#tl;dr i'm actually really upset abt the changes and choices they seem to be making

[troglobite]

tlovm major spoilers beneath the cut bc i'm talking campaign changes

i'm of two VERY disparate minds

i sobbed like a baby and was deeply moved by these episodes

i am fucking pissed as FUCK if they've changed bard's lament THAT FUCKING MUCH

they've softened scanlan to make it more believable i guess that he cares abt his daughter? but like. we've gotten very little backstory abt him to justify it, so he just seems like a wimp.

and on the one hand, that is important for the impact of bard's lament, to only get the major backstory THEN.

bc nobody thought to fucking ask and nobody cared. so when the audience ALSO doesn't notice or care, it'll be really impactful.

but.

idk.

keeping percy dead and then killing kash--WHO ISN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE? HE'S SUPPOSED TO LIVE AND HAVE A BABY WITH ZAHRA???? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???

kash is, canonically in the show, the ONLY person who could've res'd percy. and therefore, scanlan.

getting glintshore was exciting. i was fucking bummed abt the change to make it one-on-one and i'm PISSED that she fucking GOT AWAY.

SHE'S SUPPOSED TO DIE.

vex is SUPPOSED TO KILL HER FOR KILLING PERCY.

why didn't we get that???

like i'm SURE there IS a reason. and i'm sure it'll be interesting for the show! i'm here for departures that work!

but my problem is that there's now no clear way for percy to come back per the established canon of the show. [[ETA: glanced at twitter and realized ppl are probably correct that, since vax didn't see percy die/go to the matron, then he's probably trapped in anna ripley's gun. and perhaps killing her and destroying her weapon will free percy's soul? idk]]

they've ALREADY been to hell, so to say that orthax has his soul is like--well, been there fucking done that. if you wanted to combine things properly in the first half of the season, THAT would've been the opportunity: get the plate, save percy's soul. i thought that was what they were doing.

but then of course we find out abt zerxus. but they're having zerxus work with VECNA??? fucking WHY? and how and why is pike important for this? idk how i feel abt that! we have plenty of pike lore and story to expand upon, WHY tie her to VECNA?! that sucks! it's sad!

WHY DID THEY HAVE PIKE RENOUNCE THE EVERLIGHT?! pike's WHOLE THING is redemption! as is the everlight's! i'm ALL FOR adding more stuff and changing things up for pike, but how do you get the triumphant stuff with pike and the everlight at the end of season one and then end up HERE? like yes, narrative challenges etc., but THAT?

it's VERY un-pike. esp bc her renouncing her faith 1. wasn't narratively necessary, as established in s1, and 2. is part of making her ready for vecna's ascension for some reason. idfk abt that. it feels gross, and maybe that's the point, but i hate it.

i seriously can't get over the fact that they killed kash, though, FUCK THAT. FUCK THAT ENTIRELY. KASH IS NOT SUPPOSED TO FUCKING DIE.

you know who IS supposed to die? SCANLAN

AFTER HE TELLS KAYLIE THAT HE PROMISES NOT TO DIE

AND AFTER HE TELLS VOX MACHINA TO NEVER LET KAYLIE SEE HIM INJURED OR DEAD

and then he betrays/they betray BOTH those things and kaylie comes to see her father's dead body to try and resurrect him

how the fuck are they going to res percy?

and how the FUCK is bard's lament going to hit REMOTELY as hard as it did in the campaign WITHOUT THE BUILD UP? WITHOUT THE FULL RAISHAN FIGHT?!

also they DAMPENED grog's "fix him" moment!!! i sobbed like a baby once i realized what was happened and paused the thing to try and calm down.

BUT THEN IT WAS CUT SHORT! HE DIDN'T SAY IT EXACTLY THE SAME (which is fine, changes! acting!) BUT!!!!

IT'S NOT GOING TO LET BARD'S LAMENT HIT QUITE RIGHT

in what fucking world does scanlan leave the group NOW? it doesn't make sense! just bc he said, in passing, to pike that he can't be a father? he didn't even TRY to talk to kaylie again! he missed her! what was the fucking point?!

AND ARE WE GOING TO GET "DARLING, IT WAS ALWAYS YOURS" OR WHATEVER THE FUCK?! what's the POINT of percy dying if we don't get that? what's the POINT of changing up how perc'ahlia happened if WE DON'T GET THAT?

vaxleth is going great, no notes. thordak fight was crazy. vorugal fight was PERFECT. raishan reveal was AWESOME.

so many good things!

but i'm REALLY fucking pissed abt bard's lament being treated as lesser. scanlan's not dead, just "not waking up". he never promised kaylie he wouldn't die, and apparently it doesn't matter bc he's not dead. he never developed a drinking or drug problem (no spice here) to cope with his complicated and sublimated feelings that he was hiding from the team. he's a softie now. and like, scanlan's fun and great and i like a lot of the changes they made. but.

BUT.

that stuff is REALLY important for bard's lament.

i guess i'll have to wait to see if bard's lament will hit as hard for ppl who don't know the campaign.

that's why i watch these episodes twice: once to get my campaign-clouded reaction out and over with, and once w my mom so i can watch again w fresh eyes w her perspective.

so we'll just have to wait and see.

but i'm. honestly this is maybe stupid and maybe a bias i didn't realize i had.

but bard's lament death was more important to me than glintshore death.

i thought they would swap one for the other in terms of Actual Death, but the later they pushed things i figured, actually, we could get glintshore death one week, and bard's lament death the following week, bc raishan won't be until the last 3 eps.

and now turns out they DID swap out the deaths, and i DON'T LIKE THE CHOICE.

they changed how glintshore happened and went down, and that WAS interesting. it was a little like.....really? would anna really fall for that twice? it felt a little contrived and stupid. the ultimate showdown was cool. it was interesting to show percy's growth (which doesn't happen in the campaign really lol he's a salty bitch) in the show by having him offer her a chance. it was interesting. it sucks to then have his faith in humanity betrayed like that, but it WOULD then explain percy's later salty bitch-ness. and make it more layered.

however.

why couldn't HE have been in a coma?

bard's lament hits HARD. because scanlan is the comedic relief.

but he HASN'T been the comedic relief in a long time. GROG has. at this point, grog dying would have more impact than scanlan.

and i guess it doesn't matter bc SCANLAN'S NOT FUCKING DEAD! FUCK THAT!

scanlan is the comedic relief, butt of the joke, no one takes him seriously. he apologized to vex and she accepted it, no comments or snark. unreal.

i just don't see a version of the show where THAT'S the scanlan situation, AND bard's lament happens.

we HAVE to get tary--he's important for the ridiculousness that follows, and ALSO for establishing the lore abt aeormatons. he's important for establishing wildemount stuff, and his story is also wonderful.

but now i'm wondering if. we just. won't get it.

if we instead skip to the downtime after the chroma conclave is truly over, and scanlan........just leaves then. kiki finishes her aramente without everyone. we get pike's family. we get the slayer's cake.

and then scanlan comes back with news of vecna.

that. honestly i'd be pretty disappointed if we didn't get tary.

i really, really am not a sam stan. i like him, he's funny, he's ridiculous, his characters are ridiculous. i fucking HATE fcg. braius is funny and cool. veth is BELOVED. she's INCREDIBLE. and scanlan and tary are both ridiculous, but as is same fashion, they had/have hidden depths that are REALLY moving. the story btwn tary and his tutor? really, really touching.

but if scanlan doesn't die. if it doesn't happen in the raishan fight. if he hasn't been drinking and doing drugs. if he never promised kaylie anything. then i don't think bard's lament happens. and i don't think we get tary.

meanwhile if percy didn't fully die, we still could've gotten a version of "darling it was always yours"

and like. nothing else changes.

i want to have faith that they've made brilliant choices for the show but. fuck, man.

this week has me really disappointed in my favorite shows, i don't like it. lol the season finale for english teacher was fucking BIZARRE, and i DON'T LIKE MALCOLM. like ACTIVELY don't like him. the whole premise was AWFUL. and then abbott elementary tonight was funny, but fucking disgusting and frustrating.

and now tlovm is ruining what is apparently one of the most key and impactful moments for me in the campaign.

to me, undoing bard's lament is abt 70% as absurd as undoing vex in purvan's tomb for deathwalker's ward

vex's death changes the course of the ENTIRE STORY and helps to seal the fate of the end of the entire campaign.

but scanlan's death changes the entire back half of the campaign. it introduces tary. it forces everyone to reckon with their own priorities and behavior and views. it forces them to grow as people in ways they hadn't thought abt yet, what with the stakes typically being so high. they neglect the normal interpersonal stakes.

tary's resolution is wonderful for the campaign as a whole. it's a sweet story. maybe they think it'd be overdone bc now they've "fixed" things with syldor, so who needs another "impressing an abusive father" story? who needs another sweet queer romance since we have kima & allie, and since gilmore is there, i guess?

but that really changes the whole tone. scanlan and tary change the tone of the back half of the campaign.

scanlan choosing to come back with kaylie's blessing to face down vecna is really impactful. the dynamic changing within the group is really cool to see.

and it's DEVASTATING when scanlan can't cast his 9th level wish spell to save vax. i mean, really, that's a sam and liam moment. but it does still matter. idk if they could include that in the show, but like. still.

idk i don't like undoing and defanging bard's lament like this. idk how i feel abt the choice to potentially remove tary from the show entirely. i'll be really sad. i would get it, i guess. they have 12 half hour episodes each season. how much could they really commit to tary and doty, i guess.

fuck.

ppl on twitter keep talking abt bard's lament happening and i'm like ??? have we been watching the same show? there's no fucking way that happens. and what the FUCK is the raishan fight going to look like now that scanlan has "died" before the fight?

are they REALLY going to drag raishan AND ripley out for MORE than this season? THEY BOTH NEED TO BE DEAD BY THE END OF IT FOR VECNA TO WORK.

like. listen. i'm not a GOT fan but i'm starting to think that if i was, i would hate the shows for veering off so wildly from the established canon.

changes to the show that worked: grog and craven edge. reworking how all the magic and spells work. reviving draconia/preventing its demise. keeping the knowledge of thordak being the one who attacked byroden from vax & vex until s3e8. pike's spiritual journey in s1. j'mon sa ord and zerxus being included/involved. combining the trips to the fire plane and the hells. reworking how yenk ended up in the vorugal fight. splitting up for grog's post craven edge journey back to westruun and team half-elf (and percy)'s trip to the feywild and syngorn. the entire fenthras fight was fucking dope. they removed the extra stuff abt grog and the fairy in the feywild, as well as the tribe of werepeople in the feywild. all fine. clearly signalling that they've removed keyfish and the rakshasa from the main story.

ALL OF THOSE ARE GREAT CHANGES. they remove side quests and journeys and complicated shit that wouldn't necessarily work for the show. a really funny one is removing the boots of haste and how the twins constantly fight over them and steal them from each other.

another one that's not necessarily important since vax's daggers are cool is retrieving Whisper.

they still need to get cabal's ruin. it's important for percy to have since he distrusts magic and the gods. that hasn't really been a feature, but it might be now that he's died and has to come back. so there's that, still.

but like point being, I AM ON BOARD FOR A LOT OF THESE CHANGES. subtle ones, big ones, combining things, etc.

changing the way percy is revived after this could even work really well! i'm not opposed! i think it might end up working out really cool!

but if they have changed bard's lament as much as i think they have, i will be actively pissed and disappointed.

bc like. is that not the fucking problem that bard's lament exemplifies in the first place? it happens bc no one takes him seriously. it happens bc he's seen as weak, the butt of the joke, silly, unimportant. ridiculous.

so if they've defanged bard's lament.......that just is like. excuse you? that was really important?

sam didn't go home after scanlan's death, research everyone's character backstories online, and come in PREPARED FOR A FIGHT and WITH A PLAN TO LEAVE and EVEN A BACKUP CHARACTER READY TO GO just for that to be removed from the fucking tv show.

it's. it's so fucking important to me. i really didn't think i cared this much but i guess i do. and defanging and minimizing it like. he doesn't even actually die. grog doesn't get to say "fix him" and be angry at the party for abandoning scanlan and treating him like he's disposable.

scanlan didn't find kaylie and hasn't promised her anything. having him leave before glintshore seems SO POINTLESS. we got ONE GLIMPSE of him in nicodranas being too late to catch kaylie. WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT?!?!

i just feel like they're doing scanlan dirty. i was interested to see where things went in ep 6 when pike let him leave to go see kaylie. i thought THAT would be the promise he wouldn't die, the promise that he would be careful, the promise that he would return.

but no, nothing.

god it feels really cheap and i'm really bummed.

idk HOW they'll possibly fix this in the last 3 eps, but they do have three entire episodes. and they are notorious for somehow cramming in 2 hrs worth of action into 25 mins of tv.

so i guess we'll fucking see.