#i wrote the most on the faction game bc i finished the last few mins Today. and listened to about half yesterday

[humanmorph]

C/W 06-09 thoughts : ]

Boy this took me a bit!!! I made the post for the first set of episodes on August 12. I said then I should take more notes while listening, & I think I in fact took LESS notes. edit: and wrote... more??? ok.whatever

Summary (short)

There's a food crisis. Orth gets kidnapped! The Chime gets an automated message to find him and they track him down to some train tracks where the train Orth was on (with a food delivery) got derailed. They get in a really long fight some people from a group called the Iron Choir (they have Orth!) and also some Apostolosians (only really due to bad phrasing on AuDy's part) . And then don't really win but do get away with Orth, so everything's fine I guess?

(more on faction game down below. too much happens in those to summarize here.)

Ground Game

This is the second (and last!) arc they play using MechNoir. I only just started the episode where they switch the characters over to The Sprawl, and I'm counting that towards the next bunch of episodes rather than this one... Anyways, this arc is like a good argument for that switch. It kind of stands out as a "oh they switch after this, right?" thing now. BUT!

The fight was honestly not as much of a slog as I remembered. Like they've done wayyy better fights since ofc especially with mechs (for me personally PZN is still the standout but PAL has had some Good Shit too) but this is like. It's ok! There's fun bits! I like Aria's mech! Part of it might absolutely be that I like. Give a fuck about mechs now and as a result am able to also imagine them better. I think in 2021, when I first listened, I was like. I guess there's Big Robots. Like transformers? (isn't even familiar with transformers) (really doesn't have a touchpoint for this at all)

I liked the snooping around bit before they got to this 2 episode long fight. I already mentioned it in an earlier post briefly, but we learn some minor details about Orth (they are looking through his office), that now really delight me because I love Orth! But when I first listened I don't think I cared very much at all about him at this point. This time around, his and AuDy's relationship intrigues me expecially with how Jack has been playing them.

Player character update...: AuDy is still my favourite. I still don't quite know what to do with Cass, but maybe I'll get there soon? Mako's funny. Though, and I thought I posted about this? But I can't find it now, an arc this episode also brings the morality of fogging robots onscreen for a bit. AuDy's upset by it. I think the notion of the robot he fogs getting more sentient is interesting...? Expecially if you draw a connection to what gives Mako the ability to do it in the first place. ... I won't say more here because I'm not actually sure but it's definitly running via Rightenousness a little bit, right? No clue if those facts are actually connected or not though. Uhm. I like Aria : ). Not many notes there so far, pretty much just the same stuff I said last time (I'm paying more attention to her where I feel like I hadn't as much on my first listen due to Ali being a little more reserved as a player this early on).

Further up I already talked about the switch to The Sprawl & I know the reasons and agree. however. I do think it's fun when they come up with adjectives, even if it messed with the pacing a bit because it took some time to do well. There's still a bit of this with other games they play later, too, like naming risks in Armor Astir or... whatever it was called to take something in Scum & Villainy (I recently relistened to the bit where Gig gets crushed and blown up and is VERY upset by it. It's still very funny).

Another thing I'm noticing more is that I'm occasionally a bit wonky on the factions, even super major ones ( OriCon vs. the Diaspora). I think it's because I didn't listen to the worldbuilding ep... I remember it having pretty rough audio (though probably not worse than that epispde of AiH where you couldn't hear Art at all), and also I skipped it back when I first listened, too (I'd bounced off before. I feel like I've mentioned this). It made some stuff in these episodes a bit hard to keep track of, expecially talking about the food crisis, and who is affected, and who is blamed, etc. (& I very much enjoyed all that! Like oh! We're getting into it now! Space factions and their politics and their effect on the world our characters move in! This rules. Friends at the Table rules)

Faction Game

Sylvi is so ON it with the faction game it's crazy. The other day while listening I remembered this was her first season on the show, like... damn!!! Just a ton of great ideas. It's really fun seeing them all be so enthusiastic about this.

Really good and fun faction game. I'm enjoying these a ton. A lot of my favourite scenes (or very memorable ones) from my first listen is faction game stuff, so I knew I'd like it, but I'm like REALLY really enjoying it. I've already said this in my other post, but I'm pretty sure it's due to the fact I can pay attention better & parse information.

It's a real big one too with a ton stuff getting set up. RIGOUR, Ibex, the Hands of Grace (hi Vicuna), some first September Institute stuff (like how fogging works!), and Loyalty gets introduced in that episode (hi Kobus, also). A lot of Divines, really! I'll get to this very big and important thing first: Rigour getting dug up!!! I totally didn't remember Austin immediately namedrops it at the end of the episode, lol. That probably wouldn't happen now, but these early seasons are more. informal? just less produced? And I really don't dislike it, it's simply a different vibe. And I'm liking it. (The rough-ish audio is also part of it IMO. Love to hear the static white noise if a mediocre mic under their voices.) I do still really like that scene though. Very effective. The image of a worker getting out of his mech to dig the last bit with his hands... It's good shit. Also just. RIGOUR. It maybe even hits more this second time around, because I know just What has been uncovered here and the consequences it will have.

Another is Ibex getting introduced! Hi!!!! : ) Apparently he's something called a "seductress" (or well. seductor) in the games rules, which I extremely forgot and made me laugh when I heard it. And then they proceed to come up with pretty much his whole deal, which Austin's performance is gonna finetune & shape more later on. I'm just excited! I like this guy! (Something I'm trying to do more this time around is take notes to look stuff up later, like what animals the Candidates are named after. I didn't do this for Ibex until sometime last year! Cool animal.)

This faction game also has the first appearance of Diego Rose who I have in mind as sort of Sylvi's special little guy? He's a pretty important guy in the faction that she plays, so I'm just gonna assume he'll show up way more in the future. But really I just loved that scene of him offering a prisoner they took after he shot their ships down to join the Odama Fleet while also threatening him. And he's soooo cunty about it it's so funny to me. Great job.

Tacking this on the end here: I had to look up the summary on the fatt.wiki because it's really been a while since I started this ep vs. finishing it, and this is like the first scene they play through. (The new season got in the way...!) But yeah this episode also has Grace's first real major appearance (& her Candidates, Vicuna). And it's a great scene! I think it's the first Divine onscreen? And showing one's influence on people ("People in the crowd, some of them begin crying and wailing. It is a religious experience for many."). It's good shit!!! I love Divines!!! They've never stopped being cool as fuck as a concept and there really wasn't a point when they weren't. It's just SO good and it'll only ever get pushed further and in even more interesting directions. And it's nice to be back here, at the start.

????

This is neither here nor there. Not anywhere really. But at some point Jack says "no that's undertale" (I didn't note down what about.) %& it really threw me for some reason like ik the years match up. But I just have C/W in mind as like... ages ago... (it was) and Undertale. Is Undertale. /I/ played Undertale! And that wasn't ages ago (lie) (it was)! Like I was probably playing Undertale when they made this season! Strange to think about.

Grace's arrival(?)

I want to try and draw a little image for each of these sets (though this one took me a bit longer than I would've liked). Here's Grace('s feet, because she's so big) and the sculpture park on Gemm

I'm not actually sure why (I don't think it gets mentioned in the episode???) but I've always imagined that planet (Gemm) as like, really foggy. Maybe because fog + ruined statue park looks really cool? + Graces light through the fog? Yeah, I don't know. The park is also empty here, when of course there's a whole parade and stuff in the episode, but this is just an image (an approximation of it.) I have in my head...