...

The whole insidious thing about the Halovar's is how wrapped in this air of 'harmless and foolish' they are. YES they are a Sundered House and they are rich and magical, but I mean, come on. We're living in a world where the gods have been killed, and now they are true believers of this 'Light?' What the hell is that? Most sane people with an eye for politics can see the game they are playing, or at least think they can.

And every scene we see them in, that is reinforced in some small capacity even at the same time you can see the depth to it. You meet Fileonous and whats your impression? Big guy with scary dogs, but also loud, clumsily oafish in demeanor and speech, the type of dude you don't think has a lot going on. The demon sisters are *scary*, they're fucking demons, but our first look at them in combat was hilarious and disarming, because clearly they were stumbling through the dark!

You can recognize that yes, there is skill, there is power here; but I think ultimately it is disarming in how god damn funny and disarming they are because they're Goofs! Most of them are goofy as hell! Just like how Sam and Whitney have been playing the funny guys, upping the ante in each scene together with Tyranny and Wicc's stumbling through.

Except, obviously, when it's time to *lock the hell in.* And then suddenly you have the Grandma of Manipulation, pulling divine strings that nobody would have EVER known about if she hadn't told Wicc. You have fake resurrections, deals with demonic entities selling the souls of who knows HOW many people across Araman, *biological experiments with angel blood,* and the dedicated grasping fingers wresting control over arts, minds, and bodies through Dol Mak'jar.

Until you see Tyranny and Wicc stumbling home after being told by everybody on repeat that they are screwed because they are (seemingly) fumbling in every conversation and then they pull a god damn HOME RUN in tricking the manipulator.

Sam and Whitney are 100% the people who you know have the skill to take you out at the emotional kneecaps, but yet you never see it coming until they are having Nat 20 conversations without the roll of the dice.

The Halovar's are not the threat you anticipate, until you find out how they are seeping into every corner of Araman and see Yanessa Halovar standing over her fake religion and producing *devote belief.*