#she's been so fun this season
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Another watercolor! This time of our lovely Pearl :)
Rough composition sketch beneath the cut
#my art#pearlescentmoon#hermitcraft#she's been so fun this season#the post office had lead to some wonderful shenanigans#and her malicious compliance has been so funny#rip to Doc
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so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.
#fantasy high#dimension 20#fhjy#fhjy spoilers#fantasy high junior year#fig faeth#ruben hopclap#lucy frostblade#the rat grinders#adaine abernant#kipperlilly copperkettle#watching fig terrorize him like girl!!! we don’t even know if he’s guilty!!!!#this might just be for me but i do not think 5 teenagers willingly brutally killed their friend idk#like there just has to be some other element to it and i am very scared to find out what that was#what if they were put in a position where they felt there was/there was no other choice… like oh my god#my comedy brain is having fun but my ‘this is a teenager’ brain is in such deep distress all the time this season#the rat grinders i trust brennan to not make u cartoonishly evil so i am holding u as gently as i can in my confused shaky hands#also with the devil’s nectar i’ve been wondering why they all seem so well-adjusted & now i’m curious if they’ve been intentionally-#changing their memories in a way so that either the trauma is lesser or they think they aren’t guilty. idk#but it seems like from how gertie was talking she was making it more recently so the well adjustedness from early jy doesn’t quite add up#they could have another source maybe??? idk i’m just low stakes 4 a.m. spitballing here#there’s also the strong possibility that they’re aware of what happened but they weren’t the ones who killed lucy. idk who knows#the way you could probably devil’s nectar yourself into believing it wasn’t your fault someone died… CRAZY IMPLICATIONS!!! CRAZY IDEA!!!#anyways the bad kids & the rat grinders don’t ever have to like each other but i do wonder if at least some of those kids deserve a chance
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new master of wind !!!!!! I am morally, spiritually and financially obligated to make fanart of Euphrasia and Morro now sorry
#ninjago#lego ninjago#morro#euphrasia#ninjago euphrasia#ninjago morro#shroomart#drawing her was long overdue lol#sorry not that into ninjago dr with the same level of insanity#been busy with life too hahaha#not much time for Lego orz#but still fun#also lol sorry I had to indulge in Euphrasia and Morro forced to interact hahaha#they’re so different in personality that her wind is a different color HAHAHHAHA#shes fun so I hope shes relevant in the next season hehe#time to never draw and post again byeeeeeee#wind kids au
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some of the right words
#akia art#olba#baxter ward#olba mc#maggie fighting for her life (colorized)#girl went into step 3 a casual dater and it took all of two (2) moments for her to accept she was screwed#doubly so bc it was supposed to be seasonal 🤣 it's such a fun premise for how it engages the mc's own complexities#i wonder how long it took baxter to fall on his ass tbh#i feel like he was self-aware enough to know it was happening but there had to have been an element of frog in boiling water to it#what w all that 19 yo emotional constipation LMAO#and the writing's preoccupation w coexisting dualities#the recoil of refusing to perceive until perceiving happens beyond your control must be insane#anyway i was also fighting for my life trying to draw a mouth kiss and that's why i've avoided them until now#tell me why it's giving the slobbery make out meme 😭🤣
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My brain gaslit me into believing that Valerie got her outfit upgrade in D-Stabilized because she was the only remotely acceptable thing about that episode, so imagine my surprise upon watching Flirting With Disaster again and Technus, Lord of Drip and Shipping Gray Ghost, shoots her with the drip-upgrade beam and she (and everyone else standing around her) doesn't even question it.
#danny phantom#text#there's also the fact that she literally has no major appearances between those two episodes so it's no wonder I forgot tbh#it's always been a close contest of “Which DP character got Done Dirty the Most” for me but at least the other characters had SCREENTIME#like what is worse?#Being a good character and then by season 3 turning into a generic caricature of yourself?#or being a good character and then being MIA from the story for no sensical reason?#or being the character whose sole purpose for existing is 'let's character assassinate the family-driven antagonist by being his victim#TWICE and just f-ing off into the void afterward because WHO CARES ABOUT ANYTHING MATTERING OR BEING NUANCED & FUN'?#I love Danny Phantom and I'm not being ironic when I say that. I'll be thinking about this show and characters FOREVER
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They’re out of time (cancelled)
<prev [5/7] next>
#rottmnt#out of touch turts day#leonardo hamato#donatello hamato#raphael hamato#michaelangelo hamato#april o'neil#casey jones#cassandra jones#hamato yoshi#master splinter#Lou jitsu#oh no the anime process! no body stopped it they’re evolved even more into anime creachers#PLEASE SOMEONE HELP THEM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE#I started this back when I was doing the 2007 one and I’m so glad I got up to the line art finished because I had no time for art this week#but my friend said this has been the one she was most looking forward too and she deserves a win this week so I got up early HERE THEY BE#she hasn’t seen the movie yet and asked who was infront of Leo and I said a surprise xxx#we’re halfway through season 2 we’ll finish rise soon im sure cx#I didn’t study the style for colouring as much on this so I hope it is okay#BUT I have learnt that less shading with angular lines can be fun and just as effective#ralh isn’t as tall and I remembered him being but I’m pretty sure I got the proportions right? hmm#…..just got deja vu when uploading this….
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The Janeway Maneuver
#shes such a goose#soulmates do this#my art#kathryn janeway#chakotay#fanart#startrek voyager#star trek prodigy#Dal#cant believe i drew dal wildin that boys head is huge#shes so silly what a an absolute duffer#dont worry they'll get working on expanding those paramaters soon bet#when you are just drunk on your own principles that you forgot to change them#idk enjoy#this week the feeds have been frankly awful and i thought id make fun of the situation#startrek prodigy#its going to be okay girlies wagami#no more doom posting only pleased that we got to see them once more and they werent marvelized they were NEARLY perfect copies#art#i have my grievances with season 2 but it wasnt...(for the most part) this
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lifes fleetin do whteve yu want & die 2be a buttrfly aftrwrds
Ta p in to no blurry
#thank u to my gramaw friends who r transwomen in their early 30s-late 40s n took care of me i hold the memories i have of uall so dear#sorry draiwng transfem toshiro made me ee feel so remembering of the past#i've been painting a while so i didnt feel like colorin sorry#dungeon meshi fanart#dungeon meshi#dunmeshi#toshiro nakamoto#nakamoto toshiro#hien#idk if i should tag falin since she has like. very small presence here#veen feling like daytime drinking#anyways i wish there was more acceptance towards falins and toshiros dynamic with eachother bc i think it could b sweet/fun#for me its moreso olatonci abd such .... 2 transexuals who r friends & like bugs & r quiet most of the time#i guess its just bc i grew up w transwomen alongside my life but truly there needs2 bmore asian transwomen in this worldr.....#we need mroe transexuals and bakla and bayot and beki and tibo and tbirds now more thwan ever#i am not a v creative ir imaginaitave perosb so i love all of the peeopler who ware making trans toshiro hcs#it is like bein given bountiful rain duriign a seasons drought .... as a flower is to a bee
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Tuvok Voice: You are her official right hand while I have been making detailed psychological observations about her for the past four years - we are not the same.
[Patreon | Ko-fi]
#love early seasons Tuvok where he really goes hard on hissing at Chakotay like '/I/ know her best. She trusts /ME/ the most'#wish they had a whole episode about the three of them and their dynamic. REAAAALLY I wish there was a whole multi-episode arc about it#Tuvok#Kathryn Janeway#I didn't wanna draw any particular uniform bc I don't really care when precisely they were ensigns#and the show doesn't either (Janeway has known Tuvok 6 or 20 years)#the starfleet uniform changes so much anyway <3 I don't mind - it's fun#st voyager#voy#st voy#star trek voyager#this can be ship art if you believe#bea art tag#there is SOMETHING going on between them#Tuvok has a file somewhere that's just FOUR + /YEARS/ of observations on Janeway#I need you to understand - at the time of him saying this they have not been in the delta quadrant for four years. He was doing this BEFORE
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Two days late, it’s a Geminitay for day 20 of @hermitadaymay !!
#my art#Hermitaday#hermitadaymay#hermitadaymay2024#hermit-a-day#hermit-a-day may#hermit-a-day may 2024#hermitcraft#hermitcraft fanart#geminitay#geminitay fanart#geminitay hermitcraft#It’s so funny because I actually hate changing hermit’s species between seasons because I like continuity (hence why my scar has always-#-been an elf but didn’t realize) but I love drawing fish people so much that I had to come up with an excuse to not draw gem as-#-an elf (wood elf/high elf cross is my regular hc for her)#so yeah she’s fish cursed now. She got cursed and turned into a fish but it’s honestly fun so she’s cool with it#Also I just love giving her so much hair and making her super buff. I’ve butchified her it’s my favorite thing in the world#I actually love drawing gem so much I need to do it more#Might fiddle with the colors for her scaley bits idk#I just like drawing fish man. FUCK#What I need to do is draw ocean queen Lizzie again. I miss her
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this pleasant étoile shows up at your door
#my ocs#my art#original character#android oc#robot oc#character design#THE PAN FLAG COLORS WAS UNINTENTIONAL LMAO but i'll take it. that's honestly a w for redesign/artfight season#i have been. struggling so hard on what hairstyle to give her. constant war between afro puffs and bubble braids#she wears both often! i think i'll save the former for civilian designs#of course i'm still studying and brushing up (lol) on how i would draw different hair textures style-wise... so things might develop!!!#also messing with asymmetry a bit. i think it'd be fun for more powerful/popular androids to have designs bend general work uniform rules!#eye contact#eye contact tw#(of course feedback is appreciated! if there's anything i need to improve on it's back to hitting the reference books ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ)#oc: étoile
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Steddie Upside-Down AU Part 60
Part 1 Part 59
The party is already in full swing by the time they pull up. Drunk high schoolers out on the lawn wearing more thought-out costumes than he and Eddie had managed. Their plans before Nancy accosted them in the hallway involved a pizza and a couple tapes from Family Video that Eddie swears he has to see.
It'd been Eddie’s idea; he’d shrugged on one of Steve’s preppy polos – his words, not Steve’s – and one of his acid-wash jeans, and pristine white sneakers, and called it good. Steve had gone along with the concept for lack of a better idea. He’d chosen his favorite Metallica shirt (the one with the hole in the armpit), a pair of Eddie’s black jeans, and Eddie's leather jacket. Eddie had grabbed his battle vest, pushing Steve's arms through it like he was a small child. It’d still been warm from Eddie’s own back.
To finish the look, Eddie had slid each ring off his fingers, matching them perfectly with their usual placements on his own hands. There was something about the way Eddie's hands felt, sliding up the vulnerable sides of Steve's fingers that made him shiver, goosebumps breaking out along his arms.
Eddie's hands had looked bare, almost risqué in their nakedness. Even now, while being packed in at all sides, Steve can't help looking down at them. He wants to push Eddie's hands into his jean pockets, hide the vulnerability of it from everyone else. He doesn't.
Almost the instant they walk through the door, Hargrove shouts, “King Bitch!” holding up his drink, as if to toast Steve’s arrival.
Tommy’s at his side, laughing like no one had ever said anything that funny in his life. Eddie’s fingers tighten around his wrist as he pulls him along.
Barbara and Nancy are hovering around the punch bowl, laughing. Nancy takes a sip of something that looks disturbingly red from her red plastic cup, and Barbara, while empty-handed, looks far happier than she had at Steve’s party all those months ago.
"Looks like they didn't need us at all!" Eddie calls loudly over the music.
Eddie’s bare fingers sneak under his sleeve to caress the skin of his inner wrist. Steve clenches his fist, relaxes it, wonders if Eddie can feel the flexing of his tendons beneath his palm.
“You came!” Nancy calls, handing her drink off to Barbara with a roll of her eyes, as she throws herself at both of them, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders and pulling them into her smaller frame. She looks down at the pair of them, brow furrowed. “What are you two even wearing?”
The angle hurts his back, even more so when he turns his head to raise an eyebrow at Eddie, who’s already doing the same. “Well, you see,” Eddie says, trying to eel out of her arms with little to no success. “I’m dressed as the king, and Steve’s my noble jester, of course!”
Nancy opens her mouth, looking up at him with a bitchy expression, but Steve interrupts her, “I said we would.” He says it loud enough to be heard over the thrumming music.
“Are you drunk?” Eddie asks, looking at Nancy with befuddlement. Steve can’t blame him. Nancy’s behavior toward him can usually be called catty at best. Not that Eddie doesn’t usually give as good as he gets, but it’s still bizarre to see Nancy’s arm wrapped so familiarly around him.
“No!” Nancy yells, at the same time Barbara says, “yes,” with an exasperated sigh.
“I only had two drinks. When she pulls out of the embrace, she’s already pouting. “I only had two drinks.
Steve holds his hand out toward Barbara, who hands over Nancy’s drink, even as the other girl complains. Steve takes a tentative sip, curious. It goes down like battery acid. It makes him lightheaded and queasy instantaneously. Probably just from the fumes.
“What the fuck is that?” he asks, sputtering. He rubs his tongue with his fingers, hoping to scrub the remnants of that taste off his tongue for good. Eddie’s hand, where it’s still wrapped around his wrist, nudges against his chin.
“It’s pure fuel,” Barbara replies, laughter audible in her tone, even as Nancy nods enthusiastically.
Steve, still grimacing at the lingering taste, drops his hand, rubbing his saliva off on his borrowed pants. “That’s rancid.”
“This is what the Kingdom has fallen to without their King,” Eddie says with a sigh. For some reason, his cheeks are pink, like he’d been the one drinking that garbage.
Steve shrugs, “Carol always used to mix the drinks.”
“Of course, she did,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes.
Barb nods in agreement, but Steve had made the mistake of handing Nancy back her drink, so she was immediately long-sufferingly trying to corral her friend to stop drinking.
Steve flows into the groove of partying quickly. He fades into the music, smiles at his friends, lets the waves flow over him. He’s happy, with Eddie by his side, and friends coming in and out of view.
Enter: Jonathan Byers.
Steve’s breathing picks up, and suddenly the pack of bodies is suffocating. He can feel sweat slick his forehead, and his vision goes a little fuzzy along the edges. He pushes past bodies with no regard, ignoring the startled complaints that follow in his wake.
Steve grabs the lapel of Jonathan’s shirt in both fists, like a kid afraid of losing his Mom in the store. And he is; he’s afraid.
“Where’s Will?” he asks, pulling Jonathan’s t-shirt, stretching out the collar around his neck.
Jonathan’s eyes widen. He reaches out, covering Steve’s hands on his shirt and squeezing. “He’s fine,” Jonathan says. “He’s trick-or-treating with his friends.” There are spots in Steve’s eyes. “Breath, dude.”
Steve inhales, ragged and aching. “You didn’t go with them?”
Before Jonathan can answer, Eddie is there, big palms on Steve’s shoulder, squeezing. He leans forward, whispers in Steve’s ear. “Let’s go outside, sweetheart.”
Steve nods, letting Eddie lead him past the throng of partygoers, pulling Jonathan along as well by the hem of his shirt, still clutched in one of Steve’s fists hard enough to hurt.
They emerge out on Tina’s back porch. It’s dark, but the fresh air hits Steve and his lungs finally expand.
“Jonathan?” Steve asks, wheezy and breathless.
Jonathan meets his eyes, quickly pulling something out of his pocket. When Steve looks down, it’s a walkie-talkie, the same kind the party is so fond of using.
“He begged me to go with his friends,” Jonathan says, talking fast like he’s afraid Steve will punch him if he doesn’t get the words out quickly enough. Or pass out on him. “I told him he’d have to radio in every half hour, on the dot, or I’d call Hop.”
Steve breaths in, breaths out, feels Eddie’s hand steadying the small of his back. “And he has been?” Steve asks.
Jonathan nods, slow, like any sudden movements will spook Steve.
“Well, then!” Eddie says, massaging Steve’s shoulders quick and dirty a few times until Steve melts into his hands. Steve’s bereft when he drops his hands to join their impromptu circle. Eddie digs around in Steve’s pocket, pulling out a pristine joint with a quirked brow. “I think some of us could maybe chill the fuck out right about now.”
Steve rolls his eyes when Eddie looks pointedly his way, but dutifully swipes the joint from Eddie’s hand. He slides it in his mouth, feels it stick to the inside of his lip as he leans forward for Eddie to light it.
The first hit sends him coughing. Jonathan claps his back companionably as he passes the joint to him. Jonathan, suspiciously, doesn’t cough at all. Neither does Eddie, but that’s to be expected.
A few more rounds of puff puff pass, and Steve’s so relaxed he flows onto the ground. Eddie laughs, passes the joint to Jonathan, and plops down beside Steve, patting his thigh.
Eddie’s smiling down at him in a way that makes Steve’s stomach populate with butterflies by the handful. He looks teasing, like he’s thinking of the best thing to say. Steve suddenly knows he’s going to speak and then he does. “Are you alright down there, princess?” he asks. “All calmed down?”
He swallows his desert-dry mouth and hopes his voice comes out clear. God forbid he fucks up so badly Eddie invites Jonathan to warm his bed instead. “Yeah,” he says, throat cracking around the word. In a bid to redeem himself, Steve clears his throat, swirling his spit around to help rehydrate. “I can see the future?” he says, voice lilting upward at the end like it’s a question.
Eddie leans forward, hand patting Steve’s cheek gently. It feels nice. Steve leans into the touch. “Are you serious?” he asks. “Is this another superpower thing?”
Steve wobbles one of his hands together in a wishy-washy gesture that his brain gets caught in. It feels nice, the stagnant night’s air smacking against his palm so he does it faster, smiling.
“He’s just high,” Jonathan says, turning just enough that Steve can see the bottom of his chin. He looks weird from down below. Gargantuan.
Eddie flops gracelessly beside him, burrowing the back of his head into Steve’s ribs. “Damn, so you can’t see the future?” he asks, whining. “We could use another Supergirl.”
Steve’s too busy watching Jonathan to argue over not knowing any supergirls again. Jonathan’s leaning against the railing, and Steve knows, suddenly, that he’s going to take another drag from the dwindling remnants of the joint. And then he does.
“I can see three seconds into the future,” he says wonderingly, still smiling.
Eddie burrows his head harder into Steve’s ribs until Steve brings his hand up to pet clumsily through his hair. “Ugh, you got my hopes up.”
“I’m a supergirl.”
Jonathan and Eddie are laughing at him, but Steve’s looking up at the shitty overhang above Tina’s wonderous porch and wishing it was gone. He wants to see the sky, the stars splashing out above him. He wants to pluck them from the sky and put them, still flaming, into Eddie’s hair.
He wants.
Something answers his wishes. The overhang is gone, rotted away from above him so the white specks can rain down on his face. He holds up his hand, hoping it’ll be cold enough for snow. Even with the red sky, even with Eddie gone from beside him, Steve hopes.
But when he brings it down to his eyes, the stuff smears along his palm, just like ash. Maybe he can’t see into the future. He would’ve seen this.
He would’ve predicted the way the shadows stripe themselves across his face, blotting out all the red in the worst way possible. He would’ve predicted the way that thing seems to move without moving at all.
He didn’t.
Steve sobs, just once. And then, Steve does what he does best: he runs.
Part 61
Taglist: @deany-baby @estrellami-1 @altocumulustranslucidus @evillittleguy @carlprocastinator1000 @1-8oo-wtfbro @hallucinatedjosten @goodolefashionedloverboi @newtstabber @lunabyrd @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @manda-panda-monium @disrespectedgoatman @finntheehumaneater @ive-been-bamboozled @harringrieve @grimmfitzz @is-emily-real @dontstealmycake @angeldreamsoffanfic @a-couchpotato @5ammi90 @mac-attack19 @genderless-spoon @kas-eddie-munson @louismeds @imhereforthelolzdontyellatme @pansexuality-activated @ellietheasexylibrarian @nebulainajar @mightbeasleep @neonfruitbowl @beth--b @silenzioperso @best-selling-show @v3lv3tf0x @bookworm0690 @paintsplatteredandimperfect
#steve harrington#steddie#my fic#eddie munson#steddie upsidedown au#one of my favorite parts so far#nancy is so fun to work on in this bc while she's had SOME character development bc of the Upside-Down#this is very much still closer to season 1 nancy. none of this has touched her. all of her people are here. no one she cares greatly about#has been killed or hurt#so she's just having fun and studying and hanging out with her friend and boyfriend#also headcanon that barb took Steve's advise and just started hanging out with jon and nancy#shes part of their relationship like. tangentially now#plus Nancy's shiny new boyfriend feelings have worn off enough that she remembered she has friends
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What's really getting me about this season being shorter is how little doctor-companion interaction we've had. I need this to live, why are you starving me RTD, sir???
#the christmas ep and finale pt 1 are the only two that have given me any sense of their dynamic so far?#i know she's supposed to be enigmatic but even so#what did they even do in that first 6 months if she hadn't seen a planetscape til boom?#show me them having fun! show me them arguing!#i think 2 doctor-lites might have been too many in such a short season#doctor who#fifteenth doctor#ruby sunday
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I will never be over Valerie's backstory.
It's not a "she's popular and bullies a less popular person" thing. It's not an "I'm going to hunt ghosts because they ruined my make-up one time" thing. It's a "this ghost ruined my life and now I have to fight for everything I want and I want him to be held accountable, no matter the cost"
They gave her such a compelling reason to be a ghost hunter! Obviously, we still root for Danny because he's trying his best, but it's refreshing to have a major antagonist who could have been just another mean girl be someone with real complexity, especially for a children's show
#danny phantom#valerie gray#and their dynamic changes? sometimes they work together like in the flour sack episode. sometimes they're purely rivals#anyways rant over i just think they have a fun dynamic that i did not expect to be so solidly written#(i only finished season one so maybe it stops being good in season two but i am so hopeful it does not)#seriously tho in the world of “this character is mean because there has to be a mean girl antagonist” she gets a BACKSTORY she's a CHARACTE#not just a flat archetype which would have been very easy to do#okay this time rant actually over
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‘Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul’
- Cassandra , Taylor Swift
Cassandra from fantasy high. Her relationship with Kristen makes me oughhhahhhhggbhh
#using a song called Cassandra for Cassandra? revolutionary#cassandra fantasy high#fantasy high#fhjy#d20#dimension 20#fantasy high junior year#I actually don’t think there’s any spoilers#?#esmeamesart#my art#kristen applebees#fantasy high fanart#d20 fhjy#d20 fanart#brennan lee mulligan#I wanted to make her look young because she’s literally a freshly reborn goddess#and I put her in like an 80s bedroom#one because it’s fun#but two#because she’s from a different era#she makes me so sad#ok look spoilers now#like I’m so glad ally is trying to have consequences for Kristen#but like this whole season we haven’t heard from Cassandra ever since she went emo mode again#like we’ve been knowing Kristen is a bad cleric but I loved that when we all hated the god#but now that I know Cassandra is just a goddess who literally had to get a cat because they were so lonely#like stfuuu why would u say that I’m gonnna kms#!!!#ally beardsley
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FH Junior Year Post-Season Thoughts
With another season of Fantasy High in the books and my recaps all finished, I wanted to do an overview of my thoughts on the season as a whole. Even though I feel generally positive about my experience with the season, there are a few things I think maybe could have been done differently narratively or mechanically. This isn't to criticize the way the season went down or to backseat DM/Play. More my combined ten years of college for textual analysis and storytelling bleeding through, haha.
I first want to start with the things I thought worked really well.
Fantasy High has "High" right in its title but, in past seasons (and especially Sophomore Year), not as much time as you'd think was spent actually at school and even if it was spent at school, there wasn't much time spent in class or engaging with the realities of being a student. This season really dug into the academic consequences of skipping your classes all the time and the realities of needing to do a ton of extra stuff to try for a scholarship and I think that was a refreshing thing to highlight for a change. Being more scared at flunking out than the dragon that's trying to eat you feels very emotionally resonant. Real "High School Is Killing Me" vibes for anyone who's a fan of NPMD.
Even though Fantasy High is a show that has some deep emotional beats and strong character arcs, it's first and foremost a comedy show. From the jump, everyone was generating bit after bit that had me cracking up as usual. "Little girly dog collar" is one of the funniest combinations of words I can think of. I think it was Siobhan who said that this was the goofy season and, having seen it, I'd have to agree with her. It never failed to make me laugh and it was always a highlight of my week. The cast just has great table chemistry that I love to watch no matter what they're doing.
Watching some of these high level combat encounters is as close as I'll get to understanding people watching sports. Even though combat is generally my least fave part of D&D, I think the cast really killed it this season with how cleverly they played and Brennan came up with some really great combat encounters. Special shout outs to Baron's Game and The Last Stand for their unique mechanics.
This is going to be one that's on the other list as well because my feelings are mixed, but I genuinely do like the downtime mechanic and how it forces hard choices. I think it's an interesting way to connect a mechanic to the story and cultivate stressful atmosphere for the season.
I have problems with the execution but I love the Rat Grinders in concept. I think as early as season 1 I was hoping that we'd meet a party that was like the Bizarro Bad Kids and the idea of a party that's farming XP instead of going on crazy adventures is a strong concept. Likewise, I think a character that's jealous because of your "cool" (read: tragic) backstory is also a fun trait for an unhinged antagonist in this kind of setting.
This is me absolutely showing my bias but I adored the Abernant Sisters content this season. I dunno if Siobhan specifically asked Brennan to not put her on a bus with the other beloved NPCs or what but I'm so glad she stuck around and we got the development we did. It was almost entirely ancillary to the plot but there was this clear pattern of Aelwyn getting softer and sweeter towards Adaine over the course of the season, from the guarded, "Enjoy the nemesis ward," to, full I love you's and, "I'd take them to get you." It was way more focus than I expected considering that Aelwyn completed the bulk of her arc last season and a lot of the time, a redemption arc basically ends after the big gesture (in this case, Aelwyn taking a magic blast for Adaine in Sophomore Year). So the fact that we got to see all of these sweet moments of them reestablishing their relationship outside of do or die moments was such a pleasant surprise. Again, I fully admit I am extremely biased, but this was my top wishlist item and the season overdelivered so there's a baseline happy I'm always gonna be with Junior Year.
OK, so moving on to things I things I think could have been tweaked.
Even though I liked the downtime system and the pressures it created, it also squeezed out the chance for more casual PC to NPC interactions that would usually be more common because they were semi-locked behind the relationship track and there wasn't an obvious benefit to roll for Relationships (as opposed to something like Academics which was crucial for not flunking out). Making the mechanical benefit more clear would have helped that (even if it meant Brennan didn't get his reveal--which he ended up just telling them anyway so might as well do it early). The other thing is that the consequence of a rage token was so bad that of course they spent all season avoiding getting one. Things might have gone differently if the consequences had been a bit more obscured, like in Neverafter. And it could have been a nice parallel to the Rat Grinders to take this unknown resource that makes things easier for you but is also having this negative effect. Then it could be like dang we did the same thing they did unknowingly.
I mentioned this in my recap but I'll talk about it again. It is a little confusing to me that we did the Ankarna subplot right after we did the very similar Cassandra subplot. It took up so much time this season which I don't think is an issue in and of itself, it's just that we literally just went through some extremely similar beats last season. Why double up on this same storyline when there's so much new ground to cover? Or if we're going to raise a god, why not make it a different kind of god? One theory I had early on was that the Rat Grinders were trying to raise their own god to one-up the Bad Kids but instead of raising a chill, misunderstood Cass type, they accidentally raised a god who was erased for a good reason and got in over their heads.
It's fun for there to be connections between seasons but sometimes it's like, OK that's a *lot* of coincidences. Like the god who your rivals is trying to raise *happens* to be the wife of your cleric's god and also *happens* to be the god of the fiend trapped in your friend's mom's chest and that fiend *happens* to be the relative on your bard's dad's side which is *also* the reason she is randomly cursed? That's a LOT of red string connecting plot points. As unhinged as Kipperlilly is about coveting Riz's backstory if I saw that go down I'd be like you have *got* to be kidding me.
The mystery elements didn't feel like they clicked as well as they did in other seasons. I think that's partially because Porter's plan was so convoluted (seriously, I made another post about how haphazard his plan was) and had all these moving parts and we didn't get clear answers for a lot of mechanical things like how the rage crystals actually work and when they were implanted and stuff. You had stuff like Devil's Honey which I think is super cool as a thing that exists in the world but ended up being an element that just led the players down the wrong path and had a relatively small payoff (that Porter was using it to lie to Ankarna). I think it's plausible that a forgotten god would be willing to listen to anyone saying the right things without introducing this element. (As opposed to, for instance, Ambrosia which has a very clear connection to what's going on and is a solid clue that someone is flirting with aspirations of godhood.)
The Porter reveal came so late in the season that even though it was a fun/challenging fight, there wasn't a lot of emotional weight behind killing him. It was basically just dunking on a teacher Fig has always hated who was also mean to Gorgug so screw him. Which, valid of course. But the Bad Kids were never going to react as strongly to Porter as they were to the Rat Grinders so putting Porter in the prime villain spot isn't necessarily what I would have done if I wanted the fight to be more than just a brawl--especially since we've done "School admin with student minions" already in S1. I don't mind the full circle callback but it would have been nice to pick something else for the sake of variety. We haven't had a child mastermind yet and I think Kipperlilly could have been a great candidate for that. My friend suggested that it would have been fun if Kipperlilly was trying to become a god instead of just being Porter's underling and I agree. "I'm not anyone's chosen one so I'll choose myself," is still within her established jealousy and Type A tendencies. If we want to keep Porter involved since that was Brennan's gift to Emily, maybe have it be that instead of Kipperlilly working for him, he's working for her. Like Artemis Fowl vibes! And the Rat Grinders can be varying levels of on board--from true believe to redeemable. I don't think Brennan planned for the Bad Kids to ever redeem her so might as well go full megalomaniacal mastermind with her and make her The Villain if she's not gonna be nuanced anyway. If My Little Pony can do it and send a literal child to Tartarus for pony treason (or whatever Cozy Glow did), Fantasy High can too.
Continuing from the above, if we have the Porter fight in place of the Grix fight (a la Daybreak) and don't use Ankarna, that gives way more time for the Bad Kids to investigate the Rat Grinders throughout the season and it would mean that they would have their personalities developed a lot more. With the limited downtime, they Bad Kids didn't have a lot of time to spend on these kids who were just hating on them for no good reason (valid). But if you cleared their plate of the god hunt stuff, they'd have more time for this. And if they weren't all rage zombies to varying degrees, it would be easier to see them as characters. Besides Kipperlilly (and, funnily enough, Mary Ann) we don't really have a good read on what these kids are actually like. The little time we spent with them all season was kind of a wash if them breaking out of rage means their personalities got laundered too. Anyway, regardless of how their loyalties ended up shaking out, it would have been fun for them to be more than the minions that they were in canon. As funny as it is for them to just kinda be XP farming losers, they did have the potential to be more interesting in their own right if they weren't just Porter's minions. And again, we've done adults forcing or coercing children into being minions in Freshman and Sophomore Year already. Lemme see some self-created child maniacs! (Or, peer pressured child maniacs. That's cool too. The Lucy/Kipperlilly dynamic is way more interesting to me if it's like girl, I would take a bullet for you but I CANNOT walk this path with you any further in response to *I* will be a god and you can be *MY* champion.)
Anyway, those are my thoughts! Like I said, I have my points that I think could have been tightened, but overall an enjoyable season and I will be glued to my screen if they decide to close out with Senior Year!
#dimension 20#d20#fantasy high#spoilers#I had so much fun with this season but the overall plot makes my brain throw up question marks if I map it out or think about it too hard#but then I think about adaine and aelwyn at basrar's and it's like wow 10/10 flawless execution#I don't know if I've been clear enough about this over the season but I LIKE kipperlilly as a character#I think she sucks and that's great#I think she should be worse actually#like own it#don't be a pawn in some loser's plan be your own girlboss#grind those rats chug that ambrosia#be the teenage demi-god you think you deserve to be and drag your friends into your plan with the sheer force of your personality#make it 100% sure that there's a spot in hell waiting for you when you get sent there#imagine the level of vitriol they had towards kipperlilly as is and then imagine she has legendary actions#I think her going down to riz like a chump is such a huge W for riz and fitting for how the narrative played out#but to use wrestling terms for a second#it was a waste of a LOT of heat#Porter didn't have NEARLY as much heat as she did
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