Oh god, the outrage at the selfish spellcaster comment…
Marisha made it pretty clear that she meant that in the context of Scanlan still having an 8th level spell left to blow during the Raishan fight before his death. Now, timing is a thing and all that, but that spell slot very memorably went into Scanlan using it to modify Jarett’s memory into purchasing drugs for him.
In past battles, Scanlan has absolutely been clutch, and has probably healed more than Keyleth even when she should have, but that might just be my frail healer heart speaking here. His entire class is designed around boosting the rest of the team. So there is little evidence for that in past battles.
But that was before. Before Scanlan, you know, lashed out at them and then left for a year and then only returned under a false identity with no intention of actually revealing himself to the group while also trying to extort Percy for some guns for good measure.
And while there’s of course reasons and things done wrong on any and all sides and the rationale behind all of this is gloriously messy with everyone and no one to blame, I mean, I can’t blame the group for having trust issues.
And that’s what this is about, essentially. Both in game and out. In game because Scanlan showed up under pretty much the worst circumstances he could have, and then went on to show them his new crime syndicate (which, you know, probably was built by using quite a bit of spell casting if we go by the letter of what Marisha said instead of the intent). Too bad Vex didn’t mention that his first and immediate reaction was to try and wipe her memory, but that is an issue for another day.
So yeah. There’s no telling whether Scanlan would still be willing to be an all-out go team support player. I mean, I kind of buy into that, and I’d say his behavior during the last battle was telling and all, but that was messy and at the end of an almost 6 hour episode, and literally one battle. And unlike, well, us here, the cast doesn’t frequently rewatch old episodes to analyze characters. And has trust issues regarding Sam Riegel as well, which kind of affect the game play now, too. Which I also can’t blame them for.
(Being in the game, by the way, is pretty stressful just in your average kitchen table game. I don’t meticulously remember what the other players or their characters did, either, so my perception of them is probably skewered. Way more so than when watching other people’s game as an outsider, at the very least.)
(Also, like, remember when Scanlan modified Percy’s memory just to fuck with him? Killed civilians with a fireball when he could have chosen not to? Dimension Door’d out of the wind dimension after Vax dove in there to save him? Had Gilmore invent a scrying poo potion so he could spy on Pike? Illusioned warts and stuff on his genitals to mess with Kima? Scanlan’s always been a trickster, and despite his self-sacrificial tendencies and excellent supportive gameplay, got that chaotic neutral alignment shift for a reason.)
Overdressed & Underappreciated 