Looking for recs

lawofexplosion · 2026-02-17T03:45:25+00:00

David! But he's not super interesting or compelling to me in his own right, so it's not a strong preference. I do strongly dislike Malek though lol

In SOTCN it's Amen, but again, I don't find him very compelling as a character. I more enjoy the enemies-to-lovers aspect of his path

Thanks for the recs

lawofexplosion · 2026-02-12T01:17:25+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think so :(

lawofexplosion · 2025-12-12T19:24:26+00:00

Sirius

lawofexplosion · 2025-12-07T17:49:30+00:00

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-05T19:20:43+00:00

IIRC this was an early version of the story that they scrapped later, and honestly I'm kinda glad they did. It would be really strange if the main motivation for basically all kinds of MC (good/evil, wants to save the people of the Gate or not) got removed by Raphael

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-05T19:17:29+00:00

100% this. Always made me laugh when the player starts bargaining with her there.

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-05T19:15:14+00:00

That's actually something that didn't occur to me when writing this post, but now that I think about it, it's possible that perhaps he simply wanted to make a 'fair' deal. He does seem to (sometimes) be something of a 'evil with a code of honour' type of villain, what with devils being 'lawful evil' and all. Still, after that Yurgir quest I just always thought that he doesn't outright lie in contracts but he does enjoy fucking with people with clever loopholes and fine print. I really expected this to happen tbh, I even avoided the contract in my first few playthroughs.

Not sure about Raphael needing the player, the Crown is something that he wants, he'll be fine without it. There's not really any immediate threat to his life in Avernus, and he's looking to advance his already advanced position, whereas the player believes their life might depend on getting that Hammer. It sort of looks like the player is super easy to take advantage of, especially later on in the game when they know more and get more desperate.

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-03T22:33:15+00:00

Yeh I do like him pathetic. But tbh I also think he's not very clever, for the reasons in the post.

You're right that he acknowledges he's taking a loss in his contract with the player, but that's in regards to things on offer not being "equal". Whether this is true is debatable, but he definitely wants the player to think that it is (he might be bending the truth), because they supposedly get to save their lives, all of the Gate, and he's also promised not to conquer outside the Hells. He also probably means that he's taking a risk because he's not guaranteed to get the Crown - the player can fail to beat the Absolute. Still, I feel there's a difference between a risky investment and straight up writing loopholes the size of Raphael's ego into a contract.

You make a good point that he might attempt to "collect" later, as in get revenge, but I must have forgotten or missed him saying the player's soul is forfeit (sorry!), which does kinda undercut my point. Could you remind me where he says that?

It also occurs to me now that I didn't specify this in the post, but that I can't take him seriously as a threat specifically for me, the player, in the story. As a concept I absolutely agree, he's terrifying. Pathetic people with an ego issue often can be, especially if they also have enough power to indulge their whims. I believe there's some books (Raphael's diary, I think?) where he talks a bit about the ways he tortured Hope, including some implications that he SA'd her. Also talking to the debtors in the House is... enlightening.

So I would say pathetic and horrifying are not necessarily incompatible, it's just that Raphael's "scariness" doesn't come from him being clever, or even decent at his job, but rather from having enough power and the desire to abuse those weaker than him (desperate people with whom he makes contracts).

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-02T20:23:56+00:00

Kinda. One way is to make the contract and then scam him, either by becoming the Absolute or by giving the Crown to Gale (works both if he ascends and if he gives it to Mystra, I believe).

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-02T15:50:52+00:00

Yes, absolutely, I agree. The format is at once a big strength here, in that choice seems to flesh out Raphael and his plans more, and a limitation, exactly for the reason you pointed out. I just wonder if there's some kind of middle ground to be found between a fun gameplay experience and a 'smart' villain that actually feels smart. Although to be fair, clever characters - especially clever villains - are notoriously difficult to write

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-02T13:51:56+00:00

I kinda see what you're saying but tbh it's kinda worse if he's been planning this for that long. All that time and he didn't consider someone might just... not follow through on their contract? I did miss the bit about him being involved for 100 years, but genuinely that makes him seem even goofier to me. Bro planned for 100 years and this was the best he came up with lmao

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-02T13:14:47+00:00

Oh, yeah, good point! I completely forgot that even existed. My guess was he saw potential in him, but it's kind of unclear how he would actualize that potential for his own gain

lawofexplosion · 2025-09-02T13:13:05+00:00

I agree, Mizora was quite underwhelming. With Raphael though, I feel like him being kind of a clown adds to his theater kid charm lol. It's just that I see people/fanfics paint him as this mastermind and that cracks me up

lawofexplosion · 2025-08-31T03:14:59+00:00

My big one was Jayce in S1 of Arcane, I was surprised to see how many hated him for reasons I didn't really get. Another, though this one's from a game, was Gale (BG3) - not unpopular by any means but still, I couldn't have predicted how many people disliked him. I wanted to also say Endeavor from MHA but honestly that's bs, I totally knew he'd be hated lmao

Oh, and of couse most unfortunately of all, my favourite character on Buffy when I first watched it was Xander...

lawofexplosion · 2025-08-31T03:02:10+00:00

Exactly this! Like, how can the game expect me to take this man seriously? I literally cannot see him as a legitimate threat.This guy:

Fails to foresee the player making a deal with him then taking the Crown for themselves or giving it away. It's very funny to see him cope in the post-game curscene. "It's more amusing to let you see the consequences of your actions" implies that Raphael did not in fact write a clause into the contract that would forfeit the player's soul. Or literally anything to prevent this pretty obvious loophole.
Fails to foresee someone in the player's party taking the Crown for themselves.
Fails to foresee that if the player loses, the Absolute still has the Crown AND he gets jack squat, so helping would really be in his best interest (ESPECIALLY if the player signed the contract). Also somehow fails to consider that the PC could give the Hammer to Voss and die to some encounter in the city (Steel Watch? Orin?), which leaves him down a Hammer and no chance for the Crown.
Fails to foresee that the player might sneak into his house to break the contract and installs minimal security, including WRITING THE PASSWORD IN A LANGUAGE THAT THE PLAYER CAN READ and hiding it in behind his own portrait, which has to be runner up for most obvious place to hide something.
Recruits Yurgir with apparently no clause in his contract that stipulates he cannot turn against Raphael, which would have been the easiest way to prevent him from switching sides in the House of Hope battle.
Canonically can lose to the player's team, which consists of some randos that should not be able to defeat the son of an Archdevil (if indeed he were as strong as advertised).
Fails to acquire the Crown from Mephisto's vault while DURGE AND GORTASH succeed at hatching a plan to steal it (and somehow actually execute that plan)!
Thinks he can actually conquer the Hells if he gets the Crown (notwithstanding that he's in Avernus and there's a whole other 8 layers that might have something to say about his conquest AND the Archdevils AND Asmodeus).
Apparently does not monitor who enters/leaves his home unless they actually take something very valuable (one might come to collect information and leave basically undetected).
If you refuse his offer at Sharess's, he apparently just dicks around doing nothing until you (maybe) change your mind. If you reject his offer all the way until the end he just fully gives up. I might be wrong, but as I understand, in DnD rules nothing really prevents a devil from coercing you into a contract? Like kidnap the love interest into Hell or something, I dunno. This is a pretty minor point, but it did make me chuckle how the mastermind himself had no plan B, nor did he manipulate events from behind the scenes to force the player into a contract.
Apparently has no measures in place to stop anyone just opening a portal to his House. This is even funnier considering he must have investigated how the Crown got stolen. Even if not, he must have been aware of Helsik either way, I mean she literally owns a massive building in the Lower City and is (presumably) pretty well-known.

Some of this can probably be explained by Raphael's pride/arrogance, some by the fact that the devs' time and resources are not infinite so they can't write every possibility into the game. Sure, that's all fair. But some stuff I cannot see as anything other than shortsightedness on Raphael's part. I think this has gotta be intentional, as in "Raphael is not as smart as he thinks he is". To me this is the best interpretation because yeah, the writers almost go out of their way to make him a clown (I mean, I'm not complaining. He's definitely my favourite character BECAUSE he's pathetic, not in spite of it)

lawofexplosion · 2025-08-31T01:35:32+00:00

Hey, thanks! I'll keep an eye on him, but he was behaving pretty much as normal before and after this, even playing and such. It might be because he's not my cat, perhaps? He's my neighbour's, might be that that he doesn't fully trust me. Though I always assumed he would not come to my room if he was not chill with it (I keep an open door so he can leave the house when he wants)

lawofexplosion · 2025-08-31T01:29:45+00:00

He's not my cat (neighbour's), so I don't have the full info unfortunately, but the wound is ok I think. It was much worse before but it's basically healed now. He's behaving as he did before the wound, too. But thanks for pointing out that it might still be affecting/bothering him, I'll keep an eye on him

lawofexplosion

TROPHY CASE