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If Odin was impressed enough he was willing to let Lara live with him for some time, there's a good chance he did write her into his will. I haven't really felt engaged with this story, and I think this update kind of exemplifies why. Almost every character not named Odin, Lock, or Eris (and there is a good chance that the latter two are secretly some of our other viewpoints) can be at best described as 'bumbling' and at worst completely incompetent. In this update we had neither Art nor Polly bothering to check and see if the other would try and cut a deal with Lara. We had Lara just accepting Eris dumping her into a fatal situation, considering that even in the best case the Deisma brothers are going to be pissed at being scammed and look straight at her. It's one thing for a group of random death game contestants to be kind of dumb, considering they're randos thrust into a stressful situation, but these people are supposed to be the senior movers and shakers of Panthea and they come across like amateurs. The governor deciding to talk to Lock in person instead of just telling him to gently caress off, the Duat senior officers standing around a corpse like a bunch of muppets, and of course poor, useless Devon. Maybe that's meant to be the point of the story, that power and competence aren't really linked, but these easy scams aren't doing much for me as a narrative.
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Feb 9, 2024 18:44
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Junpei posted:I think the key to this is a reminder of all the mythological names: this is a story about humans with godly arrogance. It's the major connecting thread between Art, Aija and Yi, Polly to a lesser extent as well and Odin absolutely has pride even if he tempers it-they're all convinced that they're 100% in charge of their situations because nothing has ever majorly threatened it before. Pride goeth before a fall, and all. That makes some sense. I guess having overconfident incompetence apply to multiple characters at once is making it feel like its overused. Junpei posted:We do have some concrete moments of meeting. Devon isn't Lock, and Vels isn't Devon. Eris and Laverna talked over the phone, Lock contacted Vels at one point, Thane did talk to Laverna but we have no idea if that's Mercury's Thane or Fane. I'm pretty sure Lara's initial reaction to Eris and the bit at the end of the chapter means that Eris is actually Mercury, and despite the phone call I'm not convinced the twins aren't actually the same person either. Thane is probably someone, but there's nothing concrete that I've seen, though Vels was asked a pointed question recently about where they stayed in the their downtime. Let's see if anything more concrete comes up.
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Feb 10, 2024 21:42
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Okay, I'm still not that engaged in the update-by-update story, but the overall who's-who mystery has been eating at me. Just getting my thoughts out there: Mercury is Thane. Straightforward, and understandable. Lara's reaction to Eris implies Eris is Mercury, or Laverna is Mercury. Lock has given a backstory but it could very easily be lies, and Vels has kept their cards close to their chest. I am imagining a world where all of them are actually the twins, or the twins (and thus the rest) are the same person. It sounds a bit crazy, but it was conspicuously highlighted in this update that Zahhak had a daughter who is conveniently dead which got me thinking whether she might be back to cause discord ("eris") in Panthea by disrupting all the majors players from different angles - Mercury/Thane within the Duats, Laverna within the police, Vels within Olympo, and Lock within politics. Ironically this would make Eris the Devil, so unless that email conversation is all in her head I'm coming back around to it being two people at most, though that goes against it being Zahhak's daughter if the twins really are twins. Devon is just Devon, unless there's some very wild swerves there.
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Feb 13, 2024 14:25
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There it is, I was correct that everyone except Devon was the same person, though I don't know how much it counts when it was only spotted a couple of updates in advance. Now to see whether I was right on their motives/background.
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Feb 18, 2024 01:17
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I like the simplicity of just bricking Odin into his silly little bunker, even if the rest of the share percentage shenanigans once again fall into my problems with the story. Kane was high on my list of suspects for being either God or the Devil, and while his explanation for showing up could just be Kane as God covering his bases with convenient excuses, it could also be that doing odd favours for God is exactly how Kane as the Devil knew that they existed in the first place. Or he could be both, playing both sides somehow. After having six characters turn out to be the same person, I'm not ruling anything out until we've literally seen them in the same room.
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Feb 28, 2024 10:04
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It was so satisfying for Yi to just pop Lara right between the eyes instead of getting stuck into another dumb roundabout argument, but then he had to go and spoil it by handing off his gun for the pursuit like an idiot. Also, Krish remains the single dumbest major character in the story, and that's saying something. I'm not sure what Vels/Mercury's theory is, but all around Yi's been looking out for his place in the Duats more than anything else and hasn't shown any sign of connection with 'God' or the 'Devil', except maybe if he was the one who got that recording of Marduk. Anyway, that seems to have been a bust, so presumably they have one remaining theory that ties everything together that'll appear in the remaining segments, which'll be Lock and Devon...does that mean that (looking at it from the meta perspective that they're most connected to the political characters, and what would be a shocking twist) in the end Bach will turn out to be one of our mystery figures? Playing the meek pushover would certainly be good cover.
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Mar 10, 2024 01:20
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So, it was Kane after all. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as he's been lurking in the background for a long time (also, y'know, his name). I guess my problem with the whole plot point is that Panthea's institutions seem to have no problem being massively corrupt all on their own, so I haven't seen the need to have a single mastermind behind it all. It makes Devon being satisfied that Mercury will stop Kane feel a bit eh as we haven't seen very much of what Kane's actually done to prop up the system. Also, RIP Devon. You died as you lived, being useless. It doesn't seem like much'll come out of his death, unless a body appearing in Aija's office manages to cost her the campaign. In terms of the vote, I'm going to say both as well, because I don't see much reason for Kane and Mercury to actually need to fight to the death. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but I feel like both would try to slip away if they have the chance.
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Mar 24, 2024 18:06
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Ah, yeah, Jacy was the whole reason for going to the boat in the first place. That'd give Mercury a good reason to keep going after Kane (also, him being both Devil and God isn't that big a surprise), though from my view it was an easy thing to forget about since Mercury in most identities is a glib rear end in a top hat so seemed very unlikely to legitimately actually care about that. In terms of the timeline, this throws my sense of it all out of whack, as I'd thought Mercury's story was essentially the starting point, but I haven't been keeping too close a track on that anyway.
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Mar 31, 2024 21:08
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I think Devon dropped/threw it in his final moments. Hey, he was actually useful for something. I'm going to go against my instincts and say Bach will be fine. This whole story he's basically been a guy who listened to the last person to talk to him, so him breaking out of that or somehow turning that instinct towards good would be a nice surprise for the epilogue.
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Apr 5, 2024 14:53
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I'll admit that I too was hoping for Baldera to just shoot. Maybe pop Nancy in the leg or something. There's just something satisfying about having a slimy rear end in a top hat fail to worm their way out of the ultimate equalizer. In terms of the vote, I'll go for no on the card. This is mostly based on the wording, meaning I think there's a good chance someone will contact them but the question specifies Baldera and it might not be her. The happy ending question is still uncertain. Panthea's in flames, Nancy is escaping but Baldera's right that they're not quite being honest with themselves so even with all their profit it might not be satisfying, and the cycle of corruption is likely to pick up again eventually. On the other hand, if Krish pulls something if/when they show up in these last cards that leaves the story on a happy and hopeful note, then maybe that counts.
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Apr 6, 2024 23:47
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 16:05 |
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I also didn't really get into the story for this one. I mostly stuck through it to see the resolutions to the big mysteries, rather the fate of the city or the characters involved. I'd put that down to two reasons for myself. The first, that I've already expressed, is that I feel like every character beside Mercury, Odin, and I guess Kane is a moron who can't seem to tie their own shoelaces much less run a company/gang/city. That is part of the point, given that they're all just tools in the battle between Mercury and Kane, but given that Kane himself is in the background for the most of the plot the story feels like Mercury bullying a bunch of incompetents. Which takes me to my second point. Mercury is an rear end in a top hat. I'm not opposed to having an rear end in a top hat as the main character, and some of my favourite characters are complete assholes. Thing is, those sort of characters really need to have their comeuppance to actually be satisfying to read. To risk a derail, I'd compare Mercury to Vriska (I'll trust anyone reading this sort of LP knows who that is). A lot of selfishness, a little bit of heroic intent, and the willingness to do a whole lot of terrible poo poo to get what they want. However, Vriska was constantly being smacked back down, what with losing an arm & eye, dying horribly, dying horribly again, and ultimately being demoted to secondary (Vriska) (ignoring HS2). Mercury, by comparison, manages to slime their way out of every situation and setback without it really affecting them or their plans, and ends up escaping with their revenge, a pile of money, and only a vague sense of dissatisfaction. That isn't really the kind of tale I like for this sort of character. Not to say that this is a bad LP. Thank you for all the work you've put in, Mix.! I've enjoyed thinking through some of the mysteries and gambles. Sybot fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 13:48
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