thinking about how laios is so outwardly kind and agreeable even though he can be judgmental in his head.
and i know its to keep the peace, and as party leader he has more responsibility to withhold scathing remarks that could damage morale. BUT i can't help the nagging feeling its also because he just doesn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, even in the moment
like the one time he verbalizes his "negative" thoughts, he immediately goes back
he doesn't actually get it, he still thinks it's strange nobody wants to eat the fish man but can eat other animals, but he lets it go for chilchuck's sake.
laios spent his entire life feeling ostracized and scrutinized by others, the last thing he wants to do is make his friends feel that way.
and it sucks so hard we don't get more of this in the anime because i feel like it adds so much with so little.
hi, you can call me WTGTD, pronounced witgitid. or you can call me something else. I haven't decided on a name yet, is the thing. I write fanfiction! well, so far just the one:
anyway, if you have found me and you have also read my fanfiction, that's really awesome :) feel free to ask me anything! I welcome interaction, even if I am not always the best at it.
I also occasionally draw things.
A lot of people's issues with modern D&D would be immediately fixed if they accepted the game for what its rules actually say the game is trying to achieve (even though the rules are usually not vocal about it and you kind of have to divine that purpose).
Like, a lot of GMs seem to stress over making their games challenging enough but not too lethal because if the dreaded TPK happens or a character dies before fulfilling their personal arc then the narrative momentum of the game dies. But like:
Death is pretty much the only consequence of note in modern D&D. It might not be a fun consequence but without it you lose all tension
The fact that death is always on the table should be an indication that the game itself does not care about narrative continuity nor your characters' personal arcs.
Despite all the modern guardrails and mechanics like bonds and ideals that are supposed to add character death, D&D is ultimately a "some assholes go to die in a ditch" type of game. And that's okay. But playing it as a "I must preserve narrative continuity and make sure characters stay alive or else my plans are ruined" game means an uphill battle against the game itself.
doing questionable things like rewatching a bard’s lament for “fun” and scanlan and vex you will always be famous. the fact that scanlan brings up that they’ve travelled across planes to fix vex’s daddy issues but then it’s vex’s daddy issues that ground her rebuttal to scanlan when she tells him to stop treating kaylie like an object. and god. vex’s “fuck him! fuck him for not saying anything sooner. and fuck us for not asking.” in the immediate aftermath, and then once she has time to put her walls back up, vex’s “my take-away from scanlan is that we all talk too much.”
the fact that vex was the one who made that comment that without his magic scanlan is just some guy but he’s also the some guy that vex spends the campaign looking up to (even if she does it through barbs and snark), the fact that when vex was fighting against saundor hearing things like “unproven ally” scanlan was all jokes until he realized how much vex believed what was being said to her. the fact that when scanlan comes back, it’s vex who literally sees through his disguise.
what do you mean scanlan was a deadbeat father who discovered a daughter that he did love but loved only as an object until vex called him out on it? what do you mean vex was a woman who struggled to forgive in part due to her crapshoot father and she was the first to forgive scanlan when he came back?
vex and scanlan also have such interesting interactions in terms of the balance of snark, silliness, and sincerity. it’s not uncommon from any characters of sam or laura’s since they are both silly little guys who also love drama and roasting each other especially when it comes to character rp, but as always it’s so dynamic when it’s the two of them bouncing off each other, especially when they’re doing so through scanlan and vex who are already bitchy characters (affectionate) with humour as a deflection method. but it’s a silly and deeply sincere moment when vex finally puts the witch hat scanlan gave her back on with his promise that he won’t run away from the final battle. it is one of my favourite laughable moments in c1 but it also reeks of sincerity when scanlan asks vex if she prefers planetar scanlan or normal scanlan and vex tells him he is fucking hot as a planetar, but she loves him like he was and he’s her favourite when he’s just himself.
like. they’re insane do you understand. the dawnfather asks vex to prove herself and scanlan turns her into a dragon to help her succeed, pelor asks vox machina what vex means to them and scanlan says she’s greedy and mean and the most perfect of them all. the knowing mistress asks scanlan to prove himself and vex escorts him on a broom he unlocked for her and then she picks an impossible lock for him, ioun tries to remind scanlan that his strength is the joy he provides to his friends and he makes a deflective quip that he’s really powerful and vex undercuts his deflection with a sincere assertion that he is. scanlan cast his last wish spell letting her see her brother on her wedding day. vex sent herself across the continent alone with her worry and grief while scanlan’s corpse lay awaiting resurrection to ensure that his daughter could be there to either bring him back or say goodbye.
they are the platonic chosen soulmates of all time to me. i make a post like this like once a year minimum and it’s because they Haunt me. both sam and laura said what if we made high charisma characters using their charisma as a shield and humour as a weapon and they saw through each other’s masks but they never explicitly talked about it to one another. good riddance to talks machina but i will never forget the episode post bard’s lament with laura and sam where sam revealed that vex was the only one who said anything that actually got through to scanlan and another episode where laura revealed that the reason vex was so angry and sad when scanlan left was that vex felt like her and scanlan had a unique bond where they were the only two who really saw one another’s masks for what they were. also laura providing the insight that while vex was actively working on being more forgiving, another reason she was so open and happy with scanlan when he came back was that vex didn’t want to scare him away again.
what am i supposed to do with all that? be normal about scanlan and vex? literally impossible
when you slow down this scene, there's a little detail that–while not really noticable–arin's reactions are a little later than the rest, and his facial expressions shift alot moreso than the others, showing how he's probably pretty unfocused
and with that detail, kai seems to be the one who's the most focused, as even nya and lloyd's expressions occasionally shift (lloyd being the most out of the three of them), while he stayed unchanged the entire time
nunchucks of lightning vs the storm amulet.
i dont even have anything to add. this speaks for itself.
Not all heroes wear capes
i know this is a super controversial hot take but it has to be said: vex ningajgo