Pike and Scanlan rekindling their love and riding into the sunset as centaurs is the best ending I could ever ask for. IM SO FUCKING HAPPY MY GNOMES 💜💛
Now that Critical Role has dropped an entire album, and not just an EP, I thought I’d do a short & sweet review. Nothing crazy, no ratings or anything, just for fun
Overall Impressions: it’s a fun, if incredibly niche, holiday album. They know their audience, and they’re playing directly to them. I feel like they struck a good balance between parodies and original compositions. I love that each cast member got their own song, even those that may not be as confident in their singing. The ballads really stand out, and end up being 3 of my top 4 songs
Track 1: Winter’s Crest Welcome (spoken word by Matt Mercer): a nice little intro/lore dump. I think it’s cool that Winter’s Crest is going international (likely thanks to Taste of Tal’Dorei lbr)
Track 2: Winter’s Crest Festival Time (Matt Mercer as Pumat Sol): when I tell you this song has been in my head for weeks. Fun and catchy and a little silly. Matt sounds great even in a goofy character voice. The bridge where he’s in (I think) four part harmony with himself? Wild
Track 3: Silent Mind (Laura Bailey as Imogen Temult): my favorite song off the album, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I knew Laura could sing, but goddamn. Chills
Track 4: Naughty & Nice (Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt): Sam has such a great voice for a jazzy, sexy song like this. And they really nailed the vibe, I knew it was a Scanlan song immediately
Track 5: Nothin’ Under the Tree (Taliesin Jaffe as Ashton Greymoore): this song rocks, pun fully intended. I never knew I needed a Christmas song I could headbang to until now. And Taliesin sounds fantastic. I fucking love it
Track 6: O Mighty Nein (Liam O’Brien as Caleb Widogast): oh, Liam, my heart. This song is so sweet and beautiful, and I was almost in tears by the end
Track 7: Twelve Days of Grogmas (Travis Willingham as Grog, feat. Ashley Johnson as Pike): it’s fun, it’s stupid, it’s catchy as hell. Another earworm that’s been in my head since it dropped. It is so perfectly Grog, and Pike’s little asides are the icing on the cake
Track 8: Cold Inside (Marisha Ray as Laudna, feat. Matt Mercer as Pate, Sam Riegel as FCG, Travis Willingham as Chetney, and Laura Bailey as Imogen): knowing that Marisha is likely the cast member that is least confident in their singing abilities, I’m so glad she did this song. Laudna is the perfect vehicle too, her character voice is more distinct than Keyleth or Beau, and she has a flair for the dramatic that Marisha can really lean into without worrying about how she sounds. For a song that people were advertising as an Imodna song, I wasn’t expecting it to be so funny. I think my favorite bit was the deadpan “I think that’s just arson, Chetney”. And then Imogen coming in at the end, you can just hear the eye roll and the fond smile
Track 9: Winter Anymore (Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nydoorin): this song is so achingly tender and yearning. Ashley has such a gorgeous voice, I’m in awe. I was initially unsure if she was singing as Yasha or Pike, but I love that the lyrics could apply to both. I love that despite the overall sadness of the song, there’s still an air of hope
Track 10: Deck the Bear (Liam O’Brien as Vax’ildan and Laura Bailey as Vex’ahlia, feat. the rest of the cast as Vox Machina and Matt Mercer as Trinket): another silly, goofy one, though admittedly this one is my least favorite from the album. I do like the ensemble song, and Matt’s bear noises are incredible as always (will he ever feature in a song not in a character voice? spoiler alert: yes lol)
Track 11: It’s Critmas (Critical Role cast as themselves): yet another earworm. This was tied with Silent Mind for my favorite song from the EP, and it’s still definitively in the top 4. Again, I love the ensemble, and everyone getting their moment. It’s catchy, it’s fun. It’s Critmas
Do you have any theories or possible what-ifs about where Pikelan could go from the end of S3. Obviously the live show already has them together, but just from the set up in Season 3 going into the time-skip into Season 4 + All of the future Whispered One teases, what do you think will happen?
love your posts btw
Ok so I do think there’s going to be some friction between them but honestly I think so much hinges on what duration of the time-skip we see on screen. Like are we reuniting in the first set, are we reuniting halfway through, are we reuniting then splitting up again, etc… It also again makes me wonder if we’re going to have more direct open communication about how things were left. Not necessarily in a romantic way or anything, but like I wonder if Pike is gonna voice her hurt or if Scanlan is gonna voice why he pushed her away, and if so how soon will it happen. I like how the shows writing handles their relationship with a little more nuance than the others, like we as the audience can deduce why there’s such loose ends between them, but in the story they haven’t quite figured that out or directly addressed it. Both of them still have personal issues going on and I think the idea of family and what it means is going to play a big part in next season.
As I mentioned before I also think we’re going to see a lot of Pike re-confronting her faith with the Everlight and how it relates to not only her blood, but also how she views her role in the group as the person that feels the need to “redeem”. If she’s targeted by the cult, will it be something she confronts by herself? What if she’s captured or they try to sway her, will she use that to confront the Everlight? Maybe Pike’s situation is what changes Scanlan’s perspective too, bc I do also wonder what could help Scanlan see how valuing his relationship with his daughter doesn’t have to come at the cost of all other relationships in his life, and that he doesn’t have to determine his worth purely based on that. I do hope next season as a whole let’s the gnomes figure out a lot of their self worth and identity issues and reach more closure, bc again the way they isolate themselves in more subtle/nuanced ways than the others was always one of the most fascinating aspects of their characters and dynamic to me.
Sorry this is less theories and more just random thoughts and questions, I’m bad at organizing my thoughts so I only ever have vague theories lol but I’m super curious in wherever we’re headed.
Also thank you so much it makes me happy seeing people enjoying my pikelan posting! I swear those two have gotten a HOLD on me especially recently
BravoAlmara @bravoalmara-blog - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
areudirty
pixelskylines
kianamaiart
gracieabrams
