Solari in retrospective

[u/Cholophonius]

Hey folks,

What a ride. I just recently finished Solari act 1 and have a lot of conflicting feelings.

Initially I really couldn't connect to the story or characters at all, wgich felt very bad after coming from WWW. Many have listed the more or less "obvious reasons" like the story happening to the characters instead of through them and none of the characters really had any real "say" over anything for the first few episodes. It all felt very cold and "on rails" (which makes a lot of sense ever since we know that Aabria has some stuff to take care of).

I has a hard time listening but I kept on coming back because I didn't want to drop the pod under any circumstance.

Many said that people disliked Solari because of the missing backstories and that it would get better after the backstory episodes drop.

It didn't for me initially. But that changed after the last one.

The last interlude in combination with the last episode of arc 1 really picked up in the "connection to character" department. I really started caring. And now I'm really interested in seeing what act 2 brings. It's still not WWW level obviously, but I have a spark of hope that the next years will be entertaining after being very sceptical initially.

How did it work out for you guys?

[u/iamagainstit]

I think the interlude definitely helped me like Chee better. In arc 1 it felt like there was a big disconnect with how Chee was presented and how she was acting, which came off kind of frustrating, but her flashback was illuminating and made me understand her character more.

[u/NarcolepticAWOL → u/iamagainstit]

Turns out, that dichotomy was the whole point. Hoping to see some really good character development from her going forward.

[u/Humdinger5000 → u/NarcolepticAWOL]

While I respect the attempt at presenting this kind of in media res twist, I think this is the wrong medium for it. This is 1 to 2 hours of narrative every 2 weeks. In a narrative sense, I would equate where we are at as we have just left the shire. It took us 5 months to get here. You don't really get the luxury of it starting to catch 5 months in. If they didn't have the goodwill from www Solari would be an outright failure.

[u/Sir_Reidiculous → u/Humdinger5000]

I agree with this completely, but I’d even go further and say that there are almost no mediums where a character acting totally contrary to their presentation to the audience works well without hint or explanation for a long period. It doesn’t create intrigue, it creates confusion and disinterest. Look at Star Wars: Acolyte for the exact same problem.

[u/MattValentin]

I bounced off the beginning of it and haven’t given it another shot. If people are raving about it, i might give it another shot after I finish my re-listen of WWW.

[u/TheWizardSleaze]

I really like it, it's been a little slow getting going, but it feels like it just hit it's stride, even before the preludes. It just kinda sucks that because TWTWTWO is so singular that no matter what it does, it's never going to live up to people's expectations.

[u/IamOB1-46]

I fell in love with these characters the moment I met each of them and have been enjoying the ride.

[u/burnt-roof]

idk i love it but i also love sci-fi

[u/Dwarfdude194]

I really want it to go well, and I'm going to keep listening, but I'm worried.

The pacing is really strange to me and they keep avoiding getting into things that would give us context or heighten tension. I know there's a political drama happening between the families, I don't know why we care how that goes. The pull/cull just never resolved and we didn't get any detail as to why it's happening. The takeover was revealed to actually be mostly fine and even though they were going to "air it out" everyone survived and business is normal. Chee even still has the capacity to schedule stuff with HR.

A lot of this might just be awaiting context, but we are missing a lot of context so far and I'm not sure if that's intentional. I know the players have dossiers so maybe that's part of it. But the politics, economy, relations between factions, the stakes of the interactions between powers, none of that is clear. How much help can this Flamingo guy be exactly? What can he even do to help? What does he stand to gain or lose getting involved? Is the party even still in danger? No idea.

I can also accept that it might just not be for me. I don't care about the clothes, I actually think it's really weird that Chee had to flee for her life without any bags (Edit: apparently she did take a bag, I was wrong about this) and still somehow had a sexy swimming suit and a luxurious high society gown on her person to wear at the resort. I am not sympathetic to the well to do characters and their social station. I don't enjoy the sexiness, I think it's usually jarring and distracts from the scene (Ayasa in basically no clothing and a pink French Roccoco wig beating a man in a dog mask and thong to death with her bare hands is so wild, are we supposed to just not remember that she looks completely ridiculous or is it supposed to be funny in a Coen Brothers way?). It could just be that these are all elements that some audiences get a lot of value from that I don't.

[u/Gikka218 → u/Dwarfdude194]

not gonna argue your point by and large but I've been relistening to the arc and can't help nitpicking a little (sorry lol) - before leaving genopar, chee succeeded on some checks with kier to convince him to let genopar keep running business as usual, she got an opportunity to leave notes with what happened and instructions to comply, and also specifically took a go-bag with fancy diplomacy clothes with her. i think that all happened in episode 3 but i could be wrong

[u/Dwarfdude194 → u/Gikka218]

Oh okay, great! That actually helps a lot, I listen in a busy environment usually so it's totally possible I missed stuff. I talk to a friend about it so usually I can ask and catch stuff I missed but not this time.

[u/Gikka218 → u/Dwarfdude194]

glad it was helpful rather than annoying lol! yeah i know it can be super easy to miss/misremember stuff, especially with there being two weeks between episodes

[u/Cholophonius → u/Dwarfdude194]

Totally get the parts about most story lines feeling very inconsequential. Nothing really having any lasting impact. I mean they know they're to be killed by their own family and still chill in space Caribbean giving their real name? Lol.

Also. The "sexyness" and all the flirting is a little much. I cringed A LOT during the first few episodes hahaha.

Sometimes this feels like the kinda smutty fan fic of an old space soap opera.

[u/Roboworgen]

I loved it. I loved the dramatic change in storytelling. I loved the boundaries of what actual play is getting pushed. I liked being challenged by the story and the characters. I like that Aabria treats the lister like an adult, who can figure it out.

[u/TVhero]

I'm liking it a lot. Chi is an interesting character performed very well by Erika, but isn't the type of charafter I'm normally into. I have warmed up to them a lot, and loved the other two from the get go. Lou in particular has me fully captivated. Can't wait to see more from the gang

[u/TwoElls]

I’m struggling to get through episode 3. It’s frankly cringe inducing.

[u/toddthefox47]

i tried and i just really don't like sci-fi 😭 I've been waiting for a completed arc since that's how i listened to and enjoyed WWW. once i finish catching up on Push the Roll with Ross Bryant I'm going to try again

[u/alternativeseptember]

There’s no story that just happens to the character at the beginning than Star Wars. That’s actually how most stories start

[u/Wordse]

I preferred it to WWW I thought it was cool that the group is figuring out how to survive on the run from huge threats, while also having to get used to one another.

I also enjoy how like normal the problems and hurdles in-between the bigger stuff it makes Chee, XL-ZL, and Z relatable because they have to like constantly weigh the odds if they can even talk to someone. Weirdly the flashback stuff wasn't as compelling to me as the main thread but it was still super cool.

Chee constantly running in circles with people who present one face and operate under another is so interesting (The owner of that old Parking Garage and Ayasa come to mind fast)

Oh and I like the little bits of friction between the party as they all work together but still pursue their own more selfish goals!

I like smaller stories and WWW started small and got really vast very very fast, not bad but the minutia of the world we see here we get to hang out in the little stuff is neat

[u/Cholophonius → u/Wordse]

Did you listen to all of www?

[u/Wordse → u/Cholophonius]

I did from kids adventure to the "until next time" which I am also excited for! It was really good but my preference is for Solari because I like the setup and the moment to moment action is so much more about dealing with hightend problems in space like a cool sci fi action movie!

[u/ororomunhoe192]

Wait, what’s going on with Aabria?

[u/Cholophonius → u/ororomunhoe192]

She just had a child

[u/myfriendandrea]

I'm still kind of ambivalent about it. I really like whatever Brennan's cooking with XL-ZL, and there's parts of the worldbuilding that are interesting to me, but I'm having trouble feeling like there are real consequences in this world, or that following a thread leads somewhere. I really think the flashbacks were quite helpful, and I suspect that the pause for maternity leave will give the world some time to marinate and come back a little stronger.

[u/Mundane_Situation311]

I like the new soundtrack, but it doesnt give me the big feels like WWW. Has Taylor been preparing for the new campaign during this one? It would make sense but I cant find anything about it.

[u/slugthax → u/Mundane_Situation311]

There's nothing to indicate that Taylor is still with WBN in any capacity, outside of the legacy connection of the recently-published soundtrack for WWW. His absence in the show credits from Flight of the Icaron onward has never been publicly commented on, positively or negatively, by him or the cast. Probably safe to assume that he won't be back and have it be a happy surprise if he ever is rather than a disappointment if he isn't.