Can I just say, I really appreciate how Critical Role plays the Devil trope straight. There's been this phenomena in a lot of modern media (I'm not going to mention specifics but I'm sure a few examples pop up in people's minds) where Hell and the Devil aren't scary or malevolent forces. Hell is portrayed as being basically the same as our world just "edgier", and the Devil is a pretty decent guy actually. Heaven are secretly the real bad guys!
But Critical Role doesn't do that. In Exandria, Asmodeus *feels* like the Devil. He's malevolent and manipulative and terrifyingly powerful and he hates you, personally. We never see that type of portrayal anymore! And it's amazing! And he still manages to be sympathetic and tragic without losing his edge!
And the "Good Gods" are portrayed as flawed without being secretly evil or something! Like, actual nuance? In my Heaven/Hell dichotomy? What!?
It's just such a breath of fresh air after so many "The Devil was right, actually" stories. So props to Matt and Brennan and the cast.
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All of Hell's layout shots from Edwin's journal, in order
Heya! I needed to take some screenshots for reference when writing a fic, so I thought it'd be nice to share :)
(Under the cut I've added everything I could make out in the writtings)
"LAYERS OF HELL" across two pages. These are based on Dante's Inferno, the first part of Divine Comedy, and the nine circles of hell. (Shout out to my friend who helped me with the 10 "rooms" of Fraud <3)
Left page:
- Vestibule (unnumbered, right on top of Limbo, referring to the staircase)
I - Limbo
II - Lust
III - Gluttony
IV - Avarice
V - Wrath
VI - Heresy
VII - Violence
VIII - Fraud
IX - Treachery
- There are 10 "rooms" described between Violence and Fraud, referring to the 10 trenches of the eight circle of hell (Fraud) and numbered as such.
Room I reads: whipped.
Room II reads: covered in excrement.
Room III reads: flipped (?) feet set on fire.
Room IV reads: encased(?) in boiled pitch.
Room V reads: head turned backwards.
Room VI reads: wear lead robes.
Room VII reads: snake(?) pit turn(?) into snake.
Room VIII reads: (?) big flames.
Room IX reads: (?) -> quality is too low to tell; considering the trench of which it is based on, probably along the lines of 'mangled', 'mutilated', 'maimed', etc
Room X reads: leprosy, hungry(?), dark.
Right page:
- Endless staircase
- "UPPER HELL" encompassing layers I to IV.
Beside layers III and IV, read: heavy labour(?), everyone in your way
- "LOWER HELL" encompassing layers V to IX.
Beside layers VI and VII, read: trapped, impaled, submerged in blood. Beside layer VIII, read: snake pit, gain human form by biting other humans. Beside layer IX, read: frozen + stuck + chewed on
Left page:
- LIMBO
Right page:
- "DO NOT RING" is crossed out near a bell. Dashed line points to where the bell is on the room.
Left page:
- Arrow pointing to the claw machine, referencing the passage behind it. Note reads: Back to Doll House. No.
- Circle on the bottom right, just above a door: Wrong way. AVARICE. Everything too heavy.
- GLUTTONY
Right page:
- LUST
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"hi welcome to McDonald's what can I get for you?"
"Yeah can I get a deluxe quarter pounder with cheese?"
"absolutely, do you want the Meal or just the sandwich?"
"uuuuuh hold on"
*fishes my wallet out of my pocket*
"miles what do I do."
"get the fries, lad. youll need the energy in the coming days."
*stuffs wallet back in my pocket*
"uhh yes please the meal would be great"
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another Voyager thought: Seven of Nine should have stayed looking fucked up for WAY longer, she looked fantastic, and lots of decisions were instead made with the goal of turning her design conventionally sexy As Fast As Possible, but one of the most egregious decisions was her hairstyle. From a horny director standpoint, you want the cyborg hottie to have that shiny, sleek blonde updo... but from an in-universe, in-character perspective? What a mean and unnecessary thing to do, to give someone long hair who doesn't remember ever having had hair at all, and who's already had so many more invasive changes made to her body. You're telling me she's still getting used to having new, like, organs and stuff, and she also has to learn what conditioner and hairspray are? I'm not sure I could give myself the hairstyle she has, and I've had long hair for a lot of my life. I think it was mean of the Doctor to do that to her. Justice and peach fuzz for Seven. Or a pixie cut at the most.
If they wanted the character to have long hair, because Jeri Ryan hot with long hair (difficult to argue with), Seven of Nine choosing to grow out her hair as she gets more comfortable with her identity as a human could have been really interesting, and would have fit her character arc! But that takes time, and means she spends more time not being sexy, and that's unacceptable.
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