Alina and her friends are going to have to venture into the depths of the park to find answers. They must be sure to keep their wits sharp. For, in this season, we shall meet the tricksters who call the park home. Meanwhile, Mirai is having her own adventures in Japan. She has found her way to a village populated by yoaki. She’s certainly out of place as a mere human, but she’ll make some unlikely allies during her time in the village. Everyone buckle up, because this season of Residents of Proserpina Park is sure to be a wild ride.
This season of Residents of Proserpina Park was a bit of a new experience for me. I was one of the backers for the season three Indiegogo campaign. So, I got to listen to all the episodes before they were released to the general public. It was an interesting experience to binge the episodes, but still very much enjoyable. Though, I did kind of miss getting to hear the theme music at the beginning and end of each episode. Not that this was a dealbreaker or anything like that, mind you. There was one other way that this season was different for me personally, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Season one was intro to World Mythology and Folklore. Season two was all about creatures of the night and other monsters. Season three is all about the tricksters, but it also stands out from its predecessors in another way. Most of the creatures featured in season three tend to be of the chattier variety. This is very much by design. Angela Yih has said that there’s only so many times you can recycle the roar and snarl sound-effects before they get old. I certainly agree with that, and it isn’t like chatty creatures are unprecedented. The first two seasons gave us the kappa, the aswang, and of course JD, among others. Personally, I think it is great that Residents of Proserpina Park is keeping things fresh. Each episode of season three also includes an after credits bonus scene. So, you want to make sure to stick around until the very end of each episode. This season is also slightly longer. We got twelve episodes this season, rather than the usual ten.
Okay, so, who is this Jessica person? I speculated, in my review of season two, that Jessica might be something not quite human. But no, it would seem that I was wrong. Jessica is merely a garden variety human. She did manage to capture a genie, and I don’t mean the kind that are blue and sound like Robin Williams. The original jinn from Arabian Folklore were really more like gods in terms of power. There is one minor discrepancy, however. Dog mentions that some people blame mental health problems on jinn. Except, jinn verifiably exist in the Residents of Proserpina Park universe. So, how does that work out? I suppose you could justify it by saying that they can cause mental health issues, but natural causes are far more likely to be the case. This was kind of on my mind, as it does tie-in with something we’ll discuss in the spoilers section. Oh, and you know how Sam can see the creatures, but can’t hear them? Jessica is the exact opposite. She can hear the creatures, but can’t see them. We’ll get more into that later.
Anyway, getting back on track, Jessica provides a foil to Alina. In doing so, Jessica highlights a major theme of this season. In the immortal words of John Lennon, you get by with a little help from your friends. That is very much true with Alina. Drew and Jun frequently act as the voices of reason, and help reign Alina in, and dial back her impulses. I would imagine that it isn't a coincidence that we learn more about Drew and Jun’s backstories this season. Jessica is, essentially, how Alina would have turned out if she didn’t have her friends, or if she had alienated them. Jessica tends to rush in first, and ask questions later, if at all. She tends to focus on whether she can do something, rather than if she should do it. Jessica is determined to become the most powerful being in the park. It doesn’t matter how many creatures she has to hurt to achieve this.
Alina and Jessica also contrast with how they treat Sam. They both wronged Sam and abused his trust. Alina brought her friends to the park, when Sam explicitly told her not to, and Jessica…well get into that in the spoilers section. However, they tried to make amends in very different ways. Alina does her best to sincerely apologize and make amends. It definitely helps that Drew and Jun are there to keep her calm and focused. Jessica, by contrast, has a single-minded focus on correcting her mistake. She’s been avoiding Sam and Dog, and in the process, further alienated them. I suppose another theme of this season is about the importance of communicating, and talking things out when you have a problem. One gets the impression that Jessica, Dog, and Sam could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had just been more open about their problems, instead of avoiding each other.
As previously noted, we get to learn a bit more about Drew and Jun’s backstories. We learn that Drew tried college, decided it wasn’t for them, dropped out, and doesn’t have any concrete plans in life. They’re just going wherever the winds of fate take them. They’re content to take things one day at a time. They’re aware this puts them in contrast to Alina and Jun, who are both very ambitious. Drew is well aware that they will probably part ways with Alina and Jun one day. However, they don’t despair. It isn’t how much time they have with Alina and Jun, but how they spend it that matters. Even if they must part ways eventually, Drew will always have Alina and Jun’s backs.
This is quite a thoughtful and introspective moment from what tends to be a fairly lighthearted audio drama. It rings very true to my own experiences. I’ve had many friends come and go over the years. It is always sad when that happens, but each person we meet changes us, and leaves a bit of themselves with you. So, it’s like they’re still with you even when they’re gone. For however long it lasted, they were your friend, and nothing will change that.
On a lighter note, we learn more about Jun’s interest in space. He wants to be an astronaut, but he also likes to theorize about alien lifeforms. He likes to theorize about how the aliens might evolve and adapt to different environments. Well, that was certainly unexpected. It appears that Jun is a speculative evolution enthusiast. I’m also involved in that community. We theorize about all that paths evolution might take. We imagine worlds where evolution went different in the past, we imagine how it might go in the future, and we do indeed imagine how it might play out on alien worlds. If you’d like an introduction to speculative evolution, may I recommend the r/SpeculativeEvolution subreddit and the Curious Archive channel on YouTube?
I was pleasantly surprised that we got an entire episode devoted to Mirai’s adventures in Japan. I had been hoping we might get something like this at some point. She has found herself in a village inhabited entirely by yokai. She has Fox Ears the kitsune to help her out, but she also gains another ally named Daichi. He is a character that Angela Yih designed a while ago, but only implemented into the story this season. I knew, from the audition forms, Daichi felt ashamed of his body. That could only mean one thing: a tanuki. I did wonder if perhaps he’d be one of the more obscure yoaki, but he was represented by the raccoon emoji. The auditions didn’t outright say what creature the role were. Angela wanted it to be a surprise for the listeners. So, a raccoon emoji clearly mean tanuki, which are also known as raccoon dogs.
Tanuki are usually depicted as jolly mischievous tricksters in Japanese Folklore. They’re shapeshifters, much like kitsune, and the two are often depicted as rivals. I should also note that tanuki are a real animal. They’re also called raccoon dogs; though, they are neither a raccoon or a dog. Also, as far as we know, they do not shapeshift or talk. Now, why would Daichi be ashamed of his appearance? Hmm, how do I put this delicately? Guess I better just say it. Tanuki are famous for having massive testicles, and being able to make them bigger. There’s even a popular children’s song in Japan all about tanuki testicles. There’s a scene where Daichi uses his ball sack to form a massive wall to temporarily hide Mirai from the other yokai. I guess you could say that scene got real balls-to-walls insane. Hey, don’t give me that look, the joke practically writes itself.
In all seriousness, I did enjoy Daichi as a character. I liked the way he contrasted with Fox Ears. Daichi tends to be friendlier and speaks to Mirai as an equal, whereas Fox Ears tends to be more aloof, haughty, and cryptic. That isn’t to say Fox Ears doesn’t throw Mirai a rope now and again, but she certainly likes to toy with Mirai.
Naturally, we get to meet all sorts of amazing new creatures from across World Mythology and Folklore. I had been hoping we might meet Anansi, the trickster spider god of the Akan people, at some point. Lo and behold, this season more than delivered on that. Vincent C. Davis gave such an absolutely wonderful performance. He sounded almost exactly how I always envisioned Anansi sounding. It was pitch-perfect casting. And let’s not forget the writing in that episode. It carried as great sense of suspense and mystery.
In other creatures, I loved getting to meet the wemategunis. It is a creature from the folklore of the Lenape people. I always appreciate getting to learn more about Native American cultures. One of the most famous stories about the wemategunis is how it helped a young gambler. The gambler had lost his eyes to the Chief of Gambling, who is a spirit that lives on the Moon. The wemategunis agreed to help after the young gambler promised to give up gambling for good. Given some things we’ll touch on in the spoilers section, I get the feeling that including the wemategunis in this season wasn’t coincidence. I also liked that part of that episode where Alina had to stay behind, and gave her recorder to Sam and Terry. So, we get to experience that part of the episode from Alina’s perspective, or lack thereof.
Okay, let’s see, what am I forgetting? Oh, right, I’m in this season too! I got to voice Slenderman. Yes, the monster from all of those creepypastas. He was included as an example of modern-day folklore. This was the first major voice acting role that wasn’t a bit part. I’m very excited that I actually got to be part of Residents of Proserpina Park. I had a lot of fun voicing Slenderman. Angela said she envisioned Slenderman sounding like God from Puppet History of the Universe. So, I tried to mimic that style. By all accounts, I did pretty well. I love the distorted sound-effects that Angela included for the parts where Slenderman really shows his true colors. And hey, who knows, maybe you’ll get to hear me again when season four rolls around.
Thankfully, we didn’t have any “who’s on first” issues because of my name. I briefly got confused when the recording schedule said Sam, but then I remembered we were doing it by character name, not real name. Though, amusingly, my day job is working as an edutainer at the Shreveport Aquarium. I educate the public about all sorts of marine creatures, but I also make sure the guests behave, and the touch tank animals stay safe. Even more funnily, one of my managers is named Jessica. Don’t worry, she and I are on good terms with each other. Most of my co-workers have listened to the episode I was in, and all give it high marks. Now I just need to get them to listen to all the other episodes of the show.
A big thank you to Angela Yih for giving me this opportunity. Also, thank you to Ben Pollizi and Ashley Dawson. You were both really nice during recording. Sorry I sounded like I was five seconds away from having a panic attack. I was worried I’d screw up, and my baseline tends to be anxious. But I did have a lot of fun, and I’d happily do it again.
Okay, now for the part where we get into the spoilers. Get off the ride now if you don’t want any of that.
Last chance, you sure you want to keep going?
Well, if everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.
In my previous reviews, I came up with several theories about why Sam can’t hear the creatures of the park. Many of my ideas were very exotic and imaginative. However, the actual answer turned out to be a tad simpler. In fact, it was practically staring me in the face. Turns out, Sam and Jessica were cursed after the ran afoul of the Aos Si, also known as the fae, or the Fair Folk. I guess I let my imagination get carried away, and imagined things that were fun to think about, rather than what was likely. I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times. For example, I knew that Angela Yih cited Scooby-Doo as one of the inspirations for Residents of Proserpina Park. It took til now for me to connect the dots that the podcast follows a group of meddling young adults, and a talking dog, solving mysteries. Also, the lion dogs are named Dio and Gi. I though maybe it was a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure reference, but upon further inspection, it was a pun on D-O-G.
Anyway, the Aos Si aren’t the kind of fairies who have tea parties in the garden. These are the original, darker and wilder, fairies from Celtic Mythology. In Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danann were the pre-Christian gods, but got reimagined as mere spirits following Christianization. Albeit, very powerful ones. Think, the forces of nature given physical form. It isn’t that Aos Si don’t have any morality, but their morality is utterly incomprehensible to humans. So, they’re kind of like creatures H.P. Lovecraft might have dreamed up.
So, Sam was cursed to not hear the creatures, and Jessica can’t see them. See no evil, hear no evil, where’s speak no evil? To explain that, we have to delve into another revelation: Sam is gay. He was worried that Alina had a crush on him, but turns out she’s asexual and/or aromatic. Well, Drew says that Alina is the type to look, but not touch. We also have to assume that Alina probably has ADHD, given how impulsive and easily distracted she tends to be. Ah, but there was a special someone in Sam’s life. Jun’s name is short for Junpei. I bring this up because he has a twin brother named Junichi, who used to be Sam’s boyfriend. Unfortunately, Junichi was cursed to not speak of the creatures. This manifested as him losing his memories, and turning sickly. This is why Sam has such a strong air of melancholy about him.
But what did Jessica, Sam, and Junichi do that brought this curse upon them? It involved a new creature. A creature even newer than Slenderman, but who could it be? I was spinning my wheels trying to figure it out, but it was a fool’s errand. I would have never guessed the answer, because the creature is one that Jessica, Sam, and Junichi created themselves. From what little we see, it appears to be some sort of shapeshifter, and very powerful. This seems to confirm the theory I had that the creatures pop into existence ex-nihilo because people believe in them hard enough. It reminds me a bit of the concept of the tulpa from Tibetan Buddhism.
I really liked the scene where Alina pleads with Sam that he doesn’t have to go it alone anymore. It tied in nicely with this season’s theme about the importance of friendship. It also demonstrated their development as characters. Alina doesn’t just view Sam as another mystery to solve, or a ticket to an adventure. She now genuinely values him as a friend. Similarly, Sam takes steps towards moving beyond his past. He isn’t completely healed, and there’s still trials ahead, but being about to trust Alina and her friends is a major step forward for him.
Yeah, the whole power of friendship trope might be a bit cliché, and some would say overdone. But you know what? This season of Residents of Proserpina Park pulled it off really well. Ultimately, tropes are tools, and can be done well if handled by a skilled writer. Fortunately, Angela Yih was more than up to the task.
No theorizing from me this time around. I have absolutely no clue where plot is heading, but I can’t wait to find out. This season of Residents of Proserpina Park was something really special. And, you know, not just because I was in it. Several members of the cast received character development, we got to meet the tricksters of the park, we got some serious revelations. We also learned about the importance of friendship, but in a way that felt organic, and was never heavy-handed. There are bright days ahead for Residents of Proserpina Park, and I can’t wait to visit again.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
This season of Residents of Proserpina Park was a bit of a new experience for me. I was one of the backers for the season three Indiegogo campaign. So, I got to listen to all the episodes before they were released to the general public. It was an interesting experience to binge the episodes, but still very much enjoyable. Though, I did kind of miss getting to hear the theme music at the beginning and end of each episode. Not that this was a dealbreaker or anything like that, mind you. There was one other way that this season was different for me personally, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Season one was intro to World Mythology and Folklore. Season two was all about creatures of the night and other monsters. Season three is all about the tricksters, but it also stands out from its predecessors in another way. Most of the creatures featured in season three tend to be of the chattier variety. This is very much by design. Angela Yih has said that there’s only so many times you can recycle the roar and snarl sound-effects before they get old. I certainly agree with that, and it isn’t like chatty creatures are unprecedented. The first two seasons gave us the kappa, the aswang, and of course JD, among others. Personally, I think it is great that Residents of Proserpina Park is keeping things fresh. Each episode of season three also includes an after credits bonus scene. So, you want to make sure to stick around until the very end of each episode. This season is also slightly longer. We got twelve episodes this season, rather than the usual ten.
Okay, so, who is this Jessica person? I speculated, in my review of season two, that Jessica might be something not quite human. But no, it would seem that I was wrong. Jessica is merely a garden variety human. She did manage to capture a genie, and I don’t mean the kind that are blue and sound like Robin Williams. The original jinn from Arabian Folklore were really more like gods in terms of power. There is one minor discrepancy, however. Dog mentions that some people blame mental health problems on jinn. Except, jinn verifiably exist in the Residents of Proserpina Park universe. So, how does that work out? I suppose you could justify it by saying that they can cause mental health issues, but natural causes are far more likely to be the case. This was kind of on my mind, as it does tie-in with something we’ll discuss in the spoilers section. Oh, and you know how Sam can see the creatures, but can’t hear them? Jessica is the exact opposite. She can hear the creatures, but can’t see them. We’ll get more into that later.
Anyway, getting back on track, Jessica provides a foil to Alina. In doing so, Jessica highlights a major theme of this season. In the immortal words of John Lennon, you get by with a little help from your friends. That is very much true with Alina. Drew and Jun frequently act as the voices of reason, and help reign Alina in, and dial back her impulses. I would imagine that it isn't a coincidence that we learn more about Drew and Jun’s backstories this season. Jessica is, essentially, how Alina would have turned out if she didn’t have her friends, or if she had alienated them. Jessica tends to rush in first, and ask questions later, if at all. She tends to focus on whether she can do something, rather than if she should do it. Jessica is determined to become the most powerful being in the park. It doesn’t matter how many creatures she has to hurt to achieve this.
Alina and Jessica also contrast with how they treat Sam. They both wronged Sam and abused his trust. Alina brought her friends to the park, when Sam explicitly told her not to, and Jessica…well get into that in the spoilers section. However, they tried to make amends in very different ways. Alina does her best to sincerely apologize and make amends. It definitely helps that Drew and Jun are there to keep her calm and focused. Jessica, by contrast, has a single-minded focus on correcting her mistake. She’s been avoiding Sam and Dog, and in the process, further alienated them. I suppose another theme of this season is about the importance of communicating, and talking things out when you have a problem. One gets the impression that Jessica, Dog, and Sam could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had just been more open about their problems, instead of avoiding each other.
As previously noted, we get to learn a bit more about Drew and Jun’s backstories. We learn that Drew tried college, decided it wasn’t for them, dropped out, and doesn’t have any concrete plans in life. They’re just going wherever the winds of fate take them. They’re content to take things one day at a time. They’re aware this puts them in contrast to Alina and Jun, who are both very ambitious. Drew is well aware that they will probably part ways with Alina and Jun one day. However, they don’t despair. It isn’t how much time they have with Alina and Jun, but how they spend it that matters. Even if they must part ways eventually, Drew will always have Alina and Jun’s backs.
This is quite a thoughtful and introspective moment from what tends to be a fairly lighthearted audio drama. It rings very true to my own experiences. I’ve had many friends come and go over the years. It is always sad when that happens, but each person we meet changes us, and leaves a bit of themselves with you. So, it’s like they’re still with you even when they’re gone. For however long it lasted, they were your friend, and nothing will change that.
On a lighter note, we learn more about Jun’s interest in space. He wants to be an astronaut, but he also likes to theorize about alien lifeforms. He likes to theorize about how the aliens might evolve and adapt to different environments. Well, that was certainly unexpected. It appears that Jun is a speculative evolution enthusiast. I’m also involved in that community. We theorize about all that paths evolution might take. We imagine worlds where evolution went different in the past, we imagine how it might go in the future, and we do indeed imagine how it might play out on alien worlds. If you’d like an introduction to speculative evolution, may I recommend the r/SpeculativeEvolution subreddit and the Curious Archive channel on YouTube?
I was pleasantly surprised that we got an entire episode devoted to Mirai’s adventures in Japan. I had been hoping we might get something like this at some point. She has found herself in a village inhabited entirely by yokai. She has Fox Ears the kitsune to help her out, but she also gains another ally named Daichi. He is a character that Angela Yih designed a while ago, but only implemented into the story this season. I knew, from the audition forms, Daichi felt ashamed of his body. That could only mean one thing: a tanuki. I did wonder if perhaps he’d be one of the more obscure yoaki, but he was represented by the raccoon emoji. The auditions didn’t outright say what creature the role were. Angela wanted it to be a surprise for the listeners. So, a raccoon emoji clearly mean tanuki, which are also known as raccoon dogs.
Tanuki are usually depicted as jolly mischievous tricksters in Japanese Folklore. They’re shapeshifters, much like kitsune, and the two are often depicted as rivals. I should also note that tanuki are a real animal. They’re also called raccoon dogs; though, they are neither a raccoon or a dog. Also, as far as we know, they do not shapeshift or talk. Now, why would Daichi be ashamed of his appearance? Hmm, how do I put this delicately? Guess I better just say it. Tanuki are famous for having massive testicles, and being able to make them bigger. There’s even a popular children’s song in Japan all about tanuki testicles. There’s a scene where Daichi uses his ball sack to form a massive wall to temporarily hide Mirai from the other yokai. I guess you could say that scene got real balls-to-walls insane. Hey, don’t give me that look, the joke practically writes itself.
In all seriousness, I did enjoy Daichi as a character. I liked the way he contrasted with Fox Ears. Daichi tends to be friendlier and speaks to Mirai as an equal, whereas Fox Ears tends to be more aloof, haughty, and cryptic. That isn’t to say Fox Ears doesn’t throw Mirai a rope now and again, but she certainly likes to toy with Mirai.
Naturally, we get to meet all sorts of amazing new creatures from across World Mythology and Folklore. I had been hoping we might meet Anansi, the trickster spider god of the Akan people, at some point. Lo and behold, this season more than delivered on that. Vincent C. Davis gave such an absolutely wonderful performance. He sounded almost exactly how I always envisioned Anansi sounding. It was pitch-perfect casting. And let’s not forget the writing in that episode. It carried as great sense of suspense and mystery.
In other creatures, I loved getting to meet the wemategunis. It is a creature from the folklore of the Lenape people. I always appreciate getting to learn more about Native American cultures. One of the most famous stories about the wemategunis is how it helped a young gambler. The gambler had lost his eyes to the Chief of Gambling, who is a spirit that lives on the Moon. The wemategunis agreed to help after the young gambler promised to give up gambling for good. Given some things we’ll touch on in the spoilers section, I get the feeling that including the wemategunis in this season wasn’t coincidence. I also liked that part of that episode where Alina had to stay behind, and gave her recorder to Sam and Terry. So, we get to experience that part of the episode from Alina’s perspective, or lack thereof.
Okay, let’s see, what am I forgetting? Oh, right, I’m in this season too! I got to voice Slenderman. Yes, the monster from all of those creepypastas. He was included as an example of modern-day folklore. This was the first major voice acting role that wasn’t a bit part. I’m very excited that I actually got to be part of Residents of Proserpina Park. I had a lot of fun voicing Slenderman. Angela said she envisioned Slenderman sounding like God from Puppet History of the Universe. So, I tried to mimic that style. By all accounts, I did pretty well. I love the distorted sound-effects that Angela included for the parts where Slenderman really shows his true colors. And hey, who knows, maybe you’ll get to hear me again when season four rolls around.
Thankfully, we didn’t have any “who’s on first” issues because of my name. I briefly got confused when the recording schedule said Sam, but then I remembered we were doing it by character name, not real name. Though, amusingly, my day job is working as an edutainer at the Shreveport Aquarium. I educate the public about all sorts of marine creatures, but I also make sure the guests behave, and the touch tank animals stay safe. Even more funnily, one of my managers is named Jessica. Don’t worry, she and I are on good terms with each other. Most of my co-workers have listened to the episode I was in, and all give it high marks. Now I just need to get them to listen to all the other episodes of the show.
A big thank you to Angela Yih for giving me this opportunity. Also, thank you to Ben Pollizi and Ashley Dawson. You were both really nice during recording. Sorry I sounded like I was five seconds away from having a panic attack. I was worried I’d screw up, and my baseline tends to be anxious. But I did have a lot of fun, and I’d happily do it again.
Okay, now for the part where we get into the spoilers. Get off the ride now if you don’t want any of that.
Last chance, you sure you want to keep going?
Well, if everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.
In my previous reviews, I came up with several theories about why Sam can’t hear the creatures of the park. Many of my ideas were very exotic and imaginative. However, the actual answer turned out to be a tad simpler. In fact, it was practically staring me in the face. Turns out, Sam and Jessica were cursed after the ran afoul of the Aos Si, also known as the fae, or the Fair Folk. I guess I let my imagination get carried away, and imagined things that were fun to think about, rather than what was likely. I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times. For example, I knew that Angela Yih cited Scooby-Doo as one of the inspirations for Residents of Proserpina Park. It took til now for me to connect the dots that the podcast follows a group of meddling young adults, and a talking dog, solving mysteries. Also, the lion dogs are named Dio and Gi. I though maybe it was a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure reference, but upon further inspection, it was a pun on D-O-G.
Anyway, the Aos Si aren’t the kind of fairies who have tea parties in the garden. These are the original, darker and wilder, fairies from Celtic Mythology. In Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danann were the pre-Christian gods, but got reimagined as mere spirits following Christianization. Albeit, very powerful ones. Think, the forces of nature given physical form. It isn’t that Aos Si don’t have any morality, but their morality is utterly incomprehensible to humans. So, they’re kind of like creatures H.P. Lovecraft might have dreamed up.
So, Sam was cursed to not hear the creatures, and Jessica can’t see them. See no evil, hear no evil, where’s speak no evil? To explain that, we have to delve into another revelation: Sam is gay. He was worried that Alina had a crush on him, but turns out she’s asexual and/or aromatic. Well, Drew says that Alina is the type to look, but not touch. We also have to assume that Alina probably has ADHD, given how impulsive and easily distracted she tends to be. Ah, but there was a special someone in Sam’s life. Jun’s name is short for Junpei. I bring this up because he has a twin brother named Junichi, who used to be Sam’s boyfriend. Unfortunately, Junichi was cursed to not speak of the creatures. This manifested as him losing his memories, and turning sickly. This is why Sam has such a strong air of melancholy about him.
But what did Jessica, Sam, and Junichi do that brought this curse upon them? It involved a new creature. A creature even newer than Slenderman, but who could it be? I was spinning my wheels trying to figure it out, but it was a fool’s errand. I would have never guessed the answer, because the creature is one that Jessica, Sam, and Junichi created themselves. From what little we see, it appears to be some sort of shapeshifter, and very powerful. This seems to confirm the theory I had that the creatures pop into existence ex-nihilo because people believe in them hard enough. It reminds me a bit of the concept of the tulpa from Tibetan Buddhism.
I really liked the scene where Alina pleads with Sam that he doesn’t have to go it alone anymore. It tied in nicely with this season’s theme about the importance of friendship. It also demonstrated their development as characters. Alina doesn’t just view Sam as another mystery to solve, or a ticket to an adventure. She now genuinely values him as a friend. Similarly, Sam takes steps towards moving beyond his past. He isn’t completely healed, and there’s still trials ahead, but being about to trust Alina and her friends is a major step forward for him.
Yeah, the whole power of friendship trope might be a bit cliché, and some would say overdone. But you know what? This season of Residents of Proserpina Park pulled it off really well. Ultimately, tropes are tools, and can be done well if handled by a skilled writer. Fortunately, Angela Yih was more than up to the task.
No theorizing from me this time around. I have absolutely no clue where plot is heading, but I can’t wait to find out. This season of Residents of Proserpina Park was something really special. And, you know, not just because I was in it. Several members of the cast received character development, we got to meet the tricksters of the park, we got some serious revelations. We also learned about the importance of friendship, but in a way that felt organic, and was never heavy-handed. There are bright days ahead for Residents of Proserpina Park, and I can’t wait to visit again.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
Would you be interested in reviewing Twigs and Hearts? It only currently has 4 episodes out as of today but its a surreal horror audio drama filled with cryptids, camps and weirdness.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple outstanding obligations to attend to, but I’ll certainly put you on the list to be reviewed later.
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