#i definitely am interested in finding out how Delilah feels towards Laudna

[quipxotic]

Answers and events I hope for in C3E96; spoilers for C3E95 below the cut, obviously, and also because it got really long:

For everyone left in the room to talk about what Orym experienced in the fight. I think it’s hard to judge where people will ultimately fall on the intra-party conflict based only on what we saw in that last hour of the previous episode when, A) they woke up in the middle of a situation and may have missed some of the context, and B) were so shocked in the moment that some of them seemed unsure of how to act or what to feel. Talking about it would be helpful to everyone, including the audience. I’m particularly interested in the Ashton-Orym-Fearne of it all. Ashton tried to de-escalate and get Laudna to apologize, but was not as demonstrably supportive of Orym having the sword as Dorian and Chet were. Previously Ashton and Orym have been among each others' biggest supporters, so how does Orym feel about that reaction? Personally, I don't think this will open a rift between the tanks, but it would be bad if it did. Also, Fearne was reluctant to take sides between her two friends. How does Orym feel about that?

For Imogen to return to BH’s room and immediately blurt out that Laudna is knowingly feeding Delilah. Do I think this will happen? No*. If she did do it, might Laudna see it as a betrayal? Probably. Might it ultimately help Laudna? I think it could help to have everyone know what she's dealing with and why she's acting out of character. Plus, while the reemergence of Delilah is a recent event in-story, I am personally ready for the narrative to move on from her being the unaddressed elephant in the room. And BH definitely needs to come up with a plan before Delilah either seizes control of Laudna or Percy sees her form of dread and takes the choice out of their hands.

How is Laudna going to act towards the rest of BH after her absorption of Otohan’s dagger? In her conversation with Imogen at the end of the last episode Laudna said she "didn't mean to...," but that seemed to me to have more to do with Laudna’s fear that she’d damaged their relationship, not any actual regrets about her actions. Will she be immediately apologetic with the rest of the Hells? Will she deflect and try to act like nothing has changed? As in her conversation with Imogen, her reaction may depend on how they act toward her and whether they insist on consequences.

Some push-back or boundary setting from BH toward Delilah and Laudna’s recent actions. Again, I’m not convinced this will happen based on prior experiences and I know they’re about to head into something difficult, but ignoring what’s happening with Laudna has the potential of making that difficult situation even more dangerous. When Ashton tried to absorb the shard, he had about two-and-half to three episodes-worth of consequences and mea culpas. You can debate whether that was warranted, and I know there are strong feelings on all sides there. You can argue that the situations are different, which is certainly true. But Ashton didn’t attack anyone in the party and, intentionally or unintentionally, Laudna did. There's got to be some kind of reckoning with her doing that. It’s not about whose actions were worse, again they are different situations. And it's not about making Laudna suffer because Ashton did, but the whole point of the trust-building exercises was to build a stronger group. This is a setback in that effort and I don’t think it’s just we fans who will draw connections between the two events.

Also, as an aside, I find it funny (in an "Oh look, narrative connections!" not "Ha-ha" kind of way) that both Ashton and Laudna's respective power grabs could have/may have destructive consequences for Whitestone. One up close and the other (currently) at a distance.

For Fearne to question Orym about his pact with Nana Morri. There’s been a lot of fandom speculation around what everyone’s reactions to that will be, so I can’t wait to see how it plays out in-game. I suspect there will be some surprises.

How will the Fearne/Ashton and Orym/Dorian relationships develop? Will the potential for romantic partnerships there change the EXU trio’s friendships with each other?

Let’s go to Aeor everyone! As a C3 fan, it’ll be my first time there but I’ve seen a lot of hints and discussion from C2 fans and I adored EXU: Calamity’s depiction of the Age of Arcanum, so I’m excited about BH exploring the ruins of another city from that time period.

Essek’s reaction to BH’s…everything. To the fight and the tension in the group, yes, but also to just them as individuals. I always enjoy outside characters' impressions of the Hells.

New outfits and character art! Maybe? Hopefully?

Where are the other members of the Cerberus Assembly and where do they stand on Ludinus and his plans?

*I will be very surprised if Imogen tells everyone, but I will not be surprised if she tells at least one person about it telepathically. In the past that person would have been Orym, so it'll be telling if she chooses to confide in him this time. Given the situation, she might go to Ashton, Chet, or Fearne instead and all of them would react to that information in very different ways.

[duckuwu]

I, uh, I'm too in love with the concept of long game slow burn Imogen/Laudna to even enjoy Dusk asking Laudna out tonight.

I don't know if it's purely because I just hate love triangles, or if I'm against it because we know that Dusk has a hidden agenda and their niceness is just a front.

As a multishipper, I'm leaning towards it mostly being the second one. I know it's partially Erika having some fun, which I'm not really against. But idk...

I'm glad Laudna left. Not only cause it was directly choosing Imogen (because Imogen is all she really cares about), but also like... I already wasn't liking the whole notion of Laudna potentially being interested in something romantic with Dusk only to inevitably find out that they've had an agenda this whole time. Dusk's inevitable betrayal was already enough for me to place a Do Not Ship this label on the relationship, but then you've got Laudna saying she's never been asked out before...

...and all my protective instincts just took over. I absolutely do not want Laudna being taken advantage of. And that's what Dusk would be doing at this point.

Listen, as a storyteller, I absolutely understand how this sort of betrayal could bring about a whole bunch of interesting narrative paths. And I'm sure it was more of a throwaway line for Laudna/Marisha, and again I know it's all a bit of fun for Erika and potentially a genuine (somewhat fun times) interest for Dusk. But given the context of what we've been given wrt Dusk, and now Laudna... it's coming really close to the first time CR has ever made me feel uncomfortable/unsafe in terms of storytelling. I've come to cr knowing I could trust that certain things just won't happen in game...

...but boy howdy Dusk taking advantage of an innocent and inexperienced Laudna is absolutely not a thing I want to have happen / watch.

((again, I know it was mostly just having fun and throwing chaos into the mix, and that Erika probably wasn't really thinking in terms of anything THAT nefarious. but wow. That got so uncomfortable and unfun super fast for me.))

I sorta wish we got to have that sort of a moment between them PRIOR to learning that Dusk is not a friend. Because seeing the kinda adorable, and innocent seeming, Dusk asking Laudna out probably would've been really cute and fun to enjoy. But context is everything.

[utilitycaster]

Referring to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/utilitycaster/693742024909864960

Now I am very curious about your correct opinions about Imogen/Laudna. Mostly because I'm having a hard time vibing with them and I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the greater fandom interpretation. (I can also DM you if you'd prefer but I'm weird and awkward, so this is what I did.)

Hey! No, it's cool, I'm happy to answer. And, for what it's worth, it's cool if you don't vibe with them! But I did find that I was able to embrace it as actually a very good ship after blocking as many tags associated with it as I could.

I have a long draft post about Laudna on her own so I'm sort of...grafting segments of it over here, but:

The general fanon for Imogen/Laudna that I've seen (and detest) has taken the following path:

They're definitely already girlfriends and they will never have any problems! We decided this within 30 seconds of them appearing together. This is beyond criticism, even though a not-insignificant portion of the fandom claimed that Beau and Yasha 100+ episodes into Campaign 2 "came out of nowhere" and "have nothing in common other than being lesbians", and "were queerbaiting".

I know they haven't said a word about being girlfriends or dating in 20 episodes but they ARE. I KNOW IT.

Uwu smol bean chubby glasses-wearing sweet baby Imogen gets headaches and nightmares and tall thin grown-up Laudna kisses them better! Wait IMOGEN is mad at LAUDNA? that STUPID SELFISH CUNT who's addicted to her nefarious power source doesn't know how good she has it. Laudna DEFINITELY didn't talk about having similar feelings about her own powers literally 5 minutes before this happened. Laudna's just a little baby and Delilah was so mean and YOU'RE MEAN TOO for implying she carries responsibilities for her actions.

Laudna's a CATCH and a WOMAN SCORNED. She should get with Dusk to make Imogen jealous. This isn't manipulative bullshit behavior at all. Wait. Laudna's more upset than Imogen? Laudna feels guilty for breaking the rock? Dusk is bad actually? Laudna freezes up and gets overwhelmed when dealing with Dusk? Uhhhhhh Laudna was specifically targeted and manipulated by Dusk because [footage not found]. I won't engage with the fact that Laudna herself feels as though she did something wrong.

(to be honest, I had blocked the tags by the time we got to the most recent episode so I don't know how they're spinning the fact that Imogen was in the role of helping Laudna at this point nor do I care to.)

All of this is absolute garbage and terrible for the following reasons:

just, narratively, if two characters start off as already in a close relationship (by which I mean romantic OR platonic here), said relationship is going to be boring as fuck unless something happens, and honestly, unless they drift apart and grow more independent for a time before reuniting, each with more to bring in to the relationship. I want to be clear: in real life, a stable relationship with no major conflicts is the dream. In fiction, if you actually want the relationship to be something interesting in the forefront (vs. just being a detail about the characters) this is absolute poison. The motion towards something new is the story. And for romance specifically, look, I know that the standards for M/F ships in a lot of fiction really is "vaguely attractive, are next to each other" but that's ships in BAD fiction and those ships are BAD and making pablum utterly lacking in chemistry gay does not actually improve it. Multiplying zero by a big number still gets you zero.

Laudna keeps being like "your powers are great! you're great" and meanwhile Imogen is like "this is a curse and I hate it" and it feels like this has not clicked for Laudna in two years, whereas like, Hondir and Orym and Fearne, at minimum, and even to an extent FCG, have all fully picked up on how this affects Imogen within minutes to days at most.

This is getting meta but: the fanon of the past two campaign ships involving Marisha and Laura's characters were HEAVILY skewed to "but Marisha's character is the powerful leader one, and Laura's character is here to fulfill the contractual obligations of this being a F/F ship" and you cannot support that narrative for Imogen and Laudna. And as such, many of the people who are shipping it HATE Imogen, because they always hate Laura's characters for daring to not just be a barnacle on their actual fave's ass, but they also hate Canon Laudna for not fitting into a Keyleth or Beau archetype. This is a whole other post but is also a significant factor in why this ship's fanon is so deeply fucked.

ALL THAT SAID here's what's good about it:

They are two people with similar goals, who are both possessing of their own powers which are a really mixed bag, and tempted by some darker forces.

Imogen is tormented with dreams and powers but shes DOING something about it, she's the one with flashes of leadership skills, she's the one who can still function when they're in a fight with each other even if she's still upset and hurt and angry. Laudna meanwhile is essentially the clingy loser slacker friend archetype who breaks your precious stuff by accident and who's been putting off "deal with my murderer-slash-warlock patron" for 30 years. It's very rare to see this archetype for a woman, let alone portrayed sympathetically, which is extremely exciting.

They have both been incredibly isolated by their powers. It's made Laudna terrified of people leaving her, because she's been alone and hated for so long, to the point that she needs to be pried off even people who are betraying her. Imogen, meanwhile, is just...deeply tired and angry. It's an amazing flip of what you'd expect - the immortal being the insecure "please like me" half and the young woman just being Done With Everyone. I'm excited to see what happens with it.

They do, legitimately, care deeply for each other, and I think being in a party where they can both grow as people and figure out who they are on their own means that the story of them being able to then come back together could be a really great one. There is a ton of potential in them that is utterly lost if you say "no they're already together and everything's fine" but I'm invested in that incredible potential.