Critical Role Liveblog side-blog

side blog of @Brandedfool profile picture is a placeholder

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I finally caught up on Critical Role and they're taking a break this week. This ALWAYS happens to me

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I have been out of the loop for a bit on CR, but I have to say I chose my profile picture for this blog CORRECTLY. I don't know what goes on in Taliesin's freaky brain, but Bolaire is possibly my favorite character of all time. Especially now that he's losing it a little bit and is outwardly angry and Thjazi and how he was treated by him. Just put it in my veins please. I love him.

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I have finally caught up again!! Now I can suffer in real time with everyone else

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I am a little disappointed that we aren't getting a schemer's table arc. I thought for sure that was where we were headed

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Wait so are we... Not going back in time? Are we picking up from the present, meaning we're going to miss a bunch of time of this group traveling?

That is an Insane choice. I do not agree at all.

[criticalrolebrandy]

I am a little disappointed that we aren't getting a schemer's table arc. I thought for sure that was where we were headed

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My Heartrate!! Aaah!

Brennan you can't just do that

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Is Tyranny's warlock patron just Wick?????

[doomdoombot]

Seekers: dead kid, overprotective druid mom, badass elf, bastard man who wants to kill dead kid’s family and will fight anyone who tries to stop him, and Our Lady Aranessa Royce

Schemers: actor the ENTIRE CITY is in love with, mask who is his bff and in love with him and put a hit out on his brother, super smart super cool teacher who mixes metaphors, and the only genuinely kind and good cop in Dol-Makjar

Soldiers: limp wrist nepo baby, demon who is just happy to be here and in love with him, Kimba the White Lion, if Tinker Bell could say fuck, and the drunk Wolfman who is just vibing

[mockingmolly]

doctors hate this no. 1 trick to get your adventuring party to like you

[undead-knick-knack]

[starwheat]

Wicander at the end of episode 2

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A new hand touches the beacon

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IT DID WHAT?!

[raptorix]

A screenshot of a screenshot, lol.

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I don't know how to respond to this. I am amused and mortified.

[waichublue]

me n the gang tryna overthrow the government but also we got employment in a few hours

[criticalrolebrandy]

A new hand touches the beacon

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IT DID WHAT?!

[very-small-giant]

Mask in a play

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

Now that we know Alex built the character with the full intention of having him murdered and raised as a Hollow One onscreen, the fact that Occtis is in his early twenties (and the sole member of the cast to be that young) was an incredibly evocative choice on his part.

The way the other characters, especially Vaelus and Thaisha, interacted with him in episodes 1 through 3, along with Alex's own roleplay of the character really served to highlight just how young the guy is. He's awkward at a funeral because he's never had to attend one before. He panics and hypes himself up and thanks Vaelus for appearing during the barfight in episode 2, making it pretty clear he's new to this kind of thing too. Thaisha calls him a child despite his protests about being adult. Vaelus, after becoming interested in Pincushion, starts following him around and positioning herself as his older bodyguard. Even from the NPCs, Aranessa quite explicitly refers to Occtis as a boy when requesting Julien fetch him and bring him to the Palazzo Davinos. It's quite telling overall of how he's presented in these episodes that fandom chatter about Occtis very very frequently framed him as the baby of the group; his relative youth compared to everyone else was very apparent and viewers caught on.

And then in episode 4 he's subject to a horrifying death at the hands of his own older brother, with Alex highlighting for the audience that Occtis died terrified, in pain, and confused as to why Ethrand would do this to him. While he does end up coming back as a Hollow One, it's made very clear in the few minutes we've had with Occtis in his new state that he's very much a walking, self-aware corpse, given that he doesn't need to breathe, is cold to the touch, and doesn't have a heartbeat on account of no longer having a heart (though I suspect he wouldn't have one regardless). And the thing about Hollow Ones is that they're unaging, whatever age they are when they die and return is the age they are until something puts them back in the ground permanently.

So we have a situation where the character who is the youngest of the major cast, who still has a whole life ahead of him as demonstrated by the lives the rest of the cast have lived, suddenly doesn't get to have any of that. Because he was murdered, horribly, by his own family. And while he is still around in some sense, he's never going to get to keep growing up, because he's dead, and that's not something the dead get to do. Occtis Tachonis had his whole life ahead of him before that future was violently snatched away, and I am so excited to sit with the aftermath of that with his character.