#crk rambles

I think the neurodivergent gifted kid part is very obvious at this point as she is multiple times referred to as a "genius" "gifted/talented" (indirectly) or "exceptional" by the characters or the in-game material and she pretty much also shows various signs of neurodivergecy such as admittedly being very socially awkward and oblivious to some social rules as well as extreme fixations that intervene with her daily life. With that established, I think what makes this episode a good White Lily characterisation episode is that the episode shows a side to White Lily that we haven't seen much before which is her personality before her destruction of the academy.

It felt to me that White Lily was a lot more upfront and less timid at the time. She more openly expresses frustration AND enthusiasm. These differences can partly be explained by maturation but there's more likehood that the incident at the academy is what primarily shaped her current exterior. (Keyword: exterior. The inner workings of her mind remains largerly unchanged except for the permanent guilt and self hatred)

I find it bewildering how Academy Lily and Dark Enchantress share more things in common than her adult aged version which she was initially derived from. It can pretty much be read as giftedness gone wrong. Intellectually gifted individuals often share traits like being critical of authority and sometimes openly questioning authority figures from a younge age (pretty sure gods count as a form of authority), impatience, jumping to conclusions and being frustrated with others surrounding them for the lack of genuine understanding of their mind.

What the hell happened

Firstly, pretty much everyone feels that White Lily's revival -if it's to happen in the august 2026 update- is a bit too early, i mean the story has just settled up for development and if we're bringing a chatacter that has sacrificed themselves in the previous arc right now right here, everyone has the right to point out that in doing so will kill the emotional impact of both the death and the revival. She literally died a minute ago and now we're bringing her back before she probably realises she actually died. There's no point in this if so.

(I really really hope White Lily coming back will be its own side storyline that is not rushed and cared for properly, with the most suitable option will be her going through basicially a Divine Comedy before rebirth in my current opinion)

Then there's also the audience's reactive feelings to the story. Even if there's a thousand year gap between two events, providing them with only 4 months (4 chapters) in between will feel off. Like there's nothing to immerse yourself in.

An example I could give is the Silent Salt foreshadowing at the end of episode 10. I know these two things are not the same but bear with me here.

These lines in particular established that there was going to be a plot twist in the next story. After this, instead of jumping straight to ep 11 in real time we had a three month break, three filler updates with two of them not being connected to the main story at all. In the meantime the fandom: 1) had time to breathe and truly digest the story 2) Had a hell lot of time to make theories and headcanons about the upcoming plotline.

In my humble opinion and simple theory, White Lily's rather early return would not have been this much of an issue in the fandom as the percieved length of duration between events would be longer and we as a fandom would actually want to know what happens next instead of feeling like this is some long school day where we have to get through classes. Not trying to say that this controversy would not be happening if we had filler, I'm trying to say that this would be more of a sidenote annoyance than full discourse.

This new trailer art (?) made me think that this "Tartarus Cookie" as i will be calling them for a while might be responsible for the flashbacks we will be getting in the Academy. As in their power also partially extends to the past or the memories of the dead or sth