#you have deffiently made me appreciate the that yeah..this is problerly as early as they could have done actual exu calamity references

[whomadewaffles]

I have a feeling this was about my post and your right about there not necessarily being a great time for a lore dump which I will admit to maybe being a bit impatient. But I still say it would have helped it even more as an adaption (which it is still a amazing one dont get me wrong. This was just the only minior gripe I personly had with it..which is a testament to how good it is). But hopefuly let me clarify my thoughts.

Mat's lore for the world is cool and It kinda a bit of a shame to ask a new veiwer to wait 3 seasons to get a hint at it. Considering this adaption isn't contained to just the main characters viewpoints points (during their first ever kick-starter stream it was one of the things they were most excited to explore) it was realy after they talked to osysa where I just felt like I wished they had at least gone into alittle bit more detail, not indepth ofcourse cos as you pointed out exu calamity hadn't happend yet, but things like telling us the devine gate is a thing or during the sunken tomb maybe have kash explain the difference between a betrayer god vs a prime deity to the non-relegious of the group, that sort of thing. I just don't see much point in holding everything but the barest basics back is all. I just worry for new people they like the characters and the main plot but I can see someone feeling the worldbuilding has maybe been a bit vague and mcguffin-y so far having not watched the campaign to see how Mat built up the worldbuilding peice by peice to the point where I don't think anyone who does have prevous knowalge of the world would call mat's worldbuilding bad, But that's a huge campaign and this is a tv show they have to move differently and you are gonna have people who know nothing about the world. So why not be more forthcoming with that stuff

so to sum it up I do think this is a good a point as any to get into it. I am mainly just happy they are getting into it at all and did wish more small details of worldbuilding had been included already as feel like it could have realy fleshed for new peeps out the world before diving fully into it now we have full context thanks to calamity. Hope I explained my thoughts better.

(P.s. i somehow stumbled upon the pikelan supercut and that made me want to start watching. It was when dalen's closet had just happend I didn't know campaign 2 had already started so I began CI instead of doing the easy thing and starting campaign with less to catch up on lol. Currently C1 is the only one of the 3 campaigns I've watched fully)

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 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀