#technically lots of people asasdfasdf

[kerra-and-company]

Okay, throwing some thoughts out here, so miscellaneous Icebrood Saga: Judgment spoilers under the cut!

I AM SO GLAD BRAHAM IS STILL ALIVE. HOLY SHIT. I so wanted to be able to give him a hug when we found him and pulled him out of the snow; why wasn’t that an option? (Kidding in terms of gameplay, but I’m definitely writing a fic at some point where Kerra gives him a hug. Or it’ll just live in my brain. One way or the other.)

I had a feeling that if Braham survived, Ryland would too, and yep, I was right. And he got stabbed because of course, and of course it was Rytlock, and of course he stabbed him with Sohothin. There’s most likely a lore and/or pain post to be written about that one.

I liked that Ryland kept the ice-saw and that it didn’t change back to a flame-saw after Jormag died. Ryland didn’t change without Jormag, so why would his weapon?

I’d missed the instanced content where you can actually talk to people, so I was super happy to see it come back. I don’t absolutely hate the DRMs, but I definitely prefer instanced stuff when it comes to the story.

Aurene using the magic from the ley lines to sever the champions’ connections with their dragons was really neat and I liked that concept! Actually using the fact that she’s a prism for magic, hell yeah! (And we got to do the crystal-wings thing again, which I was very much a fan of!) And having some of the magic go to what I assume is Steve the deep sea dragon made sense and is a decent jumping-off point for EOD.

The aesthetic was excellent, and I loved the art! Primordus and Jormag had excellent designs, and the attacks seemed good to me (though Jormag will absolutely freeze your ass off if you don’t get out of the way in time, be warned).

I almost got exasperated when they were like, “whoops, you have to hit them more than once!” But it wasn’t actually tiresome for me when I went to do it, and they had less health after the first time, so it wasn’t a pain, either. (And it makes sense--it’d take more than one hit to take down an Elder Dragon.)

This could have just been me (‘cause I know I’m not the most experienced player in the world), but Braham was harder to fight than Ryland--and I don’t mean in terms of “I don’t want to fight you” (though that too of course) but in terms of literal mechanics. He moved and jumped so much and it was harder to bring his health bar down. Not super difficult or impossible or anything, just harder than Ryland, which I thought was a neat parallel even if it’s just for me.

The Commander is a hypocrite. Yep, 100% agree, Braham. You still need a nap. And a hug. Anet, let us hug Braham, please.

Aurene felt guilty, and she shouldn’t (in terms of I don’t want her to--it’s definitely in character). Not everything is your fault, sweetheart. Along those lines, I liked that we got to talk to her at the end! And Braham, and Gorrik and Taimi and Jhavi!

Taimi and Braham need to actually talk about things. I know they couldn’t fit in every conversation, but that’s one I would have liked to see, and it’s one I hope they have in the future.

Can’t wait to see Taimi and Gorrik’s research and what they find out (even if we know or can guess at some of the answers).

Ryland insulting Rytlock and Crecia was expected, for sure, but it’s also interesting because he’s insulting who they were at the beginning of the saga, not who they are now, because he doesn’t know enough about them now to give them updated insults.

It also made me very curious if we’re going to get updates on the Khan-Ur situation, which is by far not the most important thing going on and I’m glad they didn’t focus on it here, but I still would like answers at some point.

I just thought of this but Crecia trapped Ryland in flame in a parallel to how she protected Smodur from him earlier in the saga, right after mentioning Cinder. Ow.

And for everyone’s Commander who’s terrified of fire (Kerra included), fighting Braham has an extra nightmare attached to it, so...fun times.

What happened to the Frozen? Are they free? Still trapped? My guess is free since it was magic Jormag ice and Jormag is dead, but that wasn’t answered (I don’t think) and I really would like to know!

Also, what exactly was the death toll from Jormag and Primordus throughout this whole thing? I don’t need super specific numbers, but estimating is hard and my only conclusion is that it was a Lot, which is slightly too vague for my brain.

Is Aurene going to end up as the only Elder Dragon? Can she hold that much magic alone? The fact that the next part is called End of Dragons continues to scare me.

Gonna end this with: I thought this was a decent finale! I almost wish it could have been longer, but that’s more because I love doing story things and crave more of it than because I thought it was badly paced. (I do think they could have made it at least a bit longer, though, and I would have appreciated that.) They didn’t kill Braham, which was my biggest fear, and he gets to recover and be okay. Two Elder Dragons are dead, as is Ryland, and we’ll be going to Cantha eventually.

First living world season that I’ve been around to play during the release of the ending chapter, and I’m pretty satisfied with it! I’m sure I’ll come up with more complaints later since my default mode is positive, and I still have questions, but overall opinion at this point: pretty good!