Title: Toylight
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Tiddlywinks (a.k.a. Cutie Pie) (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as Constance (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Wyon (he/him). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Ol’ Clyde Horsey (he/him). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Avery Augustus Archibald Tinsley (he/him) Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Calypso (she/her).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you haven’t checked them out already, you can catch up on our reviews of the first episode.

Preparation for war continues as we open this week’s episode of Toylight. Collecting resources, our Intrepid Heroes strategize, sending up blockades in some areas and storing more supplies in others, keeping the roads open for them as they prepare for the oncoming night and the encroaching shadows which will slither from beneath the bed and take whatever their dusty bunny paws or moldy claws can reach when dark comes.

Ol’ Clyde Horsey and Calypso run into some of the enemy when surveying near the stairs. A figure of mold rises from the floorboards and from the air a ghastly smog takes form. Neither things you’d want around a child with any sort of respiratory infection.

A voice calls out, requesting a parley. Calypso ignores it, and the two escape to tell what they saw. Alongside mold and smog, they discovered rat-kin, a type of goblin capable of taking different forms. Unlike mold, smog, and even the dust bunnies, the rat-kin do not fear the light. However, they aren’t fans of fire as we later discover.

As the sun sets, four cherubs arrive. I had to replay Mercy’s line a few times for my mind to wrap around the idea of Herald of the Underlord. A group of angels who serve the ruler of the Underworld would make them more like psychopomps. Though they cough and seem to grow healthier near the Toylight, the idea of them being part of a ‘Snuffer’s Crusade’ feels more like a trap than anything. On the other hand, there’s some rather famous art portraying cherubs as the guardians of the gateway to Hell, so their position close to darkness, or even as messengers, which Brennan introduces them as, would fit the lore.

The group negotiates for one of the cherubs to stay behind as hostage until they have safely returned. Emily Axford, always on top of a suspicious NPC, questions the cherubs’ allegiance, and in the greatest show of them not being the sweet angelic beings they seem, one suggests that Anna is in Hell.

Brennan did confirmed that the cherubs are porcelain or ceramic figures, making them curios (or tchotchkes as Emily called them), which opens an interesting concept of how human interaction sets up which side of the war these items are on. The toys are played with and loved by the children, making their loyalty clear. Constance contains souls and was a toy at some point, so her loyalty is where it is; however, ceramic cherubs, likely put up on a shelf and used as idols and symbols of a constant and unending judgment based on references to the anti-outdoor sentiments from Sister Poole and the beautification of Adelaide’s sickness by her mother.

From Edgar Allan Poe to Tim Burton, the pallor with flushed cheeks and gaunt wide-eyed look which tuberculosis was associated with in its heyday was widely romanticized and even the basis for Victorian beauty standards. If those sentiments hold true in Toylight, then considering the conflict between Anglo-Catholic and modernists in the Anglican Church during the post-WWI 1920s, the ceramic figures would be a constant reminder that true happiness is only possible after death and a promise of the divine peace only available in the promised afterlife for those who have earned it. That portrayal would more so match with those who call for the world to end because they so firmly believe that what come next is better than anything life could offer. Therefore, to them, death is not a tragedy but a relief. All to say, that’s a relatively easy concept to turn both dark and self-righteous.

Calypso and Wyon face the Underlord, and as they speak, he suggests that victory will have no relief for them. Inevitably, the children will discard them, and they will end up belonging to him before long one way or another. Made out of the skin and hair of the humans who lived in the house, indicating he is tied to the human more closely than the toys themselves, and with this revelation, Brennan closes the episode.

Highlights

Siobhan truly embodies the creepy haunted feel of Victorian dolls, and after Brennan’s reference to dust being made of shed skin cells and hair, I almost wanted her to reveal that she was one of those dolls made of the hair of her original owner or even in memoriam of another young child who died too soon. It would give an extra oomph to the slightly off-kilter nature of their interaction when the Underlord sends his consciousness across the sacred nursery to stop Constance from knowing his true name.

Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)

This season definitely feels like it inherited the perfect balance of silly and serious which we saw in Crown of Candy. Though we’re only two episodes in, and I’d hate to make too many assumptions, everyone is locked in to their character and their goal. Those are always my favorite episodes, and the more there are in a season, the more likely it is that I’ll end up loving that season.

Of course, I loved the scenes where everyone locked in: Constance’s research and questions, the interactions between Cutie Pie and the cherub, and Calypso and Wyon facing down the Underlord in parley. Brennan had me weeping with the Aubrey and Adelaide seen. The fact that he locked himself in the bathroom to miss the train and stay longer with his sister, this is a little boy absolutely traumatized by his elder sister’s death and who sincerely cares and fears for his younger sister’s life.

I’m excited to see the first attack as the Snuffer Crusade truly begins in the next episode of Toylight.

Let us know what you thought in comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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