mairyal

[mairyal]

Critical role FINALE SPOILERS under the cut you have been advised lovelies

Fates intertwined

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"Can we take it day by day? Can we see who we become together?"

"I know day by day. We can take it day by day."

This dialogue means so much to me.

As someone who experienced a great loss and is still mostly closed off to the uncertainties of a relationship, Dorian's "day by day" felt like a flush of consciousness and acknowledgement.

And I loved (and cried at) how Orym was immediately understanding and caring.

He knows what it means to lose someone you love. How loss shapes and changes you from the inside out. How it takes time to find yourself again in the grey mists of grief.

And it's okay to live one day after the other. It's okay to get to know the new you with patience, one step at a time.

Until you find yourself walking again under the sun and the bright blue sky.

💙💚

[mairyal]

One little thing I really liked about the finale was that Liam got to bring Orym's concept full circle. The character was initially imagined as a way to help Keyleth process her grief after Vax's death (had he died permanently after the Kraken fight) and eventually evolved into someone Keyleth helped get over his own grief after losing Will. Now here in the finale, Orym is resolving to help Dorian take things day by day as he processes everything that happened and grieves Cyrus. I just think that's neat!

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"I genuinely hope that we'll see more of Bells Hells." A rant.

I think that most of the Hells had their perfect closure, but I feel like some of them (Ashton and Dorian) are not done yet.

I feel like Ashton's finale was kind of brushed off. They chose to make a selfless sacrifice to save the gods (and narratively wise that's a great character development!) but this brought them back on a journey to find themselves. Once again.

To me it felt kind of (KIND OF) a Kingsley situation, with the difference that Molly at the end of C2 was closer to an NPC than a played character.

Similarly goes with Dorian. Yes, now he's with Orym (and I'm so happy for them I've been crying for 24 hours straight), but to me he is far from the completion of this character development.

Robbie showed how Dorian is still angry and wrathful with the gods. He is not over his brother's death (rightfully so!), he's still thinking of vengeance and at the same time he is not in the right place to deal with his responsibilities with the Silken Squall.

To me, this feels more like the incipit of a new story than the ending of a character development. A mid season finale, if you want.

Does that mean that I want a new campaign or that I'm unhappy with how things ended? Absolutely not! They all did the best they could with the time and the narrative they had, and I am so grateful for being able to watch and enjoy this campaign.

But still, I would love to see more about these characters in future one shots with the Hells (and the Hells only, sorry VM and M9, you had your time).

I just want to see all of them narratively complete and settled before moving on with future projects.

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last line of campaign 1: “every day that raven comes to visit.”

last line of campaign 3: “every now and then your champion comes to visit.”

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I need more of them. Please.

Goddamn Liam and Robbie have so much chemistry together. Their scenes as Dorym are just so tender and wonderful. Orym is shy but he's being so brave and careful, taking the lead in discussing his feelings with Dorian, for Dorian, because he's done this before, he's been in love and he's known what it's like to go day by day healing after experiencing devastating loss, and he knows how he feels for Dorian, sees how he is hurting, and wants to be with him, take joy in him, help him shoulder his burdens. And Dorian who is inexperienced and freshly hurting and feeling so many things for the first time sees this little halfling, who he believes is so much more of a leader than he knows, stepping up and leading them toward this wonderful new relationship between them and he wants it so badly, even if he can't find all the words for it yet, so all he can say is an immediate "ok. yes." to anything Orym asks.

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Thank you Critical Role once again for a fantastic campaign, I'm gonna miss Bells Hells so much. Thank you for bringing us along for the ride, and can't wait to see what else is in our future from you all 💛