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straightforwardly) wrote2024-11-22 09:44 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2024-11-22 09:44 pm
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293 | aerois, episodes 91ish-104
It’s time for another round of sharing my thoughts on High Rollers Aerois, this time up to episode 104! Fun fact: I have spent weeks procrastinating on making this post, thus making the list of things I wanted to touch on longer and longer, until I finally banned myself from continuing any further with the podcast before I make this post… and still I continued to procrastinate. Until now!
Past me did take notes semi-regularly, which I’m grateful for. Breaking this up into sections based on plot arcs.
Valley of Storms
I absolutely called Johann being the dragon (note for future me: his name as a dragon is Johandrius!), though I would’ve liked more backstory/lore/exploration of that. It feels like the kind of hole I’d turn to fic to fill, though idk if that’s the kind of fic that exists for this fandom? We’ll see for sure when I finally finish this podcast* and am allowed to look more in-depth at what exists on AO3.
* …We are assuming that I will, in fact, someday finish listening to this podcast, despite my taking approximately one billion years to do so.
I did have some Lucius feelings in the aftermath of the Trial of Ancestors, when he finds out that the others (Quill and Nova, I think?) had seen one of his ancestors in the past timeline of that trial. To quote my own notes on this moment: “the others saying it was only an echo, he wouldn’t have learned anything from her anyway—and then his saying he doesn’t care about knowledge, he just cares about seeing family??? tears. darling. bby.”
Finally, the final battle of that arc was much less tense than I expected, but I did enjoy the unusual set-up of it, with the focus being on healing and the Nightmares rather than a straightforward “get the enemy’s HP down to zero”.
In regards to Zarkira’s meteor swarm onto the airship: that felt very Final Fantasy, and so naturally I loved it.
Return to Gusthaven
Sibling feelings hours!! So many sibling feelings!!
I loved Lucius’ complicated feelings about seeing Edea near the beginning of this arc. His trying to avoid meeting her! That bit where Moonstar pops in during their dinner with the prince and how he pushes away his own food and wine after she refuses an invitation to join them by saying she has more important things to do… reasonable. I bring this up solely because I wanted to share a moment that made me literally laugh out loud in public.
* at least, I think it was Nova! I wrote down the line, but not who said it, so I could be misremembering.
** also, I say this, but Edea’s reaction to her entire family being murdered was basically to become Fantasy Batman, so…
Unrelated, but: at some point while they were shopping shortly after their return from the Valley of Storms, there was a mention of magically warming plates, and I cannot express how much I want the party to get those as a gift for Sentry.
Finally, I loved the Thalia/Nova interactions during these episodes. I’ve not been super invested in this ship, but I found myself more invested than I had been before. The scarf! Thalia being upset about having fucked things up!! It was so so good.
Shadowsong Pinnacle
This was a fun arc! It was great to see the party actually not completely fail at stealth for once. And getting to see Edea work together with the party during this arc (and so, getting to see Edea and Lucius work together) was so good for my sibling feelings < 3 There were so many good moments! A possessed Moonstar fighting Lucius! Edea calling out Lucius’ name and going to fight at his side after a heavy, near-KO (in fact, iirc, it was a KO before someone remembered… something which absorbed or reduced some of the damage)! It all made my heart quite happy.
But also: I had to laugh at Moonstar rolling a natural 20 and Lucius a natural 1 when doing a check on their “how to deal with an aetherium reactor meltdown” check. Definitely a case of the dice rolls aligning nicely with their character backgrounds / how much they had to do with their family business.
Something else which made my heart happy: the unexpected Arval mention, when they ran into one of his friends/business partners in the prison cells!
Jumping back a bit, but—while the actual battle itself turned out to be a bit underwhelming for me, I loved the Reverend’s introduction. I know the actual inspiration for much of this arc (including the Reverend himself) was Metal Gear Solid, but nonetheless, his intro was so amazingly anime; I loved it <3
I quite liked Mal Emyrus! Though I did spend some time thinking of him as Pyri-lite until I finally got his name locked into my mind. (This was solely because he’s a fire genasi; otherwise, the two really don’t have anything in common.) That moment where he released his held action and ran into the cloudkiller spell to do [thing they needed to do to stop the reactor meltdown], only to basically instantly go down and have to start doing death saving throws was very, “aww…. he tried”.
Speaking of that battle: the way Lucius and Quill kept going down and getting up again bordered on farcical, lol. Quill going down directly as a result of using a healing spell on Lucius was a good moment!
Their return to Gusthaven after the mission was done was accompanied by a flood of more sibling feelings. Like!!! Look!! Moonstar wanting to upgrade Lucius’ barrier ring + gauntlet to help protect him because she saw how often he goes down during battles!!!! How do you expect me to not have massive amounts of feelings about that!!
And then I immediately had to laugh, because that was followed up with Lucius referring to her as his sister… out loud… in public… I loved her “...you do remember that this is meant to be a secret identity, right” reaction, and the whole Lucius being Bad at Secrets banter. Followed by him immediately talking about their secret basement! (In a “that’s where we should hide Mal” context.) It was just very funny and very good.
Finally, the scene later on where Edea actually gives Lucius the upgraded gauntlet… again, unsurprisingly, many feelings on my part. The way she praises him for his power and abilities before scolding him for his recklessness! The unspoken undercurrent of “be more careful because I don’t want to lose you too”. The hug! The hug!!!
Horizon
My last bit of Edea rambling for this post: I am very curious to find out how the Moonstar interview went when she reached Horizon, since she wasn’t able to get away and hide like planned. (Also, love how the “Lucius is bad at secrets” thing continued with him straight-up answering the “do you have any living relatives” question with “yes, a sister”. Darling, you keep forgetting that she’s legally dead 😂)
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the reunion with Rosemeadow! I didn’t actively dislike her before, but I wasn’t particularly fond of her either. And yet, her reunion with the party gave me a lot of feelings, and I really enjoyed that scene.
What was utterly unsurprising: how much I loved the reunion with Arval!!! FINALLY!!! His bond with the party means so much to me, and I loved seeing them finally get to meet again and catch-up on everything that’s happened. I fully get why they summarized the conversation, but I feel like I could have listened to an hour or more of them telling him everything about their adventures so far + his reactions to their stories; what we did get was so good.
And then! Petal?? I admit, I was pretty surprised by Sentry asking Root in an earlier episode if Petal was still on Aerois, because I’d been assuming this whole time that she like. Lived out her natural life in the past, while Sentry was hibernating. The thought of her still being around hadn’t even occurred to me as a possibility? So the question itself already surprised me, and the reveal that yes, she’s still around surprised me even more. And I definitely didn’t expect them to meet so soon after!
I admit I’m not too invested in Petal or her relationship with Sentry, but what happened to her and how she survived (as well as how her mother died)* was such good horror to me. I ate that up. 10/10, so well done.
And that more or less brings me up to where I currently am in the podcast! Right now, the party is doing some politicking at this political meeting at Horizon, which I admit is majorly stressing me out. Me and my sensitivity to secondhand embarrassment does not do well in these kinds of plotlines. (Though I did find Lucius’ own nerves and the reveal of the 20-50 step plan he uses for dealing with these kinds of things to be rather endearing. /predictable)
Past me did take notes semi-regularly, which I’m grateful for. Breaking this up into sections based on plot arcs.
Valley of Storms
I absolutely called Johann being the dragon (note for future me: his name as a dragon is Johandrius!), though I would’ve liked more backstory/lore/exploration of that. It feels like the kind of hole I’d turn to fic to fill, though idk if that’s the kind of fic that exists for this fandom? We’ll see for sure when I finally finish this podcast* and am allowed to look more in-depth at what exists on AO3.
* …We are assuming that I will, in fact, someday finish listening to this podcast, despite my taking approximately one billion years to do so.
I did have some Lucius feelings in the aftermath of the Trial of Ancestors, when he finds out that the others (Quill and Nova, I think?) had seen one of his ancestors in the past timeline of that trial. To quote my own notes on this moment: “the others saying it was only an echo, he wouldn’t have learned anything from her anyway—and then his saying he doesn’t care about knowledge, he just cares about seeing family??? tears. darling. bby.”
Finally, the final battle of that arc was much less tense than I expected, but I did enjoy the unusual set-up of it, with the focus being on healing and the Nightmares rather than a straightforward “get the enemy’s HP down to zero”.
In regards to Zarkira’s meteor swarm onto the airship: that felt very Final Fantasy, and so naturally I loved it.
Return to Gusthaven
Sibling feelings hours!! So many sibling feelings!!
I loved Lucius’ complicated feelings about seeing Edea near the beginning of this arc. His trying to avoid meeting her! That bit where Moonstar pops in during their dinner with the prince and how he pushes away his own food and wine after she refuses an invitation to join them by saying she has more important things to do… reasonable. I bring this up solely because I wanted to share a moment that made me literally laugh out loud in public.
Nova*, in reference to Lucius: “He didn't know 24,000 gold was a lot of money.”It’s so funny and so good! Edea generally comes across as being calm and reasonable** and logical, while Lucius is more dramatic and emotional, and so I can see why the others would assume that she’d have a better understanding of such things… but no! They’re both rich kids from a wealthy noble family! It’s just so funny and so good.
Edea: “Is it?”
* at least, I think it was Nova! I wrote down the line, but not who said it, so I could be misremembering.
** also, I say this, but Edea’s reaction to her entire family being murdered was basically to become Fantasy Batman, so…
Unrelated, but: at some point while they were shopping shortly after their return from the Valley of Storms, there was a mention of magically warming plates, and I cannot express how much I want the party to get those as a gift for Sentry.
Finally, I loved the Thalia/Nova interactions during these episodes. I’ve not been super invested in this ship, but I found myself more invested than I had been before. The scarf! Thalia being upset about having fucked things up!! It was so so good.
Shadowsong Pinnacle
This was a fun arc! It was great to see the party actually not completely fail at stealth for once. And getting to see Edea work together with the party during this arc (and so, getting to see Edea and Lucius work together) was so good for my sibling feelings < 3 There were so many good moments! A possessed Moonstar fighting Lucius! Edea calling out Lucius’ name and going to fight at his side after a heavy, near-KO (in fact, iirc, it was a KO before someone remembered… something which absorbed or reduced some of the damage)! It all made my heart quite happy.
But also: I had to laugh at Moonstar rolling a natural 20 and Lucius a natural 1 when doing a check on their “how to deal with an aetherium reactor meltdown” check. Definitely a case of the dice rolls aligning nicely with their character backgrounds / how much they had to do with their family business.
Something else which made my heart happy: the unexpected Arval mention, when they ran into one of his friends/business partners in the prison cells!
Jumping back a bit, but—while the actual battle itself turned out to be a bit underwhelming for me, I loved the Reverend’s introduction. I know the actual inspiration for much of this arc (including the Reverend himself) was Metal Gear Solid, but nonetheless, his intro was so amazingly anime; I loved it <3
I quite liked Mal Emyrus! Though I did spend some time thinking of him as Pyri-lite until I finally got his name locked into my mind. (This was solely because he’s a fire genasi; otherwise, the two really don’t have anything in common.) That moment where he released his held action and ran into the cloudkiller spell to do [thing they needed to do to stop the reactor meltdown], only to basically instantly go down and have to start doing death saving throws was very, “aww…. he tried”.
Speaking of that battle: the way Lucius and Quill kept going down and getting up again bordered on farcical, lol. Quill going down directly as a result of using a healing spell on Lucius was a good moment!
Their return to Gusthaven after the mission was done was accompanied by a flood of more sibling feelings. Like!!! Look!! Moonstar wanting to upgrade Lucius’ barrier ring + gauntlet to help protect him because she saw how often he goes down during battles!!!! How do you expect me to not have massive amounts of feelings about that!!
And then I immediately had to laugh, because that was followed up with Lucius referring to her as his sister… out loud… in public… I loved her “...you do remember that this is meant to be a secret identity, right” reaction, and the whole Lucius being Bad at Secrets banter. Followed by him immediately talking about their secret basement! (In a “that’s where we should hide Mal” context.) It was just very funny and very good.
Finally, the scene later on where Edea actually gives Lucius the upgraded gauntlet… again, unsurprisingly, many feelings on my part. The way she praises him for his power and abilities before scolding him for his recklessness! The unspoken undercurrent of “be more careful because I don’t want to lose you too”. The hug! The hug!!!
Horizon
My last bit of Edea rambling for this post: I am very curious to find out how the Moonstar interview went when she reached Horizon, since she wasn’t able to get away and hide like planned. (Also, love how the “Lucius is bad at secrets” thing continued with him straight-up answering the “do you have any living relatives” question with “yes, a sister”. Darling, you keep forgetting that she’s legally dead 😂)
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the reunion with Rosemeadow! I didn’t actively dislike her before, but I wasn’t particularly fond of her either. And yet, her reunion with the party gave me a lot of feelings, and I really enjoyed that scene.
What was utterly unsurprising: how much I loved the reunion with Arval!!! FINALLY!!! His bond with the party means so much to me, and I loved seeing them finally get to meet again and catch-up on everything that’s happened. I fully get why they summarized the conversation, but I feel like I could have listened to an hour or more of them telling him everything about their adventures so far + his reactions to their stories; what we did get was so good.
And then! Petal?? I admit, I was pretty surprised by Sentry asking Root in an earlier episode if Petal was still on Aerois, because I’d been assuming this whole time that she like. Lived out her natural life in the past, while Sentry was hibernating. The thought of her still being around hadn’t even occurred to me as a possibility? So the question itself already surprised me, and the reveal that yes, she’s still around surprised me even more. And I definitely didn’t expect them to meet so soon after!
I admit I’m not too invested in Petal or her relationship with Sentry, but what happened to her and how she survived (as well as how her mother died)* was such good horror to me. I ate that up. 10/10, so well done.
And that more or less brings me up to where I currently am in the podcast! Right now, the party is doing some politicking at this political meeting at Horizon, which I admit is majorly stressing me out. Me and my sensitivity to secondhand embarrassment does not do well in these kinds of plotlines. (Though I did find Lucius’ own nerves and the reveal of the 20-50 step plan he uses for dealing with these kinds of things to be rather endearing. /predictable)