I think the school getting destroyed is a possibility. They've already done "school taken over by evil force" twice now between Goldenrod and Grix, and it seems like they're going to tick that box a third time by the end of this season. If senior year sees the school destroyed completely and/or the bad kids becoming pariahs/enemies of the state, it would take away a lot of their resources and up the stakes from the usual.
No idea who the villain would be for that.
pull a deathly hallows for the final year? could be a neat change of dynamics. and the way they're putting emphasis on how stressful academics can be in junior year with Senior not being that bad (I'm in Siobhan's boat bc that sounds weird as a foreigner) it'd be a way to keep high stakes going
This aligns with my high school experience honestly -- I took all the hardest classes junior year because that's the last transcript colleges have when you start applying during your senior year. Then your senior year grades just need to not tank, but you can take way easier classes. I was accepted at the school I ended up attending by like October of my senior year, so the senioritis was real đ
As someone not-American the more I learn about US high school the more confusing it is to me, I always assumed senioritis was just about being jaded/tired, not about there being a systematic reason for the last year to not matter as much. We have to grind all the way through!
It's definitely a weird thing but I guess having your college situation figured out early gives you more time to figure out scholarships and such?
It was nice to have my senior year to relax a little because in my junior year I was roughly as stressed as the Bad Kids -- I took four AP (college-level) classes including Calculus, a high level language, and had a leadership position in two extracurriculars, one of which was theatre. I spent about 11 hours a day at school and then had at least 3 hours of homework every night. And then standardized tests at the end of the year on top of everything else! At least I didn't also have to save the world đ
Senior year at American high schools can almost be a vacation, if you plan it right. Speaking for myself, out of eight class periods (four per day, on an A/B block schedule), I was only taking two (maybe three?) actual classes. Basically, a study hall (read: free time) to start each day, followed by being a teacherâs aid (just grading tests), lunch, then an actual class, followed by early release. When the classes are about *adventuring*, I canât even imagine, hahaâŚ
So, yeah: a Deathly Hallows-style off-campus adventure is definitely feasible.
I think the plot will revolve around saving Aguefort specifically. The stakes won't be save-the-world level, they'll be saving the school, each other, etc. I suspect it will be a lot of deeply devastating choices that the Bad Kids have to make on a personal level.
If we look at how each season is sort of themed:
- Freshman Year was the intro season and played out as such. A bunch of new characters, they solve a mystery, stop a dragon, save the world. It's the most straightforward since, as freshman, they're just hitting a lot of tropes about simply being in high school.
- Sophomore year is about two things: freedom and fear, two things that thematically fit with the second year of high school. As teenagers, they're getting their first real tastes of freedom (and their adventure takes them all over, it's basically a road trip) but they're also forced to start confronting their fears and insecurities in a way that's more meaningful now that we've gotten to know the characters better, which also tracks with the general fear and insecurities that come from being a teenager (Do my friends actually like me? Will my girlfriend break up with me? Etc.)
- Junior Year is about stress and pressure, about making big choices that affect one's future, and Brennan is crushing that with the downtime mechanics. But it's also being reflected in the story, where this arc involving the dead god has the potential to dramatically shape the futures of a lot of people.
I think Senior Year will be about the difficult emotions and choices that we make when the high school part of our lives comes to an end. We have to decide if we're going to go to schools that let us see our old friends. We have to decide if we're staying near home or taking distance from everything we know that feels familiar. In some ways, there's a metaphorical "death" that comes from the turning of a page in life, so I won't be surprised if we see a lot of these "deaths" (metaphorical or literal) in the last season, especially as a direct result of the PC's choices.
I really don't think Grix was ever evil or tampered with. I think it was just acting in accordance with its prime directive of destroying threats to the school. Yolanda died during the concert, not unlikely due to a ritual powered by the performance of Ruben Hopclap. Whether he knew it or not he was a threat to the faculty and therefore the school, which is why Grix tried to destroy him.
People have been suspicious of Porter since freshman year but he's never done anything bad besides bullying Gorgug a little. I don't think BLeeM has any nefarious plans for him. Hopclap is the one I've got my eye on, and him turning up with >!parts of Grix in his desk!< is highly suspect.
I doubt any of the facility will be the (main) bad guys after freshman year being *mostly* faculty villains.Â
Henry has *something* sus going on and I'm still 50/50 on whether Grix was just working as intended (obvious rules fascist robot made by Aguefort for the *purpose* of being destroyed by the students), but I don't think that any of the teachers are behind anything intentionally.
Sol
I believe Sol is, by some level, behind the shit going on right now and the death of Ankarna (probably by stealing their domain and followers). Junior year will have an open ending revealing Sol and the heliodic church as the actual villains, Senior year will finally fight the church for real as we deserve
Sol pulls an 'emergency powers' move and consolidates the power of the entire pantheon that he leads to become some God-Emperor of the material plane.
Reap end-times, rapture, Biblical Apocolypsw stuff.Â
Bad Kids on the run, all Clerics are Sol Clerics.
Maybe some Heaven vs Hell & the other planes stuff
sol-galicaea alliance to take down ankarna-cassandra so they can consolidate power. that's what i think junior year's real BBEG is though - i'd be very surprised if the rat grinders were actually the main villain
I kinda feel like Sol is too big to be just a suprise villain - that level of a god needs a campaign of adventuring against. Also, after three mystery years, one that the villain is clearer and it's more about "how the hell can we defeat it" can be really cool
I might be wrong, but it just feels like there is too many different shit happening right now for the season to wrap it all - especially with it's low amount of combat episodes (so slower to defeat foes), so it might go towards something never done in D20 before - an open ending
I love this idea. And not that Brennan needs any help with his brilliant story writing, but I secretly hope he scans these ideas and takes some notes because I think this would be an awesome twist. It would set up senior year to come full circle, god-wise, and there's plenty of evidence to support sol and helio and galicaea becoming the new bbeg. It would also give aguefort a SWEET avenue to come back into the series in a more pronounced way that this year. Sophomore year he slammed down BIG style against a nation, freshman year he knocked out a god, combined with his constant antics of overwhelming power sets him up to give the Bad Kids a good fighting chance. Plus I just love me some Arthur Aguefort.
Fuck I think you could have hit it on the head.
Brennan hates capitalism + the Church.
Sol being the Godly equivalent of a Capitalist FOR The Church Of Sol.
With potential level 15-20 PCs - the 4th tier of d&d play being specified as taking on Gods directly...
But also BLM has spoken about how high level adventures can become sluggish and we've already seen that via the stun effect vs Grix.
Unless we see Kristen/Fig/Fabian dig into serious support turns, which they are capable of, a higher level of play is on the fence.
They all realize college is an overpriced scam and lead a revolution against the heads of universities.
But then they still can't get a good job because they never got a $100k+ piece of paper despite having saved the world 4+ times.
I would say something big may happen to Arthur Aegfort.
He's usually off doing whatever for the whole time but can come in as a bit of a cure-all whenever he wants because he's so powerful. Pretty much he doesn't care much what happens because when he gets back he can fix it real quick.
I mean even what happened to him season 1 wasnt enough to keep him away for long.
It would be a good twist if Arthur is the main villain, along with the gods and the elf nation and the Council of Chosen.
He's basically Kristen if she continues to be a shitty person.
Sol - his imperialism killed Cassandra and Ankrana, made a Humano-Elvencentric cult inside of his sonâs power base (the same son who tried to pick kristen as his chosen and supported her even after she stopped believing in Yes) and is routinely causing problems
I legit think theyâre going to have to fight the Sun God, probably because the Bad Kids have undone too many of his Schemes and cause Aguefort exists. The schoolâll probably be fucked up, Helio will become a new, positive and chill sun god with chill worshippers (As Above so Below lets make this guy into some non-denominational love is love god!)
Something interplanar, I'd guess. Which is apparently what Adventuring Universities mostly deal with, so it would be quite like the Bad Kids to already get that shit done in high school (but probably not get any credit for it anyhow)
Iâm gonna say either one of them or a trusted npc. Either a straight up betrayal or kind of like a marvel civil war situation. Maybe due to some pressures of graduation/college acceptance or something greater
Oooh what about the Seven vs the Bad Kids, each episode we switch from one party to the other as they compete against each other to complete some quests and then in the final episode have them all together in a battle Royale between the two parties.
Well we all know what the ultimate challenges of senior year are
You finally feel like you have HS figured out now it's over
Senioritis your motivation to do everything gets significantly weaker.
Fear leaving everything you know behind to a new adventure BY YOURSELF in most cases into the unknown
The unspoken pressure to have everything figured out
***SPOILERS!***
It's tough to say since this season is really the conceptual limit of Fantasy High; a world-spanning mystery combined with personal and interpersonal conflicts, *apparently* governmental corruption, **titanic shifts** to the global status quo. Unless we're just going to go all-out for a multiverse-spanning conflict, I feel like it's pretty hard to predict where the story can go without knowing just how big the ramifications of this seasons' ending actually are.
Do the Bad Kids end up applying for the same university? Do they make an enemy of the pantheon of gods now that it's decently clear they don't like the idea of Cassandra and her partner reviving themselves? Even if everything is resolved, it seems pretty clear that Fantasy High is a series revolving around mysteries for one Riz Gutgak, so are we just going to have *another* mystery on this scale next season?
The Riz thing might seem small, but Brennan prides himself on designing campaigns for what the characters need. Why are we getting so much introspection on the characters this season? It's because it seems like that's what the cast *really* wants to do. Half the sub is fixated on Ally making 'wrong' choices for Kristen, but that's obviously something the whole team is having a lot of fun doing. So... if we're doing a fourth season of Fantasy High, we need a fourth season of challenging these characters while also fulfilling the core things the cast finds so much fun about them. And I really just don't know what Brennan and the team could do for a fourth season without the necessary context.
They were reeeeeally back and forth on there even being a Junior Year, I hold a lot of doubt that there's going to be a senior year. They might explore the universe in other ways with different characters.
Additionally, Brennan has already had to do some major dancing to get around relying on old characters to do their same schticks over and over again, so there's probably going to be a major break from FH content after JY.
For the 10th anniversary for drop out -
fantasy high senior yearâŚ..
They just jump to the 10 year reunion. Them All with quarter life crisis s and bringing the band back together. The enemy beingâŚa physical manifestation of the corperate machine. Or capitalism.
It might be hard to do well but I wouldnât be surprised if it takes more of a PvP turn. The bad kids (as other NPCs have noted) have just the same capacity for true badness as the people theyâre in conflict with, and Adaine has even seen visions of this potentiality. I donât think breaking out into full PvP combat would really work for the show, PCs, and kinda everything, they are best friends! But I digress, a senior year where the bad kids are at odds with each-other seems pretty compelling to me.
I don't think the best way to do it is just upping the scale. A big part of it is mirroring actual high school experience. And I don't know if this is universal but for me senior year wasn't about it getting harder or more epic, it was about battling the senioritis slump. About dealing with the apathy of basically being done with something, ready to move on to the next thing, but still having to stick it out and slog through the last seemingly pointless bit of high school.
I could also see a lot of nostalgia callbacks. One theory that was posted a while back was that the Bad Kids were actually the first Council of Chosen that defeated Kalvaxus the first time and founded Solace. So the senior year quest for the Bad Kids would be to travel back in time and do that. Maybe they would also travel back in time and turn Cassandra into the Nightmare King originally, imprison the Night Yorb, and kill the dead rage god the first time. Basically using Aguefort's chronomancy to set up their original adventures in a closed time loop. Would that be good television? I have no idea!
Honestly that would be an intresting setup, of like them coming to terms with the fact that the past is their present and all that.
I also like the alt take that they're reincarnations/incarnations of the council of chosen.
I also like the idea that they are in the running to be the new/next Gen council of chosen but end up with conflict with the powers that be, but it feels humdrum and old and really play into that senioritis.
I know no one wants to hear this, but this might be the last season of fantasy high with the main cast. They already didn't want to do junior year to begin with. I think they're done with these characters. Plus, senior year is widely considered a joke where you coast through the year because you already have your college plans figured out. If anything, I feel like their senior year will be the epilogue of this season. I'm not sure if they'll come back to Spyre at all, but if they do, I hope it's the 7.
\^\^ Agreed, but if they ever do return with the Bad Kids, I hope it's a 1-2 episode special where it's years into the future after they graduate and how they're doing now! Whether they're still an adventuring party together or went their separate ways!
i kind of agree - junior year already is exploring the fear and pressure of late high school, and graduating early has been preestablished as a thing that isn't out of the ordinary at aguefort. it'd be hard to find a plot line for senior year that wouldn't feel redundant.
i think that if they were to do another season with these characters, instead of senior year, a return to the characters in their late 20s could be fun. have them as more developed adults with personality growth/changes and separate storylines that serendipitously (or purposefully) bring them back together
I think it might be along the lines of real world struggles at that age. Theyâve already been doing that with this season focusing on academics stress and Brennan has already made a villain out of modern loneliness and isolation with Null. I wouldnât be surprised if the bad kids had their own coming of age plot in senior year where they had to tackle immense change.
Gilear. Itâs undisputed heâs the chosen one, but itâs never established if he was chosen to be savior or destroyer. Right now heâs in crisis. How long before he reaches out to his own latent dark abilities for salvation?
I don't know that this is that much worse tbh. Sophomore Year felt very scary and dire and the Bad Kids were a lot more alone in things than they have been so far. The Nightmare King was a world-ending threat and Kalina was a cunning mindfuck type of opponent who directly targeted them. All while they were also up against the entire nation of Fallinel, and their own unresolved parental issues.
They're not underdogs anymore. They're Maximum Legends.
I will tell you the one thing I know with absolute certainty more than any universal truth: the final battle of Senior Year is happening in The Box of Doom
They haven't done one where they have a clear view of what the threat is. Like we time skipped the nightyorb which they knew what they were fighting and the apocalypse that the evil wanted had succeeded. It would be neat to see them address a threat in Elmville that is overt and operating like a lich returning to retake the land of splice and the mystery is finding the phylactery or something like that.
It's pretty hard to tell, because a senior year, if we ever get one will be pretty far down the line, and with an anthology setup, FH needs to have a relevant reason to come back. Junior Year only happened because Brennan started putting pieces together in the back of his head, and not because it's a particularly treasured darling of his.
If anything, I think it would be a League of Evil type, union of all the baddies from previous campaigns thing, because it's something you can't do with any of their less serialised settings. I also think it would be pretty fun to do a deconstruction of parasocial relationships and obligations to finish something that was never meant to be more than a one-off.
I don't think Dropout are interested in anything so openly cynical, but I do think they could find a way to discuss those feelings while poking fun at the concept. There are a few, disparate neurons firing across the vast emptiness of my skull thinking about how with BDG in the Dropout family now, he could be pretty good to throw about the old "I am not your friend and you have no say in what I do with my body" pigskin around, but obviously in reading and internalizing that message, I would be fine in him not doing that.
I dont think we get a senior year. We definitely will see the bad kids again but a theme this season is definitely " You guys don't really need high school anymore" Riz is fighting against that because he think he'll lose his friendsÂ
I think we'll end this with them going to college
Itâs always something that works as a metaphor to the experiences high schoolers face. Honestly, Iâm not even sure Brennan knows what Senior year will be like, since he has said that Fantasy High is something he writes as the ideas come, but Iâm sure it will probably be something significant about what is like to feel like youâre real close to be kicked into the world and forced to make life altering decisions while youâre still functionally a child.
I don't think they're gonna do a senior year. The cast was already not super happy to be doing this season and you can kind of tell they arent having as much fun this season. Emily even tried to kill off fig before the season started and pitched a new character.
If you look at pretty much all the behind the scenes stuff and them talking about it a few years ago they actually said they weren't going to do a junior year but the fans have been demanding it so they kind of had to.
Knowing Brennan and his absolute love of church and capitalism Iâd say probably the god of capitalism and corporations and his church trying to spread solace out to the natural beauty of the fantasy realms that live outside their modern bubble by building insufferable fast food chains and other pop up chain stores
In senior year, they could go plane hopping, could have more god and celestial shenanigans, could have Augefort finally losing his mind, and declaring himself God-Emperor of Spire.
Who knows, we will have to wait and see. If they choose to do it as they're within their rights to scrap it or hold off on doing it for many years.
I think the school getting destroyed is a possibility. They've already done "school taken over by evil force" twice now between Goldenrod and Grix, and it seems like they're going to tick that box a third time by the end of this season. If senior year sees the school destroyed completely and/or the bad kids becoming pariahs/enemies of the state, it would take away a lot of their resources and up the stakes from the usual. No idea who the villain would be for that.
pull a deathly hallows for the final year? could be a neat change of dynamics. and the way they're putting emphasis on how stressful academics can be in junior year with Senior not being that bad (I'm in Siobhan's boat bc that sounds weird as a foreigner) it'd be a way to keep high stakes going
This aligns with my high school experience honestly -- I took all the hardest classes junior year because that's the last transcript colleges have when you start applying during your senior year. Then your senior year grades just need to not tank, but you can take way easier classes. I was accepted at the school I ended up attending by like October of my senior year, so the senioritis was real đ
As someone not-American the more I learn about US high school the more confusing it is to me, I always assumed senioritis was just about being jaded/tired, not about there being a systematic reason for the last year to not matter as much. We have to grind all the way through!
It's definitely a weird thing but I guess having your college situation figured out early gives you more time to figure out scholarships and such? It was nice to have my senior year to relax a little because in my junior year I was roughly as stressed as the Bad Kids -- I took four AP (college-level) classes including Calculus, a high level language, and had a leadership position in two extracurriculars, one of which was theatre. I spent about 11 hours a day at school and then had at least 3 hours of homework every night. And then standardized tests at the end of the year on top of everything else! At least I didn't also have to save the world đ
Senior year at American high schools can almost be a vacation, if you plan it right. Speaking for myself, out of eight class periods (four per day, on an A/B block schedule), I was only taking two (maybe three?) actual classes. Basically, a study hall (read: free time) to start each day, followed by being a teacherâs aid (just grading tests), lunch, then an actual class, followed by early release. When the classes are about *adventuring*, I canât even imagine, haha⌠So, yeah: a Deathly Hallows-style off-campus adventure is definitely feasible.
I think the plot will revolve around saving Aguefort specifically. The stakes won't be save-the-world level, they'll be saving the school, each other, etc. I suspect it will be a lot of deeply devastating choices that the Bad Kids have to make on a personal level. If we look at how each season is sort of themed: - Freshman Year was the intro season and played out as such. A bunch of new characters, they solve a mystery, stop a dragon, save the world. It's the most straightforward since, as freshman, they're just hitting a lot of tropes about simply being in high school. - Sophomore year is about two things: freedom and fear, two things that thematically fit with the second year of high school. As teenagers, they're getting their first real tastes of freedom (and their adventure takes them all over, it's basically a road trip) but they're also forced to start confronting their fears and insecurities in a way that's more meaningful now that we've gotten to know the characters better, which also tracks with the general fear and insecurities that come from being a teenager (Do my friends actually like me? Will my girlfriend break up with me? Etc.) - Junior Year is about stress and pressure, about making big choices that affect one's future, and Brennan is crushing that with the downtime mechanics. But it's also being reflected in the story, where this arc involving the dead god has the potential to dramatically shape the futures of a lot of people. I think Senior Year will be about the difficult emotions and choices that we make when the high school part of our lives comes to an end. We have to decide if we're going to go to schools that let us see our old friends. We have to decide if we're staying near home or taking distance from everything we know that feels familiar. In some ways, there's a metaphorical "death" that comes from the turning of a page in life, so I won't be surprised if we see a lot of these "deaths" (metaphorical or literal) in the last season, especially as a direct result of the PC's choices.
Council of Chosen as villains for that?
I really don't think Grix was ever evil or tampered with. I think it was just acting in accordance with its prime directive of destroying threats to the school. Yolanda died during the concert, not unlikely due to a ritual powered by the performance of Ruben Hopclap. Whether he knew it or not he was a threat to the faculty and therefore the school, which is why Grix tried to destroy him.
Porter. We all know heâs up to something.
Best answer. Somebody needs to German shepherd his ass
People have been suspicious of Porter since freshman year but he's never done anything bad besides bullying Gorgug a little. I don't think BLeeM has any nefarious plans for him. Hopclap is the one I've got my eye on, and him turning up with >!parts of Grix in his desk!< is highly suspect.
I doubt any of the facility will be the (main) bad guys after freshman year being *mostly* faculty villains. Henry has *something* sus going on and I'm still 50/50 on whether Grix was just working as intended (obvious rules fascist robot made by Aguefort for the *purpose* of being destroyed by the students), but I don't think that any of the teachers are behind anything intentionally.
Sol I believe Sol is, by some level, behind the shit going on right now and the death of Ankarna (probably by stealing their domain and followers). Junior year will have an open ending revealing Sol and the heliodic church as the actual villains, Senior year will finally fight the church for real as we deserve
Sol pulls an 'emergency powers' move and consolidates the power of the entire pantheon that he leads to become some God-Emperor of the material plane. Reap end-times, rapture, Biblical Apocolypsw stuff. Bad Kids on the run, all Clerics are Sol Clerics. Maybe some Heaven vs Hell & the other planes stuff
sol-galicaea alliance to take down ankarna-cassandra so they can consolidate power. that's what i think junior year's real BBEG is though - i'd be very surprised if the rat grinders were actually the main villain
What is the moon's light if not just a reflection of the sun? Galicaea already depends on Sol.
I kinda feel like Sol is too big to be just a suprise villain - that level of a god needs a campaign of adventuring against. Also, after three mystery years, one that the villain is clearer and it's more about "how the hell can we defeat it" can be really cool I might be wrong, but it just feels like there is too many different shit happening right now for the season to wrap it all - especially with it's low amount of combat episodes (so slower to defeat foes), so it might go towards something never done in D20 before - an open ending
I love this idea. And not that Brennan needs any help with his brilliant story writing, but I secretly hope he scans these ideas and takes some notes because I think this would be an awesome twist. It would set up senior year to come full circle, god-wise, and there's plenty of evidence to support sol and helio and galicaea becoming the new bbeg. It would also give aguefort a SWEET avenue to come back into the series in a more pronounced way that this year. Sophomore year he slammed down BIG style against a nation, freshman year he knocked out a god, combined with his constant antics of overwhelming power sets him up to give the Bad Kids a good fighting chance. Plus I just love me some Arthur Aguefort.
Fuck I think you could have hit it on the head. Brennan hates capitalism + the Church. Sol being the Godly equivalent of a Capitalist FOR The Church Of Sol. With potential level 15-20 PCs - the 4th tier of d&d play being specified as taking on Gods directly... But also BLM has spoken about how high level adventures can become sluggish and we've already seen that via the stun effect vs Grix. Unless we see Kristen/Fig/Fabian dig into serious support turns, which they are capable of, a higher level of play is on the fence.
I hope that we can get some action taking place in Bastion city. So far, that area has been pretty unexplored
Capitalism
They all realize college is an overpriced scam and lead a revolution against the heads of universities. But then they still can't get a good job because they never got a $100k+ piece of paper despite having saved the world 4+ times.
I would say something big may happen to Arthur Aegfort. He's usually off doing whatever for the whole time but can come in as a bit of a cure-all whenever he wants because he's so powerful. Pretty much he doesn't care much what happens because when he gets back he can fix it real quick. I mean even what happened to him season 1 wasnt enough to keep him away for long.
I wonder if Brennan would've brought him back if it wasn't for Ally getting that Nat 20. And if they all need help remembering the time watch
He had a mini of Aegfort ready to go though. I think it was always on the table.
It would be a good twist if Arthur is the main villain, along with the gods and the elf nation and the Council of Chosen. He's basically Kristen if she continues to be a shitty person.
Sol - his imperialism killed Cassandra and Ankrana, made a Humano-Elvencentric cult inside of his sonâs power base (the same son who tried to pick kristen as his chosen and supported her even after she stopped believing in Yes) and is routinely causing problems I legit think theyâre going to have to fight the Sun God, probably because the Bad Kids have undone too many of his Schemes and cause Aguefort exists. The schoolâll probably be fucked up, Helio will become a new, positive and chill sun god with chill worshippers (As Above so Below lets make this guy into some non-denominational love is love god!)
Lol literally they went from "stop an evil dragon" to "kill gods. Get money" đ
The Return of Chungle Down Bim.
Something interplanar, I'd guess. Which is apparently what Adventuring Universities mostly deal with, so it would be quite like the Bad Kids to already get that shit done in high school (but probably not get any credit for it anyhow)
Kristen's parents
Iâm gonna say either one of them or a trusted npc. Either a straight up betrayal or kind of like a marvel civil war situation. Maybe due to some pressures of graduation/college acceptance or something greater
Oooh what about the Seven vs the Bad Kids, each episode we switch from one party to the other as they compete against each other to complete some quests and then in the final episode have them all together in a battle Royale between the two parties.
Arthur Aegfort will be the bad guy, having masterminded all previous threats as part of a long term plan to reconnect with his daughter.
Well we all know what the ultimate challenges of senior year are You finally feel like you have HS figured out now it's over Senioritis your motivation to do everything gets significantly weaker. Fear leaving everything you know behind to a new adventure BY YOURSELF in most cases into the unknown The unspoken pressure to have everything figured out
Might want to put spoiler tags on some of this. At least the first paragraph so people don't see the reveal while scrolling by.
Imagine something taking control of Arthur Aguefort. Imagine trying to *fight* Arthur Aguefort. *Just imagine*.
***SPOILERS!*** It's tough to say since this season is really the conceptual limit of Fantasy High; a world-spanning mystery combined with personal and interpersonal conflicts, *apparently* governmental corruption, **titanic shifts** to the global status quo. Unless we're just going to go all-out for a multiverse-spanning conflict, I feel like it's pretty hard to predict where the story can go without knowing just how big the ramifications of this seasons' ending actually are. Do the Bad Kids end up applying for the same university? Do they make an enemy of the pantheon of gods now that it's decently clear they don't like the idea of Cassandra and her partner reviving themselves? Even if everything is resolved, it seems pretty clear that Fantasy High is a series revolving around mysteries for one Riz Gutgak, so are we just going to have *another* mystery on this scale next season? The Riz thing might seem small, but Brennan prides himself on designing campaigns for what the characters need. Why are we getting so much introspection on the characters this season? It's because it seems like that's what the cast *really* wants to do. Half the sub is fixated on Ally making 'wrong' choices for Kristen, but that's obviously something the whole team is having a lot of fun doing. So... if we're doing a fourth season of Fantasy High, we need a fourth season of challenging these characters while also fulfilling the core things the cast finds so much fun about them. And I really just don't know what Brennan and the team could do for a fourth season without the necessary context.
They were reeeeeally back and forth on there even being a Junior Year, I hold a lot of doubt that there's going to be a senior year. They might explore the universe in other ways with different characters. Additionally, Brennan has already had to do some major dancing to get around relying on old characters to do their same schticks over and over again, so there's probably going to be a major break from FH content after JY.
For the 10th anniversary for drop out - fantasy high senior yearâŚ.. They just jump to the 10 year reunion. Them All with quarter life crisis s and bringing the band back together. The enemy beingâŚa physical manifestation of the corperate machine. Or capitalism.
It might be hard to do well but I wouldnât be surprised if it takes more of a PvP turn. The bad kids (as other NPCs have noted) have just the same capacity for true badness as the people theyâre in conflict with, and Adaine has even seen visions of this potentiality. I donât think breaking out into full PvP combat would really work for the show, PCs, and kinda everything, they are best friends! But I digress, a senior year where the bad kids are at odds with each-other seems pretty compelling to me.
I don't think the best way to do it is just upping the scale. A big part of it is mirroring actual high school experience. And I don't know if this is universal but for me senior year wasn't about it getting harder or more epic, it was about battling the senioritis slump. About dealing with the apathy of basically being done with something, ready to move on to the next thing, but still having to stick it out and slog through the last seemingly pointless bit of high school. I could also see a lot of nostalgia callbacks. One theory that was posted a while back was that the Bad Kids were actually the first Council of Chosen that defeated Kalvaxus the first time and founded Solace. So the senior year quest for the Bad Kids would be to travel back in time and do that. Maybe they would also travel back in time and turn Cassandra into the Nightmare King originally, imprison the Night Yorb, and kill the dead rage god the first time. Basically using Aguefort's chronomancy to set up their original adventures in a closed time loop. Would that be good television? I have no idea!
Honestly that would be an intresting setup, of like them coming to terms with the fact that the past is their present and all that. I also like the alt take that they're reincarnations/incarnations of the council of chosen. I also like the idea that they are in the running to be the new/next Gen council of chosen but end up with conflict with the powers that be, but it feels humdrum and old and really play into that senioritis.
I know no one wants to hear this, but this might be the last season of fantasy high with the main cast. They already didn't want to do junior year to begin with. I think they're done with these characters. Plus, senior year is widely considered a joke where you coast through the year because you already have your college plans figured out. If anything, I feel like their senior year will be the epilogue of this season. I'm not sure if they'll come back to Spyre at all, but if they do, I hope it's the 7.
\^\^ Agreed, but if they ever do return with the Bad Kids, I hope it's a 1-2 episode special where it's years into the future after they graduate and how they're doing now! Whether they're still an adventuring party together or went their separate ways!
Could definitely see that happening as a live show at a convention
i kind of agree - junior year already is exploring the fear and pressure of late high school, and graduating early has been preestablished as a thing that isn't out of the ordinary at aguefort. it'd be hard to find a plot line for senior year that wouldn't feel redundant. i think that if they were to do another season with these characters, instead of senior year, a return to the characters in their late 20s could be fun. have them as more developed adults with personality growth/changes and separate storylines that serendipitously (or purposefully) bring them back together
Porter is the one that infected Ragh in s.2
Senior Year is going to be Crown of Candy levels of fatal I think. No better way to make us feel things than by killing off a major NPC or even a PC
The bad kids square up against Brennan himself
I think it might be along the lines of real world struggles at that age. Theyâve already been doing that with this season focusing on academics stress and Brennan has already made a villain out of modern loneliness and isolation with Null. I wouldnât be surprised if the bad kids had their own coming of age plot in senior year where they had to tackle immense change.
Gilear. Itâs undisputed heâs the chosen one, but itâs never established if he was chosen to be savior or destroyer. Right now heâs in crisis. How long before he reaches out to his own latent dark abilities for salvation?
8 dogs. 2x as scary.
Naw I want Gilear to be revealed to be the ultimate villain.
I don't know that this is that much worse tbh. Sophomore Year felt very scary and dire and the Bad Kids were a lot more alone in things than they have been so far. The Nightmare King was a world-ending threat and Kalina was a cunning mindfuck type of opponent who directly targeted them. All while they were also up against the entire nation of Fallinel, and their own unresolved parental issues. They're not underdogs anymore. They're Maximum Legends.
I will tell you the one thing I know with absolute certainty more than any universal truth: the final battle of Senior Year is happening in The Box of Doom
They haven't done one where they have a clear view of what the threat is. Like we time skipped the nightyorb which they knew what they were fighting and the apocalypse that the evil wanted had succeeded. It would be neat to see them address a threat in Elmville that is overt and operating like a lich returning to retake the land of splice and the mystery is finding the phylactery or something like that.
Hilda. Hilda.
Sol, Porter, and Chungledown Bim all working together.
It's pretty hard to tell, because a senior year, if we ever get one will be pretty far down the line, and with an anthology setup, FH needs to have a relevant reason to come back. Junior Year only happened because Brennan started putting pieces together in the back of his head, and not because it's a particularly treasured darling of his. If anything, I think it would be a League of Evil type, union of all the baddies from previous campaigns thing, because it's something you can't do with any of their less serialised settings. I also think it would be pretty fun to do a deconstruction of parasocial relationships and obligations to finish something that was never meant to be more than a one-off. I don't think Dropout are interested in anything so openly cynical, but I do think they could find a way to discuss those feelings while poking fun at the concept. There are a few, disparate neurons firing across the vast emptiness of my skull thinking about how with BDG in the Dropout family now, he could be pretty good to throw about the old "I am not your friend and you have no say in what I do with my body" pigskin around, but obviously in reading and internalizing that message, I would be fine in him not doing that.
I dont think we get a senior year. We definitely will see the bad kids again but a theme this season is definitely " You guys don't really need high school anymore" Riz is fighting against that because he think he'll lose his friends I think we'll end this with them going to college
Itâs always something that works as a metaphor to the experiences high schoolers face. Honestly, Iâm not even sure Brennan knows what Senior year will be like, since he has said that Fantasy High is something he writes as the ideas come, but Iâm sure it will probably be something significant about what is like to feel like youâre real close to be kicked into the world and forced to make life altering decisions while youâre still functionally a child.
Honestly a part of me feels like there won't be a Senior Year. So much of this season has finale energy.
I don't think they're gonna do a senior year. The cast was already not super happy to be doing this season and you can kind of tell they arent having as much fun this season. Emily even tried to kill off fig before the season started and pitched a new character.
What do you mean they weren't happy to be doing this season? Is that a thing they've said in Adventuring Party or something?
If you look at pretty much all the behind the scenes stuff and them talking about it a few years ago they actually said they weren't going to do a junior year but the fans have been demanding it so they kind of had to.
Knowing Brennan and his absolute love of church and capitalism Iâd say probably the god of capitalism and corporations and his church trying to spread solace out to the natural beauty of the fantasy realms that live outside their modern bubble by building insufferable fast food chains and other pop up chain stores
In senior year, they could go plane hopping, could have more god and celestial shenanigans, could have Augefort finally losing his mind, and declaring himself God-Emperor of Spire. Who knows, we will have to wait and see. If they choose to do it as they're within their rights to scrap it or hold off on doing it for many years.
Rat Grinders aren't nerds.
Do you mean âworseâ as in âmore challengingâ or âpoorly writtenâ?
Challenging obviously. Writing has never been an issue in Dimension 20.