Writer on the Block

In which Barbatos becomes the Anemo Archon and takes on the form of the Unnamed Bard

Woohoo, back from hiatus! I hope uru’s ok and thought I’d share my thoughts on the chapter since it was an interesting one:

- As much as I hate to see it, Arlo’s regression isn’t too surprising given the environment he’s grown up in. Take into account the fact that he clearly looks up to his aunt, and you get his confusion about his actions when she calls him into question. It’ll take a while to undo his current belief system, just like it’ll take a while for John to recover. 

- But keep in mind that the path to redemption isn’t linear. The path to good, well-written redemption is never really linear because that’s not realistic. Key point is Zuko (ATLA spoilers ahead). When you think he’s becoming better, he falls back into old habits, only to realize that that isn’t what he really wants or needs, and then achieves his full potential after he hits some of his lowest points. I can’t say for sure, but I think Arlo may follow a slightly similar path, as well as John to an extent, since we know he will be redeemed eventually. 

- Remi is my queen, forever and always. I really appreciated how she handled the Safe House situation. It proves that she has the potential to become a great leader, since she knew that someone like Zeke needed to be handled with a bit of force, but someone like the purple ponytail instigator just needed to face logic and reality. 

- So I thought Terrence was evil at first, but looking at the recruitment list I’m rethinking that. His choices seem like people who sympathize with low-tiers (Remi, Sera) or people who haven’t completely bought into the idea of power (Blyke and Isen). So my guess is that they’re recruiting high-tiers who sympathize with low-tiers. If there’s anything like a counter-agency to the authorities which recruit potential superheroes to be trained, I’d say this is it. I’m super curious to see how all of this goes down, and I absolutely love how these plot points are slowly coming together. 

I’d stopped doing these for a while but this chapter was so good and just had to much to unpack, so let’s break it down. 

-As always, I love me some Remi and Arlo interaction. They have such a good dynamic and I always need more of them. 

- This is like, the first time I’ve seen Arlo genuinely smile with his entire face in the view? I love it so much, he looks so relaxed and happy. Losing his king status is the best thing that could have happened to him. 

- That second conversation with Val and Remi was super interesting because I could see both sides of the story. On the one hand, Remi’s absolutely right to say the authorities aren’t doing enough. At the very least, they could condemn what happened in the low-tier districts. and tell mid-tiers to stop terrorizing low-tiers. Instead, they focus all their attention on telling high-tiers to stop messing with this. If the authorities were actually good people then they could assemble a sort of task force with these vigilantes and high tiers who could then protect low tier towns. 

- But on the other hand, Val is also right that the power of high-tiers can corrupt. It’s literally what happened with John and Wellston. She’s right in saying some of them can go bad, but that still doesn’t excuse the authorities sitting back and doing nothing. 

And lastly, speaking of John:

I wasn’t a big fan of the idea that John was Valerie’s son, but after this chapter, I‘m starting to consider it more. First of all, on the surface, there’s a lot of panels  in this with facial expressions that I feel I’ve definitely seen John make before. This could be just due to the fact that Uru’s art stye is pretty similar within characters, but I’ve never had a moment like this where I’ve looked at a character and immediately thought they had a stark resemblance with another, not even with siblings like Sera and Laila. Just check these out:

Just something about the facial expressions, the mannerisms, and the features strike me as very John-like. And if this theory is true, then it would explain why Arlo is under the impression that her ability is barriers like him. It’s entirely possible she copies his aura (and possibly Arlo’s dad’s, if that’s how they’re related) which is how she gets that ability. It’s also possible that none of this is true and Ember just managed to develop some kind of ability replacement drug, but I feel like there’s been more buildup on the first theory. 

It would also explain to me why William never faced any serious consequences for publishing a book like UnOrdinary. An organization that hunts down high-tiers but spares the creator of this idea seems kind of shady, so it makes sense to me that someone on the inside had a personal connection with William and decided to let him live. 

Also, this would make John and Arlo cousins. Which is hilarious. 

Trump could not condemn white supremacists. 

Trump, a pathological liar, couldn’t even lie and say he condemns white supremacists even if he doesn’t feel that way. 

He doesn’t not care about you. He does not care about you, or your families, or your loved ones. He does not care.