OMG, I'm totally buggin
Jun. 7th, 2008 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsFriday night TV commentary:
So this week's ep, we see what the baseship was doing parallel to last week's ep. Oddly enough, during the jumps, Rosalin starts having visions of the possible future, finally succumbing the cancer, with Elosha as her magical spirit guide. But she continues to get something understandable from the Hybrid. Her and Baltar trying to make sense of her gibberish?! Hilarious! I love Baltar's arrogance. Telling the president, "No, you're supposed to do it like this!" even though it didn't seem like his methods were actually making a difference. But interestingly enough, in the fleet he's become a messiah figure, but amongst the cylons, he's like the snake in the garden, whispering to the Centurion about his unenviable lot as a slave. I wonder if he'll spark a rebellion of the bulletheads against the skinjobs.
But after being grievously wounded (and are those bandages magic? Rosalin acts like putting the bandage on Baltar's wound is enough to save him from life and death. But even the first bandage, blood was leaking out of him like crazy! It doesn't look like she was doing anything actually helpful!) he reveals to Rosalin his role in the Cylon attacks, even likening himself to the biblical flood! So Rosalin almost lets him die, but Elosha is all if humanity is worth saving, every one of them is worth saving, including Baltar. So she re-applies the magical bandage and stabilizes him.
Amongst the Cavil faction, they bring back 3, though Cavil wants to use her to get the 2s, 6s, and 8s to stop their rebellion rather than learn the identities of the final 5. The human/rebel cylons soon attack, and D'anna snaps Cavil's neck before the hub is destroyed, I guess meaning he's dead dead? His "pet 8" Boomer runs off, and Helo and an 8 abscond with D'anna and bring her to the prez. Heh, so in last week's preview, they straight out show the scene where she tells Rosalin, "Oh, you don't know you're one of the final 5?" I said I assumed it was a deceptive cut, and she was outing Anders (who we didn't see among the fleet in last week's ep). But no, she was indeed talking to the prez. But the next line she's all, just frakking with you! HA!
But getting to Helo and the 8, that was a pretty awesome scene. The rapport when you see them talking, you almost forget that that's not actually Athena he's talking to. Only it kinda is, because that 8 accessed Athena's memories from when she last downloaded. So I guess we have confirmation that other Cylon models have access to the memories of other members of their line. But how creepy is that! Its like his wife, only not! But as I said, they sneak off to the hub, make off with the 3, and then get into a tiff when Helo says he's ordered to take D'anna to see the Prez alone. So she's hurt and embarrassed. I wonder if we'll see more of Athena 2, as that's sure to cause some issues when they return to the fleet.
As for the actual strike against the hub, the plan was to have heavy raiders piloted by 6s and 8s looking all hot in flight suits towing turned off vipers so the Cylons wouldn't detect them until it was too late. The human pilots don't like this, since they're at the whim of the cylons. But I guess this is a good reason for Athena-2, since she's able to make a speech to foster some trust between the human and cylon pilots.
The attack is of course successful. And when did they turn mad cute little Seelix into a raving cylon hater? All she seems to say lately is "Frakkin' cylons!" and acting all distrustful of them or those she thinks are Cylons, like Starbuck. I guess she was a prominent member of the Resistance and part of the Circle. We see how Pike ended up how he did, panicking during the battle and taking fire before jumping out even though it was too far to reach the fleet. (Wait, why did Rosalin leave her book on the ship, other than to make things all mysterious last ep?)
Speaking of, is it really that hard to keep up with the minor characters?! Like reading various forums, people erroneously though the person who jumped out was Redwing, and wondering what the significance of him jumping out was all about, not realizing that scene was just showing how Pike and the Raptor got back to the fleet. Others thought during the conversation between Pike and Seelix that he was Hardball. Seelix is Hardball. It even says it in big letters under her cockpit. ojv('Man, its obvious!') I can understand forgetting a one shot character, but shows like BSG, or Buffy, or Veronica Mars, is it really that hard to remember secondary characters, even if they show up a lot?!
A pretty cool ep of Doctor Who. He gets a cute-ass daughter via a cloning machine. I liked the father-daughter rapport they built up, and it was totally sad when she took a bullet for her pops. It especially sucked for the Doctor, who we finally get confirmation had a family (I think people were never sure if his "granddaughter" in the old series was an actual granddaughter or if it was just an honorific). So, he was hesitant to get close with Jenny, because she reminded him of the family he lost. He finally lets her in, only to have her taken away! Which brings me to one of the things I like, nay, respect, about the Doctor. No matter what happens, he sticks to his convictions. He's so willing to die to uphold them, to protect life, even if the particular people he's protecting don't seem to deserve it. Even after the guy killed Jenny, he wasn't going to straight up execute the guy. Instead, he tries to put a positive spin on such a tragedy by using it to convince the people to make a better society for themselves.
(BTW, I'm amused how quickly he and Jenny built up that rapport, I guess it mirrors the fact that the "generations long" war between the humans and that hath only took place over a week.)
Heh, too bad he didn't stay a little longer, because then he would have known his daughter came back to life. I hope they run into each other again, she would make a cool companion. The Doctor is such a tragic hero, soldiering on despite all the horrors he's seen, the losses he experienced. He has really good friends, but again for someone like him, their companionship is but a fleeting moment in relation to his incredible life span. So he needs someone like her, who might be as long lived, who'll provide some respite against the loneliness and loss he constantly feels, even though he tries not to show it.
Owel, having Martha in the ep was pretty weird, because its not like she did a whole lot. Yeah, she was with the Hath, but honestly, they didn't really need her in the ep. Not that I don't like her, its just if I were her, I'd be all, "I'm being brought back for this?" I guess its a paycheck. And I guess they're trying to keep her out there in people's mind, because I hear she's going to be a regular on the next season of Torchwood.
Finally finished the character section of 4th edition. I still feel weird about wizards. I guess their at will powers are decent attacks, but like I said I find it lame they can only use a lot of the classic spells only once per encounter or once per day. I guess more than a few of the spells you get each level are just upgraded versions of lower level spells. So you can still drop some of the same attack effects multiple times in a battle or day, just with varying degrees of potency. Though there's only one wall of fire, one wall of ice, one wall of force, etc. It seems kinda dumb you can only do wall of fire but once in a fight. I mean, in an enclosed area, being able to put up one wall is fine, but in more open battles, that makes the wall spells lose some of their potency. I guess you can mix walls (if you happen to have them "memorized") but that's so asymmetrical!
Ida know, I guess in previous games, wizards could drop all sorts of powerful spells like multiple fireballs or lightning bolts or what have you, because at times, those are the only useful things they could do in a battle. So once those were used up, they were left with some lame 1st or 2nd levels that pester the enemy but don't really do anything more than provide a minor annoyance. In 4th edition though, they can't rain as much death per battle as they used to, but they always have combat effective spells to do. I guess they're the class that plays most differently between editions.
The game is definitely more tactical though, again since I think they're trying to emulate mmorpgs (ND brought up an interesting theory that they're trying to have consistency between the tabletop game and D&D online). Placement on the battlemap is more important for a lot of the powers and in particular the warlord class. I mean, a lot of the attack powers the other classes get are useful in general, but work better if used in tactically sound ways, which means knowing where everyone exactly is in the map. Like wizards, since as I said they get to do their more powerful spells less, they have to be more judicious in their use. Fighters, in the defender role, are meant to hold aggro to protect the other party members. They accomplish this by marking certain enemies, meaning those enemies get minuses to their attacks if they attack someone other than the fighter who marked them, and even worse at times they can actually automagically take damage or get subjected to immediate free attacks by the defender who marked them. You don't have to exactly know where everyone is in this case, but its still more efficient, since the defender should strive to be in a position to get the most opponents focuses on him as well as being in range to retort against those they've marked when the enemy tries to attack the defender's allies.
But the warlord class especially is important. The cleric as a leader is somewhat similar to his incarnation in the previous editions, providing buffs and healing to his allies. But those bonuses come from a divine power. The warlord is a tactician, and a lot of the benefits he provides are more mundane. His powers allow allies to move around the battle without provoking attacks of opportunity (in this edition, characters aren't as limited in the number of attacks of opportunity they can make) as well as getting his allies to focus their attacks on certain enemies. Knowing where your allies are and where your enemies are is important to make the best tactical decisions.
Having read all the classes now, as I said in a previous post, the warlock is an interesting addition. The warlord is okay, but only makes sense as a class in the context of this system's mechanics. I'm disappointed at the loss of the barbarian and monk, because I always thought they were cool options to play, but in this new leader-defender-controller-striker mechanic, they would be redundant. I mean, there's already redundancy in the classes- you already have multiple classes in each role, and some of the classes can perform multiple roles. But barbarians would be just another defender class, though the rage might not fit with that dynamic, and monks have always been to me a kinda fighter-rogue hybrid in terms of their abilities and skills, and would just be another striker, which already has the warlock, ranger and rogue in that role.
Of the classes though, I think rangers and rogues are still by far my favorite, even more so in 4th edition. They axed the useless spells Rangers got for more combat effective powers, particularly cool two weapon maneuvers and archery tricks. And the power options available for rogues let you build some pretty lethal assassin types. The new rogue in particular fits the type of character I feel best playing- someone good at sneaking around and pretty good at attacking, though not necessarily able to stick it out toe to toe in an extended battle. But that's what the other fighter types are for. They mix it up so I can get in and make sure the foes get offed. Not having to worry about being bothered with other concerns I can guarantee a particular enemy gets taken down.
So this week's ep, we see what the baseship was doing parallel to last week's ep. Oddly enough, during the jumps, Rosalin starts having visions of the possible future, finally succumbing the cancer, with Elosha as her magical spirit guide. But she continues to get something understandable from the Hybrid. Her and Baltar trying to make sense of her gibberish?! Hilarious! I love Baltar's arrogance. Telling the president, "No, you're supposed to do it like this!" even though it didn't seem like his methods were actually making a difference. But interestingly enough, in the fleet he's become a messiah figure, but amongst the cylons, he's like the snake in the garden, whispering to the Centurion about his unenviable lot as a slave. I wonder if he'll spark a rebellion of the bulletheads against the skinjobs.
But after being grievously wounded (and are those bandages magic? Rosalin acts like putting the bandage on Baltar's wound is enough to save him from life and death. But even the first bandage, blood was leaking out of him like crazy! It doesn't look like she was doing anything actually helpful!) he reveals to Rosalin his role in the Cylon attacks, even likening himself to the biblical flood! So Rosalin almost lets him die, but Elosha is all if humanity is worth saving, every one of them is worth saving, including Baltar. So she re-applies the magical bandage and stabilizes him.
Amongst the Cavil faction, they bring back 3, though Cavil wants to use her to get the 2s, 6s, and 8s to stop their rebellion rather than learn the identities of the final 5. The human/rebel cylons soon attack, and D'anna snaps Cavil's neck before the hub is destroyed, I guess meaning he's dead dead? His "pet 8" Boomer runs off, and Helo and an 8 abscond with D'anna and bring her to the prez. Heh, so in last week's preview, they straight out show the scene where she tells Rosalin, "Oh, you don't know you're one of the final 5?" I said I assumed it was a deceptive cut, and she was outing Anders (who we didn't see among the fleet in last week's ep). But no, she was indeed talking to the prez. But the next line she's all, just frakking with you! HA!
But getting to Helo and the 8, that was a pretty awesome scene. The rapport when you see them talking, you almost forget that that's not actually Athena he's talking to. Only it kinda is, because that 8 accessed Athena's memories from when she last downloaded. So I guess we have confirmation that other Cylon models have access to the memories of other members of their line. But how creepy is that! Its like his wife, only not! But as I said, they sneak off to the hub, make off with the 3, and then get into a tiff when Helo says he's ordered to take D'anna to see the Prez alone. So she's hurt and embarrassed. I wonder if we'll see more of Athena 2, as that's sure to cause some issues when they return to the fleet.
As for the actual strike against the hub, the plan was to have heavy raiders piloted by 6s and 8s looking all hot in flight suits towing turned off vipers so the Cylons wouldn't detect them until it was too late. The human pilots don't like this, since they're at the whim of the cylons. But I guess this is a good reason for Athena-2, since she's able to make a speech to foster some trust between the human and cylon pilots.
The attack is of course successful. And when did they turn mad cute little Seelix into a raving cylon hater? All she seems to say lately is "Frakkin' cylons!" and acting all distrustful of them or those she thinks are Cylons, like Starbuck. I guess she was a prominent member of the Resistance and part of the Circle. We see how Pike ended up how he did, panicking during the battle and taking fire before jumping out even though it was too far to reach the fleet. (Wait, why did Rosalin leave her book on the ship, other than to make things all mysterious last ep?)
Speaking of, is it really that hard to keep up with the minor characters?! Like reading various forums, people erroneously though the person who jumped out was Redwing, and wondering what the significance of him jumping out was all about, not realizing that scene was just showing how Pike and the Raptor got back to the fleet. Others thought during the conversation between Pike and Seelix that he was Hardball. Seelix is Hardball. It even says it in big letters under her cockpit. ojv('Man, its obvious!') I can understand forgetting a one shot character, but shows like BSG, or Buffy, or Veronica Mars, is it really that hard to remember secondary characters, even if they show up a lot?!
A pretty cool ep of Doctor Who. He gets a cute-ass daughter via a cloning machine. I liked the father-daughter rapport they built up, and it was totally sad when she took a bullet for her pops. It especially sucked for the Doctor, who we finally get confirmation had a family (I think people were never sure if his "granddaughter" in the old series was an actual granddaughter or if it was just an honorific). So, he was hesitant to get close with Jenny, because she reminded him of the family he lost. He finally lets her in, only to have her taken away! Which brings me to one of the things I like, nay, respect, about the Doctor. No matter what happens, he sticks to his convictions. He's so willing to die to uphold them, to protect life, even if the particular people he's protecting don't seem to deserve it. Even after the guy killed Jenny, he wasn't going to straight up execute the guy. Instead, he tries to put a positive spin on such a tragedy by using it to convince the people to make a better society for themselves.
(BTW, I'm amused how quickly he and Jenny built up that rapport, I guess it mirrors the fact that the "generations long" war between the humans and that hath only took place over a week.)
Heh, too bad he didn't stay a little longer, because then he would have known his daughter came back to life. I hope they run into each other again, she would make a cool companion. The Doctor is such a tragic hero, soldiering on despite all the horrors he's seen, the losses he experienced. He has really good friends, but again for someone like him, their companionship is but a fleeting moment in relation to his incredible life span. So he needs someone like her, who might be as long lived, who'll provide some respite against the loneliness and loss he constantly feels, even though he tries not to show it.
Owel, having Martha in the ep was pretty weird, because its not like she did a whole lot. Yeah, she was with the Hath, but honestly, they didn't really need her in the ep. Not that I don't like her, its just if I were her, I'd be all, "I'm being brought back for this?" I guess its a paycheck. And I guess they're trying to keep her out there in people's mind, because I hear she's going to be a regular on the next season of Torchwood.
Finally finished the character section of 4th edition. I still feel weird about wizards. I guess their at will powers are decent attacks, but like I said I find it lame they can only use a lot of the classic spells only once per encounter or once per day. I guess more than a few of the spells you get each level are just upgraded versions of lower level spells. So you can still drop some of the same attack effects multiple times in a battle or day, just with varying degrees of potency. Though there's only one wall of fire, one wall of ice, one wall of force, etc. It seems kinda dumb you can only do wall of fire but once in a fight. I mean, in an enclosed area, being able to put up one wall is fine, but in more open battles, that makes the wall spells lose some of their potency. I guess you can mix walls (if you happen to have them "memorized") but that's so asymmetrical!
Ida know, I guess in previous games, wizards could drop all sorts of powerful spells like multiple fireballs or lightning bolts or what have you, because at times, those are the only useful things they could do in a battle. So once those were used up, they were left with some lame 1st or 2nd levels that pester the enemy but don't really do anything more than provide a minor annoyance. In 4th edition though, they can't rain as much death per battle as they used to, but they always have combat effective spells to do. I guess they're the class that plays most differently between editions.
The game is definitely more tactical though, again since I think they're trying to emulate mmorpgs (ND brought up an interesting theory that they're trying to have consistency between the tabletop game and D&D online). Placement on the battlemap is more important for a lot of the powers and in particular the warlord class. I mean, a lot of the attack powers the other classes get are useful in general, but work better if used in tactically sound ways, which means knowing where everyone exactly is in the map. Like wizards, since as I said they get to do their more powerful spells less, they have to be more judicious in their use. Fighters, in the defender role, are meant to hold aggro to protect the other party members. They accomplish this by marking certain enemies, meaning those enemies get minuses to their attacks if they attack someone other than the fighter who marked them, and even worse at times they can actually automagically take damage or get subjected to immediate free attacks by the defender who marked them. You don't have to exactly know where everyone is in this case, but its still more efficient, since the defender should strive to be in a position to get the most opponents focuses on him as well as being in range to retort against those they've marked when the enemy tries to attack the defender's allies.
But the warlord class especially is important. The cleric as a leader is somewhat similar to his incarnation in the previous editions, providing buffs and healing to his allies. But those bonuses come from a divine power. The warlord is a tactician, and a lot of the benefits he provides are more mundane. His powers allow allies to move around the battle without provoking attacks of opportunity (in this edition, characters aren't as limited in the number of attacks of opportunity they can make) as well as getting his allies to focus their attacks on certain enemies. Knowing where your allies are and where your enemies are is important to make the best tactical decisions.
Having read all the classes now, as I said in a previous post, the warlock is an interesting addition. The warlord is okay, but only makes sense as a class in the context of this system's mechanics. I'm disappointed at the loss of the barbarian and monk, because I always thought they were cool options to play, but in this new leader-defender-controller-striker mechanic, they would be redundant. I mean, there's already redundancy in the classes- you already have multiple classes in each role, and some of the classes can perform multiple roles. But barbarians would be just another defender class, though the rage might not fit with that dynamic, and monks have always been to me a kinda fighter-rogue hybrid in terms of their abilities and skills, and would just be another striker, which already has the warlock, ranger and rogue in that role.
Of the classes though, I think rangers and rogues are still by far my favorite, even more so in 4th edition. They axed the useless spells Rangers got for more combat effective powers, particularly cool two weapon maneuvers and archery tricks. And the power options available for rogues let you build some pretty lethal assassin types. The new rogue in particular fits the type of character I feel best playing- someone good at sneaking around and pretty good at attacking, though not necessarily able to stick it out toe to toe in an extended battle. But that's what the other fighter types are for. They mix it up so I can get in and make sure the foes get offed. Not having to worry about being bothered with other concerns I can guarantee a particular enemy gets taken down.
