#it's fine if you subscribe to the whole dark dany theory

[kemihaydeestantonva]

Will never understand how you can read Dany's internal monologue and still come to the conclusion that she's still going to go mad and burn king's landing. It's not a matter of the show "not giving it enough time to cook", it utterly goes against her motivations. She starts her story never really wanting the iron throne in the first place - it's Viserys who believes he is owed the throne because it is his by right. All Dany has ever wanted is a place to belong. Her entire arc starts out with her being sold into marital slavery, helpless, powerless. From there it is all about grasping her own power and in turn wielding it to protect others who are powerless and helpless. Her internal monologue is full to busting with self criticism and self critique. This is not the sign of a tyrant.

If KL burns, we already have a mad queen with the capacity to do so - Cercei. We have a guy about to lose his mind, a guy who is consumed by bitterness and hate and who is obsessed with winning the throne no matter the cost - Jon Connington. We have a guy who would gladly see the whole of KL burn with his entire family in it, who has the cunning and knowledge of KL to get it done - Tyrion. Any one of these characters are a ticking time bomb for mass death events. I see none of this in Dany.

What I see in Dany is a martyr.

I see a character that will be pushed towards the trap that is the iron throne, and will CHOOSE to walk away from it, just as Stannis is doing (temporarily), to put that horse in front of the cart, as it were. I see the events of S8 playing out in REVERSE - whatever horrible thing happens in KL will happen, and then Dany will choose to go north to face the real threat - and she won't make it back.

The mad targ trope is tired. The very act of questioning her own sanity, being conscious of her ancestors and their relationship with madness, is not meant to warn us that she's going to lose it. Quite the opposite imo - I read it as keeping herself in check. This is the sign of a good ruler, of somebody who actually cares about the consequences of her actions. She messes stuff up a LOT, and I have a feeling she's about to do a lot more messed up shit in the very near future - but the chapters I'm reading are showing me a character who is constantly thinking about her faults, failures and mistakes. Again, I take this as a good sign. I really, really just do not see this mad queen Dany happening, y'all.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role Highlights C2E35 (September 25,2018)

Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Liam O’Brien!

Announcements:

The NYC live show is one week from this Thursday (October 4)! Tickets are available now, and an NYCC badge is not needed to attend. There is much speculation over what on earth Sam’s going to wear this time around.

Travis’ episode of Between the Sheets is available for CR Twitch subscribers now and will go up on CR’s YouTube channel tomorrow! Marisha: “He’s like the big brother to us all.” Laura Bailey’s up next!

All Work No Play premieres (returns) this Friday night at 7PM Pacific at twitch.tv/criticalrole!

@critrolestats for this episode:

It has been 61 days since the party found the Cloven Crystal, and 45 days since they first learned of Marius LePual. (The party’s been together about 87 days total.)

Beau has avoided 126 points of damage by using Deflect Missiles.

Caleb’s top speed in this episode of 120 feet is still a quarter the speed of a hasted and flying Vax: 480 feet. Liam points out that he mostly used the speed last campaign to rush at problems. This campaign, it’s more for rushing away from problems.

On being pirates: Liam: “It feels pretty good.” Marisha: “No regrets.” Especially for the Empire kids, this isn’t their country, and the repercussions may not feel as pressing. Also, Liam gets shamed for his lack of knowledge about maritime law. As you do.

Beau’s thoughts on Fjord’s abilities? “Some people have daddy issues and some people vomit up water and see visions.” She tries not to judge people on their shitty days, because she thinks that her own good days are worse than their bad ones. That self-deprecation comes from guilt, and also that her whole outlook is that she’s a bit of an asshole, but she assumes that everyone she meets will hate her anyway, so she might as well take control of the ways in which they consider her to be an asshole.

Caleb is taken by the coincidence of Yasha continuing to pop up; it’s not distrust or anything, it’s just surprise that this keeps happening.

Caleb feels fine about how they treated Algar, because they were doing what was needed to take care of one of their own. Marisha talks a bit about how cathartic fantasy violence like that can be when it’s just amped-up versions of the “no, fuck you!” responses that you might say to someone in that situation in real life. Liam: “I think we put our cards on the table with the DM to be like, yeah, this is who we are. They’re a very different group. They have the potential to make good things happen, but it’s nobody’s goal.” Marisha: “So much is revealed in those moments of impulse.” Liam: “Also, just personally speaking, as someone whose character is not trying to be a hero but is trying to get things done, keeping the group happy and making the group work well together... Selfish motivations, and if good things can happen along the way, awesome. He’s such a hypocrite. He’s done worse things than Algar. But he wants Jester to be happy, and useful. And happy.”

Caleb doesn’t see himself as doing anything wrong in casting Suggestion on Nott (he saw it as doing something good for his friend, unlocking that for her). Liam points out again that this is more of his hypocrisy; he hasn’t connected his own experiences under influential magic with what he did to Nott. “He knows that he’s awful, but he doesn’t think that every single aspect of his life back then was awful.” He emphasizes how quickly things turned around for Caleb. “His life is ruined. He ruined it.”

Marisha on Beau’s impromptu disguise: “Tracy was such a fluke. I was being very transparent when I was talking to Fjord.” Beau knew that if she was just being herself, she’d mess everything up. She was drawing on the personalities of people she knew from school. “For her, it was, ‘Please don’t fuck this up by being yourself.’” It’s not about deception, it’s about wanting to not be a liability.

Gif of the Week: Marisha is... engaged.

Liam: “No decision to steal the ship was ever made. Things just vomited out, Jeff-Goldblum-chaos-theory style. The only reason Caleb got on that boat was because he saw his friends were in trouble, and then they were on the boat, and then a platoon of soldiers showed up, and then they were leaving on the boat.” Marisha: “When we were in the lobby during the break, we were like, ‘We’re going to grab Marius and bounce.’ That was the goal.”

They point out how frustrating it must’ve been for Travis to have gone from playing a character who delighted in chaos to being quite literally the only one who could steer the ship.

Everyone gets really giggly over the username “BeautifulBusinessBoy”. Brian: “Why do we keep doing this show?”

Beau definitely acted instinctively to catch the arrows, rather than letting them hit her to keep up the ruse. “It all went to shit when I caught that first arrow. Beau’s too obsessed with being the badass of her fantasies.”

Fanart of the Week: Caleb at ludicrous speed.

Before the fight broke out, Caleb was going to summon Frumpkin as a small owl of his own to scout out the ship. “But that moment is gone. Everything burned to the ground.”

Both Liam and Marisha were really worried that Caduceus was going to just leave the group. Taliesin definitely pointed out after the episode that it had been Caduceus’ no good very bad day and he was having doubts about sticking around with the Nein. Liam: “It’s a real big question mark what’s going to happen in the first twenty minutes of the game.” Marisha: “I think there’s going to be some discussions.”

Brian has some advice: don’t cast Fireball straight down when on a ship. That’s definitely not coming from personal experience in an encounter during his home game that definitely didn’t end with the ship sinking.

Brian points out that Beau’s adoption of Molly’s mantra of leaving things better than you find them has had a lot of butting-up of theory versus application. Marisha talks about how Beau never really got reconciliation for the conflicts she had with Molly, and it was the first time she ever had that kind of unfinished ending. Her immediate response was to try to be better like him, “but that doesn’t mean that’s easy, especially for someone like Beau.” 

Liam is intrigued, because Caleb’s opinion on Molly’s death was so different. “Caleb was not touched in the same way. It was an affirmation of what he knew was at risk. I don’t think Molly was the one he was closest to in the group. They had a good working rapport. He knew his personality and his life and a bit of his wants and hopes, and it’s a risk to get so close to people and then have them be killed alongside you. It’s a risk to care, because everybody’s a distraction for him. He needs them, he wants them around, all this conflicting information for him. To see Molly die is, ‘Yup. Yup.’” He’s getting a lot closer with Mighty Nein, but in his head, it’s just going to hurt more in the long run. “He sees it as a danger to himself and what he wants to care for people. I risk becoming a better person and trying to get on a different path from what I need to do, which is to stop the unforgivable. And fuck you all for taking my mind off of it. I really like you, but fuck you for taking my mind off it.” He’s got a lot of conflicting voices in his head right now.

Liam: “To the audience: we’re so sorry.” Brian: “Yeah, we really did good tonight.”

Talks Machina: Art Dad Chesty Times

Yes, that’s a direct quote from Brian.

Another out-of-context quote: Liam: “I’d high-five the statue of liberty.” Dani: “Solid.”

Marisha recommends the documentary Double Dare about women in stunts.

Things go a little off the rails, but this is After Dark, and where we’re going we don’t need rails. Break-up stories, strip clubs, tiger attacks. As you do.

Max did a lot of practicing for his Sam impression. Marisha was delighted that people thought they’d dubbed him.

Pirate names. Liam: “I am the Frump-king.” Marisha and Brian: “...okay.”

Majestic. 

Liam’s curious about how Jester and Fjord, being from the Menagerie Coast, are going to react to all this; for the Empire kids, this is a bit detached. Marisha: “I feel a little bad for Jester.” Liam points out that maybe her situation won’t be too different from how it was before, in terms of having to stay hidden.

Everyone ends with their best impression of Max’s I’m-so-done-with-this face.