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.