thessalian:

One of the opinions I saw expressed about the end of Vox Machina’s campaign, specifically Vax’s departure, was … something I feel needs discussing. The opinion was, “It shows how little respect Vox Machina has for Scanlan that they used Manners on him when he was just trying to defuse the situation with humour, the way he always does”. I think that’s harsh and unfair on so many levels. I can see where it comes from, but it relies on looking at Scanlan’s point of view and only Scanlan’s point of view.

I mean, I can see it from Scanlan’s point of view too. He tried so hard to save that last powerful magic so that he could use it to save Vax. He was put in the position where he had to choose his friend over the world. Scanlan chose the world … partly, I imagine, because his friend would want him to. Vax’ildan Vessar would not ever want his survival to come at the cost of the entire world. Vax understands sacrifice – pretty clearly, given how he ended up in his position in the first place. They sealed Vecna away … and as a result, Vax had to go, to fulfill his end of the bargain.

Scanlan had to be hurting over that. And his way of deflection is through humour, yes … but he has never, ever learned how to not do it when the situation doesn’t call for it. He has a low Wisdom score, as Sam himself admits, specifically because “Why do you think he does stupid shit all the time?”. Again, not blaming or saying that Scanlan is a bad person. Scanlan’s a well-developed character with flaws and that’s awesome. But Percy’s a character too … and what about his emotional state?

Consider: Percy’s two best friends – one of them his wife – grieving for Vax, who Percy himself sees as a brother by more than just the in-law bond. Percy with that pact with Ipkesh, the sort of thing that had nearly destroyed him before … but might have been able to bring Vax back. But Vax wouldn’t want that. Vax would want Percy to be there for Vex, and for Keyleth, and wouldn’t want to be responsible for the destruction of Percy’s soul. So Percy’s blaming himself for the same thing Scanlan is – “I could have saved him … but the cost is too high”.

You really expect him to just laugh when Scanlan’s saying, even jokingly, “You could have done something against your better judgement and saved him”?

You really expect him to just let Scanlan keep joking while Keyleth and Vex’s hearts are breaking right in front of him and the only things he could do would break their hearts worse? Because Scanlan never learned when to stop, and often takes a request to stop as a springboard for more jokes, because the jokes make him feel better, rather than a serious request to stop. Maybe Scanlan wouldn’t have continued, but that was a risk that Percy, with the contract with Ipkesh heavy on his mind, wouldn’t have wanted to take. He couldn’t bear being told, “There was something you could have done” because there was something he could have done … at a cost that Vax wouldn’t have wanted Percy to pay.

So, no, I don’t think that Percy using Manners on Scanlan in that situation was ‘a mark of how little they respect Scanlan’, any more than I think that Scanlan joking that he could have taken the Raven Queen if he’d had the gun that Percy always refused to give him is a mark of Scanlan being a bad person. They’re well-developed characters who don’t always make the right choices, on both sides. More, they’re family, and family fucks with each other with moderate impunity because it’s built on a foundation of love. Vax shaved off half of Grog’s beard. Vax stole Taryon’s armour and blamed it on Percy. Tary set dogs loose in Percy’s room not caring that he’d screw with Vex as well. Scanlan, understandable as his upset was, dismissed Percy leveraging his newly regained position as Lord of Whitestone (not to mention risking getting thrown in jail) to help Scanlan’s daughter and dismissed the source and centre of Pike’s beliefs as ‘weird magic shit’. But they still respect each other’s abilities on the field and are there for each other when shit gets real. Just sometimes they can’t see how real the shit has got for their friends on the emotional scale.

I get that people have favourites and they are precious cinnamon rolls and must be protected. That doesn’t mean “throw every other character under the bus”.