#spoilers for tlovm season 3 I guess?

[ravendruid]

Because I'm still waiting for that "rain check" to be cashed in the future, how about "slow dance" with Vax and Kiki?

Hello! Thank you for the prompt!! This fic was inspired by the trailer for Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina. Spoilers for anyone who has watched/is watching TLOVM but has not watched Campaign One!

If I could hold you for a minute

(Read on AO3)

Vax leans over the rail on the high balcony that overlooks the scintillating lights of Whitestone, far down below him. The light of Catha shines brightly in the new leaves of the Sun Tree in the center of town, a sign of hope and prosperity for the newly rebuilt city. With two dragons down, Vax allows himself to feel that slight burn of hope, too, even though he is not entirely confident about their alliance with Raishan. The day will come when Vax will enact his revenge on the creature who murdered his mother, but for now, he will enjoy the warm feeling of hope and the respite after an arduous battle.

It’s funny, though, how Vax sees the light go off two rooms down and the corner of his mouth immediately curls up into a smile. He exits the balcony and waits by the door of his bedroom, listening to the not-so-quiet footsteps of his favorite druid, and, right on cue, she knocks at his door.

Vax opens the door, not entirely surprised to see Keyleth still in her battle gear—he is still in his armor, after all—with a tight smile on her face. “Can I stay with you tonight?” She asks. Gods know how much Vax wants her to stay, but instead of opening his mouth and accidentally saying something shitty as he is prone to do sometimes, he simply takes a step back and invites her in with a smile.

“Were you outside?” Keyleth asks, noticing the open glass door. Vax nods, still too scared to speak. He holds out his hand to her, which she takes, then leads them both out into the chill of the night. “Today was hard,” Keyleth whispers as if she is afraid the city will hear her vacillate. “I was afraid I was going to lose you for a moment, there.”

“I’m sorry,” Vax manages with a hoarse voice. 

“You know, I’ve been afraid for so long that I would lose you–all of you, but you specifically,” Keyleth turns her back on the city and looks up at the stone walls of the castle above her. Vax glaces sideways at her and waits for her to continue as he knows she is not done yet. “And I guess it’s a valid fear considering…”

“Considering what?” Vax persuades her when Keyleth takes too long to continue.

“I don’t think I’ve told you this but, if by some crazy chance we all somehow make it through this alive—with the Chroma Conclave, I mean—and I go on to complete my Aramente, I will still watch you all die.”

Vax shifts uncomfortably, looking at Keyleth more seriously now. She is still so young and she already bears a heavy burden, but then again, don’t they all? Doesn’t Vax, too, now that he thinks about it? Doesn’t the weight of the armor press on him in a permanent reminder of his bond to the God of Death?

“By becoming headmaster of the Air Ashari, I will enter a bit of a realm of immortality of sorts, where I could live for a very, very long time. And I’ve been afraid every time I look at one of your faces that it’s going to be the last, and, deep down, I know that day is coming.”

Vax turns sideways to look at her, noticing the downwards curl of Keyleth’s lips, and says, “I know that with everything that has happened, between my new patron and killing dragons, we haven’t had the time to talk properly, but I need you to know, through everything, nothing has changed about how I feel about you. I know death is unavoidable,” Vax snickers at that seeing that he now works for the God of Death herself—whatever that means—then continues, “even if you go on to live a long time, if you are willing to spend some of that time, any time, with me, then I will simply count myself lucky to have it. You’re very dear to me.”

Vax is shocked at the tremble in his voice. In his head, his speech sounded more confident, but hearing his words be spoken in the cold air of Whitestone makes them sound less solid.

“I’ve… had an interesting talk with Vex’ahlia recently, and then with Pike. They have helped me see the other side of the coin.” Keyleth says, then she pulls away from the rail and re-enters Vax’s bedroom. He observes her through the open door and sees the half-elf light the fireplace with her magic—a sight that makes Vax warm and fuzzy inside—and stand by the fire. He follows her then, closing the doors to make sure the heat doesn’t escape, and joins her.

“You know… I’ve been thinking and I think I realized something,” Keyleth approaches Vax and grabs one of his hands by the side of his torso. The touch is warm and comforting, but her hopeful smile is even more. “I realized this whole time that I was afraid of losing you to a future that ultimately has not yet been written, which I know it’s stupid, and I realized that it’s okay to be scared. We still have a lot of demons to face, but we can face anything if we’re together, and I know I, personally, would rather face them at your side.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I love you, Vax. I have for a long time, and I’m sorry it took me this long to say it.” Keyleth finishes, placing a hand on Vax’s chest. The touch burns through the thick leather of his armor, through his skin and muscles until it reaches his heart and encloses itself around the organ. If the sight of the moonlight on the Sun Tree’s leaves and the flickering of life in the city of Whitestone were already hopeful boons, Keyleth’s words and touch practically make Vax float with hope.

“I–I love you,” Vax smiles brighter than he’s ever done recently. Keyleth sniffles and chuckles lightly, then says, “I love you, too,” and, for a moment, Vax thinks she raises her hand to ask for a high-five, but then thinks better of it and wraps her arms around his neck. 

“May I kiss you?” He asks, knowing full well Keyleth is not as experienced as he is and not wanting to scare her. She nods bashfully, so Vax leans down and kisses her softly. Her lips are warm like fire and sweet like the berry wine they had for dinner. Vax could easily get lost in the softness of Keyleth’s touch, of her lips responding to him, of the tip of her tongue timidly searching for his. Vax indulges his curious druid and slips his tongue inside her mouth. Gods, if he already wanted to leave it all behind for her, now truly feeling the buzzing in his stomach at the contact and the love he has for this woman, he wants to disappear with her from the face of Exandria and live a secluded life, just the two of them.

“Oh, wow,” Keyleth pants. Even though their foreheads are touching and they are too close, Vax can still see the deep red blush on her cheeks, which he finds adorable.

“That was pretty fucking great,” He says, short of breath, too.

“That was pretty great, yeah,” And this time, Vax doesn’t imagine it. Keyleth does raise her hand in a high-five motion, which he awkwardly and giggly replies.

“I–I owe you a dance, don’t I?” Vax remembers all those nights ago in a lost tavern in the ruins of Westruun. Gods, has it really been that long?

“We don’t have music,” Keyleth points out, but Vax shrugs, “We don’t need music.”

Vax places Keyleth’s arms around his shoulders again, then wraps his own arms around her waist and leans foreheads with her one more time. He starts swinging them, side to side, with only the flames of the fireplace and the stray rays of moonlight lighting the room as he murmurs an old son his mother used to sing when she worked on her clothes. Keyleth sighs as she allows herself to relax and leans into Vax, following his lead, which he savors, not knowing if this is the last time they get to do this.

With two dragons to fight, and who knows what’s going to happen next, Vax can’t still fully relax, but right now, in Keyleth’s warm embrace, he tries his best to leave his fears at the door. It’s the least he can do for for the woman he loves.

[a-world-torn-asunder]

excuse me legend of vox machina, how dare you make the evil torturous science lady this hot!? I know that glintshore™ is coming, you cannot do this to me

[jimbodyson]

ngl im so fed up. i literally just want to sit and enjoy and talk about the show and all i see on all of my pages are mfs complaining about the most trivial things. they're focusing on some romance this season? that sucks. they did Glintshore differently? that sucks. Scanlan didn't have a mental breakdown for no reason? that sucks. just enjoy something for once you joyless fucks. and most of all let other people enjoy it too. i wish i could see people fucking talk about this season without it just constantly being a barrage of how people hate every fucking change and decision they made. and it's especially frustrating when 90% of the hate comes from people going 'oh, if they do this, this will suck'. stuff that isn't even written yet. or just people who think they know the characters better than the people who created and played them for several years. or people who say they don't hate it and yet every fucking post is them chatting shit on it.

im so tired of things i enjoy being hated that it just feels like a huge slap in the face. or that im just wrong for liking it. just fed up with seeing people being negative all the time. sorry, i really loved TLOVM season 3. no, i don't fucking care that you think the og game is better.

edit: made a separate post but i was very overwhelmed and therefore irritable and angry when i wrote this. while it's still frustrating to constantly see negativity surrounding it as i love it (especially so because i muted all the relevant tags), i was unnecessarily aggressive. sorry. although i would like to add, it's harder to belive some people when they say they didn't go into it wanting to hate it or that they like some bits-- when the only parts they talk about are the parts that they didn't like.

[demigoddessqueens]

I’m sat! Hasn’t started yet but I’m still sat!

[thewingedbaron]

I’m really really curious how Pike’s arc is going to go in the next couple of seasons.

By this point in the campaign she was rebuilding the Everlight’s temple in Vasselhiem. She’d reconciled, working along side her goddess to help bring some worship back.

In the show, shes rejected her. She doesn’t wear her symbol around her neck anymore. We already had the reconciliation, Pike wasn’t forced to choose anything, only to be true to herself. But, after the conversation with Zerxus, she’s rejected Sarenrae again.

I’m so so curious where this is going later. Pike’s relationship with the everlight is such an important piece of her character and has had a pretty significant impact as far as C3. What’s the plan for the show now? Pike seems to be of special blood, something the Whispered One needs for some purpose (as teased by Zerxus). Is pike going to need to make up with her goddess? Have we abandon her completely? Pike’s powers don’t seem to have gone away?

Can’t wait for season 4.

[sky-scribbles]

Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 moments I am so very excited to see:

'I thought he'd never leave!'

The Vorugal vs Yenk kaiju battle

'We still don't know where the fuck Raishan is -'

The dawn of 'd'you spice?'

Getting to see Ank'harel!!!!

'No! Fix him. Fix him!'

Keyleth Feebleminding Raishan

'I should have told you... it's yours.'

Keyleth turning into an earth elemental and fucking obliteraring Ripley's ship

'What's my mother's name?'

'I still hear the voice of my mother in the mornings. Fuck you.'

Senokir.

[wisekrakenwise]

Percy + Vex *Sunlight* - Spoilers for S3

So I didn't expect to just show tf back up on tumblr with a whole new fandom in tow but that's just how it goes I guess? TLOVM hooked its fangs into me since the 1st episode and perc'ahlia soon after that. (Turns out I love me some angsty sad boy and get-shit-done lady who knew?)

Anyway, hot damn do I love this ship, and I can't believe it finally got me to dust off all my movie making stuff. Guess I'll be doing more of that in the very very near future.

[jae-birde]

The Legend of Vox Machina Liveblog: Episode 1

I just finished the first episode of TLOVM season 3 and holy shit it was amazing

(also, I do reference the campaign, so if you don't want spoilers for that, maybe stay clear from my breakdown)

(Breakdown under the cut)

--------------------

Holy shit, the opening sequence was straight up fire (pun intended) and seriously shows the animation's improvement SO MUCH. HOLY SHIT

Like, the dragons look so fucking good? Especially compared to season 1, like holy shit? they look so cool and badass and intimidating?

And the action when Thordak is chasing Vax holy shit, it's so well done oh my gods.

AND HOLY SHIT THE OPENINGN TITLE CARD LOOKS SO BADASS

I honestly wasn't too much of a fan of Raishan in the campaign, but I've gotta say I'm enjoying her a lot here

OMG BYRODEN MENTION I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS

"Not a stranger to vengence, are you?" Omg Raishan pulling out the heavy hitters on Percy, damn

SWEET SARENRAE THE ANIMATION + STORYTELLING WITH RAISHAN IS INSANE HOLY SHIT

GO OFF KIKI WOOO!! So glad that they kept Keyleth's anger at Raishan in the show and didn't tone it down like I kinda expected. I appreciate that they kept that a lot

Oh Gilmore, you flirt

GRAND POOBAH MENTION, WOO. Still have my fingers crossed for him to get the official title

Pike talking about coming in riding a dragon was also amazing. God I love Pike so much.

Keyleth and Vax talking it out <3 (don't think about how much it hurts because Keyleth feels like the odd one out and how she misses Vax, and don't think about how Vax is going to die and she'll miss him so much but won't be able to talk to him, not really, and don't think about how Keyleth will be the last member of Vox Machina once they've all died and she'll be left to mourn her friends, her family, and this is basically just a taste of that. Instead think about how they had to redesign the Vox Machina logo to avoid it looking like the gmail one)

My heart just melts every time Vax calls her Kiki

OMG VAXLETH KISS HELLS YES

Wait fuck no no no the vision holy shit no

Oh poor Keyleth, she's so nervous, KIKI BABY YOU DIDNT DO ANYTHINGG WRONG

OMG PERC'AHLIA IMMEDIATELY AFTER VAXLETH? HELL YES

but no Percy, darling, stop blaming yourself. (IT'S THE FORGIVENESS CONVERSATION EARLIER Y'ALL)

"One can certainly try" I see what y'all did there

Also can I just say the lighting and framing of this scene was beautiful? because it was. it was absolutely GORGEOUS

Omg that was adorable i adore these two so muhc

Lol, Trinket cockblocking Perc'ahlia has no right to be as funny as it is. And the way they both got so flustered i can't!

Still a little bummed that we don't get Surfer Dude Sun Tree

Back to Grayskull Keep, WOO

The twins' bickering never fails to amuse me, and I just absolutely love it whenever Vax calls Vex Stubby. It's just so cute. *cradles the twins in my hands* i simply adore them and want to see them happy and well

And everyone (but especially Vex and Percy) dissing Vax's plan is great

And now we've caught up to the opening scene!

I swear the animation gets better every season, holy shitballs

The Gilmore firework! Scanlan and Grog teaming up! Vox Machina working as a team! Scanlan actually getting to use Mythcarver! I love it!

And then Vex swooping in to save the day!

And Percy helping Vax as they realized just how absolutely fucked they are. Even with the vestiges. Fuck

That SARENRAE that Grog caught Pike there, she was thrown HARD

Raishan showing up was so unexpected to me for some reason, but OMG THE PERC'AHLIA HUG(ish) FROM THE SCREENSHOTS (it literally happened as I wrote this i forgot what I was gonna write)

FUCK YEAH KIKI BUST OUT THE AIR/FIREBENDER POWERS WOO

Ooooo, Thordak was injured. Always good to see

OMG ANK'HAREL! WE'RE GOING TO ANK'HAREL ALREADY

WHCIH MEANS GLINTSHOR IS SOON

WHICH MEANS PAIN

BUT IM ALSO SO EXCITED

Seriously so excited to see Ank'harel (do ya spice?)

Scanlan, just what are you up to?

OH FUCK NOT GUNSHOTS

THIS ISN'T GOOD

FUCK. FUCK IT'S RIPLEY ISN'T IT? I KNOW IT IS

I FUCKING KNEW IT FUCK

SHE GOT THE LPATE TOO

FRICK

PERCY GET HER ASS

OMG SHE'S GOT THE CABAL'S RUIN TOO FUCK

Scanlan, what the FUCK?

I know you wanna see Kaylie but man cmon it is NOT THE TIME

GET HER ASS GUYS

holy shit the cabal's ruin is animated so cool i love it

AND SHE CAN TELEPORT FUCK

I wonder if Kaylie will even be there

OMG Matt being the one to ask "Do you spice?" omg i love this. The only missed opportunity was to give him a red shirt, damn

FUCK YEAH GET HER ASS PERCY

Ripley you absolute BITCH

FUCK IT'S ORTHAX

FUCK

FUCK

OH GOD NO

NO YHAT CANT BE THE END NO NO PERCY

fuck i wanna watch the next one but it's 1am. fuck

(Also the end credits being a song of "do you spice?" is just too funny. love it so much)

Holy shit i have so many thoughts. I wrote this out as literally as I watched it and did minimal editing, so sorry if it's a little incoherent, lol

I'll def reblog this with more thoughts tomorrow once I've thought about and slept on the episode, but DAMN we really are starting off with some absolute BANGER moments!

[voiddusk]

tlovm season 3 idea - instead of going to draconia to fight vorugal and get the spire of conflux they go to terrah. i'm pretty sure we're ignoring draconia cos in the tv series we have no connection to it. and this way we continue to advance keyleth's aramente plot

[silver-stargarden]

so glad I didn't continue my cr1 rewatch after I got to the chroma conclave attack

spoilers for potential later episodes including the END of the whole story, in case you're only watching the show, so skip the rest of this post to be safe

.

.

.

I remembered the raven bitch stuff, but I didn't remember when it was gonna happen or the context at all. so when ep 3 was happening I was just like, oh they're digging into the twins' backstory now, that's cool, not picking up on the foreshadowing at allll. I was more thinking about vax's ultimate fate

I think the last third or fourth of it I realized what was happening and I was freaking the fuck out like "omg it's happening isn't it" thank god no one was here because I would have been insufferable lmao I was yelling

and oh my fucking god it was so good, it was pure art, I'm glad I didn't remember all the details. my jaw was on the floor, they did it so well. I cannot wait till next week

[the-promise-has-been-made]

Revisiting this after last weeks episodes.

How we doing, guys? Everyone recovered? We ready for what is to come next season? Cause I am not. Not holding it together at all again. But also, the Echo Tree episode GAVE ME LIFE!!!

Hey Perc’ahlia shippers, how we holding up now that we got “Darling take off the mask” and the Chroma Conclave was revealed, which means the following iconic scenes are officially ON THE TABLE for potentially next season:

“I’ve known a lot of people with money, and they are definitely not worth you”

“That would be ‘Lady Vex’ahlia, Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone, Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt’.”

“My heart is someone else’s.”

“Seeing Percy’s lifeless body, I scream. I just scream.”

“I should have told you, it was yours.”

and of course the very important “I move up, and I kiss her. And I say ‘We’ll talk later’ and I walk away.”

…

Because I am not holding it together AT ALL AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[jimbodyson]

call me pissy because i just hate seeing /neg about stuff so near and dear to my heart but i just like. don't really get any of the criticisms of Vaxleth this season??

like. yes two people can be insecure at once. and given what's happened it kinda makes more sense for Kiki to be open to the relationship than Vax. like he keeps getting visions from the Matron, ofc he's worried about the unknown. and Kiki's been gaining more confidence as the show goes on, ofc she's going to finally be able to be open about wanting a relationship

also also,, of course she'd be less worried about her aramente?? like she went into it knowing the risks and what happens when she completes it.

maybe it's just how people are wording it that's pissing me off, because 90% of the time it so comes across as people thinking they know better than the literal creators of the characters who are writing this stuff

[fantasyverses]

Scenes in TLoVM that remind me of other movies/shows (part 1)

First of all this is not hate, I love TLoVM with all four chambers of my heart.

Second, season 2 is upon us and so I put away my procrationation of this post to bring it into existence (dunno if someone else did, I haven’t seen it)

Three: if there are any other parts depends on whether or not there will be such scenes in season 2, 3 and possibly hopefully others

Four - feel free to add yours if you have others

Last of all... spoilers for season 1, I guess, and other things? But like...you've probably seen those. (It’s Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone and Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)

Number 1: Yep, definitely the evil one, congrats, you solved it (I love you anyway)

Number 2: It is I, powerful being, and I bring you the aesthetics of an eye (One we stan, one... not so much)

Number 3: I am Fire, I. Am. Death (I genuinely expected Thordak to say something dramatic like that)

[britcision]

Honestly it’s entirely possible it was your post, but there were about 4-6 with similar sentiments that got me to the point of comment, so at least you’re not alone!

(And tbh I’d be so happy to have more of the world building sooner too so I’m also on-side with this one, the timeline I’m talking about was the release timeline cuz I had to go double check that too but I just realized that wasn’t fully clear - the VM timeline is tangentially related but not the point

I’m also pretty sure I saw someone mention Xerxus specifically should have shown up sooner so that will help you work out if it was yours)

Cuz here’s the other thing too - honestly, I think we all know Matt also agrees with you. It’s his baby, and he really is pushing as much into every episode as can fit, and if he could get more world building in, he would

But they only get 12 episodes a season, and about half an hour an episode. So yeah, it’s 3 seasons before we’re learning about this calamity that happened, but it’s only 26 episodes

That was only just one full season of a show in the 90s, but they’ve already had to rescript all of the pacing to hit season-appropriate arcs within that timeline

(RIP flying cows scene you were a filler session but I still loved you)

It seems like it might have been easy to fit one or two more lines in the way you’ve suggested, just to give a little more oomph, because that’s something they have been doing at all possible turns - although in the first two seasons, most of the extra lore info was about our main characters, and the world as it relates to them

And if you put it side by side with other animated shows like She-Ra and Centaurworld (everyone go watch Centaurworld it was amazing), you can see that this is where a pattern comes in:

Now that we’re stuck in short seasons, most shows are pushing back on any world building not directly relevant to what the characters are doing for at least the first season, if not longer

And the reason for this is something I find personally disappointing; the assumption from executives that they have to hook the new audience on characters, not the world. We all know how much streaming services like to randomly cancel past two seasons, and the way the money guys think you’ll succeed is by chonking heavily on the emotional core of character arcs and some attention getting sass

(Both areas VM excelled without effort tbh)

And it’s also important to remember that when they planned out the timeline for season one, they didn’t know they’d get season two, and season two didn’t officially have the green light on three

We know now that we’re getting four and five as well, so I don’t think it’s even remotely a coincidence that Matt yote Xerxus in as hard and as fast as he could!

When every season is having to make an independent argument for why the show should get to continue, exposition in general tends to be kept to a minimum. You don’t want the audience to feel it lags, or is slow, or anything else that might make them flip to another show

You keep it quick and punchy, and in the case of Vox Machina where they already have a very clearly defined timeline of events they want to hit, they also need to make sure they’re hitting all of the beats they want to hit, and putting the focus on the moments they want to really resonate

And for some reason people assume world building will not resonate, or will make a show seem clunky or too complicated or confusing for new watchers

I dunno how true that actually is, but it is a guiding industry standard that the cast had to bear in mind when scripting out the first seasons

Now that we have seasons four and five already lined up to go, I think we are going to see a lot more of the world building this season (and ongoing, especially if they decide to tease set ups of the Nein animated show too - like a cut-away shot of Trent when talking about Delilah’s part in the Cerberus Assembly, a flash of Nicodranas when Artagan talks about going to the prime material plane)

Due to the scale of the conversion (3-hour episodes into 30 minutes), every single line and shot is still gonna be fighting for its life, but even the new audience has now had 2 seasons to get invested in this world and the people living in it; everyone who was gonna be easily discouraged by extra world building has probably left now, and those still here clearly care about this show

And, well, we’ve now had a full season of ��there are DRAGONS look how COOL these DRAGONS are, don’t you fucking love our COOL DRAGONS”, so to keep things fresh and new and delicious for the goldfish streaming service execs think we all are, they do need to be doing something different to keep that level of hype up for season three

And cool new world building and Hidden Mysteries And Secrets We Only Saw Hints Of are a pretty good way to do that

A flash in season two to get people’s attention, with the reveal in season three is a little slow and frankly, if we were still in the days of 20-ep seasons, we probably wouldn’t have had to wait that long, but it does build anticipation and curiosity, and gives the new audience time to realize that this really is a fully built out world, with aspects our characters haven’t even begun to see yet

Matt’s finally got some more freedom to push non-event-critical lore into the world and as much as I (and probably he) fully agree that we wish there’d been more sooner… well, I think season three is gonna give us a really good look at just how deep and in depth the next two seasons are gonna be 😁

One and two had to find their legs and get us through the Briarwood arc, then into the Chroma Conclave, while satisfying Amazon execs (the worst and most dangerous of all execs /j) that this show was watchable and binge-able and all those other buzzwords to make them money

It’s a shame it took until three to get us Extra Extra Lore Snacks (since Matt did feed us as much as he physically could), but I think this is gonna be our pace setter for the rest of the series, and if we’re lucky, for the Mighty Nein series too

We’ve proved there’s an audience, we’ve proved we’re interested, and if we all go feral enough we just might one day see animated ExU: Calamity, so yeah. I’m gonna be going Full Feral

Tl;dr: no one agrees more heartily that there shoulda been more lore in the first two seasons than Matthew Mercer himself, but alas we must all labour under the demands and expectations of capitalism

Still genuinely baffled by a comment I saw about Legend of Vox Machina not really dealing with the Calamity in the first 2 seasons

I can only assume it’s from someone who didn’t watch the first campaign, or wasn’t aware of the timeline, because the only thing we knew about the Calamity for most of Vox Machina’s campaign was “well shit that sounded bad, made the divine gate, got cool items tho”

The Raven Queen not being one of the original gods basically didn’t come up until it was Final Boss time, and she was the most present deity in the campaign (it was a real big deal that she threw in for VM and tbh no one appreciated it the way we will now that Downfall is out)

ExU: Calamity didn’t happen until after the first season had already aired

They. Literally couldn’t have referenced it. It didn’t exist.

And given animation schedules, and that there was only about 6 months between ExU: Calamity happening at all and the season release, the scripts were definitely already finalized by the time Brennan picked up the DM screen

They really are bringing it up at the first possible opportunity, and frankly way earlier than Vox Machina really should.

Minor timeline spoilers ahead:

We’re still in the Chroma Conclave arc, the concept of the Vestiges was still brand new and they were pretty focused on how they’d be useful against the Big Fuck Off Dragons Attacking Everything

They didn’t even go to the Hells until after Keyleth finished her DruidQuest, Scanlan didn’t even go it was a Taryon adventure

(Poor Noelle Stevenson had to come back to try and guest again a week later because they got side tracked it was amazing)

(Also anyone who enjoyed the Honey Heists and wondered where Tova came from that’s her they met her in Hell)

Matt had the concept of the Calamity prepared well in advance of the campaign even airing and the reason it didn’t come up much in campaign 1 is the same reason we didn’t get even just hefty lore drops in the first 2 seasons - never mind that they couldn’t possibly have included events from a mini campaign that hadn’t happened:

It wasn’t all that relevant

The animated show isn’t just for Critters who already know all about the world and Vox Machina and they really are squeezing as much extra juice into it for us as they can

But it’s also a starting off point for people who’ve never heard of Critical Role, and has pretty faithfully followed the campaign so far

There’s really not a good place in the Briarwood arc to stop and talk about ancient history older than the gotdang vampire, Vecna has to wait his turn

And then there’s literal dragons everywhere wrecking shop and they have 20 minutes to get through multiple 3-4 hour long episodes

Matt’s wiggling as much in there as fast as he can, pretty sure the first two seasons already had more Calamity lore than the VM campaign

But

But

Can you even imagine

Animated ExU: Calamity 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[potatoesandsunshine]

ooh good questions! I'm gonna say 1, 2, 10, and 4 for my beloved now is the season of the hunter death <3

thank you hannah!!!! these questions come from this post.

1.What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

this is such a hard question for me and i don’t really feel like i have a good answer!! i guess it depends on what fandom someone was into? and i’m not really a fan of any of my pre-2020 fic anymore (i’m glad it got me where i am as a writer now but it kinda feels like looking back at pictures from middle school; like, loveable cringe?). i guess if fandom wasn’t a factor i’d choose most agitated hands, be my salvation because it feels like it exemplifies what i like to do best, which is turn characters over in my brain and make up activities for them to do. the small jobs series is also a distillation of me at my most Me (coming back to a ten year old video game and insisting that two women should’ve kissed). i know i’ve written so much cr over the years but sometimes i can’t find myself in those stories :(

2.Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

okay skip over the tlovm spoiler tag that’s just in there because i’m trying to finish the oneshots series. i guess that does represent my writing habits lately but it doesn’t represent Me As A Writer. other than that i think this is pretty accurate! the line between angst and light angst is something i often go with my gut on and i do love to write canon divergence AUs. and honestly i like writing about friendship more than i like writing most shippy stuff so i’m glad that’s in there :)

10.How do you decide what to write?

i wait for inspiration and then i stay up really late when it hits. i do not have good writing discipline and i have never managed to get the ‘write every day even if it’s just a hundred words’ habit. because it’s a hobby/for fun, i try really hard not to put too much pressure on myself and just lean into whatever idea feels best at the time. there are a couple things i’m not really interested in writing so it’s easy to stay away from them, but other than that i’ll just write whatever comes to me. i wrote about the elder scrolls: oblivion earlier this year and i’m working on a sequel fic when that game came out in 2006.

4.What detail in now is the season / of the hunter Death are you really proud of?

the fact that any chapters of it ever get finished at all every time anyone references the scars vox machina have left (however inadvertently!) on these characters is a moment i love. kaylie has a scar around her neck and one on her torso from vax killing her and she’s not sure if she’s ‘allowed’ to be mad about it. cassandra is carrying around the arrowheads her sister-in-law sniped her with. and this little moment in chapter three is like a crystallization of these three characters:

kynan looks back in regret, kaylie looks forward with a kind of angry optimism, and cassandra’s trying to figure out who she is in the present moment. it feels kinda cliche but i love it and it’s the guiding star of this fic’s characterization.