have seen multiple people making critiques of brennan's villains (and it seems kinda paired with handwringing over sorcerers making up the bulk of the villains in campaign 4 thus far) that frankly do not make sense to me. i struggle to understand how you can critique C4's villains as over the top evil or cartoony or flat or whatever in good faith. for one, it has been 31 episodes (out of, presumably, 125+) and the PCs have had, on average, ~15ish sessions of playtime. as the audience, to expect to know the sum total of the current primary villain(s) and all their nuances this early on is unreasonable
this complaint falls apart to me because it's incongruous with any other critical role campaign's villains. like. it's a d&d show. the villains are over-the-top. they're fully irredeemable from the moment they step on screen. they do wildly horrible things. this is a game being played for fun and entertainment. the villains need to also be entertainingly evil at times. and the most recognizable and popular villains of the prior campaigns are largely reprehensible. some of them are highly charismatic. some of them are nice but upholding a corrupt and evil institution. if that sounds familiar, it's because it also describes c4 villains.
it feels like people expect brennan to bring the "the villain has a point" trope into the campaign, as if signalling c4 as a brutal, mature and difficult campaign requires that we have a villain who is Right But His Methods Are Wrong because that's become a lazy shorthand for a villain who is complicated and interesting~
delilah and sylas have a backstory that is sympathetic and tragic but they are still Baby Eating Torture Monsters who try to end the world. lucien is charming and enjoyable to engage with but he's still a murderer with a cult of personality trying to become something incredibly destructive. the cerberus assembly are a corrupt arm of the state, even if all of them aren't like trent. take any villain from c1 or c2 (i haven't finished c3 but the villains were underwhelming to me) and compare them to primus or yanessa or any of the minor antagonists and you will not find that much difference in function or execution
so is the criticism that the plots and schemes are evil for the sake of being evil? they're not. the villains are all doing what they're doing to maintain power, wealth and status. their motivation is not "repress the populace because it's fun and we're evil" it's "this is how we maintain the power our families have enjoyed for centuries in a world where the source of our power is fading from memory."
or is the criticism that there lacks a sympathetic heart at the core of the monstrousness? because the PCs have barely interacted with either of the apparent "big bads" of the campaign (they have both appeared in less than five sessions). however, if you've watched and paid attention, there have actually been hints of the "tragic backstory" for both. primus is clearly stuck in a cycle of abusive patriarchs (and has had two of his sons slaughtered in a week, so his ep 31 rage is what most people would consider at least understandable) and both primus and yanessa have made comments about the slaughter of their family at the end of the shapers war, when at least one of them was a child.
if the criticism is that there's a lack of nuance, then what is your definition of nuance? primus and yanessa are horrible and cannot be reasoned with, sure, but otto einfasen is a villain who is a reasonable and shrewd man allied with the protagonists for the time being. aranessa royce is a heroic character who has only just been divested of her ties to the institution that is the main power hub of the villains. for every character who is a snarling monster terrorizing the PCs (amariya, aniko, etc.) there are bad guys who are characterized as nice people who care about their families but believe in things destructive to the PCs or the world (iris halovar and the faithful of the creed) or people who still want to benefit from the system despite being aware that it committed evil against them (maya davinos)
and, not to bring it to a cheap end, this is a big epic fantasy story. the big epic fantasy story, by virtue of genre conventions, requires big, epic, horrible villains who fight to destroy what the characters hold dear. there is allegory, there is satire, there is plenty of nuanced philosophies about the nature of good and evil to be found in the campaign, but this is also a story that respects The Genre of high fantasy. sometimes the monsters are monsters.
-Shadowgast calling each other pet names and Essek being so openly worried about Caleb TvT Also the fact that wizards continue to be unable to resist fucking with the Happy Funball I fear this is still not the last time this will happen if Yussa is any indication.
-I love that Essek is so nonchalant about dropping in on BeauYasha naked, he’s so desensitized to the Nein’s BS at this point lmao
-I empathize with Fjord- I would also hate going hiking for my honeymoon
-Veth and Yeza building a fantasy IKEA crib lmao and Veth failing so hard about lying about it. Cad recognizing Veth was pregnant from the start tracks though, a cute way to include him when Tal isn’t here. Also Yeza having strong feelings on kink shaming cracked me up. That also tracks.
-Essek being distressed that Cad is gone because he’d be so useful for this- same. Loved hearing Matt’s Cad impression again. He makes all firbolgs sound so cute.
-Everyone rolling like SHIT at first- sounds about right for a group that continually tries to and is never able to actually retire lmao. Along with the amount of NEINs on the dice. Perfect for Berlin
-We love seeing a place of love and familiarity be twisted into an evil reflection of itself >: ) and by we I mean me. The evil tower is so fun and I loved the imagery
-Evil Caleb taunting his friends and directly threatening Veth (and her baby) is very fun unfortunately. Liam did a great job making him sound dark and twisted.
-Frumpkin 🥺🥺🥺 💖💖 I’m so glad he’s back.
-Fjord was the MVP for a good portion of this oneshot, solving puzzles left and right and seemingly extremely good at guessing how an evil Caleb would think. The realization about the burning house memory made me shudder. His warlock past coming in handy mayhaps.
-Also loved the callback to the “the creature is not willing” with Yasha. He got to actually save her this time! After hearing he has a terrible time in the Darktow show I’m glad he got lots of chances to shine here.
-I love how juicy the character interactions are in this. So many genuinely fucked up choices on all sides: Fjord making himself look like and acting like Ikithon to manipulate one of the simulacra Calebs, Veth using Phantasmal Force to make herself look like Caleb’s mother to teen Caleb. Caleb making a puzzle that forces his friends to recreate the memory of burning down his home, and of course, Caleb using Wish accelerate Veth’s pregnancy, put her in labor, and put her off on a floating platform all on her own, to take her out of the fight and force the others to choose between helping her and fighting him. Utterly insane move. And of course she isn’t even angry about it and telling the others to focus on saving him. (Veth you make me insane- be a little angry about this horror movie situation he’s put you in PLEASE.) Veth and Caleb dynamic continues to be beyond comprehension. Corrupted Caleb was certainly fixated on her and that baby. HMMM. Interesting. Why are they like this. Crazy shit.
-Ego Leech is an amazing monster name and concept. Idk if that’s a Matt original or not but I love it.
-Hurt myself laughing at the part with Beau and bean. As with “thunder wave from my ovaries” and that very creative use of Shape Water XD . Incredible. So many new sentences being invented here.
-Genuinely wholesome that Fjord tried to get to Veth to help her first. “No hesitation at all.” Veth is right he would have made a good doula. But Jester did her best lmao, and Yasha for that matter. You know you have truly loyal friends when so many were so eager to help with the birth.
-Yasha deserved that HDYWTDT after rolling so bad, turning into an orca, and getting put in a force cage dhajdhhs. Also the image of almost-dead Caleb wrapped in Yasha’s wings is T_T
-I’m sure Caleb won’t develop even more guilt and shame because of this event. Especially regarding what he did to Veth. Nope nope not at all. This man can truly never rest.
-Between Caleb accelerating her pregnancy, Beau joking about the baby being another Caleb, and Veth naming the baby Bren, Yeza get a paternity test I’m so serious.
-Glad that he and Luc were present for new baby’s arrival though, the earlier spoilers I saw made me think she had the baby IN the ball. Which would have been a lot worse lmao. Surprisingly wholesome end to this chaos that both Veth’s families got to be there for it.
-Also there is always the chance now that the baby turns out to be a god… so that’s something to think about. (Asmo is that you? jk jk unless?) Also screw my earlier hexblood idea that baby might just turn out to be some kind of dunamancy sorcerer after what Caleb did to them. Imagine explaining this shit to them in the future lmao
-Overall another fantastic liveshow, excited to watch the Darktow one next. 🗡️🏴☠️
the day of the Berlin live show, I saw a spoiler (I was hunting for them) that described it as "Fjord wins Caleb Trivia Night" and, seeing the show for myself finally, it is legitimately so funny how little of an exaggeration that is. Fjord swept trivia night, even.
Don’t you miss when it was just me and you? Don’t you miss when we were the only thing that mattered to each other? Don’t you miss sleeping in the dirt huddling for warmth, having to scratch and claw for every scrap of food and comfort, but knowing without a shadow of a doubt that we had each other? Just you and me; no husband, no son, no other souls to protect and care for. What would you give to go back to that? What would I take from you to go back to that?
(Super rare Critical Role post teehee~) (because I never find the chance to yap about it on here)
Very very very very very very very unwell (in a good way) about Projekt Funball. I watched it yesterday and alksdjflaksdjflkakjsdf Caleb as a villain is terrifying I love him so much oh my gosh. Listen listen listen, after seeing Caleb's small evil arc when he got possessed by the succubus in the main campaign, I knew I needed more of that.
I genuinely might need to rewatch hmmm hmmmmmm hmmmmmm (future me here and guess who is currently rewatching whoops)
(Spoilers under the cut for both the live show and the cooldown, the latter of which I discuss in a bit of detail, so continue at your own risk)
Live Show Thoughts:
"No more flying for you, little bird" HAD ME SO STRESSED
ALSO FJORD WITH THE MASTERCLASS MASK OF MANY FACES OHHHHHHHH MYYYYYY GOSHHHHHHHH
Jester desperately wanting to heal Caleb and everyone literally acting shocked because she rarely ever heals lsjdflkjsdj
And there was aksdjfaslkdjf everything with Veth which honestly had me DYING, rip 2nd kid for having the name Bren Brenatto LOL (although in cooldown they did come up with the nickname Bren-Bren and that's adorable)
Also can we just talk about the speeding up the pregnancy thing for a little bit, because if I had a nickel for every time a villain sped up someone's pregnancy, I think I would have four at this point. Considering that is literally a REOCCURING PLOT POINT in Once Upon a Time, it was really funny to see it here too. Maybe it's just canon at this point that as a villain you get the overwhelming urge to speed up a pregnancy idek
Also Essek and Caleb 🥹 calling each other "dear one" and "love" and stuff like that ohhhhh my goshhhhh I'm unwell asdkfjaslkdf the fluff was so good at the beginning 💕💕💕💕 in some AU somewhere Essek tried to stay with Caleb and also got possessed asdlkfjaslkdf idek
Anyway 10/10 highly recommend. The set was amazing, everyone's outfits were amazing, the character art was DELICIOUS, there were some really amazing moments, and like asdjladsjf I could yap about it for ages and ages and ages and ages until everyone would get tired of my yaps 😅
(Reaction image I made (and by made I mean I added the text) and heart hands Liam lol)
Cooldown Thoughts:
OK CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT FOR A SECOND SOME OF THE ALTERNATE ROOMS THE NEIN WOULD'VE BEEN SENT TO???? I guess I'm going to have to actually be coherent for once and make a small list so you guys can actually follow anything I'm even saying LOL
Ok, so, some of the alternate rooms mentioned:
The stream of water where Veth got turned into a Goblin. Liam said that the Funball wasn't limited to just Caleb's memories, but it also touched on his time with Nott, and he stated that it is canon that Veth showed him the time that she turned into a goblin, so he is aware of what happened at that stream in detail. He said a theme(?) he wanted to touch on was Caleb missing the time when it was just him and Nott, kinda longing for the "good ol' days" type deal along with a whole "don't you wish you could go back to these days?" vibe. Also Liam (or maybe Matt) mentioned that there was a chance Caleb would've transmutated Veth back into a goblin (just for the rest of the encounter), and the whole cast freaked out over the implications that would have on the baby (LOL).
An empty room with nothing in it but the chair where the shards of residuum crystals got inserted into young Bren. The first person to inspect the chair would've found themselves locked in it and every turn they would take an increasing amount of piercing damage as more shards pierced into their skin. There were multiple ways to escape, these being: 1) destroy the chair which had 300HP, 2) use See Invisibility to see the strings puppeteering the crystals and destroy those strings, and 3) pick the locks of the arm bands and stuff. While the person would be in this chair, they would hear Bren's inner monologue.
Either of those would've been INSANE, specifically the chair one. I shudder to think how devastating and angsty young Bren's inner monologue would've been for that part.
Also! It was mentioned that the next lair action that would've occurred during the fight would be Caleb getting a moment of clarity and helping out the Nein, whether that be by dispelling the forcecage (if it had worked) or something else. Only reason the lair action didn't happen was obviously because Caleb was stunned at the time but OH MY GOSH it would've been so interesting to see that moment of clarity where Caleb is like "wait what am I doing, why am I hurting them?". I think I would've screamed and sobbed 😭
Anyway, I think those are all my cooldown thoughts hmmmm 🤔 Yep! I think that's it! Thanks for reading this far into my yaps, this was a fantastic live show and I cannot recommend it enough!!!!
thinking about the Wanted poster in the Mighty Nein animated show again and....
...I voiced my one fear about Caleb before but a close second fear would be, that if we get Vergesson flashbacks, and Caleb has short hair in it that it won't have the feral energy of one of my fave comic shots:
Liam about Vax and Keyleth on ep 30 of 4sd: You know it’s like this orpheus and eurydice type of tragedy and we don’t know what will happen to them in the next 24 hours, all they have are each other.
Liam about Orym and Dorian on ep 30 of 4sd: so yeah Orym definitely had a ‘wish that were me’ moment when he saw Dariax and Dorian cuddled up together and now who knows what the next 24 hours bring he just knows they have each other.
Liam about Caleb and Essek on ep 30 of 4sd: yeah so they fuck in the tower’s anti-gravity funnel
Today my magnificent octopus magnum opus, a 126-page monograph on the genus Rhombophryne—Madagascar's diamond frogs, was published open access in the journal Vertebrate Zoology. In it, my colleagues and I have described seven new diamond frog species and provided detailed revised accounts of each of the now 27 species in the genus, compiling practically everything that is known about these curious and obscure frogs!
Allow me to introduce the new characters:
This piece of lint precious child is Rhombophryne maraorao, a little burrowing species from the northeast of Madagascar. It is very similar ecologically to R. coudreaui, a long-known species from further south. The name maraorao means ‘rough to the touch’ in Malagasy, referring to the rough skin of this species. They do a weird thing where they straighten all of their limbs and go stiff in self defence. Think pumpkin toadlet post-launch mid-air stiffness, but… in the hand?
This beautiful creature is Rhombophryne mavokely, a little leaflitter-dwelling species from the northeast of Madagascar. The name mavokely is the Malagasy word for ‘pink’ but literally translates as ‘small yellow’ (mavo = yellow, kely = small). I LOVE this bizarre etymology, and also this species is small and sometimes pink and sometimes yellowish, so the name seemed extremely apt. This species was the first Rhombophryne I ever saw alive—I caught the first ever specimen immediately underneath my hammock on Marojejy in 2016!
This shiny boy is Rhombophryne sonaliae, a rather well known species from eastern Madagascar that has previously been called R. alluaudi—until we showed in 2019 that the correct use of that name was for a Plethodontohyla alluaudi from southern Madagascar! We dedicated this species to Sonali Garg, in recognition of her fantastic work especially on Asian frogs.
This forbidden truffle is Rhombophryne anatiala, a very poorly known species very closely related to R. sonaliae but found further north and differing subtly. The name anatiala means ‘in the forest’ in Malagasy, referring to the forest habitat of these frogs.
This bumpy beanbag with his go-faster chevron is Rhombophryne kotrobaratra, an interesting species from northeastern Madagascar with rather unusual anatomy, especially its quite long and strong hindlimbs. The name kotrobaratra means ‘thunder and lightning’ in Malagasy, and refers to the inclement weather that seems to bring these frogs out (true for all Rhombophryne, really) .
This coffee bean is Rhombophryne quentini, an orange-thighed species from high-elevation forests in northern Madagascar that resembles R. ellae. Back in 2020 I named R. ellae after my partner, Ella, and I thus took particularly great pleasure in naming this new, closely related species after our four-and-a-half year-old son, Quentin. A little family of frogs. :3
This little pebble is Rhombophryne kilonjy, a small, poorly known and obscure species related to R. ellae and R. quentini but found in lowland forest close to the coast in northwestern Madagascar. The name kilonjy means ‘pebble’ in Malagasy because, well, just look at it.
Even way back in my tumblr posts from 2013 and 2014 I think you would find mentions of the work I had begun on this monograph. I had no notion that it would take more than twelve years to complete. But I cannot express my joy at finally being able to share these charming, round frogs with the world. I hope you approve of the names!
If you want to read a bit more about these frogs, you can do so on my website. I have even posted a couple short videos about them on TikTok and Instagram (which also will show you how to pronounce the names!). Basically, you can find me most places on the internet, and wherever you find me, you can be sure to find frogs and lizards and snakes and a good deal of enthusiasm.
Wait, is Orym's bananas high perception a trauma response to not spotting the assassins that killed his husband coming? Is it literally 'Nobody will ever be able to sneak up on the people I care about like that again?'
Like, in my head, I was going 'oh haha, this is Liam trying to make the perfect counter to someone like Vax, someone who can beat a high level rogue's minimum stealth role,' but like... in character? In character this is a man who has decided he'll never let anyone catch him unawares again.
stormborns
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amandla
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