#s watches exu

[flowersforvax]

Still thinking about that planetar. Many thoughts but in the end it all boils down to-

If mortals and planetars were both created by the gods, why do mortals get choices? It's cruel! And not fair! And the planetars were created to be of service to mortals, to fight and die in endless wars for them; and then to find out the gods who created you (the ones who made you more powerful but worth less than mortals) also value the lives of the betrayer gods more than yours? The ones whose forces you endlessly have to fight???

Yeah I'd also be a little ticked off tbh

[swashbucklery]

For those of you who didn’t get Real Intense About EXU last summer (what were you even doing), please enjoy this reminder of The Deni$e Lore.

[the-stray-liger]

man I really miss campaign 1 of CR I feel like it was simpler and easier to follow? I love the crew’s immense, boundless creativity but I also feel like it’s a lot to keep track of and I’m too adhd to follow

[prof-thaddeus]

Ok well now I am just SOBBING

[grayintogreen]

It is kinda crazy to me that EXU Calamity’s clear inspiration from disaster movies isn’t immediately recognized, but I do think that’s due to disaster movies not being the spectacle that they used to be, like when I was a kid the big budget summer blockbusters weren’t superhero movies, they were movies like Armageddon, Volcano, Dante’s Peak, etc., and like no these weren’t critically acclaimed and most of them didn’t leave an obvious footprint in culture, but the tropes and character archetypes and relationships were constantly recycled over and over because there was a formula to them that isn’t common anymore.

A strained relationship that comes together by the ending? I think the SECOND the reveal that one of the other PCs was Quay’s ex I was like oh okay we’re doing this.

The devoted Everyman father? Yeah, Cerrit has a lot of influence from old school detectives but he reminds me a lot of Harry from Armageddon.

The reporter? Not every disaster film has one, but it isn’t unusual for one viewpoint character to be someone determined to bring the truth to light when everyone else is shutting their eyes.

Laerryn even reminds me of a MUCH more sympathetically played (and less frustratingly stupid) version of the doctor in Deep Blue Sea- convinced that it has to be worth it, making mistakes based entirely on her emotions, but ultimately sacrificing herself to put an end to the damage done.

Obviously not everything is a 1:1, but I think if you go and watch a marathon of 90’s big budget disaster flicks, you’ll find similar beats and inspiration scattered throughout.

And disaster movies ARE horror. Most of them end happily and I think that’s what keeps them from being classified that way, but there’s always tragedy and the potential that it won’t end well. Armageddon ends happily but I can’t help but think of Harry’s last message when I hear Quay’s. The day WAS saved but a lot of people did die to achieve that victory.

[luckthebard]

So this is a very niche rant that is probably only something I've noticed or been annoyed by, but:

The longer Critical Role has gone on and the more changes they've made/content they've created, there's been an increase in weird people who are desperate and determined to prove that changes or content they don't like are "an objective failure" - but often lie or deliberately misunderstand viewership statistics to do so.

There are a few big "facts" I see repeated by people to argue that CR has "gone in the wrong direction" that are just plain wrong, and I think what annoys me most is seeing so many people engage with those "facts" without bothering to double-check them or push back against the certainty with which people state them. An example of one I keep seeing now is "twitch streaming numbers are down" and it's like, yeah, sure, in comparison to when they didn't simultaneously air on YouTube. If you add up the YT and Twitch numbers these days it's about the same as mid-late C2, but people love to act like YT streaming doesn't exist to make a point that "people don't like C3". And I tbh don't care if people like or dislike C3 but why this determination to falsely quantify and validate a personal preference?

The earliest I saw this was an intense agreement on reddit that Exandria Unlimited was a "failure" for CR, "unlike Undeadwood," because viewership numbers were lower. And it was tbh baffling to not see pushback against that narrative, because it's just objectively untrue. Original EXU's VOD streaming numbers are higher than every single episode of Undeadwood, and it premiered literally years later. It also has a lower "drop-off" in viewership (comparison of how many views episode 1 vs the finale has) than Undeadwood, despite frequent claims to the contrary. And don't mistake me here, I really enjoyed Undeadwood, but it actually was a viewership misstep for CR to the degree that they didn't try anything like it again for a while after and significantly changed how they approached marketing and airing miniseries. (A big one being: don't air a long miniseries simultaneously with the main series, it's too much content for most people to invest in during a week.)

(Sidebar, but another great miniseries CR did that didn't get a lot of viewership love is the Elder Scrolls Online trilogy, so I'm going to plug it here. It has some weirdly low viewership numbers on episodes 2 and 3 and I promise you they're both well worth it.)

The other one I keep seeing is "4 Sided Dive has lower numbers than Talks" which is also just not true. Most 4 Sided Dive VODs have nearly twice as many views as Talks VODs (and I'm using the ones that aired directly on the CR channel as a metric here, not the ones re-uploaded from G&S which lost numbers in the change-over). And I'll tbh chalk that up to the fact 4SD airs much less frequently - people are more likely to think it's necessary to watch whereas with Talks if you weren't interested in the guests you might skip a week. I'm not making any claims about the quality of either show, but the use of false viewership statistics to support "one of these sucks" is so rampant and so weird.

All this to say that yesterday I saw a weird viewer-hungry YouTube clickbait video titled "Midst a FAILURE for Critical Role!!" with a truly absurd confidence on what the VOD streaming numbers for the Midst YouTube videos mean for the series mere days after the premier and snapped.

tl;dr, people just make shit up and say whatever on the internet all the time and we hopefully all understand and expect that BUT (and here's the more annoying thing) 9 times out of 10 people just engage with that WITHOUT LOOKING INTO IT THEMSELVES

[tiredqueermushroom]

all of exu trio please?

Dorian

First Impression:

You're gonna be my favourite. There's more hidden underneath that classic bardic charm.

Impression Now:

Omg, he's just like me fr fr. An anxiety ridden master compartmentaliser, who is desperate for parental approval and desperate to strike out on his own. God I love him.

Favourite moment:

The entirety of episode 105 from summoning coriolis to his conversation with his father 10/10 no notes.

Honourable mention: His speech to dariax about real evil also "Kill your mother."

Idea for a story:

Just pure silken squall exploration. I want to know how dorian mastered his compartmentalision skill, more dorian childhood/lore please mister daymond!

Unpopular opinion:

A lot of people only like dorian because they ship him with orym and it's very obvious. So of the most egregious dorian takes come from these people, because they don't view him as an independent character but rather an extension of orym (disclaimer, I like do/my don't come at me.) Some of yall are weirdly racist about Dorian, especially when trying to 'defend' orym from rightful critism, it's kinda crazy.

Favourite relationship/s:

The exu trio! They keep each other grounded and sane. They also can see through each other's masks better than anyone else. Also, they shared a bed together what's not to love.

Favourite headcannon:

He's autistic! Also that hair is super important to squall culture, so dorian having his hair up and therefore shorter is his way of mourning cyrus.

Fearne

First impression:

I love this ditsy girl!

Impression Now:

Omg you are so much deeper than I gave you credit for. You hide your complex and real feelings behind a mask of smiles and giggles. Bet you related hard to when dorian said he finds strength in a smile, huh?

Favourite Moments:

It's a tie between the coin flip resurrection and the aftermath of watching ashton die. In both these moments, we get to see behind the mask fearne wears and get a peek at how much she is both terrified and angered by the idea of losing her friends, her family.

Idea for a story:

An in-depth exploration of her feelings of guilt about reviving orym instead of Laudna and how this interacts with her feelings of discomfort about being pressured about the shard. Specifically, her feelings around laudna and Imogen, saying they were disappointed in her during the truth trial.

Unpopular opinion:

Same issue I have with Dorian. A lot people don't care about how deep of a character can be with most of her bigger moments being overshadowed by other characters or not given the attention it needs. Some people only like her as the big-breasted ditsy thief.

Favourite relationship/s

Fearne & Orym! They both care about each other so much that they don't want to worry they other, so they lie/ tell half truths to each other. Orym would follow Fearne to the ends of the Exandria, and Fearne would carry him on her shoulders the whole way.

Favourite headcannon:

The coin actually landed on Laudna, but fearne could not and would not be able to stand the loss of her bestie, especially so soon after losing dorian. No matter what the coin said, she would have chosen orym, and the Fey are inherently selfish after all.

Orym

First impression:

Woah, slow down lil man you can only fit some much grief in your tiny body.

Impressions now:

My god I don't know how you can keep fitting all that grief and guilt in there!

Favourite moments:

Definitely, him crying at dorian, telling him he doesn't have to protect everyone. Orym had been carrying the weight of protecting everyone for so long, that he forgot that he's a person, not just a sword and shield to be thrown in front of people. Also, any time he's said he misses dorian because it sounds like an I love you. So much of how orym loves has been defined by longing and missing will, so naturally missing dorian is as easy as loving will. Bonus, him dancing in the rain with otohans sword and carrying that heavy weight with him was so cinematic.

Idea for a story:

Orym apologising to Dorian for his comment about cyrus during the post downfall talk. To recognise that he didn't trust that dorian would ultimately choose to save people despite his opinions on the gods. Especially after dorian revealed how heavily cyrus' death weighs on him as well as how important trust is to him.

Unpopular opinion:

While I acknowledge that orym has gotten some bad faith criticism in the past that doesn't mean all criticism he receives is unfair. Case in point, in some people's attempts at 'defending' orym after people were rightfully put off by his comment about cyrus. Some started using racist language towards Dorian and robbie, e.g robbie needing to watch his tone or that dorian needs to be 're-educated'. Which is especially crazy considering robbie is a native man. All that to say, orym is not above criticism and some of yall need to stop acting like it.

Favourite relationship/s:

Exu trio! Orym's need to protect fearne superseding his own safety is so juicy, he would die for his bestie. That man is so painfully in love with dorian that it makes him look stupid lol. The need to depend on someone vs the fear that the minute he let's his guard down everything will come crashing down. Both of them keep orym grounded, fearne reminding him how to let loose and dorian reminds him that he doesn't have to shoulder every responsibility by himself and that he can share his burdens.

Favourite Headcannon:

He has a tail and obviously he has PTSD. But the first night dorian was back was the first time he's slept well in a long time. The bed was perfect.

[sparring-spirals]

I got to say I really liked the episode (despite only having watched exu calamity of the exu series) and I think maybe Matt needed a breather after so many fast paced, lore filled episodes.

however, I am kinda bummed that the fcg processing has been put on hold for (at least) two weeks now and that means that, despite them being great actors that truly merge with their characters at the table, their reactions will be much less raw and there’s a chance some of them will forget tidbits of information, emotions they felt when it happened because they (as role players) will have had time to process it out of the game and it might create a dissonance in the game. tbf I kind of felt the difference even between the end of ep 91 and the beginning of 92 but it made sense because technically they were still running and couldn’t afford to process. idk. I have hope that we’ll still see that raw emotion, but I fear it won’t be as impactful as it could’ve been, especially if they’ll have to put the “reporting for duty” hat on immediately when they get to the camp

I think being a little bummed about the sort of unexpected hiatus on the Bell's Hells/Post F.C.G processing is super understandable! As someone who also really did enjoy the Crownskeepers return (hello im still yelling about Opal internally), I'm kind of in the same camp of being kind of thrown/disappointed about not getting to really dig into/sit with the Bell's Hells post-F.C.G loss. Like, LOVED the Crownkeepers, fascinating second half, kind of meh on the specific timing.

I'm holding my reservations about whether they're going to have to keep running/moving once we return to their portion of the story, since hey, until it happens (or doesn't!), we don't know, so I don't feel like getting too in my head about it until then.

That said! I do think that in general the cast puts characterization and staying true to the emotions of the character/story as a very high priority within the campaign. I think you're right that it won't be the exact same as if they had done a big emotional blowup/goodbye/processing scene in the same ep where they lost F.C.G, or immediately after. I don't think that means it has to be less impactful, just that- yeah, they'll have had more time to actually think/process it.

But they're also all professional voice actors who have, IMO, thus far shown how much they think about the inner lives of their characters and enjoy really digging deep into the emotional/interpersonal aspects of roleplay.

My assumption (my hope?) is that with additional time to think about + process a devastating/deeply emotional loss for their character(s), they'd choose to lean into that more, and not less. It wont be the same as the immediate raw reactions, thats true! But i dont think that means it has to be less impactful, even if they (as people) have had more time to process, and will be choosing how their characters, fresh off the loss, react. I dont think thats a guarantee it will be less impactful/emotional (maybe the additional thinking would actually enhance the reactions being true/insightful to the characters vs gut reactions from cast), but it will be different.

But if the cast chooses to lean into the heartbreak/emotions, and the circumstances of the BH in the upcoming ep enable it, I'm sure they can still kick my ass (emotionally), timeskip or not.

In general, I'm cautiously optimistic about what could happen next! Even if I don't love the timing thus far. I think there's still plenty of ways for me to get what I'm hoping for wrt F.C.G/BH. :] There are plenty of ways for me to get let down too, probably, but until it happens, or doesn't, I'm opting to not get too doomery about it. We'll see.

I uh. Hope that helps? A bit? Being bummed about specific things you were hoping for being off the table is totally reasonable. just hoping to lend an alternate way of viewing it, if desired.

(i wrote the sentence: "don't be lamenting your chickens before they hatch" and then went "what the fuck" out loud. i spent 4 hours at work today just doing systems diagramming and my brain is fried. clearly. keeping this here for my own entertainment.)

[bloodyshadow1]

I'm happy about downfall..., but I really wish they would stop interrupting the Bells Hells campaign. I totally get it, but Bells hells have been interrupted so many times compared to other campaigns. EXU pt2, Calamity, exu again, daggerheart/menagerie oneshots not to mention that the last thursday of every month is either off or something like Candela.

I understand that they need time off, I'm perfectly okay with that, I also enjoy all their separate stuff that does interrupt the Bells hells campaign, but I really wish it wouldn't happen so often. I get that they need time and also want to do other things, there's only so much time in the day. But I personally have been struggling to connect with campaign 3 for a while now, not just the casts or schedule's fault, some of it started with twitch, or my new job having issues, and a variety of other things that makes campaign 3 harder for me personally to get attached to and constantly interrupting the schedule for other properties makes it even harder.

I'm going to watch downfall, I'll probably really like it since I loved Calamity and Brennan is an awesome dm, I'm sure the cast of players is going to be awesome. And I get that this is set up from the last episode to give more meat to the Bells hells story since they're in Aeor now.

It's just me ranting to get this off of my chest, I am a trans woman in her 30's with adhd, I have been going through a lot of life changes, and it's hard to keep up as easily with critical role in a 'post' covid world. the constant interruptions to what should be the main story makes it harder to get attached. I would really prefer if they did their extra material on tuesday or wednesday and let the main campaign run. I know it's selfish of me, I also know it's not going to happen so I'm comfortable with that, they need their rest and breaks to prevent burnout, they've been doing this for 9 years afterall. it's just a wish for me personally that I know won't happen

[colealexart]

Hi!

What are a few favorite moments from any CR/ExU campaign(s) you've watched?

oh man. this is so hard to answer so i'll answer with one from each campaign campaign 1: grog and taryon's shopping trip where doty accidentally kills (knocks out?) 2 guards campaign 2: jester and the hag campaign 3: you were probably expecting this. the imodna kiss. exu calamity: "are you weakest, do you feel, at the elbow or the shoulder?" and "you're trying to atone me and i didn't do anything wrong" both live in my head rent free. CHILLS to this day.

[willowbirds]

fearnie :)

I’m going to assume this is for that character ask thing. If it isn’t? Well you’re about to get infodumped my lovely Anon! (This is what happens when you ask about my blorbos)

First impression

Absolutely loved the Ashley got to play full time in a campaign, and was really excited to see what she had in store for Fearne especially since I hadn’t watched EXU: Prime.

Impression now

I am SO GLAD Fearne is the character Ashley is playing full time! There are so many intercity to her character and she has now live a life of a mortal and not a fey. It is so interesting how this world has affected her. For better or for worse.

Favorite moment(s)

Similar to Imogen, I don’t know how I would choose. Fearne has so many funny moments that they tend to outshine her more soft or serious ones. For humorous, probably when she found out that Imogen was afraid of heights and started swaying the cart whenever they were on it. For serious, I absolutely loved her most recent speech. Honestly take any of her more serious moments and I will probably say it’s my favourite.

Idea for a story

Well there is currently my Cyberpunk fic I’m working on and even though I don’t go too in depth with this version of Fearne, I still explore her a lot more. Even though I absolutely adore her, she is quite hard to write for me. I do have an idea where both Fearne and Imogen were raised by Nana Morri, but that will have to be explored at a later date.

Unpopular opinion (Again, I don’t know if this is unpopular, but I’m gonna say it anyway)

Okay! This is gonna be long. People need to stop acting like Fearne (and by extension, Ashley) has no agency. People keep saying how the rest of the party forces things on her and believe she hasn’t made her own decisions which is completely untrue. The shard incident comes to mind where people thought that Ashton (by extension, Taliesin) forced Fearne/Ashley to give him the shard even though BOTH PLAYERS said in a 4-Sided Dive that they thought the shard was supposed to go to Ashton. This then leads to some people thinking that Fearne was forced to take the shard because Fearne was adamant on not taking it but got worn down and gave in. Again, Ashley thought it was supposed to go to Ashton so she played Fearne as not wanting to take it because she didn’t want to steal Ashton’s backstory thing. She eventually took it because she thought, might as well, and look how excited she was to get that new sheet! If she had no agency she wouldn’t be playing with this group, and if she felt like the wasn’t making her own choices she would let them know off screen BECAUSE THEY ARE ADULTS THAT HAVE PLAYED TOGETHER FOR A DECADE!! I’ve been thinking about this ever since I saw people saying that the cast is forcing monogamy on Fearne. Tal was clearly on board with the idea of Braius asking out Ashton and Braius asked if Fearne and Ashton were a thing because he sees the world in Black and White (According to Sam on 4SD) and there for likely views the world in monogamy. LEST WE FORGET THAT LAURA BAILEY PITCHED THE WITCH THRUPLE AT A COMIC CON PANEL HERSELF!!

TL;DR: Stop saying that a grown woman doesn’t have agency over her own character.

Favourite relationship

Imogen and Fearne honestly. Their shared connection to ruidus aside, these two care about each other so damn much. I know I ship them (and since Laura pitched the Witch Thruple I think she does too) but I think currently in canon they see each other as sisters. Again, mentioning the serious moments that I love with Fearne, the amount of protectiveness she has for Imogen is only beat by Laudna. The fact that she gets nervous when the Nightmare King says that Imogen is special and asks what they would do to her if they got her, the way she casts earth bind on her while she’s in her dream because she doesn’t want her to go away, her scream of desperation as she tries to wake her up, Ollie’s vision of seeing an older Fearne reaching towards a burning red light (I know it’s not an Imogearne moment, BUT IF YOU SQWINT-). Anyway, Imogearne for life :)

(This is not to diminish any of her other relationships. They are all so important to Fearne’s character, but my witchy shipper brain took over)

Favourite headcanon

If you’ve seen my blog then you might be aware of my Blue Blooded Fey headcanon. This is obviously my favourite, but I’ll add a few others for funsies.

Blue blood, ambidextrous, tooth gap, small fangs, glowing ember tipped ears (after she got the shard), warm to the touch (even warmer after getting the shard)

[flowersforvax]

imo the funniest Bolo cameo in Downfall would be if the PCs look up historical documents of the beginning of the calamity and find articles written by her

Eventu-al-ly she's gonna become a reporter 🥲

Like. She genuinely was not a spy or anything! She genuinely just wanted to become a reporter! Like she said! Her charisma score just sucked ass lol

[utilitycaster]

🔥 general CR fandom mood during c3

I don't know if this will be an unpopular opinion per se, but it will be an opinion, and I think after this is a good place for me to take a break and settle back in and fold the laundry I did not fold before leaving on Wednesday before returning to whatever else is in my inbox; in fact, with that, any unpopular opinion question received after 10 pm Eastern Time on Dec. 17 2023 will be deleted (unless it's a really fucking good one).

Speaking only for Tumblr because the subreddit has many problems I've covered previously and Twitter is garbage and always has been, honestly I think it's fine by now. I think people who prefer Campaign 1 or 2 to 3 but are still enjoying 3, myself included, are pretty open about that, ie, we are not expecting this to be our favorite campaign but we're interested in what's going on. I think a lot of people for whom Campaign 3 is their first campaign and who started due to TLOVM or EXU Prime or just a new campaign are also having a good time. I think you will always get a certain number of people who are constantly complaining and miserable and you will also always get a certain number of people who constantly complain about the constantly complaining people, and you should block and ignore as needed.

I do think that this campaign had a rough start, and the vibe earlier was rougher, but honestly the only people who are unhappy now are, as I've said before, either the people who are really invested on how Campaign 3 is the best specifically because it's the most bonded found family when that's a dumb metric to use in the first place and objectively wrong; or the people who started watching because of The Big Ship and have found that a good chunk of the fandom is unimpressed with said ship because the canon is unimpressive and so they have been throwing a slow motion tantrum because they dislike the idea that a nearly 9-year-old fandom hasn't stopped rotating on its axis to cater to their specific tastes. I also do think that people super invested in C3 being the best who haven't seen C1 or 2 are kind of struggling and unwilling to admit it because so much of this campaign is reaping what was sown in previous campaigns and indeed Matt has repeatedly stated that he always wanted to do that. So because of that I do, again, think that there's a sizeable portion of people who are both deeply invested in Campaign 3 being better than Campaign 1 or 2 but also genuinely wish there was the balance of downtime to story and lack of reliance on previous campaigns of C1 or 2 and so that leads to a weirdly bitter and cognitively dissonant vibe among them, but everyone else is chilling.

I also think that the fandom is in a good but transitional period that I've been thinking about bc D20's fandom is several steps behind, namely, the toxic positivity (and deep resentment around the edges) present in some of C2 is mostly gone, but now people need to figure out how to criticize in a way that is meaningful and constructive (and/or keep emotional dislike on their own blogs - and respect other people's right to dislike things untagged on their own blogs). D20 is still in the fawning toxic positivity phase, for an example of that.

Basically: it's in an understandably weird place for a number of reasons but overall it's fine. You will never have total consensus or a perfect vibe so it's not worth aiming for that, but there's some good stuff and it's pretty easy to curate out the rest.

[pippastrelle]

Bulletpoint liveblog of C3E91 let's go!

Second half: Crown Keepers

Oh, is this where the Crownkeepers come in? I heard that. Haha I always wonder what it's like at the studio hiding the fact that, like, Robbie is there.

AABRIA! God, I want to know how her hair and makeup is done. It's so different and so cool nearly every time I see her. She's got such style.

Moment to appreciate the music they play during the art reel at the end of the break.

CROWNKEEPERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I actually never fully watched Kymal so the bunny woman was a surprise XD

The collaborativeness is nice, asking Anjali about her sister.

ahahaha god this platform. DON'T WHIPLASH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS! I'M CRYING OVER ORYM AND ALL!

….Me not having watched Kymal might confuse me for the next two hours.

Black lipstick will never not get me. Aimee.

Is Dorian going to reply to Orym's message??????

Good on Matt for starting off.

(Pleeeeease may they say this woman's name). Her character's Morrighan. Whoa, a champion of the Matron of Ravens.

The Crownkeepers have been having a real swell time.

(Fy'ra Rai has always been a great name to say). So, sent by the Wildmother to protect them.

Aww, Dorian feeling some consequences of his avoidance.

From an above-table perspective, I'm surprised they're all feeling so lost? I wonder if it was planned and if Aabria's going to suddenly give them a direction, or if they're reticent to set too much in stone?

OPAL'S BETRAYER GOD CHAMPION DESIGN IS SO SICK; I LOVE IT!

Sleep as an exhausting void… Creepy.

"Can I hear him?" "Make a wisdom save." Terrifying. "Shouting at you while running backwards." What a description.

I do love Opal, too. Such a situation but still trying to retain that image of her.

"We gotta get these chuckles out not." Whimper in terrified player.

I love Aabria's GM-ing in a lot of other things (ACOFAF is S-tier), but I think this highlights why I found EXU Prime harder to get into. The Crownkeepers tend to lack a motivating goal from the off-set, making it a bit hard for me to figure what they're trying to do and why.

Still, starting off with PVP might be the wakeup!

HA! Matt Mercer doing the ad read. Love it.

Spider Queen is intimidating and poor, poor Opal.

Holy shit, Opal's raising into the air and burning the forest. Hahaha make Aimee choose which friend to destroy. Awwww forcing her into PvP!

Goddddddd Aabria is the Betrayer God here.

Black eyessssssss. Magic second set of arms.

God, imagine being Aimee rn.

27 on initiative??????

THE DARIAX ROLLS RETURN!

At least Opal can communicate her panic.

HASTE ON OPAL???? HA! VENMO TO HASTE THE ENEMY!

The Dariax rolls balance Morrighan's.

Aw, sweet with Morrighan and Opal whispering telepathically.

Amazing image of stone cold Opal in contrast.

I like how Matt and Aabria pop in with lessons for the others. Nice to see players propping each other up.

CRYSTAL RAPIER? NICE!

"She's just a little guy."

Absolutely fair, seeing weird shit for your Betrayer God Champion friend and just wanting to knock her the fuck out.

Kind of Anjali to tally up the numbers as they roll.

Eeeeeek, ripping a rapier down her thigh.

OPAL DOESN'T TAKE THE DAMAGE????? IS THAT A REACTION OR????

TED!

Hahaha "if Opal did crossfit".

(I googled it. Morrighan is played Erica.)

Oh christ Ted's helping. I wonder how much Morrighan knows about Ted.

"NONONO STOP!" as verbal component for Shield is fantastic.

I don't trust that this is Ted?? Does Ted know Opal's fucked right now??

"Why's the first thing you do drawing blood?" Well, because it's D&D.

Haste lets you go get a hotdog from Arby's. Vax knew this well.

Aabria's English accent is so American-version-of-English but I like how it sounds anyway.

Let the ashhole return, cowards!

Yeah, Robbie, this is a weird situation. Dorian's just choking on his flute. Yeah, trying to restrain Opal is a good plan. NO! NAT 20 minus 1 + 4 plus 13. Aimee/Opal, go! Get! It!

Nice, Aabria, failing forward is a lesson we can all incorporate.

NAT ONE PLUS 13?? ROBBIE! Cannot catch a break.

T_T Fy'ra being betrayyyyyed again. Ooh, very very cool from Anjali calling for a flashback.

(We still never got the response to Orym. Has that happened yet or it that going to be the bookend? I'm curious what this is going to mean for the actual campaign. It's a really fun idea to bring in another GM for a section. Sure, more Actual PlayTM than homegame but Matt at least gets to play.)

Haha Anjali welcome to the DM club! I know about this from the Ginny Di video. Anjali DMed an official lego game.

Can they free Opal?

Ohhh. The Wildmother wants this? Am I misunderstanding? Shit.

They can't separate Opal from the crown.

Love how different people set their dice.

Never take advice from GM Aabria :P

Holy shit these guys roll high.

I hardly ever see people take the dodge action.

I do like Opal a lot.

So the Spider Queen is just trying to full take over Opal. I wonder if Teven or the other Betrayer God Champion had this sort of thing happen.

GO AWAY FOREVER??? THEIR MOTHER DID THIS TO OPAL AND TED?? Evalux? A splinter group? I'M SO CONFUSED AND INTRIGUED! THE BEACON'S INVOLVED??? How tf did they get it in Byroden? So there's a splinter of Luxon followers who split themselves in one life instead? God, I hope the main cast get to watch this.

…..And Opal has no memory of it. Will we ever get this information?

Erica continues to roll like a god.

The turns have felt both long and fast. I've still got, like, an hour and a half.

I love how Matt describes/contextualises things, even as a player.

HA! CYRUS IS HERE?!

ROLL PERFORMANCE FOR HANDJOB

A 7!!!!!

Bless is good. Dariax panicking is great.

XD God initiative takes a long time in a big group.

THE ROLLS! THE DARIAX ROLLS!

Ah! Dariax is a bard! Yeah! So cuuuute for the Double Ds. "THE PERFORMING ARTS IS WORTH IT!"

So. All of them are blind in the darkness. Awesome, awesome move, Aimee.

Hahhahahahaha right. Warlock. No spell slots.

XD It's such a long game. No loo breaks.

SQUIRREL SPIDER FTW

Gotta love Cyrus. "NO DON'T SHOOT!" The himbo persists.

….Matt, what did you get for the WIS save?

PALADIN COMES IN FOR THE SAVE!

Hahahaha "that could can see". Okay. Blind mistystep? …..I'm sure 8 will get it.

Aww, attacking your friend's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Lay on Hands is good.

I appreciate Aabria's helpfulness as a GM.

Fy'ra good teammate.

Opal, again, is amazing. I love how she tackles such complex things in her very Her way. Preserves drama and humour in her self-absorbtion.

I wonder how Opal washes her hair under that crown?

Well, some allowance for fighting when Opal attacked them? Obvs harder emotionally than logically.

Aww everyone got to see the memory of Opal and Morrighan bonding.

HA! LOVE FY'RA BEING COMMANDER!

Dorian is forever clanking with all the instruments he carries. T_T 9 to dispel fails. Good plan though. Until back into the darkness he goes.

I like the idea of going back to the Crownkeepers, especially as a perspective on Opal and Dorian, but I'm two hours into this section and still don't quite get the full significance of it. Which is a shame. I still have faith, but I think this encounter would be more enjoyable if I understood better why we were seeing it in the Bell's Hells campaign.

I've always respected Opal/Aimee going in on being the asshole sister. Getting to see that perspective.

The gem flashbacks are cool.

"We can both be coins." "And we're richer for it!" Amazing. Great pun. Love Fy'ra. Love Ted coaching Opal.

Max offering blind Dariax up on a plate. Respect.

I LOVE MATT AS DARIAX! SO FUNNY!

Con sorcerer is smart.

Aabria has no luck against Dariax.

I'm sure that 9 WIS will help perception.

BARDIC COMES IN CLUTCH!

DIMENSION DOOR IS A BONUS ACTION?!

I. Love. Opal. Aimee plays her and her struggles and her relationships with everyone so well and nuanced. Dariax is a well-done character too. Real even behind the humour.

I leapt too, Aimee. Holy shit what the fuck, Spider Queen?

(Fuck you, Twitch, for skipping, my god).

Oh god, Cyrus, don't die.

Nooooo, Dariax. Living nightmares. Him and Dorian seeing their nightmares.

Spider Queen Opal wtf.

Pick up next week? Huh. I… am confused by this. Interesting encounter. I liked the drama between the Crown Keepers. But, again, I don't understand the significance for the Bell's Hells? So I reckon next week will be first half Crown Keepers, second half Bell's Hells. Huh. Interesting episode. It was fun, though I really don't deny still being on the edge of my seat to find out what's happening with the BH.

[rysn-ftori]

It’s interesting how Bell’s Hells having much less abrasive personalities than Mighty Nein despite being equally/more broken is something some fans complain about and yet some others find endearing.

I enjoy inter-party conflicts (heck my fav MN “ship” is Empire Kids platonic ship because they fought A LOT) but for Bell’s Hells I fall into the latter category. I just see them as traumatized people who cope differently. They turn inward and close off as a way to response to trauma and I think, in their mindset, being secretive/flippant is a way to not burden their friends about their problem. That is something I relate a lot (and I’m sure many other people too). It makes it much easier for me to root for them to succeed.

And I see it as they just don’t have time to squabble among themselves. There is no question that what they are dealing with are much bigger than their personal problems. This realization was also dawned on Caleb in C2, based on Liam’s words in Talks, how he felt the Cognouza thing were bigger than whatever stuff he had going in his personal life, so he set personal plan aside. That’s how it is with Bell’s Hells but it happened much earlier and they didn’t have time to feel offended when their party member revealed they hid something from them. I feel like they depict the real life adults’ interaction when you like certain people but not too familiar with them yet. If you have to bring up your past or problem you make sure to sound like it’s no big deal or that you’re fine now. The breakdowns and conflicts and encouragements will come in trickles like Laudna and Imogen rock fight or Ashton telling Orym they understand how suck it is to be the only sane one in the group. I love it. I wish the trickles will come more often now that their walls are getting eroded by things they faced together.

Also I love how C3’s stakes are higher than previous campaigns but the party is considerably milder. It does make them look more reactive, but it also creates huge potential of how far they will grow. In EXU Calamity, we saw the end of an age through the lens of powerful people, and it was amazing to watch how these people’s sense of duty made them to give their best effort to save the world.

But I personally don’t want another EXUC. I love how insignificant Bell’s Hells are, how they are “footnote in someone else’s epic” yet they are all tangled up in this world-ending conspiracy and had to be the vital key of undoing it. It makes the whole calamity thing feel personal for them because they experienced failure together when half of them killed by Otohan, went to literally another realm to save their friend, then got manipulated to give the enemy the final key for the apocalypse.

I do wish they will now spend more time exploring their own stories first because, unlike with MN who I came to love once I got to know them, I already love BH now I want to get to know them more.

I don’t feel the cameos of previous characters eclipse BH’s importance to the story because this all still feel like a prologue and all it did is making me more excited for what will these little people do to make difference where the big players of the world are failing to.

Side note: I compare them to MN because I haven’t watch C1 fully and, while I have above opinion, I see where people coming from about the stark difference of the previous campaigns and this one.

[cringefaecompilation]

I'm only saying this because you mentioned it, I don't want to complain about something other people enjoy just for the sake of it.

I started with C3 (which I love, there isn't a player character I don't like) and tried to get into C2 and just can't. I'd love to - the arcs and the locations and the variety of it all seem really exciting!

But so many of the characters get on my nerves. It felt like they were constantly needling each other's insecurities. I don't know why Beau has a reputation for being rude, they kind of all are? And Fjord is so bossy...

I want to like it. I want to like Jester! I'm just not seeing what other people are seeing in it. Maybe if I had followed it week-by-week?

i appreciate the message, but I think you missed the point.

you can like c2 and hate c3. you can like c3 and hate c2. you can only like exu calamity and never touch anything else cr related. you can only watch the cartoon. you can only like the streams and refuse to see any of the comics or books as canon. and heck, you can be a genwunner for critical role and say you refuse to interact with anything outside the original 115 c1 streams!

it’s just the constant, constant, constant deluge of C2 IS THE ONLY GOOD THING EVER AND IF IT ISN’T C2 IT SUX!!! that every single fucking site is shoving down everyone’s throats. and that hurts when you’re trying to like something but all you’re getting is people insulting it or mocking it or saying their story is the best one and pushing newcomers off from potentially liking it because it’s not what they like.

and if someone’s response to this is to say “why can’t you just let people have an opinion?!” or “maybe so many people are saying it’s bad because it IS!!!” then i have to ask, how’d you feel if day in day out people were talking about how much they loathed c2/the mighty nein and how awful it was. think about it really hard and then get back to me, okay? because i don't want people to turn around and start bringing up every single one of c2's flaws and insist it's actually shit just to put c3 on a pedestal.