#the guy does. Shenanigans happen and over the years the people of the forest begin to treat tahir as a deity in his own right
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the thing I'm eternally undecided about is When does that dragon thing start? Like does it start with Tahir and his willful sacrifice and the ensuing relationship with Daeodon before Tahir's death, and then transition into Twohir and his quest to kill the fucking dragon who's dead lover he's the incarnation of and the Mess that is them trying to figure Their shit our while trying to resurrect Tahir.
Or do I just start with Twohir? Theres more drama and more Story to them beyond the growing pains of a new relationship. but also Tahir is my baby boy and i don't want to relegate him to backstory, and a Lot of Daeodon's vibes just Don't work without the explicit context that his words and his feelings or motivations don't always line up.
Like, without Tahir and the way the two interacted it's Way too easy to assume Daeodon made it rain endlessly for the same reason he stopped the rains entirely years ago. That his only motivation for ruining lives and destroying the forest he's lord and god of is that something was taken away from him and he doesn't care What that thing was, just that it was taken. Because this time around he really does care that it was Tahir specifically he lost.
But leaving Tahir as backstory would also make Daeodon having a heart be more of a reveal? More something Twohir and the reader discover together. But it also make Daeodon way fucking creepier.
Daeodon spends the first handful of interactions he has with Twohir (not including the one where Daeodon broke Twohir's arm) being fucking Weird. Twohir is Tahir's reincarnation, and while the two are Wildly different people, there's situations where it's too easy for Daeodon to just Pretend for a moment. And from Twohir's perspective, the fucking dragon he wants dead and to never be near him again because he considers his fucked up life partially Daeodon's fault, is constantly trying to get close to him and abuse Twohir's willingness to drink at parties and miss the little clues that would give Daeodon in his faunsona away. It's creep behavior. Even with context it's absolutely unacceptable, But with all that context and the reader already having a good insight on who Daeodon is as a person, it's creep behavior that Feels more tragic than disgusting.
But Tahir's side of the story isn't short. It's not something that can just go in a prologue, and it's not at All the same genre as Twohir's. so having the two halves butted up against each other doesn't Feel right.
like tldr: Tahir is my very special boy but how he fucked a dragon and became a love god is kinda boring compared to how his reincation fucked the same dragon, resurrected Tahir, and then also became a love god.
#Like tahirs Entire plot is:#Meets and bangs a mysterious guy at a handful of festivals. the guy only ever shows up at the festivals and pays special attention to Tahir#The dragon god of the forest throws a hissy fit about some mcguffin getting stolen from him and demands it returned. and casts the forest#into a drought until the item is returned or something of equal or greater value in his eyes value is given to him.#Eventually the drought has slogged on for so long the people are desperate and decide a person is the only thing left for them to attempt#sacrificing. Nobody Wants to do that but its the only hope they have. Tahir volunteers bc he loves his community enough to do That.#Hes sorta married off to the dragon god in a whole ceremony. With the hope being that the god wouldn't eat his own bride or would at least#be quick about it if he did.#Anyways Tahir goes to the dragon and surprise its that guy.#they have a fun scene where Tahir. for obvious reasons. does not believe the Guy to be the dragon and demands he probe it#the guy does. Shenanigans happen and over the years the people of the forest begin to treat tahir as a deity in his own right#and that belief does start giving him some actual powers n stuff. and its great hes a love god and his wedding day is a celebrated holiday#and then he dies. Defending Daeodon. and that makes Daeodon very :( and so he honors Tahir's last wish of never taking the rain away#again by making it rain Constantly. his sunlight was stolen from him and so he has stolen everyone elses until its returned.#yadda yadda yadda. Twohir is here now
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Hi Mun!!! I wanted to ask if you have any other kdramas or cdramas you would want to recommend? :0 I still need to catch up with Stranger/Secret Forest, but I’m curious if there are any others I should check out too!
That I do.
Okay so I'm trying to decide how much to factor in enjoyment vs quality here because I have a few shows I really enjoyed but are, um, well, you have to let some stuff pass.
I will mention that my tastes in terms of romancey stuff tends to lean towards non-existent or subtle and so that's largely reflected in my recs. The only exception to this on the list is Flower of Evil. (I didn't intend it but this list doesn't actually have any main BLs/GLs either. A lot of people ship various combos of the main three in MLC and WCL though.)
Shows below cut in no particular order:
Flower of Evil
(modern kdrama)
I wasn't sure how to start with this one so I'll just nab the description from Wikipedia as it's actually fairly accurate here:
Baek Hee-sung is a man who hides his identity and past from his wife Cha Ji-won, a detective. On the surface, they appear to be the perfect family: A loving couple with a beautiful six-year-old daughter who adores her parents.
Cha Ji-won and her colleagues begin investigating a series of unexplained murders and she is confronted with the reality that her seemingly perfect husband may be hiding something from her.
I don't want to spoil much about this, but it's very cat-and-mousey. It's evil with the cliffhangers. At one point, it briefly becomes a buddy comedy between a guy and another guy he kept in his basement. And there is one scene where people just sit in a car crying for two minutes. So, like, it has the range? I think of it as a guilty pleasure kinda show personally, but it's probably the closest to Beyond Evil of the shows on this list.
Mysterious Lotus Casebook
(historical cdrama)
Full disclosure: I have only recently finished this and it has somewhat taken over my brain so I can't claim to be in any way unbiased here. Li Lianhua is a lying liar who lies who may or may not be the fallen hero Li Xiangyi (he is). He wants to get by pretending to be a doctor and minding his own business, but unfortunately, the plot is out to get him. And so he, along with Fang Duobing, end up investigating various crimes as Li Lianhua tries to find the body of his former senior to lay him to rest before his own body gives out on him.
My favourite thing about this show is a) Li Lianhua, and b) the dynamic between the main trio. The levels of trolling and identity porn at any one time are through the roof. It's a comedy until it isn't.
Reset
(modern cdrama)
This is the incredibly rare type of show known as a decent *modern* cdrama. It's a timeloop show and is fairly short at 15 episodes. It's about two strangers who are trapped on a bus that keeps exploding and their attempts to uncover why and how it keeps happening. Being a modern cdrama, some of the police stuff can be fairly... heavy-handed, but I think the writers do what they can despite that, and it does use the different bus passengers to explore different societal issues, which is neat.
Overall, it's a bit of a mystery show, a bit of a character drama, and a teensy bit of romance which is for the most part nicely underplayed.
White Cat Legend
(historical cdrama)
This is waaaaaay more down the enjoyment end than quality but I'm having such a good time here. This is originally based off a manhua (I've only read pieces of it myself) but mainly just takes the characters and some story beats and does its own thing. I watched the donghua first and tonally that was an interesting experience in how it raced between funny cat shenanigans and reckoning with the nature of war crimes (though the donghua stuck much closer to the og source overall). But the live action so far is staying firmly silly (I'm midway through so it will shift at some point, I'm sure, just can't see the tonal whiplash being as bad as in the donghua).
Anyway! To explain what the show actually *is*, it follows a guy who has been cursed to become a cat (in the manhua/donghua this means he's like a walking furry but the live action has it more of a werecat/shapeshifter deal which is good because I could not handle that cg 24/7) and his attempts at running investigations as part of the local court. This is not helped by being the only competent guy in the entire place. Still, at least his underlings are *incredibly* entertaining in their failures. So, most of the show is investigating crimes against a backdrop of Li Bing (catto dude) trying to uncover the origins of the curse and why the old court and his father died. There's also a purple dude with whom he has History and an italian vampire. And vice president shangguan, who is one of those rare female characters you get in historical cdramas where the show is actually normal about her existence *without* just entirely brushing over the implications of her being in her position as a woman.
Move to Heaven
(modern kdrama)
This is a genuine rec where I'm not going to say you have to let quality pass or whatever because it's objectively good and doesn't have a high entry barrier. It may be good to watch an episode at a time depending on your mood though rather than trying to marathon it or anything.
This show basically follows the 'move to heaven' team, who are summoned to clear out the belongings of the deceased. Each deceased person has a story associated with them and as part of tidying the belongings away, there's an element of investigating to find out what their story was. It can be a tearjerker at times, but it can also be incredibly sweet. Also, it has a canon autistic character where it actually strikes a really good balance in terms of not infantilising him whilst still having it make sense why he wants help with certain things.
Nirvana in Fire
(historical cdrama)
This is my beloved. My favourite cdrama of all time. But I suspect it may not fit for you if Secret Forest doesn't. Still, I'll mention it and say to look up the diagrams to keep track of all the characters in the early episodes (...yeah, it's that type of show).
Anyway, this show is about a terminally ill man who takes on a secret identity or two as he plots to take revenge/bring justice (depending on who you ask) for the crimes of the past. This is part of the 'lying liar who lies' subgenre. It's much more serious and complicated overall than Mysterious Lotus Casebook despite the superficial similarities, but it does have its lighthearted moments.
Misc. shows that didn't make the list
I'll mention Signal (kdrama) and Kairos (kdrama) because they both have neat time travel mechanics, but with huge stipulations here. Signal is the objectively better one of these two and the male mc in Kairos is unbearable at times but at the same time Kairos has enough good points to keep me watching. The friend trio of female mc (they're just besties frfr) and the villain romance subplot especially. Signal had potential to be amazing, but for me, some of the time travel mechanics fell through and it was almost BBC Sherlockian at times with some of the 'profiling' deductions.
Signal's premise is that there's a walkie talkie that links the past and the present between a current day consultant profiler (with a distrust of the police despite now working for them) and a past police officer who is dead in the present day. It follows various cases between the past and the present that are interlocking with each other, with the overarching mysteries being present day profiler's backstory and past cop's death. I feel like this started out decently, went hit-and-miss, had a few episodes where it was absolutely amazing, and then lost steam somewhat, though the ending hit the main points.
Kairos' premise centres around a mobile phone. When a phone is disconnected, the number ends up being assigned to someone else. So, the two main characters, living a month apart in time, have the same number and thus can communicate with each other. The male mc in the future has recently found out that his wife and daughter have both died and the female mc's mother has gone missing. So they've both got a scenario they need the other person to help them with and as they change things, more new problems keep cropping up. It's a show where the premise is super interesting, but I personally found it a very frustrating watch, not least because of characters making decisions that were in-character, but incredibly stupid and *not* in the entertaining way.
Also, as I didn't include any BLs/GLs, I'll mention that I cannot in good conscience recommend Guardian (cdrama), but it's such fun trash and it has Shen Wei. It's a bit like shows like Torchwood and Buffy in that it's ostensibly modern era but there's magic (sorry, 'aliens') and a team that's meant to be keeping on top of it all led by Zhao Yunlan. He meets Shen Wei and then proceeds to *keep meeting him* at various crime scenes because Shen Wei sucks at this whole low-key deal.
On a similar note, Couple of Mirrors (cdrama) is a republican era GL. The two leads are well-written, but it's basically like two different shows mushed together (a soap and an assassin/cat-and-mouse chase). It has Yan Wei though! It's about a popular writer meeting a photographer (who is also an assassin) and them both discovering that the writer's husband really and truly sucks.
#sorry for taking so long!#asks#roseofcards90#in b4 I entirely forgot a really obvious show here#if there are any specific shows you want to know about just say. I tried to keep things relatively spoiler-free so may have erred too vague#cdrama recs#kdrama recs
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I don't even if that was meant to be just a random comment or if you really wanted people to ask you about it, but if you REALLY have thoughts the epic of gilgamesh as a teen musical romcom PLEASE TELL ME BECAUSE EVER SINCE I READ YOUR TAGS IT'S ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT
anon i am kissing you on the forehead. i was dearly hoping someone would ask
so our story begins at Uruk High, with an opening number sung by an ensemble of girls
(note: this is one of them things where teenagers are played by twentysomethings. deal with it)
and they're singing about this guy Gil. and at first it sounds like they're singing his praises--he's a star quarterback, named Handsomest by the yearbook three years running, yadda yadda yadda
but then it gets to the chorus and it turns out they hate him. because he's a serial sexual harrasser and just all-around douchebag
and it ends with them praying for help to this framed photo in the girls' locker room--ok you know that teen girl squad ep where cheerleader says something about "mindy cred" and it cuts to the cheerleaders worshiping a picture of someone called mindy? it's like that. some legendary former student. they're praying to her for help in dealing with the menace that is Gil
their prayers are answered in the form of a new student named Enkidu (unlike the other names i am leaving his alone. because of reasons) who rides in on a motorcycle, all black leather and long hair and sexy dangerousness
the girls immediately ask him to kick Gil's ass but he can't be bothered
and then Shayna, the school slut (not derogatory; a title bestowed in reverence) is like "i got this" *puts on lipstick*
so she seduces him (while singing a fun vampy song) and completely rocks his world and he's like "yeah ok i'll do whatever you want"
the next day at school, Enkidu sees Gil being creepy at yet another girl and charges at him
cue Fight. which is probably another musical number
it ends with Enkidu on top of Gil on the floor. they breathlessly stare into each other's eyes for a moment
And Then They Kiss
from that point forward, Gil and Enkidu are the new power couple. Gil stops being a douche and the two of them get up to all sorts of shenanigans
there's gotta be a ballad about how devoted they are to each other. naturally. that's our act 1 closer i think
act 2 begins with the lads embarking upon their most epic caper yet: a plot to kidnap the mascot of rival school Cedar Forest High
said mascot is a fucking bobcat
so they arrive at Cedar Forest and you know that part where they take turns getting scared and giving each other pep talks? that happens. and it's a song and it's cute
so they get the bobcat (easier said than done, blah blah use your imagination)
and then there's a roadtrip to take it to an animal sanctuary some distance away, and that's where we do some Trippy Dream Sequences
they return home and are hailed as conquering heroes
in the ensuing swell of admiration, Gil gets propositioned by a certain School Board Milf (she's been established as a character somehow before this. idk)
he turns her down, like "uhhhhh even if you WEREN'T twice my age and if i DIDN'T have a boyfriend, every dude you've ever banged has ended up royally screwed over, so...no thanks"
this does not go over well. School Board Milf, in her wrath, enlists the help of one of her boyfriends, a certain Police Sergeant Bull
some kind of dramatic confrontation happens between Sgt. Bull and the boys, and the ultimate fallout is that Enkidu is sent to jail
so in the source material, this is Enkidu's death. but this is a COMEDY, so we gotta have a happy ending
that said, Gil is making a big emotional deal out of this as if Enkidu were actually dead
there's a scene of him weeping alone in his room and singing a sad reprise of their romantic ballad from earlier
BUT THEN! a car horn sounds from outside. Gil looks out the window and what does he see but a car full of The Ensemble of Girls!
"GET IN LOSER WE'RE BREAKING YOUR BOYFRIEND OUT OF JAIL"
and then Jailbreak, and Shenanigans, and we end with the happy couple riding off into the sunrise on Enkidu's motorcycle (maybe they literally fly away like in Grease. why the hell not)
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SANGCHENG FIC RECS
flight of a one-winged dove by bloodletter
Talking at someone is only fun for so long. That's all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. It's so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face one’s equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. It’s one of Jiang Cheng’s best qualities.
In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.
whipped by reindeercolin
Jiang Cheng blinks. “Dammit, they do think you’re dating one of us! I hate it when Wei Wuxian is right.”
“Excuse me?” Nie Huaisang gives him an incredulous look. “First of all, they think I’m dating you, and if anything, they’re getting more aggressive!”
(or, the one in which Jiang Cheng has too many relatives, not enough patience, goes through a brother-divorce and finds out he has a boyfriend - in that order, more or less.)
Ponder the Manner of Things by Pip (Moirail)
It's not that Jiang Cheng can't do a quadruple flip followed by a triple toeloop. It's that his mother seems to think that's still not good enough.
Jiang Cheng is grateful that Huaisang doesn’t have the same kind of family life that he does, all - messy with expectations and cravings for closeness and nothing but vague filial piety where love is meant to be.
a matter of time and organ donation by nev_longbottom
This is it. The call he’s been waiting for. His brother had ‘an accident’ or ‘died in his sleep’ or some other lie to cover up the murder.
“Please, Mingjue is missing. He got into one of his moods and he was gone when I came back from grocery shopping. He’s not answering his phone. I don’t know if he left or was kidnapped or if something else happened. Huaisang, please, if you’ve heard anything,” Meng Yao begs.
Nie Huaisang hunts his brother's killer.
no tip necessary by tattletold
With all the nervousness of a virgin in a whorehouse, Jiang Cheng closes the door behind himself and enters, sitting on the low seat across from the escort. The pretty young man keeps his face hidden behind the delicate fan, and Jiang Cheng thinks for a moment that he recognizes the design painted onto it now that he’s closer.
It’s only when he lowers the fan and opens his eyes, wide, does Jiang Cheng paralyze with realization.
They speak at the same time in equally horrified tones.
“Jiang Cheng?”
“Nie Huaisang?”
Your Place in the Family of Things by raisedbyhyenas
No matter what happens, no matter the circumstances, Wei Wuxian will always leave and Jiang Cheng will always get stuck trying to rebuild from whatever’s left.
*************
In which Jiang Cheng makes friends; gets a cat; begins to rebuild a relationship; and maybe, possibly, potentially, learns a little bit how to be happy.
sigh yourself to sleep by merthurlin
“Let me take care of you, A-Cheng.”
No one—no one has ever said that, not to Jiang Cheng. He wasn’t a very sickly child, true, but the few times he remembered being sick it was never—he had a-jie, and later on he had Wei Wuxian, for what it was worth, but he never—
halcyon days by serein
They're in a forest, it seems just the two of them.
"You have to be patient," Nie Huaisang says, "I once waited for three days to catch a sparrow."
"Three days?" Jiang Cheng replies, sceptical. He can't imagine Nie Huaisang having the attention span for that.
"It's not that hard," Nie Huaisang says, "if you know what they want, and find a way to get it for them."
[JC stumbles across an array and gets physically de-aged to be 16/17. NHS kindly offers his help to an old friend, but things... escalate.]
To Distraction by isozyme
It’s the third night of Yunmeng’s kite festival celebrations. Nie Huaisang has come visiting, eager to partake in the food, the arts, and Jiang Cheng.
-
Jiang Cheng wants to forget. Nie Huaisang has some new lube and wants to see if he can put his whole fist in somebody’s ass.
Lights, Camera, Kiss by MissMagus
When Nie Huaisang gets paired with straight porn star Jiang Cheng for a five-part series, he’s sure it will be an utter disaster. Until the cameras start rolling and their chemistry alights like wildfire.
(Or, the five times Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng have sex for their job, and the first time they have sex outside of it.)
Only the Shallow by hamburglar
When Nie Huaisang gets bored and convinces Jiang Cheng to make out with him, he’s probably not expecting to still be dealing with the guy 16 years later.
OR the story where Jiang Cheng goes into: the Cloud Recesses, denial, some bushes, the private porn library at the Unclean Realm, and subspace.
Blind for Love by manamune
Jiang Cheng is poisoned with an aphrodisiac and needs to orgasm repeatedly in order to flush it from his system.
The first person he thinks of going to for help is Nie Huaisang, who does what any good friend would do: he shoves his three decades worth of feelings for Jiang Cheng deep into the recesses of his mind, locks them up so he can pretend they don’t exist, and then fucks him so hard that he passes out.
Descending by lightningwaltz
“I want to… to not be embarrassed.”
“To not be embarrassed during what?”
“During sex.” There. Jiang Cheng can say it. “In general. Also with you right now.”
“Very good.”
“When did you become so authoritative?” Jiang Cheng wants to sound irked, but can’t quite manage anything beyond nervous curiosity.
dark water by Morgan (duckwhatduck)
There are words, somewhere, for this. Words that would put a shape to the thing that sits between them, would seal their understanding. There are words for sympathy, for friendship, for understanding, for that touch, for this feeling.
Jiang Cheng can feel them, somewhere, fluttering formless at the back of his throat, squirming under his ribcage, but he cannot grasp them. They swim beneath the surface, fish in muddy water - and like fish, they will dart away if he grabs for them incautiously, and leave him nothing but cold splashes and grit.
Or: Why talk about things when you could fuck about it instead?
never knew i was a dancer by isozyme
“What’s a stone butch and why aren’t they real?” Jiang Cheng asks, too buzzed to care too much about not being up on lesbian culture.
Huaisang pats Jiang Cheng on the no-man’s-land between her boobs and her shoulder. “You’re so useless, Jiang Cheng. A stone butch is a fictional hottie who doesn’t make you do any work at all, just wants to give head and fuck you stupid on her strap.”
“Fictional?” Jiang Cheng echoes, having - not a moment, per se, but sort of a problem where her thoughts are going too fast for her poor drunken brain to keep up with.
“Nobody actually wants to fuck a chick who’s too lazy to eat you out after,” Huaisang mumbles.
-
After leaving Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s bachelorette party, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang decide to experiment with some outdated stereotypical lesbian sex roles.
lights out by rynleaf
“Nie-zongzhu makes the most sense,” Sect Leader Yao nods sagely, to murmurs of assent across the Jin Sect’s gold gilded banquet hall. Jin Ling, clad in opulent robes that look somewhat comical on a boy of sixteen, inclines his head as his scribe makes a notation, and the noise rises as sect leaders pat themselves and each other on the back for a decision well made.
Jiang Cheng groans and downs his cup of wine in one go.
-
In which the Sect Leaders elect a new Chief Cultivator.
shadow eternal by rynleaf
“You want me to distract the Chief Cultivator from the Annual Cultivation Conference, so you and other sect leaders can… what. Sign contracts without adult supervision?”
“If Jiang-zongzhu is amenable,” Sect Leader Ouyang repeats with a nod.
Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose. The pressure he felt building behind his eyes all morning is swiftly coalescing into a bitch of a headache. “Just what do you all think I’m capable of?”
Sect Leader Ouyang bows with a cheerful smile. “We have utmost faith in Sandu Shengshou’s abilities.”
-
In which a night hunt ends in disaster, Jiang Cheng catches a glimpse of Nie Huaisang's heart, and feelings are discussed after a certain fashion.
Four Days in Lanling by halotolerant
Nie Huaisang looks at him. ‘You are confusing me, Clan Leader Jiang, perhaps I misunderstand, but…’
‘You didn’t misunderstand. You don’t misunderstand. You understand all of it.’ For six months Jiang Cheng has been mulling this over, and now with Nie Huaisang in front of him he can’t figure out if he most wants to knock him down or kneel at his feet. What he does is try and breathe. Clench his hands at his sides. ‘And now I am going to ask you to do something for me. You have to do something for me. You have to help Jin Ling.’
Lean for Love Forever by Pip (Moirail)
Having a crush on your roommate is really embarrassing, except that's apparently the opposite of a problem. Jiang Cheng can't deny that's pretty convenient.
Wei Ying holds it up, a series of straps and buckles and velcro and wow, really a lot of leather. It has absolutely no conceivable form beyond tangled.
Nie Huaisang opens the door at exactly the moment that Wei Ying holds the thing up to Jiang Cheng’s chest, as if he’s trying to imagine how exactly it would fit onto a person, and it falls into a tangled pile between them while they stare at Huaisang in mild mortification.
acquired momentum by mongrelmind
Had Madam Yu known that this is where her son would end up, she would have gouged his eyes out with her bracelet before he made the grave mistake of looking in the direction of Nie Huaisang.
-
in which Nie Huaisang has an art show, Jiang Cheng is begrudgingly topless*, and there are. Shenanigans.
*Nie Huaisang excluded.
#sangcheng#mdzs#mdzs recs#fic recs#jiang cheng#nie huaisang#ill probably add more fics when I read more fics
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Tangled Salt Marathon - You're Kidding Me
So we’ve finally come to the last of season two’s filler episodes. Let’s see if we can knock this one out real quick.
Summary: The front door of the mysterious seashell estate vanishes, trapping the group. They try to find another way out but find a spinning top whose magic regresses Cassandra and Lance into toddlers and Shorty into a baby. They’ve only have an hour to find the top and reverse the effects or the changes become permanent. Unfortunately neither of Rapunzel’s or Eugene’s parenting methods keep their now childish friends on task.
So Why Did No One Stand Watch Last Night?
They were all sleeping right next to the entrance, and after the run in with the mirror monsters, you would think that they would have taken turns standing watch.
But nope, the front door vanishes when no one was looking cause they don't have any foresight.
A Low Budget Doesn’t Excuse Filler
Like most of season two, this is yet another episode that adds very little to the overall story. It’s slightly better than the Return of Quaid or Curses, but not by much. I put it on the same level as The Forest of No Return, as I do like the mains’ development, but there’s really no reason why such episodes exist to begin with.
The meta reason for staying in certain places for three episodes, instead of only one or two, is because of budgetary reasons. The crew have to build new sets and models for every new location or person the cast comes across. This costs money to make, so the higher ups wanted to reuse assets. Which is understandable, but not an excuse for utilizing them poorly.
If you need to stay in one area or have characters reappear, then you need to give story reasons for that. Ones that tie back to the overall narrative and/or the mains’ character arcs.
The shell house and Matthews should be more important than what they are as they both have connections to the ultimate big bad of the series.Adria shouldn’t be wasted for a whole episode when she’s the only one driving the plot in season two and has limited appearances. Vardaros and its people shouldn’t be a one and done thing if you’re going to spend so much time setting them up. And there’s still one off episodes, locations, and characters who aren’t brought back and add nothing
Not only does this make for a weaker story, it also undermines the cost saving measures that you tried to implement to begin with.
This Isn’t Representation!
Get it?!
She’s a top!
She’s totally gay, but like not really, cause this can also be interpreted as a dominatrix joke, and there’s no other real indication of her orientation outside her like smiling at her best friend/crush/sister sometimes and keeping that rose her creepy ex-boyfriend gave her.
And don't give me any bullshit excuses about Disney not letting the crew make Cassandra canonly gay/bi.
The Owl House aired just this year, the same year as Tangled’s final season. Also Globby and Carl from Big Hero Six were both confirmed to be a couple on screen a month after this episode came out. Both shows would have been in development at the same time as Tangled was. Both would have been subject to the same regulations and restrictions while writing their stories.
It isn’t “Disney” that stopped the storyboard artists from having Cass be a confirmed lesbian, it’s Chris and Ben, the head writers themselves, who failed to write it into the story properly, if at all.
Chris is the one who made Raps and Cass “sisters”. Chris is the one who wouldn’t tell the crew about his ‘twists’. Chris is the one who had Cass crush on Andrew, even after he tried to kill her. Chris is the one who made Cassandra ‘straight’ and has since used gay baiting to keep her fanbase in his pocket.
Like I am really damn sick and tired of Casspunzel stans defending Chris on twitter, when he’s the very one who sunk thier ship to begin with. I’m also really fed up with certain fans trying to bully others for not accepting their “Cass is a lesbian” headcanons as fact because what the storyboarders say on twitter after the show is over with isn’t gospel and isn’t real rep.
I don’t care if you ship Cass with Raps or headcanon her as being gay. Ships and headcanons are great and can be a lot of fun. But fuck you if you ever try to shame people for not sharing your ships/headcanons. Not only is it biophobic and acephobic to insist that there’s only ever a binary option when it comes to orientation and shipping, but it also reinforces harmful stereotypes and tropes about people in the queer community.
Like, yes, I personally may be an introverted angry bitch who’s an LBGTQA member and activist, but that doesn’t mean that every introverted bitchy woman in media is a lesbian. What kind of message does that send people when that’s the only character archetype that’s given representation or is loudly proclaimed as ‘gay’ by the wider audience? Fuck that noise!
I Know Humor is Subjective but...WHY?
Why did we give the baby a beard? How does that logically work? Did anyone outside of the crew actually find this funny?
TTS has like this one out of touch dude throwing out jokes that don’t really land with the target audience. Fans have called it ‘boomer humor’ but it’s actually ‘Gen-X’ humor. Not only because Chris and Ben are Gen Xers but because this is the type of crap my older brother would find hilarious.
Gen Xers are between Boomers and Millennials and so their humor is this weird blend of gross out shock humor, ironic nihilism, and out of date stereotypes that are only mildly better than those of the previous generation before them. They’re the generation who gave us Beavis and Butthead, South Park, and Clerks.
That’s not a criticism of Gen X as a generation, but rather just an acknowledgment that they’re worlds away from the neo-dada absurdism, more socially conscious, and globalized humor of Gen Z.
So Why Is the Bad Guy Telling the Heroes How to Foil His Plans?
Like he not only tells them how to fix their problem and how long they got in order to do so, but he also informs them how it happened in the first place. This goes directly against his plans. Had he simply said nothing and stayed out sight, then Raps and Eugene would have been lost for the full hour and most likely not have saved everyone on time.
I like to headcanon that Mathews is just “that asshole” that loves to taunt and tease but in a that manner that gives him plausible deniability. He also may just be bored, since he’s a ghost trapped in one place all the time. Yet that still doesn’t change the fact that he shot himself in the foot here.
Raps and Young Cass’s Relationship Is the Same as Raps and Adult Cass’s, and That Is a Problem.
Condescending, manipulative, hypocritical, and bossy is the way Rapunzel treats everyone. She doesn’t understand the actual difference between a child and an adult. She only understands who she who she can and can’t boss around. And those people that she can’t place under her thumb are labeled antagonists by the show.
Nor does she actually care about what either kid Lance or kid Cass has to say. She’s just being proformative, and young Cass can see through that BS, which why her methods do not work. It’s not because she’s not ‘strict’ enough; it’s because she’s not being honest.
Meanwhile Child Cassandra is just as combative, rude, bullying, and entitled as Adult Cassandra. In season three she regresses even further and becomes more violent than before.
Unlike Rapunzel, Cassandra wasn’t trapped in a tower for 18 years with zero human contact outside of her abuser. She escaped that fate and was raised in a loving home. That doesn’t mean that there won't be scars, but I still expect her to be more mature than her seven year old self. Just because she’s whining about not being special enough at 24 instead of screaming about the floor being lava doesn’t mean that she’s still not throwing a temper tantrum.
Like I should not be seeing a replay/foreshadowing of their main conflict here. They aren’t children. They’re dynamic isn’t that of a mother and child. It’s not even a big sister looking out for a little sister type relationship. Its two immature women dragging innocent victims into their bitchy cat fight for dominance over the other.
If you want me to take their issues seriously then give them real stakes to disagree over, mature behavior that I can root for, and a resolvement that doesn’t reverse any potential development that they could have had.
Matthews Plan Makes Zero Sense
For starters, half the group being kids isn’t enough of a reason for Rapunzel to stay at the shell house. Even if the effects of the time top became permanent, then Raps and Eugene could just leave and take the kids with them. Either to finish the road trip, or go straight back to Corona. Not that there’s any real reason to get the Dark Kingdom anyways, nor is there a ticking clock stopping Raps from trying again later if she chose to.
Rapunzel also is not obligated to become anyone’s mother. If she took them back to Corona than Cap would undoubtedly raise Cassandra all over again, and Lance and Shorty could be adopted by someone else. Any of the pub thugs might take them or even perhaps the King and Queen since they missed out on raising their actual daughter. Though for my money I’d get Monty or Xavier to take them in. They seem the most mature and both are shown to be good with kids.
Then again Rapunzel has been shown twice now to not give a damn about abandoning orphans, so even the ‘dump them at an orphanage’ or ‘leave them alone in the woods to fend for themselves’ isn’t entirely off the table either. I wish I was joking, but I’m not. Sadly, only Eugene’s love for Lance might be the one thing to stop her from doing just so, and even that’s iffy.
As for the missing door from earlier, if that was all that was stopping them from leaving then the time top shenanigans were fully unnecessary altogether.
I Actually Like Eugene and Rapunzel’s Conflict Here; I Just Wish It Was In a Better Episode.
Each of their viewpoints stem from their upbringing.
Rapunzel is unique in that she was simultaneously emotionally abused and neglected while being physically spoiled. Especially once she found out that she was princess, where she was then handed nearly anything and everything she wanted. She doesn’t recognize that getting your every possible whim come true can be damaging. Nor does she have any comprehension of what living in poverty is like and how this many toys is wasteful to someone like Eugene who had so very little and stole to survive.
She does however associate limits, boundaries, and orders with abusive behavior because she’s been denied autonomy and respect her whole life. She’s never seen what healthy parenting looks like and how rules can be applied correctly.
To Rapunzel no orders is ‘freeing’ and ‘validation’ is all that is needed to get a child to listen to you. Which doesn’t work for her because she doesn’t understand that real communication is more than just giving a compliment now and then.
Meanwhile Eugene lacked any sort of anchor at all. He was left to his own devices at a young age and had no one to rely on for emotional needs and, after leaving the orphanage, no one to provide physical needs either.
It’s telling that he and Lance latched onto Quaid as the only authority figure in their life, despite Quaid never out right adopting them. He was the only sense of stability that they had who they could trust wouldn’t hurt them, despite being strict with them.
And now that Eugene has gotten older and is reformed, he can probably understand why Quaid was so harsh on him and Lance. Quaid probably did more to try and help them turn from a life crime than even Rapunzel did. Like meeting Rapunzel was the inciting incident that inspired Eugene to make that leap, but the groundwork was already laid out for him to do so elsewhere. Things like his good communication skills, respect and empathy of others, and understanding of boundaries had to be learned from somewhere, and if not from the Sheriff of Vardaros than who?
What I’m getting at is that, while Rapunzel rejects her parents methods but then fails to break her learned habits from them anyways, Eugene is the reverse. He’s come to embrace his mentor’s teachings, but he fails to implement them correctly because he’s not Quaid. Being authoritative isn’t his strong suit. It goes against his usual nature as the easy going person that he is and so any attempts to come across as forceful fail as they’re hollow.
Kids know authenticity and genuineness when they see it. The children reject Rapunzel because she’s not being real with them, yet they also reject Eugene cause he’s not being honest with himself.
It’s a complex and mature conflict. Neither person is fully right nor wrong, and only by learning from each other and adopting both methods can they achieve their goal.
TTS can be deep when it wants to be. There’s a good foundation here for mature themes and complex characterization. It’s just the series doesn’t ever commit to it.
Whatever personal drama going on here about two young adults trying to cope with their past traumas and how that affects their current life and future goals is completely lost in the magical goofy antics and low stakes situation. Even the stuff about Eugene and his relationship with Quaid is reduced to nothing but a one off joke rather than being genuinely explored as a point of development.
Imagine how much more powerful things would have been if Angry and Red were brought along on the trip. If this argument was over them and whether or not they should adopt the two girls themselves or consider other options. That would be something with real weight. Something with a choice that had actual consequences attached to it. Something that would permanently affect all involved parties. Something that wouldn’t make the two leads look like outright dicks for abandoning two children for a second damn time in a row.
You Have 70 Feet of Magical, Indestructible Hair! Why Are You Afraid of a Bunch of Dogs!?
You’ve fought off giant monsters, killer robots, and supernatural beings with magical powers. What do you mean you can’t hold off a pack of guard dogs while busting down a stuck door? Why is Eugene the shield for everyone and not the actual unbreakable hair that you use as a shield all the damn time? And Why did we have to rely on Shorty again to be the deus ex machina of the episode?
At this point the writers should have just made him Demantius instead of the monkey.
What Happened To This New Dream? Where Did It Go In Season Three?
Most fans who do enjoy season two happen to be big New Dream fans as this is by far and away the best season for them. I’ll admit that the series, up to this point, had me actively liking them together, despite being originally lukewarm to the pairing in the movie.
Their conflicts were for the the most part mature and real. They learned from one another equally and had open communication when it didn't involve ‘marriage is a trap’ BS. Things, like compromising on differentiating future goals, honesty and communication, and making time for one another and extending effort into a relationship while being true to yourself are all relatable issues.
Even today's episode featured the topic of having kids and parenting. Which is a discussion you absolutely need to have with your prospective spouse before entering into any long term commitments and signing any legal contracts. For real, I’ve seen marriages fall apart because they didn’t agree on whether or not they wanted children.
I don’t know what went down between writing season two and season three, but things quickly took a sharp turn away from this dynamic and nosedived into a pit of uncomfortable bullying and gross sexist implications here after.
Matthews Plan Goes Against Zhan Tiri’s Plan
Yeah so Matthews is one of Zhan Tiri’s disciples, but he apparently doesn’t know of her goals/plans, cause she needs Rapunzel and company to reach the moonstone, not stay stuck here.
The meta reason for this that the Zhan Tiri’s story was altered at the last minute and the writers failed to make sure there was any sort of consistency between what they already set up and where they actually wound to actually taking the plot.
The in universe reason is that Zhan Tiri is an impotent moron, but that’s not what the writers were going for so it’s a fail.
Conclusion
I like the New Dream stuff, and Matthews is at least entertaining despite being incompetent. Everything else about the episode is ‘meh’ tho.
#tangled#rapunzel's tangled adventure#tangled the series#anti-tangled#anti-rapunzel#anti-cassandra#eugene
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31, 56, 19, 78, 20, 16, 11, 12 , 10, 4, 1, 21, 36, 39. Sorry if this is too many 😅
Guys it’s NEVER too many you’re giving me the chance to talk nonstop about Sonic it’s the best thing that’s happened to me in days
also I had planned to answer them in the order you asked for but it was driving me crazy so I sorted them out thematically sorry alfhjkhljshja
I answered 1 here!
100 Sonic Questions
21.) Tell us a funny Sonic-related story.
This one comes from the depths of my very first months as a Sonic fan. Basically, I had watched Sonic X upon its first Italian release as a very very smol bean. By the time I got obsessed again in middle school, though, I had forgotten everything about it except a few shots from the Italian opening theme and ONE scene from a season three episode, where Sonic and Knuckles played chess on a spaceship and then Sonic began running around and fell into space.
The “friend” that had introduced me to the show again (not a nice person and source of about 25% of my trauma, I’m glad to say I haven’t seen her in years) didn’t believe me and accused me of lying. Repeatedly. Unkindly. For months. How could such a stupid scene be in such an amazing cartoon? I must be trying to fuck with her.
Fast forward to the end of the year. I’m minding my business and I see a Facebook message from this friend, and another, and another. I click on it wondering what she’d be going ham over, and BAM. This girl had been watching Sonic AMVs on Youtube and had caught a glimpse of that scene at the beginning of a video and was fucking losing it over the fact that WOW, I HAD BEEN TELLING THE TRUTH ALL ALONG?!
Now, you have to understand that I wasn’t the kind of kid that swore, back then. I had been brought up to think that swear words would send you to hell straight away. And while not a delicate little flower, I was much, much cuter and more proper than I am now because I couldn’t live out my butch dreams quite yet. But I needed to express all the frustration gathered in those months.
So please imagine this baby-faced, straight A student 13yo wait for her friend in front of their school and bellow at the top of her lungs “BITCH, WHAT DID I FUCKING TELL YOU?”
I still remember that scene fondly, though.
31.) Tell us a Sonic-related story that will give us feels.
Related to the experience I just mentioned, the problem I had in my first years in this fandom was that this person who had dragged me into it was obsessed with the thought that people would mock us for it. She said it was for kids, and when she got over it she gave me shit for clinging to my passion while she’d “grown up”, and she had me enjoy Sonic in secret and yelled at me for saying anything even vaguely related out loud where other people could hear us.
It got into my head so much that for a long long time I didn’t dare share anything Sonic-adjacent on any social media, long past when I’d broke away from her. I thought no one would ever take me seriously again. I felt ashamed a lot.
It got better, though. Slowly, I broke out of my shell and started interacting with this amazing fandom, and I found lots of people who didn’t give a damn about what the world thought of their passion. And I know tons of wonderful people outside the fandom, too, friends who encourage me to talk about Sonic even though they don’t know anything about it. Chats where any mention of Sonic has someone saying “wait we must tag naivesilver into this she’ll love it”. It’s - it warms my heart every day. Tumblr is a shithole, but it helped me in feeling free to do what I love in the fandom that I love most.
Thank you. To everyone that got me through that, thank you. You have no idea how helpful you’ve been to me.
19.) Favorite soundtrack
KNOCK KNOCK IT’S FUCKING KNUCKLES
youtube
20.) Least favorite soundtrack?
None I think???? There are some I don't listen to much, either because I haven't played the game or I just don't vibe with them, but there isn't any song that I particularly dislike. Almost all of them are genuine bops.
16.) (if you read fanfic) What are some fic tropes you love? Ones you hate?
FOUND FAMILY!!! Adoptive parents, siblings, friends taking care of each other, I want a shitton of fluff in my life. And kid!fic. I could read (and write!) kid!fic every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. That's why I enjoy Chaotix and Sonic Movie fics so much. Let's raise them boys well.
As for hating...I don't like high school AUs lmao I wrote one when I was younger but I never dared touch it again and I haven't read any Sonic one since 2014 at most. And most time travel fics. Sorry, Silver, I love you a fucking lot but time travel shenanigans are only funny in the two or three specific settings my mind lets me enjoy.
11.) Top five stages.
In no particular order:
-Press Garden (Mania)
-Casinopolis (Adventure)
-Casino Forest (Forces)
-Studiopolis (Mania)
Anddddd I haven't played much else so I'll have to get back to you on this ajshfkjfahlljha
12.) Worst five stages.
-IMPERIAL TOWER
-IMPERIAL TOWER
-Jesus Christ I died 78 times in that stage alone
-I'm bad at being fast and not falling off stuff and it required me to do both at the same time
-Also the Shadow DLC levels. Fuck me up a bit more will you
56.) In your opinion, what’s the weirdest thing any character has ever said?
I'm a simple girl, I see this panel and I lose my shit
10.) What do you like best about your favorite animated adaptation?
I only finished my Sonic X rewatch yesterday and I’ve been meaning to make some final comments about it (tho it’d probably be me rambling at thin air bc I doubt I can say anything that hasn’t been already said over and over and over) but the most compelling thing for me is and always will be the music.
Don’t get me wrong, what I’ve seen of the OG Japanese version had wonderful, heartfelt music, but the upbeat themes I grew up with still have me vibing day in and day out. I can dance to the Italian opening sequence at any given moment - no, you know what, here it is. Watch it and feel the serotonin drip into your veins.
(Some people will come at me for this, but I didn’t watch this show in 2019-2020 to make an in-depth analysis about it. I did it to have a dance off while Knuckles beat up some robots.)
78.) Post a scene that always gives you feels.
Sonic 06:
youtube
13yo me about to see her first ship torn apart:
4.) The last Sonic game you played is now your life. How awesome is this adventure gonna be?
Sonic Adventure - which means it’s a pretty cool life, unless it runs like SA does on my laptop and it turns slow and glitchy and grinds on my nerves even more
36.) C’mon now. How many ships do you have? :P
A FUCKING LOT my main ones are silvaze, vecpio and sonadow but I have many medium or small ones that I enjoy finding content for, like tikaze or knouge
39.) Which game is your golden standard?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not the greatest game fan as in I’ve only been actively playing for the past 2/3 years. Before that it was just gameplays on Youtube, so you should not take my opinion into any account since it’s not very informed.
However there was something about Sonic and the Black Knight that just felt...new? Peculiar? I know jack shit about the technical side of gaming but I remember being extremely pumped every time I logged in to see more of it. I'd like to feel that again, when a new game drops.
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I saw your Dumbledore posts and I’m just wondering why you think that Voldemort is his fault. Because I don’t. I mean Dumbledore didn’t do anything to him and it was his choice. Plus you said that he did it twice, it was all Grindelwald’s idea to begin with and he chose to go through with it. I get you don’t like him and all but I don’t believe that Voldemort is his fault. Like Voldemort is entirely his own fault.
the guy is a punk ass dong and he’s like, the least wise person ever coz he may know a lot of shit going on but what’s he ever actually do himself with any of it. he’s the most powerful wizard alive and just chills in the bg arranging things for other people to react to the messes he sees coming a mile away, the guy is a menace……..and like firstly why is his reaction to finally realizing that magic ability supremacy is wrong to wait around to do anything abt the other guy and also decide never to take a position in govt?? the magic govt is useless as is and coming in to cause problems like….say he rises to minister of magic, what even is his jurisdiction and authority. also he doesn’t DO anything abt his revelation and this problem that keeps coming up on his watch….like you couldn’t possibly do anything to help anyone or advocate for any change w your new morals?? what a freakin weendog
also with voldemort, like, every Dumbles and Voldes In The Past flashback shows us how wise dumbledore is coz he’s all suspecting tom riddle of being evil. like, so then do something about it or maybe tell everyone or bring it up in a staff meeting that apparently hogwarts has done nothing ever to address the constant problem of purebloodism. or just do nothing about him ever and let him marinate into this super powerful evil murdery guy, that’s your trademark style, not like you aren’t supposed to be super wise and super powerful or anything. what a nerd
nah instead he dumps a baby at the crappiest possible location for it and then leaves him to deal with voldemort every year when he doesn’t even know like, any magic and is a child the whole time. plus it’s all “oh i didnt tell you about your whole obligation to die / kill voldemort coz i was all tenderhearted and wanted you to enjoy your life, which is the same philosophy i used to leave you isolated with abusive relations for the first decade of your life, and i let you confront dangers as a part of training” like, Or Just Train Him, and also how did he KNOW there would be enough fuckin shenanigans at hogwarts to let hp get used to life and death antics and fighting off voldemort? did he just sit back and let it happen? did he Know nobody would happen to get killed by basilisk or whatever annual nonsense was going on? tf
so way to let some random teen take care of the problem. where is he the whole time, btw? every year at hogwarts he like shows up at feasts and maybe harry finds him at other random occasions. but what is he doing. coz it never seems to be anything for the improvement of the school. and he keeps just not even being around. and being ultimately responsible for every fuckin ludicrous thing that happens in hogwarts. remember how 11 yr olds were sent into the forbidden forest coz they were up late. what in sweet wiz god’s name.
and what in the H e c k was he doing in the sixth year????? how did he manage to fuck himself up on horcruxes. way to absolutely go. and then he’s like “oh dude snape you gotta like kill me man” uhhh How?! how do you plan to arrange that? the whole incident on the tower was something he actually didnt really see coming for once. and like oh wow for once in his life he’s trying to prevent a student from dying, and again is only like giving some five second proposition like “but what if you defected instead and live underground til this thing blows over” like, you could’ve said something before…and how did you know you’d get this chance at all?? and how do you expect someone to go for that in like seven literal seconds. and all the wand switcheroos that occurred there and would prove essential was also total coincidence and no thanks to the d-dore…..lord his own death is also totally his fault
like, the one thing he does is show up to duel off voldemort in book 5, thanks for once. but why doesn’t he make THAT kinda shit his plan? like, imagine a world where instead of getting himself killed, dumbledore goes after the damn horcruxes himself, kills off the whole regular body voldemort had going on, figures out a decent way to destroy horcruxes and takes them all out and lets harry smite the last one so the damn prophecy shit is happy. let hermione help, it’ll all be great
he’s wise and powerful for Fuck All and totally passive abt major issues when there’s no reason to be and crap as a protector and totally irresponsible as a headmaster and ultimately comes off as a manipulative Poser get outta here dude. 0 stars. where’s gandalf
but anyways snape is crappier but he’s not in dumbledore’s positions so not as much of a total letdown
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Remember Noodle’s Secret Lover? Part 1/? (Chapters 1-3)
So, the topic of bad fanfiction came up in that one Gorillaz fandom Discord server, and I was reminded of just how much Gorillazbiggestfan’s magnum opus still amuses me to this day. And after a little thinking, I decided “Y’know what? I don’t have the energy to write an entire sporking again, but I could do a sort of chapter(s)-by-chapter(s) revisiting of it!” Because seriously, it’s just too good to be forgotten; I really do consider this the fandom’s version of My Immortal.
*Now, I think one reason why this fic not getting the attention such a reputation should warrant (aside from Gorillaz being a small-ish fandom) is because the first three chapters are so boring. See, in My Immortal, you're whapped with a sack full of preposterous and irreverent bullshit right off the bat: we get a long-ass introduction of an over-the-top Sue (and her outrageous clothing choices), Draco in Leather Baggy Black Skater Pants takes her on a date to a Good Charlotte concert in Hogsmeade, and then they fuck in the Forbidden Forest before being memetically interrupted by Dumbledore with a headache. This story, meanwhile, has no such insanity to hook the reader in. It starts out as your run-of-the-mill “2Nu plus an OC shipper on deck” tale, and it stays that way long enough to bore away most readers.
*Oh, and when first sporking this thing, I also found it rather amusing that the author was helped by her friend, D.D.Darkwriter - whom a certain few might recall penned another fic I sporked. I might mention that while it isn’t nearly as batshit as this particular tale, Finding Fate is still quite enjoyably bad, and so I recommend that one as well.
*So the artifact premise of this fic is essentially an Operation Jealousy plotline. Noodle, who is now of legal age, tries to jump 2D one night after having nursed a crush on him for years, but when he rejects her sudden advances, she and her roommate Kitty (who was introduced in a previous story the author has written, which I have not yet read) conspire to pretend to be in a relationship and thus draw his attention. The reader might find themself wondering why Noodle would even care so much about being with some guy when she's likely well-aware of how sketchy the relationship would look, let alone why she’d turn to such a juvenile method of winning his affections; but other than that, this fic is quite unspectacular so far.
*Already, you will notice that there’s a lot wrong with the fic mechanically - shoddy spelling, poor punctuation, a tendency towards muddled wording, etc. But these problems are common to all badfic, and so I will see little reason to mention them except in certain moments.
*While it isn’t until next chapter that Kitty begins to warp the story around herself (as Sues do), this chapter does give us a small hint of things to come - when she comforts Noodle by telling her to “stop crying [her] eyes are too beautiful for that,” Noodle responds straight away by commenting on the beauty of Kitty’s own eyes (which are green). It’s indicated later that the author didn’t know Noodle’s eyes were also supposed to be green (which is a pretty understandable mistake in this fandom), so I’m not gonna chalk this down to Kitty attempting to ape/one-up Noodle’s characteristics; all the same, though, this does ring odd to me considering all that happens later...
*As it turns out, 2D is in fact outside their room and eavesdropping on the conversation! This has no real effect on the plot, however, (aside from spurring another event, which turns out to be pointless, and rendering the fic’s title meaningless - the “secret lover” is no longer a secret) so this reveal is devoid of tension. He tells himself he’s not gonna let their shenanigans get to him through a few badly-worded sentences (which won’t entirely turn out to be true), and then he just toddles back to his room to sleep.
*Then Chapter One just sort of ends with Noodle and Kitty snuggling up together for warmth. A riveting first installment, no doubt, but bear with me and you’re gonna start to see some real shit.
*Chapter Two starts with Noodle waking up and feeling weird because they’re both in their undies (anyone else find it odd that their clothes are off, if they’re just pretending to be together in public?). She gets up and starts a shower, the steam from which somehow wakes Kitty as well (no, seriously, it’s explicitly stated that the steam is what wakes her...I don’t think steam works that way), and then Kitty comes in and decides to join her for reasons.
*Kitty is stated to be wearing a halter top, which I mention because the author inserts a parenthetical note explaining that it is a “half-shirt” - or, rather, a “half-shit.” I am immature. XD
*So we get a showering scene featuring awkward and repetitive descriptions of the women washing themselves and each other, with Noodle becoming a little hot and bothered by the situation. While it’s later revealed - or should I say retconned - that she’s had a thing for Kitty as well, it is soon stated outright that their interest in each other’s bodies is purely aesthetic; this discrepancy is probably explained by said reveal actually being a retcon.
*The first of Kitty’s physical traits that really stands out as Sue-ish is her long white hair, which she always keeps in two ponytails. This resemblance to Princess Yue is never explained, though it is later shown that her mother has inexplicably weird hair as well - and this is a universe where, among other things, Lamarck Was Right. Bad genetics is probably the least of everything wrong with Kitty, so I won’t harp on it too much.
*Then they go downstairs to have breakfast, but where are all the others? A clumsy cut to 2D’s room tells us the answer: he’s called the other two in for a meeting to discuss his Very Important Findings. Because Russel is typically portrayed as an over-reactionary Angry Black Man in pre-2014 Gorillaz fic (among other rather unfavorable things), he “bellow[s]” about how this is “the most ridiculous thing [he] ever heard!”, and then we find out Kitty’s connection to Gorillaz canon: she is, according to this story, Russel’s sister! Russ randomly lauds her for being someone who loves to help people with their problems (a trait we never really see evidence for, of course), and then...that’s it, that’s the scene. Told you it was pointless.
*Back to Noodle and Kitty in “NOODEL’S ROOM,” where they decide that if they’re gonna pretend to be a couple, they have to actually do things, if you know what I mean. >:3 Though in all seriousness, no they don’t; they’re behind closed doors, where no one’s gonna be watching...
*...or WILL they? We cut straight back to 2D and Murdoc, who hear makeout noises coming from Noodle’s room, and they open the door to catch them in the act! DUN DUN DUN...oh wait, nothing’s actually gonna come of this. My bad.
*Chapter Three (”DID YOU SEE THAT?”) begins with the boys losing their shit over the apparent fact that Noodle and Kitty are together (seriously, I doubt a bunch like the Gorillaz would even bat eyes if one of their members was in a not-straight relationship, even back in the 2000s when gay marriage was a hot-button issue), and among other things, we’re given a bit of TMI about how Murdoc in particular reacted (which would be rather in-character for him, to be honest, if he wasn’t completely gobsmacked by the sight of girls kissing).
*For some reason, Kitty and Noodle decide to have breakfast again, and they open the door to Murdoc, who isn’t even trying to hide his boner. In front of Noodle? Oh, I think not.
*“You must be really happy to see me!” Aside from how painful that line was, this too predicts the actions we’ll soon see Kitty take. More on that in the next part.
*So, they have a really cutesy time cooking breakfast (during which we see signs of Murdoc becoming uncharacteristically smitten with Kitty), and they they all trot off to watch a movie together as the chapter ends. So far, the fic is boring and full of contrivances meant to provoke drama (all of them failing), but it’s rather inoffensive, right? What could such a fic do to earn being hailed as the new My Immortal? *sighs* Wait till the next part, and you shall begin to see.
#badfic#bad fanfiction#noodle's secret lover#remember noodle's secret lover?#badfic revisited#sporking (only not really)#I'm partly writing this series because I felt I didn't explain just how awesomely bad this fic is with my last review#2nu /
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Ladies Drink Free: Recap
Then:
Claire is a hunter in training.
Now:
Outside the Lucky Badger Ale House, a young woman texts her brother about her false whereabouts, but he catches her in her lie and they start walking home. She wants to head back to the bar, and he wants her to act her age. On the lonely, snow covered path, they hear a noise from the surrounding forest. Hayden, the sister, seems scared, and wants to turn around. Her brother insists there’s nothing scary out there, and proceeds to walk deeper into the dark woods. OOOoooOOO. Hayden is the one who screams though, and her brother rushes to find her knocked out in the snow. Masked attacker monster reveals himself, and Molo Ram’s brother’s heart right out of his chest.
At the BMoL high-tech trailer, Sam and Dean wait. Dean is impatient catering to the Brits, but Mick soon shows up with a case. In Wisconsin, a young man was found dead with his heart ripped out, his sister survived the supposed animal attack, but is in the hospital. Mick pings it as a werewolf attack. The boys wonder how Hayden survived. Then Mick nerds out over his fancy British boarding school for Men of Letters, Kendricks. He learned everything there is to know about Lycanthropy there. Sam’s impressed with the Hogwarts for Hunter-lites. Dean, not so much.
The boys are cool to take care of this milk run, and Mick wants to tag along. Dean’s still pushing back at working with the BMoL, but Sam thinks they can use their knowledge. “If he’s coming, you’re babysitting him,” Dean insists, before heading out.
Of course, once on the road, Dean is subjected to a hella interesting boring podcast of Mick’s.
Mick fills the brothers in on the British history of werewolf hunting. They’re efficient, and because of that, there hasn’t been a werewolf outbreak in Britain since the 1920’s. Sam wonders about friendly ones. They bring up Garth (GARTH!) but Mick doesn’t believe in monsters staying on the right side of the law. (STAY HIDDEN GARTH!)
They finally arrive at their destination (Boris strongly suspects they’re in Wisconsin Dells --this isn’t a fun times, water-park, resort weekend guys. There’s werewolves to hunt.) The Winchesters are a little overwhelmed with the 3-star, baby-shampoo, pool having lodge, but adjust just fine by morning. Dean even went for a swim (GAG REEL PLZ). Sam did more research. He discovered that in the 1930’s the BMoL were working on a plasma therapy to cure werewolves. “Useless, I’m afraid,” Mick interjects.
At the hospital the brothers try talking to Hayden’s mother, but she shuts them down cold. Dr. “Mick” Buckingham walks in and casually escorts the mother out for a quick exam. He discovers that Hayden was bitten, but declines to inform the brothers. Sam and Dean discover that the mother has been bombarded by “Big Foot Truthers” --one a young, pissed-off, blonde “Fish and Wildlife” employee --CLAIRE!
Claire is busy texting/lying to Jody about touring UW-Madison. She gets a call on her fake phone, and it’s just a trolling Dean. (Beatrice Quimby! 9 year old Boris is happy--although I thoroughly identified with Ramona.) She sees right through his nonsense. Meeting up at the hotel, Claire fills the others in on her investigation so far. Dean activates protective!Dad mode. Mick decides to take off, which allows the brothers to grill Claire about her shenanigans.
Dr. Buckingham pays another visit to the hospital, this time with a syringe of silver nitrate. He starts sending it through Hayden’s IV, but she awakens, all rabid werewolf-y, and attacks Mick. He plunges the syringe right into her heart, killing her.
The next morning, the gang get the low-down on Hayden’s death. The strangest thing about it all: Her wounds healed. “Ok, what the hell?” Claire wonders out loud. Mick continues to lie. The salient point being: whatever attacked Hayden is still out there. They split up to investigate further.
Sam and Claire head off to interview Hayden’s friend. Claire tells her “old skeezer” friend Sam to wait in the car. Aww, remember when Sam was Claire’s age? Where does the time go?
Dean and Mick head to the bar. Inside the bar they ask the bartender about Hayden. Dean tries to level him his best intimidation face.
It turns out that Conner, the other bartender with the douche tribal tat, had a thing with Hayden. (Not dating, though, bro.) Conner insists that he worked and then went straight home the night before but Dean presses him, insisting that he's lying. Dean turns to Mick and, as an illustration, asks him what he did last night. (Dean, you don't trust Mick one bit – you beautiful, clever, special crocus.) Mick stutters out a shoddy reply about writing a report and going to bed, clearly caught off guard.
Conner still insists that he did nothing wrong the prior night. Dean then asks if he met Claire. When Conner chortles about their less-than-stellar interaction Dean leans in nice and slow and says, “You ever touch her again, I'll break your face.” Thanks, Dad <3 (Stepdad?)
Outside Dean calls Mick out on his ultra lame alibi. Young girls – particularly new werewolves – don't just die out of nowhere. He slaps a hand on Mick's injured shoulder and Mick, the noob, grunts in pain. He admits to injecting her with silver nitrate. “She attacked me,” he protests, “and...I had orders.” Oh, Mick. Mick insists that he's just doing the job, then needles Dean about “palling around with witches and demons.” MICK, them's fightin' words.
“Things aren't just black and white out here,” Dean insists. He brings up psychic Magda as an example of someone who deserved the second chance. (Oh, Magda, by Grabthar’s hammer...you shall be avenged!)
“That's your luxury,” Mick says. “We have a code.” Dean angrily reminds Mick that a mother has now lost both of her kids and, mic dropped, walks away.
Outside the school, Claire emerges triumphant. “You really do look like a creeper,” she tells Sam as he lounges outside the high school on her car hood. Which...yeah. True. Claire had success weaseling information from Hayden’s best friend. She found out that Hayden was dating an ultra-possessive guy - which was why she was at the bar that night.
Sam barely acknowledges the latest clue, instead shifting to ask her why Jody thinks she's in Madison looking at the University of Wisconsin. BUSTED. Sam didn't tell Jody yet about Claire’s werewolf hunt, but he presses her for information about why she's hiding her hunting.
Claire confesses that she did try hunting with Jody for a while. But instead of Claire taking an action role, she ended up sitting in the car or on the sidelines while Jody bad-assed her way through case after case. (I feel for you, Claire...but I also really want to watch Jody kicking ass all over the place. #torn) “I'm better off on my own,” Claire says. She imagines that'll make everyone happier.
“I'm so sick of you guys dive-bombing my life like you care,” she growls. She stalks off into the woods around the school to cool down, rage music blasting in her ears. Down at the school’s baseball diamond, Claire's spidey sense starts to tingle. She whirls to see the tall masked man from the cold open and whips out her knife.
The two engage in fisticuffs. Here, fisticuffs means she goes at him with the knife but he gets the better of her, presses her into the ground, rips aside her jacket, and bites her in the shoulder. (Hello, rape parallel.)
Sam rushes to help and gets her back to their swanky resort hotel. Claire burns with fever. When Mick tries to drop werewolf health care tips, Sam tells him coldly that they're done with him. He killed a kid; he can GTFO.
Claire asks how long she has until she turns. Dean kneels in front of her and assures her that she can live with lycanthropy. She just needs to lock herself up for a few nights every month. Claire chokes out, “Maybe some people control this, but I can barely keep it together on a good day. If there's any chance that I could hurt Jody or Alex or...anyone, I'd rather die.”
Sam, reading through the MoL book Mick brought along, suggests trying the blood therapy. One in nine test subjects were cured! Mick is less optimistic. “That study was on mice,” he explains. They once tested their blood therapy on a human but the subject died in agony. (Query: WHY wouldn’t you test it on an animal that’s a better physiological parallel to humans like pigs or monkeys instead of jumping straight to human trials? Amateurs.)
Claire is immediately on board with trying blood therapy.
“You don't get a vote in this,” says over-protective Dean.
“It's my life. I get all the votes,” Claire tells him. That's fuckin' right, Claire.
Dean, pissed off, turns to Sam for backup. Sam agrees with Claire (though he can't meet Dean's eye) – it's her life. Dean bows his head and begrudgingly asks Mick how the werewolf cure works.
Easy as pie - they need the sire's blood. Back to the case it is, then! Dean still suspects tribal tat douchebro bartender Conner. He orders Mick to stay behind, which seems like a questionable decision. However, Mick understands the threat that boils persistently under Dean's skin and acknowledges that if anything happens to Claire in his charge, then he's a dead man courtesy of Dean Winchester.
The boys intercept Conner outside of the Lucky Badger and immediately threaten him with a silver knife. The silver has no effect on Conner (other than scaring the poop out of him.) In the sky clouds begin to drift away from the full moon.
At the hotel Claire is in intense pain. Mick prepares another syringe of silver nitrate for his protection while Claire peels back her bandage. Before her eyes the wound heals. Claire jumps for the gun, ready to end her life, but Mick grabs it first. She begs him for death before it's too late. He tells her that he knows a man who would kill her without any hesitation. His instinct is to do the same...but his “instincts haven't been so grand of late.” Claire huddles miserably onto the couch. Mick proposes sedating and restraining her and, with any luck, she'll wake up cured.
“If I wake up,” Claire whispers. “I gotta call Jody. She's gonna be so mad at me.” She looks so young as she says this. It breaks my heart.
Just then the masked werewolf breaks in. He knocks Mick out, then punches out Claire and drags her away. (Fuck you, werewolf.)
Sam and Dean bust in and Dean immediately looks like he's ready to make good on his threat. Mick protests that he tried to prevent her abduction. Furthermore, he can be useful. He put a tracker on Claire. And...now he’s pissed off Sam now, too. “You can kill me later,” he tells them. It's time to find Claire.
At a house in the woods, Claire is tied up in the kitchen while Hayden's boyfriend Justin does his evil villain speech.
Justin had been part of a happy pack until hunters found them and broke them apart. He attacked Hayden so he could rebuild a pack again. “I'm a nice guy,” he protests to the woman he turned and tied up against her will. He pulls out a refrigerated heart and shoves it in her face – literally.
She spits the heart – and his words – into his face. She has a family so he can fuck right off. Claire doubles over in pain again and when she lifts her head her eyes glow yellow.
Just then the Winchesters bust in. Dean rushes up to Claire and then backs away cautiously when he sees her bloodied face and yellow eyes. She breaks free from the ropes.
The werewolf gets the drop on the boys. It looks bad until Mick shoots him in the back. We all freak out about the werewolf cure and then Mick takes a vial of blood from an injection site on Justin’s back and fills up his plasma syringe with the sire's blood.
Claire stands up, growling as Dean takes the syringe from Mick. “She wanted this, right?” he double checks with Sam, and then they inject her. (<-- I really like this consent angle.)
The blood therapy is rough. She writhes, whimpering on the couch for who knows how long. It's long enough that Dean needs to leave the room to “get some air.” So...probably a fuckin’ long time.
Claire suddenly lies still, stops whimpering, stops breathing. Sam sorrowfully calls Dean back in. Dean shoves his emotions down about as far as they can go.
Suddenly, Claire's fingernails retract, she opens her eyes which leach of yellow, and she starts breathing again. “You guys look like crap,” she says to everyone's relieved faces.
Later, outside the lodge, Mick looks on her in wonder. She's fully cured and packing her car to go. “That girl is a walking miracle,” he marvels. Dean agrees and you know at least one layer of that is him just being a stupid soppy dad about it. (Dean, you snuggly tulip.)
Dean continues his streak of thanking people he doesn't particularly like for saving those dearest to him and thanks Mick “for the win.”
“So we're good,” Mick says happily. Eh, not so fast. Mick gets just one more chance to prove he's not a useless bag of dicks.
Claire comes up and jokes about craving a milkbone. Oh, Claire-bear. She apologizes to the Winchesters, thanking them for being there when she needed them. They hug and she's off.
Claire calls Jody, leaving a confessional on her voicemail. She's hunting. It can be scary, but it's something she needs to do on her own. “I'm ready, but I never would have been if it wasn't for you being my mom. I love you guys.” Oh, Claire. <3
Claire drives off into the world, lone cowgirl, ready to kick some ass.
Natasha:
(whispers: But I'm still so worried about Gaaaaaarth)
(also whispers: weremiiiiiiiiice)
It’s Better if I Quote Alone:
You either get good fast, or you get dead faster
Long story, and like, Downton Abbey boring
So your foreign exchange student is totally lame
I didn't sign up for this reporting to duty crap
I'm ruined, Sam. Those limey sons of bitches ruined me.
Those three stars are wasted on you
They're like nerd soulmates
Things aren’t just black and white out here
Eat me, Teen Wolf
#spn picspam#spn 12x16#ladies drink free#spn recap#dean winchester#sam winchester#claire novak#mick davies#supernatural season 12
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The plot was actually furthered! And a new character joins the party.
I missed a few sessions, not sure how many. Time isnt real.
anyway. a week or so ago, maybe two? The dm for the evening was running 90lbs FineCoal, though nobody knows I call it that.
a few things happened since I was there for this campaign.
- the new guy in the group (who I met during Bassun on the Sea) is playing a gnome pyrotechnic in this game
- the gang/faction we are most at odds with blew up a children’s hospital in what I assume was retaliation for liberating their sweatshop and stealing the rights to the land it was on but I’m not sure.
-new things were added to our base of operations but none of those were new bedrooms or a kitchen upgrade so its still cramped and weird like theres like 6-9 people living there but only 2 bedrooms? I assume this is what my character was doing while I was gone.
this session, as we went into town to restock things and sell stuff we noticed a new faction running around putting up fliers and standing on corners looking official while giving an announcement.
“By the decree of the Templars in one week all citizens will be reporting for a mandatory community meeting. We will be patrolling the streets until then to be certain that everyone attends and that no trouble is caused. Nonattendance is punishable by law.”
we did some investigating on who these people are and found out that they’re pretty basically the military police? they are I think supposed to answer only to the highest authorities but its possible they may not be in full cooperation but maybe thats just me thinking too far ahead. They may also have, or at least at one time had, some kind of agreement with the gang the party is against the most. Rumors say they are probably the reason magic no longer exists in the walled up nation.
time passes and we head to the meeting, the gnome is dressed up and disguised to look more like a child in hopes he’d be able to sneak around and investigate further. Hugo supplies him with some booze, coal, and sawdust/wood scrap to assist in any explodey shenanigans he might need to get up to.
He is however captured, somehow they know right away that he was in disguise. Based on how the dm described the encounter its not clear if its because of the rolls the gnome and healer made to craft the disguise OR if they had some other means, perhaps some magical means, to see through the disguise.
they load him up in an armored wagon to pick up other stragglers to the meeting and he gets a view of just how numerous and well armed the templars are. the gnome, wanting to stall some of them from being at the meeting or maybe bringing them to a trap says that he knows of a factory where the children are still working and are being withheld from the meeting. The templars say theres no time but would like to go there later and arrest the factory workers or something so he did the only reasonable thing and set the wagon on fire from the inside, eventually the wagon stopped and the doors were opened and he weaseled away to rejoin the party at the meeting.
mean while the oh so important address the templars wanted to give was a strange one.
-several books are now banned possession and reading of these books is punishable to the full extent of the law. some of these books were: the complete writing of alexander graham bell, the notes and diaries of nikola tesla, the legions, the crystal eye, history books from this year to this year, historical writings from these authors,
-all crystals, precious, and semi precious gems are now outlawed, ownership and use of any is punishable to the full extent of the law
-immediate search and seizure would begin, no back aly, mine, sewer, or forest would go unchecked
this was an odd because most of the citizens and even the players themselves are unable to read in the first place and are much too poor to own any crystals or gems.
never the less how dare they and Hugo threw a bottle at the speaker. the gnome caught the tail end of this and he, the healer, and the healers sibling set to starting a riot. claiming that these new regulations were going to raise taxes and the seizure of the gems was literal out right theft from people too poor to probably have any of worth anyway, it would disrupt businesses and the searching would be more like ransacking and vandalism.
hugo, the one handed girl, jamie, and the gnome then head off to the library once the riot seems to be getting going and the templars were all distracted. the healer- wearing a stolen high ranking gang uniform meets up with some lower ranking members if that gang and convinces them that increased templar activity would mean without a doubt a crack down on their criminal activity. Sooner or later whatever hold the street gangs have over the people would no longer suit the forces that allowed them to gain so much power. these people spread that word. the people are in a full on frenzy now.
Its also worth noting that a particular new npc was pointed out to us more than once during all of this: a very burly bald and beardless man well over seven feet tall but has otherwise only human features.
the group at the library find several books to steal but not quite enough and certainly not all the right ones. with further searching a secret door doubling as a book self hiding a spiral stair case is found and the one handed girl- being the one who can read the best of the lot is sent down to investigate. the rest stay upstairs waiting to hear her scream for help and to defend their position. the one handed girl finds several more books that the templars had listed as illegal but ALSO one that had a solid black binding and hundreds of blank black pages. upon picking it up she feels a powerful connection to it.
several templars enter the library and a fight begins, but it is quickly ended by the new oddly specific but unnamed npc. the group escapes, calling bruce the cabby to gather the party, drop three of members, healer, healers sibling and gnome head to the ruins hospital to loot. since there would be no one around to stop them what with the mayhem and murder happening. on the way the healers sibling witnesses and exchange between a templar and a higher ranking gang member, an exchange that suggested if the the two factions had any sort of agreement it was probably over/off the table now... but another interpretation could be: shut mouth don’t talk about that where someone could hear/see you. we don’t know yet.
heres where I got confused because the prty split up, at some point during the looting the healer found a strage door that the bombing had uncovered? or made easier to access because it wasnt hidden anymore? with the gnomes help they enter leaving the sibling to continue to loot. there was a long tunnel? and then a strange chamber with strange device that when described was probably a tesla coil. There was also an unusually large person guarding the room about 8 feet tall and very burly. there was also a book in there. I’m pretty sure he was guarding the book, which I assume was the writings of tesla based on context. they gnome and healer question the guardian trying to figure out what he was and why he was there. for some reason a fight begins? the tesla coil is part of some kind of trap system that does some clever stuff but I didn’t catch it. the two kill him and loot his body we didn’t get a description of his face i’m pretty sure it was too messed up from the fight? or maybe I just missed it, but I cant help but wonder if he too was bald and beardless?
when the group that headed to the cabin arrived, the one handed girl had begun investigating the books and discovered a note: unfortunately the note was a prop and the only one who could actually read all of the dms handwriting was me but HUGO cant read for shit, I’m not even sure he knew what books were until that day. but I don’t think the bits I picked out that others couldnt read were that important.
what it amounted to seemed to be that, something happened and it might happen again and they- the templars we assume -could not let that happen. I’m pretty sure I read a bit that said like- ‘we cannot allow ‘them’ to rise again,” but I wont know if that particular bit is important until the rest of the books are examined but even if it is I think think the group will be fine.
there was also a very old bank note worth over 200 coppers but probably needs to be appraised, at least to figure out how old those books are/how long they were in that secret room? idk but I’m sure theres something important there... surely its not just because the dm is concerned the party will starve to death in winter and thought to give us extra money to survive with.
the three who went to the hospital got back to the cabin, I’m pretty sure they stole a wagon.
the plan is, to examine the books a bit, then wrap them in leather and seal the leather in wax to bury them where we will be building something, then also having some decoy holes dug/filled in? and if a templar is like wtf is all this- we explain that were in the middle of construction or something and thats where we’re building stuff?
but I sort of suspect that have some magical or supernatural means of detecting things? so it might not matter... but if winters coming we probably need to have some weapons and defenses anyway because hungry wildlife is an issue we’ve been told.
the only book not getting buried is the black one- that is staying with the one handed girl. to what end? I’m sure we’ll find out.
Hugo is down to 44lbs FineCoal- the cabby requested payment in furs and meat instead of coal and copper this time around.
the ruffian, the noble, and the nobles guard were not present again, I’m pretty sure they just don’t like showing up to these campaigns with the weird rules.
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183. Sonic the Hedgehog #115
Meanie in a Bottle
Writer: Benny Lee
Pencils: Art Mawhinney
Colors: Jason Jensen
So I haven't really been mentioning them, but in lieu of the intro pages that older issues had, lately most issues have begun instead with a full-page illustration relevant to the story content. This one is no different, except that instead of depicting something that actually happens within the issue, it reimagines Sonic as Aladdin, which is honestly very cute. The actual plot of the main story does involve a genie, but it's a very silly story, a rare thing nowadays. Fittingly, Art Mawhinney is the artist, since his style is very cartoony, but weirdly enough, we've actually got ourselves a new colorist for this issue, one Jason Jensen. I have to say, his coloring style is probably the most interesting and dynamic we've seen so far, and while it looks lovely with its more complex shading and somewhat more realistic colors, the style ultimately kind of suffers from being paired with Art's pencils. Don't get me wrong, Art isn't a bad artist by any means - how could he be, with a name like that? - but his style just clashes weirdly with Jason's colors, making for kind of a jarring combination. But enough of that, onto the story! Sonic is playing fetch with the roboticized Muttski near a lake when he accidentally throws the stick into the water. Muttski obediently jumps in after it, and Sonic, worried for his dog's safety, leaps in after him.
I find it a little interesting, his comment about hating water and the implication that he can't swim. After all, throughout the entirety of the comic 'verse so far, Sonic's and Knuckles' swimming skills have kind of been swapped, with Sonic being a decent swimmer who enjoys a nice dip in the summer, and Knuckles being the one who can't swim and is afraid of water. It seems they're finally trying to align Sonic's swimming skills with that of his game counterpart, but after so many issues depicting him swimming without a problem, it's kind of a weird, sudden loss of ability. Anyway, as soon as he grabs the bottle, it shoots him and his dog safely to the surface of the water. Upon opening the bottle, a genie shoots out, and Sonic excitedly asks if this means he gets three wishes. The genie seems annoyed by this question, and decides to give him a little "present" anyway before flying away, zapping both him and Muttski at the same time.
Sonic realizes in shock that he has quickly run out of energy while Muttski bounds ahead, and gets a checkup from Dr. Quack, who confirms his worst fears - the genie straight up swapped his and Muttski's speeds, making Sonic an ordinary runner and Muttski a supersonic robot dog. Man, what is it about this comic loving to take away Sonic's speed through random happenstance? You'd think he'd kind of be used to it by now. He dejectedly, over the next few days, tries to figure out how to control his dog, who is now racing all across Knothole at ridiculous speeds and even offering some speedy help to people in need. After a few days of these shenanigans, Sonic and Muttski are once again playing a game of fetch in the forest, when Sonic spots the same genie floating around nearby and sics Muttski on him. Muttski swallows the genie whole, because it's the best way to keep him from running (flying?) away, and Sonic promises to let the genie back out if he gets his three wishes, to which the genie irritably agrees.
Wait, Sonic! Are you serious? That's your final wish? First of all I actually kind of find it funny that his wishes in this issue were very similar to the ones at the end of Secret Rings, in that he basically uses the first two as a fix-it for all the stuff that's happened over the course of the story and uses the final one to re-trap the offending genie back into its prison, but second of all, don't you think that third and final wish could be better used on, say, world peace or something? Maybe a guaranteed defeat of Egg… man… hey, wait a second, guys! Has anyone noticed the conspicuous lack of Eggman in the past few issues? I mean, I know his city got blown up pretty hard back in StH#110, but this is a Robotnik we're talking about. He's kind of known for coming back from seemingly certain death to torment the world time and time again. No one seems concerned at all with making absolutely sure that he's gone, but I have a feeling that the destruction of Robotropolis isn't the end of Eggman's story…
The Spaz Sketchbook
Writer/Pencils: Spaz
So here we've got something quite interesting! This isn't actually a story, but rather a collection of concept art by Patrick Spaziante, for various characters and machines of issues past, scrapped concepts that never made it into print, and even a few sketches for some upcoming stories! Unfortunately I can't just post every page here - that would be way too many pictures - but they're free to look at on the Archie Sonic wiki for those who are interested in viewing the full thing. I've decided to only include a couple things here, being sketches that I found the most interesting. First up we have a concept for Rob o' the Hedge that was ultimately scrapped in favor of making him look… well… exactly like Sonic.
Seriously, this design is so much more interesting! I mean, sure he kind of still looks like a recolored Sonic OC with a few details changed to make him stand out, but let's face it, that's what basically every hedgehog looks like in the Archieverse. As it stands, this design is way more unique-looking, and has much more visual interest than just making him a slightly lighter-colored Sonic clone.
A few pages in, we have what looks like a large, segmented train of sorts, which has its description box blocked out with a large "CAUTION: SPOILER INFO" sticker plastered over it. There's obviously relevant text behind it, but only a couple of words at the beginning and end show through, giving us a tantalizing glimpse at something that might come up here in a few issues. There's some references to a scrapped arc that takes place on Mobius twenty years in the future that depicts an older, redesigned Knuckles and Julie-Su - hmm, wonder if we'll ever see anything come of that eventually? - and then some pages devoted to plans for a manga-style alternate universe that never saw the light of day, due to the Sonic Super Special series being cancelled.
I include these mostly because they're really cute! I mean, the series has already been going in a much more anime-inspired direction with its art as of late, so it's interesting to see how that has been an inspiration for the art team for quite a while, even before Ron Lim and Steven Butler started really Nihon-ing it up. We conclude with a final page in which every sketch's text is completely spoilered out, but we can take our best guess at what the art depicts just from looking at it.
Two of those designs are pretty obviously Mecha Sonic and a new Mecha Tails, meaning we might be seeing those two get roboticized sometime in the near future. As for the other robots, given their unique designs, we can safely assume that we're looking at roboticized versions of Flying Frog, Lightning Lynx, and Predator Hawk. The top left robot is a little more ambiguous, but I just cheated and looked at the wiki, which informed me that it's a roboticized Drago. Man, how did this big ol' string of roboticizations happen, huh? It's almost like Eggman might not be truly gone…
Ultimate Power (Part Two)
Writer: Ken Penders
Pencils: Dawn Best
Colors: Jensen
So, we can pretty safely assume that Mammoth Mogul is up to no good. Harry drops him off at the hospital in Echidnaopolis just as Lien-Da leaves the building, and he walks in, gloating in the doorway over his former enemy lying so helplessly in the middle of all the life support gear.
It's kind of amazing how in the span of barely over a dozen issues, Penders has managed to take Dimitri from a hated villain that we're certain wants to conquer the world, and rebrand him as a tired, ancient old man just trying to do the best for his people using the only means he knows. These issues have really given a much different perspective on Dimitri that we've never seen before, painting him in a much more sympathetic light and even making us root for him in some respects. After all, I know I certainly don't want him to die here, and more and more it seems like the real danger within the modern Legion is Lien-Da, with a whole hidden agenda of her own.
Unaware of the brewing catastrophe, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and the Chaotix are hanging out in a park, generally enjoying the time they have together. Knuckles explains to everyone how his fur color changed from Rad Red to Gross Green, and demonstrates some of his newfound powers by producing a bouquet of flowers from thin air, much to Julie-Su's delight. I can't say she's the type of girl who I would have expected to be so happy with flowers, but hey, I can see her maybe being touched by a gesture that's so normal, in contrast to her messed-up past. Knuckles sobers the mood up, however, by saying that he really needs to go see his father about his powers, which begs the question of why he hasn't done so before now, and leads everyone away to the Brotherhood's new, temporary place of residence, what with Haven being wrecked and all. In the Legion's own secret base within Echidnaopolis, Lien-Da converses with what appears to be her assistant, Gae-Na, about Dimitri's state of being. The base appears to be small-time, something Lien-Da has had recently set up by a few loyal underlings of her own without Dimitri's knowledge, as she discusses that if the echidna's main council votes to not go through with reunification she's ready to go through with her "backup plan." Knuckles and co. enter the temporary Brotherhood base, noting how run-down it seems in comparison, but upon heading into the main room they're met with a nasty shock on screen…
Well, I'm sure nothing but good things will come of this…
#nala reads archie sonic preboot#archie sonic#archie sonic preboot#sonic the hedgehog#sth 115#writer: benny lee#writer: ken penders#pencils: art mawhinney#pencils: pat spaziante#pencils: dawn best#colors: jason jensen
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Spirits: “The Southern Lights”
What’s got Bo so spooked?
Korra and Co. are traveling South in Book II, Chapter 2, and there’s definitely something lurking in the wind.
As for Tenzin and family, they’ve gone to see where Grandpa Aang was born. Let the shenanigans and the feels commence.
Graphic content featured; I’ll give you a warning in case that’s not your thing.
Bro vs. Bro
Ah, yes.
Another flashback to another pair of Northern Water Tribe brothers. Only this time, we get the flashback very early into the season so their stories actually (hopefully) have time to grow.
Can you tell there’s still some salt for the “Amon/Noatak is my brother” reveal?
Man, do I love being petty~~
Tonraq, Korra’s father, was a general for the Northern Water Tribe.
To keep their city protected, he drove barbarians to an ancient forest,
and the ensuing battle destroyed the hallow grounds.
As punishment for disturbing their dwelling, angry spirits laid siege to the city.
Only Unalaq, Korra’s uncle, could tame the spirits and guide them back to their homes.
Ultimately, Tonraq was banished from the North and he looked to the South to start anew.
So I’m, like, 92% sure Unalaq is the big bad of the season.
(I also may or may not know some spoils.)
Reminiscent of Yakone, if I do say so myself:
If he is the big bad, then he’s totes schemin’.
Look at him, establishing a bond and forging a trust with Korra:
All potential villain-ness aside, this scene had great dialogue:
Unalaq: You have to believe in yourself, like I believe in you.
Korra: I guess I’m just so used to people telling me how to do things that I forgot what it was like to have someone trust in me.
Unalaq: Korra, all the past Avatars live on inside of you. Let them guide you. Let them help you find the light in the dark.
// By the way, I love when stories integrate the concept of light and dark. For one, it gives me all the Kingdom Hearts feels, but it’s also such a universally applicable idea. I cannot wait to see how this theme will play out in the rest of Book II.
But look at him, and tell me there isn’t something sinister about that smile:
So while Unalaq’s plan seems to be on the horizon,
I’m still trying to figure out how Tonraq fits into all of this.
I know Bo made light of the situation---
Bolin: Whoa, so you [Gestures to Tonraq.] were supposed to be chief, then he [Gestures to Unalaq.] became chief. No wonder you guys don’t like each other.
[Mako elbows him.] Ow! What? Isn’t that what happened?
---but perhaps this is one of the central conflicts of the season.
Naturally, as both daughter to Tonraq and niece to Unalaq (as well as a member of the Water Tribes), Korra will be caught in the middle. But as the Avatar, she is also responsible for keeping balance in the world, and I suspect this bro-on-bro feud may upset the nature of both physical and spiritual worlds.
Yeesh.
I wish you luck, Korra.
Dark Unbalanced Spirits
This episode’s writing was solid.
One of the reasons for its success is that it built upon concepts that have long been established in the Avatar-Korra universe, most notably balance, separation, and good vs. evil (or, in this case, light vs. dark).
In defense of the spirits, Unalaq claims, “There are no evil spirits, there is light and dark in them all. But when they’re unbalanced, the darkness takes over.”
Tonraq confesses, “I don’t want [Korra] to make the same mistake I made. I should never have gone into that forest, and we shouldn’t be going to the South Pole now. Spirits and the physical world should remain separate.
To rebut, Korra exclaims, “Dad, it’s my job to be the bridge between the spirits and the physical world, and I finally have a chance to live up to my potential.
In further defense, Unalaq reminds them: “There used to be lights at the South as well, but during the Hundred Year War, the South was thrown out of balance and the lights disappeared. When the War ended, the North helped to rebuild you physically as a nation, but we have not rebuilt you spiritually.”
So many juicy bits; let’s break it down:
Light and Dark
The writers are playing to one of A:TLA’s (and now, hopefully LOK’s) strengths: refusing black and white story lines and plunging head first into those grey, murky middles.
Just as there is no such thing as a person who is wholly good or wholly evil, there is also no such thing as a person who is entirely made of light or entirely made of dark. Instead, it is our actions---our choices---that reflect who our true characters are.
But what if it’s not your actions or your choices that cause you to turn to darkness, which is potentially the case with the Southern spirits? It’ll be interesting, then, to see how Korra and the others atone for causing the spirits’ disarray.
Separation
Given his experience with spirits, Tonraq sides with logic: the physical world and the spiritual world should remain separate.
But Korra is the Avatar; it’s literally her job to harmoniously bridge two separate worlds. Besides, I would think it’s pretty normal to have spirits living among them.
Whose to say spirits don’t live among us in our world, too?👀
As we first learned in “The Guru”: “the greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation.” Thus, it would be super dope (and super consistent!) if they extended that same wisdom to the story here.
Balance
This.
The concept of balance is probably what grounds the entire Avatar-Korra franchise, so it’s no surprise that the spirits are struggling with their states of unbalance.
Can I just say, I loved the callback to the Hundred Year War. This is what I’m talking about; write episodes that build upon ideas the audience already knows! Referencing the War serves to fill in the missing gaps from when Aang’s journey ended and Korra’s began, but it also helps propel Korra’s story forward.
There was also a nice throwback to the “Winter Solstice, Part 1: The Spirit World,” where we learn that a spirit named Hei Bai is terrorizing a village to retaliate against the Fire Nation soldiers who destroyed its home in the forest. We see the same scenario play out when Tonraq and his men annihilate the sacred woods; consequently, the spirits attack the Northern Water Tribe.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to see Korra bring the spirits balance and find that balance for herself as well.
In the meantime, Korra’s got to work on her “spirit fighting”:
And I still don’t understand why the spirits have to 1) look super freaky and 2) look like the Demogorgon!!
Graphic Warning
Tell me I’m wrong:
Yes, Bitch.
Korra had her irritating moments, especially when she was quick to accuse people who were just trying to protect, trust, and love her.
But she was bad. ass. this episode:
Badass Example #1:
This one always gets me.
She ruthlessly, unflinchingly shoves her entire arm down the spirit’s mouth and then sets her fist on fire.
Biiiiiih.
Badass Example #2:
I think this marks the beginning of Korra starting to believe in herself as the Avatar,
and it makes a mama proud.
All the Hollas
@Jeremy Zuckerman, the music was on point.
@The Animation Team, the scenery in this episode was something else.
Bolin: It’s beautiful.
My thoughts exactly, Bo.
Parting Thoughts
Alright, girl.
What’s good?
Why are you waking up in the middle of the night,
wandering the halls of the temple,
stumbling upon unknown Avatars,
who mysteriously and simultaneously light up when Korra opens the South’s spirit portal?
And why only you, my dear Jinora?
It has to be said: I’m so happy our eldest airbender might have more of an arc in this book. Her two siblings definitely overshadowed her last season, but only because they have such big personalities!
Still, Papa Tenzin: please keep your little girl safe!!
Favorites
Tenzin took his little airbending family on a field trip!
(Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi also tagged along and they proved very helpful by unloading Oogi.
No, seriously. They were mistaken for servants, haha.
I told you Tenzin would get his payback for all of last episode’s teasing.)
There were so many giggly moments with my favorite family today!
How to Be Polite (ft. Tenzin):
Abbot Shung: This is an ancient airbender head shaver we’ve refurbished just for you.
Tenzin: Oh. Okay?
How to Be Polite (ft. Pema):
Abbot Shung: These flowers once filled the mountainside! Now, they can brighten up your room.
Pema: That’s... sweet? Y-you didn’t have to.
I know this moment is a funny one, but thank you for recognizing Pema for birthing, nurturing, and loving her beautiful, yet all over the place children.
Which reminds me...
These kids are the best kinds of headaches:
Meelo: Mommy, Daddy, look! I finally got a lemur! I’m gonna name him---Poki!
Poki! Come back!
Ikki: No! That gift is mine!
Jinora: You don’t even like to read!
Ikki:
No actual dialogue in this scene and yet their sleeping positions say so much.
I’m sure Papa Tenzin would agree:
Tenzin: Where are your brother and sister?
Meelo: You can’t catch me! I’m the greatest air scooter-er of all time!
Tenzin: Meelo!!
... maybe not.
The Dork and the Deadpan
As always, we have Bo being Bo:
^dork.
And how are things coming along with Eska, you ask?
Eska: Does this sidecar have the capacity for two passengers?
Bolin: [Flirting.] Sure does. But, uh... who’s gonna drive?
Mako: [Teasing.] Well, what do you know? Looks like---
Bolin: Go away, Mako.
I have to say, the surprise of the episode is definitely Eska!
She’s hilariously deadpan, especially when she’s protective
Bolin: Can we not talk about dark spirits, please?
Eska: Don’t worry. I will protect you, my feeble turtle duck.
Bolin: Oh, it's in the engine! Ahhhh! I can’t stop it!
Eska: I’ll save you.
Bolin: I’m a raft!
[...]
Bolin: Uh, can someone please deflate me?
Thank you.
or jealous of Bo:
Eska: Why are you initiating physical contact with another woman?
Bolin:
Hate to break it to ya, Bo, but it looks like Eska’s wearing the pants in this relationship.
(And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.)
Quote(s) of the Episode
Mako: You never cease to amaze me.
Korra: Thanks. By the way, I’m really sorry for being a total pain. Things were really stressful and pretty confusing... It’s hard being the Avatar.
Mako: [Jokingly.] It’s harder being the Avatar’s boyfriend.
I stan an apologetic, understanding, and supportive couple.
The Southern Air Temple:
This episode was begging for parallels,
and my purpose in life is to serve.
Remember when Aang got upset because his home was so different and so empty?
Look at it now! How it’s thriving!
Jinora: Wow. The statue room.
Tenzin: That’s right, Jinora. The most sacred place in the entire Southern Air Temple.
Katara: They’re Avatars! All these people are your past lives, Aang.
Aang: Wow! There are so many!
The Trance™
To me, this is also Aang’s place of “re-birth.”
For it is here that the world discovered the Avatar had returned.
Aang now rests in the place that started it all, and it’s got me feeling some type of way.
credits
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