Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet: Mythic Quest: Titan's Rift / Grouchy Goat

May 8, 2021 3:46 AM - Season 2, Episode 1

With Ian on sabbatical, Poppy must come up with a title for the new expansion. Dana and Rachel take their relationship to new heights. / Brad wants to launch a mobile game. Poppy is pulled away from working on the expansion with Ian to speak at a luncheon for women in gaming.

The first two episodes of Season 2 were released together, so most recaps and reviews cover both of them.

posted by autopilot (4 comments total)

It might be that I'm hypersensitive to these things, but it seems that they are leaning into the bad parts of reddit and even 4chan for dialog and some of the characters. Everyone was using phrases like "not an alpha" and "beta cuck", and Jo seems to have gone full red-pill in her casual slurs against Dana and Rachel's relationship. Poppy's wildly inappropriate talk to Dana and Rachel was a hard-shift from last season's technical interactions, and she seemed robbed of agency as well -- the new name for the expansion was credited to dream Ian and even her "authentic heartfelt speech" was written by Ian, including the gaffs.

I'm hoping that it steers back to a lighter touch on the characters and has them be less caricatures. Yes, Mythic Quest is a toxic workplace with unrealistic bosses, although for me the fun came from the dysfunction, not the "anti-SJW" sort of rants that showed up in these episodes.
posted by autopilot at 4:07 AM on May 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hear ya autopilot. But, for worse, that's the environment we're in and the writing reflects that. But fwiw I didn't get the "anti-SJW" vibes but more that "conventional" SJW strategies aren't particularly effective and needs adjustments - Poppy's radical transparency is a reaction to the problems as well as the conventional strategies to confront them.

But that doesn't really work in the real world, and the show acknowledges that (and the half-hearted appreciation of the effort to counter the problems).

The show doesn't offer a solution, but does explore some of the whys of how it is difficult.


As for Jo - it felt more like a pointer to a certain type of weak self-doubting yes-man ambitious type. Despicable to most people, but still oddly sympathetic because the rest of us recognizes the pain but can't muster much sympathy - especially when they're actively screwing the rest of us and they don't have the capacity for real introspection, or chooses not to do the right thing. I still actively pity the Jo-type who was made my boss who was put in that position to fire me 6 months ago.


I'm enjoying Dana and Rachel's relationship, but it feels awfully convenient.


Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the season. The first season has nuance and I'm hoping that it keeps doing its thing.

The optimistic HR lady in the basement is spot on, and I passionately hate the archetype that she represents - but again, the character still evokes a shit-ton of empathy for someone in that position..
posted by porpoise at 10:25 PM on May 8, 2021

The optimistic woman in the basement is Sue (played by Caitlin McGee) and she's in charge of community relations. The HR woman (who also may have her office int he basement) is Carol (played by Naomi Ekperigen)
posted by jonathanhughes at 9:20 AM on May 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

They have a very "title first" approach to design, apparently? I took last season's "Blood Ocean" as just Ian being Ian, but it seems to be institutionally supported here, where the first thing that Montréal expects out of them for the next expansion is the title? Before they've even decided whether it takes place on land or at sea.
posted by RobotHero at 8:46 AM on June 2, 2021