Tag: cr2

Sleep-deprived and spoilery ramblings

You know what, I’m actually kinda proud of the M9 this week.

Like, when the plank king asked them why they chose to sail the seas, become pirates, and end up at his place, the honest answer would be “because we make horrible decisions, escalate the situation rather than face the consequences, and once we’re committed, we go all in and don’t know how to back down.” That… Is the story of how they basically got into and out of all story arcs so far. And the clusterfuck that was them getting into this whole pirate business by stealing the ship in the first place was probably the most egregious example.

Come to think of it, “because we’re idiots who make horrible life choices” would have been a great answer in pirate court.

Anyway, my point is, this is the first time in this campaign when they actually didn’t unnecessarily escalate the bad situation they were in. Well, except for Caleb, of course. They could probably have parted with the pirate city on better terms than they did if he’d just behaved, but hey, it’s just Liam doing Liam things at this point, and on the grand scale of things, it wasn’t even close to double-crossing an ancient dragon with 3 party members present without a rest after fighting another ancient dragon, so we should all really count our blessings.

But all in all, I’m really proud. They understood their limitations, somewhat, stuck to the decent part of their initial plan, mostly, and got the hell out of dodge of a situation that was completely beyond their control. And it worked! Nicely done, people.

It is kind of a shame about Avantika, that’s for sure, she was… Fascinating. Honestly, the most fascinating thing was how me and my friends were panicking about Beau lying in pirate court, and then Avantika just came in and lied more and worse. And the power play with Beau’s punches of truth… Rrrrr.

Also, her death felt a little like Lorenzo’s; kind of premature, definitely not what Matt had planned, but probably for the greater good. Girl was unhinged. I’m kinda glad we don’t have to wait for her to turn into PotC3 Calypso or something. The larger plot isn’t going away any time soon, either, so hey.

And much like Lorenzo, the party completely legitimately outplayed her in a way that made it impossible for Matt not to give them the ending they got. That’s another thing. They’re learning. And I’m looking forward to how Matt has to design future arc villains if he wants them to survive the first few encounters.

I have been with this show through any number of variations on Scottish or posh British accents, that time they went to fantasy Arabia, I have never had an issue with anyone going Texan or vaguely Eastern European or Pretend Irish and even the German has grown on me. But this new pirate person finally has an accent that I can’t deal with. I understand about half of what he’s saying and what is he supposed to be

So what are the odds of Pike and Scanlan currently being on honeymoon in Wildmount, with a convenient supply if diamonds that Vex definitely makes everyone take with them at all times after what happened with Vax, asking for a friend.

Since this has been a thing for a few episodes now – do you think Caleb is trying to shut Jester out on purpose or does he just accidentally forget about her because he’s taking her for granted?

So, that happened. Again.

You know, it makes a lot of sense that Caleb would be naturally suspicious of someone who has been through a lot and now wants to prevent anyone else falling victim to what she has suffered. It’s basically the opposite approach of what he does with his trauma and backstory. He is projecting, and Beau was perfectly justified in calling him out on that, if not very eloquent in doing so.

Also, it makes just as much sense that Beau would take offense to Caleb declaring himself the moral authority on this matter after she tried to get him to work against the system that abused him and broke him and he didn’t really seem to be into the idea. And due to what we know about the Cobalt Soul and Beau’s Secret Lesbian Fight Club, of course Beau would have an easier time to believe that people might actually be earnest in their intentions of working against organizations that harmed them etc.

Neither of them are wrong in this situation. Cali being on Caleb’s side doesn’t help with the actual issue that causes friction here, though, and that is indeed the fact that Caleb and Nott just do not communicate with the rest of the group, and then shove the others into situations they probably wouldn’t have agreed to be in.

They’re their own little sub-group in the group in a way the others just aren’t, and that breeds mistrust and leaves the others feeling like they’re constantly locked out of the loop. Technically they all came together as sub-groups, but Molly and Yasha split up and hang out with other people, Jester is open with everyone, and while Fjord and Beau usually hang back and snark about things, it’s not like they make their own secret plans or advertise the fact that they’d fuck the rest of the group over for the sake of one particular person. Caleb and Nott are just not very good as team players.

(And before we get into that again, Caleb is very good at casting buffs and helping the team in that way. They work well with the others in combat, until and unless they use secret commandos to do their own thing. Again. They’re good to work with in that regard, but the thing is, being team players in combat just helps their odds of survival as well as anyone else’s, and I really think that’s a different ball game entirely. Gameplay and Story Segregation, in a way.)

It’s not even that this particular instance was especially unreasonable of them, or anything. A lot more reasonable than stealing from the High Richter was, in any case. But when Caleb pulled out the bowl after the fact and told everyone, including the party he had called together to back him up against Cali potentially reacting poorly, to go along with a plan he had come up on his own without talking to anyone else about it first except for Nott. Which pulled out the rug from everyone else and forced them into a situation I don’t think any of them would have wanted to be in.

Just… Having a conversation before finding the bowl would have helped. Determining whether the group trusts Cali before assuming that no one did because Caleb himself didn’t would have helped. Just, determining a general group policy before counting on everyone else to back you up. That’s the poor communcation the others are upset about.

It’s just getting a bit annoying that this is the… Second drastic and fourth general occasion on which this has happened, and every single time Caleb could brush it off due to being, in a way, exonerated by circumstance. Stealing from the High Richter had no consequences because shit exploded afterwards anyhow. Originally keeping the loot to himself only got him a sexy wall-pinning moment with Molly because he came around afterwards. The entire situation with the Orb was resolved without a major fight because of Jester being who she is. And now Cali is on his side, and Caleb gets to tell himself that he has totally communicated his intentions with everyone, without addressing the fact that it miiiight have been a little late and also bad form.

I really hope they manage to address this sooner rather than later, in a way that Caleb understands and doesn’t get to talk and rationalize his way out of. Because this is getting tedious.

People really don’t like it when you do these things, Sam.

Laura Bailey, believing in the good of humanity and having not yet caught on to the fact that people only don’t like it when SHE does these things and that Sam can do no wrong.