Carnival Row - Legacy

Utilizing the plot of season 2

I've been thinking ... since season 2 is canon, there is no way around mentioning it in Legacy. Sometimes I wonder if a twist could be pulled where most of it was a goblin theatre play and/or based on stories the next generation has heard from their parents about this time. I'd be all up for taking full advantage of that and play up the OG cast being unreliable narrators, all the way to going "Did I tell you that? No, that's not how it happened ..." or someone going "Wait, no, you're mixing something up."

LOL what if the storyline of Ragusa did not happen like this at all, and it's just the Astrayons badmouthing the New Dawn post their fall, vastly exaggerating how they lined up people to shoot dead (meanwhile Agreus' trauma might be good to keep, I have an idea for a subplot in Legacy where his children find out about it) and describing a lake filled with the bodies of the wealthy?

Now that I think about it, it does start to sound like something they would use to entertain their wealthy neighbors - a mother murdered for being taken away from her family? Lining up people and shooting them without any trial, such barbarians? And the lake of the dead elite? "Oh, dear, that must have been terrible!"

Also, Imogen telling this story multiple times, but, once asked whether they killed her brother too, agreeing. "What do you think? Of course they did, they wanted to scare us! See what they were willing to do - but they still needed us."

Maybe she even gets questioned as to whether she doesn't think that a woman as a leader was the reason for all of this mess, to which she tries to say that it all depends on the person really, but her conversation partner states "The Burgue is ruled by men - we never had such problems, didn't we?" "................." "Didn't we?" ".........no."

Boy, I want to use that! Not to mention that little Telly and Clary probably shouldn't have been listening to these horror stories, but where eavesdropping because kids.

At this point, we could also add that Clarisse used to accompany her father to a friend/business partner of his on the countryside, who was also Philo/now Rye's employer. Darry would often sneak onto the property and play in the parks and stables, where they first met and became friends. At some point, Clary told her about the stories her parens would tell their friends over tea.

Meanwhile, we could also use that the New Dawn, in reality, at least used to be genuinely idealistic and going for a better society, but the admins on top eventually turned on their own people and abused their power - maybe caused by what they had experienced themselves (I want to use a plot like this later). This has nothing to do with their political ideas per se - just power revealing. Sometimes that goes very bad, even on a smaller scale. Maybe Agreus and Imogen witnessed a significant degree of violence from them that isn't excusable, like murdering smaller amounts of people suspected of conspiracy and running a surveillance state where everyone's opinions and obedience are monitored, and experienced violence themselves, but also changed some aspects of the story (such as Ezra's death).

I would even add that, much like Philo (I'll get to that) trauma has messed with their minds and, when talking about Ragusa, they tend to up the horror of the place.

About Agreus' past, I really don't know ... it sounds to me like he fought his way out of a horrible life, but lost track of some things - maybe in the present, he tries to use his wealth to make things better for faefolk, but his past is still there ... this would be a plot where Clary tries to come to terms with it, but here, gets help from Telly - he's as much his father as hers, they figure out things together. And acknowledging that their parents are somewhat damaged people, and what to make of that. This is a plot that several characters go through in different ways.

Furthermore, back to Darry, I wonder what her father told her - a lot of things he probably left out, but I can see him eventually telling her that he's actually next in line to be chancellor of the Burgue, and once tried to stand up for his birthright. I can see Darry pointing out that there was no way, fae or not, they were going to honour his claim - he was too poor to start with. "I know ... I once wanted to confront them at a ball, everyone told me not to." "You would have been arrested." "I had been trapped in the Burgue for months, my mind wasn't that right any more." Funny enough, his actions later were definitly set up as "unsound mind bc trauma", so there's that.

Not to mention that she eventually finds out that he tried to wipe out the Sparas people while fighting for a country that, chances are, turned them violent in the first place by falling into Tirnanoc - I'm working on a plot where the Sparas reveal that their powers originally were used for hunting and supplying themselves quickly, only in times of need (maybe add an origin story involving magic alterations to their people to this end), but were never meant to be used against people ... the war forced them to go against that rule, which wasn't as easy as she might think. Don't worry, the Sparas aren't going to be the epitome of good faefolk - really just an average one who wanted to live in peace above all. This plot would feature heavily in season 2 of Legacy as Darry comes to terms with what her father has done, and taking some time to figure out what she makes of knowing this information for herself.

We could also add Amber confronting her mother about the Raven and New Dawn essentially provoking the police into a massacre at the Burgue, with Vini arguing that they were probably already planning exactly that. Her daughter's main point being why they adapted to the NDs demand that the people on the streets not be warned or, in at least a ditch effort, evacuated, for which she gives some reasons, none of which satisfy Amber. She will never adapt an "ends justify means" mentality like this. I'd also add that maybe either Althea or Telly witnessed this massacre and confronted one of the last surviving people who had a part in this happening about it.

And then, of course, there's Rafe and his father - he learns more and more about his father's actions throughout the story - and not just his past actions. I'd add that, by the time of Legacy, he's gotten up in age a lot, so build himself a secret force out of some of his men he trusts and who share his views and recruited younger ones (called "wolves", like his son Rafe "wise wolf") off illegal fighting pits and workplaces for physical labour (his special Ops team has nothing to do with season 2 of OG CR, I just wanted to add this here before I forget XD). He also confronts him about all he did to Philo, and that he still provided him with a machine gun when he asked ... so which is it? The answer being that "that critch" was intent on killing the Sparas and capable, but it wasn't gonna change anything for him if he suceeded - and if it killed him in the process, all the better. They weren't going to lose anything - it killed his friend, a werewolf called Darius (roll Rafe connecting the dots in his head back to Darry), so win win. They would eventually figure out that beast if he failed - the Burgue was chronically overcrowded anyway. Lots of replacements.

"He cared ..." "He cared too much. Like you. You oughta work on that. I try to protect you from this world, but it's a wicked, cruel place. It's a real Sparas all on it's own. You gotta cool yourself down. Rafe means wise wolf - you gotta be both." "... true."

All in all, much as season 2's plot was often confusing, it works pretty well as a retelling of the previous' generations actions in their world, which are often shocking and confusing to their children, alongside said world past, and what they make of that. Chances are, like I said, that this offers itself as a situation where they help each other finding solutions.

Thank you very much for reading :)