#Riz does not care. Riz is doing extracurriculars. Riz does not have time to have an arch nemesis like Kristen does | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roll-for-gaslight · 15 days

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While I think Sklonda is right to be critical of the Bad Kids and specifically Kristen, I think that a lot of the reason she did so is that she was missing a lot of context the other parents were given. We see in Freshman Year that she’s often given the information about their quests from Riz, several hours after the fact, and he shares clues with her rather than personal things. He doesn’t think the personal bits are what she cares about because, for him, that’s not the problem being solved. He’s happy with his friends and she only really would hear if one of them caused a problem. Her apartment isn’t a hangout like Seacaster Manor, Mordred Manor, the Thistlespring Tree, or even Gilear’s season one apartment were. By the nature of her being a single working mother in a difficult financial situation, she often was left out of extracurricular activities.

For example, Mordred is obviously a place filled with a lot of activity, and plenty of kids to give updates on said activity if something slips through the cracks of someone’s retelling. If Adaine leaves out a personal moment because she’s focused on the case, Fig or Kristen or even Ragh could fill in that blank, plus the fact that the other BKs spend a lot of time there means that Sandralynn, Jawbone, and Lydia are usually getting every side of every story. The Thistlespring Tree is where the Bad Kids go not just because it’s a nice place to spend time, but because it’s often directly tied into a plot or subplot! The power source in season one, the satellite in season two, and Gorgug’s artificer journey + the whole Frosty Faire thing going on now! Besides that, the Thistlesprings have raised Gorgug in a way that encourages open channels of communication about his emotions above all else, so he tells them what’s going on! Fabian’s parents over at Seacaster Manor haven’t been involved so much this season, but Bill Seacaster saw their bond from the start and taught them how to take care of each other and fight as a group, and Gilear has always been heavily involved in their adventures because all of the BKs have been emotionally invested in him as well!

Aside from that, she’s missing the context of actually being able to attend their quests like some other parents/guardians were able to in Sophomore Year! Gilear and Cathilda and Sandralynn all know things like the fact that everyone was worried about Riz and called him their little angel when he was gone and that Kristen saved him almost at the expense of her own life in the Nightmare King’s forest. She never sees them together, the way they’ll risk everything for each other when the chips are down, the way they all show they care in little ways all the time ( like Fig giving him the card or Fabian’s gifts in Freshman Year). She doesn’t understand that while “the Ball” may have come from a bully on the first day of school, it turned into a term of endearment! She doesn’t see how hard they’ve been trying this year to pass their classes and such, not because it matters to them, but because they know it’s important to Riz. He never even explained the whole needing scholarships thing to them! He showed up with folders on the first day, stressed out of his mind about all of them passing together, and basically decided to get their shit together! Sure, it took Kristen and Fig a little while to do it, but that’s because they were struggling to build better habits!

I also understand how she could think Riz does all of the heavy lifting: when he presents the clues to her and he’s their lead investigator, do you think she assumed other people did the finding? Absolutely not! She doesn’t see the way they put things together by focusing on their individual strengths; she only sees Riz trying to put it all together and find the connections. Why would she know that a lot of the investigative work was done by Adaine and Kristen in sophomore year because so much of it had to do with religion? She wouldn’t!

All this to say: Sklonda is a good mom for checking in with Riz, but she also has a narrow view of things that no one else has. If she were to be exposed to the BKs more often and actually pay attention to how things work between them, I think she would be much more understanding.

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supercantaloupe · 3 years

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ooh, director's commentary for 25th Annual Solesian National Spelling Bee?

trying to get me to reveal secrets about upcoming chapters, perhaps? ;P /lh

well, regarding what i’ve already posted, i guess i should talk about my inspo for writing this one. definitely takes a lot of inspiration from the musical the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, though it doesn’t really follow the same plot at all. i grew up as a really busy kid in high school, the honors student in a ton of extracurriculars who grew up the younger sister of another very busy and accomplished sibling in a relatively small scholastic community, so i’ve always seen a bit of myself in the abernant sisters and wanted to explore that in writing (especially focused on aelwyn’s perspective, which is not as close to my own). also it’s kind of a fun excuse to re-explore a lot of the memories of the shit i did in high school. academic competitions like mathletes. ap tests. chem day expos. music festivals. not just the actual events themselves either but the downtime: riding the bus early morning and late night to and from events, chatting with friends or napping or studying; trying to keep calm and not stress out in between events or tests or awards or performances; interacting with other students from other schools in both friendly and competitive contexts; etc. etc. in a way it’s a love letter to my self left behind after graduation, if you’ll excuse my waxing sappy about a fanfiction.

i did very much set out for this fic to explore aelwyn’s developing relationships with each of the bad kids and with others as this new version of herself who still has a tangible and unpleasant lingering legacy. i think the inhabitants of the manor are the quickest to warm to her -- being around her and adaine the most helps, which is why i think fig and kristen are the warmest and most empathetic/able to read her, especially in chapters 2 and 14. gorgug seems like a forgiving sweetheart to me so i didn’t think he’d hold much of a grudge against her, and anyway does not have the patience for people being assholes to his friends (or their friends). fabian and aelwyn have a...funny sort of relationship, joking and charged and very very awkward which i definitely tried to capture in their interactions. and i thought riz would have the most reservations about trusting aelwyn, which is why i gave them some very tense interactions, as well as resolving them in silence through a game of chess: they’re both deeply traumatized and not so open to trusting people quickly, but they’re also both smart and recognize that in each other, and respect that. plus, they’re both calculating and strategically-minded, so working through whatever tension that exists between them through a game liked chess felt like a very fitting way to explore the beginning of their relationship (and i do think, eventually, they’ll become really good friends). and finally i think adaine and aelwyn theselves have a complicated relationship: they’re both deeply invested in being better sisters to each other, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to just immediately get along perfectly well as soon as spring break is over; they’re both very stubborn, traumatized people with strong, sometimes opposed personalities. yet even if they continue to butt heads from time to time, they can still love and care for and support and lean on each other for help. the road to recovery and growth is not a straight path and it’s not an easy one, but they’re all still making progress.

i had to make up a lot of new characters for this one too because i really wanted to explore aelwyn’s relationship to her past as a hudol student. i think she was a champion at this kind of event in her own past, and in a similar way that me writing this is an exploration of my own experience, her being back at the Bee is her walking through and literally confronting the person she used to be. her name on the trophies. her old teachers. her old classmates. (even if you didn’t dramatically drop out of school in disgrace after being busted for running a massive, world-threanening conspiracy, how many people in your high school do you really ever want to interact with in the slightest once you graduate/d? for me it’s like two people, tops.) and i certainly hope i’ve been (and/or will continue to be) successful at using those invented new characters effectively, but i suppose you’d have to tell me if that’s the case or not :P

anyway! you can check out the fic here, and i do hope to update this soon once i get some other projects out of the way first!

[ask meme]

#this turned out loooooong i hope u enjoy it sola lmao #sasha answers #ask meme #thats-the-moon-grey #let the poet bless this round

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jq37 · 5 years

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Can I ask for your thoughts on the newest Fantasy High ep? I enjoyed it, but honestly I'm more excited for the next episode based on that preview...

**even more spoilers for the sisterly showdown**

OK, I’m back for Hot Takes: Part 2.

First, just a few stray things I forgot last time:

I’m sure Adaine is enjoying having bested Aelwen (yeah,spelling #3 guys) in the moment but I can’t imagine she’s gonna enjoy all these nerds making cow eyes at her if her time in the AV office is any indication. Though, to be fair, these nerds could have more game.

“OOPS BITCH.” Siobhan with the awesome episode enders back to back.

Anyone who saw Fabian jump on the Hangman, make a lap while on fire, and then come back, still on fire, was probably like, “Classic Fabian.” I wouldn’t even question it. Very on brand.

Did y’all notice that at a certain point of the fight, everyone clearly went “Game Face” and started playing to win? Like they were joking a lot less and getting all quiet. I was almost holding my breath for them at points. I am convinced they were all having war flashbacks to the first fight. I know I was.

OK, on to new business!

I think I’m on record as saying that combat is my least fave part of RPGs.You’re spending a lot of time IRL to cover relatively small amounts of time in story and I especially dislike RPGs that use initiative based fighting systems (which is most of them I think) because then you end up with situations like in this ep where Siobhan kept wanting to attack Aelwen but she couldn’t react when it would make sense for her to do so because she rolled low on initiative. And it’s where most of the rules of the game are and it can get nitty gritty when I prefer to loose, sandbox-y elements of an RPG.

I want to also reiterate that I think Brennan does a fantastic job of making the combat fun to watch by having inventive fight themes and the rest of the cast is fun no matter what.

That being said, I far and away prefer the story episodes to the combat ones and the entire ep I was like, “OK, but then I’m gonna have to wait a whole week for the conversation that happens after this fight,” WHICH IS THE PART YOU WANT TO SEE OBVIOUSLY.

So I am also more looking forward to the aftermath of the fight than I was the fight itself (although the little bit we got of Adaine getting to finally beat Aelwen was great). Here’s a shot list of things I want addressed/am looking forward to.

What exactly is Aelwen’s part in this? Mastermind? Doubt it. Pawn? Maybe. Being magically manipulated? I mean, possible but I kinda hope she’s just Like This. Anyway, if everything is going to end up dovetailing together (like these stories usually do) and Aelwen is a part of the Palimpsest conspiracy which was part of the Harvestmen’s attempted hit on Kristen which was part of the effort to start a war I’m curious about what reason Aelwen would have to want a war. Like, is that conducive to her lifestyle? Does she know about the war thing specifically or does she just know that s/t shady is happening and if she doesn’t ask too many questions, she’s in the clear? Brennan, fighting slime monsters is great but I have story questions.

They basically have Aelwen dead to rights on this, but I wonder how she’s gonna play this. She doesn’t strike me as the spill guts immediately type. And she should be smart enough to play the diplomatic immunity card. But I hope we at least get some info out of her.

Man I hope Riz’s mom gets to arrest her. Which would lead to Mr. Abernant yelling at her which would lead to Adaine yelling at him which she should more because it’s great.

If Fabian lays low, he’s probably gonna get away with the whole kissing Adaine’s sister thing. She really did not care AT ALL compared to how pissed she was at Aelwen, even before she started actively trying to kill them. On the other hand, she could just be prioritizing and Fabian’s still in for it a, “What the hell, man?” Even if she’s not actively mad at him, this won’t be a point in his favor if he ever decides to make a move on her in the future (which it looked like he might).

I wonder how much, if anything, Mr. Abernant knows about Aelwn’s extracurricular activities. Because either he doesn’t know what she’s up to or he does but he’s in denial and/or protecting the family name. I wouldn’t even be asking the question except for that clip of him being all, “You can’t jail a diplomat’s daughter!” Although, wouldn’t it be wild if it turned out he was talking about Adaine instead of Aelwen there?

And what’s up with Aelwen and Ostentasia? What did she know? What was she helping her with? Did Aelwen have this whole party set up just to get a good chance to snatch her?

Y’all, there are 4 episodes left. FOUR. We’re getting close to the endgame. There’s not a lot of time to introduce a new set of antagonists, you know? So I feel like next ep has to drop some pretty major info bombs. Especially since we still haven’t addressed all the weird crap Adaine found in her sister’s room. See, the conversation right after the fight! That’s where the magic happens.

Riz’s dad! I’ve been waiting for this to go down since the graveyard ep and it looks like it finally will! In the promo, Riz says, “Hey Mom. I know about dad.” Which is kinda throwing me for a loop because either that means he doesn’t know exactly how his dad died and Adaine tells him or (the more intriguing option) something even wilder went down which Sklonda is keeping from him and Riz is about to have a storm coming.

“Detect maiden.” MMM ominous. So, is this an classic maiden sacrifice for big spell thing we’re leading up to?

KVX? Ominous again.

I’ve been meaning to say this. Wasn’t it established in E1 that the setting of FH is this weird little area of the world that happens to look like a modern irl suburb, and the rest of the world is like a normal DnD setting? I didn’t think that would end up mattering since the story has so far been confined to the immediate area but if war ends up happening, it could factor in.

Also, Adaine finally read that book on Aguefort which raised a lot of questions and suggested time travel might become a factor at some point? Which would be WILD. Imagine Back to the Future but instead of Marty it’s Fig. The timeline would be in shambles.

Brennan keeps mentioning this Nightmare King person and I’ve been keeping that in the back of my head all season, waiting for it to pop up because I refuse to be blindsighted.

And, speaking of, that ice cream later wish is still in play. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.

So yeah! Next episode should drop some big story bombs and I’m SUPER pumped. Lemme know if I missed anything you wanted to hear about.

#a-salty-alto #asks #fantasy high

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