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The Balance Early Access (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-19 21:38:09
Edited:
2024-01-19 21:38:22
Imported:
2026-06

Downloads

Content

CW: [loud voices/arguing][aggressive and dismissive language]

the youtube version, if you prefer:

https://youtu.be/PYCAXXs7vzk

and the file and transcript have been added to the Redacted Records Index:

https://redacted-audio.com/index

password:

24Redact

Files

Comments

Rae A. (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-15 07:00 Erik is spoiling us with release after release. Thank you Erik 🥰
2024-01-19 21:45

rachel ♡

ngl blake scares the shit out of me but brachium being immediately dismissive of him in favor of checking on sunshine made me feel instantly better

Just call me AJ

oh joy, the worst person we know is back :)

Aria

the sovereigns are gnawing at the bars of their enclosure

Eleneri

... Anyone else hear that snapping sound? I swear it sounded like crackers... no, packing bubbles? Maybe somebody's psyche? Hard to tell, really.

Litlkim

You intentionally wanted us to start thinking “Blake redemption arc?” didn’t you, Erik? 😆 and yanked it away lol

Ardent Melody

I love the contrasts presented in this episode. Blake refusing to humanize Sunshine held up against the mirror of Brachium accepting and reinforcing by title Blake's dehumanization of himself. It's such a tragic truth that once you stop seeing others as human they only become means to an end. Roles in a plan. Titles any organic being can fill. Blake only matters to the Sovereigns because of the sheer blind drive he's capable of. Sunshine only matters to Blake because they draw Brachium, a conduit to the Sovereigns. Brachium and Sunshine are the two who see other humans in the situation, the big picture. Even Brachium's advice to Blake offers a possible means to save his lover, an unknowing pawn in this whole thing. But Blake is a fatalist. He acts on what he sees as fact. He will never act on hope. But he has at least one fact wrong: We do still *potentially* have two Sovereigns on our side (personally I believe they are on our side still). We still have the firepower to further suppress the rest of the Sovereigns, and this is the kind of species ending thing that is just big enough to unify everyone if we can just get them talking. Avior, Starlight - I need y'all to have a date with Brachium. How? No idea. I think Sunshine is safe until Blake thinks he has another way to contact the Sovereigns, but based on how this episode ended I fear he already has an alternate route in mind. I'd bet anything he's going to present some kind of tribute/offer to them. I'm afraid that'll be Sunshine, but I don't think it will be. Seems too small from his perspective. So if not Sunshine, what about the thing we know CloseKnit was gearing up for that was talked about in the Summit storyline as being Inversion-adjacent levels of bad? Blake might know about those plans. And how to accelerate them.

BubblerGoesPop

this reminded me that the balance is in fact still my favourite series on the channel, looking forward to future updates from it!!

highkeymika

Blake ..... you're a fucking moron and you're going to get everyone killed

Eleanor Curtis

HOLY SHIT GOD DAMN IVE NEVER BEEN MORE INVESTED IN SOMETHING IN MY WHOLE LIFE

Crimson_Bailey

Oh dear, blind Blake. Blessed with the power to see but refuses to look past his own wishes. No wonder the Sovereigns latched onto him. He has such a negative drive, it's easy for them to manipulate him to their side and to aid their cause. As far as I see it, Blake has lost already because his 'love' for 'Bestie' and the desire to safe them has reached the level of complete obsession. Brachium is right, every action he takes only drives them closer to their demise. As sad as it is, the only way I see to make him reconsider is the thing he fears the most. Being the direct cause of 'Bestie's death.

Idoken27

AHHHH I DONT WANNA DIE 😭😭😭😭😭

theSpooder

Ohhhhhoho we’re so dead. (Be it Sunshine or Bestie~ who knows. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️) Blake… eat a snickers.

Kite

Brachium is so sweet, he melts my heart.

Eleneri

Bear with me, I'm about to get philosophical up in here: What gets me is the themes of humanity and connection that run through this piece. Blake only sees his listener as worthy of humanity and consideration. All other life is a tool to secure his aim of saving Bestie. Bestie is his idol, his small-g god, and he is the High Priest and only worshipper. It's like Bestie isn't human either... rather an ideal. And I have to wonder if half of the fascination Bestie holds for Blake is because they're the one thing he can't control and the one thing he wants to connect with. Is that love? No. It's obsession and pride and he's losing his humanity, then his sanity, in service of an impossible goal. Blake only has room in his mind for a single focus. He desires no other human contact now. Which is why I think it's so interesting that he calls out Brachium for referring to him as "seer" instead of by name. Brachium tells him he's choosing to act without humanity, inferring that if you're not going to act human, he's not going to treat you as human. And then, after telling him that the Drove is actively working to kill his idol and that every road *he* can possibly take leads to Bestie's death, Brachium offers Blake the chance to stop, turn it all around, and be an antihero. And he calls him by name. I'm not sure if it's tragedy on a Greek level or hubris (also on a Greek level) when Blake walks away from that humanity but is tells me that he doesn't even see himself as a person anymore. He's heartless instrumental force with a singular doomed purpose, and he's willing to take the world down in flames, not because he's in love, but because he can't stand to be wrong. Brachium, the millennia old daemon who has gone to the depths of Death to find a way to keep a human safe, has more humanity in him than Blake does. (We're not even going to talk about Blake using his ersatz-Dreamwalker powers to sleep in the arms of his lover every night, because hello, that is creepy as hell. The way he talked about it made me think - possibly incorrectly - that he's been using a simulacrum of the single human life he's obsessed with as a glorified anime body pillow so he can sleep. How long has that been going on, young man?)

kousenjuu

wow wow wooowwwwwww Erik you're killin me here with the cliffhangers 😭 this was SUCH a good addition to the balance story, though. I am so terrified for what Blake's plan is; for a second, I almost believed brachium could play into Blake's pride for himself and his power and all he's accomplished with it and convince him to act alongside the rest of our lovely redacted verse crew in restoring the balance. but then again, I find it incredibly satisfying to hear that Blake's continuing to chug along his obsessive path because it just proves that out of everyone, HE'S the one who best knows how much he's given up (and how much he's still willing to do) for his love. and it's not even FOR the one he loves so much as it's for the CONCEPT of him loving them which makes things even more fun. i very much enjoy this offering for the villain to instead be an antihero only for the villain to be like "hah yeah right" because it's really solidified that there's little to no hope left for Blake and he's both aware of that and completely okay with it so long as it gets his love more time.

MissRaptor

Oh Blake 💔. He’s going to make a trade. And I wonder if we could even have two sovereigns around already…i wish Brachium never made that deal. I hope I’m way off course. Oh Elliott. T^T Where are you? This growing crescendo is getting so intense that I get a bit panicky before I open a new episode lol. Btw, the Drove sounded so damn cool in their audio. I keep getting chills every time!

rachel ♡

coming back cause y'all, the fact that blake says he sleeps well at night w bestie while sunshine is SUFFERING IN THE BASEMENT is going allll through me like sir!!!! that's so mean!!!

Hazel Marie

Damn, now I want more. My money is on that Blake will use Sunshine as a sacrifice to appease the Sovereigns and it will go wrong somehow.

Rinzler

When you act stupid eventually you have to pay the stupid tax and that can be an awful high price to pay. Blake will get got eventually, I just wonder what he'll accomplish before that happens.