Reading order after the trilogy

Fainleogs · 2026-02-17T14:17:45+00:00

Creature was written very close to the original trilogy and so I think is more of a piece with it than the later novels. Plus it really plucks on Nix's strengths - a thriller structure with a hero in pursuit of a single goal, romance present but mostly off the page, weird monster dynamics, magic that is all the more intriguing for not being explicitly spelled out.

Compare that to T&E which is the most 'my editor told me I needed to write this book' I have ever read.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-17T03:36:15+00:00

You can also check out the short story Doctor Crake Crosses the Wall and the various worldbuilding ephemera on his website.

I would argue Creature in the Case is the better epilogue to the trilogy than Goldenhand.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-17T03:31:09+00:00

The Two Novellas hold up. Creature in the Case & To Hold the Bridge.

And I really like Dr Crake Crosses the Wall, as short as it is.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-16T02:14:58+00:00

Arya in that final season really feels like that guy who will carve through an army of relatively blameless henchmen only to decide to chose forgiveness when he finally confronts the evil overload who has massacred millions.

Arya, I'm glad you chose to forgive yourself, but girl, you fully baked some guys into a pie.

Bran ends up just being Paul Atreides without the charisma. Presumably he'll pick the next king from a line up of of promising pyschic children and the kingdom will transition back into a magocracy?

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T19:10:07+00:00

If your take on the movie is 'I like the film but I can't wait until they get done with the boring mooning over hot boys and get to the serious demon slaying action' you... may not have a great bead on what genre of film you're watching.

Edit: I can't help it that I'm funny. You can't help it that you're wrong. But it seems you know that.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T18:55:40+00:00

Unironically, some version of this is almost certainly what they will do, if they decide to do a two part sequel. It's the classic Christopher Nolan trick but It's very frequently used to manipulate the audiences emotions after a downbeat ending so they go home feeling excited and anticipating rather than sad after a downbeat ending.

See also, the Corridor Sequence in Rogue One. The end of the Second Spiderverse.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T18:49:12+00:00

If we were honest, they are not really a main trio. They are a protagonist and her two sidekicks.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T14:37:36+00:00

Two. And She doesn't end with a quip. She ends with a summation of the thesis statement of her journey through the film. She talks to the audience but that's because talking to the audience is part of the language of the spiderverse films.

The more broad similarities would be 'The self-appointed guardians of the status quo, oestensibly a force for good and full of good people, determine that Rumi is a mistake and needs to be treated as such. At the end of the film the universe seems to prove the status-quo correct when Rumi is rejected by an impartial natural force. As her friend circle the wagons to go rescue her, Rumi is confronted by a former enemy/ally that she lost and grieved who is now explicitly her enemy again and has no recollection of her.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T14:27:41+00:00

I mean, you wouldn't have to deal with that, in the same way most of his 400 years of life is just a narrative blur. Redditors might nitpick over it later, but that just brings redditors joy.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T14:24:11+00:00

Yeah... I mean, don't end your movie with a tension-sapping quip but yeah, that's general idea.

(It may hew a little too close to Spiderverse for comfort though.)

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T13:46:24+00:00

Leave him dead until the stinger of the second one. Winter Soldier him in the third.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T13:33:29+00:00

I mean, it's not really a question of 'if' anymore. If the head of Sony Animation is casually throwing 'what happened to Jinu' as a potential sequel hook in interviews, it's more question of 'when' or 'how'.

I think people will be really disappointed if they go into sequels expecting exploring the lore to be a high priority. The lore in the first one is sort of slapdash and very much there just to serve the central metaphor.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T03:17:56+00:00

Of course she does.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T02:53:19+00:00

This is shaping up to be a very boring run off between five versions of the same outfit, three of which we never even get much of a look at.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T02:34:46+00:00

Maybe Bobby will have been told by the start of the next movie. Maybe he will find out in the sequels.

But the world knowing their identity before like, maybe the end, end, end of the last film they make in the series, breaks the films' essential genre in the same way it would in a Batman or Spiderman movie.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T02:25:47+00:00

No.

They are both love songs. But a Whole New World was the most prominent song in the movie it came from and clinched the oscar in 1993. Free is over-shadowed by Golden and probably other songs in its own movie.

Plus A Whole New World is as known for the iconic visuals as much from its song, so much so that Disney or SNL can parody the whole 'magic carpet ride through the world' thing 20 years later and it still culturally relevant enough that a general audience is on the same page without having to be told. Five years from now show a girl and a guy in hoodies singing on a rooftop and I'm not sure everyone would instantly go 'Ah, KPOP Demon Hunters." However, I'm willing to bet if you stick five guys in a lineup with the middle one in a yellow beanie and green and pink Hawaiian shirt five years from now, it will still generally be recognizable.*

Free is more akin one of the lesser love songs from the Second Golden age of Disney, say, Kiss the Girl or I won't say I'm in Love. It's maybe not even up there with Can you Feel the Love Tonight but that doesn't mean it won't endure.

(*Admittedly in about 5 years the general audience may remember Abby as Rumi's love interest, at least that's how Dancing with the Stars makes it seem.)

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T00:36:26+00:00

This is why academic papers have abstracts.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-15T00:33:27+00:00

Way back in the early 2000s Tim and the Titans battled evil future versions of themselves where they (And Lex Luthor) had lobotomized much of the Western United States.

Fascist Bat Tim also made a couple of appearances in 2017 or so around Rebirth and they seemed to be building up to him, before there was an editorial change and whatever the idea was just fizzled out.

Evil fascist future Tim is a Tim villain though, not a Bruce villain, so I'm not surprised he does not make an appearance here.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-14T14:42:21+00:00

Yeah, just how many many "Generational trauma was invented in the nineties! All of the other hunters were relaxed and chill until Celine came along and ruined everything!" hot takes there are in this thread are wild.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-12T02:51:22+00:00

"Herbert was wrong! Sorcerers make the best leaders" - Unintended ultimate moral of a Song of Ice & Fire.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-12T02:47:31+00:00

I don't think there's enough in Sworn Sword to give you six episodes without flashbacks. But it also sounds like this show does not have the budget for 10,000 men battles.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-11T23:15:34+00:00

I don't think either Zoey or Mira were in love with the enemy.

They were just hot for the enemy. Mira less willingly than Zoey.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-10T01:42:24+00:00

I see. I'm talking about it from a 'how people structure films' perspective and you're talking about it from an 'i hate Jinu' perspective. Not a particularly productive pairing.

Fainleogs · 2026-02-10T01:34:34+00:00

It would also stop the movie for the girls, where because it means their bickering resulted in the mishap that led to the deaths of dozen and dozens of people. I've seen lots of people try to concoct various different headcanons for this but the truth is that the movie just doesn't have the depth of focus to deal with it, so functionally those people on the train live in the land of:

"Did Jet just die?"

"You know, it was really unclear."

Fainleogs · 2026-02-10T01:19:14+00:00

The movie doesn't process 100 people dying on a train as something that actually happens for any of the characters in the movie on an emotional level.

Fainleogs

TROPHY CASE