#zaharzht

[johnnyspells]

[yudol-skorbi]

weird ass relatives who no one wants to see at family gatherings

[undead-knick-knack]

Torog could've been anything, and this is what he went with

[marvelousbelladonna]

Asha talks to Zaharzht

“You already do” - Asha

[beedreamscape]

"If I promise to take care of you, can I torture you forever?" Is so psychosexual, sounds like the average tumblr user flirting

"You already do." is the answer to the average anon, asha tumblrina

[ihaveatypeanditstrickstergods]

Slightly late but oh well

[song-of-baldy-ron]

Brennan comes into CR with one goal and that is “make the betrayer gods likable” and by god he’s succeeding

[corvidpolyglot]

fully insane abt torog rn after watching downfall. i think a cleric of his would be fun as hell to play, especially if it ends up being a mirror to the wildmother; people think of pain as something negative, but you cannot have growth or change without pain. having a holy symbol that hurts to hold, that is covered with barbs... phenomenal stuff. zaharzht was a phenomenal character thank you so much brennan lee mulligan and taliesin jaffe for that scene with him and melora

[pawthorn]

My piece for @artists-guild-of-exandria Calamity project— Melora’s farewell to Torog from Critical Role Downfall, inspired heavily Cartoon Saloon‘s Irish Folklore Trilogy.

Blood flows, and then juices of fruit and honey and sap and everything that is bounty… You are killed and he is brought back to life and then dies and you are reborn. Sap and honey, blood and bone over and over and over again.

Details below

[setsailforthestars]

I haven’t even begun to unpack the last part of Downfall pt. 1. The conversation between the gods about the fate of Aeor was just so loaded I’m still processing. But these three quotes, all in favour of the destruction of Aeor, really stuck out to me. Presented without further commentary because they live in my mind rent free rn:

“Everyone here is in misery. We should devour them. There’s only one release, and it’s in the back of the throat of something that wants you dead.” -Zaharzht

“One thing, Dad. They don’t fear you, they resent you. You think you spare them, they’ll be grateful, they’ll start praising your name? That’s not going to happen. You let them go, they do it again.” -Emhira

“Look, death is inevitable. It’s just guiding them to a shorter thread.” -Emhira

[sea-buns]

I get it, Zaharzht. Tortle was the only choice.

[skuttlesstrawberry]

Aside: Zaharzht (Torog incarnate) absolutely fascinates me. It’s probably because he’s clearly not just one who breaks, but also one who was broken. Trauma is such a powerful concept, and Zaharzht’s whole thing is that trauma is real and cannot be denied; I disagree strongly with how he lives that out but I respect the hell out of how clearly Zaharzht sees something true and refuses to deny its reality...

[staircasecleric]

tortle!!!! torog turtle!!!

[pocketgalaxies]

*discussing the neverending pain and suffering of nature and why do we search for love if all that we'll do is lose it in the end and what is love if not a chain to be hooked by and hung from*

[mareastrorum]

Tishar ragging on Zaharzht is SO apt. Of course Gruumsh looks at Torog and thinks "How are you this bad at everything?"

[utilitycaster]

re: good faith, actually the most mind-blowing Downfall thing for me is that it does what some people wanted during Calamity - it made the Betrayers sympathetic. We see that Zaharzht is perhaps not so different than the Raven Queen's predecessor in his belief that "away" may have been better. Umleta seems genuinely hopeful that this partnership between gods will indeed continue.

We also see (and this is discussed openly in Cooldown, particularly between Brennan and Laura) that the tragedy of all the gods is that they became who they were during a moment of existential crisis and trauma and were stuck in that aspect forever. Imri becomes Asmodeus trying to save everyone from roiling chaos; Shosti (unclear which god they are, but my personal guess is Gruumsh) is discussed as the one who used concussive force to shield the others and propel the ship away. These things only became a problem when mortals appeared and a vast concussive force would kill them. The fundamental concept of the gods is "what if you were never permitted to change from what you became to survive the worst thing that ever happened to you, even when it stopped serving you." No wonder the Betrayers resent mortals, since they were able to make it work until their creations said "what you do hurts us." But at the same time, that's not the fault of mortals, either.