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captainsspnanon · 6 months

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C2E72 - Clay and Dust - reaction

Alright, let’s see how many months it’s gonna take me to watch THIS episode. I am SO desperate to get to next episode, aka livestream of all time. (not long at all, luckily!)

Matt what the fuck is up with your mic quality??? I’m assuming that’ll get fixed shortly.

I adore this ad bit so much. First of all, Sam pretending that he can’t remember his kids’ names and how many he has??? This guy is the most loving father! But honestly, it’s all Liam’s monologue. We all know it’s all Liam’s monologue! SO GOOD. (I still have not seen the movie, but I think I watched the clip from it)

I’m so hyped for ‘please don’t kill me at a liveshow’ and ‘fuck it I’m a mammoth’ that I legit forgot that this was the episode where Fjord is a badass.

Honestly I’m surprised we still haven’t gotten the new art yet. I keep seeing Fjord without his beard and I’m like – wait that’s wrong. It’s a plus side of the pre-recorded, we get the art pretty much right away.

MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP I will always and forever love this group getting a map they are SO excited! Also it’s so weird that they are sounding out Uthodurn and not recognizing it (until Travis suddenly remembers EVERYTHING without even glancing at his notes). Oh hello little note that says Ruins of Molaesmyr. (….I literally just saw it and already forgot how to spell it. FUCK the name of that place, omg, I get it wrong every time.)

Knowing how this turns out, it’s fun to watch them all get very tense about the ghosts. Even Caduceus goes to ‘punch first’, with his whole aversion to undead. Travis definitely has a point though, C2 definite has a lot more of the ‘spooky’ combats as compared to C1. I also appreciate that Travis/Fjord is the first to point out that the ghosts aren’t messing with the Nein or acting aggressive.

(I just realized this is a very good episode to be watching on October 1st)

Is there ANYTHING more Mighty Nein than them walking along a lake packed full of ghosts and reading Tusk Love to them? I love it so much!

I am surprised that Matt nitpicked that Eagle!Caleb and Eagle!Jester can’t understand each other. I do get where he’s coming from, as Polymorph only changes the form to the animal and who knows if two real world eagles would be able to communicate such complex ideas as ‘take our friend and show her the smoke that we’re seeing so that she can communicate it with our other friends who we can’t currently talk with’, but I also feel like in a magical world where you can become a giant eagle through a magic spell, that intelligent creatures of the same form would be able to communicate with each other.

Sometimes it’s really the small quiet moments that are some of the best RP moments. Nott offers to help Caduceus do something alchemical with her residuum wholeheartedly, Caduceus turns and quietly asks Caleb what alchemical means, and Caleb gives a gentle simplified (maybe not fully accurate) explanation. It’s a small beat and doesn’t take it’s time or distract from the main conversation, just a little additional life for the PCs.

Unsure if Caleb/Liam is reacting to them talking about refined residuum, or if that’s just standard Caleb face. XD

Aaagh, Mom wants to watch CR together, which’ll be the liveshow. Guess I’m doing my rewatch SLIGHTLY out of order, as I still have two hours of this left to go, but I want to watch with her. XD Also means that next episode’s rewatch post is gonna likely be limited, as I won’t be sitting down and constantly pausing to type.

I appreciate that Taliesin/Caduceus asked if Whitestone was the closest place to get the refined residuum and Matt was able to say no. As much as the players clearly would have been down for it, Matt was still trying to keep things more separate. And I really appreciate the fact that, aside from Allura really, C2 is able to stand on it’s own feet. Even Artagan is so entwined into C2 that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know him from C1.

LOL at Marisha’s sheer excitement over Beau being able to read Dwarvish.

CORE ANVIL!!! Unsurprisingly, I was actually able to understand in my first watch through that this was a reference to C1. Knowing now that it’s where VM forged the trammels is a fun shoutout, but again, me not knowing for my first watch really didn’t have impact.

……...look I’m still trying to hold my resolve about not typing anything about C3 during these writeups, but oh it’s so fun to hear all sorts of hints dropped for stuff that we now know from C3.

Love the little tidbits of Jester writing smut and Caleb being so happy from just being able to read something new.

I completely forgot that Fjord asked Jester to message Vandran!

I’m guessing Matt rolled to see either if Vandran would be willing to answer, or rolling insight or something similar.

Travis is such an amazing role player oh my fucking god. Seriously *insert he’s got the range meme here* it is pure chefs kiss. I’ve loved all his PCs, main campaigns or one shots, but the introspective Fjord moments, the moments where he is insecure and freely accepts comfort from Jester (or later from the whole team), it just tugs at all the correct places of my heart. Caleb and Beau might be my favorite PCs (of all three main campaigns, actually), but I think Travis has steadily moved to be my favorite player at the table. (though that’s actually really hard because it’s actually all of them just depending on what moment I’m watching)

HE TOLD JESTER ABOUT HIS LOSS OF POWER!!!! Oh my god I completely forgot about this. This episode, despite being something that you’d think would be 100% Caduceus, is just FILLED with amazing Fjord moments, and we haven’t even reached The Part yet! Travis really made the decision that Fjord would be having a turning point here, with Vandran, sharing his fear, talking about his loss, and then The Part! I forget if we ever find out what triggered the change in behavior.

Fjord’s panic when Jester starts raising her voice when talking about bringing him to the Wildmother being their new mission, and his FACE when she keeps talking and promises to keep it quiet. I can’t pinpoint the moment where he starts to fall for her, but he’s definitely in the thick of it now.

I forgot about the dream too!!! I don’t think Fjord would have broken his pact the way he did if not for that dream, on top of all the conversation he had earlier. It was the exact right impetus to get him moving immediately, versus trying to puzzle out a way. It makes me wonder if Matt was prompted to make the dream because of the conversation Jester and Fjord had, or if Matt already planned for this to happen this night.

YOU. NEED. ME. MORE. THAN. I. NEED. YOU. GIVE. IT. BACK.

ONE OF THE BEST LINES OF THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!

No thoughts, no analysis, just me freaking out over one of the best moments EVER.

Fjord revealing all the truthes to the group, Caduceus being a great support, Nott making the greatest joke about Fjord’s strength EVER.

What an amazing second half of the episode, SO GOOD.

Gonna go watch the live show now with Mom, so who knows how that write up will be.

#cr c2 rewatch #critical role #mighty nein

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captainsspnanon · 7 months

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C2E71 - Family Gathering - rewatch

Ah no, now Laura and Travis are remote! I remember them saying after that the connection wasn’t great, and Travis specifically talking about how it was hard for him to handle it remote, especially with the ADD (I’m pretty sure they said that, at least) (if I recall, it was the reason he gave for not connecting Caduceus’s story to Fjord’s last name)

Okay, is it just me, or are Dairon and Essek’s accents basically identical? Like, I’ve thought this from the start, even from my original watch through. It’s just hard because I don’t really have any good side by sides to compare it to, and also theoretically they should have very DIFFERENT accents because Empire and Xhorhas. I wonder if this is why I always kept forgetting Essek’s accent and thinking he had a different one (even with this watch through, I expect him to sound different somehow).

I mean, all respect to Matt for having a jillion different voices he can do, but because of that, when he ends up duplicating a prominent character’s voice, it gets very weird. I know this has happened before, but I honestly can’t remember who with. Just that he did a voice and it was very ‘but what that’s [x] other NPC’s voice!’

oh beau!!! My heart breaks a little bit at this scene, with Beau immediately being confrontational with Dairon, misunderstanding confusion as aggression. “but don’t – are you gonna get mad at me? Are you gonna get mad at me?” just the defensiveness falling into the insecurity, for me this very small bit right here is a FANTASTIC depiction of Beau. She’s aggressive to authority, but not because of the assumed ‘automatic disrespect to power discrepancy’, but due to her fear that no matter what she does, it’s not good enough. No matter how well she does, someone that she looks up to will deride her for it, or express displeasure in her doing it. Here it is so clearly seen how her father has impacted her. She just wants to do things RIGHT and have people SEE that she does. SEE how hard she tries. SEE that she cares, and honestly? PRAISE her for doing what she’s done. True, non-condescending praise. And not from someone like Jester who will praise her no matter what, not from someone like Fjord who will offer praise but also ask for help, but from someone who is on a demarcated level ABOVE her, who there is no doubt is higher ranking, who does not need a give and take on equal level. The difference between a sibling saying you did well, a classmate saying you did well, and a teacher saying you did well.

Dairon will eventually be on a level where she believes that she and Beau are equals, but I suspect that Beau will always consider her to be a form of authority, just a very positive authority who you almost want to remain in that position, so that any praise has that different feel than praise from a peer.

Huh, first watch through I completely missed Jester frantically waiving Beau off, trying not to have her tell Dairon about returning the beacon. That’s weird! Why would she be opposed?? She’s typically the MOST open of the Nein!

It is SOOO rewarding to watch this bit knowing about Essek being the traitor. They’re discussing giving away the beacons to start a war, to get lots of money, to get favors. None of those end up being true! He just wanted more knowledge that he wasn’t able to get on his own. I know there’s a lot of fanbase drama around Essek being a ‘war criminal’ and such, but what I put in his favor is that 1) EVERYONE says that the war was going to eventually happen and was getting closer and closer to a boiling point, and 2) he did this without the intention of causing harm. (I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m going to anyway IT IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE HE IS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER. NO ONE ACTUALLY DIED, THERE WAS NO ACTUAL WAR. As such, I can think of things from a character perspective, a narrative perspective, and gain a very VERY different viewpoint. If this was the real world, Essek was a real person, actually did these things for real, real people died, it should be damn OBVIOUS that the viewpoint would be different and there would be no ‘narrative’ or ‘character’ consideration.)

(also, I’ve read a few fantastic meta posts about how Essek was in the exact right position to be groomed by the Empire into becoming the traitor, which, while I adore them and will sometimes treat them as headcanon, I don’t consider to be actual canon. Just as Bren made the decision to kill his parents, Essek made the decision to hand over the beacons. In my opinion, Essek’s decision was actually more under his own control and more selfish than Bren. And this is why, as much as I enjoy a variety of Shadowgast fanfic, ones which turn Essek into pure woobie really don’t sit well with me. This is a man who caused harm, who did something selfishly and recognized that it likely WOULD cause harm, and as far as I can tell, did not begin to regret his actions until the Nein started to break down walls he had put up. As much as I will read fics that come up with reasons why Adeen Tasithar was evil and deserved what he got, as far as we know in canon, Adeen was kinda a jerk, and that was all. And Essek, as far as we see, has no regret for condemning him to imprisonment, likely torture, likely death.) (wow I jumped ahead there, oops) (I have Essek Opinions, and can get irritated at fan portrayal of him that flattens him out to ‘poor little meow meow’ and ‘the girl in the relationship’. Seriously, I think a lot of fan fic authors needs to learn that in a queer relationship, one of the people involved does not need to be the feminine one, the girly one, the one who hits all the ‘stay at home waiting for her man, decked out in jewelry’ tropes. I have a LOT of trouble with feminized Essek art because of this, ESPECIALLY because all official Essek art depicts him as very masculine, to the point where people scream that he looks ugly and out of character) (okay I’ll stop ranting now I promise) (at least about this topic)

A lot of wonderful conversation between Beau and Dairon, and I’m getting distracting by Laura and Travis getting distracted XD

I wonder if Matt was nudging towards them giving Essek’s name as a contact to Dairon, with the thought of Dairon eventually being the one to expose him, at least to the group. Again, one of the things that I wonder how far ahead he plans things, and how much he tries subtle nudging during play. Was he trying to get this step? Or was it just that Dairon needed help and it ended up coming to this during the RP?

*snerk* I don’t think I’ve ever seen Matt so snarky that he has the NPC call out the cast for not paying attention during a scene. I love that Sam catches it first and goes ‘i’m distracting your wife’ and Matt’s just like yuuuuup.

*grimaces* I hate when I notice my own personal biases, especially when they’re stupid. I am NOT a fan of Taliesin rolling a die in his hand and directly asking Matt “how high do I have to roll to tell that someone was in the house”, because it doesn’t give an opportunity for Matt to really say no. Now he HAS to allow for Tal to make the check, even if it’s something where he didn’t want Tal to at all. BUT! BUT! I also know that this is me being more sensitive to Taliesin when he does things like this, as I’m 95% sure that Liam has done something similar in C3 and I wasn’t bothered by it. Maybe not as directly, but he’s 100% rolled dice in his hands sort of non-verbally asking to be permitted a perception check – I guess I’m more okay with it because a lot of times Matt DOESN’T ask for one, and Liam just puts the dice down without making a big deal about it, whereas this is straight up “let me do the thing”. Now I know that Matt technically could have made it an impossible DC, or set it at like 28+ or something. It’s just something that rubs me the wrong way.

(I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I definitely do adore Taliesin and all the PCs he’s created minus Molly/Kingsley, but he’s also the player that I tend to have the most issues with. I think our styles of play are just clashing. It’s very very rare that he does something WRONG, but it’s not super uncommon that he does something that I don’t like.)

….and immediately after THAT – Jester rolls at nat 20 to see Dairon, but Caduceus is the one saying that he saw her “wow all the way up there”. NO TALIESIN. LAURA GOT THE SUCCESS, NOT YOU. *huffs* And then calling her down. Matt specifically had confirmed that Caduceus didn’t find her. THIS is something that Taliesin does occasionally that I do feel is WRONG and not just a thing I don’t like. We didn’t like it when Orion would take away spotlight from another player, well I don’t like it when Taliesin does it either.

(also in fairness this is definitely a clashing play style that I KNOW I have issues with. In my campaign, my druid had turned into a water bug so that she could skim across a bog, the DM gave me a bunch of information, and then a player whose PC was all the way back across the entire bog started talking and RPing and using the information. Which meant that without my decision, my PC had returned to the group AND dropped her wildshape to share the information. Meaning that any other shit I wanted to do? Couldn’t. Because the other player had a cool thing she wanted to do with the info, so she did it, without considering that her PC wouldn’t have known the info. Tal wanted to do his funny RP without him considering that Caduceus was confirmed by Matt to not have seen Dairon, but because Jester did, even though Jester didn’t TELL, Caduceus got to do his funny bit, overriding any RP decisions that Laura may have wanted to make.)

Oh joy, I get to be a negative nancy, because we immediately then go into SAM and one of my peeves with HIM. Nott clarifying that Dairon would possibly be a maid? Completely in character. Knowing that Jester had people tend the house and asking about it? Still in character. Dismissively saying that sure you can learn a servants name? NOT in character, just 100% a Sam joke. He even confirms it when Marisha cracks ‘your Scanlan is showing’ and he corrects ‘my Sam Riegel is showing’. Look, it’s a very funny joke, especially with the context of Dairon ready to pulverize for the joke, but it makes no sense at all for Nott to say it. It’s no wonder that it’s harder for me to get a good sense of Sam’s characters, when he In Character makes jokes that are clearly Out Of Character, but now his PC has made the joke and is being reacted to as such, even when it makes no sense for his PC to act that way.

There’s an aspect of Caleb that the campaign never really went in depth on, which is touched on here. Caleb is very certain that he’s still being hunted for, if not already found. The team are indicating that with the war going on, looking for one guy isn’t really that big of a deal, bad use of resources. Caleb is very disbelieving and in fact flinches during the conversation. We know from later that Trent wanted Caleb to take over for his own position. With all the vollstrecker, I really wonder how high up in the chain Caleb was, to know that he would very actively be hunted, to have Trent personally try to groom him for the position. Especially because Caleb/Liam have downplayed Caleb’s abilities, see Liam mentioning how he was only maybe level 2 before he broke, and that he never ‘graduated’, didn’t complete his learnings. Is it just the PC center, like how the players will always be the center? Or is there more that we never really had a chance to learn?

...document last saved 8/16. ...in fairness to me, I had a really rough end of August?

Wait is this the first instance of them teleporting to Yussa’s and just completely failing to let him know ahead of time??? XDDDD I love running gags that start AND continue just by sheer accident.

Did I only watch a few minutes and then leave for nearly a month? Yes again.

I’m so used to the meme-ing of Yussa being a complete reckless dumbass that it’s almost jarring to actually watch again and see him all intellectual and collected. Granted, he hasn’t trapped himself yet (the first time), so we’ll get there.

Ugh I can’t WAIT for more happy fun ball time! Not for a while yet though, I don’t think. Do they only go in shortly before Ashley returns? I know they have to go kill the heart, meet Allura, find out that the Angel of Irons is actually Tharizdun…. Either way, a good chunk off. Maybe it happens in the 80s.

LOL Sam and Marisha’s grimaces of ‘this fucking guy’ when Yussa is claiming that the dragon they killed could be considered a rare powerful endangered being by some, all while he’s just claiming the treasure as his.

Good on Tal for recognizing that they’re all still clothed in Kryn attire! 100% something that I forgot the first time I watched and also now. It’s the tricky part of dnd being imagination based, there are things that would be super obvious to PCs (what they are wearing) that players won’t think about at all.

Poor Travis, you can really tell how much he’s struggling with the virtual connection. I’m not surprised, it’s hell for adhd. I can’t tell you how glad I was that I was not in school when covid hit, there is absolutely no way I would have been able to keep my education up virtually. I had to take a single virtual course in college and it was HELL. Thank god we were only graded on the tests.

It’s really hard for me to say who my favorite NPC in all of C2 is, especially ‘cause I’m a huge fan of Shadowgast, but honestly I think it’s Yeza. Just the way Matt portrays him, the VOICE, the mannerisms! Every time I hear him speak it’s an instant emotional surge of ‘PROTECT THIS MAN AT ALL COSTS’. I know there’s a lot that can be discussed about his and Veth’s relationship dynamics and whether or not it’s healthy, but I do love this little guy so much. To use internet-speak, the BEST cinnamon roll, too good too pure for this world!

If they do C4, I wonder if Liam will make a PC with low wisdom/perception. Vax, Caleb, and Orym all have good perception skills. For all that Caduceus is the ‘perceptive’ one of the bunch, I think he and Caleb actually have tied perception (+10 with 19 passive), whereas Vax actually beats it due to high level privilege (+14 with 20 passive at level 20, but +10 with 19 passive at level 10/11, which I think is where the Nein is at?). (Vex was at 30 passive by level 20 thanks to Observant.) I’m presuming that it’s due to Liam’s enjoyment of the perception skill what with Vax doing his rogue-y investigating all the time and Caleb always looking through Frumpkin for an edge. It’s be a bit fun to see him do a PC with wisdom as a dump stat. (then again, considering I want to see him play a cleric…. *looks at all the dnd classes* Honestly, it’s hard to try and predict anything for a potential C4 for ANYONE because of what they’ve played. He probably wouldn’t do paladin because of the C1 multiclass, I don’t know if he’d go for sorcerer or artificer after playing wizard, he has mentioned before his lack of desire to play bard, even with Matt’s special college of tragedy. Hmmm. I can see him doing ranger or monk – though once again those are high wisdom. Same with cleric or druid. I struggle seeing him play barbarian [plus I really really want to see Laura play a barb], maybe a warlock? Then again, warlock with wisdom as the dump stat is just Fjord XD)

(just came up with a hypothetical C4 that I think would be fun for me to watch. Ashley – monk. Laura – barbarian. Liam – cleric. Marisha – paladin. Travis – wizard. Taliesin – druid. Sam – sorcerer. Sam and Taliesin were the hardest for me to think of classes for, especially because Taliesin has had flavor dips [warlock and artificer for C1, even though not the mechanics]. I could also see Sam as warlock)

Sometimes when Liam is emoting, it’s very hard for me to tell if it’s him or Caleb. Him watching the reunion of Luc with Veth and Yeza could honestly be either, because Liam gets very Feels with family and kid stuff (I remember him being uncomfortable when Matt was describing Nila’s son being imprisoned), but it ALSO is 100% in character for it to be Caleb feeling emotional because one- family whole and reunited for his best friend, two – that he can never have again for himself, and three – which may lead to Veth leaving.

WHAT IS THIS. YEZA is convincing Veth to show Luc her crossbow. VETH is telling Luc it’s too dangerous he can’t play with it he can’t touch it. How how the turns tabled.

(fun fact, never watched the office! I think I’ve seen one or two episodes ever? I can’t handle cringe humor, it just makes me uncomfortable)

LOL it didn’t take too long for that to switch

Matt’s faces as Luc are too precious.

Is there anything more Beau than Marion saying that the relationship was like ‘friendship’ and Beau says that she was going to say ‘unhealthy’. Beau is a very very good friend at this point, but she definitely still has a hard time comprehending it, especially when reciprocal to her.

First of all, lovely Caleb and Nott conversation about staying and going, but more importantly, LAURA’S FACES. She is soooo ticked that Sam is even considering have a PC leave mid-campaign again!

Oh man, I checked the transcript to see how quiet Travis was this episode, because he’s CLEARLY out of it. 60 sentences, most of them four words or less.

OMG WAIT WAIT WAIT IS THIS CALIANNA’S PACKAGE!!!!! DOES CALEB GET THE WAND FOR THE TOWER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

(backtracking slightly, I’m a little disappointed that Matt took the lead in the conversation between Marion and Jester. Laura very much initiated the idea for the talk, and I wonder if she was able to share what she wanted to. It was clear from the start that it was a very introspective and sad Jester, but then Matt pretty quickly led the conversation away from that. Granted I’m sure the main part was informing Marion of Astrid, but I really wonder what else Jester could have said)

...Marisha looks pretty cute with the bow on actually. ….is Fjord’s stuff actually potpourri?? LOL NOPE HOMEOPATHIC FUR ALLERGY TREATMENT.

I don’t think when I watched the first time that I actually realized that Mark was a DM. I think it was mentioned, but not really processed. However, looking at these items and hearing Caleb read the letter, it’s VERY clear that it was gifted by a very talented DM. Also Caleb’s letter gave me all the feels.

I honestly really like the fact that Veth is kind of a bad parent? Like, she deliberately spoils Luc and tries to get Yeza to spoil him constantly too. But at the same time, she’s a good parent. Makes him try bites of his food, wants to ensure his care. But I appreciate how Sam is always willing to lean HARD into the flaws of his PCs. I also like that Matt/Yeza had to be the one to tell Veth to go with the Nein. Granted, I can’t imagine a circumstance where Matt would tell a PC to leave the party, but still XD.

(...I JUST realized I’ve been typing for YEARS with the zoom set at 80%. omg the text is so much bigger now!)

I want to know how long Liam was planning to use the teleportation circle as a method to talk to and reassure Luc. It is so beautifully done, and once again I have a little difficulty telling who’s emoting, because it 100% could have been Veth and 100% could have been Sam. I’m actually slightly leaning more towards it actually being Sam, as I think that there’s a level of emoting around the eyes that he tends NOT to do in play (this moment here, the level 9 counterspell).

I wonder if Laura and Travis are in a different time zone. He is OUT of it. Well, I suppose humor is more contagious in person, I know I’m more likely to laugh in a room of people then just hearing those people talk online.

I like that Essek’s first teleportation actually starts with a mishap. I tend to forget about it, but it humanizes him a bit in these ‘early’ episodes.

UTHODERN!!!!

#cr c2 rewatch #the mighty nein #critical role

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