amaze amaze amaze

basil. adult. he/they. icon credit. why do we tell stories?

[pollen]

happy Barely Keeping It Together Wednesday to all who celebrate

[reineyday]

always a delight to watch travis react to brennan playing a weird and unhinged character dialed up to 20

[magemance]

"How do you do it?" "There's not really a choice."

[vandambach]

Day 6: Taryon Darington! 🍰 🤖

[gros-chat-fait]

Heard through the grapevines the cats were doing this... whatever this was.

[utilitycaster]

jokes are fine but like...I do find the dismissal of the soldiers to feel like a poor understanding of the campaign as a whole and last episode specifically. Like, yeah, Teor and Kattigan don't have a ton to add to a conversation specifically about whether Thjazi would have done some elaborate arcane machinations in the theater, because they're not primary spellcasters or experts in afterlife cosmology nor had they recently been close to Thjazi or intimately familiar with the intriciacies of post-Rebellion Sundered House politics. Teor doesn't particularly wish to deal with demons and Kattigan isn't particularly familiar with the Candescent Creed, so their primary role in the episode is to serve as backup should things go south. Sometimes, the smartest thing to do is watch and listen if you are not an expert in the topic, rather than run your mouth in ignorance. I think Kattigan said as much this past episode, and I think he had it in one.

[utilitycaster]

was asked to elaborate on my tags so: #also the fandom has ALWAYS embraced explicit ableism directed towards Travis so it's sadly typical if frustrating to see it resurface. I talked a bit in the replies as well but:

Travis first mentioned he had ADHD quite early in Campaign 1 when there were two conversations going on at once (in terms of saying he had trouble processing it). This is a very common ADHD symptom. I mentioned it on this post because I think it's very reasonable to assume that in addition to Travis not talking much as Teor because Teor legitimately, as a character, had little to add to that specific conversation (as discussed above), I would not be surprised if Travis is not really a "let's jump into the 13-person table talk that is already not very much a thing my character would add to" kind of guy because, as we saw, a lot of people were talking, frequently simultaneously. I do not think everyone joking about this is being shitty (and I know newer fans might not be aware Travis has ADHD) but to dismiss Teor outright as a joke character instead of saying "hm. I wonder why someone might not talk during the giant 13 person conversation for legitimate reasons" is not leaving a good taste in my mouth.

For some reason, and I was very much at the frontlines of this during Campaign 2 and in the leadup to Campaign 3, people in the CR fandom, which in my experience has been generally pretty neurodivergent-friendly (and indeed itself pretty neurodivergent) have consistently been completely comfortable saying shit like "Travis's head will explode if he tries to play a druid" or treating all of his characters except Fjord as stupid joke characters he can use to fuck around. In particularly unpleasant cases, they will even treat Fjord as a character he only made to make Laura happy and not like, an extremely thoughtfully and deliberately crafted character that is both a means to play more seriously and with more emotional depth after Grog - who, I should note, was created for a one-shot for the first time he played D&D and just happened to end up, through a series of events, as his character in what became Critical Role - and in conversation with his own feelings about fatherhood at a time when he was expecting a child having lost his own father in his teens.

It was not just common to see people calling Travis or Fjord stupid during Campaign 2 for things they would never call out other cast members for (eg, forgetting character abilities during the first ten episodes of a new campaign; not knowing everything about boats). It was considered weird and even hostile of you to push back on this. If you said "I think Travis should play a wizard at some point," someone literally would just come on your post and be like "I don't think he could. I don't think he's smart enough."

Now I think the root cause for this behavior during Campaign 2 and 3 was partly people equating players with their Vox Machina characters and partly backlash against the misogynist Reddit/YouTube comment types who decided Travis and Sam (and Taliesin with Percy but no one else) were the only valid players, even though said chuds have long been pretty irrelevant to the fandom conversation. I think since mid-Campaign 3 it's more commonly come from people who specifically hate that a lot of Campaign 3's sharpest and most persistent critics, myself included, are fans of Travis, who is in fact an incredibly strong and versatile actual player who happens to have ADHD. As discussed here, that sort of fan only cares about bigotry to win fandom arguments. But regardless of the cause, it's always been wild to me how immediately an unconscionably large proportion of the CR fandom will jump to "haha Travis and his characters are all so stupid and impulsive! no it's ok! It's because he has ADHD." and then turn around and be like "oooh! I have some neurodivergent headcanons about my most special guy, and if you don't agree with them then do you hate neurodivergent people? do you hate me? Are you bad and evil?"

[hana-sketch]

It's been over 20 episodes and I'm still not over that scene

[papanowo]

happy pride to these FREAKS

[loliwobbles]

“Careful.”

(C4 episode 5 Branching Paths)

Art by @loliwobbles

[littlenimart]

Vaelus warmup that turned into an whole thing

[undead-knick-knack]

[drawwithouttalent]

convergence

[screechfoxes]

CRITICAL ROLE 4.27 Complicated Questions

[revvethasmythh]

normal show #NormalShow

[havingapoemwithyou]

Against Empire by Jim Moore

[lappuncheung]

27 Knife and Palette

[pawthorn]

Truly, the level of reclamation and the build-up of Hal’s play is giving me chills.

The Pariah blades are no longer hidden away in a museum. They’ve been soaked in the freed blood and spirit of the people who forged and wielded them.

They are in the hands of Rungjani, clanging in the streets of Dol-Makjar, calling the people to witness a story.

The Hallowed Round is also covered in the liberated blood of Rungjani. Blood held captive for centuries now shapes the forms and faces of Rungjani, captives who strove and died, but did not fail, because their rebellion was a step forward on the path toward freedom.

The play is going forward, with no influence from the Creed. Everyone in the city will see it in its true form— a story of rebellion.

It makes me think of the Falconer’s Rebellion, another failed rebellion. Two rebellions that failed with the fall of a single great man.

But there were nine blades used in the Rebellion that succeeded. Decades later, the Lloy name is held in highest honor as the creators of the Blades, not the wielders.

It makes me think of Uli saying, “I know now that those who sang songs in this place, even if the words were meant to soothe [Azgra’s] wrath and keep our lives in propitiating his fury; the melody, the dance, the fury and the passion, that was always for us.”

It makes me think of Demodus, saying that things have to start as an illusion first.

It makes me think of Thaisha, speaking a Rungjani blessing, blessing the Conqueror, “for in his appetite, he saw Aramán forever changed from what it was to what it might be. A blessing to him, then, that the Rungjani reject peace in favor of a dream.”

Why do we tell stories?

I think I know. And I’m very excited for opening night.