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captainsspnanon · 1 year

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C2E65 - Chases and Trees - rewatch

Columbo or Critical Role….Columbo or Critical Role…. I think Critical Role, tonight!

We got some more good travel coming our way, and then we head into one of the few dungeon crawls of the campaign. The crawls can be hit or miss with me, but I remember really enjoying this one a LOT, so I’m hoping it holds up on the second watch!

I forgot the nonsense that this DnD Beyond campaign turned into XD How many more bits of this do we have? I know we’ve at least got the reversal reveal that it was actually Sam, the master debater bit, and then the closing statements bit where Liam goes full movie-i-can’t-remember-the-name-of. Do we have more than those four? (not counting the results at the live show, and then the reveal of the actual ‘presidency’)

Aww, Ashley being “I’ll take first watch” and going like anybody? Anybody? Ready to RP please but I need someone to RP with!

Jester says maybe Yasha was a rock star during her memory loss!! How much longer til the bone harp? I feel like that’s AAAAGES away, but oh what a payoff to a throwaway bit! WAIT JESTER EVEN SUGGESTS THAT SHE PLAYED A HARP

Ugh, the details of the Fields are so visceral and beautiful, it feels so ALIVE and REAL. The creature scratching it’s back on one of the barbs, the dried out shell of the tortoise providing shelter and for them to explore, JUST SO GOOD. I am trying to be a bit analytical of why this feels more alive to me than stuff from C3 – even though C3 gets plenty of detail, and I’m honestly not sure? I know that Matt had collaborators in designing the continent for C3, maybe he feels more set by what was created by other and not as free to improv, whereas C2 he was basically the sole creator and thus could improv whatever he wanted? Because let’s be real, we’ve gotten plenty of lovely descriptions of stuff in C3, but I tend to find details slipping from my mind. Eh, it’s probably like Zadash. Zadash had a ton of stuff described at the beginning, but by the end of the campaign, Zadash was just the Gentleman’s and Pumat’s and that was it. (realistically, it’s probably also because I started with C2 so that will likely always be my favorite and my ‘best’, the same way that people who started with C1 tend to talk about how C2 wasn’t anywhere near as good, and people who are starting with C3 are talking about how C2 is so hard to get into XD. 90% + of the time, your first will be your favorite, IMO.)

(brain going brrrrrr….time to switch to columbo)

(it’s like two weeks later now. I can watch the first episode of season 4 of Columbo, or head into CR. Think I’m feeling CR today!)

(wait I’m less than 45 minutes into the episode, what. I thought I got further than this. Shame on me!)

It’s within the past few episodes that Jester has really started to notice and become disappointed with Nott’s frequent drinking. I believe it started when Nott felt she had to be drunk to confront Yeza, and has only steadily worsened from there. I like how Laura has taken this and progressed it very slowly, to reach a boiling point on this trip with her taking the flask. (I also appreciate that Laura mentions later in Talks that this is a very bad way to actually deal with alcoholism in real life, but this is a dnd game so bad decisions ahoy!)

I’m a bit sad I spoiled this fight for myself. I didn’t use the critrolestats heavily when I was first watching C2, so this time around I’ve been going through all the monster analysis and such. Which means that I will click forwards until I get to the next blog post relevant for the episode, skipping the media references/jokes as that’s not my particular interest. As such, I saw the post for the gloomstalker fight and literally went “don’t they just find the tree and the roc? What gloomstalkers?”. And now, here they are! Kicking myself just a bit as I genuinely would have been surprised when this occurred, especially as there is the tension of ‘you see a shape’, ‘you can tell the shape is the big creature, but lying down’, ‘the creature appears to be dead’, ‘there are dark blobs that are on the creature OH THEY’RE MOVING’ like – I would have completely fell for the tension! As I’m sure I did the first time I watched.

Fucking SAM. This giant goofball throwing out tactical plays when you least expect it! Oddly, the moment of having the illusory moorbounder and rider falling behind the group? It feels much more like Sam doing it than Nott doing it, to me. Perhaps this is a reason that I’ve struggled with Nott a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but she’s sort of the last on my list (excluding the Tealeafs), and I couldn’t figure out why. With this, I think I’ve got it now. When Nott does something clever such as this, I’ve been attributing it to Sam, rather than the PC. Travis does something clever? That was Fjord. Marisha putting pieces together? It’s Beau. Liam making big moves? Caleb has nerves of steel when he needs it! Sam making an awesome play? Good job, Sam. *shakes head at myself* THAT has been some damn stupid bias on my part, and I’m not even sure why I’ve done that! I need to readjust my thinking. NOTT is the one who made the illusion of the moorbounder. NOTT is the one who had the illusion fall behind, to distract the gloomstalkers. Not Sam, NOTT.

….I’m SO disappointed in myself that just that realization is having me go ‘oh wow, Nott is so much smarter than I gave her credit for!’ WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.

Okay, in at least some fairness to myself, this is actually a consistent struggle that I have with all of Sam’s PCs. Sam in some ways has the Dimension 20 style of play – improv comedian going for the joke no matter what. And while I am fully enjoying Dimension 20, I do not in any way get as invested in the PCs as I do with CR, and it’s because the players are always Visible. At CR, there are a lot of times where you actually forget you’re watching the players because the PCs take the forefront and it’s just like watching them as if they were in full costume and makeup – so to speak. In D20, the players are at the forefront with all the jokes and references (as well as their style of play and interactions with the DM and other players). (also let me be clear, this is not WRONG. It’s just different, I thoroughly enjoy both CR and D20!) Sam is frequently the member at the CR table where it feels like Sam is forefront, and his PC is less visible. I have this issue with Scanlan, with Tary, with Fresh Cut Grass, as well as with Nott. And it does mean that I give at least some of the PCs less credit than they deserve (Tary and Nott for the most part. Mainly because Scanlan IS a joke deliberately for the first chunk of C1.) I doubt this realization will change things overall for me, but hopefully now I can be aware of it more!

(last bit on this topic – but this also techincally plays along with the stats, with Nott currently having the second highest INT at the table until Beau gets her headband. Nott IS the second smartest, she just displays it in different ways than Beau and Caleb, and she’s also heavily self-deprecating and robs herself of a lot of her own talents)

I really enjoyed the first part of the combat being non-standard (I canNOT think of the word I want to use right now) with no rolling of initiative, but still respecting the essential balance of turns. Of course, there is something delightful with all three moorbounders failing their con saves, and then moving this into a more classical combat encounter.

This seems to be around the time where Matt has started using HDYWTDT more regularly, which I’m mixed feelings on. With the last battle and this, there were multiple assailants, and each one got the HDYWTDT. While I appreciate having the more detailed descriptions from the players knowing it’s the death blow, there still is something very exciting having the last (or the most important) opponent be the sole HDYWTDT in a combat. Even though the question serves the same purpose regardless of who it’s for (provide flavor for the finishing move), there’s the level of ‘yay killed the guy’ and ‘HOLY CRAP WE DID IT OMG WE WON’. That’s the downside of it become a catchprase of kinds, I guess. Instead of just being a utility statement, it becomes a Thing, and then when it’s used for it’s utility purposes, the Thing feels like it’s being cheapened.

Lol I like that it’s been so long, Liam/Caleb forgot he could cast dancing lights under a rag.

OH GOD THIS IS THE SILLY STRING!!!! in honor of liam and laura’s birthday – yup, that makes sense. Fricken chaos twins

I do like how they immediately call Travis out for being the first to fire, but we all know it’s Liam. Liam is pure chaos, but in just a different way that people tend not to think of him as chaos.

I feel like I eventually need to watch a supercut of all Essek moments, just because every time I hear Matt speak as Essek I always think it sounds wrong, which means that I don’t know what I even think Essek actually sounds like! Either way, I still wonder why Essek says that they’re doing him proud by making it to the Arbor Exemplar. It doesn’t seem to feel right, either with Essek deep in deception mode, or Essek slowly warming up to them. Perhaps just related to the fact that Essek told the Bright Queen that he trusts their capabilities, and the fact that they’ve made it there is proving him right.

Caleb asking Nott if she wants to sleep with vulture!Frumpkin tonight, my HEART. It really is quite obvious how Caleb shows affection through Frumpkin, and then every moment is just seeing it more clearly.

The beauty of the Wildmother reaching Fjord and saving him from the Uk’otoa dream is two-fold. Thee-fold. The first is just the imagery and knowledge that the Wildmother is reaching out to help Fjord, that she is giving him the opportunity to be better than he is and not feel the need to remain with Uk’otoa just for the powers he provides (or at least, the start of Fjord’s journey with this). The second is the rest of the cast reacting as Matt narrates. And the last is the beauty that you can only see with a rewatch after you’ve watched the Talks, where Travis says he though Matt was referring to Fjord’s mother rather than the Wildmother. Travis/Fjord’s face in this scene – the widening of his eyes, the slight hint of a smile – with that knowledge, adds a level of tenderness, longing, wistfulness…..just a soft subtle moment from a misunderstanding that genuinely leads to a much more beautiful moment.

Considering I had much more of a remembrance of a blow up in regards to Tori, I think I completely missed the aspect of this story going over Beau’s self-deprecation and lack of confidence. She really was so put down when she was with her family. She gets bailed out of jail, and because of that she thinks that Tori hates her forever, to the point where she’s reluctant/scared to try to find her again because she expects Tori to punch her in the face? For something that wasn’t in her control? Either Marisha discusses what she thinks would happen later on down the line, or my brain just added more into it – feelings about being a ‘rich kid’ able to be bailed out, the fact that Tori wasn’t bailed out as well, etc. etc. But in the end, in the truth, there’s a lot more assumptions of feelings by Beau than her taking the time to find out the true feelings that Tori may have had, which parallels quite nicely with Beau’s overall arc and character growth by the end of the campaign.

“I’ve seen you. I’ve seen you a lot.” OOOF. I thought this was from WAY later in the campaign, by around the time they were almost dating! This early?? And also, right before Obann takes her away??????? That is a sucker-punch to the GUT. And for Beau to hear that, and then less than a week later have Yasha ‘betray’ the group?? No wonder she got so defensive so quickly. UGH THESE TWO.

(for the record, Beau’s also in her Jester crush stage at the moment, and has been for a bit though I’m not sure where to pinpoint the start of it, but while it’s a fun pairing, it was never one that I really shipped. Mostly because Jester really has been so singularly focused on her interest in Fjord, but also because the Beau and Jester dynamic to me has always felt more of a fast bonding friendship – with the roommates and silly conversations and deep conversations and opening up your heart. If it had become the canon ship I wouldn’t have felt that it came out of nowhere, but I feel like it would have required a solid chunk of roleplay from Laura to smoothly transition from Fjord feels to Beau feels. With Beau and Yasha, yeah it’s awkward and stilted and uncomfortable at times, but it feels like there’s been mutual interest from the start, even if the interest was more shallow or superficial. Ashley did confirm in the wrap up that Yasha did go to brothels, so it’s not like she didn’t let herself have any interest outside Zuala, just that I think she shied away from any romantic interest for the longest time.)

Out of the 69 total recorded rolls for Frumpkin for perception on critrolestats, he averages either a 12.8 or a 13 depending on if I made a mistake in my calculation or not (there’s either 68 or 69 perception rolls and I can’t be assed to go through a second time). There are a lot of high rolls in there, but also a lot of low rolls. Still, it’s above average! I’m team Give Frumpkin Credit. XD

Beau running up this tree is so fucking badass I can’t even. I was shocked the first time I went into dnd forums and saw people shitting on monks and saying monks were bad because my experience of monks was BEAU BEING FUCKING AWESOME.

Honestly? This climbing section would be a great introductory scene for someone for either considering getting into critical role, or wondering what dnd can be like. You’ve got 1) showing off the skills of a class via Beau not needing to roll to run up the tree, 2) showing off the mechanics of the game by having Fjord and Jester roll, 3) showing off how failing the game can work by Jester falling on a nat 1, versus just clinging to the tree and not increasing on a 9, 4) showing off how you can play with a failure by Fjord using thunder step and Nott and Caleb using feather fall to save Jester from the nat 1, 5) showing off how roleplay is involved with Jester coming up with in game reasons for not being able to progress (her hands are sweaty because she fell, she’s nervous!), 6) showing off how the DM is in control but still will play by the rules, but can also change adjustments on the fly, and then 7) showing off how even if you’re not involved in the scene you can still have fun with Caleb making the decision afterwards to polymorph, and Caduceus reacting to each thunder step damaging the tree.

Liam’s eagle cry is reminding me of a flut-flut from jak and daxter. ...*goes to check voice credits* nope not him okay never mind

OMG when Beau jumps from the tree Marisha does the EXACT SAME ARM MOVEMENTS as the Keyleth cliffjump!!

I totally forgot that the actual roc was there because I only remember the bit about the roc baby, but now I’m vaguely remembering. Don’t they polymorph it and it keeps attacking Jester? Like as a baby bird or baby bat or something?

#critical role #the mighty nein #cr c2 rewatch #reminder that these posts may contain spoilers for all of C1 and C2

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