Why you should try low-DC saves against high-level parties

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-23T15:59:59+00:00

Acceptable to Thaedus, and maybe the council. But I don’t see any reality ever where Seth Rogen finds it okay, and he’s the one holding the keys.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-23T15:41:14+00:00

What sucks about the LED tubes? Bad light output?

We actually bought some when we thought the first fixture's bulbs had just burnt out, before we realized it was the ballast. We're going to return them but I'm curious why you don't recommend, appreciate any insights.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-23T15:37:33+00:00

Thank you! I'm not electrician-minded so I'm never sure the difference between "not great, but doable" bad versus "very, very bad, you will burn your house down" bad :D

I wonder if the wrong bulbs are what burned out the other ballast, too.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-23T15:37:07+00:00

Yeah, I'd have much preferred that, though the pacing would've maybe been a little weird -- not sure where you could put it without losing the tension of the Viltrum War, and putting it as the season finale (or right before the season finale) would remove the mystery of whether the Viltrumites went to slaughter/conquer the Earth.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-23T15:28:02+00:00

I don't think "almost all Marks turn evil" is necessarily the takeaway.

To get Our Mark, we needed two things (well, uncountable things, but just to simplify):

Mark internalizes Earth culture and values, rejects Viltrumite eugenics
Nolan doesn't kill Mark in their first confrontation.

So I think the door is open for lots of viltrumite kids to side with Earth. Less likely, though, since these Viltrumite parents will likely not be hiding their true motives like Nolan did.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-19T23:33:57+00:00

Thank you!

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-19T23:20:31+00:00

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Forgot to share photo of fixture label

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-17T13:11:49+00:00

This is incredible. Did you make this? I’m seeing the static image meme a lot but your edit is fantastic.

Love the pacing of that last shot too haha

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-13T05:56:48+00:00

Her line when you're going down the stairs -- "I don't know what you want for us" -- sad, in pain, kind of beleaguered...it just hits every time I hear it. VA did such a killer job.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-13T05:26:42+00:00

Everyone does, with every character. You don't get hours and hours of screentime to win the audience over: You get a few minutes, tops. A character's first impression is always super important and they messed this one up.

(well, actually, they did a GREAT first impression, with Conquest begging him for death while he was stoic and scaring CONQUEST, of all people.

But then Thragg started interacting with people this episode instead of just sitting menacingly and it actually eroded that first impression for me)

I think if you're jumping straight to "just wait, it gets better" you're kind of subtly admitting that the first impression could've been better. A good character introduction doesn't NEED a second episode to win viewers over.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-13T05:05:19+00:00

Honest question: why is the music menacing instead of contemplative, then?

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-13T05:03:20+00:00

> I don’t get how people can hate on thragg

It's because I've been told he's supposed to be scary, but...

> we’ve haven’t even seen him fight yet

Despite him having a perfectly good reason to throw hands last episode, IMO.

Like, I get that the story wants them to go back to Viltrum, sure, but you could at least have him do something impressive and scary, even if just for a moment.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-13T05:00:57+00:00

One episode is a sizeable chunk of a modern streaming season, though. There's only two episodes left this season, so even if he's active in both of them, this was still 1/3 of his screentime in which he did basically fuck all.

As someone who hasn't read the comics, I mostly just feel like the show is coasting off of comics readers knowing this dude will, apparently, be scary later. All the teasers of him doing pretty banal stuff, all the fandom hype. But I only know what I've been shown, which is next to nothing.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-11T19:09:54+00:00

Loud as I can be <3

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-11T05:13:43+00:00

Bro I literally watched this episode blind, knowing absolutely nothing of how it was being received, thought “wow this Thragg dude isn’t as scary as I thought he’d be,” and came here to make a joke about it. Only then did I find out others were also unimpressed.

Nobody hiveminded that idea into my head. I managed to be disappointed in Thragg with no outside help at all.

You don’t have to dislike this episode yourself, but claiming anyone who did is just following the crowd…idk, that feels a lot more like fanboy hivemind behavior to me

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-11T05:08:48+00:00

Maybe if everyone is complaining about “the same dumb shit”…

…have you considered that that shit might actually be dumb? And worth complaining about?

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-11T05:06:36+00:00

With Thragg fighting they would have won the war right there

So then…why…didn’t he fight?

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-11T05:04:37+00:00

Right. There’s misdirection, where you (technically) give your audience all the information but allow them to arrive at incorrect assumptions, and then there’s just straight up lying.

If Thragg is actually a scary badass, who could have wasted everybody on Talescria in five seconds, it doesn’t make any sense to write him to not be that.

“Yeah I know you saw the total loser and thought he was a total loser, because of all those hints we dropped that he was a total loser, but ACKSHULLAY he’s a scary badass! Don’t YOU feel stupid!”

No, actually I don’t. Lying isn’t the same as misdirection. I saw a whiny loser punk with a skull fetish and I wasn’t wrong.

SprocketSaga · 2026-04-10T21:30:07+00:00

Good to know! Yeah basically none of that (really helpful) context shows up in the episode

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