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iamtaran · 14 days

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WIP game! The 72nd Cycle 👀 many of my faves + intriguing premise

Yeeessssss blessings on your family, cow, etc.!!! This is 100% one of those fics of "I want to read X and it doesn't exist, so I guess it's on me." Please enjoy C: I really like writing characters reuniting, and side character POVs of the mains, and so!

Setting the scene: Din, in need of a place to lay low, heads to Mos Pelgo to beg his friend the Marshal's hospitality. He agrees to allow Din et al to stay the night, but Vanth finds himself faced with a difficult decision: repaying the Mandalorian's kindness, or protecting the people of Mos Pelgo from the danger that follows him.

Clear air, a sandstorm somewhere out in the Sea set to scrub the town clean, and there was fresh caf in his canteen. A damn fine morning, fumed Marshal Cobb Vanth.

It was his first thought when he woke up in the tepid damp of his own sweat that smelled like another nightmare and too much ale. In naught but his skivvies, sweat tickling its fingers down his throat. Crusts still in his eyes. Between one moment and the next he was awake and thought, Sorry, partner, you and that catatonic lump of linens on my couch gotta go. He swore and climbed dissolutely out into the beatific air.

Mos Pelgo had few laws, simple ones as far as some places in the galaxy go. They wrote them together, and Vanth as Marshal followed them. Any situations when it wasn’t clear what was best, they’d all of them meet up in the basement of the cantina and hold a council down amongst all the liquor crates and bread root flour, and jabber until a decision was reached.

There was nothing grey about what Vanth the Marshal was meant to do here. The responsibility to vet those who came through fell on him. Which meant the responsibility of telling those who brought too much heat to Mos Pelgo to skedaddle, politely and otherwise, was also his as well.

That would be his duty today.

It felt wrong, not just for who the Mandalorian was, but that it would be from his home. His. Chase the two of ‘em out of the corners like they’d snuck in when his back was turned, nudge them gently but firmly out the door with the side of his foot, s’kkt, s’kkt, like trying to bully the local stray out before it spreads fleas in the nice rug. Sorry, buddy, you know I like you fine, but…

This to the man who rolled up steel plated and deceptively mild and changed all of their lives. Vanth had figured him the holder of the bad end of a number of sticks until he saw the kid. Then it was maybe just one, maybe two.

And then the bastard helped him kill a dragon for the low price of Vanth selling a piece of the man’s own culture back to him. He’d taken care of their trouble, but when he shows up with troubles of his own-

Sorry, Mando, but with no dragon around we just cain’t keep you.

Headachey and a little hungover, and in desperate need of at least another two hours of sleep, Vanth shambled squinting out into the den to see about breakfast. Instead of finding grey quiet and a couple sand lizards scuttering for cover, he found sulfur yellow light drooling out the propped door to the fresher. Inside and equally startled to him, the Mandalorian stared back from where he leaned strangely deflated against the sink basin.

Deflated because, stripped to the waist with only his helmet and the arms of his flight suit wagging disconsolately about his legs, he was surprisingly… person-shaped. Broad, but not nearly as much as the armor made him seem, and rangy through the arms. It was that moment Vanth knew with great certainty that he was flesh and bones, partially because he saw every muscle bunch and freeze with the type of surprise that makes an animal bolt.

The rest came when, no longer held taut, the bandages Mando had been fixing about his ribs escaped to slither down his waist, and Vanth saw what was underneath.

Cursing, he shouldered his way in.

"What-"

The fresher was not large. Mando reeled back like some undiscovered space would open up for him to slink in to.

Vanth could have told him it was futile. Already straining to contain ten square kilometers of Mandalorian, the fresher had barely enough room for him to wedge his boots up against the opposite wall. Which is maybe why he jerked back with a strangled sound when Vanth hiked a leg over and thrust himself into the only space left.

The Mandalorian's shoulders shot up to his ears.

“Vanth,” he started.

Vanth batted Mando’s hands aside. It gave him his first good look.

“What the hell is this?”

Mando prickled at his harsh tone.

He looked like a dewback had tried to kick in his ribs and nearly succeeded. Considering Vanth had seen idiots turned to mincemeat by an ornery dew, it was an ugly comparison for an ugly wound. He hadn't even known bruises came in all the colors Mando was sporting,covering the whole of his right side.

“There a good reason you were hiding this? I’m assuming no.”

Mando proved him right with a stony silence. From so close, Vanth was front row to the tendon in his neck jumping and pulling tight. He nodded once.

“Karking bounty hunters,” he announced with feeling and grabbed for one unraveling end of bandage. Jumpier than a fathier, Mando twitched and made a concerted effort to set Vanth on fire with his mind. Easy enough to ignore, especially with his hands busy with the mess Mando had left. It was pathetic.

“This is pathetic.” Vanth sucked his teeth. “What was this gonna do for you, really?”

“Nobody asked you,” Mando snapped, defensive.

“Sure didn’t,” Vanth agreed.

“I don’t need your help.”

“Uh-huh.” He did something obnoxious with his eyebrows.

Mando twitched without Vanth even having touched him this time. The Mandalorian’s apparently boundless restraint was finding its borders real fast. Well-accustomed to the signs of his own imminent slugging, Vanth put his money on the mitigating gratitude from the night before and hoped his luck would uncharacteristically hold.

“You should have said something last night. Could’ve done you up then,” he griped, proving why his luck was what it was, and then added testily, “straighten up, more like you’d normally stand.”

A pointed thump to Mando’s instep startled him into an indignant shuffle.

An awkwardly mincing dance followed as they struggled to reorient too many limbs in too little space. Proving Vanth right, Mando could barely lift his arm on that side, and a twist too far made his breath audible even past the helmet. ‘Don’t need help’ my ass.

Vanth briefly considered feeling for a break himself. A glance up at Mando ominously still visor made him re-evaluate.

Just to check, “You sure those aren’t broke?”

Mando scowled with his entire body as answer.

Whether they were or weren’t, bandages were the best Vanth had at hand. And so he went about applying them, while Mando managed to provide minor inconveniences at every available turn.

Despite the silence, the injury said a lot more than the Mandalorian was maybe willing to divulge. Its edges hadn’t even started to green and yellow up. The heat off it radiated furnace-like on the backs of his fingers.

Vanth was like most from Tatooine. He’d seen a lot of hurt done. Which is why he knew it was only a couple days old, at most, and painful. Vanth couldn’t tell if he was more annoyed or sympathetic.

“Making the ride out here with busted ribs - you’re something else. Ootmian,” he added under his breath. After a beat, “So what is it? Too proud to ask for help?

“I didn’t need help,” Mando replied immediately, then hissed when Vanth tightened the pressure. One of his hands flashed out to grab him. “Vanth!”

Like all bounty hunters, Mando could read a room. The change in this one had him freezing about a half-tick after Vanth. When Vanth shook off the hand that had seized his wrist, Mando let him.

His hand had been cold. Vanth, meanwhile, felt hot across his shoulders, his neck. He saw his own eyes reflected back when he squared up to the Mandalorian’s visor.

“You wanna tell me you weren’t having any trouble, then?”

Unfooled by the extreme mildness of his question, Mando said nothing. Vanth nodded anyway as if he’d spoken.

“That’s what I thought. You got your pride, Mando, but I got mine. You’re the one who asked me for hospitality, which around here means more'n just shelter and water. This is it. Now, you gonna let me finish or are we gonna have words?”

After another moment, conspicuously silent, Mando’s helmet inclined a bare centimeter. Vanth nodded back. The Mandalorian remained about as comfortable with the handling as a feral tooka.

Being so close gave Vanth's curiosity some fodder to chew on despite his best intentions. Mando had a spectacular scar down his left flank about which Vanth couldn’t help but speculate. And on the other side, dark where the other was white, a long, shiny dimple where a blaster bolt had creased him just beneath his floating rib. Those always left the same, distinctive burn. This one couldn’t have been more than a month old.

Looking at it, sympathy pangs zinged through him. A glance up told him Mando had glued his gaze to the opposite wall.

Despite his exasperation, Vanth wasn’t in the game of torturing folks. Even if they were spectacularly hardheaded.

“So.” No matter how conversational, his voice made the other jerk. He pinned the bandage in place before it could sluice off. “What exactly took exception to your having ribs?”

Mando unclenched his jaw with visible effort (and that had Vanth’s gaze flinching away, realizing that just under the helmet's lip he could see-)

“Droid.”

“A droid did this?”

“...Battle droid,” Mando allowed. It clearly pained him to talk when he was this unhappy. Vanth didn’t feel a sympathy pang this time. “Bigger than humanoid standard - closer to Devaronian height. Found out pretty quick it was blaster- and fire-proof.”

Vanth whistled down at his hands. If he didn’t look up from his work, it’d probably be better for the both of them. In theory.

“How’d you destroy it?”

“Got it-” Mando hissed abruptly. Vanth murmured an apology and tried to avoid jostling him again as he checked the tension of a final few coils. “...Got it with a spear under the faceplate.”

Huh.

“A spear.”

“Yep.”

Damn helmet, but Vanth would have paid to see what expression Mando was making behind it. Bet he’d clear me out at sabacc.

“Blaster- and fire-proof, and you’re telling me you killed it with a pointy stick?”

For a moment Vanth thought he’d jostled the wound again and opened his mouth to apologize. It was only then he recognized the rasping in the Mandalorian’s throat for a laugh.

“A pointy stick made of beskar.”

...Huh.

“Huh,” said Vanth intelligently. “Yeah, that’d bout do it.”

In an unexpected twist, Mando produced a bottle of spray bacta from thin air (or, a pocket in his flight suit) and handed it to him rather than trying to apply it himself. Vanth took it with his fingertips. It was one of those little canisters about the right size to come from a field kit.

He’d only seen it in expired surplus. Never like this --mostly full, and even the date was good. It gave him pause more than the wound had.

When Vanth asked him where he’d found it, Mando shrugged. The movement translated somewhat awkwardly given one of his hands was propped on Vanth’s shoulder to get his arm out of the way.

No bigger than his palm, but enough to treat Vanth didn’t know how many fingers and arms broken in the mines. Using it like this was extravagant, especially for a bounty hunter. He couldn’t help how his nose wrinkled.

“Grabbed it from Jabba’s palace,” Mando answered at last, sounding winded. Bacta on deep bruising like that must have felt like being injected with coolant. “There were store rooms of it. Fett said I could take what I wanted.”

Well, if Fett’s paying… Vanth gave him an extra spritz.

Of course, as he was tucking that final bit of wily, squiggly bandage into place, that damn thought. Just on the underside of the unwieldy stone of a conversation Vanth had dropped between them and had the audacity to demand Mando help carry. You can’t stay here, Mando. We don’t need any Devaronian-sized, missile-resistant super droids rolling into town looking for you. He sure felt like something on its belly hoping against hope no one tipped his rock over and found his ugly self underneath. He mumbled some excuse and retreated to his room to finish getting dressed, and to wonder if he could just stay under this particular rock forever.

The Mandalorian, in his mind, had remained unchanging from how Vanth remembered him. Steel; determination; a juggernaut that sometimes moved slow enough to play at being mild, up until he really got some momentum going and could take out the world with dispassionate violence. Vanth had wondered - well, anyone would wonder, he thought defensively to no one; it was just, well, it was natural to - but Vanth hadn’t actually tried to picture him under all that shine and armor weave. He hadn’t tried to imagine that there was a body inside there.

He couldn’t have imagined the Mandalorian with a blood-hot bruise that would hurt him the way it would hurt Vanth himself, the kind that made you hiss through your teeth and move like an old man. Or that he hid rangy arms the same sunless pale of a skink’s belly where they weren’t composed mostly of scars.

That was all of him, really. Gossiping scars, calluses in odd places where armor met the borders of the person wearing it. Dark hairs on his chest and down his belly which rolled at the waist band when he leaned forward. The Mandalorian was human. The Mandalorian had a belly button.

There was a man living in there. It was a revelation.

Vanth had thought his morning couldn’t get any worse.

#taran writes #ask game

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inventors-fair · 11 months

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Basic Type Commentary: Discoveries

As I learned, and by that I mean as I sorta figured out without actual consequence, the flavor/mechanics love is hard to balance. Cards like Loam Lion are suave and cool and mysterious to me; you got that mechanical bend but also, like, the lion gets to hide in the woods! That’s really cool! And...there’s also the mechanical ones straight-up, which encourage deckbuilding restrictions, but those are a different kind of fun, and... I think I should’ve asked for more of the former but I’m glad that I got all these good designs regardless.

Like, this week was GOOD. Very few mechanical stumbles. It does kinda suck when you have some cards that are functional but not exciting but still REALLY good, because talking about them is different than evaluating them. Y’know? They can’t be evaluated in the same way because they’re already really awesome, so they end up just being good on their own and that’s about it. Still, the nature of this contest allowed for that open-endedness; what else could I have expected? I’m still quite happy to be talking about the cards I enjoyed and tweaking the things that need tweaking. It’s all fun.

JUDGE PICKS are cards I want to commend for one reason or another, that either had a specific cool aspect or just missed the cutoff.

@0woah — Contracted Excavator

Interesting name and concept you’re working with here. I would definitely caution to make this rare, because, I mean, Ragavan’s a strong little monkey as is (and, like, this isn't even comparable, just so we're clear), and even at this cost the ability to run a mono-red deck with all Mountains and this is incredibly strong. Still, I gotta say: this is a real solid submission. I’m viewing it through a rare lens all the same. The ability to exile-steal your opponents’ best cards or at least prevent them from getting their shenanigans is pretty crazy.

I think I see the flavor, too, but this is one of those utilitarian cards; I’m doing commentary out of order so I think I said something similar below. Regardless! On the flavor front, sure, dwarf mercenaries checks out. Good use of the type with the mechanical synergy. The dwarf mines, and whatever they find is yours. Awesome. In limited, this could be a really strong utility card if not a half-decent attacker, and once you up the rarity we’re pretty good. Notes: It should be “Mountain card” for the activation, and I would word it: “Choose target opponent. Exile the top card of that player’s library and the top card of your library. You may cast those cards this turn, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast those spells.” You don’t need “in hand” for this.

@batatafilosofal — Flood Away (JUDGE PICK)

In a mono-blue deck, this thing’s a heck of a slog to get through. I’m a huge fan of big swingy bounce-like cards, but wow... All the same, though, this has a unique way of getting around that by having the big things come in first. It’s a shame that your opponents’ permanents will enter the battlefield before yours—unless they’re all small and your stuff is pretty big. Which, well, speaks for itself. What a strange card. I think I want to veer away from flavor-specific critique here because it’s clearly a general-magic utilitarian card, and that’s totally fine. The art could speak for all of that.

The question is then, with the math and whatnot, if this is a little too headachey for standard, or even for limited, and I love this card but I gotta say, a zillion counters and upkeep triggers and a return to suspend in standard? Not sure how I feel about that optimistically. What I will say, however, is that this card’s definitely great in digital. On Arena, you cast this card, and beep boop everything’s out of the picture. I have a vehement disdain for Arena, but I have a soft spot for places where human error would make things worse. Perhaps this card has a home. Also, you can remove that second “each” from the first ability, I believe.

@bread-into-toast— Peak Performance

I’m curious why this wasn’t an “until end of turn” or “until the end of your next turn” here; Occam’s razor, that was an oversight, but regardless. Quite a strange little thing here. I think the wording that you were going for and the ultimate execution may have, well, needed more words, like those weird milling-recursion cards they’ve been making lately. I think I see what you were going for generally: double-impulse type of common, with an extra land grab. Fine enough! Not egg-in-an-avocado good, but fine enough.

I’ll admit that the flavor text is making me grin. This isn’t a flavor-based contest, so people are probably going for a little more of a natural what-follows kind of vibe, which is totally cool! Silly for the advantage. You know, it’s a shame that this card only gets Mountains. It’s basically unplayable or at least really frustrating in a two-color draft archetype. Perhaps this is suggesting more of a constructed lean or a monocolor format, Pauper-burny, and I feel that. The limited player in me is seeing this as a fifteenth pick almost all of the time. I ain’t about to complain when I get advantage’d out by the 16-mountain burner, y’know?

@deg99 — Llanowar Purist

Is there precedent for two replacement effects like this? I mean, I grok it, but wow. This card can be absolutely bonkers. In a casual mono-green Elf deck, having each basic Forest put a COUNTER on each Elf you control?? Good lord. I wonder if this card would be better served as a core-set or DMU-type staple, because in a type-matters environment where Elves are one of the draftable archetypes, this is pretty strong. Hm, all the same, you have to build around it kinda hard. But in constructed? I dunno, I feel that you can make a strong Elf deck even stronger to the point of it being almost out of control. But maybe not. I think I’m worrying too much about blowouts from my days of Felidar Retreat. And this is kind of a more limited Felidar Retreat.

I’m overthinking it. Powerful? Yes. A staple? Eh. Good in limited? If you can make it work, I suppose. Elves and the rest of ‘em make for hard archetypes but the environment can change that. By itself, this card’s speaking to a more constructed means, I think, but could work for limited. Nothing wrong with cards like that overall. It’s not immediately evident but it’s not asking to be so. Getting even one other Elf out would make things work pretty well, so I’m going to say that, just like DMU, this would be totally fine. Oh, right, and as a grammar check: A basic foRest is a land. A basic foRRest....you know what, there was a joke here, but I'm electing to omit it. Point is, one R.

@halfsilveredmirror — Vantress Waterwheels (JUDGE PICK)

Good news! There’s only one card I could immediately see with which this goes two-card infinite. You, my friend, are tempting fate. What on earth! This is a beast of a card to get down for making blockers and tappers and mana dorks even better. What else?... You know what, it doesn’t have to do anything else. Clock of Omens was broken, and this card is less so, which is genuinely awesome. It’s asking for infinite combos, of course, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, and there’s no specific archetype around which to build, AND it takes up mana resources, so that’s great.

Maybe this card’s even bad! Hold on. I mean, like, if you’re in limited, and you try to make this card work, and it’s the one you draw when you’re dead on board, it’s gonna feel REALLY bad to draw it. Like, astoundingly bad feeling. I love that. It’s a card that asks a lot of the player to make it work. Simple, powerful, great for looting dorks. I will say that the flavor text is pretty weak here. Waterwheels making kinetic energy isn’t exactly surprising, so the “reveal” you’re going for doesn’t land for me. I dunno, just not feeling the payoff.

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Scuttle

You know, I’m not sure why this one didn’t wow me. I think the simplicity is fine, and the card plays harder the more Islands you have, which is fine, even though it’s almost always going to be a strictly better Mana Leak in the late game—but, it is an uncommon after all. Limited is gonna be fine with it, as it can vary depending on the environment and there’s nothing wrong with Force Spikes. Maybe that’s it: the most I can say for it is that “there’s nothing wrong with it.” And we do need cards like that, cards that could even be great in scenarios where now we have Mana Leak-but-better in Pioneer and whatnot.

The flavor is a little off. Sirens dashing hopes and dashing ships is a violent act of enforced luring, and perhaps this is the place where the ships (spells) are destroyed, but the flavor text’s description feels...like there should be another party? I don’t know, I think that it’s probably fine—with a different name. Scuttling is the act of making holes to sink the ship, cutting away, sometimes deliberately to your own vessel. It’s a subtle/non-telegraphed act of espionage by two equal parties, which doesn’t come across here for me. Now, I was thinking about crabs, and the flavor text of a possible reprint where crabs eat their way through the bottom of a boat, making a hole to sink it—and that’s the slightly less violent version than the “dashing” here. Verb choice matters.

@just--a--penguin — Garden of the Eidolon

How exactly does the dragon come into play here? Perhaps in the art direction, but who knows. Greek mythology is full of possibilities. First things first: I like the flavor format. Also, how does a land get inspired? Could’ve used a little more substance. I assume the eidolons are the ones tending the gardens. Do the gods need to eat? At least on Theros, I thought they were supplemented by the belief of their people. No matter. Tirezius still has fruit, so maybe I’m talking nonsense. At the end of the day, this card is fine, but I wouldn’t pick it highly in any format. Also, how does a land get inspired?

I guess third things third, this card should be uncommon? It’s a pretty great ramp spell and fixer, but that’s been done at common before. The mana not emptying feels like it’s upping the complexity; maybe this could be a three-mana uncommon? Either way, it’s not a bad card, but it’s lacking a little bit for me. Going back to it, I think the flavor text could’ve used a little more oomph.

EDIT: Something strange happened to the copy-pasting of the commentary here, so I have no idea what else to say beyond this. I think in the end I went with a rant about rarity, mana emptying, questioning myself and how mana works, and then I asked Maro something, and then I made popcorn and drove to catsit. Bottom line as well was that this card is nigh unplayable even in limited at this cost and rarity. Needs other substance and focus.

@misterstingyjack — Stonybrook Tideweaver (JUDGE PICK)

Oh, well that’s weird—but I guess either great minds think alike or great workshops produce cool results. The merfolk Island-love has always been there but I haven’t thought about it much until now! I really like the mechanics of this card. It’s asking a little bit of the board, but it’s an effect that, given the state of the board, I can imagine people trying to make work, and having it work well. Tap a merfolk, then get your High Tide. Wording-wise, I believe “until end of turn” needs to go before all that because most MTG cards like to end on a clean .” at the end of their rules text when applicable.

I don’t think playability would be affected in either limited or constructed. This is a card for Merfolk players to have fun with and to boost their archetypical decks. I like the specificity of it. The flavor text feels good conceptually but reads oddly to me. The second part being its own sentence makes me... Oh, no, nono, dangit, now I REALLY want this to be a rhyming couplet somehow. Look, I’m not going to figure that out, but I’m tasking you with it now. This is your burden to bear. The tl;dr of it is that having that sentence makes it feel stilted after a period and, like the river, it could use smoother flow.

@nine-effing-hells — Ire of Stones

You might want to double-check and hand-enter your reminder text, because “another Mountain” is cute flavorfully but doesn’t need the ‘nother’ up in there. Still, I feel this card and I feel what you’re going for. This one is weird and I really like that drawback for it. For this contest, I feel that this is exactly the kind of card that I was hoping to see at the concept level: it interacts with the card type in a manner that shows a flavorful caress. Did I ask for that specifically? No, but what’re we gonna do at this point, right?

The title “ire” is a little off, but as for the rest of it... What can I say? This card’s cute. It could be fun to get your Goblin Guides in early and then, when they die, you get some untapped lands. I doubt you can go infinite easily with these things, so that’s all fun and fair. Instead, you have a beater, and that’s all we can ask for. Hm, I wonder how this contest would have gone with monocolor cards that care about different land types... In retrospect, that might have even been better, but you know what, I’ll give it another year, assuming I have the time and energy for this, heh. It’s a beater, it’s sensible, it’s fast, it’s not too powerful, I like it. Fair’s fair.

@real-aspen-hours — Slip Under

So yeah, let’s assume a rare here, heh. Mechanically, I think that there’s nothing wrong with either part of this card. The wording on the first ability could be “Creatures you control have ward (2)” for ease of access, so let’s assume that. This card is a limited stranger, an odd duck, because it kind of forces these two colors, but if that’s what works, that’s what works. I would have liked more of a flavorful connection between them, because it’s fine as it stands and I appreciate the multicolor bend, but I want that little glue there.

The real glue that’s missing is what the name represents in terms of an aura. Intangible concepts aren’t easy, and perhaps with cards like Find the Path and Annex I have less ground to stand on, but verbs as aura names rub me the wrong way—or at least I feel that it doesn’t fit as well. Maybe the creatures are slipping under? But then, why would one slipping-under action result in the ward, and then another be phasing out? I would rather have a specific flavor name that referred to the protection granted by the act of enchanting this land that made the sacrifice effect more sensible. Oh, yeah, before I forget: card’s still pretty great! Fun to abuse all your little creatures for a boardwipe.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Seeker of the Thousand Ways

Gah, long names that look awkward, my old nemesis! ... Gah, cool mechanics involved in combat, my other nemesis! Ahem. Anyway, this card’s hella cool. I think that it speaks for itself, and I think that “You may play that card this turn” would be a better way to word it and has appeared before, but that’s a small quibble. Should the exile be a may ability? Eh, no, maybe not. I also really like the idea of scrying both cards to the bottom and then flipping an even more unplayable card off of the top. That would happen to me for sure.

It’s also quite an archetype you’re asking for. Three-color possibilities actually feels...kinda cool? It makes me wonder if they’d reprint the DMU duals—and how many times have I mentioned those now? I don’t even want to count—for those kinds of specific shenanigans. Maybe just a couple, maybe just enemy pairs. Either way, no, yeah, it’s a totally fine card. The name really does leave a bit to be desired, though. Seeker of the Way was certainly a card, and this callback feels almost...funny, or at least an attempt at a joke rather than an uplifting remembrance to me. Still, could just be me.

@spooky-bard — Tarpit Ceratops

Like a fossilized dinosaur skeleton, this card feels cool but a little too sticky. The explore archetype in limited was a strange one to say the least, and in constructed—well, wasn’t there some crazy-ass lifegain deck going around? Am I the only one who remembers that? I might be going crazy. Anyway, this card groks, but the pieces that want to go together don’t quite have that backing for me yet. Referencing cards revealed through another card’s exploration means that this card is kinda dead a lot of the time, no pun intended, and a four-mana 3/3 menace is super cool but not awesome. The archetype could work well by putting THIS into the graveyard, and that’s all cool.

I dunno, I’m just not sold yet. I do grok it, I promise, and I know that it should adhere. There’s nothing specific that I can point to that makes me hesitate. If anything, I’d say that it’s the ambition of it. There is indeed a fair amount of ambition taking place with the question of what gets revealed, and you know what, I want to commend you for trying something new on that front. Small actual note, the “it” on the Swamp clause there? It reads like it’s referring to the Swamp and that’s pretty confusing. And shouldn’t it be “is” revealed?

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Kor Ambusher

This is certainly a Kor. You know what, I’m actually a little surprised that there wasn’t a card named this already, and I could have sworn that there was. Ah well, learn something new every day. So! Mechanically, yep, that’s a warrior, it’s suggesting an RW warriors archetype, it’s a cool white card, and it gets to break a little chunk of a the pie without actually breaking anything. That much is all fine.

For contest terms, this card’s pretty insubstantial? The lack of art direction and flavor text mean that the ‘generally good’ mechanics are all we have from it. This card feels like something in the slot of a set skeleton. And you know what, if you’re building a set, there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s understandable why this card would exist. It just means that there’s not much to say about it beyond the fact that it’s...good. Perhaps the nature of the contest meant that that was more of the mechanical bend, but all the same. Afraid I don’t have much more to say, cap’n.

@wolkemesser — The Soilsmith

The reasons why Yedora specifies “nontoken” are numerous, but in general, the face-down restriction is the more important one. The Soilsmith retaining name, mana value, and abilities means that going infinite and abusing sac outlets to basically get unkillable lands with static abilities is...rough. It’s rough! I think it’s inadvertent, but you made a magnificently busted card here. In Limited, this is the card you have to build around and win the game with, and in constructed—I’m thinking Commander—you aren’t going to make any friends here. Besides, it counts ITSELF. Which is disgustingly strong.

I know that Obsidian Fireheart is cool, but that reminder text wouldn’t be as useful as just saying that it remains after The Soilsmith isn’t on the battlefield or whatever. “Rotting” implies decay, and this is permanent. There are...quite a few quibbles with this card, and I do still want to say that it’s a cool idea, but wow, no, it’s mechanically broken. Win some, lose some.

One of these cards, IMO, fits next week’s prompt perfectly. Which one?

-@abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #commentary #general commentary #basic type contest #inventor's fair

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Amphibia and Owl House Weekly Reviews: The Hardest Thing, O, Titan Where Art Thou? and Clouds on the Horizon: Sayanora, Frog Town, Steve Rising and WE FINALLY GOT IT PEOPLE

Hello all you happy people! I’m back with my usually weekly reviews of Amphibia and Owl House after a week off. Now some might ask WHY I took most of the week off despite you know THE FINALE and saved it for this week.

The reason is simple as it is kinda sad: Burnout. I love this job and yes while reviewing stuff is my passion it is still a job. I do commissions once a week, saving slots just for that, I do my damndest to make sure every review comes out that week, and I put my best into it. But even a job you love, one you wanted some form of for 10 years before finally going for it, can be exhausting. I still tried giving it my best but I was hitting a wall and while I thought scaling back to three reviews a week would magically fix it it didn’t. It HELPED.. but ultimately the actual solution was just stepping away for a bit so I could come back rejuvenated. And frankly as much as I WANTED to talk about the amphibia finale, I also wanted to do so when I was happy and healthy.

Granted HEALTHY wasn’t in the cards. Yeah despite taking a few days off not long into said days off, I came down with a head cold, horribly conjested and headachey. I still got the rest I needed, but it still sucks that even when I SPECIFICALLY take a week off for the first time in a while that wasn’t me being sick.. I STILL get sick.

Still i’m back in the new york grove and down to not only covering the heart and liver breaking finale of amphibia, but the last two owl houses. We have epic anime fights IN SPACEEEE, god cats, tearful farewells, soul searching roadtrips with steve, heartbreaking child on parent violence, divorce, and huntlow to get to so join me under the cut.. and for Amphibia.. the last time.

The Hardest Thing

Amphibia headlines this week and it’s .. hard saying goodbye. Even with a week after the finale i’m still having trouble letting it sink in that it’s over. We MIGHT get more, and given disney loves the show and this finale leaves lots of room for a sequel, a reunion movie, a spnioff or ALL OF THE ABOVE, it’s likely we will get more eventually.. but the Hardest Thing also does a great job for the most part tying everything up thematically and story wise and giving us one last ride to enjoy. If this world never comes back i’ll be sad... but i’ll still be satisfied.

Fitting for the title The Hardest Thing did not take the easy way out with the finale and is better for it. Granted it left me weeping in a puddle for the last 10 minutes, but I salute matt for not taking easy outs: Anne and the plantars are separated, as are Sasha and Grime and Marcy, the unambiguously gay duo and face turn bad sad old man. Not only that the three burning stars drift apart: they keep in touch a little, but Marcy still moves away and Sasha and Anne drift apart in high school. There's no big relationship upgrade, no way to keep them together. Anne looses her found family and her girlfriends.. and it was the right call. The series had been building to this and the whole point of it was simple..

A person can come in, change your life, be the center of your world.. and then have to leave it. It’s just a fact: friends move, but what they meant to you stays. This hit me especially hard given Bobbi, a woman who was like a second mom to me, had died the previous week.. after having moved away 10 years prior. So yeah the timing hurt, but it also helped the shows real message change: people change, they can change you and ultimately life is not trying to hold on to some perfect image of what it should be, but accepting what it is as it moves on, as you grow and change. And sometimes.. the things you loose come back to you. I will never get the people i’ve lost back.. but i’ve reconnected with plenty of people.. and now so is anne as she reunites with her girls.

And look let’s get the very gay elephant out of the room: Yes I’ve been a rabbid sashanarcy shipper. I cop to that. But I support the show NOT taking the easy route and giving fans what they wanted.. but what was realistic. Marcy was leaving and while something may or may not have happened with anne and sasha they were two very different people who simply drifted a bit. Having them drift apart, while still keeping in some level of touch, was realistic as it was painful. Plus their now all back in the same place, so the door’s still open as is it for fanfiction. Sometimes that big gay relationship upgrade doesn't happen because a mouse has a gun to your head, hi ducktales. And sometimes it just doesn't happen because it’s not necessary to the story.

But back to the point, you can’t hold onto the past. You can treasure it but you ultimately need to let go. It’s why we don’t get conformation IF anne and sprigg saw each other again. Given Terri built a working portal with home goods and now has the government's ear , funding and experimental tech, not to mention the fact several robot factories were just... dropped into la , it probably would only take a year, if not just a few, to get the funding, power source, and time for a new portal. They probably do meet again and i’m not just saying that so I don’t ugly cry.

But it’s not what was important and that’s okay. The real point.. is that anne and spirgg lived. They probably spend every Christmas together, they probably see each other every so often.. but they moved on from their adventures in their own way. Sprigg used them to start his own, to catalogue what they found and really understand it and Anne used knowing all these wonderful amphibias to study earth’s own versions of them. Their adventures helped each other grow into the people they were meant to be and they’ll always be family.. but the part of their lives where there in it every day is over.. and that's okay.

It also contrasts the core well.. a villian whose entire motive is keeping things the way IT wants them and to last forever... and who fittingly dies. As @jess-the-vampire and I talked about in conversation, a villian really should only die when there’s a reason for it. Otherwise it just feels like they got out easy and redemption or being forced to sit with their crimes while everything they hated occurs around them or being forced to do some recompense is more interesting. Or to put it in the way my brain often does:

And it’s why even if I feel it was done with mild sloppiness... Andrias turn works. No one forgives him, he’s in chains even a decade later, and he even said itslef it was too late. But he still got to be free, turning against the core on his terms and living the rest of his life actively making up for what he’s done, and even outright refusing any more upgrades, willing to die knowing he did something right for once. It works, in part because Keith David is just that good.

And honestly the only part of the finale that dosen’t work, before we get to more that does.. is the Core. The final battle is UTTERLY beautiful, from the kick ass living in my head forever more remix of no big deal, to the saint seiya inspired powered up verisons of their armors, to the boss as hell hair, to the gay as hell spin, it is one of the best sequences in the show, and in recent western animation.

But the core itself, while tying into the shows themes well.. just falls flat. IT’s motives are just so simple: it wants to live forever and it wants to conquer. And a villain with a simple motive can work: Thanos in the comics wants to kill everything, as does the lich from adventure time. But what makes them work is while the motive is simple their personalities aren’t: Thanos is a blood kniight LITERALLY in love with death, a master of strategy and battle whose utterly horrifying to face not just for his power but because he’s thanos...

The MCU one has a SLIGHTLY more sympathetic if still horrifyingly genocidal bent, but my point is to be simple in motive you need some gravitas and the Core.. just isn’t that. There’s no depth to what they are, no deep strategy or knowledge from having so many minds in one. Ther’es no sense of what they are or what they can do and the only one we get any sense of with andrais’ dad, which arguably harms it as instead of this unknowing being who happens to have andrias abusive dad in there to rub salt in the wound it’s down to just old king dickhead. The core is just weak as a villian, especially after we got so much more out of andrias over the past season and it’s sad to see the series end with that... still punching out a moon was awesome.

I’ll also say Anne’s disney death... was geninely horrifying but it and the ensuign conversation with the stone diety was hit and miss. Anne being offered godhood, having shown how much she’s learned and thus another moral of the series, that we ALL fuck up but what’s important is we constantly try to be better and don’t let our mistakes eat us alive, a fantastic one we all need to hear from tiem to time, I feel there just.. wasn’st time. The diety just comes out of left field. There was no indication the stones were sentient before this.. they CHOOSE our heroes but magical artifacts that AREN’T sapient do that all the time in fiction. YOu can cast a spell for chosen one nonsense. So while the diety isn’t a bad character, honestly they got more personality and charisma in a few minutes than the core got in an entire half a season being fully reveealed and Charlyne Yi was great in the role, I just feel it’s a bit tacked on. LIke a way to have the trip home be one way by having anne have to use all her power. I don’t midn the results, as I said the ending is effecting and the narrative has built to this over the series and especially this season: the idea of loosing people has been prevalant, of what loss does to you and how seperation can change you. They’ve subtley been buidling to this. But the way they got there feels half assed and given they puttered around most of 3b buliding an army that amoutned to fuck all in the end, they HAD the time to do more with the stones or our heroes researching them. Instead they just rushed it, gave us one glorious but sadly breif taste of the girls at full power, then got to the ending. Amphibia’s three part finale honestly reminds me of Ducktales finale, The Last Adventure. The setup going into it was wonky, it was a bit of a mess.. but ultimately it somehow works an dthe ending is still utterly satsifying. The villians and heroes both end up where they should and it leaves you in tears while wanting MORE.

So before we get to my overall thoughts some rapid fire stuff since as the final episode and being a bit longer, there’s a lot of ground to cover

Grime and Sasha’s goodbye is everything I coudl’ve wanted from my two faviorite characters on the show. I may relate to marcy the most but my trash daughter and trash grandpa were the shows mvps and their heartflet and tearfilled goodbyes were as excellent as i’d expect.

I do like where the girls all ended up as adults: Sasha’s was the most suprising.. but also the most satisfying. Shocker the character I just admitted wa smyf aviorite and whose solo episodes i’ve consiently gushed over had the most satisfying arc. But her going on to help kids like they were and help them with their issues. Really warmed the heart. Also she’s bisexual as fuck as I expected. Marcy being a webcomic writer fits her like a glove and allows her to use her creativity, genius and nerdery without having to put too much presure on it and anne being a hepitolgist was simply brilliant. It was also a neat touch keeping all the va’s, and it fit given their all grown women and adjusted it JUST enough to show their maturity. May they have a conseual pile ever after.

Lot to unpack with the wartwood side of the timeskip. We finally get to see polly as a grown frog, and thus have an idea of what sprig size her looks like. It also dosen’t rule out my crossover ship with her giant island sized boyfriend from the other show we’ll get to in a moment so yay. The callback to the goodnight you frogs from the pilot was also neat.

HOp Pop not only still has silvia, but go this alvacados’. Also he’s still alive in ten years. I’m proud of him and his adotped robot farming son. I’m also happy hop pop got one plantar who’d follow in his footsteps since sprigg and polly don’t seem that intrested in farming in present day let alone 10 years later.

We didn’t get the offical couple I wanted most.. but as I made clear earlier I made peace with that. But we got OLVIA AND YUNAN. Which I never expected to be made canon but here we are. Respectble and Disaster gay together as they deserve. Also grime is an ambadassador now.

Speaking of which, we got JOE AND BESSIE. I dind’ thtink they’d call back to that much less given them tons of hybrid children but Usopp bless you matt. Speaking of Kids of all people Maddie has them already. With who? I dunno but i’m glad maddie is happy selling her potions with her tiny children. Maybe her baby daddy died under suspscious cricumstances. maybe she brought him back as a fraknenstine. these are questions for us fans to answer.

Finally we have Sprigg whose not only an explorer, but is stil with ivy. Awww. And they head off for the dark conteint... er the axtol contient. You know if I had a nickel for every time the show badly teased something I wanted an answer for in the finale without actually answering it i’d have two nickels.. which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice. Still got tons of ideas on that. Maybe he invites some old friends along. Maybe he rides on king’s back while chuck grows tulips there. We’ve seen titans can do it. I’ll just have to wait and see on that one.

Overall though this is a GREAT finale.. but as I said it just has a thing or two holding it back. But like The last Adventure i’ll hold this in my heart. And as I say goodbye to amphibia.. it’s sad. I truly loved this show, warts and all, and it’ll be sad to see it go. Sure I still got season 1 to cover.. but it’s not quit ethe same as digging into new content next week and it’s also hard knowing that with owl house’s finale movies likely airing this year, it’s not the last goodbye to a show I love i’m going to have to deal with. Still this show was a heck of a ride with characters i’ll treasure forever, some hilarous all time great episodes, and a hell of a moral.. one i’ll follow. I may be leaving Amphibia behind.. but i’ll carry it with me. I’m also not QUITE done yet, as i’ve decided to make a tradition of what happened with ducktales.. since the series is over.. best of the series list coming next. Then i’ll finally get back to season one. Still it was a great show.. .so long matt.. and thanks for all the frogs. Can’t wait to see you next time you hop into the creators chair. PS: As much as I hate to ruin my heartfelt goodbye yeah turns out I was wrong. What I thought was an erroneous fan theory was actually correct: The time skip only takes place 10 years later on Anne’s side. For amphibia it’s 9 MONTHS later. A large part of why I wrote it off as bs was simple: why would they be at diffrent times and if so why wouldn’t they tell us? And I still have no idea why either of those things but it does actaully make the epilogue make a bit more sense: none of the adult cast has aged which I thought was weird at first but is now simply there wasn’t enough time, and the younger cast makes sense given 3 of them were on the cusp of puberty and Polly was changing into a grown child. I still want a follow up on the dark continent thing and all, but it still just feels weird. I’m fine with them having two diffrent time epilogues but as WeirdKev wisely said when informing me of my mixup, WHY wasn’t there a “9 months later thing” it would’ve made this less confusing. Yes again there are context clues, sprig didn’t look or sound like an adult versus anne , sasha and marcy who not only were grown ass women but soudned like it, but I shoudln’t need context clues to figure out two scenes are 9 years apart. There was no reason not to do this. It dosen’t HURT either epilogue story wise, it’s just annoying.

O’Titan, Where Art Thou?

And now we’re back to the boiling isles as death looms over our heroes... as usual.

This one got back to luz, with Hunter’s fate once again left to next week.. aka this week’s episode but more on our faviorite bad sad hobo willow liker in a bit. For now it’s the time of steve as King is understandably having a bit of an exestetial crisis after finding out he’s...

Not helping is the fact is how while his mom, sister and weird uncle that’s also a tube all get he needs time to process this, that he’s still the king they know and love, and that he just wants to be normal.. lilith on the other hand, given her desperate need for authority and tendency to take things a little bit TOO far in her exciement...

Eda of course wants her to knock off treating her nephew like a god.. but gets distracted with the a-plot. So instead LIlith threatens to murder people in his name, do his bidding etc. And what makes this intresting, and something king himself even points out later with his new big bro, is that this is what he WANTED up until he learned the truth about himself. King wanted to be an angry god and have attroacities commited in his name. He wanted power and worship and whatever he wanted. But now he has that.. he’s HORRIFIED by it. He’s realized he just wants a family, and now some of the only family he has, especially after learning his people are likely dead, all dead, is treating him like a god instead of her nephew. It’s no wonder he runs off.

Thankfully he finds steve. Look I forgot steve existed, I had no idea he was not only going to get a deep character arc, but conclude said arc via a soul searcing hard traveling road trip with king. It was something I always clearly needed but never knew it till now. Steve has left the coven.. not defected just yet but he’s correctly assumed belos dosen’t give a shit about anyone, the day of unity is a lie and thus has taken off with his sweet new jacket and hog (and his signature steve t-shirt), to find himself. And the episode helps further flesh him out as a character. Steve had no real reason to invite king along.. but he saw a kid in trouble, as unsure of himself as steve was and clearly needing a fucking break. And the montage of said road trip/soul searching journey/walkabout/fucking break is just.. one of the cutest and most heartwarming thing. King comforts steve’s distress at not having a parnter while steve helps him: taking him to the titans bones which the boy hugs and later adorably setting a paper craft figure of a human on top of king. He also tells him he dosen’t HAVE to be whta people want him to be just himself. Granted LIlith tries tracking king down, to the point even HOOTY thinks King just wants to be normal.. and is also the mighty worm of arakis apparently.. and has a tiny him inside.

Yeah freeze frame it. Ther’es a mini hooty in there.. starring.. meancingly. HAVE FUN TRYING TO SLEEP TONIGHT! :B

We also see steve’s face and he’s really really redicusouly good looking. Like I was not expecting steve to be a smokeshow of keith david quality but here we are! Steve is just .. fantastic, having grown immensely from a grunkle stan flavored joke cahracter into the loveable guy we know now. I didn’t expect to care this much for steve but here we are. You go man

As for our other plot, Eda’s attempts to keep Luz out of it despite it making no sense finally come to a head: Lilith left them directions to where they were hiding, as she shoudl since you know, bonesburough is now full of wanted posters for all of them so maybe she wasn’t wrong, and neither sister has an actual plan, with Eda just wanting to give her kids one great day before they possibly die in the whole genocide thing. And while it works out for King, Luz is too determined to get their stuff back, particularly francois.

Sadly.. things reach their natural conclusion. Eda lying about the plan means Luz thinks she has one.. and as such when she hears Eda BEGGING rahne to take luz and king and run as far as possible, even if has to give herself up, she’s furious. The scene itself is heartbreaking: Rahne clearly realizes how badly they fucked up trying to leave Eda out of this, while Eda is just so desperate. We’ve seen her so confident that seeing her just begging, willing to give up if it means her children leave... it’s devastating and Wendy Mallick utterly sells it.

And it’s only apptizer to the main course of tears, as Luz is naturally pissed Eda seems to be underestimating her.. and expects her to run. While her girlfriend, best friends, and ANYONE else she’s met and cared the least bit about, whcih is to say a lot of people are at risk of dying horribly.. eda wants her to run. Yet what makes this inevtible clash so heartbreaking.. is you see why Eda WANTS her to run. They have no allies, no plan, and no hope and even if Luz is capable, she not only shoudln’t HAVE to fight this war, but she can’t. She MIGHT be able to figh tbelos, we’ll see next week, but not only is that a BIGGGG might, it’s to eda’s knowledge three people against the bulk of the isles. At least Luz MIGHT be able to undo the draining spell or find some way to win eventually. At least she’ll live. You can’t blame either for backing their side: One is a daughter being abandoned AGAIN, the other is a mother desperate to keep her kid alive

And so we get one of the most devisttaing fights in animation since Amethyst Vs Garnet: Luz trying to escape to fight anyways and Eda trying to stop her. And you can tell that while neither is half assing it both are DESPERATLEY trying not to hurt each other. The stakes are too high to do nothing, with Luz using her magic cleverly and eda pesuing her owl-dly, but neither WANTS this. The audience dosen’t want this. but it had to happen. It does show how far luz has come.. but it’s not enoguh. Sadly the fight gets them captured... and Luz not only find sout why but begs for eda to be okay...

Thankfully like the episode before instead of ending on pain.. we end on hope. Not only does luz wake to being freed by darius, but with the batts. Seriously that had been bugging me all season. The conformatiroioum is cardboard. Eda could’ve busted them out. Btu now we know why: their parental figure already busted them free, and also found king, steve, lilith and hooty. Rahne reveals the truth, apologizes and admits to having learned the same lesson Eda did: it’s fine to want to protect someone.. but sometimes their going to fight anyway and the best you can do is fight with them. We also find out that Darius and Eber were already working on this rebellion and simply attacked rahne because their a terrible actor. Which given we’ve seen the poor person nearly break down just giving an acceptance speech and be easily found out as rebellion leader, yeah good point. Together they are the

Covens Against The Throne S??????

The CATTS. As you’d expect and likely already know because it’s been a week, Darius is horrified by the mere idea of that being the name never mind Rahne telling everybody. But he’s outvoted so CATS IT IS.

The ending is also geninely sweet, with Luz and Eda carving her new palismen, Luz finally ready and Eda ready to teach her. While time is ticking down to doomsday... the world can wait. For just one minute. For mother and daughter to share one last moment before the world turns upside down

As usual this episode was excellent and I have no real complaints or crticisim here. At most the pacing is slightly rushed.. but given it’s clear by the “if we had 20 more adventures line” there having to do a steven unvierse and try and get to the finish line with what they have left. Granted it’s uknown to me at least just how much of season 2 was finished before the axe came down, writing had STARTED on season 3 at least, or how much was adjusted, but given the sheer panicy nightmare that entails I applaud it for seeming seamless. Things are accelearated but they don’t feel rushed or unearned and they had at least enough time to speed things up. And we’ll see the momentum keep..

Clouds on the Horizon

Before we get into the obvious i’d like to be a pedantic old man for a second: This title.. .feels out of place. It’s not a bad one... but at this point the day of unity is HERE. In the utterly amazing intro we see Belos struggle to open the door.. and it turns out the door ISN’T necessary to the DOU. He just wants to go home once his genocide is done.

Thing is... it’s not that easy. As the collector points out, Belos isn’t human anymore, even if he tries to punch his little buddy for it... he’s not wrong. Belos is a monster in body and soul. And while the right people would likely accept this monster man, as we’ve seen with anne’ and the plantars elsewhere on the same earth... the world has changed. Witches have faded into myths while witch trials, something Phillip probably relished in his day, are now seen as shit shows used to persecute whoever the accuser didn’t like. His “great work” won’t be seen as the heroic effort he thinks, but the horrifying mass slaughter of millions it is.. okay by most people. I know there’s enough asshole sin the world that some would agree with him. But actual human beings would run away in terror. He could’ve gone home centuries ago, gave this up and found peace... but instead he choose genocide, choose cruelty, and choose his mad ambition.. and might as well go for two

God I wish i’d seen the parallels between MCU thanos and Belos sooner. Eh making up for lost time. Anyways it’s finally time

The day of unity is here. And the Cats have a plan.. well 18% of one. Darius and Eber’s plan can be boiled down to

So we go with plan Rahne instead: Sneak eda in, have her replace them as coven head.. and use the fact her magic is all out of it to destroy the spell. Granted this requires her wearing a sigil but she’s prepared to make that sacrifice. It’s also a brilliant plan I should’ve seen coming: the anti-magic thing was a bit TOO pronounced to never come up again but it’s also been long enough since it was used I genenly forgot about it. That to me is one of the most clever ways to fire a chekov’s gun: make it so the audeince forgets about the weapon till you fire it. Amphibia proved ot be a MASTER of that and owl house has learned well from it’s sister show.

As for Luz, her girlfriend is dealing with some...

Sadly she has to deal with something WORSE than Steve Urkel

Her mother. And while normally i’d use this running gag to describe her

And at first she does, refusing to actually listen to her kids concerns about the day of untiy and locking them in their room. She also breaks the tomagachi, as if you needed more proof she was history’s greatest monster. But as we’ll see.. she SOMEHOW gets worse. Yes folks in a time where a crazy old man is trying to commit genocide.. ODALIA somehow manages to be just as much of a crazed up fruit loop. More on that in a moment.

So since Luz was last told to hurry, Eda gladly supports her daughter, he yuske urameshi style egg of a palsimen and son going to go help him. Granted it fufills her wish of them being outta the line of fire, sure.. but it shows Eda’s growth that it’s not WHY she sends her kids this way. She does it because Luz NEEDS to do this, and because she knows Luz will find a way back to her if they need her. She’s no longer shutning her kids off to try to misguidedly protect them, but simply sending them where their needed most and can possibly bring back an emo for their army. Darius even fully approves it sending his top man and friends to meet them.. which of course ends up being Hunter, Willow and Gus, the latter of whom happily reunite iwth their pal after a week because the time scale for these episodes is as fast as it is confusingly slow.

Hunter is also closer with both: he and gus have injokes now and as for willow... she’s gone from side eyeing to full on lovingly eyeing him.

The only caveat.. is Hutner has oopsy daisy not told them he’s a clone and his life is a lie.. though while a LOT of it is insecurity, Luz rightly points out they wouldn't care about that.. their friends with hooty. EVERYONE is normal in comparison to him. But he keeps her quite by pointing out the phillip thing she hasn’t told anyone and they storm the gate.. and actually pull it off well, easily getting to amity past security as our heroes get past in thei rdope new outfits. Seriously gus has a neat sash now, hunter is now wearing proper clothes just not full gold anymore, and willow gets the biggest glowup of all as she shoudl : her yellow shirt is now a badass coat, she’s wearing green and she’s got shiny leggings. Finally I like her civlian outfit. IT was fine before but holy shit man does she now have one she deserves.

Anyways Amity gay panicks about the world falling apart and just wanting to know luz is alright.. as luz enters. and then.. they fucking kiss

I can’t overstate how well this is done: From luz promising a normal slice of life date after all this shit, awwww, to how romantic it is to amity just going for it. TI’s so fucking adorable and they put a LOT into the animation to make this perfect. They bumped it the hell up and it was warranted. I also applaud them for taking their time: they didn’t have them confess then kiss as common, they simply worked up to it slowly but surely till we got here. It’s still dramatic.. but like... just the right amount for a relationship that’s this important to the show and this important to disney history.. even as they try to bury it. They earned this moment and milk the hell out of it. Also Luz’s crikey in response.. comedy gold.

So our heroes try infiltrating the factory and it mostly works, they even find a mouse alador clone

But naturally get caught while Odalia naturally bitches it up... though without homophobia. She’s fine with Amity having a girlfriend.. she just wants to chooes said girlfriend because she’s a controlling sociopath who cares for nothing but money, abuses her husband and children, and somehow can sink lower than that. I remain unsurprised but we’ll get to what actually threw me.

Thankfully while she was busy going through her morning routine of abusing her children, King, who was told to stay behind, end sup following the yellowed snack road to Alador, who earlier tried to talk his wife out of all the robots as he’s antsy.. but you know got shot down with “I’m going to endanger our children if you don’t shut up”. Turns out a LOT of Alador’s less than stellar parenting is due to his wife abusing him: Making work weekends, firing half his staff, making him work through ac old. All so she can get richer. You know general odalia being

It recontexualizes things: yes he was overly passive in matters like the willow thing.. but he’s clearly just as much a victim as his wife and often when abuse switches from spouse to child, the spouse is powerless to do anything. And we have seen him GEINENLY try to change, realizing just how distant he’s grown from his kids last time we saw him , so it doesn't try and paper away his past mistakes, but simply give us the karen shaped reason why. He wants to be better and wants to spend time with his kids father all this is over. My heart breaks for the guy, being abused by this monster, unable to actually parent his kids.. and then he finds out what the day of unity is from king.

So he gets a badass moment confronting her and after about a minute of trying to avoid him.. the shoe drops and we get to what i’ve been talking about.. Odalia.. KNOWS about the genocide

Yeah. She THINKS her family will be spared and she’ll live like a queen after. Not getting that NONE of them want this.. or really not caring. To her their just possessions who do what she tells them.

Turns out though pissing off your husband who also buit your minons is a bad idea and he destroys most around and we get a badass as hell fight. Which is standard for the show at this point but we both see how alador fights, using steampunk abomination tentacles and going GLOWY EYES, but how Odalia fights, using summoned ghosts and the souls of a thousand orphans.. okay they don’t say the last part but it’s implied by her everything. She somehow sunk lower from “Escaping Explusion” and that had her try to murder her daughter’s future girlfriend over a petty grievance. I’m still in shock “Genocide profiteer” is not only a thing but a level you can sink to.

So a big ass fight insues.. not helped by kiki who Odalia gave a super fighting robot since she got demoted to deliveries. Wethere Odalia is simply going after a vulnerable target to manipulate into doing her bidding this is how she flirts with people....

And yes despite all these setbacks and the humiliating demotion she’s STILL going after hunter to impress belos

My god Kiki get a hobby... or date a recent divorce whose as garbage as you. I don’t care which. Just stop stalking our boy.

She actually wins for once... allegedlys.... and grabs him.. and then finds out she pressed the “you kidnapped my boyfriend” button for willow

And thus nearly tears all her organs out and makes her into a puppet. I told you we only got a huntlow thing or two this ep but them fuckers meaty. And as for Lumity.. well we got a fucking feast. It was a good day is what i’ms aying.

Sadly before Willow can tear off kiki’s head thingy and nail it ot her door like one of those fancy lion door knockers rich folks got she pulls a human shield and gets away. We then get Alador quitting the company and Odalia going off to find someone as batshit as her, sadly not ONCE getting punched in the face. ONCE. It’s all I ask. She deserves it so much! Sure her big plan got unreavled and she’ll probably be brought up for war crimes but still. The divorce isn’t phasing her. I don’t know what will. Possibly a racoon being put on her head. LET ME HAVE SOMETHING.

Willow naturally seeing her boyfriend kidnapped by someone whose tried to multiple time murder him on a GOOD day and who hasn’t even gotten the news of how bad things REALLY are in this case, is desperatley trying ot make the plane go. Thankfulyl Alador’s gone from overworked regretful dad to the cool dad so he joins the party and gladly welcomes his future daughter and law into the family.. only to find out it’s hunter

Yeah turns out Luz pulled a switch and thanks to the power of all of us being obsessive dorks who poor through every frame for foreshadowing after something like this and i love all of you for it, turns out there was tons from luz whispering to gus to both not talking (Which is weird for them) to both acting more like themselves: luz gives kiki the raspberry which seems like a hunter move but isn’t really in the context, and hunter prepares to throw hands instead of you know.. using a glyph. It also means there’s even more huntlow. Hunter also had no idea she was planning this... but given Kiki being kiki let slip the emperoro KNOWS about the rebellion she’s now their only hope as they prepare for the plan unaware there’s a million targets on their backs. So now Luz stands on the bow of a ship prepared to give kiki the ass kicking willow could not as the day of unity is about to begin, the rest of our heroes are likely hauling ass to help, and all the while the collector wonders if belos is relally their friend, possibly readying for their OWN counter strategy if he inevitably dosen’t do his side of the deal...

As you can tell this episode was another home run as the series prepares for it’s season finale.. and the beginning of the end. Tons of great character stuff, action and basically the same great shit as usual plus one of the biggest and most impactful gay kisses in animation history. So in otherwords it was a helluva day. See you next week for the finale! Or if you’d like you can stick around the rest of the week as I FINALLY return to my venture bros retrospective, and endulge in some civil war laser tag. Also if you want to help keep this blog going zip on over tomy patreon, link below. Thanks for reading.

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#amphibia #the hardest thing #sashannearcy #lumity #the owl house #huntlow #odalia blight #alador blight #matt braly #dana terrace

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