#the story is ABOUT jason. it is ABOUT arkham as an entity. why it existed why it was built how it shifted and how it falls

[gothamcityneedsme]

sorry about the continuing spammage.  i knew this would happen as soon as i started replaying arkham. sometimes i just need to get really into arkham knight again.  its mandatory.  jason todd‘s story in that game has imprinted in my brain since 2016.  every once in awhile i have to replay it

[mekatrio]

arkhamverse as its own universe is a media where they can afford to shake up the status quo, so its soooo disappointing that the utrh plot thread ended like That, considering that utrh's own ending had to be shitty in order to maintain the status quo (joker still gets to run around doing whatever). like the more i think about it the more apparent it becomes to me just how Freaking badly arkham knight adapted utrh cuz like wow. you ended an amazing franchise like this?

utrh had many conflicts, and a prominent one was an arguement of ethics on why the joker was still permitted to live and run wild in spite of the fact that joker killed him, batman's robin. in a meta sense, its (likely unintentionally) also a commentary and attack on how jason was able to be removed from the status quo yet the status quo of a batman and a robin and a joker kept turning its wheels without him.

but arkhamverse as its seperate universe isnt binded to the status quo, the joker gets to die and it ends with batman being unmasked etc etc etc. and this is one of the biggest reasons why arkham knight is so narratively unsatisfactory bc like... how could this utrh plot thread have ended? theres no joker to kill, so where does jason's story go?

arkhamverse was too married to its conflict with batman and joker, which on its own isnt a bad thing, but then it tried to keep the gas pumping after the joker died. this is why after 3 games (or 2 depending on who you ask) without even a passing acknowledgement of jason todd's existence, arkhamverse suddenly decides to bring jason in bc his canon conveniently exists in the intersection between batman's and joker's canons. adapting death in the family was easy work, hell theres hardly any substance in the original story and its really just a long winded work to stuff a kid in the fridge. so the game does just that. but unlike ditf, utrh is actually trying to say something. it's a story about father and son, about avengeance and revenge, about the morality of killing, etc.

...except now with a dead joker, there is hardly anything to say at all. and so arkham knight as a character narratively does nothing, and his impact on the storyline as a whole is so extremely shallow. he serves to initiate and then pad out the continuation of batman's and joker's conflict, and also other plot conveniences like bringing in a whole militia and all that. but thats really the extent of what he does. just like utrh, jason receives no proper closure in this game.

and whats really annoying is that HE COULDVE!!!! FUCK!!!! arkham knight's (and honestly? the entire franchise's and batman's mythos is general) overarching theme is FEAR, batman relying on fear to intimidate and exist as a vigilante, batman's fear of losing control to the joker inside of him, batman being born from the fear he felt when he lost his parents (and also fear of bats lmfao), his fear and grief from losing jason, etc. AND JASON!!!! jason's torture filled HIM with fear and hatred! and you know what one of the final quotes of the franchise is?

Scarecrow: Without fear, life is meaningless!

and you know what the ending of the franchise, as a closing love letter to batman's mythos, shouldve been an encapsulation of?;

It's without fear, that life can begin

bc like as much as batman's mythos is about fear, it's also about HOPE....

(too lazy to put batman's relation to hope in my own words so im borrowing other people's words instead LOL. both screenshots are from The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon, but the 2nd pic is referencing one of the nolan films. idk which one)

arkhamverse shouldve ended on a note of HOPE, jason's reform into the red hood shouldve been the highlight of the ending, not a barely glanced over sidenote. the fact that jason can continue living without being consumed by the desire to kill bruce is the biggest fuck you the baman could give to the joker, showing that batman as an entity was able to save a boy so far gone, and that jason still has hope for his life and future in spite of all that has been done to him, but instead it just gets glossed over! WHAT THE FUCK!!!! arkham knight was too obsessed with giving batman and joker an extremely epic interactive final finale cutscene (which ngl is so epic lol BUT NOT THE POINT) that it treated it's literal titular character as a side character similar to the likes of gotham's most wanted! WTFFFF.

(and instead of using the full knightfall ending to actually expand on jason's fate or reformation or whatever, we instead go thru 243 hellish riddler trophies to receive an extremely childish oh Ha ha Batman Can Never Die cutscene. like firstly the idea of locking the full ending behind all the riddler trophies is so unbelievably fucked and secondly FUCK UUUUUUU. full knightfall protocol shouldve been the default ending AND THEN 100% completion shouldve been some proper resolution on jason's end AT THE VERY LEAST.)

despite the potential to become something amazing, arkhamverse sadly became not unique in being another batman media that fails to become something phenomenal all due to it not properly acknowledging jason todd as a character and merely using him like a tool for dramatic but ultimately shallow story points. sad!

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

we are our family, even if we don’t want to be.

Titans 3.07

a bit over halfway through the season, and we still don’t have all of our main characters on the board! i love this show.

as always, typing this up as i watch. live reaction, baby! *shadowboxes*

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. i don’t think i’ve mentioned this before, but i kinda miss the old ‘dc universe’ intro. it was cool! the whole idea of it was wild and waaaaay over-ambitious, but also very very on-brand because of it.

2. this is... the third time we’ve seen dick sleeping this season? that’s a record! checking another thing off my s3 wishlist...

2.5. i guess i rag on titans all the time for its wafer-thin plotting and bad pacing, but i have to admit that this season has been a step-up from the last one in this regard. titans has very reactive rather than proactive protagonists, and a lot of the last season seemed to be: x happened, the team reacted badly, then y happened, they reacted badly, etc. this time around, it’s not a huge leap up by any means, but at least they’re doing something about it. 

i do appreciate the focus on character arcs over everything else. and when i say everything else, i mean it: arcs that started two seasons ago with no big cathartic moments, intermittent payoff and multiple relapses. big bads have ranged from interdimensional demons to superpowered assassins to whatever in the world scarecrow is, but trigon’s big weapon against the titans was to... use their worst fears against them. slade’s was to... use their fears to break them up. crane’s is to... use red hood to use their fears to break them up. even the threat of gotham’s citizens being in danger doesn’t feel real: gotham is mythologised into an entity of its own, infecting our heroes like a parasite. like. this is not to say that most other superhero media aren’t big character arcs intertwined with the main plot, but titans doesn’t even make pretend that it’s anything but.

anyway. that’s my entry #2345 to ‘give a grand unifying theory for titans’. thanks. i’ll be back with more.

3. “anger is just fear in a little black dress.” god I HATE HIM

(what’s he doing with barbara’s likeness? oh... oh god. a terrible thought just occurred to me. what if they introduce hush at the very last minute for plastic surgery shenanigans? would you put it past this show?)

3.5. jason, nooooooooo

3.75. i mean, they’re making it very clear here that scarecrow is the one in control--the one who’s always been in control--and is manipulating jason and literally poisoning him, but i hope it doesn’t end up erasing nuance or jason’s autonomy. if jason’s to reckon with the issues that brought him here, then the lines of responsibility will need to be set somewhere. 

(this applies to dick as well but more on that later, i guess.)

4. just--the phrase “40% loss of income” is so funny to me. like, gotham is full of these larger-than-life characters who are idiosyncratic beyond belief, colourful and dramatic and creating chaos just for the sake of chaos, and then there’s the regular criminals and their henchmen who just want to make a quick buck sitting down with pie charts and graphs, griping about the joker reducing their returns or debating high risk investments in, i don’t know, two-face’s next scheme.

“yyyyeeeeeaaah, my financial advisor is telling me that going all-in with a guy who literally makes decisions on the flip of a coin is probably not the greatest idea.”

4.5. god i hate smug!smarmy!scarecrow so much

4.85. as big plans to “control” gotham go, it’s pretty bog-standard. clearly scarecrow has some bigger plan in mind but it really feels like we’ve got no clear insight into him and he’s this generic creepy mystery-man who knows more than he lets on and springs a twist/cliffhanger every now and then. i liked the scenes with him and dick in 3.04 where it seemed like he was genuinely on the backfoot and things weren’t going as he predicted. for all of his faults, dick is at least familiar with scarecrow’s bullshit and knows not to give what he wants.

5. i mean... i see where dick is coming from with the “he’s not jason anymore; he’s red hood” because his immediate glaring concern is scarecrow’s drug and the damage it could potentially cause gotham? i do not doubt that it’s something batman drilled into him, too, but when you’re expected to take point on a situation where the lives of an entire city weigh down on your shoulders, it’s better to simplify things and prioritise. i’m not saying it’s great or healthy! gar is absolutely right to consider this facet of the situation. it’s just dick can’t.

6. hmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMM. 

i don’t know that i’m super fond of this iteration of oracle???? it looks like a cross between cerebro from x-men and jarvis from iron man. it’s giving me second-hand embarrassment. somebody help me.

(at least they remembered dick’s middle name is actually “john”. i like to think bruce printed D in that contract because for a while he genuinely thought richard “dick” grayson was his full name. duck duck goose, dick dick grayson, i don’t know alfred, the kid was in a circus, maybe they thought it was funny. or maybe it was a test in anger control, who knows.)

6.5 “maybe you two would like some time alone?” even AI can’t help hitting on dick grayson in this universe.

“oh mr grayson, if i only had another eye to see you better...”

6.8. on one hand, it’s a bit disconcerting that the title of ‘oracle’ has gone from barbara herself to this gigantic machine; from my impression of the comics-verse, barbara had an extensive computing and surveillance system, true, but she was very clearly the brains behind the operation. on the other hand, i’m kind of glad that the ethical boundaries that this kind of surveillance violates is a sticking point for barbara. (tho let’s be real, the nsa would kill to have this in their arsenal).

6.9. also it’s now obvious that scarecrow’s big plan is to take control of oracle itself. it’s why he had lady vic take that picture of her eyes, or why he’s meddling around with it on his computer.

6.95. if only i could ‘command sleep’ anybody overstepping their boundaries re: personal information...

7. “you can just sit back and watch as the titans destroy themselves.” i mean... he’s not wrong

8. “dick’s parents were killed by a criminal mob; he won’t work with them.” it’s wonderful that you have this insight into dick, kory, i just wish we could’ve watched some of these conversations actually happen on-screen.

8.5. i’m glad that kom’s being treated with such nuance and understanding, though it’s obvious that she definitely has a Plan of her own. (and did i entirely imagine her ability to mimic other people flawlessly at the end of s2? or is that going to come into play at some point?) i think her story has the potential to be genuinely poignant, and in a universe where being Different, either because of mental health or physical differences or whatever else, leads a straight line to Evil, it’s important to acknowledge and then emphasise that the mere fact of your existence as a Different Person doesn’t predispose you to evil. maybe your act of destroying a system that has destroyed you and not scrambling to “fit in” is only evil as defined by that system. 

8.8. “you’re trespassing, i should call the authorities, i feel unsafe.” now this is a villain lady who’s definitely aware of her privilege.

8.85. kom smirking knowingly at her sister is everything.

“oooh that’s the kory i remember”

9. conner and dick working together woo!

9.25. god i hate a villain who’s always just a step ahead, no matter what. so crane anticipated dick using oracle to track his personal communications and set him up? how did he know when exactly dick would get to do this? how long did he have that poor man tied up in that van?

(the “save me, grayson” is a nice touch, tho. send dick spiralling even further! because if there’s one thing dick will do, it’s take responsibility for every goddamn thing that goes wrong.)

9.5. ahem. i’m going to need a million gifs of conner yeeting dick across that yard, fandom, thankyouverymuch.

(i understand conner is invulnerable to explosions, but how do his clothes survive??)

9.8. oooh crane is already in oracle! i’m just sitting here laughing helplessly because they’re overpowering this goddamned guy so much. he can build a lab in arkham’s basement! he has access to lazarus puddles! he has minions working across gotham, including a fully functional chemical laboratory staffed by chemists who only answer to him! he has the crime families of gotham quailing in his very presence! he has assassins at his beck and call! he’s enough of a manipulative bastard to have red hood under his thumb! and now he has enough of a tech know-how to not only be aware of oracle, but know how to hack into it! i’m sick of exclamation marks! i’ll shut up now!

9.95. dick leaving behind that smouldering grave for a person he failed to save without taking a second to process how he feels about it and running towards his next plan to corner scarecrow: a microcosm of where his head’s at right now.

10. really hammering in the themes of this season, aren’t we. 

10.25. the interesting thing is the titans repeatedly call themselves a family this season (none more so than dick) and while that found family has helped encapsulate and put away their traumatic experiences with their ‘original’ families, it’s meant that they’ve not really dealt with those issues. and dick and gar and jason come from ‘found families’ of their own: they are twice removed, traumatised two times over. they still cling to this identity however, and because of it they’re losing each other. a family isn’t static. it’s an ever-evolving dynamic and you have to put in work constantly to keep it healthy.

10.5. anyway, that’s entry #2346. i’m here aaaalll night.

11. lookit gar the detective! half-transforming and using his powers to deduce things! what a hero! i’ve said this for a long time, but gar is the bedrock of this team, and an unsung one at that.

11.25. i’m confused about him calling this room jason’s though. it seems to me that this is dick’s room that jason later used, and one that dick’s using now. so the unmade bed isn’t really jason’s fault; dick was woken by barbara that morning, and in his hurry, he left without making his bed.

(it still confounds me that bruce didn’t find jason another bedroom in that gigantic mansion of his. you really didn’t give this kid a chance, did you?)

12. oh well. so much for the oracle.

13. ... sorry, wait. you didn’t think i wasn’t going to address the bit with dick right now, did you?

12.5. i honestly don’t think it’s very complicated: dick’s been reeling from one traumatic thing to the next, and just when it seemed like at the beginning of the season, he felt happy and secure with his team and his place in the world, bruce ups and leaves gotham to him, specifically naming him a successor and calling him a ‘better batman’. he’s lost garth and jericho and donna and jason and now hank and dawn. he’s not even sure where rachel is or what she’s doing. after being told that batman was a psychopath for moulding him into a weapon, he’s also been told that his failure to be a ‘better batman’ lead to further disaster. of course he’s going to get batman-goggles. of course he’s going to be a prick. 

12.8. i don’t know what to say. i feel his frustration acutely. i don’t think he should’ve said what he said to barbara (can people stop pushing her around this season????) but that pressure to step in where your parent fails? to clean up their messes and try to think like them? to fall into habits drilled into you when you developed them as coping mechanisms growing up? I FEEL THAT. 

every step he’s taking he’s putting 110% of himself in it and scarecrow’s still playing mindgames with all of them: i absolutely feel his desperation to take control of that game and turn it on scarecrow, no matter what it takes.

and he did apologise almost immediately, and finally--finally--actually works with barbara. 

12.9. again, not excusing him! but i get it. and i think that’s a sign of great character writing.

“did you know i just reminded emmram of all of her daddy issues? what the fuck????”

12.95. i love that dick&barbara, kory&kom, and gar are all approaching solving this mystery from different angles, each as valid as the other. also, conner is there as... emergency bomb defuser man?

13. it’s like all fancy rich people in fancy rich houses do is pour fancy rich alcohol into fancy rich glasses on pristine, untouched tabletops. i wonder what it’s like to live like that.

13.25. I KNEW IT! poor michael. it was nice knowing you.

13.5. man, kory is contending with a lot of issues that she’s successfully bottled up and compartmentalised until now. the cold reality that a child can seek out their parents as refuge and they can view the child as a piece to be moved in a greater game (never out of cruelty, though, never, and somehow that makes it worse), that truth of blackfire’s treatment on tamaran because she’s different, and her own culpability in what happened. she exchanged one family for another, after all, and left that family to die and her sister to suffer. like dick, like gar, kory’s being forced to reckon with what the titans are meant to be, the larger implications of creating their found family in their own space.

14. it’s probably because it’s one in the morning and i’ve had two glasses of wine but i did not follow that bit of exposition at all and victor freeze??? what? 

anyway. look at them solving things! together! go team!

“you made a deal with the mob?” oh the sense of betrayal on his face! fuck off, dick, your issues aren’t kory’s. 

15. conner is really sweet and a bit of an awestruck crush on kom is to be expected. especially after that power rangers-esque transformation (i say this as a former huge power rangers fangirl. i’ve seen every series until 2007 including the original japanese versions and written fanfic for all of them. so i love a cool costume transformation, is what i’m saying.)

also?

FUCK YEAH

16. i love the gotham crime families just chillin’ around eating ice cream. I LOVE THEM

16.5. that was a fun fight sequence, if marred slightly by that bit of awkward flirting between conner and kom. i wonder if she’s really planning to use him in a larger scheme to get kory back to tamaran, or maybe something else. 

16.75. so i’m assuming that scarecrow has jason either so paralysed by fear that he can barely move, or jason’s withdrawing from the drug that he’s been sucking in every few minutes. 

17. it’s nice to see them chill after a successful mission! and it can be awkward, but conner’s crush on kom and him striving to impress her is also, well, uh... cute.

17.5. i guess the dick/barbara scene was inevitable, especially given the... unresolved nature of their relationship in the flashbacks? and they’ve been through a rollercoaster together this episode, discovering and then destroying an incredible tool within a matter of hours, re-discovering just how well they work together as a team. dick’s swimming in the nostalgia. i don’t expect it to last as a long-term relationship, but i totally get why this is happening now. and hey, they’re cute!

i have a weeeirrrrd feeling that kory is going to leave to tamaran at the end of the season and that dick and kory will rekindle--or rather realise--their relationship just before that. it’s going to be devastating and beautiful and painful and i will be writing essays about it which would be me just wailing into the screen.

18. gar found molly!!!!!!! MOLLY’S BACK! \o/ gar is the BEST

19. that was a fun episode! i love this silly show, even if it does destroy me sometimes <3

[csprousedaily]

Cole Sprouse gives insight into ‘Riverdale’s’ newest couple, Jughead’s daddy issues and the story behind the crown to Screener.

Well, things certainly have changed in "Riverdale." Though she spent the first few episodes of Season 1 coming to terms with her feelings for Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart) has seemingly moved on -- with none other than Jughead (Cole Sprouse). The relationship between Betty and Jughead is an interesting one -- and not just because what kickstarted it was the murder of Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines).

Jughead is a mystery of a character, and one fans of the "Archie" comics have been waiting to get some answers about. As this enigma is slowly unfolding, his connection to Betty almost seems like a natural progression. Still, there will be those who question if Jughead's heart is truly in it. After all, in the comics Jughead is asexual, and that's an aspect of the character Sprouse has voiced interest in exploring before.

The actor sat down with Screener to take a nosedive into the mind of Jughead, and exactly what this relationship means for him -- and Archie, for that matter. Sprouse also speaks to the developments in Jughead's family life, whether he'll share any screen time with Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) -- and where that crown he wears comes from...

You've been very open about your interest in pursuing Jughead as asexual -- which he is in the comics. Now with he and Betty becoming an item, is the door closed on that, or is it something you think the show could still tackle?

I don't know, you know? I'm the actor -- so when it comes to actual writing, and the narrative, and what will inevitably take place, I don't have too much to say. I've talked to Roberto [showrunner Aguirre-Sacasa] a little bit about it, and he and I have been interested in exploring the narrative for some time. But it's important to remember that there's a large group of people that want Jughead to be asexual. That was the same side I was on in the beginning, when I was fighting for it. Because that's [Chip] Zdarsky's new universe and all that. He's been aromatic for a long time in the comics -- but as I was doing my research, with Betty and Jughead, there was a ton of content -- and actually a large community that wanted Betty and Jughead together as well.

It's hard for me to say. I'm of a mind that I think a representation should exist, but it should feel organic and it should still feel genuine. I think the way that we're going right now -- that's Jughead and Betty [after this episode], people are going to clearly see that pursued more heavily -- it makes sense for this new narrative. We're in a new universe, there's still a large group of people that want Betty and Jughead together.

There is a real infatuation in the old digests between Betty and Jughead, it's just he has no room for it right now. I don't know if [asexuality will] end up being pursued. Like I said, I'm an actor not a writer. I don't know the sensitivities of the larger corporations at work. But I'm on the same side, I have been since the beginning. In the event that something does change, I'm right there on the front of it.

But I still want to make sure it's done right and it encompasses the entire argument, and doesn't mention it briefly or in passing or something that doesn't feel appropriate. I don't know how much of the asexuality thing will come into question -- but I certainly think that Jughead being a woman-hater will eventually come into question. That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, and that's very much like his original digests.

I really couldn't tell you. As of now I don't know even what the idea of the second season is, so I don't really have too much money to put into the bag.

As this relationship goes on, what will we learn about Jughead? Because as you look at the show, these two come from very... let's say dramatic home lives, meanwhile everything seems to end up going Archie's way.

And that's important! Roberto wants that to be the case. Archie has always been a cipher and will always continue to be a cipher, but please continue!

That's what works about it so well -- but then you have Betty and Jughead, who don't necessary have the luck in life that Archie does. So given their connection, what will we learn about Jughead? Especially as the show starts delving more into his family?

Rather than thinking about Jughead as he has this huge comic lineage that we have to stay loyal to, let's think about Jughead as he's just a character in the town of Riverdale. He's a damaged kid, his father's not really in the picture, we don't know where his mother is, he's kind of searching for a connection with someone -- and he ends up teaming up with this hyper-nurturing, really emotionally sensitive, really caring individual who he finds some sort of mental connection with. And it works.

I feel like when I speak of Jughead, it's very hard to remove all of the meta-gaming I'm doing. It feels like I'm a Dungeon Master, and not like I'm an actual player in the world, and I don't think that's the right way to look at the relationship between Betty and Jughead. I think it's much more appropriate to look at them as real psychological entities within a town that's kind of going to sh*t, and who both have these dramatic lives. And Jughead is a character that's looking for some kind of real, emotional, mental, intellectual attachment to something -- and finds a person who's kind of yearning to do the same.

Betty's a character that just came off this infatuation with a childhood love that didn't work out. At the beginning of the season that's where we leave her, and she's still complicated with all of these ideas. She doesn't really know what to be a kind of lover means.

They end up meeting each other with similar passions and similar drive and it works. I think that's the way we should look at it as players in the world and not DMs.

First of all, where can we get an 'Archie Comics' or 'Riverdale' RPG game, where you can be the DM?

[There's this game] "Arkham Horror," it's a Lovecraftian boardgame -- but I would love to see that, kind of. All of the characters have to go through, and make mental will tests to make sure they don't go insane, and you get to pick between some of the Archie characters. That would be so much fun. I'm going to pitch that!

I would be very into playing a giant 'Riverdale' board game.

Like super gritty, old gods rising. All that stuff!

We know you won't be getting to the bottom of what went down with Archie and Jughead this season -- but what kind of impact will Jugs getting together with Betty have on their bond? It certainly can't help the situation.

It doesn't. We acknowledge that there's a tension that exists within the first season. Jughead, Betty and Archie were kind of like the Three Musketeers during their childhood, when Veronica (Camila Mendes) wasn't in the picture yet. So Jughead being with Betty is just as complicated as if Archie were with Betty. I think the rest of the season is us dealing with those narratives, and figuring out why that might be complicated, and that classic ooey-gooey romance.

The way that Roberto has spoken about this first season is that it's the origin season. The first season is essentially the origin story for the rest of the seasons: Why are these characters this way? What happens after their lives have gone through the entire arc, which was sort of ushered in by Jason Blossom's murder? I think that begs further questioning. In the event that we take off with a Season 2, how did the first story inform the origins of the rest of these characters?

Well, looking at that origin, we don't have Jughead's mom, or Jellybean, in the picture right now. But we are getting more FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich). How deep are you going to be delving into that relationship -- between father and son?

Huge! Massive. It becomes probably the single biggest storyline in the latter half of the season. Character-wise, Jughead narratively is like an old car that takes a while to start up. It just burns rubber but you don't stop. You can't stop the car, or it'll just shake to pieces. That's kind of how we treat him in Season 1.

You'll get to see a lot more of Skeet -- who's just the man -- and their relationship is one of the primary narratives in the latter half. It's great. It ends up becoming quite interesting. And Jughead has sort of this tortured youth, angsty side.

All he needs in life is his hat!

I found out recently from a man named Krishnan Menon -- he's like one of the biggest Archie collectors in the world -- I said a while ago that I always thought Jughead was sort of like an imaginary friend in the digest. He doesn't really have any real world connections. He's quite a strange character.

It turns out this guy's one of the foremost Archie collectors -- he has, like, "Pep" issue 21. Besides Roberto, he's probably one of the most well-read on the "Archie" comics. He was saying Jughead was originally supposed to be Archie's conscience. That's what he was as a character. So he wears this crown as a symbol of being in the head, or in the thoughts. He doesn't like women, which is the antithesis of Archie who's absolutely crazed about them. So he sits in opposition there. And he's obsessed with food, because I guess you're supposed to feed your thoughts and fuel your mind.

It was funny when he was explaining this to me, because I already had this idea of Jughead as an imaginary friend. As Jughead was developed as a character, he sort of became a real world physical character. It's very strange.

And that's kind of the origin of the crown too. It's the corona. It's the mind. Some sort of noble thing.

Lastly, we've seen Jug's interactions with a bunch of people but there's some he still hasn't really come into contact with yet.

Yeah, like Veronica?

Like Veronica! And there hasn't been much with Cheryl. I'm dying to see those two interact. Are we going to get these things?

Oh yeah -- Cheryl and Jughead, definitely. That's kind of inherently the way it's going to be. Jughead starts out as a character that's on the fringes and you don't see too much of him, and then slowly but surely he's reintegrated into the school society at large. I think someone you will never see Jughead interact with this season is Josie -- but you get snippets of Cheryl and Jughead, you get a tiny chunk of scenes between Veronica and Jughead in which Jughead acknowledges that "I never see this girl." A bit of Ethel and Jughead.

I'm excited for more Ethel.

Yeah, me too! I'd love to see that classic storyline take place where she's continuously trying to feed him food and he's just running away!

But yeah, he integrates himself into society a little more actively in the later half of the season, so you'll get to see more.