#wildbow

Her pale ass probably blisters in the sun, while Victoria can get a nice tan without a sunburn thanks to her forcefield 😭

Powers aren’t fair…

Actually Sundancer is even worse!!! She can literally always enjoy a nice summer day

“Our Emma Barnes is a teenager who fiercely loves her friend [Taylor] and wants to protect her from this world and the dangers that Emma’s aware of that Taylor is not," Flanagan explains. "[She] doesn't know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private experience in school and to let her friend exist earnestly and curiously and wide open by protecting her from the world. It's a completely different dynamic."

Though, before I get into Valentina and her relationship with Mia, I like how this world isn't just a dystopia, but also the kind of dystopia that would produce a ton of hyper competent soldier-spies for hire. A sort of law enforcement cytokine storm, as every government agency got its own police force, and the corruption necessitated new oversight agencies, with their own police forces, recursively.

It's like the cop version of the golden age of piracy: Spain and England massively expanded their navies to fight each other, then afterwards cut them back down, leaving a ton of experienced sailors with no job and no prospects. It's a recipe for anarchy, rebellion, and organized crime and I love that is just removes a little bit of the disbelief for why everyone knows everyone else.

Now, Valentina, and my continuing evaluation of Mia.

First, Valentina. She still reads as bland to me, but also putting her in a school situation that encourages blandness excuses it a bit. She's also got that asshole-due-to-asshole-friends side that seems to come out when she's around peers that sells it. Finally, she's stepping up to the plate amazingly.

I really like how her narration changed names once she took the time to internalize it, and it was nice to see Ripley's bookcase come in handy.

Now, Mia. We get to see Mia from a third point of view, and I love it. This woman is so off! She lies easily by lying constantly, even to people in on the lie. Are Tyr and Rip hers? Of course, every paper and document anyone can access says so.

I think in Mia we can see Wildnow's love of compartmentalized characters, and with Mia she really had no other choice. She had to compartmentalize like a ship with a breached hull, so of course doing it more comes naturally to her.

And I think the compartmentalization feeds to the other theme we've been seeing so much of in Ward and Seek: operating in heavily compromised environments. Victoria has to fight Goddess while under her thrall. Winnifred commits acts of terrorism while the cops can replay her every action like security footage. And honestly, my favorite so far, Valentina gets help from someone with no idea how involved she is.