Fantasy High Junior Year Spoilers - Blog Posts

Beautiful. Majestic. BAM!

can't believe jace was condemned to hell/prison because people think he's banging porter

i've been pretty distracted by all the sapphics this season so maybe someone pointed this out and i didn't see it but - jace was murdered and brought back under porter's control with a rage star, he was never evil at all as far as we know. but even before brennan said jace and porter are a 'duo' people have been shipping him with porter, so everyone just accepted that he was evil because yeah he's banging the evil guy. the bad kids burn a couple of him alive, one of them is arrested (and then also burned i think?) and his only crime was choosing to come back to life to worship a rage god which yeah after getting murdered by your coworker i think that's fair. he didn't know porter would control him because ankarna didn't know that porter was controlling anything, he was on that devil's honey.

imagine being brutally murdered out of the blue by your coworker, a nameless god offers to revive you if you'll worship her and then you come back to life only to realise it was the same fucking coworker who can now mind control you. and then you get murdered four more times and you stop being mind-controlled but no one wants to bring you back because they think you were fucking your murderer. the life of a twink.

thinking about how kipperlilly even knew who riz was or why he was important and - riz was spying on porter and jace when they were investigating the cafeteria to make sure they didn't try to cover it up. even if he didn't spot riz, porter then went to check on the bad kids of whom riz was missing. it wouldn't be suspicious at all for porter to look into the kid who randomly disappeared after the principal died, in fact very sensible to check for his guardian and address to make sure he gets home safe.

maybe he asks someone from his rogue class if she knows anything. mentions that goldenhoard seemed to be very interested about his dad. pretends he's just concerned about a kid with a tough home life witnessing a murder on his first day.

maybe in her little black-and-white mind that means he's getting special treatment. maybe that was what porter intended.

we need a kipperlilly special on the complicated women podcast - she willingly chose to be possessed, those are some complex ethical and philosophical ramifications. for the sake of the argument i'm assuming porter also has control over her since the shatter star is a part of her, because the morality of choosing to become evil is so interesting. did she think she was going to become a hero somehow, or did she accept that she would have to be a villain to have the power she wanted? she wanted to be better than the bad kids but she kept her moral superiority about fairness and the rules, so was she aware that she couldn't beat the bad kids by playing fair? was her anger always at her own inadequacy, at the fact that she could never excel in the same way they did without cheating? was she projecting the entire time?

it's so fucking funny how quickly the bad kids switch from Battle Mode. less than a minute ago you were burning/suffocating pawns alive in lava but initiative drops and suddenly it's all nooo ankarna you need to forgive people! violence is not the answer! and yet it took them a solid hour of roleplay to be okay with bringing back the rat grinders because they were so pissed lmao

is the big bad of senior year going to be a baby now??

bruh one jace yelled out where k2 was to bring buddy back and the other says hey lemme push adaine tho

hot take - i don't care if none of the rat grinders get redemption, i just want them to at least be good villains because they've been built up all season as foils but they're actually kind of trash

people are starting to sympathise with the rat grinders now because they ARE the underdogs. they're outmatched by far and even if they're the villains people want to root for an underdog. they're weak because they were given the cheat codes and never learned anything because why would they?

screaming into the ether: buddy doesn't know the plan! he worships ankarna, he doesn't know they want to kill her and will not agree with that!

episode 19 of me analysing d&d mechanics for storytelling purposes

enemies in d&d die as soon as they drop to zero hit points even if they have the exact same stats as the pcs. this depends on the dm, but that's how fantasy high works with i think the only exceptions being ragh and daybreak in freshman year. they cannot be healed from unconsciousness unless they are a main character, meaning the rat grinders WERE disadvantaged from the start by the game itself. if the bad kids were held to the same rules then kristen or k2 would have to reach touching distance to cast revivify on one person at a time, and even then as far as we know enemies in fantasy high cannot revive each other.

no matter how powerful they were or how much work they put in, the rat grinders would always be held back because when they die, they die. their only way out was to take the deal - in freshman year all of the bad kids would have died fighting the corn cuties if they had to play by the same set of rules. what would they have done if their only way back was to accept rage?

you are cassandra. in the middle of being possessed by the spirit of your vengeful, undead domain and feeling the world split apart with the festering carcass of your ex-lover being restored to grandeur only so she can be devoured completely, someone familiar approaches from the deck of a flying ship in active battle. your vision is warped, you're barely conscious, you don't know how it's possible that you're still alive, the figure blurs further and splits in two. one calls out to you, the same voice that has been reaching out for you all along, the same voice that called out your name the very first time and brought you to life. you ignore her. the other - clothes a little tighter, some subtle makeup, a pair of bicycle shorts patterned with a flag not known to this world. she opens her mouth - her teeth are horrible. 'blimey', she says, and you feel again. you feel something that crushes against your bones and shocks still your rotten heart. something cuts itself loose from your chest and escapes with a virulent tear of pain through your throat. lightning, bright and sharp, gushes from your screaming maw to its true purpose, and then she's gone. it's over. 'blimey', it whispers into the ethos, a memory as much as a promise to the tragedy of a dying star that may die forever. but you feel something else, you remember something or perhaps you are only now recognising it that nothing can be done. something else that lived in that void of space, you think. nothing more than a collection of cells yet, and still the weight pushes you to your knees. two lines on a stick, you reason, perhaps not even a choice to be made at all. surely not a life to be lived, you tell yourself as the memory of possibility dissolves and the void envelops the very space that baby might have occupied.

'blimey', the whispers consume what's left of your aching heart. 'blimey', you echo.

my dumb ass certain that ragh's dad was a sunstone

trying to clear some stuff up with the rat grinders pls add stuff i miss:

oisin got buff over the summer, the same time he would have gotten a rage crystal

maryann is a barbarian with insane athletics and porter's been teaching her, he might have connected with the high five heroes through her in the first place

kipperlilly didn't want to be called the rat grinders because it gives away some of their secrets but ruben just wanted to fuck with her

the rats that lucy revived were either killed out of spite by the other rat grinders or they were just collateral when porter fought monsters

oisin only started missing ping pong balls after talking to adaine when she said she didn't remember him and talked about how rich she is, maybe because he felt justified then

buddy presumably thought they were actually restoring this goddess even though she was competing with sol and helped anyway

they all genuinely thought lucy was coming back so 'killing' her wasn't ever meant maliciously by the rat grinders

they could have had a suicide pact all planning to take the deal and come back and just lucy didn't follow through

so with the next cleric they didn't give him any warning so he would make a split-second decision to come back to life without necessarily knowing the consequences

riz shows up in legend lore because he summoned the night yorb. if kipperlilly is reviving ankarna just so she can be mentioned in the legend lore wiki i will forgive all of her crimes

we're really going to get a moment of truth next episode because when freshman year kristen died she went to heaven, but daybreak went to hell. freshman year kristen's only problem was trying to convert people, she was never bigoted or hurt anyone so of course she'd get into heaven. daybreak was a hardcore believer in helio but he was a bigot and a part of a cult plot to bring about the apocalypse, so of course he went to hell.

buddy has had some moments that make him seem evil/bigoted and if he was involved knowingly in the rat grinders plot then he'd be going to hell. helio might suck but he doesn't get to bring whoever he wants into heaven and even if he did he wouldn't bring buddy if he'd been plotting to revive ankarna. but if buddy is actually a good kid? if he had the same beliefs as freshman year kristen, if he thought helio loved everyone and didn't think religion was the basis of morality?

things that make me sad this week

golsum has -3 to charisma despite being a realtor because he's a flesh construct so he looks scary and people don't like him

no matter how nice he is all flesh constructs have a charisma score of 5

he's banished because of his charisma score and then the teens that did it laugh about how uncharismatic he is for a realtor

everyone encountered in the house is a monstrous race - ghost, vampire, frankenstein, werewolf - instead of just making monstrous versions of npcs they took the ones that already sort of fit and took away their personalities

fabian came to alone in adaine's room surrounded by her blood

brennan said not to touch the items and i think fig full-on ate some of that cottage cheese

cassandra was trying to send them home to mordred manor in elmville and messed up

kalina was around when cassandra got married meaning ankarna had shared custody and everyone knows lesbian exes that own a cat together are more committed to co-parenting than most actual parents

kristen heard a wolf howl somewhere in the house and she probably assumed it was tracker, remembering when she turned in the nightmare forest

baron knows that riz fears his friends finding out that he's aroace and they keep teasing him about dating baron so when baron says they're mistreating him he's actually kind of right

and riz tries his best to explain the situation while not giving too much away because if he doesn't then baron will explain the situation in his own words

fig doesn't live in the piano bubble anymore

i'd just like everyone to know that when fabian gifted adaine a worm in a box it did not occur to me once that it was a literal worm until it started talking. i had no doubt in my mind that it was a fuzzy blue worm on a string in a gold box that she was going to wear like an earpiece/hearing aid.

IS SOMETHING EATING DEAD GODS???

arthur created grix to be a perfectly lawful, responsible principal should aguefort be under investigation. arthur had a legal failsafe in case the feds came around. and he fucking shoots kids with nets and awakens sex robots to attack them-

does anyone remember who in the bad kids told the others about what they saw in the nightmare forest? i think fabian did and i'm almost certain riz didn't but they keep (accidentally?) triggering each others' forest traumas and it seems like A Thing.

fabian flirted with a mirror right next to riz and everyone teased him about kalina being his girlfriend, riz suggested gorgug answer the riddle for all of them under threat of being killed and eaten by a big animal, fig created a sexy rat for when fabian was talking to spot. is this anything.

ik it would fuck so much shit up probably, but if they faked wanda's death next to lucy and yolanda's bodies they might actually have convinced ruben to change sides...

the wind is cold and that is why for each other we light the campfire is beautiful.

and it has to be said that lucy was a frost genasi. it's a homebrew race, but logically it would make sense for her to be vulnerable to fire damage. lighting a campfire to melt away the cold could kill her - and i think it's very telling that she specified that we light the bonfires for each other. the rest of her party needed protection from the cold and she was the cold, maybe.

helio thoughts//tw religion, christianity

i know this is likely an unpopular opinion since a lot of this fandom has religious trauma, but i would kill for some redemption for helio or some positive helioic representation. it'd be just good, complex worldbuilding if it were solely fiction, but since it's so referential to christianity that ally literally says jesus instead of helio on several occasions i think they either have to really differentiate it or maybe add some complexity to the current 'all 'helioics' are bigots, your faith is evil' angle. because in fiction you can do that, but real religions aren't that simple. im not religious myself, but there have been times where i've been in really bad situations and the most welcoming, caring people are pastors. there is a good side to christianity, and in freshman year kristen wasn't a bad person. she believed in all the good things those pastors did, she helped victims of human trafficking, she fought against her family's racism even before she met her friends. her family was horrible and she was indoctrinated into a cult with the harvestmen, but her faith wasn't bad. religious trauma is not inherent to religion, it's abuse that people use religion to justify.

since s1 i have desperately wanted a good character to be introduced who worships helio like kristen did in freshman year with love and acceptance because that's who they believe helio is, and i don't want them to be proven wrong. tracker didn't give up on galicaea after kristen told her what she was like in the astral plane and worked to change her worship, and i think it would be really interesting to see someone like buddy go tracker's direction with helio instead of just rehashing kristen's character arc.

now i really hope this isn't right, but i gotta say it

kalina said ragh barkrock, not lydia. lydia has experience with these things, she knows how to seal it and she's pretty cognizant and capable at the moment so she doesn't need ragh to explain on her behalf. maybe kalina just said ragh because he used to be infected (and he wasn't born with it so we can assume lydia wasn't) so she knows him better, but. lydia's already occupied with the gem in her chest. IF the same ritual needed to happen to seal the shatter stars again, lydia wouldn't be strong enough in her current state since she's weakened by the gem. gorgug's strength score dropped to 18 since taking more levels of artificer. ragh still has a +5. as far as we know the closest person to the bad kids who COULD have the strength to fuse with the gem is ragh, who also has some experience with it already. and if he did he would experience the same illness as his mother if not worse.

extra courseload is too much for me but killing a god and reviving some ancient force of rage??

im a sick puppy and this excites me.

now listen. i have absolutely no basis for this. but i want him to date ragh.

anarchist AND athletic? 👏is👏he👏single👏

PALADIN KRISTEN. i will die on this hill.

i don't want kristen to lose her faith entirely. i think back to prompocalypse, talking to the ether the gods get their answers from, and saying into the ether that she cares. she wants a god that cares, not just about her but about all the good people she wishes she could help, because if there's nobody more powerful that cares then it's her responsibility to care for them and she's not a god. she couldn't trust her family to care, couldn't trust her church, couldn't even trust her god, and she had to step up and be the person who cares even though she's just a clumsy kid who got her girlfriend newspaper-copying putty for a joint anniversary/birthday gift.

[and then she makes cassandra, still desperate for that perfect god that she can trust to protect people for her. but cassandra, just like yes, is created and controlled by her and thus entirely dependent on her and her ever-changing ideals. kristen still only trusts herself to do right by people, so the only god she will accept is one that she designs to be just like her and indulge her every phase and that means without her there to decide what the god should be there is no god. there is no morality to a religion that bends to your every will because your actions don't have consequences - cassandra and yes weren't created to be good, just to give power to kristen when she wants it. and that means that all of the responsibility still falls on kristen to be good.]

because the alternative would be being complicit, and kristen cannot rest unless she is doing everything possible that she can to help people. and so she never rests. even doing nothing, she's wandering labyrinths in her head trying to be better and find the answer, and she can't let herself take a break from trying to be better without being plagued by guilt. she can't push let go of the guilt because she's seen first-hand what happens when people don't feel guilt or question themselves.

and in the summer starting junior year she and tracker break up and the guilt becomes unbearable and suddenly she can't remember why she let herself feel it. so she stops feeling guilty. she forgets to heal her friends, she devotes herself to her own body (my faith is mostly physical, tracker had once said, kristen doesn't remember what she meant by that) and she breaks all the promises she made to protect cassandra. she stops caring.

until she sees bucky again. until she sees her parents again. she remembers why she wanted to fight to stop bad things from happening to good people, and more importantly she remembers what happens when you don't question yourself. how mac and donna follow their beliefs blindly and never questioned whether they could be wrong if they could be better. how they promised to love her and left her to suffer, how helio let the people he swore to love suffer, and how she was leaving cassandra to suffer. and she doesn't realise until after that cassandra wanted to help. cassandra was always encouraging kristen to grow the church not just because she couldn't rely on kristen to keep her alive but because she knew kristen couldn't handle the responsibility of keeping her alive on her own.

kristen chose to be a cleric of cassandra because she thought cassandra was good and wanted them to have a religion. it was the only way to revive her, but if she can grow the church then kristen would be free to work on herself with cassandra being free to take care of her, not the other way around. as a paladin kristen could take an oath she will always believe in - an oath to care and love her friends, perhaps - and trust that cassandra's church will still be helping people on a large scale even when kristen needs a break. kristen can get swole and learn to fight and know in her heart that what she's fighting for is right. she can trust that cassandra wouldn't bless her if she didn't deserve it, and in that trust she doesn't have to worry so much about being a perfect person because she knows she's good.

listen. listen. as a pastor kid ex-ministry person who left the toxic religious group they were raised in. it’s not about cassandra being rad or not (she is i really think she is). it’s about whether or not kristen can make peace with what being devout means. if she can take that leap of faith. if she can really settle in on a belief system and ask others to do the same.

i think this arc is gonna be about kristen giving up on cleric and reclassing (my guess on barb) because this is about kristen finally FINALLY giving up on how she was raised. she didn’t need to a different god. she needs to reject, wholly, that lifestyle and figure out the best version of herself and what she needs. maybe she doesn’t need to be a cleric. maybe trying to force herself to be one is perpetuating the harm she escaped. maybe she can step back.

i think this will have HUGE complications. but it really feels like ally is interested in explored why kristen has struggled this whole time with this. maybe she doesn’t want to be a cleric at all.

canon is ayda mopily wandering great planes and jungles witnessing the dawning of time itself trying desperately to pickpocket her father's watch so she can sneak off to see her gf. canon is also arthur aguefort conveniently spotting a diplodocus and swinging his hips in excitement just as her mage hand is about to grab it.

it's not that cassandra is feeling neglected imo bc kristen is actively rejecting her lmao, but i think there's something to the idea that cassandra is a reflection of kristen. she doesn't act like kristen (not even any previous iteration of kristen) but she does look like kristen and represent a time in kristen's life that she maybe doesn't want to think about, possibly because of a certain someone tattooed on her neck that's not here anymore👀👀

ok ok ok not to uh. get up in weeds about the whole cass and kristen thing but i keep seeing people say like ‘i feel so bad for cassandra’ but an important thing that i feel like we need to remember that brennan has emphasized throughout previous seasons about the gods is that they are the reflection of their followers. cass looks like kristen because they are kristen.

when cass is feeling neglected and shunted aside do we think maybe it’s cuz who kristen actually is is being neglected? they have spent the whole summer trying to save the world, that doesn’t leave time for them to like process what they’ve gone through and who they are so maybe cass feels dejected cuz kristen doesn’t know who she is either

just. food for thought

the joke is that we haven't met them before! i don't think the pcs know them either, they're just making up dynamics on the spot based on the people brennan brings out

sorry im so confused did i miss something who is ecaf who is squeem who is balthazar and who is duggens. or am i just autistic and the joke is that weve never met them before