My missing school for good and evil hours mostly consist of just being so angry at how bad the whole tcy series is, and that the live action adaptation wouldve been revolutionary if its a series, not a movie
And the occasional thinking about agatha, you know, the usual
youtuber/tiktoker/whatever-type-of-video-influencer marinette, where she makes crazy DIY and craft videos and debunks fake content-farm DIYs. she has a modest but loyal mass of followers that grow by the day as her crafts get increasingly intricate and cool. she catalogues all of her mistakes and is very earnest about the process. adrien falls asleep to videos of her sewing and making cool containers and explaining the mechanisms of the strange devices she makes
i think the main reason people dislike kabru is that they’re approaching dungeon meshi from the typical shounen protag framework where the main character is the moral authority and anyone who questions them MUST be a villain, but dungeon meshi is excellent at showcasing laios’ deep flaws and how he works to overcome them. from an outside perspective (kabru’s perspective) laios is dubious in morality and kabru says as much when he explains how laios is the only person he can’t seem to read. kabru doesn’t doubt laios because he’s plotting anything, he doubts laios because laios is a strange and offputting person who stumbles into a position of immense power and titular plot momentum, all of which kabru realizes well before anyone else, and which kabru also handles extremely apprehensively and delicately Because he doesn’t want to misjudge a strange but innocent man. basically if you dislike kabru you aren’t reading dungeon meshi right
"sge character syndrome meaning their personality is barely existent" is the bEST THING IVE EVER IN YEARS OMFG HELP AHSHFBASFHAHAHAHAH
Random rotsg thoughts (no spoilers)
In the main series Rafal is always so wannabe edgy and mysterious and in rotsge he's just a mildly angsty teen and I love the difference
Also I love all the new teachers? There aren't many but i can definitely imagine some cool fanart of them
Also the students but they suffer from the sge character syndrome meaning their personality is barely existent 💀💀
But also the illustrations and cover slap so hard, even though I kinda miss the style of the older books
I'm also vibing with the different rules in the School, like it's interesting to see that it changed so much
But i guess it's got a sliver of lgbt representation so yay?
You. You are enabling me, see i thought about it too >:00!!
I thought agatha will have time to pack stuff before leaving, which means callis has time to give agatha some advice or tips and tricks. Agatha will def kick ass at surviving fairytales class. And wouldnt it be really neat if reaper comes with agatha, agatha would freak out when she can understand her cat (but hey she has a companion now!!)
Agatha meeting friends along the way! I hab a person in mind but im still thinking about it, but either way ur so right, agatha getting exposed to creatures outside of sge would really make the mogrifs stuff even more devastating.
As for getting there! I thought agatha can either go to sge by bird, or by flowerground! And i thought oohh what if agatha finds the bird first, then fly to the flowerground, then the flowerground will take her straight to SGE.
Man im very normal about this au,, very normal,,,
@pumpkinpaperweight had a dream and now im suffering with brainrot. The "only sophie got taken so agatha went after her" post, and im not ok, im not ok. I have this plot in my head now, ideas and dialouges, but will i actually do it? idk so here's a couple sketches i did, what i imagined what happens at the aftermath of the kidnapping
aaaarrghh i want this to be a full blown au so bad you have no idea i am not okkk aaaaaaaahh
All of this is solely up to my own preference. Yes, some parts may be messy because I am inexperienced. I don’t even know what a plot is. Here we go.
I didn’t have any major problem with Book 1 until Agatha’s Glow Up, so we’re starting there.
Canon: Agatha realizes she was beautiful all along and literally two minutes later Tedros falls in love with her.
However, I think it would’ve been so much more impactful if she simply changed her perspective on her “ugliness” from a negative light to an objective standpoint.
We already know that Agatha is badass, so I think she should view herself that way. Insecurity is nothing if she amounts her features to the raw human ability that they possess. Her frame is tall and skinny because she’s athletic, her big eyes serve her the purpose of seeing. Agatha may not be pretty, but every bone in her body was made so that she could eat, breathe, laugh, fight, do parkour around School for Evil.
It’s obvious that Ever Girls only care about their appearance because they want to impress boys (in School for Girls, they are shown as letting themselves go). Agatha is characterized as having no interest in boys, and therefore she doesn’t need to be pretty in the first place. Now, I know that princesses need a prince in order to have their fairytale, but Agatha already thinks that’s bullshit – why not go against it?
Also, this is extremely minor, but I’d rather have Agatha have some kind of deformity, like a cleft lip or crooked spine. It would really sell the idea that she was different. As a kid, even if Soman screamed in my face that Agatha was canonically ugly, I couldn’t imagine how she could be if the features she was described with were SO normal. Of course, her deformity remains throughout the book, because that is Not Cool if it’s magically removed.
I’ve said this before in my I Don’t Really Like Agatha post, and I’ll say it again. She is ungrateful for the opportunity she could have at School for Good. I’d literally kill to be there, I’d sit through every mind-numbing, subtly sexist class about smiling and posture just so I could practice magic, and I’m sure a lot of people think the same.
[edited: didn’t mean to sound so callous, it’s only an opinion]
Agatha isn’t even using this to expand her power. She uses her wish a total of 2 times in this book, and it’s not like she didn’t have time to use it. It’s disappointing.
So, imagine that Agatha just GRINDS in her school-work. Sure, she fails the challenges related to Strategic Blushing and Matching Outfits, but everything else she excels. At first she just didn’t want to be turned into a plant, she was only studying to survive. Now, it’s more than that.
Agatha is introduced as having a fondness for villains, and it’s apparent that beauty is irrelevant in their success stories. Although she is hurt when Sophie alludes to how she’d “fit in” with the immature, trigger-happy Nevers, she can apply those values of dismissing outer appearances while still being Good. It’s not as if Agatha is greedy or deceitful. She saves the Wish Fish, forgives Sophie countless times, and doesn’t do anything outright vicious. There’s no reason to question that she’s NOT a Never. She can be ugly and an Ever at the same time, wasn’t that the original message?
Hypothetically, she gains more knowledge and strength in spells and potions and such, and just like Sophie, even if everyone doubted her, she could rise through the ranks. There’s no point in worrying about your looks when you’re the most powerful girl in school. (Did I make Agatha too close to Evil? Maybe. But she doesn’t need to push people down to bring herself up, she’s just a natural like that.)
Also, if she needs a boy to ask her out to the Snow Ball, she 100% hates that. She could just talk to Dovey, are they really gonna fail the baddest bitch there?
No. They’re not.
Okay, here’s the biggest part that everyone will hate me for. No Tagatha. At least, not until TLEA.
When Agatha comes out of the Groom Room having just kickstarted her self-esteem and everyone’s drooling, Tedros is attracted to her instantly. I guess that’s fine. Reasonable. But consider this:
Agatha doesn’t love Tedros back.
When Tedros asks her out at the Circus of Talents, she declines. Because if she really knew her own worth, she wouldn’t say yes before making friends with him first. That’s only fair. Actually, I’d say a part of insecurity is settling for any guy who gives you attention (aka Tedros). Y'all are gonna hit me with the damning “We accept the love we think we deserve”.
EVEN IF SHE BELIEVES SHE DESERVES HIM NOW, IT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’LL JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO DATE HIM. THAT’S MESSED UP.
Okay, I know Sophie threw her bitch fit because Agatha was being a hypocrite and dating Tedros. So, tweak that and have Sophie throw a bitch fit simply because Tedros asked Agatha out in the first place. That still makes sense with her entitled selfish personality.
In the stupid war of Evers and Nevers, (which was like, strange considering they’re kids but they’ll have a similar conflict for the next two years), Tedros and Agatha are not together. You could throw in a bit of “Tedros wants to prove to Agatha he’s a hero” but for god’s sakes we are NOT putting in that little chauvinistic “how dare a princess question me”. That one line gave me a bad feeling about Tedros — foreshadowing for AWWP? And it’s crazy that Soman wrote that, along with his lack of brain cells. Are you trying to make readers bully him in memes and instagram group chats? Not from personal experience.
Oh, and this is more of a complaint. But, why did Soman make Sophie bald, pockmarked, and toothless in her transformation of embracing Evil? I thought this was about breaking stereotypes.
The Evil stigma that’s drilled in their heads about being pretty and in general taking care of yourself, is completely inane to me. I can’t believe that Sophie’s “trickery” of Tedros was so revolutionary. None of the Nevers, in 200 years, thought of that?
Instead of her beauty regressing, I’d actually want it to be heightened. It’s what set her apart from the Nevers the moment she walked in. It should be the icing on top of the cake. When Sophie is at her peak of power, she’s a princess. Who could kill you.
If you’re worried about reducing women to be pretty objects or seductresses, stop. It’s okay. Sophie has other powers like summoning ravens, wasps, locusts, bats, using her singing voice for torture, and she is skilled in curses and death traps. In short, the Hot Evil Lady trope works for her. (I think. Someone correct me.)
At the end of SGE, Agatha chooses Sophie over Tedros. Needless to say, Tedros feels betrayed. If you wanted to make him an idiot, with anger issues, daddy issues, and an inferiority complex, this is the easiest way out. He’s under the misguided impression that Agatha belongs with him simply because 1. He loves her. 2. He’s the prince of Camelot, damnit. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?
Not to mention that his father pressured him not to make the same mistake. And Tedros thinks that School for Good is his pool of suitors since Arthur married his classmate Guinevere? There is no line of logic in this man at all, did you miss the part where Guinevere cheats and runs away? Maybe Ever Girls isn’t the only place you should look! There are thousands of other girls in the Woods and you intend to find your soulmate at 14?? Goddamn.
In conclusion, Tedros’ hurt feelings continue to AWWP. Easy.
And if y’all gonna come for me about how Tedros is easily swayed by looks (he’s convinced that Sophie and Agatha are in the wrong schools for half the book) I’d want to make him a bit smarter. I know that’s impossible.
In canon, Tedros turns on Sophie because her true colors showed, and her witchy phase gives him that confirmation bias. He goes feral with testosterone and heroism, as we know.
I’d like him to understand that just because his solely physical attraction to Sophie grew when she’s evil and pretty, it doesn’t mean that she’s not any less dangerous. If Tedros, of all people, learns the difference between appearances vs reality, it would really drive the point home.
All right. You’re still here?
Here’s some extra headcanons you could add in here and here.
In the meantime I’ll think of more.
If there were any hard-hitting themes I was supposed to include, please tell me, I usually gloss over them while reading.
But anyway, thanks for reading this far.
Little Boy Blue
What I'd give for one of the Cinderella remakes to go into how when you're in an isolated and abusive situation, sometimes you need to be saved and you're not weak if you can't escape by yourself
I've never been a fan of bad faith reinterpretations of fairy tales, especially ones which flatten the originals into "princesses is saved by a prince and nothing else", to then go #girlboss. The princess can save herself because she's a strong female character! (Implying if you're in a bad situation, it's because you're not strong enough to get out)