wretched and divine

She has a character who’s a relentless asshole, and is still one even after a lot of character growth.  Beau’s distrustful and abrasive and rash and makes bad decisions, and those are all purposeful Marisha choices.  In some cases, this would be a nightmare to play with.  I’ve experienced a bit of that firsthand.  You could have someone who pushes away other players, hogs the spotlight, ruins attempts at planning, bulldozes through character moments, the works.  But Marisha stays true to the character while enhancing the experience of every single other player.  That would be a feat even without an asshole character.

Beau has a unique and vivid dynamic with every other character, each of which is complex and interesting enough I could write essays about it.  They all manage to be some level of entertaining and/or emotional, too, so even if she’s having a side scene with someone everyone else is engaged and enjoying themselves.  Her and Fjord?  That great bro dynamic, first mate and captain, him trying to teach her how to be less abrasive while she zooms past him on genuinely considering others.  Her and Caleb?  THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE CAMPAIGN TBH just a beautiful clumsy heartbreaking friendship patched together and full of sharp edges and messiness but so so so good.  Her and Nott?  A little more distant, but full of thoughtful moments where she sees through to Nott’s true feelings and addresses them despite deflections.  Her and Jester?  ADORABLE ROOMMATES and supportiveness and a soft genuineness both of them need so much, with a side of “if you tell me one more thing about your romance book one of us will die.”  Her and Caduceus is growing into something fascinating too: both growing into being the caretakers of the group in opposite but compatible ways, both finding they understand each other despite vast differences.  Her and Molly was an absolute delight from beginning to end, playful and bratty and in the end powerful and soul-wrenching.  Because of how rarely Yasha is around it hasn’t reached the levels of these other dynamics, but she’s put a lot of effort in that direction as well.  

In all of this, she hasn’t made Beau out to be a people-pleaser or social butterfly or anything you’d expect you’d need to have this many amazing dynamics.  She’s brought her own pain and tragedy to the game, but enhances every story she interacts with.  When Beau’s empathy or emotional intelligence is too low to really grasp what someone else is saying, she purposefully plays dumb as a player to stay true to her character, and uses it to contrast where the characters have come from.  It’s not a coincidence that so much of the best meta on this site involves Beau.

jeff and aaron drifted apart because he didn’t approve of aaron’s choices, so he pushes miles to attend this private school because he knows miles is capable of it and doesn’t want him to “end up like [his] uncle”. later, after aaron dies, jeff realizes that he doesn’t want him and miles to drift apart too so he comes by to tell miles that though he may push him, he respects/supports whatever miles chooses to do because he knows he’ll be great at it

once you get bitten by that spider you can never go back, no matter how much you want to. you may not get a choice in having those powers, but it’s up to you to choose how you want to use them. peter chose to become spiderman. miles chooses to become spiderman.

“Black history is black horror,” novelist and scholar Tananarive Due says toward the beginning of Xavier Burgin’s new documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. 

In line with Due’s insight, the film isn’t just about black horror films, it’s about the way the horror genre reflects and connects with African-American history.