I was quiet about my dearly beloved Molly all season because I was in a personal torment nexus but more importantly!! I wanted to wait to see what they did with him first and give them a chance before I put all my Emotions into "why didn't they do this" and "why did they do that" and also to steel myself before the inevitable happens
but it didn't! haha take that fate...... i really thought the derogna stuff was gonna be it but phew we get another season of him
but okay yeah so I LOVE HIM, HE'S PERFECT???
he's so full of shit and funny and quippy and cute and sooo kind and supportive wtf but also the MASKS... we get to see the façade fall apart when he's alone, and that's the only time we get to see him vulnerable and anxious 🥺💜 i love him sfm
AND THE BACKSTORY TRAUMA THEY GAVE HIM... bless. i love putting blorbies through it in fic so seeing it in show was so good lmao
but no fr though it adds more layers and depth to him. loved seeing him get angry about it all, he deserves that
and the parallels with him and Caleb and Essek. brrrrrrrrr fuck... losing your family, losing everything, and seeking softness and home and love elsewhere
(dgms on swm lmao I'll be insufferable)
but they're setting up the forehead kiss so nicely... it's so important!! and that's going to translate all the way to essek
but all the points of connection with Caleb!!! "that went well" smirk smile.... stopping him from touching the rift (which... wtf was going on there??) and comforting Caleb after he woke from the ptsd attack he had, "not Lucien" flirty smirk - i love them sfm aaaa 🥰
like they're throwing widomauk croutons at us (not just crumbs) and I will eat every single one!!!
and the magical girl lucien nonagon blood hunter stuff? gurl what the fresh FUCK is going on. I'm obsessed with whatever the fuck they're doing because we didn't get much of a connection between him and Lucien and didn't get to hear from him about him at all
ALSO the Molly storyline Matt said they missed in Zadash in campaign with the Tombtakers!!! now is your chance matthew!!! that's the vibe I'm getting, they're doing all of that and the Lucien mind control stuff here and I'm FERAL about it. incredible energy. the look on his face after he killed gustav was fucking chef's kiss. heartbreaking
and we still haven't heard from him about what he's feeling and thinking about all of that. it's clearly weighing heavily on him, but how much does he know? how much is he in denial about and how much is he running away from?? does he know he was dead??? did he also climb out the grave in this series?? is it just amnesia?? I NEED TO KNOW!!!
one thing I didn't like was that he seems to not know yasha because circus kids and their backstory was so important to meeeee. but also next season when they meet we'll get to see their relationship develop on screen! 🥰🥰🥰
but we do get to see so much of his budding relationships with the m9 individually.... like him and nott and jessie are so cute pls. and his bitchy siblings relationship with beau, obsessed. also don't think i didn't see him hold fjord when he was poisoned and passed out, and later pat him on the tit in his ridiculous ball outfit. LOL fjolly beloved... but yeah setting him up as the heart of the group, the emotional glue between them... ough 🥺💜
overall I'm SOOO happy with him and what they're doing with him. we get to see so much more from him wrt his backstory, his powers, relationships... just capitalizing on so much lost potential from the campaign and I LOVE IT. I feel so fed after a long molly drought and it's faaantastic 🥰💜
how sick is this Kryn armor design tho. I really like how, within the boundaries of what was feasible for animation, they developed a distinctly chitinous insect-like style per the canonical description, including the noises when the soldiers move. the split cape even looks like bug wings. 10/10
will die on the hill of “dead dove: do not eat” DOES NOT MEAN “there are various unspecified things in here that might disturb you, so be warned”
it means “i know the contents of this bag (a dead dove) may be upsetting, so i have labeled the outside very clearly with what is inside (a dead dove), and if you look inside, you should not be surprised to find a dead dove, because that’s what the label very explicitly says is inside the bag”
i realize this is a losing battle because enough people have made it mean the other thing as to make the tag totally useless, but seeing people argue over what it should mean gives me a headache because it literally could not be clearer
And we're finished with my latest undertaking! This was easily the hardest batch of CR HeroForges I've ever done; Wick, Tyranny, and Thaisha in particular were quite the task, given the complexity of their outfits. Others were much more simple (Thimble, Hal, and Bolaire, for example). But it was a lot of fun, especially once I realized that certain members of the cast (Matt most notably, as well as Luis, Ashley, and possibly Liam, Taliesin, and Marisha too) absolutely designed their characters in HeroForge as reference for the official illustrations* XD In some of those cases, I matched their choices, but in others (Matt) I didn't because they chose older items that don't match well with the newer, more detailed items that HF has implemented in recent years. I'll put some comparisons below the cut, because I think they're fun XD some other bonus images down there as well!
Also, I skipped making Wulfric for now because these thirteen (plus Pin) were enough work and frankly I didn't feel like kitbashing everything that Wulfric needs onto a HeroForge wolf currently. Maybe I'll make him later on, we'll see.
*I just want to make it clear this is not a judgment on anyone, cast or the official artists. HF is what I primarily use for character designing these days and it's the first thing I grab as reference when I'm getting commissions of said characters. Just clarifying since this is the piss on the poor website and I don't want anyone getting mad at me for noticing this.
Bonus 1: a to-scale Thimble and Kattigan, with Thimble sized as far down as HF allows with kitbash settings
Bonus 2: the Candescent Creed Crew together
Bonus 3: comparison between Julien's official art and certain items in HeroForge
Bonus 4: comparison between Azune's official art and certain items in HeroForge
Okay I'm chewing on Bolaire and everything that went down in the archive and I wanna try and put it into words.
Firstly, I love how we're seeing Thjazi through so many different lenses, I love the fractal pieces of his character that are coming into existence. And looking at the intensity of emotion that Bolaire exhibited during that conversation (specifically in regards to Hal, which we'll get to) it seems to me that while Thjazi definitely had a strong distaste for Bolaire, the way it impacted Bolaire was significantly more potent and he took it much more personally than Thjazi might have intended. Because Bolaire is very clearly lacking in experience when it comes to person-to-person connects! I think it's really important that he specified that the first time he had independent thought, free from the conditions of his creation during the Shaper's War, was only about twelve or thirteen years ago during the Falconer's Rebellion. The mask is almost a century old, but Bolaire, the person, the persona, the personality? He's only about a decade old, and I think that distinction plays in important role in how he experiences emotion and reacts to people are him. Hal was the first person that he ever connected with, that ever showed him friendship, and to have Thjazi swoop in and force a wedge between them? I'm not sure he knew exactly how to process that rejection and how badly it hurt and so it morphed into this perception of Thjazi where he disdained him and thought of him as nothing more than an object, a tool, a means to an end.
I also wonder if the fact that Bolaire was created as a mask specifically for use in theater has an impact on his emotional states and the intensity with which he feels. The purpose of his creation seeping into the personality he's crafted for himself even as he tries to distance himself from it.
As for Hal... it is very clear to me that Bolaire is fixated on him to a degree that is not entirely healthy. I semi-joked about it in conversation with my friends, but I think there's a real possibility that Taliesin is drawing in some elements of the dangers of parasocial relationships and idolizing creatives. There is a real friendship there and I do think that Bolaire genuinely cares of Hal and his family, but there's a layer of obsession there that could become very dangerous.
Of course, there is very much the possibility that Bolaire was lying for most of that conversation. He certainly was for some, I don't see Taliesin wasting that nat20/nat1 combo, but we really need to learn more about his personal motivations before I'm able to pinpoint where on that scale he is. As it stands, I am very uncertain as to why he would potentially want to sway Hal to a more negative view of Thjazi or ingratiate himself further by emphasizing the importance of Hal and his family. Hal clearly has a very nuanced view of his brother already, since he didn't react negatively to the idea of Thjazi engaging in blackmail, so I don't see anything Bolaire said tipping those scales, and Bolaire is already a very trusted friend of Hal and his family given his behavior at the funeral. We simply don't know enough about what he wants, presently, to make a solid determination of his motives in that conversation.
As it stands right now, I am inclined to believe the over-arching beats of his story, with the context that anything about Thjazi is likely heavily colored by an out-sized emotional reaction that has led to years long resentment. I don't trust him, there is absolutely more going on beneath the surface, but until we get under that surface, I'll play along with his story.
TLDR: Bolaire has only been conscious for a little over a decade and he can’t regulate his emotions for shit and that has significantly colored his perception of Thjazi.
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