I Love How Rise Is Like A Guide To What Not To Do When You Have A Pair Of Good And Evil Twins. When You

I love how Rise is like a Guide to What Not to Do When You Have a Pair of Good and Evil Twins. When you compare the prequel to the main series, it makes Sophie and Agatha's last-minute, desperate reconciliation in TLEA look like a success story. And, their tale featured a full-on war, more collateral deaths, and three unstable years of schooling.

The brothers’ trust-decay timeline really speeds up everything, and the pacing in Rise alone was at break-neck speed. Maybe, years of immortality were the unseen set-up for their destruction? But, from what I remember, the brothers started in a seemingly tension-free place.

Though ironically, Sophie and Agatha were more toxic (initially), and the brothers are more genuine and loving. For them to fall apart faster is odd because Sophie and Agatha started with diametrically opposed goals: win a prince vs. return home alive. Rhian and Rafal had one major disagreement, and it all fell apart. I love the parallels between the pairs. Even though within these pairs, they are more foils or juxtapositions to the other sibling.

Fall Countdown Day 1: Peter Pan

Predictions and reactions:

Peter Pan could be a love-interest for Rhian, likely another failed one.

I presume he is a villain, but he may not be one.

Neverland, if the backdrop to the photograph is meant to represent Neverland, looks how I imagined it to be. Emerald green, psychedelic, and heady. And, wild and humidly, jungle-like, in disarray.

I wonder if Peter Pan will have a plot to trap the brothers. Because, although it's more subtle than the Midas picture, there is visibly part of a cage by his side. Also, he's on a throne, so I wonder if he's the ruler of Neverland.

His expression just looks neutral or bored or apathetic, like he's just an observer or a non-participant. Odd, though I would think he’d be an active character. At the same time, he could be the type of villain that's a puppet master pulling strings instead, overseeing things from afar, and just generally watching over people, fitting the trickster character archetype.

I also wonder if he is even a real person, like actually humanized in characterization, or an emotionless, psychopathic being. I can't tell. He's just impassive, cool, disinterested maybe, unresponsive, inscrutable. Like a masked-persona character. From what I can gather from the picture at least.

Like, I could expect him to be deadpan and causally morbid in his dialogue, the way Rafal is but maybe even worse. It’d be amplified further because it could happen all the time: his being completely blank and emotionless, and betraying nothing of his true feelings, if he even has any. He could even lack a personality in the traditional sense?

And, maybe, he’d talk in an unsettling way because it's so inhuman, alien, foreign, odd. Just so far removed from humanity. And, Rhian and Rafal would probably worry that one day, they'll turn into that. Become that. Just. Absolute monsters or nothing. No traces of humanity left. Soulless. Maybe, with the need to prey on others’ souls.

Sometimes, I think Rafal isn't a School Master, just a glorified custodian, cleaning up Rhian’s messes, and literally the only one with more than a single brain cell.

Rafal, the Prophecy, and the Tale of “Faithful John”

"Trusty John," "Faithful Johannes," or "John the True" are alternate names to this fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. I feel like Rafal fits the “Faithful John” archetype.

Here’s the tale for context:

TLDR: In the tale, an old king is about to die. He asks Faithful John, his most trusted servant, to watch over his son. Faithful John vows to do so, and to give his life, if it comes to that. The king also commands Faithful John to show the prince the entire castle, except for one forbidden chamber containing the portrait of the golden princess, whom the king believes his son will fall violently in love with. The young king (formerly the prince) finally gets Faithful John to show him what is behind the door. Predictably, the young king falls in love, and goes off to woo the princess. Once the young king has captured the princess, Faithful John overhears three ravens talking about the young king’s certain yet preventable death. Faithful John decides to take on the burden, and not tell the king because he doesn’t want to be turned to stone for saving the king as a side effect. Faithful John does various tasks, and the young king continues to defend Faithful John despite his odd actions because of their trust. But, after the final task, the king cannot understand what Faithful John has been doing, sees Faithful John as a traitor, and sentences him to death. Faithful John confesses to his valiant deeds, and the king finally understands, but Faithful John turns to stone. The king mourns him, makes a sacrifice to bring Faithful John back to life, and Faithful John, the young king, the queen (formerly the princess), and their children live happily ever after.

Now for the parallels:

The young king = Rhian

Faithful John = Rafal

The princess = whichever of Rhian’s love-interests, take your pick.

The ravens = the Sader prophecy

Faithful John is the only one in the know. And, he’s overhears that he can never tell his master why. He does what he does. And, it looks like he’s actively thwarting his master's chances at True Love, but actually he’s sparing the king from a painful death, every time, even when he takes on personal sacrifices. He’s basically this under-appreciated, loyal, and actually competent companion. This sounds a bit like Rafal in Rise to me. Because it looks like, from the outside, that he is sabotaging his master’s chances at an ending, but he’s so loyal that he’s doing the very opposite! The people must have scoffed at him about the horse, and looked at him like he was a loon. The bridal garment would have burned through skin, and people wonder at his decisions. It would be sheer common sense if they knew, just like how Rafal shouldn’t withhold the prophecy from Rhian. But, "common sense" is not so common. Or, in Rafal's case, arcane knowledge is hard to come by. Is that too much to ask, for him to tell Rhian? Probably. Anyway, the point is that the king made a major sacrifice, and revives him because Faithful John was so faithful and deserved better, just like Rafal, assuming Rafal doesn’t do anything worse in Fall.

Headcanon: Rafal is more internally uptight than he seems to be on the outside. This goes back to my anxiety disorder/paranoia headcanon. He’s not necessarily snobbish, but holds high expectations for how he expects to be treated. He’s probably grown used to students obeying him, so every character that disagreed with him, or refused to concede to him in Rise must have been a bit of a jolt and a blow to his ego.

I feel like I saw a post like this somewhere before, but to apply it to Rise:

I love that the fate of the world depends on teenage emotions and hormones, but it should really be more stable than that in the long run. Why were teenagers elected as School Masters? (I know the book is middle grade to YA for its target audience, but I mean this in terms of common sense.) Like, whichever fairy tales affect the future of the Woods, even those that work more incrementally than the turn-of-the-century and era-defining ones, are still driven by teenagers. For instance, Sophie and Agatha's fairy tale caused change in waves, and they weren’t even as well-equipped as freshly-graduated alumni.

A system depending on a few individuals is not a system at all, in terms of practicality, and the likelihood of catastrophe. But, I’m all here for it! Because of conflict! It's great for storytelling purposes, and I live for drama.

But, Rise is still the worst cliffhanger I’ve ever read in my life. I’ve never been this invested in a cliffhanger before, like ever. I think it's because I was already too attached to Rafal and the idea of Rhian before reading the book. And, I was interested in the two brothers and the School Master/Great War lore in general. They're some of my absolute favorites.