#jester meta

[sparring-spirals]

JESTER MASS HEAL AS A CRITICAL MOVE IN THE BATTLE sorry off my rocker again about Jester love and optimism as its own brand of offense and love that sunders enemies in half and boosts her friends in all forms and all the jokes about Jester THE cleric and clerics and healers not always being one and the same, but- Jester did heal, and she healed plenty through the campaign. But sometimes being a protector of the group needed the direct offense. It was, it is, always about- action economy and balancing what will protect her friends, what will save them, what will be enough.

Jester blowing the high level spell on healing, and it working. Beautifully.

It was always about protecting everyone with what she had and all its furious love, and this time, healing her friends was more than enough to rip the enemy apart.

#I trip and jester meta and m9 meta falls out of my pockets #i need to watch this episode but i dont have TIME . Okay im going to stop writing posts till after i do i swear #critical role #cr spoilers #jester lavorre #character meta #the mighty nein reunited #the mighty nein reunited part 2 #i apologize if anyone is infuriated by me writing meta before ive even seen the episodes #unfortunately for you all i only need the BAREST detail and overarching themes to get fired up about this subject #jester meta #love is stored in the jester #spar speaks #im back on Tumblr for half a day and write two metas . alas.

[britcision]

Okay this thought has been percolating for a while so let’s piss off people who can’t read

Beau and Fjord were the closest things to villains in Jester’s story

Because Laura very specifically did not create a villain

Lord Sharpe was an afterthought if they happened to be passing through town that Jester hid from for 30 seconds then locked on a second balcony, and he was the closest she ever had

Jester’s story was about growth and reconnecting, neither of which actually came from a beat down fight the way traditional dnd does

So what the fuck does that have to do with Beau and Fjord? Well, that comes back to how each of they interpreted Jester’s arc

Cuz both Marisha and Travis did a good bit of pushing to have Jester go down one of their storylines, even if for the players it was all pre-negotiated fun

Because who were the two potential villains of Jester’s arc, if Laura had wanted to go that way?

Artagan, her cleric patron

The Gentleman, her dad

I believe y’all may now see the two storylines of which I speak?

The Gentleman’s storyline pretty much slipped under the radar until the Nein went back to Zadash and didn’t bother to visit him

After that, Jester admitted she’d been lying about her Sendings to the party, he wasn’t welcoming her with open arms, and he told her he wasn’t her father

Beau, who has Personal Experience with shitty fathers who need to be thoroughly rejected and maybe a beat down, gave Jester some beautiful gentle cuddles and consolation and “well if he doesn’t want you (like my dad didn’t want me) he can go fuck himself he doesn’t deserve you”

But that was not the story Laura wanted to tell

So that’s not the story we got

And oh boy that made the next part where we went back to meet BEAU’S dad extra fucking spicy because she just got to see for the first time that some bad dads really do care

And then Thoreau was still Thoreau and gaslighting ensued but Beau remembered what she’d told Jester, even if Jester didn’t need it

Basically no pushing there cuz Matt didn’t much hesitate to make it clear that the Gentleman was not going to be Thoreau. He was a deadbeat, awkward, and negligent, but not for the same reasons

ARTAGAN THOUGH

Well

Fjord has Opinions and Personal Experience around accepting magical powers from entities you don’t know or trust

And Beau has Opinions and Personal Experience with shady people in positions of power using them against innocent young souls

And neither of them spent 30 seconds to consider Jester might know her childhood bestie better than they do because they were right that he wasn’t a god

So as soon as Matt began dropping archfey hints we got like 40 episodes of “the Traveler’s shady and isn’t a proper god” and “hey Jester we can just kill him for you”

Because they can’t just go kill Uk’otoa, they’re not levelled enough and he’s pretty inconvenient to get to all locked up

But Fjord burned his pact weapon and walked straight into the Wildmother’s arms, and oh boy a lot of people who don’t think about personality types wanted Jester to do just that on the ol’ bird app

(Even Laura agreed Jester’d be more likely to go to the Moonweaver in Talks, either because of the Travelercon thing or the trickery/Mollymauk aspect)

But Laura didn’t want to tell that story either, even if Travis did make off with her warlock class

So Artagan made it explicitly clear, in every interaction, that he knew Jester was incredible without him (that’s why he chose her at all), that he valued far more than just what she could do, that he never even told her he was a god, he just never corrected the assumption

Cuz he’s an archfey and he also has a minor personal history of starting cults (not to himself the first time but bad habits escalate)

Artagan was the one who talked Jester down from just tossing people into the volcano

He was the only one who never joked about her being a bad cleric, but the Nein ain’t ready for that

And he explicitly chose her safety over his own, which for the uninitiated is A Big Fucking Deal for an archfey

Like, the Moonweaver’s response was entirely proportional, because as Fearne has shown, fey aren’t great at the “some things belong to other people and that is okay”, including personal health and wellness

(Laura also mentioned in Talks that if Fjord hadn’t grabbed her while she was holding Artagan Jester wouldn’t have hesitated to go with him but Matt knew exactly what she wanted and they were Never going to go down the “evil Artie” track)

So since we know The Gentleman was never going to be Jester’s villain, and Artagan was never going to be Jester’s villain, what’s left?

Well, just about all you’ve got is the two people who repeatedly challenged her faith and tried to force her into conflict with her first and oldest friend

And maybe “antagonist” is a better word than villain, but I did say I wanted to piss off people who can’t read

Cuz unlike with the Gentleman, the Artagan question wasn’t dropped until the night after Travelercon, where Jester very gently told them to go fuck themselves of course Artagan was there to stay

And of course if Laura wasn’t down with it, none of the pushing woulda happened

But until that point literally all of Jester’s conflict was internal, and nobody really talked to her about it

And Beau and Fjord’s responses make perfect sense for the characters, just like it makes perfect sense that Jester wasn’t gonna willingly confide in people who kept pushing for murder

Jester needed to be pushed enough to break the happy facade and let some of her struggles and thoughts be external, because some people still somehow refuse to believe there’s any depth behind a bubbly smile and dick jokes

For Jester’s growth to be evident and external in the story, she needed something to fight against, and in this case?

It was her new friends hating her old friend

The friend who gave her the power to save their lives

Two of the people she was the closest to whose opinions meant the most

Her original two road companions vs her original friend

And boy did that make for some compelling conflict when Artagan blatantly refused to get involved even in his own defence

In a way Jester kinda did follow Beau’s story; I’ve made the link between Artagan and Dairon before as older, more powerful mentors with unknown intentions

Beau chose to trust Dairon and follow in their footsteps and let Dairon make her more powerful

Jester sort of wound up leading Artagan as much as he led her, which is a fun callback to Beau calling out Dairon’s anti-Krynn racism in Xhorhas

But yeah, tl;dr?

Beau and Fjord were the closest thing Jester got to an antagonist because Laura explicitly refused to make her own and Matt let her have the story she wanted

#critical role #out of context spoilers #cr spoilers #cr c2 #cr campaign 2 #the mighty nein #jester meta #jester lavorre #also fun that it was two of her love interests #but we never exactly got jester’s opinion on other love interests past the Avantika arc #just laura in talks constantly repeating ‘no she is not thinking about romance she has shit to do’ #the way caduceus assumed jester had all her shit together til he met artagan tho #the road from #‘yeah she seems happy enough she must be fine’ #‘she helps me and yasha with our deity problems #got a good level head on her’ #to ‘HOLY SHIT SHE HAS NEITHER LIMITATIONS NOR SELF PRESERVATION AND SHE COMES BY IT HONESTLY’ #for all matt and laura agree the jester-and-artie relationship wasn’t health #the bar is in fucking hell #and most of the mighty nein brought excavators

[residentinsomniacartist]

wait wait wait guys have you ever thought about how the Mighty Nein are everything they shouldn’t be upon first glance

no no guys guys listen to me they’re all the antithesis of what they’re meant to be and that’s why they’re such amazing and heartfelt characters

like, Caleb is a wizard who’s afraid of his own fire magic. his own power causes him to falter in battle. his strongest spells are his most dangerous to himself. wizards are supposed to be prideful of their magic, but Caleb’s is the reason he hates himself

Beau is a monk who never wanted to be. her job is one that people normally associate with being calm and collected and Beau was a wild rebellious kid who got dragged into this line of work against her will. she never wanted to be this!! but now she is and she’s gotta deal with it!!

Fjord is a warlock who never wanted power from his pact, which is why you’d think a warlock would make their pact at all. but no. Fjord made his pact because he wanted to live, not because he wanted power. he was a scared orphan who hated his tusks, not a buff, muscled, angry half-orc like people assumed

Nott is NOT, that’s the whole crux of her narrative! she wasn’t pretty, like a halfling girl was supposed to be. she wasn’t a goblin, she was just transformed into one. and not only that, but despite being a three-foot-tall alcoholic kleptomaniac, she’s the mom of the group!

Jester is a Cleric whose god isn’t actually a god and who would much rather bash bad guys over the head with her lollipop than have to stop and heal her friends!! she’s a bubbly, optimistic ray-of-sunshine, but you know when she says she’s gonna change the world with friendship she means it as a threat

Mollymauk is an amnesiac, but he doesn’t want to remember who he was. if you ask him, that wasn’t him! he might be a flirtatious hedonistic carnie, but he’s also single-mindedly devoted to making the world a better and more loved place than it was when he found it. he’s a liar, but he means well. he’s an arrogant fool, yes, but he’s right! he did it! he left it better!

Caduceus seems like he’d be creepy and grim from growing up in a graveyard, but he’s actually the most chill out of the entire Nein by far. he’s calm, he’s sweet, and he’s comforting, more than anything else. you’d think he’d be amazed by seeing the outside world for the first time, but he spends the whole time knowing that one day he’ll return home, that he wasn’t supposed to be the one to leave

Yasha is a barbarian with skeletal wings and a dramatic, monochromatic look, but she’s a complete sweetheart. she’s Molly’s best friend, she was a carnival bouncer, she’s a lesbian disaster who collects pressed flowers in a book out of love for the wife she lost. those black wings were actually hiding soft white feathers

Essek was born straight into the den of politics, he was a spymaster, he literally started a war for his own gain, and yet. he’s sounds irredeemable on paper, but. he’s not!! sure, the Nein kind of have to drag his alignment kicking and screaming into neutral, but they manage it. Essek learns and grows and he overcomes his nature. he becomes good, against all odds

guys guys guys don’t you see it!! look at them!!they’re such compelling characters!! they’re everything they’re not supposed to be!! dude y’all how didn’t I realize this earlier!! they subvert their narratives in the most interesting ways ever and I justhshsbhshshsjnsmshsnhsfn!!

#having very normal thoughts about the hyperfixation before bed as you can see #god I love the Mighty Nein #I swear to god their story is one of the best things I’ve ever discovered #it just #it just screams ‘you can be more than what the world made you to be’ #‘you can be more than you once were’ #‘you can live and grow and love and it can be so so amazing. just let yourself have it’ #the Mighty Nein’s story is one of such overwhelming hope and love for the world and I just #*distant sobbing* /pos #the mighty nein #critical role campaign 2 spoilers #critical role #cr c2 #caleb widogast #beauregard lionett #fjord stone #nott the brave #veth brenatto #jester lavorre #mollymauk tealeaf #caduceus clay #yasha nydoorin #essek thelyss #cr meta

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I’m just going to throw down my thoughts now real quick. Someone is obviously going to get taken over by Fyodor. This takeover seems to require blood to activate. Here are the potential options, rated lowest to highest by my own personal interest.

Random character we’ve never met - the easy and boring answer. Fyodor will body snatch one of the vampire guards he was communicating with. Fair amount of likelihood since he could easily have made the transfer of blood at any point, though I’m not sure yet if it needs to be an instantaneous thing or if his blood can lie dormant. Either way I think it’s a bit of an ass-pull with no stakes on our cast so I’m hoping this isn’t the case.

A named character outside Meursault - Probably someone he’s had a lot of contact with, so Fukuchi. This depends on the blood having a latency period and is also insanely contrived. I actually hate it more than the random guard.

The Catgirl thief - I’m assuming this is extremely unlikely since the host needs to be alive. But anyways. Women lovers here’s how we lose even worse.

Having said this now, I think it’s fairly obvious it has to be one of the other Meursault four. This is appropriately thematic and tragic, given that all of them place a lot of value on free will and self-determination, which a takeover by Fyodor would rob them of.

Chuuya - He spent a lot of time around Chuuya to be sure but there’s no blood on him. If there’s a latency period though, it is possible. I’m not feeling this one though, to be honest. I don’t see what narrative purpose it serves - Chuuya hasn’t had enough of a role in the manga for this to mean much, other than royally pissing Dazai off (which to be fair is definitely in character for Fyodor). I think it far more likely that Chuuya is going to be a witness for whatever comes next.

Sigma - High likelihood. He did get stabbed and had the memory transfer. I can’t remember whether Fyodor touched him with his wounded hand. It would be brutal for this to happen to him after he’d just broken free from his manipulation. But honestly I don’t know that Sigma getting taken over is all that interesting. For one, they’re going to need his knowledge (though that may be a reason for Fyodor to off him truthfully), and for another, I just don’t think Sigma’s… done enough as a character. I feel it would kind of render his arc in Meursault pointless to end his story here.

Nikolai - The most likely possibility to me. He is holding Fyodor’s severed hand, which he touched to his face. Fyodor’s ability probably kickstarts after his death, and Nikolai was the first to get his blood on him. Sadly, I suspect that if this is the case, this will be the end for Nikolai. If he gets taken over, I can’t see a reason or method to restore him to himself. What a horribly tragic end this would be to our favourite clown, his freedom snatched away for good by the one person he couldn’t help but get attached to.

Dazai - I dismissed this off-hand at first. Of course I did, Dazai is immune to abilities. I also want to be clear that I seriously doubt Asagiri will off his favourite boy like this. But oh man. What if Fyodor’s ability isn’t an ability, much like in the first skk manga team up? What if them both being there is a call-back to Rimbaud who snatched corpses, and Lovecraft who could hurt Dazai? What if Fyodor really has become no longer human - and this is the proof? I was kind of hoping the Meursault arc would end with Dazai (temporarily!) out of the picture, and this would be a way to do it - Atsushi and Akutagawa would have to step up, Chuuya could be more relevant. We could even have more Kyouka if what I’m starting to wonder is true - that Fyodor was involved in the death of her parents. At the same time, Dazai’s special boy plot armour nullification and mysteriousness gives us a plausible reason to bring him back. And all the while maybe they could continue their mind games, with Dazai being an annoying little pest in the back of Fyodor’s mind.

#I’m screaming asagiri please give us bad ending #also I think chuuya would rapidly lose the idgaf war if he saw dazai being taken over like that which is. just a bonus for me. #realistically though my money’s on nikolai. sorry jester man I think you might be doomed :( #bsd #storyrambles #bsd meta #bsd chapter 114 #bsd spoilers #bsd fyodor #bsd chuuya #bsd sigma #bsd nikolai #bsd dazai

[noose-lion]

Chuuya is literally capable of calculating advanced physics and statistical formulas in his head. HIS HEAD. He does it in seconds, little to no hesitation, while fighting.

#we as a fandom dont utilize this enough #my stuff #bsd #screaming into the void #and the void screams back #bungou stray dogs #bungou gay dogs #soukoku #bsd chuuya #nakahara chuuya #bsd analysis #jester thinks #bsd meta

[ludinusdaleth]

absolutely out of my mind obsessed. OBSESSED. with liliana always saying "he" and, even if we know it's ludinus, never saying his name and obfuscating him with predathos, these two pillars of limitless power & incredible cruelty that chain her, stronger than her, in her own words. how he needs her. how he admires & values & even in some way adores her, and maybe more. how she's pulled ludinus back from the very edge. her trying to change him, and zerxus 1000 years ago trying to change asmodeus and jester trying to change artagan and caleb trying to change essek and the m9 trying to change lucien and opal trying to change lolth, and imogen, trying to change her own mother. this cycle of desperate belief in redemption that can succeed or fail, the coin that hasnt landed on a side yet. how that's freedom for some. how that's a whip, a martinet on the back of the reformer for others. the belief in set fate vs the vanguard belief in changing destiny. generation upon generation of hope & abuse that can so easily become one or the other or both at once for eon upon eon. how the gods who created these mortals who seek any glint of kindness desperately wish, in this moment, for redemption themselves. "to reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you". but the gods are in the sky. and their saviors are on a lonely planet & lonelier moon, locked together by a cycle of violence & desperation started by them so long ago.

#cr spoilers #critical role #campaign 3 #exandria unlimited: calamity #campaign 2 #ludinus da'leth #liliana temult #critical role meta #predathos #zerxus ilerez #asmodeus #lolth #opal #essek thelyss #jester lavorre #caleb widogast #artagan #imogen temult #lucien tavelle

[jestroer]

The first one I finished, and the final piece im posting for @hermitshippingbigbang! :D This is for the thrilling Sail with us (and we'll show you what it means to be alive!) by @hydeomonster !! Smalletho decide to go sailing and have a time!

#court jester's art #court jester's fanfiction appreciation moment #hermitshipping #<- the fic itself #hsbb 2023 #ethoslab #goodtimeswithscar #smalletho #think its appropriate considering this is for the fic which is yk. about them #im just the kinda guy who cant help their love for gtws and a dramatic moment #hermitcraft #The fic is so good man! Go read! #Had a lot of fun working on this! :D Also being on the team with meta my beloved was a highlight for sure ^^ It's going to post later so! #read the fic and also wait for the amazing art from them!!!

[burr-ell]

I'll preface this by saying that I don't by any means begrudge anyone their own personal headcanons or interpretations, but I kinda have to get it off my chest that I'm personally not very comfortable with significant deviations from canon character design on CR, and I really tend to side-eye people who have declared their fanart to be "better".

And sure, some of that is because i'm a cranky old bastard. But some of that is that I also have an animation degree and have studied character design. Creators generally give artists a fair amount of input as to how they want their designs to connote the characters' personalities—not just in terms of clothing or hairstyle, but in the overall shape of the silhouettes and body structures. And in the case of CR in particular, that's coming from a place of much closer familiarity with the characters because the creator is actually going to be embodying them for a fairly long period of time, so when the fan response is heavy deviation from that, I think it can feed into some unhealthy fanon perceptions and projections.

Like, for example, it's not so much that I think fanartists are "disrespecting the creators" or whatever when they keep giving Imogen a sweet little round face and big hips/breasts and cute circular glasses, but I've also studied shape language in art. You're communicating something when you design her this way; if a character's silhouette has a lot of circles, visually that connotes being friendly, sweet, and cute. The person who first suggested drawing her with glasses explicitly said they thought it would look cute—and no shade to them! They can like whatever they want!

But canonically, Imogen is a woman in her 20s who's been dealing with unanswered questions, abandonment, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion from trying to hold back and control powers that she never asked for—and who simultaneously uses those powers even when it isn't necessary if she thinks it'll help her achieve a goal or prove a point. She isn't unfriendly, and she wants to do the right thing, but she's also someone who's consciously chosen to keep to herself for most of her life, and yet simultaneously she's quite adept at persuading and deceiving people. I think we're meant to pick up that sense of world-weariness and cynicism from her angular facial features and thin frame. That's...kind of just how character design works.

I think the trend of disregarding the official art and giving her softer features has had an impact on the perception of Imogen as a character. I see a lot of views of her that really remove a lot of her agency, treating her like she's only ever been a victim of circumstance who's never put a foot wrong. Some fans got pushback for pointing out that it really wasn't cool for Imogen to openly contemplate whether or not the Ruby Vanguard might be right in front of three people who were killed by Otohan, insisting that imogen was just dealing with a lot right then. And yes, she was, but that doesn't mean that the way she was dealing with it doesn't say something about her as a character. I don't know if I'd call it coddling, necessarily (even though perhaps there are some very coddling takes I just haven't seen), but there seems to be some resistance, in some circles, to the idea that Imogen isn't a put-upon martyr. And in those same circles, round friendly-looking glasses-wearing Imogen abounds, to the point of editing the official art itself to "fix it".

Truth be told I'd be willing to bet that the rounder cuter Imogen actually came about because of the initial impression of her, given how much fanon at the start of c3 revolved around poor baby Imogen with her scary nightmares needing the wiser, worldlier Laudna to comfort her and kiss it better, but those visuals also proliferated rather quickly and well beyond past the point where that fanon was feasible anymore, and I think both aspects of that fanon ended up informing each other. It's not lost on me that the rounder and cuter-looking Imogen performs the literal function of sanding down her harder edges.

And like I said, I'm not here to be needlessly negative toward what other people want to do. If you want to draw the characters differently to their official art, I don't think either the cast or the artist are especially offended by it. But I personally dislike it, in part because I think some of these trends are a way for fans to claim a certain amount of ownership over the characters, whether they intend it or not. And the ultimate outcome of that is that when creators inevitably assert their ownership over a deeply personal story in a way that fans don't like, the backlash is much stronger than it reasonably should be, which is something I think the CR fandom has seen often enough not to continue doing as often as it does.

#cr meta #critical role #cr discourse #cr wank #i think chubby jester vs skinny jester also falls into this #and don't get me wrong i 100% support representation of body types and the cast does too #but there's a certain amount of overlap between chubby jester and weird fanwanky c2 stans #it's. usually the folks who cling to fanon art interpretations who get the most angry at the cast when things don't go their way #like i don't have StatsTM or whatever to prove it but i've noticed some trends #also it's always the female characters and particularly laura bailey's characters who get hit with this attitude the most #like! just say you don't like a call laura made! i promise you no one's gonna call 911!

[shorthaltsjester]

i do not want to dig a hole but i am too much of a laura bailey pc enjoyer to not make this post so:

selfishness ≠ a lack of kindness 

selfishness is a theme that has come up with all of laura's main campaign pcs. that doesn't mean that her characters are always making selfish choices or that they don't care about the rest of the people they're with or that they're not good. it's just that, for the most part, the first thing they're thinking of when they take action or make choices is themselves. 

in jester and vex both it is more typical and obvious selfishness. vex's developed because she needed it to keep herself and vax alive and as safe as possible and it grew into a behaviour that she had to actively work to avoid. it's evident in her greed, her theft of the broom, her reaction to her own death which relied heavily on i'm okay/i survived to which keyleth reminded her that she wasn't the only one who had to witness and reckon with her death. in jester's case, she grew up in an environment that literally trained her to make every decision based on two things - her mother's opinion and her own. so, when she's out in the world without marion for the first time, her choices are those that will benefit her and her actions are those that consider her own thoughts and not really many others' (aside from the traveler's). 

it isn't a criticism of either vex or jester to say that they are characters who act selfishly. in fact, i'd argue that to claim otherwise does a great disservice to exactly how immense both of their character arcs are. because the nuance of both jester and vex is that they are selfish, and they also hold extreme room for self-sacrifice and empathy. vex is much more brash than jester is, and jester is much more trusting than vex, but both of them are characters who begin with selfish impulses who grow with them. neither ever truly shed those impulses, but they use them in new ways, typically transforming them into impulses towards things that are in the best interest of the party. 

you may have noticed the lack of imogen in this post about laura bailey pcs and that's because of two reasons. one, we are an unknown amount of time into her story, i can't analyse her development the same way i can vex and jester's. two, imogen's selfishness isn't the blatant quasi-self-aware selfishness that we see in things like jester complaining about her lack of money to caleb or vex stealing a broom. instead, imogen's is very internal, like a lot of laura's character work with imogen. it is a bit similar to jester’s in the sense that it comes from a lack of awareness moreso than vex’s practiced behaviour, but imogen’s is a lot more tied to inherent beliefs she has about the world and the people in it.

as a consequence of her powers, imogen sees people's thoughts as their entirety, she holds it above their actions to be the truth of who they are - to act against what they think or to say something that doesn’t cohere with what they’ve thought is akin to lying, so for her to act empathetically is to act in tandem with what someone else’s thoughts are, not how they act, which is typically not all that wanted. the same as vex’s greed and jester’s naivety, this is a trait that makes narrative sense and it’s one i find quite compelling, especially when read in the vein of someone struggling through trauma that has made them assume that the world is against them. imogen’s cynicism is coherent cynicism, i can’t say that in a similar situation i wouldn’t have the same predisposition towards the world.

the part that is particularly self-interested comes in if you look at how imogen has actually been treated in the campaign (quite well) in comparison to the cynicism that she’s developed from her past (something that speaks to a world out to get her). certainly, a bunch of shitty things have happened to imogen in the time we’ve known her, but the same can be said for everyone in bell’s hells and pretty much everyone in exandria at this point in time. but, in a fight to save the aforementioned world, imogen’s focus was getting her mother back on her side. which, while very consistent with her character and a choice that i enjoy, is a very selfish one. the fun thing (to me, obviously) about imogen is that she has, more than most, an insight into the opinions of others and she also tends to seek others’ opinions out and genuinely engages with them and supports their choices. but she still very much acts towards what she thinks is best. it’s one reason i enjoy looking at the dynamic between her and orym as one between foils, as orym tends to be stalwart in his beliefs and doesn’t care too much for other’s opinions if he’s already sure of his own, but his actions tend to favour collaboration and protecting others.

as i mentioned earlier, imogen is a harder case to look at because she is still in the process of her story. however, the circlet is clearly influencing how she interacts with the world and in the wake of the solstice, the hostile reaction towards ruidusborn people has started to become more and more apparent and i’m interested to see what route that ends up leading imogen down and how it will influence her relationship with the rest of bell’s hells. (for better, i think, based on recent conversations, but if it's for worse i will be just as seated and excited).

all of this is just to say, please stop assuming that claiming a character has a trait you think is a bad one is criticism or a hate post. in light of the fact that i know that people who don’t believe this will continue to not believe this, i’ll encourage anyone confused about the ability of a character to be good and kind and selfish all at once to look to what the text itself says, specifically scanlan’s words to pelor when asked what vex means to him:

“Her name is Vex, and she is greedy and mean sometimes, and she can steal a lot. She’s a little bit not the greatest person, but her flaws highlight everything that is right about her, which is she does all these things to protect her friends and her family. She would give her life for any of us and for anyone who was truly in need. And she’s not perfect but she’s the most perfect of all of us.”

would you look at that... an ability to be a multitude of things, some in conflict with one another. i know that's hard for fandoms to believe, especially about female characters with agency, but i promise its true!

#deeply unfair of laura to make three characters with some type of people skills and morality shaped by their loneliness #and what. i’m just supposed act like i’m normal about that? #this is me blog and i have slightly more time than usual to write nothing essays about fictional characters that haunt me #but dear god . lookin at cr characters and denying their flaws is like looking at a house and only seeing it’s doors . #if ppl demand perfection of fictional characters im genuinely curious in what media they’ve ever found that . #a single imogen post of mine broke containment and it skyrocketed my annoying phil student levels so. alas #but . if you agree that imogen had an incredibly isolating life . i will emphasize that isolation causes traits and behaviours #that aren’t just Quirky or fun or hot anger or whatever #imogen contains so much i love her so much i am bursting at the seams about it #but for some ppl. she is ur ‘girlfailure’ until someone suggests a way she might be girl failing by being selfinterested #what is the truth. do u want her to be an actual girlfailure it do u just want her to suit a . frankly tired. trope about lesbians #anyway . both text and tag rant over . goodnight #cr meta #imogen temult #vex’ahlia #vex’ahlia de rolo #jester lavorre #critical role #my posts

[captainofthetidesbreath]

It's really fascinating what Kingsley says: "And every now and then, Captain will talk about that fight [with Lucien] but not the other way. And every now and then, Jester will talk about Molly, but it's what you expect from her."

Fjord tells Kingsley about Lucien, and Jester tells Kingsley about Molly, in glowing idealized terms. But, more than that: Fjord also never talks to him about Molly, and apparently Jester doesn't talk about Lucien.

There's a lot implied in that, and it says a lot about the relationships between Fjord and Jester to Lucien and Molly and the hurts, guilts, and pains there. There's something even to be said in Kingsley's understanding of them both in the way that he trusts Fjord's assessment (in tandem with and supported by Caduceus) but understands Jester's view to be rosy.

And I feel like it there's interesting thoughts to muse and wonder about in there. Does Fjord still feel so guilty over Molly's death that he does not wish to speak of it? Does he believe that it is too much pressure to place on Kingsley to speak of Molly? Does Jester dislike talking about Lucien because of the pain he caused her, sometimes by using her and her good will? Does Fjord believe Lucien easy to talk about to Kingsley because he is a cautionary tale? Does Jester find Molly easy to talk about, not just because he was a friend she thought ideally of, but also because she believes him aspirational—better to provide a role model than a warning? How interesting those last two inverses would be together, and what it says about Fjord and Jester and their relationship to Kingsley.

It's just two sentences but there feels to be a lot of interesting dynamics and implications in them, in how Fjord speaks to Kingsley of Lucien but never Molly and Jester speaks to him about Molly but apparently never Lucien, in the inverses there and how they settle against the five characters involved and that web of dynamics.

#Critical Role #CR spoilers #Critical Role things #cr meta #Mighty Nein Reunited #Kingsley Tealeaf #Fjord #Fjord CR #Fjord Stone #Jester Lavorre

[sparring-spirals]

one of your posts about imogen's relationship to the rock and the murkiness around its effects, intentions and purpose made my brain make (vague) parallels to the traveler being the most potent source of comfort for jester and how they probably share a similar fear of it being taken from them - against their will - or being judged, if not doubted, for their deep attachment to an entity they just have to believe is worth it, all of it. alright time for bed! hope you're doing well

(the gem meta, for context)

Thank you! Hope youre doing well too, sleep is VERY important. As someone who should be doing it more, I approve.

This is interesting, and not something I'd thought about before! Hmmmm.

OKAY, i got a little rambly below. So my tl'dr take: Maybe something about two characters who, for an extended period of time, were trapped in situations where they had little to no agency, getting a source of power/affirmation that. Gave them a sense of agency. And the resulting fear that comes from losing that/defensiveness over it being questioned.

This is particularly interesting because I think Imogen and Jester are, very very different characters. In what they prioritize, how they operate, what they fear, what drives them. (Not to repeat TOO much of my old offense/defense characterization meta, although I still stand by it). But the comparison still stands.

(I also think this definitely applies more for early campaign Jester, which makes sense because right now we still only have early campaign Imogen!)

Anyway, to massively oversimplify it and speculate wildly, I do think it might be related to the thoroughline of characters who were trapped in... unpleasant situations with no agency. That developed a relationship or a source of power that gave them agency, and control, where they had none/very little.

And so of course, then, there is a defensiveness, when it is doubted, when there is a threat of taking it away. It is not just about the loss or skepticism about that deity or entity or a Fucking Rock, it is about How They Represent agency and control, and the threat of losing that, and the thought of returning to a relative state of powerlessness.

(Off of the top of my head- Jester, alone in a hotel room for the first time again, immediately drawing on the Traveler. Imogen, talking about how the gem appeared and for the first time, she did something different and she didn't die. Just. Yknow.)

THIS IS ALSO NOT SAYING THE TRAVELER AND THE GEM ARE THE SAME. Artie is, you know. Artie. He loves Jester in that fae way, etc etc. This is specifically a speculation about Imogen, and Jester, and their handling and reactions in this particular context. I'm not hating on Artagan, infuriating mai tai touting menace he is. <3

#this was a FANTASTIC observation thank you. very interesting. *lovingly adds it to my jester/imogen analysis venn diagram* #(i dont actually have one but maybe i should make one) #critical role #jester lavorre #imogen temult #character meta #speculation #c2 #c3 #gem meta #my meta #imogen meta #jester meta #i fully forgot how to tag this sorry #spar speaks #ask away! #this is all just handwavey thoughts of course

[lavenoon]

Hope is a difficult thing. You have to choose it again and again and again, and fight for it when you most want to give it up.

I think Eclipse has earned a break

@naffeclipse I felt bad about yesterday's bit leaving Eclipse to think I only like him for his height so I had to fix it

self insert is not a girl (he/she)

og detective au by sunnys-aesthetic!

#post let luce #dcamv #sleuth jesters #bloodstain fool #naffeclipse #my art #look ik the blanket thing is literally what I came up with and made him do #but it's about the continuity and I can hardly stuff my brainrot in this when my SI is not supposed to have meta knowledge #Eclipse as bounty hunter tries so hard and doesnt even believe in it at first #he does it to not lose his brothers #but he continues and continues and continues trying #and that's what's appealing to me about him #change is hard and hope is harder #but he does it anyway #because he cares #even if he cant admit it #so yes. im normal #enjoy <3 #cw blood #lil bit but yknow #menace4menace

[carldoonan]

Li’l Poyos (Part 2)

#Kirby #Poyo #Marx #Gooey #Adeleine #Ribbon #Dark Meta Knight #Daroach #Spinni #Storo #Doc #Squeak Squad #Jester #Fairy #Mouse #Nintendo #Fanart #Carl Doonan Art #Li'l Poyos

[noose-lion]

Maybe it was just my childhood special interest in martial arts and combat, but the bsd fandom drives me absolutely crazy on how they talk about the characters.

Specifically in combat abilities, fighting 'stats', body builds, ect. ect.

I mostly blame the anime, because it made everyone into twigs, but still. Some of my fellow fans out there are sometimes outright drawing lines over a character in a manga panel and going 'Look at this snatched waist' all the while ignoring basic perspective and forshortening rules. Chuuya is victim to this a fuckton.

For a starting example I'll talk about Kunikida. (Because if I start with Dazai or Chuuya I'll get the "He's petite it's not a crime to call him that" hecklers again).

Because remember folks, no need to get heated about fictional characters that were made up to tell a story.

Kunikida is a martial artist. He has a strong center of gravity, and a great deal of muscle mass. He's shown, (even in the anime mind you), to be competent against opponents who have both the height and mass advantage (that one time he swapped with Dazai mid fight, doing the cool grappling hook switch thing). He's a tall guy and he's drawn in the main manga as very broad shouldered and thick limbed. He's your average combat driven male. Built like a boxer.

He's not really the main talking point I see though. He's usually never called petite or delicate or any of the, quite frankly, ridiculous descriptors for a man of his size and build. It's usually Chuuya and in extension Dazai.

First off, ripping the bandaid off quick and easy. Chuuya isn't petite. (Sure technically petite only means short, but ancient also technically only means old. It's about the connotation.)

Chuuya is also a martial artist. Unlike Kunikida, who relies heavily on grappling technique and using his opponents own momentum and mass against them (a defensive fighter) Chuuya is almost purely offensive (most defense being left to his ability). His center of gravity is less stagnate, more fluid. He's acts quickly, crushing his opponent with efficient and well calculated brute force. Chuuya's body build reflects this. He's got a strong torso and thick limbs, strong shoulders that are lined with cords of muscle that absorb the impact of his attacks. He uses his legs a lot, kicks and jumps, and there is muscle concentration in his thighs and calves as a result. In the main manga, he's drawn with a lean torso, broader shoulders and thicker thighs. He's got a baseball player or a mixed martial artist build. (Broad shoulders and large thighs paired with his choice of suit cut is what creates his 'hourglass figure' so many of yall are obsessed with.)

Second bandaid I'm ripping off. Dazai isn't weak or delicate or whatever, but he is not buff or a tank either. And against men built for combat like Kunikida and Chuuya he's at a fairly large disadvantage.

Most of the athletic ability we've seen Dazai exhibit is evasion based. In the main manga he's drawn broad shouldered and thin, usually cloaked by his coat. Dazai has lean, muscle concentration in his shoulders, upper back and core. He doesn't have the thicker limbs of a boxer or martial artist. He better resembles a swimmer, gymnast, or even rock climber. He's not a stick, as flat as he may be. He's also probably a good deal softer then his martial artist counterparts, not living the stricter healthy life style most martial artist adhere to. Dazai doesn't do well against large heavily muscled opponents, he just doesn't have the needed mass for it. If he doesn't get the upperhand quickly he will loose. Evident in how he struggled so much against that one guy he did the cool grappling hook swap thing with Kunikida.

All this to say, almost every individual in bsd is built for their combat filled life, specialized to fit their fighting styles. It's not a big deal, but I find such thinking and analysis fun.

#inkedmyheart's recent post had me once more thinking on this #bsd #my stuff #screaming into the void #and the void screams back #bungou stray dogs #bungou gay dogs #bsd kunikida #kunikida doppo #bsd chuuya #chuuya nakahara #dazai osamu #bsd dazai #soukoku #jester thinks #bsd meta #bsd analysis #bsd headcanon #bsd headcanons

[ludinusdaleth]

do yall ever think about jester & ludinus's relationship. something we dont see too much of, but when we do, it's hysterical and, honestly, lowkey jaw dropping? jester completely, visibly shocks him, the 1,000+ year old martinet valued for his stoicism, upon their first meetings - "it's entirely off-putting how disarmingly charming you are. i genuinely do not know how to react. take that as a compliment." she shouts for him to join the nein for breakfast in front of an entire breakfast bar. she begs him for pastries at every meeting and he obliges. she includes sprinkle in the m9 roster and he dryly accepts it in front of the entire dwendallian war room. she tries to convince him leylas is in love with fjord and to enact war negotiations at a volcano. she's surprised ludinus is a villain to the point she barely believes the rest of the nein about him. she thinks hes "SO nice" and "kinda stupid, kinda sweet". she assumes he likes her. please add to all this the context of jester believing in artagan, a fey, so hard he nearly ascended - a series of words so perfectly designed to make ludinus flinch, and the way arti's near-ascension is set up as precursor to the factorum malleus and the aeorians (and athodan's) intense belief mortals create gods. what the fuck

#jester lavorre #artagan #ludinus da'leth #campaign 2 #long post #leylas kryn #critical role #critical role meta

[tyrannuspitch]

i realised recently that i should probably clarify this, since not everyone has been reading my blog like the morning paper for two years, so:

when i compare loki to a jester, clown, or similar, it's not an insult, not even an affectionate one. i'm not calling him stupid, ridiculous, bumbling, inept, or anything along those lines; and it's not in reference to the post-TDW characterisation people often describe very unaffectionately in those terms. i'm actually saying he IS clever, calculating, and extremely deliberate in his self-presentation, because i'm calling him a performer.

this comparison originally grew out of the idea that, in less acute crisis situations, pre-canon loki might have been a kind of "class clown" to his peer group. and what i mean by class clown, specifically, is: an outsider and misfit who tries to disguise and compensate for their poor social standing by entertaining others, whether through humour or other attention-seeking stunts/performances.

there are two major pieces of evidence for this being true of loki.

the first is in T1, on the bifrost, before jotunheim. this is a brief moment, but it's still a significant one. for the first time, we see loki stepping to the front of a group, smiling, preening, and asking for attention. he practically says, "watch this."

the second is in TDW, after thor springs loki from jail. this one is emotionally messy, because (IMO) loki is not just trying to get thor's attention or approval, he's probing him, trying to work out what he's feeling - but there is still a very needy undertone to it. loki's been alone for so long and he doesn't know if he has any relationship with thor to salvage; he needs to make thor laugh or smile or even roll his eyes affectionately just to know that he still can. and so, again, he is suddenly and surprisingly taking centre stage - literally walking backwards in front of thor to make himself impossible to ignore.

between these two moments, we see loki trying to soothe his insecurity through many kinds of performance - humour and magic and even deliberate displays of manipulation/deceit. i think it makes a lot of sense for his character if you assume this is a long-standing habit.

for one thing, the mind games we see from him are often just an inversion of this - acting deliberately sinister or dangerous in order to elicit a particular negative response in his audience. for another, it really resonates with the double meaning of "tricks" - loki is not just disparaged for "tricking people", as in dishonour and deceit, but for "doing tricks", like a travelling entertainer - like someone of much lower status than a prince.

(and then we get into the servant side of the jester comparison, which is very much its own can of worms.)

#space viking tag #meta #ch: loki #s: t1 #s: t2 #th: jester loki