#what does laudna want? what are her desires? I feel like if you asked she'd respond with ''whatever imogen wants''

[revvethasmythh]

Some aspects of Laudna's behavior from the most recent ep have really started to stand out to me re: her backstory. We're told basically that after leaving Whitestone she roamed to different cities and was subsequently run out of many places by the townsfolk for being...well, a creepy undead witch. This is really all we know of thirty years of her life, we have nothing more detailed than that until Gelvaan, which is also not very detailed on what exactly she was doing there. And it's interesting because this backstory feels like it's meant to elicit a lot of sympathy on Laudna's behalf--i.e. she is being wrongly chased out of places for the crime of being/looking different. But something about the way she approached Imahara Joe's establishment--sending in the creepy whispers, specifically making a bunch of terrifying "rattling noises", and responding with a smile and saying "It works every time" when they heard a noise in response--really has me like. okay. Laudna, did you get chased out of places because you were terrorizing people in those places? because it sounds like you've done this before, potentially many times, and what's "fun scary" to one person can so very easily be "scary scary" to the people on the other end of the schtick.

Laudna clearly loves people, but I do have to wonder if she experiences a certain amount of dissonance about the effects that her actions cause. She very much has this Manic Demon Nightmare Girl persona thing going on, and that delighted, manic energy mixed with her penchant for the macabre, often directed at other people where she enjoys their freaked out reactions? I think, perhaps, there were reasons she kept getting run out of places that we have not, uh, unpacked as of yet.

To go deeper with this, Laudna is a character who rarely feels like she's in charge of her own destiny. Some of this is intentional, like the repeated puppet imagery re: Delilah. But I wonder if, perhaps, Laudna is someone who has had so many things--bad things, terrible things--happen to her that she had learned to erase her own role in her life. There was nothing she could do when the Briarwoods took over Whitestone, there was nothing she could do when she was murdered by Delilah, and there was nothing she could do when she was resurrected as the undead creachure that she is today. But there are thing she could have done in the intervening thirty years to change her situation. She could have pursued threads about getting rid of Delilah for thirty years, long before meeting Imogen. She could have (somewhat) altered her behavior so she wasn't freaking people out wherever she went and maybe she could have stayed somewhere. She could have been proactive in making changes and pursuing things in her life and I just wonder if she has forgotten that she can do that for herself and that the things she does do have consequences. In ep 49, she told Imogen, "The gods have never kept us from our ability to have a choice." But she only says this to Imogen. When does Laudna finally make an active choice? When does she realized that her behavior and the consequences of the behavior are in her control? When does Laudna decide that it's time to stop being a spectator in her own story, a person that things happen to? Soon, I hope. She should be the main character of her own story, and right now she simply isn't

[utilitycaster]

Regarding people responding to the Gnarlrock scene between Imogen and Laudna by only focusing on how sad it makes Laudna, I have to wonder if it's another symptom of people ignoring what Laura Bailey does with her characters in favour of their own headcanons. There's a trend in fandom I've noticed, particularly in shipping spaces, that really "owo smol-bean"-ifies Imogen. Her problems exist not to drive her character forward and to give her conflict and development, but to be something Laudna can kiss and make better. So now that Imogen is having a (completely reasonable) issue with Laudna, people don't know how to reconcile that with the watered-down version of the character that exists in their heads.

I agree completely, and I'm grouping this with this other ask with which I also agree and then choosing extreme violence, after which I require that any further questions on this topic that aren't just "oh yeah makes sense" or whatever be both a. off anon and b. well-articulated with a reasoned argument and a thesis statement; anything else will be deleted.

Like, that's it in the end. How dare Laura's character be a independent being whose existence doesn't begin and end and fully center around someone else, whether it's her dead brother or a person with whom she's shipped? How dare she disagree with characters people like more? How dare she exercise any measure of agency that conflicts with the fandom's stupid-ass desires?

How dare Vex get married without Vax there even as he started his own relationship first and actively encouraged her to pursue her own romantic interests with her eventual husband? How dare she continue to live out her remaining 150 years of life without him and experience joy?

How dare Jester react positively when the person she'd indicated interest in reciprocated? How dare she choose a life of ongoing adventure and a home near her beloved mother instead of living as a housewife in a faraway foreign city where her god is illegal? How dare she not read the minds of the people who have crushes on her and know how they feel and respond accordingly?

How dare Imogen focus on her own, lifelong, painful problem and the loss of a potential solution instead of dropping everything and focusing on Laudna's problems instead? How dare she feel upset about this? How dare she get in the way of my fabricated picture of perfect girlfriends who have zero problems or obstacles?

How dare this woman be angry? How dare this woman have feelings I don't share about the situation? How dare this woman display even a shred of self-interest that isn't completely in service to someone else's goals? How dare that dumb bitch do what she wants and not what I want?

I deleted an ask this morning that was like "it feels like you're invalidating people who are sympathetic towards Laudna" like first off I'm specifically calling out people who are sympathetic towards Laudna and not towards Imogen which is absolutely crucial context and second of all yeah. I do not think you're valid. That's the fucking point. You're not entitled to my validation, and you don't have it. If you act like this? I think your opinions are garbage. If you need my agreement to feel valid, that's extremely not my problem (and, honestly, you're just giving me more proof as my whole point here is "sometimes people disagree with you and that is entirely their right and if you think the mere existence of disagreement is invalidating, you suck so fucking much.") Develop a sense of inherent self worth and/or develop better opinions, and either way, leave me out of it.