#I don't watch cr

[essektheylyss]

the visceral gut drop of "—and in his place is a gently floating male drow—" vs the absolute giddy high of "—who is no longer Seth. Instead you see, a dark elf—" like, Essek Thelyss really is narratively That Bitch and he sure knows how to make a fucking entrance

[yashley]

imogen & fearne in c3e106

[danwhobrowses]

You know, as much as I would've loved a massive catharsis-led triumph over Athion Zathuda in battle, possibly left at the mercy of the vibrant flames of Fearne's Titan form reiterating herself with aplomb as Fearne Calloway, I actually kinda love how the narrative chose to defeat him. In many ways it is just hilarious, but also ironically in-character. Man talked all about wanting to prove himself, had a grandiose title of 'Sorrowlord' and was looking to be both a physical and mental adversary after threatening to torment Fearne into becoming Exaltant by targeting her loved ones. But then when he is pit against Bells Hells he barely does a thing; he tries to talk his way into turning Fearne again, gets jumpscared by Ira, the 'farm girl' he mocked to Fearne commandeers his dragon, he loses a leg and is thrown off his dragon, and the Hells even opt to keep him alive for some reason in 107 before kinda accidentally offing him in 108.

He thought he was the shit, but enemies of true threat like Ludinus, Otohan and Liliana (a threat before she was turned) looked down on him, and thus his attempts to prove them wrong - while also falling into the same trap as Ashton's father in seeking out a personal destiny and being willing to see their child as a tool to do it - bore no fruit at all, he was practically an afterthought through and through, his dragon really being his entire threat level. In the end, he got killed running (well, hobbling) away, and while Gloamglut's keening was a little sad in a way that a pet cannot fathom the moral complexity of having to kill their owner he still had it coming, plus following his eternal torture in the Tiki Bar of Ligament Manor, the last sorrow he wrought was his own; he achieved nothing, everything he hints he did to get to his position was for naught, and for all the fear and danger he tried to make himself possess he truly had no power over anyone, especially not Fearne - who can only pity him and, as further proof of being better than he ever was, hope that he takes the time to reflect on his sorrows.

[flowersforvax]

Ashton to Chetney: as soon as you're asleep I'm gonna steal your sticks

Fearne as she's kissing Chet: steals his sticks

Ashton kissing Fearne: pickpocketing her and then gifting her the same spoon back and keeps kissing

and then Fearne putting the sticks back onto Chetney's chest as he sleeps

PICKPOCKETING IS THE CALLOWMOORE LOVE LANGUAGE AND I'M KEEPING THE CLOWN MAKE-UP ON

[forgetriestowrite]

petition for Abubakar to join the Travis Willingham Fanboy Club of Cool DM Things

[slayerscake]

Once again, shout out to Vax'ildan for taking no damage every time the party got hit by meteor swarm. (Like 3-4 times)

[beedreamscape]

As per the announcement

º The story will be set 100 years INTO the Calamity.

º The PCs will be six "divine figures" and the role they played in the downfall of Aeor

º The story has been stored in the Downfall relic

[astrid-beck]

Do you guys ever think about how Archmage Astrid probably inherited a class of volstrucker trainees. Like that program was alive and well when she took up her post and even if she wanted to change it eventually you cannot end a program like that overnight. You still have to look at a teenager with rocks in their arms and decide what to do with an abandoned science project soldier who doesn't even have the consolation of being finished or powerful or old enough to drink

[annemarieyeretzian]

sam is,,, writing,,, why is sam writing,,,

[pinkvaquita]

So... Is someone gonna do a fanfic or fanart using the concept of White Lily in a coffin and that cliché of the "True love kiss"?

Elderlily???? Purelily???? At this point I'm willing to accept that even Shadow Milk does it. BUT SOMEONE PLEASE DO IT FOR FUCKS SAKE.

[luckthebard]

I have no idea what corner of the fandom or discord this take emerged in, but the people with the same take all veering into "actually the other characters [read: Orym because Liam is an easy target for drastically misunderstanding his character work for whatever reason] need to ask Imogen permission to do anything because they might hurt her fee-fees" are tbh exhausting and doing Imogen as character, Laura as a player, and the concept of collective storytelling and conflict a massive disservice.

Like I'm sorry y'all don't think anyone but your faves should make decisions or have interiority and if they do they're "mean" or "manipulative" and I'm just so freaking tired of these myopic media takes that seem to stem from a weird aversion to have any kind of narrative tension.

[lazilybeinglassie]

I'm always happy to see Shadow Milk Cookie fan content of him being a manipulative bitch. It satisfies my soul to see him being such a horrible person cause that is exactly what he is.

@cuppajj is an example of this via their art of him. Highly check them out, their beast ancients AU is honestly giving me life! (very curious what the main story has in store)

@sunseed-fandump Literally created my favorite fanfic from the CRK fandom "Devil's Encore", which is a piece yall should read if you enjoy angst! It's not so much that I think fans don't do it a lot, I just think very few go to these extremes with him. I often see more of redemption art or ship fics with him more than content of him being a villain. Not hating on that, just not my cup of tea that much. There are more that usually do a good job with this representation, the two above are just some off the top of my head examples. Just feels like missed opportunities. Or maybe I should just get off my lazy ass and contribute my own stuff. Maybe make an AU to just have a blast with that.

[nanierose]

So there's this sentiment going around that Orym's nod to Laudna and the subsequent 'we're at war' comment is him taking his first steps toward vengeance. And on the one hand i understand why it could be read that way, but based on Orym as a character I just don't agree personally.

This is a man who wants to see the best in people, understand them and reach solutions that don't require violence. Early on in the campaign he got hit by an arrow and still tried to talk down the woman behind the crossbow. He stopped to stabilise an enemy that was taken down by his friends. But he also knows when violence and threats are necessary, see attacking Yu when they revealed themselves and threatened Fearne and her mother. Or forcing Dorian to let go of the Crown in EXU by promising he would attack him. He can be flexible when he needs to be, but when he makes a decision he sticks to it. Kind but with a core of steel beneath it.

So here we see a man who when faced with the woman who killed his husband and father didn't try to kill her. Didn't go into a blind rage and attack. He took in the situation around him and decided to go for the weapon on her back instead, because that would protect his friends and weaken her.

And now he has let one of his friends kill someone they trusted who turned out to be their enemy. Even knowing how similar their tragedies were, he knows he can't let Bor'Dor escape so he lets it happen. Because he's a soldier, trained to protect but also trained to use a sword. Trained to know when you need to use your sword and leave everything else behind.

Orym doesn't want vengeance, he wants to stop the pain he feels being inflicted on others. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone and sat on his own afterwards and struggled over how complicated everything is. Yes it will also lead to some closure for him knowing his family's murderers will be gone, it would be for anyone, but I truly believe that it isn't his main goal. Going to war explicitly shows that he sees this as being something beyond just his own grievances. He has been hurt by this group, and because of that he will never side with them and will fight them, but this is something that affects everyone, so he can't continue to use persuasion or stay his hand. It's time to use the sword, and pray it will be enough to stop Ludinus destroy the world.

[pocketgalaxies]

I feel like the breakneck pacing and more of a plot focus is a very intentional choice to separate this campaign from others (which I respect), especially because I feel like matt has been doing that slithers in the latest eps thing of interrupting conversations with a new problem more frequently in c3 (or maybe I'm just noticing it more?); and the thing is, I do think these things are interesting ways to drive tension and push characters to extremes, and can definitely work (in fact I think it has worked for stretches of this campaign in the past). However. I feel like we're missing some balance. It's been what, 20? 30? 4 hour episodes since the party had a meaningful conversation, which is such a long time. And I'm not trying to shit on matt or anything, I get what he's doing, but I feel like even the cast are maybe feeling like they're not being given the opportunity to stop and talk? idk it seems that lately every time they do 4sd or a panel or something there's a moment of being like "we haven't talked about this!!! we need to talk about this!!! but when??" you know. Of course I could be wildly off-base since I'm not them, but yeah.

yeah i get you!! i like that idea of pushing character to extremes but i agree i feel it's getting stretched a little too far at this point. we've passed go 5 times over for some of these characters with nothing to (externally) show for it

i think it's a perfect storm of matt imposing a certain amount of pressure on them + the cast responding to that pressure by wanting to move things forward quickly. because i do think when they take rests or travel distances, there is opportunity there to talk and matt provides uneventful stretches of time in most episodes. but i would imagine that the cast feels a need to bypass those opportunities because it will make things feel like they're moving quicker, even though in-game it's still the same 8-hour long rest or 1-hour short rest or whatever it is. i think i would def feel the same way so i most certainly am not blaming anyone, i'm just sad! i feel like things are getting lost!! even in this most recent ep, zhesh given time to work on all these random little upgrades for the party but not a single person asked to talk with another lmao. imogen asking how everyone is feeling in the ep before that and everyone ultimately just focusing on how to get that box open. it's just get the power-ups or the next lore drop and go go go. i'm fuckin exhausted

[yashley]

fearne watching the dragon fly towards imogen and laudna and her screaming "DADDY NO!!" and him slashing into them, saying "I don't need your influence on my daughter"??????? that's literally lesbianism................

[flowersforvax]

Scanlan: got fucked up by the realization that it matters now if he dies because he has a daughter who would care

FCG: got fucked up by the realization that they have a soul because that means it matters if he dies (and! how he lives!)