30to50wildhogs

[30to50wildhogs]

Yeah, I think at the end of it. I get, understand, and agree that the narrative moment we're at is "Bells Hells, feeling they don't have the resources to fight Ludinus a second time today and still uncertain about the central question of what is to be done about the gods in Exandria, move toward Predathos in an attempt to control a situation they feel is inevitable. Imogen feels she has to make the choice to accept it into herself because Predathos is still moving toward her and the Ruidusborn, tragically boxing her into this because she feels she has no other meaningful choices." Great, amazing, I totally understand this, and it is a natural beat and one that coheres as a culmination of the campaign. It's actually a pretty great beat in summary.

The frustrating thing ultimately feels to be the execution, because it constantly feels like the story is meandering from beat to beat after an incredibly long series of meanderings over the course of the campaign. It's ultimately fine the characters feel uncertain, but the storytelling itself feels uncertain as well about what it is doing and that is less fine. Every decision is made with a sort of timid "I suppose that's the thing to do, I don't really know" at the table level without a very clear sense of what they're moving toward narratively, and that's really more of the problem. It's undercutting what is otherwise a really great direction.

Decisions don't feel like they have teeth because the storytelling is so hesitant about whether it's the right direction to take, so the needed feeling of stakes, inevitability, tragedy, suffocating circumstance don't exist in the way they should to give what's happening the needed sense of clarity. It feels like we're all moving through a bog in a not fun way because the story itself isn't sure what it's moving toward even in a sense of vibes or structurally. moving confidently and toward a tragedy in a sense of trapping the characters and cornering them would've done wonders, but instead it kinda has the feeling of trying to unroll a carpet dramatically and it just kinda slowly stops. Like, it's a slow drift down a lazy river instead of feeling dragged out with the tide.

It is a really great beat to have Imogen accepting Predathos because she feels she doesn't have any other choice in the series of pressures occurring right now. But, the pressure doesn't really feel like it exists because it all feels disconnected from the moment or too gently / abstractly applied or too slow to be framed, and the inevitability aspect doesn't feel like it's quite standing because narrative inevitability comes from momentum and strong storytelling intent and purpose, and it's never felt like this campaign has had that. The storytelling is hesitant and uncertain, so the tragedy doesn't quite come through on experience of the moment, even when it does come through in summary.

And that's more the frustrating thing. It's a good beat executed a little too uncertainly. The choice itself for the character is a good one, but it — like much of the campaign — feels like it lacks a storyteller trust in the narrative or trust in the choice itself to make it really feel satisfying as an execution. I genuinely wonder if that's ultimately what I'm bouncing off of, the fact that it doesn't feel like the table is trusting in the narrative or trusting the choices they're making for the story or trusting in themselves and each other to carry through the story they’re telling, so the intentionality and purpose feel off and it's stripping a great beat of its power by making it feel hesitant at a narrative mechanics level.

[30to50wildhogs]

How orym be up in that shit

Rip to Dorian, you might be inexperienced but your boyfriend just got to 22 dex

[30to50wildhogs]

Orym, I know you are gay so i'm sorry but I AM KISSING YOU ON THE MOUTH, I LOVE YOU

[30to50wildhogs]

Howdy! was wondering if you could find Rhett's button down from GMM 2607, it's the shirt he's wearing for the intro/commentary, not the game itself. He's worn it before but I don't remember which episode so it may have already been covered, though I did look through your posts for a bit and didn't see it. Thank you in advance, this is such a wonderful resource!

It's from Urban Outfitters. It's the Keith Haring Camp Collar Short Sleeve Button-down Shirt.

[30to50wildhogs]

collection of posts for a very specific dynamic

[30to50wildhogs]

🦇BAT GLOWSTICKS🦇 🦇BAT GLOWSTICKS🦇

[30to50wildhogs]

orym moving over to chetney, asking “can I get into the bag?” and chetney asking “are you sure?” and orym saying “mmhmm.” and chetney opening the bag and offering it to orym and orym taking out otohan’s blade and leaving the room with it and laudna saying huffily “that blade’s bigger than you. we can all see you taking otohan’s blade.” and fearne saying “he’s allowed to do that, though.” and ashton adding “he may actually be doing something healthy.” (bonus: imogen saying “I don’t think he’s going to follow a sugar glider.” 😂)

[30to50wildhogs]

Yeah I really don't see this party staying together post-campaign apart from the obvious couplings (but even that might fade like a wartime flame yk). Interesting dynamic to be sure. There's too many walls, not enough trust, and clearly differing ideologies and morality.

Hey remember when Orym said he felt lonely even round his friends? How lonely do we think he felt when they sided with the person who hurt him and couldn't even come up with a good reason for doing it?

[30to50wildhogs]

Maybe it’s my mighty nein brainrot but was the Yussa mention maybe an opening for a m9 one shot ??

BH is not going this way at all but some m9 are close and Essek is in contact with Caleb and probably know that Yussa is an important ally (that they have an habit to rescue at this point lmao) so it would make sense for them to go and search for him

[30to50wildhogs]

This is a piece of history right here

Tumblr Top Ships Bracket - FINALS

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.

[30to50wildhogs]

Long Haired Essek

[30to50wildhogs]

Since people seem to once again be having trouble remembering the order of operations, let me just remind everyone:

The ability Laudna possesses to feed Delilah is Hunger of the Shadow. In the fight with Bor’dor, Laudna used that BEFORE Orym’s head nod. Bor’dor attacked them and her response was to do the thing she knew would give power to Delilah. Matt even makes the sound of Delilah’s heartbeat.

The spell she used after the head nod? Whither and Bloom. The same spell she later attacked Orym with, which isn’t even a warlock spell.

And speaking of the head nod, you want to know what’s it’s prefaced with? ‘Laudna you can do whatever you want.’ And Marisha responds by saying that Laudna is ‘barely present’ because she’s having ptsd flashbacks to all of the times something horrible happened to her and she couldn’t do anything about it. So she kills Bor’dor because it makes her feel in control of the situation.

And yeah, the 4SD where Liam says Orym thought Delilah might come back. Except y’all somehow took that and made it seem like he’s the one who shoved Laudna over the edge when what actually happened is that Laudna flung herself off it because betrayal is triggering to her.

And the sword. The sword which apparently wasn’t triggering enough that Imogen contemplating whether the Vanguard were good guys didn’t cause any reaction. Or for that matter, make her object to Ashton’s ‘this is permission statement.’ But she saw Orym wearing it, got uncomfortable and then all it took was one sentence from Delilah for her to decide to steal it. Delilah, who mutilated her, murdered her, has been possessing her for decades, and who basically held her soul hostage when BH wanted VM to resurrect Laudna. But what Delilah didn’t do? Tell Laudna to steal the sword.

I wasn’t around for campaign 1, but in campaign 2 I definitely noticed a trend that people who were all ‘I love women! Female characters rock!’ would, the second one of their alleged faves did something controversial (or just something they didn’t like) would find a way to shift the onus onto someone else so she could remain blameless. And that is definitely continuing this campaign, and if anything is getting worse (which, not to get into speculation, but I wonder if it’s because all of the female characters this go round are more traditionally feminine than last campaign.)

I think the reason Orym’s been getting raked across the coals so hard by certain parts of the fandom is actually because of this. Because Imogen’s repeatedly gone ‘what if the Vanguard have a point’ and Laudna agrees with everything she says, whereas Orym’s been pretty consistently ‘no, the murder cult that murdered my family are bad guys.’ And well, can’t go around admitting that our faves did something wrong.’

And so we have a situation where Laudna attacks Orym, but somehow that’s Orym’s fault because the possibility of Laudna doing something wrong ruins people’s lesbian cottegecore fantasy. But the thing is, that whole thing was all Laudna. She chose to listen to her first murderer when Delilah said ‘maybe it’s cursed’ and then she chose to blanket the room in magical darkness (sorcerer ability, not warlock) chose to cast an area of effect spell to destroy the thing Orym was using to sheath the sword (sorcerer spell, not warlock) and, upon hurting Orym, chose not to drop said darkness, which meant Orym couldn’t see who attacked him. And when she got caught, she tried to downplay what she did, tried to say that because she didn’t mean to hurt him it didn’t count, refused to apologize for actually hurting him, kept shifting her argument (and even low key got called out on it by Imogen when she asked Laudna why she’s want its power inside her if she thinks it’s so evil.)

There is an alternate universe where Laudna wakes Orym up and they have what probably would have been an intense discussion about the sword (and that might even have been what Marisha was aiming for before Delilah got involved) and THAT truly would have been the ‘both sides are equally right’ scenario, but that’s not what we got. And you can say Orym shouldn’t have taken the sword unilaterally (but somehow Laudna’s allowed to unilaterally steal and absorb it?) or that she’s being manipulated by Delilah, but the fact is that Laudna’s an adult and is responsible for her own decisions. Yes, Delilah is a powerful and malign presence that they all downplayed/ignored, but, to use Marisha’s addiction metaphor, making amends with those you’ve harmed is a part of recovery for a reason. Because ultimately, you are the one who did that. Yes, it does immensely suck for Laudna that she’s been handed the cards she has been, but it’s up to her to make the best play she can.

Wow this got long, but my overall point is that Laudna is a character with her own agency and makes her own decisions (well, Marisha makes them, but at this point y’all should know she’s not conflict averse and is willing to have her characters make controversial character choices). And really, take all that away, what’s left? How much onus can you take from a character before you might as well go look at a painting?

[30to50wildhogs]

i dunno, man. orym’s a better person than me. if i got ATTACKED in the middle of the night and everyone upon waking immediately sided with laudna until she talked her way OUT of believability, i would really be reconsidering my place in that party

like, they came around after several minutes of talking and laudna being sketchy af, but the immediate jump of everyone being like, well, ORYM (who’s been nothing but trustworthy), why are you attacking LAUDNA (who has a fucking lich in her head) would be my fucking villain origin story

[30to50wildhogs]

Liam O’Brien thank you so much for saying this (I was getting so tired of the “the tiny nod of the head was the only reason Delilah came back this is literally all Orym’s fault he knew exactly what would happen he personally caused Laudna’s suffering” bs cause… my lil guy isn’t very magically inclined, he didn’t know exactly what she was doing, he just thought she should take him out because if she didn’t he would’ve)

[30to50wildhogs]

The thing is, since Marisha made it so blatantly clear how fucked up and Delilah-driven her actions were in that scene, every take that defends Laudna's behavior reads as if Delilah herself had written it.

[30to50wildhogs]

Hey, so, am I the only one who remembers that just a few episodes ago—and literally just the other night in-game—Orym was given Otohan’s sword the first time and the group agreed that it should be his to deal with? That he walked off on his own with it, full of grief and anguish, and they all let him have his moment? How that was literally just a day ago?

And now, just a day later, Laudna is looking at him with total betrayal that he’s actually wielding the sword.

Just a thought.

[30to50wildhogs]

Laudna’s “I already apologized for that” enraged me so much because no, actually, she didn’t. She never once said “I’m sorry for hurting you” what she said was “I didn’t mean to” and there are key differences there

1. She never acknowledged with her own words that she attacked and did damage to Orym while he, and everyone else, was ASLEEP and DEFENSELESS.

2. “I didn’t mean to” is not an apology, the word “sorry” or “apologize” are not included in that statement. “I didn’t mean to” by itself is an excuse, not an apology.

3. Even if “I’m sorry” came before or after “I didn’t mean to” that’s still not a real apology, because the very nature of throwing that “I didn’t mean to” in there is to garner sympathy for yourself, relieving yourself of at least partial blame, and if anything, apologizing more for being caught than for attacking a sleeping member of your party.

From the moment everyone else woke up Laudna spent the rest of the episode trying to deflect, garner sympathy for herself, and put blame on Orym.

Her argument for why she ATTACKED a SLEEPING member of the party changed every time someone rationally stated why her excuses weren’t entirely valid.

She also continued to ignore and downplay Oryms own experiences with the sword, as though his and everyone else’s experiences weren’t as significant as hers. Yes, she died by that blade, but so have almost everyone else in the party, and so did Orym’s family. Except they didn’t get revived. And while this isn’t a contest, Laudna isn’t the only one who deserves to decide what is done with the blade. Orym should have maybe talked with the rest of the group first, sure, but Laudna is acting like she is the only one who deserves to decide what to do with it and she simply is not. If ANYTHING, I feel like this outburst means she shouldn’t be included/involved with the decision at all.

Yes, I understand that all of this is because of Delilah in her head, but Delilah only made the initial suggestion. The attack, the fight, the multiple attempts to steal the sword and run, the outlashes, the things she said, all of that, was Laudna. Not Delilah. Matt even said as much after she rolled for it. It was her decision to act like she did, and do the things she did.

And after all that, for her to have the audacity to not only claim she has never lied to Imogen, but also to claim she apologized? Absolutely not. There was nothing even remotely close to an apology in anything she said, because Laudna doesn’t think she did anything wrong. Even after being told by everyone she was.