#amulet 9

do you guys know how long i’ve waited.

amulet is like my first inspiration to do art and ITS HERE

- if max wasn't killed off he could have had an interesting arc

- if riva is gonna play a big role in waverider (she probably will tbh) she should have been introduced sooner and/or been in firelight

- emily just wanted to save her mother and now she's in this mess. i know she's the "chosen one" but i still sort of don't like leon for pushing emily into this

- trellis' redemption arc is way early compared to others

- if any ship is gonna end up canon it's most likely gonna be nalyson (I think that's the ship name?)

So I'm reading Waverider, and I'm jotting down my initial thoughts and reactions! And without further ado, here they are:

Surprise, surprise! Mr. Elf actually LOVES the shadow, he's totally brainwashed, what a plot twist (Or is it? Entirely possible that this has already been hinted/revealed and I just forgot). Anyway idk something about this seems a little flat, a little unnatural. The dialogue isn't exciting enough to support the scene. or something.

who's this yellow mustache guy

"I can power the ship" Ha! That is SUCH a raw line and it caught me by surprise. This is good Emily characterization, totally badass and totally nonchalant about it. First part of the novel I have strong feelings about

Woah Galiban

Hmm okay

So I actually think this is... huh. Mixed feelings. I actually feel like this makes sense for Galiban; he's a fanatic and motivated by convictions so strong that he can use them to justify almost any decision, even if it would otherwise be out of character. If that makes sense?

But Trellis. Sweetheart. WHAT are you doing. Okay I know you don't like the throne, and I know you have maybe some respect for Galiban, but WHY do you just roll over like that? NO resistance, NO critical thinking, and the fate of your people at stake? Kazu WHAT are you DOING

Wait I still kinda thought they were gonna dethrone him. Is Galiban king now? Why is that a good idea? Just because I understand his motivations doesn’t mean I think he’d be GOOD at the JOB. and what about Trellis?

I actually liked the dream sequence. Idk, just felt right, felt natural. Harkened back to other dream sequences but Emily’s not falling for it this time and she’s not angry, she’s not relying on her rage anymore, and she’s not afraid either, she’s just frustrated.

Yes, the soldiers are just kids. Your brother is a child soldier, Emily. YOU are a child soldier. Your friends are child soldiers. You’ve been literally fine with it this whole series, why is it only now a problem?

“Deagle Swift” wtf why are we introducing new characters in the friggin LAST BOOK

“This is my gift to you” “Find your center, find balance” “come back to us” Too poetic. I get that Emily is no longer an angry angsty ‘it’s not a phase mom’ emo teen on the inside anymore, but can we keep a little of her grouchiness? Just a tad? As a treat?

I officially hate Deagle Swift. What is he doing here

RONIN! R- ron - RONIN’S BACK, GUYS!!!

I actually like Ronin’s return. Sure, it’s random and out of the blue, but so is most of this book, and I’m a sucker for strong women leader characters

WOAH WOAH WOAH SILAS MADE THEM HOLY COWWWW

CRAZY

I ACTUALLY LOVE THIS

NO Ikol you’re not fucking friends with Emily Hayes I know it’s just a manipulation attempt but come ON no way is she gonna fall for that

Aw. I kind of liked Ikol’s death. It felt meaningful and maybe a little anticlimactic but in a good way.

What the fuuuuccckkkk. Leon. You should at least be a short redhead.

“We’re not cursed or anything. We’re just aliens.” Made me laugh out loud so shoutout to that line ig

Whoops false alarm Ikol’s not dead

I’m dying. Riva. What the hell. WEIRD. 

ENZO AND RICCCOOOOOOO WOOOOOO I loved Enzo’s transformation and I like Rico’s human form he’s so dorky <333

Woooow. Wooooooow. Kazu, do the words “Show, don’t tell” mean anything to you? Anything at all? What even was that ending. Okay. All right.

So, just from a bit of scrolling, it seems like I share a lot of opinions with the rest of the Amulet fanbase, so I'll try not to repeat stuff. Waverider . . . definitely isn't the best. By any stretch of the imagination. It's very, very messy, and the other fans are right. It's almost certainly the worst book in the series.

But honestly, the only thing I wanted was for Trellis and Riva to get together. Kept my expectations low and I was rewarded I guess. Could it have happened in a better way? GOODNESS YES. But at least it happened at all.

Let's see, uhhhh, a lot of characters got side-lined, that wasn't fun. I'm not really sure how I feel about the curse getting lifted for all the animal people. Like . . . some of them grew up with it! Some of them never had regular human forms to begin with and taking the curse away feels really weird to me. They didn't even get to have a say in the matter! And then there's also the uncanny valley thing of seeing everyone as humans. The same kind of uncomfortableness you got when you watched Beauty and the Beast as a kid and got to see Lumiere and the gang as humans and just thought they looked wrong. IDK, maybe that was just me.

Also, Ikol's defeat felt SUPER anti-climactic. The last SEVERAL interactions between him and Emily are like the exact same. "Ooo Emily, I'm so evil and I'm manipulating you" "I can see right through you, cut it out." And then he was kinda just gone? AND THEN HE WAS JUST BACK??? I don't even know how to describe my feelings about that, but I'll try:

He's just interacting with one of the random dudes we don't care about and trying to corrupt him.

Why THIS KID specifically?? What is so important about him? WHY DO WE CARE?

And then Vigo just . . . . WHAT???? WHAT JUST HAPPENED THERE??? SACRIFICE???? BUT- BUT THEN WHY DOESN'T IKOL USE HIM LIKE HE WAS SUPPOSEDLY ABOUT TO DO WITH THE KID????

And then I don't even know what he and Vigo were doing, chilling in the Void or something. Ikol just decides to . . . NOT . . . ANYMORE???

AND SOMEHOW VIGO ENDS UP IN THE PAST AND I'M JUST-

Ikol was a good villain. I ranked him up with my childhood fictional villains, the ones that were legitimately frightening and you took seriously. (Tigerstar, Lord Garmadon, etc.) Ikol was such a wild card and you never knew if you could trust him or not. I feel like he got kinda ruined here. Just deflated like a pathetic balloon.

Overall, Waverider just felt like a whole lot of nothing. I skimmed through a lot of pages because I just wasn't interested. And that's really disappointing.

Also, there were even MORE new characters, which we definitely didn't need to introduce. We're on the LAST BOOK, WE'VE GOT NO TIME.

I think I'm not really as mad as other Amulet fans are. I'm just confused and disappointed. Amulet is a passion of mine, but it just hasn't been on my radar for a while. So I didn't really build up expectations as much I guess.