#aabria why would you do this to us

[thatqueerbat]

we're

so

f u c k i n g

B A C K

[sparring-spirals]

Still emotional about Fy'ra Rai and Opal, actually. Thought dump time bc i. dont have the energy to cut this down effectively.

Because at that point in the episode, Opal is doomed. Not in the fun little "oh things are getting worse ;)" kind of way we'd been experiencing leading up to the fight, or even IN the fight. At that point in the fight, Cyrus is dead. Dorian and Dariax have their minds twisted, bodies clambering away from the fight. Morrighan has felt, firsthand, just how far gone Opal is, holes in her mind, her friend broken. The heartbreaking sentence of. "You can always come back." understands that she is gone already. She's lost already. Opal has forgotten Ted. Opal has forgotten herself.

So at that point in the fight, we know Opal is doomed. Us as the audience, the cast, the characters. Aabria is running through each of the other crownkeepers and it is more of a goodbye than a round of combat. Defying the Spider Queen invites death, with zero hesitation- Cyrus's body as physical evidence of that. The terms were very clearly set: You leave Opal, you let her be lost. Or you die. (Leaving Opal anyway).

and Fy'ra Rai then. Grasps the crown, understands intimately that she can break it off and it will kill Opal. (I will free you, if you want me to. We would lose you but you would not be taken). And asks, what do you want me to do. What do you want.

and Opal says, I want you to leave. (I want you to live.) and Fy'ra Rai functionally says. No. Sorry. That's not one of the options.

If you wanted to go. I will do that (your blood on my hands). If you want me to stay, I will. But I'm not going to leave you.

There was the point where Fy'ra Rai broke into the communication and I felt my insides sink because. Look. Lets be real, Aabria had already demonstrated the stakes here. The gesture would not be rewarded for the gesture alone. The Spider Queen's terms were: You leave Opal. Or you die.

And Fy'ra Rai said: no.

I don't think I'm overstepping to assume that if Fy'ra Rai had failed the intimidation check, she would have died. This entire thing hits me so hard because I think Anjali knew that too. I think Fy'ra Rai knew that too. Yes, Fy'ra Rai convinced a Betrayer God to negotiate. She carved a third option out of a non-negotiable situation. She knew what would happen if she failed and did it anyway, with no fear, no regret, no waver in her resolve. She had lost enough sisters. She wasn't going to lose anymore, no matter the personal cost. That's part of why it succeeded, I'm sure, but.

Just. Fuck me. The amount of resolve. The amount of love. The amount of conviction. "I am. A protector." You know your friend- your sister- is doomed. So no more negotiating away from that. You step to her side and you grasp her hand and say- doom me with her.

And in some, sideways way, this saves you both, at least for a little while.

Because this story is a tragedy. This ending is a sad one. We know this already. But think about- Opal, under Lolth's bidding, alone in the dark. Think about Fy'ra Rai, alive, intimately aware that she had failed to protect yet another sister.

And think about what we got, instead: the two of them, in deep darkness, danger encroaching- holding hands. Someone they love at their side. A champion. And her champion.

This is still a sad story. But it's not the same one. Fy'ra Rai stared down a Betrayer God and made her change her mind. She stared down a Betrayer God, and her love and conviction changed the nature of the story. It shouldn't have been able to. But she did.

Fy'ra Rai chose to doom 2 people instead of one, and the sheer strength of her love and will managed to save them both, at least for a little while. Isn't it funny how that works? Isn't it devastating? Isn't it. fucking incredible?

[lilu-the-almighty]

I know we all think the blue is radiation. And that is an extremely strong theory and I will not be surprised at all if that is it. But idk it might be my science brain but I don't quite think that is right. Like sure radiation does some of the things mentioned in the story so far, but it mainly effects generationally (if it doesn't just kill you outright). And this whole "lightning" thing seems very strange if the answer is radiation. If it WAS radiation, I feel like Aabria would be leaning into it's effects on the kids?

And maybe she IS doing that. maybe that is what her plan is with Viola's kids. Cause if that is true oh boy guys that is going to FUCK ME UP.

And again this is DND, not a lab report, many of the effects of "the blue" very well may just be for storytelling purposes and I am the last person who is going to dog-pile anyone for stretching reality for a good story. Honestly that would be so cool if this is radiation and that is what she is doing.

But if you held a gun to my head at This Point, October 18 2023, right after I finished watching episode 3, I would say that it is not radiation. Or at the very least not JUST radiation. I think it is something different. I think this big laboratory(?) was a sight for some government experiment and the blue is something of its own. Some horrifying chemical weapon, or new way to harness radiation, or even something that effects stoats directly. Some experiment using stoats as test subjects that went horribly wrong.

Maybe THAT is why the guy in the hazmat suit was reaching specifically for Thorn. Maybe he was trying to clear any of the escaped stoats from the facility? Maybe they had orders to cull every stoat population in the area in hopes to stop the spread of whatever was on those test subjects? Maybe the test subjects are the stoats who are in the "human warren" now.

I am fully just stream of consciousness word vomiting right now, but this campaign is so fucking good. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for next Wednesday.

[gluzzo]

Brennan Lee Mulligan during the fireside chat for The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9

[Image ID:

Screenshots of excerpts from the transcript of the Worlds Beyond Number podcast’s fireside chat on The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One - Episode 9.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And, to me, that describes so many heartbreaking situations, where something deep and true does come, like- the number one belief I have, in terms of like, whatever my secular morality is— is that there's a weird attitude in some parts of our culture, that like, impulses are sinful, and morality is like a structure?

Aabria Iyengar: YES!

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And that bullshit. Moral impulses are incredibly real. Nobody needs to explain what's wrong with-think of the first age you are, where someone's mean to another kid, or an animal, and something in you goes, "Wrong!!" And that's primal.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And like it's-it's brutal! It's very Imperial. It's like this oppressive weight, from a very smart opponent, who is convincing themselves. Like, the reason the arguments have that urgency, is that Suvi is also self-indoctrinating, and it's part of that thing that comes back up. And I think the big, sinister part of, of….. The idea of principle. Like, what, in principle, is different from a demon being bound in a circle of salt, and what you saw happening to Naram out under the derrick. This is-I don't have time to explain this in this talk back. I have issues with the philosophic concept of principle, point blank.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yes. And I think that the idea of principle, from-especially to a wizard, who is all about organization, taxonomy, patterns, and systems-principle is this idea that, maybe is built on sand, right?

Aabria lyengar: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: When we think about "what are your principles," we use it as a synonym for being a good person. "Are you principled?" But the idea of principle being like, maxims, axioms, "What are some rules that I can ALWAYS follow?" And speaking of them, like, if you go back to Aristotle's Golden Mean, maybe living by principles produces bizarre, immoral edge cases.

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: So it's this idea of, like-but it's unexamined by Suvi in that moment, and the reason it's unexamined, is because I think it's one of the main tools of the indoctrination of the Empire. What have you already accepted? Right? I see this in ethical discourse all the time, which is why whataboutism is so powerful, in modern philosophical discourse, is people go like, "Okay. You've made a moral point. You've made a call to action. You've said, 'we need to do something to make the world better.' So what I'm going to do is find some other moral failing of yours, hold it up in front of you and say, 'but you did this bad thing like this,' or this other situation occurred that was similar to this, where you did not act. So wouldn't you in fact, be a hypocrite by acting or not acting in a similar way this time?'''

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Which sounds, when you see it in the world, like sound moral reasoning, and it's garbage.

Taylor Moore: [Laughs]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Because it's basically saying, like, "Instead of helping, why don't you be consistent?" And it's like-

[…]

Brennan Lee Mulligan: It's like stupid. What the fuck is the point of consistency? Like principle as a measurement of consistency, and the Fox's whole deal would be like, "Yeah, yesterday I did something bad and today I'm going to do something good because I want to." That's all.

Erika Ishii: Yeah.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: And someone would be like, "You're a hypocrite." And he'd be like, "Okay! I'm gonna get some fish slurry."

End ID.]

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.

[jq37]

I'm like genuinely interested as someone who thinks a lot about the craft of critique and fandoms the ways in which the current Rat Grinders discourse shows why you can't really apply the same lens you use to critique a pre written story vs an improvised actual play show by a bunch of comedians who are first and foremost concerned with committing to the bit. Like Porter's a great example of this, he went from a nothingburher to secretly evil with a whole lore and backstory!

In the same vein the Rat Grinders probably could have turned out to be not as culpable in all of this had the Bad Kids really tried to bond with them, but instead they focused on other things with the way downtime was structured! And because they did that they could pass the Last Stand, and are safe from Porter's rage thing! Like legitimately I really liked the mechanics of downtime this season, it just also came at the cost of developing the Rat Grinders!

(Though to be entirely fair, the BKs did try to engage with Oisin, Ivy, and Ruben and then Oisin launched the house, Ivy was racist, and Ruben still attacked Wanda so)

I think it's really fascinating from a storytelling/game design perspective! The downside is the Discourse is so tiring

Yeah it's interesting. I covered some of this in other asks so I'm gonna hit on the stuff I haven't yet.

If you're telling a story that is based partially on user input, it's not entirely fair to be like, "This subplot was underdeveloped" if the reason for that was that the players didn't make choices to facilitate that development. When DM's push hard for the players to care about things they're not interested in, they get hit with railroading accusations.

And even outside of the player choices, there are also the rolls. A BIG part of D&D is the randomness of the dice. Even if the players care about something, it doesn't mean they'll get it. I'll mention again that Kristen tried to roll Insight on Buddy before the final fight and got a Nat 1. What is she supposed to do? Roll again until she gets a good read on him? That's not how that works. If the dice aren't cooperating, there's not much you can do. And you can make sure your big story beats don't rely on dice but at the end of the day they *will* shape your story in ways you can't control.

Another key thing about the medium, as you pointed out, is things can change on the fly. The confluence of high rolls and serious interest can change things that were behind the screen canon in an instant. In Burrow's End, Aabria planned for Bennet to have a family but as soon as Tula/Brennan expressed interest in romancing him, she Thanos snapped that family out of existence. I don't know how much Brennan wanted the Rat Grinders to be recruitable but even if he'd planned them all to just be foils and evil and nothing else, I can totally see him flipping one if they'd really wanted to and it would have made for a good story beat.

Anyway, yeah! Interesting stuff to think about. Even though D20 often feels like a TV show, it's important to remember that it's a different beast in many ways.

[musicalcastingideas]

Dropout Does The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

So my theory about overlap of Dropout and Team Starkid seems to be accurate, and people seemed to like my Dropout does Nerdy Prudes Must Die post, so I'm back for another. Same method and criteria as my previous post, you can go see that if you want to know what they are. Also, I have previously done a similar list with Internet Personalities that included a handful of Dropout people, but I'm gonna try to make this one different.

Also spoilers for potentially anything in the Hatchetfield verse

Paul: Ross Bryant

Ross is a great straight man (in the comedy sense, I don't know his sexuality) while being very funny in his own right, and I think, while Paul has a lot of his own funny moments, it's very important that his character is also the more normal guy reacting to the madness around him. Also, he would slay the Jekyll and Hyde homage that is Let it Out.

Emma : Siobhan Thompson

I think one of the essential parts of Emma's character is an underlying exhaustion with the world, and that is very Adaine Abernant and Ruby Rocks, so I think Siobhan would embody that very well.

Charlotte: Vic Michaelis

I don't think I've ever heard them do a transatlantic accent before, but I just have this gut feeling they'd be so good at it.

Ted: Ify Nwadiwe

While I do genuinely think Ify would be great in the part, if I'm being fully honest, this casting is because I (despite my better judgment) find Ted Spankoffski hot, so casting arguably the hottest man in Dropout in this part makes me seem less damaged for being attracted to the self-proclaimed sleazeball. Also him and Vic seem like they would be great playing off each other.

Bill: Brian "Murph" Murphy

He just has "refuses to drink during the apocalypse so he can be the DD" energy.

Mr Davidson: Brian David Gilbert

Since I'm splitting up all the parts, this basically turns Mr Davidson into a Princess Track where the actor just shows up, sings about desire and being choked while he jerks off, but laments how he can never achieve his dreams, and then pretty much leaves, and I don't know why, but that seems right up BDG's alley.

Melissa: Lisa Gilroy

Lisa Gilroy seems nice, but also kinda scares me, and those are the correct vibes for Melissa (#heymelissacore)

Sam: Jacob Wysoki

My only concern about this casting is that he'd go SO HARD in You Tied Up My Heart that he would keep breaking the handcuffs and/or chair, but that's fine, it would be worth it.

Nora: Katie Marovitch

The "Decaf?" parts of Cup of Roasted Coffee already sounds a bit like her TBH.

Zoey: Rehka Shankar

I feel like Zoey is such an underrated, funny side character in the show (I know she's a very small part, but like every line she has is a banger) and I feel like Rehka is a very underrated performer, so this is a good match.

Greenpeace Girl: Persephone Valentine

Making up the Save the Sea Turtles campaign is such a Sam Nightengale move, and also she would eat up Lah Dee Dah Dah Day.

Alice: Surena Marie

She's got a bit of a baby face (I thought she was like 25) and I think she would handle the change from Alice to Hivemind Alice really well.

Deb: Emily Axford

I'm definitely not just casting this because I want Emily to be my protective and caring girlfriend...

Professor Hidgens: Josh Ruben

I don't have an explanation for this one, this is vibes alone.

General MacNamara: Brennan Lee Mulligan

"Wear a Watch" and a song highlighting how the hivemind is essentially fascist and using the military to destroy any resistance to their regime is so Brennan core.

Homeless Man: Ally Beardlsey

I just feel like this is the part they'd want.

Dan Reynolds: Lou Wilson

Icons play Icons.

Donna: Aabria Iyengar

Icons play Icons

Hard Cuts:

Jacob Wysoki as Ted

Mike Trapp as Paul

Emily Axford as Emma

Jess Ross as Charlotte

Lily Du as Zoey

Grant O'Brien as Professor Hidgens

Grant O'Brien as Ted

Ally Beardlsey as Ted

[heartub]

my ideal bit-based d20 season would be as follows

the dm: brennan lee mulligan (this is crucial due to the required party to real life table dynamic)

the pcs:

emily axford: elf sorcerer

lou wilson: tiefling warlock

brian murphy: some fucked up little druid guy

siobhan thompson: fae wizard

aabria iyengar: human wizard

zac oyama: human fighter

trust me on this

the setting is modern fantasy where all the pcs work for the same magic company but they start to notice that things are a little bit

funky

so they all band together to investigate. siobhan & lou have the most power in the company of the party, but it's importsnt to note that siobhan is slightly less competent that aabria.

this drives aabria bananas ofc, so we get silly moments very akin to "anyone can cast fireball," she's always complaining to whoever will listen so it's silly fun time

murph & emily are both interns, emily was given the position via nepotism so she feels perfectly comfortable doing shenanigans to get to the bottom of this. murph did not get here via nepotism so he's sweating the whole time about how emily will 100% get them fired

lou is having the time of his life he's working with a bunch of goofy guys and he gets to finally climb the corporate ladder like he deserves to after all these years, he's there to stir the pot a little while everyone else is going buck wild

you might be wondering why is zac oyama a human fighter? this is because a) he's the underpaid and exasperated head of security. the mages are so convinced that nothing but magic can stop them, but he knows better. b) so aabria can look at him like he's a camera from the office and be like look at all these non-human freaks. and c) to bring a little bit of colin provolone's just a guy energy to the table

the party at some point experiences goofy infighting so it becomes a silly argument where the sides are aabria & emily and siobhan & murph over the morality and effectiveness of magic use and they spend a good 10-15 minutes trying to get lou and zac to pick a side. they do not.

most of the campaign is just silly bickering

the bbeg is of course, capitalism

[dimension20npcofalltime]

Round Four (Semi-Final) - Bracket One [Dimension 20 NPC of All Time Sidequest Edition]

Lukas vs Doug Meat

Propaganda under the cut (May contain Major spoilers for Burrow's End and Never Stop Blowing Up)

Lukas - He/Him

Campaign: Burrow's End

Who is he?

Lukas is a child stoat that is being educated in The Last Bastion of the Light's daycare.

Why is he the NPC of All Time?

A perfect little boy without whom the campaign would have been very different. Started off as comedic relief and added depth to Lila and Jaysohn, but ended up creating an incredibly emotional moment in the final battle of the campaign. Also, I love Aabria's voice for him and he deserves the world.

Showed up, followed the party immediately with no questions, had a funny voice, got addicted to mint, completely useless. THE MOST NPC ENERGY of all time

He brings so much fun to the twins’ side of the story. it’s clear that aabria just like, forgot that they’d cleared his nose with the mint when she started him with the stuffy voice again, and then everyone just went with it.

Doug Meat - He/Him

Campaign: Never Stop Blowing Up

Who is he?

Doug Meatskin(previously Doug Meat) is one of Kingskin's goons.

Why is he the NPC of All Time?

I’m sure he’s been submitted already but seriously he is the best character. he is the mvp he is the goat he is the second president of the usa in the eighties like how there was two popes one time.

The "party adopts a random background mook so they're a character now" of all time

He loves his mob boss boss. He's co president of these unites states of America. La familia.

That's my fucking president right there <3

It's GOTTA be Doug. The loyalty, the emotion, the love for the people he trusts. And his name is DOUG MEAT

He’s buff, he’s emotional, he has unknown depth and vague feelings for his drug lord boss.

DOUG MEAT!! he is a lover he is a fighter he has ideas for how to improve a criminal gang!! most loveable NPC of NSBU he is gorgeous and wonderful!! he just wants to hold someone's hand :((

It's Doug Meat, man

DOUG MEATTTTTTTTTTTTT

He stapled a mask to his face just to remove it within five minutes of talking

I just love him so much <3 (you do not have to use this I just don’t really know what to say sorry)

[that-ari-blogger]

Something... new? (Moment of Truth)

Here is a question. In a story about repetition, where the central threat is the cycle happening again, where the very concept of the narrative is that trauma and abuse echo in on themselves… how do you tell an interesting story?

Like, on a general level, stories are about change, so something that is, by its nature, formulaic, would probably be inconducive to storytelling. Right?

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power disagrees with this premise in a weird way. The third season of the series has been questioning the formula in increasingly outlandish way. The first episode gave the same story but with a twist at the end, the second dissected the formula itself by examining the foundation it is built on, and the third flipped the direction of the spiral for a time.

Moment Of Truth features, overwhelmingly, some of the most skill on display that the series will have at all. This isn’t a fan favourite episode, but it is genuinely incredible craft.

However, it is important to understand that this episode doesn’t do anything new. Every moment in this episode, bar the last two minutes, has happened before in the series.

All Moment Of Truth does to iterate on the formula, is take events of consequence, and place them immediately after one another. This episode messes with internal context, and it causes the tipping point of the series.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

One thing that I thought was interesting, upon rewatching this episode, is how few and far between the jokes are.

The series has a very distinct sense of humour and uses it in an extremely specific way. This is essentially a story about abuse, trauma, and war, which are objectively pretty heavy things. But it is also aimed at younger audiences, so it cushions each of its heavy blows with a joke.

This is why the character of Madam Razz is the most important character in the series. Her kookiness combined with her wisdom allows her to discuss some truly confronting and uncomfortable topics with grace and good nature. The humour is what makes this show approachable.

This is also why Aabria Iyengar’s style of game mastering for TTRPGs is so fascinating to watch. And, though I can’t verify that she is fun to play with since I have never played at her table (@quiddie please), her fellow cast members in Dimension 20 and Critical Role seem like they are having a good time. Essentially, she balances out heaviness with entertainment, effectively artificially shifting up the Garfunkel threshold of the players she is GMing for.

For context to the absolute mess that was that last paragraph. The phrase “Garfunkel threshold” is used by an English teacher that I had a few years ago and literally nobody else. It refers to the area of emotion where a person is out of their comfort zone, but not truly uncomfortable. Fun scary, essentially.

Back to She-Ra. Moment of Truth doesn’t waste time with jokes unless it really needs it. This episode runs at a breakneck pace, and only stops to give you breath at the last moment.

As a result, the jokes that this episode tells are really funny. Although, if they were told in a vacuum, they probably wouldn’t be. For example:

“You won't try to escape if I just pop out for a quick sec, will you?” “Uh... No?” “Okay, great, really appreciate it.”

This is iconic in the fandom, and for good reason. This is one of my two favourite jokes in the series. The other is also in this episode, weirdly enough.

But… it’s not that funny of a moment.

If you heard this conversation in any other episode of this show, maybe if Adora had been captured for a one-off episode like Catra was halfway through season two, this joke would maybe get a smirk, but not much more.

So why does it work?

One word: Context. This episode stresses you out like few other episodes of television can do, and a few seconds before this joke, it successfully makes you think that Entrapta will try to hurt Adora.

Instead, you get a moment to hold in the tension, then a piece of humour that is utterly incongruous with the tone of the episode so far, and you have to laugh.

This is the same premise behind the humour in Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’Bannon. That film has some incredible one liners that allow the audience to breathe and excise some catharsis in what a pretty gritty plot would otherwise be.

The perfect example of what I’m talking about here isn’t actually that much of a joke. It’s literally half a second that abrasively interposes itself into the break in and forces it to stumble. But the build up gives it so much levity.

The scene is off the back of Glimmer’s teleportation and the tension of Angella trying to stop it, followed by the constant stress of how easily Shadow Weaver is playing Glimmer like a chess piece. Mermista makes a quiet comment on the décor, a moment of levity that Shadow Weaver deliberately undercuts. Then we loose Perfuma to a fight we can’t see, the uncertainty of which is more stressful than knowing definitively that she has been killed.

Then the gang runs into Lonnie and Rogelio, two formidable foes, but two foes they have outnumbered. Stress rises, then the music cuts out for barely a moment as Lonnie flicks the alarm lever that is right next to her

It’s not a joke, it’s a character making an eminently sensible decision in contrast to the entirety of the rest of the cast. But the musical cue pauses the tension of the scene for just enough time for you to give a brief laugh, then the scene resumes in earnest, and continues at its previous pace. It isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to keep the story fun.

Basically, the show is made up of seriousness and humour, and those are held together by a single piece of Velcro, and that is working overtime to a truly extraordinary degree.

Except, that isn’t true. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power doesn’t treat humour and earnestness as separate at all, they run together and punctuate each other.

The other main thing that this episode does is a perspective twist. Moment Of Truth is all about context, and so the events play through the views of unusual characters.

Case and point, Glimmer and co. have gone rogue to do their own thing countless times in this series, and every time they get back, Angella chastises them.

However, this is the first time we have witnessed Angella’s reaction to Glimmer’s disappearance, and we get a sense of desperation from her.

Angella doesn’t have to speak her thoughts out loud to let the audience know what is happening. She sees Glimmer has gone and immediately realises that she has gone rogue again, so she checks Shadow Weaver’s quarters, because she knows what her daughter will do in this situation.

Meanwhile, the shots of Glimmer are from Shadow Weaver’s perspective. Almost as if Shadow Weaver is positioning herself as a replacement mother figure for Angella.

I could comment on the animation of this scene, but my analysis there is very much limited to “oooh pretty”. Which is fine, but nothing anybody hasn’t said before.

So, instead, spoilers for the season three finale (skip to the next paragraph if you’re avoiding those), this is the last time Angella sees Glimmer, and she is powerless to stop her. Angella is a character riddled with guilt, and this will come up later when I discuss the finale.

Back to the episode at hand, a significant chunk of this episode is as told by Shadow Weaver, so we get the full breakdown of how terrifyingly competent she is at her designated skillset. Shadow Weaver is a manipulative character, and so she is playing chess with the plot of the entire series in a way that only one other character comes close to matching, and I’m going to start my discussion of that by discussing her powers.

Magic is a facet of narrative literalism, where a metaphor within a story becomes tangible. For example, Glimmer is impulsive, so she teleports around, jumping to conclusions without taking the time to walk. She is also stubborn, so her powers make her uncontainable.

Shadow Weaver, meanwhile, is a parasite. She has magical talent of her own, but in this episode, all she does is leach off Glimmer’s power to further her own ends.

In a series about freedom of autonomy, Shadow Weaver exists in contrast to Hordack. Where these characters focus on the freedom aspect to contain and confine their enemies, Shadow Weaver twists her victim’s autonomy and takes control of them in a way that is insidious and very realistic. She is like Light Hope, which is interesting.

That parasitic nature actually reflects into Shadow Weaver’s manipulative technique, as she never targets someone who is, for lack of a better term, strong. This is difficult to explain: Glimmer needs something, and Shadow Weaver positions herself as the answer. She finds someone who is at their lowest point, and makes them dependant on herself.

This is, fun fact, why Perfuma, Mermista, and Frosta are seemingly immune to her influence. I’m grasping at straws here for Frosta’s characterisation because she gets about two lines in the entire episode, but I’m onto something with Perfuma and Mermista.

Perfuma is a paragon hero who does not compromise in her beliefs. This causes trouble in the series, as is the nature of this story, but it means that in the several instances Shadow Weaver tries to get under her skin, Perfuma brushes it off. Perfuma considers what Shadow Weaver has to say, but keeps in mind at all times that she is an abuser and therefore not to be trusted.

Mermista, meanwhile, is the best character in the series and you cannot change my mind. In seriousness, Mermista is detached and cold, a strength which, like Perfuma’s ethics, causes conflict at other points in the series. However here, it means that we have a character who does not take Shadow Weaver seriously at all, meaning that her grandiose pontificating is meaningless. Mermista sees Shadow Weaver for what she is, a prisoner scabbling for scraps of power from someone else, and she sees an easy rout to stopping that.

Anyway, the interrogation scene.

There is a spotlight on Glimmer and Bow here. They are on a stage, and Shadow Weaver sits on a couch, watching them. They are performing for her. She is in control.

“You are smart, you want to stop the Horde, and you know I'm the only one who can help you do that. I must admit, I thought it would take you longer to speak with me.”

Shadow Weaver is easing Glimmer into thinking she has control. She compliments her, casually offering her own services as help to the princess. But she also positions herself as lower than Glimmer. The last line implies that she is surprised and that Glimmer has the upper hand, letting her into a false sense of security.

“His machine is complete? And they have Adora? We must hurry. If Hordak has the opportunity to open a portal, he will do so immediately. The Alliance will never get there in time – but perhaps...”

She is surprised again, apparently. Shadow Weaver has taken care to position herself as omnipotent, that’s why the compliment to Glimmer being unexpected is there.

Effectively, if the smart guy is outsmarted, they are on the back foot. If the smart guy is surprised, they are in danger.

So, Shadow Weaver emphasises the danger of the situation, stressing that the alliance’s inability to help. But wait… it just happened to occur to her, just now, that Glimmer might be able to fix this. She wasn’t planning this at all, it was spontaneous, and a piece of knowledge she doesn’t think would work.

Needless to say, I think Shadow Weaver is talking utter bollocks about this. For my evidence, I propose the following questions: If Shadow Weaver didn’t know about Adora’s capture, how does she know about the rebellion’s plans? Is it possible she is pulling facts out of her backside to further her own ends?

“I can make you stronger. I'm still the only sorceress who has ever been able to tap into a runestone. If you allow me to access your connection to the Moonstone, I can enhance your powers. You could teleport us all the way there.”

Here is Shadow Weaver’s gambit. She can solve the problem for Glimmer, she can give Glimmer the assistance she needs. It’s a Faustian bargain, and she doesn’t mention at all what she gains from this deal, that’s just something that slips her mind.

Of course, she could be doing this out of the goodness of her heart, kindness isn’t transactional, but this is Shadow Weaver we are talking about. Shadow Weaver exists on conditional affection and saw fit to make demands as a prisoner of war. I don’t think Shadow Weaver is the type of person to offer aid for nothing.

“I want to destroy Hordak.”

This is Shadow Weaver’s stated motivation, she says it again later on in the episode, and it is mainly used to distract Glimmer and give her a “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” type of bargain. But I’d like to examine this motivation a little bit, because I think she is lying about this as well.

In the end fight of the episode, Shadow Weaver casts two spells, both of which could have been aimed at Hordack, but neither are. Instead, she destroys the room, and she targets Catra. Shadow Weaver is a parasite, and a liar.

Which leads into Catra’s descent into madness, something that is told entirely from everyone else’s perspective. Until the end, but we will get there.

Shadow Weaver physically abuses a child in this scene. That is objectively what this is. The fact that this is magical is the only thing that let the writers get this through censorship. But I want to be clear here, this is not simply punishing misbehaviour, this is not tough love, this is not building strength. Shadow Weaver physically abuses a child in this scene.

This is a mirror of the scene in Promise, to the point where the spell is the same, and it is notable that it would have been easier to just zap Catra and leave her there, but Shadow Weaver decides to torture her.

And this scene is viewed from Glimmer’s perspective, showing her the true monster that she is aligned with, but also the power that Shadow Weaver exhibits. This is the deal Glimmer made, summed up, agency for complacency. Glimmer has to make herself ok, at least partially, with this side of Shadow Weaver, which makes her complicit in what is, again, the physical abuse of a child.

We have seen this scene before, but here it is through a different lens, and that changes how we read it, and keeps it interesting.

It is also notable that Bow is the one who stops Shadow Weaver and pulls Glimmer back. Which is interesting.

Bow is Shadow Weaver’s antithesis. Angella is too, but Bow is her main equal opposite. Bow is kind, uncomplicatedly so, and he is the final character who remains immune to Shadow Weaver’s tricks.

Although Bow stays above Shadow Weaver by playing the same game as her, just more fairly. Bow is a tactician, and a damn good one at that. He isn’t as good as Shadow Weaver, nobody is, but he is easily the second best in the series by a long shot.

But Bow plays fair, at all times. He lets people know what their roles are, he communicates, and he relies on other people as much as they rely on him. His relationships are mutual, where Shadow Weavers are parasitic.

Bow exists on trust.

Speaking of which, when Catra betrays Entrapta, the scene is shot from Scorpia’s point of view, and we again see her utter powerlessness to stop the situation. This is the cycle of abuse in full effect. Catra was denied her own agency, and so the way she tries to reclaim it is by removing others of theirs. Scorpia can’t do anything as her friend is carried away to a death sentence.

The final scene, however, is from Adora’s perspective. We see Catra’s world fall apart around her, quite literally, and we see Adora watch her oldest friend descend into madness. Once again, the watcher is powerless, as Catra continues the cycle of abuse.

You understand that Catra has nothing left to lose, and while you don’t agree with her decision, you can see why she did it, which is important. Reason and justification are not the same, but they do both make analysis easier, which I am grateful for.

This sets up the next episodes and Catra’s characterisation there. Catra doesn’t care about her own safety or the continued existence of the world itself, she just wants to feel better by exhibiting some kind of control over the people she perceives to have hurt her.

Which also sets up my diagnoses of Catra, and I’m not sure how the fandom will react to this, but I think Catra is the villain here.

Catra, in this episode, and in the next few episodes, is abusive, manipulative, and controlling. Essentially, she fits all three of the parameters for evil that the series has established.

Yes, she has a reason for her actions, but she isn’t morally grey anymore, she is choosing to burn the world down out of spite. Cool motive, still murder. Catra is the villain.

But is she irredeemable? I would argue “no”.

Spoilers for the rest of the series, but I can’t really explain why Catra’s redemption is possible to me other than the fact that she was redeemed, and it worked for me.

I don’t believe in good and bad people; I believe in actions. Sure, there are people who do unconditionally horrible things, a lot, but I would argue that the best way to redeem oneself is to stop doing those things and get better.

It’s as if morality is a quality you have to work at, with enough practice, you can improve.

And I think Catra’s redemption is so well executed, specifically because of the fact she is villainous here. If she hadn’t hit rock bottom and then sunk even further, her climb wouldn’t be nearly as compelling, at least to me.

Micah's memory casts a shadow over Angella as she makes her decisions, colouring her argument with her daughter. I wonder if there is some symbolism there.

Final Thoughts

The reason that Moment of Truth isn’t as popular as Promise or Save The Cat, is that it isn’t spectacular, it’s just impressive. By which I mean, the shot composition of this episode is stellar, but I can’t exactly point out every Dutch angle or perspective warp, or how many emotions Entrapta goes through in a single close up.

Also, the pacing of this episode actually slows down, rather than gaining momentum. It increases in tension, but the scenes get longer and more drawn out. We are reaching the event horizon, essentially, and time is getting wibbly wobbly. But that isn’t exactly something that wows an audience.

So if I was to recommend this episode, I would point to the teleportation scene, or the fight between Catra and Shadow Weaver. Both of which look cool, but don’t hold up by themselves when contrasted with other episodes in this series.

Basically, Moment Of Truth is competent, but in a way, its playing things safe on a majour scale, which is unfortunate. This episode deserves more love.

Anyway, next week, I will be looking at Remember, and taking narrative literalism to its extreme. So stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[chiakery]

There's new version of the intro so here's new translation (my screenshots are mostly shit so I can't make a lot out of them, if anyone manages to take better ones, please feel free to send them my way and I'll try my best to translate more!!):

A - We've got "Ilościowa" in bold (tr. quantitative) B - handwritten part is hard to decipher but i think the first word is "klosze" (tr. shade, as in lampshade), underneath it is "nazwa" (tr. name) and underneath that is "miejsce przechowania" (tr. storage point). C - this one's interesting. We've got "Przychód" on the left side (tr. revenue) and on the right we have "Rozchód" and "Zużycie" (tr. expenditure and wear, as in how much something was used) Additionally, a moment later than I took this screenshot, the down left corner of the card becomes visible and you can make out words "Rodzaj i numer dowodu". While you can translate "dowód" as evidence, the translation that makes the most sense here would be "The type and number of the ID".

Here's the second one (that's actually connected to the third one): A - for some reason it's funny as hell to me that they took care to barely show us any other text but here we are, with a perfectly visible word "Wałek" (tr. roller) lol I mean, they probably meant is as "arbour", the kind you'd use in a lathe, but still. B - "Decyzja kier. wydz." is short for "decyzja kierownika wydziału" (tr. head of department's decision) and "Orzeczenie DKT" (tr. DKT's opinion) but it's more like ruling than someone's view on something. No idea what DKT is supposed to stand for. C - written sideways and partially obscured "Karta" (tr. card) with the second word completely covered and underneath that once again "nazwa" (tr. name). But we get to see more details in the next shot that shows the same card from a different angle!!

A - now we can see that the full phrase is "Karta zwrotu" (tr. return card). How do we know it's the same one as previously? Simple, once again we've got "Orzeczenie DKT" in B.

Unfortunatelly I couldn't make any other words on this one or the next one - they were just too blurry.

Hope some of you found it interesting! Oh, and what the fuck is up with the change in the eyes when Aabria's name is shown? Why did they change them??

(Sidenote: for a moment when i heard about 12 symbols and what they were supposed to mean I thought it was "Idź do światła", but that would translate only to "Go towards the light")

[unsleepingtales]

Oh boy those content warnings look fun. Mismag episode four time?

(Excuse the lack of excitement please I’ve had a shit day and this promises yet more emotional damage) (I know I’m choosing to watch this I promise I’ll turn it off if it feels like it would be bad for me to keep watching)

Not the long back

Oh god

He has every right to be saying this but ouch

Okay so this is reasonable and devastating

SAM

That’s the thing that gets Brennan to break

Oh god Sam is a child of divorce and her saying that HITS

K. K. This is not it? Maybe?

Where’s Brennan’s mic bc it sounds a bit weird

Ooooh cool shadow stuff

Oy.

Disturbing!!!!

Is there a conspiracy about my ass happening in the group right now?

Yeah Evan there is 100% a conspiracy about your ass

Cool cool. So that was jokey but definitely implied K is still into Evan

His BODY

Uh

Maybe it’s the book he picked up?

UH

Hmm! Upsetting.

This is not great for my mental health 😐

Is Carlos doing this live or did they have him record new stuff in between episodes?

I mean that’s fair you did earthquake him

Aabria looks surprised so I am gonna guess Carlos was doing that live

There’s a lot of rules for sleeping outside

That is disturbing buddy

LEVITY THANK GOD

Are you gonna do a scrubbbbb

I love the editing on this

The face dropping the minute you get off the call is SO real

Oops oh no

UH OH

ERIKA WHAT

The very model of a modern chipmunk animal 😭

Awwww them

This is fun

Oh nooooooo

I love him SO much

That is. An ADHD symptom.

Hey babygirl what are you doing

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Ok so maybe that was prerecorded because they just had that projection ready to go

You’re gonna shoot a cocaine spell into your MIND

They can help now!

What’s a fun cocaine movie 😭

I just watched Aabria’s eyes light up at challenging Erika lmao

Okay her art is pretty

I love table acting. I think every actor should have to play a ttrpg and learn how to act and communicate within the confines of a table and it will be helpful!

Well at least she’ll have something in common with Tabby

GET FUCKED sorry that was a gut reaction to a British person using the American version of a word because I have been slowly infecting my British partner with Americanisms and our friends and their family never let them hear the end of it lmao

Cocaine!

Hello?????

Oh my GOD how did we get here

What?

A skrillion!

Lemli! Hi!

Brennannnnnnnn

Incredible. Five questions. You rock.

Evan!

That’s soooo unsettling.

Discomfort is a great place for everybody here to be and we can all bump up the paranoia by one!

Iconic tbh

HI!

I don’t have the strength to explain skibidi toilet 😭

Ooooh boy oh boy

The matrix crossed with Glinda’s bubble that’s really cool

Oh for fucks SAKE

Another dc 40 for Erika whyyyyy

Oh god

Oh FUCK HER

Holy shit that’s hot. Sorry but. Oh my god that’s hot.

What’s the smallest most efficient effort that makes a living person a dead body? I’m sorry but that? Is hot.

Evan immediately no hesitation snapping his wand to kill the person who attacked someone he loves. HOT.

Oh my GOD that’s terrifying. Hot. A silent custodian walking through the halls of her mind turning off her lights.

Art!

FUCK.

Listen I didn’t claim to be okay ever.

Oh this is interesting also

Sorry I’m. Fine.

Oh this could go so wrong.

Hey nobody look at me for a minute I’m gonna be in the corner processing my reaction to Brennan’s facial expressions just now.

This is FINE I’m not gonna rewatch that scene what are you TALKING about.

We’re fine we’re moving on we’re processing.

Sam not to be weird but yeah why the fuck would you put yourselves through that again for someone who did try to kill you and also just tried to break your shit and hurt your friend.

Attacking someone I love around me gets you dead. Yeah that’s it.

The bad part of cocaine!

Oh god. Oh that’s so horrifying. Oh Aabria you’re so good at what you do.

That’s heartbreaking and terrifying oh god.

Fuck.

A moment of peace. Okay.

Yeah Jammer hasn’t said anything in a While he doesn’t look like he’s having a good time

Glad I’m not the only one who thought that was fucking TERRIFYING

They’re friends!!

God. This is why he left.

Aabria. FUCK.

So next episode looks. Fun.

[briarsartblog]

TLDR I'm pretty happy with this. I will probably do a background then make more. Thanks

So I'm bit further along in colouring, I'm really happy with how the shading on the frills went and I think the fox turned out great!

I had to pave over the hair which was sad but it was the only way I could figure to make it work for me (I had to cheat a bit and use acrylic to cover the parts of the old hair with the hat in the background) The hair still needs a little work, I'll probably have to cheat harder and use more acrylic to lighten parts of it and use the current black as shadow so fast becoming less of a watercolour project and more a multimedia experience but that's alright every project is good practice for the next project (Suvi probably, I would like to do all the PC's and probably Sir Curran for Brennan, also I want to do one for Taylor maybe and I'm leaning towards the Ace of Wands bartender and I don't know why)

Also I would like to do a background for this but it will take some planning

P.S. I won't do one of these every time because it would get old real fast, but thanks everyone who liked the last Ame picture I'll try not to get self conscious about the attention, I'm coming back from 15 years of not doing art due to some not great experiences and it really meant the world to me that even a hand full of people enjoyed this. Shout out to Aabria if she see's this, I don't know if it was just a fluke she liked the last one or if she would bother reading this wordy mess but I strive to be even half the DM you are in my home game.

Lots of love all Briar

[flurry-of-beaus-pop-pop]

Regarding the current discourse in the Critical Role fandom about the current storyline occurring in Campaign 3, I just want to address some of the main arguments I’ve seen...

Argument 1: The “gods are bad and should be destroyed” view is tiring and overdone and just attacks religion.

First of all, if you have the expectation that Critical Role should start paying attention to what all other popular shows do that stream their D&D Campaigns, then you may need to re-examine your expectations. 

Why do I say this? Because in regards to Critical Role, Campaign 1 was very heavy on worshipping the deities and Campaign 2 was very heavy on worshipping the deities. Like, I never watched Campaign 1, but in Campaign 2, I can’t remember a single point where someone questioned the purposes/importance of the deities, even when they themselves, didn’t believe. 

Campaign 3 is the first campaign where the majority of the party don’t have some sort of religious connection, so to say that the “gods are bad and should be destroyed” argument is overdone, is simply ludicrous because this is quite literally the first time it HAS been done on Critical Role. 

Argument 2: This entire storyline is ridiculous because it’s obvious that Predathos destroying the Gods/Goddesses would be bad and there’s no argument one could make as to why it would be good. 

Here’s the thing. To us? It’s obviously clear that releasing Predathos and allowing him to destroy all the gods/goddesses would be horrific and a tremendous mistake. Hell, I’m sure that to Travis, Marisha, Sam, Ashley, Laura, Liam, Taliesin, Christian, Aabria, Utkarsh, Emily, and Aimee, the idea of releasing Predathos to destroy the deities is a bad idea. But that’s because we have literally all of the background information on what the deities do and how instrumental they are into how everything works. 

The characters that are present in this campaign? They aren’t us, and they aren’t the players that are playing them. 

The decisions that are being made in this campaign are being made based on what the characters know not what the players know or the audience knows. And unfortunately, most of the players in the campaign don’t have any sort of connection to the deities and therefore, don’t have any sort of framework for why destroying the deities would be bad. They’re operating based on the information that they are given, and what they can deduce. 

Unfortunately, that might mean that when push comes to shove, they may make the decision to allow Predathos to be released because someone presents them with information that makes that decision make the most sense. 

Argument 3: Critical Role obviously has an agenda with this storyline because Laudna, Bor’Dor, Prism, Deni$e, Orym, and Ashton just blindly agreeing to help this group of villagers makes no sense

Except it does make sense. And if you were paying attention, they explained why it made sense. 

Right now, Laudna, Orym, and Ashton’s main goal is to get back to their friends and stop whatever is happening with Ludinous. 

In order to do that, they need to know where their friends are. How can they find out where their friends are? By using the scrying well and in order to use the scrying well, they had to help. 

As was pointed out, whether they helped or not, this coup was going to happen and so they might as well, especially since it was very clear that the presence of these individuals from the temple were not a positive presence. Plus if they participated, they could have some semblance of control over what happened. 

Honestly? I’m excited for this storyline. It’s not offering a fresh perspective that hasn’t been present in these campaigns (as mentioned before C1 and C2 were very heavily Pro-Deities), but it’s offering a very realistic depiction of the variety of moral dilemmas that arise when something VERY BAD is possibly about to happen and the lengths that you’ll go to in order to stop that bad thing from happening, sometimes to the point of doing things that you wouldn’t otherwise do. 

I’m excited to see where this goes, and even more excited to see what happens when the two parties reunite, especially if this second group ends up going down the road of “the gods should be destroyed” since Team Wildemount landed on doing whatever they could to stop Ludinous. It would be super interesting to see what happens if the party is truly split on a big decision like this because for the most part, they’ve always agreed, at least on the major stuff

[utilitycaster]

Big D20 and ACOC fan here. The "they won't get the rich lore" argument just also feels so ridiculous from a technical standpoint? Like, CR fans watch long ass episodes, the campaigns for it span over a hundred episodes lmao. I'm pretty sure they're actually primed for lore retention and are fairly used to intricate plot points. I personally can't wait to see Matt take this on and bring in more viewers.

Right! Like...firstly, fans of Critical Role, or Matt, do tend to be massive fucking nerds, and CR in particular is pretty heavy on lore so assuming the worst of them is pretty dumb. Secondly, as I said, there's very few resources for this lore other than watching (requires a subscription) or reading the transcripts of the episodes - and I want to be clear, I don't blame the D20 wiki editors, who have as far as I know been minding their own business - but the people hyping up the rich lore have done nothing to bring that canon to potential new fans, instead just tsk-tsk-ing and saying "you wouldn't get it." Thirdly, I'm going to take a wild guess and say again that Matt and Brennan have gone through the lore together and are going to set the stage adequately for new viewers.

Which is the big thing that I think the people attempting to say "you wouldn't get it unless you've continuously been in the fandom specifically for ACOC for three straight years" are fully missing (and which your ask here does take into account appropriately). Dropout needs subscribers. That is their business model, and D20 is one of the shows that brings in the most new and continuous subscribers since many of the other shows, while great, are unscripted quiz-style shows and permit a more, well, drop in and out style of viewing.

The past few D20 seasons have not been pulling in the same viewership, and we can speculate why that is but it ultimately doesn't matter. They are specifically bringing in a popular and well-known DM, having a group of experienced roleplayers, and returning to this specific beloved setting on purpose to do so - both to mine the overlap in fandom between D20 and CR and perhaps expand it, reach out to fans of Aabria or Anjali, and perhaps bring back in people who watched A Crown of Candy but haven't kept up since. A lot of the discussion truly feels like it paints Matt as "asshole who wandered on set and seized control over my blorbos" and not "person who was very deliberately invited to DM this particular season and has the explicit blessing of Brennan, Sam Reich, and anyone else involved in the decision-making at D20." (I honestly don't know if the D20 powers that be are aware that there's a cohort of D20 fans who just passionately hate CR or Matt but the thing is, if I were a hypothetical executive who was, shall we say, plugged into the fansphere? I'd pick the setting of Calorum specifically so that we retain its passionate fandom, even if they don't like the DM, while also bringing in new fans. It would be the smart business decision, and also pretty funny.)

But also...look. I am certainly not above criticizing fan theories based on poor understanding of lore, or when people are like (smug voice) "well I'm a lore muncher so combat doesn't interest me", or when they respond to thoughtful meta with irrelevant projections. But if someone wants to watch Critical Role and make liveblog posts of "hell yeah, Fearne just stole that guy's watch, iconic" without going deep into the lore? That is absolutely just as valid a form of fandom as writing meta, or fic, or creating fan art, or cosplaying. The same goes for any other show. If you want to get into lore discussions and meta then yes, you should be relatively up on the lore, but if you just want to hang out and enjoy the show? You can show up to episode 1 absolutely cold and pick it up as you go along. It's fine, and anyone saying otherwise is an asshole who does not have good intentions.

[the-wrat]

Hello tumblr would you care to see my reactions to the burrows end finale anyway here they are:

(thanks for reading if you do i guess)

god new Tula is so unhinged and I love it like wtf is that jumpsuit idea

implications of lukas knowing about cocaine are stoats have either done it or like watched scarface or smth right

"twerking on a gearshift"

god I hope they ram the humans

noooo thorn

oh god oh fuck oh pants oh sheeeyiit.

my god the flying squirrel scene is right out of an animated kids movie

holy moly the arc from refusing to understand anything to "well, help us understand"😭

RIP Carlos Luna gone too soon

absolutely loving this new map scale

well this is gut wrenching (both figuratively and literally)

wait is Siobhan from the forest? why is she going back to the forest

this time on burrows end:

Iyengar and Mulligan: Rules Lawyers Divided

(good on Brennan trying to twist the effect tho, it was worth a shot)

oh god the betrayal poor bhint baby

oooooooh shit oh pants oh dammit Aabria why

I hate this

I resonate so much with Brennan's dead inside voice rn

if Jaysohn dies I WILL riot

Jesus fucking Christ in hell people

oh im gonna be so emotionally devastated after this

I may never recover

KILL IT JAYSOHN FUCKING KILL IT DEAD

HELL YEAH JAYSOHN CATCH THE BULLET

so frikin cool thas the pants (meant like that's the shit)

man that baculum is tough, huh?

of course the villain in the story wants to bomb everything it's a cold war era story

love the new york accent meat suit thing, 10/10 bit

wow radiation bad whoda thunk

I think i need an image of jasper screaming to react to stuff with

I second the Emmy nom

wait it's called the dimensional dome??!?

this is pantsing insane

oh my god they won I didn't even think this was possible

no not Jaysohn please not Jaysohn I'll do anything cmon you can't do this please no. help.

okay he's not full dead we still have hope ppl.

ah yes nuclear power plants, well known for having their own ice cream trucks.

okay I fully forgot about Lukas is bhint baby okay

ooohhh beans

oh.pants.

final sacrifice?

past Tula really said "all I wanted was to fall asleep, close my eyes and disappear"

this is so sad but that was a truly amazing speech

oh nooo an epilogue time to see how my prediction of "bittersweet" turned out. somehow, after all that, I think it's not gonna happen

peace and love bb

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

stoat pres!

man the whiplash of going from almost crying to "Kenji do that little dance"

Dr. Stoat!

oh shit they never said a stoat couldn't play sports!

literally hyperventilating Air Jaysohn is real and he made it to the Olympics

do they have weight classes in long jumps?

BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN SWIFTER THAN THE WIND PANTS YEAH!!