#didnt realize going into it that lifesteal would be relevant to the server so no liveblogs for this ep

[freakinator]

ok so right off the bat i like how the goal, plot, vibe, and gimmick of the server is set up

first five minutes and you already know what to expect: its a modern lp-style rp (although the rp part is clarified in the description and comments rather than the actual video which is understandable) based around exploits with the goal being to find as many as possible without being caught, jamato is the mentor figure whos gonna be guiding spoke and will be providing and informing him of anything that hes unaware of, wemmbu is the rival whos always one step ahead of him and is gonna be ruining spokes life

something that i personally really appreciate is the fact that despite it having the modern lp-style it doesnt lean into mr beastification (a style that lsers are prone to gravitating towards) which is great for me specifically cause i get overwhelmed and bored by those kinds of vids very easily

every single interaction on the server is used to great extent: jamato interactions denote progress, wemmbu interactions denote obstacles and hindrances that spoke has to overcome, the squiddo interaction denotes that the server is much bigger than they can afford to show, the guardian interviews denotes that everyone has some kind of unique gimmick

i think the pacing is pretty good but the pacing of the foreshadowings are Particularly good, theyre distant enough that youre not bombarded by it but close enough that you dont just straight up forget that its a thing that happened and at the same time theyre not forced upon you, every single foreshadowing made sense where it happened

a small thing that i really like is the way that its shown that spoke has been compromised is by squiddo wearing his trims considering: a.) squiddo is the head of the ppl who were unknowingly keeping their machines a secret, b.) squiddo was the first person to find out what they were doing even if she didnt realize it at the time, c.) the exploit that she found out about wasnt working as intended and the next machine spoke built wasnt working as intended, d.) spokes trims are red aka the color of danger and warning, and e.) wemmbu and squiddo both worked together on the orbital strike in lifesteal which is what wemmbus gimmick turned out to be

speaking of the orbital strike cannon, love that intro where spoke says "this server is running out of time" over the footage of it blowing up jamato's experimentation basement aka where it all began (also i wonder if jamato saying they havent even beaten the dragon yet is gonna be relevant or if its just a quip)