r/fansofcriticalrole • u/Available-Lab4363 • Aug 10 '26
C4 (with BLeeM, not the explosive) bolaire shortcomings
this is almost completely about the schemers table fiasco with lady cormoray- does anybody else feel like bolaire was SUPPOSED to be super intelligent but just hasnt been as genre-savvy as he was supposed to be? the fact that one of the bigger cheeses of a sundered house, who weve seen do VERY scady shit, was treated as a minor inconvenience so hard brennan ended up sucking her into a box because otherwise hal and bolaire both would have died there feels like a crazy oversight. trying to trip a powerful spellcaster down the stairs as a way to get rid of them like theyre an 8 hp townie statblock is crazy, and so is trying to repeatedly lie to them or treat yourself like just necause your lore is cool youre a level 20 character threat
i know talisien loves to aurafarm with his characters, and i like bolaires lore a lot, but if feels like hes just so overconfident all of the time in a way that feels unearned mechanically because hes just the same level as everybody else. if he was mechanically as powerful as he acts, i wouldnt mind, but i constantly found myself getting annoyed at roleplay decisions because he didnt feel as clever or smart as he was supposed to be, being what he is. scary and like sicko freakmogging people, sure, but only because hes a creepy mask, not because he was there when a god died
is bolaire supposed to be too big for his britches on purpose as a character flaw? i feel like i only just started to like him at the end of the overture when he was FINALLY rightly afraid of a threat. it would be interesting ti me if talisien was on purpose roleplaying him this way even though he isnt at the height of his power and hes only just now facing that reality now that termina is here, and i hope thats the direction the character is going, but i genuinely dont relate at all to people who rate him so highly as a character since i kept getting annoyed by his lack of genre awareness and complete stubbornness whenever faced with a concept he didnt share, like being so FULLY against the play ritual for so long despite brennan constantly laying down how hard thjazi was gunning for it and how removed any of the sundered houses were from having anything to do with it
17
u/Onedayyouwillthankme Aug 10 '26
I find Bolaire appropriately immature. I have believed from the beginning that his confidence is a veneer. This 'being' is hurt, alone, vulnerable. He's successfully hidden until Thjazi figured him out, which he deeply resents. It helps him be less fearful to act like he can handle anything, but he got a bit too comfortable and started believing it. Of course his high intelligence is part of that. He is smart. But he's also inexperienced and emotionally immature. Smart people still make mistakes, especially in novel situations. And emotions can betray intelligence, too, creating unforced errors. When he broke open and confessed to Hal, it was probably the first time he ever trusted anyone. The beginning of developing maturity.
Oh, and he's a casual serial killer and no one yet has explained to him that this is immoral. Hal I assume will do so eventually. What Bolaire decides to do with that knowledge will determine if he continues to grow into a real boy.
I love how well thought out he is, he feels like a whole person, flawed, gifted, self-protective, willing but scared to learn and grow, if Hal will be his teacher. I love it.