This whole scene is so mind-blowing that I missed the obvious shape of Laios' speech bubbles here. At first I thought it was a cheerful roundness laughing at the absurdity of what he's saying, but looking closer; it's wobbly. It's fake cheeriness, passive aggressive even. He just heard he was lied to for reasons he doesn't understand, and now this man is trying to sell an even more outrageous, sweeter lie?? Laios is SO hurt, and while he wasn't understanding what Kabru was saying, he was trying to be patient. Now he's not even trying to hide it.
So it's on Kabru to double down and convince he means it, which he does by /punching/ him and screaming "actually I DO want to be your friend, dumbass!!! I've been looking from afar and think you're interesting, you idiot!!! There’s things I find weird about you but that just made me invested enough to even eat harpy eggs!!!!!" and I just have to cry. I HAVE to
Since Rolin said that Luke won't be in this season but we're getting the DM turning scene in season 4, my hopes of seeing anything like this are a bit mushed BUT. It could still happen and maybe the seeds will be planted with their interactions this season (based on what I've seen screeners hint at).
I just desperately Need to see two versions of the turning scene, past and present. It'd be sooo insane if their storyline in S4 opened at the very start of their story in the book with young Daniel wandering the streets after weeks of begging desperately for Armand to come get him (ahem parallels to gabistat...).
The scene is so self contained, I can see it happening in the past without the context of Lestat's concert/the Akasha situation at all. Just the raw truth of Daniel struggling badly with his addiction both to substances and Armand's blood, and with the existential madness brought on by the fact that Armand won't turn him but won't let him go either. That destroys Daniel psychologically. In the book he basically kills himself via his drinking because of this, and Armand can't bear to be without him so he turns him.
But in-show, I think they'll do the scene up until Daniel wakes up on their private plane. And Armand won't turn Daniel by the end of it, the memory wipe happens instead.
l love this fucking scene in the book so much bc it really is peak Them. Daniel being a bratty little shit to the bitter end. Armand reading him to absolute filth and Daniel deflecting with flirting, Armand bursting into tears and Daniel deflecting again with self-deprecating humor because it's horrid to see him suffering.
"Damn you, Daniel" better be a line of dialogue in this show. I'm so serious.
And this:
And this, too (I love Daniel so so much)
Anyway. There's a specific line, right before Armand makes his final decision, that makes me think they'll use this scene for the past DM memory wipe thing.
Armand recognizes that the one thing in the way of Daniel staying a human and staying alive, is him knowing that Armand exists. If he never sees Armand again it would only make things worse.
Daniel doesn't want to keep living without Armand, he has completely given up. So I think this could be the moment they'll show us Armand erasing/blurring Daniel's memories of their time together and of the existence of vampires at all, to give him a chance at life.
At this point the memory wipe is basically canon to me lmao if they don't do it in Some Capacity (I'll even take Marius meddling) I'll be so mad bc why so much foreshadowing thennnn why show us that memory wipe is a thing if no memory wipe???
So. I'm hopeful and scared lmao imagine the potential for angst and drama!!!! Does Daniel notice what Armand is about to do? Is he aware for a few moments of what is happening before the brain fog of Armand's hypnosis takes over? Does he cry and scream and beg for Armand not to do this, is Armand crying too?
And it's so hard to picture what the Dubai era turning scene might look like right now bc idk what their Situation will be by the end of this season. But there are so many ways they could make a continuation of the past scene and give us the whole book adaptation of that moment.
Small dnd/worldbuilding thought today: why don’t more people play around with “flat earth” type worlds?
Obviously no world is flat, but it’s such a fantastical idea that it’s a shame not more people play around with it. The OG is clearly “Discworld” by the late and great Terry Pratchett (I think his estate has a Discworld TTRPG set to release soon). But my goal is that by 2026 I have a unique flatworld setting.
Strahd sent the party to do a big favour for him (Defeat Baba Lysaga, they don't know it is because she killed someone close to him) and as a reward for their excellent behavior at dinner he offered Rahadin's help. The party accepted and is already starting to tease him and treat him as one of the party and I am dying! He is not being friendly but they still love him.
He has been offered head pats when in cat form (he is a druid multiclass in my game) which is absolutely displeased with.
He is not happy but Strahd is enjoying himself.
I know it is silly but don't worry I will balance things and find ways for things to still be challenging. My Baba fight was planned to be very difficult so I absolutely will be bringing the heat.
As a Curse of Strahd DM, Strahd is like my least favorite child.
The only reason you get might get any miniscule chance at redemption is because the party might want it and my second favorite son still loves you (Sergei, for Willow lore context Victor is my favorite son).
Don't think I've forgotten about the many crimes, Imma make you suffer eventually for them..
I'm doing some D&D prep and just have to ramble for a second.
You know what's fucked up about an order made entirely of self-tamed werewolves? They all have tragic backstories. Like, all of them. You don't become a werewolf in a happy way. It's all fucked up all the way up.
50% have contemplated suicide, 50% actively tried and failed. 100% have lost people to the curse. It's just an order of hyper-depressed monster hunters trying their best to make some sense out of their fucked up lives.
And then I went ahead and made it also contain normal ass people who just hunt monsters alongside these werewolves and I just... Cannot imagine what goes through their heads when they talk to some of these poor bastards.
I'm typing this because one of my D&D groups is meeting up with a member of these monster hunting werewolves who got lost in a Dread Domain and hyper broke his oath to not kill/infect innocent people when the dread domain drove him insane and a Loup Garou took control of him. And it just made me start thinking about it
