reading animorphs sequentially instead of in whatever random order you can get your hands on them is such a trip because you can see these kids getting progressively better at war and worse at being happy, you can see how traumatic events from one book echo into the next ones but never quite get dealt with because these kids have no real way to take care of their mental health, you can see their relationships deepening but simultaneously gaining friction and faultlines as they learn just how far they'd go for each other but also how far they'd go in general...
obviously this series was meant to be episodic in nature, and i actually think that might be the better way to first encounter it, but the arc of the series in publication order is extremely well-crafted
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What if in the event that Macaque was sealed under the mountain one of Reader and Wukong’s kids, one that was too young and naive to not approach a stranger trapped under a mountain, found him and offered to be a friend? Like "Geez that mountain looks heavy, when was the last time you had something to eat?"
oooohohoh the potential there
and there's no way macaque doesn't know that this kid is reader's and wukong's. it's probably the eyes. the kid has their mothers eyes, but everything else is all monkey king. it hurts, thinking how this kid could have been his, if only he'd been able to beat the monkey king, been able to protect reader...
he sees an opportunity here, he just has to be careful how he uses it. he can't just ask the kid to remove the seal outright, if they choose not to and mention the encounter to wukong, he might just come back to finish the job.
so, he plays along with the kid, gets to know them. maybe he subtly asks about their mom: what's she like, how is she, do she and your dad get along...the kid plays right into it, having known nothing but kindness in the monkey kingdom on flower fruit mountain and seeing no reason to distrust a stranger.
the kid, who's likely smarter than they seem, probably knows who macaque is already. or at the very least has an idea; how many other demon monkeys do they know who've been stuck under mountains? just their dad, so macaque likely has somewhat of a reputation now. regardless, the kid has inherited their mothers kindness and brings mac food and water. perhaps they trade more food for stories about their parents pasts.
once night falls the child goes home to their mother, promising to return. they snuggle up to her in the massive pillow pit that resides in the royal chambers of the stone palace, recounting the day they had. when they mention meeting a strange monkey demon trapped under a mountain, reader feels ice in her veins.
she hushes her child, frantically whispering to them. she tries to explain in a way they'll understand.
"You must never, ever speak his name around your father, do you understand? It could get him killed. He was once a dear...friend, of ours." reader sighs. "He made your father very angry and that's why he's under that mountain. Promise me you won't mention this to him, alright?"
the child, a bit stunned at their mothers apparent desperation, agrees. and not a moment too soon, as wukong appears in the doorway, calling out a jovial greeting to his little family as he removes his armor. he plops himself down in the pillows next to reader, gathering the child into his arms and lifting them up. he asks them about their day through their laughter.
reader tenses the tiniest bit.
and the child lies. says they spent the day exploring flower fruit mountain and the lands surrounding it, practicing magic. wukong laughs, makes a joke about how one day maybe they'll be as powerful as him.
reader sighs.
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I feel like debating who Loki was talking to when he said "For You" in the last episode, is missing the point of the scene. And people referring to it as "cowardly" and a "no-homo" moment is just?? Baffling to me tbh because like;
First of all, it is obviously intended to be to both of them? If they only wanted to make it about Sylvie, Mobius wouldn't be there. If they only wanted to make it about Mobius, Sylvie wouldn't be there. If they wanted to make it about everyone they would've just framed it more equally, he does do it for all his friends ("for all of us"), but they have that scene to highlight these two specific relationships. The framing is quite clear, they have him take a last look at all of his friends before going down the stairs, but Mobius and Sylvie runs after him to have a final significant moment.
Which absolutely makes sense and is consistent with the show we have seen so far, s1 and s2 combined, which is what I love about it. And it was to be honest a surprise! Going into this season, I had little hope for Loki/Mobius interactions, just didn't want to expect too much since S1 had a lot of their connection, but that could've been it. I was shocked when s2ep1 was full to the brim with Loki and Mobius scenes? And then they kept reinforcing every week that they care about each other, is a funny duo to watch, and are important to one another.
And despite this, I expected the rug to at some point be pulled, especially compared to Loki's relationship to Sylvie. No matter people's personal viewing on the show, she is still cited as a love interest by showrunners and is just portrayed as that by the narrative a lot of the time. Sidelining that, even in s2 when the romantic hints are more vague, she's still a very important person in Loki's life. She played a central part of the plot and Loki's own character development of understanding himself.
So to me, I was surprised seeing Mobius and Sylvie side by side in the end. Both being framed as The important people in Loki's life. Then, however you wanna see in what ways they are important is up to you, but they are the people he keeps coming back to for advice and self-reflection. You can frame it as "oh it should've been only been Mobius and they added Sylvie to downplay it", which, I just disagree with (If they wanted to go for explicitly canon Lokius they needed to set that up even more earlier in the season but that's a post for another day). Sylvie is still like, a constant in the narrative and driving force of s1, even if s2 changes things around a bit, and imo it would be inconsistent if she just vanished here. I guess I am used to media that downplays a meaningful dynamic between two dudes in more aggressive ways, which they absolutely could've done, and would've taken me out of the story to be honest... but they didn't, Mobius and Sylvie got to be side by side in the end and that imo validated the Loki/Mobius dynamic way more than downplays it.
TLDR; The "For you" was for both Mobius and Sylvie because why would you frame it that way otherwise, and having them side by side like that validates Lokius way more than downplays it in a "no-homo" way considering the full context of the show.
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