Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Leaving aside the fact that Capt. Azune ‘Fuck the Sundered Houses and Fuck You Too’ Scheming Schemer Nayar wouldn’t do shit for them, I had to hit the mental brakes on a rewatch to realize

Azune got promoted this morning. Literally during the same audience at the Stahlkeep where he presented the evidence against House Tachonis. This same day.

Now, being reasonable, maybe the Candescent Creed clerks knew his title by just waltzing up and asking for Azune himself prior to entering the Hallowed Round (a scene we did not see) and maybe that’s how they learned about the new station. Maybe one of the Arcane Marshals brought it up (again, unseen)? Could be! Except.

Why would these jerks even namedrop him at all? Why not just say they’d tell on Hal to the guardsmen in general? Why, unless Filoneus Halovar has been putting Azune Nayar’s name in the Creed’s ears? Again, including the promotion to captain he got this same day.

Azune has had a grand total of 1.5 conversations with this man. The full conversation was some lighthearted (Light-hearted) chatter to distract from hunting Hal outside his house. The half-conversation was a few seconds’ worth of guard talk per the assassination attempt at the gala. That’s it. The sum total of their interaction, period.

And yet, Filoneus is actively chiming in to land Azune on the major Palazzo Davinos case. He’s zeroing on him like an Azune ‘GOOD MAN!’ Nayar-seeking missile at the gala. He is dishing his name around the Creed and likely the Villa Aurora as his guy in the Arcane Marshals. And now his guy is Captain as of this exact morning! A very normal thing for someone definitely not keeping close tabs on a specific guardsman to know! If you need anything at the Hallowed Round, go to him, guys!  

like

Sure, it’s great foundation for future mole work on Azune’s part. But also, it took working in close proximity, multiple Oscar performances, psychological tripwires, and a mountain of tangible results of his own labor to win Harondus Einfasen over, likewise for the impressive display for Otto Einfasen and his people, to the point that he’s being eyed as a possible lost Einfasen himself. It took a lot to land that sweet spot with House Einfasen!

With Filoneus, Azune has exchanged maybe two paragraphs’ worth of words with the man, and yet the lord knight is mentally slapping a BFF of the Creed <3 bracelet on him. Even if it gets chalked up to enthusiasm over having any devout soul planted within the Arcane Marshals, this goes beyond enthusiastic and veers into truly wild levels of assumption regarding how close Azune and the Creed’s motives are. Hell, Filoneus hasn’t even gotten anything from Azune yet in the way the Einfasens have received a treasure trove of results within a week. So where is this tidal wave of ‘Good man! I like his style! He should get special attention from the Lords Advisory and also namedropped to the Candescent clergy about that! :)’ energy coming from?

a fair point

What we have learned is that, well, it's still to be determined how much Thjazi was really in cahoots with either the Sundered Houses or trying to thwart them but...

Brother! I got out!

Hal's choice not to fight in the Falconer's Rebellion was a personal choice about prioritizing his own family (and whether he could even leave his two older children with Elodie to go off and fight is not totally certain). But it was, of course, not a choice made in isolation. He argues that even their father decided to hang up his blade at some point, but our understanding of the lot of orcs before the Shaper's War is that that wasn't a choice their father could have made 60 years prior. That under Azgra, Hal would almost certainly have been forced to march to war, never mind his three young children at home. There were clearly orcs who weren't on the front lines, orcs who built the cities and smithed the weapons and provided whatever food the community had, but by and large orcs were made as weapons and used as such. Thjazi's letter referenced turning swords into plowshares. In some ways, Hal's whole life between the War of Axe and Vine and now has been a version of that. The Falconer's Rebellion was a just cause, and it's probable that if more people had been willing to join it, Araman wouldn't be in the mess it's currently in. But Hal's choice to abstain is a very different choice from Aranessa's choice to abstain. The politics of an orc saying "I will not fight" even when the cause is just are far more nuanced. Because isn't this part of the freedom Vokjan Murzat fought and died for? Orcs in nice clothes, with flowers all around, and time to go see beautiful art made by their own people? Orcs who raise children and start businesses and hang up their swords? A life free from war? Finally. We don't know whether Hal was thinking about those politics when he made his choice. I suspect he was "I choose the Rungjani" indicates that to me, but you can easily read the scene another way. Whatever your take on his thought process, the politics of the choice are undeniable. A healthy orc in his early 30s refusing a call to arms barely 50 years after Azgra's death means something for the Rungjani.

I change my thought process and the intention of the spell to request that Dame Seremai protect me one more time.

Are you there?

Mayali Nayar: I would die for my little brother.

Zebani Halovar: I'm ready to kill my little brother.

Murray organizes the people of the world into the oppressors and the oppressed, but stumbles when the lines aren’t clear cut. Murray stealing from and smuggling goods through the Penteveral is good, but Dean Kora (who has a similar background as Murray) doing it in an official way that brings funding to the school isn’t. Thjazi is suspect because he seemed to be so aware of and worked around the Sundered Houses’ machinations, but Azune isn’t because he’s talking to her about his spying? Occtis is a nepo baby despite 0 support or contact from his family during his entire stint at the Penteveral (he hadn’t even been to the family manor in the same city for years), but Hero D’vyen isn’t despite being raised in an influential merchant family because she was useful? Because she’s a wizard instead of a sorcerer? Because she’s Hal’s kid (and still also Elodie’s kid)?

The simple answer is that Murray picks favorites according to her strongest impressions, and doesn’t really think deeply about the why. It’s an instinctive thing, not a well reasoned perspective based in logic or moral judgment. That’s a fascinating flaw to have for someone so dedicated to the idea that magic is a science and belief systems like religion are just superstitions.

Of all the PCs, Azune is the one in the best position to prod at this flaw. None of the others really have reason to put heavy weight on Murray’s opinion of them. Azune was her pupil and both of them worked with Thjazi. They have personal and professional connections to each other.

So it’s Azune who brings up the ugly line of thought:

I like-- Sometimes you look at me and I think that you put on me a little bit of the disdain that you have for the institution that I work for and it makes me feel like I might be losing you because of the position I'm in, but moments like this remind me that that's probably just in my head, and I really--

Murray’s response is of course that’s all in his head, she doesn’t think of him like that because he’s a good egg.

He’s one of the good ones, and we’re not going to ignore all the biases that invokes for a character made by a white woman.

But the story didn’t end there in episode 22, and the conversation didn’t either. Azune keeps brushing against these biases, and Murray cares enough about him that she can’t ignore the discomfort.

Azune tells the group that he needs to present the case to Einfasen at the family manor. He is potentially walking to his execution, and they all know it because he asked for Demodus to go testify, and Murray objected that her student could die there. But so could Azune.

Is it fine because Azune was a child soldier and never really stopped being a soldier? Because he chose to join the Arcane Marshals to spy for Thjazi instead of pursuing a formal education for himself? Because he chose to lie to the Sundered Houses to further the Schemers’ plans and that means he solely bears the risks?

Of course it’s not fine, and Murray doesn’t pretend it is, but she clearly wants to escape that situation without having to face those questions, and Azune won’t let her. She objected, and now that all of that is laid at her feet, she has to choose to stand by that objection or not.

How can she criticize Thjazi for treating good people as expendable when that is exactly the dilemma before her? Doesn’t that suggest that Thjazi experienced similar turmoil when faced with these choices? We can’t even answer that because Thjazi chose to die for his cause rather than escape. He bore the same risks he asked of others and didn’t run.

So Murray goes with the group too, all jointly risking their lives, and Azune’s presentation works! She even has a discussion with Demodus where he points out that his lightheartedness isn’t from naïveté or ignorance, but because he chooses that in the face of despair. Azune got promoted, Demodus has a job set up for him with an escort to safety, and Murray faces no fallout.

But it doesn’t feel good.

Sure, the world would be better without the Sundered Houses using their monopoly on magic to reinforce class divides—but the divides will continue. Gus is only king because he had a valid claim of royal blood, with support from other nobles, and his heir will follow a monarchist convention for title and inheritance. The backup soldiers for the theater will only show up because Elodie D’vyen charitably paid for their meals. Students were available to help Bolaire obstruct the houses at the Archanade because of corruption at the Penteveral. We don’t get to pretend that the only reason these circumstances are in the story is some message about making unfair systems work for the heroes; the unfairness will continue even if they win.

The uncomfortable reality is that the world isn’t simple enough to determine who the good people are and then get rid of the bad guys. There’s no such thing as the good people, a class of good people, a set of pre-determined traits that identifies good people. Even if we pretended there was, they aren’t a unified faction whose interests and stakes will always align. The idea of always being able to make choices to benefit only the good people is no more rational than superstition. That’s an uncomfortable thought to bear for an intelligent woman who values scientific study of magic enough to dedicate her career to it.

Azune has accepted that already, and he clocked Murray right from the start: her support and friendship is contingent on him being one of the good ones, however it is that she defines that in her own head.

It’s so satisfying to see a Latino actor look a white actor in the eyes and perform his character begging to know how he can be one of the good ones. Azune wants to be and doesn’t know how, but he’s willing to do as he’s told. No one gets to be comfortable about this. Everyone gets to bask in how fucked up that mentality is and that there is no definitive answer except “the people I approve of.” Hypocrisy and tribalism on full display with a lovely little plaque added by Luis.

that said! i am fascinated by the way that murray seems a little blind to struggles that aren’t in line with her own until she’s directly and pretty aggressively confronted with them.

we get to see this first with occtis, and how she sees his name and knows his house and immediately assumes that he’s just like the rest of them. she doesn’t see the implication of a child of a sundered house having to resort to studying wizardry when he should have all manner of magic at his fingertips without a lick of effort by his birthright. she doesn’t see the truth of his situation, doesn’t look for it at all, until occtis is dead at her feet, murdered by his own family.

on the other hand, there’s demodus, who has the same struggle as her in her eyes, of not being taken seriously with the talent he’s studied to cultivate, and working for the funding and freedom to continue studying as murray has fought for continued funding and freedom for her school

and then there’s azune, who she’s taught same as demodus, and who has struggled on his own the same as demodus and she have. but his struggle ends with him aiming to be useful, it’s ended with him in a position of power (as much as being a magic cop under the thumb of a noble who has said azune should be afraid of him is holding some power), and murray doesn’t seem to see how hard that is for him, even when he says in no uncertain terms to her that he worries she hates him for his position in a corrupt system. it’s not until he’s devolving into a gasping panic in front of her begging for her help and saying he’s scared and can’t do this anymore that she sees that he’s truly, severely struggling with the burden he’s under.

and even then, she tells him he’s a boy scout, and one of the good ones, and that he has to keep going he has no choice. in the same breath that she’s telling him that demodus, who is only maybe 4 ot 5 years younger than him, is too young and innocent to risk, she’s telling azune that he is worth risking for the cause and he has to buck up and get over it. he has made his bed and must lie in it.

which is true, he has made this bed for himself, but only because he’s been living in this level of isolation where he only interacts with what passes for his support system when thjazi needs something from him, to the point where even thimble doesn’t know where he lives or if he has anything to go home to.

Maybe I'm biased because it's Passover season, but the religious holiday in the C4E21 cold open, and especially the blessing Thaisha recited, reminded me a lot of Judaism.

First of all, the holiday the Lloys are celebrating is a religious holiday celebrating freedom from bondage and reaching a safe place, and part of the tradition of the holiday is to recite the story of how they became free. It's Passover right now. Enough said. Second, the story of having to operate underground for thousands of years and then suddenly having a window of time in which you can practice openly and safely, as is the case for the druids, is something any Jew can identify with.

That's the obvious. But then it gets interesting.

Third, the blessing Thaisha recited of the druid for Azgra reminded me of Mishnah Berakhot 9:5, from Talmud, which says (trans. Joshua Kulp): "One must bless for the evil in the same way one blesses for the good" and then goes on to explain exactly how one should properly bless. Many Jews have interpreted that sequence to mean that perhaps the blessing itself, and doing it right, is more important than the target of the blessing. That seems to be one of the messages of the story of Bajaraz, too.

Fourth, there is a strong anti-theist (hatred, antagonism, opposition, or suspicion toward God) streak in Judaism, particularly noted among Holocaust survivors. Survivor Elie Wiesel wrote the play The Trial of God based on his direct experience watching his fellow prisoners in Auschwitz put on a trial of God to determine whether he was guilty of failing the Jewish people. Yet even this anti-theism is usually accompanied by a kind of respect and acknowledgment of God, which again corresponds to the idea of blessing Azgra.

Before the play, the main actor Lash was nervous, and so Hal said to him to help him focus: "If not now, when? If not you, who?"

That quote is a possible translation/paraphrase of a quote from Talmud, specifically Pirkei Avot, which is usually given as:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"