(Just some post-Vecna D&D shenanigans because Hellfire looked so, so serious, and D&D (IMO) is rarely like that.)
Eddie's a brutal DM. He loves putting his players through the ringer, because their victories against him are then so much sweeter. He knows they get frustrated, but they also get a sick satisfaction from the campaigns, so it works out.
Even after Vecna, when Will comes back to Indiana and joins their excommunicated Hellfire sessions, Eddie doesn't change too much. Vexing them is one of his favourite things to do, he's spent hours creating this storyline after all, and he loves watching the party flounder and pull together to succeed.
It all goes to pot when Steve first tries to play. At first, he can't remember any of the races or NPC names (OR the party's names, actually), so instead he gives them all his own nicknames, which Eddie fucking hates, but puts up with because Steve just gives him the 🥺 eyes. 'I'm new at this, Eds, I'm sorry.' And to the surprise of everyone else, it actually works.
(Eddie does not tell them why it works, and why he's immune to everyone else trying that same tactic. He and Steve have been together for a couple of months and are very much enjoying exploring that by themselves for now. Steve's not above taking advantage of Eddie during D&D though, if anything, dating the DM makes him more bold.)
The thing that winds Eddie up the most though? When Steve starts to get it together, figures out what he's doing, and starts joining in with character role play. He's competitive, gets frustrated when he rolls low during combat, but absolutely lords about when he does roll high, echoing his kingly jock past when he gets a rare kill.
It becomes a running joke, Steve only rolls high on dumb shit, never when it's important, so although he can vague his way through some encounters, he has to rely on the rest of the party (Will in particular) to heal him up again. Unlike the others, Steve doesn't have any particular attachment to his character, so he's happy to 'fuck around and find out', and risk getting killed. (He knows Eddie's already got him a new one drawn up...just in case.)
The dumb shit he gets away with cracks the kids up. Steve gets away with so much through poor ignorance and sheer ballsy plays. Everyone finds it hysterical when Steve gets a nat 20 on completely irrelevant rolls, (the worst was when he gained an NPC to adventure alongside them, causing Eddie a complete fucking headache when said NPC was fighting alone against a dozen enemies and Eddie was stuck.narrating and rolling dice against himself for fifteen minutes), but alongside all of this...there's a more horrifying realisation.
Eddie loves it too.
Sure, this particular campaign is easier than any they've done before (purposefully designed so Eddie can catalogue how his newbies play), but it's so much fun. The kids, Steve, Gareth and Jeff all find it entertaining when Eddie bangs his head against the desk in annoyance, pauses the game for a much needed smoke, when he's forced to bring yet another NPC alongside with them, or when Steve crit rolls for dumb shit like how many beers he can down at the local tavern during a short rest.
Eddie's not sure if the kids know that he's grinning like a maniac behind his DM board, or that he's hiding his face because he's laughing and not despairing, but he's sure they'll find out eventually. He keeps up the facade as long as he can though. His boyfriend, kids and his boys are having fun, so he does too.
Eddie starts only putting his foot down for really ridiculous things, enjoying the weird fucking tangents the party starts to take, and rewriting the story on the fly, not even trying to get them back on track. It's a new challenge for him, and it becomes less a game of tactics and more of a combined storytelling. And Eddie loves weaving a good story.
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'So...only one person can go through the portal?' Steve asks.
'Yeah, if you want someone else to try, you're gonna have to come back out first.' Eddie replies, braced for whatever fucking shenanigans he's about to try. Steve's got that face on, which means he's gonna push his luck.
'What about that bag thing, can I put someone in that and go through the portal?' He asks. 'It can hold a person, yeah? I put David Toadie the fifth in there last week.'
That immediately starts the table gossiping, and Eddie sighs, leaning back and waiting for them to all talk themselves out. The fucking bullywugs, he thinks. Steve had called them all David Toadie, because 'bullywug' was apparently too difficult.
'You could put everyone in the bag of holding.' Eddie agrees, once they've calmed down. 'But only one person can go through the portal, regardless of whether they're in the bag or not. Plus there's a time limit before they suffocate to death.'
'What if I turn the rest of us into gas?' Will chips in excitedly. Steve snaps his fingers and points at him, grinning with agreement.
'We're not people if we're gas! And we don't need to breathe!' Dustin yells, 'We can all go through!'
'They all start chanting 'IN THE BAG, IN THE BAG, IN THE BAG', while hitting the table, as they turn to Eddie, wide eyed with glee.
He groans theatrically and rubs his hands over his eyes, pressing the heels of his palms into his sockets. Jesus H Christ, these fucking kids. They weren't this disobedient before Harrington, that's for sure.
'Eighteen.' He says, begrudgingly, 'Natural eighteen or above on your D20 and you can shove all your kids in the fucking bag, Harrington. And roll where I can see it.'
Steve makes a big show of getting all the party to touch the die for luck, and rolls.
It's another fucking nineteen. His fifth of the session.
They all look from the die, up at Eddie, sitting at the head of the table. He sighs.
'I'll allow it.' He says, glumly.
The room EXPLODES with cheers. Dustin and Mike are squealing, grabbing onto Steve, and the others are hammering on the table with huge smiles on their faces. Gareth and Lucas are on their feet, twirling around like lunatics, and Eddie just sits there, utterly defeated and trying not to laugh. Steve catches his eye and winks, and Eddie just knows he's getting lucky tonight.
There's nothing but an empty room with a note, on the other side of the portal. It just needed one person to read it and memorize the runes before they came back through. It was supposed to take a minute, if that, but it's been nearly an hour because they're all terrified of what trap Eddie 'might' have set up there.
It's not defeating a dragon, or Vecna, or any other mythical, legendary monster, but already this session is easily in his top 3.
This. This is why he plays.
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Belos, and the way he purposely appealed to The Collector: A TOH ANALYSIS.
I feel like one of the reasons that The Collector trusted Belos so much, was because he literally made himself appealing to them.
Despite the few scenes that they have, you can probably name a few of the aspects he changed around them. But one of the most apparent ones for me, was how Belos basically changed the way he spoke around them.
In a lot of the moments where they appeared together, he seemed to use a much more softer & sing-songy voice around them, as well as more simpler and 'friendlier' language. It's not even just with The Collector, through-out multiple times in the series he's changed his behaviour around individual people.
To name an example, let's start off with their initial meeting. Although Philip/Belos was speaking in an already soft tone of voice towards Luz and Lilith in Elsewhere and Elsewhen, it was much more calmer and monotone.
"Thank you for your kindness, crab maiden. Perhaps we were destined to meet."
Despite the obvious compliment, his words almost feel empty. There's no feeling of "thankfulness" behind them, just a pat to the shoulder and that's it. But that's the thing, even Lilith said it in the same scene. He just says everything a person wants to hear, and to Luz, just hearing his 'gratitude' through a sentence was enough to make her feel nice for assisting him so kindly.
However, when you look at when two of his scenes with the Collector, you can see Philip's shift in tone and behaviour.
Although he still had an almost blank expression, the very first thing he said when he unburied their plate and held it up was an almost playful, but simple "Found you", literally singing it out, around the end.
I feel like this is due to the fact that, Philip definitely knew The Collector was a child and made that subconcious switch in his words while speaking for them. It was made way more apparent when he was talking to their tablet and calling them these (objectively) silly names, at the same time looking endeared while speaking. Philip's face almost lit up as they called them 'a round boy'.
Like Lilith said, to Philip, he immediately started to speak like how you'd typically do with a child. Much more playful wording, and friendlier mannerisms even.
Although I believe at the start of their relationship that Belos treated The Collector more kindly to have them warm up to him, even later on you can still see this happening.
In the memory of Belos & The Collector in Hollow Mind, it's even more obvious than my previous examples. Belos & The Collector are quite literally playing a game, in this case Hide & Seek, with Belos being the one to start the whole interaction.
And again, when he's calling out for The Collector at the start he's using that playful, but gentle sing-songy voice. He's going along with their little game, because he's been doing this for *decades* now. Exactly what I mean when I say Belos appeals to them, he's giving into their childish nature and feeding onto it.
Likewise with his language, Belos changes it to make things sound more engaging to them. Although The Collector knew what was happening with the Day of Unity, with the way Belos was framing it, it was inevitable that they would just treat it so unseriously.
Ex: "You'll have your fun, on the Day of Unity" Like? Even though The Collector didn't even understand the concept of death, it was clear that they weren't fond of people just disappearing, like the titans. But Belos was literally treating the death of millions of witches like some fun game of hopscotch. Add that to the list of manipulation points!
Another example? Grimmwalkers.
The Collector was seen to view them as 'things', toys that he saw Belos just get rid of time and time again. And with the way he was framing it as them 'betraying' him, Collector probably just began to believe that and started viewing them like he did.
I think I delved into a completely different point with this scene, but long story short, Belos additionally uses his change of tone and language to further desensitize horrific situations to them. I would say even sugarcoat them in a way.
During King's tide, there's this one scene where King sees The Collector, and Belos is reassuring him. This one is a bit more different than the other scenes. Unlike the previous scenes I've talked about, instead of The Collector just acting playfully and seeming to trust Belos with what he says, they're actively doubting and complaining to him. And what does this come off as to Belos? A cranky child.
And like anyone dealing with a cranky child, he immediately deals with the situation as 'best as he can'.
First, he reassures and shuts down their doubts about being freed, telling them that it was *specifically* AFTER the draining spell that they'd be freed. And when The Collector doubted him once again, he essentially frames it as the child being the one in the 'wrong' here. They just have the be patient to get their reward after all, don't they? It's sorta like how a parent just tells their kid that "Oh, we'll be there soon, just wait!". Except that The Collector instead of waiting, will literally never get freed.
Basically, Belos is quite literally gaslighting them, in the sense that he's making them feel like they're acting out of order for a very reasonable doubt.
Additionally, he's also making them FEEL like an impatient with the way he's speaking and wording himself. Belos is portraying the whole thing as this being unfortunate for the both of them ('WE have to way for after the draining spell . . .'), and tell them to just have 'patience'.
In a fucked up way, this is probably how Belos disciplined them.
And this leads me to my next point. Like some sort of system of rewards and punishment, whenever The Collector was shown to actively say things that Belos didn't like, even if it was just for the moment, he altered the way he behaved and talked around the kid.
During Clouds in The Horizon, you can immediately notice the difference during the scene with these two. Even if there was the chance that Belos was already in a bad mood, and The Collector who was just making crude jokes for half of the time worsened everything, and there's a notable change in his wording and behavior. Belos is much more withdrawn, not even responding to the boys comments at certain times and giving them the silent treatment
Something I noticed even as I write this, was that in a sense this scene and the one from Hollow Mind parellel almost perfectly.
In Hollow Mind, when The Collector was joking about Belos lashing out at Hunter and turning into his monster form, Belos pretty much brushed it off and just took it as a chance to go "well, as long as he doesn't fuck around and find out, he'll be fine". Even when they were literally saying that the grimmwalkers were 'things', a mind that Belos just made them to torture them, the guy literally SMILED as if he was amused.
Meanwhile, Belos had a completely different reaction to practically the same comments, but in a different font.
Now, The Collector was making fun of him for his monster form, saying how he can't even keep it up anymore. In response, Belos just proceeds go punch the wall and just prove their point. As for the grimmwalkers, when they suggested that the man should make another one go play with, he just shut down them said they needed to 'deal' with this one.
There's a very clear difference here: In one scene, The Collector isn't directly mocking Belos, and the man is amused by their honestly horrific joking about such vile situations. In another, they're using those same situation and topics to make fun of Belos.
In short, Belos only seemed to excuse these comments when they weren't directly being negative towards *him*, and almost rewarded The Collector by continuing to speak to them in a friendly manner. Once they did, he almost retracted a 'priviledge'.
Because that's essentially what it was. A privilege that Belos gave them by just treating as 'nicely' as someone like him could get. And like any child too, they were blinded by it.
Again, bringing me into my next point.
When Belos betrayed The Collectoe, it was the exact moment when that privilege and everything else, was permanently revoked. At first you can see how Belos just watches as The Collector, like expected, excitedly talks and gushing about how they'll be able to play. Even after all these years, Belos really is freeing them. And they'll be able to play now!
Except they aren't.
Because immediately after, Belos shut down any hopes that they have of being freed with a simple "I'm afraid that's impossible".
At first, they're confused, hurriedly repeating Philip's promise, because sufely he couldn't have forgotten about it. But the man just brushes it off as an inconvenience, that he just didn't have any more Titan's Blood to free them.
And even as The Collector shouts and screams that Belos was a liar, unlike in the scene where he reassured them about their doubts, he doesn't have to do that anymore. Because there's no use in appealing to them anymore.
The kid was wringed dry of all their use to the man. And just like those grimmwalkers, like those witches, like everyone, Belos would leave them. Because in the end, they were also just a 'thing' for Belos.
And to add more insult to injury, it's not even like Belos just started acting all serious and mad like whenever he was upset with them. Opposite, even, because there was still using that sing-songy, playful tone to his voice speaking to them. In a sense, it was now The Collector's turn to be mocked. And it's not even like they could protest and throw one of their 'tantrum's', because Belos essentially just shut them up.
After dropping their plate down a bridge, just to add to open up that cut even more, Belos simply parted ways with them with a GOODBYE. Not even calling them by their name, giving them one last display of 'affection', or perhaps thanking them for their 'help' to Belos. Just a truly emotionless goodbye.
And, BELOS JUST WALKED AWAY AFTER THAT. Because truly, those decades meant nothing to him. The way he so eloquently phrashed and sang out everything to flatter the kid, going along with their silly games, and reassuring them– that was in the past now.
But here's the thing with that man. HE LITERALLY CANNOT STAY CONSISTENT. Belos cannot fucking commit to, and accept that his actions have consequences, because it was obvious he immediately regretted disregarding the kid once they were freed.
As my final point, let's take a lot at the infamous "splatter" scene.
You can literally see how Belos stepped away out of fear. Because unlike the shadow boy that just lived in his basement, that could only move around his walls at most, The Collector was now freed. And what does that mean? It means that Belos fucked up BIG time. Literally as they turn to look at him, that blank look on their face told that man everything he had to know.
And of course, he immediately retracts on literally every he said before, and begins trying to appeal to the kid by twisting around his intentions.
Belos was probably just hoping they'd be gaslighted enough to just run back into his arms and accept his words, but at that moment they weren't fooled like before. The Collector knew his true intentions, and no amount of sing-songy voices and empty compliments could change that.
This analysis is quite literally getting too long LOL, it was supposed to be super short. I was planning to also analyze the Raine scenes, and compare the scenes included to seperate belos scenes, but I'll end it on a short note.
TLDR; Belos purposely changed his tone of voice, language and overall behavior to appeal to The Collector. Essentially to manipulate, desensitize and gaslight the boy to a lot of horrific things. Even then, it backfired on him in the end.
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