Whereas the humorous fantasy A Wolf So Grim And Mangy poked fun at those glorious teen Chosen One epics, the sequel, A Song Of Mange And Poison, targets the ‘House’ dynamics of deeply rooted warring factions.
No sooner have menopausal Edi and her Mangy Wolf grabbed their Happy Ever After, than his Auntie Yelena (known as Yellfire) and her murderous lupine relatives descend upon the diverse community of wolves, bears, snakes and eagles, forcing recently healed divisions to explode into conflict.
At the heart of the inevitable collapse lies an exploration, not of the present generation, but of the past – a long line of familial suffering built into a stone stronghold and rooted in the understandable actions necessary to survive. Within these communities, solidified by defending themselves against others, any attempt to transcend the norm can be perceived as disrespect to those ancestors who paid the price of freedom.
Justice can so easily slide into revenge and, from there, provide a platform for rampant ambition, clinging to the coattails of immovable tradition.
If Song has any message amidst the tears, backstabbing and eventual triumph of love (it is, after all, a comedy), it’s that, whilst the past must be faced and addressed, never suppressed, eventually there’s no future worth living if we don’t agree to change the now for the sake of those to come.
A cry for unity within diversity, not uniformity, requires treating every single person as a unique individual, even our worst enemy, be she wolf or not.
And if that’s a deep sentiment for fantasy comedy, you wait for the finale to The Mangy Wolf Saga. It’ll be epic.