With this epilogue we wrap up an epic that lasted for sixteen chapters over the course of a couple years. It all started back in 2013 with sexy damsel shenanigans and only got crazier from there. We got a LOT more sexy shenanigans, and we also got character development, action sequences, intrigue, a story worth getting invested in, and ultimately a complex superhero saga with a vast cast and entire unique setting. Our redheaded, golden-clad protagonist Sophie Scott battled a gauntlet of villains, found love, conquered her own demons, and changed the lives of many for the better. 

Now Sophie's tale reaches a close. The main thing I can say about this chapter is that you tied up everything pretty well. The Hades armor spawning out of Jackson's convulsing corpse was wonderfully creepy, the scenes in the hospital were sweet, and Sophie's conversation with Mariko was even sweeter. In essence, Sophie resolves the dilemma she's been in ever since her and Mariko got together; Sophie loves her and looks up to her but doesn't want to be in her shadow. Now Enhancegirl has attained full self-actualization as a super heroine by defeating Imperion-Hades, and is every bit as famous of a heroine as Spectra. She no longer feels internal self-loathing over any perceived inferiority to other super heroines, and Sophie/Koko are fully supportive of each other. It's a beautiful thing to see Sophie overcome this problem after sixteen chapters of struggling with it.

My girl Nova gets a happy ending too, rallying the remnants of the Pauldron and Pariahs ("We're all pariahs now, darling" is an excellent fucking line, by the way) into a new superhero team free of Jackson Morrow's corruption. She is probably the most victimized of the Pauldron save Mark (because of Shane being murdered) due to her hero-worship of Jackson and discovering he manipulated and personally victimized her as Hades; so seeing her bounce back is welcome after the living Hell that Imperion-Hades put her through. If there is one, and only one criticism I have of this chapter, it is that her speech to the press sounds a little too Sophie-esque. I could be mistaken, but it just seemed her way of speaking was more something I'd hear from Sophie. I can see why you would want her thoughts spelled out, since the public's perception of superheroes and the culture surrounding them has been a big theme for the third arc of EG, and Nova's speech is basically about finding a middle ground between mindless worship of superheroes and mindless hatred of them; both of which have been displayed at different points in the story.

Sophie returning to her classroom and being greeted as a savior was BEAUTIFUL. I imagined it almost cinematically; you can have the music swelling triumphantly in a written story, but my imagination supplied it. Also, Sophie gets the same sobriquet as Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones; except here it's a title of honor rather than a shameful one. Not to accuse of of unoriginality, of course, it's just that was the first thing that leapt into my mind when I read that. To be fair, it is a badass nickname, so there. Sophie has come a LONG way from the cute faux action girl we met way back in chapter 1 when she was bound, chloroformed, and carried off by Madam Black's goons in that warehouse. While there's no shame at all in being titilated by those sexy scenes, we can see that for Sophie her weakness and inexperience was something she fought hard to overcome, all the while being driven forward by her ever-present desire to do good and fight evil to protect the innocent. She's defeated both the enemies without (Hosenflauss, Supremacist, Imperion etc) and the enemy within (Elena; who I still can't believe actually made it into the story). Sophie Scott's tale, which began with her kidnap in Ferndale and ended when she plunged her sword into Jackson's gut, has finally ended, and it ended on a damn high note.

Where to from here? You've gone back to Valora's story and are doing a great job of filling in her backstory (HEY COMMENTERS, PERILS OF VALORA NEEDS MORE LOVE, YOU SHOULD TOTALLY READ IT AND THEN COMMENT), but what kind of tales might we see moving forward in time? It would be awesome to see the New Pauldron or Sentinels in action. A Kingslayer fic would be really cool just to show Sophie's new persona, and wielding her powers and sword in accord. This Madeline Maynard strikes me as more of a storytelling device showing Spectra and EG's legacy than a new protagonist, but it'd be interesting to see her awesome powers in action as well.

ONE LAST THING, to quote Jackie Chan's uncle. I saw the Amazon Prime series The Boys recently, which is based on a graphic novel. It covers a bit of the same ground as EG part 3, namely about a powerful and popular team of superheroes with a strong public image who are known and revered throughout the country. They turn out to be a bunch of fucked-up psychos, and the show is also about society's celebrity worship of the superheroes and it's damaging effects on said society. The character of Starlight is very similar to Spectra: both of them are powerful super heroines with Light-based powers who adhere strongly to the classical ideal of being a superhero as well as law and goodness. Both Starlight and Spectra are the newest members of a major superhero team (as of the story beginning) and end up exposing said super-team's evil and corruption. Except in Spectra's case, it was just one guy who was causing all the trouble, whereas in Starlight's case, it's basically every other member of the team.

Anyway, uhh...tl'dr Enhancegirl was sexy and awesome, loved it, great story, 10/10 would read again.