aven-ü-Rittenhouse

Imagine if before the stag arc and manor arc, we had 1 week to just flesh everything out and build actual conflicts and characters instead of jumping to action. Literally just 50-80 episodes. (Its a lot but it would be worth it I swear)

The rivalry could have made more sense. If they had 1 more week, Annabel would have made a sensible decision to separate the two groups by something more reasonable like the group dynamics that have already developed naturally and different goals/ specialization, or hell, she could have still decided to go with the specter / specterless thing, because it would’ve made a tad more sense considering that the misfits haven’t manifested in the expected time and Annabel actually understood how specters and manifesting worked.

We could have had meat behind Montressor’s and Lenore’s rivalry. Or honestly a proper rivalry between the two groups that wasn’t just “their vibes are awffff”. I admit that Montressor is known for being a good judge of character, and he maybe had a feeling Lenore would become more dangerous over time, but there is no way he decided that eliminating a spectreless student on like the 3rd day was more worthy of his time than like… anything else.

Annabel and Lenore could have built chemistry so that readers can actually root for them. Maybe they could have had a discussion about who they felt they were; if Annabel was not willing to share her memories, that does not mean Lenore doesn’t. That loud mouth probably has a lot to say. They could have talked about their plans, interacted romantically, discuss their group dynamics— even if it’s all “stolen moments”, we would develop their relationship, and more importantly Annabel’s personality (because, to be honest, it feels like every attempt at analyzing Annabel I’ve seen feels a bit more like a hypothesis than an analysis.) Even if we want to keep her mysterious on Lenore’s end, we could learn more about her through her priorities and memories that Lenore has about her. We could have foreshadowed the guilt that Annabel felt with having betrayed Lenore during their wedding. We could have seen what the “true” Lenore and Annabel looked like before they became wanted criminals. Honestly I noticed I was getting bored reading when I found out the ending to Lenore and Annabels life story because thats the only romantic connection they had. Hell, maybe we would find some meat to their actual conflict other than “ You tried to kill Duke!” Or a reason to even mistrust Annabel other than :“ I simply don’t trust you for whatever reason and felt validated when you tried to kill Duke so I said really mean things to you!” Even if we didn’t touch on that, maybe we could have found out why Lenore is so hot headed and illogical and irrational? Was she always like this, what caused this change if not, or is she just dumb now for plot reasons?

Related diversion: I am not a fan of the “keeping Annabel mysterious for whatever reason” because it makes her appear more dangerous than the misfits even though, logically speaking, trusting someone you have already met in life sounds a lot more reasonable than a French magician and an emo cat. Not knowing who to trust is the driving point of the situation that Lenore is in but it seems she made that decision on like her second day there. We have had no reason to distrust Annabel for a while, so it just makes her come off as under-developed. It could be done interestingly if we actually got more interactions of Annabel and how she treats others or how she acts when shes alone. What hurts more is that we had ample opportunities to do that but it just. Didn’t happen.

We could have had time to develop the misfits backstories. Instead of cramming everything in the hunt arc awkwardly and ripping the arc of all its tension, we could have had a moment for at least Pluto and Duke to show us more of their backstory, and more importantly, reflect on it. These people don’t even tell each other who they were. I want to see Lenore’s awkward face as she realizes Eulalie was burned alive or something. Using Lenore as a reference point, these people learned about 80% of their past lives IN A WEEK and they didn’t even get a single moment to think about it because they were immediately hunted for sport.

We could have gotten more world building. Why did Lenore and Annabel not question why they were the only late ones, who was Theo while he was here, how do these classes even work, whats with the orbs being not sentient even though we heard them speak, what do they fucking teach there? Do they have laundry rooms? Who mends uniforms? Why is the bird the only one talking to Lenore? I personally believe she should have been talking to a rat, it suits her more. Why do the deans just randomly pop up when they feel like it and why are they octopi?? Octopuses? Squids?? Why are they gay?? Are they sans undertale?? What resides in the books of the hideout? Why was the observatory closed in the first place? Why do wisps look like that and what are they… who gives a flying fuck! Duke is in a wall! Run after him my little clowns!! Waste your manor trial wish on him only for Pluto to immediately get the info you need to save him, then realize you did all that shit for nothing because his specter form would have allowed him to escape anyway!!!