MrNotSoBright

Why did I buy 10?!

Certain beast races appear to be treated with some level of trepidation in the Empire, but this is not universal. While it would appear that Dragonborn, Firbolgs and Tabaxi are generally accepted, things like Gnolls, Goblins, and Lizardfolk are not. This may potentially include avians like Kenku or Aaracockra, though we haven't actually heard anything about the avian beast races in those terms.

Jester was probably just playing it safe, though my guess is that it is only the "often evil" beast races that really need to worry.

Yeah, if it is clear that you're just there to try and hurt the people around you, you're going to get shut down really fucking quick.

A good mosh pit is controlled aggression and chaos. It is a way to let your emotions go wild in a "dance" that has little form or thoughtful consideration. The people around you are other chaotic free-radicals that you are meant to "aggressively" interact with, but it is never meant to be truly violent or hurtful.

Definitely a very interesting experience.

Yeah, dude. Ionizing radiation is nothing to fuck with.

When they describe this type of radiation as being like "bullets" flying around smashing into the tiniest little bits of what makes you "you", they are not kidding. In a a lot of ways it isn't even an exaggeration; the literal means by which your body continues to replicate "you" just fucking dies and stops. You can no longer heal, you can no longer adapt. Anything hit by these metaphorical "bullets" just stop being.

That half a second he put his head over the edge to look at the core probably cost him more than half his life. Imagine a proverbial volcano of "FUCK YOU AND ANYONE WITH YOU" spewing directly upward into your brain. That 4 seconds he spent stuck on the roof stuck with a broken boot under that piece of SUPER FUCKING RADIOACTIVE graphite would have, at the very least, made sure that his leg is basically worthless to him now. That 1-2 seconds he spent in that water probably cost him another third of whatever life he had before him. Remember that the 90 seconds each of them were given, with a "decent" amount of protection, under "perfect circumstances", was considered, even by modern standpoints, the maximum time someone could spend in such an environment FOREVER. That was their "lifetime dose" of radiation, the likes of which would probably be above what the rest of us would experience over the literal course of an entire average human lifespan. 90 seconds vs 90 years.

Radiation is a motherfucker, and I think that's a big part of what this miniseries is trying to show and remind us of. It's trying to show us just how impossibly uneducated people were (and continue to be) about the very real dangers of nuclear reactors, and I say this as someone that believes very strongly that nuclear power is the future of Mankind.

Yeah, Yasha's AC scares me, especially after Talks Machina where she seemed to confirm that she is aware that she can wear armor, and that it would be an easy, immediate fix, but that she wants to stay out of it for character reasons. She desperately needs some magical items to pick up the slack

I guess my point is that training to be a Faceless Man didn't seem to play into what she accomplished, nor did it have any narrative connection to the story of the Night King or the Long Night. Sure, she's super sneaky and acrobatic, but we had been pretty definitively shown, on more than one occasion, that the undead were virtually everywhere, and that they could be drawn by even slight movement or sounds, like the sound of dripping blood from less than a foot off the ground.

Her then sprinting across the castle grounds, seemingly entirely undetected and unmolested, past the circle of wights and past the retinue of White Walkers, to be capable of leaping directly onto the Night King just seems.... lazy? Poorly thought out? I'm not sure, exactly, but it is just so insanely out of left field, that I can't help but be left feeling perplexed and disappointed.

I'm not entirely sure if I expected the Night King to die at all, but I definitely didn't expect him to be killed in the fashion that he was. There was just too much narrative weight put behind him. He's supposed to be a force of nature, a direct opposition to the petty squabbling for the throne, a dark reflection of man's hubris, and then he's killed by a parkour assassin.

Does that really seem like a satisfying conclusion? We've been building up to the Night King and his Long Night since episode 1 of season 1. Are you saying that you're totally content with the fact that the greatest threat to the world that has ever existed was killed by a poorly-executed deus ex machina out of left field?

Sure, but why not Jon? He's been face-to-face with the Night King on more than one occasion, and has spent a significant portion of his arc focused on the coming Long Night.

Why not Dany, with her dragonfire and profound lust for power on this continent?

Why not Berick or Mellisandre, whose religion is seemingly at least partially based around a direct opposition to everything that the White Walkers represent?

Why not Theon, who was literally right there, with a weapon that, theoretically, had the means to kill him?

Why not Bran, who has already shown himself to be a direct competitor to the Night King?

Compared to any of the characters I just mentioned, Arya is an outlier, narratively speaking. I get protecting her family as being a driving motivation, especially since it's a big reason she left the House of Black and White, and the Faceless Men tradition in general, but there were so many other potential options that would have had more significant emotional and narrative weight, and they chose one with virtually none of either.

im not sure you have watched any other episodes or even paid attention to the story

Have you?

Bran can warg into creatures and see the past, present, and future, potentially even interact directly with it. He can interact with the entire network of Weirwoods. He could have some very interesting powers. If he can see the future, nothing about his behavior is reminiscent of that aside from just being super cavalier about everything happening around him, just sort of accepting that things will work out. That is not narratively interesting.

In terms of the story relating to the Night King and the Long Night, Arya has virtually no connection. Narratively speaking, Arya is a pretty random solution. It would be like Samwell Tarly being the solution to Cersei; there are other characters that are profoundly and intimately intertwined with her story, so to have someone outside that context provide the closure is, narratively speaking, just plain weird.

What makes you think she used the face of a wight? We don't see that when she appears flying through the air toward the Night King, and the last time we saw her she was leaving Mellisandre

There was very little about this episode that made sense

That should be the name of the episode

I'm in the same boat. All that narrative build-up for a visually incredible episode that is, in my opinion, utterly marred by gleaming plot-armor and deus ex machina after deus ex machina.

What is the point of Bran? Like, this is the episode they could have used him to some interesting effect, but he was totally wasted. Mellisandre did some cool stuff, but it was totally out of left field, and what the fuck was with her death at the end? Like, why?

The Night King, a force of nature that is threatening the entire world with eternal night with his endless army of the undead is randomly ganked by some random girl that managed to sprint silently across an entire zombie-filled castle and past his entire retinue of White Walkers.

The action was incredible, but narratively it was an absolutely profound waste.

Seriously. An utter waste. I'm dumbfounded that they decided to go that route. This entire episode, while incredibly well shot with some amazing choreography and CGI, was just plot armor and deus ex machinas at every turn.

His tattoos?

I got the same thing.

Seems pretty damn lazy of them

I made it so that there were tangentially related things they needed to accomplish on their way north toward where they know Harshnag is. That way, they could feel like the things that are happening are happening EVERYWHERE, and it seems like there is related work to be done in almost every place they go.

They decided to go to a hunting lodge on the edge of the High Forest where I had them given a job to try and investigate an old ruin that has had some weird stuff happening at. They get there, realize that a color-pool/portal is being forcefully reopened, and they have to perform some sort of ritual/puzzle to get it to close. I used this to hint at the Kraken, as it was a portal to the Water Elemental Plane and an unknown force was beckoning them to enter the portal (Failed CHA saves each turn would move them a bit closer) as they fought some water elementals and corrupted plant creatures.

I had them working on trying to join the Harpers, since my players did the Triboar attack and got a lot of help from Darathra. So, my players had a reason to try and reach Everlund before going further north.

I had them get captured by tribe members in the Evermoors to give them a bit more exposure to the Uthgardt Barbarian tribes, and they more peacefully interacted with tribe members once they got into the northern forests.

I made it so that there had been a very recent giant attack on Sundabar that they caught wind of, and when they showed up they were asked to go speak with important figures at Citadel Felbarr. I used this to show that even the Dwarves are being affected by this, and to give some hints at the Fire Giants building the Vonindod, as they were stealing adamantium.

I also gave them some time with Harshnag before they did all the Eye of the All Father stuff, having them help him avenge the death of his wife (I made that up on the spot) by killing some frost giants with him.

Basically, I just made it so that a majority of the "side quests" ended up, even tangentially, relating to the main story that they were expected to explore.

When they finally got high enough level, they felt like they were still in the same basic story they were when fighting in Triboar those many sessions ago.

How would such a request even be granted? Putting aside the fact that everyone has fully accepted and moved on from Molly's death, the simple logistics of doing that are crazy. Go back to the Empire, find the spot they buried him, hope he's still there, get that body back to the Dynasty, then have them use super powerful magic (Resurrection at the very least due to how long it has been) to bring him back. All of that is assuming that the Krynn are even willing to use Resurrection magic when they seem to have built their society around this Consecution and Dunamancy stuff.

We know that their consecution puts an old soul into a brand-new body. Molly was not a brand new body, so it could not have been the same consecution that the Krynn use. At best it may be tangentially similar, but my guess is that is was some other sort of ritual.

Honestly, this far outside of the Empire, and especially being this far from the coast, I don't think any threads of Vandren are going to be reaching Fjord any time soon. It is possible that we get some Uk'otoa stuff, considering they're right by where all the Betrayer Gods did their shenanigans, but I think even that is a stretch right now.

If we're assuming your standard fantasy setting, then maybe there were some powerful heroes in a long-forgotten age, and now there is some nefarious person/group hoping to essentially clone these individuals in the hope of bending them to their will and making a small army of powerful beings.

Not entirely sure how you would justify this to the party, especially if they're expecting to have backstories that go all the way to their childhoods. Maybe each of them were spirited away by some force for good as babies, allowed to grow up normally outside the influence of the evil people, or maybe they escaped when they were older, but there is some sort of memory manipulation making them believe they lived normal lives.

In either case, you now have an evil person/organization that is on the look-out for these "escapees", with the potential foundations for a full-scale BBEG. Your players could end up having to fight versions of themselves, maybe, or try to explain their innocence to a government in response to assassination attempts made by individuals that look eerily similar to the party.

Very insightful, and it is pretty clear to me now that Talesin was choosing his words very carefully

Good stuff

As written, no, it is only for defensive purposes. You would have to talk with your DM about homebrewing a spell or magic item that accomplishes what you want, as there is currently no magic that does what you are asking.

The Can Opener's Daughter. There's supposed to be one more coming that will close out the story, but it isn't complete yet.

Motherless Oven and it's sequel are surprisingly good. It's mind -bendingly strange, and profoundly unsettling, but it is utterly unique and incredibly intriguing. I've never read anything else like it.

I bought the Year 1 hardcover and came to a similar conclusion. Heard great things, and the concept is actually pretty interesting, but I think "try-hard" might actually be a pretty good description, like it is shooting for a level of spectacle and depth that the writing just doesn't back up. There's a few small arcs that are pretty good, but they feel sullied by the rest.

I also felt like a hell of a lot more could be done with the world building. It felt like these literal gods showing up for short periods of time at regular intervals didn't really affect the world much beyond what artists like Taylor Swift or Daft Punk do.

Unless you can figure out who he is, there's nothing you can legally do. You can't file suit against "masked vigilante".