dathen:

Everyone enjoys stories differently, but all the posts I see insisting this is a perfect narrative beat and the players shouldn’t be given a chance to fix it because “it teaches the characters their mortality” confuse me a lot in the context of this group

These characters are VERY aware of their own mortality, except for probably Beau and Jester.  Especially compared to campaign 1, they’re cautious and almost timid, and “is this something we’re willing to literally die for” often comes up whenever they are asked for help.  The arc here isn’t that they’re these brazen, feckless heroes who need to be taken down a notch or two–they’re selfish people who are slowly teaching each other to be less selfish, and their growth is shown in how they’re slowly becoming more and more willing to risk themselves for other people.  Episode 26 was a milestone of this growth, as this group that began as barely finding excuses to stick around each other push themselves to exhaustion running straight towards extreme danger because they’ve grown to care so much how did this happen how did these people become family

That growth isn’t something that needs to be punished.  This doesn’t need to be Game of Thrones.  Lorenzo may have wanted to make an example out of Mollymauk, but that doesn’t mean that Matt Mercer does.

Caleb had a goddamn Shakespearean monologue about this concept. Just this very episode. You can’t be any more literal in explaining the character motivations and themes than that. And yet, watching comprehension is apparently a rare skill indeed.