I have to say, Lord Occtis Tachonis has an incredible aesthetic. This style is so new to me but I had the best time drawing it! (Round of applause for the 1-2-THREE RIBCAGES I HAVE LEARNED TO DRAW, pls 💀).
Part 1/14 of my @critical_role Campaign 4 series! Inspired by the Dragon Age tarot cards. Occtis has been an absolute delight this campaign I totally get why he’s a fan favorite. 🖤💜💚
Now, I’m not following the official tarot decks, but for funsies which Major Arcana do you reckon he’d be?
Not enough people are talking about the fact that Occtis was one CON save away from being completely destroyed after the Stone of Nightsong was smashed. Once more, we praise Alex's warlockian dice luck for the high roll BUT HE WAS ONE BAD ROLL AWAY FROM DYING INSTANTLY.
I am going to be fiending for the new tension that exists between him and Vaelus now going forward.
I've been thinking about this off and on ever since I rewatched FHJY, that when Brennan has had the opportunity to make commentary on sorcery versus wizardry as a concept, he has consistently found sorcery to be wanting. When we first meet Jace Stardiamond in Fantasy High, he's mainly mentioned offhand as the sorcery teacher whose classes are really laid-back compared to everyone else because sorcery is innate and most of the time they're just "hanging out and talking about how easy and fun magic is". In the final battle, he's pitted against divination wizard Adaine and complains that wizards think they're better just because they "understand the principles that are at work"; when Adaine points out that he could have taken a level in wizard, he admits that he tried and couldn't do it. In C4 E17, Occtis recalls a conversation with Primus where he was told that "effortlessness accompanies pure workings of will" and he hopes Occtis will find some, and later on Occtis's successful investigation check, Brennan narrates that he observes that great magic does not come at the pronouncement of a ruler but is based on principles that describe cause and effect.
I don't think it's that Brennan just flat-out hates sorcerers; he's DM'd for several great sorcerers, including on Critical Role and in this campaign. But it is interesting that FHJY and Campaign 4 both have thematic elements of what people are willing to work for versus what they believe is owed to them. Kipperlilly Copperkettle, and to a lesser extent the other Rat Grinders, believe that it simply isn't fair that the Bad Kids are getting recognition that the Rat Grinders are not, and have at no point considered that they're wasting their time killing rats—or, as we learn later, having a more experienced adventurer kill most of a real monster for them—so they can do the bare minimum of gaining EXP, as opposed to being curious enough about their world to engage with it and accomplish something meaningful. They are angry that recognition requires work that is genuinely difficult, and Jace Stardiamond is one of the teachers who exploits that anger. House Tachonis, meanwhile, approaches it from the top down: they didn't have to work to obtain or use magic, and they consider it a mockery of their gifts that other people would try. To them, not having to work at all is the virtue, and they are offended not only by the Penteveral attempting to teach magic, but also by the idea that a member of their family would not remain unquestionably loyal to them, never considering that someone they mistreated might not view the name alone as a gift.
And then he all but looked down the barrel of the camera when he said that prizing effortlessness is "fucking stupid".
listening to a man break up with his partner on the train and the first sentence I heard was "I just don't appreciate you cheating on me six different times, once with my own father."
Unfortunately, I tried Heated Rivalry and the ace ick hit me like a brick wall. I believe everyone who says that it gets better, but I personally need at least two episodes of yearning before I gotta cringe through any horny successfully.
I'll probs try again later but so far, it just wasn't for me ;;
Normally I avoid fandom discourse like the plague because I feel a lot of it can and should be avoided if more people learned the age-old rule of 'block and scroll on' when it comes to content you don't want to see. Simple. Easy.
However, I saw someone the other day say that Invisigal was 'm*nor coded' due to how immature some of her actions read as to them and that? Not fucking okay. I won't tag them because they don't deserve the clout, but let me come on here to say why these sorts of statements are harmful and add absolutely nothing to the discussion.
Disclaimer, I love Invisigal and Blonde Blazer equally and this is not meant to be a A vs B post. I have also been professionally dx'd with ADHD and Autism just over a year ago so I have some credit to this post. I will also be briefly discussing the locker room scene so if that makes you uncomfy, refer above to the golden age fandom rule; scroll the fuck away and leave it.
The Beef:
Invisigal/Courtney has ADHD. It's been explicitly stated in the game and substantiated by several qualities I observed as an ADHDer:
Impulsive decision making
Tangental dialogue
Dopamine-seeking, usually through substances like nicotine, sweets, etc. but also through praise aka a job well done
Hypersexuality; due to how neurotransmitters work in the ADHD brain, this shows up as either a need for stimulation or escapism depending on the person. For Visi, I see this as a bit of both
Restlessness
We don't know a lot about Visi's background prior to her joining Shroud's gang to get the lung augment, but I imagine that she was unsupported/self-diagnosed for the longest time, which, speaking from experience, can be traumatizing without that lifelong support. It takes ages to unlearn destructive habits that may have developed over that time. Hence why Visi struggles in part with her compulsive actions and behavior paired with nicotine abuse.
Calling Visi m*nor coded is not only problematic in and of itself, seeing that she's 27 years old, but also borders on being abelist. Now, disclaimer, having ADHD does not excuse poor behavior, especially as an adult. But it does make it significantly harder to manage, especially if you grew up without a proper support system with the disorder. I remember many times growing up that I was called immature, melodramatic, childish, etc, even as a grown adult, which felt like I was either being infantilized or disregarded because I had a harder time controlling my impulses. Especially because at the time, I had no idea that there was anything wrong with me, I was just acting as myself in those moments.
If I had to make an educated guess, Visi has the inattentive variant of ADHD, which shows as heightened restlessness and impulsivity, whereas I have the combined type. That restlessness can often feel physically painful for me when I'm disregulated, to the point where I can't sit still and every little thing starts to irritate me. Even those I consider close friends/family. Imagine feeling millions of tiny critters crawling up along your nerves, telling your body it's time to move and do SOMETHING but you don't know what it is.
Then take that feeling and add that on top of an asthmatic reformed super-villain with a boatload of trauma and baggage. Her anger issues seem a lot less 'cute' now, don't they?
Now, the locker room scene. Was it the best choice she could have made in that moment? Absolutley fucking not, it was uncomfortable and messy to watch/play even with the option to accept or decline. But, as someone with ADHD, I could understand a little of what she was going through.
Regardless on the player's choice, she was facing the entire team wanting to have her cut for the actions she'd done and how it affected Chase. After trying so damn hard to make the Phoenix program work (I don't buy her being a Shroud plant), and building up this weird little family of weirdos, she was facing every ADHDer's worst nightmare: rejection.
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria is the intense emotion often experienced by ADHDers in the face of any perceived or received rejection. This could be triggered by something as small as a change of tone in a person's voice or as big as a relationship breakup. The feeling is so intense it leads to actual physical pain sometimes alongside the overwhelming emotional distress it causes.
In the locker room scene, Visi explicitly states that all she wants is to be seen the same way as others see Blonde Blazer (read romantically or in general, depending on your playthrough). Being faced with this overwhelming rejection to her means that will probably never happen in her eyes, so she falls back into her impulsive behaviors i.e. trying to leave Z-Team to avoid further rejection, 'giving up' on trying to be reformed despite/without Robert's support, and yes; acting impulsively to try and correct the situation with a very poorly timed kiss.
Once more, this is not an excuse for her actions, this is merely a breakdown of how/why her ADHD may play a part in all of this. If we're going to move forward, interacting with these characters, we cannot allow the throwing around of problematic therapy talk to poison the discussion. It's okay if you don't like the character/find their actions inexcusable; that's your right. Calling them m*nor coded because you find them immature is more telling of you as a person than what you think about a character, because to me that reads as though you see mentally disabled/developmentally disordered people as child-like as opposed to fully fledged individuals.
Thank you for reading this far, I hope this adds something to the discussion.
