#KillMode

[ihaveseentruebravery]

Finally feel like I have enough insight to wade into C3 analysis.

I do totally understand this plane not feeling like it 'landed satisfactorily' in terms of character, plot and theme. And I do think this would have been an issue regardless of any of the three. Multiple people have expounded on what felt unsatisfactory, but I was always more curious how it happened.

Themes at the outset that I think the whole cast understood was:

-magical corruption or corruption of the soul (which was relevant to Imogen, Fearne, Ashton, FCG, Laudna, Chetney (for clarification even FCG and Chetney had a killmode to engage depending on if they could control their own power),

-societal oppression (how the vanguard seemed to see the gods/structures of religion but also the literal classism that's baked into this kind of world that we saw in c2 and Jrusar/Bassuras, (tangentially this relates similarly to how the group understood people in power/attempted to gain access to magic/information/power through influence in multiple ways (and several of these characters constantly questioned the status quo)))

-and can the 'little guy' ever actually affect the outcome of worldwide violence/conflict/war (Eshteross/the Apex War/The Red Solstice outcomes).

That was stupid lengthy, but themes are just as multifaceted as the other two aspects to discuss here.

Character breakdown:

Multiple characters were going to be tempted to fall onto a darker path (corruption). If Matt's goal was to make things ever more difficult or challenging, then that includes these decisions as well. And plenty points of corruptive influence could have affected multiple characters (but most especially: Fearne/Imogen/Laudna/Ashton(titan-hishari stuff)/FCG (killbot mode)/Chetney (no gorgynei help)). Even Dorian or Orym could have taken the Spider Queen's Crown. This is not an especially satisfying character arc for any of them, but that they avoided it until the end is wildly fascinating.

Is it satisfying what happened with Delilah and Predathos? That depends entirely on your own interpretation of the Imogen-Laudna relationship and each character individually. But they're deeply complex characters, and as this happened over three months, there is simply Not.Enough.Time. to explore it effectively. They talked it to death (so it seems), but without committing to 'going dark', they instead BEGIN to tell a story of resistance. But again, that takes time.

Multiple characters were also affected by how arcane casters perceived the gods. At any time a character could have been more curious about WHY there was an Arcane-Divine divisiveness, but that was not presented as an actual priority when this group happened to fight both Judicators AND mages. Thull' doing so much damage to the party on BEHALF of a wizard plot left an indelible footprint of terror to say nothing of the Vanguard's reach by itself. They controlled even Paragon's Call, which was the early-on issue what with what went down in Jrusar. Thull scarred their entire group multiple times, and while Da'leth/Predathos might have been a driving force of the plot...she is this group's most personal enemy.

Though Lolth as well, and the Crown, left an impression on the side of 'divinity can take you over and Fuck You for attempting to stop it'. And the memories of Aeor's fall I'd say left quite an impression. That they gained so much support from divinely-inspired factions and STILL released Predathos is wildly unbelievable to me.

The consequences of it what with the power vacuum, are breathtakingly enormous and as a ttrpg player, I would never ever make a similar decision. But...this was SUPPOSED to be the campaign of hard choices and if no one takes a risk or makes a big swing, the CAST would probably have wound up disappointed in their own storytelling. Further still, logistically, the BH group I don't think, was equipped to handle a force of fighters that had actually united across the pantheon AGAINST a threat for the first time since the Schism. And why is that?

Plot:

As I've rewatched the beginning of C2 and C3 almost concurrently, Ive been struck by how BIG C3 felt from the outset. C2 was legit a coupla fuckwads meetin in a tavern solving a mystery about a circus. C3 had it's plot front and center from the beginning. Orym had his quest and Imogen had her dreams. The background of the Apex War, the CA, and the Grim Verity and Predathos were all already in place. Eshteross was our War Vet that they first needed to gain influence with, Jiana Hexum and Ashton's backstory (and evidently the beacon being able to be some kind of tool to get rid of Predathos) had the CA tie-in and Paragon's Call AND The Vanguard AND the idea of deeeeeeep plot-relevant secret (power of the beacon), and Imogen and Orym had the Lumas Twins/Grim Verity, and FCG had our Aeor connection to the Malleus Key.

C2 had incredible foreshadowing, but the C3 backstories already had the final plot connection (even Chetney had a Molaesmyr connection to highlight a previous Da'leth plot!!) that was being actively investigated at the outset. C2 really just was a buncha people in the world going 'huh...what's over there?’. They were exploring the world, which made the theme of 'who are we' resonate very deeply because it was in reaction to what they found in the world.

The C3 characters came in with a purpose (Imogen looking into her dreams, Orym looking for the old contact with the Lumas Twins, Ashton looking for help with Hexum, FCG looking for help with their memories) and that was the reason they were all actually IN Marquet. Perhaps this seems an obvious set-up for any DND game, but the plot ball was already rolling downhill, because Matt had already started the timer. The Solstice was always going to happen.

So these C3 arcs that developed around these concepts and themes were, individually, very strong, and were done either to setup a plot point, or highlight why it mattered. And we're left with an INCREDIBLY ambitious concept of a ttrpg story. This simply would not work without table buy-in. Hearing all the ways backstories and early-on authority figures were connected somehow to the bigger plot, means that there was never going to be a 'harder choice' than 'will you stop the god-eater?'. Now everything that tied to that idea had to emphasize WHY the question mattered.

And as we saw play out, that's actually too hard of a question. Narratively speaking...that IS too big of an idea for the time that could be devoted to it, both within the game at the table, and in the timeline of Exandria. This is what most tables would Not Like about railroaded plot. But this cast WANTED a really challenging campaign. Matt has been clear about that from the beginning. The 'little guys' however, did indeed affect a worldwide conflict. They did so while ignorant of many facets of it, but that is so deeply relatable as a human in the world, that it's painfully understandable.

If we look at this art form as a conversation between the story, the storytellers, and the world that inspired its creation, then we have multiple answers to the questions this story asked. But to an audience as varied as this, what's the most compelling one, and did it get answered for you satisfactorily? At the table, there were many satisfying answers among the storytellers when the story completed. And for Matt as the DM who had such an incredibly enormous idea, I totally understand the need to FIND a moment of completion bc this story is SO BIG.

But more excitingly, what other answers will come to us in the future?

[dalekofchaos]

The problem with Rey choosing to rebuild the Jedi Order and take the Skywalker name

When I look back on Rey's journey throughout the trilogy is that it's apparent to me that she really doesn't show a desire to be a Jedi.

In The Force Awakens, Rey wanted to find her family, she is mesmerized by so much green in the galaxy and ultimately protecting her friends.

In The Last Jedi she wanted to find her place in the story and bring Ben back to the light. Rey ultimately comes to terms with the fact that she wasn't born into any powerful bloodlines and made peace with her family being gone. Rey forged her own heroine's path and it worked.

In the Rise of Skywalker, Rey goes back to the same hairstyle she had since she was a child and the same outfit in TFA, but in white, it's like all the growth from the last movie never happened. Rey's motivation is whatever the plot demanded it to be. She wants to "earn" Luke's Lightsaber(fuck you JJ) and she wants the Jedi to be with her. Now it's a plot convenience to stop the bad guys. And she's in killmode everytime she sees Ben. Now the uplifting message that she's not related to anyone is gone, she's related to the literal Satan of the Star Wars universe. Now she wants to kill Palpatine out of revenge. Now she has this new found reverence for "Master Skywalker" when it was never there to begin with. It's only because of Ben's redemption that she doesn't strike Palpatine in anger. Ben dies, Rey goes to the literal tomb of the Skywalkers and symbol of the family's misery, buries the sabers and takes their name.

TROS absolutely destroyed Rey’s characterization. In a way that’s kind of mind blowing actually. She’s definitely meant to be a parallel character to Luke, but Rian purposely wrote it to subvert fan expectations. A lot of people probably saw the story trajectory following the OG trilogy after TFA, which had a very similar vibe to ANH. However while both Luke and Rey start out as mysterious nobodies, Luke very much did not want to be Vader’s son. His curse was being the son of this monster, and finding out the truth about his lineage. Meanwhile, for Rey, it’s literally the exact opposite. She wants desperately to be apart of something. Kylo points out her weakness perfectly in TLJ- “Your parents threw you like garbage… But you can't stop needing them. It is your greatest weakness. You're looking for them everywhere… in Han Solo… now in Skywalker.” Rey wanted to apart of something bigger than herself to belong. While Luke’s hero’s journey started by accepting his parentage, Rey should’ve begun by accepting that she alone was enough, and she deserved a place in this story for her own merits.

TROS absolutely dismantles this by having Rey discover she’s actually related to the big bad (just like Luke), which somehow earns her a place at the table. Except unlike Luke, who had 3 films prior to truly hate/come to terms with Vader, Rey meets Palpatine in the very last movie, and he essentially becomes a villain-of-the-week or a Marvel villain of sorts. There’s no build up. Rey’s powers suddenly need to be “explained” to the audience, via her lineage, and it’s horrendous because the message of the prior films showed that anyone can have the force. Also Rey suddenly having an attachment to Luke or the Jedi order makes no sense from her character’s perspective. It feels as if Rey is supposed to represent the audience, and her worship of Luke is reminiscent of how fans (who’ve had 47 years of Star Wars fandom prior) should feel about him. But Rey as an individual, as a character, should not view Luke in this way. They did not get along in TLJ, and in the long run, his impact on her was very minimal. And by clinging to past ideas, it just shows Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was right. She can’t stop needing parental figures to feel loved/belonged. She needs to carry that torch.

Now Rey is expected to be this Jedi Master 15 years later.

Here's the problem. Rey has never shown a desire to be a Jedi. It's just something that was necessary to become. They never explored what Rey wanted.

“People keep telling me they know me. No one does” neither did JJ Abrams or DLF, apparently.

To me, Rey's desires were to have a family, to live on a green planet and to live in peace with Ben, her other half. While Ben's story should have been actually completing what Anakin. Saving the one he loved and starting a family.

Ben died and so instead of giving what Rey wanted, she's given what JJ Abrams and DLF wanted, a Jedi's life of duty instead of a desire of love and family.

Now it feels like Rey is going to be like they ended things the way they did so Rey could succeed leading a Jedi Order where Luke failed and to me, that's boring, might as well just say Rey is going to become Legends Luke.

For me, personally, the more interesting story moving forward would be having Rey go darker. Completely subverting fan expectations, but I know Disney won’t do this. However, based on how TROS ended off, I think it could be an interesting way of continuing the story and re-gaining interest from fans who’ve become bored with the same formula.

Just imagine. Rey founded a new Jedi Order, but Rey isn't happy. She thought this is what she wanted, but it isn't. She does her best to mask her feelings from her students and fellow Jedi Council members, but deep down she knows what she wanted is long gone. "But what if he can come back" she thought to herself. she grows darker and starts committing dark acts to bring Ben back. If she condemned herself to the dark side, so be it. If her own Jedi Order turns against her, so be it. She throws away the Skywalker name and leaves the past behind her. She will find Kylo's helmet, wears his sweater and take his title. The force took her other half, so Rey will rip apart the force to bring him back.

Sources

TROS Concept Art

Pablo Ruiz

reyreybutt

clari.saiyazam

[corruptimles]

If it's not spoilers who of the modley crew(verse?) is the most op? whos the "oh no im fucked" if locked in a room with them?

If there are no prerequisites, Mos would be the worst to be in a locked room with because it'll be simply in its nature to eventually get you

otherwise it reads like this:

Since everyone else in the Modley Crew, except the child, is dangerous but wouldn't really have a reason to hurt someone unprompted. November has to be either confused or starving, Mars has a killmode glitch, Algernon and Dr. Steene are just. if they get bored. There's no real ranking on who's stronger than who because then that gets into like, how effectively could you kill a dust cloud vs eldritch contracts vs whatever.

[arach-tinilith]

Boss was demeaning to me im in killmode now ☺️

[star-synth]

Some fun Human V sketches :> fun fact, the bottom left is actually the most accurate drawing I have for the DDs killmode(??) in my Human AU!

[amwult]

i think i'm not romantic but i'm infinitely more romantic than these people who think dating is a contest, or worse, a meat lottery. and each time someone looks upon a relationship i'm in through these lenses, regardless of what they're saying, i go killmode.

[thescrump]

Does killmode scrump have a ref/description and if so may I have it?

No. He started existing yesterday. But I probably will make one for him and the other alternate versions of me.

[glitchylaptop]

Mhm, debido a la convinacion de que el ship sea contigo + dos DDs le decidi llamar "Glitchy Killmode"

Jeje, que curioso nombre Bibs

[chaos-has-theories]

I run a small Discord server for my friends, for Body Doubling and Hangout purposes and -

fucking Mee6. Fuck that robot sideways and with a chainsaw. First all the functions start being shunted to premium? and then they ADD A RANDOM AI WITHOUT WARNING. to just. Pipe up and gabble some nonsense about Tacos.

I know I CAN just go killmode i CAN but blah blah I want my friends to at least have a vote on this. Eugh. Ew.

Anyway, I set up Carlbot now, which seems much more customizable and friendly, but I'm also taking suggestions if you have them

[stonehengemony]

i will not do the labor of educating you on what happens when i go into killmode.

[tannerhewison]

#Fitness #Health #Veins #Vascular #Train #TrainHard #USN #Navy #NavySEALs #SEALteams #KillMode (at Muskingum University) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGgT_e8D9uw/?igshid=1a5ccsseaj3ll

[keto-carol]

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El #Coronavirus no sabe lo que le espera si se atreve a entrar a este cuerpito #KillMode #SistemaInmune #IAmReady #Keto . . #ketolifestyleworksforme #ketochile #ketoargentina #ketopuertorico #ketomexico #ketoperu #ketoecuador #ketocolombia #ketorecetas #ketoenespañol #ketoespañol #lowcarbdieta #dietacetogenica #ketocarol #ketopanama #cetogenicaespañol #comidaketo #cetosisdieta #ketomexican #ketoboricua #ketolatina #ketolatino #ketoalimentacion #comidacetogenica #ketomenu https://www.instagram.com/p/B97smA2hiN4/?igshid=1ah8921gy3e6e

[artfollowsme]

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"Last tweaks" to these suits I swear.. ;) homecoming Spiderman suit (turntable) #artfollowsme #spiderman #tomholland #peterparker #killmode #marvelstud10s #sony @tomholland2013 #textures #substancepainter #marmosettoolbag #zbrush #maya #homecoming #farfromhome @tomholland2013 https://www.instagram.com/p/B0JD-fLDz1Y/?igshid=mllxja7bpwpe

[houndcat]

[amwult]

tom nook on the monitor and bentley went killmode

[protouringtexas]

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Who remembers the #murdermustang that made 666hp ?? #Cobra action this morning! Getting the tune closer to #killmode .. And sorting out the small things. She's gonna be a #beast on the #street !! #mustang #boost #procharger #murdercobra #666HP #manpedal #5speed #protouringtexas @primetuning @moderndayhotrods @muscle.car.mayhem @americanmusclehd @americanasfck