#tlovmask

hmm sure vax

poor woman gets so much criticism it’s so misogynistic

percy literally chose to save pike over the whole of whitestone and he’s not called selfish

Everyone throwing around the word “misogynistic” is getting tiring. People can see that a character makes a selfish choice while not thinking that character is personally selfish. Keyleth submitting was selfish and obviously surprising because the other members of Vox Machina didn’t suspect it. Even Grog goes to step forward but Pike holds him back. The thinking here is that she’s the one closest to Vax, in a sense she should know best that he wouldn’t have wanted her to bow to Vecna to save his life, that wouldn’t be worth it to him. He’d rather die than see all of Vox Machina capitulate.

So Keyleth submitting was a personal, selfish thing because if she was objective she had to have known there wasn’t going to be any benefit or mercy in submitting to Vecna. But as I said in my post it doesn’t mean her choice isn’t understandable. She did just think she’d cured Vax and was going to have everything she’d dreamed with him so to have that snatched away and be told to make a snap decision about his life is cruel, hence why Vecna is such a terrible villain. Nonetheless it doesn’t take away the selfishness of her choice vs the selflessness of what Vax does.

a lot of the criticism ppl have towards keyleth from s4 applies to many of vax’s actions in s2 and s3

“not trusting vax” he didn’t trust her in s3

“she’s driven by emotions” he is too - hence why he’s the champion and the reason he dies

“she acts without thinking” ummmm yup so does vax

“too trusting. eg believe the whispered one” her whole arc in s3 disproves that entirely

He’s definitely not getting less of the criticism right now strangely 😂The interesting thing about Vaxleth is that they struggle to see things from each others perspectives. Ironically it’s their opposing viewpoints that drove Vax and Keyleth towards one another. He liked how she was kind of goofy but more optimistic and sweet vs his more realistic and combative nature. They challenge one another to see a different side of things in a way they wouldn’t have without the other. So yes that can sometimes come across like they don’t trust each other but fundamentally they do.

Vax choosing to become the Champion wasn’t necessarily an emotional decision. It was him choosing to submit to what he thought was the best course to save Vex’s life and he was willing to take on that burden, again the self-sacrificial kind of thing. With Keyleth though when she submits to Vecna it’s a snap decision she makes. It’s not that she’s even trusting Vecna, it’s that in that moment she likely isn’t thinking it through much at all and is simply blindly hoping her choice would save Vax. Her whole arc was about her parallel to Delilah and how, regardless of what happened, she’d be willing to do anything to save Vax. In that way it contrasts Vax who is willing to sacrifice himself to save his friends, she just wanted him to live. Again, understandable but no less selfish in the thought process. Now as I’ve said in other posts, I don’t think Keyleth herself is selfish at her core. She’s the leader of the Ashari for a reason but this season showed that there’s very much Keyleth, the Voice of the Tempest and Kiki, the young woman deeply in love. Unlike the others who are better coming to grips with reconciling both sides of themselves and holding them in tension, Keyleth is still struggling with this and because of that struggle she can make these kinds of weighty decisions.

i feel sometimes his love and devotion is shown to be greater to vex than keyleth (i think that’s often as percy and vex are the more nurtured/invested and thoroughly explored couple by the show runners so keyleth and vax dont feel as explored and more flat)

vax says he is in love with keyleth and wants a future with her but always does/choses the option that shows the opposite of that in his actions throughout the seasons. also when he is upset that he doesn’t want to die talking to percy - he never mentioned leaving keyleth but you have keyleth sobbing about him dying in the same scene. paired with vax’s other actions, it all makes the relationship feel incredibly imbalanced and kind of one sided

I’m really not sure why people feel this way when he went on her Aramente with her which was entirely about devoting all his time to something that was solely about her. In the beginning of their relationship he denies his feelings when she doesn’t want to be with him and then even after she kisses him, he tries not to continue when he has the vision of her being alone after everyone’s death because he doesn’t want her to be in pain. When they’re together he encourages her and is her biggest cheerleader. He’s the first one to look after her when she’s injured and hurt. And Delilah could only show him the vision of the future he could’ve had with Keyleth, including marriage and a family with children, if that’s something he has dreamed of in the first place. So no, I disagree about his devotion to Keyleth being less strong than that for Vex.

Just because he didn’t mention that he would miss her or he wasn’t shown breaking down and crying about being separated from Keyleth doesn’t mean he lacks devotion. For one, men just don’t tend to do this. While media today has kind of feminized men and made them have these big gushy emotional declarations or crying moments, that’s really not realistic. Men tend to show things in other ways like how Vax is portrayed being the fixer and the one to comfort Keyleth when she’s distressed. He’s not going to seek out comfort himself. His moment with Percy was a rare sign of vulnerability to the one guy who’d understand and Vax knew he wouldn’t say anything to the girls and burden them with it. He couldn’t say those things to Keyleth because they would’ve only angered her and made her more upset at his predicament. Vax’s love is shown in his bearing of the curse and pushing through to be the person everyone knew him to be right to the end. And love doesn’t always have to be mentioned to be felt. Their relationship isn’t one-sided at all, the way he loves her is just quieter and more steady. He’s sort of been her rock from the beginning and in him keeping that, to me it’s a special kind of devotion.