#i feel like laudna is further gone down this path than imogen

[nellasbookplanet]

That one post which I can no longer find about how Laudna and Imogen simultaneously embody "I can fix her" and "I can make her worse" truly hit the nail on the head about them. They are each other’s tethers, keep each other grounded and help the other remember there’s a reason to go on, they taught each other that they don’t have to be lonely and isolated and feared, that they can be loved unconditionally not despite that which makes them dangerous and different but in part because of it, as an inherent part of themselves. They will fight for each other’s happiness tooth and nail.

But they are also the 'together either way' couple. Laudna would follow in Delilah's footsteps and burn the world and herself for Imogen. If she thinks Ruidus and Predathos are Imogen's destiny, what would make her whole and happy, she would encourage her to embrace it, Exandria be damned. Imogen exalted because of her love for Laudna. She was prepared to do just about anything to get Laudna back from the dead and is equally prepared to do anything now to stop it from happening again. She offered to let Laudna eat her soul. She's so so tempted by Ruidus and knows, even in her struggle, that the person she loves most would never hold it against her even a little bit if she gave in.

[utilitycaster]

The weird thing about the people wjo invalidate Imogen's feelings on the matter is that they conveniently ignore that the whole reason Imodna (using this for convenience, not shipping) were in Jrusar specifically to find a means of helping Imogen. Like, Imogen feels like a protagonist for a reason! She has the call! She's the one that got introduced with the quest!

So invalidating her anger and acting like she doesn't have a right to it feels like it's invalidating why Laura made the very specific choices she made in the first place.

Like, look. I love Laudna with all my being and I would die for her, but she doesn't have a narrative purpose right now. Sure, she's part of the party and Imogen's support system, but outside of that, why is she here? What is her purpose?

We don't know! Matt and Marisha haven't gone down that path fully yet and that's fine. They have time.

But Imogen? She has a call and a purpose and the gnarlrock became tied to that call and that purpose the moment she decided to cuddle the thing and dreamt of it calling her to the storm. And it being destroyed, her sense of betrayal and anger brought on by that? The wealth of narrative possibility, the potential for character development and changing dynamics is boundless.

Idk why people choose to ignore that for a ship.

RIGHT like honestly? I started the campaign reflexively pretty strongly against Imogen/Laudna as a ship because it was, to me, fairly immediately apparent that a lot of people just projected Beau/Jester straight onto it...but actually? I have come around on it with the caveat that I truly cannot engage with the fandom interpretation thereof. I talk about it with people who I think have good meta and ideas about these characters, and who like both Laudna and Imogen as separate entities and think "yeah, eventually, I could see this being a really great relationship" rather than people who are just like "LAUDNA OMG LAUDNA/(whoever Laura is playing, some person with glasses I think?)"

I also think a lot of people misinterpreted what Taliesin said on 4-Sided Dive about "a party of NPCs"; it's not that the other characters are boring or unimportant (Taliesin is in fact quite clear that NPC=/= boring or lacking in traits), it's that Imogen fits a very classic archetype of "I am Special and I have a Call to a Quest" and a lot of the others do not. (FWIW, in my mind Orym and Chetney have similar calls to a quest, ie, find the people who attacked my home/killed my husband or figure out how to control my werewolf powers, it's just that they also fit NPC archetypes of Guard and Weird Old Artisan; this also doesn't preclude other characters coming to the forefront at other times). So you are completely right, she does feel like a protagonist for a reason! Her story is a lot more of a driving force for her whereas much of the rest of the party are, as you said about Laudna, mostly hanging out at this point. At least in my experience looking in fandom spaces and the tags, people are not actually treating Imogen as the protagonist. Honestly? A lot are treating her as the antagonist; plenty of people were like "well Imogen reads people's minds so FCG deliberately lying and trying to read her mind against her consent is Good, Actually". Like, a lot of people think that it's totally fine to lie to Imogen (who due to psychic powers she did not ask for and fights to suppress is extremely sensitive to hypocrisy and lies), and I am merely telling them to go hit their head against a wall.

And for what it's worth I also like Laudna, and personally I hope this encounter leads to a lot of development for both their characters but like. Both, not just Laudna. And if that development ends up in them becoming more independent and growing further apart? I think that's a completely valid option for the story to take, because they are separate and independent people. Both of them.

Honestly at this point, I assume that when people ignore all that narrative potential in order of a ship, I was right in this post: it's as simple as "I like Laudna more than Imogen and I think Laudna deserves Imogen's affections and I'm mad when that doesn't happen." There's no real justification beyond that, and the story where this narrative potential isn't explored is more boring.