There’s A Lot Going On In That Little Critter’s Head Right Now.

EoW Spoilers!

I just finished Echoes of Wisdom and I have *thoughts* about the ending.

So... perhaps it's just me, but I'm pretty sure that final boss was awful. Like, unforgivably bad. I truly have no idea how someone thought it was a good idea.

I should say, before I get into it, that I never got the automatons from Dampe. It's very possible that my experience would have been much better if I had them, but in any case, I think the fact that it is even possible to have the experience I did is a massive mark against the game.

Basically, my issue is that you have no way of interacting with the final boss beyond spawning echoes. They make you give Link's weapons back to him (and thus give up Swordfighter mode), so he can fight with you. On the surface, this is a cool gimmick, but at least for me, it basically met my battle with Null was just 1) Spawn Lynel (or shark for the swimming bit) and 2) run away. Lynel's dead? No problem, there's no cooldown or anything, just spawn him again. I spent the entire final boss at full health, running in circles.

To be fair, it was probably possible to do that for previous bosses, too, and maybe even the wider game as a whole, but it always felt to me that I would be much better off using both echoes *and* Swordfighter mode. Sure, I had a higher chance of getting hurt, but I was having more fun and probably ending the fight quick enough to avoid that extra damage.

Why in the world would you make it so the player has no direct attacks against the final boss, so they just have to wait around for the entire fight? It baffles me. Again, probably my fault for not visiting Dampe, but still.

Generic wine is back, baby!

Uh oh, guess generic wine doesn't have a sprite anymore.

This is the most unhinged way to reintroduce Brennan to the fireside chat and you know what. I don't know why I ever expected anything different

spoilers for whatever the hell steel did at the end of episode 47

Long moments pass, the western sky is hell itself. You see, glimmering for a moment, a point of green light appear. Concentric circles, lined with runes, stretching some hundred and twenty feet in all directions begin to spin in the manner of a gyroscope of light and figures, arithmetic and language arcane around the figure of the Wizard Slain, who appears in the sky.

Lowering a staff of the leader of the Citadel's war mages, he carves a line into the heart of one of the shahoran, destroying one of the sorcerers below. Raising up his staff, he begins to abjure, protecting the war mages around him as best he can. 

And the sun rises in the west. A sorcerer, so radiant as to blind you even some miles away, hangs in the air and extends a finger towards the Wizard Slain, beckoning him towards the light. And the Wizard Slain is unmade.

You look, and see, crowned in light and gold, a robe and cloak some forty feet in length, twisting nobly in the wind behind him - first one set of arms, a second, and a third, as Harmas Raunza, leader of House Raunza, appears, in visage over the battlefield.

As he appears, points of light begin teleporting and some hundred nobles of the House of Raunza appear on the battlefield, from across the wide world of Umora.

He points forward, towards Twelve Brooks. The dreadnoughts converge, and as he raises his hand, he opens a door in space. Hundreds of spirits, bound to the House of Raunza. The Bashaal - the spirits of those of his house that failed the trial of their ordeal to enter into sorcerous covenant with their noble lineage, who now bear the heads and wings of white eagles made of blinding light, wielding broadswords, doublehanded, curved at the end, fly forward, gushing onto the battlefield. A cheer goes up from the forces of Gaothmai. "For the Cauntaranacht! For Raunza!"

As the lord of House Raunza holds his hands wide, "It is here we make an end to their tower!"

A white cape, streaking through the sky from the Epiphany. A flash of steel, a glint of a sword.

A bubble forms around the leader of House Raunza, and a white cloaked woman with auburn hair, who hangs in the air before him.

Time slows. She twists her wrist, turning her sword ninety degrees to the right. All of the world is mapped out, like a map of the stars. Your own body is simply lines, and the names of your joints and blood vessels. She twists to the left, raising the sword up in front of her in guard position, vertical, matching her straight spine. All the world is rendered in black and white, as though drawn in charcoal on fresh paper. She levels it.

Straight out, floating in air, written in the Lingua Arcana, is simply her namecloak - "The Wizard Steel". And before her, the symbol of House Raunza. With her offhand, she touches that symbol, undoing his true name in front of her. She points, draws her sword back. The image fades. It never happened, it was just a dream. How could she have changed the nature of the world itself?

The point of her sword, at his heart. "You shouldn't have brought so many of your grandchildren, old man." Pushes the sword through his heart. Blood bursts like a wave from his back, killing not only him but each and every one of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren on this battlefield, who fall like rain from the sky, their light extinguished.

The Sword of the Citadel hangs in the air as the leader of a Great House falls before her blade. The cheer from Gaothmai dies, as quickly as it was born.

The Wizard, The Witch and the Wild One, episode 47

(Worlds Beyond Number podcast)

Oodles of Strudel has only existed four days, but they already know not to stick your hand in the Strudel Dimension.

Welp. I finally caved and started Tears of the Kingdom. Haven't touched it since 100%'ing my first file a year ago.

The _deeeply_ demi experience of wanting a partner but not being able to bring yourself to go on a date with a near stranger

you ever just be prepping a ttrpg session, go "is this going to be fun? no? oof", and just start over. and then do it again.

This is the funniest thing I've ever read. I would have LOVED to see that

The "Jawbone is invincible" bit is hilarious, but it does make me worried that Brennan is setting us up for a Baldur-esque tragedy. (That's Baldur from Norse mythology, not Baldur's Gate.) Throwing spears at your local werewolf guidance counselor is all fun and games until one of those spears is secretly tipped with silver....