arcanemarion

[arcanemarion]

There's this running sentiment that I've seen a few times recently that, in absence of being recruited and subsequently abused by Trent, Astrid would have been someone nice (read: "good") and in touch with her emotions, or something, instead of pursuing power and authority. It's an idea that seems to purport that Trent fully brainwashed her into being a completely different person acting entirely against her own volition, because surely if she was somehow fully cognizant of her "real" wants / feelings / had friends, she would simply walk away.

Except that she wouldn't, because she didn't.

We are told repeatedly by Caleb and reinforced by Astrid herself, that she is and always has been ambitious. If freedom from Trent was all that she was truly after, then she could have had an easy out once the Nein removed him from power. But instead she stays to take her place in the Assembly, because that was her goal all along.

In fact, Astrid's ambition would have made her more susceptible to Trent's manipulation, especially when she was younger. The way that Astrid and Eadwulf murder their parents is very personal and intimate - strangulation and poison at the dinner table. Neither of them flinch, and yet Bren's method is to not even show himself, but barricade his family in their home from the outside and then set it aflame. It was a comparatively anonymous act, but he was the one to break.

Trent's miscalculation here of course revolves around Bren's character. We can probably attribute him overlooking this because of Bren's clear aptitude, and then perhaps following the assumption (which has tbh proven time and time again throughout history) that a wizard capable of achieving great power will always go after it no matter the cost. Although Liam says that if Caleb had met Astrid and Eadwulf again much earlier in the campaign prior to forming strong bonds with the Nein, he likely would have gone back with them (juicy juicy AU fic of where this happens exist out there I'm certain, but also further illustrates that Caleb himself wasn't fully immune, obviously), part of the reason why Caleb's arc is so beautiful is precisely because of his journey to stand in contrast to this cliche.

It is further interesting, then, that when Caleb does come back into proximity of both Astrid and Trent, with no small amount of ability, that Trent still immediately fixates on him, even though he is better able to resist Trent's manipulations than ever before. Astrid has been at Trent's side for well over a decade at this point and is obviously a very capable wizard herself, seemingly loyal - even if Trent probably had doubts about the true depth of her loyalty to him, then at the very least loyal to the Empire - intelligent, and politically savvy; all things you would think would still make her a prime candidate for successor.

It begs the question of what Trent found wanting in her, that he would decide to so blatantly favor Caleb, someone he arguably cannot actually control, over someone he has personally cultivated for years.

It's obvious that during the dinner, Trent is working many scummy manipulations on Caleb. But by proclaiming "nothing would make me happier" to have Caleb kill him and take over, he is simultaneously twisting a knife at Astrid, firmly shunting her into second place, if such a place exists at all, as far as he's concerned. We can probably assume that Astrid's ambition to actually do precisely that aren't entirely a secret from Trent (frankly he'd be very foolish to not expect it of people he manipulated into murdering their parents as children), and he would also be very aware that he still outclasses her in terms of raw power. Astrid, or even Astrid and Eadwulf together, aren't strong enough to take him out on their own, so it behooves Trent to prevent any possible alliances from forming by trying to drive a wedge between her and Caleb. The goal of this might not even necessarily be to prevent his own demise, but set up a familiar "test": if one takes out the other, then he'll know who is really worthy of being his successor.

Of course this isn't what happens, because Caleb's reappearance in her life has already begun a shift in Astrid. When we first see her "on screen" in episode 89, it's pretty clear she's got a front up and is touting the party line / is in the sauce, so to speak, and as "genuinely mournful" as she is, she still seems to firmly believe that the suffering they endured was for a reason. Even so, she heavily hints to Caleb that she isn't so unfailingly loyal to Trent that she wouldn't try to usurp him.

There's definitely something a little 'off' about the whole interaction - on a meta level, this might be largely because she's a brand new character to Matt that he's still getting a feel for, and on a narrative one, someone she once loved very much and has been either catatonic or missing for a decade suddenly showed up at her house - but something has definitely shifted by the time we see her again, and in other scenes in subsequent episodes. Ultimately, she's very clearly conflicted about the position she's in: Caleb and the Nein can be the convenient means to an end that she wants, but it could also mean sacrificing him - because if they can't defeat Trent, it's not worth risking her own life to stand with them. It's clear that she still carries many deep feelings for Caleb, and as much as she doesn't want him to die (perhaps especially not by Trent's hand), she's not quite willing to die herself.

This is why she helps Caleb get the medallions, why she (allegedly) cries in the alley, why she and Eadwulf warn Caleb ("we're not doing it for you, we're doing it for him") about Trent coming after them, why she lets him complete the scroll in Yussa's tower. She needs Caleb to help take Trent out, but it has to happen at the most optimal moment, otherwise there's no point - this is why she doesn't help the Nein in the final fight until it's clear they have a chance of winning it.

There's a lot we don't know about where Astrid's true hatred and resentment of Trent stems. Certainly the myriad abuses all three of them suffered, and the unknown extent of that which followed when it was just her and Eadwulf left, but apparently it's been "years" that she's dreamed of ultimately killing him. The amount of rage and anger in her when she is prevented from actually doing it is frankly one of the most profound moments in all of C2. She has the person who has caused her and the two people she probably cares for most in the world immeasurable pain and trauma finally subdued and at their collective mercy, and yet is told "no, you can't kill him, we want him to go to trial"...by one of those people.

It's a betrayal, in a way, and perhaps more than any other moment, clearly demarcates the differences and fractures that exist between her and Caleb as they currently are. Astrid further underscores it by specifically putting Eadwulf away from Caleb (and Eadwulf looking back is one of the tiniest but such important little glimpse we get into his feelings) and simply leaving.

It's a terribly bitter moment; she's more or less gotten almost everything she's wanted for a very long time, but gets to derive no real satisfaction from it. She walks away, furious, resentful. But after a time, they do come back - and my personal theory is that Eadwulf convinced her to do so. Obviously they see enough value in Caleb and Beau's plan to spend the exhausting hours recounting their experiences, as perhaps if this is the only way to allegedly ensure that Trent gets locked up for good and getting any kind of justice (revenge), they don't necessarily have much to lose if they're careful not to jeopardize their political positions with the rest of the Assembly.

And of course, naturally, still, Ludinus offers the job to Caleb first.

(Obviously there are narrative and meta reasons for this, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that it wouldn't have further twisted the bitter knife in Astrid just a little bit yet).

All of this is to illustrate that yes, Astrid and Eadwulf did suffer abuse under Trent, but it's a mistake to use that as the sole explanation for their actions and motivations as fictional characters, or to use it as a way to give them an avenue to being "good" people underneath it all - ie, removing the teeth from their roles as antagonists.

Which is to say: people often have an especially hard time when characters exist in a shifting grey area of morality - especially women. Astrid (and Eadwulf) has always occupied this space within the narrative because of her dual proximity to Caleb ("good") and Trent ("bad"), but it would be a mistake to believe that her character arc is simply her choosing between the two of them and what they allegedly represent. At no point does Astrid ever explicitly agree with Caleb about stopping the Volstrucker program as it exists, and we've never gotten any clue in the subsequent story years later whether or not she actually did anything directly to dismantle it. We can infer that in absence of Trent it might have ceased perhaps at least in part, yet for as important as that is for Caleb, and even as much anger and rage Astrid obviously has towards Trent, she has been pretty much reticent on the subject in canon material so far, to the point that it seems unlikely it's a primary motivation for her to take over Trent's seat. Perhaps after several years of close proximity to Caleb (because Liam has not mentioned her multiple times post C2 proper for them to not be talking on the regular), she did do something about it, but exactly what and how much is all speculation.

(Sidebar: further to the last parenthesis above, Caleb was absolutely the one to hide Astrid in Chastity's Nook during the events of C3, and Essek saying "Bren sends his regards" was in fact a signal to her that he is an ally, and if he said it like a threat, it's because he's a catty bitch (affectionate), which further plays out in their subsequent interaction).

As I (and many other people) have said in the past, we shouldn't be afraid to let villainous / antagonist characters be bad ("problematic"), and we shouldn't be afraid to enjoy them because of the role they occupy in a story. Astrid is compelling precisely because you (the audience, the Nein) didn't know which way she was going to go in those pivotal moments, whether she is friend or foe; she's compelling because she doesn't immediately fall in line with Caleb's plan to imprison rather than kill Trent. All of those layers of tension and conflict are what make the story juicy and interesting. Trent is a motherfucker and makes my skin crawl, but he is a fantastic villain. Astrid doesn't "need" to have a full redemption arc for any reason, and especially not to justify her continued proximity to Caleb.

I always feel it's very remiss of discussions that involve Astrid and Caleb to not include Eadwulf - I've mentioned him several times by proximity, but not so much about his position in all of this specifically, which is an unfortunate symptom of the fact that we simply don't get a lot of exposure to him by comparison, and he's never the focus of the scenes that he's in. It is my hope that the animated series will be able to correct for some of this and build him out a little more, much in the way we got to see him in Caleb's origin comic. The two moments there that always stick out in my memory are him and Bren being the first ones to initiate physical intimacy, and him striking Bren and leaving him to stop him from attacking Astrid - it's such an incredible parallel with the moment that Astrid pulls him away and he looks back at Caleb. There are so many other little hints, like his raven feather necklace, the way he speaks in front of Trent at the dinner (being a dutiful soldier), his encouragement of Fjord, that seed all of these little nuances that are lovely on their own, but still leave me hungry for a fuller picture. In my mind, he's a necessary anchor between Astrid and Bren, and eventually singularly for Astrid, who probably needs him more than he does her, in some ways. I like to think they love each other more than anyone else in the world, but to speculate further is getting deep into headcanon territory (not inherently bad, just not the point of this post). Of the people who would "just leave", Eadwulf by his own admission said he'd be fine with that - so perhaps he did stay solely for Astrid, and maybe once Trent was ousted, he did leave, for a time. But it's likely he would have found his way back.

Anyway: love a problematic fictional woman.

[arcanemarion]

To bounce off of this post:

Like, I love the cast, but it does really seem like they boxed themselves in with so many of their character choices in C3 with regards to not having characters that actually talk to each other in a meaningful and significant way. For whatever reason (read: character personalities), a lot of the time they let concerns get brushed off or dismissed, and the characters that did try to push back against certain discussion points or conflict were quickly shut down or even flat out not actually engaged with.

I can't even buy the idea that the plot was "too fast" or that they somehow had "no time"* because as soon as the m9 show up it's like flipping a switch, because all the Nein want to do is talk and push buttons because it's just so inherent in them as characters. It's the same group of actors in the same space, but the different dynamic of the parties is striking. Case in point: the Nein discover more about Braius and his whole deal in 30 minutes than BH do in almost as many episodes.

So from that viewpoint, I'm actually rather curious to see what sort of character moments shake out for Tag Team at the Teeth.

(*) I will concede that there were not as many "down time" moments after a certain point in C3, such as keeping watch, etc, which can help facilitate those more intimate discussions. But to a certain degree the impetus is still on the cast to go "I want to talk to X" and make time for a scene - which they had historically been very good at doing regardless of what was going on previously. But if your character doesn't have a reason or desire to talk to another character, then you end up not making the time to have those moments.

[arcanemarion]

Revisiting C2 with Nein Again has made me realize that part of what was so engaging about C2 was that the characters boldly held opinions which not only put them into conflict with each other within the story but also ones which might be unsympathetic to the audience.

C3 in contrast felt very “Is This Book Afraid of Me?”TM

[arcanemarion]

Whoa you were one of the interpreters for the Crit Role Sydney show? :O

How was the experience if you don't mind me asking? Interpreting an unscripted nine person cast with crosstalk and fantasy terms seems like it would be a challenge

Hey there! Yes, that was me 🤩

As a D&D fan, it was one of the most fun experiences of my career.

Unfortunately I was a bit late to the Critical Role train, and I never joined later on as I found it as a piece of media very large and intimidating, but I've been a D&D player since high school, and a Dimension 20 and Baldur's Gate fan. Please accept my back tattoo as proof of my credentials.

Working to interpret the show was me and two other interpreters who put in a lot of work before and during the show to make sure that our audience of 3 Deaf Critters were able to access the show all night. As the D&D super fan, I had to prepare some common vocab for the different skill checks and classes that exist in the game. Especially for the character classes, they don't exist in Auslan but I took inspiration from other Deaf D&D fans who use ASL and BSL. I recorded a video of that and sent it to my fellow interpreters and to the one Deaf Critter I was aware was coming.

During the show, we chose to have only one interpreter "on" at a time. After watching the London show recording, I noticed that barring a few moments of cross talk, the cast don't really talk over each other much, and give plenty of pauses between lines of dialogue, especially when Matt is narrating during scene setting. Having one interpreter meant that we had to "roleshift" by moving our body to different angles to show which character was speaking.

We worked in 15 minute blocks, so we got to have 30 minute breaks when not actively interpreting, but I was watching my co-interpreters the entire time to help prompt with different terms or signs they may need help with, as they weren't as au fait with all the fantasy terms as me.

The Melbourne show is also being interpreted by a team of 3 interpreters who are all D&D fans, and I've made sure to give them as much of a rundown as I can so they can do the best job they can during that show too. I hope it's a good one and I can't wait to hear how it goes! 🤩

[arcanemarion]

obsessed with skreev. liam spent all of campaign three being the Resident Normal Guy and all that pent up freak had to come out somehow

[arcanemarion]

I always love when Liam goes the “most unsettling man imaginable” route

[arcanemarion]

I'd been enjoying Age of Umbra so far, but Laura and Liam really brought the sauce for this group. The addition of their characters really snapped all of the elements into place for me, both in just further anchoring the setting and vibes, as well as providing a great contrast to the existing characters in just how truly unsettling and weird they are in a way that really highlights their different personalities because of their reactions to them. There's now some grit in the dynamics that make things extra interesting and extra juicy, and I'm extra locked in now and curious to see how the rest of this shorter story will go.

[arcanemarion]

OBSESSED with snyx continuing to be the deadliest motherfucker in this party. he's a goat. he is so so afraid. and he WILL kill you with a fucking boomerang

[arcanemarion]

«It took us some time to get there, but we found our rhythm.»

Art by @loliwobbles

[arcanemarion]

In seriousness I think the biggest critique of Ludinus Da'leth beyond "he literally didn't need to do all that" is that, weirdly, for all his grandiosity, he lacked vision. To be clear this is not a critique of him narratively - this is, in fact, the petard on which many, many villains end up hoisted, and it's only a few scenes in the unraveling slog that is C3 post-Solstice Split and pre Final Push that really work against him as a villain (notably the Shattered Teeth fight and whatever the fuck that was in the Feywild, and I think most of that was that Bells Hells wouldn't do anything unless you outright put a gun to their head and even then it was kind of a coin flip). It's that in a thousand years, despite incredible magical developments on his part, he really never moved past the punitive and almost childishly simple "Calamity was awful, so I will kill the gods." Not only did he fail to achieve that in the end, his path to that was repeating the exact mistakes of Calamity - destroying cities, exploiting magical creatures and people, rebuilding empires, and releasing ancient sealed evils. He claims a goal of liberation despite having lived, essentially, nearly two lifetimes of an already long-lived race actively engaging in oppression.

He is also, like many villains - again, not a bad thing for writing/playing villains - a fairly static character. He does not change much from his introduction in Campaign 2 through his ending in Campaign 3; it's just a slow reveal of what's beneath the tip of the iceberg. His scene in episode 2x97 is ultimately the crux of it all: he could have stopped Trent - easily - and he not only didn't but indeed made use of what Trent had built. He pretends to be sorrowful when one of Trent's victims manages to break free and gain a certain degree of clout, and then immediately turns around and uses those still under Trent's thumb to stalk him. That never falters. There is no care for anyone else except as tools; Liliana believes he listens to her, but given her eventual fate when she defies him, all that ever means is that she believed him where Caleb did not.

Which is why his ending in Campaign 3 rings so hollow (and why, if Tag Team at the Teeth is indeed his end, while it's later than it would have be in a better-crafted story* it is at least an immense improvement on leaving things as is): he has not changed. He has shown no evidence of change; he has not even tried to change. He has never shown an ounce of remorse. For all that Liliana shows little remorse for the lives of anyone outside her family that she destroyed, nor for her alliance with oppressive forces on Ruidus solely for her own gain and comfort, at least there is some degree of coercion involved, a (morally dubious, of unclear if any value, and far too late) attempt at resistance that at least signifies a capacity for change, and some tenuous connections to her humanity that, in my more generous moments I can grant as a start to the long process of making amends.

Ludinus simply weasels his way out. There is not even the ghost of an attempt to make amends; nor is there any indication the gods' continued existence in mortal form will placate him should he discover it. He did not want the gods to change; he wanted them dead. He was never interested in a better Exandria by the metrics of the people who actively lived in it, or even in change that wasn't his same old thirst for vengeance, and certainly didn't care about the people of Ruidus. He destroyed Molaesmyr, warmongered with the Kryn Dynasty, and above all upheld the Dwendalian Empire's oppressive structures for his own gain while happily talking out the other side of his mouth to those harmed by them; there was little if anything he would not do as a side-effect of his single-minded and ruthless pursuit. He was willing to die for his own selfish cause; but that means nothing given the thousands if not more innocents he was far more willing to sacrifice, and it's a cop-out itself: he dies and everyone else is left to clean up the mess. He dies and everyone else has to actually build the better world he talked about but had no plans for beyond shallow vengeance. There is no nobility in this death; it's just sneaking out the back door before the consequences arrive. The best case scenario for the world is simply that he hangs out, isolated, drinking tea, unaware that his plans failed utterly, until he meets a peaceful and solitary end. And because we know he can be very patient, and has at least the knowledge of how to extend his life indefinitely at the cost of others', and has recreated the means at least twice, I don't trust that that's a risk worth taking.

*this would be a whole separate post but: while actual play of course has an element of unpredictability, I do think that the most important thing to land, plot-wise, in a story that ends with a climactic BBEG fight, is understanding the motivations of the BBEG and having a satisfying resolution. Loose threads of other varieties (Sylas, Uk'otoa, etc) are fine; further information after the fact providing even more context (Nine Eyes of Lucien) is fine; but if you don't resolve at least a basic "why" and "what happens" to the BBEG by the finale and have to wrap up in a later episode, it's bad storytelling.

[arcanemarion]

The thing about Ludinus Da'leth is he literally didn't need to do any of that

[arcanemarion]

listen i appreciate there has been a massive uptick in gay representation in the last 10 or so years but like. gay characters started appearing on soap operas in the 1970s and 80s. Will & Grace started in 1998. Buffy did a lesbian romance in 2000. Friends had a lesbian wedding in 1996.

& to take that last example yes Friends had Issues w this stuff but the overall tone throughout is that gay people are just a Normal Thing now. like hey its the 1990s sometimes a lesbian couple and a single man co-parent a baby together.

ur not like. doing anyone any favours by acting like mainstream gay media is a new phenomenon.

[arcanemarion]

pretty sure when people complain about tm9 content they mean fan content and tbh it's kinda exhausting that there is so much in comparison

skill issue

[arcanemarion]

ok the thing about that previous post is that in all seriousness, I don't think fandom has ever convinced me something I like is actually bad. Obviously this is not universally true - it's fascinating to watch people watch C2 after the fact and, to give an example, a massive amount of the animosity towards Fjord and Veth during C2 is simply not there - but fandom can also convince you that there's more to a ship or a show than there actually is. Like, in general, fandom and online communities are a nursery for all kinds of conspiracies, political or otherwise. Roving shipping could not exist without community; shit like the johnlock conspiracy would be one or two lone weirdos and not big enough to get articles on ScreenRant. I have neither the time nor inclination to go through my extensive back catalog of posts but I know I've fallen for fanon concepts that I wouldn't have if I were watching alone, though this has become less frequent over time as I've gotten a stronger grasp on my own voice and interpretations. Anyway, I am a huge fan of curation, but also, if you have the stomach and self-control for it, it's really good to read posts you don't like and go through them critically (WHILE LEAVING THE AUTHOR OF THE POST ALONE, DON'T FUCKING BOTHER THEM) and figure out why! It might turn out that they have a point and you've fallen for someone else's fanon and they're actually dealing with the text! Or it might turn out that they have no idea what they're saying.

I think the final point though is that like. You can also be super wrong in a vacuum, especially if you've been in fandom before even if you're not in the fandom for a specific show. Individuals still can have wrong interpretations. Multiple individuals can have wrong interpretations.

[arcanemarion]

Brenwulf doodle

[arcanemarion]

Please participate in my research (also, if you say other, please put it in the tags/comments !)

[arcanemarion]

people are literally so boring a male character will kill 10000 people and steal candy from babies and theyll be like omg thats my king! but a female character is rude once and theyre like i hope she dies violently