This episode of Critical Hit, A Major Spoilers Dungeons and Dragons Podcast: It’s time for that other discussion, and it’s time to make amends
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50 Comments
On this episode of Gilmore Girls…
There’s a blatant continuity problem with Trelle still getting to know the group and vice versa. And that problem is the six years they thought they spent with the Hogba! That’s longer than the time the group spent together before meeting Trelle! What gives?
Good episode
Time dilation. The utilization of fey-based chronoton energies has caused a deleterious effect on the storage of short-term memory, leading to those memories being oddly suppressed unless effected by 9 millirads of gamma radiation (which, every Critical Hit fan knows, CAN’T be used by the group, due to Ket’s competition in the Kobold Alley and Randus’ own time dilation issues.) It’s also shorted out the time differential, and made the Fifth Torq seem balder and fatter than he ever actually got.
Of course! I can be so absent-minded sometimes! :P
I hate you… Why you ask? That made complete sense to me, that’s why! I think I may need to watch less Dr Who and listen to less of majorspoilers podcasts… Oh who am I kidding, I’ll keep listening until the voices in my head stop saying “one more podcast/episode, nothing bad will happen”.
:)
I’m waiting for the Big Critical audioplays where we get to see the softer side of the sixth Torq!!! #kicstarter
I spent six years in Tennessee one night…
Orem & Ket “Don’t put the group in danger with your shortsighted whimsical hippie beliefs.”
Trelle “Ok I won’t. Oh look hungry wolves that were chased out of their home by something probably horrible. Welp, time to go solo night hunting!”
(shaking my damn head)
“Bunny strangler”? isn’t that a euphemism for masturbation?
You’re thinking of Choking the Chicken, Spanking the Monkey, Wringing out the trouser snake… not Bunny Strangler…
I think “Bunny strangler” is a dysphemism for Bunny hugger.
That survey is a little ambiguous. Marital Status: Single/Married/Divorced/Widowed. What about the bits in between?
And I assume the income is USD.
Good episode. Rob has really nailed Ket’s characterisation as “horribly patronising sociopath with an authoritarian streak”.
Now, now, Lowly Minion. When trying to preserve the values and safety of many in the face of violent idealists like yourself and Trelle, true kindness must sometimes take an unusual form. Ket understands this.
Nothing sociopathically authoritarian about that. RETURN TO YOUR HOMES.
Seriously, what is the deal with Trelle? It’s in one pointy ear and out the other every single time with her. After 40 minutes of Lifetime TV talks with Orem and Ket about respecting the group and their mission, she runs off into the woods… alone… at night… while the others are asleep… with a pack of starving wolves? Huh?? A crueler GM would have rolled to see if she had either got eaten or merely lost a limb. Crazy elf lady.
I seem to recall Ket up and disappearing to serve his own wants and needs. He was also willing to use Torq as a bargaining chip, and is possibly working for the devil… Hmm
Wasn’t the timing of Ket being randomly summoned by the RQ or into Kobold Alley outside of his control? Plus he only suggested that Torq offer his services, and Torq considered the option and went through with the offer on his own accord. I don’t think Trelle is malicious or anything, she just seems to have a wicked case of ADD a lot of the time.
Plus, Orem sure seemed to be aware of the ripples her behavior would have caused, since he advised her to clean herself up and not mention it to the others.
First of all, I don’t think you could possibly be any more dismissive with your tone. By calling what occurred between Trelle and the other characters “lifetime tv talks” you’re completely ignoring the insight that comes from those conversations. Now, we know that Orem considers Trelle and the others family, and that he’s genuinely concerned about their party falling apart. We see Trelle make a legitimate compromise, from which we learn that she considers her friends and her mission more important than her core beliefs on a rational level. That was her admitting to the emotional nature of her actions. We also learned what she considers most important: trust. I’m sure someone will argue that she proceeds to betray their trust without thinking, but I’m going to address that in a moment. What do we learn about Ket? How about the insight into his rational. We know his MO is to use his silver tongue and back it up with force if necessary, but when have we ever heard him actually explain how he makes decisions about his actions? Hearing him explain what he was thinking gives insight into how he is going to react to troublesome situations in the future. Perhaps as listeners this isn’t important, but Trelle needs to know these things. The two of them have only had one SERIOUS conflict in the past, and in that conflict Ket betrayed her trust (crunching the stuff for components in the fen of winters). Trelle, having been blindsided by him then, and then later having had another serious disagreement with him in Basalt, needs to get into his head in order to avoid this kind of incident in the future. Next time, Trelle can be aware that Ket won’t deal with her if she’s being too emotional. This was also their chance to resolve issues from the fen of winters. Ket shut her down a lot, but he did let her speak, and them being aware of each other is important enough that this conversation between them was totally justified. Her conversation with Orem can be similarly justified, particularly in relation to him. We haven’t had enough down time to see how Orem is actually dealing with walking out on his family. This conversation was necessary to establish what’s going on with him.
So, you think Trelle proceeded to disrespect them and betray their trust? Not really. She told Orem. She made sure someone was on watch. Was that dangerous? Nope. Not really. It was established that they were FAR AWAY from the woods. She couldn’t have gotten there in one night. Because that’s where the wolves were driven AWAY FROM, it stands to reason that whatever was attacking them stayed within that area, having secured the best location. Trelle, a character specifically designed to handle these situations and operating in her HOME TERRITORY, approached the situation logically with her rolls, investigated the situation, made sure things would be safe at the camp via Orem, including telling someone what was happening, and then went to do something she was completely capable of doing within an area that she knows well. For Trelle, this is par for the course. It’s basically her job. Telling her that she did something dangerous and reckless, would be like scolding Ket for putting Torq in an underground fighting tournament in Erathis’ city. These characters are meant for these tasks. Trelle doing this is actually significantly LESS dangerous than what Ket does in Kolbold Alley. Ket, by the way, spent most of the time that he was “new to to the group” the way Trelle is now, keeping the tournament a SECRET and NOT TELLING ANYONE when and where he was going. This is actually far more dangerous than what Trelle did, and is a far greater breach of trust.
SO, before you put anyone on a pedestal or express disdain for a particular character, pay attention and think about it. It’s not black and white and all of the characters have done DUMB THINGS. Don’t dismiss anyone before you consider the full context.
You need to relax a little. I did not express disdain for any character. I just stated that Trelle’s behavior often leaves both me and apparently her fellow party members scratching her head.
“Lifetime TV talks” was meant as a colorful way to describe the emotional one-on-one convos that happened directly before the head-scratching behavior. They were intentionally dramatic scenes to progress the stories (kind of like… dialogue in Lifetime TV movies?). Notice I did not express “disdain” in any way for for those conversations either.
Thank you for the fictional geography lesson, but regardless of how far away Trelle was from whatever danger might have been lurking, she still split off from the party *alone* into the *unknown* while they are on a critical task.
Do you know why nothing bad happened to Trelle? Because Rodrigo decided nothing bad happened to Trelle. If he had decided differently, what might you be saying then? Would you say “Gee, that decision to go off on her own in a strange place effected by strange happenings might have been a questionable decision, since now the party has to delay the task at hand to deal with the repercussions of that decision.”? Or perhaps you would just complain that Rodrigo was being dismissive, since it’s obvious you’re not clear what that word means.
In short: questioning a character’s decisions is not attacking that character. Get over it.
Everyone, please keep in mind that at Major Spoilers we want to create an environment that encourages comments and general discussions. Everyone is free to speak their mind, but please make sure everyone is civil about it.
-The Management
I never really understood how using the items the party found in the abandoned shack while in the Fenn of Winters was any of Trelle’s business in the first place. She didn’t want them to do it, they did it, therefore it’s a breach of trust? She was a guide, not a baby-sitter. Not to mention her whole entanglement with a freaky skull-fey-monster and her tendency to just tell servants of said monster the party’s plans.
Also, annoying is annoying, regardless of sex. A lot of the heated discussion over all this seems to have a subtle “you are a sexist” undertone and I find that incredibly offensive and small-minded. This may just be something I gleaned from twitter and not necessarily on these boards, but it’s still disgusting.
Slight correction – The party agreed to wait before breaking down the components, which Orem, Randus, and Ket didn’t do, and that is where the rift occurred.
I just realized the “Lords of the Feywild” banner hasn’t been changed yet.
I think because this is still part of that story arc until they actually deal with Spud.
Or this is possibly all a Spud-induced illusion?
or maybe we are just reading too much into it.
See my comment and Stephens reply one or two episodes ago. We are still in the LotF season.
I am actually at this point entirely okay with the current developments (though I still think Ket Was Right), but at least everybody seems to have digested the events.
Didn’t Orem spend time looking at the natural world on the Air ship. I mean they spent a few weeks flying to the Farmlands and back.
I’m also a bit surprised that no one has mentions “its nice not to have the Sky on fire” or “these areas looks like they were damaged when the moon almost came down.” I guess it doesn’t matter much one way or another I’m just a bit surprised it hasn’t come up.
And as always Rob and Brian Rock
I too was wondering about Rodrigo’s comments regarding Orem’s observations about travelling in the natural world. It is not his first time doing that, as you point out. They traveled extensively in Season 1 from Moonhold to the mining country, the Exhilarcy of Cogs, to Diamond Throne, to one of the other towers, and so on…
Not getting enough Torq, dammit. It’s gotten to the point where I listen to the main podcast just to get my fix of Matthewisms.
I was really hoping Rodrigo would say something to the effect of: these wolves are starving to death because their ecosystem has been disrupted by invasive species from the moon… You’d think a ranger dedicated to preserving the natural balance would know more about the risks of introducing exotic species. Trelle: “It’s cruel to keep these Burmese pythons in captivity – I’ll just release them into the Florida Everglades where they can be free!” :p
That said, I actually really enjoy Adriana’s acting – flawed characters make for complex role-playing! I hope the group makes a layover in the Freelands to visit Torq’s aunt Tilly.
I have found Trelle’s actions very hypocritical in these last few episodes. That isn’t meant as a dig on Adrianna(sp?) or on her roleplaying abilities. A lot of times in real life people are hypocritical. Trelle seemed to take delight in killing things in the feywild, but wanted to save unnatural and dangerous creatures in the material plane.
I agree that flawed characters are by far better than perfect characters.
You guys and girl do a great job playing and making an entertaining story. Keep up the good work.
I have been thinking the same thing. There is joy at the prospect of killing large lemurs, giant gnome-eating Macaws.. and almost an emphatic glee at the idea of hunting and killing the Sapphire Dragon, a sentient, intelligent creature. And then we get to moon creatures, it’s almost like a complete 180. The only difference that I can tell is that the moon beasts were in a cage.. oh, and they would potentially feed on urban folk, rather than gnomes? Oh, and all the rest (with the possible exception of the dragon) were natural creatures, and the moon beasts were explicitly identified as aberrations.
The Torqletones should have nuked the site from orbit.. it’s the only way to be sure.
Yeah…I think I’m taking a sabbatical. I’ll check back in during the offseason.
Maybe Adrianna can comment, but I think the issue is the captivity more than the killing. Recall the thing with the gnomes and how upset she was when she thought they were being forrced into serving rather than doing it willingly. She was also concerned about the eagles one of the first times they were summoned. Maybe hunting in a natural environment is OK but not coercion into some kind of service?
This is just my take on what’s been going on and in no way is meant to be insulting to anyone!
I think the frustrating part for some of the audience is that they A} can’t really tell if Trelle the character is absent-minded and a little selfish sometimes, or B} if Adrianna is still kinda fleshing out Trelle’s personality minute by minute and occasionally backtracking and contradicting her own character choices without realizing it within a very short amount of time. Because sometimes Trelle will say one thing or voice one opinion, and then literally turn around and do the exact opposite within a few minutes or within a few episodes.
I must admit that Trelle’s decision to take off, on what could have been a dangerous a solo hunting trip in kind of a weird place, directly after having two consecutive discussions that kind of focused on “Let’s always remember we’re all on the same team here”, did leave me scratching my head a bit.
Personally, I find it all entertaining either way which is why I listen each week. If Adrianna is still fleshing out her character, hey she’s playing with guys that have been doing this podcast for years and that’s understandable! And if Trelle is just kinda nuts, even better!
Another thought I just had, you guys should enchant the watch twig to give a bonus to perception.
They can’t afford it right now, but good idea!
Loved the Orem “faking sleep” moment, specially since everyone and their imp’s knows that: HE’S A FREAKING ELADRIN AND DOESN’T SLEEP! The duckies bit just killed me.
I’ve listened from episode one (years ago, guys!) and loved it, but this starting to get so, so melodramatic. It’s a real drag.
Wow! A lot of heat around this particular episode. And I thought the episode with the fight against Spud made folks hot under the collar.
I thought this was a great episode and showed the benefits of having different people in an RPG group. Having a bunch of like minded nerds playing together can be fun but when there are differing perspectives and personalities it can be so fun to watch the sparks fly.
Adrianna brings a lot to the table in this way because she plays Trelle in such a different way than the other folks play their characters. Often, things can get so focused on the mission and just “playing” a D&D game to push the story along that one can forget that their characters have to react to the situations they have been placed in.
I think part of the reason folks are getting so upset about this episode is because normally parties do not spend as much time with character development when it’s a bunch of dudes sitting around a table. It’s not in our nature to be as connected to our emotions so we tend to skip past some of this good RP that we saw in this episode.
I thought the conversations were so interesting to listen to.
There is such an impasse between Ket’s (and maybe all the others) way of thinking and Trelle’s. However, I’m not sure if it is Ket or Rob that is being a jerk in this instance so it’s hard to know who to blame!
Thanks again for the fun episode!
Couldn’t agree more.
I am a huge fan of what Trelle and Adrianna bring to the group. Great discussions and tons of character development/enlightenment.
I may agree with Ket on the moon beasts, but I get where Trelle is coming from. Her running off to help the wolves was a great expression about the strength of her convictions even as she tries to accommodate the others needs.
I think that the problem is not that Trelle wanted to save the moonbeasts, but that Ket ignored Trelle and tried to take an irrevocable action. Kinda an execution before a trial. Trelle reached the right conclusion after discussion and put the rest of the critters down. She is in the right here, hands down.
Discussion of different viewpoints shows respect. Rendering discussion moot does not.
We all know Trelle is not going to hurt a party member. Ket defended his “defense” against her by saying that she’s a better fighter and he needed to go all ‘wandy.’ That’s a strawman if I ever heard one.
Unless Ket’s entire family was killed by moonbeasts and he has an irrational need to kill them on sight, he needs to be willing to talk before he acts. His preemptive strike on the helpless critter demonstrates that he knows he might be wrong, and doesn’t care.
isn’t aunt tilly dead? I thought Torq had a vison of her way back before the astral sea when he was dying
all of Torq’s aunts are called Tilly, true fact
Tilly is actually an old Orcish word which translates roughly to “respected female elder.” I don’t know where “Akron” is though. Must be an ancient Orcish kingdom to which she claims lineage.
Too much soap opera for me… Hope this is going somewhere.
I liked Trelle at first, but this is turning into The Trelle Show, with special guests, Everybody Else, imho. Trelle is the center of all the action for months. To the point that for most of the episodes every other player has to sit there silently while the DM and Trelle have yet another moment.
The past few episodes I keep getting excited about finding out more about Randus’s parents, but then the party was sidetracked… by yet another dramatic Trelle story arc. ::fingers rubbing temples:: I…I can’t…I just can’t.
Trelle does something lame and attacks a party member; Ket gets told to calm down.
Trelle does something lame and delays saving Randus’s parents; Randus gets told to calm down.
There’s something funky and off here and the dynamics of this drama are really turning me off. Trelle’s drama is overbearing and overshadowing the rest of the characters’ abilities to develop.
I get it if “that’s the point.” But…this isn’t fun or entertaining for me anymore.
Just my humble opinion.
Yeah, I agree unfortunately. It is just unbearable. I guess this Trelle character is new? Maybe I will listen to some older seasons before she was introduced and see how I enjoy those.
I enjoy every episode; regardless of these comments from years ago. I do, however, have just one issue. I don’t know if it’s Rob’s personality coming out (based on OOC and IC interactions), or if he’s deliberately doing it, I feel like he’s a very pretentious and condescending person. Quite a few episodes I have been catching myself becoming quite frustrated with his lack of respect and his rudeness towards other characters (and Bryan (sp?)) and I’m just like, “WTF? That was unnecessary.” I love the joking, the banter, the action, and the RP of any D&D session and you guys are amazing and my favorite D&D podcast to listen to; I just don’t like negative people and Rob seems to be a negative person; and of course this is only based on listening to the podcasts. He could be a very swell guy for all I know and who knows maybe later in the show, I’ll see that I’m very wrong about my perception of Rob. However, I am on this episode after about a year, (school and work take most of my time away from listening), and my disappointment in Rob is continuing to spiral downward. I hope that this will change as I love this podcast.
Overall, so far this is still my favorite D&D podcast! I love Rodrigo’s story and gameplay and everyone is really great at roleplaying. I am enjoying Adriana’s Trelle within the party and am glad to see where everything goes with this! Keep up the awesome job from a fan in KY!