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readingtoinfinity · 6 days ago

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Secret Level part 2

The second half is out now, and like before I had completely forgotten to watch them. Well, I'm done now. There were some highs, some lows, but let's take the good with the bad and go through them.

The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep

Like the game it's based on, this short is very bleak and kinda hard to stomach at times. The anti-capitalist message is front and center and just as horrible as the game wished it to be, but the message becomes muddled when you look at this main character, Amos. Not a smart man by any measure, the ending is ostensibly positive, with Amos working for Auntie Cleo as a gardener, and all of us watching knowing the company is going to hurt a lot of people to help their bottom line. That hidden horrible reality may be the point, in this case, but I feel like this short could've done with a bleaker, harsher ending, to reinforce the message from the rest of the short: it doesn't matter who you are or what you can do, you will be gristle in capitalism's meat grinder eventually. As it stands, it feels weak on the satire and unmemorable as a whole.

Mega Man: Start

Aah! This short was apparently made deep in the uncanny valley. It was here that you could really see the limits of the almost-realistic CGI most of the shorts use, and it would have benefited from either being less realistic (and allowing for a more cartoony, closer-to-the-games look) or more (making the original games an inspiration rather than a direct comparison, like how they designed Bomb Man).

Having said all that, it's quick, powerful and very cool. I didn't play any Mega Man games, and my only connection is the fan music by The Megas, although I love that a lot. Even without that nostalgic connection, I found this short to be a lot of fun.

Exodus: Odyssey

I found this one to be a slight mixed bag. On the one hand: a strong central thesis and conceit, with an emotional connection between the main character and his daughter that pulls you through the rest of the episode.

On the other hand: eh. I can see the narration is necessary to set up some things for later, but even so some of it is unnecessary. Honestly leaving some emotions and plot points more ambiguous would've made this episode a lot more memorable.

Spelunky: Tally

Finally, some stylized fucking animation. I found this short to be amusing, charming, but ultimately shallow. There's an earnest message about trying again and doing your best even in bad circumstances, but with little emotional weight behind it.

Concord: Tale of the Implacable

Why the hell did they try to make this game a $40 hero shooter?! The world is perfect for a single-player experience, something like the more-recent Star Wars games, Outer Wilds or even (a better version of) Starfield. Obviously these deals and animations were made way in advance so this was supposed to come out and grow the player-base for the game, but alas, it is the last gasp of a corporately-ordered failure.

And it's so fucking good. Oh my God why is it so good?!

I recognized the voice talents of Laura Bailey and Darin De Paul, both bringing their at-least B-Game to this short, but recognized nobody else. But the actors featured here were all up to the task and played their part to the hilt, and for that I must give props.

For most of the episode, you're dealing with your standard Han Solo types, only in it for the money and trying to get away with a stash. But there's a turn later in the story, and the fact whoever made this had the utter gall to give it not only an unflinching ending, but somehow managed to wrangle something beautiful and wonderful from that? I teared up watching this. And it's about fucking Concord! What the fuck?!

But let me not say that corporate slop cannot be an inspiration for art. Great art can come from anywhere, spurred by anything. So may it be for this.

Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things

I didn't like the art style very much. There's an inconsistency in the models, from the madman who looks very realistic to the bishounen (or its Chinese equivalent) Yi Xing to the strange-looking Tiangong, none of the characters quite look like they belong on-screen together, and not to the point of something like Kingdom Hearts where that's the point and it becomes its own art style.

It's not distracting for long, however.

I liked this setup, and the themes played with throughout this short. Tiangong claims to be a computer that can calculate and predict everything, calling the actions from one to the other "cause and effect" and comparing itself to the moon pulling water. Yi Xing is a boy who wants revenge, and Tiangong, the computer that is a city, would try to convince him revenge is pointless and his defeat has already been preordained.

This one benefited greatly from being a philosophical game between its two named characters. The interplay between the two, both in their game of Go and over the idea of free will was made extra fascinating to watch by stunning animation and artistic flourishes which fed back into the story. Setup and payoff, cause and effect, past and future, all of these things were wrapped up into this episode.

It also benefits immensely from a final twist ending that I found astonishing and a tough nut to crack for a bit. Even if the ending isn't a chestnut like Inception, It's still a bit of something sticky and tough, like fruit leather, that makes everything seen before take on a different light, and you question the conclusion of both the game and the argument. And I like that; I like that this ending asks you to question everything you saw, from beginning to end. It forced me to go back through and re-watch some scenes so I had a greater context; there's a confidence to this execution that is as underplayed as Tiangong's introduction and character, and I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Playtime: Fulfillment

Let me start with the positives. Kevin Hart, though he is still annoying in this short, is supposed to be, and in that respect he does a good job. Heaven Hart, his daughter, does a passable job as the main character, though she could use a little extra practice. And the central message against microtransactions and meager rewards in favor of a more pure competitive gaming experience is one I can respect.

But with God as my witness I will not be tricked into liking any fucking version of Ready Player One!

This episode is the only one in the season that wasn't based on an original video game, instead being about PlayStation's exclusives and IPs and about how fun they are, how better they are. Maybe you can see my disdain? Even Astro Bot got flack from people who didn't like the corporate crossovers in it, and that game had the benefit of being fun and engaging (according to Jacob Geller and the good people at Overly Sarcastic Productions; I don't own a PlayStation). How much more should they righteously hate this short that peddles more of that slop?

I am not against crossovers. I think there's a lot of fun to be had from throwing characters together in an oddball setting. Fortnite, for all its flaws, provides a lot of fun from having recognized characters going at each other in a game that's at least a little fun. So having Kratos from God of War, Gauis from Shadow of the Colossus, Helldivers (from Helldivers 2) and Sackboy from Little Big Planet all crossing over with one another could be fun.

But my annoyance at watching an ad in my free time turns to annoyance when it offers little artistic merit. All of these IPs are only here to remind you to play PlayStation games, and they are thrown in your face to force you to remember the better times you spent with other medias and games. Kratos was a big draw for most audiences and the fact he's on-screen for a couple seconds and Christopher Judge even reprises the role only to yell and then be discarded tells you the priorities of this short.

I hate it. It's not bad, not completely, barely even mediocre, but its core premise is rotted from corporate oversight. All these other shorts were about something, even at their worst they were trying to tell a story or provide a message. This is nothing; it is solely an advertisement to play other, better games, from studios shuttered by the company that bought them. It's Sony congratulating itself for projects it wasn't involved with, and to that I say: fuck 'em. They don't deserve the accolades.

I've taken the liberty of including a tier list of all these episodes. Please note letter grades are only approximations; this order is how much I enjoyed or think these shorts were of quality.

S: something new, something surprising or intriguing. Unreal Tournament: Xan (a surprisingly-powerful origin for the game's main villain) Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things (a strange, compelling argument with a great twist) Concord: Tale of the Implacable (honor among thieves, even in dire straits)

A: something I enjoyed without reinventing the wheel. PAC-MAN: Circle (a delightfully fucked-up reinterpretation) Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear (I mean… come on… I love these space marine guys) Sifu: It Takes a Life (exactly as artistic as I was expecting)

B: it's alright, maybe even fun, but the flaws are stark. Mega Man: Start (quite cool, but that's about it) New World: The Once and Future King (moderately amusing with a good emotional core) Armored Core: Asset Management (a good ending on a bland episode)

C: cracks start to form. Enjoyment lessens. Exodus: Odyssey (forgettable, feelings of wonder fall flat, lack of emotional tether) Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen's Cradle (uncanny at best and punchy-fighty without any emotional stakes) Spelunky: Tally (earnest but clumsy) The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep (lacks the strong bite that made the games so good, ending fell flat) Crossfire: Good Conflict (things happened, I suppose)

Pure, visceral hatred: lack of artistic qualities drive me to madness. Playtime: Fulfillment (...HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU...)

So, that is Secret Level in total. Despite everything I'm still glad I went through it. It's not something you see too much of, and everyone who worked on the animation gave it their all. Even still I'm almost certainly going to watch season 2, but I've no idea what the final product will look like. And isn't that exciting?

#the outer worlds #mega man #exodus #spelunky #concord #honor of kings #secret level #animation #anthology

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lunarspiral1127 · 1 day ago

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*SPOILERS*

And, she did it. She won. Uatu's pep talk worked. Riri took the nanites and Mysterio ran out of time to live. And, of course the symbol of hope is the Avengers logo. Y'know, she's probably gonna question who that voice was or where did it came from, but I don't think so.

Ah, I was wondering when the other Watchers were gonna catch wind on Uatu. So, the three are The Eminence voiced by Jason Isaacs AKA Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies and Gortash from Baldur's Gate 3, The Incarnate voiced by D.C. Douglas AKA Wesker from the Resident Evil games, and The Executioner voiced by Darin De Paul AKA Reinhardt from the Overwatch games. So, they know that Uatu broke his oath multiple times, so they're gonna keep an eye on him. Might be a matter of time that they'll do something to him if he keeps this up.

So, the ending is obviously setting up the upcoming story plot for this season, this time the other Watchers are gonna be the antagonists? We'll see how this goes. But, overall, this was a good episode. I really did thought the ending was gonna be depressing, but it got turned around to be a good ending for this universe. I think this was Riri's best so far, so here's hoping that he Ironheart show turns out good. And, as a What If scenario, this was one of the more interesting ones in this season so far.

Tomorrow's episode is What If 1872. I think this is the Wild West version that was showing Shang-Chi in the trailer. Heard that Kate Bishop was gonna be in this one too. I dunno if the scenario will be similar to the 1602 timeline, but hopefully, it'll be a good episode.

#what if #what if...?#marvel what if #what if season 3 #episode 5 #episode five #what if series #what if spoilers #disney plus #disney+#mcu #marvel cinematic universe

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goldammerchen · 1 year ago

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@makwandis, found it: "Prussia was always an unfree state" (Erbe und Erinnerung – Preußen 2001/2002)

Original Language (+ more quotes):

Nicht nur der Toleranzmythos wurde relativiert, auch warfen manche Autoren die Frage nach der geistigen Verwandtschaft zwischen totalitären Systemen des 20. Jahrhunderts und Preußen neu auf. Bemerkenswert war in diesem Zusammenhang ein Essay des Ostberliner Schriftstellers Rolf Schneider in der konservativen Berliner Tageszeitung »Berliner Morgenpost«.[13] Darin schrieb Schneider:

»Der Nationalsozialismus folgte nicht zwingend aus dem Preußentum, doch vieles von dem, was er kultivierte und worauf er fußte, die Aggressivität, der Zentralismus, der Gehorsam, war in Preußen tief verankert. Sofern staatsbürgerliche Freiheit nicht denkbar ist ohne Demokratie, war Preußen stets ein unfreier Staat. Erich Honeckers deutsche Leninisten waren also gut beraten, als sie, spät genug, Preußen für sich entdeckten, um sich seine Überlieferungen nutzbar zu machen.«

Also good quotes from Staat von Blut und Eisen:

Preußen war schon immer für Mythen und Legenden unterschiedlichster Art gut. Auf den Hohenzollernstaat und seine Traditionen beriefen sich in den letzten 300 Jahren Reformer und Reaktionäre, Monarchisten und Demokraten, Junker und Industrielle, Liberale und Konservative, Nationalsozialisten und Widerstandskämpfer.

Es war die preußische Mischung aus Ost und West, aus Aufklärung und Absolutismus, aus Fortschritt und Rückständigkeit, aus Zivilisation und Barbarei, die so gegensätzliche Lager zu Bewunderern Preußens machte. Die gleiche explosive Mixtur ließ Preußen allerdings auch zum meistgehassten deutschen Staat werden.

Der preußische Adler trug Zeit seines Lebens einen Januskopf.

Preußen wurde ein Freistaat in der Weimarer Republik, und was jetzt, ohne die Hohenzollern, kam, waren die besten Jahre in der preußischen Geschichte; zum Bestandteil des Preußenmythos zählten sie leider nie. (…)

Das andere, reaktionäre Preußen gab es allerdings auch noch, und als die Weimarer Republik in die Krise geriet, zeigte es seine hässliche Fratze. 1932 ließ sich Reichskanzler Franz von Papen, ein ehemaliger preußischer Kavallerie-Offizier, von Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, einem ehemaligen preußischen Generalfeldmarschall, ermächtigen, per Staatsstreich in Preußen die Macht zu übernehmen.

Papen träumte von einem autoritären Einheitsstaat, doch mit seinem »Preußenschlag« machte er nur den Weg frei für Hitlers Griff nach der Macht.

#ref #hws prussia #gn for real sorrryyy

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floralb0t · 1 year ago

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HILARIOUS. it really was the absolute WORST render pick from the the thing. how'd you pick such a terrible still when the rest of it looked SO GOOD.

also darin de paul ??? i love you sir

#text.txt #apex #giggling and kicking my feet as soon as i saw mirage at the funny dnd table

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kyndaris · 1 year ago

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Mother Knows Best

For someone that plays video games as much as I do, you begin to pick up on a lot of common themes and tropes that are often used in the medium. What took me by surprise was facing Lilith in not one but two games in such quick succession. It's not often that I face the exact same antagonist. After all, both were demonic entities seeking the destruction of the world. Both were referred to as 'Mother' throughout the in-game dialogue and banter. And both had a connection to the playable character.

But while Lilith in Diablo IV gave birth to the Nephalem, the progenitor to humanity in the world of Sanctuary, she could only connect to the playable character due to a ritual involving her blood petals. Lilith in Marvel's Midnight Suns has a much more direct connection to the playable character, known only as The Hunter, as their birth mother. The other major difference here is that in Diablo IV, Lilith is trying to rule over Sanctuary while in Midnight Suns, Lilith serves as the agent of Chthon, a slumbering Elder God hoping to destroy the Earth and recreate it in its image.

Coincidences aside, Marvel's Midnight Suns was a game that I picked up in December last year and was one of the many tactical role-playing games I'd intended to get through before reaching the meat of the 2023 gaming experience. Alas, travelling and being bombarded left, right and centre with lengthy games distracted me from it until about 8 months later.

And when I finally booted up the game on my PlayStation 5, I found myself asking why I was indulging Firaxis's attempt to recreate what they had with XCOM but with a Marvel skin. What immediately struck me were the character models that I felt were less than stellar. Nor was I that impressed by the voice acting.

True, it was not like the game studio were going to bring back the actors of the MCU films to reprise their roles for the superheroes (or use their likeness), but I wanted something more than the somewhat janky character models that we received. In fact, I almost put down the controller, unsure if I wanted to continue with the game.

But persevere I did.

With time, I grew accustomed to the character models and the voice acting. After all, the cast is pretty stack with the likes of Yuri Lowenthal (reprising his role as Spider-Man from the Marvel's Spider-Man games), Erica Lindbeck, Courtney Taylor, Josh Keaton, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Darin de Paul and Matthew Mercer to name but a few.

Once I managed to get over that initial hump in the road, I started to enjoy the time I spent hanging out with a few of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and their more supernatural compatriots, the Midnight Suns.

Like many Firaxis games, Midnight Suns is a tactical/ strategy game. One that would have been better, in my personal opinion, as a handheld game. However, given that the playable characters are heroes with a multitude of abilities, Firaxis mixed up the traditional tactical/ strategy gameplay with the use of cards to denote special abilities and skills.

Gone were percentages detailing whether or not my character would hit the enemy. Gone, too, were Overwatch abilities that would allow my characters to attack an enemy as they dashed across the screen. Instead, Firaxis introduced a card deck system which was drawn up to a maximum of six at the end of each turn. Cards could comprise of attack, skill or heroic abilities. Many of them also included a variety of status effects to buff or debuff both allies or enemies, bringing with it another layer of strategy as most of these ended within a round of combat.

But the most important ones were those that refunded cardplay like the 'Quick' effect. Other cards allowed you to draw additional cards and these were important especially if you didn't have a good hand. Redraw too, was a resource that could be expended to power up abilities or to replace unwanted cards.

While it sounds complicated in theory, the gameplay of Midnight Suns was simple. You played three cards each turn (occasionally four) and tried to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible.

What was important to note was that while you were limited in the number of cards that could be played each round, your heroes could also deal damage via the environment. Unfortunately, to perhaps balance the use of environmental attacks, such actions were gated behind another resource: heroism (which were also used for heroic cards).

This meant that players had to carefully consider which cards to use when and where to maximise the damage on enemy Hydra agents and Lilin creatures and reach objectives for each mission.

Firaxis, though, are not content to simply sit on their strategy/tactical gameplay. Like many of their other games, Midnight Suns also included base management. Simpler than their incursions into the XCOM universe, Midnight Suns allowed players to research particular upgrades that could give their heroes an edge for their next battle against the forces of evil.

More importantly, though, Midnight Suns also allowed for team bonding. And as someone that wants to be friends with everyone, I spent many hours trying to boost my friendship levels with each and every hero that was recruited to the cause of stopping the rise of Chthon by giving them gifts or hanging out with them in an activity that they liked.

Heck, I was even looking up a Steam guide to know which dialogue options that each character preferred.

What was most unfortunate, though, was that there was no way to romance any of the superheroes. Why did Blade and Carol Danvers have to get together when I wanted both of them to myself as The Hunter?

Admittedly, I did think the romance between Caretaker and Agatha Harkness was great. The Hunter and their two mums. Who could ask for more except for some more lesbian representation in media please. True, some might argue that it did have a 'bury your gays' trope since Agatha is dead, but she comes back as a ghost and seems to be fine chilling around in the library. Something that Caretaker doesn't really take issue with after the Grey Seneschal ritual that binds Agatha a bit more to the land of the living (though still in spirit form).

Beyond that, I liked being able to explore the Abbey grounds and uncovering the secrets of the past, along with discovering new chests that could present me with another cosmetic for either The Hunter or the other heroes in my roster.

Still, what didn't make sense was that although the Abbey had a Forge and CENTRAL ops, a training yard and pool to lounge by, it had no kitchen or bathrooms. Given that Robbie Reyes had installed a TV to watch movies and play video games on, WHY WERE BASIC AMENITIES MISSING?

The fact that there was no kitchen also made it confusing when an upgrade to The Hunter's bedroom left a plate of bread and fruit on their bedside table.

Why? What? How?

From a plot standpoint, I felt like much of the conflict came from poor communication skills between Hunter, Sara (Caretaker) and your mother, Lilith. If Lilith could have explained her plan better, maybe she and the Hunter would have stood beside each other from the start instead of fighting against each other.

Caretaker, too, needed to learn to trust the wards under her charge instead of holding grudges.

But without these factors, of course, there would be no central conflict. Which, in turn, wouldn't have brought all of America's Mightiest Heroes (with the occasional Transian witch and Russian mutant) along for the journey. It wouldn't have allowed me to simply chat with these characters and watch them grow. Nor would it present me with an intriguing plot to drive me ever onwards to the end.

And that's another thing that I take issue with. The fact that a majority of Marvel's heroes are Caucasian. True, we have Robbie Reyes's Ghostrider, Eric Brooks and Nico Minoru showing off minority representation but almost all of the other heroes are blue-eyed Caucasians!

And they're all American. Or, at the very least, live in America. With most of the missions revolving around New York and the American South-West with only the final act in the fictional European country of Transia.

Now, this isn't an issue with the game, of course, but rather the state of affairs when it comes to superheroes in general. Yes, I know that there are heroes and villains from all over the world but the vast majority of them are Americans. Which, in all honesty, is likely to stem from the fact that a vast majority of comic book writers are American. And consequently, they write from an America-centric viewpoint.

But I've noticed that in many of the games I play, America also serves as the be-all and end-all for settings as well. Take Horizon: Zero Dawn and its sequel Horizon: Forbidden West. Or even The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Days Gone, Saints Row and a myriad of other games.

In any case, Marvel's Might Suns was an interesting take on a mishmash of genres that worked well with its superhero aesthetic. While I feel like it might have been better if they could increase the cardplay usage or the damage the heroes dealt for certain (we are talking about superheroes here, not foot soldiers), I enjoyed trying to figure out how best to place my heroes to deal with the enemies before me so I could put an end to Lilith's plans.

Soon, I'll tackle Fire Emblem: Engage. I promise. Just a few short games and it's the long haul for me.

I swear it won't be for too much longer!

And then I can tackle all the other triple-A video games that released in 2023...

#video games #marvel #midnight suns #caretaker x agatha #loved captain marvel in this game #the hunter x scarlet witch #I know it was meant to draw away suspicion but I would have shipped it

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lostlegacyuniverse · 2 years ago

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Since I've been dealing with some sort of burnout since Art Fight, I couldn't exactly fill out a Summary of Art for 2022. So, I decided to whip up some insights into my character's designs, evolutions, and inspirations instead.

Figure this would be a good time to share the voices and music playlists for them too.

Voice Claims: Snare / Sirrenius Prime: (Cree Summer) Blightheart: (Neil Kaplan) Ther'in Fen: (Vincent Corazza) CKR: (Darin De Paul) Cedric Coldwell: (Caleb Hyles) Adrik Vasiliev:(JB Blanc) Mannin Moon:(Robin Atkin Downes) Playlists: Snare: [X] Sirrenius Prime: [X] Ther'in Fen: [X] CKR: [X] Cedric Coldwell: [X] Adrik Vasiliev: [X] Mannin Moon: [X]

#my art #my oc #my ocs #character design #character insights #artists on tumblr #Snare #Sirrenius #Tiasten #Blightheart #Ther'in Fen #CKR #Dr. Cedric Coldwell #Adrik Vasiliev #Mannin Moon #cedric #adrik #fen

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blightsire · 2 years ago

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Vertic Blightsire

Ⅶ • Species: Great Unclean One (Greater Daemon)

Ⅶ • Patron God: Nurgleth

Ⅶ • Patron God

Ki’litzli the Poxdame (mother)

Methanion (brother)

Dungrut (brother)

Blistrorgal (brother)

Ⅶ • Faction: The Farmhands

Ⅶ • Realm: Mortal World / Realms of Chaos

Domicile: Various (Nomadic)

Ⅶ • Height: 35′1″ / 10.1 meters

Ⅶ • Weight: 14 Tons / 12700.6 kg

Ⅶ • Voice: Darin De Paul (Cyprin the Dragon)

Vertic Blightsire is a Great Unclean One, a Greater Daemon sent upon the mortal world to deliver Grandfather Nurgle’s love onto the various races that live there. While most Great Unclean Ones aim for critical mass, Vertic enjoys tormenting those mortals who live out simple lives on the countryside, tending to their crops and livestock. He calls it “tying up loose ends”, content to catch little fish while his poxbrothers devastate cities and metropolises. The truth is, Vertic enjoys the countryside...and tormenting every creeping creature on it with his maladies.

Blightsire is rather obscure in comparison to famous rotbringers like Ku’gath Plaguefather, though he does have the distinction of being the sire of the Bastard-King of Ice-Horn Peak, Orghotts Daemonspew. The boy has managed to gain notoriety where Vertic prefers the shadows so he can do his own thing. He had little, if anything, to do with the raising of the boy but if asked about him, will respond as any proud father would about their son’s successful exploits.

Vertic is somewhat larger than a normal Great Unclean One, despite being typical rather than exalted. Despite his relative obscurity, he does have some titles, such as The Wandering Blight, Wickmaster, or the more well known Candle-Crown. This due to the Great Unclean Ones rather symmetrical horns bearing candles of green warp-flame. It isn’t clear why he has this accoutrement, aside from it’s aesthetic appeal.

Like most Unclean Ones, Vertic is good natured and easy going, helped along by his accent. He will entertain all comers readily, unless they’re Tzeentchian, then a good portion of his jolly nature melts away into annoyance and snideness. More intelligent than he seems, Vertic is learned in morbidity, disease, and mortal physiology as most of his kin are. He has a particularly robust knowledge on animals...and how to break the species barrier with certain diseases. Vertic was the devious mind behind many zoonotic diseases, the most famous of which being Bovine Frenzy.

Abilities

Appearance

Warhammer Statcard

Headcanons

#blog info #Ⅶ - Prognosis (Blightsire Headcanon)

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aspiringsophrosyne · 2 years ago

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Episode 6: Spark of Rebellion

This episode gets a much shorter review. While I'm a little conflicted about this one, it manages to get its feet under itself much better than the preceding episode.

Curtain's rising; let's get in our seats.

For those of you who didn't watch Campaign one of Critical Role, they made some interesting choices in this episode. Arguably the biggest one is in the reimagining of Keeper Yennen and Archibald Desnay. Originally, both were older men. Yennen was still a spiritual leader, but Desnay was an older advisor to the de Rolos.

Personally, I don't have a problem with how the show portrayed these characters. Except....I have a little bit of a critique of how one of them was used.

But that's for later.

It's not just Yennen and Desnay, though. This part of the Briarwood arc is arguably the most altered from its original counterpart. On the one hand, it's overall a solid episode. The callback to the stream's old maps made me smile. The prison break has some great action (Keyleth going Minxie!!) and the implementation of the door (the "I fell out of the window" bit is easily one of the funniest of the season). Gina Torres and Dominic Monaghan are delights, and Rory Mccan does an incredible job of giving Vedmire a very brutal, intimidating presence. Darin De Paul, as always, is a treasure. On top of that, Percy's first rampage is chill inducing, and the introduction of Bad News was excellent.

That said, on the other hand, this is another episode where I feel ambivalent about the plot deviations. In the stream there was a lot of the team debating about what to do amongst themselves, and that was not a bad thing to cut. However, I'm honestly not sure what would've been cooler: the prison break, or a variation on the stream's banshee encounter.

In that encounter, Scanlan, Percy and Vax investigated a church of the Dawn Father, looking for a potential ally in Father Reynal, who Percy had previously been familiar with. Upon entering, they found Reynal's body. The Dawn Father's iconography was defaced. And poking around led them to find notes whose author was unclear at the time, but in hindsight, was clearly Anna Ripley.

Cue the banshee fight.

There would've been a lot of potential for scares in this encounter; it could've been on par with the wraith fights in episode 4. (And I, personally, would've loved to see more horror.) To say nothing of the lead up: finding a dead former ally in a church where all the religious symbols are defiled. Now that's a setting for a horror fight.

Even Ripley's notes add another layer to the spookiness. They make it clear that she'd been spying on Percy since he originally escaped Whitestone. And when Sylas told her about Percy after their encounter in Emon, she was eager to meet with "the subject" again. Very creepy. A whole different kind of creepy than what you get from vampires and banshees.

There was also a plot reason to keep Anna's notes, but we'll get more into that once she shows up.

All in all I won't say I didn't like the episode. Or the changes. It's more that I'm not sure what we got from said changes that warranted them.

One thing I'm sure about is, like with the Sun Tree, the revelation that Cassandra was alive deserved more time and weight. Not a huge amount of time, but definitely more than it got. Like with the Sun Tree, a big part of its power was that you start to get what the reveal is going to be before it's said. So when it is, it's both satisfying and gives a sense of catharsis. It's like when that one person in your friend group says the thing out loud that everybody else is just quietly thinking. It's just a relief.

I'll also be super nitpicky and say that Percy's shift upon discovering Stonefell happens so fast it's almost funny. A little more subtlety there would've been welcome. Maybe show Percy following after, and we don't see he's got the mask on until he's facing Stonefell? Just a thought.

That said, Episode 6 is a good one, and it's the start of the roller coaster climb that eventually leads to the screaming, joyful, anxious plummet following the set up of the climax. Not bad at all.

Curtain falls; onto the next episode.

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