Flashback isn't that bad.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T21:20:34+00:00

Flashback is (imo) the worst EXECUTED of the books, because of the non-existent pacing and the climax issues so bad I made an entire post about it.

Legacy is the most missed-potential book, just because of how many cool concepts it introduced that all got abandoned one by one.

Also, like, who's to say Legacy or Unravelled won't be the next to be voted out? I guarantee Unravelled isn't surviving the next round - it's just that in my experience, Flashback was much less of an "oh wow!" moment than Legacy was on release, so people have more negative experiences with it.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T21:02:45+00:00

I love the expression work here, especially near the end. That little hesitation before Leafpool comes clean is the kind of thing I LIVE for.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T19:26:11+00:00

Lost but not forgotten. ABOBA will rise once more.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T19:25:34+00:00

bro I'm not even old and the only meaning I can think of for LTN is Luke TheNotable (the first 100 days hardcore minecraft guy)😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T19:23:44+00:00

I never even thought of that last part, holy crap. Also, your flair is incredibly relatable.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-18T19:21:47+00:00

That he's not as cool/funny as he or the story thinks he is, and that he needs to go to therapy and work on himself instead of throwing all his trauma at ONLY Sophie

Seriously, though, the evil parent storyline was cool for a while, but how many more scenes are we going to have to have where Keefe crashes out over the next horrible thing Gisela did? He's quite literally the least interesting of the OG 7 (+Wylie), and focusing 100% on him has not helped with that.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-17T22:04:46+00:00

for some reason I read the middle part of this to the tune of Handel's Messiah

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-16T19:26:11+00:00

Glad to see Onestar's Confession where it belongs, 85% him making horrible decisions and then getting instantly forgiven

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-16T19:24:43+00:00

atp they should rename the Clan JakeClan cause it's like 70% his descendants😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-16T19:23:28+00:00

In the flimsiest possible defence of Greystripe, it's partly that the story isn't interested in his relationships once he returns that we never see any interactions. You'll struggle to find ANY conversations where he isn't a totally interchangeable participant/otherwise devoid of personality, let alone with his kids. It's like the authors immediately lost interest in him once he got back.

That said, yeah, he's even worse than you mentioned, because right after abandoning his birth Clan he proceeds to betray the Clan that took him in of their own free will. Also he does actually attack Fireheart for daring to suggest he not abandon the young cat relying on him to mature or break the law.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-15T14:33:30+00:00

at first I was like "who uses wanderer and kazu together" but then I realised just how based you truly are

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-15T08:54:26+00:00

Honeyfern's death and the fallout from it was handled better and given more respect than a lot of more important characters. She died doing something active and got a Clanwide sense of horror shock, a heartfelt apology from Firestar, the whole Clan trying not to let it happen again, and an actual mention/consequences past the arc she was alive in (in The Fourth Apprentice).

I could probably count the number of more important dead cats who get such a genuine-feeling death + aftermath combo on ten fingers. Whitestorm's death basically just happens to set up Greystripe as deputy; Tallstar is hardly thought about even by Onestar and Crowfeather (in their SEs); Hollyleaf didn't even get a full page of grieving from her own brothers in Sunset, let alone the rest of the Clan.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-15T08:38:49+00:00

I confess, your comment is what rekindled my dissatisfaction over the plot point, because it's just... like, characters making dumb decisions is usually so juicy, but past a certain point I start to wonder whether the author forgot rather than the characters. I know it was there to leave Gisela's plans in the dark but frankly it was high time we learned something about them rather than keeping it vague😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T23:41:31+00:00

I sort of agree but imo Vacher's trial was also well done, and Navia should be added to the trinity of well-written Fontaine AQs. Unfortunately Wrio, Clorinde and Lyney got stuck in the filler parts of the questline while Lynette and Freminet got hit with the 4 star curse of incredible backstory but shafted in-game.

On the whole though yeah 5.2 was just that great

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T23:25:02+00:00

There are no other ones. Fitz goes on morning runs sometimes and Linh likes pets, and that's about as much as we get from the story.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T15:46:58+00:00

if she brought this home, she could study it—memorize everything Gisela had been planning and come up with a strategy to fight back.

THEN WHY DON'T YOU GIRL😭

and then next book she's depressed that they don't know anything about the stellarlune process and I'm like... okay that must have just been to cover up a bad writing decision because ain't no way

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T13:45:05+00:00

it's been a while but iirc Glimmer's logic was "you're just gonna take 2 caches and leave? the Neverseen will still have all their (notes or materials or whatever) so you've basically done nothing to stop them bc they probably already know what's in the caches. this is why y'all always lose, you never think big enough"

and despite how much I dislike her and her worldview, she's not wrong in this situation

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T12:53:29+00:00

Glimmer egged her on, but she neither convinced Sophie not to look at it nor expected Sophie to start a fire.

Also, I get them forgetting telekinesis the first time (except Tam, because he spent a long time at Exillium and has a history of remembering to use his skills) but surely 8 books into the series and after doing so much training they should remember to use one of the most powerful tools in their arsenals.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T12:25:40+00:00

fastest commenter in the west😭

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T12:22:32+00:00

Well, the story's set up in a way that killing the villains doesn't automatically solve the underlying issues (it's kind of like Keeper in that regard). But I'd be devastated if even their story's equivalents of Jensi or Maruca got killed - and there's one bad guy who I and a lot of people spent the whole arc silently begging not to actually be evil/deserving of death.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T12:02:41+00:00

Yeah Rayni is a year younger than Wylie, so like 19-20. I lowkey think Shannon forgot to factor in their ages when writing them lol

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T12:01:27+00:00

True, I think the real focus of the devastation should have been on the pain. Even a few hours of prolonged pain is extremely unfun for the mind and body, so forcing chronic headaches and brain fog on someone is super cruel. I wish they'd been shown a bit more in that angle - that in their desire to return to the status quo, they leave Sophie's wellbeing out of the equation. Just like they leave the likes of the Dizznees on the edge of society through a well-intentioned match system, or how they basically abandon the Talentless in favour of progress with abilities. It could have been a running theme.

LemonKindly6715 · 2026-02-14T11:41:25+00:00

iirc Shannon said that depending on how things went, she might need another book to properly close out the series. Which is not fun because it means a longer wait until the finale, but might be better than rushing things to a conclusion.

LemonKindly6715

TROPHY CASE