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Hello dear readers! I’m actually breaking my usual format of author notes at the beginning and end of works to post this little update after the release of Waverider!
So I read it. I actually got it the day it came out! And I returned it a day after. Pardon any spelling errors because here I go ranting and there absolutely will be spoilers.
Yeah it was not good. It was horrible. I thought I made my peace with it potentially being bad given the poor narrative choices in Supernova but this was so much worse than I could’ve ever imagined. There is just so much wrong with this book on a basic level. It is a series of event tied together with the pace of a caffeinated crackhead speeding down this highway of a story line with characters that were either butchered or forgotten completely and a forced romance.
Everything that Supernova got wrong, Waverider did it worse. At least with Supernova I could glean something positive from it (mostly just being Trellis at a party) but this is one of the few times I’ve found that there isn’t a single positive thing to note from a bad part of something I like. The few good concepts hidden within are tarnished by horrible execution. The bar of expectations was at the floor and somehow this book limboed beneath it.
10 years I waited and waited for this series to end and what I got was an anticlimactic ending to several character arcs, a romance so forced that no side is happy with it, whatever the frick happened with Leon, a death with muted reaction, and an ending that on the surface feels touching but is just a monologue from Emily with some scenes like an 80s montage. Now a lot of writers struggles with show don’t tell, myself included, but this is a graphic novel that has the unique position of being able to physically show what is going on. Where so many books have to work on complex scene building and dialogue to properly capture what is happening.
But let me break down my biggest gripes in a series of ramblings:
Frivolous characters: If they are not part of the main cast, they are doomed. Characters are introduced willy nilly to play immediate parts and that is it for them. We never saw Uncle Tex, Trisha, Robert, or Susie again. Now not every character is going to be some pivotal hero and be there for everything. Some are intended to play a small part like Dr. Winston. However and this is a big however, it is not good when characters are constantly being brought in every book to play shallow parts and are just never seen again when those roles can be easily filled by established characters. Each character, even in small roles, should have some kind of impact and push the story along. Navin didn’t have to hitch a ride on an airship and be a server or take on BMX riding on another planet to deliver an alien gaboda with Aly to meet some random short aliens. What’s worse is that characters that are established completely disappear, end up playing minor roles, or are completely watered down. And none of these are worse than Luger, Aly, & Riva.
Luger just vanishes and I’m thinking they just sat him in the back of the Luna Moth to play Othello against himself. His knowledge of losing control would’ve been amazing for helping to bring Emily back in Book 8 and being an emotional support for Trellis after losing someone he cared about to the stone. At least the poor old man would be relevant and this point of losing control will be relevant later.
Aly has a sudden shift and begins addressing Navin by his last name for no explicable reason, like they had just met despite being classmates and a great team over the course of 5 books. I read the last book twice and barely remember her doing anything other than climbing up that mountain and still calling Navin by his last name despite him explicitly telling her not to do that in the previous book. She pretty much gets sidelined after being a constant since her introduction in book four and unless I’m completely misremembering, is she even with them to say goodbye? Because I cannot remember her being there for the life of me!
And then there’s Riva. My poor girl Riva. She had a such an incredible introduction as a charismatic leader, deeply caring for her citizens, maintaining an open mind to concepts she doesn’t really believe in, and actively putting herself in the line of danger to save people she doesn’t even know. And she is now relegated to Trellis’ cheerleader. We never get to see her use her knowledge of chemicals or politics again. She doesn’t get to use her sass or meaningfully create a relationship with Trellis outside of “you’re doing great” in the most passive way possible. It’s like they took a hammer and flattened out all the interesting aspects of her and crammed her into the story. Why was she there? What point did she have to tag along to see Ronin? Why did she go that far when the citizens of Lucien still need her?
Now for the part I’m known for: the romance.
What the frick :) That’s :) not :) how :) you :) romance. :)
That’s not how you build a meaningful connection between someone with deep rooted trust issues and someone that was introduced in book 6, gone from book 7 outside a name drop, brought back for a portion of a few pages in book 8, and just hits Trellis with the information that he’s going to have kids one day with her. AND HE DOESN’T EVEN REACT TO THAT INFORMATION.
We don’t get his thoughts about her vision or her. We know what Trellis thinks about the others: he believes in Navin’s competence and experience as a pilot. He believes Emily is more skilled than him in some aspects of stone magic, that there is a strong level of trust between them, and a strong sense of guilt that he let her down when she needed him. He thought Max was a cancer to his people but was forgiving enough to hear him out as he faded, to hold his hands when Max reached out to him. He considers Vigo a friend (for the most part) and connects with his brother over games. But we don’t get a concrete idea of his thoughts on Riva, especially with the fact that he DOESN’T REACT TO HER DROPPING THAT BOMB OF A REVEAL. We know that they have a positive attitude towards each other and can have conversations about what is troubling him. Note: what is troubling him. We don’t get her sharing her own fears or troubles outside of supporting him. We get other characters discussing what troubles each other like Vigo opening up about his past and fears, Trellis and Emily setting aside their differences in book 3. Add in the fact that it feels like Kazu tried to subtly retcon Trellis’s age (or at least with the subtlety of a surprise lobotomy) and you have a confusing romance and a baby that doesn’t make any chronological sense.
Tremily did not have to be canon (I made my peace with that years ago and I could’ve easily been a multi shipper) but if Triva was always meant to be endgame then Riva should’ve 1: given more screen time and more organic relationship with Trellis & 2: been more implicit. With the short window that we have, establishing a relationship takes time and going from “yeah we get along, I feel like I can confide in this person” to “I want to start a family with you” TO A BOY THAT IS A TEENAGER IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT. Try all you might, Mr. Kibuishi, but you established implicitly and explicitly that he is a teenager at around 16 in human years. He never explains that either. How old is Riva? I always guessed she was at least 18 and gave her the same age gap as Trellis and Emily being about two years but she looks so much older physically. How long was Emily there for Trellis to just spawn a mini version of him at the end?
And that brings me to my next point: Time and ending.
Ikol being an AI makes no sense time wise. He has been around centuries before the series, at least 500 years. It was originally established that time travel is not possible in the Void in book 5. It is made of memories, like a giant circuit of thoughts and dreams of Stonekeepers. The entire focus of book 5 is that you cannot change what has happened yet people keep trying and it leaves the voice a foothold to try and manipulate people with something that will never happen. But apparently it is with future Emily being able to interact with people outside of the Void. We know it is her helping her younger self along so what’s stopping her from going back in time and saving her father or stopping Ikol from existing?
Better yet, how did Ikol ever get access to the Void? Why was he made? His purpose is muddled at best and we are given the explanation that it’s human nature to make bad things, even with the best intentions. Ok what were Silas’ intentions? Did he not try and stop Ikol when his creation began tampering with the fabric of reality??? Ikol claims he was made to protect but he makes constant decisions that outright harm the people he is supposed to protect. When he’s first caught in Book 5 for lying to and misleading Emily, he looks at her and smiles. He smiles and goes after them, making it very clear that if she’s not with him, she’s against him. He has outright called them his investments. Like he placed money on an invention and wants his money’s worth.
Protection is not his goal after all he pulled and the fact Emily didn’t attack him for trying so obviously to manipulate her and for the fact that he takes her father’s form right in front of her boggles my mind. We should have gotten an actual confrontation. If he was an AI all along, they should have hinted earlier and revealed the truth before the book. Ikol was butchered as a villain by making his intentions vague with muddled explanations that are more nonanswers than concrete reasons. It was a mistake to make him an alien but that made more sense than an AI.
Now that ending. I’m not going to fully unpack on Vigo dying. He deserved to sacrifice himself for someone that means something to him and who better than Trellis and Emily. Vigo was far more kind to Emily in the earlier parts and seemed to have shorter patience for Trellis. Not always hostile but not as close with him. He’s with Trellis primarily through the final books as Emily is separated from them and lays out the foundations for Trellis to have a support system as king. For him to give up his life for the two children he’s come to love as his own and for him to voice that to them would’ve made his death mean something rather than him sacrificing himself for a child he’s known for a day. Instead he’s sucked into the void, mucks around for a bit, writes a book and dies. That’s no way to send off Emily and Trellis’ mentor and guide. But hey, at least Trellis reacted to that.
The Hayes family leaving was a bad choice with the build up we’ve had. Emily at the beginning of the series is characterized as not caring about school because she feels it doesn’t have purpose in the real world. She is completely separated from earth for about two years according to Kazu’s old tweets and we see that she physically ages until Kazu decides to not do that anymore. She spends two of the hardest years of any child’s development fighting a war against a ghost/alien/AI. Her support group is in Alledia. There is no one on earth that will be able to understand what she’s been through outside her brother and mom and no one she can share it with. Navin outright says that being a piloting the giant robots is what he was meant to do with his life. Did Kazu just forget that? Going back to earth doesn’t change the fact that Ikol is still out there and now he’s following them back to Earth through the “Masters.” (I can’t even unpack that one so I won’t.) They have been gone so long their car doesn’t work and has begun to show signs of rust. How has no one gone looking for them or reported them missing. There’s mentions of an Aunt Victoria in book 7. Did their family assume them dead? This ending raises more questions than answers and I’m getting a headache.
And there are still more questions! What about Moze? Who is his father? The curse on Kanalis was caused by a witch so why did defeating the shadows change them back? Who are the Masters when Ikol proclaimed himself a servant of the shadows? How does the Void even work anymore? Why is Ronin teaching children to become walking time bombs when losing control is established as something dangerous for everyone, not just stonekeepers? It makes Emily’s loss of control a moot point because now she’s stronger because of it.
This book has so much wrong with it and of course, so many members of the fanbase are doing rewrites to fix it and I am no different. I will be taking time to write my own spin on the series both in concepts and snippets dedicated to rewriting this absolute clustercuss that had the audacity to spit this jargon in my face.
It will be broken up into parts: fixing Supernova and the Firebird plot and fixing Waverider as well as options for romance and non romance because we feeding everyone now. We all got screwed over and I’m fixing it along with all the other sane people in this freaking fandom.
10 years. 10 years of waiting and drawing and writing and tolerating and this is what I got. And Kazu, you will tear this ship from my cold, dead claws.