I'm going to refrain from bitching about the differences between the cover art and the actual art, because you all know my thoughts on that.
Thankfully, we do not start off with another frigging recap of the movie. We start off with Toby's thoughts, recalling that when he was little Sarah used to tell him stories. Then one day, she randomly stopped, started focusing on school, and gave away all her toys. She went to college, became a teacher, got engaged (*fangirl panic attack*), wasn't engaged anymore, (*fangirl regains oxygen*) and basically became the most boring person ever. Then she and Toby drifted apart.
We swiftly fly back to Toby, who is marveling at how much Moppet looks like Sarah. Mizumi appears out of nowhere and pretends to be shocked and displeased that Drumlin just tried to kill Moppet. Moppet starts crying, Spittledrum demands everyone come inside cuz he needs to talk.
Uh oh. Sounds like Narrative Exposition time.
Ah but wait! We switch back to Jareth and Sarah, who are by far the most interesting in this story. Which really sucks because the story is supposed to be focusing on Toby. Sigh.
Sarah stares at Jareth and says, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
...wait. She doesn't remember him?
She had her baby brother kidnapped by goblins, had to navigate a crazy-ass labyrinth, got chased by the cleaners, rescued a yeti, nearly fell into the Bog of Eternal Stench, got roofied by the Goblin King...and she DOESN'T REMEMBER THIS?!
HOW can she FORGET THE PANTS?!?!
Jareth says that they've met before, Sarah asks if they were in theater together, which seems to amuse Jareth. He introduces himself as Jareth Quinn, saying he owns a small theater. Sarah wryly thinks to herself that he's come to hit on her (and this is a problem...how?) and Jareth remarks that she's been on his mind for a while and basically invites himself in.
We switch back to Toby and co. Spittledrum states that the reason Jareth chose Toby specifically as his heir was because of Sarah. Spittledrum says, "You were the bait to lure her here--to test her will and break it. He wanted to possess her...in his own strange way, it was almost as if he loved her." Mizumi wonders why Jareth couldn't break HER will.
Basically Mizumi and Spittledrum explain that because Sarah solved the Labyrinth, and because the Labyrinth was a part of Jareth's soul, his soul was now dying. Moppet asks what that has to do with her, Spittledrum recalls back to the previous volume when Jareth paid a visit to Mizumi. When he returned to the Goblin City, apparently he brought back Moppet.
Back to Sarah and Jareth. Sarah makes Jareth tea. Jareth is unimpressed with Sarah's life as he sees it. Sarah offers him some peach pie which makes Jareth extremely uncomfortable, and I must admit, is one of the more amusing parts of the manga.
They talk some more about Sarah's current life, and Jareth makes a snooty comment about how he never would've pegged Sarah Williams to keep others in the line. Sarah gets a tad defensive, saying she preferred to think of it as helping her students realize their own potential. Jareth acknowledges this as noble, but then demands what she's doing about HER potential. Sarah frowns and says that she's glad Jareth could follow his dreams, but for her, that's all they were: dreams. She had to grow up. (Me: LAME! GROWING UP IS LAME!) Jareth makes an airy comment about Sarah not seizing her dreams and how she'll come to regret it someday.
When did Jareth become a therapist? And actually, Sarah wonders this too.
Sarah basically informs him that she doesn't have time for drama in her life and Jareth mentally notes with pleasure that she is still in many ways defiant. Jareth excuses himself graciously, saying he hopes they'll meet again. And then he disappears into the night.
Honestly, this interaction between Sarah and Jareth is by far one of the most interesting scenes in the entirety of the manga. This is also a little sad.
We cut back to Toby & co. Mizumi tells Moppet she is an ablation. An ablation, we learn, is an aspect of a person siphoned off from another being.
Liiike...a horcrux?
Ok, I'm stretching it to be funny. Basically it's a being Mizumi can create out of elements of your personality. Your anger, your hope, your fear--Moppet is an ablation created out of Sarah's dreams. The ablation holds that aspect and the original loses it.
Honestly, this isn't a half-bad plot point. Since it was Sarah's dreams that defeated Jareth, he thought that controlling that aspect of her would restore his powers. It also explains Sarah not remembering Jareth, looking so darn homely, and basically having an extremely boring existence. Although Mizumi makes it clear that Moppet is NOT a clone (I hate clone plots, but that's another blog for another day) it still seems like a clone plot, and yet a refreshingly original plot.
Now watch it all come crashing down.
Spittledrum reveals that he figured this all out and Jareth told him to never let Moppet explore the castle alone and if she ever mentions Jareth or acts strangely, to give her...what is that? Some kind of fruit...ordinarily I'd say peach, but it's awfully dark for a peach. An apple? A pear? A kumquat? I don't know, some kind of magic fruit.
Toby gets pissed at Mizumi and demands why the heck she did all that, and Mizumi goes, "Duh, for love. I love Jareth, I'd do anything for him." Okay, I'm paraphrasing, but that's pretty much what she said.
Mizumi offers to undo what she did, but then points out that Moppet would disappear and basically be sucked back into Sarah, which Moppet isn't to keen on. Toby looks stricken at the thought. Frankly, Moppet hasn't really engaged me as a reader, so I don't really care about this plight--if the writing had been a little better though, this might've worked as an interesting device.
Mizumi also adds that if any harm comes to either the ablation or the original, they both die. FYI.
Toby basically says, well this sucks, but I have to put my sister back together, Moppet gets pissed, slaps him, and takes off. Mizumi says (paraphrases), "If you don't seize control of the Labyrinth by your coronation tomorrow, this world is doomed and your sister is screwed. No pressure."
Next chapter. Toby angsts. Toby receives magic pendant thing. Mizumi visits Drumlin in jail. Mizumi then absorbs her back into herself while Moulin is in the background, watching horrified. We find out that Drumlin is an ablation of Mizumi, an aspect of Mizumi's hope.
We then learn Skub's backstory which is so boring I'm not going to relate it. To summarize, Skub lets down his family and is very very sad about it. The end.
Next chapter. Moppet angsts and decides to run away. Hana comes with her. Moppet is upset because Toby treated her like she wasn't a person. Well...she isn't a person. Like I said, if the writer had worked a little bit more to get the reader engaged with Moppet I'd feel more sympathetic, but I just don't care. Suffice it to say, Moppet runs away.
Goblins notice a storm is coming.
Coronation time. Moulin pops up and tells Toby not to accept the crown. Toby ignores her. Moulin tells him that Jareth is a coward and evil. Toby thinks that while Jareth does have issues, he can't be all that bad because he created such a wonderful place.
I could write an entirely new blog post about the nature of Jareth, but I'll save that. Basically, there's more than one interpretation. We have the funny villain, like in Lixxle fics. We have the dark, scary villain, as in Subtilior fics. We also have a combination of both, in Pika fics, as well as her fabulous webcomic. We have the die-hard shipper fans (hi) that just want Jareth and Sarah to get together, the fans who see Jareth as a legitimate villain and don't see any kind of sparks between the two (aside from Sarah's fascination and infatuation, which either way, Jareth does manipulate) and the fans who see Jareth desire Sarah in an unhealthy and predatory way. The main problem with Forbes' version of Jareth, is he's trying to incorporate all these interpretations of Jareth in one story, and it just doesn't work. It makes it cluttered and confusing.
Anyway, back the manga. Toby runs off, and Moulin has a confrontation with Esker. Esker doesn't like that Moulin is interfering with Mizumi's plans and tells her, "Why don't you go back to your room like a good girl?"
To which Moulin fires back, "Don't you know Esker? Good girls don't wear black!"
...what? Was that supposed to be witty, intelligent dialogue? Cuz it just sounds stupid to me.
They have a fight, which Moulin ultimately loses and then gets captured.
So anyways, coronation time. Toby undergoes a test, and wins. He figures out that the Pathmaker, is himself. He is now Goblin King. Yay.
The next chapter is called 'Obsession', and this is by far the most interesting sequence in the entire volume. We Sarah get out of bed, go through her morning routine. When she's putting on lipstick, she suddenly gets a flash of herself on stage, with thousands of people cheering. We see Jareth in the front row, reciting some kind of...song? Basically talking about memories and dreams and regrets and obsession and stuff. Sarah sees Jareth in this vision, watches him stand, walk out of the auditorium and then suddenly reappear behind her. Sarah wakes up from this vision, shakes it off, and drives to school.
She has one of her students read aloud from "The Tempest" which is what they're studying. Heh.
Here's another complaint--it was said that Sarah is teaching high school, but the students Lie draws look about nine years old. If they are grade school age, fine, but then why are they studying Shakespeare? At least Toby looks his age.
Meanwhile, Jareth is continuing to stalk Sarah, and Sarah has noticed that something weird is going on. She shrugs it off and we follow her to a restaurant.
Jareth is in the background, chilling at the bar, continuing to unnervingly watch Sarah.
Sarah sees someone come in, and then this happens:
Apologies for the ghetto quality. It is nigh on impossible to find scanlations of this sucker. Yes, that is Sarah's...boyfriend? Gentleman caller embrace Sarah and kiss her. We see Jareth jump up and look extremely pissed. I am pleased, because it REALLY SEEMS LIKE THEY'RE GOING IN A JARETH/SARAH DIRECTION. I know I keep emphasizing this, but I really need to build you up for what happens in the fourth volume.
Jareth walks out into the rain, extremely annoyed, and heads into an alley. His pendant disappears, and he realizes that Toby has now ascended the throne and now his magic is all gone.
Jareth looks around for something, and then finds a passageway underground through a garbage can. He enters a room filled with technological stuff and runs into a teeny tiny robot. Jareth sneers at it, and then finds Cob, an apparently exiled goblin.
Cob looks a little like Hoggle. Apparently Cob was keeping a shard of Jareth's heart that Jareth gave him for safe-keeping. Jareth wants this shard back. Cob pretty much refuses to give it up, because he likes having that kind of power, Jareth threatens to break his tiny robot (DING) and Cob hands over the shard. Jareth absorbs it, and apparently it gives him a little bit of extra magical energy. He turns Cob into a worm for betraying him.
FINALLY, something canon!
We go back to Sarah, who comes home and finds flowers on her front porch. Included with the flowers, are tickets to Enigma Lain's new show. I don't know if I mentioned it, Enigma Lain is the fake theatre Jareth claims to own. End chapter.
Next chapter, the goblins are cheering on Toby. We get a flashback from Mizumi, recounting the end of the wager Mizumi and Jareth made. Jareth asks Mizumi if she hurt Sarah whilst creating the ablation, and Mizumi sneers at him, and says no, it was painless. Mizumi gives Jareth the ablation (Moppet) and says calmly that Moppet will never love him. Jareth demands why, and Mizumi informs him that he's too in love with himself.
Well...she kinda has a point...snicker.
So basically, Mizumi goes MWA HA HA HA and entraps Toby and declares war on the Goblin City, announcing she is taking control.
Who didn't see that coming?
Candlewic stabs Spittledrum. Oh no. I'm so upset. He was such a lovable character that I totally got attached to. (That's sarcasm, if you can't hear my wry voice inside your head.)
We see Moppet leaving. Mizumi demands to know where the Pathmaker is. Toby doesn't tell her. Toby gets thrown into an oubliette.
Ooh! Back to Sarah! Finally! Sarah is fighting on the phone with her boyfriend, who is refusing to see the play with her. She snaps at him, hangs up the phone, and then trots off, determining that she will go on her own.
We see Sarah walk towards the fake theatre. Mizumi orders Esker to kill the ablation, saying that if you kill the ablation, the original goes with it.
And so ends volume 3!
Things I liked: The sequences between Jareth and Sarah weren't too bad, actually. They were interesting and filled with a decent amount of intrigue. I just wish the art matched it.
Things I disliked: The art went from mediocre to worse. Lie doesn't seem to have very good perspective either, not that I know much about it, but Sarah's rooms and furniture seemed oddly proportioned. While Jareth and Sarah's dialogue and interactions were interesting, everything else was dull. I kept wishing the sequences with Toby would end so we could get back to Sarah and Jareth. I'll explain the problem with centering the plot around Toby in my final review.
Thanks for reading! The next review should be up next week or in a few days, depending.
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