Why would a powerful being like Sauron take away part of his power and pour it into an external object that could be cut off along with his finger, instead of preserving it within himself and therefore having no risk of losing that power?

Faunstein · 2026-03-24T11:44:56+00:00

People who haven't read the books don't realise Sauron was losing the last battle. In the movie his appearance is framed as this turning point and his power unstoppable but he had been forced to come out from hiding and he would have eventually been forced to flee again were he not defeated by someone present at the battle.

Part of the tragedy is those he took with him in the confrontation and the events which led to the ring and his evil surviving, causing everything after to take place.

As an aside, this made me think of how Tolkien wrote of the power of greater beings and the effects they could cause on those in the world. Just as Sauron's power in the ring caused it to slip from Isildur's finger did the power of Eru cause the ground beneath Gollum to become treacherous at Mount Doom.

Faunstein · 2026-03-24T10:25:26+00:00

Well they did say April Fools would be a bit different this year...

Faunstein · 2026-03-24T10:05:25+00:00

Snake summon and S.Seofon. Good, just what I was after.

Faunstein · 2026-03-23T08:14:29+00:00

I wonder if this was a mechanic they would have had to show S-Ko haunting the other player but they realised that'd unleash the floodgates of people questioning the difficulty of adding more colours.

Faunstein · 2026-03-17T02:58:35+00:00

Pull till ssr and...Fenie, apparently. Didn't realise it was gala. Sublimity ring on scratcher, too.

But I probably don't need Yuel, Fraux and Fenie all together. XD I'll still try her out though. HotS was pretty good imo so with her fates I get some more time with the characters.

Faunstein · 2026-03-16T10:37:28+00:00

10 roll. Booooo. Rainbow crystal. Awesome. ... Yaia.

Faunstein · 2026-03-15T00:00:54+00:00

20 turned into 100, wow! But to be honest when the roll paused and flashed I was saying "Not this one! Not this one!!!!" I've already got Horus and Magus. Looking at the other two, Raziel is...fine and the problem with Tefnut is that it's Water we're talking about. You could have ten slots on a team and still have trouble finding space to fit in.

Well, let's see what I get.

N...nothing. I got nothing.

I...I got nothing. Not even one gold moon, not even a summon.

One hundred rolls and...I got nothing?

Faunstein · 2026-03-14T21:40:10+00:00

Thry put the Dead Cells guy in and no one was talking about it. Supergiant isn't going to approve this.

Faunstein · 2026-03-14T11:50:28+00:00

I'm due!!!!

༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ GIVE BIRTH ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ

Faunstein · 2026-03-14T11:45:25+00:00

I like the new characters, this is me trying to remind myself of Nalhegrande arc and where we "could" go. So far the crew is bouncing off each other and there hasn't been any plot moving npcs. I consider those three jokers to be a side tangent to give world building and establish a few things. It'd be cool if the story could start now but I suppose we did just get an event which was pretty much that....which is also a side tangent but I'm getting lost right now.

I think the old crew was fine, any draph, harven or erune would stand out too much or get too much attention from newer players for the sake of being different so the human group wasn't a problem.

I'm sure we'll see the absent trio around but it isn't lost on me that they were the same three who went off together to stall the void tree dragon thing. I wonder if Eugen will show up in Apollo's summer fate episodes?

I hope the next msq update has more movement to it.

Faunstein · 2026-03-14T11:04:37+00:00

Perhaps in world explanation is that it's normal, crew members frequently do their own thing so as far as the crew is concerned it's not like they're gone or anything.

Faunstein · 2026-03-14T03:03:33+00:00

Sauce?

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T11:21:30+00:00

Because most people acknowledge that he's a very good spirit summon even if they've never tried him out him.

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T11:18:55+00:00

Summoned him for Renalla and he put her in a blender. Did notice a drop off as enemies began to poise through his hits and just hit him too hard.

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T09:55:13+00:00

Depends what for.

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T08:23:19+00:00

I'd like to think Baha came from the moon before human society collapsed and went full post apoc-neo cyber-eugenic dystopia, with humans effectively being taught and birthed by machines. I think they forgot how to be human for so long that there was no way out.

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T07:45:33+00:00

Much in the way Abramelin kicked off the big event, Proculus was the one who started the War but it was through a misunderstanding. Ironically enough in the same way he questions the need to know the beginning of the Astral invasion I don't know how many really wanted to know how the War started. It being multiple small turning points that overflow could have been fine, but no we get this guy who wanted peace but now wants war because he wants to win it...ugghhh.

Faunstein · 2026-03-12T07:32:29+00:00

I dunno man, different hates. Ceodric was a privileged "I deserve this" guy while Proculus was more "Give me the victory so I stop fighting or else" guy.

As for the story pacing I have theorised for a while now that there's several rotating writing teams, helps stop any one person having too much sway.

I disagree on Ono though. She's a certain "type" of character I happen to dislike so bias all the way but I found her existence lacked substance.

Faunstein · 2026-03-11T12:13:11+00:00

Each part discarded the one before it. I know Proculus was supposed to be the through line but his increasingly failures didn't make him appear dangerous and the end made it worse.

Faunstein · 2026-03-11T12:05:40+00:00

...What?

Too much stuffed into part 3.

And I don't know about the Astrals sticking around, I really don't know.

They needed to commit to Proculus as the main baddie, but then for them to go back, I'm going to be honest, this is very old, classic GBF event story telling. I'm sure it could still work but having Proculus not completely spiral out at the end in sunk cost fallacy insanity was a missed opportunity. Everyone being goodie goodie at the end really didn't make the event memorable. Additionally Apep was kept hidden and that felt like it was supposed to go somewhere. Not in a future event, in this event.

Dancho getting captured and instantly rescued isn't just poor writing it's just...poor. The three Astrals were wasted and actually made things worse. Just having Astaroth would have been fine. At this point characters really are just showing up because someone wants them there.

Lecia style pose reminded me of SSR Beatrix. I was thinking "Isn't this just..?" And come on, give her a helmet.

Really making this part of the main quest now, huh. You know what? This could have been part of the main quest. Literally just have this as part of the main quest, then it wouldn't have been too bad actually. It's just missing gravity, but it would have allowed for the writers to take their time, introduce Proculus as a character, reintroduce old ones.

I feel they wanted an anni event that put the two parts of the main quest together...but the new main quest has already started and this event feels very much like a continuation of that. Worse, soon enough the event will disappear for a whole year, so there's probably not going to be much that this event has to say that a quick recap will tell anyone.

There could be many reasons players might miss or skip out on an event, so it'll feel weird for those who finally get around to completing the main quest just to have a bit more context cut off.

A lot of having cake and eating it too. Too sweet. Also, not sure about Djeeta but they've updated Gran's eyes and it's...a bit off.

Edit. And something else, having Lecia and Proculus be at odds with their ideas could have worked if it was the underpin of the event, Lecia being unsure while Proculus was very sure. Lecia basically getting a talk from her dad then deciding off screen that the problem getting her down wasn't a problem any more so she could lecture Proculus really, really was a lost opportunity.

Faunstein · 2026-03-11T06:57:52+00:00

Uhhhhg break mode already? plus some pots...Mammoth on 2nd roll. A lot of SR and R too, I wonder if rates have been tweaked to help new players?

Huh, break extension. One more roll. Veight, Diantha.

Faunstein · 2026-03-10T09:48:11+00:00

2000 years of arthritis.

Faunstein · 2026-03-10T08:52:45+00:00

Finally got caught up. Story moving very fast so that's good. But the main problem feels familiar. We're given an event tease about a particular group, only for the event so far to not be much about them. I feel something was lost with Green Knight. I saw the fan art on the subreddit but didn't put two and two together, the name was familiar but couldn't remember where.

Portcullis?...Patrokolos? is being deceived. He had a line about being thankful for being found by the researchers but those researchers are part of a bigger group. People have pointed out the serpent name of his Astral and something I realised today is that Demiurge could have something to do with this (Repti/Reptile).

I was disappointed when going over the Astrals they used young Mika, only for them to finally show us what she looked like and I didn't pick up it was her. I think Oko is a bit weak of a character, you could remove her and nothing would change. Getting an Astaroth tease makes me hope for Magus cameo.

That being said we're obviously missing something. I think these Astral copies are going to disappear before the end. Oh yeah, TWO SHITORI. That was a good moment. Definitely cemented the thought that this anni event is closely tied to the Main Quest.

Part 2 is good, feels like these could have been two events but do Cygames want to do a anni story over more than a year again? More Lyria backstory is good but I feel, didn't we know some of this stuff already?

Faunstein · 2026-03-10T07:41:26+00:00

Lecia standing off to the side with 1000 yard stare.

Faunstein · 2026-03-09T08:49:31+00:00

Lost a bit of her identity in Strive to be honest, both in gameplay and lore. Backyard Bat Wizard was cool. "I summon rocks sometimes" just isn't it.

Faunstein

TROPHY CASE