heyyyyy CR fandom, need some Orym inspo?

We're playing a little game called 'spot the callowmoore fan'

Level: too easy

I think a lot of the meta about Orym forgets that Orym isn't just an adventurer, he is a former bodyguard. His self worth is tied up in how well he can protect people and especially his loved ones. Thats why he sold his future to a hag, because its all he had left to give in order to be able to help.

Thats also why he seems so angry after FCG's death.

Otohan has killed his husband and father. Then him. Then he is brought back and told she also killed Fearne and Laudna. She killed Eshteross. She almost kills Keyleth. Now FCG has to sacrifice himself to save them all and kill Otohan and Orym was knocked out for it.

His job is to protect people and even with the added power from Nana Morri, it's still not enough. 6 years later and his loved ones are still dying and he can do nothing but watch.

"the tendency of this fandom to only engage with what THEY want these characters to be#as opposed to what their creators are trying to do and the stories they want to tell" slap this on a bumper sticker, you just summed all cr discourse (about PCs at least) in 2 sentences

It truly is maddening (and it's not by any means exclusive to the CR fandom). The reason why the discourse always goes the way it does is that at the end of the day, the loud fanwanky people only see what they would do, if they were self-inserted into the story, as a valid choice; and they are, more broadly, fundamentally disinterested in what others think or feel. There are several examples of this, and the variety of spaces within the fandom that produce these ideas is an indicator that this isn't endemic to one specific group of people.

-Keyleth is an important character whose feelings and choices are validated by the other PCs and cast even if they still disagree with them, in spite of how she and her preachiness get in the way of the Murderhobo Jubilee? It's not because the cast are all friends and they genuinely believe Keyleth is valid and are interested in how these discussions and choices can guide the story. It's because Marisha is the DM's girlfriend, and also here's my totally unbiased theory that my pet favorite players Sam and Travis secretly hate Marisha and Keyleth.

-Vax's presence is still felt and nodded to in the post-canon VM oneshots? It's not because he was an important character who mattered. It's because Liam wants to make everyone talk about his tragedy because he has Main Character Syndrome. Scanlan Wishes for Vax to appear at the wedding? It's not because he cares about Vex or because Sam and Liam wanted a sweet tribute to Vex and Vax's relationship and by extension Liam and Laura's friendship. It's because Liam thinks Vex's life should always revolve around Vax, and Sam wants to enable him and jerk himself off as the one who facilitated it.

-Beauyasha and Fjorester become canon? It's not because the players wanted it and it happened naturally. It's because there was a secret behind-the-scenes push to "force" those ships to become canon instead, and like, Dani Carr is some sort of shipping puppetmaster who made the players do it, and "they" (whomever "they" is) decided to sink Beaujester or Widojest because it was "obviously" going to become canon before the pandemic hiatus gave them time to "make the corporate-approved ships happen".

-Beau and Caleb try to reform the Empire and dismantle the Cerberus Assembly from within? It's not because it makes sense for their stories or that people who would take this position regarding a corrupt government might have a valid perspective that differs from your own. It's because the people at Critical Role Productions LLC are all spineless neoliberal cowards who won't commit to real activism. The best activism, after all, is violent, and violent revolutions have always resulted in stable aftermaths, and the real world has never demonstrated that this mindset is foolish.

-Relatedly: Caleb doesn't kill Trent personally? It's not because the most poetic justice would be to deny Trent the thing he wants most from Caleb. It's because "Limo Brain" is too obsessed with tragedy to have the stones to do "what needs to be done".

-Asmodeus, DnD Satan, turns out to also be CR Satan? It's not because it fits with the cosmology and the lore; it's because Matt Mercer is too attached to the "establishment", and the Prime Deities should have actually turned out to be the bad guys because of my personal baggage about Western religion and Christianity they're a little mean to my blorbo sometimes.

There's a pattern here: fans had expectations that they'd built up for themselves after projecting and building up fanon and deciding what players meant before they explained themselves fully, and when the players strayed from that, they were derided for all manner of reasons. I think we're seeing that same pattern play out in C3 as the story progresses in a way that fans dislike, and in fact we have seen fanwank spread whenever someone does anything that interferes with personally catering to a) the favored ship and/or b) the favored philosophy. (Orym, Ashton, FCG, Percy, Pelor...all valid when they affirm the Fandom Opinions and all disdained when they don't.)

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a place for comfort stories that deliver a personal catharsis. And I'm not going to dismissively say "well if you want it so bad make your own" because, as an artist, I am very familiar with the fact that creating is hard and draining and sometimes you just need to consume instead. But when you become so wrapped up in yourself and your feelings to the point where your perspective is the only valid one, someone else's feels like a betrayal when it isn't. It's always "They aren't doing what we wanted and here's why they're terrible people because of it" and never "Hmm, why is this what the cast wants? Let's examine that."

This isn't a new phenomenon, but I think it ultimately stems from not assuming that other people can differ from you in major ways in good faith. There are a lot of reasons for that (some more understandable than others), but I think you rob yourself of the potential to enjoy something new when all you do is demand what you already want. No matter what you're doing or where you are in life, you tend to become a better and wiser person when you open your mind to what other people have to say, no matter how mundane the subject matter. Sometimes the stories people have to tell are challenging—and the only healthy way to deal with that is to engage with them on their own terms.

Ok but for real I think Max should start tweeting that before each episode on the grounds that he can't really miss any episodes of Critical Role, as it is his job, and see how long it takes people to catch on

i am as intrigued by memory loss laudna as the next person but i am honestly way more interested in laudna reckoning with the fact that she can now live for herself now, if delilah is gone.

laudna’s life is split into two: before her death and after her death. laudna even says that whitestone “felt like a different life”, that the events that took place didn’t feel like it happened to her, it felt like someone else (which is a whole other bag of worms into coping and trauma response and mechanisms of defense - but, for another time). the only time that line is blurred is with delilah and laudna’s own view of herself. laudna thinks she’s just a puppet, a vessel for delilah to take over at any moment. no part of herself is in her control fully, because the woman who killed her is living inside of her, leeching from her. after the “you were never alive” fiasco, laudna wonders if there was always some part of her that was just meant to be a puppet for someone else, even before her death. laudna’s wrecked sense of self because of delilah’s direct influence and manipulation makes her believe she is barely a person. she has no agency, no future, and no way out. and, at the crux of it all, because she is only sort-of living and not really herself, she makes her purpose to give herself entirely to someone else. laudna is not living for herself, because what is there to live for?

so i would truly truly love for her to go through a path where she realizes she is truly alive, where she has agency, and where she now has to deal with the fact that she can start living for herself. that she has a whole family who loves her. that she has to learn how to reconcile her past with a future that is now available to her. i want to see her deal with trauma she felt she could never escape but now she can. i want to see her heal and grow and learn how to live for herself.

very happy Matt decided to clarify his stance on the genocide of the Palestinian people rn. Pretty unhappy with the way he worded it, who he centered in his video, and disappointed to see the responses to it on Twitter.

kinda scared to even post about it bc CR fans can get so defensive about their favorite white people that they can often leave little room for criticism or nuance. but man I have thoughts.

i do appreciate liam pointing out (twice!) that orym's persepctive on the gods debate is deeply biased bc of his family after months of fans trying to use his trauma as both an objective arguement in favor of the gods, and as a sledgehammer against any sort of conversation on the matter in the first place

(Pssst, time to change your ask button, too!)

Considering your posts re: Molly coming back, what do you think of Taliesin's decisions re: Kingsley?

oh shit thanks just changed it. anyways! i think kingsley is probably the best salvaging of that plot beat wrt to what i see as a major thematic core of c2 (living in memory means neglecting your present + you are all the people you used to be and the notion of a discrete and whole past self is an illusion because you are continuously changing, but that means you can also still change right now, today, and isn't that freeing). i am glad that they didn't just revive a totally unchanged mollymauk with no ramifications, i think that would pretty badly undermine the like. coherence of that piece.

that being said. kingsley is pretty messy isn't he lol. i would have to rewatch early campaign to have a better-formed opinion on how he interfaces with molly as a character but. well he only got one episode to exist. i think there's potential there for him to be just as good of a coda as molly's permadeath would've been, but not nearly enough time for that to actually be the case in practice

(i just finished c2 ama)

Calling Laudna Matilda now make me a little uncomfortable.

Like, untill we get word from Marisha on why she changed her name, it kinda feels like using a sort of "dead name".

Considering how open Laudna is about her past, there's a reason why she never shared her old name (there's something there and i am very curious)

idk if this was intentional but theres,,, a very subtle heart shape in the threads of fate coming off of vax and im going to explode over it

god anytime a show or media or something comes out and not everyone is 100% in love with it theres ALWAYS someone who wont let people critique stuff. they Always show up with the "guys heres xyz why you should be okay with this this and this!!!! stop complaining!!" no. i love complaining. i love critiquing. i have fun analyzing the media i enjoy. for the Billionth time Let people critique and dislike the stuff you like. let people form their own opinions. Please

also the d20 drama is saur funny to me like people are allowed to hate a guy. thats allowed u know. hell if i saw brennan lee mullligan hate i wouldn’t agree with that person cause i like him but i wouldnt say anything cause baby girl what would that accomplish? theyre not gonna change their mind lol

Bruh I used to write a shit ton of fan fiction for years, developed a loyal following, and then abandoned it all because of how burned out I was from that fandom's queer baiting and toxic show runners.

But I'm seriously considering starting up again because there is NOT ENOUGH fan production for chaotic-bisexual!orym of the air ashari (and yes I'm willing to bet a house I don't own on this fact because let's be real, it's LIAM playing this character and he doesn't know how to play anything other than quietly pining/raging/suffering bisexuals). And on that note, there's a desperate lack of orym x imogen fan creations. Literally, do we not even have a ship name for them yet?

Moon Watchers?

Storm Fighters?

Ashari Storms?

Come on, I know for a fact we're out there and just missing an anchor tag at this point. Seriously, I could write for a WHILE about the clues we've already been seeing for the last 20 episodes alone.

well nvm gets scared. made a poll but now im scared bc its music based

people watching two towers and being like "did u know he broke is toe?" well my version is watching young justice (2010-2022) and saying "did u know that's jesse mccartney?" every time nightwing is onscreen