Top products from r/JustTzimisceThings

(A continuation of https://www.reddit.com/r/JustTzimisceThings/comments/bgijt2/how_many_tzimisce_are_in_season_one_of_la_by_night/)

​

Zero! A great show with a great lack of Tzimisce! The Sabbat is discussed at length by the characters without ever mentioning the clan! There is a character called Sycorax who is confirmed to be a Gangrel biker chick? Outrageous Mockery! (and why would you be referencing The Tempest when the three witch sisters from The Scottish Play were already incorporated as a nod to a season one Tremere joke? Pick a subtextual lane! Next up: "This is... Simba Mufasa... from The Hamlet... of the hobo anarchs!".).

​

I had to wonder if the name of the clan was the issue, beyond the Sabbat v5 books not being written yet:

>They keep on dancing around mentioning the Tzimisce, and pointedly not explaining the '13 great clans' to Annabelle, where such information could mean the difference between life and death. A storyteller may not want to overload the 'noob audience surrogate' with too much information at once, or create a 'Chekhov's Gun' violation, but Sabbat politics are already in play... with even the Salubri being referenced this episode! If the official pronunciation of the Tzimisce is under contention then just calling them 'The Fiends' would probably be an acceptable compromise, and perhaps could become a permanent v5 name change like The Ministry since anyone in the WoD community knows who "The Fiends" actually refers to.

​

All this aside, I did greatly enjoy watching this season on Youtube at 1.25 speed (perhaps at this point from Stockholm syndrome or the mere-exposure effect as I wait for the Tzimisce to appear finally in season 9?). The campaign has grown better and more complex over time, and even addressed all of the issues I had in the first thread with Season One in the first episode of Season Two, and later this one and this one, which is very impressive follow-through and intelligent storytelling.

​

I, as with other commenters, have appreciated the improvement in thumbnails for the series, since apparently clickthrough is now incredibly important to Youtube.

​

The actors and storyteller and worldbuilding have been amazing. Even the incidental lighting changes and camera framing have been well executed. The costuming has been better than the contentious portrayals in the V5 book (though the 'Victor'-ish Ventrue has always been the best-fitting of the bunch, as even the rather toxic Wesp5 forum agrees). Posts about the L.A. by Night campaign have kept the WhiteWolfRPG subreddit fresh during the doldrums of college finals season and a lack of substantive news about the upcoming V5 books or new videogames before E3 (beyond the same, usual clans being announced for VTMB2 that are usually prominent in VTM videogames). The creators and actors have taken a great deal of care with this series wanting the execution to be perfect, and I admire and appreciate this dedication. Once the WoD community is revitalized with further products coming out I think that more viewers will find their way to the show, and that it will continue to serve as a useful example-campaign as long as the WoD IP continues to exist, even decades into the future.

​

I feel privileged, thanks to the existence of this campaign, to have the ability to offer some praise and critiques of this game's second season in the spoiler-discussion that follows.

​

I was amused at the appropriate use of >!the Getty Center as the Elysium, which I suggested was outwardly ugly in this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/JustTzimisceThings/comments/b0ndsq/does\_los\_angeles\_have\_terrible\_monuments\_to\_shape/ !<

​

>!I am impressed with the way that VTMB characters have been weaved into the narrative in believable ways. The long-standing Barons seem blind to some of the larger problems with their home domains https://www.reddit.com/r/JustTzimisceThings/comments/bkge3e/humanity\_is\_extinct/emgjub4?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x, but then again, so is almost all of humanity. !<

​

>!The Toreador clan was also notably "Sycoraxed" with a Toreador named Suzanne, but not https://gamelore.fandom.com/wiki/Suzanne\_Kadim. Instead maybe based on https://www.amazon.com/Marie-Antoinettes-lady-waiting-Suzanne/dp/1542907756? I am not aware of such a historical figure existing https://www.mariegossip.com/search/label/Femme%20of%20the%20Week, nor such a figure appearing in the WoD previously to my rather Toreador-negligent memory, but the actress was wife to the actor who played Vannevar, and was quite effective in her role. Does her character relate to "Anastasie de la Tour d'Auvergne" or the special air-bar air from the Paris Parc de Bagatelle from the VTMB2 announcement event?!<

​

>!I noted in previous comments about the show in a different thread: Some in the audience are probably a bit frustrated that the party is not putting two and two together faster in some moments, like Nelli G sitting in the car stroking her sister's hair when she could run in with celerity to grab the unconscious ranger or grab the unearthed corpse to bury in sanctified ground, or not having the Temple of Boom lit up FULLY with fail-safe lighting to prevent Lasombra incursion (as in the episode 'Soft Light' from the X-files https://www.vidio.com/watch/259544-the-x-files-season-2-episode-23) but do remember that the coterie is working under stressful, paranoid conditions of a potential kindred war breaking out, so perhaps there is more resemblance to reality in their exhausted and distracted efforts.!<

​

>!Likewise, destroying The Herald when the Prince has threatened Victor's children BY NAME while having not secured the fealty of the Nosferatu yet presents a huge risk to the twins' lives and safety, but Victor usually is not one to forget such details in looking at the bigger picture (though Marcus has not played a major part in the story yet anyway).!<

​

>!I think the most complained-about issue I've read from other comments has been Annabelle's character development. Annabelle, as I've mentioned previously, serves as a stand-in for the non-WoD audience, and also seems to serve a role in showing how a storyteller can handle a certain type of impassioned player who is more oriented toward the immediate emotions of the moment than the retention or later use of learned information. Her rapport with X in her Season One bio episode was fantastic, but more importantly, the last scene of Season 2 would seem to suggest that the "training wheels" are coming off to allow the character a greater degree of autonomy and independent agency and consequence, whereas before Annabelle has been quite passive in obeying or following others, has not had a moment of clever, self-directed problem-solving not handed to her by a babysitter, and has not been bothered to make a difficult ethical decision on her own to face the consequences (one of her significant others might be ghouled or embraced at this point, but if so, only because of being begged and cajoled into doing so, and not done fully of her own volition). !<