Critical Role Spoiler Blog

They literally went "You were the traitor all along? You are damaged and not a nice person? Well, guess what? ONE OF US! ONE OF US! We don't trust you, though"

Even setting aside the matter of Bolaire, Halandil Fang has a long-standing pattern of ignoring or compartmentalizing the problematic behavior of people close to him.

It started about twenty years ago, when Thjazi was about to marry the Lady Aranessa Royce. Hal was with Thjazi and Aranessa before the wedding, when Aranessa offered up Thimble as a gift to Thjazi. Thjazi is immediately and justifiably disturbed by his soon-to-be wife giving him an entire person as a gift. "Sorry, the fairy's a gift? I don't agree with any of this." After Thjazi's repeated objections to what Aranessa has done, what does Halandil Fang have to say?

"Just shut up and say thank you."

Thjazi is willing to believe that Aranessa can be wrong and make choices he can't ethically accept. Indeed, it was only a year after this wedding that he left Aranessa because he couldn't accept her choices and those of House Royce. But Hal does not want to believe this about Aranessa. He wants to smile and say thank you and not disturb the peace by making a fuss about whether it's ethical to give Thimble as a gift or not.

Fast-forward to the end of the Falconer's Rebellion, when Azune shows up on Hal's doorstep with a plea from Thjazi to look after him. As mentally unwell as Azune is in the present day, I can scarcely imagine how fucked up he must have been as a sixteen year old war veteran with his home and family forever lost to him. As he spent time in Hal's home, his behavior and reactions must have made it clear that Azune was severely traumatized by his time as a child soldier in the Rebellion. What any foster parent ought to start thinking in this situation is: "Did this child's previous guardian do right by him? Or did he fail him?"

Except that Azune's previous guardian was Thjazi, and nothing indicates that Hal ever took Thjazi to task for letting a child fight for him on the front lines, or for the mindset that his guardianship created in Azune, that he is a thing, a weapon, only worthy of care if it is bought and paid for. Just like Hal liked Aranessa and didn't want to believe she might have crossed a line with Thimble, and would rather have just kept the peace, Hal didn't want to disturb the peace with Thjazi by suggesting that he might have crossed a line with Azune.

Marisha absolutely never again imply that Brennan will tell you that something you see on a battle map doesn't exist in world. /lh But actually, Im confident Brennan would never just say "Yeah that artist didn't ask me first before making that table realistic" especially in a world where he keeps reminding them he's designed it to be a world not to be a series of encounters, so I hope that more shenanigans like this get pulled with map details because this trick is so clever and Murray knife throwing with Azune is such a fun lore drop.

Azune really has been very dragon-y from the start, though I wonder how he would've played it if he went spellfire instead of Draconic. Like the dragon symbol is still there so who would be the draconic bloodline family if not Azune's?

Bolaire is so freaky I love him so much, *reverse sword swallows glass into your mind* has such comedic potential to me but also is absolutely horrific nightmare fuel, and I'm glad I need picture references to imagine stuff well.

This fight rewarding Azune's "turn them against each other" mindset is fun. Like, they're doing such dark magic and turning these people against Laumey, and it pays off so well so them, I just hope the larger scale pans out the same

Which is fucking hilarious actually. Like imagine your Essek. Are you regretting your life decisions yet? Probably not, but you will soon and this whole thing is going to get fucking weirder, but it's already pretty damn weird

Because you're expecting to hear information about the Empire in some way or another, and to sus out their real loyalties and motivations. And you're probably sitting there realizing that if they are important and know a lot they might very well know you had something to do with the whole situation and initiating a goddamn war (Which they seem really against, its like a whole thing but they seem really really anti-war) Or at least they might not be far from figuring out. Especially if they start to look into it. So you may have your personal motivations for listening as well while frantically trying to figure out what they know and if you're going to be in any danger-

-But you can't figure it out, because they can't seem to figure it out either? Like they can't seem to tell if they're lying and seem confused about existence in general, and instead of hearing any juicy empire secrets or updates on any potential investigation you hear some insanely intimate and heavy conversations and holy shit, its starting to make sense why that one Goblin girl literally returned God to get her husband back, they all just that intense on everything, while also admitting that they planned none of this and literally everything that had happened so far was completely unplanned-

-And when this group is finally like 'we should probably have some sort of plan' you start to get worried with what they're going to do; if they start to investigate in any way or know too much this could very quickly go bad for you;

But instead they all kinda just look around and go 'we should probably find a way to end the war?' and they all agree thats a solid enough plan, and they'll figure out the rest in the morning?