#Game of Chance 3

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

The Hero by Susan Stoker

Game of Change #3

Adrenaline rushes are his thing so what would work better to provide one than working for the government in solo rescue missions to save others?

What I liked: * Kendric “Bob” Evans: retired Delta Force, survivor of brutal torture, one of four-man team that were rescued from enemy lines, in business with those men, good friend, nightmares-PTSD, looking for “something”, might have found it on his last mission to Thailand

* Marlowe Kennedy: archaeologist, innocent prisoner in Thailand, raised by her older brother when her parents died, pragmatic, positive, tiny but mighty, bright, strong, survivor, loving, kind, supportive, a person I would love to call friend

* Watching the relationship develop between Kendric and Marlowe

* The solution found for eventually getting two wonderful people out of Thailand

* Getting to see the characters from previous books in the series and finding out how they are doing

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* The positive conclusion with the hook for what will probably be the conclusion of the series – although – do want to know more about Tex…

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to like

* Thinking about greedy people willing to do anything AND corrupt people in power willing to incarcerate the innocent

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

In this thrilling romance from New York Times bestselling author Susan Stoker, an ex-military man is on a mission to rescue a wrongfully imprisoned archaeologist—and to make her rightfully his. Any soldier who gets out of the service with his life should be happy to leave danger behind. Though his army brothers are content running their new business in Maine, Kendric “Bob” Evans isn’t ready to give up the fight. He’s been supplementing his hours with covert rescue missions organized by the FBI. But his latest charge may be more than he bargained for. Marlowe Kennedy is on a routine archaeology dig in Thailand when she’s arrested for drug trafficking. She has suspicions about the true culprit, but even when she’s rescued from prison, there’s nothing she can do about it without proof. Her protective bodyguard’s only objective is to keep her safe until they cross the border into friendly territory. The best way to do that? Travel as man and wife. After returning to Maine, as Bob and Marlowe navigate this treacherous terrain with the help of their friends, they face vengeful authorities, a vindictive frame job, and perhaps most important of all—turning their fake marriage into something real.

[blackryan53]

千葉真一   Sonny Chiba

出世子守唄   Game of Chance 3   1967

[toramirr]

“They’d been so discreet for so long, and Kevin had undone it all in a heartbeat.”

[arthursfuckinghat]

Guys, you know that "Dutch Van Der Linde was a manipulator who mainly caused the downfall of the gang" and "Dutch Van Der Linde saved people by giving them a place in the gang and teaching them life skills" CAN coexist right

[red-moon-at-night]

After doing some research on the types of pets people had in ancient Greece, I'd like to imagine that Helen is the sort of person who has a whole menagerie of birds — and she loves each and every one of them very, very much.

It fits well with her being good at mimicry, you know. Talking and imitating and singing with her beloved birds 💜

Close up under the read more:

I had to include that one necklace from the minoan 'saffron goddess' fresco because it's my favourite thing Ever

[rocketbirdie]

chocobo breeds based off of real life chicken varieties :>

[willyhoos]

the mikes.. the michaels, even...

[cerealmonster15]

i want jamiazu + idikei to go on a double date so badly i think the vibes would be So Very Turbulent

[juney-blues]

i think gamers dismissed the notion of keeping score in non-arcadey titles too easily i think. some games are a lot funner if you try to play them with score in mind

[tinylittlelilac]

Welcome to the journey of me finishing my rarepair week drafts. Mayhaps a long one

This was for day 5 I believe?!!?

For the prompt of ‘family,’ hiitomo ft. Rinne :]

[a2zillustration]

You weren't going to talk your way out of this one, Croissant.

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[blackryan53]

千葉真一   Sonny Chiba

出世子守唄   Game of Chance 3   1967

[project-sekai-facts]

Do you think An's mourning went too quick?

if we consider the amount of time between lutf and oyf (a few days), then maybe. first off, you gotta consider genre and storytelling here. vbs is very shounen-like, not that i really know anything about manga but they're basically always working towards the goal, most conflicts are resolved within the event, maybe with some things lingering afterwards but the main conflict (for lutf it was obviously the truth around nagi's death) is always mostly/completely resolved.

also in terms of event pacing, the next event had to be their arc ender (both lutf and oyf are very clearly rushed but the 2nd arc enders are an issue with like 2 other units as well so this is not a vbs exclusive problem). they didn't have the time to stretch out an's grief to more events, plus there was already the in-universe issue of taiga leaving for the US like 3 days after lutf. and yes, an did have let's study hard, but that was always going to be 1-A focused since they didn't have an event yet and needed it before there was no more 1-A.

however, there are multiple card stories and area conversations that show an grieving, and we get to see this in events like break down the wall and the ending of over rad squad to some degree. obviously less intense since time has passed, but there's still an obvious impression that she's mourning nagi. also this.

and as i said earlier, maybe. people grieve differently and for different amounts of time. people will also show it differently. a few days is a bit quick, but again you can put that down to the storytelling. in this kind of game that needs to tell its story quickly you don't have that kind of time. for the type of person an is and the age she is at, i think it was handled quite realistically. i do think it was rushed, but i don't think An would spend a very long time in a state of mourning. also lutf plays with the idea that she kind of already knew. she didn't know nagi was actually dead so she couldn't experience it fully, but there was always that slight sense of anger and denial at nagi having left without saying goodbye and never once talking to her for years. she was already grieving nagi, she just never once seriously thought about the situation.

[ahyuggg]

doodle 🎀

[rin-solo]

I love. LOVE. Get In the Water

It's one of the objectively best songs in the musical; I will die on this hill.

Poseidon was always, despite being pretty much the main antagonist of EPIC, a really underdeveloped character in my opinion. He just needed a little more nuance and the fact that one (+ kind of one more) song managed to add so much to his characterization pretty much exclusively through subtext and implications is incredibly impressive writing. Because it did!

At the start he's yet again playing games with Odysseus, the way he did in Ruthlessness. In both songs he could kill him easily at any point, yet he chooses not to for the sake of playing games. In Ruthlessness, this becomes his own hubris as it leads to Odysseus escaping.

If you listen closely, at the start of GITW he already sounds slightly different. He's still trying to keep up this "God of Ruthlessness" front that he's so proud of, but he's no longer more or less carefree the way he was in Ruthlessness. He's been obsessing over this feud for ten years, and even if he would never admit it, it's actually clear just from his voice that he really is tired of it too. Not in the sense of it emotionally draining him the way it probably does Odysseus, but in the sense that it's a bother, a loose end in his life, a book that he finally wants to slam shut.

But he still has a reputation to uphold, and he still cannot close this book until Odysseus is dead, so he keeps up the game. Instead of just killing him, he's taunting him to kill himself. He might associate the idea of just striking him down with a sort of loss, like then he'd have to his hands dirty. Then he's rambling about killing his people, his family. He's provoking Odysseus on purpose, likely trying to get him to snap back, to hate him and fear him the way that Poseidon would think any mortal who has consumed this much of his time should. In his eyes, Odysseus deserves nothing less than to curse him with his last breath as his "darkest moment", the god who became the bane of his life.

And Odysseus replies, of all things, with ... sympathy.

Honestly, I don't blame Poseidon for being speechless for three full seconds. He literally just threatened to gauge Telemachus' eyes out the way Odysseus did with Polyphemus, and this absolute madlad of a man replies with an acknowledgement that he (might have) caused Poseidon pain too.

Now, I don't really think Poseidon was particularly hurt over Polyphemus' loss or hurting in any way in that moment. But just the fact that Odysseus acknowledges that he might be hurting too is probably something Poseidon hasn't heard in ... who knows how long? His family is the Olympians. I don't think I have to say more.

It's actually more of a genuine apology than Odysseus' explanation in Ruthlessness ... Now he doesn't say "sorry" because he's still not sorry for hurting Polyphemus, since he still needed to do that in order to escape. But he expresses regret over the pain he caused in a more genuine way than ever.

I am convinced that Poseidon is utterly unfamiliar with sympathy or mercy. He's lived by his "Ruthlessness is mercy" motto for centuries, and he doesn't know anything else. No one would try to teach him something different. The other gods all live by this logic, even if he's the most vocal about it considering he seems to have made it his whole personality. Mortals wouldn't dare to question Poseidon in the first place. And barely anyone would be willing to treat someone with kindness who is in turn treating everyone around them with ruthlessness.

It's very likely that Poseidon hasn't encountered anyone like this until Odysseus. Ruthlessness is simply how he treats people, and also how he expects to be treated back. The fact that Odysseus doesn't, the fact that instead of hating or fearing or cursing him he acknowledges that they have both hurt each other and that it doesn't lead anywhere to still pursue vengeance must have triggered Poseidon in an unprecedented way.

To him, this was probably the most outrageous thing Odysseus could have said in that moment. And it throws him off so much that he is genuinely speechless, and then simply replies, "I can't." ... his most genuine-sounding line in the whole musical.

I cannot stress enough how much it threw me off to hear this line; in the best way imaginable, it doesn't sound like Poseidon. It sounds almost vulnerable. Almost human. Because he is genuinely at a loss so much that he forgets to put up his "wrathful god" facade for just one second. Standing ovation to Steven Rodriguez for his whole performance, but especially this part.

And then Odysseus goes all out, to say something even more outrageous: "Maybe you could learn to forgive?"

... Which is when Poseidon snaps.

Kind of understandable, honestly. There's this mortal whom he has likely fantasized about seeing pleading, hate-filled, and terrified, cowering before him, for ten years now ... telling him that he ought to learn something. Even hijacking his own motif and his instrument in order to turn it on its head, "defile" it if you will.

This f*cking mortal pr*ck took his own "Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves" catchphrase and turned it into forgiveness ... Of course, Poseidon is no longer hesitating, of course he is no longer concerned with getting his hands dirty or not. He yells "DIE!" and unleashes his ultimate move (which is really overkill for simply killing a mortal if you think about it) ... But he does it anyway because this time he genuinely means it.

This simple exchange (my favorite moment in the whole musical, actually) tells us so much about both of these characters that it makes me want to skitter and squeal in excitement.

Here is Odysseus—the very same one whom Poseidon specifically tried to teach ruthlessness—becoming the first person in a long time to offer him sympathy despite how Poseidon himself showed him nothing but ruthlessness. And then one song later, here is Odysseus showing him the consequences of not accepting said sympathy.

Six Hundred Strike and what Odysseus does to Poseidon would've not hit the same, in my opinion, if he hadn't made this offer, if he hadn't given Poseidon this way out, even if no one watching genuinely expected it to work (probably not even Odysseus himself.)

Six Hundred Strike is not Odysseus exacting vengeance. If GITW proved anything about Odysseus it's that he does not want vengeance. He wants all of the hatred and pain to be over, to the point where he is willing to let go of, and I am inclined to say forgive, Poseidon for what he's done to him. Six Hundred Strike is simply Odysseus teaching him this lesson that Poseidon couldn't have learned in any other way, because he has proven in GITW that he genuinely does not speak any language besides that of ruthlessness.

It's just the perfect representation of how Odysseus has now finally learned the balance between mercy and ruthlessness, which seems to be the core theme of the musical: Both have their time and place, one simply has to be willing to act in both ways and know when to use either. No one extreme is the solution. I am genuinely exhilarated that Odysseus finally seemed to have figured out that it's been both all along.

[fairmerthefarmer]

I don’t know how I never played any of the Nancy Drew games as a kid, I love point and click and I love Nancy drew and I would have been all over them!! My sister and I are playing through them together now and it is just an absolute joy. (She is however much better at puzzles than me so idk maybe they would have frustrated me as a kid)

Also it’s giving me some inspo to ~actually~ practice drawing and backgrounds etc. so anyway here’s treasure in the royal tower WIPS. I really want to do some actual illustrations from these games.

Also Evelyn/gabsmolders streams are just prime content for background comfort noise when pain flares or fatigue keep me in bed.