the people that get in the way? He wants them to suffer because they had dared to confront him 😳

And yes the voice does help a lot, I'm sorry I'll keep saying it until the season is over 😂 (or even beyond? Please cast Giles again LEGO 🥺🥺🥺)

Awww Nya no my poor girl 😢 Jay wanted to hug her to comfort her he is so sweet my SHIP ❤💙❤💙

MOM PEP TALK MOM PEP TALK!!! 🤩🤩🤩 How cool was it?

Like, this isn't even Maya asking Nya to believe in herself, this is her saying that she KNOWS her daughter can do anything when she puts her mind into it. FINALLY SHE SEES HOW AMAZING WATER GODDESS IS 💜💜💜

MORE LEGO TEARS OMG THIS SEASON IS FILLED WITH TEARS 😱 Which... kinda makes sense considering it's a water based season 😂

Nice one, and now? NOW WE GO BACK TO KAI COLE AND RAY YAS!!! ❤🖤❤🖤

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

That is... surprisingly Egypt theme like? It feels like a title coming from the Fire Chapter of season 11... well we got two fire elementals so 😍😍

SPARRING KAI AND RAY

I REPEAT SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! ❤❤❤ Lol Ray got old, but how can someone blame him? He did touch death while aging in Hands of Time, I'm just happy he is alive 😂

Yep, master prankster Wu, that's what I love 👌👌 I always thought Wu had become a father figure for Kai at the beginning, so seeing Ray and Wu in the same picture feels very wholesome to me 😚

Ah, uncle Powers, I both love you and hate you so freaking much 😌😌 But you make cool slides nonetheless 😂

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BEAUTIFUL SMITH INTERACTIONS??

BECAUSE I LIKE IT KEEP GOING 🤩

Oh no you guys are stranded on an island whatever are you going to do?? It's not like you had already before and managed to survive (Skybound) or you got stranded on a rock in a sea of sand filled with giant monsters (Fire Chapter) or you were on a freaking COMET in SPACE (Rebooted). Yeee, this is the worst yet 🙂

I'm starting to think these ninja are just a bunch of drama queens so no matter what happens, it's always hopeless 😂😂 I feel like I'm kinda right on this one honestly 😛

Whoa whoa WHOA WHO IS NYAD THIS SOUNDS VERY COOL???

Aww I like that, while Ray told his kids stories about dragons and how they traveled through the Underworld, Maya told them about Nya the first water master that could summon whales 💙❤💙❤

Pff imagine if it turned out Nya was the master of fire, carrying a very water based name? Lol

Maya: I would know if it was possible!

Nya: Yeah, like she knows that I can control a bit of ice because it's frozen water

Maya:...

Maya: YOU WHAT

I find both interesting and very annoying that this explorers club thinks so highly of themselves, to the point the deny to aid even the FREAKING SAVIORS OF THEIR FREAKING LAND 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Misako got good reflexes after all, Kai was probably ready to melt this guy's face 😅

Oh, so a trial by Sphinx is a challenge? A mental one? A cultural one? A physical one? Idk but Misako is actually taking charge and that is cool I guess 🤷‍♀️

Okay this is kind of weird, how is Ray so afraid? Is it because there's fire?... did he... did he grow afraid of fire for some reason? Because it feels a bit off for now, but if there is a deeper meaning that could be interesting 🤔

Wait is that the riddle from Decoded? That's fire right?

IT IS FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

Lol at least in this one Kai wasn't completely ignored 😂 I know my flame babe isn't the most rational person, but I do like that it was an answer connected to his element where he used his head!

Ah Clutch, you really got no backbone 😅 And apparently you're the only explorer who doesn't, dang look at the others go! I'm having a bit more respect for them now 😚

LOOK AT SENSEI GO FINALLY!!! 😍😍 FIGHTING SCENES HECK YES!!!

Kalmaar: I'm your conquerer

Wu: so after skeletons, the serpentine, nindroids, the Stone Army, Chen's army, ghosts, oni, more snakes but on fire and people from a game, that makes you the tenth. Have a free cookie

Kalmaar:...

Wu: you're not special

Is this a little throwback to Possession too? Nya seems to always control better water when she doesn't actually think about it. When her feelings are free, so are her powers 🌊🌊🌊

Also this opens up more possibilities! Creatures connected with other elements might get summoned too! I would love something like that 😍😍

This was NEAT, or maybe I just missed Kai that much ❤ What's next??

PAPERGIRL

ANTONIAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GIRL IS BACK!!! All my girls are back in this season, I'm so happy 😍😍😍 And if she is here, sweet little Nelson has to be around and I cannot wait! Bring in the purple ninja! 💜

Owww Antonia's last day as a papergirl? Nooo why??

She's got a job at the... DAIRY DRAGON??? OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE ICE CREAM PLACE BRAGI TOLD US ABOUT ON TWITTER!!! 🤩🤩🤩 I remember the post, he was asking about names for the place and ice cream flavors. Now I can't wait to see what did he choose 🍦🍦🍦

UNAGAMI BABY HI HONEY!!! 🙋‍♀️ I hope he's doing great 😘😘

This is so cool honestly, Antonia got her own character arc going on! Living in a chaotic city like Ninjago City must be pretty dang exhausting 😅

Was... was that Dareth in the garbage can? Am I wrong? Poor brown ninja 😅🤎😅

SPINJITZU SWIRL, BANANAKHAN, ORANGE SERPENTINE, I'M DYING 😂😂😂

Their friendship is so wholesome, I'm so happy they are still together no matter what happens 💕

I thought Kalmaar wasn't much of a fighter but DANG he's got skills! Also the fact that he uses tentacles makes the fight very cool to watch! 😚😚

RAY RUNNING IN AFTER KAI GOT HURT HECK YES ❤❤❤

Well at least you tried Ray 😅

Ah, little cameo of the original Weekend Whip, always nice to hear it again... AND DO THE WEEKEND WHIP!!! 🌪🌪🌪

EVEN NELSON GOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'M SO PROUD 💜

I don't even know what is cooler, the kids being mad lads on their bikes, Kalmaar driving a TRUCK or Kai going full parkour on the buildings to follow them 🤯

I'm sorry... am I the only one that during the Kai and Kalmaar talk kinda thought of Jestro and Clay? I miss my boys from NK, they're even more at odds now 😭😭

KAI YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE OR EVEN TRY TO DIE GET BACK HERE AT ONCE 😱😱

Kalmaar just loves to make everyone feel inferior, gotta be his hobby 😶

Oh good Kai is back

OH NOT GOOD KAI IS NOT BREATHING?!? FLAME BABE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE 😱😱😱

Antonia, Nelson, you guys are now my heroes. You saved my fave, I'll be forever in dept with you ❤❤❤ Am I being overdramatic? Most likely, but Kai is one of the few that didn't almost die or did die in a dramatic situation and he is also my absolute favorite character so that... kinda keeps my sanity in check in this show 🥴

I wonder... does he still not know how to swim? He saved Lloyd in Possession but I wonder if he was only trying to float on the surface... THAT'S TERRIFYING

This episode was so adorable, I love Antonia and Nelson so much 💜💕💜💕 It's nice to see what the other people of Ninjago do while everything goes mad 🤣

Wait hang on my Ninjajan is a little rusty

"Ninjago City. City that never sleeps" well if that ain't the truth 😂

MASTER OF THE SEA

Like Master of the Mountain? Wait are we going back to Shintaro?? VANYA?? ANOTHER BEST GIRL RETURNS??? 💛

Hey hey hey, we got a full Nyad backstory! I really like when they do these little drawn shots, they feel more like legends! And... the ending sounds terrifying? Like, they wouldn't let Nya sacrifice herself and die... again... right? 😱

Bentho: and the world was in balance, until now because of my brother

Lloyd: and the Overlord before of course

Bentho: the what now?

Lloyd: the evil one my grandpa the first Spinjitzu Master fought?

Bentho: YOUR WHAT NOW

Why do I like this offscreen "hiiiyaaa" that sensei Wu does before actually going into the scene? 😂😂

No matter if they come from the underground or the sea, these are all snake-like creature with the same intellect 😅 Kalmaar and Garmadon would have a lot to talk about, sea king dealing with his minions does remind me of Lord Garmadon in season 2 a lot 😂😂

KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

OMG Kalmaar is such a brat and petty villain I love him so much 😂😂😂 Yes I didn't even mention his amazing voice!... AH DANG IT 😳😳

*Misako kicks Kalmaar and is actually useful* 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

*Misako gets taken as hostage immediately after* 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

KAI LITERALLY JUST GOT SAVED FROM DROWNING WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!... and Ray and Cole and Wu of course, I care okay 😅

OMG that face 🤣🤣🤣

That some meme material right there

Whoa Vincent that voice just got super up when the Unsinkable showed up, it kinda sounded like Jay's lol

NO NOT BENTHO!!! 😢😢😢

Kai: Nya talks to whales now? (I snorted so hard at this 😂😂)

HECK YES NYA GOT THE AMULET!! 😍😍😍 ... we got, like, four more episodes to go so something needs to happen in between... do I need to be scared? I feel like I need to be scared 😅

Jay starting a fire then blaming Kai?... this is so in character I got chills 😂😂

SHARK BOY IS STAYING TO THE MONASTERY THIS IS SO PRECIOUS!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I want all the shenanigans and we need to write fanfictions about more shenanigans and AAAAHHHHH 🦈🦈🦈

Bless these two fire idiots

They own my heart ❤🔥❤🔥 Also Vincent, this is supposed to be a fun little gag moment, your amazing voice acting is kinda distracting me 😭😭😭

ANOTHER LEGO HUG

YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING ME OVER HERE HECK YES 💙🌊💙🌊

Maya learned that her daughter is capable of everything, I love that. Nya simply understood that she doesn't have to give up when something gets difficult. She is AMAZING and can do anything she puts her mind into. She simply has to hold on until the end 💪💪💪

Omg Benthomaar playing billiard with the guys I already love this 😍😍

YES IT IS SHINTARO!!! THE UPPLY ARE HERE OMG!!! HI VANYA YOU LOOK AMAZING GIRL MISS YOU I HOPE YOU'RE DOING OKAY!!! 💛💛💛 ... I just really like Master of the Mountain okay 😅

I love how Vanya doesn't even question it. It comes from Cole and he said it needs to be protected? Done and done 👌

Wait what, did something fall?

IS THAT THE FAKE?!?!? WHAT HOW WHEN??? UNCLE POWERS??? OR KALMAAR DID SOMETHING??? SOMEONE??? I'M LEGIT CONFUSED AND EXCITED??? 🤯🤯🤯

Well dang, I didn't see that coming, now what Seabound? What do you have for me?

[littlemisssquiggles]

What do you think of the idea of Emerald/Oscar? They have some soft moments together.

Hello Sweet o/ Well this squiggle meister is definitely on-board with the Green Team/Emerald City pair as a FRIEND-ship with Emerald being yet another proxy big sister figure to “adopt” Oscar as their close companion whereas the little prince in turn could finally provide Emerald with the strong and devoted family type of bond that Emerald truly wants and failed to garner from the villain side especially with Cinder Fall who she saw as a “mother” or close guardian figure who saved her from her former life of poverty.

Another reason why I like the Emerald City duo is because I’d like to think that part of Oscar’s willingness to believe in Emerald and desire to look out for her stems from him and Oz essentially fulfilling Hazel’s role of continuing to watch over her in his absence.

After all, it wasn’t just Oscar to be saved from Monstra. Emerald was too. Hazel Rainart gave his life to ensure that both Oscar and Emerald were finally free of Salem and since Hazel is gone, Oscar probably sees it as his right to stand by Em in his place; especially since he also owes her for his salivation.

Plus, a second reason why I think the showrunners may be pushing the Emerald City bond is because, ultimately, Emerald will become the next Fall Maiden; replacing Cinder Fall. 

Think about it. Professor Ozpin was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy. Beacon Academy is the fortress secretly housing the Vault of the Fall Maiden which contains the Crown of Choice---the only relic that Salem couldn’t acquire on her own since the true path to claiming it still rests in Ozma’s memories. Memories that will soon be passed onto Oscar Pine who is Ozma’s current incarnate officially succeeding Professor Ozpin.

Even if Oscar gains the knowledge to locate the Relic of Choice; he and the heroes would still need the hand of the Fall Maiden to open the vault. And as it stands, the Fall Maiden powers still rest with Cinder Fall who Emerald Sustrai was a former affiliate of and whom she shares a bond with; whether Cinder dares to admit it or not.

You see where I’m going with this?

 Emerald becoming the Fall Maiden after Cinder has been a headcanon for her that I’ve been rooting for since the conclusion of V5. Based on how things are shaping up and what is required to move forward, I think Cinder’s final curtain call may be drawing near and what would actually be most fitting is if Emerald is the one to deal the killing blow to Cinder.

As a matter of fact, it would almost be symbolic if Emerald is the one of all characters to be the one to put a stop to Cinder---not only saving the others from her but also ironically saving Cinder from herself. Emerald killing Cinder would be an act of mercy from someone who genuinely loved Cinder and wanted nothing but the best for her. And why I love this idea is because it would be a fantastic parallel to the end of Cinder’s backstory in the Midnight episode.

In RWBY V8CH6, Cinder’s path and descent in her megalomaniac madness was forged the instant she killed Rhodes. Say what you will about him as a character; Rhodes cared deeply for Cinder…even up until the moment she cut him down with the very same weapon he gifted her. 

So with that in mind, imagine how fitting of an ending it would be if Cinder died the very same way she was ‘born’, essentially.

You can pretty much say that the person we know Cinder Fall to be was born when she killed her former mentor and the one person in her life that actually genuinely cared about her at the time. 

 So…imagine the poetic irony that would be for Cinder Fall to now die---killed by the hands of her own former apprentice and the one person in her life who genuinely cared about her at the time---Emerald Sustrai.

Imagine if…Emerald kills Cinder and Cinder gets a strange sense of déjà vu because not only did her surprised expression at being killed by Emerald reflect the one Rhodes made to her the night he died but through Emerald, Cinder sees her former young self---the side of her she discarded when she chose her path that night. 

Cinder began her path with the bloody end of a blade through the chest of someone close to her. So for Emerald to kill Cinder the same way---even better if it’s done with her very own weapon---then that would be…downright perfect as ending to Cinder’s arc.

Apologies to all the Cinder Fall fans reading this post. The CRWBY showrunners have had Cinder dance with death one too many times. I myself have honestly been curious about how Cinder’s story was going to end in the canon. While I still like my Red Queen headcanon for her, I would be okay with Cinder dying if Emerald was the one to kill her.

NOT Ruby. NOT Jaune. But Emerald. If there is one character who would be most fitting to be the one to put an end to Cinder Fall, it would be Emerald.

Killing Cinder, especially if it was done in protection and/or aid of the heroes, would be the final nail in Emerald’s own arc of “switching sides”.

As stated back between V6 and V8, Cinder was technically the one thing still tying Em to the side of evil as she once remarked that she was only on Salem’s side out of her loyalty to Cinder. Emerald already left Salem but Cinder still lives as an anchor to possibly tempt Em back to the side of evil. But if Em were to be the one to stop Cinder, then that cord would finally be cut thus cementing Emerald as being on the side of good---officially in respect to her story.

Emerald helping to save Oscar and return him to his allies on Monstra doesn’t make her a “good guy”. Emerald helping our heroes take down Ironwood, help Penny and save the refugees of Atlas and Mantle doesn’t even make her a “good guy” either.

But stopping Cinder Fall for good---to be the one to put her down and essentially save everyone from the monster she knew Cinder would ultimately become if not stopped--- that, to me, would be the move to officiate Emerald Sustrai as a “good guy”.

Even better if Cinder were to plant the tough choice right in Em’s face. Imagine if…Cinder puts Oscar’s life in danger and orders Em to be the one to kill Oscar for her; like the devoted pawn she always treats her as. Imagine if…Em is placed in a position where she is made to choose between her old loyalty to Cinder as a villain or her newfound loyalty to Oscar as a hero.

Just as how Cinder was Emerald’s anchor to the villains on Salem’s side, Oscar is technically now Emerald’s anchor to the heroes on Ozpin’s side. So if Cinder forces Em to kill Oscar but Em ends up killing Cinder instead to save Oscar for a second time----this would be it. This would be the deed that cements Emerald as formally giving up on Cinder and fighting for the side of good; at least in my humble opinion.

And the cherry on top would be that killing Cinder causes the Fall Maiden powers to go directly to Emerald and if Emerald becomes the Fall Maiden---the maiden tied to the vault and relic housed in the school that is tied to Professor Ozpin whose very successor is her closest ally on the hero team---I’d like to think this would be a perfect conclusion to Emerald’s “arc”. I think that could work epically.

This is why I’m rooting for Em to become the next Fall Maiden. This happening would definitely further cement the Emerald City dynamic since Oscar’s new “big sister” or rather “cousin” would be the maiden tied to “his” relic needed to open “his” vault hidden in “his” school.

(I think I’d rather refer to Emerald as Oscar’s adopted cousin since I low-key like the concept of Oscar taking Emerald back home with him to Mistral only for her to be adopted immediately by his family since Emerald was an orphan who grew up on the streets and never truly had a family of her own but ultimately finds one with the Pines who willingly take her in. It FITS; dagnabbit.)

My one gripe with Emerald City duo though is that I wished it had better build-up throughout the series run. I’d be lying if the fact that Emerald and Oscar barely had any interactions prior to V8 definitely hurts the believability of them suddenly being close now with Oscar willing to vouch for the good in Emerald…even though he literally just met her like yesterday according to the timeline.

I know it helps the meme of Emerald “only knowing Oscar for 24 hours and would be willing to kill anyone who dares to hurt him” but from a storytelling perspective, I really wish the development of this dynamic had been delivered better. I mean I’m happy that we finally got the payoff of Emerald and Oscar becoming friends and seeing Em joining the heroes thanks to her friendship with Oscar…but it’s like eating a delicious cheese burger without the cheese.

You get to see the beginning of it and the joyful payoff of the end but the middle part that was needed to make it fully work is non-existent and ends up hurting it in respect to consistency. 

While I understand that Emerald helped to save Oscar’s life---that’s not really enough to sell his sudden faith in her. At least for me. Can’t speak for everyone else. Since, like I said, we barely got any scenes of Oscar and Em interacting before she showed up to help get him out of Monstra.

The ONLY thing that’s canonically helping sell Emerald City to me is the fact that Hazel was shown to care for and look out for Emerald’s wellbeing in the past and since Oscar spent more time with Hazel; by extension; custody of Em was transferred to Oscar/Oz the minute Hazel died…especially since, he was technically the one forced to kill him when he sacrificed himself to stop Salem.

I guess I just personally would’ve liked to have seen these two interact more over the seasons, particularly for V8 while Oscar was imprisoned. 

Perhaps that chance will come now that Em is on the team working with ALPN. And it would probably work even better if Em becomes the Fall Maiden. But for now that’s mostly just speculation.

All in all, bottom line---as I’ll say again, this squiggle meister really likes Emerald City as another close friendship dynamic for Oscar and Em respectively and I’m looking forward to seeing how this dynamic develops over the next season. 

I’m curious to see how much more Em and Oscar can help each other as friends especially since Oscar still has own inner demons with the Merge to deal with emotionally and I’m especially curious to see how Em would react to reuniting with Mercury in Vacuo now that she’s joined the heroes---even better if she’s now the Fall Maiden after killing Cinder. 

That should be a fun development but we’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, hope this lengthy response answers your question, Sweet XD

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[wingletblackbird]

My Complicated Thoughts on Merlin

I started watching Merlin because I’d seen a lot of posts about it on Tumblr and heard good things. I struggled to watch it once we got to Season 4 though. I don’t think I have ever experienced such a love/hate relationship with a series in my life. I’ve tried to figure out why I have so many mixed feelings. Writing this post is cathartic, and has led me to the ultimate conclusion that I am in love with the potential of this show, but I don’t actually like what we were given. 

The Portrayal of Oppression/Morgana’s Arc:

Morgana’s arc could have been way more interesting, but they skip over too much important character development that we needed to see. In the beginning we see that Morgana opposes Uther’s cruelty. She is portrayed as being compassionate. We sympathize with her plight, especially once she discovered she has magic. 

This leads to an interesting moral dilemma. Should Morgana simply assassinate the king? Is Merlin’s long-game with Arthur more effective or moral? Uther is killing innocents. A revolution might be considered just. 

Instead, extremely rapidly, Morgana is played as the bad guy simply because she has decided to betray Camelot. We see her slaughtering innocent people herself when she becomes Queen. Why this transition to becoming like Uther but with magic so quickly? It made sense for her to want to assassinate Uther. That does not immediately make her evil. That needed to be more gradual. I saw the motivation for her hatred of Uther. But how she became evil, that is not portrayed well at all. 

We see hints of Morgana’s self-centeredness when she refuses to leave the Druids even knowing they’ll be slaughtered. Examine that streak. Show how a good cause can be corrupted by someone who becomes drunk on hate and power. The show tries, but it doesn’t quite get there. Show me that even a righteous cause can be led by a corrupted individual. 

Worse, the show does not show the nuance in any satisfying way. Show me that Morgana’s crusade against Uther and Arthur can actually be justified given that the law indicates that they would kill her and her kind. Morgana could legitimately consider Merlin a traitor. Her initial opposition to Uther is justified. He has committed and is committing genocide. Killing him could be seen as defense herself and other innocents. This could be opposed to Merlin’s bloodless coup, if you will. Which is the better option? What are the pros and cons?

And speaking of such oppressions, Merlin frees Freya and helps with Mordred. We really could have afforded to see more about how Merlin helps sorcerers escape, or about an underground network in general. How do they see Merlin? Do they hope he will influence the future king? Do they see him as a traitor? We see hints of this throughout the show such as with Gilli, but the writers never truly take it there. The story with Gilli ended up being about the corruption of power etc., and I liked it, but there was more to that story that needed to be addressed. Is it right or wrong for Merlin to defend Uther? Does it depend on the context? There are many times Merlin does that.

How Merlin Views Arthur:

Speaking of oppression, let’s talk about the effect it has on the psyche of Merlin. When we first meet Merlin, he has a strong moral compass, and confidence in his abilities. What he does not have is good self-esteem. He wonders if he’s a monster. He struggles because he is so powerful with something that is hated and can get him and his loved ones killed. Imagine the kind of fear that can creep into your soul when you have been watching people like you get executed since you were a child. Worse, you struggle to control your own abilities. You love your magic, maybe, but you also loathe yourself for the danger. 

Merlin, then, is a prime target for believing in Destiny. It’s nice to think he has a purpose in this after all. It is pretty clear that the Dragon is being manipulative. I don’t blame him after being trapped for decades. But Merlin is vulnerable and initially starts to protect Arthur because he needs to think he has a reason to be the way he is and is not a monster.

Having said that, I think we can say that Merlin does quickly come to love and respect Arthur. He believes that Arthur is a good man and will lead a good kingdom. All of these are good reasons to stay in his service. It is a good way to eventually show Arthur that magic can be good, to get a kingdom without oppression and the bloodshed of a revolution, and to protect a man he considers a friend. 

The problem with this is that by the end of the third season, Merlin’s double or triple motivation seems to narrow down in focus to simply protecting Arthur. Okay...but when are you going to have him see magic is good? I understand Merlin not being able to outright say anything because that might make him seem like a sympathizer, or just because of a lifetime of fear. But after all that subterfuge with Dragoon the Great and you can’t come up with a way to show magic doing something good without implicating yourself? Trust in Arthur’s character that you extol?

The fact is that by not revealing his magic to Arthur at the multiple different opportunities offered implies that Merlin does not in fact believe that Arthur is the man Merlin claims he is. I equally understand that growing up under that kind of oppression Merlin is not thinking straight. (Gaius does not help.) Furthermore, once you’ve risked your life to protect a man, it can become very hard to back out because you’ve already lost too much. It can also be hard to admit to secrecy after years of a relationship. But Merlin’s actions show that in the end, he does not trust Arthur, which is why he was supposed to have been protecting him. This suggests that Merlin is really just being emotionally manipulated. He has grown up in this oppression, and wants to believe his magic is good, and he has sacrificed too much, lost too much, at his point so he protects Arthur...even at the cost of other’s of his kind. 

If anything, Merlin goes from a kind-hearted boy who rescued people like Freya...to being willing to turn a blind eye to their suffering....!? Merlin goes from confident in the first season, with a clear moral compass...to being less so later on? When in theory, especially with Uther dead, he should be safer? More willing to take risks? 

There is another military aspect to consider as well. Morgana is a legitimate threat and without magic, Camelot cannot defend itself well. By not telling Arthur about his magic, or by not finding a way to make Arthur think about magic, Merlin is endangering everyone in Camelot. Arthur cannot defend his kingdom without the tools he needs. Merlin is now disrespecting his king, and making the decisions that are Arthur’s to make. How can Arthur command his armies without vital information? Merlin is powerful enough to be able to flee Camelot on the off chance Arthur tries to execute him. (In which case, maybe Merlin should join the other side.) He chooses to risk every life in Camelot rather than reveal his secret and help Arthur plan. That was acceptable for a minor coup when Morgana first took over. It’s not so great as the stakes progress.  Merlin was always willing to risk his life to do the right thing. And yet, when it counts the most, when Arthur is the one on the throne, he doesn’t?

This is never addressed in any satisfactory manner. 

Arthur’s Arc and Unfulfilled Expectations: 

This leads us to Arthur’s character arc. If Arthur’s character had shown Merlin the same respect in later seasons as in the first couple, I don’t think Merlin would have been placed in the position of having to truly betray his kind or indicate his trust in Arthur was wrong. Arthur even early in their relationship, like with Valiant, listens to Merlin. However, in later seasons, after so many years of faithful service, (and being right), Arthur is quick to dismiss him. (And then even that might get reversed in a dime...what are the writers thinking?) Of everyone from the knights to Gwen, Merlin is afforded the least recognition or respect it feels like at times.

Arthur also in the beginning showed concern for his friend. Additionally, he showed great concern in his own constipated way for Merlin’s feelings when he was down. Not so much in the later years... Why?

Moreover, has Arthur really learned to treat everyone as equals? Or only the one’s who have done something for him?

I don’t blame Arthur for his stance on magic much, because he has little reason to believe otherwise. However, in the earlier seasons we see him defying his father over things like killing Mordred, a child. Yet, in later seasons, he never seems able to step out of his father’s shadow. Never seems to truly realize how abysmal his father’s rule was. The Arthur of the early seasons ought to have grown enough to be able to do that, and therefore safely allow magic again. This does not happen. He is shown as being devastated by what he did to the druids...is this ever followed up on? 

This leads into unfulfilled expectations. Arthur was supposed to usher in a period of peace. Did he? No. And no matter what Kilgharrah says, I’m not buying it. If they had framed Kilgharrah as lying about that and manipulating poor Merlin for revenge, it would have made for a dreadful tragedy. As it is, it’s just a huge let down. If they had shown Merlin to be a tragic victim of oppression and manipulation who ended up not serving the man he thought he was...it would have been horrifying but interesting. As it is, I just hate it. 

Why would I want to watch someone who has been oppressed and threatened with death, lose everything to protect what he hoped would be his friend and his freedom, only to have to live with just being used? And be told that eventually, if you wait long enough, then you will have succeeded? That this was a good thing?! Is framed as a good thing? NO! I was sold a story about a man in a position of power being befriended by a man who has been oppressed. The man in power learns from his friend and becomes a man who helps liberate the oppressed. Together they create a better world. Eventually, the man in power dies tragically and we all cry. Instead I got this absolute garbage.  

I can see why Merlin’s fandom is so prolific. It is perfect for fanfic, because we have an interesting premise and interesting characters, but god-awful canon-writing. BBC Merlin is garbage with potential. 

[ajoblotofjunk]

Sorry for the unsolicited ask, but I remember seeing you said that Ned Stark was Lawful Neutral. What DnD alignments do you see for the rest of the characters at the beginning of their journeys and where they are now in the books? Also, what should have the TV adapted from the book and what should the book series take from the TV’s changes and pitfalls?

Hi! I love unsolicited asks, no apologies necessary. :) 

I’m going to pick a handful of some of the more interesting-to-me POV characters since it’s been a minute since I did a book re-read and also there are a ton of characters in this story. So. If there’s someone in particular you were hoping for, you can ask!

Ned Stark - Lawful-neutral from start to finish, ALTHOUGH. I think Ned’s great tragedy is that at the very end he bent and it didn’t do shit for him anyway. He still was killed, because he’d gone too far and he was too unwilling to bend when he had more power. Also my first D&D character ever was a LN gnome fighter and I just have a lot of feelings about LN fighters.

Catelyn Stark - Here’s a hot take: I think Cat is True Neutral at the beginning, and then when things start to happen to her family she slips a bit into Neutral-Evil, with the selfishness focused around her pain and her family’s well-being. (There’s an argument to be made that she’s chaotic-good/chaotic-neutral but I think Cat feels more strongly about authority than that suggests.)

Arya Stark (yes, my secret is out: I am a Stark fan) - Arya is very chaotic-good at the beginning of the story and where we’ve left her, I think she’s chaotic-neutral and poised on a tipping point where she could slip to chaotic-evil but I think she’s gonna go back to CG. Maybe True Neutral, but I don’t see her becoming the true Faceless Man archetype that requires in the books (in the show I think she did become TN).

Cersei Lannister - I think Cersei is Lawful-Evil, because Tywin is Lawful-Evil and she thinks she’s female Tywin. In reality she’s probably Neutral Evil, especially where we’re at in the books, though she still lets herself be bound by authority in a way that suggests she might still be LE.

Tyrion Lannister - Okay here’s the thing. I don’t like Tyrion. Which, if you’ve read my fics, is probably not a surprise to discover. I liked him in the early books! But as he’s gone on I’ve liked him less and less and now he just annoys the crap out of me in ASOIAF. I think Tyrion was probably True Neutral at the beginning; honestly there’s an argument that he might’ve been Neutral-Good, but he’s definitely Neutral-Evil now, MAYBE Chaotic-Neutral if I were being generous with him. Which I am not.

Jaime Lannister - Jaime has had I think the biggest alignment shift out of anyone in the entire series. I think he started life as Lawful-Good, and then when the authority he trusted betrayed him, he shifted to an outward Chaotic Neutral/inward Chaotic Good that’s struggling to reassert itself. I think where he’s at now in the series is transitioned into that Chaotic Goodness more outwardly, and I think by the end of the series he’ll be fully CG, POSSIBLY Neutral Good but I’m not sure I see him making that shift completely.

Brienne of Tarth - Brienne is maybe my all-time favorite character of anything ever, so I have a lot of Opinions about her and this one I hold dear: I think a lot of fandom thinks she’s Lawful-Good, but I think she’s Neutral-Good. She is extremely driven by keeping her promises, but not, IMO, because of the weight of authority but because of the weight of her own moral beliefs in making a promise. She wants to do good because it’s the right thing to do, not because any oaths she takes tell her to. It’s why she was willing to hear Jaime out about what he did to Aerys when others (like Ned) wouldn’t - because she recognizes that good is the choice, not the oath. BECAUSE HERE’S THE DEAL. If Brienne were Lawful-Good, she would have stayed and married someone on Tarth. But she’s not. So she didn’t. I think she will retain her Neutral-Goodness through the series. I could see her slipping to maybe Chaotic-Good, but honestly I think she’ll stay NG/return to NG by the end.

I am very curious if people disagree on any of these (even Brienne!) so discussion encouraged. :)

Whew, that was pretty long. And I still have more of this question to answer! So the rest I’m putting under a Keep Reading cut.

What should have the TV adapted from the book and what should the book series take from the TV’s changes and pitfalls?

This is a really complicated question, and I really like it, but I’m not sure I feel confident answering it.

I think the TV show suffered from trying to refine an unfinished story to its core themes without knowing where George was going to end (except I guess with Bran as King?). I used to think that the choices they made about what they left out where telling - all of the Targaryen nonsense limited just to Dany and not any of the other stuff, for instance - but given the finale, I think D & D both hyperfocused only on keeping the main points they needed for what they saw as the end while also only paying off the bones of what they’d adapted from the first three books and didn’t have room for the ways GRRM expanded the story after the third book nor for the ways his end will probably be more complicated than the one they were limited to by it being a TV finale.

All of which is to say: I would have loved them to adapt the Lady Stoneheart arc, particularly for Brienne, but that D&D had no idea how to make that work within the confines of what their limitations both of what they’d chosen to focus on previously and TV, and so I understand why they didn’t. I would have loved, as well, to have more depth and see more of the Dorne arc with Arianne and Myrcella and Tristan, but that adds a whole season’s worth of episodes that the show just could not absorb. The show was forced to choose early to focus on the Starks and the Lannisters, with Dany as a third party, and they never were able to sway from that.

If I were starting over from scratch, I would have to have a long talk with GRRM and figure out what his point is, and work backward from there. I don’t get the sense D & D worked backward from anything but the Red Wedding.

(To be honest, if I were writing the show, I’d do everything the same up to season 6, at which point I’d separate Jaime and Cersei, and make it all about setting up the War of the Five Queens in s6, then we deal with the threat of the White Walkers as a serious, full-season arc for season 7, and then spend season 8 paying off the Queens War and ending with whatever thematic ending it is GRRM is going toward (humans are the ultimate monsters! Women make it work! Women fuck it up just as badly as the men did! Democracy for everyone! Peace is tentative and must be fought for in a tense standoff that all of these older, weary women now understand! Which is what I would have chosen. heh.)

As for the other way, what do I think GRRM should learn from the show. I mean I love the tent scene and would love to see something like that adapted somehow to the books (when Jaime comes to Winterfell to fight, would be my personal suggested placement; imagine the drama and romance!). I think GRRM could also stand to learn from streamlining to key characters and plots, which is what I hope he’s doing in TWOW. But where we’re at in the story in the books is so different from where the show went that I think it’s hard to make any specific suggestions. Mostly I just really want him to look at the story he’s telling and understand it, and recognize that it may have changed certain endings he may have considered previously before his story unfolded itself and he realizes that Jaime and Brienne living on Tarth can be the sweet part of the bittersweet. Ahem.

[driftbending]

i keep writing and rewriting my reaction to vincenzo because there are a lot but also i'm not certain i articulate everything i hated about the ending.

i will say that i knew no matter what that i wouldn't like the ending because murdering a character as punishment for their misdeeds is not something that appeals to me. i grew up watching kirikou et la sorcière, avatar: the last airbender, lilo and stitch, and (more recently) moana. all of these are stories that say "here is an evil character that we'll stop in a way that doesn't involve jail/murder," and the only exception i make for this is light yagami's death in death note and that's because ryuk killed him as a way to end their relationship, not as a punishment for his crimes. (and gothic lit is exempt bc they have to be resolved with murder.) so, whatever happened, regardless of how much violence the babel four did, none of their deaths would have held any emotional satisfaction for me. yet i prepared myself to be unimpressed by the finale since this is what the set up has always been: vincenzo will kill hanseok, and maybe myunghee, seunghyeok, and hanseo.

i knew this from the beginning. the narrative repeated it so often i got annoyed. there were so many close calls with vincenzo pulling a gun on hanseok that that got boring. by the time ep. 20 rolled around i was just fed up and wanted someone to die because this show had already failed me so many other times with their set ups that i wanted at least one good payoff.

lo and behold, they did end up killing the four characters i thought would die. hanseo died, and though he was my favorite character, and though i felt sad he didn't get any funeral scene or help while he was fending off his brother and that his death served as a sacrifice for vincenzo instead of literally anything else, i didn't cry or even get mad about it. he died and i felt free to stop caring about the rest of the story. yay me! i do understand the fans who hated that he was killed and that he should've survived bc abuse victims don't deserve the storyline hanseo got, but this is not a show i expected to actually care about victims. despite what it says, i knew i wouldn't get this for hanseo waaaaay back in ep 8 when they brought up the victims of that gay banker and just used it as a way for us to root against the banker. they didn't treat those victims with any respect at all and so i was already prepared for them to do it all over again. and they did and it sucks, but again for me i couldn’t get as angry as i normally would about this bc i always knew that the deaths from this show would never mean anything to me bc there was just so much of it it became meaningless.

another thing i knew that was going to let me down about this show is that it didn’t have a single “good” character for me to root for. mr. hong existed, but he was murdered early on. every other character on the show is too corrupt to be the ones i would want handling a reconstruction project for a more ethical world. yes, they made hanseo go through a redemption arc, but they didn’t let him stay did they? they focused so much on deconstruction they never cared about reconstruction. so when they got to the ending where vincenzo just leaves, chayoung and the tenants are thrown into a familiar cycle of court cases and defending their plaza from it being redeveloped, vincenzo just goes on to be a mafia boss again, and the guillotine file is back in the hands of the corrupt intelligence agency that created it on the orders of their president. the only thing that changed was babel group was destroyed bc their two ceos were murdered and the lawyers of their legal rep. were also murdered.

and yet, despite my expectations being so low they were basically non-existent, i was still disappointed. they didn't let chayoung do anything (which i knew would happen because i knew something about her characterization never felt fully fledged to me the way it did to fandom, so i wasn't surprised when they delegated her as a damsel-in-distress/love interest.), they killed myunghee the way we used to burn witches (which how fitting for a female character that is cunning and cruel), and the way they killed hanseok literally made me feel faint and nauseous (i wish this was an exaggeration; the second i saw the drill pointed at him i started feeling this way and i couldn't listen/watch his death scene because it was so brutal).

so, the ending satisfied nothing for me. if people who shipped the main characters were satisfied, whatever. i was never interested in them as a ship (i tend to ship vincenzo and chayoung with other characters), so the ending was even more disappointing bc it really held nothing that mattered to me.

i was also not a person that liked the way each character idolized vincenzo because i preferred his relationships with other characters to be filled with more tension* and the narrative just told me that the writers didn't, that vincenzo's word was what mattered, that the other character's conflicting needs were meant to be eclipsed by vincenzo's needs. so when the characters were all looking into the horizon hoping that vincenzo would some day come back (for what, i ask you?) i was just like :|

(*what do i mean by tension? i mean my favorite version of chayoung/vincenzo was the early eps when she hated him for being liked so much by her father that her flaws as a daughter were highlighted more and chayoung's own hesitancy with murder bumping up against vincenzo’s lack of hesitancy. mr. cho/vincenzo were most interesting when mr. cho wanted the guillotine file to use for his own purposes. the tenants/vincenzo were the most interesting when the tenants wanted to take the gold and vincenzo was trying to stop them. even hanseo/vincenzo was the most interesting when they had the "will you kill me? will you betray me?" tension as they worked together to get rid of hanseok. these dynamics added layers to the characters and reminded us they had their own motivations that were as equally important as vincenzo’s, but not enough of these tensions lasted past a few episodes and almost always would vincenzo's needs prevail with most of the other characters going along with his plans in the end.)

and this is all without mentioning how fandom sort of ruined a lot of the show for me, too. they took the characteristics that made the myunghee/hanseok dynamic one of my favorites and gave it to chayoung/vincenzo to the point where i was always left baffled and feeling like i was watching a different show. (a good point about the end for me is that i feel vindicated watching the scene where chayoung was basically like "i don't like your methods, vincenzo, but i needed to use them as the lesser of two evils to destroy hanseok," bc it did sort of reinforce for me my own reading of chayoung which was that she doesn't mind being corrupt and blackmailing people or scaring them into compliance, but that she was not going to get her hands covered in blood or dance over the corpses of her enemy. those traits belong to myunghee who accepts her role as a villain in a way that is as cool and collected as vincenzo. and lord, imagine what a show it would've been if the writers had made the kings chayoung/hanseok, the last ones that should ever be taken, while the queens were vincenzo/myunghee who would be the ones that would make all the moves, kill all their enemies pieces, and try to destroy one another first as the two most powerful players in the game? imagine if fandom had been able to read chayoung and myunghee accurately enough that i wouldn’t have to read post after post talking about how they needed to see myunghee brutally murdered/tortured by chayoung because they would understand chayoung’s character isn’t going to do that, posts which i hated seeing bc, as i said before, violence for violence’s sake means nothing to me? imagine if the writers cared enough about chayoung/myunghee to develop them more fully? sigh.)

i feel like i'm going nowhere with this and that i'm repeating myself a lot or not making much sense. but i'll end with this: i knew the last two episodes were going to be garbage when they all gathered at toto's restaurant post-fight in ep 19 and all they were talking about was vincenzo this and vincenzo that instead of worrying after the ones that were momentarily kidnapped/injured. like thanks show, for instead of pushing the narrative along we get a vincenzo fan club meeting and another round of "i never had anything to fight for until you came along" which is a convo we've had plenty of times before.

(footnote: i edited this on may 6, 2021 for clarity.)

[abybweisse]

@gkrosental Oh, I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s split between various posts. So, it might be hard to find. You can check my blog, though, for #advanced technology, #medical technology, #technological advances, #medical advances, #reaper technology, etc. Oh... and stuff like #george and #giygas....

For one thing, that’s not Sebastian’s mobile; it’s the one Vanel’s thugs have. He just takes it from one of them to talk to Vanel.

The other thing is that modern technology shows up in the manga quite frequently, and Yana-san explained once that it’s an alternate universe to begin with, and these things are, therefore, only... slightly anachronistic. Let’s not forget that our earl has some kind of television; it’s been vaguely mentioned by our earl and Finny, and much more directly mentioned by Soma. Funny thing about the TV is that our earl must not be the only one to have one, since John Brown mentions the same TV program to the crowd at the Crystal Palace; he promotes the rumor that the show is based on Queen Victoria! But yeah... some of them are definitely still anachronistic, even for the Kuroverse.

The reapers (and their superiors) have advanced technology. We know this for a fact; even ages ago, when Othello was newer to the reaper organization, he’s seen carrying around a box of computer parts, like a keyboard. Othello says that humans can get ahold of such knowledge through demon contracts, etc. Even though Sebastian hasn’t been told (that we know of) to “invent stuff for me” by our earl, we can pretty well assume that Funtom’s innovative toys come from a combination of our earl’s imagination and Sebastian’s demonic abilities. Funtom is best known for its Bitter Rabbits and candies, but they also sell video game consoles... with game controllers connected by wires. Indeed, Funtom sells a few things that you’d only expect the reapers to have. But it doesn’t end with Funtom, not even regarding video games. How else would Chlaus show up in ch1 with that game cartridge packaging for “Mouse3”? It was actually full of the drug evidence he’d brought back from Italy... but the packaging is probably legit.

I suspect that reapers, like Undertaker, also have an effect on the advancements that humans make... accelerating the process of innovation. Those dialysis machines are a perfect example. I’m not sure yet who actually built them. Perhaps Druitt, since he has a medical license? And because Undertaker saved him on the Campania for REASONS...?

At one point, during the murders arc, Charles Grey makes a comment that Germany’s about ten years ahead of where it should be; I’m not sure how he learned that (perhaps from John Brown?!?), but this means that the Kuroverse is dealing with an accelerated timeline for its technological advances. Characters like Grey and Othello acknowledge something is amiss. But, it’s complicated why it’s happening. Germany might have some reaper or demon/angel intervention, too, but they also have/had prodigies, like Sieglinde Sullivan. She managed something her parents, with all their learning and training, had failed to do. SuLin was the result. Idk how they got the rest of the advanced technology they are using, like radar and tanks. Divine intervention? Other geniuses? Since coming to Great Britain, Sieglinde has continued to shock and amaze with her latest inventions... which seem to be financially backed by the queen....

The reason I mentioned #george and #giygas is because of my main theory regarding Black Butler... that’s it’s largely based on a Nintendo game called Mother3. I mean, that’s what “Mouse3” by “Ninkyodo” refers to, after all. But, as I’ve said in many of my posts about this, it’s not just Mother3 being used for the manga series; it’s the entire game series. And this topic is one of those situations that requires going all the way back to the first installment: Mother. In the US, it was titled EarthBound: Beginnings.

In Mother, a young alien, named Giygas (the translation varies, but this is one of the common ones), is traveling from their home planet, populated by this technologically advanced civilization. Their spacecraft crash lands on Earth and they are taken in by a couple, named George and Maria. They raise them as their own, and they later manage to travel with Giygas back towards their home planet, and Maria stays there... but George returns to Earth... with stolen technology, which he continues to research... and spreads around to other humans. Giygas is sent by their superiors to stop George, because the alien race is worried that humans will eventually use their own technology against them. However, George has died by the time Giygas returns to Earth, so they decide to target George’s descendants. Humans have started to incorporate the knowledge that George brought back; it’s even showing up in some humans’ natural abilities, as if it’s being genetically inherited. We meet one of those descendants, Ninten. He, with the help of friends, has to collect melodies from a song and sing it to Queen Mary, who is... kind of like Maria... but on another plane of existence, called Magicant.

Later, Ness (in Mother2, aka EarthBound) and his pals have to fight people who are under Giygas’ power, including a rather bothersome and wholly self-centered boy named Pokey Minch. By now, Giygas has been driven mad by his futile attempts to stop the spread of this stolen technology and knowledge. Then they have to fight Pokey Minch again, but Pokey has been drastically changed by time-traveling equipment he stole from a human inventor (Dr. Andonuts). Ness and his friends have to fight not just this futuristic version of Pokey but also an unhinged and unleashed version of Giygas; the alien has lost their physical form and now exists as an evil force of immense power. Through prayer (mostly), Ness and his friends are able to banish ... perhaps truly destroy... Giygas, but Pokey escapes to cause problems yet another time.

With Mother3, which never got a worldwide release (which is why Chlaus says in Black Butler that “Mouse3” [and the drugs] were hard to get ahold of in Italy), mirror twin brothers Claus and Lucas get separated after their mother is killed (and their father is too full of grief to help them). Claus ends up missing (he’s dead at the bottom of a cliff), and Lucas and the family dog, Boney, go on a quest to avenge his family. Lucas, Boney, and friends they make have to defeat King Porky; King Porky is what the time-traveling Pokey Minch decides to call himself when he travels to this future setting and settles down to become a tyrant. Giygas seems to be gone, but King Porky still follows Giygas’ destructive life path. King Porky is obsessed with popularity and technological advances. And, at some point, the lifeless body of Claus gets turned into a Fascinating Chimera, and the mirror twin brothers have to compete to fulfill a prophecy... of waking the Dark Dragon. Dr. Andonuts was previously forced to help King Porky, but even he eventually gets revenge.

I have a lot of posts about Mother3 theory, and I’m trying to focus here on a particular aspect, so here are some parallels, particularly regarding technology:

Our earl — Lucas

Real Ciel — Claus

Sebastian, under contract — Boney, the loyal family dog

Sebastian, aka the “Black Butler”, once the contract is fulfilled — Dark Dragon, particularly once the prophecy is fulfilled

Undertaker, bringing otherworldly technology to humans — George

Reaper superiors and/or John Brown — the original manifestation of Giygas and that alien race

Reapers, in general — Magypsies, in general

Prince Soma — Pokey Minch

Prince Soma with the Right Hand of Kali — Pokey Minch with the unhinged Giygas (This parallel would be further strengthened if Prince Soma ends up stealing anything out of Sieglinde’s lab or convinces her to make any sort of contraption for him.)

Queen Victoria, who demands unwavering loyalty and is trying to increase Great Britain’s power through technology and new infrastructure — King Porky, who demands the same and is also focused on infrustrucfure, technology, innovation, etc.

Queen Victoria with John Brown — King Porky drunk on unbridled power, basing his actions on what he thinks Giygas would want of him.

Undertaker, inventor of Bizarre Dolls — Dr. Andonuts, inventor of Fascinating Chimera

Sieglinde, chemist and inventor of various contraptions — Dr. Andonuts (also his younger version, Lloyd), inventor of various contraptions

There are so many other parallels, not just in characters and plots, but also in their timelines. However, like I said... I’m trying to focus on your ask regarding technological anachronisms.

TL/DR: It’s definitely supposed to be the Victorian era, but it’s an alternative universe to our own, so it took some different paths along the historical timeline. Add to that the fact that reapers and demons/angels (or other supernatural beings, like gods) have been intervening in human lives, and advanced technologies and innovations have been introduced along the way because of it.

There are lots of examples of this throughout the series, including the mobile phone used by Vanel’s thugs (Sebastian grabbed theirs; he doesn’t have one of his own). Other examples include TVs, video game consoles, war tanks, radar, and all the contraptions Sieglinde makes for herself and for others, like the Phantom Five.

This all works just dandy with my theory that the manga series is largely based on Nintendo’s Mother game series, since both deal quite a bit with “stolen” technology and runaway technology/innovation.

Thanks for the ask and for letting me screenshot the message to answer in a post. 😊

[izaswritings]

Title: Faults of the Mind

Synopsis:  Having escaped the perils of the Dark Kingdom, Rapunzel finally returns home—but all is not well in the Kingdom of Corona, and the black rocks are quickly becoming the least of her troubles. Meanwhile, over a thousand miles away, Varian struggles with new powers and his own conscience.

The labyrinth has fallen into rubble. A great evil stirs in the world beyond. The Dark Kingdom may be behind them, but the true journey is just beginning—and neither Rapunzel nor Varian can survive it on their own.

Warnings for: cursing, mentions of past child abuse (via Gothel), and emotional tangles due to said past abuse (again, freaking GOTHEL). Also, frank descriptions/depictions of scars and past injuries, emotional breakdowns and mild sensory overload, and further issues of forgiveness along the lines of complicated parent-child relationships. 

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AO3 version is here.

Arc I: Labyrinths of the Heart can be found here! 

Previous chapters are here.

And, the newly created discord server can be found here!

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Chapter VI: The Princess

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As the Sun continued her fruitless search, deep in the shadows, unable to pull away, the Moon too slowly began to fall.

You might be starting to doubt me, by this point, but I assure you: She fell. How could she not? Lovely Moon, lonely Moon, who danced alone despite all the stars that cluttered around her. Yes, she fell. She watched from shadows as the radiant woman scoured the seas, and with every moment found herself drawn in ever closer, caught in the Sun’s brilliant glow. For although Moon did not linger alone in the skies, never had she seen a being quite like Sun. Sun was closer and brighter than any other star—great and grand and tall, her smile soft and glowing, her long train of tightly coiled hair like fire. The Sun was blinding in her radiance and the Moon knew not how to face her.

And there was this, too, of course. The Sun searched. She looked for Moon everywhere, and called apologies across the sea; with every day of failure her eyes fell and her expression went downcast. And slowly, something in the Moon’s stone heart began to stir. Little by little, she fell.

Until finally, one day, when the Sun had almost given up hope on ever seeing that lovely woman again— the Moon at last left her shadows, and approached…  

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For a moment, Rapunzel is frozen still.

Her hands curl into her skirts, stiff and aching, the pain like lightning up her wrists. Her breath has caught, strangled, in her throat. The name almost seems to echo, and the whole court is struck silent—Rapunzel, choking on the shock; her mother, now white in the face; and her father—the King—

His reaction is most surprising of all. Because as Stalyan approaches, as her name rings out—the King looks not angry, or shocked, or afraid… but tired.

Then the exhaustion fades, and fury sparks, and he sits upright in the throne, eyes flashing. His fingers clench on the armrests of the golden chair; Rapunzel can almost hear his teeth grind. The court shifts back to life in the same instant— whispers echoing across the great hall, pale faces and gaping mouths hidden behind raised hands. The guards are stiff-backed, their hands tight around their halberds, eyes burning beneath the helmets. Rapunzel casts her gaze around the room, and is floored by the response. She knows the name only from Eugene—and yet, there is no denying this. At the sound of Stalyan’s name, the whole castle has drawn itself up in arms.

Stalyan, for her part, almost seems to bask in the attention. The throne room is pale and gray in the grips of the morning storm—the windows blurry with rain, the lights dim, the air freezing to the touch. The members of her father’s court are all dressed in heavy cloaks and dark coats to fight the chill, and in contrast Stalyan is a flash of brilliant color, bright red lips and swaying skirts, as if the cold hasn’t touched her at all. She saunters to the throne with a small smile playing at her lips, and when she kneels before the king, there is something mocking in the slow duck of her head.

She is nothing like Rapunzel has imagined her to be, and yet exactly as she expected. The smile that curls at her eyes; the sway to her walk, the laughter in every movement. There’s a control to her, a grace to her every action: like a performer on a stage, who knows exactly the role she’s playing. It strikes Rapunzel as sickeningly familiar.

There’s no question, really, of who Stalyan reminds her of, and Rapunzel hates that most of all. Because there is something about Stalyan that reminds her of Eugene, of Eugene-of-before, when Rapunzel first met him, and the resemblance digs into her insides like a splinter. All at once, it is so much harder to breathe.

Stalyan is still kneeling—head bowed, but even then, Rapunzel can see the smile curling smug at her lips. She is flanked from both sides by two men, tall and broad-shouldered and armored, stone-faced under the stares of the court. They stop a few steps behind her, arms crossed.

“Lady Stalyan,” says Rapunzel’s father. His voice is low and furious.

Stalyan lifts her head, just a little, at the address. If the King’s disapproval unnerves her at all, she doesn’t show it. Her eyes linger on the whispering court, on the queen, on Rapunzel—before fixing, at last, on the king. Her smile widens.

“King Frederic.”

“I don’t recall inviting you to court.”

“Well, then, I apologize for the lack of forewarning,” Stalyan says, raising her head fully. She’s still smiling—though now, in the dim light of the storm lamps, it looks a little more like a smirk. Rapunzel grits her teeth. “I hope I’m not intruding? Yilla here—” She waves one hand behind her, at the merchant who granted her entrance. The man closes his eyes, looking sick. “Well, he assured me his contract with the Kingdom was already set, so I figured I’d simply just… tag along. You know?”

“That contract is looking to be revoked,” Rapunzel’s father snaps, icy. Yilla the merchant cringes. “Lady Stalyan.What are you doing here?”

“I only want to talk,” Stalyan says, heedless of the danger in the King’s tone. She places a hand on her chest, over her heart. “It was a last-minute kind of idea. I just thought I would stop by and… see how negotiations were going?” Her smile grows. “On that previous matter we discussed.”

“There is no discussion.” His voice is flat. “I have given you my answer, and it is no.”

“And talking as a concerned neighbor of your kingdom, I really must protest.” Stalyan tosses her hair over one shoulder, waving her hand carelessly through the air. “King Frederic, I’m not an enemy. I know things have been… hard for your kingdom, lately. With all the port cities falling to attack, I mean, I imagine you must be spread quite thin…?”

Rapunzel’s father doesn’t even twitch. Stalyan shrugs. “Well. The other Kingdoms may fall back, and selfishly guard their borders, but my father has other plans. Vardaros is only growing in power under our rule, and we have aid to spare for Corona.”

He speaks through grit teeth. “We did not ask for your help.”

“It’s a gift!” Stalyan’s smile is hard. Her eyes are laughing. “Well, and as far as I know… my father and I are the only ones offering aid. Really, now. Can you justify turning us down?” She clicks her tongue, sounding briefly disgusted, smile fallen to a scowl. “King Frederic, I thought you cared about your people, not your pride.”

Rapunzel inhales sharply, stunned by her daring. She looks at her parents before she can even think to stop herself. Rapunzel’s mother is tight-lipped and cold, fury in the set of her hands, but it is the King who Rapunzel watches the closest. All the color has drained from his face; his eyes burn like a banked fire.

Rapunzel bites her lip, waiting for him to snap. For the thunder in his voice, for the denials. She almost wants it. Stalyan—Stalyan is here. Here in the castle, in Rapunzel’s home. This woman is responsible for most—if not all! —that has been going wrong, and to see her—to hear her— to have her here, now, of all times—when Rapunzel’s head still aches and her hands still spasm, with the echo of Cassandra’s words in her ears—

She can’t. She can’t.

And so, for the first time, Rapunzel waits desperately for her father’s anger, for him to deny and defy and shut the doors. But the King does not move. His lips are a thin line, and his hands clench— and yet. He grits his teeth, and holds his tongue, and says absolutely nothing at all.

And Stalyan smiles.

“Really,” she says, starting again—but Rapunzel is no longer listening. She stares at her father with wide eyes, something sinking in her chest. He’s… he’s not saying anything. Why isn’t he saying anything? Why is he just taking it? If he knows—if her father recognizes Stalyan for what she is—then why?

Something cold strikes through her. Her breathing stutters in her chest.

“W-wait,” Rapunzel says, and stands, her voice rising. “Wait!”

The court has gone dead quiet, all eyes on her. Rapunzel barely notices. She feels feverish and thin, grasping for straws, trying in vain to understand. “That’s not true!” she cries, staring at Stalyan. “That’s not true!”

Stalyan sniffs, annoyed. Her glance at Rapunzel is dismissive and full of contempt. “Oh?”

“The King—” Stalyan raises an eyebrow, looking bored. Rapunzel’s hands curl into painful fists. “Corona is—!”

“Rapunzel!”

She cuts herself off, stunned. Her father stares down at her from his throne, his eyes bright with an emotion she can’t name. His next words hiss through clenched teeth. “Sit. Down.”

Rapunzel almost gapes at him. “But—”

“Yes,” Stalyan says, and Rapunzel’s eyes snap back to her. Stalyan is smiling again, but there’s nothing friendly in the expression—her eyes are narrowed, her lip curled. “Sit down, Princess. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Watch your tongue,” Rapunzel’s father says, coldly, before Rapunzel can reply. “The same can be said for you, Lady Stalyan. For all you claim your father is eager to offer aid, he has yet to come here and offer it himself, has he not?”

Stalyan’s expression flickers, quicksilver and bitter, a flash of fury before her head bows. “I… I only meant that this was a matter between us, Your Majesty. After all, I act in my father’s stead.” Her head lifts. She looks to the side, and meets Rapunzel’s eyes. “Does your daughter act in yours?”

Rapunzel turns to her father. She can hardly believe this, cannot understand it—cannot fathom what is happening. Why is he listening to this? Doesn’t he know who Stalyan is? Why haven’t they thrown her out? Why—

Her eyes catch over her father’s shoulder. Beside Elias, who has stood shaking and small ever since Stalyan walked in, is the Captain of the Guard, Cassandra’s father. He is dressed in full armor; he stands tall by the throne. But his eyes are dark. His teeth are grit. He—

He looks angry.

He looks resigned.

And something finally clicks.

Rapunzel casts her gaze around the throne room, horror climbing up her throat. The whispers. The way the whole room had reacted, the way they’d known—the way not one had tried to stop Stalyan from approaching despite the hate in their eyes, not even the guards.

She’d known someone was attempting to blackmail Corona, but never in her wildest dreams has she thought they were succeeding. But the pieces come together, at long last, and Rapunzel can finally see the picture they paint. The pirates attacking the coast. The trade routes closing down. Money lost; jobs stalled. Revenue cut. Land trade would become all the more important—guards hired out for the long journeys on the roads—and that means—

My father and I are the only ones offering aid.

And there it is: the answer. Maybe the castle does know. Maybe they’ve known all along who Stalyan is, what this offer entails. But they don’t have the money or the people to spare, and there are no other offers. Corona has been caught, tangled in the web—

And they cannot afford to refuse.

Her father—the King—looks across, and meets Rapunzel’s eyes. “Sit down, Rapunzel,” he says. His voice is hard. His jaw is clenched tight with helpless anger. “And do not interrupt again.”

The feud between the guards and the King—smarted pride, helpless anger. The wariness of the citizens. The rumors.

Stalyan is smiling again. Her eyes gleam bright and burning, as violent as the storm outside. She stands below the throne, surrounded by glaring eyes, but there is a light in her face, and victory in her smile— as if, deep inside, she’s already sure that she’s won.

And the worst part is—

Maybe she has.

Rapunzel sits down, hands curled into trembling and painful fists, and grinds her teeth so hard she thinks she might break.

“Wonderful,” Stalyan says, soft and smug. How could Eugene have liked this woman? What could he have seen in her? Her smile makes Rapunzel sick. “Let’s talk business, then, shall we?”

.

The rest of the negotiations pass by in a blur.

Rapunzel barely listens, her head spinning, eyes hot and fingers wound tight from stress and pain. By the time Stalyan leaves—empty-handed still, though with a smile and a promise to return that makes something lurch ill at Rapunzel’s gut—the rain has stalled, the sky darkened to late afternoon, and the throne room is stiff with silence.

The door clicks shut behind Stalyan’s retreating back, and Rapunzel’s father waves his hand. “Go,” he says, cold in a way Rapunzel has rarely heard him, and his court scatters like breaking glass, vanishing out of the room. Only Elias remains, lingering small behind the thrones like he’d rather be anywhere else. Rapunzel’s mother, still sitting, shades her eyes with her hand and sighs.

Rapunzel stares at the doors for a long moment, her breath shaking in her chest, fluttery and fragile. Then Pascal jumps to her shoulder and chirps at her, and all at once the world snaps back into place. She inhales so sharply she almost chokes, and jumps to her feet, whirling on the throne. “Dad—”

His eyes have closed. He puts his head in his hands. “No, Rapunzel.”

“I haven’t even said—” Something catches and strangles at her throat. “What—you have to know who she is. What she wants! And the things she was saying, I— the Baron, we can’t let—”

“Rapunzel,” her mother says, bracing.

“Enough,” her father snaps, at the same time. His hand lowers. His expression is stormy. “I know, daughter.”

“Then why are you—”

His voice has gone flat. “It is none of your concern.”

“But—”

“No!” His hand slams down on the arm of the throne. His head lifts. “This is not a debate, Rapunzel! If I had known that— that she was here—then you would not have entered this room.”

Rapunzel steps forward, beseeching. “But I was here. And I know—who she is, what she’s doing! I’m already involved! Please, I can—I’ll be more careful next time, I won’t interrupt, I just— let me just try—”

“No.”

“She’s trying to hurt Corona!” Rapunzel cries out, her patience finally snapped. “She’s already hurt Corona!” How many trade partners have they lost, in these past few months? What does that mean for the people, for the merchants, the artisans and farmers and the people who depend on the sea? Something deep inside Rapunzel has cracked, a thread worn down to breaking. She’s losing hold of all of it—her emotions, her grip, this conversation. She remembers Stalyan’s cold little smile and feels sick. “I have to—”

The King rises to his feet, expression closed off, then pivots on his heel and heads for the door. He says not a word to her; he barely even looks at her. Rapunzel snaps her mouth shut, feeling slapped—and when she turns to her mother, it’s to see her standing to leave too.

It burns. A strangled cry rises in Rapunzel’s throat, and she lunges forward, chest tight, following after them. “Stop hiding things from me!” she shouts at their backs. “You can’t—!”

“As though you haven’t been hiding things from us?” Her father turns to her, his composure broken. He gestures at her—no, Rapunzel realizes, at her gloves, and she flinches back before she can stop herself. “You cannot demand honesty from others and then refuse to give it in turn in the same breath!” He closes his eyes, exhaling hard. “Not to mention whatever happened with—that boy, Varian—”

“I—” Her throat closes up. “That’s different.”

“It concerns our kingdom, and our people’s safety—so no. It is not.”

“Varian isn’t—what happened in the labyrinth— he’s not a threat!”

“And you have no proof of that!” The Queen puts a hand on his shoulder; the King inhales deeply, shaky, his teeth grit. When he opens his eyes again, his expression is calm and cold. “And I find it especially interesting, daughter, that you recognized Stalyan for who she was, when I have been explicitly clear that you are to stay far away from all of this.”

Rapunzel flushes, furious. “I—!”

“I’ve made my decision.”

Her eyes burn. Her chest is strangled tight, twisted to breaking. She thinks of Stalyan’s mocking laughter and the cruelty in her eyes as she insulted Corona, the king, her people—the way no-one dared say a word in protest, even as their eyes burned, and something deep inside Rapunzel’s heart gives in and cracks.

“Why are you just taking it?” she whispers.

There’s a moment of silence. The Queen looks away. The King’s gaze drops to the floor. He is quiet for a long time, and then his shoulders slump. His eyes close again. This time he does not look angry. He looks—he looks—

When he raises his head, and meets her eyes, his expression is grim—but his eyes are so, so tired.

“Return to your rooms, Rapunzel,” he says, and he says it low, says it softly, and this time when he walks away, Rapunzel doesn’t try to follow.

Her mother exits with him, quiet as a ghost, her lips twisted shut. She doesn’t look back at Rapunzel either. For a moment, though, her eyes catch on Rapunzel’s hands, the leather gloves—and something in her, too, seems to drop, her shoulders bowed.

“Oh, Rapunzel,” she says. “Get some rest.”

Rapunzel stares down at the throne room floors, waiting for the sound of their footsteps to fade. She feels very dizzy, and sort of sick; at the same time she is frozen, so cold she has to fight not to shiver. It’s not raining anymore, and in fact the clouds are thinning, letting in faded streaks of reddish light—and yet. She feels so cold.

She’s alone in this room, except for Elias—as always, ever by her side. The guards have gone, the advisors scattered. The thrones look small and fragile, swallowed up by the stone. The pretty tile floors are stained bloody and bright in the afternoon light.

Rapunzel stares at the door so hard her eyes hurt.

There’s a creak from behind her, the squeal of old armor. Elias. He approaches tentatively, carefully, and he stops just out of reach. She can hear him take a breath—deep, steadying. As though bracing himself.

“…Princess, a-are you—”

She turns. “Let’s go.”

Elias says nothing more.

Rapunzel walks through the castle in something like a blur, her head hot, her hands shaking. She slams back into her rooms with a violence she hadn’t thought herself capable of. The doors smack against the wall and bounce back, and—she flinches. She doesn’t feel any better. It’s not enough. It’s like being bruised. She feels too small for her skin, like there’s lightning in her blood, shaking all the way through her. She wants to break something. She wants to scream. She wants— she wants— 

For a moment Rapunzel just stands there, in this beautiful tower room. She takes it all in. Her painted walls, her soft bed, the open balcony with its lovely new artwork, Corona in eclipse. She looks at those lovely marble walls, the wide double-doors, and it feels like a chain around her heart.

She can’t stay here, Rapunzel realizes. She can’t. She can’t sit trapped in this tower a second longer, or she really will go mad.

She doesn’t bother to close the doors behind her. She heads for the balcony, drawing her hair out from the beads, and loops the long strands around the railing with trembling fingers. She can’t get the tie right. In the end, Pascal has to crawl down her arm and finish the knot for her, securing her hair for the descent, and Rapunzel closes her eyes against a sudden wave of tears. It’s not sadness. It’s not—she’s almost used to her hands by now, really, but—

It’s so frustrating. On top of everything else, it is just—so, so frustrating.

She buries her head in her arms. She breathes. Her head pounds.

“P-Princess…?”

She doesn’t move. Her breath is hot against her palms. She lifts her head and looks back at Elias.

His expression has gone drawn and fearful; his eyes are wide, lips tight and pale. His hands shake on the halberd. He looks between her and the railing and back again. Yes, Rapunzel thinks. That’s right. Elias, her new guard. Her father’s spy. Ordered to never let her out of sight.

“Yes?” she says, and there is a coldness to her that she has never felt before. She isn’t shaking anymore—she is still. Something curls in her heart, pulls cruel at her expression. (I’m trapped, something in her whispers, even then. A voice that sounds just like hers, only younger, only smaller, only afraid. Even now, still, I’m trapped.)

She keeps her eyes on him. Elias stares at her and then at his feet, unable to meet her gaze. His face twists, as though he’s about to cry. His amber eyes are glassy and wet. Then, his jaw clenches. His expression firms. He takes a deep breath, and lifts his head, eyes still bright but steadier, now, determined—

“It’s alright,” Rapunzel says, before he can speak. His mouth snaps shut. All at once the emotion has drained from her; she feels deadened, quiet. Her heart has sunk to her gut. She doesn’t want to know what he’ll say. She doesn’t want to hear it.

She looks down at the balcony floor, her newest mural painted bright and bold against the gray stone: Corona in shadow, the eclipse above, little lights still shining. The morning she’d painted it, all those weeks ago, the image had given her hope. Now it leaves her tired. “You can tell him.”

“I—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rapunzel says, gentle and dead. She turns back to the railing, looking up at the sky. The storm is truly over, now—the rain vanished, the sky slowly clearing up, and Rapunzel feels, bizarrely, as though it’s leaving her behind. Come back, some part of her wants to say. Come back here. But that, too, is a stupid thought.

Something bitter tugs at her upper lip. “He probably should have expected this,” she says, finally. “In fact… I want you to.” She looks back. Her expression firms; her hands tighten on the railing. “Tell the King I’ll be back when I feel like it.”

Elias’s voice is barely above a whisper. “I don’t— I don’t have to tell him anything.” He swallows. “I don’t.”

Rapunzel’s lips press, a grimaced smile. “Oh.” It hurts. It’s kind. He’d be dismissed from the guard for sure, speaking like that, if anyone found out. Her eyes burn. “I— that’s— thank you. I mean it. Thank you, Elias. But—” She forces another smile, unsteady and weak on her face. “You don’t have to do that for me.”

He stammers. “But I—”

“Please.” She’s grateful, a little, but mostly she is just tired. Tired of things going wrong. Of people giving up the things that matter to them. Of people giving up these things up for her, especially. “Please, just… please don’t.”

Elias falters, and he looks down again. At last—slowly, reluctant—he gives a tiny nod. “Okay,” he says, in a small voice. “Then… I’ll tell him. If you say so.” His head lifts. “…Princess, are you— are you okay?”

Rapunzel almost laughs at him. She swallows down the hysterical giggle, feeling it flutter uncomfortably in her chest, and turns away. She leans her arms against the railing, and swings herself up to sit on the bar; the cold metal burns at her legs even through the dress. Her feet dangle over the ledge. She reaches up and grips her hair in shaking hands, wraps it secure around her arm. She stares up into the glare of the afternoon sun, the light breaking through the clouds—and all at once, she doesn’t feel like laughing anymore.

“Yes,” Rapunzel says, finally, dully, and slips down off the balcony before Elias can work up the nerve to call her out on the lie.

.

In the quiet grips of the morning fog, the Riesling woods are really quite lovely. With its soft rolling hills and towering trees, clustered so close that from above there’s no break in the green, the woods are peaceful in a way that seems almost unreal. The one road is dirt-worn and broken up by roots, barely wide enough for a cart. Any towns nearby are small and isolated; tiny thatch roof cottage houses with home-grown gardens and barely a market to speak of.

It’s peaceful, in these woods—sleepy, even. They’d entered three days ago, jumping off the latest wagon to make this trek by foot, and it still boggles the mind. It’s so gentle—all birdsong and scattered sunlight, like something from a kinder dream. It’s unreal.

And it’s almost funny, in a way, Varian thinks, staring up at the mist. Because the last time he spent an inordinate amount of time travelling across a couple countries, he’s pretty sure he hated it.

“Moony.”

Of course, Varian reflects, he probably had his reasons for that. The chains—gods, he remembers those. The iron always chafed at his wrists, and he could never really get comfortable, and that iron ball, so heavy, he’d hated that most of all…

“Moony. Get up.”

And sure, he’s spent these past six months traveling with Adira too, but those early months after the labyrinth had never quite felt real. Not in the way that mattered. There’d been no destination to it, no meaning—and Varian hadn’t really been in a state to much care, either. This is the first time it’s really felt true—Corona, off in the distance, the looming goal. Suddenly the roads feel solid beneath his feet, and the travel and the time they’ll take to return needles at him like a ticking clock. He’s going back. After all this time, after everything, Varian is finally going… home.

“Hm. Have it your way.”

Adira swings her staff for his skull; Varian, lying flat on the ground and trying in vain to ignore her, yelps aloud and rolls away, scrambling for his own staff. In the misty sunrise the light is soft and scattered, almost blue, and the world seems dim and shadowed, dampened. The trees here are tall and dark and shaded, great bristling sugar pines with heavy spines now damp with dew, and it’s early enough in the day that even the birds are still singing hello. It’s wonderfully cool too, which is practically warm for this not-quite-springtime weather, and the most pleasant morning they’ve had in a while… so of course, Adira is using this time to train. Varian hates her.

“Head’s up!”

Varian curses again, and brings up his own staff just in time, scrambling back. Adira’s staff cracks against his block—he strains against the blow, his boots digging into the dirt from the pressure. His arms are already shaking, but Varian tries to push back anyway, straining against the staff bearing down for his head. His vision spins. His knees start to buckle—

Adira frowns and makes a dismissive noise, and then pulls back to swing for his ankles. This time, Varian isn’t fast enough to dodge. Adira’s staff smacks hard into his ankle bone, and his leg buckles—and Varian falls hard, flat on his back in the grass once again, groaning.

Adira, above him, shakes her head. “I keep telling you, watch your feet.” She raps the staff smartly against his still-smarting ankle, less a hit and more a warning. “Get a strong stance first, and then you can try defense.”

Varian catches his breath and forces himself upright. For a moment, he doesn’t understand why she’s stopped attacking. Then he sees the small glitter of glowing blue-black stone, rising up by his feet, and falls back on the ground.

Adira sighs again. “You’re distracted.”

Varian throws his arm over his face, trying to ignore the sharp twist in his chest. Every time. He’s stopped jumping at the appearance of the black rocks, if only because it’s become a distressingly common event, but…

Damn it.

“I need a break,” he mutters, and shoves his hand back through his hair, glaring off into the fog. His good mood has soured with this, the peace turned ill and vexing. Varian hates traveling. He’s lost the iron chains this time around, but gained something so much worse, and really, he’s starting to get tired of this. He remembers Moon’s smile, bright and furious and cruel—Figure it out yourself—and the memory curls bitter in his chest. “It’s not working!”

“It’s barely been two weeks. We have a month and more to Corona at this rate. We still have time… and you need to give it time.” Adira offers him the staff; reluctant, Varian takes the end and lets her pull him back on his feet. “Can you keep going?”

Varian brushes stray grass off the hem of his sparring clothes—mainly just his old clothes, because if he ruined his new outfit he’s pretty sure Yasmin would murder him, miles of distance between them none-withstanding. “I’m fine,” he says, and pulls out his hair from the ponytail, combing his hands through it. Augh, it’s all messed up. “Just give me a second.”

“You keep flinching,” Adira notes, leaning on her staff. She eyes him critically, frowning slightly as Varian pulls his hair back again into a neater ponytail.

“Wha— I thought reflexes were a good thing!”

Adira taps her staff against the ground, unamused. “That’s not what I meant.”

Varian looks up at that, his heart sinking. Adira raises an eyebrow at him. He flushes, and his eyes drop back to the ground.

She’d noticed, then. Damn it.

It’s been almost two weeks since they left Yasmin’s house and Port Caul behind. In that time, they’ve already left a few merchant carts, either catching new rides or walking the road in search of another traveler going the right direction. As far as Adira can tell him, Corona is a good two months journey away, if they make good pace— they won’t arrive until the true start of spring, at least, maybe even sometime near Varian’s birthday, though of course he hasn’t told her about that. In the time they have, though, Adira has apparently taken it upon herself to help Varian with training and controlling the black rocks both. It’s a good idea—logical, even. And yet…

The bruise on his face has faded, by now. They’ve talked it out, they’ve set the terms for training and traveling and everything— Varian even agreed to it this time, damn it all—and yet, he still can’t focus.

Part of it is the rocks. Part of it is the Moon, her cryptic warnings and piecemeal answers; part of it travel and trauma, his restless dreams and the endless road. And part of it—as she has no doubt noticed—is Adira.

Varian keeps his eyes on the ground. “Sorry,” he mumbles. “I—I just—”

“It wasn’t an accusation,” Adira says calmly, cutting him quiet. When Varian eyes her, she shrugs. “It’s fine. I expected this. There’s no reason for you to feel comfortable with it.” She lifts a brow. “Don’t apologize for things I’ve given you reason to fear. I just need to know if you can keep going. If not…” She shrugs again. “We’ll try again tomorrow. Though I will have you practice your stances, Moony. Honestly.”

Varian sneers. “You slapped me once.”

“Once is enough. Don’t blame yourself for logical things. I said, can you keep going?”

Varian picks up his staff, stubborn. Adira sighs at him, but slides back into a stance regardless. “One last round,” she warns.

“I can do this.”

“Hm.” She swings for him; this time Varian keeps his feet, remembering her advice. He leans back on his heels and slips to the side of her swing—tightens his grip on his own staff through the gloves and lashes out for Adira’s blind spot—is blocked by the sudden flick of Adira’s wrist, and has to scramble back to avoid getting kicked into a tree. “Regardless—” She swings for his ankles again, and Varian trips away, a desperate dodge. “We have a long journey ahead of us. Best not to exhaust ourselves.”

“Corona is—month and a couple weeks away, right?” He ducks a swing, already wheezing, out of breath.

“By merchant roads, anyway. Navigation gets funny across countries.”

He fumbles the staff, annoyed by his own poor dodging. Damn, if he could only hit her back once—! “If you’re saying there’s a shorter road and we haven’t taken it…”

She smacks the staff against his shoulder and he yelps. “Watch your left. You keep leaving yourself open.” She side-steps Varian’s wild swing and raps the staff against his knuckles next, the blow felt even through his new gloves. Varian hisses at her. She shakes her head at him. “Like a cat,” she remarks absently to herself, and then, louder: “Besides, I wouldn’t rely so much on that timeline. We have our own problems to deal with before we can get to Corona.”

Varian draws back, sour, slipping off one glove to rub at his smarting hand. “What do you mean?”

Adira looks at the ground, pointedly. Varian follows her gaze to the black rocks. He looks away. “Oh.”

The fight has fallen slow now. Neither one of them is really trying anymore. Adira straightens, yawning boredly into one hand, and tosses her staff carelessly by their packs. Ruddiger, sleeping snug atop Varian’s bag, doesn’t even twitch. Varian, for his part, drops his staff like it’s a hot coal and leans over his knees, fighting to catch his breath.

“It’s a bad idea to enter another city while that’s still not under control,” Adira says, not unkindly. “And since sparring isn’t working…”

“It’s helping,” Varian says, and makes a face right after, abruptly aware of the hypocrisy. He’d just said otherwise, ugh.

Adira’s lips twitch, an almost-smile. “Hm.”

Varian splutters at her. “I, I mean, it’s—it’s giving me ideas even if it isn’t exactly working—I’m coming up with new plans as we speak, okay—”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Varian mumbles an insult under his breath, shuffling on his feet, bright red—and then bolts for their bags, Adira’s laughter echoing at his back.

Their camp falls quiet after that, but it’s a comfortable kind of silence. Varian changes back into his nicer—warmer, too, which is most important—clothes and his coat over that, at first with sharp angry movements and then calmer once the embarrassment fades. He takes a moment to look down at the nightlight crystal, still hanging off his coat buckle. He takes it in his hand, drawing strength from the pale glow. He breathes in. He exhales.

“Set up the fire, Moony.”

“Got it.”

By this point it’s almost become routine, they’ve done it so often. As Adira stalks off into the trees to hunt, Varian clears out last night’s fire and rebuilds it for their breakfast, walking around their small clearing to gather up twigs and brush for burning. By the time he’s got a blaze going Adira has found their meal, and as the fire starts to crackle, Varian keeps his eyes on the flames and ignores her prepping the meat best he can, even now still a little squeamish at the sight of blood.

Ruddiger wakes up by this point, and scurries over to curl in Varian’s lap. Varian pets him, absently, as their breakfast cooks—Adira’s found some birds, and eggs too, and the smell is almost heavenly, especially with the spices Adira bought from the last merchant. Varian combs out the matts in Ruddiger’s fur and frowns off into the fog, sketching out possible experiments in his head. There’s still not quite enough money for him to buy alchemy equipment, but maybe one day, he’ll be able to bring them to life.

Adira takes the meat and eggs off the fire, and Varian takes his bowl with a mutter of thanks. He eats slowly, sneaking Ruddiger bites when Adira isn’t looking. The campfire is warm against his legs, and high above, the morning haze is starting to burn off under the sunlight. It’s soft. It’s nice.

But again and again, Varian finds his eyes drawing back to the rocks.

He hasn’t told Adira about his conversation with the Moon—hasn’t known how to bring it up, really. But he knows he should. That conversation has played in loops in his mind ever since, and with the distance of hindsight, Varian is starting to realize that whatever’s going on is… a lot more, he thinks, than just pirates. A rot that lies forever beneath the deep, Moon had said, and as fucking cryptic as that sounds—well. “It” is apparently waking up, if Moon is to be believed, and that’s…

And as much as Varian hates to admit it—he believes her. That attack on Port Caul… it wasn’t right. There’s too much that doesn’t add up. Moon’s attempt at warning him away from the port, the way the black rocks had all pointed at the sea, as if to threaten something—or someone—still on the waters, and… that earthquake. It’d been a small one, sure, but enough to knock Varian off his feet, and… and that’s not natural, is it? Earthquakes and pirate attacks all along the coast, and how strange that they would coincide…

He thinks he needs to tell Adira. He should tell Adira. It’s not like he can ask Moon, even if he wanted to; Moon herself seems intent on ignoring him after that night, beyond the occasional vindictive and vivid night terrors.

Varian takes another bite of eggs and considers it, turning the possibilities around in his head. He grimaces around his breakfast. Ugh. She’s going to yell at him for being stupid, and she’s going to be right, and—ugh, awful, nope.

Still. He’s got to do it. Varian swallows down his mouthful and puts down his bowl, exhaling steadily. He brings one hand to the nightlight, and grips it tight. “I… I am trying, you know.” When Adira looks up, he clarifies: “With, um, with the rocks. I’m trying.”

Adira tilts her head. “I know.”

“I’ve…” Varian clears his throat. “I’ve tried everything.”

“…Okay,” Adira says, a lot slower now. She looks Varian up and down. She closes her eyes. She sighs. She sets aside her bowl, and leans forward to link her hands under her chin. “Alright. What did you do.”

And yeah, okay, despite the fact he’d been deliberately leading her to that exact conclusion, Varian still splutters a bit. “Why do you always assume it’s something I’ve done!? Maybe I haven’t done anything. Maybe it’s—”

“Varian.”

“—okay, fine, yeah, whatever, I—I kind of summoned and tried to interrogate the Moon?” It comes out sort of like a question. “Definitely summoned.” Adira is making a face. “Only kind-of talked to though, because, um—I sort of—insulted her—at the end there, but she totally deserved it—”

Adira holds up a hand. Varian shuts up.

Adira is silent for a moment. Her jaw is stiff with tension; her knuckles are almost white. But then she relaxes, forcefully, deliberately unclenching her jaw. “…Right.” She rubs at her face, suddenly looking very tired. “Right.” A pause. “Damn it, Moony.”

“I know, I know.” He crosses his arms. “I—I get it okay? But I… I didn’t know what else to do. And I figured, if she was the reason all this was happening…” He doesn’t look back at the black rocks. He doesn’t.

Adira’s eyes draw back to the rocks too. She sighs. “And?”

“She… said something… odd.” Varian adjusts his posture, fidgeting with Ruddiger’s fur, and repeats as best he can the Moon’s cryptic comments on the pirates and the presence she felt in the city. “I’m sure it means something,” Varian concludes, certain. “I just… can’t figure out what.”

Adira is very quiet—deliberately quiet—and Varian narrows his eyes at her. “You can,” he realizes. “You know something. Don’t you?”

“…I’m really hoping I don’t.” Adira reaches back for her sword, and while she doesn’t unsheathe it, her fingers flex restless on the hilt. “Later.”

“No, tell me now.”

“I’m not even sure of what I know, kid. Later.” Varian curls up, teeth grit, and Adira gives him a glance. “I will tell you,” she allows, at last. “I will. But not now. Some stories… are best left undisturbed unless absolutely necessary, got it?”

His lips press, and Varian looks away. “…Later,” he agrees, grudging.

“Hm.” There’s another pause. “And the rocks?”

“What?”

“Did the Moon say anything on how to control the rocks?”

Oh. Varian stares a hole at the ground. “She refused to tell me,” he says, something bitter rising in his chest. He glowers at the dirt. “She said I had to figure it out myself or whatever. So the whole gamble was useless, on that front.”

Adira almost seems to twitch at those words, her brow furrowing. Varian looks up, searching her face. He frowns. “…What is it?”

Adira hums. Her gaze is distant, staring holes into the campfire. “She told you to figure it out on your own?”

“Yeah…?” He watches her. “She just—likes watching people suffer, I don’t know. It was stupid. But I mean—I don’t know if I can… before we get to Corona—”

“No,” Adira says, before he can finish. “No, actually… this is good.” She looks thoughtful. “Listen, Moony. If she said you had to figure it out yourself, that means there’s something to figure out. A trick to it. And if training isn’t working, then… maybe it’s something we haven’t considered? Something we don’t know.” She blows out a long breath. “…Damn.”

Varian blinks at her. “Um…”

Adira straightens. “Right,” she says, decisively. “Strike the merchant-caravan plan. We’re going off-road.”

“W-what? Why?”

“I have an idea. Something that might help. King Ed—” She snaps her mouth shut abruptly and grimaces. “…Someone I once knew told me about it. I’ve avoided it for my own reasons, but… now might be the time to change that.” She rises to her feet, heading for their bags. “Pack up once you’re done eating. We head out as soon as we can.”

“Wait, wait—” Varian snaps his head around to follow her, struggling to catch up to her train of thought. “Where are we going? What are you talking about?”

“Quirin ever show you a graphtic scroll?” Varian freezes mid-motion, his breath stuttering in his chest. “Old paper, ancient writing, showed a glowing flower and a stylized sun, maybe some of the moon, black rocks—”

“Yes,” Varian says. His own voice sounds distant to his ears. His head is pounding. He feels very cold. “Yes. I saw it. He—never showed me, but I— have it. Had it.” It’s with Rapunzel now, probably; he never saw it again after using it to translate those lines in the ruins, and it wasn’t in the satchel Rapunzel gave him either.

Adira considers him. “Could you read it?”

“I… not at first.”

“But later?”

“I figured a rough translation, but—” He stops. “Why? Why does it matter?”

Adira nods to herself. “Could you do it again?”

“I mean… maybe?” Varian puts a hand to his head, feeling a bit dizzy. “I’m missing—so much stuff, wow—” His books, his tools, his references—the last time he’d translated that odd writing, in those ruins, he’d had the scroll for reference and Eugene to help—

Something about that memory gnaws at him. Varian blinks, hand drifting away from his temple. His brow furrows. The ruins… he hasn’t thought of them in ages, but—hadn’t that translation, too, had something to do with the Moon? An odd little poem, and then that final phrase…

“But you have a better chance than most.” Adira seems to have come to a decision; she speaks firmly, sure and set. She slings her bag over her shoulder and looks off towards the dirt road. “Listen, Moony. There’s only one place I know that might have what we’re looking for—greatest store of information on the Moon and Sun and their powers than anywhere else on this continent.”

As she speaks, though, something odd shivers through him. Varian blinks fast, feeling dizzy. His blood is burning cold, all at once—his chest, seizing up. He blinks faster, and twists a hand in his shirt, over his heart. What?

“Most of the scrolls there are still unreadable—never got translated because of the history of that place—”

What’s happening? Something is wrong. He’s freezing. He’s freezing. And the longer Adira talks, the more she says, the stronger it gets. Like a building realization—a growing horror. A memory that isn’t his own.

“—but if you put in the effort, it might pay off.”

There is something icy in his blood. A chill in his breath. There is a burning in the back of his mind, the distant tang of godly rage, and Varian realizes, all at once—

This isn’t me.

“I wonder,” Adira says, and the Moon’s power burns. “Did Quirin ever tell you about the Great Tree?”

It’s like something in his very soul has flinched. A sense of foreboding, like Port Caul but somehow so much worse—and inward, somehow, horror internal, like this is something the Moon had not meant for him to feel at all.

Adira is calling his name, but Varian isn’t listening. There is terror frozen still in his chest, a far-off echo of hatred and rage and fear, strangest of all. But already, he can feel it fading, the connection locked down, cut off—and almost without knowing why, Varian reaches back.

…Moon?

But she has already gone.

.

Rapunzel wanders Corona’s streets in a daze.

The storm has moved on, and in its wake the sky burns with color. It’s beautiful, in a very real sense—the light warm and golden-red, the houses back-lit by the rosy tint, the puddles on the streets shining golden with reflection. The sun is setting, and the streets are full, Corona taking full advantage of the last few hours of sunlight.

Rapunzel sees them as if from far away, the moving crowds hazy to her eyes. People are milling about—shopping, dancing, laughing. The stone walkways are warm beneath her bare feet, even as the air burns cold in her throat. And the crowds—the people—they press in around her, makeshift walls. She’s tied up her hair, but badly, and it’s clear who she is. Some people call her name across the street. Others run up to her. Xavier, in the shadow of his workshop with his new apprentice by his side, waves her a hello.

They falter, each and every one of them, when they see Rapunzel’s face.

It’s cloying, and caging, and even outside the castle walls, their eyes press into her like chains. Her breathing quickens. There’s just so many people—all here, all looking at her—and Rapunzel doesn’t want to be seen, right now. She doesn’t want to be their princess. She just wants to be no one, invisible, safe in a crowd.

She misses Eugene.

“Princess!”

“Princess, over here!”

“Lovely to see you!”

She picks up the pace, trying to escape them, something buzzing in her ears. But they are too close—too near—a hand catches at her sleeve, tugging hard, and she jolts.

“Princess, if I may, I have an issue I’d like to discuss with you—”

“Rapunzel?”

Her breathing stutters at the familiar voice, and she stops mid-step, halfway to fleeing, and turns so fast her head spins. She scans the crowd, rapid, and stills when she sees him. And yes, she’s got it right—because there, at the end of the street, shopping bags in his arms and brow furrowed, is Lance.

“It is you!” he says, delighted, when she meets his gaze. It’s almost dizzying, how little he seems to have changed: beyond a new vest and a few fancier earrings, he looks just as he did when Rapunzel first left, all those months ago. “Ha! Who would have thought? What brings you to town on this fine evening, princess?”

Rapunzel beelines for him at once, her throat knotted. Her eyes tear down the streets. She can’t see Eugene. “Where—” she starts. It’s hard to speak. Her throat feels caught. “Is—is Eugene—”

Lance’s smile falls to a frown. He shifts all his shopping bags to the crook of one arm and carefully reaches for her shoulder, stopping just short of touching her. “Hey,” he says, and his brow furrows. “You look a little…”

“Is Eugene here?”

Lance shakes his head. “I just went out for groceries. He’s back in the Snuggly Duckling.”

“Oh.” Her heart falls. Her vision swims. “Oh. R-right. Right.” Of course he isn’t here. Of course he’s somewhere else. Of course…

The crowd has caught up to her. Their voices clamor in her ears. Someone touches her sleeve again and she flinches. Her hands curl. Despite herself, her lips pull back in a snarl. It’s awful—she’s awful—they just want to talk and here she is, acting like—!

But everything is hot and tight and roaring in her ears, and for a moment all Rapunzel wants to do is smack those hands away from her.

Lance draws beside her, close enough to touch, and shoots her a wink. “Come on,” he says, and glances up at the crowd, impatient and shifting, closing in. “It’s been a while—months, even! We should catch up.” His voice rises, directed at the small crowd that’s formed around her. “No busybodies allowed!”

“What—”

“You can’t just take all the Princess’s time, you—!”

“I’m catching up with a friend,” Lance says, and turns back to Rapunzel, offering his arm. She stares at it. After a moment’s pause, she takes it, and Lance’s smile dazzles. His voice lowers, for her ears alone. “That okay?”

She nods. Lance squeezes her arm—warm, somehow, grounding, and this time she doesn’t flinch—and then he steps boldly forward. “Coming through!” he shouts, sing-song. “Make way! Hungry people rushing through!”

He gets them out of the market, down a few more streets; guides her swiftly and easily through the alleyways until any pursuers have gotten lost in the tangle of side-streets. Rapunzel closes her eyes and doesn’t watch, just lets him lead her, and breathes in deep the whole time.

At last—when it’s silent again, calm again, safe to breathe again—she lets go of his arm, standing on her own. She smooths her skirt down with her hands— Pascal, curled up on her shoulder, brushes off his scales— and sighs, shaky and thin, an exhale that leaves her empty.

When she looks up again, Lance is watching her. Rapunzel gives him a weak smile. “I’m fine,” she says. “I’m fine.”

“Well, all right,” Lance says, easily enough. Rapunzel nods, relieved at the lack of argument. She glances back down the street from where they’d come, and stifles another sigh in her throat.

“But, um…” She studies her hands. “Thank you.”

Lance’s returning smile is almost blinding in its radiance. Rapunzel swears she can even see a sparkle in there, somewhere. Somehow. “Of course!” He gestures down the streets, giving a theatrical bow. “I know a good place for dinner around these parts, too. Not as fancy as your castle food, but, eh. You’re not much the type to care about that, are you?”

“No…” Rapunzel blinks. “Oh. I— what?”

“Did you think I was joking about dinner?” Lance rises from his bow, grinning. “I meant it. Hey, just this once, I’ll even say the meal’s on me!” He winks at her. “Partly because I don’t think you brought your wallet with you, princess, but also… I mean, really. Months! We’re due for a conversation, aren’t we?”

“But your groceries…”

He looks down at the parcels in his arm like he’d forgotten they were there, and hums. “I was planning on staying in the city tonight anyway. Bought too many duck antiques… there’s no way I could have gotten back to the Snuggly Duckling before sundown. And walking those roads at night?” Lance gives a full-body shudder and looks briefly scarred. “No. Oh, no, no, I don’t care what Eugene tells me, those roads are definitely haunted. No-thank-you. I’ll head back for the bar tomorrow.” He glances at her, and something in his face gentles. “You aren’t holding me up at all, Princess. Trust me.”

“I…” She searches for an excuse, for a reason, but her mind is blank and—and she’s too tired to think, let alone argue. “…Okay.”

Lance is looking at her again. It’s an odd expression on his face, thin and a little worried. He pats her on the shoulder, almost helplessly, and then links back their arms and guides her wordlessly back down the streets.

The silence, too, is unlike him—but for once there’s a comfort in it, in the quiet, in the not having to listen. Rapunzel closes her eyes and lets the streets blur past her, lets Lance lead her blind across the city. It feels as though all the world is fading in and out of focus, blessedly distant—sound distorted and soft, sight blurry and indistinct. Like falling asleep, without the nightmares, and as they walk, something unwinds in Rapunzel’s chest, loosens in her shoulders, eases up the stranglehold on her lungs. She inhales deep, and this time actually feels like she’s breathing.

Slowly, surely, twilight falls over Corona’s capital. Above them the sky turns from bloody red to a richer purple—bleeding slowly to a darker blue. Stars are beginning to show on the firmament. The horizon is a band of molten gold, the sun sunk low and vanished beyond the retreating storm clouds. The sea breeze has gone chill, without the sun to warm the winds, and Pascal burrows in her hair like it’s a blanket, his little chuff of annoyance soft in her ear. This time, it even makes Rapunzel smile.

The restaurant Lance takes her to is a small sea-side business, with tiny oak tables and windows of colored glass. He must be a regular—the owners greet him by name and with a smile—and he seats her near the back, where she can be half-hidden from the door, by a window overlooking the sea. There’s a small vase with cut flowers sagging in the center of their table; Rapunzel reaches out, and brushes the golden petals with one gloved hand. The fresh blooms are starting to wilt, but they’re still lovely. She’s always liked yellow flowers, but then, she’s probably a little biased.

Lance orders dinner, water and stew for them both, and flirts with the waiter as he settles in his chair. His laughter is bright and deep. His boasting is as familiar as the sunrise, and just as comforting. Rapunzel traces her finger across a wood-grain stain in the table, watching the flowers and letting their voices wash over her, and thinks of nothing at all.

When the waiter has gone, and they are alone, Rapunzel says: “You didn’t have to do this.”

Lance raises an eyebrow at her. “Uh-huh.”

“Really, you didn’t. I’m… I’m honestly fine.”

Lance winces. Looks away. Looks at her again, from the corner of his eye.

“…Really, I am.”

“Err.”

He’s got a terrible poker face, but then, Rapunzel is the same way. She buries her face in her arms. “Really,” she says, voice muffled, throat tight. Her eyes burn. Her sleeves are getting damp. “Really, really, I am…”

Lance is quiet for a long time. When he finally speaks, the drama has faded from his voice. He sounds gentle. He sounds tired. “Princess,” he says. “Uh, Rapunzel. I… I don’t think that’s true.”

She opens her mouth—but her throat is so tight it’s gone silent. She presses her lips shut and swallows so hard it hurts. Her eyes are itching. She doesn’t say anything.

“I mean,” Lance says, after a pause. “I… hm. I don’t know what I mean. I’m not very good at this, am I?” He clears his throat. “Err. Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s…” She exhales. It trembles. “Maybe,” she says, finally. “Maybe.”

“…Maybe?”

“Maybe I’m… not okay.”

“Oh,” Lance says. He thinks on this. “…Oh.”

They’re silent, again, the both of them. The waiter brings their food, and Lance takes it with a murmur of thanks, his earlier flirtation gone. He taps the glass bottle of water against Rapunzel’s arm, and smiles faintly when she lifts her head. “Drink?”

She nods, mutely. He pours her a cup without comment. The glass is freezing in her hands; the water, when she forces herself to sip at it, is crystal cold. She presses the cup against her forehead, and exhales against the rim. The glass fogs. She wipes it away with the tip of one gloved finger, and watches the fog dew down the side of the cup like rain.

“Stalyan showed up in court today.”

Lance stiffens.

“She arrived unannounced.” Rapunzel runs her finger along the glass edge again, ignoring the tremble in her hand. Her lovely leather gloves are wrinkled and creased—a bad sign on its own, even without the building ache in her palms. She’s pushed her hands too hard today. “She… she wanted to discuss… a deal.”

Lance is quiet. He sinks in his chair, eyes wide. Sweat has beaded on his brow. His gaze darts around, rapid and nervous, and when he finally looks back to her it’s with an open expression of doom. “…Shit.”

Something about the way he says it almost makes her giggle, and Rapunzel chokes down the noise and presses the back of her hand against her eyes to keep from crying. “Yeah,” she whispers. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I mean—it’s, it’s not fine, but I can... I can.”

“Still. That’s awful.” Lance shakes his head. His face falls. “Gods, I should have made Eugene come with me today… maybe then—”

“No, it’s fine, you’re fine—”

“Haha! I’m not offended, Princess. You must miss him a lot.” Her throat has gone all tight again, knotted like thread, and at her expression Lance’s eyes soften. “Yeah, you do,” he says. It’s not a question, and in the next breath Lance has put a hand over his heart. “I’ll get him to visit you. Promise.”

Rapunzel stutters. “No,” she says. “You don’t have to—I know why he can’t—”

“Even so.” Lance crosses his arms. “It’s scary times, to be sure… But not so bad as that. He can stand to tell you what he finds in person, at least! Gah, I knew I should have pressed him on that— like a letter would be enough!”

“No, don’t— it’s not that simple!”

Lance blinks at her. He’s frowning again. “What? Why not?”

“It’s just—not!” Her stomach twists. She fights to breathe. “I—I don’t know—I can’t—”

The words leave her. Rapunzel shakes her head, mute and frustrated, and curls her aching fingers around the glass.

Lance considers her for a long moment, biting hard at his lip. He doesn’t understand, Rapunzel realizes, and the worst part is she has no idea how to explain it. How to even put it into words. “I can’t,” she says instead. “I can’t.”

“…Okay.” Lance hesitates. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

“I—” She stops. “I don’t know.”

“Okay,” Lance says, again. “Would it help if I talked?”

She thinks about it. The easy cadence of Lance’s voice, rhythmic instead of jarring. All the time she’s been away, all the things she has to catch up on. The distraction. “Please,” she says, only a little desperate, and Lance nods just once before he launches into a story.

“Did I ever tell you I got the bar? No? Did I tell you how? Oh-ho, okay, sit back, Princess, because do I have a tale for you—!"

It’s a long story: meandering, wild, vibrant. She’s forgotten, Rapunzel realizes, listening to him speak, how good Lance is at stories. He embellishes a little—or a lot—but the story itself is solid, understandable. He tells her about his job, working as a cook at the Snuggly Duckling—the owner’s sudden retirement, Lance’s abrupt inheritance. “Old man sprung it on me at the last second, just to be funny,” Lance confides in a whisper, shaking his head in remembered disappointment. “Can you imagine!?”

He tells her about the Snuggly Duckling, what it’s like to run a tavern, about the regulars— “Hookfoot joined his brother in concert, did I mention that—no? Well, there you go!”—the people Rapunzel has missed, and the people she’s yet to meet, and the people she didn’t expect to hear from again. “Oh, oh, and guess what,” Lance adds, when they’re halfway through their meal. “Red and Angry—you remember them? They came back!”

“Really!?”

“Yeah! Right out of the blue, too! I was stunned, I tell you. Shocked! And you won’t believe what happened—”

He tells her about werewolves, about Keira and Catalina and family. The treehouse Lance helped build for them— “I mean, they refused to stay with me, when I offered, but I couldn’t just let them rough it in the woods—you know—my old orphanage matron would be horrified at me, and I can’t stand the thought of disappointing that lady—” and the meals the girls come by for sometimes at the Snuggly Duckling, when they’re feeling up for socializing.

Lance smiles when he talks about them. He beams. And by this point, with the sun set and the city winding down to a quiet drawl, dinner with a friend and all her troubles feeling so far away—this time, Rapunzel manages to smile back.

He’s happy, she realizes, watching Lance speak. He’s honestly, truly happy. It’s in everything he is, in every word, in every laugh, every fond gleam in his eye. There is something in Lance that has settled, that has found its place, and it almost takes her breath away to see it. He’s happy. He’s okay. He really, really is.

“I’m so glad for you, Lance,” she says, when he pauses for breath, and he startles and blinks at her. “I… I really am.” And she is. It makes something in her feel light and free and dizzy with relief: here is a life untouched. Here is someone who she hasn’t failed—who she hasn’t even helped—whose happiness has nothing to do with her at all. He found it on his own, she thinks. He found it all on his own, or maybe it found him, and it’s such a weight of her shoulders that Rapunzel could almost cry.

Lance beams back. “Well,” he says. He sounds almost flustered. “It’s… a bit of a shock to me too. I mean. Wow.” He rubs the back of his neck. “It’s not what I’ve always dreamed of, admittedly, but… it’s really something.” He laughs. “It’s mine!”

Her heart feels full of light. Rapunzel laughs with him.  “Werewolves, though!”

“Gods, right!? And don’t get me wrong, that freaks me right out, but Catalina seems happy with it, so…”

And for the first time in a long time, Rapunzel finally feels like she’s home.

“I’m happy for you,” Rapunzel says, again, when Lance trails off. She’s smiling. Truly smiling, wide and bright. “I am.”

He grins at her. “Thank you, Princess. And what about you?” It’s a casual question—instinctual—and he seems to realize what he’s asked almost at once. Lance blanches. “Wait. Shoot. F—um. You don’t have to answer that, uh, sorry—”

“It’s okay.” She takes a breath. She looks at the drooping flowers, and stirs her spoon through her bowl of stew. “I… I’m…”

She trails off. She stops. She looks down at her hands, and she thinks.

And it’s funny, in a way. It’s strange. Because in all the time since Rapunzel has left the labyrinth behind—all these months, all this distance… Rapunzel has never once told the full story.

Not to Eugene. Not to Cass. Not even to Pascal. She has given pieces, given moments, forced them out through gritted teeth over the months, and tried to create an answer for their endless questions from the fragments.

But the full story, still—still, still. She has never said it aloud. She has never laid it out in full. She doesn’t know why. Is she afraid of it? Is she scared it will hurt her? Or maybe it’s just that she knows it would hurt everyone else. Eugene, who’s expression shuts down at the story. Cass, who falls into helpless anger at the reminder every time. And her parents—oh, her parents. It’d break their hearts, if they knew the whole truth. It’d scare them half to death. And so Rapunzel has never said it.

Now should be no exception.

Except— this is Lance. Her friend, sort of. A kind-of brother, in a way. She knows him through Eugene, mostly, but in the half-year before her journey to the Dark Kingdom she likes to think they’ve become friends in their own right. This is Lance, who is happy—whose life does not weigh on her shoulders—who is looking at her, calm, waiting, expectant, for whatever it is she has to say. There is something secure about him, Rapunzel realizes suddenly. In all the months they have been gone, something in Lance has resolved. There is a steadiness to him that was not there before—a certainty that will not break.

And she thinks—secretly, hopefully, almost afraid to dare—her story, she thinks, won’t hurt him.

And so Rapunzel starts to speak.

The story does not come easy, and it doesn’t come coherent. The travel—the journey—Varian—the arrow, the firelight, and the letter she ignored. The labyrinth she gives only segments, the things she can bite off behind her teeth. “It was dark. She—the Moon—had a thing, a creature. It hunted us. It nearly killed us. Varian—”

And Lance listens. He is a captive audience. He gasps at the right places. He shakes his head at the right times. He hisses in anger. He curses under his breath. He listens, and though there is horror in his eyes, there is no pain. The story will not hurt him. It doesn’t hurt him the way it hurts Eugene and Cass, who go cold when they hear; doesn’t hurt him the way the half-truths hurt her parents, who looked as if every word might drive them to tears. And it is—a relief. It is such a relief, a treasure she never knew she needed, that Rapunzel finds that for once—for the first time in six, seven months—the words are still there. She can still speak. Of the end, of the Opal, of the long journey back—of Stalyan, of her father, of her mother, of Elias. If she wanted to, she could tell him all of it.

So she does.

When Rapunzel has finally finished talking, her throat aches and the sky has gone dark outside the restaurant window. Tiny stars shining out in the black, the flowers wilting in the vase between them, the food finished and the restaurant almost empty. But the air is warm—the candlelight soft—and Lance is shaking his head. “Gods!” he says. He sits back in his chair, looking stunned. “And the King, he wouldn’t even hear you out?”

“They aren’t listening to me,” Rapunzel bites out, chest tight. “No one is… and Cass, she’s never—snapped at me like that before. Something’s bothering her, but she won’t…” Her fingers curl in her dress. “I get why she’s angry, but I don’t know why she’s taking it out on me! I’m doing the best I can, I— I’m trying! I’m trying.”

“Yeah, you are!” Lance crosses his arms, leaning back, looking disgruntled. “Man.”

“Yeah.”

Lance frowns. “And I’ll bet it doesn’t help that you only learned about Stalyan through a letter, huh?”

She looks away. Lance leans forward, eyes knowing. “Leave Eugene to me,” he says, firm. “I meant what I said before. I’ll get him to come visit.”

She glances at him. “Thank you. Really. But… I know why he can’t. The castle— my dad—”

“Yeah, I know.” Lance sighs, slumping in his chair. “Oh, I don’t know. What a mess! Just…”

“Thank you,” she says again. “And—and you’re right, I do miss him. I want to see him again. So much.” She laughs, weakly, not really feeling it. “So, so much. I just… I can’t risk it.”

“Still.” Lance sighs again, heavier, resting his chin on his hand. “He’s moping too, y’know? Just seems like… it could be over so quick, if you guys could just…”

She looks down. It pangs at her heart, to know Eugene misses her too. Not that she doubted it, but—it’s nice, even so, to hear it. She exhales slowly, and tries to put it all into words.

“My dad, the King, he hasn’t been… I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. I—honestly, I don’t really think he’d hurt Eugene. Or, or ban him away, or anything. At least I hope not.” She swallows hard. “But everything—it all keeps getting worse, everywhere I turn, all the time, and I can’t—I can’t risk it. I can’t risk him. Not if I’m wrong.”

“You should have more faith in yourself,” Lance says. “Princess, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but… you’re a pretty good judge of character.”

She laughs. “It—it doesn’t feel like it.”

“Mm…” Lance is frowning now, thoughtful. He taps one finger at his chin. “I think,” he says, slowly, carefully, “that you need to talk to them.”

She looks down. “I’m trying—”

“I know! I know. But—” Lance hesitates. “Just… you’re not wrong, you know? Things have been getting pretty tangled up around here. And I mean, thinking on it…” He winces. “Well. How much… how much have you really told your parents?”

She looks away.

“I mean,” Lance says. “You don’t have to tell them everything. Or anything! Personally, I’m of the mind that they are way over-reacting to the secrets thing, to frankly appalling degrees, but—well, half a story leaves a lot of open endings.” He snorts. “Hell, for all they know, Varian could be plotting revenge at this very moment.”

“He’s not!”

“I know. I believe you. But with everything that’s going on, with the attacks, with Stalyan—well.” He rubs his chin. “I dunno. I mean, it looks bad, doesn’t it?”

Rapunzel can’t argue against that. She sighs.

“Plus,” Lance says, to himself. “Something about all this… what you and Eugene have been saying about the castle… I don’t like it.”

“It is pretty awful, seeing everyone fight.”

“I mean, yeah, but I meant— ah, I don’t know. It just feels familiar. It’s old tactics. Divide and conquer, right? Used to do it in heists all the time.”

Rapunzel blinks at him. “You think the in-fighting might be part of the plan?”

“Eh. Maybe? I dunno. Just—it’s weird that Stalyan showed up, isn’t it? Using her name and everything—and the guards know who she is! It’s a risk. They can’t arrest her publicly, but what if someone decided they didn’t care about the consequences, and attacked anyway?” He shrugs. “I don’t know. I just really doubt that lady came on a whim. She’s here for something, and I don’t know if the negotiations are the goal.” He holds up a finger, as if giving a lecture. “You don’t steal the big shiny on display—you take the smaller shiny the rich man forgot to booby-trap.”

Rapunzel frowns at the table. “Mm…”

“Anyways. Food for thought! What were we talking about? Oh, yeah. I get why you don’t want to talk about it. But— your parents aren’t like the Moon lady, you know?” Lance rests his chin in his hand, gaze distant. “This place isn’t a labyrinth.”

Her fingers curl. Her voice comes out tight. “Are you saying it’s all in my head?”

“Nah, of course not,” says Lance, so easily that Rapunzel’s budding anger falls flat. She blinks at him. “Just that it’s a different level of bad.” He sighs. “You’ve been through something awful, Princess. That can mess with your head sometimes, you know? Things are bad here, but… I don’t know. I’ve been wondering for a while. You guys… it sounds like you’ve been treating this situation like it’s going to go worst-case-scenario any second— and hey, maybe you’re right to! But…”

Rapunzel searches his face, stunned. She has never once thought about this, and the possibility leaves her blind-sided. “You think… I’m treating this situation like the labyrinth. But in reality, it’s…”

“Eh… maybe attempted arrow-murder level. But not much higher on the scale than that.”

Rapunzel snorts. She covers her mouth. “That—”

“Too soon?”

“That was awful!” But she’s laughing, and spluttering on it, and she feels like she can breathe a little easier.

Lance grins, looking pleased. His smile fades into something softer. “Just… think on it, okay? They might surprise you.”

Rapunzel closes her eyes. “I hope so,” she says, and she says it steady, even though some part of her aches to admit it. “But I don’t know if I… if I’m willing to take that risk. If I want to—know the answer, I guess.”

“Fair enough,” Lance says. “And hey—sometimes people just aren’t worth taking that risk for, anyway. It happens. But whatever you decide…” He pauses, and clears his throat. “Well. Things may be hard, now, and I know I wasn’t there for you on the journey, but…”

He stops again, shaking his head. “Look, Rapunzel. You’re not alone, okay? Eugene and Cass… you guys went through all that awful together, and while sometimes that can bring people closer—sometimes it can drive them apart too. It might just be you guys need a break, but that doesn’t mean you’re not friends! Better to take a breather than drown together, as I like to say.”

He must see something on her face, then, because he offers her another smile. “The important thing is, whatever happens… you aren’t alone.” The smile grows into a grin, bright and fond, and he winks at her. “You have a lot of friends here too, you know.”

Oh, Rapunzel thinks. Look at that. Her eyes have gone watery again. She clears her throat and tries to smile. “Yeah?”

“Of course!”

She gives another watery laugh, and presses her hands against her eyes again. She breathes into her palms. The gloves are getting damp. She can hear Lance stand—the dishes taken away, the clink of coins as he pays—and she stands too, still wiping at her eyes, unable, somehow, to stop smiling.

“I have to head out,” Lance says, a bit reluctant. “But—let’s do this again, yeah? Your treat next time.” He brightens. “Oh-ho, we can go shopping! There’s some lovely new stores—”

Rapunzel nods. Then she turns and hugs him, sudden and fierce. He’s warm—solid. “You’re a good friend,” she whispers. There is something settling in her. A decision made in the space between one breath and the next, bravery dredged up from the deep. She feels like she’s finally found something—ground to set her feet on, something she can hold onto. Something to carry her through.

She is suddenly, painfully grateful for him. Because Lance is right. Rapunzel is not alone here. He is her friend, too, and in this moment—she is so grateful for that. To have his friendship. To have met him. To have come back here, and seen him again.

She can feel him laugh. “I wasn’t always.” He hugs her back, hard. “You want to know something funny, Princess?”

In the warmth of his voice, she can hear him smiling.

“I think I learned this from you.”

.

It’s totally dark by the time Rapunzel returns to the castle, her heart settled and her hands no longer shaking. The wind blows sheer ice, now; the cobblestone is chill against her bare feet. It’s late—she’d stayed out longer than she probably should have, given the situation—but Rapunzel pushes that thought aside, and keeps going.

Her shoulders are pulled straight back—her chin, tilted up, subtle defiance. She doesn’t feel any stronger, really, nor any better, and in truth, not much has changed. The terrible things are still terrible; the danger, still present; her fears, undeterred. But Lance’s words linger on in her ears and in her heart, and Rapunzel looks at Corona with new eyes.

The people smile. The people wave. One of the maids, dressed in casual clothes and on the arm of another lovely young lady, smiles shyly at her and calls hello across the street.

You have friends here too, Lance had said. You aren’t alone.

Rapunzel lifts her hand and waves back. Yes, she thinks. She has friends here. She isn’t alone in this. She isn’t alone.

And so she walks with her head high.

When she reaches the castle, it’s with something in her chest gone hard and cold and certain, and she doesn’t flinch when she walks through those open gates. When she reaches the castle entrance—closed shut for the night—she meets the eyes of the night-watch guards and smiles.

“I’d like to see my father, please,” Rapunzel says, calm, and watches them nearly trip over themselves in their rush to open the doors. When she enters the castle it’s with her head held high.

There’s only one place her father would be at this time of night, too late for dinner but too early for bed. She already knows where to find him. She should maybe stop in her rooms—maybe do a lot of things, really—but instead Rapunzel heads right for her father’s private study.

If she’s going to do this—and honestly, she’s still not sure if she is—but if she is, then… she has to do it now. Before she loses her nerve, and the glow of bravery that moment with Lance has given her.  

She hasn’t been to his study all that often, but still, she knows the path like the back of her hand. The castle in the late-night hours is quiet and near-serene; beyond the occasional guard, no one is in sight. When she reaches her father’s study—the last room at the end of a long hallway on the second floor of the castle—his is the only room lit, light bleeding out from under the closed double doors.

To her surprise, the guard standing before the doors is one she knows, and Rapunzel falters mid-step, blinking at him. “…Stan?”

He startles, nearly dropping his halberd, and plays hot-potato with it for a second before snatching it back with a nervous laugh. “I—Princess!” She gestures franticly for him to keep his voice down, and he claps a hand over his mouth. “Princess!’ he says again, now muffled. “Oh, thank the Sun—you’re back!”

“I’m back,” she agrees, and winces. “Late, though.”

“Oh, better late than never!” But he seems nervous too, and his eyes flicker back to the door of the study. “That newbie Elias came by a little bit ago, and I—well, I didn’t mean to listen in, but…”

She keeps her smile, just barely. So Elias had told the King after all—she’s glad. She wouldn’t have wanted him to get in trouble for letting her sneak away, no matter how much she’d appreciated the offer. Still… “He—he didn’t get in trouble, did he?” she asks, suddenly worried. “It’s not his fault, really, I was the one who left him behind…”

“Well, maybe a little scolding, but no punishments, I think—I mean, it is you he was guarding.” Stan winks at her. “No, uh, no offense meant, but—well, you’re hell to keep track of, Princess.”

Despite all the tension tying knots in her gut, Rapunzel has to smile at that. “Speaking from personal experience?”

“After the sixth time, the Captain didn’t even bother scolding us anymore…”

She feels a bit bad for laughing, but giggles anyway. “Still,” she says, and sighs. “Thank you, Stan. I’m glad he wasn’t in trouble…” Her eyes drift back to the door. “Um… did—did he…?”

Stan sobers. He winces, visibly, and looks back at the doors. “He was a little upset,” Stan admits. “But… not as much as I thought he would be, honestly. Still.”

“Still,” Rapunzel echoes.

Stan looks her up and down, and then steps a little to the side. “The King asked not to be disturbed, after that, but, if it’s you…” He pauses. “Er. If you want to?”

“I… yes.” Rapunzel steps forward, reaching out one hand for the doors. “Thanks, Stan.”

“Of course.”

Rapunzel nods. Her hand is on the handle—the door, already unlocked. And yet—

And yet.

She hesitates, at the doors—she can’t help it. As she stares down at the brass little handle to her father’s study, Rapunzel finds herself faltering. She finds herself wondering. Does she really want to do this? Is she ready to do this?

After all, it’s been… an awful month. A terrible day. And for all that Rapunzel knows, she knows the King and Queen aren’t Gothel, that they loved her for all the eighteen years she was gone and even more since she returned… she can’t deny that they’ve hurt her too. For different reasons, maybe, out of fear and out of love, but do the reasons really matter when the outcome is the same? Rapunzel, locked in a tower—locked out—locked away.

Just because they never meant to hurt her doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

And this, too, has always been a fear of hers, a secret and poisonous whisper in the back of her mind. Because once upon a time, Rapunzel had loved Gothel—some part of her, despite how much she wishes she could rip it out, still loves Gothel. And maybe, in her own twisted way, Gothel had loved Rapunzel too. It hadn’t made Gothel any less of a monster, but it does make Rapunzel wonder, in her darkest thoughts—what if she gets it wrong, again? What if she loves someone who is not worth loving? Would she even know? Could she even tell?

So Rapunzel hesitates. She lets herself hesitate. And she closes her eyes, and takes a breath, and for a moment just—lets herself breathe, lets herself really think about it. Does she want to give the King a chance? Does she want to try and fix this? Is she really willing to take that risk?

And could she walk away, and leave things as they are, instead?

She considers it. And to her surprise, she finds—she could.

It would hurt. It would break her heart, but Rapunzel has done such things before. She loves her parents. She has loved every parent she ever had, for better or for worse. But she is startled, almost, surprised by her own resolve—because somewhere along the way, she has found the strength to leave them behind. To not forgive the harm. To not let it go, without comment, without question, the way she always did before.

And somehow, strangest of all, the knowledge that she could walk away, that she really could just—let them go… it decides her. She closes her eyes and exhales, slow and sure, and when she opens her eyes again she is ready.

Behind her, Stan sounds hesitant. “Princess?” he says. “Are you okay?”

And despite everything, she smiles.

“Yes,” she says. “I’m fine.” And then, her back straight, her head high, her hands steady— Rapunzel knocks on the door, and gives her father a chance.

.

The door opens without resistance, and Rapunzel steps inside her father’s study.

As she’d thought, her father is sitting slumped at his desk. It’s a cozy room, this study—all red velvet curtains and bookcases for walls, pale yellow lighting and soft green carpet. Papers are scattered across the main desk, and stacks of books and discarded documents litter the floor. A cup of long-cold tea sits by his elbow, and thin spectacles rest on the bridge of her father’s nose. He’s in a soft red shawl he only wears when truly stressed—an old, tattered thing with golden sun embroidery that once belonged to Rapunzel’s grandmother.

His head rests in the shadow of his hand. Ink stains his fingers. He doesn’t look up. “Arianna, please. I know what you’ll say—”

He looks up. His voice cuts off.

“Dad,” Rapunzel says, quietly. She looks at him. He looks old. Tired. Worn to the fringe. There is a tension to his jaw, and his knuckles are white on the quill, but—

He doesn’t look so angry, like this. In this small lit study, surrounded by these crumpled papers, without even a crown… he doesn’t even look like a King. He is just a man—just her father—and he seems, in this moment, as defeated as she feels.

Rapunzel’s hand slips off the doorknob. Her anger has gone ashy in her mouth. The words, rehearsed in her head the whole way here, come out shaky and thin. “Hi,” she says, and it comes out very weak. “Dad.”

He puts down his quill slowly, eyes wide. “Rapunzel,” he says, half-greeting, half-questioning. When she nods, his expression flickers. “…You’re back.”

The automatic answer—sorry for leaving—she swallows back. She’s not sorry. “I’m back,” she agrees.

He waits. When she doesn’t say anything else, he blows out a heavy breath. “That was foolish,” he says, but he sounds more resigned than truly angry. “With everything that is happening—”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

She almost brushes it off, but hesitates. “I couldn’t,” Rapunzel says, at last. “The castle, my room…” His face is blank. He doesn’t understand. Rapunzel looks away. “The tower,” she admits, and can sense him go stiff. “I just… had to get out. By myself,” she adds, remembering Elias. “Just… just for a little while.”

He doesn’t say anything. The silence is almost deafening, a physical weight; all at once the month weighs down on her, the tension and the not-fighting and the sense of having lost even this, too, lost home once again.

“Can we talk?” Rapunzel asks, after a pause, and her voice has gone suddenly small. “Please. Please, Dad, can we talk?”

Her father—the King—Frederic stares at her. For a moment his expression stutters, and his eyes squeeze shut. He takes a deep breath, and puts down his pen, and opens his mouth as if to speak—closes it, again, and rests his head in his hand.

After a long pause, he finally nods. “Yes,” he says. “Yes. Of course.”

Rapunzel closes the study door behind her, and walks carefully into the room. She settles down in one of the chairs by the bookshelves; scoots it closer to his desk and folds her hands in her lap. Pascal, still on her shoulder, tugs once at her hair in comfort and then hides away again. Rapunzel looks down at her knees. Her ankles cross.

The silence stretches. She thinks of Lance, of Eugene, of Cass—of Varian. She looks down at her gloves, feeling the tug of her scars underneath the cloth, and when she speaks her voice is small but steady. “I want to be there for the next talk with Stalyan.”

At once, his expression hardens. The exhaustion in his eyes, the brief vulnerability, is locked down and hidden away. When he speaks, his voice is tight and bitter with disappointment. “No.”

“I—” She takes a breath. “Please.”

“No.” His voice is harder, now. Exhausted and frustrated in equal measure. “This cannot continue, Rapunzel. I can’t—you say you wish to talk, but all you make are demands; you tell me nothing of your journey or your reasons but expect me to accept your decisions—”

“And why can’t you?’ Rapunzel says, still forcefully calm. Her voice shakes. “Why is it so hard—”

“Because your choices put Corona at risk!”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?”

For all rights, this conversation should be angry—and yet, their words are even, tight, controlled. It doesn’t feel like a conversation between father and daughter. It doesn’t feel anything like it should. And somehow this hits Rapunzel in a way nothing else could—suddenly this hurts like a knife to the chest, and she can feel something burn behind her eyes. “I can do this,” she whispers, and it aches. “I can do this. I’ve done everything I can, I’ve tried to prove myself again and again, so why do you keep—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Frederic says, cutting her off. “I— I have given my answer, and it will not change. You cannot—”

“Listen to me!”

“No!” He stands, the chair skidding against the floor. “You listen to me. This cannot go on! This—”

He’s drawn himself up, now, drawn himself tall and towering—and it’s the same as before, as every time before—as everyone has always done, standing over her and talking over her and acting like they know best, always know better, know Rapunzel more then she knows herself. As if, in all these years, they think she’s learned nothing at all.

And all at once, Rapunzel is angry. She is sharply, blindly furious, near breathless on the rage. She matches him—stands just as tall, chin up—steps forward, defying, and brings her hand to her mouth and drags her pretty leather glove off with her teeth.

He goes still.

But Rapunzel doesn’t notice, and she doesn’t care. She snatches the glove from her mouth and grips it, working at the other glove with stiff and shaking fingers. When the second glove is off, she lets them drop, and glares as she stretches out her hands before her, baring the scars into the light.

“This is part of it, right?” Rapunzel demands. “Is this why you’re mad at me—because I didn’t want to tell you? Don’t you get why I didn’t want to?”

Frederic says nothing. He looks pale, muted… and he should. The scars are never a pretty sight, but today has been a bad day and they look even worse because of it. The old wounds are inflamed, the scars white and puckered, the skin surrounding pink and angry. It aches when she opens her fingers. The cold of his study makes the tension wind even tighter in her knotted palms. Uncoiling her fingers even this little is almost too much for her to bear.

“You said you trusted me to take care of myself,” Rapunzel says, tight. “You said. And guess what? I did. I’m here, aren’t I? I came back. We all—” Her voice cracks. “We all came back from that place alive.”

He stares at the scars. His eyes flicker away.

“I get it,” Rapunzel says, a little quieter. “I do. But you can’t—you can’t protect me from this. You can’t stop me from getting hurt. This, now, it’s not… it’s not going to work. It’s not what you think.”

Something goes stubborn in his expression. He takes a breath. “Rapunzel—”

“Look,” she demands. Her voice is shaking, just a little; her gut still clenches to see the scars. “Look. Dad, please, just—look.”

He looks. His eyes are old and tired and so, so sad. He stares at the scars and something seems to drain from him; something awful and old weighs on his shoulders. “I know,” he says. “I know. I should have never let you go—”

“You aren’t listening,” Rapunzel snaps, before he can finish. “You aren’t— I was always going to go. Okay, Dad? I was always going to follow that path. That’s not what this is about. Please, just— listen. Listen to me.”

He stops. He breathes. This time, he meets her eyes.

Rapunzel looks back without flinching. Her breath rattles in her chest. Her scars ache.

“Do you know how I got these?” she asks, and the room is so quiet. “Do you know how I got these scars? Can you guess?”

He looks weary, worn. Defeated. It makes something in her quail. “Someone hurt you.”

“No.”

His expression flickers. “…Then,” he says, strained. “Then no. I don’t.”

“I,” Rapunzel says, and the memory makes her chest hurt, her breath tight, and oh, she almost wants to laugh— “I caught a sword.”

Frederic is silent. He looks pale.

“I panicked. There was no time.” The golem, swinging for Varian’s head— “I wasn’t thinking. I grabbed the blade—barehanded. I caught it.” This time, she laughs, soft and a little shaky. “With my— with my bare hands! I caught it. And I held it. And I pulled it back, mid-swing.”

Any remaining color washes out of his face. His eyes flicker back to the scars. “That’s impossible,” he says, and—

“Maybe,” Rapunzel says, and she’s shaking, head to toe. “Maybe. But that doesn’t matter.” It is impossible, the way many things are. A concussion that heals in days instead of weeks. An infection that never comes. Golden hair that never splits, never breaks, always strong enough to carry whatever she wished. Sun-lit power that burns like fire in her veins. All impossible things. But that is not the point.

“I caught it,” Rapunzel repeats. “I caught the sword. I held it back.” In the moment it had felt painless; in hindsight it was agonizing, that split-second of aching pain as the blade slid through her fingers and carved deep into her palm. “I saved a life.”

He stares at her.

“I saved a life,” Rapunzel says, and it’s almost a plea. He needs to understand this. He has to know, because otherwise, she thinks, he’ll never really get it. She stretches out her fingers as much as she can, as much as she’ll ever be able. Crooked and scarred and small in the candlelight. Callous rough in the skin between her forefinger and thumb. “And I did it with my own two hands.”

The memory is a painful one. Bloody, and fearful, and cold. But victorious, too. A bitter sort of pride. Never mind what came before. Never mind what came after. In that moment, Rapunzel had been right where she needed to be. Not too late. Not then.

She has the scars to prove it.

“I know you want what’s best for me,” Rapunzel says. Her voice is soft, but in the quiet it feels so much louder. “I understand. I do.” She feels cold. “Every parent I’ve ever had has always wanted what’s best for me.”

At this, Frederic recoils, a full-body flinch. The last of the color drains from his face. Some small, bitter part of Rapunzel is glad for it. Gothel would not have even blinked.

“I understand,” Rapunzel repeats, gentler. She takes a breath, exhaling shaky and slow, and meets his eyes. Her back straight as if sitting on a throne. Scarred hands held loose by her sides. Shoulders squared, her chin tilted up. And gold, too, flickering in the corner of her vision, in the depths of her eyes. “But— Dad?”

She waits. He says nothing.

“You can’t stop me.”

He is staring at her now. Finally, finally at her. Seeing Rapunzel at long last. Seeing who she has become.

Rapunzel waits. He doesn’t move. She closes her eyes and the gold is gone, but the warmth remains, coiled like a flicker of fire around her heart.

“Maybe,” Frederic says, at last. “Maybe I… maybe I can’t. But that doesn’t make your actions any less dangerous—to you, or to the people out there, relying on you to keep them safe.” She opens her mouth, angry words on her tongue, and he shakes his head. “Like that boy, Varian. I know the two of you were once friends, but after all he’s done…! To let him go! To do such things without cause, without reason, to take such risks on a whim—”

“It wasn’t a whim!” But she understands. It is as Lance had said, after all—it does look bad. It does seem strange. And maybe she should have told him this, at least, from the start. Never mind she wasn’t ready then. Never mind she didn’t know how.

She still doesn’t know how, but she’s willing to try. “Dad, I… I let Varian go because I had to. Not because of our past.” In truth, she’d let him go in spite of it. Beyond those few brief moments in the labyrinth, for most of their time together Varian had been nothing but awful to her.

“Rapunzel—” Frederic gestures in the air, grasping for the words. “My dear, that wasn’t… that wasn’t your choice to make.”

“Maybe.” And yet. Rapunzel steels herself. “…But do you have any idea what it’s like to— to live in a cage?”

He quiets. His eyes narrow, and he sits back, looking her up and down. “No,” he says, and it’s almost grudging, reluctant. “No.”

“I couldn’t bring him back here,” Rapunzel admits, and it’s the truth. “I couldn’t. If I did, I— I don’t think I would have been me anymore, you know? If, after all that—after everything that happened, if I’d still…” She shakes her head, the words gone. “I couldn’t. Not to him. Not to anyone. Not after that.”

His lips press. He looks away.

“And it’s funny,” Rapunzel says, almost to herself. “Because, um, in truth, I— I still don’t know if I even really forgive him. Or if I even like him. So much happened, and changed so quickly…  I don’t know. But at the time, I just—I just wanted him to have a chance. No matter how I felt. I… I had to give him a chance.” Her hand lifts, and brushes at her heart. “And I’m sorry, but— I can’t regret that. I refuse to regret that.”

“…I understand,” Frederic says, and he sounds like he really might, like he’s really trying to. “But I cannot let you get involved with the Stalyan situation if you can’t keep yourself safe. I’m not shutting you out just because of the secrets, but also—” He cuts himself off, teeth grit. “A princess cannot afford to give in to emotion. I—I am aware, the irony of this coming from me, but… a princess must truly put her people first.”

Rapunzel nods. She drops her hand. She braces herself, because this is going to hurt him—and says, with only the slightest of tremors in her voice, “I’m afraid I’m still rather new to being a princess.”

It’s terrible, his reaction to that—the way his expression stutters, then drops. Rapunzel doesn’t look away, but something in her gut curls. She knows the words have hurt him, and for all it’s necessary—it hurts. It does. She doesn’t want this. She never wanted to tell him this, but then, Lance was right about that, too. They need to know. They need to understand that for all Rapunzel is their daughter, now, is a princess and a fighter and a girl with a destiny—before everything else, above all else, she has only ever been just Rapunzel.

It’d be nice, to pretend those eighteen years in the tower never mattered. That Rapunzel could be the princess they always dreamed their daughter would be. It’d be wonderful, but… it isn’t true. It isn’t her.

But then—this is true, too. “I’d like to learn how to be a queen, though. Someday.” She offers a fading smile. “And I—I am putting my people first. In a weird way. I think… some part of me already knows. I want to be the kind of queen who gives chances. I want to be the kind of person who— who doesn’t lock anyone away. Who lets people change, if they choose to, who creates that chance…” Her fingers curl. The scars pull. “I want to protect Corona, and the people—everyone—with my own two hands. In whatever way I can.”

Silence.

“You can shut me out all you like,” Rapunzel says, firm. “But I’ll never, ever give up.” She meets his eyes. “That’s a promise, too.”

This, at long last, seems to strike home. Frederic stares. When he finally speaks, his voice has gone dead quiet. “I can’t—we can’t—” He stops, looking stunned at his own stutter. His eyes close. “We… I can’t lose you again, daughter.”

“I know.” Rapunzel smiles. It aches. “And I’m sorry, but... I’m not a child.”

And heavy, unspoken between them, the echo of his own words: That isn’t your choice to make.

He bows his head.

Rapunzel exhales hard in the same moment. Her eyelids flutter, and she presses one hand to her temple, suddenly so dizzy it’s a wonder she doesn’t fall right over. She feels tired. She feels awful. But something in her has settled. Something in her has eased. Because it’s terrible—painful and pressing, and it tears at her heart—

But he is listening. She can see it in his face. He’s heard her.

“Thank you for listening,” Rapunzel says. Her voice is a rasp; she feels very tired, all at once. “Your Majesty.” But that is too cold, too much, and her voice shakes, just for a moment. “…Dad.”

He doesn’t say anything else, and Rapunzel nods to herself. She shuffles on her feet, picking up her gloves, and finally turns away, making back for the door. Not looking back is one of the hardest things she’s ever done.

She puts her hand on the door. She makes to open it.

“Rapunzel.”

She stops.

“I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She stares down at her bare hands, the pale scars. She blinks back the tears.

“Me too.”

She shuts the door behind her to silence. She walks back to her rooms. Her heart is tight. Her hands shaking. She doesn’t smile. It’s a victory, but there’s no real joy in it—just a strange, aching relief. Something she’d never wanted to do—something she’d had to do.

And despite it all, Rapunzel cannot bring herself to regret this, either.

.

.

.

The letter comes on the brink of dawn.

Lady Caine spies the hawk on her own, without help from lookout or spyglass, as has become common. Her eyes burn green in the rising sun as she unties the missive from the hawk's leg, and her crew stand silent and still and ready as she glances at the letter. It’s fine parchment, dark red ink—our ally in Vardaros, Lady Caine likes to say about these letters, but all the pirates know is that when the letters come, heads roll.

They are beaten and bruised, Lady Caine’s crew; wounded, still, some of them, from when the black rocks rose in Port Caul. Their numbers culled, but only for a moment—slowly, surely, Lady Caine has gathered her people back together again, replaced the old with the new. She barely seems to know, now, which of her crew are newly acquired or old hands. The ones that have been with her the longest have noticed. The ones that have been with her the longest are afraid.

Lady Caine laughs when she finishes the letter, bright and cold, and then she crumples the parchment in her fist and tosses it carelessly in the ocean. “Looks like it’s so far, so good, barring any unfortunate mishaps,” she says, and stretches out her arms, linking her fingers and stretching up to crack her back. “Pull up the ropes, boys. We have a journey to make, and revenge to enact.” Her smile is a cruel gleam of teeth in the light of dawn. “One last stop, and then we sail for Corona.”

They scatter at the wave of her hand, and Lady Caine turns back to the sea. The crew has docked in a small little alcove by some abandoned islands, the cliffs above her rising tall and weighty, slopping and ancient rock like a heavy fist jutting from the sea. As her ship pulls out from the cove—and then the next ship, and the next, and all the others she has gathered in these long months of conquest—Lady Caine turns her head to stare at them, those lovely cliffs silhouetted dark against the sea-line sky.

Beside her, the darkness flickers. In her ears, a whisper grows.

“No, no news on the Moondrop yet,” Lady Caine murmurs back, to the echoes. Something cruel curls at her lips. “We’ll find them soon enough. But, for now…”

Her eyes turn back to the cliffs. Her hand rises.

“I think… I should do a little more practice.”

Her eyes burn bright and poisonous. The air ripples around her outstretched fingers. The wind snaps. For a moment, the world almost seems to twist—almost seems to scream—

And as her earthquake rocks the distant cliffs, that ancient stone buckles, warps, and falls heavy into the churning sea.

[lupinusalbus]

Jon Snow -Subversion of his Heroic Arc

Almost a year has passed since GOT was over for good and there was an outpouring of disappointment over how it ended.  Some were genuinely upset about the character arcs in and of themselves, while others found some degree of acceptance because many elements probably came from Martin himself.  Their arguments were more about the incoherent storylines and gaps that left out a lot of materiel about the characters.

For Dany, a subset of fans can’t get past the idea that Jon Snow killed her (something that’s almost certain to happen in the books,too).  For Jon, many people were disappointed that he didn’t become King, but at the same time, at least he was left alive at the end and his arc appeared to be about remaining loyal to the Starks by acting to protect Sansa and Arya.

Martin seemed to warn in various interviews over the years that he wasn’t interested in doing a story wherein the traditional hero comes in and saves the day and makes the world right again.  That seems to help explain Jon’s arc, and I’m sure its going to better executed in the books.  An interesting question is exactly how did Jon’s arc as a hero go off the rails?  I think the answer focuses on three important plot points (although there could be more).  The first one is his own uncertainty about wanting the Throne, the second is his “star-crossed” relationship with Dany, and the third his idealism.

Jon’s Unwillingness to Rule

What is his unwillingness (a central aspect of his character on the show) all about?  On a basic level it’s about a general sense of unworthiness that has permeated his life since childhood, having grown up as a bastard who doesn’t know the identity of his mother.  Even though he had a privileged childhood in many respects, he is deeply wounded and has a chip on his shoulder.  However his bravery, skill, charisma, and willingness to help the downtrodden still make him an attractive leader and he eventually becomes commander of the Watch.  When that ends in disaster, after he has followed his conscience and done what he considers to be the right thing, he is more disillusioned and wounded than ever before.  Even though he probably never had expected to become Lord Commander anyway, once he was assassinated his aversion to ruling and leading was probably only increased.  This aversion stays with him for the rest of the series as he gives up his crown in favor of Dany, and then will not press his claim when he’s urged to do so by Vaerys and indirectly by Sansa.  

To get to the point, it can be argued that Jon’s failure to “step up” and accept the crown in either of these two situations lead to greater disaster because it allowed Daenerys to destroy King’s Landing.  In the first instance, had Jon stayed allies (instead of kneeling) with Dany (who had agreed to fight anyway), she would have been protected somewhat from the hatred of Northerners and also the ire of Sansa and Arya when Jon brought her North.  Dany’s disintegration was portrayed on the show as being psychologically related to not receiving the adulation and affection to which she had become accustomed.  In the second situation (the Iron Throne), its possible that had he allowed or accepted support to shift to him once his identity was revealed, the disaster of King’s Landing would have been averted.  At any rate, his “eschewing” of responsibility reveals a failure of the imagination on his part about Dany and what she was capable of doing.  His character seemed paralyzed in the latter part of season eight; unable to see what was right in front of him regarding Dany’s mental instability.

His Relationship with Dany

The traditional hero’s arc that many were expecting included that Jon and Dany would end up together.  This made sense to some people because the Targaryens have a history of intermarrying.  The two of them together would have provided a “happily ever after” ending of sorts and would have satisfied the many fans who were expecting it.  Instead Jon ended up being devastated by their relationship because he was blindsided by their incestuous blood tie. This lead to his not seeing Dany’s true colors and intentions until it was too late, making him culpable and also necessitating him becoming a Kingslayer and Kinslayer both.

The fact of his blood tie with Dany being revealed after their sexual relationship had commenced is the tragic turn that lead to his downfall and the sullying of his honor according to the codes of Westeros.  That he remains a hero in another sense -   that of protecting his sisters and perhaps saving humanity from a greater evil - makes him a tragic figure in that in doing so he becomes an exile.  

Jon’s Idealism 

Among his many qualities, Jon is an idealist.  This is evident from the beginning of his story when he wants to take the black and become a protector of men.  Later he stands up for the weak and tries to re-integrate the Wildlings.   He idealizes Dany by insisting that she will be a good queen after he witnesses an act of bravery from her which in some ways mirrors his own propensities.  When Dany begs him not to reveal his identity to Sansa and Arya, his instinct is to believe that “we can live together.”  That turns out to be wrong.

His idealism about Dany apparently lasts well into the eighth episode, as he follows her to King’s Landing and fights for her before he finally sees the light. 

Jon is a good and ethical person, but his qualities are ultimately not rewarded by a “hero’s” ending on Game of Thrones.  The best “player” on the show turns out to be Sansa, who is also a good person.  But she achieves her ends by being a realist and a superior judge of character who is willing to accept a position of leadership. 

[number5theboy]

ALRIGHT

THIS SEASON

IT WAS A LOT

my liveblogged thoughts under the cut

Episode 1

·         Exhilarating! I love Ben

·         Ben already has more lines in these first five minutes than he had in the first season

·         This montage is good

·         ALLISON BABY

·         Luther yelled for Diego first I love this

·         Diego is immediately in vigilante mode…….hot

·         THE SHOT PARELLING VANYA’S FIRST WORDS

·         Vanya is a mess we love to see it

·         The shot of Five’s feet hitting the puddle? So aesthetically pleasing

·         The battle scene is such a smart way of reintroducing everyone’s powers and their Final Form™ succinctly

·         I love Hazel. So much.

·         The Umbrella Atomic Explosion™ is SO clever I love it

·         ALRIGHT UNCHARTERED TERRITORY LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOO

·         Oh Hazel and Five make me soft

·         Agnes and Hazel had a good life

·         Hazel is so dead

·         Welp that took no time at all

·         “How many times did I say bulletproof briefcases?” ily mister five

·         I love the Swedes they’re stupid

·         Are we ever gonna know what Agnes made Hazel promise?

·         Five is honestly world’s best character

·         FUTURE HEADQUARTERS

·         “Well the truth is out there!” abkdkblhlkbkhl

·         I shouldn’t make quick judgments, but conspiracy nut guy is nice and I hope he doesn’t turn out evil, because I also through Harold was nice in the beginning

·         Diego got himself arrested already what an idiot

·         Asddjgflkflhfl Diego’s problems all put out

·         Okay, set-up for Diego’s character arc of self-actualisation we love to see it

·         Lila is awesome, but I hope they don’t make her crush on him excessively

·         Diego and Five is an underrated duo

·         THEY ARE SO BICKERY

·         Five is jut gonna murder him sometime along the way

·         I LOVE FIVE SO MUCH WHAT A LITTLE SHIT

·         Oof Vanya is so cute in that outfit

·         This scene perfectly encapsulates women having to listen to men

·         VANYA’S GOING TO MILFTOWN Y’ALL

·         I cannot tell white men apart, does Carl look like conspiracy nut guy or is it just me?

·         As usual, Ben and Klaus are bad at everything

·         “neither does your beard” icon Ben Hargreeves

·         I support Ben pummelling Klaus

·         I passionately hate the beard and love the coat

·         Why do all the white men look alike, I thought this poker dude was a Swede

·         I KNEW BEN WAS LYING

·         “Pick a better time to self-actualise!”

·         I still hate the beard, let’s see if it grows on me

·         Yusuf Gatewood………….hot

·         By far the hottest couple so far in TUA

·         Please tell me she’s not still hung up on Luther

·         Yes she is goddammit

·         The moon thing is cute though, I can appreciate that

·         Luther finally gets a well-soundtracked fight scene I love it

·         OI THAT WAS BRUTAL HOLY SHIT

·         Oh Luther is pulling a Five in feeling bad about his excessive violence

·         I already hate his boss

·         Raymond marry me pls

·         Allison marry me pls

·         OH MY GOD VANYA LAUGHED

·         Sissy and Vanya have excellent chemistry

·         Oh I see the deliberate parallel with Vanya, Umbrella Academy, you aren’t fooling me

·         SWEDISH ASSASSINS BABY

·         Do you think they’ll say a single word or?

·         Literally the only way this show knows how to signal danger is through flickering lights

·         Two bopping fight scene and Five hasn’t been in any of them

·         Lila and Diego have no braincells between them it’s beautiful

·         Alright, she knows how to fight……..supicious

·         If this show wasn’t so hellbent on making Luther and Allison a thing, he would be best ace rep

·         Lmao “I don’t give a shit” I love you Luther

 EPISODE TWO

·         ALRIGHT THE HANDLER IS BACK???????

·         Okay so Hazel and Cha-Cha are dead but that pestilence still runs around??? Bruuuuuuuuuh

·         Kate Walsh is still hot though

·         AJ??????

·         THE FISH SMOKES?!?

·         God the Commission is such a capitalist hellhole

·         Oh there we have 743

·         H E R B

·         Okay I am here to see her humiliated but please no redemption arc for her

·         I love the deliberate parallels between Five and the Handler

·         “Like a masseuse?” IDIOTS

·         Oh Five is so lost and vulnerable baby boy

·         Also the character developments in Luther!!!!!

·         “Dad should’ve left him on the moon.” Five is, simply said, an icon

·         Oof Sissy is SO cute

·         I’m already not ready for Five to find Vanya

·         Lila is so extra can we keep her

·         Great now I have sympathy for Carl

·         Luther’s new outfit looks so good on him

·         OH LUTHER IS THE FIRST ONE TO SEE HER

·         Well that was dramatic and didn’t lead anywhere

·         Alright two episodes in, Civil Rights plotline hasn’t been fucked up yet

·         WHAT THE FUCK IS THE SWEDE DRINKING SO CONSCPICOUSLY

·         ELLIOTT IS THE NAME OF MISTER CONSPIRACY

·         “cousins on my robot mother’s side”

·         “Imagine Batman, then aim lower.”

·         Lila is great I love her

·         Diego is gonna throw both Five and Lila through a wall at some point

·         Five is so ready to throw Diego under the bus

·         Klaus Hargreeves, world’s worst cult leader

·         ……….did Klaus built a cult on pop lyrics?

·         Klaus and Raymond bonding I love it

·         DIEGO AND FIVE BEST TEAM

·         REGINALD IS THE UMBRELLA MAN

·         OH LUTHER IS GONNA FIND HER HOLY SHIT

·         THE BARN FROM THE PROMO PICTURE

·         This scene is so good

·         “You shouldn’t be the one to apologise.” I’M GONNA CRY

·         Tom Hopper and Ellen Page are so good in this scene

·         WHY DID HE LEAVE

·         What the flying fuck is up with the Swedes

·         BRO WHAT THE FUCK

·         Is Five ever gonna bring up the fact that he was supposed to kill Kennedy or?

·         Raymond is wasted on someone who doesn’t give him her whole heart

·         What the FUCK, Klaus

·         Why does she remember her name tho

·         The violin starting up when she talks about the callouses on Vanya’s hands

·         Brotherly bonding is my new favourite scene

·         Do the filmmakers know that your scene can be suspenseful and well-lit

·         Okay maybe baby Pogo is cute

·         There is gonna be no Five murdering spree, the blood is solely from Pogo

·         Next well-soundtracked fight scene

·         The choreography of this!!!!!

·         Man Reginald is a shitty dad before he even becomes a dad

·         Diego cannot catch a break poor baby

 EPISODE 3

·         SHITTY WIG ON KLAUS ALERT

·         THE LEVITATION IS BEN I HATE THIS

·         So far, all title card umbrellas have not disappointed

·         You are running in a straight line you really should hit her

·         Yep, Watchmen flashbacks

·         Luther remains cute and awkward

·         THEY ARE TALKING TO EACH OTHER BABY

·         S E Q U I N S

·         SNEAKY LADY ALLISON IS BACK

·         FINALLY

·         A HUG  

·         Allison and Klaus are so cute

·         What in the goddamn Looney Tunes is this outfit lady

·         WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU LADY

·         ALLISON HARGREEVES YOU QUEEN

·         This spooky ghost show is great

·         Everyone going off on Five is great

·         @ this show stop ripping Vanya and Five apart and let them be soft

·         Diego is so naked this entire season

·         Diego and Lila are a good dynamic

·         Elliott is a babe I love him

·         The Handler continues to be creepy about Five

·         So much driving

·         Luther is baby and Raymond deserves better than to deal with all the baggage from all the Hargreeves brothers

·         HE SHAVED THE BEARD

·         Ouch this is awkward

·         I don’t get why they didn’t cast normal Dave to play young Dave they’re not that far apart in age

·         Oh he’s gonna have to let Dave go

·         Oh this scene must be so triggering

·         Oh shit’s bad and it’s only episode 3

·         PUPPY???

·         WE WERE RIGHT ABOUT LILA

·         WHAT DO YOU MEAN THANKS MOM

 EPISODE 4

·         Oh my god the Handler is pure fucking evil

·         She learnt the fighting from her mom alright

·         THE RED BOOTS WERE THERE ALL ALONG

·         Man I hoped that the antisemitism was gone

·         Vanya being protective of Luther :’)

·         Luther only has shitty father figures

·         I can’t believe they were better organised last season

·         Why do you hate the Vanya/Five dynamic so much, show?

·         Five got an extra dose of asshole today this season huh

·         Reggie is probably the twelfth

·         Oh boy Klaus is a trainwreck

·         That marriage is also a trainwreck

·         I understand Ray though

·         Why is there Styx on this soundtrack

·         Oh Klaus baby

·         GALA NIGHT BITCHES

·         Five is a smart young old man

·         Oh baby is eating his heart out

·         Oh the hug makes me soft though

·         Honestly, Tom Hopper and Emmy Raver Lampman have such cute chemistry

·         AWKWARD DARLING MAN

·         “Doomsday” *nervous chuckle*

·         Ballroom lessons as kids

·         This is an excellent dance scene

·         OH MY GOD MOM WAS MADE AFTER A REAL WOMAN

·         THIS SHOW MAN THIS SHOW

·         Reggie is gross

·         Diego’s mommy AND daddy issues are put on blast this season

·         Sissy is such a babe

·         Man we got budget BUDGET for this season

·         Alright, the white violin can revive people now cool cool cool

·         How different her powers are when powered by love

·         I love Elliott I hope he survives the eason

·         I am down for Luther and Elliott getting high together

·         LET’S GO LESBIIIAAAAAAAAAANS

·         God Allison and Klaus make me so soft

·         I am very supportive of Elliott and Luther becoming bros

·         You already shanked one son, go poker stick another one

·         YES EXCELLENT FIGHT MUSIC

·         They both?????? Just left him to fend for himself??????????

·         Ancient Greek??? Bitch what

·         This show is rated for violence and we have barely seen any!!!!!! What!!!!!!!

 Episode 5

·         Okay baby Pogo and Grace is adorable

·         Why is Pogo in space now

·         THEY KILLED POGO

·         AGAIN

·         Hargeeves got a hug before Five did what the effing fuck

·         He might be a dick but his instincts are good

·         Haha old cowboy

·         Ben is so done

·         Vanya……..Sissy……..my heart

·         Wow Reginald continues to be a massive arse

·         Luther/Diego/Five are DUMB and I love them

·         “No, bro, he shanked your heart.”

·         God the Handler!!!!!!

·         THE MUSIC AT THE REUNION

·         We didn’t even see Five reunite with Allison and Klaus!!!!!

·         GOD WHAT A SISTERLY UPGRADE

·         KLAUS VANYA AND ALLISON HUGGING

·         Allison and Diego rights babey!!!

·         Are the Swedes ever gonna say something or

·         LILA AND FIVE TEAM-UP LET’S GO

·         I’VE MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH I’M GONNA CRY BABY

·         The red-blue dynamic in Luther and Diego I live for that

·         Luther and Diego are gooooooood together

·         What is up with that

·         Klaus, Vanya and Allison are dumbasses and I love them so much

·         Alright where are the Swedes doing and why is that tree so creepy

·         Oh the youngest Swede just went tits-up

·         Please tell me Five is finally getting a fight scene

·         Excellent fight scene

·         Great, now I feel sad for the Swedes

·         They deffo have a cooler aesthetic than Hazel and Cha-Cha

·         This cover is beautiful

 EPISODE 6

·         This wig looks better than Klaus’

·         Also Ben has barely been in this season where is he at

·         Oof Ray is so cute

·         The Handler and Five have such good chemistry holy shit

·         Diego, Luther and Vanya are a god-tier dynamic

·         We love the CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

·         BENNY BOY HAS A CRUSH

·         Wait how is this only episode six I feel like this is already the pensum of the first season

·         Clothing montage baby!!!!!

·         God they look so good together

·         Oh Allison can be RUTHLESS

·         THE BINGO CARDS

·         Oh no no no no I didn’t think Klaus and Dave could be even more tragic

·         THEY TALK

·         God she is so fucking creepy stop lusting after a child

·         World’s most satisfying elevator shot

·         This scene is chaos I love it

·         God everyone just harps on Diego’s daddy issues jesus

·         Oh baby no

·         Oh babies no

·         NO NOT THE DISSOLUTION OF TEAM ZERO

·         Why are there so many antisemitic dogwhistles in this

·         This scene between Five and Reginald is good

·         NOT ELLIOTT

·         Oh no no no no Carl

·         Alright at least this promises a good fight scene

 EPISODE 7

·         This polka music bops

·         Wait how did he get to 1982

·         HE SAID FUCK

·         Man Carmichael was out so quick

·         No fish-eating?

·         Awwwww Klaus and Ben have a heart to heart

·         Oh God, Diego and Luther have no brain activity between the two of them

·         That is a Look

·         Oh this montage of Ben rediscovering touch

·         The writing of this show was oddly prophetic

·         Oh wait Vanya’s gonna be incarcerated too right????

·         Oh this is heart-breaking

·         Really?????? Ben’s the dorky one???

·         Oh my god Ben is getting a hug and Diego is so soft

·         Man why are Five and Vanya so antagonistic

·         FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

·         Dude a fight between them would have been so epic

·         Diego

·         You idiot

·         Oh Allison really loves him and he loves her

·         Oh I am so sad

·         Yeah this episode is infinitely worse than the day that wasn’t

·         FUCK YEAH BACKSTREET BOYS

·         What the fuck

·         Yo that is sadistic as fuck Allison what the flying fuck

·         This scene might ruin the song for me

·         There definitely was an easier way out

·         They fucked it up

·         I am not surprised

 EPISODE 8

·         Oh she speaks Russian

·         Five just snapped and honestly deserves it

·         Yeah I feel for the Swede

·         What is it with commission assassins and axes this season

·         “Your vagina needs fresh glasses.”

·         Nepotism

·         Oh Grace is turning on him baby!!

·         Ha remember when we were all like ‘oh no they’re making Reggie sympathetic’

·         Yeah so much for that

·         Five and Luther are……..soft

·         What the fuck is up with that

·         AYYYY BUTTHOLE SURFERS ON THE SOUNDTRACK

·         Oooooohhhhhhh trippy kid scene

·         Also Reggie is bad at German

·         I love Luther and Five so much

·         We finally get to see older Five’s tie pattern

·         Alright Lila makes me uncomfortable

·         FIVE IS GONNA GO FERAL Y’ALL LET’S GO

·         Man after the last rampage you’d think they’d upped security in this place

·         Herb for president!!

·         Some catch Diego’s ego is going berserk

·         Oh not again

·         Dot is a rebel now

·         Everyone is ragging on Five, even Five

·         This is so trippy

·         Oh yeah the brains. Forgot about those.

·         I……….sad

·         Oh my god oh my god oh my god

·         Of course it’s all the government’s fault

·         Love how they just walked into an FBI building

·         Bro what the fuck is going on

EPISODE 9

·         Allison is always there for Vanya and I love her

·         Hello Klaus and Diego are so cute

·         Oh my heart you go Klaus

·         So much for that

·         BUT BEN

·         YOU ARE CLIFF-HANGERING BE INSIDE AN EPISODE

·         Crazy Five is an idiot I love him

·         “I’m the daddy here” is not the gazelle, but it’ll do in a pinch

·         The 743!!!!!!

·         Oh God, Harlan is in danger

·         She loves him?!? You barely know the man!!!!!!

·         WHAT’S ON THE PAPER

·         Oh it’s her file

·         HELLO LET US SEE THE FIVES TYING TO OFF EACH OTHER

·         This continues to be trippy

·         These visuals are so stunning

·         This is my favourite scene so far, this is so good, this is an excellent talk

·         NO

·         NOT BEN

·         NOT BEN

·         “I’m askin’, Carl.” You go Sissy, love you, you’re doing excellent

·         Alright, we have a mini-Vanya here

·         Oh I hate the Handler so fucking much she is the worst

·         What a plot-twist

·         Oh god so much is going on in this season

·         Oh we get fish-eating, but it’s not Five? That’s lame

·         Why are they all so hell-bent on making stupid decisions

·         Klaus you idiot

·         Oh that SON OF A BITCH HARGREEVES

·         What the fuck what is on the dark side of the moon

·         What the flying fuck what the fuck what tebdjbdgkbjdsgkbjgsdjgnj

·         WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE GOING TO WAR

 EPISODE 10

·         Oh the kids are back for Ben’s funeral

·         I hate this

·         Reginald is just. The worst.

·         My emotions are all over the place

·         Oh……..babies

·         OH MY GOD DIEGO

·         AND FIVE

·         It wouldn’t hurt to go to an abandoned farm

·         God this is a family of shitty choices

·         I don’t want Ben to be gone

·         FAMILY TIME

·         Oh shit I totally forgot about the last Swede

·         BRO THE STAKES

·         YEAH THIS LOOKS BAD

·         ALRIGHT Harland is gonna be alright

·         All these assassins have shit aim

·         HE’S MATRIXING

·         LILA’S ONE OF THE 43

·         SHE CAN ABSORB AND REDIRECT THEIR ENERGIES

·         ONE OF THEM ONE OF THEM ONE OF THEM

·         Awwwwww they love each other

·         Oh great THEY’RE DEAD AGAIN

·         Oh now LILA will have to fix the timeline

·         Wait now they’re all dead

·         The swede to the rescue?

·         Please tell me she’s dead for good this time

·         We love a de facto protagonist saving everyone’s asses once more

·         GO VANYA SAVE THE BABY

·         Dot and Herb are precious dumbasses

·         This is heart-breaking, but I understand Sissy so much

·         WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CLIFFHANGER

[a-merman-not-a-guppy]

What I love about your Muses and You

A positivity post by me (Lena) with some commentary by my muses

MK:

You do an incredible job with all kinds of characters, and I love that you do a good balance of good and evil, but you also know how to find that gray area. I think working in that gray shady area is a lot of fun and you really pull it off. You come up with some wild plot arcs and you always find a way to keep people guessing (personally am thrilled about the polyamorous relationship. Nice one!)

Louie: yeah Lou’s been a real cool dude. A R T man. I may not be skilled, but he was always fun to learn with. Someday I’ll learn more. Ashley: Belle like is literally saving my ass with this job. Seriously my favorite person at the moment.

Avarick:

man I’ve always loved writing with you. We always clicked well with that, and I’ve loved all the characters you brought into the rp. I was so so so excited to see that you were coming back and that you wanted to bring RIKU! I couldn’t believe it! I loved it when we wrote horse buddies back in the day, and I’ve loved every other opportunity we’ve had to do stuff. I’m so so glad you’re back to writing with us.

Sora: =DDD RIKuUUUUU. I missed him so muuuuch. Roxas: yo who the f is this Riku guy?

Mckala:

You have always been the backstory queen, and I tip my hat to you. You do the level of research that always blows my mind. I just do not have the time or the energy for it, but you have all these lists, giant ass family trees, you know the works. It’s really impressive, and one can see the dedication that you put into your characters.

Louie: so Elena’s like a sick Crown PrincesS? That’s dope! When you gonna take back the kingdom man? Queen it uuup!

Finn: Adella’s always been nice to me when I would visit Ariel. She’s really talented.

Wilbur: (imagine a happier time) mum’s great! She’s always there if I need her to be, and while she won’t buy me everything I bloody want, she knows what I really need.

 Ashley:

honestly such a great person and great rper. I think the most memorable thing for me lately has been Ashley popping in occasionally when she thought I might be upset or bothered by something and checking in. Talking things out and venting together. She’s honestly such a great listening ear, I think we’re really lucky to have her in this rp. I may be slightly biased toward Ashlee T. and Ollie, but all her babes have nuance and I love them. Ashley: Ashlee!!! One of the only people in this world that matter!!! <3 We made it through some nightmares. Things look up from here babe. Wilbur: duuude Ollie I didn’t realize you were adopted too and it’s the coolest fact I got to know about you. It’s awesome to have someone to relate with.

 Pet:

I feel like we used to have a harder time connecting writing wise and things were awkward, and I’m so happy to say it doesn’t feel that way at all anymore. The things we’ve written have been so fun, and I feel like (correct me if I’m wrong), but I feel like bringing Chickaroo together allowed for us to start having more conversation and plotting and just. It opened doors in some way. I think it’s awesome because I love your writing and I love getting to connect with your babes more. As you know, Al has my heart now because he just does, and Barrel has also managed to steal my heart. But all of your babes are so great, and I’m glad that we’ve managed to connect better. I look forward to more time spent writing hilarious things like Dipper and Roxas at the bar, or Al teaching Arthur about the internet.

Louie: yo Al’s like the chillest boss I’ve ever had. He’s also the only boss I’ve ever had but still! Cool dude!

Roxas: Dipper’s a nice guy. I hope I can get to know him more.

Sora: Dipper is Mabel’s TWIN BROTHER =DDDD that’s SO cool!!!

Wilbur: duuude. Barrel is like the person I didn’t expect to ever care about in a billion years, but if anyone did anything to him...like...die.

Alex:

I feel like we also used to not really vibe and were awkward with each other, and I’m super glad that’s changed because you’re literally so cool and you send such fun stuff and we just have a great time! I love Nyx, you know that I have an appreciation of Arista from afar, and Haley is just...great. All your babes are. I’m so happy we’ve finally made that writing connection because it’s been so fun to talk to you and get your perspective on things. Ahh it’s great. Can’t wait to see what you come up with in the future.

Ashley: Haley was like...almost cool. It’s a shame she’s such a goodie goodie two shoes.

Dot: Haley’s a good dragon? What the hell? She seems okay, but I’m still not sorry I shot her in the foot. She totally deserved it.

Clarion: Nyx has been my constant companion for some time now. I’m so grateful for her presence.

Bee:

Bee my big bro, my wife, my partner in ridiculous here too. You’re such a great joy to write with, and I love the way you tell your stories. I’m still so impressed by your take with Hera, and how she is as a sorceress. That’s so damn cool! And of course you’ve got the lovely Marie who’s charming and vain and I love that about her. Marie is a gift, your writing’s a gift and I’m grateful you’re in the rp. Not to mention you and Chloe are our resident British experts and that’s great. Thank you for joining the rp and for bringing the perspective you bring. Look forward to more crazy storylines with you.

Louie: yo nerd! Just kidding, wassup Huey? You’re the best big bro a guy could have. Keep it real, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Fflewddur: Marie! My beautiful wife! Love of my life! The world must envy me for having the most amazing wife in the entire world.

Sora: Kristoff! Best roomie ever !!! =DDDD hope you don’t mind if my best pal Riku stays with us. Thnx dude <3 <3 <3

Becky:

I mean where do I begin. We’ve had such great stories and ridiculous teen hijinks and theatrics. It’s been such a good time. And of course, there are few people I’d be sure about doing a big plot like the one we’ve got going with Ashley and Roo, but we’ve managed it, and I think it’s been a really really fun story to tell. So thanks for taking that leap with me and letting us tell a ridiculous story together. It’s been awesome. Glad to have you in the rp.

Ashley: well, you’re an alright guy I guess Roo.

Bryer:

we’ve only really had a little bit of time to write together before with Dash, but it was super fun, and even just observing, I’ve loved seeing your characters on the dash and seeing where they’re at. Hatter’s awesome too. It’s great to have him around in the rp, and especially with such a different take than we’ve had in the past. Love the werewolf storyline, love to see it.

Chloe:

I feel like you’re a person after my own heart. Mitte often makes me think of my old Shego muse, and that just makes me happy because I just love the chaos that she brings. I love all of your babes of course, but that just makes her a bit more #1 in my heart. You’re also so chill to plot with and to come up with these crazy schemes. I mean remember how we sort of pitched Mitte turning on a bit of a whim and now here she is? It’s literally so good and you went with it and I just...ugh. I truly love it and seeing the growth. All your babes tell such awesome stories, and this just tells me I need to find a way to plot with you more when time/work allows. Keep up the good work. You’re kicking ass.

Anthony: what a brat. As long as this girl doesn’t cause me any more trouble though I suppose she’s tolerable. 

Dezi:

We haven’t been able to interact much writing wise, but I hope to change that someday soon/when time/work allows. Charlotte is honestly such a great character, and I think it’s awesome to see her and Tiana around, I think it’s the first time in a long time...if we’ve ever managed that before? I don’t know. It’s seriously so cool and I love reading your stuff together, and just Charlotte’s stuff in general. Keep cool and carry on writing a great babe. 

I wish I had things my muses could say but I don’t think I’ve had the chance to interact with Charlotte. Just Judy before ;-; Forgive me. I still think you’re swell.

Emma:

Boy do I love that you swooped in with your kids. Phineas, Tiana and Aquata are such dynamic characters. It blows my mind, truly. I love them all. I love how ready you are to plot and to throw out great ideas. Phineas has the kind of chaos energy that I love (obviously, as Louie is my chaos energy). You’re so chill with me trolling your babes on twitter, and a joy to write with. Thank you for coming back as well. I’m glad we’ve gotten the chance to write together. <3

Louie: duuuude we gotta do something crazy again soon? Operation dumbass commence? Jk jk Operation Too Cool For School.

Wilbur: what is with that twitter lady tho? Too old to be arguing with teens on twitter don’t you think?

Ginny:

Ahhh i mean we’ve done so many fun things and continue to do. With so many connections and stuff it’s hard not to! I’m so glad you rejoined as I have and that we got to bring these characters into the rp that vibe (and/or fight each other). To each their own. Our kids have an energy what can you do? I think your characters are all awesome, and I love seeing them on the dash. I love writing with them. Two besties, no wait THREE now with Kairi, isn’t that just wild? I love that best friend energy our babes have. Support it, thanks for writing all kinds of good things with me. You’re a gem.

Finn: I love you Ariel. You’re the best of friends. I’m so lucky to know you =]

Ashley: Ashle B!!! Babe you are a rockstar. You’ve kind of been the glue of our friendship I think. I love you babe. Stay true to you and kick some ass in college!

Wilbur: (in happier times) DADDD!!! Best dad to ever dad, person that gets me cool things. Coolest of dads. You rock.

Sora: ????!!! KAIRI???!!???

Hannah:

Hannah Hannah Bo Bannah Fee Fi Fo Fannah HANNAH...I couldn’t resist. You’ve been so great to talk to and write with and honestly it’s been so great to love our babes together and talk about BTS together and talk kpop in general. I’m so so so glad that we’ve gotten to know each other more over these last few months and stuff. You’ve really been so great, and our plots and characters are such a good time. So glad you got my brother, and my best friend. It’s awesome to have and to write with you.

Louie: DEWEEEEEEEEEEY. DEWFORD. DEWEYYYYY….hi.

Louie: TAEEEEEEE. Bro. my dude. Sorry I make memes outta you all the time. But in my defense...your face is kinda funny. Love u dude =]

Sora: Mabel!!! My GIRLFRIEND =DDDD you’re great! I love spending time with you and looking at hot boys! Speaking of...I have a friend you might think is hot…

Finn: Tae! Thanks for being so nice to me and allowing me to open myself up and get to know you. I’m so lucky that Nemo introduced us. You’re a really great friend =]

Jaby:

JABYYYYYYYYYY. Man we always had muses that vibed and our writing just clicked and that always brought me joy. I’m so glad you came back, because your characters are great, the stories you tell are great, and I really really missed having you around. I know we’ve both been busy lately with our own work stuff, but I definitely want the chance to connect some muses again, because I love your babes and you and I’ve been so happy to see you. Let’s figure something out someday when my schedule stuff evens out a bit better.

Jean:

you haven’t been in the rp long, but boy have you made an impact already. Lachlan is amazing!! Truly an icon and I’m so glad that you brought him in. And so glad that you’re here. We’re all lucky to have you. I really think you’re bringing in such a unique take and writing and it’s just awesome to see and to see Launchpad driving around, and driving people a little wild on twitter. It’s beautiful.

Louie: soooooo did you really nearly kill my bro?

Kiara:

We also don’t really have any interactions right now but that is a-okay because you are living a life doing the real life hero work. Truly I’m amazed by you, and I think we’re all lucky you’re around. I hope you take care of yourself and that you do get to enjoy that time to just write and love your characters. They’re all truly fantastic and I love seeing where you take them. Especially Georgette. I think her journey has absolutely captivated me.

Kit:

man you are awesome to plot with. The pirate au was such a good time, just brainstorming some ridiculous ideas. And your ladies are so truly dynamic and powerful and I am so excited to see where you take them. I don’t think we really have had much interaction besides the au, but I look forward to a day where life is less stressful and we can do some more stuff. That’d be great. <3 Keep doing you, you’re killing it.

Lauren:

Man I love your characters so much. Greg is such an icon on the board and otherwise. And I love pushing your characters buttons almost as much as I love agreeing with them. They’re just such joys to have around. Lol well I’m sure Roscoe would argue about that and be all Roscoe, but I’m glad to have him around. It’s been great talking to you and having debates over milk being a capitalist scam. I am glad you’re in the rp, and I continue to look forward to seeing what new things you and your characters bring.

Lauryl:

This go around of me rejoining the rp I feel like we’ve gotten a lot closer and that makes me really happy. =] It all started with a Jimin, how did it end up like this? It was only a...just kidding. I know exactly why. Nemo and your brilliant writing and his connecting with Louie drew me into this BTS zone and then before I knew it there was Finn and Lunch Squad and and and. The list really does go on because we’ve just come up with some really ridiculous and fun stories and it’s been great. Thank you for bringing Olaf and teaching me a lot more about aromanticism, for Atta and that sister bond that I am stoked about (reminds me we gotta do another thing for them that yes). I’m so glad we’ve connected more and that you are in the rp <3

Louie: Neeeeeeeeeeemo I have a crisis of boy things! CRISIS. WEE OO WEE OO chop chop and help me out. Also I’ve got cookies.

Finn: Nemo, I can’t believe how close we’ve gotten in so short a time. You’re one of my very best friends. I love you lots.

Finn: Hyung, you’re so warm and kind. I’m so lucky I know you.

Dot: did you drink water today Atta? You better not be going anywhere crazy without ME.

Lins:

You’ve just joined but I’m so stoked we’re already talking and talking about TORTALL of all things. Like WOW! I didn’t think anyone out there appreciated those books the way I did. It is so nice to be wrong, and to have a source to discuss my fave childhood books. It’s also exciting to have Eilonwy, and I’m excited to interact with her. <3 

Sav:

I know life keeps you pretty busy, but you push through and you bring your babes and keep steady with all of that and I think that’s really admirable. You’ve got the older gentleman muse energy and I respect that. I think it’s great that you have your niche. I myself have the teens as we know. I’m sorry we haven’t had much chance to interact, but I hope to improve that in the future. Especially with Seamus. That’s my rich uncle. I wanna do something about that when life gets less hectic. Either way, you’ve got great babes and you’re doing a great job. Take care of yourself lovely.

Louie: soooooo gonna buy me a motorcycle Uncle Seamus?

Sid:

man you’ve got a great bunch of characters and they’re all so different and dynamic and I love that. Ratigan is complex, and he was especially good fun in the pirate event I have to say. Truly loved the take we had on the ship and everything. He’s so great. I also love seeing Eric on the dash, and am excited to interact more with him cause I think he’s just groovy. They’re all groovy. I can’t think of any whimsical things to say but you’re doing awesome and your babes are great. Take care lovely.

Sierra:

I have not had a chance to interact with you or your Tod yet, but I look forward to the day where I can. Tod’s a great character, and it’s exciting to see that he’s come back. I know I saw him connecting with some of the other Swynlakers and I think that’s even better. Love a character with history, and Tod definitely has that. I hope you take care of yourself, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of Tod in the future.

[moonlightreal]

Fate episode 4

Welcome back to Fate Elemental Academy!  Or should I call it Fate: The Elemental Academy Saga? Fate: Tales From Elemental Academy?  I kinda wish I had an actual following now, we could push changing the name all over the fandom. Fate’s a bad Winx show but it’s not a bad show.

When we left our cast Beatrix just murderized a dude, Terra was suffering, Musa was finding love, Stella was mysterious, Bloom was destiny-ridden and Aisha was getting bored with it all!  What will happen now?

Also, is Rosalind evil?  I assumed she was the “she” who got rid of all the Burned Ones and thus was a hero, but she’s got some serious resting evil face.

Episode 4 opens with a gorgeous shadowy shot of Alfea in the twilight of day twelve-ish I assume.  In Dowling’s still badly lit office the adults are investigating Callan!  Whose real name was Callum, I think, but he’s dead and so won’t mind what I call him.  But Dowling says he hasn’t been seen “for days” so we’ll jump to it being day twentyish.  They’ve searched Callan’s room and found “metal-amalgam” which seems to be mercury, which someone would use to try to get past the trap on the door to the undercroft. Harvey charmingly starts a lecture on its properties before realizing Silva and Dowling want to get on with the infordumping.  Dowling says Callan wouldn’t have known about the mercury, it’s “archaic fairy knowledge” and he’s not a fairy.  

But couldn’t anyone study the lore even if they don’t have powers? Dane was doing potions/chemistry in the greenhouse with Terra and he’s not a fairy.  There’s usually some magic stuff that muggles can do just by having an enchanted thingamabob.  Fate, your worldbuilding leaves much to be desired.

Silva guesses Callan had help.  And Harvey’s made magical fingerprint mist!  He’s got a pitcher on a stick and smoke is coming out to track the magic used in the room!  Does that make Harvey a fairy?

The smoke outlines Callan’s vanished form, where he was sitting paralyzed before Beatrix zapped him.

Dowling: “At least we know where he went.”

Silva: “And that there’s a murderer in our school.”

The murderer herself is looking at her phone, scrolling through Bloom’s social media selfies.  Bloom’s online name is bloomerang04 which is a dumb online name.  Of course the fact that we pick our online name at age 15 or thereabouts means most of us have dumb ones.  Riven asks B what she’s obsessing over and Beatrix says, “Your fault for spreading it around that she’s a changeling. She’s now the most interesting person at school.”

WHAT is it about changelings?!

Riven says everyone will move on in a few days and asks Beatrix if this is “one of those movies where you dye your hair and take her life...” and Beatrix looks… hmm.  

Do I smell Plot or am I imagining it?  But then Riven decides to claim Beatrix’s attention in smoochy ways and I’m pretty sure they’re Doing The Sex.

Opening!

In the cafeteria, people stare at Bloom as she gets her breakfast!

Aisha has taken over Callan’s job to snoop on what he knew!  Bloom “suggested” she do it.  Or more like, begged.  And thought Aisha is such a suckup she’d do it just to get brownie points with the headmistress.

The vibe of this scene is like nails on a blackboard.  Bloom, you are awful people.  And Bloom wants to eat breakfast in here to avoid the stares because she’s a changeling.

Musa comes in cheerful, “Bloom still pretending she’s not upset by the gossip?”

Bloom: ‘still pretending you’re not dating your roommate’s brother?”

And Terra comes in right in time to almost hear that.  Bloom, you are awful people.  But Terra’s got her own gossip: Stella’s mom is coming!  Stella is “dreading being outshined by her mom” and Terra is kinda loving it.  For which I can’t entirely blame her since Stella is also awful people even if my suspicions are right and there are circumstances that made her that way.

Bloom tries to be non-awful and says the girls don’t have to come eat breakfast with her “like I’m some kind of loser-mess.  I’m fine.” Friendship music plays.  The girls smile. Then Bloom heads off to finish her “poison paper” before the assembly.  Musa says, “For the record, she’s not fine.”

In the arched walkway above the cafeteria Riven, Dane and Beatrix and talking about changelings!  B: ‘Changelings were a way for pissed-off fairies to get revenge on the first world.  Swap a fairy for a First world baby and wait for it to wreak havoc.  Changelings are bad news.  That’s why we stay on their good side.”

One of the boys had asked about “is that true about changelings?” presumable Dane, since Riven knew enough to spread the truth around. So not everybody knew all this.

FINALLY! Thank you, show.  And, this is neat!  Those would have to be some very pissed-off fairies to sacrifice their own baby, what’d the first worlders do to them I wonder!  Though it still doesn’t explain why Bloom should be “bad news” any more than any other fairy.  Does growing up in the human world make for more powerful fairies?  I mean, that IS the lore, human food, human milk, human soul… but did the writers of Fate know that?  I’m not trusting the writers of Fate to know much of anything at this point, even if they did get all those Yeats episode titles.

But we get interrupted by teen drama, Dane sees Terra down below and goes to see her.  Sigh.

But then to muddy the waters, riven says Dane “believed all that changeling bullshit you just fed him!”  but B says it “isn’t all bullshit, changelings can be dangerous.  You did everybody a favor.’ warning them about Bloom, I assume she means.

Show, I hate you now.  WHY are changelings dangerous?  What was true and what wasn’t?  Bloom’s changeling nature is the central bleeping worldbuilding of this story and we get dragged around?

Next I see black SUVs, tell me it’s Silva and his army people coming to do cool competent stuff so I can like this show again!

Nope, it’s Stella’s mom.  Stella and Sky are waiting to greet her, Sky says it’s only half a day and Stella says, “Half a day of everyone adoring her like she’s literally the sun.”  Sky says, ‘She is the queen of light.” which is an awesome title.  She’s here to do an assembly about Burned Ones… what, like those  PSA assemblies we had about the dangers of drugs?  Hahahaha!  That kind of PSA might be more apt, I’m pretty sure there’s more drugs at this school than there are Burned Ones.

But Stella is terrified, I think, behind her Stellaishness.  Says her mom is really here to “check on my progress.”  Sky suggests getting the rest of the girls to be a buffer but Stella says, ‘I don’t need them.  I have you.”  But Sky can’t stay physically, he leaves Stella to meet her mom alone

Stella is wearing a long coat of pale pink with gold and diamond star barrettes in her hair.  I would love it if at the end of Stella’s character arc when she grows past whatever it is that’s squeezing the life out of her, she’ll switch to bright bold colors and teenage rather than middle-age fashion to celebrate her freedom.  At the moment it makes sense that she dresses rather dumpy and too-mature, she’s dressing under pressure.

The black cars, they’re not all SUVs, pull up.  there’s a flag, faded blue above, red below split by a diagonal line with some kind of crest in the middle.  Solarian flag?  No yellow, no sun or moon.

Stella’s mom looks noting like Queen Luna, she looks like a middle aged lady with brown hair, her hairdo and clothing juuuuust like Stella’s! In season 8 the real Stella designed a dress after her mother’s gown out of love, but I think this Stella dresses like her mother because of pressure.  Also there’s nothing queenly about the queen. She’s wearing a business skirt and jacket, big chunky necklace, no crown.  Political royalty not magical royalty.  She gives Stella a kiss on the cheek and says, ‘You look stunning.” and Stella grins.

In the greenhouse Harvey, Terra and Sam hang out.  Where’s their mom? Harvey wears a wedding ring but no mom in sight.  Harvey is working on a special project, filling a vial with something.  Terra asks if she can help but Harvey says he’s got this.

Dane comes to see Terra.  Both her family members give Dane a serious Look.  Heh.

Terra: “Whilst I appreciate that it is the historical perspective of the patriarchy to save women from upsetting situations, I’ve got this.”

Props to Terra’s actress for delivering that in a not at all groan-y way. Every time this show tries to be woke it is groanworthy and awful and they should just not, but every time the actors pull it off.  

So Dane says “You didn’t answer my texts… you’ve been really great to me...” and Terra shuts him down!  “Yeah I have.  I’m a good person, Dane.  I think you are too, but I’m not really sure I care to find out.  Anymore.”  and leaves him with “A word of advice.  Be careful who you trust.”  

Sam: ‘Still kinda want to punch him.”  Heh.

Harvey gets a text and takes his project off to meet the queen.  When he’s gone Terra immediately goes to his workstation to check out what he’s up to.  

The queens party goes to Callan’s office, which is now Aisha’s office.  Aisha greets the queen, whose name is actually Luna!  And she knows Aisha’s name, but does not need any help.  The adults go into Dowling’s office to talk.  

Aisha accidentally knocks some papers off the desk then, grumpy at this spying job she’s taken on and isn’t having any luck with, slams a filing cabinet door.  And finds something.  A mechanical ring the size of a jewelry ring, stuck in between two parts of the filing cabinet.  Aisha thinks it’s part of the cabinet, but then it begins to whir and she hears voices.  It’s the receiver for a bug!  Callan bugged Dowling’s office and now Aisha can listen in on the adults!

Only she… hides the receiver back under the cabinet?  

The only thing she overheard was the fact that Callan is dead.  Seems that Dowling’s telling everyone he left for a family emergency. Aisha tells Bloom this and Bloom is even more keen to get at those old records, from before Dowling became headmistress.  Maybe they’re in the east wing, and everyone’s going to be at this mandatory assembly so now would be the perfect time!

Aisha says it’s a bad idea.  Bloom says it’s a better idea than getting stared at by everybody and “I can’t just sit and listen to people make stuff up about me.”  

WHAT are they making up?!  I wanna hear these rumors!

Anyway Aisha is finally convinced to cover for Bloom, say she was too sick to come to the assembly.  But for reasons of Plot Beatrix was right above them on the upper walkway so she knows where Bloom’s off to.

Gorgeous outdoor shot of the castle.  Pardon me while I look it up… it’s a stately home!  You can go there, they have a farmers market and everything!  Ok, mark that down on my travel list between my Lost Crown tour of Polperro and my Higurashi tour of the real Hinamizawa…

Whilst I dream of seagulls and cicadas, Bloom is back in the dark east wing past a keep-out looking for clues.  Sky catches her!

Beatrix is outside looking for Bloom.  Riven catches her.  She says, ‘mandatory assembly’s a mandatory ditch.”  they pass a keep-out sign on some big doors as rain begins to fall.

Mysterious big doors in the school!  Another Winx Club sort of thing here at Elemental Academy.

In the cafeteria benches have been put in for the assembly,  Lots of students chat and the adults talk together.  Outside the arched windows we see bright blue sky.  Are the windows enchanted?  That’d explain why I never know if it’s day or night around here!

Queen Luna walks in her heels on a sort of stage in front of the windows. She holds up her hand and snaps her fingers and the light in the room goes purple and the sunlight streaming in from outside dims as if dusk has fallen outside.

Stella, wearing a brighter pink coat and double star pin, sits in the very front between two of her mother’s bodyguards.  The pin could be just because of Stella’s name, but in Winx Solaria does have two suns.  I like this pin, for Escape to Witch Mountain reasons, so I looked it up.  Stella’s pin is gold but the silver version is… oh dear… three dollars on amazon!  Methinks this show spent its whole budget on the Irish castle!

Terra and Aisha admire the queen.  “Massively powerful fairy, zero ego, boss goals.  Bet it drives Stella crazy?”  Stella glances back. She can hear them.  

Musa and Sam are knee-nudging each other, it’s pretty cute.  They text with phones on laps, sam asking if Musa’s into all the sneaking around hiding their relationship from Terra.  He asks, ‘is it a kink?’ and Musa texts back, ‘Meet me after the assembly, you’ll find out.”  Tell me you two aren’t dumb enough to start Doing The Sex in the same suite Terra lives in too!  Maybe they’re just gonna hang out and make out.

Hilariously Queen Luna is saying, ‘I’m here to treat you like the adults you are” as these two plot that most teenage of plots, meeting up to have a good time!  Luna says she’s here to talk about the Burned Ones, it’s been years since one was sighted…

Terra nudges Musa.  “What’s Stella going through right now?  She’s miserable, right?”  Terra has noticed what I’ve been suspecting! Poor Musa, distracted from flirting with the cute guy, sighs a little and says a polite, ‘Please wait.’  

She turns her powers to read Stella’s emotions… but there’s interference.  Dowling is walking by and she’s using her mind powers as well!  Musa says, ‘This assembly isn’t just about the Burned Ones.  Something else is up.”  Harvey is standing in the audience and Dowling takes a position among the students also

Queen Luna is talking about, “...for decades, families and villages suddenly torn apart by one of these monsters that left our world in chaos...”

The teachers are here to scan for Callan’s killer, I assume.  Since it’s a mandatory assembly every student will be present… except for Bloom and Beatrix, who ditched!  Gee, I hope Beatrix doesn’t try to pin it on Bloom!  But how could she when Dowling can read minds?

Back with Bloom and Sky, Bloom says she was born in 2004—the year Winx Club was first broadcast, seventeen years ago!  Our beloved show, may it survive to see eighteen.  Bloom’s idea is to look for pregnant teen fairies in the class photos, and she has oddly specific details to look for: baggy clothes, girls holding books in front of bellies.

There’s some conversation about how Bloom is tired of being whispered about and wants to yell at people they’re all assholes, and Sky agrees that most people are but you have to find the good ones.

Then he finds a picture of adults.  His dad is in it, along with Rosalind, Dowling, Silva and Harvey.  Bloom says, “you look like him” although we don’t really get a good look Andreas at the photo.  Sky mimicks Silva’s accent, “And act like him, and maybe one day if I work hard enough I can be half the warrior he was.”  Heh.  Bloom also giggles at the accent.

Sky also said, ‘his commander was a woman” presumably Rosalind.  So Rosalind was a leader of soldiers.  Was she a fairy or a specialist?

Bloom asks if it’s weird that everyone knows his dad better than he did, and Sky says ‘Alfea’s been my home my entire life” so I guess he grew up here with Silva being much more father than mentor. Wonder what happened to Sky’s mom.  They’re having a nice moment and here come Riven and Beatrix to join the party!

Back in the assembly, Musa scans the adults.  Dowling and Silva are on edge, and Harvey is really scared.  Terra says her dad was making something with the crystals from the vessel, so he was putting crystals in a little vial.  A magic tracking device.  Now Dowling’s got it.

Queen Luna is saying, ‘conflict is now on the horizon!  We are tracking at least five Burned Ones throughout Solaria.  The threat is serious. And growing.”

Back in the vaults B says, “people who think history is rubbish are rubbish.  Don’t be rubbish”  Ah Beatrix, there’s the like 10% of your personality that I like!  Then she reverts to the other 90% and suggests Bloom and Sky were down here to have The Sex.  Riven says nah, Sky’s not that interesting.  Bloom, who heard all that, says ‘But we were alone and that was pleasant.”  Heh.

They find a locked door.  Sky says he can ask Silva what’s behind it but bloom wants to get through now.

Riven: ‘The more you say no the more she wants it.  Give in.”

Beatrix: “Do we need to have a talk about consent?”

The more this show throws woke verbiage into random conversations the less woke it looks. 9_9

Bloom sensibly: “Why are you guys down here, again?”

Anyway Beatrix says she’s on Bloom’s side, which I do not believe for a minute.  Bloom says no thanks, don’t need help from someone who posted a nasty video about terra, Beatrix says she was an innocent bystander which I do not believe for a minute, and says Bloom should be mad at riven for starting the Changeling rumors.  Bloom and Sky look at Riven.

Riven: “Not exactly the way I thought you’d screw me today, B.”

Sky if it’s true, Riven flees to escape a lecture from “Saint Sky” and Sky goes after him to deliver the lecture.

And he does, out in the rain.  Riven says he really likes Beatrix, that B is the only one who likes him the way he is.  That Sky thinks he’s better than riven.  And that Sky should maybe not be talking about bad life choices while he’s chasing Bloom while still having Stella.  Sky says that’s not what’s really going on and Riven says that’s what everyone else sees, including Stella.  And Riven says, ‘that’s probably why she told me Bloom was a changeling in the first place.”  And he walks off, leaving Sky in the rain with the knowledge that Stella is mean-girling Bloom.  Unsurprisingly.

Sky of Elemental Academy is having just as much trouble here as his animated counterpart keeps having with Diaspro!

Back inside the girls haven’t figured out what the adults are after. Terra finds it hard to believe they have “some big ulterior motive.” and Musa says, “people have more stuff going on than you’d think, especially parents.”  Heh.  Then she takes off for a snog session with Sam! Sam says he’s like to make their relationship public, but Musa likes the secrecy.  If everyone found out, she’d have to feel everyone’s reaction, ‘good bad, positive or negative.”  Sam says she has to feel it bu does she have to care?  And says being an empath seems to suck, which it sure does seem to!

Would “everybody” even care that they were dating?  I mean Terra would but at a school full of teenagers dating how many people would care?

I read a book… Burning Glass, about an empath so powerful that when a starving mob approached she let them in the gates because she forgot she wasn’t one of them, caught up in the mob’s need to get in to where the food was.  She didn’t just feel people’s emotions, she acted on them because she couldn’t tell which of the things she was feeling were coming in from outside.  I keep thinking the writers are trying to imagine Musa like that and failing completely.

Over in the east wing Beatrix guessed that it was Rosalind who left bloom in the human world and Bloom realized that Beatrix lied the night of the party about not knowing who Rosalind was.  B says Rosalind was “a fierce bitch.”  I’m still feeling this great big hole where someone should say “Rosalind destroyed the Burned Ones in the war with her great magic.” or something and nobody says it.  Bloom knows Rosalind was headmistress before Dowling and is dead, we viewers know Rosalind is not dead, did something important with the Burned Ones, and has an evil face.  I dunno, like the changeling thing it feels like there are these weird blanks in what the show is giving us.

Beatrix suggests Bloom light the locked door on fire as a way to get it open. She knows Bloom’s powerful enough.  Bloom says power is not the problem, lighting the whole school on fire is the problem.  Then sky texts and Bloom lies and says she’s not down here anymore which will definitely be back to bite her later.  She suggests she could “fry” the hinges off the door, but Beatrix has already picked the lock.

With a machine custom made for picking locks, not with bobby pins.

On the other side of the door they find… a war room.  A round sand pit that, when B enchants it, the sand lifts up to create a miniature of the school.  Beatrix calls it, “A place where dangerous, shady-ass people decide who lives and who dies.”

Dowling is giving Stella a magic lesson.  She creates an arc of colored light between her hands, mimicking the chains on her brooch.

Queen Luna is not impressed.  A little mini rainbow is not much of a display of power.  Luna and Dowling proceed to ignore Stella and talk over her head.  Luna sent Stella back to be “fixed”--the same word Stella used about bloom after she taught Bloom the way of the Sith—after the “incident with Ricki.”  Dowling says rehabilitating magic is a process and it takes time.  Luna: “would you like me to recite the list of threats we’re facing while you take time?”

Me! I would!  1)Burned Ones 2)???  And how much can one fairy do about them?

Stella tries to interrupt and Luna says, “Do not speak when I’m speaking.  Solaria is the strongest realm in the Otherworld, she is its heir, an extension of that strength.”  Stella protests that it’s working, she is getting stronger, and her mother just snaps at her not to speak again.

Stella says she blinded a Burned One and Dowling has her back, praising her for how skillfully she did it.

Queen Luna makes a full illusion, disappearing the room and leaving Stella in a VR forest.  With wind-howling sound effects, not sure how light did that!    Stella is terrified.

Queen Luna: ‘when you control light you control what people see.  And despite what anyone says matters in this world, appearance is everything.  You know that better than anyone, Farah.  Especially given my efforts to help you maintain them.”

Dowling just says they’ve both done a great deal to preserve Solaria’s reputation.  Hmm!  That’s interesting!  And she lets Stella go.

Outside the office, Aisha is working at her desk.  She asks Stella if she’s ok and Stella says of course she is, but Aisha’s using the listening device again!  She overhears Queen Luna basically threatening to have Dowling removed as headmistress!

Outside in the still cloudy day, Sky is taking his mood out on a punching bag.  He gets a text from Stella saying, “She’s a monster.” before Sky can go give her some much deserved sympathy Silva walks past demanding an update.  On what?

In the greenhouse Harvey is worried.  His magic bottle, which is very pretty, didn’t work.  Terra comes to ask if everything’s ok and he yells at her, then apologizes.  Terra turns to go then turns back and asks, ‘if there was something going on you would tell us wouldn’t you?”  and Harvey lies and says of course he would.

Aaaaaaaand now I’m looking up potion bottles on amazon wondering if this prop is also something I can have.  Not obviously.

Terra, Musa and Aisha are talking about it in the suite.  Aisha is sure the grownups are doing what they think is best.  Terra would rather just be told there’s a secret rather than be lied to.  But they do work it out.  The crystals read magic, there’s a dead person, the adults were looking for someone who kills by magic but didn’t find them.

Then Sky bursts in looking for Bloom.  The girls ask if Silva told him what’s up, but Sky is out of the loop.

Terra: “Dowling’s assistant died, the faculty think a fairy did it. They held the assembly to find out which fairy, but they didn’t because he or she wasn’t there, so now we don’t believe or trust literally anyone.”

Sky: “Shit.”

Sky, smart cookie that he is, realizes immediately that it’s Beatrix.

The murderess and Bloom are reading scrolls in the war room—in the DARK, everything’s shadowy how are they even reading?

In 2004 Rosalind was “leading the crusade against the Burned Ones” Beatrix says so finally there’s that laid out.

Bloom was born December 12 2004, just like the real Bloom.  Beatrix seems oddly interested in that fact.  I’m beginning to have a suspicion.

Bloom’s phone is blowing up with messages but she’s busy reading.  Beatrix stealth zaps bloom’s phone to break it so she doesn’t get Sky’s warning call.  

Rosalind was in a place called Aster Dell.  This also seems to interest Beatrix, who suggests they just go there right now.  She knows where it is, it’s not far.  Bloom has a rush of common sense to the head and hesitates to leave school with someone she barely knows but Beatrix points out that they’ve already broken into a secret war room and maybe now is not the time to stop before they get somewhere. Not completely without a point there, so Bloom agrees.

Sky finds Riven and demands the whereabouts of “The unstable sex addict who’s been leading you around by your dick.”  Pfft!  Also, not very understanding after Riven admitted he really does like Beatrix and feels accepted by her.  But Riven doesn’t know, anyway.

Stella bursts in, “I sent you twenty texts and you’re here looking for Bloom?”  And Riven gets to say, ‘Have fun with that!” as he escapes.  Sky blames Stella for starting the changeling thing, Stella says, “I didn’t want to hurt her.” which is not true.

Sky: “You say you don’t want to be like your mother but all I see is someone who treats others exactly the same way that Luna treats you.” And he says he’s done with this.

Harsh but true.

Beatrix stole a car.  Bloom is very impressed!  Heh.

The other three girls have had a rush of common sense to the head and gone to Dowling to tell her about Beatrix.  Dowling’s first response is to ask why Bloom was down there but Terra pulls out their deductions and says “can we please drop the bullshit?” and when her father tries to stop her she calls him out for putting them in danger by not telling them!  Go Terra!  Silva comes in to tell them someone knocked out one of the queen’s guards and stole an SUV.

Beatrix must be extremely badass to take out a bodyguard!  we’re only in episode 4 but I don’t think she’s planning on coming back to school after this.

Black SUV drives on a dirt road between trees.  I do love how there seem to be no other buildings and no paved roads in the Otherworld.  I guess I’ll take what worldbuilding I can get.

Bloom and Beatrix have arrived at an absolutely stunning location, a cliff over the sea.  Bloom wonders if this is the right place.  Isn’t Aster Dell supposed to be a town?  Then she realizes there are skulls at her feet among the heather.

But no time to ponder it, Beatrix is getting lightningy!  She throws lightning—shorting out an invisible barrier concealing ruins. Aster dell was a peaceful town until it was attacked by Burned Ones and “a military unit from Alfea” decided to go all scorched earth on the place and killed everybody.  Queen Luna set up the illusion to hide the ruins.  “Leader of our realm tried to cover up a war crime.’

Beatrix says this is where she was from, and where her family died.  Two days before Bloom’s birthday.  This is where Bloom is from.  Rosalind rescued Beatrix too, and gave her a memory of the Alfea adults destroying the town.  Rosalind was the only one of the adults with a conscience about killing innocent people.

Bloom protests, the adults are lying but they aren’t monsters.  I’m skeptical too, because us viewers know that Beatrix is Beatrix and has said all sorts of things. 

On the drive back Bloom asks Beatrix if she’s a changeling too, but no.  Rosalind left B with “a close friend” and Bloom in another world.  Bloom asks why Dowling would recruit her as a student after killing her family and Beatrix says she doesn’t think Dowling realizes yet what Bloom is, and Bloom shouldn’t tell her.

Bloom: “Which is exactly what you’d say if you were making this up.  To keep us from comparing notes.”  go Bloom!   Beatrix asks what she has to gain from making up a story about murderous teachers, and the two of them can work together to find out more.  Rosalind is alive and imprisoned at Alfea, and Beatrix came to break her out.

...for “him”?  Mysterious “him” not mentioned yet.  And where does the return of the Burned Ones fit in?  Hmm.  I admit my main reason for not believing Beatrix’s story is that it’s Beatrix telling it.

Also in these sorts of stories the birth parents are never dead.

But no time to ponder it, the teachers are here!  They stop the car, Dowling slaps some magical cuffs on Beatrix and Silva and Harvey grab Bloom.  They deliver her back to Alfea into a group hug from her suitemates.

The girls were worried that Bloom was off with a murderer but they heard that from the adults who Bloom just heard are liars and murderers themselves.  We know the adults are telling the truth about Callan but Bloom doesn’t.  Sky is there, also worried that she’d been kidnapped by Beatrix—but Silva calls him away.  Paranoia intensifies.

As they head for bed Terra rants about her dad lying to her and acting like it was for her own good.  Terra ends with, ‘you don’t lie to people.  Not if they matter.’

And Musa feels guilty and spills the beans about her and Sam!  It’s been weeks!  Terra bursts into giggles and hugs Musa and says Sam looks just like their dad and he went bald early.

Looking down from the walk they see the queen’s guards rolling Stella’s suitcases towards the door.  The one thing the two Stella’s have in common apparently is their love of lots of luggage!  Yep, Stella’s been moved out.

Stella is in the car.  Back home her mother will teach her.

Stella: “You could’ve let me say goodbye to my friends.”

Luna: ‘”They’re not your friends, Stella.”

Which, evil mum kinda right.  Apart from taking out a Burned One together, every interaction between Stella and the others has been nasty and catty and mostly Stella’s been avoiding them whenever possible. They aren’t friends.  They might be later, but they sure aren’t yet.

Beatrix has been thrown in a cell.

Silva locks the door—with Sky there watching, and I’m sure Silva’s trust in Sky will come back to bite him later.

Then interesting conversation.  Silva asked Sky to keep an eye on Bloom, and now he wants Sky to get all the details of what just happened out of bloom and report back.  Silva actually says the “a soldier’s job is to take orders” and “your loyalty is to me, no one else.” which, I like you Silva but that is the wrongest tack you could take right now!  Silva is very scared and it’s making him make bad choices.

Bloom has gone to Dowling’s office to ask what she did to Beatrix.  The cuffs were “runic limiters” which prevent a fairy from using magic.  Bloom says ‘They were barbaric” and “You tore her skin open.” which I guess the cuffs did kinda burrow into her skin.

Dowling is just worried if Bloom’s ok and then asks what they talked about. Bloom says it was just a joyride, she and Beatrix talked about clothes and boys.  Bloom leaves.

Dowling immediately phones up Bloom’s parents on Earth and says Bloom’s been having a bit of trouble and would they please report to her if Bloom says anything weird.

Sheesh. Could these otherwise smart, capable adults who have years of experience with teenagers be handling this any worse?

Well that was… something.  Terra is badass.  Stella’s mom is exactly like I expected her to be.  Beatrix spilled a lot of important Plot and I’m sure some of it was true and some of it wasn’t.

Next time on Elemental Academy!  Will the girls rescue Stella from evil mum?  Will Bloom bust Beatrix out of the dungeon?  Will Sky be forced to choose between his father figure and his crush?  Will Bloom’s parents accidentally betray her?  And what’s Riven gonna do now that his smoking and boinking buddy is under arrest?  Half the cast is being set up to make some really dumb life choices!  Tune in next time!

[animalpetcel]

Ideal RHATO

Okay, so I’ve done some thinking. While Red Hood and the Outlaws was an interesting concept; give Jason friends and a team of his own, get him out of the Batfam Shadow, it’s been bogged down by L*bdell spotty writing and questionable Editorial decisions. So I’ve taken the time to think of what I would personally want the Outlaws to be.

First of all, I don’t believe that Jason would be better of if he remained solo. While he does deserve a good solo run other than UtH, the idea of permanently sequestering from creating meaningful, recurring relationships with other heroes is just repulsive to me. He should be allowed to have friends and people to talk to outside of the Batfamily guys, there’s only so many adventures he can have by himself before they all start sounding the same. You could even have him gaining friends as part of his character development.

Okay! So let’s begin

In my version, the Outlaws would be a more obvious antihero team. They take cases by those who feel that regular heroes can’t help them, that they won’t go far enough to achieve justice. The Outlaws won’t kill often, but it would usually be awful criminals like drug dealers, traffickers or those in charge, but if they don’t kill, they won’t be above dissing out harsh, lasting punishments to those who cross them. There could be the possibility of them being a team looking for redemption, but I’ve never really thought about them going in that direction.

Btw: This will be a hard reboot, everything from New52 to Rebirth regarding RHATO will be completely retconned, because Lobdell wrote almost all of them and despite what people want to believe most of it is bad save for some barely passable moments

Outlaw Members

Jason Todd

Can’t have the Outlaws without their infamous leader. Like I said above, I believe that having his own team can be a good thing for Jason, he can establish a history disconnected from his history with Bruce and actually start to move on. I’d imagine him being a reluctant leader, preferring to work alone but admitting that having people to rely on has made his mission a lot easier. He’s a very driven and calculated person, and after reading Arkham Knight Genesis, I have no doubt in his leadership skills and his ability to turn a ragtag group of antiheroes into a team to be reckoned with.

Idk if I’d keep his All-Caste stuff. I know that it was probably created to give his backstory something that stands out, since he’s the third Batfam member to have the League of Assassins in his backstory and isn’t the only one that’s died before, but he barely uses the All-blades or brings up the All-Caste to the point were you can omit it and don’t really have to do that much to replace it. At this point, I’d accept Talia making him train with Brother Blood over the All-Caste.

I’d probably say that the Lazurus pit Talia used to bring him back was kinda special, giving him a minor healing factor and increasing his strength, idk, something small.

Eddie Bloomberg

(I hate Tom King and this dialogue too but I wanted a recent image of him)

Did you know that unlike Roy Harper, Eddie was actually Jason’s best friend pre-reboot? Most people don’t because DC doesn’t care about using pre-established canon or developing its less popular heroes! 🙃

Okay, I used to be a huge fan of Jason and Roy’s friendship in New52 RHATO, but then I learned that Roy was originally Dick’s friends, that his personality was dumbed down for New52, Roy actually hates mercenaries and would never become one, they only used Roy because he was more popular and that most Titan/Roy friends actually hate his New52 counterpart and friendship with Jason. While I believe that Roy and be both friendship with Dick AND Jason (but in different ways. Dick is more of a close friend while he and Jason should have a more big brother kind of relationship), I have to admit that DC dropped the ball here, and it would be easier to just scrap everything instead of trying to make it work.

Eddie’s personality is actually quite similar to New52 Roy’s, and he and Jason already have unexplored history, so switching Roy with him won’t mess anything too much.

And now, I hear you ask “Ani, what about the Outlaw’s being an antihero group? Wouldn’t that make Eddie stand out?”, and I will reply “Don’t worry, I have a plan!”

Back when Eddie first got his powers, Neron, the king of hell at the time (?) wanted Eddie to be his protege, but Eddie refuses. But what if Neron was more forceful? Eddie could be offered, now powerless again because of the events of TT (but his death is retconned to just getting badly injured), to become Neron’s protege once again. With nothing left to lose (his relationship with Blue Devil is still in the fritz, Teen Titans no longer seem to give a damn and Rose & Jaime is still off doing their own things), he takes it. I guess he’s probably look different with more of Neron’s power coursing through his veins, but the point is that Outlaws become a “Fall from grace” for him. He’s trying to still be a hero, but as Neron’s influence continues to grow, his ability to tell right from wrong gets more and more clouded.

He’s the one to approach Jason with the idea of being a team, wanting to relive the “Good Ol’ Days” when they were younger and less bogged down with personal trauma. While Jason is reluctant, he admits that since being self-exiled from the Batfamily that it’s been kinda lonely, so he agrees, but only short-term. Eddie then segways into the next member of their burgeoning group–

Rose Wilson

While pre-reboot, Rose and Jason did not have the friendliest interactions, with her holding a blade to her throat while his brothers threatened him with a crime he never committed. Post-reboot, he and Rose seem to have a more “friendlier” relationship, but the Wilson family have been rebooted at least theee times in both New52 and Rebirth, so who knows if they even still know each other now,

Rose and Eddie were very close friends in Teen Titans, and I think that getting Rose away from the madness of her family and father could be good for her character.

Eddie manages to convince her to join the “Outlaws”, but like Jason, she goes into it thinking that it’ll be a one-time thing. She cares a lot about Eddie, and sticks with the team to make sure that he’s doing alright. She probably could have an arc were Nightwing confronts her on her work in the Outlaws (since the other heroes see them as white-hat mercenaries) since he mentored her in being a hero, so it could be about dealing with what other people expect of her.

Essence

While L*bdell might be basically a shit writer, he does create interesting concepts. With a better writer, Essence could be a very interesting character, watching from the shadows and judging whether or not the Outlaws are actually “good” people, before she eventually starts taking a more active role in helping them punish criminals.

While she would at first interact solely with Jason, asking him questions about his deeds and ordering him in what direction she feels is best, she would eventually introduce herself to the rest of the group. I think she’d get along best with Komand’r, while the others might test her absolutism, Black-And-White morality a bit.

Rankorr (Jack Moore)

I know that there’s some people who want Guy Gardner to be Jason’s lantern, but what about a lantern who is close to Jason in age and actually fits the Outlaw theme?

Jack Moore is a Red Lantern, not only a Red Lantern, but the first human lantern who is also the first Red Lantern to be capable of creating constructs. He struggles with his rage, and deep down, he wants to enjoy a normal life on earth.

Maybe after Red Lantern (retconning Lobo or if not, he’s brought back using Red Lantern Blood Magic), he decides that the RL’s are a bit too cult-like for him and tries to lay low on Earth, finishing his literature degree and opening up a small bookstore somewhere in London. He’s close with Guy, but still can’t/refuses to let go of his rage, so Jack is still a RL

Of course, keeping his rage at bay is hard work, and after witnessing police brutality one more time, he loses control.

The Outlaws were hired by the family of the victim to make the officers see justice, but after seeing Jack work, they realize that this might be their easiest case yet.

Afterwards, Jack tries to downplay the entire thing (before resorting to threats when the Outlaws won’t listen), but Jason eventually convinced him that his talents would be wasted just being a civilian (and that his rage will only get worse if he continues to just let it boil without an “outlet”) so he joins the team

Blackfire

I’ve read Komand’r’s backstory, I know how bad it looks. However, in a medium where retcons and reimaginings are features instead of bugs (and can benefit a character’s story if done right), I really think it could be possible to make her work.

After reading New52 RHATO, I began thinking that it could be so much better if not only Eddie took Roy’s spot, but also if Komand’r took Starfire’s, since I feel like she had more potential beyond “Kori’s evil disabled sister”, “War Criminal” and “Struggling queen of Tamaran”

First, I’d change her pre-reboot backstory so instead of taking over the Gordanians, she is instead captured by them after Starfire frees her from the Psions (Komand’r still hates her sister and refuses to follow her). Through her clever mind and manipulations, she manages to earn favor with Lord Damyn, feigning romantic interest. Of course, given Komand’r’s nature, she ends up killing and replacing him, but her rule doesn’t go over well and she is again recaptured, but this time she’s brought to Earth.

Realizing that she’s now trapped on the planet whete her sister has become a successful and popular hero, Komand’r is at first angry, and then conspires to free herself and take revenge on her sister (who she still blames for everything despite that not being the case).

The Outlaws bust the alien trafficking ring, and Komand’r, seeing her chance, decides to show off and make nice with them to eventually use them for her revenge.

She finds Eddie and Rankorr easy to manipulate, but she bumps Heads with Jason whenever she tries to take his role as leader away from him and finds Rose’s mind to be “weak”. Overtime however, she bonds with Jason over feeling inferior to their siblings, realizes that her anger shares Rankorr’s intensity, and grows a genuine friendship with Rose and Eddie

Oh yeah, and maybe she tries to make things right with Kori

Artemis Grace

What would the Outlaws be without the greatest Amazon to have ever lived? Nothing, that’s for sure.

While I don’t agree with Jaytemis (at least not yet), I have to admit that Jason would be a fool not to like her. She’s a cool, confident character with a lot of interesting lore behind her.

Her joining will probably be pretty close to canon. The Outlaws are tasked with going after Black Mask, and Jason decides to go undercover, as the Red Hood still has his fingers in various criminal pies. While investigating, he runs into Artemis, who is looking for the Bow of Ra, and rest is history.

I feel like she’ll get along really well with Rose and Komand’r and maybe she’ll date one. She’ll definitely view Eddie a bit dismissively, and she isn’t a huge fan of demons. Rankorr would probably come off as stuck up to her.

Bizarro

Anyone who knows me will know that I’m am not a huge fan of Bizarro clones. I consider them to be an overused concept (that sometimes feels as if it relies on gene superiority, but idk if I’ll ever fully process my dislike for them), and the fact that as the time I’m writing this, there are at least four currently in continuity does not enamor me with the concept more.

However, after re-reading RHATO a few times, I’ll admit that the Outlaws’ Bizarro has grown on me. Since he already kinda has a unique name (Bizz), all I think he needs is a more visually distinct costume (doesn’t even have to directly reference Superman, but I can go 50/50 on the backwards “S”)

The Outlaws getting Bizz is exactly the same as canon. I’d imagine that he and Eddie would be as close as brothers. While Rankorr might find Bizz’s way of thinking and speaking to be annoying, I’d think that Rankorr will eventually warm up to him and probably teach him how to read and help Artemis teach him. Komand’r and Rose will probably be less receptive to him, but who knows

August Heart

I’m a Godspeed fan first and human second, we’ve been knew.

In all seriousness, Godspeed is the perfect Rebirth era character for RHATO and the fact that he and Jason still haven’t met is why DC doesn’t have any rights.

Okay okay, but he’s honestly a perfect fit. Like Jason, he also kills when dealing with crimes, but he isn’t so good and knowing who’s guilty and who isn’t just yet.

This will probably be after Death of the Speedforce, with August finally making things right with Barry, but still not forgiving himself for everything that happened. Deciding to self-exile himself rather than go back to Iron Heights, August travels, trying to figure out what do to do next, trying to follow Barry’s rules (which he finds to be very wishy-washy) to the best of his ability.

Eventually, he learns that Black Hole is still running, and against his better instincts, he goes after them.

His trail of lightning destruction catches the eye of the Outlaws.

Barry, realizing that his best-friend might need someone who can actually be there all the time to help reign him in, Barry goes to the Outlaws and asks them if they can help him once they catch up to him

They do in the form of offering a spot on the team.

August is very self-assured (even if it is hiding a softer, more emotional center), but has proven to be able to work with others, so I can see the other Outlaws coming to like him. They might find him a little cocky/early to jump the gun, but still a trusted and valued member of the team.

Since every Robin has their own flash, it only makes sense to finally give Jason (and have them date) a speedster of his own, and it should be someone who fits his morals, and who else could Then the speedster fans literally call “The Red Hood of the Flashfam”?

Final Thoughts

Other possible members I would consider/accept are

Eradicator Superman

Koryak

Vanessa Kapatelis/Silver Swan lll

Simon Amal (Crux)

Danny Chase

Clone!Roy Harper

Connor Hawke

Orm Marvius

Man O’ War

Lagoon Boy

Scarlet

Zachary Zatara

Thomas Merlyn

Ragman

Bleez

Walter West

Even with a cast as sizable as the one I just listed, with a good enough writer, there could still a few minor side characters. I would personally want the them to be

Scarlet: Jason’s former sidekick. She could be either a civilian who he talks to get experience some normalcy or the leader of her own version of the Outlaws made of up the Generation Outlaws we meet in RHATO #37-40. Either way, it could contrast with Bruce and the way he (mis)treats his own sidekicks and family

Zachary Zatara: Eddie’s old friend who helped him get his devil powers. Zachary would definitely be worried over Eddie once again accepting Neron’s power and will want to try to help. Whether he suceeds or not will depend if the writers want to go in that direction

Isabel Ardila: She’s a nothing character, but there’s a small chance that with a better writer, she might gain an interesting personality or an actual purpose in RHATO

Talia Al Ghul: before the reboot, Talia was Jason’s mentor figure and even gave him a cool dagger. It would be so cool if we can bring that back and erase Morrison’s problematic charactization of her. Maybe the dagger she gives Jason could be an All-Blade or smth. They’d definitely take a few cases from her however

Batfam, Titans and respective groups: it would have to happen eventually. It could lead to some interesting, angst filled conversations. And who knows, maybe they’ll actually make progress with their issues

But this post has gone on long enough. I just really wanted to talk a bit about my ideal Outlaws team that I will never see anywhere except for my dreams because mass media hates me and DC still thinks that Lobdell deserves to write Jason 😔😭