So, I did go ahead and watch the first two episodes of the new campaign of Critical Role, and I really liked them.
(spoilers below)
The character dynamics are already more interesting to me than they were in the first couple of episodes of CR2, so that’s a good sign (and, sadly, by the time I stopped watching CR2, I really only cared about Caduceus and Lucian/Molly, with my interest in all the other characters basically faded out entirely, though I was happy to hear that Caleb and Essek apparently... sorta?... ended up together). I do think -- hope, I guess -- that a lot of my disinterest was due to how it felt like things never pulled back together again, chemistry-wise and narrative-momentum-wise, after the group came back from hiatus, so as long as that doesn’t happen again, things should hopefully not go off the rails for me for CR3.
Though I do feel like I can finally admit, now that I have more distance from CR2 and, specifically, because I love Fearne so much... oh my god, did I find Yasha boring. Like, occasionally interesting in terms of her friendship with Molly, but otherwise, I just... never found her story or personality particularly compelling, and I think that lack of interest definitely informed my feelings about certain relationship developments in the second half of the ‘season’ of CR2. Fearne has already had more interesting conversations with her partymates after two episodes than I felt like Yasha had... ever... in the entire over-a-hundred episodes of CR2 that I watched. Like, part of my disappointment over BY was because my new-found shipper feels for beaujester got crushed (and so ham-handedly), sure, but part of it was just because... I never got attached to Yasha. So I’m quite excited that I like Fearne so much already.
I really like the backstory elements we’ve learned about the three different groups that make up the party for CR3 -- Orym, Dorian (yay, so glad to see Robbie at the table!), and Fearne feel so bonded, Launda and Imogen have been traveling together for a couple of years (I think!) and their familiarity and care with each other is so touching, and Ashton and Fresh Cut Grass are incredibly sweet together (and I love their character designs a lot!). And Bertrand is hilarious. Again. Still.
Everything also feels more natural with them being allowed to have some narrative connections to CR1. It makes them feel more grounded in the world to me, because Vox Machina were such big-ass heroes that it makes sense that they helped shaped the world that came after them, and we didn’t get that vibe so much from CR2.
Not sure I can pick a favorite character yet (but I think it took about twenty episodes for me to have a favorite in CR2... though Vex was my favorite Real Damn Quick in CR1 and remained my favorite to the end); I have a lot of interest in everyone’s futures so far. I have some hopes that I will experience moments of the intense adoration that I felt during parts of CR1 (though I will not yet try to hope there will be a relationship as good as Perc’ahlia - safer to just assume that romance was lightning in a bottle and not get my hopes up too high, lol), but, yeah, l I feel like I’m looking forward to Thursday again, which is a nice feeling.
