#delaudna

[cpprcoyote]

shes mine WIP

for waudna wednesday

[xxwillowpotatox]

“Delaudna”

[eldritchpalette]

"I've waited too long too've been this close and have it taken."

[samuraiko]

At this point...

If I were Fearne, Ashton, or Orym, I wouldn't dare fall asleep anywhere near Delaudna without someone else keeping watch.

"She's too powerful... she comes from twisted, dark fae blood... she shouldn't have that and the shard... she's another possible vessel... we can't let the Sorrowlord have her... she can't be trusted... she lied about the coin toss... she always sides with Orym..."

"He's too powerful... he has that THING in his head... even Essek said it was dangerous... he can't even control it... and he has the shard... it's too much... he's losing himself to the shard... he can't be trusted... he's already betrayed you... he has his hammer, isn't that enough... that hammer can mess with magic... he doesn't deserve the hammer..."

"He doesn't trust you... he's always been after revenge... he's been lying this whole time... he's always hated me, because of the lies that the Voice of the Tempest has told him... that the de Rolos have told him... he's obsessed... he's already said that he's planned how to kill you... he'd protect everyone before he'd protect you..."

And for that matter...

"If she didn't have her power anymore, Predathos couldn't find her... Ludinus wouldn't want her... you can just absorb that power, it wouldn't hurt Imogen... she can live without her abilities... all those times she complained about hearing others' thoughts... she'd even thank you... it's what's best for her... she's already told you that it's okay if I'm with you too, she'd still love you... she's trying to come between us... we've been together longer than you and she have..."

At this point, I'm just waiting for Delaudna to kill one of the Hells.

It's no longer a question of "if."

It's just "when."

[undead-knick-knack]

It's De-lightful

It's De-licious

It's D̪͎͍̦͚͓͉̪̀̄ͬ̋̐ͦe̲͖̪͍̣͕̫͇̎͗͌̓-̰̘̩̣̠͗Lͧ̒̒̚��̫̫͎̥̞̭͛̍ͧa̝̗̱̫̮̰͎ͯ̑ͬ̑̿̿ṳ͎̖̭̲̥͙ͮͣ̄ͮ̍̄̔d̙̗̯̙͖̱̬͓͌ň̺̭͚̰̟̹͐̈́ͯͩ̄ͅa̼̠ͫ̒̈́̋̆̒ͭ͋

[buckycap]

you ever just remember dorian doing everything in his power to protect orym and heal him and get him to safety throughout the delaudna fight like i know it was crazy watching in real time but when you take a second to really think about it even weeks later it makes you feel even crazier just how strong his tunnel vision was to just protect orym

[overnighttosunflowers]

I made a post about Laudna and Orym’s interaction in ep102 yesterday as it relates to Orym’s broader arc, but I wanted to follow it up with one more purely about Orym and Laudna’s relationship.

I think that on a fundamental level, Orym simply doesn’t understand Laudna. I don’t know if he’s aware of this. I do think he loves her. But I think that he also can’t stop seeing her as a symbol.

Orym has spent his whole life hearing about history by proxy. He’s one of the only party members with a history proficiency. He knows Keyleth, and he knows about the Sun Tree bodies. So when he learns about Laudna’s “worst thing that ever happened to her,” he sees her double: as his friend who suffered tremendously, and as the effigy of Vex that Delilah constructed.

And that weighs on him. We know it still does. When he spoke at Laudna’s res ritual in episode 38, he told her that she deserved to be more than a footnote in Delilah’s story. This was then echoed almost 60 full episodes later in episode 96 after swordgate, when he told her that she deserved her place in history as much or more. He continues to position her in relation to Delilah in a way that shows some part of his mind is always remembering that she was meant to be an NPC in someone else’s story: the way she died, the tool she was.

And that’s the other thing: that Orym has been the person most visibly uncomfortable with Laudna’s undead nature. It freaked him out long before he knew about the Sun Tree, and though he’s gotten used to it, he’s still hyperaware—we see this in his interaction with his sister in episode 66.

He defends Laudna sincerely, but he also seems self-conscious in a way that the transcript doesn’t fully capture. He knows Laudna is weird and he loves her despite it, not because of it. He still looks at her and sees a dead lady who happens to be Laudna, not Laudna who happens to be a dead lady.

There are other complicated elements to their relationship as well, of course. Swordgate, for instance, is indicative mostly of Orym’s (very human) tendency to act from his own trauma first before thinking about how it affects his friends, rather than anything specific to Laudna. But it did affect Laudna most of all. When he realized just how badly his taking up Otohan’s sword hurt Laudna, he vehemently threw it away—but not before he’d spent quite a while defending his right to bear it. Things had to really go south for him to stop and consider her experience. He loves Laudna, but he does not intuitively get her, and—even in better circumstances—he’s not always very good at stepping outside himself to try.

I thought it was interesting that Laudna wanted Orym specifically to be the one to kill her should the need arise. Obviously, this is most directly attributable to his status as the party member who “always does what’s right,” and on a secondary level it represents a meaningful shift in her relationship with Imogen: in episode 77, she’d asked Imogen to be the one to “make the right choice” if need be, but I think she now understands how impossible and torturous a request that is. Orym, though—Orym would be able to do it.

And he would. Not because he’s the infallible pillar of morality that the party thinks he is (which after all implies that killing Laudna to kill Delilah is the definitive “right” choice—something far more debatable than Laudna believes). Not just because he’s a soldier who follows orders even if they tear him apart inside. But because he’s able to see her as something other than herself. She’s his friend, but on some level, she’s still also the worst thing that ever happened to her. We even see this in the Delaudna battle itself—when he entreats Laudna to hear him and resurface, it’s by telling her that she’s suffered enough.

And for Laudna, being the worst thing that’s ever happened to her doesn’t mean being a symbol of someone else’s collateral damage. It means dying, and it means waking up with Delilah in her head. She thinks of herself as a person carrying around a monster, or on her worst days as inextricable from that monster or even as a monster herself. So if she senses that Orym can see her as something other than herself, surely he’s capable of seeing that, right?

Whether or not that’s true is debatable, and probably the subject of its own post. What’s important here is that Laudna knows Orym loves her but stands at a distance from her. That he’s able to see her as something other than a person in a way that Imogen never could. And whether that thing is a monster or a symbol of pain, that he sees her as something that has suffered enough to, if not kill out of righteousness, at least mercy kill.

So she lands on this. Surely he’ll do the right thing. He won’t want to. It might keep him up at night. But he will.

[forgetriestowrite]

okay after processing a bit (while simultaneously watching DeLaudna absolutely destroy the party, i'm having a great time), I actually do agree with Ashton more than I thought I did at first. He is very right, the power dynamic between gods and mortals is INSANE, plus the line "The problem is not who is on the throne, it's the throne itself" goes so hard

however, I also find it deeply funny that Ludinus was nodding along sagely as Ashton said that because, my dear dear evil magic man, you and Ashton are in no way in agreement

Ashton has not actively stated that he wants to murder everything ever, and I think if there was a way to make the gods just leave he would take that route. Also, he's not stupid, and he knows that releasing a GOD-EATER is most likely a bad idea for the rest of reality.

Ludinus on the other hand, wants to release the god-eater in question, blew up a city as an experiment (and then turned around and blamed the gods for also destroying a city for no apparent good reason), and spent the entire first hour of the episode either not answering at all or giving incredibly vague answers to important questions like "what happens after the gods are killed (do you want to become Overlord of Exandria)?" and "if we are made of the gods, wouldn't the god-eater eat us too?".

so yeah that's where I'm at right now

this episode is GREAT

[cassafrasscr]

There's something that I think tends to get overlooked when people discuss how Orym’s trauma relates to the debate about the gods. In addition to triggering his grief and trauma responses, Orym has been told repeatedly that if any of his friends turn, he'll have to kill them. Including by some of the friends in question.

The rest of Bell’s Hells (with maybe the exception of Ashton and Fearne) have all said to his face that he's 'The Good One', and that if they turn traitor they know he'll "do the right thing" by eliminating them before they can do any major harm.

Not only is that a hell of a lot of pressure to put on one person, but Orym is desperate to avoid having to do that. He LOVES his friends. Even when he was face-to-face with DeLaudna, he tried to throw down his weapons at first. He was one of the first members of the group to call Bell’s Hells his family.

Orym can't let go of his quest to stop Ludinus, and for good reason. Dorian agreeing with Ludinus' argument is particularly painful, given all the feelings that are tangled up in there. Even putting aside the Dorym of it all, Orym trusts Dorian more than anyone and believes so hard in his innate goodness. If Dorian joined the Ruby Vanguard and Orym had to fight him, I think he might actually break.

So I'm not surprised Orym snapped at Dorian the way he did. Not saying he was right to do so - it was harsh and hurtful of Orym to bring Cyrus into it, and he should apologize for that.

Between his past trauma and the prospect of having to kill the people he loves most, I think it's understandable that hearing his friends entertain Ludinus' ideas would frighten Orym. He needs to learn to trust that just because his friends might agree with some of Ludinus' points, it doesn't mean they're going to join the Vanguard. I'm not sure he'll ever feel completely safe in his relationships without that reassurance.

[pocketgalaxies]

dorian is just a lil fuckin crazy for saying "delaudna has caused more trouble for us than anything" like what did he think they were going to say??? yeah sure you're right let's kill her and call it a day?????

[pikopiikko]

feeling hopeful again that dorym isn't doomed cause even tho they are on opposite ends of support, they will talk knowing liam and his great job at heart to hearts and also despite the tension robbie still played dorian as having tunnel vision for orym during the whole delaudna fight.

the characters feel tense and unsure but the players i believe in

[simplysparrow14]

I do very much love that in the ensuing chaos of everyone getting bodied by Delaudna, Fearne doesn't call out anyone else's name but she does call out Ashton's. 💚🩷

[breathalyzerfail]

I hope the Bells Hells remember to give thanks to Our Lord and Saviour Asmodeus for shielding them all throughout their little jaunt in Aeor.

Teven got the HDYWTDT on Dominox and Braius got the one on DeLaudna.

Verily, they are safe in the palm of his hand.

[sea-buns]

Dorian trying to get the pronouns right on DeLaudna in the same sentence as his "sorry you've been so toxic" statement, sir you have my whole heart.

[marvelousbelladonna]

How did it feel for Laudna to finally decide that it was time for Delilah's reign to end? What was the exact tipping point for you during the DeLaudna fight?

[forgetriestowrite]

Essek during the DeLaudna fight is literally that TikTok audio that’s like “I DONT KNOW WHAT IM DOING! SHOULD I PAY TAXES? SET UP A 401K? WHAT IS A 401K?!?!”