#Vaxleth is! not one of my main ships.

[blorbologist]

Yawns, g'morning.

I'm thinking about Vaxleth and episode 51, as. Most of us are, really. Holy shit.

And I think Vax's divine nature played a role in how Ludinus was able to set and bait this trap. I don't think we'd have gotten this outcome if Vax was still a mortal Champion, like his sister. Furthermore, Keyleth’s position as Voice of the Tempest was also critical here.

Let me explain: let's say some other half of a ship could have fulfilled this orb critera. If we pretend that any Champion could do (I think they needed the divine aspect of Vax's unlife but play along here), why not bait the trap for Vex, or Pike, or Scanlan, or Yasha?

Beyond the 'Vax is practically an angel now and has orb properties' angle, I think part of it is the sheer... everything that is mortal. If Percy was captured Vex would have any number of solutions - send Trinket in, attack at range, Rogue it up, or do the sensible thing and bring in friends. The living are variable, you can't count on them to behave as you need.

Ludinus loathes gods and their servants: of course he'd expect them to be predictable - and he'd be right! Vax is not all Vax anymore (see Dalen's Closet and Tal’Dorei Reborn), he's a deathless shepherd and servant of the Raven Queen. Why would he think this through? He has no life to lose, only Keyleth’s to save. You don’t need to consider how to use a shield, you just do. People shape their plans around the steady expectations of gods, their almost immutable domains, and Vax is divine enough for that to apply to him. They'd know he would behave exactly as he did. It could be argued living!Vax would as well, and there are several songs and historical records about him, so worst came to worst Ludinus could hope that this is maintained. But that's an uncertainty, and not fitting for a centuries-long plan.

And now the second part: it had to be Keyleth. They couldn't have used Vex to draw him out, I don’t think, as much as it pains me. Either the story of Dalen's Closet was limited to the guests and any lil kids who heard the Ballad of Derrig or it proves the Champion cannot willingly approach his sister. It took a Wish for that.

Vex has had five kids, spent thirty years protecting Whitestone, and has her fingers in the financial goings on of all Tal’Dorei. By no means does she have a small impact on the world: her smallest taxation decisions could mean poverty or wealth for thousands! But many of her biggest impacts on the future, on destiny, have already come to pass. Her adventures in Vox Machina, the children she bore, the decades of decisions she's already made (I doubt she'd be on the council for even a few years without changing much of her sphere to her liking.)

Keyleth is the Voice of the Tempest. She will, hopefully, live almost two thousand years. Imagine all the lives she will impact in that time! Directly! The Matron must be so familiar with her strand of fate because it touches so many, many others!

Even if Vax, somehow, did not remember her. Even if he was a shell of himself. This is someone the Matron cannot let die before her time (hopefully a thousand plus years from now). This is one person she would have to bend the rules for and see saved, and there's just the man for the job. She would not allow intervention for Vex, or Percy, or those nieces and nephews Vax surely watches. Not Velora, not Scanlan, not Gilmore. Keyleth, with centuries of work to do in this world, with generations to guide, is too valuable.

What I'm saying is... literally no other ship could have pulled this off. None. This was built for Vaxleth, from its very bones. You could have, say, an AU where Vex is the Champion of Ravens (wink), and this would not be certain enough for Ludinus to bank on it. Very likely, but not assured (the Matron could refuse to intervene, or they could intervene in a less 'take me instead you lil red-storm shit' way, etc.).

Evil plans bank on the inevitable. Gravity, greed, time. Their love is inevitable, a law of nature.

It could not have been anyone else

#Vaxleth is! not one of my main ships. #EXCEPT for those dozen-ish episodes where Vax is a Revenant and the angst is top tier and OH BOY DOES THIS DELICER #deliver* #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #critical role #critrole spoilers #vaxleth #vax'ildan #keyleth #keyleth of the air ashari #cr c3e51 #c3e51 #campaign 3 #vox machina #ludinus da'leth #cr meta

[malaismere]

2022 AO3 Stats - Vox Machina & Mighty Nein

(for previous stats check out my ao3 stats tag - most relevant are my end of c2 m9 ship stats)

Behold! The top ships! Marvel at the tangle of lines! These are in 3-month intervals to keep it at least somewhat legible, and I'm sorry to say that you'll probably need to really zoom in to make sense of it, so I can't do a full text description. I will point out where they break 200 fics, however - Perc'ahlia at the end of 2016, Widomauk in mid-2018 (following Molly's death), Shadowgast and Beaujester in early 2019 (with the Essek reveal), Beauyasha from October 2020 through June 2021 (canon, end of Campaign) and Shadowgast from April 2021 to end of 2022, and Laudna/Imogen from July to December 2022 (following Laudna's death).

Additionally: the only C1 ship to be in the top 5 ships while C2 aired was Perc'ahlia, and it only reached it occasionally; throughout C3 Shadowgast has yet to drop below 2, and both Perc'ahlia and Beauyasha have consistently been in the top 5.

Looking closer at each campaign below the cut!

These charts are also in 3-month intervals, to at least try and pretend they're legible. Initial work was done in 2020, so fics deleted before that aren't included, but fics deleted after that may be (depending on how big a time gap there was between posting and deleted). Because of that, these aren't 1:1 with what you'll see on ao3 today but are very close.

Vox Machina

Overall, the Top 10 ships are:

Perc'ahlia

Vaxleth

Vax/Gilmore

Perc'ildan

Pikelan

Vexleth

Keyleth/Vax/Gilmore

Zahra/Vex

Polymachina

Grog/Vax (tie)

Percy/Pike (tie)

Grog Strongjaw

So, the fewer the fics, the messier the chart. Grog doesn't really have a clear dominant ship. The two that stand out are Grog/Vax, which is prevelant from late 2016 to the end of C1, and Grog/Keyleth, which picks up steam and is the dominant post-C1 ship. Altoug, interestingly enough, Grog/Keyleth has fallen out of the way since end of 2020, leaving Grog/Vax to be dominant in 2022. The only other fic to get more than 2 fics is a single Grog/Pike peak in late 2016.

Keyleth

Vaxleth is the big boy here - spiking to 52 from July 2016 to March 2017 (yes, there were three 52s in a row) and 73 in January 2022 as Legend of Vox Machina came out. It was up and down but overall pretty consistent and has never not been Keyleth's top ship.

...althtough Vexleth comes close, only one fic shy in April-June 2022, reaching an all time high post LoVM. Other than that, its been the constant number two - Pikeleth beating it by 1 fic in April-Jun 2017 as the exception that proves the rule. Percleth and Pikeleth are strong during C1 but drop off after; Grogleth is the main pos-C1 but all of them fall to the side aftertheir late 2020 peak, with only Percleth seeing a very small LoVM resurgence.

Percival de Rolo

Perc'ahlia breaks the axis with 182, 256, and 138 fics from July 2016 - March 2017 and a 120 fic LoVM resurgence in early 2022. It had a later start than Vaxleth but quickly outshown it, and has been in and out but fairly constant during C2. The combo of C3 cameos & LoVM has kept it at it's C1 highs and that's only expected to continue once S2 drops.

Perc'ildan is the constant number 2, save for a small peak of Percy/Tary following his introduction in 2017 and Percy/Pike beating out with 5 fics to Perc'ildan and Percleth's 4 in late 2020; nothing else breaks 5,

Pike Trickfoot

So, during C1 things were a bit of a mix. Pikelan started strong, but Percy/Pike is the top in July-September 2016, and Pike/Vex and Pke/Keyleth for Femslash February 2017. However, Percy's the only one of these to really have much to show post-C1.

Pikelan is highest at the end of C1, and then is pretty constant. It did see a spike for LoVM, but not a very significant one.

Scanlan Shorthalt

Pikelan dominates and always has with a Vaxlan exception for the end of C1 / The Wish. Everything else is in the minor leagues - Vaxlan has a showing, the rest are only 1-2 fics and hard to interpret.

Vax'ildan

Vaxleth is the big boy here - spiking to 52 from July 2016 to March 2017 (yes, there were three 52s in a row) and 73 in January 2022 with LoVM. However, unlike Keyleth, Vax is way more even - Vaxmore beats out Vaxleth in late 2020, and Perc'ildan in April-June 2022. Vaxmore was prety constant, dropping only slightly post-C1; Perc'ildan had a mre significant drop, but then a more signficant LoVM resurgence.

Vax/Grog and Vax/Scanlan are pretty comparable; Vax/Scanlan peaks in late 2017 with the Vecna stuff, but Vax/Grog is the bigger ship post-C1. Both still only broke above 5 for the end of C1.

Vex'ahlia

Perc'ahlia breaks the axis with 182, 256, and 138 fics from July 2016 - March 2017 and a 120 fic LoVM resurgence in early 2022. Same as Percy, there's only one other ship of note - Vexleth, which hits a high following LoVM but never breaks 25.

Pike/Vex hits a Femslash February high in 2017, as does Zahra/Vex (which is at Vexleth levels for 2016) but everything else is dead quiet.

Taryon Darrington

Unsurprisingly, Tary's pretty quiet. Post-introduction there's a Percy/Tary high; after that, there are occasional Percy/Tary and Tary/Lawrence fics, but oly in the 1-2 range.

Mighty Nein

Overall the top 10 ships are

Shadowgast

Beauyasha

Widomauk

Widojest

Beaujester

Fjorester

Widofjord

Fjorclay

Clayleb

**Blumentrio**

Widobrave

Fjord

So, Widofjord started out the top ship, and stayed that way through early 2019 before slowly dropping to the wayside. Fjorclay took over after that and has one of the sharpest declines ever, currently sitting at like 2/year. Fjorester, always a top but secondary ship, bursts up to a 160 peak with the end of C2 and them being canon, falling back down to average levels albeit the top ship. Fjorester gets a small bump for the M9 Reunion.

Also notable: Fjolly starts strong but fades out following Molly's death; there's a peak in Avantika/Fjord during the pirate arc that trails off, and we have two Fjord/Nott peaks in late 2019 and early 2021 coinciding with peak Nott bullying Fjord moments.

Beauregard Lionett

Beauyasha is the top ship, with a peak of 343 in the end of C2. Beaujester takes over during 2019 following the Zuala reveal and Beau revealing her crush on Jester, but falls off during the Hiatus as Beauyasha become canon. The Ot3 is really the only secondary ship, aside from a tny peak of Beau/Keg after they fucked - there's no similar Beau/Reani peak.

Caleb Widogast

Widomauk dominates in 2018, htting a high with Molly's death, and then slowly but steadily declines after that. Widojest makes a valiiant attempt in 2019, and is pretty strong during tthe hiatus, but Shadowgast over takes, with its first peak in early 2020 with the Treason Reveal, and then a 677 fic peak for the end of C2 (the highest of Any Ship Ever).

Widofjord was the second ship but fell off after Essek's introduction; Clayleb was briefly popular in early 2019 but fell off as Fjorclay grew. Widobrave gets an alltime high with Veth getting her body back in early 2020, and is at simlar levels with Widofjord for the rest of C2, but falls off more sharply after. Blumentrio is similarly low but gets peaks in 2019 with the Scourger introduction and at the end of C2 with the Eiselcross arc, and has been pretty constant after.

Nott / Veth Brenatto

Nott/Yeza is the big ship with its high point following Yeza's introduction/rescue, and stays a pretty constant ship. Widobrave takes over with the ritual to get Veth's body back, and they're close for 2020 but Widobrave falls off faster, and doesn't get a resurgence with M9 Reunited as Nott/Yeza did.

Other than that....there's some Nott/Jester in late 2018, some Nott/Cad in early 2019 I think was just one person, and Fjord/Nott, which peaks in late 2019 and early 2021 with peak Nott Bullying Fjord moments. post C2, it is the only other Nott ship. Like. At all.

Jester Lavorre

Fjorester starts out at the top, but slowly declines through 2019 until the Eiselcross arc and end of C2-canon. Even then, it never its the highs Beaujester or Widojest do as they battle for dominance in 2019/2020. Both have fallen down to be closer to the levels seen by Jolly, Yashter, and the Beauyashter ot3.

Mollymauk Tealeaf

Widomauk. It exists. Widofjord used to exist. It doesn't, anymore. A few people wrote Jolly, and that's not really a thing. You can start to see people writing Molly/Essek. They're doing so because Shadowgast is popular, although the ot3 tag isn't super prevelant/comparable.

More seriously, you can see a peak following Lucien's return but it then drops off with no real end of C2 spike because...well, Kingsley. Hard to say whether it's hit a constant or if it'll continue to decline.

Yasha Nydoorin

Beauyasha had it's heyday in post-Hiatus C2. It's since dropped back to early levels, still far and away the top Yasha ship. Yashter & the Beauyashter ot3 are the only others that really compare, save a small Zuala peak after the backstory reveal that gets occasional fics. Even these have fallen to the wayside post-C2. Only Beauyasha remains.

Caduceus Clay

So, with Caduceus, he's the replacement for Widomauk in late 2018 to early 2019, before Fjorclay takes the stand, with a 120 fic peak during the 2020 hiatus. It then immediately falls down to nothing, as does the brief fling with Cadwulf, since Taliesin went on Talks and confirmed that Caduceus was Asexual. Since then...things have been pretty quiet, never getting a full 0 ship fics, but also never getting more than 5.

Kingsley Tealeaf

So, in the immediate post C2, we see some Caleb/Kingsley, comparable to Widomauk, with some Essek/Kingsley because ot3.

Fjord/Kingsley is perfectly hidden behind Jester/Kingsely, as their distribution is identical: because it's actually Fjord/Jester/Kingsley, which is actually the #2 ship.

#ao3 stats #cr stats #cr meta #vox machina #mighty nein #percahlia #vaxleth #shadowgast #beauyasha #widomauk #fjorester

[whisperofthewaves]

People you would like to get to know better - thanks @vislokawitch :D

1. Three ships: (Pogoria will always have a special place in my heart as I spent a month on her) hm. idk currently. I like the ineffable husbands, and vaxleth, bc it’s tragic in a way that punches me right in the soul, and I can’t think of a third one now. there must be more, but nothing comes to me.

2. First ever ship: lol. I think either sasunaru or iruka/kakashi just precede drarry by a couple of months or weeks. it’s that I’ve read naruto a couple of years later when the internet was already there and I was more receptive to some things.

3. Last song: Conan Gray - Heather

4. Last movie: “Fanfic” 😅

5. Currently reading: Simon vs Homo Sapiens Agenda. bc I guess queer romances is my current thing now. fitting for june right around the corner.

6. Currently watching: Trigun, and thanks for the reminder, bc I was about to forget I’m doing that xD

7. Currently consuming: my second coffee of the day

8. Currently craving: being alone in my flat. but alas. my flatmate’s working from home today. which means I’ve been riding a subterranean current of annoyance since this morning

tagging... @vaderlord @pankracy @fried-berries @wintersmitth @s-2003u1 @not-feuilly @medinaquirin (didn’t know if I should tag the main or the sideblog haha) aaand whoever else wants to participate bc I am terrible at remembering people’s urls

#tag game #tumblr stuff #talks

[cranesofibycus]

With TLoVM returning today (aaah!) I spent the last days rewatching season one and wow was it good to see them all again. And vaxleth ♥️ so I was wondering what your favorite DnDships are, CR and other? anyhow, happy season 2 release, can't wait to read your takes on the new episodes

Gosh, so many ships come to mind.

Rue and Hob from A Court of Fey and Flowers

Taako and Kravitz from TAZ

Loquatius and Laerryn from EXU Calamity

I genuinely like all of the canon main campaign CR ships and even most of the non-canon ones, too (with the exception of Widomauk, which is just not my cuppa tea). Recent faves have been Dorym, Beauyasha and Percahlia.

But if I'm being honest...

Widojest still owns my whole goddamn heart. Number 1 forever and always.

[vethbrenatto]

vax'ildan?

First impression: didn't really get the hype? a little too brooding and intense for my tastes. loved his relationship with vex. thank u liam o'brien for playing a character this bi on main.

Impression now: oh my god that's just a lovable goofball and he's got depression. a very easy character to misinterpret. he's still technically my least favorite of VM, but i really do love him now.

Favorite moment: vax doing the girls' hair at any time. him braiding vex's hair. giving pike the fun buns. vax pranking trinket with 800 bows. basically goofball!vax and soft!vax.

Idea for a story: haha what if we got the origin story to vax and vex in syngorn- wait. that's real.

Unpopular opinion: people will bend over backwards to willfully ignore vax's clear joviality, a core tenet of his character, in favor of saying "liam will only play broody downers." alternatively, while i know people love the ship, i still can't do vaxleth personally. i like them in theory and i love tol and smol vaxleth (kiki is tall, duh) but in practice i cannot get through many VM vaxleth scenes. something about liam and marisha's intense roleplay with those two specific characters is Too Much for me where with caleb and beau it's somehow not? maybe because of beau's attitude, there's still an inherent levity even in their tense interactions, that I don't feel in vaxleth scenes.

Favorite relationship: TWINSIES. TWINSIES. TWINSIES. one of if not THE BEST CR relationship. there's simply nothing like it. probably tied with pikelan for my fave c1 relationship.

Favorite headcanon: you know the raven comes to zephra at the end of c1? and is confirmed again in mighty vibes keyleth? that but the raven also goes to whitestone. you KNOW, we KNOW the raven goes to whitestone.

#ask #ask game

[justalittlebluetiefling]

I wish I were like you and didn't have any ships this early on! I told myself going into c3 to just enjoy it and if something happened it would happen. The only problem there having previously been exu, where I was like "oh this is just a short lil thing I'll just ship whatever it doesn't mean anything!" and then the exu trio ended up on the main cast and I screwed my hopes of not shipping anything well before c3 even started 😔

Oh man it feels so weird for me not to have any ships though! I went into C1 already shipping Vaxleth and then picked up Beauyasha right away with C2 and Fjorester grew on me once I got over my whole "am I just shipping them because Travis and Laura are so cute?" concern and realized I actually could ship the characers too lol

So being at this point of a campaign and not really being attached to anything?! It feels so off brand for me haha but it's also been kind of nice since I've been so busy these past few months. I'm sure I'll get there. I just need to have a moment where I have one of those feelings and I haven't really had one yet. It has been immensely entertaining to get to watch people freak out over little moments though. It's an experience that I don't usually get lol so it's been fun.

#i also kind of wonder if me not having any ships yet is a result of how busy i've been lately #like i feel weirdly disconnected from fandom as a whole right now because my schedule has been so sporadic #and i'm always falling asleep during episodes since i'm watching them so much later #and even though i finish up the next day i still feel like i'm missing stuff due to being tired #personal #fairymonk #erin answers things #bell's hells

[your-turn-to-role]

said i was gonna write a meta centered on this conversation and this is where my head's at, so i wanna talk about the fact that vax and gilmore do have a lot more in common than most people realise? (at least more than most people talk about)

(as a disclaimer, this is not a ship war post, i love vaxleth just as much as vaxilmore, but also it's easier to see the reasons why vax and keyleth like each other because they're both player characters and we know them very well, gilmore we see a lot less, so a lot of his character and motivations you have to piece together afterwards. but matt still puts a lot of thought into who gilmore is and why he does what he does, a lot more than we ever see, so there's definitely more to it than the "he's pretty" gilmore likes to tell people)

on the surface, they're very different people, sure. vax doesn't understand shit about magic, magic is all gilmore does, vax wears his heart on his sleeve and if he has a problem you're going to find out about it, gilmore is all about emotional masks and a jovial front as a means of protection, even just in appearance and attire, gilmore's very colourful and deliberately so, while vax's main colours are black and more black. but when it comes to where they came from, how they approach problems, what they find fun and interesting, they're extremely in sync

both have a complicated relationship with their (surviving) parents, never really feeling fully loved by them - vax was entirely neglected and shunned by syldor, and when we meet gilmore's parents, though they're nice on the surface, they also don't believe vox machina about gilmore saving a city, gilmore left home and never came back to visit despite being able to literally teleport there at any time, which says a lot about how tense that relationship has been. related to that, both have biological reasons for being an outcast, vax as a half elf, gilmore as a rune child, two things the book itself say are often shunned in most societies, and definitely things they've both faced consequences for being. (we don't know what those consequences were for gilmore, but, there's a reason he hides it)

they're both rebellious, they both still have a bit of something to prove, they both do their best to live in the moment and get past problems by distancing and refocusing, both would do literally anything for the people they love, and neither will ever leave a person in danger. their chief philosophy is "life is short so take what you want, trust those around you, love recklessly. don't waste time on regrets or wishing for things you can't have". they're both fascinated by magic and drawn by things that are fast paced and unknown and exciting, things are always more interesting when they're fun

in a way it's easy to think of vax as the reckless one of the two of them? because gilmore runs a shop and vax is vax, "runs headfirst into danger with no backup at least once a week" vax, "this bird can fly 480ft a round and there's nothing you can do about it" vax

but this is also "ran in to fight thordak with no backup in case vox machina were in danger" gilmore, "spent well over 1000 gold on a heroes feast because vox machina were hungry and didn't feel like going home" gilmore, and, of course, "pushed vax off a cliff with no warning to show him he has wings because despite the fact that we're still in an awkward post break up phase and despite the fact that less than an hour ago someone who looked like me almost killed him, i know he'll still trust me and this'll be the best way to show him" gilmore

and he was right, because they do understand each other on that level no other character quite reaches. and vax knows it too, and knows him

and this exchange, i think, is one of the most telling of that

just vax's slightly mournful "that guy'll be fast" and gilmore's joking-but-serious "he'd better be", like as much as it's a joke it's also them both acknowledging what worked here and what didn't

anyone who knows vax knows speed's his whole thing. his boots of haste are canonically his favourite possession. the first time caleb used expeditious retreat in campaign two everyone joked that vax was back (though he didn't get nearly close to vax's top flying speed of approximately 55mph). vax thinks on his feet, gets bored easily, hates when things are still.

it's not a trait often praised when it comes to romance tropes? speedy characters are also flighty, moving too fast is a sign of not thinking, even when both partners are that way, any romance they end up in will end with them settling (and slowing) down or it'll end in disaster.

and in a way this falls into the same pattern as well, because obviously things didn't work out for them, but the biggest difference here is that that isn't a bad thing. vax isn't wrong for being vax, and gilmore's the same, and wants the same thing, would be happy with the same thing. (really what doomed this relationship as a romantic endeavour was just luck of the draw, liam's said the only reason vax decided to be with keyleth was the fact that he was around her every day, whereas he only saw gilmore every couple months, so what would have been the same feelings towards both of them had the chance to become a lot stronger for kiki, if their places were reversed he would have been just as happy with gilmore, and obviously gilmore would with him)

(which is why even after everything, they remain friends to the end, and we know they talk sometimes for hours about their lives, because even if they can't have that connection as a romantic one, having someone around that gets them like that is a huge help)

people get up in arms easily about defending vax vs defending gilmore, especially when it comes to the breakup and whether vax acted like an asshole or not. and honestly believe what you want about that, i'm not gonna argue it. but this conversation, they're both telling the whole truth. yes, this was sad, and yes, this hurts, but that's life. they've been through far more painful things for less. and yeah gilmore's gonna move on, because that's in both of their nature, but they both know whoever he's gonna end up with is gonna have those same qualities. maybe another adventurer, maybe not, but someone who sees the tragedy in the world and refuses to let it continue, and someone who sees the excitement in the world and refuses to let it pass them by

and they know no matter what there's still love between them. (they both make it clear, constantly, how much of that there is, far more than either really knows what to do with). and while, ultimately, vax was right in this conversation, it wouldn't be long before they faced a battle he wouldn't walk away from, gilmore was right too, in that life is unpredictable, and all you can do is make the most of every moment in front of you. (and no matter what happens to gilmore after the story ends or wherever and whatever vax is now, they're never gonna forget each other)

#do you ever think about matt on talks confirming that post canon gilmore made a vax inspired line of magic items? #bc i do #constantly #surprising absolutely no one i just really love vax and also gilmore and i wanted to get at least one of my feelings about them down here #cr1 #critical role #cr meta #vax'ildan #shaun gilmore #vaxilmore #text #meta #cr thoughts #vax'ilmore

[television-overload]

Since my I am currently obsessing over like 3 or 4 different things that basically all have their own side blogs, I'm gonna break it down for anyone interested in following me for specific content:

NCIS and occasionally other TV shows: @television-overload

My most used blog

Sometimes live blogging NCIS

Freaking out about Tiva/Tali

I ship Ellick and Slibbs too

I write NCIS fanfiction and sometimes take requests for Tiva stuff

Main blog that has turned into a Critical Role blog but also has totally random stuff: @living-in-unreality

Critical Role takeover

I ship Vaxleth, Perc'ahlia, Pikelan, and Fjorester most vehemently

Literally just random memes

Sometimes I try my hand at art for CR

Movie blog recently taken over by a renewed obsession with Star Wars: @buy-me-some-popcorn

Not spoiler free

Reylo

I recently wrote my first Star Wars fanfic

I loved TRoS, minus one TINY detail but that can be fixed with fanfiction and imagination

Also Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, and just any movie content I see that I like

Harry Potter blog: @potterverse-united

Occasionally reinvigorated by rewatching the films or rereading the books

I wrote a fanfic, and want to write more

I'm a Ravenclaw or Gryffinclaw btw (not full Gryffindor) - also Thunderbird

Idk, if you like books, especially Pride and Prejudice: @books-and-candlelight

Basically an outlet for my love of Pride and Prejudice

Where is my Mr. Darcy?

I ALMOST FORGOT MY BLOG FOR MY MARVEL OBSESSION: @shorter-than-tom-hiddleston

I am 6' tall, unusually tall for a girl. But I am at least shorter than Tom Hiddleston

This is where I cry about Iron Man, Loki, and Spider Man

I reblog a lot of amazing stuff that makes me happy...or sad.

I totally forgot I had a blog just for dumb memes: @memes-and-other-trash

#about the blog #blog breakdown #ncis #marvel #star wars #pride and prejudice #harry potter #memes #movies #critical role

[keyleth-of-the-air-ashari-blog]

thanks so much to @at-aot-etc for tagging me! :)

Rules - Tag 11 people that you want to know better and answer the questions. Repost, don’t reblog.

Relationship: i made several new friends during my first year of college. my roommate and i also became very close. i’ve always managed to stay in touch with most of my friends from high school and those who moved away.

Color: i honestly love all the colors of the rainbow. if i had to pick a favorite it would probably have to be pink or purple.

Favorite Ships: oh man i honestly have so many. right now the main ones are vaxleth and fjorester from critical role, gruvia from fairy tail, and kyoru (idk if that’s their actual ship name) from fruits basket.

Last Song: dna by bts. i’ve never actually listened to them before and this was the very first song of theirs that i have heard.

Last Movie: i just saw avengers: endgame for the 3rd time. i still cried just as hard as i did the first two times.

i don’t really feel like tagging all that many people so i’ll just tag @gaysnailed. if anybody else wants to do it then feel free and just say i tagged you! :p

#about me #tag game

[malaismere]

since it seems people actually liked my M9 ship stats, here’s some for Vox Machina. I used 6 month periods because this covers over 5 years, ignoring the first half of 2015 because there are only a very small number of fics, and no shipfics (it isn’t until the Briarwood arc that things really pick up).

Graphs and explanations below the cut!

GROG

The data for grog is hard to look at, because there’s just so little of it. Grog/Vax is the largest ship, with a peak around when campaign 1 ends but relatively steady. Grog/Keyleth follows closely behind, although it peaks in early 2018. We see one prominent spike of Grog/Pike in late 2016, but other than that it’s mostly a handful of individual fics.

Interesting to note, the first Grog ship fic is one with Vex in 2015.

KEYLETH

Surprising no one, Vaxleth is the dominant ship - I cut of the peak in late 2016 at 100, but the actual value is 104. After that, we see it fall, with a slight resurgence in late 2019 following some of the one shots.

While significantly smaller, Vex is another prominent ship. It’s relatively steady throughout C1, and mirrors Vax after the series ends - in early 2019, it has over half as many fics as Vaxleth does, the closest they come to rivalling each other.

Pike/Keyleth has a noticeable presence in early 2017 - this is actually mostly femslash february fics. Kashaw/Keyleth rivals Keyleth/Vex throughout 2016 and 2017, before falling significantly to the wayside. In late 2016/early 2017, we can see a visible amount of Percy/Keyleth, but it significantly falls to the wayside after c1 ends.

PERCY

I have cropped this graph at 400, despite the fact peak Perc’ahlia goes over, so that we have a chance to see  some of the smaller ships. Percahlia has a massive jump in late 2016 as we get the Feywild arc and then proceeds to drop down. It gradually decreases through 2017 and 2018, and has a small peak after the C1 oneshots before falling again.

Percy/Vax is the only ship worth noting. You can technically see Percy/Pike in late 2016/early 2017, but it’s little more than background noise. Percy/Vax is nootable in that we get a decent number in 2015, before Perc’ahlia takes root, but after that it’s commpletely overshadowed. There’s a small spike in late 2016, as the height of C1 fandom and another small spike in early 2018, but other than that it’s relatively stable and tiny.

PIKE

I had no need to crop Pikelan, because even the peak has less than 40 fics. While the other two big canon ships peak during Campaign 1, we don’t see Pikelan peaking until after the campaign’s end, reaching a high in late 2018. 

Pike/Percy overtakes Pikelan during late 2016, peak Pike/Percy years, which makes me feel very validated with my rarepair. It gradually decreases throughout C1, and becomes essentially a non-entity.

Keyleth/Pike is present throughout campaign 1, with it’s highest point in early 2017. Pike/Vex also makes a peak around here, before heading into obscurity once more - these fics are mostly from the 2017 Femslash February.

Pike/Vax hits it’s peak in late 2017,  not much higher than it’s showings throughout late 2016 and early 2017, during the main arcs of Vax dealing with his Paladin issues. We see a small spike of Grog/Pike in late 2016, but other than that, these ships are just background noise.

SCANLAN

Scanlan is even more dominated by Pikelan than Pike is. We do see Scanlan/Vax with a decent showing, peaking during Campaign 1′s end. We do see small amounts of Grog/Scanlan in late 2016 and early 2018, but everything else is background noise.

TARY

Tary peaks during his brief appearance in 2017, with Percy/Tary the runaway with 11 fics during the time, followed by Grog/Tary at 3. Percy/Tary drops afterwards, but remains one of the prominent ships for Tary, although it is overtaken by Lawrence.

VAX

Vaxleth has been cropped at 100 fics, peaking in late 2016, falling gradually from that high to rise again following the one shots. Vax/Gilmore follows a very similar trend, although it’s low middle hits at the end of 2017 instead of the start of 2018, and it’‘s significantly smaller. Percy/Vax also peaks in late 2016, but it drops off very significantly, rising again in early 2018 to return to a low constant.

Grog/Vax is relatively visible as a stbale minor ship. Vax/Pike has small spikes in 2017, and Scanlan/Vax a relatively large spike, rivaling both Percy and Gilmore, in the end of 2017 and the end of campaign 1.

VEX

Technically there are ships on this graph that aren’t Perc’ahlia. I can see small amounts of Vexleth and Zahra/Vex, and maybe a little bit of Pike? but really. the only thing you can see is Perc’ahlia.

Perc’ahlia peaks in late 2016 as it becomes canon, reaching over 400 fics, but then falls  over the end of c1. It gets a slight boost following the oneshots and the wedding, before continuing to fall.

COMPARING THE BIG SHIPS

Campaign 1 is notable in that it is much more OTP focused, related to the ships being settled out rather early in game. As such, here’s a graph comparing the largest ships in Campaign 1 - the three “canon” ships of Vaxleth, Perc’ahlia, and Pikelan, alongside Vexleth, Percy/Vax, and Vax/Gilmore

This graph is not entirely Perc’ahlia, but it’s a very near thing. Not since early 2016 have the two been comparable in height, with Perc’ahlia being consistently at least double in height since then.

All the other ships are fairly comparable in height, with Keyleth/Vex being the lowest by far. But really, they’re just background noise compared to Perc’ahlia.

POLYMACHINA

Unlike Campaign 2, the only tags for polymachina used is polymachina - there is one ship tag that has more than four members of vox machina, but it’s used on a single fic and that didn’t seem worth adding.

There’s no polymachina yntil late 2016, where the joke in the Feywild sparked it all. Throughout 2017, it reaches a consistent 20 peak high - comparable in heigh to Pikelan during the same period, before dropping pretty significantly as C1 comes to a close. We see a slight rise again in early 2019, before gradually falling to where we are now - only 1 polymachina fic for the entirety of 2020.

No guests have been included because of how small a sample size. Only Lyra, Zahra, Kash, Lilith, Kerrek and Tova have any ship fics,

Zahra/Vex and Keyleth/Vash, as the two ships over 20, were put on the above charts. Kash/Vax and Kash/Zahra, the only ships with at least 10, were not included. The only non Kash or Zahra guest ship of note was Lilith/Percy at 5 fics.

#critical role #cr meta #ao3 stats #vox machina #tl;dr perc'ahlia is the biggest ship by a landslide #although vaxleth makes a decent dent #and pikelan tries its very hardest

[novemberocean]

Critical Questions about Critical Role

OP

uh probably spoilers if you arent all the way caught up

1. Which episode is your favorite? Why?

I’m honestly having the hardest time picking a favorite. there are so many that are SO good for MANY different reasons. Lets go with the episode Vaxleth became canon; 65 The Streets of Ank’Harel. 

2. Which episode is your least favorite? Why?

The Kill Box(52) it was one of the first live episodes i ever watched and it was literally just a 4 hour long panic attack. it was awesome, but it was SO. STRESSFUL.

3. Who is your favorite main player character?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmTravis

4. Who is your favorite guest player character?

Oh totally Will Friedle

5. What storyline do you wish they’d explore more?

I’d say more Kynan or Whitestone, but at this point anything they add will destroy my personal headcanons. So im gonna say GIVE GILMORE A BOYFRIEND 2K4EVA

6. Who would you like to see guest on the show?

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

7. What character would you like to see more of?

Gilmore. Kaylie. OH. JB Tickfoot. I wanna know her full name

8. Other than Gilmore, Allura, Kima or Victor, who is your favorite NPC?

Cassandra Joanna Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo

9. Who is your least favorite NPC?

Not counting actual villians? uuuuuuuuuuh Astra Trickfoot. they dont count as villians they were just minor annoyances

10. Which character are you most like?

I asked my sister and her immediate response was Keyleth and i have never been so offended in my life.(Not because i dislike keyleth, but because shes so right for so many reasons)

11. Do you ship any characters?

Just the big ones. Vaxleth, Perc’ahlia, lately even Pike/Scanlan (does that one have a fun name? Shortfoot? lol) oh and the slightly less well known Kynan/Cassandra and Gilmore/Jarret

12. Name a moment that’s stuck with you.

That moment when they first abandon the keep (ep40 maybe?) where Vex tears up at abandoning her home, Percy tells her they’ll be back. and when they do come back (ep73???) he looks at her when he says “and we’re back”

13. Has Critical Role ever made you cry? When?

Every. Damn. Episode. GEEZE. any of the deaths, definitely in the Kill Box episode. Scanlan leaving. geeze my family has learned to tread lightly around me on thursdays because i am an emotional time bomb just WAITING to go off.

14. Which boss has been your favorite?

Orthax (ep35 i think) nothing quite beats kicking the crap out of the dark specter of your soul

15. Anything you want to see in the next campaign?

Travis play a clever character. Laura and Liam try not to be twins. scratch that i dont want them ever to have to do that.

#no one asked me to do this #im doing it anyway #watch me goooo #critical role #spoilers #several spoilers #i have fun

[msviolacea]

Wait, that’s the TM quote everyone is so pissy about?

Listen, y’all, I’ve been sitting on a bunch of thoughts for a month or so about how Vaxleth is, in the end, a much more realistic (real-world) relationship - getting together because of attraction that may be uneven at first, but talking through their issues and taking things slowly and eventually settling into a good relationship - while Perc’ahlia is a relationship that is tailor-made for drama and shipping and all the things most of us love in our fiction, but is not necessarily a situation that would translate as well to a real life relationship, at least not as presented in canon.

And that’s OKAY. The things we like in fiction don’t have to be the things we want in real life! Fiction is where we get to explore the dramatic and the exciting and the exhilarating and scary and problematic things we’d never want to deal with in real life. Fiction is our escape. It doesn’t have to be the healthiest or most realistic thing in the world. Perc’ahlia is 10000% my jam right now. It’s everything I need to escape from the shit that is real life right now. But that has absolutely nothing to do with anything the actors think about their characters or what they’re doing.

And as an aside, I don’t blame Marisha one single tiny little bit if she’s a little bit defensive about her character’s ship. She’s fucking seen the way people talk about her - and not just the dudebros who give her shit on Twitter and Reddit. All of you posting shit about how much you hate Vaxleth and how it’s terrible and should never have happened in the main critrole tag ... y’all, it’s been established on more than one occasion that various cast members look at Tumblr from time to time. She’s seen what you guys say, too. Which is fine, you are more than free to post whatever you want in whatever tags you want, but don’t be surprised if she’s maybe a little tired of hearing how her character’s relationship is so inferior to something else. She’s human, and she’s attached to her character. 

(But seriously y’all. Plenty of people have written screeds about how ~unhealthy Vaxleth is compared to Perc’ahlia, in places where anyone can see it. Marisha thinks differently. Let me express my complete non-surprise.)

#critical role #[redacts a completely different unpopular opinion here] #because this is probably enough for one day #heh

[skelelen]

I got tagged by @tinkercheck​ (Thank you, darling <3 )

rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better!

relationship status: noooope

favorite color: either a dark desaturated green, or a dark rust orange

lipstick or chapstick: hydrating lipstick yo

last song i listened to: ‘how did you love’ by Shinedown

last movie i watched: Oh um.....I think it was Princess Bride? That’s the last one I remember.

top 3 tv shows: Off the top of my head? Critical Role, A:TLA, Fulmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

top 3 characters: This is so meeaaaannnnnnn. I’m gonna cheat a little. 3 main characters: Keyleth, Vax, Toph. 3 minor characters: Envy, J’mon Sa Ord, Gilmore.

top 3 ships: VAXLETH (I just really love them okay??), korrasami, kimallura.

books i’m currently reading: I’m currently re-reading ‘The Coldest Girl in Coldtown’, by Holly Black!

tagging: Ohhh this is always so hard. Ummm..... @lil-miss-banana, @the-hogwarts-ultimatum, @vaxildxn, @quietlesskatie, @bioticranger, @centaurs-are-jerks, @hollandeiram, @its-little-miss-muffet, and @shippeh! (Only if you feel like it though. No pressure guys!!)

#thank you tinkercheck for tagging meeeeeee #<3 #you're always so fun to see on my dash and in my notifications

[americankimchi]

You realize typing vax/eth defeats the purpose if you're just going to put your post in the main tag? Because people including vaxleth shippers can still see your hate? I don't ship it either but out of consideration I don't put my salt where fans who do ship it can see it. Like it's just polite my dude. At least make sure "critical role" isn't one of your first five tags if you insist on tagging for fandom.

i mean... i guess if i made people upset bc of that post i’m sorry??? but i have not made my opinions on the matter a secret like if you’ve followed me for a while you’d know :L

i’ll try to keep it out of the main tag from now on then 

#i mean if i didn't want people to see it i wouldn't have posted it tbh #i'm not even saying you can't ship it i just said it's not for me but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #what can i say i'm not a perfect person #anon #ask

[tiamat-zx]

001 - Critical Role

Favorite character: Keyleth of the Air Ashari (Her flaws make her more relatable, and the hate that I keep seeing towards her just for being herself is just… ugh.)Least Favorite character: Gern Blanston (Not very fond of scene-stealers like him. He ruined Episode 46 for me. His inclusion was during a very inappropriate time, seeing as it was an episode meant for Keyleth and he stole the spotlight. I’m sorry, but I did not #FeelTheGern.)5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Vaxleth (my main one), Perc'ahlia (also a given), Kimallura (gals being pals… and more), Vaxilmore (yes, I still ship it despite it being sunk), and Pikelan (whether it’s romantic or platonic, I enjoy their chemistry)Character I find most attractive: Vex'ahlia (Seriously, who DOESN’T feel attracted to her?!)Character I would marry: Keyleth (Albeit she’s already taken lol)Character I would be best friends with: All of Vox Machina (They could always use more friends.)A random thought: Will the party ever get a chance to relax? (Seriously, Matt, they’re so traumatized. Don’t throw them into another crisis so soon.)An unpopular opinion: Vaxleth indeed has chemistry, is healthy, and is not forced. (The amount of hate towards the ship suggesting the exact opposite is just staggering.)My canon OTP: Vaxleth (Never gave up hope for this one.)Non-canon OTP: Can’t answer that one, because I can’t choose.Most badass character: Tossup between Scanlan (even if he’s MVP so often that it takes away from the rest of the group), Percy (No Mercy Percy indeed), and Keyleth (She definitely has her moments when she does something truly awesome. Feeblemind on Raishan, anyone?)Pairing I am not a fan of: Kashleth (Sorry, but it just doesn’t work as a romantic ship. As a platonic ship, I have no problems with it.)Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): None really, since it’s all improvised. Hard to say that writers “screwed up” since it’s all on the fly.Favorite friendship: Keyleth and Percy (Best friends forever… even if they argue a lot and disagree often.)

#critical role #answer to an ask #vox machina

[living-in-unreality]

[Been a while since I posted this, but in case any of my followers want to hone in on the content they like instead of following this catch-all kind of blog, here’s where else you can find me] - a masterlist

Since my I am currently obsessing over like 3 or 4 different things that basically all have their own side blogs, I'm gonna break it down for anyone interested in following me for specific content:

NCIS and occasionally other TV shows like Agents of Shield: @television-overload

My most used blog

Sometimes live blogging NCIS

Freaking out about Tiva/Tali

I ship Ellick and Slibbs too

I write NCIS fanfiction and sometimes take requests for Tiva stuff

Currently freaking out about the final season of Agents of Shield

Protect Deke Shaw at all costs

Daniel Sousa is just the absolute best, I will not be taking questions

Main blog that has turned into a Critical Role blog but also has totally random stuff: @living-in-unreality

Critical Role takeover

I ship Vaxleth, Perc'ahlia, Pikelan, and Fjorester most vehemently

Literally just random memes

Sometimes I try my hand at art for CR

This is the blog you see when I like or follow you :)

Movie blog recently taken over COMPLETELY OVERHAULED by a renewed obsession with Star Wars HELP IM REALLY OBSESSED: @buy-me-some-popcorn

Not spoiler free

Reylo Reylo REYLO

I recently wrote my first Star Wars fanfic, working on others

I loved TRoS, minus one TINY detail but that can be fixed with fanfiction and imagination

I’ve been posting art of Reylo so come lookie

Literally I reblog so much stuff I’m sorry

Also Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, and just any movie content I see that I like

Harry Potter blog: @potterverse-united

Occasionally reinvigorated by rewatching the films or rereading the books

I wrote a fanfic, and want to write more

I'm a Ravenclaw or Gryffinclaw btw (not full Gryffindor) - also Thunderbird

Idk, if you like books, especially Pride and Prejudice: @books-and-candlelight

Basically an outlet for my love of Pride and Prejudice

Where is my Mr. Darcy?

I seriously love Mr. Darcy

I ALMOST FORGOT MY BLOG FOR MY MARVEL OBSESSION: @shorter-than-tom-hiddleston

I am 6' tall, unusually tall for a girl. But I am at least shorter than Tom Hiddleston so there’s that

This is where I cry about Iron Man, Loki, and Spider Man

I reblog a lot of amazing stuff that makes me happy...or sad.

I totally forgot I had a blog just for dumb memes: @memes-and-other-trash

#other blogs #blogs #blogs to follow #or not #about the blog #masterlist