I NEED TO READ I NEED TO WRITE I NEED TO CREATE I NEED TO DRAW I NEED TO CLEAN I NEED TO WORK OUT I NEED TO LEARN *watches YouTube for 6 hours*

Sketches 🕊️ °˖➴

just saw leith ross live and i am the opposite of normal about it

Matt Mercer: the most selfish man alive

Matt Mercer: Dorian is back at the table.

Bells Hells: We get to play?

Matt Mercer: No. I play, no share.

so i just read a post explaining why the op (and, according to the op, a lot of other people, even tho the post in question only had 32 notes, some of which were from people who disagreed with them) didn't like the cut to the crown keepers in last week's episode. while i'm totally on board with people not jibing with stuff that just doesn't work for them, i wanted offer some reasons why this seemingly hard pivot to people who are not the main characters of the story being told was a good decision to make (note good decision, not inherently the best decision, which i believe no one, including the dm, at a ttrpg table should ever be expected to make).

matt had an extremely powerful, extremely unexpected character decision dropped in his lap in the final moments of the previous episode. we don't know exactly how much time matt has between recordings, maybe a full week, maybe not, but either way, there's a very real chance that matt just did not have enough time to fully prepare a session to deal with fcg's death and what comes next.

sam now has to create a new character that a) is of a level with the rest of the party and b) makes narrative sense for him to be there. that takes time for both him and matt, and they might just need some space to work on that. when laudna died, marisha was willing to sit away from the table for several weeks because she knew that she wanted laudna to be resurrected, but sam may not want the same thing, and that's okay!

matt may want to fold the crown keepers into his main story, some or all of them—particularly dorian, whom both liam and the fans have been asking to return for a while now. dorian is clearly important to orym and the story that liam is trying to tell, and bringing the crown keepers in may be matt's way to do that.

matt—and dms generally—has always had to straddle a very fine line of making sure that his players are the main characters of their story who feel like their actions have real consequences and effects on the world, while also understanding that in reality, it doesn't make sense for half a dozen chucklefucks to have such an outsized effect on major cosmological goings-on like *checks notes* the potential release of a god-eater. this becomes especially true when you're on your third campaign set in the same world, and your players' previous ultra-powerful pcs are still around and definitely more adept and connected than their current pcs are. i, personally, think matt does a great job at walking that line, and one of the things he does that i appreciate is that he doesn't shy away from the fact that a) his players are powerful but not the most powerful and b) his players aren't the only one who care about what's going on in the world and who are taking actions to effect change. the current plotline re: ruidus is absolutely world-shaking and is causing all the divine girlies to cower in their demiplanes, so of course even the evil ones are going to be calling on their champions to help out. it makes more sense for opal to be involved (which, btw, matt has been hinting at for a while now) than not.

matt might need a fucking break! he's been doing this consistently for nine years now, and shit is complicated! handing over the reins to aabria for a week or two or three may be what he needs to not get burnt out.

dnd is an emotional game, and the entire cast might have been rocked hard by fcg's death. some space away for a week or two could help them process and regroup to get back into a story that is otherwise very stressful and action-packed.

or it's none of these! what do i know! i'm a random idiot on the internet! matt doesn't consult me on these matters! (though my dms are open if he wants to chat, i do have ideas)

i think it's tempting to think of the decisions made in and around critical role (or any ttrpg show) like those made for a television series, because the episodes are serialized and we love them so much. but this show is, first and foremost, a group of friends playing a game together, and not a carefully constructed narrative with the primary goal of entertaining an audience. the audience always has and, frankly, always should be second to the wishes and fun of the people around that table. matt would not have asked aabria to step in and dm a crown keepers side arc if he didn't think it was a good decision for him and his players, and that priority is the correct one. we are being invited in to watch these friends have fun together, and that's a privilege that we're super lucky to have. as long as the cr story isn't doing things that are outright abusive or harmful to the cast or the audience, i don't think we should begrudge them the choices they make in the name of their own game.

again, it's okay if you're not vibing with the crown keepers! i didn't love the aeor arc of c2! not everything is for everyone! but i think accusing matt and the cast of narrative malfeasance is a bit much when, tbqh, they don't answer to us. they answer to each other.

AWWWE SHES SO PERFECT!!

Anyone else think Keyleth deserves to go absolutely feral and get vax out of that orb?

wait middle bottom did robbie leak that set before it was officially released

ZORIAN DORIANA STORM DICE WR HAVE DORINA STORMM DICE SET AHDOQHAHHHH

ZORIAN DORIANA STORM DICE WR HAVE DORINA STORMM DICE SET AHDOQHAHHHH

ZORIAN DORIANA STORM DICE WR HAVE DORINA STORMM DICE SET AHDOQHAHHHH

i think rice with things on it & also some sort of sauce is like basically the best food genre tbh

How do you want to do this?

—

Goodbye, Faithful Caregiver.

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

A sketch for a Vaxleth piece I have had in my mind for ages based off of the sculpture 'Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss' by Antonio Canova. This is not my usual area of expertise but seeing works done by @theshatteredsilhouette makes me wanna try my hardest.

anyways crown keepers feed my soul potent serotonin like no other I can't believe I forget how aabria gives the BEST rp opportunities and I am rolling around joyfully in a grassy field over them getting a main campaign episode MY BABIES THEY DESERVE IT ALL AND MORE

do u think sam had a 'break in case of emergency' box for if he ever wasn't there to do an ad and it was just a slip of paper saying 'put marisha in a pussy hotdog'

That's NOT what we mean when we say non-binary slay, you two