#mcelroy madness

[terezis]

i must not cancel my plans. cancelling plans is the mind killer. cancelling plans is the little death that brings total obl

[mcelroyfamilystaff]

Yaaaaay

[ethersierra]

Sometimes the McElroys are so funny that it makes me mad

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Honorable mention! Huracán Sterrato: Beyond the Concrete (2022)

In Episode 255, Griffin shocked and delighted everyone with his unique poetry rec, which is —you guessed it— a Lamborghini commercial.

Griffin: The agency that wrote the ad is called DDB Group Italy is all about creating, quote, "unexpected works." This is from their mission statement. "It means that the best idea is the one you never see coming. The thing that catches you so off guard you can look away. Creativity is having the fresh perspective and raw energy to bring something into the world that no one's ever seen before. We're talking about the courage to shake things up and maybe even change them."

Rachel: [giggling] "The courage."

Griffin: I mean, in that sense, mission fucking accomplished, guys. Like, you crushed it on this one. [...] I'm imagining Don Draper standing in front of a small television and showing a room full of execs every other car commercial and being like, "What's wrong with all of these? That's right. Their coherence."

Rachel: [laughs]

Griffin: And then they make this incredible poem. Well, thank you for coming to my poetry corner. I know it's dusty and dirty. There's empty Fritos bags all over the place. 

Rachel: We'll see you again in three years.

What kind of blog would this be if it didn't include this unforgettable recommendation? A bad one. If you'd like to hear Griffin's entire segment on this dirty, dusty and wild piece of art, you can do so here: DAMN! I Feel Like a Frasier, from 8:20 - 19:30.

[itsmxbee]

Hi this is my second time rewinding ep 18.

[libraryspectre]

Beginning my celebration!

[aliensmoothie]

OLD MONTROSE PRETTY BELIEVERS WINNING ALWAYS ❗

[minteafresha]

actually im gonna get caught up on monster factory because i really like it. maybe rewatch the ones i like.

[ohboy-herewegoagain]

please i need a downloadable gif of griffin mcelroy’s “oh shit this thing has other colors” bit from my brother my brother and me. i am desperate. time sensitive

[bam-monsterhospital]

ah, that moment in Bastian’s 2nd companion quest (and currently his final quest, even though isobel and ember have 3 companion quests, rather than bastian and mirri’s 2 >:I ) where, after an eternity of subdued tired/mellow/melancholic at-most-irritable sounding voice lines, bastian finally actually blows up vocally at count auzin.

i savour that moment. it’s fuckin fantastic.

[kenz0tenmas]

in my semi lapsed cr fan era cause i am definitively not interested in checking out the 2nd / especially the 3rd campaign rn but they also brought vax back in peak my number one boy fashion and im just like 👀

[sleeperagentclone]

My FUCKING head feels like a FUCKING cantaloupe

[invinciblerodent]

Ohhhh thank you for the very long thought stream I much appreciate it (anon asking about DA:V characters/romances)... I've been following you for a long long while and Iove your takes and characters from DA and BG3. My own hype for DA:V waned a little bit from my first impression of the trailer but (in a hopefully 0 pressure way hah) seeing you and other people on my dash getting excited for it really helped kick me out of that slump and I'm starting to regain it, so genuinely thanks for that :D

You've definitely thought about it more than me xD the "doomed romance" so to speak of Davrin is *very* tantalizing but honestlyy I was just like... Pretty.... Pretttttttyyyy.... But in fairness that applies to all of the companions soooo, :p

I haven't thought much about my own Rook but I'm excited to start putting some thought into it now. My canon inquisitor was an M!Lavellan Archer Dorian-mancer so I'm not sure if I'll play an elf again... I guess we'll have to see!

Thanks so much for your thoughts and for answering, I always love seeing what you have to say and I appreciate you answering!

Aww, I love that, thank you, I feel all fuzzy now! I'm so glad you enjoy my blabbing lol! (have some more of it lol!)

And yeah, you know, I did see a lot of people feeling a bit worried or put off by (or even angry at) the trailer/reveal and posting very negative takes about it, but honestly? I feel like there is something to be said about just how primed many are for disappointment with every new game. And I don't just mean Bioware games, I mean that with the way the industry has been going (not just lately, but honestly pretty much since there have been AAA studios), with the layoffs and delays and the ten years it's been since Inquisition, it's very easy to just get inside our own heads, and sort of... forget to have fun with our hobbies.

It's an understandable impulse of course, it's a bit scary to see how few of the hard core of the franchise's creators remain still at the company, and if you lowkey expect something to suck it's not so much of a letdown if it does, but it's... I'm gonna be so real with you, it also sounds like a miserable way to enjoy games.

To always be looking out for ways in which something might not live up to your hopes instead of enjoying it for its own merits, to expect specific things that then (very obviously) aren't gonna make it into the final product, to lose sight of the industry at large and compare a product not to its contemporaries but to a version of it that only exists in your head and to cling to a franchise you've only ever been disappointed with since like 2011, it's an easy way to grow sad, and dejected, and frustrated.

And I get it, but I'm also not going to indulge in it, or expose myself to it. I perfectly understand why one might feel the urge to piss in their own soup before anyone else could, but I'm not going to let anyone piss in mine. I'll just... enjoy my piss-free soup, lol.

Which is to say, I try to personally keep my expectations very realistic, not think ahead too specifically (which is a good thing that I didn't, we apparently get to choose FACTIONS???? and I was NOT prepared for that lol), and just enjoy wherever a franchise that I (quite obviously) love very much, takes me. ❤️

...... also, yeah, Davrin is also just... also just really pretty in the reveal, lol. I mean.... man, you know they'll make the bastard alternate between blindingly radiant smiles, and big, sopping wet, brown calf eyes.

Something something if I had a nickel, but seriously, if I actually had a nickel for every recent time I've fallen a little bit in love with a disgustingly pretty elf man (who is canonically amazing in the sack) with a weird magical-medical condition that makes their lifespan incompatible with a potential romantic partner's, I'd literally have two nickels.

(and now watch me slow-motion fall head over heels, ass over teakettle, etc., for literally anyone other than Davrin, lol.)

(Or just end up with someone totally random. I mean I still remember when in my first playthrough of Inquisition, I had similarly vague plans going in, and that first character of mine somehow ended up with Cullen of all people.) (I still kick myself over that, I robbed myself of SUCH an excellent story by not going with Blackwall first like I had intended. But I learned my lesson: always "yes, and" handsome Warden-types, and for exploring everything else and battening down the hatches of a "canon" game, there's always next playthrough lol.)

(It's been ten years, and I'm still not sure who should remain in the Fade, man.)

[micamone]

MOTHER FUCKING

HEATHCLIFF???

[dilemmadraws]

THE ADVENTURE ZONE VS DRACULA

I’m really enjoying the new series of The Adventure Zone it’s 100% my shit as I love dracula and the mcelroys! I particularly love Lady Godwin because let’s be honest i love a barbarian. Justin’s lady Godwin voice is also just so funny to me! It’s honestly such a fun show and the mad character concepts really pushed my character designs to be more silly and expressive!

Made some slight edits to brother phileaux from my wip because I thought it’d be cute if he was wearing his cowl in his puppet form.

[utilitycaster]

sort of an offshoot of that post about video game characters but I think I've mentioned before the third person v. first person split in D&D, namely, do you say "I attack it with my scimitar" or "Drizzt attacks with his scimitar". This is a well-known thing in TTRPGs, I'm sure you can find more intelligent discussion about it, but it's come up for me specifically in that a lot of old-school D&D players skew hard towards third person and often they are less interested in actual play, because they see D&D as a narrative tool. There's no self-inserts; they are narrating the exploits of a guy they made. And so the parasocial elements (which are not necessarily bad, it just depends, and that's another post) have no appeal, and even things like accents don't really.

I don't think third person vs. first person necessarily means "not a self insert vs. self insert." I switch between the two and often use first person. But I don't feel like any D&D character I've played is a self-insert. They have aspects of me, sure, because of course they do, I need to be able to play them and try to think like them, but I think in a game where death and failure are really possible and where you must collaborate and where your options are rather limited - because even in D&D, they are limited by the type of game it is - it's actually vital to separate yourself out from your character.

It comes down to something I've said a lot about so many things in fiction (but yeah, this does bleed into real life): are you able to accept a character who is not like you? Are you able to accept a character who might make wildly different choices than you would? Is your capacity to empathize or see a character as a person limited by them specifically hitting some demographic or philosophical targets you have constructed? Can you, even in a low risk, fictional environment, let yourself be different from how you are.

this seems very silly but I think I may have alluded to Justin McElroy talking about not being able to play fat characters in most games, and so he often just plays characters who do not look a thing like him. He often plays as a woman of color. (I don't recall where this came up? I think it might have been on an ancient polygon video or maybe commentary on one of the TAZ seasons? I'd love to find it again). And I think that's actually really great that this was his instinct. I don't want to diminish the importance of RPGs and TTRPGs for self-discovery; obviously it's been a place for many people to explore gender and sexuality, especially, and I do not want to take away the ability for someone to play as a woman in a game before you feel like you can live as a woman publicly in real life (and notably my issues with the BG3 and Inquisition player characters are not ones of gender/sex/race, ie, I think it is personality and background that might need to be more pre-determined). But yeah, if you cannot connect with characters who aren't like you that's a problem, and it does feel a little frustrating that we know that centering a self-insert OC type makes for a worse story and people still want that.

I've always been intrigued by pre-made sheets in TTRPGs where you are limited in some way, not in a dumb "oh my god you can't play a druid bc I'm a weird vindictive dude mad that your nature magic beats my weaponry" way but just as an exploration of having to walk a mile in other people's shoes and to be a person other than one that you created to exist within your comfort zone. Because a lot of people aren't Justin, and do play themselves or as close to it as they can, regardless of what is happening around them, and I think that is a mistake.