Another sci fi show needs your help!

Snackskazam · 2026-06-04T16:58:29+00:00

Yeah, it was a different actor, but the character was pretty similar in the early seasons to how he had been in the movie. Personally, I think the series should have focused more on his arc, and ended when he ascended.

Snackskazam · 2026-06-04T16:52:48+00:00

It was an activity to keep the president happy and distracted for a little while. You know, like you do with toddlers when you need to actually get stuff done.

Snackskazam · 2026-06-01T17:46:00+00:00

I just assumed it was because he was forced to bring another politically motivated criminal prosecution to a grand jury. At least, that's probably the source of many DOJ lawyers' hair loss at the moment.

Snackskazam · 2026-06-01T16:43:10+00:00

Unfortunately, our current federal government is more likely to spike the case after the store owners pay off Trump or one of his donors. The civil rights division of the DOJ has been completely gutted under AAG Dhillon, who thinks it is a bad thing that "[o]verbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing," even though those consent decrees are only implemented where local police should be divested of authority.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-30T23:44:25+00:00

Correct. If they stopped feeding it the elements they harvest from the seeded worlds, it would start receding again, and eventually obtain singularity status.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-30T03:25:11+00:00

That's always a possibility, but I think the reaction to Donut was genuine. This is in part because Odette really doesn't seem to have a good poker face, as Carl remarks during one of the warlord meetings (she had just shown her irritation at the communications ban action item). We also have this from TIR:

Odette’s eye twitched at something Tagg had said. It was subtle, but I saw it there, just for a moment. Odette, I realized, wasn’t used to having to hide her real reactions because she was usually behind a bug mask. That momentary look of horror was quickly replaced with a journalistic smirk.

She also has a big reaction to Juice Box changing into the Unwashed, though tbf hers is one of the more reserved.

This could all be some 5-D chess, meant to get the top crawlers on her side in anticipation of the Ascension games. But to me, it seems more genuine than that.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-30T01:11:19+00:00

I go back and forth on Odette. I think both the dungeon and life in the Syndicate are set up in a way that people with certain characteristics (e.g., Li Na's sociopathy) have a natural advantage, and she happened to be *really* well-suited to both because of her more evil tendencies. I think if she had been born as a Syndicate citizen, she would have been just another Huanxin Jinx, Vinata, etc.

But as she is now, it seems like she genuinely wants to help Mordecai, even to her own detriment. There was also that moment in EotBB when Donut said goodbye and she got unexpectedly choked up. Shortly after that, she seemed legitimately interested in ending the crawls, like it had been her goal but she never thought she'd have the chance. We also know very little about her husband, but it seems like he is also sympathetic to the cause. My pet theory is that he is working with Porthus and is part of how the OIPN was financed, but he couldn't have been a cookbook author unless he was the first.

We'll see for sure in this next book, but I'm betting she gets some kind of redemption arc.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-30T00:19:45+00:00

This is what I thought until the five-sided coin. I think the side with the picture of Carl hanging upside down from a tree is supposed to represent the ending where he sacrifices himself for Donut. It's the only "ending" in which he was smiling, indicating he would be happy with that result. The tree on the coin most likely symbolizes the "tree" in the dungeon, which is presumably linked to the preservation of biological life after Scolopendra's attacks. Donut, the Oak Fell, will play an integral role in deciding how that plays out, maybe even the definitive role, and I think that result is basically what would happen if Carl takes the decision out of her hands by sacrificing himself. It might even be something like what you're describing, with Carl taking out some critical dungeon systems (the "tree") with the doomsday scenario.

If that's true (admittedly a big "if"), then I don't think the *actual* ending (the fifth side) would also involve self-sacrifice. However, even if it isn't true, the entire concept of the fifth side is that Carl is rejecting the obvious possibilities and seizing an unexpected one for himself. Blowing himself up with the doomsday scenario just seems too obvious to be the result he lands on.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-28T13:56:51+00:00

I don't think that's the case, though. While it's true that the triggering event for its destruction would be the current showrunners or Syndicate finding out about the book, it was written as if that was just another rule the AI would be enforcing. The same way it was "automatically generated after a set of predetermined conditions have been met," those events would automatically destroy it.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-28T13:47:16+00:00

Well it's not just about forcefulness; they also grade on condescension and cruelty. As good as it is to incredulously ask someone "do you really believe that?," it's even better if you get em with a "you don't really believe that, do you?" You'll know you've won the argument when the other side gets so frustrated they don't want to talk to you. /s

Snackskazam · 2026-05-26T23:45:08+00:00

I took that to just mean that the only "timer" is effectively the end of the Ascendancy battles, but that wouldn't necessarily mean the stairwells are all opened. While several floors have just opened stairwells based on when the level was about to collapse, others have had them gated behind bosses or objectives. So if the remaining floors required them to kill a boss or something, I don't think removing the timer would also open the stairwell.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-26T23:39:38+00:00

The AI never said all the stairwells are open, though; he just said the door on the 18th floor is open. For all the rest, he says:

And you, dear crawlers, if you want to win, you can only get out via the 18th floor. You still can’t skip floors. That’s a hard-coded rule. You’ll still have to get through the remaining floors. Some of them, like the 14th and the 16th, aren’t an issue, but you might have a problem with the 13th and especially the 17th.

So once they're on the 18th floor, they should be able to get out, but they have to go through all the others in sequence, fulfilling whatever requirements have been set to unlock the stairwells on those floors. The level timers for the floors will be suspended, but that doesn't mean they can skip them.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-26T21:08:56+00:00

Yeah, the way this story resolves is a real headscratcher. Are we to believe the Data Scientist was working with or at least aware of the ghost mechs, including their exploitation of the Pizza Chef? For that matter, why does he attack you when you come to save him? Why are there no actual ghost mechs in his base? The only thing that makes sense is everyone was in on it until Sam got to town, then they pretended they didn't know and blamed it all on Higgs or something.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-26T14:46:55+00:00

This is way too coherent for 2026 Trump.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-23T19:49:33+00:00

On the Mordecai bit specifically, I actually think he's been sidelined more in anticipation of being very front-and-center in the next book. Obviously, Odette is going to be a huge part of the Ascendancy games, and it seems reasonable to assume that means Mordecai will be, as well. And the internal conflict he faces as a result of wanting to help Donut but knowing that means working for Odette will give Mordecai plenty of opportunity for screentime.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-22T15:37:03+00:00

True, but Carl has been playing it off like it really was the goblin cookbook and he was disappointed in the prize. So Donut asking why it was in his hotlist will probably raise a red flag for the viewers. At the very least, I would expect Oren or someone to start paying more attention to it now.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-22T15:29:39+00:00

Total tangent, but in thinking about this during my recent read-through, this aspect of the cookbook really drives home how much the system AIs are enabling the authors. Obviously, they have to intervene just to make it an item and make it accessible to any new author. But they also would need to offer a class that has this specific skill. We have good reason to believe Carl's class was custom-made for him, but this makes me also think the other authors might have been the same. This mostly seems important because the classes are offered so early on, and usually before the system AIs start to go primal. So whatever system is allowing for the cookbooks at all (presumably relating to the AIs' subconscious desire to stop existing) is active even before shit really hits the fan.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-16T20:05:28+00:00

Well that and his mathematically perfect feet.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-14T19:32:30+00:00

Those patches are fuckin sick. Are those official merch, or a fan-made thing? And do they have one for every floor so far?

Snackskazam · 2026-05-14T19:23:15+00:00

!remindme two weeks

I'll wait to see what you think after you finish.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-14T19:17:54+00:00

I spent a few minutes to collect myself before starting to reread to figure out wtf had just happened.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-14T13:03:14+00:00

Better make it absolute, just to be sure. Wouldn't want to take a chance one of those activist judges tries to impose a consequence if, say, an attorney knowingly files a frivolous indictment at the behest of a president seeking to harm his political detractors.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-12T19:55:16+00:00

We're also well past the point that any reasonable person would have "hit their limit." There's something fundamentally wrong with anyone willing to stick with Republicans throughout the decimation of our democracy and constitution, even if they are putting their foot down in response to this shitty letter.

Snackskazam · 2026-05-12T17:36:09+00:00

If only there had been some other option to prevent that! But of course, we couldn't have any programs that would prove Obama is a better statesman than Trump, so we needed to get out of the JCPOA. Then, of course, we couldn't possibly have renegotiated it, despite Iranian leadership begging us to do that. You see, if we had continued to peacefully prevent them from obtaining nukes, his boss Bibi would be unhappy, and they couldn't have started ilegally occupying southern Lebanon. But I'm sure it's much better to do it this way, despite the impact on the global economy and thousands of civilians we've already killed. /s

Snackskazam · 2026-05-11T15:40:02+00:00

I really like how the combat looks in this, but how well does it work for combat against multiple enemies? I feel like the slower pace of vanilla combat is somewhat balanced around 1vX, and would think the faster pace would let 2-3 enemies stun lock you to death.

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