#they're perfect for the roles

[leaving-fragments]

i can't believe i have to wait 8 more days until the next episode of a good day to be a dog... are you telling me they don't even come out weekly

[artiquar]

I can't wait to see how they work things out.

[danwhobrowses]

Goodness this is like the third episode in a row begetting discourse among the cr fandom. For me this discourse has two perspectives where the division depends on whose perspective you're looking at;

For the armies it was 'We've been sent by the gods and are here to help you stop Predathos as we pla-wait, you're a vessel of Predathos? Isn't that just like Ludinus planned??' which yeah is valid from their perspective

For the Hells it was 'We just came out of 4 back-to-back battles with Ludinus and Predathos itself, we have a solution to save the gods but change the dynamic but we want to discuss it privately with the gods first and now you're trying to kill us!?' which is also valid

What puts me more on BH's side is that we have the context; BH are allowed to be terse when people try to kill them and fail, least of all allies who don't ask for an explanation before asking their god to come down and smite them. They're not villains because they snarked at the person who attempted to sic their god on them, and it's not as if Imogen sic'd Predathos on them in retaliation. Once again they are met with the thankless job and burden that they neither wanted or asked for, but was thrust upon them anyway. With all the times Bells Hells have been criticized for being aimless and indecisive it seems a little strange to criticize them now for being focused and decisive.

Could they have explained from the start? Maybe. Would it have caused a different reaction the moment they said Predathos is in Imogen? Probably not. I can't tell you why they didn't come out of the Cage and immediately explain because I'm not the players; perhaps they wanted to avoid the hysteria and conflict, perhaps they were drained from the fight and wanted to wrap up the episode, or perhaps it was just down to Bell's Hells, as with all CR campaign parties, being infamously bad at communicating, I don't know.

But it's times like these where it's worth reminding that this is a DnD show, nerdy-ass voice actors having fun, it can't always be clean and clear-cut storytelling every second. And sometimes as a fandom we need to take a step back so we don't get ourselves stuck, because we're probably making it deeper than it is and getting annoyed at each other over our interpretation of two groups from the same side getting annoyed at each other. Just, take a breath.

[wilting-fl0wer]

The only correct form of caltam, as far as i am concerned

[zecoritheweirdone]

hehehehehhooo,, decided to draw some hermits as the mystery skulls animated gang!! why? uhhh mostly just 'cause.

special thanks to the ibaaf server for helping me pick the roles! gem is vivi,, false is arthur,, pearl is lewis,, and etho is mystery!!

better pic of pearl under the cut, where you can how lazy i am,,ms ksmsksjs

[borgialucrezia]

"For the good of those who see in us, the defense of our beloved people, whom we love above all else and whose love we reciprocate, requires us to use our children as instruments and bargaining tools to obtain the necessary ends." — Rodrigo Borgia (Lucrezia Giovane, directed by Luciano Ercoli)

[undead-knick-knack]

[hibernating-stag]

Thinking about how Venom and Robo-Ky started out as two deeply lonely individuals that ended up fitting together so well that they became two halves of a whole and getting emotional about it. Getting weepy. Misty eyed even.

[foundfamilywhump]

day 100000 of me seeing a post about 'care/whumpers' and thinking 'that is literally just a whumper who is nice sometimes. you are literally just describing a whumper'

[sha-brytols]

DAV does tackle the struggles of minorities though? There's literally an entire companion quest about being trans/nonbinary.

ok so in the nicest way possible i have never seen a more tellingly privileged take in my entire life

[morrigan-sims]

who says adventurers can't dress cute?

aka: "I spent almost three hours giving Zen new outfits and took 140 screenshots of them."

[rockingtheorange]

Don't say it, don't say it...

Looking like the goddammit James Bond offspring that he is 🗣

[utilitycaster]

I’ve been seeing some stuff that Predathos isn’t why Molaesmyr was corrupted, it was Ludinus messing with the natural energy and Aeor tech which caused the corruption. I’ve been looking through the wiki but it’s not that detailed, but did Matt say that it was Ludinus messing with stuff and not that Predathos is a corrupting influence? (I’ll go listen to prev eps but not sure where I should start from. )

So if I recall the episodes that covered this were 3x55-3x58 (ie, when Team Wildemount were in Molaesmyr) and then you can kind of put the story together from Barthie and Rashinna's retellings and some of the things Ludinus himself had said from the 80s and 90s of C3. To sum things up:

In 585 PD Ludinus tapped into some source of power within Molaesmyr in order to contact Predathos during the apogee solstice. This is unambiguously the case. This may have been a natural source or may have been a fragment of Aeor. Regardless, in doing so he unleashed a dangerous poisonous magic within Molaesmyr, killing countless people and leaving the rest without a home. It is similarly unknown whether or not this result was simply the result of Ludinus drawing on the power source excessively such that it triggered it in some way, or Predathos's influence, or some combination of the two.

I can't speak to everyone but my personal feelings about Predathos as a threat aren't "this is a corrupting influence" (though the dampening healing magic and stealing it for itself isn't like, great). My thoughts re Molaesmyr are:

If your argument is that Aeor was a senseless loss of life and the gods should die, and you don't think that Molaesmyr was a senseless loss of life and Ludinus Da'leth should die, what exactly makes the former more heinous than the latter? Answer at length, because right now I think anyone who cries over Aeor and not Molaesmyr is either particularly unintelligent or particularly hypocritical.

I think Predathos will probably not specifically target mortals. That does not mean its unleashing to go after the gods would not necessarily result in mass death. The fact that it can't see people means it has no care for people in the way. (it also does seem to be completely able, at least in its prior form, to specifically attack individuals attacking it or drain their healing, so, you know, I think it can certainly SENSE mortals in some capacity). Like, does it matter if you die of being consumed out of malice vs. consumed out of hunger vs. standing too close to a source of deadly high radiation vs. standing too close to a source of "your meds suddenly stop working" vs. getting stepped on by something too vast to see you? you're still dead in every scenario.

To the previous point, if someone says "hmmm, I just don't know what this thing can do and but I do know that this entity's followers have pretty much all been violent imperialists and that communing with it caused mass death and unending environmental destruction" and presses a button, are they not responsible for that action"?

[rabbit-exe]

I very much do want to see the betrayer gods again because they are some hilariously petty bitches who would definitely try and pull some absolute bullshit, but also I will Never be able to picture Lolth the Spider Queen or Asmodeus the Lord of the Hells, in mannerism, in voice, or in appearance, as ANYTHING other than Aabria Iyengar and Brennan Lee Mulligan. they did it too good and now it's Them Forever

[caterpillarinacave]

have I ever mentioned how much I love the costumes in NATM

[worstloki]

Slightly evil little royal advisor Thor has so much potential......