#time to watch neverafter adventuring party

[t-hirstreview]

[eemolu]

umm.. which d20 season should i watch (to start or next)??

in honor of brennan releasing basically the exact same video on dropout literally today, here's an unhinged list i've been working on for longer than i'd like to admit.

IF YOU’VE NEVER SEEN D&D BEFORE OR ARE LOOKING TO GET INTO TTRPGS • Fantasy High ⁃ I mean obviously. The cast is learning 5e right alongside the players, but also, they’re learning about each other. They’ve never played before. You’ve never watched them play before. There aren’t any inside jokes that you’re missing out on because you haven’t made them yet ⁃ The setting and characters are a great mixture of dnd tropes and familiar media tropes, so even the jokes you don’t get you kind of do also get ⁃ 3 seasons and a movie (counting the liveshows) • Unsleeping City s1 ⁃ Oh, you don’t like fantasy stuff. You find elves annoying. You’ve never seen Lord of the Rings and you don’t care to. Great! This season is urban fantasy and the fairies are all parodies of characters from the Godfather. ⁃ Still early enough that the cast is still fairly new and you’re not missing much. Also it’s incredible ⁃ 1.75 seasons and a stage production (one season, one covid zoom season that’s incredible but takes a sec to get used to, and a madison square garden liveshow complete with pyrotechnics) • Dungeons and Drag Queens ⁃ Learn with the queens. Love with the queens. Cry with the queens ⁃ Brennan is being a Nice Guy DM so generally things go how you want ⁃ It’s kind of like watching a bunch of people remember what it’s like to be in third grade and invent an entire world at recess and decide who has storm powers and who has seventeen imaginary cats and who has a sword that’s also a gun

I DON’T LIKE D&D BUT I STILL WANT TO WATCH!! • Mismag ⁃ They’re not playing dnd they’re playing kids on brooms and Aabria mostly eschews combat, so don’t worry ⁃ First season is a misdirect to get you to the second season ⁃ Smaller cast of characters and only one (haunted) white man. Sick. • A Court of Fey and Flowers ⁃ Technically still dnd but only for the purposes of letting these high drama idiots pretend to kill each other ⁃ They spend most of the air time sending letters, flirting autistically, and massaging butts ⁃ Emily Axford & Lou Wilson spend the whole season serving cunt and invoking jeremy renner • Never Stop Blowing Up ⁃ They made up their own action movie game system ⁃ “The universe was created by a big bang. And in that case, is not all of existence a bullet? You catch the cannonball and throw it at the helicopter” ⁃ Practical fart effects

THEY DON’T DO ENOUGH COMBAT, I THINK. I WANT MORE KILLING. • Coffin Run ⁃ Jasmine Bhullar loves combat. Every time you think she’s done there’s another mini ⁃ Complex train calculations have real world battle implications ⁃ Instead of hit points they drink blood • The Seven ⁃ A bunch of women gather together to kick the shit out of Brennan specifically ⁃ Combat flow charts! Rolling thirty d20 with advantage for your attack geese! Etc!! • A Crown of Candy ⁃ IH season most focused on combat. It’s also the most lethal. Brennan is actively trying to kill them the entire time ⁃ The roleplay episodes WILL make you cry so keep that in mind. This is the season that made Lou start smoking cigarettes again to cope ⁃ There are also the covid zoom adventuring parties which are great

I WANT THERE TO BE A MYSTERY I CAN SOLVE • Neverafter ⁃ This season is the perfect blend of mystery and all the other stuff that makes DnD a great game. Sick combats. Complex yet familiar world building. The line “the smile of a devil you never believed in.” ⁃ Players really at their best and fully dialed into all the various factions which is good bc the lore is HEAVY ⁃ Beardsley is the grandpa with the plot important prop and Murph is a silly divorcée so there are plenty of shenanigans still • Fantasy High ⁃ Every single season of this has a great mystery at the heart with enough clues that you could figure it out ahead of time, maybe. I never did but that’s a me thing ⁃ Brennan kept a secret for 5 years of his real adult life for the sickest reveal of all time. Sam Reich torturing Gamechanger contestants coded. ⁃ Riz Gukgak is there • Mentopolis ⁃ If Inside Out was a 1930s noir ⁃ Large part of the mystery requires them to contemplate what’s going on with their big guy’s junk… there’s buzzing down there! It’s narratively important! ⁃ Hank Green is there • Of Mice and Murder ⁃ I’ve never seen this one but it’s The Mystery Season so. I assume it fits well into this category

WATCHED A FEW SEASONS AND NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S NEXT • Starstruck ⁃ DON’T ask questions just watch NOW ⁃ The funniest season hands down and immediately post covid so the vibes are joyous. Stupid. Perfect. The first major battle includes an exploding MLM sex goo factory and it only goes up from there ⁃ Brennan’s mom is there • Burrow’s End ⁃ IMO one of the perfect ways to get into the d20 sidequests, especially if you’re like “ugh but I’m going to miss the intrepid heroes though…” ⁃ Every PC is related. Specifically Izzy Rolland (my beloved) and Siobhan Thompson (my beloved 2) are playing Brennan’s children and they are having a GOOD time ⁃ Three gross battle sets and a lightning gun

I’M TIRED OF LORE I WANT TO SEE THE GIRLS GO CRAZY • Time Quangle ⁃ The whole point of the tour was to go hm… what would happen if all the characters got smushed together and nothing made sense? ⁃ Does require some knowledge of previous seasons and has minor spoilers ⁃ Also has a Beardsley nat 20 so spectacular the PCs beat Brennan up right there on the stage in front of God and everybody • NSBU ⁃ The directive of the season from Brennan was “what if I never said no? What if I just yes anded everything that got thrown my way?” and YEAH dude he DELIVERED ⁃ Looked right at camera and said “Let me out baby!! It’s time for Daddy to have fun!!!” ⁃ Basically Beardsley is playing the straight man if you can believe it

[mgrover]

I think ttrpg shows have ruined my context or "a lot" of content cause I'll recommend something and be like Calamity it's nice and short and then it's like no that's 20 hours. Or mismag season 1 I watch that all the time when I'm cleaning cause it's nice and short. 9 hours. Not counting adventuring parties. Children's adventure nice little romp - 8 hours, county affair? Nice and short only 3.75 hours

Then stuff is coming out and it's a feature-length film each week and that's if your only keeping on top of one show.

Like I've rewatched Neverafter and Starstruck twice this year and Fantasy High Junior Year 3. Don't know how many times I've watched Calamity and other "mini-series." Just going oh I'm gonna watch a quick one-shot - that's 3 hours don't lie to yourself

[pixiecaps]

D20 NEVERAFTER!!!!

all my liveblogs for epi one can be found in the tag pix.neverafter if ur interested frauggie !!! this was my first time watching. i also watched the first adventuring party epi for that:3

[la-principessa-nuova]

Hi i just got dropout and was wondering what to start out with, any nice tips? :>

Depends what specifically you’re into. I watch everything on there now, and I would categorize Dropout’s content into a few categories, so I’ll break it down by category.

Game Changer and Spinoffs

I started with Game Changer, and I think that is a very good first Dropout show because it introduces you to a lot of the recurring cast members, and since the game changes every show, you can either join in on the latest season or start at the beginning to get all the recurring jokes.

Make Some Noise I enjoyed more once I’d become familiar with the people doing it from other shows (plus it’s a spinoff of Game Changer, so chronologically it would come some time after the Game Changer episode it’s based on).

As a former theater kid, I very much enjoy Play It By Ear. It’s improv musicals, so i feel like you either hear that and absolutely must see it or you heard that and know you absolutely don’t want to see it, lol.

The D20 section

If you’re into D&D or think you could be, Dimension 20 is my favorite thing on there, and you could definitely start with that if you’re up for the long episodes. I’d recommend starting at the beginning with Fantasy High. Personally I really liked going through all the seasons in order so I didn’t need to figure out which ones were sequels and spinoffs of other ones.

If you’re going to watch Dimension 20 definitely use the “The Complete Experience” versions that have the adventuring parties (talkback) in between the regular episodes.

The order of the seasons has occasionally been flipped around in a way that puts one of the spin offs before the season it spun off from, so here is the order of the seasons so far, with some symbols I’ll explain after:

Fantasy High [I, F]

Escape From the Bloodkeep

The Unsleeping City [I, U]

Fantasy High: Sophomore Year [I, F]

Tiny Heist

A Crown of Candy [I, C]

Pirates of Leviathan [F]

The Unsleeping City - Chapter II [I, U]

Mice & Murder

Misfits and Magic

The Seven [F]

Shriek Week

A Starstruck Odyssey [I]

Coffin Run

A Court of Fey & Flowers

Neverafter [I]

The Ravening War [C]

Dungeons and Drag Queens

Mentopolis

Burrow’s End

Fantasy High - Junior Year [I, F]

The letters in brackets mean:

I - Intrepid Heroes season (the players are the main cast of players from the first season)

F - Fantasy High (this season is in the Fantasy High universe)

U - The Unsleeping City (this season is in the Unsleeping City universe)

C - A Crown of Candy (this season is in the A Crown of Candy universe)

I believe adventuring party starts during A Crown of Candy, so there is no talkback for the previous seasons. In general, you can watch the seasons that don’t have an F, C, or U in any order, but there are callbacks to previous jokes, especially in Adventuring Party, so I would say to watch any season with any letter above in order at least, and the rest it doesn’t really matter the order.

I watched them all in order except I gave up on Shriek Week because I wasn’t enjoying it and then came back to it when I was out of seasons to watch, and I saved Dungeons and Drag Queens until I was in the mood for a beginner adventure (plus Mentopolis started just after I finished The Ravening War).

Other TV-style shows

The first season of Very Important People just wrapped up, which is Vic Michaelis interviewing Dropout cast members who are improvising characters based on a costume they were put into without knowing what it was ahead of time. Like many other shows on Dropout, I got more into it the more episodes I saw. It could be watched first, but you’ll get more out of it from knowing who the person is that’s being put in costume to be shocked how different they look.

Dirty Laundry, which is a panel show where they share a secret/embarassing/weird fact about someone and then the panel members guess who it was, could be watched first, but the episodes with Dropout cast members as guests are more enjoyable if you know who they are.

Smartypants is a new show that just started. The show is them doing presentations, and I’m realizing I’m not going to be able to describe it in a way that doesn’t sound awful, but it’s good. This is a good one to watch earlier, I think. At least so far it hasn’t been highly dependent on inside jokes.

Um, Actually is very fun to play along with trying to find the mistake in statements about nerdy media. That you can watch whenever.

One of the first shows they did, Total Forgiveness, I would highly recommend. It’s only one season, but you might want to be familiar with Ally Beardsley and Grant O’Brien first.

I also liked Where in the Eff is Sarah Cincinnati

YouTube-Style Videos

Since Dropout got its start from CollegeHumor’s YouTube videos, there are some things that feel more like a YouTube video than a TV show (in the sense of less polish, shorter length, and/or the concept just being more like what you’d expect from YouTube)

The only ongoing one that I would describe that way (I think) is Breaking News, which is where they act like newscasters but they’ve never seen the words on the teleprompter and they have to try not to laugh as they say all the ridiculous things on there. Some episodes are funnier with more context on the cast, but most of them can be watched whenever, and there isn’t really any continuity to it, so any season can be watched in any order. I’ve only watched some of the past seasons and picked and chose the episodes to watch.

They also have all the old College Humor skits and stuff, and some of them have not aged well, but the Hardly Working series has a lot of good stuff in there, especially in the later seasons, that explains some of the running jokes across the platform.

Also all of Brennan’s A Message from the CEO skits are very funny (I think they’re all still on YouTube too, but they’re also on Dropout).

Early Dropout Content

The last category in my opinion is some of the stuff they tried to do early in Dropout where they were trying to grow out of the YouTube videos but didn’t yet pivot into what Dropout is now.

I already mentioned Total Forgiveness, which is from this era, but the only other thing I’ll mention is that they did some video podcasts during this time, and personally I really enjoyed Tales from the Closet.

There’s also just a LOT from this time and I’ve only seen some of it. They really tried some different things.

Summary

There is a lot of good content on Dropout, and it is the sort of thing where whatever you watch first you’re probably missing some inside jokes that you’ll then get next time they come up.

Having just thought about it all to write this, I’d say the best places to start are either Game Changer or Dimension 20: Fantasy High depending on what you’re looking for.

And then poke around at some of the shorter videos when you don’t feel like watching something long.

[sugaldean]

Watching cis-her gal-a-them for the first time.

Neverafter adventuring party have been hilarious so far and I can't see how this one can be better

[mulligans-tavern]

Cinematic Parallels

"I'll be happy to watch you shit one last time."

-Calroy Cruller, A Crown of Candy

"I piss a little bit wherever I go."

-Baba Yaga, Neverafter

"Is it like, y'know... it's piss, or, y'know... that's what we all thought. It's God Piss."

-Lou Wilson, FHJY Adventuring Party

[d20-brainrot]

get ready for some d20 asks bestie

favourite season

favourite pc

favourite npc

LEAST fav season/pc/npc

a line that you like

a funny bit that makes you laugh

saddest/most heartwrenching moment that makes you sad every time

best character arc in your opinion

which of the newly announced seasons are you most excited for?

who would you like to see on d20 for the first time or to return?

who would you like to see DM on d20?

a mini that you like

a battle set that you like

something you hope comes back for another season

a season you wish people would watch more

ooh i love this!!!

favorite season: definitely starstruck odyssey or neverafter. they are just both so fun, and everyone is having a good time. plus i like a little horror y'know?

fav pc: ylfa!!! she's just like me for real. no but seriously, she is a child growing up into a body she doesn't fully understand, and thinks that how she feels makes her irredeemable. little el is shaking in their boots right now. i also love lapin. he's deadpan but he does the right thing. plus i just loved how zac played him, it was wonderful

fav npc: esther sinclair is my shit!!!! i love her sm, she is a fierce warrior and i love that about her! also AYDA AGUEFORT IS THE BEST!!! just her and fig are adorable, her being besties with adaine, her calling gorgug the finest wizard ever, just beautiful!!

least fav season/pc/npc: i hate biz glitterdew with every ounce of my being. just the "nice guy" energy radiating from him makes me sick. like i had dudes like that interact with me in middle and high school, and they creeped me the fuck out.

a line i like: "i'm the prince of shoeberg, motherfucker!!!" is a great line and it makes me giggle every time i hear it. a very impactful line for me is "you listen to me right here. having panic attacks, that is not a character flaw, do you understand? you are not a coward. you have a goddamn medical condition, all right?" like that makes me want to sob. i watched this season right around the time that i got diagnosed with severe general anxiety and social anxiety, and it hit me that i am not flawed, i just needed some help.

funny bit that makes you laugh: god just the fact that murph cannot for the life of him roll well is hilarious. i also love the hairy baby dance! like the fact that it came back in an adventuring party for starstruck was fucking great.

saddest moment: god when jet is talking to liam and tells him to tell ruby that she did the right thing, and then the light goes out of the locket of the sweetest heart. gut-wrenching dude. or when they're in the nightmare forest, and brennan is talking about how ayda loves fig because she was kind to her, and that she sees her for who she really is. that always makes me tear up dude.

best character arc: dude ragh for sure! like him going from being a bully, to everyone realizing it was because he was getting harassed by his best friend/the guy that he had loved for years? god what a good storyline. or kugrash, sacrificing himself for everyone by eating the bagel?? killer moment.

fav newly announced season: wasn't there one about them blowing up or something? what the actual fuck does that mean mr. mulligan and mr. reich? huh???

who would you like to see on d20 return or for the first time: alex song-xia needs to come back. no ifs, ands, or buts about it! they were wonderful, and i loved how they played conrad. if they don't come back, i will lose my mind.

who would you like to see dm: murph should dm! he's amazing on naddpod (even though i'm only on the very first campaign) and i would love to see his work in the dome. it would be absolutely amazing!!!!

mini you like: preston was so tiny and so cute! i also loved sprinkle, for the same reason. the fact that it literally was just a sprinkle as a mini was great and i loved every second of it

battle set you liked: the battle with the terrible dogfish!! the fact that it came from like the top of the dome????? absolutely astounding. rick perry truly works wonders with minis.

something you hope comes back: ooh, that's a tough one. i did really like the moving part of mentopolis, the little pressure meter thingy. i did also love in acofaf that they got little trinkets! i love a good trinket!!

everyone needs to watch escape from the bloodkeep!!! i love it so so so much, and it has some amazing characters, some amazing minis, great players, and it's dimension 20 history y'all!!

[utilitycaster]

Some of the resentment I've seen of FCG's coin feels like it stems from viewing FCG as less a character than a vehicle for Sam to do bits. They view the coin as Sam doing a bit that isn't landing and is taking up time and space that could go to the actual characters in the group that have stories instead of what they view as a bunch of disconnected jokes. I saw this with FCG going into the Grand Ring, too. People on Twitter saying that that was Sam trying to get the group killed for a laugh.

Truly I have to believe there is either one server or just like...a bunch of very stupid people who all follow each other and parrot each other's takes because the reaction to the Grand Disk especially is absolutely batshit fucking nuts:

If you give a heroic adventurer a weird noise, they are probably going to investigate it. If they investigate it, they are probably going to check it out. If FCG hadn't run in, someone else would have.

This show has been on for literally 8 years now and there has never been a main campaign TPK. Truly the Otohan fight is the only one where I take serious issue with the balance and signaling, and even then, so what, half the party died, they fixed it. Why is this fight different from all other fights?

On top of that this happened before we knew resurrection was broken, too, so like, the reaction during the episode truly makes no sense; the audience knowledge was that this party has THREE people who have revivify and two with Raise Dead and only one true glass cannon. They are arguably better positioned to take on threats than like, Bells Hells the regular party.

If a character dies the cast member will play another character and just based on the track record of past replacement characters the chances are high that they will be just as good if not better. If you don't want to watch a show in which permanent character death is an option then go do that.

I have, recently, actively tried to push back on the "bro do you even play TTRPGs" attitude people sometimes have regarding really stupid criticism, and to be fair this is narrative criticism too but like...unless a TPK is explicitly the goal or baked into the setting as a possibility (eg: Calamity; Neverafter; games designed for it like the Tomb of Horrors module or Call of Cthulhu or something) the GM absolutely does not want a TPK. Do you know how much fucking PAPERWORK is wasted in a TPK. If they had a TPK Matt would have had to look at an entire encounter and backstory regarding, say, Oltgar and Drixlitch, that he had lovingly designed, and go "well, guess that's fucked."

So anyway if you saw FCG go through the gates and your thought was not "ooh, combat" but rather "this will be a TPK" idk work on your breathing exercises or something because that's a wild leap.

Anyway the funniest thing in all of this is that the most recent episode made it clear that it's not just a bit. Also though it's like. Which "actual" characters? Chetney has been pretty decently served as a character, all things considered; the entire solstice plot revolves around Imogen so it's time for Laura to get a well-deserved break so Imogen can actually process and develop as a person rather than just be under constant nonstop stress; I love Fearne but this arc is just not really about her whole deal; and both FRIDA and Deanna have gotten plenty to do. Honestly while balance between characters is not really a thing in the sense that some people make D&D characters with tons of hooks and things to do and paths to take and some do not, and also the overall narrative of the party is important to consider*, the character balance of this particular arc has been the best of the whole campaign.

*most people get this intuitively UNLESS they are particularly stupid, or have either shipping or My Blorbo Is The Protagonist brainrot, to the point that you can diagnose these conditions when someone's previously decent understanding of story falls off a cliff

[solglas]

I really should sleep but I've been in an endless cycle of opening tumblr ->dropout ->youtube ->Firefox ->twitch ->repeating that over and over.

I wanna watch d20 but I don't wanna watch d20 at the same time... I can't make up my mind on what season to finish so I've just begun doing this cause I aslo tried to watch an adventuring party. Just to realise, I've not finished like almost any of the campaigns. So I'll just be being spoiled.

Shout out, to fantasy high and unsleeping city ch I for being the only two I've currently finished!

I've got no idea if this should be on my fandom blog or here, sooo hiii!! I started typing it for here so it's staying, bit I'm just rambling now.

Wait actually! List of all d20 seasons I've started and how far in I am..

Fantasy high, caught up.

mentopolis, about half way through ep 1.

neverafter, 2 and a half eps, im actively getting through this one on walks rn.

A crown of candy, a tiny tiny bit through ep 1.

unsleeping city, ch1 done ch1 half way through ep1, I need time to adjust to no kugrash </3.

Escape from the bloodkeep, about 3 and a quarter eps in.

The seven, I think almost exactly half an ep in.

Dungeons and drag Queens, I think I watched like 2 eps on YouTube before swapping to dropout. Sorry, it was two and a half.

Annnddd done!

Also not d20, but worth mentioning I started the newest naddpod campaign aswell, I'm on ep 2..

[dnd-shows-have-my-soul]

I’m watching the Starstruck Adventuring Parties for the first time and I gotta say, it is such a surreal experience.

I’m so used to the Neverafter episodes, where everything they talk about it so wildly off-topic that to see the cast actually talk about the episode at hand is incredibly bizarre.

[loading-excuses]

more moments/quotes that i’ve been thinking about recently bc ive been watching d20 chaos complications on youtube while waiting for the next season to come out

lou shouting “THIRD NAT ONE” after two of the other intrepid heroes rolled nat 1s for their first initiate rolls of a starstruck odyssey

I KISS HER AND I SKATEBOARD AWAY

bud cuddy’s speech during fantasy high season 1 before breaking the bad kids out and chiming a molotov in an police station

every time brennan tries to make a enemy and the intrepid heroes immediately babygirlify said enemy (ie: the butter gummies in fhjy and calling the corn android a corn cutie in starstruck)

brennan answering a face time call with his mother elaine lee creator of the starstruck universe while in full costume and makeup during one of the nsbu adventure ig party episodes

“lets give’em something to taco cat”

“oh, 42 my favorite number. it’s the number of heinz varieties”

the fun facts of the fix (hank green)

the way alex sits up and makes their shoulders broad when they’re playing kingskin

izzy asking brennan if she can have a grenade

“i now pronounce you… creepy and freaky”

“are there anymore combatants on the field cause i still have key points to burn”

murph’s hairy baby dance

“i’m gonna sneak into his room tonight and give him a vasectomy”

fabian, quivering “he told me he’s going to shit in my mouthhhh”

liam piggyback riding on ricky the entirety of the first time quangle episode

“me and murph are in a quangle with beardsley”

“now go away, literally forever”

“SHES A GODDAMN CENTAUR”

ricky and his selfies

“it’s ricky’s! he’s so hot i wanna fuck him so bad”

“i’m startin to think that this isn’t interactive theater”

the silly little bit the intrepid heroes did during time quangle when the neverafter theme music plays

What D20 quotes/moments live rent free in your brain?

For me it’s

“you have to smoke this or ill lie” and the way the rogue teacher called adaine a loser in fhjy

“my name is norman ‘skip’ takamori”

the way baron says “riz gukgak”

“romänce pærtner”

“EDIT AROUND IT!”

emily pretending to be fig as she falls off seacaster manor in fhjy and the edit of it that looks like the elmo fire meme

“toxic masculinity is dead! i dance now!”

“the lawnmower!” “the lawnmower????”

“gonna kill that dog man” and brennan doing the tongue in cheek gesture

any time lou speaks as pinocchio

“i am the setting”

every time ally beardsley rolls a nat20

“ally also has -3 to dex” and every moment that encapsulates that

it’s 3am in a warehouse

“shall be hence forth known in adventuring law as the party foul!”

aabria saying “i do have alert i can’t be surprised” brennan’s immediate expression of ‘oh no’ followed up by rehka going “you know you can be surprised? bwennan”

the way erika plays ava in burrows end

“THATS. MY. WIFE!!!!!”

the whole interaction of “lair action” “oh no it’s okay” “huh?”

“ooo mommy has so much bloodlust!”

“it’s a three person cult including the leader”

“hey girlieeeeee”

honor the cock

ayda aguefort.

“xoxoxoxo the wizard ayda augefort”

“little doggy… girl collar?”

k2

SPRING BREAK I BELIVE IN YOU

and many more but i have to stop here or else this list would go on forever

[littledoggy-girlcollar]

has anything broken me as quickly as emily axford’s little red introduction flashabck. no i don’t think so!

[equalseleventhirds]

can u believe brennan lee mulligan looked up the second verse of nursey rhymes for this. dedication.

[boneles-ss]

Hhhhhhhhuuuummmmm Donnie Boy Critical Role and Princess Clara Neverafter.

You agree.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Talked about this in the Discord with Chandler a bit but I cannot get over how all six of the PCs in Neverafter are super involved with the main conflict, they all have high stakes in the outcome, and they all have a genuine reason or adversary that is forcing them to be on this adventure except for Pib.

Like, Rosamund started out looking for her true love, her literal only goal in life up until that point and now she's involved with a huge plot to bring awareness to everyone in the Neverafter, and she's the key to every side, not just her own, turning the tides in their favor. Mother Goose is the only person with the ability to end the Times of Shadows, but he has to work with the rest of the party to learn how to use this ability if he wants to save everyone he cares about. Pinnochio literally doesn't have a choice; he has been cursed, his father is being held captive, he's being manipulated by the Stepmother to do her bidding, and he has absolutely no way out of this. Even his afterlife has been stolen from him and he's being forced to keep going, no matter how much he doesn't want to. Ylfa may seem like she doesn't have very high stakes and, other than Pib, she has the most physical freedom to leave if she wants to. However, emotionally, she is absolutely trapped in this adventure. The only parental figure she has is on the quest, she doesn't really have anyone else that cares about her, these five idiots absolutely need protection, and every sign in her life is pointing her back to these five other people on this journey. She could leave, yes, but she won't, because she doesn't have anywhere else to go. Gerard, like Rosamund, joined up with the group because he felt like they could help him find his true love, Elody, and that once that goal was accomplished everything would be okay again. NOW he's being used as a pawn for the fairies who are trying to convince him that the only way to get his Happily Ever After back is to do what they say and prevent the "awakening" of the people of the Neverafter. He's made an agreement with a fairy now, he's not getting out of this adventure.

NOW PIB PUSS IN BOOTS OVER HERE. He's just a guy. He's just a funky little trickster spirit who doesn't have to be here. He was with Pinnochio to get some money to help him back onto his feet paws, but he could have easily left with the rest of the caravan. There's no wicked stepmother forcing his hand, no evil fairy using him as a pawn, no giant goose haunting his dreams. He could have stayed in the forest with Rabbit to let Fox take the next turn and nothing would happened to him. He could have turned tail (ha) and ran away with Alphonse to save his own skin and just found a new story to screw up. He could have stayed in the teapot carriage with time stopped for the rest of his life and literally no outside forces would have cared enough to stop him. He's just a cat. He can do what he wants. He's just a trickster spirit whose only purpose is to fuck shit up. It's hilarious and I love it.

Personally, I can't wait to watch how Zac and Brennan tell the story of a random cat with no personal stakes in this fight finding a purpose in companionship, learning to care about other people, and being willing to sacrifice his own comfort and happiness to help his friends. I can't wait to watch this little shit who only exists to play tricks and cause chaos learning to trust and love and protect. We've already seen that Cat is more empathetic and caring of the humans in his stories than Fox, and I think we're gonna watch Pib slowly begin to grow attached to the rest of the party. I think he is going to spend this next life, the life he promised he would use to play even greater tricks, bonding with people he should be fooling and using his cunning to protect them instead. I can't wait for Pib to look his archetype, his destiny, dead in the eye and say "no".

I can't wait for Pib to have stakes in the fight because his family has stakes in the fight.