but we respect his craft

[kindkit]

I'm partway through the Ancient Rome Sidequest of the Rusty Quill Gaming podcast, and I find myself picturing Alex saying to himself "What this fun and pulpy storyline needs is more moral ambiguity!!" And cackling. (ETA: Alex is--in my imagination--cackling. Not me.)

Further ETA: Having listened to the rest of the sidequest, I'm definitely not cackling. Ouch.

I do wonder what might have happened if it hadn't been for a combination of bad rolls and poor judgment. Might Grizzop and Sasha have changed history? And might they have found a way back to their own time?

Also, I choose to believe that Sasha did not in any way marry Cicero and have a bunch of kids with him. Cicero is her assistant and they're running a school for acrobats and/or thieves.

(And to be fair to Alex, despite his obvious fondness for playing the sadistic god, he seemed pretty upset at having killed off a--mostly--good and likeable character.)

Comments

Hopefully not too spoilery to say

[rydra_wong]

I'm partway through the Ancient Rome Sidequest of the Rusty Quill Gaming podcast

GOOD LUCK.

ETA: Ah, I see your ETA.

Also, I choose to believe that Sasha did not in any way marry Cicero and have a bunch of kids with him.

I didn't even think of that possibility -- yeah, no, no way that's what happened (aside from the fact Cicero's an idiot, I'm sure he can't do any parkour).

I read it as being clear that she's running a school/home for waifs and strays, so they can learn Sasha-skills while also being loved and cared for. Protecting the kind of kid she once was.

(And to be fair to Alex, despite his obvious fondness for playing the sadistic god, he seemed pretty upset at having killed off a--mostly--good and likeable character.)

Yeah, I'm fascinated by the post ep-4 "bloopers", because they're all having such different emotional reactions.

Re: Hopefully not too spoilery to say

[rydra_wong]

Ancient Rome is what I was referring to here, btw:

https://rydra-wong.dreamwidth.org/746671.html?thread=9616303#cmt9616303

I was immensely impressed by Alex's ability to take an objectively awful outcome -- one character dies horribly, one's stuck in the past for the rest of her life -- and narrate it in such a way (Sasha's flash-forward, Grizzop's afterlife) that it feels moving and dignified and healing, not just a bit of random awfulness. Especially given that he's doing all of it in the moment.

There's a huge amount of responsibility in saying "let me tell you what your character's doing 20 years from now" before handing it back to the player again to finish, and he carries it very well.

I'm moved partly by how much they all three seem to trust each other with their characters and the story.

Re: Hopefully not too spoilery to say

[kindkit]

I didn't even think of that possibility -- yeah, no, no way that's what happened

As soon as Alex started giving the description of the big house full of children, and Cicero's there, it was the first thing that came to my mind. Along with "oh, no, do not want." I don't think it's what he was trying to imply, but (acknowledging that he was improvising) he could have been clearer. He's joked about having a tendency to accidentally leave out important details when describing things, and I think this was an example.

[rydra_wong]

And might they have found a way back to their own time?

I hope someone asks, come the post S4 Q&A, whether there was a possible route back to the present; I'd be curious to know whether that was ever on the cards.

[cyprinella]

Grizzop's last line is perfection and makes me cry every time.

[kindkit]

Yeah, that was a really good moment. Grizzop wasn't my favorite character, being a bit rigid and fanatical for my taste, but he deserved a better ending than "cut down by random guards for no good reason." And Alex managed to create one for him, in the end.

[cyprinella]

Yeah, the whole argument he had with Hamid that basically boiled down to prison abolition and restorative justice was REALLY frustrating. But I loved him and Sasha so much both as characters and interacting together.

[kindkit]

Yeah, the Grizzop and Sasha vs. Hamid argument was just painful. Fundamentally good characters whom I really like being furious with each other, and they're all partially right and partially wrong and not listening to each other at all.

Grizzop and Sasha did have a really great dynamic with each other.

Happy to have Zolf back, though, even though he and Hamid argue constantly. Their dynamic is so weird:

Zolf: I think we should do A.
Hamid: Well, I think we should do B, because of X, Y, and Z.
Zolf: Okay, fine, we'll do B.
Hamid: No, really, we should do B. My reasons are good reasons! Let me tell you all about them, at length!
Everyone else in the party: Um, we're going to start doing B now.
Hamid, 5 minutes later: And in conclusion, this is why B is definitely the right choice. Don't you agree, Zolf? Zolf? Zolf, were you not listening?

(I may ship them. Kind of a lot.)

[rydra_wong]

Grizzop wasn't my favorite character, being a bit rigid and fanatical for my taste

For me, that's part of why I love him as a character -- he's a genuinely good person, who is trying to do good in the world with all his might, and he's also judgemental and impatient and rigid-minded and shouty, and it's all inextricably mixed up together. And that's really interesting to me.

[kindkit]

*nods* I don't dislike him, and I do find him interesting. I like and admire the fact that all of the characters (even Bertie, to some degree) have been nuanced and complex, not Perfect Cinnamon Rolls and not Cackling Villains. Even the NPCs have nuance.