Riki/ The Befuddled Dumbass

as predicted, this book was mostly held back by it filling the void of the pride anthology, and so it ended up toothless in places where it NEEDED teeth. its not that this book totally messed up character development or the story i think nicole maines is going to end up telling, but it definitely made it way, way harder to get there, seemingly entirely on accident. the next book is gonna have to essentially be secret six on steroids to make up for this books shortcomings.

jon and nias relationship is a particular weak point that frankly, is boring the way its being presented to me, to the point of actively being offensive and making me way too aware of the hand of the author. we were never here for happy fluffy lovey stuff. we LIKED the mess and the dennys parking lot of it all. its frankly really bad for both characters that they dont actively dislike eachother here. the best sequence was the nightmare sequence with them because i felt it elegantly portrayed the one interesting angle you could take with them at this point: compulsory heterosexuality in the context of how being trans makes you feel like you need to perform your gender Extra Hard.

and of course, the big elephant in the room: because this book needed to be a Happy Pride Special, we could not delve into the jay & gamorra plots more, which if you ask me, is why most people are even here at this point. we WANT to see nia confront what she's done, not because we think she's evil, but because a character is expected to develop and grow during a story. I am somewhat lessened on that point of criticism because of Nicoles expert Q&A responses, as well as what she's said to @gossamerblue at a convention on the matter. however: bad, the editor should've anticipated this sticking point and made room for it. and now, we need actual deliverance on what has been promised. gamorra book winter 2026 or bust.

furthermore, its time to have taylor lose a fight. with the 'maines specific' criticism out of the way, i cant let axelrod off the hook either. taylor is just too overpowered and none of her weaknesses are sufficient enough to make her feel like a balanced addition to a team. she's way too savvy with her powers (which helps nia out powerscaling wise) and she doesn't have any big weaknesses that can be exploited (helps jon out). she just kind of always has the solution. and as much as nerds like to pretend otherwise, you can't separate character from powerscaling convos. because taylor always wins, she doesn't get to grow in the interesting ways other characters in her sphere do. also, big missed opportunity to not have her walk away from the league.

with that criticism said: this book had a lot of really really good moments and beats when nia and taylor were alone and without the rest of the cast (which, tbh, was the problem here, the real world segments always were what set the story back while the dream segments were unambiguously 100% fun). their friendship being allowed to develop in the way that it has is unquestionably a plus coming out of this book and i want to see their dynamic evolve further. kat being here is also a delight, i think shes one of my favorite comic love interests. the art was also consistently incredible and you can tell the vision for this book was very specific and executed near flawlessly.

feel in many ways Dream Girls was a step in the right direction but also veering off to the right. Finally, we've got a pride special that is supposedly plot relevant and is being used to highlight a specific vulnerable sect of the community. The problem is that because its meant to be for pride, and its the ONLY pride thing they did this year as opposed to having it run alongside an anthology, this book then got the same pressures of any other pride book where it felt compelled to be happy and uplifting despite the fact that going into the book, neither of our main characters was in a spot for that to be totally satisfying for their characters in the long run.

And sometimes, you become fat. Something happened (puberty, change in diet, change in ability, anything) and someone who was once skinny is now fat. This doesnt make you a failure. It just means ur fat now. Its okay. You didnt do something wrong.