#Galani wbn

[jacodraws]

Not you child.

[ID: a full body illustration of Galani from Worlds Beyond Number. She is wearing a long red dress, a loose blue robe with yellow lining, glasses, and her hair in a braid at the top of her head. She is squinting through one eye and holding up a collar casting an abjuration spell.]

[bigsexxorr]

Thought I’d follow along with the challenge! All of them were made within the 3 min time limit, (no Erika shenanigans) but I used a digital art program so that would probably disqualify me anyways lol. Hope I get to see other’s three minute takes too!

[hoarding-stories]

Thinking about how insane this series of events were:

You go to Port Talon to confirm that the missing Archmage Apprentice Suvi is there and safe. She is, you talk to her and let her talk to the Sword of the Citadel. All is well, and all you need to do is wait for the Sword to arrive.

The Archmage Apprentice runs off, with no word, a few hours later. Several days pass, and the apprentice shows up again having (for some reason) run off into the kudzu with her companions. They have now been arrested by the Azure Battalion. You get a thorough dressing down by the Sword of the Citadel for her having run off under your watch. They all speak to the Sword, and she announces the apprentice will have a court marshal at the Citadel. (You hold a bit of resentment. You would have been cast out had you pulled the same stunt) You all go back to the Kalabel Chantry. Everything is calm.

Roughly an hour later, the creature Morrow imprisoned has escaped. There is a leviathan a mile off the coast of Port Talon sundering the derrig. You check on the Archmage Apprentice. There's every chance she's in danger. But no, she's safe in her room, so you go to challenge the beast. It brushes off one of your most powerful spells, and now? looks like a giant man? He looks disappointed and begins to bend the entire ocean to his will. You have a full oh-fuck-I'm-going-to-die moment, but no. He instead makes a wave hundreds of feet tall crash somewhere beyond the walls of the city. He mentions his wife and tells you to defend your city. (Continuing to completely sunder the derrig)

You contact the Archmage Apprentice, who may have some insight into this situation, and she implies that the wife is worse than the ocean-bending fish god. You try to rally the wizards so a cohesive plan of attack can be executed. Instead, most of them follow a now-hysterical Morrow and go charging into the ocean.

Every day Abjurer Galani wakes up.

[chillinglikeashilling]

I'm so happy that we've seen Suvi's ability to adapt and solve problems grow so much over the current campaign.

I'm hesitant to use sports terms I'm barely familiar with when talking about a character played by Aabria (THEE DnD Jock as far as I'm concerned) but I think that Suvi has been developing her court vision ever since Arc 1.

I think the experiences in Port Talon really showed Suvi how much she had to be aware of not only herself but also all the other players. What are her teammates doing, what are their opponents thinking, what's the weak point in her team's strategy and how can she cover it?

The wall won't hold? Direct the stranglers through a single entry point into Port Talon.

Gramore will insta kill anything that flees? Order a retreat, change the perception of what's happening, sidestep the rule.

We're in a forest of sorcerer's and shapeshifters? Bring in Ame and Eursolon

And the Secret of Warp and Weft is so thematically tied to that skill. Find the weakness in an object, understand how to apply the least amount of force for the most amount of damage.

Locate the problem, understand the problem, get the right tool and fix the problem.

Suvi is always learning and adapting, and it really kicks off because of that first arc and Galani.

(Oh god thinking back to Galani I start to feel crazy about Aabria and Brennan's skill in weaving and calling back to all these elements.)

Galani is a wake up call to Suvi. Suvi understands for the first time, because of Galani, how much Steel's name and influence have protected her from certain social consequences in a way other people aren't protected (a lesson that gets driven home in Arc 2 by Hana).

Galani is also the first time in the story we encounter the Sky used as a mirror in the narrative, and specifically as a way to extend Suvi's vision and awareness.

And she's part of the scene that I would argue sets off the very first spark of what becomes the Secret of Warp and Weft in Arc 3. When Suvi starts to draw Orima's forces through that weak point in the wall, the first thing Galani does it make the opening bigger. Draw the pressure away from the rest of the wall faster by widening a single point of entry.

I don't have a cohesive way to end this but I just really love it.

I think it's great and I'm only gnawing on my arm a little bit about it.

[dumpster-fire-sapphic-failgirl]

can you imagine in a worst case scenario Sworn having to fly to Steel and say “I left the Wizard Sky in the North Pole, on her orders. She is… presumed dead.”

[whoopseydaisy]

thinking about the musicality of the name Suvirin Kedberiket. The specificity of the rhythm and cadence of Kedberiket to its pronunciation. the magic of a name and verbal components. Suvi's rhythmic somatic components. null clef. it makes me all very !!!!!!!!!!!!

[brainrockets]

Galani is so cool in the story. Like sort of acting as the kind of wizard the Citadel produces. To contrast with the wizard Suvi is and is becoming. A mirror (haha) to Suvi and the audience.

Like how she clocks the singing as a threat to the project of empire. As something pretty but not in their control.

How she rhetorically tries to reframe Ame and the Spirits as 'interpersonal matters' and 'rituals'. How she is actively rejecting the lesson about the Spirits because it is dangerous to what wizards choose to believe about their own power and place in the world.

How she deliberately draws a line to like Morrow as the problem and not the lessons and worldview that produced him. A 'bad apple' argument if you will.

Also very funny to be like 'do you want to explain to your mom (plsplspls)'?

[cozy-fantasy-stories]

Suvi is *by far* my favorite character in WBN. Like I get Ame and her idealism, and I get Eursulon and his passion, the Fox is hilarious and a fantastic foil.

But Suvi. My god Suvi.

I’m on my first relisten and she’s magnificent at every turn.

Children’s adventure and she stays inside. Does as she’s told. Doesn’t go out in the dark. Cleans up the bathroom! Waits. Alone.

She makes it in time—Grandmother Ren calls her my granddaughter and I am slain. Casts identify on the house!

Immediately says yes to helping Ame find the sword. No question. She doesn’t have to. But she does it.

Leaves a coin for the family and helps with the damn laundry! Do you know how practical that is?!

Immediately solves the being stuck problem for Eursulon. Terrifies that horrible little man with a Wild One under his boot. She rescues the music box, no question. Eursulon is free.

And Emliss.

Emliss.

Terrifying.

She ends Emliss, the Chalice, the shadow. The thing that *kills* Ame in a single turn.

The *indignity* of having to pay a hustler (FINLEY) for her mother’s coat lining. Yeah, okay, Eursulon went and made it all right (bet he never pays her back). But Ame talking about payment when she doesn’t even have money?!

Who fights for Suvi? Who defends her? Who thinks of her?

Ame making assumptions about the Citadel. (yes yes we get it institution bad we know what we’re listening to) But come on! Ame has no knowledge at this stage, just judgement!

Will Gallows. The Ace of Wands.

They never get the sword without Suvi in that room. Ice in her veins. Ice.

Who asked for “I’d like to count you among my friends.” Eursulon has the string in his pocket, but Suvi is the one who bargained for it.

Don’t even get me started on the Chantry and Morrow. I’m not doing it.

She gets them SAFE.

Resolves problems and defends her people with confidence and conviction.

She doesn’t deserve that dressing down from Steel. She doesn’t.

And Ame vanishes.

Off to talk to a murderess goddess that would end Port Talon in a heartbeat.

Of course Suvi goes to rescue her. Immediately! NO QUESTION. You think a search party would have found Ame?! With Orima of the Reaching Green as pissed as she was? HA. (but yes she’s thinking of Steel she doesn’t want to let Steel down not again not Steel)

Three days of walking and walking and walking.

(okay but Aabria having Suvi lose it is freaking brilliant and just absolutely incredible role play absolute perfection what a way to lean in)

And then Steel. Again.

Larger than life.

With the yelling. And the power. And the telemet.

Calls her a princess (dismissive) questions her like a prisoner (her adoptive mother really) and knows about the King of Night (suspicious).

And then.

Naram.

The Wild One heeds a call. The Witch arbiters consequences.

Our Wizard saves the godsdamned day.

She doesn’t run when it’s the derrick that’s at stake. She gets it. Even though she’s said awful things (you get what you get what a LINE trap a spirit and you get what you get bet she feels that way about Eursulon she trapped him she deserves it).

Suvi’s brilliance is not about what she says it’s about what she does. Galani mentions Orima and Suvi immediately moves.

Suvi’s quick thinking saves Port Talon.

Actually saves Port Talon.

She’s the one that does it. She’s the one that leads Orima to Naram. The reaching green and its *stranglers* and its indifferent cruelty to those in its way. ON THREE HIT POINTS.

And then Steel has the AUDACITY to act disappointed. (it’s not at Suvi not really but still).

Impossible odds.

Complex character choices and she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. Always thinking, strategizing, anticipating.

SUVI.

Love Suvi.

She makes the right choice. Every time.

[utilitycaster]

#this is SO real#wbn#there's a strange determination to sort everyone into either witches OR wizards and not just. townsfolk. people.#and to a degree that is where the story has led us (ame has been leaning much heavier on the spirit side of her communication role)#but the mortal world is just as complex and deserving of attention and sympathy as the spirits#and it's almost bizarre to treat everything suvi says as empire fodder rather than legitimate frustration and confusion at a world that#has been closed off to her#'you get what you get' has been taken so far out of the context in which she said it for example#yes I believe she has the incorrect viewpoint imo but there is so much nuance in how suvi doesn't want people to be hurt and wants to-#be able to control that. and how the spirits represent an absolute lack of control with the ability to do whatever they want#(for the most part)#and her fear and even occasional disdain of that is from a further place than empire propaganda#it's from her desire to have control and knowledge of her surroundings. to be able to Know everything#and the spirits laugh in the face of that very idea#and it's not entirely invalid of her to be frightened of that!!!#it's the wizard the witch AND the wild one!!#suvi would not be there if her viewpoint was not valuable if very very flawed#her end goal should not be to become ame because like she said. she's a wizard and she Knows magic!#there is virtue is her strategy and determination and logic#but people seem to favor ignoring that to smooth over the nuance and hope for her to realize her wrongs soon#sorry this was a giant ramble lol

@thespoonisvictory (not putting this on the post bc it's already a long one) Yes to all of this! Like, I think first and foremost people are ignoring that she is a 20 year old whose parents died for the citadel when she was a very young child and that this has been her only home since then and if she did a sudden about face "oh I was wrong about everything" it would be just as fragile and biased as her current worldview; while epiphanies and turning points are real, true and lasting change is ultimately a process and I don't trust an ideology that is adopted as a rapid about-face rather than an ongoing exploration.

The firesides make it clear that she and Ame are in fact very similar people; both will often ultimately do what they want despite personal danger or dangers to others in the party, both genuinely do care a lot about common people but both are at times deeply ignorant of the privileged positions they have held from a very young age (even though Suvi will throw her weight around, the realization that Galani would not have been given the same second chances has absolutely rocked her); and both are extremely out of their element in this story! I think it's also worth keeping in mind that we're in the "so wizards have really fucked up badly here" arc. There's plenty of time to explore the idea that, for example, one corrupt witch could do some pretty significant damage. The main thing that divides Suvi and Ame is what they were taught, and yeah, Suvi is frightened and unsettled by the world of spirits that Ame has been taught to respect and understand and that she never has. I think it's also really worth keeping in mind that Suvi knows that Eursulon's life here is in part because she broke rules she had no possible way of knowing, and I can't imagine she - a person who is all about knowledge and rules - has truly found a way to live with that yet.

For what it's worth I find it fascinating that the meta about Suvi is by and large fairly harsh criticism, and the meta about Imogen is "how dare you speak ill of my 28 year old baby daughter", and also that meta about the imperial wizards in WBN is largely "fuck them bitches, they trapped a god and everything they do is wrong and bad" but there's plenty of meta about the imperial wizard in Critical Role that goes "well he sucks as an individual but his plan is pretty cool actually" because I see a lot of parallels and I know there's overlap in fandoms. It does genuinely feel like people just see the word "god" or "empire" and react without actually listening to the other thousands of words surrounding it.

[jacodraws]

“Her life would be ruined if she’d done the things you did.”

[dumpster-fire-sapphic-failgirl]

Okay, I know the fireside request was to have an animated Morrow twerking on the derrick, but, allow me to offer as an addition, Galani just absolutely clapping ass as she flies through the air to save the city

[brainrockets]

Galani. I love you, but you have TERRIBLE TIMING! (Which isn't totally your fault since you don't really have all the information but uuugggh).