so another thing i’ve really really appreciated on the cr rewatch probably goes without saying since 60-70% of my stuff is scanlan related, buuuuut
i really still love and appreciate the very slow burn way sam played scanlan’s breakdown and crisis of conscious about his role as a person and his relationships to the group and to his daughter.
it really was a slow turn from mostly his normal carefree/apathetic approach to life and battle to a more irritated and impatient attitude about what they’re doing, increasingly contradictory in planning. he got more nervous and doubtful in moments he wouldn’t have hesitated on before. and then around the time of the trip to ank’harel and back, more bitter and self isolating interactions seeped through his facade.
and he played most of those beats for comedy because you can get away with a lot when you encourage people to laugh at you. some comment that seems strangely hostile or unusually worried can just slide away. he directed them to not care about his troubles because he didn’t want to have or acknowledge those troubles himself.
some highlights in moments of scanlan quietly revealing his fears without acknowledging them:
writing his “will” to pike
when he switched armor with vex before the fight with umbrasyl she asked if he was planning to get up close in the fight he said (i’m not looking this up for absolute accuracy fuck that) “i don’t think my part of the plan is any more stupid than what the rest of you come up with” and then about switching back with her “and if my plan doesn’t work you can peel it off my dead body.”
saying to pike about kaylie “all i’ve ever wanted is for someone to care about me and i have that now”
saying to kaylie about pike and possibly by extension vm “she’s not my family and never will be”
constantly worrying about the passage of time and trying to fit more activities in one day when they were in the feywild to get out of there asap
to percy, “i’m don’t want to be haunted! that’s for you and vax!” a joke and a lie.
actively looking for drugs
a lot of starting to be obstinate and passive aggressive during simple requests. one that got a big laugh in ank’harel stands out– percy asks if he has a mending spell after fighting the cerulian golem, and scan shrugs and says “no. you’re on your own fuckface”
this is also about when he started doing a lot of deliberately terrible quote readings and dirty limericks and yo momma jokes for his bardic inspirations which i absolutely believe was a display of passive aggression
being stressed out about spell slots. started out with dealing out healing with a sigh and ending with lying about how he couldn’t give them the mansion before the raishan fight bc he used his spell slot to modify jarett’s memory– “i used it in battle fuck off”
taking thousands of platinum in thordak’s lair and looking around like he was daring anyone to question that decision. (that was i’m about to ditch this life money for sure.)
the entirety of ep 81. every single thing scanlan said in ep 81 was exhausted and hostile and alienating.
also this spaced out over about 50 episodes jfc. for a guy who could never remember basic facts about his abilities– invisibility is not greater invisibility– sam played his long game pretty well.
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