#INSTEAD OF CHAMPION OF THE UNDERSEA HERO OF THE DEEP

[gilliontidestriderchampionoftheu]

I THINK THIS IS THE FIRST TIME GILL SAYS HIS TITLES?

"I am Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Deep, Hero of the Undersea, Warrior of Rock 'n' Roll, and The One"

[captainsvscaptains]

Round 1 Part 7 Poll 3

Propaganda

She's has the worst of times to match her morals, ok? There's that but Locked Tomb spoilers ahead if you want more. There it goes ...

She is above average but not exceptional unless you count she is the daughther of the Chief of the Admiralty. But onto what she has done/suffered : first she gets her lieutenant (they work in matched pairs in the story ) beaten up when she put her against what she thought was the weakest of the group that turned out to be more powerful than anyone could predict.Then she got said lieutenant killed horribly by a mistake she made.

Got captured by the enemies that do not let her die and instead use her special habilities to maneuver a ship . The woman she's been pining for twelve years is also there trying to convince her to deflect and change sides or at least let her take the place of her dead lieutenant to be by her side but she does neither preferring to suffer in silence.

Finally she was taken to another location where she was tortured for six months due being exposed to a blue orb that drive those with her habilities into madness .

All this because of a misplaced sense of loyalty to an imperializing emperor and she doesn't even have her own ship ! "

God's most autistic soldier <3 literally he is god's soldier he's the chosen one. He was chosen from birth to either destroy the sea or flood the planet because the sun and moon goddesses couldn't figure out if they wanted more land or sea on their planet so they picked some guy to do it for them. Gillion also collects titles. Here's some of them: Champion of the Undersea; Hero of the Deep; The One; Singer Songwriter for Gillion and the Tidestriders' hit single The Hole In Your Heart; Paramount Champion; Walking Fish; Moisture Master; Eater of Grass, Beater of Ass. That's probably enough for now ahah he has wayy more. Also he is a fish man (triton)

[zeb-z]

At a surface level, Gillion always putting himself between danger and his friends just makes sense, because he’s noble like that, isn’t he? Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, Riptide Pirate - he can tank a hit, or two, or three, and swing back just as hard. He’s protective, and he’s sturdy, and he’s stubborn. Then just a little deeper, Gillion would without question sacrifice himself for the greater good. For a friend in need, for a good hearted citizen, for the net positive - he’s noble, with a heart of gold, who’s courage knows no bounds, right? And then just a little deeper, Gillion would actively harm himself just to make someone feel better. Just to take the edge off of someone else’s misery. He’d take their own pain, or even unnecessary pain, so they might have some sort of relief. Even if it isn’t guaranteed, he’s so ready, so eager, to jump at the chance.

Gillion Tidestrider is someone born to meet impossible standards, constantly told he’s not good enough, taught that his suffering is necessary and through this his people will survive. He’s all these things, kind and courageous and chivalrous, with a heart that beats to help others in need - but he’s also self sacrificial. Dangerously so. He takes personal risks without second thought, he pushes his limits for even the little things, he helps to the point of his own detriment. He will bleed himself dry on the off chance it might help a good soul who needs it. He will do worse for his loved ones. And it isn’t just from the all encompassing need to help at any cost, but also this feeling deep down inside that he deserves it. It’s his destiny to save people, no matter the personal cost.

It’s pushed to the extreme with Felipe after the Feywilds. Gillion, still off center, freshly traumatized from his time in that god forsaken orb, still awaiting the verdict on if he’s guilty in the eyes of the council while fully convinced he is, finds out it’s technically his fault his new friend is filled with insatiable bloodlust and wants to stab him to death. Of course he encourages the stabbing. Of course he’ll mind control to keep the peace. And when all is said and done, and it hurts and it doesn’t help, he still wonders about pushing it further - fully behind this idea of him dying and being brought back, even if it’s not sure to work. Even if it’s not sure to bring him back.

And I just keep thinking, that for all the healing Gillion does - all those sick people from Joaldo, Chip and Jay countless times in their battles, members of the crew, various people hurting and in need of aid - he’s never once used lay on hands on himself. It’s a pattern, made noticeable in Edison Kingdom, where he heals Alphonse for half of a joke instead of his own 1 hp - which subsequently downs him on the way down - and it’s continues to the end of the Feywilds, where Jay and even Felipe heal the stab wounds he bleeds out from. He’s a healer with the power just at his fingertips, so easily within reach, and he doesn’t heal himself.

So it does beg the question - when will the line between ‘selfless’ and ‘self sacrificing’ be drawn?

[orionis13]

Instead of stream yall can have the incomprehensible reference board for a piece I’m starting it’s clothes and also gillion tidestrider champion of the undersea hero of the deep etc

[gossamer-green]

I posted 3,945 times in 2022

That's 3,945 more posts than 2021!

2,630 posts created (67%)

1,315 posts reblogged (33%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@enderspawn

@atrium-hq

@cupsmp

@gossamer-green

@daggryet

I tagged 3,935 of my posts in 2022

#jrwi - 2,845 posts

#gossamer watches jrwi - 2,066 posts

#jrwi prime defenders - 1,253 posts

#gossamer thoughts - 776 posts

#jrwi spoilers - 503 posts

#jrwi riptide - 466 posts

#dream smp - 419 posts

#tommyinnit - 259 posts

#fanart - 162 posts

#gossamer liveblogs - 155 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#anyway i don't even like ships but either ghostknife needs to get together or will needs to chill and we all know charlie isn’t gonna chill

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

gillion tidestrider, champion of the undersea, hero of the deep, the one, blorbo from my podcast

220 notes - Posted May 9, 2022

#4

if i had a nickel for every time that the dm giving bizly's character a super dangerous item swiftly ended in a disaster for charlie's character, i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's weird and HORRIBLE that it happened TWICE.

279 notes - Posted July 6, 2022

#3

so you’re telling me that the elders:

1. since gillion’s childhood, repeatedly ran him through simulations where they presented sleeping oversea enemy soldiers AND their families as evil threats to the undersea who must all be slain

2. since gillion’s childhood, repeatedly ran him through additional simulations where they presented to him an evil enemy—sometimes in the form of a navy soldier—who declared that they would commit more evil if left alive, then expressed disapproval when he did what he’d learned in the enemy camp simulation and focused on taking down the evil before him, never once explaining to him that his ultimate goal should be the wellbeing of his people

3. brought gillion to negotiations with the navy, whom they’d always presented to him as an evil threat to the undersea

4. banished gillion for attacking a naval officer during the negotiations

wtf

305 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

#2

the scene of gillion trying to teach chip how to use his newfound magic gets me so emotional, because gil is being the teacher that he himself needed and never had.

gillion, who was given just a single try to succeed before being treated like a failure and whose subsequent unsuccessful attempts were treated as nothing more than a pile of additional disappointments, being patient with chip and encouraging him to keep trying, even though chip wanted to give up after his first failure.

gillion, whose struggles to succeed were met with disapproval and never with attempts to help him, reminding chip that he was capable and catering his guidance to chip’s way of thinking: handing him the stick again because it seemed like it had aided him, asking him how he had done magic back before he'd realised he was doing it, asking how his brain works and telling him to do it in the way that suits that.

gillion, who had been expected to do things in specific and rigid ways, seeing that chip's magic was manifesting in a form other than what he'd planned for and immediately encouraging and nurturing that new manifestation instead.

gillion, who had the terrifying weight of the prophecy forever on his mind while trying to learn, noticing that something else was affecting chip's performance and trying to get to that root issue.

and then gillion, who grew up being basically taught that he could never be enough and who is still struggling with that belief...responding to chip voicing the same belief about himself with, "for who? because it's enough for me. and i know it's enough for everyone else here."

324 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

little gillion in armour too big for him, so much weight—both figurative and literal—on his scrawny shoulders. covered in bruises because he was so early on in his intense training. holding a little frogtopus plush that would eventually be replaced with a real frogtopus in his older sister’s attempt to ease his terrible loneliness.

little jay neat in uniform, still on track to become who her father wanted her to be. clutching tight to her beloved doll, which her father would later destroy for being a distraction from that path.

little chip back when he was all alone, with nothing and no one. visibly malnourished and filthy because he had no one to feed him or help him stay clean. hair long and unkempt because he had no one to cut or detangle it.

489 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[basilpaste]

Weapon

weap·on

/ˈwepən/

noun noun: weapon; plural noun: weapons

a thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage.

Does a weapon know it's a weapon? When it begins, does it know it's purpose is to hurt? Can it understand that what it's been made for is cruel, that it may one day be used to spill blood (or to bruise skulls or to choke or sever or shoot)? Is it aware of what it is, a weapon?

In the case of Gillion Tidestrider, all questions are answered by a simple "no". Not at first, not for some time. Not until the weapon is repurposed, used in a new way. A blade made to run through chests instead used to whittle wood, a mallet used to tenderize meat for cooking.

Gillion did not know that he was a weapon until he, too, was repurposed. Going from a hero to a helper, from the Chosen to... a friend. Long were the nights spent above deck when he should have been sleeping, wondering of his purpose. Everything 'above' was new to him. From flowers to birds to people.

Though he'd never say it aloud, he began to doubt his purpose. Was saving his people... was it really worth losing all this? Whenever he'd think like that, he had to reprimand himself. He was the Champion, the Hero to his people. When the time came and he had to make his judgement, could he really afford to falter?

... What of the friends he'd made? Friends. It still felt foreign to him to think. Friends were distractions, the Elders couldn't let him have distractions. But Gillion was on his own, now. A blade screwed on backwards, sheathed upside down.

Gillion often wondered if, perhaps, he wasn't who he thought he was. Who would Gillion Tidestrider be if not the Chosen One? Perhaps not anyone at all. Perhaps he and this Gillion Tidestrider (who was just Gillion Tidestrider, no title at all) were one and the same. Maybe he never was the Chosen One.

But he had to be, because why else would he spend so much of his life training? Why could he take a life before he learned what it meant to live? Why did he learn that his purpose was the only part of him that mattered if that wasn't the case? So he was Gillion Tidestrider (Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep), because he had to be. He wore his name like a shield, like a dagger to cut through doubt with.

a means of gaining an advantage or defending oneself in a conflict or contest.

[enderspawn]

hello I'm a critrole and taz enjoyer and I'm looking to get into jrwi but . fanart looks Angsty so I'm Unsure (i know it's hypocrisy coming from a cr fan but .) jsbxjdbchdc I'm completely geniuenly asking - what do you like about jrwi? what's the premise like? You seem to really like the series, so please rant about it 🙏 (only if you want to ofc!)

I absolutely will, I will take any excuse to rant abt jrwi and try to get ppl to watch it BDKABDN

so to cover the basics jrwi, aka Just Roll With It, is a dnd show! featuring Grizzly, Bizly, Condifiction, and Slimecicle. their current main campaign (and the one I post abt most often) is JRWI: Riptide!

there are other campaigns, past and present, such as Prime Defenders (which is Patreon exclusive, with the first 5 episodes released for free this December), Convergence, The Fated Five/The Original Campaign, and more! They’re all also considered JRWI, but I’ve not rlly touched any of them beyond a bit of PD so I won’t probably be talking abt them (they’re here more for comprehensiveness and if you stumble across content labeled jrwi you don’t know, it’s probably one of these!)

Riptide is a pirate-based D&D campaign, following our main crew, comprised of: Chip, the human rogue, who is captain of the crew and the biggest bastard of the sea, Jay Ferin, a human ranger, who acts as the ship’s navigator and is known for her accuracy in shooting (as well as a few secrets or she might be hiding), and Gillion Tidestrider, (Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep), who is a homebrew paladin/sorcerer multi class triton, who is very new to the whole “life above the sea” thing, let alone the whole “humans” thing, but works through it by strictly following his morals and holding honor above all else in pursuit of his destiny.

The campaign ACTUALLY starts with… none of these characters, but instead a prequel oneshot set 10 years before the events of Riptide, which explores the legend of the Blackrose Pirates. You might even recognize some familiar names!

After the Blackrose Oneshot, you can watch through the main campaign here!

To avoid this being a Painfully Long post, the rest will be under a cut

So for 1: Angst shouldn’t be an issue here tbh. It’s very much a TAZ-esqe campaign in tone, with majority being adventurous and funny and light hearted…. Until it absolutely punches you with feels. A lot of it is very character-based storytelling (which I rlly enjoy) but it means your mileage depends on how much you invest yourself in those characters. There’s plenty of bits you can look deeper into for angst or character building, but if you don’t *want to* majority of the time it’s fast paced enough to move on from.

if you’re wondering how competent of pirates they are; they didn’t even have a MAP until abt episode 40ish and have ended adventures giving away money on more than one occasion. They’re bad at it <3

One of the things that IMMEDIATELY drew me to jrwi and made me really enjoy it was the DMing style. I think the first episode of Riptide is, frankly, a masterclass in “will I enjoy how this game is run?”. You will know if you’ll enjoy the show or not by the end of episode 1. They don’t want to big themselves down in rules and play much more by rule of cool over all else. SHOULD [x] work like that? Probably not, but it’s cool, so it does now! It’s all abt keeping up that lighter tone and fast enjoyable pace so things don’t get bogged down. The players are willing to make objectively bad outcomes or choices for their characters (possibly worse than the DM would) just because it would be funny.

They do a LOT to flavor the combat to make it engaging to listen to, which is massive for myself: even in TAZ, I’d tune out when initiative rolled, but they add in a lot of flavor, character, and humor into their combat which keeps it engaging for me.

The DM, Grizzly, is great at working with what the players give him and running with it. Whether that be integrating backstory stuff, to *literally changing an entire planned arc* to be more music based after the players decided they wanted to form a band as a goof (which it originally WASNT apparently, but without knowing that I literally could not tell).

ALSO THEY LITERALLY MADE A WHOLE ASS ORIGINAL SONF FOR THEIR FICTIONAL BAND TO PLAY AND I FEEL LIKE THAT DOESNT GET TOUCHED ON ENOUGH

All the players (though I notice it most with Bizly and Grizzly) are great at playing their characters, but especially VISUALLY. Like physically looking at sight lines or having this noticeable change in posture/gesture when in character vs not. As well as some (imo) stellar voice acting moments, it’s just (chefs kiss). Like… don’t get me wrong here, this ain’t “professional actors/voice actors” level of good, but it’s damn nice for your average Joe dnd podcast and helps incentivize watching on YT (for me).

Another big thing for me is the length: episodes average around and hour and a half or so, making it more accessible for my poor attention span (especially with a midroll you can pause in). I’ve never gotten into Crit Role SPECIFICALLY bc of the length of each episode, but JRWI works well for me.

In the end though, like I said, I love characters and it’s (emotionally) a very character driven story. There’s plenty of fantastic adventures and puzzles and the like for people who care more for plot than characters, but the characters are the reason I come back every time. You start with these basic entertaining people then they start to show other sides of them and gain this depth I fucking LOVE. My personal favorite is Chip, but Gill and Jay are both so intruiging as well with some common themes/issues while also being incredibly different. I’m. Trying not to spoil anything here but I just….. yeah <3

ALSO while it’s patreon exclusive and thus requires 10+ a month to access, they have a series called Just Rolled With It where they talk abt the session they just played (what they liked, what they didn’t, theories, more in depth behind the scenes n character shit, etc). And like… the best part of PLAYING dnd is sitting around w your friends geeking out abt your campaign!! Talkin abt ur personal scrunglys!! and now I can do that parasocially with a podcast!!!

If you want a sample taste, I’ll link down below some spoiler-ish free* animatics of bits I enjoy you can watch to get a feel as well

*they’re bits/encounters from later episodes/arcs than the first few, but shouldn’t be any kind of plot spoiler or a major issue.

https://youtu.be/XANB-fCFUAI

https://youtu.be/9M-qhLlt5oI

https://youtu.be/z8Y3W1kyhaM

https://youtu.be/KpyFjbM4SK0

[vapemaster42069]

“Anniversary” by Autoheart, as it pertains to Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, because 1 (one) person asked for it

To clarify: in this context, I see the song as a conversation between Gillion and Destiny, personified,,

To start, “Anniversary” is the first song on Autoheart’s album, Punch, and the meaning (as i see it) is better interpreted when contextualized within the album as a whole, which is a breakup album involving a breakdown of some kind, involving themes of codependency and learning how to function without someone once they leave. In the album, Anniversary is a sort of introduction to the relationship described in the subsequent songs. It has an upbeat, optimistic vibe when you first listen to it, a stark contrast to the second song, “Factories”, which is quiet, soft singing with a slight reverb accompanied by a piano. On the first listen, I thought that this was a cute love song, about being willing to take on the burdens of your partner as your own and deal with issues as a team, renewing their wedding vows on their “Anniversary”. However, there are several lines that stuck out to me immediately, in the bridge of the song:

“Hit me hard, I don’t care, you can use me anywhere / You can rip, you can tear, just take the very best of me / I am here for when you need to undo / All the weight on top of you, just take the very best of me”

These lines describe more than a loving relationship, or a partnership where burdens are shared; these describe one partner becoming an outlet for the other in a rather violent fashion. “Hit me hard”, “rip”, and “tear” are more indicative of abuse than of love. In these lines, the speaker is offering themself to “undo / all the weight” that rests on the other person – they are offering to be something like a punching bag, for their sake, saying that they “don’t care” about whether it will hurt them, so long as they are happy. The speaker is offering to give their significant other everything good about themself. Gillion continually puts himself in front of everyone else, sometimes figuratively acting as a shield or a shoulder to lean on, sometimes as literally putting himself into the line of fire so that he takes damage instead of the rest of his team. In the Just Rolled With It Ep. 58, Slimecicle comments that the way of combat in this campaign is very predictable; Gillion takes hits for everyone else, inevitably goes down, and is subsequently healed by Jay. He is fully willing to die at any time for his team, whether it may be necessary or not.

The pervasive optimistic vibe paired with the reality of the lyrics clearly mirrors Gillion’s own experiences, especially concerning his past with the Undersea and his experiences with destiny; the more you look at the lyrics, the more concerning they become. Furthermore, he repeatedly hides behind a smile for everyone else. He never willingly speaks about his past, with the exception of funny quips that seem fine in the moment, but odd when looked at closer. For instance, when the Albatrio were dropped off at the Block, when Gillion said something to the note of “this is just like being dropped off at training! Except, you’re gonna come back, right?”, everyone kind of brushed it off because he said it in a jaunting manner. The tone of his voice was happy, so everyone disregarded the obviously concerning message that he had been abandoned.

Upon further listening, more parts of the song were starting to sound concerning. The final lines,

“I'm not giving you up, no way / I will never stop when it comes to you / When it comes to you”

imply that the relationship has become almost obsessive. There are additional lines talking about the speaker relying entirely on their partner for stability, about venerating the speaker’s partner like a prize – generally, unhealthy practices in a romantic relationship. This obsession, when it becomes more important to have the familiarity of a relationship than for it to be healthy, it also present in Gillion’s story, when he continually relies on destiny – almost as a crutch – because if everything that has happened to him is not purposeful, is not destiny, then he must face the notion that it is for nothing. His mistakes would become his responsibility, not some twist of fate, his actions would become at times futile or failure rather than something that is simply not meant to be, and his trauma would be meaningless, not something he sees as fulfilling a greater purpose.

[spacedustmantis]

GILLION TIME!

as the number one gillion tidestrider understander (democratically elected), i feel as though it's my duty to explain to the masses this guy and his complexities.

spoilers up to episode 99 under the cut. trigger warnings: abuse, indoctrination (?), violence, gore, death, hallucinations, unreality, i think that's it

first off riptide is a pirate campaign, chip, jay and gillion are the main characters, the navy are the bad guys, there's an underwater society called the undersea, which is very cut off from all other cultures. magic etc. exists of course, it's dnd.

gillion gets introduced to us as a comedic character first and foremost. he is literally a fish out of water, having come to the surface only a few days before the campaign starts, and he sticks out like a sore thumb, partially due to his teal skin and green hair, partially due to his loud and boisterous demeanor. he doesn't understand the world around him and seems rather naive, yet he has an unshakable sense of justice, a drive to do good and eliminate evil from the world and a solid belief in destiny.

his lack of self-worth comes into play early, when he takes on the burden of making a deal with one niklaus hendrix. the town they've been staying at gets released of it's curse and in return gillion now owes a favor to this powerful tiefling. this is our introduction to what is presumably the main antagonist of the campaign, and it sets a trend for gillion. self-sacrifice to protect and/or save others, no matter how close he is to them.

meanwhile his friend and later co-captain, chip, takes advantage of his naivety to play a few pranks on him. he tells him to feed his new pet bird gunpowder (which leads to gillion trying to feed it to fire-spitting sea lemurs, blowing up their boat), tells him that bugs are the evilest thing imaginable and need to be slain, and that to greet a bald person you must slap them on their head. all this gillion believes, as he trusts chip to not lie to him and he doesn't have any point of reference for the social norms on the oversea (or the undersea, but we'll get to that later). when chip reveals that he lied to him, gillion takes it as a serious affront to his honor and challenges him to a duel.

and here we find out that while gillion has been taught many things, emotional conflict resolution is not one of them. we see him draw blood instead of talking it out with his friend, refusing a draw or a stalemate. he also was taught that humans are vile, selfish, violent creatures, and while he disregarded that when he came aboard chip's boat, he still has those beliefs ingrained in him.

gillion wins the duel and makes chip promise to never lie to him again.

it takes a bit before we get a glimpse into gillion's life before the campaign again. in the meantime we learn that he is 'the champion of the undersea, hero of the deep' but what that means is unclear. we see him throw himself into danger again and again, and we see him willing to kill, bloodthirsty even. his lack of nuance in morality issues becomes apparent again and again. in his book someone is either good or evil and if they are evil they need to be eradicated. but we also get to see a softer side of his emerge every now and then, particularly when talking to or playing with his pet frogtopus pretzel (keep her in your head, we'll come back to her).

the next bit of backstory we get is when a secret of his is forced out of him by the meat room (don't think about it too hard). we find out the reason gillion is on the surface and not at home, is that he attacked a navy officer (a human, the kind of person he was taught to fight against) and was banished from the undersea. it's made clear that gillion feels endlessly conflicted about it, doesn't want to believe he was kicked out, and feels guilty for being flawed.

more stuff happens, there's a confrontation with jay's father, vice admiral jayson ferin of the navy, in which he compels her to shoot gillion. in this confrontation gillion takes off his armor. he got it payed for by jay in return for a future favor and when jay wants to cash in that favor, saying that gillion should let her go, he instead takes off his armor, since he can't follow through on that favor. so jay shoots gillion, he goes down, jay and chip talk it out, gillion gets healed and they make it out.

the crew heads to all-port, the center of this world, and while there gillion meets his older sister edyn. we find out that he hasn't seen her "in a long long time" (presumably a year or so), and after a short talk at the bar she works at, they head to a different bar to talk about plans relating to the navy. during this edyn, chip and gillion talk some more and it's revealed that gillion was taken from his family by the elders (government) at a young age to be trained to be a champion since he was the hero of the prophecy. the only person who ever visited him in the palace was edyn, and she gifted him pretzel to keep him company. after a while edyn's visits got more and more sparse and edyn tells gillion in this conversation that she wasn't allowed to visit as often anymore, which gillion was never told about.

we also hear about gillion not having time for hobbies or family or friends, since his entire life was taken up by training. and he makes it apparent that he was told he wasn't good enough repeatedly, having to endure extra lessons and critique and disdain from the elders. but he also says that he still has full faith in the elders, believing them to be knowledgeable and trustworthy and still seeing them as authority figures.

a few episodes later we finally learn about the prophecy:

"a hero born from moonlight, storm and sea. / they shall rise or fall to bring unity. / they will be tested or bested by evil's hand. / by their choice one will remain, sea or land."

this prophecy is obviously putting him under immense amounts of pressure. his whole life he has been taught that it will be his responsibility to bring unity and slay evil and choose between two entire cultures, one of which will presumably be wiped out. the choice seemed simply for most of his life, but now that he has seen the surface and befriended the people there and seen what they are capable of, that choice looms over him like a guillotine. one of his homes will be destroyed. he will have to choose one of his families over the other.

after that, we take a bit of a break from gillion and the next time we come back to him, we dive deep. the crew has made their way to liquidus, a city powered entirely by water, worshipping the moon goddess lunadeyis, and directly above them is the sun city (and i can't fucking find the name of it anywhere!!) where they worship the sun goddess aster.

here gillion learns about his purpose as chosen one. he sees two murals, one in liquidus focusing on lunadeyis, and one in the sun city focusing on aster. both tell the story of how they fought over the world. how lunadeyis wanted it to be dominated by water, and aster wanted it to be dominated by land. one of them offers the idea of a champion to settle their dispute. it is believed that gillion is the champion of one or both of the goddesses, but the idea of a second chosen one comes up too, and gillion seems ecstatic about it, as if a weight had been lifted off his chest.

there's also a scene in which the captains go to confession (bc they're in a church) and gillion confesses to having fun with his friends and not wanting to be the chosen one, convinced that that is a sin.

and then they go to the feywild with their pal felipe (remember him, he becomes important) and things really start going to shit for gillion. they arrive at a carnival at which pretzel (his closest companion and longest friend and stand-in for his sister edyn) gets taken from him. he gets a bit mad and has a few breakdowns (if you want to know more i wrote 3k words about that episode here) and then during an improv show they put on in an effort to find out where pretzel is he draws two cards from their newly acquired deck of many things. the first one, rouge, puts a curse on felipe that makes him hate gillion, and the second one, donjon, makes gillion disappear and become imprisoned in an extra-dimensional space, which location is unknown, and he can only be brought back by a powerful wish spell. essentially he's just gone and his friends have no clue how to get him back. they go through the feywild and do a whole adventure thing all while being distraught about gillion.

meanwhile gillion is now in the trauma dimension. everything that happens here is fabricated by his own mind, memories mixed with fears mixed with internal conflict. he finds himself in a white space and before him appear black silhouettes of his elders, putting him on trial. he is put through simulations that would, in an effort to find out whether he is fit for being champion, test him on his sins: wrath, pride and impulsivity. he is told that if he is found guilty it would take more than just a wish spell to recover his soul.

the first two simulations are similar to the training simulations he was put through as a child: fighting an evil version of himself and having to make a decision between eliminating evil and saving the town (a simulation which he never was able to beat since the elders never explained to him what they wanted from him, which was save the town), and having to eliminate an entire camp of navy soldiers asleep in their quarters. it is worth mentioning that during the episode charlie and dm grizzly discussed the possibility of gillion being tasked with killing children of navy officers to "prevent them from multiplying" to which charlie said that that probably happened. fun! gillion approaches both simulations differently to how he used to, and finds success, illustrating his growth.

the last simulation is different. it is not a memory of training, but a memory of the day he was banished from his home. we find out a bit of worldbuilding but we also find out gillion stabbed jay's dad! this time he doesn't stab anyone, but he does speak his mind against the elders and against jayson.

when the simulation fades he is asked for his last line of defense, and he admits to what he believes to be his final sin: his hatred for the elders. it's an insane monologue that makes me cry just thinking about it and you should absolutely watch it here. this moment of him standing up to the elders and telling them how mad he is about how he was treated is both a huge step (even though the elders aren't real, but a memory) and a sign that even after everything, gillion still blames himself for not being good enough, that he feels guilty about feeling anger towards his abusers.

before the trial can come to a close and gillion gets to find out whether he's guilty or not (and therefore being robbed of that closure), niklaus interrupts the memory/hallucination thing and lets us know that he is now in possession of the pearl that holds gillion.

jay, chip and felipe make it back from the feywild, jay makes a deal with niklaus, getting the pearl with gillion, they get him out of the pearl, and they sail off in direction of all-port again.

one day chip and gillion play around with some mind-reading bracelets and what started as good fun became less fun, when gillion digs too deep. while in the feywild chip got the opportunity to talk to any person alive or dead and because he's down bad he chose gillion's sister edyn. he found out that edyn is working with the navy but she made him promise not to tell gillion. chip told jay about it but kept his promise and never mentioned it to gillion. this makes gillion mad at chip for lying to him despite promising not to, and extremely worried about edyn. they have a fight (this time they apologize to each other beforehand and the fight itself is actually really fun), gillion tries to call edyn and immediately hangs up out of anxiety and that's it for the day.

a few days later they arrive at all-port, where gillion avoids confrontation with his sister as long as he can. when he gets urged to do it by chip, they make their way to the bar that edyn works at. they're told by the owner that she's on break, but that she left something for gillion in her locker. it turns out to be a letter in which she tells him how much she loves him, and misses him, but also that she can't explain anything beyond that she's doing what she thinks is right and that she just wants gillion to come home again.

gillion has a breakdown over it, very emotional scene which is also worth checking out, but i don't have a clip. if you want to watch it it's episode 88, near the end.

earlier that day gillion also experiences the first racism directed at him by the people of all-port. :(

later in combat with navy vice admiral kuba kenta he gets scratched by his claws and now has the nightmare curse. he dreams of his sister edyn dying, over and over and over, and then he decides he's had enough of that and stays awake for days on end, focusing on keeping their ship afloat. it's more half of a ship and he has encased the back end in ice so that it doesn't sink, but it needs to be re-frozen every hour, so he can't sleep anyways. also he's in mass amounts of pain.

he gets his grandpa back, who has been a bird (remember that bird from the very beginning?) for ten years, and then he was in a coma for a week, but now he's awake. which is good!

they arrive at an island where gillion finally sleeps again and dreams of a tar black see, a hand on his shoulder and a shack full of the corpses of his loved ones. then they fight a house and while attempting to short rest to get his hp back up, gillion instead becomes paralyzed with pain and hallucinates visions of his friends dead at his feet and his own sword painted in blood and his own flesh melting.

then after fighting the house and some other stuff, gillion goes to sleep and wakes up not having dreamt of anything due to the mind-reading bracelets that he and chip put on. then follows a whole session of them raiding a gang camp, then falling into the hands of a bad guy that they've had issues with before, and then both chip and jay being murdered while gillion is shackled to the wall, helpless, unable to do anything. then gillion actually wakes up. (the fact that this was a dream sequence was kept a secret not just from the audience but from charlie as well, which in retrospect is really funny to watch but watching it for the first time was awful)

his immediate reaction to this is disbelief that he is really awake, flinging jay across the room, stabbing himself to make sure he is awake, and general insanity. he's also hallucinating now. chip and jay know that he's going to die if they don't do anything about the nightmare curse, so they haul his ass to a neighboring island in a tiny rowboat to get him cured by jay's mom. during the four days of travel gillion doesn't sleep once, at the end of that treck he is at 5 points of exhaustion, which means his max hp is halved, he is paralyzed and that he will die if he gains another point of exhaustion.

he gets cured in the nick of time, they make their way back to the island that they left their crew on, and that's basically it. we're caught up with gillion's story!

major bracket round 4 group b

[mossyvessel]

He's from dnd podcast Just Roll With it, and I absolutely love him with every bit of my soul

I've decided not to explain what he's actually like and instead leave you with just his name and his vast collection of titles:

Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, The One, Singer/Songwriter of Gillion and the Tidestriders' hit single "The Hole in Your Heart", Warrior of Rock and Roll, Pigeon Lord, Moisture Master, Horse Tamer, Defenestrator of the Adulterous, Friend of Dugon, Dugon's Best Friend, Walking Fish, Fish, Dirt Eater, Chum of Chibo and Chums, Co-Captain Gill of the Riptide Pirates, Co-captain of the Albatross, Companion of Pretzel, Paramount Champion, Knighter of Julian That One Time, Pretzel Carrier, Leviathan Tamer, Serpent Rider, Brother of Dugon, Friend of Duke D Dukem Duke of Dooke, Eater of Grass, Beater of Ass, Grandma's Good Boy, Dismantler of Evil, Eater of Shit, Capitalism Hater, Royalty Assassinator, Sufferer of the Spice, Weed Eater, Slayer of Evil, Loffinlot Liberator, Fruitninja, Eater of Sand, Juice Enjoyer, Rescuer of John, Fishy, Bitcoin Miner, NFT Purchaser, Driplord, Grandmillion, The One Who Will Change The World, Grimm Slayer, In Need of a Dad, Goblin Gobbler, Lime Lord, Tuber, Chip's Nightmare Fuel, Monsoon And Moon Son, Eater of Ass, Pretzel Seeker.

Also he's canonically ace so that's neat

Anyway wanna hear about my newest blorbo

Yes!!!!