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#and then afterwards the teacher was like 'uh.  that is NOT how you do teamwork' and i felt like killing myself instantly
gertritude-art · 2 years
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it probably helps that i am only 23 and look back upon my teen years with agony!
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dreamwraith · 3 years
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Teleport
Summary: Danny finally learned how to teleport, but where is the 'off' switch? Pairings: Hints of Sam crushing on Danny Warnings: Danny accidentally teleports into the girl’s locker room, but only for a few seconds; he’s as startled as they are. Danny and Tucker have a no-homo thing going on, they should probably just hug it out already.
On Ao3
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"Hey! Sam! Sam, wait up!"
Sam glanced over her shoulder. When she saw Tucker chasing after her with an anxious look on his face, she stopped walking down the sidewalk. Tucker was able to reach her in no time, but he had to bend over and gulp in large breaths afterward.
"Something wrong, Tucker?" she asked after giving him a few seconds to catch his breath. "I thought I was meeting you and Danny at school today?"
"Well, yeah," Tucker panted, "that was the plan, but…Have you seen Danny?"
She raised an eyebrow. "No. Why? Did something happen? Is he in trouble?"
Tucker waved his hand, chuckling between gasps. "No…well, yes…well, kind of…"
"Tucker…"
"No, he isn't in any real danger. Yes, his secret may be in jeopardy."
Sam widened her eyes. "His secret might be in what? What happened exactly?"
Tucker stood up straight, using his beret to wipe his sweaty forehead. "Well, this morning, while Danny and I were walking to school, he had a breakthrough on teleporting. He practiced it a couple times by teleporting up and down the sidewalk when no one was around, getting farther and farther away. He was getting really good at it!"
"O-kay," Sam said slowly, "so somebody saw him doing this?"
"Um. No."
"What went wrong then?"
"Well, we were almost to school, so he changed back to Fenton. But a few seconds after he did, he disappeared and—"
POP!
"Tucker!" Danny jumped on Tucker. His best friend screamed and would have shot three feet in the air if Danny's Hug of Death was any less secure. "Finally! I've been trying to get back to you for who knows how long now! Oh, hey, Sam! Wait, where'd you come from?" He loosened his hold on the trembling Tucker and looked around. "This isn't where I left you, Tuck…"
"He came to find me after you apparently disappeared," Sam explained for their shell-shocked friend. "Danny, what's going on? Are—"
"I can't stop teleporting, Sam!" Danny all but shouted, unwrapping one arm from around Tucker so he could wave it around for emphasis. "One minute I'm walking peacefully down the sidewalk, the next I'm in my room! So far I've teleported to school three times, to the Ghost Zone twice, my room five times, yours once, Tucker's three, Vlad's house one time too many, and once I somehow ended up, like, fifty feet in the air! I can't control it!" He released Tucker, and latched onto Sam's shoulders, earning a surprised gasp from the Goth. "Make it stop, Sam! I can't take it anymore!"
"Danny, calm down!" She brushed Danny's hands off her shoulders, but he quickly grabbed her wrists. She scowled. "Danny, let go of me before I show a very incriminating photo of you and Tucker to Jazz."
Danny's hands flew away from Sam like she was an evil ghost in disguise. "I thought you burned that!" He hesitated before giving Tucker a one-armed hug again.
Sam smirked. "Why would I get rid of perfectly good blackmail material? Is there a reason you keep grabbing onto us, Danny?"
"Yeah, dude," Tucker said, finally regaining his wits enough to eye his strange friend. "It's getting awkward."
"I am being teleported all over the place without my consent," Danny reminded them, "can't I get a little sympathy from you guys?" They gave him bland, completely unsympathetic looks. "Alright, fine. By holding onto you stationary people, I'm hoping you will anchor me and stop me from teleporting."
"Wouldn't we just teleport with you though?" Sam asked.
Tucker's eyes grew large and he struggled against Danny's hold, but even in human form Danny was stronger than him.
"No," Danny grunted, "because it takes a lot of control to be able to teleport more than one person, and clearly I don't posses any control over this, whatsoever."
Tucker relaxed but his nose wrinkled. "It still feels awkward, Danny. Go hug, Sam."
"I'm not hugging you," Danny protested. "This is a manly arm grip!"
"It doesn't feel very manly."
"Doesn't look like it either," Sam said, smirking.
Danny huffed. "Fine." He dragged Tucker closer to Sam and then threw his other arm around her neck before she could protest. Sam gasped and struggled, upset—if her red face was anything to go by—but Danny started walking, and his friends were forced to follow. "Alright! Now this is teamwork!"
"More like kidnapping!" Sam shouted.
Tucker teased, "You know you like it, Sam."
"Oh, yeah, I just love to be held against my will."
"It's only until this stops," Danny tried to reason.
"Oh? And when will that be?"
"Uh…I don't know…"
She sighed, resigned. "This all started after you changed back into Danny Fenton, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, maybe you'll have more control of it if you're in your ghost form. Seems to me your ghost half would have more control over your powers than your human half would."
Danny hung his head, wishing he could face-palm without losing his anchors. "I should have thought of that…"
"That's what I'm here for. Now hurry up and change while the streets are empty."
Danny nodded, and in a flash of light, he became Amity Park's number one ghostly hero.
After a few seconds, Sam cleared her throat. "You'll have to let go of us to test this, Danny…"
Danny flinched. "B-but what if it doesn't work and I start teleporting like crazy again?"
"Then we'll just have to think of something else!" Sam hissed, "Now let go of us before somebody sees Danny Phantom hanging out with Danny Fenton's friends!"
Danny grimaced. He slowly, very slowly, released his best friends. They walked a few steps farther ahead before stopping and facing Danny again. He had his eyes pinched shut and his hands fisted at his sides.
"Did I teleport?" he asked, keeping his eyes sealed.
"No." Tucker chuckled. "But you look constipated. Loosen up, dude."
Danny cracked an eye open, but upon seeing the same setting as before, he grinned, and jumped in place. "Alright! Way to go, Sam!" He went to high five her, but seconds away from making contact, Danny became consumed by green mist. The mist disappeared along with Danny, followed by a popping sound.
Sam lowered her hand slowly, and exchanged glances with Tucker. "Uh, I guess it didn't work…"
Tucker sighed. "We might as well get to school, Sam. He's not going to show up here any time soon…"
-----------------
POP!
"Paradise Lost!"
Danny's momentum carried him through the motion of the high-five, but because Sam's hand wasn't there to meet his, his swat carried into a somersault in midair. "Whoa!" He righted himself and jerked his head from side to side. The faces staring up at him were familiar, but the location wasn't since only teachers and their favorites were allowed inside the teacher's lounge.
Danny laughed nervously. "Um, uh, whoops?"
Mr. Lancer was the first to regain his composure. He stood up and fixed his tie in a nervous habit. "Mr. …Phantom, what is the meaning of this?" Sweat noticeably broke out over his forehead.
Danny flushed. "Um, I'm having a few technical issues with my powers…" He cleared his throat and floated with his back straight, adopting his 'hero' voice. "Sorry for the inconvenience, citizens. I'll just be going…"
But after a few seconds, Danny still floated in place above their table, staring fixedly into space. The teachers looked at each other in confusion. The Art teacher pulled out a sketch pad and started sketching the focused Ghost Boy in profile.
"…Any second now…"
If they had crickets in the staff lounge, they'd be chirping.
"…Any second…"
Mr. Felucca stepped forward, his index finger poised in question. "What power are you having difficulties with, Mr. Ghost Boy? As a scientist, perhaps I can be of assistance."
Danny grimaced. "Uh, actually—"
Ms. Tetslaff slammed a fist on the table, and the sudden violence made Danny start in surprise. "If it's power he's having trouble with, it's me he should be coming to for help! I'll whip him into shape!"
He winced, and drifted away from her. "Uh, it's not really a physical power—"
"I have studied many classical stories that teach great, historical lessons," Mr. Lancer said. "Perhaps one of those will be of some use to you, Mr. Phantom?"
"Thanks, but I don't—"
The Mythology teacher scoffed. "Your literature is of no use to a being of exponential power. My myths have way more value to him than your 'fiction'."
"I don't need—"
The Psychology teacher snapped her fingers. "It may be psychological! Please feel free to tell me all about your problems. I'm here to help!"
"I don't have a psychological issue! Why does everyone always think that?"
Ms. Loretta gazed at Danny's skinny body with a critical eye. "Perhaps it has something to do with malnourishment. Do ghosts have to eat? I can make you something, boy."
"…Uh…no…"
The Government teacher trembled in his seat, staring up at Danny in fear. "W-we should call somebody about this! Call the Fentons! Call the Guys in White! They'll know what to do!"
The Art teacher reached out and pinched a fold of Danny's jumpsuit. "Is this latex?"
"Hey!" Danny knocked his hand away and floated a few paces away from him. "No touching!"
"We should give him a physical!"
"He needs to learn a moral lesson!"
"What he needs is more meat on his bones!"
"Oh, how am I going to capture that glow…"
"Something must be wrong with the inner workings of his mind!"
"The FENTONS!"
"Perhaps it is his molecular structure that is causing the problem!"
"QUIET!" Danny shouted. The teachers instantly quieted. "There is nothing wrong with my body, my mind, or my morals, alright? I just developed a new power and I'm having some difficulty controlling it. That's all!"
The teachers backed away from the panting ghost boy.
Mr. Felucca was the first to gather his courage. He asked, "What kind of power?"
Danny relaxed. "Teleport—"
POP!
The teachers gasped, and stared at the spot where the Ghost Boy had once been.
"NOOO!" the Art teacher cried, and threw down his half-complete sketch. "I was so close!"
-----------------
POP!
"—ation."
"Breach in Sector 8! We have a breach in Sector 8!"
Before Danny had a chance to gather his bearings, several ghost nets crashed into him and bound him to the floor. Where the net touched him, little bolts of electricity shot into his system like static jumping to a doorknob. Danny growled and struggled against the painful bindings, but the whirring of a ghost gun made him freeze. He looked up into the tinted sunglasses of a GiW operative.
"D-Don't move, Phantom!"
Danny's eyes half-lidded in boredom. "Oh great. The Mr. Clean Groupies…"
"Quiet, ghost," another agent ordered. "We have you surrounded."
Danny looked past the two standing over him. "Let me guess, the reinforcements are invisible?"
Danny wasn't able to see his eyes, but the second agent's brows furrowed, and his mouth turned down.. "I don't like your tone, boy."
Danny used his infamous cocky smirk. "Like I care? With only two agents, why should I worry? I could take you guys out easy."
The first agent, the one who had stuttered, gulped. Without warning, he shot at Danny.
Danny gasped, and dove to the side. He needn't have bothered, though. The shot was way off target. It crashed into the wall five feet behind Danny.
"Agent N!"
Danny eyed the scared agent warily. Like cornered wolves, frightened hunters packing heat were dangerous. "New agent?" he asked the other guy.
He grunted. "As green as they come. Listen, kid," he faced Agent N, "there is a rhythm to these things. We exchange witty banter, and then we start shootin' them."
Agent N nodded his head rapidly. "Y-yes, sir. Understood, sir! Should I tranquilize him, sir?"
"Wow, he is green."
The senior agent scowled. "Tranquilizers don't work on ghosts, recruit. Get your facts straight!"
Agent N stuttered apologies. Danny rolled his eyes and wished he would teleport out of there already.
"W-what do we do then, s-sir?"
The other agent grinned sadistically. "We shock him until he loses consciousness."
Danny flinched, but tried to hide it. "Gee, so humane. You must be very proud of your species."
"I am." The senior agent pulled a button switch out of his pocket, and poised his thumb above the large red button. Danny breathed in a deep breath, readying a Ghostly Wail. Passing out and transforming in front of them wasn't an option. "Or, I don't care about yours. Prepare yourself, ghost scum."
POP!
-------------------------------
POP!
The first thing Danny noticed was the absence of annoying static shocks. The second thing he noticed was the absence of everything else. Including air. He was really glad he took a deep breath before, though the breath was almost stolen from him when he looked down at the Earth. Like, the Earth, the blue planet Earth.
I'm in space! he thought, grinning goofily. He gazed around himself in wonder. He had been to space before, but he'd been too busy fighting to really admire the scenery.
Stars in every direction, as far as the eye could see, he was on the sunny side of the Earth, but he could see the moon poking out from behind the rocky planet. A comet was off in the distance, its ice and dust particles trailing behind it as the solar wind tore at the ice rock. He closed his eyes, and lights danced behind his eyelids as the solar wind hit him.
Danny sagged, and his expression became dreamy. It's so beautiful…this just makes me want to be an astronaut even more! I wish I could stay—Air! He gripped his throat. Air! I need air!
POP!
------------------------------
POP!
"Chronicles of Narnia!"
Danny gasped in air, like he'd never tasted anything so sweet. Space was awesome, but it'd be a lot better with oxygen.
"Danny Phantom!"
Danny spun around, and found his first period class staring up at him the same way he had stared at Outer Space. A nervous smile worked its way onto his lips. "I'm just dropping by. I'll be gone in a second, so please, don't let me interrupt."
The class started whispering to each other in excitement, looking like they were seconds away from mobbing him. In the back row, he saw Sam scowl. She hated his 'hero' voice. Tucker waved discreetly to him, and Danny subtly nodded back. He was glad Valerie didn't have his first hour…
"Mr. Phantom!"
Danny looked over his shoulder at Mr. Lancer. "Uh, hello again…"
Lancer frowned. "I take it you haven't fixed your 'problem'?"
"…No."
"Then perhaps you would like to sit in for my lesson," he said, smirking like he had just won a contest. "Perhaps you will learn something."
The students screamed. No longer able to contain themselves, they jumped out of their seats and rushed for Danny. He floated out of their reach, feeling nervous and slightly nauseous. Tucker and Sam joined them in order to keep up appearances, and Danny was annoyed to see Tucker filming it all on his PDA. His classmates gathered below him, shouting for autographs.
Danny backed away, breathing fast. "Uh, I don't know if that's such a good idea! Besides, I probably won't be here for much longer, or at least I really hope not, so I—"
POP!
-----------------------------------
POP!
"…and that is why, I believe we can use the town's little ghost problem to our…" Vlad trailed off when it became apparent he didn't have his audience's full attention. "…advantage…"
Despite the meeting being comprised of mostly professional reporters and self-important civilians, they were whispering rudely amongst each other, laughing and pointing at something behind Vlad. He looked behind him, but all he saw was the red curtain. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"…As I was saying," Vlad said, turning back to the microphone on the podium, "with an interest in ghosts growing worldwide, more and more people will be traveling to Amity Park in search of the fabled beings—one in particular, I might add. I say we encourage this by building tourist attractions that will bring in large crowds of people."
"What?" a familiar voice exclaimed. Vlad smirked, his suspicion confirmed. Danny Phantom flew in front of him, his arms thrown out. "You can't bring more people here! I knew you were a fruitloop, Vlad, but this is going a bit far!"
"Ah," Vlad said suavely, "Amity Park's famous Ghost Boy. So nice of you to join us."
"Cut the crap, Vlad…er, Mr. Mayor…" Danny blushed and glanced over his shoulder at the flashing cameras and excited audience.
Vlad chuckled. "If it puts you more at ease, you're welcome to use my first name. It's the least I can do for our star attraction."
Danny refocused his righteous gaze on Vlad, but he floated to the side of him so his back was no longer to the cameras. "You can't bring tourists here, Masters."
"Oh? And why not? It'd be very profitable for this town."
"You mean it'd be very profitable for you," Danny corrected. "And you can't bring them here because, in case you haven't noticed, this town isn't very safe. The people living here know to run when a ghost attacks, but tourists will get closer because that's what they came to see. People could get seriously hurt…"
"Do you doubt your ability to protect them, little hero?" Vlad questioned, smirking mockingly. "We can use the funds the tourists bring in to hire more competent ghost hunters, so I assure you there is no need for such fear."
Danny scowled at the 'competent' part. "You're making a mistake, Masters. You can hire a hundred ghost hunters, but they won't be enough to—"
POP!
Vlad raised an eyebrow. Interesting… He hadn't expected the boy to develop his teleportation powers so soon, but his apparent lack of control more than made up for his accelerated growth. He'd make the boy suffer a while longer before he approached him.
He turned back to his murmuring audience. "Any questions?"
The crowd shot to their feet.
-------------------------
Ms. Tetslaff blew her whistle. Her students looked at her with hope in their eyes and sweat covering every inch of their exhausted bodies. "That's enough for today," she said. "Shower up, you lazy maggots!" The students silently cheered and limped toward the locker rooms.
Tucker almost fell over in relief. He'd take helping Danny fight ghosts over gym any day. He was tempted to curl into a ball and fake dehydration, just so he could sit and relax for a few seconds. Sadly, it was not to be. Sam bounced to his side, and Tucker for the second time that day cursed the girl's athleticism.
She grabbed his arm, and forced him to stumble toward the locker rooms. He muttered complaints, but being the good friend she was, she ignored them.
"Any sign of Danny since this morning?" she asked him quietly.
"Once," Tucker replied. Even his voice sounded tired. "He made a brief appearance in third period chemistry class, and I mean brief. He was there for all but five seconds, but it was still enough to disrupt the whole class and get us out of homework." He grinned. "It was awesome! What about you?"
Sam shrugged. "He popped into second period Art Class. Everybody started sketching him, including Mr. Coal." She smirked. "Danny looked so embarrassed."
Tucker chuckled. "I bet. How long did he stay?"
"Five or ten minutes. There were a lot of disappointed groans after he disappeared, but Mr. Coal managed to finish. It looks really cool too…I also heard he made an appearance for History Class, and Government." She rolled her eyes. "The Government teacher tried to call the Guys in White, but he got taken captive by his class."
Tucker laughed. "Oh man! I wish I had seen that!"
"We can ask Danny all about it once we see him again," Sam pointed out. "If he stays long enough…"
Tucker chuckled.
They split into their gender specific locker rooms, waving goodbye. Still chuckling, Tucker grabbed his shower supplies and strolled into the shower area. Because of a recent ghost attack, tarps littered the area, for once creating some much needed privacy. Too bad Danny was missing it. Mr. Modesty would most definitely appreciate the seclusion.
Tucker stripped down, and was just about to turn on the water when…
POP!
"Tucker!"
Tucker jumped.
Danny nearly hugged him like he had that morning, but he stopped at the last second. He pulled slowly away, making a face. "Uh, you're my best friend and everything, Tuck," he said, "and I love you like a brother, but I am so not touching you when you're naked…"
Tucker hurriedly wrapped his lower half in his towel. "Well no asked you to!" He looked at his best friend, noticing the tousled white hair, the tear in his jumpsuit, and the way his eyes twitched and darted around the room. "Having a rough day, Danny?"
"Like you wouldn't believe!" Danny pulled on his own hair—explaining why it was so messy—and stared at Tucker with unnaturally large eyes. "I never know where I'm going, or when I'm going there! It's all completely random! And I've seen things, Tuck! I've seen things…"
Tucker held his fists against his naked chest, mocking a scared expression. "Were they dead people?" he whispered.
Danny blinked, scowled, and crossed his hands over his chest, sulking. "Oh yeah, ha ha. Laugh at the poor kid who just saw Ember and Skulker making out."
Tucker's jaw dropped and his face turned slightly green.
Danny smirked. "Yeah! Not so funny now, is it!"
POP!
Tucker stared at the empty space before him for a moment, wondering where his traveling friend would end up next.
------------------------------
POP!
It happened very fast.
Danny saw what every straight guy dreams about, committed it unintentionally to memory, and was then deafened by shrieks. He screamed too and quickly covered his eyes with his hands. He turned around and tried to fly out of the Girl's Locker Room, but he forgot to go intangible, and he crashed into the lockers. The girls started throwing towels, hairbrushes, and other items at him.
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" he shouted over their screams, cowering in a corner. "I have no control over where I'm going!"
POP!
------------------------------------
POP!
Danny was never so glad to hear that sound. Still, he stayed in a fetal position, too afraid to see where he had teleported to. Maybe if I stay still, he thought desperately, I won't teleport!
"It's alright, Danny," a kind and familiar voice said. "You're safe here."
Danny opened his eyes slowly, and stared up at Clockwork. The Time Ghost in, the form of an old man, smiled kindly back down at him.
Danny grinned and jumped to his feet. "Clockwork! Man, am I glad to see you! Listen, you have to help me! I can't stop teleporting everywhere, and I'm seeing things I really don't want to be seeing, going places I shouldn't be going, and you probably already know about all of this, because you're the Master of Time and everything, but I have to tell you because—"
"Danny, you have something on—"
"—I'm freaking out here, because I can't stop teleporting—"
"Danny, your head—"
"—and I'm seeing things I should not be not be seeing, and it won't stop, Clockwork, make it stop!" Danny leaned his head against his Guardian/mentor's chest, whimpering pathetically. "Make it stop…"
Clockwork hesitated, unsure. He reached up a hand, and patted Danny awkwardly on the shoulder. "I…I'm sorry, Danny," he said, sounding sincerely apologetic. "It's not my place to help you."
Danny's shoulders slumped in defeat. He drew away from the timeless ghost and shook the hand off his shoulder. "Yeah…I should have figured that…Sorry for putting you on the spot, Clockwork."
Clockwork changed into a toddler. He sighed, and shook his head. "There is nothing to apologize for, Danny. You ask far less of me than most ghosts. However," his tone made Danny glance despondently up at him, "I can tell you it will end soon."
Danny straightened, and his eyes brightened with hope. "Really?"
The Time Master nodded sagely. "Indeed." He smirked, and it was very odd to see such a sarcastic look on a kid's face. "By the way, Danny. You have something on your head."
Danny frowned. He brought his hand to his head and pressed down, immediately feeling something lacy. He grabbed it and brought it down to eye level. It was a white bra. Danny let out a half-yelp and quickly tossed it away from him. He wiped his hand against his pants, making a face.
Clockwork chuckled, now a middle-aged man. "I thought you were over the 'cootie' stage by now, Danny."
Danny grimaced. "I'm fourteen, and I have an older sister. You do the math."
Clockwork nodded. "Fair enough. You have ten seconds before you teleport again."
Danny looked dismayed. "So soon? Can you tell me where I'm going?"
"Home, Danny. To Fenton Works." Danny smiled in relief. "But you won't get a warm welcome."
He frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
"Five…"
"Clockwork!"
"Four…"
"I can't believe you're counting down!"
"Three…"
"Whoever heard of Master of all Time counting down the time?"
"Two…"
"'Hey, I'm Clockwork! I'm counting down because I'm awesome like that—'"
"One."
POP!
--------------------------------
POP!
"GHOST!"
"Ghost!"
"Warning! Warning! Ecto-entity in the lab."
Danny blinked. "Wow. What a welcome home…"
His mom grabbed an ecto gun off one of the lab tables and shot at Danny. He gasped and quickly dove beneath it, escaping the shot by a hair. Jack shot a net at Danny, but it missed him completely. Still in a ball, it ricocheted off the wall and expanded over Maddie, knocking her to the ground and sending her gun flying. Danny clamped his hands over his mouth, trying to smother his giggles.
"Jack!" Maddie shouted angrily, struggling inside the net.
"Sorry, sweet cheeks!" Jack dropped the net launcher and grabbed the weapon they'd been working on before Danny arrived. "I'll get you out of there as soon as I capture this ghost!"
"Jack! We haven't fixed the—"
"BONSAI!" Jack pulled the trigger. Ectoplasmic goop shot into his face.
"—trigger…"
Danny wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed by his father (again), or be grateful he messed up an attack (again). He just chuckled weakly, and rubbed the back of his neck.
POP!
-----------------------------
POP!
As soon as the green mist cleared, Danny looked around his new surroundings. What he saw made him grimace, and not just because the green and gold color scheme was an eyesore.
"Ah, Daniel. I was wondering when you'd 'pop' in."
Vlad stepped out of a darkened hallway, haunting smirk in place. Danny spun around and crossed his arms over his chest, lifting an eyebrow. "Do you always have to make a creepy entrance, or is this another fruitloop thing?"
Vlad huffed, looking offended. "It's dramatic, Daniel, not creepy."
"Where'd you learn it from, Villainy for Dummies? Seems like overcompensation if you ask me."
Vlad's eyes flashed red, before he schooled his expression into one of mocking regret. "I was going to offer you my expertise on teleporting, but if you're going to be immature, I have more important things to do." He turned around, walking back into the dark hallway.
Danny gasped, and quickly flew in front of the man. "Whoa, hold on!" He held up his hands in front of Vlad, forcing him to stop. "You can stop this? You can make me stop teleporting?" Vlad nodded, and Danny smiled happily. "Great! I—Wait." The smile fell from his face, and he eyed the man suspiciously. "What's in it for you?"
Vlad's lips twisted into a smirk. "No longer naïve enough to expect anything for free. I'm proud of you, little badger. My price is the usual."
"Renounce my dad and become your evil apprentice?" Danny crossed his arms again. "Forget it, Vlad."
Vlad shrugged his shoulders. "Then enjoy the rest of your life filled with uncertainty." He walked around Danny, raising a hand in farewell. "Ta."
Danny winced. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking. He hated teleporting. If he ever got out of the rut he had fallen into, he swore the power would definitely be crossed off his list…He groaned, and flew after Vlad. "Vlad wait!"
Vlad halted, his expression triumphant. "Yes?"
Danny refused to meet his eyes. "I…The reward isn't worth the price, Vlad, but…will you teach me to control this power for…Mom's cell number?"
Vlad's eyes sparkled in interest. "You'll give me her phone number?"
It was difficult, but Danny managed to keep from grinning triumphantly. "She'll probably never forgive me, but yes. I mean, it's not like you'll get anywhere with it…"
Vlad smiled cockily. "I assure you, Daniel, I can be quite charming. I'll be your legal father in no time." Danny gagged, and Vlad rolled his eyes. "I suppose we have a deal?" Vlad held out his hand.
Danny stared at it, making a show of hesitating. "Alright…" He reached out and grabbed the other hybrids hand. "Deal."
POP!
-------------------------------
POP!
Danny blinked, and when his eyes opened, it wasn't Vlad's ugly décor that greeted his sight, but Amity's newspaper office. People occupied cubicles, writing down stories on computers and scribbling notes in their notebooks, but no sign of Vlad.
"No!" Danny screamed, frantically searching the office for his savior. He could have followed him in ghost form, right? The sound of typing and pencils scribbling on paper instantly ceased, but Danny didn't notice. "I was so close to ending this!" He ran a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth on the open air. "I finally outsmarted the creep, and I get whooshed off before I can even celebrate! Where's justice in that? Is this some great cosmic joke? Just—"
POP!
-----------------------------
POP!
"GHOST!"
"Jack! Get this net off me!"
"—how many people are laughing at me? The Observants—"
POP!
----------------------------
POP!
"Danny Phantom!"
"—are probably having a grand ol' time laughing at me, the jerks. No doubt Vlad finds this whole thing amusing—"
POP!
--------------------------
POP!
"Breach in Sector 11! Again!"
"—because he's a total bastard like that. Clockwork, Master of all Annoyingness, acted—"
POP!
--------------------------
POP!
"BEWARE!"
"—all sincere, but I bet he's laughing on the inside!"
POP!
--------------------------
POP!
"Mr. Phantom! A few questions—"
"And don't even get me started on my friends—"
POP!
--------------------------
POP!
"—probably laughing about it at this very moment! Some friends!"
"Danny?"
Danny spun around. His friends stared up at him, along with the whole Casper High cafeteria. He was floating over the lunch line, and even the lunch ladies were gaping openly at him. Slop slipped off one of their spoons.
Danny laughed. "Great. Just great. Of course I'd wind up here, again."
"Danny," Sam hissed, "go invisible!"
Considering the students were starting to rush in his direction, that was sound advice. Danny turned invisible. His fans slowed, groaning in disappointment, but Danny felt no sympathy. He placed a hand on Sam's shoulder, and whispered, "I'll meet you guys at our table." She nodded and whispered the message to Tucker.
Danny sat in his designated seat and placed his head in his hands, just taking time to relax and not think about anything. A few minutes later, Tucker and Sam sat at the table on either side of him.
"Danny?" Sam asked quietly. "Are you still here?"
Danny nodded his head, but realized they couldn't see it. He sighed. "Yes."
Tucker stuffed some mystery meat into his mouth. "So how's your day been?" he asked cheerfully.
Danny groaned.
"Aw, it can't be that bad." He grinned, and nudged what he hopped was Danny's shoulder and not his head. "Sam says you teleported into the girl's locker room while they were changing…"
Sam stabbed her salad, growling low in her throat. She muttered what Danny assumed were threats against mankind.
"They nearly killed me, Tuck."
"Yeah, but you would have died a happy man!"
Danny's lips twitched. "True…"
Sam slammed her spork down, her face flaming. "We are never speaking of it again, and you—" she pointed a threatening finger at Danny's seat "—are going to forget what you saw. Got it?"
"…I don't think I can, Sam…"
Sam growled, and Tucker laughed. Danny smiled, though they couldn't see it, and snuck a fry from Tucker's tray. Being invisible had its perks.
"The school is in an uproar, Danny," Sam said after a minute of silence. "…More than usual. Valerie is going crazy trying to find you, Paulina constantly fixes her makeup, and the teachers seem to be competing against each other…"
Tucker nodded. "There's even a bet going around about where you'll pop in next!"
Danny raised an unseen eyebrow. "Do I want to know who started the bet, Tuck…?"
Tucker coughed into his fist. "Depends on what you plan to do to him—or her! For all we know, the evil, clever, and no doubt charming mastermind might have been a girl."
Danny rolled his eyes, and stole another fry from the 'clever mastermind'. "Uh-huh."
"Have you learned any control yet?" Sam asked.
Danny grumbled. "No. I convinced Vlad to help me, though."
"How'd you manage that?" Sam asked.
He smirked slyly. "By offering my mom's cell phone number."
Tucker frowned. "But your mom doesn't—" His eyes cleared in understanding. He smiled at Danny. "Niiice, dude."
"So, you know how to stop now?" Sam asked.
Danny sighed. "No. Before he had a chance to tell me, I teleported away."
"Well," Tucker said, "that explains the rant. That must have been really frustrating."
"I wasn't ranting!" Danny protested. "I was…expressing my anger to the universe."
"In other words, ranting," Sam concluded.
"…Alright fine, I ranted."
"Maybe there's a pattern to it," Sam suggested. "You've been here for a while. What are you doing differently now?"
Danny shrugged. "Talking to you guys, focusing on not teleporting so I have a chance to relax."
"Maybe that's the answer then. You just have to concentrate on your surroundings and on staying in one place."
He grimaced. "I don't know, Sam. What about when I—"
POP!
Sam groaned, and leaned back in her chair. "Great. Here we go again."
Tucker chuckled. "Look on the bright side, Sam. At least the bet—that I had no part in making—is still on. I'm going to be rich!" He went to grab a fry, but the bucket was empty. He frowned down at his tray. "Where'd my fries go?"
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hopevalley · 5 years
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S6E2: Phone Rings & Heartstrings (Episode Write-Up)
You can also read this on my site here.
And here we are at the beginning of another new season! How do you feel? Like it’s been forever? Like it’s been little more than the blink of an eye? I know for me it’s a combination of both. It’s crazy to think a year has passed since S5! But we’ve made it to the next chapter of When Calls the Heart! I wonder what this season will have in store for us?
Plotlines for this episode:
Motherhood
Laura & College
The Telephone Comes to Hope Valley
Rosemary Plays Cupid
Jesse and Clara
The Saloon Closes
Not related to the episode exactly, but I noticed they didn’t reference Jack’s death directly in the “last time” clip. For a second, I thought they weren’t even going to let him have a speaking line, but they gave him half of a sentence. Also unrelated, the new part of the intro is great! I just wonder why they didn’t take the time to do new character bits for the characters, while they were at it. Some of these are pretty outdated.
So here we are at:
Plot #1: Motherhood!
I’ll admit that I was dreading this part a little bit. It’s hard to say where the line is between “teacher” and “mother.” I was afraid one might eclipse the other (and you know which one would be doing the eclipsing, because this is Hallmark). That said, I think overall they did a pretty good job of including the baby without making him this big overwhelming part of the actual story.
So, we find out that Jack Junior is four months old, making it almost May 1916.
The general ‘plot’ here is as follows: Elizabeth has to go back to work and finds it difficult. Molly, Rosemary, Florence, and Clara have agreed to take turns watching the baby, but it bothers Elizabeth that little Jack won’t have a more concrete schedule; she’d rather have a more stable arrangement.
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This isn’t a very long or detailed plot, but it works. Everyone I know who had to go back to work bawled their eyes out when they had to drop their babies off at daycare. I know I would! Elizabeth finding it hard to balance being a mother and a teacher makes sense, but the best part about this is that she doesn’t consider quitting teaching for even a second.
First, I think it’s fair to say she needs the money, but second…she loves it! How can she balance Jack with teaching in a way that feels satisfying? That tells her that her child is getting the best arrangement she can afford while also allowing her to work to provide both the necessities and fun things?
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Elizabeth’s slight clinginess isn’t really a shock or a surprise to me. It’s natural. She spent four months doing whatever she wanted with her life and her baby, and to have to hand him over to someone else every day for hours and hours… Well, it wouldn’t feel good.
I think the best part of this plot was that, like I said earlier, it wasn’t overdone. Nothing about it felt overdramatic or unnecessary.
And it wrapped up neatly with the next plot on the list:
Plot #2: Laura & College
Laura is out of school, now. In my opinion, it’s definitely that time. She’s gotta be about 15 or 16 by this point, and that’s when education ended for the majority of people. And it’s nice to get to see that transition, because with characters like Gabe, we just didn’t get it.
Free from the constraints of having to be in the classroom, Laura’s taken a job to help out her dad: working part-time at the mercantile. She loves to read, and devours the books Elizabeth loans her, but she’s given up on the idea of college. It costs too much money, and her dad needs her help.
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Elizabeth, determined to find a way to make it work, writes to an acquaintance of hers who is an administrator of a preparatory school in Hamilton. She includes Laura’s grades and a recommendation letter.
Laura is accepted as a corresponding (or correspondence) student! It’ll let her study at home and send in her work (or maybe let her do it under Elizabeth’s supervision), so she’s still free to work and help her dad around the farm.
Unfortunately that leaves her little time to do her schoolwork…
So Elizabeth offers a solution that will benefit them both: Laura can be Jack Junior’s nanny! Then she’ll have a little downtime to work on her schoolwork, and it’ll pay more because it’ll be full-time.
Laura accepts the deal!
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Again, this plot wasn’t huge or convoluted; it wasn’t dramatic. It was nice! And I loved how the general ‘motherhood concerns’ plot tied into this one. It didn’t need to be heavily intertwined at all. They just needed to connect. Which they did, and quite well.
That said, I don’t know if I’d trust a 15/16-year-old girl with no real babysitting experience to be full-time nanny of my baby! In that way, the solution is…maybe just a pinch too convenient? Wilma was established as being poor, and with a school-age child, maybe she would have been a better choice.
But I can’t deny that there’s a lot of room for future drama with this, too. Laura will have the opportunity to grow as a student and as a nanny! Maybe she’ll make mistakes. Maybe she’ll almost regret accepting it. Maybe… Well, it just leaves things open for some good future potential!
Plot #3: The Telephone Comes to Hope Valley
This plot isn’t really a very big deal, mostly because they skipped through all of the potential drama that would have happened when Abigail had to get people to actually bring the telephone to town. I guess at least Henry mentions that it couldn’t have been easy—and, on the plus side, too, it seems that any of the drama Abigail went through to get the phone there? Was kept from everyone else.
So… the telephone is coming to Hope Valley! There will be a line in the mercantile, the mayor’s office, the jail, and Lee’s office. As Henry says, that’s a good start!
The drama here is all good-natured. Ned tells the company he can definitely figure out the wiring, but uh…he can’t. 
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He really can’t. He has no idea what he’s looking at, and the directions are confusing…so the big reveal for their four o’clock call is an awkward silent mess. Embarrassing, but also funny in a mostly good-natured sort of way.
The telephone company sends Fiona Miller to straighten things out, which she does, and not without a little sass (or uh, flashin’ a li’l ankle)! She’s easy to like. I hope she sticks around past the second episode, personally, but I can’t quite figure out if she’s meant to be a longstanding cast member or just one of those “couple of episode” characters. It’s easy to imagine it going either way.
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Anyway, she fixes things right on up, the phone rings, and Abigail answers it.
Again, another…rather calm plot. It’s giving us a nice set-up for future plotlines by giving the cast access to a telephone. So who knows how things might go? It could be interesting.
That said, the one thing about this plot that I didn’t care for? Bill’s role as a curmudgeon. Was that really necessary? S1 through S4 Bill was a little tactless/thoughtless sometimes, and not emotionally open, but S5 and S6 Bill have been almost unbearably awful. I’ll talk more about this later, but the slight role he played here in this particular plot doesn’t even make sense for his character. He lived in the city for the majority of his life.
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I’ll forgive this particular folly if the writers take it in an interesting direction—like Bill being phone-shy (because, for example, he relies a lot on body language/facial expression to have a conversation and gets super awkward on the phone, so he prefers wires due to it giving him the ability to think through what he needs to say and write it down to send). Otherwise it just comes off as more of the same with regards to the figgy pudding plot in the Christmas film: he’s just there to laugh at.
I’m worried that that’ll be the new norm, though. Incoming horrible joke: Bill shouting loudly into the telephone like he’s never used one before. (UGH. Just typing that gave me hives.)
Plot #4: Rosemary Plays Cupid
Now this plot was fun. It was also quiet, kind of muted, not really long, and definitely not meaty. But it served its purpose well. It also gave us some seriously awkward stuff to cringe over that wasn’t Bill’s character. Thank goodness!
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So the gist of it is pretty simple: Rosemary decides that Faith and Carson have good teamworking skills, so she ambus—I mean, uh…sets them up! At her house, for dinner! Where everything ends up being awkward and weird, and all Faith and Carson talk about are…beans.
That’s right.
Beans.
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Faith eats lots of beans because she can’t cook worth anything, and Carson…does not consume beans. Because they make him gassy. Great dinner conversation!  
Afterward, Faith and Carson start to bond a little over how awkward the dinner was (I mean, nothing brings a couple together like complaining about being set up, right?), but Carson gets carried away and says, “Doesn’t she realize how ridiculous that would be?”
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Carson was probably trying to make things not-awkward, but all he did was make things…extremely awkward. The worst part (or best part, if we’re talking about the great acting these two did) was how Faith’s face the entire time is kind of like, “Oh crap, I can imagine it…and it’s not bad at all” and Carson drops that “ridiculous” line right on top of it, hurting Faith’s feelings and making everything between them vaguely awful.
Which we didn’t get too much of in this episode. They literally run into each other in the clinic and it’s awkward, but Carson just seems confused about it, and Faith is the one being avoidant.
Rosemary thinks her entire plan was a disaster, but…
Well, we know she got the ball rolling. ;)
Plot #5: Jesse and Clara
I love Jesse and Clara, and here they get a nice, simple little plotline that feels like it’s getting solved in a reasonable amount of time. They’re also both very cute the whole time.
Jesse purchases some land, which comes as a (pleasant) surprise to Clara. He takes her around pointing out where he’d like different buildings to go, and uses the pronoun ‘our’ to describe the barn. When Clara brings it up (“Our barn?”) Jesse responds in the affirmative (“Of course…our barn.”).
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Unfortunately Clara thinks this is the beginning of a marriage proposal, but…it’s not. Jesse says it’ll happen eventually, but he wants to be more stable. Clara accepts this, but…it bothers her, so she talks to Abigail about it. Abigail’s advice is mostly to just…talk to Jesse about it, so Clara makes the effort, and Jesse pretty much just repeats himself: he wants to be in a better financial state.
Clara isn’t persuaded by this, because Jesse has a good job already, and gets kind of short/snippy with him. Jesse ends up coming forward and confessing that when he was younger he stole from a general store with some friends and he’s still paying the man back (the parts that his friends got away with).
All is forgiven when he admits that he wants to start with a clean slate: the real reason he hasn’t proposed yet. He doesn’t want something like that marring the beginning of their marriage together. He wants to prove that he’s a better man by making things right where he should, first.
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All in all, a pretty good plot. Reasonable. Clara’s disappointment in not getting a proposal was more than understandable. They’ve been courting a long time, so I don’t blame her for thinking it had finally arrived only for it to just be generalized talk.
That said, this could have definitely been a bigger plot? So I’m surprised they left it as just this little thing. Him sending away $10/month could come across as a lot of things if anyone saw him doing it. But props to keeping this storyline simple! The only thing I think I would change is…maybe having Jesse talk to someone else in town he trusts (could have been just about anyone; if Dottie were around I’d probably suggest her, but Lee or Bill would be a good choice, too) to get the incentive to confess the truth to Clara. Even just a small scene where he looks thoughtful, maybe talks to himself a little in that ‘do I tell her’ ‘do I not’ way and then decisively puts down his tools and walks toward town would have gone a long way into making it seem like he was telling her for more reasons than because she’s being snippy and short with him.
Overall, though, a sweet and enjoyable plot. Jesse calling Clara m’dear was so cute it nearly killed me instantly.
Plot #6: The Saloon Closes
This was the meatiest plot of the episode by far, and with good reason: Tom Trevoy’s mother took ill (in a long-term sense), so he and his wife moved to Union City, but he keeps traveling back to Hope Valley to oversee his saloon, but the commute is awful and he isn’t with his family as much as he’d like, so…he decides to sell.
It’s an incredibly profitable business—or at least it has the potential to be, being the only saloon in town, as Henry mentions to Lee—so the fact that it’s going up for sale is a Pretty Big Deal.
Or at least, it is to Bill and Henry.
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The short of it is that they both have half the funds ($4,500) and try to get Lee to cough up the other half for a partnership. Lee tells both of them he’ll have to discuss it with Rosemary first. Rosemary (more or less) talks both men into making this venture about her, because of course doing so will get them her approval (even though it’s clear neither of them really want to do these things for her). In the end, she and Lee are split about who they should choose. Rosemary thinks Bill is the safer investment; Lee would like to trust Henry. They disagree so thoroughly that they decide together to not partner with either of them, which leaves Bill and Henry to, uh, partner with one another. They hate the idea but end up talking about it. Unfortunately, they get their money together too late; Tom sells the bar for $1,000 over asking price to an out of town buyer.
How did the out of town buyer even find out about it in less than two days? Who knows.
Suspension of disbelief? Sure, okay. I can buy it easily enough.
Anyway, overall this plot is pretty good. Bill and Henry both make great points about one another: Bill might do the books for the café (we’ve seen him doing this), but he doesn’t oversee daily operations; he’s more or less a silent partner. Henry is definitely a businessman, but he’s had past issues with honesty and, uh, money.
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They’re both risks for very different reasons.
But also, they don’t like each other, so it makes sense that they’d make these kinds of digs at each other in order to try and get the upper hand.
I think my favorite part about this plot was at the end when they were working together to try and buy the saloon. I wish we could have gotten that conversation on-screen, though; it would have been great. I’m sure it was mostly about the fact that the investment is pretty sound, they almost can’t lose with it, and do they really want to wait and let someone else buy it? At least if they own it, they can control what happens/how the space is used/et cetera.
Henry and Bill disagree on most things, but neither of them is stupid.
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Henry doesn’t know enough about that type of business to be of much use actually doing the physical work involved in keeping it up and running, but he could be great at striking deals and keeping track of profits/loss. Bill knows enough about balancing books to see if Henry’s up to no good, but he’s also a very hands-on kind of guy, so I feel like he could do all right with the ground level kinds of things.
Still, I feel like a partnership between them would go belly-up pretty fast. They just don’t get along in other capacities enough to…make it work long-term, I think.
It’s definitely for the best that someone else bought it up.
But hey, for a second we were able to see Bill and Henry getting along!
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
Molly…had a hair appointment…in…Benson Hills… What? These women are not rich. That was a bad line. Literally anything else could have sufficed. She went to Benson Hills to get a pretty fabric she couldn’t get in town, for example. Or she went there to drop off donations for a church drive. There are so many other things they could have picked that wouldn’t seem ridiculous (not to mention unbelievably shallow in this time period).
Tom…HAS A WIFE???? We’re probably meant to think she’s been around from the beginning, but now it makes me sad she wasn’t around… The saloon owner’s wife could have been a really fun role for somebody to play!
Now, I promised I’d get back to it, so here we go: Bill was easily the worst part about this episode, and the sad thing is, like I’ve said before, he’s my favorite (regular) character! I don’t know why they decided to suddenly swerve Bill into old grumpy-gus curmudgeon territory, but so far there’s been no reason for it; it makes him hard to like and undoes all the character development he went through in the first four seasons. I don’t want to spit out a 3,000-word essay rant about why I hate this, but I figure it deserves a serious mention here, too. I hope this series isn’t going in the direction of making Bill the go-to laugh-at character. That isn’t good humor writing. It’s cheap and lazy. Please don’t let me down, writers.
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Also, can I just say how cringey the weird “charming” parts were with Bill in them? You know what I’m talking about. These parts. UGH. They were terrible and weird. I’m not sure what was going on there; it almost feels like bad stage direction. Bill hasn’t done that since Season 2, and even then it was part of a persona he eventually ended up shedding (along with his job as a Mountie). Why bring it back now? It, too, undoes character development. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this.
There were so many random children…I’ve never seen before. I just wanted to point it out.
Why does only Abigail get the ‘modern’ looking telephone?
Baby Jack was cuter in this episode than in most of the stills, and Elizabeth’s nightgown was lovely.
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Florence’s expressions aimed at Elizabeth for not leaving fast enough? Priceless. I mean, that’s a good spot of humor there. Nobody is mocking Elizabeth for having feelings, but we can have a good little chuckle at it.
Lee getting busted pretending to take a phone call was so cringey but mostly in a decent way? I don’t think Bill is so tactless he wouldn’t realize what Lee was doing (see my rant about Bill above) but it’s a situation we can all probably relate to a little bit. Nobody likes getting busted for practicing! A better way of doing this scene would be for Bill to look concerned, or amused? Like, “Who are you talking to?” or, “Talking to yourself?” to start out, with no condescension in his tone of voice. But…that’s just me.
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Overall Thoughts:
This was a good first regular episode to the season. It definitely gives me hope about the episodes to come! Bring on the good content!
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Alrighty, not sure when the next season is going to start, but I do know that this bunch of pony is ending with the two-parter “School Raze”.  I… may have been one of those kids who wouldn’t have been sad to see their school razed.
* Cozy Glow is being helpful.  Supposedly. I wouldn’t really be sure all of the dropped letters were for the school.  Or that there wasn’t more.
* That kid’s got more of a rainbow mane than Rainbow Dash.
* Girl’s gunning for Spike’s job.
* I feel ya Yona. Except for the falling through a cloud bit.  Can’t say I’ve come that close to death from heights.
* And this is why you should keep your feet/hooves on the ground!
* Spontaneous magic failure is a good enough reason for a crying fit.  Gonna be a pain to touch up her makeup afterward though without it.
* It seems like jumping the gun to blame Tirek.  I mean, Chrysalis had that throne made of magic-nullifying stone.  Oh sure, her last plan did not impress, but she is still out there.  Or for the same kind of source it could easily be Maud.  Or a new threat.  But it’s probably Tirek, as he’s the one mentioned.
* OK, Spike almost chocking on a letter is kinda horrifying.  Also, if you’re having magic problems, don’t send messages by magic. Lucky that got through at all. Though maybe Celestia sent a pegasus as well just in case.
* See, Starswirl knows to just use a mundane messenger.
* I dunno, it doesn’t really match Tirek’s MO.  I mean, he’d mug one pony at a time, or grab groups, but it was still very targeted. If he could pull this kind of a generalized drain I think he would have.  Unless he just figured it out or something.
* When was Twilight ever in Tartarus?  She was the only princess not to get sent there.  …Oh right, walking Cerberus back to his post.  Never mind, forgot the offscreen occurrence for a second there.
* Eh, Twilight’s justified in a little freak out away from the troops her friends.
* Yeah, Cozy totally just made a power grab here.  I do have to wonder what she did to Starlight after she stayed behind rather than adventuring.
* Smolder was raised in a culture of struggle and dominance.  She’s knows Cozy’s story stinks like the restrooms after a class trip to Taco Bellflower.
* Bug repellent spells would probably be the one of the best things about magic.  Anyway, has Rarity considered using her tail as a flyswatter?
* And the show says that 2 seconds later.  It’s nice when they remember they’re equines.
* “I think we have all the magic we need right here.”  Cue Rainbow’s cloud holding ability failing in 3… 2… 1…
* Nice door to the pits of Hell.  Er, Tartarus.
* How many doors has Pinkie gotten in that way?  Also, not having a key seems like a lack of foresight when you know the normal way of opening the lock is failing.
* It can magically open any door… and just so happens to perfectly match the indentation of this one.
* Alternatively, imagine the “key of unfettered access” looking like a keyblade, because of course that’s what comes to mind when mentioning a magical key that can open any lock these days.
* On one hand, yes, it’s sad that all of these creatures have lost abilities inherit to them.  In the wild that could cause a huge problem for survival.  However, I would remind Spike that they are in Tartarus for a reason.  I mean, assuming that they don’t want to lock up every creature from a species that would strongly imply that these are the dangerous, feral pony-killers.
* Chancellor Neighsay has a point about a foal being left in charge.  Except she wasn’t, but Cozy’s not about to admit that.
* Yeah, I don’t think you can just walk into a facility and declare yourself to be in charge now. Even Cozy has made the pretense of being put into her position temporarily under extreme circumstances by the people entitled to make that decision.
* Yeah, uh, pretty sure Cerberus doesn’t need magic to do his job.
* OK, I did not need to see Tirek do that thing with his tongue.
* Magic goes missing and so Neighsay thinks Twilight is wasting her time trying to fix the problem rather than stomping on other races while she is at her weakest.  Wow. This guy is officially pants-on-head duuuuuuuuumb.
* Further proof this guy has drunk far too much Trump-aid is he actually buys Sandbar’s sudden yet inevitable betrayal of his friends.
* I’m not sure the CMC can actually help here.  They ain’t got power either.  Of course they’re only supposed to cause a distraction, but still.
* So Cozy Glow learned how to drain magic from Tirek, because she bothered to write and ask and he was bored.  You know… I’ll buy it.  Guy’s still probably plotting an escape, and at least he could be assured of revenge by proxy.
* “Empress of Friendship”? Girl… no.  Just, no.  That name is stupid.  So, so stupid.
 EPISODE 25 OVER!  EPISODE 26 NOW!
 * Did Twilight just suggest draining the monsters of their remaining magic to power her own for an escape? Don’t turn into a Blood Mage Twilight!  Stay good!  Stay good!
* If all of Equestria’s magic is being sucked up to where Starlight is being held, I wonder what that’ll do to her after this is all fixed.  I mean, I know you shouldn’t consume an energy field larger than yourself, but if there was ever a time to have a bite…
* Yeah, not to disagree with Sandbar, but… I gotta disagree with Sandbar.  There’s no way that idiot wouldn’t think this was just some trick by the monsters.
* “The reign of Princess Twilight is over?”  Yeah, look forward to a long stay in Tartarus after this for an attempted coup.
* Yeah, that was a pathetically short stint as headstallion.  Dude was barely a road bump to Cozy, and all she had to do was point out what a complete failure and traitor he was.  If only it was that easy in real life…
* Shoulda kept charging, Yona.  Impressive that she can pick a lock with a horn that size though.  Wonder where she learned it?  Probably Pinkie’s class.
* Tirek was kinda short-sighted here.  He had no plan beyond getting rid of magic.  Which screws him too, as he’s left frail and powerless.  Unless he has a way of drawing upon the Ether he hasn’t mentioned.
* Fluttershy is about to attempt an Epic Druid feat.  Pinkie meanwhile attempts an Epic Troll feat.
* So, yank out a single artifact and cause the Cataclysm.  Got it, thanks for the safety tip Ocellus.  Guessing this means they have to pull them all out at the same time.
* You know, if there was ever an opportunity to have Twilight undergo a second ascension, that was it.  Also, kinda weird that draining the magic from those creatures made them normal, separate animals.
* Nothing like the stupidity of an angry mob.  Seriously, so many idiots in this finale.
* The Tree just said “no”,
* Well, points to Cozy for trying to salvage the situation with the wrath of an angry alicorn before her.
* Make that 3 angry alicorns, an angry mob of students, the Elemental Harmony squad, the Elemental Harmony Jr. Division, and a whole lot of angry guards.  Oh, and a braindead bigot who happens to have a powerful artifact.
* And so a little girl was shut behind bars in the deepest pit of Tartarus forever.  But chances are that she’s a complete uncurable sociopath anyway?
 And that’s the end of the season.  For the finale itself, eh, it was alright, but Neighsay if still aggravating and Cozy only got as far as she did because most ponies apparently love to eat lead paint chips as a snack.  But the actual threat was certainly menacing enough.  I am a little disappointed Neighsay didn’t have to pay for all the crap he’s pulled.  Seriously, dude should have at least lost his job several times over during this season.
 And as for the season itself, there were some interesting world building and character episodes in there. But honestly the whole Friendship School idea still hasn’t sold itself to me.  And considering they had an entire season to do that in with the opening and finale focusing on the place and its students, that’s not good. Bringing students together from a wide area and different species?  Sure, sounds interesting.  Having the teachers help out their students with friendship problems and demonstrate how it and teamwork can help you out in an academic setting and outside it as well? Great!  But having an entire school dedicated to friendship is still just the most eye-rolling thing.  They really shouldn’t have tried to push it that far.  It just doesn’t work.  But overall while this hasn’t been my favorite season I still enjoy the show overall and am looking forward to more… whenever they get around to that.
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