Previous Post And now I'm feeling like an asshole for complaining, because you're being nice enough to write this for us, but it's just ... damn, man. I think, as much as the other stuff was harrowing on its own, it was the Icy scene that really hit me hard. I was at work when I read it, and I actually wanted to cry, it hurt so much to see him exposed to it. In fact, between your in-story events and my reactions to it in real life, I think this would be the part where we could show Dream kind of losing it. Not in front of the General or anybody outside the team, but within the family of the team, have him start ranting about how this sort of inhumanity on the part of authority cannot be allowed to stand, and after his teammates try to talk him down, he kind just breaks down in tears in April's arms. I mean, Jesus, between being brutally dismembered and witnessing the horrors that he has today, he'd have to be inhuman himself not to feel physically, emotional and mentally wrecked by it all, no matter how much he'd insist at first that he's still fine. And I feel stupid about how much I've let this affect me, because I'm blinking back tears as I type this now.

...I never suspected that this chapter would be as controversial as it apparently is when I read it. Personally, I enjoyed it... but then Vizh did all right in it and the good guys won, so I don't have much to complain about.

While my preference is for light-hearted adventure, I have no problem with darker stuff as long as characters stay true to themselves. For me, that's the problem with what Marvel has been doing this last decade or so. In consistently portraying a dark world with thorny issues, it has forced the heroes to go much darker and be much less effective in reaching resolutions. Dragging the heroes down into a "real" quagmire and getting them all muddy isn't very fun escapism after a while.

That's not what I personally see in this chapter, however. I think the Legion stays pretty true to themselves. They faced a pretty dark situation without going dark themselves. They saved the day in the end, rescuing the children, defeating the terrorists. They took some nasty wounds to do so, but that's the price of being a hero.

As for Icy, well... the story isn't over yet. Perhaps Ian has some plan to resolve what happened (Is he not... the Hooded Hood?) Perhaps if he didn't already, he will now after seeing some reaction. But even if he doesn't, it's still the Parodyverse... It's still a place of miracles, mad science, and impossibilities... and we're all empowered here.

Maybe, after these events have played out, just maybe Dream feels this day cost too much. Maybe he feels there was a better way for it to go. A way to have it be the perfect happy ending it was supposed to have for all involved. A day without the casualties, spiritual, emotional or otherwise. Maybe he feels it so strongly that he embarks on a quest to change it.

This is a universe with the Hooded Hood. With the Chronicler, with Quoth, with the Shaper of Worlds and the Destroyer of Tales. With Kinki the Time-travelling conqueress. With the mad science of Al B. Harper, NTU-150, the Idiom and countless others. This is a universe where people have quested to rewrite the fabric of existence, and where they have struggled to return the bunnies to live. This universe is literally what we make it.

If it should take a narrative turn that is simply unacceptable, my question for Dream is this:

What is he prepared to do about it?