I mean, given everything that happened in the volcano, the guy needs a break. Also, given everything that happened in the volcano, I think his vertical leap is probably even higher than twenty feet.
So… Way back in November of last year, Red made this tumblr post:
“it has been [0] days since a protagonist wrestled the keyboard out of my hands to do an unplanned Big Swing and made me rewrite a whole chapter about it”
And then set up a poll for guessing who it was.
11.5% of the guesses were on Falst
Can someone give a detailed untangling of the emotions running here, for I’m unable to pin down exactly why falst gave that specific reaction to this situation.
what i’m getting is that he’s overwhelmed at being relied on, and that’s the last straw after all the drama on the boat, volcano trauma, and then being nearly killed by the paladins (nothing he hates more than needing the rest of the squad’s protection, especially when he was trying to protect them to begin with)
i posted a very long yap in answer to this, but forgot to reply to your comment with it when i copypasted it into my browser—you can find it if you scroll down this page. it’s just my thought but i hope it helps!!
I’m not exactly a psychologist (although I like to act like it) but I’d say I agree w/ what some other comments have said that Falst is overwhelmed here. We already saw him freaking out earlier because (in his mind, personally I blame Caliban) he put Kendal in danger to de-rock Dainix. We’ve also never really seen him as scared as he was when Dainix was in danger (my boi jumped into a fucking volcano). It’s been a bad day for all the floods and I do think what Tess is saying has some merit. He’s not used to having friends to take care of and he’s not used to making decisions that determine other people’s safety. There’s also the fact that this is ERIN asking for HELP, and Falst resident Other Guy That Won’t Ask For Help knows that means it’s dire. Ultimately I think it’s a panic response but Falst is probably gonna commit too hard and not join back up for a hot minute.
For Tess, I think she’s not wrong but she’s also projecting a little. It says a lot about her self awareness and empathy that she’s able to understand Falst’s reaction based on her own experience even if there’s something else going on for him. Tess and Falst (and by extension Dainix and Erin) parallels aren’t something we’ve seen a lot but I’m very excited to explore them more.
Dainix needs a hug. Please someone hug my boy he’s had suck a bad day. I think at least the top three times we’ve seen him the most upset in the comic have happened in-universe today. (I’m thinking panic attack on the boat, realizing he can’t go home, and Falst almost getting stabbed). My personal prediction is that he’s gonna do the “I’m a warrior gotta focus on the mission” thing and proceed with the plan but I don’t think it’s gonna be fun.
Hope any of my yapping was helpful or at least interesting lol I am sure as heck no authority on the matter but this is my interpretation 🙂
I too am not super well versed in Emotions™ but here’s my take:
Dainix is about to do something life-threatening and stupid. Falst is completely powerless in this situation (and basically all the situations today–he’s been hurt/out of options since the boat fight) because he can’t dissuade Dainix and can’t help if anything goes wrong. Being powerless is kind of a big trigger for him and he’s about to cry/have a panic attack about it, and vulnerability is also a no, so he gets out of there to, presumably, try to get some agency back and solve the situation himself, which is… life-threatening and stupid. Good going Falst.
Typical. We finally get Erin to listen to other people’s plans and insights, and they run away when asked.
While Tess’s insight is interesting and certainly explains a few things about Falst and her, I not sure how right it is. Is he running here because he doesn’t want to be tethered down? Or is he so unused to this feeling of powerlessness for other’s sake, especially when put on the spot, that he doesn’t know how to handle it? Let’s not forget he’s only had friends for a few weeks now.
I interpreted Falst’s posture in the chapter cover to be pained, but I was thinking it was due to Light magic shenanigans; now it looks to be because of his own internal turmoil. … Granted there’s still time for the Paladins to make it even worse.
I don’t think she means that he’s running simply because he’s non-commital, if that’s what you mean. I think Tess just sees her own stress response in Falst. As someone who ran away from a bad situation the moment she was Sparked and then spent the next years roaming the world, it makes sense that she and Falst would have similar responses to emotional distress. I mean, when you get right down to it, they each have the power to jump into and out of whatever problems come their way. Of course they’d run away when things get tough.
Oh noooo. I expected Falst to be upset but did not anticipate that specific reaction. It seems like maybe he’s got a case of extreme overwhelm. He thinks the guy he likes is gonna die (or at least get close to it, AGAIN), is now being asked for alternative ideas by Erin, and maybe can’t handle the pressure of having all that decision-making trust placed in him suddenly, in combination with every other lousy emotion he’s having? I’m guessing and still bewildered by his response, though.
Somebody looks overstimulated. Is he going to like, run off, or is he just going to stay up there? Personally, I’m guessing “run off,” but that’s going to be a huge problem for the Floof Squad. In other news, can we have Alinua back now? Or at least another chapter starring her? We have the rest of the party back together, I want Alinua!
Someone’s having a hard time processing his emotions. It’s not unsurprising Falst’s emotional insecurities are coming out now, he’s new to close relationships and Dainix is leaving to do something very risky. Also Tess’s assessment isn’t quite hitting the mark, there’s some more complicated feelings going on here.
It’s honestly sick and twisted and terribly well-written how Falst goes from actively heckling Erin when he makes plans without team involvement to running away when Erin actually asks for his opinion (because asking for his opinion means that Erin is actually growing, changing, and bettering himself, which makes Falst feel even worse for ‘not doing enough’ to help).
my running theory? it is about so so much more than this moment. unless i’m mistaken, falst is not actually “on board with the ship,” as it were. red has mentioned on her tumblr that dainix can be too emotionally sensitive for his own good, because he picks up on emotions and doesn’t know when not to address them. he knows falst loves him, and is patiently giving falst time to reciprocate that affection, but if you go back to the aftermath of the volcano heist, when dainix has his hands on falst’s shoulders, falst smacks them off and turns away. and dainix lets him. but falst, to tess’ point, is a runner. red’s tumblr has also mentioned that one of tess’ “flaws” is that she cannot stand to be tied down, and the people she loves, through no fault of her own, can become weights that hold her back. that is why she understands falst in this moment.
there is a safety and freedom in loneliness and detachment. there is no one you are beholden to but yourself. you can always just bail you can always just leave you can always just do the smart thing that makes so much sense to you without feelings getting in the way.
and that means love—of any kind, provided only that it is deep enough and true enough—can be terrifying. suddenly you find that you can’t “just hit da bricks” if a situation gets bad, or if you don’t want to be there anymore for whatever reason. and suddenly this “external thing” has so much influence and control over you. it can corner you.
red has said that falst is loyal—perhaps to a fault at times. but i find he is not at all used to having anyone To Be Loyal To.
perhaps in his eyes the first mistake he made was to go to zuurith at all. you can tell immediately that he had always avoided cities for very good reason, and that he *didn’t know what he was getting into* and from the second kendal explained the premise of zuurith to him, the only thing he wanted to do was leave. but he didn’t, not without breaking kendal out first, because he’s loyal to kendal. and then alinua stopped him, and he chose to go along with her because he decided for himself that she had a point and chose to listen to her.
he’s “useless” in the fight against tynan. and yet he is still there. he doesn’t Just Leave because he is loyal. for all the good it does him and everyone else, in his eyes.
and then dainix is here. and from his confrontation with dainix in the post-zuurith fallout, we can kind of see that the group growing as it is is perhaps not great for him. falst’s instinctive reaction was to not trust tess and to not tell her where erin was. dainix, also, began as a perceived threat to the group. falst is loyal to the group—at the very least to kendal and perhaps alinua—but now the group contains the very people he is trying to protect the group against. this is no longer what he signed up for. this isn’t a little adventure with kendal, erin, and alinua, this is Something he is A Part Of that keeps changing in ways he can’t anticipate or prevent but at the same time he finds he can’t just up and leave. because everything he has now he owes to kendal’s kindness to him and he doesn’t want to go back to the loneliness of before.
but slowly, ever so slightly, bit by bit, it becomes too much.
he gets on the boat. “exposed,” he says he feels. but he does indeed get on. because dainix and kendal and everyone are here (because damn it all, he feels a bond—a chain, it may feel—like he has with kendal growing with dainix, but different and stronger and pushing him into doing strange and terrible and vulnerable things like holding dainix’s hand. and perhaps this too is terrifying. that he is becoming someone he recognizes less and less, and he is no longer free to “rationally” act in whatever way he sees fit at any given moment). and when it all goes to heck, falst by all rights should just jump ship with tess, but he stays behind to save dainix. but dainix is a rock. and caliban uses that to manipulate falst into risking his life and kendal’s life “for dainix,” when the fireseed was never actually what they needed. and this truly begins to weigh on falst. he felt cornered, which tess reiterates here.
time and time again there is a terrible plan. and falst knows it is a terrible plan. and in the past, before he had such loyalties, perhaps he would have simply said “that’s it, i’m out.” but every time since joining this group, perhaps the plan wasn’t quite so bad, and the fail state wasn’t quite so dire, and it wouldn’t have been quite so hard to escape (trapped on an island swarmed by paladins who know his face and that he is an enemy). notably, the bit in the ancient ruins is exempt from this because he was the one that got dragged in by the robot so his agency didn’t have anything to do with it.
cut to this moment. he does not want dainix to die. this was his motivation last time, too. but that plan was founded on a lie and dainix just said he could survive underwater and falst doesn’t know what to think except the plan is bad the plan is bad and every time before the volcano heist, he’d had a backup plan, or at least an escape plan, and was able to choose for himself to go along with the terrible plan because he didn’t want to abandon these people.
but the volcano heist cornered him. and he went along with it and he HATED it. and now he’s cornered again. is he going to make the same mistake twice? erin asks him what his plan is. his plan is to simply not do this. but paladins are hunting erin and dainix can’t swim and he doesn’t have a good plan for the group. but perhaps there is a part of him that has never stopped making a second plan—HIS plan—for what happens when the group fails him. we saw him do it on the ship when he was spellcarving lacrimas, and it saved them. and now erin asks him for his plan and his plan is run, his plan is escape, his plan is get to safety. but he stands there next to dainix and feels those chains wrap around him and realizes that he CANNOT do that. he cannot run. he is trapped here with these people. and that terrifies him. because he is so deeply, so thoroughly, so inexorably trapped.
and he closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and tries to escape.
he runs.
because he has stopped staying here because he wanted to and chose to. he has been staying here because he Cannot Bear To Lose Them. and in an instance like this, that is something quite different than choosing to stay out of love. he is sick and tired of being cornered by this fear that reeks of love.
they have a plan. the plan does not involve or require him. the plan involves standing around and waiting for the man he loves to do something dangerous and terrible with the person whose fault this entire mess is.
he has slid so far so fast into someone he no longer recognizes (light magic notwithstanding!!) and he hasn’t had enough time to sit with a halfway point, to build a new status quo—it’s been changing too fast. and now it’s changed too much and he can’t handle it and he’s trapped and so he falls back into the last status quo he trusted to protect him: being alone, and running away.
what happens next? i can’t say plot-wise, but in my opinion, falst’s separation from the group will give him much needed space to realize that he DOES want this. he signed up for the old group. this is a new group. he needs to make the choice to come back and commit to the new group, the new status quo, with full knowledge of what that entails. make informed consent, as it were. and i’m sure he will. the only question is how long it takes and what happens to each party along the way. and to that i say: good luck, kid.
Bang on. I guess it makes sense that Falst has the most intricate character arc considering that he doesn’t have any other material reason to stick with the group. Kendal and Erin and Dainix have their quests, Alinua and Tess are sticking with their family, Kendal and Erin, respectively, and Falst is just here for… personal reasons.
The way I see things going, Erin and Dainix are heading under the sea which will leave Tess and Kendal to search for Falst while evading the Paladins. The Paladins are planning to drive them up towards the caldera, so I imagine that’s where they’ll have their confrontation, emotional and otherwise. I can see Tess being the voice of reason this time, instead of Kendal, since she can better relate to Falst’s feelings this time.
Bang on. I guess it makes sense that Falst has the most intricate character arc considering that he doesn’t have any other material reason to stick with the group. Kendal and Erin and Dainix have their quests, Alinua and Tess are sticking with their family, Kendal and Erin, respectively, and Faslt is just here for… personal reasons.
The way I see things going, Erin and Dainix are heading under the sea which will leave Tess and Kendal to search for Falst while evading the Paladins. The Paladins are planning to drive them up towards the caldera, so I imagine that’s where they’ll have their confrontation, emotional and otherwise. I can see Tess being the voice of reason this time, instead of Kendal, since she can better relate to Falst’s feelings this time.
Catperson runs away because they can’t handle the thought of a loved one going into a potentially suicidal mission so they’d rather be out of the picture entirely!
I think I’d have 3 nickles for that now.
Yes we’re all worried for Falst’s emotional well-being, but what about his injury?? It’s been long enough for the surface to clear up but he got smacked by a dragon tail at most an hour ago- he probably has some internal damage, so maybe he won’t be able to run for long, and that means part two of Falst’s Really Healthy Way to Deal With Feelings- hiding.
Or he’ll get captured by the Paladins and make his day even worse. At least if he isn’t actively with Erin they might not go full “Stab the Dark Avatar’s Friend” mode immediately and we can get a bit more lore about the Paladins in general and Falst’s connection to them specifically.
You are asking the right questions. In addition to the dragon tale thing, remember when he got chomped by the cinderpede back in chapter 4? There’s no way he didn’t fracture his ribs back there. So yeah, hiding might be the better option. (page 2.4.42)
I think the last time any of these guys had a proper meal was on the boat, over a full day from this point in time. Hey, maybe they’re all just hangry and need something to eat
Yeah, I was thinking about that too! Kendal is probably fine- he doesn’t need to eat as much. Dainix was a rock so hopefully wasn’t getting hungry in that form. Tess, Erin, and Falst might have some problems, though. Tess might have been able to find something for her and Erin to eat, so that leaves Falst who almost certainly hasn’t had a chance to eat since the PB&Js five chapters ago. Things are looking dire for Mr. Angst here, health-wise.
I know we are all interested in Falst, and for good reason, but I want to take a moment to appreciate Kendal commenting on Dainix’s outburst from the perspective of someone who has inherited the memories of a god
Yes… *almost* never? So sometimes they have fallen for it, ha.
Dainix, you’re dealing with a trickster god here. They’re not known for being “safe.” Getting you almost killed, killed as a means to an end, or killed and unpleasantly resurrected afterward is par for the course. Meanwhile, Tahraim is the sort to sit back and say “Hmm…” as he watches the experiment unfold and you get torn to bits. Look what happened to Vash.
Tahraim: That’s an interesting interpretation of the cryptic riddle I handed you. I didn’t expect you to take it quite so literally.
Vash: I was missing my sword arm! In the middle of a sword fight!
To be fair, him trying to jump out of a window the moment he receives a compliment did kind of warn us of that…
F O R E S H A D O W I N G
Falst’s leave-the-group-lancer-style count: 1
lancer?? boy went straight vertical, he’s fully advanced to dragoon by this point
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: readers I’m right there with you. I also did not want him to do that
Image source: cornered
Tumblr text: I finally reassemble upwards of 80% of the party and this is how they repay me
Bluesky text: what a cat-astrophe
mario-wahoo.mp3
That title doesn’t lie, these doofuses certainly are scattering
I mean, given everything that happened in the volcano, the guy needs a break. Also, given everything that happened in the volcano, I think his vertical leap is probably even higher than twenty feet.
Curious how that simple concluding line from Tess can feel so much like a lead weight in your stomach.
Poor Falst.
I LOVE TESS SO MUCH.
Best girl is best girl, and with the insightd, too <3
Poor Falst, poor Dainix. But what a fantastic twist!
So… Way back in November of last year, Red made this tumblr post:
“it has been [0] days since a protagonist wrestled the keyboard out of my hands to do an unplanned Big Swing and made me rewrite a whole chapter about it”
And then set up a poll for guessing who it was.
11.5% of the guesses were on Falst
Red confirmed on Tumblr that this is indeed the moment in question.
Don’t do impuls-driven decision making, kids!
Don’t tell me what to do. *dies from I-didn’t-think-that-through damage*
Can someone give a detailed untangling of the emotions running here, for I’m unable to pin down exactly why falst gave that specific reaction to this situation.
what i’m getting is that he’s overwhelmed at being relied on, and that’s the last straw after all the drama on the boat, volcano trauma, and then being nearly killed by the paladins (nothing he hates more than needing the rest of the squad’s protection, especially when he was trying to protect them to begin with)
i posted a very long yap in answer to this, but forgot to reply to your comment with it when i copypasted it into my browser—you can find it if you scroll down this page. it’s just my thought but i hope it helps!!
I’m not exactly a psychologist (although I like to act like it) but I’d say I agree w/ what some other comments have said that Falst is overwhelmed here. We already saw him freaking out earlier because (in his mind, personally I blame Caliban) he put Kendal in danger to de-rock Dainix. We’ve also never really seen him as scared as he was when Dainix was in danger (my boi jumped into a fucking volcano). It’s been a bad day for all the floods and I do think what Tess is saying has some merit. He’s not used to having friends to take care of and he’s not used to making decisions that determine other people’s safety. There’s also the fact that this is ERIN asking for HELP, and Falst resident Other Guy That Won’t Ask For Help knows that means it’s dire. Ultimately I think it’s a panic response but Falst is probably gonna commit too hard and not join back up for a hot minute.
For Tess, I think she’s not wrong but she’s also projecting a little. It says a lot about her self awareness and empathy that she’s able to understand Falst’s reaction based on her own experience even if there’s something else going on for him. Tess and Falst (and by extension Dainix and Erin) parallels aren’t something we’ve seen a lot but I’m very excited to explore them more.
Dainix needs a hug. Please someone hug my boy he’s had suck a bad day. I think at least the top three times we’ve seen him the most upset in the comic have happened in-universe today. (I’m thinking panic attack on the boat, realizing he can’t go home, and Falst almost getting stabbed). My personal prediction is that he’s gonna do the “I’m a warrior gotta focus on the mission” thing and proceed with the plan but I don’t think it’s gonna be fun.
Hope any of my yapping was helpful or at least interesting lol I am sure as heck no authority on the matter but this is my interpretation 🙂
I too am not super well versed in Emotions™ but here’s my take:
Dainix is about to do something life-threatening and stupid. Falst is completely powerless in this situation (and basically all the situations today–he’s been hurt/out of options since the boat fight) because he can’t dissuade Dainix and can’t help if anything goes wrong. Being powerless is kind of a big trigger for him and he’s about to cry/have a panic attack about it, and vulnerability is also a no, so he gets out of there to, presumably, try to get some agency back and solve the situation himself, which is… life-threatening and stupid. Good going Falst.
Typical. We finally get Erin to listen to other people’s plans and insights, and they run away when asked.
While Tess’s insight is interesting and certainly explains a few things about Falst and her, I not sure how right it is. Is he running here because he doesn’t want to be tethered down? Or is he so unused to this feeling of powerlessness for other’s sake, especially when put on the spot, that he doesn’t know how to handle it? Let’s not forget he’s only had friends for a few weeks now.
I interpreted Falst’s posture in the chapter cover to be pained, but I was thinking it was due to Light magic shenanigans; now it looks to be because of his own internal turmoil. … Granted there’s still time for the Paladins to make it even worse.
Let that be a lesson to you, Erin!
I don’t think she means that he’s running simply because he’s non-commital, if that’s what you mean. I think Tess just sees her own stress response in Falst. As someone who ran away from a bad situation the moment she was Sparked and then spent the next years roaming the world, it makes sense that she and Falst would have similar responses to emotional distress. I mean, when you get right down to it, they each have the power to jump into and out of whatever problems come their way. Of course they’d run away when things get tough.
KILLING MYSELF WITH THE LAST PANEL. WAHH
But… But boyfriends…
Oh noooo. I expected Falst to be upset but did not anticipate that specific reaction. It seems like maybe he’s got a case of extreme overwhelm. He thinks the guy he likes is gonna die (or at least get close to it, AGAIN), is now being asked for alternative ideas by Erin, and maybe can’t handle the pressure of having all that decision-making trust placed in him suddenly, in combination with every other lousy emotion he’s having? I’m guessing and still bewildered by his response, though.
Noooooo
Somebody looks overstimulated. Is he going to like, run off, or is he just going to stay up there? Personally, I’m guessing “run off,” but that’s going to be a huge problem for the Floof Squad. In other news, can we have Alinua back now? Or at least another chapter starring her? We have the rest of the party back together, I want Alinua!
Judging by the chapter cover, no dice. Seems like they’re all splitting up except Erin and Dainix.
Someone’s having a hard time processing his emotions. It’s not unsurprising Falst’s emotional insecurities are coming out now, he’s new to close relationships and Dainix is leaving to do something very risky. Also Tess’s assessment isn’t quite hitting the mark, there’s some more complicated feelings going on here.
Good lord, we need Alinua back to help the group regulate their emotions
An emotional breakdown? Because the Heart went missing? Groundbreaking.
It’s honestly sick and twisted and terribly well-written how Falst goes from actively heckling Erin when he makes plans without team involvement to running away when Erin actually asks for his opinion (because asking for his opinion means that Erin is actually growing, changing, and bettering himself, which makes Falst feel even worse for ‘not doing enough’ to help).
Oh god that’s a brilliant interpretation. Thanks. I hate it /j
Is he running? Or did he decide to play distraction and not allow the group to provide any input on the plan? Either way, he’ll be back.
oh golly me its dainix
oh golly me it Fal- aaaand he’s gone
(NOOO not my catboi)
oh golly me it’s the empty space where Falst was half a second ago
my running theory? it is about so so much more than this moment. unless i’m mistaken, falst is not actually “on board with the ship,” as it were. red has mentioned on her tumblr that dainix can be too emotionally sensitive for his own good, because he picks up on emotions and doesn’t know when not to address them. he knows falst loves him, and is patiently giving falst time to reciprocate that affection, but if you go back to the aftermath of the volcano heist, when dainix has his hands on falst’s shoulders, falst smacks them off and turns away. and dainix lets him. but falst, to tess’ point, is a runner. red’s tumblr has also mentioned that one of tess’ “flaws” is that she cannot stand to be tied down, and the people she loves, through no fault of her own, can become weights that hold her back. that is why she understands falst in this moment.
there is a safety and freedom in loneliness and detachment. there is no one you are beholden to but yourself. you can always just bail you can always just leave you can always just do the smart thing that makes so much sense to you without feelings getting in the way.
and that means love—of any kind, provided only that it is deep enough and true enough—can be terrifying. suddenly you find that you can’t “just hit da bricks” if a situation gets bad, or if you don’t want to be there anymore for whatever reason. and suddenly this “external thing” has so much influence and control over you. it can corner you.
red has said that falst is loyal—perhaps to a fault at times. but i find he is not at all used to having anyone To Be Loyal To.
perhaps in his eyes the first mistake he made was to go to zuurith at all. you can tell immediately that he had always avoided cities for very good reason, and that he *didn’t know what he was getting into* and from the second kendal explained the premise of zuurith to him, the only thing he wanted to do was leave. but he didn’t, not without breaking kendal out first, because he’s loyal to kendal. and then alinua stopped him, and he chose to go along with her because he decided for himself that she had a point and chose to listen to her.
he’s “useless” in the fight against tynan. and yet he is still there. he doesn’t Just Leave because he is loyal. for all the good it does him and everyone else, in his eyes.
and then dainix is here. and from his confrontation with dainix in the post-zuurith fallout, we can kind of see that the group growing as it is is perhaps not great for him. falst’s instinctive reaction was to not trust tess and to not tell her where erin was. dainix, also, began as a perceived threat to the group. falst is loyal to the group—at the very least to kendal and perhaps alinua—but now the group contains the very people he is trying to protect the group against. this is no longer what he signed up for. this isn’t a little adventure with kendal, erin, and alinua, this is Something he is A Part Of that keeps changing in ways he can’t anticipate or prevent but at the same time he finds he can’t just up and leave. because everything he has now he owes to kendal’s kindness to him and he doesn’t want to go back to the loneliness of before.
but slowly, ever so slightly, bit by bit, it becomes too much.
he gets on the boat. “exposed,” he says he feels. but he does indeed get on. because dainix and kendal and everyone are here (because damn it all, he feels a bond—a chain, it may feel—like he has with kendal growing with dainix, but different and stronger and pushing him into doing strange and terrible and vulnerable things like holding dainix’s hand. and perhaps this too is terrifying. that he is becoming someone he recognizes less and less, and he is no longer free to “rationally” act in whatever way he sees fit at any given moment). and when it all goes to heck, falst by all rights should just jump ship with tess, but he stays behind to save dainix. but dainix is a rock. and caliban uses that to manipulate falst into risking his life and kendal’s life “for dainix,” when the fireseed was never actually what they needed. and this truly begins to weigh on falst. he felt cornered, which tess reiterates here.
time and time again there is a terrible plan. and falst knows it is a terrible plan. and in the past, before he had such loyalties, perhaps he would have simply said “that’s it, i’m out.” but every time since joining this group, perhaps the plan wasn’t quite so bad, and the fail state wasn’t quite so dire, and it wouldn’t have been quite so hard to escape (trapped on an island swarmed by paladins who know his face and that he is an enemy). notably, the bit in the ancient ruins is exempt from this because he was the one that got dragged in by the robot so his agency didn’t have anything to do with it.
the volcano heist was a terrible plan. and he followed through out of love for dainix—or perhaps fear of losing him—but was burned for it. both physically (hello volcanic fumes) and psychologically (caliban being fairly blasĂ© about the fact that he just Got One Over On Falst). falst is supposed to be better than this. he’s supposed to know better than this. he KNEW he was “falling for it,” but it still worked on him, because he simply Could Not risk letting dainix die. he no longer has a backup plan, an escape plan. it’s all closing in around him, and now he can finally see just how bad it’s gotten.
cut to this moment. he does not want dainix to die. this was his motivation last time, too. but that plan was founded on a lie and dainix just said he could survive underwater and falst doesn’t know what to think except the plan is bad the plan is bad and every time before the volcano heist, he’d had a backup plan, or at least an escape plan, and was able to choose for himself to go along with the terrible plan because he didn’t want to abandon these people.
but the volcano heist cornered him. and he went along with it and he HATED it. and now he’s cornered again. is he going to make the same mistake twice? erin asks him what his plan is. his plan is to simply not do this. but paladins are hunting erin and dainix can’t swim and he doesn’t have a good plan for the group. but perhaps there is a part of him that has never stopped making a second plan—HIS plan—for what happens when the group fails him. we saw him do it on the ship when he was spellcarving lacrimas, and it saved them. and now erin asks him for his plan and his plan is run, his plan is escape, his plan is get to safety. but he stands there next to dainix and feels those chains wrap around him and realizes that he CANNOT do that. he cannot run. he is trapped here with these people. and that terrifies him. because he is so deeply, so thoroughly, so inexorably trapped.
and he closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and tries to escape.
he runs.
because he has stopped staying here because he wanted to and chose to. he has been staying here because he Cannot Bear To Lose Them. and in an instance like this, that is something quite different than choosing to stay out of love. he is sick and tired of being cornered by this fear that reeks of love.
they have a plan. the plan does not involve or require him. the plan involves standing around and waiting for the man he loves to do something dangerous and terrible with the person whose fault this entire mess is.
he has slid so far so fast into someone he no longer recognizes (light magic notwithstanding!!) and he hasn’t had enough time to sit with a halfway point, to build a new status quo—it’s been changing too fast. and now it’s changed too much and he can’t handle it and he’s trapped and so he falls back into the last status quo he trusted to protect him: being alone, and running away.
what happens next? i can’t say plot-wise, but in my opinion, falst’s separation from the group will give him much needed space to realize that he DOES want this. he signed up for the old group. this is a new group. he needs to make the choice to come back and commit to the new group, the new status quo, with full knowledge of what that entails. make informed consent, as it were. and i’m sure he will. the only question is how long it takes and what happens to each party along the way. and to that i say: good luck, kid.
Bang on. I guess it makes sense that Falst has the most intricate character arc considering that he doesn’t have any other material reason to stick with the group. Kendal and Erin and Dainix have their quests, Alinua and Tess are sticking with their family, Kendal and Erin, respectively, and Falst is just here for… personal reasons.
The way I see things going, Erin and Dainix are heading under the sea which will leave Tess and Kendal to search for Falst while evading the Paladins. The Paladins are planning to drive them up towards the caldera, so I imagine that’s where they’ll have their confrontation, emotional and otherwise. I can see Tess being the voice of reason this time, instead of Kendal, since she can better relate to Falst’s feelings this time.
The Lancer having the most Big Character Moments is certainly standard for that sort of group dynamic…
Bang on. I guess it makes sense that Falst has the most intricate character arc considering that he doesn’t have any other material reason to stick with the group. Kendal and Erin and Dainix have their quests, Alinua and Tess are sticking with their family, Kendal and Erin, respectively, and Faslt is just here for… personal reasons.
The way I see things going, Erin and Dainix are heading under the sea which will leave Tess and Kendal to search for Falst while evading the Paladins. The Paladins are planning to drive them up towards the caldera, so I imagine that’s where they’ll have their confrontation, emotional and otherwise. I can see Tess being the voice of reason this time, instead of Kendal, since she can better relate to Falst’s feelings this time.
Hmm. Not sure why this happened.
yeah, you get it.
Can only agree with veggiesnake. This is, I think, very accurate to Falst’s character. Thank you for writing it!
Catperson runs away because they can’t handle the thought of a loved one going into a potentially suicidal mission so they’d rather be out of the picture entirely!
I think I’d have 3 nickles for that now.
Falst go boing!!
Falst runs away when asked for one (1) opinion. He’s so mecore
ALMOST never fall for that.
Yes we’re all worried for Falst’s emotional well-being, but what about his injury?? It’s been long enough for the surface to clear up but he got smacked by a dragon tail at most an hour ago- he probably has some internal damage, so maybe he won’t be able to run for long, and that means part two of Falst’s Really Healthy Way to Deal With Feelings- hiding.
Or he’ll get captured by the Paladins and make his day even worse. At least if he isn’t actively with Erin they might not go full “Stab the Dark Avatar’s Friend” mode immediately and we can get a bit more lore about the Paladins in general and Falst’s connection to them specifically.
You are asking the right questions. In addition to the dragon tale thing, remember when he got chomped by the cinderpede back in chapter 4? There’s no way he didn’t fracture his ribs back there. So yeah, hiding might be the better option. (page 2.4.42)
I think the last time any of these guys had a proper meal was on the boat, over a full day from this point in time. Hey, maybe they’re all just hangry and need something to eat
Yeah, I was thinking about that too! Kendal is probably fine- he doesn’t need to eat as much. Dainix was a rock so hopefully wasn’t getting hungry in that form. Tess, Erin, and Falst might have some problems, though. Tess might have been able to find something for her and Erin to eat, so that leaves Falst who almost certainly hasn’t had a chance to eat since the PB&Js five chapters ago. Things are looking dire for Mr. Angst here, health-wise.
I know we are all interested in Falst, and for good reason, but I want to take a moment to appreciate Kendal commenting on Dainix’s outburst from the perspective of someone who has inherited the memories of a god
Yes… *almost* never? So sometimes they have fallen for it, ha.
Dainix, you’re dealing with a trickster god here. They’re not known for being “safe.” Getting you almost killed, killed as a means to an end, or killed and unpleasantly resurrected afterward is par for the course. Meanwhile, Tahraim is the sort to sit back and say “Hmm…” as he watches the experiment unfold and you get torn to bits. Look what happened to Vash.
Tahraim: That’s an interesting interpretation of the cryptic riddle I handed you. I didn’t expect you to take it quite so literally.
Vash: I was missing my sword arm! In the middle of a sword fight!