[a-very-tired-bee]

Occtis Tachonis, hated and murdered by his family, standing in the place where he was resurrected with a friend who cared for him so deeply that his first disguise of the campaign was basically her son and realizing that he was born here, in a way. That maybe the family you find for yourself can mean more than the one you came from. And he meditates there.

[see-arcane]

Otto: Are you sure you aren't an Einfasen? Ha ha

(Azune leaves the premises)

Otto @ any of his brothers present, all sweating: Whose. Right now. I'm not mad, I just want to know.

[pipperoo]

Critical Role: Campaign 4 Council of Heroes

[navpike]

actually looking through the information we have about the people of araman and the sundered houses and i’ve realized that there are like no orcs represented in any of these positions of great power that control the world’s political machinations

and it makes the halovar’s control over and manipulations of hal’s theater even more despicably evil because that is the site of the rungjani’s suffering. it’s the site where their people were forced into worship and where they are trying to reclaim their history and a bunch of human houses blessed by the gods (who are dead and gone and who cares about them anyway), are throwing their weight around with it. the council, or the chamber of the lords advisory decided whether or not hal got this site. the halovar are deciding what history gets told there. not a single orc is involved in that decision making. and when thaisha calls this out, that it’s her people’s history and truth that yanessa’s reshaping, she’s completely dismissed, despite the fact that she is right and also her family name should give her a level of status that the halovar should respect, if not consider an equal (not that she should need that status to be listened to).

it’s despicably evil. and as brennan says “YOU CAN’T PROVE THERE’S ALLEGORY HERE”

[guidingb0lt]

CRITICAL ROLE 4X28: Chasing Shadows

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

As an archivist, Taliesin's description of Bolaire asking his coworkers to classify objects & artifacts with 3 different systems, via handwritting ("it doesn't have to be readable"), and basically pulling a Rose Valland hiding the collections of the French museums from nazis during the Second World War, I was laughing, crying and being impressed.

[trailertrashgrog]

ok no it's just bothering me way too much i have to say something because i feel like maybe people don't have a firm read on what the point of the lloy family expressing reticence towards forging a sword for someone willing to pay them a bunch of money actually is.

i have seen at least one post that was like "it's ONE SWORD just MAKE IT!" and that's so beyond the pale of not the point. this is a family who, in living memory, forged weapons that killed a god. the orcs spurned a worldwide rebellion that fundamentally altered reality and freed their people, and tbh the entire world, from gods who subjugated them for thousands of years.

it is entirely believable and understandable that the sons and granddaughters of that legacy do not particularly enjoy clout chasing poseurs with money wanting to drop ludicrous amounts of gold for the honor of saying they own a "lloy sword." they're likely not an orc. they want to exploit something incredibly meaningful to post-shaper orcs just to have a sword to hang in their castle and gloat about. it's harmless, probably, to give some rich guy a sword and take his money, but you understand why the lloys also might not enjoy doing it, right?

it's wholly understandable that the lloys don't enjoy their reputation as the family who armed the heroes who slew azgra being reduced to bragging rights for some rich guy who has no connection to their culture or the shapers war. that's an entirely understandable and morally correct stance for them to have. even if they do take the money and make the sword, it's clear they use their money to fund public works projects that the wealthy (too busy buying lloy swords, i guess) don't help fund.

this also factors into why the pariah blades are in a museum, where the public of kahad can see them and respect what they mean, and why bolaire's instinct of "saying the lloys want them back will keep them away from the bad guys" was correct

much like amariya cormoray, these people buying lloy swords don't really respect the weight of what the pariah blades are and what they, and the lloy family, mean. they just see them as a piece of history they want to own, because they think they can own the world. questioning why the lloys didn't seem to particularly enjoy popping out swords for rich folks is just... not even trying to understand the scene presented to you

[your-turn-to-role]

it's also very much a theme that's just present throughout this whole campaign, of the amount of different groups who want to do good things for the good of the world, vs the sundered houses who would chain up the stars just to own them if they could

murray being from a culture where those who are better off make a point of selflessly helping others, doing good in the community for the sake of the community, without making anyone prove they're worthy of help - and being radicalised bc her attempt to do that got co-opted by house cormoray seeing her entire culture as an easy source of free labour

someone in my notes the other day (i forget who, apologies, but i've been Thinking about it) described the old path as fantasy doctors without borders in an effort to understand who the druids are and what they're doing better, and yeah i think that hits the nail on the head! they're unaffiliated with any specific power or government, but they can go wherever and be generally respected, because people around the world know they're here to help, in whatever way they can

(which is getting on the wrong side of one specific sundered house whose power relies on the exploitation the druids are trying to fix)

even aabria saying thaisha's teenage interest in being a jewellery maker was less her starting a business and more having a creative outlet feels relevant to me, because she's grown up in a family that knows money isn't nearly as important as what you put into the world, and she wanted to make pretty things for people - whether or not she got paid for it was secondary

the lloys have power and influence despite not being nobles because of their skill, and they'll use that power and influence to help others without even thinking about it! not just the big things like saving the world, but we saw in that very scene you're talking about that making a sword isn't the problem, they gave hal a new one immediately

(and the reason this is a debate is because they know selling a sword is still money they could then funnel towards doing good in the community)

but letting their craftsmanship be squandered by someone who will gain nothing from having a lloy sword except more prestige still sets a dangerous precedent, and there are lloys who've been in this world long enough to know better

[your-turn-to-role]

biggest tragedy of occtis being a sheltered noble and also 8 years old in this scene is he presumably has not been subjected to the whole don't succumb to peer pressure with drugs and alcohol lecture the rest of us got at school, which is a shame because he's the only kid ever who's actually experiencing it

[your-turn-to-role]

"not for the first time, occtis tachonis lets a woman with a crush on him walk out the door" oh BEAUTIFUL

[moonybear]

if i were nullus i'd be pissed too when my chud son can't kill the revolution leader correctly and now his soul, the one thing your family can control, rolled behind the couch. or make a celestial out of the 240-months old ingredients son because you decided to wing the recipe. or even eliminate weakest sundered house after already preventing their reinforcements and ambushed them with no warning. the coolest thing your son did was palm someone's skull like a basketball and still failed.

tachonis house of overconfident loser men

[sisterofsylandri]

If you're going to in, we're going to need a way of getting you out if everything goes to shit.

No, you don't.

We really-- You're too important.

Campaign 4, Episode 28 - Chasing Shadows

[argan314]

[At some point in the future]

Occtis: Wait, so your sister risked her life to save you even though you were on opposite sides?

Azune: We promised to protect each other. We're family. Your siblings would—

Occtis, who just helped decapitate his cousin: Nope.

[chipthekeeper]

Thimble & Occtis being inseparable and supportive

[iceguessie]

There’s something so painful and sad and realistic about Demodus not getting to “actually graduate.”

He came from nothing, he studied his ass off, worked any job he could take, and magic was the one thing he had to his name.

And through no real fault of his own, he doesn’t get to see it through, to reap the benefits. And it’s not fair.

Sure, a diploma is just parchment. Sure, growing into adulthood is an entirely different thing from simply graduating. But there’s also something real about holding the proof of your labors.

Demodus deserved to graduate. To finish his thesis. To be himself. And that got robbed from him.

Like it gets robbed from people all the time.

[mareastrorum]

Occtis: You didn't do a crime if you never showed up.

Cyd: 🤨

Cyd: 😮

Cyd: I want you to be my lawyer.

[sassy-cass-16]

one last wild theory that i'm throwing out before i go to bed: i don't think elves were ever naturally able to reproduce. i think hannan describing the process of praying to sylandri to have a child is legit the only way elves could be born. i don't think she took anything, i think just the mechanics of elf creation died with her.

because like. if sylandri's people just don't naturally die, and they're able to freely reproduce over potentially multiple thousands of years, you'd run into absolutely wild elf overpopulation within a couple centuries at most. cause theoretically the shapers would've been attempting to keep a balance with each other, and maybe that was a condition of sylandri getting to shape her perfect immortal dolls in the first place. maybe. i don't know.

it's 3:30 in the morning i don't know if this makes sense goodnight

[cassafrasscr]

Not gonna lie, I'm kinda glad Demodus called Murray out on the way she's been treating him.

Is he young and inexperienced? Yes. Is he a bit naive/too trusting? Maybe. Is he a Silly Goose? Abso-fucking-lutely.

But he is NOT a fucking idiot, and he’s a full-ass adult. If he’s a grad student, he’s minimum early twenties, maybe mid-twenties. Probably older than Occtis by at least a couple years, and not THAT much younger than Azune, Wick and Julien. Decidedly NOT a child in the way Murray's been treating him.

I especially loved Brennan highlighting how Demodus' experience as a gnome makes him KEENLY aware of how danger surrounds him every day.

He's SMALL - literally, like, in terms of game mechanics. People can and do just pick him up and move him around without even thinking about it. Average-sized people can carry him around without suffering a penalty to their movement speed, which means he's easy to just snatch. He's already been kidnapped once (that we know of).

Murray may be a dwarf, but dwarves still qualify as Medium creatures in DnD. Most people who might try to kidnap her will have to move half their movement speed while they carry her (unless they're classified as Large or bigger creatures). And, while I doubt that this is in anyway Murray's intention (she mostly focuses specifically on Demodus being young rather than small), the relative size difference contributes to a certain ableist undercurrent that runs beneath her treatment of him.

Every day, Demodus has to navigate a world full of people who could (and might) quite literally crush him under their feet. By accident or otherwise. He knows how best to navigate those challenges and how to protect himself in most circumstances. He only slipped up and got in so much trouble this time because an institution he trusted (the Penteveral) advertised a good-paying job offered by the Tachonises that turned out to be a ruse in service to a larger, more nefarious plot. And once he realized exactly what he'd gotten himself into, he split.

Remember, Demodus actually managed to evade the Tachonises entirely! The only a reason he got caught by the Crowkeepers was because he trusted Pimley (another gnome, notably, someone who should have understood and empathized with his everyday struggles) to help him. And Pimley turned around and sold him out.

Demodus knows perfectly well how much danger he's in and how to take it seriously, even if he maintains an air of levity through everything. The humor is a coping mechanism. If he doesn't laugh, he's going to cry. Better to take what joy you can, where you can find it - not just in spite of the horrors, but because of them.

He might be a bit of a clown, but he’s not an idiot, and he's not a child. He's perfectly capable of making serious, informed decisions about his life, and I'm glad he called Murray out for treating him otherwise.