#BC C3

[sparring-spirals]

someone more well caught up with the campaign can correct me if im wrong. But based on the impression I've gotten, i love the like. Spectrum of "accidentally oncall" we have, with how the Mighty Nein are accidentally unknown go-to's for various powerful people to get tasks done, while Bell's Hells are accidentally primary sources and lynchpins for various powers to understand and coordinate events.

Like the Mighty Nein are. they're assholes, if you talk to them and they dont really like you. you'll know it and it will kind of suck. But for the most part people don't have to interact directly with them. It's almost weird how much they don't have to??? Like shit just gets. Done. And you find out later like OH its the same. weirdos. No idea who they are but you're told its the same group. What do they even look like. There are so many weird stories at least half of them NEED to be fake. Or people just assume incorrect attribution bc it cant ALL be the same group. What do you mean they saved a world and an island and? Turtles were involved? Sea serpents? what.

For anyone who knows even slightly better/has slightly better connections (but doesn't know them personally) They're just like a weird form of an urban legend where its like. elite strike team. silent and effective. (in the background we see them falling out of the sky into the ocean onto one another). But for the most part its really peak. Knows a guy who knows a guy. If someone HAPPENS to be present they might be squinting into the chaos like. That girl choked me with a stick once? Isnt that other one a professor. Wha- okay. They're gone again. Silent. effective. You have a really hard time tracking them down even if you want to. (If they want to find you though, you can't escape them).

And then with Bell's Hells. (At least when I last checked in). It goes more like. Hey some weirdos have critical knowledge for us. And it's just. an Absolute Halloween themed clown car of events that rolls up. There's a talking dead rat. Weird old gnome griping about wood. They keep flirting with everyone. Including someone that looks very evil. A busty faun just took your wallet. You're pretty sure this group threw a bunch of bees in someone's face in a street race and crashed a skyship and were absolute NIGHTMARE CUSTOMERS at various establishments. They're the ones with critical knowledge. They are communicating it SO, INCREDIBLY INEFFECTIVELY. They were on the moon? They have a person FROM the moon? They keep trying to be friendly with you. You don't want them to be. Another critical thing happens. They're the only one with knowledge. Again. The dead rat keeps flirting with you. You're getting voices in your head. More developments in the critical scenario. They're still the primary source on this potentially Exandria-shattering event. They're still spending an inexplicable amount of time talking about the hotness of various people inbetween dispensing information that literally no one else has been able to glean. You know who they are. You kind of wish you didn't. You are Going To See Them Again. (threat)

[wardensantoineandevka]

Tumblr fandom culture as a whole really needs to grasp that just because a work has elements that you can arrange into a particular theme, it does not necessarily mean that the work itself HAS that theme. So often, there's a lot of connecting dots to create a meaning where the work itself is not drawing lines.

Very often, people are talking about what THEY want the work to say or what they want to talk about, but the work itself is NOT talking about that. You're just projecting onto the work because you're treating it like a Rorschach test. You're seeing shapes and forms and extrapolating it into what isn't actually there just because the building blocks for it are laying around the narrative. But, interpreting works and analyzing it for meaning doesn't work like that. Just because the bricks exist in the work somewhere doesn't mean the work is actually building that particular house, or even a house at all.

There's very much a difference between "if this work went in a slightly different direction / moved the frame a bit / actually used what it has here effectively / connected any of these dots, then you could create a theme or work about XYZ" and "the work is actually talking about these things with this theme and has this meaning", and a lot of fandom culture mistakes one for the other.

"Potential for this if these pieces were framed differently or the connections made" is not the same as "is saying this and is connecting these pieces together".

[clar-a-m]

What if TLOU AU Imodna had to take shelter for a couple of days because of bad weather and in the same place they stayed there was also a family of cats?

I used the designs I made for the TLOU AU fic and it is the same setting but this is definitely not fanart for that fic, the vibes are very different lol. Those two are NOT playing with kittens in that fic. The drama is good though!!

[laurasbailey]

ONE CRITICAL ROLE SCENE PER EPISODE C3E13: A Dance of Deception

[paykchokk]

exposing my account to death >0<

[utilitycaster]

that feeling when one of the IT'S THEIR STORY AND THEY DO WHAT THEY WANT TO MAKE THEM HAPPY folks starts talking about Essek and then suddenly what the cast chose to do isn't sacrosanct anymore huh

[abitcaughtinthemiddle]

Listen- do these BH/M9/VM mission preparing episodes feel like fan service? Yes, yes absolutely.

But I am a fan and I am being serviced

[olessan]

[beebeesiims]

Anyway I was trying to go back to sleep this morning and couldn’t because of Dorym baby headcanons so suffer with me

They might have more than one, but if it’s just one I think it’s a girl

I want so badly to say her name is probably Sky but idk too on the nose?? Maybe. Then again, Orym’s the one with the moon tattoos that fell in love with a man whose middle name is SecondSUN he literally made a sun pun to Keyleth’s face so actually Sky is probably perfect. Alternatively: Austen could be very funny.

Dorian gives pushover parent vibes but no it’s actually Orym who’s the complete sucker bc the kid looks too much like Dorian sorry (I live in trans!Dorian world but frankly I have a million and one ideas for how this kid came about and they all involve her looking like Dorian)

C-Poppers hate her: how this random baby got an entire collection of one of a kind C-Pop toys

Remember the squishy face kissing “you’re gonna do so good!!!” From the charity one shot?? Every morning before school.

She’s probably the only BH baby. I could MAYBE see Fearne & Ashton having an oopsie but I don’t think it’d be before Dorym had an on purpose

Speaking of Ashton, even though Imogen, Fearnie & Laudna get to be aunties, Chetney gets to be Pop and I think even Braius eventually gets some Uncle status, Ashton is just “My”. As in “My Ashton”. And they consistently rub in the rest of the Hells’ face that their nickname is the best one.

This kid has never been on the ground a day in her life. Carried everywhere bc her Aunties think she’s Too Cute. Totally. Climbing onto a table to see what her Tall Dad is doing? Absolutely. Hanging off of Braius’ horns, standing on Coriolis, sitting on top of Ashton’s hammer, riding wolf!Pop and Caviar (look between Chetney, Fearne and Laudna, Caviar does not scare this kid).

There’s absolutely more rattling around in my head I’m sure but I’ll add those later. EDIT: All the notes about this being 100% canon has made my heart warm so here’s the more i promised:

On the list of ways this child appears: 1. trans!Dorian (My fave). 2. trans!Orym. 3. AFAB!Ashton if it’s Dashrym but full “I didn’t know I was pregnant” vibes bc stone body & chronic illness. 4. Cyrus’ illegitimate child (but I live in resurrected Cyrus world tbh). 5. Surrogacy via one of the triplets. 6. Surrogacy via Fearne tbh. 7. Surrogacy via more modern means aka they pick a halfling with similar features to Orym. 8. A gift from Nana Morri. 9. A gift from the wild mother (8 & 9 are my second fave)

In most instances, she’ll never pass 5 ft I’m so sorry kid (but if she’s a Dashrym kid, sorry Orym she’ll outpace you before 1st grade).

Horse girl summers with Auntie Imogen!!!

I know Sam said he didn’t think FCG should come back but FRIDA says he’s not dead and i really want a Finding FCG one-shot SO once they get FCG back they’re baking buddies! They make a lot of good stuff but also the wildest kid mud pie concoctions.

Alma/Nel/the triplets/Imodna are the parent preferred babysitters, Alma/Chetney/Ashton/Fearne are the kid’s picks and Braius is a last resort bc they splatter painted the backyard last time.

Has a sending stone for Nephele & Zeru (& Cyrus).

Yearly family vacations to the Byroden festival!!!!

[gorgynei]

exandria wasnt the right setting to tell this story. its unfortunate and unavoidable and introduces complications that mess with the themes. but i think the story they were trying to tell is good. its touching. to me, campaign 3 is a story about choosing to wake up and live. not just survive, but live and thrive and love and try again.

you can either choose to live (with all the heavy, burdensome, scary emotions and experiences that come with it) or choose to simply survive (remain stagnant, unchanged, and unfulfilled, but alive nonetheless).

all of bells hells are people who have faced that choice and they choose, over and over again, to live. we see the gods given this same choice. in a way, we even see keyleth and vax given this choice.

exandria is now going to try to live instead of just survive. and i think maybe thats beautiful? even if its poorly executed and messy and meandering and frustrating. i still think its a good story deep down.

[mrratcardici]

Handsome men, for an equally beautiful la mia padrona @blackbird5154

it was a wonderful request, I was very happy to draw this request. I just kiss your palms, dear, because it was a pleasant evening painting.

[wardensantoineandevka]

actually, wild that C3 is only 26 hours shorter in gameplay runtime than C2 when it has twenty less episodes

CritRoleStats has C2 at 483:40:09 in gameplay, and Omen Archive has C3 at 457:28:31, and that's a difference of 26:11:38. If you divided up the difference in minutes across the difference in episodes, that results in... what, roughly 1:19:11 per episode?

the C3 episodes are so LONG, huh

[caeslxys]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

[what-a-messek]

Robbie's description of how Dorian was feeling when Orym curled up next to him 😭😭😭😭

[astralleywright]

It's so hard discussing C3 cause I'll find myself kinda agreeing with an opinion and then the vibe ends up being 'and that's why the campaign sucks and BH should go die in a ditch' and I'm like oh... we're not talking about the same thing...I actually wanted to see a longer aftermath of many things for BH - not just in the finale either - cause I love them, my bad.

no this is exactly it 😭 there are plenty of criticisms i agree with, at least in part, and things i wish had happened differently in the finale or even on a more macro scale. but so many critiques of C3 just misunderstand the plot and themes and characters entirely and treat any flaws as indicative of a campaign-wide failure and well. i simply do not think that's true. and with the way fandom abhors nuance it's very difficult to make my own critiques without feeling like i'm contributing to that attitude, or at the very least spending time i could be spending talking about what i liked or defending it from the dumbest/most obviously untrue critiques instead!

[utilitycaster]

I am, to be clear, prepared to slightly eat my words on this but it is An Experience To Be Sure to watch people in the tag be like "SURELY they would TELL us if there were only three episodes of Campaign 3 left? We're not being hysterical and grasping for straws like those FOOLS did with Campaign 2, we are rational beings of light and truth" when in fact the reason people freaked out so thoroughly for Campaign 2 was because they told the fandom just before the penultimate episode that it was the penultimate episode. So yeah actually they have told the fandom 2 episodes beforehand before and they might do it again. Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.