I did manage to (mostly) catch up for Harvest Close, just couldn't watch yesterday because work. And though I don't think this little arc is quite done, from wrapping up the High Richter quest to about when the Nein leave Zadash, still wanted to offer some thoughts because the party pulls off a surprising amount of development in this small section of episodes.
No particularly coherent thoughts on the Beacon heist other than the fact that they've never pulled off anything so smoothly since. Jester, Caleb, and Nott swiped a legendary artifact of cosmic power and importance right out of the Crownsguard's hands, on full alert and in full view of a crowd, and didn't break a sweat [insert Mission Status: Sick meme].
I feel like the Scrollgate talk maybe opened some gates for this party, because from what I can tell, Nott laying some of her cards on the table about how she feels about her place in the party and what her and Caleb's relationship is would be the first time any of them actually opened up about something emotional and important to them rather than trying to deflect (Jester's a bit of an exception, but that's expected), and after this it's a bit like the dominoes got tipped over: Molly tells the truth about his past, Fjord tells them about his difficult childhood issues and his struggles with how he's perceived by himself and others, Beau doesn't go into a lot of detail but she's not really hiding the fact that her childhood was neither simple nor happy anymore, and though this hasn't come up quite yet, Caleb comes out about His Whole Thing. It helps that Matt seemed more than happy to needle them with backstory shit almost non-stop during this stretch: Cree's appearance, more Uk'otoa dreams, Trent Ikithon's first appearances at the Zauber Spire attack and Victory Pit, and of course the Gentleman, though that one initially goes over their heads. The timing of it all is great, since after this arc the Nein get back on the road again, but now they (and the audience) are leaving with more context for both each other and the world, perfect jumping-off points for building a fantastic story. The Zadash arc is a load-bearing beam for C2 and I stand by that.
Speaking of Scrollgate, rewatches have only cemented, if not deepened, how annoyed I am by Molly and his attitude toward Nott during this stretch of episodes, both in a "this behavior irritates me" way and a "I'm so mad I'll never know" way. Molly always seemed particularly antagonistic/condescending toward Nott in particular for reasons I've never fully been able to parse. I understand it in a tragically ironic way when he's talking about his past; her insistence that the past matters even if he doesn't want it to could be seen as dismissive of his feelings, and he had no way of knowing how similar and yet opposite they were in their experiences, so him snapping at her makes sense. However, the way he talks to her after Scrollgate, repeated dismissal of her intelligence and experience, and generally dogging her for no reason a lot of the time, it has always pissed me off because I really don't know where it's coming from. Sure she's shady at times, but so is Caleb and Molly doesn't go after him nearly as hard, and sure she's weird, but Molly brags about the circus being weird all the time. If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe Molly was banking on initial impressions of her being very young, and despite his own shortage of experience he saw her as someone he could sort of mold into his way of doing things (ie: the circus). Then she proved more independent-minded than initial impressions and refused to toe the line, and since all Taliesin characters share the flaw of thinking they're the smartest person in the room whether that's true or not, Nott constantly questioning him and poking holes in the logic and ethos he built up over his two years of life got under his skin. That's just speculation though, and since Molly died I'll never know for sure, nor will I ever find out how he would have reacted to the entirety of Veth's story and the ways in which they were similar. It'll drive me crazy til my dying day.
Conversely, every time through the Zadash arc makes me like Fjord more and more. I mean, I always liked him, but the appreciation deepens. He always seems to be putting in the work to make this group functional and is generally doing the best at it. Caleb and Nott are trying but have to balance their insularity and personal goals, Beau means well but struggles to explain her legit points without sounding like an asshole, and Molly says he wants the group to work but has specific ideas of what that should look like and doesn't take refutations of those ideas well. Fjord meanwhile genuinely seems to listen and try to find a balance that works for everyone, and even if he doesn't have the right impression at first (Nott correcting him about her relationship with Caleb), he's happy to reevaluate and meet people where they're at. Even after Scrollgate, where Fjord admits his need for control got the better of him, he jumps right in to make sure they all get out safely and tries to pull the group back into cohesion. No wonder he got elected unofficial party leader.
C2 was really cooking with the majority of its dungeon crawls, even the short ones. Siff Duthar's research lab was basically a single puzzle and a boss + adds, but the atmosphere and imagery were so palpable, and the dread history of the Calamity is just hovering over everything like a shadow. Retrospective context from the Calamity trilogy and everything we've learned since only serves to make it cooler and spookier, turning the little snippet we get into this guy's life into a short form horror where we can more than fill in the blanks ourselves. Chef's kiss, the Calamity continues to do wonders for Exandria's flavor and worldbuilding.
And now, HARVEST CLOSE! I'm not sure where it sits in the top 15 or so episodes of C2 for me, but it's in there somewhere.
