#anti critical role

[filmbro]

funnie how critrole has been milking bells hells for almost three years now and they're only on level 13 while they couldn't even give the mighty nein a proper ending

[kitchen-scamp-vibes]

What do you mean by "loosely" queer? I agree with you about Matt already having platform and not needing to be on d20, but feels kinda shitty to be like "these people are Real Queer and these people are Fake I mean Loosely Queer" ? like, I'm hoping I'm misunderstanding your meaning here but to say the regular cast on d20 like Ally Beardsley is "loosely" queer compared to who else d20 brings on is ? bad? Or to be like no I meant X from CR is the "not really queer" one is like also bad?

TLDR: I should have capitalized queer/Queer.

So firstly, I want to be clear that both this response and the OP are personal opinions/preferences, rather than say true fact, or something I think everyone should believe. Critical Role is not for me (yes I have tried) and I don't expect my feeling that way to change how someone who really likes that show feels and I'd hope the same would be true for the reverse (although prior experience would suggest otherwise). The same goes for my personal preferences as a queer person on what media I feel meets my standards for queer storytelling that I devote limited time and resources to.

That being said, my personal belief is that there is a difference between queer and Queer. I know that's not exclusive to me and there are smarter queer theorists than I who have discussed the topic but my personal bare bones is that one is merely a descriptor and the other is a political ideology or statement. It goes without saying that in a country that systemically hates most people, existing at all outside those boxes will get you some level of mistreatment and loss of privacy, but there are degrees to which that will impact a person based on how obviously they break those boundaries. This isn't to say that on an individual level anyone is more or less queer than someone else, but on a societal level one could be SEEN as more queer than the other based on a variety of factors. I'm not saying it's fair or that I agree it's the way the world SHOULD work, it's just is how it does right now and colors the conversation we are having.

To use some other celebrities as an example: Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Vico Ortiz, and Caitlyn Jenner might all be queer but I would only consider Vico Ortiz Queer, at this time (time and politics shift and there was a time where all of them have been more politically Queer but I'm speaking of their current existence). It might be a generational thing, but I have mixed feelings about trying to normalize gayness or queerness by making it look exactly like straightness except for two men or two women. It feels very "we're the safe gays" to me and while I again don't have an issue with that on an INDIVIDUAL level, I just prefer the personas I follow and media I consume to be doing a little more pushing back.

If I saw Liam O'Brien and Ally Beardsley both at Pride I wouldn't think "one of them has more of a right to be here than the other," they are both family on an individual level. I do think one of them has done more pushing back through the characters they create and the way they go through the world than the other. And when I'm criticizing companies and productions, that's what I'm talking about and focusing on. Dimension 20 has had a multitude of trans, ace, gay/lesbian, queer, etc. folks on their show and I'm not saying Critical Role hasn't done that at all, but they have done it significantly less and in a less successful way in my opinion. Again, I haven't watched any of their campaigns in full (I have tried all 3) but I remember when C2 ended there were fans pissed that Caleb and Essek "didn't end up together" and yet when I listened to that part of the episode it was clear to my ace ass that they were obviously in a partnership that fit their needs and was just as deep as it would have been if they had sex or kissed.

I know a lot of D20 fans are Intrepid Heroes/main season fans only but I personally tend to enjoy the Side Quests just as much, if not more. That means I've had a LOT of different casts and characters to enjoy, as well as DM/GMs, in a way that I wouldn't get from Critical Role, and thus more varied exposure to identities that are different from my own and each other. With the wealth of people I've gotten used to expecting (when will my wife, Jasmine Bhullar return from war?) I was disappointed to see that I was getting the most basic of mainstream people on the show I watch. Again, not to mention the racism and other grossness that CR has either condoned or enacted both on and off their shows, which was an equal part of my post that you chose to ignore. I'm not going to go into that on this response but V.J. Harris has a series plus other standalone videos on their tiktok about more of that stuff, if you are interested. He is by no means the only one who has spoken on this or made content about it but has been watching the show since the beginning and comes from an in-group POV which should be easier for the diehard Critters to handle. They are also concise while covering a broad range of events and incidents.

My final note, which is again a personal preference and not something I believe to be fact: just based off the energies of the recordings, I as a queer person feel safer with every D20 table/cast I've watched than I do the main CR group. That isn't based on a true belief, it's just the energy of their table puts me on edge. I'm sure they are decent people but they are just not for me and I prefer to spend my time and money elsewhere.

[lilithism1848]

[redditreceipts]

one of the most obviously paradoxical beauty standards is how women are expected to have a lot of hair and no hair at the same time. The same genetics that make it possible for Indian women to have very long, thick and shiny hair and perfect eyelashes and eyebrows, make them grow visible hair over their lips and on their legs. women who don't have that much hair on their body will also not be very hairy on their head, it's just logically impossible. And I've thought about that for a long time, until I understood: It's literally designed to be that way. you will never be enough the way you were born. you will always feel inferior and you will always pay to modify your body so you look like the impossible combination of full hair and no hair at the same time.

[tonysdumplings]

I swear if I see another "go play something else" person on my dash I will get violent because y'all are so fucking annoying, how about you get a life and stop telling people what to play, you high horse riding jobless elitists?

am I going to buy any WoTC resource? no, they can go fuck themselves. but you know there is an option of... not paying for shit? like not a single dime?

so stop hiding your annoying elitism behind being "anti-capitalist" and "anti-corporation". there are people literally sharing free resources on this hellsite. I run an entire game with none of my players owning a single official thing from WoTC, neither do I.

shut up <3

[soup-of-the-daisies]

“not shipping remus/sirius feels homophobic” you know what else feels homophobic? giving a feminine sirius traits like ‘hysterical’ and ‘drama queen’ and ‘slut’, and then shipping them with a masculine, calm, and logical remus. why are you applying misogynistic heteronormative roles to your mlm ship and calling not shipping them homophobic. it’s really giving the “so who wears the pants in the relationship” kind of homophobia we should’ve left behind years ago

[soath]

The thing about Bells Hells is that asking their opinion on anything is like setting up a political survey at a rave under a bridge or in some sort of especially niche genre specific goth club or backstage at an off-off Broadway conceptual show; you’re going to get really interesting answers! They are not going to be representative of the general population in the slightest. There is a faction of people who think we need to solve this by introducing one Designated Average Relationship With The Universe Dave to the polling sample, ruining their beautiful natural diversity of guys-who-could-be-in-the-musical-RENT. To which the wise man says: “Never!” This is the little freaks with half baked philosophies and unresolved personal issues party. More pressingly, it has been noted that Bells Hells doesn’t seem to realize that their relationship with power writ large is bafflingly different from the average Exandrian. This is an problem, but it’s one that could be in-character, one more extension of an admirable commitment to trauma-informed alarming theological opinions.

[amaltheas-garden]

hotd writers thought Rhaena's Vale plot was too boring for tv so they stole a black character's plotline to make a white character more interesting, and they thought we wouldn't notice because they made the Velaryons black in the show (and yes, Rhaena is still written as a white character because she is Valyrian, and the racially based discrimination and violence book Nettles faces has been erased) 🤡

[annemarieyeretzian]

orym, over and over and over again: “I’m not necessarily for or against the gods; I simply don’t want to bring an unknown entity, which causes Known death and destruction, to the whole world and to the moon (which is actually an entire planet with people living on it).” some people in this godsforsaken fandom with no media literacy: “orym is so selfish and stuck in his grief and that’s why he doesn’t want to get rid of the gods.”

[blackmosscupcakes]

This may genuinely be the most I've ever laughed at anything in my life. By the reaction to Matt's retelling I had tears streaming down my face. By the reaction to Liam's retelling I was gasping for breath. I have enjoyed Narrative Telephone so much. 😁

[utilitycaster]

The thing about the commands from the gods is that actually, neither makes what I'd consider a threat of retaliation:

The Changebringer: "Do not turn from this road, for only shadow and solitude awaits behind."

The Dawnfather: "Forsake these gifts, ignore our charge, and be abandoned."

(CritRoleStats' livetweets have the full text for each, for those without Twitch to verify)

To me, this doesn't sound like "do what I want or I'll leave you"; it's "fight this existential threat or I will literally no longer be able to grant you powers or answer your questions, if indeed there's enough of a world left for you to have survived to realize this."

[lilithism1848]

[radi-cali]

Stop raising your daughters to be damsels in distress.

It's the parent's fault for teaching her to prioritize her looks, putting her in sandals in the rain, and raising her different than your son.

RAISE YOUR DAUGHTERS AND SONS THE SAME. Gender roles start before conception when you choose to buy your female fetus bows and tell her as a newborn how pretty she is, versus buying your male fetus sensible shit like teething rings and telling him as a newborn how tough he is.

I'm sick of seeing girls call themselves princesses and being groomed to be pathetic and 100% dependent on males.

[chlorinatedpopsicle]

Thinkin' about how I was gifted one of those toy makeup sets when I was like 7-8 years old. I looked up "toy makeup playset" to try to find one similar to what I had.

Is it not viscerally disturbing that girls are marketed toys that perpetuate beauty industry propaganda when they're barely out of diapers? We're conditioned from day one to associate girlhood with cosmetics/makeup.

And yet, so many girls still want to pretend that their decision to wear makeup is definitely an empowering personal choice and not at all influenced by outside factors. :(

[jcat37]

For me, only three things really matter about the whole Laudna Orym confrontation.

1) Laudna got her news from Delilah and trusted that information, and didn't tell the others immediately that Delilah's voice is back and there is a new/old danger.

2.) Laudna hurt Orym and didn't apologize for it. She never said the words "I'm sorry", just kept saying it was an accident.

3.) laudna abused Orym's trust in her and never once thought any of the things that she purposefully did were harmful or wrong (stealing, blinding Orym temporarily, going behind the whole party's back, making a decision *for* everyone else).

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

When I see stuff like this I kinda want to bash my head into a wall:

To start off, I’m not sure whether this person was commenting on book or show Cersei, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter because she’s so much more than the ‘ambitious villain’ or the ‘murderous girlboss’ tropes in both the book and show.

(Of course, I do have my issues with the way Cersei was written in the show like most people but this is simply a rant post so I’m not going to go through the differences of Show vs Book Cersei)

Cersei is a female character who was shaped by her environment, who’s insecurities were created by her environment, and she’s a woman who’s idiotic mistakes can be traced back to how her environment shaped her. She’s much more than a murderous girlboss, she’s both a victim of the system and also a beneficiary of it, while also acting as an agent of it to keep the status quo while also desiring what the system denied her.

Cersei is NUANCED and complicated and even now people hate that about her and want her to have been a purely evil woman handcrafted in a vacuum, ignoring the context of her life because readers would rather not engage with Cersei’s victimhood and nuances because that ruins their idea of: She Was The Problem and Always The Problem. (People would rather say that she deserved her walk of shame instead of interacting meaningfully with the theme of systematic gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Cersei’s story. The exploration of patriarchal violence in Show Alicent’s story is done so horribly in comparison.)

And what really pissed me off about these tags is that this person has clearly decided that they don’t care to interact with the nuance of Cersei and are fine with flattening her, and yet they shit on others for not liking Alicent.

Because of the way Alicent is written in this show, she almost always has a ‘woe is me I can do no wrong’ attitude, which of course drives people away from the character (woe is me I deserve to take a child’s eye 🥺). However, what actually annoys me is how she’s made out to be stupid, foolish, ignorant, and inconsistent due to the horrible writing of this show, all of which are deviations from her book characterization. Also, I despise it when people want me to support writing decisions and changes made in adaptations that are downright misogynistic and are meant to attract the male gaze.

But what pisses many people, including myself, off is how the changes made negatively impacted many other characters. Alicent’s terrible characterization is like a black hole that distorts and warps the whole story! It’s annoying af!

So when people like this say: ‘She’s nuanced and people just can’t handle it 🙄;’ I say: No. She’s horribly written and a different character from the book and people have a right to be critical about these changes that stripped a female character of 1) her agency and 2) her intelligence!

And the thing is, there was little reason for the writers to have made all these changes to Alicent’s characterization! In the book she is an interesting character with clear motives and understandable reactions. She’s cunning and ambitious and acts the way a noble lady who became queen would. And despite her clear ambitions and dislike of Rhaenyra, she still makes a comment wondering about who would protect the Princess from Ser Criston, and yet she then takes Cole into her service after his falling out with Rhaenyra. That’s a perfect example of nuance! Show Alicent could never compare to book Alicent’s clear moral values and consistent disregard of said moral values in pursuit of power.

And because of this, Book Alicent isn’t easy to stomach. It’s hard for most people to come to terms with a character like her and it’s even harder for people to feel sympathetic for her at the end when she went mad with grief.

On the other hand, Show Alicent was designed in a way to garner pity, and when the writers felt like her current arc wouldn’t be enough to garner the specific reaction they wanted they would then throw in a time skip and suddenly she’s completely different and yet still Thee victim. She’s designed to be as sympathetic as fucking possible! The camera angles, the background music, and the lighting is set up in a way to make sure you the viewer feels pity or sympathy for her! Cause that’s her role in this series! She’s thee Ultimate Victim!

But too bad for the writers as many people are fed up with this kind of inconsistent writing. Even when the writers created a whole new challenge for Alicent where she’s shitted on by the green council and forced to face the beast she helped to raise, I and many others could never feel any satisfaction as it was clear that once again Alicent was being made to be Thee Ultimate Victim who was just led astray by the patriarchy and was a victim of it and was only just realizing it so don’t you pity her don’t you feel sad for her and now she’s trying to do the right thing so pls pls pls pity her 🥺~ So it shouldn’t be surprising that many people are annoyed by these eNLiGhtEnEd changes that have led to a complete deviation from the source material.

To summarize: Cersei is an excellent fucking character who’s by no means easy to stomach, and because she’s not easy to stomach she’s often reduced to annoying ass tropes by dumbasses who are reading above their comprehension level. But when you actually try to understand her, you can easily see why she turned out the way she did and you can feel sympathy for her while understanding that she’s both victim and perpetrator! On the other hand, Show Alicent is a mess and HOTD is trying to make her serve a different narrative role than she did in the books so ofc people are going to be unhappy with the changes as book readers are once again faced with the annoying reality that the writers don’t give a fuck about the source material.