#exu calamity rewatch

[justalittlebluetiefling]

You think that my quarrel is with them?

[mikaylacarlierose]

So, I was somewhat aware, in some part of my brain, that the in-game time that passes in EXU Calamity is basically a day and a night, right? Like, less than twenty four hours? But I had a kind of weird realization last night (and looked it up on Beacon to confirm) and the total runtime of all four episodes is around 19 hours and 34 minutes. So you could say that the series practically occurs in real time... I don’t know why, but that’s kind of wild to me.

[liimonadas]

the keeper of scrolls

[kiiwiidrawer]

The Ring of Brass.

I have finished the rewatching of the series and its still top tier storytelling. One of my favourite short (ish) stories. 

[buggiesnax]

Hello Critical Role and/or EXU Calamity fandom!!

[sweetlytempests]

i guess it’s supposed to be canon that jace failed taking levels in wizard because it was too much work or he’s just not smart, which is fine i guess, haha very funny but have we considered the narrative parallels if it was actually because jace was (and still is, on a teacher’s salary? lbr) a broke bitch who couldn’t afford barrels of diamonds much like adaine??? have we considered that jace is a struggling artist turned grade school teacher because he didn’t have the money to invest in higher education? this man took online courses at his local community college and still somehow is buried under student loans. of course he went evil.

[yashley]

no but the betrayer gods being cast the furthest and the darkest down into the consciousness of their world’s existence because they were the first amongst their family to defend themselves

[fia-bonkginya]

i actually do have more zerxus tlovm thoughts, specifically how zerxus talking to pike parallels asmodeus talking to zerxus in some really interesting ways, but that's gonna be a lengthy post that involves me watching the episode again and pulling some exu calamity quotes so. keep an eye out for that this weekend probably

[fantasyverses]

I finally caught up with Critical Role!!!

I caught up with Critical Role...

I have to *checks notes* WAIT for the next session to come out?!

[criticalbeauregard]

thinking about the calamity thing of (too lazy to get the exact quote but) “the love was there and it mattered but it didn’t change anything” + laudna and what feels like her more or less resigning herself to the power of love not being enough to stop ludinus

[justalittlebluetiefling]

Me whenever anything gets a little bit stressful

[thebloodredroses]

I'm not crying, there's just the entire tormented story of a Paladin turned Devil out of hope and sheer stubbornness and hubris and desire to do good in my eye

[psychicdamaged]

as someone who has spent an obscene amount of time thinking about evandrin and zerxus' relationship (before one of them died). something that has stuck with me is luis saying that zerxus has always put avalir before elias. it's such a sad, poignant thing, but i think when evandrin was alive, that wasn't true. i think choosing avalir was very deliberate, and that choice made because duty was less painful than facing an empty home, his child missing his other parent, the ghosts of evandrin that lingered in their old life together. being first knight, choosing that lonely tower, was the preferred option over confronting his loss. after all, he literally had patia erase the memory of the resurrection attempt. he chose, over and over, not to face his grief, and part of that meant putting duty above all else and burying all the difficult things like emotions and raising his bereaved son. between his desire to escape and the pressure on zerxus to take up evandrin's mantle, of course he became the next first knight.

i also think that zerxus was the reason evandrin was able to get the first knight position. without zerxus, evandrin would've juggled raising a son from infancy and ascending to first knight on his own. obviously, he loved zerxus as a romantic partner, but also, having another parent to elias meant he could focus more time and energy into his own ambition. that, perhaps, if zerxus' #1 priority was elias, then it would be okay if evandrin's #1 priority was avalir.

maybe it was even supposed to be a temporary arrangement. maybe evandrin thought that once he'd achieved his goals, he'd be able to put his family first again. but that's not how avalir works.

i think evandrin loved his son. but i don't think for a moment he was at all immune to the hubris and mighty ambition that held claim over the rest of the ring of brass either

[pocketgalaxies]

watching sam say that watching a dnd liveplay show is not only watching a story play out but also watching a story in the moments it is being written. thinking about that part in calamity when brennan asked marisha what happened to patia's parents and she didn't know and they figured it out together mid-episode and it became such a meaningful moment for that character. thinking thinking thinking. hhhhhhhhhhhhh i love this show

[flashhwing]

man i kinda miss being into critical role and wish i could watch bells hells but there's just like. a block there for me

[heytherecentaurs]

Luis Carazo absolutely fucking crushes it in EXU: Calamity as Zerxus —

"They used you. They did. And I'm sorry for that. I can help you. You say you know me? When the time comes and you step from this void into our world, don't you forget me. Don't you forget the kindness that we're capable of, because we are your children too. We are made of the same stuff, that what you originally created. We come from the same thing. And if you remember the stories as well as you seem to, then you know that at some point you turned your pain on us. They used you and then you used us to get back at them. I have a son that's not of my blood, but that is my son. I met Evandrin when he was just an infant and I held that boy in my arms and I fell in love with him and I am his father, but he is not of my blood. And in that same way we are your children. Please remember that. Don't take your pain out on us. Spare us and I will help you. I will help you confront those who did this to you."

His monologue from the end of Episode 2 is phenomenal. The emotional complexity, how he mixes in his anger and spite towards the gods, his pain and grief of loss and how all that transitions to thoughts of his son. Zerxus is so intense throughout all of Calamity but goddamn does he ramp that up here so that everything he says and feels is at maximum intensity—hatred, anger, fear, love, and sympathy. And in a lot of ways it mirrors the intensity of Laerryn, the other person who was closest to Evandrin in the Ring of Brass.