Champion of the Raven Queen

"And then I walk away." A playlist for Vax'ildan from Critical Role.

YouTube | Spotify

1. Flocks a Mile Wide - Christopher Tin 2. Us Against the World - Westlife 3. Street Urchins - Alan Menken 4. What's Up Danger - Blackway & Black Caviar 5. Heart - Sleeping At Last 6. Hey Brother - Avicii 7. Joy Follows Suffering - Michael W. Smith 8. Salt in the Snow - The Classic Crime 9. Fly - Ludovico Einaudi 10. After the Storm - Mumford & Sons 11. Yukai na Nakama tachi - Hikaru Nanase 12. Inside Job - Joseph LoDuca 13. Mission Impossible - The Piano Guys (feat. Lindsey Stirling) 14. Fields of Gold - Tyler Ward & Peter Hollens (feat. Lindsey Stirling) 15. Love Letter - Malinda 16. Syugosya-tachi - Hikaru Nanase 17. Fields and Pier - Avriel & the Sequoias 18. Shining in the Sky - Theishter 19. I Will Never Forget You - Cecile Corbel 20. The Dreamer Departs - Magellanic 21. I Wouldn't Be - Maccabeats 22. Snowdrops - Otto Prager

Champion of Ravens

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matron of ravens staring at fellow ruidusborn exaltant imogen like girl you wanna make a deal for your love’s life ?? girl i can so set you up

lovely gif repost allowed by @hotcupofdragons cause descriptions are not good enough. gif op posts: 1, 2, 3. these were just some of my a favorites that I think others also acknowledged.

man. you know what i fucking think about all the time? vex and vax and the deities that they become champions to. how even those gods reflect the entanglement that is their life, how vax steps in front of a goddess on his stalwart hope in the world and demands she choose him and how vex is so tentative, barely speaks up because she’s fighting against every instinct she’s learned that tells her not to hope that she could be worthy enough, certainly not to a god.

and the gods that choose them, the gods they choose? they’re both reflections of one another to each other. vax, whose championship arose out of his commitment to never leave his sister’s side? his god is the matron of ravens, a sad woman who dons a mask. a mortal who fought tooth and nail to arrive at the power she has. vex, whose championship arrives after her brother’s hope in the future and her future specifically has rubbed off on her and encouraged her own growth to believing? she is greeted with pelor, who stands strong and painfully bright, but she’s granted the gift to see through it to warm eyes and a bright smile. who affirms the hope that lives in her.

and man, it’s even more extraordinary to me that the comparison between the given twin’s god and their sibling gets made by that sibling in scenes where they directly speak to the gods their twin has chosen. during vax’s resurrection ritual, vex bargains with the raven queen because she knows she’s someone who bargains like vex herself does, and she’s someone that values vax, maybe not quite as much as she does, but enough. and during vex’s trial, as the dawn father searches for his hope among the love for vex among vox machina, vax’s affirmation is that vex is his hope, so she should certainly be sufficient to be pelor’s.

and god the black death walker’s ward and the white dragon armour? vax’s wings and vex’s blessing? vax as a shroud of darkness visiting this plane, embracing the literally glowing shape of his sister on her wedding day? the poetry of vex and vax and pelor and the matron of ravens is enormous and so much of it is fucking. improv.

Realized I never posted this one! Tried going for a stained glass look, which was fun to play with. Wings reference from @adorkastock !

Okay would LOVE to see some discourse/hear other people’s thoughts (respectfully plz no one be rude for no reason) cuz I HAVE SOME.

I have never liked the Raven Queen. The Matron of Ravens. I wanted to so badly! Her aesthetic? Iconic. The way she OUSTED the previous god of death? KILLED him? As a mortal? And she ascended to godhood? A total flex. Like damn fr. BUT

I can’t get over what she did to Vax. If she just hadn’t taken advantage of him, I could love her so much. But I can’t. My disdain has also grown the further into Campaign 3 we get and the more I read.

Some Reasons!

1. She took advantage of Vax when he was in a weak spot. He was struggling, depressed, and desperate at the sudden loss of his sister. She used this to make a deal with him.

2. She took Vax immediately after they defeated Vecna. Why could he not live out his life as her champion? (I do know that because of the Disintegrate spell, there was no body to revive him so this would kind of “go against” her rules?)

3. Why make Vax her champion? He wasn’t willing. Yes, he offered himself, but that was more so coercion. Consent should be enthusiastic! Vax’ildan was desperate and afraid to lose the ones he loved, so he made deals with a god previously unknown to him. We’ve seen that the Matron has MANY followers in Campaign 3. There were so many she could have chosen to be her champion. Who would have WANTED to be her champion. Why Vax? Are we to truly believe that in all of Exandria, no other follower of the RQ was fate-touched? (If that was her reason)

4. She also made him her *eternal* champion. (This is part especially where I’d love to hear others’ thoughts). Vax does not get to die. Not like most people. He is now stuck in that same limbo as the Raven Queen. Yes, he gets to shepherd souls to The Other Side. Purvan did. But Purvan GOT TO REST. He served his time, and then got to pass on. As of right now, Vax will never know rest, and I hate that she stole it from him. If Vax has died-died, eventually he would be reunited with his loved ones in the afterlife. Now, when they die, they’ll see him, but only briefly as he must go back to his ETERNAL DUTY. May I remind you that he did not ask for that position?

Also, doesn’t that kind of contradict her whole “death is a part of life” thing, having an eternal champion? Yes, Vax is now a celestial and he did “die,” but he never passes on to the afterlife. Some blurry lines there.

5. The Matron has punished Vax for visiting/“interfering” with his loved ones. In latest 4-sided dive, Matt clarified that the first attack on Zephrah/Keyleth, Vax showed up and saved her (that’s how Otohan knew he would come again). Matt continued that his actions were technically against the RQ’s commands, and that she punished him for it (we don’t know how). Now, Vax’ildan is stuck in a painful orb as a lens, and she has done nothing to help.

So that’s all I have at the moment. What do y’all think? Please share your thoughts or tag me in stuff cuz I want to read more on it. It continually bugs me that the Matron was lonely in her task (fair) and that she may have not realized that before ascending, but that does not mean that she should force Vax to the same fate/keep him to herself.

(Also, I think Gargo/Shithead may have been her animal companion? That will be another post though)

orym praying to the raven queen I’m sorry for your friend. I hope you’re holding up. I hope we can help.

That’s what a Champion Is…

Caduceus did say that’s what a champion is for. So would that mean the last thing to go through Keyleth’s mind was a desperate prayer to Vax’ildan. Or his sheer will to save the woman he loves. Either way it’s phenomenal 💙✨

The Duskmaven, Goddess of Fate, Winter, and Death

You know what I love?

(and by love I mean am emotionally crushed by?)

We've now seen Vax and Vex's connected threads of fate severed. They're on different paths now, not fated to always be connected, because now Vax's fate is directly tied to the Matron of Ravens (to death).

And you know what else?

Vax is the only one in the opening who doesn't see or react to the thread of fate. All of Vox Machina does, save him.

Vax is the only one who won't have the same fate as the rest of his friends and family. He's destined to be on a separate path from the rest of them. Vox Machina gets to stay together. They're all connected. No matter how much he may want to be, Vax doesn't have that connection. And one day, he'll have to walk away to where his thread of fate leads him to. To the Matron. To death. To divinity.

Without his family.

....I think I'm gonna go lie down now.

hey sorry um. bad news, we put your boyfriend in a blood pool. yeah like a communion pool but instead of water it was full of blood. he's really into the absolutist belief of a divinely appointed fate now. sorry.

if this is what we got for what is essentially vax attuning with the deathwalker's ward

can you guys imagine the absolute magnificence of fjord attuning to the star razor

scanlan saying, “then I realized, even if I don’t believe in that Matron stuff… you do. And I believe in you.” is such a significant moment I’ve seen no one else bring up. In this essay, I will—

Ok someone get the love of my/Keyleth's life out of that lens and i do mean NOW

.... yeah im not rectonning two for joy to include these guys