The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Episode 31
July 12, 2019 7:51 AM - Subscribe
In the wake of prophetic new information, the Pine Guard's plan to save both of their worlds undergoes an ambitious revision. To pull it off, they'll have to forge more than a few uneasy alliances.
if justin cracks open a can of soda on mic one more time i'm going to die
posted by taskmaster at 2:53 PM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by taskmaster at 2:53 PM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
on the other hand his bit with muffy and winthrop was legit fantastic storytelling, but yeah, that is a bad sound to hear.
posted by nonasuch at 7:46 PM on July 12, 2019
posted by nonasuch at 7:46 PM on July 12, 2019
I'm a little dismayed in all the build up to the finale the players haven't really addressed the light beings and how they seem to be an active third faction. Like, if The Quell is being driven by revenge then at least one solution would be to help it understand that it wasn't Earth/Humans that shattered Sylvain but rather these other beings.
this seems to be a conscious story choice combined with the players doing a good job of roleplaying. try to separate your knowledge of the story with what the characters actually know. the characters are dealing with the threat that is directly in front of them, it just happens to be that the quell is ready to attack earth right around the same time the light beings would be sending a new abomination. this mission will get complicated once that abomination does show up, or maybe they'll defeat the quell and then be faced with this new foe. or maybe the vision of danger they saw isn't the quell at all but the light beings pretending to be the quell, knowing that this will cause our protagonists to head to sylvain to strike at the heart of the quell.
duck and minerva have seen the light being's world but they don't actually know what it WAS, perhaps they think it was the core of sylvain, which thacker has presumably described to them. ned was the only one who knew about the shapeshifter's lair, the weird technology there, the shapeshifter falling apart in the cryptonomicon, the weird orbs, etc. i think he's also the only person the shapeshifter ever communicated directly with? because the shapeshifter's broadcast to kepler alienated ned from the group he was unable to share any of this information with Duck or Aubrey, so right now they really have no reason to suspect that there's something greater than the Quell to worry about. i'm pretty sure this is going to bite them in the ass sooner or later.
the thing that interests me is billy, who we haven't seen in a LONG time. duck and aubrey bring him up as an ally when they're talking to the hornets, but justin and travis didn't even remember his name. do duck and aubrey actually know where billy is? or has he been missing, as griffin hinted at during the last arc? billy is "the partition" after all and presumably will have some narrative importance to the finale. it's just going to be interesting to see what that entails.
posted by JimBennett at 8:02 PM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
this seems to be a conscious story choice combined with the players doing a good job of roleplaying. try to separate your knowledge of the story with what the characters actually know. the characters are dealing with the threat that is directly in front of them, it just happens to be that the quell is ready to attack earth right around the same time the light beings would be sending a new abomination. this mission will get complicated once that abomination does show up, or maybe they'll defeat the quell and then be faced with this new foe. or maybe the vision of danger they saw isn't the quell at all but the light beings pretending to be the quell, knowing that this will cause our protagonists to head to sylvain to strike at the heart of the quell.
duck and minerva have seen the light being's world but they don't actually know what it WAS, perhaps they think it was the core of sylvain, which thacker has presumably described to them. ned was the only one who knew about the shapeshifter's lair, the weird technology there, the shapeshifter falling apart in the cryptonomicon, the weird orbs, etc. i think he's also the only person the shapeshifter ever communicated directly with? because the shapeshifter's broadcast to kepler alienated ned from the group he was unable to share any of this information with Duck or Aubrey, so right now they really have no reason to suspect that there's something greater than the Quell to worry about. i'm pretty sure this is going to bite them in the ass sooner or later.
the thing that interests me is billy, who we haven't seen in a LONG time. duck and aubrey bring him up as an ally when they're talking to the hornets, but justin and travis didn't even remember his name. do duck and aubrey actually know where billy is? or has he been missing, as griffin hinted at during the last arc? billy is "the partition" after all and presumably will have some narrative importance to the finale. it's just going to be interesting to see what that entails.
posted by JimBennett at 8:02 PM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
this seems to be a conscious story choice combined with the players doing a good job of roleplaying. try to separate your knowledge of the story with what the characters actually know.
You're right of course. I did forget about how Ned's demise would have affected what the group knows. I will say that, at least for me, it's been a bit harder this arc to keep track of who knows what and to maintain separation of audience and character knowledge. But maybe that's just the nature of serialized stories like this. It'll be interesting to see how my impression changes on relisten.
There was a fair bit of hinting that maybe Sylvain might be better thought of as missing rather than just gone. It seems possible that the light beings might accomplish the separation of a world from its heart by separating pieces of it off into "partitions".
posted by wordless reply at 8:46 PM on July 12, 2019
You're right of course. I did forget about how Ned's demise would have affected what the group knows. I will say that, at least for me, it's been a bit harder this arc to keep track of who knows what and to maintain separation of audience and character knowledge. But maybe that's just the nature of serialized stories like this. It'll be interesting to see how my impression changes on relisten.
There was a fair bit of hinting that maybe Sylvain might be better thought of as missing rather than just gone. It seems possible that the light beings might accomplish the separation of a world from its heart by separating pieces of it off into "partitions".
posted by wordless reply at 8:46 PM on July 12, 2019
I wasn't feeling most of this episode, but the last bit with Muffy and Winthrop was excellent.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:54 AM on July 13, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:54 AM on July 13, 2019 [3 favorites]
I had assumed this whole time that the light beings were the same creatures as the Quell.
This series has a lot more loose ends than Balance did. Which is okay on the one hand, since it indicates to me that Griffin is trying to run the game with a looser grip and cede more control to the players. But it’s also a little disappointing in that they’re going to wrap the series with a lot of unexplored storylines; it doesn’t seem like any of them are interested in using the live shows to explore side stories like they had for Balance.
posted by ardgedee at 10:07 AM on July 13, 2019
This series has a lot more loose ends than Balance did. Which is okay on the one hand, since it indicates to me that Griffin is trying to run the game with a looser grip and cede more control to the players. But it’s also a little disappointing in that they’re going to wrap the series with a lot of unexplored storylines; it doesn’t seem like any of them are interested in using the live shows to explore side stories like they had for Balance.
posted by ardgedee at 10:07 AM on July 13, 2019
balance had a ton of lose ends all the way up to stolen century/the final arc. i think there’s still plenty of time for them to wrap everything together.
posted by JimBennett at 4:23 PM on July 13, 2019
posted by JimBennett at 4:23 PM on July 13, 2019
I find myself wishing they had spent more time living in the world of Kepler before blowing it up. They had what, four hunts? Five? (Multibear, Water Orb, Evil Tree, Doppelganger, ....?) The more time they spend in Kepler, the more fleshed out it becomes and I really like that community worldbuilding aspect.
I'm also hoping there's a twist on BAD GUYS FROM OTHER DIMENSION INVADE as that was Balance's deal.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:29 AM on July 15, 2019
I'm also hoping there's a twist on BAD GUYS FROM OTHER DIMENSION INVADE as that was Balance's deal.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:29 AM on July 15, 2019
This episode cracked me up, especially the quell/quail thing. Whenever Jokes is in the room for this show it makes me very happy.
posted by bleep at 10:39 AM on July 15, 2019
posted by bleep at 10:39 AM on July 15, 2019
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posted by wordless reply at 12:37 PM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]