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There's a different species of barnacle, Sacculina, that parasitizes crabs in a similar way to this. It has a very cursed lifecycle and I assume the crab is also having a weird time.
I just looked it up—it injects itself into the crab's body and replaces the crab's genitals with itself, grows roots into the crab's organs (including its brain), and controls the crab's behaviors so the crab will take care of the Sacculina larvae as a female crab would its own babies—if the crab is male, the Sacculina parasite will make the crab's body produce female hormones to basically change it to female.
This is so cool...how did this even develop? How did the parasite evolve to do that? How ancient would this relationship have to be for something so complex to form?
So I have a lot of elaborate opinions on the different PCs and I want to give a sort of summary/ frame of reference for all of them in one post as their individual character rather than in relation to the character or relationship I'm discussing because I see those as inherently different and I therefore might seem all over the place post to post. So... ER's the PCs In Summary? In billing order.
Ideal vs Flaw is just the way I'm choosing to frame these because this is how they're divided on character sheets, not because I think the ideal is an ideal and vice versa per se. More of a Trait to grow with vs trait to grow from
Thimble
Major Ideal: Political Awareness | Major Flaw: Hypocrisy
Thimble is a champion of political causes and has not spoken to her family or returned home since she and Thjazi left together after the war. She cut off her own family and shirked all comforts for her ideals and when the doors to Faerie closed, she stepped up in ways that led even the faeries she abandoned to ask Julien Davinos of all people if he would ask her to help them. But she doesn't recognize when she herself is complicit in the things she takes umbrage with, and at the end of the day she's going to have to address that. I've done posts on this specifically so leaving it at that.
Azune
Major Ideal: Self Sacrifice | Major Flaw: Lack of foresight
Azune will 100 times out of 10 put himself up on the chopping block for his ideals and I'm 1000000% confident that there is not a command Azune would give that he himself would not follow into death. It's just that if you are constantly walking into death, some day you're not gonna be able to get back, just like Thjazi and his plans to repeatedly travel into the Underworld. And we can see the fact that constant self sacrifice leads to burn out, and that metaphor is ever more poignant with him being a draconic sorcerer. And I like that he's taking sorcerer levels and not Paladin while Azune is unable to further dedicate himself to his cause because the fire is building in Azune and it's gonna use up all the oxygen soon and Azune's gonna crash and dedicate himself to something deeper. The memory of what makes Azune a person, his family and his love of interpersonal connection and his culture and his free will, and honouring each person's individual relationship with their version of those things.
Kattigan
Major Ideal: Understanding | Major Flaw: dependency
Kattigan consistently has been a character that pushes for people to be understood and it's often clear that comes from his own experiences with not being understood and being misrepresented, and there's very little flaw to his character that is not just him struggling with things out of his control, but what he can learn to do is make his psyche less dependent on alcohol and less dependent on the people around him to believe in him and his suffering to validate it for himself and make peace with what happened, even if there's not justice or healing to be had. Forcing himself to live in agony to prove they were killed and get vengeance is unnecessary, he can take care of himself and let himself grieve and not blame himself for accepting the trail was cold when he started looking and why it was even cold in the first place. No one was ever going to help him, and that is what his character ultimately has to come to terms and move forward with. And it is dependency as a flaw because Kattigan explicitly is incredibly self sufficient. Kattigan is not dependent in the way Bolaire is to exist, Kattigan almost solely afflicted by it in an unhealthy way that he can and must grow from to live a healthy independent life.
Thaisha
Major Ideal: Conviction | Major Flaw: Lack of doubt
I have a very almost contradictory opinion of her character in her high wisdom, and I'm fighting everything in me to not just make this about her being a double edged sword and making puns about being a Lloy Blade. Like, Thaisha is absolutely going to fall on the right side of history... if someone gives her all the information without leaving anything out before she's formed her opinion or with enough time to change it. When she sees something to give her a new conviction it holds and the idealistic perspective wants to see that only as a boon, but when Thaisha has acted out of self assurance and thought she was untouchable because she's a Lloy druid and no one will touch her, she has in fact in cases left paper trails for the people hunting her very much in danger party to followed without a second thought to whether that was a mistake. And her entire arc so far has kinda been realizing that she worked intuitively and it saved the world but if she had acted under her tenets that she hadn't doubted before, the world would've been destroyed, that's very explicitly her original flaw and in embracing anathema she is being encouraged to doubt her own way of thinking.
Bolaire
Major Ideal: Self Advocacy | Major Flaw: Self depreciation
So we all know how I feel about Bolaire, but in this format? As a weapon Bolaire is also funnily enough a double edged sword. Bolaire has a very base understanding of things like the golden rule of treat others how you would want to be treated, and through story and his creation he's always had a priority in freedom and autonomy, but in so passionately not believing himself capable of being more than a thing because of the abuses he's endured, he doesn't ask himself to examine his humanity or question himself when he kills out of what he feels is necessity. He's a weapon, not a person, so how can you judge him for killing to stay alive and not regretting it? You want him to be ashamed of the thing most out of his control and most in the control of his creators? Except Bolaire for 14 years has lived counterintuitive to the designs his creators had for him, and he doesn't realize that he's a person too. If he could imagine a greater future for himself with himself as a person, and I don't think that simply not being self deprecating anymore will fix it but, I genuinely think he would ask himself the list of questions I asked earlier in my ranting and find himself internally driven to address his morality in a different light and that itself would be the arc that leads to him changing his perspective on the host body situation he's been in and that he will then have to figure out how to live with the fact that he wasn't in a position to figure things out sooner and just do better for the rest of his probably immortal life, so self advocacy must remain and self degradation has to go away, because he can't literally punish himself forever for doing what he thought was his only option because of the abuses he faced.
Vaelus
Major Ideal: Remembrance | Major Flaw: Traditionalism
This feels like one would think of Azune first, but I think rememberance and traditionalism are neither and both ideals and flaws in Azune, but Vaelus in her remembrance of her family and the souls that have been lost in the time since the shapers fell has dedicated herself to punishing wrongdoings mercilessly and fight injustice and aid those who were harmed by injustice. But because of her reliance on the traditions of her family to feel close to them instead of these memories she has of her family's little acts of rebellious nature, and her actual mom's appreciation for those moment as well, she's set herself up to remain isolated in her grief. The second she speaks to an elf with another opinion a total of 3 times, she breaks and she admits she doesn't feel loved by Sylandri but she's going through the motions because she relies on traditions to keep her going. It's very much bringing to mind Fiddler on the Roof, and like Papa, she's gotta let go of the traditions that mean she judges people for not following her own beliefs that she doesn't have a real reason to even believe in in the first place.
(Link is to opening song which is 7m 35s but worth it. My grandma showed me the full movie when I was 14 and it was great. Haven't seen the full since but from memory would recommend)
Julien
Major Ideal: Duty | Major Flaw: Refusal to explain himself
I almost went distrust here but the thing that I find most interesting about his character is that he isn't actually the type to look down on or distrust you because of your station and it's not like you can't earn his trust, he simply will not explain himself to people who are not truly solely seeking to understand him and who have proven such. He will marry for duty, and he will put his life on the line for his family and even new friends because he is a knight and he is a knight because he defied his family to defend them as he thought he had to because no one else would step up, meanwhile he was a child. And for that he thinks he shouldn't have to explain himself. He should get to cope how he wants with who he wants and fuck everyone who judges him for it. They don't get to know him. He will go cry alone in his room instead of reaching out if it means explaining his inner thoughts after so long of being punished for upholding his family's honour as a child soldier because no one else would. And because no one will get to hear his explanations, he refuses to hear theirs, because why should he hear them out when they wouldn't hear him out even if he gave them a chance? And it doesn't matter that they would until they prove it, but he never gives them opportunities to prove it. He's gotta learn to choose to trust more.
Tyranny
Major Ideal: There are reasons for pain to exist | Major Flaw: A full and broad lack of morals
Now this one I read and I'm like "wow okay make sure we don't sound insane after this" because Tyranny is kinda clearly one of my higher ranking pcs in terms of how much I defend her but please bear in mind I have a chronic nerve issue that will literally and has tried to *make me puke to death from sheer pain if untreated* when I say this. Look at Occtis and what Brennan said about Occtis not resting? Pain is an indicator of damage. Of harm. That people feel pain is not a bad thing, even though it is always an indication of some form of destruction, whether that be of ideals or relationships or organic material. Pain must exist and punishment psychologically can be both positive and negative, and postive punishments can be negative conditioning and negative punishments can be positive conditioning. Like Tyranny knife's now explicitly stated purpose is to positively punish wrongdoers as to negatively condition the world of Aramán to not hurt the people they love by killing people who are irredeemable, and Tyranny's kindness and understanding is clearly there to negatively punish those who make amends and positively condition them into rehabilitation by not having Tyranny be a ruthless killer who sees forgiveness as worth jack shit. But my gods she's been alive for 6 months and has been raised by the church, and literally what are morals when you're definitionally a being made to represent contradiction and destruction? She's receptive to instruction though so give my girl Tyranny a metaethics crash course STAT.
Hal
Major Ideal: Knowledge should be shared | Major Flaw: Complacency
Murray
Hal is very much the type of person who will say "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it" and then not wait for anyone before he repeats it anyway. His life's work is about story and sharing history and studying the history to make sure the source is accurately represented, and he had dedicated himself entirely to never forgetting what the orcs won for themselves and the world when Azgra fell. Hal's biggest problem is that he thinks the fight should've already been over when in fact his civilian calling is continuing the fight but non violently, like a sword turned ploughshare himself. He thinks there is a point to hang up his sword because he's put in enough effort, and now it's on to civilian life and recording the history. And so when something in his life isn't what it seemed to be, including if that's a person with their own right to not disclose their past, it angers him. He feels suddenly unsafe. He was happy with the very comfortable life he had and even with Bolaire being different than he thought because Bolaire was being threatened, Hal still blames Bolaire for not risking his life to tell him anyway. And maybe a degree of betrayal in Hal comes from the fact that Hal and Bolaire have discussed things like this and were in agreement that they were content with their lives as is, but is that fair? Is the issue he's actually taking that Hal doesn't like Bolaire's inherent nature or is it that he didn't get told and so was unknowingly complacent in it? and is that anger at unknowing complacency really a problem because of his brother indulging Hal's wishes to stay out of the Falconers Rebellion? or is it what I think, and it's really ultimately at himself that the people in his life told all these lies because Hal asked to be kept out of it so he could keep being complacent in the political situation around him, even as an artist who is now thrown into it because of the weight of propaganda and subversive art in the face of censorship? Hal has to face that he literally asked to be left out until now and that he knew the kinds of things his brother would do to ensure he stayed out of things, and yet never wanted Thjazi or the people involved with Thjazi cut out from his life, or Thjazi wouldn't have let Bolaire stay in Hal's life at all.
Major Ideal: Vision for the future | Major Flaw: reluctance to compromise
Now I don't think there's a repeat Brennan story here because CCOD went reaaaaally into this concept but there's a very common pitfall that a lot of activists, especially young activists, fall into wherein they refuse to do coalition work with any organization that is less than perfect in their eyes, and so divide and conquer keeps minorities out of power and keeps the kinds of politicians they would want to vote for out of office. There has to be some sort of compromise and rehabilitation allowance re the oppressors for any oppressed minority to no longer be oppressed, that's just how the numbers of it break down in a democracy. Murray is very much not averse to getting her hands dirty for skulls for her magic, but one of her first real personality exemplifying scenes is the boiling frogs scene. She doesn't want Azune manipulating the Houses because that's their game, but Azune is doing it anyway, and that is both confusing and immediately concerning to her. Not that it shouldn't ever be, she's right that distrust keeps people alive, but it also keeps them isolated and weak. Brennan has said before something along the lines of "Don't question why we started when we did once things are moving, question when they're not moving" and there was extended context about people saying "'we should've done this 10 years ago' but we didn't", and that sentence is something I think Murray needs to internalize as the basis of the necessary compromises she'll have to make. Questioning why parts get left behind will always remain important, but if the sum total of why things aren't moving is she isn't willing to do things one step at a time, she's gonna have to compromise.
Wick
Major Ideal: Idealism | Major Flaw: Entitlement
Occtis
Wick is very interesting because he's very much blatantly the "good Christian" archetype, and there are Christians in my life that have made me defend the basis of Christianity to hell and back. I have scripture lists in my google keep notes so that I can use the bible against bigoted Christians, and I feel like this is the vibe Wick was created to have, but also there remains the very obvious stopping block of 'there is still a basic level of entitlement to privilege and power in Wick' that can't be ignored, and the Creed was specifically created to give Wick and his family power. Can Wick actually use the Creed in a subversive way if that's true? I don't think so. Definitely not with the basis of "well this is the tool my family created for me to wield and so I'm going to use it how I see fit". I think he can do something more akin to the hospitals and have a net positive impact, but I don't see that as a subversion and I want it to be a subversion of the Creed not just a new cult of it, and I think Wick wants that too as he literally said he didn't want it to be a cult.
Major Ideal: Examining Hypocrisy | Major Flaw: Ignorance
Teor
Occtis is a big thinker. He's got a lot of stopping blocks though that make him sorta give up on a line of thinking. Could or Would is a big example of this. If you could, would you? is two questions to Occtis because he is so focused on what he can and can't do and whether what he does choose to do because of that aligns with his personal morals, because he's never been allowed to have the same opinion of himself as his family and that has always been because of what is essentially disability, and so he has had to be able to recognize what the concept family means to him vs his dad and brothers vs Thimble, Thaisha and Hal and co. He has to examine the idea that truth isn't necessarily universal in the sense that contradictions and coincidence exist naturally within the world without necessarily having meaning to them, and he's almost nihilistic in the way that he lives under the understanding that meaning is ascribed to action and concept based on opinion and experience that differ from person to person, and so he accepts when he doesn't have the perspective or experience to know something. Except that acceptance doesn't always come with self education. He just doesn't think he needs to know or understand everything to be kind, and he doesn't, but that drive of accepting that which you cannot change coming from growing up in the Tachonis household as an outlier leaves Occtis with a lot of implicit biases that he still needs to correct.
Major Ideal: Consistency in foundation | Major Flaw: Self Sacrifice
I almost left Teor off because he's dead but I felt bad so Teor too, and Teor maybe longer even. Teor is the strong dependable leader, one of the original members of the Torn Banner, and what he'd been doing up until the show started was travel around to make sure his people were still doing okay during times of peace. He was one of the ones who first heard the Falcons Cry when Mara Weaver was arrested because he knew that was the foundation crumbling and everything else would come down with it. And everyone will know to listen when Teor says the time is now. And even in death, a death he walked into because he constantly put others before himself, and a death that might not have befallen his brother if he hadn't put being with Cyd above maintaining the ritual at the theatre, he lifted the Banner and put it into Raimonds chest, Raimond who Teor knew carried its ideals in his heart, and Thimble saw it and freed Raimond to reclaim it, like I'm sure Teor would've hoped someone would do. And in the end, I think Teor is honestly the one whose death would mean the most as a sacrifice because of how foundational he was for the cause in Thjazi's absence of corporeal form and Loza's retirement. He was the one who the people would follow, and before any of them could hear about it, he died raising the Banner once again. And when people hear that? Now THAT is a martyr if I've ever heard of one. Thjazi is too complicated even without Bolaire, Teor spent 20+ years fighting for freedom in and out of war and checking on his compatriots during times of peace, Thjazi was a schemer and crook. Also Teor's light motifs help subvert the monopoly on Light that the Creed has had as opposed to Thjazi the Shadow. Like, Thjazi's death was painful because he was a brother. Teor's death is especially painful because he died trying to rescue the three daughters of the man who put him and his friends up over night while they were chasing the person who betrayed Thjazi and kidnapped Teor's brother, who was also killed trying to save those girls and was kidnapped because he too was working against the people who killed Thjazi. Instead of hearing the falcon's cry, maybe this time we can still hear the lions roar and something about fighting for pride? Very on the nose gay pride wise, but I also like it for the parallel to the Churchill quote of "I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar"
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone point this out yet but occtis’ little satisfied smile when julien was absolutely anguished learning that he was cursed by thjazi’s shadow. really beautiful to me
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The tragedy of Thjazi is that he had a vision for a fairer world, but he felt he had to fake a great deal of intelligence, including emotional intelligence, to get support in his efforts to realize it. Charisma and luck were crutches, and they eventually failed. He wasn't an amazing leader, but he had to pretend to be in order to get people to pick up their rocks and share in his hope.
Both fans and characters within the game assumed that Thjazi Houdini'd himself into Julien's shadow as part of a contingency plan. "That wily piece of shit." "Stupid, clever bitch." "You crazy fuck." But Julien was apparently right, based on the cooldown transcript: he's not that smart, not that good. Thjazi had the scar, he knew of the Drowned Men, he died on purpose...and he had no clue why he was stuck to Julien. He tried to kill Julien in the hopes of freeing himself (I'm most offended on Aranessa's, Raimond's, Alogar's, and Thaisha's behalf for that particular move.) Succeeding would have sent Thjazi straight to Nullus for worse than nothing. When he realized Julien had saved him, he was shocked.
Thjazi Fang can't cook. All he knows is yahrgraz, rack up charges, sacrilege, be straight for one (1) woman, leap of faith, and lie.
He was never a genius. He's fucking up even from beyond the grave, strategically and interpersonally. But like Vokjan, he was needed. Our heroes can't and shouldn't rely on him, but they needed him in order to come together and give both each other and the greater cause what he lacks.
… Okay. Leaving aside the ritual for a second. Just looking at the play. At the intention of the play, before all the magic and Thjazi’s manipulations were added on top. Looking at Hal’s intentions for the play.
Brennan: You see that Lash, as Vokjan, calls out: “You will see! All of you will see! One day you will look to the top of the hill, and no longer will Azgra be there. No more will his visage tower over us! You cannot see it, but I can!” He calls, with his eyes cut out of his head. “Look, and tell me. Do your eyes not see a free world, breaking, just beyond the horizon? Look! Look!”
And he points out, and everyone seems to turn to look to see where he’s pointing, knowing that, at the top of the city of Dol Makjar, is where Azgra used to sit, and there’s a moment where this is going to be kind of like an enjoyable moment of being, like, ‘oh yeah, Azgra doesn’t sit there anymore’. And they turn and look up into the city, and see the lights of the Villa Aurora, so bright, and the Grey Tower, its lights dimmed, and bright lights celebrating the Photarch’s resurrection, meaning that, at the very top of Dol Makjar, the brightest thing they see are the flags of the Sundered Houses.
The feeling that settles over the crowd in this moment is a deep, stomach-turning confusion, that settles into something more like rage. What is sitting at the top of this city?
As they turn, Lash’s last line. “You’ll see. One day.”
So, uh? So that was a bit …
I’m now shocked that Yanessa didn’t try to get this play shut down a lot sooner. Even before Hal decides fuck subtlety at the end and openly puts not only the Falcon’s Cry over the end, but also a direct verbal attack on the Creed. But. Even before that. Like, they’ve been monitoring the progress of this play. The only reason it’s not openly seditious is because the Sundered Houses do not technically rule the city, and thus it’s not technically sedition.
But. But I guess …
See, the thing is? Without the specific context of the Hallowed Round, it’s physical position and symbolism within the city …
The play on its own, while dangerous, can still be glossed as a historical work. The choice of what history to present is still dangerous, and still rather specifically pro-rungjani and anti-religious, but that also … This is the birthing place of the Shapers War, barely 70 years out. The Candescent Creed can’t really say not to do it. It’s Rungjani history, and religion has been dramatically out of vogue for seven decades now. Owing to, you know. The global decision to kill the gods.
It's the Hallowed Round itself that makes the difference. That visual symbolism, set up by Azgra, that finally frames the Sundered Houses within Azgra’s seat for its audience. It’s a very specific location and cultural context that allows that visual correlation. It’s a very Rungjani context.
And I’m wondering if Yanessa, Halovar, the Sundered Houses, just didn’t have that context in time to realise the true danger?
Because they are, after all, a foreign power. A colonial invader. They went to the top of the city, because of course they went to the top. They’re nobles. Power rises. To an extent, that’s the image they genuinely wanted to portray.
It’s just. Viewed from the Hallowed Round. The Dithyramb of Azgra itself. That image takes on a different meaning in context. One that I’m not sure the Sundered Houses actually understood.
Also, just. Sidenote. Look at Liam’s face during Lash’s speech as Vokjan:
There’s a man full of wild, giddy emotion at his work coming to life, and at the same time an underlying dead seriousness. This is a work that was done on purpose.
Tv shows: Wow! Omg! A stoic man is being destructive and misogynistic! He's so complicated and troubled! That's so profound! This is how you can tell that you're watching prestige television!
Tv if it was good: Wow! Omg! A middle aged woman is anally fisting a young twink! She's so complicated and troubled! That's so profound! This is how you can tell that you're watching prestige television!
Idk if anyone else has brought this up, but the Thjazi of Norse mythology kidnapped Idun, and without her apples the Norse pantheon started aging. If Thjazi caused the doors to Faerie to close and the fey to start aging, that might tie into the choice to name him "Thjazi".
Loki was the one to lure Idun out for Thjazi in the myth, and he turned into a falcon to retrieve her when the gods found out. Mara inspo perhaps?
Also: Halandil/Heimdall has to guard the colorful bridge now, which is fun.
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It's funny that I feel like I've seen maybe more complaints about the Seekers than either of the other arcs but it's definitely my favorite when I look back. Loved the NPCs, loved the tension between the party members, loved exploring the body horror of what had been done to Occtis. Everything about it is peak to me.
(but I am a horror fan, so I suppose that needs to be taken into account)
But first we start with a flashback. 18 years ago (less than a year into his marriage with Aranessa), Thjazi Fang came to his brother with a crisis of morality. Just to do a quick age check: at this time, Occtis was two years old, Azune was ten, Julien and Wick were eleven years old.
Wicander would get to be a sheltered child throughout the Falconer's Rebellion, while both Azune and Julien would become soldiers in it.
Thjazi arrives all decked out in Royce finery, with a fey horse, and he makes the point later on that of course Aranessa and her family won't take his arguments seriously if he's still using their money and resources. Thjazi having 11 wisdom feels about right.
Thimble isn't here with him because she's already out raising the banners. Thaisha is also mentioned as being out there "fighting the good fight".
Okay, so the thing that set Thjazi off in a panic was Dol-Makjar dissolving the druidic council and arresting "Mara the Weaver" (who I am assuming is our Mara from later on as well). There's also now a ban on warlock traveling the under-road (so that would be from the dwarves?) with no distinguishing between patrons, even though the reason given for the ban is 'demonic influence'. After this, Loza reached out to Thjazi and asked him to fight with her.
Thjazi is terrified of dying but also so determined to do what he feels that he must, because it is right.
Such a good and powerful scene.
When we're re-introduced to the Seekers, we learn that this city is the Einfasen power base, which may explain why they're so martial -- before the Shapers War, they were the bulwark against Azgra's Orcs who lived in Dol-Makjar. We also get mention here that the city itself is a mix of human, dwarven, and human-dwarven people, because this is where the under-road merged with the above-ground road.
I feel so bad for Aabria during the gate guard scene, because she's desperately trying to get someone who has a character with more charisma to be the 'face' of the group, lol.
Thaisha also mentions here that Julien is a liar. This was a big thing from Thimble too. The two people who seemed to have worked closest with Thjazi after Maharlian Falls also have the lowest opinion of Julien, while Azune and Teor both seemed to be more... neutral or positive at times about him ("a far better man than even he knows"). It's interesting. I wonder if Kattigan left the Falconer's Rebellion before Julien joined the fighting on the side of the Sundered Houses, because we haven't seen any kind of indication that he has any particular opinion of Julien, and Julien is a person who garners strong opinions.
The thing about Julien is that I'm not sure we ever seen him disagree with people that he's a 'piece of shit', as Thimble put it. When she said that to him, his response was to imply that, yeah, maybe he is, but so is she ("at least I'm in good company").
Julien may be an asshole to people he dislikes (Thjazi's friends) but he's actually fairly polite to pretty much everyone else we see him interact with, whether lord or commoner.
Julien also seems very comfortable working by himself -- he wanted to scout alone until Aranessa pressed him to take someone along who could sense magic.
When Occtis mentions that he's going to be twenty forever, Julien says, "Twenty forever, if only."
Aranessa is at such a loss in the 'real' world. I do not think that she would have done well if she'd run away with Thjazi when he asked.
All the body horror stuff with Occtis is so great. A hand he didn't know about, holding wet food. "Don't die, it's bad" so true Thaisha.
The fake Lux is so funny! Good job, Enmity, lol. You can also see exactly why Enmity guessed that Occtis & Vaelus might be Wick & Tyranny in disguise. But Thaisha does show herself to be a very bad judge of character here, and she spills so much information to Enmity by accident! (again, I love a character flaw, so I'm good with all of this lol)
It is so funny to me how the dice keep validating Julien being vaguely condescending to people. "Try to keep up" he says to the ancient elf. He rolls amazing and she gets a Nat 1. Genuinely hilarious.
We see two huge examples of the instant Einfasen leap to violence in this episode -- the knight attacking the carriage driver because of a suspicion of demonic influence and Otto dashing out Greta's brains on suspicion of betrayal.
"Most polite house until they knock your brains out with a hammer".
Be careful, Azune.
The first time I watched this episode, I was still unsure whether or not there was fey trickery going on with the age difference between Julien and Aranessa, but I feel like it's been pretty confirmed that there is not, and they simply have a fifteen year age gap.
Which really does put some interesting shading on Aranessa going "Let's play a game" when she and Julien are talking out strategy. Twenty year old Aranessa talking to her five year old cousin, saying, "Let's play a game" and getting him to engage with her and play with her. And she keeps doing that over the years as both of them get older, and the kind of game changes over time and becomes more serious, but it's still the phrase that she uses to lock Julien into a certain kind of mindset where he's focused on the problem that she's given to him. That's her baby cousin!
I really do wonder if Aranessa was simply deeply sheltered at the Golden Orchard growing up and only had her family as friends, or if she had same-age peers who died in the Falconer's Rebellion, because Julien was introduced as one of her "oldest childhood friends".
Aranessa also says, "The last time you and your father were there (in Dol-Makjar) was a long time ago" which kinda conflicts with the Tyranny-Julien-Bolaire backstory that has been hinted at, since she's only been around for six months. But maybe Julien visited Dol-Makjar solo and never went to the Palazzo Davinos.
"Paranoia keeps us alive" -- Julien has a very pragmatic and very defense-based strategy towards the world. I also think a lot of his mindset is born out of his belief that some of the most significant people in his life (his father and Aranessa) believed the words of someone that Julien thinks was a conman & a grifter (Thjazi) and so Julien doesn't trust pretty words (compounded by the fact that we've seen Julien use that same strategy on other people, like his self-serving flirtations with Ingrid Einfasen, who Matt explicitly says that Julien never had any interest in. Until she's suddenly useful).
Julien and Occtis really do work so well together -- Julien lets Occtis squirm a little but then leaps in to help him and bolster his lies.
We're told here that Occtis needs to stay within a 100 feet of Pin in order to 'receive' information from him, which probably explains why Pin didn't try to follow Ingrid and Julien on their 'walk' in the Convergence, despite Occtis's clear interest in watching what was happening between them.
It's very funny to me that the speech that Aranessa gives Julien here about being careful and not rushing into revenge is fairly similar to what Occtis says to Julien before Obrimus Manor.
Bolaire rant incoming, tldr, CR fandom be better at reading complexity because nothing genuinely pisses me off more than people deciding that it's uninteresting for a minority character to not have deserved their suffering. Like, the idea that minority abuse stories are inherently uninteresting because their suffering isn't secretly self inflicted and it is that the people around them are discriminatory? Actually deactivate every social media account and go outside, how am I seeing this take so frequently in this fandom. The morality of their coping mechanisms is just fine for creating internal conflict. Developing healthy coping mechanisms and support networks is not an "uninteresting" story arc and therefore a theme not worth being considered at all.
The fact that Bolaire is LITERALLY a "subhumanoid" person is literally the ONLY thing some of yall have against him. He kills human traffickers and genocidal maniacs and so far only in self defense despite literally being created only to kill and be put away after he was made, he is a theatre mask weapon turned theatre producer and so Taliesin gave him charisma based spells that a director would have and some are freaky and violent and Bolaire didn't pick what magic he got, and he made the guy who was cutting up people's souls with his brother watch as his brother was killed by the person that was supposed to be their next victim unable to step in to save him because of his greed destroying him from the inside out.
Self defense, being *made* as a theatre mask weapon, appreciation for dark poetic justice. NOT inherently a serial murderer, intentionally of his choice manipulative, and an evil sadist. Like if that's what an evil murdering sadist is, 90% of every character in every dnd campaign and action movie is an evil murdering sadist.
Also, we KNOW that Bolaire doesnt just use whoever he wants whenever he wants, Misha was not told to put him on and Bolaire needed to be a part of the conversation and figure out covering his tracks before letting the party decide whether they carried him out of the city or found him a vessel. He literally never once has acted entitled to WHOEVER. He in fact has only chosen one of his hosts to our knowledge, and that was still out of two people he was given the options of and he chose the body that would be most similar to the one he had not chosen for himself. He is not "picking bodies that are the perfect height for Hal to lean on" he isn't fucking picking them at all???
The fact that he has had no way to be supported by a group of friends who take turns allowing him freedom for a few hours at a time rather than relying on the lowlifes that will try to kill and steal him is in fact Thjazi's fault if Bolaire was going to reach out for help through Hal, which I truly believe he was going to do and that's why Bolaire's so upset that Bolaire finally trusted someone but Thjazi wouldn't let him. Even if not, given that Bolaire was being threatened into silence with the people he trusted, the fact either way is that Bolaire has not been able to progress to a healthier and less violent coping mechanism for the things he needs to exist as a person with free will, and this is by and large because Thjazi literally believed Bolaire to be less of a person than himself and Hal, and that has not been disputed in canon whatsoever by anyone including Thimble and Azune. The closest we got was Thimble trying to say *Bolaire knew* Thjazi didn't literally own him, not that Thjazi never claimed to.
As for the rotting food being proof that Bolaire is intentionally not feeding the bodies regularly, Bolaire is explicitly based on dissociation and specifically derealization, and I deal with that so what did I think of? There is in fact a bag of celery in my fridge from last summer because whenever I genuinely think about forcing myself to finally clean up that beyond rotting food I dissociate so hard that I lose hours, and I also would then forget to eat and fill up my food storage with rotting food that I didnt know how to bring myself to deal with and it got so bad that I lost 40lbs in 2 months living alone and this is a big reason why I live with my dad and am considered an adult dependent instead of being solo and on disability benefits. I eat upstairs, not down in my basement apartment. Also, he was on a rotting body that had been grey for MONTHS. gee I wonder how much food a mask thinks a person goes through in a month and whether he'd feed a ROTTING BODY??? There's potentially 90+ days of food there because that's how long he was on a dead body not because he was torturing Aubrus Drime like he tortures all his other bodies. Bolaire is living with a bunch of rotting food in his house because he has to pretend to be something he isn't or people will either effectively kill him by putting him in a museum as an exhibit or fucking destroy him. And people are looking at that and, knowing it's a dissociation and derealization thing, and saying it's him torturing a person but he can't be the victim because Bolaire's not a person he's just a thing?
Yall can say that he needs a new way to have his freedom and talk about his cold butchering of the first body and discuss whether the fact that he kills a living being to sustain his own life isnt analogous to eating because he doesnt need to do it if he just rotates bodies frequently enough and whether that's forced veganism because Bolaire's subhuman or why you think it isn't, but you do NOT need to misrepresent Bolaire simply because you don't see him as equal to the humanoid players. There's so many interesting discussions raised by Bolaire's character, especially philosophical discussions. It's absolutely the opposite of uninteresting, and imo it only can be considered uninteresting if what youre actually saying is that saying he's analogous to minorities flattens his story rather than adds depth to explore.
Is Bolaire enough of a person to deserve autonomy and life is not a question we as the audience should be asking. Taliesin is a player, we're not going to come to the conclusion Taliesin's character is inherently evil and was always going to have to die, especially in a campaign so explicitly centric around the concept lf breaking free from slavery. Ask instead what does the fact that Bolaire IS a person entitle him to do in order to live a free and autonomous life?
Does Bolaire being a person entitle him to eat and therefore does that entitle him to kill? How must he kill for it to be considered ethical eating if his sole "edible" food source is humanoids and he does require it? How does this morally differ from eating either a carnivorous diet or even a herbivorous diet, especially in a world with Awaken and speak with metal? How frequently can one kill if it's to improve their health as opposed to bare necessity? We know that Bolaire feels better on fresher bodies, but he can go months on a dead or dying body and potentially longer if he feeds it properly, so does he have a duty of care to his body's autonomy and does it come above or below his own? What happens if he has a disagreement with his host, who gets final say on their combined action? What is the burden on the host to keep wearing the mask until Bolaire can be transferred? Is there one at all? How do we equate his position to the real world equivalencies and what does that mean about how we see dependent minorities and eugenics?
I've said this in a comment, but I want for there to be a solution eventually where Occtis crafts Bolaire a body like Pin's and his own out of fallen Sundered House enemies that Occtis animates enough for Bolaire to have his own freedom without relying on a person giving up their own autonomy even temporarily, and I see the transition to that as similar to going from being extremely disabled to the point that you're dependent in a way that is detrimental to your parents, transitioning to a sort of PSW/health team assisted living, to independence through a support structure and patient specific accommodations and regular doctor's appointments. And I think the process of how they decide to create a body for Bolaire and the ways the different characters wrestle with Occtis's decision to start harvesting parts from their enemies to do so will be incredibly sufficient at creating tension with the morality of Bolaire's inherent nature in the story, I don't think we need to root for the players to all stop supporting Bolaire the second he has a shot at being given a healthy coping mechanism.
Full disclosure, I am a Knightingale shipper, but removing ship goggles for a second, it's actually really unsurprising for Julien to suddenly be trying so hard to be so close to Occtis these last couple episodes.
The only two characters he seems to have had prior relationships with outside of Thjazi are Bolaire and Thimble, which we know that Bolaire is his dealer and he had some kind of bad experience with Tyranny she keeps bringing up where he started crying that Bolaire is aware of, so it makes sense for him to not want to get very cozy with people he absolutely cannot risk being vulnerable in front of.
He also just had the second worst day of his life hanging around with Bolaire and Tyranny, but also Wick, which then makes Occtis the only other person from a noble house he's around right now (and Julien is a bit of a snob). Julien and Occtis also both very much have their worldviews shaped by the broader caste system they were raised in, so they are the most similar in how they speak to and interact with others. They speak the same language in a way even Wick doesn't because he was raised so religious that the way he was raised to engage with other people is very different from how the children of the other houses seem to behave.
Occtis also knows better than to push Julien, because their upbringings were similar enough that they both understand not to ask questions the other one doesn't want to answer. Occtis has previously been pretty meek anyway, but he's also just not a person who is going to ask Julien about his trauma responses because he doesn't want to invite Julien to ask about his. This part of the dynamic is subject to change fairly easily, but at this moment I think they're both way more interested in dealing with the right now than they are the past or future.
Julien did try to bond with the other martials, but then pretty quickly realized that they had all been on the other side of the Falconers Rebellion and were close friends of Thjazi, so he can't default into the only other world he's comfortable in (being a soldier) which means he's retreated back to being a noble, putting him squarely back in Occtis's orbit. Plus Occtis doesn't have the same deep connection with Thjazi most of the others do. Thimble and Azune will get defensive and angry if Julien talks shit, the worst Occtis gets is annoyed because while he's grateful to Thjazi and I think feels indebted to him, it's not that deep love some of the others have.
Then throw that in Aranessa is gone which puts Julien at sixes and sevens because he doesn't have his anchor of being able to protect someone (his liege, his subordinates, etc) but Occtis is someone who is smaller and physically weaker and hey he's a noble! So Julien can default back into his comfort zone - the thing he was literally raised from the cradle to do.
I also think that proximity to Occtis desensitized him to the dead thing, plus his field trip with Bolaire where he's like "never mind I think I prefer the horror that is within my comprehension" have helped. But also, he has (for lack of a better term) forgiven Occtis for what his family did. After the thing with Tertia and seeing what the Tachonis are comfortable doing to their own children, he's warmed up to him and I think it's because it allowed him to start seeing Occtis as another victim.
In a big way, Occtis is the only tether Julien has to his old life right now. He's an heir with no house, a soldier with no battle, an instructor with no students, and a knight with no liege. He can easily slot Occtis into at least one of those roles in a way that allows him to continue with a familiar pattern of how to interact with the world: he's shielding Occtis the way he had done with Aranessa because Aranessa isn't here and Occtis is the only one he can rationalize doing that to.
So basically he has this person who speaks the same interpersonal language he does, whose life was also ruined the same night Julien's was, and who fits easily into a relationship format that Julien is deeply comfortable being in. This is the easiest person for him to deal with and he is going to cling to that.
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I keep thinking about Chee's prelude, and while there is obviously much more to learn about what happened, I was really struck by the origins of the conflict with Teleghen.
It's so interesting to me that Teleghen wasn't (at first glance) monstrously evil like I kind of expected. The artesans seem largely content, working hard for a giant corporation to be sure, but not ridiculously exploited.
However, I think it so telling that when their employees start pushing back against the system, even in a very small way, the benign facade starts dropping. Honestly, "pushing back" is too strong of a term; really it was just exerting agency in any way. Chee (and Hannah and Ikat before her) were trying to do something something small, that would have been a net positive for everyone.
And for, as far as we know, no other reason than it wasn't fully in pursuit of profit and and Teleghen wants to clamp down on employee agency (and "you don't leave while you are still profitable," but Chee wasn't even suggesting she leave), they respond to this tiny proposed change with a decisiveness and harshness that eventually made violent revolt the only way forward.
This feels very telling and relevant to our world. There are absolutely corporations and systems dealing in monstrous, obvious evil. But often it looks like Teleghen. If you never even give the illusion of "stepping out of line," you can often go with the flow and not encounter the ugly, violent underbelly of a system. But even one toe outside of expected boundaries, even or especially when you are trying to make positive change, can lay bare the violence and coercion at the heart of a system.
I think sci-fi often tends towards demonstrating uprising against the obvious evil which is important and does exist, but it is refreshing and applicable that they are choosing to tell a story that at least in part deals with exposing this kind of ordinary, mundane evil.
one of my favorite things about campaign 4 is the un/intentional allegory of dol-makjar, a city of orcs who can see in the dark because of darkvision, getting overtaken by humans who "wield the light" and have absolutely no darkvision. and it got really hammered down in episode 31 when the sons of the dawn and the grey tower guard were surrounded by magpie orcs and the wind snuffed out all the lights.
Welcome to our fair city. I hope that you enjoy your stay.
absolute fucking banger. i'll be forever thankful that brennan made araman and campaign 4 as a love letter to the orcs of lotr, the first and greatest victims of sauron.
