I've set my eyes on Zirconia. Cutest Step-Milf ever.
Also: Bad cliffhanger. If the village is a fort now, just show it. People will still be interested. If it's burned down, show it. People still want to know who survived and what happened. Anger readers and they'll subconsciously remember those bad times and they don't want to read it anymore. It's just like keeping a shop in this hindsight. Bad shopping experience (too dark, too iffy, too many missing articles, not clean enough, unfriendly personal or hostile other shoppers), no costumers.