#suffering game

Justin: That brings me down to 49 max hit points

Griffin, the direct cause of this: Jesus, Juice- that’s low-!

Oh shit check it out we just dropped the cover art for The Suffering Game!

The obvious explanation is that it was to garner trust. Like, of course if the Red Robe swoops in and takes the bell, of course if he wants to hold it, it could be for whatever Nefarious Plans his Evil Organization created them for.

But maybe there was more to it? Maybe it was a little self-check, too?

I mean. That's his relic. Lucretia's been up on the moon just using her own staff for the past few years, and if he has any inkling of that, he has no idea how much she's been affected by it (hell, even THB's resistance to the relics doesn't let them safely use them - just transport them).

So maybe he pointed it out to the others to avoid getting anywhere near it. To avoid being tempted by the thing he created - to be lured in by whatever subconscious desires shaped this artifact, just the same as Magnus' so nearly did.

Spoilers of course.

And I understand both sides of this argument. It was cut cause how are you actually supposed to visualize that scene- or more so change his character. Adding anything or removing anything from him can be so disheartening. Like you remove his eye color or add eye bags but your also saying those are not beautiful things about people.

On the other hand I get why it sucks being removed. You have a major part of his character built on him caring about his looks/appearance. You now have to remove the Kravitz scene with him later on and that scene is very heartwarming. And you also lose the angst of him no longer being identical to Lup.

But you wanna know the easy way to fix that entire problem and still get the same effects.

Have Lydia and Edward be like "we're gonna change your entire physical appearance. You'll still be you- but you'll have an entirely different appearance. You won't have the same face or anything you recognize or grown to love about yourself. You will be like an entirely new person."

You still get the same effects. You're not taking away the whole moment with Kravitz later on. You're still getting Taako sacrificing something that is very important to him. And everyone still gets the angst with him not looking like his sister. And you're not treading into saying certain aspects of people are not beautiful. He just looks like a different person entirely.

Cause imagine the body you've known your whole life and grew to love/appreciate is just gone. No longer you. You look in a mirror and don't recognize yourself. How heartbreaking that is. How it is still impactful.

I agree that scene would've sucked if they kept it as it was- but changing it slightly and still getting the same effects was entirely possible. There was so much lost in the suffering game it hurts.