by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor

Fantasy High: Junior Year
Episode 19 “Ragenarok (Part 2)”
With Brennan Lee Mulligan, Emily Axford, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Brian Murphy
All episodes now on Dropout.tv

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better use, in a combat, of non-character ability strategy. This is pure knowledge of the overarching mechanics of the game.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan

Welcome back, intrepid heroes! It’s time for the finale. The finale of the season, sure, but also (pretty likely) the finale of the Bad Kids. What does the future hold for our favorite adventuring party? It seems likely we’ll know by the end of the three-hour runtime. So, let’s GO!

First off! Everybody looks hot as fuck, as the players all dressed to delight Brennan for the final shoot as teenage emo kids. It rules and I love every single person at this table. They always serve looks for the finale, like they did during the first season in all prom attire.

As we enter back into the battle in the gym, Brennan recaps and reminds us of all the situations. Half the Rat Grinders are down, leaving only Mary Ann, Buddy, and Kipperlilly to contend with. Well, them and the teachers. Porter and Jace are both still up and messing about. Banishment on the ballot box has been broken and Mazey is aiming to get the votes from Seacaster Manor over to it, so they can get counted and a new class president (likely Kristen [Ally Beardsley]) can be named.

Fabian (Lou Wilson), pretty hurt and encumbered with a level of exhaustion, pulls out the gem that has Bakur’s soul and tells him that Porter wanted to unmake Ankarna (who he’s set to follow and worship) before slamming it down into the lava after Fig (Emily Axford). He doesn’t immediately come out, as Brennan sets the release as a roll for every one of Fabian’s turns. It’s a nice adjustment and allows the eventual opening of the gem. Additionally, light from the gem hits around the gym and mirrors start to reflect places in Elmville and may open a portal to allow an ally in town to make it to the party—it requires a natural 20 on the beginning of every turn, but it’s always a possibility! Very cool!

Fabian goes after two of the Jace clones and pushes one of them (the real Jace) into the lava. Doing over 100 damage, Fabian thrashes Jace and he destroys one of the Mirror Images and knocks the real Jace out for a bit.

“This is just the art teacher getting shoved by a jock in the gymnasium.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan.

It’s then that the party sees the rage shards leave the downed bodies of the Rat Grinders and they start coming for the Bad Kids, starting with Kristen and Mazey. Kristen saves against the shard, but Mazey does not. On Kristen’s turn she gets Gorgug (Zac Oyama) up, as he’s being held by Porter. British!Kristen, still invisible, casts Banishment on Buddy and he disappears from the battlefield—which is so very useful. Kristen proper also brings the Hangman back up, as well.

On Porter’s turn, he goes after Fabian and Gorgug, taking them both down. He also stomps on Gorgug, giving him two failed Death Saves since he attacked him while he was downed. Absolutely brutal and it makes perfect sense for his character and the relationship he has with Gorgug. He takes the honey, making him believe his own lies, as he tells Ankarna that they’ve prepared the world for her and that she’s totally good and chill to appear.

Kipperlilly goes to hit Riz (Brian Murphy), but he held his action for just such an occasion. However, Murph also points out that he’s got Blindsight up, which allows him to see invisibility within 10 feet of himself, so he’d see Kipperlilly if she got close enough to attack him. The second he sees her, he uses his held action: Hold Person and it’s over the lava, since they’re under the floorboards. The lava does 106 damage to her, killing her.

“You’ve only seen her [Kipperlilly Copperkettle] for an entire year, in the moments where she wishes to be seen. She has moved like a ghost in this place, subliminal messaging across the school, taunting you at every turn. Impossibly proficient, having arrived there in a way that completely abandons the heart and soul of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. A place dedicated to a definition of heroism based in lunacy, unhinged behavior, reckless violence, and absolutely enormous swings in the face of reasonable alternatives.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan 

As Kipperlilly goes down, Brennan reveals that she does not have the same scar as the Rat Grinders. She accepted it and asked for it willingly, which is a different ritual than dying and getting resurrected for it.

On Fig’s turn, Brennan puts on a very cute strawberry hat because Mary Ann Skuttle is absolutely coming for her. Which does mean that Mary Ann goes into the lava, taking 113 damage. She’s the first one to make the save, though, only taking half. She hits Fig twice, taking her down on the first one, and the second one causes Fig to also take two failed death saves.

As Adaine (Siobhan Thompson) goes between all her fallen comrades and casts Scatter, which allows her to push people in the range elsewhere, to try and get them to places where they can be healed. Mazey is also within the range and Siobhan asks if she can Scatter the votes into the ballot box, by moving Mazey. Brennan knocks that down, but quite kindly. Instead, all the allies are moved about to people who can bring them back up. Porter uses a legendary action to hurl a chunk of rock at Adaine, hitting her for 33. Except it hits one of her Mirror Images! She yeets one of the Jaces, as well.

On Mazey’s turn, Porter commands her to disband the school since she’s the student body president. She says it, but then Arthur Aguefort’s voice booms that “no student body president may be compelled against their will.” He tells her to throw the votes into the lava. Except… Kipperlilly is dead, so… Jace and Porter are fighting about what to have her do. Porter just has her throw the votes to him, which she does.

One of the Jace Mirror Images tries to Detect Thoughts to figure out where British!Kristen is, which he succeeds at. One of the other ones tries pushes Adaine into the lava, since he doesn’t know she’s immune to fire, but she resists anyway.

On Gorgug’s turn, with two failures, Zac ends up rolling a natural 20, which brings him back up with 1 HP! It also lowers the difficulty of allies rolling through to help them (now it’s a 17 or higher). He’s still got fly on him and tries to shove one of the Jaces into the lava. He succeeds and one more Jace is out of the game. He also uses a disarming attack to knock the ballots away from Porter, toward Adaine.

On Riz’s turn, he shoves part of the Vulture King into Fig’s mouth to heal her for a little bit. He moves to shoot Porter. On Fig’s turn, she casts Shatter on the floor under one of the Jaces. It’s also the floor that Buddy was on before he was Banished, so he’ll appear there again even if there’s no floor (which means he might fall straight down). She absolutely destroys the floor and drops Jace’s ass into the lava, killing him.

Fabian, still down, still gets to roll for both Bakur and an ally. He succeeds on both. Bakur is freed, trying to figure out who to side with, and Squeem appears with cortados and a sword! Except it’s not just Squeem. It’s also Balthazar that the Bad Kids were traveling with from the in-media res adventure against the Night Yorb. Squeem throws the cortados at everybody, healing them. He also commands the Hangman to go after Mary Ann and he grapples her, which means she’ll take more damage on her turn. Fabian casts Dispel Magic on Mazey, saving her from the rage shard.

Kristen pulls out the shards of Cassandra to talk to her. She’s trying to tell her that Ankarna is being betrayed. She goes down to Fig and casts Dispel Magic on Porter, to get the honeyed lies out of him. She tells Fig to have Ankarna ask him another question. Except that Kristen can’t make the check for the spell. Kristen has British!Kristen do it and… with a fart and another “Blimey” she literally crits. Brennan, like the last time this happened, does a bit about leaving while Zac takes the DM stand. Truly, these are some of the funniest people alive. As the energy tries to return to something useful, Brennan, because of the natural 20, allows British!Kristen to be a real person.

Cassandra reaches out to Bakur and speaks to him and brings him over to the side of the Bad Kids. On Porter’s turn he Disintegrates Balthazar before he takes both Adaine and Gorgug down. Mary Ann goes down on her turn, being consumed from the lava, and the Hangman returns to the surface. When Mazey goes, she takes out one of the stars and brings Gorgug back up. The man cannot stay down!

Fabian, however, goes back down on Jace’s turn. On Gorgug’s turn he attacks Porter, hitting him twice. Gorgug rolls well enough to bring allies in, and it’s the crew from Mordred Manor. Riz and Fig both attack and hit Porter on their turns. Lou rolls a nat 20 for the ally check and Agent Cuspin Clark appears and shoots Jace. Sandra Lynn brings Adaine back up. Lydia, Ragh, and Jawbone all close in on Porter.

On Adaine’s turn she casts Detect Thoughts using the gift from Fabian: the earworm. The wording allows her to send the information gleaned to the nearest extraplanar creature and Porter is part of her range. Porter saves on the deeper thought dive, except Gorgug uses a flashbang to distract him, allowing Adaine to get an image of Porter killing Ankarna and taking control.

Brennan brings everybody together and has them all roll Divine Intervention, as though they were clerics of their own level, in order to have Ankarna smite her deceitful follower. They only need at least one, which Fabian succeeds at, despite being down.

And it is then that Ankarna enters their world. She absolutely fucking kills Porter, while the last Jace is arrested. With that, the party is no longer in combat. However, they find themselves enveloped in light and scattered across Ankarna’s rotting body. They are met with images, in the crystals, of the very thin line between justice and anger—the back and forth of Ankarna, herself.

The Bad Kids go, one-by-one, through the thing that makes them the angriest and having to process those feelings before they can find each other. Cassandra and Ankarna are together in the clearing, the latter in a bad way. Fig and Kristen are able to make it through to Ankarna, who believe this is where she will always end up—used and manipulated because of her power. Fig and Kristen hold hands, mirroring Cassandra and Ankarna, allowing the goddess to see the truth in their words.

They send Ankarna to right the injustices of the people killed in her name who didn’t deserve it (basically all the Rat Grinders but Kipperlilly, according to the Bad Kids). She also removes her name from the bones of Lucy and Yolanda, allowing them to be revived. Fig also succeeds on an Atonement cast on Mary Ann. Cassandra takes a selfie with herself, Ankarna, and Kristen and sends it to Craig to propagate online since Kristen brought back two dead gods in the last two years. Arthur and Ayda Aguefort also come back and facilitate Mazey counting the votes while the party tells him about all the nonsense that happened over the last year.

Kristen Applebees is officially voted president for their senior year. Yolanda and Lucy are both brought back, along with all the Rat Grinders (sans Kipperlilly). All the returned Rat Grinders go back to before the rage crystals, some with more memories of before than others. Though Kipperlilly is seemingly in hell.

As the show comes to an end, and all the players get their moments to role play post battle, it becomes somewhat clear that this might be the very last time we see the Bad Kids. At least for an extended story like this. Brennan leaves many of their endings open with a direct hook, like Adaine’s. Fig’s is much more closed, with her deciding that dropping out might be her best option, despite being afraid of what it might mean for her friendships and her relationship with Ayda. Fabian gets the recognition from his father that he’s always looked for, and Riz is content, though he’s going to be playing VP to Kristen’s class president. It’s this perfect kind of ending, honestly, though I know a lot of viewers wished for a full role play finale. But it’s the perfect kind of teenage film or show ending, especially if it’s the ending for the Bad Kids.

Across all three seasons of Fantasy High, the party has dealt with family. It’s a major part of all their lives, in good ways and bad ways, but it’s also a huge deal for real teenagers. It’s the first system you know, as a person, and its functionality (or dysfunctionality) is a really important stepping stone to how you’ll view the world and what kinds of risks you’re willing to take. Oftentimes we talk about “found family” as a concept is rather queer in nature—which I think is true. And there’s nothing more perfect for really encapsulating found family like an adventuring party that becomes your people. Or a friend group in high school who just gets you in a way your family at home maybe doesn't. Fantasy High proves time and time again that you are not broken if your teenage experience is not idyllic. And it’s a lesson that can be thrust upon us in the real world too.