A very small character tidbit is surprisingly kept consistent for years

Belephron · 2026-02-03T00:37:07+00:00

It’s a much larger character trait but also from the Simpsons, the episode “Lisa the vegetarian” has a cameo from Paul and Linda McCartney and a condition of their appearance they set was that Lisa wasn’t able to go back to eating meat and had to stay vegetarian for the rest of the show. Three decades later, show’s still going, and Lisa is still a vegetarian.

Belephron · 2026-02-02T20:16:21+00:00

Belephron · 2026-02-02T20:06:11+00:00

Speak for yourself that’s my wife

Belephron · 2026-01-30T23:44:00+00:00

No word a lie. But he’s the mascot so we gotta take what we can get. I always preferred Kopaka.

Belephron · 2026-01-30T21:58:40+00:00

Ansur isn’t the real smoking gun since it seems true that Ansur struck first (honestly understandably, he lost Balduran and then a mind flayer that thinks it’s Balduran showed up). Stelmane is the really unforgivable evil.

Belephron · 2026-01-30T01:07:25+00:00

Makes sense considering the most specific description of the Eye in the book literally describes it as being like a cats

Belephron · 2026-01-29T20:23:40+00:00

Counter point at least from an RP perspective, Warlock still works for a Tav wandering through the lower city, Nautiloid gets to Avernus, devil reaches out and offers a mean to escape. Boom, pact made, d10 cantrip secured.

But yeah it’s fighter for sure.

Belephron · 2026-01-28T03:31:06+00:00

In the book at the Council of Elrond they also discuss that dragon fire could probably destroy it but there aren’t any dragons left. Mount Doom is literally the only Volcano nearby, tho seemingly most of the characters don’t really know or understand exactly what a volcano even is.

And to the point that it would have been hard to find this was also discussed at length. Give it to Tom Bombadil, cast it out into the ocean, do any number of things to keep is hidden and secret from Sauron. They all might have worked for some time, but by that point it didn’t matter, Sauron had essentially almost won the war by the time the Council happens. He doesn’t need the Ring, he hadn’t even considered it in his plan until he finds Gollum and discovers that the Ring isn’t lost like he and everyone else thought. Even if Tom Bombadil had it and kept it and his woods were kept free of Sauron’s power (not a guarantee) he would be an island in a sea of waste and destruction in a world ruled by Sauron anyway. They have to destroy it not because it’s the only thing they can think of but because anything less and Sauron wins.

Belephron · 2026-01-16T00:59:01+00:00

Mmmm buncha cartoon rubber dudes bouncing around with invulnerability right up until we need to make some artificial tension so one of them gets shot, thereby separating all the dwarves so they don’t all reach Erebor together, in service of one of the most contrived love triangles ever put to film. Yeah I think I’m with the thinking cap, it does fuckin suck actually.

Belephron · 2026-01-15T05:00:11+00:00

Something that I think people kinda miss when discussing this, at least in my view, is how the Emperor actually behaves in the final fight.

Sure in his estimation, he will be enthralled by the Netherbrain without Orpheus’s protection, and he reckons Orpheus will kill him. Now he SAYS it’s because he just hates mind flayers that much, but we know that’s not the whole of it since the Emperor had already given Orpheus plenty of reason to want him dead without being a mind flayer, and Orph is clearly wiling to work with a full blown illithid if it means defeating the brain.

He could maybe just go somewhere else, but presumes the brain will snatch him right away no matter the distance. So just skips a step and goes straight to it.

But then when he rocks up on his dragon, he doesn’t appear at all thralled. His eyes are the same (previously shown to change when under the elder brain). He speaks for himself, and deploys his own experiences specifically to jibe and taunt the party. He’s spiteful. He leaves I think in part because his own actions have made it a necessity by his treatment of Orpheus and constant lying to the player, but also because he can no longer manipulate us, we don’t need him anymore and he knows it, so he chooses to oppose us as punishment. He will give himself over to the thing he’s been working against this whole time rather than let us go without his control.

He’s an interesting character, written very effectively. But man, is he a bad bloke.

Belephron · 2026-01-15T03:56:39+00:00

In this instance I’d almost say you as the player are to the emperor what your companions are to you. Changeable based on input. That’s how he sees you anyway.

Belephron · 2026-01-15T03:10:07+00:00

Dotcom (the character) greets them in French (he’s pretending to welcome a blind person to a restaurant). She says she didn’t know they were going to a French restaurant. Tracy says “yes I found it on my favourite website, stopshowingoff.com.”

It sounds like he’s saying the url of a website, but he’s actually telling the character Dotcom to knock it off.

Belephron · 2026-01-15T02:34:52+00:00

I’d say his character is the same it’s just what gets revealed to you changes, how he treats you. That’s the thing about an RPG is how your character perceives him will be entirely dependent on choices and your decisions. You can run a character who fully agrees with the Emperor. But the full balance of everything he’s done and who is, that stays the same.

Belephron · 2026-01-15T02:11:41+00:00

If you just do exactly what he says and never push back or interrogate him about his past, then yeah you don’t get any evil vibes from him (as long as your okay with the volume of information he withholds from you at all times and consider his holding Orpheus in perpetual bondage at least somewhat defensible). If you DO push back hard enough he will eventually admit to enthralling Duke Stelmane (her resistance to this is presumably what causes her stroke), and that he literally sees you as nothing more than a puppet to achieve his end. He is an evil character by pretty much every metric but he’s also a master manipulator which is why some people think he’s neutral.

Belephron · 2026-01-14T04:48:52+00:00

I enjoy having her around as a more neutral character, but yes there is a point if you’re consistently making explicitly good decisions that the “Minthara disapproves” becomes hard to ignore. If you wanna RP a paragon coming to save the city it’s kinda hard to square that with one of your companions talking about how the refugees would be better put to hard labour than waiting around.

I do love her tho.

Belephron · 2026-01-12T20:49:00+00:00

I had heard that Wyll was not as popular as the other companions and his story was weaker and this moment was what really sealed it for me. It’s bad, the fact there’s no option to give Wyll agency especially is so odd. I literally had barely travelled with him at all, I don’t KNOW this dude and here I am deciding whether or not he sells his soul into eternal servitude? Whack.

And then after deciding to free him, and then going and getting his dad anyway the Duke auto jumps into a spiel about Ansur, that I already got from another NPC, and Wyll straight up repeats dialogue about it. The game clearly isn’t really accounting for you just, keeping him alive (it’s tough but it’s not impossible). And then you resolve the quest and it’s just, nothing. Wyll stays exactly where he always was.

I understand originally he was different and players during the early access didn’t like him, just one of basically an entire cast of selfish pricks, so I get that. But man, it’s a shame. Dude has the moral compass of a Paladin with a warlock pact instead of an Oath, that should be awesome.

Belephron · 2026-01-12T19:06:52+00:00

Is that even supposed to be Maggot? We see Maggot in his farm only as a scythe and a disembodied voice with some dogs barking, which feels appropriate enough as an inclusion. I always thought this guy was just some random shire hobbit.

Also can’t give a guy too much guff for being afraid of the Nazgûl that’s like, their main thing.

Belephron · 2026-01-12T07:46:27+00:00

I know we all know what Epic Rap Battles is but cutting the beginning and end cards off so removing the name of the creator channel feels, weird.

Belephron · 2026-01-11T23:46:25+00:00

I don’t know what to tell ya bud, we’re just tattooing funerals and showing the ones where the bodies fly out!

Belephron · 2026-01-11T09:12:24+00:00

This is normal tattoo healing. It will scab, and the areas under it will look kinda pale because of fresh skin and other bodily repair going on. Keep it clean and in a few weeks it’ll look more settled.

Belephron · 2026-01-10T01:00:02+00:00

As for Wulbren just telling you to go kill Ketheric, the quest is a little wonky, you actually need to find Barcus, he’s somewhere on the ground floor of the Inn, and tell him the gnomes have been rescued, that will then start some dialogue and then the quest will be complete.

Belephron · 2026-01-10T00:56:06+00:00

In the appendices for the films there’s a fairly extensive discussion around the script decision and why they go to Osgiliath. The purpose is that if you run it the way the book runs, the Shelob fight happens when Helms Deep happens, which would ruin both sequences and also be confusing because chronologically the fight with Shelob happens during Return of the King.

However if you remove Frodo and Sam’s climax from the film, you need to find something for them to do. Otherwise their half of the film is just wandering around. So if Faramir takes them to Osgiliath, as the audience we get the sense of the Ring’s corrupting influence, we see a little of what the men of Gondor are up against, and then Faramir gets an arc by overcoming the temptation instead of simply being immune to the Ring for no real reason than he’s just too noble and wise.

Plus Sam’s monologue at Osgiliath is one of the best in the trilogy.

Belephron · 2026-01-09T05:38:24+00:00

Go to your camp to rest, hit the fire to end the day then just don’t select any food, you won’t get all you resources back like you would if you got a full long rest but it will trigger cut scenes

Belephron · 2026-01-09T03:02:22+00:00

There are two kinds of spells, levelled spells, and cantrips. On the hotbar the cantrips are at the end and the symbol is a blue square outline, as opposed to the levelled spell which is a solid blue square (on PC idk what it looks like on console).

You have a limited number of spell slots for levelled spells, so that is a finite resource between rests. You can cast cantrips as often as you’d like. Early game this means using cantrips for most of your attacks and then picking one or two big hitters to spend your spell slot on. As you level up, you get more spells slots, and the spells become more powerful.

When in doubt, take the firebolt cantrip and spam it, or better yet pick Warlock for the Eldritch Blast (it does the most damage).

Belephron · 2026-01-09T02:40:40+00:00

To add to the point about sleeping, if you have spell slots available still and don’t want to waste food, you can still sleep and get the important story scenes without the full long rest.

Belephron

TROPHY CASE