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loquaciousquark · 4 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E111 (Sept. 29, 2020)

@eponymous-rose‘s internet is out tonight, so I’m here late and without coffee! Let’s see how many typos we can fit into an hour and a half episode.

Tonight’s guests: Ashley Williams JOHNSON, oops!! & Liam O’Brien!

We open with Brian in light-up vented sunglasses and Henry at his side, as always. Dani is very excited to be back and has fun-buns in her hair tonight. So cute! Everyone talks about how much they’re Zooming these days for work, and Liam mentions he and Matt & Marisha did a digital cocktail night. He and Dani arrange on camera to have a distanced, masked meetup in the park so Dani can see Liam’s dog again.

No announcements! Tonight, we’re discussin’ episodes 110 and 111.

Starting with the end, Brian jumps right to it by asking how they feel that Molly is alive. Liam 100% thought we’d be back to him, but still wasn’t ready when it happened. Caleb doubted he was alive. Both Liam & Ashley marvel at the numerology that keeps cropping up throughout the show. Brian hates not being able to see it at the same time the show happens live; Ashley was biting her tongue not telling him spoilers. (He doesn’t want to hear spoilers unless Yasha dies so he can be there for Ashley if needed.) Brian says he has a little reality trauma from the night Pike died in the pre-stream game; it was the first time he’d realized how much it affected the players.

Ashley’s realized how much she misses unpacking the game with Brian when they get home. She just has to sit with it until everyone else gets to see it. Brian: “Instead she comes home and I have to fill her in on the Real Housewives of Amarillo, Texas.”

Reunion dinner with Trent! Liam talks about how the way things unfolded with Trent is not at all how he imagined it in his pre-game creation; he’d expected more of a fracas, more of an unexpected clash. “Caleb might have been a different person if he’d run into these people earlier in the story. The M9 changed him before [Trent & co] came back and got to him.” He’d imagined Astrid & Eodwulf to be complicated encounters, but says what Matt’s designed has been even harder than that. A fight on a mountain is one thing, but walking into a room with “what Trent dropped, is impossible to cope with.” It also means that if what Trent said is true, anything Caleb does now is effectively of Trent’s design, even killing him.

He doesn’t think Caleb would have gone anywhere near Trent & co without the M9. “The Mighty Nein--it took a long time--but they cracked Caleb open like a walnut.”

He thinks what Matt has done is much more murky than the simplicity of murder, such as the Briarwood arc. He can’t just exact his revenge now.

Liam says that the tempation to tinker with time is no longer as all-consuming as it was. He might still be tempted if Matt dangles a bunch of carrots in front of him, but he thinks that now it might be better to make sure that that kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore for anyone else (!!!). “It’s still a nugget in his brain and it’s still possible he could be tempted by the drug, but what he wanted in the beginning was entirely selfish, but now that the M9 are involved he owes it to them, to the people of the country, even on the Dynasty side--is so complex that if Caleb were to get that carrot and chase it, he would be risking everything.”

Ashley agrees that most of their choices are no longer black and white. Many of the situations feel more like real life. Liam agrees and says he’ll sometimes make decisions that he’s both really happy with and regrets at the same time. They both look forward to what Matt will reveal in Act 3.

Brian feels it’s tough to gauge how deep they are into what Matt’s planned for the campaign. Liam says that thanks to Matt’s skill, he really doesn’t know what Caleb wants right now.

Ashley agrees, and talks about how she created Yasha to have more to overcome than Pike. She loves what Matt’s doing in terms of allowing each of them to overcome more emotional hurdles than physical ones in this campaign.

Going back to Molly’s grave was very exciting for Ashley since she wasn’t able to be there when he died in the game & wanted to do what she could to honor him. Yasha, however, was very hesitant but knew what needed to be done. She’s not very open with her emotions, but both she & Ashley were stressed. They all could feel the energy in the studio & knew Matt was about to do something mind-blowing. Liam: “You could feel all the dust in the air coalescing around Taliesin.”

Brian trips over Eodwulf. Liam tries to help him find some pronunciation shortcuts. Ashley: “You say it so beautifully.” Brian: “Thank you.” Ashley: “Not you.”

Caleb knows how wickedly intelligent & ambitious Astrid is, and was heartened by the wavering he saw in her at the dinner. However, he can’t trust her until he knows why she’s where she is.

He really feels that if they’d had this dinner 60 episodes ago, Caleb might have tilted back along the evil axis and he would have had to retire the character. He had a playlist entirely for if Caleb turned evil and left the party.

The vision of Zuala was a huge deal for Yasha, even along every other instance she’s had of being mind-controlled, etc. “That’s guilt I think she will always carry with her, but at least she’s starting to forgive herself.” Losing the chains, sprouting wings again--Ashley reiterates that she didn’t know that was even a possibility, she just picked the skeletal wings because they were dope--were huge moments in the character development. Ashley’s glad Beau was there at the moment of the first flight; Ashley thinks of the quotation “Happiness is only beautiful when it’s shared,” and because Yasha tends to keep things very much to herself, having someone there to share it made it more impactful. “That was a cool moment. There’s been a lot of healing for Yasha these last episodes.”d

Ashley also says sometimes in that moment, when all eyes are on you in a one-on-one with Matt, everything goes muffled like Saving Private Ryan. “Wub wub wub.”

Dani feels that the only way she could even have the conversation with Zuala was to let her go in the first place.

Liam thinks one of the things that Yasha & Cad share is that still waters run deep. He loves how much Yasha hangs back sometimes, only to then reveal some new moment like the fighting pit. Apparently Ashley also has a knife collection, and uses that metal side of herself when she wants to let that new side of Yasha show.

Cosplay of the Week: Crystal Armstead (@riyuski on twitter) in a Reani cosplay. Beautiful!

How does Liam feel about the return to Rexxentrum? Very, very complicated. Caleb loves magic and lights up when he sees it, which is wrapped in the Soltryce Academy; he brought folks to the dance hall for the same reason, which was wanting the M9 to see the things that he loved about the city.

Yasha felt the same way about visiting the Chantry of the Dawn. It was a memory of a very traumatic moment (almost killing Beau), but given everything that’s happened between then and now it was cathartic to see again. There’s been a lot of healing in the past few weeks. It also felt like a physical representation of Yasha’s growth, the last time she was controlled against her will like that (or at least, until she was mind-controlled by Vokodo. Ashley sighs, aggrieved.)

Brian: “The tower really feels like a love letter from Caleb to his friends.” Liam: “It is, and a love letter from Liam to his friends.” When he looked at Caleb’s spell list, he remembered how amazing the mansion was in Campaign One and how many role-playing moments it led to and knew he wanted to incorporate it. However, he knew it could never be the same as Scanlan’s mansion because Caleb doesn’t have the same improvisational genius as Scanlan does. Liam has been “tinkering with this machine” for over a year, waiting for the moment to reveal it. He loves that he got a chance to see Jester’s room in time to have her tower room reflect reality. He’d discussed the tower extensively with Dani & Matt. Brian: “Hey! What am I, chopped--what’s the saying?” Ashley: “Chopped cabbage?”

Ashley marvels at the design of the dome. Liam talks about how Caleb knowing Caleb has been abused has been slowly getting better, but he also loves now being able to juxtapose that healing with his innate love of magic and how beautiful he finds it, how he loves to use magic as his artistry. The Soltryce Academy wasn’t “Welcome to DEATH SCHOOL,” it was the Sorbonne. It was amazing, everything he wanted. It was only one bad apple within that recruited him and turned it all bad.

Liam also points out how much it means in real life to be able to express his love and care for his friends in person too.

Ashley talks about how much she loves Yasha’s armor in a meta sense because it’s so cool and useful, and great for her armor class, but struggles with what it represents in game. She might not be able to let it go due to its sheer utility, and she may have to find an in-game reason to justify keeping it.

Ashley segues a moment into talking about her velvet top which apparently has a matching velvet scrunchie. She’s asked to demonstrate the scrunchie and ties her hair up in a way that I have never in my life seen someone do with a scrunchie before, and my hair’s been waist-length most of my life. I watch it again in slow motion. How did she DO that??

Caleb’s been looking for the right time to tell Jester about his past for a long time. She’s a good person and makes him feel like he might be capable of becoming a good person at the end, because that’s how she saw him. Liam knew from Laura that Jester wouldn’t condemn him, but Caleb put it off as long as possible. He also wanted to take the time to make sure Caduceus & Yasha knew the whole story too before they went to dinner with Trent.

Liam was also relieved to get it out, because he could never remember who knew and who didn’t, and now he doesn’t have to track it anymore. “Now we can move forward. Now we can heal wounds, maybe.”

Ashley feels Cad picks up a lot, more than most people realize. Yasha was really affected by Cad’s line: “Patience can be good, but it can lead to apathy.” She really feels it opened her eyes, and she appreciated the simplicity of him pointing out her hair’s growing back white again. Having a friend notice “hey, you’re changing for the better” really means a lot. She’s interested in seeing how this means things might change with Beau.

Dani points out that it also reinforced for Yasha that she can want things too--she can be patient and just continue to be with the group, as she’s wanted, but it’s okay to want more than that too. Ashley remembers Veth asking her what her purpose is. There’s a part of her that knows Yasha is still figuring that out, and she’s interested to see how Yasha will continue to change. She’s always spent her life serving somebody--the Sky Spear, Obann--and then even after she joined the M9, it was very centered on “what do you need, what does the group need, how can I help with our next job?” She’s going to have to take some time to figure out what she wants.

Fanart of the Week! Lovely Yasha & Beau flight art by @JMNP7888. The wings look amazing!

Brian: “One of the things we want to talk to you about, Liam, is about the Vokodo fight and the FUCKING disintegrate spell.”

Liam: “That was one of the most insane 60-90 seconds of gameplay that ever existed for the table, and definitely for me, in the entire history of the show. A lot of people think I just went, oh man, just bet it all on black. But what if I told you that...I Larkin’d the first 20 seconds of that fight and then at a quarter to midnight, I forgot that the reflection was a thing? I just forgot it was a thing! I spent that whole battle thinking I’m just here to banish things. I might buff my friends a little bit, maybe I’ll counterspell, but I’m just here to banish. And it didn’t work and it didn’t work and then it did! Finally it did and Jester made it work and then he was GONE. And then everyone got greedy and it was done but we brought him BACK. And it was a quarter to midnight and I’m not an animatronic D&D lesson machine, I’m just a guy playing D&D at 11:45 at night, and he came back and everyone started Goodfellas circling him and kicking him, and Beau & Yasha are gonna kill him, and then it’s my turn? Disintegrate! And then the room was quiet, and then time passed, and Matt asked, you really cast Disintegrate? And I said yes, of course, and Matt started rolling dice, and in the back of my head I started wondering why he asked if I was rolling Disintegrate. Oh no. In the back of my brain, I was like, well, just tell him that’s not what you did. Tell him you didn’t remember the reflection thing. But he’s already rolling dice! You can’t take it back now. Hold on a second. I’m going to take you on the journey I went through. I was thinking: you have a spell save of 17. This thing wasn’t that fast. +1, +2, maybe? Anything under 14 is okay. That’s 70%. 70%. That’s okay, right? And still no one said anything to tip me off that I was in ELDRITCH MADNESS at that point, no one said anything about the reflection! And then I realize it can reflect back on us, and I realize this is...disintegrate. And then I started becoming morbidly, macabre-ly fascinated at the puppet dance of death I had created. Well, this is a mess. I have made a mess. Let’s just sit in it. And somehow, nonsensically, spectacularly, it worked out in my favor. I went home that night and I got in bed next to my wife, who was fast asleep, and I stared at the ceiling going, dude. Duuuuuuuude. Duuuuuuuuuude.”

He apparently also told his therapist about this and how terrible it was and how close he “danced myself to the precipice like a crazy person!” Marisha (as told by Liam): “Epic roll, though.”

Matt told Liam that night that if it had been reflected, it would have gone back on him. “If a player throws an M80 in the middle of a room, it would reflect on that player who threw it.”

Ashley talks about how interesting that Yasha is not performative, and yet has been doing these public performances with the harp. It’s a great experiment for Ashley--Yasha doesn’t like the attention, but feels like she is making something beautiful for the world.” She’s trying to change something about how she views herself & her place in the world. She was raised to be a weapon for the Sky Spear, but she’s also extremely gentle and loves flowers & beautiful music, and the further away she’s gotten from the tribe, she’s falling in love with gentle, beautiful things.

Liam also points out it easy (real, but simplistic) to make an entire character centered around a single personality trait: “I’m angry all the time. I’m sad all the time.” He thinks it’s more realistic to see nuance in personality.

Liam can see some paths for Caleb to find peace & do good. He doesn’t know if Caleb is conscious of those. He thinks it’s a huge step forward to admit he was molded in this direction at all and that it wasn’t all his choice, but doesn’t know if this is the same possibility as redemption.

He also mentions Essek in this answer: there was/is attraction there, both intellectual and physical--the forehead kiss was a big marker of that--and he’s interested in seeing where that goes because he’s invested in Essek’s redemption arc on its own, but Essek is not as high on the list as other things Caleb/the M9 need to work on. He loved the “high spy times” of the Essek arc and the tangled-up-ness of feelings getting involved at the same time as intense commitment to duty.

Liam always felt Matt would bring Molly back in some aspect, even though Caleb always demurred because he doesn’t believe in fate. Dani and Brian agree that this is the start of a new act.

Ashley cried at the Vilya reunion. She thought that was an incredible moment and was so glad to see Keyleth. Liam: “Keyleth as part of our story is everything to me. That story is really important to me, so getting just a glimpse of her again was so important to me.” They could all see how that affected Marisha & how special it was to her. Liam: “It was such a great note in her song or color in her painting. She achieved magnificent things and was powerful and great, but had a very heartbreaking and sad ending, so to have this sliver of joy go back in is so complex and beautiful and masterfully done.”

Aaaaaaand that’s all for tonight! Remember, no Critical Role this week. Talks will be back in two weeks. As always, don’t forget to love each other. <3

#talks machina #critical role #talks machina spoilers #critical role spoilers #long post #long post for ts

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eponymous-rose · 6 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E19 (May 22, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Travis Willingham and Matt Mercer (both in human and pillow form)!

Pre-show is blessed by a Tess Fowler original!

Announcements: Critrole.com is the new website, there’s a new partnership with Stack-Up and some fun merchandise associated with that (see website for details!), hardcover comic will be on sale on May 31 (see website for details!), the Stream of Many Eyes will be featuring most of the cast starting on June 1 (see... website for details? okay, no, it’s on the WotC website), Travis wants to be a red panda in the next Honey Heist (I... don’t think that’s on the website), there’s now a Talks Machina Instagram account that will feature behind-the-scenes stuff (you know where to go).

@critrolestats for this episode: last time two player characters fought each other in the main campaign was episode 99 (feat. Jon Heder’s character), the Mighty Nein has collectively earned over 6,250 gold since the campaign started, and the party has given Pumat Sol 5,030 gold since they met him, a substantial amount of which went toward Caleb’s paper and ink.

Matt’s Jester voice gets brought up again, and Brian points out that he’ll probably have to cover for Laura for a bit going forward. Matt: “That’s if Jester survives...”

Travis: “We’re just going to have the baby and put it on the table and that’s going to be our new mini.”

If Fjord had lost the gamble with the Gentleman, he would’ve taken the money but mostly just would’ve been appreciative that he was brazen enough to make the gamble. It was a test to see how the party adjusted, how they held their own. Matt: “Everything with him is very much a power dynamic game and trying to read whoever he’s talking with. That’s how he got where he is today.”

Fjord’s been very cautious when it comes to asking questions about the things he needs to know about his backstory, and that might change going forward. Travis is very aware that as soon as he figures something out, Matt will throw him a curveball. Matt points out that every story will have a different pace of unveiling, based in part just on pure geography and where the party happens to be at any given time. He mentions that Fjord’s backstory is a little more complicated than some of the others. Travis is delighted to actually not know some big parts of Fjord’s backstory (including the identity of his warlock patron), and Matt talks about what a gift those backstory gaps are to a DM, because it establishes both investment and the opportunity to surprise the player.

The fight scene in the Leaky Tap was mainly just meant to be flavor and establishing that locales are dynamic and evolving, a little different each time you walk in. Travis: “Taco Tuesday.” Brian: “Sacrifice Saturday.”

Gif of the Week: steeple vs. staple is an important distinction.

Matt had four or five different possible story hooks prepared for the party based on where they decided to go. Brian points out that Matt generally has his contingencies covered; Matt explains that a lot of it isn’t very detailed but lends itself well to getting fleshed out later. He also talks about the balance between leading the narrative (to keep players from being overwhelmed) and providing the open-world feeling.

Fjord is “a little bit... kind of... somewhat” relieved not to be going back to the Menagerie Coast. There’s some unfinished business he’s not sure how to confront yet. Matt: “Expertly danced around.”

Matt didn’t intend for Fjord to take the “devour” thing literally. Travis makes a lot of faces about that. Matt points out that it made for a very cool visual. Brian: “Yeah, deep-fjoat.” Travis is a little concerned the next weapon may be a mace.

Travis was disappointed not to get to find out what was going on with the orc, but he was determined not to metagame it. He’s hoping Molly and Yasha bring it up again.

Liam and Sam put together a whole list of cons Nott and Caleb have at their disposal; they haven’t even showed the list to Matt.

On the goblins, Matt mentions: “There are reasons why they were there. None that came to light or were investigated fully.” A history check may have discerned where those goblins came from.

Fanart of the Week: Yasha’s necrotic shroud.

Travis’s big reaction over Nott’s backstory was when he started to realize what she was looking for from Caleb. From Fjord’s perspective, he has a massive sense of empathy and compassion for Nott after that reveal; there was a lot in what she was saying that Fjord recognized. He’s looking forward to talking to her about it later.

After building so much, Matt loves the backstory reveals because they really exemplify the players’ chance to make it a true collaboration and do some creative building of their own.

Matt was not expecting Yasha to tell Trent she was from Xhorhas. “Oh, you just made yourself real interesting.”

Travis went back and watched Caleb’s backstory scene at Liam’s urging (they enjoyed the scene as it played out, but when it unexpectedly got as intense as it did, Liam wished the rest of them had been there to enjoy the reveal; it also avoids having to repeat all the information verbatim in the future). It worked in the spirit of experimentation, but in the future they’re probably going to limit it to shorter scenes at the DM’s discretion.

Matt: “I feel that anything is capable of deep evil, and anything is capable of deep good.” Brian: “So for you, evil isn’t a permanent characteristic in that regard.” Matt: “Yeah.”

Travis: “I didn’t think there was any hell deeper or hotter than shopping... and then I went to the library with Caleb.” Brian: “If you cut out everything in the episode that bored Travis, there wouldn’t be much left.” Matt: “Oh, I’m never catering to this motherfucker.” He points out that they’re still finding the balance there as well; he hasn’t had a character in a long time that’s actively trying to research everything in the world around him, but they’re looking for solutions to prevent in-game info dumps.

Talks Machina: All The Stars Of Critical Role Are Out Tonight

Travis got asked “would you like to rage with that?” by a Starbucks barista. He’s embarrassed that he had “non-cool groceries” with him at the time. A debate ensues about what exactly would constitute cool groceries.

Matt talks about going through the TSA checkpoint and one of the agents telling Sam “Right this way, Mr. Shorthalt.” Taliesin had a metal pepperbox gift from a fan in his bag that he forgot to check, and the TSA guy said, “It would be Percy, wouldn’t it?”

On pricing magical items, Matt uses his judgment about the item’s relative usefulness to somewhat arbitrarily pick a value within the suggested price ranges for that rarity in the DMG.

Matt has had extremely vivid dreams of himself wandering around Exandria on several occasions, and always feels warm and fuzzy afterwards. One dream about the Age of Arcanum heavily influenced his designs.

In a melee fight, Fjord would be most interested in fighting either Caleb (as the only one he’d be likely to beat) or Yasha (to get his ass kicked).

Favorite bad decision snack? Travis is all about shaved ice and Oreos dipped in peanut butter. Brian’s weakness is Cheeto Puffs and animal crackers dipped in cake frosting.

Travis does the Jester voice with the little Jester doll, and Matt pounces on it as the solution for Laura’s upcoming absence.

Matt won’t comment on what the jerky was actually made of. Dani: “Maybe they’ve also tasted baby.”

Brian tells a story about beef jerky. Matt: “Brian... you may be my favorite supervillain.”

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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