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zeephyre · 11 months

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CR3: EPISODE 62 RANT

Spoilers Below, duh.

All in all this episode was really fun. I really enjoy episodes that include a journey towards a destination and I love when each player has to roll for an outcome.

I liked the quiet moments between all of the characters as we're getting further into our time together and are becoming somewhat friends.

prism I think is the most likely to stay with the group (if that will ever even work out, like marisha said idk how they're gonna pull that off but i really hope we get a huge ass table full of players). bor'dor, who i am still incredibly suspicious of, seems genuinely distressed by his brother not being there and i think they brushed off the possibility that he got yeeted too quickly because it's honestly more than likely that it did happen. or he doesn't exist and bor'dor is a dog (I don't even like that theory it's just funny). denise seems like she just wants to find dariax, kick his ass and then get married and run off where ludinus can't touch them. i don't think she thinks that's possible but i really don't want her near the fray. dariax and the crown keepers seem like they're in the shit though.

orym didn't react to ashton bringing up the ashari (and i don't know if taliesin meant to say hishari but whatever) and (idk if i just forgot) but im pretty sure they still haven't talked about that since laudna encouraged ashton to speak with orym about it. i kinda remember orym not knowing about it but i could be misremembering though. either way, i think this particular episode ashton is... really desperate to figure themself out.

between asking orym to help him meditate on rocks (which was a really cute scene) to his interest in the skeleton embedded in the stone (plus the cool new shiny ring they got out of it) and the crystals at that creepy ass cavern -- i really hope he gets some answers soon. i have a feeling this might be the place to get it though, idk.

bor'dor seems to have the impression that the hellians think they're strong enough to stop the god eater but they don't even think they're strong enough to stop ludinus. they couldn't even beat otohan thull. they're not fighting because they think they can win, they're fighting because not fighting is no longer an option. there's nothing to do BUT fight. they know too much, and they have too much at stake to leave the battle.

imogen and orym especially. and there's no way in hell any of the bells hells will try to pretend to be okay with anything ludinus has done or will do. they know what he and his cult are capable of. I'm glad they got to express a bit of that though.

laudna called Imogen her sister but i lived through a time where dean winchester called the angel who is in love with him his brother so i didn't even flinch.

ashton got a massage from orym. it was appropriately sweet and hilarious. i think... orym might be one of the only people who consistently has touched ashton. i can't remember anyone asking explicit permission to touch him. i am so jazzed that they ENCOURAGED orym to touch them.

i think ashton has some of the best moments in their ability to create moments where between PCs where rp is at its finest. we haven't gotten another round of "what the fuck is up with that?" yet but that pipe was inspired. i love the little moments between him and prism. whenever ashton does something incredibly thoughtful they act like it's uncommon or a fluke and it's such bullshit cause he's SO consistent with his empathy. he's not a fucking public speaker by any means, but he has an energy around him that is unironically great to be around.

on a lighter note, my favourite moment (aside from the ashrym massage) from this episode is either orym praying to the wild mother or orym fucking hang gliding a eagle sized raven down a ravene. he's such a cutie.

i can't wait for the next episode. team issylra seems to think abadina betrayed them but i think the dude they're supposed to meet has been murked by whatever is in entombed. maybe it was set free by the same sort of dispelling magic shit that hit uthodurn and unpetrified the bull. if that's the case, hopefully this ends with the power of friendship prevailing as well.

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paperglader · 6 months

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Thoughts on C3EP77 of CR (I hyperfixate on imodna constantly, but I swear that I talk about the rest of the characters as well)

Delilah fucking briarwood. It has not gone past me that we got to have this great laudna moment on the same ep where they announced the book. WHICH I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED ABOUT.

Imodna will never not be iconic in the middle of a fight. That one moment when laudna was being cornered by the ghosts, and she kept going back and forth between acting like Delilah and pleading for them to understand that she wasn’t the one they were after, to finally Imogen killing two of them, and as they vanished, her gaze was finally visible to laudna as the cloud of smoke dissipated and she told her that it would be alright, only for laudna to lash out once again and unleash her attacks on the rest of them. Chef’s kiss. What a scene.

Imogen calling Delilah Briarwood a bitch will never get old.

Laudna making Imogen promise her to move on and be happy if she died- I can’t. My sweet farm girl was so heartbroken the entire episode. THERE WAS ONE MOMENT TOO, when orym was talking about missing Will every day, and how he would want him to live and be happy, and Imogen was just like 😣. She needs a hug. Someone has to give her a hug

FEARNE FINALLY KNOWS ABOUT IMODNA. The moment that laudna said “she makes me so happy!” I literally fell to my knees.

Fearne’s soft little “you are??” After Orym said that he was so glad that she was there with them broke me into a million pieces. Ashley Johnson you’re an ✨actress✨

Laura deciding to end imodna, not because of the moon, not because of the gods, or Delilah briarwood, but because marisha made a bad vex impression. I respect it.

Imogen still has her yellow scarf. This is very important to me.

Imogen praying for laudna to be alright- Destroyed, heart broken, I’ll never recover + Laura and marisha’s little smiles after the scene, when Laura was wiping off her tears😭 + THE FUCKING RAVEN QUEEN. She better scram the fuck away from the girls, cause I’m not ready for vaxleth 2.0. I’m just like imogen, I refuse.

CALLOWMOORE AT THE CLOCK TOWER. I was giggling, kicking my feet - then by the end of it I was like wtf taliesin, what are you cooking? And then fearne ran away 😭

Terrified of the amount of potions being distributed for the next episode… also, excited.

Ashton. It’s just so funny because Imogen was so hesitant about it all the entire way, but she had the circlet. She wasn’t inside Ashton’s head so he got away with it. Marisha’s innocent “what is happening?” To then being explained Ashton’s plan and saying “you’re gonna die” so incredulous, so sad, and everyone’s face after she said that. My heart started speeding up. Just what the actual fuck. The way he treated fearne… I will not be ok with him for a while because of that. He almost killed himself, he almost killed them all. They just burned a bunch of spells and potions and they’re going to the moon… honestly, I don’t think I’ve been this stressed since laudna’s resurrection

It’s just so… Ashton advocating for down time, so that they could remind themselves that they loved each other before anyone did anything stupid… I EXPECTED SOMETHING BUT I DID NOT EXPECT THIS

Just… Fearne… I understand being an asshole, but I do not understand being an asshole to Fearne. The way that he used their friendship to make her do his bidding, straight up awful.

#laura looked SO pissed the entire time I’m not over it #my head hurts that was stressful #imagine if I had watched it live #critical role #imodna #critical role spoilers #callowmoore #fearne calloway #ashton greymoore #c3 #campaign 3 #bells hells #imogen temult #laudna #southern gothic #cr spoilers

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motheatenscarf · 1 year

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Story spoilers for FF14, I was largely unimpressed with the Scions until it suddenly didn't matter anymore lol.

So, the Scions aren't very interesting yet, and I was hoping they'd get the chance to make more of an impression, but I guess they're all dead now except maybe a few of the main guys. So... lol.

As a whole, this group kinda gave big "bored nepo baby brunch club to make political connections" energy where they sit and talk about big goals but don't, aside from Y'sthola, have like... plans?

Gideon Emery's voice is wasted on Beard-Elf, who had like 2 lines and is maybe I think dead now. Elf Twin boy annoys me and is Sam Riegel who is a fully grown ass man and it is deeply unsettling, Elf Twin girl is fine, I guess. Thancred is also fine, he made no real impression on me, and Bunsen and Beaker... they have names, I forget them, they're Bunsen and Beaker, are kind of annoying, but also fine. Nobody here has a strong personality and it really shows the weak writing and weaker acting in a lot of places, sorry Taliesin Jaffee, but even you are only as good as what you're given and he wasn't given much to work with. The strongest characters were all the goons and chuds who hung out in the supply room, which is uh... well, I mean, I liked them, but it's saying something when those are your most likable characters in the hero organization. Their leader, Minfilia, had also been previously languishing in mediocrity, with her writing not standing out as anything other than "boring" and her voice acting as "wow, that had to be the casting director's niece or something."

But BOY, has Minfilia made an impression on me now! Just... GOD that is some weak writing, she immediately surrenders WHILE her people are being slaughtered behind her, does not wait for them to accept her terms of surrender before they put handcuffs on her, and they immediately go back to slaughtering her people in front of her and her only reaction is "Confound it!"

So, she, effectively, immediately surrendered under no protest with no resistance in order to save only herself.

Where I come from we call that cowardice, and it is generally frowned upon in one's leaders, and if they don't execute her or torture her to death, I'm going to kill her myself.

The little BABY Slyph who showed up to be a personal envoy to the Scions did more to protect these people and this organization than Minfilia did and she died for it. She got her tiny tiny body punted into a wall by a roundhouse kick from the lone woman among The Bad Guys, and it was kinda awesome and very unintentionally funny, but also very sad and heroic from my poor little Slyph friend.

Anyway, I'm going to go find my buddies now, I guess, and maybe the game will make me rescue Minfilia. I accept this only on the condition that the game let me loot her corpse for tokens of office so I can give them Y'shtola who should clearly be in charge. She's a frumpy nerd who is very smart and competent and has no patience for tact or decorum or the politics of busywork, I LIKE her, she's the ONLY one I like, she's the only character so far who's made an impression on me aside from the Slyphs for being tiny and cute or the bad guys for being hammy and scene stealing.

So yeah, I guess Y'shtola is my favorite character so far

#Caitlin Plays FF14 #Caitlin will cling onto the frumpy cat to get her through bad bad writing until something better comes along

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samuraiko · 2 years

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A *lot* of late-night thoughts about C3E32... <SPOILERS AHOY>

You have been warned.

Like seriously.

As in I don’t want to hear any complaining that you didn’t know spoilers for tonight’s episode were coming.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS UP WITH THAT QUIP AD BIT OF SAM’S?! Oh my fucking gods. And Liam, how the HELLS did you pass up the opportunity to snark about knowing EXACTLY how much Sam can fit in his mouth and/or his gag reflex? REALLY?! I am so disappointed in you -- that wasn’t just a softball pitch, that was practically Mage Hand-ing it in slow balletic style right into your strike zone.

---

I’m still not entirely convinced that Fearne’s not actually a sociopath. There’s stirring up shit just because occasionally it’s entertaining, and especially if it only blows back on YOU... and then there’s the shit that she’s doing (like putting two Gnarlrocks near Imogen and Laudna when just ONE caused all sorts of fuckery and problems, or trying to “but this shouldn’t apply to me” when Orym is warning all of them about their potential ‘kind of awful’, or telling Imogen to hurt Ollie if it meant getting answers).

Like fucking REALLY, Fearne? You’re going to steal a TOP PRIORITY CRATE FROM THE CERBERUS ASSEMBLY AND THE PARAGON’S CALL RIGHT IN FUCKING FRONT OF THEM?! I was almost hoping she’d be that stupid JUST to watch her draw the Call’s ire, and then (hopefully) have the Hells just sit back and go, “you brought this on yourself, YOU get yourself out of it.”

Which is why I’m REALLY wondering if Ashley is potentially setting up Fearne based on the alternate DARK version of her from ExU (a la what nearly happened to Caleb in Campaign 2) to maybe become one of the BBEGs of Campaign 3.

(I know there are a lot of folks who love Fearne - more power to you... me, the more I know about this character, the less I like her. But it’s a big fandom. You do you, I’ll do me, we’ll both be cool. And I have *NO* problem whatsoever with Ashley -- I enjoy her as a player, I liked her a lot as Pike, and I fucking ADORED her as Yasha.)

---

And on that note, for FUCK’S SAKE, Chetney, it’s clear that FCG is AFRAID of his darker self. Quit ENCOURAGING that side of him to come out until he’s more accepting and comfortable with it, given how much that side of him has COST him already. Leave him the fuck alone. (That said, I’m REALLY hoping we get a case of Chetney losing control and REALLY hurting someone he cares about, and who’s a lot less likely to forgive him than Orym was. Like if he wolfs out and hurts Imogen or Laudna, the other one is going to utterly wreck his shit. And seeing Chet shoved facefirst into a painful situation he can’t just bribe or sneak his way out of has a lot of potential.)

Related to that - Imogen and Chet have this undertone of vitriol going on that I find kinda fascinating in a weird way. It’s not like the whole belligerent sexual tension that Chet and Fearne kinda have going, and it’s not like his hazing of Dorian before the two of them became thick as thieves. I think Chet’s gonna snap at some point and go after Imogen, probably because she’ll have done something to poke the badger one too many times.

---

I really liked seeing the FCG/Imahara Joe dynamic on this one, and also I was a REALLY big fan of the FCG/Dancer meeting. It’s just so NICE to see Sam stop clowning around for once and just bring simple, earnest honesty to a scene, and come back to what I really see as the core of FCG’s character (as in personality, not as in the D&D gaming construct). That may have been one of my favorite moments of his yet in this campaign.

---

And then there was that absolutely glorious trainwreck of a conversation between Ashton and Laudna. I don’t quite know if I full-fledged ship those two, but Team Tombstone is rife with so much bittersweet HEART to it. And for me, I just love watching Marisha and Taliesin act off one another. Not that I think Imogen and Laudna together is a bad thing, I think they make a great couple in their own sort of weirdass way, but just seeing the two walking disasters with each other is a beautiful thing.

(Someone PLEASE do fanart of Laudna and Ashton screaming an intimate conversation with each other in the middle of a dust storm.)

I don’t know, maybe Imogen wouldn’t mind them being a polycule. Especially since she knows that Ashton really does seem to have Laudna’s well-being at heart, and he’s certainly capable of protecting her in a way that Imogen herself can’t.

We’ll see how that all comes together.

---

And then there’s Orym. Everyone already knows I love this character and I love Liam, and if anyone ever hurts my favorite cinnamon roll halfling fighter, I will rain down such wrathful vengeance upon them that their nightmarish fate will only be spoken of in hushed and terrified whispers for a thousand years.

(Side note - I want to smack Laura every time she derails Liam with some wiseass remark when he’s trying to be serious. I know those two love each other like brother and sister, but try to give him the same respect he gives you when YOU’RE having a big serious RP moment, Laura. It’s just a quirk that drives me nuts.)

I really hope we get to circle back around to his storyline soon. But no big shock there, considering my aforementioned love of Orym and Liam.

---

Personally, I think Artana Voe is in Bassuras to tie up a loose end in Treshi... though who hired her is open to debate. So the question is gonna be, do the Hells try to keep Treshi alive, or do they let her kinda/sorta solve the problem for them while they go off after more important things? Though I think it’d be fun to see her and Orym go head to head.

#critical role #campaign 3 #bells hells #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #c3e32

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autistic-beshelar · 1 year

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1, 12, 20

the character everyone gets wrong

oh you fucking KNOW i'm gonna say mollymauk. EVERYONE gets him wrong.

the people that like him woobify him and act as though he's just a teeny baby who has never done anything wrong ever (these are also often widomauk shippers who sexualise/romanticise the 'socially casually shove him against the wall' scene).

and the people who hate him are often straight up fucking vile. one breed of these people are the youtube ableists who also hate taliesin for crimes of stuttering or taking a minute to find abilities. there's also people who have called him a terrorist sympathiser???

and generally people think he's just a complete asshole, manipulative bastard, and refuse to acknowledge that 1 - he was 2 fucking years old and raised in a circus by a man who planned to feed him to a lizard and 2. ALL of the mighty nein were assholes in the beginning!!! molly had some fucked up morals, but he made an attempt at having them, for the most part. caleb murdered his family. beau tried to strangle a six year old. fjord wanted to unleash an ancient evil god to get a cantrip. they were all fucked up in the beginning, the entire point of their campaign was that they gradually became better people, and molly's death, their grief for him and their memory of him was a major catalyst for that, particularly for beau.

it really irritates me when people say 'molly had too much of an influence on the rest of the campaign' bc like. that was the point. that was the whole story. they knew someone who was bright and shining and tried very hard to be and to bring joy - and he died. and he was also fucked up, and petty and bitchy and mean and they loved him. the mighty nein campaign is about grief and growth. you don't have to like molly, but it's so disingenuous to act as though his character and his death weren't important, when they defined so so much of the campaign, and of the characters' development.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

so you're actively willingly making me return to my hunter x hunter bullshit?

[pensive emoji] illumi zoldyck. my beloved who i have not thought about in so long

he's just so FASCINATING. because hxh is so much from killua's perspective, of course we're going to see illumi at first for, well, exactly what he is - an abuser, a manipulator, a villain.

but then you meet his family and they're all like that. illumi to me is so much a representation of cycles of abuse - an abused child who then went on to abuse his younger siblings - and cult upbringings. illumi knows NOTHING ELSE outside of what his family has taught him, he has no experience or understanding of the outside world unless it relates to his family's work.

he's also very different to the rest of his family in terms of his behaviour - while the rest of his family are also assassins, he's the only one that reads so clearly as Off, and to me reads clearly as neurodivergent - the flat affect that's so contrasted with his animated voice, the tendency to ramble to himself, the unstable emotions, the unusual posture. and there's also so much to unpack about the fact that illumi isn't the heir, despite the fact that he's (certainly in the beginning of the series) a thousand times more powerful than killua, upholds his family's values, excellent at his job, and actually WANTS to be an assassin.

man. he's just so fascinating. it's such a great look at how the situations people are in affect how 'good' or 'bad' we are able to be. illumi is a bad person - but how could he ever have been anything else?

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

stares at dragon age inquisition

tedious doesn't BEGIN to cover my fucking issues with inquisition but it's certainly part of the problem. there's just... so much wandering around doing fetch quests and it's so unnecessary. they created this BIG OPEN WORLD!!! and it just felt so... empty?? like dragon age 2 had three dungeons and a dodgy back alley but somehow there was so much more life in that game.

i never finished inquisition, partly bc i fucking despised what they did with hawke (the OOC ness, not the leaving them in the fade), as well as the anti-mage pro-templar propaganda, and the fucking. dont get me started on cullen. but also the game was just boring tbh. whereas origins i have played like 7 times and will undoubtedly play again

#do i even have a tag for my own stuff that's not fandom specific?#hm #roisin rambles #shall do for now

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the-promise-has-been-made · 2 years

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Guess what I am not done screaming about.

THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA AND SPECIFICALLY THE FINAL EPISODE AND SPECIFICALLY PERCY GOING FROM THIS

to THIS!!

Like The top screenshot was what we saw of him putting on the mask to kill Delilah. That GROTESQUE grin, absolutely horrifying, nothing human left there really. You can FEEL a human face is not meant to distort like that (even in a cartoon), that grin LOOKS like it actually, physically hurts. You know who has a grin like that though?

Dis bitch! Like, when he put that mask on there was MORE of Orthax there than Percy. Percy was basically gone by that point.

Then Vex makes him take off the mask and as soon as she reached for it I held my breath because I was legit not sure what would be under there and the last glimpse of his face we had seen before was that horror grin straight out of a Batman cartoon where people got hit by Joker venom (I think it was also a genius animation choice to make his teeth too big, so the grin is literally ALL teeth and it’s just ESPECIALLY unsettling).

But instead of horror nightmare fuel Percy, we get this broken, frightened, desperate Percy wrestling for control against the thing that wouldn’t let him put the gun down, kept it pointing RIGHT AT VEX. Like, the TENSION they animated into his face, I could practically feel the pain in the jaw from gritting his teeth so hard, and the tears burning in his eyes, and Taliesin did a STELLAR job with the voice acting in the entire scene from the ‘It won’t let me’ to the ‘I don’t know what else to do’ just... CHILLS!

Honestly my memories of the final wrestle with Orthax in the campaign is hazy by now but I don’t think I will EVER get this scene from the animated show out of my brain ever!

God THIS SHOW!!!!!

#LoVM #LoVM spoilers #Critical Role #Critical Role spoilers

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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🔥 would love to hear more on "the story is better if [Molly]'s dead" bc I agree, but I want to hear your

I hope you don't mind if I use this, as I am wont, to slip in a number of other opinions and elaborate on some other beliefs I hold about story and actual play and narrative; I will also answer the question somewhere within it.

I think the story of Molly's death truly illustrated for me how much people's discussion of things like actual play and narrative is colored by their personal opinions and honestly how frustrating that can be. Obviously your meta is going to be flavored by your opinions, but any argument I've seen that Molly's death isn't good for the story rests on the assumption that a successful story relies on Molly being alive because the person holding that opinion really likes him - it's a completely circular argument. And it's valid to like him, but it means that for anyone for whom Molly was not their favorite character, this argument is meaningless because like. It is a better story when his death is left to stand.

Anyway: When I say it's a better story, I do not think Molly should have deliberately been killed off or anything. I am saying that once he died, the story becomes first about failure and fear of mortality, as half of this scrappy bunch of people who have to fight for something realize that actually yes the world is sometimes just as harsh and unfair as they've been acting, and it becomes about misplaced and powerless guilt for the other half who literally could not do anything to stop it and yet all somehow feel responsible. And they come together, and slowly work through it, but it colors their experience throughout the entire rest of the campaign.

I was often frustrated by the Mighty Nein's hesitancy when it came to boss battles, but also? It made complete sense! Molly died when they went into battle with incomplete information - of course they want to gather more information! It defines how intensely they respond to each others' (temporary deaths): part of why the Nein had only one resurrection ritual and the rest were revivifies as compared to Vox Machina was that they had two clerics with them at all times, but I think Caleb's intense reaction to Nott's death and Jester's similarly intense one for Fjord's comes from the fact that they are so aware of the consequences. This party was irrevocably changed by Molly's death and undoing it later on feels kind of cheap - getting the development without paying the price.

I think the decision Matt made to have Cree resurrect Lucien from Molly's body was an excellent one as it removed that possibility from the table for a long time and cemented the potential finality to the party. I also understand completely that the Mighty Nein would attempt one last time to resurrect Molly, because they are not aware that they are characters in a story and they just want to bring him back in the end, but my god is that the most fortuitous and poetic natural 1 I've ever seen, and I have endless respect for Taliesin's choice not to bring back Molly but rather to be a new person who shares some traits.

I think we see this influence in some ways most literally in Caleb - Liam confirmed that it was pretty up in the air whether he'd use the T-dock until close to the actual scene where he made that choice, and I think that final failed resurrection was a major factor in helping him come to terms with the finality of death and with his perceived failures and being able to let go, although the process had already been started.

In the end, I think the Mighty Nein's story turns into one best described by the seminal 90s song Hey Jealousy: the past is gone but something might be found to take its place. All these characters had every reason to be stuck in a difficult past and all of them managed to strike a truly impressive balance of going back to something not dissimilar than where they started, while still profoundly changed as people, specifically because they accepted the death or change (and, as any tarot reader or person made to study Jungian archetypes in school can tell you, death is often used to symbolize change).

#critical role #mighty nein

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burr-ell · 2 years

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lol ppl complain about claude 'bro/friendzoning' byleth but honestly after having to internally cringe at dim&el's blushy crushy uwu going back to claude made me go "oh Thank God u act normal i missed u sm". and its not like claude isn't attracted to byleth, he just doesn't get all blushy and stammery about it

like romance options in rpgs are nothing new but whenever a game tries to shove an LI in my face all THIS IS UR LOVE INTEREST UR SOULMATE!1! i just. immediately go for literally any other LI in game if i even wanna pursue a romance at all lol. and yeah claude is just as much as an implied LI as the other two lords but its not crammed in my face which is a positive for me. guess not everyone likes that but hey different strokes and all that

yknow, i'm sure somewhere there IS a scene in a strategy RPG that's cringier than "noooooo senpai don't wook at my dwawing im so embawwassed" but if there is i haven't heard of it

honestly, i'm the same way. i'm a hopeless romantic and i project a lot when i ship, but you gotta really sell me on the romance. you have to show me their dynamic and their individual characters, entirely independent of what they're like in a relationship, before i'm interested. like, on critical role, i really don't care about vax and keyleth's relationship—don't love it, don't hate it, it's just kinda there. it's fine, but that's about it. percy and vex, though...they got a slow burn and mutual pining and a flirt/nerd dynamic and trust and support and personal growth and a potential day/night sun/moon vibe? cool so i guess laura bailey and taliesin jaffe invented dnd romance, thats sexy of them

it also helps if the relationship is connected in some way to the overall lore of the world, which i think claude and byleth's does in a way that the other ships in the game just don't. i'm picky about ships, but i adore worldbuilding...which is probably why i'm more impressed with the slithers than a lot of fans are. they just have so much POTENTIAL

#fe3h #asks #also the way u gotta censor urself on here if u dont want ur posts sent to the algorithm gulag is a real Functional Website move

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cameoamalthea · 4 years

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I think it's interesting how many people were wanting Jester to leave Artagan and go with the Moonweaver (who is awesome btw). I can't properly convey how relieved I am that didn't happen and that their already strong bond was made stronger and they both grew from it. Because that is how good relationships work and people are capable of changing for the better. Finding new faith worked for Fjord, but I don't believe it would have worked for Jester the same way. What they have can't be replaced.

If Artagan was forcibly taken from Jester it would have been traumatizing for Jester.

What the Mighty Nein, and perhaps a portion of the fandom, don’t understand is that Jester is a depressed lonely person who hides it. She puts on a mask of always happy and fine, it’s ok. She’s not ok and they don’t see it. Jester is also afraid of being alone, which plays into her fear of being disliked and abandoned.

Whether or not anyone else likes Artagan, Jester LOVES him and she has some serious attachment issues so just ripping him away from her would be super harmful.

There’s a scene in C2E19 where the party sees a shack and wants to investigate it. Jester suggests turning Frumpkin into a bird to go check it out since it’s like a mile away. Caleb does not like the idea, but then playfully says for you Fjord I will do it. Jester responds by being dramatic and pouting about him shooting her down but being willing to do it for Fjord.

LAURA: Can Frumpkin be a bird?

LIAM: (reluctantly) Yeah.

TALIESIN: For a bit.

TRAVIS: I want to check out the shack.

LIAM: All right. For you, Fjord, I will make Frumpkin a bird.

LAURA: Not for me, though. Caleb hates me.

SAM: We could just walk over there. It's a hassle to turn him into a bird.

TRAVIS: Yeah. Keep your cat.

LIAM: You are more sensitive than I would have imagined.

LAURA: I want people to like me.

Caleb is extremely observant and although this is a light, playful scene, says something that cuts really close. “You are more sensitive than I would have imagined.” She’s being over the top and dramatic, he criticizes her, and since what she was joking about what is actually some real insecurity she kind of deflates, her voice gets real small and she says “I want people to like me.”

It’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment made harder to catch by the fact everyone is talking at once and Laura is eating pizza (role-playing with your mouth full - this is not to shame her for eating, she is entitled to that pizza, but it might make it harder to pick up on the moment). However, I think this touches upon something important.

Jester is in fact extremely insecure about being liked, and you see this with her relationship with the Traveler. Worrying that he might not like her now that she has other friends at first, and constantly needing reassurance that she’s the most important.

There’s a brilliant thread on reddit that sums up Jester’s character as follows:

“She's a people-pleaser because she's afraid to lose people. She grew up with the only 'low resource' being people - caring, loving, laughing people. She had her mother, who definitely loves her, but that was it. Most children have scores of people, and other children! to play with. Jester didn't.

And she's afraid to lose that, at any cost. Even realizing she was manipulated, keeping Artagen is more important than standing up for herself or showing her disappointment, because she can't lose him.

Onto - Artagen. What we know:

He's openly admitted to being manipulative and selfish

More importantly: he's openly admitted to never wanting to be bored and never wanting to 'get into emotions'

This REALLY matters. Why?

Because Jester is afraid of losing everyone so she can't be what those people don't want.

Jester can't be upset in front of Artagen because he might get bored with all of her emotions and leave.

It's crazy important for her to be his favorite because, as she is helping him leave all of his followers (her biggest fear) he keeps saying he won't leave her.”

Jester has pretty serious abandonment issues. Children need the attention and support of a caregiver. RedditTotalWar made a great point on that reddit thread: “A significant withdrawal of attention is often enough to cause a child to develop abandonment issues. Children don't have the capacity to realize that some things aren't about them since they are the centers of their own universe.” So the fact Jester’s mother, who clearly loves her and is a good person, did not always have time for her and required Jester to keep her existence secret is damaging.

Note, this is not to suggest that Marrion is a bad person or was intentionally abusive. You don’t have to be a monster to hurt a child. Disney example: In Tangled, Mother Gothel isolated Rapunzel and was an abuser who just wanted to use her. In Frozen, Anna’s Mother and Father isolated Anna out of a desire to do what they thought was best for their other daughter Elsa and to protect Anna from what they saw as the threat posed by Elsa’s magic. Anna’s parents were not intentionally abusive and loved their children, but Anna was still neglected and isolated and harmed by their actions.

To Jester, the message she got growing up was ‘Momma loves me, but she’s busy and I can’t get in the way and no one can know I exist’ which could easily be taken as ‘Momma loves me, but I’m not the most important thing to her’ or even ‘Momma loves me, but my existence makes her life harder, so maybe I’m not completely lovable since I’m a problem’.

And while you may think, if she was that worried why would she act out and play pranks and cause trouble, the fact is that children who are insecure about being loved may self-sabotage with caregivers. You see a high rate of disruption in foster children right before adoption because the child starts exhibiting behaviors. Perhaps faced with the fear of, maybe my parental won’t love me if I cause trouble, it feels safer just deliberately causing trouble because then at least you’re the one in control rather than walking on eggshells terrified that messing up could mean abandonment.

The fact that Jester’s prank on Lord Sharp resulted in her having to leave the only home she’s ever known and never come back under threat of death and that her Mother could not (or in her mind, would not?) protect her may have made her abandonment issues a lot worse.

Jester is terrified of being left alone, of being abandoned. Taking away the one person who has been a constant in her life and who she has felt safe with all at once would not be good. As Laura said on her playlist “he’s always been the one person she could show her insecurities to” and losing that stable, trusted person would hurt.

I don’t think her relationship with Artagan is entirely healthy (it’s not healthy for a child to grow up with only one other friend and her attachment to him extreme and also he’s a selfish, manipulative Archfey - I don’t think Artagan thinks this relationship is entirely healthy). However, I do not think it would have been better for her to have him ripped away like that. Especially given the fact that the whole Moonweaver thing was her idea and she would likely blame herself for what happened.

How devastating would that be for someone with Jester’s level of insecurity?

The Mighty Nein, and again a portion of the fandom, may have preferred it if Jester broke up with Artagan and moved on or found a new god. Fjord’s relationship with Uk’otoa (Uk’atoa) was toxic and abusive, so the Mighty Nein are very wary of that sort of relationship. Fjord if projecting and thinks that any relationship with a powerful being that isn’t a god is dangerous.

The truth is Jester’s relationship with Artagan isn’t really like one of cleric and god. It’s more like a personal relationship where he happens to give her divine powers.

LAURA: I take a bite of my caramel apple, and I go walking down.

MATT: You hear a crunch sound and your handshakes for a second and you look down and a mysterious secondary bite was taken out of the apple.

LAURA: (gasp) I lick the spot.

(groaning)

SAM: You're making out with your god? Gross.

MATT: They have a special relationship.

A special relationship indeed, Matt. It’s intimate, she talks to him about her crushes and asks him for advice on boys then casually confesses love to him.

LAURA: You're not jealous, are you?

MATT: "No."

LAURA: You'll always be my number one love.

MATT: "I know.”

Fjord is an orphan who was looking for parental figures. Vandren was a mentor and father figure, and it was through Vandren that Fjord gained his connection to Uk’otoa. The Wild Mother felt Motherly to Fjord and in Talks Travis said that when Matt first described the feeling his thoughts were on like have I found my Mother somehow. To Fjord religion is a divine parent, an authority figure who provides guidance and direction, and in the case of the Wild Mother love and support for him.

Jester has never seen the Traveler as a ‘dad figure’. He’s just her best friend and based on her behavior towards him and jealousy towards his other followers, and the number of love songs on Laura’s playlist, I’m pretty convinced that Jester is IN LOVE with him.

(I don’t know if that feeling is required. Given they grew up together with him in the form of another child and the fact Artagan is actually ancient, I think he sees her more like a little sister. This might be why he was so confused when she grabbed his face and leaned in like she was about to kiss him despite the fact that like she’s flat out told him that he’s her number one love and requires constant reassurance that she’s his favorite and acts like a schoolgirl with a very obvious crush)

And again, all of this may not be healthy or ideal for Jester. She might get hurt. However, I think in order to grow the relationship has to run it’s course no matter what happens. Artagan not only acted completely selflessly by kicking her off of him rather than face the possibility that she’d have to choose between him and or friends or be banished with him but like - he apologized to her.

An actual, real, non-manipulative apology. He admitted he was manipulative and he’s sorry and when she tries to play it off as it’s fine, he says he doesn’t want to defend himself. He’s sorry.

That’s growth.

#artagan #jester lavorre #Critical role spoilers #critical role #critical role meta #meta #essays #Anonymous

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renatogpadilla · 3 years

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FFVI as a D&D Campaign:

OK, so I've been watching "Critical Role" (Campaign 1, Episode 31, no spoilers!) a LOT lately and it got me thinking how FFVI (arguably the BEST "Final Fantasy" game out there) is essentialy that. The biggest moments could be atributted to CRAZY rolls! I can see each of the characters being played by one of the people at the table! * Marisha as Terra Branford: Would be phenomenal. Her mentality is kinda in-line with Keyleth's. The "Kill Their Own Emotions" moment in the boat shakes the table as a whole. And when it's time to run an orphanage and protect her kids from Humbaba, the emotion in her voice destroys everyone in the Party. The "Mama?" moment becomes the most fan-arted moment for her character until the final fight. Her Trance ability is agreed to be the coolest looking skill at the table. To say nothing of the way she'd react to the whole Slave Crown bussiness!

Matt: "She killed 50 imperial soldiers in a few minutes." Marisha, and the whole table: *S H A K I N G*

* Taliesin as Locke Cole: "Treasure Hunter!" every single time somebody calls him a thief or a rogue. The "Rachel" story would be absolutely heartbreaking with Taliesin's expressions. The solo-sneak through the town while meeting Celes would be one of the highlights of the Campaign... That and his frienship with Terra would only be accentuated by Taliesin's and Marisha's irl friendship. Not to mention him puking on the ship would serve as some comedic timing straight out of "Critical Role"! Also, "That bow looks good on you" LAUNCHES the ship to heights undreamt of.

* Sam as Edgar Figaro: I mean, COME ON! IT WRITES ITSELF! Besides, it would be enjoyable to see him use his -Artificer- Machinist abilities as creatively as he does! Can you IMAGINE him rolling high enough one day and then he just creates the Noiseblaster? And with that he pulls out the microphone every time he uses it and proceeds to shout some thing Scanlan would be proud of... Not to mention his friendship with Sabin would be amazing if played by Sam! "The little shrimp has become a mighty Lobster!" You can HEAR Sam Riegel's voice come out of that! And the two headed coin? Now THAT's a Scanlan! This without mentioning the violations of the Geneva Convention that the Bioblaster would certainly entail...

* Laura as Celes Chere: I mean, OBVIOUSLY. Meeting Locke in the dungeon? The apparent betrayal? THE OPERA HOUSE?! "I'm a former General, not some... Opera floozy!" TELL ME you don't hear Laura Bailey saying that! And then she rolls a Natural 20 on performance and EVERYONE looses their shit! Her Runic ability is the target of MANY close saves. Also, the way Locke and Celes' interactions happen, she'd be perfect opposite Taliesin. The chat on the bridge in Albrook? HEARTSTOPPING. The attempted suicide? You KNOW Matt would call the sesion there!

* Travis as Sabin Figaro: This one was obvious. Monk/Barb that gets mistaken for a bear, and acts like an absolute teddy bear around Terra? Yes. Gods above, YES. "You think a tiny thing like the end of the world was going to be enough to keep me down?" You heard Grog too, right? The moments would be worth MILLIONS. The Opera house and Travis going "Why is everyone singing?" and then getting more and more into it! Him holding up the house for Celes! "MISTER THOU"... But best of all, and probably the single most famous Sabin moment EVER, The Phantom Train:

Matt: The train tracks suddenly lurch to the side. Even after this long and hard-fought battle it seems *chukles* it seems this train isn't letting you get away with your lives. That brings us to you, Travis! Travis, on his 5000 IQ shit: I grapple the train.

Entire Table: ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?!?!

Matt: No way in hell are you gonna- You know what? Roll for it. *Picks up dice for the Train* Taliesin: He's dead. He's so fucking dea-

Travis: NATURAL 20.

Entire Table: *Silent disbelief, everyone looks at Matt*.

Matt: *Also in disbelief* ...Rolled a 1.

Entire Table: *Inintelligeble gasping and hyperventilating*

Travis: I'm going to use my last Blitz as Meteor Strike and suplex the Train!

Matt: *Looking at the sheet, knowing damn well what's about to happen* Go ahead and roll for damage...

Travis: *Rolls for damage*

Matt: *Braces for impact* How do you wanna do this?

Entire Table and the Internet: *EXPLODES*

The Fanart keeps coming, even YEARS after the Campaign is done...

* Liam as Setzer Gabbiani: Since he's LITERALY "Mister Steal Your Girl", I think Liam would be PERFECT. Just imagine him getting set up as this suave and smooth rougue who wanted to kidnap a beautiful singer and then gets Laura instead! (Which isn't entirely wrong...) IMAGINE his expresions and his dissapearing under the table laughing as the others barely climb aboard The Blackjack. THE ENTIRE PARTY giving him shit for a low roll on a Wisdom Check (the double-headed coin) and him segwaying that into joining the party, only to find out that he actually knew all along... Priceless. The total and undistilled heartbreak as his ship falls apart, him trying to reach out for Terra and everyone falling on different places. And then meeting Celes a year later and doing the whole Daryll story... Liam would be the one to steal the audience every time he takes the spotlight! Though he would be a little like Percy in the sense that he doesn't get much to do until his arc happens.

"Money, Money, Money!" every time he throws coins to attack, the loaded dice (in character, not at the table?) and the card throws would make him so stylish in a D&D setting I'll be surprised if somebody hasn't done it already.

* Ashley as Relm Arrowny: She takes forever to join because of her constantly being away for filming, but once she's here? HOO BOY, does the fun keep coming! Her paintings coming alive and helping them fight? Her giving Sam shit for Edgar's love life? "Fuddy-Duddy!" becoming A Thing? All of those moments would be hilarious... But probably her most notorious moment comes when they find her a year later, serving a posessed brush, telling her to paint, paint, paint under the Magic House... "Keep painting until I'm complete..." The party snaps her out of it before she finishes the greatest painting she's ever done, her Magnum Opus, and then the painting coming alive prematurely in order to force her to finish... To give her form. And then the Lakshmi boss fight happens... Matt: And with the last of her strength gone, the banshee-like apparition dissipates into mist, and before any of you can react, Relm's magic brush begins to glow, like it had when you first came in here. The glow slowly creeps off the hairs and darts! Off towards the mistified form of it's mistress, enveloping itself into a thicc layer on top of the mist, swirling around... and around and around.

Ashley: Oh god, now what?

Matt: The colors dissipate, and Lakshmi unleashes a terrible wail! *DM monster noises* As it is now joined with this colorful cloud... And it compresses, smaller and smaller... And more solid until it's not mist anymore.

Marisha: *Gets it* ¡WAIT A MINUTE!

Travis: *Exited* ¡OH SHIT, HOLD ON!

Matt: The fog dissipates... And the calm returns to Relm's senses. Ashley you are now holding an innert, ordinary paint brush. However! Floating in the air, you see a crystal with a small glowing core, the particular essence of Life embeded in the middle, Terra you *points at Marisha* feel this and recognize it instantly, as it falls to the ground, and bounces a couple times... A brand new shard of Magicite.

Party: *FERAL LOOTING*

"Lakshmi" becomes the most PAINFUL fanart to make, and it's ALWAYS the one that's valued the most among the fandom.

The rest of the Party (Strago, Umaro, Mog, Cyan, Gau and GoGo) can be the guests that come over every once in a while (I particualrly see Wil Wheaton as Strago Magus, Mary McGlynn as GoGo and Will Friedle as Clyde "Shadow" Arrowny) with Shadow coming and going with the excuse that "His contract is up" (and let's face it, after surviving/witnessing the Phantom Train? My contract would be up too...) and coming back whenever his schedule/the plot allows. Eventually, everyone comes together for one last session and the battle with God Kefka. Setting their affairs in order, the reveal of who Shadow really is during a lone chat with Strago shakes the Critters to their core. Everything makes sense! Why Interceptor went straight to Relm when they met... Why his nightmares kept showing a village of magic users, yet they never mention Shadow in Thamasa! The group is RATTLED and wether or not he survives at the end becomes a HEATED argument between everyone at the table. Only Strago knows the truth...

The sendoff on The Falcon with everyone saying goodbye and seeing what the World will bring next is regarded as one of the most emotional scenes in "Critical Role" history... But the most completely DESTRUCTIVE force in this entire cast is Matt Mercer as Kefka Palazzo:

The personality... the narrative... The absolute slime in his voice when he poisons Doma. When he kills Leo and brings forth the Light of Judgement. Matt definitely has his moments playing Ultros. He's fun! And Emperor Ghestal was more of a political "Darth Sidious" villain. But Kefka? OH, LORD. NOBODY was ready for Kefka. "Enjoy the barbicue!" gets memed to no end, while also sending a horrible shiver down people's spine whenever somebody brings it up. Truly, the villain to end all villains. I can see it happen so vividly... If anybody wants to talk about this more, PLEASE hit me up! This just feels too good! Until off course the party moves on to their next Campaign in the setting for "Final Fantasy 5" but that's a whole OTHER can of worms!

#Critical Role #FFVI #FF6 #Final Fantasy #D&D #Dungeons and Dragons #Critters #CritRole #The Returners #Vox Machina #The Mighty Nein #DM

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hurlumerlu · 4 years

Note

You already know who ;) Cad, Molly and Nott ?

Get ready for a novel !

Caduceus :D

Sexuality Headcanon : That man is G.A.Y. I’m hesitant to put him somewhere on the ace spectrum because I’m not ace myself and I feel like headcanoning sheltered, soft, slightly “weird” characters as ace comes with a lot of bagages (and there’s also fandom’s history of treating gay sex as icky/weird/not pure enough) but I’m drawn to that headcanon nonetheless. Gender Headcanon : He’s not super aware of his own gender, but if you actually ask him he would identify as a man. After a very longue pause. And he would probably thinks it’s kinda rude of you to ask. A ship I have with said character : I low-key ship everyone (but Beau) with him. He just has this very easygoing chemistry with pretty much everyone ? Except with Nott but I can see the two of them in a trouple with Yeza (they’re not sure how they got there ? but it works ?). But like who am I kidding, we all know I’m super into Fjord/Caduceus. The care ! The respect ! The awkwardness ! This is going to devolve into a Fjord/Caduceus manifesto so I’ll stop there. BROTP I have with said character : God squad ! The dynamic between Caduceus, Jester and Yasha is amazing, very tender and supportive but also extremely fertile ground for wacky shenanigans, they straight up don’t speak the same language, I love them. I’m also very curious to see more interraction between him and Beau, partly because I love the way Taliesin and Marisha play off each other, but also partly because Cad’s very supportive of Beau and she seems a bit... distant ? with him ? idk I may be imagining things. A NOTP I have with said character : not really ? I mean Beau’s a lesbian so that would be a big no, but I’ve never seen people shipping them so it’s very theoretical. A random headcanon : He was the kind of kid who raises all sort of “gross” pets growing up. Spiders, snails, cockroaches... he loved them all, but he only kept his beetles. General Opinion over said character : I loved him from his very first sentence and that love have only grown so far ? I’m always a bit wary around very religious characters but with Cad it’s an interesting kind of nervousness rather than a dealbreaker or even a real downside of him. I like that we have completely different viewpoints ! I love how genuinely nice and supportive he is, I love when he does cryptid-level shit, I love his incredible ability to just go with the flow, I love when he gets snide (”sleep well with your bad decisions”) and I just love how well he fits within the Nein (poor dude had a rough start, they really didn’t appreciate him enough at first). I hope he’s going in a direction where he’ll feel more comfortable being cared for (rather than always being the one taking care of), but if he’s not I won’t be disapointed. I hope we also get more angry Caduceus, because that was sexy badass.

Molly :D

Sexuality Headcanon : Bi ! Gender Headcanon : Well he’s canonically nonbinary but I feel like he’s specifically interested in gender as something to subvert. A ship I have with said character : I was slowly getting into Molly/Fjord (I’m not sure they would have managed to encourage the best in each other but they would have been a very fun and hot couple). But, well, RIP. A BROTP I have with said character : Molly and Yashaaaaaaaa T-T. Also Beau and Molly’s relationship was fucking amazing, I still miss it. A NOTP I have with said character : Not really ? Though again, Beau/Molly would piss me off but I haven’t seen that pairing either. A random headcanon : He hasn’t actually had that much sex or many different partners, people just kinda assumed and since most of them seemed to disaprove, he leaned into it. General Opinion over said character : I love how messy and complex he was ! He could have been your usual cliche of a person who perform for a living (vain ! good liars ! egotistic !) but instead was very close in personnality to a lot of performers I actually met (pretending to be vain for fun and because everyone assumes already, lying=/=acting, very community minded because everyone has to pull their weight if you actually want to succeed). His weird relationship with his body/past was also both relatable and strange enough to be extremely engaging and his flaws made him very entertaining, also I think of the scene after the fight with the Manticore where he chats amiably with a bartender and only after that has a quiet mental breakdown over his drink at least once a week. I want to know more about his backstory soooooooo badly.

Nott :D

Sexuality Headcanon : As much as riot’s Beau/Nott headcanon does things for me, I must face the truth : in canon, Nott is incurably straight. Gender Headcanon : Clearly her womanhood is very important to her, but I don’t think she has the healthiest view of what being a woman entail. I just want her to be happy and not constantly doubting her worth T-T A ship I have with said character : Nott/Caleb, Nott/Yeza, Caleb/Nott/Yeza, Nott/Beau and my little crackship Nott/Yeza/Caduceus (and also Nott/Yasha is good, actually ?) A BROTP I have with said character : Caleb was the founder of the Nott stanning club, which demonstrates his good taste and perceptiveness. I also think the various revelations that came along the story made their relationship much less unbalanced and codependant, and thus stronger. But I’m also very partial to Jester and Nott’s friendship. They’re hilarious and sweet, and putting Laura and Sam next to each other was a stroke of genius. A NOTP I have with said character : uH... Nott/Yeza if it means Nott stops adventuring, I’m just not(t) ready for that. But other than that, I don’t have one A random headcanon : I’ve already written this one but like... if something she’s reading makes her feel too much feels she just. straight up it eat. She’s been like that since childhood. General Opinion over said character : ugh... she’s so good... she’s just a walking whirpool of contradictions, if walking whirlpools of contradictions were extremely smart and scientifically minded and fiercely protective of a chosen few people. I was ambivalent on the whole polymorph thing because i really, really love goblins (and have mixed feelings about my love for goblins, but let’s no go there tonight) but I love that she’s still her weird, abbrasive self. Also her design is fucking great. I really want to see her conflict between her desire to keep adventuring and her belief that she should just want to go back to her old life being explored even more than it already has, but if she does stop adventuring I will be heartbroken, I love her so much. EDIT because I was tired but I can’t believe I didn’t mention her voice, it’s so good ! Probably the first thing I loved about her.

thanks <3 <3 <3

#critical role #ask game #oh god i have to go to bed #long post

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the-punslinger · 5 years

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Critical Role Quotes and Funny Moments - The Search for Grog (1/1)

[The cast trying to remember what was in Vasselheim again] Matt: “It’s been a year, it’s okay to ask.” Liam: “New Campaign Who Dis?”

Allura: “You let him [Scanlan] Wish?” Percy: “Why does anyone think that we let any of these people do anything?”

Percy [to Lieve’tel]: “I believe what she’s trying to say is that your patron owes us a mighty debt, and we appreciate you beginning that centuries long process.”

[After Gilmore entertains some kids with Prestidigitation] Gilmore: “It’s nothing really, it’s just a cantrip.”

Percival [on Bertrand]: “That is the most pompous egotistical man I’ve ever met in my entire life! Who acts like that?”

Bertrand: “By the way, can I get a temporary Vox Machina credit when this is all over? People’ll be like ‘oh Vox Machina is oh so brave, and that Bertrand Bell..’ would do a lot for me.” Sam/Scanlan: “We really don’t give those out too much. I mean, it’s not like an associate producer credit.”

Keyleth: “Do you still know how to make us sneakyyyy, and stealthyyyy, and...” Vex: “Yeah, Pass without a Trace, bitch.”

[The entire scene of Percy losing an arm and Keyleth being peeved for burning a spell slot for a throwaway joke]

Matt: “At which point, Sir Bertrand Bell comes back, covered in bugbear blood, holding an arm [Percy’s].” Percy [slowclapping]

Matt: “Someone write ‘Percy’s arm’ in their inventory.” Liam: “We’ll just grow another Percy!”

Liev: “How does everyone feel about turning into clouds?” Sam: “I could turn us into cows, maybe that can help us somehow?”

Taliesin: “Has [the heat] singed off [Grog’s] hair?” Travis: “Shut your damn mouth, Percy!” Taliesin: “The night is young.”

Liam [to Laura]: “Ah you probably died.” Marisha and Laura: “Family reunion!”

Laura [checking to see if she has sneak attack bonus]: “He [the fiend] is engaged, right?” Matt: “Well, you haven’t asked him...”

Scanlan making the fiend fucking riverdance.

[Percy doing 156 damage in one round] Liam: “Literally shots fired!” [later] Liam: “Dear gods, who was that one-and-a-half-armed man?”

#critical role #the search for grog

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whattheduckisthisbullpit · 4 years

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A Love Letter to Critical Role

Let me try to put into words what Critical Role has meant to me.

When I first started listening to it, it was September of 2017. I was in the hospital after suffering from several TIA’s. I was facing an unknown period of time in the hospital where blurry vision meant no reading and no TV. I needed something to keep me entertained. I can’t remember who it was, but someone I followed on Tumblr was posting about this group called Vox Machina? And it was sad cause it had just ended? And it was video but also a podcast? So I decided to give it a try. The next morning, I walked with my Dad to the library that was attached to the hospital and used their wifi to download the first few episodes. Despite the technological difficulties I fell in love. I fell in love with Keyleth when she broke down in the Underdark and despite not knowing anything about her past I could connect to that feeling of confusion, of not knowing what I was going to do next. I fell in love with the fact with the world, despite the fact that I couldn’t see it, it was far clearer than anything I could see with my eyes at that time. I fell in love with the combat that got my heart racing and kept my mind off the pain in my head. Even after I was discharged, it kept me company while I was at home, not able to go to school or meet up with friends. It kept me company when I decided I wanted to try baking something, one of my other loves that I found during that hard time.

When I was able to go to school again, the time I had to listen to it was cut down. Now just limited to the 15-minute walk to campus. But I was able to talk to people about it. My friend Meagan, who I shared every passion with, gushing about how much I loved the characters and trying to explain jokes while I was laughing my ass off just thinking about it. My friend Sabrina, a fan of TAZ, telling me they wanted to try and DM a campaign, and a small group of us absolutely fumbling our way through the adventure. But between Critical Role and that campaign it started a fire in me. A love of creating characters that can be the stronger version of myself that I could never see myself being. Characters that are confident and strong and smart and fearless. Characters that are therapeutic to make, even if I can’t play them. A fire that grew and grew until I decided to take the jump into DMing. The one-shot I made for my birthday, (inspired by Liam’s Quest), that like his acted as a love letter to my friends.

Over the summer, I got time to listen to the show again. On my drive to work and back. At work, to keep my mind off the boring data entry I was doing. But now I could sneakily watch the video, and oh my god I was tempted to go back and re-watch all that I had already listened to because the character interactions are so amazing. But then I had to stop that, because I kept having these moments where the characters would do or say something so tragic, so heart wrenching that even though I was at work, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. From staring blankly ahead for minutes while I just listened to the characters, to the voices, and I didn’t have to look because I could imagine their faces.

The journey that these characters have undergone, that I (belatedly) followed them on, is one that I think restored my hope in creativity. I have always had a bit of a sideline interest in creation. Always wanting to create something: costumes, art, novels, music. But I never had the time or the skill. And while I know skill comes with practice, it was easy to lose sight of that in the face of initial failure. But Critical Role and its characters have inspired me to create like never before. I have felt such inspiration from these characters that I can’t push it to the sidelines anymore. And DnD has given me an outlet for that creativity in way that I have never had before. A way that doesn’t take expensive materials or time-consuming classes to learn. It’s a way to create in my spare time, on my own terms, campaigns or characters or encounters.

And the characters. THE CHARACTERS. Characters that feel human, because they are made by humans. There is no polish to them, no editing out mistakes or imperfections, no proof reading to make sure that they only come across as the best possible versions of that trope. They are human and they experience human journeys. Journeys that every Critter watching can relate to in some sense. Whether it be that I still bawl my eyes out thinking about Vaxildan’s journey to find purpose, and how it relates to my own struggles to find my passion as I finish my degree. Or Keyleth’s struggle to stay kind in a world where, we can all agree, it is far to easy to be cynical. Or Vexahlia’s journey to move past the bullying that she faced as a child, while still not being able to move past that want for acceptance. Or Grog’s journey to push himself to learn something, even when time and time again he struggles and fails. Or Nott’s struggle, stuck in a body that she hates and finds unlovable, when I look in the mirror and see nothing but fat rolls and acne scars. Or Molly’s journey to find happiness and joy in the darkest of places, even when people maybe don’t appreciate that brash positivity. Or Yasha’s journey to forgive herself for the mistakes of her past.

I don’t know how to end this other than to say Thank You. To Matt and Marisha and Travis and Sam and Liam and Laura and Taliesin and Ashley. To everyone behind the scenes that makes this show work. To all the fans that have added something to this fandom, to make it big enough. And to that person on my dash all those years ago. I can’t remember exactly who you are, and for that I am so very sorry. But I hope that someday, someone will change your life as much as you have changed mine.

#Critical role #cr #this ended up being over a thousand words #me #personal

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loquaciousquark · 5 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E56 (March 26, 2019)

Gooooood evening, everyone. @eponymous-rose is taking a well-deserved break, so I’m stepping in to ruin reputations and botch direct quotations all over the place. Here to give us the appropriate gravitas and fear for the evening is the Chamber of Chairs:

Tonight’s guests: Liam O’Brien & Marisha Ray. Dani flips Liam off to start the show and it’s pretty funny. “What did I doooo?”

Tonight’s announcements: Last night was the season finale of Between the Sheets, featuring Ashly Burch, who is shockingly short in person. The VOD’s up for subscribers now, and it’ll be posted on YT tomorrow for everyone else. The Ashley Johnson episode will be up soon! Yay! Remember, no new episode of CR this week, and no new episode of TM next Tuesday as a result. Normal CR broadcasting resumes April 4. The Kickstarter hit $8 million today. Liam: “Oh boy oh boy oh boy it’s fine it’s fine IT’S FINE.” The final goal is $8.8m with 23 days to go, and a behind-the-scenes filming of the theme song was posted today on the KS. The video’s actually pretty cool & features Ashley in a feather boa!

Anyway! Episode 56: The Favor

CR Stats! This was the shortest episode of this campaign at 2h19m15s of gameplay. Only Shopping and Shipping from C1 was shorter. This episode tied for the fewest spells cast in one episode (six) and all were cast by Caleb. Over the 44 episodes & 136 days the M9 had the dodecahedron, they gained 25 fragments of possibility and actually utilized 13.

Liam and Marisha talk about having a timer in the office: “It has been 27 days since the last Holy Fuck ending.”

None of them thought Matt was going to cut it off at that point, but when he explained he wanted Taliesin there for the next part, it made sense to all of them & they all agreed it was for the best.

Beau has four thousand thoughts racing through her head right now. One of them is excitement about getting to learn the Kryn more, but she’s also terrified. Henry interrupts with the most adorable baying howl and he walks offstage. What a good pupper.

Liam describes the moment as everyone frozen in amber as they wait for the next episode. Beau will figure out something to her advantage between now and then.

Marisha likens this moment to the Emon attack and the Lorenzo fight with Molly in terms of emotional shock. Brian remembers Sam was in a tux that night; Marisha: “I knew it was going to be a funeral tux.”

There’s another question about how Marisha/Beau feels about the dodeca handoff, and both Liam and Marisha start laughing about how this entire TM episode is just going to be about the ramifications of Caleb’s decision. Liam: “No regrets,” but he understands there’s going to be a lot of fallout. They talk about how the ramifications will depend on how public the Krynn make their gift: will it be parades in the streets, a handshake and dismissal from a private room, etc? What if there was a Dairon-type spy in the room who’ll tell people they don’t want to know about their actions? They’re eager and afraid to see the fallout.

Brian points out everyone could see on Travis’s face he would rather have gone to jail, but further discussion is derailed by questions.

The group had discussed the possibility of handing off the dodecahedron in the past, but he hadn’t considered ever handing it off until the last sixty seconds when “everything was going to shit. It was more mathematical than anything. It felt a lot like Avantika. We’ve got a plan, the plan’s broken, but we can get away, no, we can’t get away, now this is changing--I don’t want someone outside our group to control the situation if I can act first, if I can punch first. Everyone’s trying to negotiate and it’s failing, I don’t want to give up this thing either, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, here’s--this.” Caleb wanted to save the group. He wouldn’t have taken the gamble even two minutes earlier. Then, suddenly as it began to work, he & Caleb began realizing that not only did it work, but it worked very well and now his brain had split into two: “oh, thank God, I care about these people, I can save them,” and “how do I use this to my advantage.”

Caleb was quiet through most of this episode because he really wanted to discuss several things in private with other group members--that’s what he was thinking about for most of this.

Dani points out everyone expected physical travel between this fight & the audience with the queen where there would be downtime to discuss things. None of them expected immediate teleportation.

If Beau had been in a position to stop Caleb from giving up the beacon, she would not have stopped him.

Beau was wincing as Nott & Jester asked questions they should have already known the answers to. Liam points out it’s the war room in Dr. Strangelove--only the most powerful people would have been there. Beau dislikes authority but doesn’t think she’s stupid enough to have gotten herself seen as an obvious traitor.

Everyone revels in Matt’s Caduceus impression.

GIF of the Week: Liam pulling the dodeca out of the haversack by Will D. Brian singsongs “Travis is tilted~, Travis is tilted, look at his face~” over the GIF playing. Haaaaaahaha, poor Travis.

Liam: “I think I’m just in the shithouse.” Marisha: “You blew the shit whistle.”

Brief hilarious aside where they discuss Tetanus Terry (ft. on Travis Willingham’s YeeHaw Game Ranch) & Caleb Widogast getting fully replaced by Terry as a backup character if he gets assassinated.

On a scale of 1-10, Beau is following Dairon’s advice to a 7. She’s trying not to get attached, not to die, to listen, to not get impatient, to not be biased. She’s probably going to get closer to people than Dairon would suggest, but thinks she’s trying pretty hard.

It wasn’t cathartic for Caleb to renounce the Empire like this. His parents were very pro-Empire, and now that he’s on this journey to atone for his parents’ deaths, he’s done exactly the last thing his parents ever, ever wanted him to do--walked into the heart of the enemy and gave them everything they wanted. (Brian, Liam, & Dani briefly rag on Tumblr still having faint life somewhere. “Female-presenting nipples” comes up. It’s funny and also very sad.)

Brian discusses how it’s a big moment, but it’s not a victory for the group. Caleb was just shooting for a short-term immediate solution. Marisha: “It feels like a sitcom bait-and-switch. Nah, it’s cool, guys, we’re gonna pretend to be waiters and we’ll sneak into the kitchen,” but then they sneak into the kitchen and the cook laughs that the sous-chef is out today, and “now we’re in over our heads!”

Brian reveals dramatically that last night he came out as a supporter of Liam for President of D&D Beyond. Liam: “Beneath all the chicanery & hair product, there is common sense."

Liam & Marisha talk about the difference between Nott/Caleb’s original first podunk jail and this potential maximum security prison.

Caleb imagined the BDSM straps over his shirt and coat. Apparently most of the fanart generated this week has failed to include them.

Both Marisha & Liam VEHEMENTLY agree they hated not being able to be main parts of the Brightqueen talks. They also talk about how they both are far better at CHA than Nott & Jester, though they point out in fairness that Matt’s told them he always adjusts the social DCs based on the arguments they make.

As far as the slavery part of the disguise, Marisha: “Marisha has laughed at every piece of fanart. Beau was surprised. Beau’s gonna have a talk.” She (Beau) felt they had discussed the costumes, the pretense--but not the bullying & active degradation her group put her through. It was huge, an eye-opening moment for Beau in a way she (Beau & Marisha) absolutely did not expect. She never thought they would abuse their status over her in that way.

They discuss how on a meta sense, they all knew that the scene was just Travis and Laura trolling them and having fun at their expense, but at the same time it’s still happening in game and will have in-game consequences. Marisha: “It’s like at a party where your good friend starts getting a little too drunk and starts making fun of you a little too much--it’s a little too real.”

That said, one of Marisha’s favorite fanarts from this week was Beau (as a table) swearing under her breath at Jester with her feet up. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.

Fanart of the Week: The Brightqueen by Nikki Dawes.

Beau does not feel she’s betrayed anyone by being present at this event. She knows where her allegiances lie, so just because this happened doesn’t mean it’s changed anything about what she believes. That said, she has no love for the Empire. She’s very personal with whom she cares about. She doesn’t have as much obvious disdain as Caleb does--she’s just more indifferent.

Caleb has a high CHA that he just doesn’t use anymore, because the people he knew with high CHA that used it did so to do bad things. Liam thinks when Caleb was young he was very gifted, charming, and attracted people to him; now it’s all gone. He can hold it together like a sandcastle by the tide for an hour, but in the end it always washes away.

On Nott speaking for the group: Marisha always likes hearing Sam talk. In some ways Marisha felt it was the same thing she used to get for Keyleth-- "why are you talking? You shouldn’t be talking. You shouldn’t be the talker.” Everyone should have their own voice, regardless of the scores on the page. “Your stats are there to influence the effects of what happens; they’re not the Bible. They’re not law.” She reminds us Vex once entered an arm-wrestling contest with a strength of 7.

How does Beau feel now that Caleb’s made another huge decision without consulting the rest of the M9 (i.e. Bowlgate)? It’ll play out in game. It’s a big deal. Liam admits he loves it. “The whole point is conflict resolution, so you need conflict.” He loves things like this, like the Astrid letter, because it opens opportunities to explore characters. In some ways it’s the same thing: they were in an impossible situation and Caleb sees it as protecting his friends, but that’s not how it read to anyone else. Marisha points out that once again he made himself the authority to make this huge decision without discussing it with anyone else in the group.

Marisha and Liam start talking about the decision more, decide it should wait for the game, but then keep talking despite themselves. Marisha points out that on top of his (once-again) unilateral decision, his speech was also framed selfishly (”I did this thing, I brought this back to you,”). To her, it still feels like the same thing with Caleb deciding things with major consequences for the rest of the group without their input, though she admits it’s colored by their (Beau’s & Caleb’s) history. Liam talks about how in the moment he was scared of deception checks, so he just tried to be as truthful as possible--nothing he said was false because he was only speaking for himself. He could not have spoken for the group & still been truthful. It’s a really interesting dichotomous discussion, both of them talking about what they felt in the moment versus how it came across to everyone else.

Liam feels it’s more like seeing someone dying in front of them & wasting time discussing whether they should do CPR or not, rather than him making decisions for the whole group. Marisha’s face obviously disagrees (so do I, ahaha). Liam also thought they were going to continue the episode & talk more, which would have kept it from being as much about him. This is gonna be super interesting when it actually plays out, for sure.

Once again, no new CR this Thursday or TM next Tuesday. Most of the rest of the programming will stay the same. This Tuesday’s Mame Drop will feature Max James of CR production fame.

We end on this eldritch horror:

"Weuuuh, Caleb knows best! Caleb will make the decisions for all of us in this D&D game!”

Aaand we’re out. Stay turnt.

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

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