[friendly-animals]

[pearwaldorf]

Some thoughts on the Amazon/Tales of Vox Machina deal

(This is not an attempt to forestall wank, although I’m sure there will be, because fandom gonna fandom.)

I think it’s reasonable to assume that the Critical Role brand/enterprise/whatever you want to call it is capable of sustaining itself with its current content strategy. They’ve been growing slow and steady in a reasonable way, with some licensing agreements that bring in extra cash. 

In this current political and economic climate, I don’t think it’s useful to accuse anybody of selling out or being a corporate shill because no ethical consumption under capitalism and all that. You gotta keep the lights on in the studio, pay your people (which is more than just the cast/Brian), and buy bird food and diapers for your dependents. 

I think they’re doing it for the chance to reach outside of their normal audience. We know they’re popular (the live show numbers certainly show that), but outside of certain circles, there’s a very good chance nobody has a clue who they are. 

Imagine you’re a random person scrolling through what’s available on Amazon Prime. You might be vaguely familiar with D&D or TTRPGs, you might not. Maybe you’re just bored and need something to watch. Maybe you’re having a shit time of it for whatever reason (depression, family problems, illness; all things I’ve known people have watched CR to deal with). And this show about these weirdo fuck-up disasters figuring their stuff out and becoming a found family comes into your life. 

It could be a small, needed reprieve from thinking about the bad stuff you have to deal with. It could be a thing that worms its way into your heart, and leads you to new hobbies and friends. It could be the thing you hang on to so you don’t kill yourself. 

Maybe you tell this to the cast, maybe you don’t. They get so many messages like this. But knowing someone, somewhere out there has been touched by a thing you made with your friends, put love and work into? As a creator, I can’t think of a more satisfying reward than that.

[giantsnweretigersnbugbearsohmy]

OP made some great points here, and I’m just gonna piggyback a little bit. In addition to being able to support their existing company employment base,  consider that by having Critical Role on Amazon, they are able to be job creators, and to help people support their families. And yes, Amazon is a horrible company that treats their warehousing and distribution employees like crap. I don’t know how much connection or how much say the Prime side of things has to that division of the business, nor do I know how the Prime side deals with their own employees. What I do know is that hosting/ partnering/ funding normally enables a lot of independence in the creation of projects, so long as the final product fulfills the specified brief. That means the Critical Role team are able to ensure that through their funnel, employment for CR remains ethical and supportive, instead of exploitative. 

However, as OP notes, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and honestly, Critical Role, above all, is a business that needs to remain viable. When it’s goal is to reach as many viewers as possible, there are considerations to be made, including sponsorship, hosting platforms, and so forth. Most streaming giants have at least some problematic facets to them, and yes, Amazon is a garbage company. But if you watch things on Twitch, you support Amazon. If you order from them online, you support Amazon. Even if you watch Critical Role on Youtube, you support a problematic streaming giant. Again, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and you can’t expect Critical Role, who are very good about remaining unproblematic faves, to be pristine and pure and free from the capitalist dystopia we find ourselves in. If you consume their media, it’d be hard pressed for you to be doing so in a purely non-capitalist supporting, fully ethical way – and you know what they say about people in glass houses throwing stones.

OP also really hits the home-run when they mention that this show reaching a wider audience can hopefully bring more joy and bridge the gap for someone who needs a show like this, for whatever reason. That’s also not nothing. That has value, that has worth. It is good and important. 

Art saves lives. 

But art needs to have reach, it needs to be viewed, it can’t live in a bubble, especially a TV show. so by denying the good CR may do for others (and denying the good it has done for many before it hits Amazon) simply because of its hosting and funding platform, you deny many people the opportunity to experience the joy that CR has given you. 

Anyways, that’s all I wanted to say on the matter before it starts hitting my dash.

[pearwaldorf]

#Critical Role#Critical role getting picked up by Amazon Prime#Once more for the people at the back#THERE IS NO ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER LATE STAGE CAPITALISM#WE ARE ALL COMPLICIT#and expecting a cool company of unproblematic faves to somehow exist in a demi-plane outside of capitalism#where they don’t need to fund and grow their business#is a very narrow-minded and hella self-righteous perspective#not to mention the fact that it shows a fundamental inability to understand how BUSINESSES work#like just at a basic level (giantsnweretigersnbugbearsohmy)

[ofyourshadow-blog]

[just-sly]

Re-blogging ‘cause I think everyone could use this at one point in there life or another.

[jehovahhthickness]

I needed this 4 years ago

[saltwaffle]

full offense but none of you would have ever survived fanfiction.net in 2009

[rizaoftheowls]

bold of you to assume I was not forged in that dark crucible

[xbxnsmymmym-deactivated20240828]

They be over there drawing dem perfect circles

[flashinqlights]

ok so there’s a game me and my friends play called “don’t get me started” and basically someone gives another person a random topic and they have to go on an angry rant about it and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us at parties and car rides so I highly recommend playing sometimes with your friends

[blueandbluer]

I love this idea. We used to do things like this in Improv.

[whatyouwanted-whatyougot]

Related game: “THINK ABOUT IT.” You’re given a random topic, and your job is to build it into an epic conspiracy theory, the crazier the better. You end your rant with a serious face and the command that your listeners “Think about it.” 

[astrojukebox]

Another related game: Illuninati. Similar to Think About It except you are given 2 completely different topics and you have to connect them to each other in a wild conspiracy rant

[a-simpler-life]

Rb to safe an awkward hang out

[lesbiandeweyfinn-deactivated201]

me and my friends play “World’s Greatest Expert” where one of the other players says “Hey, I heard you’re the world’s greatest expert on ____” and you have to give an in depth (and probably completely false) lecture about the thing you’re the greatest expert on. Other players are allowed to ask you questions.

[asapwalky]

let's do some "we shouldn't be doing this" things together

[impishglee]

growing up is just gradually learning progressively crazier shit abt your family that they didn’t tell you when u were a kid

[dare-i-say-asexual]

The stories of women in my family who were forced into lives they didn’t want and didn’t utilize their passions breaks my heart. My grandma wanted to be a journalist and write about the injustices she saw inflicted on disabled ppl while she was volunteering at a state run institution as a teen. Her father decided that she was “too fat and stupid” for college and forced her to get married at 17 or else he’d make her homeless. As a kid she told me that she wished people believed that she had meaningful opinions on events around her. One of my great grandmothers wanted to be an artist but was pressured into marrying a man who beat her. She stayed up late each night when her children were in bed writing poetry and pasting it over elaborate collages she mad herself. We still have stacks of these notebooks she created but was never allowed to do anything with. My mother wanted to be an operatic singer and was considered a musical prodigy in her town because she taught herself three seperate instruments by 13. When she was 18 she met my then 30 year old father who emotionally manipulated her into giving up her dreams to start a family with him. As a kid I would hear her up at night playing the violin or doing vocal exercises until she became too depressed to practice anymore. Like idk y’all there’s a quiet type of violence in the way women’s talents are devalued and brushed aside in favor of bullying them into “traditional” roles that ultimately don’t fulfill what they wanted for their lives. We’ve lost so much art, music, writing, science, and happiness to misogyny.

[tehkusogaki]

And then men will smugly ask “Well where are all the great women artists, writers, scientists, etc, then?” while they think that they are so great despite not personally contributing to improve mankind in any way because other men have.

[theminingengineer]

[jvedi-blog]

fashionably late? more like anxiously early

[queerlittlecreature-deactivated]

I will get to class 20 mins early and still be anxious

[iamwomanking]

Because no one else is there yet & is this the right place?? are you here the wrong day??

[allieinarden]

Over the Garden Wall is great because you can watch the entire thing in an hour and fifty minutes and then think about it nonstop for the rest of your life.

[peterlewis]

frustrating trying to b goth when ur skin isnt pale

[garlicsaucewithdahomies-deactiv]

GOTH HAS NO COLOR. DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT. I BELIEVE IN YOU.

[etakeh]

FYI that first pic? Yes a photoshoot, not a one-off though.  Theresa. 

Every picture more stunning than the one before.

[decembersiris]

There’s more!!!!! Goth queens!

[vr-trakowski]

There was someone on LJ back in the day whose icon said “So Goth I was born black” and I always admired that.  

[tchaikovskaya]

people who arent punctual freak me out im so stressed. what do you mean the event starts at 6 and you’ll pick me up at 5:50 even though I live 20 minutes from the venue? what do you mean being 10 minutes late is “no big deal”? what if there’s no parking and nowhere to sit? what then? i need to be there at 5:45 just to be sure and you’re like Oh Whatever Dude... ARE YOU OKAY

[goawfma]

i feel like we don’t talk about things like this enough

[liberalsarecool]

I can see Jeff Bezos with his cardboard panhandling sign already. “Lost a fraction of a fraction of my never decreasing wealth. Please give me your spare thousands.”

[captainevans]

“did chris evans actually jump that high to grab onto that helicopter in civil war?”

friendly reminder that chris vaulted with ease over chris pratt after just telling him less than a minute before that he would be able to clear him if he only put his head down.

[glynnisi]

[byebyeskylark]

I want a Celebrity Obstacle Course show where all the pretty people can show off their hard stunt work for us and also occasionally eat it, because they need to be humbled sometimes. The judges would be career stunt people, to give them visibility, because they work even harder. Shirts optional.

[tygermama]

You wouldn’t even finish the phrase “Celebrity Ninja Warrior” before Chris would start jumping up and doing yelling “Me! Me! Pick me!”

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Anyone know how to contact Netflix about this?

[musicalninja]

friendly reminder Chris did most of his stunts bc the stunt guys couldn’t move like him.

“One thing we found, too, is Chris can run very fast. He also has a very unique run. It’s almost a dancer’s run. And when we tried to double him for running, there was nobody who could run like him. They just didn’t have the same dynamics or the way he moves. He had to end up doing most of his running.”

“What we also found, is that we had gymnasts come in to do things, and Chris could do the same stuff that they could do, but it would look like Chris Evans. When the body doubles or the gymnasts or the runners did it, it just didn’t look like him. He has such a unique way of moving, and he could pretty much do all of his own physical stuff that wasn’t dangerous. Like this shot right here, we had a gymnast do this, and Chris actually ended up doing it better. That’s Chris here. He hops up on a tank and over a 12-foot wall. It looks effortless but it’s not that easy!”

“Chris worked his butt off for four months doing gymnastics and stunt training so in a scene like this he could go toe-to-toe with Georges St-Pierre and make it look really credible. Once the helmet comes off, 95% of that is Chris, except obviously for that massive aerial kick that he does. I think he did a fantastic job.”

gifs and commentary (blu-ray) above from @sherloques Rehearsal above from @dailymarvel

The really cool thing about Chris Evans is that he’s a super talented, athletic guy. He retains things amazingly well. I mean, I’m blown away. I can show him a 15-punch fight two times, and he’s got it. - Thomas Harper, Stunt Coordinator, CATWS

gifs & commentary from @bealeeve-me

gifs from @aguaman 

[angryschnauzer]

[kaldannan]

*happy sigh*

[scottishvix]

@littlesnowarrow

[brat-the-wurst-deactivated20231]

[avengersnewb]

Look at that arc and the exceptional way he throws (or maybe memes the throw) and the way he twists and the way his hand finishes off.

It’s a perfect dance move, but just better.

[silentauroriamthereal]

This guy. Seriously.

[1electricpirate]

i could not love him more except somehow now i do

[starrynightshade]

To simplify, Chris Evans does things the way he does because he was a dancer. IIRC, his mother is actually a dance teacher. Knowing this explains pretty much everything about the way he moves.

His posture? It screams ballet training.

His jumps? I’ll tell you a secret. If you watch the second gif closely, you’ll see that he uses his feet to give himself extra leverage when he jumps. Again, all dance training. Most athletes don’t jump like this. In fact, there was one guy in particular that went to my ballet school and also played in his HS football team. His teammates flipped when they saw his vertical because he used this same technique to jump those few extra inches higher.

“He retains things amazingly well.” Fight scenes are just choreography, my guy. There’s been study after study showing what dance does to your brain and one of the most notable benefits is improved memory. Why? Because dancers have to remember choreography for weeks or months at a time and they have to learn it pretty quickly.

In conclusion, not only would Chris Evans absolutely own at celebrity ninja warrior, he would also be fantastic on Dancing with the Stars.