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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 1834216" data-attributes="member: 8944">Sinking in the granite :/At current, you have no alliance with the Bluestar. Archonus Bluestar has been waiting for a chance to negotiate such a thing, but has not yet been granted audience in order to do so. All you did was trade swords, and agree to let him come here. So far, he hasn't been any harm, and has in fact acted to protect your interests on several occaisons. Furthermore, this runs precisely contrary to one of your oft-stated aims for the character. "I want the Bluestar to be redeemed," you say. And yet, when he offers to help you do something that is an absolute necessity for your success at NO COST to yourselves, you're angry about it? Was his redemption just not sacrificial enough, for you? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> I don't think AB is any bigger, but he is certainly badder. Badder, not in the Michael Jackson sense, but in the "I'm willing to do the amoral thing" kind of way. Why, in the face of that, Archonus Arendorr would start to slip in the same direction is mindboggling, at least from a story perspective. "How can I distinguish myself from my dark doppelganger?" he must have asked himself. "I know! I'll become darker!" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  Now that might be pretty depressing, I'll grant. But, according to AB, none of the Bluestar's undead forces have tread inside the city. So, it may have fallen, but the Bluestar's forces are showing remarkable restraint, thus far (as far as you know). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  It's perfectly sensible for the character to be scared about that, but none of his actions seemed to be seeking a solution. They're just making the problem(s) worse. It's no less Jaine's fault than Archons. If they were still together, she wouldn't be any less paralyzed or any more pregnant. None of the current situation, except for Archon unwittingly antagonizing her, is really making it better OR worse. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Part of it is your fault, sure. But you didn't paralyze her. If Archon really feels bad about it, what's he doing to make it better? This would make perfect sense if he was doing something to help, but his method of soothing this deep inner pain seems to be to walk in and stir his despondent queen to near apoplectic fury. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  How is Xath being taken away? Or his children? He's got to have a pretty good idea that they're going to live, at least. Even in the worst of the Queen's fury, she offered to let him be a father, even if not a husband to her. He wasn't losing his kids at any point in the equation, until he refused to listen and pushed too hard. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Now that's just silly. Are you really telling me that he's upset because she wasn't brought back to life in the right way!? That's absurd! She wasn't resurrected enough for you? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> No argument here. You get 10 free minutes of darkness. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> HOO BOY that worked out badly. Archon really is to blame for helping save the city, and inadvertantly reuniting Kaereth with his father. What. a. jerk. I don't even know why we keep him around. It's a good thing those black orcs aren't encamped around the walls waiting for orders, and are instead rampaging through the surrounding wildernes....oh wait! It's the opposite of that! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> You've had victory after victory, and even triumphing over death itself isn't enough for Archon. I'm not saying that everything is coming up roses, here, but Archon seems determined to interpret everything in as self-destructive a way as is possible. And, I'm saying, from the outside looking in, it doesn't make sense.  I like Archon. I think I like him better than you do, since none of the stuff I can think of to throw at him is even half as bad as the stuff he either 1) does to himself or 2) imagines is out there, arrayed against him, despite all evidence and experience to the contrary.  I think he's been and can be a great character. I think you - Mik - are a great roleplayer*. But this is getting ridiculous. None of these are unreasonable set backs, and none of them are greater than the challenges the other characters have had to surmount, some of whom have passed beyond the gates of death themselves, and still managed to emerge with a more realistic (and brighter) outlook than Archon's.  He has love, he has friends, and he is fighting for the right cause. What more can a hero ask for? I am honestly at a loss as to how I could provide MORE chances for redemption. I'm trying to help you dig your character out of the rut, man, but at some point you've got to help me. I've compromised a great deal, only to have you turn momentously good occaisons into SOMETHING ELSE for Archon to be sad about. What do I need to do? Lay it out! PLEEEEEEASE tell me.  Thanks for listening and reading.   *I also think the rest of you are great, but this relates to Archon/Mik, in particular.</blockquote>

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