jim's variety hour

he's clearly pulling back from them. yes, to be with his daughter but also because of the feelings he'd been pushing down that came out during the Bard's Lament. for a Scanlan Superfan like myself, i missed him this season, sure, but it wasn't completely detrimental to the season's quality for a few reasons.

firstly, because i trust them to finish his arc in a satisfying way. the way season 4 ends kind of, in my mind, has him set up to be someone to pick up the pieces and maybe deal with the consequences of his absence from the group.

secondly because his absence gives me more space to interpret and do things with him in my writing that interest me, which is a core part of experiencing any form of art: how you interpret it.

A lot of the complaints about him being absent and therefore taking out some important moments from the campaign don't really land for me because they aren't meeting the show on its own level and what it's doing with the characters.

Because, let's be real, Scanlan didn't start off in the campaign as a deep of a character as he is in the show at least. From everything I know, Sam didn't intend for him to come out like that from the start. Which is fine! But the thing with adapting it with the benefit of hindsight is that there's a chance to change up his arc with his character as a whole in mind, and sometimes that means losing a few character moments in favour of emphasising some elements of his arc.