#bugmuffins

But the direction the "current arc" of the comic is taking cadance (and really the general ideas of this situation) is so interesting to me because fundamentally, this comic, while mostly a ship comic, is a comic on what it means to rehabilitate and reconsider your options.

Queen Chrysalis, for all the cunt she serves, is also very much a cunt? She tried to take over a whole kingdom, manipulated a married man by pretending to be his wife, even her own "subjects" she did not care for, and that's just from what I remember seeing! Supposedly she somehow got worse in the last season, because they really wanted a group of villains and didn't even bother thinking about whether they could be "redeemable" or not (including AN EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL [THEY PETRIFIED HER ASS]). I haven't read the IDW comics, but from an artist's quotes, there is NO interest in seeing Chrysalis as anything but "a monster".

But, in a world fueled by friendship and togetherness, and in general rehabilitative justice being a nicer alternative: we give her an out.

We develop a system in which she can find sustenance outside of needing to attack people, she can slowly open up and form connections, she can just be a regular person if she's willing. Then, within this system, she somehow finds a person she genuinely cares about, and possibly (it's a ship comic, so like not "possibly" lmao) love

And that's beautiful, genuinely, good for her

But from Cadence's point of view? This is someone who stole her life, her kingdom, her HUSBAND, she is a proven threat to her family and now she has a child she needs to think about. Every instance she hears about Chrysalis's improving is not just an instance of "what if it's a lie, what if she back-steps" but also a reconfirmation that "This means she could have not done this to us, to ME, a long time ago".

The latest comic is literally her checking on her daughter all night, something she's done more than once, because she STILL has trauma about what happened to her!

And eventually, something has to break, because for as much as she doesn't have to forgive her, she eventually has to reconcile that Chrysalis is changing, and as someone who's on her "parole committee": an inability to do so would hamper her rehabilitation

in exchange for living on her property,

Chrysalis is tasked with taking care of Zecora's greenhouse

(this is part six)

part one

part two

part three

part four

part five