#exiled

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Searching my heart for its true sorrow, This is the thing I find to be: That I am weary of words and people, Sick of the city, wanting the sea;

Wanting the sticky, salty sweetness Of the strong wind and shattered spray; Wanting the loud sound and the soft sound Of the big surf that breaks all day.

Always before about my dooryard, Marking the reach of the winter sea, Rooted in sand and dragging drift-wood, Straggled the purple wild sweet-pea;

Always I climbed the wave at morning, Shook the sand from my shoes at night, That now am caught beneath great buildings, Stricken with noise, confused with light.

If I could hear the green piles groaning Under the windy wooden piers, See once again the bobbing barrels, And the black sticks that fence the weirs,

If I could see the weedy mussels Crusting the wrecked and rotting hulls, Hear once again the hungry crying Overhead, of the wheeling gulls,

Feel once again the shanty straining Under the turning of the tide, Fear once again the rising freshet, Dread the bell in the fog outside, --

I should be happy, -- that was happy All day long on the coast of Maine! I have a need to hold and handle Shells and anchors and ships again!

Like, I wonder how she would've reacted to the areival of the Zoosters, if she would've sided with Maurice about Alex being suspicious, what she would've done when he goes crazy with hunger, and if she would've helped fighting the fossa XD

Or what she'd do when Julien leaves in the plane to "explore other kingdoms"

I wish she was in the movies too! in ahkj-world she does have a reaction to all this, even conversations with King Julien and Maurice about it... off-screen. 😔 They created a Clover puppet for the stage musical version of the movie, so we're not the only ones who want to see her around. Anyway just for fun, I'll share my guess of what she'd do if she were there:

1) I don't think Clover would attack the zoosters! I've seen it said that she'd just kick Alex's butt and that'd be the end of it. But she doesn't attack the alligator ambassador even though he's an active threat. She's probably always weighing the costs-benefits of when to attack a 300lb predator. Despite her reputation, she actually does wait for when she's urgently needed. Clover loves a fight -- and she also loves using her discretion.

2) She and Maurice tend to be a united front, so I think she's on his side. Plus she has a twitchy tail letting her know something's wrong with Alex. But she can't deny Julien's point that the giants look like pansies... especially if she spies on them when they set themselves on fire later.

The crucial thing is her reaction to Julien's plan because I think she could be a little hurt about it. Saving everyone from the fossa is her job. The fossa are afraid of her. She's not indestructible, and sometimes she loses and lemurs get eaten, but she hasn't been just holding the line until someone else could get here. She's been the one who takes care of it. Especially bc the zoosters have NO interest in what's going on, while this is her passion. It'd kind of piss her off.

The lemur dynamics could adjust as well: Julien may callously suggest the plan without regard for Clover's feelings, or, since he can be her biggest believer, maybe he'd suggest it's her job to recruit Alex since it falls under her expertise.

3) For when Alex goes crazy, idk! I don't want to take it from Maurice that he's the one who saves Marty. Another quintessential Clover/Maurice dynamic is he fights at her side even though he's not a figher. She could totally join the fight at the end as well, but when the zoosters start kicking ass, maybe she'd stand back and watch, and be impressed!?

---

As for what Clover would do for Julien's plan in mada2 to leave with the zoosters, I have three answers:

She has a serious problem with it. He's abandoning his responsibilities for a flight of fancy AGAIN.

Maybe she's in charge of the kingdom while he's gone, so she could be into it? But she doesn't feel great about going separate ways over this. Is leaving KJ and Maurice to fend for themselves in a strange land of giants really on the table?

She'd go with them!

By mada2's rules, leaving the kingdom is not a big betrayal. So maybe she'd be really excited to go conquer other lands. She loves morally dubious power as much as Julien.

That's another issue with ahkj and the movies—in mada2 he wants to force other lands to give up their homes and adopt his ideology. In ahkj this makes no sense because of what happened with Koto. Would the Julien who welcomes refugees and whose political stance is "why can't we all have a good time" really do that in mada2? without getting haunted by the ghosts of his past, lol? Then the reality is Clover would be super against it because it's what Koto would do. Or she's super for it because her way of dealing with Koto trauma is to become like Koto herself, which is what I guess Julien is also doing in this scenario. Then ahkj Maurice would nawt let any of this slide. So mada2 is not generally in character for ahkj.

Either she, kj, and maurice are just different people in this universe and leaving is not that big a deal. or their ahkj selves are destined to act out the plot of mada2 no matter what, so their reasoning is probably angsty and super troubled and juicy.

And just for fun, I'll tell you why I don't think Clover would stay behind: She puts Maurice in charge when KJ is missing, so she doesn't just seize the crown every chance she gets when she has other priorities. Clover does NOT stay home while the boys go out on adventures. They actually have to work to leave her behind in one episode. She likes to be in the center of the action. Leaving a gecko in charge is insane, but ultimately her loyalty is to protect King Julien, not the kingdom, so if it came to it, she'd bid the kingdom adieu bc she sees it as her job to make sure he doesn't die out there. (And because, let's be real, it sounds really fun and dangerous. She loves quests.)

A fundamental part of the Julien/Clover dynamic is she thinks danger is fun. He's really speaking to the part of her that wants to take that risk.

HEY GUYS IM NOT DEAD!! Have a mentally unwell mama

MAPLESHADE

“I'm going to make you pay for every blessing StarClan gave you! And every blessing they stole from me!”

[Ginger-and-chocolate tortie-and-white tabby with amber eyes and high white spotting.]

Miss Maple <3 I am a staunch supporter of women’s wrongs, easily one of the most interesting Warriors antagonists