Fireside Chat for WWW ep33 "The Witness"

Weakly asking for help at the end is so fucken funny

What's funny is I think Alderaan's population was in the low hundreds of millions. In a society that nominally included *millions* of *planets*. So like, statistically no one else in the galaxy was closely related to anyone that died. But Alderaan *was* a founding planet in the Republic with popular leaders that were well known for speaking out against the Emperor. So in expanded canon, destroying Alderaan was actually huge politically and may have eventually doomed the Empire on its own. But Leia never so much as acknowledges her planet in the movies after that one scene.

Im on my first re-listen and I wanted to pop back over hear to comment on how unbelievably cool the music is! I could listen to the Coven of Elders theme 24/7! Magic is real and it exists in that music❤️

If we’re your patrons are y’all our warlocks? I have some quests for you if that’s the case. Don’t worry, u can take as many short rests as u want <3

On my second listen through. I know that the Ame and Suvi fight was good drama and acting, but I can’t help but feel like it’s unrealistic to expect that they remain good friends after a bust up like that while Suvi is having a panic attack. Kind of wish there had been some rolls in there to check insight

Brennen's incredible storytelling never ceases to surprise me. planning a hidden, substantially heavier vote behind the already pressing one our heroes come to the summit concerned with is just artfully done.

I thought the wizard dropping rubies was suvi’s dad😅

You are all so incredible.

Exhausted Suvi is my favoriteeee

I had literal chills during the ep when Souvie was identifying herself.

Erika interrupting to talk about Cross is the most loss for words I’ve heard Brennan lol

Okay I’m working my way through the last few episodes of this arc and tbh one thing that stands out to me is that I’m so mad by how BLIND AND NAIVE Suvi is about the Citadel. Like girl GET IT TOGETHER. It’s an INSTITUTION serving an EMPIRE 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Wild to know it was 7 away from preventing a world war 😂

Brennan: It's so funny, in another world where Ame is a Machiavellian strategist she could have played it like "Oh! Yes we all hate the citadel but..." Erika: Brennan! OMG there was a birb, and he had a little birb name, you love birbs Brennan, RIGHT? Haha funny lil guy, you must have been so happy to have a birb in this Entirely Different Scene??

warming my little tootsies by the fireside waiting patiently for the chapter 3 finale

I think this was said in this episode, but are we done with the arc and on break? Or is one coming this week?

Thanks for having me by the fireside, especially as I am on hour 9 of a 15 hour flight, I do feel so warmed by the crackle crackles

I always think about the fox's entire reason for joining the gang was for some chicken. Me too pal

Question for the next one - where did the members of the Covenant of Elders and their retinues stay when Wren hosted the Conclave? I'm imagining a small side door on the chicken coop suddenly appearing, leading to rustic (but palatial) lodgings that still smell faintly of farmyard...?

Hello friends I have a question - why is Hecate mad that the pilgrim under stars has infiltrated her retinue but then votes to join forces with him?

I am two minutes in, and Brennan has mentioned the Help! movie and I don’t even know how to express how much joy this brings me.

Maybe it's a reach because this podcast is on my mind 24/7, but I've been listening to JADE's "Angel Of My Dreams" (SlowAngelicDramatic Live Version) and am so reminded of Suvi's post-Identify sprial. The staging and arrangement of this performance compared to the original track has a frenetic somewhat dissociative pacing, similar to what the cast mentioned feeling during Brennan's Identify monologue. Jade has described this track as encapsulating the complex relationship artists have with the music industry, and the ways that dynamic can bend what feels real/unreal or true/false for both oneself + collaborators + the audience. Of course my mind draws lines between this interpretation and Wizardry in Umora☆~ A few lyrics sound even nearly verbatim Suvi: 'I will always love you and hate you, it's not fair. / It's so bittersweet. / I will always want you and need you, you don't care. / Love when you call me a star. / You let me down in the dark. ... They say I'm so lucky. / Better act like you're lucky, honey. ... I'm in heaven when you're lookin' at me.' Are there any other songs listeners by the Fireside have connected to recent character developments?

“Fun adventures in social anxiety” - yes please!!

Correct me if I'm wrong. The cast records the arc during camp, then records Fireside after listening to the final cut that we all hear, reacting within the zeitgeist we all share. That thought occurs to me upon every listen of these chats. And they never tease. Not one mention of what is coming down the pike. Class act, cast.

Taking bets on what freaky beast form Mirara took in the dungeon with Ame. Giant crawled serpent?? Centipede centaur?????

Oh my god. Listening to Brennan talk about the fight at 28:00 minutes, I realized why it felt so damn real: it's as the Wizard Song, Steven Sondheim, said: Old Friends. It's Merrily We Roll Along. It's Charley losing it on NBC. It's Mary losing it at Frank during the opening party. It's all the stuff you don't say.

We still haven’t gotten fattest ass of season 3 I personally think Gramore has the lead on everyone but Induri is tall but she is petite. Maybe Heinrule or The tree spirit could be baking but I NEED THIS ANSWERED

Thank you so much Brennan for proving me right in this dumb argument I got into with my friend in a bar

Correct me if I'm wrong: Out of all three, Suvi is the only one who grew up with siblings and she fights like it.

Also, Aabria says this was the reveal for Erika and Lou about the box. So they didn't hear the library scene either? Or when Suvi did identify on the music box and saw how it was made? I know the characters weren't there for those scenes, but I thought the players were.

Question: were they actually in the same place, and if so, why not in the same room?

what a gift to have a podcast where you’re just as excited for the bone cone in between the seasons as you are for the seasons!!!!

I would LOVE just those snippets of unedited scenes where Aabria sobbing while doing the scene.

I have a question : Aabria performance was incredible. I just can’t stop to admire the actor’s craft and her dedication to the story. I know that you are all friend and feel comfortable with each other, When you play such a big emotional scene, do you have to debrief afterwards or are you all so genuinely comfortable that you don’t feel there is a need to adresse the out of body experience that might be playing a character that feel so hurt and in pain ?

I think this is the third time I've heard Brennan get caught deep in the thralls of the quest for knowledge on something he was curious about 5 seconds ago

"... and uh... help" is so funny

Brennans point on you know when you have a good story when u can just stay, i had that first time recently! And it was so awesome! I love this game aaaaah!

I need a tA.Tu. nightcore AMV of Suvi, Ame, and Eursulon after The Witness

havent listened yet, here again as a Team Suvi member cuz why were her friends on her like that. like thinking about that breakdown scene is insane. there her true friends are yelling at her to let go of her home without giving her good, verifiable reason to do so directly after comforting her in a moment of crisis. rubbed me the wrong way.

After listening to the fireside, I just realized how insane it is that The Witness was my husband’s first contact with WBN. I usually listen on my commute, but this one played on the background while we were comfort gaming. Wild ride trying to explain what was happening and why lol

I really like the DC 25 decision for Hakea's vote. Its so cool to have an option where the world lets the Man in Black have to figure it out with just Mirara and the resources he currently has, sans Witches. Also its a good thing Ame cracked a 15 (im guessing), because winning Indri means that the crew doesnt have to navigate the war in constant fear of Indri's omni present star security cams that cover literally everywhere that's night time and outside in the whole world 24/7. It also means, Ame might be able to leverage some kind of help from Indri, depending on why she voted no. Indri's resources are vast, and she's also the only known link to the Antivalist wizards (besides Tefmet)

Oh fireside chat. Carry me through these times of strife (washing dishes)

The idea of "it's a DC25 to stop a war" got me thinking that maybe World War 1 was actually started when Gavrilo Princip rolled a nat 20 on a perception check & clocked the Archduke Franz Ferdinand through a window. These story rolls matter. I actually love that it was possible & didn't happen.

i’m too tired to elaborate on this thought very articulately, but y’all it makes so much sense that Ame’s reactions to things at WitchCon are so subdued. she is overwhelmed because she was deeply underprepared by Grandma Wren. i would also have a healthy respect for what witches consider acceptable when they hold court — see: Gramore straight up murdering a wizard with zero repercussions — and then promptly have a trauma response and dissociate for a week once i was a safe enough distance from the coven. hell, just knowing about retributive curses is enough to make me smile and nod alongside someone who makes my skin crawl. Ame is doing her utmost to fly under the radar while still politely voicing her opinions around her sisters in a way that manages not to step on their witchy toes. and considering how underprepared she was, i think she’s doing a pretty swell job of it. that’s why Erika doesn’t know why Ame is making the choices she is… Ame doesn’t know either. because Ame is terrified. witches are SCARY. plus, think about the difference in upbringing/training between Ame and Suvi. Ame was taught broad concepts of her station and what it represents, and vague opinions of her sisters in the coven through the lens of a woman who spent a lifetime being a mediator. Suvi was taught the intricacies and particulars of magic, consequences and detailed rules, who to report to and when. Ame’s not good at the things that would have made her more effective in this meeting because she never learned how. i wish she had recognized those strengths in Suvi and leaned on her friend for help 😔 anywayzzzz so excited/anxious for next week 🫡🩵

That DC 25 is going to hurt even more as things play out.

Brennan stated that they only blew up one planet and never brought it up again, when in fact they blew up 5 more planets and never brought it up again, again

on this planet, at this time, talking about soup for an hour sounds like the exact thing. I think I've finally pieced together what the ending music from the fireside evokes for me: some of the mini-game music from Spiritfarer. In the best, bittersweetest way.

If you’re reading this comment, it means you’re by the fire side. Hey bud, right on

AWW I HEARD WIZARD SUNNY! I hope they are doing well :)

Every episode, I think “Oh is this the season finale?” because each episode is so freaking monumental. Props to you all

real talk: does indri have games on her phone

needs more soup. what's everyone's favorite soup? the players, the characters, the taylor? would talk about soup for an hour with any of you

Thank you for the muffin advice gang, you've changed my life🙏

So Erika's only response to Ame's lie was wondering why Ame did that when "I could have said *anything* else!" Wow, even Erika has no idea why Ame did that.

I was less shocked by the fact that DC 25 would have gotten Indri and Hakea, and more shocked that Indri was the lower DC of the 2 (was there are roll so bad that Indri would say yes?), and that they barely even mentioned Indri in the fireside chat. Was Indri trying to repay her debt? Does she find a use in the lenses? Is Ame more convincing than Wren in getting her to not fight the Citadel?

I get to this strange place where I find myself siding with Suvi more and more and wonder if this is conservative middle age creeping up on me :-)

Really expected Ame to achieve unanimity by proposing a vote to put the resources of the coven towards a verifiable end to the subjugation of great spirits, and for that to maybe backfire due to the difficulty of verification

Such good stuff. And absolutely I felt for Mirara! Her throwing the mug was so emotional. She is the steward of the domain of isolation, of the WANING moon, of things always already ending. And she stole the mug -- we don't know why... but now I wonder if she stole something cute and silly and beloved and warmed by the comfort of that place, and wanted to keep a slice of that for herself? And Ame threw it back at her as a theft, so Mirara threw it back, but in her anger she let it break. Petty, sure; sad for Ame, yes; but also... lonely.

Bring on the bone cone! It gives me time to revisit some WWW content. 😂

When did they talk about soup? I can't find one time stamp, let alone an hour's worth.

So deeply delighted by everything y'all are doing ❤️ These characters are so beautiful and watching them grow into people who might just save the world is exquisite. The richness and nuance of y'all's work is a great and bountiful source of joy.

Fascinated by how the love forged in childhood is all that is holding our trio together right now. Feel like in a movie or book we’d cut away and come back with the gang on opposite sides of a conflict but it’s special to be in a medium where the story being told will on some level need to be our three heroes coming together to interrogate their relationships between each other and their relationships to their own pasts.

The description really bait and switching us. Lmao "sorry for calling back to previous arcs, that's on me" Ba-RENNAN Not the DC25 Oh man the leveraging Suvi's parents is such a clutch discussion.

I feel like we haven't had an update on what Lou has been up to in a while, I love these guests, but Im missing him

I now fully expect Brennan to always introduce plot twists into his games, regardless of what the players decide. Whether it's the wizards of the Citadel, the witches of the coven, or the spirits of the Spirit World - not a one of them is of a unified mind. It's perfectly set for every faction to have its flaws, which every player will have to face in-game.

WHAT SOUP

Don’t know if our Costco in Dallas is just trying something or if it’s a nationwide change, but ours got rid of the giant muffins and now have 8 packs of regular sized muffins for $7. When we were there last week, they were blueberries and cream, lemon raspberry, pecan praline, and triple chocolate.

Not to get too personal here, but the priest not wanting to leave the church after questioning because it's their whole community resonated with me and made me think of how I lost all of my community leaving the church. Good shit.

Regarding the question on whether Ame could have convinced Indri, I'm convinced that her position - since she couldn't reduce the number of members - is to deprive the coven of the power of unanimity until she has her way

RELEASE THE COSTA JUMPING GAME!

Lmao everyone wants the fox to have a name so badly! He's a fox! Don't shackle him down with human things, unless those human things are soup and risotto and trash, thank you.

Look I know the coven of elders has some bad people but if the witch of the waining moon as one supporter it’s me. She just wants connection and support from those who are around here but they fear her station even when she doesn’t do anything towards others. Plus she got to be a hot goth behind the mask, and is an intelligent witch who’s looking at a bigger picture. just a little green in the wisdom for the approach.

I totally wasn't yelling at Luis to add a silent B at the end of that name...

I've been dropping in and out of the narrative because, although I love the world and the characters, sometimes I feel disturbed by the characters moral reactions. For example, obviously Naram, the Great Spirit, the man who saved Ursalon as a baby, his capture and torture are important to the characters. But Straw getting ripped apart by a witch is just a couple of sad remarks at dinner. No one gets emotional because she's not special enough. I so often feel frustrated by the characters being like, "The Citadel is going into the Spirit world! It's wrong and imperialist! That village that got razed to the ground and all the people who got turned into murder vines to serve Orima? Never heard of it and wouldn't care if I did." I don't know. I feel like I can't keep pace with the story as it unfolds because I keep looking back and thinking, "Didn't any of that have even emotional consequences? Why isn't anyone mentioning it? No one's more than a little sad that that happened?"

What a bait in the description

You're telling me another Eagle's Splendour from Suvi could have stopped the Coven going to war with the Citadel?!?

Erica's attempt to distract everyone by asking about birds was great

Someone make that Costa mini game RIGHT.NOW.

Y'all are some of my favorite people on the planet and this is absolutely a weekly highlight for me. I would really love if more of a priority was placed on having better audio quality for the firesides. It's a pretty stark contrast to something like NADDPOD, where their remote recordings sound just as good as their studio ones.

Bring on the R A W D A N G E R

Brilliant fireside chat. About to relisten to Arc 3 from the get go and this particular fireside feels like the smell of bacon when you’re really hungry 🤤 Can’t wait to stick it on and sit back 👌😌 Also: Really? Really?! We all - and Erika most of all - have to go forth in the knowledge of how close that roll was?! 😭😂😭 And, after EVERYTHING in Arc 1 - maybe even some stuff in Arc 2? - the Fox’s name isn’t ‘Fox?!’ What?!!! That’s as enticing as it is maddening! When it was ‘Fox’ that was great, now it’s unknown it’ll nibble away at me for however long it is between now and Brennan having the decency to put us out of our misery! Agony! Oh, if Suvi rolled high on an identify spell on the Fox could she discover his name or, at least, come closer to it?

Amazing episode! Can't wait for all the Bone Cone leading up to the next Arc!

“She was a DC 25” BRUTAL BRENNAN DAMN

ITS NOT HIS NAME????

god i LOOOOOOVED Suvi finally snapping back at Ame without the sort of proper citadel tone

Aaaaaaarrgggghhhhh!!! DC25!!

Soup

The quote Brennan was reaching for was "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Ahoohoo crackle crackle. Plhyueym sounds like the gunk they squeeze out of a smokers' heart valves. 💜

Yusss

Ahoo hoo

Very fitting to talk about soup for an hour after the trailer for Gastronauts came out on Dropout

Crackle Crackle!💕

Crackle Crackle

A-Hoo-hoo!