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When Eryn first recruits Snyx for the mission in episode one, his initial objection is to the idea of working with other people, before he pivots to talking about the Vaults being dangerous. I thought about that seeing the scene with him talking to the collar, promising that he can keep these people safe even if he failed whatever animal companion used to wear it. There's some indication there of, like, self-isolation. A desire to not lose people that maybe prompts him to hold himself a bit apart from others, even as it's apparent that he craves comfort and connection and praise.

There's definitely an extent to which his cowardice or cynicism is a deliberate facade, yeah? He certainly never actually intends to heed his own advice about scattering and letting slower runners take the fall.

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Spineless Coward

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On top of being the one to land the killing blow on both bosses so far, I don't think Snyx has ever dealt anything less than severe damage. Dude's the most lethal bitch they have on offer.

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extremely charmed by how sincerely Snyx thanked Misty for saying that she won't hurt him.

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I wonder how old Brixton actually is. From Marisha's description, I was picturing her in her mid-forties, but the fact that she's only been pyrekeeping for fifteen years plus how the Emberwarden talked about taking Brixton in as an orphan (a detail which only really feels relevent if she were underage at the time), she might be more in her thirties maybe? It doesn't seem like a job you get while in your twenties, yunno?

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clearer preview of some of the Age of Umbra minis, from the Daggerheart launch stream

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Guessing based on hints from c2e2; from left to right, Sam, Laura, Ashley, Taliesin, Liam, Travis, Marisha.

Taliesin is the surest bet, because his hint was that his character is wearing a hat, and that's a really prominent tophat. Far left looks like they're missing an arm, which would fit Sam's asymmetrical description. Laura's hint was that her character is short, so. I feel like if you zoom in on orange base's face, it looks like they're wearing a veil, and that + tall was Ashley's descriptors, but really I think orange/green/yellow could all conceivably be any arrangement of Travis/Marisha/Ashley. Liam's a big swing based on the summery that just came out. It seems like he and Laura aren't part of the same town that the rest of the characters are from, and that seems like it suits a very fantastical design.

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The thing that kills me about Keyleth getting Vax back is how anti character development it is for her.

Her horror at how her increased lifespan will inevitably result in her outliving people she loves is something introduced in campaign one, and losing Vax is the very first taste of that inevitability. Campaign three shows us Keyleth as a woman who has spent thirty years refusing to move on and develop a healthy relationship with grief, still terrified by the prospect of outliving those she loves. And then she gets her dead boyfriend back, and he's immortal now, so she'll never lose him again.

It's pathetic! It's sad! It's kicking the can down the road! What's she gonna do when Percy dies? Grog? Every friend she has besides her immortal dead bf? Is her social circle just gonna close up further and further till it's just her and Vax for a thousand years, because Keyleth never learned how to mourn people she loves while also forming new meaningful relationships, and was in fact rewarded by the narrative for refusing to do so?

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That "I am the parent and he's the child" line being entirely divorced from its context is the bane of my existence.

Veth says that to a group of people who are convinced that she is a child being manipulated by Caleb, who is her adult guardian. She's cornered, alone, and everyone is trying to tell her that she's being manipulated into acting against the group. It's an assertion of her agency and adulthood. It's a refutation of that specific misunderstanding of their relationship. She is saying that she's a grown ass adult who knowingly allies herself with Caleb above everyone else, and that Caleb is not controlling her.

Please for the love of god, put that line back in the context in came from or so help me.

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I think sometimes Caleb enjoyers will write meta that is ostensibly about his relationship with Veth, but which actually rounds out to shadowboxing with the idea of like. Cishet/neurotypical people being innately bad at being friends with queer/autistic folks, with Veth playing the role of every (assumed) cis/straight/neurotypical person who has ever slighted the post's author. Obviously this sucks for a lot of reasons, but the thing that really gets me is people trying to paint Veth as the world's most neurotypical woman in contrast with Caleb, cause it's like.

Veth's backstory is that she was a weird and offputting child who was horrifically bullied her entire life for being weird and offputting, and who managed to carve a modestly happy life for herself largely by learned how to shut up, keep her head down, and subsume her identity with the socially acceptable role of wife and mother. And people look at that and go, that's a total normie, could not possibly understand the ostracization Caleb, a man who is quiet and sometimes interested in things, experiences.

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Braius to Orym: I have feelings for you

Braius to Fearne: I have feelings for you

Braius to Dorian: I have feelings for you

Braius to Ashton: I have feelings for you

Braius to all of BH: I have.. feelings for you?

Narrator: that feeling was friendship, but he had never experienced it.

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I think a lot of the time fandom discussion would be a lot better if certain words were just straight up banned. Like, people outta be able to discuss Braius' morality without using the word "evil". What did he do, what are the values and motives that compelled him to do the thing?

In the specific case of giving Laudna a fake mask, he wants his god to live, a desire that Bells Hells do not share. Their common enemy is Ludanis, but it's never fully off the table for BH to just let Predathos out to kill or chase away whatever gods it wants to. So he squirreled away a resource that could be used to hurt or kill his god. "He did it cause he's evil" is dumb baby bullshit.

It's also that, his morality in this situation is not notably different that Laudna's. Asmodeus plays the role of both Imogen and Delilah to him, in that he's plainly manipulating and using Braius without any real care for him while also being a person who Braius at least credits with saving his life and giving him purpose. His personal loyalty to Asmodeus goes above loyalty to other people in his life. Like, Laudna's floated the idea of betraying the rest of the group and running off with Imogen a couple times, and obviously thinking about doing something and actually doing it are different things, but I don't think Laudna and Braius are actually dramatically different people.

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i'm trying to keep the bitching about fandom bullshit to a minimum and just focus in on stuff i like, but man do i not like at all how nobody has anything even remotely interesting to say about braius in the newest episode. it's just on the one hand people who're just like "everyone who makes laudna upset should die", and on the other is people who're upset at how the campaign is going and are just happy that braius is doing shit that makes characters they don't like mad. boring. dumb. Talk about my guy, damn you!!! with empathy and thought deeper than "evil is when my blorbo is made sad"!!!!

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this is Braius Doomseed. 2 me.

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Thinking about Braius being sent a guide by Asmodeus and then being ordered to kill that guide.

I am kinda warming up to the idea that it's part of a pattern of intentional isolation, if only because I think if Asmodeus really wanted to keep Braius as any sort of asset he'd kind of have to. I mean, Braius has spent all of five days with Bells Hells and doing wrong by them at the orders of the god he loves and has served for years now is going to be a genuine struggle.

I think Braius is really ill suited to serving Asmodeus, actually. He's just not ambitious or cruel enough to actually want any of the things Asmo might want of him, it's all personal loyalty to Asmo. He might parrot back the ideals he's supposed to support and do his best to play the role, but when left to his own devices he's just. Kinda a sweetheart.

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Braius praying to asmodeus

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Braius all quiet and desperate asking if he can dwell with Asmodeus and sit with him as a reward for his service, gosh. Sweetie.

Like, I think it's pretty safe to say that Braius is being very earnest and vulnerable with Asmodeus in this scene, and it is I think kinda telling that this is what he asks for. Just being able to sit with someone he obviously loves. For all the bluster and innuendo, that's just all he wants, huh?