“Ioun is
quite a goddess though, and she doesn’t respect secrets.”
Aka yes, I
am going to be that person.
Ioun does
not like secrets. Which is why the entire quest to gain her favor involved getting
a book that was locked away. Which is why you sought her out to find out about
a ritual that had been kept secret. Which is why she locked herself away in
secrecy.
Which is
why she chose someone who quite frequently lies, deceives, and uses his
knowledge to run a criminal organization, who fucks around with memories for
personal gain or amusement as her champion. Yes. All of this adds up.
And yes, maybe I’ve spent too much time talking about this to see it clearly at this point, but like… Man. I feel like this was more due to Matt’s perception of how certain classes are supposed to be played rather than how the characters actually are played.
Yeah, sure, Bards are supposed to carry and impart knowledge and pass it on and tell your story. But as someone else aptly pointed out, Keyleth lives on to tell the story, Tary writes the Ember Island Players version, and Scanlan writes the porn parody.
The character of Scanlan as played so far is not a lore bard, he’s a troll bard. Nothing wrong with that! But also, wasn’t it part of his crisis that he always felt like the teller of stories, but never like part of it? Or is confirming the characters’ worst fears about themselves just what gods do at this point? I mean, Vex felt unworthy there for a second, and Percy has just been gobsmacked in the face by two goddesses now.
And I knoooow he seems fine. He says he’s fine. Vex says she’s fine with what Scanlan said to her before he left, too. This kind of reads the same?
And especially after Ioun just brought up redemption seconds before choosing her champion, this just… Yeah, sorry Percy, you’re unworthy of this, too, you secret keeping mad man, you. Of course Percy would take that in stride; it’s what he’s always believed about himself to begin with.
This sucks even more considering that they apparently really have to get going now. The trip to Kord was just turned down flat. No one even brought up Melora, or a suitable god for Percy. Maybe Moradin might be something to look into, but, you know, that’d be kind of weird. Taking the god of dwarves for anyone non-dwarven. I can see that work out for Grog, though, given his dwarven beard and hammer, because random loot is now totes relevant when tying people to gods.
Ugh. And I know this will be a none-issue. I knooow. Still.
And I hold that it doesn’t really fit Scanlan, either. If anything, Ioun represents what a bard is supposed to be, even though there should be a separate god for music and performance. If you wanted to make it about his character and his journey, give him a god of family or something. It’s like back when the quest for Scanlan’s vestige involved solving a riddle. Which was ultimately solved by Percy.
Also, secrets as the disqualifying thing? Just. No. I did the math. When you go by secrets, Percy and Scanlan lie and keep to themselves roughly the same amount of things. Just that most of the time, Percy has a good reason, whereas Scanlan just wants to fuck with people. Gah. I’ll probably write all of this out properly at some point, I’m just really kind of upset by this.
(Sprigg saying goodbye to Percy with the “I’m going to think of you when I read these books.” kind of moved me to tears, though. And Percy and Keyleth talking about fuck the gods and fuck destiny was perfect.)
Overdressed & Underappreciated 