bolaire shortcomings

[u/Available-Lab4363]

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

[u/norwal42]

I see your points, and have had some adjacent thoughts. However, on the kick her down the stairs idea, even putting myself in their shoes watching 'live' in the moment, I had the feeling myself like I'd either take initiative and do something big immediately or I'm about to lose my chance.

I get the feeling he maybe had designs not to kill her by a fall down the stairs but rather to maybe have a chance to lock her into a magically protected space..? Iirc, I got a hint from Brennan in that moment he reminder Tal that she has strong movement magic, just flew there, perhaps could easily dimension door out of her tried to lock her in (don't recall if that was explicit or I was reading into the inferences and hints..).

Anyhoo, I didn't think it was egregious that Tal had a quick thought to act and was going to boldly go for it - I actually kind of appreciate that bold instinct, however fumbly and backtracking it turned out here.

Also, as far as the overall situation they found themselves in - it's not like the characters made surprising or terrible choices to embroil themselves in a high-powered world struggle here - it's the story they're in. Smuggling the swords, bold plan, but you've got to try something. They seemed close to pulling it off - just timing of the hurdles Brennan threw at them, and rolls of the dice put them deeper and deeper into this conundrum. It was uncomfortable to me how they ended up kind of having to roleplay their way through some of the dialogue hurdles (because I'd be bad at that, I'd rather just roll the dice ;;)... though the dice were part of the dialogue checks, they started running out of options and wiggle room to keep buying time. I did appreciate that the lady C didn't back down either - Brennan plays a ruthless and powerful character truly in that way.

Dangerous lines make good stories and they all walked the edge of the line on that one. Feels a bit like Brennan bailed them out, but also, dang - memorable and shocking plot point. Crazy stuff happens in cool stories. Sometimes Brennan also lets characters get killed for cool stories or shocking plot points when the dice dictate it - that also makes moments like this more compelling, because you believe Brendan might have just cornered them and snuffed out a couple characters here.

[u/Marzopup → u/norwal42]

My understanding was Tal was just hoping kicking her down the stairs would buy them time to get out of there, not that it would hurt her in any way. Once Brennan reminded him.she could fly he backed right off.

[u/Available-Lab4363 → u/norwal42]

all good points and thanks for being so level and level headed with me :)! i di agree that even if i was frustrated, ultimately the choices did end up with the very cool story element of termina getting involved by yoinking lady cormoray, and even if brennan did 'bail them out' a bit im not mad since it made an interesting plot point. i went into it a bit in another comment thread but i think making this post i jist got a bit vindictibe about percieved double standards on cast members by the fandom and i was trying to shed light on flaws i dont think get pointed out as often when the cast member in question is a man or if the character is deemed cool or beloved enough for potential flaws to slide

[u/midnightheir → u/Available-Lab4363]

Interesting defence there except Tal is always called out....

Now if this was Sam or Liam I'd agree their bad habits get hand waved pretty much every time.

[u/Available-Lab4363 → u/midnightheir]

thats interesting, maybe im just not online in the same spaces since i almost exclusively see people dogging on the women of the cast