#bowlgate

[stranger-chichka]

Bowl cut -> cutgate aka the real ending announcement/release during Super Bowl LX -> X in front of the Library = library is the key spot, but also Lab is X-shaped building, where El (L) was imprisoned.

[summersschmidt]

This is one of those times where Caleb's wariness with a truly stranger in their party's midst would have worked so well and may have melded well when combined with Imogen's.

[thewizardconnoisseur]

I’ve reached the bowlgate section in my Mighty Nein rewatch….

Wish me luck

[200mgcaffeine]

Bowlgate and Beyond! The Empire Kids Learn How To People.

So who wants an opinion on Bowlgate and Yussa’s Tower, forever after the fact??????? Ahahahha!!!! For once, though, I actually did a bit of research into what other people have been saying about these things, so I at least have some idea of the general discussion, though it’s admittedly not the most comprehensive idea. #INeverSayAnythingNew #PleaseForgiveMe #I’mJustHavingAGoodTime. Anyway, this is a two-part series of mine.

Thesis: Caleb and Beau were understandably terrible at communicating, and communicating with each other specifically at Bowlgate. Yet they are progressively getting much better (I would say pretty damn good!) at handling people in general and each other, even as they continue to have arguments.

Part 1: Wherein Caleb Learns Most People Aren’t Mind Readers

Caleb was just not cut out for cooperative group work—at least, not at the start of the story. At the Labenda Swamp, Nott gives him a magic bowl, and he discovers this is a super dangerous artifact that can be used to commune with Tiamat, an Evil Calamity God. The one person who is personally interested in this item is someone he met only hours before, with some sob story about being part of a Tiamat Cult (alarms ringing!) and wanting to find artifacts like this to “destroy them.” Caleb is suspicious, he’s cautious—justifiably so, in his opinion. He feels it’s anyone’s responsibility as someone who doesn’t want to be Evil to make absolutely, unquestionably sure that by helping this person they are not aiding and abetting the promotion of Tiamat’s influence in the world. He concludes that the only way to be sure this person is telling the truth about their intentions is to use Jester’s Zone of Truth to confirm. (If only he still had Suggestion, his favorite spell for these situations!) If they can get Caliana to camp with them, perhaps he can discuss it all with the group privately…..except, Caliana is dead-set on leaving right that second, and won’t stay to camp. So Caleb is left with two choices:

1) Say nothing, and keep the bowl. Nott would never tell the others if he asked her not to, if he really thought keeping it was best. Problem is, then they would have to figure out how to destroy the item themselves, and they’d be endangering the group since the cult is out looking for it. That’s not fair, Caleb’s already been reprimanded for withholding items before, and besides, Caliana could really be telling the truth, could really be the person best suited for destroying these items. Option #1 just won’t work, which in his mind leaves him with

2) Deal with the trust problem right then and there.

Knowing that Caliana is gifted with magic and that he himself is delicate, Caleb thinks, I believe, well, she could turn on us and attack me and leave with the bowl once she sees it and if she doesn’t want to submit to questioning. He decides the only reasonable thing to do is to put a barrier between her and the bowl without her knowing that’s exactly what he’s doing. It’s the same kind of reasoning that eventually leads to Caleb’s Wall of Fire in Darktow. ((funny that hoarding other people’s stuff is his defining trait. saving the world one stolen item at a time, lmao))

So, with the group safely(ish) walling Caliana from the bowl, he reveals it! And the group loudly tells Caliana about it! And he says, basically, I don’t trust you with a powerful item, and you should let us hold you hostage for an evening and let Jester cast magic on you so that your trustworthiness can be confirmed.

To which the party goes, what the fuck, Caleb?!

What the fuck are you saying, without consulting anyone on the matter?! That’s not teamwork???!!?!? Who do you think you are????!?!?!!!

Proper procedure for Caleb would have been to say, one, I don’t want to keep this bowl. This is what the bowl is, this is what worries me about it, this is what worries me about Caliana, and this is what I think we should do—what do you think? Explain reasoning, ask for feedback, collaborate. But Caleb skips through all these steps and goes straight to executing his preferred mode of action, without properly checking in with anyone. He only even begins to explain what the fuck the bowl is (other than “powerful”—vague much?) after Beau takes it away from him and everyone’s hackles are already raised over his behavior. 

So of course it feels manipulative, of course it’s pressuring the group—those are the literal effects of his actions, but I think it’s important to distinguish between Caleb actually trying and intending to manipulate people (Fjord in the Diver’s Grave), and Caleb putting unfair pressure on people as an unintended consequence to an unfortunate assumption of his: that because a course of action seems right to him, that it is self evident—everyone must be thinking the same thing as him, it’s super obvious this is Right, why would anyone ever disagree? “Why would you not want to wait twelve hours to see if this woman’s intentions are true or not?!” he asks, in complete bewilderment. Caleb is genuinely incredulous and surprised when the group starts arguing with him, when Jester suggests that maybe they should let Caliana talk to Tiamat if she wants, when Beau and Molly suggest that it’s really none of their business to interfere with Caliana whether her intentions are true or not—if she does bad shit, why should they take the responsibility to stop her? Will it really affect them? Caleb doesn’t consider at the time that his actions might be controlling and pushed back against because he assumes that the group will all absolutely be in his corner in this thing and that he is acting on their collective interests and desires. What he neglects to do is find out whether he actually knows what their interests and desires are, if they actually agree with him. (((There’s also, of course, Caleb doing Typical Gifted Kid Bullshit #150, thinking “oh, but I’ve thought of everything, this has to be the right and only solution to the problem!” No, you haven’t thought of everything Caleb, STFU. Molly and Yasha both bring up solutions to Caleb’s dilemma that Caleb didn’t think of himself—I can cast Friends, Molly said. I can use my sword and try to break it, Yasha said. These are both things Caleb might have come to know if he cared to, say, consult the group before going off at Caliana with his Plan.)))

But why is Caleb so confused at the negative reaction, so thrown for a loop by disagreement? This fascinates me. At this point, you see, Caleb is……not used to being around people with different opinions than him. I mean, conjecturing from his backstory of Mega Propaganda Brainwashing and Conformity, not to mention the Only Child business—it’s quite likely he’s never (or not in a long time) in fact had to deal with a serious difference in opinion before—certainly not one among peers, where authority and power structures aren’t at play. He also definitely hasn’t spent much time around people from different walks of life, who would have different values and life experiences and worldviews from him. He’s always been fairly isolated, 24/7 around people who were trained to think and make decisions in exactly the same way he did, with everyone else being Wrong and an Enemy. Where there was a premium on Obedience—child to parent, student to teacher, patient to doctor. More recently he’s been around Nott, who at this point in the story is also just agreeing with everything he says and not really challenging that assumption. Arguing over gloves and scrolls and bowls—that’s probably new stuff to him. He’s finding out in an ugly way that he can’t project what others are thinking, people don’t think exactly the same way he does, and he doesn’t know how to collaborate in decision making the way he obviously needs to to survive in the group. He doesn’t know how to handle disagreement in any other way than caving in and Following Orders and Keeping the Peace, and he definitely doesn’t know how to handle a disagreement when caving in is no longer a useful strategy, when the cost of caving is, to him, unacceptable.

“You’re a shitty communicator” is actually some of the most useful feedback he could have possibly gotten out of the situation. What is most important for Caleb to learn to do at this point is learn to explain his thinking in detail before he acts in ways that will affect the others, to stop assuming everyone will think in exactly the same way he does, to present his opinion as an opinion rather than The Undisputable Obvious Truth. He needs to learn how to advocate for a course of action and genuinely brainstorm on issues (he has good ideas, but he doesn’t know everything!) instead of either Winning the Argument or Obeying Others. What’s great to see is that Caleb is getting better at all of these things. Compare what he’s doing with the bowl with his planning strategies post-Felderwin. At this point, Caleb has become fairly comfortable in his preferred role as an advisor and source of information. He doesn’t plainly defer to the group without contributing, and he’s careful now about prefacing his opinions with his concerns and reasoning, with saying “I think this because X,” and then asking for others’ opinions. To paraphrase the moorbounder suggestion, he says, “My concern is, and this is not a dealbreaker, but what if we learn Yeza is on the chopping block, and we don’t have enough time to get to him?” which does three things: 1) presents his opinion as an opinion, 2) explains the reason why he thinks it’s a good idea to get the moorbounders and he’s concerned about the “working for the Krynn” idea without assuming everyone already thought of this and his conclusions are obvious, and 3) asks a question that solicits the opinions of the rest of the group. Nice growth, Caleb! When you do this people can actually work together and address your concerns! Caduceus floats letting the city government know what they want ahead of time, they discuss whether the government would have access to teleportation or sending spells, they talk about how much danger Yeza is probably in and how they can determine whether the government can be relied on to follow through on a favor, how they could safely frame their favor. They agree at the very least to prepare to book it on the moorbounders as Plan B—if the job is too long or Yeza gets in trouble or the favor can’t be relied on, they leave. That’s collaboration at work!

Even when the disagreements are personal, Caleb does a much better job at explaining himself and debriefing, though he isn’t perfect. Post-Yussa’s tower, he does a fairly good job explaining why he refused to do what Beau asked of him in the moment. He also does a fairly good job explaining why he wasn’t exactly giddy to go there, though he doesn’t directly address Beau’s line of questioning (she wants to know what about Yussa makes Caleb think he’s tied to Trent specifically—since she thinks that would justify his fear). Instead, he tries to justify his Absolute Caution With Powerful Mages Philosophy by painting a frightening, gory picture that offends Beau and pokes at her own insecurities—does he not believe in her friendship? And Caleb tries to acknowledge that he as Beau are talking at cross purposes and explain himself more but eventually becomes so frustrated and overwhelmed with the misunderstanding that he begins snapping and storms off to scream at a tree. More useful things to do would have been to ask for a break, or to ask Beau to explain what exactly she was feeling so he could address what was bothering her about what he said instead of trying to brute force get his point across through arguing and fright. The point is though, that he’s trying, when he wasn’t before. He’s getting better, their relationship is getting better, and honestly it’s pretty wonderful to watch.

Next is Part 2: Wherein Beau Learns Assumptions are for Chumps

[moosemakes]

Bowlgate, broomgate, which one you feel most strongly about tells how far into the critrole rabbit hole you are

[giggles-piratically]

You can dislike characters, you know?

I really do feel like there is “PEOPLE WHO HATE X ARE JUST MONSTERS” posts popping up a lot all over for Critical Role. You know I get feeling defensive over liking a character and wanting to argue with people pointing out flaws, but c’mon people strawmanning your entire opposition into monsters is not helping.

There are genuinely nasty comments left, but most of the discourse is valid surrounding characters. Bowlgate was a perfect example of that, with people lining up on both sides saying that anyone against them was vile. Trying to shove the idea down that anyone not with you is a bad person is not how a healthy fandom stays healthy.

I really enjoy all the characters in both campaigns but I constantly see people dismissing any criticism as unjustified hate. You can love a character despite thinking they have flaws, and trust me as someone who survived the old bioware boards I know how hard that is to swallow. 

[etal-late]

Short back and sides (charmie ficlet)

nb. The King’s hair designers really are called Flora and Alessandro, I looked it up. Accuracy is important when you’re lying. Ever so slightly, tiny tiny bit nsfw.

**

“Are you ready Mr Chalamet?” asks the stylist.

“Sure, go for it and call me Tim or Timmy or whatever – you’re Flora, right? Ready Armie?” Tim props his phone by the mirror, so that Armie and his bottle of beer can watch him get his hair cut, all that way away in New York.

“I’m ready.”

Flora combs out Tim’s curls and then lifts her scissors. She holds a few strands between her fingers and says, “Oh dear, I feel like I’m about to break a million hearts.”

“Just one that matters,” Armie says quietly from the phone.

“That’s OK man,” Tim says to Flora, “Go for it, il faut souffrir pour creér, right?”

“Yeah, look how you suffer.” Armie says. “How’s the butterfly house?”

“Pretty,” says Tim as Flora starts cutting in earnest, strands of hair falling onto his shoulders. “Wow, here we go.”

“Here we go,” echoes Armie, and Tim notices him lean in a little, watching.

Flora is pretty amazing at this and she doesn’t take long to cut Tim’s hair close to his head, leaving a little thatch of thicker tufts around the top. When she’s done, she stands back, head on one side, and makes a last few adjustments.

“So, see it can be combed down like this if they really want that bowl look,” –

“Yikes,” says Armie —

“or you can kind of juge it up so you don’t look quite so…”

“Spock?” says Armie —

‘and you can always put a bit of product in to lift like so..”

“Ah, better,” says Armie.

“I’ll just shave the back,” Flora changes her scissors for the clippers and starts to buzz the sides of Tim’s neck and round his nape. “Keep still though. Stop wriggling”

“He’s a wriggler,” mutters Armie. “You do what you’re told now.” Tim holds his gaze and keeps still, even when it tickles behind his ears.

“There, ooh it’s like shearing a little lamb,“ she beams when it’s done, patting around with a towel to remove the clippings and Tim smooths his hand round his neck, getting used to the way it feels and the air on his exposed scalp.

Flora says, “Right, if you’ll excuse me for a minute, I’ll just go and fetch Alessandro and he can tell me if he’s happy.”

Flora sheathes her scissors and hurries out. Tim turns his head a few times, checking his lines, where the light falls on his face now. He tries his Henry expression: opening-scenes-Hal before shit gets serious, then morphs it into Agincourt-Henry, adding a touch of steel, a little loss. There’s something right about it, and he notices the feeling of a new character seeping in with a familiar sense of relief: it’s going to be alright, like the cut has defined the shape of Henry in him, the structure that was waiting to be found. He snaps back into the here and now and turns back to Armie’s face gazing out at him from his phone.

“Okaaayy, let’s have the verdict from the New York office.”

“I can see your neck again properly.” Armie’s voice drops a notch. “Like when it was so short that first week in Crema.”

“Yeah?”

“You look kinda…”

“…girly?” Tim asks, because the way his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes match the curve of the cut, it does look more feminine even than his curls maybe?

“You always look girly. No, like, androgynous. It’s good. You look good Tim. Regal.”

“You’re not going to miss my mop then?”

“Oh I’ll miss it.”

“Tell me.”

“I’m remembering what it felt like to hold on to when you were on your knees for me. I like the way it felt on my thighs. Between my legs.”

“Kinda tickly,” Tim leans in, brings his face close to the phone.

“Soft. And you like it when I pull a little right? Keep you still? Like you couldn’t manage for that nice lady?’

“You’ll have to hold onto what I’ve got left on top.”

“Yeah, that’ll work. Hey Tim? Do something for me.”

“I don’t think we’ve got time, they’re gonna…” Tim glances behind him, calculating.

“Not that, jesus, - just, keep some of your hair OK, and mail it to me.”

“Whaaat?”

“Just – do it Tim. Grab some right now and wrap it in some paper or something. Then FedEx it to me.”

“Armie, are you going to keep my hair in a box? Like I’m your dead Victorian baby?”

“Fuck off. I just want it.”

“Are you going to have it fashioned into a brooch and wear it always?”

“Alright alright don’t bother.” Armie slumps back, takes a slug from his bottle.

Tim stops laughing. “Things OK over there Armie?”

“… uh huh.”

“You can have my hair, look,” he scoops up a little heap of chestnut locks, holding them out for Armie to see and tucks them carefully into the pages of his notebook. “I’ll send it tonight.”

“Sorry, it’s just change, you know. I’m not — good at change.”

“I’m not changing. And it’ll come back.”

“Yeah sure, you’ll come back. I mean, it’ll come back – you know what I mean.”

“Hey,” Tim says softly, “Armz, I…”

But before he can finish, Flora is back and Alessandro is there and there’s a whole conversation about the hair and how the crown will sit and the neckline of various outfits. By the time they’re finished with him and Tim can get back to his phone, Armie is gone.

[disaster-children]

Bowlgate 2k18

I’m with Caleb on this one. Maybe he should have consulted the party first, sure, but that bowl was serious business and the possibility of Cali fucking off with it and causing the end of the world was pretty high, let’s be real. You don’t fuck with Tiamat and you don’t fuck with anyone who fucks with Tiamat.