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jq37 · 11 days

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FH Junior Year Post-Season Thoughts

With another season of Fantasy High in the books and my recaps all finished, I wanted to do an overview of my thoughts on the season as a whole. Even though I feel generally positive about my experience with the season, there are a few things I think maybe could have been done differently narratively or mechanically. This isn't to criticize the way the season went down or to backseat DM/Play. More my combined ten years of college for textual analysis and storytelling bleeding through, haha.

I first want to start with the things I thought worked really well.

Fantasy High has "High" right in its title but, in past seasons (and especially Sophomore Year), not as much time as you'd think was spent actually at school and even if it was spent at school, there wasn't much time spent in class or engaging with the realities of being a student. This season really dug into the academic consequences of skipping your classes all the time and the realities of needing to do a ton of extra stuff to try for a scholarship and I think that was a refreshing thing to highlight for a change. Being more scared at flunking out than the dragon that's trying to eat you feels very emotionally resonant. Real "High School Is Killing Me" vibes for anyone who's a fan of NPMD.

Even though Fantasy High is a show that has some deep emotional beats and strong character arcs, it's first and foremost a comedy show. From the jump, everyone was generating bit after bit that had me cracking up as usual. "Little girly dog collar" is one of the funniest combinations of words I can think of. I think it was Siobhan who said that this was the goofy season and, having seen it, I'd have to agree with her. It never failed to make me laugh and it was always a highlight of my week. The cast just has great table chemistry that I love to watch no matter what they're doing.

Watching some of these high level combat encounters is as close as I'll get to understanding people watching sports. Even though combat is generally my least fave part of D&D, I think the cast really killed it this season with how cleverly they played and Brennan came up with some really great combat encounters. Special shout outs to Baron's Game and The Last Stand for their unique mechanics.

This is going to be one that's on the other list as well because my feelings are mixed, but I genuinely do like the downtime mechanic and how it forces hard choices. I think it's an interesting way to connect a mechanic to the story and cultivate stressful atmosphere for the season.

I have problems with the execution but I love the Rat Grinders in concept. I think as early as season 1 I was hoping that we'd meet a party that was like the Bizarro Bad Kids and the idea of a party that's farming XP instead of going on crazy adventures is a strong concept. Likewise, I think a character that's jealous because of your "cool" (read: tragic) backstory is also a fun trait for an unhinged antagonist in this kind of setting.

This is me absolutely showing my bias but I adored the Abernant Sisters content this season. I dunno if Siobhan specifically asked Brennan to not put her on a bus with the other beloved NPCs or what but I'm so glad she stuck around and we got the development we did. It was almost entirely ancillary to the plot but there was this clear pattern of Aelwyn getting softer and sweeter towards Adaine over the course of the season, from the guarded, "Enjoy the nemesis ward," to, full I love you's and, "I'd take them to get you." It was way more focus than I expected considering that Aelwyn completed the bulk of her arc last season and a lot of the time, a redemption arc basically ends after the big gesture (in this case, Aelwyn taking a magic blast for Adaine in Sophomore Year). So the fact that we got to see all of these sweet moments of them reestablishing their relationship outside of do or die moments was such a pleasant surprise. Again, I fully admit I am extremely biased, but this was my top wishlist item and the season overdelivered so there's a baseline happy I'm always gonna be with Junior Year.

OK, so moving on to things I things I think could have been tweaked.

Even though I liked the downtime system and the pressures it created, it also squeezed out the chance for more casual PC to NPC interactions that would usually be more common because they were semi-locked behind the relationship track and there wasn't an obvious benefit to roll for Relationships (as opposed to something like Academics which was crucial for not flunking out). Making the mechanical benefit more clear would have helped that (even if it meant Brennan didn't get his reveal--which he ended up just telling them anyway so might as well do it early). The other thing is that the consequence of a rage token was so bad that of course they spent all season avoiding getting one. Things might have gone differently if the consequences had been a bit more obscured, like in Neverafter. And it could have been a nice parallel to the Rat Grinders to take this unknown resource that makes things easier for you but is also having this negative effect. Then it could be like dang we did the same thing they did unknowingly.

I mentioned this in my recap but I'll talk about it again. It is a little confusing to me that we did the Ankarna subplot right after we did the very similar Cassandra subplot. It took up so much time this season which I don't think is an issue in and of itself, it's just that we literally just went through some extremely similar beats last season. Why double up on this same storyline when there's so much new ground to cover? Or if we're going to raise a god, why not make it a different kind of god? One theory I had early on was that the Rat Grinders were trying to raise their own god to one-up the Bad Kids but instead of raising a chill, misunderstood Cass type, they accidentally raised a god who was erased for a good reason and got in over their heads.

It's fun for there to be connections between seasons but sometimes it's like, OK that's a *lot* of coincidences. Like the god who your rivals is trying to raise *happens* to be the wife of your cleric's god and also *happens* to be the god of the fiend trapped in your friend's mom's chest and that fiend *happens* to be the relative on your bard's dad's side which is *also* the reason she is randomly cursed? That's a LOT of red string connecting plot points. As unhinged as Kipperlilly is about coveting Riz's backstory if I saw that go down I'd be like you have *got* to be kidding me.

The mystery elements didn't feel like they clicked as well as they did in other seasons. I think that's partially because Porter's plan was so convoluted (seriously, I made another post about how haphazard his plan was) and had all these moving parts and we didn't get clear answers for a lot of mechanical things like how the rage crystals actually work and when they were implanted and stuff. You had stuff like Devil's Honey which I think is super cool as a thing that exists in the world but ended up being an element that just led the players down the wrong path and had a relatively small payoff (that Porter was using it to lie to Ankarna). I think it's plausible that a forgotten god would be willing to listen to anyone saying the right things without introducing this element. (As opposed to, for instance, Ambrosia which has a very clear connection to what's going on and is a solid clue that someone is flirting with aspirations of godhood.)

The Porter reveal came so late in the season that even though it was a fun/challenging fight, there wasn't a lot of emotional weight behind killing him. It was basically just dunking on a teacher Fig has always hated who was also mean to Gorgug so screw him. Which, valid of course. But the Bad Kids were never going to react as strongly to Porter as they were to the Rat Grinders so putting Porter in the prime villain spot isn't necessarily what I would have done if I wanted the fight to be more than just a brawl--especially since we've done "School admin with student minions" already in S1. I don't mind the full circle callback but it would have been nice to pick something else for the sake of variety. We haven't had a child mastermind yet and I think Kipperlilly could have been a great candidate for that. My friend suggested that it would have been fun if Kipperlilly was trying to become a god instead of just being Porter's underling and I agree. "I'm not anyone's chosen one so I'll choose myself," is still within her established jealousy and Type A tendencies. If we want to keep Porter involved since that was Brennan's gift to Emily, maybe have it be that instead of Kipperlilly working for him, he's working for her. Like Artemis Fowl vibes! And the Rat Grinders can be varying levels of on board--from true believe to redeemable. I don't think Brennan planned for the Bad Kids to ever redeem her so might as well go full megalomaniacal mastermind with her and make her The Villain if she's not gonna be nuanced anyway. If My Little Pony can do it and send a literal child to Tartarus for pony treason (or whatever Cozy Glow did), Fantasy High can too.

Continuing from the above, if we have the Porter fight in place of the Grix fight (a la Daybreak) and don't use Ankarna, that gives way more time for the Bad Kids to investigate the Rat Grinders throughout the season and it would mean that they would have their personalities developed a lot more. With the limited downtime, they Bad Kids didn't have a lot of time to spend on these kids who were just hating on them for no good reason (valid). But if you cleared their plate of the god hunt stuff, they'd have more time for this. And if they weren't all rage zombies to varying degrees, it would be easier to see them as characters. Besides Kipperlilly (and, funnily enough, Mary Ann) we don't really have a good read on what these kids are actually like. The little time we spent with them all season was kind of a wash if them breaking out of rage means their personalities got laundered too. Anyway, regardless of how their loyalties ended up shaking out, it would have been fun for them to be more than the minions that they were in canon. As funny as it is for them to just kinda be XP farming losers, they did have the potential to be more interesting in their own right if they weren't just Porter's minions. And again, we've done adults forcing or coercing children into being minions in Freshman and Sophomore Year already. Lemme see some self-created child maniacs! (Or, peer pressured child maniacs. That's cool too. The Lucy/Kipperlilly dynamic is way more interesting to me if it's like girl, I would take a bullet for you but I CANNOT walk this path with you any further in response to *I* will be a god and you can be *MY* champion.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts! Like I said, I have my points that I think could have been tightened, but overall an enjoyable season and I will be glued to my screen if they decide to close out with Senior Year!

#dimension 20 #d20 #fantasy high #spoilers #I had so much fun with this season but the overall plot makes my brain throw up question marks if I map it out or think about it too hard #but then I think about adaine and aelwyn at basrar's and it's like wow 10/10 flawless execution #I don't know if I've been clear enough about this over the season but I LIKE kipperlilly as a character #I think she sucks and that's great #I think she should be worse actually #like own it #don't be a pawn in some loser's plan be your own girlboss #grind those rats chug that ambrosia #be the teenage demi-god you think you deserve to be and drag your friends into your plan with the sheer force of your personality #make it 100% sure that there's a spot in hell waiting for you when you get sent there #imagine the level of vitriol they had towards kipperlilly as is and then imagine she has legendary actions #I think her going down to riz like a chump is such a huge W for riz and fitting for how the narrative played out #but to use wrestling terms for a second #it was a waste of a LOT of heat #Porter didn't have NEARLY as much heat as she did

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symeona · 8 months

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All these cishet men crying about what ppl do or don't have between their legs and they don't even eat pussy what are they so worried about

#i cant say this to their face so i have to come on here #rambling #every time i interact with these waspy mfs i question my stance on public executions

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sophfandoms53 · 2 years

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Very minor spoilers for the rise movie

I don’t know how they managed to do this, but they somehow found a way to make the Leo flying/falling through a window trope even sadder and there wasn’t even a window this time. (Yes I cried)

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wigglys-dikrats · 7 months

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uh oh it’s npmd theory time with grey who didn’t get enough sleep last night ~~

a post earlier got me thinking

it talked about how npmd had too neat an ending and it didn’t make sense that ruth and richie, being pete’s best friends, weren’t even mentioned after their deaths and there was no mourning for them

we all know how miss holloway made a deal with the lords in black to receive immortality in exchange for everyone who gets close to her forgetting any part of her story they learn

my theory is that the lords in black placed the same curse upon the town of hatchetfield

if anyone is killed by the lords in black (or dies as some part of their schemes) their loved ones immediately forget them

it would explain how nobody really cared when max went missing

‘it’s hatchetfield. people go missing every day’ because they are immediately forgotten about

now you could argue that tom didn’t forget jane when she died and her soul was transferred into their car via a spell from the black book - and maybe that’s because that was unplanned on the lords’ part

maybe they didn’t mean for it to happen so their forgetfulness spell didn’t work

(whether or not jane dies in every timeline remains to be seen, the langs have stated it’s not one of those fixed points that has to happen, like emma and paul meeting or ted dying)

this theory also brings back the ever-intriguing point i can’t stop thinking about: maybe the events of npmd were fabricated by the lords in black

maybe they wanted all of what happened to happen

they were pulling the strings from the beginning

they knew grace would eventually be the hero, and only wanted steph to kill pete for their own enjoyment

npmd felt like it ended on a huge cliffhanger, for me anyway

there are a lot of unanswered questions and something about this story feels unfinished

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flock-talk · 10 months

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Yep Toto’s a Quaker!

Most of Canada doesn’t have laws against parrot species, however my province has begun the process of proposing an exotic pet law that would ban all parrots except for budgies so yknow we’ll see how far that one makes it.

@foxfire69

#it was brought up last year with the main goal of animal welfare in mind #knowing that they aren’t suitable pets sort of thing #among that list of excessively large reptiles and fish as well #the bird list was clearly not made by anyone with bird knowledge thougb bc like really #ur gonna ban parrotlets that are less social but allow budgies that are hyper social #the logic is questionable #the law would have a grandfather claus so existing birds in the city are fine #but you couldn’t go and buy more and bring them in sort of thing #I honestly like the principle but it needs better execution

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biggiedraws · 1 month

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do you guys ever get so mentally ill about a fictional duo that you seriously contemplate downloading the entire show and editing together every scene they have together. so that you can watch it to re-experience their relationship exactly as it exists in canon without watching the whole show over again. ......or is that just me

#what if i made a grimmons supercut of rvb. like just to have #the real question is do i have the executive functioning to see this task all the way through to the end 🤔#(almost certainly not. but its possible)#its also possible that something like this already exists.....#but i cant trust that its done right unless i do it myself (<- actually just wants to do it because it would be fun)

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swagheart · 4 months

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Memorial to a Marriage but make it toxic yuri swagheart

#when you go to your lover for comfort after literally being tortured at moonrise towers #but she takes advantage of your vulnerability to try and get you to join her cult 😍😍#she got the right spirit just not the execution poor shadowheart is doing her best #shadowheart #almaryllis #swagheart #shadowheart x oc #bg3 act 2 #oc art #bg3 oc #bg3 oc art #my art #i love doing studies on statues a lot #it does something for my soul #oh yeah btw if yall have questions about my oc almaryllis feel free to send asks ab her! :)

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happyfeetfuryroad · 1 year

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Heretic

#i did this in like 30 minutes #i was having Feelings (tm) about the idea that narinder was shunned because he was introduced to the idea of change #and the theory that the change in question was him inventing the resurrection ritual #but i don't have the executive function to write long essays so i just doodle stuff #cult of the lamb #cotl narinder

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shima-draws · 1 month

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In regards to the rarepair week, is it necessary for the mod/s to determine what's a rare ship and what's not for the event to happen? If it's just a general create-what-you-want ship week event then it might not be necessary to establish a list of what can and can't be created for. Like, not trying to knock you so absolutely do what you want!! But considering how many characters are in OP I think trying to figure out what does and doesn't constitute as a rarepair would just end up being so long and drawn out (for you) and so limiting (for creators) because a complete list is never gonna be possible

Yeye that's definitely fair! I just want to be thorough and at least get a feel for the more popular (?) ships in the fandom and see whether they're truly considered rarepairs or not. Like Croc/Doflamingo - some people might view it as a rarepair. I personally don't bc I see content for them pretty often. But that's my own personal bias; maybe the fandom sees it differently. Which is why I wanted to ask in the first place :") I definitely don't wanna limit people from creating what they want but I also want the event to be enjoyable for everyone, so someone making content for a ship and someone else going "Hey wait they're not a rarepair I see art/fics for these guys all the time :(" is the kind of situation I want to try avoiding if I can 🤔

I'm not gonna be super strict on limitations either way lol I mean at the very least the REALLY obvious popular ships (i.e. Zosan, Lulaw, Zolu, etc) are off the list already. I'm done posting polls too so the potential candidate list was pretty short to begin with. But yeah no I promise this isn't gonna end in me yelling at people for including ships that aren't considered rarepairs. I'll probably just provide a list for people to go off of with ships divided into categories of "please don't make content for these bc they're everywhere and this event ain't about them" and "fandom doesn't consider them a rarepair, but if you do and you wanna make content for them anyway you can absolutely go for it".

I want people to have fun and do what they want first and foremost!! Any guidelines/rules will be super laid back. I just want people to be able to have fun exploring all the rarepairs the series has to offer rather than just going straight to the ships that are more "mainstream", even if they ARE considered a more uncommon ship. Hopefully that makes sense and I don't sound like an idiot lmao

#Shima answers questions #I prommy this isn't me lining people up to be executed if they draw a more 'popular' ship LOL #DO WHAT YOU WANT!! ...Within reason!!#Idc what people make as long as it's not OBVIOUSLY a fandom fave like Lawlu or Zosan #We're here to celebrate the girlies that never see the sunlight. That have maybe 50 fics in the tag #That are under the bed collecting DUST bc people don't realize they're there #Like Lawlusan *stares dreamily into the sunset*#Anyway yeah just want to get a feel for what is considered TOO popular for this event. Y'know?#We gotta give all the really rare ships a fightin chance

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kaythefloppa · 11 months

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Lion Guard Finale Praise + Rant

There is a lot I hate about The Lion Guard's final episode but the one thing that will always hold a special place in my heart is the return montage:

You can't tell in screenshots, but in the background, the LG chorus sings a reprise of the Departure Theme from the premiere episode, with this montage being a book-end to the goodbyes that the Guard said to their friends and families in that episode.

It's really sweet and powerful because it's a beautiful example of "Show, don't tell" (a rule which this show, particularly in Season 3, and the LK sequels in general are not the best at following). We see what the Lion Guard had left behind when they went on their journey to the Tree of Life, how much they had missed their home and how glad they are to be back and how that feeling was reciporicated by their friends and families.

Keep in mind that earlier that morning they were under the belief that Zira invaded the Pride Lands and had possibly killed the royal family and subjugated the Pride Lands' non-lion subjects if not giving them a same gruesome fate (since Kion knows that Zira is a lion supremacist, god-forbid what would happen if she ever got near Mtoto, Thurston, or Ajabu), and on the Pride Landers' end, the Lion Guard had been gone for such a long time with no one having any way of knowing they'd return or if they died. So this reunion was likely also a huge relief for everyone in the Pride Lands, especially Simba, Basi, and Timon and Pumbaa (who no doubt would've been scared shitless at the idea that their kid could be missing forever or dead and have no way to confirm or deny that possibility). It's just all around amazing to see. When watching the episode for the first time when it came out I thought something was wrong with my computer because despite there being 14 minutes left, I wholeheartedly thought the series was going to end there....

...which is why I'm very mad that it didn't and forever disappointed at the route they went with for the actual ending.

In the span of less than a full day since the Lion Guard returned from the Tree of Life, all of them instantly want to head back there on a whim after losing the Lion Guard contest, which would wind up in them completely uprooting their lives and leaving their home and families again for the sake of this one kingdom that we've only seen for seven to eight out of 74 episodes plus a TV movie! The reunion showed us that the Guard was strongly attached to their home and families, but now the ending forces us to ignore that to logistify the Guard willingly going to the Tree of Life without any on-screen goodbyes or send-offs. No scene of doubt, no goodbye songs, no parting ways between characters, nothing, it just jump cuts from "Hey, let's go back to the Tree of Life even though we've only been back here for a day" straight to them at the Tree of Life for Kion and Rani's wedding. Isn't the episode's title supposed to be "Return to the Pride Lands?" Yet the "return" plot stops mattering after the first 11 minutes.

The whole Guard leaving with Kion doesn't even make sense: Bunga has Timon and Pumbaa at Hakuna Matata Falls, Beshte has to co-lead the hippo pod with his father, Ono has his flock and possibly even Ona (you could argue that he would want to return to the Tree of Life because they healed him, but that's not the reason they went with - Also the poor dude lost his Mark of the Guard twice, the first being after he lost his eyesight to protect the Pride Lands from Scar, like, what the fuck?), Fuli had been the most admant about returning to the Pride Lands, and Anga showed no interest in staying at the Tree of Life and seemed perfectly ok in the Pride Lands.

Even back in the days where people were theorizing what would happen to the Lion Guard that caused them to be absent in TLK 2, I never saw reason for the whole Guard to leave if Kion ever left, and even then, I never expected any departure to be permanent because it would go against their whole life-style. It feels like they only had them leave like this for the sake of some "twist" that didn't need to be there. And even if they were going to go with this route, they could've had the Guard separate, with some staying and some going to at least make sense.

Much like Makini, Season 3 ignores crucial story elements of the main characters from the first two seasons to both justify their "plot-twist" by the end and to wrap up any “plot-holes” with the Lion King 2 and forces the audience to suspend an inappropriate amount of their disbelief. So while I like the reunion in the final episode and whilst my love for the show remains un-matched, knowing how it all ends and that (according to some writers) it was planned from the start to end like this makes me feel cheated in a way. One of the most disappointing endings I've seen from a show which I've been willing to follow from start to finish and this is coming from someone who's watched both Jake and the Never Land Pirates and Bunk'd.

#the lion guard #Kion #Bunga #Fuli #Beshte #Ono #Anga #The Lion King #Disney jr.#I'm back on my bs again ranting/gushing over the Lion Guard aren't I?#For years I've always questioned the Lion Guard's production especially in Season 3 #Because with so many episodes in Seasons 1 and 2 there's so much that Season 3 retroactively goes against despite being intended as the end #I have a hard time believing that the pitch sold to executives was always “The diverse interspecies Lion Guard is upstaged by lions #...and their long journey home as well as their live-long dedication to the Pride Lands is a bust bc now they are all a part of a lion prid #... so that they can all witness a child marriage between Kion and Rani on our fucking children's show"#At least Bunk'd's “ending” had a sendoff moment between the departing characters despite the season not being worth a fuck #This is.... just awful #rani #lion guard night pride #Pride Lands #Pridelands #the lion guard season 3 #the lion guard rani #the lion guard kion #the lion guard bunga #the lion guard fuli #the lion guard ono #the lion guard beshte #the lion guard anga #critical

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lucabyte · 2 months

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#aaugh putting this in tags because im shy but. little reminder that i will answer asks/questions about what the hell im on about in my #isat drawings and the rambles i leave in the tags. i am however like a vampire in that i must be invited to do so first #this ALSO counts for Nohats. Theres a bunch of nohats stuff that hasnt been posted abt bc sam and i have no idea how to execute on it but #yeah im not. used to being in active fanbases so i feel rude just yellin about AUs and headcanons!!! augh!!! but i want to make it #very clear that i very expressly make fanworks with the intent that other people can chew on them and build upon them. so. if i look like #i have more info or thoughts and youd want them. youll probably have to ask since just putting it out there feels presumptive to meee yowch #ill also just answer asks in general . the only reason i dont appear talkative is bc i dont wanna look presumptive and rude LOL #lucabytetalks

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sketching-shark · 9 months

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It's been a while since the last time I asked you Shark

But I have a new question:

What do you think about the retellings of JTTW, where Tang Sanzang proves to be able to stand up for himself or that he literally can also fight alongside Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing and even Bai Long Ma/Ao Lie (who lately I've noticed has started to grab more fame and recognition, being more and more dynamic and part of the group than just being a simple background character)?

I think the most famous version of this kind of retellings is "The Westward" (I like the design of that Tang Sanzang)

PS: It's good to be back

Oh hey! Good to see you again too @wiings-kwami! And in regards to your question, while I fully appreciate that this is a very inadequate answer I guess that depends on how it's used asdfrweadf. TBH the idea that Tang Sanzang can fight back against or at least somewhat defend himself against yaoguai is a potentially really neat idea! As is in the og classic he is the second most static member of the pilgrim group, and this could provide an opportunity for him to be active and explicitly grown and change instead of regularly acting as the embodiment of the "damsel in distress" trope lol. THAT SAID, I can also easily see this being used to shove the monk into the role of "badass fighter" and keep him a static character that way...I know everyone makes fun of Tang Sanzang for crying and falling off his dragon horse, and while some of this is warranted tbh I feel like a more interesting story could be told by addressing WHY he's crying so much rather than putting him in the opposite direction as a stoic fighter. So at the end of the day and as with any other trope out there, I'd say making Tang Sanzang into a warrior monk is potentially a cool idea, but it's less about him being that and more about how it's executed.

#ask answered #jttw retellings #jttw au #tang sanzang #sorry it took me so long to get to this question wiings aaaaaa #but yeah you know tang sanzang as a warrior monk could be really neat!#like it could be a really cool way to delve into the history of China's warrior monks #& how their sect was established from a recognition of a need for monks to protect themselves in a war-torn China #which could also be part of a backstory explaining Tang Sanzang's unrelenting desire to get the scriptures #after all his family was torn apart by bandits #who generally speaking to thrive in war-torn areas #or who are even often made up of former soldiers #it could also be part of why he has such great admiration for Emperor Taizong #who may have had 'countless people' executed while establishing his rule #but who also brought about some measure of stability to China #plus making Tang Sanzang a warrior monk could demonstrate his real adherence to buddhism in the way he only uses it for self-defense #in contrast to his disciples who often used violence to get what they wanted #in a kind of 'I know I'm capable of great violence but I choose not to every day and this is why' sort of way #on the other hand #it could also be used to show how helpless he is against a lot of yaoguai #like yeah the martial arts are good against humans #but idk how effective that's going to be against a guy who can for example breathe fire lol #anyway!#lots of possibilities with this concept

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