Watching Ep104 tonight I found Percy’s hesitant answer to
Keyleth about gods rather interesting given that he’d tacitly said how he felt
in Ep104. “I think what Vax is trying to say is we need patrons. … We
are going to owe favors, we are going to owe our lives, we are going to lose…”
[everything]. “Patron” is a word used in D&D to describe the entity a
warlock makes a pact with to gain their powers. Orthax was Percy’s patron.
Percy is talking about gods as if they were no different
from “fey nobles, demons, devils, hags, and alien entities of the Far
Realm” (PHB5e 106). Beings to be revered, but not trusted, powerful enough to
squash you like a bug, who manipulate mortals for their own ends and gain. He’s
struck bargains with a demon, a fey noble, and a devil already. Every time it’s
been a sacrifice of himself to the greater good. Every time he felt he was
damning himself further, but was already too damned for it to really matter. If
Vax will give his life for his friends, Percy will give his soul. All his
discomfort around the gods, increasing as his friends give themselves further
to such patrons, comes down to that belief.
But I’m also struck by the similarity to Urðr in ‘The Wicked
+ The Divine.’ The last god of the pantheon. Always the difficult one. On the periphery
of all the others looking in. (Consider it if you’ve read the comic. I may
explore it in a later post with a giant spoiler warning for WicDiv hung on it.)
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Transcript method notes: http://otdderamin.tumblr.com/post/153539301510/a-note-on-my-transcription-method
Scenes run:
[1] Ep103 – We need patrons 2:06:12
https://youtu.be/2HOdxvQ_ydU?t=2h6m12s
[2] Ep104 – How do you feel about gods? (Alpha Part
1 (unedited)) 1:22:32
Transcripts:
[1] Ep103 – We need
patrons
2:06:12 Percy: “I think what Vax is trying to say is we need
patrons.”
Vex: “Patrons?”
Percy: “We need patronage. We’re going
to need…”
Grog: “What you mean?”
Percy: “We’re not enough. We are not
enough for this. We are going to all die
horribly if we try anything like that again.”
Grog: “Like, we need them with us? Or
they’re going to imbue us with…”
Percy: “I don’t know.”
2:06:36 Vax to Percy, slowly, emphatically
intoned: “Pelor lives here.”
Grog: “Oof.”
Vex: “Lives here in the Feywild?”
Vax, emphatically to Percy:
“Pelor.”
Percy, wincing and deflating: “Oh
god…” Rubbing his face with his hand in irritation, “Pelor.”
Vax, softly nodding: “Pelor. All of us. Your
family.”
Percy, resigned: “We have to deal with this.”
Keyleth: “Okay, so we have a short list, is what we’re
saying.”
2:07:02 Percy, in planning mode, looking increasingly
haunted: “We need to get a slightly longer list. We have to start…
begging. We are going to owe favors, we are going to owe our lives, we are
going to lose…”
Vex: “Are we really going to pledge allegiance to a
bunch of different gods?”
Percy, with a grimacing smile: “We’ll see.”
Vex: “That’s what we’re going to do?”
Grog: “That’d be pretty cool.”
Percy, emphatically: “We’ll see.” He looks sadly
lost in thought and haunted.
[2] Ep104 – How do
you feel about gods?
Times: Alpha Episode 104: Part 1 (unedited)
1:22:32 Vex:
“Percy, have you done a lot of talking to Pelor?”
Percy: “Not really,
no.”
Keyleth: “Percy, how do you feel about gods these days?
Last time we talked we were both… not optimistic, I feel like.”
1:22:46 Percy, hesitating: “I know how to be
polite.”
Keyleth: “Yeah.”
Percy: “I’m very reasonable at that. This…”
Keyleth: “Reverence.”
Percy: “Reverence.”
Vax: “You can certainly acknowledge when someone can
squash you like a bug.”
Percy: “Yes.”
Keyleth: “But a lot of things can squish us like
bugs.”
Percy: “Yes.”
Keyleth: “I don’t know, this is complicated.”
Percy: “Yes.”
Critical Analysis 