#cr discourse

[therosecleric]

critical role fandom has so much antiblackness to unlearn but what's new

[essektheylyss]

I do want to address something that has come up a number of times of late, which is that folks have pointed out that at many junctions, it is clearly a deliberate choice that Essek is not particularly present in Nein live shows content, whether that's being excluded (along with Kingsley, which will be relevant momentarily) from combat at the wedding, or considered largely absent from shows with concepts that otherwise would suggest a larger involvement, like Echoes of the Solstice (though I would argue, and I have, that this is a poor understanding of his narrative role) or, most recently, Projekt Funball (though allegations of his absence were, quite frankly, vastly overrated). And when it comes up there is often a sense, both explicitly and as an underlying implication when not stated outright, that this is because the cast don't care about him or that Matt doesn't like playing him, with a resentment that suggests his fans feel personally snubbed by his absence.

To begin with, this is blatantly false and easily disproved. For one thing, if he was not enjoyed as a character among the cast and Matt didn't care to play him, the animated show would not be structured as it is, to give him such a prominent and interesting role. On top of this, he would not have made as much of an appearance in campaign 3 as he did, wherein he acted as a familiar guide and trusted ally for both the Hells and Vox Machina, something that is only possible because the cast themselves know to trust him, as their other parties would have no context for who he is or why they should take his word. (He's come quite a long way from his original role for the Nein as Official Unreliable NPC!) Even in the finale, when the cast had no idea what else to do in the moment after expending all of the resources their various characters had, they end up turning to Essek, despite the fact that up until that point he hadn't even been present in the scene. Clearly he is a character in Exandria that they enjoy having around and consider an important resource, mechanically and narratively, and during both campaigns 2 and 3, he shows up when it makes sense that he would and even sometimes when it almost doesn't.

In contrast, his presence is minimal in live shows featuring the Nein in particular. I thought about this in the wake of Projekt Funball, in which it almost strains narrative belief that he doesn't venture with the party—obviously there is a reason given, but it would be just as easy to simply not introduce this requirement in the first place, which suggests that there is a different, non-narrative reason for this element to keep him outside. So let's think about why, shall we?

Evidence points to a very simple logistical reason, one that I present in a manner that is only somewhat tongue in cheek: time. (Realistically better described as mechanically efficient, but that's not as funny in context.) Consider that he's present in the first half of the wedding one-shot, and is, quite frankly, freely (and hilariously) chatty, but is not included in the effect that Isharnai uses to drag them into her domain, along with Kingsley. The reason Kingsley is not included is easy to surmise, which is because the complexity of Taliesin having to manage two characters would be fairly time-consuming and mechanically complex, particularly when you add in the fact that the Nein's high-level combats have to be extremely intricate and arcane to pose a challenge—and crucially, during live shows, there is a very hard time limit.

Having attended two live shows with level 20 Nein combat, they are exceedingly long. In general, live shows do tend to run up against their out time, to the point that a common refrain I have heard is that it's a bummer the wrap-up at the end often feels rushed. I suspect that this is also why they've pivoted more toward puzzles and games than extended combat, as well, which are much easier to estimate time for when building the show and simpler to wrap if they do go on too long—and you can see in this cooldown that that's true, because the initial challenge with the intelligence checks was altered on the fly to get them through to the next encounter. And it's worth noting that there simply is not a good way to integrate an allied NPC into those kinds of things, puzzles in particular, because unlike with the unpredictability of combat, puzzles are predicated around the idea that the GM knows the answer, and the players have to be clever enough to find it. (Here it would've been exceedingly silly, quite frankly, to have him more directly involved in the first half.) Even in combat, the intricacies of creating a challenging encounter for the Nein at level 20 that absolutely must be completed in what is usually about two hours is already difficult enough without introducing another turn into the initiative order, and even in this show that was clear, given the hit point threshold was pretty low, but the combat was made more complex by trying to eliminate various members of the Nein from the board rather than landing hits on them. I do not think it's a stretch to say that this is a major factor in what is and isn't included in live shows while trying not to run afoul of venue fines for overtime use.

Essek is both an important person to the party and the players, and also he is still an NPC, and must be considered mechanically as such, and as I've argued many, many times over the years, that is literally fine. Honestly, I'm primarily writing this because I had to push back on similar ideas during the latter half of campaign 2, and they had largely fallen off, but the uptick of this again has been disheartening. At the same time, much like during the same period of campaign 2, it has also felt like there's been an uptick among other fans using these occurrences to either diminish his relevance to the party and cast allusions in the same vein—that he's not really important to the characters or the players, that his presence isn't wanted or valued, usually in an effort to either ignore or erase key themes of the Nein as a party and their campaign, or the themes of individual character arcs that some have soured on or feel, perhaps unconsciously, aren't compatible with the narrative that those fans want to posit about the Nein or another party—and the evidence in the text(s) and around it all point to these perspectives being wrong. Nevertheless, I also understand the frustration some feel when it seems that other fans are consistently hyping up their own faves using this status as fodder, but I do not think it worth my or anyone else's time to cast aspersions on the cast over something that is blatantly untrue.

My point is ultimately that it seems as though discourse has regressed to some of the more unfounded elements of its campaign 2 iterations with, quite frankly, an abundance of evidence to contradict the complaints, both explicit and implicit, in that discourse, in ways that turn fandom discussion from a generative conversation into not a conversation at all but a zero-sum game. Squabbling for perceived scraps of attention makes us all poorer in the end.

[littlebosslady7]

Let’s Do Something the cast should’ve Done and Talk About It

As a D&D and Daggerheart player, I completely understand it as a choice to sideline your cannon of a badass rogue. I’m also aware body horror/dubious content occurred toward other characters.

As a woman who’s been through pregnancy and pregnancy loss, what the fuck? It literally could’ve been anything else — something with Luc since he idolizes the Nein.

8 weeks or 38 weeks, women have the right to choose. Timing doesn’t soften the blow that a man, supposedly her best friend, instantly took away her choice. She has conflicting feelings toward motherhood in general. Veth said in the episode, “I want my freedom!”

Forgive me if this is an over generalization. But sometimes I think the founding cast is too reliant on the fact that they’ve been friends for 14 years at this point (pre-stream). I bring that up because sometimes, again just from my perspective, they use that as an excuse to not talk about aspects of their game that should’ve been discussed beforehand.

They’ve showed us session zeroes before a live show.

Sam should’ve been reminded Veth was pregnant before their flight to Berlin.

“It can’t be that bad” because Veth was being played by a man. Audience feelings aside, news flash both Liam and Sam have daughters. Take a step back and consider how it would look if someone took the person you’re raising choices away.

Also, there are actual moms in the cast. They don’t want to consider their audience because it’s their game. Fine. (I’m not saying it had to be a big meeting in the conference room) But were women consulted at all? Optics aside, having the opinion of friends and people who been through it might had them reconsider their decision for a man to forcibly inflict pain on a woman.

[absintheheartbeat]

The ongoing obsession in this fandom with Caleb Widogast needs to be studied, it's been literal years since the campaign ended. People should seriously start talking more about our lord and savior Imogen Termult instead 😑

[corrya]

Bolaire would genuinely be one of my favourite characters if it seemed like talisen actually saw him as a nuanced character rather than a bit of an asshole who's ultimately in the right

[corrya]

Also, again, on Bolaire. Saying that Hal was in the wrong for getting mad at Bolaire for wearing Misha 'because it hurt Bolaire's feelings' or whatever is crazy, and I cannot keep seeing these posts online. We cannot be looking at a piece of media with such a narrow perspective it's driving me mad.

[chillinglikeashilling]

I will say my one two hot takes about the Bolaire discourse is that while I don't think it's been ruled out in the narrative yet that Thjazi maybe was especially cruel to Bolaire and maybe even that this is being portrayed in the campaign in a way that is meant to mirror real life activists or social movement leaders who have exploited others in their movements

Comparisons to the ways leaders like MLK Jr. and Gandhi treated their wives or others close to them do not actually match up with the explicit distance that Thjazi kept with Bolaire interpersonally. Thjazi didn't even seem to like to be in the same room as Bolaire, so that's a whole other dynamic and one that is not gendered or based on intimate/close relationships in the same way as the former two examples, which I have seen presented, were.

Representation in any fiction, not just actual play, is complicated by the fact that sometimes people are not meaning to or consciously portraying certain elements that are linked to real life groups even though those elements can be read into the performance. It's possible, yes, that Taliesin is portraying Bolaire with a lot of details and nuance as an abuse victim in ways that are not said outright but can be inferred from Bolaire's behavior. If the narrative goes on to confirm this is the case that would be spectacular, it is not guaranteed to be the case. I'm going to give an example that is not related to abuse but is related to how this can be complicated in an ongoing actual play context. Ayda Aguefort in Dimension 20 is a fairly popular NPC and one that did not start out intentionally coded as a portrayal of neurodiversity but was later portrayed intentionally as such (And specifically as autistic). Brennan who plays Ayda has mentioned before that it was after he heard from people who recognized that potential representation in Ayda that he officially incorporated it into the character but, since coding requires intention, I would still say that even as people saw this representation of neurodiversity in the original portrayal it was still not coded into it because Brennan did not intend it to be.

[wee-chlo]

The number of people I've seen act like Hal was the asshole for reacting badly to Bolaire being on the little old man living in his house is truly crazy. Like guys, he has never seen the mask wearing thing go anywhere but poorly. Not every single thing said sideways to Bolaire is some unreasonable attack that reflects poorly on the person doing it.