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nellie-elizabeth · 1 year

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The Legend of Vox Machina: Into Rimecleft (2x06)

Eyyyyy we're splitting the party, this should be good.

Cons:

Okay. So. Keyleth encouraging Vax to talk to the Matron of Ravens... I get why they added this little detail in, but to be honest it's a characterization change I'm not sure about. Keyleth in the streams has always been very dismissive or even distrustful of the gods. It feels weird that she should be the one to gently nudge Vax towards exploring that relationship. Maybe I'm misremembering and Keyleth says something to him in the stream too, it's hundreds of hours of gameplay and character choices aren't always 100% consistent, but this just rang false for me as a Keyleth moment.

Literally I have no other complaints though, this episode is perfect.

Pros:

I've been saying that all the episodes could use a couple more minutes of breathing room, and this episode really helped by having a section where everyone's just walking on their journey to meet the second sphinx, and they have a chance to chat, to catch up. The aforementioned Vax and Keyleth moment happens there, and we have Pike worrying about Grog, we have the ADORABLE moment of Percy giving Vex his coat... he's so smitten, I love it. It just really gave the group a chance to breathe and check in with each other before their next big moment of tension.

Grog's nightmare at the start of the episode was so intense, and was mirrored so beautifully by the agonizing ending where he stabs Pike with Craven Edge! This is changed in circumstances to how it happened on the stream, although something similar did occur, and it's so brutal to see it play out! Travis is killing it in the voice acting department. He really only offered comic relief last season, but now he gets to shine.

That goes double for Scanlan - see, when I started watching Critical Role during campaign one, my original favorites were, quite predictably, the twins and Percy. Percy's got that anime angst thing going on, and then pretty quickly so does Vax, after the Sunken Tomb incident. But as I kept watching, slowly emerging to the forefront of my "favorite characters" list was... Scanlan Shorthalt. It's partly the genius of Sam Riegel. He's such a charismatic man, he can take the jokey little gnome bard character and just shatter you to pieces with what happens next. And since watching this show, they have the time and space to set that up properly... hot damn, this is one of my absolute favorite episodes of the whole show thus far.

To start, we see that Scanlan does have people checking in on him, in their own way. He's not as completely isolated as he pretends to be, it's just that his humor is deflecting people from noticing his pain. Grog offers to carry him to warm him up, and yeah it's a comedy beat, and yeah Grog is manhandling him, but that's Grog's way of showing he cares, too. And Pike wants to talk to him about Grog, and yeah she tells him off for making a dumb joke, but she was looking for some sincere conversation from him, and he was the one who failed to give it.

Then we get Kamaljiori. This is a significant shift from how this encounter went down on the stream. I actually laughed out loud when the sphinx just introduced himself, because let's just say that's definitely not how it went the first time around! I love how Kamaljiori's trials are similar to Osysa's, in that they both involve touching on the insecurities of the party members: Vex doesn't have family who cares about her other than Vax, Grog needs to find where his strength comes from, etc., but it's also different. They're finding fun ways to mix up all the different combat scenarios from the show, what with this being a one-on-one test of strength that's ultimately won by emotional damage.

Fucking Scanlan, pulling out a pop ballad to wound Kamaljiori's heart... and it's honestly such a good song? Sam has such a good voice, damn! I actually got goosebumps. It's such a funny twist, and so heartfelt, and Scanlan actually finds a friend who understands him on an emotional level, who he can joke around with but who understands there's a heart under all that, and that he's having a hard time. It's so heartwarming for Scanlan to find this, and he even gets his own Vestige out of the deal! Mythcarver. I like how they've added in the twist about Mythcarver being tied to all the other Vestiges, so it can lead them to find the others as we go.

And then... just to pile on the angst... looks like with Ripley's assist, Umbrasyl has found Vox Machina. This was such an epic showdown, and again it's increasing the menace of these dragons. We just watched how Vox Machina couldn't get a hit in on this Sphinx, and now Umbrasyl is able to go toe to toe with him! I was genuinely moved by Scanlan and "Kammi" defending each other during the fight. This ancient powerful being risked his life to protect his new little friend. In fact, he lost his life, after thanking Scanlan for letting him see Osysa once more before the end. This totally broke my heart!

And while we're all being sad about this Sphinx dying, meanwhile Grog is losing his battle to control Craven Edge, as he ferociously tackles Umbrasyl single-handed. Keyleth is trying to get a plane shift spell going, Grog is covered in Umbrasyl's blood and won't stop attacking, Pike tries to stop him and... gets impaled for her trouble! Gasp!

I'm actually really excited to see the Fey Realm stuff play out and the Westruun story also take strides, while our party is split up. It feels like it's a good opportunity to mix things up, and honestly will build to a really satisfying reunion in a few episodes!

A couple small things to call out: the Vax and Percy tension is still there simmering in the background. He's short with Percy about reading the runes, then shoulder-checks him on his way to go face the Sphinx. I'm obsessed with guilt-ridden Percy trying to make nice with Vax and just getting nowhere... I hope we get some of that in the next batch of episodes. Keyleth has a moment where she's hesitant about trying an unfamiliar spell, and Vax calls her "Kiki" and encourages her to try, and she is quite calm and more self-assured than we'd normally see her as she agrees to try. I love this! She's growing into her confidence more and more! Grog's attempts to hide what's happening with Craven Edge are very suspicious but also very funny. This week, he claims he was talking to the trees, to throw Pike off the scent.

And that's it! I can't believe this show keeps making me wait after such tense moments. Pike is seriously injured, Grog is drowning in guilt, the group is separated... can't wait to see more next week!

10/10

#review #tlovm #tlovm review #the legend of vox machina #critical role

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loquaciousquark · 2 years

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4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3E19 - E21 (May 3, 2022)

Tonight’s guests: Sam, Liam, Taliesin, and Laura. Liam: “Will the wheels just come off without Marisha here, or...?” Laura: “I feel like it already has.” Tonight’s Tavern Keeper host is Sam Riegel. Based on the teleprompter’s cues, he does a very, very terrible imitation of Fjord’s country accent. Laura, from offscreen: “It’s just FCG! Just do FCG!” Sam: “Yeah, but he’s deeper than me!” Oh gosh, this is off the rails already.

What the Fuck is Up With That? Sam starts the segment showcasing his flipflopped feet. Finally, we get to a question: how has it been to have a fluid group with the loss of Bertrand & Dorian, and the addition of Chetney? Liam says this didn’t feel like home at the start. Laura thought it felt really weird when Bertrand died and they were without Travis for so long. Sam thinks it made it harder to learn everyone’s goals, but he loved Dorian/Robbie both for who he is and what he brought to the dynamic: a kind character, great as a soundboard. Laura brings up that Dorian had a hardcore crush on one of the characters. “I’m pretty sure it was FCG.” Liam brings up that doing the mini-run with Fearne & Dorian in ExU made the rest of the group feel a bit like outsiders for the first few episodes, which was weird. Taliesin really liked it, thought it felt like X-Men.

Segue: Taliesin was way into comics as a kid, and reveals he once had a long conversation with Lenore Riegel, Sam’s mom, about Sam’s childhood. Sam was a Fantastic Four reader and never got into X-Men. Laura reveals she’s never seen Lost Boys, and everyone agrees it’s a very Laura movie.

Ruidus! WTFIUWT? Everyone agrees that Imogen’s dreams are happening on the moon, even though it hasn’t been confirmed in canon yet. Dani notes that Imogen’s mother wasn’t necessarily Ruidus-born, but was at least part of the study for psychic powers (and reminds us the Lumas twins were the ones to rip out the rest of the study’s pages). Orym’s moon tattoos were pure coincidence. Sam: “What do they symbolize? Are they you and your husband?” Laura, incensed: “You were THERE at the TABLE when he explained this!” Sam: “Oh, that’s why I think that.” Liam: “That’s what this show is for, to catch Sam up to speed.” Liam does point out that Travis is a moon-related werewolf. Taliesin is REALLY hoping they’ll go to the moon this campaign. Laura, Liam, and Tal accidentally start stuttering and fall into improv scat; Sam: “I don’t even know what they’re not talking about!” However, Sam remembers that in Legends of Vox Machina, Laudna came back to life under double moons in the animated shot. Tal tells us he reads the lore books Matt puts out as he reviews how Catha & Ruidus move in relation to each other. (Side note: @eponymous-rose, my partner in these recaps, has been talking about Exandria’s crazy moons since Campaign One. Nice to see this coming to fruition!)

The heist! WTFIUWT? Liam forcibly keeps us on topic by praising Matt for constantly varying the tempo of the game, avoiding all combat or all shopping or all heartfelt side conversations. Laura thinks they planned absolutely horribly; the moment when they realized they didn’t even scout the building was devastating. Tal was certain they’d be okay as long as they didn’t split up--except they did so immediately.

Liam talks about how he made Orym to be a “sidecar guy” who’d stick his finger in every electrical socket he came across, but over the course of ExU and then very quickly into C3 he found himself and his mediocre intelligence score (and Imogen) becoming the shop-minders instead of chaos monkeys. Tal tells us that save Imogen, this party is effectively a party of NPCs: Orym is the guy who works for the queen, Ashton is a goon for a villain, FCG is someone’s beast character; Laudna’s a ghost you would encounter. Imogen seems to be the only person with an intense destiny right now, aside from maybe Dorian. Sam could see Matt playing all of their characters as a silly voice. “It’s very X-Men.”

Travis’s invis-o-scouting with Chetney reminds Laura of Vax, in that they both would just disappear without warning and really annoy her. Taliesin talks about Ashton’s personal code & why the violation of the heist’s non-life-threatening rules affected Ashton so much. “If you have a deal, you don’t fuck with it. If you fuck with the deal, new deal and I get to make up what it is. Don’t put your hands on me if I don’t know you.”

They reminisce about heists within the show (all are followed with “that was terrible”), then discuss heist movies. Logan Lucky gets brought up! Excellent movie.

The Tower of Inquiry! Laura pulls a(n apparently quite sticky) block. It’s about preplanned character histories vs. organic adjustment of those histories within the game. Liam loves that you come into the game with a premise, then get to meet the character as it’s played. Examples: Orym really likes pie, discovered during ExU; Laura didn’t plan on a fear of heights for Imogen until the moment Matt was describing it. She herself doesn’t mind heights at all. Taliesin was struggling to find something for Ashton to be punk-y angry about in a world that fundamentally sort of functions well, but he’s now figured it out as of a few episodes ago.

Laura talks about building a character meant to be very uncomfortable in crowds who was then thrust into a heavily urban setting; she’d originally intended Imogen to stay very withdrawn until they left the city, but they stayed in the city so long she knew she had to at least partially get over it and start talking, or they’d be 20 episodes in and no one would know anything about Imogen at all. Laura & Marisha had lots of big discussions about where their characters had met & their travel history; Sam & Tal had one talk, ha. “You were a question asker and I was a not-question. You’re adorable and I want to make sure no one ever fucks with you.” FCG was delighted to finally have their questions answered when they met the rest of the group. Sam also discusses discovering FCG was a flat-earther, ha! “Strict RP decision,” and not because Sam is a troll in real life. Sure, yeah. He also discovered that FCG eats coins as they played--that wasn’t preplanned, as Sam decided he didn’t want to mess with money at all this campaign. He wanted a character who got rewarded mechanically by building relationships (RPing) with other characters, as that would encourage them to discover things about each other quickly.

Deep Dive! Sam thinks FCG has recovered since the glitching in the Shade Mother’s cavern. Sam himself knows the mechanics of how the glitching & recovery works, but FCG does not, so he can’t discuss it without spoilers. Sam also hadn’t really planned how to perform the errors, so the glitching was improv’ed in the moment.

Ashton’s hammer was made from leftover body parts from Ashton’s accident after Milo finished repairing him. Yuck. Prior to the hammer, they just used brass knuckles & whatever was around they could brawl with.

Laura FINALLY KILLS THE FLY that’s been haunting the set and screams directly into the mic. Bless her heart. Laura reveals that Imogen wasn’t born with her powers or the lightning marks on her arms; they both arrived together with the advent of her dreams. Both Laura & Imogen thought that the marks were just growing with the strength of her magic. She was terrified to use her powers at the start because she thought they were making the markings grow; she didn’t realize it might be related to the dreams. Taliesin asks about the purple hair: “Born with, changed to, or conscious choice?” Laura, weakly: “I haven’t decided yet. I just wanted purple hair...”

Liam’s question is about Laudna, and Laura confronts him on his pronunciation of Loud-na vs. Lodd-na. Liam: “I don’t say Loud-na.” Everyone else: “You do! You do all the time!” Liam: “Anyway. What was it like when Laudy made her revelation?” He says it’s like meeting a historical figure, since Orym wasn’t important in Zephrah but spent a lot of time 15 feet away from VM members discussing important events. It’s like carrying around a little piece of plutonium that he’s not sure how to communicate about. Taliesin tells us Percy is just screaming in the back of his head, “like just loud, irritated, British screams.”

Sam discusses how Liam chooses his race and class for every campaign. He wanted to find a different spin from previous clerics & loves diving into worlds he knows nothing about. He’s never gone through therapy himself, so he wanted to explore that here. He got lots of books and spoke to friends in psychiatry and psychology to get a good foundation. It reminds Taliesin of friends who take one psychology credit in college and go a little overboard. Liam thought it was a very improbable combination and knew Sam would come up with something entertaining. Sam originally intended to have FCG curse a LOT as a reflection of his builder, but thought that would be too exhausting (to Taliesin: “No offense.”). Tal remembers him finding the FCG voice over their session zero.

Segue into accents; there are lots of “viral” accents at the table right now, and it’s hard to keep them from creeping in. Everyone (rightfully) raves about Marisha’s accent and character. Taliesin has seen this voice before from theater with her many years ago and says it’s his favorite thing she does. Sam thinks Ashley also played it smart, because hers isn’t an accent, it’s (breathily) “just a way of being” like Marilyn Monroe or a 50′s movie star.

Ashton is a liar to himself and others, and believes he knows people well even when he doesn’t. “It’s worse when you need people and you’re bad at it.” Taliesin loves that there’s someone in the group okay with their pocket being picked, someone he can be a little bit of a dick to.

Laura has no idea who the figure in the storm is. Wild theory: maybe her mom is evil. Maybe it’s evil Imogen. She’s scared of and intrigued by the storm at the same time. The only thing she hammered into her backstory is Imogen’s certainty that if the storm catches her, she will die, and she’s intrigued that this might be changing.

Liam initially wanted to hatch Orym with his familiar friends, but decided to start him in ExU instead. He notes that they’re worse chaos gremlins in that group & had no Imogen to help him keep things grounded. “Dorian sometimes, but Dorian was a chameleon” who would take on other characteristics when he was talking to someone else. It was a different layer added to Orym and it was great.

Unexpected whiskey slaps cameo on this episode of 4SD! Laura smacks the bejeezus out of Liam (who apparently quite enjoys whiskey slaps but hasn’t been able to partake in a long time). “Should I really do it or should I kind of do it?” “75%. I love you.” Oh, my heart.

Question speed round! Initially, FCG never took offense when he was treated badly, but over the episodes with everyone checking in with them constantly, he’s discovered he’s actually not okay with it after all!

Ashton spent at least older-child-to-teenager years at the orphanage.

The ball was very difficult for Imogen because she couldn’t keep her walls up high enough. She’d never been dressed up in her entire life and was excited about that, but so bummed about being shoved in a corner.

Orym was wandering for years because there were no answers for so long; even now their leads are cold, but he’s growing fond of the new party. It’s giving him sharpened purpose. “Some things should just be made right.”

(Side note: they keep calling each other adorable nicknames throughout this, and it delights me: Limi, Mimi, twins, Tally. I’m just so glad they’re friends.)

Sam reviews their question slips. His were immediately shredded/crumpled, Tal’s were folded into origami, Laura’s stayed untouched, and Liam’s are an eclectic mix of mushroom shape, tiny twist, and flat. Fitting.

Tower of Inquiry (Reprise): Sam pulls a brick. Which Muppets would play your character? Fearne: Janet. Ashton: Animal. FCG: Beaker. Orym: Kermit or Robin (Kermit’s nephew). Imogen: Scooter. Chetney: Waldort and Statler (ha!). Laudna: the Count. Dorian: Sam Eagle or Rowlf. Matt: John Denver or Mark Hamill--one of the human guests.

Break: The Dani Barr confessions, a hilarious black-and-white noir spoof with Taliesin and Dani, with Tal talking about his euphoria at Matt’s frustration regarding his constant min-maxing of complicated homebrew subclasses. (Dani’s accent is fabulous.) “I don’t know what a grit point is, nobody does! Campaign Two--sure, he bumped me off before I had the chance to really get into that crazy, high level shit, but that’s okay. I bided my time, and now...Ashton. Rolling on a random table for nearly everything I do, fundamental chaos! That player’s handbook in your clutches won’t help you, because the table you need isn’t there. I hope you printed out a cheat sheet that consumes an entire panel of your GM screen just for me, and my crunchy little homebrew!”

Post-Break Shenanigans: ostensibly Street Fighter V, but Sam derails us immediately with honor rollies and then more questions as Liam and Tal start off with the game. Sam: “I can tell you that if I were watching this show, I wouldn’t give a shit about [the game].” Is that legal to say??

Imogen thinks Chetney is a funny little horndog. She works really hard with Imogen to avoid meta because technically she could be reading everyone’s thoughts at all times. She got the worst superficial thoughts of everyone when she first got her powers, so she blocks it all out. She wants to think better of people, so it’s an active effort to shut it down.

Laura, Ashley, and Marisha went to get their nails done together. Everything was harder with long nails. This is so cute.

Liam casually drops that all of the guests voice characters in this game except Sam. Taliesin actually voices one of the characters on the stream right now. Man, it’s a different world they live in.

Tal wrote more backstory for Ashton than any other character, which shocks Liam. This is also a character who’s never had something good happen to him, and Matt hates characters like that, so he’s unsure if Matt will stay with that or tweak some things.

Orym was a backup character in Campaign One, when Vax was high level but expected to die. (Laura physically blocks Sam’s view of the TV during this, which is pretty funny.) His backstory was set then; Liam had to find a reason for this high-level character to drop out of the sky. However, since Vax survived, he flipped the dynamic and had Keyleth help Orym instead of the other way around, and saved the character for another time.

Liam plays Gill, which is the character he voiced in this game. Dani is apparently “over it” in the background. Sam tells her to come hang out and she joins them. So cute.

Laura had no idea Imogen would have any connection to Ruidus. She just wrote about the storm, and Matt wrote her back and told her the storm would be red. That was all she knew going into the game. She HATES it when he turns the room red. She gets nervous every time they sleep.

Taliesin had to change one thing about Ashton’s background due to too much overlap with Orym’s background. He can’t reveal what it is yet.

Sam wore flipflops because the internet appreciates feet. Also, it was 88 degrees.

Dani declines to ship on camera; she’d rather let the relationships play out naturally without commentary. Oh, Dani, this is such a wise decision and I’m so glad.

And that’s it! Is it Thursday yet? (It is, it is!)

#critical role #talks machina #4 sided dive #4sd #4 sided dive spoilers #critical role spoilers #long post for ts #very long post for ts

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grigori77 · 1 year

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Critical Role Campaign 3 Episode 39

Cash App again ... here we go, this'll be hilarious and awful. And Ashley STILL doesn't know what she's doing as The Thumb ... "I'm so lame." Wait ... a cliffhanger? Really?

Matt's advertising voice-over style is strangely lovable, too ...

I love it when Marisha fumbles a "but wait, there's more", it's quite endearing, really.

Matt: "And now you too can scram ... scram? SCREAM at Sam Riegel."

"It's Thursday Niiiiiiiight!" C'mon everybody, y'know you wanna sing along!

Okay ... with Eshteross dead ... :( Where do we go from here? We got Laudna back, but ... oh man, I'm like SUPER conflicted right now ...

Ah yes, the decorum of informing people without implicating themselves too ... this is gonna be REALLY delicate work to get right.

The pronunciation debate on Seshadri prompting Sean Connery impressions galore, I love it.

Chetney tries to work out if there's a code in the cookie recipe. Makes a beautiful tit out of himself.

"Eshteross' Revengers ..." No, not after they spent all that time on a logo.

Imogen messages Seshadri ... Matt: "Crossing the streams ..." Funny ... and then it gets emotional. HEY!!! NO PHONES!!! Don't they know they're recording? XD

The Otohan orb is still dark ... that's if it still works now ...

Room 69 ... oh dear ... Imogen: "Be discreet." Cue numerous innuendos.

2 gold for a bottle of nice scotch? Pretty sweet.

Evelyn ... yeah, she DEFINITELY shouldn't go back to the house. Man, she sounds so flustered now ...

I think Ashton's ALLOWED to be paranoid right now.

Laudna has NO REASON to feel indebted to the others, they all love her. Necklace and dolls ... oh yeah, those were IN THE SPIRIT WORLD, Fearne! The wish is father of the thought, clearly ...

Oh yeah, Mathilda Bradbury ... but now she's Laudna. So she's happiest staying who she us NOW, it seems. Fearne: "I like Laudna." Yeah, we all do, luv.

It came out of the la la la's she'd sing to herself? That's adorable ... oh hello again Pate, you freaky little beasty ...

No Delilah? Please no Delilah ... REALLY don't tempt fate, guys!

Eldritch Poof ... Laudna: Ashton, catch!" Did she just -- Matt: "Roll 2 D20s ..." Bloody hell ...

She had powers BEFORE? Oh yeah, she did ... hmmm ... okay, maybe she'll be okay?

This guy at the door ... Olly? Oh yeah, the Green Seekers. This is either good or REALLY bad ... yeah, they ARE under suspicion. SHIT.

Orym rolls 21 insight ... WHISPERS!!! Sam has to scramble a plug ...

The emotional wheel ... Sam: "Where's confusion?"

Checking Seshadri's letter ... is he REALLY gonna try and READ IT THROUGH THE ENVELOPE?!!!

Fuck ... he just TEARS IT OPEN ... this can't end well ...

Eshteross was being honest in trusting her ... Laudna casts Mending on the envelope and seal. Taliesin: "Mmmmm ... mail fraud."

Pearl ... BAT BAT!!! Liam: "It's Morphin' time."

Okay ... QUITE the brouhaha in the Spires tonight ...

Fuck ... did Ashton just say PLEASE?!!!

They get BADGES ... Ashton's vaguely insulted. He's so unrepentantly punk ...

Back to the Estste, then. Okay ... here she is! Mistress Seshadri. All righty then ...

Whoa ... are they about go use necromancy on Eshteross? Speak With The Dead, perhaps?

Yup, looks like that's it, yeah. Wow ... she is CREEPY. OH ... I really don't like this ...

Grave Mystic Weva Vudol. Hmmm ...

Oh fuck ... he's reanimated ... I hate this.

Whoa! That's it! Otohan's full on implicated! And the Bells Hells are OFF THE HOOK!!! Phew ... awwwww, and he got his final request fir proper burial rites. Gross, but sweet and kinda romantic too.

Hey, they even get an APOLOGY out of it. Nice. AND Otohan is now a Person of Interest. Yeah ... that's about right, there's gonna be a BUNCH of passes on THAT ONE.

SECOND contract ... oh yeah, Treshi was the first. Right.

Sruwagas. Home of the Stratos Throne. Now THAT'S a mouthful.

Wait ... that was Imogen's neighbourhood? Ooooh ... backstory goodness! Yum! XD

Okay ... so there's the letters. Business time! Here we go.

Chetney "produces the page" ... FCG: "Chetney's dying!"

Laura gets a fly in her coffee ... goes through an existential crisis about whether to spare it or not while Sam and Liam make references to The Fly ...

FCG gets weirded out by Seshadri not reading the letter straight away. Ashton: "Don't make them anxious, you wouldn't like them when they're anxious." Oh yeah, that's right. Don't trigger the Murderbot ...

Vudol notices Laudna ... whoa ... is she getting heart eyes? Holy fuck ... that is DOUBLE creepy ... but also strangely adorable.

Oh shit ... they worked out Laudna just got resurrected JUSY BY LOOKING AT HER? Fuck ...

21 to Insight that ass ...

Travis (singing): "What is mystery?" Tim Burton references ensue ... hmmmm ...

Business done by midday tomorrow, then. That's helpful.

Yeah, no, best not stay in the mansion right now, guys ... oh yeah, stay on the skyship, that's smart.

Time for their final farewells to Eshteross ... oh boy ... so now he seems to be at peace, that's sweet -- and Fearne is now LOOTING THE BODY. For the gods' sake ...

Sentimental ginger. Cute.

Laudna, to Pate: "No, it's sad. Look sad. SADDER!!!" Pate: "I can't! It's my face, it's BONE!!!"

Time is a weird soup ... awwwww, it's back. :3

Pate being a creepy little stealth bugger is cute in the creepiest way ... ooh, ginger AND cinnamon! BONUS!!!

Imogen says goodbye to Eshteross. I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying.

Ashton seeks a memento or two. His goodbye is a good deal more understated, that's about right for him.

The Sit and Swill again. Now what? Call it a night, then. Okay ... but it was only just morning in Whitestone. Hmmm ... okay, so they all sleep in. About right after the day/night they just had ...

Oh yeah, the poison ... that's some nasty shit. Will and Orym's dad ... so they planned to take Eshteross out PROPER. Imogen has a scary point, next time they're probably not going to be so lucky.

Orym and Keyleth backstory goodness ... more yum!

FCG does some Identifying ... oh, not so much for the blood, then. Medicine check ...NAT 20!!! Nice ... he can't make anything of it but on a Nat 20 that actually means something in itself.

Oh, so at least that means he gets the read on Turmoil ... whoa, so it's A SCYTHE?!!! Acts as a greatsword ...

Laudna: "A werewolf with a scythe sounds pretty awesome!" Yeah it does.

Oh yeah, that IS pretty frickin sweet ... AND it matches the size of the wielder? NICE.

Ashton and Chetney are now politely flexing about who gets Turmoil ... okay, maybe NOT so politely ...

Breakfast ... yay, Pretty! Awwwwwwww ... he's so adorable.

FCG: "Is there love in your life?" Pretty: "Well, right now I'm ... exploring my options." :3

The girls are still all single ... FCG, stop ... Pretty continues to let them down gently. I love it.

Pretty: "Well, gotta go drain the bacon grease." And NOW Matt realises what he just said as the others lay into him without mercy ... XD

Yeah, that's probably the best time to go to a break, Matthew ...

The way they're featuring Matt in the M9 Reunion ad makes me smile, love how it's pretty blatantly implicating that Essek WILL BE an official member of the party ...

They're incorrigible? What did they do during the break, Matt? What did they do?

Hello, back to the Silver Sun. Nice.

Oh yeah, they BROKE THE SHIP on the way back. It's only been 2 days ...

Liam gets confused by Matt's NPC work and it's adorable in the most hilarious way.

Mama juice ... XD

Fuck, Matt is going SO FRENCH right now, this is a TRIP.

Looking for Xandis, then. Here we go ...

Ashton: "Is THAT how we're promoting people now? Degrees of unsettling?"

Oh yeah, that's right, Laudna was dead when Xandis last saw her. Way to be sensitive about it, you weird ass Dutchman ...

So, to Yios ... 11 days? Hmmm ...

Ashton, to Chetney: "Why are you talking in ellipses?"

Gloom Jungle's on the way? Perfect.

Yes. Get the Gorgynei. THAT is some solid reinforcement right there.

Xandis jokes about having an escape pod. That's cute ...

Wow, this clerk is just ... wow. Matt, you are evil. Laudna had fun though, that's sweet.

Laura: "We're gonna get some diamonds." Xandis: "You can dress up however you want for this trip." Laura: "I was talking to YOU, Matt!"

ONE FULL DAY to get the right amount of diamonds? Cue lots of argument about what they already have as they try to get around the time wasting ...

Taliesin is ACTUALLY TOYING WITH the idea of MUGGING SOMEBODY to get a decent Ruby quicker ... finally Laura just gives up and decides to wait.

Xandis is conflicted about their chances in an excited way ... he's a strange one, he really is.

Chetney volunteers to help with repairs. Imogen is gonna wait AFTER ALL. They take the extra night and Imogen gets her ruby in the morning.

Woodworking demon Chetney is a bit too turned on right now, I swear ...

FCG wants a special commemorative gold coin and Imogen gets ALL KINDS of flustered in the store. AND Orym takes the piss by requesting a protein shake.

Xandis' "welcome aboard" speech is PRICELESS.

Matt wants to try and scoot through this journey as fast as possible ... how many rolls is this gonna take?

First day uneventful ...

Second day uneventful ... Liam gives Matt exercise envy by describing Orym's daily workout routine.

Third day ... Taliesin rolls 3! Okay ... oh fuck, is that a dust storm? AGAIN?!!!

Chetney gives everybody rope to tie themselves to the ship just in case. Smart.

Laudna flies Pate like a kite and he love/hates it!

MORE THAN HALF the party roll SHITE and now they are flying like yoyos in sll directions on the ends of their ropes. Meanwhile Orym, on a longer rope, is A LONG WAY OFF.

They don't lose anybody, but they DO lose a day. Yeah ...

Fourth day uneventful ... okay, something is happening in the night ...

Ruidus rises ... oh man, the lights are going all red, that's never good ...

Imogen is now dreaming again ... another shadow in the storm ... oh, it's Laudna. She's not answering, though ... oh shit, that's not her! Whoa ... it's her mum!

Chetney's rolling ... 6? Ooop ... great, now Ruidus is having an effect on him too. Not good ... yup, he's wolfing out! Not good AT ALL!!!

Shit, he's gone full on FERAL ... and he's going for Orym. 2 hits! Oh shit ... 14 points of slashing damage! Ouch! Orym gets 16 points in return but it's halved ...

Oh shit this is getting so bad so quick!

And now they're rolling initiative ... Orym goes first.

Orym STABS HIM IN THE FOOT!!! That's just MEAN!!! Considers kicking him off the ship too but resists the urge ... NAT 20 attack on his leg! Super shovey action! Full on CRIT?!!! Ouch! He's not even trying to kill him either ...

Fearne casts Daylight on Chetney! Oh shit she's actually pulling a fucking Black Widow Lullaby on Chet! I love it! XD

It ALMOST works. Almost.

Liam (menacing): "Dance with the Devil in the red moonlight."

And now Chetney's going after Fearne. 10 points of slashing damage! As far as he knows he's just SCRATCHING AN ITCH!!!

Orym pulls a Bait & Switch on Fearne to protect her! Nice! 16 damage down to half. Orym: "Chet, we're gonna keep hitting you until you heal!" Fearne: "What do you mean?" Orym: "We're gonna keep hoping until he passes out!"

For a moment they break him out of it ... and he's under a certain number of Hit Points ... bollocks. Travis tanks the save ... yup, Chet goes apeshit again!

Orym is trying to go for NON LETHAL DAMAGE ... hmmm ... is this actually even gonna work?

Meatzza Pizza!

Chetney is WAY too strong for Fearne to restrain right now, clearly ... oh wait, he's back. He sees what he did ... Chetney (in wolf voice): "Oops ... I did it again." Everybody cracks up.

Fearne remains seemingly immune to Chetney's attempts at guilty flirtation, it seems ...

Meanwhile, back in Imogen's dream ...

Her mother's gone ... she can see Ruidus this time? Hmmm ... Lightning Strike on the hut ... and it's just GONE in the storm.

Up into the sky ... she goes up ... and starts to fall! Oh shit ... she wakes up! Oh boy ...

Casts Sendjng to her mother ...

Imogen's mother: "Imogen?"

Matt: "And THAT'S where we're gonna end tonight's episode!" Everybody goes TOTALLY MENTAL this time!

MATTHEW FUCKING MERCER WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!!! YOU IMPOSSIBLE SADIST HOW CAN YOU LEAVE US HANGING LIKE THIS?!!! AAAAAARGH!!!

#critical role #crit role campaign 3 #campaign 3 spoilers #campaign 3 episode 39 #matt mercer #marisha ray #laudna #travis willingham #chetney pock o'pea #laura bailey #imogen temult #liam o'brien #orym of the air ashari #ashley johnson #fearne calloway #taliesin jaffe #ashton greymoore #sam riegel #fresh cut grass

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vethyourhalflingmother · 5 years

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What sort of stuff does Scanlan do in the theater AU, considering his player was a legit professional theater kid and is a lot like Sam when he was younger apparently based on his BTS? He must love watching Percy freak the shit out.

i suppose scanlan would probably do a little bit of everything? it would make sense if he did something with music/sound, but i could see him being an actor too (tho not a lead). i feel like he wouldn’t volunteer for a more point role but if he were thrust into it he could handle it

#i think sam riegel played gavroche once #in like a professional production #also an important note is that i am not and never was a theater kid #ive been frequently theater kid adjacent #my best friend ex girlfriend and former roommates were all theater kids in high school and/or college #so ive absorbed a little by like. living with a stage manager and a director last year #but like im just an english person who goes and watches plays when i know a person in them #this is why you will catch me screaming macbeth in a theater #i like to make my counterparts in the theater department cry #anon #anonymous #asks #answers #cr1 #theater au

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thessalian · 2 years

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Thess vs TLoVM Ep 12

Okey-doke, here we go, finale time! I should note that the only reason I’m able to do this is that I finally have a halfway decent desk chair because this would be painful otherwise and I’d be over on the sofa, whimpering. (I have fibromyalgia and chronic sinusitis, and my neck of the woods has been hit with two back-to-back storms the last few days; the barometric pressure drop triggered both. Yay.) But I do have a halfway decent desk chair, so let’s do this.

Before we even start, who wrote this? Brandon Auman (more Marvel, TMNT, and ... ooh, Star Wars: Resistance!) ... and Sam Riegel. I may have to hug him too.

Oh for fuck’s sake, Percthax.

Go, Cassandra!

Oh, dear. Hello, Craven Edge.

Oh, cutting the intro sequence was a good move.

Ah, Scanlan. He tries. That’s as much levity as they could probably fit into there, what with the desperation and all.

Oh, the fucking GRIN as he puts the mask on is scarier than the fucking mask itself!

Well, it’s about time they figured out that Pike doesn’t talk about shit “clouding people’s souls” like it ain’t no thing. Next time? LISTEN TO THE SERVANT OF THE EVERLIGHT SO DETERMINED TO HELP YOU THAT SHE ASTRALLY PROJECTS TO YOUR LOCATION TO KICK VAMPIRE ASS! ...okay? Okay.

...HOOOOOOOOLY FUCK. I didn’t think “Take the mask off, darling” could get any better but HOOOOOOOOLY FUCK. Also, that takes that “Percy’s shadow pointing the gun to Percy’s head” thing to a whole new foreshadowing place - just not a place Orthax would want it to go. Nicely done, writing team.

And this would be Taliesin’s nat 20 to resist Orthax that ended up with Percy exorcising Orthax through sheer force of will. Which is nice that they did that.

(Also, quick aside for you FFXIV players - when I was first catching up with CR Campaign 1, I’d watched the Orthax thing a couple of months previous and @true0neutral was more or less right in the middle of it right as we were going through the endgame of the MSQ of ARR - so the base game where Taliesin was voicing Thancred. Whose name I struggle to remember because when we found out that Lahabrea was possessing Thancred, and was basically Black Smoke Dude, we remembered what Taliesin said during this whole sequence and said, in unison as we were approaching the Lahabrea boss fight, “...Therapy!” Thereafter, even though Taliesin wasn’t voicing Thancred anymore, we didn’t call him Thancred; we called him ‘Therapy’, in Taliesin’s honour. The fact that Thancred went Gunblade has done nothing to change my mind about that one, even though I don’t play FFXIV anymore.)

Oh, this whole mindscape thing is fucked up and I love it. Give me the symbolism mixed with flashback. If you ever wondered what angst I crave? This. This is it.

Holy HELL they did things with Orthax on the visual end that I hadn’t even considered. I may or may not have nightmares tonight. THANKS FOR THAT.

(No, seriously, thank you. If I worried about nightmares, I wouldn’t fall asleep on the sofa to creepy Korean horror at 3am. Nightmares are fine.)

So ... it’s Matt voicing Orthax, right? ‘Cos IMDB is failing me again. *checks X-Ray View* Yep. Matt. IMDB, GET. YOUR. SHIT. TOGETHER. Matt deserves every single kudos for this. Every last one. He refined that shit since Campaign 1. Seriously. Nightmares.

(My players are probably not thanking you. Nightmares are just another source of inspiration for campaigns for me. My players both like that and really don’t, because that’s the nature of torturing the people you made up inside your head, and then handing those tortured people you made up inside your head over to experts for more torture.)

And the barrel spins and ... ooooooooooooh fucking hell. This got darker than it was originally. And it was fucking dark to begin with. Just the thought of those empty barrels filling with names of his loved ones before anyone else, just because they ‘stood in his way’... AAAAAAAAAA.

Okay, I saw quasi-spoilers about the Desmond thing being a foreshadow but tried not to pay any attention and I see it now and also OWWWWWWWW FUCK. Do you know how many bones he just shattered?!? OW OW OW OW.

“Yes, well, thank you for not dying”. He’s had more arrows in him than a porcupine has quills and was still cracking heads; great line, exactly because of how ludicrous and yet heartfelt it is.

Yeah, they had a ‘violence and foul language’ warning on this. They ... do know that ‘gore’ is a category all its own, right? Just saying - ‘gore’ belongs there. I mean, that’s ... a throat wound. A big one. That only appropriately bled because she’d lost so much to bullet wounds already. I mean, deserved, but DAYUM.

...I wonder what would have happened if Percy had been able to feed Delilah to Orthax? To her various clones, I mean.

Oh, Cassandra, clean off your fucking blade.

Okay, Scanlan, yes - now is the time we need your antics, thank you. I needed that laugh so much.

“Do you know how much that cost? How long it will take me to make ano--” OH SHIT yeah thanks for that. I’m so glad I wasn’t taking a sip of coffee at that point it would have gone entirely down the wrong pipe and I’d have to clean caffeinated bean water with sugar off two monitors, a speaker and probably the carpet.

Oh good, Whitestone has survivors! Does someone want to cut Goliath-Minion down?

Thank you for showing us that Scanlan is an equal opportunity lover! We didn’t have confirmation of that from Sam until the Love Potion Incident! Also OUCH Vax; come on, don’t be a cock-blocker. Lesser Restoration exists for a reason, right?

Aww. “We live as long as Whitestone lives” in a new and ... very good context.

Awwwwwwwwwww. And they managed to get in a reference to “And I walk away”. Ow, though. I mean, ow. Then again, given what’s coming, that ain’t gonna last long.

Okay, we don’t have Keyleth nearly getting her hand ripped off; we have an added warning that didn’t make it to the warning screen. That would not just be ‘violence’ or even ‘gore’. That transcends into fucking ‘body horror’.

N’aww. Just a lot of n’aww.

Oop! I can kind of hear, “Sun-Tree, A-Okay!” in my head. Which is nice. It doesn’t have to be there for me to have it there when appropriate.

Hello, Diplomacy!

Yes, Jarrett. EXCELLENT TIMING. That was gonna get ... long.

Oh gods, GILMORE.

Oh. The proclamation. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Okay, I do like this speech better.

Oh, so they’ll ensure that Emon stands ‘forever’, hmm? Well, Vex’s reaction says you’ve got maybe two more minutes.

So that was an epic shot to end on. Hooooooboy. So clearly we’re going directly into the Chroma Conclave arc for Season 2, then. Like, right the fuck away. Like, immediately. I mean, I guess the Fall of Emon is the ultimate icebreaker. Literally, given Vorugal...

So when’s Season 2 coming out? Well, article on HITC (which lists TLoVM as “anime” which is weird and possibly appropriative but I do know that those genre news sites are a little weird about their categorisation sometimes) says it’s definitely confirmed but no one’s given a date yet. BOO.

So ... that’s the end of that. For now. I want more, but I can be patient. Animators and voice actors and post-production people need time to work. So when I whine that it’s not there yet, I don’t really think they should go faster than they can tolerate; I just ... want it.

And I might talk a little more about specific elements later. Like, in terms of narrative structures, voice acting, etc. But for now I’ll leave it at “thank you for coming to my liveblog, and be grateful that you’re not my neighbour because most of the block-capital HOLY FUCK etc was ... literal. Like, out loud”. Then again, it’s barely gone 8pm and my neighbours across the corridor can suck it up because they keep making our end of the corridor reek of weed so they can handle my profanity.

#the legend of vox machina #tlovm spoilers #Thess watches Critical Role

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jonthethinker · 4 years

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I’ve been thinking about what I would find to be the perfect ending for Critical Role Campaign 2, and I realize how far my ideal ending may be from where we will probably end up, and why that is.

This isn’t to denigrate our fine storytellers, but there’s some strong ideological differences between what I would find most beautiful and interesting and where they are likely to end up.

To the cast, I sense it seems this is a story of recovery and discovery of identity. Seven broken people find each other, perhaps by chance or, as Matt’s opening lines of the campaign suggest, Destiny. Regardless, they come together, and in that coming together, they help each other heal. This takes time, and comes with many conflicts and false starts and set backs, but slowly, they do indeed begin the process of healing.

As they heal, these lost souls begin to explore their identities safely in each others’ company. Each member of the Mighty Nein gets a chance to feel out who it is they are and want to be, all the while knowing that if they stumble and trip along the way, they have their dear friends to catch them. Eventually, they will have a firmer grasp on who it is they really are, deep down, and with that, be able to tackle the rest of what life has to throw at them head on. So far, if I am right and this is indeed what the cast believes, I completely agree with them. But things do begin to diverge on where they seem to want to take it, and where I wish it would be.

This divergence begins in the fallout of this healing and recovery. What happens next? Place and Purpose, of course. Once they know who they are, they are ready to find their homes; ready to find where they really belong. For now, that place is the Mighty Nein, but for some reason, this type of story never seems to be satisfied with that answer. There must be a new chapter, one in which the Mighty Nein, while remaining loyal and committed to one another as friends, each go their own way. They will have done what they set out to do with the group, and now they must build something new on their own.

You see this clearly in the two characters most aware of what kind of story they stumbled into, unsurprisingly played into by the two players least bothered by the fourth wall; Sam Riegel’s Nott The Brave/Veth Brenatto and Marisha Ray’s Beauregard Lionett. Both of these characters have been dreading the eventual closing of this chapter on healing and recovery, because of how comfortable they’ve become in their place within it, and how unprepared they feel for what surely must follow.

Nott was afraid of getting her body back because it would mean she may have to leave behind the first thing she’s ever felt good at, and grappled with how that must make her a terrible wife and mother to have those sorts of feelings. Once she does regain her body, Veth still grapples with these very feelings, even when she could have everything she thought she was fighting for all along, because the adventures of the Mighty Nein have so filled her with excitement and purpose and meaning like she’s never had before. She’s still waiting for that other shoe to drop, and the day her travels must end, because that’s the only way she feels she can satisfy the contradictions.

Beauregard was in her mind a loner, and only with the Mighty Nein has she ever started to question that self-diagnosis. In the Nein, for the very first time, she’s found a place for herself, and a group of people who can actually dull all her sharp edges. She has clear meaning and purpose in working with the Mighty Nein to overcome their personal obstacles, and maybe in doing so, leaving the world a little better than she found it. Before the Nein, those sorts of things weren’t even possibilities. She even felt she was assured a young death and thus no future to begin with. But when she realizes she could have a future, she wants it to be with the Nein... But as her ability to empathize begins to bloom, she realizes this may not be what everyone else has in mind. That some day, the rest of the Nein hope to put the Adventuring life behind them, and in that moment, Beau will have a future to decide for herself and herself alone, and that is terrifying. Because the main thing the Nein has taught Beau is how desperately she doesn’t want to be alone anymore.

As I said, I agree that this is a story about recovery and identity, but it is also much more that. For me, as just a humble member of the audience, the story of the Mighty Nein, above all, is a story about the consequences and possible solutions to isolation, loneliness, powerlessness, and above all, alienation. All seven of our great heroes have been forced through their particular backstories and their mutual adventures to battle with these very feelings over and over, and to me at least the solution to these problems is, well, the community, solidarity, and comfort of each other.

For me, it’s not so obvious that the Mighty Nein has to, well, end.

Sometimes it feels like the cast agrees with me, but usually only in their moments of greatest spontaneity, dealing with the struggles and heartbreaks right in front of them as they happen. I think of Fjord casting his falchion into the lava only to be pulled in closer by his friends. I think of Beau facing her parents, and then later with the fallout of her potential bargain with the Hag. I think of Jester preparing to confront her father, and the subsequent results of his apparent rejection. I think of Caduceus saving his family and his home, and deciding to stay with the Nein anyway. I think of Caleb confronted by Trent in Castle Ungebroch as a shield of his friends form around him. I think of all the Nein reassuring Veth they would accept and love her no matter if she was staying with them or not, but how much they’d miss her if she went. I think of how easily they accepted Yasha into the fold whenever she came back from her wanderings, and how hard they fought to get her back when she was taken from them.

The reason I come to the conclusion that the cast see’s the Nein as eventually having to end is the end for Vox Machina. You had seven people who helped each other heal and grow in ways they never thought they were destined for, experiencing a sense of belonging and purpose the world had never afforded them before the merry band formed. But as a would-be-God was locked away and a dear friend, lover, and brother faded from their grasps, they all drifted in their own directions. They all had a place to fill in the grand scheme of things, and it was time for them to grow up.

And its this notion of growing up that grates me. That these moments of camaraderie and companionship must be as ephemeral as our adolescence. The adventuring days and the bonds we form within them are only meant for our youth, and the meaning and purpose and place we find inside of them is only meant to help us through the confusing days of young adulthood, before we begin our real days as adults, which may only be tackled alone or with a lover. I simply don’t see it this way.

Adulthood should not be this singularly alienating experience that it has become. For most of the existence of humanity, it has not been. We are not meant for self-sufficiency and independence to the degree our society insists upon. Societies would not have formed in the first place without faith that a person can depend on others to provide for them. If the blacksmith also had to sow and patch their own clothes, she would never have time to blacksmith, just as a tailor can’t focus on sowing when she has to build and maintain her own tools. Poverty and deprivation can lead us to have to be more independent than we ought to, but in a world with equitably managed resources, we can afford to have faith the farmer will provide our food, the treatment plant will make our water safe to drink, and the carpenter will keep the rain off our head.

Think of how miserable most adults are today, and then think about how alone and alienated they all are. They are either spending each day working themselves numb only to go home and distract themselves with various entertainments, or if they have “community,” it’s so narrowly defined and judgmental that the gains made from your place within it are completely offset by how much you must cut yourself into shape to fit in. The greatest moments of our lives are often within our youth, because while you’re young you get to grow and stretch and stumble in the company of other people doing the same, and there is no expectation in doing anything else. But we’ve decided on some arbitrary point in which this time of personal exploration and safe company must end. If you’re old and want to expand your horizons, I hope you’re rich, because if not, it ain’t happening.

So for me, to imagine a world in which the members of the Mighty Nein might go a week, nonetheless months without seeing each other is beyond cruel. Think of the feeling of security and belonging the Nein have provided for one another, and tell me there has to be some arbitrary cut off date for their continued company. Think about Fjord breaking the habit of filing down his tusks because of the support of Jester and the Nein, a habit he performed into his early thirties, and tell me that one day, he needs to go out on his own because of reasons. They can take the lessons they’ve learned from the Nein, and still have the Nein, and not be unprepared to take whatever challenges life has to offer them, and in fact, may be better at tackling them all together with their family at their side every step of the way.

People prosper most when they decide they are better off working together than they are alone. To me, it’s abundantly clear this is true for the Mighty Nein. And I hope and pray when the time comes the cast will see it the same way. And I’ll accept and almost certainly enjoy whatever ending they end up having, in this strange form of improvised entertainment. None of this is to hate on the cast or me trying to tell them how to run their game or tell their story, I just have a lot of feelings on the matter. I am almost certainly overthinking something that may very well be a long way off from even happening. but after spending literally hundreds of hours with these fictional characters, I can’t help but want the best for them. And so far, the best for them is... well, each other. And no possible future they could have will be as good as one in which even in their golden years, they can look over and know, no matter what, they have the Mighty Nein.

#Critical Role #Long Post #The Mighty Nein #Beauregard Lionett #Nott The Brave #Veth Brenatto #Fjord #Jester Lavorre #Caleb Widogast #Yasha Nydoorin #Caduceus Clay #Good Lord have these thoughts been floating around my head for a while now #I just hope it makes sense

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yfere · 5 years

Text

Shipping Calculus! Live Updates from C2E65

Why no one started singing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G tree song during this episode, I have no idea. Thank you to @alarnia and @softazelma for helping with data entry. Masterpost here.

+500 to Liam O’Brien/The Sympathy Vote If anything, the investigative report humanized the man, what with his agonized expressions, the hard choices he’s making, the deals, trying desperately to hold onto his friendships. Sam Riegel seems like a robot in comparison, with very long bits. #VoteWithYourJohnson #LiamForPresident

-100 to Marisha Ray/Trustworthiness as the person in charge of the investigation into Liam O’Brien’s campaign, we expect a certain amount of clearheadedness and integrity, which does not include getting high before giving testimony. Fire her from the case! #VoteWithYourJohnson #LiamForPresident

+23 to Jester/Yasha for an adorkable conversation about Yasha’s hard rock harping career, using the imagination to handle hard feelings together, as all good Jester ships should. The offer to wipe Yasha’s memory again if there’s anything she doesn’t want to know or remember #ThatsLove, and Yasha channeling Jester’s slightly unhinged love of animals and peacemaking by speculating they could offer the udak some scritches to quell its murderous impulses. Yasha quoting Jester only about 500 times a day, worshipping the ground she walks on, believing she has the power to heal the grass, and then placing that grass into her pressed flower book to remember the moment with #ArtisticSolidarity.

+31 to Beau/Yasha, with a few Battle Aftercare Points for Yasha helping up Beau after the fight, and for an even more emotionally charged watch conversation that resulted in a Ljore Drop from Beau. Talking about past loves and betrayals, the “types” that Beau prefers. Yasha appreciating Beau’s lack of judgment, Beau only slightly ineffectively wielding her I’m-Horrible-Too trump card, Yasha saying she’s “seen” Beau “a lot.” Floating the idea that it is actually possible to move on from Zuala’s death. Beau offering to help Yasha dig up the body, because that’s not weird at all, That’s Love. Darlings. Points taken away because the focus of the conversation was almost entirely on other people they love and have loved, and Jester, which brings us to…

+10 to Beau/Yasha/Jester, as in the launch of the second major intra-party poly ship in the shipping calculus lab, we have two wlw who spend a substantial amount of their Lesbian Bonding Time just talking about how beautiful and perfect and incredible Jester Lavorre is. Fuck Caduceus, this Literal Saint walking amongst them can heal grass with her spit and her “radiant glow”. With the same logic, we can expect that her toenails cure poison, her kiss brings you back from the brink of death…Also, Jester lending Verbal Support to Yasha’s physical support after the gloomstalker battle, as Beau wrestles with embarrassment over not having done anything

+10 to Caleb/Fjord/Jester as our second poly ship gains points with Caleb saving both Fjord and Jester from plummeting to their deaths and Fjord taking the chance to thunderstep them both up the tree again!

+17 to Jester/Fjord but as usual, Fjord’s contribution to the Rescue-the-Jester operation looks a lot flashier, so he gets more of the Romance Credit. Not only that, but many points for a competitive tree-climbing adventure straight out of a romance novel where Fjord’s Need To Impress The Love Interest gives him enough adrenaline to actually beat out Jester on athletics, swinging her up safely into the branches like a magical green Tarzan. Fjord (and Beau) being lovingly sketched in Jester’s book so she can remember the moment forever. Excellent Battle Couple vibes in distracting and shooting down gloomstalkers while on the moorbounders, not once but twice. Fjord also made an admirable attempt to Rescue-the-Jester during the first gloomstalker attack, but Caduceus got +6 to Cockblocking for immediately assassinating the charmed gloomstalker before Fjord’s spell did any good. Fjord yelling at Nott for not listening to Jester. Plenty of point loss, however, because Fjord is never going to learn to love Jester’s animals, losing his cool and yelling about what her “fucking animal is doing” STOP, Fjord.

+5 to Jester/Caduceus, for the aforementioned gloomstalker assassination, and being #Blessed alongside Yasha and Fjord, but point loss for Caduceus rolling his eyes at Jester’s well-meaning attempt to spit the grass to life and saying “that’s not how it works,” saying “that’s not how it works” about the scrying despite having never succeeded in doing it himself, and for Jester insisting that the massive tree is an evil “vampire tree,” much to Caduceus’ dismay.

+15 to Caduceus/Arts-n-Crafts for sweetly weaving a sunhat for Yasha while everyone else does dumb shit like nearly getting themselves killed, damaging a holy tree and antagonizing the largest bird of prey in several miles’ radius. He’ll probably sit through whatever encounter happens next week continuing to weave that hat.

+20 to Sam Riegel/Heatstroke as he responds to Concerns over his sweating and over-warm getup by putting on more layers. I’d expect a President with some more self-preservation in him, but if he offs himself with poor costuming choices at least he’ll be taken out of the running, am I right? #VoteWithYourJohnson #LiamForPresident

+16 to Beau/Jester They also earn many Battle Points, as Jester sends her nastiest Guiding Bolts (according to Sam Riegel, an expression of love) rocketing towards the gloomstalker attacking Beau. Beau instantly thinking of Jester’s skill with art and asking her to copy the map, and Jester adorably sketching Beau as one of her favorite people up in the tree, besides thinking that Beau’s tree climbing skills are Incredibly Impressive, and sneaking alongside her and Fjord to get a better look at the roc nest. Point loss for Beau saying Jester’s map was “garbage” which, even though Beau meant the map itself and not Jester’s skill in copying it, Jester still took personally.

-10 to Caleb/The Mission as he confesses to “losing faith” during watch with Nott, feeling like they’re failing and they don’t know what they’re doing.

+25 to Caduceus/The Mission as despite the Wildmother telling him Things He Did Not Want To Hear during his Communing session, Caduceus gets a massive, massive sign he’s going in the right direction in the form of Melora’s tree, and a detailed vision of all the places he’s expected to go to when he sleeps that night.

+19 to Caduceus/Nature as Caduceus plays around in the dirt, pokes at some interesting moss for several minutes, and gets to hang out, utterly smitten with a massive tree that is the best thing ever look at it.

+4 to Caleb/Fjord as no one listens to Fjord’s desire for a short rest, and even his puppy eyes directed at Jester is not enough to sway them, until Caleb catches on to Fjord’s plight and uses his #ItPaysToBeADamselInDistress power to say he wants a short rest, and shift the party to his favor. Caleb wanting some light to read his now-apparently-waterproof book for the Tiny Hut, and Fjord eagerly offering to cast a spell to make Caleb and everything around him darker. It’s the thought that counts? Point loss for Fjord ignoring Caleb’s advice against antagonizing the chasing gloomstalkers.

-2 to Caleb/Cat-Shaped Creatures as asking Frumpkin-the-Vulture with his razor claws to knead and drape himself on people is not nearly as comforting as actually having a real-life cat do it. However, +10 to Caleb/Vulture Culture for that and for turning himself into a huge bird of prey to cart Nott around.

-5 to Jester/Cat-Shaped Creatures (also -5 to Jester/Pets) as despite attempting to comfort Yarnball after the first gloomstalker fight, Yarnball remains spooked enough to break formation when they encounter them again, at which point Jester channels Alison Hargreeves vibes by lying and using mind control to get the poor thing back in line.

-4 to Fjord/Caduceus as Fjord gets a special, potentially life-saving visit from the Wildmother in his dreams, delivering him for the moment from Uk’otoa….and repays her by fucking up one of her most sacred places on the planet with repeated wood-shattering Thundersteps. Caduceus can’t watch.

-40 to Fjord/Uk’otoa as Uk’otoa now has a schedule of bothering Fjord every one to two weeks. I shudder to think how Uk’otoa is going to react once the Wildmother can’t protect Fjord anymore, now that he’s escaped from their clutches once.

+1 to Fjord/His Inner Bard for motivational rapping of...questionable quality

+3 to Caleb/Caduceus as Caleb very sweetly refuses Caduceus “wasting” his light spells on him, asks him about his feelings towards the tree. Caduceus looking to Caleb before anyone else to see if investigating the turtle shell is a good idea.

+4 to Nott/Jester as Nott offers some excellent advice on how to get ones’ way—ask the same question over and over again until you get the answer you want, and if that fails, do what you want anyway. Jester being the Most Concerned with Nott’s drinking, and alongside Caleb successfully steering her away from a suicidal (though heroically romantic) standoff against the gloomstalkers. Nott helping Jester and the others float safely down, and instinctively trying to save Jester and Fjord during their first fall. Bonding over an appreciation for big square dicks, which would only, and I mean only count for point gains between these two individuals. Point loss for Nott calling Jester “crazy” and saying she’ll scar Luke for life, which is probably just a deflection but a hurtful one. Jester catching Nott after she fails to climb the tree and just barely managing to stop herself from being negative and saying “Good effort!” instead, because Jester can’t help but feel like it’s her job to Be Encouraging.

+30 to Nott/Keeping It Together Maybe as she’s totally fine, she’s just going to drink a lot and nearly kill herself trying to stand off against the gloomstalkers and go stealthing alone in the middle of the night and rip the heart out of her enemies—she’s fine guys. It’s all under control

+2 to Clerics/Loneliness, as both Jester and Caduceus are abandoned to take a watch alone. Even so, their love for the others shines through, with Jester phoning up Kiri, and Caduceus preparing breakfast for everyone.

+1 to Caleb/Jester as Caleb tries to gently defend Jester to Nott, a few different times—a difficult thing, to dissuade Nott of anything!

+25 to Nott the Best Detective Agency/Detective Work and Beau/Nerdom as Beau is the one to find the map of the area to have Jester copy, alongside Nott’s excellent vision catching Melora’s tree at a distance. Then, Nott’s investigation of the tree alone demonstrating Admirable Detective Curiosity, while Beau is the only person to recall exactly what the tree is and its significance to the Wildmother and the Calamity. Jester finding their target running his hands along some mountain in the Prenumbra Range, looking for the correct place to put the emblem that he bought from the scout courier.

+3 to Essik/The Mighty Nein as he is “proud” that they’re hanging out cheerfully in the middle of the Badlands. At this point Essik seems to have just accepted that they’re a dumpster fire and has resolved to pat them on the head so long as they do the bare minimum and keep themselves alive. A few days from now they’ll give him a call from the bottom of the ocean, yes yes that’s very good children, we’re very proud of you here and that’s what I’ll tell anyone who asks because it’s not like I staked any part of my reputation on backing you to the Bright Queen or anything.

#fjorester #beauyasha #beaujester #lavorregard #bashter #widofjorester #widofjord #fjorclay #nott the best detective agency #widojest #jestasha #critical role #cr spoilers #clayleb #shipping calculus #late and lacking in jokes because I've been busy feeling sad about pirates #and work #clayvorre

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ganbarimaster · 4 years

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Check Up Tag

Tagged by: @orime-stories

How has your day been?

By and large a decent enough day, albeit one marred with the impending (and completely unnecessary) return to work on the following day. It wasn’t my most productive day, and there were moments which were a little stressful. But I don’t think that all of my days need to be productive days, as now more than ever it’s important to take days which are dedicated to self-care. And there will inevitably be stressful moments with things being as they are nowadays. But I had some good sushi for lunch, curry for dinner, I put in some time slaving away for Tom Nook and I dedicated my evening to carving a path through the chaos of ancient China. What was the last thing that made you smile?

I smiled a lot whilst watching episode five of season two of “All Work No Play” on YouTube, as the two hosts (Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel) discussed what it meant for them to be “manly”, given that they are far from the old-fashioned traditional idea of what some considered manliness to mean. They also chatted a lot about how much their friendship meant to each of them and expressed their love for one another and it was a beautiful thing. I need more of this type of masculinity in my life. The biggest smile I had today was when my wife made my laugh this morning. She’s the best. What’s been keeping you entertained these days?

As alluded to in an early answer, I’ve been going in and out of Dynasty Warriors 8XLCE on Steam, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, and Dynasty Warriors 9 on PS4. It’s been fun being back in that world again, meeting some new characters, remembering the story. So many beautiful boys.

If you are in some sort of quarantine/self-isolation, is there anything you’d like to achieve in this time?

I feel like I’ve been avoiding making goals for the time being as trying to force myself to achieve certain things might bring about unwanted stress. All I’m really hoping to accomplish is just catching up with some games I’ve been wanting to play, watching some stuff on Netflix, and keeping myself happy and healthy.

Post a selfie (if you want)!

Just out here trying to make my uncle proud of me. Tagging -- Anyone who sees this and wants to do it!

#ask response #asks #check up tag #cao xiu #dynasty warriors #personal

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pomrania · 5 years

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Speech overlap in conversation between close male friends

((So this is the final paper I did for my Gender and Language course, looking at an All Work No Play clip with the conversation between Sam and Liam. Posting it here now, because why not. Word count: 1913 words.))

Introduction

Too many things are incorrectly ascribed to gender. So many relevant variables, from power to intimacy to social status, are all folded into “gender” like it's the real reason for any finding, even without gender stereotypes interfering with what researchers believe they see. I felt that what we were given as features of female conversation, particularly between friends, was not due to gender, rather openness between the parties involved. In our society, unfortunately, emotional intimacy between men is often stigmatized, leading to some avoiding it for fear of repercussions; there is also pressure on them to constantly posture their masculinity and heterosexuality.

If one looked specifically at close male friends, would their conversational features be the same as those of female friends who aren't afraid to be open with each other?

I selected speech overlap as a focus, because it encompasses a wide variety of purposes, from supportive back-channelling to violative interruption. I chose a pair of friends whose interactions were already on publicly-available video, whose work and relationship I was familiar with, who were conversationally proficient, and who didn't subscribe to toxic masculinity.

Methods

Liam O'Brien and Sam Riegel, the participants for this paper, are colleagues and close friends. They are both white cis men in their 40s, reasonably well off, and established voice actors noted for their involvement in Critical Role.

I chose for analysis a clip from the beginning of “All Work No Play: Sword Fighting”, the first video in an online series that follows Sam Riegal and Liam O'Brien as they chat about whatever comes to mind, engage in various activities, and discuss “the fun [they] done”. This clip begins with them talking about their earlier podcast and how this show began, and goes to such varied places as the identity of a particular Schwarzenegger movie, children's birthday parties, geocaching, and finally introduces the sword fighting they had done. The conversation took place in a studio, with both participants sitting across from each other at a round table. They had beverage available throughout, presumably alcoholic.

The total duration of the analyzed clip was 11:42. Except for one hard cut done as a joke, and one sound effect added, the video has unbroken unedited audio, of an unscripted conversation between friends. The visuals switched between camera sources, but only the auditory aspects are under consideration here.

I transcribed the clip, and noted any overlaps. I classified the overlaps according to five categories:

"simple" overlap, where the second speaker began before the first speaker was entirely finished, but after the meaning was clear

successful interruption, where the second speaker took a turn from the first speaker before that one was done

failed interruption, where the second speaker tried, unsuccessfully,

back-channelling, or supportive listening

"additional", which covers both "interruptions" to add information with no intent of seizing the turn, and instances where both parties are talking at once with nobody yielding; the former corresponds to Coates' (1988) Type V

I came up with those classifications myself, in absence of prior widespread definitions. With the exception of "additional", I noted who initiated each overlap.

Results

Failed interruptions are, by far, the least common type, with only five instances out of a total of 111 overlaps. Back-channelling was the most common type of overlap, primarily due to Liam's contributions. “Additional” had the second-highest frequency, possibly due to its use by me as a “catch-all” category.

As shown in the table, Sam and Liam have similar total numbers of overlaps, but they differ when broken down by category. Simple overlaps and failed interruptions occur in roughly equal number between participants; there are faint trends, but not to a significant enough degree to justify declaring, as those might be pure randomness.

Liam has a drastically higher amount of verbal back-channelling, while Sam had substantially more successful interruptions.

Of interest is the fact that Liam has roughly the same amount of failed and successful interruptions, which shall be discussed further later on.

Some other results aren't apparent from the table, being qualitative rather than quantitative. While many topics occurred as a result of natural conversational drift, some were brought up intentionally; and in all four instances, this was done by Sam. None of the overlaps or interruptions was received negatively by either person; this accords with both Hunt (2005) and Coates (1988). The division and location of back-channelling will also be discussed later.

Conclusion/discussion

Although “knowledge of being observed and recorded” can change people's speech behaviours, I have reason to believe that such was not the case here, making this video a valid representation of their casual conversations. The participants are professional voice actors, who have also had their weekly D&D games filmed and broadcast for the past four years. Having watched almost all of said D&D game broadcasts, which often run for four hours per session unscripted, I can confidently say that their verbal behaviour, in the examined video, does not appear to differ from that which I have previously seen, at least when they are not acting in-character.

Asymmetry in conversation, even across multiple features, is not unusual, and greater or lesser use of one feature is not necessarily linked to usage of a different feature (Freed et al., 1996). However, I only have the one pair to work from. There might or might not be a general correlation between frequency of back-channelling and simple overlap and failed and successful interruptions; I have no data to tell me one way or the other.

The conversation in question is very obviously cooperative and not competitive. Aside from the usual purpose of social bonding, and that All Work No Play is designed as an “excuse” for these two to hang out, this conversation was also explicitly filmed for fans of a show that both Liam and Sam appear on, so that they can see them interact.

“Interruptions” can be violative, an attempt to steal a turn, or they can be from enthusiasm. Prior knowledge of Sam's behaviour, along with Liam's reaction or lack thereof, leads me to believe that his “interruptions” are the latter kind. Sam has an outgoing and “active” nature, he always needs to be doing something; and I am like that too.

Liam has roughly equal (low) numbers of failed and successful interruptions, and Sam has a much higher number of successful interruptions than Liam. For an interruption to be successful, it requires two things: an attempt, and acquiescence on behalf of the other party. These pieces of information tell a story about the relative natures and dynamics of the participants. Sam feels a greater urgency to speak than Liam does, and Liam is happy to play along with it. I would expect this pattern to continue whenever active extroverts and more passive introverts are friends and have a conversation together, although I have no data to back that up, only intuition; this could be the subject of a future study.

Even though Liam had the highest rate of back-channelling, Sam still did a decent number. Back-channelling, by definition, is supportive and displays involvement in the conversation. However, a high amount of back-channelling alone does not denote a friendly conversation. Hunt (2005) recorded a group of three friends who had a similar rate of back-channelling to this study, but only if laughter and sound effects were included as such, whereas I did not count them.

Something interesting concerns instances of narration by each person, and how the other responded to it. Sam's longest stretch of narration, describing a birthday party he attended recently, was frequently interspersed with Liam's back-channelling. Liam has comparatively long uninterrupted stretches of speech, where he describes geocaching, or how birthdays change as children age. This cannot be explained simply as Sam being less supportive than Liam, when viewed in context. Liam's narratives are intended to convey information, while Sam's described an experience of his. Sam also left much more room for responses in his narrative. This difference in how they narrated might or might not be responsible for the difference in amount of back-channelling.

Not much can be definitively said from this about the overall nature of gender and conversation, although it provides evidence for features between two particular people. Some of the relevant apparent features of female friend conversation are simultaneous speech due to high involvement, high rates of back-channelling, and cooperative conversation-building. All of those were found here.

There is evidence to support that gender matters less than specific variables, when it comes to speech outside of public contexts. As follows, two studies examined pairs, controlling for conversational needs and other factors.

Freed et al. (1996) looked at pairs of same-sex friends, and usage of “you know” and various types of questions. They found that “you know” was used in the same ways, at the same frequency, regardless of gender, and its variation depended upon discourse needs, what type of talk there was. Question frequency did not vary by gender, although particular types of questions were used somewhat more often by the male or female pairs. They concluded that most of the observed gender differences, in natural environments, came from how gender affects what discourse requirements one is exposed to, and therefore how one would speak.

Kollock et al. (1985) looked at same-sex and opposite-sex intimate couples who live together, and found that for most features, dominance was more important than gender. Much of those results are outside the scope of this study, but it provides additional evidence that “gender” is often a confounding variable. One interesting tidbit is that in their study, less than half of the interruption attempts were successful, a start contrast to my findings, where the vast majority were successful. There are however some substantial differences in situation between their and my research, such as the nature of the participants' relationships (couples vs friends), and their research methods invoked potential conflict between members of a pair.

There are five great limitations in this study. First, although there have been attempts to create a system for classifying types of overlaps (Roger et al., 1988), nothing has of yet been commonly accepted. Therefore, one cannot easily compare results between studies, including my own, at least not in a statistically valid manner. Second, I only looked at a segment of one conversation, between one pair; I don't have as much data as I would like. Third, there is little-to-nothing available with which I can compare my results. My results may be generally applicable to all male friends of similar closeness, or they may be unique to Liam and Sam, I have no empirical evidence to direct me one way or another, only vaguely similar studies, and gut instinct. Aside from that, I only know two studies that examined conversational features between female friends, both of which I cited here; they are separated by a continent and two decades, and look at vastly different participants, so their actual comparative value is limited. Fourth, my classification system was flawed, specifically with the “additional” type; I should have noted an added comment or question along with its attribution, and kept the unattributed type for instances where it's unclear whose “turn” it might be. Fifth, I failed to account for transition-relevant places specifically.

Despite those, the overall findings of my research are valid, even if they could be better.

In conclusion: while I may not have conclusively proven my hypothesis, I have provided evidence that supports it, and taken a much-needed look at an understudied field.

References

Coates, J., Cameron, D., & Coates, J. (1988). Gossip revisited: Language in all-female groups. Women in Their Speech Communities: New Perspectives on Language & Sex, 94–121.

Critical Role. (2018, September 30). All Work No Play: Sword Fighting. Retrieved March 18, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD1CXWE7KwM

Freed, A. F., & Greenwood, A. (1996). Women, Men, and Type of Talk: What Makes the Difference? Language in Society, 25(1), 1-26.

Hunt, S. (2005). Some (more) features of conversation amongst women friends. Southern African Linguistics & Applied Language Studies, 23(4), 445–458.

Kollock, P., Blumstein, P., & Schwartz, P. (1985). Sex and power in interaction: conversational privileges and duties. American Sociological Review, 50, 34–46.

Roger, D., Bull, P., & Smith, S. (1988). The Development of a Comprehensive System for Classifying Interruptions. Journal of Language & Social Psychology, 7(1), 27–34.

#no fandom #fandom: critical role #linguistics #original content #not a reblog

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