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PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
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izzy's playlists!
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@goodcastlegazette
Karna didn’t check if that was the heir, if he was in any way a vegetable. I’m not sure she cares, just what it’ll get her. Karna likes Amangeaux. With Tomaté there is no hesitation. These are her “friends” she’s trading away but they’re just pieces on the chess board. Karna is a person but no she’s the spymaster, and she, like everyone, is eventually
waste.
!!!!!
For anyone wondering, the PhD student's name is Myra Cheng.
Here's a link to an article about the study from the Stanford Report: link.
Across three preregistered studies, participants interacting with sycophantic AI became more convinced of their own rightness and less willing to repair relationships. Yet at the same time, participants rated sycophantic AI models as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more desirable for future use, which may explain why this behavior has persisted despite its harmful impacts.
Myra Cheng et al. "Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence." Science 391, eaec8352 (2026).
Perhaps I’m being dramatic, but it almost feels as though the original phrasing (that I see being reflected quite heavily in the comments) focuses on Cheng’s inspiration from AI-generated breakup texts. The article goes much further than that; Cheng and her team clearly spent time acquiring data and then processing it to tell the story of how AI-dependence is fundamentally shifting how people interact with others. This change in human interactions didn’t happen overnight. We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how we interact with other people and a simultaneous diminishing of how long people will spend on any given task. Focusing in on the more click-worthy problem of breakup texts overlooks the underlying issue that, after being discovered, can actually influence policy change as Cheng discusses
You know how wealthy people turn into stupid arseholes by surrounding themselves with vapid yes-men? ChatGPT is vapid yes-men on tap. Now you, too, can subject yourself to the phenomenon that we've all long known turns people into giant toddlers who are impossible to deal with.
fantasy stories love to begin with the world's most razeable peaceful little farming village having a big grand festival
been re-listening to the adventure zone lalala. stretching my character design muscles with some npcs
Occtis and Thaisha openly saying “I love you” to each other before separating went exactly how I imagined IM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM!!!!!
seems believable enough
I put all the doodles together!
I also added some details I forgot 🙃
CRITICAL ROLE CAMPAIGN 4 EPISODE 31 SPOILERS!!
We saw with Vaelus and Thimble that Brennan really rewards big swings (seriously, Thimble now has no weak stats, she’s an astonishing powerhouse, and that’s because she did something that Brennan repeatedly pointed out could get her killed).
The flip side of that is I think Brennan also penalizes, or inflicts consequences from, not addressing visible problems, even if doing so would involve a lot of risk. Last episode Bolaire nearly died becayse he hadn’t addressed Termina and the box earlier (amd because he had some poor persuasion rolls, but the DC was high to begin with). But what really made this hit me was everything with Hannan. Julien and Occtis were in his vicinity for several rounds, they knew he was on their side, he was looking for Mara, Occtis had Mara, and they never took a shot at communicating with him. It would have been risky! (And Occtis has good reason not to prioritize it given how the druids reacted to him on their first meeting!) There wasn’t an obvious way to do it without revealing themselves to the Tachonis! But people have tried a lot of wild stuff in Brennan’s games and sometimes it works, and he’ll generally give something creative but risky an honest shot.
It was a terribly irony that Hannan was going after the Tachonis for something that had already been achieved.
And maybe it also didn’t look like worth trying to contact him because he was doing something incredibly valuable to the group dud to thinking Mara was in there. And maybe from the way Trimus reacted to him it didn’t seem like he’d be in a lot of danger.
But in the end, an incredibly powerful ally – we didn’t realize how powerful until this very scene – is dead because Julien and Occtis didn’t find a way to indicate to him what was up.
(Vaelus is not going to be happy they let her new boyfriend get killed. Or maybe she’ll just be unhappy with herself regarding the flow of information given that he left pretty upset with her. I’m only about two and a half hours into the episode.)
On an additional note, the scene with Trimus really got across how much social power/position the druids have, that she just stood there and let Hannan undermine her family’s power. And that, and everyone’s reaction to Primus killing him, made it very clear that Primus is cracking. He was able to keep control of himself among his peers just long enough to get home, but from here on out he’s in a death spiral. He could do a lot of damage on the way down, but the party are a long way towards winning the fight against this particular enemy; the Tachonis retain magical power, but less than they had, and their authority/social power has severely degraded and at this rate will continue to degrade. (Come to think of it, I’m not 100% sure Petra and Ryah won’t try to take Primus out if he continues in this vein.)
tfw you accidentally saved the soul of your greatest enemy who is now inside your shadow all because you spit on his corpse that one time
I just can’t get out of my head the fact that julien said if teor dies, it is a soldier’s death, and if thimble dies trying to save him, it’s an example of why the falconer’s rebellion failed
because I think julien is always trying to make the tactical choice. when he’s trying to get occtis to leave, he’s not giving emotional reassurance; he’s telling him the tactical reasons behind why they need to get out when they can. he’s not just being heartless or callous, he’s trying to make the best strategic call. he’ll put himself at risk, but not when it jeopardizes the task at hand.
and why is that? well, as we saw in the flashback, raimond taught him how to do whatever necessary to achieve victory, whether people liked it or not. ‘you will be a booed and living man.’ I think julien has internalized that lesson to an almost damaging degree, and he’s divorced himself enough from any emotion but anger that he can’t really fathom making a choice based solely on feelings. especially not when those feelings put the strategic play in jeopardy.
but at the same time, he so frequently FAILS to make the tactical choice he knows he should. he tries to deny being driven by emotion, because in his mind, that’s why the rebellion failed: acting on emotion, not strategy. but he keeps going back for people. he keeps putting himself in harm’s way when he could run and accomplish his own objectives. he keeps sticking to occtis and the others and he can’t explain why, so he tries to couch it in tactical terms and deny caring.
he’s just such a complex little ball of fucked-up-ness I want to put him in a jar and shake him
So I'm solidly shifting my thoughts on Thjazi think the thing tripping me (and a lot of people) up with Thjazi is no longer "was Thjazi a good person", because as we've met him, it's become too vague. I think the better question has become "does a person doing great work on a macro scale excuse the harm they cause on an interpersonal level?"
The work Thjazi did was and is, objectively, a good thing. This ritual is a net positive that has changed the face of Araman. That is unquestionable. And therefore the pro-Thjazi side of the table are incredibly defensive whenever anyone doubts him, and they have good reason for that defensiveness.
Thjazi also stole an artifact from the Sisters of Sylandri, a religious and cultural group that he was not a part of, with no explanation or compensation, for use in a ritual that they were not consulted on. Mara excuses this with "well the stone of nightsong is serving a better purpose, now," but that doesn't change the fact that they decided of all the fey artifacts, this was the one they wanted/needed to use, and the keepers of this artifact didn't need to be consulted.
In keeping people out of the loop for their own safety or for the safety of his plan, he wound up involving Azune and Murray in a plot much larger than them that could easily ruin their lives or get them killed. While his intentions in this are logical and not malicious, the fact that he decided their level of knowledge and involvement in his plans means that they weren't able to make an informed decision about what they wanted to take part in, and couldn't offer aid that may have made these plans go better.
And, while Thjazi was trying to break the control of the sundered houses and free the afterlife, he used Bolaire as an object, seemingly thinking him as inherently less-than the people he was championing for. And this, I think, is the space where interpersonal callousness leaks into the macro scale, because in viewing Bolaire as an object, he then assumed that the other Panto masks could be similarly regarded. He took yet another artifact that didn't belong to him because he needed it for something important, and now it's attached itself to the Lady Cormoray and is going to cause immeasurable hurt.
The good things he's done cannot be questioned. He is not a secret villain, he was not duped or in line with the Sundered Houses, the work he set out to do was important and necessary.
Interpersonally, he was callous, at times cruel, and from what we can see of the flashbacks, rarely slowed to consider whether or not he could be in the wrong, or if what he was asking of his friends and family was too steep.
Both of these facts exist at the same time.
So which is more important?
#this needs some closeup examination in coming arcs #you can almost see the spectrum if you line up certain characters #a sliding scale of Person Who Matters -> Asset to Be Used #Hal and Thaisha and the family are at one end #followed by Thimble and the Cloak #followed by Azune and Murray #followed by Bolaire #followed by Pure Collateral (whoever he's robbing/Sisters of Sylandri) #there are some fresh PC focal points who could throw the whole thing into sharp relief #Occtis taking a moment to highlight that Vaelus didn't consider what would happen to him when the Stone cracked before she acted #Wicander struggling with taking his first life while being threatened by Primus Tachonis (currently on a raging killing spree) #the 'I kill or I die' duress dilemma #situations that hover in the 'I had to make a quick messy choice or risk terrible consequences!' #versus Thjazi's years and years absolving himself of concern for personal collateral damage because of the Bigger Picture's importance #the Greater Good matters! obviously! but to get there he's burning as many bridges as he's trying to build (tags by see-arcane)
So I'm solidly shifting my thoughts on Thjazi think the thing tripping me (and a lot of people) up with Thjazi is no longer "was Thjazi a good person", because as we've met him, it's become too vague. I think the better question has become "does a person doing great work on a macro scale excuse the harm they cause on an interpersonal level?"
The work Thjazi did was and is, objectively, a good thing. This ritual is a net positive that has changed the face of Araman. That is unquestionable. And therefore the pro-Thjazi side of the table are incredibly defensive whenever anyone doubts him, and they have good reason for that defensiveness.
Thjazi also stole an artifact from the Sisters of Sylandri, a religious and cultural group that he was not a part of, with no explanation or compensation, for use in a ritual that they were not consulted on. Mara excuses this with "well the stone of nightsong is serving a better purpose, now," but that doesn't change the fact that they decided of all the fey artifacts, this was the one they wanted/needed to use, and the keepers of this artifact didn't need to be consulted.
In keeping people out of the loop for their own safety or for the safety of his plan, he wound up involving Azune and Murray in a plot much larger than them that could easily ruin their lives or get them killed. While his intentions in this are logical and not malicious, the fact that he decided their level of knowledge and involvement in his plans means that they weren't able to make an informed decision about what they wanted to take part in, and couldn't offer aid that may have made these plans go better.
And, while Thjazi was trying to break the control of the sundered houses and free the afterlife, he used Bolaire as an object, seemingly thinking him as inherently less-than the people he was championing for. And this, I think, is the space where interpersonal callousness leaks into the macro scale, because in viewing Bolaire as an object, he then assumed that the other Panto masks could be similarly regarded. He took yet another artifact that didn't belong to him because he needed it for something important, and now it's attached itself to the Lady Cormoray and is going to cause immeasurable hurt.
The good things he's done cannot be questioned. He is not a secret villain, he was not duped or in line with the Sundered Houses, the work he set out to do was important and necessary.
Interpersonally, he was callous, at times cruel, and from what we can see of the flashbacks, rarely slowed to consider whether or not he could be in the wrong, or if what he was asking of his friends and family was too steep.
Both of these facts exist at the same time.
So which is more important?
There’s a thought I’ve been trying to compose since episode 30. There’s something really interesting to me how Teor’s death has been handled by both the characters and the narrative, which is that Azune seems largely forgotten as a member of the falconer’s rebellion. And maybe this has to do with them being at the same table but all of the things about Teor being part of the torn banner, is directed towards thimble and kattigan. It’s just really interesting to me, l feel like maybe they don’t fully see him as part of the group? Add this to thimble living in the city for years and she has no idea even the area of the city he lives. Azune was placed in the city, placed in his job, even placed with his current friends somewhat, all at the behest of thajzi. He’s been doing the work for years, he doesn’t recognize himself sometimes. Every time they leave he desperately wants to go, but can’t. And now another person of the torn banner, of the revolution is on the list of names he’ll remember, that he can’t let go, and it seems most people forgot he knew him.
Ps. This is not towards the players, I think it’s fascinating character development.
On the long list of people who have it out for Primus, I would very much like to see his shit get rocked by the druids for what he did to Hannan. You're on Scyvah Lloy's shit list now, my dude. I mean, if he wasn't already then he just got bumped up.
(I know nana Scyvah is from a different circle of druids but please, I just want her to fuck up Primus lol)
And! They keep him alive, chained to a rock and have Mara the Wing fuck him up everyday. Prometheus style.
Julien: I don't care about your well-being! I just think your family still wants to use you as a spell component, and I don't want them to get that. (So I'll follow you back into that cursed house, carrying the gem meant to save my sister, in case my presence will tip the balance of getting you back out instead of just getting both of us killed, plus dooming my sister.)
Also Julien: Gives Occtis a comforting little back rub as he hustles him so stealthily through the back streets away from Obrimus Manor that they almost miss the Candescent Creed carriage with ye olde fantasy equivalent of those colored light-up rims and under-chassis glow and the headlights that sear your eyeballs with the power of 1000 suns.
And then tries to protect him from said carriage. In case the Halovars also want him as a spell component, you know.
Local GM spends multiple long sessions gleefully throwing extremely dangerous encounters and sadistic choices at his PCs. Suddenly has to deal with a different PC walking unaware into extreme danger following several abysmal rolls that might have averted the situation.
Not so fun when it's not in the plan, Brennan? 😂
tyranny sketch, a wip even?
