#like with allura in c2

[squishiest-wizard]

Me this whole week

[alliekitaguchi]

this is easily one of my favorite moments from campaign 2 -- when the mighty nein meet arcanist allura vysoren

[social-cocoon]

I think I've given up on the idea of catching up with Critical Role. Stuff I hear about c3, especially that a big thing is most of BH being very anti-god, just isn't for me. Much as I love CR, I don't think I could sit through it

[bisexuel]

love the little lore dump on tharizdun and ioun considering vm used the exact same technique to banish vecna. like they learned all this at the final arc of c1 but it's a little refresher that makes you go :]

[potatoesandsunshine]

yes i do think yussa would get “welcome to the mighty nein-ed” yes i do think allura would find it extremely funny

[nellasbookplanet]

Jester and Fjord both have little to no interest in or knowledge of politics or current events, I feel like they'd be better at general life advice and like, How To Stay Alive and How To Balance Adventuring With Family/Business/Other Goal advice

Caleb would give solid advice and probably has a lot of contacts to share because of his connections in the academy and cobalt soul, but I also feel like he'd either be very busy fighting corruption, doing research, and grading papers, or he'd be retired, in which case Let Him Rest

Caducues is so isolated from the general goings on of Exandria and generally doesn't know or doesn't care about all that, he would be so bad at this job. Would probably give pretty good spiritual advice and general life advice, though

Beau and Yasha strike me as having the same vibe of Allura and Kima in c2: Beau has so many connections (access to cobalt soul archives and teleportation circles!) and so much knowledge and general problem solving abilities to share, and meanwhile Yasha would be there like "I don’t know about all this but I could come with you and help fight your big bad or lend you this neat sword"

Essek would be a solid choice largely because he's already been an adventurer mentor of sorts to the nein, he knows the ropes and he has a lot of knowledge on both the political and the arcane to share, but he’s also a hunted man and would probably be hard to get ahold of and no longer have access to connections (other than the nein and the nein's future descendants) and resources to share

Veth, like Essek, is already a mentor of sorts! She runs a baby adventurer summer camp! She, like Fjord and Jester, has so much advice to give on how to balance family life with adventuring! She has a decent grasp of current events even if she doesn’t care all that much, and her closeness to Caleb probably gives her access to a lot of empire connections

Kingsley would be less of an Allura and more of a Gentleman, I suspect. He has Molly’s deep caring but Lucien's saviness and hunger for power. As the Plank King he would have access to information and items and connections gallore, and as someone who was himself brought into this world by adventurers he'd probably be happy to help future parties, even if he would be a dick about it. Also it would be very funny.

[critter-genfic-events]

This week, we have nine (nein!) fics dedicated to the beginning stages of friendship. Check them out after the cut, and don't forget to kudos or comment if you liked them!

Unnecessary by chockfullofsecrets (2339, General) Warnings: None Pairings: Yussa Errenis & Allura Vysoren

How Allura befriended Yussa

Reccer says: It features a touch-starved lonely Yussa and a slightly-more-well-adjusted but still a little clueless Allura (and her wife, who can explain things to her).

The Glow and Shine of Rotten Wood by sociallychallengednerd (1664, General) Warnings: None Pairings: Essek&Nott

Au where Essek ends up in that jail cell with Nott the Brave instead of Caleb, and the bond forged there.

Reccer says: I just really love the idea of what their relationship would be like if Nott had adopted Essek like that. There's something about imagining a goblin and a drow running around the empire in disguise that just tugs my heart strings.

Light & Shadow by quinn_of_aebradore (2141, General) Warnings: None Pairings: Reanminere "Reani" & Essek Thelyss

Essek teams up with Reani to fight crime

Reccer says: I loved the idea of this teamup since it was hinted at in the C2 finale, and this one really nails Reani's voice

What to Make of Me When I'm Gone by Angel Ascending (1949, General) Warnings: Casual discussion of death Pairings:

The Hells have morbidly adorable bonding session about what they should do with each other's corpses.

Reccer says: This fic perfectly encapsulates the early bonding vibe of a party, especially one as weird as the Hells and could easily slot into canon.

and each falling star changed the song of the sky by grayintogreen (5967, Teen) Warnings: None Pairings: Background Percy/Vex

A chance encounter changes fates. It's never too late to adopt an adventuring party, after all. (Or Percy and Vex adopt the Tombtakers.)

Reccer says: I liked it

disruption and development by ivelostmyspectacles (4062, Teen) Warnings: gender dysphoria around menstruation Pairings: Ashton Greymoore & Orym

Ashton runs off from the group in the middle of Bassuras, Orym follows, and does his best to help

Reccer says: The characterization for both of them is spot on - Ashton running off without expecting anyone to care or follow, Orym doing his best to protect and help

both my broken hands are true by quothhh (1805,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings: Veth Brenatto & Caleb Widogast

An AU where Veth is running an apothecary; and Bren breaks in one night to rob her

Reccer says: It's spot on characterization in an AU, and I love the aggressive Veth's caretaking is.

we're like a song that ends in major key by friendly_ficus (2920, General) Warnings: None Pairings: Yussa Errenis & The Mighty Nein, Yussa Errenis & Allura Vysoren

The Mighty Nein adopts another prickly wizard.

Reccer says: Yussa is the best wet cat wizard, and I love the little glimpses into Yussa's thought processes and relationship with Allura.

mask of many faces by SongOfWizardry (1638, Teen) Warnings: None Pairings: Dairon & Essek Thelyss, Beauregard Lionett & Essek Thelyss

Long after the Xhorhaus, a (disguised) Essek runs into an (undisguised) Expositor Dairon.

Reccer says: Extremely early on in their friendship, but you can imagine them becoming closer after the fic. I love the way that both of them understand what's going on, even if they're careful enough to not say anything explicit

If you liked this rec list, follow along for more! We'll be posting a new list with a new theme each Monday. Want to make your own recs? Check out the rules, and then use the form to submit!

Next week, we'll be reccing fic featuring Molly, Kingsley, or Lucien! Or all three! They're popular in fandom, I hear, so I think there will be some good stuff.

If you're looking for some more, there's some good stuff in the critter genfic bingo tag! Or you can request your own card and join in on the fun!

[thelonelywhale]

I know there have been varying degrees of opinions regarding the appearances of C1 and C2 PCs (and NPCs) in C3, and I’ll admit my own opinion has wavered back and forth on this as well.

Ultimately I came to the realization that highly powerful former PCs like Keyleth, Percy, Caleb, and Beau interacting with the Hells feels very similar to the high level NPCs from C1 - Allura, Kima, Gilmore, Drake, Assum, etc. These were former adventurers with former lives whose past actions were influencing the events of the world, who interacted with the party and provided support and guidance. While their full backstories may not have been explicitly detailed on stream, it was very clear they were fleshed out people with past experiences, post-adventure lives, and ties to the plot. They just happened to come from Matt rather than the players.

And I think that’s SO COOL that this group gets to play in a world state they actively influence. They get to create characters that become the next Alluras and Kimas and Gilmores. To me as a player that feels like such an amazing reward, and shows a level of respect and understanding for collaborative storytelling and worldbuilding from both the DM side and the player side.

[malaismere]

AO3 Stats: Comparing Campaigns

(for my other critical role fic stats, check out my ao3-stats tag)

First off: total number of fics (by month) since the start. C2 and 3 have been pretty consistent since 2019, around 400-500 range, occasionally peaking higher, breaking 600 with the end of C2 and 700 in October this year with Laudna's resurrection lining up with October monthly prompts.

Zooming in...let's compare campaigns. The left is total counts, the right percentage. They don't add up to 100% because oneshots like Undeadwood and EXU Calamity are in the total fic count, and any fic with tags for multiple campaigns counted as both (although instances of just Allura or Artagan in a C2 fic or just Keyleth or Delilah in a C3 fic were not counted for C1). EXU was counted in as C3; any fics with just Dariax or Opal are therefore included in C3 counts.

C1 has been pretty consistent in the 50-100 range (10-20%). It has peaks in September 21 (one person writing Kimallura for sapphic september. seriously), February/March 2022 (Legend of Vox Machina) and September/October of 2022 (Bells Hells visit Whitestone).

C2 was pretty constant in the 80-90% range through its runtime (the drop below 70% in 2019 is when Undeadwood aired) and mostly around the 300-400 fic mark, although with peaks higher (most notably the end of C2) and drops lower (2020 hiatus). After C3 starts, it stays around the 200 fic mark and around 40-50%, hitting an all time low of 27% in September, and 140 fic in August (excluding January 2018's 116).

C3 is around the 200 and 40% mark for most of it's runtime so far, staying just under C2. While the other campaigns aren't affected by EXU Calamity airing in June of 2022, you can see a sharp drop for C3. However, following that, C3 reaches an alltime high with over 300 fics in September and October with Laudna's death and resurrection, breaking the 50% threshold. In December, things went back to normal, which could be a sign that was an outlier...or a blip for the M9 reunion.

[vethbrenatto]

i feel like all of the appearances by pcs have made sense so far plot-wise; it’s not like they stopped being incredibly powerful actors with their own goals and missions after their campaigns ended, after all. and i do love seeing how the hells interact with them. but any more cameos at this point have a high risk of just being pointless and blatantly fanservicey and taking away from the hells story so hopefully matt continues to show restraint (and gives them an endgame encounter that doesn’t require them to rely on much stronger characters to have any chance of success) 🙏

no you're for sure correct and i don't think matt has any plans for caleb and beau to save the day in place of bells hells,

i've mentioned it previously and actually wrote why (i'm not gonna be able to find the post but something about needing cameos to have purpose for existing) but i'm extremely picky about cameos. i am not gonna be the person cheering just because i see a character i already know and in fact, i'll probably be unfairly immediately in the opposite direction.

even last night watching live, after giving it a think, i completely understood caleb and beau being there. it made perfect sense and wasn't shoehorned in. ludinus is intertwined with the hells and beau and caleb's canonical epilogue sees them taking years together to dismantle the assembly. (also having marisha and liam secretly roll (badly) for their adventures is so cool!)

i think it all comes back to vox machina and how i wasn't really fond of their cameo(s) and probably won't be fond of them in the future. again, i've gone into detail on that in the past and i'm not gonna rehash. but because vox machina has had those moments, i think that's why i was immediately down on caleb & beau. i lumped them in with VM's cameos, when in fact this feels much closer to one of the best callbacks in C2- the nein meeting allura!

unlike the hells seeking out VM, they naturally stumble upon two members of the nein operating in a way that seems completely compatible with what we know of their story previously.

so, yeah. tldr, i am much higher on caleb and beau showing up now than i was last night. still probably less high than most because as i said, i'm picky on callback cameos.

[utilitycaster]

Hi there! Thanks for writing so much great commentary on CR; I always look forwards to reading your takes and seeing your arguments. If you're ok with doing so, would you mind going into what overbalanced encounters you think weren't signalled well in the game and why? Just curious, no pressure though!

Hey anon! Thank you, and absolutely.

Honestly, there are only two that really stand out. Everything else is either too speculative on my part, or ended up okay in the end.

They are the fight in 2x26 where Molly dies, and the fight against Otohan in 3x33, and while they do both have character death, that's really a symptom, not the problem; assume character death or even a TPK is fine by me.

The things these fights share:

really low-level or drained party with no healing/very little healing left

Intended BBEG about whom the party knows very little

Enemy who will deliberately take death saves

Most of the signals are either subtle or directed towards a specific party member and are in the thick of combat when people aren't focusing on interpretation, especially when it's not a death spiral

Not a super clear "out" for the party nor the BBEG.

Like, it's very normal to set up an unwinnable or at least incredibly difficult encounter with an intended BBEG that does go well and is read accurately by the party but still isn't really a win. Some good examples are the initial Chroma Conclave attacks (fend off the dragons long enough, but the "19 MISSES?" line is truly all you need, they pick up on the need to run right away), the initial Briarwoods fight, the initial Vecna fight (which is, canonically, lethal), and the Tombtakers fight on the same day the Nein had fought Gelidon.

In all those cases, the situation is really clearly outlined, the party is either powerful enough to have tons of tricks up their sleeve or the enemy genuinely doesn't care enough to go for the kill shot, and there's no special tricks or traps.

The issue with the Iron Shepherds fight is that the signals that the Nein didn't have complete information were fairly subtle and relied on remembering pretty fine details from Keg's intel; by the time they realized how truly inaccurate it was, it was too late.

The issue with the Otohan fight is that honestly, it's...still not entirely clear how Otohan goading Imogen ties into the mechanics of the fight (larger plot, sure, kinda, although I still think Otohan is perhaps one of the least successful villains CR has ever had in terms of "do I give a shit"; it's just that Ludinus and Liliana are fantastic villains so it's fine; but it really wasn't clear what she wanted Imogen to do or why that mattered), and the switch in strategy mid-way through to taking death saves also threw people off, and all the party really knew going in was "head of organization we're infiltrating, kind of a badass, has a weird backpack". They really had no reason to understand how powerful she was; all the dream lore relating to Ruidusborn showed up later.

With both of these, also, the party were following like...pretty heavily dropped hints and signaled signposts and a general ambience of "here be The Plot/MacGuffin" and then it was a huge trap.

With something like, say, the Chroma Conclave, the party knew absolutely nothing - they just showed up to a political speech and dragons attacked. That matters! They knew in and out of game that it was a complete surprise and could act accordingly. Which I think brings me to the point: there is a metagaming element here, not in the sense of specific knowledge your character wouldn't know, but in terms of vibes your character could not technically pick up on. A non-combat example is Allura showing up in C2. Allura showing up says "this is the right path" to the players, even if the Mighty Nein do not know Allura. Beau and Caleb being kind of wary about what's going on? That's a huge sign that this is really fucking dangerous, and so Bells Hells was able to make smart choices and infiltrate slowly, which also gave them less high-pressure moments in which to, for example, notice how deeply entrenched Liliana was, or how brutal and unforgiving the Call and Vanguard are (all those bodies).

I think on the most basic level? If the party only realizes through extended combat how fucked they are, you have failed - and that's fine, DM's are human and fallible, but it should really be like, a 19 MISSES! moment if you need the reveal to be during combat, not something that happens a full initiative round in or requires any deeper analysis.

Also: a lot of these bets are off once parties hit like...L11 or so because at that point you should have enough resources to deal. Like, if you want to spring a nasty trap on a L17 party, do it. They should be able to deal.

[ruvi-muffin]

Still wild to me that Allura and Artagan are c1 originals bc to me they're from c2.

I'll be watching lvm like Oh hey Look it's my c2 guy !!

[brokenhardies]

okay fine im adding my other take;

but as a c2 fan, c3 fans have no goddamn right to call us 'annoying' when we get excited over character's like essek coming back

while c2 was airing, we were being told by vm fans that the mighty nein were all horrible people and had poor chemistry and weren't as good as vox machina. we had to deal with the goddamn pandemic completely altering how the campaign ended. we had to deal with people calling us stupid for feeling sad about molly dying. the amount of bullshit we had to put up with just because we liked campaign 2 was so fucking stupid

so, who can blame us for being excited when there's a smidge of c2 related content? what, so keyleth is allowed to be a major character, but the second that essek shows up people are pissed off?

yes, i get it, its annoying that there are fans who say they only came back because of essek showing up, but the same thing happened with allura in campaign 2, and because we were so used to people saying how bad the mighty nein were compared to vox machina, we just accepted it!

[cringefaecompilation]

so i just say your post asking about anyone who liked bh but hates the mn and. yes. i am one of those people. i started watching cr around episode 31 of vox machina, started with episode 1 of mn, and didn't make it past episode 5 on the first watch through. i didn't like any of the characters except yasha but having an ashley character be your favorite character is ROUGH - and seeing that pike was my favorite from vox machina (quickly followed by grog and scanlan), i learned the lesson pretty early on.

but yeah. i dislike the mn. i won't watch anything that doesn't have caduceus in it because he was the only saving grace for me and the only reason i actually started watching again. assholes just aren't interesting to me. i didn't care for them. now that i've watched some past episodes i dislike them less, but i don't find any of them really all that interesting. and when caduceus is the only reason you watch... well. it's not really a good time.

i didn't care about any of the npcs the group connected with except allura but, like, come ON. it's ALLURA VYSOREN. I didn't care about essek (still don't), pumat was good but not gilmore-esque, yussa... honestly he was the funniest npc just on accident cause he kept getting trapped in places he was sticking his nose in.

basically the characters just weren't the kind of characters i was ever interested in watching, the story line only garnered my attention very, very late, and, tbh, the fandom was (is) so fucking rancid that it just made me hate it more.

the moment exu came out i was so excited because i hoped fearne and orym would be in c3 and have loved them ever since. i would even say that like all the characters in bh and am invested in all their stories. chet can... sometimes get too much for me but that's mostly because i'm already overstimulated and has nothing to do with the actual character. even with ashton who is 100% california punk (your roots are showing, taliesin) and clashes against the punk lifestyle i've always lived only makes me respect them because, yeah. they're a punk. i'm a punk. fuck them; i'll love them forever.

huh, neat! i've never heard of someone getting into c1 midway and than into c2, usually it's the other way around. that's cool.

honestly i hadn't even considered that people may be COMPLETELY put off by the mn being assholes at the beginning, but then again i was also super taken aback when taliesin said that the nein were "almost all villains" but looking back on where they all began and their backstories, i can see it more.

i will agree with you that early c2 can be a little obnoxious to get through and while i was able to enjoy them (both the characters and the storyline) it's completely understandable why someone would get frustrated with them and stop watching. fandom toxicity and overall arc fatigue seem to be the most agreed on answers to why c3 fans if any don't like c2.

also the whole "caduceus is the only reason i liked c2" seems to be a sentiment for people that have become wholly disillusioned with critical role as a series, so it's nice to see someone still enjoying the series with that viewpoint.

for the last paragraph, i completely agree! though i really REALLY wanted dariax and opal to come along with them, we can see why (ep 64) it wouldn't have been viable.

i'm just shocked that everyone had pretty much the exact same answer, i swear i would have gotten at least one person that disliked it for a bizarrely specific reason.

[elliesgaymachete]

I do miss before c2 ended when there were actually group shots of the m9 that didn’t include Essek. Like. Nothing against him I did like him as a character but it’s the equivalent of having Gilmore or Kima or Allura in group shots of VM. Significant ally and friend but not part of the main crew

[pocketgalaxies]

If you have to choose your favorite npc of each campaign(including exu prime, kymal and calamity) would you care to share which ones are?

I understand you're not caught up on cr2 and we still don't know everything from cr3.

oh dear. anon there's so many!! i will try my best

c1: i mean. maybe it's c3 and tlovm bias but i kinda gotta say delilah, she is full of love and evil. i do really like allura tho

c2: out of the very few npcs i know i'll say pumat, but i am Super looking forward to seeing artagan and marion

c3: I MISS MARWA! also DOES PÂTÉ COUNT also keyleth 😎

exu prime: TED HANDS DOWN

kymal: i'm gonna be honest i don't rly remember any npcs from kymal bc i was very distracted the entire time by the Chaos. but probably lolth (or ted again)

calamity: hmmmmmMMMmmmmmmm idk i lowkey wanna say vespin? the moment w zerxus' contract Changed me