#critical role analysis

[happycattail]

okay genuine question, can you elaborate on how "having the gods can be helpful and good, they just don't need to be worshipped anymore"? isn't that kind of contradictory since most of how they're helpful is via worshippers? like, we've seen a few instances of them sending visions etc to people who don't follow them, but that seems to be pretty rare and on a way smaller/more individual scale than the help clerics or paladins get/the amount of good they can do with that

Good question and unfortunately the answer is I don’t know! And I think it’s the same with all the characters in the campaign and the players too. Everyone is so used to how things work: The Gods should be worshipped, the Gods gets power from being worshipped, Aeor was creating a weapon to kill all the Gods, Ruidus has always been a part of Exandria, etc

And this campaign specifically is meant to make everyone question that. It’s revealing things and making people realize that how they knew the world to work isn’t the actual case so can’t that be the same with the Gods? No one’s fully sat down with them and asked them without a veil of worshipped around it you know?

And I think it’s going to be really fun to watch the BH try to grapple with that and as a viewer see what will change in Exandria because of everything.

[otdderamin]

Hey, remember how in Exandria Unlimited Thordak's Cater in Emon was flaring and the Fire Ashari suspected something was trying to push through. And then a huge plateau burst up and on top of it was a massive burning purple-red sigil that was incomplete. (Exu:Prime E2)

Which Gilmore identifies as pre-Calamity magic of the lost civilization of Qoniira in the Rifenmist Peninsula jungle. (ExU:P E3)

Which the Crown Keepser subsequently found the hidden remaining city of Niirdal-Poc. There Elam Genar translated it as "place of burning." Tetrarch Thrascuur says the rune marks a place full of too much energy and ripe for creation and potential. Something deciding what it will be and dangerous. (ExU:P E6)

They head south to Niirdal-Sarqet where they find a floating cube with runes on it that they translate as:

The universe above The universe within Remember what came before Decide what happens next Provide for all A shield to protect.

It breaks, and guardians attack. (ExU:P E7)

[deramin2]

Theory: Ludinus is younger than the Calamity, but he did survive Molaesmyr. The source of corruption is said to have come from Caes Mosor. In the Critical Role Campaign 2 Wrap-Up, Matt confirmed the source of corruption was an artifact brought back from Aeor.

So what if this fucker was already studying Aeor and was part of the team that brought something back, and he's rationalizing that their experiments destroyed the city tampering with things they didn't understand with "it's the gods' fault."

He's a historian who got so into his period it took over his whole world view. And doubled down when he made their same mistakes. And instead of learning anything from this, he's just planning on blowing up even more of the world.

[shellem15]

Thinking about how, out of all the betrayer gods, Asmodeus is perhaps the most incapable of changing. Of redemption. Of becoming better.

Because at least the others are honest. Honest about who they are. Honest about their love for their siblings. They know exactly what they are and what they are here to do, even if it is for ill. And that means they can be worked around. Can be changed.

Asmodeus, however, cannot do this. He is the god of lies. Even his truths are rotten. He cannot be honest. Not with others, not even with himself.

Do you think he knows what he even wants? He says he wants eternity to torment his siblings yet tries to kill them. He tries to kill them, yet (whether he realizes it or not) gives them just enough time to stop him. They are gods, after all. One round is all they need.

He says he hates his siblings yet told trist he loved her when in disguise. He didn't need to do that, she was already going to leave. It's the truth, but rotten.

You cannot change, you cannot become better, if you are not honest with yourself. And Asmodeus is the most dishonest of them all. It's no wonder he is always banished by the light of Pelor's truth. He cannot face it, so he runs and hides and lies.

Always burning, always lying, always turning away from the light. Never changing, never growing, never moving on from past hurts. Lashing out at those who try to help, a dagger in the side of his family.

It would be better to remove him. Kinder, for all of them. But he is their brother, eternal, and they cannot lose him. They will keep him, even if he kills them. And he will keep lying, stabbing, burning, because it is all he knows how to do.

[wardensantoineandevka]

between Calamity and Downfall, we're working up a corpus of evidence that the god who most does not want to put any effort into compromises or dispute resolution is Asmodeus. when Vespin took his shot at a god to replace to try to shift the balance, he really correctly identified the one who is on purpose causing the most problems, huh.

[hello-eeveev]

I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but having rewatched the T-Dock scene after seeing Essek being in love and settled with Caleb seven years on, I think it’s pretty likely that if they weren’t already together when they destroyed the T-Dock, Essek was fully aware of the depth of his feelings for Caleb at that point.

The love was already in everything Essek said in that scene, but it becomes obvious just how open he was being with his feelings once you know what Essek-in-love looks like.

[cassafrasscr]

Just thinking about Orym watching this and seeing the Prime Deities being forced to choose between protecting their family or saving the people of Aeor.

Having been told several times in the last few months that if any of Bell’s Hells turns against the cause, he'll have to eliminate them. That for the sake of protecting the world, he'll have to kill one of these people he's claimed as his family.

Orym, who has been the target of friendly fire more than probably anyone else in the party. He's been mauled by Chetney multiple times, been directly attacked by murder-mode FCG at least once, and was ambushed in his sleep by Laudna JUST LAST NIGHT. And even when he's angry, he always meets them with compassion and forgiveness.

Orym, who allegedly has contingency plans for each of his friends if they turn, but who always pulls his punches when he does have to fight them.

Orym, whose home was invaded by a hostile force, who lost his father and husband and probably more of his comrades. Not unlike when the original home of the gods was attacked and destroyed.

Every day he has to make the impossible choice: save the world, or protect his family? Even as flawed as they are, and with how much he's been hurt by them, he loves them. He has insisted repeatedly that he won't HAVE to kill his friends, because he trusts them not to betray him. He believes in them wholeheartedly.

And now he's watching the Prime Deities have to grapple with that same choice. Even knowing that the Betrayer Gods didn't die, and the Calamity lasted another 100 years.

I'm so interested to see how Orym reacts, with everyone pressuring him to choose the world over his family. Knowing that, at least on some level, the Prime Deities chose their family over the world. And look what it cost the world.

[abitcaughtinthemiddle]

The Hypocrisy of Vex'ahlia

Before you all come for me, I am a Vex stan and I will defend her until I die - she is my favorite Critical Role character and I'm so glad we're getting a deeper dive into her psyche.

The complexities of her character cannot be overstated. She has a lot going on under the surface, and the breadcrumbs of her deep-seated insecurities have been there the whole time.

I'm really excited we get to explore those in season 3 through her relationship with Percy, in a way different than what we've seen in the actual play streams. I want to commend the writers for being able to convey so much in so little time.

We are introduced to Vex as a sexy, confident woman who uses her looks and charisma to her advantage. She takes charge most of the time, being the unofficial "leader" of Vox Machina. She presents herself as someone who doesn't really need anyone else and does not care about anyone outside of her brother. Keyleth even comments on this in the first episode, "Vex and Vax only care about themselves".

This, of course, is a complete fabrication, a mask she wears to hide her insecurities. A mask, she wants no one to see through. The irony here is that she can so easily see behind Percy's mask - "Darling, take off the mask". It takes one to know one, after all.

She so badly wants to get underneath Percy's mask, for him to show himself to her fully. There's something inside of her that sees the guilt and shame inside of him and that resonates with her belief that she is deeply broken. Vex truly believes that something must truly be wrong with her. And why wouldn't she? Saundor, who said he knew everything about her, saw this, too, after all.

Saundor says plainly, "you will never be enough."

So it must be true, right?

Why wouldn't something be so wrong with her? It would make sense. Her father carries no love for her, her mother died, and Vax had to sacrifice his life for hers. She knows Vax loves her, and she believes he is the only one who does. Even Kamaljiori, an ancient and all-knowing Sphinx, fed into this during their test when Vax fell: "you have no family left who cares for you".

Her hypocrisy lies in the facade she built as a woman who does not need anyone or anything. She presents herself as someone who does not need the love of others, when in reality, she desperately wants to be loved.

Saundor saw this as well.

Vex longs to love and be loved. And yet, she cannot allow herself to give up her facade and let Percy love her and admit her love for him.

The last person to see through her walls was Saundor, and we know how that went.

What he said really cut her deep, as we see after the Kevdak fight when she brushes off Pike's inquiries about her experience in the fey realm.

As we see her relationship with Percy move from harmless flirting to physical intimacy at the beginning of season 3, we see her embrace the physical closeness to Percy but starts to block him out the moment he wants to cement their relationship. But she can't let herself tell him how she feels because that would mean admitting her heart is his - and that would be doomed to end in tragedy, as Vex admits later in the cave.

Putting up this emotional wall between her and Percy will not give Vex what she wants: love.

Love is that emotional intimacy. Vex loves to point out the importance of love between other people- in season 2, pushing Keyleth to tell Vax how she feels ("it always matters"), assuring Allura that Kima's love for her will help her endure after Vorugal's attack, and putting faith in the rest of Vox Machina.

Vex understands what makes love so special, and how important truth and intimacy are to real, lasting love.

And while she comforts others and pushes them to be vulnerable and embrace love, her own fears prevent her from fully doing the same. It's ironic and sad, how one of the only people who can see through her mask is the one she's pushing away.

Trauma makes hypocrites of us all.

Image credits @blorbologist @aq2003

[sparring-spirals]

okay. i mean this with the utmost affection. but. while imogen and laudna telling each other "im you're anchor. you're my tether" as reassurance about going "dark" or giving into the lure of power is very meaningful and important. it also kind of struck me like. hey wait one of you anchoring the other. fine. possibly-functional. but doesnt BOTH of you tethering to each other risk creation of a spinning centrifugal blur whirling down the road to power.

and like yes yes this isnt an original thought and the proper terminology for this is probably like "dual corruption arc" or in CR "i broke the world for you" yes but. i wanted to share the specific imagery my brain provided for this train of thought, which is roughly:

like. thanks. brain. i guess.

bonus thought that popped up when drawing this:

[gorgynei]

cant get over the fungi on ruidus sorry. i have more to say

its implied that the reilorans are able to survive and farm the fungus, theres at least 347 different species of fungus native (?) to ruidus, and theres also slime molds*. evolutionarily (assuming the life evolved independently on ruidus which is a very bold assumption) this would imply that theres also prokaryotic life (bacteria, basically) and likely advanced eukaryotic organisms in the form of animal life, which we do see! its very possible that the reason theres so little plant life on ruidus is because something about the makeup of the planet is aggressively harmful to plants, if i had to guess its the lack of easily available sunlight due to the constant dust storms and the soil is probably unfavorable for growing. this probably means that fungus makes up the majority of the biomass for animals to consume or animals are much more adapted for absorbing nutrients from the soil/other sources.

i do think its interesting that fungus seem to survive and thrive SO well in the deep caverns because most fungus (on earth, and exandria. probably) are decomposers and need organic material to survive off of. they could be decomposing the crystal corpse of predathos though, which is the coolest idea in the world to me, or they could just do so well that they've created an independent ecosystem underground complete with its own n- and c-cycles.

the fungus on ruidus seem to take more after kingdom animalia in general, since theyre motile (for those unawares, fungus are actually MUCH much much more related to animals than they are to plants, so this isnt that out there) which is super cool. the myceits are somehow related to the fungi's sexual reproduction because we see the sterile mycelium on it's own and it doesn't seem to be producing any spores, where the myceits do have spore producing structures (specifically they have hymenophores, since they are most similiar to hymenomycete mushrooms). so i think its likely the myceits are just advanced forms of spore dispersal and will run around till they find somewhere favourable to drop spores (or passively will drop them as they move) and probably they have very short life spans </3 sorry myceits

also myceit = mycete = fungi kingdom. proof of earth-equivalent taxonomy existing in exandria? possibly why the ruidians call them myceits is because theyve seen botanists dream about mushrooms and refer to them as "mycetes" !

*gaz, the source for the # of fungus, seems to consider slime molds a kind of fungus, so its unclear whether all the species are actually true fungi, but i digress because slime molds are closely related to fungus anyway. also 347 is a really low number of species for an entire planet, but whatever.

[ariadne-mouse]

I imagine Essek had one or two record scratch moments in his youth

Such as, alternately,

[theoutcastrogue]

We all love happy endings, I love happy endings. But also, there's a reason why "Medea" and "Romeo and Juliet" and other works – tragedies – resonate, 2,000, 3,000 years later. We like art like that because it makes you feel so intensely that you learn about the human heart."

— Liam O'Brien, 4-Sided Dive Episode 30

[astralleywright]

the thing about humanizing the Gods, showing all their virtues and faults and loves and failures, is that it renders the amount of power they hold over the average mortal-over mortals as a whole-horrifying. even in their own approximation of mortality, they obliterate the city that posed by far the biggest threat to their existence in a single night. in the hospital Father Milo plays with the doctor's body like a toy, casually puppeting her and breaking her wrists while discussing family matters with Ayden. Ayden casts a spell to free her from his grasp, and then disregards her gratefulness to continue arguing with Father Milo.

it's relatable, of course, to protect your family no matter what. but: "it's a war to us. to them, it's a squabble." the Gods are not responsible only to themselves. are mortals not their family? not their children? with families of their own they're desperate to protect? Aeor is a passive threat, an unfulfilled promise, but the betrayers are very much not. they are actively attempting to annihilate all mortals. they're very clear about this. they've already killed most of them, and even in the truce their goal is to kill more. and the primes fought against this, until the mortals retaliated. the mortals are their children, yes, never allowed to grow up, to reach, to even protect themselves from their parents. at best, the primes are too emotionally compromised to wield the power they have. at worst, that power also makes them a threat to the people of Exandria.

this is all, of course, the reasoning for the divine gate. but this does not reshape the relationship between Gods and mortals positively, instead witholding the incredible blessings they have from the people that could truly benefit from them. it's as much a punishment for mortals as it is for the Gods. this doesn't mean we need to let Predathos eat them up or hand it to Ludinus (who represents this same cruel stratifcation as seen among mortals), but isn't there any other way that their gift can be distributed instead of hoarded? diffuse it among the people of Exandria, let everyone access a Healing Word or two. surely they can figure something like that out. they are Gods, after all.

[deramin2]

Thinking about this quote:

CR C1 E56 2:02:47 Kerrek: "You need to find a way to live with the fact that you do what you can, because that's what you can control. And sometimes bad things happen anyway, and so you just have to decide where you're going to pick your hill. You find your hill. Everybody gets one hill, and you plant your flag and you can die on that one. But you have to be careful, because you only get one. If you're really unlucky, you get more than one."

Keyleth: "And what if the ultimate problem is that I feel like I've had zero control from the start, since birth? I didn't want any of this. I didn't want my abilities. I didn't know I was special until now. And I so desperately just want to be normal. I want to go back to being ignorance and bliss."

And thinking about how Bell's Hells are the B-Sides. The NPCs who wandered into a story much much bigger than themselves and don't know what to do next. Some power fell in their lap. Chose them when they didn't want to be chosen. Radically altered their life.

And now suddenly the thing they were looking into, that crashed into them, has turned into one of the most important questions in Exandrian history: Do we need to save the gods from this threat?

We have Ludinus who's firmly in the "Fuck the gods" camp. We have the Loam and the Leaf who just don't want anything to do with the gods or their followers. We have Vassleheim who will protect the gods at all costs. And we have Bell's Hells who are mostly grappling with whether this should be their responsibility.

Team Wildmount have been contacted by gods demanding they save them. Orym isn't exactly pro-gods, but he's against Ludinus and his followers. Team Issylra is really grappling with whether the gods have done enough good for the world to be worth protecting. They're seeing the harm of the worshipers whose mortal actions give the gods their power.

The conclusion they're coming to is that this is simply beyond their power to defeat Ludinus and this is out of their control. Their new goal is to get their people out of this shit show and get out. Survive this. Not defeat it. Not heroically save the day. Survive. If the path to that goal means saving the gods, fine. But fuck them they don't have priority.

I think that's a really cool story. A conceit of D&D as a game is that you are strong enough to be the heroes. It's nice to see that challenged.

[shellem15]

Okay, I know the Dawnfather and the other primes are running interference, but we NEED to get a full, one-on-one conversation between Asmodeus and Raei (I need it. So bad.) It would hurt so much but so GOOD. I know the hardest bars would be dropped, fucking "My greatest heartbreak...is that I will only have eternity to punish them" levels of bitterness and resentment.

Especially considering what we learn about them in the intro! Imri was straight up ready to die for Luz! Fucker threw himself into the goddamn flames for her!

You know there's so much angst over that. Over how she apologized before healing him. Is Asmodeus hung up on that? About how he sacrificed himself out of love and all she gave in return (in his mind obvs) was guilt? Does he think that's why she tried to save him during Calamity? Not out of love but out of guilt for trapping him?

Asmodeus, who was changed (change, a thing he hates above all else) for her. Who refuses to be changed ever again. Who would hurt the ones he loves in his pursuit of revenge. Who loves his hatred more than he loves his siblings.

The Everlight, who was just trying to help her brother. Who was just trying to help the world. Who got stabbed in the back for her efforts. Does she regret it? Trying to help him? Does she regret saving him on that ship in the first place?

Perhaps Torog is right. Perhaps death would have been the greatest mercy for him. Anything that isn't pain, that isn't all-consuming hatred.

Imagine if she told him that. How much that would fucking hurt him (them both). If it was a lie, would he know? Would he call her out on it?

Probably, I imagine. He'd probably say something like: "Mortals think we are different. That you are honest while I am not. But between us, you've always been the better liar. The greatest, cruelest lie that's ever been told, is that there is any mercy to be found in this wretched world."

TLDR, this miniseries is driving me insane.

[thefandomentals]

Guest writer Gena begins a deep dive into Moonward by chatting with the @midstpodcast trio about creative collaboration, new mediums for character exploration, and the "Whoa Dude" of it all.