#we have blackmail and a vexing motive

[lowkeyclueless5137]

OwO?

Funny French He-man :'3

And also blackmail! Rosè had no other choice. So they have a deal...

Music for the BG:

Creepy music go brrrr

Rook shared his motives, but this can only bring us more mistery...

And tea... very much tea... U-U

Until next time! Bye bye!

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

SPOILERS AND ASSUMPTIONS FOR CAMPAIGN 1!

OKAY, let me start by categorising what spoilers I know as best I can, going (mostly) in chronological order AFAIK:

Clarota betrays them (VERY sad, when I first watched those first 10-ish episodes I was fully behind Keyleth’s ‘trust him’ train)

Vax loses a foot to lava and also his snake belt rip

Kima and Allura are the cool, trustworthy PCs, as is everyone’s favourite, Gilmore, a shopkeep with a black belt in karate

The dragonborn guy’s homeland gets dunked on and then later he dies offscreen

Percy’s sister is alive and betrays them but only kind of? I think? She was held captive by the Briarwoods for years and Percy thought she was dead, but she was blackmailed/brainwashed/tortured?

Vax gets cornered by the Briarwoods alone by accident (classic)

There’s a chick called Ripley who makes guns A Thing for the wider world

Something about a sun tree? It’s a creepy tree? They hallucinate their own corpses on it? Or something?

They probably kill one of the hottie vampires at the end of Percy’s arc, I think the male one? Because the lady vampire shows up later?

Percy dies in his arc and it’s the second res ritual they do, after Pike’s one pre-stream

“Take off the mask, darling.” I still don’t care about romance but I feel obligated to mention that I know that famous line

I also know the equally famous “I thought he’d never leave” bubble bath bit, ah Laura

There’s a CHROMA CONCLAVE attack right at the end of Percy’s arc, somewhere

Rashian is a dragon or something, everyone laughs at Liam for not knowing this. I know nothing else about who the Chroma conclave is (3-5 chromatic dragons??? One of each colour????) or what they want, except Vax levels up in the middle of fighting one and Keyleth yells at one

There are communication earrings. There is also a weird black powder man. Victor?

They actually have a permanent home/keep unlike the Mighty Nein?

Vex dies because Percy didn’t check for traps, this is the start of some deal of Vax’s with the Raven Queen which means he multiclasses into paladin?

Vax can fly, he can fly, he can fly!

Uhhhh there’s a couple cursed swords or something in there lol

Percy sells his soul briefly? Genius move Smart Guy lmao

Feywild??? Somehow????? They meet Artagan and make a deal with him for a doorway, and they spend an episode as cows somewhere in here?

Keyleth has Mom Trauma, I don’t know how much this will feature in the campaign

Vax and Vex’s dad suxxx or something, mother is dead

Scanlan hits on his surprise daughter and everyone screams

They have some kind of year long adventuring group break for some reason?

Keyleth makes a storm on an airship (???) and this is cool. Also she turns into a fire elemental a lot and this is also cool.

There’s a kraken fight? It goes really badly, like LEGENDARILY badly, and ngl I’m kind of looking forward to it

Scanlan #LOSESIT and has his legendary ‘what’s my mother’s name?’ rant, after which he leaves for an undetermined number of episodes and is replaced by Tary

This leads to Grog spelling C-A-T for some reason and this???? Makes people cry???????? Truly something you had to be there for

Pike tries to commission drawings of VM for Tary (who calls Vex “little elf girl” and braces for impact when Laura’s nostrils flare) and this goes Very Wrong in a funny way

Tary’s dad sucks

He writes a book

Some NPC reads said book in campaign 2, hence why I know about it

Grog has an arc to do with the other Goliaths who beat him up for defending Pike’s dad?

When Scanlan comes back he tries to sneak in, Vex chases him and he panics and casts modify memory on Vex, it fails several times, an angsty moment becomes comedic very fast

He is received with Mixed Emotions lmao

Keyleth turns into a goldfish and kills herself, this is both apparently extremely painful and extremely funny

Vax gets disintegrated and dies in a beholder fight (rip)

Gilmore is not a dragon but everyone was fully convinced he was. He also gets bodysnatched or something at some point to freak out VM, but they figure out very quickly it’s not him

Scanlan is Ioun’s chosen? Whatever that means, something to help fight Vecna I think

“It was an honour knowing you” sad! Sad! Sad line! Gilmore doesn’t understand, cheekily responds, and leaves!!!! Liam looks on the verge of tears!!!!!! SAD!!!!!

There are so many true love nat 20s. I don’t know what any of them are except that Pike has one and Ashley looks like she’s about to cry

They win the Vecna fight and Keyleth gets the HDYWDT, Scanlan wanted to save a Wish spell for Vax but couldn’t, so he stays dead

Everyone cries here but at least the rest of the party is okay

Keyleth is the last woman standing and everyone cries at this too

And then Grog uses the deck of many things, spawning two oneshots to clean up his mess

Also somewhere in here Vex steals a broom from a guest (lol)

Assumptions!!!!!

More tears than campaign 2 I think, since there are at least two resurrection rituals we see on screen that I know of

The fights might be more stressful since they’re higher level?

Scanlan is going to be the most sexual and lewd character because he is played by Sam

Vex is going to be the second most sexual and lewd character because she is played by Laura

Vax will still instigate most of the one-on-ones so Liam can have as many heavy conversations as his theatre kid’s heart desires

Keyleth will try and fail to make the group more moral

Pike will not try to be moral at all despite being four feet of blessed armour and adorable hair

I think other characters try to make Percy feel remorse for Murder Reasons, but I suspect he’s not going to feel that guilty (I will likely support him in murderous endeavours unless they are FAR more messed up than I currently believe)

From what I understand Grog is Loveable but not hugely layered or complex, and I know Travis was proud he didn’t cry this campaign. I suspect I may be surprised at the character depth Travis gives him, however.

Keyleth also thinks the gods are overrated and I AGREE

Percy is three feral and eldritch raccoons in a trench coat, held together only by sheer force of will and the fragile shell of a posh accent. No one notices because it’s a really cool accent.

There will be a lot more money/shopping/drinking elements than in campaign 2, since I know Vex is a haggler, Percy is a Lord, and Keyleth is a day-drinker? As are Grog and Scanlan

It will be funny for me to see Taliesin play a smart character and Travis a dumb one, though I know that the whiplash went the other way for most people lmao

Vox Machina will be less team-heavy than the Mighty Nein? I gather they’re more of an ‘individual hero’ makeup than an ‘everyone has support abilities’ makeup

It will be more fast-paced than campaign 2? It seems like a lot of the arcs lead directly into each other, with only the occasional shopping episode break

It feels like it might be less friendship heavy than the Mighty Nein? Like they seem more like ‘we’d die for each other’ pals who otherwise spend all their time trying to draw dicks on each other’s faces

They have a more clear “party leader” than the Mighty Nein, who might be Percy and/or Keyleth

I think most PCs and NPCs are more morally clear cut than in campaign 2, like most towns and people in positions of power are either “cool guy who can pitch in” or “get rid of this abomination immediately” territory

I think my favourite character will be Vex, Percy or Keyleth. I just feel it in my bones. 

I think I may also get an extreme soft spot for Grog and Pike, however

My main sources of surprise will be, I think, how things fit together? Like I have no idea WHY they’re in the Feywild, or most other places really, or what any villains’ motivations and backstories and personality traits are, and how they end up fighting any of them in any particular place for any particular reason. I don’t even really know characters’ abilities or literally anything done in any of the fights, aside from “they win/nearly die” and “Scanlan uses Wish and Bigby’s Hand against Vecna”

I assume most plot threads all lead into each other fairly solidly and that they don’t actually seek most of their stuff out?

This assumption will either be fairly right or hilariously wrong, but -- I assume that I already know almost everything important or shocking? I tried really hard to avoid it but being active in campaign 2 meant that over time I got exposed to more and more of campaign 1, and I genuinely believe that I have almost everything down, if not details or order. I don’t think I’ve missed any big moment or impactful arc

Let’s see if I’m right

[itsclydebitches]

Vexed said something I agree with during his recent stream (not word for word): Due to the screwed up power scaling, fights are no longer “Who will win?” it’s “Who needs to win for the sake of the plot?”. When fighter A and B are fighting, we say “Fighter B is stronger”, but we can’t think that way, because Fighter A has just as much a chance to win as fighter B could. It depends on where they want to take the story.

Which, as with so much in RWBY, isn’t inherently a bad thing. Of course fights further the plot. It’s a fighting show. However, if Fighter A is stronger than Fighter B and you need Fighter B to win in order to further that plot point... you need to come up with a persuasive reason for why they won. I was just talking about DBZ in another ask, so let’s snag an example from there: Goku vs. Majin Vegeta. The plot wants to get M!Vegeta to a place where he can fight Buu himself, but how do you manage that when a) Goku won’t let him go off alone and b) we’ve established throughout this whole series that Vegeta is (almost) always weaker than Goku? He can’t win this fight. Here, the mere fact that he’s empowered by Babidi might have been the excuse  — he wins due to a magical boost  — but instead the story takes that “Goku is stronger” understanding into account and, instead of trying to ignore it, provides another way for Vegeta to “win.” He tricks Goku, knocks him out when his back is turned, and this works because we’ve spent this entire series re-establishing how naïve and trustworthy Goku can be. In order to achieve the plot that comes about from Vegeta winning this fight, the story considers how to make that win as persuasive as possible. 

RWBY doesn’t do this and when they make an attempt it’s not nearly as well done. DBZ may be simple, but that simplicity actually assists our suspension of disbelief. Because there are only a few, broad rules the story must follow  — things like “Goku is usually the strongest” and “Fighters get more powerful after being beaten/after a loved one is threatened”  — and there’s a lot of wiggle room there while still adhering to the rules. In contrast, RWBY has become so complicated, has introduced so many (inconsistent) rules, that when they rely on one to explain a win, the viewer is left questioning the logic. No one questions “Goku is trustworthy to a fault,” but we do question “Marrow isn’t willing to us ‘Stay’ on a bunch of teens he met a few weeks ago... but he’ll use it on Penny, an ally he’s known far longer, as well as his own team?” The explanation for why the stronger Ace Ops lost to the weaker Team RWBY is supposedly that they weren’t fighting for real, yet we don’t know the Ace Ops well enough to accept that characterization at face value. If anything, the heavy-handed claims that they’re just “following orders” and can’t think for themselves implies that they would be fighting their best simply because Ironwood told them to make this arrest. They’re devoted enough to be worthy of intense criticism, but ambivalent enough justify their loss? It doesn’t hang together. Similarly, we have too many inconsistent rules applied to Yang’s fall. The moment starts really strong because the rule “Yang will do anything to protect Ruby” has been established since day one (unlike the Ace Ops, but precisely like Goku, Yang has volumes of characterization to fall back on), so her act itself makes perfect sense (provided we ignore the repetition of her Volume 3 mistake, but that’s a separate issue). Yet we don’t have a persuasive explanation for why Yang lost that “battle” once she got involved. Power scaling tells us that Yang should be stronger than Neo. Experience tells us that she would have blocked, or straight up attacked, or just tanked the damage with her mechanical arm (she caught Adam’s sword with that!). Knowledge of how aura works also tells us that Yang’s wouldn’t have broken in one hit, nor that it would have put her into an addled state where she couldn’t save herself. So... what’s our explanation? The closest we get is the fandom, not the text, going, “Her aura was low because she’s exhausted” (which only explains one of these issue) and even then that’s contradicted by everyone else on this team  — who went through everything Yang has these last two days  — lasting far, far longer. 

It’s fine to have Team RWBY win against the experienced huntsmen to further the plot of their escape, or Neo to win against the tank of the group to set the stakes of the fight... but you have to do the work to explain how those wins came about. An explanation built on the rules of this world, the characterization, and the context of the scene. Was someone tricked? Distracted? Hiding their true motives? A secret ability? Blackmailed into standing down? Fights like the Ace Ops vs. RWBY also suffer from issues like Elm snagging Blake and then just... letting her go. Making your characters stupid is not an explanation either, not unless that’s an established character trait. Which brings us back to Goku. He’s not actually stupid, but his perspective is just narrow enough that when he turns his back on a possessed friend and 100% believes that Vegeta, the guy who never wants to work together, is suddenly eager to team up... well, no one is surprised. That’s classic Goku right there, for better and for worse.