#Aabria Iyengar never misses

[heykrashly]

Alright this one broke my fandom rant retirement, I am constantly stunned at the intensity of the heat Suvi gets from the fanbase. All three characters have had major flaws exhibited and I REALLY don't think this TINY rant from Suvi in Retinue even counts as a flaw.

Laying aside what you think is justified or not, Suvi while still feeling the pangs of betrayal and confusion did not hesitate to find her way to the Conclave. She knew it would mean Ame's destruction, but not just that it was IMPORTANT to Ame. Still feeling that hurt she makes her way to the North Pole, borrowing resources from her home that is preparing for war (again, set aside what you personally believe to be "right" here). Ame stumbles over saying ANYTHING to Suvi, any hint of an apology or asking if things in the Citadel were okay after her exit. She prompts Suvi to say what's on her mind after divulging that she doesn't know what happened to Eursulon. What I think so many commenters seemed to forget is that Suvi and Ame do not have the knowledge we as listeners have that Eursulon is well, that he has met with his family. The two of them can only assume and not in either of their wildest guesses could imagine he had found his way to a burrow.

So Suvi, 36 hours travel from home, a home that she invited her friends to, they blew up, and one might be dead or captured, is prompted to say what's on her mind. She does, and it was in my opinion quite tame. If I see "ice queen" out of someone one more time I'm gonna explode fr. Her friend who she feels some level of responsibility for might be gone! Her friends who she cares for will BOTH likely not be able to visit her home again.

I know fans hold a lot of preconceived ideas about the Citadel and I'm not saying those are all entirely misplaced (I can't even BEGIN to get into those feelings here this post is long enough damn), but when those "ice queen" comments are flying around they aren't pointed at the Citadel. They are talking about a young woman who keeps sticking her neck out without much extended in the way of apology or remorse. It's really frustrating to see so much targeted vitriol.

[hellishfig]

i'm rewatching misfits & magic and i realized something

when dream gets her familiar theodore (who is a chipmunk), dream asks if he can secretly fight really well, with the specific wording of "go and crawl into somebody's intestines" and aabria, as theodore, says that he rides an old-timey bicycle

then in burrow's end, aabria'a first battle map is The Bear. and The Bear... has chipmunks inside it. in its intestines. being gross and shit

erika played dream and is also in burrow's end as ava and i absolutely LOVE witnessing that through line

[thefucstar]

As controversial as it is I think Burrows End might be the best side quest if not one of the best seasons of dimension 20 overall. First off Tula is a masterpiece of a character just absolutely incredible. BUT SO IS EVERY OTHER PC. Everyone was just so in tune with their characters and because of it the family dynamics are literally perfect no fucking notes!! Then the set pieces are out of this fucking world like the art team ate so fucking bad I can’t even begin to describe. The editors were also on one. And a final hats off to Aabria because it’s terrifying it’s heartwarming and it’s just fucking beautiful. I truly love burrows end so much I fear that few will actually understand.

[talesandfluff]

absolutely superb shirt right there

[yourhoneyisquiet]

And then ep 7 turned the world on its head (literally). This is CLEAR EVIDENCE she knows what she's fucking doing.

I will unravel the secret fucking paint by numbers riddle encoded on Aabria's perfect face!

Here's what I got so far (spoilers btw): 

The red is our red warren stoats. The red triangle and green line appear in ep 4 Last Bast, as they approached the new warren but were still above ground (green line). 

In ep 5 Protect the Light they move below ground into Last Bast. New red triangle appears dragging from Aabria's right eye below the green line. 

Now fuck me running the blue triangle appears ABOVE ground in ep 6 Reactor Charlie, with a red square appearing underground also. Current theories:

Ava's meet-cute with Director Kirin above ground. Big bad blue energy if ever I saw it

Whatever they unleashed from Reactor Charlie fucked up something big time above ground

Something more abstract. The blue is catching up with them?

[thepringlesofblood]

i am SCREAMING!!!!! YESSSSSYESSSSSSSSSSSSSS ACOC is one of my FAVORITE SERIES ALL TIIIIIME!!!!!!!!

okwearebreathingwearebreathing

I’m going in-depth on the names we have thus far. Calorum is the setting that has some of the cleverest wordplay ever, period, and I want to know EVERYTHING about our new guys!!!!!

let’s get this one out of the way

Colin Provlone (Zac Oyama) - Provolone is a kind of cheese. Colin is a name of Irish/Scottish origin. It’s nice to have one simple one.

Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (Brennan Lee Mulligan) - hmmmm are we going to get an actually Bulbian cleric/warlock this season????

Anyway, the scientific name for wild radish is Raphanus raphanistrum, so that’s probably where Raphaniel came from.

wild radish has two other names - “jointed charlock” and “white charlock”. So there we go.

Your typical red radish (as Brennan described his character to look like) is a subspecies of Raphanus raphanistrum called sativus.

but!!! even MORE interesting!!!! you know what order and family radishes are in? the order BRASSICALES in the family BRASSICACEAE!!!!! Like a certain pontifex we know of??

This could be 100% unintentional, there’s a Lot of vegetables in the family Brassicaceae, but I remain optimistic.

Lady Amangeaux Epiceé du Peche (Anjali Bhimani) - so, Fructera has always been French, natch.

She is a mango! French for mango = la mangue

Amangeaux = almonds (according to google translate, I couldn’t find this word anywhere else online, it’s extremely possible that it’s just the most French-sounding way of saying “a mango”)

Epiceé  = spicy (can be used as slang for y’know. spICY)

du Peche = of peach. maybe she is of house Peach?

Karna Solara (Aabria Iyengar) - this one has me kind of stumped.

there’s the obvious karn->carn->meat connection, but she’s a chili pepper. lmk if there’s some secret vegetable lore I’m missing with ‘karna’

there’s also solar -> sun, which makes sense since the crest of Brightgarden is a big sun, and we see the DM screen this season has a big sun on it.

pLUS when I looked up scientific name for chili pepper, they come from the order Solanales in the family Solanaceae.

Thane Delissandro Katzon (Lou Wilson) -

Katzon

immediately made me think of katsudon- an egg rice bowl w pork cutlet on top.

thank you @blueaerin for your post about how this is most likely a reference to Katz’s Delicatessan, a famous deli in NYC! I never would’ve know that.

Also “katson” = Finnish for “I look” - from the verb “katsoa” meaning “to look at” or “to watch over” - probably nothing.

Delissandro - deli - deli meat

Delicatessen - the double s inspired by this?

while I was looking at Finnish stuff i found out “delissa” means “at the deli” in Finnish

Thane - y’all who read Macbeth know this one.

In Anglo-Saxon culture, It’s a title of a landowner, specifically someone who was gifted land by a king.

In Scotland, it’s a feudal lord.

There’s a connotation of military use in all of the descriptions I’ve found, so judging by the armor he’s wearing, it might be being used as a term for “commander”

[spacient]

I fully love Dimension 20 and the way Brennan Lee Mulligan can tell an incredible story. Of course, the full cast of characters makes a huge difference in where a story can go, and there was no better cast than those they found for the Mentopolis side quest.

I've seen all the main seasons with the Intrepid Heroes, and I've seen a hefty chunk of the side quests. Here's my top 5 ranking for anyone asking:

A Crown of Candy -- absolutely BRUTAL. For such a whimsical setting, it's Game of Thrones out there. The Politics are messy, the war is dangerous, and The Hungry One has seized my appetite. Special mention to Matt Mercer for coming in on the prequel Ravening War side quest. That being said I have no idea if I can ever fully rewatch this.

Mentopolis -- whole opposite end of the spectrum in being the most cartoonish of all the series. I have never laughed as hard and as continuous as I have watching episode 4 of the series. Underneath all of the humor and tropes of a noir, it was incredibly philosophical. Also, I'm a big sucker for murder mystery. If ACoC wasn't as strong as it was, then this would be the #1.

Fantasy High -- a fan favorite. Such a fun romp and an easy-in to watching any DND campaign. The dice really do tell the story here. Shoutout to the sequel Sophomore year, it really fleshed out the world and characters far more. Maybe a little higher on the list than it deserves, but fight me this is my list.

A Court of Fey and Flowers - more politics dressed up for tea. Aabria Iyengar knows how to set a mood, and she knows exactly how to let her players drive a story in the setting she creates. There's something so special the way all of the players stay true to their characters even when it comes to making a difficult decision. They all came in knowing the assignment. Also, it sure is nice to see Brennan enjoying himself as a player #GiveThatManABreak

The Unsleeping City -- Heavily character driven. The concept of a fantasy world veiled around us at all times is heavily appealing. Another very philosophical season, and a season that isn't afraid to let characters have a little conflict with one another. The sequel shows the characters have incredible growth as well. Again, maybe a little lower on the list than deserved, but I can't justify lowering ACoFaF.

A special mention to Starstruck Odyssey for just barely missing the top 5 ranking. I really enjoy the shenanigan seasons.

[thisisnotthenerd]

one thing you can say about aabria iyengar is that any character she makes slaps so hard. any of them. hot powerful ladies with an innate sense of self and sometimes dubious morals. not a single miss. i admire the commitment to divorcing the cr cast, and her sitting with travis and sam again is so exuc to me. silly goofy table with super interesting character dynamics. this time it’s both of them that can kill her super easily, with sam as a new friend with fundamentally different beliefs and travis as the ex.

things we know about deanna leimert:

the coziest gnome--knits, wears a big blanket/sweater and uggs, and carries around stew.

unique laughter

reluctant cleric of the dawnfather

had a fling with chetney ~200 years ago

came to uthodurn, made a family with dustel? and then died after being attacked ~10 years later

still has a thing for chetney, but ~it’s complicated~

lowkey a monsterfucker

resurrected by a high level cleric of the dawnfather ~2 years ago, met FRIDA, and started adventuring with them? we still don’t know exactly what they were up to

lowkey dweomer & laerryn energy. if i had a nickel for every time aabria iyengar played a powerful divorced spellcaster with a loyal aeormaton companion who was present around an apogee solstice i’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice

was happy in an afterlife for ~200 years and got pulled from it. the implications of the rest of her life and family moving on are so spicy. i love the character concept. direct contrast to laudna in terms of the resurrection itself.

the idea of waking up to see your partner, older, wiser, and beyond you at this point in your life is so messed up. waking up, feeling like an obligation, a completed promise (to whom? may i ask), and a relic of a time long passed got me really hard. she had a relatively happy life, died, and came back only for everything from that period to hurt. she came back exactly the same, but the world changed in her absence. it’s like that one post that was going around about bringing back your dead wife and you’re insisting that she came back wrong but she’s just normal. coming back to a light type of magic and a connection that you can choose to pull on based on who brought you back.

vs laudna waking up alone physically and coming back ‘wrong’, combining innate magic and a pull from someone else. opposite side of the coin in magic style, all shadows and eldritch energy. no obligation to a past life, but being chased out of the places that you made for yourself. a deep trauma associated with your death and the place that you lived before. your body and countenance stuck in the same state that you died in, so your magic takes on more and more reminders of your death. your family sent you to your death and you never see them again except for within the confines of your mind.

i don’t know if we’ll get a laudna & deanna interaction soon, but i so want them to meet and talk about it at least a little. I want to see how imogen continues to react to deanna for these UBH episodes

fiercely defensive of FRIDA and quicker to judge chetney based on past experiences, even though the rest of uthodurn bell’s hells (UBH) did try to warn them

definitely in a weird place in terms of the gods. the thought of faith as batteries or food for the gods is very very similar to ludinus’ comments in that long monologue:

��The greatest lie ever told is that we need them. We are their gardens, their cattle. They created us to feed them with our faith, our hope, our souls. Lapping up their fables, give them form, purpose, control.”

also the concept of the gift of rest--while coming more from FRIDA than deanna, i think applies differently from two characters who experienced that and were pulled out of an eternal rest. very much self-projection energy that i’m getting. also, powering the gods off is distinctly different from eating them, but has a little bit of a similar taste.

thoughts for the future:

i think this is going to be an opportunity to introduce another couple of factions. that fact that we’re up to three clerics in a six person party is giving me inklings of getting into vasselheim or at least some religious drama, post-chetney backstory. there’s definitely some god-indifferent sentiments in the party, and BH’s most religious people (fcg, and to a much lesser extent orym) are separate and can’t compare notes. aabria and christian are taking them on some kind of ride going forward.

also the idea that D has been awakening and shipping aeormatons all over the world. the ones we’ve seen so far have had some interesting experiences with the gods--a holdover from aeorian thought about the gods? if aeormatons and other aeorian weapons/tools of artifice were being designed to kill the gods that has room for some fun and spicy exploration going forward, if UBH goes to aeor.

i hope that these trial of the take style episodes let us have these characters for a little while. they’re meant to contrast and be foils to chetney and fcg specifically, but the interactions with fearne and imogen have so much potential, and i can’t wait to see where they go.

[masterkeynobi]

I WILL NOT BE TOUCHED BY THIS WORLD OR ANY OTHER WITHOUT MY PERMISSION AGAIN. steel's armor + the skyship. clothing all black like the sky where ame's is white as snow. suvi suvi suvi suvi SUVI you are EVERYTHING god i love wizards. aabria iyengar has never missed a day in her goddamn life

[math-rocks-and-lizard-bats]

Aabria. Iyengar. Never. Fuckin’. Misses.

"You are looking a woman in the eye. And she needs all the friends she can get."

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 93

[fjordstan]

travis sitting next to this couple's dispute like "laura come pick me up i'm scared 😩"

[microcosmtoxin]

guys I miss opal and dariax so much it's not even funny

[cloudmancy]

HI sorry ive been scrolling through your blog all day after finding it this morning and i am OBSESSED with your acofaf takes so i have an idea to present to you: emily said (jokingly) that wuvvy should hit her up in 80 years, after esme passes, as chirp loves people one at a time. she said this as a comedy joke, and a goof as well, but it landed in my brain and i am now obsessed with chirpwuvvy. wuvvy who is used to shaping herself into what she thinks can be loved. wuvvy who is used to waiting, to not being noticed, to being second best if she is considered at all. wuvvy who left behind her whole world for someone who said they loved her and never ever showed it.

chirp, who loves one at a time- who presents herself as fickle and frivolous but has such an unexpectedly big heart, who loves her wife and her daughter enough to give up flight for them. she may not seem it, but she has the capacity for extreme selflessness. she understands sacrificing parts of yourself for who you love. lady chirp featherfowl, hospitable. kind. loving. she presents selfishness and frivolity and whimsy, but she loves so deeply that she gave up flight for her daughter, for her wife.

i’m picturing wuvvy, post-canon and adrift after all the shit she had to deal with only to be cast aside anyways… and chirp. chirp, known for her hospitality. chirp, who would take wuvvy in- an open door, an offer of tea, a warm smile that wuvvy’s never faced the full force of before- and wuvvy, who has been shown scraps of kindness at most. who has been without anyone’s regard for so long. duty and love and suddenly, kindness freely given by a woman who loves so few but so, so deeply- and sure, her heart belongs to esme, but… wuvvy is used to waiting.

“come find me in 80 years”. im losing my mind. thank you ms emily axford. thank you ms aabria iyengar.

YOU GET IT! YOU GET IT! postcanon wuvvy deserves to take a break from being around rue and find someone who will devote themselves to her as equally as she devotes herself to the ones she loves. she deserves that reciprocation and I can't think of a better person for that than chirp. emily axford you are so right wuvvy WILL find you in 80 years and you can watch over your grandchildren together

as an aside I think it was a missed opportunity for chirp to not be a bleeding heart dove

[utilitycaster]

Yeah, as a person with ADHD, there being people with the opinion that Travis can’t play complicated spellcasters (even though its been proven demonstrably false) because he has ADHD feels gross and definitely has ableist undertones in my opinion. Furthermore, in the case of like Travis specifically, and maybe for other members of the cast too, I think part of the issue is people not seeing the cast as people and not understanding that hey, yeah, D&D is a skill people can grow and get better at, and that the classes and ways they played at the beginning of the stream are how they must always play.

So I think the people saying this (the "yeah, don't be condescending about druids, Travis has ADHD" people, not the "heehee can you imagine Travis playing a spellcaster?") have also been people with ADHD, who themselves who find playing spellcasters difficult - I don't think this is ill-intentioned/ableist! But I do think it's a case of people not realizing that their experience with ADHD isn't true for everyone, and as a result sort of missing the point.

My brother has ADHD and mostly prefers martial classes, but is willing to do complex multiclassing of those martial classes, and is a DM. I personally have played with two different people with ADHD who have played druids! Travis McElroy and Aabria Iyengar both have ADHD and they've each played full casters, weird multiclasses, and DM-ed entire campaigns. It's valid to talk about D&D and ADHD, but honestly that's a conversation I'm not qualified to have and it's not particularly relevant to my point.

I think you're right though: a lot of those opinions feel like people developed them in like...mid Campaign 1 at the latest, and never accepted the actors being people who could grow and change and expand their comfort zones. See also "Travis doesn't do romance in D&D" being a common statement as we geared up for C3 and it's like...we have seen him do it less than a year ago, why are you holding up statements from 2018 over things that literally happened in 2021.