How are we feeling about Ascension so far?

[Droo]

So far her main superpower seems to be having Eric totally whipped.

But hey, both kids are now missing. No more Orson scenes hopefully for a while. Yay!

[leftshoe18]

Watching the recap videos causes such whiplash. Some scenes end as soon as they start. lol

So Toby's dead and the kids are missing. Interesting that both kids went missing at the same time. I'm still curious what our connection between the two stories is going to be.

[Droo]

I'm not convinced the two storylines are happening at the same time, but it could be.

Eric needs to leave his hectoring wife and run off with Krista. That gal is alright.

[Arsonist]

Eric needs to leave his hectoring wife and run off with Krista. That gal is alright.

"I love my wife." : Suffering
lol

[Droo]

Appropriate.

#KillRachel

[leftshoe18]

> I'm not convinced the two storylines are happening at the same time, but it could be.

Interesting. What makes you think they might not happening concurrently?

[Arsonist]

I am infinitely amused by the fact that two small children are missing for days, possibly dead, and their families just don't seem to give a fuck anymore. Karl and Eric are caught up in their blossoming romances, and Rachel is freaking out over her cult's politics. Harry would NEVER.
Astrid is the only one who (mostly) acts like a normal person, and amusingly, she's the one who everyone thinks is crazy. The story is sliding out of mediocracy, and into the "so bad, it's good" territory. I'm here for it.

[boblecon1096]

Just finished watching the 7th episode.

I have been watching this here and there, either through Twitch streamers or through Youtube uploads while doing house chores.

Overall, this is just boring. Saved only by the occasional cheap animation and awkward voice acting. There is no reason for a non-Silent Hill fan to waste their time with this.

Beside the occasional laugh, I must admit I am kinda eager to know how the Norway/PA stuff is connected (and how both are connected to SH altogether). Sometimes I amaze myself noticing inconsistencies and plot points disappearing even though I should be turning my brain off.

Gotta also love the idea of allowing users avatars to guest star in the show/game. Biggest highlight was when

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

Karl calls in a clinic to get Astrid commited and one of the nurses is an orange haired, pony tailed woman with a beard. There is no way I am going to believe that was supposed to be a non-binary character

[Arsonist]

So, uhhh... Things are certainly happening. I'd take some pride in calling it early that the Norwegian family is hated because of a mass shooting committed by what's her face, the weird girl only Karl sees. But I feel like it was telegraphed pretty hard and pretty early.
I mainly want to talk about Rachel's fucking eye. Is she not going to see a doctor? Like, ever? At least put some gauze over it, Jesus. I've played choice-based, story telling games before, I know how incredibly shallow they tend to be, but this is next level. A woman gauged out her fucking eye, can't they write in just one line of dialogue of people noticing her gaping, bleeding wound that she's been walking around with for days? A scene of her failhusband showing a crumb of concern would be nice. It's obvious that every option leads to her getting kicked out of her cult, so that doesn't really count.
Oh well, at least I'm having fun. Also, Karl continues being #1 dad. "Hey angel, I know you're suspected of killing your son and that everyone in this town hates us because your sister murdered a bunch of people. So how about I leave you this house full of your serial killer aunt's murder trophies? The one that works at the same hospital as you do? Yeah, that will help with your legal woes for sure. Sorry about having you committed for no reason by the way. And no, I will not say anything about your murder aunt to anyone, even though I sold you out for no reason while you were grieving your son. gtg, good luck"

Edit to avoid double posting:

Accurate summary of Xavier and Eric scenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df4M5PeUkUc

Even though my enjoyment of Ascension is mostly as a meme, I am enjoying it. It's not like there's nothing of substance there. I already praised the sets, monsters, music, and camerawork, but there are good things about the story too. They set up mysteries well, give a little crumb here and there, hopefully keep you engaged, and then there's the climax. It's a slow burn, and I genuinely appreciate that. And the characters themselves are becoming more fleshed out, despite the awkwardness of the format. There are good ideas in there, there is motion, there is setup, and (god forgive me) there is more subtlety and grace than there is in Short Message. But it needs A LOT of polish, and the whole episodic thing was a mistake. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like it would have done a lot better if the voting idea was dropped, and they released the whole story as a Telltale/Until Dawn-like experience. I find it sad how much engagement dropped off for this project. There are obviously a lot of talented, bold people who were and still are working on it. But it's not the fan's fault, terrible decisions were made. So bad in fact that I am genuinely shocked that they didn't see it coming.

[Droo]

For those who are still dropped out or haven't started it yet, the story has really picked up the last couple of weeks and the story scenes from the last two days in particular have been extremely well-received by the regulars in the community chat.

Ascension has gone, in my opinion, from a (to me) merely bemusing curiosity to an actually interesting story. I actually care far more about characters like Brit, Haugen, Rachel and Krista than several characters in Homecoming and Downpour.

[leftshoe18]

I fell behind as school and my kids' basketball season took up increasing portions of my time. Now that basketball is done, I can get caught up on this. Cool to hear that it's picking up!

[Arsonist]

Agreed. I actually enjoy coming up with theories and speculating about what's going to happen next. It's far from perfect, but it feels like there's momentum, and that the writers know where they're going with it.
Also, Rachel is the best girl and I'm rooting for her. Sure, it's all kind of cobbled together due to people choosing things at random, but there's an actual character arc forming in there. She starts off as simultaneously being controlled and controlling, only to slowly break away from the cult as they keep demanding more of her and grow more obvious in their manipulation tactics. Realizing that she put her faith (heh) in the wrong cause, she thus also comes to terms with the fact that she doesn't know everything, letting Eric go to be his own person. Maybe. It's there if you squint.

EDIT: Right now, I'm a bit disappointed with how the story is panning out, but I'll let them cook. There's gotta be something about that Zain (?) guy. It all boiling down to the not-Order summoning god through some randos pain is a bit of an anticlimax. Also, I feel like the devs pushed the scales on Rachel's choice. Suffering was in the lead for the whole week, followed by Damnation, only for Redemption to win by a landslide on the very day the episode airs. It's a bit fishy.

[leftshoe18]

Well it's all over on Wednesday. I still haven't had the opportunity to fully catch up, but I'm looking forward to watching the full thing soon.

[The Adversary]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to do the same. I haven't watched a single episode outside of the first one on Halloween. Far as I know the whole thing is available on Tubi TV or something so it can at least be watched on something other than a phone or laptop (which I really dislike).

[leftshoe18]

I watched the first six episodes on my TV using the YouTube app. They have a playlists for every recap episode and every individual scene available on the GenVid YouTube page.

[Arsonist]

So... That was it? I can't help but be a little disappointed. In my opinion it started out bad, then it got so bad that it was funny, then it picked up and became genuinely intriguing, and then it kind of fizzled out into nothing.
Honestly, committing to being a meme would probably be a better decision than resting in mediocrity. Shout out to Eric for having a train ran through him to stop the monsters, and to Karl for leaving a murder house to his daughter who was under police investigation at the time.
Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like my time was wasted. I had fun, and there are plenty of good things to be said about it. The monster design, the music, the ability to keep up the mysteries and tension up until the climax without (the majority of) them feeling like an ass-pull. Cinematography did its job too.
Overall it was a ballsy idea, and I give it props for that. The execution was very clunky, but I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of format takes off, and the Ascension ends up being remembered as something that was ahead of its time.

[NanayaShiki]

So it's over now? I haven't watched since the second episode or so, though it was really quite bad. But now that it's all done I may pick a day and just go through all of it. I put it mentally on the same level as the movies and comic books, so I'm not going to be as upset as some people out there if I don't think it's any good but... was probably a really bad idea to start this revival on this thing.

[Droo]

So it's over now? I haven't watched since the second episode or so, though it was really quite bad. But now that it's all done I may pick a day and just go through all of it. I put it mentally on the same level as the movies and comic books, so I'm not going to be as upset as some people out there if I don't think it's any good but... was probably a really bad idea to start this revival on this thing.

The story picked up quite a bit starting when the kids went missing. I'd actually go so far as to say it almost got truly great, but then the ending kind of fizzled out a bit, and there's some plot threads left dangling and character fates left unknown sadly.

The community that coalesced in the chat is great though, and helped make it a lot more fun than it otherwise would have been.