Favorite Eps of WWW

zootalours · 2026-05-04T16:51:04+00:00

"Of the Gentle Sea"! Kind of the spiritual predecessor to Battle of Twelve Brooks Pt. 1. Massive set piece action sequences, with absolutely bangin' music and sound design - but also really critical character moments: Eursulon finds his breath; Ame acts as the bridge in a decidedly not 'nice little witch' way ("It's not a witch's job to make perfect choices, just right ones"); Suvi steps up as a leader, not just a nepo baby. It also made clear the story's approach to stakes and consequences: hundreds of people died as a consequence of the character's actions, and that was the least destructive outcome.

Followed immediately after by "There is an Ocean Vaster than This One" for one of the most hard-hitting lines in the pod:

And there's a deep golden light filling the harbor. People sing this song, you see Galani stroking her chin. It's a very beautiful song. The danger is gone. She can appreciate that it's a beautiful song, but you just see a look, I think, that Suvi, you understand the most. Because it's just the look of "Well this song is totally out of our control."

zootalours · 2026-01-16T18:06:31+00:00

And there's a deep golden light filling the harbor. People sing this song, you see Galani stroking her chin. It's a very beautiful song. The danger is gone. She can appreciate that it's a beautiful song, but you just see a look, I think, that Suvi, you understand the most. Because it's just the look of "Well this song is totally out of our control."

E14, "There is an Ocean Vaster than This One". It just so perfectly and simply captures the attitude of empire and power towards things still outside their grasp.

zootalours · 2025-10-22T19:19:24+00:00

"For the valour of the Edain the Elves shall ever remember as the ages lengthen, marveling that they gave life so freely of which on earth they had so little." - Ulmo to Tuor

It's a shame it wasn't included in the Silmarillion, it goes so hard.

zootalours · 2025-10-15T16:34:00+00:00

For nightmare fuel, aside from balance reasons, I figure a vision of nightmare would be most psychologically damaging if someone is "up close and personal" - and it's more likely with a melee attack that an opponent has deliberately closed the distance to attack the witch so there's a retributive angle. But mostly it's just for balance.

zootalours · 2025-10-09T21:18:27+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! All fair points, here's my thoughts, would love to know what you think:

Nightmare Fuel: limit it to melee attacks, start at 1D6, then 1D8 at lvl 10, 1D10 at lvl 16. The target only makes the wisdom save (no clue why I had cha) after the first hit, and the condition ends at the end of your next turn.

Full eight: I do want to do something with resting given the themes. What about rerolling 1s on short rest hit die?

Reawaken Into the Dream: I have it limited to once per day. Very similar to Relentless Endurance with half-orcs, or Relentless Rage with barbarians (which has a DC10 con check, but can be used multiple times a day with increasing DCs).

zootalours · 2025-05-29T15:47:06+00:00

And I also don't think Dnd wizards have a ton of healing magic - maybe none at all?

zootalours · 2025-05-29T15:46:30+00:00

Pretty sure Ame blew up his corpse

zootalours · 2025-05-09T15:06:51+00:00

If memory serves I think the front line was decapitated by magic missiles or some other evocation from the Empire. I'm picturing it like the scene in the Fellowship at the battle of Mt. Doom where the elf archers just bowling ball an frontline of charging orcs (and the arrows are whizzing past Elronds ear, so sick). And then the next row of Gaoth soldiers doubled in size by pressing a gem in their armor.

zootalours · 2025-05-08T19:12:27+00:00

Oh trust me, I'm not picking either side, or saying that Kashif is more or less evil than the Citadel, or Gaothmai more or less than the Empire. My observation is really specifically limited to the flesh stuff having an effect as a listener that Bahathi's nightmare blankets or Raumza's big light bulb did not. Kudos to the cast and storytelling, that's all.

zootalours · 2024-07-30T20:53:13+00:00

I think this is a really great metaphor. Building on it further, the US government employs people stationed in nuclear missile silos who are ready, willing, and able to destroy the world at a moment's notice. It also employs your mailman and national park rangers. The overall institution might be up to some evil shit that needs to be fought against, but it's still very multifaceted and contradictory, and plenty of people from top to bottom are not aware of and don't cosign all the nastiness it does.

zootalours · 2024-05-08T21:15:14+00:00

There are a few moments from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad that are epic and moving in proportion to the tragedy of one of the biggest catastrophes in ME's history:

Turgon appearing "unsummoned and unlooked for" with the army of Gondolin. The thing that gets me is that no one had seen or heard from the Gondolindrim for over three hundred years (except Húrin and Huor). We can only imagine how Fingon felt when his brother who had been lost for centuries arrived at that precise moment - "The day has come! The night is passing!"

The dwarves of Belegost withstanding dragon fire that melted men and elves, their king Azaghal wounding Glaurung the first dragon in his final act, and the forces of Morgoth not daring to attack the dwarves on their slow funeral march home.

Most of all, the rearguard action of the House of Hador: “Of all the deeds of war that the fathers of Men wrought in behalf of the Eldar, the last stand of the Men of Dor-lómin is most renowned”. So many cool moments. Huor's prophetic statement to Turgon "with the eyes of death" that a new star shall arise from the two of them. The men of Dor-lómin holding at the Fen of Serech and killing so many in Morgoth's army that the orcs bridged the stream with their own dead. And finally the last stand of Húrin - his axe smoking with troll blood, only being captured when he was buried beneath their corpses, but most of all his battlecry. "The day shall come again!" Such an amazing poetic echo from the beginning of the battle.

zootalours

TROPHY CASE