Okay so, I’ve headcanoned all of this for a while and had this diagram in my head, but I needed to write it down cause I’m writing post-res Molly fic and needed to keep my shit straight (though this is by no means comprehensive)
anyway this is what the fuck I think is up with them! I feel like I may be pretty close to the intended concept of how the tealeafs work (taliesin and matt you absolute mad lads…..) but there’s no actual canon explanation so feel free to also accept this as your Tealeaf Doctrine lol
so imo King is Molly, mostly - which explains why he remembers some things from him, he just happened to land sliiiightly off base
Although, for the purposes of me and my emotional wellbeing and my fic, I arguably made the crossover part between Molly and King bigger than it seems to be in canon (so far) LMAO my fic’s King has less amnesia (gradually, eventually) and less contempt for the name Molly lol
aksjalkxkzlaksk adding @dent-de-leon ’s tags cause they’re perfect and I want to keep them forever!!!
super good point about king keeping what really matters (his core loves and beliefs) and shedding what he didn’t understand/have context for, that’s how I see it too despite the feelings about the coat
and I know Molly’s aesthetic and how they dressed was what drew many of us to them in the first place (which is funny cause he did create the image to hide like you said and make people uncomfortable but we were all like I LOVE IT gimme lol)
The whole look was about joyful self-expression and queerness and bravery to so many of us so understandably the rejection of the symbol of something we loved so much hurt a bit, but even without the coat, the adventurous kind loving person we love is still there!
I am just continuously losing my mind over the fact that Zerxus is the only truly kind character we’ve seen, who reaches out to help anything and everyone and who might need it because he can give it, and it’s that exact kindness that leads him to all but pledge to a betrayer god.
Let it sink in. This man lives in a city of egomaniacs. He fully believes that self absorption is why his husband is dead, because none of these people could return the favor and look past themselves for a single fucking second and try for a little fairness. It is all up to him to be fair and by god he’s going to be as equivocal and as kind to anyone and everyone to SPITE those ivory tower fuckers. He is the one who by definition puts others first.
Everyone thought the city would fall because of the mages, and it’s true that everyone pitched in to make this catastrophe possible but holy shit. We pretty much just watched a paladin fall, believing the entire time he was doing what he was meant to do. This to him is part of his duty and it’s quite possibly the only part of his duty that even remotely fulfills him. This, he decides, is right to him and in full accordance with the tenets of his oath. He walked right into the teeth of a trap designed just for him. Kindness will be Avalir’s doom.
And the worst part is that his belief is all true. It’s true to him, it’s true to the narrative, it’s true to history. There was never any other option for the man Zerxus is than to try and redeem a betrayer god.
Ok so we talk a lot about wizard hubris, and I’m a big fan of fuck around and find out, BUT
I think the idea of “the Raven Queen was once a mage in the age of arcanum (who, frankly, some of these other wizards we’re seeing in Calamity might have known, if they’re older elves) and she managed to ascend to godhood, so what does that mean for our understanding of and relationship to godhood?” is actually really interesting and at the very least explains a lot of the wizard hubris and attitude that leads to someone like Vespin foolishly unleashing the Betrayer Gods and causing the Calamity.
Never mind that once the Raven Queen ascended she clearly thought “wow, that was something NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO AGAIN” (and boy isn’t she an interesting figure because of that), the mages in places like Avalir and Aeor are now living with the knowledge that that’s possible, that people like them could, in fact, gain the power of gods.
(For what it’s worth, I think Purvon’s perspective on this is very interesting, as he calls the Raven Queen’s ascension “knowledge won by her and her alone” and emphasizes that it made sense for the old god of death to die to truly embody the idea, so the Raven Queen’s place was intended all along - an interesting religious perspective!)
But Brennan plays the Arcanum wizards so well with Dean Hollow, who says: “She is still one of us though, is she not? She was one of us. She does remember from whence she came. It is not their world any longer. Why would she not welcome us behind her?”
And I love this because from their perspective it makes sense, even as we can see the seeds of hubris and downfall in it. The wizard hubris is grounded in really understandable world-building, I guess, is all I’m saying.
just from a scientific standpoint i really, really need to know what exactly went through essek „personal space“ thelyss‘s head, when he was not only manhandled (affectionate) but then continually carried by his gorillafied wizard crush through the dark tunnels of aeor. like, that must have been a whole moment for him. even for m9 standards
so i spent that entire scene between zerxus and mr. lord of the hells screaming at our pally there to stop literally making a deal with the devil but honestly the thing that really gets me is that it’s completely in line with what we know of zerxus’ character for him to act as he did??
like i think someone’s already written a very good meta on this but it makes sense that in this time, gods aren’t seen as the powers we know them to be in exandria. i mean we talk of hubris (and don’t get me wrong, there IS terrible hubris) but the fact of the matter is that the ascension to godhood has been shown to be possible. why wouldn’t people then draw the conclusion that godhood is just another attainable level in the cosmic hierarchy? it’s a logical conclusion, just like how atheism is very much a logical conclusion to draw from the science in our world
and for zerxus, who already has zero reverence for the gods, who knows how to tap into divinity by being a champion of the people he’s sworn to protect, who is overall a kind person, an empathetic person… what else could he do when confronted by this broken, broken being in front of him (who has the incredible pain and genuine gentleness that brennan injects into his voice) but to reach out?
and god, that’s a STRENGTH of his! to be so compassionate and earnest that he can’t even bring himself to be intimidating to get what he wants and instead reaches out with sincerity, to extend understanding to a paladin of a goddess that he and all his peers scorn, and it’s going to be his downfall. and it may be everyone’s downfall. and i’m still screaming
so i spent that entire scene between zerxus and mr. lord of the hells screaming at our pally there to stop literally making a deal with the devil but honestly the thing that really gets me is that it’s completely in line with what we know of zerxus’ character for him to act as he did??
like i think someone’s already written a very good meta on this but it makes sense that, in this time, gods aren’t seen as the powers we know them to be in exandria. i mean we talk of hubris (and don’t get me wrong, there IS terrible hubris) but the fact of the matter is that the ascension to godhood has been shown to be possible. why wouldn’t people then draw the conclusion that godhood is just another attainable level in the cosmic hierarchy? it’s a logical conclusion, just like how atheism is very much a logical conclusion to draw from the science in our world
and for zerxus, who already has zero reverence for the gods, who knows how to tap into divinity by being a champion of the people he’s sworn to protect, who is overall a kind person, an empathetic person… what else could he do when confronted by this broken, broken being in front of him (who has the incredible pain and genuine gentleness that brennan injects into his voice, who is wearing his husband’s face) but to reach out?
and god, that’s a STRENGTH of his! to be so compassionate and earnest among a city of egomaniacs that he can’t even bring himself to be intimidating to get what he wants and instead reaches out with sincerity, that he extends understanding to a paladin of a goddess that he and all his peers scorn, that when seeing his friend with tear tracks down her face and clutching a locket from his dead husband, his very first instinct is to comfort her. and it’s going to be his downfall. and it may be everyone’s downfall. and i’m still screaming
I know a lot of the Patia meta from this episode will end up centred around the fact that she just went through the trip of a lifetime with the world’s wildest tree, but I want to take a look at a couple of the other scenes and what they mean.
Firstly, the scene where she replays the bit where Cerrit says that there have been some incredibly selfish actions in the group.
Second, the bit where she tells Nydas in apparently absolute sincerity about how she talked about the need for the Sorcerer’s University.
Third, the bit about how she tried so, so hard to help Zerxus bring Evandrin back.
It does really feel like beneath this very composed, put together wizard burdened by the expectations of her bloodline is someone that cares very deeply about people.
sprigg saying “is there value in saving the world? or should you just let it all go away?” has got me thinking about the differences between keyleth and wonder woman (2017). as you do
i think it’s interesting that they’re both about a woman who has incredible untapped potential, power, and influence, who grew up in an extremely sheltered society, who leaves that society for the first time and has to learn the harshness of the world, and ultimately finds herself in a position of being the only one who can save it
but by the end of it for diana it’s more about choosing to save humanity in all of its complexities, right? like the reason she leaves is specifically because she learns of a war that she thinks she can stop. she leaves with the intent of saving the world, and then later sees how shitty it is and wonders if her intent is meaningless. is humanity inherently doomed because of its flaws, or are those flaws (and people having the power to rise above them) part of what makes them beautiful and interesting and deserving of love? and she chooses the latter, she makes a conscious choice to say you know what i think they’re worth saving regardless of their corruption, and then she saves them.
i find keyleth a little harder to put into words because this is not a condensed 2-hour movie it’s fucking 400 hours of rpg content but anyway, the difference with her is that keyleth is constantly plagued by responsibility that was pushed onto her. she didn’t make the choice to leave zephrah, she had no intent to do anything noble or heroic. she was born into this position that forced her to explore some of the absolute worst parts of the world and she has spent the last several in-game years trying to figure out, how can i have my own agency and follow my heart when the world is constantly trying to rip that away from me and the very reason that i’m here is because of something that was forced on me? if i had it my way wouldn’t i be back at home living a normal life with the people i love? (the latter is in and of itself kind of an interesting keyleth question and i don’t think the answer is as simple as she would like it to be but i digress)
and i don’t necessarily think keyleth is questioning the value of humanity in the way diana was. keyleth has explicitly said and demonstrated time and time again that one of her biggest priorities is helping and protecting innocent people, so i think for keyleth it’s an easy answer of yes, the world is worth saving because people are worth saving, of course they are. but for her the question becomes like…why am i the one who has to do it? how is it fair that i am the one who is constantly finding myself in the position of having to sacrifice myself and the people that i love to save the rest of the world? and then grappling with those more self-hateful thoughts of like how dare you think that your sacrifice of a few friends isn’t worth the rest of civilization, how dare you think that just for a second you’d rather stop and go on vacation when you’re the only ones who can do this. for keyleth there has never been a choice and the struggle comes from finding a way to carve out her own sense of agency within those constraints, and being okay with the things she can’t control
tl;dr wonder woman is a story about choice and deciding whether or not to save the world after seeing its flaws brutally played out in front of you; critical role keyleth of the ashari is a story about navigating a world that has never let you choose anything in your goddamn life.
Cerrit and Laerryn are both people who are direct and unyielding and fairly ruthless in pursuit of their goals, who are unparalleled and beyond peer in their cleverness and intelligence, who have sacrificed so much time with the people they love and do everything for, who are so dedicated (almost too dedicated) to their work and service to Avalir… who find themselves brought into direct opposition for a moment because of all these things.
They are people who are both so close and yet so far because of differences in what this all means to them. Devoted and unyielding in their service.
It comes to a head when he walks away because she refuses to put down her initial ambitions with her Leywright, and he believes she has doomed this city and the world with her dangerous ambitions. It is mended when she ensures he can walk away by giving him a map to the closest exit, and he tells her that she has given them all a chance at the future with this new working of her Leywright.
They’re foils, really. They, of all the Ring of Brass, are probably most similar in their temperaments even if the lives they lead and their visions for the city and the things they believe most worth all these personal sacrifices are so extremely different.
Unyielding devotion, and personal sacrifice, and fervent dedication. To give and to serve and to be unparalleled in it.
