#it was super effective especially on deuce lol

[idleglowingpixels]

I finally got my schedule aligned with a friend of mine to watch Monster High 2 (the live action movie sequel) and I have some thoughts about it

(Keep reading only if you're okay with spoilers, I go into a lot of detail)

Monster High 2 was a solid experience altogether. The previous movie was in a similar vain, but I think the special effects budget got amped up, because everything looked stellar and just generally better than the first movie. It's still not cinema film level quality but these aren't meant to be compared to that. It's a TV movie, and for what it is I thought that (almost) everything rendered out beautifully (idk why they keep having Lagoona do the oAo thing but okay).

As per the previous film, there were lots of highs in the comedy (Frankie is always the highlight of these movies for me, Cleo taking her job as campaign manager so seriously was kinda funny to me, and a lot of the Heath shenanigans were so reminiscent of G1 to me ESPECIALLY the teasing about Clawdeen being Deuce's girlfriend and general himbo behavior), but it's also a kid's movie, so there's bound to be misses too. Comedy isn't personally my forte, but I got enough chuckles and laughs here and there that it didn't really matter to me.

The songs sounded pretty nice! I went into the movie this time without hearing any songs in advance like the first movie, and was pleasantly surprised. None of them were particularly bad to me, but I think my favorite one was the very-poorly-disguised friend breakup song with the main trio. It reminded me of a similar song in Descendants 2 ironically enough, but I don't mean that as an insult, I love the Descendants soundtracks too!

Okay, now the story of the movie…I don't really know where to begin, there's so much to talk about. I guess I can start at the beginning.

I've seen a few people complain about Clawdeen blowing up on social media and going viral when the characters would regularly go viral or get tons of views on their not-YouTube channels in G1. I know the Internet was different back in 2010, but it wasn't THAT much different going viral back then as it is now imo. I found it an odd complaint personally.

While I have no idea how a half-human ghost can exist in the first place, I ADORED the little bits where that new character was. Unfortunately I neglected to remember her name, usually I'm better with keeping up on this stuff. But she was so goofy, like yeah queen, walk through the door and immediately hit it on the way back out. 💖

The whole thing with the prefect is kind of irrelevant for the most part, so I don't mind it as much. I have an irrational love for the whole fire and water thing Heath and Lagoona got to do for it together, and I noticed characters like them actually have something to do in the movie instead of just awkwardly showing up at the end to record Komos and stand guard I guess??? And they had much more dialogue this time around (very few exceptions, I can only think of Ghoulia and Abbey but who knows, maybe they'll get to be main characters in the third movie I presume will release next year).

Torelai being a general nuisance was amazing, and here she really did feel like her G1 counterpart…if said counterpart was British lol. Her outfits were really nice, felt super edgy and it was a plus for me. I also liked the mention of her scarring from the witches in France, where she'd studied abroad, but I do think they repeated the point of her bringing it up against witches in the song was too quick after the initial mention, perhaps it could've been reserved to the song and have her sing-song her way through explaining the wraith silver.

Draculaura was the main focus in the film, and I really enjoyed her story. She's got every card stacked against her, even those she trusts, it feels like they turn on her in her point of view (Clawdeen and Ellis specifically). I've also seen characters like Ellis a billion times, but as generic as he is, he served the purpose he was in the film for (lowkey thought the name was a reference to Elphaba/Wicked Witch of the West).

Seeing Dracula as much as we did this movie was amazing, loved that, though Zamara kinda fell flat with me as an antagonist. Making a comparison here, but it felt like they were trying to replicate what they'd done with Komos in the previous film, just adjusting her to fit the new narrative, but Komos was much better executed imo (I promise this isn't my bias to Jekyll and Hyde characters showing, I just think his dynamics with the students flowed more organically). I found the whole thing about witches marketing herbal products as remedies with magical healing properties to exploit humanity's fears of appearing healthy to be funny with Z, but that's about it. I also could tell she'd be the villain a lot faster than I did with Komos haha. Seeing Apollo play a significant role here was nice too! I really like how the adult/parent characters can be just as important as the teens, as I find the lack of parent appearances in G1 to be too sparce for something so integral to the characters' stories.

As with pretty much anyone who's seen the film, it seems we were all shouting at Clawdeen towards the end to just turn human to avoid injury from the wraith silver bars (I was so confused lmao), but I think she was so desperate to save her friend that she was in too blind a panic to control that or think rationally. Frankie is in a similar vein; I thought their upgrades would've caused more pain than it'd be worth, and since we saw the electricity from their arm separating from the rest of their body earlier in the scene, it might've triggered a rush of pain to Frankie or their energy would've been zapped out like a light. Also, y’all, they thought their friend was going to forcefully commit genocide, I don’t think either of them were safe from having irrational/impulsive solutions to a situation in which their friend is literally gonna die if they take time to think critically. I do think there could’ve been better execution with the scene, especially how important it is for later, however. I may be explaining the thought process of my only other point of contention here, but it wasn’t thought out all too much imo — Deen could’ve tried to shift back and find it doesn’t work, Frankie could’ve tried to detach their hand/arm and found themselves getting hurt (but not scarred since that’s really the were-girls’ common thing).

But when Clawdeen died just from touching the bars for too long, I was so shocked it was happening from something so small, I figured the explanation was that it might drain a monster's life force or something. But I COULD NOT take the grim reaper thing seriously. Genuinely laughed my ass off cause WHAT WAS THAT??? It seemed so out of place for the pacing to me I guess. I felt like it could've been a perfect opportunity to have Komos reach out to her through his petrification, especially with how much she hangs around his statue during her troubles and looks to his statue for guidance, but I knew going in he was like 99% certain to be a one-off villain. 🥲

Anyway, Torelai and Clawdeen's little trauma bond moment with the scars at the end was very wholesome, a nice tie back to the "not afraid to show my secrets or my scars" line from Coming Out Of The Dark. And for once the franchise acknowledges were-animals as having kinship, like don't get me wrong, I know it's mainly for the cats vs dogs thing, but they're essentially the same monsters. I always found it odd that they were treated as completely different monster types entirely when all they are is just a human base with animal features and abilities (speed, agility, heightened senses, etc.).

A lot of people have a problem with Clawdeuce being a thing, but I don't mind it personally. It's a different gen, nothing has to stay the same as G1, so I’m just going along with the vibes. And I can tell Deuce leaving is going to be where we follow through in the next movie (unless he got tossed into the underworld in the end credits scene, I have no clue). To be honest I really like his prominent inclusion in the roster of characters, especially with how erased he’d get in the G1 movies (they literally cut his part of the rap out and it’s so apparent q-q).

But back to the point about the after credits, when I saw the grim reaper actually CAME BACK and just threw Deuce to the side (or maybe through the portal idk) I instantly freaked out, no laughter to be had, like "WAIT OH MY GOD WE WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE THAT BIT FOR REAL—"

I know the third film is looking to be centered on Frankie (They 💖) but I do worry with how much elements they're taking from G1 movies to make up new/similar narratives (Drac's Sweet 1600, the previous gen's self acceptance narrative but specifically with a half human character, the emphasis on Jekyll and Hyde shenanigans, vampires vs werewolves but make it vampires vs witches instead, etc.). I just don't think another Freaky Fusion thing with Frankie sacrificing their life energy should be necessary. Especially considering the new antagonist is very clearly gonna be this Grim Reaper dude. And since the Underworld might be the main location for the third film, I wonder if the whole thing about Heath being Hades's son in the TV show will come up in the movie. Ik they're different canons from each other, but It'd be pretty interesting to see how they'd create a MH version of Hades. (I found his design from the cartoon after typing all this up and I mean, okay then I guess 🤷 Don’t love it but don’t hate it either, he just looks too nice to me haha. I love when Hades is actually a nice character, but his appearance and Resting Bitch Face make him out to be a huge dick.)

As of right now, that's basically everything I have to say on the movie. I personally prefer the first one, but I will not deny that it's because I liked Komos more as an antagonist than Zamara — antagonists are just as important as protagonists. He has the Jekyll and Hyde thing going for him too, which is just overall a favorite trope of mine (Though his change wasn’t as literal). I do think this movie had more going on and much higher stakes, what with characters almost committing mass genocide, suffering injuries and nearly outright DYING.

But I don't know, it was a solid 7/10 for me I think, on the higher end of 7 but Zamara keeps me from giving it a higher rating (sorry y'all I just REALLY didn't like her character, not even in a love to hate way, and villains’ likability matters too much for me personally). I guess my ranking for the first movie would be a low 8, but it’s based more on how much I enjoyed it than how objectively good or "perfect" it is.

[thelazyhermits]

Gonna ramble about Fortune (whom I’m gonna refer to as Yuu here) in Twisted Wonderland underneath the cut

First off, I wanna say that I don’t really wanna write an actual fic for this concept like I do for my Fortune in Obey Me idea since I don’t know the TWST characters very well. I mostly just wanna talk about little ideas I’ve had for certain moments in the main story.

Next, I wanna say that, while the “hiding I’m a girl in an all boys’ school” is an entertaining trope, I wouldn’t do that here, even though Yuu could pass as looking like a boy at first glance.

That’s because she has really short hair when she first comes to TW because long hair in cage fighting is just a liability. Plus, when she gets brought to TW, it was right after a cage match, so she was still wearing the special under armor that Tokumei got for her to keep her chest protected, which makes it appear flat. 

All that combined with the fact that she was wearing a baggy hoodie over that under armor led to everyone initially believing she was a boy. However, that misunderstanding gets resolved after the incident at the mine.

Although, while Yuu never attempts to keep her gender a secret, it takes a while for everyone at the school to actually realize the truth since it’s just hard for them to come to terms with the fact that there’s an actual girl at the school lol

Rather than officially make NRC an all boys’ school, I’d rather it be open to everyone, but it’s just been mostly populated by boys as of late since there just haven’t been any girls that meet the school’s personality requirements haha

So Crowley is fine with admitting her as a two-in-one student with Grim just like what he did with Yuu in canon.

Yuu is also fine with this arrangement cause it’s honestly a dream come true scenario for her. Not only does she get to escape Mumei’s clutches, she gets to be in charge of this cute cat-like monster and gets the opportunity to make actual friends. 

Being surrounding by guys doesn’t bother her in the least and neither do their personalities since she is used to way worse in the underground. Literally anything is better than Mumei and the creepy perverts from the underground, so she is all for this crazy turn of events and is hoping that Crowley won’t succeed in sending her back home since she would much rather stay here than go back there.

Sure, there is a part of her that would like to go back since, after coming to TW, she stops having visions about All Might and Midoriya so she can’t help but miss them/worry about them, but since she would get sent to TW before she starts having visions about Midoriya getting OFA, she wouldn’t be as worried as she could be if she had that information.

So, in the end, I think she’d just want to remain in TW since there’s really no hope for her in her old world. However, she wouldn’t actually say as much to anyone since she wants to avoid talking about her past.

Anyway, moving onto Yuu’s time at NRC. 

Because of her motherly personality, Yuu becomes the mom friend of the group, which was completely unintentional on her part. It just happened lol

Because of this, I feel like Deuce would have an easier time talking to her despite him usually being nervous around girls. He’d still be super awkward at first, but I feel like he’d still wanna be friends with her and would slowly get more comfortable around her. 

Plus, he just feels bad for her to be stuck with Ace & Grim, so he feels it’s his responsibility to be a mature guy for her to rely on since he doesn’t like the thought of guys troubling girls.

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, Deuce causes just as much trouble as Ace & Grim, so Yuu really has her hands full dealing with this trio lol

To make matters worst, Crowley takes advantage of Yuu’s motherly role and makes her responsible for the three guys, so if they get into messes or do poorly in school, he’s often talking to her rather than the guys at fault. Eventually, even the other teachers start giving her looks when the idiot trio causes trouble, although they’re nowhere near as bad as Crowley about it 😂

Yuu has no idea what she did to deserve this. She did not ask for such unruly children. She thinks she must have done something horrible in a past life lol

What’s really funny is that slowly but surely Yuu gains a reputation for herself as being a mom figure so like almost all of the first years just call her “Mom”. She finds it exasperating at first, but eventually, she just embraces it cause why not. It’s not like fighting it is gonna do her any good 😂

Azul eventually finds a way to make a profit off of this once he and the Tweels try her cooking for the first time and realize it really has that mother’s home cooking taste to it. Realizing that students who are missing home would love food like this, he ends up hiring Yuu as a part timer which is fine with her since the allowance Crowley gives her is barely enough to feed Grim’s bottomless stomach lol

Everyone can’t believe that she seriously works at the Mostro Lounge and doesn’t have a problem with it, but it doesn’t really bother her since she’s not afraid of Azul/Jade/Floyd cause she has dealt with a lot worse in the past.

People really think Yuu is insane cause she doesn’t mind getting squeezed by Floyd, but that’s because she’s so touch starved. Of course, it helps that she has a high pain tolerance so even Floyd’s tighter squeezes don’t hurt as much as they would a normal human lol

What makes this really funny is the fact that Yuu will squeeze Floyd back, and it basically becomes a game with them where they try to surprise each other with squeezes. Floyd gets a big kick out of it, and Jade finds it really amusing. Azul just thinks they’re all insane. 

Another funny thing Yuu does is sometimes she’ll hide mushrooms in the dishes she makes that she knows Floyd and Azul will eat and will only tell Jade the truth, which he gets a big kick out of. He also really enjoys the cooking chats he has with her, which mostly involve mushroom dishes, since Floyd’s and Azul’s reactions are always amusing whenever they’re around to overhear them.

While on the topic of the Octotrio, I wanna mention a really amusing scenario from chapter 3. 

To start off, I wanna say that Yuu has a vision about Azul’s plot and what happens to Ace/Deuce/Grim. It happens shortly before the exam results are posted, and she is displeased to say the least. 

She’s not particularly upset with Azul, though, since the ones at fault here are the idiots who fell for his scheme. She’s just annoyed that, despite all her best attempts to get the guys to study, they still took the easy way out and are now suffering the consequences as a result.

Because she’s so annoyed, she doesn’t immediately go to her friends’ aid and decides to let them suffer a little bit lol In the meantime, Yuu tells Jack that he’s her new favorite son and that she’s glad at least one of her kids is someone she can rely on which makes him really embarrassed and has him complaining about not being her kid lol 😂

After thanking him for being one of the only decent people in this school, Yuu gets Jack to tell her his favorite food, so she can make it to reward him for doing well with his exams. He ends up going along with it cause she won’t listen to him when he tells her not to do anything for him lol

They end up going back to his dorm because, after she finishes buying the groceries she needs, Yuu asks Jack if he has a punching bag at his disposal to which he replies that there is one at the dorm that everyone there is allowed to use at their leisure. 

Thankfully, despite her not being a Savanclaw student, Jack tells her that she can use it since he can tell she really needs a way to let off some steam, so before she starts doing any cooking preparations, she spends a while wailing on the punching bag, which does wonders for her current stress level.

Meanwhile, Jack’s marveling at how good her technique is. Leona & Ruggie, who happen to come by in time to see her in action, comment on how much she’s like the girls from where they come from lol 

I really love Yuu’s dynamic with Savanaclaw. First and foremost, because I adore Jack and I think she would too just cause he’s best boy lol But also because he’s hardworking which is her favorite kind of person.

While Jack would try to resist her attempts at friendship at first, Yuu would eventually win him over since he admires her strength and her hardworking mentality which is a lot like his. 

However, he really wishes she would stop complimenting him so much. It’s super embarrassing, but his constantly wagging tail proves that he also really likes the positive attention haha

I could see them being workout buddies since Yuu is used to doing a lot of exercising to keep in shape for cage fights. Plus, considering her magic-less state puts her at a disadvantage, she’d want to hone the skills she does have to protect herself.

I think Yuu & Ruggie would get along well because they’re both hardworkers who have been through a lot and know how to make the most of things. I also think that Yuu’s penny-pincher tendencies, which are the result of Mumei being such a tightwad and only giving her so much money to do grocery shopping, would help her resonate with Ruggie since they both appreciate the value of money and would never spend it carelessly. 

Whenever Leona’s careless spending gets brought up, Yuu will have a near heart attack because she just can’t fathom spending so much money, and Ruggie is always very sympathetic and complains about Leona not watching his words better around the poor folk lol

Another big thing is Yuu & Ruggie have that survivalist mindset, and I’m sure Ruggie would be able to sense that about her. It doesn’t take too long for him to figure out she’s been through her own fair share of hell, even if she never outright admits it, so there’s some mutual respect here because they both recognize each other in that regard.

Plus, since she’s a girl, Ruggie would be nicer toward her as compared to most other students since he and Leona have that respect for women ingrained into them lol

It also helps that Yuu was able to save him during the fight against Leona thanks to her Quirk warning her ahead of time about what was going to happen, so they develop a pretty solid friendship after that battle. 

The Yuu & Leona relationship is also really interesting to me. Like Ruggie, Leona would be quick to realize there is more to this girl than meets the eye and would probably have an even better idea of what she’s been through because he’s so observant/smart.

He wouldn’t really give her special treatment per se, but because she’s a girl, she’d get treated better than most guys at that school lol

This would be a slow build friendship where after spending time with him before chapter two because she runs into him while he’s napping or during other random occurrences and during chapter two since I see Savanaclaw kidnapping Yuu because she’s trying to figure out what they’re up to under Crowley’s orders and because she successfully saved Riddle/Trey thanks to her Quirk warning her ahead of time. 

Initially, Yuu tried to keep her Quirk a secret, but Ruggie eventually gains some info via spying that suggests she has a power that allows her to predict the future which leads to Leona making the decision that they need her on their turf to prevent her from getting in their way.

Honestly, Yuu doesn’t even really mind the whole kidnapping situation. The only complaint she had was missing school, but after she comes close to tears, Ruggie gives in and promises that he’ll get her assignments that she’ll miss so she won’t fall behind with her school work, which leads to Leona commenting on how weak he is to fall for a woman’s tears that quickly lol

In regards to Leona’s scheme, she doesn’t really have anything against it since he’s technically not breaking any rules. The only issue she had was him going after the people she likes, but it’s not enough for her to wanna play the hero card and wanna defeat him, etc. since she doesn’t think that suits someone like her, and she doesn’t wanna act like she’s someone who knows better, etc.

However! During her time in captivity, Yuu gets a vision of Leona overblotting which is definitely more than enough reason for her to wanna get involved with stopping his scheme cause she doesn’t want him to die.

After having seen a lot of unfortunate child deaths in the underground, Yuu has a strong aversion toward it and can’t just sit back and allow it to happen even to someone like Leona who’s technically an adult, even though he is still a student.

Plus, by the time she has that vision, Yuu has come to like Leona as a person. She knows he’s not like Scar from The Lion King and isn’t a real “villain” at least not to the degree she has seen in her world. So she doesn’t want him to die and she really doesn’t want him to keep living in despair.

Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, he still overblots in the end, and she does everything she can to contribute to the battle to help him, using her Quirk.

While she’s really worried, she’s also really exasperated cause she hates how he’s giving up. Someone as cool as him shouldn’t be doing what she thinks is the exact opposite of cool. It just doesn’t suit him.

Plus, she’s basically the antithesis of giving up since she would’ve been dead a long time ago if she gave in when things got tough, so it irritates her when she sees people throwing in the towel like that, even though she can understand where Leona is coming from. 

Which is why, near the end of the battle, just when it looks like Leona’s on his last leg, Yuu charges at him, ignoring the effects of his Unique Magic, and punches him straight in the face, which is the final blow along with everyone else’s magic attacks.

(Fun fact: I like the idea of Yuu punching the overblot guys enough to make it an ongoing theme. It starts with Leona and continues from thereon. However, she doesn’t punch Vil in the face since she’s too scared of the consequences so he gets a punch to the gut lol Also, I don’t know if she could punch Malleus, if he does overblot like we’re expecting, since she’s so fond of him, which would garner a lot of complaints from the guys she did punch lol 😂)

Because Leona’s so tough and because Yuu’s punches aren’t like super strong, Leona doesn’t get knocked out but the shock of that combined with everyone else’s attacks leads to him returning back to normal.

The pivotal moment here is when Yuu is worriedly asking if Leona is alright, completely ignoring all the injuries she sustained because of his UM, and upon seeing that he’s okay, she smiles, which catches him off guard.

The reason Leona is so surprised is because, during her time in captivity, Yuu had asked Ruggie if he would teach her how to smile since she didn’t remember how to and wanted to learn how to smile like he does, which really threw him and Leona for a loop and made them even more suspicious about her past.

In the end, despite all her past attempts, Yuu had no luck smiling naturally, so Leona figured it would just take her a while to overcome whatever past trauma she's dealing with.

What he didn’t count on was Yuu, who desperately wanted to do something for him but wasn’t sure what since words are oftentimes meaningless, deciding that the best thing she could do to convey her feelings was to give him a smile to express how happy she is that he’s alright. 

While I don’t consider myself an expert at understanding Leona’s character by any means, I just feel like that kind of action would have an impact on him. At the very least, her sincerity/care would be able to get through to him and makes him see that the person in front of him does genuinely care about him and isn’t afraid of him.

Regrettably, this sweet moment doesn’t last for long because Yuu ends up passing out due to blood loss from her wounds and the high fever she develops from overusing her Quirk.

Thankfully, she ends up alright in the end after lots of rest in the infirmary, but she does get scolded plenty by several people for being so reckless lol

That battle was the real turning point for the Yuu & Leona relationship, so after that, they develop a good, solid dynamic, which mostly consists of him smugly messing with her but offering the occasional good advice while she cooks for him and plays chess with him a lot.

(While she doesn’t realize it, Yuu’s actually quite good at chess, which she learned how to play from Tokumei. The reason she doesn’t know she’s good at it is because she grew up playing only Tokumei, who’s a certified genius, so she lost every single game she ever played. Because she always lost, she just assumed she wasn’t very good cause Tokumei was never the type to praise her for anything. She also loses to Leona every time, but she provides a good challenge, which he likes. Thankfully, unlike Tokumei, Leona will actually point out her skills when he deems fit.)

The Savanaclaw guys all end up looking out for her and are protective of her in their own ways, so anyone who messes with her better be ready to face the consequences lol

Going back to chapter 3 events, which I got greatly distracted from lol, after Yuu finishes wailing on the punching bag, she starts making pear compote for Jack and ends up making donuts and steak for Ruggie & Leona cause they also did well with their exams and are shameless lol 😂

Yuu doesn’t mind since she enjoys cooking/baking, and it just provides another way to relieve her stress. So it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

However, after Jack brings up that it’s kinda unfair that Yuu gets nothing when she did really well with her exams, which is quite the feat with someone without any magic, Leona decides to offer her the honor of getting a reward from him since he’s in a good mood.

Unfortunately, because she’s so used to never being rewarded, Yuu’s just put on the spot and can’t think of anything to ask for. She’s honestly just happy that anyone would wanna give her anything, but that doesn’t satisfy Leona who thinks that kinda sappy sentiment is annoying lol 

In the end, since she really can’t think of anything, Leona orders Ruggie to make something for her since she clearly doesn’t care about material items, and he knows she likes Ruggie’s food.

(She doesn’t really have a favorite food, but during her time in TW, Yuu discovers that she really enjoys the food that was made for her by someone that she likes aka Trey/Ruggie/Jade/Floyd/Jamil’s cooking.)

While Ruggie does a little complaining for the sake of it, he doesn’t really mind since he figures he should return the favor and make something for her anyway.

After that, Leona decides to give her the honor of playing chess with him even though this is a regular occurrence between the two lol During this time, they talk about the ongoing incident with Azul, and he wonders what this nosy girl is going to do about it.

Despite her having no real issue with Azul’s scheme and her annoyance with her friends, Yuu intends to get involved since she can’t just leave them alone.

“They may be idiots, but they’re my idiots, and nobody messes with my idiots and gets away with it.”

Just wanted to add that quote cause I’m really fond of it XD

I’m gonna end this post here cause it’s gotten way longer than I intended it to. I always write too much lol

[jq37]

Ok, a few Unsleeping City asks: 1-Thoughts on new ep? 2-CAMBRIDGE SANTALYTICA 3-The gang tries to meet up for drinks

**spoilers for mutant santa melee**

(I’ll respond to the other two parts of the ask in another post!)

We are back with our first battle episode of the season and our first chance to see the NY Crew really show their skills.

Ricky trying to keep Sophie's reckless ass safe because he has big golden retriever energy is great.

I can't decide if everyone taking this first fight more seriously than the first fight in FH is because they remember how badly they got womped last time and didn't want a repeat or because they were just playing older, more experienced characters.

I hate everything about these mutant Santas and I want it on the record. I mean, they're great from a game design perspective but I hate them.

"Mr. March, I'm gonna save you!"/"My name is Rick, by the way."

I thought it was funny that Ricky and Sophie both happened to hit the exact wrong type of Santa for their skillset for their first attack, back to back.  

Fig's Bardic Inspiration move was to do flirty winks at everyone. Misty's is to give big, theatrical compliments. I love it.  

Ricky dropping gun safety warnings mid MUTANT SANTA FIGHT.

"Fucking come out of your stupid cocoon! I know you're not a butterfly!"

I love it when rolls are happening at the table and Lou is loudly like, "This is terrible. I hate this." He did it all through the family rescue rolls in FH too.

"It's fine. It's fucking new York. What do you expect?"/"The NY that I live in and the NY that you live in are very different my friend." That's the real NY experience.

Sophie going, "F the minions, I'm going for the obvious boss Monster, I'll take the attacks," is such a good character defining moment. Also, the action-y music abruptly cutting off as the door shut was hilarious.

So Pete is hearing mysterious whispers and Sophie is hearing mysterious whispers and I'm Concerned, especially since it's the two newbies and it's not necessarily significant but it could be so I'm just mentioning it and tabling it until I have more info to speculate.

Misty turning to Kingston and saying, "Just like old times!" makes me want to know every single detail of their history together before the new kids showed up.

"Santa's my friend and he's fucking dead."

I like the homebrew rule for Pete's wild magic surge which makes the odds of one increase every time it doesn't happen because it ups the chaos factor and makes it inevitable rather than just a possibility which I bet has the potential to create some real tension in a long, drawn out fight.

The way Brennan kept describing Pete's arm as peeling like a banana when he used his magic grossed me out so much so, if that was the goal, you did it. Thanks, I hate it.

The, "Guess I'll just die," meme but it's Pete going, "Guess I'll just use this evil magic."

"Darling I love to be naughty. It's my favorite thing!" (Misty's chaos potential increases with every line she says).

"SANTA GETYCHO ASS UP." (Flawless bedside manner)

I forgot how fragile lower level characters can be! I'm glad so many of the party members have at least some healing spells (I think everyone but Pete and Sophie) as opposed to FH when it was basically just Kristen I think.

"He just gives us a PS4 and that's it."

Sophie monkey bars up Giant Eldritch Horror Santa's exposed ribcage and upercut-kick him because stripping Emily of her magic doesn't strip her of her creativity or flair.

"Darling, with me every day is a show. My life is a show!"

Sophie, upon being complimented by Misty: Oh my God. My new friends are awesome.

The idea of a dirty rat man summoning a unicorn is hilarious to me.

Pete's first Wild Magic surge just restores his sorcery points, which is great as a player but, as a viewer, I really hope we get to see some bombastic nonsense soon. Also, Brennan had the wild magic surge, in story, be the result of Pete's magic reacting to Kingston's, which I thought was a cool way to justify game mechanics.

"You're the opposite of Santa!"

Smites are GOOD you guys.

Sophie catches Santa and and Ricky (who has just killed the boss Santa) takes a selfie with them. Bless. Also, Sophie refuses to put down Santa for the rest of the fight.

Misty has an umbrella with a KNIFE inside of it which I LOVE.

The fight ends a little anticlimactically because, once you bum rush the boss, all that's left to do is clean up the minions.

Misty mentioned having Shoes of Titania and I wanna know if that's an actual item with a mechanical effect and what its stats are if so.

Ally realizing they only some of the Santas explode on impact basically at the end of the fight was classic DnD.

Santa sending people into his bag was giving me big Naddpod vibes.

"What the fuck happened?" --Santa, 2019

I don't like the implication of the gestating tadpoles with the Santa hats. Like, is Santa's hat organic? Is it just a part of his body? No thank you.

Pete just lying to Santa's face for absolutely no reason. Incredible.

Santa and Misty talking shop, just because, was such a fun 30 seconds of RP. I love RP that exists just to exist (and, sidenote, I also love when it comes back around and becomes relevant like in Naddpod (14 seconds of absolute silence...chicken)).  

"Santa, don't give this boy an egg."

"A very fancy egg for a very not fancy boy. But a good boy nonetheless."

Ricky on Santa: It would be crazy if you weren't real because you're such a good person. (Zac struggling to get through that was his second best moment of the ep).

Pete gives Santa a bag of coke and tries to dip when she sees cops because, magic or not, that's Who He Is As A Person.

Santa: Pete, your soul is in jeopardy. (lol, Santa knew his name on sight which, of course he did. It's Santa. Duh.)

CENTAUR HORSE COP. I love that as much as I hate the mutant Santas.

Ricky, horrified: Am I on the bad list?/Santa, who is still processing that Ricky never stopped believing in Santa:Ricky, no. (That was my fave Ricky line of the ep, in case you were wondering)

So, in this world, Christian (Catholic specifically) figures explicitly exist, which is good to know. Also, in last episode and this one, the grey faced child mentioned Lazarus which I thought was just a stylistic name choice but that's a name w/ specific Biblical connotations (that's the dude Jesus brought back from the dead for those not up on your New Testament) and it still might be irrelevant, but it's one more thing for me to tack up on my conspiracy board.  

"Santa, are you Cambrdige Analytica?"

Anyway, Heaven and Hell use the naughty and nice list to figure out who goes where so they're not being redundant which is wild because that means Santa essentially gets to decide morality for the rest of the world and, as of now, Pete is super going to hell based on the look Santa gave him when they were talking about who's on the naughty list.

Santa's list has been stolen which is, como se dice, Bad. The specifics aren't clear, but it's super not good. Also, Santa lets the group know that they might wanna figure out what's going on with Pete before he chucks deuces and goes home. So it seems like we'll be seeing him again.

I wonder what the timeline for this season is gonna be. Like, Christmas seems like an obvious time for a big, climactic setpiece, but it'll have to be a really compressed timeline if that's what they're aiming for. Compressed compared to Fantasy High at least.

Sophie, illegally cracking a Mike's Hard in Central Park in front of a cop: Um, we're magic. (She gets a ticket immediately)

That's it for this week! Next week the mob (the pixie mob maybe?) and Siobahn has awesome hair!