#blimeygate

[brennansmintmilanos]

in my head, the blimey moment worked because nightmassandra looked at K2’s whole deal and had a brief moment of clarity to go:

“girl what the fuck?”

[allybeans]

something really sweet about blimeygate was how hard ally tried to give brennan a way out, as much as they love chaos and jokes and doing it for the bit, they have huge respect for the game and the story and brennan and their fellow players, and they also have a real sensitivity for when everyone is comfortable for them to keep pushing it and when it might be going too far. and as much as brennan was like "I can't believe this" he was also able to communicate implicitly to ally that it's okay, they can keep going and commit to this path, he's still having a good time

so beneath all the nonsense (and believe you me there was a lot of nonsense) there was also this really strong current of mutual trust and respect and that's why blimeygate is so fucking funny and a wonderful moment at the table rather than being a ttrpg horror story (import into your home games with care and caution)

[captainmill]

Blimeygate, pt. 2 was the greatest moment in television history, and I truly believe that.

I hope Ally Beardsley knows that they have changed a life today.

[cancerstanople]

can someone plz explain to me why this made Brennan almost quit the show? Tbh I found the moment pretty underwhelming and I want to understand blimeygate

[go-4-ur-own-good]

We should call it blimeygate.

[kipperlillyforpresident]

Hey hey I would love it if you explained what you meant by "playing with the kid gloves" this season, I'm a full rat-grinders-should-get-redemption and a kipperlily's-only-fault-is-her-being-jealous-that-KVX-killed-riz's-dad truther [shows ID card] (I get it if you want to answer this privately, I feel like this could ruffle some feathers)

[checks ID like a bouncer at a club] come right on in, then.

So, I want to make it clear: I'm not a D&D player. I've watched quite a few D20 seasons, so I like to think I have some understanding of what makes combat challenging. But I'm definitely not an expert on this, so if anything I say is wrong, I welcome corrections.

All that said... it doesn't feel like Brennan is challenging the IH's to me. It feels like he is bending over backwards to accommodate 'rule of cool/rule of fun'. Which is fine enough for a home game. But this is a narrative show that people pay money to watch.

The most egregious example, I feel, is the fact that Brennan allowed them to take that short rest. When they crashed Seacaster Manor right by the gym, Brennan tells them that any enemy forces would have definitely spotted them. Because, duh. They didn't exactly stealth in. They landed a huge boat right in front of the boss battle.

But this has... zero narrative consequences. They're allowed to take a short rest and recover spell slots and fuck around with Ice Feast, and the Conspiracy has known that they are there the entire time. Like they're a video game boss, waiting for the Bad Kids to Press A To Start Boss Fight.

I just find that ridiculous. I think that there needed to be much heavier consequences to taking that short rest (Kipperlilly stealthed into the hut and stole the votes, they had an extra hour to prepare and set booby traps, literally ANYTHING.)

Speaking of that... Ice Feast completely undercut the biggest threat of this fight, that being the stunned condition. I do not blame Ally for using the spell, to be clear. It's almost comically made to nerf this boss fight, and them using it was an extremely smart move. I blame Brennan a) for making the spell that overpowered tbh and b) allowing it to even happen.

Because again. The town is in chaos. A rage ritual is about to start. They should need to get their ass over to the gym and get stuff done. Not fuck around and eat snowcones by...

K2!! Why the fuck was she allowed to be brought back! It completely undercuts any narrative impact of Blimeygate. It just feels cheap to me. The whole "she's actually like a sister to Kristen" thing feels so extremely "told and not shown" to me.

And now we have two insanely competent healers. And there's another thing:

I don't think Kristen should have all her spell slots to begin with. I just... I get that Kristen did some meaningful miracles. But I just don't think that a Cleric should be able to function so competently when her Goddess is literally trapped in supermegagayhell. I think she shouldn't have regained her spells at all, or at the very least, not all of them. Which is... harsh, obviously. But I feel like Cassandra's narrative is cheapened by the fact Kristen is all fine now.

Obviously, I'd want Brennan and Ally to work together on some sort of multi-class / homebrew in order to make Kristen not just a sitting duck during battles. It'd be ridiculously unfun and unfair if Kristen Couldn't Do Anything. But I don't think she should be functioning in the way she used to - let alone having TWO of her do that.

I think those are my main gripes...? I'm probably missing some, haha. But yeah. It feels like the party got to do Everything They Wanted with No Narrative Consequences, and I think that makes for a bad finale.

Thank you for this ask! I really don't post about general FHJY thoughts on this blog unless it's something so egregious like the Ivy stuff OR somebody directly asks me, so this is a bit of a treat to get to answer.

[chushanye]

Why must people be so rude to emily and ally, the fact that ally has to even joke about needing a bodyguard because of the shit that’s happened to them on the street is concerning.

It's very annoying. If you'll allow me, I have a long, petty rant about two specific things I read that annoyed me.

I honestly think it's this weird entitlement people have in online spaces where they feel like creatives "owe" them a story that plays out exactly how they want it to.

I got several comments where a person ranted about how Ally doesn't know their actions have consequences ("ally the central concept of an actual play is that your choices matter") ...which is just ABSURD when we're talking about Ally "emotional speech" Beardsley who keeps meticulous notes every season and ties in little details from previous episodes. just because their play style isn't serious or they like making ridiculous shit happen doesn't mean they're bad at dnd; if you wanted a polished story where nothing unpredictable happens, go read a published novel that was thoroughly edited because the central concept of actual play is improvisation. I think that person would actually implode if they ever listened to Dungeons and Daddies.

which ties into this thing in fandom spaces I've been noticing for a while, which is people cannot just say they dislike something without making it seem like the person who made it is problematic. (and it's not just the d20 fandom, it's everywhere) I remember during 'Starstruck discourse-gate' I saw a thousand-word textpost ranting about how Ally is a "toxic player" because they made a joke about how Norman Takamori used to touch Margret's lower back when passing by her. they made the argument that players shouldn't come up with stuff for other's characters because it universally makes people upset when you mess with their oc's and how it (apparently 'obviously') made Zac uncomfortable. and ended the post saying "that's why I'm going to ignore that that happened because I believe Norman is a lot more nuanced than people give him credit for."

here are my 2 cents about all that- Norman canonically verbally abused his staff, underpaid them and was a prideful high-ranking officer in a literal military but you draw the line at him being creepy to women?

why do you have to go out of your way to prove that REAL LIFE PERSON ALLY BEARDSLEY is problematic and bad and making their friends uncomfortable rather than accepting that the FICTIONAL person you like is shitty? and why do you have to defend Norman to like him? why has fandom become so insistent on ONLY disliking "immoral" things and only enjoying "moral" things? why is it not enough to not like chaos, why do you have to imply Ally is bad at their JOB to justify your opinion?

The last thing that I have to say is that you'll notice this never happened with Brennan. because the same people who bring down Ally and Emily have a weird idolizing view of him. In fact, you'll often see them attack Ally and Emily "for the sake" of Brennan. (the person who talked about Ally not knowing their actions have consequences implied that Brennan refused to retcon blimeygate to "teach Ally a lesson") they treat this show like it's HIS story, where the players are unwanted nuisance. it's fucking weird.

[littlebug-boy]

Whoah what the fuck stay safe yall

@karthasart @dullgecko @chungledown-bimothy @northernfireart @losermothman @lonesaturn @autistic-katara @sootchild @ewwww-what @bacchuschucklefuck @blimeygate @fish-food-s @fantasykiri5 @frogyayfroggay @frenchfriedgiraffe

Hello dear!

Sorry for bothering you, but it's important to remind you to turn off your asks for a few days! Bad things are going to happen on Tumblr soon...

Don t know anything about this but BETTER BE SAFE EVERYBODY!!!!!!

[brennansmintmilanos]

“I’m going to do a short matcha ceremony, it always makes the meth go down smooth”

- Brennan Lee Mulligan, enjoying some goofy AP energy, blissfully unaware of how it will impact his worldbuilding in 40 minutes

[alexalessandro]

Wait so we officially are calling that blimeygate? cus that's fucking hilarious i love it

something really sweet about blimeygate was how hard ally tried to give brennan a way out, as much as they love chaos and jokes and doing it for the bit, they have huge respect for the game and the story and brennan and their fellow players, and they also have a real sensitivity for when everyone is comfortable for them to keep pushing it and when it might be going too far. and as much as brennan was like "I can't believe this" he was also able to communicate implicitly to ally that it's okay, they can keep going and commit to this path, he's still having a good time

so beneath all the nonsense (and believe you me there was a lot of nonsense) there was also this really strong current of mutual trust and respect and that's why blimeygate is so fucking funny and a wonderful moment at the table rather than being a ttrpg horror story (import into your home games with care and caution)