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makeste · 3 years

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BnHA Chapter 310: A Tale of Two Kacchans

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Deku was all, “hey, you know what sounds like a good decision? Abandoning my studies at the safest place in the country so that the bad guy who wants to find me and kill me has literally nothing standing in his way of doing that.” All Might was all, “I fucking knew you were going to say some bullshit like that so whatever, but I’M COMING WITH YOU and I’m also going to invite the Hawksquad to come with us, mostly so that I can steal Jeanist’s car.” Jeanist was all, “okay fine you can borrow my car, All Might, but only if you wear jeans.” All Might was all, “okay sure” and he wore jeans and also sunglasses and a leather jacket and it was pretty rad. Anyway so now they’re out there fighting crime and hunting down the LoV and stuff, and absolutely none of it is going to end well, I’m just letting you know now. But I guess we’ll let them enjoy it while it lasts.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “happy belated Kacchan’s Birthday makeste, here’s the flashback you really wanted at long last,” and proceeds to pull the old vestige flashback out of the kitchen drawer and upend its contents all over my Friday afternoon without the slightest bit of warning. OFA III is all “WHAT’S UP I’M JUST SOME GUY, HELLO,” and okay?? Hello yourself. OFA II, on the other hand, is all, “okay yeah I have different hair and stuff, but I’m like 98% sure I’m either Bakugou or his goddamn twin, I mean look at me.” Which, yeah. I looked, and he really is though you guys. Anyway though, so he and OFA II basically just showed up in the First (who goes by Yoichi now)’s prison cell one day all “HEY THERE, WE’RE HERE TO SAVE YOU, APPARENTLY, ALTHOUGH WE SEEM REAL CONFUSED ABOUT IT TBH BUT HEY.” And so they saved him, and Yoichi was all “hey nice to meet you do you want to join my super-exclusive Saving The World Club”, and so they did, and then the chapter ended lol. I would have said yes too.

oh my sweet lord?? I didn’t realize we were getting a color page this week, but LOOK AT THIS

this could have been a fucking volume cover. I’m almost mad that it wasn’t, lol but I mean fkldjslklk just look at it??! Horikoshi out here spoiling us and making sure we’re well fed since next week the manga is on break for Golden Week. well this will certainly help to tide me over. hot damn look at those colors

so now it’s raining on some dumb building in the middle of somewhere

is this where the Hawksquad has set up camp for the night? or are we actually cutting back to the League? that’d be unexpected (but not unwelcome)

ffff nevermind dammit it’s just more random citizens under attack

feels like this is the third or fourth scene we’ve had of civilians being Under Attack since this arc started. I mean no offense, but I think we get it by this point. it’s the end times, etc. etc. we’re well aware that things have gone to shit

so apparently these two guys are facing off against a girl with a mutant quirk. and she’s telling them that she’s not a monster and she was just scared, oh shit. I believe her btw, you can see it in her face

but these assholes don’t believe her at all and they’re pointing what looks to be some type of support item gun at her

you know what’s interesting, is that this kind of random quirk discrimination is the exact kind of thing PLF and the like were swearing up and down they’d put a stop to with their glorious revolution. it’s almost like those guys were completely full of shit. huh

so yeah, fortunately for this woman someone is stepping in and intervening before she can be blasted to bits by this trigger-happy asshole for absolutely no fucking reason

looks like a hero actually stepped in and saved her?? but no that can’t be, heroes are the ones that ruin everything and make everything worse, or so I understand. lol where did all of this sarcasm come from out of nowhere dlkdsjlk I’m sorry guys I just suddenly got swept up in the hypocrisy of certain people’s philosophies out of the blue idek

anyway so it is of course Deku saving her, and now he’s trying to talk thess jerks down all diplomatically instead of just kicking their asses, which is certainly a choice

MOTHERFUCKER I’M

fucking impossible to miss the real world parallels here. shit. this woman nearly died for her crime of Walking While Having A Mutant Quirk huh. and meanwhile Deku is just letting this guy scurry away and even letting him keep that fucking bazooka of his, like, ????

fucking hell she’s crying!!

lmao this chapter is actively trying to make me mad now huh. that’s some genuine righteous anger I’m feeling on behalf of this fictional ferret lady whom I only met two minutes ago. girl you are not the one who needs to explain herself here!! you didn’t do anything wrong holy fuck. everything about this situation sucks so much

fkKJKLMMMHFGH

“I’m sorry I made you upset, please enjoy this panel of tiny!floating!Deku hefting this lady’s massive beach umbrella up for her like the fucking gentleman he is” well okay then thank you sir

and JUST LIKE THAT the tension is broken and I’m entirely incapable of taking the rest of this conversation seriously because Deku’s trying to be all calming and authoritative, but now the illusion has been broken because I know he only comes up to like her knees

“well thanks again for saving me young man. I’ll leave you to it, I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do like protecting your Lucky Charms cereal from all those greedy children”

oh hey All Might

you wouldn’t have just let that guy with the bazooka just walk away to commit more attempted murders would you?? man

OH MY GOD DEKU IS IMMEDIATELY DITCHING HIM AGAIN

I ~CANNOT STAY HERE~ oh, well, sorry to keep you detained I know you’re busy

dfslkjlk oh my god

fucking told you Deku didn’t pack any food lol. it’s literally all notebooks in that bag you guys. he couldn’t just leave them all in his dorm room when he left, because what if someone tried to read them and came across one of the pages where he absentmindedly doodled Kacchan’s name surrounded by little tiny hearts oh gosh

AWWWWW

I needed this Horikoshi. thank you for this wholesome soul-cleansing interaction after all of that bullshit earlier

so now Deku’s climbing up this tall building to eat his lunchbox more dramatically. Tokoyami would be proud

and Banjou is saying that society right now is just like in The Good Old Days (read: bad old days) when quirk society was even more of a mess than it is now

which is exactly how AFO likes it, no doubt

so now Deku’s having a whole conversation with Banjou seemingly out loud lol, weird. and he’s basically saying that they don’t have any clues as to where TomurAFO and the League are hiding right now, and none of the Tartarus escapees they’ve found knew anything either

mmmmmfmhm, marge simpson noises

but you think you can?? you, alone, by yourself?? you think you stand a chance?? I just need you to think this all through a bit more kid

Deku it is NOT JUST YOUR RESPONSIBILITY ALONE, PLEASE REALIZE THIS ALREADY. YOU MAY BE THE CHOSEN ONE, BUT EVEN THE CHOSEN ONE NEEDS HIS FRIENDS BY HIS SIDE GODDAMMIT

and of course my pleading is all in vain, because he’s a fictional character who can’t fucking hear me, and also because I’m pretty sure there’s only one character who is going to actually be able to get him to hear reason here. I’ve been saying it, and I’ll keep saying it lol. so until then I guess I’ll just have to be patient

anyway so it appears we’re segueing into another flashback??? HORIKOSHI PLEASE GIVE ME SOME BAKUCRUMBS BEFORE THE TWO WEEK BREAK, I BEG YOU

dlKSDJLFKWJELKGHSLGKLEKJLFKHLGK

YES, THANK YOU, I KNOW WHERE THIS FUCKING IS LOL, IT’S NOT LIKE I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE REST OF THIS SCENE OR ANYTHING LMAO. BUT ANYWAYS DON’T MIND ME, YOU WERE SAYING??

oh my god oh my god I’m not readyyyyy, but also FUCK YEAH I AM SO FUCKING READY LOL LET’S DO THIS

YOU GUYS

I’M ABOUT TO STEP IN THAT ROOM AND YEET ONE OF THOSE FUCKING CHAIRS AT YOU ALL

NOOOOO

I’M ABOUT TO GRAB BANJOU’S GOGGLES AND STRETCH THEM OUT AND SNAP THEM BACK SO THEY SMACK THE SHIT OUT OF HIS FOREHEAD!!! IT’S WHAT HE DESERVES!!! I’M ABOUT TO MOVE TO JAPAN AND GET A JOB WITH DOORDASH AND FIND OUT WHAT HORIKOSHI LIKES TO ORDER FOR LUNCH SO I CAN BE THE ONE TO DELIVER IT SO THAT WHEN HE OPENS THE DOOR I CAN FINALLY ASK HIM “HEY WHAT THE FUCK” IN PERSON

AHHH NO EVERYBODY SHHHHH STOP TALKING!!!!

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THAT PERSON SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS IN THE BACKGROUND TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, OH WAIT, THAT’S ME

(」゜ロ゜)」 щ(゜ロ゜щ)

LOL THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE!!! LOOK AT YOU!!! YOU’RE NOT KIRISHIMA OR SHINSOU OR IIDA IN A WIG OR ANYBODY LOL. YOU’RE JUST A DUDE. BROOOOO ABOUT FUCKING TIME, WHAT’S GOOD

I CAN’T SCROLL DOWN AHHHH BUT I HAVE TO BUT IT’S TOO INTENSE AHHHHHHH

I CAN SEE THE TOP OF HIS SPIKY HEAD, IT’S FINALLY THAT TIME AHHHHHHHH OKAY I’M GONNA DO IT HERE GOES

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT’S HIM. IT FUCKING REALLY FUCKIGN IS HIM OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. WHY AM I SO SHOCKED LMAO I’M THE ONE WHO’S BEEN SAYING THIS THE WHOLE DAMN TIME LMAO. OH GOD. O H MY FUCKING GOD

well okay then sir. so are you an ~ancestor~ or a Kacchan from another timeline or so what’s your deal then

YOICHI WHO IS YOICHI

YOICHI ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT’S UP. LMAO WHO IS YOICHI

(ETA: I’m going to punch myself in the face lmao. he’s Yoichi. he, the First. that’s his name. name reveal at long last what what!!)

MORE IMPORTANTLY SHOULD I BE IMAGINING NOBU’S VOICE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE LMAO I AM ANYWAY BUT YEAH

(ETA: I actually think he’s going to end up being voiced by Nobuhiko whether he ends up being Kacchan or not, just because it fits right in with the general “identical in almost every way” aesthetic he’s got going on.)

TUMBLR HOW WE LIKING OUR ANGSTY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN?? EVERYONE HATED YOU SO MUCH BEFORE THEY EVEN MET YOU, BUT THEY FORGOT TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MIGHT BE HOT LMAO WHAT A TWIST

“some bright-eyed brat” oh come on. IT’S GOTTA BE HIM LOL

oh my god you all are probably TIRED AS FUCK of all my screaming but I’M SORRY IMMA HAVE TO DO IT ONE LAST TIME BECAUSE...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

that face. that expression!! THE FACT THAT HE’S OUT HERE OPENING DOORS WITH HIS FEET, LIKE HOLY SHIT!! JUST ADMIT THE JIG IS UP ALREADY

and so they really are the ones who busted First out of his jail cell huh

so how did they know you were in the room?? why did they come and break you out?? and how, pray tell, did they know to get you to transfer OFA to them?? hmmmMMMMMMMM

oh MY GOD

you guys. oh my god. it’s too much. every last bit of it lines up exactly with the Bakuverse theory sdkjfj I’m short-circuiting. it’s really fucking happening oh my lord

HELLO SEXY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN WITH HIS SEXY FUCKING SCAR, FUCK YEAH WE REALLY ARE EATING GOOD THIS CHAPTER

HELL YEAH WE’RE GOING. WE’RE GOING FULL SPEED YOU GUYS. LMAO I’M SO FUCKING HYPED RIGHT NOW I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF WEFKJLDKFFFF

SO, EVERYONE, LET’S RECAP. -- ACTUALLY NO, I STARTED TO WRITE UP A LIST, BUT I IMMEDIATELY REALIZED IT REALLY JUST NEEDS TO GO IN ITS OWN THREAD. SO I MADE IT AND POSTED IT, AND NOW I’M FINISHING UP THIS HOT MESS OF A RECAP POST. SO NOW WE’RE BACK TO THIS ONE FINAL PANEL OF DEKU EATING HIS KATSU ALL SERIOUS

YES SIR. YES SIR, WE GOING, FULL SPEED AHEAD, WHATEVER, IDK WTF IS HAPPENING BUT YES!!

lol, anyways so as I said in my other post, mysterious sexy guys with tragic pasts are what bring us together as a fandom, so whatever your thoughts are on the rest of it, let’s just rejoice in that. it’s what we deserve

#bnha 310 #midoriya izuku #ofa prime #ofa ii #bakugou katsuki #MAYBE???#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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None of them liked Ironwoods growingly tyrannical actions, it's the whole reason Ruby lies to him, he looked shady as hell. They are shown very clearly uncomfortable with what he's turned Atlas into in the First episode. It's just that at the end of Volime 7 he crossed the line.

The key words there are “first episode.” I’ve mentioned on other posts that if the plot had simply continued the forward momentum of the group being disgusted with Ironwood’s choices and working against him (hiding out in the city, gathering like-minded allies, etc.) then we would have been golden. Ironwood is Volume 7’s antagonist. There, done. The problem is what starts in the second episode. Our basic events are as follows:

The group (and audience) learn that Ironwood has arguably justified reasons for everything “shady as hell” that he’s done. The embargo? They are at war with Salem and people have been stealing resources since our introductory trailers (Blake). Soldiers in the streets? That first episode showed that grimm are attacking defenseless civilians and, if the soldiers hadn’t been there to fend the grimm off prior to Penny’s arrival, they likely would have died. Taking resources? That’s to re-establish global communications and enact a plan to stop Salem for good, freeing the world from the danger she presents.

However, they’re still morally gray choices which our group could have opposed… but they didn’t. They join Ironwood as public allies (standing with Clover and Penny against Robyn), as Inner Circle allies (they learn all of Ironwood’s plans—and we learn that he never lied to them), as huntsmen (it’s his power as general that gives them their licenses), and as fellow soldiers (they are indistinguishable from the Ace Ops in the missions they conduct). Now toss in a bunch of other connections like living in his academy, taking his weapon upgrades, and carrying the Relic. They might not like his actions, but they’re certainly doing everything possible to support and reap the benefits of them.

Ruby does lie to him… which two in the group oppose (however lackluster that was). Yang and Oscar both question the wisdom of doing the very thing they punished Ozpin for. Ren also develops a strong (if quiet) alliance with Ironwood that will carry into Volume 8... until his semblance changed and he forgot about it.

During all this there are efforts—mostly through Nora—to condemn Ironwood for his choices. How can you continue to hurt the people like this? Same answer as above: because he believes a short-term struggle is worth the long-term victory. Nora doesn’t agree… but Ruby, the leader, does. She pushes Ironwood to finish Amity somehow.

Which is an incredibly strange stance to take considering she knows that amassing a world-wide army will not defeat Salem. If the group wants Ironwood to stop hurting Mantle, all they have to do is tell him that Salem is immortal… but they don’t. They let him continue under this false belief, despite having more information about this war than he does and despite that information being the key to stopping the harm he’s enacting.

The arc of the volume is not the group choosing to trust Ironwood and then realizing he actually isn’t trustworthy, it’s the group (or rather, Ruby) deciding not to trust Ironwood and then realizing he is trustworthy. We get that climactic scene of Ruby and Oscar simultaneously realizing they should tell him about Salem and Oscar apologizing for keeping that secret in the first place.

Note that this occurs after they’ve talked him into telling Mantle about her. So not only is the group not made up of mindless subordinates being ordered about by a powerful general—it’s their advice Ironwood listens to—but now they’ve put an entire city in the position they were in during Volume 6. We’re told, via Ozpin’s arc, that telling people about Salem without including the issue of her immortality is a horrific thing to do. Those like Qrow have supposedly “wasted” their lives fighting an impossible war and the fandom has argued strongly that Ozpin has manipulated everyone involved in this fight by not giving them the full picture. Yet now, the group has spent months keeping that information from Ironwood when his questionable choices are based on that ignorance, and they’ve talked him into telling half his population that Salem exists and they should rise up to fight her… but not the pesky detail that she’s immortal. They did to Ironwood and all of Mantle exactly what Ozpin did to them.

Immediately after hearing that they’ve kept this secret from him the entire time they’ve been here (which he takes very well) Ironwood captures one of their main villains, loses his arm in the process, learns that two in the group have outright betrayed him to a political enemy, learns that despite all their best efforts Cinder has just waltzed into his office, learns that Salem herself is on her way and their defenses are already gone, knows that everyone is exhausted from a major battle… so when he decides to take all of Atlas, the majority of Mantle, and the Relics/Maiden they have to try and get out of Salem’s reach… Ruby says no. What’s her plan? She doesn’t have one. You’re just not allowed to leave.

The problem with the writing is it wants us to believe two contradictory things at once. Looking back, Ironwood is meant to be seen as an unambiguously bad guy in Volume 7, which we know because of scenes like Winter’s fight wherein she condemns him for everything he did in Volume 7, not just Volume 8 stuff like threatening to bomb Mantle. Yet at the same time, we’re simultaneously meant to believe that the group is made up of unambiguously good people who function as direct contrasts to Ironwood. Given what we got, these two things cannot coexist! Either Ironwood was a good man who the heroes backed for an entire volume and there’s no acknowledgment of that, or Ironwood was a bad man… who the heroes backed for an entire volume and there’s no acknowledgment of that either. If the group’s defense is, “We knew he was shady as hell. We knew what he was doing was wrong. We knew he was the bad guy here… but we still helped him maintain power, forward his plans, and reap the benefits of the flawed system for months on end”… that’s really bad. “I supported, assisted, and benefited from the guy who was shady as hell, but that’s fine because I felt uncomfortable about it the whole time” is not the hot take the fandom wants it to be. We cannot make these broad, sweeping statements about how the Atlas military—merged with its huntsmen—is an Evil Thing and then show scenes like, say, Jaune using his military grade huntsmen license to convince a bunch of civilians to follow his evacuation plan. The heroes cannot be Good and Pure while supporting the supposed villains and their systems; or, the villains cannot be purely Bad and Evil if they’re supported by the heroes.

The reality is that RWBY is badly written and this sort of simplistic, inconsistent writing doesn’t lend itself to a topic as complex as this one. To be frank, we don’t even know enough to make informed decisions about these actions because the world building is nearly nonexistent. What are these “resources” and how are the resources to patch a hole in the wall the same as the resources used to make Amity Tower into a world-wide communication device? How much power does Ironwood actually have and what other decisions has he made that impact Mantle? We never hear about any policies to explain things like the poor conditions, or the slum areas with the faunus. Why are the civilians so against the soldiers patrolling when we don’t see them abusing the public in any way, but we do see the grimm threatening them on the regular? Why does Ruby want Amity built so badly—willing to hurt Mantle to do it—when she knows a bigger army isn’t the answer/that telling people about Salem has almost always led to panic and betrayal? Is there really any difference between huntsmen and soldiers here? And if the answer is, “Yes. Huntsmen aren’t beholden to any power. That’s a good thing because following orders is Bad. They do what they think is best” than what are we supposed to make of someone like Rhodes who, apparently, did what he thought was best? If he’d been beholden to some superior there might have been a system in place to help Cinder. As it was, he was left to his own devices and a lot of fans are furious with the solution he, as one flawed individual, came up with. We simply don’t have a good picture of this world and when we do, things constantly contradict. It’s good for huntsmen to make their own choices, but only when Ruby does it, not Rhodes. It’s bad for heroes to keep the Salem secret and tell lies to their allies, but only when Ozpin does it, not Ruby. It’s bad for someone to try and save who they’ve got, but only when Ironwood does it, not Ruby, who apparently left Atlas after failing to create portals for her Uncle, Robyn, the Ace Ops, Pietro, Maria, and an entire army.

The way that the fandom gets around these problems—because too few are willing to just acknowledge that they are problems and RWBY is shoddily written—is by simplistically comparing RWBY’s military to a real world one. I cannot tell you how many posts I’ve come across that amount to, “Imagine thinking the teenage girls are the bad guys when a military general is right there, being a military general 😒 ” Those posts imply that fans like me are too stupid (too brainwashed, too close to “bootlickers”) to be critical of the military, but I assure you, that’s as far from true as can be. Those posts are trying to conflate real life politics with a fantasy story whose world looks nothing like our own. The is not a question of being critical of the military, it’s a question of being critical of RWBY as that fictional text… and that fiction never established any of the military problems we deal with in the real world. It might have (very easily), but it didn’t. Is Ironwood leveraging his people to conquer others or go after wealth? No, his world has literal, unambiguously evil monsters to fight. Does he amass power out of a desire to control the people? No, he lays out his exact thoughts on how these measures will help protect against those monsters and a witch. Does the military abandon its soldiers after war, leaving them with few resources and fewer prospects? No, we never see anyone struggling in that manner and one of the most prominent tragedies—Yang losing a limb—is answered by Ironwood personally sending a replacement to her home. Is the military at least built around propaganda, painting civilians an inaccurate picture of Freedom and Glory to convince them to fight? No, we see no propaganda, Ironwood—since Volume 2—has been focused on replacing people with robots and our entire story is built around one child’s desire to fight the exact same battle. Why do you want to be a huntress, Ruby? Because I want to help people! And that goal is never painted as a naïve outlook that Ruby becomes disillusioned with. Posts like the one mentioned above bank 100% on the reader mapping real life military criticism onto RWBY… rather than actually looking at the world RWBY built, what choices the characters make, the amount of information we’re given (little), and whether that in any way reflects our current, political problems. It doesn’t.

I’m never going to pretend there weren’t problems with Ironwood’s decisions. In fact, I love that this was actually a conflict in Volume 3 that gave both sides a fair shake: is it better to scare people and have an army at the ready to defend them, or is it better to keep them in the dark and potentially be defenseless? Ironwood’s kind heart bumping up against extreme measures is what made him compelling, especially when the story was having him grow in the “right” direction (AKA, listening to Ozpin). His treatment of Penny is another big issue, creating a whole ass person to serve as a military defense tool. That’s horrifying! So he’s absolutely had his problems long before the writing had him turn into a trigger-happy murderer, but part of the issue here is that the writing doesn’t acknowledge those problems in other characters. If Ironwood is “shady as hell” for forwarding a military agenda and using military resources… then so is Ruby, the leader who backed that for months. If Ironwood is “shady as hell” for funding the creation of a person to defend his kingdom… then so is Pietro, the scientist who not only built Penny, but came up with the idea in the first place. He’s not some defenseless victim who was forced by the evil Ironwood to create something morally reprehensible, he suggested it! The same way Winter wasn’t some defenseless victim who was forced by the evil Ironwood to go along with these plans. She supported them, agreed to be his Maiden, and was the first to suggest martial law! Yet Ruby, Pietro, Winter and their like are all presented as unambiguously Good People, whereas Ironwood is presented as the unambiguous Bad Guy—and when a lot of fans went, “But you’re not writing him like a Bad Guy? Especially when we compare him to the heroes?” we got his sudden, OOC murder streak in Volume 8. But it doesn’t work. Either the group is made up of morally gray/bad people because they did the things our antagonist Ironwood did, or Ironwood is not the morally gray/bad person the show insists he is (prior to Volume 8) because he did the same things as our heroes. You cannot give us that plot, those choices, that agency and insist on both at once. This problem has existed ever since we got an entire volume about how simplistically evil Ozpin is for keeping this secret… only for Ruby to immediately turn around and keep it herself, with no acknowledgement that either a) Ozpin wasn’t the bad guy then or b) Ruby is as bad as he is. But the show wants Ruby to be the Good Person in every situation, no matter how much she models her behavior after those she deems her enemies, and Ironwood’s arc only increased that problem tenfold.

#rwby #mymetas #tempoaryblogformightyjensblog

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Toons for Our Times: Ducktales: They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!

At Glomglast, Glomgold Glomturns! Flintheart Hero of Earth Glomgold continues riding his wave of good PR from helping save the earth in the manner you’d expect: With a dangerous attention seeking pr stunt/ferris wheel/half-ased plan to murder scrooge. Naturally Dewey is first in line for it. Meanwhile Webby tries to convince a wound up Penumbra to stay and enjoy earth so she can get a new alien friend who she relates to and her brothers can get a new step mom, while Launchpad is awkward because his coffee with Pennumbra went worse than the one he had with the gas cloud. The Glom Knight Glomturns under the cut.

This one is late for both good reason, I didn’t want to hog the wifi while my nieces were trying to remote school, and not so good I.e.... I entirely forgot an episode was today because I’m not used to the new schedule, as in the past the show’s either aired on saturday like usual for a disney show, or as a cluster of episodes throughout one week, so even if it wasn’t something I was used to, I was tuned to stay in. The new schedule is weird and my brain is stupid is what i’m saying. Now i’ve covered my butt on with the review! This week focuses on Penumbra, and explains exactly what happened to the Moonlanders after Moonvasion. For Penny at least she’s apparently been living in the McDuck hangar, or somewhere near it, and working on rebuilding one of the bigger ships to get her people home. Della, while not missing the opprotunity to point out now Penny’s the one living in HER garage buliding a rocket home, pitches in and we see things have clearly changed. At least with Della, Penny’s let down her guard and now openly considers her her best friend.. and perhaps more because the romantic tension is so thick here you could cut it with a sword. Granted I may have swords on the brain because of this.

Which if your not up to date on your x-men comics, is an event where our Uncanny X-Men, now having their own nation of krakoa where all mutants are welcome, which includes apocalypse so he’s on THEIR SIDE in that shot, must fight ten other mutants in a ritual sword duel with some of the strongest swords in the mighty marvel canon, and loosing means the other mutants, many of whom are the CHILDREN of apocalyspe from centuries ago he thought lost, get to invade earth with a demonic horde. And if NONE of that made you curious, let alone want to read that, I just.. don’t get you.

Back to the gays, yeah the ten sword thick sexual tension is broken by the fact that Penumbra reveals she tried SOME earth culture and did get that coffee with Launchpad, with Della baffled.. I mean look at those abs. Though it’s probably less “Launchpad really?” and more “Why not me first? Is he sexier? Dammit he is. “ It went about as well as you’d expect.. with Penny storming out suddenly saying this is terrible and running off. Eh not the worst first date i’ve seen in animation this year. I’ve seen a woman go on a date with a man conjoined to his ex.. and not like their siblings it’s a medical procedure. Because close enough is pretty fucking insane and let’s keep it that way.

But yeah so Penumbra’s not sold on earth and Della’s attempts to get her to go with the kids, get to that in a minute, fall on deaf ears. But the thing is. her people are. When meeting with gibious and zenith, if you don’t remember the married moon couple we saw back in “The Golden Spear”, Penumbra finds out she’s the only one who wants to go home. Her people like it here...the happy couple even got adorable new outfits, a job with Glomgold in Gibbious’ case, and an adorable new dog named good boy. Look at them.

I would die for either of them. I hope we see Good Boy again. And that the show introduces Bolivar, donald’s dog at some point. Or even his ostrich hortense. I just want the duck to have a pet dammit.

Point is their happy here and while Penny wants to go back to the old routine of them all on the moon and her saving them.. their fine if she wants to go home but.. their staying here. And it’s easy to see WHY they want to: The moon was harsh, filled with monsters and much like us humans right now with earth, they only stayed in their clusterfuck of a home world because they had no way out. It’s probably why Lunaris sold hte invasion so easily: With his pitch they were just taking a nicer world from a bunch of mean asssholes who refused to share it and whose sole representative had seemingly betrayed them. Without any reason to hate the earthlings and, outside of once incident later in the episode, the earthlings accepting them with open arms and forgiveness, why wouldn’t they stay on a nice, sunny world, in a large city willing to house them and give them jobs, with delicious foods and all sorts of fun shit to distract you from the bad parts of living here that the moon lacked.

Penny’s issue is while THEIR lives were miserable.. her’s wasn’t. She was a hero, a super hero really.. I mean she’s dressed like a kree sentry, she protects the helpless and she’s a fearless warrior whose now a fish out of water on a world she never could’ve expected but grows to love. Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel, the Mar Vell one, Warlock, Adam Warlock and yes their separate characters, Supergirl, not superman because while he is an alien he grew up here.. all aliens who immigrated here and grew to love and protect it and see it as their home. Penny just hasn’t got to the “love and protect it” part yet and while the rest of her people have new purpose, new homes and new lives and still meet once a week to party she finds herself, theri greatest champion an outsider, desperately wanting her old life back but not accepting it’s gone. She can go home but she’d be the one person on a desolate moon clinging to the past. Penny here honestly reminds me of jasper in steven unvierse future: Both are old soldiers who find their empire gone, their entire way of life uprooted and have no way to cope and desperately hoping things will collapse back to THEIR normal, not realizing the new one isn’t going anywhere and is better for their people. They need to move on but their too proud and too scared to try.

However Penny refuses to admit defeat to her people and that she can’t have “earth fun”, and left with no other choices, decides to take the kids up on their offer after all. To explain that we quickly wrap to the top of the episode, where Webby, bored and having trouble finding anyone, finds Penny and after Penny dosen’t want to hang out finds Dewey and Louie. I assume since their absent this episode, Huey is introducing Violet to Gyro, Fenton and Boyd, Beakly is buying groceries, Donald is courting Daisy and Scrooge.. is trying to get fethry’s hands, feet and head out of pickle jars because he thought they’d preserve him and Donald is busy for once so he’s the only one left to do it. Louie and Dewey plan on just laying around and biinging old ottoman empires, I can relate, but the news gives them a better option. A GLOMGOLD OPTION. Oh me mow how i’ve missed this big beautiful man. Seriously Glomgold is easily one of the best parts of the reboot and Keith Fergeuson brings an utterly delightful manic glee to the guy any time he shows up to eat the scenery whole. While I get holding back on him since he had an arc last season, it’s still nice to have him back in all his hammy glory. And naturally being glomgold he has a scheme going: After gifting a rolelrcoaster previously, over water and with sharks because his brand’s nothing if not consistent, he’s now offering the flintferris glomwheel, which is shoddy, dangerous, secretly a plot to kill scrooge, and is very likely to kill a child.. so in other words it’s Glomgold himself roleld into a ferris wheel. Dewey is psyched to go because he let another kid go first for Glomgold’s last PR Stunt/Nightmare and that kid got all the glory and as such is now Dewey’s new nemisis. So after asking his mom “If we can go ride a death wheel so I can get famous’, which of course Della says yes to, our heroes end up taking Penny along. Launchpad drives and gets his subplot for the episode, being awkard around Penny because the date went bad and not sure if this makes then enimies and avoiding her. He tries going to dewey for help, and while Dewey is out of his element, he does actually give good advice to just talk to her.. Launchpad just takes it while he’s driving because it’s launchpad. Thankfully webby can drive. He spends the rest of hte episode getting into shenanigans before, after helping her with the climax, phrasing, being honest and apologizing. And i’m also covering the plot to get her answer out of the way now: Penny admits he’s fine, thery can be fight buds, he’s a good warrior sh’es just “Not interested in an earth..male” her exact words.

I mean.. there’s no real subtly here. Even if she’s not into Della, which all evidence suggests is the case, Penumbra is CLEARLY into women. I mean Frank is basically saying as loudly as his mousey overlords will allow “SHE’S GAY FOR DELLA”. Wether this goes anywhere, I dunno. While Lumity started ramping up this year, that property’s not based on Disney’s classic canon and STILL had to fight tooth and claw to make Luz bisexual and her love intrested a girl. Disney won’t even let this show use Mickey and almost didn’t let them use the rescue rangers, the odds are against them.. but I also never thoguht we’d see violet’s gay dads on screen, or so many previously comics only characters, so frank’s said screw the impossible before. Now probably is no different.

Back to the main plot, and to the return of Glomgold whose great as ever. Glomgold made the moonlanders and some of duckberg think he was soley responsible for saving the world.. how many people besides the non-penny moonlanders think he actually did it is up for debate but he DID genuinely help save the world. Also his scheme to get his company back somehow WORKED despite not being legally binding, as he’s now back in his tower, back to scheming and has an actual assitant instead of a professional career woman he treats like one in a bit that didn’t age all that well even a year later. Gibious is now Glomgold’s sidekick and in a nice contrast to Owlson instead of being fed up with his crap Gibious, buying into Glomgold’s own ego, lavishes praise on his new boss, treats him like the god he thinks he is, and is genuinely sweet and helpful. It’s a nice dynamic giving Glomgold someone who ACTUALLY and genuinely likes him as a person and wants him to suceed and trusts in his insane schemes and leads to some great bits like Gib genuinely calling the safety inspector when Glomgold makes an airquotes remark about it and at the end Glomgold admitting “I can’t stay mad at you” to his new lackey/Best friend. Frankly Glomgold needed a 21 to his Monarch, and i’ts a delight to see it and Paulson and Ferguson have real chemistry. Meanwhile in the A-Plot, Webby tries to get Penny to enjoy earth, first with a street performer she tosses in the water ,as you should, then with a shooting range which ends with her massacering a clownhead to the children minus webby’s horror and tears. We were one more frame away from this really.

Also we get the ducks feeding.. ducks, a gag Frank’s apparently wanted to do for three seasons now, and with Penny being as confused as the audeince. but non of this, including roller skates really works. So while Dewey goes off to get in line to one up his rival, Webby gets honest with Penny about why she’s so invested and this episode goes from good.. to truly fantastic. While webby fangirling over a mighty and gay space warrior makes sense, there’s a personal reason she wants to help here that really tugs at the heart strings: Webby was like her once. Like Penny she spent her whole life honing herself into a weapon, sealed in her own tiny world, For Penny it was her moon village for Webby it was the mansion. And being thrust out into it was .. frightening. We saw webby struggle to adjust in “Daytrip of Doom!” and part of her wanted to plunge back into the mansion and her saftey net at times. But she didn’t.. with the help of her family, and her friends, she found out just how wonderful the world is and how as scary as the world is.. it opened up new parts of her. Duckberg webby was just as great as mansion webby if not better. So Webby wants to do the same for penny and what really clinches the scene is how she does it: a Hamburger, the symbol from the pilot of what webby was deprived of all her life, given to a new friend as a symbol of what the world offers. And it works at first, even without cheese. But then Penny gets a brain freeze, and Glomgold, needing a distraction from the saftey inspector rames her as going beserk because he’s an asshat in every other way let’s add racisim to it.

A chase insues, Penny’s determined to flee.. but she gets a second wind when Dewey, who rushed in to get the first ride and webby get trapped. Sadly dewey’s new enemy gets all the attention, and as we find out is aware he one upped Dewey and brags over it, but Penny has now gone from fish out of water to shark on the hunt, and with Launchpad’s help to get past Glom and Gib, and the roller skates from earlier finally has some earth fun by skating into the air, climbing the Ferris wheel and saving the kids. Penny FINALLY found something she likes about earth; That she can Still protect people, including her people and do what she loved there and the danger here is WAY more intresting.. I mean on hte moon itw as just the usual monsters she was used to. Here she had to rocket into the air, and climb an megalomainics cannon armed ferris wheel to save two adorable children. In short she’s become a super hero and like those I mentioned, has grown to care about earth. So basically this is like captain marvel was an episode of Steven Universe. I likes it. But it’s a nice character arc, as Penny realizes the outside world, and her new friends/future stepchildren, have b eauty and worth. And she will protect their kind, she will protect them. I mean duckberg already has about 4 other superheroes if you count lena, which with that outfit last time I dooo, but frankly with how much disaster it faces on a daily basis, and how much Fenton needed a goddamn break, and with Darkwing leaving for st canard soon, they could probably use her.

So the day is saved, Glomgold is buired in fines but has a new minon, Dewey is dewfeated and Penny is happy again. We end on Penny recounting everything to Gibious and wife, and Good Boy obviously, along with Della who casually admits she really shoduln’t of let her child go but sooths him anyway over his loss. Penny is happy and deciding to stay, and her and her new best buddy laucnhpad are going to go tear the ship apart with her carrying della along. I swear when they finally do do it she’s just going to.. carry a willing della to her bedroom and throw her down on that thing.. everything after is up to you Id ont’ write porn here. Nothing wrong with it just not my bidness. So with a hopeful new future and a neat t-shirt, Penny finally finds her place in the world.

Final Thoughts: A very good, very gay episode that’s just as good as last weeks and gives penumbra a hell of a character arc, while also being an utterly hilaroius episode, from penumbra’s destruction, to glomgold’s hilarious as always antics to dewey’s attention whoring reaching self endagering heights of stupidity and ego, this was a great one and keeps up Season 3′s quality streak. While the plot progression may be slow for now, everything else is at an alltime goddamn high.

Next week, it’s the HALLOWEEN EPISODE BITCHES. Nuff Said. Until then you can check my blog for more reviews, as we have some halloween stuff coming up. Sadly with Loud House going silent, it seems this is our only weekly coverage but expect more reviews of various shows, and some very spooky ooky ones coming very soon including some brucie bonus episodes and until we meet again, go team venture! Play us out glomgold....

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#ducktales #they put a moonlander on the earth!#penumbra #della duck #dellumbra #webby vanderquack #dewey duck #louie duck #Flintheart Glomgold #gibious #reviews #ducktales spoilers

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kzspbrak · 5 years

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Montgomery De La Cruz Masterpost

Before I start his, I want to warn for spoilers obviously, and also say that I do not condone what Monty did to many of the characters, and he is by no means a good person—and I will not be trying to argue that. However, I will be analysing his character to the best of my abilities and show how he is one of the most complex the show has to offer. I’d also like to say that if I’ve missed anything or anyone disagrees with anything I’ve said, please add it below or carry this on!!

I also might carry this on if I realise I forgot anything or have any new ideas, this will probably be quite messy too—so apologies in advance.

Abuse

It is made very apparent to us that Monty is abused throughout the show as a whole. His dad beats him to the point where he has to run away relatively frequently to hide from his dad. We also see in season 3 that his dad is exceptionally homophobic, which comes in more later.

Some of the effects physical abuse can have on a person include behaviour issues, criminal behaviour, depression, drug and alcohol problems, issues at school, and anxiety. Montgomery shows that he has many of these traits—even if it’s just minor, showing us that the abuse he has received for his whole life is what shaped him into the monster he can be.

Parallels with Justin

The physical abuse also draws some heavy parallels with Justin, especially when you look at the two’s friendships with Bryce. Both boys felt the need to protect Bryce until the end and heavily depended on him (even in season 3 we see Justin still have communication with Bryce). Their friendships with Bryce are also similar because of how little Bryce needs them in return, and how easily he drops them both.

It is very clear that Justin is jealous of Bryce throughout season one—we see him walk around his house and get extremely upset over his seemingly perfect family life and home environment. We don’t get this with Monty, but the already drawn parallels can suggest that he felt the same, or even stronger towards Bryce. The abuse that both Justin and Monty receive at home is what draws them to Bryce, he was their protection, their only family and the one person they thought they could trust. This, as we know, leads Justin to lie to Jessica about Bryce raping her to protect Bryce, and we see Monty go even further to protect him throughout season 2 as he threatens and torments the people testifying against Bryce.

Sexuality and Self Hatred

Internalised Homophobia

The root of Monty’s internalised homophobia is his dad, and then isn’t helped by the toxic masculinity and homophobic attitudes his friends also hold. Many people, that I’ve seen, are unhappy that they made Montgomery gay, because it takes away from or redeems what he did. If you pay attention to the little screen time he’s given in the previous two seasons, it isn’t that difficult to work out. He is the very realistic homophobic bully that’s actually gay. It’s sadly a common thing, and anything but a simple redemption arc. Montgomery’s whole character is rooted in hatred—hatred towards himself and his desires, his peers for being happy and comfortable with themselves, his dad and family life, and at the people trying to take away the one person ‘protecting’ him. The root of this hatred is shown to be internalised homophobia in season 3.

The internalised homophobia he has also shows through somewhat anxious behaviour at times, as well as violent outbursts. For example him getting worked up in the car with Bryce, worried that Winston would speak up after taking the money—Bryce just sees that as him not wanting the police to get involved, but as the audience we know it’s about something much more terrifying to Monty.

Winston

Montgomery’s first interaction with Winston also links into his self hatred. He gives into his desires/urges and has Winston suck his dick, again I’ve seen people say that this scene was bad—and Monty was a bad person for the way he treated Winston. I disagree, if you watch the scene Winston is going along with the situation, and shows no signs of being uncomfortable. Monty, however, is very obviously mad at himself for giving in—and later lashes out on Winston as a way to cope with it.

Later on in the series, after Bryce is done with Monty for good, and calls him a coward, Monty runs into Winston again—this time he’s nice to him, and they enjoy the weekend together. You could say that in a way, Bryce calling him a coward is what lead him to go through with seeing Winston again, Montgomery obviously knew he was gay—he was just scared of it and hated himself because of it. He knew he was a coward, and tried to get over the internalised homophobia.

“You can be whatever you want to be.” / “No, I can’t.”

This line really stuck with me, and I think is because of how many things it could mean. It sums up Monty as a character in a sense.

You could interpret it as him wanting to be happy in who he is as a gay man, but knowing he won’t allow himself to be, or his friends and family won’t. It could mean that he doesn’t want to be gay, but he has to except that he is. Or it could go a lot deeper, Montgomery wants to be happy, have a family, have his friend back, be with winston, not be with winston—so many things, and in reality he knows he can’t have any of them.

There is also the context of him raping Tyler, he knows he did it and he also knows that Bryce knows, so he’s probably already aware that Tyler will come forward at one point.

I personally like to interpret the line, after talking about it with a few friends, as him wanting to be happy in who he is. He knows he’s gay, he knows that he likes winston to some extent, and he knows that his family and friends would disown him if they found out. He wants to have everything he doesn’t that Bryce and everyone else seems to have, but knows that it’s impossible. He wants to not be a coward, essentially, he doesn’t want to be the coward who followed Bryce, got beat by his dad his entire life, the coward who was always so scared of himself.

Friendships

Bryce Walker

I’ve already established how dependant Monty was on Bryce, however there is a lot more too it. Monty’s dependence on Bryce also turns into a form of admiration for his friend (and with the new context of his sexuality, could be interpreted as repressed feelings as well). This, as I’ve said, leads Monty to harass and threaten those on the tapes by either physically harming them or anonymously threatening them. Bryce didn’t know Monty did any of that, and when he finds out is disgusted with his friend. He ends their friendship, as he didn’t need the friendship nearly as much as Montgomery did, which leaves Monty devastated and angry. This is also what partially pushes him to later assault Tyler.

“If I sell out Bryce or lie, either way, my whole life falls apart. I got no one else on my side. I can't run home. That team's my home. Going to playoffs, winning state, being an athlete, that's not about fun for me. It's about survival. It's all I got. It's everything. So you wanna shoot me? Shoot me.”

This quote shows us everything about his and Bryce’s relationship—he has no one else. Bryce is the only person he truly feels like he can trust and will therefore do anything to protect him.

Scott, Justin, Charlie and Alex

All of these people are former friends (Alex less so, but pretty much the same anaylisis applies to them all). Before and during the tapes/before it was revealed Bryce was a rapist, he had a group. He had his place as a jock and his family, so as these friends slowly leave him as things go on, Monty’s circle becomes smaller and smaller—pushing him to protect Bryce even more.

Tyler Down

When most people think of Montgomery, they think of what he did to Tyler. I think it’s fair to say that he didn’t rape Tyler purely down to just being a monster. Him and Bryce contrast extremely in this situation, Bryce raped the girls he did because he felt entitled to them, he was so used to getting anything and everything he had little regard for anyone, causing him to do monstrous things.

Montgomery raping Tyler had nothing to do with sex or entitlement however, and he even refused to see it as rape throughout the 3rd season (probably down to having to accept that meant he had sexual contact with Tyler, consensual or not.)

And I’d like to clarify, I’m not here to justify what he did or say that he’s a good guy despite it. What he did obviously requires being an awful person—however, I would like to break down what made him the monster he was.

The abuse didn’t help, violence was all he knew, and as the show carried on he got more and more violent with his peers, as his dad presumably did with him. It is also made clear to us as the viewers that football is all Monty had: he was failing classes, had no support from anyone and couldn’t do anything with his life after high school. So, Tyler taking away football from him caused him to snap, and then Bryce ending their friendship due to being disgusted by Monty’s attempts to protect him only added to the fuel.

I personally, despite believing the rape was necessary for the plot and to show male sexual assault also happens, don’t believe Montgomery should’ve been the one to do it. It makes perfect sense to a degree, especially when you see him refusing to call it what it is in season 3, but I wish they had either kept the scene the same but stopped at the mop bit (and maybe have one of the other boys do it to Tyler after Monty left), or show it in a different way.

Montgomery was always an awful person, but he was capable of redemption, and I think seeing him change and accept himself as he started to towards the end of season 3 is an equally important story to show.

However, he did rape Tyler, and despite being his decision and completely his fault, you have to look at what pushed him to do it. It has a weird parallel to Tyler almost shooting up the school, except Montgomery didn’t have anyone to stop him and help him recover like Tyler did.

Conclusion and what I think should’ve happened with his character

I know that many people will disagree with me on this, because in some ways Montgomery is worse than Bryce. But I would argue that he is just as much a victim as Tyler. They are both filled with self hatred, and both turned to extreme violence to try to make themselves feel better, but ultimately Tyler had support where monty didn’t. Rape and shooting up a school are obviously very different things, and the crimes show the difference between the two characters. Montgomery took all his self hatred and put it on one person, and did the worst thing he could to that person, whereas Tyler projected his everywhere, and was prepared to do a far more damaging crime because of that.

Personally, if I could rewrite Monty’s story I would have him not rape Tyler, despite not being out of character, I think there were better ways to do it. The scene could’ve been the exact same except stop when Monty grabbed the mop, either because he realised it would be rape and he didn’t want to be any type of sexual with other man, or because he’s a ‘coward’ and couldn’t follow through with it.

I think his developments in the third season should’ve remained the same, and instead of having him framed as the murderer at the end, maybe he was a suspect throughout the show? And the audience is convinced it was either him or clay. Monty didn’t have an alibi because he was with winston, and refused to admit that’s where he was because he still refused to accept he was gay, and didn’t want anyone else to find out.

I know this doesn’t count as character analysis, and is much closer to fan fiction. However, I do believe that the homophobic bully who’s actually gay is an important trope. Many people see it was offensive and bad representation, which I get, but the trope can be done well. And example of a poorly done homophobic gay character is Adam in Sex Education, I think it would’ve been fine as long as he didn’t bully Eric specifically because he had feelings for him. That’s why I don’t see Monty’s gayness as a bad thing, because it’s not like he bullied Winston for being gay the previous two seasons, he acted generally homophobic (to an extreme in some cases) because he was petrified someone would find out about his secrets.

In conclusion, they could’ve done far better with Montgomery as a character, and I am disappointed in how they ended his story—but it was predictable from the start and still makes sense with the plot. I do wish that the general audience would look at his character with even a sliver of the sympathy they have for every other character. You have to remember that no one in 13rw is an innocent or good person—they have all done awful things. Should monty be forgiven for raping Tyler? Of course not, but should Alex be forgiven for killing Bryce? Should Tyler be forgiven for almost shooting up the school? Should Ani be forgiven for lying and framing Monty as a murderer? Should Justin be forgiven for lying to Jessica? Should any of them be forgiven for any of the crimes they committed?

#13rw #13 reasons why #13rw season 3 #13rw spoilers #montgomery de la cruz #monty de la cruz #tyler down #clay jensen #hannah baker

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ashesarrows · 3 years

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The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente- FULL REVIEW

This review is the complete version of its counterpart on GoodReads.

This book really disappointed me. The roughest thing is that it’s right in the middle of the series, so you have to read it if you want to continue. There are bright spots (Ell! Saturday!), and I can sense the incredible book Valente was trying to write, but overall, this was a flop. Would’ve been a DNF if I hadn’t promised myself I’d finish the series.

So, firstly: I’m a longtime fan of Fairyland, and I commonly list the first book and Valente herself as my favorite book and author. I had no negative preconceptions about the book going in. In fact, I know I have an irrational fear of series, and at first I thought my struggles with this book could be chalked up to that.

But I loved the second book. It was entertaining, a good follow-up, and a unique new story to explore. When I picked up the third book and only got a chapter in before forgetting about it, I had a lot of excuses—I was burned out. I didn’t like the Blue Wind, and I didn’t want to read about her. I was busy with school.

As it turns out, having picked the book up three years later and finished it this time, none of that was true. This time, I was yearning for more of Fairyland, I quite liked the Blue Wind, and I had ample time to read in.

It just wasn’t a good book.

I talk about planning/pantsing a lot, and that’s once again relevant. I’ll excerpt from my review of another book:

There are two types of NaNoWriMo writers: the planners, & the pantsers. Planners have an outline ready before they write, and pantsers go "by the seat of their pants"—very few, or even no, plans. Both have pros/cons; here I'll focus on a common pitfall for pantsers.

Almost every Western narrative… follows something akin to the 3-act structure. There is a main conflict which builds to a climax and is then resolved (think Star Wars’s Death Star.) For any good narrative, you need MOTIVATION-GOAL-CONFLICT—and occasionally stakes[.]

This book does not have a conflict.

So where do you find 300+ pages of writing? Just have something happen & see what comes next as a response!

The problem is that this makes an unworkable first draft. Things Happening =/= Satisfying Plot Arc. In editing, you have to take everything you've written and organize it into a plot shape, often cutting things that don't fit. (Planning is the opposite; tons of work upfront/you usually end up UNDERwriting.)

...The most common method of writing on Wattpad is pantsing. 99% of the time, writers write & then post chapters on a set schedule. Can't edit plot structure when you upload one chapter a week.

Now, I knew that Valente was a pantser before I read this book, and that she originally uploaded Fairyland one chapter a week. I was very impressed when I first found out; I don’t recall sensing any of these pitfalls in the two previous books. It is hard to write a book with no editing—it is damn well near impossible. Whether I liked this book or not, the first two are a triumph just for that. Valente has been writing this entire series with both hands tied behind her back and her eyes taped shut, and I have to commend her. Even my feelings of frustration are almost overshadowed by how impressed I am that it took three books for her to fail.

Valente herself acknowledged editing concerns in multiple / interviews. From the latter link:

I remember being at a convention right after it really hit, and somebody in the audience asked, “Well, you realize you can’t go back and change anything, because you’ve already posted it online.” And I said, “Oh, shit.” It had never occurred to me that that was gonna be a problem. I kept a couple weeks ahead of the posting schedule, but again, much like writing The Labyrinth in ten days instead of thirty, I just ran ahead with something without knowing that I couldn’t do it and it worked out incredibly well.

Did it? I feel differently, and this review aims to explain why.

This book lacks plot. Valente is attempting a 3-act structure, which relies heavily on a central conflict. There has to be some big mission; some big goal. First book example: September has to beat the Marquess (goal and conflict) OR ELSE everyone in Fairyland suffers (stakes/motivation). Every moment of the book ties back to this larger goal.

The central conflict of this book appears about halfway through. You know the moon, and the yeti, and splitting things? This comes up over a hundred pages in. September, and the audience, has no idea about any of that for a hundred or so pages, and so for that amount of time, the book is unconscionably boring.

The beginning of the book sees September afraid she’s too old to go back to Fairyland, which is a great central conflict idea for the one chapter in which it exists. Aha! A book about growing up and the associated trials and tribulations. That’s a fantastic theme, and yet I forgot about it entirely until the end, where it briefly awakens again, after an entire book of Not That At All. More on this later.

For now, the book takes September back to Fairyland, which should be wonderful, but Fairyland seems to have become all exposition and no action. A whole chapter of The Blue Wind lecturing September, for example. This is a character we don’t know, have no reason to be attached to, and are being actively hindered by as she relentlessly slows the plot down. And then September gets talked at by an alligator or something, and then another something something… I don’t remember any of this, because it was not relevant.

This isn’t like Fairyland #1, where September might need to befriend someone to gain access to magic which would help her on her quest. In fact, for this first half of the book, September doesn’t even have agency! Someone hands her a MacGuffin (I refuse to recall its name) in the form of a box, and she Must carry it to some city or other on the moon. Why? Who knows. She just must. And she does. And you’re thinking to yourself, why isn’t September making her own ship and leading revels? We know, as an audience, that she’s more than capable. What on Earth has got her seeming so meek? She even sasses characters, but somehow always ends up doing as they ask.

The book also takes all this time to reach any characters we know and love. The readers want Ell and Saturday! We do not care about a horde of lecturing adults with no connection to a central plot or September! Looking back, I can see how Valente may have been hoping to pull off something similar to Alice in Wonderland, but in Alice nobody speaks for a full page. This is just one example:

direct link

I’m hard pressed to even call this exposition, because it tells us nothing about the world we’re in. It’s just a sermon Valente wants us to hear. And worse, because I’ve read the last two books, I know she can pull this off. It doesn’t have to be this way. Many people said many things in Fairyland #1, and it worked because there was a plot that the speeches were part of.

(If you just look at the quotes page for this book, you can see how many there are—and how repetitive they get. X is a Y, okay, alright…)

But this sort of thing reached its peak when it almost ruined Saturday. Don’t worry, he’s generally well-written, but when September meets him and he starts lecturing? It’s just awful to read. Suddenly it’s not Saturday talking but Valente speaking through his mouth, giving those sermons again, and it just makes you want to scream.

This made me recall an old writing rule—“never remind me of the author’s existence.” I want to feel as though real people are really saying these things, and when all of them speak identically, it’s really difficult to believe that. I won’t deny Saturday his right to say poignant things, obviously, but in this case due to the volume of lectures, and the proximity of his to the others, and the obvious preachiness of all of them, it really got in the way of my even enjoying the scenes with Saturday. And come on; that is unforgivable.

But there is a plot. There is an, ahem… other MacGuffin. A paw? A yeti’s paw. Something about time. Look, at this point I just wanted to finish the book. The original MacGuffin had become a new one, which would lead them to the third, and all this because at 100 pages in someone said “hey there’s this yeti we really hate around here,” and September went “sounds awful I’ll go hunt him right now.” And of course she can, because she has been DOING NOTHING FOR THE LAST HUNDRED PAGES. What is she going to do, something else? There IS nothing else to do in Fairyland apparently. Again, what this book does to the world & inhabitants of Fairyland is near criminal.

So the plot starts here, and it’s not great—September takes it up because there’s nothing else to do, and of course her friends come along, but (at least to me) it seems obvious that Valente invented the moon’s political situation and the Yeti just to come up with SOMETHING for this book. It never felt convincing that this had really been happening behind the scenes in the other books. On top of that, since we get very little context (despite the lectures!), it feels less like a vital quest and more like September (again) doing something because someone else told her to. We really don’t get any other perspective on the issue until the very end.

But talking about the end will require a spoiler tag, so I’ll avoid it for now. Let’s take a break to talk about how confusing the book was overall. I often didn’t know where the characters were heading or why, or what role a new character played, or even if they were there or not.

After seeing a GR query about this particular issue, I went back and researched it. The character Candlestick allegedly leaves the party on page 189:

Candlestick had not come with them after all, turning up her peacock tail and refusing to speak further with any of the lot of them.

But then shows up in not one but two lines in the next chapter anyway:

The Tyguerrotype, the thirteen bouncing Glasshobs, the quivering houses—and September and Saturday, A-Through-L and Candlestick—had a little thickness, but no more than a thick sheet of paper. (201)

“Did we see what?” called Candlestick. (204)

I understand why Valente wouldn’t want to make major plot edits to the books after posting them, but why didn’t an editor read through this even once? It would have been easy to fix—delete one line, or even just a word. It seems clear through surrounding context, looking back, that Valente intended to leave Candlestick out of these chapters, so why didn’t anyone confirm that for readers?

It’s just not fair to your audience to leave things like this in. It’s not professional. It makes me look down on the publisher, to be quite honest, because they apparently couldn’t take the few months necessary to re-read the draft and offer Valente edits on these bare minimum issues.

So you can understand why I wasn’t sure what was going on most of the time. Especially in the beginning, when multiple characters existed just to lecture, it was hard to get attached to any one addition to the party because I could expect them to be gone without incident or importance within two chapters.

For example, the Periwig (whose name I refuse to look up) who works with Ell in the library says she has cursed him to stop him from flaming around the books. Yes, Ell is having uncontrollable flaming issues now. As a reader pummeled by random lectures, watching September ferry around MacGuffins, this just felt like an “oh shit we have to come up with a NEW conflict for these characters” ploy, without much thought or logic. And I had no idea what the curse was for over fifty pages, until on page 173 there’s a specific reference to Ell getting smaller after he shoots flame. I’m sure there were more earlier on, but I missed them, and who can blame me after a hundred pages of content that was not relevant to the story.

This plot point is never satisfyingly wrapped up, either. Why did the Periwig think this was a good idea? Could she have undone it? Why did nobody address her about it? And why was it solved the way it was? Nothing made sense.

What’s really frustrating is what could have been. Near the end of the book, I turned to the back cover just to avoid continuing to read, and I looked once again in total bafflement at the two starred reviews of the book pictured there. Booklist’s back cover quote reads as follows:

As usual, Valente enlightens readers with pearly gleams of wisdom about honesty, identity, free will, and growing up. September often worries who she should be and what path she should follow, but the lovely truth, tenderly told, is that it's all up to her.

And, despite having read roughly two hundred pages of this book, it was only once I saw this quote that I understood what Valente was trying to do.

This is a great idea. And there are ELEMENTS of it here, and even elements I quite like. Occasionally, the lectures September hears do in fact correspond to some aspect of this theme (“you become what you are called” is one example of a line I could tell meant something, but needed to be expanded to accomplish anything.) It’s hard, as a reader, to differentiate between lectures addressing a vital theme in the story and lectures that are just talking.

Returning to Ell’s curse, it turns out that [SPOILER] Ell was just flaming for what is essentially dragon puberty, which is a GREAT opportunity to build on this theme! Somehow, though, we don’t get that.. I would have loved to see Ell have to deal with, essentially, a sexual awakening, and that did not happen, and it feels like the cure scene is random and therefore wasted. [END SPOILER]

It doesn’t help that Valente also wastes a scene with FANTASTIC potential where September literally destroys her fate by giving it no prior context, no weight in the plot, no relevance to the conflict, and fifteen tons worth of expositional lecturing to drown in. I want to love these scenes; some of these scenes utilize my favorite tropes! I just can’t get around all the ways Valente is leaving her story out to dry.

Then there’s the clothing September wears, her new designation, Aroostook the car, the attempted blossoming romance between September and Saturday: so many elements which could have made that theme great. It’s like a broken puzzle.

This brings us to the Yeti. I’m just going to go full spoiler, because I’m mad.

[SPOILER]

The Yeti is a reverse twist villain?? Can we stop with this? It’s not interesting & not an engaging surprise & also feels like going “ha ha I fooled you.”

From the moment September set off to beat him, I was wondering—are we really doing this? Based on one random person’s complaint? September has made it very clear that she doesn’t understand the politics of the world she’s inhabiting, and yet: this. Unlike in the first book, where the Marquess’s evil is confirmed by every person she comes across and September ends up fighting her out of personal connection, this just seems like meddling. September has no skin in the game; it’s almost a white savior trope—especially when the history of the Moon parallels colonization!

And then The Gang sees future-Saturday helping the yeti, and instead of thinking “maybe we got this wrong based on one person’s lecture” they think “ah FUCK maybe Saturday is going to be evil” and manufacture totally unnecessary conflict.

But it’s not even that they misunderstood, or that their source was biased; the end result is that the Yeti was seen as evil because he DIDN’T CARE THAT HE WAS. He gives this “none of their business” answer that is fundamentally unsatisfying (and makes no sense—had he explained, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BOTHERED HIM) because at the end of the day, it means none of September’s actions in Fairyland were necessary. She just showed up and left. Nobody, not even the story, needed her. I guess September and Saturday have now kissed (twice!) which is great for them but not something that makes the whole book worthwhile.

[END SPOILER]

And on top of this, there are typos. I already covered the issue with Candlestick, so here are the others quickly:

“All of us,” September said gently, and held out her hands. “I know what you said, Miss Candlestick, but however you count it, our fates are stuck together and stitched up good.” She paused for a moment, looking down at her flowing black silks and her own small hands. “Closer than shadows, she finished.” (170)

“If you’re not to tired after your cannonades.” (179)

The full moon rose passed the high barn windows, spilling in like milk. (248)

(First sentence ought to have put the end quotation mark after the word “shadows,” but accidentally places it after September’s dialogue tag. The second sentence should use “too” instead of “to”. The final sentence needs to either say that the moon “rose past the high barn windows” or “passed the high barn windows”, likely the former.)

What gets me is that this last sentence is on the last page. Even if Valente and her editors never flipped through most of the book, surely someone would’ve noticed this? It just drives home how little anyone cared. About Fairyland, of all things!

And then Valente, who DID NOT EDIT THIS BOOK, has the audacity to include lines like these.

September reached inside and took out the red book. It was heavy. A girl’s face graced the cover, finely embossed, but it was turned away, gazing at some unseen thing. Perhaps it was her own face, perhaps not. A miniature version of herself, after all. Was it an answer? Was it everything already written? “You can’t argue with something that’s written down,” she said, stroking the red locks of hair on the cover. “If the heart of my fate is a book, there’s nothing for it. Once it’s written, it’s done. All those ancient books always say ‘so it is written’ and that means it’s finished and tidied and you can’t say a thing against it.” Oh, but September, it isn’t so. I ought to know, better than anyone. I have been objective and even-tempered until now, but I cannot let that stand, I simply cannot. Listen, my girl. Just this once I will whisper from far off, like a sigh, like a wind, like a little breeze. So it is written—but so, too, it is crossed out. You can write over it again. You can make notes in the margins. You can cut out the whole page. You can, and you must, edit and rewrite and reshape and pull out the wrong parts like bones and find just the thing and you can forever, forever, write more and more and more, thicker and longer and clearer. Living is a paragraph, constantly rewritten. It is Grown-Up Magic. Children are heartless; their parents hold them still, squirming and shouting, until a heart can get going in their little lawless wilderness. Teenagers crash their hearts into every hard and thrilling thing to see what will give and what will hold. And Grown-Ups, when they are very good, when they are very lucky, and very brave, and their wishes are sharp as scissors, when they are in the fullness of their strength, use their hearts to start their story over again.

(page 184).

Like... all of that, and then she didn’t edit September’s story? I’m appalled.

At this point, you might well say I’m being far too harsh. I understand that. These next five paragraphs are for you.

For the first few months of (re)reading this book, I genuinely felt like I must be a bad reader, or my attention span was gone, or I just didn’t like Valente or her work enough. Looking at all the incredible reviews here, I felt jealous—and frustrated. Why couldn’t I just enjoy this book the way everyone else did?

Obviously, I never want to dislike a book, but this was one that I almost feel betrayed me. I know there’s a significant amount of entitlement there; Valente doesn’t owe me any stories, let alone good ones.

At the same time, I made every effort. I owned all the books, was working hard to read a series despite my long-time struggles with them, and, well, I LOVE Valente! I constantly talk about her work! And even someone like me—someone who’s usually a pretty fast reader, loves the series/author in question, and was determined to finish this book—struggled throughout.

So I’m frustrated that the book made me feel like an idiot. I’m frustrated that, for the apparent crime of being devoted to Valente’s work, I was put through this. This book would be one star if not for the world of Fairyland and the returning cast—if this had not been a Fairyland book, I would not have finished reading it. For that first half, I was bribing myself (with better books) to read one or two pages at a time. Really.

Like I said, it didn’t have to be this way. I know damn well that Valente can do better than this. If Valente had been given the opportunity to edit this draft into a polished book, she could have done it. It’s only because of these restraints that she chose—and she is a grown woman who may choose what she likes—that the book came out this way. It’s genuinely hard to review, because I understand why she wrote the book this way, and I understand why she did not later edit the majority of the text, and I also have the perspective of a disappointed reader. It’s hard to balance all of that.

So two stars it is. I’m a little sad it took so long to review this book, because I was REALLY pumped to review it when I first finished, but I hope that on the contrary letting it sit has allowed me to be more objective and less emotionally upset by it.

I hope to pick up the fourth book soon, but with the combination of it being unrelated to the main cast and the letdown that this book was, it’ll be a while before I feel up to it. Don’t worry, though, because I will come back to update you as to whether the series overall is worth continuing. I have every hope that it will be.

#full review #goodreads #The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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I don’t mind if Skuld meets up with Lea and Isa, as a friend. I just not looking forward to the writers pushing Skuld/Isa romantically. She barely had any screen time with him, and it would feel forced and infuriating. I’m fine with it if she’s meeting them again and getting to know each as FRIENDS, but I know the writers have a different idea. Honestly, there’s probably gonna be ship wars between Isa/Skuld and IsaLea.

Yeah, it does feel like they are going to push Isa/Skuld romantically, at least from Isa’s end. When I heard Lea and Isa’s backstory in KH3, I was totally incredulous. I knew it was total B.S. Like, it was just so contradictory to everything we saw previously, I didn’t buy it for one second. Like, who did they think they were kidding?

But even besides the bad retconning, it had such an awful effect on both Isa and Lea as characters. It was a horrible idea to make a mystery girl Isa’s motivation, let alone his potential love interest. That’s going to fuel terrible shipping wars. I have noticed that the worst shipping wars tend to happen because of bad writing. When the canon relationships are well-written, there is not as much controversy and toxicity.

Isa/Subject X Is A Horrible Pairing

Saïx: Back when we were still friends, we used to sneak into the castle.

Lea: Yeah.

Saïx: And we made a friend there, a girl. We apprenticed to Ansem the Wise to rescue her.

Subject X hasn’t had ANY screen time with them. She was just mentioned out of nowhere. Now all of a sudden, they were apprentices and doing everything in Organization XIII for her? And I love how Saïx is so casual about how they used to be friends. Nice to see how much you valued your friendship with Lea there. He talks like he couldn’t give less of a shit that they’re no longer friends.

Geppetto: Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!

Riku: Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet.

Geppetto: He’s no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!

Riku: He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I’m not sure, but maybe he can help someone who’s lost theirs.

In KH1, Riku was a huge asshole. It didn’t matter that he was trying to help Kairi. He kidnapped Pinocchio right in front of his pleading father and he wanted to steal his heart.

Axel: You’re sure things are better this way?

Saïx: I never expected you to question it. If you could save one of them…why would you choose the puppet? Or put it this way. Which would you rather suffer the loss of: some make-believe friendship, or a real one?

Saïx was also a huge asshole. He constantly dehumanized Xion and called her broken, defective, and “it”. He wanted to destroy her and didn’t care that Axel considered her a close friend. If you make finding Skuld his motivation, you are confirming that he was aware of his actions the whole time. If he had enough empathy to care about Skuld, why was he so cruel to Xion and Roxas? Why did he not feel bad for kidnapping Kairi, and trying to kill Sora and Riku?

Sora: Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku.

Riku: A puppet that’s lost its heart to the Heartless… Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Let’s join forces to save her. What? You’d rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?

Sora: Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience.

Riku: Conscience?

Sora: You might not hear it, but right now it’s loud and clear. And it’s telling me you’re on the wrong side!

Riku: Then you leave me no choice.

In KH1, the message was clear: it’s wrong to join the villains, and steal people’s hearts, even for a girl. They’re the actions of a villain.

Kairi: You know, Riku has changed.

Sora: What do you mean?

Kairi: Well…

Sora: You okay?

Kairi: Sora, let’s take the raft and go—just the two of us!

And let’s face it: Riku was NOT presented as an appealing love interest for Kairi in KH1.

Lea: Yeah, and we failed. One day she was just gone!

Saïx: You gave up.

Lea: I did not give up. One day we’re apprentices, the next Ansem the Wise has up and vanished, the day after we’re Nobodies, the day after that we’re doing icky jobs for Xemnas. I couldn’t keep up with you.

Saïx: Following Xehanort’s Nobody was the only way to discover what happened to her. She was his lab rat.

Lea: So? You found her? I helped you rise up the ranks, so I hope it paid off?

Following Xemnas’ icky orders without any remorse doesn’t make Isa more sympathetic, nor does it help us support a possible romance between them. And why is Lea so nonchalant about this? He helped Saïx rise through the ranks, and he hopes it all “paid off?”

Are you crazy!? Of course it didn’t pay off!!! Your best friend sold his soul to the devil and is a Seeker of Darkness! He has yellow eyes and pointy ears. He’s corrupted by darkness! He lost his heart to Xehanort! And you think it might have paid off!? What the hell is wrong with you!? Do you not care about your friend at all?

Sora: Riku, why are you siding with the Heartless?

Riku: The Heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear.

Sora: You’re stupid. Sooner or later they’ll swallow your heart.

Riku: Not a chance. My heart’s too strong.

Sora: Riku…

Riku: I’ve picked up a few other tricks as well. Like this, for instance. You can go see your friends now. Let’s get under way, already. And keep Sora away from Kairi until we’re ready to land.

When Sora hears that Riku joined the dark side to save Kairi, he says he is stupid!!!! He cares about Kairi, too. But he’s afraid Riku’s heart will be swallowed by darkness. He’s worried for his friend, and rightfully so! Besides, Kairi wouldn’t want that. Lea would have said the same thing if he was a true friend.

Saïx: I’m afraid not. Nary a trace. I started to wonder if we’d imagined her. Maybe she never existed. And then in time I awakened to a new purpose. I realized I could be stronger.

Okay…? So now all you wanted was to become stronger? It wasn’t about the girl? It was about power? First off, I don’t buy that at all. But whatever. Let’s go with it for argument’s sake.

Ansem: The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade.

Riku: What? You’re saying my heart’s weaker than his?

Ansem: For that instant, it was. However, you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger.

Riku: What should I do?

Ansem: It’s really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being become darkness itself.

Isa is basically KH1 Riku. It wasn’t even about saving Kairi at that point. It was about being stronger than Sora and gaining power. This tempted Riku to open himself up to darkness. He sold his soul to Ansem after he lost to Sora! This makes Saïx more sympathetic how?

Saïx: The marks under your eyes. They’re gone.

Lea: Yeah. Don’t need ‘em.

Saïx: Always told you they’d stop you from crying. The upside-down tears.

Apparently Saïx has “always” been a condescending douchebag…

Riku: It’s up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door…and change the world.

Sora: But that’s impossible. How did this happen? I’m the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!

Riku: You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part’s over now. Here, go play hero with this.

You know who else was a condescending douchebag? KH1 Riku! He kidnapped Belle, taunted the Beast, took the Keyblade from Sora, and then threw him a wooden toy while he was wallowing on the floor as Donald and Goofy left him. The difference is, Riku was a condescending asshole when he was a villain—the very beginning of his arc in the Dark Seeker Saga. Saïx is a condescending asshole during his “redemption”—the very end of his arc in the Dark Seeker Saga.

Lea: I didn’t forget you.

Saïx: Yes…I know. You wouldn’t do that. But…I was jealous.

Lea: You admit it.

So, what is his excuse? Why is he still allowed to party with everyone in the epilogue? Well, instead of being a victim of Xehanort in need of rescue, Saïx was just mad that Lea forgot about him and Subject X. And I love how Lea acted like he knew the entire time that he was jealous, and was just being too stubborn to admit it. I’m sorry, I gotta call B.S. again.

And yet, Axel couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his response. “Well, nice to know where I stand.”

He said it with a grin, but the hint of a frown tugged at the scar between Saïx’s brows. Apparently, the joke wasn’t very funny. “You made it back in one piece, didn’t you?”

Were you worried I wouldn’t? Axel almost said, but he didn’t want to deal with putting him in an even fouler mood. Disgust and rage seemed to linger closest to the surface of Saïx’s memories.

Axel didn’t know Saïx was “jealous”. He was desperate to find any evidence Saïx had feelings for him at all. On ~Day 72 Change~, Axel finally returns from Castle Oblivion. Roxas said he was worried about him, and Axel was upset that Saïx wasn’t. He is sad about how much his friend has changed. But let’s assume that was the truth. Let’s say that all of Saïx’s abuse in Days was him acting passive aggressively due to his petty jealousy over Axel hanging out with a couple of kids.

Maleficent: Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all.

Riku: I don’t care about him. I was just messing with him a little.

Maleficent: Oh, really? Of course you were. Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.

Riku: Mind your own business.

Sora: Riku! What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don’t you realize what you’re doing?

Riku: I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?

Riku always used Kairi as a shield when he was bullying Sora. “Don’t you care about Kairi?” In reality, Riku was bitter that Sora made new friends. Yeah, he was trying to help Kairi. But she was just an excuse. He was being petty. It also seemed like he only became so hellbent on rescuing her, because he wanted to one-up Sora. The way KH3 was written, it also felt like Saïx was just using that girl as a cover for his own resentment of Lea. It didn’t seem like he genuinely cared about her very much. She was just a convenient scapegoat.

Right…this little room that Maleficent had made up just for me. I stayed here in this castle, except when I went to Captain Hook’s ship to get Kairi. And when I was here I spent most of that time in this room. Swinging a sword…reading books…and what else?

Thinking about things that upset him. He’d been angry at something. He’d believed it was his fault that Kairi was in that state…but he told himself that it wasn’t a mistake to have gone to other worlds and gently touched her face as she slept.

In KH1, they didn’t have an entire saga planned for the story. And it’s clear that Riku was originally written simply as a villain for the first game. An arrogant, jealous, bully who wants to steal your girlfriend. He has a weak heart that is prone to darkness. After they decided to make more games, they wanted to make Riku a main character. And so they focused on him being Sora’s best friend instead of his bully/rival. They tried to humanize his actions from the first game in the novel for CoM. They emphasized his his strong affection for Kairi as his motivation, and the reason for him turning to darkness. And...it didn’t work. He strokes her face while she’s sleeping.

All this did was make Riku seem creepy. To be honest, Riku always seemed creepy to me in KH1, even when I first played it as a 14-year-old. This is why they distanced themselves from that interpretation of Riku’s character. Terra became the reason he wanted to see the outside world, not Kairi. But now, this this what they want Isa to be like? He willingly joins someone he knows is evil, gladly follows their orders, and tries to murder his best friend…just so he can get his hands on the object of his affection? Someone he doesn’t even know? That comes off as creepy. And stalker-ish. They’re going backwards regarding positive character portrayals.

Lea: Stop it. The whole act. I thought this was all for her.

First of all, this is B.S.

“Shouldn’t you already be out on your mission, Axel?” Saïx interrupted.

Mission? Saïx hadn’t given him his assignment yet. Axel blinked up at him, and Saïx stared back. Oh. Axel felt a little bit sorry for Saïx and his inability to lie.

Saïx could not act to save his life.

Saïx: At first. I sacrificed everything to try and track her down. You’re the one who went off and made other friends. Left me and her both in the dust. It infuriated me how you just exited our lives. I lost…all sense of purpose.

Saïx never showed any kind of human emotion except disgust. He was by far the most Nobody-like Organization member. But he feels such rage after Axel leaves, that he tries to kill him over and over again. His best friend. All because he was jealous that Axel made new friends with a couple of children who didn’t treat him like shit? That makes him sympathetic how?

Saïx: Do you know what happens to those who lose their true purpose? Inevitably, they destroy themselves.

And why is he so violent to Axel anyways? In his own words, when you lose your true purpose, it makes you inevitably destroy yourself. So why is he trying to destroy Axel and not himself?

"And we still haven’t found out where Axel went?” said Xaldin.

Saïx scowled with displeasure at the name.

It would make sense if Isa’s heart lost all sense of purpose and wanted to fade away after Axel left. And it would make sense if Saïx was not aware that it was Isa’s heart making him feel suicidal.

“What are you doing here?” The Claymore materialized in Saïx’s hand. “Foul traitor—”

“No, Saïx,” said Xigbar, glaring hard at Axel.

“What have you come for?” With rage barely contained under every word, Saïx stalked toward Axel.

It would make sense if Saïx felt Isa’s despair and took it out on Axel in a psychotic rage. He was so unhinged, even Xigbar had to stop him from attacking Axel.

Riku: Quit while you can.

Sora: No. Not without Kairi.

Riku: The darkness will destroy you.

Sora: You’re wrong, Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can’t touch my heart. My heart will stay with my friends. It’ll never die!

Riku: Really… Well, we’ll just see about that!

KH1 Riku also tried to kill Sora when he was consumed with darkness. Goofy shields him from Riku’s attack. It didn’t matter that Riku had the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy chose to stay with Sora because he was on the right side and Riku was not.

Lea: Well, then, you blew it! Wise up already and just quit.

Um, its not that simple, Lea. You see when you have Xehanort’s heart implanted, you are consumed by it. You become one of his 12 selves. Your true heart and consciousness has to be put to sleep in order for Xehanort to turn you into a vessel.

Mickey: There’s something real strong that binds us to each other. Even in the darkness, you can reach him. All you gotta do is follow that connection!

Goofy: Gee, we’re all connected to Sora.

Donald: You said it!

Lea: And if the darkness gets ya, I promise I’ll bail you out. “Dark Rescue” is my middle name.

Riku: Guys, thank you. Sora and I will be back soon.

You should know this already after they almost made Sora the 13th vessel and Riku had to go save his heart afterwards. They didn’t ask Sora to fill out a résumé before they hired him as a vessel. Presumably they didn’t ask Isa, either. You can’t just quit. You couldn’t even leave the original Organization willingly. You’d be turned into a Dusk. But Lea thinks he should just quit…

Lea: Would you get lost? I’ll clobber you tomorrow.

Saïx: I expect no less.

This is how you act after you find out your best friend has been turned into Xehanort’s vessel? You want him to get lost and can’t wait to clobber him?

Sora: What? You… You’re not Riku.

Riku: The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last princess of heart still sleeps.

Sora: The princess…? Kairi’s a princess?

Riku: Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened.

Sora: Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!

Sora knew Riku wasn’t acting like his old self. And neither was Isa. Axel complained CONSTANTLY about how much he had changed. When Sora learned the truth, he wanted Xehanort to let his friend’s heart go.

Young Xehanort: To move through time, you must leave your body behind. Ansem first sent me on my way, and then placed himself here when the time was right. That was what set all these events in motion.

Sora: What are you saying? That he knew everything that would happen?

Young Xehanort: No, not everything. But remember, Ansem possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time.

The reason Riku acted like a sociopath is because he was possessed. BBSV2 would have gone into more detail and made Riku more sympathetic by showing how Xehanort’s heart took control of him from the very start. That’s why in KH3D, they showed Young Xehanort reach out his hand to Sora, causing him to have a flashback to when Riku did it in KH1.

Riku was being influenced by Xehanort’s heart for the entirety of KH1. If Saïx was possessed, then Xehanort also saw his experiences in real time. That’s why he always knew what Axel and Saïx were planning and why he didn’t stop them. It provided him with too much valuable information.

Saïx: Why…so sad?

Lea: You let them reduce you to this?

Even though his friend was supposed to be possessed, Lea isn’t the slightest bit sympathetic. He’s disgusted at him for bringing it on himself. After he’s defeated, he turns his head and can’t even look at him.

Aerith: No wonder there are more and more Heartless everywhere. The only way to stop them is—

Sora: Seal the Keyhole, right?

Leon: Maybe. But no one knows what will happen once it’s sealed.

Sora: Well, we can’t just stay here. We have to do something. I’ve got a friend back there.

After Sora defeated the possessed Riku, he wanted to go back and rescue him from Xehanort’s clutches.

Saïx: Well, if I make it back…you won’t get it out of me a second time.

Lea: See you, Isa.

Saïx: See you, Lea.

After Isa is finally freed from Xehanort’s control, there is no sincerity to his confession of jealousy. No apology for trying to kill Lea. No heart-to-heart conversation about everything they went through as kids. Isa is just an asshole, telling Lea that he won’t hear an apology from him a second time. Then it’s just “see ya”. And they’re magically friends again.

It was Naminé’s drawing of Roxas and Axel, standing side by side. “You’re best friends,” she said.

Right. Those two had been friends—well, Axel believed they still were. Roxas was his only friend and his best. And Axel was the same for Roxas—probably.

Axel states multiple times that Roxas was his only friend. After everything that happened between them, Axel to stopped thinking of Isa as his friend.

On the sofa opposite him, Naminé spoke up instead. “Sora and Riku are best friends.” Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

But more than that. Roxas was the only friend he’d ever had. He considered that Isa was never his friend in the first place. That’s how badly Axel was hurt by his relationship with Saïx. That’s how betrayed he felt.

“…Riku…” Sora looked up, holding tight to his friend’s hand. “It’s Riku… Riku is here.” He knew that it was Riku’s hand he clasped. It was bigger than the one he’d held a thousand times before, but in his heart, Sora felt it.

A knot of something he could barely define swelled in his chest. Clinging to that hand, to Riku’s hand, Sora fell to his knees. “I was looking for you…!” Tears spilled over and flowed down his cheeks as he pressed Riku’s hand against his face.

How long had he been searching? How badly had he wanted to see Riku, to talk to him again? And Riku was here. Here at last. I found you. Finally. I missed you. I’ve missed you for so long…

They’d been separated on Destiny Island, then they ended up fighting, and then they’d gone through that door together from opposite sides…and he’d been searching, searching for Riku all the while.

“C’mon, Sora,” Riku chided him lightly. “Keep it together.”

Riku allowed himself to be locked behind the Door to Darkness, and he sacrificed his appearance to save Sora. When Sora and Riku finally reunite, Sora was overcome with emotion.

Riku: What I said back there…about thinking I was better at stuff than you…To tell you the truth, Sora… I was jealous of you.

Sora: What for?

Riku: I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart.

Sora: Yeah, well, I’ve got my share of problems, too.

Riku: Like what?

Sora: Like…wanting to be like you.

Riku: Well, there is one advantage to being me… Something you could never imitate.

Sora: Really? What’s that?

Riku: Having you for a friend.

Sora: Then I guess…I’m okay the way I am. I’ve got something you could never imitate too.

Compare Lea and Isa’s final conversation to Sora and Riku’s reconciliation at the end of KH2. The latter have a genuine talk where they gain insight into each other’s feelings. There is forgiveness and mutual respect. They are able to empathize with each other and grow closer as a result. Lea and Isa were turned into a cheap knockoff of Sora and Riku from KH1.

Only they forgot to actually, ya know, redeem Isa and show that he was possessed like they did with Riku. And unlike Sora, Lea became less concerned with his friend’s well-being after finding out he was possessed. Based on canon, I don’t know why they were even friends to begin with. And why are they friends again now? They don’t get along, they don’t seem to like each other, and they don’t act like they care about each other at all. But now Subject X is going to come along and be part of a healthy trio and have a possible romantic subplot with Isa? Yikes.

#kh meta #kh #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts meta #kh lea #kh isa #kh axel #kh saix #kh riku #anti kh3

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