So chances are we will find out who Pike’s secret love interest has been all along tonight. Last chance to get in your bets! Here’s the options. As I see them, at least.
- Random NPC from her backstory/Sailing days. Early on, I was actually considering Tristan the Cleric from the Sarenrae temple in Emon would be it, because he reacted kinda flustered when Pike was mentioned, alllll the way back in episode 25. But if it were an NPC, what’s all the fuss about, really, why never mention it, why would saying it now be awkward? Doesn’t add up. But is the most diplomatic solution, which I appreciate!
- Grog. Because. I dunno, they’re close? Never saw their relationship that way, way too fraternal and all that, but it could happen! And boy would that be a twist.
- Keyleth. This one came up after Pike kissed her on the forehead after being feebleminded by Lady Briarwood and then cured by Keyleth, in kind of a parallel to the Kimallura smooch, I guess. Also Keyleth is amazing, just in general.
- Vex. Because if how Pike was flushed after Vex hugged her naked the episode the secret love interest was a big point of conversation in. Also Laura is famously the only one (besides Brian, I guess) who knows about it… Which is both a point in favor or against, when you think about it. There’s also the time Pike was one of the first to be drunkenly blubbering about how amazing Vex is, but she was joined in by literally everyone, and, I mean, come on. It’s Vex. Being into her is just good taste.
- Percy. This is probably the most common assumption around, not helped by the fact that the debate was started around the time when Perc’ahlia started, I dunno, becoming obvious? Ashley has also hinted that the window of opportunity to confess has slipped away, indicating that the person in question is now taken. And while that also applies to Vex and Keyleth, here is where I see it the most brought up. She also gave Percy the bamf back to life necklace in the same episode the secret love interest was mentioned first. She has a song for him on her single playlist. And then there’s the time Ashley and Taliesin were both on Talks together, Brian brought up the secret love interest, and Ashley was very put-out by him mentioning it again. I can see why people think this is it. But. Well.
- Vax. Liam was the other guest at that Talks episode I just mentioned. Ashley had a song for Percy on her playlist, and a song for the person Pike was secretly in love with. Ashley also mentioned that something happened pre-stream, and we only know about Pike and Vax spending a lot of time alone together pre-stream. I think they had a session with just the two of them and Matt, once? When the party got split up? Also, by the time the secret love interest came up, Perc’ahlia was just like, apparent to people who had witnessed a whole lot of smaller moments and a reliable set of shipping goggles, and for many of these moments, Ashley simply wasn’t at the table. On the other hand, Vaxleth had been a… Thing. One way or the other. For a long time. Then there’s the fact that on the stream, Vax is probably the person Pike has the most scenes with after Grog and Scanlan. And they’re always had a bit of a special relationship. I dunno, it always made more sense to me than aynthing else, especially with the scene with the bench and the wolf at the end?
So yeah, my money’s on Vax, though there’s points in favor and against pretty much everyone on the list. And the great thing is that this will all be resolved tonight! Probably. Hopefully. Please.
Overdressed & Underappreciated 