There's a bunch of posts going around rn on why some people struggle to find Imogen and Laudna's relationship interesting and why it feels like it's stagnant, and I won't rehash that. I assume you've seen them if you're following me and this corner of the fanspace.

But, one of the weirdest things about their relationship to me is that like... it doesn't feel to me like the other characters in the party are encouraging or validating or feeding into that static dynamic where they never grow nor ever regress. Ever since the gnarlrock argument got resolved, it feels like the relationship exists in this void where it cannot ever be observed, and the other characters are generally... not even able to put weight on that standstill in either way, encouraging or discouraging, because of that.

My feeling about the way the relationship exists within the overall party dynamics, it feels more like it's quarantined in a way where almost all of it happens out of line of sight of the others, who never really learn about what goes on between Imogen and Laudna because the two of them also don't really talk to the others about their relationship (or their feelings, or about much generally). A lot of what makes the relationship feel static or the other stuff that Imogen and Laudna avoid unpacking also never really comes up in a way and space that provides opportunity for the rest of the party to unpack it themselves or start a discussion about it, whether to enable it or to offer something constructively challenging and growth-provoking.

Hell, even little things about the relationship as it concretely exists (i.e. the way they directly and actively interact and engage with each other) feel like they rarely happen where the party can see it and integrate it into what they know about Imogen and Laudna. It feels like so little of the relationship in those concrete terms happens in a space amongst the rest of the party. Stuff that the others would tease about or bring up or make small talk about. It often feels to me like the other characters can't interact with the relationship in any way, at any level because so little of it happens concretely where they would know about it nor are they informed of it.

Like, to me, it feels constantly and generally like there's this dense fog of war surrounding Imogen and Laudna's relationship that isolates it from the rest of the party and that the others are stumbling around in that fog and can't actually witness the relationship. That's why I feel like the characters aren't really enabling the static holding pattern. It always feels like the other characters don't really know what actually is ever specifically happening between them.