So almost a
week later, I am very much still not over just how stupid the thing™ was last
episode. I mean, here’s a goddess who
- Locked
herself away in hiding - Locked
the access information to her hiding place away in a guy hidden away in the
forest with no idea on how to access the information inside him - Was
sought out because she was the one hiding the information on how to ascend to
godhood (which was then stolen from her and exploited to wreak doom upon all
the world) - And
because she was also hiding the information on how to contain a god once
ascended - Which
she had literally locked up in an insanely hard to unlock secret place - And
then distributed more knowledge on how to save the world, but with a time limit
on its accessibility
…and she
rejects Percy because he likes to keep secrets? And therefore gives her
championship to a storyteller, who a) has voiced concern about being the
storyteller instead of part of the story and b) was only ever interested in
telling stories about his exaggerated greatness instead of passing on actual
facts? Maybe in part to make up for feeling like his part in the story as the
storyteller wasn’t big enough?
I’m not
even saying that the blessing isn’t fitting for Scanlan or that the challenge
wasn’t tailor-made for him. It was. Tailor-made by the DM, that is. I’ve previously
voiced the suspicion that this was based on Matt’s view on what a bard is
supposed to be, rather than what Scanlan is actually like.
(also what I’m saying is that her reason to not choose Percy is just ridiculous and doesn’t add up. Percy’s policy regarding keeping secrets is literally identical to what Ioun does)
And after
rejecting Grog’s attempts to connect with Kord straight-out, that is pretty
likely. Matt has planned out this final arc and everyone’s god connections (or
lack thereof) some time ago, probably from the beginning given his affinity for
the long game. That’s why this arc feels a lot more on the rails than any
previous one. He has a specific endgame in mind, and maybe it’ll involve more
gods, maybe the Allhammer will be the last dude and we’ll all be here next week
yelling about whether Percy or Grog are better fit, maybe Keyleth’s entire role
is supposed to be just everyone’s convenient taxi so no one will yell about
Marisha getting the DM’s GF bonus or whatever.
However,
there might actually be a greater point to Ioun and the hypocrisy here.
Ioun also
presented the first counterpoint to the whole shebang the Raven Queen
introduced regarding fate-touched, destiny and inevitability. There is always a
choice. Which is to say, she hinted at the Raven Queen being downright wrong.
That the gods are not infallible.
Like, I have
previously argued that Pelor is an asshole and just the latest in the
long-standing line of asshole male (father-) figures Vex attaches herself to even
though they are not even remotely worthy of her, and that claiming he had a bunch
of better champions despite none of them lifting a finger when dragons raided
the world was either wrong or a dick move, and this just goes a step further. The
gods make mistakes. They say shit that is plain-out wrong. They can be giant
hypocrites. We don’t have to take ANYTHING they say at face-value.
So like
Percy pointed out at one point, there might be hope for Vax’s soul yet. That
also means Vecna is even less powerful than he thinks he is – what use are his
godhood when it doesn’t even help him verify his secrets (and I’ll have words
for the gross, gross, gross attempt at a parallel there)?
So maybe
the very unconventional theme of this god arc is that the gods ain’t shit. Actually,
that’s the take-away no matter what at this point, because either the gods ain’t
shit and that’s what Matt is going for, or I’m right about the rail-roady thing
and Matt is the god who is actually even less infallible than previously
thought. But as I said before, that… Just sounds so lame. So…
Overdressed & Underappreciated 