#ive decided their name is kester stormwind and theyre a bronze dragonborn wild magic sorceror

[eternalduos]

ARTIE. News that doesn't have anything to do with anything but im sure you will enjoy nonetheless. NEXT WEEKS EPISODE IS OVER 3 HOURS LONG!!!!!!!!!!! HOW ARE WE FEELING I AM FEELING JOYOUS AND SO FUCKING WHIMSICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I JOINED THE DROPOUT DISCORD FOR 2 SECONDS JUST TO CONFIRM THAT WAS TRUE 😭 AND IT IS, IT WAS SAID IN THE NEW EP ANNOUNCEMENT)

Secondly my #1 fellow Unwell About Ratgrinders person. do you have thoughts on. Anything. What is going on. like i am really fascinated by them and jace going to the mountains of chaos and coming back with the ankarna rage... did they get tpked and revived with ankarna or something? did only some of them die? but at the same time i do hope that the ratgrinders aren't just like total pawns in all this and have SOME autonomy, like maybe they knew OF ankarna a little bit when they chose to go to the mountains of chaos. just bc i think that'd be the coolest outcome...

Also dropping that lucy was kipperlillys closest friend is the most insane thing brennans ever done

FELL TO MY KNEES WITH JOY!!! WE WIN THESE!!! 3 HOUR EPISODE LETS GOOOOO!!!!

Oh my god dude I have so many thoughts. In the past the main reason I had for doubting the Ratgrinders were real villains was that all of our previous student antagonists (Biz, Penelope, even Aelwyn and Ragh) still had understandable "teenage" motivations, and I couldn't imagine why the Ratgrinders would want to bring back Ankarna. BUT NOW???? HOOOOOO BOY. ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER.

My working theory is *definitely* that the High Five Heroes got TPKed in the Mountains of Chaos and got revived by Ankarna, which made them into "rage vassals" of her, agreeing to serve her and try to bring her back if she brought them back to life. I also think that Lucy may not have died with them, and didn't become a rage vassal that early on. And I'm incredibly torn on whether or not Jace Stardiamond died with them too, OR if he was responsible for getting them killed and did it on purpose due to nefarious reasons (I still have a string theory that Jace is another descendant of Athenriel like Gilear, and that's where his divine soul sorcery is from). Or perhaps the Ratgrinders were working *with* Jace and it was more of a conscious thing to begin working for Ankarna? There's even a chance that Jace might've killed Yolanda and the Loams.

Either way it seems pretty clear that the Ratgrinders are now under Ankarna's influence to bring her back, and being revived(?) by her is what made them more full of rage.

(Notably: They're enraged at the *wrong* things and people, e.g. the Bad Kids rather than the system. Because that's conviction without doubt.)

I think that the other High 5 Heroes wanted Lucy to join them, so they submitted paperwork for her to switch from Ruvina to Ankarna (potentially to Jace instead of Yolanda), but Lucy didn't want to, so she rescinded it. Then, Ankarna influenced the High 5 Heroes to kill Lucy so that she would be *forced* to follow Ankarna after Ankarna brought her back to life. But things didn't go as planned and Lucy still refused. IMO this ties up the "Ratgrinders killed Lucy Forstblade" theory as it explains that they very much *did* actively plan to kill her, but they didn't expect her to stay dead, and now still feel very guilty about it.

It was so fucked up of Brennan to say that Lucy and Kipperlilly were best friends. Like oh my god. The super tall giantess frost genasi was besties with the tiny halfling? They really understood each other? Kipperlilly must've thought she was saving Lucy by killing her, so that she could join the rest of them, only to find out that her best friend, too kind and full of conviction, would never come back?

Run me over with a truck. Truly.