going as long as possible with Astarion as your only party member (and playing dark urge) is probably one of the funniest early-game experiences there is
Imagine: random chance frees you from 200 years of slavery and you team up with this random, extremely bad vibes stranger for "protection," except each of you is completely convinced the other might kill you in your sleep (one of you has horrifyingly worrying intrusive thoughts and the other has already pulled a knife at least once). You dont have 20 strength between you. You can barely protect each other but at least this random freak is SOMEONE and you need SOMEONE or Cazador will find you and grab you. So you attach yourself at the hip and try to ignore the way this strange amnesiac mutters "blood" to himself when he thinks you're not listening
and OK, you think, the other guy hasn't killed me yet and he definitely has had ample opportunity, but you're SO THIRSTY and neither of you have slept through the night yet because you're too busy keeping watch on one another, so maybe he's finally tired enough that you can just take a little bite while he's--oh shit
I spent three days like this. It was a delightful little interlude and everyone should try it
When Guillermo said in the first episode that he was pausing so that the documentary crew could insert a clip of every nice thing Nandor had done for him. That was it. That was the whole season, the clip was the whole of season 5.
but like imagine being a closeted gay teen and looking at this annoying white boy every day like. I hate u I hate u I hate u I'm killing u with my mind I hate u I hate u. and then suddenly that's your ride or die bestie. u refuse to get hired anywhere without him. he's got a pinboard titled "gay evidence" reassuring u that yes your girl crush DOES like boobies she is so in love with u I swear. full detective mode bc he wants u to kiss a girl. amazing incredible 10/10
i vote that next year instead of reading Dracula we do a Jeeves & Wooster Book Club. those two never got the rabid tumblr shipping fandom they deserved (disqualified for the sheer technicality of being published a century too soon). we must correct this injustice
one thing abt thalia and percy's dynamic that is often overlooked is that percy was punished for the same things thalia was rewarded for. there's a prophecy abt one of the big three kids? percy is treated like a liar and thief and ppl refuse to talk to him. thalia? everyone respects her (including gods!) and assumes she'll do a great job saving the world. thalia is accepted immediately at camp and threatens the place percy spent two years proving he deserves. percy wants to go on a quest to save his friend? he's an attention seeker and glory stealer. thalia? well, she's the obvious choice. thalia comes up w a plan to win capture the flag that's basically "leave everything to me" and percy comes up with a plan that's basically "if you see a good opportunity, go for it," but percy is viewed as the control freak.
what i'm saying is percy had every reason to resent thalia and he didn't. he chose not to. and thalia had every reason to look down on percy and didn't.
even when they were fighting, i never saw it as a power struggle. they were being pit against each other, and instead of doing what everyone expected them to (kronos was fully expecting thalia to kill percy), they chose to love and respect each other. because they're not their parents. they're just two kids who started cracking under the pressure but refused to break.