#side note: this is also why i have no desire to see a young eda toh spinoff

[passionpluto]

just realized a lot of my love for the magical girl genre likely stems from the wish fulfillment aspect of a) getting to be a hero and do good in the world while also having adhd and being flaky as hell sometimes and b) getting to have a functioning group of girlfriends in high school instead of being home a third of the time with chronic migraine attacks but let's not unpack that right now

[sepublic]

Through the Looking Glass Ruins!!!!!

         …

         SO! Onto other things first…

         WRATH IS BRAXAS’ FATHER!??!!? HOLY SHIT, Wrath is a canonical dad, I’d always expressed my… OH MY GOD WRATH IS DAD! And of BRAXAS, that sweetie… How is Braxas such a sweetie with a father like HIM, also-

         Wrath was in casual wear? Either he has a day off, or he got fired by Belos/Kikimora after drawing Luz a map to Eda in Young Blood, Old Souls! Either way this guy has a sudden new level of NUANCE that I am reeling from, and yes I checked, that really is Wrath according to the credits! Dang this puts everything in a WHOLE new light…!

         AMITY HAIR OHMIGOD IT LOOKS SO ADORABLE SHE’S SELF-ACTUALIZING I AM FUCKING SCREAMING HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, it’s PINK and not green… They acknowledged it, Emira did! And they CHANGED IT I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS-

         She looks so BEAUTIFUL and I love the kind of foreshadowing with the bookends of our first shot of Amity having her hair down, and now it’s changed! And she looks adorable and EMIRA AND EDRIC BEING GREAT SIBLINGS I LOVE IT SO MUCH! This… THIS is everything I wanted! I was resigned to not much of them but HELL YEAH they’re being good siblings and we get a look at their rooms, we see them doing MAKEOVERS together this is everything from my favorite fanon content and MORE,

         Also Edric has a date?! Emira says ‘their’ mom… Unless the Golden Guard has a mom, DARN! Not gonna lie, I half-expected a big twist at the end that Edric was dating the Golden Guard, who was doing some sort of reconnaissance as his unrecognized normal self and/or screwing around with the Blights even further, but in a GENUINE sense… But then who knows Kikimora could be posing as GG’s ‘mom’, this is a stretch anyhow-

         JUST HELL YEAH Blight Twins! Blight Twins being sweet and mischievous and supportive of each other, Blight SIBLINGS being siblings, Emira being an older sister and giving advice! And AMITY, Amity mentioning how much Luz has changed stuff, I love that they acknowledge it openly how her life has completely shifted, and now… NOW…!

         No necklace! Red leggings! PINK HAIR?! Is this why Amity in the intro hasn’t been updated yet… She was getting TWO updates, so the animators decided to only animate a change after this final update?!

         King and Gus are also friends it seems, and they even recorded some fun together! I’m surprised at how much Bria and the others mock Gus’ illusion skills… Obviously Belos is kinda terrible but like; I don’t think he’d set aside an entire subset of magic into Illusions without reason! Also that nightmare trip… I LOVE IT, I love Gus applying the creativity of illusions in their ability to completely warp and distort someone’s sense of reality! And I called that dragon-thing being an illusion!

         A graveyard… I wonder if the Gallderstones (is that how it’s spelled) have any relevance or if they’re just neat? I hope Mattholomule and Gus help hide the Looking Glass Graveyard… Damn, that’s another Death reference with Gus, huh! Is it culminating in his respect for the dead, or will it continue further with Gus being a necromancer, or an Oracle who can commune with the deceased, and he has their respect as someone who treats them properly?!

         Also not to get dark but… What if all those Illusionists are dead because of Belos? I’m JUST SAYING…! And not gonna lie, every time someone insulted Illusions, I kept imagining the Illusion Head just suddenly waking up and feeling like there’s a disturbance in the force, as well as a weird compulsion to beat up some Glandus kids. It’d be even funnier if he had beef with the Construction, Plant, and Abomination Heads as well!

         Speaking of which, more confirmation on Construction Magic being related to earth! Glad to see Bria give us a look into that, which furthers my idea of Belos using construction magic… Also dang, Bria and the Glandus Kids really are the parallels/foils to the Detention kids! You’ve got the short ‘nice’ girl, the tall lanky kid, the furry… But the Glandus Kids start off looking nice and cool, but turn out to be rather nasty!

         Meanwhile the Detention Kids seem like bad news and delinquents, but no! They’re just demonized and actually very kind and chill! The Detention Kids are looked down upon, the Glandus Kids are appraised… The Detention Kids are dual-track, the Glandus Kids are singular; Glandus Kids from, well, GLANDUS, Detention Kids from Hexside… One’s ‘mischief’ is actually very neat and cool, the other’s is literal grave robbing.

         I guess that’s how the bleeding statues got past the censors- It’s technically just an illusion! Also more insight into how Glandus works with its Survival of the Fittest mentality, I wonder if we’ll get confirmation on which coven heads came from there, how that might influence them as adults…

         What is Glandus like, is it more whole-heartedly accepting of Belos’ rule, hence its harsh ideals? Was it made after Hexside? Does Bump hate it for being so cruel like that, or is it just school bias? And dang poor Mattholomule, I always had a feeling he sort of felt and knew that he wasn’t much, so he accepted and compensated by deliberately doing whatever he can for power…

         They confirmed he’s from Glandus, and I appreciate this new look at him! This new leaf turned… Hot take but he’s honestly not as bad as Boscha, his stint with Gus was a one-time thing that Gus was able to live with! And that seems pretty good to set them up as friends! Speaking of Boscha, Willow was injured by pixies? And the last time we heard of pixies, they belonged to Boscha and caused the school to get shut down… Did BOSCHA DO THIS I SWEAR SHE IS DEAD TO ME-

         (Also she’s mentioned in the credits for this episode but I don’t remember hearing her? I might’ve gotten distracted with so much other things.)

         Gus! I like the insight into his relationship with Illusions, and I appreciate how he’s considering other forms of magic… But this hesitation might just serve to reaffirm his believe in Illusions, which is okay! It’s all about choice… And yeah, it seems Gus also has a case of impostor syndrome like King, no wonder they get along so well! I love the glimpses into Gus’ house and the confirmation that he has a library card, no Perry though alas…!

         I appreciate how Gus feels overlooked, like he has no real substance, which is how his Illusions reflect a desire to draw attention, but also the idea that there’s nothing real beneath them… Again, very much like King! And Gus, he’s not a powerhouse like the rest, he’s SKILLED and smart, but strength isn’t his forte, it’s not brute force he operates on, but cleverness! Trickery, I like it…! It’s a nice callback to his last A-plot episode, SVSF, where instead of fighting Mattholomule physically, Gus’ solution is to think outside the box and pull the alarm!

         You go kid, not relying on brute strength but showing that some clever tricks and thinking are just as valid! Kinda wonder if this episode is lowkey a discussion on masculinity for young boys, especially with Gus growing older with puberty, though the latter is mostly because his actual VA grew… But maybe the writers rolled with that and incorporated it, or it’s just a very neat coincidence! Also, it is me or did Mattholomule’s voice change? And the gag that Gavin’s dad looks identical to him, even moreso because he’s NOT supposed to have a moustache… That’s great!

         Malphas! Love this reference to a classic demon, I wasn’t sure if Malphas was the librarian with glasses whom I’ve always headcanoned as a father figure to Amity… But maybe it’s actually this bird dude! He seems adept in Bard magic, and I love the reveal of his true crow appearance… Guess those theorists were right that the one-eyed figure is from the Forbidden Stacks! Also Malphas NOT COOL with Amity, but I’m glad Luz changed his mind, and I wonder how that adventure looked…

         Which- DAMN, the RSD with Luz! She looks so UTTERLY BROKEN when Amity mentions doing stupid things, and she didn’t mean it like that, but Luz just looks so completely shattered and you can tell she wants to cry but instead she bottles it up and tries to take it in stride, and that plays into her trying to overcompensate for her mistakes AGAIN… SOMEONE GET IT TO HER HEAD that she doesn’t need to! I’m scared for Luz, and I was SO scared this episode would end on a bad note…

         BUT DOAHLDdFAEONDKFHN LUMITY KISS LUMITY KISS! ONE-SIDED BUT THEY FINALLY FUCKING KNOW AND AMITY IS LIKE WHAAAAT AND I WAS WAITING FOR IT AND I COULD FEEL IT HAPPEN AND GAY KISS! GAY KISS ON-SCREEN!!! And the way Luz just FLOPS to the ground on her knees AAHJJFFKHGGK and no Alador nor Odalia to ruin this, UTTERLY PERFECT and the twins WATCHING OOOHHHHGGGG YYYEEAAAAHHH-

         This is EVERYTHING I ever wanted!

         What an AMAZING episode with wonderful characer beats and reveals! Again, Amity’s growth as a character, that brief insight into how Luz as a person is very chaotic and sometimes frustrating for Amity and forces her to reevaluate, but ultimately it’s good and Luz DOES try her best, and Amity clearly wanted to make things up for Luz and apologize, they’re BOTH doing things, just the little moments!

         Also, Alex Lawther voices Philip Wittebane! He has long hair and a vaguely british accent, he’s… He’s Belos isn’t he? And they got a new VA because having him voiced by Matthew Rhys would be really spoiler-y right? He’s got the long hair and he’s a nerd… And with how he talks of finding a way back home, maybe Belos really DOES just want to return home, after all? He talks of making a way back home…

         And we see a glimpse of the Portal, so it might’ve brought him there? Or did Philip succeed in making it, and that was his blueprint designs? Did he arrive by Titan’s Blood? What happened to the portal if it brought him there, or if he made it? Why the scar, why near Eda’s house, partially buried?

         Was it lost before he could finish his work, and Philip got side-tracked into something else… Perhaps going on a crusade, on behalf of a curse/demon that possessed him? A demon that killed King’s father…? Was the portal broken and he had to discard it, but then it naturally healed- Or did it just need to recharge, maybe Philip DID make it back home, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?! Is there some sort of doppelganger for Philip, is BELOS his doppelganger?! What is THIS WHAT-

         WHAT AN EPISODE!

[holly-mckenzie]

1, 2 and 6 for skammaker? <3

Oh my gosh! I started answering this question than accidentally closed my tab...😭  this is why you don’t have a billion tabs open friends and foes ... Okay, to start, I want to say. That I haven’t really thought about the SKAM remakes beyond this post, and I honestly wasn’t expecting an ask. So, yes, I will be making up stuff as I go along, and yes, I will be taking criticism!

1. What country + Language is your SKAM set in?

The countries that I would love to see SKAM remakes in are, but not subjected to. Brasil, Russia, somewhere in the UK (not England, they had Skins), India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand. The language would be the national language of the country except for the Malaysian, Indian, and Kiwi remake because than the language would reflect the ethnicity or state the main of the season is from.

2. What is it called? (is it SKAM (insert place), a different word (wtfock, druck) or something else?)

I actually don’t know enough about the cultures/slang of the countries to be able to create a cool/unique name, so most of them would probably just be Skam + The Country. The exception being Brazil and Malaysia. SKAM Brasil = Mó Bafão SKAM Malaysia = Geram Skam NZ = Sweet As

6. Introduce us to your version of Eva?

Okay, I really wish you hadn’t asked for Eva, because I hadn’t thought this far... thus I will be making up stuff as I go along! So, I will only be answering about certain countries... lol.

SKAM India - Anjali

The season starts with Anjali, a native of Kerala who now lives in Bangalore (yes, I was inspired by Bangalore Days) moving in with her Aunt’s family in order to get a new start. Determined to not bring that much attention to herself or her family (again), Anjali just wants to keep her head down. However, when her cousin insists that Anjali make new friends instead of constantly moping about and following him around, Anjali reluctantly agrees to try. When her family throws a huge function (maybe due to a religious holiday or a wedding?) Anjali bumps into the part of the past that she has been trying to hide from. This is where she also meets one of her extended, crazy extended, family’s friend, the beautiful and independent Nana (my version on Noora). Nana’s family is originally from Nagaland, though they have been staying overseas and have just moved to Bangalore, where she will be attending school with Anjali. Anjali is delighted to find herself a friend in Nana and the Girl Gang. However, Anjali is constantly on edge due to the familial pressure that she is receiving (to not bring shame upon the family again) as well as the paranoia that her new friends may find about the incident from her old school and judge her.

Anjali is the second daughter in her family, and so she constantly put in her position where she “needs” to sacrifice her own desires for her family. Before the incident at school, she was a happy-go-lucky, super kind, as well as musically talented. At one point, she used to post videos of herself singing and playing the guitar on YouTube, but it seemed she stopped doing that completely. Anjali’s family is Catholic, though it becomes evident as the season unfolds that Anjali feels some form of resignation about the church and religion, as well as feeling like she is not good enough... It also becomes evident that Anjali feels some form of aversion to her older brother, who her parents praise to no end. As the season unfolds we see how these familial pressures come to head in Anjali’s life and how she deals with them.

* tw for the season : familial pressure + slut-shaming ** additional notes: Anjali is probably attending an all-girls school, where she will meet the girl gang. The “shame” of the season will deal with the fact that Anjali had a secret bf when she lived at home who she had s*x with. However, when her parents and community find out they all have opinions (especially the church), which Anjali thinks is unfair because her bf and also her brother (who also had a gf) are not shamed for their actions. This is why parents send her to live with her aunt’s family.

Geram - Alicia Tan

Alicia Tan is a Chinese-Malaysian girl who is starting school at a new school (due to the fact that things got messy at her old school). As she starts her new school year, Alicia feels lost, very lost. Her parents are never around, and when they are, they criticise her, expect scholastic excellence from her and compare her to her cousins. This doesn’t help Alicia as she tries to transition to attending the all-girls convent school her parents have sent her too with hopes that it will bring a positive change in her life (especially after what happened at her old school). However, Alicia just feels lost, in part, due to the disconnect she feels with her fellow peers for being so white-washed. All Alicia wants to do is keep her head down, listen to her favourite K-Pop artists, and sketch.

However, when her grandma encourages her to make new friends and her parents sign her up for tuition in order to help with her failing grades, Alicia meets a group of girls that actually seem really cool, ones that she can trust. On a whim, Alicia stalks the strange and alluring Nor, the new Malay girl who’s back from living in NZ, and the girls click. This ends with Alicia joining the girls as they join a school club (the drama club?), much to the chagrin of her parents, who want her to stay focused on her school work. Alicia just wants to forget about her past and move on, however, her past keeps on coming back to haunt her and she wonders if things will ever go back to normal.

* tw for the season : mental illness + suicide attempt mention ** additional notes : the “shame” depicted in this season is pressure brought on from her family (to be the perfect daughter) + the fact that she is mentally ill and there was an incident at her previous school. Her parents don’t want that to get out, and blame Alicia’s ex-friend for being a “bad influence”, and Alicia lets them (this is my version of the whole cheating thing).  

Mó Bafão - Marie Vitória Silva

The season starts with Marie Vitória Silva entering a new school year in São Paulo, Brazil. Originally from the city of Cuiabá, Marie moved to São Paulo around the age of twelve. Much like Eva, Marie’s parents are divorced and she lives with her mom. Marie feels a lot of pressure from her extended family about the way she dresses, her weight, her hair, her skin etc. She is very self-conscious, which is totally amplified by the fact that her boyfriend (who she spent the “best summer of her life with”) sometimes belittles her. Said boyfriend insists that Marie should go to a party and “have fun”, which Marie does only to feel incredibly self-conscious by the appearance of her ex-friends. However, Marie also meets Grace Lee, the new Coreano-Brasileira (Korean-Brasilian) international transfer student.  Marie eventually finds herself befriending a new group of misfit girls, due to the fact that they end up working on a group project together.

Marie Vitória Silva is a young Brasilian girl who doesn’t necessarily fit into Brazils mould of a beautiful young woman. Marie is more on the thick side, with curly hair that she can’t seem to control (unless it's straightened), She is not doing that great at school, and is constantly compared by her family to her more successful cousins. Marie Vitória Silva enjoys watching movies and TV shows and is a pretty important voice within certain Brasilian fandoms. She spends a lot of her time on the internet creating content for said fandoms and prefers that to party and whatnot. However, as the season goes on Marie Vitória Silva starts to come to terms with herself and the things that she enjoys, including finding peace with herself as the way that she is.

* tw for the season : slut shaming + fat shaming ** additional notes : the “shame” depicted in this season is pressure brought on by Brasilian society to look and behave a certain way. Marie feels the pressure to constantly look beautiful and constantly party. Much like the original SKAM series, it will involve the tension between Ingrid and Marie. However, this tension is exemplified by the fact that during her previous year of school, Mó Bafão!Ingrid would pressure Marie Vitória Silva to drink, party, and find a boyfriend, instead of staying home all the time. This led, Marie to go out and party which would eventually lead to the infamous kiss, and Marie being labelled a slut. However, one of the things that the season will touch on is Marie’s introversion and also the fact that she is asexual.

BONUS:

SKAM TURKÏYE : Eda

(Me? Being inspired by the dizis I’m watching? More likely than you think!)

Eda is a young Turkish woman, who’s family is German - Turkish, but decided to move back to Istanbul when she was younger. (This has nothing to do with the fact that I am a complete ho for Serkan Çayoglu, this is straight-up coincidence, don’t @ me). She’s starting a new school year, after spending the best summer of her life with her boyfriend, Can (my version of Jonas). However, Eda feels ostracised at her new school due to the whole Jonas/Ingrid thing. Eda is a total nerd and really loves watching Dizis, which Can totally give her shit for because they are apparently “so dramatic” and “so long”. However, Eda is a total romantic at heart and doesn’t really care. She has difficulty at school due to her dyslexia, which has caused her to be the butt of numerous jokes in her family and accounts for why she isn’t doing great academically. Her parents are together, though they constantly fight, which causes Eda to feel uncomfortable in her own house, accounting for why she spent so much of her summer at Can’s house. The shame that is dealt in this season is about still more or less about slut-shaming, and the isolation that Eda feels before and even when she joins the girl gang. It also has huge and insanely important themes of girls supporting girls. * tw for the season : slut shaming

[sepublic]

Once Upon a Body Swap!

At first I thought this episode would be filler, and I was honestly all for it! Sometimes, regular slice-of-life shows without overarching plot points are good (although my love for the latter still remains)! And just about every episode we’ve gotten so far has been relevant to the plot and characters in its own way!

However, THEN Luz-as-Eda got arrested, and we got Lilith! I was excited to see her and just in general I keep thinking about her and Eda’s complex relationship, and it shows! 

The last time we saw Lilith, she said that Eda’s days were ‘numbered’. At first glance this sounds like typical, ominous bad guy words. But really, if you take into account how Eda’s curse works and so forth... Really, it can be interpreted less as “I’ll get my revenge on you Eda!” and more “Eda, time is running out from this curse and if you don’t get help ASAP, things could turn out VERY wrong.”

And this episode basically proved me right! I was hoping for at least a mention of Warden Wrath when the Conformatorium was brought up, but then Lilith came in and showed us why she’s such an interesting character. She makes a big deal to Kikimora about how she’ll ‘capture’ Eda... But as soon as she has her chance, she immediately goes out of her way to grant Eda amnesty.

Obviously, it’s with a catch- She HAS to join the Emperor’s Coven. But Lilith doesn’t exactly frame it as “I do this and in return you do this”, she genuinely thinks the Emperor’s Coven is a good opportunity for Eda! And from the way she’s so excited to be with her sister, it really shows that she cares a LOT and has always been looking the other way, if not outright interfering, in order to keep Eda safe. 

That being said, she does talk about Eda “no longer being a threat to society” or something like that, which... Yikes. Lilith means well but she can also come across as harsh and condescending. I wouldn’t be surprised if these sort of casual, off-handed remarks genuinely hurt Eda back when they were younger. Eda knows Lilith means well, but there’s probably this idea that Lilith still views Eda as a ‘problem’ to be fixed. Eda just wants to be treated with respect as a person, and I wouldn’t be shocked if her getting cursed led to discrimination and her falling out with ‘society’ as a result. Alternatively, Eda’s moral sense and belief in freedom was also what led her to rejecting the Emperor’s Coven. Either way, Lilith is making an effort but she also doesn’t seem to understand what Eda’s going through as well.

On the flip-side, I know that I keep appreciating how Lilith will always look out for her sister by the end of the day... But her rant at the end indicates some growing frustration. There may come a point where Eda’s rebukes cause Lilith to just snap and decide that, NO, she’s going to forcibly bring Eda along into the Emperor’s Coven so her sister can be safe and happy and accepted, and hopefully they can cure the curse! And, if we want to consider the potential parallels between Lilith and her protege Amity... I wonder if Eda herself was cruel to Lilith when they were younger? It could be a complex relationship of Eda always making Lilith feel ashamed and embarrassed, especially after becoming cursed and a criminal. But on the other hand, Lilith is no saint with how she ultimately still ‘others’ Eda in her attempts to reach out. 

There’s this sense that the sisters both care for one another... But they’ve also got a lot of growing issues and insecurities that keep them from quite bridging the gap. They have different beliefs, different experiences, etc., and it’s possibly getting harder and harder for the two to reconcile.

(Sorry, I just... have a lot of feelings about Eda and Lilith. Lilith wants the best for Eda but she’s also a bit insensitive and willing to steamroll over what her sister has to say, dismissing Eda’s valid issues with the system and assuming the system will fix everything. Likewise, Eda may or may not be guilty of treating Lilith like a joke, pushing her away, and not taking her seriously. I just love them.)

Now, with THAT part of the episode out of the way...

I really appreciate the decisions for who switched with whose body in each scenario! Arguably, it’s like the main trio walked in the shoes of the one they sort of ‘knew the least’ in their own sense.

Take for example, Luz becoming Eda. Now, Luz already knows King, she frequently acknowledges the limitations of his stature, and has heard about his insecurities with being taken seriously, about wanting others to know more about demons, etc. The two are close. 

Luz and Eda, however... Again, they’re close. But as the show itself teases, there’s really a lot Luz doesn’t know about Eda. She’s curious about Eda’s past, she wants to know more about magic and how Eda does it, and so forth. Eda’s admittedly a bit more prickly with Luz, unlike King. 

Next, we’ve got King. King doesn’t need to walk in Eda’s shoes, he’s been with her longer than Luz and is a fellow fugitive. They’ve run from the law together, fought together, and were willing to go down together as early as episode 1. They clearly have a past and King knows what it’s like to be on the run, no questions there.

I mentioned earlier that King and Luz are definitely closer than Eda and Luz... But amidst it all, it’s important to remember that unlike Eda, he has very little understanding of growing up as a young teen, having the pressure of being bullied and ostracized, and so forth. Granted, King’s past is a bit of a mystery, but from the way he talks he’s never been in a typical school setting with other peers his age. He also doesn’t take her teenage problems seriously, because to him, Luz has had it easy and hasn’t quite lived on the run as a criminal like him and Eda. She still sort of IS one by virtue of ‘fraternizing with a criminal’, but not nearly to the wanted extent as Eda and King. To King, Luz has always had a support network from the beginning. Thus, he has more to learn from Luz, so he goes into her body.

Finally, we have Eda becoming King. I imagine she seems a bit of her younger self in Luz, being naive and impressionable and excited about magic. They’ve got parallels, she knows what it’s like to grow up as a teen and deal with other peers, etc. But while she knows King, she really doesn’t seem to get his whole ‘being small and fluffy’ deal. Luz has heard from King, first-hand, what it’s like to be small and not taken seriously. She’s heard King talk about not having others interested in what he has to say. 

But while Luz heard all of this, Eda was a monster and had no recollection (nor was she even there to hear it). She and King are good friends, but she also doesn’t grasp what it’s like to have everyone immediately label you as cute and adorable... Growing up, and even now, Eda is only used to being treated as a freak and a deviant. To her, King’s situation DOES seem ideal... That is, until she receives the condescension and violation of personhood that he regularly goes through. In this case, the experience probably resonated a little too well.

I liked the dynamics of the swaps in this episode! It really gave characters the chance to explore one another in areas they didn’t quite grasp or couldn’t really relate to!

...On another note, is anyone else a little disturbed by this repeating trend of King being treated less as a person, and more like a pet or even toy to be owned? With Eda and Luz, clearly they value him as a person. But then you have people like Tibbles, Boscha, and those two creepy ladies, who treat King as something they can just buy and own. Tibbles in particular immediately nabbed King for himself without asking, even though Eda never consented to considering King as one of the things she ‘owns’. 

I know King’s situation that Eda went through is a lot more specific and extreme than other cases. But in general, he seems to have this issue with just... Not being viewed as a person, not taken seriously and listened to as someone who has something to say. A lot of people think they can just casually override King’s free will and even just own him, just because he’s so small, cute, and ineffectual. It’s likely a very powerless and demeaning feeling that influences King to wanting more power, to desiring more agency and control over himself. He hates feeling infantilized, and while he DOES desire adoration, he wants it on his own terms. He doesn’t want to be adored because of his physical appearance, which he has no control over- King wants to be revered because of his ‘fearsome’ personality!