#critical role my beloved

[son-of-the-sun23]

Hearing the news about Sam's recovery from tonsil cancer made everything make sense as to why C3 was taking so many breaks. I mean, at the same time they're also branching out as a business and creating new series but spreading things out to pace the production of C3 while Sam got the treatment he needed makes me a lot less inclined to get irritated about the frequent breaks as I've seen people on Twitter are. If anything, I'm glad about this mini-hiatus C3 is taking with having Brennan Lee Mulligan DM another EXU spinoff for a bit.

[whoopseydaisy]

someone get this man and Emily Axford at a table together and let me watch i beg

[nellasbookplanet]

An interesting aspect of Laudna and Imogen's relationship and how it has developed is the fact that they got together early in their campaign, long before either of them had any chance to work through their respective issues. Vax confessed his feelings for Keyleth early on (relatively so; c1 had been going for a while before it started streaming), but she explicitly turned him down at the time, and they didn't actually get together until she felt she was ready, later in the campaign. Percy and Vex didn't get together until after Percy had worked through his figurative and literal inner demons. Jester and Fjord didn't get together until he had moved away from Uk'otoa and his self-worth issues, and she from her romanticized ideas of romance. Yasha and Beau didn't become a couple until both of them had moved away from their self-destructive tendencies and Yasha had let go of Zuala and Beau of Jester. Caleb and Essek didn't get together until the epilogue, when Caleb finally let go of the past and embraced the future.

When Laudna and Imogen got together, Laudna was at one of her lowest points (and has since started digging), having just invited Delilah back in, and Imogen was (is) still struggling against the temptation of Predathos. While Imogen has since gone great strides in growing, Laudna has regressed, using her feelings for Imogen as an excuse to further give in to Delilah to protect her. She's too bogged down by her own self-worth issues to uphold a healthy relationship, and keeps hurting Imogen by hurting herself, not realizing how or why this upsets Imogen.

And I can't help but wonder, would Percy and Vex's relationship have been as destructive had they gotten together before or during the Briarwoods arc? Jester and Fjord if they got together during the pirates arc? Yasha and Beau if they got together before or just after Obann, when they were both self-destructing massively? Caleb and Essek if they got together while they were still low-key manipulating and honeypotting each other for information?

But even without the romance, Laudna and Imogen likely wouldn't have escaped the situation they're now in. They started out already kind of co-dependent, and remind me of Vax & Vex and Caleb & Nott in that way. But whereas the twins and Caleb and Nott's arcs had them learn to question each other and embrace love for other people rather than isolate themselves, Imogen and Laudna has only gotten more entrenched in each other's issues, and more unwilling to push each other to grow.

[ludinusdaleth]

"It's all I wanted. Whatever it would take, to be able to keep [Opal] safe."

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 93, "Bittersweet Reunions"

[floweroflaurelin]

Huevember day 11: Proposal in Blumenthal 💖🌿✨💖

—

“Oh, Admiral Tusktooth, yes I will!”

—

Huevember is back with another Echoes of the Solstice painting! I had to take a week off to focus on work for my job but I’m glad to be back on the huevember grind 💪🏽 In this one I thought it was just going to be the fjorjester kiss but then I remembered Artagan made that wreath and decided to go a bit extra with it 😆🌿✨

[roll4gay]

Not Aabria still being restricted on Twitter in 2023 AD (Aabria DM) 😭

[keen-on-euphemisms]

Celebrating me losing my mind over first official animation of The Mighty Nein with pen in hand!

[sky-scribbles]

Essek details from this episode that I can't stop thinking about:

His quiet realisation of exactly how Liliana could cast Time Stop. You could hear the weight of everything he's done hovering over him again, how everyone in the Ruby Vanguard who uses dunamancy does so because he gave Ludinus the beacon. All the work he's done, all the growth... and the consequences of his actions are still there. They'll always be there.

The impression (which I got, at least) that 'Seth Domade' is one of his go-to aliases. He's obviously been to Zadash before; does he hang out with Beau? Did she introduce him to the rest of the Cobalt Soul as 'this is my friend Seth from a few archives over, let him hang out where he likes'?

Trent implying in Echoes of the Solstice that the Bright Queen still doesn't know. Like, is Essek still the Shadowhand? Does he still have a home in Rosohna???? What does his life look like right now????

The fact that he introduces himself as a member of the Accord and an enemy of Ludinus. He is still working to fix what he did. He will not let his actions hurt more people. He will not let Ludinus continue to profit off the loneliness of a younger, crueller man.

Him showing up as a palette-swapped version of Caleb. What a dork.

[convallariacrow]

Musical

[thewhalelord]

“I can take it and put it inside of me…”

[astralleywright]

let's hear it for bells hells!

[blorbologist]

Gwendolyn was absolutely listening in when Percy gave Fearne and Mister a gun lmao

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I think we as a fandom need to consider the idea of ‘Calvin and Hobbes but it’s Gwen and her owlbear teddy’ more. Redrew parts of this og comic by Bill Waterson but with the de Rolos

Alt last panel:

[dragonspawn9000]

What I learned from the latest 4-sided dive

[nowyoursoulisforfeit]

Percy de Rolo thigh-high nation is thriving.

[ludinusdaleth]

"The [...] visage fades into a human woman in her forties. Kinda slicked-back, dirty blonde hair, a scar that runs down the side of her face, and heavy burn marks across her neck. She's adorned in ornate, form-fitting clothing under a dark green cloak.

You look back to Seth... who is no longer Seth. Instead you see a dark elf of shoulder-length, somewhat wavy white hair, purple eyes, and stoic expression. You see he wears flowing black robes that fall from an intricate silver-shine mantle."

welcome to campaign 3, astrid & essek.

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 94, "Where The Red Fearne Glows"

[noelwho]

“Will you be an anarchist with me?”