#I might have gotten some stuff about Yasha's views of her being an aasimar wrong

[social-cocoon]

Thoughts about Yasha and her cool new sword under the cut

I said a little about this in the tags of another post but I'm pretty sure Yasha isn't going to be multiclassing to use the Holy Avenger. Once, as other people have already been saying, her charisma isn't high enough and bumping it up to meet the paladin requirement is pretty extreme. Two, Matt isn't the type to force his players down a certain path, especially not for an item they weren’t supposed to get in the first place. Lastly, the next milestone to level up to 15 will definitely be after the big confrontation with Lucien, and depending on how that goes then a level in paladin would be useless anyway. Plus, taking a level in paladin for a sword that she likely won’t be keeping after this arc is over is useless and (at least at the moment) would be narratively unfulfilling.

Instead, I think her next character arc will be about her accepting her role as a protector, and that will be what allows her to unlock the ability to attune to the sword. While her change from a Fallen Aasimar to a Protector Aasimar has already been brought up in game, it's been shown as more of an external change than internal change. We’ve seen her wings grow feathers and actually give her the ability to fly and we’ve seen her hair start to return to its original color, but I don’t think Yasha’s had enough time to emotionally and mentally process and fully understand what this all means, nor has she begun to accept what it means. “Protector” is the key word here. Early on, Yasha would often call herself a coward, and she hated herself for failing to protect Zuala, so now she’s being put towards the path of accepting the role of a protector and accepting the idea that she can fulfill that role. It’s in her nature to fit that role, but there will probably be a lot of hesitation on her part because she failed once and the consequences were pretty significant.

I think once she comes to fully accept this change is when the sword will unlock for her, and I think it’s this specific aspect of her because of the dream sequence. In it, Matt made a point to bring up the word protector or protection and the feeling of being aimless without a charge to protect, then had the M9 calling out for her to save them. It’s definitely different from her previous dreams which were very centered on herself and how she needed strength for herself, now turning it to using that strength for others.

I also wouldn’t be surprised (though I’m not expecting it) if part of this next arc for her is coming to really understand her celestial nature, because I’m not sure is Yasha’s quite come to terms with that? Ashley said a while back that she just thinks she kind of a weird human, and while I think she understands now that there’s more to her, it still hasn’t come up too much beyond the odd comment or nickname. Her being part celestial also allows her to fulfill the divine part of being a paladin while making herself a protector to her new family fulfills the devotion aspect. The Stormlord’s words to her also made it sound like this wasn’t something to do with him and that he’d be taking more of a backseat as opposed to last time, and that her connection to him isn’t what is important (or at least not most important) right now, opposing how a lot of a paladin’s power comes from that sort of connection.

TL;DR: I think the key to unlocking the Holy Avenger’s power will not be having to multiclass into paladin but instead be Yasha coming to terms with and accepting the role of a protector, and her celestial nature plus her devotion to protecting her friends will be what replaces the need for her to be a paladin.