What is with these, quite frankly, insane takes about Vax not submitting due to his ego and wanting to “save face?” Did we all watch the same show? You know, the one where there’s a character who has barely any ego and sacrifices himself for his sister and friends over and over? I mean, if people are not able to understand the hero’s journey to this degree, I fear for the ability to grasp much media at all. When heroism is now being spun as selfish and egotistical, that’s not just a bad take, it’s a dangerous one.
Because yeah, we can say this is fictional and regardless of how people perceive Vax’s actions, it’s how he was written so people should bear with it and not be so offended. However, if you view a character’s act of heroism as inherently selfish, what if a person commits such an act in real life? Would you call them an egotistical person just doing it for vanity? If a solider chooses to leap onto on a grenade for comrades, we don’t say “wow, just doing it for his ego, what a loser.” No we honor such people because of the costs of their sacrifice. Are there some people who “play the hero” for attention? Sure, but that isn’t what this is. This isn’t a commentary on narcissistic manipulation. It’s a character journey that leads to one man standing up to a vile, liar of a villain so others can do the same.
Them writing Vax as a character who doesn’t submit is completely in line with his arc. It’s not about ego or pride when he doesn’t bow to Vecna. For one, the idea people seem to have that they would’ve been able to regroup had Vax given in and Vecna would’ve kept his promise is ludicrous. He’s a villain, since when are you supposed to trust anything a villain says? Especially when he had just admitted to spinning an unholy web of lies for so long to convince them to kill him so he could resurrect. But yeah, sure, that guy would just let Vax go so they could regroup.
Second to add onto this, he chose Vax purposefully. He knew that Vax’s abilities as the Champion of the Matron of Ravens was one of the only possibilities of stopping him and he was glad Keyleth had effectively taken that away. So his challenge is to Vax specifically because he holds a grudge against the one person who truly does stand in his way of taking power, namely the Matron and her Champion. In Vax denying him even the satisfaction of submission, it’s him still saying that the Matron and her Champion won’t give him the control he wants.
People just think that his death is so meaningless. My question then would be, what to you makes a death meaningful? Grog and Pike had just discussed this very thing when he was trying to wake her up about The Whispered One and she gave him her blood because she too had believed that everyone’s death before had been for nothing. But Grog pointed out that he died for Pike and her father died for them. Just because someone chooses to die and someone else calls it a shame and worthless doesn’t mean it was so. For Vax’s character that death had a lot of meaning. Especially because of what he has to weigh in the balance of making that choice. He knew he was free of the Matron’s curse, he knew he could have a life with Keyleth and yet the importance of showing the world you do not have to bow to a liar and a villain was more important in that moment.
The reason Vox Machina is so enjoyable, at least to me, is because these characters have flaws and behave in a highly realistic, relatable way. They’re not perfect and can really fall on their face. That’s what happened with Keyleth. People’s inability to admit she made a selfish decision because they consider it anti-feminist to say so is absurd. It’s just narratively true. The others only bowed because they wanted to support her. You can see they disagree and are uncomfortable with the choice. Grog even tries to move forward until Pike discourages him. But it’s this well-rounded character growth and development which makes the story great. If they all just made the expected choice, they wouldn’t be the characters we like anymore.
People are welcome to have differing opinions, the problem here is the overarching idea that a heroic action is actually the selfish one vs capitulation which isn’t true at all. That’s the problem with driving these takes that Vax is the one in the wrong here, because he in no way is. It’s just fascinating to me that people are trying to spin something objectively good and an honestly incredible character journey into something nasty.
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Anyone who follows my blog probably knows I'm a sucker for how Percy's death is done in the original campaign. But let's talk about how the show handled it and the tragedy of Scanlan straight up not being there.
The last direct interactions we see Percy and Scanlan have are during the Chateau Shorthalt song.
But the last real scene they share together is when Scanlan yells about not even being able to talk to his daughter and storms out of the room.
I feel like the show version of events takes on a fascinating slant when viewed through the lens of Dadlan, or Scanlan viewing the younger members of his team like Percy as kids he's responsible for / his kids. (There's lots of fluidity in found family dynamics but I digress.) Percy is in fact, very close in age to Kaylie, and potentially even younger than her.
When viewed through this lens you get an angle of "I was so focused on trying to connect with my biological kid that it lost me the kid I already found." And Scanlan leaving Kaylie's song at Percy's grave, really is an interesting culmination of his grief over how things shook out.
Also, my goodness, Scanlan's expression when Percy is resurrected is so soft, I could cry.
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The first rule of fandom is have fun. The second rule of fandom is find an enabler and become an enabler. Yes you should write that fic. What if it was even hornier? What if it was angstier? What if you wrote it just for me?
And then there is the frustrated and exhausted Designated WIP Conscience, who is all “… oh my God that’s an amazing idea, and I really fucking want you to write that, but I really fucking need you not to, because you still need to finish the seven other fics that you’ve started, and I need them finished. I desperately need to see them finished, please. Please please finish them before you start something else that’s only gonna get me invested? PLEASE!!!”
The first rule of fandom is have fun. The second rule of fandom is find an enabler and become an enabler. Yes you should write that fic. What if it was even hornier? What if it was angstier? What if you wrote it just for me?
And then there is the frustrated and exhausted Designated WIP Conscience, who is all “… oh my God that’s an amazing idea, and I really fucking want you to write that, but I really fucking need you not to, because you still need to finish the seven other fics that you’ve started, and I need them finished. I desperately need to see them finished, please. Please please finish them before you start something else that’s only gonna get me invested? PLEASE!!!”
I think part of the reason I've never minded the changes from C1 to TLOVM is because I've always viewed TLOVM as the legend. I view it as how the story is told in Exandria, when there are children who only knew the reign of the de Rolos in Whitestone. When Keyleth is a seasoned negotiator. When Vax is more legend than man.
When Percy tells the story of Ripley, he wants himself to be remembered as a forgiving, kind man, so he says he offered peace and she refused. He knows he would've killed her, had he been given the chance, but it's been thirty years and he doesn't want to be the revenge filled man he was at 23
The core story plots stay the same, but this is a story that's been passed around by bards and storytellers for 30 years. Things are going to change and Vox Machina themselves knows the real story, but what is the point of clarifying how exactly things happened. Let the bards have their destined heroes, not a group of broken people who fell into saving the world
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keep thinking about how I wrote in my dissertation about how every time a new form of public/social space emerges it's immediately popular with kids and teenagers who see it as a chance at freedom and then adults colonise it and kick them out. this happened with malls in the 80s and diners in the 50s and pool halls in the 20s. my dad was doing research on this trend in like 1975. and I was like "yeah so this is going to happen to the internet" and then five years later every government suddenly decided to ban kids from everywhere online. I hate being right especially when I don't even get paid for it
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