It is an interesting conundrum.
Keyleth looked at Ashton and said they were Titan of blood, and that the Tree of Atrophy might have wisdom for them.
When asked about how to unlock his potential, the Tree told Ashton several things he knew already, and one big thing they didn’t: the existence of a shard of Rau’Shan and its location. The Tree gave him a warning about holding both, but no hint of how Ashton’s own dormant shard could be awakened.
The party went and retrieved the shard, with Ashton taking the lead and the risk to get it. And when they held in, Matt said they felt like it held the key to unlocking himself.
In Whitestone, Ashton gets warnings and caution against absorbing the shard, but there’s hesitancy from the NPCs about the harness in general, so the warnings all kind of muddle together. And again, there’s no alternative provided for unlocking the dormant earth shard within Ashton.
And then there is zero discussion of anyone besides Ashton or Fearne absorbing the shard. And Fearne says she doesn’t want it and thinks Ashton should have it.
So this is the information Ashton has. This is the information Taliesin has.
And as Matt said in the last 4-Sided Dive, he often makes scenarios with no right answer.
Did Matt have a plan for how someone who absorbed the Rau’Shaun shard could help Ashton awaken their own? Yes, I’m sure he did, now that he said he didn’t expect Ashton to go for it. But there was no in- or out-of-game hint of what that would be.
There’s no in-game reason for Ashton to think that, in passing up the shard, they weren’t passing up the opportunity to unlock their own Titan abilities.
Imogen embraced the storm and saved the party after the Otohan fight.
Chetney embraces his wild side and found acceptance.
Fearne gave her warmth to a ghost pirate and got a boon.
Laudna has give and take when engaging with Delilah for power.
And last episode, Ashton dived head first into lava, took damage every round, and ended up with the thing they wanted.
Matt rewards bold play, and that creates bold players.
I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.
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