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stomp-that-ho-regard · 3 years

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Needed to get this campaign wrap-up rant off my chest...

This is the specific part that irked me:

MATT: "While he never voiced this in game, Caleb's feelings for Jester have been an important part of his journey. Did he ever come close to confessing? How was playing such a long lasting, one-sided love after our last campaign's bittersweet ending for a Vax and Kiki?"

LIAM: I was never going to do romance of any kind, one-sided or otherwise in this campaign, because I felt like we really explored that pretty heavily campaign one. I think you'll remember Jester drove Caleb nuts at the beginning of the campaign, and so it was nothing that I ever expected at all. And then when they were in, was it Rexxentrum wherever the dance hall was. And I alluded to this earlier, dancing was never anything that I imagined for Caleb, but it was just like, and you were asking him to dance, Jester was asking him to dance. I was like, "Oh, this could be an interesting way to like sort of seed my story, that we're not really around yet." And there was something about, not the dancing, but the way that Jester treated him kindly after the fact like his response was to be like, "I'm going to go fucking vomit in a street, and just be by myself," and she wouldn't let it happen. And that was just like this first little moment where someone was like-- Everyone in the Nein-- I want to answer another question while I'm answering this. I wonder if we had gone that different direction that we talked about earlier where we didn't go crime, and we had gone into Rexxentrum earlier, and if Caleb had started interfacing with his past earlier, I think he would have had a gnarlier, more severe trajectory in this campaign. If he had touched his past sooner, it would have changed what he was, but he spent way too much with the Nein, for when we finally did catch up to them, it was too late, that he'd already been healed enough by the Nein, it didn't matter. And everyone in the Nein had an effect on Caleb, they all had their love like in different ways; Yasha, he could relate to. Caduceus was like a guru that confused but inspired. Fjord, who Caleb thought was real hot at the beginning of the campaign, was a great leader and, like, just I don't know, I feel like he was his closest friend, outside of Nott, early in the campaign. Beau brought tough love. Veth was this ultimate support no matter what happened. But what started to happen with Jester was that she was treating Caleb like the person-- She was treating him as if he was the person he should have been. Like none of it had happened. And he became like-- It just got in him, but he would have never wanted to saddle her with all his shit. And the difference, like-- There was also a point in the campaign where I could see, in Yasha's absence, Beauregard warming up to her, and I already quietly been thinking and going like, "Well, I'll just have this little thing that maybe fans will see," and some did early on, like it was silent. It was all silent. And then I was like, "Well, Travis is never going to do it." Oh, Travis just came online, so the entire side of the table quietly like, "Oh," at Jester for a while. But Caleb knew that Beau and Fjord would've been far better for her, because they would have put aside anything for Jester and made her their number one. And Caleb knew that, as much as she like changed him and helped him in a very specific way, and and he quietly fell in love with her and like a Jane Austen, I'm never going to say it. That he would never have set aside the things that he was trying to do. He would never have set aside trying to either get back to his parents and fix that. He would never set aside trying to undo the Cerberus Assembly if he were strong enough, so, like, that was too all-consuming, and so he would never wanted to saddle her with it, so it was always going to stay inside. And there were multiple times in the campaign where Jester teasingly needled Caleb, and I was terrified that you would say the word "Insight check," multiple times.

LAURA: I think I did it once.

LIAM: Well, you must have rolled really low when you did because I did my best to like pull faces at you, and poo poo it, and do something silly to dodge out of those situations.

LAURA: Are you secretly in love with me?

LIAM: And yeah, you said that, and I went like (blows raspberries) that's fucking ridiculous with my face, and we moved on. (laughter)

LAURA: It's so funny when you joke about the whole table being in love with Jester because Jester had, like, no concept of it at all. Her whole upbringing was everybody being in love with her mother, and her whole, and she knew she's so different from Marion, in her appearance, and the way she presents herself that-- To her, that is what people want, that's what everybody would be in love with. And so there was never-- She would never have thought in a million years that Beau would have been interested, or that Caleb would have been interested, or that Fjord would have been interested. She tried to be Marion and when she was coming on to him in the early campaign, and obviously, it did not work. So she was like, "Okay, then-- Nobody's-- That's not going to happen for me." So it just like turned off in her brain, like nobody will.

TRAVIS: There was a moment where that stopped, too, because like you doing the thing that you thought your mom did and that worked, you know, Fjord's like, "I've never been flirted with before, I don't know what this is. Stop doing it." All that behavior stopped, and you like let the happy Jester fall away. Like, I think it was on the sea, right, like with the jellyfish scene. And then it all happened.

MARISHA: That's when you started crying. There was a few times where there was these moments of Jester smiling, but tears were streaming down her face.

TRAVIS: Yeah.

MARISHA: Trying to be the happiest person in the room. And then, yeah. I don't know. Jester always had this, but I think why Jester is so enigmatic, and so easy fall in love with is because she is the purest person in the room, so that it invites this kind of--

LIAM: Which doesn't even mean innocent, it just means the purest person--

MARISHA: Pure, yeah. It's just very endearing and it got in the way-- and this is almost going to sound condescending-- but almost in the way that a child is where if a little girl runs up to you, and they're like, "Look at this card, I think I want to cover the whole thing in glitter." You kind of have no choice, but to be like, "Yeah, that's a great idea."

LAURA: Yeah.

MARISHA: Cover the whole thing, and like, even if it's bad. She felt like almost like the perfect exercise for "Yes, and-ing." Like, the concept of "Yes, and-ing," because half of them were terrible ideas, but you were like, "Yeah, brilliant."

LAURA: Also, I feel that people are drawn to somebody who sees the best in them, right? You're drawn to somebody that loves you, and she just has an unconditional love for like everybody--

LIAM: She changes everyone she meets, including a hag in a hut.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Yes.

Laura’s answer here is, for the most part, true. Jester was always pretty oblivious to people being into her. That was a pretty clear character trait. However, that still doesn't explain her roleplaying choices after Beau’s confession. And I wish someone was able to ask her about that and get a direct answer. Why was there a behavior shift? Was it just Laura trolling and teasing Marisha about it, or was Laura actually trying to force Beau to confess directly?

There was a pretty condescending post about this that I found in the discourse tag that said: I know it won't happen cause people never cared about what she says anyway, but Laura confirming again that Jester never knew about Caleb and Beau's feelings for her should be enough to stop the dumb takes like "bj was happening before the hiatus but then they decided to change it" or "Jester was falling in love with Caleb and she changed it" or whatever.

‘Laura confirming again’ Again? What other time has she said this?

‘Jester never knew about Caleb and Beau’s feelings’ Laura said that ‘She would never have thought in a million years that they would be interested’ and included Fjord in that section too, so whatever point this person’s trying to make is moot.

Countering that, I want to say, that nothing in Laura’s answer seemed to give the impression that Jester would have turned down Beau (or, hate to say it, even Caleb) had they actually confessed to her. There’s nothing in her answer to imply that Jester could not have reciprocated those feelings had she known. Nowhere did I get the implication that Jester was only ever interested in men and that Fjord was the only viable choice. (Laura still has not addressed Jester’s sexuality. FJ shippers love to ignore that, and still swear up and down that she’s straight.)

Now when Marisha piped in, she didn’t even focus on Beau’s feelings, and the depth of what she was feeling at the time. Instead, she’s wrote them off. Again. Intentionally minimizing and essentially doubling down on what was said in ep108. That it’s just so easy for anyone to fall for Jester, even going as far as calling her ‘pure’. Basically infantilizing her, by comparing her behavior to that of a child which yes, Marisha, does sound condescending. (You can add that to the list of ‘sparkles’ ‘confetti’ and ‘shiny’.) And that’s it. That’s the extent to which she talks about it.

Also, the fact that the Beaujester stuff was only brought up (very briefly and casually), as a sort of ‘b’ topic to WJ. Liam got to go off on this whole extremely long-winded reminiscing answer because he got a direct question about it. It’s like, “And none for Beaujester!” Once again, Caleb’s feelings being given more weight than Beau’s ever were.

So, another kick in the teeth. Not so much from Laura. But from Marisha. The person who MADE THE CHOICE to inject Beau developing feelings for Jester into the canon narrative. The way Marisha talks about it now, it’s just a complete mind fuck as to why she made the decision to have Beau confess at all. Why even open that door? Even if she felt, at the time, that Beau would feel this way, she could’ve just kept it to herself. And not made waves about it. And not doubled down on it the following week. And not had continued for at least THREE MONTHS after that to roleplay Beau STILL having obvious feelings for Jester. I mean, come the fuck on.

Look at ep93 with the Hag. When Jester was telling the group that she gave the Hag something she had never given anyone before. Beau frowned and said, “Did you kiss her?” Beau had it so bad she got jealous of the Hag. Jealous of a fucking monster. Then ep94. Beau wanted to climb a tree to get a better look at their surroundings. Out of the blue, Jester smacked Beau’s ass to give her Guidance. She shot up the tree like a rocket and Jester was impressed. Marisha had to make it a point to say, “She thinks it’s the Traveler. It’s just ‘cause Jester smacked my ass though. I’m just very invigorated by THAT.” And of course ep99, with the sunburn compliment.

Marisha was definitely keeping this thing going, all the way up until the hiatus.

So why the weird answers? Why the vagueness? Why does she seem so insistent on driving home to the viewers that Beau’s feelings were/are no big deal. Does she think that talking about Beau’s feelings to the fullest and reminiscing (like Liam did) on a few of their moments would be some sort of insult to BY?

I will never stop being baffled.

#op #campaign wrap up bullshit #long post

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utilitycaster · 4 years

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i know you've mentioned this somewhere before but what classes/subclasses would you like to see the cr crew playing in the future?

I haven’t actually, other than that it’s really hard to figure out classes for Marisha and Taliesin because they’re both I would say the most versatile and interested in pushing things to the absolute limit.

Things I took into consideration here:

Player preferences. People are allowed to have preferences for certain classes or mechanics and I want to honor that.

Party management; I don’t think they reveal classes to each other unless they share a session zero and/or are married to each other but I do think Matt takes the class balance into consideration.

Laura: Wild Magic Sorcerer. I am sure about very few things, but this is one. I think Laura in particular would do a great job with a class that would allow her to be a battle caster and I would argue is one of the harder ones to RP long-term and make sympathetic - Ally Beardsley and Bryn Monroe have both managed this, Matt obviously ran a great recurring NPC in Gilmore, and Calianna is a delight but also a short term character. Like, you’re charming and you wake up with effortless magic powers - how do you make this person interesting and complex? Anyway Laura would knock that out of the part. I also want to see her lean into the chaos but also have a little less control over it than she does as Jester.

Liam: Cleric; any subclass but I am particularly intrigued by either being a cleric of Erathis (GIVE ME THE ERATHIS LORE I DON’T KNOW WHY I WANT THIS BUT I DO) or the forge subclass (dwarven cleric of Moradin? also an opportunity for many dwarven forge jokes). Liam tends towards clerics and fighters in his one-shot characters and I would love to see him explore the cleric class in more depth.

Travis and Ashley are difficult because I want to see them both play bards, but for different reasons and also two bards seems like a lot (it’s kind of great in Fantasy High Live and I know that’s the premise of Sirens of the Realm but: it is a lot). So I’m giving you my bard option and back up for both:

Travis really likes melee and I don’t want to take that from him, but I’d love to see him play a more traditional casting class, and he’s got a musical background and can clearly do a great job with high charisma characters, so College of Swords or Valor seems like an obvious win. For a backup - Matt has drastically rewritten the Blood Hunter. Travis seems to really want to be a fucking werewolf. Song of the Lorelei was amazing but too short and pre-revamp of Blood Hunter so let him have another crack at the class.

Ashley mentioned she’s interested in the bard class and is very musical. I should note that I do not want to see Yasha as a bard multiclass, even if it were more feasible, and I love bards, but I think people can get hung up on musical instrument = bard when that’s explicitly not the case! You can just love music without tapping into the music of creation and I love seeing characters who have hobbies that aren’t their primary thing and that don’t do anything mechanically, because it makes them seem more real! You don’t need to turn all your passions into spell slots, or whatever. That said, campaign 3, absolutely. Any subclass; I think lore is classic for a reason but glamour would be a lot of fun to see too. For backup I think a rogue would be cool, perhaps either the inquisitive or mastermind - one of the ones who does a lot of work through talking and investigation and analysis.

Sam: I want to see Sam have little or no magic (he has always played a character with some arcane abilities but I don’t think he’s terribly invested in having arcane abilities; I think it just shook out that way) and be a tank. Battlemaster Fighter would be interesting and my first choice since we’ve only had a fairly nontraditional fighter build in Percy, plus Sam can be pretty strategic and I’d love to have that show up as part of his character.

Marisha: my main thing here is that I want her to play a character with no fucking wisdom. I mean Beau makes a decent number of poor decisions but just: Marisha make wisdom your dump stat. It’s hard to find something just because she’s so versatile and Keyleth could kind of play every core role (tank/melee, ranged/caster, support). I kind of want to see her play a paladin actually, if only because we haven’t seen Marisha play a high-charisma character beyond her brief foray into bard as Hazel nor have we seen her use a sword much nor have we seen her play a character who’s super invested in the gods or faith - Keyleth was explicitly “they exist but nature is better”, and Beau is technically in service to Ioun but doesn’t like, visit temples or pray regularly. Also, while I think a journey into a paladin role a la Vax and Fjord makes a lot of sense I kind of want to see what Marisha would do with someone who was a paladin from the start, since I love how she approaches characterization and backstory. As for subclass; either devotion or ancients, depending on a few potential future things that I’m not going to say for fear of tempting fate.

Taliesin: I think we all want to see a horizon walker ranger at some point, because it’s just such a cool and weird class, and I think it’s worth giving Taliesin a class often seen as underpowered to see what he does with it, since he is probably the best at min-maxing (in that he does it at all, and also that he does it in fascinating ways. Caduceus is a very strategically built character, and also an amazing character who does not come off as strategically built until you dig into it, vs. some min-maxed characters who are very clearly an unstoppable but boring force). Also, I think he will really lean into the planar weirdness in a cool way, and also I can’t get enough of Taliesin playing a weirdo who lives in the woods, or a ranged fighter, so why not combine them and add some super weird magic?

Also I should note: for balance reasons I have not included any warlock or wizard classes here since I’m already including both a bard and a sorcerer. That said, I love the arcane casters a whole lot, and I would be thrilled if anyone played a warlock or wizard again next campaign.

#critical role #Anonymous

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hamhamparadise · 5 years

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August 6th, Happy Birthday Hamtaro!

Hamtaro is our main protagonist of the show! Finally, it’s his time to shine!

Hamtaro is often referred to as a “golden hamster”, albeit his fur being cream-colored like pretty much all males in the series, and he sports an orange semi-circular stripe that runs around his forehead. He also has an orange spot in his butt and his back is orange up to the tail.

Hamtaro's personality is the embodiment of childish innocence, kindness and adventurous. He is also apparently oblivious to love matters, as he considers them “too complicated”. That, however, doesn't stop him from becoming a great friend to anyone that spends more than 2 minutes talking with him. Hamtaro likes to help his friends, and he is also a natural born leader, that all the Ham-Hams run to him to ask him for an opinion or decision on a subject. Hamtaro is also very dumb not only to love, but other stuff that should be quite obvious for many, but to be honest this is a common occurrence between all the Ham-Hams You could say many of them are just small furry 5 year olds though that might be a given due to the target audience. During the series he keeps growing up, if only subtle, and sometimes we can see an slightly annoyed or a blatantly angry Hamtaro, but these times are quite rare.

Hamtaro lives with his owner Laura Haruna, the human side protagonist of the series. He is a good friend to Brandy, the Haruna’s dog . The series starts when Hamtaro's family moves to a new town, and he goes out to explore. However, before that, he lived in Sumire Town together with Laura. Hamtaro is the only Ham-Ham of whom we know his parents are, more specifically his mother. He was born to Yuki, a white hamster that was a pet to a kindergarten in Sumire Town, which Laura attended.

However, and we won't go too deep on this, the Hamtaro manga originally gives a whole lot of different family trees for Hamtaro (there's 5 of them in different generations!). Hamtaro's Japanese name is Hamutaro-kun, which it's pretty much a direct translation. The “taro” part is a common suffix for boys names. For example think of Momotaro (Peach Boy). Hence, Hamtaro's translated name would be “Hamster Boy”.

In the Japanese dub, Hamtaro finishes most of his sentences with “nanoda” or “noda”. This is just a cute addition to his speech, emphasizing his childish portrayal as it is mostly used by kids. He also refers to himself as “boku”, which is mostly a young boy’s way of saying “I” or “myself”. Compare to Boss’ “Ore-sama” which is more smug and thinks very highly of himself.

Hamtaro's birthday is once again another Goroawase pun. Same reason as Cappy is the fact that the words for 8 and 6 can be read as “Hamu” or Ham. According to some interviews from Ritsuko Kawai, Hamtaro’s creator, Hamtaro's original birthday date before the anime started was July 24th! (That might be why Prince Bo’s birthday is that specific date now.)

Relationships

Hamtaro is an involuntary stud. For a guy that literally has no interest on love, he has quite a bunch of ladies after him.

Bijou, naturally, is the main one. Albeit Hamtaro only sees her as his “best friend”, multiple media and merchandise like to picture the two together, sometimes even in clearly couple situations, for obvious reasons, as they're both the main characters of the series. They interact in pretty much any episode, and they even have a “date episode”. However, Hamtaro is too dense and never really officially reciprocates Bijou's feelings. This is the most supported pairing from the fans, but sadly the series never offers a proper conclusion. There is, however, the third movie, in which Hamtaro appears to be really focused on his task to “retrieve” Bijou from the pirate gang. This can be interpreted as he being jealous, or he just being his usual goofy self of “don't be mean to my friends”.

Sparkle comes a close second. Although she was very abrasive to the Ham-Hams at first, in later episodes she develops both a crush on Hamtaro and a rivalry for Bijou, which given her straight-forward and fighting nature, makes her a quite obvious contender for the hamster’s heart.

Continuing on, and to far less degree, we have a whole array of secondary hamsters that one way or another fall in love with the hamster, but we won't get on much detail: Oshare, Bijou's French friend, apparently out of nowhere, develops a crush on Hamtaro that is not hard-pushed as she is only officially in love with him for one episode.

Lapis, although not ever really developed, is very close and friendly to Hamtaro, and that makes Sparkle put her under the radar of possible love rivals. The kiss she gives him in the cheek (which make him blush like crazy) doesn't help either.

Lazuli, Lapis' sister, also falls in the same category in early episodes, however she quickly leans towards Snoozer.

Barette, in her original episode, appears to be interested on Hamtaro, but that fades away later on.

Penelope, apparently, has a crush on Hamtaro, but we don't know if this is short lived or not. In the presentation audios and also in the Love Love Attack Plan song, as well as a bunch of episodes, it is implied that Penelope has a crush on Hamtaro. Given how easily she crushes on many other creatures, this might be just a phase.

And then, we have two other contestants, although these are up to debate as they were probably more meant as a joke than actual love interests:

Jingle, who apparently can't ever remember Hamtaro's name, is always around to offer his jammin’ support, and even take care of him when he was sick. He also pushes Hamtaro into becoming a wild hamster and travel with him a few times, so clearly has an interest in the golden boy.

Bo, who considers Hamtaro his best friend, clearly expects a lot from the boy and acts a little embarrassed and nervous about him. Their relation in the third OVA clearly shows there's something going on. Now, although I have been pointing out that Hamtaro clearly has no interest in love, this has two exceptions. Both are exclusive for movies, so it is debatable whether we should consider them canon or not since Hamtaro acts pretty ‘non-canon’ in these movies to be honest.

First, and this one is also featured in the series, is Laura. Mainly in the first movie (but also in later episodes), Hamtaro develops a clear crush on Laura. And we're not talking innocent “I love my owner”, he really loves Laura romantically. The whole plot of the first movie is how he wants to spend Laura's birthday with her and he is sad and jealous when she goes out with her friends, but specially freaks out when Kana mentions Travis. In the anime he also worries when Laura tells him she is going out on a “date”, and he stalks her to see with whom. We can discuss if this is some kind of innocent love, but it is undoubtedly romantic love.

Lastly, we have Hamtaro's only love for a same species critter: Princess Cye-Ra. In the second movie, Hamtaro falls in love the very same moment he sees Cye-Ra in the flesh for the first time. This is painfully clear as he gets awe struck and then nervous and blushy around her. Later on he gets a kiss from her on the cheek, and he pretty much freaks out and ponders why his heart is beating so fast. Later on, Cye-ra reunites with her fiance, and Hamtaro is truly devastated. But, to date, this is the only time Hamtaro has truly loved someone.

Episodes

Now, since pretty much all Hamtaro episodes focus on the boy one way or another, we will only highlight a few. Episode 1 – Hamtaro!

Naturally the first episode of the series is a very important one! Hamtaro gets to explore his new house and meets a few new friends!

Episode 24 – Hamtaro, please come home!

Hamtaro gets trapped in a box inside a truck that is going to some place far away! Laura and the Ham-Hams frantically look for him but will Hamtaro ever returned?

Episode 114 - Hamtaro, the Knight A typhoon blocks Laura's parents from getting home, so Laura and Hamtaro spend a scary night alone. Hamtaro decides to act as a Knight and protect Laura!

Episode 135 – Hamtaro gets Cold

Hamtaro overhears Laura wrong and thinks she doesn't like him anymore, so he goes on a journey with Jingle. But he catches a cold, and Jingle has to take care of him!

Episode 251 – Oh no, Hamtaro!

Hamtaro is stuck at Mindy's house after playing, and he has to return, but Boss decides to pretend to be him so Laura doesn’t get worried!

Episode 271 - Hamha-Man the Justice Hero

Hamtaro dreams that he is a Hero of Justice and have superpowers! Who will he fight?

Movie 1: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land!

It’s Laura's birthday, and he prepares a lot of gifts for her! However, Laura leaves with her friends, which makes him really sad. And a bit angry when he learns that Travis is there too. Later, the Ham-Hams learn of Ham-Ham Land, when there's a magical seed that allows a hamster to speak the human language! Hamtaro wants to use it to wish Laura a Happy Birthday!

OVA 1: 3000 Hammy Steps on Search of Mommy

It is Hamtaro's birthday and he decides to go search for his mother! She is apparently in a far away place, but his friends are there to help! Meanwhile, the Ham-Hams that are left preparing his birthday party!

Hamtaro's birthday is a very special day for everyone! Happy birthday!

#hamtaro #birthday #text #screenshot

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loquaciousquark · 5 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E56 (March 26, 2019)

Gooooood evening, everyone. @eponymous-rose is taking a well-deserved break, so I’m stepping in to ruin reputations and botch direct quotations all over the place. Here to give us the appropriate gravitas and fear for the evening is the Chamber of Chairs:

Tonight’s guests: Liam O’Brien & Marisha Ray. Dani flips Liam off to start the show and it’s pretty funny. “What did I doooo?”

Tonight’s announcements: Last night was the season finale of Between the Sheets, featuring Ashly Burch, who is shockingly short in person. The VOD’s up for subscribers now, and it’ll be posted on YT tomorrow for everyone else. The Ashley Johnson episode will be up soon! Yay! Remember, no new episode of CR this week, and no new episode of TM next Tuesday as a result. Normal CR broadcasting resumes April 4. The Kickstarter hit $8 million today. Liam: “Oh boy oh boy oh boy it’s fine it’s fine IT’S FINE.” The final goal is $8.8m with 23 days to go, and a behind-the-scenes filming of the theme song was posted today on the KS. The video’s actually pretty cool & features Ashley in a feather boa!

Anyway! Episode 56: The Favor

CR Stats! This was the shortest episode of this campaign at 2h19m15s of gameplay. Only Shopping and Shipping from C1 was shorter. This episode tied for the fewest spells cast in one episode (six) and all were cast by Caleb. Over the 44 episodes & 136 days the M9 had the dodecahedron, they gained 25 fragments of possibility and actually utilized 13.

Liam and Marisha talk about having a timer in the office: “It has been 27 days since the last Holy Fuck ending.”

None of them thought Matt was going to cut it off at that point, but when he explained he wanted Taliesin there for the next part, it made sense to all of them & they all agreed it was for the best.

Beau has four thousand thoughts racing through her head right now. One of them is excitement about getting to learn the Kryn more, but she’s also terrified. Henry interrupts with the most adorable baying howl and he walks offstage. What a good pupper.

Liam describes the moment as everyone frozen in amber as they wait for the next episode. Beau will figure out something to her advantage between now and then.

Marisha likens this moment to the Emon attack and the Lorenzo fight with Molly in terms of emotional shock. Brian remembers Sam was in a tux that night; Marisha: “I knew it was going to be a funeral tux.”

There’s another question about how Marisha/Beau feels about the dodeca handoff, and both Liam and Marisha start laughing about how this entire TM episode is just going to be about the ramifications of Caleb’s decision. Liam: “No regrets,” but he understands there’s going to be a lot of fallout. They talk about how the ramifications will depend on how public the Krynn make their gift: will it be parades in the streets, a handshake and dismissal from a private room, etc? What if there was a Dairon-type spy in the room who’ll tell people they don’t want to know about their actions? They’re eager and afraid to see the fallout.

Brian points out everyone could see on Travis’s face he would rather have gone to jail, but further discussion is derailed by questions.

The group had discussed the possibility of handing off the dodecahedron in the past, but he hadn’t considered ever handing it off until the last sixty seconds when “everything was going to shit. It was more mathematical than anything. It felt a lot like Avantika. We’ve got a plan, the plan’s broken, but we can get away, no, we can’t get away, now this is changing--I don’t want someone outside our group to control the situation if I can act first, if I can punch first. Everyone’s trying to negotiate and it’s failing, I don’t want to give up this thing either, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, here’s--this.” Caleb wanted to save the group. He wouldn’t have taken the gamble even two minutes earlier. Then, suddenly as it began to work, he & Caleb began realizing that not only did it work, but it worked very well and now his brain had split into two: “oh, thank God, I care about these people, I can save them,” and “how do I use this to my advantage.”

Caleb was quiet through most of this episode because he really wanted to discuss several things in private with other group members--that’s what he was thinking about for most of this.

Dani points out everyone expected physical travel between this fight & the audience with the queen where there would be downtime to discuss things. None of them expected immediate teleportation.

If Beau had been in a position to stop Caleb from giving up the beacon, she would not have stopped him.

Beau was wincing as Nott & Jester asked questions they should have already known the answers to. Liam points out it’s the war room in Dr. Strangelove--only the most powerful people would have been there. Beau dislikes authority but doesn’t think she’s stupid enough to have gotten herself seen as an obvious traitor.

Everyone revels in Matt’s Caduceus impression.

GIF of the Week: Liam pulling the dodeca out of the haversack by Will D. Brian singsongs “Travis is tilted~, Travis is tilted, look at his face~” over the GIF playing. Haaaaaahaha, poor Travis.

Liam: “I think I’m just in the shithouse.” Marisha: “You blew the shit whistle.”

Brief hilarious aside where they discuss Tetanus Terry (ft. on Travis Willingham’s YeeHaw Game Ranch) & Caleb Widogast getting fully replaced by Terry as a backup character if he gets assassinated.

On a scale of 1-10, Beau is following Dairon’s advice to a 7. She’s trying not to get attached, not to die, to listen, to not get impatient, to not be biased. She’s probably going to get closer to people than Dairon would suggest, but thinks she’s trying pretty hard.

It wasn’t cathartic for Caleb to renounce the Empire like this. His parents were very pro-Empire, and now that he’s on this journey to atone for his parents’ deaths, he’s done exactly the last thing his parents ever, ever wanted him to do--walked into the heart of the enemy and gave them everything they wanted. (Brian, Liam, & Dani briefly rag on Tumblr still having faint life somewhere. “Female-presenting nipples” comes up. It’s funny and also very sad.)

Brian discusses how it’s a big moment, but it’s not a victory for the group. Caleb was just shooting for a short-term immediate solution. Marisha: “It feels like a sitcom bait-and-switch. Nah, it’s cool, guys, we’re gonna pretend to be waiters and we’ll sneak into the kitchen,” but then they sneak into the kitchen and the cook laughs that the sous-chef is out today, and “now we’re in over our heads!”

Brian reveals dramatically that last night he came out as a supporter of Liam for President of D&D Beyond. Liam: “Beneath all the chicanery & hair product, there is common sense."

Liam & Marisha talk about the difference between Nott/Caleb’s original first podunk jail and this potential maximum security prison.

Caleb imagined the BDSM straps over his shirt and coat. Apparently most of the fanart generated this week has failed to include them.

Both Marisha & Liam VEHEMENTLY agree they hated not being able to be main parts of the Brightqueen talks. They also talk about how they both are far better at CHA than Nott & Jester, though they point out in fairness that Matt’s told them he always adjusts the social DCs based on the arguments they make.

As far as the slavery part of the disguise, Marisha: “Marisha has laughed at every piece of fanart. Beau was surprised. Beau’s gonna have a talk.” She (Beau) felt they had discussed the costumes, the pretense--but not the bullying & active degradation her group put her through. It was huge, an eye-opening moment for Beau in a way she (Beau & Marisha) absolutely did not expect. She never thought they would abuse their status over her in that way.

They discuss how on a meta sense, they all knew that the scene was just Travis and Laura trolling them and having fun at their expense, but at the same time it’s still happening in game and will have in-game consequences. Marisha: “It’s like at a party where your good friend starts getting a little too drunk and starts making fun of you a little too much--it’s a little too real.”

That said, one of Marisha’s favorite fanarts from this week was Beau (as a table) swearing under her breath at Jester with her feet up. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.

Fanart of the Week: The Brightqueen by Nikki Dawes.

Beau does not feel she’s betrayed anyone by being present at this event. She knows where her allegiances lie, so just because this happened doesn’t mean it’s changed anything about what she believes. That said, she has no love for the Empire. She’s very personal with whom she cares about. She doesn’t have as much obvious disdain as Caleb does--she’s just more indifferent.

Caleb has a high CHA that he just doesn’t use anymore, because the people he knew with high CHA that used it did so to do bad things. Liam thinks when Caleb was young he was very gifted, charming, and attracted people to him; now it’s all gone. He can hold it together like a sandcastle by the tide for an hour, but in the end it always washes away.

On Nott speaking for the group: Marisha always likes hearing Sam talk. In some ways Marisha felt it was the same thing she used to get for Keyleth-- "why are you talking? You shouldn’t be talking. You shouldn’t be the talker.” Everyone should have their own voice, regardless of the scores on the page. “Your stats are there to influence the effects of what happens; they’re not the Bible. They’re not law.” She reminds us Vex once entered an arm-wrestling contest with a strength of 7.

How does Beau feel now that Caleb’s made another huge decision without consulting the rest of the M9 (i.e. Bowlgate)? It’ll play out in game. It’s a big deal. Liam admits he loves it. “The whole point is conflict resolution, so you need conflict.” He loves things like this, like the Astrid letter, because it opens opportunities to explore characters. In some ways it’s the same thing: they were in an impossible situation and Caleb sees it as protecting his friends, but that’s not how it read to anyone else. Marisha points out that once again he made himself the authority to make this huge decision without discussing it with anyone else in the group.

Marisha and Liam start talking about the decision more, decide it should wait for the game, but then keep talking despite themselves. Marisha points out that on top of his (once-again) unilateral decision, his speech was also framed selfishly (”I did this thing, I brought this back to you,”). To her, it still feels like the same thing with Caleb deciding things with major consequences for the rest of the group without their input, though she admits it’s colored by their (Beau’s & Caleb’s) history. Liam talks about how in the moment he was scared of deception checks, so he just tried to be as truthful as possible--nothing he said was false because he was only speaking for himself. He could not have spoken for the group & still been truthful. It’s a really interesting dichotomous discussion, both of them talking about what they felt in the moment versus how it came across to everyone else.

Liam feels it’s more like seeing someone dying in front of them & wasting time discussing whether they should do CPR or not, rather than him making decisions for the whole group. Marisha’s face obviously disagrees (so do I, ahaha). Liam also thought they were going to continue the episode & talk more, which would have kept it from being as much about him. This is gonna be super interesting when it actually plays out, for sure.

Once again, no new CR this Thursday or TM next Tuesday. Most of the rest of the programming will stay the same. This Tuesday’s Mame Drop will feature Max James of CR production fame.

We end on this eldritch horror:

"Weuuuh, Caleb knows best! Caleb will make the decisions for all of us in this D&D game!”

Aaand we’re out. Stay turnt.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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eponymous-rose · 6 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E38 (October 16, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Sam Riegel and Taliesin Jaffe (and, as always, Dani Carr and... Tiny Corner Max?)!

Announcements:

The latest episode of Between the Sheets, featuring Daytime Emmy Award-Winning Sam Riegel (TM), aired last night and will be available on YouTube tomorrow morning. Sam: “I feel like this channel is mostly just you and me talking?” Brian: “Are you saying that everyone else is just riding our coattails?” Taliesin: “He’s also saying that you look a lot like Liam at this point, and he can’t tell the difference.”

Another episode of All Work No Play will debut this Friday on the Critical Role Twitch (uploaded to YouTube on Sunday). In this episode, Sam and Liam do yoga... with goats. TJ Storm and Travis Willingham guest star!

Next week the cast will be at London MCM! Taliesin: “I’m packing slightly more tweed.” Brian: “Gettin’ tweedy with it.”

There’s a new (harp music) Laura Bailey emote on the CR Twitch for subscribers.

@critrolestats for this week’s episode:

The M9 hit 150 natural ones in this episode. Number 150 was Jester’s acrobatics check to get away from the yuan-ti abomination.

Jester also set the record for the most natural ones in a single episode: 5. The previous record of 4 was held by Nott and Beau. Brian: “You guys remember these are not still going to charity, right?” Sam and Taliesin: “What?”

Taliesin was the one who helped Momlan glue on her elf ears. Taliesin: “I would be very nervous if my mom were going out there.” Brian: “Well, she’s got hundreds of years of secrets on you.” Taliesin: “Mom of the damned.”

Cad’s definitely been upset about being around undead; Taliesin’s rolled a few times to see if there’ll be a worse freak-out, but there hasn’t been one so far. “The notion is that there’s a direction things are supposed to move, and [undead] is something moving against the grain in an intense way. What’s the point of having an imaginary organized religion of any kind if you can’t have something they’re fundamentally against?”

Nott’s extremely far from her comfort zone right now, being outside the Empire, working for a captain on the sea who’s threatened their lives: “There’s snakes and lizards and... wouldn’t you drink, dude?!”

Given how much he’s been getting the shit kicked out of him lately, is there a breaking point for Cad? “Probably. I haven’t really finished nailing him down emotionally yet. I genuinely don’t know what zen people do when everything goes to shit.” Jester’s speech genuinely comforted him a lot. “Apparently Laura knew what to say.” Sam notes that the party hasn’t really had a chance to sit down and ask him questions about himself so far. Taliesin mentions that Cad’s been ordering drinks but hasn’t actually been drinking.

Nott’s fallen into the role of the mom friend mainly because nobody else has (everyone agrees that Caduceus is more of “a wise pothead”). Brian: “Everyone seems to have so much baggage right now. Half the people seem focused on just holding it together, the other half are focused on the mission.” Dani: “Somebody has to be the level-headed one.” Sam: “And why can’t that leveling force come from a three-and-a-half-foot insane goblin alcoholic?”

Once Caduceus levels out (he’s still a little shell-shocked), he’s going to realize that he’s surrounded by “unhealthy lunatics” and will want to do something about that.

Sam’s done some research about chemistry (although he wants to make more of a cheat sheet after Travis’ experience with sailing), knowing it might come up with Nott’s alchemy knowledge. Taliesin is trying to learn more of what Sam terms “that fungus shit”. Also tea, and zen. Sam: “I was thinking you should go to a morgue and see how bodies decompose.” Taliesin: “Oh, I have some experience in that.”

(don’t worry; it’s just some friends in forensic anthropology)

Gif of the Week: Taliesin casts Detect DM Shenanigans.

“There was a certain order to the universe that he has come to expect, and it has been thrown into great disarray.” Cad was expecting the Epic Quest to save his home, but he wasn’t expecting the Mighty Nein. He’s mainly staying because of what Jester said about not necessarily needing to understand what’s happening right now. “He’s confused and trying his best to just let things happen, because that’s how the Wildmother works.”

Nott’s been surprised by some of the Mighty Nein’s actions, but so far she knows it’s out of necessity. She doesn’t view the incident on the docks as quite as bad as some of the others did---it was chaotic and based in self-preservation rather than actively causing harm. “But some of the other actions lately have been surprising to her.” Sam points out that she and Caleb did a lot of things to survive, and that she still steals a lot, and reminds everyone that she lives in a very morally grey area. She’s not thinking of leaving at this point, and all the high-stakes trauma has brought her closer to the group. “It’s a fucked-up dysfunctional family, but it’s starting to look a little bit like a family to her.”

Taliesin and Sam are both enjoying being moral compasses of the party this campaign, in major contrast to the previous campaign. Brian: “You were a teenage asshole. You were a teenage dirtbag.” Taliesin: “It’s so weird. I love it.” Sam: “Oh man. We’d better step up our game. If we’re the moral compasses...” Taliesin: “We’re like Cracker Jack compasses, we almost point north.”

Cad’s got a lot of abilities he just doesn’t use very often. “He knows that some of it is... rude? Death cleric, man, they’ve got some insane shit.” Cad doesn’t have the same opinions on life and death as most people. Brian: “How surprising.”

Taliesin is having “a ton of fun” playing Caduceus. “I love Molly... and the character. Too easy.” No, but seriously: “I loved playing Molly, but the nice thing I got to do with Caduceus that I didn’t get to do with Molly is we had an established group and I got to create a character that was useful to the dynamic both mathematically and emotionally.”

Sam: “Wait, is it twitch.tv or twitch.com? Oh my god, I’ve been putting the wrong links on my Twitter for like a year.”

Cad was very selective about who he told about Jamedi, and purposely didn’t tell Nott because he knew she’d tell others. Sam, trying to keep a straight face: “Nott’s nothing if not trustworthy.” He’s more surprised that Caduceus has figured that out already, given how little he knows about Nott. “Maybe it speaks less to Nott and more to Caduceus being judgey...” Taliesin clarifies that it wasn’t so much that Nott was untrustworthy, it was more than Nott couldn’t keep a secret. Sam, as a player, was shocked that the rest of the party didn’t instantly tell everyone that “we are being led through the jungle by a dead guy.” Taliesin points out that with two clerics (Brian: “well, a cleric and a battle Mercy”), they literally have a button they can push to make him go away if they need to.

Sam: “It seems like Fjord’s going into a real bad place without any information, and Nott’s there to support and make sure he doesn’t die, but it seems like a bad idea.” Taliesin: “This seems like a test of one’s soul, and Caduceus is on board but aware that this could go badly.” Taliesin also points out that the rest of the group isn’t aware of the creepiest stuff going on because they weren’t there for it.

Fanart of the Week: the group (sans Jester and Caduceus) inside Leomund’s Tiny Hut!

Taliesin got recognized in public, and the fan immediately called out the two clerics for going off on their own in the middle of the night. Taliesin: “It was a good burn.”

Caduceus had some experience with fights pre-M9 (grave robbers, wildlife). Taliesin: “Have you ever seen Cemetery Man? Shit gets weird!”

There’s a brief interlude while everyone arranges a movie night. As you do.

Has Nott been feeling protective toward members of the Nein other than Caleb? Fjord is probably the next-likely candidate, followed by possibly Yasha. Sam: “Caduceus is just too tall.” Taliesin: “I feel that.”

Taliesin describes Lesser Restoration as “the aspirin of D&D”. He’s done some healing of illness before, but this has just been a bad time. Sam points out that in the last campaign they didn’t really have to deal with disease so much. “I assume it’s Bird Flu.”

Scanlan stealing the gun was messing with both Taliesin and Percy. Nott is interested in the mechanics of the gun, interested in the chemistry of gunpowder, and has already designed and manufactured one explosive arrow as a result. “But Nott has also noticed that there’s people with guns wherever they keep going, and it might be a good idea to have a gun. It’s a self-preservation thing. If that also happens to mess with Taliesin Jaffe, I’m not going to say no to that. I mean, the heart does what the heart does. If that happens as a result, we’ve all grown as people.”

They realize there’s about a four-foot height difference between Caduceus and Nott. Taliesin: “He squats.” Dani: “He’s got killer calves.”

Caduceus is very, very good at reading people. Nott doesn’t lie because of goblin upbringing, but more out of her travels with Caleb and having her first impulse to be to get out of any situation by lying to stall/delay/confuse.

Taliesin: “Why lie to a plant?”

There’s a brief interlude about telling your plants inappropriate bodily measurements. As you... do? Brian: “I’m calling an Uber right now. I’m sorry. I’m done.”

Taliesin is collecting spells based mainly on what he can guess might be helpful. He doesn’t need a lot of damage-dealing, so focuses more on deflecting and healing. He’s picked out some feats he’s interested in to make Caduceus less likely to take damage. “That’s been a problem. I don’t like being hit.”

It is pointed out that all of Sam’s characters in the campaigns have had high intelligence and low wisdom. “That’s a pretty great winning combo for comedy.”

Legends of the Hidden Talks Machina:

Overwatch mains? Sam: “What’s a main?” Taliesin: “It’s like Quidditch...”

Taliesin is a support main, especially Zenyatta and Brigitte.

Brian is a D.Va main (woo!) and also plays a lot of Orisa.

Look, I gotta cheer on anyone who also mains D.Va. Those are the rules.

They agree that watching Sam play as Hanzo would be funny, but decide Roadhog would be the best. Sam: “Yeah. It’s Hog Noon. Is that what he says?” Brian: “Yep.”

What’s Matt’s character name? Sam: “Tyrone McCabe.” Brian: “It’s close!”

Ghost stories? Taliesin: “I’ve been ghosted.” Sam: “I saw some raccoons in my backyard?” Taliesin: “I got attacked by a skunk when I was in my hot tub.”

Taliesin: “Now I’ve seen a ghost.” Past and present combine:

Taliesin has a 1930s stripey swimsuit, because of course he does.

What (harp music)-style sound cues would they have? Taliesin: The sound of building a temple in the original Warcraft. Sam: An... explosion? Brian: The sound of my mom’s tears because he never became a doctor. Taliesin: “I was thinking the Golden Girls intro.”

Goth advice for the week, courtesy of Taliesin: Best style eyeliner is eyeliner on day 2. Put on the eyeliner before the shower. Know if your choker’s loadbearing.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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queerdilf · 6 years

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My own speculation, subject to change in the future, from left to right:

1. Travis- Tiefling Warlock- Everyone is saying this is Tal, and while that’s totally plausible, I actually stand by the fact that this is Travis. I was also briefly thinking this was Sam in an attempt to have him playing a more serious character, but more on that later. I don’t think Tal would play a tiefling in this campaign, they’re generally too edgy, and Tal said he wanted to try something new. Travis on the other hand, totally wants to play a smart character, that’s just a fact. First off, tieflings automatically get a few cantrips, so already he’s handling spells which is different than before, and since I’m pretty sure that baby’s a warlock or paladin, I’m more tempted to go with warlock because I can see Travis playing an almost Percy-esque character this time around, an egg head with issues, which hypes me up.

2. Marisha- Human Monk- My first reaction to this was Laura, honestly, cuz I felt Laura trying a more physical class would be a cool change and also I wanted to see her taking on a Ray from Star Wars type character, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it was that this is actually Marisha. Marish is a very “Let’s fuckin’ go!” type player, quick to action, excitable and powerful. I think monk would be super cool to see Marisha explore. I myself am not very familiar with monk mechanics, as my least favorite of the classes, but I love the idea of Marisha playing this rough and tumble, knock me down get back up again type character, and I also like the idea of Marisha playing a semi religious character. I also bounced Ashley around in this spot because of reasons I’ll get to later.

3. Sam- Human Fighter- Okay, when thinking about this one, I at first was approaching this like Sam was making the character, and I thought he’d want to maybe play something a little more serious, and I automatically went to the tiefling on the far left. Then, people began saying he was the small one, which also makes sense, he likes being small, but then I remembered a crucial detail. Sam isn’t making the character, Liam is. I actually saw a post on here, I cannot take credit for this viewpoint, but I don’t remember who gave me the idea, but it said that since last time Liam gave Sam the “lamest” combo, this time around, its likely he’ll try to theme it like that again and give him the most “boring” combo. It seems everyone and their mother is playing a human fighter and it would be interesting to see what Sam does with something so generic. Could also be a paladin or half- orc (cuz its mega tall and idk I could just also see paladin), but then that doesn’t really support the “boring” theory.

4. Liam- Human Bard- First things first, I automatically thought Liam when I came to this one, the outline looks so much like him in my opinion, but I’ll break down better reasoning for this one. First, evidence for the bard, you can see the tip of an instrument sticking out from the person’s back, and the boots just remind me of a bard. Now, I also think this is Liam for a better reason. I personally think Liam just wants to play something light and funny. No Raven Queen, no impending time clock, just song parodies and dick jokes. Also, I think since he told Sam to play a bard, he wants to give it a try now. Could also be a half- orc, giving another look at the ear areas, but that I feel is unlikely. As someone who plays a human bard, I’m obviously super excited for this one, oh my gosh I’m shaking just thinking about it.

5. Taliesin- Kobold Rogue- This one actually has some good reasoning behind it. Taliesin has gone on record saying he wants to play something totally different this time around, and I think this would be a really cool combo in order to do so. Taliesin also stated in the PAX Unplugged interview that his character would be the most likely to use the cantrip “massage”, which I feel just fits for this little monster type character. The other option for race is halfling, but I feel like Tal of all people would probably be the one to just play the out there member of this party, I feel like he’ll continue to play with races or classes outside the core PHB and try something weird and see what happens. (Also, I’ve been imagining him playing a small, weasely rat of a character for months now and it’s all I want)

6. Laura- Tiefling Cleric- So first off, Laura had talked about wanting to play a cleric before, which is mega exciting, because I honestly think she’ll make such a good healer, she has such good group instincts. This character is like a weird mix of Zhara and Lyra and I really am excited for her design. I remember Laura absolutely falling in love with Zhara and tieflings, so I can see her using one now, and I feel like Laura’s Kobalds and Catacombs character was a bit of a trial run for this one’s personality. I like the idea of this character being like a “you are more than your blood” type character and totally defying all tiefling stereotypes and becoming a sweetie pie cleric

7. Ashley- Elf Barbarian- I’ve been bouncing back and forth on this one all night, and I’m still not totally 100% on this one, but hear me out. For player, it could be any of the girls. St first I felt Marisha cuz it looked vaguely like her and I had this idea of her playing a caster to say "Fuck you" to all her haters, however you'll see in a moment why I changed who was playing this character once I changed my idea of which class the character was. For race, it could really be anything, I just feel like she has an elven body type. For class, it could also be anything. I at first was bouncing around some kind of caster, then someone brought up barbarian, druid and ranger came up, necromancer was the one I found super likely, but the one I’m going with is barbarian for one reason. Ashley always wanted Pike to be physically stronger. This is the reason I actually toyed around with Ash being the monk for a little while, because she always wanted Pike to be physically strong. She was always saying she wanted Pike to be a “monstah”, and now she gets the chance to be.

Sidenote: This actually was taking into account that some of the cast may play other genders, I just matched the characters with what I felt best fit and it just so happened all the characters seem to present themselves in correspondence with the stereotypical body language of the gender said players identify as. Trust me, I play guys all the time in dnd, I totally understand playing as other genders, I just feel these fit the best for each person.

Thanks to @lupinsfurrylittleproblem for helping me talk through this list!

#critical role #new campaign #geek and sundry #speculation #cr

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 26 August 2019

Quick Bits:

Absolute Carnage #2 expands a bit further as Eddie and Peter regroup after getting their butts kicked. The story’s still a bit of chaos as the sparks are lit and it works to reference bits and pieces of the broader story across all of the tie-ins, but this remains visually stunning. The art from Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, and Frank Martin is worth it alone.

| Published by Marvel

Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1 looks to be doing a bit of the heavy lifting on Carnage’s side of the story, continuing on from the Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage one-shot, delving into what Carnage is doing at the Ravencroft Institute and his followers. Great start from Frank Tieri, Flaviano, Federico Blee, and Joe Caramagna.

| Published by Marvel

Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1 expands on what we see of this confrontation in Absolute Carnage #2 from Saladin Ahmed, Federico Vicentini, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. In terms of the overlap between the two books, it doesn’t actually line up the same entirely, but it’s still interesting, building too off of Miles’ interaction with Knull way back in the early issues of Venom.

| Published by Marvel

Action Comics #1014 is an intriguing story from Brian Michael Bendis, Szymon Kudranski, Brad Anderson, and Rob Leigh. While the Leviathan search and bits and pieces with Thorn and Red Cloud occur in the background, the thrust of this one is Marisol Leone introducing herself to the Daily Planet and inquiring how much money they need to operate at full efficiency. Very different premise than you would have thought from the head of a criminal organization who bought a newspaper. It makes you wonder what her long game is.

| Published by DC Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #28 concludes the arc with the Sinister Syndicate and Boomerang, showing just how messy the interconnections between Spider-Man’s life is right now. Very nice art from Kev Walker, John Dell, Laura Martin, and Andrew Crossley.

| Published by Marvel

Angel #4 is another highly impressive issue in what has been an excellent reinterpretation of the Angel characters and concepts from the beginning by Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Roman Titov, and Ed Dukeshire. Very interesting hint at the Darkness behind everything and the drive for Angel to form his own team, while protecting Buffy.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Ascender #5 concludes the first arc, with a pretty harrowing confrontation between Andy & co. and a number of the vampires’ agents on Sampson. Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen, and Steve Wands do a great job of setting a catalyst to change the status quo here and add another level of tension.

| Published by Image

Avengers #23 continues “Challenge of the Ghost Riders”. The art from Stefano Caselli and Jason Keith is gorgeous, especially the fiery landscapes and colours of hell. It’s kind of weird that this series is still working through supernatural influences, characters, and locales, but it definitely makes this for a different kind of Avengers story.

| Published by Marvel

Batgirl #38 is another great issue from the new creative team of Cecil Castellucci, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Jordie Bellaire, and AndWorld Design. They’re building on what came before from Mairghread Scott and Paul Pelletier’s run, with the supporting cast, politics, and conflict with the Terrible Trio, but there’s a new verve to Babs’ character, a DIY attitude as she scrapes the bottom of the barrel just to continue her superhero career. It’s different, accentuated by very beautiful artwork from Di Giandomenico and Bellaire.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman/Superman #1 is kind of terrifying as Joshua Williamson, David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez, and John J. Hill unleash the next stage of The Batman Who Laughs’ plan as Batman and Superman are forced to question who has been infected by the insane Batman’s toxin. There are some truly gruesome bits here, especially as we learn how the Batman Who Laughs took out his world’s Justice League, so go in with a strong stomach. Great art here from Marquez and Sanchez.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Panther #15 finally gets T’Challa back home to Earth. It’s not necessarily the homecoming you’d have expected, as he’s conflicted with memories of his life in the Intergalactic Empire and his past. Beautiful artwork from Daniel Acuña.

| Published by Marvel

Black Science #42 is part one of the two-part finale for the series from Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dinisio, and Rus Wooton. It’s fairly epic. It continues to play into the conflict between Kadir and Grant, spotlighting two different possibilities: defiance or submission. We’re not entirely sure which choice Grant actually made, which makes this more interesting.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen Ones #1 is a one shot with three stories telling tales of various Slayers through history. The lead from Mairghread Scott, Ornella Savarese, Wesllei Manoel, and Jim Campbell pulls double duty of not only introducing Sunnydale’s first Slayer, but also as to why the Hellmouth was fixed to the town. It’s rather good, with the added conflict of what humanity has done to itself, even without vampires in the mix. The other two stories are shorter, somewhat whimsical in art style, but still wonderfully told by Celia Lowenthal and Alexa Sharpe respectively.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Captain America #13 gives us the first part of “The Legend of Steve” as Jason Masters and Sean Izaakse join Ta-Nehisi Coates, Matt Milla, and Joe Caramagna to provide the line art. This is an interesting start, melding some real life politics of the southern US border with Steve’s current conflicts.

| Published by Marvel

Detective Comics #1010 continues the rather compelling tale of Deadshot, Batman, and a plane full of billionaire crash survivors on a desert island. Peter J. Tomasi, Christian Duce, David Baron, and Rob Leigh weave humour and action throughout the story, including a rather interesting aside with a pair of World War II pilots who’ve been surviving on this island since before the war ended.

| Published by DC Comics

Dial H for Hero #6 proves that Joe Quinones is one of the best artists in the business. Again. Quinones, Scott Hanna, and Jordan Gibson weave through multiple different styles as a plague of superheroes erupts in Metropolis, complete with shifts to different formats, in this incredible tale.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Doctor Mirage #1 upends the status quo in this excellent debut from Magdalene Visaggio, Nick Robles, Jordie Bellaire, and Dave Sharpe. There’s some early Vertigo vibes here in the story’s tone and atmosphere, especially from the gorgeous artwork from Robles and Bellaire. Particularly when it comes to the eye effects. There’s something spooky and seemingly nefarious going on here, which makes it all the more compelling.

| Published by Valiant

Doctor Strange #18 is a very entertaining one shot from Mark Waid, Jesús Saiz, and Cory Petit. A rather brusque, rude Strange invades a family’s home in the middle of nowhere in search of an invasive demon. It’s a nice change of pace from the longer arcs.

| Published by Marvel

The Flash #77 continues two main threads; Captain Cold continuing to gather his Rogues and Flash reuniting with the other new Forces users to try to outrun the Black Flash. It’s interesting, picking up the various threads that Joshua Williamson has been weaving for some time now into a wider tapestry. Nice artwork from Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, and Tomeu Morey.

| Published by DC Comics

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11 is another gorgeous one shot from Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Travis Lanham delving into the character traits that really define Peter’s supporting cast, in this case an adventure of the “Friendly Neighborhood Mary Jane”. Wonderful funny bits here.

| Published by Marvel

GI Joe: A Real American Hero #266 begins “Snake Hunt” as Cobra Commander tries to do reconnaissance on Throwdown, hoping to kidnap him and brainwash him to Cobra’s side. Interesting set up here.

| Published by IDW

Ice Cream Man #14 is another highly inventive issue, spotlighting a man who has lost himself in crossword puzzles, ignoring his life, wife, and pretty much everything else following a tragedy. W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon are consistently delivering intriguing horror with this series.

| Published by Image

Justice League #30 kicks off the “Justice/Doom War” from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, and Tom Napolitano. It posits a bleak future where Luthor and Perpetua win, leaving the universe Doomed, causing even more complications when the Justice League attempt to prevent this horrible future. It does lead to some very intriguing returns to the main DC Universe, though.

| Published by DC Comics

Justice League Dark #14 is part one of “The Witching War” from James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martínez Bueno, Raul Fernandez, Adriano Lucas, and Rob Leigh. It’s interesting to see the other side of the coin here as the darker, villainous forces of the DC Universe gather to wage war on Wonder Woman’s team. Gorgeous artwork as always from Martínez Bueno, Fernandez, and Lucas.

| Published by DC Comics

Killers #2 adds a few more members of the Britain’s ninja programme to the mix as we get further details on what the Jonin wants and pieces of why they’re being attacked in the open. From the one arc in Ninja-K, I was under the impression that most of Colin King’s predecessors were dead, but apparently that really isn’t the case. Still, it’s an intriguing story, and the action art from Fernando Dagnino and José Villarrubia is beautiful.

| Published by Valiant

Knights Temporal #2 builds nicely off of that impressive first issue, going deeper into August trying to find out more about himself while being pressured to move forward by Jane. There’s definitely more going on than what we’re being let in on and it’s an intriguing mystery. Cullen Bunn, Fran Galán, and Dave Sharpe have something interesting here.

| Published by AfterShock

Mall #1 is a very impressive debut from Michael Moreci, Gary Dauberman, Zak Hartong, Addison Duke, and Jim Campbell. It’s a post-apocalypse thriller set within a mall that has seemingly withstood the brunt of the destruction of the world. This first issue sets up a bunch of gangs and cultists running this society and a mystery of who killed the top dog. Great art from Hartong and Duke.

| Published by Vault

Manor Black #2 is quite possibly even better than the first issue. Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, and Tyler Crook are delivering a story here that is rich in mystery as we still don’t really know what Ari or the wild magicians’ deals are, and it just seems like their existence is throwing the town into a tailspin. The character moments here are wonderful and haunting. And the artwork from Tyler Crook...next level.

| Published by Dark Horse

Martian Manhunter #8 reveals a lot of Diane’s past and her history with the real John Jones in one of the most impressive character-driven issues to date. Steve Orlando, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, and AndWorld Design continue to deliver an incredible story here.

| Published by DC Comics

Marvel Monsters #1 is an interesting one shot. There is a framing story featuring Kid Kaiju from Cullen Bunn, Scott Hepburn, Israel Silva, and Travis Lanham that’s entertaining, introducing a new villain, but you’re really going to be wanting to pick this up for the art pieces. There’s a murderers’ row of artists doing splash pages of the monsters and cross-section pages from Superlog and Gaigan-Yamazaki. It’s amazing.

| Published by Marvel

The Necromancer’s Map #1 is the follow-up to the very excellent Songs for the Dead series from last year by Andrea Fort, Michael Christopher Heron, Sam Beck, Ellie Wright, and AndWorld Design. Though I highly advise reading the first series, both for enjoyment and background, you can technically dive into this one and still be brought mainly up to speed. It’s a wonderful magical fantasy and this opening chapter goes into a number of mysteries, in the titular map, in the sickness afflicting one of few people that might be able to help with the map, and in Bethany’s raised and bitter friend/protector/minion, Elissar’s, past.

| Published by Vault

Power Pack: Grow Up #1 is another of the 80th anniversary specials, this one reuniting the original Power Pack team of Louise Simonson and June Brigham, with the creative team rounded out by Roy Richardson, Tamra Bonvillain, and Joe Caramagna, as well as a back-up illustrated by Gurihiru. This is definitely one of my favourite so far, capturing the feel of the old stories perfectly, while still telling an entertaining story for modern audiences.

| Published by Marvel

Resonant #2 is another winner for Vault. The artwork alone from Alejandro Aragon and Jason Wordie is worth giving this a look alone. Really neat layouts, panel transitions, and character designs. But also as a whole with David Andry and Deron Bennett, they’re crafting some unique world-building across this horror landscape that really sets this apart from your usual post-apocalypse.

| Published by Vault

RWBY #1 begins a new digital-first series based on Rooster Teeth’s animated web series franchise of the same name, from Marguerite Bennett, Mirka Andolfo, Arif Prianto, and Gabriela Downie. I’ve never watched any of the series, but this is still entertaining. This first issue gives us the backstory of the world and the lives of Ruby’s original team of Huntresses. I get the impression that I’d get more out of it if I had a grounding in the series beforehand, but I quite like the effort to fill in the blanks. Also, the artwork from Andolfo and Prianto is gorgeous.

| Published by DC Comics

Sera & The Royal Stars #2 delivers immensely on the promise of the first issue, richly unfolding the fantastical lore here of Parsa’s mythology, especially as aspected through its zodiac, and on the continued familial conflict between Sera’s side of the family and her uncle. Jon Tsuei, Audrey Mok, Raul Angulo, and Jim Campbell are telling a very fine fantasy story here.

| Published by Vault

She-Hulk Annual #1 has some wonderful artwork from Andy MacDonald and Matt Milla, with some very neat panels, layouts, and compositions. The story itself is also fairly entertaining, with some nice funny moments, as Jennifer Walters gets zapped into a robot body while Bullseye runs around with hers.

| Published by Marvel

Spider-Man: Life Story #6 concludes what has been a very interesting look at Spider-Man through the lens of aging normally across time from Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy, Frank D’Armata, and Travis Lanham. It’s been interesting seeing the different elements of the Spider-Man mythos remixed and reinterpreted in this fashion, entertaining along the way.

| Published by Marvel

Star Pig #2 is more odd fun from Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston, Sebastian Cheng, and Shawn Lee. Some interesting humour as Vess learns that Earth culture seems to have permeated throughout much of the galaxy, and that creepy spore creatures enjoy collecting human artifacts.

| Published by IDW

Star Trek: Year Five #5 begins the next “episode” in the series, from Jody Houser, Silvia Califano, Thomas Deer, and Neil Uyetake. After investigating a long dead ancient civilization, communication breakdowns begin to occur aboard the ship, with some interesting and combative results.

| Published by IDW

Star Wars: Age of Resistance - General Hux #1 shines a spotlight on one of the new era’s antagonists, with Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Cory Hamscher, Guru-eFX, and Travis Lanham providing insight into Hux’s past. Some very dark humour in this one.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Poe Dameron #1 gives us a tale of Poe before the Resistance was fully a thing, giving us a look at life under the New Republic. Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas, Guru-eFX, and Travis Lanham craft an interesting story here, establishing both a wider plot, and a more succinct tale as Poe learns some manoeuvres.

| Published by Marvel

Stranger Things: Six #4 concludes this mini focusing on the experiments prior to the first season from Jody Houser, Edgar Salazar, Keith Champagne, Marissa Louise, and Nate Piekos. It’s been interesting seeing the kids prior to Eleven and really just how evil Brenner and co. are. Some interesting twists too.

| Published by Dark Horse

Superman #14 begins the “Conclusion” to the House of El portion of the Unity Saga arc that has been running since the series began. Great art from Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, and Alex Sinclair. And a very welcome return of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

| Published by DC Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #97 turns up the heat on “City at War”. This is a rough one as Karai’s forces press their advantage on Splinter and we get further hints as to how far Karai has really fallen. Great art from Michael Dialynas and Ronda Pattison.

| Published by IDW

Test #3 gets weirder. Yeah. I didn’t think that was possible either. The reality being lain out here from Christopher Sebela, Jen Hickman, Harry Saxon, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou is layered, like peeling away at an onion, but we’re never quite sure what actually lays underneath and why any of this is happening.

| Published by Vault

Thanos #5 sets up a very intriguing reveal as to who Gamora has been telling this story to in the penultimate chapter from Tini Howard, Ariel Olivetti, Antonio Fabela, and Joe Caramagna. It makes you kind of reexamine the rest of the narrative, making you wonder what Gamora is really getting at other than just relaying her early years with Thanos.

| Published by Marvel

Thor #16 brings this volume to a close as Jason Aaron, Mike Del Mundo, Marco D’Alfonso, and Joe Sabino deliver a story that’s essentially a coda to War of the Realms and a summation of much of the seven years of Aaron’s time writing, giving a look to the possible immediate future of the present, before heading off to the forthcoming four-part finale of King Thor in the far-flung future.

| Published by Marvel

Tommy Gun Wizards #1 is built on a great premise of infusing magic into Prohibition era Chicago, setting wizards into Eliot Ness and his Untouchables’ war against Al Capone. It works even better in execution as Christian Ward, Sami Kavelä, Dee Cunniffe, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou bring it to life. Incredible period designs from Kavelä.

| Published by Dark Horse

Venom #17 elaborates on the Maker and Dylan portion of the story hinted at in Absolute Carnage #2, as they’re attacked by the new family of Life Foundation symbiotes from Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety, from Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Rain Beredo, and Clayton Cowles. It is interesting as to how interconnected these stories are. Unlike many other events, you kind of have to read all of these.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #77 begins “Loveless” from G. Willow Wilson, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau. If follows up on Aphrodite’s death as Wonder Woman darts off to confront Cheetah. There are some shenanigans going on, so the set up is not as straightforward as you’d think.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Bone Parish #12, Books of Magic #11, DuckTales: Silence & Science #1, Fantastic Four: 4 Yancy Street #1, Fight Club 3 #8, Freedom Fighters #8, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, House of X #3, Immortal Hulk: Director’s Cut #2, Invader Zim #46, Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica #4, Just Beyond: The Scare School, Lumberjanes #65, Marvel Team-Up #5, Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter #5, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #42, Mountainhead #1, Planet of the Nerds #5, Red Sonja & Vampirella meet Betty & Veronica #4, Rick & Morty #53, Runaways #24, She Said Destroy #4, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge #5, TMNT: Shredder in Hell #4, TMNT: Urban Legends #16

Recommended Collections: Age of X-Man: The Amazing Nightcrawler, Age of X-Man: X-Tremists, Barbarella/Dejah Thoris, Captain Marvel - Volume 1: Re-Entry, Doctor Who: The Thirteen Doctor - Volume 2, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Sierra Muerte, The Girl in the Bay, Heathen - Volume 2, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal - Volume 2, Oberon - Volume 1, Orion - Book 2, Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions, The War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery, Wolverine: Infinity Watch

d. emerson eddy knows the way to San José. But it’s full of sharks.

#This Week in Comics

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loquaciousquark · 5 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E42 (November 20, 2018)

Dani was actually goofing around quite a bit here, but this still makes me think of some glorious 90s band, so I’m keeping it.

Anyway! The inimitable @eponymous-rose has done more than her share of recaps lately, so here I am picking up where I’ve been slacking off. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey (with special guest appearance from Ronin! Awwww), so I can hardly wait. We’re discussing Episode 42: A Hole in the Plan.

Tonight’s announcements: Brian is bursting with an announcement he’s not allowed to reveal for another six months. His favorite guess: something about him stealing all the money from the company and moving to an island, but that’s actually his long game, not the short one.

Throughout November, they’re raising money for Operation Supply Drop, Travis’s favorite charity, which supports both active and retired military.

No episode of Critical Role this week due to Thanksgiving. There will also be no episode of Talks Machina next Tuesday; instead, they’ll be airing Sam’s Fireside Chat! This was a reward from the Critter donations to the Pablove Foundation.

Critical Role hoodies are back in the store; the print is very similar to the original with a bit more embellishment on the text on the back.

“Honey Heist 3: Tova’s Honies” airs this Friday at 7pm Pacific! Marisha: “It was bear-nanas.” Laura: “Oh, no.”

CR Stats: Jester has cast Blessing of the Trickster 31 times; 15 of those times were on Nott. Jester technically won her bar brawl with Sorris! She dealt 16 points of damage to his 15. Beau continues to have the most natural 20s with 49. She also has the most natural 1s, womp womp. Marisha: “Well, I roll a lot, you know?” Brian: “Well, your husband is also a tyrant and not to be messed with.” Marisha says she thinks Gil’s die is cursed and everyone gasps. How dare.

Does Brian feel the pressure of following Dani, who was such an excellent host last week? No; when he went through the potential list of fill-ins, the only one that made sense was Dani.

Marisha sees Darktow as a super-abusive socialist society, which does not sit well with Beau. It’s a silk trap.

Jester’s conversation with Caleb was triggered by Fjord’s kiss, especially with her wondering if it really meant anything to either of them. Laura thinks of her high school crushes and how hard you crushed & how devastated you were at every perceived slight; Jester only has the view of romance through her mother, which means physical affection is very different from emotional affection in her mind. On Brian’s asking, Laura’s high school crush was Han Solo. When Laura’s sister was 12, she paid her $15 to paint Han and Leia in a dip kiss, which she still has framed in her current house. I’m dying, this is adorable.

Beau doesn’t exactly trust that Fjord is going to do the right thing, but him sleeping with Avantika doesn’t trigger her red flags in terms of “looking out for each other, keeping each other in check.” She’s looking more for them bullying someone when they don’t need to, being violent when it’s not necessary. “Pursuing power to endless depths and fucking hot pirates, that’s fine with Beau. She just doesn’t want to kill children.” Brian marvels at how this fits into Jester & Caleb’s conversation about killing people from the most recent episode.

Jester can tell Caleb is tortured, and more than anything she wants people not to be sad around her. She just wants desperately for him to be happy.

Marisha has thought a ton about what Beau would have said if Jester had come to her first about the kiss, especially since it was Jester’s first kiss (Marisha assumes, and Jester answers in an adorably non-committal not-not-a-negative). Beau would have been game for it. She doesn’t know if Beau would have given good advice, but she would have tried her best.

Brian spills that Mary’s character’s CHA in their home game is 6. They discuss Nott’s score of 5 and enjoy themselves mightily at both of their expenses.

GIF of the Week! By @ropadoper, it’s Liam casting Reduce and then the Wall of Fire at the end of the episode, both of which involve Marisha falling out of her chair to the floor in reaction so that only her forehead is visible. Everyone is being so cute this episode I can hardly stand it.

As a reminder, an international shipping facility has been created in the UK. Laura asides to tell Travis the keys are in the diaper bag. Literally everyone is in the studio tonight except Sam, EVEN ASHLEY.

Jester thinks the Traveler always gives very good advice, but his suggestion to trick Fjord was the first time ever she felt a little hesitation to follow his advice. Brian: “Is that because he’s never been wrong or because she’s never been allowed to disagree?” Laura says it’s always been amazing advice so far, much more a best-friend relationship, but this was the first time she didn’t want to take his suggestion wholesale because she wasn’t sure it’s how she wanted to get Fjord to like her. Marisha really likes the dynamic of finding out your childhood best friend is a god.

Beau finds herself still being careful with her walls--Marisha imagines Beau was put in a lot of, like, pageant dresses as a kid--so when Jester commented on her hair and then laughed, she felt a little of that “wait, what, do you actually care? Do I look like shit?” Laura says she laughed, not Jester, because it was the most random thing to compliment Beau on.

Beau’s haircut came into being because it was cool & because Marisha wishes she were brave enough to try an undercut.

Brian’s convinced Fjord’s got gills. Dani: “What do you think Fjord is?” Brian: “Obviously a water man. Water genasi. What are water genasi?”

Beau wasn’t surprised Allison rejected her; she’s used to it. Ack. She was looking for an ally against Avantika, Big Brother style. “Instead she just shat in an alleyway with Nott.”

Laura’s not perturbed the Traveler hasn’t mentioned Fjord’s god; he doesn’t really talk about/care about other gods or patrons. Brian suggests he’s actually the Dongfather in disguise. This show’s collective mental age is smaller than Pike, haha.

Beau felt like such an interloper when Sam asked her to help with Fluffernutter, like the best friend trying to be in on a joke without really knowing what’s going on. Marisha also takes a moment to praise Laura for her Jester over the last few episodes; she’s digging into the metaphorical popcorn every time Jester & Nott start going off. (Me too, bud.) Jester’s description of the insect carrying a piece of bread is one of her favorite D&D moments ever. Both Marisha & Laura are agog at how many little plans they’ve tried have gone disastrous and then circled back around to being mostly okay again.

Beau was a little hurt when she wasn’t asked to help break into the captain’s quarters, since that’s her specialty, but it was eased by being able to help with her knowledge anyway. However, she knew since she didn’t have any magic, she had no escape plan aside from jumping off the boat. She laughs that that’s what they ended up doing anyway.

Jester views sex as a transaction, which is why she’s not particularly bothered by Fjord sleeping with Avantika.

Fanart of the Week: @jdillustrates, with a lovely portrait of Caduceus.

Jester’s warring between the logical part of her brain (he was saving her life) and the romantic part of her brain (did he want to kiss me, though?).

There are reasons Beau learned Deep Speech--not as complicated as most people think--that will be revealed eventually. “Nerdy reasons, not because she was kidnapped and turned into a cultist.”

Fjord/Avantika does make her jealous, but it’s also serving a purpose. Laura compares it to telling the high school crush to go hang out with a best friend, only to have them start dating.

Marisha doesn’t feel like Beau’s plans were overly shot down this episode--it’s something she hadn’t even noticed until this question. Marisha feels like it’s so much of a group effort with everyone trying to get to the right plan that it’s hard to pick out who contributed what part of which plan.

Brief interlude to examine a portrait of Brian that looks like George Michael.

In re: the Molly disguise: Beau felt like there was just a wall of regret walking towards her, because it was the friend she let die and the one-night stand. Beau never felt it was actually Molly, though. Jester picked Molly because when Nott said “Keg,” she instantly associated it with “someone who is really cool--who’s also super cool?” Everyone commiserates over how into the night’s shenanigans Molly would have been.

Beau was frustrated while being detained, but she also knew it was going to happen, so it wasn’t a huge issue. She felt like that was where the challenge began for her--anything to get the guard away from what was going on.

Another brief interlude where everyone experiments with how to make power vaginas with their hands. “This is the car salesman power vagina.” I feel like wherever the rails are for this show, they’re so far gone they might as well be little stars in the sky.

Laura thinks Jester’s reaction to Caleb’s backstory would be much different than Caleb imagines it. Both Laura & Marisha talk about how Caleb’s convinced the moment people realize, they’re gone; there’s also the complication that Beau’s “comforting” is not actually that comforting. “She’d say, ‘you know, they won’t care,’” (which Marisha points out, Caleb would respond--how could someone not care about this?) when what she means is, “They love you and won’t abandon you over this.”

Laura and Marisha are both pumped about Caleb’s Wall of Fire--the walk to the dock was like “getting called to the principal’s office, except the principal is going to kill you.” Laura’s immediate reaction was regret she’d tossed the gems, but she loved his decision since she was panicking IRL & her heart was legit pounding. They also both get super enthusiastic bashing Nott’s plan to dump the haversack in an alley. “It’s bright pink! Someone would have definitely seen it!”

Marisha really misses Professor Thaddeus, but is convinced she’ll never see him again. Dani: “He’s your Nymeria, your Arya.” Marisha, tearfully: “He’s gonna come with his flock of owls and gouge out everyone’s eyes but ours.”

Laura’s convinced Sprinkle is magic, since he definitely should be dead twice over.

Quebec is for Lovers: After Dark edition

Neither Laura nor Marisha are cooking this year. Laura & Travis have no Thanksgiving plans at all this year. My gosh, if they were here my parents would be stuffing them full of turkey yesterday, even though they have no idea who they are.

Brian teases Max over messing with Trinket & carrying him back and forth in his car. Dani wants one TM where Brian isn’t mean to Max. Max, offscreen: “I’m FINE. I’m GOOD.” Marisha laughs that Max was okay with Brian’s teasing but shooting daggers at the TDs laughing.

Brian gives Dani an A for amazing and adorable, but not asshole.

Dani ships Percy/Vex, Keyleth/Vax, and Fjord/Jester. Close after is Kima/Allura & Caleb/Jester. She would be surprised if it happened, but wouldn’t object. Marisha asks, as a shipper, what does Dani look for in a quality ship. Dani likes clear feelings with clear reciprocation, canon connections; she doesn’t ship a ton of subtexty stuff.

Laura has been relistening to Vex’s playlists & crying. Both she & Marisha really miss Vex & Keyleth. Liam texted Laura the other day a fanvid of Vex & Vax that made her cry.

Marisha gets emotional seeing fanart of older Keyleth because it means that she’s living on & being happy. Noelle also came up & thanked Marisha for giving Tova a purpose after the latest Honey Heist, and everyone talks about how many hours they’ve spent creating and living in these people.

Marisha can’t listen to Tokyo Sunrise by LP anymore because it instantly makes her cry.

Beau is not a mindflayer. Everyone’s convinced, Marisha.

If Laura had Jester’s paint set, she’d draw home improvements. She’d draw a door for her bathroom into Ronin’s nursery. Marisha would draw more producers--”Not to undermine the ones I have! We’re so overworked!”

Brian looks to Max for the time left, only to have missed Dani literally just giving him the signal.

Brian starts to say he’ll see us next week, but Dani tells him not to confuse us since there’s no TM next week. Brian: “We’ll see you next week this Thursday Critical Role on youtube.com, Logan Paul guest starring, along with Paul Rudd, Rudney Dangerfield...”

Max, as the sound fades: “Okay, please...”

And that’s it for tonight. See you next time, everyone!

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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