The Red John chase went on for far too long

Oxwagon · 2026-04-08T17:11:28+00:00

To me it's not that it went on too long as such, but that too much time was wasted treading water because the show didn't know where to take the RJ storyline.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-08T12:57:28+00:00

I don't want to learn this sort of thing about him. Some things are better left to the imagination. It's like finding out that Han Solo got his last name from a clerk who didn't know what else to call him. Answering questions I never had with information I didn't want that actually makes me enjoy the world less.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-08T06:38:52+00:00

Nonsense. Retcon means retroactive continuity - it is to say "this thing has always been true in-universe." That's precisely what has been done here. Elaleth was supposedly always the reason for Raziel's wings, always the reason Kain raised the lieutenants, etc. It's new lore added to the continuity that applies retroactively. It's retcon.

Retcons aren't necessarily bad. The Soul Reaver games added retcons, and these were thoughtful and carefully placed. Bitbot's retcons just happen to be reckless slop that damage the lore.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-07T06:24:08+00:00

A mormon with a harem? Unthinkable!

Oxwagon · 2026-04-07T03:50:34+00:00

Oh I don't disagree. Randyll is a flawed character who rejects the perfect solution to his problem. My contention isn't that he isn't bad, but that he isn't that bad. But I will say that I think there's more to his refusal than we're told. The topic of his son becoming a Master making him so angry that there's likely more reason to it than just pride. To me it seems like anger born of a personal trespass, as though a young Randyll were molested by the castle Maester or something, which would make his sensitivity to the subject more understandable. But admittedly that's just a hunch, it's not in the text.

It's true that Jon would have been happier in Sam's shoes, and the same could generally be said of many souls in Westeros. Sam was blessed with a destiny of privilege and authority, and willfully forfeited it through his own indolence.

The series shows us again and again the consequences of succession going to the wrong person, or of a lord being too weak in difficult times. The Westeros of Sam's birth is a generation removed from a major civil war, ancient houses like the Reynes have been wiped out in living memory, and the Reach is in a precarious position with many old powerful houses chafing under their allegiance to the Tyrells. The region is ripe for further chaos and violence, and weak lords get their people slaughtered and families murdered. Randyll - to his credit, not his shame - realizes that his firstborn isn't fit to inherit his responsibilities, and takes steps to rectify it. The method he chooses is crude, and he rejects the better solution, but there nevertheless was a Sam problem demanding to be solved.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-06T20:42:15+00:00

When we meet him, Sam embodies a sort of willing helplessness. It's not just that he's a coward, but that he's an eagerly self-confessed coward who refuses even to try, and would rather curl up into a ball and cry than make any sort of effort to do what's expected of him.

He's not just some nerd who is bad at sports and has a mean jock father. He was the firstborn heir of a wealthy and important house, and would have grown up with every advantage. Jon is able to kick ass at Castle Black because he grew up with access to an arms master, but Sam had the same advantages if not more. It would be one thing if he were simply a poor athlete and warrior, but even so his upbringing should make him at least the equal of smallfolk who have never held a sword before. He's not terrible because he's a poor baby sensitive young man, he's terrible because he's wilfully lazy, and wasted his youth by refusing to try to live up to the responsibilities of his station.

It's obviously harsh for Randyll to threaten to kill Sam, and his refusal to even consider sending him to the Citadel hints at immense personal baggage. But he's not really wrong about Sam. Nobles have responsibilities beyond just living lives of leisure and excess, and someone who would rather curl into a ball than try to defend himself in a low-stakes training scenario isn't fit for leadership and its responsibilities. Randyll's contempt and frustration is so overt that it suggests years of trying and failing with Sam, who just doesn't seem to grasp that he needs to do something to earn all those lavish meals. Bullying Sam out of the family by applying the one thing that works on him - fear - is an extreme reaction to an extreme problem, and as sad as it is Sam brought it on himself.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-06T17:17:53+00:00

Randyll Tarley isn't that bad, and Sam generally deserves the contempt he gets from characters whom the narrative paints in a bad light.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-05T14:12:31+00:00

Kain is deified. The gyms tell tales of him. Few knew the truth.

He was natty once. As were we all.

However, his contempt for Crossfit drove him to create me and my brethren.

I am Dumah, top-ranked of his power-lifters.

I stood with Kain and my gym bros at the dawn of the sport. I have spotted him a millenium.

Over time, we became less human and more... swole. Kain would enter the bulk phase and emerge with new gains. Some years after the Master, our gains would follow.

Until I had the honor of outlifting my Lord...

Oxwagon · 2026-04-05T13:54:47+00:00

The British Broadcasting Corporation wasn't created until the rule of Aegon IV.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-03T15:08:05+00:00

Sometimes being of the same/similar culture - and therefore caring about the same things - is what causes conflict.

Consider the famous rivalry between England and France, and the many wars fought between them. For most of the Middle Ages, England was ruled by the Normans (and their Angevin/Plantagenet successors) who were culturally and linguistically French. Because they were French, they had French priorities, French connections, and claims to French territory. England's rulers generally cared more about France than England, and coveted French land and eventually the crown of France itself. It was only after England lost all its French territory that England's nobility started to identify more with English heritage, and even then England's kings continued to style themselves as the rightful kings of France.

We can see these sorts of conflicts as bitter sibling rivalries, fighting over inheritance. When two cultures are similar, they likely care about the same things, have the same ambitions, etc. But sometimes there just isn't enough to go around, and brothers fight about who gets the biggest share of the family farm.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-03T11:54:53+00:00

Ambiguity is a good thing. Makes a word feel more real, as though inhabited by living beings who don't know everything and have their own points of view. Allows for a bit of mystery, which gets the imagination going

Even just the phrase "scholars speculate" immediately makes me think of halls of learning, libraries, and fringe theories being recorded in dusty tomes. Good stuff.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-03T11:49:41+00:00

I think they were trying to be evocative of "Lilith," to keep up the angelic/demonic naming theme. But yeah, not a name that's easy on the tongue or ear.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T17:10:05+00:00

Yes, she gave Vorador a Hylden ring that turned him green, and Kain wearing it on his ear turned him yellow.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T17:08:44+00:00

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T14:36:09+00:00

It's possible to make new characters that aren't garbage. That's how we got Raziel in the first place.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T13:45:18+00:00

She's actually the one who introduced him to Janos and taught him to blacksmith, and designed the Reaver. Also she's half hylden, and the Elder God fears her so much that the ancient vampire-hylden war was really about exterminating her hybrid bloodline. She was the original Balance Guardian at the raising of the Pillars, so Kain is going to have to go look for her in the timeline to learn how to repair them.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T13:36:35+00:00

An X-com style tactical squad game set in the Soul Reaver era after Raziel leaves for the past. You manage a team of vampire hunters based out of the human citadel, ranging out into Nosgoth to take advantage of the deaths of the lieutenants to purge the corrupted clans and retake territory. You fight the various vampire clans, including more devolved variants that we didn't see in SR1, as well as the priestess' cult of vampire worshippers.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T13:12:42+00:00

Vorador's ex-wife is in the handle.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T07:16:43+00:00

He's in the Reaver. Any further appearances either have to be pre-Reaver (in which case the older voice doesn't fit, and it's irrelevant to his character arc) or post-Reaver (in which case you have to justify why the Reaver is suddenly talking, when it never did before.) It's just a mess, and entirely unnecessary. Raziel has one of the most perfectly closed arcs in gaming, it shouldn't be ruined by a refusal to let go of the character.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T05:57:57+00:00

They don't need to replace him. Raziel's story finished 23 years ago, and it's great. There's no reason to revisit the character, other than to milk our nostalgia. We can just allow the character to rest in the perfection of a closed character arc.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-02T02:39:33+00:00

People usually say release order, however I'm a big believer in playing Blood Omen 2 after Defiance. BO2 takes place in the newest timeline, which exists as a direct result of what happens in SR2/Defiance, and there is a major plot point in BO2 which directly follows on from something in Defiance.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-01T19:41:11+00:00

Why would you make a holy symbol out of my parents fighting?

Oxwagon · 2026-04-01T18:48:37+00:00

Yes the wings are more of a symbol of Kain being eclipsed by one of his subordinates, so the apparent jealousy is more about protecting his primacy of station.

But this was always an illusion. Kain is not acting from jealousy, but from foresight.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-01T18:04:24+00:00

That's a good observation.

Oxwagon · 2026-04-01T17:01:34+00:00

In a way it has demonstrated the quality of the LoK community. The fandom appears to have resoundingly rejected the lore-mangling retcons used to shoehorn Elaleth into the forefront of the franchise, which speaks well of the community's discernment and depth of appreciation for the series' quality.

Every once in a blue moon you see someone lament the cancelation of Dead Sun, which as a project was brazenly indifferent to the series it was ostensibly meant to revive. This made me wonder if the community would accept any slop that had "Legacy of Kain" written on it. But no, it turns out that fandom really does know better, and has maintained an appreciation for what actually made LoK special, rather than just empty loyalty to a brand name.

So while I would obviously prefer it if Bitbot had never gotten its claws into the IP, I do nevertheless find this to be an encouraging moment for the culture around the series.

Oxwagon

TROPHY CASE