brennan's blankie

myth ✦ he/she ✦ 24 ✦ riz gukgak enthusiast sideblog for d&d actual play content currently consuming WBN, CR C2 & C4

[tiny-space-whale]

"There is a frightening, violent, unhappy world waiting out there, but you're not dead. And every morning that there's blood pumping in your body, you get to decide what to do about that big, bad world waiting for you out there."

-Brennan Lee Mulligan, WWW Ep 43

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Azune Nayar is not someone who was failed in his youth by the adults around him.

Azune Nayar is someone whose childhood and youth were marked by adults who, faced with bad choices, made the less-worse one because they cared about him.

His parents starved themselves to give him and his sister the chance of being recruited as child soldiers by a mercenary group, because that was the only way to protect him from starvation.

Thjazi Fang saw a child abandoned by the roadside, desperately, determinedly, and implausibly claiming he could fight. Thazi Fang was in the middle of waging a rebellion against the powers of Araman. That rebellion wasn’t the best place for a child of twelve. But it was a better place than abandoned by the roadside or picked up by another mercenary group, and Thjazi cared, so Thjazi took him in and assigned him to noncombat work away from the front lines.

By 15 Azune was fighting on the front lines. (In an earlier war, the same was true of Thazi at that age.)

Thjazi’s rebellion failed. He asked his brother Hal to look out for the teenage Azune. Hal did so, treating Azune as part of his family. Hal did the same for other people who needed it. Being like family wasn’t the same as being Hal’s kid.

The tragedy of Azune isn’t that he was failed or abandoned or uncared for or used. The tragedy of Azune is that the best that people who cared about him could give him still wasn’t the same as what he needed, because being an adult doesn’t make you all-powerful. Azune’s problems weren’t created by those who loved him. They were created by the world he lives in.

Azune lived his adult life for the Torn Banner because it was the life he knew; or out of loyalty; or because they were the ones trying to change that world into something different.

He offers understanding and empathy to enemies (Julien) and strangers (Vaelus). He learned that somewhere.

He will self-immolate for a cause. He likely learned that from his parents, who did it for him, and from Thjazi, who did it for the same cause.

[nerdicornthetrekkie]

[gamechangershow]

Sorry but it's not complete without...

[fryuitcup]

I will follow Him (Wherever he May Go)

[troldengel]

i'll miss you...

[trailertrashgrog]

sensing a pattern

[justsomeone76]

*occtis tachonis voice* you can date me but first you have to defeat my evil dad, my evil granddad, my seven *checks notes* five evil siblings, my unexamined classism, my two evil cousins and their evil boytoy knight, my two evil aunts, my unexamined CPTSD that has completely fucked my ability to manage interpersonal conflict, my one evil uncle, another evil knight (not a boytoy), and Wicander Halovar, not because he's evil but because fuck him for reasons that (you guessed it) I haven't examined. (Also if you could get any info on my mom that would be great.)

[cryptid-of-suburbia]

Another C4 Observation that I don't see anyone discussing:

When Occtis' "heart attack" happened from the Stone of Nightsong being broken, Brennan described it as "like an arrow being pulled out".

Funny how Sylandri, the Shaper of Life and the one tied to that stone's creation, was killed... By an arrow...

[notfantasydoge]

GUYS IT’S HERE

The Mighty Nein: Adventures on the High Seas fan trailer is finally out!! I’m so proud of my friends for this. So much love and hard work and it looks amazing! If the CR team sees it it would be a dream. Give it a look and let them know your thoughts!

Yes those are pink magical seahorses thank you for noticing.

[doraingrid]

Holding on

[captainofthetidesbreath]

the idea that Thjazi is hiding from House Tachonis in Julien's shadow is so fucking funny, not even just for the whole beef Julien has with him, but because Thjazi was known as Shadow

[nayarazune]

C4 E027 Complicated Questions / C4 E028 Chasing Shadows

bonus:

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

Thinking about how Thjazi not breaking the glyph was a snap decision. He didn't plan his own execution in advance as part of a masterstroke play, based on how he was joking with Hal he clearly expected to escape using the glyph. And then he saw that falcon, presumably Mara the Wing. Others have mentioned that he likely chose to die because what he was doing with the blood from the River Gavzidra required someone be in the Tenebral Reaches, and him seeing Mara signaled to him that her passage had been blocked, and he realized he had an express if one way ticket to exactly where his plans needed someone to be. So Thjazi chose to allow his own execution to proceed, and rushed out his last words to Hal in the scant few seconds he had. Circumstances very suddenly required him to willingly sacrifice himself for his cause, and he made that choice very decisively even as he was clearly scared to die. Thjazi was certainly a lot of things, but one of those things was that he was a man who was willing to give up everything if it meant living out his ideals.

[vertigospirit]

the seekers

[opalgoddessoflife]

With the confirmation that King Gus is gay, we now have another contender for the funniest possible Julien Davinos political marriage candidate.

[fearngully]

i think it's very interesting that some people want and expect thjazi to be this idyllic, clearly ethically "good" martyr. i've even seen some people say that if he isn't "good" then his strength as a narrative function dwindles. i strongly disagree and believe that thjazi is likely morally gray in many ways

it is much more likely that thjazi is a deeply complicated figure who almost certainly does things that are ethically gray if not "evil" in the eyes of some. for one, this has been alluded to multiple times to the extent that most of the pcs are questioning him, which is not something brennan would let continue for long if it hurt the narrative.

also, brennan likes making complex characters. in real life, people are almost never purely good or purely evil, and even good people can be manipulated into making harmful choices. even leaders of movements are never perfect people. i mean, how many "unproblematic" figures have you seen eventually slip up in a public way and then talk about how impossible it is to live up to that type of image? and deeper than that, how many times in human history have rebellions been led to destroy the ruling class only to turn around and implement a similar system, just with a new ruling class. not saying that's what thjazi would have done, but that is a fraction of the real world context in which brennan came up with thjazi

even further, how many times have you heard narratives of a "well intentioned" rebel doing horrible things because the ends justify the means. or someone having an internal crisis after something like a failed rebellion. basically, how many times have you heard stories about complicated ass people who may have good intentions but get a little lost

and if thjazi is complicated and nuanced and morally gray, that doesn't hurt the narrative! the morally upright, charismatic public image of thjazi is still doing work in the narrative in the context of public perception/belief in change/hope and will continue to do so. AND if thjazi is more complex, it would push the narrative further into questions around why the last rebellion failed, what is the end goal for this new rebellion beyond removing the sundered houses, questioning means/motives, ensuring your team is on the same page, etc.

thjazi being complex and forcing characters to ask more/deeper questions, makes the story more real, more interesting, and pushes it further than a 2d unproblematic static good boy ever could

[gros-chat-fait]

The Gala Incident - The Three Parties*

*(minus the Magpies)

----

Rounded out the sketches I did while figuring out King Gus' design for the last drawing.