#in the full story this whole thing would be a complete arc or at least be in the background for a lot longer

[dragon-queen21]

Air Jail

Summary: In which Tanner is sure that everyone hates him human (they don't) and only just tolerates him when he's in the mindset and form of a cat Aka Just a silly pet regression fic with one of my oc's who's a shapeshifter

Tw: animal death (like in the sense of a cat hunting a mouse), unknowing ableism, unreliable narrator

~~~

Tristan is an asshole Tanner's decided. He still hasn't been quite sold on the idea of the two high elves joining their group, though at least Tristan's younger sister is more tolerable.

At least she doesn't openly stare and gawk. Doesn't act high and mighty lie her brother. Zara actually talks to him unlike Tristan, who instead acts like he's about to say something- before thinking better of it- and ignoring Tanner all together.

It reminds him of when he was a child. Another number in a system, overlooked and overshadowed. The proof of his existence etched onto the numbered barcodes on his neck, and the markings of black that licked their way up his arms no matter how Tanner changed his form.

It's infuriating. A feeling he swore he wouldn't let someone make him feel again.

If the shapeshifter could wipe the look off the smug bastards face he would, with claws and teeth and a spitfire of words. Because everything was fine until the elf got a little too close. Cared just enough to label him as 'unworthy' and then act as though he never existed.

Tanner can't fight back of course. Because his pride refuses to let himself be looked down at like some unruly child who's acting out because the world seems unfair.

Tanner does feel the world is unfair, greatly in fact, but he isn't going to be voicing that opinion any time soon. Not when things have finally have gotten better.

Timothy tells him to get to know the other. Something about the two growing up together that Tanner couldn't bother to listen to. Timothy could be such a sap about people and he hated it. To give him a chance, and everything else that comes from someone who's far to soft spoken and far too easily swayed. Easy for him to say. The red head might be the only other person on board that Tristan doesn't look down upon completely.

Tanner doesn't know why the elf sticks around when he seems to think he's so clearly above everyone else.

Even now, staying on deck makes his skin itch, watching as Tristan's sister is the one to drag him along, to where the group is trying to get a game of cards going. The elder elf looking for all the world that he rather be anywhere else. Tanner doesn't blame him.

Despite only two of them previously knowing the rules to whatever card game Dustin is attempting to get started, explaining the rules again and again to a group of bored teenagers, Tanner feels too outcast to bother staying.

So he heads below deck, because no one stops him.

Why would they?

And better yet...

Why should he care?

He slinks down the hallways, slowly letting his form melt, ink like blackness pooling over his skin till there's nothing more than a small black cat stepping out of the darkness. Does shapeshifting only further the clear vendetta the rest of the team have against him? Maybe? But staying for a second more in a not quite human form, and he thinks he might literally go mad.

This form is sleek and elegant. Perfected from the creatures he's observed. Lean and nimble like the alley cats he saw as a child, scrambling for food and fighting with one another. Sleek and good looking, like the cat's the higher ups would keep as pets. Pedigree standards that while he could copy to a perfect degree, he wouldn't dare.

Tanner settles on something in between the two. He is no pure thing after all. Stained in the murk of his own tainted creation. In the black pools of ink he leaves, paw prints pressed into the wooden floor. They will disappear when he changes back. At least he hopes they will.

The shapeshifter chases mice around, enjoying hunting in such confined spaces where his prey can't get away from him so easily. Not that he needs to hunt. He's had more food to eat now than he's seen in years.

Still it's enjoyable, and chases away the boredom. Plus there's the bonus of leaving 'presents' for the crew members, snickering at their reactions at the dead corpses of animals he leaves, blaming instincts the whole time.

Sure he might get scolded later, but it's worth it. Every time.

Of course in this form he is a touch more animal than human, but to what extent he's never bothered with trying to figure out. Only that it's comfortable like this when human emotions don't make sense like they should.

The cat prances into the captain's quarters, mouse held in between his jaws. If he can manage it, he'll find a way to hide it behind one of Captain Spurgeon's beloved bottled ships.

Though he's aware it's not the captain's fault they've been stuck on the air ship for literally weeks without stop, Tanner still feels like being petty.

His plans are ruined however as the man sits there is his chair, working on... charts or something. Whatever it is that sea captains do when they aren't ordering a crew around.

If the elder could hear him Tanner would be rebuked that, running a ship and directing a crew was not the same as 'ordering them around.' The shapeshifter of course would say there was no difference.

He doesn't have the time to slink out before he's spotted. Or well he thinks he's spotted, sensed might be a better word, for the man in front of his doesn't even bother looking up from what he's working on.

"Tanner, what do you have in your mouth? Whatever it is don't you dare take another step into this room with it."

See? Ordering.

He drops the 'gift' on the floor, paws at it softly... waiting... before wacking it across the floor with all his might.

That got Spurgeon's attention.

He didn't take another step, so therefore he can't be scolded. Take that!

He hears the elder groan, getting up to examine the 'damage' done to his desk. Tanner leaps up onto said desk, mouse forgotten by now, and mews up in greeting.

He's ready to be pushed off, maybe picked up by the scruff like an actual cat, told to leave in no uncertain conditions.

Instead he's greeted by calloused fingers scratching at his head and a sigh. "Whatever will I do with you?"

Throw him out maybe? Completely? At least that way he might be able to get off this stinking ship.

"So do you actually eat the prey you catch," The captain asks, picking the mouse up by the tail, "or just toy with your food?"

Tanner mews, nipping at the creature with tiny fangs.

In a moment he's ripping through fur and crunching through birttle bones to get to the meat inside.

"I didn't mean on my desk... you know what," there's a shuffling of papers, "You do you kid."

The cat scrunches his nose up in distaste.

He finishes his food none the less. Licking at his paws till their clean, or as clean as ink stained magic will leave them, and watches the other.

The Captain is still writing. How he stays this still for so long Tanner doesn't know.

He does know that if Spurgeon doesn't move... maybe he can..

The cat crouches down, wiggles his haunches, waiting... and then jumps onto the captain's shoulders.

"What the-"

He purrs, loud enough to drown out the elder's curses.

"Stupid cat."

That's a better nickname. He purrs louder.

Rewarded by more skritches to the fluff on his chest, and a finger that tries to tickle at his ear.

"Are you settled now? Will you let me work?"

The feline nips at the bandana tied around Spurgeon's head in response.

"Ten more minutes, then my attention is all on you."

They barely last five.

It's not his fault that a pen quill looks just like a toy. Not his fault that as Captain Spurgeon moves to write further and further down the page that he starts to bat at the wispy white fluff that comes just within his reach.

And it certainly isn't his fault if the dumb human moves to re-dip the quill and he goes tumbling off his shoulder's as a result of forgetting how to balance momentarily and ruins an hours worth of work as the ink pot spills.

Of course not. He's just a kitten. And how could one possibly blame a kitten?

"Nope. You're in time out. Air jail." Captain Suprgeon says, because he's the kind of arse that can blame a kitten apparently, lifting the cat into the air above his head with a long winded sigh.

Tanner mews in protest. They are on. a flying. ship. This is already air jail!

"Are you going to continue being a manace?" Tanner meows. "Or are you going to be nice?" He meows again.

"Kid. Are you even aware enough like to this to understand me or do I have to wait until your human again?"

Tanner tilts his head to the side. Picture of innocence.

He must do something right for the captain to chuckle softly.

He's brought down towards the elder's chest, a hand running over his head.

"Yeah I know."

What the Captain is talking about Tanner has no clue. Only that he's warm, and the affection is nice, and maybe if he just rests his eyes for the moment he can forget the reason why he was upset enough to change into this form in the first place.

"It's hard being out at sea so long. Happens to us all... just sleep kitten, we have you now."

.

.

.

"You are aware your allowed to come into my office." Well obviously, he's sitting here now after all. "Without being a cat."

The shapeshifter frowns. Or he would, if cats could. But changing out of this form feels more like a bother than anything. Unhelpful. Unwanted. Or maybe Suprgeon is tried of him this way too.

Tired of them all as he so often complains. Who wants the company of misfit teenagers?

Slowly black ink gathers, shifting over his form and slowly emerges the form of a teenage boy from before. He's not sure if this is the how he should look, or the image he's grown too used to using after a life time of mimicking others.

Blond hair kept short and spiked as though layered with gel he's never bothered to use. His eyes lavender, skin pale, limbs long and toned, fingers slim and nails sharp. Sometimes his face is freckled, when he stares to long at Timothy or Zara. Though he won't admit to that out loud ever, less he also admit to maybe perhaps growing attached to anyone in this rag tag group of wanna be heroes.

"There you are kid."

He grumbles something incoherent.

"Talk to me."

"Just... It's so stupid- I..." He swallows, clearly he's not feeling quite all there yet if he's talking so easily. "I feel like I'm being replaced..."

.

.

.

Tristan's hands are practically flying. Waving around in a pattern that makes the shapeshifter's head spin. Still he watches transfixed, because he's always been interested in other species, in humans, no matter how much he tells himself he shouldn't be.

"Oh, gotcha!" Zara beams, as though she read her brother's mind or something. Maybe it's an elf thing, Tanner sure doesn't know.

"Tristan says that we..."

He tunes her out. Tunes out everyone.

"What was that... thing he was doing?" Tanner asks, turning his hands oddly in front of him, trying to mimic without meaning too.

"You mean sign language?" Dustin questions, because of course mister 'high society' would know multiple languages, including a mystery hand language.

"Why though? Why wouldn't you just, talk?"

Zara stares at him. Blinks. Why does he even bother anymor-

"Tanner? You are aware that my brother is selectively mute right?"

He... does not know that. Didn't even have that thought cross his mind.

"That explains..." he furrows his brow, "so much."

Zara giggles, Tristan looks bemused, and okay yeah now he can see it. The fondness for his sister, the humor and willinness to fit in but not knowing how to. Not being understood. A high elf who can't always speak...

"So then you don't hate me?" He's given a very strange look, before Tristan shakes his head. He doesn't need Zara's translations to know what he must be thinking.

"I kind of thought you hated me for months... you just kind stare and usually people who do that..." he scratches at the back of his neck, at barcode lines that hide beneath the fabric of his tunic.

There's another wave of hand motions, so fast that Zara has to actually scold her brother to slow down.

"He says that he's just an absolute idiot who doesn't think about how he affects others and without his darling sister he would be helpless and that's why she's the best!"

"Umm..." Tanner gets the feeling that is not at all what Tristan was trying to say, by the fact that he is now actively glaring his sister down at her teasing.

Zara beams. "He does think your cool! And don't worry though, I talk enough for the both of us."

Tanner smiles nervously, he doesn't doubt that.

[a-town-called-hometown]

yippee! apologies if my takes are horrendously bad

my personal take on the matter is that i definitely think the dark worlds can work as a metaphor for escapism without undermining the darkners' personhood. it can be more than one thing, yknow? the darkners are important, their lives matter. and the lightners do go to the dark world as an escape from the problems they face in their own life. but that's not the darkners' whole PURPOSE, yknow? i mean. according to the laws of the universe of deltarune yes darkners' "purpose" is to serve the lightners but like it's not their whole purpose in the STORY.

it's sort of like how, in UNDERTALE, LOVE represents how distant you've become, how easy it is for you to hurt people. but it also literally gives you the power to destroy the world.

i think the biggest reason i believe escapism is at least a part of deltarune's narrative is queen.

queen's whole speech in both of her fights is about how she intends to provide escapism for the lightners (so that they will worship her but also so that they will he happy). she wants to turn the whole world into a dark world, so that everyone can live in bliss and not have to worry about the woes of the light world. she mentions "Staring, Tapping, To Receive Joy. Staring, Tapping, To Avoid Pain." which is like pretty much the definition of escapism

she wants to help Noelle with the problems she faces in the light world ("Noelle. Who Will Be There To Help Her? Her Strange And Sad Searches" and "My One Idea To Help Noelle, Failed") by just... shoving it away for a blissful fantasy world ("Wake? No, She Has Already Awakened Too Much. Let Her Close Her Eyes And Sleep Away, Into A Darker, Darker Dream.")

...i forgot the rest of what i wanted to say!

well first off, thank you for your ask! I'm going to get extremely in depth in my answer, so bear with me here. sorry it took several weeks to write this. the escapism reading of deltarune is pretty deeply entrenched in fandom, and to refute it, I felt it required a full-length essay to completely explain my viewpoint.

yes, "the lightners desire escapism" does not automatically translate to that being the darkners' actual narrative purpose. escapism can be a theme without dehumanizing those who are used in order to escape - in fact, I've read a number of stories that use someone's desire to escape to HIGHLIGHT how they're hurting others in pursuit of that. I believe that toby fox is definitely capable of telling a story about kids having a valid desire to escape, and about them grappling with having inadvertently created a world of real, living people as a result.

(I'll reiterate again that this is not the story arc that generally shows up in fanon. the common consensus is that the game will end in an omori-esque "growing out of" the dark worlds. it's why I have a huge dislike of the fanon escapism reading, given that the darkners are shown as people whose lack of agency parallels kris' own. it would feel cheap if the resolution to that plot was that the darkners were actually never meant to be agents in their own fates. but this is a digression.)

the reason why i DON'T believe that this is a story that toby fox is telling is because of the way the world, themes, and characters are written. put simply, it just doesn't come across as congruent with the story being told.

deltarune's main themes are agency, fate, identity, and control. this is a conflict that shows up in nearly every major character, is baked into the worldbuilding, and is the central struggle involving us, the player. the protagonist of deltarune is literally possessed by us against their will. the darkners are objects that have no choice but to serve and be discarded. over and over again, there is emphasis on roles that characters play - and crucially, roles that are imposed on them.

what would escapism mean, in this thematic context? in real life, escapism can represent any number of things, but in a story, a major narrative theme generally has to dovetail with other major narrative themes in the work. I would argue that escapism in deltarune would likely mean going to a place where characters are able to choose for themselves what roles they embody, or even to discard the notion of roles altogether. a fantasy of control is the only way to escape a reality where you have no agency. and honestly, it's hard to imagine that something could count as an escapist fantasy if you don't even get to choose whether or not you participate in it.

let's talk about kris.

I see a lot of discussions around kris that say that kris goes into the dark worlds to escape. the dark worlds are posited as kris' fantasy of heroism. it's a world where they can seem heroic and cool, a world where they can have friends. this theory makes a decent amount of sense on the surface level, but only until you consider that kris is being controlled in order to go into the dark worlds. and it is not a control that they appear to welcome.

if those worlds represent kris' fantasy, then why don't they get to choose what happens in those fantasies? why are they being controlled by an external force, one that they actively push back against? if it's really an escape, then why does everything about this world reflect their lack of agency? if they really think this world is just a pure fantasy, then why do they care if spamton falls when his strings are cut?

because they're being deliberately obscured to the player, it is hard to say how kris actually feels about many subjects... but I do seriously doubt that they view the dark worlds as an escape. they don't act in a way that is consistent with that. they resist their lack of agency, and what little we do see of their reactions to darkner characters doesn't suggest that they view those characters as part of a disposable fantasy, either. they seem to have complicated feelings on ralsei. and of course, one of their biggest emotional reactions in the game is to the spamton fight. I would argue that that suggests they have empathy for spamton, which is a hard emotional reaction to have if you believe he's just part of a fantasy. not impossible, mind you, but it seems unlikely that kris believes that all this is simply fantasy.

also, considering that snowgrave both actively discredits the idea that the dark worlds are mere fantasy and is actively traumatic for kris... I seriously doubt they'd open another dark world in chapter 3 on a snowgrave run if their motive was purely to escape. on that route, they've seen the damage we can cause in a dark world. they know that berdly has sustained lasting damage due to our actions, assuming he's not outright dead. why would they want to try and "escape" to a place like that again now that they know what can happen?

the only answer is that they have a motive that isn't escapist.

now, as for ralsei... what part does he have to play in all this?

ralsei does play a lot to the fun, fantastical elements of the dark worlds. he delivers the prophecy that kickstarts the adventure. he flatters both kris and susie endlessly when they act appropriately heroic. he welcomes them into the castle and even makes nice rooms for them. he initially seems tailor-made to enable a fantastical experience where no real issues can ever complicate anything, and where the pain of reality can successfully be hidden from. but there's a lot of complications to the idea that he might represent an escapist fantasy.

the first, and what honestly seems the most important to me, is that he doesn't encourage kris and susie to remain in the dark worlds. he is welcoming and kind, but once the adventure is over, he prompts them to return to the light world. he wants them to deal with their more "real" problems like homework. that doesn't feel like he is trying to facilitate escapism in them. a real fantasy would encourage you to stay in it, wouldn't it?

and while ralsei is definitely invested in making sure the lightners are happy, there are always cracks that show. he isn't able to make kris ignore what happened in the spamton fight. he isn't able to convince susie to be peaceful and kind. and in his very essence, he represents a number of uncomfortable ideas. very importantly, he represents a number of uncomfortable ideas to kris.

this probably ain't your first fandom rodeo, so I'm not going to explain all the different ways that ralsei interacts with kris' personal issues. there's plenty of posts on it out there. what i will point out is, once again, it feels odd that a character who seems tailor made to bring up kris' most uncomfortable associations with their lack of agency and their outsider status in their own family would be part of a fantasy of escapism to them. you'd think that they'd prefer something that didn't have an inbuilt hierarchy, a prophecy that denied them autonomy, or especially a person that reminded them how little they fit into hometown.

that doesn't mean kris doesn't care about him at all - it seems very likely that they do. what I mean to say here is that he just seems ill-suited to an escapism reading, both behaviorally and on a conceptual level. it doesn't seem like that's at all part of his servitude towards the lightners.

of course, there is another non-lightner entity that ralsei seems diegetically engineered to serve. but I'll discuss that later.

now as for susie...

yes, susie definitely views the dark worlds as more fun than the light world. and why wouldn't she? the light world sucks for her, and she doesn't seem very aware of the fact that the dark world can also suck. you could definitely make the argument that she views the dark worlds as a fantastical escape from reality... were it not for the fact that she treats her darkner friends with just as much importance as she does kris and noelle.

can someone treat components of an escapist fantasy as real and important? of course. but given deltarune's themes of agency and control, as well as the fact that darkners exist in servitude to the lightners, I feel like you'd have to make escapism tie into forcing others into a lack of agency if you wanted the theme to feel coherent with the rest of the work. this would require susie to be limiting the agency of the darkners around her. and obviously, she doesn't do that. her presence around them might be inherently limiting, just by simple virtue of being a lightner, but she isn't aware of it, and clearly is uncomfortable with the idea of limiting anyone's agency. she encourages ralsei to make choices. and she supports lancer in basically anything he wants to do. her treatment of lancer is integral to chapter 1's narrative, and it seems like that treatment of ralsei is integral to the ongoing narrative as well!

her preference for the dark world feels very rooted in her engagement with it as its own reality. rather than trying to avoid her real-life problems by engaging in a pretense, she seems to simply want to spend time with her friends in a place that isn't cruel to her. she isn't ignoring any of the dark world's problems in service of that, either. she notices when things don't line up. if she thought of it as a fantasy, wouldn't she be inclined to ignore issues that impede the fantasy?

and critically - like kris, she does not intentionally choose her imposed role in the prophecy at first. she steps into the role of bad guy to resist it, but that role is limiting too, and she eventually acquiesces to being a hero. it's never something she's completely on board with, though. she actively pushes back the limitations that the role places on her. I find this important to reiterate when we are discussing the notion of the characters viewing the dark worlds as fantasy.

noelle has a complicated relationship to the dark worlds. susie tells her that it's a dream to make her accept the strange reality she finds herself in, which works well on her. she continues to think of it as a strange dream throughout the chapter. (though, like the others, it is not a 'dream' she entered of her own volition!)

it is also a markedly unpleasant 'dream' at times. she has her agency restricted, is kidnapped, has to evade a controlling monarch, and is even tied up in a weird evangelion cross thing on the hand of a giant robot. it's not purely fun. noelle does like scary things, and while it might be healthy for her to have an experience where she stands up to a controlling adult figure... again, the circumstances make it difficult for me to assume that this is a fantasy she would choose for herself. not impossible, mind you, but it's not the first reading of the situation that comes to mind.

and while she does say she wishes she could dream like this every day in the normal route, that does happen specifically because she was talking to the girl she likes. it makes sense she'd find that pleasant. I don't think that necessarily equates to her finding the dark worlds escapist.

and importantly, this isn't the sentiment that she expresses in every route.

again, there's a lot of analysis on snowgrave, so I won't bother regurgitating it much here. but it's nightmarish for both kris and noelle, and very likely fatal for berdly. noelle needs to believe that the event is a dream, for her own psychological safety, but one of the most important parts of snowgrave...

...is that its events, and the world it took place in, are very, very real.

noelle wants to have the strength to face her problems, both in the regular route and in the snowgrave route. rather than escaping from them, she views the "dream" as a chance to practice dealing with her day-to-day issues. it's just that in the regular route she finds that strength authentically, and in the snowgrave route, that desire is manipulated and pushed until she is forced to kill berdly. she doesn't interpret snowgrave as an escape gone wrong. she views it as a dream that became a nightmare. and those are two extremely different things.

but i haven't even gotten to the biggest thing that undermines the concept that the dark worlds are a metaphor for escapism! which is: this fucking guy is dead wrong about everything.

so full disclaimer - I really love berdly. I think he's slept on a lot in the fandom because he's annoying and weird. which is fair, I suppose, but I think ignoring him hinders a lot of people's understanding of deltarune's overall narrative. because berdly often illustrates a lot of concepts in the game, but his narrative framing as a joke (usually...) prevents the player from taking it completely seriously. he has things to say and ideas to show off, it's just that he's often very loud and kind of dumb in his expression of them. which is kind of the point!

ralsei brings up the idea that the darkners are meant to serve the lightners very seriously in chapter one. by extension, and by way of the literal mechanics involved in a dark world's creation, we can infer that this logic is probably something that also applies to the dark worlds themselves. they are allegedly worlds and characters that only are supposed to fulfill a dream of the lightners. but due to narrative framing and deltarune's themes, we know that that's not the full truth. however dark worlds and darkners are created, they deserve to have their own agency. they can't just exist to fulfill a higher being's wishes.

you know who else undermines that view of the dark worlds? berdly! berdly does!!!!

because berdly is the only lightner in the game so far who does take the dark worlds to be an escapist adventure! he wants to turn cyber world into smartopia. he views this as a chance to be a cool hero. he believes he's going to get the girl, he's going to shape this world to his own liking, and maybe also he's going to get queen to acknowledge him or something so he stops being a forgettable little bluebird. and not only does none of this happen, his steadfast belief that it will happen is continually a joke within the narrative!!

berdly's wishes for uncomplicated escapist fantasy are flat-out denied by the dark worlds themselves. as a lightner, those worlds should be serving him. he should have the power to do whatever he wants within the bounds of an escapist fantasy. these npcs should be singing his praises!

but he doesn't have the power. and this world doesn't sing his praise. because it just isn't an escapist fantasy. he isn't right to view it that way. his wishes for heroism are always going to be thwarted.

so now that I've gotten all that out of the way, let's swing back over to the subject of your original ask. queen.

because, like berdly, queen's entire character arc is about how she's completely wrong about what the lightners actually want.

queen would in fact like nothing more to place the lightners into an escapist fantasy. she believes that that's the best way to serve them and make them happy forever. as a darkner, queen has very much internalized the idea that a lack of control is what actually makes people happy. since darkners have no choice in their destinies and are supposed to be happy in it, and since she personally finds her role as a darkner fulfilling, she believes that that's true of all people everywhere. if you want to make people happy, you just have to remove that pesky personal agency!

so she spends the story trying to force the lightners and particularly noelle into situations where she controls them in order to make them ostensibly happier. she does genuinely believe that this is the right thing to do, but as she finds out eventually, she's just wrong. noelle doesn't want that. queen believes that escapism is why the lightners use the internet... but that's totally wrong too.

while there are other searches mixed in, noelle is trying to use the internet to find her sister. instead of trying to hide from whatever happened, noelle wants to figure it out. queen's thesis about noelle and the lightners is proven wrong even before she personally encounters noelle in the dark world. it's just that queen doesn't realize it due to her limited perspective.

the concept of escapism being brought up with both queen and berdly is not there to say that the dark world is escapist. rather, it's there to say that it isn't. despite the dark worlds being a fantastical place, they are extremely real. to view them as a means of escape is foolhardy at best. you cannot act as though you are above consequences within them.

themes and ideas exist within the story for a sake of an audience. so let's get into the final character I need to discuss here. hopefully this will tie my thesis of deltarune together neatly.

that character is of course us. the player.

when creating a piece of fiction, an astute author will often identify and anticipate an audience's reactions to certain things in their work, and write things in such a way that they elicit the desired reactions. in essence, a writer is directing the "character" of the audience. how we feel and how we are anticipated to react to things is an integral part of nearly every fiction.

that effect is far more overt when dealing with metanarrative fiction that diegetically involves the audience. since the fiction is saying a lot of things about the general 'you,' the audience in aggregate, your reactions to certain things in the story have to be finely cued and anticipated by the author, so that the author can thus commentate on the reactions that you have to the story. the "character" you are assumed to inhabit is posited by the author to have certain traits.

to explain what I mean in plainer terms, I'll use the player of undertale's no mercy route as an example. because undertale is commenting on the way rpgs generally work. the player's behaviors in no mercy are attributed by characters in the story to be the result of us acting like a typical gamer. we kill the characters in the game because we want exp. and more than that, it's because we want to see everything the game has to offer. the role we inhabit in this role-playing game is that of a completionist. you could say that that's assumed to be our "character" in no mercy.

deltarune also posits that certain things are true of its audience. by being written to evoke certain cultural ideas, rpg tropes, and references to undertale, it guarantees that its audience will probably have certain traits, and spends a large amount of its conceptual focus commenting on those traits. one of those traits is nostalgia, which is probably an idea that I'll expound upon in a further essay because it's quite integral to my reading of deltarune. but the main one I mean to discuss here, and why I went off on this tangent about how audiences are dealt with in metafiction, is that we are posited as someone who believes in the logic of certain narratives.

deltarune's writing evokes a lot of portal fantasy narratives. alice in wonderland, narnia, pretty much every story where it's revealed at the end to be all a dream... the story of deltarune superficially resembles a lot of those. this, I think, is responsible for the popularity of the escapism theory. because those stories are often at their end about a child learning to put away fantasy and grow up, people tend to believe that deltarune must be about the same thing. but I truly don't think that deltarune is trying to do anything with that aspect of portal fantasy narratives, at least not directly. its main characters aren't involved in that exact type of coming-of-age arc.

instead, deltarune is very concerned with what happens to characters in fantasy, and specifically fantasy rpgs. if your world is deemed to not matter because it's a dream, what does that mean for you, who has no choice but to live in it? if you are an npc whose role has been predetermined for you via script, then can you ever decide for yourself what you want? what if you want to matter? what if you want to be your own person?

as the major controlling force of deltarune, we are initially cued to believe that deltarune is like a dream. it superficially fulfills so much of what we want from undertale fanon. hometown seems like it's a perfect idyllic town, at least until you start noticing the obvious cracks. and remember what I said about ralsei earlier? he is so reminiscent of asriel, and extremely eager to help us. it's not a stretch to say that making us specifically view deltarune as dreamlike and idyllic is probably part of his purpose in the game.

I would not say that we are posited as escapist. but the idea of escapism as brought up with queen and berdly is meant to strike at the heart of a much deeper idea that deltarune is trying to deconstruct. because if we view deltarune as a dream, escapist or otherwise, then we are inclined to write the internal realities of the characters inside off. the dark world can disappear without it mattering. we can control kris without it mattering. if it's all a dream, what does it matter? why should we care to let its characters go free? aren't we supposed to be in control?

if deltarune is an rpg... what is the significance of us interacting with it?

[hedgehogoftime]

My problem with "The Vengeance Saga"

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion but I'm a bit... disappointed by the Vengeance Saga.

Don't get me wrong, mechanically it's my favorite one yet. Every performance is incredible. The songs are bangers. But I can't help but feel it misses the point of "The Odyssey".

And this is a running problem I've had with Epic as a whole so bear with me while I air my thoughts.

"The Odyssey" is the story of pride. Of hubris. It always has been. Odysseus's pride, specifically. The reason the Gods come down so hard on Odysseus is because he's too proud. He believes himself above the Gods or at least above crediting them for his achievements. Anyone who's familiar with Greek Mythology knows that this is a common theme, a mortal becoming too full of themselves because of a gift the Gods gave them is a recurring thing.

Odysseus doesn't spare Polyphemus out of pity like in Epic, he does it so everyone can know who outwitted him and who overcame the monster.

I feel like earlier parts of Epic understand this as the theme. "Luck Runs Out" especially hits on it, and it feels like it comes to a head in "Ruthlessness" when Odysseus doesn't do the one thing that could get them out of this situation, humble himself before Poseidon and apologize. Instead, he makes excuses and Poseidon follows through with his threat.

I just feel like Odysseus beating Poseidon, humiliating him like he does in "Six-Hundred Strike" is antithetical to the theme of the story. Odysseus proves his pride right, and overcomes a God.

The whole point Poseidon pushes in "The Odyssey" is that no one is mightier than the sea. No matter how good or powerful you are, you have to respect the sea and nature.

I just feel like Ody's arc would be more complete if he did the one thing he didn't bring himself to do in "Ruthlessness" and apologizes to Poseidon, at last breaking the pride that got his men killed.

While watching Odysseus triumph like that might be more immediately rewarding, it feels narratively cheaper. It doesn't even complete his arc as a monster, since we already saw the culmination of that in the Thunder Saga where alienated the rest of his crew and got them killed because of that.

Being a monster didn't work, but here it does?

I dunno, just how I feel.

[gachagon]

I definitely think that this moment is all of the little moments where Isagi zeroed in on just defeating one person and trying to become the best piling up to his ego becoming pure hubris. Like before it was just Isagi slowly becoming more and more like a machine who works towards a goal, but I fear he has fully embraced his role as an analyzer of the field, to the point where he's abandoning the thing that really made him standout as an analyst to begin with:

His empathy. I read a post a while ago from someone who talked about how it's actually because Isagi is so empathetic that he's able to read so much about his opponents. And I really agree with that, because Isagi Yoichi is the most empathetic person the field. Or at least he used to be before he became enamored with making goals and scoring. Then he only cared about trying to score because he brought into the Blue Lock philosophy hook, line, and sinker.

I think this moment is a result of Isagi abandoning the things that he felt were holding him back from becoming a "genius" like the others, and that thing was literally his ability to understand another person by thinking about what it must be like to be them, essentially. He's only thinking about how they can fulfill their actions on the field, and not why and that was a huge core of early Isagi's mindset. Thinking about others isn't a selfish act, and is the least egotistical thing you can do. But it's what got Isagi ahead for the most part, and a key part about being an egoist isn't getting rid of the parts that make you unique, it's turning those things about you into weapons for you to use to your advantage.

It's a little ironic that he'd turn to Kaiser in the end for help defeating the "neo egoist league" all together, because Kaiser JUST learned the whole "I need to be more empathetic and caring of others to truly learn the value of myself" lesson, he had this whole inner monologue where he truly realized that using other people like cogs in a machine wasn't what made him a great striker. Or even a great player, and that his detachment to other people was the thing that was secretly holding him back, not the other way around.

And here is Isagi, becoming just like Kaiser, abandoning the thing that made him special as a striker for what he thinks he "needs" and not what is actually beneficial to him.

In a weird way, its almost like Kaiser and Isagi have swapped places. Isagi is the unfeeling antagonist who wants to use this all feeling "side character" to get ahead, and I think he's going to fail because he doesn't realize that he's falling behind in the wrong places. Early Isagi from before this arc would have whole moments where he'd talk to his teammates and even learn about how they think specifically, and even their past achievements, the things weighing them down etc.

But this Isagi has not once done that, and that's what has led us here. To an Isagi who is wholly addicted to the feeling of making goals that he has forgotten to consider the other part of what makes a striker great.

A part of me is still also thinking about Bachira in all this, and how we haven't seen in literally a year at this point. And I am wondering if when we do see them, it will be like two sides of the same coin (because if I remember correctly Bachira's team hasn't won a single game for some reason, even though Bachira's scored the most)

I can definitely see Isagi becoming full on "Logos" in his ideas, while Bachira is completely "Pathos" and is honing too much in on his creativity and not enough on how to make that translate into a victory. (i also just miss bachira in the story </3)

[wyverndreamers]

WARNING for extensive talk about the dsmp and the characters in it !! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CC'S THIS IS PURELY STORY BABBLE

loving the dsmp revival going on rn (maybe it's only on twt but i don't post on twt, so sorry for dsmp posting on this account) but i really don't like how a lot of the 'revival' is bringing back a lot of c!tommy's mischaracterization as a whole. i can understand the URGE to smooth him out, into something malleable and kind of babied, because for a while there he was just seen as this really annoying character in fandom spaces pertaining to the dsmp, but i see this urge around the internet to turn tommy into a 'perfect victim' with his trauma when that's just not true at all. i say this as a c!tommy enjoyer, i used to watch his pov's RELIGIOUSLY and i say this as someone who has an appreciation for his story and hate to see it cheapened by this constantly crying, blue sweater wearing blonde baby i see on my TL a lot. apart of what made c!tommy compelling is that at certain points he was very petty, and abrasive. he would act on impulse, and not always in a good way. a lot of the time, yeah it did good in the long run, but in the moment a lot of the stuff he does are stupid impulsive decisions that could've ended in FAR worse scenarios. people really like to hold up his trait of loyalty but completely ignore that his loyalty to a fault always came with a subtle sense of ENTITLEMENT that they were supposed to do right, because he was following him, kind of like how a child would be mortified seeing their parents doing something socially wrong like yelling at someone else. and a lot of people in the fandom actually LIKE this aspect of his character, but mostly because it can add to their characterization of him that is of inherent helplessness and childishness. and its usually painted as a good, pure trait to have, fully ignoring how a lot of his childishness is actually willful ignorance- especially in the face of his actions and how they'll effect people around them. he might bend eventually and mutter out a sorry, but that's not something he really WANTS to do. tommy is someone usually fully fixed in his own perspective and you can especially see it in the way that almost every other character at some point gets irritated at him FOR this in certain places in the narrative. and a lot of people would actually have you believe this is a good thing, because they actually view tommy as always having a perfect perspective on everything all the time. they think because he's the closest thing we have to a 'morally correct protagonist' that he is inherently morally correct and thus should be worshipped like the next messiah that will lead the revolution against the evil-doers. except, tommy just does not have that inherently morally correct perspective. yes he wants to do right, but his sense of 'right' is not always what is 'good'. bro literally tipped the initial domino that led to Doomsday happening, and that's not to say that anything that happened because of him burning down George's house was his fault (quite the opposite) but he also knowingly burnt down George's house knowing that George was friends with Dream, and having the full knowledge of what they could do at least to the extent of the L'manberg revolution where they literally had a traitor on the in betray them all. he recklessly incited George's (and again by proxy, Dream's) wrath because he did a reckless action. it's okay to call this behavior reckless and brash guys, that doesn't mean you're saying he deserved to be exiled. i could go on, but again i say this as an enjoyer of the c!tommy storyline and arcs he goes through. i just don't appreciate it when the thing that made his character so compelling, is cheapened down because the fandom cannot fathom the idea of liking a character that responds in complex ways to complex traumas. maybe some people relate too hard, IDK i just don't understand how you can praise a character for being human and then take out everything that MAKES the character feel so human sorry if this wasnt constructive or coherent, i didn't beta read my tumblr post

[bobsyourdylan]

Okay, so – a few thoughts on Izzy’s death. I’m sure other people have also laid this out, but I haven’t stumbled across it yet, so this is partially for me to get my thoughts organized. For the record, I love Izzy – he fascinated me (in a horrified sort of way) in season 1, and then he grew on me significantly in season 2. What a weird little guy. But also – I’m fine with them killing him off, and also with how they did it, because I think it makes sense for the story. But I know that a lot of people are super upset about his death, and also about the way he died. So, a few semi-coherent thoughts on that: 

Why not a sacrifice play?

This writer’s room is so self-aware, so deliberate about engaging with tropes – there is no possible way that they sat around breaking the story of Izzy’s death and no one said “woah, wouldn’t it be symbolic and gut-wrenching if he sacrificed himself for Ed? Or Stede?” No way. So why didn’t they go that route? 

Izzy’s arc in season 2 has been all about becoming his own man, separate from Ed/Blackbeard. Like – that’s what he’s worked towards, this whole season. That is his growth. It would be insulting to take that away from him at the last minute, and make his death purely about Ed and Stede.

Listen, I love a sacrifice arc as much as the next person. But Izzy’s life isn’t about sacrifice anymore – that’s the whole point of his season 2 arc. He has spent decades sacrificing both himself and Ed to the altar of Blackbeard. No more. 

It also means that Ed and Stede’s mourning doesn’t have to be tinged with the guilt of “he sacrificed himself to save me/my partner.” They can mourn Izzy purely for himself, because he is worth mourning. This, I would argue, is the send-off that Izzy’s character deserves.

Izzy’s death wasn’t accidental on Ricky’s part – it wasn’t a stray bullet.

We see from the scene when the crew is locked up in Spanish Jackie’s that Ricky recognizes Izzy. We know from their conversation that, for Ricky, Izzy is the epitome of piracy – Izzy, not Blackbeard, is the legend.

The thing is – Ed and Stede are both in the scene where Izzy dies (I’m not sure if you can see Stede on screen, but the bts photos show Rhys’ position, on what would be the far right of the shot). Arguably, Stede would have been the easier shot – Ricky wouldn’t have had to complete a full 180-degree turn before he could pull the trigger. So why doesn’t he go for Stede, who abandoned him to the tender mercies of Spanish Jackie in the first place? Or Blackbeard, arguably the greatest/most famous pirate alive, with the possible exception of Zheng, who he’s already targeted? Sure, you could argue that he’d going for Ed here… but I don’t think he is. The shot’s too low to be accidentally aimed for Izzy – it would hit Ed’s knee or something, probably. I think that yes, it’s a panicked shot, not well-aimed at all. But if it’s aimed at anyone, I think it has to be Izzy. And at the very least, the symbolism of it is very much not accidental.

For probably the first time since they created Blackbeard, Izzy isn’t just a stand-in for Ed. His significance is his own in this scene – in all of his interactions with Ricky. He’s not targeted because he’s Blackbeard’s first mate (why go for the first mate when you could go for Blackbeard?). He’s targeted because he’s Izzy Hands – because he is significant, powerful, famous, respected in and of himself.

And more than that – this is an arc about the end of piracy. And Izzy Hands is piracy – the show has been telling us from the beginning that piracy is a mixed bag, full of the good and the bad, and Izzy represents that  – represents both the toxic, violent side of piracy, and the side of piracy that he grows into, that he explains to Ricky – piracy as family, home, belonging. Izzy dies, and it hurts, because not only is he a great character, but he represents in one person all of the complicated, hilarious, heartbreakin, violent, loving aspects of piracy – and of the show. But it is so, so important that Izzy dies as himself – not as a symbol or shield of Ed, or Stede, or Blackbeard. Not even as a symbol of piracy, but instead as the active embodiment of piracy – as something/someone who grows, changes, ends. Not as static or passive, but as better than when we first met him, as transformed as Buttons in his own way. 

Izzy’s death sets up a possible revenge arc:

We know that everything in this show ties back to the main relationship between Ed and Stede. Izzy’s death is, I think, significant on its own, for him as a character – but it is also, by necessity, significant to Ed and Stede’s relationship. Namely – it sets up an interesting conflict for season 3 re: a potential revenge arc for Ed. 

Now, clearly they’ve carefully ended season 2 on a relatively high note in case we don’t get a season 3. But we know they’re gonna be terrible at running an inn, and we know there’s unfinished business with Ricky. Ed’s current strategy of dealing with everything that’s happened seems to be “I don’t want to be a pirate, get me out of here” – which, while fair enough, won’t last, because that’s the nature of unfinished business. So, at some point, Ed and Stede are going to need to confront Ricky again. And, if the writers decide to lean into the revenge arc, I’d say the odds are pretty high that, when Ed lays eyes on Ricky again, we get a flashback to Izzy’s death. 

And this sets us up for a pivotal, and necessary, moment in Ed’s character arc: when confronted with pain, loss, negative emotion in general – can Ed deal with it without losing himself? Ed needs a balance between the Kraken, Blackbeard, and Edward, and we see at the end of season 1 and beginning of season 2 how challenging that balance is for him to find, especially when confronted with loss or pain. We can see Ed working towards that balance when he’s interacting with Low – Low’s taunts don’t push Ed to violence, but instead get to Stede. But comparatively, Izzy’s loss is a much greater blow, and at some point, Ed is going to need to confront that.

Plus – we know the writing team are thinking of Izzy’s death at least partially in terms of the mentor/mentee arc, which often confronts the question of revenge – after the mentor’s death, the mentee is required to choose on their own how to go on, what kind of person they want to be. And this often requires a confrontation with both the mentor’s loss and a decision about how far they want to take their desire for revenge.

Why not a cooler death?

Okay — I get this criticism. I do. Izzy is an amazing fighter, we all love that about him. And you can keep most of the above symbolism and still have him die fighting two dozen British soldiers. 

But — again — we are back to the root of this show: Ed and Stede. 

Izzy has two deaths this season: one in the premiere, one in the finale. The first is Stede’s fantasy. Cool swordfight, and Stede triumphs, obviously — but the premise of the fight is that Izzy’s a great swordsman and Stede bests him because now Stede’s a great pirate. This is Stede’s ideal pirate fantasy. 

But Izzy’s actual death is not like this. It is messy and inelegant and painful and no one gets any glory from it at all and Ed is crying with Izzy dying in his arms, and Stede wants to help, goes for bandages, but he doesn’t know what to do and it’s not enough anyways — And this is not a fantasy anymore. This is piracy, and this is the piracy that Ed wants to escape. And it’s important that Stede sees this, sees what Ed is done with. 

And it’s also important that Stede tries to save Izzy. Izzy isn’t just a symbolic barrier between Stede and Ed anymore, to be sacrificed to Stede’s reunion fantasy. He’s his own person, with his own death, and Izzy has grown, yes, but so has Stede.

And by using Izzy’s death to make this point, we both get Stede learning the reality of piracy and growing beyond his fantasy, and the glorious fantasy fight kiss i love you reunion between Ed and Stede (if Ed and Stede had reunited by fighting off dozens of British soldiers, but Izzy had died doing the same, the dissonance would have messed with both the death and the reunion, because we the audience wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the fantasy and reality worlds). And getting both of these is the premise of the show — fantasy and reality both. 

And sure — you can be mad that the show used Izzy in this way. But that is the show’s premise — everything is in service of the protagonists and their relationship. This is not a surprise— it’s been openly talked about since day 1. 

You don’t have to like what the writers did. You don’t have to agree that it was the correct choice. But they have proven to us, time and time again over the last year, that they are self-aware and careful with this show that they know we love so much. So we absolutely owe it, to them and to ourselves, to ask why they made a choice that not everyone may agree with. What is the payoff? Why did they decide to do this thing that they knew would upset fans? Because we know it’s not that they hate us. So what is it? You don’t have to agree that the payoff is worth it. But do the writers, and the show, and yourself the favor of recognizing that there is a payoff here.

[kerryweaverlesbian]

They really fumbled the season 14 emotional core specifically by not having Mary be present and recognisably Mary for MOST of the season. It feels like we see more of her after her death than before it, and when we do see her before it she's a completely different character who's their uncomplicatedly loving mom.

Take season 10 Charlie, who was present and dynamic and alive and forming new relationships with other major characters and was generally a big part of the plot for season 10. Take season 12 Mary even! So cool they fridged her thrice. The high level of emotion from Dean and Sam after her (apparent) s12 finale death was meaningful to the audience because Mary IS season 12. Take season 7 Bobby! He is active and present and having an emotional arc and has been consistently a part of the fabric of the show.

And compare these to season 14 where she is living in a cabin with an unimportant side character, she's being sweet and motherly full stop, she's in The Pearl where her husband comes back from the dead and she has NO complicated scenes or emotions to process with Dean or Sam and gets maybe 3 lines in the whole 'pisode. The show doesn't give a fuck about her. And this is after season 13 where she's mostly in another world doing fuck all.

For a death to have weight in fiction you need to remind the audience consistently that THIS CHARACTER IS IMPORTANT by having them form new relationships, do things for the plot and generally be present onscreen. As it stands, even though intellectually I know that if MY mom got killed and her murderer came to see me going 🥺 it was her fault really 🥺 will you comfort me 🥺 and I knew they were going to kill more people, I would probably be easily persuaded to put them in eternal prison or shoot them in the head - the emotional truth of it on the show just doesn't carry through.

It feels like an overreaction for Dean to be so angry about this for so long because the show didn't care about Mary enough to have her around. What is he losing by not having her around? In season 14, they don't show us. They did in s12 - the potential to be seen, and the complex joy of getting to know his actual mother rather than the idea of her. And by not showing us, it makes it not exist, because its a tv show and anything that isn't being depicted implicitly isn't important to the story. If you removed all of Mary's scenes from s14 before her death, what would change? Pretty much nothing.

Now to be clear, I don't think they should have fridged Mary at all. But they could have at least done it properly. The sexism that made the writers less bothered about characterising Mary thoughtfully in s14 is a blight on the show.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Do you know WHY Luke even killed himself just to DEFEAT Kronos? He was going to sacrifice himself so that Kronos could rise again, and that was HAPPENING! If he'd sacrificed himself, he would probably have thought that there was a chance of the gods going back to their original system, but there was a possible CHANCE of Kronos establishing a better system!

It just drives me MAD every time I think about it. Luke's 'redemption' arc was unnecessary since it only served to make him look better in the eyes of the protagonists who were actively upholding a cruel system, though they were manipulated children too.

Also, the thing about Luke being a pedo and Annabeth's reply, it's always so annoying to me, because Luke was NEVER a pedo-he simply wanted to know if she still loved him after everything that he'd done and honestly who WOULDN'T?

I absolutely LOVE some of your posts in this blog. I haven't read the PJO books in a long time so I was just wondering if you actually knew why Luke sacrificed himself

I mean imma be frank with ya, I talked about the whole Pedo thing so much I'd just repeat myself. So in story canon Luke sacrificed himself for Annabeth after he realized how horrid Kronos actually is and she managed to get through to him with her iconic "Family, Luke, you promised!" line. Out of canon? My honest belief is that Rick just had no idea how to get rid of Kronos, so he pulled Luke's "redemption" outta his ass. Because not gonna lie? Even as one of the most hardcore Luke apologists you can find, I still think that his "redemption" was not good and shoehorned in. A good Redemption Arc needs to be, well- an arc. It needs proper set up, execution and aftermath. All that simply didn't happen with Luke. The entire "arc" basically happened in TLO where he was already possessed by Kronos. Now where there signs of him not being totally fine with Kronos and his methods? Yes, most certainly. But he still went along with them, even if he wanted an out. Luke still chose Kronos over the gods. In every single one of his appearance Luke has been characterized to completely despise the gods above all else, to the point of him actively choosing the cause over those he loves (which, btw, in this case is something I support). At the same time has the whole Kronos possession been set up as final ever since it was introduced. Luke get's possessed and Luke is dead. Dead dead. No coming back from this.

So for Luke then, in the last possible second, be "snapped out of it" by Annabeth? When Kronos was already possessing him for a considerable amount of time and very close to gaining his full titan form? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And if you now consider that Percy and co. literally had no way to really defeat Kronos without at least Percy dying due to the prophecy, it really makes you think wether Luke's whole sacrifice was actually planned out for the story or just a way for Rick to wrap it all up nicely without having to merk his MC.

[andorshitdaily]

I suppose someone should also say something about Syril, so… that would be me. Look. I absolutely understand why people don’t like him. I understand that portions of his arc are not written in an endearing way, to put it mildly, and certain of his actions are indefensible. I understand that it’s funny to watch him mope, whine, fail to deliver a motivational speech, and munch on cereal as a 35-year-old man living with his mother. But on the whole, I personally see him as a smartly written irregularity in the Star Wars universe, played by a skilled actor who comprehends every facet of the role. Syril goes from the “unlikely hero” of his personal story to a disastrous fall from grace in his first three episodes; that’s an arc that would take most characters a complete season, and for many antagonists crafted by lesser writers, it would’ve ended in his death and the story would have moved on. Instead we, as viewers, are forced to sit with him. We’re put in the position of having to watch the defeated villain try to sweep the shattered, sharp shards of his life back together. How often do we see what happens after the bad guy is vanquished? How often do we see the bad guy’s mom slap him, pour him bowls of cereal, and poke, prod at, and demean him for days on end? How often do we see the bad guy cry as he stares out at the feeble sliver of sunlight he’s able to glimpse through his window? The awkward, obsessive, uncomfortable writing of him is as spectacular as it is unique. This is to say nothing of his moral code, which does exist… but it’s misdirected. The things he believes in - justice, security, right and wrong - aren’t bad in and of themselves, and even the rebels would likely agree they’re important. The problem for Syril is that he believes the Empire is capable of delivering those things to the galaxy in a fair or balanced way, when won’t. It never will. Whether or not he‘s forced to acknowledge that in Season 2 remains to be seen (I wonder if the Ghorman massacre might rattle his Imperial worldview, and if it doesn’t, nothing ever will). The sadness of Syril, I think, is that there’s so much misplaced devotion in him. There’s so much emotion, so much faith, so much dedication, but it’s all poured into and twisted by the wrong governing system, the wrong woman (he can risk his life to save her, but Dedra Meero will never love him back), and the wrong side of the fight. Is he right to support the cause that he does? No. The Empire might kill him in the end just as the rebellion, in a way, killed Cassian, but at least Cassian’s sacrifice for his cause is noble, voluntary, and full of meaning. If Syril dies for the Empire, it will remain indifferent to him. He won’t even be an asterisk in its footnotes. Syril repeatedly gives everything to get nothing in return, and that, in my opinion, is the tragedy of him. Had his past been different, he could have been a great rebel. Instead he is, as of the end of Season 1, a middling and probably doomed Imperial. His high collar is destined to choke the life out of him.

This is all so true. A character I never knew I, or Star Wars, needed. Much appreciation for him and Kyle Soller!!

[nyaagolor]

Now that you’ve played through all the episodes, how would you rank them?

Oooo this is tough, in part bc I like all of them a LOT. The designations between a few of them, especially in the middle category, are gonna be kinda arbitrary, but I'll do my best :)

Also this got stupid long so I put it under a readmore! Spoilers abound, as one might expect

8. Dawn of the Golden Witch (Episode 6)

I have some... mixed feelings on this one. I understand what Ryukishi was going for in using chick-Beato and Battler's interactions to parallel Battler with Kinzo and show Kinzo's dynamic with Kuwadorian Beatrice via analogy, but I also think it kinda fumbles a bit. There are points (cookie scene being a big one) where I feel like the characters take a backseat to the themes and the whole narrative feels off. Chapters 5 and 6 are supposed to be a perversion of the original story that Beatrice has lost control over, but there are points during 6 especially where I think it kinda loses itself. The rest of it is great (Erika's VA is a goddamn champion) but the very beginning of this chapter is easily my least favorite part of the series

7. Requiem of the Golden Witch (Episode 7)

I don't really have strong feelings on this episode. It would have been the high point in just about any other VN, but Umineko is so consistently fantastic that Episode 7 didn't really hit me as hard as the others. It did make me wish we got more Kyrie though, even if I know exactly why she wasn't as prominent as many of the others. Kind of insane that my second least-favorite arc is something I would rank like an 8 or 9 out of 10, Umineko is just that goated (get it???)

6. Turn of the Golden Witch (Episode 2)

While I do love watching the worst woman ever conceived have a 48 hour progressive mental breakdown, Alliance hits every point I like about the Rosa / Maria dynamic but does it better. It's still an arc I absolutely adore, so it feels weird to rank it so low, but I think about it a lot less than the other arcs so down here it goes. Shoutout to this arc for making me laugh to the point I could no longer speak not once, but twice. Kanon chuuni jacket and leashed Battler you will always be famous

5. Twilight of the Golden Witch (Episode 8)

I know that ranking episode 8 in the bottom half sounds like sacrilege but this arc had so much Kinzo and while I understand his narrative importance I Do Not Like Him. The fact that Kinzo is in the Golden Land but Kuwadorian Beatrice isn't makes me want to throw bricks at things. Other than that though, absolutely stellar. I bawled at the ending. The next day I thought about it more, misinterpreted it, and cried more, then I thought about it more deeply and talked with friends, really started to understand the core messages, and sobbed even harder. As these things tend to go. This episode ruined my life. Would recommend.

4. Legend of the Golden Witch (Episode 1)

note: 4 and 3 are interchangeable I like them both a lot for different reasons

The first time I read this episode, I thought it was great. The further I got into Umineko, the better it got. Now, with a full understanding of the plot and knowing how this chapter serves as self-reflection through the other (Sayo via Natsuhi) it serves as probably the most raw glimpse into Sayo's mindset we get. This episode ruins me and I'm pretty sure when I inevitably reread it I am going to dissolve into a puddle of goo. Also Natsuhi is there and she's my favorite of the matriarchs so I'm a little bit biased :)

3. Banquet of the Golden Witch (Episode 3)

This is one of the funniest pieces of literature I have ever read in my life. EVA-Beatrice, the entire sob story (that I, like Battler, fell for completely), the two towers fight scene... 10/10 no notes. I don't even have the words for how much I adored this one. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

2. Alliance of the Golden Witch (Episode 4)

Ok so fun fact I thought this arc was kinda boring at first, and was a little miffed I had to constantly go through Ange's little side quests when I just wanted to see Beatrice and Battler again. Fortunately, Ryukishi has a beautiful way of changing my mind very very quickly and the more I think about this Episode the more I love it. It has some of the most powerful emotional moments, a really good rehashing of the themes, and is a lot tighter and more condensed than I gave it credit for. There's a LOT that happens in this chapter, and it's been growing on me a lot-- while it doesn't take the number one spot in terms of my favorites, I do think it's the best written of the 8 episodes. As a bonus it focuses a lot on Maria who is one of the best characters ever and my darling baby angel.

End of the Golden Witch (Episode 5)

This is the platonic ideal of Umineko to me. The layers of metanarrative, the perversion of a formula to reiterate its structure, the use of genre conventions as a dual-use in-universe and metanarrative element, Erika. End of the Golden Witch is when I changed from someone who loved Umineko to someone who was obsessed with Umineko. The ending is one of the most visceral parts of the VN and I will fully admit I cried. There is so much happening in this episode I could talk about it all day. Also Natsuhi is there. Hey girlie <3

[lmanburgseulogy]

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE IN UNIVERSE CULTURE OF LMANBERG

WORLD BUILDING GO (I have so many thoughts)

OHHHH MY GOSH. OKAY. OKAY

IDK HOW TO WORD MY THOUGHTS HELP IVE NEVER LIKE. WORLD BUILT BEFORE AT LEAST NOT INTENTIONALLY

I think a lot of their virtues would be surrounded around the Independence War. This idea is based on lmancrew reflecting so much on it during election arc (especially c!wilbur, who. Is in charge of the country so he kinda reflects their image a lot lol.) They’re VERY proud of their history, so ofc their culture heavily celebrates it.

No casual/working clothing goes below the knees due to the marshy land. The uniforms don’t apply to this rule, but those are only worn on special occasions anyway. Some examples of when the uniform is required are like. political events, any conflict related to the country, certain holidays, festivals, etc. Basically anytime where the whole nation is united, I guess. They use the identical clothing as a metaphor for being equals.

They have festivals often (sorry canon) to celebrate the different accomplishments they hit during the early days. For example, when Tubbo builds the docks, or the space center, or Niki’s bakery being opened.

L’manburg also hosts festivals on holidays relating to it’s folklore or history. Independance day is a huge deal. Everyone in the whole nation gets together and I imagine they would be (unfortunately) kinda judgey if you didn’t attend. phhaa they celebrate summer solstice too. Big time. Yes.!

FOOD. yummy!! obviously a lot of culture is centered around the environment near by, so cuisine is based around fresh water fish or other things found in their river. Water lily roots and salmon are viewed VERY highly despite being quite common. (salmon got them through some hard times put the respect to the fish name…) They also eat a lot of bugs, with crickets being an exception because of local stories about them. A large population of L’manburg citizens are pescatarian or entovegan.

THEY ARE OBSESSED WITH NATURE LEMME TELL YOUUUUU….. Everyday I think about L’manburg’s first rule being to never damage the trees. L’manburg would’ve put so many preservation acts in place to protect their precious redwoods…hallo. They work with the land and the land works with them.. i think disrespecting it is an act that gets you completely outcasted from society tbh. (I also think this got more extreme after the war because doing something that’s hurtful to their home, whether intentional or not, is similar to the smp. They also kick preservation into full gear after the l’manburg forest fire because they lost so much wildlife. Anyway. I’m normal.)

I think the sunrise would be a religious experience for them. I dunno. I just remember c!niki saying nights in l’manburg are long so maybe the sunrise is a crazy thing for them. The end of the darkness. The rays of light peaking through their walls. The yellow spanning across their home and making everything bright and clear……that’s be sorta holy, don’t you think?

ANYWAY THESE ARE KINDA BAD I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS (looking at you with big wet eyes)

[spaceorphan18]

@fan64625 - I hope you don't mind me responding this way instead of reblogging the full post

The Colin/Marina plot in season 2 is messy as hell. I somehow get that he is still not over it completely, but they are going for the 'still hung up on Marina' angle instead of him thinking about his naivety or other reasons for making his choices (which would have been more interesting). He hardly knew Marina and she was clear that she never really loved or even liked him, so why is he hung up on that? It's weird and doesn't really fit the story.

I actually kind of agree with this, and will more so say that Colin's arc, in general, is really messy in Season 2. There are elements they are taking out of the books -- in that Colin feels restless, not having direction in his life, but the details here are all over the place. Believe it or not, while there are still plenty of issues in Season 3, too, I think Colin was at least written more consistently.

As we get into it in the next episode, the Marina stuff does come out of nowhere. I'd be interested to know whether or not they told Luke Newton of where his character arc was going (I know they told him and Nicola early they'd be Season 3 leads but...) because when Colin returns in ep. 2, he's bright, fresh, happy to be alive, happy to be back home, and very much into every interaction he has with Penelope.

And then, I suppose the intention, is that Colin is still fighting a few demons (that I can buy, we all have dark stuff we keep concealed) but then he's not over a girl he was barely under in the first place? I actually give credit to Luke in the next episode for not over doing the angst of it. But it is a little... huh? Colin, what future do you think you're imagining here? You'd be incredibly unhappy.

And I mean, I'll dig into Colin's ultimate desire of wanting to be happily married and in charge of a household, which apparently addles his reasoning skills; as well as Colin's hero complex taking charge again. But the whole Marina sequence feels... off.

All of the Marina stuff feels like -- a) wanting to bring back Marina as a reminder - as well as doing more set up for Polin, b) getting Colin out of the main story for an episode, and c) a clunky diversion to set up Colin's lack of purpose so he can become an investor and get himself involved in the Featherington nonsense. And, I mean on paper, it looks fine. But the execution just feels a little all over the place.

The problem is that this show has a zillion characters and not enough room in 8 episodes to properly service them all. They're going to try for better balance in Season 3, and it ended up being at the expense of the main characters. (As an aside, though, and at the risk of getting yelled at by fandom, I think Season 2, in general, has some clunky writing. The Kanthany angst stretches on a couple episodes too long. And by episode 6, I'm always ready for the season to be done.)

But, that's okay, just wait until I get to the 'I would never dream of courting Penelope Featherington' line. The most OOC thing Colin says or does in the entire run of the show (so far). I know why it's there -- a version of it is from the books, and they need to place Pen and Colin as far a part as possible before their season. And I know you can argue he was saving face in front of idiots. But I still can't completely reconcile it.

And I mean, what's more is that Season 3 is going to both acknowledge the line right away, and completely gloss over any explanation as to why he said it in the first place, which is interesting.

And makes me wonder what the original plan for Polin was had the showrunners had not changed. I don't know if it's a popular opinion or not, but I think I'm glad we had a showrunner change, because I don't think I would have liked the original concept -- whatever it may have been. But I suppose we'll never know.

[the-depths-au]

FAQ

*this post continues heavy totk spoilers

How did it start?

A lot of people started posting some really cool art of a TotK ending where Zelda returns as a hybrid dragon creature thing. I saw a few that called it a “bad” ending and I noticed she was often portrayed with dominantly human-features just like, with horns or a tail, or the purple eyes, etc. I love to play video games(clearly) and I enjoy the challenge of seeing various endings, not just “secret endings” (think Heavy Rain, Until Dawn, The Witcher 3, Drakengard- anyone else play this?) I got to thinking about how her coming back didn’t really like a true “bad ending”. To me, a bad ending, really, would be one in which she didn’t get to magically, miraculously come back in any form. A bad ending to me would be Mineru’s warning held true. And in doing so, it would become The Legend of Zelda because she becomes the stuff of myths. Of true Legend. Fulfilling destiny (botw-era and the series as a whole). My brain sort of took off from there regarding the implications this would have on Hyrule and specially, our boy Link.

How could you! A Bad ending? Is this story at least hurt and eventual comfort??? Does it have a happy ending??

I could tag this hurt and comfort, but usually people who read these types of stories have certain expectations of what “comfort” is (and that’s okay!). Same with a “happy” ending. I don’t need stories to be wrap up in a bow with warmth to enjoy them. Honestly, some of the stories that have touched me the most over the years have had “sad” endings/negative character arcs/tragedy. That being said, I don’t particularly enjoy pure whump, either. What I feel is most important and what I am to do with this story, is to make any suffering meaningful. With purpose. And hopefully- maybe- you’ll see the “comfort” that is possible even in these types of stories.

Wait! So Zelda remains a dragon?

Yes. They defeat the demon dragon. Rauru and Sonia appear in a silent thanks, then they disappear and Link falls from the sky alone into the water. The Light Dragon continues along in her flight above him.

Link is also the only one who can see/has ever seen the Light Dragon.

Are there any other major changes from TotK?

It follows the game pretty closely. It’s just hard to say exactly what is in this story from TotK because there is just so much. In BotW, I headcanon Link took his time. He doesn’t remember anything. He is alone, lost, and the world is a vast, broken place. Therefore, it is plausible/ realistic in my head for all the side questions to be done prior to the ending being reached. In TotK, especially with the headcanon he and Zelda were together in the time between BotW and TotK, I had a hard time imagining Link would waste much time on anything unnecessary to save Zelda. So, with this in mind, I’ve had to justify the side questions to include in the story. Link’s journey is a bit different than my own. Whereas I actually spent 80% of my playthrough exploring the depths, this Link only went down when necessary. Meaning many of the lightroots have not been unlocked and he only has part of the armor of the depths. In the Linktober and the early concept, he has the entire set but this has been changed for the main comic.

How far after the events of TotK does this take place?

Five years.

Is it completely planned out?

Yes. I have a complete rough story outline done. It’s 17 chapters. I am anticipating some editing as I go, but regardless, it’s a big project. A huge shout out to @zeldaelmo and @fioreofthemarch for helping me get the story set. They are both phenomenal writers for the LoZ fandom so be sure to check them out!

What happened to the comic?

I made the decision to tell this story (initially) in writing. I have a very specific style in mind for this story as a full comic and honestly, I just don't feel like my artistic ability and overall proficiency is where I want it to be at this time. I'm still learning! I will be continuing to post art, concept art, and some comic panels here as I go and eventually, I would love to adapt the story into a full comic, but for now, I'll be telling the main story in writing.

How long have you been drawing?

I’ve been drawing all my life. Just for fun, although I took a few classes in school. Digitally, self-taught, since fall 2022. Still very new to this with lots to learn! I have a minor in creative writing and feel much more confident and comfortable with that.

Feel free to send me a DM with questions anytime! I plan to update this periodically.

Last updated 2/26/24

[greatwyrmgold]

When you watched/read Oshi no Ko, did you wonder what would happen if Abiko Samejima got isekai'd into a mid movie she loved as a kid? Well, Zenshu doesn't exactly answer that question, but it's as close as you're gonna get.

Which I didn't expect going in, because I saw that the main character was an animator and immediately stuck it on my to-watch list.

So. Things I like. Saying "production values" sounds dismissive, but the basics are solid. Animation and sound design and voice acting and stuff. And it's hard to analyze the story after one episode, but I like the characters.

The protagonist, Hirose Natsuko, is enjoyable. I don't like her as much as Abiko Samejima, but if we spent enough time in the real world to see her properly clash with others and retreat back into her shell and go into a creative fugue like we did with Samejima, I might. Especially since, despite my comparison, she's honestly not that much like her? She doesn't have that tension between aggressive defensiveness and people-pleasing, but she does have a lot of fun interactions with the characters and plot of the movie she gets isekai'd into. She's clearly spent much of her life thinking about this story.

Also, I fucking LOVE Natsuko's design. Abiko Samejima looks fine, but look at Natsuko!

Her face is hidden by her hoodie and overgrown mane, but there's enough color that she's not completely invisible. And since this is anime and not manga, the hair can flow or shift to indicate expressions that would otherwise be lost. Like when she's eating Oyster-kun, who had to sub in for Truck-kun, and you can see her chewing by how the hair moves? Great stuff! Too bad I haven't figured out how to do gifs.

Anyways, all of that makes it all the more impactful when, nineteen minutes into the episode, we see her face.

This bit reminds me a little of Wonder Egg Priority, for some reason. In a good way, except the part where I got sad remembering how WEP absolutely failed to stick the landing.

Not a fan of how long it takes Natsuko to figure out what happened to her. She's not even in denial, she just doesn't consider the possibility that the people who look like characters from her favorite movie and fought a monster exactly like in the movie ("shot for shot") and rode away on said movie's flying unicorn might not be cosplayers until she wanders through the desert and sits through another whole movie scene and notices an iconic bit of architecture.

Also, from how she describes the movie's reception, isekaitis (or at least an isekai-themed dream) is probably more plausible than finding a whole group of A Tale of Perishing cosplayers.

Swinging back to compliments, I like Natsuko's interactions with the twice-fictional characters. She's not quite treating them as full people, which they notice but mistake for her just being mundanely rude (and also weird). I get the sense that Natsuko's developed some headcanons that overshadowed the actual text of the film, or at least that she flanderized some of the less pleasing or consistent actions of its heroes out of her memory. And she really doesn't like the unicorn, mostly because he's annoying.

And now for some more insults. I wish Natsuko had more hair in her face after the animation crisis resolved; she's got some hair in her face in a couple shots, but it feels like she's mostly going to wear her hair like a normal person in the future. Look at the ED.

Normal-ass long hair on a normal-ass anime lady. It's not even all messy and scrungly. And her clothes are just, normal clothes. Extra-with-a-name energy. Boring.

More significantly, we don't get any kind of animation action. Natsuko's talking ruler turns into a magic animation desk, and she starts drawing, and there's a bunch of production values (derogatory this time), and a sketchy monster shows up to kersplode the Void army. Eizouken, this ain't.

I'll keep watching, but unless there's either a really compelling character arc or more focus on the animation side of things, I'll probably drop it before the end of the season.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #57 – Monstress, Volume 9: The Possessed by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

I have, for the year so far, been reading one volume of the Monstress a month as a sort of regular treat or change of pace. And so after nine months, I’ve finally caught up with just under a decade’s worth of narrative. Which is, honestly, largely a matter of falling entirely in love with the first few volumes, and then progressively falling out of love over the last plot arcs. It never becomes dire – this volume is honestly rather better than the last, at least for y tastes – but the magic is very thoroughly gone.

After their dream sojourn in Golga, the prison-planet of the Old Gods, Maika, Zinn, Kippa and Ren awaken to discover that a full year has passed while they slept – and that in the meantime, Maika’s father has somehow cut Zinn out of her and bound him to his will. With the armies of the Blood Court and the power of an Old God, he’s well on his way to conquering the whole continent – or at least the specific cities with laboratories and relics of the Shaman-Empress he requires to reassemble the Mask and – well, that’s unclear, but something bad. Combined with the news that he’s taken her godfather Seizi hostage, it’s’ more than enough for Maika to leave the remote island sanctuary she awoke in and jump back into the wolf’s jaws, dragging everyone else along with her. Returning to the city of Thyria and her mother’s home and library, she just about has a plan going when – well, when the world seems to start ending, as Old Gods suddenly follow the protagonists back from Golga and begin possessing every host they can.

I’m not entirely opposed to big timeskips to shake up the setting and let the plot develop, but this one really just completed the process of shaking things up by shoving all the parts that every really compelled me as far to the side as can be (okay, not entirely fair – it is nice to see Seizi again). The Lord Doctor’s the most offensive part of this, not because he couldn’t be an interesting character in his own right (parts of him are pretty compelling!) but just because he’s such an utter comic book villain. Deep ties to the Lore and a personal connection to the protagonist, but seemingly untied to any of the actual politics and context of the setting, tossing aside the carefully arranged political status quo into just being a cackling cannibal mad scientist cult leader megalomaniac who suddenly has the capacity to conquer the world. He could be fighting Captain America and no one would blink an eye. He’s just very emblematic, I suppose.

And maybe I’m looking at the earliest volumes with rose-tinted glasses here, but I can’t help but feel like at some point over the writing process the shape of the story Liui and Takeda wanted to tell has changed substantially, and the dream-world diversion and year of table-setting were necessary to make the plot they wanted more practical. Which is probably inevitable when you’re doing 6 issues of comics a year, but that doesn’t mean I need to enjoy the shift or the obvious artifice of it.

The art of the series was always reliably stunning even when I was getting irritated with the writing, and that’s still largely true but – look, after years of teasing and buildup, the fact that Maika’s deadly loyal-to-her-father sister just looks like someone’s Hazbin Hotel OC on Deviantart really just feels bathetic.

So yeah, the series will continue next year – will have to, with that sudden cliffhanger – but I feel pretty confident in saying I’m not going to pick it up when it does.

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card Trivia 2 ~ Alice in Clockland and its meaning in Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

"But in the end...what the heck was that 'Clockland' ?"

Raise your hand if you have thought so at least once! If you did, then welcome to one of the posts of my Clear Card trivia series, an unexpected one I have to say, because I had scheduled to write other posts before tackling this one, but today I suddenly realized, thanks to a conversation in a community, that probably this aspect of the series takes precedence over other things.

I've seen countless of people confused over this matter ever since the play started in the plot, and everybody knows that usually when things get unexpectedly complex, they are quick to be labeled as "useless" and "nonsense".

No, Alice in Clockland isn't just a flex on CLAMP's outstanding drawing skills, it isn't useless, it is very much connected to the plot and DOES have a meaning.

Now that the main story is over, I would like to tackle this issue. I don't presume to have the Big Truth in my pocket, especially cause Ohkawa-sensei was quite eloquent in her recent public speeches: a motto she's going by is "If you think so, then it's surely true....for you", but I feel like the way I understood and reconnected the whole play and the consequent events inside Momo's book do work out pretty well, so I'll just do what I usually do: I'll write my own interpretation out here, hoping that people reading it will find it useful, will find the right angle to look at all this part of the story, and have some of their frustrations with this arc sedated. And maybe share it around to help other people too.

I just want to get my voice out there so that no one can say "no one understood it".

Of course the text below is full of spoilers if you haven't read the chapters from 64-ish / volume 13, also I will talk assuming you know what is Kaito's plan and what feelings moved him to think such plan.

Then, if you're ready, let's proceed to see in details what this is all about, starting from the play.

The Alice In Clockland Play

Let's start from the fact that the play is based on Alice Through The Looking Glass, and that is because….well, Alice in Wonderland is Ohkawa's most beloved book, so she really feels connected to it (and as you might know, this isn't CLAMP's first title inspired in Alice in Wonderland). It's just a preference, but for example many other books are referenced in this arc (as you might know from my other post in the Clear Card Trivia series) particularly "Momo" by Michael Ende (yeah, Akiho chose Momo's name from that book!).

The play (first called "The Two Alice" and then at last minute "Alice in Clockland") is undoubtedly the focal point of the second half of Clear Card. It's during the play that Kaito starts the final stage of his plan (and succeeds). But not only that, the plot of the play itself offers a good foreshadowing to what's going to happen to a certain someone later on. CLAMP used the "parallels" structure a lot in this arc, because it enhances the feeling of interconnection between the characters. "I understand what you're going through because the same happened to me". Sakura is an extremely empathetic character so that fits her and her world perfectly.

So the plot of the play Naoko wrote is quite simple: there are these two twin sisters who get separated by supernatural reasons and one of them ends up lost in another world, becoming Queen of it and forgetting completely about her family of origin. In the play they're both called Alice because of the imagery that twins are initially one same being that gets divided in two… Even the family of origin forgets about the lost daughter, but somehow their feelings for her never get erased, and they keep a chair (which stays empty) at their table. It's like they're feeling that someone is missing and are waiting for her to return, even if they don't really know it. One day, a magical black cat gets to meet the Alice who stayed in her world and ends up guiding her to a magical land: his goal is to lead her to meet her lost sister and reunite them. After wandering for a while. Alice finds her sister/Queen of that land, and touching her hands she suddenly remembers who she is, and what she herself came here for, which is to bring her back home. The two go back home together and we reach the happy ending of the play (which we could only see in the rewritten world, but surely followed the scenario Naoko had written). The most important message of the play is that even if we forget about someone, feelings cannot be erased and those will lead us back to the person we forgot and to remember about them. (Does this ring a bell..?)

The Actual Clockland

It might be useful to remind you that we're currently dealing with two major magical tools shaped like books, at this point of the story: one is the Book of Time Momo is guarding (to which Akiho gave the title "Alice in Clockland" and which will inspire the title of the play), a magical book capable of recording someone's life and, activating the so-called "Forbidden Magic", rewrite it completely. Another one is the magical artifact, shaped like a book, that was engraved into Akiho's body by her Clan and the Association of Magicians, where any magical book that Akiho reads gets "written down" , to store its magical power for use and consumption of those criminals. There's just one "tiny" problem: the more magic gets written on it, the more the book consumes and suffocates Akiho's soul, till the point of no return where the soul will get destroyed. The Clan and Association prefer this outcome as it would be easier for them to manipulate Akiho as an artifact, devoid of any conscience.

In the middle of the school play, Kaito brings Sakura and Akiho to Clockland, which is a "dimension" existing inside Momo's book, to prepare them for the rewriting of the world that he's going to perform afterwards. This world is built using Sakura, Akiho and Kaito's memories (you can see many elements that appeared in past chapters and that come from their memories, like the botanical garden where they had a double date, or the rose garden where Kaito met Akiho the first time). Another thing to be noted is that Hitsuzen (the force of inevitability that rules CLAMP's manga) facilitated Kaito enormously, so much that many things went exactly as he wished and how it was convenient for him (which isn't a good thing, since this led to a big big mess). So following the school play's roles, here Akiho is the Queen of this land, she's the most important character and it makes sense seeing who Kaito is doing all of this for. Sakura keeps being Alice, just like in the play.

In Clockland, Kaito removes Sakura and Akiho's memories and stores them in the botanical garden. He needs to do that for two reasons:

‐ just like the play, he hopes that Sakura and Akiho will follow along their roles and recognize eachother as sisters ‐ as such, this Clockland works as some kind of "primer" for their brain; ‐ he needs to change and rewrite those memories to make them become sisters later on, so he needs to have them collected in one place.

It is to be noted that Syaoran here is an intruder, Kaito didn't initially account for him to join in, and wanted to take on the role of the cat himself. In the play the cat is the one who leads one of the Alices to find the other one and make them recognize eachother as sisters, so this is the one thing Kaito wants to do and the role he wants to take on for himself. While it's true he takes Syaoran's appearance during the first part, his only goal the whole time was to take on the role of the Cat of the play. If the role had gone to, say, Yamazaki, he would've taken his appearance instead. This is clarified by Momo's "I wish I could've seen you interpret a funny character" line, instead of the cold and serious behavior of the Cat. And his reply, "I would've worked hard, as far as I could" is further confirmation that he would've played any type of personality as long as it was the Cat. This doesn't even affect Sakura, because while being under the effect of his spell, she doesn't recognize Syaoran in him (as she should, since it's not really him). So fundamentally it is to be excluded any intention to "manipulate her" or ease her in with Syaoran's appearance (as I had erroneusly written in a previous version of this post). Realizing the real Syaoran got in, and not wanting to be hindered in his plan, Kaito uses the Mirror Sakura Card as a red herring for the boy. Syaoran, in that regard, even as an intruder ends up achieving a result very in line with his "Cat role", which is to make someone remember (Sakura remembers her identity when he shouts her name). The Clear Cards are inside Clockland because Kaito soon will need to use them to power the forbidden spell. As we know from later events, not all of them are there, and some follow his orders (like Shade), some don't (like all the Cards with appearances of Sakura's loved ones, which are trying to give her hints along the way to wake her subconscious up ‐ this is exactly their role and it worked well because Sakura starts to free herself from the spell Kaito casted to keep her subconscious dormant and to keep her in her "in role", symbolized in the manga by a change of fonts used in the dialogues, a thing that those who have read it in English couldn't recognize because they didn't respect that aspect in the translation).

Another thing that Kaito hopes for, while the two girls interact in this "fairytale" (it is very much considered a fairytale by Kaito, since he calls all of them "characters"), is that Sakura will end up creating the Card he needs to operate the exchange of artifacts between him and Akiho (exchanging his pocket watch for the artifact book inside of her). As we said above, Hitsuzen shamelessly favors him and Sakura does end up creating Exchange at the last minute. Once that is done, Kaito doesn't need to keep them in this Clockland anymore, and by the contract they have, Momo starts to activate the forbidden spell on his request, rewriting everyone's memories to satisfy Kaito's wish to turn Akiho into Sakura's sister after he removed the artifact from her with Exchange.

Now, we know what happened after Kaito activated the forbidden spell. Everyone's memories were rewritten following his wish, and he was turned into a dragon and imprisoned by effect of the Seal of D., which was imposed on him by the Association like some sort of "trap", should he ever mess with Akiho's artifact.

But it's here that the play from above comes back in from the "backdoor", to bring the unexpected parallel: Kaito ends up being the character who's lost in another world and whose existence is totally forgotten by a loved one.

But that loved one got a "memento" of him (the pocket watch, which parallels the role of the chair in the play) and that object causes Akiho to feel strange, to feel like she has to fix it, she's extremely attracted to this pocket watch even if she doesn't know why. In the end, just like in the play, Akiho and Kaito reunite and despite not remembering anything about him, and not even having his true appearance in front of her (cause she meets him as a dragon first), Akiho knows perfectly well that that is the person she loves the most, because her feelings weren't erased (just like in the play).

Sakura's role in the finale ends up being similar to the one of the black cat, making everyone remember who they really are and their connections.

So this is roughly the "significance" of both the play and Clockland in this story. It is to be noted that what happens in Clockland is extremely abstract and full of riddles because Alice in Wonderland + Through The Looking Glass are exactly like that. Have you tried to read the originals by Lewis Carrol? It's quite difficult to follow along and nothing seems to make sense….when actually, with a different reading key, it does. I've had to pause my reading of Through The Looking Glass (that I had started in hope to understand the Clear Card story better) multiple times because it's quite difficult for me to stay focused and understand what's going on. I guess Ohkawa‐sensei wanted to go all out on the references to this story, and give the same narrative vibe. The references of course don't stop at the narrative structure, you can read the others in my post about the literary references that I had linked at the beginning of this post, in the section about Alice in Wonderland.

Kaito's True Feelings

Another thing to be noted about Clockland is that since it's playing a lot with the subconscious of the characters, Kaito's true feelings end up appearing here and there. The Queen's Castle, the most important place, is built on crystals, a reference to his true name (something that Sakura points out immediately and Kaito doesn't reply to, while showing a pensive face). Their memories together are protected and stored inside the botanical garden, once again made of crystals. Sakura hits the bull's eye particularly when she says that the rose garden (where Kaito met Akiho for the first time) feels extremely important to someone (that someone is Kaito, of course), and Kaito (disguised as Syaoran) looks away and urges her to move forward. The "someone" could be interpreted as Akiho too, of course, but the Cat/Kaito's reaction and the fact that the Cards told Sakura that this place is strictly interconnected with someone's "wish", makes me lean more toward Kaito. The garden pavillion appearing with the Repair card is another important place because it's where Lilie told him "you'll find something/someone you'll like, one day". It's quite telling that Sakura, despite not even remembering who she is, is guided by her infinite empathy and recognizes immediately those parts of this land that reveal Kaito's true heart and the core of this whole matter, through the continuous questions she keeps posing to everyone, in a desperate attempt to make sense of what's happening and subconsciously fight the spell that's keeping her in her "role" (she'll do that with Akiho too, later).

It's interesting to note also just how much Hitsuzen played on Kaito's side, guiding Tomoyo's instinct to re-do the outfits for the two Alices and ending up giving to Akiho a serious, dark outfit with a black veil. I remember how me and some friends commented that more than a queen, she looked like a mourning bride. Considering what happened afterwards, the imagery CLAMP chose was pretty spot on. Not only that, but the black veil also served as a metaphor for Kaito keeping Akiho's subconscious dormant, making her act like the role of the play required her to. Needless to say, Akiho was able to slip away from the grasp of that spell basically on her own, without even needing magic, only relying on her strong feelings for Kaito (she didn't even remember her name, but lifting the veil up - a very powerful imagery - she remembered that she had someone she loved, and also Sakura's name. This gets once again conveyed in the Japanese version by the change of fonts in the script). The rose headpiece is also another quite interesting part of the outfit, as Sakura asks to the Cat/Kaito why the roses in the garden are all white, despite being this the Red Queen's land... For sure, that place was referencing the real rose garden where Kaito and Akiho met the first time, where the roses were all white, but that also means that the only Red Rose in that land is....Akiho. I also remind you that the rose headpiece was featured in the color page of chapter 69, with Kaito cradling it in his arms with a sweet smile, as if he were holding something very precious....we could read the color illustration as "that's the only thing he got left of Akiho".

This is the reason why Momo, in a moment where the Alices are on their own, tells Kaito that no matter how much he tries to hide himself behind the Syaoran disguise, his true nature shows up anyway. The whole place is full of elements making reference to very important things in his heart, and his true wish. That is only normal because the whole place is made up of their memories. This is also why Momo says that Kaito gave "all of himself" for the activation of the spell.

Another very interesting part is when Sakura, before meeting the Cat/Kaito, meets her friends Rika, Chiharu, Yamazaki and Naoko in the shape of the corresponding Cards (Appear, Synchronize and True & False). The Cards tell her that what appears in this world depends on what Sakura wishes, but her reply is "This is the Red Queen's land. Shouldn't she be the one to decide what appears here in this world?" which works wonderfully on a metaphorical level to point at how Akiho should be the one deciding what happens from now on, since this place is hers and was built for her alone. Seeing how mad Akiho got at Kaito afterwards for deciding her happiness on her behalf, yes, Sakura's question was pretty legit.

In Clockland we have also lots of meaningful interactions between Sakura and Akiho and words said in conversation that will become absolutely essential to help Sakura reaching the truth in the rewritten world (especially the whole discussion about "memories" and "records"), since they stayed in her heart even with the activation of the forbidden spell.

And I believe this is everything regarding these two parts of the Clear Card plot, a way for CLAMP to undoubtedly experiment with a different kind of storytelling, and to ask their readers to dedicate a little bit more of attention to the story, trying to get out of the logical approach to things, and thinking on a more abstract and metaphorical level.