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?
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…
I do think there’s some disconnect going on here between what Matt is seeing and what we the audience are seeing.
I’ve noticed a lot of confusion and upset fans since last week about Ioun choosing Scanlan over Percy. I’m one of those fans. (Upset at the narrative, not the players or Matt, why must I constantly have to point this out when making a critique of the show, jesus christ can people just chill, you don’t have to love something 100% of the time or think it’s garbage, there is a place for honest criticism that isn’t personal attacks in fandom.)
There’s a fair few of the audience confused about this choice. It clearly makes perfect sense to Matt and the players. But it’s not translating to some of the audience. I hope this is cleared up in the future.
I do wonder if he’s building to something about the gods being fallible. They are weak, they are easily misled, they are arrogant, they are vulnerable, we’ve seen this over the past few episodes. Ioun even said that mortals don’t need the gods as much as the gods need them, a very American Gods way of looking at things that I am super intrigued by.
P.S. Pelor is a jerk and I’m still mad Vex had to “prove herself” to him after slaying dragons while his champions did heck all to save the world.
Yeeeaaah, Matt basically just went on Talks and confirmed what I suspected. Scanlan spent his life seeking and spreading knowledge? And inspires people by telling them about all the knowledge he acquired? That’s… Footage not found, literally. Any and all tales he tells are exaggerated recounts of his own greatness. He has to actively try to be truthful about ANYTHING, so if he ever does spread knowledge, he actually spreads lies and falsehoods, for no good reason, even. And if the guns are to be taken out of the equation, then Scanlan is JUST AS secretive about his background as Percy was, just that he then yells at people for not knowing things he never told them about. Ugh.
Overdressed & Underappreciated 