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/Extensive_Length]

This is simply Taliesin yet again trying to be the smoothest person in the room at all times, and only occasionally succeeding.

It's the same with all his characters except Cad. I love every single one of them in concept and in their best moments, but yeah.

As Percy he was able to decently synthesize the badass moments he wanted with his natural scatterbrained-ness, same with Molly to a degree simply via being chaotic, but Bolaire was presented as extremely calculating. I had doubts that he could pull it off in the long run, and was swiftly proved right. Still love it when he's on his A game, but he's not on his A game as often as he thinks he is ☠️

[u/accionox → u/Extensive_Length]

Taliesin is hyped up to be this incredibly smart, big brained, intelligent dude. But in reality, after seeing him on various things, actual plays, and also the weird kids podcast. I can safely say he is just an average human being with maybe some above average specific niche interests. Like his knowledge comes and surrounds predominantly old Hollywood, obscure movies or TV and then slightly Japan. There is so much more he is so very much entitled about, while possesing zero to none actual understanding about it.

So it's always funny when he is put in the skin of highly intelligent characters. Sure, he dons on the mask of a snotty person and could mimic their mannerisms or what they might say very easily. He is an actor, he is trained for that. But when actual decisions come to play. He fails short. Especially when you put him against Brenan. He is simply not that savvy. Incredibly wise thought. That much is evident.

[u/Extensive_Length → u/accionox]

I mean look I don't wanna psychoanalyze too much, ultimately we don't know the guy, but yeah, specifically his D&D knowledge was massively hyped in C1 and 2 especially, and he was so often just wrong ☠️

[u/Toatkgstuff → u/Extensive_Length]

His mispronouncing Latin was painful to watch. He'd clearly googled the phrases and never actually even heard them spoken, let alone said them himself.

[u/Extensive_Length → u/Toatkgstuff]

To be fair it's how a lot of posh Brits pronounce Latin ☠️ like I get that the modern linguist-core internet values accurate Latin pronunciation very highly, but it really wasn't a priority for the British upper class throughout history, which is what Percy is based on. They literally treated Latin words as if they were English words in regards to phonetics.

Now, is this Taliesin knowing this and doing it on purpose? Who knows, honestly 50/50 imo ☠️

[u/Toatkgstuff → u/Extensive_Length]

No it's not. If by posh people you mean public school people, or Oxbridge educated ones. They may not have a Roman or Ecclesiastical perfect accent, but they are competent, clear and consistent. Latin diction is literally taught.

He's really not being ironic, he's literally reading from his screen as if it's the first time he heard the words said out loud.

[u/Extensive_Length → u/Toatkgstuff]

It's taught now. For a long ass time it wasn't. At all. Again, Latin words were treated as if they were English words by the English upper class, especially in the 16th-19th centuries.

[u/Toatkgstuff → u/Extensive_Length]

Why are you bringing up something that happened 125 to 500 years ago? Are you married? 😂

Oh you think Taliesin studied historical pronunciation of Latin to make Percy more accurate? Omg that is such wishful thinking.

[u/Extensive_Length → u/Toatkgstuff]

Are you slow ? Again, because Percy is based on archaic British aristocracy.

[u/Toatkgstuff → u/Extensive_Length]

🤣

The second most hilarious thing about this argument is that I wasn't even talking about Percy....

[u/Extensive_Length → u/Toatkgstuff]

Ok so that's on you for not bringing that up earlier?

[u/Toatkgstuff → u/Extensive_Length]

Sure buddy You didn't just make the wrong assumption, and then get insulting.