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I love that the Syphilis Bandit encounter is so ridiculous that Matt makes it canon that it’s not just Travis quietly cracking up, it’s Fjord fighting for his fucking life to not die laughing and blow the whole thing.

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"We are... The Mighty Nein."

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god I forgot this was the setup to so many of Caleb's issues that exploded in Zadash and also this makes the episode 72 glove thing so much more meaningful...poetic cinema

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The cast really comes out swinging at the top of the episode with the quick improv comedy. Beau meeting Caleb’s cagey response about the gnoll priest with one of my personal favorites “Yeah but you did that though.” The triple joke of Jester, Nott, and Molly: “I like rings 😊” “I like sticks 😁” “I like manacles 😏.” And of course, “You look like a nerd” in the flattest possible tone. Excellent form from everyone this episode.

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Now that I am at last free from my bonds of servitude (six day work week) I can finally catch up on Nein Again, and it’s one of early C2’s banger episodes 😁

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It's been interesting coming into Campaign 2 as a newcomer whose been hanging around in the fandom for a minute because it means I'd heard the criticisms of the early campaign as being "directionless", but eight episodes in it's really ringing as untrue? Like the Mighty Nein have had clear goals and motivations the entire time, even if they're as simple as "Caleb wants to visit a large city with a good bookstore" or "Jester wants to find her dad but in the absence of concrete leads (though she does have a ledger of her mother's clients, of which her dad was one) has decided to make it her mission to help Fjord reach and enter the Soltryce Academy" or "Beau thinks the Baumbauchs are dicks so she stole their mail and found herself fascinated by this one contact called 'The Gentleman'".

What I think people were clocking about these early episodes, and describing as "directionlessness" was actually the lack of a big central Plot Goal that all the characters were working towards. The Nein at this stage of their careers aren't working to stop any wars or cults or slavers or sentient cities, they're traveling together because being together is convenient and all their individual goals are pointing them in the same direction (or no direction in particular so might as well stay with the group). Whereas the early episodes of Campaign 1 had the Plot Goal of "find and rescue Lady Kima" and, once that was achieved, "help Kima recover the Horn of Orcus". The individual members of Vox Machina had their own personal motivations that intersected with this common plot goal, but it served as something the whole group was reaching towards. The early Mighty Nein episodes don't have the same sort of overarching plot framework, as Matt opened up the world after the initial run of episodes in Trostenwald and left it to the players to decide where the pursuit of their individual goals would take them.

But every character pursuing an individual goal did give the early Mighty Nein a direction; they were all pulling towards something and making choices in hopes of being brought closer to it, even if those goals varied between the group's members. The absence of a Plot Goal didn't result in the group having no direction. Indeed, as Campaign 3 would later demonstrate, the presence of a Plot Goal doesn't guarantee a group will have direction. It's the ability of the characters to turn motivations into goals and actions that creates this momentum.

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Thinking about the fight against the guards in the second episode of divergence. It hits this sweet spot so rarely seen in combat/action heavy media: one where violence (even violence where goodness is victorious) isn't triumph but tragedy, and yet we must still strive for it for the sake of freedom.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some massively triumphant and cool moments in that fight (Crokas using the vestige, uprising of the common people, the captain of the guard falling, Crokas' epic resurrection, multiple pc's gaining level 1 mid fight), but it's also a fight whose very nature and purpose is dependent on the unfairness of its existence. These people aren't fighters. To have a chance of winning, the party must urge other refugees even weaker than them to join a fight against a much more powerful opponent. Brennan all but spells out that these people are weak and scared and there’s nothing fair in asking this of them, yet it must be asked anyway or they're all doomed.

Rei'nia starts out trying to usher vulnerable people to safety; she must pivot to instead urging them to fight. She chooses to put Luz, the only living connection to her missing family, on the battlefield. Luz, just as weak as everyone else, dies; Rei'nia is left not in the triumph of victory but questioning if it was worth it. The kenku who stepped up and shouted that they cannot all be killed is one of the first to be cut down. Erro, the one who started the fight and was left at death's door, is asked before he knows how it will end for him whether it was worth it. Crokas ends the fight fully catatonic. Him being covered in blood from his kills and having been resurrected by lightning is cool as fuck, but then the fight ends and we see him not triumphant but barely remembering how to be a person.

Other big epic fights may have moments of tragedy, but it’s when one of the (usually powerful) main characters or their loved ones fall. Unnamed NPCs may fall to the wayside as nothing but flavoring to show the seriousness of the fight. Here, everyone is powerless. Everyone has an NPC statblock. The players must personally pick the refugees the choose to put on the battlefield, knowing they will likely die.

We are left remembering there isn't truly anything cool about all this. It’s hopeful for sure, desperate people coming together to grab hold of their fate; but it's still a tragedy that it had to happen at all. It’s an unfairness and a dehumanizing horror, yet it's necessary to embrace the unfairness of resistance and horror of violence for hope of freedom to have a chance to be born.

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all of these posts going around lately about some great Nein combats have me thinking once again about how the Nein absolutely stomped Cree's two-phase combat, ripping through her first stage with over 250 points of damage in a little over a round, without Caleb and Jester, who were simultaneously able to accomplish a different ask Cree was trying to run the clock down for, on the fourth initiative of a rest

a Nein combat all-timer for me, a well-oiled machine and that machine is a meat grinder

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Heroes & Villains Across the Era of Reclamation [Fanart]

Happy 10 Years to Critical Role. Here's the fanart I've been working on to celebrate. You can find an 8K version on my website here:

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'Why are all you big men making this weird speeches to me?!" is truly inspired dialogue. The Alfield arc really is just the Nott Spotlight Hour in terms of focus, themes, and comedy.

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Will never take seriously the people who act like Caleb is just a constant sad sack, this man is fucking hilarious.

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Khary really came out and rolled a Nat 20 on style as the first guest of the campaign. Two seconds on the board and the whole Mighty Nein had a big fat crush on Shakaste.

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"And as he finishes off his last little project here at the beginnings of Kraghammer..."

The current chapter of Critical Role's Exandria campaigns has concluded, a culmination of ten years of storytelling. What better way to celebrate this milestone than to dive back into its humble beginnings?

Welcome to Watch Machina, a weekly event where we watch one episode of Critical Role Campaign One from the very first. Whether you're a Critter new to the campaign, coming in from The Legend of Vox Machina, or a longtime fan looking to relive the magic, all are welcome to join!

Starting Monday, March 17th, we'll be kicking things off with the very first episode, "Arrival at Kraghammer". Feel free to watch at any point during the week and liveblog, discuss, and make commentary, and use the tag #watchmachina to let people know what you're about. See you there!

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Calamity and Downfall: Super OP level 20 characters

Divergence

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10 years of Critical Role, and 7 years of ongoing obsession on my end. Here’s to hopefully many more 🥂

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The depth charge of pun damage Sam dropped on the studio with "Fjord Expedition" XD