#i've been kinda hard on evan this season because there are too many simps

[tsuki-in-faerun]

having had some time to marinate on it, i do appreciate how the archetypal merlin/gandalf wizard has to die for magic to be open to everyone.

i agree with someone else who posted that there are plenty of parallels to draw about our only white character at the table being the one to finally end this patriarchal version of the sage. i had previously said I felt a need for those connections to be made more explicit, but it might be more that i am not confidant that there’s a lot in evan’s arc that would be reflective of unlearning white supremacy. to be clear, i enjoy the series a lot more because there is no racial friction between him and the other members of the pilot program. i’m just saying he starts out very savvy about these power structures and remains that way without needing to meaningfully interact with those kinds of preconceived biases on screen. if we're really talking about dismantling white supremacy, or an analogue with meaningful parallels to it, evan isn't really a good example imho. i am also just personally uncomfortable with interpretations that make it seem like allies and race traitors are gonna be our ticket out of white supremacy, and i don't think that's what's intended here by the d20 crew or even by the fans who made the connections in the first place.

it's true that in real life there is no big bad we can target without whom systems of oppression would collapse, but there are character journeys that can teach us how to shift our thinking so that we can create grassroots cultural change. i don't think evan serves that function in terms of the larger systems, i think his journey relative to the main story is how interpersonal relationships and focusing on healing allow us to show up for the bigger fight solid in our integrity.

so as much as i appreciate the symbolism of bombini's death in terms of the very emblem of white western fantasy being destroyed and brennan's character being the one to take it there given his previous attachment to and investment in the canon, right now i don't feel like evan kelmp specifically being the instrument of bombini's demise is particularly significant to the larger struggle.