First episode is all Steven's POV with uncontrolled switching and no co-con, so he keeps waking up in the middle/aftermath of superhero fights without knowing why. Genre-typical character death: temporary for Marc+Steven in episode 4, permanent for a range of henchpeople/monsters/bad-guy victims.
The villain is a cult leader, with all the manipulation that implies, and repeatedly discredits Marc by describing him as broken/insane/dangerous. Khonshu is an abusive boss; YMMV on how much of that is him being out-of-touch with mortal human needs, and how much he's just a dick. Marc lies to Layla and Steven a bunch (for what he thinks are good reasons). Layla, reasonably, starts off treating Steven as an exasperating act Marc is putting on (she catches up pretty fast).
Fantasy medical/psych ward abuse starting in episode 4; the afterlife reflects their past experiences, including bad mental-health treatment. Memory work in episode 5 that revisits a series of childhood traumas, including sibling death, emotional abuse (on-screen), and physical abuse (just off-screen). References to Marc being suicidal. Steven has an existential crisis when he realizes their system has an original, and it isn't him. The end of episode 5 has a cliffhanger over whether Steven's existence is an "imbalance" that Marc would be better off leaving behind (don't worry, Marc doesn't accept that).
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Content Warnings (contain MAJOR SPOILERS!)
Date: 2024-09-19 10:39 pm (UTC)The villain is a cult leader, with all the manipulation that implies, and repeatedly discredits Marc by describing him as broken/insane/dangerous. Khonshu is an abusive boss; YMMV on how much of that is him being out-of-touch with mortal human needs, and how much he's just a dick. Marc lies to Layla and Steven a bunch (for what he thinks are good reasons). Layla, reasonably, starts off treating Steven as an exasperating act Marc is putting on (she catches up pretty fast).
Fantasy medical/psych ward abuse starting in episode 4; the afterlife reflects their past experiences, including bad mental-health treatment. Memory work in episode 5 that revisits a series of childhood traumas, including sibling death, emotional abuse (on-screen), and physical abuse (just off-screen). References to Marc being suicidal. Steven has an existential crisis when he realizes their system has an original, and it isn't him. The end of episode 5 has a cliffhanger over whether Steven's existence is an "imbalance" that Marc would be better off leaving behind (don't worry, Marc doesn't accept that).