This here is where I post stupid drabbles, rant about writers block, and not-fic ideas I'm far too lazy to actually write. And also shamelessly self-advertise my awesome boosk Blood of the Kevatha'dral and The Lost Prince. You can also now Buy Me A Coffee (even though I don't drink coffee).
Rules: Make a 24hr poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.
Well, I managed to write 33 sentences on one of the last poll's winners, so it's time to do this again!
Which WIP should I work on this fortnight?
DeanCasGabe lovechild accidentally timetravels
Angel Dust on purpose timetravels and accidentally RadioHuskerDusts
Luffy accidentally-on-purpose creates the world's most complex polycule
Rules: Make a 24hr poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.
Please help, the decision paralysis is real.
Which WIP should I work on this week?
Riding on Storm Winds - Chapter 5
(Book 4 Supernatural Next Gen Time Travel)
One sentence each! ...Except Hazbin. Only that's really short, so, I went with three sentences each, since they each got 33.3 recurring % of the votes? Have some teasers!
“What…?”
“Ash,” Meira tells her with an uncaring shrug. She can get a new top, and she’d much rather have it all over her rather than in Andrea’s lungs.
Finding Usopp after last night is hard. To be fair, Kaya feels just as awkward as she’s sure he must, it’s just that the urgency of the deadline created by his looming departure outweighs her embarrassed urge to hide in her room and never look him in the eye again. When she goes looking in his guest room first thing the next morning, he flees the house.
He blamed the fact that he was rather reluctant to examine his own body these days for the fact that it took him several weeks to notice that he wasn’t entirely without a soulmark. He wore long-sleeved hoodies all the time, he showered with his eyes shut, he avoided mirrors like the plague. So it wasn’t until he got home and peeled his blood-soaked white hoodie off to assess the damage that he noticed it.
...Maybe for the rest of the week, I'll try to bring those three sentences up to 33 each? And do another poll again once I'm done?
'Cause this was remarkaby effective at getting me to actually sit down and write something on my WIPS, so I'm very tempted to give it another go.
Or, well, I've been thinking about trying to do another drabble series, so maybe the next poll will be 'which bunch of Next Gen OCs should I do a drabble series about?'
Rules: Make a 24hr poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.
Please help, the decision paralysis is real.
Which WIP should I work on this week?
Riding on Storm Winds - Chapter 5
(Book 4 Supernatural Next Gen Time Travel)
THEY'RE NOT VOX'S EYES ON THE WALLS! I KNEW THEY LOOKED FAMILIAR! THEY'RE IDENTICAL TO THE ONES FROM THE PROLOGUE! I AM SOOO STUPID. IDK IF THEY'RE ROO'S OR EVE'S OR IF THAT DISTINCTION IS IRRELEVANT, BUT THEY'RE ALL OVER THE HOTEL?! THAT SEEMS LIKE A BAD OMEN OMG I LOVE IT. I am going to have to go back and rewatch everything and see where they pop up and if there's some kind of pattern to which scenes they're in...
Also, is it just me, or do the little green ghosties in Zestial's power-beam look just like Alastor's magic? I still have so many questions about the whole deal with Rosie, but I will admit I loved how Alastor wriggled free and that bit right at the end where Rosie fixes his staff to bribe him into helping save the day. Ngl, I was kind of expecting a Guardians of the Galaxy style 'why would I help?' 'BECAUSE YOU'RE ONE OF THE IDIOTS WHO LIVES HERE' style bit, but I think I prefer this. Also, that whole exchange definitely relaunched my RadioRose ship, just in much more toxic waters XD But yeah, I still desperately need to know how Rosie is connected to all this shit.
Also very curious to see where Alastor goes in S3 because without his deal with Rosie and having used his favour from Charlie, he has... nothing connecting him to the Hotel anymore? It's not even a doomed project anymore either, so even his excuse for why he was there no longer holds up... Thinking we might get antagonist!Alastor next season maybe?
Also something that I found a little... I won't say disappointing, but a weird pacing choice? Lute's emotional arc felt very stalled after Gravity, and while I do expect her to continue to spiral and be an obstacle in later seasons, so I can't say her arc was disappointing, I do feel we needed a little more movement there to maintain narrative relevance? She had tiny moments of going off, but very ineffectually, and she held herself together and was willing to be held back in a way that surprised me after her epic meltdown during Gravity.
THAT SAID, that moment, at the end? Where Abel pulls on his big boy panties and shuts her down, and she sees Adam superimposed over him, sneering at her in disgust? OUCH. RIGHT TO THE FEELS. I do kind of wish they'd had that moment not in the middle of the epic finale song? To give more time to really show and dig into Lute's reaction to that? I feel like they just hit us with it and then, whoop! Back to the Saving The Day portion of the program! No time to unpack that! Have Lute try to stop them right before the final song, have Abel step up and stop her, and her reaction to it, and then cut to Charlie starting Hear My Hope? Something like that, idk. Weird pacing all around for Lute, but I am looking forward to seeing where her story goes from here, so yeah.
(Also very curious to see more of that fucked up family dynamic. I really want to know where Cain and Eve (and Seth?) are and their relationships to Abel and Adam and each other.)
That song still made me cry, though, so, yeah, definitely still worked for me as the climax of the whole thing. I'm so glad Lucifer's okay after everything. Ngl, I did worry for a tiny bit at the end there that he wouldn't be, but he's fine. It's fine. (I hope there's going to be some aftermath from that in S3.) It broke my heart the way that he was trapped and being tortured and all he was worried about was whether Charlie was going to be mad at him for it?
The songs in these two... Not the absolute bangers of the last set of episodes, ngl. Brighter was... fine? Probably absolutely great for Vox fans, but I enjoyed Once We Get Up There and Vox Populi much more than Brighter, even if I did enjoy the backstory.
Was not expecting the outright murder spree? Genuinely. I thought Vox's 'sin' was going to be much more... cutthroat business practices, not actually cutting throats XD I would like to see more sinners who're in Hell for less... violent sins? Or, well, less overtly violent sins, because capitalistic greed is not a victimless crime, it's just less direct. Like, so far... all the confirmed backstories have murder in them? Literally only Pentious didn't kill someone himself? That's... yeah, nnnot a fan of that as a general trend (though they might be able to make it work, maybe?), even if in each instance, I still like the story it tells for that specific character?
Which, I do like that backstory for Vox, it's so much more unhinged than I was expecting for him and absolutely feeds into how unhinged he ends up being in the final showdown, so, yeah, a really good way to build us up to that finale.
The medley song, I can't remember what it's called... -googles- When I Think About The Future, right. I can't say I didn't like it, but medleys are nooot a genre of music I'm a fan of, so it didn't really do much for me. It was very, very good at what it was meant to be, though, which is a summary of everyone's state before the Big Finale, and, yeah, it kicked ass at that, and for what it is, the reprise of so many different songs in one was really well done.
Live To Live is easily my favourite out of these though. Pentious! Pentious and Sera, Pentious getting to teach an Archangel about hope and redemption?! YASS! Also, finally, a callback to 'It Starts with Sorry' that progresses the premise. It starts with sorry, but there's more to it than that! Also, the line that went something like 'we fail, we repent, we survive'? Loving that little wordplay on PENTious.
Emily getting hurt to save Alastor of all people was a very O.O moment for me. Wonder if there's going to be any follow-up on that, because Alastor is not the type of character to feel like he owes her something for that (and would probably resent the notion if it was pointed out to him)...
Loved the way Vox's meltdown went down. He got so close to his goal, and then shot himself in the foot because he could not see past the Alastor-shaped shadow in his psyche. Very realistic, tbh.
I was a little disappointed that the Vee Break-up wasn't more thorough. I really did want to see Vox entirely alone and friendless and, just... falling all the way from the very pinnacle of success to absolute rock bottom. But, I suppose, if that did happen, there would be nothing to stop someone like Alastor just putting an angelic spear through his screen and being done with it, so in order to keep him around, he needed something of a safety net.
Val tearing off Vox's head was such a moment, though. Gold star, ten out of ten, no notes, loved it. (There's so much opportunity for 'losing your head' style puns here, it's great XD)
It does imply interesting things about the Vee alliance, though. I always thought it would be a lot more cutthroat, using each other, but the fact that Valentino and Velvet kept him around even after his spectactular public meltdown does imply some level of genuine care between them. Then again, that really does depend on how they end up treating him in S3, because they could just be using him... I'm really interested to see where it all goes in S3 with Valentino as the spear-tip of the V formation.
Oh, Angel. Angel's arc in this was painful to watch, but so, so understandable. The scene with him and Husk and Cherri! Cherri having a sack ready to kidnap him in was both funny and poignant (how many times has she had to carry his incapacitated ass around like that?), and then Husk being so reluctant to hurt him when Val turns him against them, and then at the end, when Angel goes back to Val to protect his friends from himself? Oww. Ow, ow, ow. Husk's face, that devastation, real props to the animators because I felt that in my soul. (I think it says a lot that to Husk this was utterly devastating, while Cherri, who has probably seen this cycle before of Angel struggling to break free and then falling back into Valentino's clutches, is much more steady and practical about it, even if it's clear she's also hurting.)
I did like that they flipped who was facing who in this final showdown, so instead of a reprise of Husk VS Velvet and Niffty VS Valentino, we got something new. Good choice. Husk and Cherri team up against Valentino, YES! While I would like Angel to get the catharsis of killing Valentino himself (eventually, when he's ready for it), I would absolutely be satisfied with Husk or Cherri getting to do the honours, tbh.
...BAXTER MUTING VOX WAS EPIC, I LAUGHED SO HARD.
And shok.wav was so fucking funny. What a name.
Oh! And the outfits Charlie and Vaggie wore to Vox's shindig? Hnng! The skirt over trousers for Charlie and the half-a-suit-jacket for Vaggie? YASSS! PLAY WITH THAT GENDER EXPRESSION! LOVE IT!!!
I'm going completely backwards with this whole 'review' but idk, there's just so much that I'm honestly still struggling to remember what happened when.
The moment where Lucifer got captured, and he and Al got so caught up in bickering that Vox had to be all 'uh, excuse you? I'm still here?!' was so funny, like 'hey! that's my rival, go get your own!' XD
I have to say, I really liked that Vaggie was the one to come up with the plan to take down Vox, and because everyone (coughCharliecough) listened to her, it actually worked (eventually, after a few hiccups XD).
Which, the delay on Pentious getting to actually reveal himself to Hell as a Redeemed Soul? That was so good. Both the part where it meant he actually got to prove that he is a very clever inventor (definitely shipping that Niffty/Baxter/Pentious/Cherri chain relationship rn XD) and the comedic timing of him coming in all I'M HERE TO CONVINCE YOU! when it's all kind of over was so good.
Saving that reveal to the end makes a lot of sense, and I'm less frustrated with the fact the angels said nothing about him at the rally because of it. (Not completely, because I'm sure they could have worked in a 'but Pentious-!' 'where's your proof?!' and used that as the impetus to have more proof than just an angel's word during the final confrontation, buuut there's already so much in all of these episodes that I get why it wasn't a priority).
Niffty as a feral guard dog for Baxter was really good, and was what finally convinced me to board this ship. It really did take the whole eight episodes to get me to fully like him as a character and them as a ship, but I am there now XD
Velvette is a ball-jointed doll! Love it!
Oh! Um... yeah, really not impressed with the resolution to Vaggie's Vaggi's name-change arc? BOO! COWARDS! I was so hoping for a full on actual name change, like so many characters have done for their life in Hell? Anthony > Angel Dust, Vincent > Vox, Pendleton > Pentious, and I'm pretty sure that Husk and Niffty weren't called that when they were alive. It would have been... really satisfying to have Vaggie shed that old skin fully.
I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED SOMETHING LIKE 'VAGATHA' OR 'VAGNES' SO SHE COULD KEEP 'VAGGIE' AS A NICKNAME! Because she already did change it a little, changing the pronunciation from the more 'j' sound Adam used to a hard 'g', and going with a 'well, I'll still be Vaggie, but it'll be short for X instead of Vagina' would have been more satisfying than 'Vaggi'. IT'S THE SAME NAME. IT'S- IT'S ACTUALLY CLOSER TO THE NAME ADAM GAVE HER?! IT'S NOT- YOU MIGHT AS WELL HAVE JUST NOT INCLUDED THIS GAG AND SPENT THAT RUN TIME ON OTHER THINGS, LIKE FLESHING OUT LUTE'S DETERIORATION MAYBE?!
Oof, yeah, I'm more mad about that than I thought I was. Bleh.
So, overall... Good finale. Not fantastic, but a solid ending with a good resolution to the main conflict, plenty of hints as to what it might be building to in the next season without being overtly cliffhanger-y. Some pacing and sub-plot issues, for me. It's in this weird middle ground where they did the BIG things really well (main conflict resolution, main character arcs, narrative foils, fleshing out backstory, etc), and they did the SMALL things really well (jokes, aesthetics, background ships, etc), and the stuff in the middle kind of... flopped (secondary character arcs, tying up loose ends, etc).
But! Overall it left me satisfied and just as invested in the show as ever, so I'm calling that a win.
I'm sure I'll remember other things I have thoughts about after I've posted, but I'm planning on a full S1 AND S2 watch-through to really soak in what the context of S2 does to S1 and stuff, so maybe I'll do another review once I've done that? Idk, we'll see.
I actually had to watch these ones twice to even just begin processing everything. This is gonna be a mess, but I need to get some of my thoughts out so here we go.
Alastor is playing Vox like a fucking fiddle, and it's so fucking funny. It's honestly just so entertaining to see Vox so successfully manipulating basically all of hell, and then turning around and getting jerked around by Alastor while the man is purportedly captured and under his power XD
Valentino is from Florida?! Did not see that coming, tbh, not even a little bit.
THE SONGS!!! Oh, I have so much to say about the SONGS I don't even know where to start. So, pretty much every song in these episodes ticked some kind of wishlist item for me. Overlord ensemble! Lucifer singing again! Husk's song! Angel in drag!!! CHARLIE AND VAGGIE DUET!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Okay, okay, deep breath, starting from the start... my heart broke for Lucifer when he admitted he literally cannot do anything about sinners? Like, there's been this whole 'apathetic king' shtick, but he's not apathetic? Or, well, he's been fucking trained into apathy because his hands have literally been tied for ten thousand years?! No wonder he's just given up giving a fuck. Forced to sit there and watch people be awful with unlimited cosmic power at his fingertips ('living aspect of the infinite' AAAAAAAAAAAA) but he can't do anything about it?! No wonder he's fucking depressed.
Also, it's a really cool bit of storytelling. Overpowered characters can wreck your story, and who's more OP than the fucking devil himself? So they nerfed him via heavenly geis. I fucking love it. (I also hate it, my baby, nooooo...)
(Also his too-big staticy jumper with the clinging duckies was too cute.)
Hate to admit that Vox has a point, but he did absolutely ace that little rally and confrontation. 'You think our lives are worth taffies?!' Yeah, that was... tone deaf. (Sera's 'true form' was fucking cool though)
All his little references to Lilith have me chomping at the bit for more info on wtf even happened seven years ago. Lilith was raising a rebellion? I have my doubts it was as bloodless as Charlie seems to think, but I don't trust Vox's interpretation either. I really, really need to know how Lilith's rebellion and subsequent vanishing, the Vox/Alastor showdown that nearly killed Vox and Alastor's subsequent vanishing - on Rosie's orders??? - are connected. What happened seven years ago?!
Also, I recognise the tune of 'Vox Populi, the people's voice'??? Is that riffing off an actual hymn, because I feel like it is??? (Also, as much as I wish Lucifer could've curb-stomped him lyrically if he couldn't do it literally, Vox Populi kicked ass. This is some good shit.)
(Oh, and while I'm thinking about Vox singing, that bit in the first one where he's trying to get Carmilla on board? And she's like 'are you serious?' was just -snrk- so fucking funny. Him and his little maracas XD) (Also also - Velvette's 'apology' to Carmilla? Hilarious XD)
OH THAT SHOT OF THE RINGS THOUGH! I wanna know more about Carmilla's partner though. (Also, her friendship with Zestial is cute, I love it, love him hanging out on the ceiling in itsy-bitsy spider!form, and I really want to know more about how they know each other?) We're getting so many tantalising hints of backstory! No full on backstory infodumps, but! Valentino? Carmilla? Vaggie? AAAAAAAA
THAT FLASHBACK! THAT! FLASHBACK! I need to know more about that angel Vaggie was remembering.
Also, the sheer fucking hypocrisy of 'we can't become like them' from the girl running the 'become like heaven' Hotel? Charlie, I know what you meant, but that is some powerful-ass cognitive dissonance you've got going on there.
But gah! Charlie and Vaggie's falling out? Was so good?! Like, damn, I saw it building, and I half expected it to get more drawn out (but we are 3/4 of the way through, so it makes sense), but I am so fucking proud of Vaggie for actually telling Charlie she wasn't fucking listening. And, realistic that Charlie didn't listen until later, when her defenses weren't raised.
Fuck, I hate this rift between Charlie and Lucifer though. I hate it so much. He's trying so hard, and while he probably should have asked Charlie how she wanted to handle her problems before sticking his foot in it, we've already established that she wasn't fucking listening to anything, and her flying off the handle and blaming him for the whole angelic apology thing going badly was really unfair, and god it hurt me when she sent him away.
I AM SO NERVOUS ABOUT THAT ENDING FUCK ME SIDEWAYS HOLY SHIT.
Circling back to the angelic apology though, I wanted to shake all of them for not telling everyone the one thing they were there to tell them?! Not one of them thought to say 'redemption actually does work'?! No one thought to go back and get some form of proof before confronting Vox? A photo or a video of winner!Pentious? Something!? YOU HAD ONE JOB, GUYS!
Okay, okay. On to the best part of season 2 so far.
Leading into it, Charlie and Vaggie making up was well done, even if I do wish there'd been a little bit more meat to their conversation. Still, the effort Charlie put in to her apology was sweet, and Vaggie's immediate 'my frustration with you not listening to me doesn't mean I don't love you' was sweet, and my god, Charlie's abandonment issues coming out in full force is A+ and! AND!
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT FUCKING SONG?! CHARLIE AND VAGGIE FINALLY GET THE DUET THEY DESERVE AND IT WAS A BANGER! I've noted before (in my song ranking list which... I think was on my other blog because it's not actually about writing-y stuff) that Vaggie doesn't get her own songs in season one, she has to co-opt other people's songs (Carmilla's in Whatever It Takes and Lucifer&Charlie's in the Reprise of More Than Anything), and I fucking love that we finally get a song Vaggie started?! Now, when she's finally breaking away from the identity that was imposed on her and finding herself, now that she's actually finding her feet, taking charge, standing up for herself, we get to hear her sing her own song and I did not expect it to sound like that, but I am so glad it did?! It's perfect for her, and the lyrics were so good, and gah. When I finally get around to making a S2 song ranking list, this is going to be up there with Gravity.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO - THE BEST FUCKING TRANSITION IN THIS WHOLE GODDAMN SHOW - TAKING US STRAIGHT FROM THE 'WE FOUND LOVE IN HELL, EVERYTHING ELSE IS EASY IN COMPARISON' SONG TO ANGEL AND HUSK BEING LIKE 'I'M GIVING UP IT'S TOO HARD I'M NOT WORTH ANYTHING I'LL JUST BE A LOSER' WHILE FLIRTING AND BLUSHING AND YEAH, I SAW YOU OGLING ANGEL'S TITS, HUSK, YOU AIN'T SUBTLE!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
They've found love in Hell, redemption is possible, their lives are worth something, THEY CAN DO ANYTHING, BABY!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
God, that whole fucking sequence is pure fucking gold. From Husk calling out Charlie and Vaggie's 'high-school shit' and storming out (he doesn't have to be there anymore because Alastor quit!), heading straight for a casino, the two gambling-themed songs back-to-back, Husk's face when he realises it's Angel singing, Angel in drag, Angel SINGING in drag, 'hey, loser', and the way Angel mirrored Husk when he got all self-deprecating and tried to comfort him with the same 'we're both losers, you're not alone' line, the 'I'll see you at the hotel' 'no you won't' 'yes I will', HUSK'S BLUSH, aaaaall the way to Husk and Cherri immediately knowing something's up and being ready to fuck shit up if Angel needs them to!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I feel high off that sequence, which made what happened to Angel afterwards fucking emotional whiplash. I feel very, very stupid for not seeing this coming? Like, all the pieces were there, it makes total sense, this should in no way be a surprise, AND YET! I got totally suckered by the Pentious feint.
WHEN I SAID I WANTED TO SEE VOX AND ANGEL INTERACT THIS SEASON, THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANNNT! XD
That whole scene was good, though, the build up and reveal were so well timed, and Angel's horror broke my goddamned heart all over again.
(Odd little aside; it took me waaay too long to figure out all those red eyes popping up everywhere were Vox's. OH, I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO MENTION; faux!biblically-accurate-angel!Vox was cool as fuck and one hell of a fucking power-move after Sera went all true angelic form at him. What an image.)
I am so hyped for the finale. Alastor, Angel, and Lucifer are all in (or about to be in) Vox's clutches now, buuut like I said at the start of this rambling mess of word vomit pretending to be a review; Alastor is playing him like a fucking fiddle and driving a wedge between the Vees with a sledge-hammer. Scales are not as tipped in Vox's favour as they seem.
I'm hoping for a proper Cherri & Husk team-up, Charlie going ape-shit for once, and Alastor and Lucifer trying to one-up each other in either rescue attempts, damsel-in-distressing, or both. Also hoping for one or both of the other Vees turning on Vox at the last moment, a proper resolution to Lute's meltdown with her popping up at an inopportune moment to cause some havoc, and more information about Lilith please and thank you?!
Okay, so, I am... less hype for these ones, not because I think they're bad, but because I'm just a little bit shook by some of the revelations and character arcs we see here. My reaction to 1&2 was like Charlie screaming at the end of one, but now I'm like... dead-eyed staring at the wall as I try to fucking process? XD
I'm going to try and keep this in some sort of order, but my head is chaos and I genuinely can't remember exactly what happened when.
Charlie's downward spiral. Hooboy. I am so angry with her right now. Not to say I think it's a bad thing to happen in the story, it's fantastic writing, I can absolutely see how the... the absolution she received of 'hey, btw, you didn't cause your friend's death', that weight being lifted off her, in combination with the euphoria of her literal wildest dream and the ambition she's been mocked endlessly for being proved true would absolutely 100% go to her head. Fantastic writing, genuinely.
But fuck you, Charlotte Morningstar. She made one mistake after another here, and she got warned multiple times to stop, to think, and she blindly steamrolled over everyone, so absolutely sure she was right. Everything she did was not about redemption, it was not about saving souls, it was entirely her own ego on the line, and she used Angel abominably here.
I am so, so glad Angel called her the fuck out on her apology. Reminding her of the whole issue about boundaries, and then telling her that her apology was losing meaning with how often she was repeating it for the same mistakes over again. Good for you Angel.
SPEAKING OF ANGEL! That reveal! That reveal. My god. Like, I know this was obviously something he wanted to keep hidden, Vox was being a dick revealing it, Charlie probably isn't going to take it well when she has time to think, BUT! My reaction to the news that Angel killed his dad, what I literally said out loud to the TV was
That being said, I... am suddenly both very excited and very nervous for Angel's journey in the rest of this season/future seasons? Because if the conclusion we can come to from Pentious's redemption holds true (your sample sizes are small, your conclusion means nothing, and you should feel bad, Charlie) then just as Pentious redeemed his sin of inaction when a woman he fancied was in danger by acting when a woman he fancied was in danger...
Is Angel going to have to save his shitty mob-boss dad's life to redeem himself?
Fuck that. Stay in Hell, Angel.
Buuut it may also mean that we are going to get to see Henrion/Henroin/whatever-his-name-is and Arakniss this season/next season? Which I am so excited for.
Also, we've now had human!Pentious, and human!Alastor. Human!Angel next, pls? Plsplspls?
Speaking of, we are getting so spoiled with backstory in this season and I am loving it even as it is entirely breaking every every conception I've had of so many characters.
I'll start with the least brain-breaking stuff, which is Baxter reminiscing about being partners with Pentious (ngl, I kinda ship it now). That did really endear Baxter to me, and makes me wonder how much Pentious's death might've factored in to his decision to come check out the hotel.
And then that Cherri and Pentious duet?! HAH! I loved it, ngl. It was both sweet and goofy, which absolutely suits them, tbh.
Also, the songs in this? I'm being spoiled. I had on my wishlist to hear Cherri and Niffty sing, which we got, a song between Alastor and Rosie and another Alastor and Vox song, which we also got?! Yasss! (Now I want Cherri singing with Angel, a proper Charlie/Vaggie duet, Angel and Valentino singing a song together, and I want to hear Lilith sing, and more of Zestial.)
Okay, okay, onwards to the absolute deluge of what-the-fuckery around Alastor in these episodes (just episode four? I can't remember where one ended and the other began, I think four was the Alastor episode, right?)
SO! I fucking called it that Alastor made his deal before he died! (I know that's not much of a leap, but still! XD) I love that. Also, he is a lot more of a petty bitch than I originally thought. Like, I knew he was an asshole, but... he's so fucking petty. Some dude spills a drink on him and so Alastor kills him? My dude. Overkill much?
However, I did not see the Rosie thing coming and I am... reserving judgement on that? I hope it's going to make more sense when we get some more answers as to what the fuck is going on behind the scenes here, but... I have some qualms? And these are writing issues, so I really hope they get answered satisfactorily later on.
Alastor was basically blind-dialling Hell with his attempts at rituals, is the impression I got, so why did he get Rosie? Why not Zestial? Why not one of the Goetia? One of the Sins? Why Rosie? And if the answer is 'random chance! =D' I am going to be disappointed.
How much of his power does he get from Rosie, and what does any of it have to do with her? Like, okay, she talked to him through the radio during his ritual, so is that where his radio powers come from? When he made the deal, his green veve symbols showed up, so is that the power he gets from her? And if so, why that? Like, all we've seen of her power is ghostly white hands? There's no thematic relevance to any of Alastor's powers there? What?
In their song, it's implied/stated that Rosie was the one who told Alastor to go dark seven years ago? So now not only do we have Alastor and Lilith and Adam and Sera and Lute in on this whatever-it-is, but Rosie, too? What's she got to do with any of this? Since when was she involved? Ngl, I feel this needed even just a little bit of foreshadowing. Something to imply that Rosie is connected to more than just Alastor.
This one is more of a nitpick, and I will 100% accept that it's character-defining stupidity rather than a plothole, but at the end of season 1, we got Al being like 'I need to find a loophole in my deal!' but like... his deal with Rosie... has a completely blatant loophole in it? 'Do a task for me, and you get your soul back!' So, obviously, Rosie's task has something to do with Charlie/the Hotel or something, so I can get that he was just frustrated at what it was costing him? But it feels like a bait-and-switch to me, that we get this hype bit in the finale of Alastor, like, desperately clawing at the walls of this cage, and now it's like 'oh no he was just throwing a tantrum because the open door of his cage is further away than he thought'. Bit of a let-down, ngl.
So yeah, just... total curve-ball there, and I'm trying not to be mad about it until we get more answers. Baxter grew on me even though I wasn't sure about him at first, so maybe this will, too.
Loved that song, though. That was good, and I really did feel a bit bad for Al being forced to sing that cheerful little song about being treated like a dog. I do love how fucking sinister it made Rosie seem. And the call-back to Alastor's line in the finale where he's like 'guess who will be pulling all the strings!' and then in this song, Rosie literally has him on strings like a puppet. Loved it.
Okay, onto the stuff with Vox. I am going to start with the flashback even though I'm pretty sure it came after most of the rest of it? @_@ I don't remember. But yeah... I was, like, so sure that falling out was both of their faults? Even if it was only 90/10 of Alastor and Vox being dicks, but... no? No, that was 100% on Alastor? Vox came to him with a genuine suggestion for alliance, nothing at all offensive or belitting in it like I expected, and Alastor was a complete dick about it? Like, oh my god, I'm just... I really want Vox to beat his ass, now? Vox deserves it. What an asshole.
So. That fight? THAT FIGHT?!
Okay, okay, taking this in order, so I don't miss anything (hopefully) - I'm going to start with Niffty's song.
FINALLY! Ever since I learned how bilingual this cast is, I have been hoping and praying that Season 2 would have someone singing in a different language and NIFFTY! SINGING IN JAPANESE! YES! Oh, I really, really loved that song so fucking much XD
But then. Okay, here's another thing that just made me ??? at the writing here? It's not even a complaint, exactly, I'm just really, really not sure what the narrative is trying to say? So we get that whole sequence where the one person we've seen Alastor be on friendly terms with who wasn't using him/being used by him turns out to be actually using him completely and all the supposed affection we saw was a ruse he was being forced to perform... and then later on we get that flashback where he is an utter twat about mocking the idea of ever working with/caring about anyone, ever...
Except then there's Niffty. Right in the middle of all that 'Alastor is a self-serving asshole who has no friends and cares about no one but himself!' messaging, we have Niffty drop fucking everything to run to his aid the moment she sees he's fighting, he didn't even need to summon her or anything, and the thing that makes Alastor stop fighting and make a deal (which is definitely part of a larger plan, but I'll get to that later) is Valentino pointing a gun at Niffty?
Is it just meant to be 'Niffty is a maniac who loves fighting' and 'Alastor is using her life being in danger as an excuse to pull his 'get captured' gambit'? Or are we meant to be questioning if there is a little bit of care left in him/someone who cares about him despite everything else we've been shown? Idk, man @_@
Anyway! That fight scene!
HUSK VS VELVETTE LET'S GOOO!!!
AAAAA! I LOVELOVELOVE VELVETTE'S POWERS?! The way she used the 'yes' bar from her poll as the string of her bow?! The little reaction emojis from people watching her livestream being used to attack Husk? AAAAAAA! YES!
AND HUSK! Not just the cards and the dice, but all the stage magic shit he pulled?! AAAAAAA! The giant top hat and the magic stabby cupboard thing (idk what it's called)! So awesome! So much fun! I would love a flashback to him in a fight back in his heyday? AAAAAAA!
(Oh, that reminds me, that argument between Husk and Angel about Angel risking his life to save Husk? Fuck that was some good writing, it broke my fucking heart, oh my babies, it's so obvious you both care about each other so much, but how little you care about yourselves is getting in the way of hearing it! Owww <3)
Also, get wrecked Valentino. I am so disappointed we didn't get to see him accidentally shoot himself while trying to get at Niffty? That would've been so fucking funny.
Okay. Vox and Alastor. I don't have words. That fight was so good, and so chaotic, I- yeah. Wow. Then Alastor pulls his deal, 'let my minions go and don't touch Charlie'? Oh, I wish I had Amazon Prime myself so I could rewatch that and pick apart his exact words, but I remember being a little, uh, worried, at the time, because it was really vaguely worded?! Something like 'keep your hands off Charlie'? Like... does that include the Hotel? What about everyone else that stays there? What if Vox can take it literally, and continue fucking with her, and when Alastor calls him on it he's like 'but I didn't physically touch her! HaHA!'?! Alastor! You're supposed to be smarter than this!
But yeah, the fact that the very first thing Alastor does after Rosie tells him 'you've gotta fix your power issues by yourself buddy~' is go and pick a fight with Vox and then make a deal to surrender? I have a feeling this is somehow going to result in Alastor getting some kind of power-boost? Like maybe by literally stealing some of Vox's?
A friend pointed out that it could just be his way of getting back to the Hotel without losing face over his whole 'I quit' tantrum. Like, he can't just walk back in after that with his tail between his legs (I mean, he could, if he played it off like 'oh, did you take me seriously? Ha! Don't be ridiculous' but I get why that would sting his pride, and we know he's so fucking petty about his pride), so getting himself 'captured' by the enemy so that Charlie will feel bad and mount a rescue makes sense too.
Which brings me to 'Breaking News! Alastor does NOT have a tail!'?
Humour aside, the implication that Vox checked? And also that he made Alastor watch him and Val have sex? Ohh, creepy vibes. Not to bring a really controversial scene into this really controversial show, but I got the same ick feeling that I got at Snape's Worst Memory over that blink-and-you'll-miss it bit.
(Not to say it shouldn't have been written that way. That level of creepy disregard for people's autonomy is on brand for Vox, it's in character and makes total fucking sense. It's just... Yeah. For all that I'm kind of on Vox's side regarding Alastor now, that did make me feel bad for Alastor.)
'You're obsessed with me'
CAN WE TALK ABOUT ALASTOR AND VALENTINO REACTING IN THE EXACT SAME WAY TO VOX'S UNHINGED BEHAVIOUR? Alastor doesn't even want Vox's attention, but he still has to gloat about how much attention Vox is paying him? Vox, baby, you have a fucking type.
And then that bit where Vox gags him, and Alastor's just like 'bitch please?' and uses Vox's own tanoy/radio to carry right on singing? Just making the point that all the time before where he was silently enduring Vox parading him around was literally just because he had nothing to say, not because Vox had managed in any way to shut him up? Ohh!
'Vincent'? CALLED IT! There is no fucking way his surname was not Cox. Can we get Alastor's surname now please? And Angel's? (Also Husk's name. Please. The way the show is going, it probably begins with H, right? But I cannot for the life of me think of one that feels like it fits >.<)
(Which reminds me, do we think Pendleton is Pentious's first or last name? It could be both, and given the time he was alive, if it's his first name, I would lay odds on it having been his mother's maiden name, because that was a big trend in 1800s England, to give sons their mother's maiden name for their first name.)
Uhh... I don't think I have anything else to talk about? I'm sure I'll post this and five minutes later be like 'WAIT! Aw, shit' XD But yeah, hooboy, a lot of stuff in there that's just swimming around and around in my head, and I'm having to reassess my interpretation of Charlie, Angel, Alastor, Rosie, and Vox's characters.
OH! ONE LAST THING! I AM SO MAD THE SHOW MADE ME AGREE WITH VALENTINO! XD 'Would you two just fuck already?' Yeah. Yeah, that was a mood. Goddamnit. XD
Now that I've slept on it and had some time to process- That's a lie, I'm still buzzing and I don't even know where to start with my thoughts? It was so good.
WARNING - THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
There's so much I did not see coming, even though it makes perfect sense and I'm enjoying the hell out of all of it. Ah, I know where to start.
They actually went there?! 'Heaven is a gilded cage and you can't get out' I have never had such a cheerful bop give me fucking chills before, but oh my god, I loved it.
Also, I did not see Charlie's meltdown coming, but I really, really should have. Also, her heart to heart with Lucifer was so sweet and sad and a little bit silly and it was so perfectly them. Also 'of course she'd be proud of you ...at least, I hope so' was devastating in the best way.
Speaking of, that Lilith moment? I have no idea what to make of that! Like, big mad that she's been actively ignoring Charlie and Lucifer's many calls (687 of them from Lucifer, omg, chill babe XD), but also... the apples on the table? That face she makes? I'm leaning more towards 'there's a Plot afoot' here than I was before, but I'm still really curious to know more.
And I love Vaggie trying to pick a new name and not quite being able to move away from the one she's already got. That's a whole ass mood right there. 'I don't like my name' 'pick a new one, then' 'vazzie!' 'you literally just changed one letter, babe'
Baxter is funny, I will grant, although I am still kinda reserving judgement. Trying not to be too '-hiss-' about having a new character joining the crew because I know it's mostly rooted in 'change scawy' feelings, but he hasn't won me over quite yet? (Buuut... Mr Anglerfish has a lure? So maybe trans!Baxter? I could get on board with that, that could be fun)
The Vees! Triple Vee villain song! Yesss! That was on my wishlist for this season and they delivered in the first episode, I'm so happy.
Also, Sera's whole 'I fucked up how do I atone' followed by immediately caving to her paranoia once again (which is exactly how the exterminations started in the first place) was just... so good. I can't tell if I want a try-fail-try-suceed style arc from her, or if I want her to keep spiralling. Either would be good, tbh.
Also, fascinating parallel between her and Charlie, both of them feeling guilt over the blood on their hands and struggling to come to terms with what that means for their sense of self.
Emily and Pentious friendship is cute.
Oh! Backstory! How did it take me this long to get to the backstory?! I am so, so in love with both Pendleton (cutie-patootie) and cult-leader!Vox. I need more of this, please. Also, Pentious being a peeping-tom in life is just... yeah, really shoulda seen that one coming. Husk fucking told us back in S1. 'This guy watches y'all sleep because he's lonely'.
Abel is so funny. He is so obviously Adam's son while also being so completely nothing like him? Also his conflict avoidant moment in the meeting with Sera was such a Mood.
And Lute's complete meltdown? God, that was so good and so horrifying and, ugh, my heart. And we got confirmation that Lute never told Adam she was in love (?) with him. Vindicaaation~! A little sad that Adam's return is as hallucination!Adam, not demon!Adam, but I haven't entirely lost hope for Lute being forced into a cognitive dissonance spiral at Adam=Best VS demons=worst.
So, that's all a bit messy, and I'm absolutely going to rewatch these episodes at some point. At least when the whole season is out, if not before, try and get a clearer picture of what's happening, because it's a lot. But these are my thoughts atm.
Haha, did you think I could get into a fandom like Hazbin Hotel and not make a bunch of next gen OCs? Backstory in this is based on Apple in the High Clientele series by sherwoodfox, but I think I more or less explain what happens within the fic, so you don't have to read it for context (though I don't know why you wouldn't, it's amazing). Also, this is set somewhere around an AU version of episode 5.
Lucifer has been at the hotel for half a day already, and Angel still hasn’t managed to corner him. It’s starting to piss him off a little. So he decides the time for subtlety is well over, and goes to drape himself over the back of the armchair the King of Hell is sitting in as he talks to Charlie and Vaggie about something.
Lucifer jumps and twists around to look up at him. “Hey, Lucy,” Angel croons, reaching out to twine a lock of blonde hair around his finger. Lucifer goes fetchingly golden in the cheeks. “Ya mind helpin’ me with a little problem I’m havin’?”
“Angel!” Charlie squeaks, thoroughly mortified. Oh, if only she knew.
“I- Um- Haha, that’s not-” Lucifer’s eyes dart around the room, looking for an escape.
Angel is not inclined to let him have one. “Right here is fine by me, doll,” he murmurs, twisting around to sit provocatively, backwards on the arm of the chair; hips tilted, back arched, tits out. One knee hooked over the other to draw attention to his thighs. “See, I need-”
“Ahaha! Nope!” Lucifer announces, instantly on his feet and backing away, hands raised. His eyes, however, linger on Angel’s body before they bounce back to his face.
“Then ya’ll take me somewhere private?” Angel prompts, batting his lashes as he spins on his ass, propping his feet on the still warm cushion of the seat and letting his knees fall open. “Cause unless ya gag me, I ain’t gonna shut up,” he warns, voice coy but eyes hard.
“Angel!” Charlie cries again. “Please stop harassing my dad.”
“Oh, who doesn’t like being chased a li’l?” Angel retorts lasciviously.
Lucifer’s face turns entirely yellow-gold with a blush. “Right!” he says, firmly, stepping forward again and grabbing Angel by one wrist. “No need for that!” he declares, nearly yanking Angel to the floor before he gets his feet under him as Lucifer power-walks towards the stairs. “I’ll just be a minute, Char-Char, then I’ll be right back!”
“Oh, you don’ seem like a two-pump chump, yer majesty, we’ll be at least an hour, maybe two,” Angel croons, shooting a wink back at a red-faced, utterly agog Charlie.
Lucifer makes a sound like a tea-kettle, but doesn’t speak again until they’re in the upstairs hallway. Then he rounds on Angel. “Look, if you’re looking for an encore, that’s not going to happen, so can you please not- not mention it in front of my daughter?”
Angel stares at him, a little outraged. “Bitch, I can’t, and that’s the fuckin’ problem.”
Lucifer blinks at him. “What?”
“Not that I wanna run my mouth ta Charlie, but- Look, I get it, ya wanted yer privacy respected, that’s fine. Ya don’t wanna deal wit’ the consequences a’ yer fuckin’ actions, that’s a you problem, but-”
“Consequences?” Lucifer interrupts.
Angel stares at him flatly. Lucifer stares back, eyebrows arched and a faintly befuddled, worried look on his face. Angel deflates slightly. “…Didn’t ya get the messages?”
Lucifer frowns.
He pulls a mobile out of his pocket and starts thumbing through it, and Angel laughs. “Dollface, it ain’t gonna be on there. Ya hired me through an intermediary, remember? Only contact info we had after the fact was that scary hellborn bitch. But she swore she passed the message on and the only response we got was the ‘not my problem’ kinda bullshit.”
“I… don’t remember getting any message like that, but uh…” Lucifer looks away, one hand ruffling through his hair in an overt self-pacifying gesture. “My memory isn’t always the best. And I don’t- That was-” He clears his throat. “Teeechnically, it, uh- it was Lilith, you know, who hired you, so I don’t know anything about that, either.”
Angel closes his eyes for a moment, just to process. “Okay. So you don’t know fuck all. Okay.” He takes a deep breath, and rearranges his entire approach to this conversation. “So, the reason I needed ta talk ta ya back then, was because ya left a little present behind afta’ that night.”
Lucifer frowns again. Angel rolls his eyes, and then makes a pointed, curved gesture at stomach level. Lucifer’s eyes drop, then widen, then rise again. “What?!” he squeaks. Angel nods. “B-but! You’re a sinner! Human souls aren’t like hellborn, you can’t-”
“I fuckin’ know that! But it fuckin’ happened! And that’s why I figured it had ta be yours, because you’re the only non-sinner I fucked that month. Then she came out white and red ‘stead a’ pink and I figured, case closed, ya know.” Angel reaches up and pokes Lucifer’s little red cheek-spot that’s identical to Charlie’s.
“…She?” Lucifer asks breathlessly.
Angel nods. “Ya saw ‘er when ya got here; she was in the lobby. If Alastor didn’t entirely distract ya with his dick-measuring contest.”
Lucifer snorts, but it’s a distracted sound. His eyes are glazed as he clearly searches back through his memory, and his face crumples slowly. “I don’t-” he says weakly, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t get any kind of message about that.”
“We didn’t put any specifics in it,” Angel assures him. “Look. I don’t- Right now, I don’t care whether you wanna be involved or not, but since I can’t say shit about that night without gettin’ myself double-dead, would ya please jus’ come tell her who her dad is so she can stop thinkin’ she only exists because my boss raped me, okay?”
Lucifer jerks backwards, and holds a hand up in a surprisingly imperious ‘stop’ gesture for a guy who so far only seems to want to flex his King of Hell muscles when it’ll impress Charlie. “Okay, that’s- Uh, that’s a lot of information all at once, so- Just- What do you mean, double-dead?”
Angel stares at him. “The gag order?” he prompts. Lucifer’s frown only deepens, and slowly, a nasty suspicion starts to rise in Angel’s mind. “Ya didn’ know about that, either, did ya?”
“Apparently not!” Lucifer says, throwing both hands in the air with a slightly hysterical little laugh.
“Yer wife had me sign a non-disclosure agreement,” Angel informs him. “I literally cannot talk about that night or who I spent it with, or…” He draws a finger across his throat.
“…No,” Lucifer says, but it’s hollow; not a denial but a plea. “No, Lilith knows I hate soul-bound contracts, she wouldn’t-”
Yeah, that nasty suspicion was right. Lilith had deliberately presented that contract to him after Lucifer left the room, had deliberately gotten him out of there first, and Angel hadn’t even noticed at the time. “…It was after ya left ta check on Charlie,” Angel offers quietly, knowing that Lucifer isn’t going to like hearing it.
Sure enough, Lucifer’s face falls into open lines of devastation. He closes his eyes, mouth twisting, and then covers his face with his hands. After a moment, his shoulders hitch, he takes in a rattling breath, and laughs, breathless and hysterical. “Okay, I’m just gonna- Sorry, do you mind if I-?” he makes a wiggling gesture in Angel’s direction.
Angel has no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but at this point he’s not really in a mood to object to much of anything Lucifer wants right now. This is turning into even more of a shit sandwich that he’d thought it was, and that’s saying something. “Go ahead.”
Lucifer presses a palm to Angel’s chest, too high up to be called a grope, and then- There’s a weight around Angel’s neck and a red haze to the air, and something pinching at his lips. One hand jumps to the smoky collar around his neck, and another lurches up to feel at his lips. Stitches, binding his mouth shut.
A tug at one of those glowing green strings has a contract unfurling out of the air. Lucifer catches it, not even looking at Angel as he sets to reading it, which he’s twistedly grateful for, because it means he gets to have his shuddering, breathless moment of panic in relative privacy. “Oh, fuck that,” Lucifer mutters, and tears the contract in half.
Immediately, the horrible pin-prick pinching at his lips disappears.
Lucifer doesn’t stop, though, tearing the contract into quarters, and then eighths, and then sixteenths, and then he tosses them into the air like confetti and sets them on fire with a snap of his fingers. They burn away to nothing before they reach the carpet, and when Lucifer looks back at Angel again, all signs of any soul magic have faded away. “Obviously, I would still… appreciate your discretion, but-” Lucifer shrugs, a deeply bitter twist to his mouth. “That’s your choice.”
Lucifer flushes an absolutely adorable shade of soft yellow. He clears his throat. “Right then! Glad I could get that sorted for you. Well, I’ll just-” he gestures back towards the stairs, already moving in that direction before he’s finished talking. Angel watches him go with no small amount of confusion. Going by his reaction from earlier, Angel had suspected he’d want to… at least meet the daughter he didn’t know he had. But then, Angel remembers, it had taken Charlie calling him to get Lucifer to admit he wanted to see the daughter he knew he had.
“D’ya wanna come meet her?” Angel offers.
Lucifer freezes with one foot on the stairs. “I, uh… Would that- would that be alright?”
“Yeah,” Angel assures him.
Watching the way the King of Hell lights up at such a simple thing is a little bit heartbreaking. Animation flows into him, and there’s an undeniable bounce to his step as he spins around and returns to Angel’s side. “Oh! Well, then! That’s great! Lead the way, my good man!”
Angel snorts, but obliges, and heads off to where he and his daughter have been staying, next door to each other in adjoining rooms so that Angel could always be nearby. “D’ya think ya could… wait outside fer a little bit? Just until I’ve told her…” Angel gestures between the two of them.
“Oh, sure! Yeah, let her get some context before the King of Hell barges into her bedroom, huh?” Lucifer says with a slightly awkward laugh.
When they reach the right door, Angel pauses to brace himself, and then knocks. “Amber? Can I talk ta ya fer a second, principessa?”
“Sí, papá,” Amber calls back, so Angel lets himself in, with half a glance back at Lucifer to reassure himself the man’s staying put for now, and sees him with both hands clapped over his mouth, eyes positively shining above them.
Slipping into the room, Angel finds Amber sitting on her bed with her phone in hand. There’s something jazzy playing from her radio, and Angel gives it a playfully suspicious look as he crosses the room to sit on the end of Amber’s bed. “S’up?” Amber asks, peering at him from under her slightly-too-long fringe of pink hair.
For a moment, Angel just looks at her. The silvery-white of her fur, with the apple-red stripes around all six of her forearms and at the tips of her fingers, that match almost perfectly the red of her eyes. She’s so self-conscious about her eyes, keeps all but her main pair as hidden as she can, the ones on her temples are covered by her hair, the ones on her forehead she keeps closed so they can be mistaken for eyebrows, and the eyespots on the apple of her cheeks, well, they look just like Charlie’s cheek-spots, just smaller and a little closer to her eyes than her mouth. No one would realise she can see out of them unless they already know.
Most people think Angel’s eyespots are freckles, too. The only part of her colouring that looks like him is her hair, and even that is silvery-white at the roots, only fading into pastel pink a couple of inches out. She’s got her height from Lucifer, too, but all the rest of her physiology is nearly identical to Angel’s. Except for the wings. Translucent insectile wings like stained glass in red and white that she usually keeps draped about her shoulders like a shawl or capelet.
Angel turns to face her, sitting cross-legged, and Amber, picking up that this isn’t going to be a ‘what do you want for dinner’ kind of conversation, puts her phone down. “Do ya remember, principessa, when you were about five, ya asked me why ya only had one parent?”
Amber looks down, tugging at the edge of her blanket with nervous fingers. “You said I was a miracle,” she confirms. She glances up and smiles a little sadly. “By the time I was old enough ta realise that was bullshit, I… figured out the answer myself.”
“…I know ya think ya did, but-”
Amber rolls her eyes at him. “It’s not like it’s hard, papá. I’m grey and red, and I’ve got wings.” Her expression contorts, then, in pain and distress, before she forcibly smooths it out again. “So. I only have one parent.” She shrugs. “Big deal. I also have the best parent, so I’m not missin’ out on anythin’.”
Angel is not gonna cry. “Aw, bambina,” he coos, sniffling.
“Shut up,” Amber huffs, but she’s smiling.
“As flattered as I am, I am gonna tell ya something, and I need ya ta know it is the absolute fuckin’ truth, okay?” Angel says solemnly, and Amber nods, taking a little breath and setting her shoulders to brace herself. Angel holds out his hands, and she puts hers into them. “Val is not yer other gene donor.”
Amber’s breath catches. “…Really?” she asks in a tiny, dubious little voice that breaks Angel’s heart.
“Really.” Angel squeezes her hands, and gives her a moment when she scrunches her eyes shut against the tears. “I didn’t tell ya before now because… because I knew ya’d think I was lyin’ if I couldn’t tell ya who was, and up until about five minutes ago, I was under contract not ta talk about that particular client.”
Amber’s lower pair of hands came up to fiercely smudge away her tears, and she crinkled her nose up as she frowned. “That means it’s gotta be someone… really important, right? Or-” She cuts herself off, an expression of disturbed incredulity flitting across her face. “…unless it’s Alastor?”
Angel squeaks, and he’s not sure if it’s out of laughter or shock. “No, principessa, it’s not Alastor.” Amber lets out a sigh, and shoots the radio on her desk her own suspicious look, before looking back at Angel. “It’s Lucifer,” he says, because he’s not about to make her play a guessing game. Not when she’s had to play it for the last several years without any answers.
Amber blinks at him. “What?” she asks. Then she shakes her head. “No, because that would mean- That would make Charlie my sister.”
“Half-sister, but yeah.” Angel reaches out with one of his lower hands, as the upper two are still holding Amber’s, and cups her cheek, rubbing his thumb pointedly back and forth just underneath her eyespot. “Ya didn’ notice the resemblance?” he teases.
Amber’s mouth drops open.
It takes a while for her to find words. “I-! Um… Really?”
“Really,” Angel repeats back to her. He gives her a minute to process, then gives her hands a squeeze to get her attention back on him. “D’ya wanna meet him?”
Amber’s eyes go very wide. “Oh shit, he’s here,” she realises.
Angel laughs. “Yeah, principessa, you were there when he arrived,” he reminds her.
Amber blinks rapidly, and then flushes, her silvery fur fluffing and turning more pinkish. “Oh, that’s why ya call me that, huh?” she asks, and Angel just nods, shrugging one shoulder because, really, he’d dropped as many fucking hints as he dared. “I don’t- um… what’s he… does he…” She makes an agonized sound and buries her face in her hands.
“He’s a fuckin’ sweetheart, bambina, and he’s probably vibrating himself inta the fifth dimension right outside the door, he wants ta meet ya that bad,” Angel tells her, making an educated guess at what she’s trying to ask.
Amber squeaks. “Right now?!”
“That’s up ta you.”
“Oh, um…” Amber sits very still for a moment, and then very carefully, nods. “Yeah, okay.”
Angel pitches his voice to carry as he calls, “Doors open, Lucy!”
Amber squeaks again, but then she’s distracted when the door opens and Lucifer pokes his head in, grinning nervously. “Hey! Hi, there!” he greets, stepping into the room when no one tells him to go away.
Amber scrambles off her bed, and then sort of freezes where she’s standing, all six of her hands knotting together in front of her, shoulders up and wings tucked in close around them. “Hello,” she says nervously. “Uh… Dad?”
Lucifer’s eyes turn very shiny. “Yeah. Holy shit. Um-!” He laughs awkwardly, and Amber dares a little grin. “Your dad, uh- Your papá? He said your name’s Amber, right?”
“Yeah,” Amber nods.
“That’s a lovely name,” Lucifer decides, then tips his head curiously. “Is it meant to be ironic, or-?” he wonders. “I would have expected Ruby, maybe, or Silvia?” Then he seems to realise he’s being intrusive, and holds up his hands. “Never mind- Curiosity got away from me, that happens a lot. Don’t mind me.”
That little ramble at least serves to get Amber to relax, and she laughs a little. “No, it’s um… My full name is Amber Dust, and…” She looks back at Angel, who smiles and shrugs helplessly. “It’s from a book,” she concludes with her own shrug.
Lucifer looks at Angel, curiosity in no way dampened, and Angel relents. After all, he’s never quite dared try and give the full reason out loud before. “It’s a book that got brought down here from Earth turn a’ the century,” Angel explains, a little sheepish. “In it, consciousness- or, self-determination, or whatever you wanna call it… y’know, that ability ta tell the difference between good and evil-” He gives Lucifer a significant look, and he sobers slightly, a small, faint smile lingering despite his wary frown. “-is called Dust, with a capital ‘D’, and ya can see it through an amber spyglass.” He shrugs and looks at Amber with all the love he has for her in his eyes. “My little gift from the Devil.”
“Papá…!” Amber groans, flushing pink and covering her eyes with her hands.
“Oh…” Lucifer breathes, and Angel tears his eyes away from his daughter to check on him, because that sounded… Sure enough, he’s crying, just a little. “Oh, that’s… Hah! That’s really… really-” He clears his throat and wipes his eyes on the back of his hand. “-beautiful, actually. Wow. Just like the girl herself! How fitting!”
Amber adds another pair of hands to the ones hiding her face from view, but manages to squeak out a very quiet and deeply embarrassed, “thank you?”
“Oh, I’m being embarrassing, aren’t I?” Lucifer asks with a grin and a faintly sheepish little chuckle.
“Hey, if it makes ya feel any better, dollface, y’ain’t never gonna win Most Embarrassing Dad with me around,” Angel offers, a touch rueful. When Lucifer gives him a befuddled look, he snorts. “Until that billboard a’ me with my cunt out comes down, I win by default.”
“Uuugh…!” Amber groans.
Lucifer whistles lowly. “Yeah, I, uh… I hadn’t thought of that, but, uh… Wow. That does sound pretty embarrassing for you,” he offers to Amber, who nods with exaggerated emphasis. “Hoo! I do feel better now, actually. You’re right, there’s no way I can be worse than that!” Lucifer declares with a laugh.
Amber stares at him for a moment, then laughs softly. “Yer actually nervous, aren’t ya?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe!” Lucifer says brightly, and then falters a little. “I’m sure you’ve, uh- you’ve heard from Char-Char that I’ve been a little- hah- a little… distracted, lately. And now I find out I’ve been so distracted I missed your entire existence so far?” The smile he gives just then is painful. “I’ve got a lot to make up for, and I don’t- don’t even really know where to start.”
Amber’s eyes go wide, and then she smiles, wide and sweet, and Angel sees the moment Lucifer falls in love with more than just the idea of another daughter. “Yer here now, right?” she says with a little shrug. “That seems like a good start ta me?”
“If you say so, duckling,” Lucifer agrees softly, his heart in his eyes.
Amber blinks. “Duckling?”
Lucifer blinks back, and then laughs awkwardly again. “Ah, sorry! Force of habit. Do you not like it? What was it your papá called you earlier? Bambi?”
“Bambina,” Angel corrects. “Or principessa.”
“Ha! Well, she is that!”
“Am I?” Amber blurts out, and then seems to regret asking when Lucifer turns a blankly shocked look on her.
Angel, though, understands her need for reassurance. “Lotta powerful men don’ always give that sorta consideration ta kids born on the wrong side a’ the sheets, doll,” he points out.
Understanding dawns, and then Lucifer snorts, half derisive and half genuine humour. “You mean kids born out of wedlock?” he prompts, bright and amused. “Hah! Luckily, I’m the King of Hell, which means I don’t have to give a fuck about that! You’re my daughter, that makes you a Princess.” With that declaration, he makes a grand gesture, and a glittering tiara pops out of nothing into his hand, which he then strides forward to place delicately on Amber’s head.
Which is still above his, if only just barely.
“There! Now it’s official.”
Amber pats at the tiara, then squeaks and runs to check herself out in the mirror on her wall. “Oh, it’s so pretty!” she exclaims, turning this way and that and letting the light catch in all the tiny red-orange-yellow gemstones decorating the spider-web-esque filigree.
“You like it?” Lucifer asks, brightening, and it’s so pathetic it’s endearing.
Angel leans back on his lower arms, watching as the two of them slowly coax each other out of their awkwardness and into a proper conversation about their likes and hobbies. It’s sweet, and frankly, a load off Angel’s shoulders that Amber finally knows. The fact that this whole mess was Lilith’s fault and Lucifer hadn’t known about jack shit is a whole other barrel of fun that Angel’s just not going to touch yet. He can worry about what the fuck is going on between the King and Queen of Hell and if it’s going to fuck things up for the rest of them later.
“-and I made this one for Charlie when she was thiiis big,” Lucifer says, down to his shirtsleeves, which he’s rolled up, as he kneels on the floor, holding up another rubber duck to show Amber, who coos at it. Lucifer beams, before the smile slides off his face as some sort of revelation dawns. “Oh, shit, we gotta tell Charlie!”
“At some point,” Angel agrees.
“Like right now!” Lucifer insists. Angel opens his mouth to suggest that Lucifer not strain his newly reforged relationship with Charlie like that right off the bat, but Lucifer’s already zipping out of the room.
“Hoo, boy…” Angel breathes, then shrugs it off and decides to roll with it. “Ya wanna come catch the fireworks, principessa? Bet we can convince Al to get us popcorn.” Amber’s eyes flick worriedly between him and the door, but eventually she nods and lets him tuck her under his arm as he heads after the King of Hell.
They reach the lobby just in time to hear Lucifer call, “Charlie!”
“Uh… hey, Dad…” Charlie says, tone just dripping awkwardness. Her eyes flick over to Angel when he and Amber sidle into the room, and then immediately dart away again, expression contorting. “Ohh my gosh…!”
“Yo, Smiles, I brought ya some chaos. Think it’s worth a bucket a’ popcorn?” Angel asks, slinging himself onto a barstool.
With a faint whirr of static, a cardboard popcorn bucket pops itself into existence and plops down onto the bar, followed by a rain of popcorn filling it up, and a drizzle of melted butter to finish it off. “Oh, my dear, you are selling yourself short,” Alastor croons in pure sadistic delight as Amber hops up onto the bartop and digs into the popcorn.
“Char-Char, are you okay?” Lucifer asks, coming to a halt in front of Charlie and frowning at the way she’s got her head tipped back towards the ceiling, eyes screwed shut and hands slapped over her face.
“Oh my gosh, Dad! How can you ask me that right now?!”
“Uh…”
Charlie jumps up and starts to pace, Vaggie watching her with a resigned exhaustion that tells Angel she’s been doing this a lot in the last hour or so. Then she rounds on Lucifer. “Did you really-…” Holy shit, Angel didn’t know Miss Goody-Two-Shoes knew that gesture, but wow, that’s certainly evocative. “-with Angel Dust?!”
“What?! No!” Lucifer protested, and then hesitated. “Well, I mean, yes, but-”
“Argh, Dad! How could you?!” Charlie wails, fisting her hands in her hair.
Beside Angel, Alastor makes a quiet, squeaky, bleating sort of sound, and when Angel whips around to stare at him, he sees the man with his fist pressed to lips stretched into a smile so wide it looks like it’s about to consume his entire face.
“I-” Lucifer blows out a breath and holds up placating hands. “Look, I know he’s your friend, Charlie, and that might make things a bit awkward, but it’s really not a big deal-”
“Not a big deal?!” Charlie growls.
Lucifer jerks backwards.
“Whoa, hey,” Vaggie jumps up and gets an arm between Charlie and Lucifer. “Hey, calm down. You said you were gonna be calm, remember?”
Charlie steps back and takes a deep breath. “Right. Yes. Calm.” Another deep breath, then a third. “Dad, I- I’m really- really upset right now, and I need you not to act like it’s no big deal, okay?”
“Okay…” Lucifer says slowly, sounding deeply bewildered. “Well, I’m afraid I need you to explain why you’re upset.”
“Why?! What about Mum?!”
Dead silence. Charlie stares at Lucifer, and Lucifer stares back. “Oh,” Lucifer says finally, and Angel has to press both his hands over his mouth to keep from laughing. Charlie’s eyes get wider in outrage, and her horns start to poke out from her hair.
“‘Oh~’” Alastor mimics under his breath, and Angel wheezes as silently as he can.
“Charlie, it was her idea.”
That pulls Charlie up short. “It- What?”
Lucifer’s face flushes. “It was an anniversary present- Look, you really don’t want to know the details, okay, duckling? And I really, really don’t want to discuss that with you, so-”
“Anniversary- Wait, Dad, you’ve slept with Angel before?!”
“Once.” Lucifer insists, staring very hard at the ceiling. “It was once. There is no before or after, because it was one time.”
“Oh, but it was a good time, babydoll,” Angel croons.
Lucifer and Charlie make the exact same tea-kettle noise, and Angel dissolves into cackling laughter. Alastor chimes in with his own exaggerated ‘Hahaha!’s overlaid over a canned laugh track. Even Amber is giggling, quiet and sheepish behind one hand. “You’re not helping!” Lucifer accuses, glaring at Angel.
“Who said I was tryn’ ta?”
Lucifer glares at him and makes a grand gesture that Angel figures is meant to indicate the whole situation.
“Doll, ya came harin’ down here before I could tell ya ta fuckin’ wait a goddamn minute and let the dust settle,” Angel points out, and Lucifer’s irritation fades into petulance. “This is your show.” Angel puts all four of his visible hands up in very pointed surrender, then gestures as if giving the floor over to Lucifer.
“Wait… what’s going on?” Charlie asks, looking between her father and Angel with a frown beginning to form.
Lucifer clears his throat. “Well, it turns out- Uh…” He coughs into his fist, and then offers Charlie a bright, hopeful, slightly tentative smile. “You have a sister?”
“Half-sister, ta be clear,” Angel pipes up.
Charlie opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. She looks from Lucifer to Angel and back again before her gaze slides, almost reluctantly, to Amber. Angel’s little girl is sitting with her shoulders up around her ears, still half-smiling from the humour of Lucifer’s bungled attempts to break the news, but rapidly losing confidence. She and Charlie have gotten on so well, so far. They’re both sweet-tempered, kind-hearted girls, and if Amber is a lot more jaded and Charlie a lot more head-strong, well, they’ve probably done each other a world of good that way. Angel really hopes this revelation doesn’t ruin that.
“I… thought your dad was-” Charlie begins slowly, and then cuts herself off sharply with a frightened, guilty look at Angel.
Amber laughs a soft, bitter little laugh. “Yeah, so did I, but, uh… apparently not?”
“Are- No offence, but… are we sure?” Charlie prompts, glancing between the three of them again.
“Char-Char,” Lucifer says, wryly affectionate. “Sinners can’t have children.”
“And so did your mother,” Lucifer points out. “She’s a sinner too, duckling. We, uh… hah, we went to quite a lot of effort to make you, you know. Guess the, uh, the magic didn’t wear off like we thought, exactly.”
“Oh,” Charlie says quietly, and then, like dawn back on Earth, joy rises in her face. “Oh!” she exclaims, and whirls around to bound over to Amber. “We’re sisters!”
Amber startles, but starts to smile again when Charlie scoops up all six of her hands in her two and clutches them to her chest, squealing in delight as she bounces in place, too excited to contain it all. “Yeah,” Amber agrees, gripping back, though she doesn’t join in on the bouncing. “Yeah, that’s, uh… pretty cool.”
5. Sora - Okay, I know we know very little about her, but MY GOD does my brain like to chew on what little we do know. This was a woman who DRANK POISON on the off-chance that it might save her children. My heart. Also, if Judge was giving her drugs to make her unborn babies psychopaths, what's the betting it got into her too? And yet, we see how loving she was towards Sanji. And I am weak for characters who choose kindness because it's tactically sound, rather than a moral/empathic impulse.
4. Sabo - Sometimes I feel like this character was specifically designed to torment me. Facial scars? Burn scars? Long-lost brother with amnesia? Feral disaster child turned competent feral adult? Revolutionary? Secret run-away nobility?
3. Portgas D. Rouge - Another badass mum we know fuck all about. I just cannot get over the sheer inhuman determination she must have had to fight Mother Nature for almost an entire year and WIN. Forget Roger. The entire Navy and every Celestial Dragon should've heard 'Portgas D. Rouge had a son' and SHAT THEIR PANTS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT ACTUAL FORCE OF NATURE REPRODUCED?! I love her so much.
2. Red-Hair Shanks - Oda coming for me specifically, again. Red hair and facial scars? Dad-coded, specifically in a found-family way? Laid-back attitude hiding childhood trauma? Dangerous as fuck if you mess with his people? Secret nobility? With an evil twin?!
1. Trafalgar Law - I was in love with that moody asshole from the very first panel and nothing I've learned about him since has made me like him any less XD
So, I watched The Old Guard 2 last night, and after mulling it over for a day, I'm still... not sure how much I actually liked it?
Don't get me wrong, it's a decent movie, I watched the whole thing and didn't feel the urge to ragequit at all until the end, they did some interesting things, but perhaps it's because it's coming on the heels of a movie I rate incredibly highly, it was just... underwhelming.
So, I'm going to try and pinpoint exactly what didn't work.
Spoilers under the cut.
First thing!
Nile as the Last Immortal
This immediately hit wrong. I might have appreciated the... symmetry, if they'd kept Andy as the first/oldest immortal. That Nile arrives and that's when Andy loses her immortality because it's finally The Beginning of The End? There's a certain poignancy to that. A certain 'oh, I can rest now' to Andy losing her immortality.
Buuut they- they did not do that. And that just left me with 'Why?' Why is now suddenly the moment that there will be 'no more immortals'? How does anyone know that when no one knows where immortals come from in the first place? What is so goddamn special about Y2K that something that's been happening to humanity for 7000 years ends now?
And if the answer is 'they figured it out because Andy lost her immortality'... well, I'll be getting to that later.
Introducing Discord and Tuah
There is no way, going by the lore established in the first movie, that the others should be unaware of other Immortals. Nicky, Joe, Booker, and Nile should all have been dreaming about Tuah the same way Nile dreamt about them, and then kept dreaming about Quynh after she met the others. That? That was a beautiful bit of lore, that had so many implications to it that the first movie did the correct thing by not explaining. The interconnectedness of all the immortals, the hint that there's some bigger thing to it all than a simple accident of fate, the notion that something is pushing them together for a purpose.
That's not to say I didn't like Tuah, as a character. I even could see my way to liking the idea of expanding the cast of immortals, if they'd gone about it in a way that explained why no one was dreaming about the others, why Nile hadn't asked about them in the first movie. (I could get behind an explanation as simple as Nile asking 'why am I having weirdly repetitive dreams about a library/whatever?' and Andy saying 'I guess it's time to introduce you to the others'). I know we did get the tidbit that Nile was dreaming about the others, but that was specifically Discord attacking Tuah. Why was she not dreaming about them before?
That said, I really don't like Discord as a character? If you're going to take the mantle of 'Oldest Known Immortal' away from Andy, you have to do better than that! 'Discord'? Really? My issue with that incredibly juvenile nickname aside, she's introduced as some kind of foil to Andy? Her 'non-intervention' vs Andy's compulsion to help even when she's losing hope of making a difference? Could have been really interesting if they actually did anything with it? But the climax of the film had nothing to do with whether humanity is worth helping or not.
If you ask me, Quynh should have been the villain of this movie. We should have opened with a dream sequence of that scene we left off on in the first movie, and then cut to Nile waking up and being like 'Andy, Andy, I think Quynh's out, she's free' and then we could have had them try to find her while she (with Booker in tow, willingly or not) ran from them and left a bloodbath in her wake everywhere she went because she's gone mad and just wants to hurt the people who hurt her, and that includes Andy for not coming for her, and she's leaving these scenes of slaughter for Andy to find specifically because she knows it will hurt her.
And it felt... weirdly repetitive? We already had the 'Ancient Immortal Disillusioned with Humanity' arc in the first movie, it was Andy's, and the resolution of her arc was beautiful and poignant. It was Andy standing up and going first despite no longer being immortal because it's not about how long you live, it's about what you do with the life you have, and Andy remembers that she wants to help.
Discord... her motivations actually have nothing to do with her non-intervention, let humanity burn attitude. She's turned mortal and wants her immortality back? What for? Like, good fucking god, a huge theme in the first movie was the weight of years and tragedies on Andy and Booker, and Booker even says, in the text, that Joe and Nicky at least have a purpose in each other, but he and Andy don't have that. (Which, the amatonormativity inherent in that sentiment is sus, but I digress...)
Discord is older than Andy, and yet, we get... the only time I ever really get the sense that this is weighing on her at all is in the flashback to her just... standing there watching as they take Quynh away? She wants to keep living, but we never actually get to see why? Like, I could buy that even if she doesn't have a particular purpose or drive to keep living, she's terrified of death, but... she never acts afraid? The ending would have hit so much harder if Discord had run from Andy. An absolute refusal to engage in a head-on fight with someone who could kill her would have been a much better reveal for 'you just want your immortality back' than what we got. Especially after they spent the whole film building up the fake 'I want you to kill us all' thing to Nile.
WHICH IS ANOTHER THING!
Nile Can Take People's Immortality Away
What? No, really. What?!
It wasn't the wound that Nile gave her that was the first wound Andy got that didn't heal!
Nile stabbed her, and we get a whole half an hour of the movie and at least one if not two days of elapsed time in the movie before Andy gets the wound that doesn't heal. There's one moment, where everyone else is asleep and Andy looks at her shaking hand, that might, potentially be construed as a 'hint' that the wound Nile gave her isn't healing, but given that later, we get a pretty definitive scene of Andy noticing the stab wound she got in the church fight not healing and her panicking about it, I'm going to say that is the first injury to not heal.
They directly contradicted their own lore with this and it just... it made me feel like I was watching well-funded fanfiction, and not an actual sequel?
If it had been fanfiction, I might've found the idea interesting? Retcon which injury it was, and play with the 'what if', but this is the canon sequel! And, frankly, it would have been much more compelling if the reason Andy lost her immortality was because she... lost her will to fight, or even have it be because of Nile, and she is 'passing on the mantle' somehow.
Andy Gets Her Immortality Back
Did I like the plot of Andy getting her immortality back? Well, yes, I'm an Andy fangirl, I want her to live forever. Did I like the idea of a plot where Booker gets to give his immortality to Andy as a combination of repaying her for his betrayal and getting what he wanted in the end? Also yes. Did I like the way they handled it? Uh, no.
One: There is no universe in which Sebastian 'I had to watch my children die while being unable to save them' le Livre wouldn't have a complete fucking meltdown on learning that, actually, there is a way to give his immortality to someone else. Where was the pale-faced horror? The resurgeance of grief? The futile, helpless wishing? Hell, give me a scene where he screams at Nile for being born too late to save his son! Give me something!
Two: If they're going to give Andy her immortality back in secret, and leave us, the audience, in suspense as to whether it worked or not, we should have at least gotten a scene where she died in front of everyone. We should have gotten that breathless horror, the grief from the team, we should have been left in suspense for long enough to wonder 'oh, god, what if it hasn't worked?'
Ideally, it would be at a point in the film where there's only half an hour or so left so that we're left wondering if the final fight is going to be avenging Andy, if she's really gone. Or, hell, have it be in the final fight. Have Quynh be the one to kill her. Let's have that terrible, dawning realisation from Quynh that this is permanent, that she's killed the love of her immortal life, and the grief revealing to her that no matter how angry and hurt she was, she doesn't actually want to live in a world without Andy in it.
Then have Andy wake up. Let that be the climactic resolution to the final battle scene, because.
The Fight Scenes
One of the things I loved most about the first movie was the sheer, emotional weight to every fight scene. The introduction, with the stealth infiltration, where we get to see just how competent the team is, and then the ensuing bloodbath, which displays a different type of competence as well as hitting us with the full impact of 'they're immortal' and what that means in terms of having them as an enemy.
Then we get the fight scene between Andy and Nile on the plane, which is a testing back-and-forth, where every move is a conversation between them, Nile's desperation and denial, Andy's slow-growing joy at her tenacity, her almost playful responses, acting as a mentor, Nile learning from her despite her unwillingness to be there at all.
I don't think I need to get into the myriad purposes the fight in the church is put to. Andy's sheer skill, her ruthlessnes, her injury, her complete calm in contrast to Nile's panic. (And the juxtaposition of this happening in a church, her hiding behind an angel statue at the beginning, the Fear of God she puts into Copley and the other guy, the symbolism, ugh, my heart!)
And then, of course, the final fight scene, which, I'm not actually going to through and rant about everything they packed into it, because it's a long-ass sequence and that's an essay in its own right.
Which is such a contrast to the fights in the second movie. I think I'd have to watch it again to be able to tell you how many there were (unlike the first movie, where I could have named all four right off the bat), but the very first fight scene set the tone of wasting my time. They weren't telling us anything new with this scene? In fact, they were actually making me feel like the Old Guard were incompetent, with how long it was taking them to get the goddamn job done. Contrast with the fight in the church, which from Andy jumping in to killing the last guy inside took about twenty seconds.
I will grant, however, that the fight between Andy and Quynh was quite good. Could have been better. I wanted a fight between the two of them to hurt me, okay? I wanted to feel Andy's anguish. Or, even just to ache at the contrast of old friendly spars that echo into a fight where one of them is actively trying to hurt the other. But on the whole, I was engaged the entire fight, and it did feel like a conversation between the two of them, instead of a chance for the stunt coordinators to show off.
And the last fight scene? Andy is immortal, and has spent her entire 6000+ years of life as a mercenary. Discord might be older, but most of what we've seen of her has been avoiding fights and stockpiling weapons, and we find out that she's mortal.
I do not buy that Andy couldn't kill her.
One of the great things about the first movie was that we were shown repeatedly that these guys might be really good fighters, but they're not super-human good. They get shot, they get hurt, they get killed. The thing that makes them terrifying enemies is that they always get back up again.
But Andy couldn't touch Discord. And Discord was so fucking nonchalant about that fight? I just... don't buy that as the reaction of an ancient immortal who's recently found out she's no longer immortal.
Which brings me to...
The Ending
Fuck off. That wasn't an ending. That was a bullshit cliffhanger and they did not do half the work it takes to make a cliffhanger like that work. (Across the Spider-Verse did it right, and more insightful people than me have done essays about how they did it right, so I won't go into it here.) They didn't resolve... any of the plot threads in the movie except perhaps Quynh, and even that was only part of her storyline.
Also, having Andy get her immortality back just for Quynh to lose hers? Fuck off! That felt so cheap. 'Wait, we've given Andy back her immortality, quick! Gotta make Quynh mortal for that Angsty Tragedy!' There are a dozen better ways of playing on the tragedy of Andy and Quynh without burying your gays.
. . .
Conclusion
Well, I've figured out why I didn't like it. And I'm actually going to revise my assessment and say it's not a decent movie. It is, in fact, a Bad movie. It Does Not Make Sense. And the only reason it feels like a decent movie is because it doesn't have any blatant flaws until the end and it's riding on the coattails of the first movie.
If anyone wants to have a polite debate about this, I'd love that, but just remember that being an asshole about it is only going to make me double down.
How do you feel about gifts? Are they a family only, close friends, anyone? Do you save gifts for special occasions or just give gifts when you find them? Of course cost is a big factor.
I love giving gifts. I am always finding little things for my nibblings and siblings and parents. My spouse helps too especially for the nibblings. A lot of times it's just something simple like hair care or snacks. Though we have also bought some decorative signs for a shop owner once. She hung them up until she closed the shop.
*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer
Gifts. I am... bad at gift-giving. I either blue-screen-of-death when I try to think of what someone might want, or I over-think it to death. Wishlists are a blessing.
I generally save the more traditional buying-an-object style gift-giving for Christmas, and then to the lucky few who are my very best friends, I try to give at least a little one-shot fic for their birthdays. (Except for that one year where I managed to write a couple of freaking novels for them. That was fun XD That'd be Hold Out Your Hand and The Only Thing More Powerful, fyi -shameless self-advertisment-)
I've been pretty skint for a long time, but when I do have cash to spare, I do like to treat my friends. (They've already decided they want the thing! I can just swoop in and be like 'oh no let me' and do a nice thing without the trouble of hemming and hawing and feeling terrible that I might accidentally guilt them into feigning appreciation for something they don't actually want!)
Are/Were you a doodler? Do you have a favorite thing to doodle? I think mine is hearts and stars or tiny stationary like glue bottles and pencils.
*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer
Not so much, but I annoyed so many of my teachers by colouring in all the o's and... well, any letter that has a closed loop, in any worksheet they handed me. Does that count? XD
Do you remember the first idea that you had that prompted you to write/draw a fan piece for the first time?
How much did the idea change, if at all, by the time you finished it?
What made you decide to start sharing your work?
*Asks are for fun, no pressure to answer.
Sorry if this is a double ask, I tried sending it the other day but kept getting error messages from Tumblr.
So, the very very first idea I ever had was for the Rainbow Magic books when I was about... eight or nine? I honestly cannot remember the details of it, now (I can barely remember the details of the books themselves), but there was something about an ice palace and seven magical... somethings (flowers? crystals? crystal flowers? idk), mcguffins that the fairies need to find and I think Merlin was in it (from the disney movie).
I never actually finished it, I lost interest long before I reached the end (story of my entire fannish life save for a few miraculous exceptions ^^").
Uhh, what made me want to start sharing was when I found fanfiction.net and I realised people could do that XD
