Liveblog Sideblog

Live-Laugh-Loveblog Nah but seriously I got tired of cluttering my main @incandescent-creativity. Icon by @kaiclye

[incandescent-liveblogs]

Things I Will Someday Watch and Talk About:

• adventure time (never seen it)

• ouran high school host club (rewatch)

• ghibli movies (various; e.g. Monoke)

• legend of korra (never seen it)

• yes I am open to suggestions. I haven’t seen a lot of things so! Send em if you got em.

Things I Am Talking About Now:

• Critical Role, too, every Thursday

• The Magnus Protocol, also every Thursday

Things I Have Talked About Before

• Time to Orbit: Unknown (read here)

• The Last of Us (show)

• His Dark Materials (show, post-reading them)

• Outlander series (show and novel)

• infinity train

• studio Ghibli: howls moving castle,

• Stardew Valley: Expanded

• Amphibia

• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

• Hilda

—

NOTE: spoilers are hardly ever tagged on this blog. I liveblog here. You know what you’re getting into.

[bastardash]

Bolaire's extreme act of vulnerability was also a performance. Yes he put his life in Hal's hands, but it was a calculated risk. He is still wrapping the truth up in lies.

"Oh my dear sweet friend I want you to see my true face. I want you to really know me, and if you decide to cast me aside I will understand. All of this is about my survival you see."

But also, we can assume he wanted the body dead first so Hal wouldn't talk to him. We know he could feed and care for his hosts but chooses not to. We know he knows about the compulsion to put him on that he did not warn Hal about. Bolaire might be testing the waters, but he's still not actually being honest. I don't even know if he's lying to himself or not. Has he completely bought into his own bullshit? I'm not sure!

I do think he wants Hal to know him to an extent, but he also knows if Hal is fully throwing himself into the underbelly of Dol-Makjar he would find out the truth eventually. Bolaire wants Hal to know him on his terms. He's giving him a good story to satisfy Hal's curiosity, and to try and keep him on his side. He seemingly went all in while still keeping the worst of it away from Hal.

If Hal had put Bolaire on his bluff would have been called. No way he lets Hal die slowly. No way he doesn't let Hal take him off. I don't even think he has to keep his host's consciousness in a black box, but he has been literally compartmentalizing this whole time. It would have been super interesting to see Hal even momentarily put Bolaire on. Bolaire would have had to start reckoning with what he has actually been doing, and Hal would have learned what all the people Bolaire has killed over the years have experienced.

Right now Bolaire is the vampire trying to be invited into the house. He's a weapon of war trying to be a person. He's putting on a show for himself and everyone around him. He is being as honest as he can and it's still a lie.

[aro-screams-into-the-void]

i need popcorn for this conversation

[incandescent-liveblogs]

“I appreciate your honesty. As much as we can get.”

That’s. Surprisingly diplomatic from Julien.

[incandescent-liveblogs]

My friends and I had wildly different interpretations of Vaelus’s comment so

Vaelus asking Occtis if he needs “a whole body” means she was thinking about

her dead god

Thjazi Fang

Voting ended onOct 24, 2025

[incandescent-liveblogs]

Tansul alone wished the psychopomps of his domain should be bequeathed to humans. Intriguing.

[potatoesandsunshine]

professor do not talk to any halovars they'll kill you

[critrolenation]

what was the text of the prophecy and some of the details pls

[incandescent-liveblogs]

“When the Sword of Sparrows is raised by the Son of Mercy than the reign of the bloody king will be ended and the sun return.”

[trailertrashgrog]

aramán timeline

4,518 years: the length of time, until the shaper's war, that the people of aramán were under the rule of the shapers. (basically the before common era of the aramán calendar)

71 years ago: the shaper's war ends. the shapers are killed. the final shaper to die is the elven goddess of life/nature. Year 0 on the aramán calendar. only bolaire and vaelus were alive during this time, of the PCs

26 years ago: the war of axe and vine. thjazi (15) saves the life of julien's cousin. halandil (20/21) also fought in this conflict. this was around when thaisha and hal's children were born. all PCs except occtis and tyranny are alive at this point, but azune, julien and wick are toddler aged or younger. the nation of timmony is founded in the aftermath.

~19 years ago: thjazi and aranessa get married

~17 years ago: the falconer's rebellion begins

15 years ago: ulbid morn's daughters join the rebellion

~12 years ago: the falconer's rebellion ends

8 years ago: faerie is struck violently by death (the realm of tachonis) and shuts the doors between the mortal realm, trapping fey and fey connected people and causing them to begin aging naturally

7 years ago: kattigan takes in wulferic

5 years ago: occtis begins attending school at the penteveral

some months ago: thaisha and occtis head out traveling to find the psychopomp's coffin, thjazi and thimble steal the stone of nightsong.

2 weeks ago: thjazi fang is arrested and sentenced to death.

things on the timeline that are still ambiguous: how long the war of axe and vine or the shaper's war lasted, when thaisha left dol makjar (more than 19 but less than 25 years ago), when azune was given to the torn banner (he was 15 in a flashback where he's fighting but he had been with the torn banner for "years" before that.)

campaign timeline, year 71:

day 1: thjazi is executed, the funeral is held. thimble nearly dies because of casimir, cyd is chased out of town, thaisha almost dies from a mask that bolaire and murray spend all night agonizing over.

day 2: the soldiers are forced to leave town in the night after teor is almost killed by the halovars. occtis is killed by his family and house davinos is slaughtered

day 3: the schemers are here. the seekers left early this morning. the revolutionary guard has been dismissed and dean cora has taken over and the strange royce party is happening while the schemers are at the bar.

the soldiers have been traveling a little over a week as of episode 11. (two days in the woods, one day to sloak with a rest beforehand, spending a couple of days on the miller's road and then stopping outside of gormalay for the night at the end of the arc)

the seekers have been on the road for three days when we meet them in episode 11.

[iwilltryalittlearter]

Childhood trauma

[thechekhov]

Overall thoughts:

I really liked it! I was apprehensive, I must admit. I don't like changes to stories, typically, and I was/am heavily invested in seeing the M9 storyline done the way I remember the campaign going. There are scenes I want to see, things I NEED to witness animated.

But from what I've seen in this singular episode... they are not so much changing things as they are simply nudging them together to tie into each other more neatly. I really think having Beau becoming entangled with the Beacon mystery this early not only makes narrative sense, but it gives her more of a push to come into the fold, given her nature. Caleb and Nott's pre-campaign meeting is also incredible at demonstrating their personalities, more or less, and giving slight glimpses into their backstories.

And honestly, this is just GOOD. I love the music, I love that they incorporated the Wildemount theme into the opening. I love the Kryn designs and the lore.

I have some questions about the changed they may have made to the mechanics of consecution, given the way it's been presented so far (in the opening as well as the final scene) but I will hold off on judgement. Especially because I can kinda already tell that it might be too complex to pull the story together without those changes.

I'll try to keep liveblogging - so long as I'm able to, between my other responsibilities!

[captainofthetidesbreath]

I keep thinking about the things it says that the elves made an arrow to kill Sylandri. a single arrow. one. no others. no extras. no back-ups. not even a special bow to accompany that sole, lone, solitary arrow. just the arrow. the one (1) arrow.

[incandescent-liveblogs]

Occtis this Occtis that what about that Bolaire lore, hello—

[revvethasmythh]

you can't just say "i bear your house no ill will" after pulling a man's skull out of his head and causing his brain to fall down his throat. you can't just say that. the will feels ill after you've done that, is the thing

[kiwimintlime]

The orcs wanted to be free. And they deserved to be free. They served an unjust god who unfairly subjugated them. And so they freed themselves at the cost of their god's life. And in doing so they opened a floodgate of revolution they did not intend to. The gods made their choice and mortals responded in kind. The gods were slayed, the world was freed, and not even a century later the underworld is so packed full of souls its impact can be felt across realms and worlds.

Sometimes you do the right thing and the world is a worse place for it.

[incandescent-liveblogs]

My friends and I had wildly different interpretations of Vaelus’s comment so

Vaelus asking Occtis if he needs “a whole body” means she was thinking about

her dead god

Thjazi Fang

Voting ended onOct 24, 2025

[potatoesandsunshine]

there is such a sense of violation in this. you put it on my body. you put it into my face. and you want me to just accept it. you want me to THANK you. and even worse, you want me to just GET OVER IT.