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jq37 · 11 days

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 12/13 A Moonar Yulenear Miracle

Welcome back to Fantasy High where last week, I was MIA because I was on a girls trip–a reason I think the Bad Kids would very much approve of.

Luckily, we can easily gloss over what we missed in a quick series of bullet points because, while it was an absolute banger of an episode (eat your dice Brennan!), it was fairly straightforward plotwise:

The Bad Kids were dropped into a creepy, dreamlike version of Mordred Manor which was created by a semi corrupted Cassandra who was trying to create a safe place for the Bad Kids to escape but having her intentions warped.

The Bad Kids did a fetch quest, fighting monsters and dodging Baron while they found the pieces of the pride armor curse. Once they got them together, they had a hefty piece of free infernal magic that Adaine could use as a spell component for a major thing–maybe even freeing Lydia from Bakur.

Cassandra assured Kristen that as long as Kristen is alive and believes in the Cass version of her, she can’t be fully corrupted (which is seemingly what Baron was trying to do–kill Kristen so Cass could comeback as his “stark father” the Nightmare King)

Cass also sent Kristen images of her wedding–where she got Kalina as a kitten as a present. Kalina once again reiterated that Ragh is the only name she can say before breaking her own neck so she wouldn't attack Kristen.

Got it? Good. We reconvene with the Bad Kids as they’re escaping this briefcase dimension and all of their loved ones are calling out for them, but they all decide to take a brief detour to hell to get some answers about the pride armor first–just what every parent wants for their kids! Adaine stores the infernal energy in the Sword of Sight and Planeshifts everyone to hell.

They pop into Fig’s Hellish Recording Studio and slurp down some boiling hot grapefruit seltzers before recruiting Baby to help them find the research books they need. Baby trashed them all and, unfortunately, it’s trash day so they all have to book it as the dump truck ambles towards the dumpster. It looks like it’s gonna be a close call but then–BLAM! The dump truck is vaporized by a plume of fire from the Goldenhoard! Yup, Bill Seacaster is here and he’s tattooing one of those cheesy bumper stickers onto his ship's ass: My son is a Maximum Legend at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. He got Fabian’s message after all!

Father and son are delighted to see one another but there’s still a lot of research to do so Kristen goes dumpster diving for books. She gets a 25 Religion and then a 20 (not nat) History while Adaine gets a 22 History and Riz gets a 27. Here’s what they collectively learn about the armor they came to research:

The sin armors were collected by Gorthalax as trophies for his hall.

Each was created by a different infernal deity to punish a mortal for the associated sin.

The armor of Pride was created to punish an elf named Athrenriel.

The Armor allowed him to win tons of battles but every battle ruined his reputation and the happiness of his family.

Eventually someone gave away the armor (maybe directly to Gorthalax, it’s unclear) but that caused the curse to move to the bloodline of the family itself and it’s been passed down patrilineally since.

The curse is known as the “curse of humiliation” and it usually affects the oldest boy in the family once their dad passes–which is why Gilear was a stud as a younger man and then he morphed into the yogurt man we all know and love.

The best that they can tell, some combination of Gilear putting the armor back on and Fig calling for the power in the Night Yorb fight/being an archdevil had some weird magical effect that pulled the curse back onto the bloodline and got her involved despite her not being blood related to Gilear.

This is just my interpretation but what makes the most sense to me is that because the armor was meant to help you win battles at the expense of your family’s rep, once Gilear put on the armor and rebooted the curse to its default state, he got really lucky and Fig, as his family, suffered for it.

Anyway, the party catches up Bill on the whole Kipperlily situation (he thinks Kristen should just kill her and Kristen isn’t NOT thinking about it), the shrimp jump, and the Cloud Rider (which he doesn’t know much about but he does use it as an opportunity to teach Fabian a fun way to threaten his banker). He also gives them all guns–much to Adaine’s delight.

Fig remembers that she has to figure out her pact and asks Bill, a Warlock patron himself, for help with that. He’s happy to help her cheat at school and for 40 gp (borrowed from Fabian of course) writes her an agreement on the back of one of his crewmembers and flays it off (nobody liked that). Somehow, I don’t think Zara–who wouldn’t even let her be a Warlock of Cassandra because that didn’t feel right–is gonna let this slide but hey, it’s not my grade in jeopardy here.

On Kristen’s suggestion, Fabian also gets a touchup on his Maximum Legend neck tattoo. He barely manages to stay conscious (truly so barely–Riz is so anxious about Bill using a dragon-sized tattoo gun on him that he gives Fabian disadvantage while trying to be supportive) but with the help of his friends he succeeds and, for his troubles, he now has a gold tattoo that allows him to safely handled cursed gold–no more dragon madness for him!

That super important business out of the way, the group splits up. Fabian and Gorgug stay with Bill so Bill can prove a point about the wisdom of buttering up ramps (just go with it) while everyone else goes further into the Bottomless Pit to continue investigating the armors of sin–this time in person. There are high rolls all around so here are the highlights again:

The Armor of Pride looks elven in design but it also feels fundamentally infernal. Riz wonders if that means it’s something maybe summer Eladrin related and Brennan says that would check out.

The other armors don’t really feel seasonal in any way (the Lust armor is a full Gimp suit lol).

When Riz turns on Detect Good and Evil, he can see the weird rune from the dead bodies on the Pride Armor which now also pings as the word Anakarna. It’s the arcane mark on the armor which means that Ankarna is the one who made this armor.

As he does this scan, he gets a call on his Spy Kids watch–it’s his dad! Just like Fabian, he’s super thrilled but he tries to keep it profesh. His dad (Pok Gukgak, secret agent angel) is understandably concerned that his son is randomly in hell as well as the fact that a god whose name hasn’t been said in a thousand years just had their name pinged by angelic spy tech (the necktie Riz used to cast the spell–all info gets routed back to the home office in heaven). Riz explains everything and his dad offers to help if there’s anything they want him to look up. They ask him to look up Athenriel and Ankarana and Pok is able to do that because he’s freed from the bonds of Oblivati Mori since they found the name themselves. So that’s a new fact we just learned: O.M. applies to celestial and infernal agents too, not just gods themselves. With Pok no longer bound by celestial silence, we get a bunch of info about Athenriel:

He wasn’t a follower of Ankarna as far as they know.

He’s older than the Court of Stars (the government of Falinel).

He’s not in any of the heavens they know of.

He was a druid and built many of the standing stones in Falinel (very probably including the one they triggered two episodes ago.

Gilear is related to him patrilineally.

They also tell Pok about Kalina and Spy’s Tongue Curse and Riz asks Ragh if he’s under that with anyone. Ragh says no adamantly but Pok points out that he wouldn’t be able to say yes even if he was. Pok says that in order to get around a Spy’s Tongue Curse situation, the best strat is to find someone just slightly outside of the group of covered people to get you in the right direction and here’s where I want to cut in really quickly to drop the piece of info from Sophomore Year that I said recently was a loose end which was bugging me and might be relevant. This is a screengrab from the recap I did of SY Ep 4:

So that’s suspicious as hell and also a possible reason that Kalina would want to say Ragh’s name to alert the Bad Kids to someone else. Anyway, back to the story in progress, Riz wonders if Athenriel is Bakur and asks his dad if there's anything connecting the armor being cursed and the Ankarna being corrupted/if Ankarna had a previous form. Pok starts looking it up and is a little confused because Ankarna’s file is a bit weird. It says she (we get the pronoun she in this ep so I’ll be using it now) is associated with the 9 Hells and it says that she doesn’t have any active divine domains (which isn’t weird because she’s dead) but the file is corrupted so he can’t see what the domains are supposed to be (though it seems like there are multiple).

Riz thinks that maybe Sol could have pulled some shenanigans to snag the sun domain for himself and Pok lays down some facts about gods. Gods–even good ones–are playing a different game from everyone else. They have to when their very existence depends on having worshippers. And gods generally hate collabing with a deity that shares their domain because they were explicitly the competition.

As they’re having this conversation, they’re exiting the pit and they make it in time to watch Bill hurl Gorgug up a giant ramp in some kind of insane and ultimately inconclusive science experiment. Pok says hi to him via the watch and they make quick plans for Bill to sell criminal secrets to heaven in exchange for gold (what is he even spending it on???? It’s hell!!!). Fig asks one last important question. Is this a Night Yorb situation? Now that the cat’s out of the bag, is it OK to say Ankarna’s name? Pok says it should be fine. The only problem will come if anyone actually starts worshiping her. (Did you hear that Fig?)

Kristen Planeshifts everyone out of hell before Fabian has a chance to say goodbye to his dad (entirely for the bit) and all of their parents are so relieved that they’re OK. Gilear is even more excited when he learns that his good luck has been nullified and his life can suck again. He feels at peace being back in his comfort zone and firmly believes that he doesn’t deserve good luck AND the best daughter in the world. Fig is worried that Hilariel might leave him now that his luck is bad again but Hilariel was into him BEFORE his glow up so they’re all good. Possibly better than just good if Adaine’s teasing prediction of a baby on the way is more than a bit (Fabian demands she undo it with a div roll and plans to give Gilear a vasectomy with his sword).

Lydia rolls up and asks what the hell happened because Bakur just tried to jailbreak harder than he has in ages. They start filling her in and offer to try the ritual they talked about in an earlier ep but she says they’ve been through a lot and it’s Fantasy Christmas tomorrow so they should get some rest first. Riz asks if Tracker is OK and they confirm that she and Nara both are when they give her a call. Zayn and Aelwyn are also both fine. Tracker and Nara were, as Fabian suspected, thrown out of the circle as protection by Gal from the pride armor situation.

Kristen explains to Tracker everything about Ankarna and the corruption and Bakur. Tracker is honestly really sympathetic to Adaine saying the name out loud and triggering everything in a, “Well if you find a dead god’s name you GOTTA say it” kind of way, like it’s as irresistible as popping bubble wrap.

They talk to Gorthalax who, surprise surprise, ALSO was being tongue tied by Oblivati Mori and can now spill some info. Lotta helpful dads in this episode! Here’s what he’s got:

Ankarna wasn’t a fiendish entity to start with. She fell, just like he did (you’ll recall Gorthalax went from being an angel of temperance to a devil of gluttony). He doesn’t know what her deal was exactly pre-fall though (which seems to be a running theme).

Post fall, she was all about rage and fire and conquering and Bakur was her right hand. Unlike her, Bakur wasn’t Celestial previously.

She had a set of scales that she turned into a warhammer (sounds like justice to war–also, doesn’t Porter have a warhammer? Suspicious).

She took artifacts from other pit fiends about conquest to study them which Gorthalax says is a super weird thing for a god to do.

Bakur referred to her as a “Mistress to her people” which Gorthalax also finds weird because, generally speaking, gods are more the ones making requests not taking requests as she seemed to be doing (the Bad Kids think this might mean there was an as above, so below situation where her followers morphed her into what she is now).

She was very touchy about her relationship status and once almost merc-ed someone who made a pass at her and had a snide comment about her being married still.

Before everyone goes to bed, Tracker checks in with Kristen and offers to help in any way she can. Kristen asks her to ask Gal about Ankarna and her OG domain and Tracker promises to follow up–now that Oblivati Mori is out the window, she can bring it up during their weekly Zoom meeting no problem. Tracker, like Pok, warns Kristen to be careful to avoid allowing this goddess followers and belief because now that this name is out there, it’s only a matter of time. (FIG, ARE YOU LISTENING???) Kristen thinks maybe it wouldn’t be that bad if they can revert this goddess back to her original, presumably less destructive domain.

While the above conversation was happening, Nara was around so Adaine steered her away from it from getting her to take her and a disguised Aelwyn (“Roma Childa” which Fig shoots down with bazooka level force) to the Court of Stars where her dad apparently works (Note: Her parents are supposed to be clerics, right? I guess they just have no separation of church and state in Falinel, lol). Adaine tells these immortal elves with no concept of finances that she can’t afford to be the Elven Oracle and she’s tapping out because she’s working as an ice cream waitress to scrape together enough money for her basic needs. Nara both vouches for her skills as an adventurer and asks her dad to let her have the 10 barrels of diamonds that are just lying around their house that they don’t have any use for. After briefly clarifying that she (Adaine) was *not* in fact declaring war on Falinel (exhausting, high elves are exhausting), the Council says they’ll convene in a month to discuss whether Oracle should be made a paid position. Their first thought is lawyers but Adaine gets it changed to a dance battle and she gets Fabian assigned as her champion. Fabian agrees, though the text asking him if he’s down stops him from completing his sword vasectomy on Gilear. Better luck next time buddy.

The next day, it’s the Moonar Yulenear and game time re: the gem in Lydia’s chest. Adaine is going to use the energy in her sword plus Contact Other Plane to make a viewing screen to talk to Bakur. With the spell, they get 5 questions and, of course, being the Bad Kids, they immediately waste two just asking “Sup?”. Riz yells at everyone except for Adaine (and maybe him) to shut up and the real questioning begins.

With their first proper question, they ask Bakur if he was Athenriel. He says yes. They guessed it in one. Second question: What was Ankarna’s previous domain before she was all about conquest? He starts crying scalding tears at hearing her name–the kind of crying that you do when you haven’t heard a loved one’s name in a really long time. He says she was the goddess of giants, long days of plenty, clarity, discernment, judgment, justice, righteousness, clarity, and the conviction to act with the force of the sun. So a serious slide from pretty chill to pretty intense. He also says that her sister was the light of her life and that she was fiercely protective of her. Final question: Was Sol involved in Ankarna’s corruption? Bakur, instead of answering, asks a clarifying question: Do they mean Sol himself or his followers?

At that, Adaine has to make a Charisma save. With help from her friends (including Gorgug’s new Flash of Genius Artificer ability) she just barely makes it. Bakur is going off about gods and followers and weapons and who wields who and Lydia is starting to not feel good so Adaine shuts down the connection right away. Lydia has to make a save and also just hangs on so it’s time for that gem to come out of her chest.

When they reveal that they have the power to get the gem out properly, Lydia is taken aback and Ragh is in tears, soulfully pleading that they do anything they can to help, and of course they do. Adaine uses the energy stored in her sword from Fig’s curse to gold-seal the gem so it’s no longer in contact with Lydia’s skin. Inside the gem, Bakur reverts back from devil form to being a high elf that looks a lot like Gilear and is terrified of yogurt.

Fabian volunteers to do impromptu surgery because he has the new anti-cursed gold tattoo and clearly the dice know he’s not anything close to a trained medical professional because he rolls TWO NAT ONES and KILLS LYDIA. But luckily, there’s no I in Team and the other Bad Kids are there to bail him (and, more importantly, Lydia) out. Adaine swoops in with a 13 Portent roll so she doesn’t just pass away on the spot and then Kristen, surprise surprise, casually pops out a Nat 20 to remove this enormous, chronic, burden from Lydia. Saint Kristen does it again.

Lydia, free from the need for her constant rage for the first time in years, instantly falls asleep. Fabian keeps the gem because of his cursed gold immunity and Adaine uses Nystul’s Magic Aura to make it magically ping as an empty palimpsest to anyone who’s being nosy.

And with that Fantasy Christmas Miracle, vacation is over and we move into downtime.

Fabian first!

First Track Popularity: 18. Wild success.

Second Track Bard: 23: A+ AND Brennan lets the Dance Battle for Adaine be a school project so he crushes his competition and gets her salaried! Even though he’s wildly wealthy and doesn’t need more money, Adaine declares him her champion for all future dance battles and demands that the position comes with a stipend as well. He’s named the Oracle of Dance and Adaine gets her extra credit from predicting that he becomes the future of dance. Way to pay off a bit.

Third Track Owlbears: 27. Big success!

Fourth Track Fighter: 32. Another A+!

Fifth Track Job: You might be wondering what a job roll is for Fabian since he’s, as I said before, fabulously wealthy. Well, he’s keen to threaten his banker life his dad showed him and with help from Fig as backup (and Adaine telling him where the banker is hiding) shakes him down. Brennan, who I assume is making this up on the spot, says that it’s written in Fabian’s trust contract that he gets a 200 gp advance every time he finds and threatens his banker. Adaine offers to locate him every day if Fabian will split the gold with her. Fig is down to tag along for free.

Adaine’s next–though we’re not going to resolve all of her rolls this episode.

Now that she’s getting paid, she gives Basrar her two week’s notice and he’s sad to see her go but happy that she’s doing well. Adaine says that she’ll maybe come back to get a summer job for fun and he gives her a Fudgie the Whale cake to celebrate. Aelwyn’s sister senses go off and she can instantly sense that Adaine is having a nice thing without her. Adaine, who wanted to stuff her face with ice cream cake in private, is baffled at her non-divination specialist sister’s sudden supernatural intuition, but invites Aelwyn over to have cake with her.

Also, with the Oracle job being paid now, Adaine gets to roll 2d10 GP and even if she fails her Oracle track, as long as she rolls for it, and her financial situation will count as Well Off which is great because it was really screwing with her school rolls to not have her finances in check.

First Track Wizard: Dirty 20. A+! And without having to worry about her supplies, she now has time for research and projects and stuff.

Second Track Spells: This is a wizard mechanic that allows her to get new spells from her spellbook. With Help from Boggy, she rolls high enough to get a new 7th, 6th, 5th, and 4th level spell!

Third Track Mystery: She wants to Investigate Kipperlilly and on an 18, Brennan says that they’ll resolve this at the end of downtime, but she’s starting to put together where their hideouts and meetup stops are. Let’s put a pin in that until next episode.

Fourth Track: Relaxation Fabian is surprised and honestly adorably thrilled when Adaine shows up at his little relaxation nurse spa day thing. And, this time, it actually takes! Adaine is able to relax so well that she removes 2 stress tokens (which allows her to get rid of two negative stat effects–she’s now down to only 1 stress). I guess money solves all your problems after all.

[NOTE: Relaxation is supposed to be your last track but, in the AP, Brennan lets Shiv roll Oracle track and she gets a NAT TWENTY. Brennan flavors this as her issuing a ton of new prophecies while she’s at her spa day, haha.]

She closes off her downtime rolls with a sweet scene with Jawbone where she’s finally able to open up to him about the trouble she’s been having because she’s fixed it herself. Jawbone really wants her to know that she can come to him with problems and that she doesn’t have to fix things herself and when she says she likes solving her own problems and that she can still get discounted ice cream for everyone since Basrar let her keep the discount, Jawbone gently rebuffs her. He’s the adult, he buys the ice cream. (And Aelwyn steals the ice cream. Adaine catches her creating a portal to steal more whale cake from the mini fridge because she’s a menace even when she’s not actually there).

Finally for the episode, we move on to Kristen who is back in cleric class after a harrowing break and, as she steps into the classroom she sees an even more harrowing sight: In an all white suit with a Kentucky-fried silver tongue is the new Cleric teacher. None other than Buddy’s grandfather–Bobby Dawn.

Detention*

Fabian for Killing Lydia

I mean, come on? Double Nat ones? My guy.

Honor Roll

Kristen for Saving Lydia

The reason Kristen can be such a chaos generator is because and everyone just deals with it is because, at the end of the day, she’s also the best cleric ever hands down. Honorable mention to Adaine for her arcane assistance.

*I want to give Bobby Detention just for existing but I’m gonna wait for him to do actually do something out of pocket. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll have to wait very long.

Random Thoughts

Just a few quick notes this week! I haven’t been including this section consistently because I tend to get a lot of my random thoughts out in answering asks that people send me and also I’ve been so busy that by the time I get to the end of the actual recap I’m often like, OK I’m done, lol. But I wanted to take a few minutes this week to include a few thoughts.

Love Pok being just not happy that Adaine has a gun but not being able to say anything because his son is literally wielding his gun. Also lol at Murph saying, “It feels less weird when you call it an arquebus.” That’s why I love referring to it as a glock whenever I can.

I didn’t mention it in the recap proper but, in case it matters, Fig uses her blood to create a…Copy? Clone? Child? Romance Partner?...for Baby named Baby Baby. Truly not sure what their deal is.

Riz has a thought about whether they can use the power of music to uncorrupt Ankarna and, honestly, not even remotely the craziest possible idea. They have a rockstar on the team and last season a viral shrimp party was an important strategy.

As much as Fabian is protesting, I think he’d make a great big brother. Also, he’d have a full house again! I think he knows deep down he’d be the most ride or die big bro ever. Did you see how outraged he was last ep upon hearing her hurt Adaine?

I wonder if Gal throwing her clerics out of the circle had more to do with the general badness of the pride armor or her recognizing Ankarna’s mark specifically. Glad Tracker is going to question her. I think they should be exploring all their godly options at this point now that OM is gone. Hell, Kristen should try and ask Helio if he’s still taking her calls.

We need eyes back on the Rat Grinders ASAP. I’m glad Adaine took initiative there because we still have so many loose ends with them. We did a lot of macro investigating this ep but I’m itching to find out about the BS happening closer to home. What is Kipperlilly up to? Why did Ivy react the way she did to seeing “Lucy”? Is Oisin evil or not and can Adaine date him? All equally important questions.

If Brennan bided his time and let Emily rage about Porter for two seasons only to lull her into a false sense of security and reveal that he was involved in secret machinations this whole time I’m gonna laugh so hard.

#Dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 #d20 spoilers #fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #spoilers #the report card

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sorry-i-like-romantic-fabriz · 1 month

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This post here lists everything that makes Riz "canonically AroAce". OP refuses to listen to anyone who doesn't agree with them, so I'm responding to it separately with my own post. This post isn't about denying his possible/potential aromanticism, this post is about debunking the "canon" everyone insists makes Riz irrefutably AroAce. As always, I'm not here to tell anyone Riz cannot possibly be aromantic. I'm just trying to push back against the concept that Riz can only be interpreted one way and one way only. Here we go!

"He doesn't want relationships. That is canon." He's disinterested in them, that is not the same as being against them entirely. He doesn't relate to his friends obsession with them, but moreover he specifically doesn't relate to being horny 24/7.

"He made up Baron because he wasn't dating anyone and felt pressured." He was feeling (unintentionally) alienated by his friends and didn't wanna seem "different". They were saying he'd understand the obsession specifically with sex, once he was in a relationship. They weren't saying he HAD to be in one.

"His entire nightmare forest experience was "you are different from your loved ones because you don’t want romantic relationships like they do". " That was by absolutely no means the entirety of his nightmare experience. His fear was being abandoned by his friends, something Kalina antagonizes him about throughout the ENTIRE SEASON. Yes his disinterest in relationships (which he clearly equates with sex) was part of his fear, but not the entirety of it.

"Baron is literally part of his imagination telling him that he does not experience romantic attraction." Baron appears for less than twenty minutes throughout the entirety of the season. While Baron is his "Roemaence Partener", and while yes while Baron also antagonizes Riz about his disinterest in relationships, Baron is more a representation of Riz desperately trying to fit in rather than one saying "you don't experience romantic attraction".

"Everybody uses asexual to mean aro/ace, because they are not aware of the term aromantic." That's just straight up untrue. While it is a frequent misconception, insisting that that is what people ALWAYS mean is ridiculous. Which connects with your next statement:

"Brennan isn't exactly deeply entrenched in queer labels." While I can't argue about Brennan's knowledge of anything queer, Brennan knows about: sexuality being a spectrum, gender being a construct, polyamory (which I feel means he knows relationships are complicated), and he did a whole fucking campaign with drag queens of various labels.

I feel like insisting Brennan has absolutely zero concept of there being a difference between Ace and Aro is just to fit your belief that there's absolutely no way Riz could be anything but AroAce.

"Him using the word asexual does not and should not erase the explicit aromanticism of riz's character." There is no clear, canon information of Riz's romantic identity. Only his sexuality. Tbh if Murph made the conscious decision to make Riz asexual, I feel like he also knows Ace and Aro are not one in the same.

Look, I'm not denying that Riz could be AroAce. There's canon to support that interpretation along with the canon that states he's asexual. I'm not saying your interpretation is wrong, what I'm saying is your interpretation is not the only correct one.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

#fabriz #man I would love to tag the character #this entire post is about #but I don't feel like having my notifications #flooded with messages about people wanting to kill me with hammers

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figgybeans · 4 months

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FHJY trailer frame-by-frame

because i love these freaks. ok lets get into it (this is gonna be long)

love the dome this season !! the backgrounds are beautiful. the steps up in production across FH is amazing

ADAINE !! JAWBONE !! BOGGY !! i think her splash art is my have from the six. i have no clue what ESF stands for so anyone lmk

her mini is also i think my favorite, the pins on her leather jacket really sell it. minus points for boggy's HUMAN ARMS though, theres a clearer shot later on

fabian time ! love the blanket. bill seacaster art as well ! god hes terrifying. the doodles on the owlbear stickers are cute too

apples bee ! plus some art of cassandra. kristen is in her strong arc, which the world is all the better for. i think its also important to remember that from the start of the series kristen has always had a higher strength score than fabian (ignoring her 4 dex)

ignore the phantom riz mini, the trailer hardly stayed on his intro art for long. which is a shame cause LOOK AT IT !! the kalina picture, fuckin baron, the corn cuties, so much night yorb, bizz in the corner, captain whitclaw, coach daybreak - the man riz shot through the head in cold blood, the bardy boys !! its perfect.

fig !! sad theres no ayda art in here but theres gotta be in the series. "-and a wizards paramore, YES its part of my identity, thank you" iconic. glad her mini has a custom bass. also gilear <3<3

gorgug my boy. with his giant fuckoff axe. so happy his mini is including his artificer level, PLUS that probably means he takes another level in it, and unlocks infusions >:)

this two headed dragon guy. red dragon can always mean some Kalvaxis callback, but we never know. i DO know that there's a statblock for two headed dragons in Monster Manual Expanded III, so maybe brennan uses that ? or just gives a regular dragon two breath weapons. we will see

this was one of the clearest frames i could get for this art, but what we can see is still cool. love kristen in her kill bill jumpsuit. as an aside im still a riz-has-a-tail believer

now THIS is a battlemap. im like 99% sure that that's the Thistlespring Tree in the background, and the Sig Figs are having some kind of concert here. HOWEVER, if we zoom in, it doesn't look like any of their minis are on the stage. intrigue.

the internet mall ! or something. i have no idea who the minis could be, BUT the IDK-wearing purple one in the middle could be some Guardian of Faith representing cassandra. also adaine and boggy have matching berets in the wide shot

this set i think is a gladiatorial arena of some kind? because we see a bunch of monstrosities and aberrations with this in the background later. also the big gates and monster-keeping pens are a clue.

BOGGY ARMS. BOGGY ARMS. adaine is covered in blood. but fig looks to have some kind of ghost opossum familiar. BUT, my friend pointed out that it could be edgar, zayn's ghost rat ! so maybe we have him return for an episode. this house looks spooky enough. maybe mordred manor gets infested by demons or something

otyugh spotted !! my favorite monster of all time

this roper-looking thing. it overlays when brennan says "an eldritch beast that threatens all of the denizens of this world," so im really thinking there's gonna be an overarching Aberration theme in these combats

also this guy. i have no clue what he is honestly. the rectangle in the background could maybe be a mirror or painting, so this might take place in the mordred manor-looking set from before

purple worm, in the gladiator arena !

some sort of ghost ship? doubtful that its bill seacaster's ship again, and the mist could mean the ethereal plane

the bad kids !! just noticing that fabian's eye patch is either missing or on the wrong side

im pretty sure this is an umber hulk, also in the gladiator set

skateboard fig mini. also, this could be the hang van (?) but it also could be too long and be some kind of ghost limo. idk

graveyard ! maybe they team up with zayn here

a blue dragon, which makes me think the red dragon from earlier isnt kalvaxis related and is just a dragon

more POV arrow shots, but this one's going into a fucking hydra. which looks like it grows three heads instead of two ? if that's what the attachment on the right side means.

this could be the red wastes ? back on the kalvaxis theory.

a wider shot of the internet mall. note the "YARRRRbucks" behind lou

THE RETURN OF THE CRAB KING !!

aaaand the final art frame !! fig finally gets her license (or not)

all in all 10/10 frothing at the mouth till jan 10

#rotating them in my mind like a rotisserie chicken #fhjy #fantasy high #dimension 20 #d20

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allthecastlesonclouds · 2 months

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i am thinking about your dance au. it has lived in my brain rent free always. love it. so good.

i am also always thinking about them. i'm so glad you're also enjoying them and i'm taking this as a prompt to make more of it (i want to so bad)

if the teacher has to leave the classroom, they'll most often put kristen or adaine in charge. with adaine everything goes fine. with kristen it's chaos incarnate that somehow (*riz) turns into them being productive by the time the teacher comes back

the kristen-and-fig combo has gotten at least 4 teachers fired.

they're not always trying to, but they pretty often are

fig specifically gets A Lot of spotlights in dances because she can be very Loud and Personable, but she has also had these spotlights taken away many times (she simply begins improving shit)

she got a solo this year because aguefort was a little bitch, knew gorgug wanted a solo, and so offered it to his best friend instead of him

ayda did not know this was her father's reasoning.

she just thought if was because fig's a good dancer (she is)

fabian and fig are The Flexible Ones™ and aren't. vocal about it, but they certainly aren't subtle, either. teachers have had to tell them to not make their splits too good.

riz is also pretty flexible, but his stature makes it less obvious. when your friends are all at least 2 feet taller than you your grande battement doesn't look as good.

fabian drags fig in early one day and asks her to do some improv with him bc he wants to try out for a swing dancing tournament, they have the time of their life.

gorgug and ayda often practice two different dances in the same room at the same time.

adaine and riz are the best technically, but they do struggle a lot with the acting part of it. walking into a class you'd expect the most awkward to be gorgug, but they were both trained on ballet-smile-fixed-on-your-face-at-all-times and so any acting at all is. extra practice for them

speaking of gorgug he's so quietly good. he can act and he knows the steps and he has good balance and good flexibility so. he's just good. but he's not loud about it, and the teachers don't often point it out

he writes the steps down before practicing throughout the week

riz makes tutorial videos for kristen (or for anyone if they miss a class) to help her learn and remember the steps. he says he likes doing it. nobody's 100% sure on that's true. (including him)

aelwyn and baron dance at the same studio (across town)

penelope originally danced at both and then she had a little scandal where she was blackmailing a teacher and she couldn't dance at either bc her father couldn't pay aguefort to cover it up

aelwyn starts working at aguefort's but refuses to teach anyone besides the ages 9-13 because "they're little shits and i need someone to tell me just what they're thinking, adaine."

zayn is inexplicably sometimes where ayda is. they're never in the same place at once but zayn just. appears. when ayda needs/wants to go do something and rawlins for some reason isn't there.

garthy runs an swing dancing studio that is also a pole dancing studio! bob does swing dancing trixie does pole dancing

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fig faeth #fhau #ayda aguefort #fantasy high au #riz gukgak #whoa we're back with more of my bullshit #castles dance au #i walk out of every other dance class going 'i should draw this but the bad kids!'#and then i start drawing and i remember that i can't draw people #ren <3

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the-cooler-newton · 2 years

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One of the things that's so utterly terrifying about Baron is how, as a personification of amatonormativity, the weapon Riz has to use to defeat them is made of the same stuff that sparked the creation of them in the first place: Riz's perception of his friends love.

Because we have to remember that the reason Baron is the way that they are, the reason they have a name and a homeland, is because Riz made them up in a moment of insecurity when his friends were all teasing him about never being kissed. Baron was born of this moment when Riz realised that his friends could not relate to or understand him in this deeply personal way, and so he desperately searched for any method to fix himself such that he wouldn't have to feel that sense of alienation.

And then, in the nightmare forest, at the other end of the season, Baron repeats these same fears back to him.

There’s a reason you made me up, Riz Gukgak.

Do you think they look at you as someone they can understand?

The years will go by, and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you.

And what does Riz say to that?

I love my friends, and they love me.

oh yeah? the same friends that caused you to create Baron in the first place? those friends?

Not to say that Riz is wrong - we know how much the gang all love each other at this point. Baron was created in a moment where Riz felt different from his friends, but the way he finally kills Baron is through his conviction that he has a place amongst them regardless of this difference. Baron dies here because Riz accepts himself for who he is and realises that his friends will, too. Being aroace is not the insurmountable hurdle that Baron was portraying it as.

But. The fear that Riz’s friends couldn’t or wouldn’t love him was not the part of Baron that scared me the most. That part is easily dismissable as a lie. The part that got me was

The years will go by, and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you.

And maybe I just need therapy or something but that fear that Baron voices, as well as the other cultural-and-societal-level elements of amatonormativity that they represent...to me those are not fears you defeat, they are fears you learn to live with. They are not lies told to you by a monster, they're scary because they're true.

And I wish I could say that having really good friends helps me the way it helps Riz. I wish knowing that love isn't a finite resource was comforting. I wish the certainty that I had a place amongst the people I care most about would make the fear go away. I wish I could tell myself that my friends love me and that that would be enough.

but it isn't. Because Baron is right.

they will always find someone who matters more to them

than I do.

#riz gukgak #dimension 20 #dimension 20 fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #fhsy #baron from the baronies #aroace agenda

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the-writer-nerd-ro · 2 months

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I'm not like you guys

Here's my Aromantic Riz story like I promised, just in time for Aromantic Awareness Week. It's set after Spring Break but probably before summer and the events of Junior Year (which I haven't started watching yet so no spoilers)

Enjoy!

Riz Gukgak had prepared an entire PowerPoint presentation to tell his mom about spring break but for some reason, he hadn't been able to plan out what he was going to say now, with his friends.

“Hey, guys, can I talk to you about something I figured out on the trip?”

He knew his friends loved him and accepted him. He knew that he didn't need a whole strategy just to talk to them. He just had to trust them and trust himself.

“Of course, The Ball. What's up? Is there another angle of the mystery that we missed?” Fabian asked.

“No, uh, no I don't think so. It's kind of about a different mystery. The mystery that is myself.” The words felt dorky as he was saying them but he refused to let his fears get in the way again.

“You can tell us anything,” Kristen said.

“I think… I think I'm not like you guys.”

“What? No, you're just as cool and important as all of us,” Fig said quickly in her “I'm placating” tone that she usually saved for Gilear.

“Yeah, I know. I know I'm an important part of this group. This isn't really about that.”

“What is it about?” Gorgug asked, used to not always understanding what Riz was talking about. Unfortunately, this time Riz also seemed like he didn't know what he was talking about.

Riz let out a frustrated sigh, not upset with any of his friends, mostly just upset with himself for not being able to verbalize this.

“Do you want to hold Boggy?” Adaine asked gently.

“Actually, yeah, that might help.” He cupped Boggy in his hands and let the happy little frog settle his nerves and frustration.

“Okay, here it is. I'm not like you guys. I'm not trying to get my kisses in.”

That seemed like a pretty good way to explain it, but the rest of the Bad Kids seemed perplexed.

“What?” Gorgug asked.

Riz sighed.

“Do you guys remember Baron?”

“You mean your fake romance partner?” Fabian asked.

“Yes, well, I only invented him because I felt awkward that you guys seemed so interested in hooking up and I just wasn't. For a while, I thought maybe I was just too invested in my cases, but confronting Baron in the Nightmare Forest made me realize that I'm simply not interested in having a romantic or physical relationship with anyone.”

The party took a moment to digest that information before nodding.

“Very cool, The Ball,” Fabian said.

“Yeah, you'll always be the one people want but can never have,” Fig said, her eyes sparkling as a new idea for a song was born

“I always thought that Adaine would be the asexual one,” Kristen said, which made Adaine give her a look.

Riz slapped his hands down on the table, Boggy hopping back to Adaine at the sudden movement.

“There's a term for it?!?”

“Yeah if you don't experience sexual attraction you're asexual and if you don't experience romantic attraction you're aromantic. And if you're both I think they call that being aroace.”

The look on Riz's face was radiant, the look of someone who finally had all the clues slide into place. He didn't say anything for a long time, just relished his newfound answers.

Then the words were falling out of his mouth like a dam that had burst. “In the Nightmare Forest, my second greatest fear was that you would all find love and stop caring about me, that you would all move on and I'd be stuck and alone. But everything we've been through proves that I was wrong. And knowing that there are other people like me proves that I will never be alone.”

“We're never going to stop caring about you,” Fabian promised, with murmured agreement from the rest of the group.

Then Gorgug asked, “What was your first greatest fear?”

Riz no longer felt awkward about his identity but he did feel awkward admitting this, “Sleeping on the job.”

The Bad Kids groaned and rolled their eyes, teasing him about his lame fears and workaholic persona, but even as they teased him Riz knew that they loved and accepted him and that that wasn't going to change.

#riz gukgak #fantasy high #fantasy high fanfic #the bad kids #d20 fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year

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aranarumei · 3 months

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okay watched ep 2 of fhjy and as anyone might imagine I've got thoughts. under the cut.

lots of fun things this episode! haven't watched the AP yet btw. i'm mostly writing these down myself so I'll go character-by-character, but some overall stuff about the episode:

whatever episode one was doing really paid off here. by itself, the full episode of battle, apart from being excited by all the new intros, was a bit frustrating especially since I wasn't sure how they were actually going to be able to reel the night yorb in, but they did it in this one! with lots of time left over for other stuff.

and with both episodes out, (as i suspected) that really frustrating feeling from episode 1 carries a lot more meaning--brennan making everyone fight those minions was perfect icing on the cake. as well as all those personal troubles at the end. but that gets into character stuff, so:

riz:

riz gukgak is one of my favorite characters in the universe. when i watched fhsy baron happened and i obsessively took notes the whole season bc i was like. riz is aroace and i can prove it. as you can imagine i nearly died when my green heaven released

anyways, pretty much everything riz has done has been so, so, on brand for what I'd think he'd do, so that's great--i feel like I haven't gone wrong in understanding him, which is cool

one of the big things that seems like we'll be getting this season is riz's attachment to his friends, by which i mean he feels like he can't hang out with them unless there's a job to be done. he's got this bit in the boys' night extra where riz says "it's usually like we kind of have this whole group dynamic where all of us come together and we solve these problems together. and when I don’t have a problem to solve, I don’t know what to do with myself." which is pretty much exactly what's going on here. as brennan phrases it, riz has basically just told his mother "I have a pretty a hard time connecting to my dearest friends whose lives I've saved many times unless there's a problem, so I can feel useful."

and this like... deep sense of anxiety around being alone, that's kind of a really deep part of riz's character, right? penny luckstone was his babysitter--closest thing he had to a friend. riz cares a lot about the case, but he probably also cared about the only connection he really had. and now the bad kids are his connections. he wants to be with them, like, forever, and half of his worries about all those romantic entanglements is that everyone is going to prioritize themselves and their romantic partners above him, and since he doesn't... want that kind of thing, where does that leave him? alone? forever? with no place to belong? he's already one of the only goblins we ever see in the whole time we've been in the land of spyre.

and I think what's really heartbreaking about this, at least to me, is that riz so clearly and obviously loves and adores his friends. he doesn't have a problem expressing his love! and I don't think he really even doubts that his friends love him, too. it's just that. i don't think he can deal with the possibility of being without them. and he doesn't know if the fact that they like each other is enough to keep them together. but hey, world-saving does.

sklonda was so good this episode, too. was particularly affected by when she told riz "you do everything for other people, and I want to make sure that you don't get your heart broken" because it's just... yeah. also that's such a real struggle money-wise with college in particular... I really kind of hoped we could maybe help sklonda out with her case, but, it is her job, after all. see where riz gets his board from haha. but seriously, she's just... such a good mother. every time the gukgaks interact it's so warm to me because riz and sklonda just... so obviously care for each other, so carefully. like. not a single bit of resentment or frustration coming from riz once sklonda tells him he might need some to put some extra pressure on himself, and it's partially being fine with pressure, partially not acknowledging his problems, and partially that he's just a good kid and knows his mother's doing the best for him. so he'll do that for her, too.

who bets that riz will not talk about any sad feelings in front of his friends this season!!! anyways that was so goddamned long, because I'm crazy about riz. the rest will be way quicker

anyways no one except ME is reading this. haha.

fig:

so, I'm fully convinced that gilear and fig swapped lucks. the sour, curdling feeling? very gilear yogurt. also the kicker was icing on her shirt. real yogurt moment there. and with all these kisses of fortune gilear's getting, I'm convinced that's what's happened for fig. very interested to see how that messes with her coolness

I'm also really interested in fig actually taking bard classes. i do have to wonder how it might go... I know emily like, does music, so I wonder if any of her knowledge there might come in handy

also very interested in seeing how any of the aguefort quangle stuff is gonna mess with things this season! even the little bit of ayda we saw was so good.

kristen:

so, like, obviously, cassandra's not doing so hot, because they've only got two followers. i think it's really interesting how non-pressuring they are towards kristen because like. for all the pestering they don't actually seem to outright mention that they aren't doing so great

also kristen seems in a pretty bad place this semester, but I'm hoping that the stark reality of expulsion is actually going to make her think about like, getting her life together. i'm really interested to see where it'll go because like. i dunno. i'm not much of an evangelizer myself.

more than tracker being away, it must sting additionally that like, apart from being in a possible breaking up state, tracker, right now, is being the like, perfect cleric. like she is reforming and adding nuance to her faith and stuff in a really really big way!! which is the kind of achievements kristen should be doing. but you know. they're world saving and things are... they're pretty tiring. (must've been nice talking about the moon goddess during eternal night, i bet)

ragh is also back and i'm so glad bc i love ragh. also 100% that red crystal lydia barkrock's been dealing with is gonna be relevant. i really hope that he has somewhat of a presence this season because like, he was around in fhsy, but ragh's like... idk, he's cool, and I feel like he's rich enough in character that he's got places to go?

adaine:

loved the little aelwyn mention. that nemesis abjuration is such a deeply aelwyn way of looking out for her sister

i am really excited to see adaine trying to get a job, personally. and i do hope we get to see more of zayn darkshadow bc he's just a really chill and nice minor npc in my opinion

fabian:

i love fabian's parents as equally as i hate them, and this scene exemplified it. they like... give him things, and look after him, but they're not really... supportive, are they? in an emotional way. no time to talk, and he's 18 now, so they're totally fine leaving him alone for months. they can be the cool parents that let him throw awesome parties. and hallariel saying it's a great thing to be his father's son... I don't know, bill seacaster's like, kind of a shithead?

so that'll be interesting. and he wanted to go to dance camp...! i hope he really does get to explore that passion more during the school year. truthfully i have to wonder how his grades are... riz and adaine are doing great, fig and kristen are doing terribly, gorgug is probably not the greatest considering his rage, but fabian? I'd be interested in knowing what's up with that

also they don't directly answer whether they're taking all the staff iirc, but judging by how hallariel mentions that food is just set up with an account, it may be that he can't even like, talk to cathilda or anything. which sucks!! it really does suck.

gorgug:

in some ways, zelda and gorgug breaking up was a little anticipated. still, it does suck. but it's not like he really had the time for anything

i wonder how this interacts with the timeline of the seven: that's in her junior year and sam seems to still refer to gorgug as zelda's boyfriend, and stuff, so I wonder if it's a retcon or I've got the timeline wrong or that I haven't quite finished actually watching the seven. anything could be fine--personally I think gorgug and zelda work really well as solo characters, so like, who knows

edit: in the AP brennan said zelda graduated so the events of the seven have likely already happened... that does bring up the question of why things dont line up but like. i can handwave time shenanigans in my head. especially with the quangle.

could be kinda fun if gorgug and ragh bonded a bit more this season.

thistlesprings are great parents, of course. love that they offered to fix the hangvan, or work on it together, and I'm really hoping their supportive energy is gonna help gorgug out this year. i have to wonder if there's gonna be any strangeness with gorgug meeting any of the thistlespring extended family, now that they're hosting this festival

speaking of this festival, it's the same one that sklonda's working a case related to!! i want to get my claws into this mystery so bad

ok that's about everything. gonna watch the AP now! my final thoughts... it's so frustrating that these bad kids have saved the world multiple times over and done so many things, and it's not like... enough, not even close. but that's a very real thing I felt during junior year of high school and that I'm sure many people felt--that I'd spent all this time developing myself as a person and becoming better and doing some pretty interesting stuff, in my opinion, but when I put it all out on like a resume or a college application or whatever, it looked like nothing. even though it was absolutely meaningful and important, it was nothing.

#kiri.txt #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high #d20 #i feel so weird tagging this bc no ones gonna read this. but the tags are so i can find it. lol #in this essay i will #liveblog

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nott-gay · 3 years

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every day I fear someone posting an animatic for the Baron scene before I do but every day I’m excited over any potential Riz and/or Baron content ...duality of wanting to be the first at something while also knowing you’d love anything that came before or after you

#I think the feeling stems more from personal disappointment over failing my original expected deadline by so much #still determined to finish and post it some time this week tho #I’ve only got 9 more frames to redo before I edit it together again #but yeah I check the fantasy high animatic tag on YouTube so often in an odd state of both hoping I don’t see any romance partner scenes #but also really wanting to watch one of it existed #I love Baron and I love Riz what can I say :/

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cactusnymph · 3 years

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Prompt fill #4 for @dimension20alphabet:

Dares

“Hey Fig”, Fabian hears the Genasi girl—Romilda? Rowina? Ronalda?—say after their latest Bard class on Tuesday. He’s breathing heavily after finishing his latest dance routine and he’s not actively listening to their conversation, but Fig stopped beside him to ask if he wanted to try dancing to one of her new compositions.

“I wanted to ask if you could—uh. Maybe give me the crystal number of your friend?”

Fabian grins down at his battle sheet, trying to remember if Romilda—or whatever her name was—is pretty and whether or not he wants Fig to give her his number.

“Which one?”, Fig asks, which is honestly ridiculous. He is easily the most attractive one—

“Umm... Riz?”

Fabian stops folding his battle sheet and blinks before straightening his back to turn his head. Rowina is twirling a very pretty, blue curl around her index finger. She’s very attractive and Fabian is not sure he heard correctly.

“Oh, sorry. He’s not available”, Fig says with an apologetic smile and Fabian feels his stomach knot into something very unpleasant. Which makes sense, because first of all, The Ball always insists on him and Fabian being best friends. If Riz has a girlfriend, why wouldn’t Fabian know about it?

Second, Fabian is offended because it’s completely preposterous that The Ball is supposed to be in a relationship while Fabian is not. That’s just absurd.

Sure, The Ball is endearing and smart and funny and loyal. But he’s The Ball. Tiny, skinny, nerdy, socially awkward.

“Oh... Oh, sorry, I didn’t know”, Ronalda says and seems very embarrassed before she turns around and rushes out of the classroom. Fig watches her leave and shakes her head before pulling a cigarette out of her backpack to put it behind her ear.

“Since when is The Ball not available? And why the fuck would a girl like that want his number?”, Fabian asks Fig the second they step out of the classroom to head to the cafeteria.

“Well, I just know that Riz just wouldn’t be interested in someone like that. And also, what the fuck Fabian, why are you being such a dick?”

Fabian wants to know what Fig means by ‘someone like that’. He also wants to ask further questions but he’s sure that it might sound weird to get so defensive about something like this. It’s not like he’s actually interested in The Ball’s love life. Or who he’s potentially kissing. Because that would be weird.

Plus, Fabian could get all the kisses that he wants. He just so happens to concentrate on his dancing right now. And if the whole thing with Aelwyn turned out to be a disaster, then that has nothing to do with him or what a great catch he is. That was simply because they weren’t actually as compatible as they originally thought.

“I’m not being a dick, I’m just saying that it seems wild that someone would want The Ball’s number instead of mine!”

Fig rolls her eyes at him.

“She’s not the first one to ask, you know. Riz has gotten pretty popular after the whole Goldenrod thing at prom”, she says and looks at him with raised eyebrows. Fabian snorts disbelievingly.

Sure, The Ball has changed a lot since they first met. And since, after their Spring Break, he stopped wearing his weird hat maybe Fabian would even go as far as to call him kind of handsome. If he thought about guys like that.

Which he doesn’t.

But the thought that all of a sudden people want to date The Ball is just ridiculous.

“Oh yeah?”, Fabian asks and snorts a little louder than was maybe necessary. “And who else is interested in The Ball?”

Fig narrows her eyes at Fabian and raises her hand before she starts listing names.

“Theo from Barbarian class. Kat from clerics. Ragh said that Riz is cute just yesterday. And Gorgug keeps getting questions about Riz from the Bloodrush team.”

She looks at him as if she’s expecting a very specific reaction from him. Fabian’s first thought is that he somehow feels like he should run every single guy on the team into the ground who asked Gorgug about Riz.

Then he wonders why people never ask him about The Ball.

Then he wonders if The Ball likes guys or girls. If Fabian remembers correctly Baron was a guy, but he was also a nightmare came to life and doesn’t count. Probably.

Then Fabian gets annoyed again because he feels like he doesn’t know all these things.

And then he thinks that maybe Ragh should stay in his lane.

He tries to imagine Ragh and The Ball on a date together, getting their kisses in with each other and it’s ludicrous, completely insane, but his skin feels way too tight for his body all of a sudden and there’s a rush of heat in his abdomen that has nothing to do with dance practice.

“You okay, dude?”, Fig wants to know as she carries her tray over to a table where Kristen, Adaine and Gorgug are already sitting.

“What? Yeah. Sure. Whatever”, he snaps, sits down next to Gorgug and starts poking at the atrocity on his plate that is supposed to be lasagna but looks weirdly like something that might come alive and attack him at any moment.

“What’s gotten his panties twisted?”, Kristen wants to know after one look at him.

“He’s pissed because people want to date Riz”, Fig says and Fabian considers grabbing a handful lasagna and throwing it at Fig.

“Why would you be pissed about that?”, Gorgug asks, confused. There is a beat of silence that makes Fabian raise his head just in time to realize that Adaine has cast Message to tell Gorgug something telepathically.

Gorgug makes a face that shows way too much understanding for Fabian’s tastes because there is really nothing to understand about this whole situation. This is ridiculous. His friends are being ridiculous. And the idea of The Ball being popular is—

“Hey guys”, a voice says and The Ball slides into the seat next to Fig.

Did The Ball always have so many freckles? And hair that looks way too soft to be legal?

Fabian stares at him.

Riz stares back.

“What?”, he asks.

“Nothing”, Fabian snaps and starts eating his lasagna. It tastes just as terrible as it looks. It’s hard to ignore the pointed looks that Gorgug, Fig, Adaine and Kristen exchange meaningful looks with each other.

“Anyway”, Fig says, ignoring Fabian and turning to the others. “Theo is throwing a party this weekend, do you guys wanna go?”

“Sure”, Kristen says.

“Is it one of those parties where people drink way too much and then throw up all over the house?”, Adaine asks.

Fig shrugs.

“I don’t know. Theo is pretty chill and his parents aren’t home, but I guess it would be cool if we just. You know. Stayed in our group and chilled with some beer or whatever. And he said we don’t have to bring our own booze because I gave him one of our records for free.”

“Sure. Yeah. We can like. Hang. Who knows, maybe I’ll even drink a whole beer this time”, The Ball says in the same voice he tends to use when he says the words ‘hooking up’.

“No hard drugs though”, Gorgug says with a look at Fabian.

“Hey! That wasn’t my idea! That dude just came up and kissed me straight on the mouth!”

“Wait, you kissed a dude?”, Kristen wants to know.

Fabian glares at her.

“I didn’t kiss a dude. He kissed me, okay? It was during our boys’ night and I was very high afterwards.”

“Must have been one hell of a kiss”, Kristen says with a smirk. Fabian is ready to throw his tray through the cafeteria but he doesn’t get the chance because at this point a dude he’s never seen before steps up to their table.

“Hey Riz. You coming on Saturday? I invited Fig and you guys over to my party.”

The Ball smiles awkwardly and scratches the back of his head.

“Uh—yeah. I’ll be there, I guess.”

“Sweet. See you then!”

Fabian stares at the guy who is at least as tall as him, fucking jacked—probably because he’s in a damn barbarian class, and he has a damn eyebrow piercing. What a tool.

Kristen wiggles her eyebrows at Riz and he has the nerve to blush darkgreen.

“Stop it!”

“Soo... Theo, huh?”, Kristen says.

“Kristen”, Riz says and buries his face in his hands. Fabian wonders if Theo is the person who Fig was talking about when she said that The Ball is not available. And not interested in people like Romilda. He wouldn’t be, of course, if he’s into guys.

Guys like Theo.

The Ball is interested in guys. And Fabian didn’t know.

“Fabian, bro, you alright, dude? You seem a little on edge”, Ragh says on Friday while they’re out on the field throwing some balls—the irony doesn’t escape him.

“Did you know that The Ball is into guys?”, Fabian asks before he manages to stop himself. Ragh throws the ball to him and Fabian catches it without issue before throwing it right back at Ragh, maybe a little harder than the ones before.

“I mean, kinda? I don’t think Riz knows what he’s really into. Especially because he’s super freaked out about the whole sex thing, you know. But I guess he’s not not into guys. More into guys than girls. Why? That bother you?”

Fabian isn’t sure how to explain to a gay guy that he’s offended about The Ball being into dudes without sounding like the worst homophobe. It’s not that he minds. He’s just pissed because he didn’t know. Because they’re supposed to be best friends—and okay, maybe The Ball was always very insistent on that and Fabian never actually confirmed it. But if Fabian is The Ball’s best friend, shouldn’t Fabian know about this?

Doesn’t The Ball trust him?

“I mean. No. Obviously not. I don’t give a shit”, Fabian says and watches as Ragh raises his eyebrows at him.

“Dude, remember how we talked about feelings and letting them out and like, being truthful about our emotions and stuff?”

Fabian does remember, but he refuses to acknowledge it.

“Fig said that you think The Ball is cute”, Fabian says instead and Ragh shrugs, the ball still firm in his hands

“I mean, yeah. He’s cute. He’s smart and super fucking badass. He has dimples when he smiles. Pretty adorable, if you ask me.”

Fabian feels a rush of anger again and he doesn’t know where it’s coming from. Whoever invented emotions should be hunted down for sport and shot.

“Well, I suppose, if you’re into stuff like that”, Fabian says. Ragh throws the ball at him, also a little harder than before.

“Yeah, stuff like that. Like guys, dude”, he says.

“Yeah. Like that. I wouldn’t know”, Fabian answers.

Ragh opens his mouth to say something but he seems to decide against it and shakes his head.

“Whatever, man. You’ll get there eventually”, Ragh says and Fabian has no idea what the fuck that is supposed to mean, but the next ball he throws flies wide.

Theo’s house is way smaller and less impressive than Fabian’s house—which is to be expected, but he still feels smug about it when the Bad Kids arrive at a red brick building with a garden full of sunflowers and a trampoline in the backyard that multiple people have already started using.

Loud music, laughter and voices spill out of the open windows and onto the street as Fig pushes the small garden gate open and saunters up to the front door to ring the bell.

“Damn, bro, you look sleek as fuck”, Ragh says to Fabian and hits him on the back with one his giants hands. Fabian manages not to stumble and grins. Ragh doesn’t have to know that Fabian took way longer than usual to get dressed because he is ready to get his kisses in tonight.

He doesn’t care about Theo or about the fact that The Ball secretly likes guys. He can like whoever he wants and it’s of no concern to Fabian. For all he knows The Ball can kiss half Elmville and Fabian wouldn’t care one single bit about it.

He keeps telling himself that as he follows the others into the house where people are already scattered in different rooms, many of them already drunk. There is a beerpong table set up in the living room where all other furniture has been pushed aside.

“Hey guys”, Theo says as soon as he spots them and Fabian refuses to notice the way he grins down at The Ball as if they were good friends. Which they are not. Since Riz already has a best friend and, in fact, an entire group of good friends, who are all here right now and of which Theo is definitely not a part.

Now that Fabian stands in front of him he can see that Theo is in fact taller than him, half elven, half orc with light green skin and pointy ears, dark hair and wearing a black muscle shirt which Fabian finds endlessly offensive.

“The guys were just talking about playing some old fashioned party games, do you guys wanna join?”, Theo asks and grabs some bottles of beer from a nearby table to hand them to Kristen, Riz and Gorgug. Fabian considers if it would be appropriate to deck Theo in the face because he didn’t offer Fabian a beer as well.

“I’ve never really played any party games. What kind of games?”, Adaine wants to know. She’s holding Boggy with a look of mild concern on her face.

“Oh, you know. Spin the bottle, truth or dare, that sort of stuff. Should be fun. Come on, I’ll introduce you!”, Theo proclaims and he throws an arm around Gorgug and waves all of them over to what seems to be a dining room that has been filled with a ton of pillows for people to sit on.

Fabian doesn’t really know any of the people sitting here—Fig and Gorgug on the other hand know some of them from Barbarian classes. It turns out that Theo also participates in Druid classes, which Fabians finds weird.

But he doesn’t have time to think too much about how much Theo sucks for various different reasons, because Ragh hollers excitedly, flings himself down on one of the pillows and pulls Fabian down with him.

“Fuck yeah, dude. This rules! Here, have a beer!”

Fabian has never played truth or dare before and he’s not particularly sure if he enjoys it. Adaine seems very on edge and picks truth every time, Fig on the other hand is delighted about giving people dares and picking dares herself. Kristen still has a hard time holding her liquor and insists on daring people to kiss each other. Then she starts crying because she misses Tracker.

Riz is biting his nails as he watches people play and sips on the one beer he’s had since the beginning. Fabian doesn’t actually want to look at him for more than a few seconds, but The Ball is sitting directly next to Theo who is sprawled on one of his dumb pillows and seems to have the time of his life watching two of his buddies stick their tongues down each other’s throats.

Someone dares Ragh to do a prank call on the vice principal and Ragh apologizes to Fig before he dials Gilear’s number to tell him that he won the lottery.

“Fabian, bro! I feel like I should make you kiss someone”, Ragh shouts after he’s done and throws an arm around Fabian’s shoulder. Fabian laughs and considers all the girls sitting in the circle to figure out which one he’d like to kiss the most.

“Make him kiss Riz”, Kristen calls and Fabian is confused for a second until what she said sinks in.

“Kiss Riz! Kiss Riz! Kiss Riz!”

Fabian’s eyes find The Ball’s face.

His big, yellow eyes have grown impossibly wide and he stopped biting on his nails only to start chewing on his bottom lip in a way that looks dangerous with those sharp teeth.

This is absurd. Fabian would never kiss The Ball.

“What?”, he says with a half laugh. “No!”

Fabian feels like this must be some kind of joke. He elbows Ragh in the ribs and says “Don’t be ridiculous.” and it takes him a few seconds to realize that the group of people around him has fallen silent.

“Riz?”, Adaine says quietly.

“I’ll be—uh. In the bathroom. Where the toilet is. To pee”, Riz stammers before fleeing out of the room as if the Nightmare King was chasing after him.

#fantasy high #fabriz #dimension 20 #d20alphabet21 #fanfiction #mi writes #i didnt proof read bc it's too late and also we die like men or whatever xD #fabian seacaster #fabian aramais seacaster #riz gukgak #i'll write part two as my prompt for tomorrow!

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swarmkeepers · 3 years

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riz & gorgug for #5! ✨

5. heard you tell the same story multiple times but doesn’t point it out to you when you excitedly bring it up to them again + riz & gorgug (prompts linked here)

(starting immediately post-fhsy, and a little more angsty than the other prompt fills so far because it deals with some of the aftermath of spring break. sometimes friendship is late nights and brownie recipes and old stories.)

There are forty minutes left until Elmville when Riz digs his claws into the headrest of the passenger’s seat and clambers over the seat backs to sit shotgun in the Hangvan.

Everyone else is asleep, or as Riz suspects in Tracker’s case as she stays oddly still as a human pillow for Kristen in the backseat, at least pretending to. But Riz is quest-restless even though they’re heading home, and Gorgug’s awake because he’s driving, and both of their darkvision light up the street ahead for them.

Gorgug doesn’t look surprised when Riz lands in the seat next to him. Of course. Because his whole party knows that Riz doesn’t sleep, or at least has to be told to, or has to know that there are hit points to be regenerated and a fight to be alert for the next day.

Streetlights speed by and Gorgug brings the van to a smooth stop at a light, accelerating smoothly up afterwards to not jostle anyone in the backseat. He’s practiced, easy, calm. Meanwhile, Riz’s thoughts are a messy turbulent maelstrom. He can’t sleep, and after everything in the Nightmare Forest if he never saw a bed again it’d be too soon. But, forget sleep, his brain isn’t even letting him relax right now, and Riz is struggling to figure out the questions that are on the tip of his tongue. His fingers itch for a ball of red string, trying to figure out why he wanted to be up here with the passenger seat and the windshield and Gorgug.

“What’s being a barbarian like?” he asks quietly, and Gorgug doesn’t exactly startle but does tip his head to the side curiously.

“Can I ask why?”

“I’m—angry,” Riz says, surprising himself, but it feels true enough. “I killed Kalina, but she said she was with me my whole life. And I hate that.” He wants to hiss, to bare his teeth and make the hair on the back of his neck stand up, but it’s not Gorgug he’s mad at. “Sometimes I wonder if I should use that to. Hit things.”

“Okay,” Gorgug says.

“And you—you know about that. About being angry, and not being. As comfortable. Or at least you’ve said stuff like that.” Riz picks at his long fingernails, pretending to be nonchalant and not looking up to see if Gorgug’s insight is better than his shitty attempt at deception.

“Tell me about why you wanted to be a rogue?” Gorgug asks instead, and Riz understands it’s not really a question. He trusts Gorgug. He thinks about it.

“Um, my mom was always a detective, I guess. And my dad was a spy, but I guess I didn’t know that.” Riz spends a lot of his time thinking. He’s realizing he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about himself. Maybe he needs to make a new conspiracy board. “Uh. I guess the first time I ever saw Penny sneak attack someone was really cool, I definitely knew I wanted to do that.”

Gorgug makes a soft hm? noise that asks Riz to keep talking. “Because I was little and Penny’s little too, and we were at the mall and some asshole catcalled her? And oh, man, you should have seen her, Penny was probably an Aguefort freshman then? But she told me to hide behind this vending machine and—”

They’re all the way home, with the Mordred Manor crew taking their stuff out of the trunk while Gorgug and Riz keep talking. Riz finished his story hurriedly as they pulled into the driveway, ending with Penny teaching Riz to make brownie bars at Strongtower after the sneak attack incident and being so cool and badass and nonchalant about making that guy’s nose gush with blood. He’s talking fast and gesturing big like he doesn’t usually, caught up in a story that he can tell well and that he hadn’t thought of in a while. Him and his rogue friends are tiny badasses.

“That was a good story,” Gorgug says. “Rogues seem pretty cool.”

Riz grins, all his fangs out and happy in the driveway of the manor. “Thanks, dude.”

“I think you can be angry and not a barbarian,” Gorgug says, gently.

And “Okay,” Riz says, gentled.

It’s the tail end of one of Fabian’s all-out summertime ragers. The Bad Kids are in a big cuddle pile that barely fits on the picnic blanket on the lawn of Seacaster Manor, and Gorgug’s at the very bottom. Riz is tipsy on half a beer (goblin metabolisms are not good and it’s not his fault) and he thinks Gorgug looks a little lonely, lying on his stomach and tapping at his crystal with all the wind knocked out of him from everyone lying on top. He scrambles down the pile of friend-bodies and sits on the grass by Gorgug. Riz racks his brain for something good to say. He doesn’t want Gorgug to be lonely, not when Riz is going to be up all night and Riz is usually the lonely one.

“Di’ I ever tell you about the first time I saw someone get sneak attacked,” Riz says, words big and bubbly and coming out too fast. He doesn’t care, he’s buzzed and happy and Gorgug looks like he could use a good story.

“I don’t remember, tell me,” Gorgug says, putting his crystal down face down so its glow goes dark.

“Oh man, you’re going to love this story. It was, like, me ‘n Penny at the mall, and there was this real asshole of a dude, and I didn’t know Penny went to Aguefort but she took out this knife? And it was like she flew at him—”

At some point in the story Gorgug falls asleep, and Riz is more pleased than annoyed. He looks cozy. And not lonely.

“What’s this, The Ball?” Fabian asks when Riz takes a fantasy tupperware of brownie bars out of his briefcase and puts it on the the table in the cafeteria.

“They’re sneak attack brownies,” Riz says.

It evidently does not clear up any of Fabian’s questions.

“Penny—Penny Luckstone?—they’re her recipe, she taught me how to make them the same day I ever saw her sneak attack a dude,” he explains. “She like, jumped out from behind one of those fake potted plants at the mall and slashed him so bad with a dagger and then she didn’t even get sneak attack on it but she also socked him in the nose and it was like the coolest thing I’d ever seen. And then she just went home and washed the blood off her fist and then we made brownies.” He puts a hand on his chest. “And I’ll never forget it.”

“Okay, The Ball,” Fabian says, but he takes a brownie.

Next to him, Gorgug’s already halfway into his second, nodding happily and energetically so his hair flops in front of his face. “I love that story!” he says. He’s all leaned in, listening to Riz’s story.

Riz lights up—he’s no Fabian, with expensive magical gifts, and he’s no Gorgug either with little artificed trinkets and sweeping big gestures. But he’d remembered the story and remembered the brownies and wanted to make some, and he’s just glad his friends like them as much as he does.

“Because the secret ingredient is sour cream,” Riz confides. Fabian fake-sputters, sending tiny brownie crumbs everywhere, and Gorgug swats at him.

“You were eating it just fine before!” Gorgug says indignantly. “Respect the brownie, dude!”

“You’re right, Gorgug,” Fabian sighs. He takes another bite. “They’re not bad, The Ball.”

Riz only dimly registers footsteps pounding up the stairs and also a greataxe brute forcing its way through the booby traps at his office door. His crystal is abandoned on the floor next to him, the last text he sent to Gorgug still on the screen. It’d been “Having a bad time. At my office. Can you come help? Thanks, Riz” and it’d been typed out with shaky fingers as his breaths started coming too fast, the way it does whenever he lets himself be alone in his own office for too long. Riz hates it but he needs help. He forgot the period on that text and it’s been staring at him for the past few minutes.

His brain is whirring too fast—Shadow Cat, Kalina’s eyes in his own eyes, Baron in his mirror in his own office, darkness and danger and Fabian in churning waters, he died in that forest and so did Adaine and so could any of his friends, bullets dodged and bullets fired and it’s too much, too much. His breaths are coming too fast but also not fast enough. Riz feels suffocated.

He’s wedged himself into his own briefcase of holding, the sides squeezing his arms in a way that’s grounding and comforting when nobody else is here in his office to help.

But Gorgug is. Gorgug is here to help now. He skids to a stop in front of Riz and sits on the floor and Riz only dimly registers it out of the corner of his eye where his head is curled into his chest trying to make himself small, make himself safe.

“Riz, can I touch you?”

Riz does his best to nod and Gorgug just wraps long lanky boy arms around his torso, gently lifting Riz out of his own briefcase and settling him in Gorgug’s lap as they sit on the floor of the office. He doesn’t let go, just squeezes tighter. It’s so much help, and also— “Can you. Talk? Anything— Anything’s fine,” Riz says.

“Um. Sure, Riz. I guess I can. I could list a recipe? My parents have been trying to teach me to cook more, for when we go to college in a couple of years. I’m sorry, I’m not like Adaine, I don’t have lots of interesting things memorized,” Gorgug says, apologetic. Riz wants to be able to tell him not to be, but he’s a little preoccupied trying to make his brain tell his lungs to breathe.

“Uh, so these are called sneak attack brownies?” Gorgug says hesitantly. Riz realizes what he’s doing and tries to laugh, the giggle interrupting the choked breath he was trying to take.

“They’re called sneak attack brownies because they’re my badass friend’s recipe. And he learned it from his badass friend. Um, I don’t know this super well, actually, but I really should by now and I’m just going to keep talking and if it’s wrong then I guess it’s wrong? I know that you need chocolate for a brownie. And eggs and sugar. You told me the secret ingredient is sour cream.”

Riz nods, thudding his head into Gorgug’s chest a little. He takes a deep breath. Gorgug’s hoodie is soft. And he’s a good listener.

“Right, uh. After sour cream. Flour. And butter?”

“The butter’s— the butter’s unsalted,” Riz manages to eke out, voice small and quiet and mostly talking to his own knees.

“Got you. Unsalted butter,” Gorgug agrees, easy as anything.

“Penny said— Penny said that dude she punched’s tears were salty enough, that’s how I remember it,” Riz tells him.

“Tell me more?” Gorgug asks, and he waits patiently as Riz lets his brain just focus on a recipe, an easy recipe and a badass story. It helps, to be given something focused to do. And Riz is just so, so glad he has friends who will give that to him, will listen over and over again when Riz needs to talk.

And Gorgug waits. And Riz tells him.

from the prompt list linked here! i’m closing prompts from this particular list simply because i have so many excellent ones to get through

#i love these soft bois and i hope you do too!#this got. truly so long i am so sorry #the green team. the nerd boys. the people with proficiency with guns.#they're GOOD FRIENDS gorgug is a GOOD LISTENER riz makes BADASS BROWNIES #food #fantasy high #sophomore year #gorgug thistlespring #riz gukgak #sola said #sola ficced #sola prompted #nonbinarywithaknife #sola answered #yes i know they don't get home to mordred at night but poetic license okay #also 'gorgug and riz in riz's office at night' and 'gorgug and riz in gorgug's van at night' feel like tropes for these two by now #and i'm here for it

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senkovi · 4 years

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There’s a reason you made me up, Riz Gukgak. You would not have lied so frivolously. You love the truth. You seek it so much that you cut your hands upon the inside of crystals, but you use deception to protect yourself from something you fear. What do you fear, Riz Gukgak?

[ID: ten gifs from dimension 20′s fantasy high sophomore year of a conversation between brian murphy as riz gukgak and brennan lee mulligan as baron.

riz says, “i fear being wrong... and it getting my friends hurt, like kristen.” offscreen, baron says, “hmm. you made me up because you are worried of being wrong?” riz answers, “well, no. you are a different thing. you’re because everybody else is hooking up. people do it, people hook up, it’s normal, and i’m not super into that so i made you up so that there wouldn’t be any questions.” baron asks, “any questions about what?” brennan narrates, “you begin to see in the other mirrors, there is movement. you look up in a mirror and you see fabian and aelwyn abernant dancing this insane tango... you see tracker and kristen on a couch, making out. you see fig on stage playing to ayda in the front row who is clapping her hands...” baron continues, “why do you think your friends keep you around, riz gukgak? if it had not been for detention on your first day of school, and for you to solve this little mystery... do you think they look at you as someone they can understand? or are you just a funny little thing that finds the clues? what is it that they call you most often of all?” riz replies, “they call me the ball... but ragh made that nickname up and ragh’s my friend now.” brennan narrates, “you see ragh and fathethriel making out in another mirror.” baron says, “the years will go by and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you.” end ID]

#gifs #baron #riz gukgak #fantasy high #dimension 20 #my gifs #my stuff

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weclassybouquetfun · 3 years

Text

I know it doesn’t really seem like awards season without the pomp and circumstance of awards shows and the press push for films in contention, but it is awards season! It is!

Reminding us that this muted awards season is still on is Variety which announced their semi-annual Actors on Actors. Which actors will be on other actors (but not in the sexy way)?

Kicking off the event is SILENCE OF THE LAMBS costars Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins with Foster promoting THE MAURITANIAN and Hopkins promoting THE FATHER.

Ben Affleck (THE WAY BACK) and Sacha Baron Cohen (THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7)

ONE FINE DAY costars Michelle Pfeiffer (FRENCH EXIT) and George Clooney (MIDNIGHT SKY)

BAFTA EE RIsing Star winners Tom Holland (CHERRY, THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME) and Daniel Kaluuya (JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH).

Actor-singers ANDRA DAY (THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY) and Leslie Odom Jr. (ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI).

Eddie Redmayne (TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7) and Jamie Dornan (WILD MOUNTAIN THYME).

Glenn Close (HILLBILLY ELEGY) and Pete Davidson (THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND).

John David Washington (MALCOLM & MARIE) and Jared Leto (THE LITTLE THINGS).

Zendaya (MALCOLM & MARIE) and Carey Mulligan (PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN).

Riz Ahmed (SOUND OF METAL) and Steven Yeun (MINARI).

Vanessa Kirby (PIECES OF A WOMAN) and Amanda Seyfried (MANK).

My thoughts on some of the films below.

The Father: Great film featuring very fine performances from Olivia Colman, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Sir Anthony. Very cleverly filmed by leaving audiences to try to determine what is real or what is a part of The Father (Hopkins) dementia. Heartrending film. The only strike against Hopkins is that he’s ACTING. You can see that performance from space. There is nothing subtle about his performance, as opposed to Lance Hernricksen in FALLING which deals with a similar theme.

The Way Back: I know it’s sport to knock Ben Affleck, but I think he’s a decent actor and a fantastic director. I know why WB or Affleck’s team is pushing his performance in this film as it deals with a man struggling with his sobriety. It’s a good enough film but nothing rises to exemplary. I’d rather he and “The Way Back”s director Gavin O’Connor hurry up and reteam for the sequel of THE ACCOUNATANT.

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7: Certainly a rousing film - I definitely cheered, and there was not one false note in the performances or weak link in this large cast. The issue is expectation. It is not the best of Sorkin’s work. Everything felt mediocre down to Daniel Pemberton’s treacly score. But mediocre Sorkin is better than a lot of other work.

MIDNIGHT SKY: I’m sure the novel is much better than the film. It’s a series of sci-fi tropes rolled up into one. For an easy comparison I would say it’s very similar in tone to Alfonso Cuarón’s far superior GRAVITY starring Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It wasn’t a wasted watch, but I found it lacking.

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI: Before seeing this I was fine with THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 cast possibly winning every Best Ensemble award, but not anymore. Superb film, amazing casting. It’s definitely in my top 5 so far. Odom Jr. was fantastic as Sam Cooke and the interplay between the characters was fantastic. Director Regina King was wise to take this play, but not film it as a play. This was my single issue with MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. We know it’s a play, don’t film it like one (that’s another great film, mind you).

HILLBILLY ELEGY: There are just films where critics decide to dogpile on for little reason, and HILLBILLY ELEGY was the victim this time. Based on a book that deals with Conservatism and finger wagging, the film itself isn’t like that. It’s a very human look at a family dealing with addiction and poverty. It’s a kitchen sink drama with a lot of heart and humanity. Close and Adams could have played their roles as caricatures, but didn’t.

On a shallow note, Gabriel Basso got hit with the thiccness and is looking good.

Promising Young Woman: A divisive film, but I loved it. Incredibly smart, dark comedic revenge tale. Carey Mulligan showed glimpses of what she can delve into with the Paul Dano film WILDLIFE, but this film shines a light on how versatile she is.

SOUND OF METAL: Story of a drummer, Ruben, who has lost the majority of his hearing. His girlfriend/bandmate, worried about how this news could affect his sobriety, gets him into a rehab center for people who are hearing impaired. The sound mixing in the film does a lot of heavy lifting as it replicates for the audience how hearing loss sounds. Excellent film, great performances but Ahmed’s costar Paul Raci is the heart of the film as the director of the community.

Ahmed’s other film MOGUL MOWGLI garners a better performance from him as it gives him more room to be versatile.

MINARI: Another film in my top five. “Minari” follows a Korean-American family as they move from California to Arkansas to build an even better life for themselves. The Hollywood Foreign Press has rightfully been called out for deeming the film a Foreign film because the majority of it is in Korean. But what is more American than a varying of languages? Hopefully, they will let this film compete in Best Picture where it belongs.

And like with SOUND OF METAL, it’s the supporting actor who steals the show. Youn Yuh-jung is incredible

PIECES OF A WOMAN: Staggering film. It’s the spiritual cousin of “Manchester by the Sea” to me. Kirby is a powerhouse, as is Ellen Burstyn as her mother. Searing film that looks at the different facets of a woman’s life.

MANK: Truly loved “Mank” and I think Gary Oldman’s performance deserves more recognition. It has the snappiness that Aaron Sorkin’s writing in “The Trial of the Chicago 7″ lacks. Amanda Seyfried is so good in a role that could easily be one-dimensional. I don’t get why the film is being largely ignored. I thought it was very smart and engaging.

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nclkafilms · 3 years

Text

My 2021 Oscar Predictions

It seems like it was a decade ago, that I cheered for and celebrated a historic night for Parasite as Bong Joon-Ho first surprised by taking home the Best Directing Oscar ahead of Sam Mendes only for the film itself to surprise even further by taking home the biggest of them all. What a film, what a night! And what a year it has been since then; the film industry - as anything else in our lives - has been turned on its head by the global pandemic that continues to redefine our reality. Many big films and award contenders have been postponed. But where one could have feared that this would have given us a lacklustre group of nominees, this is in no way the case. Instead the lack of the big budget films has granted space for smaller, indie films treating us to interesting visions, stellar performances and new cinematic experiences. The biggest loss of course being the lack of cinema experiences; out of all the 56 nominees I have shockingly and sadly only seen 2 in the cinema: Tenet and Mank. I did, however, manage to see ALL nominated films before the show for the first time ever.

So who will win? Here are my predictions: (In paranthesis are my personal ratings of the films from 1-5)

Best Picture

The Father (4,5)

Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

Mank (3,5)

Minari (4,5)

Nomadland (5,0)

Promising Young Woman (5,0)

Sound of Metal (4,5)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4,0)

The biggest of them all seems likely to be one of the most predictable of them all. Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, which triumphantly transcends the boundaries between documentary and fiction, has taken home close to every major award possible. The story of Fran, who’s lost everything and embarks on a spiritual journey through the America of the modern day nomads, is an awe-inspiring achievement and will be a deserved winner. The only films that might have a slight chance of causing upset seems to be my personal favourite, Promising Young Woman, the wonderful Minari, that could continue the Korean triumph of last year, and Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar-bait ensemble hit, The Trial of the Chicago 7, which could end up as the Green Book of this year. It is amazing to see films such as The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah and Sound of Metal be acknowledged with this particular nomination, but I don’t see them winning. Mank seems like an easy film to like, but a hard film to love and as such, I don’t see it winning - especially taking the preferential ballot system into consideration. I would have loved to see Soul continue the tradition of nominating animated features for its beautiful take on life.

Who will win: Nomadland

Potential spoiler: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Personal favourite: Promising Young Woman

Should have been there: Soul

Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal (4,5)

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (3,5)

Anthony Hopkins, The Father (4,5)

Gary Oldman, Mank (3,5)

Steven Yeun, Minari (4,5)

Chadwick Boseman is the only actor here, whose film is not nominated in the Best Picture race, but yet, he is the one on everyone’s lips before the big night. Sadly, this - of course - is partly due to his tragic and way to early death. The entire narrative surrounding his death and the fact that only he knew about the illness, while filming Ma Rainey, adds a truly tragic nuance to his powerhouse performance. To me, he does, however, balance on the edge of being too theatrical (goes for everything concerning that film) and it is mostly in his more subtle scenes that he surprised and impressed me the most. The performance of the year is undoubtedly Anthony Hopkins in The Father in my opinion; he manages to capture all the little nuances, confusions and frustrations of growing dementia. A truly ruthless performance! I also have tons of gratitude for Ahmed’s deeply moving and involving work in Sound of Metal, and Steven Yeun’s subtle performance in Minari. Gary Oldman is good as always in Mank, but yet, I see him as the one who could have been snubbed. I would have liked to see the likes of Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) or Mads Mikkelsen (Another Round) here.

Who will win: Chadwick Boseman

Potential spoiler: Anthony Hopkins

Personal favourite: Anthony Hopkins

Should have been there: Delroy Lindo/Mads Mikkelsen

Actor in a Supporting Role

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4,0)

Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami… (4,0)

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal (4,5)

Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

This one is Daniel Kaluuya’s to lose. And he will not be doing that. While you can argue that he might close to a leading role in Judas, but that does not take anything from his truly stunning performance. Such an interesting actor creating such an interesting character! His closest competitors seem to be Cohen for a role that hopefully can open up more dramatic chances for him and Paul Raci, who creates an endearing character in Sound of Metal. Oh, I would also love for him to win! Leslie Odom Jr. will probably have more open doors in Hollywood after his deserved nomination and Lakeith Stanfield will be asking himself how come he ends up as a supporting role for a film in which he was clearly the leading force of the story. His performance, however, is brilliant and impressed me further upon a recent rewatch of Judas. Could have been great to see Bo Burnham here for Promising Young Woman, but honestly I do not see who he should have replaced apart from Stanfield, who - as said - belongs in another category.

Who will win: Daniel Kaluuya

Potential spoiler: Sacha Baron Cohen

Personal Favourite: Daniel Kaluuya / Paul Raci

Could have been there: Bo Burnham

Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (3,5)

Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2,0)

Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman (3,5)

Frances McDormand, Nomadland (5,0)

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman (5,0)

Perhaps the most unpredictable race of the evening! Everyone except Kirby has taken home a major award in the run-in to the Oscars. For that reason, I am having a hard time seeing Kirby take home the win for her otherwise stunning and powerful turn in mediocre Pieces of a Woman. Andra Day took home the Golden Globe, but I think the questionable quality (nicely put) of the film will make it hard for her to repeat that victory here. McDormand is beautifully subtle in Nomadland and could easily deserve the award, but the narrative is against her as she has already won two Oscars and took one just a couple of years ago. With this in mind, I think this is between Davis and Mulligan. Davis’ performance - not unlike Boseman’s in the same film - is close to being overdone, although it is a truly transformative performance. I will, however, say it should have been nominated as a supporting role. She took home the SAG and has a strong narrative for a win. Mulligan, in Promising Young Woman, is the best performance in my opinion and a minor favourite to win; she surprises with something completely new and risk-taking while still delivering the quality and nuance we have come to expect from her. A cheeky bid for who I would have liked to see, would be Jasna Duricic of Quo Vadis, Aida?, who I think carried that film on her shoulders with an intense performance.

Who will win: Carey Mulligan

Potential spoiler: Viola Davis

Personal favourite: Carey Mulligan

Could have been there: Jasna Duricic

Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (3,5)

Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy (1,5)

Oliva Colman, The Father (4,5)

Amanda Seyfried, Mank (3,5)

Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari (4,5)

For a long time, Seyfried seemed like the one to beat here with a lot of buzz before Mank was released. While her performance is delightful, her role is, however, extremely limited and I actually ended up being surprised she was even there on nomination morning. Colman and Close famously battled for the leading actress award two years ago with Colman surprisingly (yet, deservedly) taking home the award. That left Close Oscar-less still, but while the narrative might be with her, it would be a shame to give her the award for this performance in this film. Bakalova is the surprise: raunchy and ruthless, she is not only the rare comedic nomination, but also one of the most daring performances of the year. I would love for her to win, and should she win it will not just be because of THAT hotel room scene. Her turn in Borat is surprisingly funny and layered. I do - however - think that everyone has been as charmed by Youn as I have been. Her grandmother in Minari is the heart of the film and she creates one of the most memorable on-screen grandmothers in recent time. I would have loved to see Dominique Fishback from Judas, although her role was also quite small.

Who will win: Yuh-Jung Youn

Potential spoiler: Maria Bakalova / Glenn Close

Personal favourite: Yuh-Jung Youn

Should have been there: Dominique Fishback

Animated Feature Film

Onward (3,5)

Over the Moon (3,0)

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (3,5)

Soul (4,5)

Wolfwalkers (4,0)

Soul is winning this one with no real competitor. It is an amazing film by Pixar - both storywise, philosophically and in particular technically. But it is also daring as it is close to being there first truly film MAINLY for adults. Pixar competes against themselves, as Onward is also here. Netflix joins the animation race with the charming Over the Moon, while Aardman Studios are here with Farmageddon, which is a simply delightful children’s film. Wolfwalkers is perhaps the most interesting when it comes to animation style as the handdrawn animation follows the emotions of the characters.

Who will win: Soul

Potential spoiler: Wolfwalkers

Personal favourite: Soul

Cinematography

Sean Bobbitt, Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

Erik Messerschmidt, Mank (3,5)

Dariusz Wolski, News of the World (3,0)

Joshua James Richards, Nomadland (5,0)

Phedon Papamichael, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4,0)

I was happy to see Judas being recognised here, but it hardly stands a chance, despite its great work with depth. The same can be said about Papamichael, whose nomination I honestly do not understand, and Wolski, who produces some stunning vistas in the otherwise disappointing News of the World. Messerschmidt’s black and white work on Mank is a joy to behold, and while the Academy typically love black and white cinematography, I only see it as a potential spoiler. Joshua James Richards manages the otherwise small Nomadland into a grand and stunning film with some of the most beautiful images that I cannot wait to enjoy in a cinema. I would have loved to see Hoyte van Hoytema be nominated for his work on the otherwise faulty Tenet.

Who will win: Nomadland

Potential spoiler: Mank

Personal favourite: Nomadland

Should have been there: Tenet

Costume Design

Emma (3,0)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (3,5)

Mank (3,5)

Mulan (3,0)

Pinocchio (1,5)

This is Ma Rainey’s to lose with all of its broadway costumes. Personally I rate the costumes in both Pinocchio higher and I would have liked to see Promising Young Woman nominated, although I know how rarely contemporary nominees are in this category.

Who will win: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Potential spoiler: Mank

Personal favourite: Pinocchio

Could have been there: Promising Young Woman

Directing

Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round (5,0)

David Fincher, Mank (3,5)

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari (4,5)

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (5,0)

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman (5,0)

It is a historic year for this category; the first time that two female directors are nominated in the same year. Chloé Zhao will also find her way into the history books as the only second female winner of the category for her work with Nomadland; a film which would never have existed without her. Fennell and Chung are her closest competitors, but despite their deeply personal and commited work they do not stand a chance. Mank is as Fincher as it gets, but the films is just not very good in the end. Finally, as a Dane, I am of course ecstatic to see Vinterberg here for his masterful work on Another Round. I would have loved to see Florian Zeller for The Father, though!

Who will win: Chloé Zhao

Potential spoiler: Lee Isaac Chung

Personal favourite: Chloé Zhao

Could have been there: Florian Zeller

Documentary (Feature)

Collective (4,5)

Crip Camp (4,0)

The Mole Agent (3,0)

My Octopus Teacher (4,0)

Time (5,0)

For a long time, Time or Collective seemed to be the ones to beat here. While Time, which I reckon to be one of the best, most impactful films of the year, remains my favourite, I think it might be too slow for some people. Collective shares the same issue as the entertaining The Mole Agent; they are in a foreign language. Thus, we end up with Crip Camp and My Octopus Teacher. The first is undoubtedly the most important of the two, but I do think that the heart-warming and surprisingly effective story of man and nature in Octopus Teacher will charm its way to a surprising Oscar! The fascinating micro-cosmos of American politics portrayed in Boys State was snubbed here!

Who will win: My Octopus Teacher

Potential spoiler: Crip Camp

Personal favourite: Time

Should have been there: Boys State

Documentary (Short Subject)

Colette (3,5)

A Concerto is a Conversation (3,5)

Do Not Split (4,5)

Hunger Ward (3,5)

A Love Song for Latasha (4,0)

Notoriously difficult to predict, this years documentary shorts are no exception. Four of them are mainly journalistic, with A Love Song for Latasha standing out with its artistic aspects. I think that will tip the votes in its favour.

Who will win: A Love Song for Latasha

Potential spoiler: A Concerto is a Conversation

Personal Favourite: Do Not Split

Film Editing

The Father (4,5)

Nomadland (5,0)

Promising Young Woman (5,0)

Sound of Metal (4,5)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4,0)

Traditionally the film featuring the most and the most clear cuts will take home this Oscar, making Trial the traditional favourite here. However, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen’s close collaboration with the sound designers of Sound of Metal seems to have pushed that film closer to a suprising yet deserved award. For me, however, the confusing, unstructured work of Yorgos Lamprinos in The Father is the best of the year. Mank would have liked to have this on nomination morning.

Who will win: Sound of Metal

Potential spoiler: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Personal favourite: The Father

International Feature Film

Another Round (5,0)

Better Days (3,5)

Collective (4,5)

The Man Who Sold His Skin (3,5)

Quo Vadis, Aida? (4,5)

Collective follows Honeyland’s example from last year with a double nomination for international and documentary, but it will not win despite its high quality. The Man Who Sold His Skin is an interesting and thought-provoking take on the refugee crisis and Better Days is a surprisingly effective YA adaptation with some criticism of the Chinese school system - they will be happy just be there. Quo Vadis, Aida? Is a really good film with a towering lead performance about one of the most gruesome historical events post WWII. However, and this is not just because I am Danish, Another Round will take this home. The film that grew from initially being a celebration of the Danish alcohol culture organically grew into a celebration of life in the shadows of a personal tragedy for director Vinterberg. At its heart is a beautiful performance from Mads Mikkelsen and a fascinating study of the Danish alcohol culture in the universally recognisable struggle of life. Its take on the built in paradox of our teenagers being stressed out in order to gain access to the same life that the film’s four protagonists desperately try to escape, is thought-provoking and well-portrayed.

Who will win: Another Round

Potential spoiler: Quo Vadis, Aida?

Personal favourite: Another Round

Makeup and Hairstyling

Emma (3,0)

Hillbilly Elegy (2,0)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (3,5)

Mank (3,5)

Pinocchio (1,5)

Despite being a horrible film, the makeup and prosthetic work in Pinocchio ought to secure it an Oscar here. However, this will be given to the theatre makeup work in Ma Rainey.

Who will win: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Potential spoiler: Hillbilly Elegy

Personal favourite: Pinocchio

Music (Original Score)

Da 5 Bloods (3,5)

Mank (3,5)

Minari (4,5)

News of the World (3,0)

Soul (4,5)

News of the World is a good yet classic western score, Da 5 Bloods is a nice score to listen to but does not fit in the film and Emile Mosseri’s brilliant score in Minari might be a bit too simple for some people. This means that this a battle between Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and themselves for their buzzing 40’s score in Mank and amazing collaboration with Jon Batiste in Soul. Reznor and Ross will be taking the stage along with Batiste! It is close to robbery that Ludwig Göransson is not nominated for his towering Tenet score!!

Who will win: Soul

Potential spoiler: Mank

Personal favourite: Soul

Should have been there: Tenet

Music (Original Song)

“Fight for You”, Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

“Hear My Voice”, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4,0)

“Husavik”, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (3,0)

“Io Si (Seen”), The Life Ahead (3,0)

“Speak Now”, One Night in Miami… (4,0)

“Husavik” is a great song and is the only of the songs to truly play a part in the film rather than just being a credits song and I think that should always be a factor! However, this is Leslie Odom Jr.’s for the beautifully subtle “Speak Now” - he is an amazing singer! “Green” from Sound of Metal should have been here, I have to say.

Who will win: “Speak Now”

Potential spoiler: “Husavik”

Personal favourite: “Husavik”

Should have been there: “Green”

Production Design

The Father (4,5)

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (3,5)

Mank (3,5)

News of the World (3,0)

Tenet (3,0)

The wonderfully simple, yet effective production design of The Father really should be winning this. However, The Academy always love representations of Hollywood and - to be fair - the work in Mank is incredibly detailed and beautiful to look at. Honestly, I would have loved to see Emma - that film was one of the most beautiful of the year!

Who will win: Mank

Potential spoiler: The Father / Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Personal favourite: The Father

Could have been there: Emma

Short Film (Animation)

Burrow (4,0)

Genius Loci (3,0)

If Anything Happens I Love You (4,5)

Opera (5,0)

Yes-People (3,0)

Yes-People is funny but uninteresting. Genius Loci is visually fascinating but also very abstract. Burrow is classic Pixar charm. If Anything Happens I Love You is an emotional gut-punch. Opera is transcending the film media being more of an art installation rather than an actual shortfilm; it is however both visually and visionary in a league of its own. So obviously, it will not win. Disappointing not to see Out here!

Who will win: If Anything Happens I Love You

Potential spoiler: Burrow

Personal favourite: Opera

Should have been there: Out

Short Film (Live Action)

Feeling Through (4,0)

The Letter Room (3,5)

The Present (4,0)

Two Distant Strangers (2,0)

White Eye (3,0)

Two Distant Strangers seems like a late frontrunner here, and while it is impossible to disasgree with the importance of the film’s topic, I simply did not like the film. I found it both exploitative and overly symbolic leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth; difficult opinions to have regarding a film about such an important topic. None of the other four truly stand out, but I would love to see the inclusive and touching Feeling Through receive the Oscar.

Who will win: Two Distant Strangers

Potential spoiler: The Letter Room

Personal favourite: Feeling Through

Sound

Greyhound (2,0)

Mank (3,5)

News of the World (3,0)

Soul (4,5)

Sound of Metal (4,5)

Rarely has a film been so defined by its sound as Sound of Metal. It is not only groundbreaking but also deeply fascinating, impressive and involving; a main factor in the film’s success. It is difficult to predict as this is the first year the two awards (Editing/Mixing) have been combined. Greyhound might have been able to grab an editing award had they been separated still…

Who will win: Sound of Metal

Potential spoiler: Soul

Personal favourite: Sound of Metal

Visual Effects

Love and Monsters (3,0)

The Midnight Sky (2,5)

Mulan (3,0)

The One and Only Ivan (3,0)

Tenet (3,0)

A category that would probably have been dominated by films such as Godzilla vs. Kong, Dune and Black Widow in a normal 2020, has now granted space for the charming animals of The One and Only Ivan and the surprisingly entertaining and heartfelt Love and Monsters. It does, however, seem like an obvious opportunity to give the supposed “saviour of cinema” Tenet one award.

Who will win: Tenet

Potential spoiler: The Midnight Sky

Personal favourite: Tenet

Should have been there: Soul

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (3,5)

The Father (4,5)

Nomadland (5,0)

One Night in Miami… (4,0)

The White Tiger (3,0)

The White Tiger is the odd one out here with its overly told and clumsy voice-over, whereas Borat is another example of the weird definition. While the main character is not new, the film is obviously an original story. One Night in Miami… is a much better adaption than Ma Rainey, but The Father is even more successful in its journey from stage to silver screen. Zeller’s screenplay is masterful and daring in its ruthless depiction of dementia. However, it faces stern competition from Chloé Zhao who might add her first of many Oscars of the evening with this award for a rare adaptation of a non-fiction work into a fictional story.

Who will win: The Father

Potential spoiler: Nomadland

Personal favourite: The Father

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Judas and the Black Messiah (4,5)

Minari (4,5)

Promising Young Woman (5,0)

Sound of Metal (4,5)

The Trial of Chicago 7 (4,0)

I was immensely happy to see Judas and Sound of Metal here as they told well-structured and well-paced stories, while this was the biggest nail in the coffin for Mank as David Fincher’s father missed out on a nomination for the film about one of history’s best screenplays. The battle is seems to be between the king of screenplays Aaron Sorkin and a certain promising young woman, Emerald Fennell, who has written the best screenplay of the year in my opinion. Look out for Lee Isaac Chung as he will be ready to pounce with his deeply personal screenplay for Minari, should the battle between Fennell and Sorkin fall flat. The extremely charming and funny Palm Springs should have been here!

Who will win: Promising Young Woman

Potential spoiler: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Personal favourite: Promising Young Woman

Should have been there: Palm Springs

I wish everyone the best of Oscar nights! May the best films win!

#Oscars #Oscars 2021 #Oscars Warm Up #My Oscar Predictions #Oscar Predictions #Academy Awards #Academy Awards Predictions #Nomadland #The Father #The Trial of The Chicago 7 #Sound of Metal #Judas and the Black Messiah #Minari #Mank #Promising Young Woman

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tweetsongs · 4 years

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what i do like about riz’s fear vision is how tangled his sense of sexual attraction and romance are, and how he equates one with another. he says that he made baron up because his friends were ‘hooking up’, but when baron shows him visions it’s not just of sex- it’s of love, of romance, of being valued ‘more’ than friendship.

it’s kind of ambiguous whether riz is afraid because he doesn’t want romance, or if he doesn’t want sex and thinks that that means that the kind of romance he sees in others is automatically lost to him because of that. it’s a complicated issue and riz isn’t at a place where he can untangle his sexual and romantic attractions (or lack thereof), so it’s perfect for baron to conflate the two concepts even further, going so far as to tie BOTH of those concepts to riz’s inherent value as a companion of any kind, as if his lack of romantic/sexual desire is BECAUSE he’s not worth being desired, rather than because he himself does not have those desires.

#personally i can read riz in a variety of ways #rn im leaning towards ace+demiaro #but GOD that was a good sequence #riz gukgak #fh #fh liveblog

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jq37 · 4 years

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 18

Brennan Lee Mulligan Fight Me IRL (subtitle: Is This Allowed?)

***A proclamation: Non-Adaine Abernants have no rights (and no consistent canon name spellings) so, henceforth, I will be spelling their names however the hell I want.***

Yeah I don’t have any preamble this week, let’s just do this.

We rejoin our table (which Ally is very noticeably absent from) with Fabian just having seen Kristen stabbed through by the skeletal unicorn. He runs out to get the rest of the Bad Kids but, when he comes back, there’s a mirror showing the room instead of a passageway into it. He shatters the mirror, which doesn’t help the situation at all.

Fig takes advantage of the souped up illusion magic in the forest and uses Phantasmal Force on herself to create an illusion of a door that she can walk through. She, however, realizes that she’s not being taken into the same place that Kristen’s body was and gets out of there ASAP. Meanwhile, Gorgug takes down the wall and they’re able to get into the room.

Once in the room, they find a human skeleton clutching shattered pieces of stone in its hands, which Adaine does the Identify Spell on--it’s St. Kristen Applebees, who’s been dead for 850 years (850 years ago is when the last Sylvan War happened, just FYI). Fabian can tell the room is very different than when he was in it last, like it’s been shut up with a dead body for 850 years. The skeleton is also weird. The posture and joints are wrong and it seems like it was decaying during life as well. Gorgug looks at the stone shards the skeleton is holding and sees that they’re broken pieces of an image of a face, but the freaky thing is it’s not all the same face. And the faces resemble their own.

So, across the board, troubling stuff.

Adaine casts Locate Creature on the unicorn and senses that it’s moving into the forest (which is in conflict to where they see its hoofprints leading). Riz does an insight check and is convinced that this isn’t a situation that can be solved with logic. This is some straight Alice in Wonderland BS that can only be endured, not solved. There’s only one thing to do. Take a ton of drugs and go through their personal hells to save Kristen. The group, filled with trepidation and determination, agrees. Fig offers to cast Fear on everyone to make things easier. (She also takes her hair down because she is a rock star who understands when to do things for maximum drama). Adaine dismisses Boggy and gets rid of her Anxiety meds. Fabian gets rid of his fear-cancelling eyepatch. Fig and Adaine want everyone to be tied to each other but Riz thinks this is something they absolutely have to do alone and they reluctantly agree. Everyone comes together in the last moment before they put themselves through this ordeal. I believe in you. Spring Break.

Then Riz takes off, before they can even do the drugs. His biggest fear is not having a plan so it’s the best he can think to do to give in to fear. Riz tries to follow the unicorn, getting torn at by branches and briars as he goes, hands suddenly bleeding (as if digging through a palimpsest), and he stops when he finds a sliver of silver mirror. Let’s do some D20 math. Riz+Mirror. What does that equal? That’s right. We knew this was coming. It’s the return of Baron from the Baronees!

Baron appears and says that Riz made him up because he was scared. What was he scared of? Riz says he’s scared of being wrong and hurting his friends but Baron says that that’s not why he lied. He lied because of his anxiety over all of the rest of his friends getting into romantic relationships and leaving him behind. They don’t care about him. They only keep him around because he’s useful for mystery solving. Baron shows his images of his friends with their respective love interests and Riz, ever logical even when he’s trying not to be, sees Ragh with Fefethriel (he also has no rights so I’m not looking up how to spell that) who he knows Ragh doesn’t like and clings to that as a sign that this isn’t all real. Baron continues to twist the knife. Riz isn’t like his friends. He’s not like his parents. And he’s not a good detective because, if he was, he wouldn't let himself get so easily distracted. Riz finds he’s no longer in the forest. He’s trapped in a world of mirrors.

“OK,” says Brennan. “Let’s go down the line. What are all of you afraid of?”

“Oh Boy,” I say, knowing this is going to be a bitch both to watch and try to coherently recap.

Their answers are as follows:

Gorgug: Impostor Syndrome and the fact that he’s already died once which calls into question the reality of everything after that.

Adaine: Failure and loss of control

Fig: Fig has a whole laundry list of fears. Gilear being dead, Ayda being dead and coming back as a baby, being a fraud that will wear out her welcome and be discarded, not being able to save her friends

Fabian: Helplessness and ending up as Yogurt Fabian

Everything starts to go to hell at once.

Gorgug’s crystal pings. It’s a message from Skrank saying that it’s dope that he and Zelda got back together and he’s happy Gorgug is being so cool about it. Gorgug just turns his crystal off but then, he’s hit with the realization that his life just doesn’t really add up. He’s a rockstar with a girlfriend who saved the world from a dragon with his friends? Come on. That’s a little far-fetched. And then, Bam! Adaine has to roll for a panic attack. For the first time ever, she fails on a 4 and begins to shut down. She fights the panic attack, even though she knows she needs to experience fear to get to the center of the forest and she’s able to...but finds herself outside of the briar wall, alone. She tries to Misty Step back in, but she can’t. She’s stuck.

At about the same time but a few seconds earlier as Fig is casting Fear, Fig is caught between her two main fears: being a fraud and not being able to save her friends. But Brennan, the evil genius, says that it occurs to Fig that the fact that she even had the thought of her self image while her friends were in danger means that her main concern is a shallow one and that she is a fraud. A cool, confident copy of Fig--the rockstar image she tries to project--splits from her body, tells the real Fig to stay down, and Fig is frozen to the ground.

Fabian just straight disappears. Not from the room like Adaine. From history. All his friends forget about him and are unable to see him. The Bad Kids were always comprised of 5 Members. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

The Illusion of Fig says she’s going to find Riz and Adaine and she poofs out, leaving Gorgug and Fabian alone in the room. But Gorgug can’t see Fabian. He doesn’t even remember Fabian exists. As far as he can tell, he’s been left alone. Abandoned. He tries to anchor himself with a bone he took from Kristen’s skeleton earlier and then heads off to try to find Riz. Fabian tries to call out to Gorgug, or hold him back but Gorgug doesn’t hear him and he finds he can’t physically affect him in any way. Fabian decides to let him go. He just sits. With everyone gone (including Baby who left with Fig’s double), Fig is suddenly able to move again. She calls out to her friends and, hearing no response, goes towards the woods.

OK, that was a lot and it just gets wilder from here. I’m going to try to present this as coherently as possible by splitting up what happens to everyone rather than intercutting the scenes like in the episode.

Gorgug

Gorgug travels until the forest becomes impassable. Then, he finds a tunnel under the roots of the tree that’s super tight. He can get through but just barely and he for sure can’t get out the way he came. It's littered with leaves and bugs and Gorgug is pretty claustrophobic. Still, he steels himself and starts dragging himself through. It’s scary as hell but he knows the fear is leading him in the right direction and with a 21 Acrobatics, he gets through.

Once on the other side, he takes out the recording stone he made earlier and records himself saying, “It’s Gorgug. Keep going,” as a message for anyone who might come this way. The message Care Bear Stare reverberates through the forest and all of his friends feel a spot of encouragement that they’re doing the right thing.

But Gorgug finds himself in the worst room for a low Int party member to be in alone. He’s in a puzzle room with a dick of a Sphinx who says Gorgug has to solve this puzzle or the Sphinx will eat him. The Sphinx says he’ll help (which will lower the DC of solving the puzzle) but every time he helps, he’ll give Gorgug some true but hurtful information. He has unlimited tries but once he starts he can’t stop.

Gorgug tries and fails (just barely). He asks for help. The Sphinx then shows Gorgug a vision of himself as a baby with his younger parents and all of his aunts and uncles. Gorgug doesn’t really know his extended family. Turns out, that’s because they were all hella racist about Gorgug being adopted so Digby and Wilma cut them all out of their lives. He created a rift in the family. He tries two more times. Both failures. The Sphinx begins to prowl and stalk him.

Gorgug realizes that the scariest thing to him is to admit that he’s too stupid to figure this out and he says, “I’m a dumbass. Eat me you stupid bug.”

The puzzle spontaneously solves itself. The sphinx leaps at Gorgug but vanishes into bugs before it can reach. The door opens and he can walk through.

Riz

Riz takes comfort in the images of his friends around him (even though they’re all of awkward romantic moments) and says that no matter what Baron is saying, he knows his friends care about him. Kristen could have cured herself, but she cured him. They may call him The Ball, but now he’s friends with the bully who made up that nickname. He might not be super close with Penny who he worked so hard to save, but that’s OK because they just run in different circles. He feels secure with his role as Little Shrimp of the Bad Kids.

The mirrors shatter. Baron vanishes. Care Bear Stare.

Riz sees tracks of the unicorn going off in another direction and he feels very confident that he can follow them and find it. He also sees a really cozy bed.

“Is my greatest fear sleeping on the job?” he says. “I’m so lame.”

Still, he bravely gets in snuggles down (to the outrage of Lou, who we’ll get to next actually).

Fabian

Fabian gets up after feeling the spark of hope from Gorgug and starts moving deeper into the forest. Unfortunately, his friends may have forgotten about him but you know who hasn’t? Chungle-Down Bim who is in the forest, feral, and still chomping at the bit to shit in Fabian’s mouth. Fabian runs like hell into a cave to hide where he is met with his other worst nightmare, the SEXY RAT FROM FRESHMAN YEAR--now human sized--who gives away his hiding place.

After running for a bit longer, he takes a deep breath, lays down and--for the good of the party--decides to subject himself to what the forest has decided are his two worst fears apart from being forgotten: having his mouth shit in by Chungle-Down Bim and being fucked by a sexy rat.

Insane but Bam. Care Bear Stare.

The ground opens up and swallows him. He’s falling in darkness, just like in his nightmare from episode 1 (which I finally looked up, just in time it turns out). He hears Cathilda’s voice: If he’s his own new man, then will he be extraordinary? Will he write his name on the face of the Earth? Fabian senses a trap but he answers. He doesn’t know what he’ll be but he likes the direction he’s going. He doesn’t care where he ends up, because he likes where he is. And he doesn’t care if he writes his name on the face of the Earth because he’ll be with the bad kids.

Gorgug, in the room that the door opens up to, suddenly sees something crash through the ceiling and Fabian--who he now remembers--is in the room with him. Fabian hugs him immediately--something he’s never done before.

And, for the trouble of that ordeal, Brennan lets them reroll their lowest ability scores with 4d6 (unless it’s lower than what they already have or higher than they want it for story reasons).

Fig

On Fig’s way out of the temple, she sees a placid pool of water which has a carving of an eye being pried open above it. She can tell the pool is magical and she dips her feet into it, being consciously reckless. The pool is body temperature, which is unsettling, and it asks her whose dreams she wants to see.

She first tries Aelwyn but gets nothing because elves are weird to scry on dream-wise since they trance. Then, she tries Kristen and sees the image of a huge woman (like mountain huge) clutching her scalp and screaming as a storm rages around her, striking her with lightning and destroying her in some crazy act of magic. Yikes. She scoops up some pool water to take with her.

She tries to scry on Ayda, sees the same place Adaine saw when she did it earlier, and tries to Dimension Door there. It doesn’t work and she just ends up in some random place in the woods, hopelessly lost. As she walks, she comes across an elven village covered in spiderwebs and cocoons. Fig finds a griffon feather and then sees an old woman who is only partially cocooned. She wakes her up and asks what’s going on. Does she need help? Yeah, she could use help getting home. Fig asks where she lives. That’s easy. 22 Hilda Street; 22 Hilda Boulevard BAYBEE!

Hilda-Hilda and her MASSIVE dog start to attack Fig (who was EXPLICITLY WARNED THIS MIGHT HAPPEN and told this insane lie anyway) and she books it out of there. As she runs, she is frozen and magically bound again. Her double walks out of the forest to taunt her some more. She asks what will happen once her rock star persona wears off and Ayda sees the real her?

“I hope that she finds something I didn’t know was there.”

Boom. Care Bear Stare.

But Fig isn’t free. In fact, the bindings on her turn to marionette strings and she finds herself being dragged behind her double. Fig tries to make some illusion scissors to cut herself free but it doesn’t work. She’s reminded of the dream she had in the first episode of having fame and power and wanting a crown and any confidence she has leaves her as she remembers the times she’s been possessed in the past. Her double asks her why she wanted a crown so badly and Fig says it wasn’t her. It was whoever mind controlled her. Isn’t there a part of her that wants a crown though? Fig says what she’s interested in isn’t the crown. It's being able to control her self-image. Her double tightens her puppet strings which is heart clenching but Fig knows that means she’s going the right way.

They end up walking past the place where Ayda is and Fig yells at her double to help her--she may be a twisted version of her but she’s still a part of her so she should still have a crush on Ayda. The scrying water Fig took heats up and turns to steam and, within the steam, she can see what Ayda is experiencing: Previous incarnations of herself, screaming at her to do better and be better. She sees that, in Ayda’s memories, she spent a lot of time being confused and feeling inadequate and Fig was one of the first people to be patient with her and explain things to her. Ayda’s doubles taunt her and say there’s no rational world where someone as awesome as Fig (the real Fig, the Fig in Ayda’s memories is the real one, not the glamorous idealized one that has Fig hostage) would find a single redeemable quality in her.

Ayda says, quietly to herself, that just because she hasn’t found any worthwhile qualities in herself, doesn’t mean someone as brilliant as Fig can’t.

Fig suddenly finds herself somewhere far away, bound between trees right next to Riz who is still napping.

Brennan gives them the same offer to boost a score--Wisdom since they both got through their trials with Wisdom based solutions.

Adaine

Adaine, also upon feeling the spark of hope from Gorgug, thinks that there has to be more going on than it seems so she takes off her jacket, leaves her orb, closes her eyes and starts walking. As she walks, it feels like days are passing. She doesn’t trip or fall but she takes slashing damage from the trees around her (still in the forest, regardless of how it appeared).

Eventually, she finds herself at the edge of a cliff that drops off into ocean. Ocean like the previous Oracle drowned in. Ocean like in the dream she saw herself drowning in at the start of the season. She sees someone standing near her but she doesn’t give them the time of day. She simply steps off into the open air and starts plummeting down.

As she does, she sees that the figure--the same figure that was in the tent with her that she didn’t look at way back when--is of an older version of herself in a black mourning dress.

She starts drowning and she wants to try and solve the situation but, like Riz, she realizes that this isn’t something she can solve. She can only fight which she does, refusing to give up (which would be less scary). She suddenly finds herself not drowning in the ocean, but in an orb surrounded by people as Biz Glitterdew dressed like a Carnival Barker tells people to step right up and see the amazing Elven Oracle. She’s surrounded by people she doesn’t know how to help. She can’t even help herself.

As she’s in the orb, she hears the voice of the future version of her from the cliff. She’s always been clever. She did everything right. This is her last chance to speak with her if she wants to. Adaine asks why she doesn’t have friends now. She’s hit with the reality she must know on some level already. She’s an elf. Her friends all have naturally shorter lifespans. Her future self has all these answers but the one thing she doesn’t know (much like Will in that one episode of Fresh Prince) is why she was so easily discarded by her parents. Are they unlovable? Our Adaine doesn’t know either. Maybe some things don’t have answers. Future Adaine asks if she ever wonders if the kindness from her friends is a reflection of their goodness and not her worthiness. God, yes, Every day. “But I know that my friends do love me so maybe there’s hope for us yet,” she says, voice heartbreakingly tremulous.

Care Bear Stare.

Her double gives her a second and then says that as valid as that hope is, she needs to let it go, at least for now, to get to where she needs to get to.

She lets it go.

Adaine finds that she’s no longer in an orb filled with water. She’s in a prison orb in the heart of the forest surrounded by her family (hard air quotes around family). Her mom has summoned her. Aelwyn won’t look at her and is just staring at the floor, totally dejected. Anguin is there too, one eye busted and one arm in a sling. He’s PISSED. Arianwyn is still marked with curse wounds and Adaine doesn’t see the crown on her anywhere. She says it’s good to see Adaine, but Adaine’s not buying it. She Messages Aelwyn: Are you OK? What’s going on? Aelwyn says for once in her life, just do what their parents ask. Please. (She actually says please! Concerning!)

Arianwyn tells Adaine that all her friends are alive and nothing bad will happen to them. She’s not in any trouble. Adaine wants to know why she’d care if she was in trouble with her parents-in-name-only. “Self preservation?” Anguin suggests. Adaine says there’s nothing else they can do to her that’s worse than what they’ve already done so it’s kind of an empty threat. Anguin has something to say about that but his wife stops him and tells Adaine everything is nearly done. Promises were broken, they needed new allies, so they joined up with the Nightmare King. That’s not nearly enough information for Adaine. She wants to know why she’s there.

Arianwyn says that they need Adaine to just tell them what the Bad Kids have been planning so they can stop it and they’ll keep her friends alive. The Court of Stars said they would trade Aelwyn’s freedom for the Crown but, when she delivered it, they broke their promise. “So you bring back the NK?” Adaine asks, incredulously. The Abernants have always been important, Arianwyn says. She has no choice but to restore their tarnished name--the name tarnished partially by Adaine she points out.

Adaine wonders how they got to the center of the forest and faced all their fear while still being so craven. Aelwyn expresses surprise that Adaine didn’t just use a Duskmoss ritual the way they did. But she still made it, and Wiser than all of the rest of them. (Speaking of, here, Brennan gives her the same opportunity to boost her lowest score; hope she rolls 4 sixes and boosts her strength score).

Tearfully, Arianwyn says that she doesn't know how to make Adaine believe in the family. To make her more like Aelwyn. Adaine says she's been so cruel and loveless to her her entire life. Why would she suddenly start believing in the family now? Arianwyn seems confused. She’s been very loving. And Adaine sees that she truly believes that. She had no self awareness at all.

Arianwyn continues to try and get Adaine on her side but Adaine rebuffs her, citing her earlier cruelty. “Love without expectation what is that?” Arianwyn says. “What is expectation without love?” Adaine counters, echoing her previous words.

Arianwyn decides she doesn’t have time for this conversation and she doesn’t want to get upset in front of Adaine. She takes Killian (who is also there btw) and leaves. Once she’s gone, Anguin says that, when this is all over, he’s going to figure out a way to “fix” her permanently and his hands crackle threateningly with magic.

We leave her there.

Riz wakes up and he and Fig make sure that the other is alright. Then, they hear the sound of hoofbeats and see the skeletal unicorn approach them. They sense a growing malevolence from the forest.

Meanwhile, Fabian and Gorgug travel deeper into a tunnel off the room they both found themselves in and see that it leads to an endless ocean of mist from which huge islands of rock topped with forest jut out. They can sense that their friends are close.

“Spring break?” says Fabian.

“Spring break,” Says Gorgug.

And that’s it for the session!

Can’t wait for next episode to start with 30 minutes of Kristen being retroactively subjected to this same caliber of absolute nonsense just when I’ve recovered from this!

Detention

Arianwyn for Gothel-ing it Up

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You hate to see it. You truly hate to see it.

Was really hoping (based on some in-text evidence that I’ve previously discussed but also just wanting it really bad) that Arianwyn was gonna pull through and be not The Worst but it turns out she still mega sucks, just in a different direction than Anguin.

I will say that we’re in the Nightmare forest of Lies so it’s possible we’re being lied to in some respect and I will glady eat my words if I have to later but, idk y’all, It felt pretty real to me.

Dishonorable mention to Anguin for threatening to mind-break Adaine which is horrific but we been knew he needs to get put down.

Honor Roll

Gorgug for Sparking Hope

Gorgug is truly just the goodest boy. I really had no idea that him dropping that rock was going to do anything. In fact, I thought it was a dumb idea because nothing about the way things were set up made me think anyone else would come his way. It all seemed pretty individualized.

Maybe that occurred to him. Maybe it didn’t.

But one thing that for sure occurred to him was that he wanted to help his friends in any way that he could so he tried and it worked and it helped.

Gorgug really is the very best of what the Bad Kids stand for. Spot well earned.

Random Thoughts

Brennan name dropped Kitty Pryde in this episode so I'm gonna give y'all a fun fact. I was a big fan of X-Men Evolution as a kid. In fact, it's still my fave piece of X-Men media to date (or, at worst, a veeery close second to the OG and TAS adaptation of the Phoenix saga). Anyway, Spyke in that cartoon at least once refers to Kitty as K-Girl and every time I call Kristen that, that's where I'm getting it from.

Riz re: The Bardy Boys: As long as you investigate and and have a song in your heart you are a Bardy Boy. (If I was in charge of D20 merch, this would be the t-shirt for the ep for sure)

I gotta give major props to Brennan for how he ran this episode. I was so curious about how it would work and I had absolute faith in him of course--he’s never disappointed with individualized encounters--but he just knocked it out of the park.

Kristen having all the revivify diamonds Concerns me, even though I guess she is the only one who could cast it I think (besides Tracker).

Siobhan: Keep crunching. Great practice for that die later.

Ayda really stabbed me in the heart this episode. Brennan tried to murder me and Ayda was the weapon he used. The esteem that Ayda holds Fig in after such a short period of time is so sweet, as is how completely reciprocated it is. You know that “same hat, same hat!” Meme? That’s them, but also with their trauma.

Interesting that, to Adaine, fighting and not giving up is the scariest thing but to Riz, going to sleep and not continuing is what’s scary. Especially since they’re so similar.

Of course, the bed could be going to sleep and being possessed but I don’t think he’s scared of that now that his money is gone.

Some INSANE stuff happened re: Kristen this episode but it barely is even a footnote compared to everything else that happened. Isn’t that wild? Isn’t it wild that Kristen is apparently a Saint that has been dead for 850 years now and we’re not talking about that? Is this gonna be one of those weird time loop things where Kristen comes to find out that she’s actually been a part of this story the whole time?

Thank you Brennan for the emotional breaks of Fabian’s Loony Tunes antics and the return of Hilda-Hilda.

Anguin is still busted up from the fight with the Bad Kids which confused me until I remembered, oh yeah. Wizards don’t get heals. That’s why you diversify your party comp BI-YATCH.

I wonder what the true nature of the forest is. Most of the figures we saw in it were fully hostile but Adaine’s future self wasn’t. Just kinda sad. Of course, that is probably the better tactic to break Adaine since if something is openly hostile to her, she just tries to hit it.

What happened to Aelwyn since the last time we saw her? Clearly, all is not well. Intestinal distress aside, she was fine the last time she actually interacted with the Bad Kids and the last time we saw her via scry there was nothing obviously wrong with her. One thing that I noticed at the time but didn’t bring up because it wasn’t relevant then was that Brennan specifically said that she was wearing wood elf clothing while Arianwyn was wearing “Deep elf” clothing. In the art, you can see that she and Anguin are dressed more “nobly” and also that Aelwyn looks not only emotionally defeated but also physically roughed up and dirty. Why would they have her dress as a wood elf, who they clearly see as inferior? Is it pure cruelty? Part of whatever ritual they were doing? I thought for a second it might be to pass her off as a wood elf for something in connection with the mystery goddess but they all look pretty freaking related. Nuathra was able to tell that Adaine was related to Arianwyn and Aelwyn pretty quickly. And, beyond what she looks like, when Adaine spoke to her via message and Aelweyn told her to not make waves, she said please. Aelwyn used the word please. That, to me, is a MAJOR red flag.

And what changed so drastically that it got Arianwyn and Anguin back on the same side? It didn’t seem like they were working together before and Aelwyn, who I don’t think had any reason to lie at the time, also said it point blank.

@camwritery and I were wildly speculating about the Abernants, you know, as you do, and wouldn’t it be wild if the Abernants via prophecy or whatever knew they were going to have a child who would be the Elven Oracle and since elves tend to not have more than one kid (idk if it’s like that in FH but it’s like that in a lot of stuff with elves) they assumed that kid would be Aelwyn which is why she got all the attention and Adaine--a surprise baby in this scenario--got ignored until she was suddenly became relevant to their plans?

We were also talking about how Adaine has basically walked herself right into a worst case scenario by leaving her arcane focus and jacket somewhere in the woods (not to mention getting rid of her familiar and meds). She’s pretty defenseless, which means it would be a *fantastic* time for Aelwyn to grow a spine and do her sister a solid. Like, presumably her friends will be to her soon enough but come on girl! The path to your redemption is right there, just stick the landing! My best case scenario: Anguin tries and fails to do a Detect Thoughts on Adaine to get the information she refuses to give him. He orders Aelwyn to do it. Adaine purposefully fails her save, shows Aelwyn everything she wanted to show her before, and boom. We’re in business.

Last excerpt from that conversation: In the new art, the Abernant’s names are spelled Aelwyn, Angwyn, and Arianwen. First of all that’s nonsense and, as I said earlier, they get no rights. But, assuming that’s correct, interesting that all of their names have the same ending but Aelwyn got her dad’s spelling and not her mom’s.

Why does Arianwyn care so much about the family name? Assuming elves do it like humans (which is a bit of an assumption I’ll admit) it wouldn’t even be her name and line. This is A LOT for a family you married into.

Fig did three low-key things this episode I thought were very sweet. One, she worried about Adaine’s meds. My thought was that she had her jacket so she’d be fine but Fig thought ahead the extra step and was worried Adaine would be too panicked to think about that. Two, upon seeing Baby was with her doppelganger Fig’s main thought was, “Oh good. At least he’s alright.” Three, she begged her doppelganger to stop and help Ayda, trying to appeal to any shared feelings for Ayda, even though she was being straight savage to her. In conclusion, Fig is a huge sweetheart and a lot more forward thinking than her actions would often suggest.

Also, “No one wants to hear the bass play solo”?????? Was that off the top of your head Emily???????????When Zac clutched his chest? I felt that.

Not mechanically important, but Fig’s archdevil pentagram is now an anarchy symbol instead. Rock on.

“Are you afraid to know the truth of your life?”/“Now I am.”

I was SO worried we were gonna hear some bad information about Wilma and Digby but it just turns out that they loved Gorgug so much that they cut all the toxic family members out of their life? You love to see it.

Did this episode give anyone else major Labyrinth vibes?

Gorgug calling the Sphinx, “Mr. Sphinx.” I love him so much.

I saw people talking later about Zelda maybe having cheated on Gorgug but, tbh, the thought that that was real never really crossed my mind. I just assumed it was phone trickery because haven’t we seen phone trickery before? On the other hand, Brennan’s Good Place-esque, “Come on. You’re a popular rockstar who killed a dragon with his friends last year? Does that sound real?” torture of Gorgug was exquisite. Not to mention asking Emily which thing Fig dreads more than turning it in on itself. You could see the “game recognizes game” look in her eyes as he did that.

The moment the Hilda-Hilda sequence started I knew exactly where it was going and it was delicious. Brennan spinning it out, baiting Emily into asking her address, the reveal? *Chef’s Kiss*

Weirdly specific point but in this episode, Fig has water she collected from a magical source boil and burst the container. That’s actually the second time this has happened to Emily, the first time being during Unsleeping City with a flask of water from Em’s fountain.

"My friends were warmer to me when I first met them than you ever have been my whole life." Really can’t wait for Adaine to get to deck her parents. We’re all rooting for you girl.

Awards for shredding my heart this week go to Fig and Adaine. Special awards to Riz for hitting a little too close to home and Brennan for facilitating this torture. I feel like I should also get to reroll my lowest skill with 4d6 for experiencing that.

As an aside, hope everyone is doing OK what with all the craziness going on in the world right now. I’m sure you don’t need another person to tell you to wash your hands and stay inside if you can but I do want to say that distracting yourself is a perfectly valid response to a situation you can’t do anything else about. I’m gonna say, if you’re into theater, check out the Six soundtrack if you haven’t already. It’s a whole bop (with a side of some history). Anyway, stay safe y’all.

This episode, Adaine and Riz each rolled one Nat 1, Gorgug rolled two with one being cancelled out, and no one rolled any Nat 20s because it’s Bad Kid suffering hours baybee.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers #fantasy high live

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