Fairy Tales in Dark Places

The twins !!! 🐦‍⬛🪶🐻🏹

Here, Pike's frustration with the Everlight is an ongoing plot thread rather than a tacked on "I prayed in my backstory sometimes, don't ask me for details, and nothing happened, so the gods are BAD for not saving me." Unlike the Ruby Vanguard, the cult of Vecna is appealing to a genuine pain among many people of Exandria - they have lost loved ones to the attacks of the Chroma Conclave, and are still losing more to the lingering effects thereof. Resurrection is a rare thing and not available to most, and its cost is quite dear, and the idea that someone could find a way to transcend death for everyone is incredibly appealing. Compare, again, to Ludinus's mealy-mouthed empty statements "freedom" without any details of how people are in fact under the thumb of the gods (and also consider that Vecna wisely showed up in Exandria as a humble folk preacher, rather than a long-time enforcer of Dwendalian imperialism). As a viewer, even if I know Vecna is full of shit, and that the Everlight is likely simply leaving the choice up to Pike rather than failing to answer, Pike doesn't! This has been the ongoing story of Pike's crises of faith, that she is looking for very clear instructions in an uncertain and turbulent world, and Vecna comes in and says "your god isn't telling you exactly what to do! because she doesn't love you. Listen to me and do exactly as I say in order to have free will." Which is how cults actually work! They are really good at preying on people frustrated with uncertainty, even though uncertainty is often the most honest and correct answer. The reason people fall for fake cancer cures is because real cancer treatments are often painful, laborious, expensive, and do not have a 100% guarantee, and an honest medical team will say that. A scammer will promise certainty and success. And on top of that, Pike is grieving her entire family and is told that this will bring one of them back - there is a gain to be had, vs just petty and punitive motivations. Again, compare to the abstract nonsense the Vanguard promised.

I would also add that the Matron comes off as opaque but ultimately correct - the blight is the key to defeating Vecna, and saves Vox Machina in Thar Amphala. The characters have doubts about the gods - as they did in Campaign 1 itself, which is a good thing! - but the story does not. This was another key problem in Campaign 3; the story kept trying to reshape itself to the characters, except it had just enough of an end destination that it couldn't entirely, and the characters weren't a good fit for that destination, which meant everything turned into a pile of indecisive goo. In TLOVM, the characters can respond dynamically to a clearly established world. In the closest to an objective sense, the Prime Deities are flawed and even frustrating but have the best interests of their devotees and mortaldom at large at heart, but Pike has space to be sufficiently hurt and frustrated to briefly side with Vecna, and Keyleth has space to resent the deal Vax made with the Raven Queen and attempt to defy it. But in the end, the gods matter little; Grog says as much to Pike. Vecna's killing too many people, and he's making Pike abandon everyone else for him, which isn't what someone with good intentions would do, and you don't need the Everlight's answer to figure that out.

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