#a bards lament

[mayapapaya33]

I could write a 10 page essay on my thoughts and feelings about "A Bard's Lament" and about Scanlan. How I think a lot of people misinterpret what actually happened IMHO. It feels to me like a lot of people treat that scene like Scanlan is finally telling VM off for being bad friends and kind of cheer him on rather than realizing that he's having a mental health crisis having reached his breaking point and is lashing out.

Establishing some Game mechanics first and foremost, Sam consistently rolled 30+ deception checks anytime one of the others asked him how he was doing or tried to find out if he was having any problems. He is THE great deceiver. He lied to all of them, about everything. He never shared his worries or fears, or his drug problem. Nothing. Anytime they tried to connect with him, he shot them down, deflected masterfully. The other characters LITERALLY had no idea he was having any problems, if the players did anything about his problems after rolls like that it would have been metagaming. It's not that VM didn't care, they didn't know!

Which is frankly how he operated the whole campaign. From day one, anytime any of them asked him a personal question, he make a joke. Of course, Scanlan was a joke character in the beginning of the campaign, but from a character pov, the character treated everything as a joke. He cared about his friends, and they cared about him, they would die for him and vice versa, but he didn't have any heart to hearts with anyone. Slowly over the course of the campaign, everyone else opened up to each other, (or sometimes the narrative forced them to open up cough cough Percy cough cough) and he remained closed off, using humor to deflect any deeper connections. And the way the story went, he was never forced to share.

By the time "A Bards Lament" takes place, he's in a very bad place emotionally and is sad and scared and angry, and he says things to hurt people, not things that are true. (ok maybe some of it was true, but even the true bits were weaponized and honed to be the worst possible interpretations of events in order to hurt, not actually to BE truth. Vax and Keyleth definitely deserved a tuning up after their bs with the dragons. Personally, I'm very proud of Percy for not punching Scanlan for the comments about coming back to Whitestone just so he could be "proud of his name" or whatever, I've never heard such utter bullshit. Then some people are like, hey, why's Percy so mad at Scanlan, huh I fucking wonder? lmfao).

I relate to him in that I also use humor to deflect people and I sometimes wish that people would see what I feel and think; see through me, without me having to tell them. But that is unfair! I'm lying to them! That's on me! Which Is why I want to choke Scanlan out so often probably lmfao, because I understand where he's coming from and can see the mistakes he's making, and I just want to shake him.

I think a lot of people relate to Scanlan but perhaps... how shall I put this delicately... do not have the same level of self-awareness about the self-destructiveness of this particular approach to life and relationships and so feel a catharsis when he blows up at his friends because they also want to yell at their friends for not noticing their pain. Even though they are the ones who have hidden their pain with such skill that it really isn't their friend's fault they're clueless in the first place.

All that said, Vox Machina aren't perfect. They definitely could be better friends, they made mistakes. I just want to talk about the part of this that I don't often see discussed; Scanlan's depression and mental health struggles and their impact on his friendships and his responsibility.

Some people also act like VM bully "poor helpless Scanlan" (TLOVM sort of also acts like this sometimes which is annoying but oh well). When the reality is that Scanlan is a sharp tonged wit that verbally eviscerates his companions on a regular basis and so they treat him how he treats them. It's all banter... right up until it isn't and he's feeling sad and hurt and worthless and suddenly words hurt. But instead of opening his mouth and TELLING ANYONE how he feels, he just lets it build and build until he explodes.

I'm really worried about how TLOVM is going to handle it going forward, because so far they haven't really set up the group trying to connect with Scanlan and that's a mistake. They have a little, but they should do more. The scene with Pike was good, him instantly reverting to clownish behavior the second it got too sincere then him being frustrated with himself. But they really need to do some of that with the others as well and I'm worried they won't have time or won't think it's necessary.

It's HIS responsibility to reach out to others about his declining mental health. He is the one who set the rules of engagement as "Everything is a joke, especially serious things, I am allergic to sincerity" The others follow his lead. There's only so many times you can reach out to someone earnestly and receive a joke back for your troubles before you eventually respect the unspoken desire not to share and stop asking.

A lot of people cite the prank as some monstrous thing that VM did that proves that they don't love or respect Scanlan. Whereas actually, Sam Riegel admitted that at another moment in time, Scanlan would have found it funny. Pike knows that about him, which is why she did it. (Ashley of course, did it to send Scanlan over the edge because she's evil like that and they all adore drama lol). He was just in a terrible place mentally, so it felt like an insult instead of friendship. (idk where he said it, please don't ask, do you have any idea how many HUNDREDS of HOURS of CR I have watched?! It was probably talks machina).

Also, way back in the early episodes of C1 that lots of people skip, I forget which episode it is, but it was when they were under Kraghammer, Grog got his brain scooped out by the mind flayer or that brain creature or something (I'm a little fuzzy on the details). Anyway, they were all very frightened for Grog and they weren't sure they could save him. Once they figured out they could, Scanlan wanted to set up a prank for Grog to wake up to once they healed him (he was brain dead, in a coma or something). Point being Scanlan's a massive hypocrite lol. (which Sam fully admits).

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Now here's my VERY controversial opinion, don't hate me lol, I never actually liked the "what's my mother's name?" thing. It felt very meta gamey, like Sam looked up Percy's parent's names before the session as a gotcha! Not really like Scanlan actually knew their names. So it never hit me the way it was supposed to. But that's just personal taste. It also circles back to my previous points of YOU NEVER OPENED UP TO THEM SCANLAN, OF COURSE THEY DON'T KNOW YOUR MOTHER'S NAME! THAT'S YOUR FAULT!!!! MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T TURN EVERYTHING INTO A JOKE, THEY'D KNOW HER NAME!!!!

[natp20]

this is going to hurt later, isn't it

[nothingwithdignity]

For being so codependent Vex and Vax have such different ways of dealing with things. In the wake of Scanlan’s departure, Vax’s instinct is to over share because Scanlan said none of them really knew him while Vex’s response is to listen because they all talk too fucking much.

Look at their paths to get to this point in the first place. Left to his own devices Vax finds his comfort zone in the cities, surrounded by hustle and bustle and people. Vex on the other hand finds her place in the wilds. In the quiet, steady movements of a lone hunter. I always think of Vax being the kind of person who can’t stand silence because the thoughts in his head will multiply exponentially and Vex as the kind of person who can’t separate her thoughts from the ambient noise unless there’s room to breathe.

Vax’s instincts to share in the wake of Scanlan’s exit and his comfort in the city are at complete odds with Vex’s instinct to retreat and listen and yet, while there is definitely tension, they’re not exactly mad at each other.

They have such different needs in moments of stress and that has led them down very different paths in life and yet they are attached at the hip and the idea that they managed to find and continue to develop such different routes in such close proximity to each other fascinates me.

[cornpickerart]

Scanlaaaaaaan🎵🎶🎵✨️

[deer-with-a-stick]

please... tlovm s3... where are you...

[cringefaecompilation]

last post about it. okay, so remember when the whole entire cast wanted to maim sam riegel after leaving with scanlan and then returning legit five minutes later with taryon for the next five episodes? okay now imagine the same thing happening with taliesin jaffe but instead of it being someone different it's the same guy.

[exandrianpunk]

Vax talking to the girls after Scanlan left (around 2hrs in the podcast) is hitting me especially hard this time around. he's so scared that more of his family will leave, that Vex won't understand if he leaves her to go with Kiki for a while, that he isn't doing enough to keep them all together, that more people will blindside him by suddenly exploding and walking out on him, that he feels so deeply how his fate is interwoven with those of the rest of the members of Vox Machina but the threads are getting tangled and he can't see the way through, and he's just so scared of what's to come now that they have time to think about themselves instead of the world-ending forces of evil that have loomed over them for so long...

[yashley]

you ever think about how a choice that wasn’t even really a choice for fearne, but her being the only one with the ability to perform the ritual that made it her* choice as everyone around her buckled to try to help her out of that situation and the ramifications of that choice that she had scarred her so deeply that now she is terrified of making another mistake that will dramatically affect the people around her who she loves, and then when another situation followed, she was led into a situation that she did not want to be a part of, but under the veil of friendship reluctantly assisted and it blew up literally once again, took that overwhelming burden of guilt and while her friends stood by and once more let her be alone in her guilt and scarred her further.

now it feels like she can’t make any choice for herself, she can’t make any move because that will ultimately inevitably lead to her making a mistake and all of her precious friends will look down at her in disappointment and that there is not a single friend amongst them who has the emotional wherewithal to what’s happening with how fearne has changed and how she is shutting in on herself and how she is slowly imploding breaking at the seams because she’s being lost in the sea of guilt and no one else notices and no one else sees that she feels like she can’t do anything anymore from the smallest carefree little action that has no plot repercussions to a character centered decision that is integral to her own character arc that has been in the works for her character since the campaign’s conception

now she can’t even say anything, and if fearne does have an idea to do something. She quietly mutters it, and if they hear her they hear her enough to respond that ehhh that's not a good plan and that’s not gonna work and we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna do this and fearne being fearne, trusting in her friends and doubting herself to the point of despair will nod her head that they were right and then we go on with our day until the next moment happens where she wants to think of something, she wants to do something, and it’s dismissed as the silly dumb fearne not thinking, that She has her own thoughts and feelings, and drives and desires but because she is drowning in doubt and drowning in guilt, She freezes up and doesn’t move and everyone around her just pushes her on, and even in the moment where she is faced with the situation that she is terrified of undertaking, and she is terrified of becoming a Nightmare version of herself her friends push her forward, her friends dust off her shoulders say your doubt is misplaced, and don’t worry about it and you need to do this, it should be you. This is for you.

They just completely dismiss and ignore her when she actually does speak up so what does that do? that means that she remains silent. She doubts herself more. She even more will only make a decision if it’s signed off by all these fucking people around her who claim to be her friends. she can’t even move without frantically looking to people around her for confirmation that that’s a good idea she’s not gonna fuck up. Everything about her that was supposed to be free and fun and sweet has just rendered her into a character who feels like they have as much agency as characters who would be absent for the majority of the campaign.

shes been so chained up by doubt and so chained up by guilt and hesitation and fear that she just is a person who affirms everyone else’s desires and ideas because what she wants will inevitably end up being horrible and everyone will hate her for it and they’ll leave

and it’s like if they deem fearne even capable enough to be the vessel she will leap at the chance to be useful and to be told her path and it’s like. fearne was ruidusborn first. how has this campaign done such a disservice to her character that the only thing fearne is certain of is that she doesn’t really matter. she’s a ruidusborn and holds a primordial titan of fire inside her, and she still believes she doesn’t really count are you kidding me

[mayapapaya33]

Things they better put in TLOVM in no particular order pt 5 of ?

More of the rest of VM interacting and saving Scanlan in battle or joking around with him and being friends. And his tongue was much sharper towards his friends in the campaign. I get what they're trying to do, what they're setting up, but I don't like how they've gone about it and they're going WAY too far with it. The whole point of 'you know what' is that Scanlan is in a bad place mentally and he's been lying to everyone until he exploded NOT that no one cares about him. (Sure, they aren't perfect, but guess what, neither is he). Start SHOWING people caring about him and him not noticing! They've really woobified him and I don't love it. He's a sharp-tongued dickhead who jabs his friends all the time and can dish it out but stopped being able to take it as the campaign progressed due to his faltering mental health, not a victim of bullying.

I hope they fix the balance somewhat in season 3 but I'm doubtful of that aspect. (Still love the show, just not this approach).

[radcaduceus]

i'm not ready for season 3 of tlovm

[natp20]

oh lordy

[sesamenom]

eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree

-

The day of battle approaches. Finarfin retained his position as High King, Feanor has been released from the Halls to lead the Host of Valinor, Elwing and Eonwe get to lead the bird army this time around, and Ecthelion just showed up to lead his army of battle flutists.

[the-walking-spoiler]

CR fans these days don’t know how good they have it….in 2023 Sam Riegel and his characters will show genuine emotion and maybe even cry whenever the situation is suitably dramatic but in 2017? When he was playing SCANLAN SHORTHALT? You had to watch him die twice, develop a drug problem, make and then break a promise to his estranged daughter who kind of hated him, get posthumously humiliated by his friends, and then snap like a rubber band before that man would emote.

[silentassassin21]

the amount that critters can't handle a character being even slightly morally dubious should be studied.

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

Listen.

I've got a lot of feelings about the next season of The Legend of Vox Machina, and I'm 98% sure we know how it's going to end but just listen.

A Bards Lament

12 letters in that phrase. 12 episodes in a season.

The creators of TLOVM have the opportunity to do something very tragic with their episode titles in the coming season.