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finn-writes-stuff · 6 months

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Jack of All Trades (pt 2)

A follow-up to -this- post, with the rest of the party. The Original Request: Hello. If you're willing and have the time, I jumbly request a TLOVM headcannon for the team having an s/o who steals their weapons and tries to figure out to use them. What would their reactions be and would they/how would they teach them to use the weapons?

Percy, Vax, Scanlan & Grog x Reader

Fandom: The Legend of Vox Machina/ Critical Role

Format: Headcanons

Gender Neutral Reader

Masterlist

Some credit to my lovely partner for giving me accurate info about their specific weapons. As well as a discussion on whether or not you can say Percy or Orthax invented Guns. -Finn

Percy

With anyone else in the party, there's a good chance you may have used a weapon like theirs before. But not Percy and his guns. These are his own inventions, new to Tal'Dorei completely.

They are also powered by exploding gunpowder. He is a little bit worried about letting you handle them.

Hearing a gunshot when he isn't causing it is a deep cause of concern for him, please don't steal his guns, just ask.

Percy will absolutely teach you! It's a chance to have his arms around you as he steadies your aim and stance.

He's a very...specific teacher. You have to make sure he doesn't get too wrapped up in the fine details. Keep him on track with how to shoot and he won't get way into the actual mechanics of the hammer of the gun.

Let him watch you shoot after you get the hang of it. He'll start to understand why you like watching him so much.

Vax

This man owns so many knives. He has a full-out collection of daggers. Hugging him is a dangerous prospect because you never know where one is hiding.

And with all the different daggers, it can't be that hard to steal one or two of them. How could he even notice?

Stealing them proves to be surprisingly hard. He doesn't store many of them, they always seem to be on his person.

But once you manage it, it's quite a lot of fun to handle a truly well-made dagger. In a fantasy world like this, every adventurer has held a dagger, but Vax turns it into an art and his tools reflect that.

They are also insanely sharp. Don't get too cocky with them.

He swipes them out of your hands when he finds you with them, and it's obvious just how experienced he is with handling knives. He can twist and spin them without a glance or a nick.

"Well, well, someone's got sticky fingers, hey love?"

He'll teach you how to throw them accurately and how to spin them without hitting your fingers. He will also tease you while you practice before you get the hang of it.

Scanlan

Scanlan doesn't particularly use a weapon! He's fairly strictly a spellcaster.

That being said, his instruments are likely the next best thing, particularly his lute. And that is his baby, best of luck stealing it.

If you ask him, he'll let you play it and he'll teach you during downtime. He will also serenade you for demonstrations.

He'll be annoyed if you take it without asking though. His music is a source of safety for him as much as a source of joy.

Let him teach you songs around the fire at night and serenade him in return. He won't stop smiling for ages.

Grog

Grog has had some...questionable weapons. Perhaps don't borrow Craven's Edge.

But borrowing his axe or his gauntlets is a world of fun. Even if they might not be well weighted for anyone who isn't as strong as he is.

You will quickly realize how much work goes into swinging his axe and it puts his effortless attacks into a very different light for you.

Grog laughs out loud when he sees you using his weapons, but it's full of fondness and affection.

Even if he isn't exactly academically clever, this is his skill set, he knows how to fight and he does it well. So he's a really good teacher as he corrects your stance and grip.

His teaching method also includes encouraging you to just swing at him, so you'll need a bit of courage and faith that you won't hurt him.

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burr-ell · 6 months

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@meiloorun-notthefruit replied to your post “yeah, hot take, if you haven't watched the first...”:

Wait if anybody wants to respond to this i have never watched c1 and i am having the time of my life with this week's episode, what is an example of the group actually mad? im curious

Sorry it took me a minute to respond to this! There's a pretty good writeup of the issue on r/HobbyDrama (though it does have one or two minor errors), but I'll give you the short(er) answer.

So originally, Vox Machina actually had eight members: Percy, Grog, Scanlan, Pike, Vax, Vex, Keyleth, and Tiberius Stormwind, a dragonborn sorcerer played by Orion Acaba, another voice actor who'd done work on video games and anime with the rest of the cast. For a variety of reasons, Orion rather quickly developed a nasty case of Main Character Syndrome, and frequently did things that genuinely angered the cast. A couple notable examples:

When the party fought and defeated K'Varn, a beholder, in 1x11, Orion had Tiberius exit the fight for a plan to rally a group of mindflayers to their cause (which failed), and eventually returned, landed the final killing blow on K'Varn, and generally acted like an ass about it, leading to Marisha demanding to know why he was being so rude and unpleasant.

In Vasselheim in 1x16, in order to escape from a trap, Vex had to fire a nearly-impossible shot and rolled a 35, meaning it was guaranteed to happen and was going to be an incredible moment for her, and Orion had Tiberius insert himself to "help" using Telekinesis. The entire cast yelled at him indiscriminately for it, and while Matt was able to thread the needle live on stream, the atmosphere was generally very tense.

The nadir of them all, 1x27. This one's a twofer:

I don't know if you've watched TLOVM, but the Briarwood arc had just begun at this point, and all the party really knew about the Briarwoods was that at least one of them was a vampire. (I can't remember if they knew Delilah was a human necromancer by this point.) So Tiberius goes on a HUGE shopping trip to buy—among other things—every mirror he can in Emon, and the conclusion most people have drawn, quite reasonably, is that he intended to use them to make a massive light array to just drench Whitestone in sunlight and fry all the vampires. He also tries to write his family in his hometown of Draconia to bring the Draconian army into Whitestone to take care of things for them. Both of those things are frustrating to watch in the moment, but especially so when you realize that they're attempts to essentially speedrun Percy's entire arc and make Tiberius the hero. This and the other things he was doing already took up a ton of solo time, and Travis (known hater of shopping) eventually snapped "how about you get nothing else, and we move on?"

Then, the grandaddy of them all: while the party was discussing what to do and Vex was formulating a plan, Orion announced out of bumfuck nowhere that "Tiberius is getting a half-chub". Every single person at the table was appalled, and you can feel the change in the air if you watch the scene. Travis and Taliesin are both visibly furious; Sam, Marisha, Liam, and Matt are completely taken aback; and Laura looks incredibly uncomfortable. Tiberius had never established this aspect of his character at all the way Scanlan did, and after everything else there was very little patience anyone was going to grant him.

These are just isolated moments; Orion had overall behaved rather unpleasantly on-air and did a lot of metagaming (the reason he left the K'Varn fight was that he knew what beholders were and thought Matt was out to get him), and Matt once explicitly said after Orion left that he used to cheat on his dice rolls. Going from episode 27 to 28 is such a palpable shift in tone and atmosphere, and it's unsurprising that two episodes later they would announce Orion's permanent departure.

So yeah—if you've watched those scenes, you have a much better metric for what the cast's genuine anger is actually like.

#critical role #replies

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utilitycaster · 1 year

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It's not like most fans don't care enough about the reasons why FCG would do that to put any thought about it, no no no, this is clearly Sam FCG being so so selfish and inconsiderate to the rest of the characters (sarcasm)

I think a bunch of the criticism is valid, but some critters just grabbed what Taliesin said in 4SD and ran with it without analysing more than surface level. Like, don't get me wrong, Tal is very much correct, and Imogen is more than in her right to be mad at FCG, but it's almost like those fans are dead set on the idea that Imogen is the protagonist (something Laura seems to be very hurt by the idea) and god forbid the comedic relief character does something to ruin her story

Hi anon,

I'm going to save my longer discussion for a separate ask or a post, and I agree with most of this, but I do want to clarify or push back on a few things. It's a relatively small if particularly loud and dumb group, honestly, all things considered, who are saying this. For what it's worth, I do not actually think it's terribly valid for Imogen to be as harsh with FCG as she is - again, she didn't have to follow them in the first place and she had a chance to leave. She reminds me of a guy in one of my grad school practicums (practica?) who, whenever something went wrong, would say "I said this wouldn't work" (he hadn't) until one late night I lost my shit at him, which, not proud about, but he did shut the fuck up. Anyway, this is what I plan to write some more about elsewhere, but Imogen is deeply judgmental and impatient and dismissive of most people, even her allies.

I also want to clarify on the comic relief designation because I think you're saying that from the perspective of the "um, actually, Imogen is a perfect sweet baby victim who never did anything wrong and everyone is so mean to me - I mean her" crowd but like...Liam said it best in the TLOVM watch parties. The thing about "comic relief" characters is that in the set up of them as kind of ridiculous, you provide a huge potential for a drop into tragedy; when Grog or Scanlan are upset it's particularly moving because they're usually being silly. Like, I've been critical myself of some of the credit Sam has gotten in the past for fairly basic D&D choices (although while Sam gets that credit you are correct that the fandom rarely considers him a favorite), but the reason even those simpler moments hit so hard is because you don't expect them from a character you've mentally shoved into the "comic relief" slot.

I've found FCG's exploration of religion - which is realistically clumsy and misguided and at times silly, but also incredibly earnest and true - to be an unexpected highlight, and like, it's fine if people don't like it, but like, go to therapy for your religious trauma; FCG is extremely not the cause, and in the end both FCG and FRIDA believe it is good to be there behind the gate to help people! Look, I would vastly prefer altruism that comes from a genuine empathy for other people and desire to provide from their needs rather than it coming from a desire to collect Heaven Reward Points (not that I think that's what FCG is doing, nor the motivation for all religiously-originated altruism, but I suspect that's how some people are reading it), but like, the homeless shelter open to people of all backgrounds and genders isn't interrogating the reasons why various people donate. A good deed is a good deed and FCG is doing this to help the trapped people and, later, Umudara.

Finally, what's interesting to me about that line from Taliesin is that I agree with Ashton that FCG's self-sacrifice is a liability...but look at Ashton! Look at Ashton, who will without thinking accept indebtedness to Jiana Hexum because it's what they think they deserve! Pot, meet kettle! I think Ashton is far too cynical for martyrdom, and does have a self-preservation instinct, but good lord does he hate himself sometimes to the point of punishment, and that's really not much different and nearly as much of a liability.

#answered #Anonymous #critical role spoilers

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belphegor1982 · 21 days

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HEY WAITAMINUTE IS "underture" a reference to the music term "overture"? Mayhaps a Scanlan WIP?!?!

srryok bai now

Yup, kind of! It's the first CR I got an idea for - in March last year, for TLOVM, as I hadn't even watched most of the first campaign yet - and, incidentally, the only one out of five fics (/comics, if you count Scar Tissue) and 2 WIPs that doesn't begin with the letter S :P (not even on purpose, it just happened!)

Okay, so this fic exists because of three reasons:

• "Underture" is a title on the Who's concept album Tommy (and yes, a play on "overture"!) because the titular lad is Going Through It (and being made to taste drugs iirc). I discovered that album around 2002 and love the word.

• One of my favourite fics overall (like, all fandoms) is @plothooksinc's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) "Underdark", which has Leo and Mikey fall under the city in complete darkness and try to make their way back to their brothers (and the surface), with Mikey as the 1st person narrator. It is hilarious and super tense and glorious and one of the great classics in the entire franchise's fandom, imo (or should be). Since I read it in the mid-to-late 2000s I had no idea that "Underdark" was actually a D&D term and was gobsmacked when I learned! The more you know :D

• And the main reason this WIP exists is because I essentially went "wait, what if "Underdark", but make it Vax and Scanlan". Of course, now it took a life of its own and there's going to be a Structure to it (start in media res, and then alternate "how we got there" chapters and "so what's happening in the creepy dark in the present" chapters). With a healthy dose of getting to know each other and going from essentially work colleagues to friends 💜

Here's a little excerpt from page 2, so literally the start of the fic (for context, Vax got washed down a mine and wakes up alone in a tunnel):

And, somewhere in the distance, a familiar voice.

“…help?”

Vax scrambled up, finding purchase on the slippery rock wall nearby, chasing sound rather than sight. The world in front of him was little more than blobs in varying shades of black. His ears were more reliable than his eyes right now.

“Where are you?” he called. “Are you okay?”

“Define ‘okay’?”

Vax bit back a tart comment. Damn Scanlan and his utter and complete inability to be serious.

“Like, not hurt? Can you move? What’s your position?”

“Not… great.”

“What do you mean?” Vax asked sharply, still half-feeling his way along the wall. Scanlan’s voice was getting clearer, or at least closer; it also sounded breathless, strained, small in a way it rarely did. Vax could only hope most of that could be chalked up to the sore throat he’d been complaining about for the last couple of days.

There was a scrabble and a gasp. When Scanlan spoke again his pitch had climbed a few notes.

“I mean I’m kinda hanging off a cliff? Or some kind of ledge, anyway. And uh, my fingers are getting real tired, if you know what I mean.” A short, nervous laugh. “I really really don’t want to lose fingernails. It hurts like a mother and it makes playing the lute really difficult.”

“Hang on and keep talking,” said Vax, straining his ears and trying to ignore his pounding heart. “I’m on my way.”

“Okay. Usually, not really a problem, but uh… Aw, crap.” There was a strangled sound, like he’d choked up on a cough, and some more scratching. “You know me, I talk – I talk real good. B—big fan of talking. I’m a great talker, too. Talker, singer, player – give me any instrument and it is on, baby. I mean I’ve never tried the double bass, you know, those big-ass cellos. Got curious but the bow alone is almost bigger than me, so that sucks. Plus they’re really expensive. Vax?”

“Yes?”

“Hurry?”

Vax practically ran around a corner and stared into the dark as hard as he could. The tunnel in front of him kept going in a downward slope, the ceiling gradually getting lower; there was a pathway of sorts along the wall, but most of the rocky ground seemed to disappear, as though erased from existence, into the starkest black Vax had ever seen. Rivulets of water trickled into it from the walls and the ground, slithering between protruding rocks, the only movement he could discern.

Wait… Not quite the only movement.

Vax bolted towards the fingers he could see grasping at a small rocky ridge a foot or so below the edge.

“Shitshitshitshit,” he could hear Scanlan chanting, his breathing now frantic and his voice gone beyond squeaky. “Vax…!”

Three things happened almost instantaneously:

Vax reached down and grabbed one of Scanlan’s arms just as his fingers lost their grip on the ledge.

In a last-ditch attempt to find a hold of something, Scanlan’s other hand shot up and closed around the clasp of Vax’s cloak.

Vax belatedly realised he’d miscalculated as Scanlan’s weight and his own momentum carried him past the edge and into the black.

(welp, they're dead :P no they're not but they certainly think so for a hot second)

#sometimes I write #critical role #vox machina #vax'ildan #scanlan shorthalt

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blorbologist · 1 year

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hello did you say something about a lotr style retelling of campaign one???? if you're willing please do tell

Hi anon - this one likely won't be written for ages yet, I'd be happy to <3

So it's a very amorphous idea (like my Filles du roi AU) because I want to reread the books front to back before touching the project. But the ghist of it is that it'd be a mythological retelling of Campaign 1 with a similar framework to LOTR - a book built from the accounts of a few characters and them getting accounts from their friends / likely flat-out imagining some shit (hard to get a Sauron POV), written in prose of Tolkien's style. Characters will sing beautiful songs mid-battle, the hearts of men and their like are fundamentally good, and etc.

Here's the thing: Scanlan is the primary author, here, so he deliberately exaggerated and switched up a lot for the sake of the story. It might actually follow TLOVM's plot more closely than canon, because it already does a lot of the streamlining he would want to do.

I figure he only publishes this in his old age - when only he, Keyleth and Pike are left - and the girls both think the rest of the party would be delighted by this story so they don't go out of their way to correct it. Also Scanlan clearly worked hard on it with all the prose, illustrations, poetry and songs - it's a love letter to Vox Machina. (Some sections are from Vex when she was still around, with notes she got from Percy's journals. Tbh half the poetry is his, and all the Celestial.) There are also probably contributions (coughcorrectionscough) by Keyleth and Pike.

BUT ENOUGH WITH THE SAD SHIT

The main problem would be finding the right balance of LOTR elements and nailing the writing style. But I'm excited!

My thoughts so far include:

Given this is Scanlan writing this story, he and Pike are the main characters, taking up elements of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. Making them get separated and be present for the reclaiming of Whitestone (battle of Pelennor Fields, Merry & Pip) and their bond being pivotal to defeating the dark lord (Frodo and Sam. Pike doing the 'but I can carry you' thing <33)

Percy just... is Aragorn. It's stupid perfect for him: heir to an empire fallen from grace heavily associated with white and trees, hello?? Except all his names are part of his full name, not a host of aliases and titles.

Vex would likely be a combination of Faramir (ranger of Gondor, daddy issues galore) and Éowyn (I AM NO MAN, close friendship to one of the hobbits/gnomes, Trinket could be her horse). Both of them have a close bond with a brother that makes things absolutely heartbreaking. Except given she’s both Faramir and Éowyn she gets to smooch Percy-Aragorn, and their roles in the House of Healing are swapped (true love's crit).

Vax would likewise steal elements from Frodo (tragic bearer of the burden, cannot really go home) and Boromir :)

Keyleth and Grog neatly slot in with Percy as the Three Hunters. Grog and Percy n Kiki and Grog friendship time <33

Scanlan compresses the timeline so multiple great forces of evil act at the same time. Vecna is obviously Sauronlike, with a great evil land of evil. Undecided if the Briarwoods are Saruman (manipulation, sorta serve the great evil for their purposes) or Denethor (stewards of the white city, motivated by despair and in a twisted way love). Conclave could be akin to the Nazgul, or Saruman (Raishan namely, plus Saruman of the Many Colors = Chroma Conclave).

Look getting the balance Right between LOTR and CR and TLOVM is gonna be a bitch is what I'm saying, but taking some elements from LOTR would make it more fun.

Anyways apparently the theatrical edition doesn't include Éomer's cry of agony when he finds Éowyn on the battlefield???? Or Pippin looking for Merry amidst the corpses long after dark? I only ever watch the Extended Edition so im Heartbroken :c

Anyways watch this and think of the Twins (Éomer and Éowyn), Percy (Aragorn), and Pike & Scanlan (Merry & Pip):

youtube

#critical role #campaign 1 spoilers #tlovm #the legend of vox machina #lotr #the lord of the rings #OH SHIT I GOTTA GET TO THE LAB SOON BYE

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thessalian · 6 months

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Thess vs Cosplayers

The one thing I didn't talk about when I was talking about MCM Comic Con was the cosplayers. I generally enjoy watching the cosplayers for a number of reasons. I mean, obviously it's just generally fun to see how into things people get, but also it's a good way to gauge general trends in terms of characters etc. So I look out for the stuff I know and go from there.

Critical Role was obviously very heavily represented, cosplayers spreading their efforts over all three campaigns. However, I think Vox Machina got the most overall coverage, and there were a lot of instances where you could tell when someone was doing the TLoVM versions and when they were doing the original campaign version. I think Keyleth and Scanlan got the most overall coverage from the Vox Machina campaign, with Vex, Vax, and Percy not far behind. I saw a couple of good Pikes and exactly one Grog. Also one Arkhan, one Delilah, one Sylas (not a pairing) and a Raven Queen. Oh, and two Trinkets, leaving aside the Vexes who were carrying Trinket plushes (or in one case, had a specially made Trinket-shaped wheelchair rest). For the Mighty Nein, Jester was entirely the front-runner, followed not-very-closely by Yasha, Caleb, and Mollymauk. There were more Veths than Notts, if you see what I mean, and one of the Veths was with her partner, who was dressed as Yeza. I saw a couple of Fjords, a couple of Beaus, and one Caduceus. For NPCs, apart from the aforementioned Yeza, there were a few Esseks and an awful lot of Avantikas. Also one Professor Thaddeus. Then there were Bell's Hells, and Laudna was the clear leader on that particular scoreboard, with Imogen a relatively close second. A fair few Ashtons, some with exceptionally good headpieces and even better hammers. A few really nicely done Fearnes. One Orym, one Chetney, and while I didn't see anyone specifically cosplaying FCG, there were a couple of people who made puppet-FCGs. Thinking about it, I even saw a couple of Bertrands. And, while not directly CR cosplay, one Deadpool cosplayer who had a Gilmore's Glorious Goods bathrobe on over their costume for the CR group photos.

Of course, with the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 and the entire cast being present at MCM Comic Con, there were a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 cosplays. In terms of which characters got the most attention, Astarion won by a country mile. Marion actually expressed a bit of surprise at Astarion's popularity just because she'd been given to understand that he was a bit of a shit, and then I had to explain the concept of a "poor little meow-meow" and that Astarion was basically Zevran Aranai but amplified ... and then I had to explain Zevran and I finally just gave up and stuck with "Sometimes they like the shitheels and also his cosplay is one of the easiest to do". Anyway, there were some really impressive Astarions. Runner-up was Shadowheart, and Karlach was a distant third. I saw a couple of Gales, one Halsin, a really impressive Lae'zel, and I think a Minthara. Also a few people I'm pretty sure were cosplaying their own Tavs, and the most impressive fucking illithid costume I could have imagined. Wyll and Jaheira were not represented anywhere that I saw, which is a shame. I did see an Isobel, though. And I would have loved to see what some of those cosplayers did with Dame Aylin, but not that I saw this year.

Going more into the generalities! On the subject of video games, there were a few Links and Zeldas, a lot of Princess Peaches and a fairly impressive number of Marios and Luigis. (There was a steampunk Mario and Luigi pairing that was really cool.) There was the Classic Horror Quartet - a group consisting of Freddy Kreuger, Ghostface, Jason, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre person. I was really gratified to see an Aloy. There's this one elderly couple who has been at MCM Comic Con every year I've been there, and they do the most impressive Warhammer 40K cosplay - the "We put their picture in our advertising for the convention" kind of impressive. (And those two have to be in their sixties at minimum so anyone who says this shit is only for kids needs to get a clue.) These were not the only WH40K cosplayers, but the most impressive - though there was someone in White Templar cosplay that did give them a bit of a run for their money. Obviously a lot of One Piece, given the live action series coming out. A few Disney princesses (and one Snow White's Wicked Stepmother circa 1937). A lot of Spider-men, obviously, of varying iterations - a couple of Spider-Punks, a gratifying number of Spider-Gwens, and so many different iterations of Spider-Man from Across the Spider-Verse.

Side note: between that and the penis-bearers who cosplayed Deadpool in body-stocking instead of crafted body armour, I desperately wanted to hold a sign recommending that those people look into the concept of a dance belt. So many dick-prints. A few avoided it by doing like Miles Morales in the earlier parts of Into the Spider-Verse and wearing shorts over their tights, but the rest ... yeah. So many dick-prints.

Star Wars, obviously. A couple of Leias, a few Reys, and SO MANY MANDOS. Mostly Din Djarin, obviously, but the occasional Boba Fett, Bo Katan and Sabine Wren. A few Anakins, like maybe two Obi-Wans, a couple of Heras, one really impressive Kanan, one equally impressive Ahsoka, one Dagobah-training-montage!Luke with a Yoda backpack puppet, and like two Revans. Also a lot of Darths, but not necessarily all the ones most people know about. I mean, sure, a fair few Vaders and a couple of Mauls, but also Darth Malgus and one really impressive Darth Nihilus. There were also several members of Imperial military, including a Moff Gideon complete with Darksaber and an Assistant Director Krennick. There were a couple of more generic Star Wars aliens too - a Duros bounty hunter and a couple of impressive Twi'leks.

The one thing that felt almost conspicuous in its absence? No Dragon Age. No Mass Effect. I mean, we had a couple of Homestuck characters and we didn't get one Morrigan or Zevran or Varric? Maybe all the cosplayers are waiting for DA4. Good luck to them; Bioware seems to be having another of those Development Hell moments.

Anyway, there was way too much great cosplay to list it all, and I probably missed some good ones along the way, but those were the highlights for me - well, the recognisable highlights, since there were a lot of really impressive cosplays but since I'm not huge into most anime I have no idea what they were cosplaying that was so impressive. And no, there are no pictures. I thought about it, but honestly, trying to balance cane and camera felt like a lost cause and they probably would have come out badly anyway.

#mcm expo

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katia-dreamer · 1 year

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I feel like I need to say something. I've tried so hard to stay quiet, to not say anything, because I hate drama. But I just feel like it's time.

I came to CR through TLOVM. I listened to the campaign for the first time this summer. Mostly, there has been a lot of positivity toward the show. A lot of people love it! Which is great.

BUT.

There is a tendency in the CR fandom to automatically compare it to the campaign. Which is totally understandable! It's wonderful and fleshed out, and that's what it's based on!

However, for someone who has yet to see the campaign or might not feel compelled to see it, it can feel a little bit... isolating.

Look, opinions are good! Constructive criticism is natural. This is a thing you love and are passionate about. But not all people who like the show will like the stream. In fact, I still struggle with watching episodes. I mostly listen to the podcast version. Number one, because they are very long, and secondly, dnd confuses me.

There has also been a tendency to make it seem like the show is automatically inferior. I don't think anyone means it in a mean-spirited way, but it can sometimes be a little bit discouraging.

Please, don't misunderstand me. I love how passionate everyone is! I love the source material too! I want you all to have a safe space to vent your frustrations. I encourage that! But please remember that not all viewers of tlovm will want to engage with the source material or will even like the source material, and they deserve a safe space too.

To be clear, I am a safe space for both tlovm fans and cr fans. I love both equally. I'm a safe space whether you have seen all of the original campaign or if you've seen none of it. You are always welcome here.

You are still a fan, and I love you. <3 Just remember to be kind and love each other.

#katie says things #tbd #pleaseee no one misunderstand! i just ... i can feel so isolated sometimes #not tagging cause i really don't want people to get mad at me

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l-a-l-o-u · 1 year

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How are you liking season 2 of tlovm so far?

I agreed with all of your criticisms for season 1, but I'm personally getting pleasantly surprised by the new episodes, still see some of the issues season 1 had but im happy with how it's going!

Hi!! Thank u for asking!

I also think it's a lot stronger this time around, although I see a lot of the same notpicks I had with season one - it could use some slower pacing between scenes sometimes, the artstyle doesn't allow for smooth limited animation, etc. But this time around the writing feels a lot more solid and I keep being delightfully surprised by the changes they made. It makes it harder for me to compare to the original, and I think that's a REALLY good call on their part. When you're adapting something as long and full of important details, you can't just remove the less important ones and keep the main plot - you have to rewrite that shit, that's why it's called an adaptation! Now it really feels like it stands on its own. The idea to (spoilers incoming) split the party, change the order of events, involve Ripley with the dragons and most importantly, DEFLATE GROG and show Scanlan's arc more obviously (he kept his feelings SO hidden in the original) are really elevating the show. And now that they're not spending ten episodes in a bleak dead city, I can really appreciate the colors!!! Whoever is doing color keys is putting their entire pussy into it, it saves so many scenes where the acting animation is a little lacking. I call that the She-Ra effect lol. The fight scenes have been A+ on the animation front though!! Oh and I love the backstory flashbacks they keep putting in its so tasty

I've been watching people on Youtube who have never watched Critical Role react to the show too and it helps me enjoy it a lot more. They get so INTO it and their reactions to the plot twists are so sincere! Makes me forget to be super critical and I have fun with them.

#in short: i love it!!!! i love to criticize but also plain love it #esp since im not watching cr anymore. this show means so much to me #tlovm #ask #ria-the-camel

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localdragons · 10 months

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i just finished watching critical role's campaign 2. that shit was GREAT. it took me 5 months, and was my first campaign watch of CR. besides that, i've seen tlovm first. absolutely love all the characters so much.. jester's chaos and her whole arc about what real love is, felt so great and wonderful. fjord with learning confidence and reestablishing his connection to nature and the ocean was so nice. plus him and caduceus had a great friendship. caleb and learning to forgive your past self and to move on.. and that you can't change the past, you don't have to forget to move on. (also i really love caleb x essek, even just as friends. but gay is good. essek is a great character and i just wish i got more content w him tbh.) yasha and letting go of her past, learning to love again and finding happiness and family. nott/veth and becoming ok with herself, regardless of how she looks, reuniting with her family and understanding that she is still a good mother even if she hasn't been there all the time beau and finding new family who love her, learning to be soft sometimes, and generally being a great friend caduceus is just great, a wonderful friend and healer and helping fjord heal in many ways. love that guy sm molly is.. what a dude lol. i miss him, but i love the arc that came out of his death. kingsley seems like quite the fella too. a different flavor of gay lmao i'll always love the m9 they're so wonderful. excited to start campaign 3 and eventually get to watch this show live!!! maybe in another 2 months lol

#critical role #dungeons and dragons #the mighty 9 #mighty nein #campaign 2 #cr2 #cr2 spoilers #spoilers #feel free to talk to me about cr and dnd pls

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letmetellyouaboutmyfeels · 1 year

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Hello!!!! I’ve been following you for ages and I know that you’re a big CritRole fan. I’ve never really been able to get into it, cuz the thought of going back and watching it all from scratch is supremely intimidating. However. I finished all of EXU Calamity in a weekend (and lost my entire fucking mind) and I’m really enjoying TLOVM show. Do you have any tips for watching any parts of C1, C2, or C3 in addition to that? Or would it be smarter to wait for C4 to start and go fresh from there?

Hello dear, lovely to hear from you. I hope you're doing well.

Critical Role is very intimidating to get into. I was fortunate that I got into it early on, roughly a year after they started filming, so it didn't take me as long to catch up. Anyone trying to get into it now is going to feel daunted, that's for sure. Unfortunately, D&D sessions do tend to run long, I know my group's average is 4 hours and we used to run for up to six when we had more open schedules.

Calamity is a fantastic place for any newbie to start. There are other oneshots and mini-campaigns they've done too, like Taliesin's eldtrich horror mini campaign, the Undeadwood campaign, and Marisha's Honey Heist and its sequel. Calamity introduces you to the world and is just. brilliant improv storytelling from all the players. but it's only six episodes for the complete story. So if anyone reading this ask wants to bite into a good tragedy and wants to know what the whole TTRPG craze is about, Calamity is a great one.

When it comes to the full campaigns... you kind of have to resign yourself to the fact that it'll take a while. Campaign four won't start for another year or two, and so you can wait until then, but that is a bit of time to hold out.

I would personally recommend you listen to campaign one. Campaign two seems to be the favorite for the majority of fans, but since you've already watched TLOVM, which is based on campaign one, that'll give you some background info and a baseline to help you get into the swing of things. The first few episodes will be a bit rough, since the cast is getting used to being filmed in a studio rather than hanging in a living room, but you'll be surprised by how fast you latch onto the characters.

Additionally, I think it's just fun to watch the cast journey from being in a spare room at the Geek & Sundry studios, to their own studio, slowly decorating that studio, then moving to a bigger studio, which is where they'll stay for campaign two. it's just nice, in my opinion, to see those little details as the show grows in real-time.

My friend recommends listening at 1.25 speed, and sometimes she speeds up the combat to 1.5 speed. You can also listen rather than watch, as some of my friends have done, so you can listen (either just put the video on and don't look, or they have created podcast versions of the episodes - nothing changed in content, just made it into an audio file to download) while doing other things like folding laundry. I prefer watching, to see facial expressions and nonverbal reactions, but given that this is a popular option among my friends, I don't think you'll miss anything too vital. And you can always supplement with YouTube compilation videos of reactions and favorite moments!

I can also say that it'll go faster than you think it will. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can blow through a few episodes.

So, yes, either wait a year or two, or resign yourself for a commitment, unfortunately that's kinda how it goes. You can't really skip episodes or only do "highlight" episodes since so much happens in each one, you can miss a lot of context. If that still intimidates you I'd really recommend diving into the other mini campaigns and oneshots they've done like Honey Heist, Undeadwood, etc.

Also, if you liked Calamity, then I recommend Dimension 20. Brennan Lee Mulligan is the game master for that crew, just as he was in Calamity, and their campaigns are a lot shorter. So that can also help you get into the TTRPG show groove. Their campaigns tend to run 15-20 episodes and the mini campaigns are around 6.

Again if you are going to dive into a full CR campaign I recommend the first campaign with Vox Machina since you already know the characters and a lot of the plot arcs - and it's fun to watch TLOVM when you've seen campaign one, since you can see how it's a truncated "this is the legend" version while the CR campaign is "now here's what really happened with these dumbasses." But campaign two is the more popular campaign so there's nothing wrong with starting there.

I hope that all this has been helpful! Good luck on your CR/TTRPG show journey!

#mads answers things #pink-lightsabre #I hope this information is helpful to others as well #since I've gotten this question a few times from people wanting to watch #but intimidated by length and amount of content

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elliesgaymachete · 1 year

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I like Vax and Scanlan more in tlovm but I also still can’t separate vaxl*th and p*kelan from how much I didn’t like them in c1. Like they are actively taking steps to make both relationships better which is Good. like Vax no longer kissed Kiki without her consent and they’ve toned down Scanlan’s gross hitting on pike SO MUCH. But god I just remember how uncomfortable both relationships made me watching vm and I lose interest in seeing them in the show at all😔

#cw discourse #I’ll use that tag for my negative opinions from now on so feel free to block if you’d like 😅#this is mostly about p*kelan #i think it was just that one vaxl*th moment that colored my opinion on their relationship through the rest of the campaign #like I Do like Scanlan more but god he sucked so much in c1 #i would like dread episodes when Ashley was back because I knew he was gonna be a prick about it

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burr-ell · 11 months

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I'm afraid to ask, but here goes... who is that Matt Colville guy?

Regarding your tags about Colville and how he had written Vex. Why do you think his Vex sucks? I've seen some fans who think he did her justice and those who despise his portrayal of Vex, so I'm always curious to hear people's thoughts about his writing of Vex, as well as his handling of other VM members. Also, less important, but what did he do that didn't help you like Scanlan any better? Is it just the way he had written him in the comics or something else?

Matt Colville wrote Vox Machina Origins Series I, the first 6-issue arc of the prequel comic, and I...really don't like that take on Vox Machina, and I think his comic writing in and of itself leaves a lot to be desired. Now I've talked about him before, but that was in my dumbass era, so lemme take a crack at it now that I'm not filtering all my opinions through one subset of fandom.

(To be clear, I don't think he's like. a terrible person or "problematic" or what have you; I don't know the guy. This is purely a criticism of his writing, and I'm going to try to be as objective as possible in explaining my entirely subjective opinion.)

If my understanding is correct (and in fairness, my source for things Colville has said is gonna be "dude trust me" because I started writing this at almost 11pm and I don't feel like hunting around), Colville openly admitted to not having watched a fair bit of the show, including the Feywild arc. He considered those things to be "mining for backstory", and largely watched Critical Role for the combat. And that makes a certain amount of sense because DnD combat mechanics are his thing, but it also means that he wasn't necessarily a great choice to write here. He could have been! But over the course of this first volume he proves that he wasn't, and you'll notice that he's not writing for them anymore.

So to address the first topic: I really don't like his take on Vex, but it's not because she's written as mean—it's because of how she's written as mean and why she's written that way. Now, we know from canon that Vex doesn't start out as an especially nice person to people she doesn't know, and Laura has openly said regarding TLOVM that she wanted to show that Vex can be bitchy sometimes. And I like that about her; I think it's a good character trait. But there's a very specific way in which Vex is bitchy, and Colville's writing does not suggest that he understands it.

...Yeah, that's gonna be a no from me, chief.

Obviously we don't know what Vex was like pre-stream because otherwise these comics wouldn't exist, but we can reasonably extrapolate based on her behavior in the show, as well as the way she was written in TLOVM where Laura was an executive producer, that this is not the way Vex's frostiness would have manifested itself. She wouldn't disdain or dismiss lower-class people as "peasants", and she wouldn't reject the idea of asking them for information on that basis—Vex is usually the first person to start talking to locals about whatever it is she's investigating; she's one of the faces of the team whenever they have to talk to people.

What Colville has written instead is a character clinging to aristocratic status explicitly in order to establish herself in a hierarchy, suggesting that she sees herself as above peasants. But canonically, Vex never considers herself noble-born; no one else ever suggests that she did; and there aren't any indications that she takes pride in Syldor's position and what that might have granted her. Just on the face of it, it seems like Colville heard that Percy gave Vex a title and then she fell in love with him and worked backwards to deduce that Vex always wanted nobility, rather than engaging with her character as it exists.

Another indication that Colville really wasn't paying very close attention is the presence of Trinket—specifically, the lack thereof. The reason Trinket doesn't appear in the first three issues is that Colville didn't think Vex would have had him yet, because Beastmaster Rangers don't get their animal companions until Level 3. Except Vex had Trinket before the campaign even started; not only did Laura write a short story about it that was available on Geek and Sundry, but it's also a major moment in episode 65 because even Vax doesn't know the full details and finally asks her about it, and Vex makes it clear that it happened before they were anywhere near meeting Vox Machina. Colville brought Trinket in starting at issue 4 and wrote around the problem by having Vex explain that Vax made her leave him outside of town, but the fact that this was an issue at all doesn't speak well of the organization of this process. Like...he couldn't have just asked? Did nobody give him a lore document?

Additionally, in the above panels Vex says something about "the school". This is, by Colville's own admission, something he came up with, and it's elaborated on a bit later:

Y'all. I'm sorry, but this is the absolute dumbest possible addition to the twins' backstory.

Now, at exactly what age the twins ran away from Syngorn wasn't entirely set in stone by this point. But for one thing, again, that's probably something he should have asked about if it wasn't provided in any kind of lore document, and for another, while we didn't have exact numbers, the general idea was already that the twins were no older than their mid-teens when they finally left, probably closer to 13-14. So of course if they went to assassin school and graduated (lmao can you imagine), they probably started attending when they were a couple years younger.

Which raises the question of why Syldor Vessar, a diplomat with no martial interests whatsoever, fully aware that he has a rocky relationship with his preteen problem children, sent them to a secret murder school.

I get wanting to explain why Vex and Vax are so good at bows and daggers and why Vex knows five languages, but there have to have been ways to address that besides whatever this is. It's very telling to me that both Kith & Kin and TLOVM seem to be just quietly ignoring this, and it's never been brought up again as a legitimate part of the twins' backstory, even within the later comics.

Secondly (yeah, that was all under "firstly"), I really don't like Colville's take on Scanlan.

SHUT UP.

I'm going to get more into this a bit later, but Colville's Scanlan will. not. stop. talking. He is incredibly smarmy and obnoxious, but not in the fun lovable way that Sam Riegel actually played him; this Scanlan has the single most punchable face in Exandria. Canon Scanlan did not ever talk this much or in this way.

Like, look at all that "story" language—theatrical critiques and scenes and narratives and treating all of life like it's a story. When has Scanlan ever talked like that? He didn't in Kraghammer and he didn't while fighting Vecna. That's not the kind of bard Scanlan is or ever has been.

This Scanlan is very cool. He's collected. He's confident. He's smug. He never takes a hit in a way that matters. He even gets to lecture Vex about her insecurities. There's never a hint at any of his flaws, like that he's actually very unobservant and self-absorbed. His perception and insight modifiers were +1 in part because even by the end of the campaign, his wisdom score was a 7. Scanlan's never been very good at reading people; what he's good at is persuading or deceiving them. We don't see any of that charisma here; what we see is a loudmouthed fratboy who runs his mouth nonstop.

Speaking of running one's mouth nonstop, my final major issue with Colville's writing is his exposition scenes.

I mean, look at this:

Look, some of this is down to personal taste, but I also just don't think this is good comic writing. Comics are a visual medium; the script is meant to work with the art to tell us a full story. This is just massive walls of text in giant word balloons that take up far too much space for what they're doing, and the panels are flat and boring—it's just a bunch of talking heads jabbering at each other. We're clearly meant to focus on the words being said, but nothing about the art gives us anything else to work with. In fact, it's as if the art itself is saying that this scene is just the same thing over and over again with small modifications here and there. We're watching a conversation between people who all sound more or less alike rather than being genuinely immersed in visual storytelling.

Compare the above to these pages from VM Origins II #5 and VM Origins III #5:

Now, some of this is down to lettering—the letterer and colorist were both changed between Series I and Series II—but it's also down to a change in script and art direction. These scenes lay down some necessary exposition, but they’re much more interesting to look at. These aren't just full pages of talking heads; there are different angles and shots, breaking up the sequence as the conversation goes on to help it flow much more naturally and maintain the reader's attention. You can tell that Houser is giving these characters room to breathe and trying to write in their voices, not just making them exposition-dump at each other.

Colville was, and as far as I know still is, a friend of the cast of Critical Role; he just isn't working on the Vox Machina Origins comics and the writing has since changed hands to Jody Houser. I think this was a much better choice; she's a seasoned professional comic book writer and a long-time viewer of the show. Her Vex is a significant step up, taking the clear lead of the group and keeping them together while still maintaining a frosty and snarky personality. Her writing for Scanlan is also a lot closer to canon, allowing him to shine in endearingly goofy comedic scenes rather than giving the entire script to a smug fourth-wall-breaking theatre kid.

Like I said, I don't think Matt Colville is or was a bad person with bad intentions. I just don't think he was a good choice to be writing these comics because I don't think he understood who these characters were or what Critical Role was trying to do with them.

#cr discourse #asks #long post #like. Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here long

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