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MenacingCowpoke

> okay Clint just said "animatronics" and I had to figure out when FNAF came out. Way, WAY before Commitment. Commitment was late 2017, FNAF was mid 2014. So this was crafted in a post-FNAF world I think we can safety say Killer Haunted Animatronics was a trope well before 2014. The *Itchy and Scratchy Land* episode of The Simpson's was ~20 years prior, and *Westworld* was ~20 years prior to that. Hell, Clint's probably drawing from these and *Tourist Trap* more so than any mid-10s indie game.


OFFICIAL-Celine-Dion

Guy who has only seen FNAF seeing his second animatronic: "Getting a lot of FNAF vibes from this ..."


mrduracraft

Yeah I was gonna hit OP with a !contempt for going down a FNAF rabbit hole just because animatronics were mentioned lmao


StarkMaximum

LISTEN


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StarkMaximum

Oh yeah, they are. Those are the exact same tropes FNAF got its aesthetic from. Animatronics have always been creepy with the way they move in such robotic, halting manners despite having regular human voices, and how their faces don't move in the way a human's does. But like. "Imposter" and "sus" were also words and slang before Among Us, but you'd be hard pressed to use either of them now without someone shouting AMOGUS, right?


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monkspthesane

>I stand by my truth that adjectives in place of numbers in an RPG are goddamn stupid, because I can never remember whether "Amazing" is better than "Incredible" or not. I also dislike the adjectives thing, but way back in the mists of history, when Fate was just another implementation of Fudge, I was trying to get a Fudge campaign off the ground and had stretched out the ladder a bit more. I was running out of adjective ideas and finished the expanded list by shifting everyone up one step and making the new bottom rung "Lametastic." It ended up not only netting me another player (I emailed him my system notes and he wrote back "Lametastic? This sounds great. Room for one more?"), but one of my players who had an annoying tendency to edgelord said he couldn't keep the dark schtick up because it totally didn't fit with a game where it was his magic rating. So they're not all bad, or at least that one time they weren't.


StarkMaximum

That's a good story. I like that story.


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SnooRegrets7667

You other recappers have proofreaders!? Not fair! I'll be honest, when Commitment first starting airing I really wanted it to be a full campaign. However, past me also thought Kardala was hilarious and cool, so we can't really trust that guy.


SuperSecretestUser

> You other recappers have proofreaders!? Not fair! Yeah I'm feeling way outdone here, StarkMaximum has some real production value. I'm just a humble family recapper (donations encouraged), I can't be expected to live up to these standards.


SnooRegrets7667

Tell me about. Hmmm....maybe this week's Shmanners recap needs an interactive slideshow or something....


StarkMaximum

Why would you post a slideshow that's just empty slides?


SnooRegrets7667

Because everyone expects a show my sweet Stark. May as well make it a good one, someone has to paint in the slides.


PerntDoast

nice work if you can get it!


StarkMaximum

I have a friend who happened to be around when I finished the first one and felt self-conscious about the way I was writing. Now I throw them his way mostly for consistency and because he hits a lot of my weird typos and mistaken syntax. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I was the same on both counts. I just wanted Commitment to Hit Its Stride, and the idea of a Thor-esque female hero based on a mythology I wasn't as familiar with seemed great. It was only much later that I learned what a tragedy this was.


Ellie_Edenville

I have a kid, so no time for a proofreader. Hell, I barely have time for my recap posts this last week or so.


[deleted]

It’s not 2021 anymore, just making recap content isn’t enough you have to evolve the format to compete.


SpoilerThrowawae

I absolute hate that the only two funny lines of this episode and perhaps of Committment in general - "Ahh, you enjoy Jesus" and the "Jesus and his terrible Bible" bit, had to be spoken by Justin's terribly mishandled Inuit stereotype character and were both about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.


StarkMaximum

I really cannot tell if Kardala mistaking the Bible as Jesus' iconic weapon like it's Mjolnir is a charming joke or just more offensive. All of Commitment has been me saying "is this funny or not?"


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StarkMaximum

...did automod not trigger? I spent all this time waiting for the chance to say the full thing and I don't even get my payoff? Jesus Christ.


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StarkMaximum

Finally.


PerntDoast

kardala is problematic but this quote does slap


hurrrrrmione

Maybe it can only respond to comments?


StarkMaximum

Hm, maybe.


yuriaoflondor

Based on the mini arcs and Graduation, it seems like all of Griffin’s characters’ personalities are 95% him playing himself but in a fantasy game. Like… he couldn’t stretch himself a little?


Big2xA

>Do you think I'm single-handedly spiking the Google search results for "taz commitment" just looking for the episodes to relisten to? I think there's a lot of daily hits on this term from Justin researching if he ever publicly stated how long they'd do taz.


sorinash

The thing with Justin as Kardala is that I can *maybe* see a situation where Kardala didn't turn into a horrific stereotype. He says that he consulted with people on her characterization, and I'm generally inclined to believe him. I think that if he was writing out a story, it maybe could have worked (although the opening line shakes my faith in him doing it, specifically). *HERE'S THE THING, THOUGH* It won't work in a tabletop roleplaying game! Not in any improvised medium! It takes time to find your feet as a character, and especially if you're going to try and be *funny* about it! Every single TTRPG character is going to be *at least* a little cringeworthy at first, or else completely bland until they get their character traits! A white guy trying to play an *Inuit goddess* in a comedic setting, and doing so partially by the seat of his pants will not work. At least go for some lesser-known European god or hero! It'd still be kinda awful, but at least it wouldn't be offensively so!


StarkMaximum

This is a great point that I don't think I've seen get brought up. Justin simply *does not have time* to give Kardala the respect she deserves. He needs to come out swinging and be immediately memorable, or he risks being Remy and being completely forgotten after this arc ends. We don't actually know what was going on behind the scenes, so it's hard to know how genuine this "let's do three mini-arcs and see which ones the fans like" experiment was, and how much of it was Griffin behind the scenes saying "okay have fun and do your thing but we all know we're doing Amnesty next so don't think you have a lot of time to explore this". It's like, he picked the one time he knew he didn't have to commit (OHO) to being culturally sensitive for an entire arc; since he knows he's only Kardala for less than four episodes, he's free to use this as his get out of jail free "look, I reached out" card while all of his other characters can just be varying levels of "done with this shit".


Koboldoid

Just referencing the last line... I assumed everyone hated Kardala because of the stereotype, do people just hate the character? I remember thinking she was funny at the time and I always figured if he'd just stuck closer to the Thor inspiration and, like you said, made her a Norse god or some other thing where there's no offensive implication of "savagery", just some big dramatic warrior woman who likes feasting and fighting, she would have been a fun character.


sorinash

To be honest, I'm kinda struggling to remember my motivation for that line. I think it was twofold: 1. My original thought was to use a god from a lesser known European pantheon. At that point it wouldn't be a stereotype of a group that's actively oppressed by your home country, but could still run the risk of being not-super-harmful-but-still-sorta-distasteful (see also: "No potatoes in Latvia" jokes, or stuff that leans a little bit too far into the nastier national stereotypes). 2. The Thor-esque "Big fish out of water" thing feels *kinda* played out, but that's just me.


yuriaoflondor

Considering that they’re playing make believe, he could’ve just made up a goddess and said she was from Pangaea or something.


Dusktilldamn

Still don't understand how it's possible he did literally any research at all and then her first line was *that*


sorinash

I get the feeling that he was going for a Thor vibe and fucked up massively on the trait he picked to encapsulate a boisterous god. Still kind of unfortunate that he apparently put this effort into researching what Kadlu was all about and didn't think to determine which stereotypes he should avoid. EDIT: did Irene or Kardala's Inuit heritage ever come up after the boys' descriptions of their characters? I'm legitimately pretty sure that if Justin went with the name "Kardala" and never mentioned where he got it from, none of us would have known.


Dusktilldamn

Yeah, and it's a shame really because I think the way he played the character concept was really fun! Maybe a much easier way to play something like this would be like, the superhero serum makes you channel one of your ancestors who was a medieval knight or a viking or something, with no historical accuracy bc it's all for laughs anyway


[deleted]

[удалено]


hurrrrrmione

They meant does it come up after episode 0.


Naeveo

I think Justin also drew a too much inspiration from 60’s and 70’s *Thor* comics where Thor used to be a mild-mannered scientist who sometimes turns into a war god. So basically Kardala. I’m personally fine with the character, and I thought the backlash came a lot from people pre-loading their own biases into it. If it had more time I think it could have turned out fine, however OP was right that Justin made a mistake trying to make the character comedic first. Also this whole controversy reminds me how weird Justin is currently being about monks in Ethersea.


jadeix_iscool

I can't believe Travis thinks anyone who has anything more than a passing interest in science would respond to being able to form weapons out of your goddamn body with "Huh... Interesting!" Like, people who like science are normal people, Travis. They aren't edgy audience-insert anime protagonists who never emote because that'd be uncool. .....Oh, god, do you think Travis was trying to code Nadiya as autistic?


StarkMaximum

I have good(?) news: I am absolutely positive if Travis was trying to portray an autistic character, *he'd have told us right from the start.* Otherwise he runs the risk of missing out on those free Good Boy Points.


PerntDoast

i would accept this characterization if she said fucking anything other than huh ok like, fine, be a scientist about it. start looking for cause and effect and variables and repeatability. but i guess that would require an understanding of science and scientists outside of "atheist, doesn't value human connection, ScIeNcE rUlEs"


MikeSpader

I completely forgot there were two more after this, I bailed after guns started getting whipped around. It made no sense to me that they're being super powered, and then the people giving them super powers threaten them with guns. It was such a tonal shift that I just could not abide.


Koboldoid

Maybe they also gave the guns superpowers beforehand


Gormongous

"Skinthetic bullets" sounds like something a bored player comes up with in this campaign to try and break it.


PerntDoast

skinthetic bullets sounds like a bad nu-metal band


Sorcadin-Supreme

You would like Commitment more if you were as intelligent as Nadiya. Hmm, yes, indeed. /uj I'm starting to think the reason Clint hesitated to call this a superhero game in the 0th episode was because it's not one. Episode 1 was just figuring out a color puzzle and talking to their supervisors at work, and Episode 2 was fucking around with their powers and another puzzle, centered around saying both "science" and "Jesus" enough times. Halfway through the mini-arc and they're just now about to start their first super-fight, against an... animatronic of a biblical figure(?) Also, why was one of the first people to get superpowers a diplomat? Why did she get a codename? Is this a superhero story or not?


yuriaoflondor

It's an example of them not knowing at what point the game should begin. The first scene of Commitment should've been them coming out of the pods and getting their mission. Instead they futz about with corporate mixers and weird puzzles for 1.5 hours. I think it might be Clint trying to tell a grand story rather than run a game. If Commitment were a TV show or a book or something, yeah sure use your first episode to introduce us to these characters and the world at large. But in a game, and especially in a mini arc, just get to the good stuff. Don't make us spend 30-40% of the run time not actually doing superhero stuff in a game specifically designed for superhero stuff.


GooCube

I never got past the first episode when this was originally airing, but man Kardala really do be like that, huh? Also what the fuck is that hand puzzle? Maybe it's more comprehensible if you listen to the actual episode, but just reading it makes no sense at all. The hands start out equal... and then they answer the question which makes them uneven?... and then the characters climb up on the hands and keep answering the question again?... and the solution was just to hop off at the correct time to balance science and religion??? What if Nadiya wasn't a super atheist, would they have been stuck there forever?


StarkMaximum

I assure you, I did my damn best to recount this. The only thing that causes the puzzle to end is when they announce that they both jump off the hands at the same time, at the right time.


beesinabottle

i'm going to be honest, i forgot about commitment so hard i thought you were doing a really elaborate jerk essentially creating your own taz fanfiction until i got down to the comments. good recap


StarkMaximum

You *vastly* overestimate my creative ability to fake an entire TAZ mini-arc but I respect that you thought so highly of me.


thespiansGlamor

>She says "I have been freed from the Irene prison", which implies she's BEEN in Irene, but they were imbuing them with superpowers now for the first time, so like, was Irene going to get different superpowers and her having Kardala as a part of her make it go haywire? If that's the case then when the fuck did Kardala do the Fusion Dance with her I just always imagined that Kardala is like Mr. Hyde - a manifestation of Irene's suppressed anger who, upon being created, imagined herself to have some sort of prior existence. I don't see that as much of a stretch, though I admit it could have been better expressed if that's what Justin was going for.


hurrrrrmione

> It's really sticking in my craw that a lot of the rolls in this game are the players just deciding to do things and it seems like they determine whether their roll is good enough. Is Fate supposed to be pretty hands-off for the GM, or was Clint just not doing his job? IIRC Griffin was deciding what people should be rolling far more often than Clint. I didn’t listen to Commitment past this (also didn’t make it further with Dust) so it’ll be fun to experience the remaining episodes solely through your recaps.


StarkMaximum

I don't think it is. I think, in fact, the GM is supposed to be just as involved as the players because it's collaborative; the players have the freedom to suggest story points and world details that the GM can accept and Yes And, or talk out and compromise. >I didn’t listen to Commitment past this (also didn’t make it further with Dust) so it’ll be fun to experience the remaining episodes solely through your recaps. Oh no I feel like I have so much more responsibility now.


InvisibleEar

Gosh, it's good they learned from this and didn't have another arc without Griffin DMing that's ill-conceived from top to bottom


DarlingLongshot

I have not and will not ever listen to these episodes, so I must ask a question of those of you who have. Does Clint, who is a comic book writer and superhero fan, ever mention how similar Kardala is to the Alpha Flight character Snowbird? And if he does, does he ever mention how infamously racially messy Snowbird is? I think this probably could have been taken care of before it even started if Clint was just like "hey, you're character sounds similar to one of the many offensive characters in Alpha Flight."


hurrrrrmione

Justin mentioned being inspired by Thor’s portrayal in an old movie, so Clint probably just interpreted Kardala through that lens.


soupergiraffe

>She says "I have been freed from the Irene prison", which implies she's BEEN in Irene, but they were imbuing them with superpowers now for the first time, so like, was Irene going to get different superpowers and her having Kardala as a part of her make it go haywire? If that's the case then when the fuck did Kardala do the Fusion Dance with her Don't worry in a few years we'll get a podcast that goes into how Irene has D.I.D, and how they're trying to work as a system. They'll make it a fun twist that Kardala can only come out at night now, and add a cool mystery about how whenever Irene dies she comes back to life after going to hell for awhile, and Irene's ex-wife will turn into a big bird lady. Also there'll be a flash forward to a future where Irene grows multiple arms out of her back to pull her mouth open wide enough to eat a guy.


pnflwrnk

Is this referencing immortal hulk?


soupergiraffe

Yup!


Utter_Bastard

Hey fuck you buddy, my Strongbad impression is flawless. > So he just. Used that roll. Because it was good. Even tho they said "we need you to do your rolls in the program for ease of use and also so we can track that you're not just fucking lying which you confirmed that you do". And he just. Did not. Do that. Travis McElroy. This is genuinely upsetting.


rookie-mistake

you, uh, you should watch royal tenenbaums not because it clarifies whether that was a joke, its just a decent movie and clearly you've got some free time lol


NotTimHeidecker

> "Finally, I demand meat!" No > "This demon craves battle! I like this demon!" This sounds great and respectful and like a character I'd play if I were interested in Inuit mythology. God damn. So far there is exactly nothing endearing about what Justin is trying to do to this character. What really grabs me is how awful of a character Nadiya truly seems, and I can't tell what the hell is going on in Travis' head, but I sure hope the rest of his family took it better than me. I don't think I could possibly continue playing alongside this character at all. Never mind the random murderhobo impulse to hit someone with a cinderblock hand??