#cr thoughts

[curapicas]

Let's not kid ourselves, this is the real reason Percy was written off of the Thordak fight

[your-turn-to-role]

so in the original campaign percy was only dead for a day and vm killed ripley pretty quickly, meaning the old fans are just as in the dark about what's gonna happen next with them as the new fans!

but as a balm to everything that happened this week i wanna post the original scene immediately following percy's resurrection, because it's a cute character moment on multiple people's part

[arabella-strange]

the thing is, the campaign set us up to ask these enormous, important questions about what's right, what the appropriate limits of power are, who gets crushed under sweeping decisions where no checks are made or even possible -- and so it's hard not to be a little frustrated that the final option the BH chose was 1) Imogen and Co. rocking up to Vasselheim with a God-eater inside her, effectively squaring off to the tune of 'you will deal with us because you have to'... and yet 2) no real underlying conviction or plan or skills or networks to draw on, just the vibe of 'y'all gotta do better, I dunno how, and what "better" means is also pretty fuzzy, but anyway it's your problem now so figure it out'

like yes obviously everyone has to figure it out. that's... the problem we started with. can you contribute any new insights into the conversation? or did you just want to break something?

[tadfools]

It would be so fun if campaign four was the cast playing as the reincarnation of the gods….

Vax taking care of the matron just like Purvan did??? Ohohoh

[starii-cookie-dreamzzz]

THERES. CARDS?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?! I need them and I need them now.

I could be wrong, but I really like how they added a cookie on the pack thats unique to each game!!

Strawberry Crepe Cookie is only in Kingdoms

Lemon Zest Cookie is only is Tower of Adventure

Blue Slushy is only in Ovenbreak

Witchberry for Witches Castle

And then I *think* Herb Cookie is in all of them? I only really play crk and ob tho so I could be wrong!! I think I remember him in wc when I played tho!!

Either way AUGHHHH I WANT THESEEEEEE I WANT THESE CARDS. Literally YESTERDAY I was looking at pokemon cards and thinking "man I would really love it if there was cookie run cards" AND THEN I PLAY TODAY AND !!!!!!

Also side note im so excited for the new cookie reveal, the video was way fun so im so so curious!!! OKAYOKAY EDIT!!! I thought the silhouette kinda looked like stardust and the blues and stuff but I wasn't sure, STARDUST WOULD BE SO COOL IN OVENBREAK!! But they did *just* release a legendary cookie with DreamWeaver, so could it really be stardust??

[thekyanitedragon]

Okay but listen

THIS song

But from Imogen's perspective after becoming some form of vessel for Predathos

[shifting-diary]

Wow I didn’t realise how motivating having a shifting blog is I should post here more often

[guardiansvalor]

i think in a rewritten iteration of the beast yeast story, clotted cream and financier should accompany pure vanilla on the expedition. he has NO reason to send Literal Children other than plot and them being the protagonists.

i'm also still salty about clotted and financier being teased on the 3rd anniversary website then only having the vaguest mention of the créme republic </3 they were right there!!

it'd also be a funny experience for both characters. they doubted the possibility of a teleporter in the vanilla kingdom due to it exceeding the créme republican technology. now picture them meeting REAL LIFE faeries. fantasy creatures aren't a foreign concept to them but i NEED you to picture this.

would be more sense-making and a fun duo to tag along i just think. also feeds the fans

[pstelwitchcraft]

Rewatching the last 4-Sided Dive episode and Liam's description of what a Bells Hells tower would be like (in Caleb's voice!) just hits me very hard. The thought that they would just live in a treehouse with a bunch of tunnels that connected their rooms like an anthill will not leave my head.

Because that really hits their dynamic on the head imo and it made me think. For the Nein, at the very beginning, they were very distrustful, very cutting and even harsh with each other on occasion, they saw each other as allies and not friends. Most of them didn't even want friends aside from their immediate pairings, and that made for some delicious drama, some brutally honest conversations, and the whole evolution of their dynamics as the campaign went on was very satisfying and fun to watch. They were allies first and eventually became friends by proxy of working together and sharing time.

With Bell's Hells it feels like they were allies for .5 seconds before becoming friends. They tiptoe around each other SO MUCH because they care about each other's feelings more than they care about saving the damn world. Aside from some exceptions (both ashton/laudna showdowns come to mind), they very rarely will be brutally honest with each other or even risk crossing a line, and that, in the situation they're in, is absolutely dangerous.

It so perfectly feeds into each of their self-destructive tendencies that I'm actually surprised they are all still alive. For example, they consistently would rather coddle FCG and let them believe whatever they want even if it puts them in danger because the alternative is possibly crushing their spirit when they already struggle heavily with understanding their place in the world.

The point is they care a lot from the very beginning, and I feel like the real challenge for Bell's Hells is going to be the complete opposite of what it was for Mighty Nein, the friendship comes easier to them than it came to the Nein, but the allyship and sincerity came easier for MN than BH, and if they want to survive this, we are going to have to see them become allies too, instead of just friends, and that means learning to call each other out on their bullshit. Hopefully Beau is still alive to give them a crash course 😅

[halflingkima]

it's so fun as a die hard vox machina fan not watching tlovm and getting read everyone's analyses you're all so funny and correct and insightful and eloquent.

like yes that IS a character-defining moment and leaving it out changes the whole purpose of that subplot. yeah separating the group for big moments does impact the team dynamics and found family of it all. yes fabricating that death is pointless and erases later important subplots.

it's so nice to be adjacent to the only part of this site with reading comprehension and critical thinking <3

[ultranerdygirl]

I know they were talking about having a “special person” as a strictly romantic thing, but I’m still miffed at FCG for not even mentioning Ashton by name at all. Like.

Ashton— the one who found FCG in the aftermath of the one-eyed monster incident and took them home.

Ashton—who defends this little robot to the end of the Earth and tells him “If anyone makes you feel bad, I’m going to fucking kill them. You’re the best of us.”

Ashton—who is hyper aware of FCG’s self-destructive tendencies and wants to save them from themself.

Ashton—who would do anything for their friends and has basically been shoved to the back of everyone’s minds throughout this whole interlude with Deanna and F.R.I.D.A.

FCG, my dear little aeormaton, you do have a special person. While it is a wholly and strictly platonic relationship, Ashton fucking loves you and is your best friend. Don’t forget that.

[curapicas]

I'm aware this is part of the trend of snarky, snappy dialogue we see for banter on the american television. But I like that it's also Cassandra's little sister instinct shining through - every time we see her in season 3 she's being a leader, a lady, someone who deserves to be at the discussion table; and that's all well and good. Except whenever she's one on one with Percy she's smart mouthing him, being snarky and lovingly annoying him, lol. I think that goes to show how she leans on her big brother, and does so in a way that brings out a more comfortable and youthful side of her. As much as the De Rolos are not huggers, he was clearly all the family she had left :(((

[your-turn-to-role]

other things about campaign vox machina i have now decided it's vital for tlovm only fans to know about - so they were all in the slayer's take for a while, there was a whole mini arc about it

and the way slayer's take bounties work are often "so and so magic user needs this magical creature's body parts as spell components, so go find one and kill it, and then bring back everything on their list - money will be taken off the final reward for any parts you failed to recover or damaged in the process"

which is where vox machina learned just how expensive everything on a dragon from its eyes to its teeth to its skin is

and they've got a vex in the party

so yeah they killed the chroma conclave for the good of exandria, and in the case of thordak and raishan, personal revenge

but then with every dragon they killed they stole as much hide and scales and claws and teeth as they could physically fit in their bags of holding/colding (and i do mean that literally, there was a lot of math done over what in there is worth less than dragon skin so they could swap it with yet more dead vorugal)

but they didn't sell all of it

we may get this at the start of s4 we may not, because this time skip is when they had them made

but i feel like it's important to note after this point in the story vex's primary clothing colour was white, rather than blue, because she had a full set of leather and scale armor made from the cured remains of vorugal

and percy grabbed a dragon scale from each dragon for every one of his friends, and commisioned a jeweler they had helped earlier on their travels to make all of vox machina jewellery pieces of their choice (not all were mentioned but keyleth has a clasp holding her mantle/cloak together, vex has a hairpiece, it was suggested grog affixes his to his gauntlet), that were the five colours of dragon scale fanned out and inlaid with gemstones, in recognition of what they'd achieved

(and because percy is percy, as a way to recognise each other if it ever came to that, because each one was in some way unique to the person carrying it)

and while i don't know if the show will do a full costume change for vex (they did for keyleth, so we'll see, but the dragon scale pieces are probably too intricate for animation), i'd love to see more fanart that includes these bc they're really cool

[rysn-ftori]

It’s interesting how Bell’s Hells having much less abrasive personalities than Mighty Nein despite being equally/more broken is something some fans complain about and yet some others find endearing.

I enjoy inter-party conflicts (heck my fav MN “ship” is Empire Kids platonic ship because they fought A LOT) but for Bell’s Hells I fall into the latter category. I just see them as traumatized people who cope differently. They turn inward and close off as a way to response to trauma and I think, in their mindset, being secretive/flippant is a way to not burden their friends about their problem. That is something I relate a lot (and I’m sure many other people too). It makes it much easier for me to root for them to succeed.

And I see it as they just don’t have time to squabble among themselves. There is no question that what they are dealing with are much bigger than their personal problems. This realization was also dawned on Caleb in C2, based on Liam’s words in Talks, how he felt the Cognouza thing were bigger than whatever stuff he had going in his personal life, so he set personal plan aside. That’s how it is with Bell’s Hells but it happened much earlier and they didn’t have time to feel offended when their party member revealed they hid something from them. I feel like they depict the real life adults’ interaction when you like certain people but not too familiar with them yet. If you have to bring up your past or problem you make sure to sound like it’s no big deal or that you’re fine now. The breakdowns and conflicts and encouragements will come in trickles like Laudna and Imogen rock fight or Ashton telling Orym they understand how suck it is to be the only sane one in the group. I love it. I wish the trickles will come more often now that their walls are getting eroded by things they faced together.

Also I love how C3’s stakes are higher than previous campaigns but the party is considerably milder. It does make them look more reactive, but it also creates huge potential of how far they will grow. In EXU Calamity, we saw the end of an age through the lens of powerful people, and it was amazing to watch how these people’s sense of duty made them to give their best effort to save the world.

But I personally don’t want another EXUC. I love how insignificant Bell’s Hells are, how they are “footnote in someone else’s epic” yet they are all tangled up in this world-ending conspiracy and had to be the vital key of undoing it. It makes the whole calamity thing feel personal for them because they experienced failure together when half of them killed by Otohan, went to literally another realm to save their friend, then got manipulated to give the enemy the final key for the apocalypse.

I do wish they will now spend more time exploring their own stories first because, unlike with MN who I came to love once I got to know them, I already love BH now I want to get to know them more.

I don’t feel the cameos of previous characters eclipse BH’s importance to the story because this all still feel like a prologue and all it did is making me more excited for what will these little people do to make difference where the big players of the world are failing to.

Side note: I compare them to MN because I haven’t watch C1 fully and, while I have above opinion, I see where people coming from about the stark difference of the previous campaigns and this one.

[plasticrabbits]

Emily being on CR helped me realize what C3 was missing for me. She is hilarious, but also great at following the hooks and "doing the thing" she should be doing. I think that D20 in general has a little more of a silly vibe undertone. Emily is bringing the silly undertones back to CR and I'm living for it.

C3 feels SO serious. I get it, the world is imploding and everyone's backstory is super srs no fun sad TM. But my god we need some laughs. The party being silly as hell is what I like the most. The Zelda one off solidified it. Emily is a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air and I hope she plays with them for a long time and returns to play a ton more side characters cuz omg. After Robbie left in early C3 the silly group dynamic fizzled. Sam does his best but FCG just doesn't hit the same as Scanlan or Veth for me. I need lulz to stay engaged. Emily is delivering those lulz en masse.

[thescrabblesmcjellyfish]

Rewatching random episodes of campaign 2 and Caleb is about to talk to Halas again after being in Eiselcross and I remember from the wrap up that if he had gotten back to his body he would've been a baddie for the next campaign or a problem for C3. I wonder if he would've been trying to free the red moon instead. Since he was in a similar prison for such a long time.

Also Sam did an AD in previous C2 episodes for his Tea N Tea "hombrew" campaign where he talked about Red Roibos tea breaking free and attacking and that's just funny if that throw away line is what brought forth Campaign 3.