S4 Pike - Opinions
Right. Ok. I’m going to say this now, I’ve tried my very best to understand the nuances of Pike’s character, especially this season as she’s been very complex, so if you tell me that my opinions come from me not willing to understand her character I will just laugh at you. However, I will also say I really disliked Pike even before S4, and that attitude has very become even more true after this season (although not for the reasons you probably think).
Let’s start with the positives: I LOVED seeing her grapple with her feelings surrounding the Everlight, and it offered a really nice contrast with Vax. For Pike, the Everlight has only ever helped her, yet she lost her faith in her through outside forces manipulating her (Zerxus, Vecna), yet Vax, who has only ever been harmed by the Raven Queen, has remained loyal and accepting of his fate, and where everyone else felt angry at his goddess, he was the only one who wasn’t. I thought this was a great way to show off the differences between the characters.
Speaking of losing faith, I have seen some very interesting takes within the fandom after S4, the most ????? one being people calling Pike ‘morally grey’. I don’t get this. For me, one of the main reasons for my hatred of Pike is how she sticks to her morals in an obsessive manner, and this has been consistent throughout the seasons. She is intent on doing things for the good of all (you see this in the S1Ep1, where she says ‘can’t we just do some good?’), and the reason for her bad choices this season was a result of others seeing her morals and manipulating them to get her to do their bidding.
Another thing that may be surprising- I don’t blame Pike for falling for Vecna’s tricks. At all. I think those that are calling her evil for it are really strange and dare I say it may come from an area of misogyny. I mean, I was watching the episodes and despite the fact that I knew Vecna was the Big Bad No Good Guy, I still found myself really believing him, with the scenes from Mythcarver just making it even more convincing. In that moment, I really sympathised with Pike and I think that y’all need to leave her alone for that.
However.
My problems with her this season really stemmed from her treatment of the others (as it has in the other seasons).
Let’s start with her lament, most notably the bit about ‘Scanlan rejected me’. Sigh.
I have many many thoughts on this, all of which go along the lines of ‘what the hell made you think that’. Throughout the seasons, Scanlan has been training after Pike like a lost puppy (dare I say it’s been quite pathetic watching it, and this is coming from someone who adores Scanlan with my entire soul). At no point in this entire show has Scanlan rejected her, yet Pike has rejected him and played with his feelings this entire time. I am going to sit here and listen to all the episodes where you see this because I am feeling slightly spiteful and I also want you to go and see what I mean when I say I HATE Pikelan with a burning passion: S1Ep9, S2Ep5, S2Ep7 (this is a big one), S3Ep6 (specifically where she is ‘comforting’ Scanlan and saying that he’s upset because he normally only cares about himself so he’s freaked out - that line really makes me go wtf, hoe can you EVER say that to someone). There are more but I cba to go through all the episodes.
The point is, this whole time, Scanlan has never rejected her once, whereas Pike has treated him worse than the other group members at times.
I do get that she interpreted him deciding to go with his daughter as a rejection, but for lack of a better way to put it, I think Scanlan was totally right for doing that and by saying she was rejected Pike is being slightly pathetic. Girl. This wholeeee time you’ve been nasty to him, you can’t turn around and go ‘why did he leave me 🥺🥺🥺’. It’s pretty selfish of her imo.
The Lament as a whole - super unjustified too, and I was slightly annoyed that hers was supposed to hit harder than Scanlan’s, despite the fact that his was very justified whereas hers is only justifiable if you squint and tilt your head a bit, and even then it’s barely convincing. Like wtf do you mean that everyone thinks you’re ‘perfect little Pike’. At no point in the show has anyone insinuated that they thought that of her, and certainly no one has ever reprimanded her for not being perfect. Girlie gets drunk and fights a mf at a tavern and everyone loves her for it. This comment felt so out of the blue that I had to pause and just blink at the screen a bit.
‘Who heals me?’. Ok. I’m a big enjoyer of the healer who needs healing bit, but again. This felt unjustified. Slightly less so than the other two previous comments mentioned, but unjustified nonetheless.
Another gripe that I have is her blaming Vox Machina for the suffering brought about by the dragons. Ohhhh brother. This is part of the reason why I so severely dislike her overall, because she’s so fixated on an idea that she refuses to see any other perspective.
Before anyone says ‘god forbid a woman is flawed’, I get it’s a character flaw that’s supposed to develop her as a person. Trust me I know, and I can see how this has contributed to her story. This isn’t something that is unique to her, I have gripes with multiple people who I know IRL who have the exact same flaw that also really irks me.
Going back to my point, the thing that really got me was that she blamed Vox Machina for the peril the dragons caused, whilst also refusing to acknowledge her own role in it too. ‘They’re all evil and flawed ecs ecs’ yet she doesn’t say that she is, despite the fact that she is very much a part of the group as well. Yes, at the start of S4 you can see she is blaming herself, but at the end it’s all them and not her. From a psychology perspective, a very interesting sign of someone deflecting and displacing their guilt onto other people. From a ‘is this character an asshole perspective’- yes.
The fact she was blaming VM for it wasn’t even what really got me though. It was the fact that she refused to acknowledge that VM couldn’t do anything to stop the wider damage that the dragons did. Yes, thousands were killed, but they’re just one group. They’re not omnipresent, they physically couldn’t do anything to stop it, and the fact they killed the dragons and put an end to the whole thing is incredible enough. To Pike though, it all goes over her head and she fixates on the idea that they’re bad people for failing to end the suffering for everyone. Again, character flaw, I know. You’d think that she’d listen to the others though who try to tell her otherwise, but noooo. That’s one of the main things as to why I really am not a huge fan- she refuses to listen to other people.
Final point, a fairly short one (I’ll be done after this I promise). Her treatment of Grog and Tary. I get she was grieving and not thinking straight, but girl, your bff is right there mourning alongside you and you just ignore his pain and keep on with your own thing. I get you’re being irrational because you’re in a poor mental state, but this was what got him killed in the end.
As for Tary, she was just nasty to him this season. In the campaign, she was irritated at him but she was nice (flashback to her trying to teach him everyone’s names), but in S4 she was just mean to him. I wasn’t a fan.
Pike this season has been arguably the worst person in the group, and not because of her whole ‘Vecna is doing the right thing’ thing, but purely because she has been so dismissive and has been treating everyone so poorly.
I can’t say all this without acknowledging Ashley’s incredible performance this season though. The best voice acting moments came from her, and all I can say is hats off to her, I wish I didn’t hate her character.
Anyway, rant over. Please feel free to argue or agree with me in the comments, I’m always up for a fun debate :)