#weetbixbb

[wutheringmights]

Dying :( really good nod to the comic in this chapter, but also I was quite literally clawing at my own skin while reading. Even the good moments aren’t sacred in ctb

I will bend canon to my will and you will all suffer for it

[saltpotion]

What sorts of stories do u like writing? Any ideas ur excited about right now??

I’m kind of newish to writing stories, so I guess I don’t have a set genre/preference yet. I wrote a lot of fiction as a kid but got bored of it eventually, and I never finished anything. The most I’ve done since then is creative nonfiction essays, which can be cathartic but definitely a very different skillset.

I haven’t gotten an idea for an original story yet, so for now I’m just working on fanfiction. I’ve been thinking kind of obsessively about the Zelda II backstory ever since I thought it would be fun to imagine what would mean for all that to go down in the context of the canon that’s been established ever since.

Originally I was just going to write a story about Aurora and her brother (who I named Itentio), two Golden Age siblings under immense pressure who are at each other's throats until the bitter end.

But the more I thought about it, the more I became interested in Aurora's life after waking up, so now this idea has evolved into a LU fic. The POV flips from Traveler to Aurora to Dawn, and we get a flashback scene from each of them while the present-day story deals with them confronting their respective pasts.

I'm still kind of in early drafting stages, but so far the story involves Traveler's dad, Aurora's dad (lots of dads), Dawn's political life, uncertainty vs. certainty at the end of the world, rehydrated wizzrobes, the blood curse, monsters who don't want to be monsters, and lots and lots of magic.

[wutheringmights]

AHHHHHHH HOLY SMOKES! I LOVE, LOVE THE COLOR PALETTE!!!!

Made fanart for Call Them Brothers by @wutheringmights ‼️‼️

[wutheringmights]

Love the opportunity u have granted me to go thru ur blog and spam like all the resurfacing lore stuff eheh

Definitely did NOT cry at the bit about how when the engineer visits Captain Linebeck’s grave he can feel Wind’s imprint on the lingering spirit btw. Holding up just fine rn. Btw.

Reminded me of that text post. The way we are secretly made of everyone we’ve ever loved. And Spirit picks up on some of that 🥺

Lol sorry for all the old post spam. I realized a few months ago that my tagging system is woefully inadequate for the number of asks I actually get about CTB. I’ve been going through all the old stuff in chunks as I’ve had the time.

Anyway, love the connection you made with that post. You really put it best: he can see what made you and often times it’s the people with whom you share love 💛

[wutheringmights]

Oh yeah don’t dox yourself!! I hope it didn’t sound intrusive, I was just curious :)

You went to university for creative writing then? That’s cool!! I thought of doing that out of highschool but I’m in a gap year right now. I don’t think I can trust myself to write anything creative that I’m actually proud of in a structured setting (ik that sounds yikes, gotta get out of my wimp era eww). So I just watch free video lectures 😭 But do you recommend it?

Well, I hope you leave a door, but if not, your writing has still left me (and loads of ppl I’m sure) with a lot to think about regardless :)

Aww thank you, you're very sweet. And you weren't being intrusive at all! It's actually really nice to know that there's anyone out there who wants to see more of what I can do!

I actually didn't major in creative writing, but I did do a series of fiction writing workshops at my first college and an additional workshop at my transfer university. My transfer university had a creative writing contest and a literary journal, which is where I was published. So it's not the most prestigious achievement, but it is something under my belt, I guess.

Fiction writing workshops really are a mixed bag.

The best part of a workshop is how it forces you to get used to critiques, which is really valuable if you base your self-worth around being a good artist. There is no better way to separate your self worth from your art than having to get used to people talking smack about it. Plus, critiquing other writers helps you to develop the ability to read like a writer and self-edit yourself.

But none of the workshops I did taught me how to write. For reference, I did workshops both at a liberal arts school (which was a mistake) and at a state university (the course was framed as an intro course, but was really just a fun elective). All of the workshops technically had a lecture series for the first half of the class centered on learning the craft, but I didn't learn anything new from them.

Another issue with workshops is that the value of the critiques depends on how good the rest of your class is. In an intro class that is a fun elective at a state school, the critiques are pretty worthless. The critiques for the workshops at the liberal arts school were helpful, but you are also going to be up against self-proclaimed artistes who have the strangest and most pretentious "Golden Rules of Writing" you will ever hear.

Honestly, the best way to improve your writing is to just write and be critical of your own work. If you write consistently and are open to admitting where you are weak, you will get better. It certainly took me a long, long time to start feeling like I was good at writing, and I've been writing most every day since I was 13.

If you decide to go college and want to be involved in a workshop, skip the classes and see if there is a writing club on campus. The club will probably have an informal workshop where you can share and get critiques from people who have a passion for writing just like you do. If the club is anything like the one I went to, it'll be filled with people from a variety of disciplines who will have more valuable insight than any Artiste Writer can give you. Plus, you can make a lot of great friends.

[wutheringmights]

Love the new pfp, he’s so gorg. Might miss rat man but Wars deserves this. (No he doesn’t, but I love him eheh)

In a few weeks, I will long for my beloved and I will discard this pfp to return to his arms again.

But tonight, it is Warriors with the dramatic side profile, and there are twice as many stars as usual

[angstandhappiness]

Interesting

@scrawnytreedemon #you've put it all into words yet again#this shit has always irked me#like when you dig into it... god it's so blatantly unself-aware#how do you think bullies get to where they are??? might their reasoning look an awful lot like this???#seriously tho the nazi-punching thing in the tags is a great example#there was and is a very good reason for it#but so many people took it to mean punishing for the sake of pleasure#which is a risky fucking move each and every time#BUT YEAH the idea of dehumanising a whole group has just... always put me on edge. eurgh. don't like that shit at all.#always be wary of the risk of power ESPECIALLY when you're the one wielding it#please

@selfsameseeds #100%

@ganymedesclock #haha hey guys do you remember that we punch nazis as a strategy of harm reduction to publicly deplatform them?#and not just because it feels good to pretend we're superman fighting lex luthor?

@azura-fox #fandom discourse#revenge fantasies#bullies#violence#protagonist centered morality#projection

@devourer-of-acetone #This puts so much into words for me thank you!

@weetbixbb #this was a damn good read

Very good points with the last post, but I was thinking more about when a protagonist who is Hated by society for any reason gains power and influence and absolutely nothing changes about how people treat them to the point where you can feel the hand of the author. And then the protagonist gets Glorious Revenge on the people who hurt them or were disrespectful to them in any measure with their new cool powers without any reflection on how that would affect the character emotionally and morally, much less the world’s perspective on them.

This is more of a problem in fanworks where all the author wants is emotional satisfaction and vindication, but creating a section of people in your story who will forever be unworthy of redemption or change in a way that doesn’t involve groveling at the protagonist’s feet and can be freely hurt and killed without any consequence due to the way people in their group treated your character in the past can circle back around to being discriminatory. Like there was a story(granted it was fanfic) I read that had Special Magic People(Fae)who were outcasts of society because they were really powerful, then had that society discriminate against them, then painted everyone with powers as forever righteous good people and every person without as Ugly Evil Unpeople who could be slaughtered without any implications. There’s a scene where one of the Fae considers getting a ‘human servant’ like all his friends have via enchantment and subsequent kidnapping but doesn’t because it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and humans are annoying. This is not meant to say anything about the character’s morals, rather stating that the character prefers solitude Babe that is slavery. Your magical Fae society is ok with slavery.

Using power or magical-beinghood as a metaphor for queerness or disability is perfectly fine, but the problem comes when you try to make this all realistic instead of basing it on societal perception, because the thing about homophobia and racism and ableism is the fact that they are systems of power that place white, straight, rich, able bodied cis people at the top and everyone else at the bottom. Superpowers in context of sociology is more like: what if someone had a gun that they couldn’t unload, that was pointed at your head at all times. They wouldn’t shoot you with it, you think. But the gun is always there, and while the holder may not see it, you do. Which is a much better metaphor for living under systems that oppress you, with the caveat that superpowers are often inherent and social hierarchies are entirely made up.

Its just interesting how power is portrayed in the media as something that is either A. Born to or bestowed upon the protagonist and good or B. Something to be seeked out by the antagonist and bad. The idea that wanting what you weren’t given but other ‘more deserving’ people were is bad, but the idea that being more powerful than other people makes you inherently more moral rather than giving you more moral responsibility.

Ah, so you are positing the existence of type C, which is, "I want violent retribution on everyone who ever wronged me, but not to be held responsible for what I do with this power"

I think this can tie in with a lot of things. In aforementioned Danny Phantom, consider the bully character Dash. He literally introduces himself to the series by declaring- at max volume in a crowded cafeteria- that he has no future so high school is the best he's going to get.

Which is. needless to say. not something anyone with confidence says about themselves. But Dash does not exist to create problems for Danny, really; his primary function is being a justified target for Danny to punish over and over again.

People who are bullies understand that the concept of a bully is bad. They may have encountered- or fear- bullies themselves. But their solution is to idolize power and taking power. The Problem Is when I get pushed around, the problem isn't people shouldn't have the power to own/dominate others.

As you've pointed out this can run afoul in particular in social justice movements, since bullies exist everywhere and they will continue to co-opt whatever language gives them power and a platform. Some people just really, really want to hurt punish and control others. And broadly, they tend very quick to frame themselves as heroes punishing villains for being evil.

I recall back when I was in the Steven Universe fandom, someone told me their highly detailed system of how they wanted the Diamonds to die- they wanted Steven to murder Blue in front of Yellow, kill her next while she was grieving, and leave White alone and pleading before closing in for the finale.

Whether or not you like the Diamonds, or even whether or not you think the Diamonds should have died, it is obvious the objective is not removing or mitigating any threat here. The objective is sadism. The objective is wanting to punish people for ever having scared or upset you, and when a working fourth wall is at play it illuminates how insecure this mindset is. No matter how bad you think the Diamonds are, they are fictional characters, and not a perpetuation of bigotry or harmful stereotypes; they thus cannot hurt real people. The most they can do is be scary or upsetting, and even that is based on your willingness to go consume the media that has them in it. You could effortlessly turn off the tv and go watch a show where the hero makes the villain graphically explode every time, of which there are many.

But, we don't actually want things to get better! We want a justification to punish all the sinners that make trouble in our world. It's seductive it's reassuring it's a nice piping hot plate of comfort food that says "You're right forever! You actually ARE more special than anyone you don't want to interact with, your bullies or detractors actually ARE inherently lesser people than you. You will never have to face any sort of reality where people hurt your feelings but have some reason to exist or feel the way they do whether or not their actions are justified."

And incidentally, at its worst, this mentality can also utterly fail to address the very abuses it's trying to avenge. As you say, anon, it hinges on that the character remains a Dreadful Outcast forever.

Consider the plight of "Muggles" in Harry Potter. It sure feels like an amazing thing for an emotionally, materially, and physically abused boy to watch some magical giant show up, effortlessly boss his abusers around, and sweep him away from all that to a magical destiny world where he becomes stronger.

Only... at the end of every book they keep bringing him back. There are magical justifications for leaving him with his abusers. His cousin, who is also unambiguously hit and yelled at in the first book alone, does not even get the reprieves of special school even though we watch him become increasingly miserable with and enraged by his parents and their situation to the point that he makes at one point an unambiguous decision to stand by Harry with his parents watching.

This will come to nothing. Because Harry Potter takes the vicarious thrill children want to feel- that they know some secret that makes them special, reassuring when you don't think you're that cool and haven't had the life experience to invest in your identity yet- and basically turns it into, you don't deserve to be bullied because you're actually part of an old-money privileged over-class. With slaves! Why would you want to exist in a world where you reconcile with the foster sibling that pushed you around because he too was terrified of his parents and the dysfunctional house you lived in? He needs to know his place and be inferior to you, so that you can always be safe.

Because you never won't be traumatized and your trauma will never be a thing untouchable even by people who might care for you or be a friend to you, and if you decide the only way you will be safe is if you can rip a pound of flesh out of anyone who ever prods your wounds, then you won't feel safe unless you have someone on the figurative guillotine.

It's a status of victimhood that will never be lifted by any amount of power, because if you break the spell and admit that you have the capacity to hurt others and not the power to constantly be justified and eternally know evil when you see it, then that means you just might be the bad guy.

And you've made a world where nobody can even dip their toe in being the bad guy without deserving hell. So you can't be a sinner! That'd mean everything you feel is completely unjustified!

So, hail to the king, hail to the ultimate victim, whose suffering will never end because it is the throne he sits on to hold him above others.

And maybe I've played too much Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as a child, or maybe I just like monsters too much; but I've just always had the sneaking suspicion my life wouldn't improve if I could just stab everyone who ever hurt my feelings with a pitchfork.

I think using power to torment defenseless people is a bad thing no matter what that person did, and it is an unnecessary intrusion to actual harm reduction.

[wutheringmights]

Why have a username based on something uve never read?? (I say this knowing full well that I have never in my life eaten weetbix. The cereal which is my namesake exists in my life only as an elaborate, idiotic joke btwn my friends)

real question is why Emily Brontë would name her classic 1847 novel after me??

[wutheringmights]

That last bit is such a good idea. It genuinely never occurred to me to see if I could find something like that in my area 😭

I 100% know that having people to critique me/hold me accountable would help. My friends used to be into writing, but as we’ve grown up, I’m the only one that’s stuck to it.

((But my secret (truest) enemy is that I’ve been working on the same story for years. The catch is that I write a bunch, then get worried I don’t have enough “figured out.” So I make actual hundreds of notes on character & world. Inevitably, the notes get more sophisticated, and ideas get scrapped, and the loop never ends. *throws up*)) ((how long did it take u to finish planning ctb? Did you change loads of plans as you went on writing it, or stick to an outline once you got going?))

Also. Uhm. That’s horrendous. The idea of a hierarchy of artists in college. That tanks so bad, I’m sorry :(

Why did I rant so long in ur askbox? Jeez I need to find ppl to talk to, but I seriously appreciate the long responses & advice!! <3

My ask box is always open for people to rant to, though I can't guarantee that I will have any good advice for you.

Technically, I haven't finished planning CTB. I have an outline, but it's vague and only goes up to the end of Act 4. I know how the story is going to end and how we're going to get there, but I have barely started getting everything lined up in a logical sequence of events.

Here's the thing: my favorite part of writing is coming up with the story. If I plan everything out too thoroughly, I'm going to get bored and drop the project. If I know exactly how everything is going to play out, then writing it all down just feels like a chore.

That means that when I write any story, I do the bare minimum of prep.

Here are the things I definitely have to know before starting a story:

What is the beginning and end

Who are the characters and what are their arcs

What the relationships and how they will change

What are, like, the five most important events to get from the beginning to the end

From there, I make the world's vaguest outline connecting all of my ideas into a logical but loose sequence of events. For example, here is a photo from my actual notes covering chapters 11 through 18:

I only outline scene by scene what is going to happen when it's time to write each chapter. This way, I have the freedom to change my plans and think about future ideas for as long as I need to without feeling pressured to commit to having the Best Idea right away.

My method is pretty chaotic. I do a lot of problem solving to prevent the plot from getting stuck. But by writing this way, I have more space to be creative. There's no mention on my outline above about a fever dream sequence that also explores Warriors's past. That idea only came to be a few months ago when I realized that the reader needed to understand fully where he was coming from. If I had planned far out in advance every plot point and story beat, that Fever Dream sequence would never have happened.

What I think you should do is stop planning and start writing. Be a little chaotic. Just throw your characters onto the page and start getting them through each plot event. And if you have to throw in a bad plot point or sudden character quirk to keep the plot going, then do it.

Nothing needs to be well thought out. Don't fret about getting it right the first time, either-- unlike me, you will have plenty of time to revise and fix up any holes.

Be a little chaotic! I'm certainly not striving for perfection, and CTB is coming out well enough.

[wutheringmights]

Hi, how’s your day? :)

If you’re feeling up to it, you should listen to Skin by Marika Hackman. Also Bath is Black by Marika Hackman.

I’ll not lie to you, Skin’s vibe is so depressing that if I listen to it too much I become stagnant. But somehow I feel like you might get the appeal? Idk.

On the other hand, Bath is Black just goes hard.

The lyrics for both are very CTB for me. I feel like it’s easy to see why? (Obv, there’s a bit of neck stuff, but also just a general sense of becoming contaminated by a person/situation). Some of the lyrics even seem super on the nose, and when I made the connections it surprised me lol

Hope these are good recs

Happy holidays!! <3

I love depressing music. Sometimes you just need s song to be sad in the car to. And you definitely nailed how much this vibes with me. I'm going to have to check out more of Marika Hackman's work.

Since you didn't mention any specific lyrics, I'll highlight some of the ones I like.

I could go with the neck like for Skin, but I also like this bit here at the end:

But I'm not dead (But you're not dead) Just a harbour no one's in An empty salt filled skin

Fantastic lyrics overall. Just, wow.

And for Bath is Black:

All this mess, undress I'll put you to the test just try your best Put your apron on I feel it's been too long

Since you last made me laugh

Both of these songs kinda exemplify the past, but this one has this sad, upbeat melody that can also cross over into the present day.

Thank you so much for sending both of these my way!

[wutheringmights]

Hi, hope you’re well :) I was wondering if you write stuff outside of CTB? Or outside of Zelda? Your writing is really good, so I’m assuming it’s not your first work. Do you have any original projects, or do you prefer writing fanfic?

I have written other fanfiction in the past, but I am unwilling to share any of them as I am not proud of most of it.

I started writing fics when I was 13, which means that a lot of my old stuff is either associated with fandoms I do not look back upon with fondness or contain stuff that I was not old enough to write about properly.

I do have old fics that I am proud of, but they are too closely associated to the stuff that I would rather not talk about, so it's best that I don't share them either.

I have written original fiction, and I have two stories published through my university. Again, I am unwilling to share them here as they are associated with my full legal name and I would rather not dox myself.

I have definitely written more fanfiction than original fiction, but I was pretty much done with writing fanfiction when the idea for CTB hit me like a bullet train. If or when I finish CTB, I'll most likely jump right back to original fiction.

What remains to be decided is whether I'll let the persona of Frankie Who Writes Legend of Zelda Fanfiction fade away when that happens or if I will leave a door open for anyone interested to keep up with me.

[wutheringmights]

Omg blond, much worse off Linebeck is a VISIONARY take!!!!

I sort of imagine CTB Warriors by @wutheringmights looking like a blonder, much worse off Linebeck >:)

[saltpotion]

i want to give this the keysmash enthusiasm it deserves but i am so tired today & the right words escape me

however: sksjksndjdjdnsndkskskskksskk

im very intrigued!!! i have a thing for doomed characters. congratulations u have at least 2 fans now

idk what kinda music you like, but there’s an EP by radical face called Touch The Sky i’ve been listening to a lot, idk how much it relates to Pine’s backstory but it’s got some similar themes

what’s your story about, if you don’t mind sharing?

Hey! I don’t mind sharing at all, I really appreciate your interest! I’ve been wanting to start talking about the story on here for a while now, but have previously been overwhelmed & afraid. So this is a good way to start :)

It’s fantasy political, with a healthy dose of religious issues & crusades. Lots of the found family trope, as well.

The main character actually makes it clear right at the start that he is recalling the story seven years later from a prison labor camp. So expect a lot of “doomed from the start” in the narrative. Essentially, his goal in telling the story is to justify all the questionable actions that got him to this point (imprisoned) in his own head. I think he sort of imagines that he’s telling the story to a loved one he hopes will one day forgive him. Sort of a downer, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for catharsis.

Conscripted holy soldier, Private Pine, returns to Fort Valendwell a month after deserting his battalion. He’s coming out of the wilderness, presumably with a secret about what lays beyond; which could devastate a lot of his nation’s religious theory, but potentially end a civil war on the other side of the country.

Pine’s goal, however, was to make it past the fort and never look back on his life in the military. Not even to disprove a religious system he knew was deeply flawed. All Pine wanted to do was escape.

Unfortunately for him, he’s nearly killed by a monster in his attempts to get past the fort, and is saved by two fellow soldiers on scout duty, who seem to think he’s a new recruit.

But as luck would have it, Pine’s commanding officer- Colonel Crowmore- agrees to keep his AWOL a secret. This saving grace comes at a price though, and Pine ends up doing a lot of dirty work for Crowmore with little to no benefits.

The most interesting assignment Pine is given? To act as a guard to Princess Freyja, who despite only being twelve, is expected to arrive at the military outpost as a nurse (with special magical abilities which uniquely qualify her for the position!).

It’s curious that Crowmore is using Pine in place of someone who would arguably be more competent at the job. Perhaps Crowmore finds himself in a messy situation too? Forcing him to resort to the blackmail? But that’s not the only concern Pine has about his new objective.

He suspects that the reason the church suddenly has so much leverage over the government is because the King committed an act of heresy. He figures instead of outright punishment, the lead priest decided to grant the King mercy by using his daughter as a pawn in their power play.

That’s the set up. The story itself is about Pine juggling a ton of secrets, and a ton of guilt over keeping them, especially when these secrets force him to lie to people he cares about. The worst part is that he’s using a system he disagrees with to climb the political latter.

[saltpotion]

screaming crying throwing up @weetbixbb

the porn bots are back with the good urls again :/

[wutheringmights]

@weetbixbb​ did you just make poetry out of my shitpost?

Love the new pfp, he’s so gorg. Might miss rat man but Wars deserves this. (No he doesn’t, but I love him eheh)

In a few weeks, I will long for my beloved and I will discard this pfp to return to his arms again.

But tonight, it is Warriors with the dramatic side profile, and there are twice as many stars as usual

[saltpotion]

TRUE you’re so real for this

Also, I don’t think spending a ton of time on worldbuilding/characters is disgraceful at all! I definitely have several google docs of just me talking to myself on paper trying to make decisions about setting and characters. Six years is honestly an impressive amount of time to commit to one story—it means you’ve thought a lot through

I’m also guilty of excessive note taking and not actually writing though lmao I feel that

& yeah, I am!! They have to hide if they want to practice magic at all. A few of them try to blend in more (such as magic restore lady, or the one who walks up to you in Kasuto to give you a magic container), but it’s challenging—most of them spent a good portion of their lives using magic for everything.

Traveler didn’t, because he ran away at the age when most of them begin training. With the exception of magic items, it wasn’t until his second adventure that he started learning and using Calatian spells. He had complicated feelings about it for awhile, but eventually he realized he liked using magic.

People are particularly spooked by glowing hands, unless it’s the golden light from Princess Zelda. Aurora, who was raised to be the symbolic bridge between two cultures, struggles to only use the light magic, and usually just hides her hands in her pockets while doing spells. Traveler tends to lure monsters away from anyone else before fighting them using magic—the exception being the other heroes, who don’t recognize the source of his magic because the Calatians are only relevant in Traveler’s Hyrule.

Relations between Calatians (the community of sorcerers both Traveler and the king are from) and the Hyruleans really soured after the king died. The manual says that the king ‘kept peace’ using the Triforce, and I took kind of a sinister interpretation of that. He knew that his marriage to the queen wouldn’t be popular due to cultural differences, so he wished on the Triforce to keep peace between Hyruleans and Calatians for as long as he lived.

Unfortunately, he was assassinated by another Calatian who had sided with some Hyruleans in an attempted coup. The events described in the Zelda II manual with the wizard and the curse almost immediately followed. After that, all hell broke loose. The Triforce wish could keep people from making decisions, but it couldn’t keep people from feeling resentful towards each other. And the wish was only for as long as he lived, so when he died, it was like someone twisted a cap on a shaken up soda bottle. Violent conflict broke out.

The Calatians eventually moved west and re-established their own country, having been merged with Hyrule for the duration of the king’s reign. A hundred years later, most Hyruleans’ conception of them are a mix of actual historical events, old legends of heroes who fought evil sorcerers, and completely made up conspiracies.

What sorts of stories do u like writing? Any ideas ur excited about right now??

I’m kind of newish to writing stories, so I guess I don’t have a set genre/preference yet. I wrote a lot of fiction as a kid but got bored of it eventually, and I never finished anything. The most I’ve done since then is creative nonfiction essays, which can be cathartic but definitely a very different skillset.

I haven’t gotten an idea for an original story yet, so for now I’m just working on fanfiction. I’ve been thinking kind of obsessively about the Zelda II backstory ever since I thought it would be fun to imagine what would mean for all that to go down in the context of the canon that’s been established ever since.

Originally I was just going to write a story about Aurora and her brother (who I named Itentio), two Golden Age siblings under immense pressure who are at each other's throats until the bitter end.

But the more I thought about it, the more I became interested in Aurora's life after waking up, so now this idea has evolved into a LU fic. The POV flips from Traveler to Aurora to Dawn, and we get a flashback scene from each of them while the present-day story deals with them confronting their respective pasts.

I'm still kind of in early drafting stages, but so far the story involves Traveler's dad, Aurora's dad (lots of dads), Dawn's political life, uncertainty vs. certainty at the end of the world, rehydrated wizzrobes, the blood curse, monsters who don't want to be monsters, and lots and lots of magic.