And that zero experience turned out to be a problem, because we hadn't had much to do with birds and the thing about a bird's feathers, right, is that you've got a feather that sits in a little sheath thing that's rooted in the body. So what you want to do is pull the feather and sheath both out. But if you're a little kid who's never done this before, all too often, the feather comes out and leaves the sheath in the body. So we'd be doing our best but the ducks would come out maybe a quarter plucked properly and otherwise still full of these feather sheaths, and then it's a matter of going back and pulling all these little sheaths out.

I remember quite clearly, my mother and aunt helping us with this part, because it's fiddly and we were taking forever. They'd take the plucked ducks and re-pluck them properly. And I remember my mum making a remark to my aunt (not maliciously, she didn't know I could hear and was just making conversation), "You know, it would've been easier for us to just do it from the start and not have to deal with all these fiddly little bits." And she was absolutely right -- my brother and I were involved for our benefit in the same way you get a young kid to "help" wash the dishes, we were learning a life skill. But even though we'd done most of the work, we'd removed most of the unwanted mass from the duck's skin, we'd actually made things harder. We'd removed all the feathers and a quarter of the sheaths, but the sheaths are much easier to remove with the feathers attached, so working on a "mostly plucked" duck was a lot more work for the adults than just doing the whole duck from scratch would have been.

Yes Apple White is right wing but not an American right wing...

Ceder being treated by the wonderlandians as their alice proves that she's as much of a real girl as any other girl in ever after...

Blondie lockes OCD tendencies should have been explored further...

Eah comment on tiktok:

Is it just me or did Daring have chemistry with with every other girl except Apple?

Why doesn't Briar look like Aurora?

"Apple was the true villain"

"Darling kissing Apple meant nothing"

It's just the changing density of the air refracting light weirdly, so it looks like there's a reflection of the sky on the ground, which our brains often interpret as a pool of water. It can also happen upwards instead of downwards, especially at sea, when the air is much colder near the surface and a warm front appears above it:

Here's Fata Morgana

Paid service with no ads: Well, if they're not funding it with ad revenue, they need to charge us something.

Paid service with ads: Well that's bullshit.

apparently they added the daughter of king lear so there was also the possibility to expand into shakespeare!

i think it would have been easier to make her the daugher of one of the lear sisters, because now we're expected to believe that lear (old old man) somehow had a secret fourth daughter and this secret fourth daughter is gonna be king lear???? (that really sucks for her because it means that her entire family is dead - her sisters killed each other and then her father died of grief)

Requirements: This is a casting for the teams. Not all the special, just those who would play the games. So, in this case, both the character's narrative needs and their aptitude for sports will be assessed. Furthermore, teams must consist of four people + Snow/Evil. So the lineup that featured nine players instead of eight has been cut, but there's an in-universe explanation for this!

Remain from the old cast:

Apple, Raven, and Darling are the three characters from the old cast who absolutely remain because they are fundamental to the plot, and it makes sense that they are there because they are either sports fans or emotionally attached to Evil and Snow.

Maddie is the cut character! The in-universe explanation is that, as in canon, Raven didn't want to participate, but when she saw that Snow recruited Maddie, she stepped in and took her place. Maddie is Raven's best friend and has major trauma related to EQ, so it makes sense that Raven decides to replace her to spare her any more pain.

Hot take: Lizzie could actually stay on the team, in my opinion. Both because it creates a nice contrast with Maddie, where she's overcome her trauma and is ready for revenge, and because Lizzie in the books canonically has military training and knows how to use a sword. So she's a useful asset.

As for the actual lineup changes:

Melody is replaced by Briar: Briar is an adrenaline junkie, so she definitely wants to participate. She's also involved in both sides because she knows Snow well from her friendship with Apple, but at the same time, she knows Evil's secrets well and has acted like her (Thornecoming). So it would make perfect sense for her to join Evil Queen's team.

Holly is replaced by Hunter: Here me out - Hunter is the jock of the group and is good with beasts, so he definitely wants to participate. Plus, his role in Snow White is literally balancing his loyalty to Snow White and the Evil Queen. So Snow would definitely want it, but he, as a rebel (like Raven), wouldn't be thrilled.

Poppy is replaced by Cerise: Here me out 2 - Cerise is canonically a great athlete. But most importantly: She's the daughter of Evil Queen's two school friends!! She probably knows who Cerise really is! So it makes sense for him to take her on the team. So there's drama because she's in conflict with Raven and Hunter, who she's friends with.

I'd probably replace Ashlynn with Daring. Both because he's the most qualified person for this situation, but also because this way the break in the games is more significant, because it happens when (during the break) Faybelle sends Daring into the mirror prison.