My Aura Has Never Been Nerdier😊💗

Episode 7:

Ghosts of Whitestone was prooobably my new favorite of the season! I'm a huge horror/haunted house aesthetic girlie and I love a like "abandoned villain's layer" vibe. Super fun and up my alley! Most of my yapping in here is gonna be about that bc I have many many thoughts.

This has been a Perc'ahlia-light season compared to last, which makes sense but they are my main ship, so I LOVED the crumbs of them throughout this ep...the scene at the beginning was FANTASTIC and just so them! Vex calling out for Percy the moment she realized Delilah was back🥹🥹🥹 And then their scene at the end was sweet too. I will take it!

Speaking of Percy...Taliesin has been hinting at this for weeks and finally we got it! An exploration of his inability to rid himself of the Briarwoods but also his own inability to let stuff go! All very well done imo, especially Percy's reaction when he saw Sylas's clone. I can't remember the last time we saw him so scared...was a bit surprised he didn't keep that up when Delilah showed up. The end of that little character line was very satisfying (cheered out loud when Percy was like "this is my house!") but it did feel a little rushed. Curse of the runtime I suppose...

(Shameless self promo...if you want to see Percy suffer even more, read my fic!)

I also do wonder...in their little ASMR spoiler thing Taliesin's line was "I can control this" and when Percy said "This is my house" his vocal delivery was quite a bit deeper than I've heard him do before...maybe I'm stretching but perhaps there's something in that.

Onto Vaxleth the main couple of this season and damn they're upping the angst. By the end of episode 9 I did begin to feel that their blight conversations (while still sad) were getting a bit redundant, and I think that plotline needs a shakeup soon BUT I think it did work really well in 4x07! Delilah using Vax's blight to torment him was equal parts horrifying and narratively satisfying. Vax definitely hasn't dealt with the horrific nature of the blight yet. Also the fake future. Nevermind whether he actually wants that, he should at least get the chance to decide. Mean. More interesting to me was Keyleth's bit. I agree that Percy and Vex will always be the main Sylas/Delilah parallels but I still think it was smart to parallel Keyleth and Delilah at this particular point in her arc and I liked the fading into Delilah's actual voice/flashback lighting. Very cool aesthetic!

I do need to wonder...the dungeon felt so intentional with who found what/who ended up where. I have to wonder if that flower really does what Keyleth thinks...and if Delilah wanted her to find it. Could it be some evil linchpin instead? I also have been feeling like one of VM might go over to the Whispered One's side asp...at first I thought Pike but they took a different route with her. Could it be Keyleth?

Anyway onto the last member of our dungeon quartet! I have been lacking in Vex badass moments this season. She's been very present but not the main character in any big storylines (makes sense since she lowkey was last season), and I personally missed them. And clearly this episode knew that! Her shooting Delilah was immensely satisfying and epic, and marks the second time that she has in the animated series. I really hope they make it 3 and have her kill Delilah for good!

(Side note: You could tell Grey Delisle had a BALL recording this ep).

And LAUDNA! I have not watched C3 yet but I already adore her so much! I think her role in this episode was needed—the group needed a sort of guide in the dungeons. I also think it was VERY in character for Vex to be the one who found her and kind of brought her out of Delilah's grasp. Between adopting Trinket, falling for Percy even when he was in Orthax vengeance mode, and now Laudna, she really is a friend to lost souls type character and I don't think we talk about it enough! The plan to get inside Delilah's head was also insanely clever and I was fangirling so hard...clearly I have not stopped lol.

This may be too much of a deep cut but the vibes of this episode combined with magical young victim of primary villain helping main crew reminded me of that one Halloween episode from Young Justice Season 1...one of my favorites as a kid!

Okay at last onto the other two episodes...which I also loved!

Episode 8:

Now I'm only just starting C1, so I can't speak to Bard's Lament here versus there, but I did think it, along with Scanlan's general conflicting feelings about loving VM but also being a bit scared of them and just generally a bit lost, was all very very well done. I thought it was impactful and in character and yes I screamed at the "What's my mother's name?" line because I didn't think they were going to do it.

Also that one scene with Tary and Pike pretending to make out and Tary saying he liked "soft female lips"...had me cackling and also VERY MUCH reminded me of any time in Brooklyn 99 where Captain Holt has to act straight. *points finger* GAY

Musical battle was SICK and the animation was NUTS! I love when they bring different genres into the show, and DAMN evil bard can SING (and whoever was actually doing that guitar...holy shit). I can't wait for this season's soundtrack to drop.

And the scenes at the end...Grog saying he was sorry for not asking about Juniper's name before😭 He really is the heart of the group atp...sometimes the characters who think the least are the wisest.

And the Pikelan moments🥹 I'm not super anything about them, but this scene was so utterly sweet, and a nice role reversal of the conversations they've had before. I also think it leads nicely into Pike's actions next ep...makes her doubly determined not to fail.

I think if anything will bring Scanlan back before the end of the season, it'll be needing to save Pike and Grog. He'd come back for that for sure.

Episode 9:

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Okay look, I was expecting something evil to happen here based on where we are in the season. If anything I thought they'd kill Vax early...but GROG?! The LAST character I'd expect!! And Pike following him into the evil dimension (already forgot the name) DAMN! From what I understand this is a huge divergence from campaign plot, so we're all going in blind!

I'm 50/50 on whether he's permanently dead...on the one hand I think the writing team totally has the guts for it. On the other, Grog is such a fan favorite and idk if Travis would want to be character less for all of season 5. I could see campaign-divergent PC deaths in S5, but this does feel a bit early. On the other hand, this would be the third dead character they brought back...we shall see ig.

But also Grog using emotional awareness to pull Pike out of there before he got killed...WAAAAAUGH😭

I said at the beginning of this season that Pike's arc would be my favorite and I was totally right! She is truly making all of the bad decisions and is in such a dark place, not knowing who she is beyond revenge now that she's losing people left and right, and her faith in the Everlight has been splintering since S3...I'm so interested to see how she fares from now on.

Other notes on this episode: Vax is on death's door and they definitely need to shake up that plot somehow because they've all been having the same few convos for the past chunk of episodes. I think Keyleth's flower will be important, but perhaps not how she hopes...

Tary and Percy being science bros was so wholesome and adorable...never did I think Percy would be a wholesome character at a time like this! And him coming into conflict with Keyleth who is so hellbent on success at all costs...very much a reversal of where the two of them started the show and I'm here for it!

And one last Vex shoutout because her "my brother is dying" ruse was quite clever and very good quick thinking on her part! She's a very clever character and that's always nice to see.