#but now it's time to catch up on exu!!

[septembermonologues]

delilah's approach to consuming laudna this time and her specific wording of "i've waited too long to have been this close and have it taken. i'll do what i always do, what must be done." is so similar to what lolth just pulled with opal and her "so sorry. i think i wanted us to have a little more time to do this organically . . . you accepted my crown, and now the bill is due". and dorian getting as far away from laudna as quietly and slowly as possible is making my chest ache because yes sure he has the thing (another fucking thing) in the bag of holding he was tossed but also he's reliving what cost him his brother's life and half of his friends barely two days ago. what is he supposed to do with that. none of this is fair but having to have to replay that day again hours later is so fucked.

[samuraiko]

Details from the new CR animated intro (SPOILERS AHOY)

HERE BE SPOILERS

YOU KNOW THE DRILL

LOREM IPSUM

---

So, from the beginning of the new intro!

Matt creating the terrain (the Key, what looks like Ludinus' tower in Molaesmyr) and the appearance of Liliana, Ludinus, Ira Wendigoth, Captain Xandis, and Otohan Thull before the shot pans out to the Feywild Arch...

Nothing specific in Fearne's intro though it might represent her passing through the Arch into Exandria

Orym's shows Derrig sitting under the cherry tree while Will is beside Orym, moving through the Zephaer'atam - Will and Orym are using identical swords (barring length)

Imogen's shows Bertrand, the Lumas twins, and Lord Eshteross fading into the storm before she turns, runs, and plummets into...

Ashton falling from the window of Jiana Hexum's manor (we see him pre-injury but post-"hardening")

The group on the deck of the Silver Sun, we now see Ash with two different colour eyes -- as they fall overboard, Ashton grabs Laudna and flings her at Imogen, while FCG casts Fly (or something along those lines), and Fearne transforms into a bird and catches Ashton on her back (we don't see if FCG catches Orym or Chetney)

When the Hells are in the Feywild, Fearne has her pan flute, and we see her blackened left hand (a result of her grabbing Lolth's Crown during ExU)

During Laudna's intro, we get a brief flash of Delilah puppeting a Laudna doll the way Laudna is puppeting Pate in the shot

During FCG's shot, in the close-up on his red-tinted eyes, we see the Division lying massacred, with the buzzsaw and the grappling hook arm on the ground - as the shot pulls back, we see FCG swinging the buzzsaw at Ashton before we see the rest of the Hells surround him, Orym restraining him (with Seedling, slight continuity error there but appropriate), Chetney's unfinished mood wheel on the table behind them... and then Fearne pickpockets Ashton while everyone's focused on FCG

Chetney is carving a rocking horse, and we clearly see his RTA crown tattoo

In the group attack shot -- a wolfed-out Chet is using his Crimson Rite to claw through vines -- Fearne summons Mister who has his little firearm before she blowtorches everything -- Ashton's arm gets sliced and he rages -- FCG grapplehooks his way into combat and swings around, his Spiritual Weapon taking the shape of the Changebringer's coin -- Ashton apparently rolled Time because we see his dopplered selves appearing off him (it MIGHT just be a coincidence, but the blue-shift version looks like an uninjured stone Asthon, while the red-shift version looks like a HUMAN Ashton) before Ashton drops the hammer on a pair of Paragon's Call riding a crawler and blows it up -- Laudna's newer form of Dread appears with branches and flowers, while Imogen flings lightning around -- Orym goes toe to toe with several of Otohan Thull's echoes (including him Air Striking some into nothingness) before he blocks the REAL Thull's attack

Thull knocks him back into Ashton and FCG, who catch him

[liesonthefloordramatically]

A wild 2023 recap post appears!

Stuff I made this year:

Fiction: Nope. Work continues to consume me.  I DID write like 33k that maybe will be publicly accessible in the future, but who can say.

Playlists: I think the only two I remembered to share were Oleander (a playlist for my Wickedness character) and the vast and the void (what it says on the tin).

RPGs: Also a nope.

Knitting: Made a shawl!  And a hat, technically, that I forgot to take pictures of.

Other stuff: Taught 5 classes, 4 of which were new preps!  Did fieldwork in Japan for the first time since 2019! Gave an hour-long talk in Japanese!  Presented on two conference panels!  Finished two academic book reviews! Survived somehow!  The period between August and December sort of doesn’t exist in my memory?  I was doing things but almost all of those things were work, so. The isolation has been wearing on me, but with the combination of A. not having any time to do anything other than work and B. for Various Reasons questioning whether I want to stay at this job, it's been really hard to build local community. I'm going to try to work on that next year, but also I'm going to have two new preps again in the fall and one of my spring classes is already overenrolled, so who knows how effective that'll be.

Media I enjoyed this year:

Books: I read 46 books this year apparently!  Top picks in no particular order: The Singing Hills Cycle (embarrassingly my jam), The Southern Reach Trilogy (shocking that it took me this long to read this), My Own Devices (even MORE shocking that it took me this long to read this), Imperial Radch (so AGGRESSIVELY my jam), She Who Became the Sun (this was a hilarious accompaniment to one of my fall classes), Camp Damascus (read this on a plane back from Japan which was An Experience), The Tale That Twines (loved the first book; the second book is even better), System Collapse (yeah, no one is surprised that I loved this).

TTRPG: Wickedness!  This was the only new TTRPG I played this year, but it was really good.

Video games: Mask of the Rose and Saltsea Chronicles, both of which I want to/should poke at more. Special nod to 13 Sentinels which we enjoyed 90% of a lot.

Manga/comics: I think the only thing I read was The JOJOLands?

Fanfic: I didn’t actually wind up reading that much fanfic this year again, in part because I was reading so many books.  A few picks, in no particular order: The Gardener (CR C2), Keys to the Castle (CR C2), Whistle Song (CR C2), pieces of (you) me (CR C2), Descriptions of a River Flowing (CR C2), Slip the Blindfold (CR C2), Heart to Heart (JJBA: JJL--PLEASE read this if you care about JJL at all), riverside beatitudes (JJBA: SDC), Fully formed, ready to run (ExU: Calamity).  Honorable mention to Asking for More (Stranger of Paradise), which is a WIP but made me laugh so hard I hit myself in the face with my phone.

Films: I actually watched like eight movies this year!  All but two of the new ones on a plane, to be fair, but.  Top picks: Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse and Shoplifters (『万引き家族』).  Honorary mention to Suzume.

TV: Finally finished Stone Ocean!  It was good!  Rowan and I are also like halfway through catching up on TGCF and it is also very good.

Podcasts:  Continued to listen to way too many of these.  Top picks: The Silt Verses, Trice Forgotten, Within the Wires (hey can we talk about the newest season? truly wild), and Re: Dracula.  Honorable mentions to The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods, 『なんかIWAKAN！』 (WHICH IS TRAGICALLY ENDING???? where am I supposed to get my chaotic Japanese gender and sexuality discussion now :(((((), Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later, Critical Role, and Worlds Beyond Number.

Music: Dessa's Bury the Lede was excellent, of course.  I also apparently listened to Maisie Peters' The Good Witch a lot (it was in my grading rotation in October). And then this past month there's been a lot of Hozier's Unreal Unearth. But a lot of my listening this year was either albums on the bus (rotating mainly between Quiet Company’s We Are All Where We Belong, Bury the Lede, yorushika’s entire discography that I can purchase, Wednesday Campanella, and various soundtracks) or putting something on loop and falling into a fugue state.  Apparently my top song of the year on Spotify was “Square One,” which I think I put on looping while grading in the spring.  My Spotify top songs list was even more inexplicable than usual this year.

Anyway, あけおめ！！！ 良いお年を！！！ (or else!!!!)

[burr-ell]

while I've been a cr fan for a while now, i've only recently started to interact more with the fanbase after completing campaign 2 and starting to go through campaign 3(i will hopefully catch up before it concludes but who knows lol) and man is the fandom strange. never have i seen a fandom have both a toxic positivity problem as well as a toxic criticism problem at the same time. people both viciously defend the show and attack it depending on the time of day it feels like lol. that being said I do want to know about what you enjoy about the show? I feel like most of the posts i've seen of yours are meta/takes about the fandom, which i do enjoy don't get me wrong, but i'd love to see things you like, especially if they're niche things! sorry if its a question you've been asked before! much love from another, what i would say, sane critical role fan ahhah

ah you want to see me be annoying. bless you anon <3

-mr lord percival de rolo and ms lady vex'ahlia de rolo and their sister/in-law ms lady cassandra de rolo and their bear son trinket de rolo and their baby quarter elf de rolos and their bear grandson charles de rolo and

-listen, i don't know what made me such a lunatic about perc'ahlia and their family but i am, that will never change, they've both suffered so much loss and they could have gone dark so many times but they didn't! they both chose the light and each other and chose the light because of each other and they have a FAMILY, whitestone is a city of rebirth and i want to gnaw on something every time i think about it

-i also just! love vox machina as a whole! it's classic, archetypal fantasy adventure stuff and that's why i love it. i love the chroma conclave arc especially, i really enjoy the stakes and the traveling across the world and the absolutely ridiculous moments that grew out of it. vox machina is, in the metanarrative, the living legend—the group that started it all and began breathing life into the world of exandria, and i've always enjoyed those kinds of stories.

-EXU CALAMITY. if you haven't seen it you absolutely should, i highly recommend it. it's an amazing story, the characters and setting feel so realized and alive in the four episodes they were around, and the actual players are incredible. i love the lore it introduced, i love the specter of vespin chloras over the narrative, i love how much presence asmodeus has and how well brennan plays such a master manipulator. and the INTRO??? why isn't the intro released as a single it's so good

-i've only had fy'ra rai and morrighan for a day and a half. if anything happened to them i'd kill everyone in the crown keepers

-i love the kinds of concepts and narratives that taliesin considers for his characters and how deeply he thinks through their presence in the world. he's thought so much about whitestone and both what it used to be like and how it's changed since C1, and while i've only watched the m9 twoshot, lucien/molly/kingsley is such an interesting idea (and i just really like kingsley). ashton is also an absolute joy to watch, and i'm so curious about their backstory and lore. taliesin has a knack for portraying characters who have very strong moral and personal beliefs but would rather coexist in a world with others' than enforce their own, which is probably why i like percy and ashton so much in particular. i also really enjoy his sense of humor; it's very dry and snarky with just the right amount of gothic whimsy.

-simply put. Travis Good. even back when he was playing grog, who is on paper a pretty simple character concept, he just couldn't help but give him a compelling and interesting backstory—and when he had to show off his acting chops, he DELIVERED. the depth that he gives his characters and the enthusiasm he has for the lore of the world are so burr-coded. cerrit in particular was an absolute tour de force and just watching travis go for whatever decisions he's going to make is incredible. he's also absolutely hilarious and his comedic timing is underrated. i mean, southerner to southerner, game recognize game.

-laura bailey!! i'm so fascinated by her consistent narratives about masks and coping mechanisms, and i love the fact that she's willing to make her PCs unlikable. she embraces their flaws and their virtues and just plays them so naturally. you have to read between the lines sometimes with her characters or you risk falling for the fronts they put up, and i love that kind of subtlety! she also doesn't feel the need to walk anyone through those choices, which i also appreciate; she simply plays them as they are, and however you react to that is up to you. i admit i'm interested in the alternate universe where laura played a character in calamity—marisha absolutely nailed it as patia, but i'm also interested in what laura would have done at that table.

-welcome to tal'dorei? oh my GODS that album is spectacular, especially the title track

-lastly, i genuinely enjoy the fandom experience! i've met some really cool people and made some really good friends here, and i love the creativity, especially of fanartists. i've learned so much about narrative and storytelling from reading different people's analyses, i've learned more about art from the fanart community, and overall i feel like the people i've met and the experiences i've had have helped me grow as a person.

anyway thank you for encouraging some positivity! i enjoy writing meta and critical analysis is really fun for me, but it's nice to take a step back and remember all the things i love. <3

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Hello!!!! I’ve been following you for ages and I know that you’re a big CritRole fan. I’ve never really been able to get into it, cuz the thought of going back and watching it all from scratch is supremely intimidating. However. I finished all of EXU Calamity in a weekend (and lost my entire fucking mind) and I’m really enjoying TLOVM show. Do you have any tips for watching any parts of C1, C2, or C3 in addition to that? Or would it be smarter to wait for C4 to start and go fresh from there?

Hello dear, lovely to hear from you. I hope you're doing well.

Critical Role is very intimidating to get into. I was fortunate that I got into it early on, roughly a year after they started filming, so it didn't take me as long to catch up. Anyone trying to get into it now is going to feel daunted, that's for sure. Unfortunately, D&D sessions do tend to run long, I know my group's average is 4 hours and we used to run for up to six when we had more open schedules.

Calamity is a fantastic place for any newbie to start. There are other oneshots and mini-campaigns they've done too, like Taliesin's eldtrich horror mini campaign, the Undeadwood campaign, and Marisha's Honey Heist and its sequel. Calamity introduces you to the world and is just. brilliant improv storytelling from all the players. but it's only six episodes for the complete story. So if anyone reading this ask wants to bite into a good tragedy and wants to know what the whole TTRPG craze is about, Calamity is a great one.

When it comes to the full campaigns... you kind of have to resign yourself to the fact that it'll take a while. Campaign four won't start for another year or two, and so you can wait until then, but that is a bit of time to hold out.

I would personally recommend you listen to campaign one. Campaign two seems to be the favorite for the majority of fans, but since you've already watched TLOVM, which is based on campaign one, that'll give you some background info and a baseline to help you get into the swing of things. The first few episodes will be a bit rough, since the cast is getting used to being filmed in a studio rather than hanging in a living room, but you'll be surprised by how fast you latch onto the characters.

Additionally, I think it's just fun to watch the cast journey from being in a spare room at the Geek & Sundry studios, to their own studio, slowly decorating that studio, then moving to a bigger studio, which is where they'll stay for campaign two. it's just nice, in my opinion, to see those little details as the show grows in real-time.

My friend recommends listening at 1.25 speed, and sometimes she speeds up the combat to 1.5 speed. You can also listen rather than watch, as some of my friends have done, so you can listen (either just put the video on and don't look, or they have created podcast versions of the episodes - nothing changed in content, just made it into an audio file to download) while doing other things like folding laundry. I prefer watching, to see facial expressions and nonverbal reactions, but given that this is a popular option among my friends, I don't think you'll miss anything too vital. And you can always supplement with YouTube compilation videos of reactions and favorite moments!

I can also say that it'll go faster than you think it will. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can blow through a few episodes.

So, yes, either wait a year or two, or resign yourself for a commitment, unfortunately that's kinda how it goes. You can't really skip episodes or only do "highlight" episodes since so much happens in each one, you can miss a lot of context. If that still intimidates you I'd really recommend diving into the other mini campaigns and oneshots they've done like Honey Heist, Undeadwood, etc.

Also, if you liked Calamity, then I recommend Dimension 20. Brennan Lee Mulligan is the game master for that crew, just as he was in Calamity, and their campaigns are a lot shorter. So that can also help you get into the TTRPG show groove. Their campaigns tend to run 15-20 episodes and the mini campaigns are around 6.

Again if you are going to dive into a full CR campaign I recommend the first campaign with Vox Machina since you already know the characters and a lot of the plot arcs - and it's fun to watch TLOVM when you've seen campaign one, since you can see how it's a truncated "this is the legend" version while the CR campaign is "now here's what really happened with these dumbasses." But campaign two is the more popular campaign so there's nothing wrong with starting there.

I hope that all this has been helpful! Good luck on your CR/TTRPG show journey!

[mariana-oconnor]

Have you had a chance to watch Critical Role: EXU Calamity?

This ask has been sitting in my inbox since June. I don't know who you are anon, and I have no idea if you will see this or if you even care anymore. But now, as of.... 2 minutes ago? I have. And I;m not crying, you're crying.

It's excellent and I wish I had been able at some point to work out how to watch Dimension 20 as I have tried to several times. I'll have to try harder, although I feel like I'll be asking for my heart to be yanked out of my chest.

Now I have to return to catching up with campaign 3 (only 16 more episodes to go, but I managed 10 last week, so that's totally doable).

[pstelwitchcraft]

Critical Role - C3E52 (before break)

Its so weird to have just 4 people on the table I'm squirming

Poor Imogen just keeps taking L's man my girl can't catch a break

That little "please be okay" 🥺

Very worried about both imogen and laudna whenever they're separated but I guess that's precisely the point

And these are some damn good combinations

Already miss orym, ashton and laudna tho :(

I have a feeling the leylines are going haywire right now and that's why magic can't travel long distances

And/Or they're in the Shadowfell and it's hard for it to go to a different realm right now

Not even Dorian??? Yep, it's the leylines

I LOVE shoebills! Google their call, it sounds like a machine gun

Why do they keep getting attacked by subterranean monsters?? I swear it's a pattern at this point

Oooooo we're in a pretty snowy battlescape i love getting to fight in Santa's backyard

I love ashley's surprised little "ooooh! Oooh!" everytime she has to go

Yesss dominate beast!

Love how they always think matt's abominations are cute, i get it, it IS kinda cute

Damnit i thought we could get a pet :(

NO FCG! No, don't- don't do it- FUCK WHY

42 POINTS OF DAMAGE?? WHAT IN THE NAME OF-

Ya'll what if half the party TPKs. What then?

Imogen continues to be the hottest, like yes babe blow. Shit. Up

Yesssssss we have guests!!

It's Christian and Aabria!!!!!!!!

It's so cute all of them hugging 🥺🥺

Does this mean we're officially not gonna see the others until April??? Kinda sad I'm not gonna lie but I get it

These are COOL FUCKING CHARACTERS

Buff automaton 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Nick Jonas spiritual weapon 🤣🤣🤣

The hottest legendary mage ever you heard it first here folks

Aabria is always so fun she's my girl too

I always get lost staring longingly at her tho

She's just so prettyyy

EXU was a doozy for my gay self with all the pretty makeup she had as a DM

It's going to be so fun to see FCG finally meet another automaton

Why do i get a feeling he's gonna be horny towards this buff robot? It's something in his eyes, he's plotting some bullshit

AAAAAND my girl fearne gets the hdywtdt

"Oooh, hello!"

I love her sm obliterate him queen

Old lover??? I love Deanna already 😍

Fcg and this robit rn:

Omg fcg is such a little shit stirrer

Fearne is gonna end up banging the new gnome isn't she

I feel like she's gonna bang the gnome

Oh it's been HUNDREDS of years??? I keep forgetting Chet is OLD old

I'm getting worried yall

The gods are being affected by this already?? A day ago??? I'm scareeed

I hate/love that flesh tongue is now canon, sams bullshit always gets carried away from even him i swear

The robot is a flirt 🤣🤣

The energy at the table right now is WILD

Not the HAT 😂😂😂 I am BAwLInG why is aabria so good at being a petty scorned lover 🤣🤣

Awn poor deanna 😞

This is gonna be awesome we now have this character that has been so close to divinity and can show them so much abt the perspective of life and death

Love the backstory dump

Feel like im walking around the hub in a videogame asking every NPC a 1000 questions

Oh my god this robot is so sweet 🥺🥺 i love him

Also VERY obviously sentient and emotional I'm SO interested to understand more abt the great awakening of the bots

Like, why would it happen? Who or what did this??

Oooooh that's what frida means??

I'm SO curious to know what FCG rrally means if anything

Love the cadence Christian gave this robot, i feel like the movements and voice are pretty monotone but not so much that it even feels robotic?? But it's still like something A.I would probably create? Like google translate voice but better.

Also I ship f.r.i.d.a and deanna a lot btw

Chet is going through it right now and honestly i feel like he deserves it 😂

FCG is such a little toddler trying to understand like and it never fails to be both adorable and terrifying

A killer robot with an existential crisis just does not feel good to me fellas

Love the confusing time frames at weekly d&d tables we really could be doing this for a month or a year we have no clue

Yall i'm nervousss there's GOTTA be another shoe about to drop

Like there HAS to be, right? It can't all be alright?? We saw shit blow up, we saw the key go off, so what happened?!

What do you mean imogen's scars are turning red???

[piratespencil]

satyr and paladin, for the cr asks? c:

Satyr: how did you discover critical role

Oh boy. The short story is: TLoVM got me hooked.

The long story is: My coworker was a CR fan and suggested I get into CR when ExU Prime started. I listened to the first couple eps of ExU as they were coming out, kind of enjoyed it but got really confused about all the references to Exandria stuff that I didn't understand, and dropped off after a couple eps. Then TLoVM came out and that same coworker suggested I watch TLoVM so I did and I loved it, which somehow led me to bingeing all of Narrative Telephone with my roommate, which got me obsessed with the cast. And then I decided, well, there are only like 14 eps of c3 out right now, I could catch up... So I did... And then I was like, well, I have time at work to listen to podcasts... So I think I'll listen to all of c2... And here I am, 111 eps deep into c2 and haven't missed a live ep of c3 since. :) Will I listen to c1 next?? Probably tbh.

(Paladin is on here twice for some reason so I guess I'll do both lol!)

Paladin: what is your favorite friendship

I've talked before about how much I love Veth and Jester's friendship, so I'll go with another favourite and say that Beau and Fjord's friendship is sooooo so good. Just from day one they have such a fun bro dynamic. Fjord coaching Beau on how to be more personable and Beau never taking offense to that. The way they so often turn to each other for validation, the way they're always checking up on each other. Just. They are bros in such a fun way I love them.

(Ohh or Team Cleric!! That's another fave friendship for sure.)

Paladin: what was your favorite badass moment

There are like a million options here but uhhh let's go with a TLoVM moment - the Killbox fight was sooo cool. Highlight of season 2 for sure. The music, the visuals? The narrative importance of Grog calling on his friends in that moment? The cool little bit just before the fight starts where you see Percy and Keyleth and the twins in silhouette on the roofs?? Badass as hell.

(Ask me more Critical Role questions!)

[faultyhammock]

Get To Know Me!! thanks @thecryptkeeperskeeper for the tag dear god why would you do this to meeeeeee

Rules: Answer and tag nine people you want to get to know better and catch up with.

Favorite color(s): I am an absolute sucker, a complete slut, just down horrendous, for a good steel blue/grey blue (think that one tumblr color palate). I know it's probably boring, but a good version of that shade just gives me the good brain scratchies. Other than that, probably dark blue, any green, and black.

Last Song: The Winner Takes It All, while listening to my Better Call Saul playlist. Before that, probably Dead End Kids by Ratbag, it's quickly become one of my go-to's on the drive to work.

Currently reading: The Unbroken, by C.L. Clark, it's been on my recommendations and the fanart is cool, and by golly I need to read more books still. The main mistake is that I got it from the library to read in my downtime at work, and then I went and gave myself a creative project that's been taking up all of that time.

Currently watching: I'm two and a half episodes into EXU: Calamity at the moment, before doing the M9 reunited twoshot and going into Critical Role's 3rd campaign. Also rewatched Scream the other evening, and I think at least I'm going to get to the rest of those since I've never seen them, and we've thus far rather failed at my big long list of movies to watch in October. oh yeah also gotta rewatch Arcane season 1 very soon in prep for the incoming emotional devastation that will be season 2

Currently craving: I could probably go for an oreo or four when I get home from work, life is too short and precious to waste with the single-stuffed ones.

Coffee or Tea: Neither really? I don't know if I've really given tea its fair shake, so I should probably do that in the future, but I just don't care for the way coffee tastes at all. It's a shame, because both of them smell wonderful, but I just cannot abide the taste (of coffee).

Hobby To Try: Also definitely DnD, it had been on the "to learn" list for forever, and then I got into Critical Role, and went straight from that into playing BG3, which was helpful because at least now I should have a decent idea of how things work, my memory willing lmao. There's a couple ideas for characters that I've got rattling around in my head that I really ought to do something with, so help me. But also it requires like, actively seeking out people and talking to them and bothering them, and frankly nothing in the world horrifies me more.

Current Au: I'll be honest I'm not normally much of an AU person a lot of the time? Maybe I'm a filthy coward idk, I just tend to gravitate towards things where the story of the thing itself is what rips me apart, and so I usually try to stick to stuff that keeps that aspect to it. I can do it sometimes for funsies, I'm not that way all the time, just most of it lol, so probably some random caitvi modern au that was in my bookmarks.

Tagging if you want to join! I think I would rather spontaneously combust than actively tag other people tbh

[arrow-jsy]

Cooling off from everything that was going on for me in june, ive been on a really big dnd watching high (hello im catching up on critical role's bells hells i watched ep 92 last night so happy for the side quest into exu) but i got recommended a cozy fantasy book and i swear the best way to describe it is dnd fanfic like is characters in world were aware of the dice being rolled and could video game load up their stats but almost evrything is peaceful or at least calm and the world is just nice -

my point is my watch time on youtube for the past 7 days adds up to 26 hours yes 26 hours but my phone is telling me im 50% throught this book

I started roughly around 1pm. Its is now 2am. So in the span of 13 hours - counting the time i spent on dinner and other just life things - i have read half a book

Look i know people read like 100+ books in a year and 8+ books in a month but shut up im elated ive done this and im going to go to sleep now and ill probablt finish this book in the daylight hours

[whomadewaffles]

I have a feeling this was about my post and your right about there not necessarily being a great time for a lore dump which I will admit to maybe being a bit impatient. But I still say it would have helped it even more as an adaption (which it is still a amazing one dont get me wrong. This was just the only minior gripe I personly had with it..which is a testament to how good it is). But hopefuly let me clarify my thoughts.

Mat's lore for the world is cool and It kinda a bit of a shame to ask a new veiwer to wait 3 seasons to get a hint at it. Considering this adaption isn't contained to just the main characters viewpoints points (during their first ever kick-starter stream it was one of the things they were most excited to explore) it was realy after they talked to osysa where I just felt like I wished they had at least gone into alittle bit more detail, not indepth ofcourse cos as you pointed out exu calamity hadn't happend yet, but things like telling us the devine gate is a thing or during the sunken tomb maybe have kash explain the difference between a betrayer god vs a prime deity to the non-relegious of the group, that sort of thing. I just don't see much point in holding everything but the barest basics back is all. I just worry for new people they like the characters and the main plot but I can see someone feeling the worldbuilding has maybe been a bit vague and mcguffin-y so far having not watched the campaign to see how Mat built up the worldbuilding peice by peice to the point where I don't think anyone who does have prevous knowalge of the world would call mat's worldbuilding bad, But that's a huge campaign and this is a tv show they have to move differently and you are gonna have people who know nothing about the world. So why not be more forthcoming with that stuff

so to sum it up I do think this is a good a point as any to get into it. I am mainly just happy they are getting into it at all and did wish more small details of worldbuilding had been included already as feel like it could have realy fleshed for new peeps out the world before diving fully into it now we have full context thanks to calamity. Hope I explained my thoughts better.

(P.s. i somehow stumbled upon the pikelan supercut and that made me want to start watching. It was when dalen's closet had just happend I didn't know campaign 2 had already started so I began CI instead of doing the easy thing and starting campaign with less to catch up on lol. Currently C1 is the only one of the 3 campaigns I've watched fully)

Still genuinely baffled by a comment I saw about Legend of Vox Machina not really dealing with the Calamity in the first 2 seasons

I can only assume it’s from someone who didn’t watch the first campaign, or wasn’t aware of the timeline, because the only thing we knew about the Calamity for most of Vox Machina’s campaign was “well shit that sounded bad, made the divine gate, got cool items tho”

The Raven Queen not being one of the original gods basically didn’t come up until it was Final Boss time, and she was the most present deity in the campaign (it was a real big deal that she threw in for VM and tbh no one appreciated it the way we will now that Downfall is out)

ExU: Calamity didn’t happen until after the first season had already aired

They. Literally couldn’t have referenced it. It didn’t exist.

And given animation schedules, and that there was only about 6 months between ExU: Calamity happening at all and the season release, the scripts were definitely already finalized by the time Brennan picked up the DM screen

They really are bringing it up at the first possible opportunity, and frankly way earlier than Vox Machina really should.

Minor timeline spoilers ahead:

We’re still in the Chroma Conclave arc, the concept of the Vestiges was still brand new and they were pretty focused on how they’d be useful against the Big Fuck Off Dragons Attacking Everything

They didn’t even go to the Hells until after Keyleth finished her DruidQuest, Scanlan didn’t even go it was a Taryon adventure

(Poor Noelle Stevenson had to come back to try and guest again a week later because they got side tracked it was amazing)

(Also anyone who enjoyed the Honey Heists and wondered where Tova came from that’s her they met her in Hell)

Matt had the concept of the Calamity prepared well in advance of the campaign even airing and the reason it didn’t come up much in campaign 1 is the same reason we didn’t get even just hefty lore drops in the first 2 seasons - never mind that they couldn’t possibly have included events from a mini campaign that hadn’t happened:

It wasn’t all that relevant

The animated show isn’t just for Critters who already know all about the world and Vox Machina and they really are squeezing as much extra juice into it for us as they can

But it’s also a starting off point for people who’ve never heard of Critical Role, and has pretty faithfully followed the campaign so far

There’s really not a good place in the Briarwood arc to stop and talk about ancient history older than the gotdang vampire, Vecna has to wait his turn

And then there’s literal dragons everywhere wrecking shop and they have 20 minutes to get through multiple 3-4 hour long episodes

Matt’s wiggling as much in there as fast as he can, pretty sure the first two seasons already had more Calamity lore than the VM campaign

But

But

Can you even imagine

Animated ExU: Calamity 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[spottedenchants]

This is for the ask prompt of scenes from your fics that stick in my head and visualize.

First off, I could rant for hours about how good you are at this. So these are just the scenes that come to mind.

One of them is from “Taking Your Lessons to Heart” when Caleb and Essek are floating in the 9th floor of the tower, laying side by side as if on the top of a hill looking at the night sky (but, y’know, floating). Caleb is smiling at what he can see of Essek, who is decidedly not paying attention to the galaxy of possibilities that are showing up in the room, particularly the ones of them kissing. (Which was such an amazing way of showing his thoughts!!). (The whole fic is amazing but I’ll leave it at that)

Next up is the final scene in “Of Course It Would Work”. I could see the warm glow of the fireplace in the room, and hear the crackling of it as Essek got lost in his thoughts. When Caleb shows up and interrupts I’m from his thoughts I could see his slightly flustered actions before he sits down. And when he gets more comfortable in the moment, I could see him leaning over to (slowly and methodically) place his spellbook and the journal of letters on the coffee table in front of them. It was such a vivid moment that I could even hear him tapping the books as he says “closed not ajar”. And Essek processing his emotions as Caleb falls asleep on the couch was such a wonderful resolution.

I’ve run out of time, but like I said, I could go on for hours. I’m so glad that I have the chance to read your fics!!

OHHHH THIS IS FASCINATING THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

also just saying i would listen for hours because i always love to hear how other people interpret my writing because i am super duper new at this and have no clue what i'm doing other than having fun

Taking Your Lessons to Heart

I am so glad the stargazing sentiments in the set up of this fic came through for you!! that's exactly the kind of feeling i was trying to evoke!!

it was very fun to dig into my interpretation of the ninth floor, and what's a better way to do that than through the mouths of people who are way smarter than me xD i am a sucker for 'A looks at Thing and B lovingly looks at A' type stuff, and the chamber is so Them, so it was just meant to be!!

I've been having a blast figuring out ways to talk around stuff, to imply and show- it's a really entertaining endeavor >:3

Of Course It Would Work

Though I'm incredibly fond of the entirety of this fic, that scene sits special in my heart, so i really appreciate hearing your thoughts on it!! 🥺🥺 it's all about the ambiance and emotion!!!!

ask game

[mugirmu]

in honor of the one-year anniversary of episode 141's airing (yesterday but its 3am so hush) it's DEEPLY missing the mighty nein hours

[plut00nline]

orym really fucking likes pie huh

[braveveth]

i finished campaign two and i am out of tears!!!!!! i can’t believe it’s over!! what do i do now!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Yeah, i second this

24 hours until i got batshit crazy again. apologies in advance for the person im about to become 😔