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Post by vectoring34 on Dec 8, 2021 21:37:21 GMT -5
I personally liked A Light in the Mist for its emotional payoff and really cool moments, but there are undoubtedly some moments in it that I think are a bit of a weakness. One of them is the HUGE nerf to Ashfur's powers. In TPONS, Ashfur's mind control was able to range across the entire Dark Forest, allowing him to pull off that awesome deception plot with Willowshine even when she was super far away from him, all the while simultaneously managing Bramblestar. It also gave him incredible awareness of things, as his thralls could give him information, as when Willowshine was able to tell Stemleaf where Rootspring and co. were going.
In ALITM, things are quite different. Now Ashfur can only control cats in what appears to be his line of sight, or even less than that as we see cats able to flee even when they can still see him. And when he does control them, it seems to be only for fighting, he can no longer perceive things through their senses nor can he implant them as sleeper agents as with Willowshine. He can control his thralls as a spooky zombie horde, but that seems to be the extent of his power, as opposed to the organized team attacks and ambushes of TPONS.
I think it's a real shame his power got nerfed, and it feels like it was unnecessary to boot. ALITM already threw in an explanation about medicine cats being more vulnerable, just have Willowshine not return for ALITM (she certainly didn't contribute much to the plot). Explain that Ashfur was using Willowshine as a conduit and that's how he controlled Berrynose and Stemleaf from longrange in TPONS, that's it. Ashfur having fine control of his thralls also wouldn't change anything in the grand scheme of the fighters, since they can just taunt him into going full tantrum and flinging his whole horde at them willy nilly.
What do you think? Was the nerf a good idea?
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Post by Hollyfall on Dec 8, 2021 22:23:31 GMT -5
In fairness, he did lose control of Bramblestar's spirit in TPoNS after he managed to escape and wasn't able to bring him back under his control because he lost sight of him and couldn't tell the vicinity of where Bramblestar was. The same did happen in ALitM with Willowshine, Spiresight, Stemleaf, and Berrynose.
Personally, I think Ashfur may have been too...distracted let's say to stay in control of his spirits, with his plans beginning to fail, the StarClan/Dark Forest barrier breaking, and more and more cats teaming up to stop him. It's said that to control his spirits, he needs to concentrate, so I'm suspecting that with all that on his mind, it was more difficult for Ashfur to actually put in the mental energy to keep doing everything at long range as he did with Willowshine. With all the stress of losing Squirrelflight, Bramblestar, and knowing cats are trying to stop him all while sucking the energy out of the Dark Forest and trying to organize all his ghosts must be rather stressful. Not to mention Ashfur already isn't the most mentally stable of cats. Of course, this is venturing into theory territory, but I think it makes some logical sense.
That said though, I do agree with you about him utilizing Willowshine as a conduit and would explain why he lost control over Berrynose and Stemleaf thereafter. Nerfing his powers was probably necessary for the plot and for the heroes to defeat him, but it's still a shame that they didn't keep it or at least try to give an in-universe explanation as to why.
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Post by vectoring34 on Dec 8, 2021 22:30:17 GMT -5
In fairness, he did lose control of Bramblestar's spirit in TPoNS after he managed to escape and wasn't able to bring him back under his control because he lost sight of him and couldn't tell the vicinity of where Bramblestar was. The same did happen in ALitM with Willowshine, Spiresight, Stemleaf, and Berrynose. Personally, I think Ashfur may have been too...distracted let's say to stay in control of his spirits, with his plans beginning to fail, the StarClan/Dark Forest barrier breaking, and more and more cats teaming up to stop him. It's said that to control his spirits, he needs to concentrate, so I'm suspecting that with all that on his mind, it was more difficult for Ashfur to actually put in the mental energy to keep doing everything at longe range as he did with Willowshine. With all the stress of losing Squirrelflight, Bramblestar, and knowing cats are trying to stop him all while sucking the energy out of the Dark Forest and trying to organize all his ghosts must be rather stressful. Not to mention Ashfur already isn't the most mentally stable of cats. Of course, this is venturing into theory territory, but I think it makes some logical sense. That said though, I do agree with you about him utilizing Willowshine as a conduit and would explain why he lost control over Berrynose and Stemleaf thereafter. Nerfing his powers was probably necessary for the plot and for the heroes to defeat him, but it's still a shame that they didn't keep it or at least try to give an in-universe explanation as to why. He lost Bramblestar in TPONS, but in TPONS they also justify it as Bramblestar's spirit having a lot more life in it than other cats because he has eight lives left, hence harder to control. I think distraction is a fair argument for him not using advanced tactics, like I said in the OP, him flinging screaming mobs is pretty in-character with how unwound he was being. However, even just passive stuff like his extended senses alerting him of where people were would have been neat and I don't think very story breaking, since by now the cats know to avoid his ghosts too. It would just add more tension, that he can have eyes everywhere.
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