#cr: exu

[void-in-the-middle-of-nowhere]

"you give me one fucking prophecy!!!"

Lou Wilson mourning the plot line he thought he would have, just like so many heroes who got just one goddamned prophecy before him

[brainrockets]

Last Thursday I was wrapping up talking to my sibling and they said "I love you very much."

And I said, "Is it Thursday yet?"

After a small pause, they said, "yes, it's Thursday?"

Then I was like, "I've been binging EXU."

So they were like, "That makes sense."

[captain-xandis]

I come from a time a thousand years ago, when gods walked among mortals. And the world was ruled by magic. Like you, I protected my home as First Knight, a member of the Brass Ring, a group similar to yours. And also like you, I assumed the best of them. I was blind as my friends condemned our civilization with their curiosity. Their hubris.

You mean the Calamity?

The gods set to war upon Exandria, and in the chaos, I found myself face to face ith the Lord of Torment himself. But instead of destroying me, he gave me a choice. Die with the rest or join him, and spare my family. I thought if I had enough time, I could reach him, save him, tame his turbulant heart. For my folly, I watched my husband and son fade with the rigors of time, losing even the memory of me. As if I never existed at all.

season 3, episode 4 of THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA

[loserwithanartacc]

I’m so happy with this one

Drawing sunlight thru trees is actually so fun I do recommend (it’s not as hard as you think it is probably)

Anyway I’m insane about her and very exited for ep 2 tonight

[i-kanava-i]

I honor and revere that which walks inside and around you, Queen

[smilelikeawolf]

The Betrayers turned to their siblings and said, "Your creations are flawed and broken, they disappoint you, they hurt you. We have to destroy them."

And the Prime Deities replied, "No, they are our children. We won't destroy them. We love them too much."

The faithful of Aeor turned to their gods and said, "We believe in you. Let us help you. The Betrayer Gods are cruel and evil. We will use the Factorum Malleus to kill them all to end this war and make the world better."

And the Prime Deities replied, "No, they are our siblings. We won't kill them. We love them too much."

There's nothing like a tragedy born from love.

[blorbologist]

hey there's something about how in Zerxus' stained glass exposition, the Ring of Brass all look... subdued. remorseful.

Is this how he remembers them? At the end? Not the confident, powerful portraits we are presented with during Calamity?

and of course, the missing sixth member (not depicted with the ring, separate from his friends...) with the Mace of the Black Crown vs his Holy Avenger...

[floweroflaurelin]

Opal, Twice-Crowned Champion of Lolth 🕷️🕸️🕷️

—

(Billie Eilish’s “you should see me in a crown” playing in the distance)

[die-o]

It took me millions of years to finish, but they took millions of years to get here, so I think I'm justified. also i did just finish 113 and i need to say, on a related note and in light of that episode, hey Robbie?? is this your play EVERY new character? congrats honestly

[agarthanguide]

A fun fact about EXU Calamity-

Working on these had me stressed and overwrought, mostly because I was worried that I wasn’t gonna pull of the Look, and the aesthetic would be shakier because of me.

To deal with that, I made up a character to be the in-universe mosaicist who was designing and crafting these panels of the Ring of Brass. Every time I messed up or my hand slipped and I had to go back a step, I imagined him dropping a tile, muttering a curse, and trying again. His name was Florent, he was a journeyman artist and craftsperson in Avalir, and he was my coworker for about a month.

[shellem15]

Can I just say, I really appreciate how Critical Role plays the Devil trope straight. There's been this phenomena in a lot of modern media (I'm not going to mention specifics but I'm sure a few examples pop up in people's minds) where Hell and the Devil aren't scary or malevolent forces. Hell is portrayed as being basically the same as our world just "edgier", and the Devil is a pretty decent guy actually. Heaven are secretly the real bad guys!

But Critical Role doesn't do that. In Exandria, Asmodeus *feels* like the Devil. He's malevolent and manipulative and terrifyingly powerful and he hates you, personally. We never see that type of portrayal anymore! And it's amazing! And he still manages to be sympathetic and tragic without losing his edge!

And the "Good Gods" are portrayed as flawed without being secretly evil or something! Like, actual nuance? In my Heaven/Hell dichotomy? What!?

It's just such a breath of fresh air after so many "The Devil was right, actually" stories. So props to Matt and Brennan and the cast.

[johnnyspells]

Downfall: Part Two

[soath]

biting and gnashing my teeth over the vampiric sterility of the gods in Downfall. they are flash-frozen at the moment they came into this world, the moment all their infinity congealed into singularity. asmodeus is always enraged and burning, obsessed with family. sarenae cannot be anything but a soothing comfort, pelor a guiding light. melora is the yearning, hungry wild, forever eating itself, forever innovating. erathis is the laws of physics that keep her limited, and the laws of reciprocity that keep the scales equal. corellon is the beauty and kord is the storm and torog is the weeping flesh. they can’t be anything else! imagine being stuck forever in the moment of your greatest grief—no wonder pelor believes their brother wanted to die. death was all he could think about for thousands of years.

it captures so perfectly my favorite implicit horror of godhood; the nightmare of being two dimensional. gods are born a perfect epitome of their domain and they die the same way. they can be people too but it’s a flat kind of personhood, the personhood of clowns, of archetypes, of monsters.

[asexxxualauthor]

I am still blown away by the babygirl-ification the fandom threw at Caduceus, to the point there was a whole subset of critters watching Downfall and murmuring about “wow what would Caduceus think if he saw his goddess being so wild?” as if the man didn’t roll up to the group in his inaugural episode saying that death and violence are a totally natural part of nature, and that he wasn’t opposed to putting people into the ground as mulch. His primary motif is carrion bugs that eat rot and cause disease. His advice to Fjord about joining the Wildmother is that nature is powerful and dangerous. He is literally the meme of “I’m a healer, but—(cocks gun)���

Of course he’d be fine with the revelation of what happened in Aeor! And the fact that caught critters by surprise is a shame. Caduceus is freaky, and we love him for it.

[loserwithanartacc]

Them :3

I think her immediately going and sulking in a corner after her wife didn’t show up was funny af

I’m picturing her just side eyeing the emissary the whole time tbh

[undead-knick-knack]

I think Ludinus might have inadvertently converted all of Bells Hells to worshipping the Arch Heart