rego-mem

[fate-of-the-envious]

How is canon Annabeth abusive?

You want a list?

Alright!

1. She constantly hits Percy. Kicking him in the shins, elbowing him in the ribs, punching him in the gut. Not to mention the judo flip scene. Also, this is never said to be done playfully whatsoever. And it's done constantly in EVERY book.

2. She always belittles and calls him stupid. Like his plans never work. Ha, they work more than hers! Also, the parallels of her calling him Seaweed Brain, when Gabe called him Brain Boy! Like how would you feel if you have a nickname constantly degrading your worst insecurities?! All the damn time! Not to mention Thalia, who Percy was the first person who helped her after she stopped being a tree, after spending the school year with Annabeth started calling Percy Kelp Head and viewing him as dumb. Annabeth who ignored Percy all this year, and was overall just selfish and mean when they met again.

3. Annabeth is so possessive of Percy. Even before they are dating (which doesn't make it any better when they are), Annabeth doesn't let Percy be friends with Rachel. Trying to drive a wedge between the two. And Percy, literally only has Grover and Annabeth for friends. He is so alone, he needs more friends! Oh, and then with Jason she interrupts the two of them chatting and trying to get along. Also, just how she doesn't like that Percy seems to like Camp Jupiter, like he can't seem to have his own differing plans from her.

4. Tartarus. Everything about that was so bad. Like in Tartarus, whom Percy fell down to FOR HER, Annabeth brings up Rachel because in her thoughts, she needs to keep her boyfriend on his toes. Like bitch! Then, we get to how she thinks Percy is so manipulative when he talks his way to get Bob to kill his brother. Like that isn't Annabeth's number 1 tactic. She's so fucking judgemental!

And then the scene with Akhlys in Tartarus. Where yes, Percy is being scary torturing this goddess who tried to poison them to death. But she just tried to kill them! He's saving their lives! And then, Annabeth makes Percy promise her to never use those powers again, because "Somethings aren't meant to be controlled." Like do you know how useful poison-bending could be to save lives? What difference does this make from using a sword to kill monsters when all of them are trying to kill and/or eat Demigods! Not to mention, if someone is poisoned, Percy could help heal them!

Next, because of how horrible Annabeth made Percy feel for using these powers he attempts suicide. After he gets out and faces Polybotes, who controls poison, he doesn't even try to save himself and says to Jason that he deserves to die by poison for what he did! He tried to kill himself! And Annabeth never talks to Percy about this again, and instead talks to Piper who thinks Percy needs to be restrained like he's some kind of monster when he was saving them! Percy is literally the most selfless and kind person out there. And Annabeth treats him like crap! She doesn't deserve him!

5. Percy isn't allowed to have bad thoughts on Luke. Luke, who's tried to kill him repeatedly since he was twelve! And in general, this ship is so toxic and codependent right now, it's in no way healthy.

Anyways sorry for my rant, but yeah Annabeth is abusive, and it's just so concerning how people possibly in elementary school are being exposed to this being a healthy relationship, where girlfriends can hit their boyfriends, and can stop them making friends with others, because they belong to them like some sort of object.

Yeah, I just relate to Percy so much, and I don't want him to deal with another Gabe.

Edit: Okay, for anyone who likes Annabeth or Percabeth, I don't care - you do you. You can like and dislike all the characters and ships you want, just as I can. So, if you disagree with what is said, that's fine, but don't expect me to change my stance when I have already pointed out several concerning behaviors. So, like good humans, we'll just have to agree to disagree and move on with our days.

[jasperthejester]

me: finally accepting theres a good chance im autistic and starting to work up the courage to ask my parents to see if i could get a diagnoses but being scared to

my mom: do you ever think you have adhd? if you want to do a screening for add next time your at the doctors you can

me:

[marshmallowcat666]

I’m currently hyperfixated rereading Ftfo and can barely do any drawing but I’m trying!!! ‘^’ Designs are easier to draw for some reason so might see only those for a bit T-T

anyways have my version of Lord Lunar’s Gemini! They get fun new outfits!!!

[multifandom-nerds-blog]

I'm rewatching Trollhunters in the background right now, and the disfunctional mother son relationship between Jim and his mom is making me crazy.

Like, he's taking care of the household and his mother for years as a teenager and before probably. She is sometimes giving half hearted comments about him not having to do so much, but very obviously she's not gonna make him stop do all the cooking and cleaning. Y'know. Both because they've been living like this for years, and because it's obviously also very comfortable to have someone do all the house work.

Then Strickler comes into the picture, and if we ignore the whole Troll and changeling side of the story, Barabara gets very offended cause Jim doesn't want her to meet him privately. Again, ignoring the whole magic and trolls stuff, STRICKLER IS JIMS TEACHER. If Jim hadn't figured out that Strickler was a changeling he probably wouldn't have a problem with it, but the fact that he does, no matter the reason, should be enough for Barbara to put a stop to the relationship. Her child is clearly uncomfortable with her seeing/dating that guy, for whatever reason, and even clearly vocalized it. But she doesn't care about, or rather, she tells Jim that she "wouldn't expect something like that" from him. Obviously not, cause she may see him like her child/teenager he is, BUT DOESN'T TREAT HIM LIKE ONE.

And then Jim, unknowingly to Barbara, becomes the Trollhunter, and his behavior changes. He's suddenly doing reckless stuff, sneaking out, getting bruises, landing in detention and even at the police station, barely avoiding a police report. What does she do? Asking him what's going on? If everything's alright at school? If he has any other problems? Maybe trying to lower his workload around the house, which again, he's doing most of that as a teenager and longer probably.

Nah. She doesn't do anything until he lands in the hospital. Except for again, dismissing him rather negatively at the one topic he's openly expressing any negative opinions about (Strickler). And after he lands in the hospital she now starts not asking questions, but demanding answers. Demanding answers from a teenager in a difficult situation who is also now acting much more like a teenager than he ever did before, from her point of view at least. Except she obviously doesn't know how to deal with a teenager, cause she has never had to raise or live with a teenager. She instead lived with a child pretending to be an adult for years, that was partly much more of an adult than she was, who did way to much work even before Jim became the Trollhunter. So she throws punishments at him and grounds him, but does he listen?

No. Cause why should he? Not only is he dealing with things much more important than being grounded, yknow, saving the world, he's trying to protect her from the sheer knowledge of the supernatural and physically protecting her from getting harmed. And again, for the majority of the time since his dad left he pretended to be an adult. He was and is the main adult in the household, dealing with important things she doesn't even know about.

The only one's treating Jim like a teenager are teachers, other children and Blinky and Aaargh sort of when they're not in the middle of Troll business. Strickler, in the first episodes where Jim doesn't know about his true identity, is much more of a parental figure to Jim (also after his redemption later on tbh) than his mother.

In summary: Barbara is treating her son like an adult, almost like a partner, instead of a child/teenager. And when that isn't possible anymore she doesn't know how to properly treat him. She also doesn't really care that her son is uncomfortable with her being around Strickler, or Strickler in general. And it takes Blinky telling her (when Jim is 16) that Jim might be affected by his father leaving when he was five years old.

Jim meanwhile is treating his mother more like a child/teenager instead of the adult and MOTHER that she is. Seeing her as his responsibility. Cooking for her. Cleaning for her. Telling her to rest and take breaks.

They obviously love each other other. And their relationship might not be toxic, but it's very much disfunctional. In a way that is mostly negative for Jim.

[anghraine]

wind-sage replied to this post:

it is a really fun compare and contrast between Leia I am FULLY an Organa and Luke I am a Skywalker. Neither is Wrong, just important to respect the others choice with it.

Yes, I agree! Their experiences and identities wrt the family members who raised them are often framed as equivalent, but in the OT, they really do seem to relate to each of their families in very different ways.

Leia is not indifferent to her biological parents; she has a tie to Padmé through the Force that lingers with her and matters to her, and it's very upsetting for Leia to find out her natural father is Darth Vader. But the Organas are no less her parents for that. To Leia, "my father" means Bail Organa as much as it invariably means Anakin Skywalker to Luke. She is Bail and Breha's daughter and heir in every way that matters, the princess of Alderaan to her fingertips. Even her blood relationship to Luke only reinforces the close friendship that already exists between them, and would probably matter much less to her without the pre-existing relationship and accompanying Force bond.

But all suggestion in the OT is that Luke was raised as a beloved nephew with his father's and grandmother's name, not a son in the way Leia is a daughter. And it's a potentially dangerous name, at that, which only reinforces the importance in that family situation of honoring Anakin and Shmi in how Luke was brought up to think of himself. Luke's powerful consciousness of himself as Anakin's son doesn't seem just his own thing or conflict at all with how Owen and Beru talk about Luke's tie to Anakin, but rather, reflects it— they say "your father" or "his father" to refer to Anakin and are extremely aware of Luke's legacy from Anakin (and presumably Shmi).

The fostering of a relative's child within the family can often be complex in that way, even IRL, so this isn't even improbable. And given that Owen is Luke's uncle because Owen's father bought and then freed and married Luke's grandmother who died horribly later on, it's not surprising that they would have qualms about erasing the Skywalker history or that the general family dynamic might be a bit more fraught. Luke pretty emphatically does not see Beru as his mother, despite his affection for her; he refers to Padmé as Leia's "real mother" and adds "I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her"—clearly he can only mean Padmé. It seems to me that he's digging for information about Padmé because her absence represents a different kind of loss for him than it does for Leia herself.

And yeah, I could see the disparity in their experiences being something they have to navigate later on, but ultimately the only way to fully reconcile that, IMO, is for them to realize that their family dynamics and sense of legacy were fundamentally not the same and they're not going to relate to their parents the same ways.

[necrotic-nephilim]

@profandomhopper i was going to reblog the original post this comment was left on but i felt it divorced itself from the original topic so much, you get your own post for giving me delightful permission to ramble about this. buckle in people this is long.

so, DC is a big fandom that expanses a lot of different types of content, and like anything, is subject to crossovers. the obvious ones like Marvel are for the reason of being a similar and equally popular superhero world, so it's easy to transpose the worlds onto each other and overlap the characters. both of these worlds deal with multiverses and endless, endless heroes. it makes sense and there's no real stretch to think Batman and Spider-Man could co-exist. i mean, there have been canon crossover comics. and even some more random crossovers like White Collar have pretty easy to trace origins, being an actor in WC was a popular Dick fancast back in the day so there was some bleeding over that led to a well-loved niche crossover space.

but Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug are where it gets interesting. because at a surface, MLB sort of makes sense. it's a superhero world, you're following a teen girl superhero and sure the mechanics are pretty contained, but the crossover should make sense. but when you compare it to the crossover numbers of other superhero media like say My Hero Academia, Ladybug takes the *crown* with such a bizarre popularity. and of course, DP feels like it makes even less sense. sure, you *could* lump it into at the very least, superhero-adjacent media, but it's not a true hero world like MLB or DC is.

but, the thing to always understand about DC, *especially* the Batfamily (which is where the crossover content propagates the most) is this: a *very* good chunk of fans don't interact with the comics. i would venture to say even most Batfamily fans don't read the comics and actively talk about it. we've all read a very fandom big Batfam fanfic where the author's note mentions the writer has never touched a comic in their life. typically, these fans are either cobbling together their understanding from fandom content, or by frankensteining unrelated DC adaptations to understand each character. you take Bruce from Batman: TAS, you take Dick from the animated Young Justice, you take Jason from Batman: Under The Red Hood animated movie, you take Damian from the DCAMU Batman vs Robin, and you read some fandom metas to fill in the rest and well, you've got some sort of an understanding of these characters. read enough incorrect quotes, some genfic, a couple of character metas, and boom, you understand the Batfamily fandom enough to start creating your own content. and of course now. now you have Wayne Family Adventures so it's even *easier*. a pretty easy to pick up webtoon that's filling in all the gaps for you. but i've been in this fandom long enough to remember before we had WFA and even then, this was still a common, if not the most popular way, to ween yourself into the DC fandom space. you cherry-picked the canon you liked and then plunged into the depths of fanon.

i'm not here to make in depth commentary on if i think this is a good or bad thing. trust me i have that commentary in my head, but that would need it's own post. i'm very split on it and my feelings are complicated. my feelings on WFA are even *more* complicated. because oftentimes, the attitude expressed by these fans who are frankensteining this version of the Batfamily/DC world they have in their head is they don't *want* to read the comics. the comics don't contain the content they're after. and to an extent, i understand that. if you're looking for light-hearted vibes of the Batfamily all getting along and having the occasional hurt/comfort moments but in the end, they hug and make up, you're right. largely, you won't find that in canon. of course there are so many comics to recommend for Batfamily interactions, but you have to get specific. you'll find them interacting in small groups, Tim and Dick bonding here, Duke and Cass bonding there, but largely, the comics don't care to balance the ridiculously large cast they've given themselves. but fandom does. it's easy to toss them all in a blender and ignore the parts you don't like. the default argument to ignoring the comics or writing something OOC is always "well the comics are OOC and inconsistent too" which, while a flawed argument that massively misunderstand how comics work as a medium, isn't an entirely incorrect one. you could serve on a silver platter to these fans, an easy and accessible way to get into comics and they wouldn't be interested. it's not what they're here for. fandom is always character-driven above all else. it's driven by character relationships and dynamics. if someone wants to consume content where Tim idolized and stalked Jason as 'his Robin' and now is trying to help him rehabilitate and they're super complicated but have this long epic forgiveness arc, why *would* they read the comics? because they're sure as shit not going to find that dynamic in the comics. it's laughably OOC and not canon at all, but that doesn't matter. what matters is the sandbox. most Batfamily fans care *far* more about the sandbox canon gives them than the actual canon itself. feel how you feel about that, this really isn't being negative toward that attitude, but it is a common attitude.

so, you have Batfamily fans playing in the sandbox and building their own narrative. common fandom headcanons are so common, you could practically write a guide on how the fanon Batfamily works with how consistent people are about it. or you could just read WFA, which is practically the new manifesto of it. even now, with this sudden spike in people talking about canon accuracy and "actually this happening in the comics", they don't actually care about the comics, just what they can cherry-pick for fodder. (even if they rob it of so much context they're just as OOC as they were before. see specifically: the recent phenomena with Tim Drake going from the woobified weakest member of the Batfam who everyone needs to save constantly and he's the smart boy but he's also the one with a sad tragic neglectful past who gets overlooked being the way Batfamily fandom played with Tim for years. but recently, people seem to be pushing this idea of a ridiculously badass Tim, Tim who *totally* has a kill count because of his actions in RR (2009) if you take them completely out of context, Tim who bested Ra's and is even more badass than Jason and he's the 17 yr old CEO of Wayne Industries being cool and flawless it becoming the new fandom zeitgeist. neither of these versions of Tim are canon, and the second fundamentally misunderstands his arc in RR (2009) but the shift has undeniably happened and it's been fascinating to watch. the same thing happened with people suddenly deciding Jason isn't the "angry violent Robin", he was a sunshine sweet boy who was perfect as Robin. neither of these are true, but the second feels more transgressive and new to fandom from cherry-picked panels.) the point is largely, Batfamily fans would rather build their own canon than play with the actual canon.

and then, you have Danny Phantom. i'm not into DP and have no interest to get into it, but what i know about it via fandom osmosis is this: DP fans sort of also don't give a fuck about canon. once again, the canon of DP is a sandbox, not a rulebook. the concepts and the characters are the draw, not the plot itself. i've seen DP posts explaining characters who are essentially OCs, but have become so dominant in the fandom via fandom osmosis. there are concepts and ideas about how Danny's powers work and potential concepts with his ghost nature that either aren't in canon or only happened once in canon and fans decided to expand on that and doesn't care about it's own in-universe logic. i've seen a lot of DP fans also express they haven't seen the show and they don't have plans to see the show. because the show is just some children's cartoon with some inconsistencies and a simple plot, as you'd expect from CN. the show isn't the point. no one cares about it's plot, they care about it's characters. they care about pushing the concept of half ghost boy to a logical extreme and seeing what you can get out of that. can you make it weird and fucked up. how much can you highlight on his trauma and body horror. what identity crisis can you give him and how can you build his interactions with other characters in his world around that and also make those characters fun and unique on their own. sure, the skeleton of canon is there, but the meat lies all in the fanon.

Miraculous Ladybug also exists in this similar vein. the characters, the concepts, those hold intrigue. and not even mentioning the fact the original concept for this show was supposed to be aimed to an older audience, so you can see the bones of something a bit more mature and nuanced under this typical, villain of the week magical girl transformation show. the show itself is a bit shallow and that's not a *bad* thing, it's just the medium it exists within being aimed towards children. but the concepts of a teen girl who's basically a sort of chosen one, a boy who doesn't know his father is the big bad of the show, and their weird identity porn love... square thing. those dynamics are *so* complicated and such a fun sandbox to play in with character-driven fandom.

so, at the core, you have three fandoms that care more about the culturally accepted fanon than the canon, with a good chunk of people often not even consuming the original canon content. and well, DC is an *easy* world to transpose just about anything onto. a boy who's half ghost and fighting supernatural threats? that makes sense, DC has ghost heroes like Deadman already. a girl who has this magical item that gives her animal themed superpowers? i mean that's practically the same thing as Vixen's Totem so that one makes sense too. they fit in pretty easy, no needing to change the world to accommodate them. and of course, if you're a fan of *one* fandom where you don't care for the canon content and only like the fandom sandbox, chances are, you'll get drawn in pretty easily to another fandom with similar mechanics. if you can teach yourself the DP fandom rules/concepts, you can teach yourself the Batfamily fandom rules/concepts. and well, since there's so much crossover in fandom members, why not write the fanfiction? crossover fics will always exist, but with such a shared member base, you have a really big boom.

it's why the characters you see DP interact with in DC are *always* characters who are far more driven by fanon than canon. Danny and John Constantine is a *massive* concept. for people who don't read Hellblazer comics. my poor partner, @divine-dominion has lamented to me pretty often about finding DP content in the Hellblazer tag that is essentially turning Constantine into an OC. because whatever version of Constantine is being written about isn't one bit comics accurate, and really, isn't trying to be. and the same thing happens with Shazam. you watch Young Justice and understand him well enough, you get drawn in by the character concept that you just run with it. people put their favorite blorbos in the same place because hey, wouldn't ghost boy be pretty cool in a city like *Gotham*. how would Batman even react to him. and then, the shipping. because ages for the Batfamily can be easily hand-waved and moved around based on where you plop Danny into the timeline, you have your pick of the litter with him, and same with Ladybug. of course there are the most popular ships but largely, the world is your oyster.

i don't think this is the worst thing in the world for either fandom. it's not hard to filter out the crossover tags and scroll past content i don't like. and sure, i see the appeal of making your blorbos from two different places meet. i've got my drafts *full* of DC/MHA crossover ideas because well, i like them both and think that would be cool. i think my only gripe with it is when DP or MLB crossover content seeps it's way into the wrong tags. using the above example, if you're writing about Danny and Constantine but there's zero content of the actual Hellblazer comics, i don't think you need the Hellblazer tag, just the Constantine character tag. tbh i wish this extended onto Ao3 and people utilized fandom tags better. if you're writing Batfamily fanfiction that is very clearly and obviously WFA driven in characterization and concepts, i would far prefer those fics be tagged with the WFA fandom tag rather than the Batman (comics) fandom tag. because well, you're not writing about the Batman comics. and there's nothing wrong with that, but it helps if you don't confuse yourself for content striving to interact with canon more. (this especially extends to Young Justice, by the way. if you're writing for the Young Justice tv show please, please stop using the Young Justice (comics) fandom tag. i'm at my wit's end- /lh)

the whole thing is fascinating. i've got zero interest in entering DP or MLB as fandoms because that's not my speed, but witnessing it as an outsider is my favorite pastime. i see a *lot* of posts going around the DC x DP space that are helping explain to people who's who, what's what, and understanding the canon/fanon of both of these properties so others can better enter the space. which is not something you'd need in a fandom driven only by it's canon content, but it is sweet watching others try to help newbies enter the space. it's a very inviting fandom space, i think, whether you lament it's existence or not. they're just sitting in their corner with their blorbos, and i gotta respect that. the posts explaining the Batfamily to DP fans are always fun for me to read, even if i disagree with some of the characterizations in them because it helps shine a light on what the fans of this crossover regard as "important" enough about each fandom to be worth including those sorts of primers. very fascinating stuff.

[saintobio]

hello am still alive but the corporate hustle is sucking the life out of me. i’m sorry sy11 is taking awhile but i’ll try to find time whenever i can 🥹

[biblicalhorror]

The yj subreddit is a cesspool of bad takes most of the time but I just saw someone make the connection between the strawberry lube and the fact that Shauna is shown eating "strawberries" when she's eating Jackie and I'm vibrating

[icantdothistodaybruh]

yea sooooo I may have or may have not watched and instantly rewatched all kuro musicals in existence in a spawn of one week and now have roughly 40 screenshots to redraw from

I think I might be insane or something

[noxious-fennec]

Trying out some new designs (aka playing dress up)

[mixelation]

there should be a ninjacon panel where 'experts' debate if fictional jutsu could be accomplished in real life or not

[redhoodie1723]

lando norris number one enemy now

[sacchiri]

Hellsing 2002 calendar illustration.

Ein wunderliche und erschröckliche Hystori von einem großen Wüttrich genant Dracole wayda Der do so ganz unkristenliche marrter hat angelegt die mensche, als mit spissen als auch die leut zu Tod geslyffen

A wondrous and frightening story about a great berserk called Dracula the voivode who inflicted such unchristian tortures such as with stakes and also dragged people to death

[kanerallels]

I'm trying to figure out some self publishing stuff and. hmm. perhaps this was the wrong time of the month to attempt this

[dingodad]

to be fair i think the reasons why i believe quadrants r fake versus why i believe classpects r fake are pretty crucially different. like homestuck kind of goes out of its way to trick you into thinking classpects could be real whereas i genuinely dont think hussie ever expected anyone to read about moirallegience and think wow... so romantic.. i want that in my life ❤ LOL

[thisisnotthenerd]

in the vein of my last cr post

i started watching critical role with bells hells. my first live episode was the halloween episode of 2022, so we're coming up on two years. i know i haven’t been here that long, but having seen them grow from their first major death to now, i have some thoughts.

marquet campaign? what marquet campaign

i wish they had more grounding in marquet. one of my favorite things that i’ve found about exandria is that the places feel so lived in. part of what made it so compelling in c1 and c2 was that the characters were so bound to the places and people even when they were adventurers. the players got to invest themselves in making their hometowns fit the characters.

bell’s hells has barely any touchpoints in marquet. laudna, orym, dorian, fearne, chetney, bertrand, fcg, and braius are not native to marquet and have only spent a few years at most there. even in their homes, most of them don’t have strong ties, at least not those we’ve seen.

laudna was a woods witch/phylactery/cryptid in the pale forest.

chetney had ties in wildemount, but many of them have passed, and he spent a lot of time traveling.

fcg woke up a few years ago and then went murderbot a few months ago iirc.

braius was a refugee and then was expelled from his home in zadash.

orym has strong ties in zephrah, but was notably traveling after the death of his father and husband.

fearne has strong ties to morri and ligament manor, but only to them, and minimally to her parents due to them leaving her there.

for those that grew up in marquet: imogen and ashton aren’t really tied to place or people. imogen was notably isolated from gelvaan, and estranged from her father. ashton landed in bassuras without memories and grew up an orphan before relocating to jrusar with the nobodies. neither of them has any particular knowledge of the variances in culture.

they weren’t filling in the gaps in the world that made places like whitestone, nicodranas, and zephrah feel lived in. it’s all narration. not to knock the narration, but it’s harder for the places to have an impact when the characters/players don’t remember them well.

more under the cut because this got long. it has been edited for clarity.

timeline considerations

also, think about the time they spent in each given place. BH has been in campaign for 97 days. 65 were pre-solstice. 40 of the 65 days pre-solstice were spent with at least part of the day in transit. 13 of those 40 days were ground travel, while the remaining 27 was via airship.

overall, they've spent 57/97 days in transit, 40 pre-solstice, 17 post-solstice. on either end, that's more than half of the time. post-solstice travel days isn't even counting the days with teleports, just their ground travel. numbers are a little fuzzy around the party split, since they spent different days traveling and had the time dilation.

in terms of actual time in each place, they've spent:

pre-solstice:

17 days in jrusar

3 days in heartmoor

7 days in bassuras (includes calloway hideout)

1 day in whitestone

3 days in the gloomed jungles of aeshanadoor (included in their ground travel days)

2 days in yios

2 days in the feywild

1 day in gelvaan

1 day at the tishtan excavation site

post-solstice:

2 days in uthodurn (team wildemount)

1 day in molaesmyr (team wildemount)

2 days in hearthdell (team issylra)

1 day in irriam canyon (team issylra) [time dilation wrt team wildemount can stretch this number. they played one day in irriam canyon with hevestro]

2 days in jrusar

2 days in zephrah

1 day in yios

2 days on slival (included in travel time)

2 days on kalutha

3 days in whitestone

4 days in feywild (time dilation days included)

2 days in ria'doin

1 day in razora (ruidus)

2 days in kreviris (ruidus)

1 day in zadash

1 day in aeor

1 day in rexxentrum

3 days in vasselheim

this doesn't precisely add up; they were in some of these places for the majority of the day and left at night, or stayed overnight & left in the morning. there are a few one-offs that i didn't mention for the sake of time. but the point is that they've spent a lot of time moving around. they've spent 70 days out of 97 in marquet (64 pre-solstice), but 39/70 were just transit days that passed quickly. post-solstice, they've spent 5 episodes on marquet, out of 60. they've spent 6 episodes in the feywild post-solstice.

in the post-solstice, they’ve spent a lot of time bouncing from place to place, and tend to have an absurd amount packed into certain days. even pre-solstice this was a tendency. there’s a few i’d point out:

Sydenstar 17: reunion with the Calloways, the Dusk/Yu reveal, Ira fleeing with the Moontide crown, reveal of the divine lattice around Ruidus

Sydenstar 18: FCG goes murderbot, Artana Voe attacks Paragon’s Call and BH try to get Treshi, only to be ambushed by Otohan. Fearne, Orym and Laudna die, and the latter cannot be resurrected with the resources they have available.

Sydenstar 24: After Imogen & FCG go into Ashton’s head the preceding night, they meet with Keyleth, go to Whitestone, have an audience with Percy, resurrect Laudna / defeat Delilah, and Imogen dreams of Eshteross dying

Fessuran 8: They start the day getting attacked by Shithead, go to Ebenold Kai’s house, only to go to the Fire Plane and get the Predathos reveal, then return with Planerider Ryn’s aid, get attacked by the Ruby Vanguard and investigate Tuldus, meet with Ashton at the Seminary, meet Kadija Sumal only for her to be Feebleminded by Ludinus, and then they Planeshift to the Feywild, where they trek out to get to Ligament Manor.

Fessuran 20: The Battle of the Red Center / Apogee Solstice. I don’t think I need to explain this one.

Quen’pillar 4: The parties reunite in Jrusar, then split, with the guests going to the Starpoint, and BH headed to Zephrah. They further split, with Imodna going canon and seeing the Ludinus projections, FCG and Ashton find Milo, and Chet, Fearne, and Orym have an encounter with a bounty hunter and then have a vision in the Duskmaven temple. FCG scrys on Liliana and finds her on the moon.

Quen’pillar 8: BH teleports to Yios to find Dancer and get attacked by Shithead. They teleport to Bassuras where they attack and kill Ratanish to save Imahara Joe. They then make a deal with the All-Minds-Butn to plant it on Ruidus. Then they transport to Slival for the night.

Quen’pillar 9: they meet the Dolabos and Jirana, who gives them the compass. They then interrogate Ratanish and summon the Crimson Abyss, after fighting their way aboard, they liaise with the crew and Fearne gets her boon.

Quen’pillar 12: they hike to the center of Kalutha and go spelunking. they find Evontra’vir and get answers. Then they go into the Chynes Maw where Ashton and Fearne get the shard of Rau’shan out. Ludinus simulacrum & Reilora fight. they then teleport to Whitestone where they get the harness back and agree to scout out the moon.

Quen’pillar 14: in the wake of Shardgate, they decide to go to Morri’s house. they go to the Feywild and undergo all three trust trials, and then plane shift back to the same day. They meet at the encampment and decide on the plan. they sneak through the Malleus Key and get through the Bloody Bridge. they go to Razora and meet Dono and Barthie. they fight Willmaster Edmuda. FCG and Fearne run into Otohan. they travel towards Kreviris, and on the way find the rift leading to Ria’Doin.

Quen’pillar 16: day of the Volition’s sabotage attacks. they succeed in their missions and start leaving. they meet the Weave Mind and Liliana in quick succession. Final Otohan attack. FCG sacrifice. they make it the Bloody Bridge and get back to the Malleus Key encampment.

Quen’pillar 17: Fearne meets Zathuda and is attacked by her shadow forms. They meet Essek and go to Zadash where they interrogate Astrid. they shop for clothes and magic items and meet Pumat Sol. Swordgate.

Quen’pillar 18: Failed Teleports to Aeor. find Ruby Vanguard members who died to Dominox. Call Teven and meet Braius. battle with Dominox and Ludinus. Occultus Thalamus shows Downfall. Delilah is triggered, fought, and ritually sealed in the soul anchor.

Quen’pillar 21: They plane shift to the Feywild and go to the Manor. the cross the Amethyst Gulch Sierras and ambush the Unseelie party there. Party meets the Arch Heart. They kill Zathuda and take him back to the Manor where Morri turns him into a tapestry that they then interrogate. Fearne tames Gloamglut.

while they’ve been more frequent in the late campaign, it was still common for them to be passing days in travel and then suddenly do a lot of fighting. it’s the nature of the game, but i find that bell’s hells really dealt with this issue in particular. they’re literally having the same conversations every day even if they’re episodes apart.

they spent the longest in jrusar, where they were mostly doing low-level jobs and engaging with various patrons (bertrand, eshteross, jiana hexum). it's not really home to any of them, unless you count laudna and imogen staying with zhudanna, which i don't really. 2nd by time is bassuras, which is where ashton grew up, but it was mostly a basis for them to track treshi, meet with the calloways, and get killed by otohan. 3rd by time is the feywild.

the built up places

the only places that have had the lived-in aspect to them have been ligament manor, with ashley-as-fearne’s influence, zephrah, informed by liam-as-orym and marisha-as-keyleth previously, whitestone, with taliesin-as-percy & laura-as-vex's influence, and honestly uthodurn, having deanna and frida and chetney. four places, across the campaign, and none of them in marquet. i feel like we’d get the vibe from the silken squall with how robbie has filled in some of the gaps, but c3 hasn’t had reason to go there.

the above examples excepted, bell’s hells doesn’t have homes to go back to. many of them have found their sole companionship with the group and their part time allies. they are almost entirely internally focused, and it’s led to a lot of repetitive debate and retracing of patterns.

it also means they don’t tend reach out to their short-term allies or try and get different perspectives on their views. they've contacted keyleth multiple times, but they never tried to contact deanna, frida, and prism again, even though they were explicitly doing research with the cobalt soul. how hard would it have been to send a message once they were functional again.

i know the vibe was npcs at character creation. but at least npcs have a sense of connection to the spaces they inhabit. and the people they interact with.

personal opinions

some tweaks i’d make that i don’t think would irreparably change c3

probably go wizard laudna as i’ve previously talked about. i’d make her a student/researcher at the starpoint conservatory, and give her both a grounding in arcane research and a base knowledge of the major factions and powers of marquet as a result of her time there. you could do it while maintaining delilah; have her encounter vex earlier on in her time in whitestone, and have vex encourage her to live her life and harness her power by learning about it. the lady of whitestone is generous. i bet she’d do it for the woman who was sacrificed in her image. i’d make at a point where it’s not obvious that laudna is dead and that delilah’s living in her head—it makes going to whitestone to resurrect her just that much more angsty. the added bonus is that she’d probably have higher int, which would fix a lot of my personal issues with the campaign not having people who know anything. late campaign it would be laudna and chetney sniffing out things to look at, but getting multiple perspectives instead of just visions and identify spells and items going in the harness. travis and marisha’s bread and butter.

have fcg start with a little bit more divine connection. ngl i loved their journey, and i cried so much when they died, but having that anchor earlier would have given a little more divine influence to this campaign in a way that i think would have made the god debates a little less frequent. honestly i think it would have been cool to see them go polytheist cleric. avandra for the path ahead, moradin as patron of the mechanical and created, erathis as the lady of law and civilization guiding their hand in learning about the world, etc. it would be a different take on a cleric and faith, and as evidenced by braius, sam can play a faithful character with split ties. admittedly i’m biased because of my own religious inclinations, but in a world with many gods, wouldn’t it make sense for a little aeormaton who was created without their influence to explore many different aspects of divinity in exandria? and it would fit for marquet, which has a lot of indian influence.

have imogen be aware of the apex war and otohan’s role in it, as a child growing up in the taloned highlands. tie liliana leaving to the war and whispers about the ruidusborn causing destruction as part of the war. make it clear that she wasn’t just a hot deadly set piece, but a person of faith, who came from a mercenary background to make big swings during the war, and in the aftermath have suspicion of them ramp up, especially with their disappearance. maybe a missed opportunity; otohan passed through gelvaan and met liliana early and imogen heard about it.

have dusk/yu know about fearne being zathuda’s bio daughter and have the moontide crown be a ruse to grab her and birdie (if possible) for zathuda. maybe not a full reveal, but enough to plant suspicions early and make the fey key sabotage a little more fraught.

maybe not give them a cycle of patrons. they went from eshteross's employ to hexum's, then were basically sent out by keyleth. during the party split, they got support to got to molaesmyr from the king & queen of uthodurn and also abbadina and hevestro. the most time they spent pursuing their own ends was when they went to yios and stopped in aeshanadoor on their way. i think this contributed to a lack of independence that took away from their decision making capabilities. if it wasn't a patron, it was based on individual interests and less group decisions. now they're continually circling because they have the same arguments over and over.

alter the teleportation/communication/resurrection magic breakdown. just personal preference. i get the purpose that it served, but it just meant that they weren't communicating as they went through teleportation mishaps with the staff. also idk why imogen didn't just take teleport at level 13. it would have freed up the attunement slot with the staff and dealt with the psychic damage issue. she hit 13 post-quen'pillar 4, which is when they got transportation via plants working again, so it wouldn't have been a huge change.